001All right, welcome everybody. My name is Rachel Gygo School Board President. Welcome to our work session on Monday, March 9th. I always have to get that right. So, thank you all for being here. Um, we have a board member dialing in, I believe. No, she No, I'm wrong about that. everyone's here who is who can be here. Um so thank you so much. Our meetings are recorded and posted on our website so everybody knows. And with that we will move through our agenda. Um we have a student representative presentation tonight. Yes. Come on down Anna. It's good to see you. Hi everyone. Happy March. It's good to be back. Um, these past few weeks, we've had some of our biggest events at Great Valley, like Mr. Great Valley, and we had a cultural fair. So,
002we have a lot of those important things to go over. So, first up, our winter sports have officially wrapped up. Spring sports started last Monday. So, here are some highlights from the winter. We had three of our swim and dive swimmers qualify for states and they're heading to Bucknell this weekend to compete. So, best of luck to them. And then track and field has their state had their state relays last week. Their girls relay is still ninth in the state. So huge accomplishment for them. And then a lot of our winter sports have banquetss to celebrate their end of seasons at the basketball banquet. They celebrated their coach, Coach Savage's 100th career win. So that's a huge accomplishment for basketball as well. And then with spring coming up, we're hoping to bring some highlights from
003the spring sports in the next few meetings. And next up, another event that occurred in the past two weeks was the cultural affair celebration. This is led by the multicultural student union. And the adviser is Miss Lutz, who's also the student council adviser. So they chose our speaker for this event, which was Dr. Laura Rizzo. She talked about her story with her identity and more about culture, which was a good transition into her actual fair where there were over 20 tables that showcased different cultures and um yeah, different cultures from around the world. You can see from the photos that a lot of them have some food and some candy set up as well as music, maybe a poster about the origins. And then they also enjoyed some dance and games from cultures that represent
004our Great Valley students. Also, we had our Desmond basketball tournament. This was a 3v 3v3 basketball tournament and it was a huge success. They were able to raise over $500 for the student achievers banquet which is also run by the Desmond students and that's happening this May. And there were 23 teams that competed in this event. The winning team was the towering Titans. The team received a $120 cash prize and they also got some free Great Valley merch. And next up, one of our biggest highlights from the year, Mr. Great Valley was this Thursday. I hope you guys went and saw the show. It was an incredible show with over $4,500 raised for the Chrissy Character Award, which is given to two students who showcase outstanding talent and school spirit. There were wonderful performances and
005then student council. We also planned a lot of this. There were five contestants this year. They showed their talents from singing and dance and there was even a magic show that was there which was very fun. And then it started with an opening dance where all the contestants were together and did a dance and then followed by the individual talent sections and then the formal wear which is sponsored by England's apparel. They rent out free tuxes for the contestants and then there was a trivia section and lastly student council planned a surprise segment this year which turned out to be family feud. And this year's Mr. Great Valley was Sedartha Alluri and Mr. The congeniality was Felipe Rosario and I have some photos on the next slide to show some more of it. So we
006do have our surprise segment family feud. We have a few of the dances by some of the contestants and then again we have the fashion segment and the Chrissy family also came up and talked about Mr. Chrissy who really started Mr. Great Valley back in 2003 and the importance of this whole event. Overall it was a huge success. We were able to raise a lot a lot of money. Our goal was 4,000 and we clearly hit the goal. So, it was a great event for everyone and there was a great turnout. And then lastly, our drama guild has been working hard on their play. Their spring play is going to be The Lightning Thief, the Percy Jackson musical. So, if you guys went to The Clue, it was a great performance. Hopefully, you guys will
007come to the spring one as well. The performances are going to be midappril and tickets are on sale now. And that's all I have for today. Um, some upcoming things later this month, we have the Great Valley Prom Closet available for juniors and seniors. And then we also have a spring break spirit beak to send off the kids students over for spring break. And lastly, a big thank you to all of you for making everything that we present possible. All right, superintendent update. Thank you very much. Um, so next week I'll give an overview of happenings across the district. But I wanted to focus tonight's presentation on a recommendation that I would like to make to the board and our presenters are going to be Dr. Heidi Capatola, our high school principal, and our lead
008counsel, Meredith BB. If you all want to work your way to the podium, I'm going to give a quick intro uh for the board. This is not a voting item or a voting recommendation. I know you're used to getting those, but this is a recommendation that the three of us, Miss Bevie, Dr. Kapp, and myself have really been talking about for the better part of two years now. And that deals with our validatoran and saludiatoran. Every year, um we recognize these two positions. Uh you will see we we have some pretty serious concerns about that. And our recommendation uh even though it's not a voting item, we want the board's feedback as we we proceed on this is to um starting with the incoming nth grade class is to eliminate the validator and saludiatoran and
009instead replace it with a Latin honor system more of the cumloud magna cumloud and so on. So um they're certainly here to to make the case on why we think this recommendation is probably overdue and why we think it'll be better for great valley moving forward. And so they'll present for about 10 minutes or so and then we made sure we reserved ample time this evening for any questions or feedback from the board uh as as we pursue this. So Dr. Cap. Okay, great. Thank you for this opportunity for us to share some great things going on at the high school. So we wanted to start out with the big picture in 2026. So, Great Valley High School is a place where we want every student to be able to pursue their passions um in
