4/9/26 School Board Work Session

001Mhm. >> All right. Good evening. I would now like to call this April 9th, 2026 board work session to order. Can we start with the district mission and goals? Dr. King, the dis- district mission of the school district of Haverford Township is to educate and to inspire community of lifelong learners who become well-rounded global citizens. District goals, academic excellence in an evolving world. Prepare future-ready learners who persevere, adapt, problem-solve, think critically, and are supported by engaging learning experiences and intentional use of technology. Belonging, honor every individual's inherent dignity through equitable, inclusive, and diverse practices. Social-emotional growth, building a learning community that prioritizes social-emotional wellness as a foundation for academic success, resilience, and strong relationships. Community pride and civic engagement, empower students to be active, responsible, and contributing citizens through shared responsibility and community partnerships. Thank

002you. Mr. Testa, can you call the roll, please? Mr. Flagler. Here. Ms. Lee. Here. Dr. McKay. Here. Mr. Schwartz. Here. Ms. Snodgrass. Ms. Snyder. Here. Ms. Wiedeman. Here. Dr. Shelton. Here. Dr. King. Present. Uh Ms. Snodgrass is absent due to personal matter. We're going to continue on with section two, which is uh public comment. Members of the Haverford Township community are invited to speak during public comment section on the agenda. Should a Haverford Township resident wish to speak during the public comment >> Okay. Um Should a Haverford Township resident wish to speak during the public comment section on the agenda, they must sign up by 3:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Specific sign-up details can be found on the district's website. Public comment occurs twice during the school board meeting. During the first

003public comment section on the agenda, you may make a comment about topics listed for a vote on the meeting agenda only. During the second public comment section on the agenda, you may make a comment about any school-related topic. Per board policy, each speaker is only allowed 3 minutes up for their remarks. A timer will be set at the start of your comments, and the alarm will sound indicating that your allotted 3-minute time has completed. Please end your remarks when you hear the 3-minute alarm sound. Should you have any materials for members of the board, please leave them at the end of the table with Mr. Testa for later distribution to the board. Please note that if appropriate, a member of the administration may follow up with you at a later date. When your name is

004called, please go to the podium and state your first and last name, confirm your residency in Haverford Township, and then the time will begin for your allotted 3-minute remarks. And we have no one signed up for section two of public comment on the agenda for this evening, so we're going to continue with section three, which are items before the board for action. So, we're going to have a motion to approve the minutes from March 19th, 2026 regular board meeting. Shelton moved. Snyder second. Moved and second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. Item 3B takes us to bill list. Can I have a motion to approve the bill list in the amount of $987,782 and 15 cents. Shelton moved. Snyder second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The

005motion passes. Item 3C takes us to change orders. Can I have a motion to approve change orders in the amount of $46,456.62 as listed below. Shelton second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. Item 3D is the Delaware County Intermediate Unit 2026-2027 operating budget and resolution. Can I have a motion to approve the DCIU general operating budget and adopt the resolution for the fiscal year 2026 through 2027 in the amount of $12,126,395. To note that Haverford's share is $110,546.57. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? I just want to comment that you know, the DCIU provides a lot of services for our district. You know, for example, the legislative report that I provide. Um they keep track of, you know, legislation that affects education. Keeps the district informed. It's

006just one example. And just for clarity, so we're um doing our proportional share of receipt from member districts, but that does not comprise all of the funds that we um send to DCIU. There are other services that we provide pay for on a per case basis, correct? Yes, I also believe um the our share has not increased significantly at all in from previous years. Yeah, they I think they said that the the amounts have stayed the same for many years. This will be a roll call. Mr. Flagler? Here. Just yes or no. I sorry. Aye. Ms. Lee? Yes. Dr. McKay? Yes. Mr. Schwartz? >> Yes. Ms. Snyder? Yes. Ms. Wiedeman? Yes. Dr. Shelton? Yes. Dr. King? Yes. Thank you. Item 3E which is the Delaware County Vocational Technical Schools 2026-2027 budget and resolution. Can I

007have a motion to approve the budget and adopt resolution number 56 for the Delaware County Vocational Technical Schools for the 2026-2027 fiscal year in the amount of uh $19,551,888. To note that Haverford's share is $918,358. Shelton second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Do we know how many um of our community take advantage of of this vocational training program at all? I do not have it in front of me, but I can get it Yeah, I'm just I'm more curious than anything. The census in the report shows Haverford has 93 total students. So then is that um does that work out to be about $10,000 a student for attending the technical training at IU? Yeah, they use a three-year average, so they'll look at the enrollment over those three years and uh break it that way.

008Okay. It's a roll call there. >> up the the um as you mentioned the averages, um it looks like our participation in the IU program, the technical school has increased. It shows um 73 students, 94 students, and then 101 students for this current school year. So the average came out to about 90, but increasing uptake on the great set of programs that they offer for the technical end. We've also looked to high schools done a phenomenal job advertising and making aware informing students of opportunities within the trades and career tech fields, too. So that's also a concerted effort moving forward. Do a roll call on that one as well. Mr. Flagler? Aye. Ms. Lee? Yes. Dr. McKay? Yes. Mr. Schwartz? Yes. Ms. Snyder? Yes. Ms. Wiedeman? Yes. Dr. Shelton? Yes. Dr. King? Yes. All right.

009We'll continue on to items 3F, personnel items. Can I have a motion to approve the personnel actions listed below. Shelton moved. Ms. Lee Moved and seconded. Any discussion? I just had one question um and it's it's a question more of that if you could just follow up with me later on. Um the process for I tried to find it in our policies and I couldn't quite find it. The process for clubs to move into being official sports. What that process actually looks like cuz tonight there's a whole bunch of sports um that are part of the process for voting, so I just was curious. Always been curious about that, so. Sorry, for the spring athletics? Just for athletics in general um we've got a lot of clubs that are just club sports, not athletic sports,

010and what the process is, if there is a process that's defined for how to move from a club sport to an athletic Yeah, we can get back and it falls in line with the guideline, so we can provide that. Thank you. Also on it, just want to say with the retirements retirements, um a significant years of service, so thank you very much um to those retirees. Congratulations um and much appreciated for the decades of service to Haverford. Yeah, I think if I added it up, probably it was 168 years of service. Just amongst five people, 100 and like that's a lot of years amongst five people. All right. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. So we've now concluded the action portion of the meeting and we're going to move into the working

011portion of the meeting in which items are being provided for information discussion purposes only. None of the items discussed are being considered for official action at this time. So we're going to go into our committee reports. Um the first would be finance and I'll turn it over to Dr. Shelton. Thank you, Dr. King. For finance, we have three items on the agenda. The first item is tax assessment appeals and to authorize settlement of counsel and proceed as stipulated. This is just for discussion information at this meeting, but will be at the next meeting. Um and those settlements so for item number one, those settlements are attached to the agenda and if anybody has any questions or comments on that. Hearing none, uh we'll move to the second agenda item, which is the proposed final budget

012for discussion and I'll turn it over to Mr. Testa to take it through budget. Okay. Well, thank you. So tonight we're um talking again just an update and discussion on the proposed final budget that was adopted. Um as far as budget updates, so department budgets um line items, we have reviewed the line items um kind of looking at comparisons to historical data. So in some cases, we were able to make um some reductions in line items and kind of move them into other spots where um we could you better utilize those funds. Um what items that, you know, if there were items that we could extend over into an another fiscal year, we um we looked at those options. If we didn't need to take it all in one year, um could we spread that

013expenditure over um those following years. Um items that really aren't an update, but just kind of want to highlight again are the your subsidies that we're looking at getting um in this year. So your basic ed subsidy, you're getting about an additional 70 just a little under 71,000, which is one a little over 1%. Um and your special ed is at 32,000, which is a little over 1% as well. Um and in especially with the special ed portion, we're still waiting on final student count data, so that could sway that information um slightly up or down um cuz it truly um takes into consideration our share of that special ed pie. So, um as the students move as the other districts in Pennsylvania, as their data moves, it can kind of shift what we would

014see um coming to us. So, that being 32,000, just felt it was, you know, there wasn't a lot of risk in in assuming that we would at least get that 32,000, but certainly we'll keep updated. Um and we had a a budget webinar with PASBO and with uh PASA today. Um second of two pieces. They're they're feeling that this budget is going to get approved a little bit faster than last year's. That's what they're hoping, maybe early July. Definitely not June 30, but early July, so um we'll we'll keep our fingers crossed and hopefully that does happen. And hopefully the additional funds that the governor wants goes into the budget, so it helps bring those um numbers up a little bit as well. Um local sources, so for our tax revenue, we're still at the

0153.5%, which is our Act 1 index. Um we did increase our collection percentage based on history. And again, our state sources are subsidies that we're looking at are equivalent to the proposed allocations that um are currently out there with with PDE. Again, our in our expenses, we assume no reductions or changes in our programming. Um currently, we don't have any retirements or resignations built into the budget, um but we know that there is potential that um that will happen within the next, you know, over the next coming weeks and possibly months. Um so, it's something to keep in mind. Um staffing wise, we did we were able to put in a half of an FTE for custodial at Chatham Park given the expansion of that building. Um certainly, this is at least a start to

016help um maintain that building. It was something we put off in a prior budget, so this is something we're hoping that will um will help relieve some of that workload in that building. Um and then as far as our insurance for employee benefits, um health benefits have primarily stayed unchanged. Um we had an increase in medical, we had a decrease in uh prescription, an increase in dental. So, it kind of all washed out. Um so, we were able to kind of stay flat with that, which is good. We've had good experience with the health care trust um and our utilization of of the program. PFM, so the board did approve for PFM, um who also does our long-term debt, um to work with them for consulting services to help meet our long-term financial goals, to

017look at getting toward more towards balancing our expenditures expenses and our revenues. Um so, we're meeting with the consultants and reviewing recommendations. We have provided them with our current year information, what we're projecting for next year, and they've pulled a lot of our historical data that's available from PDE, and kind of they're going to look at comparisons with other districts, um kind of see where we are with our peers, what maybe our financial stressors are compared to our other neighboring districts. Um so, it's something that we will be bringing back to the board in a format for um for you to look at and see what their results are. So, ultimately, this budget bottom line has changed uh excuse me, has stayed the same. Some items have moved within the budget. Um we've had some

018uh favorable utilities. We've had um you know, we've added our custodial position, so you're going to see some movement in there if you were to look between what was presented the last time to now, but bottom line, we're still at that same point. So, we were able to kind of meet some of more of those needs and um still keep the budget where it was. Again, your revenue versus expense, so we're still at that same point, that same budget shortfall. Um again, you know, as we have the ability to look at retirements, resignations, you know, how we can best utilize maybe that opening or shifting within um to kind of maintain our resources, um we will do that and you know, maybe we will see some change in that number, but something that we're continuing

019to work on. Um again, fund balance, you could see what the change in fund balance will be. Again, this is unchanged from the last presentation, but this is just to kind of show again um where we are and just keep in mind where the percentage of unassigned fund balance will be when you finish your 2026-2027 year uh based on the numbers we have available today. And then I'll just open it up for any questions. Again, that was just brief, but um as we're working towards it, we'll have more information. I had a question about energy costs. How how sensitive are we to, you know, the current events and fuel costs and electricity costs? So, for 2026-2027, we're in a good spot because we're locked in. Um we had a was either a two or three-year

