001Good evening. I would now like to call this March 5th, 2026 board work session to order. We will start by having board members meet read the district's mission and goals. The mission of the school district of Havford Township is to educate and to inspire a community of lifelong learners who become well-rounded global citizens. >> The district goals are 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. Second, belonging. Honor every individual's inherent dignity through equitable, inclusive, and diverse practices. Third, social and emotional growth. Build a learning community that prioritizes social and emotional wellness as a foundation for academic success, resilience, and strong relationships. And finally, community pride, and civic engagement. Empower students to be active,
002responsible, and contributing citizens through shared responsibility and community partnerships. >> Thank you, Mr. Tessa. Will you call the role, please? Mr. Flagler here, >> Miss Lee, Dr. McKay, Mr. Schwarz >> here, >> Miss Snodgrass >> here, >> Miss Snyder >> here, >> Miss Weedman >> here, >> Dr. Shelton >> here, >> Dr. King >> present. I will note that Dr. McCay is out due to travel and Miss Lee has a work commitment. We'll continue on to the superintendent report. >> Thank you. So, uh, typically we do superintendent report during action meetings, but, um, we have the upcoming, um, high school play prior to that, and we wanted to provide, uh, our high school drama club an opportunity to give a preview of the play, um, for our board members and community members prior to that.
003Um, so I will turn it over to them to present a preview of their upcoming play. >> Hi, thank you so much for having us. We're here at the Howard Drama Club and we're doing Legally Blonde the musical this coming March 19th through the 21st all at 700 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. So definitely try and come out if you can. Um and tonight tonight we're going to be showing two songs to you. Sirius starring Sebastian Landon and So Much Better starring Ella Armandi as L. We're very happy that you could have us tonight. I'm Jay Shing the co-president and I'm Lucy Mitska the other co-president. Please enjoy. >> Rehearsal tracks. rehearsal tracks. >> Rehearsal tracks. We amazing life including a lot of other students. >> No, you're >> No, you are. No, you
004>> No, you you. >> Okay, I've even irritated myself. >> L >> rehearsal time. >> I want you to know how happy. I mean, every guy dreams of finding a girl who looks like you. We both know how we're here. I see it in your eyes. I guess it calms my fear. To know it's not a surprise. I thought one look at you looking like a dream come true would leave me speechless like you always do. But now we're wide awake and we've got some plans to make. Let's take some action, baby. So baby, give me your hand. >> Rehearsal tracks. >> I've got some dreams to make. I've got the future applying. It's time to get serious. Time to get serious with you. >> Honey, I'm not finished. >> Since I was two or
005three, my life was planned out. I'd get my law degree. And then when my Senate seat, a big white house back east, all of the amenities, three kids at least, just like the Kennedes. Here's where our lives begin. But just where do you fit in? I'll break it down now, baby. So, baby, give me your hand. I've got some dreams to make true. I know that you'll understand. It's time to get serious. Time to get serious with serious. Gotta wake up and take our journey serious. I'm telling you as a future attorney. You want the moon and sky, but then take it. Don't be shy. Baby, that's why you and I should break up. >> Yes, baby. I'll give you my hand. Wait, what? All of this time I would love again and I have
006turned My whole world upside down. >> Rehearsal tracks blow. Is that my name up on that list? Does someone know that I exist? Is this a mistake? Am I even awake? Pinch me down to make sure. Oh yes, that is my name in black and white. Maybe I'm doing something right. Wow, I feel so much better than before. a pestalure and I look forward to working with you. Hey, remember when we spent spring break in the hot tub every night? Said nothing else would ever feel so right. Well, this might seeing my name up on that list. That beat the first time that we kissed. You thought I was dumb, but I think that somebody's judgment was poor. >> Rehearsal track. >> My name is black and white. It's like making out with you all
007night. Wait, you feel so much better. Hello. Much better. Toss toss. Much better. I am so much better than before. Maybe she's what you prefer. But hey, last year I was her. Maybe you will change your mind and you might look up to fight. I've gone on to better things, better jobs, and bigger. I don't have the time to cry. I'm too busy. Kind of a cool. Who else can I tell? Well, wait. Where's my cell? Mom will fall on the floor. Hey mom, look at my name in black and white. Your daughter's doing something right. And I feel so much better. I'll be there on Monday 9:00. And then we will see who walks the walk. NO, NO, I CAN'T WAIT. I will be there at 8 when they unlock the door. Oh. Oh.
