001Good evening. I would like to welcome everyone to the Colonial School District business board meeting. It is Thursday, January 15, 2026. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] The board met in executive session prior to this meeting to discuss the personnel report, student education agreement, student discipline, and a White Marsh Foundation issue. And now, this is a motion to approve the meeting minutes as presented in 3B through 3G. May I have a second, please? Rashidita, any questions or comments? All in favor? Thank you. This is a motion to approve financial reports as presented in items 4B through 4M for November 2025 and December
0022025. May I have a second, please? Chris, any questions or comments? All in favor? Thank you. Uh, this is a motion to approve the November 2025 and December 2025 treasurers report. May I have a second, please? Jeremy, any questions or comments? All in favor? Thank you. And now, is there any public comment on any items on this evening's agenda? >> All right, seeing none, I will turn the meeting over to Dr. Christian. >> Thank you, Mrs. Patruno. Approval for the superintendent report items 7B and 7 C. Motion to approve the personnel report and extracurricular contracts as outlined in 7B and 7 C. Board action is requested for the recommended personnel changes. Appointments for promotion, employment or transfer are subject to the presentation of valid credentials, employment verification, documentation, and statemandated requirements. >> May I have
003a second, please? Rashidita, any questions or comments? All in favor? Thank you. Oh. Uh, are there any opposed? Is there anyone abstaining this evening? >> Uh, Dr. Christian, >> thank you. January is school board recognition month. Uh, across the Commonwealth, we have 500 school districts, all who have nine member school boards. It is a job that pays nothing. Uh it's a volunteer position for which you were elected. Uh and normally I read a very long proclamation from PSBA. And while I'm not going to read that tonight, I want to thank each of our school board members for your dedication to the community, to our faculty, to the administration, to our parents, and most importantly, the children of Colonial School District. We have much to be proud. Uh we have wonderful kids, wonderful families, and a
004wonderful school district. and that comes from uh the lead uh not only the community but the leadership of the school district and we appreciate your dedication and your service to our community. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> And now um I will turn it over to our student representatives. Happy new year guys. How are you? >> Happy new year. We're good. How are you? Um, so for PW, the Plymouth White Marsh Winter Concert was held on Thursday, December 4th. We had the concert band, orchestra, and chorus perform exciting works ranging from all musical genres. We highly encourage you to attend their upcoming spring concerts. Freshman and sophomores took the Keystone exams during the first week back in school after a long winter break. We will now transition to Colonial Middle School. The brain
005show was held on December 21st, 2025. The brain show is a special annual tradition at CMS and is an awesome way to send students off into break on February December 12th. Oh, on Friday, December 12th, my bad, CMS was very proud to host the gold card senior citizen winter concert. Thank you to the food services and facilities department for all of their support in coordinating this special event. The CMS Cleotes had a busy December. 75 students from seventh and eighth grade presented the annual holiday showcase on Tuesday, December 9th under the direction of Amy Vinkis, entertaining the audience with holiday songs. Next is Monco Band. 16 students from Colonial Middle School will participate in the Montgomery County Middle School Concert Band concert on Thursday, January 29th at Sandy Run Middle School. Congratulations to the following
006students for being selected this year. Seventh graders are Kai Foster, Sophia Milling, Arthur Thomas, Macy Monastero, Ryan Brown, Joey Kelly, Mortowski, and eighth graders Robin Ashley, Aelen Ward, Cameron Moore, Sha Wheeler, Nathan Deloso, Nathan Doran, Cooper Clark, Laura Drayton, and Shaunie, and Shaun Gorteski. Sorry if I mispronounced any names. Next is CMS Band and Orchestra who performed their winter instrumental on December 17th at 7 pm. We also had a guest speaker in history for the eighth graders at Colonial Middle School with a visit from American Revolutionary War patriot Ned Hector portrayed by Noah Lewis. Funding for the program came from the award social studies teacher George Henkins who received a Citadel Heart of Learning award as a grand prize winner with TSA. The Colonial TSA 6th through 12th grade will have 100 plus students participating
007in the region 5 competition on January 24th. Students will be competing in 72 STEMbased events against about 1,200 other students from 25 different schools. >> For CES, CES advanced winter concert was held on Thursday, December 18th, and the performance was very well attended. Fourth and fifth grade students are taking part in the Too Good for Drugs program. CES beginner orchestra, band, and chorus begin rehearsals this month. In total, there are close to 400 students participating for Plymouth Elementary. On December 16th, all students participated in a schoolwide event, Tis the Season to Be Reading. This event supported one of our SIP goals and provided students with additional practice using highfrequency words. Families were invited to participate ahead of time by practicing the words at home with their children, strengthening our family school connection. The school participated
008in the district-wide holiday gift drive in support of CSD families. Through the spirit team's holiday toy drive, families, staff, and community members donated clothing and toy items to help fulfill the wish list of 25 Plymouth students and their siblings. The spirit team supported the organization and coordination of donated gifts, helping ensure a meaningful and joyful experience for participating families. Mrs. Weed Moyer did an incredible job leading the drive and a special thank you to the other spirit team teachers who support the third graders, Mrs. O'Keefe, Mrs. Morris, Mrs. Kutcher, Mrs. Klein, and Mrs. Smith. Also in December, the third grade holiday chorus concert took place led by Mrs. O'Shea. Chorus students performed for their families on December 12th and then for the school community on December 22nd. Mrs. OSHA and the third grade students did
009a wonderful job spreading holiday cheer with songs from various holidays celebrated in the community. Our PTO and families came together to support a healthy snack drive at Plymouth. Families generously donated non-p perishable snacks to support students who may need snack support. So far, we have supported 24 students and continue to offer snack support for students as needs arise. On January 15th, 2026, Plymouth Elementary will host our annual specialists night. Families who attend will rotate through activities with each of their specialist teachers, including physical education, music, art, technology, library, and healthwness. We are looking forward to a great event. We are also looking forward to the Great Kindness Challenge from January 26th to 30th where students will participate in a schoolwide event in classroom activities to model kindness for students and increase compassion, unity, and respect.