010every sense, clubs, academics, and and tonight we're going to be focusing on academics. And we're going to give you some information um about the past and what we think would be better moving forward towards the future because academic achievement is really, really important to recognize. and to have a commencement ceremony where we only recognize two students when we have so many excellent students. Um we think it's time for a change. So since I've been principal, we have made some changes to the commencement ceremony. Um prior to me becoming principal, we did not honor students going into the military. We've made that change. It's been received very well. Um if you've been to our commencement, you know we have many veterans on our staff and Mr. Ellis does a beautiful job um honoring our veterans, not
011only students that will be going into the military, but also family and friends who are supporting our students at commencement. Um and student voices in way back and Merida's been in Great Valley longer than I have. She's a graduate. the the it used to be numbers one, two, three, and four spoke whether they wanted to speak or not, whether they had a message to share with their classmates and with families and with friends or not. And and we changed that to any graduating member of the class can audition. And we have uh a group of administrators, counselors, teachers, and we've had some pretty spectacular speeches in the past couple of years. Additionally, I I just noticed this when we were looking at the pictures. We also changed the graduation gowns. For many years, they were
012white and they were blue. And that was really driven by student council leadership in 2019, although not everybody knew that. And some people wanted to hold on to the white and the blue. But I love that we are a unified great valley and that all students in the graduating class wear those gowns. I'm going to turn it over to Meredith to tell about weighted GPA and some of the things that she's noticed in the counseling office. Thank you. So, yeah, for those of you who haven't had students come through the high school yet, um we're on a 4.0 scale at the high school. Um academic classes have no weight. So, an A is a 4.0, a B is a 3.0. Um but we also have pluses and minuses in our grading system. So, if you
013have an A+, it's a 425. If you have an A minus, it's a 375. Honors courses are given an additional 0.25 to the weight and AP courses are given.5. So a student who earns an A+ in an AP course would have a 4.75 calculated into their cumulative GPA. In the class of 2025, last year's graduates, we had 369 students. 114 of those graduated with a 4.0 0 or higher. Uh the number one student in the class had a 4.63. Um looking at that student's transcript, they took almost all honors and AP courses throughout high school. Um was enrolled in all all PE and that doesn't go into the to the GPA calculation, but number 20 in the class had a very impressive 4.369 GPA. Again, there were over 114 students or there were 114 students
014who had a 4.0 GPA or higher. So, we just wanted to share a couple brief stories about how we have noticed this impacts students and families. Um, from a principal perspective, when I was assistant principal, I can close my eyes and be back in my office with a young man who was in his junior year and he almost had a breakdown because he was so worried about what he was going to take and if he lost a point on this exam, would his rank go down because of the pressure of being number one and staying number one. I mean it was it was palpable and and I felt for this for this young man and what we've seen in the counseling office when when we you know it this validictorian and saludiator and kind of
015drives this kind of academic competition instead of academic collaboration. And we have students who unfortunately select courses not based on interest or wanting to explore things like their strengths and their interests more deeply but playing more of a GPA game. So they may avoid taking art classes, music classes, the culinary classes that we have because the highest they can get in those courses is a 4.25 and there's no weight assigned to the GPA if it's not honors or AP. And we just don't like to see students, you know, selecting classes for that reason. Or on the flip side of that, students who are so overscheduled taking, you know, six APs in a year and needing to give up other things that they're really interested in and enjoy in their life because they're so driven by
016needing to get that that GPA up and feeling that, you know, rank is so is so critical to their future success. Yeah. And then then lastly, from a parent perspective, some of the students in our highest level classes, we've received feedback that they will get a test back or they are studying for a test and one student will not help another. And then when the test comes back, what did you get? You know, what's your grade? It just creates a really non-olaborative kind of toxic environment for those students. Um, so Meredith is going to share a little bit what we've learned from neighboring districts because in all honesty, I think we're a little behind the times on this one. Uh, the validictorian saludiatoran is a pretty antiquated way of acknowledging students at graduation. And this
017is just a short list of some of our neighboring high schools who've moved away from that. Many of them have gone to the Latin honors that Dr. Gfredo mentioned. Some of them don't do anything like that. They might put things like in the um in their commencement program, but they're not singling out specific students at graduation. Um because like us, I mean, for those who may not know, we don't we have a past practice of not ranking students. We don't report rank to colleges. We don't report rank to students and families. So, it seems counter to suddenly now announce validictorian and saludiatoran. And these are schools that have taken on the same approach. Meredith, to that part, could you what how do we report? I mean, I'm aware, but it might be good for the
018board to what we actually do report. So, we do report desile. Um, we will report. So, in our when students are applying to colleges, we fill out a secondary school counselor report and we fill out many of our students use the common app as well. And on those reports we will report desile and we will highlight um in the counsel that if a student's in the top five percent of the class but otherwise what's reported is top 10, top 20, top 30. And again the the difference between you know the student who ranks two in the class and the student who ranks 18 in the class is is so minuscule. So we report decile. Some schools won't even do that. And I've had friends who have students in Unionville and they get frustrated because they