008I'll even dress in black and white. rehearsal and then you'll know much better. But I am so much better. I am so much better than before. Thank you guys so much again for having us and please come see Legally Blonde the March 13 or 19th through the 21st. Thanks. >> Thank you to our drama club. Also, I believe you have a sensory friendly uh uh play on the 17th. >> We have our sensory friendly show on the 17th where we will change all of our lighting cues and we will make the pit quieter, which is the band. We'll make the bands quieter. So, it will be open to anyone with sensory needs completely free of charge. So, we really encourage everyone available to come to come and bring everyone they know. >> Thank you so
009much. >> Great. Thank you. We um I also want to provide a brief opportunity um for Miss Collier with the Ed Foundation uh just to provide an update with some of the work the Habford Education Foundation has been doing with us so far this year. >> Unless you're singing your presentation. >> I have a master opera that I don't use. So maybe Hi, thanks for having me. Um, again, my name is Michelle Collier. I am the president of, um, the Havford Township School District Education Foundation. Um, just to before I get into our update, um, some information about us for people who might need a refresher. Um, we are an independent 501c3 organization. Our mission is to fund innovative learning opportunities for our Hford Township um district students. So we do that through our mini
010grants and um our empowerment grants which are just you know two different buckets for um different kinds of projects. We are currently um or we've been in existence for over 21 years. In the last six months or so we've had some exciting developments. One of those being um the hiring of our very first executive director. She started in September. Um her name is Gina DeMarco. Unfortunately, she could not be here tonight, but um I'm sure you'll meet her in the future when um she comes to do this update or we do it together. Um another exciting development over the past couple of months is that we have revamped our mini grants. Um so particularly um or specifically the application um so the goal was to streamline the application process. So a lot of work went
011into that um with our chairperson Tara Click and with the rest of the mini grant committee and we will be going through the same process with the empowerment grant. So hopefully these changes will make it a lot easier for um anyone who's applying for grants um to do so. Um our biggest uh announcement or piece of exciting news is um the Twilight Run. So our Twilight Run um and walk which is returning this year after a brief hiatus. We've got some changes with that. Um one of them being that it will be on the third Saturday of the month so that we're not in conflict with um the Narbirth um five mileer. So, it's going to be on Saturday, April 18th, um at 4:30. We um the onem challenge will start at 4:45 and then
012the 5K will start at 5:00 and it's going to be held at um Lynwood um elementary this year. So, we'll have um full use of the building, the grounds. Um it's going to be just a a big event. Um, it's important to us that this is a community event, um, family-friendly event. So, we have a kid zone, and having the space at Lynwood will allow us, um, to really make it a big party. So, you can you can run, you can walk, and you can come party with us um, as well and bring your children. Um, historically, the Twilight Run has drawn close to a thousand participants from across the district, including students, family, um, teachers, alumni, and community members. It's, like I said, it's not just a race. It's a community event. Um, and
013it's, you know, to celebrate our schools, and it is, um, a key fundraiser for the Ed Foundation. This year, um, we have a big fundraising goal. So, our goal is to raise $50,000. Uh, the funds raised will go directly or will directly support our mission um of, you know, those innovative um grants, those studentled initiatives and educational opportunities that fall outside of the district's regular budget. The grants um you know, they help bring creative ideas, handon hands-on learning, and new opportunities into classrooms across the district. Um it's one of our most visible events and it provides an opportunity for us to engage with the broader Habford Township um community in support of education. So achieving that five or 50,000 not 5,000 $50,000 goal um will require strong participation um and leadership from you know people
014gathered in this room, people not in this room. And so the people in this room who are educational leaders, who are our parents, you all play a critical role in um helping us connect with potential sponsors, um encouraging participation in your schools and in your neighborhoods and helping to spread the word in the community. The success of this run really depends on the collective effort of our schoolboard, the foundation, and our incredible uh principles, teachers, and support staff. So, with everyone's support, um this event can be both a community highlight and a meaningful source of funding for our innovative um educational opportunities in our school district. That's it. No singing. Thank you for sharing the update. Um I know I'll be there on the 18th and um you know we've been working together to kind
015of put all this together from a community standpoint. So excited to see it kickoff. Thank you for giving us the update. That is it uh on my end. Dr. King. >> Right. Thank you. So that takes us to um section three on the agenda. Public comment. Members of the Hava Township community are invited to speak during the public comment section listed on the agenda. Should a Havford Township resident wish to speak during the public comment section on the agenda, they must sign up by 3 p.m. on the date of the meeting. Specific signup details can be found on the district's website. Public comment occurs twice during the schoolboard meeting. During the first public comment section on the agenda, you may make a comment about topics listed for a vote on the meeting agenda only. During
016the 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 three minutes for their remarks. A timer will be set at the start of your comments and an alarm will sound indicating that your allowed three-minut time has been completed. Please end your remarks when you hear the threeminute alarm sound. Should you have any materials from members of the board, please leave them at the end of the table with Mr. T Mr. Tessa, excuse me, 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 called, please go to the podium and state your first and last name. confirm your residency in Harford
