001All right, let's get started. Um, welcome to the October school board meeting. Everybody, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge algiance 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. All right. Let's see. First thing up is student council reports. So, I believe we have Charle Town here first. Come on up to the podium. All right. Welcome back. Good evening. My name is Taylor Dan and I'm student council president for Charles Town Elementary. With me tonight are our vice president, Jack Millia, and our home room rep liaison, Clementine Grock. We're very excited to have the opportunity to speak with you this evening as we learn what it means to be leaders in our school and
002our community. Even though we were only recently elected, we already have exciting few months of events planned ahead. For the month of October, we held our first spirit week of the year. We choose fun themes that every that everyone could join on like favorite color day and sports day. October is also when we started the processes of nominating our third and fourth grade home room representatives. Each home room will have two reps who will come to meetings with the student council officers and share ideas. After meetings, they report back to their own class and to a buddy class in kindergarten, first or second grade. This helps us to make sure all students in our school have a voice in student council. In November, we'll be collecting food to help provide Thanksgiving meals for local families.
003We'll share more details about that soon. We'll also be hosting another spirit week before Thanksgiving break. We plan days that are fun and simple so everyone in our Charles Town community can participate. Some of the themes will include include cozy sweater day and pumpkin versus apple day. In December, Charles Town will once again host our annual Tis the Season project. This project helps us collect holiday gifts for local families in need. Last year, we will we were able to provide gifts for 18 families. This year, our goal is to make our biggest donation yet, helping 25 families. Thank you for giving us the chance to share what we've been working on and what's ahead for Charlestown Student Council. We're great we're grateful to represent our school and look forward to continuing to build a strong,
004caring, and spirited community together. Thank you. Very well done. And Mr. Demitis, I want to thank you for supporting the student council at Charles Town. Thank you so much. And good job to our students. Very well done. Yes. Thank you. All right. Middle school. Good evening to the board. Dr. Gerfredo, parents, teachers, and great valley community members. I am Grant Chinowski, the eighth grade student council president. I am Julia Wart, the eighth grade student council vice president. I am Ana Harihur, the eighth grade student council secretary. Two weeks ago, we hosted a homecoming spirit week, and we are glad to report that many students participated and enjoyed it. Monday, we had white out. Tuesday, we had neon day. On Wednesday, we had color wars, which had seventh grade wear white and eighth grade wear blue
005for our school colors. Thursday, we had Hawaiian day. And to end the week, on Friday, we had football jersey day in honor of the homecoming game. Every year, student council hosts a guess the way of the pumpkin contest. The guess the way of the pumpkin contest is held by student council throughout October. In this contest, students can donate a dollar or a canned food item to guess the weight of the pumpkin. When the contest ends, the person who guesses the weight or gets the closest to the weight of the pumpkin will win the pumpkin. Our student council continues to hold monthly general council meetings. These meetings inform our reps of future activities and in or outer school opportunities and events. During our September meeting, reps got introduced to the officers and rules. And we even
006got some future volunteers for activities like guests to wait of the pumpkin. During each meeting, we have around 120 to 130 attending representatives. After our meetings, the representatives informed their advocacies as to what happened during the meeting. We also provided a team's chat for them to suggest ideas outside of our meetings. Reps continue to be an important part of our council and their ideas and suggestions are always valuable. We will have our next October meeting in Tuesday the 28th. Student council has a lot of plans that we aim to execute soon. We plan to have more spirit weeks, fundraisers, and a fall/ Valentine's dance. All proceeds from fundraisers will go to the Four Diamonds Foundation. We will also be working on teamwork and working together as we become closer throughout the school year. We are
007excited to plan more events in the near future. In closing, this school year has been great so far. We appreciate all the board members and how you volunteer your time to focus on promoting the well-being of the students. In doing so, you enable Great Valley students to thrive. Thank you again for all the opportunities you provide for the Great Valley students and Great Valley as a whole. We value all your hard work that you do for the Great Valley community. Thank you for your time and have a great night. Thank you. Well, very well done, middle school. Thank you for all you do to make our middle school such a great place. And Mr. Brown, thank you for your support of the student council. Thank you very much. All right. school. Oh, high school. Yep,
008high school. Oh, I missed that one. Sorry. Hi everyone. It's Justin. Nice to see you again. We've been very busy over the past few weeks at the high school. So, let's get into it. So in on the sports side of things, many sports, so cross country, uh tennis, both boys and girls tennis and soccer held their senior recognition nights, which was a chance to recognize the seniors, many of whom who spent four years with that sport and all that they did for that sport. It was an opportunity to recognize them for that. And then girls tennis, I know Anna mentioned this last time she was here, but another congratulations to them for placing first in their chest division. And then Anna may have been too humble to mention this, but she actually placed first along
