001Good evening and welcome to the Southeast Delo business meeting of the board of school directors, Thursday, June 26, 2025. May I have a salute to the flag and a moment of silence of the it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Mr. Butler. May I have a roll call? Yes, you may, Madam President. Mr. Fowler present. Mrs. McGawan present. Miss Wilmarmac present. Miss Harris Johnson present. Ms. Mrs. Barley is excused. Miss Perry present. Mr. Laferty present. Miss Woodfolk present. Miss Monro Witet present. Dr. Sanchez, present. Mr. George, present. Craig Butler, present. Thank you, Mr. Butler. Uh, my announcements for the day is I would like to thank all of the employees of Southeast Delo for a wonderful school year. Um, I know that we don't say that enough
002to you. So, we hope that you're having a a relaxing and joyful summer break. Mr. Excuse me, Dr. Sanchez. Do you have a superintendence report? Yes, I do, Madam President. Thank you. Very brief. Wanted to make sure that folks knew that our summer programs begin on June 30th. That includes our kindergarten through through 8th grade ESY at Delcrooft, our prek through fifth grade summer enrichment at Darby Township School, and our credit recovery at Academy Park. Um, and one other last message is simply congratulations to the class of 2025. It was an amazing ceremony. Thank you to all who are present. Thank you to the staff who helped make it happen all the way from kindergarten um to graduation. And that includes our bus drivers, our nurses, our food service folks, our par professionals, our teachers,
003and our administrators. Thank you very much for all the work they did. And also our administrative assistants that that do work all year long. Oh, security. So that's what happens when you start naming people. You you forget. And there's probably a few other people that I forgot, but it was the the work of a village to be able to see all those wonderful young people graduate. So thank you very much. That concludes my report, Madam President. Thank you, Dr. CS have a motion to accept the agenda. Motion. Second. It has been properly moved and second. Are there any questions? Are there any questions? Are there any questions? Seeing none, all in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. May I have a motion to approve the minutes for the regular board business meeting, the treasures report, and
004the bills in the payment of the amount of 7,814,61721. I move second. It has been properly moved and second. Are there any questions? Are there any questions? Are there any questions? Seeing none, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. There is no old or unfinished business. New business. Item A, education. Are any questions on one through 25? Are there any questions on item B, finance one through 19. Excuse me. Are there any comments or questions on item C, human resources 1 through 16? Are there any comments or questions on item E, property one? There are no policies in item F. Are any public comments regarding agenda items? No, Madam President. Seeing none, may I have a motion to accept new business item A, education 1 through 25? I move. Second. It has been properly
005moved and second. Are there any questions? Are there any questions? Are there any questions? Seeing none, all in favor? I. Any oppose? Motion carries. May I have a motion to accept new business item B, finances 1 through 19? I so move. Second. It has been properly moved and second. Are there any questions? Are there any questions? Are there any questions? Seeing none, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. May I have a motion for new business item C, human resources items 1- 16? Motion. Second. It has been properly moved and second. Are there any questions? Are there any questions? Are there any questions? Seeing none, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. May I have a motion for new business? Item E one. Motion. Second. Has been properly moved and second. Are there
006any questions? Are there any questions? Are there any questions? Seeing none, all in favor? I. Any oppose? Motion carries. County Community Committee reports. Mr. Laughafley, DCCCCC. Not at this time, Madam President. Thank you, Mr. Lafley. Um, the Delaware County DCIU. Um, there are no reports at this time. Oh, I'm sorry. Um to any parents that are listening who have students in the 10th grade or 11th and if you want your child to be part of the V Technical High School um applications are open and you should make sure that you see your counselor once you complete your application online. Mr. Fowler, Legislative Council Pesba. Uh yes I do. Just a quick update, Madam President. Thank you. Um, give me one second. So, as you guys may be aware already, the attempt to dismantle the Department
007of Education was blocked. A federal judge halted President Trump's executive order aimed at dismantling the Department of Education, ruling that such an act required the congressional approval. The court had also ordered the reinstatement of over 1300 employees who were laid off as part of the downsizing efforts. And excuse my report, Madam President. Thank you, Mr. Fowler. Parent Student Advisory Committee, Miss Harris Johnson, Miss Woodfolk, and Miss McGowan. Dr. Foreman, please. Good evening, everyone. There is no updates for this meeting. Thank you, Mr. Bob. Do you have a solicitor's report? No report, Madam President. Thank you. You're welcome. Dr. Sanchez, are there any administrative team updates? Yes, we have two. The very first one will be from Dr. Foreman and Miss Shenikica Oliver. Mrs. Shenikica Oliver. Good evening. Good evening everyone. We are we are here
008from the office of strategic initiatives. I am Dr. Marshelle Foreman and I am here with Miss Shenikica Oliver and we have one other team member who could not be here with us tonight and that is Miss Kina Wheeler. and we just want to give everyone an update on our department from this school year. First, we'll start with the mission and vision statement that we created for the department. I'll read the mission statement and Mrs. Oliver will read the vision statement. The mission of the office of strategic initiatives is to implement long-term organizational strategies that foster academic excellence and emotional well-being in students through a welcoming and supportive environment for students, parents, and staff. Our vision statement, Southeast Delo School District's Office of Strategic Initiatives will build partnerships with community organizations to support students, staff, and
