Legislative Board Meeting

001Okay, thank you. I'm going to call the meeting to order. Uh, welcome to tonight's Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 legislative board meeting. We will begin with the pledge of allegiance and the statement of acknowledgement. Miss Lman. We begin this meeting with acknowledgement of and honor for the many legacies that have impacted our community, particularly those buried over time. Acknowledging truth is critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of heritage and difference. Cheltonham Township stands with the Lape Hokink, the ancestral homeland of the Lenny Lape civilization. Their people were and still are caretakers of this land and its rivers, and their legacy continues. We pay respect to their elders, past and present. Our community owes its existence and vitality to generations from around the world contributed their hopes, dreams, and energy to make the

002history that led to this moment. Some were brought here against their will. Some were drawn to leave their distant homes in the hope of a better life, and some have lived on this land for more generations than can be counted. Please take a moment to consider the many legacies of violence, displacement, migration, and settlement that bring us together as a school district committed to fostering intellectual curiosity and discourse in service of social justice. Join us in uncovering such truths. >> Thank you, Miss Lman. Miss Hatcher, could you take the roll call, please? Good evening, Miss Blitzy. >> Present. >> Mr. Charles Fells, >> present. >> Mrs. Zachary X, >> present. >> Miss Daniel, >> present. >> Robin Murphy, >> present. >> Mr. Daniels, >> present. >> Dr. Blind Watts, >> present. This concludes our roll

003call. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Miss Hatcher. Uh we will now have public comment on agenda items only. And as a reminder that Sheltonham residents, taxpayers, and school district employees are permitted to speak on agenda items at this time. And uh speakers comments will be limited to 3 minutes or less. If you're in the room, you may come to the podium and you will be recognized. If you are uh listening via Zoom, uh you can raise your hand and you will be recognized that way. Seeing no comments for now, we will move on to our next item. Uh, which are recognitions. Uh, Cheltonham High School, uh, is here with us tonight. Dr. Hammond. No. Yes. All right. You're up. Got to finish a little snack. There we go. So, I put together a

004little presentation for you guys just to give some highlights of what's going on at the high school. And go to the next slide. Because we're meeting tonight, I thought it would be appropriate to share with you guys that our boys basketball team is playing right now at the Suburban One League Championship game against Upper Dublin at Ben Salem. So, let's good luck to them. Thank you. and our unified botchi team made their first playoff appearance in four years. They played today against PW. And as I was walking in, the team called me and um Philip Cohen was said, "Dr. Hammond, the kids wanted me to call and tell you they won and they are now third place. They got third place in the league and they will be advancing to the regional tournament." So they

005are ecstatic right now. Our debate club hosted by Dr. Warren sent 21 kids to the model UN conference and not only were was our school awarded the outstanding delegation but four of our students also won individual awards. Samir, Kennerly, Lucas, Ngo, Camila, Mula, Gulerva, and Tina Ramberg, Michael. But I also want to emphasize on the next slide that Tina got a premier delegate. She was awarded premier delegate. She was awarded the best govern government research project. And out of the 1,500 students, less than 2% were named a Kona delegate. and she also got that honor. Our students are also thriving while over there at Eastern. In the most recent Skills USA district competition, 16 of our students um earned a earned an award. We and to emphasize on this, the six first place winners that

006we have here also are going on to the state uh tournament, the state competition. And then I also have another student, Mival, who was awarded for she submitted a poetry um entry into the 2026 Scholastics Art and Writing Awards competition and she earned honorable mention for her piece called T uh Stillness. Isabella Arman earned seventh chair in the PMEA District 12 choir, which is not an easy feat. and Stephanie Klehorn, whose art you'll hear about and you'll see this evening, won judg's favorite out of the Drexel University photography contest where over 2100 pieces of art were entered. And thank you board because you guys um approved us running the data literacy course which is teaches data science and our teacher Miss Greenwald had a virtual workshop with Pulitzer journalist Marier Arens who joined the class

007from South Africa and discussed how she uses journalism in her I mean how she uses data science in journalism and about her upcoming projects and really motivated our students to see real world applications with that course. And just a little fun fact, did you know that our library has the deepest research database of any public high school in the state of PA? I did not know that. And so that's why I wanted to add that because it's always good to know the great things that are going on here in Chelingham. So now just talking about some um academic updates as well versus our just our individuals. So in 2324 I was not the principal. I was just uh an assistant. And when we looked at honor role in 2324% of our students earned honor role

008in the first marking period and then 38% in the second. Last year I started as interim those numbers changed to 47% in the first market period and 43.5% in the second where I was even though we made some growth I was still a little disappointed because of that drop from first market period to second mark period but it is understandable where the majority of your content is taught in that second half of the course. However, this year we had 49% in the first marking period and it jumped to 53% in the second marking period. So, still climbing. And in same breath, our freshman academy, go back, go back one. Um, our freshman academy where first market period they were averaging 40%. And then in the second marking period two years ago was 34 and then

009it went to 36. This year under our new model with the freshman um academy model we had 46% of freshmen in the first marking period make honor role and 54% of freshmen made honor role in the second marking period which is actually also higher than our school average of 53%. our AP courses. In 2425 school year, we had 642 enrollments in an AP class. And I had to word it that way because it's not students, it's enrollments. A kid could be a student could be taking four or five AP classes at a time. But we had 642 AP enrollments in the at the end of this first marking period we had 715. So that increased by about 10%. So our students are still pushing themselves to take challenging courses. I emphasize that because last year

010we had a lot of good um results where 349 students, which was the highest in the last 5 years, um took an AP exam. And then we had 581 AP exams administered, which was also the highest in the last 5 years. We had the highest number of AP students getting a three or better in the last 5 years at 257. And we had the highest percentage of students getting a three or better in the last 5 years of 73.64%. I mention that because as of right now, even though we we have the AP exams coming up in May, we already have increased to 351 students registered to take an exam and 591 um exams have been requested to be purchased. So, I'm anticipating some good things and I believe also those numbers would be even

