001Good evening everybody to the February 9th um board work session meeting. I'm Nha Meta sitting in for Rachel Gyos. Um I'm the board by vice president. Um just as a reminder of procedure, the meeting will be audio and video recorded so it can be viewed uh by the community at home. And with that, we'll start with our agenda. Um comment from our student representative. Hi everyone. I hope you had a great weekend. I hope if you watched it, you enjoyed the Super Bowl. Um, we had a busy month since we've gotten back from break at the high school, and I'm excited to share it with you all. First, I'd like to take a moment to talk about the Desmond Project, which is a class that's offered in partnership with the Desmond Hotel. And it offers
002students training in all the fields up there, hospitality, marketing, sales, accounting, and management. And what it is is the students take the class and they plan different events like the senior citizens lunchon and the student achievers banquet which they're currently working towards. The lunchon they just recently did in the fall. But the Desmond helps them facilitate this. And what's cool is students get the opportunity to learn about these different business fields through uh interviews and processes to put them in leadership positions. So I know they have different positions within the Desmond like marketing director, PR director, uh human resources director and then an overall director and they interview for these positions. So it's gives students the experience in the business world and recently they went to the Desmond Hotel for the central office lunch which
003enabled these the people in these positions to talk with the count their counterparts at the Desmond Hotel. For example, the general manager of the Desmond spoke with the general manager of the Great Valley Desmond project and the marketing director at Great Valley spoke with their counterpart at the Desmond. And that gave these students the opportunity to see what that role entailed and understand how to do it as they go about planning the student achievers banquet in the spring, which I know I mentioned. And that's where they put on a display to highlight some of the amazing students at Great Valley. And that's in the spring every year. So we'll be able to talk about that Anna or I when that comes up later in the year. Uh but yeah, it's a great club for students
004who are in business and or class uh for students who are in business and they want to pursue business interests in the future. Another thing that came up is the world language soccer tournament which is a tournament between all it's a soccer tournament that they play in the middle school gym and it's for students at the high school who take the different languages. So, Spanish, Latin, German, and French. And then the English language learners is a another class that they added in three years ago. So, the fans who attend the game who aren't playing often wear their team colors, they wear costumes, they make signs to support their team. So, they turn it into a big community event to build camaraderie among the students who take each of the foreign languages. And as a part
005of the Spanish language, not to brag, but we have won the past two years. So, go Spain. Uh, another class that I wanted to highlight, uh, is the mock trial uh, team and they recently competed at the University of Pennsylvania for the Ben Franklin Invitational on the weekend of January 18th and January 19th and they practiced as attorneys and witnesses. So they got the case which in this this year was medical malpractice. So a civil case and they practiced that for many months leading up to this and put on a display where they interview they part took parttook in it as if it was a real trial and they did a lot of preparation as you know lawyers obviously do a lot of work before a case and the students had to as well and
006at UPM they had a trial record of 70 and one so a very good record and with that it was good for third in their division of 30 schools so an amazing performance for them and I wish them the best of luck in the district competition in February. So that's coming up. Finally, I wanted to highlight the yearbook class, which is a fullear class and it's half credit, so students take it every other day. And it's led by student editors. So there's two senior editors and chief and there's also section editors. So each grade has a section editor and then the sports section, current events section. They all have section editors as well. and it gets students experience with Adobe software and Photoshop. So skills that if you want to go in the design field,
007it's very good to get familiar with them. And another aspect is photographers get experience when they capture school events like sports events and uh the clubs. They take pictures of each club to put in there as well. And then finally, it gets students experience working with deadlines. So they have eight of them throughout the year and they work as teams. So each section editor has a group of students working under them and they collaborate to get done however many pages they have to. I think it's like 40ish per uh deadline and there that's divided by sections. So they all work together on that and it's just great for when they go into uh projects for their jobs in the future. They obviously need to learn those skills as well. And there are two examples of
