School Board Meeting - 4/15/21

001thank you everyone for joining us tonight for the april meeting of the colonial school board of directors if everyone could please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all i would like to announce that the board met in executive session on monday april 5th to discuss the return to five-day in-person learning staffing for the 2021 school year cea contract negotiations updates and board policies the meeting lasted one hour we also met prior to tonight's meeting to review personnel reports settlement appeals and a student placement agreement that meeting also lasted one hour uh dr christian i think we have several student recognitions and presentations tonight we do

002we uh we are recognizing students for their athletic and academic uh excellence this evening uh i will i want to let the board know we have uh the coaches and sponsors of the various groups that we're recognizing tonight are here as panelists so they're here uh uh ready to speak to the board many of our attendees in the zoom are the participants the students so if you do have questions for any of the student athletes or any of our academic students who want the odyssey to mind or at central monco we can activate their mics to interact with the board uh it's just hard to identify everybody and get everybody in but we wanted to make sure we had the coaches and the sponsors so uh we are we are really proud to announce uh

003the accomplishments of our students this evening i'll turn it over to jessica lesser our community relations administrator and jess will introduce each of each of our speakers this evening thank you dr christian it's my pleasure tonight to introduce the coaches and advisors of the students that are being recognized tonight and first on our list to recognize is the boys basketball team from pw and i'd like to introduce coach jim dinafrio coach donafrio take it away thank you so much hope everybody's doing well nice to see you um so we uh we put in a lot of the kids put in a lot of time and effort chasing the game anywhere they could starting starting last may all outside of course so um and it was fun to see them complain about how to participate with

004wind and sun being in their eyes and doing old school stuff so it's kind of fun watching them last spring and summer to find ways to play and i think it resulted in our getting off to a really fast start a 12-0 record and the 28th league title in our history um we hit a bit of a wall after that but i would say that playing through a pandemic without having contracted one covert case uh getting in 18 games while winning the title the league title outright is probably a very successful run when you look at it through that kind of uh this kind of year and this kind of challenge so i need to thank mr bretz for his tireless work to help us survive on the fly as well as dr bakani who

005taught me talked me off a ledge more than one time and as well as uh all of you folks for uh you know listening into the school board meeting starting with last september and uh and uh so much research and and diligence to get the kids to even be able to place a season from dr christian to everyone else uh greatly appreciated because we all know we could have easily not had one so it was the i said it was the longest fast season we ever had it took it took forever and yet and yet we seem to get something accomplished so thank all of our coaches rob and mitchell our freshman coach matt miller our jv coach and matt west our assistant coach for jv and our varsity assistants dj our dj holland mark

006berman chuck moore and michael mcclure terrific group of guys that we work with all talented coaches and great with the kids as for the team uh we had two freshmen on the varsity team this year which is uh quite a statement jaden calzey became our starting freshman point guard and uh jay ended up with all-league honorable mention uh earth uh which is quite an accomplishment uh jake west our other freshman is a terrific young talent with a great work ethic and a big future ahead of him as well so that was fun uh we had one sophomore claudia bennett and q as a varsity starter as a sophomore and um has already showed great potential as a freshman and he's already working hard at it for next season our juniors were marshall baker who provided

007really important minutes for us it'll be a big piece for us next year and has terrific leadership potential pat flynn our big big guy who works diligently excellent student athlete and will also be a key part for next season then we have the twins taji and zandy hubbard uh which everyone enjoys watching because they're they're the turbo boost for us so taji has uh provided really good minutes for us off the bench and this will be a key factor for us and zendy was one of our key starters and uh also earned all league honorable mention uh and trey jones who was a terrific fighter he battled through uh back surgery last may and uh worked really really diligently to end up getting playing time at the end of the season and uh now he's

008setting his goals to be another key returner for us so our seniors we had eight so we had 16 kids on the team and uh i think that's another impressive idea that that's the pretty big for a basketball team and they all stuck together and they all saw the season from beginning to end um leonard benson big hearted guy plays really tough loves playing the game and a great pw player and team attitude guy brandon capizzi joined us and another terrific team player hard worker awesome attitude and kapiss is headed to temple university next fall luke diciano was our cap one of our two captains earned first team all-league honors uh 4.0 student who has been accepted to james madison pitt st joe's loyola maryland and is looking at millersville for basketball so quite an

009accomplished year steve fortielli joined us as a first time varsity player and a terrific young guy and a terrific all-around player who ended up moving himself into a key role by the middle of the season david harris was our senior point guard a two-year varsity guy smart cagey he was our sixth man as well as a starter his choices of college at this point are maryland lehigh pitt and penn state's honors programs he's one of our top ap students at pw um jalen harris it's another terrific young guy senior another great team guy and i think if he wants to continue with the game his best days could be ahead of him zuri german uh second team all league honors two-year varsity starter major component for us and uh has a real good opportunity just

010got accepted to east stroudsburg and is going to be visiting them uh and the basketball program as well so it's nice to see in this pandemic where there really are very few college scholarships right now for so many of these these the the the the guys and girls in their senior year that both luke and zuri may be able to walk into division two opportunities and teddy rink another great team guy in the program for four years a sharp shooter for us and he's attending the university of new hampshire so uh we appreciate all you folks have done for us and uh we look at the whole thing as a major success for what it could have been so thank you much thank you coach and hopefully we get to go to the games next

011year uh that's up to you guys my vote is yes thank you coach um so um from uh from boys basketball we'll move on to the girls basketball also um suburban one league champs um coach dan dougherty um look forward to hearing more about your your students all right thank you are you able to hear me i'm sorry that i'm in my car yeah okay we can hear you all right good i'm going i'm going from one coaching duty to the other i'm coaching a little league baseball game tonight so um thank you for having our team on and uh we you know to echo what coach dinosaur just said big thank you to mr brett the school board for allowing us to have a season a very special group of girls you know we

012got cut off last year in the state tournament and made a really great run at it again this year we finished 18-2 uh we won our second straight league championship and for this group it was their third championship in four years um and it was outright league championship which means a lot to us some of the um you know to go through a few of the individual honors the girls on the team um adam mctammy one of our seniors became the tenth player to reach the 1000 point plateau she finishes her career with 1127 career points uh ninth all time and she'll be continuing her career at the university of sciences another honor this year uh one of our seniors gabby cooper was named universe athlete of the week for her stellar work in the