009with her partner Sahastra in doubles and she plays second in singles. So congratulations to her. And then boys and girls soccer are actually playing tonight. I put tomorrow up there, but they're playing right now. So good luck to them in their first playoff game and hopefully they can continue their season. So AP exam registration is a chance for all the all the students taking AP classes to enroll in the exam and get college credit depending on the score they get. It's out of it's scored on one to five. So some colleges accept a three as college credit and some want a five. It varies but it is a good chance for them to save a little money by taking the exam and that registration is currently open. So students are doing that now. And then
010tomorrow we take the peace out exam. So, uh, all sophomores and juniors will take that and it's online on blue book. And it's a good opportunity for us to practice if we choose to take the SAT. And also us juniors have a chance at earning um the National Merit Scholarship recognition, which is a chance for us to earn money for college if we score high enough on the pet. So then I know Anna mentioned the anatomy and physiology last time she was here. So I wanted to talk about cyber security which is another new class this year at the high school and it's taught by Mr. Ellis. So I had a chance on Friday to talk with him and explain and he explained to me what the class was about. So he explained that it
011was a project-based class with a lot of labs. And what that means is it's obviously different than a science lab in computer science. But what he meant was they're doing coding and trying to like they might take a website and try and correct improper code with that website and fix it to make it secure from hackers. And it's designed to expose students to the different career opportunities they'll have in the field of cyber security and also in all of computer science. And they cover a wide range of topics which I'll get to in a minute. So this is an example of some of the stuff they work with. I took that from a YouTube video I was watching because he was a very inspiring speech. So I wanted to learn a little bit about it
012and it was it was a little over my head but it was pretty fascinating. So some of the stuff they do talk about is secure password storage and how you prevent password leaks which is pretty relevant because every time I open the passwords app on my phone it's like you got to change this password, change this password. So how to store those passwords so you don't need to change them so often. And then forensics, which is how files are modified by criminals and how they're deleted and police try and recover them if they need to. And then they he covers cross- sight scripting and cross- sight request forgery, which he had to explain in great detail cuz I had no clue what they meant. But it's how hackers use popups and it they get get
013access to websites from afar and with that they can take over your computer and get access to anything you're logged into. So some pretty scary stuff, but the thing they focus on is prevention and how you stop that from happening which is really relevant today. So then overall it's part of the computer science curriculum which has a variety of classes which are geared towards the exposure to the creation of software and even if a lot of the students don't end up doing coding professionally, it's still good because many of these skills will be useful in the 21st century where everything is digital now. And then the exploration of AI which they all their classes do is even more relevant because every single company now is scrambling to implement it in what they do and so
014they don't get fall behind. So then another thing we wanted to do is highlight some clubs that are happening at the school. So we'll start with the business exploration club which I'm talking about because I'm the treasurer so I know a bit about it and it is one of the largest clubs at the school and we offer a variety of business competitions that are FBA, DECA and the Wharton business competition. So just gives you opportunities to explore different facets of the business world. So I know for FBLA I did marketing my freshman year which meant I took an objective test on marketing and it gives you exposure to that topic and you compete with other students from all around the country really depending on how high up you get that prepares students for careers in
015business and again even if they don't go in business it's still opens up many doors for them down the road. So then what we're going to continue to do over the next few weeks is we're going to highlight more clubs and more classes because we want you all to know what's happening at the high school in terms of you approved these classes and you should know how they're going. And then Anna's going to talk about when she's here in a few weeks the music program because we have a few concerts coming up. So as always, thank you guys for allowing us the high school to come and do this and present on how we're how the things are going over there. It's a good opportunity for us. Have a great day. Great job, Justin. Great
016job. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. It's great to learn about all the clubs and all the different classes we offer. All right, [clears throat] everybody wants to grab their parents and quickly leave before all the exciting part starts. You're welcome to. You're welcome to stay if you want. All right. All right. Uh board met in executive session to discuss um some legal issues uh before the meeting. Secretary correspondence. There is no secretary's correspondence this evening. All right. IU report. Yes, IU report. Um, we met last Wednesday on the 15th. So, um, not to steal Samantha's thunder, but a lot of it talked about the budget impass. Um, and it's having some pretty, um, if you don't know, the state is at a budget impass. We don't have a budget. We're actually the last