008recent yearbook covers and I thought they look great. So that's just what the yearbook club does throughout the year and that'll be coming out soon. They're finishing up their last deadlines coming up for that. So then some upcoming events that we'll be talking about is the cultural celebration. So that's I don't know if you remember it from last year is where they have a speaker come in and talk about the culture and diversity and how that can be celebrated. And there's a different theme each year. So, we'll have more info on that when it comes up. And then the second wing is there's a cultural uh fair where they have a table for each of the clubs that celebrate cultures at the high school. And that's a great way to showcase all the diversity we
009have. And students can see that. There's dances, food, displays, so they can learn a lot about that. And it's something that every year all the students rave about um for that. So, that's great. And we'll be able to share that as it comes up in about a month. And then finally, I know Anna talked about it when she was here last time, but the Mr. Great Valley contest, the preparations are still in full swing, as you know, that's named after Mr. Chrissy, who was nicknamed Mr. Great Valley for all the great work he did in this community. And we'll be able to talk more about that when it happens. And we'll be able to share who the teacher judges were, what the secret event was, and uh some more about who won. As always, thank
010you for allowing me and Anna to come here and present on the high school. We get a lot out of it and I hope you do as well. So, have a great night and I'll see you in about a month. Thank you, Justin. All right, moving right along. Superintendent update. Yep. Uh, thank you very much. So, um, I'll reserve most of my update for our business meeting, which will be two Mondays from now. Uh, but for the presentation this evening, Miss Marston is here. Uh, one of our goals this year is the development of a three-year strategic communications plan. Now, this is not the type of plan that the board will need to vote on or take action. This really is justformational. We want to get your input and how we approach communications. Uh, I
011also think your feedback will help us to shape the goals for the 26 27 year. As you know, we have a category in communications. So, uh, I think the work and the feedback that Teresa and I get here today will shape this work moving down the road in months and then finally manifest with our our goals. So, Teresa, I know you're all set up and I appreciate your work. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. So, we'll get kicked off with an overview of what some of the focus areas were. Um, if you recall back in the early fall, I presented these focus areas and throughout the year working with the communications committee members. Um, we've kind of recategorized them and rep prioritized them. So, what those focus areas now include is strengthening organizational communications. And this
012is really meant to focus on our internal systems. Um, also improving digital connection and accessibility. that was kind of a carryover, but we focus on both student and family platforms as well as some of the platforms that we'll utilize for external communications like the website and social media. Um, and then lastly, building our brand. We've talked a lot about so some strategies around kind of style messaging guides that will kind of lead us to more consistent and uniform communications. Um, also I forgot to mention the draft of the long form plan is in board docs. Um, and that's just kind of the step-by-step action items for each of these goals. Tonight, I'm really just going to go over kind of the major bullet points for each one. So for the organizational comm communications piece, um
013the first area that I really wanted to focus on was creating that structure for things like major major initiatives, um issue communications, crisis communications, anything that we kind of have to be prepared for in the event that our community needs to be aware of and knowledgeable about. um but that we kind of are prepared to deliver that messaging succinctly and um uh in a way that encapsulates what our um goal is with the message. So creating that system for the major initiatives and crisis communications is something that we want to kick off pretty early in this plan. Um the second goal within that is a framework for community engagement. So, this kind of expands out from there. And really, this is um the purpose of this is to expand on some of the relationships that
014we already have. Um whether that's partnerships within the district or organizations that have already worked for us. Um rather than kind of working alongside one another um kind of in a way that we're not necessarily um strategizing how we can work together. Um the idea for a framework for community engagement is to plan ahead with these organizations so that we know who we're working with and we can remain consistent with some of those partnerships for the digital connection and accessibility. Um, I know I talked about this quite extensively with some of the last um, communications presentations I've given, but with the accessibility guidelines, knowing that those are mandatory guidelines ahead, the goal of creating this um, guide would be to um, be a resource for staff so that they properly understand how they should be
015using our platforms to um, remain consistent with ADA accessibility guidelines. It's really robust and complex what those guidelines look like and it doesn't necessarily fall in line with our district and what our platforms are. So the idea of this guide is that whether it's Canvas or Seesaw or Parent Square um it fits in with our platform. So that guide is really tailored to what we use as a district. Similarly, we also have a lot of tools when it comes to translation and multil- language support. And I think um staff across the district are doing a great job utilizing parent square and the different tools we have um come alive as one as well. Um however, it does get a little bit um robust and kind of comprehensive with how many tools there are and what
