March 11, 2025 Meeting of the Abington Board of School Directors

001good evening everyone and welcome to the March 11th 2025 meeting of the Abington Board of school directors please rise for the pred of pledge of allegiance IED to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all I note the attendance of all board members uh the Abington Board of school directors has convened this meeting this evening's meeting at the administration building and the public is welcome the meeting is being broadcast live on the Abington School District YouTube channel this meeting is being recorded and will be accessible to on the district's website and cable channel no later than Friday March 14th 2025 to allow those members of the public who cannot participate to view the meeting at a

002later time comments from citizens will be conducted in person and by phone information regarding participating remotely in public comment will be displayed on the screen at the time of public comment the board thanks the public in advance for its cooperation this is a place where we hold dignity and high regard and everyone's voice is respected and welcomed in this space do we have any additional announce ments or additional agenda items Dr fetcher uh not tonight okay we'll move to opening comments Please Mr Allen nothing thank you Mrs Brown good evening everyone miss eisenhart good evening and welcome Mr Mohamad good evening everyone um Miss balding good evening everybody miss Hartman good evening Miss Fraser welcome everyone I'm still on a high from Mary Poppins sday night oh it was great wasn't it Miss FY good

003evening everyone I'll second um Miss Frasier's um sentiments Mary Poppins was lovely I heard wonderful things about it mwo wonderful good evening everyone okay welcome um let's see Dr feter can you please proceed with our student council Representatives yes Dr mauie uh tonight first from Abington Senior High School Bryson Edmonds good evening Dr Maui Dr fetcher and the member of the board of school directors my name is Bryson Edmonds and I'm the student council president of Abington Senior High School it's pretty brief tonight not a lot not a lot of announcements the Abington Senior High School girls basketball team qualified for PIAA state championships over 13th ranked Springford High School Michelle yakupova a wrestler qualified for States and will be be attending her CPA to compete for a state championship the work of 18 Abington

004admington senior high school students was juried into the Pennsylvania State education association's touch the future exhibit at the Fine Arts Gallery in Montgomery County Community College BL Bluebell campus David kinger an 11th grader and Brandon HC a 10th grader will represent Abington Senior High School in the Pennsylvania music educators Association region six band festival at North pen High School the admington reading Olympics teams both brought home blue ribbons the highest award from the Montgomery County competition one thing to note is that we were the only school to send two teams both this year and last year as we enter into the spring months I want to begin to promote sen student council spring red CL Red Cross blood drive it is our largest event of the year and is always very successful although doesn't take

005place until April our goal is to get get as much engagement as possible and that means starting early I just each ask that each of you keep it on your mind the last stretch of the school year is always filled with fun excitement and emotions the next few months are going to go by fast and is all that we can do to not get swept up and everything going on just some food for thought thank you and have a nice evening respectfully submitted Bryson Edmond thank you Bryson um we just had had a a student council report at our last board meeting um and U partly what Bryson was referring to is less to report but we'll get back on our track because we had missed a meeting so I just wanted to explain that

006for people who um may not have realized that our last meeting we had that so now at Abington Middle School uh Noah Shannon good evening Dr Mary Dr fetcher and the members of the school board of directors I am Noah Shannon and I am on the Executive Board of the student council for Abington Middle School Vibe and imagine leaders from Abington middle school and Abington High School explored the African-American museum in Philadelphia where leaders took a self-guided tour of the various exhibits at the time of the visit the exhibit shared Vision a personal curation of the art from actress CCH Ponder Carol Christine Hillary Ponder and her late husband bubacar K were on display As Leaders studied their pieces they were prompted to reflect on the art and afterwards share their findings and musings by

007using their Ana analytical and public speaking skills they've skills they've am Master amassed during their tenure at their respective schools teens against drugs and alcohol took a second group group of our club's members to Beach Street in February so an additional 175 students could enjoy an evening of Music dancing and getting pictures taken with their friends in the photo booth earlier the month we held a movie night in the AMS Little Theater during the film's intermission we played some movie trivia games with the winners of the trivia contest earning prizes the school beautification club will work on a mural for the attendance office there are no windows in the office so several students will work on this to brighten the office other students will take pictures to update the photographs around the building the fifth

008and final math Olympiad contest is quickly approaching the mathletes have been attending meetings to prepare for the contest in an effort to practice open-ended style problem solving questions with without the use of a calculator some really good math talk the AMS chess club continues to have an active participatory group of students at least 30 plus members attend our meetings and some really good play occurs both fun and competitive it's great to see the students involved in this strategy game activity students in Reading Olympics have been working on reading their books the competition is a month away vo voyagers brainy bookworms bookie monsters page Warriors and speed readers have voted on their team's logo to be included on the competition T-shirts they will also have an opportunity to participate in some practice rounds to prepare for

009the big night the students in the GSA are getting are gearing up for the ne the day of no silence in April this student-led protest draws attention to the discrimination and eraser of lgbtq plus people over 150 student perform and technicians perform Mary Poppins Jr to forge soldout crowds this past week there was a lot of laughter Applause enjoy on stage backstage and in the audience the students and production team are grateful for the community support and are very proud of their finished product thank you thank you Noah a lot going on at Abington middle school so thank you for coming out with the report um I just wanted to thank Noah and Bryson for two outstanding reports um and great information about what our students are doing glad to hear our students um embracing

010a challenge in their extracurricular activities um and I'm especially heartened to hear about the students at the middle school um really attending to the quality of their physical environment so good for you guys that's great Dr fetcher that concludes student council reps this evening uh we'll proceed to board honors then thank you Dr malie um our first board honor this evening I'm going to ask Miss Ali artour our Communications coordinator to share video highlighting recent media coverage of Abington School District good evening Dr fetcher Dr mauy and members of the board of school directors 6 ABC's Community journalist Mato aod Deni recently visited Miss Do's 8th grade family consumer science class at Abington Middle School to Spotlight the annual felt monster project which is in partnership with kindergarten classes across Abington School District kindergarten students

011designed their own monster which the middle schoolers then bring to life with their newly learned sewing skills um and Mato actually reached out to me today and said it is his highest um viewed uh video on social media to date so it is very popular please enjoy the clip finally here at four it's called the felt monster project but it's far from Scary or even spooky it's actually a unique way for eighth grade students to connect with their kindergarten counterparts Action News Community journalist Matteo I denu shares the story from Abington Middle School my monster's name is golden my monster's name is gude my monster's name is Leo you're matching up the crazy blue scribble lines this is my favorite thing that I get to do as a teacher come up and grab your monster

012so so this is the felt monster project I thought it would be a really good way to connect our eighth graders who are kind of the leaders of the middle school back to some of the younger students in our district what does your monster like to do according to the kindergartener eat cookies we start by sending the kindergarten classrooms these worksheets and the kindergarteners get to design the monsters however they want they really get to use their imagination my monster's name is brosa they send them back to us and then the eighth graders apply the skills that we talk about in sewing and fabrics to create a real life stuffed felt monster to return back to the kindergarteners then you roll it down world's smallest violin see all the loops I'm going to have the

013confidence to know that I made a little kid happy today my younger sister she did the same thing and she as soon as she came home was running in excited showing up her little new friend I'm just going to take out a couple stitches for you so it's long enough we can tie it these are all skills that they can take with them to do other things the same stitches that were using to make the monsters they can fix their backpack when the zipper rips or they can add buttons or they can learn how to hem and it's stuff that they can build on Beyond this project that they're doing for someone else remember have fun be safe make good choices and I'll see you next time that's right thank you thank you Mr that's

014awesome I love that connection between uh school school grades absolutely and and for anyone who wears a shirt with a button on it that's a good skill to to have mastered indeed uh hemming is also a law start I find um all right Dr fetcher please proceed with this evening's orientations thank you Dr mauy tonight Mr lionetti Mr vitoria and I will present the 2025 2026 draft general fund budget there's no action in this evening agenda for the board however I will ask that Mr Victoria to provide updates since our last meeting uh Mr Victoria if you could begin thank you thank you Dr fetcher so this slide shows uh the initial draft general fund budget which is based on staff input statistical estimates and estimates of State local and federal revenue with an increase

015in real estate taxes that reflect the 4% Act One index which raises the millage rate from 37 7% to 38.5 Ms we are using an estimated County assessment the actual assessment being available in June of 2025 the other remaining uh local revenues are early forecasts state revenue for basic education special education transportation and block rants are budgeted at the information we received from governor shapir budget presentation property tax relief are estimates and we will know funding in May when pde determines if funds are available federal funds for total and access programs are being budgeted at 2425 levels we will have a better idea of funding uh levels in May and June of 2025 on the expense side of the budget salaries are being budgeted using the collective bargaining agreements there are currently two agreements that

016have yet to be finalized negotiated benefits are being budgeted at the cpass second look rates we have percentages for our mandated benefits with the pie rate being 34% in the 2526 departmental budgets were provided in January of 2025 and were used to budget non-salary non uh non-salary non-benefit portions of the budget so this slide shows historical data dating from 20052 2006 to the 2425 school year beginning from the left side of the slide it shows the millage rates through the years the percentage increase the Act One index actual Revenue actual expenses it also shows the usage of fund balance and the accumulation of fund balance the far right column shows show enrollment history looking at the 2324 school year to 2425 school year uh we can see that enrollment has decreased students please note that

017the 2425 information for uh revenue and expenses are budgeted amounts and not actual amounts at this point so this slide shows uh perspective and retrospective data regarding the public School Employees Retirement System contribution rates and its uh impact on the general fund budget over years at this time the paser employer employer contribution rate for next year is 34% p is estimating um so excuse me looking back at the 25 200920 school year we can see that the contribution rate was 7.13% these increases these increases have increased the district's contribution rates in 2009 2010 the district was contributing $2.7 million we are estimating the district to contribute $17 million in the 2425 school year so this slide shows a budget to- budget comparison of the 2425 budget to the initial draft of the 25 26 budget

018the second column of the budget sorry the second column of the budget was approved by the board in June we now have our auditing starting fund balance for the 2425 school year at $21.6 million local revenue is budgeted at $138.4 million state revenue is budgeted at $47 million federal revenue is budgeted at 2. 9 million and total revenue is $18.3 million on the expense side of the budget $96.2 million is for salaries $18.2 million is for negotiated benefits $4.7 million is for mandated benefits and $ 44.2 million is for non-salary non-benefit items the total expense budget is $ 1999.5 million for the revenue to equal expenses the budget required an allocated fund balance of $1.1 million this leaves an estimated ending fund balance of $10.4 million the fourth column is the initial draft general fund