017state in the union to not have a budget. Um, and it is having some pretty pretty significant impacts on our IUs. So, a lot of IUs across the state are actually closing their doors, closing their programs. That's early childhood programs, special need programs, special services. They just can't afford them. Our IU is not in that position right now. However, they are being impacted to the point of um the board just approved a $25 million loan at the last meeting to help them cover just general expenses. um they have a significant operating budget because of their size. So money is running out fast. Right now they are not looking at closing programs but no one can guarantee anything depending on how long this budget impass continues to happen. Um one of the challenges as well is
018that they run a lot of federal programs and even if the federal government is paying reimbursing for those federal programs because there's no state budget the state can't pass the money on to the IU. So even though the money is there from the federal government, it's still being held up by the state. Um and so their advice was call your representatives, call your senators, call your congress people, ask them to please come to the table and try and get a budget because students, families are going to be significantly impacted um and already are across the state significantly impacted by this budget impass. So that's a depressing news. We're going to keep getting better. We're going to go up now. Um the IU held a senior blitz um where they met with or are currently meeting
019with every senior at the learning center to talk about what their plans are postgraduation. If students have plans, they want to make sure they're taking the right steps to get where they want to go, whether it's um additional education or career. If they don't have a plan, they're figuring out why and helping them get a plan. So, um really amazing to meet with all those students and make sure they're prepared once they leave the learning center. Um, another opportunity that I think I would like to bring to the um, instructional tech and learning committee to talk a little bit about is that our IU currently has an partnership with IU8 in Appalachia for um, language classes. So, fifth through 12th graders who are taking BBA online courses can have the opportunity to work through IU8
020with live teachers and live classrooms for languages like Japanese, Arabic, and ASL. Um, fifth through eighth graders get kind of like an eight language exploration course. Seventh through ninth graders can do a deeper explanation exploration of four different courses. And then eighth graders and above can take live synchronous credit bearing proficiency focused courses in these languages. So we've often talked about how to open up our language offerings. So this just might be one more thing for us to explore what that could mean for us. Um, and then the final thing is that there is a college fair happening on October 27th from 6:00 to 8 at united sports. Um, I have a flyer here with a QR code if anyone can use them. I cannot. Um, but you can check it out at cciu.org/col-fair. And
021I have heard from parents who have attended this in the past that this is a great way for students to learn about the different colleges that are out there. And it's a really great event. So, if you'd like the flyer, I'll leave it here at the table, or you can also just um check it out at the Chester County IU website. All right. Thank you. Legislative report. Well, you heard we have no budget. Um but there have been some bills passed by the House um that aren't law yet because they're just passed by the House, but I'll just tell you what they are briefly. There's a school facilities HB1701 which would overhaul provisions of the school code relating to school facilities planning. Basically, there'd be a school uh a statewide school facility inventory. And if
022this passes, then every school would have um an an assessment they would have to do of their facilities and that would have to be posted online. And so more work for the schools, but also, you know, potentially where where there's districts where the dis buildings aren't, you know, as they should be, this will be available to the public, right? I'm not sure what they'll do with it, but this this is uh a bill that hasn't been enacted yet, hasn't been fully passed, but it would require reporting on facilities. Um, another one that they passed out of the House was HB 145, which would amend the unemployment compensation law um so that striking workers could receive benefits. I didn't know that that was a like they couldn't, but so that that's again a bill. Um there's
023also one SB um 246. Um, so that's actually the Senate, not the House. And that would be um that would require school entities um both public and private um to notify parents and guardians and school employees of certain types of incidents involving uh weapons. Um then there are some school code amendments SB 315 and again these are just amendments that are proposed um not not passed by both houses yet. one um would bar the use of a basic skills assessment for admission to educator preparation programs or for issuance of instructional certificates. So this is just one more. I think each time I speak I talk about something else that they're trying to do at the legislative level to get more teachers in the pipeline. So this is just one more right. Um, another thing uh