016the process looks like for getting something translated. So it could be a flyer, it could be um a meeting with a parent. So producing a guide that a new teacher or a new staff member or maybe somebody who's more tenured and just hasn't done this a ton, they will have a resource to go to and find out what the best way is to communicate with a family or communicate with their entire class or maybe communicate with the entire building um with some of those multil- language tools. For goal number two, under the digital connection focus area, this is where um some of goal number one focused on our internal platforms. This focuses on external platforms. So um things like well parents square is internal. However, we do have some um opportunities for community groups. So
017external community members can sign up to receive communications from the district. When we sent the annual report mailing in the fall, um community members could use the QR code to sign up for that. So we already have about a hundred people in the community group that aren't necessarily parents in the district. Um so campaigns on social media and that platform are something that we want to focus on as well as um LinkedIn for recruitment purposes and promotion of staff achievements. Um another area that isn't necessarily outlined but I know that is a focus for the district is the website and continuing improvement on that. Um the website just being kind of a living breathing being. Um we'll always kind of be improving and we'll always seek ways to improve it. Um, however, I can incorporate
018something that specifically addresses maybe website maintenance workflows and things of of that nature um, in this goal. And lastly, the building our brand focuses on specifically developing um a brand and style guide to keep that messaging framework, keep the consistency that we've talked about in some of our uh communications and materials, whether it's again flyers, graphics, um newsletters, content that goes out to families or staff. Um, in the second piece of that, the professional growth and communications, what I really wanted to focus on here was being able to get face tof face with our staff. So, I think I've talked a lot about all of these resources for our community and our staff, but just sending it out via email or putting it out on the website doesn't really get that um I don't get
019that opportunity to kind of showcase the importance of it, maybe answer questions. So, in a communications training program, what I would seek to do is um really encourage staff to use all of the tools that I'll have developed by this point and then teach them best practices when it comes to the use of these tools, talk about um ways that they can communicate with families maybe differently or um and then finally just answer any questions that they have. So, it's not just a resource that gets kind of dropped in their inbox, but rather I have an opportunity to work with them more interactively. Um, and then within that goal, developing a template library so that they have a lot of materials for those who might not be so creative. They can find something. It could
020be a PowerPoint presentation, a graphic, things like that. And then finally, this community expansion goal. This is something um will probably kind of lean more towards an advocacy approach where we're um trying to promote the work of the district maybe through some other channels um including through our own staff. So, the purpose of something like an ambassador program would just be an opportunity for staff who have an interest in things like social media or storytelling to really have that input and a seat at the table. Um, so what that would look like could be quarterly meetings with several members of our staff from across the district who just kind of enjoy that storytelling approach and it allows me to get insights into what's going on in our buildings and across the district. so that whether
021it's a classroom teacher, a counselor, maybe even a principal or support staff member, um we can make sure those stories are being told about what's happening in Great Valley. Um and really from kind of the people who are on the ground doing that work. Um and then similarly trying to build out some of our community groups and focus on that. I think later in this plan as we've built all of this across our communications um we would be in a really good place that we're positioned to work with some of those other groups such as alumni or taxpayers or businesses who might want to give back in some capacity. So that would be the goal of that group um or of that uh action step later within the plan. So then when it comes to
022the actual deliverables, here's kind of just an overview. Um, some things that we talked about rep prioritizing were moving up some of the social media strategizing to more year one or year two. Um, here I have it later on. The intent of that was originally to develop the brand guide so that anything we are putting out aligns with that. So with the social media strategy, we could kind of if we if it's something that's a priority, we could put that more towards the end of year one or the beginning of year two. But overall, there are um definitive deliverables for each of these action areas. And um it's something that can be moved around based on our priorities. But given the feedback that I've gotten, this is kind of how I aligned it. And that's