017Township and then the timer will begin for your allotted threeminut remarks. And for this evening, we do not have anyone signed up for the first section of public comment on the agenda. So, we're going to continue on to section four. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes from the February 19th, 2025 regular board meeting? Shelton moved. >> Snider second. >> Moved and seconded. Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? The motion passes. 4 B is our bill list. Can I have a motion to approve the bill list in the amount of $552,44362? >> Shelton. Second. moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? The motion passes. 4C takes us to change orders. Have a motion to approve change orders in the amount of $10,461.32 as listed
018below. >> Moved. Shelton. Second. >> Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? The motion passes. 4 D takes us to personnel actions. Can I have a motion to approve the personal actions listed below? >> Snider second. >> Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? >> The motion passes. 4 E takes us to legislative uh comment. So we've now concluded the action portion of the meeting and we are moving into the working portion of the meeting in which items are being provided for information and discussion purposes only. None of the items discussed are being considered for official action at this time. So we're going to u move into committee reports for 5C. We have the finance committee. Dr. Shelton. >> Thank you Dr. King. Uh we have a busy finance agenda uh
019with eight different items. Um the first item on our agenda is um renewal of the Chartwells contract for food services. I believe Diana Cook and Lisa Tadier have a presentation. Good evening. Is the volume okay? >> Perfect. >> Move the microphone a little bit closer. >> Okay, there we go. A little bit better. Perfect. Um, thankfully I am not using that mic because trust me, you do not want me to sit. Um, but thank you for having us. We're so happy to be here and to be your partner. Um, hence the the title of our presentation tonight, just a partnership review. Um, thank you. Without without everybody here, without that partnership, we wouldn't be here either. So, I just wanted to say thank you up front. Okay, looks like we're a little smooshed on our
020on our slide with some some moving parts, so we'll go with it. Um but just going over a little bit about what we will talk about today, a little bit about last school year and how the financials ended up. Um going into what we have done and a little bit about what we continue to do and then what we will be doing and then opening it up to some questions and answers. So I probably should have worn my glasses today, too. So, I'm going to count on everybody here to read the numbers on the slide, but um as a general rule of thumb, I think some of the important takeaways from this slide is it's a look back. We we wouldn't be here without you. We wouldn't be here without our students that are here.
021Um and so, thank you again and thank you to them. um from last year to or sorry from the prior year to this year right here that you're seeing up here which is last year we increased lunches um 2% so we had a 32% participation for lunches um breakfast is an amazing story so I think breakfast over the last several years has increased dramatically right now as an overall at the district we're serving about 15% of the population breakfast. And whereas we would love for that to be more, the increase from year-over-year was 15% more meals. So we see this increase year after year. And I believe one of the factors that really helps this is that in the state of Pennsylvania, breakfast is free to all students. So what a a great recommendation is
022what I call it from the state to say breakfast is a very important meal and really start your day off right. And from that educational standpoint, we want their their bellies to be full, their minds to be open, and they are ready for the day. So without that partnership from everybody here, we wouldn't be able to provide the things that we can provide and that open opportunity for all of these students to have this great breakfast that they receive. Um last year from a contract perspective um we exceeded our plan on the our revenue and exceeded our plan on our return back to the district. Um and one of the other highlights on this is from a food cost perspective. So again, food costs not necessarily up on the screen, but we all know that
023within a meal we have food and we all know what's happened to the food at the grocery stores. Um, and we see all of that in everything that we do day in and day out. So I overall our food cost was about 36% of the total. So really not a bad place to be hovering right there. and our rebates um which is the food that we purchase. We get rebates from that and then we offer those back to the district. So our rebates were also pretty high. So when you look at our rebates as a cost per meal, it on average was about 30 cents per meal back into the budget. All right. On this uh next slide, we just want to talk a little bit about some of the things we're doing in the
024district. Um this is mostly this year. Um every month we fe feature local products. Um PA, there's a program in Pennsylvania called PA preferred and we feature um a different local food on the menu each month and we try to highlight this and put up signs in the schools. um some of the engagement we've done. Um we've been part of back to school nights in some of the schools. Um on the bottom you'll see a picture of um it was our first annual picnic uh barbecue um at the middle school. This was a request from the student government um that we meet with from time to time and we made this happen this year and it was um a lot a lot of their support and u the support of the middle school and um
025and then the picture on the front um one of the things we do is we highlight different foods. Um we have tastings. Um particularly in the middle school we do a Tuesday taste. Um on this particular day um we had um our we had a dietetic um intern that helped us out and we were um educating students on corn and the history of corn in the cafeteria. So just some things that we do in the cafeteria just to break up the monotony and make some things fun. >> So we always like when these fun things get out there and in the news and out there for everyone to see. So, some of the two shots up here that you see, one of them was the mood boost. Um, I think both of these happen to