024in the school code amendment that would that would amend the school code say that uh if it's passed is um clarifying the way that districts report special education costs. Another piece is um directing the school safety and security fund for this school year to provide $100 million for school safety and mental health grants and 20.7 millions for other safety grants. Again, there's no budget, so none of that money is coming even if they pass it, but we'll see. Um, then there's an expansion of the drug and alcohol recovery high school program that would raise um the enrollment cap for this statewide plan. There's another another bill that would another amendment that would adjust cyber charter funding provisions to exclude from tuition calculations certain sort of, you know, nondirect costs. Um there's also yeah an update
025to calculations on career and technical education. Uh and that's um modifying student weighted basic education funding. That's a big part of the debate in the on the budget. And that is um pretty much it. Um if enacted these bills would take the the school code ones, those last four or five would take effect immediately. Some of the others are for future years even if they get enacted. And then um there are upcoming Senate and House session days. So who knows some of these things could move forward. Um however, there are no meetings currently scheduled for the House or Senate education committees at the state level. Um you know that that are scheduled now. So they're not discussing anything new. Um and that is about it. And you know on the federal level I mean that's
026impacting many districts not ours quite as much but on the federal level you know that there's some update here on you know the department of education right now and how things are changing there. So, that is all I've got. All right. Thank you. Um, foundation report. Foundation med about two weeks ago. And I'll just throw out a teaser for the superintendent report. Dan will talk more about the foundation support for an activity bus. So, I'll just leave that for you. It's our good news. Um any committee reports? Um instructional tech and curriculum committee met on October 13th. Um let's see. We talked about um a consultant contract proposal that's going to come up for Dr. Riseman and um she is going to support social studies instruction for sixth and 7th through 12th grade teachers. um
027that will be support and kind of inquiry based methods and um learning labs and engaging activities for our social studies curriculum. Um we also talked about seventh through 9th grade vocabulary and morphology instruction. We all know what kind of vocabulary looks like at the younger levels, but we talked a little bit about what that looks like in the upper grades and how they continue to increase kids vocabulary and understanding of um important words that they need to know. Um, so this talked about the instructional plan for seventh graders as well as eighth and nth graders and some fifth and sixth grade teachers are also included in some of this discussion. So um, got vocabulary covered there. Um, there's a new acronym on the block and its name is PA steels and that is what science
028is going to look like um, in the coming years. So we are actually um in the process now just like in the previous years when we revamped the social studies curriculum, we are now looking to revamp the science curriculum to meet these standards in the beginning phases of it. So we do not know when this is going to be um in classrooms, but right now we are looking um for teachers interested in helping us uh revamp the science curriculum to those uh PA Steel standards. And then in very exciting news, we are continuing on our process to update our student information system. Right now we use Skyward. Um but they we are told that they are narrowing it down and that in November's meeting we will have a recommendation. They could not give us um
029much more details because of the bidding process. So we couldn't share much um publicly. that stay tuned for November for the winning product to upgrade our student information system that will come in the coming years. And our next meeting is November 10th. All right. Thank you. Any other committee reports or updates? All right. Seeing none, turn it over to the superintendent. Yep. Thank you, Mr. Barrett. Um I have some good news sharing and some some highlights. um sticking with the the trend and I'll even build off of some of um Justin's work here. So, they're going to cue me up. All right. Uh Justin had mentioned our National Merit Scholar Program, which is based on student performance on the PSAT. And so, here's a picture. We had 18 semi finalists. And so to give you
030context, to be a semi finalist with when it comes to the PSAT, you have to be um in the top 1% of test takers in the country. So, uh, Great Valley had 18 of these students, and there's only 16,000 across the country. So, 18's a a really large number. We'll find out if anyone advances for potential scholarship, but uh real wonderful point of pride and congratulations to all those students. Additionally, within that, there's another tier of students, another band of recognition, and those students have the honor of being commended. Uh, so commended students also are really high score takers. They're in the top 34,000 of test takers, and I don't have a picture of them, but we had 28 students at our high school uh earn the commended honor this year as well. So, congratulations
031uh to all of those students. hopefully uh I know their parents are hoping maybe for some scholarship monies down the road and I'll I'll keep you updated if any of our students advance to finalist status or earn some scholarship. So real happy for our students and the wonderful staff who and families who are supporting them. Um switching to bus drivers. I mean we have some really longstanding talented bus drivers and two of our dedicated drivers recently placed in the top 10 in Chester County safety competition. Uh in the picture you'll see Shelley Muser who placed second overall and Alisa Gruff who placed sixth out of over 130 competitors. So uh the Great Valley driving team really bringing it and excelling. Shelley went on to the state championship and earned eighth place overall after qualifying and