023all. Are there any questions or comments? Teresa, thank you. And I do know we we had chance with our communications committee also to get that input and that help shape and inform. Are there any questions or feedback? I know it's a lot to unpack. The full plan is there in board docs. If you have concerns, questions, please reach out to Teresa or me. And um we'll continue to shape this over the months ahead. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Teresa. Okay. Um moving along to policy next. Uh that's me. Uh, no new updates on the policy committee meeting. We meet again the first week of March. I believe it's March 3rd. Um, and the policies for second reading and adoption are listed. There's been no changes since um, I last reported out on them. Um, if
024there's no questions on that, we'll move on to uh, program. Thank you. Under program we have uh two curriculum items. One is 5.01 which is the heritage language level two curriculum uh for unit 5 and 5.02 is the world language and cultural grade 5 unit 2 uh curriculum program new items coming along. Um you can see the implementation dates as well um listed for your review under facilities. Do you mind if I continue on? Keep going. Um, under facilities, um, there is no facilities report, uh, but there is a facilities committee meeting, um, next week, um, on the 19th at 5:00, I believe that's the time. Um 6.02 is the lowbar change order 51 and 52. Um these are new change orders to us but they are um old change orders from prior year. They
025are from the previous school year 2425. Uh we just received them. Um 151 is for the metal blocking. Uh this is for all of the um wall plates that needed to be implemented for um our clear touches to be put on the walls in the classrooms and in the conference rooms. um that was not a part of the drawing. So that was an addition that needed to be included. And the sec sorry the second change order is for um the install of bathroom accessories um and that was throughout the uh building as well. Um items such as kick plates, wall bumpers, and uh wall stops. 6.03 is the uh high school middle school summer paving project um design proposal. Uh this is from TNM Associates. This is the project to design and the bid development
026um for the middle and high school paving project uh to be completed over the summer. This also does include the resurfacing of our tennis courts as well. Um and this will go out to bid in the spring uh with completion of this uh paving project to be at the start of the school year. So at the end of the summer before the start of the school year. Uh 6.04 04 is the General Wayne roof restoration. Um this item as well is um an item that needs to go out for bid uh for some repairs that need to be done for our general rain general Wayne roof. Uh these funds will be paid for utilizing our capital projects fund. Um and these funds are already slated as part of our capital projects plan. Uh 6.05 05
027is for the Sugartown and the high school roof restoration and this is an authorization um that we are required to have so that we can go out and initiate funds through the public school facility improvement grant. Um we will go out for the full amount. Um although we might not receive the full amount um any amount is uh gladly will be received. Um but those projects will be for future years. Um, so the first one would be Sugartown, which would be slated for next summer. Um, and then the following summer would be the high school. Those two roofs are as well included in our capital projects plan slated in those years. Um, so that grant that we're looking to receive is a two-year grant. Um, and hopefully we'll be able to receive those funds to
028cover um, a portion if not all of the roofing cost. Um if not those funds would come from the capital projects plan. Um and 6.06 is the facilities use report there for your review. Can I ask a question? Yep. Um for the paving project just in light of the larger discussion we had about the fields and things. Is it worth kind of slowing down on this to to feel figure out how this fits in with the larger field design or is it that they are so separate we would not be borrowing any paved space for any field? They are so separate that we would not be borrowing any paved space for any field. Um not to mention um the way that um you go through the process. um the median when you're coming into the
029middle school drive. Um that uh concrete barriers breaking down. Um those are things that we're required to be able to maintain um just through the township that we have to upkeep. Um as well as just cracking and things like that are happening with the paving with the pavement. Um so they're two different projects. Um and the paving is something that we already kind of put off from the previous um school summer um school year. So that's why it's slated for this school year. So um short answer, no. Sorry. No, that's okay. No, that's sorry. And then just one question. It mentioned in there that the um the tennis courts would need the fencing and everything else replaced. Where where are those are those funds budgeted somewhere else or would they be part of the fields
030project as well? So the tennis court project that we're working on is a part of the capital projects plan. Um it was a part of the field study. So it is something that we can incorporate in this paving project because of the surface that it has. Um none of our fields have a paving surface. Um so that's why it's not included in the project. Otherwise it would be. I have a few questions as well. um for the roofing projects. Um is there uh like is it just the urgency of doing General Wayne um sooner than Sugartown High School roofs or um is there any was there any benefit to maybe like doing them all together? Um so there is urgency to the general Wayne roof. Um so there are some spots on the roof that