011higher. However, we have a an um a strong emphasis on our dual enrollment program. And so, two two years ago, the 23 24 school year, only 22 students were set up for dual enrollment. Last year, that went to 37. And this year, we're sitting at 99 students enrolled in dual enrollment courses. And we also have an amazing list of supports for our students at the high school. We have a mental health and wellness counselor who's also providing anxiety and stress management group for students as well as an executive functioning group for our students. We have an AltarsGate student assistance counselor that does individual counseling at the high school. We have a drug and alcohol counseling uh program set up through the Lincoln Center where they see students based more on referrals whether it's student, parent

012or disciplinary based. And we have a lakeside counselor that provides special education counseling supports. We also have a male mentoring group that is facilitated by Chris Pender and his organization of families and communities on the move. They are working currently with about approximately 16 students. And we have a female mentoring group that is called Girls Circle. Naja Ruiz is the facilitator and her organization Pathfinders LLC. And they are wrapping up their first cohort of 11 students and are about to come into a second cohort of students. And with all of those highlights, and I'm sorry for those that I missed, but I just wanted to give you a snapshot of the great things that are going on at the high school. I now want to pass it off to Lori Alver, our unified art department

013chair, to talk about the amazing art that is on the wall. >> Hi. Um, I'm here to share the wonderful display of art that we just hung up a couple days ago. Um, I'm Lori Alver. I teach the AP photo and digital photography, which you'll see on the back panel wall. Um, many of the images that are featured are from uh we took uh 75 80 students to New York to go see art, architecture, um Little Island, the Oculus, 911 memorial. We went to a bunch of different places. Um we're also taking about 80 students. We're just preparing our trip packet. We're going to go to DC to see cherry blossoms and museums and monuments um this spring in April. So that's our next upcoming trip which is AP 3D art, the sewing and fashion

0142, um our AP drawing, AP 3D and AP photography program will be going. So we have a broad range of students going. Um you'll see a wide variety of different artworks. We have 3D work. We have fine arts work. We have painting, drawing, um, collage, we have photography, we have digital art back there from the graphic design, digital illustration multimedia program. They're also doing t-shirt design in the graphic design program. So, we have a couple of the t-shirt designs that are featured up on the panel. Um, there'll be more in our spring art show. So, we have a large spring art show May 21st at the high school from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Um, many of these artworks are from broad range of classes starting with intro classes. So, students who start in the craft

015arts, fine arts, um, then go up into the upper level, so it's a broad splattering of work. Um, a few pieces have been held back because we do have our PSA show and that artwork gets dropped off next week. So, a little bit has been held back so you don't get to see everything, but those will be featured because Kevin does a great job advertising on social media. Um the teachers that are involved in our exhibit was uh me uh my husband Michael Oliver teaches the AP art. Um we have Maraviski who does all our 3D art. Uh Mary Sawyer who does mostly family and consumer sciences and sewing and fashion. Um but she taught some craft arts this year. So we have a little bit of her work. Um Stephanie Jackson who does all

016our digital design work and she does most of the stuff back there. um and Adam Farrell who teaches our craft arts in the introductory classes and Lauren Shre who teaches art one. So we have a broad range of works. Um we're looking forward to submitting our works to PSA which is our nice jured art competition. Um we initially jury at the high school as a group and then it is jured for different prizes and different categories. We also have one award winner which is Stephanie Klehorn who submitted work to the Drexel show. Um, I went and saw the show on Sunday at Drexel and they only hung up the judges choice and all the award winners. So, it was a 33 artworks at the Urban Center in Philly. So, it was very nice. Um, her

017artwork, the light bulb is at the bottom on our AP panel back there. And, um, we also had uh 22 students submit work for the Woodmir Art Gallery for the kids care exhibit. And then the artworks were donated to children who are um, sick and homebound and suffering from different illnesses. was arrived with a it was like the gift that went along with um a gift that was delivered to them at the hospital or at their home since they're um not well. Um so 22 of our kids donated to give their artwork away. So that was a nice thing. Um and thank you. Take a look at all the artwork. >> Thank you so much Dr. Hammond and Miss Aliv for sharing with us. Uh I feel like we got an update. We got the

018arts. We got extracurriculars. We got athletics, we got academics. Um, I think I don't know how you could see that slideshow or that presentation and not uh see what wonderful things are happening at our high school each and every day. So, thank you to both of you for being here tonight and to all of our staff that uh work hard every day for our students at at the high school. Thank you. >> And Miss Aliver and team, I just wanted to thank you for the flexibility. We weren't sure if we were going to actually be in here uh as we just came back uh recently and the flexibility you exhibited to come in here on a Friday and get all of this up. Uh wanted to acknowledge that and and also your presence tonight. And

019Dr. Hammond, thank you, sir. And um you guys are excused. You should try to get up to Ben Salem. Uh I'm going to call Mr. White and see if you made it. And uh thank you for your time this evening. greatly appreciated. >> Thank you. >> Uh we will now move on to a little more of a boring agenda item, but uh still very important to me to approve our minutes from last month. Uh so if I could have a motion to approve the Jan the January 13th minutes. >> So move excitedly seconded. >> Thank you, Mr. Schultz. Appreciate it. Any comments or questions on the minutes? Uh all those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? All right, the motion carries. Thank you so much. Um, we will now hear from one of