019say, "I call the counselor, they won't even tell me what the death is." So they won't even share it with students. They'll only report it to colleges that require it. So part of the Oh, go ahead. If I could just a question on that. Yeah. I What's the harm in sharing with students throughout their educational career the decile that they're in? We do. We do. Well, where do you do that? Well, we share in like if in our individual meetings with them. So, well, first of all, it's really the the cumulative GPA is only calculated at the end of every school year, right? So, some students are curious like, why isn't my GPA changing as we go through the year? Um, but in our we have individual meetings with students um every school year that
020the counselors do. In the junior meeting is typically where we'll share out what their decile is as they start looking for colleges. Um, but oftentimes we only do it if they ask. I was gonna say because I looked for it and it's not there. And I would I would say what's somewhere on as they're like, you know, in freshman in sophomore class to even see the progression of how they're doing. Well, they wouldn't have a decile in nth grade. It wouldn't be until the end of this. Okay. So, after their ninth grade year. Yeah. So, in the 10th grade year, and we'll share it upon request. We don't we don't just automatically tell them every year, hey, you're in the top 20%. Hey, you dropped to the top, you know, 30%. But if it's asked,
021we'll we'll we'll share decile with them. Okay. Thank you. And what is the what's the landscape these days with colleges um or any higher education? Are they requesting ranks? Are they requesting? They ask how we if if we rank students and that's a yes or no. And then they'll ask us if we'll report decile. And we report desile. Okay. So, we do report desile for every student who applies to a four-year college because that's one of the items on the report that counselors fill out. Um, but again, you know, part of the why, you know, we're recommending this change is again that the GPA have really gone up over the years and part of that is because access to AP classes has expanded and our students are thriving in those. And we'll we'll show you
022a slide to to share some data on that in a moment. Um, but as we have more students taking honors and AP courses, the um, GPA overall for our graduating classes have gone up considerably. So, if you look at this slide, in 2007, we only had 15 students who had a GPA of 4.0 or higher, and the highest GPA in that class was a 4.316. And again, going back to what we shared a moment ago, in the class of 2025, 114 students had a GPA of 4.0 or higher, the student who was number one in 2007 wouldn't even land in the top 20 of last year's graduating class. And that was really, I think, just more about access. So 2003, not to date myself, but that was the year I took over as an AP
023coordinator uh for Great Valley and 2023 was the last year I served as the AP coordinator for Great Valley High School. And this slide just gives you um the numbers of how many more students are taking AP well AP exams. So this doesn't even capture every student who's taken an AP course. This is specific to students who registered for one or more exams. So in 2003, we only gave a total of 250 exams to 167 students. So of those 167, they may have taken multiple exams, but only 257 AP exams were given in that year. The last year I was in charge of AP testing. We gave 1,033 AP exams. There were 530 students who took one or more AP exams that year. And again, you can see even with so many more students accessing
024and taking these college level courses in 2003, 76% of our students scored a three or higher. And last in 2023, over 90% of students scored a three or higher. The AP exams are scored on a scale of one to five. So five is the highest score. And with most colleges, a score of three or better will give you college credit. And then this is an example of the report. We we get it in the summertime. And as you can see the trends from 2021 to 2025. This is a real point of pride for for us at the high school because not only are we giving more students the opportunity to take AP courses and exams, but as Meredith shared, students are thriving. Um you can see the total number has gone up in in both
025areas of the total number of AP students and the percentage of the AP students who score three or higher and as Merida shared those students in many colleges earn college credits. They don't need to take certain prerequisites and it's really um and as a parent it was helpful too. Um when my students went through here it was excellent. So can I just one more question? Sorry, for the AP um exams that are offered, I mean, we offer a lot of AP courses. Does every AP course that we um offer h correlate to an AP exam? So, anybody in an AP has the opportunity to take an AP exam for that class. Yeah. And I can share that not only that, but we have students who Yes, that was Yeah, I understand what you're saying. Yeah.
026For every AP course we offer, there is an exam that's given for that. Um but we also have students who have even self-studied you know for if again they want to take more classes. Um they don't have to be enrolled in the course to take the exam. So we'll allow students to take the exam if there are students um even if they weren't enrolled in the course if they want to take the exam and pay the exam fee they can do that. Can I ask a question too? You had mentioned this young man who came in who was really stressed out, right? Playing devil's advocate though. Are do we any of the kids are taking this because they need to take it to get the GP up to get into college? Is that inc where's
027the stress factor in that? You know what I'm saying? I mean, am I I'm looking at that and all these are great. They're taking all more AP courses, but are they doing it for the right reasons or is there pressure? I gotta do this because there's some of that for sure. There's some of that. I mean, we we do and you know, every year when we're especially we stress it, you know, when we're meeting with the eighth grade students and their parents as they're coming into the high school and during that freshman orientation and through the years, we're always stressing balance with our students. You know, we love that they're academically driven and that they want to take these challenging courses, but you know, to what end? and and I've had students who've um enrolled
028in five AP courses in a year and they're still able to get through their work in about an hour's time in the night. And I've had other students who took one AP and two honors courses and they tell me they're spending three and a half hours to get through their work. So, it's, you know, it really should be individualized for each student. What is it that's reasonable for them? What else are they doing outside of high school? Are you involved in sports? Are you helping your family at home? Do you have a part-time job? So, we do and and that's part of why the counselors meet individually with every student every year is to And another quick question. Um maybe I'm really old. I thought a few years ago or a decade ago or so