031um are wearing down. Um, so we do have a maintenance plan. Um, and that's how we were able to surface that, uh, there were some issues going on with the general Wayne roof roof. Um, so that's why that's slated to go first. Um, and it's difficult to do multiple roofs in one year. It can be done. Um, but when you're looking at um, the contractors to be able to get them in um, is one piece, but then also the cost that goes along with it. Okay. Um so that's why we try to move it out and um stagger it year-over-year. Okay. And then um the the low bar changes that continue to come in. Is there at at any point that we say the books are closed and you know too late or just you
032know it depends on their books. Um I guess the short answer is no. There's no uh the books are closed. um as long as the their part of the project is still open, which that it is, um they can still come back and say these are open items that we have not invoiced for. Um I do believe that um just looking at the pay app, I think there's we're down to about uh $24,000 um that's remaining. That's not a part of a change order. That's just a completion of final project. um that gets a final approval through legal um to to determine that the project is closed. Okay. Um so that's where we are with the process. Uh these change orders came about um when you go through and you're reconciling your books um you
033can see that there would be open items um on their end uh to be able to submit to us. Okay. So and and in accounting you can have a prior period adjustment um things like that. Yep. And it's important to note that we do validate these when they come in. Just because a an order comes in, we don't necessarily accept it. Uh we validate we go back and check the system as Sheree indicated and if it's truly justified, uh we bring it to the board because there have been some that we've contested or um but this is one that has been legitimized. Yes. Yes. As to Dr. Cfredo's uh statement. Yes, we do double check and verify to make sure that these are invoices that uh we should be um paying um and just verifying
034that the work was done and was uh an added change order. Okay. And then just one final question about the paving of the tennis courts. Um girls tennis starts also in the summer mid uh Augustish. So, will they be ready for that or are they going to have to make alternate arrangements? Um, so right now the tennis court that's being worked on is a tennis court that's not being played on. Um, so it's not in use at the current moment. Um, it is I believe it's the larger um tennis court that sits um back on the high school campus. Um, so we're resurfacing so that it can become a playing court again. Um, right now it's kind of out of commission. Is this the So, this is the court that they're turning into the pickle
035ball court or these are the actual tennis court courts. Right now, it's a current It's a tennis court. Um, and we're paving it for a tennis court, not a pickle ball court. Um, I thought I'm I'm unaware of a pickle ball court. I thought I had seen that in Maybe that was just a proposed idea when when they had done the field study. I thought I had seen that they were going to repurpose that. No, I remember I remember pickle ball court is like one in the back. But so um to go along with that question, so how many tennis courts do we have? And so the one that they're playing on now does not need to be resurfaced while we have like the paving coming in. I guess I'm just trying to understand like
036what's happening here with the different service areas. So there are multiple uh tennis courts that sit on the campus. Um there's the tennis courts that they actually play their matches on. um those courts are fine. The courts that we're paving um are additional practice courts andor courts that the public would use um that have not been used in some time to my understanding because they haven't been able to be used because of the surface. Okay. Any other questions on facilities? Um nothing under transportation. Um nothing under food service. So we are at technology. All right. Under technology 9.01 and 9.02 are renewals. Um and you can see the renewal contracts there for your uh review. Uh 9.03 03 is our onetoone iPad purchase for next school year. Uh this is to replace the sixth and
037seventh generation iPads. This is for our kindergarten students, third, fifth, and ninth graders and any transfer students that we have as well as any staff replacements. Sh, can you um talk about or remind us about what we do with the um iPads that are taken out of circulation? How are those disposed of and are they donated? Um, so multiple things. Uh, families have the opportunity to be able to purchase iPads um once they're no longer in use. And then any iPads that we have, we do um work with a company that we're able to they're purchasing them from us at a reduced rate. How do families know about the iPad purchase? Because I don't think I've ever seen anything about this. Um, I believe a communication goes out. Um, yeah. All right. Uh moving on
038to finance. All right. under finance uh a finance committee report. Uh the finance committee will be meeting uh next Wednesday uh February 18th at 700 p.m. Uh 10.02 is our cool speak presenter. Uh this is the youth engagement uh company to present during the heritage day on February 26. Uh 10.03 is for a golf cart purchase. This is to um replace the current golf cart. Um this is to purchase a used one at a rate of $5,720. Uh just to give you an idea, um the current golf cart um needs to be replaced because of the amount of repairs that need to be completed on it. Um so just with the different the differential in pricing, it was better to go with the purchase of a new used golf cart. Uh 10.04 is the Webster's