020our high school students. U, Miss Striker will come with the student council report. >> Hello. >> Further discussion. Okay, now it's working. Um, my name is Elizabeth Striker. I represent student council. Um, our last meeting was January 28th. Um, we talked about further discussion planning for Mr. Cheltonham, which we're bringing back this year. Um, and our Magnolia Mixer, which should happen later um, in March. Um, blue and gold night is to be held March 6th, but we do have a prep rally on Thursday, February 12th. Um, this year the themes are NFL versus NBA. Um, so that's really fun because half the school is like divided. Uh, it's just a good time. Uh, the freshman dance is April 11th. Tickets are on sale now on the website. Um, and like it would be remiss for

021me not to mention that this weekend is a huge weekend for band programs. um at Cheltonham High School this year, this week, um on Friday, February 13th, there's a jazz band competition. Um you can take your kids there, whatever. Um but it's really cool because you get to see like our jazz band perform and different high schools from across the district, which is really cool. Um and that's being held from 6:30 to 10:00. Um, and it's really cool to see like band. Um, on that Saturday, February 14th, which is this week, um, there will be percussion and color guard competitions throughout the whole day. Um, you can get tickets for $15 for adults and 10 for kids. Uh, at the very end, the Panther Guard, which I'm in, uh, will be performing at 8:59 p.m.

022So, feel free to stop by and like see what it's all about. It's really cool. Um, concessions will be sold. It's a good time all around. So, I definitely encourage all of you guys to make the commute to the high school on Saturday. I know it's late, but it'll be worth it. Um, yeah, I conclude my statement. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Miss Striker. >> All right. Uh, next is our solicitor's report, Mr. Diazio. >> Thank you, Miss Mher. board has not met an in executive session since last month's board meeting, so there is nothing to announce. Thank you. >> Thank you. Superintendence report, Dr. Sherman. >> So, good evening to our board of directors and our community at large. I want to start out by acknowledging that uh this is the month

023of February and uh there's a lot of great activities that are happening to honor Black History Month in Sheltonham School District. Uh these are just a couple of artifacts. I'm not going to play the video um which uh is honoring some of the activities happening at Windco Elementary. Principal Teller, as always, uh we thank you for being present, sir, and for your leadership, uh activities at the middle school. We have one of our students, which I know Mr. Charles Bedell Williams uh can appreciate, but also the board as a whole, who was recognized uh at Eastern Center for Arts and uh Technology. uh we have a component that is kind of led by the office of communications and uh Mr. Kaufman and his team where uh students are a part of our uh black history

024or our black student union are asked different questions and uh are able to kind of create uh a flash card uh which represents themsel and uh items that resonate uh potent uh specifically to them uh as it relates to Black History Month. There's a series of about 12 of these that will be uh presented as we move uh through the month and you will be able to uh review those on our uh web page. Uh this is just kind of the flyer um acknowledging our Thursday, February 26 collaborative that we have. It it's pretty dynamic. all the elementaryaries, middle and high school uh come together up uh at the auditorium. Uh this year we will be having it at the middle school because it's a little more modern than uh the high school. So uh

025that is just one upgrade and pivot. Uh but uh definitely would encourage uh any of our board members to uh push in uh to really uh see all of our students being showcased. It's pretty dynamic and a great event. Uh so moving on uh there is a lot of um attention around just Sheltonham and and and our safety protocols and and where we stand and uh we had had a couple of uh scenarios early in the year which uh rendered us taking some uh direct action. Uh subsequently we had partnered with the center for safe schools uh where uh some safety assessments and behavioral assessments or audits uh were actually administered. I do want to give an update that uh thus far uh and you can see it captured on the slide that there has

026been a safety assessment uh that was held um at the high school. Uh there's been a behavioral assessment that has already been conducted at Sheltonham Elementary. Um CBK and Sheltonham uh high schools uh will hopefully have their behavioral assess assessment reports uh due in or completed uh by the 19th of this month. Uh the Center for City Schools is scheduling out the remainder. uh you can see what has already been scheduled and uh what those following assessments look like. Uh Shahham High School did have the safety assessment on 129. Uh we uh do have that report in hand which we need um to uh take a deeper look at. Uh the high school had the behavioral on January 6. Uh, Cedarbrook behavioral audit on 17, Sheltonham Elementary, the behavioral audit on 18, Glennside Elementary will

027be having their safety audit on March 10th, and Meyers will be having their safety audit on March 12th. Uh we are in the process of working with the center for safe schools um to schedule the safety audit for Sheltonham Elementary, Wincoat Elementary, uh Cedarbrook East, and also uh Cedar Brook Middle School. So uh I will keep these as a running uh update uh for all of our legislative meetings moving forward. Um you will have this as part of my superintendent report. Um in addition to uh other communications that we will uh organize uh in partnership or collaboration with the center for safe schools. Uh so just wanted to uh bring that to the community uh just as a snapshot of where that work uh currently lies. You can go to the next slide please. As

028you are aware, um, and it should be reflected on our consent agenda that we, uh, are partnering, uh, with, uh, consulted from one of our IUs on uh, the reconfiguration of our uh, strategic plan. Uh, we are in the third year of implementation. uh and uh the work uh starting in March uh really through August will be around the uh development of a new five-year uh plan. And I just wanted to kind of high level uh give you an overview of potentially what that work is going to look like. Uh here you see the title from creation to cultivation uh of our 2026 202030 uh 2031 plan. Uh next slide please. So when you talk about the strategic shift in building systems uh versus deepening um impact, a lot of the work even prior to

029me on boarding in November of 21 uh was uh really geared around the curriculum audit that uh was shared in 2027. Uh that work had began in in 2015. uh since my onboarding in November uh we have been really uh intentional around systems and structures and and you've heard me consistently um speak around our need uh to break out of silos uh and to be more aligned and systemic in our uh approach. what I'm envisioning as superintendent as we move from 2026 uh to 20 uh 31 and I I use the word cultivation right because this is a a process and that's one thing uh that I always want to uh put before individuals we have to become more consistent with our uh systemic frameworks that we have put in place and that's really what

