001I pledge allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all >> Mrs. OD can we please have roll call >> Mr. Abdullah >> here >> Mr. Azar Mrs. Henderson >> here. Mrs. Hillibbran, >> Mrs. Karum >> here, >> Mr. Moran, >> Mr. Robson >> here, >> Mrs. Tierney >> here, >> Mr. Aker >> here. >> Six present. Yep. >> May I please have a motion to approve the agenda? >> So move. >> Second. >> On the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdullah, >> yes. >> Mrs. Henderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Karum, >> yes. >> Mr. Robson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Tierney, >> yes. >> Mr. Aker, >> yes. >> 6. >> Thank you. May I
002please have a motion to approve the minutes for the meeting of June 18th? >> So moved. >> Second. >> On a motion. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Henderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Karum, >> yes. >> Mr. Robson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Tierney, >> yes. >> Mr. Abdella, >> yes. >> Mr. Aker, >> yes. >> 6. >> Okay. Are there any board reports for the evening? >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Okay. Curriculum committee met uh last Wednesday. Uh we discussed one one final time the social studies curriculum that we are have on the agenda to approve for tonight. Um everything has been finalized except for how the uh lessons for K four will be K4 K4 will be implemented. Um there's still a few things to kind of fine-tune with that. Uh we also had a federal
003funding update. We'll still be receiving title one and title four funds. Um, but there will be no more Title 2 funding. A large piece of that funding, uh, generally goes to our big ticket professional development, uh, which that is about a $100,000 loss that we'll have to figure out how to make up for. And we will be no longer receiving Title Three funds. We also briefly reviewed the climate survey data that will be presented tonight. Uh we had some um overall the the feedback looks better um in terms of a sense of belonging that students feel while they're in our school. We had about 37.6% of the caregivers complete the surveys which is about the same as last year and 64 uh% of middle and high schoolers completed it. So, one thing we want to
004look at is how can we get a higher completion rate among our students to have a stronger uh hold on what our students are, you know, thinking and feeling. Uh we also reviewed uh school safety data which will also be presented and we briefly discussed uh cell phones um how they're being used in the schools. Uh we found that they are still being uh used throughout the school day. um the pouches that the high school teachers um have in their rooms generally are not being used uh consistently and uh the administration's just looking to see how to address that moving forward. Um some things also uh to be discussed at the administration retreat. We'll be looking at the midterm and final schedule to see what's working. Um does a different layout look um will better
005meet the needs of our students? potentially discussing the need for a brain break for seventh and eighth grade students. Uh fifth and sixth graders go outside for uh recess just to get some fresh air. So, we're looking to see if we can do something comparable for the seventh and eighth graders at the middle school. Uh they're also going to be discussing the potential of doing another book study uh for staff and uh teachers that we did a few years ago. We also briefly discussed the new teacher induction which will include monthly meetings, a book study in year one and year two and looking at doing some uh training for mentored teachers. So, um that's it. I just like I said, we're going to be approving the social studies curriculum tonight. So, I just wanted to
006give Mr. Calder and his team a shout out again. They did a fantastic job. Um up until now, we've never had a social studies curriculum uh for K4. So, I think they did a phenomenal job, especially with that piece. Not only does it meet state standards, but it's also engaging, fun, age appropriate. Um, so I really kind of give them a shout out. They did a phenomenal job. So, thank you. >> Great. >> One question. Title four, what is that? >> So, um, just a point of clarification there. Um, the the funds that Miss Henderson mentioned are being um withheld by the current administration. They were allocated by Congress and there's currently 25 lawsuits by 25 different states. Pennsylvania is one of them. So, um we that's just we'll wait and see what happens. Um
007ESSER funds were withheld um a couple months back, the final payment ones which are also allocated. So >> the SR1 didn't impact us, but for districts that did not spend it, like say like Scranton, that was $6 million. So I don't know if that was released back to them or not. >> Um and the um we we are going to be discussing the um survey presentation, right? And we're also going to talk about the um social studies curriculum because I have questions about that. So I'll wait till that. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? >> Thank you very much, Mrs. Henderson. >> Try to keep us short and sweet. >> Okay. Uh Dr. Schaefer, >> I sure got a couple items here. >> Yep. So, Dr. C is going to um lead the next
008two presentations. The safety presentation is a a mandated presentation we do uh every summer, so that look probably pretty familiar to you. and then uh of course the the the survey presentation as well. >> All right, good evening everyone. So uh the act 55 safety presentation is an annual requirement uh just to review what's been going on in the district relative to school safety. So we are required to conduct uh monthly fire drills to lock down non-fire drills and a reunification practice. So for our students that looks like going to a place other than their fire drill evacuation. We provide instruction in anti-bullying, our emergency codes. So if someone came over the loudspeaker, there's a lockdown, our students know and understand what those codes mean. Uh, safe to say. So, just by way of reminder,
009safe to say is the anonymous reporting um tool that goes right to the attorney general's office, students, community, whomever who may have a concern about a student um or a situation are able to anonymously report that. It comes to my phone um every other administrator's phone and our two uh school resource officers phones. Um, and then we also participate, of course, in the student assistance program. And I believe last month, two months ago, you approved us participating in that again. Um, so what are some of the things we're doing just to kind of keep ourselves up to date? Tomorrow morning, uh, Trooper Short and his K9 Sunny, um, an adorable little black lab mix, but, um, they are the explosives unit of the Pennsylvania State Police. They will be coming tomorrow to walk through all
010of our buildings just to make sure that they know and understand um what our buildings look like and should they ever need to respond, they would be prepared ahead of time because they know they need more than one dog for an explosives test. All of our local dogs are uh drug dogs and we do use them when we sweep the high school, our local dogs. Um, we are currently working to revise the EOP uh with the NEIU and that actually was where the opportunity to have state police and the K9 walk through the building came from. Uh, you adopted the plan November 20th, 2020. The original plan, this is a comprehensive plan, tells everybody how we're going to respond. shared across all of our emergency local emergency systems as well as the county emergency management
