001good evening everybody i'd like to call to order the july 27th 2020 meeting for the westchester school board let's begin with a salute to the flag i pledge allegiance to the flag united states of america thank you everybody before we get going tonight uh similar to what we've done in previous uh virtual meetings is just kind of run down the procedures for if you want to ask [Music] questions comments uh one is at the beginning of the meeting which is for agenda items only and then there's also a section at the end of the meeting for non-agenda uh prior to giving your comments please state your name and address and group affiliation and everyone should limit his or her comments to about two minutes or less uh and all comments should be directed to the
002entire board um no more partisan they address a single board member it's not really a format for q a it's just there to obviously share your thoughts thank you for your attention on that matter all right uh mr shore roll call please might be i'll meet miss chairshore she is on linda you're unmute you still are miss wet linda try it try it now miss cherisher thank you mr bevillaqua here miss chester here mr darnell here mr gallon he was there here dr herman here mr mccune here dr shaw here mr spackman here mrs tiernon here thank you thank you mr chairshore all right next i'll entertain a motion for the approval of the minutes of the june 22 2020 monthly school board meeting i'll make a motion first by mr spacman can i get
003a second second by mr gallon by a hair um any comments or questions see none roll call mr short mr spackman yes mr gallon yes mr bevalaqua yes dr shaw yes mrs tiernon yes miss chester yes dr herman yes mr journal mr mccoon yes mission carries thank you mr can you also please note that we met on monday 7 13 before our board retreat regarding a personnel and student matter exact session all right next up we'll uh move to the approval of the july 27 2020 school board meeting agenda can i get an approve motion i move first by dr shaw second second by ms chester any comments or questions scene on roll call mr dr shaw yes miss chester yes mr darnell yes dr herman yes mrs tiernon yes mr gallon i said yes
004sorry i didn't hear mr spacman yes mr bevalaqua yes mr mccune yes motion carries thank you mr chairshore all right we'll move on along to the superintendent's report dr scaling thank you mr mccoon our summer school pilot is now in its fourth week uh and i would say that is going very well this is a program that we set up uh for some of our high-risk special needs children and we debated whether to bring them in person with the six feet of social distancing and teaching them how to wear masks versus online so we did offer both programs for the kids this year we have about 50 students in the brick and mortar program with about 50 students attending online for their for their special needs services this summer uh teachers have been instructing the
005students to build up a tolerance for wearing masks again some of these children are um are have some some concerns with um wearing masks and uh for an extended period of time social distancing of six feet between the students has been achieved staff are wearing masks and gloves as they're working with the kids we have students working on their iep goals the academic goals occupational therapy physical therapy speech these are some of the things that were very difficult on services to deliver in the spring when we were doing all remote learning students do go out on the playground one of the things that they're they're teaching the kids uh to to use particularly some of our life skills kids they're using pool noodles uh to keep their six feet apart as they're outside so they're
006um they're they're actually having some fun doing that to help them teach what what social distancing looks like so so far that program has been going it's in its fourth week going very well as we prepare for the upcoming school year this is typically the time of year that i would inform the board about the preparations the study groups the strategic goals the planning for the new teacher induction program and enrollment data as we track we start tracking that at the end of july to prepare for any influx of of new students we have been conducting hundreds of hours of professional development uh preparing our staff to teach in a cyber model i do believe at some point this year we will either be operating in a hybrid cyber model or a full cyber model
007until there is a vaccine for covet 19. our technology coordinators under the direction of mr michael wagman and dr tammy florio have been working long hours creating conducting recording and following up with teachers on professional development sessions and there are many many more scheduled before the start of school last year just to give us some enrollment numbers our official enrollment was 12 078 and again today was our first look at enrollment for the upcoming school year we have 12 150 students an increase of about 72 kids our projected enrollment uh before the uh the shutdown uh was 12232 that's what we were projecting for this fall our kindergarten was projected at 919 right now we are seeing kindergarten only at 768. so whether that means there's some uh some late enrollment coming or whether that
008means there are some kindergarten parents who may be uh red shirtings if you will their their children for from this year uh until we get things settled down with what's happening with the virus many other grade levels are already over some of the projected numbers so we are seeing some uh some new enrollments coming in uh all of this obviously will change before the start of the school year as we track the the data for the next uh the next five weeks before we start school as we plan for a very anxious start to this school year uh enrollment is something that we will pay very close attention to as we are also staffing a cyber school this year as part of our reopening of schools plans uh the reopening plans will be presented on
