001Good evening and welcome to the June 3rd, 2025 meeting of the Abington Board of School Directors. I note the attendance of all board members. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Do we want to do comments first? No. Any opening comments? Okay. Are there any opening comments from my fellow board members or Dr. Fetcher? Go ahead. This is so much better than the boardroom. I love seeing all of your faces and I am so excited to see you get honored today. That's all I have to say. Thank you very much. Congratulations to all of the amazing scholars for being so e excellent. Congratulations to
002the parents for raising such dynamic and amazing young people. Um looking forward to having this venue for future awards presentations. This is uh this is fantastic. Anyone? Miss Spalding? Um I'm just happy to be here. Thank you. Miss Hartman. Welcome everyone. Thank you for being here tonight and congratulations to everyone on your honors. We're excited to watch you walk across the stage tonight. Miss Fraser, welcome everyone. Miss Fazy, welcome everyone. I'm so happy to be here and to be celebrating all of you and your achievements this year. Miss Woo. It's good to see everyone and congratulations. I'd like to el welcome everyone, friends, family, students for this joyous occasion. We're looking forward uh to meeting our student recipients of awards. Dr. Fatrick. All right. Uh as we transition into the awards this evening, I'm going
003to invite the board members uh to sit in a first row so your back is not Do you want me to read this? Not to Oh, yes. We must do that as well. Sorry, I forgot one thing. The the official announcement. Um, so the Abington Board of School Directors has convened this evening's meeting at the Abington Senior High School and the public is welcome. This meeting is being broadcast live on the Abington School District YouTube channel. The meeting is being recorded and will be accessible on the district's website and cable channel no later than Friday, June 6, 2025 to allow those members of the public who cannot participate to view the meeting at a later time. I think we all got swept up in in the happiness and joy of this evening and I skipped
004it. I apologize. Okay, Dr. Fetcher. Okay. Um, at this time uh we're going to transition into the award ceremony and invite the board members to sit in the uh first row here. Okay. And me too. Yep. You can come up. I can come up. Okay. Do I bring anything with me? No. Excellent. All right. All right. Good evening everyone. This is our first time doing this. So, um feedback is welcome. However, we wanted an opportunity for um in the boardroom. it's a little tight and it's difficult to make sure that all uh parents can see and honor their their their um children and we wanted an opportunity to do this in a more formal way. So that's why we're doing this this year and uh so we'll have some glitches to work out. So thank
005you for your patience in advance. [Applause] So, so at this time the teaching and learning department will present the 2025 literacy achievement awards which include the silver pen awards, the Abington Middle School writing awards and recognition for our reading Olympics teams. Miss Janine Sack, supervisor of literacy will provide a brief explanation of each honor. We also thank Mrs. Natasha Hatton, our AEF chair, and the Abington Educational Foundation, who sponsors the Silver Pen Awards and the AMS writing awards. Miss Sack. [Applause] Good evening, Dr. Maui, Dr. Fetcher, and members of the board of school directors. Tonight, we celebrate the 2025 Silver Pen Awards. It is my privilege to begin tonight's program in recognition of the outstanding writing achievement of the fifth grade class through the silver pen award. My name is Janine Sack and I'm the
006supervisor of literacy. And before I begin, Miss Natasha Hatton, board chair of the Abington Educational Foundation, has a few words to share. It's bright up here. Hi, I'm Natasha Hatton, president of the Abington Educational Foundation. On behalf of AF and all of our board members, I'm thrilled to congratulate our outstanding students who are being recognized tonight with silver pen and the middle school awards. These honors reflect your hard work, creativity, and excellence in writing. This is my last year on AF board, and I'm going to say that I will miss reading the uh the the essays and stories that you have all created. Students, keep aiming high. This is the beginning of your journey. Well done and congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Hatton. This annual award, which is funded and fully supported
007by the AEF, is designed to recognize and reward outstanding fifth grade student writers in Abington's elementary schools. A silver pen is awarded to two student winners from Highland, Overlook, Rosland, Ryle, and Willow Hill. Copper Beach and McKinley have four student winners. Fifth grade teachers selected and submitted pieces of student writing to a building level committee comprised of the principal and teachers. Each paper was read and evaluated with respect to established criteria for excellence in writing. The papers are blind scored and the students whose papers earned the highest ratings are being honored tonight and will receive an engraved silver pen and a certificate of recognition. In addition, their names will be added to plaques in each school which has been provided by the Abington Educational Foundation from Copper Beach Elementary. The honor goes to four students.