030this work is going to entail um and it's a shift uh in really culture climate and and mindset. Uh we have to do things with fidelity. So when you look at that and it speaks to the deep implementation reducing variability uh ensuring that systems uh and experiences are consistent uh we'll just use MTS as an example and you can go to the next slide as I'm probably uh getting ahead of myself and I'm actually right on quue. Uh when we look at MTSS we have a framework we've been working on that work for three years now. is the third year. I met with our uh CIPD team, our curriculum, instruction and professional development team today um and shared some of this with them high level in terms of the direction that we are moving. Having

031a framework is one thing. Consistently implementing it with fidelity in every one of our school houses is something different. we have the framework where we're moving is making sure that it's being implemented with fidelity and consistency uh throughout uh each one of our school houses and I just wanted to use that as an example another thing which I shared was you know how powerful professional development is right but one of the challenges that you encounter is I remember as a building administrator we would do this incredible PD But then when you went in to see application in the classrooms, that transference of that new material uh that was just learned was not evident, right? And we want to make sure that the systems, the structures that we're putting in place are are evident uh in

032everything that we do. Um we have systems and structures now uh for the adoption of the high quality instructional materials. We know that we have to adopt new standards under science or stills. Um Miss German is not here today but there's representatives from my office of ed team and central office. We really took our time with unpacking the portrait of a graduate and making sure that that community and stakeholder voice was a part of that process. We now have a pretty solid framework of what portrait of a graduate uh looks like. Uh and Mr. Swagard who was not able to be here with us this evening is really leading that work around operations and getting to the point where we can do preventive maintenance and be proactive rather than being a reactive state and that's

033a challenge for us because of the age of so many of our buildings but uh somewhere that we are are definitely looking at at getting uh next slide please. I I I I laugh just to an extent because I look at the gap, right? And uh you know there there's a ideal state um and and then there is is the reality and and that's uh just what we unpack each and every day. So, uh, as I'm looking at this plan, I'm I'm I'm looking at where we currently are. Uh, the work is going to be around assessing our current state. We know that right now we have seven pillars. Uh, the question then becomes, do we have to keep all seven of those pillars? uh some of the things that have kind of become our

034non-negotiables are around instruction and how do we close the disproportionality that we see in our data amongst our disagregated student groups. Uh another part is I have to figure out in internally how do we how do we build uh an aspiring leader pipeline um so that we always have a bench and um succession uh planning and peace. Uh and part of that is the continuous building of capacity of our our building leaders so that they can build capacity in others. You guys as a district have always been and I say that in this term because your equity work started before I even onboarded. But it is a a core value of mine as well. Uh but really looking at that and making sure that using our perceptual uh surveys and other multiple data points that

035uh there is that sense of belonging. Um there are no disparities as we're working on uh building out pathways and the programmatic uh pieces uh that we have as a district should be a representation of what all students aspire to do where they can see themselves reflected uh in our programmatic offerings. And then the operations um piece is really systemically memorializing uh what our standard operating procedures are. Uh we need to take a look and make sure that we have updated job descriptions for everyone that has a role in this district. As we're looking at those duties and responsibilities, making sure that we have standard operating procedures that align to those duties and responsibilities. Next slide, please. I I teed this up because this aligns to equity. It's only one piece when we talk about

036diversity, equity, belonging, and inclusion. Um, this was a standalone pillar. Uh, I put this pillar here because I want to show my thinking as I'm considering um putting out there the recommendation that as we're doing this work that we go from seven pillars to five pillars. But I put this slide first because this should be the underarching pillar or the underarching uh priority for every pillar, right? Um and that should uh be reflected uh in our work um in everything that we do in questions that we ask oursel and decisions that we make. Um so uh again as superintendent I have to bring something to the table. Uh this is not etched in stone. We haven't even gone through the process. So I want to be extremely clear that this is my thinking um that

037I'm putting as we're developing uh a committee that will be a strategic plan committee uh that will really be responsible for moving this work. Uh couple things that I recognize. We have to be more explicit. We're going to make the implicit explicit around the metrics. It it's important, right? We have to call out uh how we're going to measure our our growth. Um and uh just do a better job at at telling our own narrative, right? rather than others uh telling that narrative for us and using that continuously not just to develop this plan but also to honor the work of the plan as we're implementing um ensuring voices are heard um people not just being present this is just uh individuals that I want to be a part of um the process uh there

038are current board members that weren't court uh board members that were a part of the strategic plan first round. Um I think that it is more than acceptable to have current board members uh potentially sit in different capacities um to have the voice heard. So uh it's going to be interesting to look at that. But we're going to look at our stakeholder groups, UBG, Ca, uh our PTO's uh our students. We want student representation as well. Um I will be using my superintendent advisory student group to really get their voice and and and capture the work. Um so there's right now proposed starting in March four meeting um opportunities uh where we will come together in person uh for the first meeting and potentially the last meeting. The two middle meetings we're considering doing those

039virtual. There will be working opportunities from us going from a larger uh strategic comp plan committee to breaking down and putting individuals into committees based on pillars once we agree on what we feel those pillars should be. Um and uh really looking at as we're moving through uh June RPD day with principles really unpacking this and as we move into August uh having um uh a robust plan uh that we can take from development to implementation. So uh you guys uh will have these opportunities. will give you snapshots as we move through the work. Uh but I'm excited uh about birthing this next five-year strategic plan. I hope that we've demonstrated that our plan is actually a working document and not something that just sits on the shelf. Um we're going deeper with this. Our

040action plans need to be uh more explicit calling out the work. uh who's going to be responsible for that work and then that level of accountability through the metrics of making sure that it's happening with the fidelity uh in which it should. So when we talk about uh coherence and validation that will be the last uh meeting uh as we're really uh coming close at that point to having a finished product. Um these other slides you you guys can look at at your leisure. Uh but that brings closure to my report. Um and this is uh public uh data at at this point in time. So Mr. Schultz, no no pictures, just cute graphics. Okay. Thank you guys. Thank you board. >> Thank you Dr. Scriven. Uh for my president's report, I just briefly uh