019budget for the 2526 school year the starting estimated fund balance is $10.4 million with the millage rate increasing to 38.5 five Ms Lo uh real estate taxes are increasing to $32.24 million increase overall local revenue is increasing to 143 uh $8 million which is a $5.4 million increase state revenue is estimated to increase to $49.5 million which is a $2.5 million increase federal revenue is budgeted at $2.2 million which is a decrease of $687,000 which is due to the end of essers funds essers are the elementary and secondary school emergency relief funds that were provided by the federal government during the covid-19 pandemic salaries are budget at $ 99.7 million which is a $3.4 million increase negotiated benefits for things such as medical and Dent Dental are budgeted at $18.9 million which is a 67

020$7,000 increase mandated benefits for Pasar and FICA are B budgeted at $ 42.7 million which is a $1.9 million increase non-salary non-benefit expenses is budgeted at $44 million which is a decrease of $118,000 the total expense budget is $25.5 million to balance the revenue expense numbers allocated fund balance is $9.8 million leaving a remaining fund balance at $633,000 uh the if with the use of $5 million in the 2425 school year the fund balance would be $16.6 million that would be the beginning balance for the 2526 school year and with an ending fund balance of $6.8 million instead of the 63347 uh Dollar on the previous slide if I may uh Dr fetcher I want to interject something here um I believe um as we've are approaching the the third quarter you've asked staff to

021take a hard look at the um projected fund balance use of $5 million to work towards um reducing that further I know there are meetings scheduled as early as um tomorrow start talking about two items that being the first and the other is how do we address the $9.5 million that are allocated presently so I just want to make sure that the um board and the folks listening were aware that you know this is not the end of the story story this is the beginning um we're in a a starting place that is um better than it was when we started uh the process last year we were at 11 uh over $1 million um we finished um that process last year at $1 million which is what Mr Victoria mentioned and um this is

022the beginning of of work and evaluation and not the end of the story um we'll obviously be coming back to the board uh in May um with the work that we have we'll be doing over the next um almost full two months thank you Mr Victoria so this slide shows the impact on a typical assessment of 141,142 point7 to 3855 this uh assessment would see a tax increase of $288 but we are estimating that Homestead property tax relief will increase bringing the tax increase down to $182.8 which is a 3.86% uh increase on the 141 Point $141,300 assessment the impact on a senior in with this assessment the seniors with the income levels the first three levels from0 to $18,000 would not see a tax increase and seniors Within an income of $8,148.22 Budget on

023the June 24th uh meeting and to authorize the advertisement of the board's intent to adopt the general fund Budget on June 24th uh Dr fetcher that concludes our presentation and we can answer any questions that the board might have thank you uh questions from board members I have one um in May we're going to be asking our um Community to vote for a referendum to fund a new Middle School um tonight we're looking at a budget that with about a 3.8% tax increase um Mr lionetti um can you explain the timing and implications of the tax increase um for the next year and then how that would um the implications of the referendum payment and the timing of all of that and how that would affect our community members Miss Hartman um that's um a

024great question so we are obviously um in the planning phases um of that proposed $285 million project and it represents a significant amount of borrowing which um likely uh can begin in 2026 when I say begin U I believe the best strategy at at this moment in time is for a phased in set of borrowing we don't need 280 million um immediately um there is a time schedule um associated with a project like this 12 to 18 months of planning um which which will entail expenditures for Architects Engineers um Professional Services things like geotechnical Services Etc and then even construction over a three-year period um has a has a curve similar to a bell curve where R um costs will ramp up and then then Decline and what we'll do is we'll look at borrowing

025strategies with our financial advisor and our um Bond counsel to see um what the best strategy would be certainly our professional architect firms will help us with that schedule um and that will dictate what our borrowing would be I think if I understand your question you know what is the impact on on the budget um when that debts incurred so we will have um an increased millage rate which would increase um taxes for um people who own property in Abington and rockage and um there'll be an expense associated with that um the um situation where there's Revenue um coming in dedicated for that expense the revenue um the additional Revenue the additional Mills that are um instituted for um covering that Debt Service uh ends up being a neutral move with regard to our fund

026balance use if um if there's additional question regarding that if you need additional clarification please let me know no thank you any other board members yes I had a question um in June we approved the budget that allocated 11.1 million of uh the general fund um and I just heard you share Mr uh victori Victoria um that we're estimating a use of only $5 million um how did we move from the 11.1 to estimating the use of 5 million by the end of this fiscal year this budget like prior year budgets does have a certain amount of contingency worked into it where when you have a $190 million budget you do have to uh take into account things that may be unknown and um be prepared to deal with those so a certain amount of

027the um expenditures represent a certain amount of contingency um the other factor of course is um Revenue how does revenue look so when we passed the budget we were using um the recommended amounts of State funding that the past budget and PD had allocated to us in the end um it was actually a little higher so we're going to earn some more Revenue so that creates um a situation where the amount of fund cash that you need from your reserves is lessened also we have taken um good advantage of higher interest rates and we've moved some of our general fund um Collections and cash into a different account that has higher earnings with a different um provider other than um our general fund bank so that's another um part of that and um the staff

028has been asked by Dr fetcher to carefully uh consider their expenses and um those those uh instance those circumstances are what is occurring in lead and leading to that similarly we have um we don't have a 100% um um occupancy for lack of a better word of all of your staff positions so whenever there's a a break in uh staff being in a position uh not only do we save on on the salary itself but the uh perhaps sometimes the the health benefits but certainly the mandated benefits which are part of which are a factor of gross payroll so there's several factors those are some of the larger ones um basically contingency in those items as well that I mentioned as well and so some of these are unforeseen circumstances that positively impact the estimated

029use of the fund balance and some of these are intentional steps to reduce our use of the fund balance correct and that's been something we've been doing for the last couple of years now yes in addition to all the other factors that um I mentioned thank you anyone else no I have a quick I'm sorry Mr Allen did you want to say something I go ahead no go ahead uh thank you Mr lion Eddie and Mr Victoria I'm sure that this is in in historically you know you you present a very conservative safe budget and it continues to get leaner and Tighter as more information comes in and also recognizing that you shared that Dr fetcher has been going through a process even again tomorrow uh with staff on being deliberate with purchases or hiring

030practi IES I know that that is a difficult ask and it's probably not a very fun meeting for tomorrow because you're excited to to do and buy and see uh to get for the students and to be told to pause can be very deflating so recognizing that's going to be Ault meeting tomorrow but appreciate the consistent measured approach to um maintaining expanding and and spending thank you sorry sure no that's fine um did you want to say something Mrs Brown did what he said no I mean to be honest it it is a hard conversation uh but ultimately we want to make sure that we don't have to cut programming and that we don't have to cut teachers so in order to do that you have to look to see what can you cut down

031so that the cuts don't directly impact the the students educational programming and it it's a hard conversation to have so thank you for showing up and and for doing the work yeah thank you go ahead just going to terms of um hiring practices we are anytime there's a retirement or a person leaving a position or exiting any position across the district regardless of what that position may be we do a reexamination of of that are there any other ways we can cover that position consolidate positions um because ultimately when you look at this budget the largest percentage of this budget are salaries and benefits so in order to try to reduce the budget the only way that we're really going to be able to accomplish that is by looking at positions and that is something

032that we have um examined especially over the past two years and will continue to do um as we have changes in positions or do some reorganizations within our department um to see if we can realize some savings there as well and may I say one more thing uh you mentioned positions there and and historically especially over the last five years there have been new positions that we hold as one of our values as far as making sure that students are there's an inclusive environment making sure that our practices um take into consideration students ability levels whether it's physical abilities and things of that nature so those positions we value and we want to make sure we can hold on to that what I hear you saying is that for uh teachers Administration who is retiring

033we will re re you will re evaluate if those positions need to be refilled or if they can be filled by um someone who's not at the same pay scale as that person who's going out in retirement uh things of that nature so I just wanted to be clear yeah any any structural change to any department or positions would be presented to you as the board of school directors um for your approval so if there is a particular position that the administration says okay we're going we we believe that we can cover this position this way that will all be presented to you and that scenario is presented to you um prior to to approval thank you very much okay I have a question on slide six I think um where you list federal revenue

034um we're seeing an almost $700,000 Decline and I was wondering if you could shutle a light on what that Revenue covered this budget year and what we will need to cover with that amount for next budget Year I'll have to um get back to on that I don't have specific detail um some of those purchases were one time only purchases uh okay um which was which was the intent and Direction okay in the guidelines in the federal government okay so um is that are those Esser funds yes oh okay all right okay that's what I wanted to know so it's not for instance Title One or special education funding okay um I'll repeat what Mr vori said we are budgeting um the title programs and idea another Federal program um at the current rate okay

035we will know more about what those allocations are um as we get into May and June okay and specifically that decrease is exactly as you just concluded is that the s's funds yes okay all right so we can get back to you on what the specific detail and what they funded this year I just don't know off the top of my head okay I just that was the clarification I was looking for I just wanted to make sure that that those programs were not being compromised or underfunded in some way for this next year time will tell yeah indeed um and uh just wanted to add to comments um by other board members that preserving the um Integrity of the district's instructional program is Priority One so um with that thank youer okay we have

036a second presentation we do can move orientation okay okay tonight we have our elementary midyear uh student academic review in this presentation we will be reviewing the academic progress of our students focusing on the results from our fall to winter diagnostic assessments and benchmarks we'll take a look at the action steps that we have already implemented this year along with the adjustments that need to be made uh based on the winter data throughout the year we assess our students three times using I ready Diagnostics and the Acadian uh reading benchmarks these assessments serve to measure student progress identify strengths and areas for growth and ultimately inform instruction while the I ready diagnos helps us track individual growth from Fall to Spring the benchmark assessments give us a broader view of where our students are and

037their Learning Journey and their preparedness for future standardized tests and exams as we review the winter results we will also discuss some of the intervention strategies we have put into place for students who are below grade level and those in need of more targeted support we will share how we are adapting our plans moving forward to ensure every student continues to make necessary progress we have already seen Improvement but we recognize there are still gaps to address especially among certain student groups and we are committed to narrowing those gaps through targeted action I now ask that Dr Stephanie Viola assistant director of Elementary teaching and learning Dr Jim etan principal of Highland Elementary Miss Kima Boyd principal of Overlook Elementary Miss Melissa bunan reading specialist and Miss Kelly Rymer grade five teacher uh to provide

038an orientation on the elementary midyear student act achievement thank you good evening Dr Maui Dr fetcher and board of the school and members of the board of school directors as Dr fetcher shared tonight we are presenting the elementary midyear student academic review we hope to share with you the results from fall to winter again as Dr fetcher shared we have two assessment data uh sets to point out this evening um at the elementary level we use diagnostic assessments through I ready for reading and math and we use the aadience reading benchmark assessment um which assesses a subset of skills for foundational learning of literacy primarily we use this with our K through two students the data sets are different so um when you hear about the diagnostic assessments it is important to realize that they