020contract. We use Provident Energy through the Delaware County Intermediate Unit, so they do our consortium purchasing, um and they usually lock into a multi-year agreement. So, that worked in our favor to have kind of locked in for 2026-2027 um given current market conditions. So, we'll see um I'm not sure at what point they'll start marketing for the years beyond 2026-2027, but certainly we'll um that'll be on their radar to kind of consider current market conditions. So, our our contract ends for 2027. 2026-2027, right? >> June of 2027 is when the contract ends. Yes. >> Okay. In the um revenue versus expense tab, the increase in revenues from local sources is 5.1 million. And I just was doing the math, right? So, that's more than a slightly over 4% um of the prior year budget. And

021we're talking about a Act 1 index of 3.5%. So, where is the extra being generated in revenues in local sources? >> So, one of the things we did was increase our collection percentage from 96.5 to 97.15. Based on historical, we've seen that we get an additional um flow of resources over those years. So, in speaking with PFM, they felt we were pretty comfortable in raising that percentage. And then it also is reliant on transfer taxes, um any interim taxes that we get in the district, and delinquent taxes. We have found that those that maybe cannot make their payment during the normal uh payment cycle, we do see a good flow of delinquent taxes coming in. So, those other items as well have helped drive that percentage up where it looks higher than the Act 1

022index number. Any other questions for this evening? Um okay. One last question. I think we covered it before, but uh the the unre- non-committed fund balance falling below 5%. Yes. Uh which by policy we try to keep that at 5% or greater. >> Yes. Just to make that clear Mhm. to the public. We are falling below what we where we'd like to be as it stands now. And that's kind of the goal with that long-term financial planning is to make sure that we can stay above that and stay within that range. Okay. Thank you. I got that. Okay. Um and and so Sorry, Mr. Hess. For the next meeting, will we be will there be action items on the budget? Next I may actually May actually >> approve the final budget. Thank you. So, third

023item on the financial committee report is the and um again shows a healthy uh turnover in our clubs and new clubs at different levels. Um I don't know if there's any specific questions. If not, uh that concludes the finance committee portion of the meeting. I'll turn it back to Dr. Thank you, Dr. Shatten. Um so, next we have policy and personnel, which is typically um where Ms. Snodgrass would give us information regarding policy, but I'm going to turn it over to Dr. King. Thank you. Um there are a few policies on the agenda for discussion tonight. Um the first is uh the consolidations of the 200s, which is continual. Uh then we have 707, 714, and 918. Um as I've said before, uh this also stems from the board's decision to engage in five-year policy

024review, so uh we do make a concerted effort to select policies for review that are relevant uh either to the current school year or relevant to current uh initiatives and priorities. Um so, we'll continue to engage in that process, making sure that, you know, as we engage in policy review, they're serving our students and our families effectively while keeping us in compliance and providing guidance for administrators. Um it's also important, you know, as as we are over halfway through the year, and we've gone through a number of policies, uh that my team and I also continue to inform, train, and teach our staff and administrators best practices for policy implementation. So, as we review these policies, just for the board's awareness, there's associated ARs. Those ARs help us uh provide guidelines um so that we're

025able to, um, engage in the effective implementation um, and also seeking the feedback. So, um, you know, looking for feedback, looking for robust dialogue again as we continue through this process. The first, uh, policy to review or the policy consolidation is the 200s. Um, we did go back and I'll turn over to Justin too if there's any comments or if anyone has questions, but, um, we went back, we engaged in a significant work session to go through further categorize and align the policies in the 200s under a few broad umbrellas. Um, the intention behind this is to provide clear guidance and association, uh, between the policies as they relate to larger subjects. So, in doing that, we identified three rather than what was originally four bucket categories, um, with student rights and due process, um,

026actually working what we discovered more hand-in-hand to be combined to, uh, one categorical area rather than two separate ones that, uh, were previous. Um, we did hear feedback from the board about some of that, uh, policy 218 as it relates to discipline and certain behaviors and, um, certain, uh, additional behaviors too. Um, so 218, student discipline policy, uh, as well as some of the larger, uh, discipline policies with 218.1, 218.2, weapons, terrorist threats. Those are stand-alone, um, and a form outside of the and we're more than happy to talk about the categorization, but the reason, uh, we considered those stand-alone is cuz they typically require significant, um, response and or law enforcement and reporting actions, um, but they're also different from behaviors that, uh, our staff, you know, may experience with students on a day-to-day

027basis. Um, so, as we continue to explore and develop and, uh, eventually implement, um, code of conduct, um, it's important to support those consistent supportive approaches, um, and also clarifying providing this framework and guideline within the policy, um, so that we're making it clear to the families, community members, and the board, um, the distinction between kind of where the policies fall and also to help with the navigability and the access. So, just wanted to provide that context to some of the background work being done. Um, there's not a ton of discussion being asked for, um, the 200s, um, but more so just a review of that categorization and any feedback or thought on, um, as we did last time with this, uh, where the individual policies fall and if we feel as though, uh, further

028categorization needs to be, um, to be tackled. Okay, yes, I wonder, um, just looking at the categorization, so having one category that's the prohibited behaviors and due process, if we are not putting some of the things that you mentioned in that, I wonder if it makes sense to at least have it marked there, like if it's in the categorization of like, for this one see this, because in a sense of where if we have some place that we're listing prohibited behaviors and weapons is not listed there, that can be confusing, so like maybe able to have just like a notation within that categorization that it is a stand-alone policy. Yeah, that's fair and I think previously there was like, um, an other prohibited behaviors and actions, so we can maybe think of some language to

029simply reference. Just that it's there. So that, right, if someone would want to go to prohibited behaviors, they're aware of what those are, but they may stand alone and fall outside of the scope of that due process one. Okay. Could you speak to the, um, the way that this will be organized in the peer, right? Like right now we've got, um, numbers from 200 on up to 260s or more and, um, now we're saying we're going to do reorganize so that the numbers are no longer like sequential. So, what will what will people find in BoardDocs? Like will it result in us renumbering these and having headers and subheaders or, um, like I'm not I'm not quite sure how it will appear in BoardDocs if we go from 219 to 230 under one heading and

030220 is in a different heading. Yeah, I think it's it's really whatever the board wants to do, um, but we I mean, it would make sense to keep it sequential. So, there probably would be some renumbering that would be part of it. Um, because I think as we spoke about either last month or the month before, once this is finished, we're collapsing, I think, approximately 22 different policies into, um, the three different sections. So, um, part of the process kind of, uh, on the back end will be a repeal of the existing policies that are in the manual, um, since they'll be collapsed in those those three categories. Okay, but then I think that goes to Dr. McKay's like what's in these categories and if something's outside, how does that appear or, you know, in

031what ways can we find them thematically? So, do you have something that you can think of in terms of architecture? Yep, and there's, um, there obviously this is not all of our 200s, so there are going to be other, um, you know, enrollment of students and and things like that that fall outside of this, um, but specifically as it related to the the rights, the responsibilities and that due process of students. We can look at referencing and linking so that, there is some flow to that. It's not just, But I I do appreciate the work to reorganize based on the prior conversation. I think this is certainly closer to having um, sets of of policies that work together under kind of an idea would be easier to cross-reference, easier to find, to give better context.

032And it has a more, um, helpful frame of reference, I think. You know, it does just oriented towards some of the the goals and expectations. Let me be clear, we're we're discussing just reorganizing them right now, not not the policies themselves. Correct. But that would mean policies themselves, I assume, will follow at some point in the Yeah, so, individual policies, um, we, uh, we plan to, I mean, and we're always, uh, you know, keeping an ear and eye out for, you know, uh, different changes, whether it be in legislation or, um, initiative, um, but our our individual policies we, um, are following that policy review calendar. We stepped it out for fall, spring, and I'm sorry, fall, winter, and spring for this year, um, and we plan to bring back to the board a revised

033calendar for next year to follow that same process so we have a similar cadence, um, to review every policy individually. But yeah, for right now as it relates to these, we're just looking at that categorization of them, um, each policy overview within the cycle. I'm curious, um, when other districts are reorganizing in this way and they may have to renumber, is there ever consideration in putting like parentheses after like let's say student complaint process formerly 219? Do they ever do something like that so people who are used to policies know what that was in the past? That is not something that has happened. The I've done this two or three times in the past. Um, typically not. Um, just but we we we will keep the headings themselves or, um, I'd say the the majority

034of the title of the existing policy, so the issue will still be able to be identified within the larger policy itself at this point. The other thing, um, that we can, you know, consider as we do this work is, um, just outside of the policy itself in communication. Um, if there are changes, you know, we could always consider drawing up a document about, you know, what policies adjusted or collapsed or were, um, reclassified um, for former reference as well. So that someone can reference that aside if necessary. So, we could think of something like that potentially if that's something of interest. Okay, so, um, again, that's just the continued conversation around the 200, uh, consolidation. We will continue taking feedback and, uh, working through this to bring back to the board um, what is more

035of a finalized version of this, um, to then move forward. The next policy up is 707, school facilities use and the associated AR with that. Um, we do have, um, both, JR and Tara here if there are any specific questions related to facilities usage, um, they can help answer some of that. Um, but again, just to give the the purpose for reviewing this policy in the AR, this primarily stems from, um, an implementation effort, uh, and proactive communication. Uh, the policy, I believe, has been reviewed fairly recently. I want to say it's 2022, um, but some of the fee schedules and the classification groups uh, had not necessarily been fully implemented consistently. Um, we are moving towards a new management reservation system this summer, uh, which is intended to help, um, increase access and, um,

036facility, uh, capacity and usage awareness, um, but we also want to make sure that before we move to that system, we are communicating ahead of time to any organizations or groups um, that use our facilities. Any adjustments that may be made and any clarifications that may be made with our facilities use of policy and the AR associated with it. The fee schedule that's here tonight is our current fee schedule. We are also looking at that. So, we plan to have another discussion with obviously 707 Um to include that fee schedule as well. Um but we're really looking at that implementation purpose. So, we did go through and initially draft revisions to the policy, but we more so drafted revisions to that AR for the board's awareness. Our facilities are open to the community community groups,

037individual use. It doesn't necessarily mean that the events on or at our facilities are district events or district affiliated events. Um or activities. But, just want to open it up to the board for any discussion surrounding the 707 and the associated AR. I have a comment. Um I I just lost the policy that was up on my screen. Okay, here we go. So, I think there's some revisions. The green green are all the revised language. And red should be the suggested removal or strike through. Um the different classes that have So, I read through this. Um the new language doesn't appear to differentiate class four and five. I'm not sure if that's cut and paste. Just to clarify, are we looking at the AR first or the policy first? Can you jump to the AR

038then? The policy is provided for reference. But, there are like I said, there is not much updating to the policy itself. So, we're good to discuss the AR Sure. Okay. Um yeah, so just class four and five as I stream through it. Uh appears to be the same. So, we might be able to collapse those two. Which are use of school facilities by organization whose members are less than 80% district residents. Here's to say that though. What is class is seven? I also thought that there there's a little um confusion possible with class three that just introduces nonprofit charity scouting organizations, accredited colleges, or universities. And then uh some of those same groups are listed in class four or five where it's less than 80% but I'm not sure that it's clear that like if