026be from Monoa. Um, but the mood boosts were actually done at every elementary school. And the other one is a farmers market. So, this particular mood boost is every every food and Lisa can probably describe this significantly better than I can, but every food has a emotion to it. And for our elementary school with mood boost, we call them moodies. And so this particular moody um so spinach and cranberries both have the mood of calm. So the moody for this one was calm. Um so the I think the the meal or the sample itself was spinach craisins with a vinegarette. And then the farmers market um which we'll show a little bit more engaging pictures a little bit later too. But the farmers market is a really great program that we offer and we have
027I would say we'll call it fake money where we give out the money to the students and then they can go around and shop for their produce. So they go home with this little bag of produce that they can then experience the same items that they're tasting at school and take home a little recipe and some information about that produce and take that home with them. Okay, this next slide, these are some new stations we've introduced. Um, some we partially last year, some this year. Um, we piloted a brand new program for Chartwells in Hford High School. Um, it's called Soup and we piloted this once a week for four weeks and this just consisted of different meats, grains, vegetables, different broths. Um we set up on the serving line where students were able to
028come and create their own soup. Um it turned out to be pretty successful. We had a QR code posted at the station just to get some feedback and this is something that we plan to implement with more marketing um support from Chartwells next year. Um made to melt was a station um that we piloted last year at the middle school. Um we that along with the made to order salads were two stations that we had in our back room at the middle school which um we hadn't utilized too much in the past. Um we were able to utilize the room a couple of um for a few weeks this year. Um and we plan to get that going back up again next year. Um last but not least, the acai bar. Um that was another
029program again from student feedback. We piloted that at the middle school. Um we feature that at least once a month. Sometimes we can do it twice a month depending on what's going on with our staffing. But that was that's a new favorite that we implemented this year. And um again with feedback from the students it became something really popular. Nice monotony breaker. So, one of the things we are fortunate to have within this district is an executive chef. Um, and with that comes the great ability to do some amazing catering events. And we cater events for students um also staff um for administration. And I think my personal favorite um and I've been happy to be a part of it for I think the last two years now is the welcome back barbecue which is
030so much fun and we appreciate all the volunteers that come and help us serve that day. Um for step stepping stepping into our aprons, we'll put it that way. Um, but some really some really great events that Josh and Lisa are able to do and our staff that we have participates with that and very engaging because it allows us to connect with student groups that also want to do something. Um, and I believe we also have a an order ability for some parents to order things. So the the sky is endless on what we can do from that perspective. So, it's really great to see. Um, these are some of the programs we hold in our schools. Um, Discovery Kitchen and Mood Boost um were both held in all the elementary schools this year. Um,
031the Discovery Kitchen theme we did this year was seed to table. Um, seed to table focused on um fresh foods from from the garden to the table. um our executive chef Josh um made a presentation in each of the school cafeterias during each of the lunches in the elementary schools. Um he demonstrated a uh spinach and cranberry salad and um students were able to watch him um prepare the salad. We had recipes, we had handouts there for the students and he also had samples for students to take. um the mood boost uh Diana talked about again we held this presentation in all the cafeterias at the elementaryaries in all the um in for all the lunch periods again um the mood boost is something where different foods affect your um body in uh different healthy
032ways um part of the mood boost program again we did another food demo we had mood boost swag we had a lot of mood boost decorations decorating the cafeteria area. Um you'll see some of them up in some of the schools still. And then every week we focused on a different moody um and we gave out trading cards which actually turned out to be um a little bit more competitive than Pokemon cards in some of the schools. So um it became a really popular event. Um we're pretty much done. I think last week was the last week we had for the mood boost, but we concentrated on a different Moody every week. Just another thing to make things a little bit more fun in the cafeteria and break up the monotony and teach kids about
033nutrition. >> On the note of trading cards, we did have to get some extra cards because we had a request come through our company national portal for cards. Um, and when we narrowed it in on where it came from, it came from this district for a parent saying, "My child loves these cards. Can we get more?" Um, so Global Eats is is one of our great programs that we offer. And one of the things that I love about Global Eats is it puts different cuisines and different cultures in in the schools and give students the ability to try different things. Um, you can see different themed events and we try to go all out as much as we can with some decorations, keeping it with within. Um, but the the different foods and that creativity
034that the the team is allowed to present sometimes dress up for the event, decorate for the event, and really showcase different items and giving students the ability to try things from around the world. >> It's amazing how many students actually try the item that we're serving after they taste it. It's really nice to introduce them. Absolutely. >> Um, student choice is another program. We do this at the secondary schools. We had one student choice at the middle school and one student choice program held at the high school so far this year. Um this year for our student choice we taste we had the students come out. You'll see in the pictures um we prepare samples of what we um wanted the students to vote on um as their signature sandwich. So they voted on uh