008The first honor is awarded to Christopher White for the story The Man from the [Applause] Window from Copper Beach Elementary. The next honor is awarded to Matthew Edwards for the story Patrick and the Stolen Jewelry. from Copper Beach Elementary. The next honor is awarded to Kennedy Jacobs for the story, The [Applause] Letter from Copper Beach Elementary. The final honor is awarded to Alice Wang for the story Archie Smith, Boy Wonder from Highland Elementary. The honor goes to two students. The first honor is awarded to Aelia Canada for the story The Notebook from Highland Elementary. The final honor is awarded to Norah Fortis for the story mirrored from McKinley Elementary. The honor is awarded to Mila Stubenport for the story the chorus group. The next honor from McKinley Elementary goes to Clark Shaw for the story
009The Secrets of the Moon [Applause] Princess. From Mckenley Elementary, the next honor is awarded to Maya Van Bendigan for the story she thought that she [Applause] couldn't. The final honor for McKinley Elementary goes to Tracy Yang for the story The Evil Wizard Methia from Overlook Elementary. The honor goes to two students. The first honor is awarded to Desmond Garrick for the story A Man on a Mission. The final honor for Overlook Elementary goes to Chase Panero for the story Beyond the [Applause] Stars from Roslin Elementary. The honor goes to two students. The first honor is awarded to Scarlet Dunn for the story Dragon Adventures from Roslin Elementary. The final honor goes to Evan Sakone for the story the [Applause] snatcher from Ridal Elementary. The honor goes to two students. The first honor is awarded to
010Lia Figuoras for the story trusting in the journey from Ral Elementary. to final honor goes to Shawn Maziac for the story to the fart edges from Willow Hill Elementary. The honor goes to two students. The first honor is awarded to Kyle Rodswick for the story the 12 debaters from Will Hill Elementary. The final honor goes to Riley Harris for the story The Wall: It's Full of [Applause] Secrets. So, this concludes our silver pen awards for this evening. We want to congratulate all of our fifth grade students who work so hard to achieve these honors. We are proud of their accomplishments. [Applause] The AMS writing awards in their second year are also funded and fully supported by the Abington Educational Foundation and are designed to recognize and reward outstanding sixth, seventh, and eighth grade student writers
011at Abington middle school. The this schoolwide award recognizes excellence in three different writing forms. An appreciation letter or tribute in grade six, poetry in grade seven, and speeches in grade eight. English language arts teachers selected and submitted pieces of student writing to a building level committee comprised of administrators and teachers, and each paper was read and evaluated with respect to established criteria for excellence in writing. The students whose papers earned the highest ratings are being honored tonight and will receive a special recognition pin, an achievement of recognition. In addition, their names will be added to the plaques in each school which have been provided by the Abington Educational Foundation. We have eight award winners in grade six. The first honors for grade six goes to Eden Nappic for the tribute, The Ant I could not
012live without. The next honor from grade six is Cameron Rogers Jones for the tribute, "What an epic musical you've created." The next honor from grade six is Lucinda Mancini for the tribute complexities of mental health. The next honor from grade six is Cedric Larson for the letter my [Applause] supporter. The next honor from grade six is Hadley Sullivan for the letter A tribute to my brother. [Applause] The next honor from grade six is Reagan Hess for the letter, "What makes a hero?" The next honor from grade six is Angelie Abrau for the letter, one step at a time. The final honor from grade six is Althia Doerty for the letter, "The band that changed my [Applause] life." We have eight award winners for grade seven. The first honor is for Charles Bico for the poem
013Yourself. The next honor from grade seven is Hannah Coup for the poem Without a Goodbye. The next honor from grade seven is Giani Spivey for the poem Pretty Brown [Applause] Skinned. The next honor from grade seven is All Wang for the poem The Flight of Youth. [Applause] The next honor from grade seven is Grant Devik for the poem Change to [Applause] Yesterday. The next honor from grade seven is Kai Mlan for the poem None of Us Would. [Applause] The next honor from grade seven is Ella Patterson for the poem The Pencil. The final honor from grade seven is Mia Shannon for the poem The Deep [Applause] Blue. We have eight award winners in grade 8. The first honor is for Leila Finnen for the speech live like the [Applause] movies. The next honor from grade