039you read class three and you're like, "Oh, I'm a nonprofit. Done." Um you may not understand that you're also that you're supposed to be in a different Um is the suggestion to if you look at class three uh one of the red strike through is members comprised of 80% or more. Is the suggestion to >> language about um the higher rate of participants from our district. Yeah, so is the suggestion to maybe include that quantitative keep it in there instead of strike through? I think that would Go ahead. I'm sorry. Make it clear what the difference is between Okay. claiming to be a nonprofit organization and say you're in class three but then um less than 80% in class four or five. What difference then do you have between class three and class four? And

040then it looks like it's To be more than 80% or less than 80%. If we have it for both of them No, class four is less than 80%. No, class four and class five. Isn't it less Um sorry. Class four and five are both less Yeah. That yep, you're right. Does To Dr. Shelton's point, what what what are we intending between four and five? And then later it comes up like what the priorities are and they're groups of class one stands apart. Class two and three have the same treatment. Four and five have the same treatment. And then six. So, there's only four priorities. I I don't know if it would just make sense to do some consolidation. So, if there's We can look at the consolidation of four and five. If that's the suggestion,

041that's fine. The intent really is to um ensure that you know, as we look to strengthen community ties and partnerships with organizations um we're cognizant of district groups, district affiliated groups, community groups. Um and then, right? Groups that may be outside of the district. Um but not directly impactful or related at least at the time of their use. So, we can look at combining four and five. But, that priority piece is to help distinguish out between you know which organizations have the highest impact and you know, positive experience for our students and our community members. Um And those are typically you know, our community affiliated and residential programs. So, we can clarify some of that. And agree that that kind of prioritization is appropriate. Our facilities are a scarce resource. There is a you know,

042what cost for wear and tear. There's a competition to kind of get access to um time on our fields and having a set of priorities that puts forward you know, that um that those programs that are affiliated with our educational program and then serve a preponderance of their participants are from our township is certainly appropriate. I just want to comment. I welcome I think community engagement is important in having our facilities be open. I I I This was revised I remember early 2024 where I just joined the board and I remember that actually there were a larger number of classes. It was very complicated. So, I I I think trying to simplify where we can just based on functional differences. And I'm I'm curious like how are we determining the 80%? Like is that something

043that's like determined when they first put in application? Because I feel like a lot of programs ebb and flow with attendance. So, is that something that like we check back in if it's somebody that's utilizing it pretty regularly to see have they moved from class three to class four because participation has shifted or is it just kind of at the moment of application that that's determined? I believe and if JR or Tara can give clarification, I'll allow it to I mean, we do look at initial like what is the percentage of students within your group that are district residents, township residents. Um do you want to speak to any specific process piece? Yeah, you need to go to the >> need to go to the mic. Tara joined us this year and she's been doing

044a great job with our reservation process and everything else. Hi all. Um yeah, so the 80% is determined during the application process. Um along with the application form that they fill out, they're also supposed to provide a roster of participants. We only ask for a last name and either an address or a zip code. And then we just check that with our school district area and make sure that they're included. And that's listed here with the steps to submit a request for a permit. Number four. Submit roster like you said with the last name and address. Yes. That same section about how to apply. I just think for clarity it says with the exception of class one which requires only step one the permits for the other classes to be granted upon and there's six

045items. But, number one is the application form is completed. Number two is the application is reviewed and accepted by the facilities department. I would think two also applies to the class one applicants, right? Like that that's part of It's not like somebody can just sit and submit a form and be like, "I'm in." Like they need to have their application be accepted. Yes. And I I do apologize. I'm not sure which um version of the edit. I've been working on this for four months. Um I a final edit was submitted yesterday. Um so, you may not have that. Most of the concerns that you had addressed along with the classifications and collapsing some of those groups, that has already been done and addressed. Um so, Matt does have access to that. And if he could

046provide that to you for review for next month, I'm sure that'll clear up a lot of uh repetitiveness and and unclear um requirements for each group. Um so, yes to answer your question directly, those numbers have been removed and specifications they basically put that whole list is put in as one. And things that would not apply to everybody just say if applicable. If that makes sense. Also, just for clarification, accepted does not necessarily mean approved. Correct? Accepted and accepted on those terms is approved. We would not accept it. It would either be under reviewed it under review it would be asked for revision outright denied or accepted. So accepted in this would be approval. Just out of curiosity looking at the facility it looks like in order to be able to use for part of

047the year you need to be apply by a certain point in time. So are people able like if it's something that's happening every Tuesday afternoon be able to do it for the entire school year or do they need to submit first for the first part of the year and then submit again for the next part of the year. So in the in the final draft I have it broken down from athletics to non athletics. I'm not sure if you see that as well. For athletic groups they do have to submit twice. We have we have to wait for PIAA sports to give us their calendar. Yeah. Yeah. So it is unfortunate. Now if it's an academic and they're just looking for classroom or or um uh multi-purpose rooms like gyms auditorium gyms auditorium the amphitheater

048that can be all year that doesn't matter. Okay. Thank you. Sure. That's completely been eliminated. On page eight again the uh fee schedule is the current one but there is an updated one to be provided as well. So that fees and costs will is intended to reflect the most updated fee schedule. So I'm curious um in the event that there is any a use of facility that you're going to take the place of something already scheduled how far in advance is that particular organization notified that you know you have to make a change or there was something else that took precedent. What's the notification process if an event has to be cancelled? So that happens every single day. That's a lot of my job is just shuffling things around. Um it depends on the event.

049Sometimes if it is a if it's we're specifically talking about outside organizations if they have something scheduled and they have a conflict with the school who does take priority I would contact the permit holder the applicant and do my best to find them a suitable location change date change time change whatever needs to be manipulated in order for them to still carry on and the school to get the facility and the space that they need. In the event that it cannot be moved um so sign-ups for wrestling there's a thousand people who come in and it's very big. I can't move that at last minute. I will talk to the school whoever is asking for the space and do the exact same process to them explain to them the difficulty the challenges we would have

050to move and find them an appropriate new space time or day. Okay. And we try to give as much advance notice as we can sometimes there's situations where an event scheduled does conflict at the last minute. But the intent is to give as much advance notice as we do know and also try to schedule not you know Okay. I'm thinking about um you know for the average person that's coming to use the facility they're probably going to jump to the application and not spend as much time with the policy as as we are right here. Right? And so I'm looking for some very clear cut I want to rent the facility what do I do next? Within the application. And so so then to that point within the application I know that we're reviewing the

051policy but as we're reviewing the AR for the for the for the policy um I just want to make sure that we're leading people to this application process because that's what the public is going to be using and that we are consistent with how we are using the the AR to help them get through the application process. So the new system it's not even a new system. So currently our scheduler is SchoolDude from Brightly. It's ancient. It's a dinosaur. It's completely irrelevant now. They've changed to event manager. >> Okay. I am working with them for that reason specifically. The community will be able to see available time slots so there's going to be a lot less confusion. The schools can integrate their by just simply uploading their school calendars into there. Um it it's going

052to be much more transparent. It's going to eliminate a lot of confusion and a lot of double booking. Um everybody's going to have the same level of access with schools and school adjacent or organizations like PTOs having top priority. So everything and it will be prompted so it won't be a paper form anymore. It will be an online application. And each step will be asking them these questions so that it kind of walks them through and asks them at the end to read through the agreement the rules and regulations just bullet pointed highlights from this larger AR um that they understand what it is that they're being provided with. Does that answer >> Yeah it does. And then another question that I have just in terms of um as we're looking at this AR and

053how you know we have expectations for community members or people using the facilities what are the expectations that we have as we are renting out these facilities right? Whether it's maintenance whether we are making sure that the the space is clean and ready to go. Um that we you know we want them to leave it a certain way are we making are we going through a process to ensure that we are handing it over to them in a certain way? Um and are those types of agreements concerns reviewed during the process? Is that something that's just handled from the application portion? Uh I'm sorry. It's a it's a little bit of both. Okay. Um so it is during the application process. Um currently our system is as they go through the form is a little

054inadequate so I have to contact them with each one and ensure all the tasks are set and then correspond that information to the appropriate head custodian who then will delegate. The new system will have that assigned automatically so that they know ahead of time and again the new system will prompt them with these things. Do you need amenities? And it will list amenities. How many of these do you need? And then from there our custodians will be notified and they will know how to set up and how much time will be required to do so. And there are certain additional charges which are also listed in the final draft for those things just to alleviate any undue financial burden from the school district because it it is additional staffing time. And then that system will

055tally up what the expenses are and it's all >> Yes I'm so excited. Welcome to the modern technology that's going to be great. >> Yes. Exactly. And that's the other really amazing thing about the the new system. Currently there's there is only questions at the end if there's a charge what the charge is when it gets charged. Our permit currently says zero dollars. So there's there's no clear answer through the permitting process until I send an invoice which I physically have to generate. Um this will tell them as they go through the process so that there are no questions. They they know up front. They know what's due. They know when it's due. Yeah. So much better. And that's again why we wanted to begin this discussion tonight for that communication for changes and then

056again continue it at the next workshop so that when individuals are reserving and they do have access to see the steps them through they're already prior aware of some of the changes coming to Uh the suggestion is being made that when the system is up and running if you would like to see how the process is going to happen on from here on out I'm happy to to show you. Currently the system is you fill out a piece of paper and then you hope a form and then hope somebody gets back to you in a timely manner. That will totally be different. I'm happy to show you how those things will change. Yeah. Our our anticipated timeline to bring it to the district is July 1st. That gives everybody a few months before everything kind

057of starts, staff included, to play around with it. It's very user-friendly. Everything's color coordinated and easily labeled, easily able to be found. But even then, I'll be going through and making sure everybody knows how to use it. It sounds like events manager is going to be a very user-friendly process, but when you mentioned the last step where there will be um components of the AR built in, will those applicants have to sort of scroll through and make sure that they actually read before signing off or initialing or anything like that? Yes, that is something that I have them working on. That's actually not something that they had built in brightly into their system currently, but they are working with their IT department to get that set up for us. So, when they are done, you're

058completed your application, please read this, sign off that you understand. I believe that there are five points. I am asking that for each point, they have to accept and sign. I think that's a great idea. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you, Tara. Thank you, JR. Again, we'll bring this back for review with additional documentation and also provide updates to the board with the system itself at a future meeting. The next policy we have up for discussion is policy 714. Policy 714 is advertising and sponsorship. 714 had been in draft form for a period of time, but we're looking at reviewing this again. It does work in alignment and there is consideration with it as we look at our facilities usage policy and AR as well. We recognize that groups or individuals may also

059have associated sponsors or or vendors associated with them. Discussing the policy is not necessarily, you know, intended to generate additional revenue or profit. We really, you know, as Tara said, even with our facilities usage, it's just to offset or cover costs. However, looking at this policy does allow the board and the district the opportunity to establish guidelines on, you know, what's acceptable and ensure that, you know, any advertising or any sponsorship that could or would occur doesn't interfere with any educational environment that's appropriate and it's aligned to our values and our mission. It also benefits and strengthens the community that we're really looking to continue bringing together community members, community organizations, making sure there's a mutual benefit between our students and the community. So, we just want to review the 714 policy in which the