011um authority. Uh beginning in May, a group of stakeholders from Abington Heights have been going to the IU and really working through that plan with a fine tooth comb to make sure that we have everything as up to date as possible and that we're all on the same page. To our credit, we're the only school district there with a team. So, we have district administrators, we have representatives from our local law enforcement, um, as well as our fire and EMS, and we're the only school district that's been coming with a whole team. So, I'm really proud of that work that's being done. Uh, we do meet monthly in district uh, with our law enforcement, EMS, and fire folks as well as our principles, our district magistrate. um and um our school resource officers. The addition
012of fire and EMS was a this year update to this plan. We unfortunately interact with our EMS friends and so we thought maybe we should have them at the table. Um and the job really is about that bottom line there which is really about knowing each other before we have to work with each other professionally. Right? I don't want to introduce myself to the fire chief while the building is on fire. I'd like to know who he is and have him know who we are before we get to that space if heaven forbid we should get to that space. Um, we still have student services. This board has been super proactive in making sure that we have counselors that we have crisis counselors. Um, we worked hard on that threat assessment tool. That tool is
013fully implemented. Every time one of our counselors fills out that threat assessment tool, it comes to my office, their principal's office as well. Uh we have a nice relationship with grant counseling to do risk assessments on an emergency basis. We just finished the survey and we worked through those parent workshops on some really hot button topics around mental health, drug use, relationships, behaviors, those kinds of pieces. Just for your information, who supports our students? um and there's their health and mental health at school. So, all of those folks are here. Again, that addition of the crisis counselor is at the elementary level is new this year. Um I don't think that any of this information is new. We've been really proactive about making sure that our doors have swipe systems, that they're things are number
014numbered and labeled. Excuse me. Tom and his team were really proactive this year at Newton and Waverly, especially around some spaces on the playground that maybe weren't the safest things in the world. And so they are now fenced off. Um, and we, you'll remember in the fall that we cleaned out the building across the parking lot and had all that hazardous material removed. So, and Dr. Schaefer has added safety and security as number one on his weekly meetings with ICS about the new middle school. So, I think that's really important that everybody on our campus is talking the same language. Um, just an update from Justin about where we are with technology, cameras, and all of those pieces. Uh, we do have radios and we're able to communicate with each other across the board. Just
015for your reminder, this is what that threat assessment piece looked like. um and then what they're doing as a result of that so that we take a we make a determination about what level of the threat that is and then we respond accordingly. So um this year this is exactly the same actually as last year that there were 23 thread assessments conducted um that required followup with grant counseling or other providers. So, that's exactly the same number as last year. Um, safe to say I talked about before and what it is. Um, at the middle school this year, we received 18 tips, which was 13 fewer than last year. I broke out what they were about there for you as well. Um, and then at the high school, we had 54 tips, which was 33
016more than last year. So, students are using this tool. Um, and again I broke out what they are for. Some of them crosspollinate buildings. So sometimes we get something from the high school and discover that really it's a kid from the middle school or vice versa. So the principles are great about working through those tips together if they need to. Um, and they're also fantastic about answering their phone at whatever hour that 717 phone number comes across their um, screen. And sometimes it's the middle of the night. So, um I do want to shout out to our principles that they do really respond to those seriously at any time of day or night. And then we have had great partnership with our law enforcement friends who will go out to families. They'll do well checks
017on our students. Um and again, regardless of the hour of the night. So, this is something our community is taking very seriously. Um for 2526 uh again we have to make sure we're continuing to gauge in those drills, continue to work with our law enforcement. We are working through that rewrite making sure that our to goal kits are ready to go and we will have that new plan to you I'm hopeful by early fall just for your information. um PBIS K to2. We're working on that with fidelity and the fidelity checklist from the IU and we continue to work through MTSS and those parent workshops talking about maybe some live streaming, some Screencastify, just some ways to get those out to people and then we just continue that great relationship that we have with our
018partners in the community to support students and concerns with them. So that's that. Does anyone have any questions about any of that? >> I just wanted to circle back um just safe to say one of the things that came up in the curriculum committee meeting I can't remember which member asked you know how is this presented to students each year um and what parameters are given and one thing we discuss is I believe uh Dr. house. You said it's done in the beginning of the year, but we were thinking maybe um just so that students are familiar with it maybe halfway through the year kind of circling back and having some touch points because you know you shared that sometimes they'll share information you know days or or months out. So can you just talk
019a little bit more about how this information is presented to the students? Sure. So our middle level and our high school level administrative teams do class meetings at the beginning of the school year. Um there's an app so kids can download that app. Um it's on our website as well. It's also on the attorney general's website. Um so how do you access it? What kinds of things can you report through it? Um the piece we've noticed this year that we need to think about when we're having those meetings next year is reminding kids to kind of hang on the line a second because it is immediately answered by somebody on the attorney general's office side. And so a lot of times our kids will put something in and right away that person will come back
020with well when did this happen or some sort of clarifying question and they're not getting like that two-way dialogue. So um which just would be helpful. I mean we're still responding. We're still going to figure out that two-way dialogue, but we've talked about as an administrative team adding just that can you hold on for two or three or five or 10 seconds and make sure that the person on the other end of the safe to say has as much information as possible. It just helps us um to respond. >> Great. Thank you. statistics >> more than last year. Um, and I'm scrolling down and I'm looking at the one with suicide four. Um, is that a higher number or is that uh it's about the same. Um, and I will say that a couple of
021those were a couple of kids putting in information about the same incident. So it will show up as >> separate incidents even though when we go to investigate it, it's really one student that maybe two or three other students are concerned about and so we get three safe to say. >> I'm also seeing um sexual assault rape too. So the other thing to it's a it's a note on there is that the categories are chosen by the person making the referral not what the disposition may or may not be. So they categorize this isn't a law enforcement category. So I would extend some caution there and how um you know we we provide it as it is. Okay. >> And one other question. Um, you said that this was the first year for elementary crisis.