0148 is Addison Kurak for the speech stress should not stop you from being kind. The next honor from grade 8 is Khloe Mancini for the story farewells and forthcomings. The next honor from grade eight is Destiny Hampton for the story A Blanket of Blue. The next honor from grade 8 is Alexandra Vehey for the speech the change of [Applause] time. The next honor from grade 8 is Anna Tark for the speech your own path. The next honor from grade 8 is Julia Pakula for the speech fundamental years. The final honor from grade 8 is Georgia Costro for the story caterpillars and middle [Applause] schoolers. This concludes the AMS writing awards for this evening. We want to congratulate all of our students and we are so proud of their accomplishments. Thank you to the board of
015school directors and the AEF foundation for supporting the achievements of our students. Next, we will present the reading Olympics recognition. [Applause] The MCIU Reading Olympics is a countywide reading event held in the spring of each year. Students form teams led by their team leaders to read a curated list of books and participate in a fun culminating competition, competing against other districts and teams in the area. On the night of the event, students participate in several rounds of competition against other Montgomery County schools. Moderators and scorekeepers support the competition. Students prepare for the event the entire year by reading and quizzing one another about the books. It is our honor to recognize these teams. The Abington School District has the highest participation in reading Olympics in the county. This year there were 35 teams comprised of
016396 students. This included the dedication and support of 78 staff members in the district. We have the distinct honor of recognizing these teams this evening. All teams were recognized with ribbons based on their performance during the head-to-head competition on the evening of the event. Abington School District has the distinct privilege of being awarded 15 blue ribbons, 15 red ribbons, and five green ribbons, representing the total amount of points awarded during their question and answer sessions. On this night, all teams were winners. Next, I share with you the teams that represented each school with pride and enthusiasm and as a result developed their appreciation about reading, collaborated with their peers, and gained wealth of knowledge and experience about terrific books and authors from a variety of genres. Please note these teams take enormous pride in naming
017their team to represent in the countywide competition. Principles, I ask that you come up to the stage as you will be re Oh, you're already there. Thank you. The senior high was represented by two teams, the reading roctopuses and the reading race. Dr. Swift, please accept this certificate on behalf of your school's participating teams. [Applause] The Abington Middle School was represented by four teams. The Reading Raiders, the Dead Poet Society, the Reading Strikers, and the Wizards of Wisdom. Mr. File, please accept this certificate on behalf of your school's participating teams. Copper Beach was represented by seven teams. Camp Want to Read Aot, The Lightning Wizards, Roaring Readers, Chaos Bookies, the Plot Twisters, Chapter Book Champions, and the Bookbacks. Miss Stokes, please accept this certificate on behalf of your school's participating teams. [Applause] Highland Elementary was
018represented by three teams. The Husky Whoppers, the Dabbling Dogs, and the Teenage Mutant and Ninja Readers. Dr. Etl, please accept this certificate on behalf of your school's participating teams. McKinley Elementary was represented by five teams. Story Squad, Timeless Readers, Smart Cookies, and Spikes Readers. Mr. Brener, on behalf of Mr. Olden, please accept this certificate on behalf of your school's participating [Applause] teams. Overlook Elementary was represented by two teams, the Bookbusters, three teams, the Bookbusters, the Book Bandits, and the Reading Warriors. Miss Boyd, please accept this certificate on behalf of your school's participating [Applause] teams. Rosen Elementary was represented by four teams. Lynn's storytellers, Omen's Fictionaries, Stascu's Chapter Champs, and Clemson's literary legends. Dr. Osborne, please accept this certificate on behalf of your school's participating teams. [Applause] Ridal Elementary was represented by four teams. Marini's Mighty
019Readers, Ryal Reading Rockstars, Bushman Bulldogs, and Cohen's Cavaliers. Dr. Morgan, please accept this certificate on behalf of your school's teams. Will Hill Elementary was represented by three teams. the reading whiz kids, beauty of the books, and the Z team. Dr. Jordan, please accept this certificate on behalf of your school's [Applause] teams. Congratulations to all the Reading Olympics teams. We are proud of our students for participating in Reading Olympics and we thank our staff members for their time to coach these teams and thank our parents and guardians for encouraging their children to read and support their involvement in this event. And this concludes our literacy achievement [Applause] awards. Now on to math. Uh Dr. Dr. Lawrence Lee, our coordinator of teaching and learning, will present the 2025 Mathematics Achievement Awards, which recognize elementary and middle school