041wanted to I was going to high not highlight in detail, but we've already heard in Dr. scrimmage report from the student council report and from Dr. Hammond all of uh the kinds of events that are happening uh all the time in our community. Um so that's a reminder uh to myself to all of us to the community to check that calendar go to events. Uh the board as a group has discussed that being a priority for us this year being more intentional about intentional about being in our schools and in our community at events. So uh just a reminder to there's a lot of awesome things happening. Uh, additionally, uh, the board in addition to administrators and staff members, um, was invited, um, by Dr. CJ, one of the assistant principles at Cedarbrook Middle School

042to participate in a mentorship program that they're doing with students. And so, some of us, um, that had some flexibility daytime in our schedules, are able to participate in that program. So I just wanted to highlight that for the community that of a way that we are uh getting into our schools uh seeing students and um you know seeing kind of every day the what's going on at our buildings and that's been um I'm able to participate in that and it's been a uh a really great experience so far. So thank you to Cedarbrook for allowing us to participate that way. Uh we will now move on to committee reports and the first one is from the McGomery County Intermediate Unit. Miss Lowman, >> thank you. The Montgomery County County Intermediate Unit board of directors

043met on Wednesday, January 28th at 6:45 p.m. over Zoom only. The meeting was held virtually due to inclement weather. The board met in executive session prior to the public meeting to discuss personnel matters. The board received reports and voted on action items from directors of the intermediate units 10 offices. Highlights from the meeting include um the board welcomes six new board members from the following school districts. Colonial, Upper Dublin, Lower Marian, Heersam, Satan, and Springfield townships with pretty big turnover um uh due to the election in November. The board received two presentations. One was from the office of technology services which just provided an overview of the various services that it provides to districts in um in Montgomery County and outside Montgomery County. Um during this current school year, the Office of Technology Services has

044247 contracts for services with 18 118 different local educational agencies across the state. So they are very busy and they seem to be getting busier by the day. Um the other presentation was from the MCIU's preK counts program. Um we received an overview of the program. MCIU has been a preK counts grantee since 2017, receiving state funding to provide free highquality full day preK with certified teachers for children's ages 3 to five. The program prioritizes children from Head Start eligible families. Um currently the IU operates 22 classrooms in eight school districts in the county. Our school district has the fifth highest enrollment in the program of the 21 districts in the MCIU. Only Norristown, North Penn, which is a very large district, Upper Marian, and Abington um are higher than than us. Um and they

045did mention that they would love if we have the space to come back into our district. Um they really enjoyed especially they enjoyed being in Wind Coat. They specifically said wind coat. Um uh so uh that um the IU continues to support that program. Um the board voted on whether to have um the IU's administration issue a request for proposals for general counsel legal services. The IU's contract with Fox Rothschild um who is the IU's current general counsel expires on June 30th, 2026. Fox Rothschild has been the MCIU solicitor for more than 40 years. Basically, ever since the formation of the IU system, and in that time, an RFP for general legal counsel services has never been issued. After an extended discussion, however, the board voted 11 to9 not to issue an RFP this year.

046If you want to know more about that, I'd be happy to provide that offline. Um uh the 202627 district membership services budget was approved in the amount of 2 million42,0002,42,210 for the period of July 1st 26 to June 30th 2027. Um tonight we're actually voting on whether to approve our district's contribution of $58,424 which represents a 4.37 increase over um our 2526 contribution. The increase um is due primarily to an increase in the contribution level to the office of technology services licenses and everything seems to be going up in that area. So um there was also a a smaller increase for um uh government relations services in the office of professional learning but um overall for us it amounts to a 4.37 increase. Um the board authorized Patan to enter into a consulting agreement with

047the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania to provide support to SOPA um intercolastic unified sports program. Um the board authorized several consultants agreements um with presenters who will be presenting at the upcoming uh Pennsylvania Department of Education's annual conference making a difference educational practices at work that will be held on February 25th to the 27th in Hershey. um the project aware grant which is a large federal grant that the IU received a couple years ago to support mental health screening and awareness in schools and we have been the beneficiary and the participant and some of the grant activities in the span of like 24 hours was cancelled and then reinstated. So the uh this grant is now still in place and will be continuing as far as the IU knows at least through September 30th of this

048year. Um which was a relief to everyone involved. Um and the final thing um is that the board authorized the IU to enter into a service agreement um with our district uh to provide functional behavioral assessments um from January 6th through June 30th of this year on an ad as needed basis. Um, and the next MCIU board meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 25th, um, at 6:45 in person at the IU's main office in Northtown and also over to this my >> Thank you, Miss Lman. Financial affairs, Mr. X. >> Thanks. Greetings, everyone. Uh, this financial affairs committee, aka if you saw Jerry McGuire, show me the money. Uh, and that's what we got to talk about. We talked about monthly and historical financial statements uh in both a point in time and throughout

049the course of the year. Uh the financial committee meeting is recorded for anyone who would like to go and watch on YouTube. Um we also talked about the preliminary 2026 2027 budget. uh and I don't want to alarm anyone, but there is a significant uh projected shortfall that uh the district is continuing to um navigate and and explore. And so there will be many more comments conversations uh around the f financial standing of the district in upcoming years and and and we do welcome public input from students, parents, uh community members alike. And so that is just the start of a conversation. Uh I don't want to say all the numbers and things like that because that could change from now over the next couple of months. So the preliminary budget is just that it's

050it's a very early conversation around what um some projections are actually for the next five years. If you go and look on uh line on board docs, you can see some projections for the next five years. We also talked about uh some board action that you'll notice on our agenda tonight. Uh the one item is for a scoreboard at the football stadium. Uh another uh action item is uh approving or considering a resolution uh for a capital grant uh from the state. You heard from Miss Lman around the MCIU budget that we are considering tonight. Uh and also uh as you heard from our superintendent on our agenda tonight is also approved of a contract to move forward with the strategic planning efforts through another uh ICU in Bucks County, our our our neighboring county.