029there was a the colleges were moving away from accepting AP because it was sort of No, no, they're still Yeah, I think maybe what you're think the test optional has been related to the SATs and the ACTs, those college admissions tests. Okay. but not the APs that can earn them college credit. So, it's not necessarily a requirement for admission to colleges in the United States. Um, but it really helps them with especially, you know, if money is an issue, you get college credit. So, if you pay, you know, $100 for the exam, right? You get a three, don't you get a credit? It it every college has their own policy, but in most colleges, a three or better. Again, if you're going to college for engineering and you took AP calculus, they're like, "You're still
030taking our calculus class, but we'll give you elective credit for that." Yeah. So, as we've shared, we have many students achieving academic excellence in all areas. And so, we would we would like to honor more than just two at commencement. Um because really and this is a picture from our cultural celebration again. We're really trying to help our students go from competition all the time to collaboration which is really a part of what's important in the workplace. So we want as Merida shared a healthy level of drive grounded in our community that celebrates everyone's growth and we want them to be able to follow their passion and not worry that if I take this one elective it's going to drop my GPA and then I'm not going to be where I need to be. that
031that student would probably still be in the top 5% and that and that letter would be written by the counselor. So we are happy to answer any other questions if if I may just put and I know Miss Gigus will go we'll go next. Two things I just really want to emphasize for the board. One is this idea that as a school district we are preaching and promoting balance for our students. Uh I know there are times and I will get defensive where people think the schools are the ones. Meredith and I go back to when I was principal in 2009 10 11 12 where we sat and we counseledled and I was in the room where Meredith is saying listen we don't need to take seven periods of AP or where children are requesting
032can I forgo lunch and just take a class during my lunch period and and uh there's tremendous amount of pressure and so I do want the board to know we recognize that we want each student to get the amount of rigor that they can handle and still maintain balance in their lives. That's really important and I think our counseling team does a really good job. The second consideration I really want to stress is if you are Meredith led with this. If you're an art and music student, there are very few weighted opportunities. If you're in math and science, there's a lot more opportunities there for weightedness. And so I really asked the question and Heidi and Meredith approached me last year and I said, "Well, let's let's think about this. Uh if I'm really in
033want to take an art or history course and now it's well, it's going to be counter to my GPA." is really the validictorian and saludiatoran. Is that truly our best student? If we have students who can't take it because the weighted system isn't in their favor. There are inequities. We have very few balanced uh AP courses in art and music and the numbers might be small. So, we're not always able to run them. So, I would even throw that question out there that is this really or is this the best person that knew how to manipulate a numbers game with certain content areas to nudge out the competition by hundreds of a point which you could see and so I just wanted to put that on. I do commend our counseling team and our principles
034as much as you've that is a tremendous point of pride as a 10-year high school principal. I strove to get figures like what you've all been able to get. more students getting access to AP, higher percentages being three and higher, and yet still maintaining that healthy balance to their mental health and all those pieces. So, please consider that as as we we have the dialogue. Miss Gagos, um can you explain what the Latin honors system is and who you will be acknowledging at graduation? And then is there a universe in which we then need to offer more honors and AP classes in the humanities than we have now? How do how do we do that? I don't want to and I I'm not hearing this from you either. Students who want to achieve at that
035level and and want the GPA because it matters when you're applying to college whether we like it or not need that chance. And and I'm not going to stand in anyone's way wherever they're headed. So I do not fault the student who is gunning for that one spot. That is the reality which we all live. Have at it. I was never there. But I don't I I deny, you know, go for it if you can achieve that. But how do we then make it so that others can also do that without um a heavy focus on math and science because their their gift lays in art and music and other humanities. Sure, I can speak to that. I mean, we do have a lot of APs in the humanities. So, we have um AP Lang
036that students can take in AP language and composition in 11th grade and AP literature in 12th grade. And then in social studies we have AP human geography, AP world history, AP psychology, AP economics, AP US history, AP European history. So there's there is a lot. We also have AP art classes, three of them. Um, and we have AP music theory as well. So those classes exist for them. But if you want to just take, you know, just I'm interested. I would love to just take an art class, you know, not not going to AP art, but take an art class or take a culinary class. just something fun in my day. Um, we don't want you not choosing that because you're it's you're you can still have a GPA even with those classes. If you
037took no AP or honors classes, you could still finish high school with a 4.25 GPA. Now, I will say what colleges are looking at is the rigor of the courses you selected in context of what your high school offers because they don't hold it against a student if AP courses are not available to them. Um, so what did you take advantage of in your high school and how did you perform in those classes? So, the students who are really shooting for like a high GPA and AP classes because they really want to go to a highly competitive college or university. that's open to them. The only thing we're saying that seems um antiquated at this point is announcing a validictorian saludiatoran, not taking away a student's opportunity to take as many AP courses as they