032that was out of 55 competitors. So uh and Shel's been with us a long time and you're going to hear a little bit about her a little later in my presentation. Uh we're just really proud of these drivers um not only, you know, being with us for so long, but just protecting our students and and getting them from A to B safely and in a caring way. So, uh congratulations again to to both Alys and and Shelley there in the driving competition. Shifting to some other um recognitions, our heart award, and just as a reminder, that's it. It it really is honoring excellence, achievement, resilience, and teamwork. another acronym. We love our acronyms. Um we have uh four winners and so these are the first winners of our report uh of this award uh starting
033off. So we have Kristen Bilatada who's an autistic support teacher at General Wayne. And there's some I I'll let that I'm not going to read to you, but there's certainly some context there uh about her good work in being nominated. Remember the nominations for this stem both internally within our organization or externally. and Miss Marsen helped to launch this new program and we have a huge amount of re recommendations from outside the organization. That was the big part we wanted to honor. We we know on the inside that we have some great talented people uh and it just means so much to all of us when that that excellence or those caring ways um get get recognized beyond. So um Kristen is one of our first winners. uh Alana Cece at our five uh sceni
034at our 56 center and you can see some some quotes there and we're sharing what some of the nominations had, you know, with her being kind, cooperative, a problem solver. Shelley Muser, again, I think Shelley, believe it or not, had the largest number of nominations for the heart award. So, really pleased. She's been with us uh a long time. Um, and Shelley, I'm I'm glad you're getting the recognition because you deserve it. Uh, for being so dedicated and with Great Valley. Uh, again, you can see within the quote, uh, 35 years she's been driving for the Great Valley School District. Um, and you can see our award there also with the image, which is a student generated award that'll be given um to each of um our our four recipients. And the last is nurse
035Allison. Allison um Morsa at our high school uh who's been a wonderful asset. Uh she's earned some cardiac designations for our entire high school. Not many high schools have that. She has really been a leader um through the pandemic through all all things with within our high school being our largest school. So four great I mean you're looking at an autistic support teacher, a teacher at the 56, a bus driver and our nurse. Uh just excellence abound. So, um, each month we'll be selecting our winners and I just encourage everybody keep those recommendations coming in. Uh, we've only, it's hard to just pick four, but, uh, I think we have four great candidates here and they'll be getting their award a little bit later. All right, shifting to the administration. Um, we had a training
036last week in this very room working with Advantive Learning. Thank you to the board for approving that contract. uh all the administrators engaged in about a two and a half three-hour training about AI. And so the training covered everything from how AI can open us up as educators and really help us to more powerful lesson design, uh creative thinking, ways to really enhance what we do, but we also had to explore the darker side of AI concerns around academic integrity. Uh we evaluated some some scenarios that aren't always so black and white. you know to what degree students using AI and to what level um and what is permissible. So this admin training continued again for a good two and a half three hours last week. Uh Advantive will come back on November 4th. You
037may know one of our district goals was to establish an AI think tank of teachers, administrators, we have instructional coaches and we'll come back and we'll continue the training with our think tank on November 4th during that inservice day and I'll continue to give the board updates along the way. Uh the goal of the think tank at the end of the year is to really just make some highlevel guideline recommendations to carry us forward into the next school year. And so uh we'll take more time in future presentations to unpack some of that. But the training is just underway. This was our first session with all administrators and then we'll get that think tank rolling on the fourth and subsequent trainings um thereafter. The activity bus which Miss Beast thank you for for highlighting that.
038Our foundation has raised funds to support an afterchool activity bus. Uh the target for this bus is the elementary level. Really, the goal was to get students at the youngest ages engaged in extracurricular activities. I know some people say, "Well, you have the numbers at the high school," but we want to make sure students are engaged and have those opportunities early on. And we'll explore um future possibilities, but we're looking at a one-year partnership. This is based solely on foundation funds to run an afterchool activity bus to help families. So, this bus would run one day a week from some of our elementary schools, particularly the elementary schools that have a lot of extracurricular participation after school. Not all of our elementary schools have all of their EDRs after school. For example, Charles Town, all