039measure students from their starting point in the fall and we look to see how much progress they make at the winter time in order to ensure that we get them to the appropriate level by the spring and with the aadience we really track and use aadience for Progress monitoring to make sure that our students again are moving in the right direction and we can see that they will be able to achieve some proficiency by the end of the year at this time Dr um James etan will share our reading some of our reading data good evening this chart highlights the results of our winter I ready reading diagnostic for students in kindergarten through grade five the percentage of all of our students that are on or above grade level at this point as well as

040the performance of our students disaggregated by specific demographic groups what's important to note is on grade level is the level where we would expect students by the end of the year so our expectation is that our students will continue to improve through the end of the school year as you can see at this point all of our students including disaggregated student groups have made growth since the Benchmark given at the beginning of the school year while we recognize there are performance gaps among our disaggregate groups I want to highlight the gains made from the beginning of the year and point out that our disaggregate groups have made on average a 20% Point improvement from the beginning of the year we continue to monitor the progress of our students especially those in our disaggregate groups through

041our core team data reviews which are part of our multi-tiered system of support at this point our school teams have reexamined our schoolwide plans that we developed in the beginning of the year to examine the success of our interventions and look for opportunities to change modify or enhance interventions especially for those in tier three reading support special education or English language development to further demonstrate to further demonstrate the progress of our students the progress our students are making this slide illustrates the placement distribution of students from the fall to the winter as you can see the percentage of students that are either on or above grade level has increased from 40% in the beginning of the year to 63% in the winter and the percentage of students that are reading either one two or three

042grade levels be low has decreased from 60% in September to 37% during the winter bench mark The Black Arrow shows that while students may start the year not on grade level as they receive grade level instruction they should be able to meet grade level Expectations by the end of the year I want to set the stage to give you a sense of what we are doing to teach and remediate foundational skills for our students in grades K through 2 as well as teaching and remediating knowledge building skills for students in grades 3 through five we started the year with a focus on two key areas when teaching foundational skills number one ensuring our multi-tiered system of support was solidly in place this was ensuring in effective instruction was being delivered in both whole and small

043group settings effective Center activities the use of I ready for personalized instruction tier three reading support special education and English language development for students who qualify and number two the use of heg and erri or enhanced core reading instruction to provide students with explicit instruction in phonics pheic awareness and fluency after our winter Benchmark there are several midyear pivots that we are going that we're making to ensure continued growth and achievement with our students number one as it relates to teaching foundational skills we are looking to incorporating quick phonics screeners to identify specific phonics needs and number two for students that have been referred to the core team who may be struggling developing intervention plans designed to closely track progress connected to the supports that are being given increasing the Fidelity of classroom instruction through

044feedback given during walkthroughs and classroom observations and Scaffolding supports like using peer tutors to work with students using flashcards or paired reading I'm going to ask Miss Melissa bunan reading specialist at Highland and Overlook to share with you the next few slides that will illustrate the progress of tier 3 students who have re receiving intervention with a reading specialist thank you drin good evening I will share our reading support group's performance data from our midyear Benchmark in specific foundational skills we will examine um key metrics areas of strength as well as opportunities for improvement which will guide our instruction as we move forward our tier three reading support groups are identified through a process called mtss or multi-tiered system of support and this mtss process is a comprehensive framework which Abington School District uses in

045order to identify students that um identify students with learning and behavior needs and as well as support those students tier three reading support with a reading specialist is provided for students with our most significant reading needs our screening process includes regular Benchmark and progress monitoring screening which we use to identify students needs and monitor our intervention Effectiveness the numbers you see on this screen represent our kindergarten and first grade reading support groups per performance data from fall to winter in kindergarten and first grade for two measures for kindergarten we're looking at first sound fluency and for grade one we're looking at nonsense word fluency specifically correct letter sounds please note the end counts as this data represents a targeted group of students who are identified as needing intensive reading support at the beginning of your

046benchmark for a Cadence Benchmark assessment as you can see there are an increases in number of students at or above Benchmark in each of these measures I want to highlight some individual growth patterns on the left is our grade k fall and winter for sound fluency data Note the significant Improvement in kindergarten after we implemented our phonemic awareness routines and instruction this results show that the intervention provided by the reading specialist as well as the classroom teacher have improved and made a positive impact on these specific students now I'd like to draw your attention to our grade one reading support data as you will see that some students are not making or moving as swiftly forward as some of the kindergarten students in this other measure this provides us with an opportunity for growth we

047can grow in word recognition and oral reading fluency this data also aligns with our classroom observations where students have demonstrated needs in these areas which is why the midyear pivots suggested by Dr edin are so vital our response to this midyear data will be to using um additional assessments to add in additional such assessments such as the quick phonic screener that allows us to pinpoint specific phonics needs which then we can build that into our instruction moving forward we use multi-sensory strategies that helps to engage and differentiate for all of our Learners and we will double down and provide more repeated practice because students need more exposures and opportunities to practice fluency toow grow at a faster rate the numbers you see on this side represent our reading support groups performance data for grade two

048in two measures on the left is oral reading fluency percent accuracy and on the right is oral reading fluency words correct per minute again this is a targeted group of students that was identified as needing reading support based off of the beginning of your benchmark assessment so they are seen in a small group with a reading specialist this data show increases in the number of students at or above benchmarks in one area oral reading fluency words correct per minute this occurred after implementing Focus fluency instruction and routines I also want to draw your attention to grade 2's oral reading fluency percent accuracy which indicates that some students are not making the same progress on this measure as compared to the oral reading fluency words correct this matches our classroom observations highlighting students needs in these

049areas we see growth opportunities here we we see growth opportunities for developing accuracy when reading so percent accuracy is looking at the percentage of words that students read correctly so they would benefit from additional instruction for word attack strategies developing their self-monitoring strategies targeting specific error patterns that we can build into our instruction as well as providing immediate feedback when they're reading orally so that they can hear what errors they made so that they can make those corrections to improve for next time now Dr etlin will share action steps taken from grades through through five students our approach to reading instruction in grades 3 through five includes a heavy emphasis on knowledge building skills this means students need to develop language comprehension which includes building background knowledge improving vocabulary and language structure teachers began this

050year helping students build comprehension skills through lessons on responding to text dependent analysis questions and utilizing Clos reading and writing strategies when time or what I need time is also an opportunity for differentiated instructional groups to Target specific areas of need it's during this time that students who may students may work with a reading specialist special education teacher or English language development teachers to support the growth of our English language Learners teachers received professional development using the sheltered instruction observation protocol earlier this school year some of the midyear adjustments we've made to what we started the school year with is doing repeated practice answering text dependent analysis questions collaborative scoring of writing pieces goal setting with students as well as teachers instructional planning with members of the core team and ongoing collaboration between teachers and

051ELD teachers uh Miss bunan will share some data from our students in grades 3 through five who are receiving reading support from a reading specialist as drin mentioned the data on this slide represents our reading support groups performance data for grades three and four on the next slide we will look at data for grade five students in these groups have significant needs in the area of comprehension this data comes from our I reading diagnostic specifically looking at comprehending literature and informational text the grade three and four reading support groups performance from fall to winter on comprehension shows good progress there are increases in the number of students who are at or above Benchmark in both comprehension of literature and informational text at the midpoint the Improvement is a direct result of a twofold approach small

052group instruction is being provided in the general education classroom by the classroom teacher as well as tailored interventions by the reading specialist we see fewer students performing significantly low lower than below grade level suggesting that this approach has a positive impact that's why our midyear adjustments include an increase in fluency instruction vocabulary development and close reading strategies in order to help students comprehend and analyze text during small group inection um excuse me during small group instruction we will SP spend time honing on students specific strategies for reading comprehension midyear our efforts will include bringing in additional non-fiction text providing opportunities for TDI analysis and close reading and we will increase this both in the whole class setting as well as in our small group setting the numbers you see on this slide represent our reading

053support groups performance data for grade five from the fall to winter diagnostic again their Improvement and comprehension there is Improvement and comprehension of both literature and informational text as you can see there are increases in number of students at this group at or above grade level in comprehension of both measures literature and informational text at the midpoint similar to grades three and four this is a result of a two-fold approach having the small group instruction within the classroom by the classroom teacher as well as tailored interventions by the reading specialist while we see a percentage of below level students decreasing we are constantly monitoring their progress and changing our instruction as students needs change and so we are continuing to Target those skills so that they can increase their progress at a faster Pace now

054I'd like to turn the slideshow back to Dr etlin Who will share data regarding the progress of our English language Learners thank you for listening tonight to me uh as as we shared earlier one of the areas that we are targeting to support is the achievement of our English language Learners uh when what we're doing is we're focusing on explicit vocabulary instruction when we look at the progress that this demographic group has made in the the area of vocabulary from the beginning of the school year to the winter Benchmark we can see some positive gains across the grades the percentage of students below or significantly below below level has decreased which suggests repeated exposure to content area vocabulary is having a positive impact some additional and next steps We are continuing to take in addition

055to the ones mentioned earlier are implementing before or after school clubs that are designed to Target students in need of additional reading and math support we will be encouraging summer reading either through providing books reading logs and incentives or more targeted or more targeted reading packets that we send home also we're planning to be we're planning for the implementation of our new reading program amplify CK or core knowledge language Arch which we will begin starting at the beginning of the 2025 2026 school year amplify cka focuses heavily on reading instruction through development of both foundational and knowledge building skills the implementation of this new program will of course include professional development and planning for the use of a new benchmarking tool this spring additionally we will be informing parents of this new program so they

056know what to expect coming the new school year also as an outcome of our Ela committee's work there will be a recommendation at a future board meeting this spring to adopt a new Intervention Program for reading that will be used with students needing more intensive reading support at this time Miss Karima Boyd principal of Overlook Elementary will review our math data good evening I will present the kada 5 I ready mathematics diagnostic assessment data across kindergarten to grade five and within our K5 disaggregated groups there have been notable gains from the fall to the winter administration of the assessment overall we see Improvement across all disaggregated groups however when compared to our all student group an opportunity Gap exists within our demographic data which is of great concern what's more what's more troubling is there

057is a significant number of students that are represented in more than one disaggregated group what is important to note is that on grade level is the level where we expect all students to be by the end end of the year so our expectation is that students will continue to improve through the end of this school year when looking at the data on the graph the winter I ready mathematics Diagnostics results displayed by the dark green bar shows that the percentage of students on or above grade level have more than doubled for most disaggregated student groups one group to to take note of is the English language Learners where now more than three times as many students are on or above grade level in the winter compared to the fall however we do recognize at the

058midyear point that we still have students who need to grow significantly to ensure that all disaggregated groups are at the same level as the all student group our schoolwide Improvement plans targeted group gaps at the beginning of the year especially among our disaggregated groups since receiving the winter diagnostic results we have completed extensive data analys reviews with our core teams and teachers to ensure individuals students needs are targeted for appropriate interventions as we look at the placement distribution of students I want to draw your attention to the black line across the chart it is important to know that when we look at I already diagnostic assessment data we expect students to be on grade level by the completion of the Academic Year the goal is for students to be in the green areas which represent