022Um, >> we specifically hired that crisis counselor I right after you hired me. Yeah. >> Actually last year, >> wonderful proactive. Unfortunately, we need it. Um, how successful was it this year? Was it was it beneficial for the elementary level? I believe, and we have elementary folks here, but um and they'll jump up and tell me if I'm wrong, but um they the person that we hired brought a lot of really unique skills to the table. She's a music therapist. Um she brought some really different skills to the table that I think positively impacted students. >> That made shovel. Thank you. Anything else on safety and security? >> All right. So, nextity. >> All right. So, this is the annual climate survey. We send this out every year. I do want to take a minute
023to uh thank the members of our school community that took time to respond to the survey. It does help us to kind of see what people are feeling, seeing how they're experiencing our schools and to understand our strengths and then to understand maybe some growth areas as well. So, as Gretchen mentioned, um our student responses are our student responses are about the same as last year. Our parent responses are about the same as last year. Our faculty and staff responses are about the same as last year. And really what that says to us is we can reasonably compare across years, right? We don't have a whole bunch of different people in a whole bunch of different spaces responding. So, um, we have the climate portion, which is where we're going to start tonight. Um, throughout
024this, you're going to notice, and I'm sorry, um, there are some green areas highlighted. Those were areas that the administrative team after reviewing these this data last year decided we were going to focus on. And so I just wanted to like bring those to your attention just as data points that are important. Um this is the high school and I think what you're seeing here is a really positive trend with nearly eight and 10 of our parents and seven of and 10 of our students feeling like they belong in school. That teacher number of seven and 10 teachers is a almost exactly the same as it has been in previous years at the high school. At the middle school, again, we're sort of seeing similar numbers to years prior with seven and 10 members. I
025hated to cut a person in half, so I didn't want to do that. But I'm like seven and 10 members of each of our stakeholder groups feeling like they belong um in our schools, our elementary buildings. Um this was really a place I hated to cut people in half because I wanted to like count 10 out of 10 where 10 out of 10 was appropriate, but I averaged and went with nine out of 10. Um, but really what you're seeing is just a really strong belief that people in our elementary buildings, both our parents and our students or our our teachers are feeling like they belong in our schools. And that was an area of focus this year. And so I think that's really some positive data there. Uh last year we took a look
026at this data and were really concerned about the number of students reporting that they felt that they had been treated badly based on body image. Um and also disability was really high last year. And so I think it's really important to take a look at this and notice that um last year three out of 10 students reported that they were feeling poorly about this and this year it's like one and a half students which is half right so the work that the counselors are starting to do and teachers are starting to do around messaging for kidtoid stuff is working um and I also really wanted to point out that disability piece because as a district We have worked really hard to make sure that all students are feeling included. We've invested time and energy and
027resources into our unified sports teams as well. And the disability data last year was eight out of 10 students saying that they had been treated poorly because of a disability. And this year it's three, which is less than half as many kids, right? So, I just think that's really a credit to the work that's happening at the building level around that. Go ahead. >> Yeah, just to clarify, um, these responses that are more granular are from students that indicated that they had been, right? So, I think there was 60% or so that said they had not been, >> right? So when you're taking a look at that of the students had that responded in the affirmative this is what they dialed into just >> so that's not the population >> correct correct correct it's correct
028>> small >> correct >> right because if you look at that last line that have not experienced any of these spaces that's six almost seven out of 10 of our students right so it's this much of right. Uh we also talked about the facility. I feel like this is the space that we've all been sort of living in and know the answer to. Right. Um so I leave that there for your just quick review. I don't think there's anything in that data that would come as any kind of a surprise to anyone that's been a part of our facilities conversations. So um I leave that for you. We We also ask students, teachers, parents about their um experience around teaching and learning in schools. Um again from last year these were the spaces um in
029green that were decided we decided to be focused area focus areas. Um the teacher and parent data kind of remains the same year to year, but our student data actually shows a positive increase in those areas of having a friend at school and feeling like people have high expectations and feeling like they belong. Um and I just, you know, when we think about we come to work every day and who is our main focus, right? It's our students. So, I think the fact that our kids are reporting that they're feeling better about these things is really important. Obviously, there are some outliers. As an administrative team, we'll work through those and figure out what that means, right? What's that all about? Same thing in our middle school. Our students, right, are reporting that they have
030an adult that they can trust and they have somebody at school that they feel safe and comfortable with. And all of those pieces are protective factors for our students. So, that's really important. Again, our elementary schools are happy, positive places. Um, so I think it's important to look uh year-over-year again at those three things that we three indicators that we talked about being really our focus areas. Um and while there are again some blips right and some places where clearly we need to ask some questions and dig a little bit deeper, the trend in how our students and our stakeholders are feeling in school appears to be moving in that positive direction and again obviously with some outliers um across the board but I leave that data there for you also. Uh, I had to
031break up the elementary school. Sorry, they don't all fit on a slide anymore. So, um, that information is there, but as you can see, really the data is trending positively. So, that's the summary version of our very long climate survey. So, I will open up for questions if there are any or statements. Yeah, let me before you ask any uh questions um let me uh just weigh in with a couple thoughts about you know how we use this and I um say this every year and I'll say it again. Um uh this survey has been adapted uh over the years. However, the genesis is from a University of Chicago study. So there's a there's a lot of kind of research behind this about uh measuring constructs through various stakeholders. So asking the the teachers, the
032students and the parents the same question in a different way as we take a look uh at um consistency. So when I think about this survey um what I tell folks is the purpose of it is for directional insight. It is not a report card. Uh, in fact, um, I I think it was, uh, uh, Deming, if you're you're into like postw World War II dead, uh, management consultants, uh, had said, you know, uh, when a measure becomes a target, >> it ceases to become a measure. So if you have too narrow of a focus on one question um then that can kind of blind you from taking a look at the the root cause. So uh when I think about directional insight what I'm talking about is are we able to illuminate some things