039of the EDRs, for the most part occur in the morning. So, we're not able to get a morning activity bus the morning time. You know, there's a driver shortage. We're getting all of our secondary children in. We're not going to be able to do that. So this particular bus will not support Charlestown as we we move forward because all their activities are in the morning. But if you look at our 56 center, if you look at Katie Markley and I believe Sugartown, they have large number of students after school. And I'm working with those principles to designate an activity bus one day a week, normally the heaviest day where students are staying after. So, one of the schools it might be Monday later in the week, the other school is Tuesday and the other will
040be Wednesday. It's simply just to see how this will go for the year. Will parents access the bus? Will they use it? Uh, there are no plans for the 2627 school year. This truly is a pilot endeavor with our foundation. So, um, over the years, as I've been superintendent, I've heard from elementary parents say we're it's really tough with after school activities, getting the children home. So, this is something we wanted to pilot. And so, I would say um in the next foundation meeting, we'll talk a little bit further. I think we're getting a lot of the logistics out and then we'll plan to communicate within those schools uh within the next few weeks. And the goal is to get this up and running uh in the late fall, early winter, and see what we
041get. And then I'll report back to you after a few months to see where usage is, whether it's being utilized, not being utilized, uh and so on. So, that is underway. This has been something we've talked about for a long time. Uh, and I'm glad that we finally have some of the plans coming together. So, uh, excited about that. Um, I just have a question. I know you're working out the logistics. I, um, when you say activity bus, is it truly a singular bus that goes from one school and takes whichever kids wherever neighborhoods they live or is it multiple buses? Uh, and then does it actually take them to the regular bus stop? because I am familiar with an activity bus that runs in lower Murray and it's for high school and it it
042does a route all over but it takes the kids a little further away because it's making less stops right so the kids have to walk so I'm I'm just I mean I know you're working out logistics but maybe the main question is is it one bus or multiple buses and is it if it's one bus is it taking all the kids to their house yeah well for the two ele the two and I include the 56 center as an elementary school but if you're looking at Sugartown and Katie Markley that would be one bus there are more confined regions remember the 56 center we're having students come from all over the district. So, we're going to evaluate. We do have the funds if it's needed to run two. We the foundation does have the funds
043for that. We're going to see who signs up when we communicate and then we'll look at the routing and then we'll work with the funding and and see where it goes. But you're right, that's a a good distinction. Uh we do know it'll be, you know, a longer ride for for those students, but it at least gets them home. It alleviates some of the burden. And if this opens up the opportunity for more children at younger ages to take advantage of our afterchool programs, particularly at the 56 enrollment. I've come back to you all several times asking for additional EDRs at our 56 center. We have 300 requests for inter murals. We have double the requests for reading Olympics where we've had to add EDRs. So we'll see if this helps and if it doesn't
044then we'll we'll work with the foundation on supporting other endeavors. But we thought this was something we would give a try for this school year. um if if this does prove to be successful, what is the outlook for future years? Because obviously the district can't pick up any of these costs going forward. So, does the foundation believe that if this is a great idea and works that they'll be able to do it kind of relatively indefinitely? Yes, this would become one of their annual campaign initiatives that they would fundra for and support and it'll be more powerful if we have data. Right now, we're not really sure, right? you survey, you have an idea, you speculate, but until you actually have children on the buses in the seats. Uh so I think once we see
045how that plays out and then they have data, uh they are prepared. I think this would be a great way to support our program. Uh because you're right, we're not able to use district funds, um money's a little tight right now as we all know, but to know that our foundation is there meeting this need is uh exciting and promising. Yeah, thank you for the question. All right. Uh with that, Mr. That concludes my report and um happy to share the good news. So thank you. Sorry, my [clears throat] computer uh closed the uh meeting. All right. Uh, next thing up is public participation for any voting agenda items that are on the agenda. Um, [clears throat] if you have a comment on any of the items, please come to the podium, state your name,
046residency, limit your time to three minutes. There'll be another public session at [clears throat] the end for any other comments or any comments on any voting agenda items. No, that's P. Did you come up to the Y? Just a reminder, this this comment period is for any item that the board is going to vote on later in the meeting. If it's related to an agenda item that the board's going to vote on, you can speak now. If not, there's a second comment period and that's when um your comments may be. No, sir. All right. Thank you for waiting. We appreciate that. All right. Um, first thing up is the consent agenda item. So, are there any changes from last week? Yes, Mr. Barrett. There is a change to item number 8.18 uh is the Neores