020students for their accomplishments in the Pennsylvania Statistics Poster Competition, the Math Olympiads, and the Continental Mathematics League competition. Annually, we are proud to recognize students who have been awarded for their excellent mathematical ability. Dr. Lee [Applause] Again, my name is Lawrence Lee. I'm the coordinator of teaching and learning. And tonight, we're pleased to honor students in each of those three competitions that Dr. Fetcher had mentioned. Um, at this time, uh, students, as your name is called, uh, we'd like you to please come on up and receive your award. The Mathematical Olympiad for elementary and middle schools is an international competition consisting of five tests given at monthly intervals from November to March. Each test includes five problems. This year, over 100,000 students representing the United States, its dependencies, and foreign countries participated in the elementary
021and middle school components of the contest. Silver pins are awarded to students who finish within the top 10% of all those students. A silver pin has been awarded to from Copper Beach Elementary School, James Pribella. Unfortunately, he could not make it here tonight. Uh it is uh one thing to mention that this would be his second consecutive year of earning a silver [Applause] pin. Also from Copper Beach Elementary School, Alice Wang. [Applause] and from Rosland Elementary School, Gavin [Applause] Wang. Our grade three students participated in the Continental Math League with the goal of engaging students higher order thinking skills with challenging problems. The top students from each team are recognized with medals. Please join me in recognizing from Copper Beach Elementary, Daniel Callahan. [Applause] Philip [Applause] Hawthorne from Highland Elementary. Michael Zimmerman, [Applause] Harrison Feder,
022[Applause] Evelyn Riley, who could not be here with us tonight. and Ephraim [Applause] Banola from McKinley Elementary School. Charles Bait and Timothy Cleuchenko, sorry. [Applause] from Overlook Elementary. Theodore [Applause] Jacobs, Mikuel Petranco [Applause] Ezekiel [Applause] Raju and Quinn Hiller. [Applause] from Rosland Elementary. Joshua [Applause] Lea and William Wallen. [Applause] from Ry Elementary, Helena [Applause] Branch, Valerie Palooi [Applause] and Eli [Applause] Stavis from Willow Hill Elementary. Phoenix. Oh, yeah. Not quite yet. Phoenix Eley. There you [Applause] go. And Abigail McDonald. [Applause] Next up is the Pennsylvania Statistics Poster Competition. The Pennsylvania Statistics Poster Competition is an annual statewide contest. Students in four grade categories, kindergarten to 3rd, 4th to 6th, 7th to 9th, and 10th through 12th, are invited to design creative posters that include at least two types of graphs to represent data collected to
023answer an interesting question. Cash prizes and certificates are awarded to first, second, third, and fourth place winners in each category. This year, 251 posters were submitted statewide. Abington students were recognized in the following grade bands: kindergarten to 3rd, 4th to 6th, and 7th to 9th. A total of 27 submissions were recognized as honorable mention or prize winners from those three grade bands. Of those 27, Abington students submitted 19. Furthermore, our students placed as prize winners within then and that's within the top four places in each of those three grade bands. Winning posters are then submitted to the National Statistics Poster Competition held by the American Statistical Association who will announce their winners in August. And we hope to hear good news then. Right now, I'd like to hand the microphone off to Miss Pamela Dilva,
024teacher of gifted [Applause] education. Receiving awards in the K to3 category, we have first place Jason Jacob Below for his poster, The Growing Race. Third place is for Orin. Oh, so [Applause] sorry. Okay. I'm sorry. Orin Wilson for Bad Milk. Yuck. And Leslie Cole for Mission in Vegetables. Honorable mention also given to Ruth Bannon for Sea Turtles and Their Eggs. In the grades four through six category, we have Gabriel Zambori for his dance sport or activity. Second place, Satie Fenan for a gluten-free [Applause] hardly. Third place, Theo Riley for vacation inquiry. Fourth place, Zachary Kazenhov for popular crowd. Top honorable mention to Andreas Colen. Would you rather this region or [Applause] that? Honorable mention for Maxina Bonu for hm what water bottle should I [Applause] get? Taylor Woodland for tunes through the time. Lucy Snider