033that we're doing well some areas of strength right and identify areas for targeted improvement. And as we think about that, we think about what are the things we do. I'll just say what do we nourish or we nurture within our organization or system that yields these results. Oftentimes it's not done on on purpose, right? But there's certain things, right? So for uh instance, and this is just a a an example of some things we've done at the high school, like if you now we've got um the front doors swing open electronically, right? So if you are in a wheelchair or walker, you need some assistance when you come up to the high school, you can you can hit the button and it opens up. Um we've done the same thing in the auditorium. What message
034did that send to people, families that come into our high school, that work in our high school, um, that are learning when we are not accessible, right? And I'd love to tell you that we have 100% accessibility, but we're not close to that. But we keep on working on that. Um, so, uh, that's kind of how I how like I look at it because sometimes you can take a look at a number that appears to be low and you can like focus in on it and you can do something that may change the number in the future but never doesn't change the root cause. And sometimes that focus needs to be on growth. So, for instance, one of these questions which I love, this is what I talk about where I know kids are being
035honest. You can take a look. Um there's one question and I'm looking at the high school um you know um you know or any school where like hey enjoy being in school. It is consistently been low but then you see all these higher responses about do you have a a trusted adult? Do you have friends in school? Do you like all these other numbers that are up there? I'm sure if you ask me if I was younger if I like school I'd say no. Do you like PE? Yes. Do you like recess? Yes. Right. Um but one of the questions that we ask in the high school of the teachers and it's a we we ask their students and parents you know uh are are students encouraged to work hard it's a pretty high percentage
036and then the teachers one is 62%. All right. And the question to the teachers um are is the student are the students motivated to learn? So if you take a look at that the high school was like six out of 10 kids. Right. Last year it was at 45%. Right? So we take a look at that whole global picture of the learning and I and as administrators we would talk about you know what are the trends that we're seeing it where is there consistency between the groups where is it differing, right? And these are things that we take a look at for for example, like some of our counselors, this is a really good one, right? I think we're hiring a counselor today, right? Um is to really dive down into some of this data
037because one of the reasons I really uh find the uh treated badly question very illuminating is the discrepancy even those small percentages between the parents and the students. You know, is there a reluctance And at least I know this in my home from raising three kids. Uh to talk about with your parents body image or uh you know being treated badly as a result of a disability or a perceived disability, things like that, right? So when we start to spot those types of things and see anomalies, we're like, wait a minute, some of our kids are holding on to this because parents just don't know. So that's that's how I'd like to kind of frame the thinking on how we look at these um perceptual data. >> Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair. >> Yeah. Are you
038pleased with the uh turnout of students that act students and parents and teachers that filled out this this year? >> Yeah, it's very it's very consistent with the years fa uh past. Um these are uh based on my experience pretty high numbers. We'll work at it again to get them a little higher. I'm the student response rate and the teacher response rate is always higher. We need to do a better job thinking about how we're going to um get more uh parents um involved in in in taking the the survey. Um so we'll think about that. Um but it's been very consistent. So, anytime you have close to 3,000 responses a year, we start to get some pretty reliable um data sets. >> Can you be more specific on the changes that you made this
039year, most specifically in the high school with getting those numbers that you were concerned with up? I feel like the podium is not far enough in the way. >> Yeah. Right. Like >> that's enough that's enough for me. >> Leanne, no that I mean I'll let Leanne come up, but they did a very good job this year. Like one one thing that we we hear a lot about the elementary school is uh PBIS. So ju, you know, let let's forget about the acronyms and say what are what are the types of things that we're doing on the daily to celebrate our students, right? Um, and it has in all of my years been very difficult at the high school level, right? Developmentally, it's very different. If you take a look at the PBIS, you know,
040kids are really excited about getting a coin to like drop in and get a book or or or something like that, right? Uh I would go up to a high school and tell them like if you do this then parfait day is coming. Like they love parfait day, right? Um but that that's a that that's a very difficult one, but they've done a very good job. So Leah, if you want to share some of the things that you guys uh have done at the high school. >> Um so to to follow that up, the PBIS stuff, like if you know teenagers, teenagers often think a lot of things are corny. So it was really tapping into like the things that would motivate them and make them feel like they belonged. Um the other thing that
041we really focused on with my administrative team is like just being out more. it's easy to just stay in your office. There's a lot of work to be done. Um or just go out to classrooms, do your observations, and then come back to the office um to do the work. So, I've been on a rolling cart for like three years at this point. So, I mean, the kids make fun of me and I just embrace that because I think that's fun. Um but like we're all out on carts. We'll station ourselves throughout the building. We just making yourself more visible. um the nuances of like salutations are lost among teenagers because they're always like on their phones outside of places. Like even when you're in the car with them, if you're driving them places, they're
042just sitting on their phones. So, we really tried to be corny in our delivery and like bright and cheery and just be places and always be talking to them. Um and then my focus with the teachers has been um to really just be at the door, greet your students, make them feel like they were situated in their learning, make sure that it was a welcoming place. things that you think just naturally happen, but um sometimes education on the secondary level becomes very transactional, especially with high achieving students. They just want to come in, be taught what they want to learn, get their high grade, and then go out the door onto the next thing. So, it was really trying to give them the space to still be kids. Um because they are kids, they're children,
043and like just give them a place where they want it to be and have fun with it. and we participated in the PBIS stuff and like letting them see that adults still have fun and you can enjoy where you work and can enjoy having fun and strong learning and an education can still happen. So, it's just really been a concerted effort really. It's the whole school is bought into it. So, um and our PBS team is I just get to say yes. Like I have the easiest job. They're brainstorming and they're like, "Hey, can we do this thing?" I'm like, "Yeah, sure. plan it and if I could fit it into the day, all I have to do is structure a bell schedule, that's perfect. So, it's those events like that. >> Well, thank you.