047Foundation Medical Service Agreement. The change was made under public comment uh to the detailed writeup. No change to the contract. Uh the writeup reads as the administration recommends the approval of the proposal with the Neores Foundation Medical Service Agreement with the athletic department of $500 per event not to exceed $3,500. That is the only change to consent agenda. Right. Thank you. All right. Do I have a motion for 801 through 8.2? 20. Motion to approve 8.01 to 8.2. Right. I have a second. Second. Thank you. Any questions or comments on any of these? I know they were discussed in detail last week. All right. Seeing none, all those in favor? Motion passes 8 to zero. All right. Next up is personnel items. Do I have a motion? Motion to approve personnel items. You I have
048a second. Second. Thank you. Any questions or comments or anything of noteworthy on this? Dr. Gfredo. Um nothing out of the norm. We do any late additions as we continue to fill positions. You'll see those with the color coding. Um you'll see those in in uh red that have been added since our work session. Uh we continue to hire but um I think everything is spelled out there. Mr. Barrett, just making sure. All right, seeing no questions or comments, all those in favor? Motion passes 8 to zero. Uh next up is policies first reading. All right, so these were reviewed last week. So this is the first reading. So do I have a motion for approval? Motion to approve 11:01. Thank you. Second. Thank you. Any questions or comments? All right. Seeing none. All those
049in favor? Motion passes 8 to zero. Nothing under program. Sure. I'll miss anything. All right. That concludes our voting session. Now, we'll open the podium up for any public comments on any subject, okay? Or any voting item. If just state your name and your residency, as in the township or burrow, and then there'll be a little clock running for the three minute time limit. You'll hear it beep at 30 seconds to go. Just keep going. It's kind of annoying. Just let me know. I timed myself, so I should be fine. give you and I just wanted to add I'm speaking about bus long bus rides. So if there's anybody out there who's afraid to speak but you are on my side please stand up so you can see there is support. Um Tammy Johnston I
050am um thank you I am uh what uh 1129 Tinker Helain. Is that all I'm ready to get started? Okay. This issue has been communicated with transportation since the day school started and in week two and a half it was shared with Dr. Hammond and Dr. Gfredo. We are now including the school board. We are in week nine. I want to start with a question. What is the purpose of assigning a child to spend two hours on a bus every single day for the for a school that is 12 minutes away? This is 10 hours a week, folks, for a 10-year-old. 10 hours of wasted time on a school bus. That is one hell of a road trip. To be clear, she gets off the bus on the bus at the 56 center around 3:10
051p.m. and gets dropped off at her doorstep at 4:17, an hour 7 minutes. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Within a short time, I realized my daughter is the third person on the bus in the morning and the third to the last off the bus. This has led to another question. If my daughter and select students are first on the bus, why are they not the first off? I later figured out on my own that this select group of kids were taken off their morning bus 8 route and tacked on to the end of a busy bus 22 in order for bus 8 to get to Charles Town quicker. Why does Charles Town take precedence over 56 students? Kudos to Mr. Pel who has recognized his problem and has fought for his students safety and welfare. In
052week three, Carrie Fel gave us two absurd options. I'm not going to waste my three minutes on those, but I can send them to you later. Absurd. We built a gorgeous 56 building and chose to sandwich these students with a new set of bus runs in between the already stressed elementary and high school routes and traffic. Elementary kids get home before 56 kids, while some 56 kids endure an hour 20 minutes plus bus rides. Together, let's find a solution. The superintendent, principal, announced schoolboard president are ignoring the issue, blaming the third party contractor they hired, our transportation department. They are in a stalemate, continuing to pass the buck and claiming they cannot do anything. Our children's safety and welfare is more important than this ignorance. We are in week nine, and I often pick up,
053especially on sporting event days. My daughter quit cross country because she was exhausted when she got off the bus. She looked ill each day. Breaks my heart to see her come home like this and to know that she's not alone. It has recently come to my attention that bus changes were made to accommodate Spring Oak, which by the way has two different drop offs in a safe, well manicured development with sidewalks. Why are we on Tinker Hill being ignored? We were told the 56 dismissal debacle could make a difference in timing for earlier bus drop offs. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Jolene Lowry. My daughter is also at the 56 Center. We live in the Spring Development. Um she attended Charles Town and at that point we were the first to drop off
054uh first pick up in the morning, first drop off. Now at the 56 center, we are the first to pick up. She gets on the bus at 7:27 and she arrives home in the afternoon at 4:30. So this is a very long day for her. Um, my daughter is not a complainer because she is happy that she's riding the bus with some of her friends, but I think that's ridiculously long and it's really unbelievable to me that we can't find a better solution. Again, why can't if we're the first pickup, why can't we be the first drop off in the afternoon? It's a very long school day. Um, you can count out the hours 7:30 to 4:30. Um, in addition to that, I mean, it's happened. I work in Philadelphia. I can leave my job