035they had a choice of three different sandwiches. they were able to taste them and then we had little voting um tablets um that they were able to just put in a dish and we counted up the votes and each school actually chose a different signature sandwich. The high school uh voted on a chicken signature sandwich with some um with what we call Ford sauce. It's our signature sauce for um the district and some pickles. Um they had a chicken sale and the middle school voted on a bacon cheeseburger with Ford sauce. So they um each school now has their own signature sandwich that they voted on themselves. It's really fun. Um it's a fun promotion because we get to engage with the students and um hear some different feedback and um I think the kids
036just really love coming in to taste food too. So it's really fun for us just as well. >> So going back to the farmers market, I know last year the farmers market was at Coopertown. this year so far at Monoa and we hope for more of them to come. Um I I know I received some pictures of some straw hats on people. Um and I I believe we made a Facebook or Instagram post with this one as well, which is really great to see. And again, one of my favorite pieces of this is that we're able to send the produce home with the students with some recipes or information about it. And so it's really for the students, also for their entire family. and a really great program. So, one of the speaking of programs,
037one of the things that we've started are some limited time promotions and you see these out and about all the time with restaurants. You they'll advertise you pretty much everybody does this limited time promotion to get that that buy in and to make it feel like it's something, oh, I have to get it right now. Uh, so we started the year with dip into flavor and had different um sauces that you could choose to dip in whether it was chicken, pretzel pieces, anything along those lines that you could dip in a sauce. Then we moved on to Chili Days warm bellies. Uh, lots of actually saw a little a little remnant of this one today with a baked potato bar with some chili and I believe there was some bacon and some broccoli and cheese.
038>> Broccoli. >> It looked like it was going over very well. uh but for that that time of the year and we're coming into blooming into breakfast which is not only about making breakfast and breakfast being important but it's also one of the things that we realize is that breakfast for lunch is very popular and so different ways that we can add that creativity and protein of breakfast items and use that creativity for a complete meal at lunch in the summer there's also going to be a fun celebration around with some coffee. Um, so anyone who's around in the summer, come join us. We'll have some coffee together. Um, speaking of coffee though, right now at the high school, right? Yes. Yes. Right now at the high school, we are doing moo lattes. And what
039a moo latte is is mainly chocolate milk with a little part of um cold brew coffee. >> We were using the white milk. You can actually use chocolate, but we started out using the white. Sorry, the the elementary school was doing the hot chocolate. >> Yes, >> there we go. Sorry, I got them mixed up. >> Middle school. Middle school. >> Middle school. >> I'm all backwards today. >> Um, but anyway, so that the with those promotions and most of the time they're limited time, but I I believe that something like mu latte whereas right now it is at breakfast only. >> Yes. It's just something we we launched this year. We recently um I um entered a contest with the dairy association and we were fortunate enough to win um equipment for hot chocolate
040at the middle school and equipment for these new lattes at the high school. We just launched it this week. Kind um um we actually received two cold brew machines where we're actually cold brewing coffee um and they give us a recipe for um part coffee and part um we're using low-fat white milk and we have a dispenser out in the cafeteria and we have some condiments out there for the cold brew coffee. This this meets USDA guidelines because there's enough milk and we're offering again just getting it launched out. We're offering the mu latte for um a discounted price when they get breakfast or we're offering it all cart. So we're just getting this going and um I think it's the kids who um have tried it um and we're given some samples. The kids
041who tried it really are enjoying it. >> The other national promotion that we're taking part in right now is that it is National School Breakfast Week. And so the theme this year is Quest for School Breakfast. So, we do have the hot chocolate. We have flyers that go out. The um some of our staff members are wearing the shirts for that if that fit the theme. I know Lisa has crowns. Um there's a whole whole theme around the castles and kings and queens or princesses and princes. So, it's a whole theme around the quest for breakfast. So, some of the things that are in store for the remainder of this year and beyond. Um, some more local items, bringing that as as close in as we can. I I think one of the pictures that
042we were that we had earlier with local was potatoes. And one of the nice things we're able to do is specify the farm that it came from and then a little bit of information about that farm to really tie that together. Um, more community involvement. Um, anytime that there is an event in the community that we can help with or participate in, we are happy to do that with you as your partner. Um, one of the pieces that's such a huge takeaway for me and probably because I have a child in elementary school, so I love this piece of what I do is the cafe is a classroom. You know, the cafe, the cafeteria, they're learning. They're learning about balanced meals. They're learning about how to make that meal, the right meal, the adequate size,