051So there are a number of items that we are considering tonight that we discussed at our financial affairs meeting. And so another if anyone wants to know before we make our decisions why we're making certain decisions or ask about certain decisions, those financial committee um meetings are where you want to be. The next uh meeting is on Oh my gosh. Thank you. March 3rd because there's so many March 3rd, 2026. It'll be held here at the admin building or streamed live uh via Zoom. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. EPS. uh educational affairs. Miss Litstein, >> thank you. Uh the educational affairs committee meeting was held on January 20th, 2026 here uh at the administration building. The following agenda items were discussed. We began with a presentation on algebra 1 placement criteria, which is being

052compressed from six criteria currently to three as the district attempts to remove barriers to study mathematics. Uh, our supervisor of curriculum and instruction for elementary, Caitlyn Ferraro, next walked the board through the process used to identify high quality uh, instructional texts for English language arts. And the rest of the meeting featured a report on progress on the strategic plan. Uh, we heard from administrators who presented completed and future tasks within the plan, seven pillars. Um, the full presentation for the January 20th meeting may be found on the district's website homepage by clicking on schoolboard, then committees. Scroll down to educational affairs and click on the hyperlink for most recent meeting summary, slide deck, and video for all the materials that were viewed as well as the recorded meeting. The next educational affairs meeting is a

053week from tonight, February 17th, at 7 p.m. here at the admin building and on Zoom. That concludes my report. >> Thank you, Miss Litstein. Uh, Eastern Center for Arts and Technology, Mr. Belle Williams. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. And although, uh, Dr. Hammond and Dr. Scriven tried to steal some of my shine in terms of highlighting Cheltonham students um, and the excellence that they exude as students uh, at the Eastern Center for Arts and Technology. Um, in addition to Giovani Francis who was shown as one of the students highlighted uh at under Eastern's Black History Month spotlight, also uh wanted to mention Miss uh Michaela Dri who was also um highlighted as a part of Eastern's Black History Spotlight. Um, Eastern uh does a fantastic job at uh each and every month um highlighting students

054for um all of the awesome things they do in and outside of Eastern Center for Arts and Technology. And in Black History Month, they are doing so by highlighting um black students who are doing such. Uh the next order of business for the joint operating committee uh was to approve our student of the month uh who was Gretchen Lynn, a Springfield at Springfield Township High School senior uh who was recognized for her outstanding work in Eastern's welding technology program. Um at Eastern, Gretchen was elected as a schoolwide officer for the PM session serving as reporter. She is an active Eastern volunteer providing welding technology demonstrations during the open house and career expo and assisting at Eastern's annual designer bag bingo and craft fair. Every year designer bag bingo and craft fair for everyone listening. By

055the way, um all of the proceeds from both of those events support Eastern Student Foundation Student Education Foundation. um through her welding technology program. She has also earned uh her OSHA 10 training certification. Uh Gretchen's also a member of Eastern's women in trades club who last year spoke to a group of female students in a STEM club at Keith Valley Middle School in Hatboro Horscham and continues to advocate on behalf of women in trades. Um, and when you had a chance to listen to Gretchen, if you want to go and and watch the the meeting, you'll hear the passion that she has for for this advocacy. Um, at Springfield Township High, Gre Gretchen stands out as a leader and an athlete. She serves as captain of the varsity water polo team, proud member of National

056Honor Society, and has been recognized both as a student athlete of the month and suburban one league athlete of the week. After graduating from Eastern and Springfield Township High, she plans to attend either Ruckers or University of Delaware for mechanical engineering. Moving on into the more exciting or maybe not as exciting part of the agenda, the Joocc approved Dr. Pnarski's attendance at the NCLA Women and CTE Leadership Summit in Dallas, which is coming up in March. uh where she was personally invited to help share shape programming and serve as a panelist. Um Dr. Pnarski is very involved in state and national CTE leadership organizations um including being the current president of the Pennsylvania Association of Career and Technical Administrators. We also approved an expanded learning opportunity for allied health students to attend an anatomy tournament

057at the Pennsylvania College of St. State of Technology along with Skills USA state officer training. uh in addition to the actual Skills USA competition that itself where uh Eastern had 66 students including those from Sheldon who uh who uh advanced in their specific program of focus. Uh the JOC gratefully accepted donations from Caliber Collision to support the collision repair program as well as from Upper Dublin Township Police for protective services. This is something that um I think goes uh maybe underappreciated about the community that supports Eastern, right? There are nine sending districts in Eastern Montgomery County. So, a lot of opportunities for small businesses, medium businesses, large businesses to be able to support the organization through um through donations and they consistently do so and it it provides awesome opportunity for the students. Uh we

058also accepted the first reading of policy C112 which clarifies some disenrollment procedures uh when a student enrolls in charter schools. Uh on personnel matters we approved uh in we approved a culinary arts substitute teacher practical nursing adjunct instructor um as well as internship supervisors for students in electrical and construction technology. Finally, big major piece of business um as you've heard from me over the last few months related to expanding Eastern's uh programming, the uh the practical nursing relocation project bid uh was was approved uh as well as the 2024 financial audit report. And the next meeting of the Eastern Center for Arts and Technology is tomorrow, February 11th at 8:00 p.m. in the virtual setting. The link to the meeting can be found on Eastern's website at easc.org. And that concludes my report. Thank you.