060policy on this one is much heavier than the policy on 707 and the AR is lighter. Both are attached, so we will discuss and start off with any questions or comments. Do you have a sense of how much advertisement happens in general? Like I it's pretty lengthy policy, so I'm just curious like how frequent this is something that we need to be really thoughtful about. Formally or informally? More that it's happening with people who are utilizing our spaces cuz how much I guess the question is is there much advertising happening within the programs of this district? Within the district programs? We're not 100% positive on how much, but that's why I think it's important we look at our policy and AR to establish guidelines so we can communicate clearly what is and is not allowed

061and acceptable. We have a couple of questions just even starting in the definitions. Is right, the sponsorship is payment for any money to the district in exchange for recognition. A sponsorship agreement says it's an exchange for advertising signage, announcements, or other promotional opportunities. And then there's a definition for advertisement. So, is sponsorship agreement covering a broader sets of engagement, advertising signage, announcements, and promotional opportunities, and then there are certain a narrower set of rules for advertisement, which is the the commercial promotion. Essentially, Ms. Weidman, that's spot on with the intent of distinguishing the two. Okay, so signage is Can you give me an example of signage that's not advertising? So, I'm I'm sorry. So, you said So, sponsorship agreement includes advertising, signage, announcements, and other promotional opportunities. And there's a definition specifically for advertising. I

062wonder what the definition for signage is that is part of a sponsorship agreement that isn't an advertisement. So, are you looking at advertising under required conditions in sponsorship agreement? >> are on page two, the definition of sponsorship agreement. And it in it includes advertising, which is defined, but the other ones aren't. So, I was just curious what like what all is a sponsorship agreement that this policy or AR is meant to cover and advertising is specifically addressed. But signage, announcements, and other promotional opportunities are just the broader sponsorship agreement? Is I was trying to understand. >> So, I think it would it would be driven by what's actually included in the sponsorship agreement itself. Um So, for example, the the exchange would be the entity um agrees to provide support for whatever the program may

063be. In turn, um the sign becomes, you know, part of the like a fixture on district property. But that it's dictated by what the terms of the agreement itself. So, then it doesn't have to be advertising as defined. It can be something else. That Right, because it's going to be it it only exists because the sponsorship agreement exists. Okay. I guess I'm like this so much of the language in here is specific to only commercial advertising, advertising, advertising, right? So, there's a lot of rules around that, but then it seems to be a a loophole on what all might fit in under signage, announcements, and other promotional opportunities. And I'm just curious why there isn't as much specificity on those as advertisement. I I hadn't actually considered it. But thank you. Could they be defined?

064I'm sorry? Could they be defined for us? In in a way that they may exist in an agreement? Such as giving an example for it? Yeah. We can do examples if that is something that the board is requesting. Cuz yeah, advertisement is very specific. It has to be for giving price information, call to action, a a promotional um whatever, dramatized acknowledgement of a satisfied customer. Like it's all very specific what it is and says it cannot be just a logo or a slogan. It can't just have the brand or trade's name. So, then I'm curious what's on a sign that's permitted if advertising is defined so specifically. I see it like in in my day-to-day work in donor recognition that signage could be like um a plaque potentially recognizing that sponsor, like, you know, in

065honor of and or in line with that. And so, then it wouldn't need to be commercial or sales oriented. >> yeah. Yeah. But so, if we have examples, that could be helpful. And as as Justin mentioned, there may be signage as part of a sponsorship agreement that is not necessarily advertising because it's signage that comes with the condition of that sponsorship agreement. I'm sorry, tell me where seven is. I'm on I'm not on either. Um for under What is this? Page three? Yeah. Of the AR. So, if I look at number seven, where it talks about advertising signs should not be construed as an endorsement. Right. That would be specific to what the example you just gave. Right, cuz it's been entered as a sponsorship agreement, so it's it would also be subject to the

066conditions again of that agreement. So, that would be an individual agreement as well. Entering into a sponsorship agreement would be just a A sign. Correct. Okay. I also wondered about what would be described as a district publication, district published media. Does that fall to the senior night booklet that's handed out at a soccer game or a basketball game? Is that the brochure or the playbill that goes with a play? And Correct. Is that the yearbook, right? Like I'm So, all of those um So, anyone wishing to advertise in district publications must submit a written application and receive approval by the superintendent or their designate for publication of the advertisement. Um that sounds like a high bar for all of those um you know, anything that is handed out um by a school group on school

067grounds. So, just need want to consider the practicality of of that under guideline and procedures. So, I can't think of the name, but the um the company that sells the back-to-school supplies that are already I think back-to-school. Is that what it's called, back-to-school? Right, I just saw the email. So, that and suppose Sometimes I'll see those lawn signs. So, is that signage? Is that a part of a Is this signage? Advertising, right? Um Those types of things that I I think we're almost just used to seeing in the in the community, >> Yep. right? So, um but I also at the same time don't want us to to tie us into this very small box that we're not able to have things such as those. And so, um just something to consider as we're continuing

068to look through this policy. I think we need to think about some of the common things that we're accustomed to seeing Mhm. in the school community that we might not even consider a sponsorship agreement or sign. It's just I know I have to go get back-to-school supplies. Let me go do that. Yeah, and that's again this initial discussion to get feedback on things to consider as we go through. I mean, we don't obviously want to pigeonhole ourselves into significantly strict limitations, um but we also do want to be aware of um you know, setting the framework and guidelines um so that we do have consistency across the board and common expectations. So, that's helpful feedback. So, I would appreciate if the AR um would have a little bit more clear description of who decides some

069of these prohibited advertising activities. So, like in the sense in the policy, the language um that's not allowed to be plainly offensive or obscene. In the AR, they only use the word obscene, but that's a term that could mean a lot of different things for a lot of different people. So, who gets to like who's making that decision? Um who's reviewing that? Um that I would like a little more guidance on that. Okay. I think along that same line, um you know, in in the policy the termination is pretty vague and could we have like a little more information within the AR about who's making the decisions, what goes in what requires a termination, things like that. With the AR being vague, but the policy being detailed for termination. Yeah. Does seem to be again

070around the prohibitions just redundancy in the sense that it's listed on the policy, then listed again on the AR. And I'm not sure if there's a purpose to the redundancy or not. Um but it feels like one could be just one at one spot. It doesn't have to be in both. And Dr. McKay, I can answer that because we were trying to anticipate um what sections the board would want to be kind of front-facing and more visible in the policy. Um so, we can certainly adjust that accordingly. If there's a purpose to the redundancy, I'm fine with that. I just want it to be thoughtful. Sure. Yeah. Any other comments or input as it relates to uh policy 70 I'm sorry, 714 or the associated AR? It's It is an interesting topic and I mean,

071I appreciate the opportunity to discuss it. I I feel like it needs more just brainstorming or consideration of of the different use cases and um you know, some of the AR, I just see like the board encourages district staff and clubs and school groups to seek sponsorship. Like there's promoting it and then there's a lot of restrictions and trying to figure out what is um you know, as we look at these policies and and ARs, we're looking for ways that both our our staff and uh community members can interact with and see what to expect and then where to go and and um have some predictability. And I'm not sure that this gets us there with um some kind of mixed messages and need for additional clarity or use cases. Yep. We can clarify and

072uh revise um both the policy and the AR and bring it back again um at the next workshop. What's the timeline for this policy? Like is there a sense that we need to get it done by a certain amount of time? No, not necessarily. Um I do think there's a little bit more of a timeline urgency for 707, especially with our move to school dude to make sure that the policy and the AR are ready for that. Um 714, there's no timeline, but there is an association with it. Um so, as again, groups come in, we just do want to be cognizant of um you know, uh associated vendors or sponsors that they themselves might have. So, it's important to think about this, but there's no timeline to decide on anything. We um we come

073back with another initial draft in May. We'll go through as many drafts as necessary to vet it out. I feel like this is a big step with all advertising. And I I just think of like Wawa Stadium instead of our home field. And so, yeah, just giving some thought to this. Yep. And again, that's the goal is not Wawa Stadium. Um Sorry, yeah. That was just a hypothetical example. No, but it's it's a fair point, right? Because I think, you know, especially you know, for anyone listening right now or just watching like there could be the presumption that we're looking to just increase advertising and sponsorship, and that's not the case. Um necessarily we we do um know though that I think if Dr. McKay asked the question, um there is occurrence of that, whether

074it is within um you know, us or associations that that work with us. Um so, we do want to get the guidelines to what advertising and sponsorship is, not necessarily um you know, promoting or increasing, um but that is, you know, also part of the discussion for the board as a whole. Is there like I I I personally feel some hesitancy around this. And so, it's like I want us to be really really careful. Just in those exa- there's like naming rights and visible things, but it also talked about just announcements and things. So, is it the you know, this intermission is brought to you by or this halftime is brought right like it could show up in in lots of different ways. So, to um think about what again, what what are those sponsorships

075and where might they appear or heard and kind of interjected into a school program. And also allowing um for the consideration of what uh limitations there may be should there be the allowance of sponsorship or advertisement. All right. With that, like I said, we'll bring that back um with revisions and there is no timeline necessarily we can do for multiple iterations or drafts as the board wishes. The final policy we have on here for tonight is policy 918. Which is our Title 1 parent guardian family member engagement policy. This is more so a annual review and I know Miss Carter's uh works on this pretty thoroughly. So I'll have her add any context for any review and discussion with this. May I ask a just real quick question? The form we have has no changes.

076So does that mean there's no changes? No. So essentially what we have to have changed and like we have to have the annual review, but from what our regional coordinator has shared with us because as you go through having your Title 1 reviewed and monitored every so many years they update us on what needs to be done. And so one of the updates that they found across different policies of different school districts is that we say what we want to happen but not how it's going to happen. So what actually needs to go in is how it occurs or how you would like to see it occur within the district. So I can always as you go through it say what we currently do but it's up to you all to decide what that actually

077is that you would like to see for family engagement or what your thoughts are around it. So the version we have right now is what what we have and so you're looking for feedback on changes tonight. So I can share with you what actions we do to fulfill what we're saying we do in the policy. So an example I can give for that is if you're looking under policy under authority where it says conduct outreach to all parents and family members there that would be let's say for example in the spring summer the district program coordinator advertises the federal program meetings via email, social media and district websites. So that's the how we do it. That's the piece that's missing. So that's what they're asking for you to have in the policy not the AR

078cuz that's typically what we put in the AR. So for the policy yes. Okay, so so we need to basically combine the AR and policy. Yes in a lot of ways. Okay. So what we have had is like the AR with school procedures where it has pretty much lived where each school has their own procedure. It gets complicated cuz they still call it a policy at a school but we it's not a policy cuz it's a board. But it's a live there but it has to actually live in this as well. And then is the language that's in the AR um detailed enough to satisfy what they're looking for like um I'm just looking at like establish meaningful two-way communication. Like is that enough of a description or do they want to say through meeting

079through a survey held at this time of year like in your example. So it would my suggestion would be based off of going through this monitoring now for the past few years is if you have it in both places then we should be covered. What I will say is we go through each reading what our coordinator our regional coordinator has asked is like as we put the edits in and put the information in we can go back in between and reshare it with them and then they're able to give us feedback to make sure we fulfill what's needed so that before it's approved we're actually doing exactly what they're looking for. So I I personally would probably put the language in both places. So it mirrors what's there. I know it's redundant but you never