013classroom uh as well as the basketball court uh coop was and anna and kate flanagan were our senior or excuse me our captains this year and it was their third straight years cap next up ali zolte one of our seniors ali zolte is committed to continue her basketball career at arcadia university and one of our juniors caitlin flanagan accepted an offer to continue her basketball career at holy cross university in massachusetts to go through the team our sophomores this year were angelina balter deja evans aaron daly and abby sharp both aaron daley and abby sharp earned all-conference honors erin made second team all-conference and abby made honorable mention all conference our juniors were kate flanagan uh who made first team all-conference for the second straight year lainey allen jordan thomas who earned all-conference for the

014second straight year and fiona gourande and then our seniors anna mcfadden first team all-conference gabby cooper second team all conference ali zolte and louis bell mcgrawdy and i also want to give a little shout out to our managers who did an excellent job leah kay hayley felg and liv van wyk uh you know through the all the trials and tribulations of travel and getting to games and filming and wearing math the girls did a tremendous job this year never one complaint about the situation made the best of our season and while we kind of fell short of our our goal of winning states um you know after our last game the girls didn't want to leave each other and i think that's always an ultimate goal of creating lifelong memories and a sisterhood bond that

015lasts long after the season i have to give a big thanks to my assistant coaches this year bob culp bridget mcknight and tj delucia it was such a challenging year having to go through all the you know temperature checks and google forms uh and they do a tremendous job of all the behind the scenes work of keeping all those things running smoothly so that you know taking care of all the behind the scenes work um we're you know very much looking forward to getting back next year we have a great group coming back next year but we're certainly sad to see this senior class go to win three league championships in four years when you think of how big the state of pennsylvania is but then you look at our small little conference three of

016the three of the best teams in the state are in our conference between us upper dublin and abington and for us to win three outright late championships in four years is a is a great credit to these kids uh and all the hard work they put in so we very much miss having all of you at our game uh we know what a great cheering section of school thank you dan we certainly hope we can be back every anecdote you have about your kids but sometimes i have to get back to the office and get to a few all right thank you um next we'll move on to um recognize the odyssey of the mind uh winners from the pennsylvania region odyssey the mind in case people um aren't familiar with the program coaches and

017i have to stop and give a shout out because we always have had parent creams and uh this is one of the programs that we would not be able to have just with um staff that i i have to um honor our coaches and i'll shout them out steve hormel jason stieg we had three teams this year uh two of them who were completely new to odyssey so for them to have to navigate that in a virtual world was new for the coaches and the kids but they did an amazing job um as children do they master the technology quicker than we could and managed and with obviously the help of their coaches um managed to pull off virtual performances this year so they started out when the weather was nice meeting outside together distance

018masked and you know as the winter progressed and the year progressed they had to find ways to do it over zoom and also um you know to figure out the logistics of how to record their skit over zoom um our all all three teams that we fielded are moving on to the state level um they did a beautiful job with their work and um they also met once a week to do spontaneous problem solving which is something more off the cuff where they just get a prompt and they have to solve it really quickly and we were so lucky this year to have some uh former odyssey students be mentors uh for the younger kids and that was really special uh they couldn't feel the team but they religiously showed up every wednesday uh with

019no glory just to help the younger kids and help me i wouldn't have been able to coach without having help in the breakout room so that we could uh work with each of the teams so thank you to those um students they know who they are um another surprise this year that was really exciting was when we were at the awards ceremony we had two uh graduates csd graduates who were problem captains michael cronin colleen mcfadden they must be 24 by now and they have been involved now we're problem captains this year so it's a nice um that the kids stay involved and can even give back to the odyssey community so to honor our kids linsky and ms celino and it um ms becker janae sheth jillian sinise kylie stoffer and zoe wolinski and

020they solved a problem called the superhero socks problem um and we can go to the next slide this was a a wonderful team of 8th grade girls they had been doing odyssey for years but kind of combined and recombined teams and ended up with the all-girl girl power team but they call themselves nerds of a feather and it includes any immacules ryan bess ellen fang emma hoffman naomi hoffman natalie lieberman and satida apadia and elise hoffman and liz goldman were the coaches here and the girls skit had a feminist bent and it was called omar and the beanstalk was that was the theme the third team included samantha cousins stephanie david davies eleanor hermell talia maddox leo nasiter and nathan stieg and they also saw the superhero socks problem when we're coached by mr hermel

021and mr stieg and you can see they were having a lot of fun with it these guys actually filmed their skit as a zoom the other two masked skits were masked like in a garage but these guys managed to make it work even over soon so congratulations to our teams they're moving on to states and maybe the national finals and i hope that they really had a great first year and we thank you for all your support anna could you just discuss the the different skills the kids need to demonstrate in honesty of the mind it's i have some experience with this and it's it's it's rather uh it's far-reaching and pervasive the different things they have to accomplish when they're judged is well i call it the sport for creative kids because it really

022is competitive um so there are team skills it's collaboration um it's all the skit is all original that the parents do not suggest they're just there to facilitate so that children have to negotiate problem solve they have to do time management budget management um meeting the specifications but being creative and original at the same time so it's all those classic 21st century skills that they're going to need when they're working in collaborative groups in creative and maker fields in the future and you know i think they really get um wonderful practice with those skills in this you know odyssey and public speaking too yeah i just want to thank mrs mendel and all the parents who coach this you know this is a you don't understand odyssey until your kid does it and it's a

023huge undertaking and the persistence that's required in a normal year to do odyssey is enormous but for the kids and the parents and the coaches and mrs mendel and all the helpers to stick with it in a year like this and make it work and have the kids do so incredibly well is really a huge accomplishment so thank you so much for because it's so much dedication to make this happen and thank you thank you it's it's a joy it's fun i laugh every week that i get the kids together for spontaneous it's it's like uh the best comedy show that you could get have the privilege of being a part of so i enjoy it really i just want to say thanks um it's a great program i know firsthand and uh i appreciate