043the correct portions, how to eat healthy, how to make great choices, and we can be part of that. So, we're in that educational place and in that educational setting that just because they're in the cafe doesn't mean they're not learning because they're learning with us as well. Um, some engagement activities that we would like to continue, the farmers markets because they're so much fun. Discovery Kitchen, Student Choice, Global Eats, Mood Boost. We'll definitely need more mood boost and moody cards this year or going into next year. Um, for participation, a huge focus on breakfast. Um, and as a reminder and constant reminder that we believe going into next year, according to how the budget templates look for us, we believe that breakfast will continue to be free in the state of Pennsylvania. um keeping that
044breakfast going and that motivation on the participation. There's a budgetary piece of this that is also great. Um for any schools when we serve 20% or more participation in breakfast in that school, they get a little extra from that reimbursement factor. And if it's under 20%, we don't get that little bit extra. So our elementary schools, we do a really great job of going o well over the 20%. So now our focus is also to be that constant reminder of what breakfast is for the middle school and the high school. We're hoping things like the moo latte gets that excitement instead of stopping at a Dunkin Donuts or a Wawa or something on their way in, maybe they'll come to us instead. And then also seeking the knowledge. Our student advisory committees and meetings and
045our groups that come to us and bring us things. We love it. You know, that's how the middle school how that picnic is what we're call um how that came to be was a student group asking for that. And I think that that is amazing and wonderful and especially that they thought of us and a way to participate and gain that excitement within the school. Um the other thing that we do is we send out surveys usually once a year so that we don't over survey but the survey goes out as an option for parents to take as well as for the high school students they can take I the middle school did we do that this year >> school survey >> so different age levels different things from an elementary school we don't put
046out a QR code for them to scan because they probably don't have a phone with them um or at least we're hoping they don't maybe. Uh but all of that and all of that feedback that we're able to get back from the survey, from parents, from students, and really pull that together to continue to grow and to make the program and focus in on the things that we're asked to focus on. >> Does anyone have any questions for us? >> I have a question. Um, so there's some legislation going through the state, uh, Harrisburg to, uh, require districts to buy local products. It hasn't passed yet, so, you know, you may may or may not know about it, but I was just curious, how much locally produced um, you know, food do we integrate into
047the program? >> Um, a lot of um, the produce that we get is from the DoD program, which is a USDA program. It's a subsidized program. That's a program that the district um is subsidized for the produce and I would say um the I would say 50% of the um items we get from our local from the produce program that we're in are local. They focus on local products. You know, apples are always local. Um you know, um peppers, potatoes, you know, there's a lot of things that are local. And um anything we can buy that's local, that's the first choice for us. >> I know one of some of the easier parts of local from that perspective is our dairy. So our dairies are always local to the area we're in. Our bakeries are
048breads. Um as much as we can, we purchase from the local versus, you know, versus outside of that. Um, we also with within requirements, we have a bi-American requirement, there's a local requirement, and all of these pieces, everything that we purchase is very well vetted within that. Um, and then outside of the DoD program for produce, we also use a local produce company. And so that's where, for example, I think it was Masser Farms. Well, I know the potatoes Masser, I think it was Masser Farms, which was the one with the potato pitcher as an example. So where you can reach out to the produce company and then you can figure out where exactly where the farm was and all of that information to incorporate as much of that outside of any regulations or any
049guidelines, something that we're already doing. Can you just speak briefly to some of those requirements for nutritional content? I know sometimes we get questions about, you know, how does the breakfast or other meals um satisfy regulations that might be in place about the nutritional components. >> Sure. So, we're part of the National School Lunch Pro, National School Lunch and National School Breakfast Program, and we're required um the meals that we serve in the cafeteria must meet certain requirements for calories, fat, saturated fat, um and they're not sodium. It hasn't really been enforced yet, but you know, I think it's up up and coming where there's going to be a restriction on sodium. Um, a lot of the products we buy for our meal program are CN, which is child nutrition approved. So, these were these
050are um um food items that are approved for our school breakfast and meal program. We're required to serve um a certain amount of meat, meat alternate every day at lunch, a bread or grain every uh day at lunch. Um grains to be at least 80% whole grain for the week. Um, and then we're required to serve um at least two um depending on uh the age level, but two vegetables every day. Um one fruit at the high school level, it's two fruits and we're required to serve a half a pint of milk every day. Um so those are the regulations we follow and we encourage students every day to you know take as much of the lunch components that offer. >> I'll also add in so we're offer versus serve and so the offering of
051all of these products are always available and then there's a requirement to come past the register to have a reimburseable meal. It has to meet the requirements for that meal period and breakfast is different than lunch and different age groups as Lisa was saying are different depending on the age level. Um but all of those requirements are met. We actually have a if you go out online to look at our menu, the profile like the the system that feeds into that is a system where we place our menu into. And within that system, as an example, if we're missing our leafy green, if we're missing our legume, if we're missing anything like that on our menu, it turns it red so that we can see it so that we know that we have an adjustment.