025for power play and Angela Hu for art explies. In the category for seventh through nine grades, we have second place winner Jane Draper for her social media versus Us. Fourth place we have Isaac Freeman. Red fish or bluefish? [Applause] Eric Wahuz for his poster, Breathing Room. Top honorable mention. I don't believe he's here tonight. [Applause] Okay. The next poster has two participants, Dominic Ferrero and Rafie Gibian for their Get Ready to Gulp. Zia Ford for her poster. Lead takes the [Applause] lead. and for Ansley Wilkins for her poster, Electives in Middle [Applause] School. I would like to hand the microphone to Dr. Lee so they can conclude the rest of the ceremony. I would like to close the mathematics portion of tonight's ceremony by thanking the board of school directors for their continued support of
026the mathematics programs. The Abington teachers and elementary curriculum specialist who assist with preparing students for these competitions and the family members who encourage students to work hard and to do their best. It is the support and encouragement from all of you that leads to the success of our students. Thank [Applause] you. Okay, now on to visual arts. [Applause] I'm going to ask Miss Nicole Karachelo, a curriculum lead for K12 art to honor our student artists for their exemplary works created during the 2024 2025 school year. Artwork from the student artists will be displayed on the first floor gallery of the administration building. And that's very important to me because I get to see that every single day. So I appreciate the artwork. It makes our walls look a lot better. So on with that, Miss
027[Music] C. Good evening everyone. Before we begin to honor our student artists, we would like to note that ASD has been designated an outstanding visual arts community by the Pennsylvania Art Education Association for the fourth consecutive year. [Applause] As we view the artwork in this presentation, I will recognize each student and our art educators will present their students with a certificate. As we move through the presentation, let's take in the student artwork and be ready to applaud the student artists at the conclusion of both the elementary school works and the secondary school works. We will begin by recognizing our elementary artists. Paul John Shoto work titled [Applause] Sunflowers. Aubrey Bartis work titled City Snow Globe. [Applause] Samuel Walsh work titled Safari [Applause] Giraffe. Sasha Donahue work titled Chameleon. [Applause] Edison Pistino work titled Still [Applause]
028Life. Peter Parammanov work titled Dot Painting. Evelyn Leshner work titled So Many Sheep. Melanie Glasnik work titled Sea Turtle [Applause] Prince. Amamira Mat Kazina work titled symmetrical mask. [Applause] Regginald Leech work titled Koru [Applause] Art. Edwin Sha work titled [Applause] Fox. Amelia Hollandbach work titled Fall Fox. [Applause] Amelia Leenta, work titled Alphabet Soup. Alexander Prado, work titled Dragon Eye. Kyle Kennedy work titled Winter Snow Scene. Nina Sopuru Rashilli work titled Autumn [Applause] Leaves. Katherine Maziac work titled Victorian House. [Applause] Queenie Chen, work titled Butterfly. Oh, sorry about that. Let's back up. Sarah Adams, work titled Winter Trees. And is Queenie Chen here? Work titled Butterfly. [Applause] Aubrey Wexler, work titled Painted Chameleon. Ryan Kyle, work titled Dragon [Applause] Eye. We would now like to recognize our students from the middle school. Quinn Permut, still [Applause]
029life. Emma Hibbach, work titled Still Life. Juliet Swan, Scraffido mug. Chloe Mancini, work titled Digital [Applause] Mosaic. Anna Lee, work titled Neurographic Self-Portrait. [Applause] We would now like to recognize the students from the high school. McKenzie Louie, work titled Don't Give [Applause] Up. Anthony Haristen Jr., who could not be with us, work titled Mercedes. Julie Murphy, work titled The Cyclical Return of the Katsky. [Applause] Elizabeth Clark, work titled Across the [Applause] Cliffs. Timothy Madden Jr. couldn't be with us tonight, but this is his work titled Self-Portrait. and Noah Torres also could not be with us and this is his work titled Trees by the River. Please join us in congratulating all of our student [Applause] artists this evening. We would also like to recognize student achievements for their work submitted to outside organizations with the
030support of the ASHS faculty. From the PSA Touch the Future exhibit, Alexandra Thomas, first place best in [Applause] show. Desmond Pharaoh couldn't be with us tonight, but this is for his work titled Out of [Applause] Order from the Morai Anelovich Creative Arts Competition. Bridg Core for their work titled Not a [Applause] Number. Chameleia Floritled Eta Robo. Welcome to the [Applause] resistance. Chelsea Fang couldn't be with us tonight, but this is their work titled Follow the [Applause] Light. Gabriella Samar couldn't also be with us tonight, but this is her work from the photography portion of the PAEA Art Education Award. from the Wharton Ech Museum. The imprint contest, Matteline Danfeller couldn't be with us, but she won first place for dinner [Applause] time. Abby Heinrich won third place in this competition. [Applause] Jaden Bagby received an
