001Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Abington High school board meeting for Wednesday, September 17th. Would everyone please rise and pledge the flag? Pledge >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the standy for Okay, Mrs. So Dan, can we please have roll call? >> Mr. Abdella >> here. >> Mr. Azar >> here. >> Mrs. Henderson >> here. >> Mrs. Hillibbran >> here. >> Mrs. Karum >> here. >> Mr. Moran. >> Mr. Robson >> here. >> Mrs. Tierney >> here. >> Mr. Aker >> here. >> Eight present. >> Thank you very much. >> I'm going to ask for a motion to approve the agenda. But before I do that, we are also going to have our student reps speak just before the superintendent's report. So with that, uh, can I please
002have a motion to approve the agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> On the motion. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abdella, >> yes. >> Mr. Azar, >> yes. >> Mrs. Henderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mrs. Hillbrand, >> yes. >> Mrs. Karum, >> yes. >> Mr. Robson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Tierney, >> yes. >> Mr. Aker, >> yes. 8 Z. >> Okay. May I please have a motion to approve the minutes from the board meetings of August 20th and September 3rd? >> So moved. >> Second. >> On the motion. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hillbrand. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Karum. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdella? >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker? >> Yes. 8 Z. >> Okay.
003Are there any board reports for this evening? >> Okay. Then our next would be our student representative, representative. >> Yes. Hello everyone. >> Um it's so good to see you all again. Unfortunately, our new junior schoolboard rep could not be here this evening because she is at freshman or new student orientation for leadership lockana tomorrow's leaders today program. Um her name is Anna Flynn and she is absolutely wonderful. I'm very excited for you all to meet her. Um, but as for our academic report this evening, the transition team held new student orientation on August 13th where almost the entire class attended to get ac acclimated to the high school. Tours were given, ID badge pictures were taken, and the most important event of the night, opening their lockers. The class of 2029 is off to
004a successful start to the school year. We are so happy to welcome them. Back to school night was held on Thursday, September 11th. parents were able to follow their child's schedule and hear all about the curriculum and expectations for the upcoming year. Thank you to the parents for spending the evening with us. Um the next conferences are held for October 6th. On September 11th, our morning announcement speaker, John Roman Vikino, read a special narrative honoring those who perished 24 years ago. Our school then held a moment of silence that was concluded by senior trumpet player David Zurich playing taps. Special thank you to David for his musical contribution. We had our first activity period today. Students were able to choose from over 30 clubs to help them find like-minded peers, get involved, and increase their
005sense of community within our building. Thank you to our club adviserss for providing this opportunity to connect with peers, and thank you to our administration for carving out this time to help us stay connected outside of academics. As for our athletic report, it has been an incredible fall sports season so far for our Comets. Our student athletes and coaches are stacking up milestones and laying the foundation for what's shaping up to be a very successful fall season. For football, the Comets are on fire and remain unbeaten after a dominating 45-7 win over Valley View in front of a packed house in our newly renovated high school stadium field. A couple highlights for some of our athletes. Senior quarterback Nick Bradley became just the 14th quarterback in LIIAA history to surpass 5,000 career passing yards. Senior
006wide receiver Gavin Erittenders surpassed 1,200 career receiving yards. Congrats to those athletes. This Saturday on September 20th is senior day for football, cheer, and band as the Comets host fellow LFC Division 1 unbeaten North Pocono at 1 p.m. at Comet Stadium, The Pit. For field hockey, after a two to one win over Delaware Valley, the girls dropped a close 10 match at Wils Bear area. Couple of our their upcoming events are on September 17th today at Holdale, September 20th at Emmas, September 22nd versus Lake Leman, and September 21 24th at Wyoming area. For our cross country boys and girls, both teams swept Scranton Prep and Holy Cross in their cluster meet on September 10th. The girls placed seventh runners in top in the top 12 and the boys placed sixth in the top 14. For
007our girls volleyball team who remain undefeated, they have a match tomorrow on September 18th at Mid Valley and on September 20th is at Tonkanic for their yearly tournament. Currently, they are ranked number two in District 2A. For girls tennis, they remain undefeated as well after a 5-0 win over Jersey Shore and a second place finish at the Altuna Invitational. Uh they have a match today, September 17th at West Scranton, and tomorrow is their senior day versus Prep. For girls golf, they remain undefeated after four wins and qualifying for in four individuals at pre-Districts, Briana Moffett, Liz George, Kate Peters, and Marggo Grad. They have a um tournament today at North Pocono, and their team districts is September 23rd. For boys golf, they were exceptional on Monday, qualifying seven individuals at pre-dists. Connor Ali, Will Herald,
008Philip Matthews, Sebastian Mayer, Ryan Boyd, Sheamus Kelly, and William Mu. Today, they also have a tournament at North Pocono. And on September 23rd, they have a tournament versus Dwell Valley. It is their senior day at Glenn Oak. For girls soccer, they remain undefeated after winning over Wils Bear, Valley View Prep, Wan Paulac, Williamsport, and North Pocono. They have a meet today versus Mid Valley. They are currently ranked number one in district 2A. Lastly, for boys soccer, they remain undefeated at 7-0. They have a meet tomorrow against Delaware Valley and a meet on September 20th at Lewisburg. They are also ranked number one in District 2A. Those are all my notes for this evening and I hope you all have a fantastic night. >> Thank you very much. Nice to have you back. >> Okay, Dr.
009Schaeer Dennis report. >> Would you rather do public comment first? >> We can do public comment >> first. >> So, uh, public has an opportunity to address the board with their concerns. We ask you keep your comments to roughly three minutes. When you come up, we ask you to state your name and where you live. Uh, and if you have If you want to address the board and not filled out a form, please do so and give it to Mrs. OD. We have three people listed so far. Mr. Stler, you would be first. Evening evening everybody. Just a couple of uh general questions for you on the um settlement agreements that you have on the agenda. Do we see them uh every year? Is this a um recurring? >> Mhm. Yes. >> Do you uh
010budget for them? >> Yes, >> you do. I can uh in general I don't I don't talk about these I I do have um um professional u opinions but each one of them uh deals with the student and we are not in any position uh legally or otherwise to kind of comment on them because of the the particulars but I'd be I' I'd be willing to to to talk to you uh generally um about um you know about that. >> Do you anticipate any more this year? >> Without a doubt. Without a doubt. And and we will until we get tort reform in Pennsylvania. >> Okay. >> Can I say something? Although I will say that it's not automatic that this gets approved. I've voted no on this many many times depending on the situation.
011>> Understood. >> Just just a general >> question about >> this is basically a function of of someone deciding the school to sue the school district for for something we have no control over. >> I understand >> and and hopefully the land hopefully we do a good job of negotiating and coming to settlements agreements that are good for both the families and the school district. >> Understood. The other question I have is on your uh on borrowing. Um do you foresee any additional borrowing this year? Do you have anything in >> No, >> I frame it in last year we borrowed for the uh I think the majority of it was for the high school stadium. Mhm. >> 10 million. This year we completed 50 million for the middle school. >> We took a $30
012million >> bond. >> You'll you'll do the other 20. >> So I don't like to speculate. So let let me tell you why I'm I'm I'm pausing here. because >> in a few months I'll be talking about a project at South Abington that's close to a million dollars or close to actually $1.1 million which we received grant money for which is fully funded through a grant. So that was a political process and we received over a million dollars. So if not in this budget, if the next budget comes out and the