024all the long hours and as many years as you've been doing it with our children so i do appreciate that thank you thank you thank you for everything you do all right congratulations to those students and um we also have with us tonight um some central monco skills usa medalists and um assistant director from central monco dr king is going to uh introduce those students dr king why thank you very much um i also brought along with me our um building trades teacher and our schools usa advisor who will actually announce the students but i wanted to uh just say that we are also very proud of our central monaco technical high school students who participated in their annual skills competitions this year uh they've been doing it every year for for as long as

025we can remember i was very different in skills it's usually hands-on we had to do a lot of it virtually so it was challenging but our skill but our students really lived up to uh the challenge um just to give you a background of what skills usa is it's it's an organization specifically designed for students and adults uh who are preparing for careers on either trades industry technical or skilled services and um it also includes health occupations but all every single one of our technical students belong to this organization and they all have the opportunity to show their skills um at the local state and national levels um so we've had we had many metal award winners this year and we are going to highlight the the pw award winners tonight um but we also

026have a medalist and another career and technical student organization called hosa for health professionals who was also not only a skills usa medalist but also a hosa medalist who is also in here and this is all of our all of our health care science and allied health students belong to hosa so now i would like to introduce mr david ayers he is one of our skills usa advisors and our building trades teacher and he's going to announce the medalist for our skills competitions david hey how's everyone doing tonight so um like dr king said i'm going to announce all the uh the medal winners and exactly what they want in i'll give you a little brief background of what this actual competition is so first off we have our skills usa gold medalist so these

027are the top students who won and then went to states who uh that just occurred so we're still waiting for our results in that so um children posted in here is the health knowledgeable so what that is it's a team collaborative competition where it tests all the children in uh health occupations so the students in here are tested on their speed and their accuracy in nine different categories the categories are it's academic foundations communications systems employability skills legal responsibilities ethics safety practices teamwork and also health maintenance so the three young ladies we have here in our picture is amir telly sarah maboye and also arana johnson so that is our gold medals winners of this cmths and we'll move on to our silver i believe all right so uh as dr king said also another

028uh student here also was in hosa and i'll get into that so um they were a part of the uh medical assisting which medical assisting is also a a testing of their skills in the clinical and administrative setting they're also judging their speeds and the safety of correction measuring the ability of interacting to pay patients and everything that goes into the medical and health industry winning silver is mali smeltzer next we have angelina mateo and she is in nursing assistants nursing assistants is also a obviously health background and she also won the hostess so the nursing assistant they are tested in their skill and their actual knowledge in the professional care encouraging patients of independence assistant walking performing all the routine tasks the infection control and also just basic uh nursing assisting things so angelina

029is also like i said a gold medalist and our pen hosa future health professionals skills competition for nursing assistants to our right we have the two students from our public safety department they tested in the crime scene investigation so this competition what they do is a crime scene is laid out these students then have to go through professionally collect evidence dust for fingertips clean up the scenery and do everything they possibly can to do that who we have here is irvin matt picorney more civil menace we have all the way to our left aaliyah flower she did the early childhood education um this one is actually i mean they're all very interesting this one uh the students have to create a lesson plan and activities for younger elementary schools kids kids are three and five-year-olds

030so what they do is put together the lesson plan and then have to administer the lesson plan the one in the middle is a student in my program his name is sean bosley he competed in the cabinet making program so tavern making is they get a blueprint they break everything down to a cut list and then they make whatever is on the blueprint what's in the picture here is a face frame for a cabinet so they do everything they possibly can so sean actually had to do everything we measured everything we set it out so we had a little hands-on work with that one and then to our right we have more building trade students uh we have anthony maggini nicholas masses sean hamaday and david nichols he they are part of the teamworks so

031what teamworks is this year was all virtual so the students had a 50 question test that covered every single trade in building trade so it was carpentry cabin making plumbing electrical masonry a little bit of hvac on a normal basis as we all know this year wasn't exactly normal but the students would get a three days to compete in this so what they would do is they get blueprints and they have to come put together a masonry wall usually a l shame uh wall set up so two walls with doors and windows a platform floor and also a ceiling with electrical plumbing and everything running through it and then we have our bronze winners coming up yep so cmths bronze winners both of these students are both from the baking program so we have nick

032professori uh he did commercial baking so what he did was they were given a task to bake a pastry item and they had to do it in the correct timing the appearance everything that goes into the baking industry and then we have dylan stimler she did action skills so what action skills is that can apply to any trade out there so action skills is set up so it is a six to seven minute kind of present presentation of your actual shop class your program of study which right now here was uh baking so lastly what i want to i want to say is that here at cmchs we are all extremely proud of all of our students especially students that all compete we know that everybody you know won medals but we want to make

033sure that you know we want to be everyone is appreciated and we're very proud of them and also want to congratulate all the medal winners tonight so thank you very much thank you so that's it for our recognitions dr christian did you want me to introduce the um the two promotions we have for the upcoming musicals absolutely okay so um again congratulations to all of our students um amazing work um and uh especially as everyone is noted in this most unusual year and that kind of ties in nicely to um some of the students who are in our theater arts programs are are working really hard in doing productions in a very different way colonial middle school is going to present an online production of beauty and the beast may 7th 8th and 9th ticket

034information is still being finalized and will be shared on the website and social media but we have a little promotional video for you to enjoy so you can take a look at the work the students have been doing so far [Music] hi my name is chase wolver and i play gaston hi my name is luke jones and i play the film i mean we want you to stream the cms production of beauty and the beast junior maybe this time phil will want to marry me still not a chance buddy be our guest to be our guest put our service to the test tie a napkin around your neck cherry and wheel provides a rest [Music] it's delicious don't believe me ask the dishes they can sing they can dance after onis this is france and

035the dinner [Music] me i'll take her to the cms musical [Music] please [Music] jessica yeah that's gonna be great jessica if we could uh we can get that link out to the board and get it up on the website um i know with zoom sometimes the youtube videos get a little grainy but uh the work that the kids and the and the directors have put in has been phenomenal so we we got to get that teaser out there absolutely and we'll all have that song stuck in our head for the rest of the night right um so the next uh again we're gonna highlight the um the upcoming production of the colonial players we aren't kids anymore that's come that's coming up on april 23rd and 24th and april 30th and may 1st at 7