080know if you get a different regional coordinator or a different monitor or whoever comes in so that it's it's whatever they're looking for. Do they have particular language? Like does the regional coordinator have particular language they want us to have? Like is there suggestions? I would love if they actually That would be the nice part. No, they pretty much I went through it with them and they pretty much said to just list out the things that we do. So as you go through it I know I've provided it to Justin and Dr. Hayes but it's what we do under each area so that it can just be plugged in. Is this one of the things that like PSBA has given any recommendations for given that there's a regional So um I think I mentioned this

081at a prior um meeting that a couple districts have had similar feedback and I think like Miss Carter indicated it kind of depends on who you're working with and and what that So I I know I had one district earlier this year um who who pretty much just used the the blanket PSBA model um which obviously is is vetted many times over before it's released and it was very similar feedback to what we're receiving here in Haverford. There needs to be more of an >> they're saying that the PSBA needs more more of an explanation of the how. So they're not going to be that's not going to be helpful for us. The I unless So PSBA I think did do an update in August of 25 um but the district that I'm thinking of

082actually had this feedback in the early fall. So yeah. So we there So to answer your actually answer the question you asked um we we can probably draw from PSBA a little bit but if we've had the conversations with um the director then we should probably just incorporate that. >> was asking like if the wheel's been created let's not recreate it. No, I agree with you and So is the idea that we will see this again with I guess I'm still not clear on some of the um ex the points there's you know under building capacity for parent guardian and family engagement there's six bullet points and some bullet points. Like those are in the AR. So is the idea that that would move to the policy and then does that need additional examples of

083like time and place and you know like is it not sufficient to say provide assistance to parents and guardians in understanding academic standard topics? Like you need to have more detail than that. You would. I can verbally go through each and you can say yep that works for us and then you can see it in writing but they do So like an example for that if you're going over academics family for progress it would be let's say our buildings are reviewing with families um at progress report time or at a given time we can define what that time is the student's progress in a one-to-one conference with the families or the reading specialist. I don't want to put in a certain role cuz sometimes it could change it could be an interventionist or it could

084be someone >> that's one of the challenges is that put this into policy and then it's like oh that's school didn't do the progress report in May it's nothing Right like I don't want to be stuck with it but if that's what they're requiring I'm not sure what our choices but I think yeah it would be helpful then to for the board to get flushed out flushed out um drafting of you know some of the supporting examples that and be sufficient. We want to be specific to meet the requirements but also to your point allow for some of that vagueness so that you know it's not relying upon you know April not every April 9th you know an individual has to do that. Right maybe yeah. So for example or I don't know whatever qualifying

085information that we can put that gives examples but doesn't bind us to >> And we And we have some of that so to most of that so to answer your question we will be bringing back essentially the um the how within but wanted to provide the current and policy and AR in context of why we need to bring this to with the updates from Miss Carter on what those new newer updated requirements are. It's pretty much what we do. It's it's what we do every year to meet our compliance. Is that what you're asking? Yeah but the um the reason for adding it to the policy So then I'm not sure what the question is then. So the policy now right? policy itself is adding in kind of the time or the frequency being able

086to provide that context in the policy other than the AR. Okay, I can ask the regional coordinator for the difference between like why we would do it in one versus the other. I don't think I have that knowledge enough to give the answer myself to say why it would be for either. um To answer Sweden's question of I wouldn't say it by month. The way I provided it was more by season. Because PDE doesn't always roll out things on time. So in a given season we hope to be able to do this thing. So like I'll say spring summer or in the fall or in the winter so that it can still be met but hopefully within a flexible timeline of when applications roll out and when things are submitted. I think we've all been

087on a journey together with federal programs that we wish it was regular but things can change on us. Yes, I can get all of the um policy versus AR from our regional coordinator and the reason why one versus other works for the next time. So policy 19 will come back as well with additional flushed out detail for the board to review. Um those are the policies under our committee reports for tonight. So I will turn it back to Dr. King. Thank you, Dr. Hayes. So continuing on to item 4C which takes us to facilities, Ms. Waterman. Thank you. Yeah, there are three topics for the facilities committee. The first is a capital project update and I I'm just going to say don't see but we doubt. Ken is out of town, out of country. So

088Brandon is here with us for an update. Thank you. All right. Good evening. Um so the biggest part of the update is the two back additions. So the additions adjacent to the ball field as well as Coopertown Road have been turned over to the district. Um and staff have been relocated from the A wing. So as you walk into Coopertown, the whole wing of the first graders, kindergarteners um have been moved out back as well as some special education classes um in center building which we are now taking for the next phase of the project. So that's kind of been walled off and demolition has begun on that entire wing. They're making really good progress. Um they started on Monday. Um JR's guys were fantastic. His his staff was amazing. Um came in, helped. Uh

089we had cleaners, they had cleaners. They were able to move um all the teachers in about one day. So um you know, he left but I I wanted to let him know that he really did a a fantastic job. You guys have great staff. Um Can you remind us how many classrooms are in each of the schools? >> Yes, so in the ball field addition, there are six classrooms and then in the Coopertown addition, Coopertown Road rather, there five. So 11 in total. Big Yeah. Big moving expedition in getting 11 classrooms set up over spring break. >> Yeah, and it was a nice little caravan of people and just very efficient. Awesome job. Um As we always say with you know, kind of every turnover, you have to live in it to you know, there

090stuff's going to come up. The good thing is um we're progressing to the next phase. So the contractors are still in the building. So if anything does come up, we're able to address it immediately. Um so some some stuff has come up. We are there to address it. Additionally, there is a punch list. So there are minor aesthetic items that will you know, kind of be taken care of prior to school and or after during a second shift if they so choose to work. Um you know, when the district have has off days. So we're hoping to get the majority of uh the punch list which is um fairly minor in in in total uh completed um in the next couple of weeks. So the next big turnover turnover of sorts is the old auditorium

091is now the new library which will temporarily house the admin um as we take that part of the building with that that wing to kind of finish that front addition as well. Um so that move will take place next Saturday. So again, we'll work with JR to you know, kind of um get them moved and then we'll we'll start to really hone in on the front of the building and and get that wrapped up. Um so that's kind of the update in terms of the overall construction. Um we're as we're working around the building, the site work contractor especially with the weather warming up is starting to you know, replace sidewalks, pour the majority of the new sidewalk. So if in the back, the whole courtyard area is coming together really well. They have one

092more concrete pour and then all of those back kind of for emergency as it's still construction site for emergency exit, all that sidewalk will be there available to teachers and students. Um That's everything I have for the update. Are there any questions in terms of any changes? >> I know I've heard from people in the community just a real curiosity of when the back area is going to just get cleaned up so that field space is is again open to to usage. Do we have a sense of the timeline of that? So the overall timing of that kind of being pulled in, a good majority of the the the prime contractors sea cans they call them, they're they're kind of storage for material that is ongoing with the summer phase. So as we take different

093parts of the building, we take the gym kind of at in mid-May to kind of get a jump on that. Um as I'm sure you know with Chatham, that was a very um aggressive kind of renovation. Uh Coopertown's a little less with that but all the material is sitting kind of in that yard. So as that material transitions from um you know, into the new uh part of the building that's being demoed and then you know, set up. I guess long story short, the summer toward I would say probably mid-July will will really start to bring that in, take down the fencing. Um there's a sidewalk that runs adjacent Coopertown Road all the way from Highland and Coopertown all the way to um the edge of the field. So there's new sidewalk that is I

094believe it's over 1,500 linear feet of sidewalk. So Like I said, there's not currently a site. So there will be a site walk in that area. >> There will be. Yes. >> right. So we'll look to get that we're already having conversations just around the back additions as they're starting to pull away from that that soil pile about getting things cleaned up. And so the the courtyard has been cleaned up and properly graded and they're finishing the concrete around that. So we're trying to nicely tell them to start you know, when I mean pulling it in and cleaning everything up to just sort aesthetically for the neighbors to you know, kind of keep them happy. So You know, we moved a lot of our of our balance and on the contingency to to Chatham because

095of all the issues that were uncovered there if things started getting torn down. Said that in this case it's it's it's we're we're seems like we're not seeing as much of that. The good thing about bidding this post Chatham and or during Chatham was lessons learned that we're able to incorporate it into um addendums of the the bid during the bid process. Um so a lot of stuff that came came up with Ken in Chatham in in regard to demo scars of when you know, just existing conditions you didn't think about when when stuff was removed off walls for new construction, that's already built into this project. Um so we we're at I believe of the initial 900, we are at right around 500 in terms of contingency. Um and then previously as discussed, we

096had I think a little short of $300,000 in allowances of which we've utilized um I I believe maybe about $85,000. So that we still have a little bit over um for that as well. So things come up as construction as they do, um we'll obviously advise the board and and Tony um and Matt, I mean Dr. Hayes, sorry. Uh accordingly. Um and but right now we we we still we're in you know, good standing. Your quarter of a million is probably in pretty stable of rest right now. But we are getting into the uh we're we're demoing the existing rooms which is always a mixed bag. I love that. I've been walking it all week and um we we've been very you know, fortunate in terms of you know, as it they're taking it down,

097it's stuff that we've expected. So That that story about chalk boards with no walls behind them is just Yeah. haunting me. So Yeah, when the So we do have that condition but we in this project built in laminating drywall and and into the project. So um Ken Ken kind of helped me out. Took some of my contingency but helped me out with some of the lessons learned. So I'll just echo. I was out there yesterday in Coopertown. It looks great. I walked the new rooms with Ms. Mastercola. But Brandon's right. The effort that JR and the just thank you to the entire maintenance and facilities crew there for getting the move done but also to the teachers for their work with them because they really worked together to like label the tags, detail the tags,

098get it exactly the right location. I mean, they already have the rooms set up. So thank you to them for taking their own time to be able to do that so quickly. Um you know, only a few days back from spring break and kids are already in their new rooms with all their materials lined, so it looked it it looked great. You know, it was all Yeah, the contractors they they they they did a great job. We we, you know, do our normal push, but um you know, we were able to you know, get it there and like I said, the next big one is for the administration and and the new library of which we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so we're just trying to get everyone there. All

099right. Thank you for >> Thank you. helping manage that project and giving a good report. Awesome. Have a good evening. Thank you. The second item on the facilities committee is an amendment renewal to lease Hilltop for the maintenance transportation facilities. So, this is something we'll we'll bring back to the board. Um the township does utilize our fueling facility. Since we're moving away from diesel, we just have a couple maintenance vehicles left. Um the township has diesel vehicles, so they fuel at our station. So, they uh they need time still a little couple more months before they get their own facilities on their site. So, this will just be a renewal of the current agreement that we have with them now. Just extending it probably till the end of December. I don't think it'll be the

100next full fiscal year, but at least through December. But um just working with the township on finalizing when they'll need to renew it. So, just that cooperation between the two entities. Okay. And then at the end of when we need that diesel, what happens? Like is the pump uh removed or So, it's a split pump now because there's gas and diesel, so they would probably clean out the one side. Um I would have to check with JR the ability to be able to use that side that had diesel in it. Can Can it have gas after it's been cleaned out appropriately or is it kind of blocked off and not not used that half? Okay. Any other questions about Hilltop? Okay. The third and final item is renewal of Hera designated person and um working