059on or above grade level by the spring at the start of the school year the students our students were 26 20% 26% of our students began the year performing at on or above grade level which shows a strong start since they have not yet received grade level instruction by the winter which is the middle bar the percentage of students performing on or above grade level Grew From 26% to 49% we recognize the need to increase those gains by the spring and the area of mathematics often the scores are dependent on what the students have been taught thus far with that in mind we completed data analysis with our school teams to identify areas for improvement and to create a plan as to how to address those areas in the second half of the school year

060from fall to winter we focus heavily on on the instructional delivery of illustrative mathematics we Revisited how to build mathematic communities mathematical communities and emphasize the use of math discourse and math routines we continued to implement when time what I need time for all students and use data analysis to identify students needing tier one tier two or tier three support to meet the needs of all student Learners we capit relies on Universal Design for Learning which is udl udl is a framework that increases accessibility and takes into consideration the learner needs for example some mathematics lessons are adjusted to be more engaging to represent information in a different way or to improve students with an opportunity to express what they know in their own manner midy year after considerable data analysis with building teams and

061teachers certain changes took place for example we Revisited accountability talk through the use of prompts with students we plan to use faculty meeting times to revisit strategies or lessons needing to be spotl to Spotlight and we began to use a you we began to use the use of guided math to incorporate specific rou routines and looked for a frequency of fidelity of intervention time for example we want to ensure that all students are using I ready for the recommended time and that they are not only using I ready but are passing lessons during I ready and that pullout groups occur within the expected frequency now Miss Kelly Rymer a fifth grade teacher at Highland Elementary will share some additional math data so this slide here shows the progress of students who are starting the year

062either one grade level below or well below the grade level expect expectation as well as their progress through the winter so if you'll notice on the left that is our fall so of the kindergarten students who were not performing on grade level 99% of them were one grade level below and if you look at the fifth grade data of the students who are not at a grade level 66% of them were one grade level below 17 would be two grade levels below as well as um 177% would be three grade levels below looking at that data so just want to make sure we're looking at the same group of students just the kids who are not on grade level at the time according to I ready um typically we don't anticipate as you've heard Mrs

063Boyd say that the students would be on grade level at the beginning of the year it is September when they take it now um after we received this data teachers then would group the students based on their area of needs they might receive small group instruction it could be push in during the classroom time it could be pulled out for specific needs and that would occur as you've heard during that wind time that what I need time now after all this has been all this um intervention has been received you'll see on the right hand side the winter results we're not anticipating them to all made it to on grade level because it's only halfway through the school year but you can see a growth has been made at that Midway Point even just looking

064at that kindergarten data of the students that we were they're the same groups of students 99% were one grade level below now the kindergarten group we've got 24% on grade level 24% just beginning on grade level Etc now when you're looking at these results it's important to keep in mind that the students may not have yet received instruction yet on a specific content so we're not anticipating that they'd be all the way on the grade level now after analyzing this data it was realized that the greatest growth happened with the standards that were being directly taught in the classroom so for example um grades one 1 through five didn't receive a lot of instruction on Geometry so we didn't see see a lot of growth in that area whereas kindergarten had a unit on shapes

065and of course their scores jumped up really uh jumped up a lot in that geometry area uh grade one uh had a big jump in operations and algebraic thinking and if you think about it their first three units are focused on that so we'd anticipate it it's not a surprise that they would have a big growth in that area on the winter diagnostic uh we'll get a much more complete picture of where the students stand when we take our scho diagnostic at the end of the school year now switching groups this is a different group that we're looking at now this slide's going to focus on students that are receiving math enrichment so now before we look at this slide I just wanted to take a moment to talk about the lust of math program

066it is a rigorous mathematics program and it challenges all the students um there's a special type of problem called exploration and those are designed for those students who are ready to take that next step and often times teachers are using those exploration type problems during that wi time um as well as during their their instructional time to meet um those needs of the students that we're looking at right here um also students in grades three four and five have an additional more structural structured math enrichment time with the elementary curriculum Specialists so not only do they receive the exploration problems in their classroom extensions that the teachers are doing they also are going to have opportunities to work with the curriculum specialist at this time uh let's see the two graphs are showing the growth

067of these students that are in the math enrichment groups you'll see on the leth hand side their fall data and then you can see the large jumps the large gains that have happened on the right hand side on their winter [Music] diagnostic um also wanted to share that the teachers have been um as well as the data that's been collected on the curriculum based unit assessments that come with a luster of mathem itics they've been showing a lot of promising results teachers have talked about that they see students uh thinking about Solutions differently they're demonstrating their understanding in a different way and their use of math language and vocabulary has definitely become much more sophisticated next I would like to share the action steps that we will take in Spring of 2025 and in the

068fall of 2025 to support students and teachers in the areas of mathematics in the spring of 2025 our next steps for math include having students attend programs before and after school for extra support especially as we approach pssa we also attend intend to promote summer enrichment activities over the months where they're not in school these are in addition to the all the instruction structional moves we described as the midyear adjustments teachers and students are more comfortable with our math program during the second year of implementation of illustrative mathematics so we're looking at ways in which we can capitalize on small group instruction for differentiation next school year guided math instruction will be Revisited so that so that it could be a strategy that we utilize using illustrative math ma matics we will also continue to

069Foster mathematical communities that are enriched in math discourse and routines for problem solving as the presentation comes to a close I would like to highlight some of the midyear accomplishments by midy year we want to see that all of our students are making appropriate growth to measure growth on the diagnostic we look for students progress towards annual typical growth or which some considered a median we expect the median to be at or above 50% which means half of the students have achieved growth that was greater than the median and then half of the students are performing growth that is less than the median I'm happy to report the data reflects that the median is above 50% in all reading and math groups with the exception to grade three math which is just at 50% by

070the end of the school year the goal is for the annual typical growth to reach 100% or better and we're on our way to meeting that goal when we celebrate the successes we attribute it to our students our teachers and our parents there are several actions that we have taken and continue to take as the year progresses we set goals at the start of the year and we look at data with teachers continuously to monitor how students are performing we also have te targeted look fors during walkthroughs and observations of instruction in both Ela and math providing meaningful feedback to teachers is essential as well as identifying what topics are key for Meaningful professional development we also encourage opportunities for teachers to observe each other and share ideas through collaboration working together with our parents

071and Guardians is another way where we support Student Success we have lots of opportunities for families to come into elementary schools but we are always looking for ways to increase their involvement especially when it comes to supporting their students academically finally all schools are continuously looking for ways to promote initiatives to increase student engagement we know when students feel valued and have a positive experience in school that they will be able to learn and achieve success in this slide uh each of our schools do many things to engage our families and provide them with information to help support their children this slide shows a few examples of our Outreach we all have a number of family events for the purpose of supporting students academic progress we hold math nights reading nights there's there is one

072book one school events and a lot more to keep our families informed about how their child is progressing after each diagnostic test a family report is posted on Skyward so parents can see how their child is progressing throughout the year items such as this I ready report along with other information is shared during parent teacher conferences which are held twice annually one point of pride is during our fall conferences across all seven Elementary schools 97% of our families participated in a conference with their child's teacher our curriculum materials Provide support for families shown here is an example of our illustrative mathematics Family Support guide which is distributed to families along with a video link at the start of each new unit of instruction and finally as we conclude this presentation I want to mention that

073our teams will continue to monitor the performance of our students especially as we prepare for the upcoming administration of the pssa pssa and we will use that along with the data from The Benchmark assessment that will be administered in the spring to evaluate what went well and what are some things that we are going to do differently during the 2025 26 school year thank you thank you um could you clarify the time when the assessments were taken we have fall and winter and we're at March 11th tonight can you talk about when when these assessments were given uh the the fall Benchmark is given in the beginning of the school year so around September is the fall Benchmark the uh winter Benchmark is administered in January and the spring Benchmark is administered in May so

074some of the adjustments and interventions that we're speaking about if this is January where we're getting results and tonight's March correct um so those adjustments have already been implemented and are underway correct the modifications that we discussed yes okay thank you we can answer any questions that you may have I imagine that we have a lot of questions um but before I turn it over to my colleagues I just wanted to thank you for that very detailed and comprehensive presentation um I know that that some of the things we struggle with in this District are not unique to us they're a national problem um but we're not charged with the education of students nationally we're charged with the education of students here um and so some local Solutions I think are warranted um but with

075that having said that I will turn now turn it over to my board colleague questions Mrs Brown yes um not necessarily a question for you perhaps a question for uh the school district and the Partnerships that we have with with communities uh when I look at grade one and grade two in Reading not showing the progress that we see in kindergarten in grades three and four I'm wondering if that information specifically I heard um things like students working with a peer and getting immediate Fe feedback is an intervention that would help students with those nonsense words and and things of that nature if those specific details are shared with Community um not community members but Community organizations such as the local library and if we could marry what we saw earlier with eighth graders working

076with kindergarteners is there an incentive for perhaps students to go to the library buddy up with someone on a Saturday the eighth graders receive service hours for it and they're helping students with that immediate feedback with phonemic awareness and things of that nature I just wanted to know have we tapped into sharing not names of students because we protect students rights and we protect um their test scores and all that but have we shared the needs uh because we're seeing that with all the efforts that we have in school with inviting parents in with doing the one book challenge one school one book challenge uh there are some grades that aren't showing the progress that we want to see in school so do we have Partnerships outside of school is is a question for administration

077right so I don't know if anyone wants to speak to that in terms of Partnerships I know that we do have um some book challenges where um students from the high school will read with students from the Elementary School and some buddying up at on that level uh in terms of the Partnerships um within outside of the school district um I can't really speak to that as much as perhaps um the one that comes to mind um instantly that's uh at all seven schools is we do have a partnership with the Abington Township libraries they do come in do presentations for our students they review our summer book lists um um so that students know how to get a library card and and go to the library and and what's available to them there um

078in terms of sharing results um um we haven't done that for for for a couple of reasons but um we could work with local groups to um provide more early literacy types of programs for our younger students and encourage parents who would be interested in attending I do know that many of the workshops that we have at our schools our evening events the principles could speak to do focus on early literacy skills people here have have done those workshops with parents yeah and I know we can't share lists for example our tier three students who aren't sh and that's what I was specifically talking about our tier three grade one and grade two students we can't share that list but I believe we can give parents information and say this is a program that's being

079offered perhaps at the library where you could buddy up with an eighth grader and this is how it would impact your student because that constant exposure not just in school but outside of school is how we're going to see the growth and sometimes parents and Guardians aren't able to give that time because they're outworking or um or they're they're doing something that does not allow that student to have that immediate feedback on an ongoing basis so sharing something like that with the parent and then working with an organization I think would be fruitful okay Miss Eisen um yeah U Mrs Brown thank you for that um thoughtful response I I was watching the data looking at it and um I I was reflective on my own experience with children who aren't meeting grade level reading