031honorable mention for their work titled Tension at the 11th annual Tri County Art [Applause] Exhibit. Mina Fuji was a recipient of the Young Arts Award with distinction in the visual arts for their entire portfolio. [Applause] Mina was also one of the regional Scholastic Art Awards and received a gold key for her portfolio. Amy Grades won an honorable mention for their work, their photography work titled Blue Portrait. This is not that one. Sorry about that. Alexandria Tom received an honorable mention for their photography titled Ties. And this is Amy's blue portrait. Amy also won a silver key for their entire portfolio from the Scholastic Regional Awards. [Applause] Julie Murphy received an honorable mention for their print titled Renunciation of the [Applause] Coxsky. Anasta Baronavasaya received an honorable mention for their work titled Under My Wing in
032the Congressional Art Competition. [Applause] And last but not least, Nicole Robertson received the third place award for their work titled Cleansing in the Congressional Art [Applause] Competition. Thank you everyone for supporting the fine arts in ASD and congratulations to all of our young artists. That concludes our art awards. [Applause] Okay, now on to performing arts awards. [Applause] Miss Julie Maragos, our curriculum lead for K12 music, will recognize students who successfully auditioned and were awarded by festivals beyond the district at the regional, state, and national levels. Good evening, Dr. Maui, board of directors, Dr. Fetcher, and guests. I'm pleased to be sharing several honors with you this evening about our performing arts programming across the district as well as honoring some of our outstanding student musicians. First, we will begin with our recent district recognition. The
033National Association of Music Merchants Foundation has again honored Abington School District with a designation as a best community for music education. We thank you, our faculty, administration, staff, students, parents, and community for their steadfast support. Sustaining and continually improving our programming is made possible through that collective support. The designation is a result of thorough review of our annual application. The application includes detailed questions about a variety of factors that directly and indirectly affect the accessibility and quality of music education for our Abington students. Through this process, NAM seeks to recognize school districts that demonstrate a commitment to excellence and equity in music education. And now we will honor several of our student musicians. Students, when you were announced, please come forward to Dr. Maui and Mrs. Wolf to receive your certificate. We honor the following
034students for their successful auditions and representing Abington School District at District 11 Pennsylvania music education festivals this school year. Anukica Anderson, David Clinger, he's here. Brandon Herriak, Zenus Colt, Dorothy Davids, Xander Stall, Kieran Anderson, Elliot Kim, Alexander Hillyard, Nicole [Applause] Robertson, Adam Silverman, Ching Chen, Jacob Hong, Reagan Lee and William Machowski III. We honor the following students for their successful auditions and representing the Abington School District at region 6 Pennsylvania music education festivals this year. David Clinger, Brandon Herriak, Zenus Colt, Dorothy Davids, Xander Stall, Elliot Kim, Alexander Hillyard, Adam Silverman, Jacob Hong, Reagan Lee, and William Macowski III. [Applause] We honor the following students for their successful auditions and representing Abington School District at Pennsylvania Music Education Allstate Festivals this year. Students, when you hear your name, please come up to receive your plaque from
035Miss Wolf and Dr. Mauy. We honor the following students for their sorry Brandon Herriak. Alexander Hillyard. Adam Silverman. The Blues. Jacob Hong and Reagan Lee. We honor the following students for their successful auditions and representing Abington School District at the Pennsylvania Music Education All Eastern Festivals this year. Alexander Hillyard represented the school district at the NAMI All Eastern Honors Orchestra as one of only 15 vias from across the northeastern states from Maryland to Maine. And we would also like to recognize Toran Perry and Jeremy McDonald as alternates. Please come forward. The Abington Senior High School Modern Music Makers were showcased at PMEA's Allstate Conference for the second time as the premier group in the Modern Band Showcase, which featured performing ensembles from across Pennsylvania. The event also featured M3 students in new capacities, specifically facilitating