03630. tickets are 12 dollars for individuals or 25 dollars per family and you can find out more information about how to access the production online at colonialplayers.org and we also have a promotional video from this group of students [Music] yeah so when we first started rehearsing that was one of the things that i was most afraid about just more zoom time on top of the already you know full day of school that we would have on zoom but i've actually found it to be quite nice and we've been able to rehearse socially distanced and in person a lot which has been really nice so i guess the hardest part would be having to develop character actions and character motives in your body through a screen when usually there's somebody right in front of you and

037they can really kind of nitpick you on what you're doing right and tell you how to you know act better and do the action better and cleaner when they're right in front of you so that's been harder when they've been through screen and it just takes a little bit more time to adapt [Music] i feel like my favorite memories is going to vocal rehearsals i love going to vocal rehearsals because i love to sing singing's my favorite hobby makes me so happy and just going to them makes me feel like it's normal again because normally when you're at a vocal rehearsal you don't you talk but those rehearsals feel the most normal because you just sing the whole time and you get to talk to miss o'connor the music director and it's just i love

038those that those are my favorite memories [Music] if you guys been filming this whole time has it been in school or outside of school so a few of our things um were inside of school when it had to do with more of like the entire cast um a lot of the things that we would do in school would be through a green screen so then we could um eventually later put a different backdrop around it so we can just put them anywhere and then for the individual songs for people they would film that at their house or main like support group scenes and everything we would film we filmed at um abington art center which is a very beautiful place they had this whole concrete um covered area in which that we that we could

039make it look like a support group but also have the accessibility of having open windows and having um constant airflow so it would be it wouldn't be unsafe for us to take off our mats while filming [Music] [Applause] [Music] do um definitely like see the light at the end of the tunnel because usually like in practices you're working like long days and it can be really tiring but um honestly the result and like the payout of all those long tiring days is a really really good show and usually the shows that you put more effort into the shows that take more time and more energy end up being the best one thanks for watching make sure to tune in to colonial players production of we aren't kids anymore yes is that everything that's it that's

040everything all right well thank you so much it was wonderful to be reminded why we do what we do as board members to see the athletes and the the artists um and the actors and singers it was just it was all great to see so thank you so much all right moving on um i'd like to have a motion for the approval of the minutes as presented in items 4b through 4f would include a board business meeting of march 18th finance committee meeting of april 5th facilities management and transportation meeting of april 5th curriculum meeting of april 12th and community relations safety and wellness of april 12th if i could have a motion to approve all those minutes eunice is there a second nasty thank you all in favor or any questions or comments on

041any of the minutes all in favor okay that's everyone thank you financial reports if i could have a motion to approve the financial reports in items 5b through 5m all of which are march of 2021. they include food service bills and cafeteria report outstanding investment report cash flow summary comparison of taxes collected real estate tax tax escrow report trust fund report reconciliation of cash accounts budgetary deficit status report general funds and federal program bills capital reserve fund the bond fund budget transfers and the march 2021 treasurer's report may i have a motion chris thank you is there a second jen thanks any questions or comments on any of the financial reports all in favor okay that's everyone thank you um student reports it's not on our agenda somehow it was left off but we did

042not forget you thank you for not forgetting so i'm going to be starting off with white marsh elementary so the virtual third grade dinner and dessert plazu on april 13th this year instead of serving pasta and meatballs the third grade students are invited to participate in a night in which they will be a chef at home to help young chefs cook at home pizza kits were sold fifteen dollars each to share in the fun with their classmates each third grade classroom will gather in their zooms to watch how to pizza making videos featuring third grade teachers they will learn how to twirl dough pour on the sauce and spread the cheese once the video is over the students on zoom with their class will show off their creative skills with their classmates and teachers photos

043will be displayed on the video screen and in the school lobby along with the social media the great kindness challenge continues with our friday friendly letters to each each other and the white marsh elementary staff sending positive postcards home and the students they are excited to have the students return five days a week beginning monday april 12th next up is plymouth elementary plymouth elementary staff and students celebrated read across america in march staff and students participated in activities that included dressing as a vocabulary word that describes you wearing pajamas to cozy up with a book during morning meetings and dressing up as your favorite storybook character on friday march 19th students and staff participate in virtual rocker socks day in honor of world down down syndrome day students learn about friends with down syndrome and

044what makes them unique moving on the ridge park elementary during the week of march 1st students and staff celebrated read across america each day was centered around and themed morning meetings focused on reading and books on march 8th students safely completed a second bus evacuation of the year on the evening of march 21st 24th 2nd grade teachers hosted marvelous math night via zoom they presented different strategies and math tips and tricks to the second grade families this event was well attended by our third grade second grade families hopping on over to conshohocken elementary during the week of march 1st they celebrated read across america week where they focused on diverse literature in the evenings conshohocken elementary staff ordered bedtime zoom stories with families the staff had an amazing turnout each night of the zoom for

045students logging in into the zooms by reading their by reading by their favorite teachers staff enjoyed this evening reading as much as the kids did during the month of march conscious elementary celebrated in honors women's history month during one morning meeting with a variety of learning activities conshohocken elementary held classroom pack parties on march 19th during this pack party students learned about being inventive and how they can come up with ideas to use in all parts of their life teachers read the story not a box by antonia portis to learn how it's how if something is working the way you want you use in jewel ingenuity and ideas to invent new or better ways of doing things conscious elementary third grade greatly kicked off their annual cradles to crayons collection that will run until may

04615th to donate gently used children's items on march 21st conscious elementary students learned about how about and supported down syndrome day with mix and match sock day to signify the uniqueness of people with down syndrome student learned that this is supported in march the third month of the year to signify the uniqueness of the triplication of the 21st chromosome which causes down syndrome all right moving on to colonial middle school first the cms student council is happy to announce that they have distributed over 194 books former from their black history month book drive to all the school libraries in the district this will make sure that the colonial kids are happy and allow them to learn more about the rich history of black americans homemade dog toys are being made from donated fabric these dog

047toys will benefit the local spca in conshohocken they got so many donations and are looking forward to delivering them to the spca by the end of april during the week of april 12th cms will be celebrating autism acceptance week with a series of themed spirited days inspired by our friends at ridge park on monday they will be wearing blue red and gold shirts to highlight lighted up blue red instead and go for gold which are all movements that bring awareness of the autism in society on tuesday they will wear um tie-dye because all of the tied together in acceptance on wednesday they will wear their favorite color to highlight that they are all different and unique on thursday they will celebrate with pajamas to get comfy within our differences on friday they will conclude with