044It's and I commend you because I know um the last couple years the high school parking area and just the change for especially those students with privileges and that change. So, I commend you and your staff for bringing back all of this energy and positive energy during a time when we're in transition with with the things that are important to those drivers that want parking and whatnot and everything. So, I commend you for your work. >> Thank you. Yep. >> I appreciate it. quick thing on the on the facilities and and I will just share with you something that uh a graduate said to me unprovoked whatnot and they um he was talking about um looking at uh these videos of all the different construction projects. He's like, "Wow, all the why why is all
045this stuff starting after I left? This is awesome." like this is a 19year-old that we're talking about. And I'm only sharing that because whether it's paving, right, or a field or replacing a carpet or replacing a a gym cafeting something. What what message that you are sending implicitly to the kids is like we we care, right? You're making the door larger at the auditorium in the high school. You get new curtains here. You get a different sound system here. They may feel minor, but that's a a message to the students like, "Yeah, look, we we care about you. We want to we want to make this uh a cozier home for you." So, I I I do want to say that to the board that that is not lost. often times we hear from adults
046but the students uh are noticing that >> other questions >> you know just a just a comment I mean first of all uh thank you for presenting this I think it's really important uh you know I have a bias toward I really believe that the the environment has a direct impact on uh academic performance and it's not really understood and it's underestimated I think with that said, these are descriptive statistics. They don't tell you really anything about why something happened or what's correlated. I think we should perhaps dive into that because that would be really useful. So, for example, if our environmental scores went up a certain amount as they did, let's see what the academic scores and see if there's any correlation. uh a good exercise for maybe AI but it will tell you
047if there's a correlation or not because what'll happen is we're doing all these good things and by the way I believe in PBIS you know that I've said that many many times but do I know that it really helps the you know a tick up in the in the environmental survey no you don't unless you do the analysis behind it I think this is a great start there's just some opport opportunity to take it to the next level and it's not that hard to do. I'm not saying prove that PBIS increased that's that's hard to do and we probably don't have the resources to do it and and the bandwidth and I'm not suggesting that just some like a level deeper to see if there's any correlations. That's all. Um what what I'll say finally
048on this one is uh to your point uh Phil and other and what others have raised not only this year but in past years but when we meet with that administrative team this is what I will say to them. So our five administrators uh back there get a like little foreshadowing here. Um, every system is designed perfectly to get the results it gets. And I will say to our administrators, we'll take a look at the academic data. We'll take a look at the survey data. We'll take a look at athletics, extracurriculars, you name it. So what types of systems or structures or values do we have that are supporting this good or bad? So as I see Dr. Tion as the the push back there, I'll give you an an example and and it's not
049just Abington Heights High School. It's probably since the 1920s and I won't go into the history of of the American high school and how that happened. But we do a very good job of of tracking and that's probably like an 80s term to the point that sometimes the terminology becomes a proper noun and a self-fulfilling prophecy like level two, right? Um, and are some of the things that you're doing maybe that inadvertently or on on purpose? Is that like lowering a level based on what your expectations are? But that's an example of a system scheduling, how we set up our schools. That is without a doubt a system. So, these are the types of things that our administrators are going to have to look really hard at say like, okay, what are some of the
050things that we're doing here that are supporting these results? And then we're going to have to change. and the change and the push to the administrators is you can't you can't do everything all at one time. but to find those leverage points like what are some key things that we can do um to move right to kind of change what what's happening right and and those are the the tough questions that we'll have to uh examine as uh a team and then um as a district Other questions? Mrs. Henderson. >> Um, just to speak to what Dr. Schaefer just said, you know, when you're looking at what's working in one place in the building, how does that translate into other places? And I think Dr. Tion hit the nail on the head with the way
051that they restructured u drop off at the high school. I think having more staff out there just highly visible, like you said, you know, you notice a difference in the building, but just having like the welcome wagon out has made such a huge difference. you know, just seeing their teachers and um administrators and everyone out there smiling and welcoming. I think it just it really set the tone um much different feel once you started doing that. So, thank you. I think it made a big difference and just more upbeat kids getting out of the car. Um you know, phones are down because they're they're looking for, you know, who's out there and and who they're going to greet. So, I think that's a perfect example of taking what's working in one space and then bringing
052it to another. So, great job with that. Thank you. >> Okay. So, Dr. Cash you get great obviously great data and so on. What you know I I'd say in five words or less but I don't think that would >> what what what's your takeaway and and what do you feel you need to work on focus on >> five words? No, no, no. >> Short and short and less. >> I think my takeaway is that the work that we're doing is showing and the work that the Wii being a collective we the things that we've recognized as needs are showing >> something. Yeah. Something positive. They're we're getting some bang for our buck, right? Or our time or our energy. Uh and the takeaway is there are still some questions we need to ask, right?