101with environmental engineering consultant ECS for that. So, Environmental Control Systems has been the environmental consultant for the district. I don't know how long back, but I know it's it's been a while that they've been with the district. So, they work with JR, uh make sure we have all of our compliance in place, that we're following the proper procedures, um chemicals on site or you know, even in our labs and disposal. So, they help us make sure that we're we stay compliant, we're following all of EPA guidelines and So, it's a good service it's a good service to have. And I'm guessing that fills some compliance or regulatory requirement to have access to those kinds of professional engineers >> there was a spill or there was something where we needed to clean up, they would be

102here immediately and know how to handle it properly. What was the third? Okay. Um and so that will come for approval at the April 23rd action meetings. And that was all for facilities. Does anyone have anything else? Dr. King? Thank you. We're going to continue on with academic and people services, Ms. Lee. Ms. Saxa. Thank you, Ms. Lee. Um uh before we get to the official items on the agenda, I I you may have heard that it is National Assistant Principals Week and if you've ever met one of our assistant principals, you would think surely these professionals deserve more than a week. Uh they not only serve their individual buildings putting children first, but you may not know that they uh also serve as leaders of district committees, mentor programs, induction, uh comprehensive plan goals,

103strategic plan goals, all with a smile and waking up and being at school at 7:30 in the morning. Uh so, Dr. Hayes has invited them here this evening and wanted to recognize their efforts. Yeah, we just um Sorry. As uh as Ms. Saxa said, I mean, some of them are here tonight um doing work with the the PSSM group um to present. So, uh just wanted to, you know, recognize and thank uh all of our assistant principals for the work that they do um supporting the teachers, guiding students, teaching students, partnering with the principals, really navigating all of the challenges of school leadership. Um so, uh just, you know, thank you to Ms. Foster, Ms. Manaker, Mr. Ford, Dr. Ohlback, Dr. Gabby, Dr. Bertoni, Dr. Detay, Ms. Edmiston, Mr. Dicenzo, and Ms. Pointer Lowry for

104all of their work with our district. We do appreciate you all. happy National Assistant Principals Week and for those of you here tonight, turn it back to Ms. Saxa and turn it back to probably you guys. That's probably it. Um and I think in that long list we may have missed Mr. Fulton, but also Mr. Fulton. Mr. >> you. I'm sure he was on the list. It's just so many names that we're yes, so many great people to recognize. Um and as uh Dr. Hayes has said, the first item on our agenda is our PSSM results and leading the charge for that is always Mrs. Mrs. Christina Carter and she worked with several of our supervisors and assistant principals and principals on this work. So, I'll turn it over to Christina. Thank you. Well, good

105evening. I'm inviting come on up. I will kick us off. I believe you can leave the remote with them. I trust you to to click us through. You can see it better than I can from this angle. All right. There you go. All right. So, for those of you who are new to the board, each year in the fall, we administer a survey to our students um called the PSSM. It is the psychological sense of school membership. Thank you. And just to give you a little bit of a background, those of you who have been here, you've heard the same thing, but for those who are new, I'll share it again. It examines various aspects of um It's an important sorry for us to review that the survey has been done for 6 years in

106our district, but has been in a long use before that. It was used to measure adolescent perceptions of their sense of belonging in schools. The survey was created in 1993 and utilizes 18 questions to help identify three substantive factors. Identification and participation in school, perception of fitting in among peers, and generalized um connection to teachers. It is really given all over the world um and it is a great tool for us to really understand where our students are at a given point in time in the year. So, that time was November this year, so just remembering that it's going on at that time. Looks good. Thank you. So, the members of our team who are with us tonight are new faces with us. In the past, we would have had one of our assistant principals

107since moved on and uh Dr. Ed Olizzi, who is the Manoa principal, she this year took on the role as a data team advisor as we take on new individuals to join our data team. So, we have Dr. Charles Detay, our high school principal, um Dr. Michelle Downs, our school psychologist, she's not here with us this evening. Um Ms. Libby Foster, she is our Chestnut Hill and Coopertown assistant principal. Um Ms. Jen Manaker, she is our Lindwood assistant principal. Ms. Amanda Pointer Lowry, our high school assistant principal. Mr. Kevin Smith, our K through 12 STEM curriculum supervisor. So, I will let them take it over. They have really done some great work learning this year and exploring it in a different way and it's always nice to hear it from a different lens than we

108may have heard it from before. So, I'll hand it over to you, Mr. Smith. Hey, good evening everyone. How are you all doing tonight? Um before I get started, I also want to say I served as a vice principal prior to coming to this role. So, I just understand how vital the work they do every day really impacts our children. But just to understand this survey and the way we took the time to disaggregate this data was on top of what already happens with them being a part of a team that runs the school. So, I just really want to acknowledge the hard work that my colleagues consistently put in to support our children. Um first we want to talk about our demographic questions. These are the questions that we ask our our students to

109get a feel of what lens are they looking through as they're answering these questions. Um some of our basic demographic questions kind of grade school, things of that sort. Other ones are more interpersonal about how they view themselves and how they want the world to view them as well. So, from that lens, they respond to these 18 prompts. Um and these 18 prompts, there are several that you'll see a R next to. That means we asked the question in reverse. So, for example, question number three, as we is hard for people to like me or to accept me here, we ask it is it easy for people to like you or accept you here, asking the question in a more affirmative manner and hopes to get some ideal um data from them. Here, we actually

110have a a depiction of our participation in each building. Um kind of be expected, Manoa is our largest elementary school. So, out of our elementary schools, that's where we have the the largest um participation. But just totally throughout the district, there were 3,353 students who participated in the survey at both the elementary and the secondary level. And I will pass it off now to my amazing colleague, Ms. Manaker. Yeah, I love them. Great. Good evening. Um over the next four four slides, I will take a closer look at uh the data in um some key subgroups. Um this breakdown helps us better evaluate our current practices and identify priorities for future initiatives and next steps. On this slide, you'll see the overall score for each of the 18 questions. You might find it helpful to

111refer back to slide five where Mr. Smith just went through to review the full set of survey questions. As we analyze this data, our goal was twofold. To highlight the areas of strength and to identify areas that may benefit from further attention. When we look at both the overall scores and individual questions, a few consistent themes emerged. As in previous years, students report strong relationships between themselves and their teachers as well as a pretty strong sense of school pride. These findings can be reflected in questions 7, 9, 14, and 16. At the same time, lower average scores on questions 2, 4, and 12 point to an area of growth which falls under themes such as how students relate to and feel accepted by their peers. So, kind of in short peer-to-peer relationships. This pattern is

112also consistent we've seen with previous data from Haverford's PSSM data that we've gathered before. The next slide focuses on students' sense of belonging across different races and ethnicities. This slide, first and foremost, I think highlights the rich diversity that we see within our school community, which is not only something that we are incredibly proud of, but something that continues to be a meaningful strength for our school community. When looking at the data here, we can see that individuals from Japanese, Middle Eastern, and multiracial populations report a strong sense of belonging in the high school while African natives also indicate strong feelings of belonging in the middle school. In the elementary school, we can observe fairly consistent scores among the racial and ethnic populations, but it is important to note that you might notice there were

113more options for the secondary students to choose from than were found on the elementary level. We do obviously see some areas in which we are compelled to dive deeper and explore. However, it is important to keep in mind group size when analyzing the data. Some of these subgroups include such small numbers of students that we aim to balance thoughtful analysis with respecting the students' dignity and confidentiality as they answered. Oh, I went too far. There we go. Sorry. The next slide looks at students' sense of belonging in relation to religion. As with race and ethnicity, examining both differences and commonalities helps us better understand student experiences and informs how we continue to foster an inclusive environment for students of all religious backgrounds. We see students who practice Hinduism indicate a strong feeling of belonging in

114the high school and similarly students in the middle school who practice Native American religion in North and South America also feel a strong sense of belonging. And we continue to see a pretty consistent fairly strong score in the elementary school students based on their practice of religion. And again, with this chart, we see data that causes us to ask questions and compels us to look deeper at both in-district resources that we have as well as community resources that we can tap into to help support students' sense of belonging within their religious backgrounds. On this slide, looking at gender, we see overall averages for male and female students remain consistent from the previous years of data that we have. However, notably this year, we saw that the in the other category for gender, we saw an

115increase of average score from 3.03 last school year to 3.8 in the 2025-2026 school year. At this time, I'll turn it over to Dr. Dete, who will continue with additional subgroup data. Thank you. All right, good evening, everybody. The next two slides were only on the secondary survey, so you won't see elementary schools represented. The first slide, LGBTQ, you'll see that students who identify as LGBTQ+, had a slightly lower sense of belonging. And at our schools, we're always looking to increase that sense of belonging. And some things that we do, number one is we value student voice really in everything we do. That's really important to us. We make sure that we include different perspectives in the decision-making that occurs. These are big decisions and small decisions within the school. And we offer clubs and

116activities that really embrace every type of student regardless of how they identify. Some of those are Rainbow Alliance, which meets every Wednesday in our library. No Place for Hate, which holds fish bowls in our school and allows student voice. We're always trying to create a more inclusive and welcoming environment for everyone. Next subgroup are students in the special education program. Again, you'll see that they score slightly below in the sense of belonging. But again, we we recognize that and we're trying to close that gap as as much as we can. So, some programs that we have in place are the Best Buddies program. It builds one-to-one friendships between students with and without disabilities. Unified Athletics. Shout out to our Unified bocce team, second in the state. Got to do that for sure. Yep. And I

117got to give shout out to Mr. DeCena, too. He We are one of the only schools in Delaware County that make sure that they have a space to practice and to perform at their best, which is very difficult in a school like this. So, shout out to another great assistant principal. And of course, we have a strong special education team at the middle school and at the high school, and that helps with our belonging. So, now I'll pass it over to one of my colleagues, Amanda Pointer Lowry. Thank you. Good evening. So, our belonging work is connected to the culture of dignity framework. That's by Cobb and Crownapple. And our focus is on ensuring that students feel accepted, appreciated, treated fairly, and validated. I guess it would help if I changed the slide. There we

118go. In practice, this framework guides so many of our school climate efforts. Our leadership has engaged in and provided professional development opportunities for our staff, specifically our teacher-led dignity work. We use survey data to identify both strengths and areas for us to grow. Belonging work is ongoing, and we use data to make sure that our students are feeling supported and valued. Um The graph shows the average PSSM scores across our seven schools, highlighting each of the belonging factors. You'll notice on the graph that treated fairly is our strongest area while feeling validated is the lowest, showing an opportunity for growth and strategic student-centered planning. These results help us target where we can better support student belonging. Next, Ms. Foster will speak about the belonging across cohorts. On this slide, you see a table with the

119students' overall sense of belonging by cohort. Cohorts A through M are listed on the left, and across the top is each school year, beginning with 2021-2022 to the current school year. So, for example, if you look at cohort E, they were in fourth grade during the 2021-2022 school year, fifth grade during the 2022-2023 school year, and they are now eighth grade during the current school year. On the right side, you see the overall sense of belonging by grade level for this school year. There is well-documented research that indicates as students transition to middle and high school, the overall sense of belonging tends to decline. This can be attributed to a variety of factors, including increased academic pressure, increased number of teachers, less connectedness with their school community, and reduced parent involvement. You can see this

120trend in our overall 2025 data by level. Our elementary school students report the highest sense of belonging at 4.04, and this decreases to 3.85 overall at the high school level. However, when we look at the individual cohorts of students, we see that the downward trend does not continue in most cohorts. Rather, it maintains or returns to previous levels. We see examples of this in cohorts H, I, and J. When students reach Haverford High School, we consistently see their overall sense of belonging maintain or even improve. We attribute to this work that we have done We attribute this to the work we have done over the last 6 years. Our next slide shows the district overall sense of belonging from fall 2020 to present. When we review this overall sense of belonging, we see that students'

121overall sense of belonging has increased from its starting point in 2020 and has now maintained from fall 2023 at about 3.95 to to We have consistently seen strengths in students' relationships with teachers and students' pride in their school community. This is something we've incorporated into our 2025-2030 strategic plan goals in the area of community pride and civic engagement. As a leadership team, we'll keep working on enhancing students' feelings of belonging with their peers through SEL lessons in skills such as empathy, perspective-taking, acceptance accepting differences, and conflict resolution, as well as programs across the district that I will summarize on the next slide. So, as we reflect on our work over the last 6 years, there are many initiatives that we believe have led to this increase that we see in overall student sense of belonging.