080um benchmarks year after year and I was thinking about the teachers in this room or parents that are listening and experiencing that and you know Mrs Brown talked greatly about offer offering alternative options for students to have opportunities to um create L literacy habits that will eventually work or could work looking at that data it's really difficult to understand that we're we're talking about kids um we're talking about individuals um and what we don't see is that there's developmental ranges for when this is going to happen for our kids and that's probably the most difficult thing to see um I I just want to create an opportunity to speak to that as a parent and also for the teachers and the support staff and everybody that is pouring into to kids um what happens more

081often than not is that there isn't an exact Playbook that is going to predict when it's going to click for some of these students um and I think an emphasis on providing opportunities and enrichment and homework tips and workshops and every single angle being introduced to these students but also to their families to their loved ones to their communities um can make a difference for one student can make a difference in one instance um so just wanted to take the opportunity to acknowledge that to acknowledge the hard work it is for um Educators to be pouring in and and providing the resources and not seeing uh the results that we want to see on the presentation this evening and also uh to parents out there to to say keep doing the work keep accessing what

082you can um to loved ones of children that are struggling be patient be loving be kind um you know we we may not see it in second grade we might we may not see it in first grade they they they can get there if if we keep working with them so um there's no way to quantify what I'm saying but I think it's very important part of this conversation with the data that we're seeing and and talking about tonight thank you Mr Muhammad yeah I had a couple of questions one was just a um a point of confusion for me I was looking at slide six uh six and seven where we're talking about the students identified for intensive reading support and in the fall 23% were at or above Benchmark so how are they

083identified for intensive reading support if they're already at or above Benchmark and so what else goes into why they're in that space this the it's the aadience the it's we use more than one measure to determine which students would qualify for reading support so um this may this may not show you the the the entire picture of that child of a child's profile so we we look at multiple measures to determine which students may qualify for a reading support um so what are some of those measures if I might add we selected these specific subtests because they have data from fall and with win MH with aadience not all the subsets are tested all year long for all kids so it may change you know for kindergarten or for first grade or for second grade

084so this is one of multiple subtests that are used to identify students for support so they may have been proficient in this sub test but not in the others um so acadians has several you could probably name them all um but we also have the I ready data for the students and in the um upper grades kindergarten obviously is just beginning with us but first and second graders have unit tests which which can be analyzed yeah I only ask that because just thinking about deployment of resources right and if yes just from this particular slide or the these two slides it looks like maybe some of them don't it's a good question but I understand not the only data set that determines whether or not the student would be in Reading support this is the

085measure we decided to show you because it has two points of data okay thank you um and then I had questions about the next steps right because I concerned about the students who hadn't meet that met that median growth and extra work is going to have to happen for them to catch up by the May uh Benchmark um and so just like what is the structure of these before and after school programs the Outreach plan the anticipated numbers um and yeah just those three in particular the um the before and after school programs vary school to school uh so what my morning Academic Program focuses on and and is targeting may be different than what Overlook or Roslin is targeting so it it does vary but um like our focus at Highland we're focusing on

086uh math math skills and improving the improving students in grades three four and five are in we're targeting math basically at overlock we have a after school program and we target grades three four and five in preparation for pssa so it's a pssa prep and there are six weeks of ela instruction and test taking skills and then six weeks of mathematics and test taking skills okay and so thank you for the Highland and the Overlook picture um do we have information for the the rest of the district in terms of these before and after school um opportunities for students who are still struggling uh yes we do and they were included in any of the school's individual plans um so that information's in there is there another location anything you want to supplement to that

087no I I think it would be reflected in their schoolwide plans if not I can provided for you okay um and you did ask a second part how how are students identified so um the school will identify students that they feel would benefit from attending a program and um do Outreach to the parents and uh parents provide transportation to these programs okay thank you could I just ask a quick follow-up question to Mr Muhammad's um what's the rate of participation in those programs so once you identify students who are in need of that extra help um what's the rate of participation among those students do you have any I think we'll be here for about hour once we identify the students the rate of participation is I would say 96% of the students participate I

088would like to to share and be transparent that one barrier that we have is transportation so if it's before school you then have to make sure that your student your parents can bring you especially if they're not in a walking Zone and for me a lot of students that were invited could not participate because there was no way for them to get picked up after school because they catch a bus ah okay okay thank you that's good to know may may I ask yeah um I and I'm trying to make sure that students privacy is protected but if there is one student who's coming that lives in the same neighborhood because they go to the same school is it possible through the PTO or the PTA that those parents get together see if they can

089come up with a plan or go uh to come up with a plan for transportation and again you can tell me that some some yeah is there a way to promote it I think it's difficult I mean it's it takes a village is what I'm trying to say yeah you can always share like if someone may need it but but often times if we may not know that transportation is the barrier okay for them participating we may offer the morning club or the after school club and apparently decline Without Really providing a reason as to why they're declining um we knew sometimes we are able to make connections uh or you know set up car pooling with u with certain families but but often times we're we're just unaware that that's a barrier yeah is

090it the counselors that reach out or the teachers who reach out to the parents to offer the programming uh actually it's a curriculum specialist at least speaking for highand is the crial if there was a survey of questions that is asked of each family would that help you to get that information yeah that can give us that information I believe we are in the age of it takes a village and we have to remember that and we also have to put student safety at as a top priority too so I'm not just saying put your child in anybody's car um but it does take a village and and we're a need to keep that mindset yeah okay I want to turn now to my colleagues on this side of the Miss faling um no no

091no I'm good okay Miss Harman um thank you for the presentation and for all the information um all the supports that you listed um there was one that I felt was missing and I think um I don't want to I don't want us to get lost in the text dependent analysis and the and the benchmarking and the assessments and the phonics instruction um if we're not making sure that kids are developing a love of reading because the love of reading is what's going to help them to become better readers so are kids given opportunities for independent reading where they're not just Library once a week I know they're they're going they have that as you know an opportunity but is their time built into the classroom where kids are choosing books that they want to

092read and time in the classroom to explore books that they choose to foster a love of reading to build that muscle because we kids need that opportunity and a lot of them might not be getting that at home they might not have access at home are we giving them those opportunities in the classroom to really build that love of reading to strengthen those skills through materials that they're choosing to read teachers are often doing read alouds our one book one school is one of the ways that we promote reading where everyone in the in the school is reading the same thing where there's questions that are asked and children get an opportunity to answer trivia questions related to the story that is being read their names are called over the morning announcements so that's one

093of the ways that we uh promote reading we also have read um a reading night coming up so um for students that may be a reluctant reader they'll they may come out to a reading that they may find or may be inspired to to to read books um one thing um I I heard from actually uh Miss Rymer shared um this strategy and I actually happened to share with a a parent who indicated the same thing that her child wasn't really enjoying reading I said well you know sometimes you may have to us then again this is not my this didn't come from me this came from his rhyme uh you may have to reassociate reading so pick you know pick a their favorite blanket or get some popcorn and while you're sitting down reading

094with them have them wrap up in their blanket and or have them snack on their favorite snack so now you're associating something that's enjoyable with reading so I think just continuing to talk about strategies such as uh that one I just mentioned doing reading nights one book one school hopefully that inspires children to love reading respectfully I'm just going to I'm G to challenge you a little bit one book one school one school one book is one month out of the year right reading nights or one night out of the year I just want to reiterate the importance of reading in the classroom every day not just the not just the assigned reading not just what's because this is this is a deficit I think in our our our um Society with our testing we

095we want to make sure the kids are getting the skills that they need to take a test but they're not going to retain the skills if they hate reading and kids need to find that love of reading through their own choice so one school one book they're all reading the same book so yes that's a strategy but I just want to make sure that we're giving kids time to read and not prescribing for them what to read because a lot of times kids don't want to read what I I'm I mean I'm a teacher I know they they open the Anthology and they are bored to death so are we giving them those opportunities so I I don't need you to respond I just want to make sure that that you're understanding my point that

096it's not just those few little those few times of the year that we're exploring a love of reading it's every single day in the classroom no I understand d d That's duy noted but I I when I mentioned the one book one school I wasn't saying that to Discount that teachers read aloud not just during one book one school but they do read aloud to their to their classrooms and children are given opportunities for SSR so I wasn't saying that to Discount those important uh those important pieces thank can can can you speak to choice choice works and libraries within the classroom where students have an opportunity to select something of interest to them sure there Ser I mean most classrooms in the building have classroom libraries where children are able to pick and select

097the books that they may that they may enjoy and how about the school library uh children go to the library once a week where I know they tend to fight over the books where that they want to take out so it's and they have opportunities in instruction time you mentioned SSR which is sustained silent reading correct and that that would be an opportunity to read one of those books right exactly okay I would just can I add something in here so I think to some again to consider is we're talking about you know populations of children that may not be at the reading level that is at that level in the classroom so things that I get really excited about is when I hear um children coming home and saying that you know on their

098Chromebook they were able to listen to their favorite book and they were super excited cuz I got to pick the topic that they were into and they were listening to it and participating or um other things that I love to hear is like you know graphic novels and what that meant or like picture books or reading like ancillary objects or things that participate and um you know that's I I love to hear Abington doing those things and to expand on it I think that reaches more of what you're talking about Rachel because this population isn't at we're looking at it they're not at those reading levels how do we get them interested when they can you know when they're struggling at that deficit to begin with um so if you want to expand on any

099of those that would be lovely to hear but those are a couple that I that I'm aware of um and I get excited about hearing our kids our kids doing and exploring um because the outcome is the same if it happens in third grade or fourth grade or fifth grade uh it's bringing them to an enjoyment whether it's to find information or to engage with it listening to it um picture reading what whatever it is the comprehension is uh moving along yeah and we do have amplify starting next year which offers according to the orientation offers more Choice um the read alloud uh so that students can assess their comprehension without getting stuck on reading the word so I'm looking forward to seeing how that produces fruit next year as well excuse me um I

100want to bring up one point and that's I'm older than a lot of you in here is it's important that the child see the parents read I love to read there's days I don't turn my TV on because I'm in the middle of a good book well except for the evening news my father loves to read the mail man even comments and says oh you're about the only one in on my r out that gets all these magazines yes I still subscribe to magazines I think if the child saw um the parents reading they would they would say okay maybe I can pick up a book too and that's something we don't see especially with young parents I I I don't I I mean I don't see them I buy so many books that about

101every other month or so I'm donating a box full to the um to the library because I don't have space in my living room in my office in my bedroom to keep them all but and I do pass them on other people so I just think yes I I agree with retel was saying that they do need an opportunity to read every day in school but they also need to get it from home and that's something that you know we we have to realize that especially a lot of these younger people they don't read so how can you expect the kids to read MH I do want to say I noticed on our um the um oh my God I'm losing my train I thought the buildings and grounds permits that Willow Hill is doing