055at 3:00 in the afternoon and still get home and be there to meet her at the bus stop at 4:30. That's there's a problem with that. So, I just like for you all to consider what else can be done for these children. Um, and appreciate your time and for all you do for the district. Thank you. Yeah, Robert Johnston. I'm on Tinker Hill. It's my wife Tammy. I just uh would like to follow up on a couple additional uh issues. I do have one question and picture that I will submit to the the board uh as I go through my presentation. Do you want to start the time or whatever? Okay. Uh, happy uh, school bus safety week. You forgot to mention that, Dr. Gfredo. Uh, kind of appropriate uh, because right now the solution
056being proposed for our daughter and the other girl in our street is not safe at all. And I will get to that here shortly. U, and for all board members here, thank you for your time and your for volunteering. My wife and I spend hundreds of hours volunteering for different things. I'm on an HOA down in Florida. I'm president and I know you gota have thick skin to sit here and listen to this, but this is an issue. We're not making this up. This is not healthy for our children. Okay. Uh so again, thanks for that. I got pulled in around week three and I actually went over and met with Dr. Hammond. We walked the parking lot. He told me it's like busing roulette. They pull in in all different spots. I made the
057suggestion. Bus eight, put it at spot one. Put a cone up. Nobody parks there except bus eight. I was surprised when I got there today, the first time I've ever done the student pickup. And there's bus 8. And I walked over and I saw Jen. I know the bus. What are you doing here? She said, this is my spot now. So, somebody took my suggestion from three or four weeks ago. They implemented it, which I thought was a good thing. the high priority buses first. Now we just have to get them out of there by 3:15. If you get them out of there at 3:15, Jolene's problem is solved. Our problem solved. Uh Gladfelder's problem solved. I don't go through all the names, but this is probably a dozen or so students that are enduring
058two plus hour bus rides every day. It's not healthy. Okay. Uh the only solution about week four, I'll show this to all the here as well. uh was to have my daughter was to have my daughter was to uh get dropped off at the corner. I actually thought it was a good solution till like December, but I knew this wasn't a permanent decision, you know, permanent uh solution for a couple 10 year olds in the winter. Just not going to work. Uh the only answer we've been given is that there's constraints. It's my 30 seconds. Mr. Uh Barrett told me, ran into him over at uh uh Buckman's and he said there's constraints and I still haven't gotten clarity on what those constraints are. Are they financial? Are there there's no more buses? We can't
059afford a van. Uh the problem's broken. It's broken because they adjusted bus 8, took select students off it, and now quite frankly, we're being discriminated against. That's the bottom line. There's got to be equity has got to be in this [bell] just as my wife mentioned. Okay. So, I'm pleased with Oh, Paulio 27 22 Hillside drive. Um, I came here tonight because, uh, my son is a boy scout. Uh, and the requirement for his, uh, for Eagle is to, uh, is, um, citizenship in the community, uh, that's a required merit badge. And um while I didn't intend to speak and simply came here for uh to make sure he had the opportunity to observe this kind of process, um I relate heavily to everything that's been said about transportation um in the school district. Um,
060we were redistricted uh from uh General Wayne to KDM over the I guess two years ago. And um our situation now is great, but our situation previously was exactly what you described like you're talking like this is two plus hours out of a kid's day to that that they're on a bus and I think we can do better. Um, and uh, that's kind of about all I have to say about that. So, I want to lend support to everything that's been said tonight. Uh, like I said, I wasn't planning to speak, but thank you for listening. Thank you. And good luck on your Eagle Scout. Hi, good evening. Uh, Anil Chararma. Um, been Charles Township since 2006. Um, father of four, uh, 14, 10, 8, and, uh, 10, and 12. Um, so I just want
061to lend my support to everybody about the transportation issue. I think it's not just, um, not just the 56 center. I think it's across the board. I think it just needs to be relooked at. Um, perhaps funds for activity buses are really exciting, but perhaps looking at the whole process in and of itself should be relooked at. I'm a physician. um um the chief of GI apply and one no one's I think some people have mentioned health and safety and you've been talking about making data derived decisions the data is clear sleep is critical to the development of our children having high school kids get up at 5:45 in the morning to make a bus I think is not right. Um, some schools are having later start times, which I'm not getting into, but I'm
062just talking about getting up early in the morning for a bus at 5:45. They're working surgeon hours, and then they're coming home late in the e in the afternoon as well, which limits the time for homework, stimulation, wasting hours on the bus. It's just not fruitful time to spend during a critical time of development. But I think safety in the morning or development I think really needs to be looked at and explored on all levels. Um and I think it just needs to be reooked at. I think what everybody's saying here is just take a step back, relook at it, and see if we could do better for our kids. So thank you for your time and thank you to the CCIU. I have a child with special needs. He was immensely helped by you
063and I will speak to to my local state legislators to see what we could do to help out. But thank you for all you do. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Any other board comments? All right. Seeing none, uh, do I have a Motion to adjurnn. All right. Second. Second. All right. Thank you. All those in favor? All right. Have a good evening.