052And it actually tells us the exact location of where our adjustment is needed. so that we can go in and make those adjustments. So, we make sure that everything is green to go instead of red to stop um before we finalize that menu that goes out to everybody. >> So, I'm just thinking that um as you're sharing this information that's it also sounds something that could be very helpful to be posted on our website that way community members know about it. I certainly learned something um in terms of how you know items are selected hearing information about local hearing about the different requirements and also um I know that I don't attend the wellness committee m committee meetings where is miss but also there we go yes um but I you know I would love
053to see how those things interconnect whether it's the selection process whether you're bringing questions back to the wellness committee but I just think it's very useful information for um our board members to know but also for the community at large. >> Absolutely. >> We can work with editing content on the website. >> Yeah, we can absolutely add a lot of more information. We have some information that we talked about tonight, but we can add more. >> Thank you. >> I just want to say thank you for the focus on the education around nutrition for our students. I totally agree that the cafe is a place for our students to learn and it's so important to understand portions and to understand nutrition and I mean you guys are really on the front lines of that, right?
054And so um thank you for your continued focus on educating these students, getting them to try new things. I love that. Um, so I really welcome the um, you know, the the different ways that you all are trying to do that as much as >> with these um, programs, I don't know how many of us have um, experienced the, you know, the lunch programs over the years, but since Chartwells has been a partner with us, um, we've seen this infusion of the the extension of the cafeteria as part of the learning curriculum and these different programs and amenities, which I think is great. Um, but also to underscore the financial benefits, the um, prior to engaging with Chartwells as a manager of our food program, um, it had been a cost center that was um,
055like losing money for us. And it's great to see that um it's now in a more financially stable um you know the business center that um is bringing resources into the district and um increasing the uptake of of students getting the the healthy meals uh served in the schools to support their school day. >> I would add to that too as a thank you the with the we'll call it profits. At the end of the day, with the the money that is returned to the school, the school has reinvested that into the students and the upkeep and the renovations and all of those amazing things that help us display bright, colorful, amazing food and a really great line that showcases very well, too. >> Okay. And u as a sub bullet under the on to
056this food services. We have a Chartwell's 26 to 27 renewal proposal. Is that going to be for action at the next action meeting? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, um as the school food authority, we contract with the food service management company like we do with Chartwells. Um and this is um our bid year. So, we did a bid. So, we have them for this initial year um which is almost done already this initial year. Um and then with PTE we have up to four renewal years we have the option. So, um, at this point, we would, um, put a proposal forward to do a renewal year with Chartwells to continue that partnership. Um, two of the things that we're looking at with that renewal proposal is, um, a meal price increase. This would be for
057the paid meal in u paid meal price. Our district has not increased that meal price since I believe it was 2021. I think there was before that even before that was even before >> it's been a while since the price has been adjusted for the paid meal and a lot of that had to do with COVID in that schools had a big influx of funds with CO dollars coming into the meal program because the participation was um really not where it could have been because of the situation that um schools faced and now a lot of schools are seeing that where that has tapered off and now looking at maybe this is now the time that we increase the meal prices. I believe some have started last school year or this school year. Um and
058now they're they're kind of in the spot we are where we want to um think about maybe we want to increase that price maybe five or 10 cents and that's really what we were what we provided tonight in that proposal what that looks like with no increase 5 cents or 10 cents um and how the bottom line flushes out with that increase. So, and really what this will help do is um I think help offset some of that cost of the needles um and provides more reinvestment. And really what we're what we're highlighting is not that we're um gaining a profit from the students. We we don't want it to be viewed that way. More so that it's how we're reinvesting into the program and how we're keeping it afloat. Um keeping it close to
059break even as possible because it is run as as you mentioned like a separate cost center and is funded that way. So it's not supported by the general fund dollars where it may have been in the past. Um so with Charles we have seen that that increase. Um the other component that is in the proposal is looking at the starting salary for three of these areas. Um I know it's been challenging to hire in those phases. It seems like a lot seems like most of those that are in the positions are settled and pleased. Um it's really kind of getting those positions filled that we do have open. And I think to that some of the challenge has been some of the offerings that we've wanted to offer. We are kind of limited because of