102a staff parent Student Book Club which I thought was really awesome that's a really great way to engage the parents you made me think of that because I was looking for it so miss frer you've been very patient yeah yeah great espe because I have to go to the bathroom but anyway that's a great segue um when my four were coming through Abington schools they had um reading logs and every day in the evening the whole family we'd read and they would have to record in the reading log and so also you mentioned the modeling clearly kids modeling their you know um scen individuals at home read of course it's going to have a positive effect on them um nowadays a lot well I hate to say nowadays because we're saying it so much but

103many people the trend is to have your phone in your hand and so reading looks like this scrolling and uh the intention the attention spans we we know how it's affecting that as opposed to if you're reading you're having to sit down you're having to focus you're having to you know and I think it would enhance the the um attention spans but my question um Miss Boyd I think you sort of answered it in a sense but I just want to be sure um has the two data sets I ready and aadience improved districtwide or was this specific to Highland and possibly Overlook bless you bless it's across the district great okay the data all the data that we' we've shown is across the district and also when you when I see reading support is

104that synonymous with um I'm thinking remediation would you say yes and I'm also curious about kids in the district who are on grade level and where would they fit into these numbers or grass if you will and what type of supports are they getting they get support in the classroom from their teachers so when students are out of the classroom with a reading specialist for reading support during when time the classroom teacher then also um will provide support for students and enrichment for students that are on tier one or above tier one and tier 2 support in small group instruction so for example if I go into a classroom during wi time for ELA and I'm observing uh small groups of students the teacher may have one book or a book uh of a similar

105topic and different Varan various levels where they're able to um Provide support for children based on their level and the same skill so you think if they're talking about common Nows proper nouns identifying them or um main idea in details it will be the same skill but different levels and are there any opportunities for those higher Achievers if you will to assist some of the students that um rank basic absolutely because sometimes when the groups are um built or uh developed from the teacher it could be various groups uh when they s when they move from Station to Station the teacher has a core group that are on the same level however but when they're working with a peer or in a group it could be a mixed abilities thank you Miss FY since you

106asked um I'm just GNA give a I mean I thank you for the date and the presentation it's always comprehensive um and I appreciate it um going back to parent involvement it seems like you guys have great parent involvement especially in the beginning of the year I would love to see that capitalized on in see us go ahead and try to find ways to get parents actively involved more than you know I love one book one school um we do it every year and my kids love it um and then this year actually with my middle school I started reading the same books that she was reading in her English class and that was a really really fun experience as an adult to go ahead and be reading what she's reading and be able to

107discuss it um and I think that that it was kind of beneficial to both of us um anytime I get to read with my kids is beneficial to both of us um but to go ahead and see maybe ways of going ahead and getting parents like capitalizing on that initial um engagement there in the beginning of the year to go ahead and Foster something that's a little that's more ongoing and more um in depth and maybe getting parents you know my kids have the reading logs they do the reading logs but where I get in depth with them is the book reports um asking them like okay well what did you get out of this chapter what happen tell me about it you know um those are the things where you know getting involved with

108my kids with their reading I think that they get they start to understand it they start to get it um and I see their growth come out um so if there's any way we can we can go ahead and cap I think that capitalizing on that initial engagement there to go ahead and get the parents involved and get the additional um resources out would be great mwo um I just want to say like with parents sometimes they don't have the time to R to their kids because my parents never had time but having the time during school to go to the library that was like my favorite part of the week week so I would always check out a book every week and I would finish reading it or like check even check out like

109two or three books it was the best part mine too um I think I you know parents are under a lot of pressure I don't think that we should understate that um but I also think that you know given everything the district is doing in terms of supporting our students who um are not on grade level for reading and also mathematics um one of the one of the things I'm hearing pretty consistently from my colleagues is it may be time to to think about the benefits of um building a culture of reading sort of beyond the limits of our schools Beyond those brick and mortar limits so you know Mrs Brown suggested um higher to lower grade tutoring um that might be a potential help um but also in engaging parents who have struggling readers

110encouraging them to you know if it's a two parent household and only one parent can come maybe that parent gets to bring a friend right it's a it's a lot friendlier so to speak um anything we can do to help parents engage with the process anything we can do to build a community that values reading will benefit our students and I'm not just talking about the district Community because I know that we're doing um important steps hard work but um you know the community as a whole my kids are out of school I wish I could read to them still um but I would be you know personally I would be happy to help in any way I can um so just put that out there and thank you for that presentation does anyone have

111any further comments or thoughts no okay all right thank you very much okay we will now now move on to comments from citizens comments from citizens are being conducted both in person and by phone the phone number to participate in public comments is 267 715 3717 and is being displayed on the screen at this time you'll be able to join the meeting by calling in on your mobile or landline phone if there's anyone who is present anyone present who would like to make a comment please use the microphone either to your left or to your right I need some sugar sug H hi my name is Eileen Denton I live on Morland Road in Abington and um really really excited to hear about talking about uh love of reading and libraries that's my wheelhouse um

112I think sometimes with the especially with the younger kids when they're in that sort of remediation there's so much focus on like drilling into skills that it does does take away that love of reading um whether it's on grade level or below grade level um and I think that you know kids love things like being able to eat lunch with you know the teacher the principal or somebody you know book clubs for kids that they can meet during lunch making it a fun thing you know you get to not you're not in the cafeteria you get to go in the classroom and eat your lunch with so and so and talk about a book um even if you don't talk about the book that much the idea is you read the book and that's how

113you get into this program I'm speaking to the library they do have reading buddies and they are starting a program math buddies um and I know that there's a requirement for volunteer hours um and I think that would be a great way to encourage more Abington students to do that I know the Librarians over at Abington try to provide a lot of um easy volunteer opportunities um but I think really trying to encourage them to do the reading Buddies and math buddies I think would be a great benefit for the community service that they can see the benefit of giving back um and I also just wanted to add summer reading um I think it would be great if there was more emphasis on the summer reading if you look at the website um for

114the books it's just very like here are some books you might want to read I think there's a way to really um incentivize it more I know the library does through their challenges but I really think there'd be a way for the school district to put a bigger push cuz you can see for some of the numbers kids coming in there's more and more kids at the beginning of the year that are below grade level so like you see that like okay now we got to get even past that you know that group that's below is is increasing um and that's that summer slump um but I'm always happy to um you know share whatever I can and be helpful in any way that I can but um yeah I I'd like to hear that

115idea of fostering that love of reading um that's separate from the skill and drill kind of stuff that we have to do thank you for your voice is there anyone else in the room who would like to make a comment good evening ladies and gentlemen Joe Rooney I live in Ardsley I was uh I was going to start off and I got a lot to cover but um I was going to ask about the brawl in the middle school and the ones have been coming but after looking at the academic presentation it's pretty much been explained to me if you can't read and you can't do math then schools pretty much a waste of time and if kids are coming out of fifth grade and are two or three levels below grade in math and

116reading they're stuck so what I got out of that first off it's shocking and it's disappointing and I know there's some good numbers but all in all for us Abington used to be first in the alphabet first in academics first in athletics it's not that way now and we need to ask ourselves about that so what have we got if you got kids that can't read at level then they're also not doing math and they're not learning any of their other subjects and when you look at the beginning of one year you can tell where they were the year before they have to be held back until they're able to read or they can't learn we're failing them if we take them from grade 1 two 3 four and five and they're consistently two or

117three grades below they're stuck and they're never going to make it it may seem hard but you can't Advance them you're not doing them any favor by the time a kid reaches the fifth level or sixth grade or whatever they're they're stuck at that point so I mean I have a lot of compassion for them but what you've got to do is M get them up to that level or don't Advance them because you're throwing into something they can't advance to so that's what the brawls are about in the middle school is those poor kids who were stuck have been moved on and they probably have a good reason to be pretty angry at our school district so then you move on to that we're focusing on spending $285 million to build a new building

118and we can't teach kids how to math and read in El in in elementary school we need to put like 95% of our effort right there and it's going to show great dividends in high school and in middle school I got one minute left I got tons to talk about I hope I get a little extra time so I mean that's where we got to go look $285 million the President says oh there's a lot of families are really stressed you're going to increase their taxes by $1,000 each $20 an hour guy's got to work 50 extra hours that's 50 hours that's not available to read to his kids we need to slow this program down and I'll have to talk about it more in the next time but we need to go and what

119is our Focus it's on teaching children how to read and do math everything else is secondary until that's mastered so don't increase taxes by $1,000 don't increase the budget by5 million with another $200 tax increase and let these parents have the time with their kids in order to teach them and catch them up and not spend an extra week or two weeks or a month at work instead of at home that's where I wish the compassion was and I'm sure I'm out of time so it'll wait thank you for your time thank you for your voice anyone else in the room I'm Joe O'Brien brone Avenue in Glen side first thing I want to tell you is little almost a year and a half ago I had a Abington Senior come out and want to

120buy something told him he could put a 50 a 25% deposit on $650 item he couldn't calculate it without his phone I spent half an hour teaching that kid how to get 10% by moving the decimal point and calculating it in his head that's something he should have learned here at Abington my father went to admington when he graduated he went straight to Drexel in the engineering school you are now ranked for the last three years 54th out of 100 Schools wiissa hickin was 12 and you're asking for more money you're not teaching these kids anything now with these things you're doing with these kids the numbers you showed are they rated on a national average or are they rated against Abington because if you're not taking them up to the national average you're not

121doing them any service okay I'm really it's just getting to be too much I look at this in 18 which was the only other year I can get from the last three you were 31 out of 50 Abington used to be in the top 10 schools in the state yeah and you've raised the taxes every year and you have not moved one place 54 54 54 you're below half and you're happy with that you think you should build a new building Upper Dublin school was built in 1952 they modified it wi hickens was built in 63 they modified it and they were number 12 you're not preparing kids you're not getting them up there you're not getting them taught and you're asking for more money I think you ought to really think about if you

122should get it thank you for your voice Dr fetcher oh I'm sorry I did not see you go ahead not see you um Jen Pell I live in Glenside um the last speaker was saying how he had an interaction with the student uh from Abington and how disappointed he was um and I it's funny because I had an interaction with the Abington student beyond my three who all went to Abington um and uh met her at the library and um she was excited about taking out a book and I noticed that she was a a senior at the high school so I asked her if she had plans after uh graduation and she said yeah and I said well you know have you decided where you're going to go and she lifted up her bag

123and um she's going to MIT and she doesn't want to pick a major because there's so much that she wants to learn and she doesn't want to limit herself for the first two years she's there and I know from the years that my kids have graduated that this school sends kids to Harvard to Brown to Georgetown to Yale to Cornell to all the ivys to Penn State pit you know Villanova to Michigan so we are a big school we have kids that struggle we have kids that Excel and I would I know that you and the all the staff and the teachers work every day to give them the best shot at whatever they do after high school and um and while not all of them are going to go to Harvard inale and you