053And so again, a we deciding that what we needed to invest in, we invested in some outside folks for next week to come in with our admin team and really do some digging at data um with a really strong framework. And I think to Phil's point, you know, the more you dig at your data and the closer you look at it, data always gives you more questions than answers, but um just really having a focus, right? And and having a system for us to all be looking at things the same way. Um >> I I have one more question. If if Are you done, >> please? Go ahead. >> I know this wasn't um in the survey, but it's been mentioned twice tonight. Once in the uh board reports and Dr. Tion talked about students
054on cell phones. >> Um can we have a conversation on cell phones? Did the policy or the the I guess it wasn't a policy, but the um decisions made for last year, was it successful? Did they work? Are you looking to tweak it a bit? Are there any changes you want to make or are you comfortable with the the um the way the cell phone usage was done this past year? >> Oh, you can answer. >> I just will just decide who wants to answer. So, we did ask actually in the survey about cell phone use. Um so, here's the not five words but summary version. >> Um because I know we've had the conversation around policy or >> implementation. Um, it is an implementation piece. One for one teacher for every 10 is actually
055using the caddy that Dr. Tion provided for them. So, >> yes. Where you're supposed to come in and put your cell phone in when you walk in the classroom. So, she and I actually had a conversation about Okay. Well, then obviously we need to very clearly and very explicitly and then follow up um evaluatively if necessary, right, around that's the expectation. Why is it only happening in one out of every 10 classrooms, right? Um from a standpoint of the data that we look at, there were 153 reported cell phone infractions this year. A hundred of them are independent kids. So that says that a third of them are repeat offender kids. Um we followed up with the number in buildings and grade levels and those kinds of things. Not surprisingly it's a secondary like 7
056to 12 kind of issue. Um although as the elementary folks and I were talking smartwatches which I think is something like I thought it had to be connected to your phone to work. Apparently it doesn't. Things I learned. Um, so we've like we may need to just talk about expanding what constitutes that, right? Um, but the data says that one administrators responded um to all all of those uh infractions that were in place. And the interesting piece of data is that in those cases, 48 times, mostly at the middle school, um, a warning was given. But every one of those kids that had a warning never had a secondary time where someone had to talk to them about their cell phone. Right? So I think that again spaces for growth but then also spaces where
057you know it may not be as big as we think it is. >> Are the teachers um complaining that there's too much distraction? >> Kids say they're not distracted which is interesting. But I mean that's their world, right? Um the distraction data is sort of the same. Um but then it comes back to that implementation piece, right? So we've talked about classroom management versus policy versus what are we doing, right? Um so I think that's a question that Dr. Tion, Mrs. Snider and their teams are going to have to work through but around explicit explan expectations for what that looks like in the building. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Um Dr. Schaer, just just a quick question. I mean, we really started client surveys when you came. You've obviously had a lot of experience.
058How do you how do you feel the implement implementation here at Abington Heights compares to what you've seen in the schools that you saw this before. We are are are we on track with where you think we should think we should be or the things data we're not seeing that you would have expected to see? >> Um I I have not seen prior to this year um because now East Stburg uh is doing this as well. So that's the third. Is it that interesting? Right. uh go um but uh Philadelphia so I I worked with this through the council great city schools so it was a lot of uh large districts um because I do believe in like dimensions of data and there isn't a lot of perceptual right data tells a story but not
059the whole story and it's about trying to aggregate as as much as we can and then asking the right questions, not just any random question, but really thinking deeply um about uh what it is. So, I am I'm I'm very happy with like our response rate uh our our our parents respond to it. The other thing to the board's credit is that we tell parents that we use this uh as part of our goals. So our administrators when we do goals and you see these like we we have a perceptual goal and that's very that's that's very important to us. We asked them to pick um some leverage points and then when we started the facility study, every time we talk about the facility um progress or next moves, I always cite this data and
060so parents know that it's just not going into some empty vessel that the board sees it and they respond to it. I mean clearly uh there are a lot of questions regarding climate and how students treat students, how students treat staff and vice versa, things like that. And we have been very responsive to that. Um we've put a lot more resources uh in our student services programming. we have spent more funds on professional learning around this um and that that does uh take some time and so I'm really appreciative of this uh and it's um there's never an end point um to this you know it you know we could we could pick any any point on here um but I am always I I mean, there's a million questions in here and there's some
061you gravitate towards and the one of them that I do like to see a lot of and I usually look at in the first 10 or so is the expectations question because expectations matter. So, if students believe that the teachers have high expectations and the parents believe that the students have high expectations and the the you know that that's big because in many districts they just don't have that. Well, it's certainly been a great effort and I think um thank you very much for getting us going. I think it's been very helpful. Okay, next part of the meeting is for public comment. For someone in the public who would like to address the board, please please come up. Uh we ask you to to uh limit your comments to about three minutes. >> Now, forever
062hold your peace. >> All right. >> Okay. >> All right. >> We're going to move on then. Our next action is me >> action discussion items. The first is the treasures report. Treasures and bills. So right. >> Okay. >> Mrs. Carum, >> we began the month with a cash balance of 20,272,684.77. We took in $2,26,231.89 in monthly revenues. Our net dispersements were 7,661,287.32 for a cash bal cash cash balance available of 14,817,629.34. >> Thank you. >> Have a motion to approve the treasures report. >> Some move. >> Second. >> Okay. Any questions? Um, I have an just a question on the uh budget analysis. Um, I'm noticing um that we budgeted um 5,000 5 million200,000 for our wage tax and to date um as of June 30th. We've only received four 4.4 million. I'm wondering