010Next is Ka Hawett Elementary. Mrs. Powski runs an afterchool Lego club for second graders on Tuesdays and Thursdays in January. Starting January 21st, the Ka Hawken Electric Force and Live and Direct Step Team will be teaching step dancing to students in the cafeteria. This free program will run on Wednesdays until March 4th. Kanja Hawaken Elementary will also kick off the Great Kindness Challenge on Monday, January 26th at 8:50 a.m. with the annual kindness rally on the playground and assembly. All school board members and administrators are welcome to join us. CE will also compete complete our second no place for hate project during this week which is an initiative to spread kindness to the community via kind messages on coffee sleeps that will be placed on coffee effediated world kindness day on November 13th sprinkling kindness
011across the school on November 21st second graders continued the tradition of balloons over Broadway students learned about the history of the parade designed balloons and paraded the halls of Ridge Park as their peers cheered. Third grade core students put on an incredible performance on December 10th. Mrs. O and Mrs. Hanssbury spent many mornings preparing the students and it showed. Last is White Marsh Elementary. On Friday, December 12th, students in our life skills class hosted the first Little Chef's ery of the school year. Students prepared food, took orders, handled money, and delivered items to customers. Three additional eery dates are planned for later in the school year. On Thursday, December 11th, the third grade chorus performed their winter concert for families. The chorus also performed for the White Marsh Elementary School student body. On December 23rd,
012under the direction of Mrs. Christy Langus, students delivered an outstanding performance. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you guys. Um, now we'll move on to new business. This is a motion to appoint Rick Carpenter as a Colonial School District's representative to the Central Monco Technical High School's joint operating committee for a term of three years. May I have a second, please? Chris, any questions or comments? All in favor? Great. Thank you. This is a motion to appoint Tomas Santiago to serve as Colonial School District's representative on the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit Board of Directors from January 15, 2026 through June 30th, 20 26. >> Yep. >> Yeah. Okay. U may I have a second, please? Rashidita, any questions or comments? >> There'll be a reappoint over the summer. Okay. This is to finish the last
013All in favor? Thank you. Congratulations, Tomas. And now Jeremy. Motion to approve the modified ready tolearn block grant for the 2025 2026 school year in the amount of $219,916. >> May I have a second, please? Chris, any questions or comments? All in favor? Thank you. Rashidita. >> Good evening. Motion to approve the bid from Mun Roofing in the amount of $840,000 to install a new roof on a three-story wing of Plymouth White Marsh High School as part of phase two of the district-wide roofing project. This phase of the project is scheduled to begin at the end of the 2025 2026 school year and to be completed before the first day of the 2026 20227 school year. >> May I have a second please? Jeremy. Uh any questions or comments? >> This action item as well
014as the following item E is part of a multi-year roofing project in the district that Mr. Lai and Mr. Dig have gone over uh at several uh the past few facilities meetings and finance meetings. So, it's a five-year project spread out um to reduce the impact on the budget but also keep our roofs and our schools uh maintained. >> Thank you. Um all in favor? Thank you, Rashidita. Okay. Motion to approve the bid from Jelton Roofing in the amount of 1,632,729 to install a new roof on the Plymouth Elementary excluding the 2017 additions as part of phase two of the district-wide roofing project. As mentioned by Dr. Christian just now. The phase of this project is scheduled to begin at the end of the 2025 20226 school year and to be completed before the first
015day of the 2026 2027 school year. >> May I have a second, please? Chris, any questions or comments? All in favor? Thank you. Motion to approve the educational service agreement for the 2025 2026 school year and ESY 2026 is outlined below. It's uh for the DERO school special education services for one resident and one non-resident student as needed per the education and related services cost table. >> May I have a second please? Rashida, any questions or comments? All in favor? Thank you. Motion to approve a settlement agreement in lie of FAPE due to student confidentiality. This agreement was discussed in executive session. >> Uh may I have a second please? Jeremy, any questions or comments? All in favor? Thank you. >> Um this is a motion to approve the board policies outlined below on a
016second read basis. Uh the first one is policy number 307 regarding student teachers and interns and the second is policy 822 automated external defibrillator and cardoppulmonary resuscitation. >> May I have a second please? Rashida any questions or comments? All in favor? Thank you. Mark >> adult evening school classes and instructing instructors. This is a motion to approve instructors and classes for Plymouth White Marsh High School Adult Evening School winter and spring 2026 sessions as outlined in the attached memo from Jessica Lester dated January 15, 2026. >> May have a second, please. Chris, any questions or comments? All in favor? Thank you. Um, and this is a motion to approve Dr. Christian's attendance at the AASA NCE 2026 conference in Nashville, Tennessee from February 12th through February 14th, 2026. May I have a second, please? Rashidita,