122Many of these initiatives you've seen during board presentations. Last month, we highlighted the one book, one school initiative in collaboration with the high school math students for puzzle day at Chestnut Wald and Cooperstown school-wide morning meetings. In previous meetings, we've highlighted mentorship programs between elementary and high school students at Manoa, school-wide expectations at Chatham, and Linwood's make a lunch program. Ms. Pointer-Lory will also speak on the secondary level initiatives that are increasing student belonging. So, at the middle and high school levels, students engage in student voice-based initiatives like ignite, leadership opportunities, extracurriculars, and special advisory periods like wellness, which will take place tomorrow. They actually get to attend an extensive amount of fairs, jobs, activities, trade fairs, and other events in the high school. Across K-12, our students are participating in programs like recess referee,

123high school mentors, STEM days, and various clubs that build a really strong sense of belonging. Recently, our middle and high school students joined other students from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey and participated in the Delaware Consortium for Excellent Student Leadership Institute. While they were there, they were able to build skills and increase their knowledge around mental health, well-being, and leadership. Our student team that attended did a little bit of research and focused on student physical and mental well-being. They did some research and found that there's an increase in teenage depression since 2020 and students really don't know about some of the awareness of school resources. Their proposed solution, student-led solution, is a monthly wellness symposium and a peer fishbowl. These discussions are aligned and would take place during our wellness day activities. These initiatives are

124aimed to reduce stress and strengthen student connections. I'll pass it back to Ms. Carter who's going to conclude our presentation. So, thank you to the team for taking the time to really dig into the data. I will tell you, although I love data and I live in it every day, I know that it is not easy when you are doing this and your job every single day and you're in front of students. So, thank you. You did outstanding job being able to take this on for the first year and explain it so well. I also want to thank Alexis if she doesn't mind. She is here tonight working the board meeting, but she's one of the students that proposed in the group the idea around a solution at the high school. So, it's always nice

125to have our students who are participating in how to make the school a better place. So, thank you, Alexis, to you, too, for your participation and you do a lot of things, but this is important, too. So, if you have any questions, we're happy to answer. Whenever this presentation comes up, this is the third time. I just, you know, thank you for doing this work and you know, it just the the depth of the data is very interesting. And I think I may have asked this question last year, but I can't remember, but are there questions that are more like the distribution, you know, cuz you presented averages, but you know, I I can imagine some questions that doesn't show a lot of variability and so I'm just kind of curious like do we see

126you know, some aspects of this being more variable? That's another way that we've started to look at the data. I I was previously a school psychologist, so I worked closely with Dr. Downs and so Dr. Downs and I have started to disaggregate the data looking at percent responses within that Likert scale and so that's something that we've talked about for the future of maybe increasing our level of interpretation and understanding of those scores. With the with the trends since 2020 of increasing scores, I'm wondering if that's something that for those of you who've been in our school climates that long, like is there any kind of palpable, tangible way that that can be discerned? Like the survey is is great, but like is it something that you know, it's kind of something that's also being

127experienced or in what ways is it evident in the schools? I can certainly offer a theory of mine from elementary. I know I have been in Linwood, I think this is my seventh, I lose count, but something around 7 years and we have devoted a lot of time to responsive classroom and studying and and you know, looking at the research behind responsive classroom, specifically morning meeting. I think that is a critical component of our day that is sacred and respected each morning and from my perspective, something that I really love to see is how each teacher can kind of individualize their creativity behind the morning meeting. So, they all follow the same type of framework, but certain greetings might look different, certain activities might look different. And I I think that has done wonders for

128just building that sense of community and and really allowing that sense of belonging with the elementary group. I can speak. I'm wondering also for the elementary group just to park on that for a second. Were the different schools segregated between and and were certain strengths or areas of improvement found for those? We we did look at each elementary school separately and what we really saw was a lot of consistency actually and really across the district. It's those strengths in students' relationships to their teachers as well as pride in their school community and that's something we see a lot of in our elementary schools. Our elementary schools engage in a lot of healthy competition, particularly at the track meet coming up this spring. We're all really looking forward to that. And each elementary school has its

129own culture and identity. And and we see consistent areas that we can target across the district and particularly in all of our elementary schools with students' relationships with each other. I'm curious about the the 18 prompts with the Likert scale. Does that do the actual questions change from elementary through high school or are they the same? Yes. So, that's a great question. The 18 questions are the same. The only difference is found in the demographic area that Mr. Smith referred to in in the beginning. So, for example, there are one particular question regarding special education is only asked in the secondary level because it asks the students to speak to their understanding and awareness of their own special education and that's not something that they feel is appropriate for a fourth or fifth grader to

130identify or or really understand. So, that's one example, but the questions themselves, the 18 questions, are the same. I'm almost positive I asked this question last year, but I tried to find my old notes and I couldn't. When it comes to the the terms for identity related to race, religion, and gender, are those a drop-down of options or are students self-identifying terminology? So, and I do remember you asking this question, too. So, it's actually already put in for most of them and they just pick from the list, but there is an option for others where they can write it in. So, for example, like our team did a lot of coding of things because sometimes our students identified their religion as their race and vice versa. So, where they could write it in, it was

131interesting to actually see that and then when we saw gender, we actually learned a lot about how students identify themselves beyond what the survey gives you as a list, which is always interesting. We always we kind of go back and forth on whether to add them in because we don't want to change the validity of the survey the way it was created, but also knowing that students have other ways that they would like to identify themselves. So, we could always add in some that are consistently popping up if we're okay with adding those in those pieces in there are different. But, I was also curious for race categories because they feel some of them feel very much like the identities that are named in the census, but not necessarily identities people would utilize the same

132language for themselves. So I wasn't sure if that is potentially updatable or if there's a way that people can self-identify in a way that the term feels more comfortable than what the term that we have. Mhm. It's definitely something we can explore as a team. Each year we look at ways we can update the survey so that we still keep it consistent, but finding ways to make sure that everybody feels like there's a term there that represents them. We have added in a religion that has consistently popped up over the years. So we can definitely review it as a team and based off of the data that they see, if they see that there's something that needs to be consistent put in, we can. These categories are often what they've already provided us as the

133options, which are very census-based. So we would have to determine if we want to shift away from it, but we do have students in our ignite program who is one of our strands. They are doing belonging and we haven't really talked too much about it as a board, but it's in been in some board updates and have our happenings. But the belonging group, which Mrs. Pointer Lori is working with, I'll let her kind of talk through what students have um their view of the survey and how they would like to change it or update it because I do feel as though there are some things they would like to see differently. Sure. So students that are in the belonging group, similar to the student leadership institute, were charged with identifying um you know, a gap

134in how we support students. And what they did is they looked at the PSSM survey and some of their questions were really around what is it, where does the data live, are are students taking it seriously when they actually complete the survey. So that was when we were looking through the data with that group, that was some of their questions. And so what they are proposing is that they want to do a campaign around the PSSM to let students know what it is and maybe incentivize participation, do a little bit of you know, cheerleading around the importance of the data and where it lives and you know, making sure that all students' voices are heard and represented in that data. Hope that answers some of the questions. Okay. I I love the students like questioning

135attitude and you know, our kids taking it seriously. I I noticed the prefer not to answer being quite high, too. So I was curious if you actually ever look at individual students to see, you know, are they answering in a serious manner or um you know, taking it seriously. I'll take this one for you. So it's actually an anonymous survey so that they can answer it. We could always using the tool that administers to kind of see the flow of the form if we wanted to dig in a little bit more to see if they are. I always like to remember that students are answering often based off of how they feel during a political time. And so depending on a group, given what's happening over time, they could feel more comfortable or not providing

136that answer. And we always have to recognize that. I know we share with families that this is going out and families also are sharing like, do you feel safe like providing that answer? Do you not feel safe? And right now people may not always feel safe in giving over their identity even though it's anonymous, just recognizing that safety is their number one priority when they're thinking about it. And so giving them that psychological safety as well to be able to put they prefer not to answer, I think is even more important too because they have to live with that answer knowing it's sitting out there, too. Thank you for calling that out. I appreciate you mentioning that. No problem. So one of my questions is going to be how are we gaining student feedback regarding

137the process. And so I appreciate the belonging group that you mentioned because I I think that not only is it helpful to get the feedback, but also for them to be advocates for themselves and what does this mean and why is it important for that student to student communication to happen. Sometimes you'll have a different result versus when it's just teacher to student or parent to student. Not really sure what's communicated at home and how parents and guardians may understand as much as we do talk about this this survey, but I do I I strongly encourage looking for other opportunities to have students be a part of the process. That allows them to really own it and then understand their own that creates in itself a sense of belonging. So I certainly appreciate the attention

138given to that. I don't have a question, just a thank you for all the work Miss Carter as well. Also it's just specifically slide 17. I appreciate identifying some of the things that's really important to understand how us as leaders and staff members are specifically impacting students. So to see direct connection between activities and opportunities for students, but also recognizing the academics that we have, the course offerings, the extracurriculars, and the opportunity for students to have that relevant and rigorous option for their academic offerings as well. I think it's a really impactful thing for our students' sense of belonging, too. So kudos to the academic piece of that as well, just of our programming. Great. Well, thank you, everyone. Great. Thank you, Miss Carter. Up next we have an update on some information about an

139AI platform. You may recall, if you've been watching these meetings for a while, that Mr. Anderson, our director of technology, has come to report a couple of times to the board on where we are with learning more about AI, creating some acceptable use policy guidelines around it, starting to look at some platforms. And now Mr. Anderson is going to share with us a little bit more about a platform update. It's it's not like a big presentation, but he did provide just a one-pager of information. You're going to hear a little bit more about this at our next meeting where we'll have some recommendations for you. But he wanted to give you a little pre amble to that. Thank you, Miss Saxa. Yeah, so as as Miss Hearn and I presented in the fall, we mentioned

140that kind of the next steps with the AI working group was to start looking at selecting a district platform for AI usage and then um kind of narrowing our training and staff usage to those to that product or multiple products should we choose that. So we with the AI working group and the feedback we received from teachers over the past year about tools they found useful, we kind of narrowed the scope down to four that we got some quick demos from, had the teachers in the working group and our instructional tech mentors fill out some rubrics. We sent some cybersecurity surveys and requested other information from the vendors. And then kind of tallied some some scores there. And as Miss Saxa said, we'll be back in at the next meeting to kind of give a