009families. Students will be engaged through real life experiences. Staff will have the necessary training and support to engage students and parents. We created a framework that drives the work that we do for our department that consists of five um components which are policies, resource distribution, instructional access and engagement, school climate and family and community engagement. And we just divide and provide a chart of the of an overview of our role and functions for our department. uh chief of strategic initiatives. Um the role will create long-term strategic plans, coordinate staff trainings, collect, analyze, and distribute data relating to district goals, manage departmental resources, collaborate with curriculum and instruction, finance pupil services and human resources to establish processes and meet departmental goals, conduct school visits, and support instructional rounds, complete staff evaluations and reporting. family and community
010engagement specialist. Um, our role is primary to uh contact for parent and community engagement throughout the district. Cultivate positive family and community engagement experiences. Establish and sustain community- based partnerships. Maintain and distribute data from Let's Talk. Generate content for monthly newsletters. Support school-based leadership meetings. And secure donations. Thank you. And although we we didn't have a big head start on school year, we started in the middle of the school year, we have quite a few accomplishments that we would like to share with you tonight. First being that we led the district's comprehensive planning process. We secured and managed critical resource donations through through effective stakeholder engagement. We forged and nurtured strategic partnerships with key community- based organizations to enhance collaborative impact. We directed planning and execution of a district-wide basketball tournament. We planned a school-based
011atorical contest to promote student leadership and public speaking skills. We coordinated monthly student trips to DCIU and two trips to student leadership forums which enhanced student leadership skills. We conducted site visits to schools. We coordinated trainings for administrators. We represented stakeholder interest and contribute to decision-making at open houses and PTO meetings. We led the planning in coordination of a parent conference which enhance would enhance family and community engagement. We collaboratively directed the organization of district-wide field day with different partnerships throughout the community. We implement initiatives to increase parent engagement. We read the students during a weed across America event. We increased student participation with a read alliance execution outreach. And we spearheaded the plan and execution of a district-wide Earth Day event. We developed and deployed surveys to gather actionable feedback for continuous improvement. We
012designed and implemented a comprehensive communication marketing plan to enhance stakeholder outreach. We coordinated cross departmental trainings and we led the successful roll out of let's talk and we delivered targeted support to families who were impacted by a fire in fall. And my apologies, I did not make the presentation slides to go through all of those bullet points, but they're moving now. So, some of the partnerships that we were able to um obtain um were with uh some of the businesses that you see here um for gift cards. Um there were several from Wawa, Costco, Sam's Club um both New Jersey and in the northeast of Philadelphia. BJ's Giant, Save a Lot and Forkro, and Shot right and forc um for food we have Coco's Little Caesars, Hers, Martins, um Dell's Kegs and Cases, Coen Beverages
013if they donated ice and aqua water. Um the list goes on. Home Depot, Scott Arboritum, um, and some we have acquired some partnerships with some barbers and hair stylists and braiders to help us for back to school and also business partnerships. We have the Colondell Library, um, Hulcom Behavioral Health, Sharon Hill Library, Folcraftoft Library, um, different mental health agencies, Ask for Tutoring, Habitat for Humanity, Project Home, Chester Community Coalition, um, the Delaware County Health Department, and Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium. And to ensure that we continue moving this work forward next school year, we have four departmental goals that are directly aligned with the compreh the district's comprehensive plan. The first two are to um create professional learning opportunities for district staff and to move that work forward. We have um training set up for the principles
014over the summer and we're going to also have additional training in the staff for the staff in the fall around customer service. The second goal is to increase um our communication with families with two directional communication outreach. And by June 2026, the Office of Strategic Initiatives will create a district-wide food pantry for the community. Um the office of strate strategic initiatives will also host a community engagement event for families and cultural celebrations for students and families. We're going to secure communitybased u partners to donate food beverages for families and establish procedures and communication plan to distribute that food to families. Um six parent and community engagement events will take place next year and quarterly cultural activity celebrations for students. So we have um the plan alignment is priority three established staff student and community engagement
015initiatives. Also again priority three established staff community and student engagement initiatives. And that concludes our presentation and we are working on a video that has a um the slideshow from all of our events throughout the year that we would like to post to the district website. a little one for the year of 25 and 26. Um, I would like for you ladies to let me know the date of your meetings because I would like to attend to be a part of it. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Dr. Sanchez. I also absolutely Dr. Sanchez, Dr. Foreman and Miss Oliver, thank you very much. Appreciate all the work that you're doing. So, I would like to invite Mrs. Woolly up. So, at the previous committee, the whole meeting there was a question I believe