038want to take. We've never done that. I mean, we may we may discourage it from stu some students, but at the end of the day, that's a decision for them and their parents to make and we encourage it for some students. Meredith was listing the courses that we offer in our program of studies, but also students have the opportunity for independent study. So there are some AP social studies courses that we don't offer. And for those students who who want to go for that and do that, they have taken those classes that are not offered independent study and they might graduate high school with, you know, there's four years of social studies. We've have kids with seven and eight credits of AP social studies. So all of those opportunities remain because I I hear you
039loud and clear. We we want to honor, you know, all students, but we we do think high school is a time for exploration and that there should be room in the schedule for, hey, I think I might like to take guitar. I've never tried it before. But we've had kids that say, oh, I'm not going to get any weight on my GPA, so I'm not going to do that, and I'm just going to take another AP. and and again it's very individual and the counselors really do a good job of working with parents and students with that the Latin honor system I mean it it's yeah it's we it would be weight determined so I mean at many can you say what it is for the public when we all what is the Latin honor
040system oh Magi sum kum laudy like okay what's the breakdown GPA cut off what's the GPA cut off we haven't done that yet each institution can determine that because our we're on a 4.0 scale. Other schools are on a 5.0 scale. Okay. And then we have like pluses and minuses, right? The A+ A minus where Downing Town doesn't have that. So we would have to establish what that criteria is for the different levels of honors. So maybe like Magnitum might be the top 5% of the class and then that would be transparent, you know, in the in the commencement book. This is the top 5%. this is the next 5% and you know because really um we have a lot of kids doing excellent things academically. So a question about that perspective though if you're
041still grouping the um the levels of honors by percentages um it still kind of limits the number of kids in each who can who can achieve each award. Um we don't have to do it that way. You could also do it just to buy like you could have as many people as possible. That's really kind of next steps and hopes that everybody's on board with this recommendation. That's what some Yeah, that's what some colleges do. Like if you have a 4.0, you're a magnumi. It's not weighted no matter what. 4.0. So we would we would have to establish that. But we're just we want to honor more students. Would would part of that involve removing weight for these courses? Is that something? No. There's been no conversation about removing any weight. No. Okay. No. I
042mean, this is the GPA that they're earning and it's wonderful. I mean, the only thing and Dr. Capola for several years has been asking the question, why do we still do this? You know, we're only acknowledging two student, we have over a hundred students with an exceptional GPA who've done incredibly well and taken really rigorous courses in high school and yet we only announced two students at graduation. and we say we don't rank. So, it just doesn't seem to to align. All right. Well, any additional questions? I I do have one question and it's not direct to ranking or I do love this new um idea and ability to recognize a greater group at graduation. Um my question is more to um like throughout the years um of the academic high school of honor role
043distinguished honor role and how is that being recognized as students make that accomplishment every semester every quarter we have a so we uh I think they post in the canvas when it's listed so um what we do after report cards are posted is that we run the honor roll lists and they're posted on the window of the counseling office through the quarter so students can come and check like and it's who made honor role high honors and distinguished honors. Okay. I think it's not on the report card though. Correct. It's not currently on the report card or and certainly can't be on the transcript, but I don't know if as we move to the new student information system if that's something that could be included on the report card. Yeah, I was going to say
044I shared this feedback over the summer and I would just that'd be my like suggestion and the suggestion now. I think it's great for any child as they make honor role or distinguish honor roll to have that kind of pat on the back right there on their report card to know that they have achieved that. Um I just I think that's important. I remember growing up and you know you get that on your report card and you're like oh I did great you know. Yeah. and our next like my parents weren't walking through a a high school and like looking on somebody's no, you know, so I I feel like those little things should be celebrated. Not everyone's going to get a 43 to a 46, but honor roll is definitely one that should No,
045that makes sense. And I think in our next meeting with Infinite Campus, we can ask them if that's something that that can be included. It's not on the Skyward report cards that the program we use now, but perhaps that could be something that's included next year. Thank you both. Appreciate you being here tonight. Well done. Thank you for uh illustrating the concerns. So, um as I said for the board, our our as we move forward, it doesn't seem like there is any great reticence on behalf of the board. We'd like to continue planning. I'll update you through other update mechanisms. I don't think we need to do another presentation, but I'll make sure that you're getting that information as as developments uh occur moving forward. All right. With that, uh that concludes the superintendent's report.
046Great. Uh moving on to policy. Any report from the policy committee this week? No, we actually uh cancelled the meeting due to because of the delay. We had to postpone the meeting and we are actually going to just combined um like did we decide to combine the meetings or move it till later and add an additional one in June? I think that the latter, right? We can use month if you'd like. March. We're going to move the March agenda to the April agenda and then add a June meeting. Got what she said. Um, all right. Moving on to section five, programs. Okay. Under section five, 5.02, uh, we have a middle school overnight trip. Uh this is an added trip to the agenda. Uh this is for two middle school math math count students who
047qualified uh for the state competition in Hershey. Um so this is on for approval because I believe that that competition is happening on March 23rd I believe and we just found out on Friday. So they had 10 alternate spots. Two of our students were of the 10 and that's why it was it was placed on very very quickly. Uh, I want to thank our middle school team for getting it up and and ready so that these students can compete. Great. Good luck to the students. And 5.03 is an information item. It's the monthly enrollment report there for your review. Can I continue on? Yes, please. Facilities. Moving on to facilities. There is no uh facilities report at this time, but the next meeting is held on April 23rd. Okay. Do we need to vote on