017any questions or comments? All in favor? Thank you. Uh, is there a solicitor's report this evening? >> There is not. >> Uh, thank you. Then we will um I believe we have a few committee reports. Um there is not a committee report for CRSL. Um Chris, do you have one for curriculum? >> I do. Um we met this past Monday. Um and we talked about what um the uh middle school and high school annual achievement and progress. uh and that included future ready comprehensive goals, future ready index data, benchmark data, and school improvement plan highlights. We also discussed summer opportunities including summer academy which will run from June 15th to the 25th and uh enrichment camps which will run from June 29th to July 2nd. >> Thank you. Um facilities Rashidita. Hello everyone. I'm very
018excited to join Joe Lai and the facility management team um as the chair. That being said, we met on Monday evening and we discussed roofing project updates. Again, this is phase two that was mentioned earlier. Um Mr. Lai updated the board on the bid results for phase two. Um and the district-wide roofing project. There's Munroofing and Jotton um were the companies that were awarded those bids. the project of the phase of the project is scheduled for completion during the summer. And what's really great news is all of our bids were under budget. Um there was another topic of discussion that was pretty um took up a lot of time, but it was well worth it with detailed description of our snow preparation for the school district. Um and Mr. Lai provided an overview of the
019district's inclement weather preparation. Dr. Christian also mentioned uh some of the protocol making a decision on when there's a two-hour delay and or school closure date and what's the um details behind that. Um each Sunday, Dr. Mr. Lai, Dr. Christian, Mr. Kelly, and Mr. Baron review the forecast for the upcoming week to ensure that we are ready as a school district to be open as much as possible for our students. also with facilities management. One more bit. Um the board raised a lot of questions and comments about this weather preparation and the procedures that facilities management does so well including state of emergency coordination with the tech school uh power reliability early dismissal um decision process and finally the budget impact. Um and again I'm very uh happy to join this group. Thank you so
020much. >> Thank you. Uh Jeremy, finance >> finance committee met on Jan uh Monday, January 12th to uh review the ready tolearn block grant that was approved earlier. We reviewed the year-to- date financial statements and took a first look at the fiscal year 2027 budget. >> Great. Thank you. Um there's no HR report this evening. Um Chris, anything for the tech? Um, no report except to say that I'm excited that Rick Carpenter is going to be joining us on that. And also to mention that the three um the joint operating committee of the tech school is uh made up of schoolboard three schoolboard members from each sending district which is uh Upper Marian uh Narstown and Colonial. And it's yet another job that we uh deploy with um uh excitement and dedication and diligence and
021uh no pay. So [laughter] that's it. Thank you. >> Um the intermediate unit um there I >> no report tonight and then um Mark is stepping down and Tomas is taking over. So thank you both. Uh legislative. Does anyone have any legislative reports this evening? >> All right. Uh what about uh community reports? >> No. Um foundation, Jeremy. >> Um for the foundation, we've raised almost $30,000 from community community members and corporate matches through the annual fund. Um in addition to $10,000 being donated from First Trust Bank. and we're still accepting contributions for the annual fund. Um since the beginning of the school year, we've awarded $15,000 for teacher grants and over $15,000 for food um related services. And we're also currently soliciting contributions for the PW scholarship fund. Two upcoming events on Sunday, April
0225th is the 5K and further out in the spring is Monday, June 22nd will be um golf outing at the former Plymouth Country Club. Um so please continue to support uh the foundation for all the services that we provide that are provided for colonial stakeholders. >> Thank you. Um attached to this evening's agenda for your information are the athletic activity accounts for CMS and PW, the activity accounts for CMS and PW building report, curriculum report, and technology reports. And now are there any public comments this evening? All right. Are there any up? If you could come up to the podium and state your name and place of residence. Thank you. >> Uh, salutations. My name is Leo Solga. I'll be very brief. I'm from Lower Marian, Pennsylvania. Uh, right down the street from Lower Marian
023High School. I just wanted to introduce myself and thank you all particularly during the school board of directors recognition month. I'm a candidate for state representative for the 148th which includes lower Marian North. So I thank you all for your good work and I hope you're all having a great year. >> Uh any additional public comments this evening? Any other board comments this evening? All right, seeing none, this meeting is ajourned. Thank you and have a good night.