124know MIT they are going to hopefully thrive in whatever they choose and I believe in what this school does and I appreciate what you guys do thank you for your voice go ahead um hi my name is Bryson I was just presiding for the school council um I just wanted to bring it to everyone's attention or at least the board's attention that how crucial reading is really as you get older in the high school I'm I'm a byproduct of Abington through and through came up through mckenley came up through the middle school and now I'm getting ready to graduate and those reading like crucial critical reading skills are so so important not just in school but outside of school but Abington Prides itself on having all these AP classes all the opportunities for kids to

125take but without these crucial reading skills it's you're not it's not really an option for kids who don't feel like they can read on the level that they would need to to take AP Literature AP language XYZ it's not it's it's we have the opportunities but is it really available to these students also in terms of the budget I just wanted to inquire kind of uh about because uh Amington senior high school did have uh budget issues last year which affected some of our programming going into this year and I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that students can definitely feel that like sometimes we can say we say that students might not be able to feel these uh Personnel Cuts or XYZ thinking it's not affecting them but we definitely feel it it

126has an effect on our programs and academics is of course the number one important thing but I just want everyone to know that these changes that we're looking at on a screen it's hard to put it to a put a picture to a face you could put it to my Fe it's it's affecting we we know we could feel it so just keep that in mind when you know making decisions up in the big house thank you for your thoughts Bryson um and for those important insights I think one of the reasons um that I'm particularly concerned about these reading scores in the grade schools for precisely the reason you just noted that these are foundational skills um and students absolutely need them in order to Avail themselves of the opportunities they have in high

127school and Beyond so thank you for that Dr fetcher we have a caller oh we have another caller okay the next citizen for public comment is phone number ending in 1661 please State your full name and address hello hello go ahead we can hear you hi this is um Michelle Cooper Kingsley um Road good evening um members of the board administrators and fellow community members um for families who benefit from I'm sorry could I just ask you to speak up a little louder oh sure thank you um can you hear me if I yep we're good now thank you great um so for families who benefit from supports provided by Medicaid and on behalf of the Abington Township human relations commission um I just wanted to invite people who are listening to a virtual pan

128panel discussion this Thursday evening 6:30 it's entitled who pays the price understanding the human toll of Medicaid cuts um panelists will discuss how Cuts will impact people across the state including families whose children need Medicaid in order to support their learning environments um you can go to the Township's human relations commission website and at the bottom you'll find a Facebook feed where you can get more information and register um but switching topics um I am a proud parent of two parent of two students in the Abington School District I'm calling tonight to express my strong support for the referendum to fund a new middle school and remind residents to vote Yes on May 20th our current Middle School is outdated and failing to meet the needs of today's students as a parent I want my

129children and all students in Avington to have access to Modern safe and effective learning spaces the reality is that renovating the current building would cost nearly the same as building new 92% of the cost without delivering long-term benefits on top of that Renovations would take four years disrupting students education while failing to fully address outdated infrastructure a new Middle School is the smartest investment for our students and for our community strong schools increase home values attract families and businesses and ensure that Addington remains a top tier place to live this is not just about today's students it's about making sure our schools continue to serve future Generations we also know this is our only chance to secure funding for a new school if the referendum fails there is no backup plan the district will be

130forced to pour Millions into Patchwork repairs that will continue draining resources from classrooms that is not a solution the numbers speak for themselves 60% of residents support building a new middle school and 85% of residents believe investing in our schools schools protects our community I want to be part of that investment and I urge my fellow parents neighbors and community members to do the same so on May 20th I'll be voting yes for a new Middle School for the future of Abington thank you thank you for your voice Mr Green our next caller please this would be the second time they're calling in um Dr fetcher what's our protocol here only allowed one okay moment in each section so they can call back at the end of okay in the next uh comment section okay

131so if you can hear me you can call back in the next comment section and we'll move on to the second caller it looks like they're no longer there I oh okay yeah okay you want to give it a minute okay the next citizen for public comment is phone number ending in 4257 please State your full name and address hi good evening everyone um this is Aaron Palmer and I live on carmet road and I'm just calling because I'd like to congratulate the casts and Crews of the middle school and high school productions of Mary Poppins Jr and Anastasia um my family attended both and we are always amazed at all the tal and dedication uh these students have um Miss Bloom and Miss Joseph just want to give them shout outs in the Middle

132School are absolutely amazing um my eighth grader is really going to miss them next year when she moves on to the high school um that being said I'm really glad to see that in the plan for the new Middle School which is posted on the1 ASC website um some attention will be placed on the outdated performing artart spaces um the students and the teachers really deserve some larger and more modern spaces and I'm glad that that is going to be considered um that's all uh thank you and have a great evening thank you for your voice Mr Green can you confirm that there are no callers on the line uh there are no more callers on the line okay okay Dr fetcher um just two comments one in terms of uh the promotion of literacy

133District wide I couldn't agree with anyone more in terms of how essential it is to grow love of reading at an early age and to continue that especially as students um get older and part of that leads my second comment and that is um I also agree with the comments that were made about how important it is for our students not to fall behind and to become you know to be on grade level and I think that the presentation that we saw this evening um is addresses just that and it is a look at the beginning of the year where students are the middle of the year and the end of the year and the goal is by the end of the year for everyone to be 100% on grade level and so what we

134saw this evening if we have seen students who may not be performing by middle of the year it's it's essential for us to put in the interventions that you heard about this evening so I think that the combination of those two things is is very important and I don't want that to go overlooked um finally we I would like to speak about our students and specifically um our graduates here in Abington and the amazing things that they are doing uh um yes do we have students who struggle absolutely do we have students who are making a huge difference on the world absolutely uh I was fortunate to be uh principal here in Abington and um to look at where students have gone from graduation and the things that they've accomplished uh later on and some

135of them even um having the opportunity to return to Abington as some of our teachers um so I wouldn't want to discredit uh the great things that are occurring but also recognize that you know we are constantly looking at school Improvement as a way to meet the needs of students who may not be um making the mark and um we often hear in our community from Abington graduates about the solid education that they've received here in Abington and uh I am proud of that um but also recognize that we need to constantly look at interventions for students who aren't there yet thank you for that um I would just add that I will look forward to seeing the end of the year data um and Improvement for our students um I think I don't want

136to speak for board members but judging from your team tonight that um I share um their sense that those numbers cannot stand so uh with that I think uh we will move on to the approval of minutes miss fazey that the board of school directors approves the minutes of the board meeting on February 11th 2025 and the board meeting on February 20 25th 2025 second we have a second Dr F uh Mrs Flanigan sorry no Dr fetcher I we've submitted the minutes for your oh okay um Mrs Flanigan this is a Voice vote all those in favor I I all those opposed the motion passes um Miss fazey can you please read the recommendation for approval of the Personnel agenda that the board of school directors approves the changes in Personnel is reflected in Personnel

137agenda number addendums number 8.1 and 8.1 a and confidential addendum number 8.1b second we have a second Dr fetcher thank you Dr mie uh the personal denim begins with the request for leaves of absence for three professional employees compensation for IP meetings and parent meetings uh I bring your attention to the retirement of Miss Yolanda Moran a first grade teacher at Copper Beach Elementary School who has served the district for 22 years uh Mrs Flanigan this is a rooll whole vot may I oh I'm sorry yes uh just to miss Moran I had the pleasure of having her um as a teacher of one of my children and it was such a blessing so I I pray that these years after retirement will be joyful years for you and that you will take time to

138reset and love on your family thank you for your 22 years of service indeed thank you okay Mrs Flanigan this is a roll Mr Allen I Mrs Brown I miss eisenhart I Mr Muhammad I miss balding I miss Hartman I miss Fraser I miss FY I Dr maray I the eyes have it the motion passes Miss FY can you read uh the recommended action for permits of buildings and grounds at the board of school directors approves the applications for permits for use of buildings and grounds is reflected in a dundum number 9.1 second Dr feter we have a second thank you Dr maay the permit addendum continues to reflect requests for buildings and grounds for meetings and other school events and activities for this time of year okay questions or comments from my board fellow

139board members thank you for your service and creating opportunities for students to work together bind and enjoy things outside of the four walls or sometimes within the four walls of the school okay um and uh I also want to thank um the folks at Willow Hill for creating that opportunity for a book club for students faculty and staff um Mrs Flanigan Mr Allen I Mrs Brown I miss eisenhart I Mr muhamad I miss balding I miss Hartman I Miss Frasier I miss FY I Dr mauy I miss fazey can you please read I'm sorry the eyes have it the motion passes um Miss fazey can you please read the recommendation for awards of contracts that the board of school directors approves the awards of contracts as reflected in addendum number 10.1 second we have a

140second Dr fetcher thank you Dr mauie uh tonight for your consideration we have three Awards of contracts uh the first is for Capital lease financing agreement this is for the eight replacement 72 passenger student transportation buses uh that we spoke about at the last meeting um these Finance payments will be expensed through the general fund budget beginning with the 2025 2026 school year and will'll continue through the 2029 2030 school year okay thank you questions are I'm sorry we also have two more um the next in is for the library management system software and Cloud migration and the final one is for Microsoft Office Suite that's it okay questions or comments from board members I have a question about the library management system is that a is that a cataloging system so it's the uh

141Destiny library system by fallet um it's for processing um and transactions within uh the Library resources um it also has some um migration in the cloud to basically reduce some of that information um and Dr melor do you want to explain that further more detail um it's as Dr Mallie mentioned so it's the cataloging system for the library so students can uh look up books uh select books um it's accessible 24 47 from home and from school oh they can ACC access it remotely yes okay that's great okay okay any other questions or comments no okay Mrs Flanigan it's a roll call vote Mr Allen I Mrs Brown I miss eisenhart I Mr Muhammad I miss balding I miss Hartman I Miss Frasier I miss FY I Dr mauy I the eyes have it the

142motion passes Miss FY can you please read the recommendation for the Ashton Carter memorial gifts and bequests that the board of school directors approves the installation of a gardencourtyard outside of Abington Senior High School in memory of Dr Ashton Carter class of 1972 with materials and installation donated at no cost to the school district by members of the Abington Senior High School class of 1972 and design approved by the school district understand ing that the school district will not be responsible for maintenance and upkeep of this donation second we have a second Dr fetcher yes so this is a group of alumni um from the Abington Senior High School class of 1972 um approached the administration for their desire to um donate a Memorial Garden or Courtyard on the grounds of Avington Senior High School

143um Miss Artur has worked with the group and I'm GNA ask her to please um expand on that yes so um as Dr fenter mentioned um last school year members of the class of 1972 who remained close friends with um Abington alumnus and former Secretary of Defense Dr Ashton Carter um up until his death in 2022 um they approached um Administration um with a desire to donate um a Memorial Garden or Courtyard on the grounds of Abington Senior High School um we worked with them to identify a location um just outside of the main entrance um so this donation is being presented um in accordance with the policy and staff regarding gifts and requests questions and comments from board members no Miss W nothing okay all right it's a roll call vote Mrs Flanigan Mr