036the creative live production of the state level event, including lighting, sound, video, and performance animation. We're proud that these students could add value to the state conference using the knowledge and skills learned in their innovative programming here at Abington. [Applause] Students, we congratulate you on your achievements and well representing Abington School District. We are so very proud of [Applause] you. Now, we will highlight other notable performing arts achievements in Abington. Our Abington Senior High School marching band and senior high color guard earned multiple first place category ratings across their fall season. Additional caption awards were also earned throughout the season. Our Abington Senior High School jazz band earned excellent ratings across two regional jazz festivals. [Applause] In May, our Abington Senior High School indoor percussion, jazz band, indoor color guard, and Abington Middle School indoor
037color guard made notable achievements at the Tournament of Bands Tournament Indoor Association's Atlantic Coast Championship event in Wildwood, New Jersey. The senior high color guard won first place in the Mid-Atlantic Indoor Championship. and the senior high percussion and color guard both ranked second place in the Atlantic Coast Championship. Abington Senior High School choirs competed in Music in the Parks music festival hosted in Hershey, Pennsylvania in May and earned first place and best overall choir awards. [Applause] M3 hosted the annual modern music invitational which brought together students from across Pennsylvania and New Jersey, featured touring and session musicians, audio engineers, music business professionals, and also allowed Abington students the opportunity to perform alongside international touring musician Eliza Hardy Jones. [Applause] M3 also launched the master talk series which brought in coaches for M3 sessions including platinum
038record and Emmy winning songwriter Crystal typewriter Oliver, record producer David Ivory, record producer Sam Rosen, and international touring and session musician Nick Perry. These events simultaneously will launch video and audio podcast to be edited and produced by Abington students. Abington Senior High School Corral students competed in the Pennsylvania Renaissance Fair annual school days magical competition. The choir placed in the top five out of about 30 choirs from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey. [Applause] and students in our Abington Senior High School orchestra represented Abington at the Montgomery County High School Honors Orchestra this year. And the following students in our senior high band represented Abington at the Montgomery County High School Honors Band this year. [Applause] Abington Middle School choir students performed the national anthem at the Temple University men's basketball game on February 26th in
039the Leo Chorus Center in Philadelphia. An Abington Middle School choir students also performed a national anthem at the Phillies game on April 19th at Citizens Bank Park. Singers from Copper Beach and Overlook elementary schools under my direction participated in a regional children's coral [Applause] festival and singers from Abington Middle School under the direction of Miss Melinda Walker participated in PMEA's District 11 middle school songfest on April 8th at Colonial Middle School. Singers from Abington Middle School, also under the direction of Miss Melinda Walker, participated in ACDA's Vocal Thunder Festival on November 22nd. Congratulations to all the students and faculty who have made these experiences possible for our students. We're very proud of all the accomplishments, performances for and collaborations with the community beyond the accomplishments noted here this evening. On behalf of the music faculty
040and myself, we thank all of the stakeholders who support our [Applause] programming. Okay. At this time, I'm going to ask the board to please return to your seats. And um why don't we give a round of applause for all the students for the awards. Amazing. And we are going to officially close the meeting. And I believe that the board of school directors would like to um make some comments to you. Can we do public? Yep. Do you want me to do remarks first? I think so. Um, at this time I'd like to ask for comments, thoughts, remarks from my colleagues on the board. Mr. Allen I just want to say congratulations everyone. It was really exciting to feel the energy in this room. Super positive. Um and congratulations to the parents and the students for
041an amazing night. Thank you for sharing your gifts and talents with us. And a big thank you to uh our teachers and administrators who helped to create these spaces for you to do so. Congrats to all the parents that are here tonight and the families and to the students. You should feel really proud of yourself. Like feel proud of you, okay? This was awesome. We celebrate you and thank you to the teachers who support um and and help us with our students getting this wonderful recognition. [Applause] to our scholars. Um, keep writing, keep tackling those tough math problems, keep creating amazing uh, works of art. Uh, keep creating beautiful music. Uh, congratulations on your fantastic accomplishments this school year. Looking forward to seeing you here and coming awards uh, celebrations and um, enjoy your summer.