048anything related? The last facilities meeting, we talked about the five-year plan and the athletics and all of it. Are we in motion to proceed forward as discussed at that meeting? So, we're in motion to proceed with the paving, okay, for the um high school middle school campus, uh which also encompasses the tennis courts. Okay. Um as part of that project, um as far as the athletic fields, yep, um that is not in motion at this point in time. That would have to be a vote. We talked about um what that would look like for the future. The first project or portion of that project would be for the baseball fields in the fall. Okay. Uh to begin that project. Um as far as um design or anything associated with that, we would need to bring
049that forward to the board for a vote. When is that coming back to the board then for um we can look into it. Okay. Is it Well, yeah, we we talked about it and you laid out a really nice plan that gets us where we need to go over time. we don't get everything all at once, which is fine. That's life. But, um, I want to make sure we're moving on what we need to move on because I know that two years out is when we need to have everything in place. So, okay. And I just didn't want to miss that deadline. Weren't we waiting on some information? They were going to compile some some data. Um, and I don't sort of look at athletics. Yeah. I think it was two separate right discussions. One
050is like athletics at Great Valley and the other was field study moving forward. So we're not waiting on anything from the athletics report to inform our vote on the fields. Okay. So there there are two different reports. Um so the report that uh Miss Gayos is referring to is the field study report that um is to get the design work completed on where the fields would be located uh whether or not we would choose to move forward with a turf field um and as far as uh getting the additional work done to complete the baseball field. So that is kind of more uh facilities related, groundwork related. Um whereas the other report that I believe you're speaking of is an athletics report. Um that would be speaking to the individualized um sports. Um and compared
051comparison of the boys athletics and the girls athletics to make sure that uh there there's one for each type of sport and what does that look like as athletics? We hope to bring that report somewhere in the spring. We're certainly working on that. Our athletic director already has a draft. He's gotten to me. So, that is working. And I do think some of those athletic questions spawned off of the facilities discussion, so we thought, let's just address it all for the board. So, more to come on that. You are correct. That is still pending. One discussion point I wanted to make sure we circle back on and maybe it's already in that report is what we're doing about sponsorship. It's been unclear and we can we have some sort of policy on it, but we
052can get clarity there. So it's very clear about who has the opportunity, what it means to sponsor a team. Do we need to instead is it you're sponsoring the entire athletic program that benefits everybody? Whatever it is going to be, let's have a discussion so there's clarity because it seems like what we have in place now is people don't know what to do so are holding back or it feels just a little bit um wonky in application and and what we physically do with banners and things of that nature. And I I think I might touch on a little bit of that um when we get down to item 10.03. Great. I'll hold my tongue. Well, as a clarification though, your question kind of sparked a question in me. Is that a discussion that we
053would for the sponsorship knowing that that's a 700's policy? Do we want to run that through the facilities committee to do a first blush and bring a recommendation to the board or is that something you want to engage as a whole board? Yeah, let's do it through facilities first and then we'll go from there. Not to say the facilities is the end all beall, but since they're the ones invest I'm not invested um looking for the investment and also deal with it the most, it makes sense to have them quickly say this is what the landscape is currently. this is ideally what we would like and then we can come back and talk to NHA about whether or not that's feasible. Thank you. Okay. Uh transportation um or did I skip something? No, I was
054just going to say 6.02 6.02 is an information item. Uh it's a facilities use report. That's our rental report that you review each month. Uh there are no items under transportation and no items under food service. So we're going to move down to technology 9.01. Quick question around food service. Are we running the backpack program? I will look into if we're going to run the backpack program and then technology. Okay. Under technology uh 9.01 01 is the foundation for free enterprise education. Uh this is a quote that we're receiving at a cost of $500 for the spring semester for the stock market personal finance elective for the eighth grade students at the middle school. 9.02 is learning without tears. This is the keyboarding quote. Uh we brought this to the board back in January as
055a pilot. Um they are enjoying it. Um and the the keyboarding for the students in grades three through five um is creating the fluency that uh we're looking for. The cost for this will be $453.72. Um and that will um complete um utilizing the program through the spring. This is for our third graders and we would like to continue that on in the 2627 school year. But we'll bring that um recommendation to you um in probably May June time frame for 2627 school year. 9.03 is an additional infinite campus modules. Um the total cost of the two additional modules will be $6,811.90. Uh the first one is for the teacher time service and the second one is for campus payments. for the teacher time. Uh this allows conference scheduling within the infinite campus portal. Um
056and the annual cost of that is $5,961. And for campus payments, uh we're looking to replace pay schools uh which is currently what we're using for uh the collection of the fees for uh clubs and athletics. Um, and what we're looking at is a startup cost of $850 and an annual cost of $700 for the campus payments. This does re reduce our costs from what we were paying pay schools of $2,665. Um, so we do have a cost savings there by using the uh campus payments with Infinite Campus, but also it will reduce the fees to our families. So the per transaction fee is going from a $150 or $1.75 down to 35 cents per transaction whether you're doing an a or credit card. The credit card convenience fee will stay at a flat 3.5%.