048rainbow day they show off the acceptance of everyone in cms they are excited to embrace these spirit activities and show acceptance and inclusion are in the heart of our core values at colonial middle school the student council is eagerly planning a fun-filled week to show off their teachers that they love in teacher appreciation week during the first week of may they are putting together flip grids for each staff member so that students can leave them thoughtful messages to brighten their week they have themed spirit days planned excited raffles for staff and games to keep the staff entertained they love with their teachers and staff at cms and can't wait to show them that love any student wishing to get involved in the planning efforts within cms student council should contact miss penrace to be added

049to the canvas page and finally plymouth white marsh high school um so we're just a little bit differently i'm going to go through the classes each class individually and then talk about just like the general activities that are going on at plymouth white marsh so for the class of 2024 they have two fundraisers over the last two months they first held their wawa shorty voucher uh card individual fundraiser in february where students sold wawa shorty vouchers to their families and neighbors the fundraiser started up individual money accounts for the students so that they could start saving money towards their senior class trip and currently this class is planning a fun-filled outdoor movie night in a few weeks at the greater plymouth community center along with the raffle raising money for lisa's army to cap off

050their freshman year for the class of 2023 the sophomore class is beginning preparations for planning their spring fling outdoor event on the football field taking place on wednesday may 12th they're planning a class fundraiser to raise funds prior to the end of the school year um and i'm talking about a little bit about the class of 2021 um our senior dinner was recent uh it was last week and it was a great success i know joey and i both participated in this event and we both had a great time i want to just thank miss hanold and mr greg for supporting this um initiative and having having our senior class have some events um during covid and so that was very nice um and then for our two of activities that i wanted to present

051to you guys about is our orchestra the plymouth white marsh high school orchestra members have created their own video in which they perform while also highlighting the work of laurel house a norris town-based non-profit serving those affected by domestic abuse the students along with orchestra director elise derowitz are hoping their video inspires people to donate to the lower house while also calling attention to domestic abuse and relationship issues that can affect young people the student set up a gofundme page for laura house and spend time interviewing laura house community education coordinator about the organization its purpose how covet 19 has affected laurel's house of work and what young people should know about relationships the project ended up being a positive way to bring together music students who have been all who have been apart much

052much of this year due to the pandemic students have had two after school rehearsals to perform were filmed by the high school's media production club which also assisted with editing the performances and the interviews together to produce the final video while the video is meant to help fundraise fund raise funds and provide information about laura house ms derowitz is hoping its impact goes even further so i just wanted to recognize the orchestra for doing that and finally the technology student association um this year the plymouth white marsh and the colonial middle school technology student association's chapter will be competing in over 75 plus steam related events over the course of today and tomorrow as i am speaking students are currently scattered through zooms presenting to judges anywhere from engineering related events to teaching future mock

053technology classes we wish them the best of luck in their competitions and we also wish good luck to our three students seeking positions of state office this year this kind of wraps up our student school board report for april thank you guys do either of you want to tell us what you have planned for after graduation are you ready yeah i guess i can yeah i recently came to virginia tech to study mechanical engineering so i'm excited to head to virginia this august congratulations that's wonderful i i committed a while back i committed to temple in their honors program i'm gonna be majoring in political science so once i'm done maybe i'll see some of you get involved in my local community and maybe one of these days you guys will see me on the

054big level well there you go we hope so thank you so much both of you congratulations thank you i believe you want to make a statement before we go into public comments uh yes thank you we'll do the superintendent's comments and then before we do the personnel report we must have public comment uh before the board votes on anything so i did want to talk about the board has received a request to conduct uh the the middle school play musical excuse me frozen from last year many of you may remember 13 months ago when the pandemic was thrust upon us we were about to open have opening night for our middle school musical frozen uh and everything shut down and so i will not go into the details of the past 13 months as we've

055all lived them already once um but we appreciate the requests we received and the signed letter from multiple parents and and i will say uh after receiving that email we've received a few emails that said uh you we don't think you should have it and so uh at the end of the day these are these are always tough decisions because um the reality is when we talk about all the events we lost last spring from march until june and notwithstanding all the challenges we've had this year the events of last spring that we lost some were more feasibly recreated than others we lost sports seasons we lost performances at the middle school and high school level we lost before we lost promotion ceremonies we lost our traditional graduation we did many events as many events

056as we could in a safe manner but i think we also have to remember 13 months ago not only were were we confronted with the pandemic we were confronted with the unknown and so we've learned a lot of what we are able to do and not able to do and one of the things we want to do is support our students in their performance assessments and so as soon as we say yes or no or try to recreate some of the events and have get provide our students those opportunities we need to be mindful that no matter what our intention is as soon as you create a list of things that you're going to do you may inadvertently elim omit somebody from participating in something uh and so what our effort is going to be

057and i appreciated the communication we received from our parents and from some of our students what our effort is going to be this coming june and my recommendation to the board is to take a step back and allow us some time to plan an event in june and what we would like to propose and what i am proposing to the board is a celebration of the arts and after after our school year is completed it will either be the week of june 14th or the week of june 21st where we recognize those students who were prepared to perform prepared to show what they learned and how they grew through their artistic expression to put on frozen but also not to limit it to frozen to talk to the high school about those students who were

058going to perform in amali uh the musical of the high school emily um amelie i apologize to talk to those students and families who were going to have their artwork displayed in the high school as part of our annual art show and those are just some additional examples of things that i think that we would be able to accomplish after school has ended and i think what we have to do is we need to be we need to make sure that we plan this very carefully and we need to put out a survey to our kids and to our families of who's available and also we need to identify staff that are available to assist with this when we finish this year and i know it's april 15th and we have about two months to

059go the reality is uh especially with travel restrictions that have recently been lifted there may be some families that are looking to get away there may be some some families and some staff members who just want some time to spend with their own family and i respect that so we also need to be mindful that we don't know what the covid restrictions may or may not be two months from now we've learned a lot this past year and we've learned that things can change very quickly but i think if we dedicate a week to the celebration of the arts we've gone to great lengths as a school district to make sure that our our programs as we've seen earlier tonight can continue albeit in a virtual setting but we have had in-person athletics and and