042Parents, congratulations. We know how much work you put in to to get these young people to be so excellent. And uh educators, thank you for creating these opportunities and working with these these young people and and making this uh this night and all these amazing things happen. Miss Spalding, congratulations everybody. I know you all want to go home. [Applause] Um, one of the best things about Addington School District is the robust programming that allows so many of our students to feel successful in so many different ways. Um, it was so great to see our students walk across the stage today with pride and congratulations to all the students and thank you to all the parents and the teachers and administrators um, for all your hard work. [Applause] Wait for my name to be called. Go
043ahead. During early American education, the focus was on physical fitness and the development of manners. Later, the addition of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Up to a century or more later, there are 21st century driven subjects of study across many colleges and universities. Despite their evolution or change over time, the bottom line requires an understanding and a synthesis of reading, writing, and arithmetic, which many of you have demonstrated this year. Congratulations and as always I'm excited about your future especially or including our artists as well. Thank you. [Applause] Good. Congratulations to all of our students. This is my favorite meeting of the year because I love celebrating all of you. Congratulations and thanks to all of our teachers and parents and families. Miss Woo, would you like to add anything? Um, just congratulations to all of
044the extremely talented students and thank you to our school district for just having so many amazing opportunities for everyone. Um, I will add my thanks to the parents and teachers who make these opportunities for our students possible. Um, this too is my favorite night of the year. Uh, both because I get to see what our students are accomplishing, but also because so many of you in different ways, even through mathematics, offer us an opportunity to see what the world looks like to you. And that's the thing I'm most grateful for. So, thank you and congratulations once again to everyone. Um, we'll do this again next year. [Applause] Did you want to add? I just want Go ahead. Sorry. Uh before we conclude the meeting, I just want to take a moment to thank um one,
045our students for making us proud at Abington School District and going out and I had the opportunity outside to see many of you uh either perform or your works of art and just to read some of uh the works that you've written and um always impressed by the mathematics. Um, so I just want to thank all of you for bringing recognition to Abington School District. Um, I want to thank the parents for all your support and and help to make that happen. And finally, I'd like to take a moment to thank all of our educators who are involved in this process, who work long hours with our students, and also thank them for organizing tonight. As I mentioned, this was the first time we did it, a large award ceremony, and I think it's it's
046very fitting for us to honor our students in this manner. So, with that, I'll turn it back over. Now, now we have to get back to business. Yes. Um, thank you once again everyone for coming out tonight. We This moves us on to agenda item three, which is comments from citizens. Comments from citizens are being conducted in person only tonight. A citizen will be recognized once during this period of the meeting and each citizen's comments Do you want me to wait a minute? Okay. Will be limited to a total of three minutes except at the discretion of the president. Time may not be yielded or otherwise transferred from one speaker to another for purposes of extending a given speaker's time allotment. If there's anyone present who would like to make a comment regarding student achievement
047awards, please use the microphone up front, either to the left or to the right. H no, we'll give give people a minute for the for things to clear. No. Okay. All right. Seeing that there are none, uh, Dr. Fetcher, uh, do we have any additional agenda items? Uh, I do not have any additional agenda items. I think it's most fitting to conclude the, uh, meeting. All right. So, with that, we will move we will move on to uh agendum item five, which is closing comments of school directors. Mr. Allen, good night. Mrs. Brown. Okay. All right. M Eisenhart. Good night, Mr. Muhammad. Good night everyone. Miss Spalding, good night. Miss Hartman, good night everyone. Miss Fraser, thanks for coming out. Miss Fazy, take good care everyone. Miss Woo, good night everyone. Dr. Fcher, well, I
048was thinking, good night, everyone. All right, without this meeting is adjourned. Good night and thank you everyone.