039fitness equipment purchase. This is for the high school weight room. Uh this is a part of a planned equipment upgrade. Um and this equipment will be purchased with the ready tolearn grant funds. 10.05 are the elementary field trips. Uh you can review your agenda uh to see all of the trips listed and the costs associated with the trip. 10.06 is the middle school field trip. This is for the seventh grade students as well. You can see that information in your agenda for review. 10.07 07 is the request to establish a great valley high school activity club and the club would be club America. 10.08 is the educational service contracts. They are also listed and for your review as well as a part of your agenda. And 10.09 is a Charles Town Elementary School donation. Uh
040this is a donation for $3,000 uh to purchase recess equipment. um educational games, any technology equipment and safety equipment. Um I just have a a statement to make about the middle school field trip. So I know we have um we've been working really hard to make great field trips for these students and I know we're dealing with a lot of constraints with buses and I know it's important that all of our field trips are accessible and um I believe in in that as well. I do just want to point out that this is the third time this group of students will be going to Paradise Farms. Um, and I know that it does offer different things, but the reviews the first time weren't great. The reviews the second time weren't great. So, for a group
041of seventh graders who are hard to please, speaking from experience, again, um, to have to go to a place that they've already been to twice, regardless of different activities, it just feels really underwhelming. Um, and I just I don't know if there's time to think about that right now, but three times to the same place for a group of middle schoolers just feels like a very antilimactic field trip when, you know, two years ago students were going to Henlopen. And I know why we had to shift away from those plans, but bringing them somewhere they've already been twice does not feel like a very fair followup. So I know I I certainly worked with a team of of teachers as they explored the replacement trip for Henlopin. They were aware that students have gone there
042previously, but obviously the age this is extended into the evening. And you're right, you frame the other pieces that we have to look at is is the venue, especially when an entire grade goes, is it accessible for all students? Is it close? This is also an extended I did make a little bit of an exception with this trip. One of the things that they wanted to retain from the henlopin experience was the fact of children sitting down as an entire grade and eating a meal together and then having a fire together and bonding around a fire and connecting. So also knowing that it's stretched into the evening, we didn't want to go too far away. So I certainly understand the concern. Um I know I started meeting with this team of teachers at the beginning
043of last year and they had put a lot of time and thought into this particular trip uh trying to still grab those quintessential elements from the Henlopin trip and yet put it in a package that relates to all those other pieces. So I think we'll certainly um at this point that the trip you know they started last year into now I think if the board is willing to approve it we will gather feedback and all those things that you referenced really drill down with the staff and the kids whether is this the continued approach that we want to have. So um I'm certainly happy to report back after the experience but you might even know some uh from your own oh I will know uh inside inside sources. Okay. Yeah. But I do I appreciate
044that and I know that everyone is working really hard. It was just when I mentioned the Paradise Farms, the immediate like visceral reaction that came back. Um so hopefully if you can win them over then you're doing a little bit better than we are at home. Um I'll just ask a fun question the just about the golf cart just because my wheels are spinning here. Um is there any utility? I see that there's a trade in. So, I'm assuming that the old one is um is going to be traded in for the new used. Um but is there any o is there an opportunity to maybe have the technical students take a stab at, you know, taking, you know, seeing what they can do with it? Worst case scenario, it has to get trashed. Best
045case scenario, we get, you know, two golf carts and maybe offer joy rides. I don't know. Um, but you know, is there another opportunity there that basically I mean there's always opportunity. Um, the difference would be that we're getting $1,100 for the trade in of the golf cart. So, it would just mean that we're paying $1,100 more for the new golf cart, new used golf cart. That would be the trade-off. But I'm always open to opportunity. I just a fun thought. Um, all right. Any other questions on that? Um board committee? Nothing under other. Um any other committee reports that need to be made out today. All right. The draft of the agenda is there uh for you to view and we are uh at our public comment section. Anybody in the public would like
046to make any comment on any of these or other issues? Henry Marshall. All right. Seeing none, we'll move um to uh I have to announce we met in executive session prior to the board meeting to discuss matters uh legal and personnel matters. And um if no other comments then I'll adjourn the meeting tonight. All right. Thank you. Have a great night.