057Um and the there is an exception where if you do use an AX card um that rate is slightly higher than we did see with pay schools. So that rate would in increase to 4.65% if you use an AX card. Do we still have a mechanism for families who don't have access to electronic payment? Yep. We still will collect cash. Uh we're mandated to collect cash. Um so they can always go into the office um pay that way and then we will make sure that that student gets registered into the system and then we process it the way that we're doing it now. And the last item under technology 9.04 is the network switch replacement. Um this is a multi-step process. Um so we're bringing it to the board now. Um because every year we
058apply for uh what is called -ate uh through technology through the state we receive reimbursement of 40%. Um and network switches is something that um we would like to bring to the board during the finance committee meeting uh where we'll talk about uh technology and what this um network infrastructure will look like throughout the district. Um because this would be a districtwide um uh project. Uh the total cost of the project is we're looking at $862,500. Um, so if we're receiving 40% of a rebate back um for that cost, we're receiving $517,000$500. So that's uh that or I'm sorry, bringing the cost down to $517,000. So that would give us a cost savings of $345 by using this attempt for us to apply for it. We do not have to use it. So if we
059move forward and we choose not to uh move forward with the network switch project, then we do not have to accept these funds and move forward with the project. But we do have to have it approved to use it if we choose to move forward with the funds. Does that make sense? Be a multi-step process. When and who makes the decision of whether we're moving forward? How where's that discussion happen? So the board will make the decision as to whether or not we're moving forward. This would just be the approval just to receive the funds if we do the project. If we don't do the projects, we don't have to receive the funds. Um it will be brought to the finance committee meeting. So at that point, you'll be able to ask questions um review
060the information. Um Miss Evans will go through detail of what this project looks like um and uh how it will affect each building. Um and then after that finance committee meeting, we would then bring it to the board um for approval to be able to move forward with the project, but it wouldn't begin until 2627 school year. Can I circle back to 9.01? Um, the stock market game is specifically listed for the eighth grade student eighth grade elective, but with personal finance now becoming a requirement at the high school, is there any maybe there is something already in place there at that level, but is there any utility to maybe expanding the use on this? Yeah, I believe there is a version at the high school. There are a lot of different um stock market
061opportunities so that are provided. I'm fairly confident. Let's clarify and verify on Monday, but I do know a version. I don't know whether it's the free enter enterprise week or a different one, but I I do believe the high school does something similar. Okay, excuse me. Uh moving on to finance 10.01. Um again the finance committee meeting the next the next meeting will be March 23rd excuse me 10.02 02 is for special counsel appointment Rothschild who is uh we utilize um as a current solicitor. Their name is changing to education group of MCNE Wallace and NUR LLC and that was effective January 1st. Uh there's no changes in representation personnel and their rate structure will remain the same. Take a look just for clarity. Frost Rothschild isn't going anywhere. It's just that their education department
062is moving over to a different firm, which is a very common thing that happens in law, but Fox remains fully intact. Thank you. Uh 10.03 is the uh 2026 uh Great Valley High School graduation live stream. This is to hire the CCIU to live stream the graduation ceremony at a cost of $7,740. Um the graduation date is June 4th with a June 5th as a rain date. Just to put that out there so that everybody knows. Um but one other thing that I would like to add um as part of this discussion um is a couple of things that we are looking at. Um we've heard the board um and we've also heard uh the community and and the families around um what does graduation look like and how can we uh make it better
063uh for our families and our graduating seniors. Um, one thing that we are looking at is um being able to rent jumbotrons to go along with the live stream. Um, so we do have um, uh, feelers out for quotes uh, to see who can do it, what that cost looks like um, and to just make sure that that equipment can be held on our field. That that's one thing that we are currently looking at. Uh, the second piece is um, in the stadium in the current football stadium uh, we have a scoreboard. uh that scoreboard uh will need to be replaced. Um and with that replacement, we have the opportunity of working with a vendor um who will twofold uh hopefully this will answer your question that you referring to earlier. Um we would have
064the opportunity of bringing in a new scoreboard um that we would be able to um have uh sponsors show up on the scoreboard um at a different cost for different games, things like that at rates. Um, so we're looking at ways of kind of, I guess, paying for the scoreboard, right? Um, so we have that capability and it's customizable. So it's also another way, it's not going to be feasible for this year's graduation, um, but maybe in future graduation years, um, to be able to use that as well as a live streaming mechanism or jumbotron type of of, um, way for families to be able to view graduation. Um, and also you can do multiple things with it. Um, you could have movies in the stadium, events, um, the the fact that it's customizable and
065it just becomes a big jumbotron screen and also a scoreboard for the football team, lacrosse team, um, soccer, field hockey, anybody else playing in the stadium, um, to be able to use. So, that is something that we are also looking at. I just wanted to put that out there since we were talking about graduation and live stream. Can I ask about if we would get a jumbotron possibly um for this year just because I've been to a couple graduations in the last few years, you know, and the stadium's huge and obviously can be hard to hear. Um so it is nice to have a jumbotron like a captioning type of service during graduation so we can hear you can see what the speakers are saying. Um, I'm sure that's an extra cost of course and
066it would be a service. So, I'm just kind of throwing that out there as a possibility. I do think it just increases e accessibility especially for all of our grandparents who are there as well. I echo that. I think last year the sound quality where we sat was great. The year before it was not. And I felt awful for all of the great speeches and time and all the time that kids put into it for a fair amount of the audience not to have heard it at all. So I love the idea of the caption. I'm all for better sound quality, but I also love because I even for certain TV shows will put on captions just so I make sure I get every, you know, every great word that they're putting out there. Um,
067so that's a fantastic idea. All right, moving on to 10.04 is Tellide. This is for the 2026 contract, a one-year contract to order 900 student agendas for the middle school um at a cost of $3,155. We will receive a discount of 2% if we order uh the books prior to April 10th. G given our electronic age, how many students are actually using paper planners anymore? I would have to uh look into what that looks like. Um the question that I did have when I when I looked at this um immediately was similar to what you were thinking. Um and the response that I got was there are some students that do still continue to use the planners. They do like to write it down. um and utilize it. Um that's one piece of information that
068I have. I don't have a true number as to how many students are using it or or are not using it. Um I would like to move forward in the sense of kind of purchasing like a pre-order. Students who want it purchase it instead of getting multiples. But I say all of that because I have not spoken with Dr. Cohen, um, our middle school, uh, principal around, uh, what that looks like for the students. But I hear you. Anecdotal evidence of my seventh grader is that he uses it. I get the impression that it um, it's recommended by the teachers and they're walking he and his little buddies through it each day to say, "Okay, you have this, you have this, you have this." Um, but what I would say is leaving it up to
069the kids going into seventh. They have no idea what they need or don't need. So whether it's um just saying yes for seventh grade this is how we're going to go or what is the cost for whatever it is we're going to have to purchase for their iPads to get an online agenda book um I think is an important question also I don't know what because I nothing's free and we've learned that in all these school apps they're just going to charge us. I think the organization piece is absolutely critical. I have my personal preference there that it's paper and I think that's effective but I I'm a household of one seventh grader so I can't but he is using it and it seems like it's a little forced upon him but I'm okay with
070that. Yeah. I mean I immediately I see it I see dollars and cents right. Um so I see that and I'm like okay but I still use paper and pencil. Um it's it still works. So I guess and well I see dollars and cents and I also see like landfill like for for ones that get thrown out for not being used. Um, is there a way when they are printed to make them not year specific or or to find ones that are not year specific so that the kids who choose not to use them um those can be rolled over to to later years. We'll look into that. Um, and the last item for this evening is 10.05, which is an educational service contract. Great. Um, all right. Any other board comments or committee reports?