060i know this board and i know this administration is as dedicated to the arts as they are to athletics as they are to academics and developing the whole child so we will be surveying our families to their availability uh also working with our staff on their availability and then developing a celebration of the arts in june as soon as school ends and i've talked to jessica about this and i'm meeting with all of our principals tomorrow to start putting this plan into effect and depending upon everyone's availability we'll have a schedule of events where we can spread things out make sure we can control the number of people in attendance and if we're able to hopefully able to put on some of the production of frozen put on the production of the high school musical

061and put on um at a minimum the portfolios that children created for the art show and then opened them up to our community particularly those family members that were so uh anticipating they're seeing their children perform um i i think we'll be able to put on a very special event and uh i think if we do it in june that is an opportune time waiting till july or august is is a challenge because we know uh the reality is people do have things planned and they do have things going on in their lives outside of uh our school district uh that are important to them so i will i'll meet with the principals tomorrow we're looking forward to the productions i'm going to ask folks for patience as we plan this but i think we

062will do a very fine job with it i can tell you that mr faller the middle school principal and dr pakani the high school principal were part of a preliminary conversation and they are very excited uh to on this project about this project and and look forward to helping it come to fruition so those are my comments this evening before public comment you're muted mrs martin public comment um do we have any emails or do we have any hands raised we have some hands raised okay drew please state your full name place of residence before commenting hi my name's bella scarola i'm from plymouth meeting and i wanted to start off by thanking you for your consideration of our show over a year ago we were supposed to have one of the most fun nights

063of our life now we're left with the uncertainty of whether or not we will be able to experience this i can promise each and every one of you that you will never meet a more closer more passionate cast and that passion for a show is what's making us willing to accept accommodations as we've done time and time again during this pandemic and that passion is again the reason a lot of us are here tonight there is a part of our lives that we were never able to fulfill and being able to perform this show will provide closure to what has been by far the most difficult period of our lives this decision is vital because not only will it give us the opportunity to finally bring this show to life it will also provide some

064reimbursement for the middle school theater department as the cancellation of our show frozen put a devastating loss on the budget of this program based on your decisions students have been able to return to school full-time they've been able to play sports and even hold some events so the question i want to leave you all with is how is this going to be any different thank you please state your full name place of residence before coming hey can you guys hear me okay hi my name is carmelina smith from lafayette hill and i'm a freshman at pw i'm holding out hope that i will have the chance to rejoin my colonial middle school theater program family and show this community what we've poured our heart and souls into for what was 6 months and then turned

065into 19 months i play also in frozen and for a lack of a better term i'm begging the school board to allow us to revive this show back to the stage and share this musical with everyone who contributed to selling out five shows we would follow all the guidelines and requirements at that time but from a cast member's perspective please know that we are anxious and ready to do this i can't imagine people not seeing this musical the theater department needs to put closure on this production and we can't wait to do that much like all the sports that went on this past year my team is ready to play we just ask that you let us have a game thank you please state your full name place of residence before commenting hi my name

066is emma sagalski and i'm from plymouth meeting i'm a ninth grader at pw i wanted to echo other voices with my support in allowing the production of frozen to take place when everything was shut down we were only hours away from our opening night i don't think i have to tell you the number of hours and hard work that went into this show but the most important part of the show is the community we're truly a family that has been through a whole lot together to quite literally make the experience of this show magical and after 13 months we still want to do this show which is a statement to the importance of this community and the arts i understand that this is difficult to make one thing happen and not all of the other

067planned events from last school year this is unique in the sense that we worked for five months on weeknights and our saturdays to make this show possible thank you so much for your consideration true there's another hand raised yeah hello we can hear you go ahead uh my name is hadar roizman and my son is part of the cast of frozen from last year that did not make it to the stage i'm also part of the supporting parents i was in the costume department and um helped out wherever i could um spent days and weekends um you know working with costuming and miss vanquish and the whole staff and would really love to be able to get to see this show um i literally have been carrying uh envelopes of tickets from last year still

068in my purse all year long um for all the family members that were coming to come to the different nights and um i am ready to take time off from work or whatever it is that i need to do to help get the costuming back in order and um i'm begging you guys as well to to consider um allowing this very you know amazing show to be put back on and um you know i hope you guys take all these uh comments into consideration and thank you so much please state your full name place of residency before commenting hi good evening my name is sarah scarola and i'm in plymouth meeting i have a student at pw and i've had the great pleasure last year to work with the cast and crew getting ready for

069their production of frozen i think you've had the opportunity tonight to hear how much being able to perform this show in its entirety really means to both the children and their parents i would say that so many of us as parents are willing as uh dr resman said to be you know to do what we have to do um to to help them realize this and um and i think that doing a celebration as dr christian mentioned is such a wonderful idea but i think that if there is a group of committed students and families who are able to to bring a production back to life after this long break and they're willing to do it i really think they deserve the chance um as you you know as you consider why this you know

070to go for it and say hey let's let him do it i'd like to borrow some reminders from a friend who posted uh the following to social media and she said that over the last year we've asked a lot of our youth we've asked them to protect their grandparents and they did we asked them to learn from home and they did we asked them to put all of their favorite things on hold and they did we asked them to celebrate major milestones from the roof of a car and they did we asked them to reimagine their future and they did we asked them to wait patiently at the end of the line so that scientists can get a vaccine right for their age group and many of them are still doing that they stopped their

071lives to protect the rest of us they adapted to remote learning to protect the rest of us now they are asking for something that would mean so much to them and our hope is that you will reconsider thank you it's not something to reconsider we've we're offering it um and we're going to put a plan together so the board's not voting on it tonight but it's our intention to put a plan together to to meet this goal thank you so much thank you i believe that's it this is more thank you um dr christian superintendents report thank you board action is requested for the recommended personnel changes appointments for promotion employment or transfer are subject to the presentation of valid credentials employment verification documentation and state mandated requirements uh items seven b and c is