141more thorough presentation about what that process looked like and kind of our recommendations moving forward. one quick question. I'm sorry. What are the thing I'll all all numbers there. What are they what's the significance? Yeah. Well, what are they based like what are they based off of? Yeah. So the so the numbers at the bottom, they came off of the rubrics that each of our teachers filled out as they were kind of evaluating tools. We had depending on the tool they were using them to kind of do some of their own work or to work with some students at the secondary level. We had them fill out those rubrics underneath each one of those categories. So the first five that I'm looking at there had multiple questions underneath that that we were asking them to

142kind of rate the each of the tools and then we kind of came up with an average to kind of try and compare multiple tools to each other. Below that is the cybersecurity survey that we sent out to them that's developed by CoSN that we've used with our vendors all year for software. They completed that survey for us. So we included the score from each of those vendors there. And then the last one is the proposals that we received from each one of the the three that we kind of were moving more forward with in the process. Is part of the evaluation discussing with other districts that may use these platforms and what their experience has been? Yeah. So um the first two that are there are kind of like the the two that most

143districts are using. Um I know that we have numbering just a number of districts neighboring us that are using each one of those currently. We have spoken with a couple of those company or districts to see what their thoughts are and how it kind of implementations went there. Honestly, the third one out there, Brisk, is one that's heavily used by our our high school currently. I think the count we got was something like 97 of a little over 100 teachers were currently enrolled with and using Brisk. That's honestly why the scores aren't there yet. We kind of left it till last knowing there was a large user base within the the district already. Um and then the the last one was um same thing was was just something that was recommended by some of our

144teachers, but as we kind of moved through the evaluation process, didn't kind of line up with the rest of the scores we were getting from the other three products. Can you help me understand what what kinds of things were you considering in this score for the ethical use and transparency? Um I'm not going to remember the questions off the top of my head. We can make sure that we include them when we present next week or next month. Um but it was lots of questions around like we had information from them. We We requested um it's called a model card. So it's kind of them giving us information about how our how our data is processed within their their company, any kind of safeguards they put in place, like they all tell us all the

145ways that they keep biases out of our students and teachers responses and things like that. But in the water card, we ask them to actually tell us how they do that. So there was some information like that that we were provided by them that kind of helped to um align with with some of that those answers there. Um I I know I've made it clear I have lots of hesitancy around this. So I would love to know what the not just what the questions were, but like what the group that was evaluating what their answers to that were or what the company's answers are to that. Cuz I that's one of my significant concerns is like if our students are utilizing AI, what is then happening to the data that they're putting out there? I

146mean quick answer I can tell you that that at least one of the vendors we talked to like our data only stays within the district. Anything that our teachers or staff put in there only lives within like our little bubble, so to speak. And then if we ever leave that company, it just disappears. So it's not like fed back into any of the training models. Most of these are not ones that actually develop their own models, they use third-party models. So they're not actually training models anyway. So the data that we're kind of giving them doesn't really have the benefit that it would if we were using like a chat GPT or Gemini or one of those that's kind of developing their own large language models to begin with. All right, thank you for those

147guiding questions and more to come on that. Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Uh and then the final item we have final items are are just information items, contracts that you will see at our next business meeting. I have a quick question about where is River Rock? I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Battistelli. It's in Clifton Heights. Okay, great. Thank you, Ms. Lee. Thank you. Back to Dr. King. My phone is off again. Um two items there for informational purposes. Um the one being the DCIU election memo that's listed there. Um we previously acknowledged Ms. Lee. Um that would be submitted for the DCIU within this memo will also include the other um other members from other districts that are listed there um representing their board as well as the election resolution and then the

148reappointment memo memo resolution um for um a trustee there, Clark Clark Did I pronounce the name Clark Dickerson? Um so that information will also be included in a future meeting. For section five, other items, we have nothing listed there, but I do believe Dr. Hayes you just have a brief comment. Yep, I just two things. One, before next Saturday on the 17th, we won't have another meeting prior to that. So there's one more reminder for anybody that is interested to come out on the Sorry, 17th is a Friday. It's actually on the 18th, Saturday at Lynwood at 4:30, the Ed Foundation's Twilight Run. Um I'll be there participating. So if anyone wants to join in the 5K um try to beat me, they can. They probably will. Um You're on record. I like the challenge.

149If not, you can also enjoy the activities afterwards. >> I'll be there for that. Um and also as just mentioned uh subtly by Ms. Saxa, Dr. Battistelli recently defended her dissertation. Um so we just want to recognize that accomplishment. Very proud of her efforts and she Glad she is with our district. It's a lot of effort, it's a lot of work. So please um use that prefix. Um you earned it and congratulations. Sorry, that was it. Yep. All right. Um for section six, just report on executive session. The board did meet um this evening before tonight's meeting to review confidential employee discipline related matter, um to review political potential, excuse me, litigation matter with counsel, as well as to review counsel agency business that if discussed in public would violate a lawful privilege or disclose

150confidential information that is protected by law. Section seven takes us to the second opportunity on the agenda for public comment. Just a few reminders. Um I do have individuals that are signed up. When I do call your name, please go to the podium, state your first and last name for the record. Please confirm your residency in Haverford Township. Per our policy, there is a 3-minute timer that will be set um at the start of your remarks, Mr. Testa will start the timer. When the when you do hear the the end of the alarm, it asks you to please conclude your remarks. And if there are any materials to leave, please leave them at the table for Mr. Testa. All right, so I have six people that are signed up this evening. The first person that

151I have listed is Jamie Wiggins. No? Okay. Going to continue. The next person that I have listed is Vivian Dan. No? No? Okay. Third person, Howard Rosen. Okay. And before Mr. Rosen begins, we just want to remind everyone that this meeting is being recorded and will be accessible to the public. And while the board encourages members of the public to speak during public comment and raise any concerns that they have related to the school district of Haverford Township, we also want to remind you that due to student privacy and confidentiality concerns, any speaker who references information that would identify another student will be uh instructed to redirect their comments. In addition, any parents or guardians um are Parents or guardians are urged to use care if they elect to speak about their own students' personal

152situation because that information will become part of a permanent school board recording. Thank you. Uh thank you, everyone. Uh my name is Howard Rosen, Howard Rosen is my full name. I live in Ward 1 in Havertown. Uh do you need my full address? Okay. Good. Um um I I know I put it on the the uh sign-up. The the subject matter that I'm here to talk about is uh excused absences. Um and the reason I'm here is to ask you guys to have a conversation about it. Um I I know we cannot really do more than that here because school absences are governed at the state level, but I understand if we want to make any changes at the state level, we need to have a conversation here at the local level. So per state

153law, as I'm sure everyone here knows, um public school students have 10 excused absences in a school year without a doctor's note. And if my math is correct, I believe that's 1.11 days per month. I might be off by a point. Um And and this policy applies equally to boys and girls. And so the conversation I want to have is why. Why are boys and girls why do they have the same number of excused absences? We're we're talking essentially one day a month. Now, for me or a younger version of me, that's nothing. I mean, I think when I was in grade school, I had perfect attendance and I think I have a certificate to prove it. I'm not kidding. Um But you know, that's me. I mean, half our population, the female population, they

154have to deal with things on a monthly basis, a regular monthly basis that boys, men do not have to deal with. Um I I I only can tell you from what I've seen. I mean, I'm I'm married. I've been married for 23 years 23 years to an amazing woman. I have 17, 19-year-old daughters. And so for many years now, I have seen um symptoms of what we all know, premenstrual syndrome, PMS, and they vary. They they vary from not feeling so great to debilitating. And and this happens more than 1.1 times per month. It just does. And so that's really my motivation for being here tonight. It is why should I, as as a father of daughters, have to get a doctor's note to excuse biology? You know, that that's the conversation. Now, I mean,

155you're I'm sure everyone's familiar with this, but I printed some things out from the Mayo Clinic just in case people are not familiar with what how serious of a condition this could be. And now it it affects, as according to Mayo Clinic, uh as many as three out of four women have some symptoms. And the symptoms vary again from just slightly noticeable to intense. Now, there's so many symptoms that they're breaking broken down to emotional and physical. And I can quickly go through um some emotional symptoms, and this is not all of them. Anxiety, depressed mood, crying spells, mood swings, uh trouble falling asleep, social withdrawal, poor concentration. Physical symptoms, joint or muscle pain, headaches, fatigue, weight gain, abdominal bloating. Oh. Can I Can I finish my thought? Conclude your sentence. Yes, well, these symptoms

156they they last for 4 days and regardless of the severity they end in 4 days, not in 1.1 days. So, that's the conversation I would love for you guys to have. Thank you. And I didn't bring enough for anybody but if you want the Mayo Clinic printout. Okay. Seriously? Hey. Give me a second. Mr. Basta. Yep. Thank you. The fourth person I have signed up is Kathy Little. Fifth person, Colin Quinn. All right. Good evening. I'm Colin Quinn, resident of Haverford Township. Um Good evening members of the board and Dr. Hayes. So, I'm Colin Quinn. I live in Haverford Township with my husband, Dr. Andrew Hart, who spoke with you last month regarding administrative regulation 202.1. Since then, we were informed that a waiver to AR 202.1 will not be granted. I'm here tonight to

157address the continued enforcement of a provision that as written has discriminatory impact. It prevents families like ours from hosting an international exchange student solely because we do not have a high school student in our home, disproportionately impacting LGBT couples and others. In our meeting with Dr. Hayes and Dr. Parker on February 24th, we were told that the reasoning behind this provision is to support the social experience of international exchange students. We certainly appreciate that goal. However, research and established exchange programs show that student success is driven by strong relationships, school engagement, and community support, not by the presence of a high school age sibling in the home. Our exchange program is fully committed to supporting both the student and our family. Dory is here supporting us tonight. Thank you. At the same time, among the

158Central League districts where policies are publicly available, including Lower Merion, Radnor, Tredyffrin Easttown, none impose this requirement. Guidance from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association does not include it. This provision is not standard nor a recommended practice and is not necessary for a successful program. In practice, this provision excludes otherwise qualified members of this community from participating. Families like ours, fully vetted, prepared, and willing, are being denied the opportunity to contribute based solely on a household characteristic that has no demonstrated connection to student outcomes. The choice to deny a waiver because it would conflict with the current regulation only reinforces the issue. The regulation itself is the problem. In February when Dr. Hayes asked us, "What's the impact of this AR not changing?" The answer remains the same. Our family loses this opportunity. The Haverford community

159loses this opportunity and the student we are working with may lose their placement entirely. This is not a complex issue. Administrative regulations can be revised without board action. The district has the ability to address this swiftly. We are asking clearly and directly that this provision be modified or removed so that qualified families are not excluded from participation in this program. We ask that the district act in accordance with its stated commitment to honor every individual's inherent dignity through equitable, inclusive, and diverse practices by addressing a regulation that currently falls short of those values. Thank you for your time. The last person that I have signed up is Rich McGlory. All right, that concludes the list for public comment for section seven. We're going to move on to section eight. The next regular meeting of the

160board is an action meeting scheduled for April 23rd, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. in the board room of the Oakmont Administration Building. Have a motion to adjourn the meeting. Seconded. Moved and seconded.