009wednesday july 29th at six o'clock that will be via a zoom session i'll be presenting on our options as to how we plan to open up the schools on august 31st the presentation will be recorded and and the presentation information that i will i'll be presenting will be posted on our website after the meeting we will monitor questions during the meeting uh we'll do that via a google doc and we will respond to as many questions as we can at the conclusion of the presentation parents and staff can also send comments and questions to our reopening at wcisd.net email address we have received thousands of emails over the past three weeks and we've been doing our best to respond to each one of those questions we have frequently asked questions up on our website and
010information about our task force reports also up on our website our latest survey that we sent out as we've done three different surveys since we closed schools back in march we sent one out last thursday we've had more than 700 staff and more than 8 000 parents respond to that survey i'll share all of those results as that that survey closes tomorrow but early returns from parents on some of the various models we've asked about all in at three feet of social distancing all online or a hybrid with half the kids coming in every two days at six feet of social distancing those three models it's a very split community on this topic roughly about 40 percent so far want to see us open with some hybrid model about 40 percent want to want to
011open with all the kids coming in with less than six feet of social distancing and about 20 percent want to see us open in a cyber format so with the latest guidelines released from the governor's office and the department of health uh six feet of social distancing prohibits us from bringing all kids back in at the same time uh we do have to consider a hybrid online option if we're bringing students back uh we will do our best to answer the common questions during our presentation and we'll make a recommendation to the school board the board is scheduled to vote on the plan at a special board meeting on august 3rd at seven o'clock and as with the entire process since the mandated closure in march everything remains very fluid with this in a meeting
012with the secretary of education and secretary of health today several superintendents asked for some additional guidance and we may get some additional guidance then clarification later on this week so we should all stay tuned with that i will continue to keep our staff and community updated as we go through this process and do all that we can to open our schools safely for our students and our staff thank you that concludes your report that concludes my report yes a very long report wednesday night yeah no i realize that and on behalf of the board we know there's been no swords of effort by you and many to to get ready for this with an ever-changing set of requirements and shifting goal posts so keep at it so all right uh next up is public comments
013on agenda items miss cheryshore mr wagman did anybody indicate they wanted to speak no they did not okay all right we will move on to the approvals of personnel recommendations by dr ulmer dr olmer he's on mute wagon might have been froze out so there we go thank you mr wagoman all right good evening mr mccune mrs tiernon and the members of our board our personnel report for the month of july is as follows with removal from payroll and resignations we have two paraprofessionals and one administrator we wish dr nora wheeler all the best of luck in our new school district and new position we are recommending the approval of two retirements mr charles anderson custodian at henderson high school with 23 years of service and mr david young head custodian at spelman education center
014with 34 years of service congratulations to charles and david we will miss both of you and we wish you a happy retirements with additions to payroll we are recommending the hiring of six new teachers to the district and ten long-term substitute teachers we are also recommending one staff nurse and two new support staff personnel additionally we're putting forth one substitute custodian and three extended school year nurses for approval in personnel events i communicated three status changes in our professional staff one status change in our custodial department and one status change in our support staff i also communicated and delivered seven transfers in our professional staff i'm also recommending one sabbatical leave in additional information i'm recommending the termination of a part-time custodian that never started the position a stipend for dr eberly for her work
015in the cyber academy four salary adjustments a sabbatical resentment and the appointment of miss julianne peccarella as interim principal at west town thornbury elementary school also i request approval for the contract contractual raises and merit pay for the administrators of the westchester area school district as outlined in the act 93 agreement on an addendum that was created due to time constraints i am recommending one other retirement of mrs marta paxson first grade teacher at east bradford elementary school with 27 years of service we wish martin nothing but happiness in her retirement furthermore i'm asking for for the approval of three additional additions to our professional staff one additional status change in the professional staff and i have delivered and communicated 19 additional transfers lastly in additional information we have a grade level clarification and a
016resentment of a long-term substitute position i'm respectfully requesting board approval for all personnel matters listed above thank you thank you dr olner i'll annotation a motion to approve iso move first by dr herman can i get a second a second who was that carol ah thank you it's dr shaw all right um any comments or questions seeing on roll call miss chair short dr herman on mute she's on mute i'm hi yes yes dr shaw yes mr bevalaqua yes mr gallon yes mr now yes miss chester yes mr spacman yes mrs tiernon yes mr mckeon yes motion carries thank you miss cherisher uh ms paxton if you're out there on behalf of the board i wish to thank you for your 27 years of service and wish you the best in uh what's what's next