059>> Thank you, Mr. Berdell Williams. Uh facilities report. Dr. Watts. >> Yep. The facilities committee meeting was held on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026, approximately one week after Snowageddon, which the facilities department was dealing with along with the rest of the township. So number one on the agenda was the discussion of the districtwide winter storm cleanup on top of everything else that facilities been trying to accomplish. Uh a deep freeze was not in the calculus. So uh we uh reviewed all of the work that they did mightily to clean up our schools and make things safe for kids and adults to come back into the buildings and appreciate that. Uh it does the extent of this unique experience we're all having and hopefully getting out of for the last uh month uh may as we uh

060will notice have an impact on timelines for outdoors facilities work and that is something that the administration is monitoring along with the team and Mr. harder and so uh we appreciate everyone's patience and support while mother nature does her thing. Um at the same time the administration building boiler steam leak was was being uh addressed and so new challenges with those repairs uh came up and requiring our staff needing to be relocated briefly. We appreciate everyone's uh patience and uh generosity in accommodating the staff in different buildings. We got everyone back in here. It is significantly warmer in here than it has been, but final repairs will be done this coming Monday while the rest of the district is on break to reduce the disruption. Uh and our last agenda item was the Elkins Park

061Roller Hockey Rink Grant. As a former youth hockey mom, I was excited to see that the Buyers Charities has granted a uh some funds for the Roller Rinket EP to be renovated, renovations to the courts, the stands, the boards, and so on the consent agenda tonight is approval, accepting that grant, and approval of the renovations. Uh related, one other facilities related item that Mr. EPS mentioned on the consent agenda is the scoreboard. uh at the uh football stadium and uh the decision was made to replace uh score the existing scoreboard with one that has the same functionalities rather than upgrading with significant new additional cost and so that'll be on the consent agenda full presentation on the website and uh the next uh meeting will be held on Tuesday May thr uh March 3rd good

062lord it's not going that quickly at 700 p.m. in person and on Zoom. This concludes my report. Thank you, Dr. Wise. And I will be providing the report from the liaison group. Uh the liaison group met via Zoom on February 2nd with representatives from the school district and the township. We discussed uh traffic calming and walker safety items at Chelham Elementary School. We discussed uh snow removal. It's been a common theme I think for a lot of meetings and ways that uh perhaps the township and the district can work together going forward to work smarter not harder. Uh we also uh established a meeting schedule for 2026. Got an update from the dis from the township on the Melrose Country Club property and uh the project there with building new homes. We share stadium project

063updates and our next meeting will be March 16th at 8 am via Zoom. And that concludes that report. The next report is policy. I believe Miss Murphy is giving us that report. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. The policy committee meeting met on January 27th, 26. The meeting, the minutes of the meeting on 11:13 were approved. There was no old business, but new business consisted of 14 policies and ARs under review and discussion. They are two weapons policies of federal fiscal compliance, student government care of school property, student records, public attendance and school facilities, travel reimbursement, attendance, purchases and approval of contracts, district audit, sorry, district audit, postgraduate students, property records, and disposal of districtowned property. The next policy committee meeting is scheduled for March 24th, 2026. And that ends my report. >> Thank you, Miss Murphy.

064Uh, legislative, uh, Mr. X. >> Thank you, uh, Mrs. Mullhern. Uh, greetings again, everyone. Uh, I'm reporting now as a member of the, uh, Montgomery County Legislative Committee. We meet periodically to discuss both proposed and uh adopted legislation that impacts education, especially here in Sheltonham. Uh and so we met for our first uh meeting of the year and for the last few months. We were joined by Representative Joe Webster uh who is right our neighbor uh here in Montgomery County just a few neighborhoods over. Uh he was able to join us. I asked I was able to ask them directly around the tax equity uh funding mechanism given that Sheltonham if you under the recent proposal in the last couple of years there's uh a couple of pots of funds there's the uh adequacy uh

065which is intended to sort of be a uh uh address the Supreme Court's uh decision around adequate funding for schools and then there's a tax equity supplement uh that tries to address uh areas that are really tax burdened but not actually um uh that not a gap in terms of constitutionally uh adequately funding the school. So uh the tax equity supplement is something we have benefited from for the last two years. We actually have an item on our our board uh agenda tonight around a resolution uh which actually increases the number of funds we have. But I was able to talk with him directly around just what that means for us moving forward given it's it's one year uh after we've made our decisions. And so that is a conversation that's continuing to be had

066in Harrisburg. Uh there are no significant changes to the process being proposed right now, but it is uh I think I can say there are some concerns that still need to be addressed with with that with that funding model. So that's something we need to follow closely because again if you'll see in our agenda 2.2 two a little more than $2.2 million were able to receive through the tax equity supplement uh funding model. So something we want to follow and continue to advocate uh for uh also we heard uh again cyber charter reform is still uh a topic of conversation in Harrisburg and actually it's another area where Sheltonham could realize significant savings yeartoyear uh particularly around uh tuition with special students who uh receive special accommodations. So that is uh uh another topic that

067will continue to be discussed in Harrisburg. And then also just over the last couple of days uh the superintendence group actually sent out a letter to our uh folks in Harrisburg advocating to modernize some of the rules and requirements. Right now we have to post things in printed newspapers. And so uh in 2026 there's some advocacy to hopefully bring us to bring us uh to the times and and and make that requirement a little less ownorous. Uh that is the main highlights from our legislative committee. Uh we do have a legislative breakfast coming up in March. Um the marvelous MissWindelan Hatcher has already sent us information around that. So I believe it's March 6th. We need to RSVP by. uh that is our annual chance to go and talk with uh legislators in person, break