016related to exit interview data. So, Mrs. Woolly has now that the school year is over summarized this this past year's um exit interview data that she's going to share with everybody. So, good evening board members. Um, I just want to bring to your attention the exodata to help with um identify the trends and understand the root causes of why teachers are leaving. And in turn this will help us develop a retention strategy. If you notice on your page one you have a graph which is also shown on the slide um board as well. I want to focus our attention to the exit at a glance dashboard of our teachers. So, if you notice in the first box, the total exiting um professional employees that exit this year are a total of 32. And if you
017look over to the right, out of those 32, we had six retirements, two voluntary resignations, and four involuntary resignations. I believe you meant 22. I'm sorry, 22 voluntary resignations and involuntary resignations. I do not have my glasses on. So, um, if we what we do is when we have employees exiting, resigning, retirement, we send out an exit questionnaire and we gather comments, trends, and information to help us with um, you know, recruiting and any issues that we see throughout the district of why teachers are leaving. And one of those questions that came out was how are the district salary and benefits? We serve I go to a meeting with all the human resources directors in Delaware County and we talk about the trends that are happening within the school districts where we work and I
018must say the Southeast Delo districts salaries and benefits as you can see in the next point we look excellent. A lot of districts don't have tuition reimbursement. A lot of districts aren't doing like a lot of events like we're doing and a lot of districts um their salaries were kind of competitive with our salary and our benefits as well. If you look over to the right the professional employee exits by school, it has the schools listed there. It shows you how many teachers are actually leaving leaving from those schools. Um the lower numbers and higher numbers between our elementary schools and our high school. And then at the bottom it shows the top five reasons for leaving the company. In your packet board you have something that other people do not have. You actually have
019the actual comments that we collected from our teachers that left the district. So those are there listed in your packet as a confidential. Um doesn't list the uh schools, doesn't list the employee names. It just lists the union or the agreement where the person is listed. So that is very confidential. But what we found was a trend and that's located on the professional resignation voluntary and involuntary. Out of those 32 professional employees that left this school year, if you notice, we have a high trend of employees that have served us between six months and three years. new teachers are leaving. So, we gathered the reasons why they are leaving and again those top reasons are located on that first chart. A lot of them were supplemental teachers. They wanted their own classrooms or they were
020leaving for family reasons or other behavioral issues at the district. But again, the trend shows that our teachers aren't staying longer than three years. But at the same time we are retaining people because in your packet it shows that although we lost 32 we actually gained like 50 um professional teachers this year. Okay. So just like in closing all this information is important to have because talented workers are the district's most valuable asset and without it and without them the district will not be able to achieve our goals which is our goal is only educating our students. Okay. Do you have any questions? I have a question. Can you help clarify? I'm sorry. I just have one question. Okay, before you go. Um, so the information I just want to be clear, the information that
021the board has is confidential information and should not be shared with anyone other than board members. Correct. Correct. You are only the public can see just a trend graph and just the highle dashboard that I showed. There are comments in there that are just strictly um confidential to all of you on the board and should not be shared with others. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? I do. You said that there are 32 individuals left this year, but you filled close to 50 positions. Can you help everyone understand why there's more positions that were filled than actually were vacated? So, we had about 14 vacancies that we had and then with the people leaving and coming in and new hires, those goes that goes into your turnover and retention data. So, that's why
022the numbers you see 32, but we gained 50. out of those 50, some of those were some of the longtime positions that we were trying to fill or fill. Okay. Any So, I just want to thank you because these first two pages is exactly what I was looking for. The trends are what was important to me. Um, and specifically the trend you brought up and then also if we could look at the schools with the higher numbers. Um, that's really what I was looking for. So, I really do appreciate this. Thank you. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you, Miss Bull. I would just like to say to you and your um staff, I think you've done an excellent job for as long as you've been here. The uh we have less people who are not employed
023in the district because of the way that you have gone out into the field and with the field plaques and and flyers and everything like that there to inform the the community of what the openings that we have in our district and how they have been fulfilled. I just want to say kudos to you when you're saying it. Thank you. I'm very passionate about that. So, so very much. Thank you. And I'll let the team know as well too. Right. Thank you. Thank you. Although Dr. Sanchez and Miss Teresa Harris Johnson took my question and my comment. Thank you, Dr. Sanchez. Is that all the administrative team updates? Yes, Madam President. That concludes that that section. Thank you. Comments from comments from citizens regarding non-aggenda items. There are no comments from the citizens. Okay. Um
024announcement of further meetings. There will be no committee of the whole meeting in July, but there will be a board business meeting on Thursday, July 24th, 2025 at 7 PM. Again, the board business meeting will be Thursday, July 24th, 2025 at 700 p.m. May I have a motion to adjourn this meeting? So move. Second. It has been properly moved and second. Are there any questions? Are there any questions? Are there any questions? Seeing none, all in favor? Any opposed? No. Motion carries. We'll be having executive session. So, can we ask you to exit as as expeditiously as possible?