017up for you in life there and uh i do also like to uh echo uh dr ulmer sediments we wish uh dr wheel nothing but the best uh i know i was personally fortunate to have a number of my kids go through west town thornberry under her leadership over the last seven years rarely a weekend went by where i didn't see her car over there at least once so i wish that's norm all right um moving along here uh we will come down to the approval of the consent agenda i have not been asked to remove any items but i will pause for a second to see if there is any concerns seeing that i'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved first by miss chester second by ms tierney who had
018her hand up before mr spacman did role call please mr miss chester yes mrs tiernon yes mr spacman yes dr herman it happens yes sir thank you mr gallon yes yes dr shaw yes mr darnell yes mr bevel aqua yes mr mccune yes motion carries thank you miss cherisher all right that will take us to our committee reports and up versus education and mrs tierney way back in june we considered a number of policies small and big changes they're all on the consent agenda so we look forward to finding out more about what's happening with education in august that's my report thank you mrs kieran we will move along to people's services and miss chesser uh no meeting and no report thank you miss chester all right up next is personnel and dr herman i
019have nothing to report thank you okay thank you doctor all right we'll move along to property and finance mr beverlock yes tonight we had a property finance meeting just prior to the school board meeting and we had one topic on the agenda that we went to and it was discussing of refunding two bond issuance of uh two exact existing debts that we had to refinance this the continuation of discussions we had last month with pfm our board finance consultant came last month and gave us the details basically we're looking at refunding two bonds a series double a from 2010 and a series single a from 2015. these particular bond refinancing right now is scheduled to be completed on monday august 3rd there is a potential savings of a half million dollars by reef by this
020refinancing which is good news for the school district so potential savings of a half a million is great um we did have two items that we did approve out of the property and finance committee tonight and they both show here on the agenda if anybody's following they're both on consent as you can see d1 and d2 d1 is is authorization for the district's financing team which is made up of our director of business affairs our superintendent and pfm are our bond financing consulting to be able to prepare um all the necessary documentation and paperwork uh for the refinancing sector as we just spoke about the second item that's uh notated on the agenda is d2 that's also in consent as the property finance committee approved it as i previously stated and that's approval of a
021parameters resolution the parameter resolution outlies the authority for those particular people on our financing team as i just spoke to to be able to handle the refinancing on that date of august 3rd and they have to follow the board procedures and guidelines that outlie exactly what they're doing of course looking for the lowest and compliant refinancing bid that is the next property finance meeting will be held on monday august 17th and uh that ends my report for this evening on property finance thank you thank you mr brother all right we do have a few items under other business i'd like to start with uh i'm going to ask for an approval after i get done reading a statement that the district the board recently made it's posted on our equity page on our website the
022westchester school district school board officially affirmed supports and adopts the following statement regarding racial equity the recent deaths of george floyd brianna taylor and many others have caused many to deeply examine the history and mechanisms of systematic racism and to act to dismantle them locally the shock and pain of bianca rob robertson's murder in 2017 continues to resonate throughout our community we heard from many members of the community about these issues the board of directors of the westchester school district stand united in support of racial equity and more broadly in our commitment to ensure that all in the past several years the west cheshire school district has made progress towards these goals but we need to do more to that end the west chester school board pledges to work with the administrators teachers staff students
023cover areas of inequity prejudice and discrimination at the district school and classroom levels and to identify and implement solutions to overcome these challenges these efforts must be transparent inclusive long-term and informed by a sustained review of a wide array of data and information that helps us understand any inequity and track our progress in eliminating over time on july 13th the westchester area school board administration received the results of a comprehensive six-month racial equity audit conducted by the delaware valley consortium of excellence and equity at the university of pennsylvania this report identifies both areas of strengths and areas of challenges that require more intensive and sustained efforts it also provides a range of practical recommendations as the district board pledges to provide regular transparent updates to the west central area school district community on progress toward