144Allen I Mrs Brown I miss eisenhart I Mr Muhammad I miss balding I miss Hartman I Miss Frasier I miss I Dr Maui I the eyes have it the motion passes Dr fetcher are there any additional reports and recommendations by the administration yes Dr Maria provide the conference attendance of professional leaves report and the capital Improvement projects report for your information okay questions or comments okay is there any other business that may be appri appropriately brought before the board right that brings us to our final section or session of comments from citizens comments from citizens are being conducted both in person and by phone the phone number to participate is 267 715 3717 and is being displayed on the screen at this time you'll be able to join the meeting by calling in on your

145mobile or landline phone if there's any one present who would like to make a comment please use the microphone either to the left or to your right hi ladies and gentlemen Joe Rooney again from orsley I'll I'll try and do a quick shotgun thing first um to my always neglected and often maligned Christian brothers and sisters I'd like to wish you all a peaceful and holy lent which of course leads up to our Holy Week which is Good Friday and then culminating with the good news of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday so these are awesome times for us and I wish you well second St Patrick's Day is coming up so Dr o fetcher Mrs o mauy I hope everybody has a great St Patrick's Day we also have a lunar eclipse uh between the

14613th and the 14th midnight to like 2 o'clock in the morning it's like six hours long just mention it in case anybody's interested you can join me I'll be out there on that um next Common Sense Abington we got to vote no on this bond issue it's not that we don't need work and we love education but $285 million is no plan at all uh come join us take a sign put it up and I'll go back to what I was going to do before I was trying to think with my wife what's going on with this vote because what you basically did is you were you voted on something there's no specs there's no plans there's no bid there's just hurry up and borrow the money commit yourselves to a 40-year payback you know

147what that is it's a time share pitch so people have asked me what is IC if you're out there listening our board just bought into a time share pitch with our money what do we need to do we need to proceed with caution now is not the time to borrow $285 million what are we going to do if we vote on it and the rates aren't 5 and a half% if they're six six and a half% we as a plan someone just said we have no plan there's no plan for that either other than it's going to cost people more money How about if we're an unsettled economy and steel prices are going up what are we going to do we have no plan it's time to proceed with caution take your time develop an

148actual plan look at what we can do if we spent $50 million what if we spent $100 million there's an acceptable number out there that might actually give us money to teach kids in elementary school how to read you already voted on this we need to vote no it's not a vote against education it's not a vote against the school district it's a vote to spend money wisely for all of our kids into the future just spending your grandkids and children's money for 40 years is not an answer to anything and building a building does not teach people how to read and do math we owe a better better education to all of our children and it doesn't start with capital projects it starts with meeting their needs where they are and getting them up

149on to par thank you very [Music] much why have you not made it public knowledge that CTS if this resolution passes will get between 28.5 and $ 34.2 million of that 285 28.5 to 3 or 34.2 million they will get of that resolution that means the we only get 250 best but you don't let anybody know that do you well I hope they know now hi go ahead Jen pel from Glenside um uh I was going to talk about how one of the speakers last meeting said that they' love what's happening with Doge and that they want to have uh that here um but I do find it a little ironic that there's a worry from somebody that steel prices are going to go up and interest rates are going to go up and that's

150a direct result of what this current Administration is doing so I find that just a little funny actually um but anyway so what uh a previous speaker had said is that they think they need Doge here and I'm not really and I guess that's because they think they're doing an amazing job and I'm not really sure where they're getting that information um I know that there's this wall of receipts supposedly it's pretty much filled with errors or you know uh mistakes and stuff so but just as a thought experiment what would that look like if it was happening in Abington um it would mean that at Abington Hospital like at the VA a quarter of the employees would be fired just like that and that for Abington Hospital that would be approximately 1,400 employees it

151would mean at the Abington Township and Abington Police Department just like at the FBI a quarter of the employees would be fired just like that and so that would be approximately 40 Township employees and that would be approximately 23 off officers it would mean at the Abington School District just like at the Social Security Administration and at the Department of Education half of the employees would be fired and so for Abington School District that would be approximately 574 staff and teachers to start and of course their plan is to eliminate the Department of Education um so you may think that these actions I'm sorry respectful people were respectful for you you should be respectful when they're talking thank you that's right so of course that was a clap because you know he wants public school

152to be gone so we know that so you you may think that none of these actions will affect you because you wouldn't be fired or you don't send your kids to Abington Public Schools Etc but we all live in the same community and we rely on the services and support we receive from the Township from the police department from the hospital and from the schools and plus for all of the US the largest investment we have is our house and so decimating our Township assets not only is bad for now it is bad for the future and it's actually worse for the future because it would destroy what makes Abington a sought after place to work and live and so thank you thank you for your voice can I speak go ahead yeah hi my

153name is Joe I live in jenin toown uh as a retired nurse and nursing instructor I have most respect for teachers believe me I I've been there and done that and I appreciate the improvements I've seen by those charts but it made me have a question I'm not sure if you can answer it um because the numbers are so poor I'm just curious ious say in 10 10 years ago was did that problem exist as much to where it needs all this attention I'm just curious if you can enlight me a little bit if you know it has it always been like that or or is it a much bigger problem now than it was before can anyone answer that I'm not sure if I'm even that they has a question like that but so

154we this is not um back and forth but Dr fetcher will likely address that once you're done with your with your time okay well that that that it kind of blared at me you know I'm a baby boomer and when I was in school we had 99 Boys in my class so it was like challenging but it just seems more challenging from what I'm been seeing with these charts and everything and that's all okay thank you thank you for your voice is this the same caller okay so they've already called in once no okay okay go ahead Bryson I'm I'm not a taxpayer so I can't speak from that perspective you know soon but not yet thankfully but I can speak from the perspective of student student who went to the middle school and who

155seen hasn't been back recently but knows what it's like and that could definitely be attributed to one of the reasons that fights may be breaking out or students might not be learning as efficiently because the middle school is the cpit in falling apart and it's to the point where I'm a member of the uh act task force Abington Community task force and we uh met and saw the numbers and saw all the projections in the beginning and they made it very clear that it's G to be it's basically impossible to like modify or sa without spending the same amount of money we would be SP spending anyway so why would we waste our money and replace for examp Just For example Roofing that's falling apart why would we waste our money and do that when

156we could in invest in a whole new building and have students learning a new technology that works and that could be helping them even more cuz we do know that's a a true fact that we know this newer technology is helping which the chart that we just looked at shows this newer technology is definitely helping students and raising rates of uh raising reading levels and math scores XYZ so why not put them in an environment where're surrounded by that kind of stuff uh just I don't know food for thought thank you for your voice anyone else okay Dr fetcher right U first I wanted to address um the the comment about um IC and what they would gain from uh this contract to put it into perspective of a building project itself um the the

157fees that are associated are 5 to 6% for a design fee and that includes a design team um program management fee is about 1 to 2% and construction management fee which is about 1.5 to 2.5% so the range um is around a 7.5 8% that being said to put it into context with a project that we most recently completed it um that project the actual fees uh at the completion of the project which included the same um type of uh fee you know same things design uh program and construction management was 7.5% so it is part of you know doing a project that you have to do these construction management you have to do design and this all all said and done is a similar percentage and I fig I think that it's important to

158point out and that's from a project we just completed anything else you want to address uh in terms of uh the scores over the last 10 years um obviously we do we do look at um score Trends over that time period um what I would say first is we did see over the past few years years uh declined nationally um and that hit us here in Abington as well the one thing I could say is 10 years ago we didn't have the resources that we have that you saw this evening to be able to Target uh instruction in the manner in which it it is done um you heard of different assessments and diagnostic tools that are used um I've been in the field for 28 years and I could say that in the past

15910 years it's a world of difference of what's available to inform instruction um and also to Target specifically for each individual student centered approach and I think tonight's presentation was a testament to that so have there been a decline in the in the past 10 years yes um and how are we addressing that I think we saw that this evening and the strategies that we're using one thing that I would also mention is tonight when we saw strategies that we uh developed through our school Improvement plans last year those midpoint scores have helped us to look at their strategies to see what's working what's not working and make midyear adjustments um that is something that doing these Diagnostics throughout the year not just at the end of the year in a state test provides ongoing

160data and we can correct the course if we need to correct the course uh if we're not getting what we anticipated or gains uh from different interventions so the challenge is there and I believe that we are trying whatever we can to face this National problem that is occurring also in Abington School District okay um and am am I correct in understanding that most of the data we looked at tonight was focused on tier 2 and tier three students so these were not most of the the data we were looking at involves students who were in need of some intervention to get them up to grade level rather than tier one students who are already reading at grade level yes okay and and I think it's important to note and this is I I am

161not trying to be Master of the obvious but if we look at September and we had all of our students in September at 100% then we we could move right to June um and so the goal is to to get to 100% by The End by that third assessment and what I do see is the Improvement and the growth to get there um obvious ly at the middle of the year you know we would love for our kids to be uh on grade level at the middle of the year that they should be in June but we have the the year to do that and to help progress and all these interventions are put into place as safeguards throughout the year to help our students reach that goal of 100% of being on grade level

162and Beyond grade level for our students um who that may be an extreme strength okay and then if I could just ask for clarification on two other points when did we begin the process of evaluating the middle school and assessing and doing the feasibility studies for district needs for that cohort so the first first thing we did was a facilities condition assessment um that was districtwide and year on that I think that work work began in 2021 okay and then we had a first presentation in June of 2022 okay so we have been publicly presenting this very long process for going on three years now okay great that seems important to me the second thing I was hoping you might clarify is in the process of doing the addition at the senior high school when

163did the district move into the Dei design phase was it before the bond was approved or after the design phase would be after okay and so this process is consistent with the process we used for that addition design happens after the money has been approved yeah there are estimates based on um square footage enrollment and that those estimates um create a construction square footage which is what the number is based off of right that helps us assess the uh borrowing what we need to borrow correct okay okay thank you for that clarification um with that we will move to closing comments of school directors Mr Allen nothing thank you okay Mrs Brown it's been a long night thank you for your contributions everyone have a good evening Miss eisenhart uh ditto Mrs Brown thank you

164have a good night Mr Muhammad good night everyone Miss faling have a good evening everybody miss Hartman um I just want to say one quick thing um I I want to thank all the administrators in central office for all the work they're doing for our kids I know that the teachers the administrators everyone's heart and soul is with the kids and wants the kids to do well and I know that that's all of our goals and I just want to say thank you very much for everything you're doing for the kids I appreciate it we all do miss Fraser night night Miss FY take good care everyone Miss woo happy holy to those celebrating it on Friday and have a good night okay um I want a second M Hartman's support for um our staff

165and our teachers um and just say that we are well I won't say we I'll say I am very proud to be working um on these challenges that we face with you so with that good night everyone