072there a motion to approve the superintendent's report kathy thank you is there a second rosemary thanks any questions or comments for dr christian on his report all in favor okay that's everyone thank you uh new business uh eunice okay um this is a motion to approve and adopt the 2021 2022 proposed final budget the 2021-22 proposed final budget totals 141 million 236 469 which is an increase of 3 million five hundred sixty two thousand seven hundred thirty two dollars or two point five nine percent over the 2020 2021 spending plan the proposed final budget includes a real estate tax of 24.00 mills which is an increase of three percent the new real estate tax equates to an additional tax of seventy dollars and nine cents per year for each one hundred thousand dollars of taxable

073assessed value or an increase of 106.50 on the district's 2020 medium median assessed value of a homestead property with an assessed value of one hundred fifty one thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars the 21 122 proposed final budget in the state required format is attached and available for public review on the district website and the adoption of the 2021-22 final budget is scheduled for board consideration at the june 17 2021 board meeting um and that's a motion is there a second rosemary thank you mr zablowski are you here somewhere i am okay there you are um i just want to make sure that everyone knows that this although it's called the proposed final budget it's not really final and we will be i assume doing everything we can to tweak the budget and do what

074we can to save money here yes based on the direction of the state the final proposed budget must sit for 30 days for public review before a final budget can be adopted uh because our main meeting is on the 20th we did not have 30 days until the june meeting that's why we're doing it in april so we do have almost two months to continue to review the budget there will be changes from now until the final budget is adopted does anyone else have any comments or questions all right all in favor anyone opposed okay thank you very much jen okay motion to approve the 2021-22 mciu membership services budget as presented the montgomery county intermediate unit membership services budget in accordance with the school code requires action by each of the local school districts

075served by the mciu the budget was reviewed at the finance committee on april 5th 2021 the colonial school district membership fee would increase by 2 433 dollars to a total of eighty seven thousand nine hundred and fifty four dollars for twenty twenty one twenty two okay is there is there a second chris thank you any comments or questions all in favor great thank you jen you want to do the special ed plan sure motion to approve the colonial school district's cost plan which includes services purchased through the montgomery county intermediate unit the proposed preliminary cost for the 2021-22 school year is 779 64 235.64 is there a second to that motion beth petruno thank you any comments or questions all in favor great thank you eunice okay this is a motion to approve the 2021-2022

076central montgomery county technical high school budget as presented the budget was reviewed at the finance committee on april 5th 2021 and is recommended for adoption the total due from the district to central monco for the 2021-22 school year is nine hundred nine thousand two hundred and nine dollars is there a second to that motion chris thank you any comments or questions all in favor great thank you and eunice you're you're on a roll just keep going okay all right this is a motion to approve the borrowing parameters resolution as presented to refund the general obligation buns 2016 series a i'm going to explain that the district issued general obligation bonds bonds sorry in 2016 to fund the renovations at several schools the bonds when issued had a five-year call provision set for august 2021. with

077the current interest rate market less than the outstanding bonds the district intends to refund these bonds by issuing the 2021 series c bonds the parameters resolution authorizes the financing team to execute the sale of bonds in order to achieve a minimum savings of 500 000 over the remaining life of the bonds through august 2034. thank you is there a second to that motion beth thank you any questions or comments um can i just ask mr zablowski to explain just in a little bit more detail what why we're doing this and the advantage to the district just so the public is clear sure back in 2016 we had several construction projects going on so we we issued these bonds uh which was new money uh and whenever you sell the bonds at the current interest rates

078uh you have to provide interest in the year one through year thirty thirty earth through 2034. so when we offered the bonds that were sold the interest rates on those coupons were at a stated value uh we also put a five-year call provision so that if this instance became reality where the interest rates were less in 2021 than they were in 2016. we could call the 2000 the remainder of the 2016 bonds and reissue new bonds with lower coupon rates this will save us a significant amount of money uh over the next uh 20 uh how many years is that 13 years and it will definitely help our budget going forward and lower our debt service payments that are currently in the budget thank you any other questions or comments all in favor great thank

079you okay eunice last one for me this is a motion to approve the budget and payments in the budget for the cms spring musical beauty and the beast junior as presented and the budget is attached to the agenda and school board approval is required to approve the budget and pay the individuals as proposed is there a second adam thank you any questions or comments all in favor all right eunice you're not done oh oh one more sorry wishful thinking all right this is a motion to approve the stipulations to settle the assessment appeals of the properties outlined below and those properties are all listed in the agenda is there a second rosemary thank you questions or comments all in favor great thank you chris thank you sorry um motion to approve plymouth excuse me plymouth

080environmental company inc to begin the asbestos removal at the existing middle school this summer in the amount of 580 is there a second kathy thank you um does um mr uh joe you're here mr lally can you just briefly explain what's happening here sure good evening everyone the uh this is the first step of getting us towards the demolition of the existing building so there is some uh asbestos in the current building that is documented and maintained by law uh on a sixth month six-month inspection and a three-year more detailed inspection so the asbestos in the current building is not friable or dangerous but it needs to be removed before we can start the demolition process of the existing building thank you you're welcome any other questions or comments um all in favor great and

081chris you have one more sure motion to approve the payment of twenty five thousand five hundred dollars to kcba architects to prepare specifications work with civil engineers and oversee the bidding process for the paving projects at ridge park plymouth and white marsh elementary schools this summer is there a second adam thank you any questions or comments all in favor great thank you beth um this is a motion to approve the renewal of legal service consultation agreement with sweet stevens katz and williams in the amount of eight thousand dollars for the 2021 school year and a second rosemary any questions or comments all in favor great uh one more beth this is a motion to approve the placement agreement in lieu of vape due to restrictions regarding student confidentiality and privacy this agreement was reviewed in

082executive session chris thank you questions or comments [Music] all in favor great um chris board policy revisions sure sorry um one second here we go okay um motion to approve the revisions to the board policies outlined below on a first read basis policy number 138 language instructional ed program for english learners number 140 charter schools number 140.1 extracurricular participation for charter and cyber school students number 209 health examinations and screenings and number 210 medications is there a second please cathy thanks any questions or comments on these first read policies just to comment mr northcutt asked a few questions the other night at the policy meeting and we did check with our solicitor the charter school policy is taken directly from the statute so that's why it's in there great thanks very good questions uh all