071All right. There's an agenda online for our next meeting, which will be next Monday night. Niha will be in charge. I will be out of town. Um, and now we are open to any public comment. You're limited to three minutes. Um, there will be a timer. There's a buzzer at 30 seconds left. That's a little alarming, but keep talking. You still have 30 seconds more. And we are glad for anybody who's here who would like to speak. Come on down. Yeah, please. You don't have to raise your hand. Just come on down. Thanks for being here. Just tell us your name and I you're a student or do you live in the district? Making some assumptions. We'll do. Um, I'm Esme McI. I'm currently a student at Great Valley High School. Uh yeah. Am I
072good to start? Do I just Okay. I wanted to come to speak to the board today about um concerns regarding immigrations and customs um enforcement and if the board would be amendable to implementing policies like specific policies and procedures in place um in the event that um customs enforcement comes on campus. Um just like I had a couple suggestions that I sort of like ran through with my parents and some other people around me, but like um informing parents at earliest notice and maybe um I guess agreeing to withhold any information unless like a proper warrant audit um is given and like having I guess in the security program that the school has um some sort of I guess some sort of training point to have like a person on campus who is able um
073to distinguish between judicial and administrative warrants because um in the past there have been incidents uh at other schools um in the country where um maybe they have a warrant to do one thing but it it doesn't allow them to search the campus but because there isn't anyone um available who's able to identify um that document for what it is that they're able to search the campus anyway. And I just I feel like like as a student uh like immigration like like as an immigrant myself coming to America, it's sort of something that's always in the back of our minds. Um because of the fact that you see on the news there are cases where maybe the law and due process aren't followed all the way. And I think that's something that a lot of
074students are concerned about. Um it's some, you know, I don't know if you guys have heard about it, but there have been walkouts that have been planned and that have been cancelled. And so, um, I just think that if the school, um, I guess had something in place to ensure that, um, when students come to school, they can feel safe and that, um, that is not going to happen to them while they are on campus, while they are studying, that it would create a better environment, you know, for studying and for focusing and without having to worry about um, matters outside of school and things like that. Yeah, I can sort of conclude here. You still have 30 seconds though. That's just a 30 second warning bell. We'll do. Uh I don't really know if
075I have anything else to add. Just that like whatever. I don't know the exact process for getting things passed, but if someone would be willing to take it up to um I guess sort of like ease the concerns that like are happening. Thank you. Yeah. I always comment after students speak because I know it's not easy to get up and speak to the board about anything. So, we appreciate you sharing your story and your concerns. Um, the board takes very seriously school safety of all of our students day in and day out and we are always talking about who has access, how do you get on campus, what all of those types of considerations are always at the forefront. But we we want to hear from students and we like that you're highlighting it. So,
076thank you. Um, thank you for being here and always bringing these issues to our attention. Well done. Any other public comment? All right. Well, thanks everybody. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Take your time here. Sorry. Okay. Megan Connelly. Um, I'm a taxpayer. My children are no longer school age. When they were, they were at Great Valley for a while. Um, one thing it would be great if you could respond to her to hear how you're maintaining her safety. I think that was a question she asked. I thought that would be a good response. The other thing I just wanted to bring to your attention, I wrote you an email about Lifewise Academy, which is an organization, a national organization that is um working hard uh in public schools to make sure that children have the
077right to leave school for religious instruction. It's called release time for religious instruction, RT RTR, and schools have policies about it. Pennsylvania is a state that if a if a um a group requests that students can be released for religious instruction, Pennsylvania law requires the school district to do it. So, um just suggesting that you learn about Lifewise Academy, um that we're prepared. The Great Valley, as you know, does have an RTRI policy, but to make sure that it's buttoned down and it's how you want it to be, that um make sure that students are safe when they leave campus, that you know what they're being taught, um and that you approve of the instruction that they're getting. So, thanks for all the good work you do. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Any other
078board comments? All right. Well, thank you everybody for being here. We'll adjourn for the evening and we'll be back for a voting meeting on the 16th. Thank you.