063um have we made an adjustment in our budgeting for our ne next year? I mean, that's that's a loss of over a million dollars in our wage tax. Is it not in yet? Is it not complete? >> Yeah, I'll I'm going to confirm. A lot of these are lagging. That's why we don't reconcile to November. But in our other budget, um, in fact, I've got a a call with S&P next week. So, I saw this number. We're in the we're we're a good number. what I consider like uh the the mid 90s 95 to 97 93 95 of of um you know where we need to be. But let me check with Jim to find out what the lag is on that one. >> Okay. Because and now for next for our next year's budget,
064is he budgeting about the same amount, the 5.5 million? Yeah, because we've had some Let me double check on on that on on some of these on some of these numbers whether um the numbers that we're kind of talking about here have gone up, right? Um so we've made adjustments going up. They're not going. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. So the next item we have we have to vote. >> I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you. Uh, roll call please on the treasur. >> Mrs. Karum, >> yes. >> Mr. Robson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Tierney, >> yes. >> Mr. Abdella, >> yes. >> Mrs. Henderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Aker, >> yes. >> 6. >> Okay. The next item um is to appoint a new board secretary. Uh, our current board
065secretary's term of office has come to an end. Um, Mrs. Juny, we appreciate all the efforts you made on part of Abington Heights. You were diligent and on top of things and making sure we behaved ourselves the way we were supposed to. So >> sometimes >> a tall order. >> Well, just just remember I'm not done till November. >> Exactly. So So hopefully you can uh mentor our our incoming person. So I'd like to open the board for nominations. nominate uh Mr. Abdullah >> and I'd like to second the nomination of Mr. Abdullah for board secretary. >> Okay. >> U any comments or discussions. >> Can we have a roll call on that, please? >> Where's the speech? [Laughter] >> Well, you we want to acclimate you acclimate. >> Ready for your speech? >> My
066action speech. Mr. Robson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Tierney, >> yes. >> Mr. Abdella, >> yes. >> Mrs. Henderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Karum, >> yes. >> Mr. Aker, >> yes. >> 6. >> Congratulations, Mr. >> And and I'd like to hand over my handbook, my secretary handbook. I've got a nice pen. Thanks to Dr. Schaefer and a thank you note from PSBA thanking me thinking that the I'm the secretary but I'm handing it off to you. I >> thought I don't have to start till November. >> No, you're starting tonight. >> Is that a back scratcher >> and I it I think it is a back scratcher but here you go Anthony and and congratulations and >> sign properly. >> Okay. Okay, Dr. Schaefer, the floor is yours. >> And just so you know, uh
067this is Phil, like on the next one, you'll have on the appointments of certified where they're going to be placed >> on there. That was a that was uh um a comment that I received. So that we I went through HR Michelle. So, uh from after this point forward, when you see the the uh personnel report under appointments, it's going to actually tell you where the where that person was placed. Okay. So, Mr. Aer, at this point, would the board consider a motion to approve the personnel report as presented? >> So, moved. >> Second on the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Tierney, >> yes. >> Mr. Abdullah, >> yes. >> M. Mrs. Henderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Karum, >> yes. >> Mr. Robson, >> yes. >> Mr. Aker, >> yes. >> 6. >>
068Congratulations, Shelby. I believe she's the only one here. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. >> All right. Mr. Akard ask the board uh consider a motion to approve the July volunteer list. >> So moved. >> Second. >> On the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abdullah? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Karum? >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker? >> Yes. >> 6. >> Mr. Accord asked the board consider a motion to approve the July 2024 tuition reimbursement report. >> So moved. Second >> on the motion. >> Yeah, I have a a comment. Um I'm looking at the um course load here and there some excellent courses. I commend our teachers for taking this extra professional development and working um on their their ability
069to to present themselves as phenomenal educators. Um I have one question. Where is Rockhurst University? >> Google. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kum? >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdella? >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker? >> Yes. >> 6. >> Mr. Accurate ask the board consider a motion to approve the letter of agreement with the NEIU for the 2526 student assistance program. >> So moved. >> Second >> on the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Karum, >> yes. >> Mr. Robson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Tierney, >> yes. >> Mr. Abdulla, >> yes. >> Mrs. Henderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Aker, >> yes. >> 6. >> Mr. Mr. I could ask board uh consider a motion to approve
070the following job descriptions custodian one two and three >> so moved >> second >> on the motion >> question couple questions >> sure >> Mr. Okay, >> thank you for getting these job descriptions out. I think they're phenomenal. Um, how many custodians do we currently have that are that are not on um that are that are Abington tonight's custodians? >> Very very few and I'm going to probably less than I'll let me get the exact number but I want to say probably between five and 10. It's a lower number. Um, but when this is listed as custodian and also these are like counterintuitive. So custodian 3 is like the basic cleaning and things like that. I believe the board started the process um of of subcontracting out. So we have a very few there. We
071have more that would be in what we call the custodian two and one. Uh custodian 2 includes like the fields work, right? So um what we wanted to do is to differentiate because there had been some people that been here but weren't like but we're doing more things. So we wanted to make sure we did that. And then when you get the custodian one, that's when we start to get into the HVAC. So we just hired somebody for HVAC and things like that. So uh in the support agreement when we have this, we wanted to figure out a way or like a we needed to differentiate it better and then we wanted to clarify the difference between two and three because we had some people doing field work and doing more than you know the
072custodian level three. So, >> so it's mostly on what you probably mean the the maintenance side and things like that. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Mr. Bell. >> Sorry, my question like so custodia 2 custodian 2 they're in field work. What does that are we going to define what that means? Like is that cutting the grass or is that actually maintaining the field? Let me check with Tom because I don't want to give out any name like this was a some there are some specific instances where we we needed to and wanted to do that >> and when we hire them are we going to label like you're getting hired as a custodian too. >> Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So that's why in the one when we interview you better have some mechanical HVAC electrical experience.