083in favor great thank you and beth textbook approval um this is a motion to approve the administration's request for textbooks for the pw high school icp uh ibcp um international baccalaureate career related program math course is there a second eunice questions or comments on this approval all in favor great solicitors report i have no report we're just glad you're still awake mr sultanak it's riveting i'm sure um committee reports kathy community relations uh jeff cracks me up okay um we had a meeting on um monday april 12th wow that was just this week these were quick i'm not used to getting the minutes that quick just um we talked about the athletic code of conduct that rj brett's our athletic director is putting together the purpose of the code is to establish expectations and procedures

084for all the coaches to follow um and we're also looking to extend that to be for every extracurricular activity it's a great idea he'll be coming back to us with a version of it for our approval um mr james gave us an update on the dei um the diversity equity and inclusion committee um that they had a meeting that was held on april 7th they discussed the mid-atlantic equity consortium equity audit and committee members are reviewing the audit and providing feedback on how it can be used to support the district district's f district's efforts next meeting will be may 5th also we were given a graduation update dr pakani gave the good news of course that we will be having a in person graduation back on in the stadium so that is june 9th um

085at the field at 6 00 p.m the seniors and staff members will all be placed six feet apart uh and then all of the spectators will get two tickets and they'll sit around the track and in the stands um six feet apart you know in their pods of people um adult evening school mrs lester gave an amazing update on the adult evening school and some revamping that's going on we have online registration available now which can make it much easier for our community members to sign up and possibly get refunds if necessary so be on the lookout for some new information about those opportunities and lastly mrs lester also gave us um some information about our next school year's calendar theme so for 21 22 it looks like our calendar theme will be learning listening

086and leaning in which will be highlighting the important work occurring throughout our district with regard to diversity equity and inclusion and we were all so excited about her idea and looking forward to seeing how it all um ends up and is hanging on our walls and refrigerators in the fall and that's all i have thank you so much oh and we did review a couple policies as we usually do thank you um beth curriculum um the curriculum committee also met on monday evening april 12th um and a recording of the meetings can be found on the district website or on our youtube channel um during the meeting mrs grigitis and her team shared practices and procedures that have been put into place for state testing um both for the pssas and the keystone tests and

087how they will be delivered this year beginning in may specific building procedures um have been communicated and will continue to be communicated to parents from each individual building there was also an update on our summer learning opportunities that will be held over the summer and again our district has been communicating that and will continue to update families about different opportunities that we will have this summer for our students we also reviewed textbook purchases and policies that we just voted on and our next meeting will be may 10th at 6 pm thank you thank you facilities chris thanks the new middle school building is moving right along and with respect to the 10 year old solar panels on the current middle school building we will be having a separate meeting in june to review all of

088the available options and just so you know if we decide not to use the current 10 year old panels in our new building they will be 100 recycled and no matter what the board and administration are committed to pursuing sustainable and and environmentally friendly choices regarding our energy usage in the upcoming months we will be moving forward with our paving projects at ridge park white marsh and plymouth elementary schools and other prioritized projects include replacing emergency generators and replacing an hvac unit at the high school we had a sinkhole that i developed on the baseball field that has since been repaired and cms spring sports yay has started and we've been using jfk park and east plymouth valley fields while construction is going on at the middle school and we'd love to thank plymouth township

089for uh working with us to make that possible great thank you finance eunice um i have no report beyond the items that we voted on this evening our next meeting will be monday may the 3rd and we encourage folks to attend to get you know the latest updates on the budget and all the work that the finance department will do to see where we can economize thank you human resources beth is not here and i assume there's no update no report uh eunice back to you for the tech school um sure so we voted on the tech school budget this evening um and everyone you know we see the wonderful results the of the education that our students get there so it's really money well spent and invested in the future of our students um

090at our meeting this month we did spend a good amount of time talking about the capital improvements needed for the tech school building including roof repairs and some security and other technology issues so more to come on that as the tech school will be looking at the best way to pay for those we also find in closing we did get an update on graduation for the tech school which will be saturday may 22nd um and i believe the plan is to have um the ceremonies at the tech school location and students will be staggered throughout the day so much more to come on that and our next meeting will be may the 5th at 6 30 p.m and we encourage the public to join those meetings okay thank you jen no report for the intermediate

091unit okay thank you and um legislative do we have anything does anyone have any legislative items to discuss nope uh municipal and community liaisons from conshohocken april is national poetry month and the contract and free library is marking the observance with pop-up poetry stations at 10 spots throughout the borough the conshohocken-free library staffer harry hoy a colonial school district graduate organized this event and came up with the idea as a way to bring poetry to the local community and encourage the public to engage with their surroundings in a new and thoughtful way poetry fans are also encouraged to compose and recite their own original work at any meaningful borough spot for inclusion in the library's local voices project for additional details about the pop-up poetry displays or the library's virtual poetry workshops you can email

092harry h hoy clink.org or look for information on facebook or call the library and then on sunday may 2nd at 7 00 pm martin's mayor yaniv aronson invites everyone in the district to join in the second ringing of bells across pennsylvania for three minutes to honor our emergency and frontline workers and hopefully the bells will be ringing out everywhere thank you okay um for plymouth plymouth township police chief john merciades joined with all the members of plymouth township council to recognize the efforts of local first responders in the fight against covet 19. their efforts included successfully securing critical life-saving covet 19 vaccinations than organizing and implementing vaccine drives for over 4 000 elderly and at-risk people essential workers and first responders and the plymouth township police department along with several other area police agencies will

093be participating in an education and communication forum on law enforcement and the autism community this event will take place on wednesday april 1st on april 21st at 6 15 p.m it's being held in norristown and if you're interested in attending you can rsvp um at j a k e s m a one zero one one at comcast.net great thank you and no report for me this evening thank you adam and rosemary do you have anything for the foundation report the colonial school district education foundation is thrilled to announce that 5 600 was raised during the field of love campaign and we are going to have 42 colonial supporters enjoying the carramore virtual wine tasting on april 21st the colonial school district education foundation will be announcing the money raised through subaru's share the love campaign

094next month in may thank you great all right um any public comments drew i don't see any at this time okay any more any board comments on anything else this evening we had one email public comment from uh sharon cleveland from plymouth meeting uh and it was in line with the comments the board heard at the beginning of the meeting asking for frozen junior to take place at the middle school okay any other comments from the board or the administration all right saying none this meeting is adjourned good night everyone thank you