068some bread. Students are invited uh and so hopefully we'll we'll be well represented there uh as well. I'm looking at you all as if you'll be there, but it could be it could be it could be you all. Uh so look out for more information, reply to Mrs. Hatcher, board members uh around that. And then there's also Harrisburg Advocacy Day, which is planned for uh April uh late April, early May. That's a chance to actually go to Harrisburg uh and talk to folks face to face, which uh we don't get to do that often, but there are folks in Harrisburg every single day lobbying legislators for whatever uh what whatever direction they want to go. But cyber charter reform is one area that gets constant constant constant attention, but not in the advocacy that not

069in the direction that we want to advocate for. So, we want to make sure that any opportunity we do uh we get to get face to face with those uh folks voting. And so, anyone listening, uh we have Representative Napoleon Nelson, who is a growing influence in Harrisburg. He's a chair of the legisl legislative black caucus as well as a member of the education committee. Uh we have state uh senator Art Haywood who's a member of the appropriations committee. And so a lot of the things that I'm talking about in terms of financial and both legislative policy uh they're on the committees that that have a very uh clear role. So reach out to them. They are welcoming of all voices uh for input and suggestions and please do um continue to be involved in

070any way that you see. >> Thank you Mr. EPS. Uh last uh committee report is a new one for us but uh the Cheltonham Education Foundation we have had a liaison to this group for quite some time but have not uh reported in a formal way but we are going to start uh doing that. So Dr. Watts first report for I'm pleased to make the report for Cheltonham Education Foundation. The Education Foundation board last met on January 28th and the main item they would like shared is to highlight their spring event, the third annual race for education. That's going to be held on Saturday, April 11th, 2026. And the flyer is attached to the board minutes. You can also get all of the information about the race registration and donation information at cheltonhamraforeducation.com. Uh the

071event is a professionally timed 5K or two-mile walk along Tony Creek Parkway. There were a number of us last year as a primary candidate. I met a number of you for the first time at that event. Uh the community event raises funds that help fund scholarships for graduating seniors and supports K12 classroom innovation through teacher grants across the district. Last year, the foundation gave out $21,000 in scholarships. So, this is a significant source of support for our students and their journeys. Um, in 2025, we had 300 registrants and the race made approximately $13,000 up from 260 runners and 9,000 in the first year. So, they want to keep building and getting everyone out. The school board has formed a team. Thank you, Vice President Lman, and set a fundraising goal and several of us have

072already registered to run again. I know that Mr. Berdell Williams is seeking to achieve his same uh strong outcome again and we look forward to seeing others of you there. Maybe other teams will will uh be formed having heard about this. So again, sheltonhamraforeducation.com is where you can get the information. The next board meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 25th. And that ends my report. >> Thank you, Dr. Watts. Uh, next on the agenda is approval of our uh, agenda items in the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Mr. Williams, do I have a second? >> Second. >> Miss Dr. Watts got the second. Okay. Uh, any comments, Miss Woodstein? >> Yes. Thank you so much. Um I want to highlight a couple of things that I

073see. Um one again I'd love to shout out to our volunteers who are on our our approval list. We've got 15 people here who worked hard to get all of their materials in. It is no easy feat. So we really appreciate that. And I am going to call out my own mother who's on that list. Thank you very much. It takes a village. Um, but I also want to point out that we are sending teachers and administrators to a a really wide variety of trainings um to meet the needs of our students from K to 12. We have people going to PD around fluency, word recognition training for ESOL teachers, um, math courses for struggling math students in grades 10 through 12. um the PA tech education expo like just all over the place and

074it just makes me really happy. I'm also really excited to see our fizzed and health teachers going to learn about the new health standards that were uh released in 2024. Um, I know that as a board, as a community member, as a board member, as a parent, health education is very important to me. Um, and I'm really happy to see both the standards slowly catching up to present day and for our teachers to be trained in how to to teach to those standards. So, um, applause for all of that. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else, Mr. Williams? >> Yeah, thank you. Um, just two things. One, uh, just not necessarily stealing any words from Mr. EPS who, you know, did, uh, express just recognition related to the public school facility improvement grant opportunity. Um, the

075community may or may not remember, but last year we had a similar grant that helped significantly uh offset the cost of the partial roof replacement at Sheltonham High School, which was well overdue. Uh, that project was executed on time and on budget, and I'm happy that the vast majority of those funds came from this grant award from last year. So excited to be uh you know moving forward with this year's application and and hoping that we do get an award because there are there are opportunities um for us that I would like to be able to take advantage of. Um and actually that's the one that I had particularly at this time. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other board comment? Right. I will call for a vote then. All those in favor say I.

076>> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. That motion carries. And we will move on to uh public comment on non-aggenda items. Again, um any Chelnham resident, taxpayer, or school district employee is permitted to speak on non-aggenda items at this time. Your comments will be limited to three minutes or less. If you are in the room, you may come to the podium. If you're listening uh streaming, you may raise your hand and you will be recognized. Please state your name and where you reside in the township before you speak. Seeing uh no comments for today tonight, we will move on. Uh the next item uh is information about upcoming meetings. Uh all of our committee and legislative meetings for the next few months are all listed there. So please check those out so that you

077uh know what meetings you would like to attend. You are welcome at all of them. Um and with that I will call uh for a motion to adjurnn. >> Yes. >> Just a a clarifying question. I I apologize for only noticing this after we voted and not during pre-eread, but under approval of agenda items, we are currently listing the first street policies. We did not just approve those first street policies. Correct. >> It's correct. >> Listed under the consent for I just wanted to clarify. We did not approve those policies. their first read. Correct. >> And we can >> they'll be back at the next policy committee. >> Thank you very much. And then I will make them. Oh yeah. >> Oh yeah. For clarification, when we have policies come to us, they come for

078a first read first and that's just for a chance to view them, look at them. They are not approved until they come back for a second read just for everyone's understanding. Thank you, Mr. >> Absolutely. And so moved. >> So all right, a second. >> Second. So >> thank you, Mr. EPS. The meeting is adjourned.