024equity today as we redouble our commitment to achieving equity we ask all members of the westchester area school district community to stand with us in support of social justice and racial equity the district and the school board have pledged to eliminate racial injustice and all forms of injustice in our schools and pledge to listen to our families please join us as we work together to achieve these goals especially the westchester area school board of school directors so with that i'll entertain a motion to approve removed first by dr shaw second by miss chester would anyone like to share any additional comments scene none roll call mr dr shaw yes miss chester yes mr bevalaqua yes mr jarnell mrs tiernan yes mr gallon yes mr spacman yes dr hermann doctor herman yes mr mckeon yes yes
025mr mckinnon before before you move on just one thing i want to commend the board for uh affirming that uh very bold statement and also uh the fact that that the board went through that equity review uh there are not many school distribution board members that would that would do that uh which which will become the basis for us as we set goals with our equity work moving forward so i commend the board i congratulate the board and i think it is a it is it is a it is a great way to go more than just beyond a a statement but looking at action steps and action plans based on an external review of our program so um congratulations and thanks for doing that and uh we will all do this journey together thank
026you dr scown and we really appreciate your efforts in this area as well over the years you've proven to be quite a leader in the space okay so we have two more uh motions uh to improve here uh i'll just read them out and just as for the approval from first in a second so the first one is the approval resolution regarding school districts emergency declaration pa school code section 5201 and policy waiver can i get a first you're muted sue i so move thank you dr shaw can i get a second second second was that miss chester yes thank you miss chester any comments or questions yeah mr mckinnon i can explain this resolution this is similar to one that we passed back in march when the governor declared a state of emergency and
027schools were closed a state of emergency was uh was issued again to continue in on june 3rd and this this allows us to have our administrative team look at policies that we might need to uh have some waivers on uh during an emergency closure so this or this is just during the emergency time uh one thing i one policy i can i can think of that we may need to have a waiver on would be our attendance policy in terms of the number of uh notes that a parent can write when a child is sick as we are certainly encouraging parents not to send kids in if they're sick so that may be something instead of coming back to the board to change that we would just be able to do that administratively so this
028does give us that authority to look at policies where we need to provide some of that relief rather than come back to the board redo the policies and then when the emergency is over come back and undo the policies again thank you for the commentary dr scalin we'll call mr dr shaw yes miss chester yes mr gallon yes dr herm dr herman she's saying something yes thank you mr spacman yes mr journal yes this is tiernan yes yes yes yes mr mckeon yes i don't yes mr short thank you all right uh the next motion we have ties back to the first one they're looking for the approval of the west chester area school district emergency instructional proposed calendar and schedule for school year 20 2021 approval was requested the westchester school district emergency instructional
029proposed calendar and scheduled for the school year i'll entertain a motion to approve i'll make a mission to approve thank you mr stackman can i get a second thank you brian thank you for mr gallon thank you mr galen yeah mr mckeon this is a part of the legislative action that took place back in june where school districts if they're going to use any kind of a remote or online learning model they have to demonstrate and affirm that any of the online time will count toward the 180 days minimum and the 900 hours for elementary 990 for secondary so in this resolution we were affirming that uh gave some sample schedules if we go to full remote or sample schedules if we go to a hybrid model as to how those hours and and days
030would count for the 180 days and the 900 990 hours thank you dr scaling any comments or questions from board members see none and i thank you for the visual clues everybody oh please miss cherisher mr spacman yes mr gallon yes mr bevalaqua yes mrs tiernon yes mr darnell yes dr hermann yes dr shaw yes mr did you get my yes yes i did thank you dr herman mr mr mccoon yes motion carries i love how dr herman keeps us in suspense all right uh that takes us to the next part of the agenda which is comments from residents i don't know what's going on uh mr wagman or mr do we have anyone signed up we we do not okay all right we will move to our adjourned adjournment here um i'd like to
031close uh last month you may recall i provided three quotes about change hope and faith this month i have a short remembrance and a quote about unity on july 17th we lost a great american and true leader his actions always spoke louder than his words for many john lewis was in inexorably linked to the civil rights movement and rightfully so he was arrested 40 times in his lifetime for doing nothing more than the right thing the right way not via non-violent protests though it all remains through it all he remained resolute balanced and focused on unity we all need to remind ourselves of the example he set now for his quote we are one people with one family we all live in the same house and through books through information we must find a way
032to say to people that we must lay down the burden of hate for hate is too heavy a burden to bear john lewis rest in peace motion to adjourn so moved first by miss chester second second but mr now all in favor say aye aye aye all right we'll do it again soon thank you everybody