073We need that versus three. Most of our look, we're not paying three on our because we subcontract that out. But the the few that we have that are still here, you know, that have just that. We're not asking them to go out and do the fields work or do mechanical things that we know that um they're not classified to do. >> Is the subcontracting working? >> It's it's mixed reviews. I think that a um what we find regardless of whether it is uh and and I'm talking about the the cleaning services here, right? Um superintendent because this is a discussion I have quite frequently in in school districts um is like uh there's not a whole lot of difference in outcomes. Um, and there's a whole lot of turnover. Um, and you know, some folks
074would speculate that you can get more money doing something else that may be um, perceived as perhaps like less strenuous or less bit. So, we're in the marketplace with uh, a lot of people sheets and like you know, so >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Other questions? Roll call, please. >> Mr. Robson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdella? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Karum? >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker? >> Yes. >> 6. >> M sir. I could ask the board consider a motion to approve the social studies curriculum updates in Associated Texas as written below. >> So moved. >> Second. >> On a motion. >> Yeah. I had one question. the um modern civics is that the eighth grade is that under the eighth grade um program modern
075civics CWS American history. >> No. So civics as a course was moved to 11th grade. Uh the eighth grade curriculum rewrite makes that um an ancient I feel like I'm buzzing. An ancient history um course in eighth grade. Um it was decided to move civics I don't know where was so I'll just talk about it was decided to move civics to 11th grade um my understanding because that is the point in a student's life where they can vote they're participating in some of those civic pieces um and so that will remain an elective for students because we have students um current eighth graders through who are going to be 12th graders who took in eighth grade. So, there's not going to be that forced requirement to take that course again. Although, if you look at
076it, it looks like it's going to be a really neat course um to participate in. The CWS is also the high school comparative world studies. >> And to be clear, we do teach the civics is a very broad term. And some people I've heard like, oh, you're not teaching. >> No, no, I'm sorry. Now, we teach CI like there are threads of civics throughout. This is very interwoven. There's a lot of it. Um, when you get into the high school, um, they're really diving down deep. There's also uh a state uh test, and I use that in the loosest of terms. We're mandated to do it, and there's absolutely no penalty for not doing it. It's just it's a waste. It really is. I think if you're going to do something, you do it the
077right way. Um, and the eighth graders are tested the most. They can take it through this like large window of time, including high school, but that's shenanigans. Why would you take it, you know? So, uh, the high school, um, I think is a is a great place for that culminating course with a focus that has that depth. Um the students uh are now of age or coming of age to vote. Um they've been through a lot of the courses and they have these this this um uh sense of the world that they've that they've gained as they become more independent and more critical thinkers. And uh it's it's just a it's a really good place and space for that. But I want to be clear, we teach civics, like it's all like it like the
078the social studies standards is like they're they're broad and they're they're they're co-mingled and you know it's not the first time that they're hearing about American government when they're 18. >> Well, thank you for clarifying that and making sure everyone understands >> probably tell you that with her kiddos. >> Thank you. >> Okay, roll call, please. >> Mrs. Tierney. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Abdella. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Karum. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 6. >> Okay. Mr. Aur ask the board to consider a motion to approve the new story agreement. >> So moved. >> Second. >> On the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abdella. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Karum. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson?
079Yes, >> Mrs. Tierney. >> Yes, >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 6. >> Okay. The next agenda item isformational and use of the facilities. There's a quite extensive list of uses of our facilities to review. Is there any unfinished business for the board? How about new business for the board? >> Yeah, >> Mrs. Terry. >> Yeah. Um, I just want to make a comment. Um this is the time of year when we are all up out and about um doing block parties, graduation parties, spending time with neighbors and I and I just want to um chat a little bit about Abington Heights. We're unique district where we have um split into four regions and we also have um at large u we're one of the only districts that that has that setup. Um, fortunately for
080me, I'm region one and I've been to a lot of um, parties recently with in my neighborhood. My region is Waverly Elementary. Um, I also live with quite a few faculty members in my neighborhood and um, just recently I I just want to um, it's it's sometimes it's so nice to talk positively and say great things about our school district. So, I want to commend Colleen Leonard and the Waverly Elementary. I have had more teachers and more parents and more students tell me what an incredible environment Waverly Elementary is. My husband is a Waverly Elementary student. My two children were at Waverly. I was a Gro Street girl, but I just want to commend the Waverly. It was I was so proud to hear from three parties that I went to this summer how wonderful
081the Waverly Elementary is and what a great district it is. So, I just wanted to give a hats out for that for you. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. And Mrs. Leonard, congratulations. >> Just say we got great things going on at CSC and South AB, too. I see out there. >> I just happen to be in my neighborhood. >> I know. I know. >> Very good. Thank you very much for the kind. All right. Can we please have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Thank you all. Thank you for joining us. You know what I