060staffing and it also takes away from Lisa and Josh doing their role um in administering the program because they're actually on the front lines kind of helping with that. So if you wanted to touch on the staffing impact. >> Sure. I know on on average we've averaged about five people short. So within all within the district of all food service, five people. So some of the effects of that are as an example at the middle school where we have the station in the back with the new stations for the hot and toasty and the salad. We would love to have that open all the time and right now it we just we can't have it open all the time. Um, at the high school we there's some turbo chefs that we could do some almost
061like a ready to heat sandwich for breakfast or for lunch where you put you know put it into the turbo chef and that's another area. It's just a station where we have the equipment which is amazing equipment but we don't have the person there that can actually make that happen. So we feel like starting the increasing the starting rates a little bit will give us just that little bit of an edge because the rates everywhere around us have gone up. Um, and when you look at from a food service perspective, like our comparison, if if I'm standing right here, my comparison and my competition is Wawwa. And you Wawa advertises outside their building sometimes exactly what they pay. And usually it's around 18 to 21 depending on the area. And so we're still significantly below
062that. But a couple of the factors that I think we see globally is some of our part-time positions used to be filled by the the stay-at-home parent, right? So the person who stayed at home versus the person who went to work. And so in the society that we live in today, we know that a lot of households have two incomes coming in. So they don't have one person at home. So that flexibility of somebody to work for four hours out of the day really has gone away. Um so we see a lot of factors that influence this but part of it is the rise of the cost of everything we we do. Every place we drive, the cars we drive in, the grocery stores, the clothing, all of these costs continue to rise and the
063wage that we pay is probably not enough to draw them in. And so based on our discussion with Lisa and Diana, I was leaning towards um option C where we would increase the meal price 10 cents, but certainly that's open up for discussion. And you know, if there's any questions that you have for Lisa or Dina or myself, certainly, you know, we can engage in that. >> One question about the cost of lunch. Um you see new stories of lunch debt um that has accumulated in some districts and hardship that imposes for families and like do you can you just speak to whether that is an issue in our district with um like the affordability of the school lunches. >> All right. We we do have lunch debt, you know, in all the schools. Um
064whether it has to do with the price of lunch or it just has to do with um you know, families not following up with filling out the reduce lunch applications. Um, every week we send notices out to parents to remind them. And if we have a situation where there's the balance is rather large, we're we're writing letters to the parents. We're calling them. We're working out payment plans to them um as well. And we have actually have been fortunate to receive some donations from the community to cancel out some of the debt, too. So, that's been a wonderful thing. But, always trying to work with families um again assist them in applying for free or reduced meals or working up payment plans when we do have the debt. I >> I would add into the
065where the debt does exist. It truly exists for meals only. So if a student goes through the cash the cash register to put to get their meal, they're never denied a meal, right? So if they can't afford the meal, they're never denied that meal. But if they want an Izzy, as an example, um they would they would not be able to buy that allocart item. So that debt is truly for their meal, not for additional items. >> Okay, great. So that's for our next action meeting. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um one of the dangers of Chartwells coming in is I'm hungry again. But thank you for the presentation and um I know this is the first year of a bid process. Last year it was quite rigorous and you know you you won the contract.
066So I think congratulations and thank you questions for charles. We'll move on to the next item then. >> Thank you very much. If I I know it wasn't necessarily asked, but um I would like to add just for the decision factor on the the meal increase on the paid price increase. Um one of the pieces that I think it's the the hard piece of like you said it's increasing for those who necessarily can't afford it or can't are not paying it now so therefore wouldn't pay it later. Hopefully we can encourage more people to do applications. Um, one of the things that we see when we do the budgets is on the state budget form, it gives you the federal amount for reimbursement and the state amount for reimbursement. And so at the moment in
067time, a reimburseable lunch according to reimbursement dollars only is $4.70. So for a reimbured meal for a student that is free the school the reimbursement factor is at $4.70. Um the what's called an allocart equivalency is the it adds in a commodity factor that some of the we'll call it the free food. It's not necessarily free, but the free food, the commodity factor, and it adds that into it, taking it to this year the that dollar amount raises to essentially $510. On the form, it's actually specifically 5.095. So, it rounds up to 510. So, I think those two factors are important to know. So for an alle cart sale as an example or even an adult meal all of those factors go in order to become one meal you have to sell $510 worth of
068those items. So as an example let's say a bottle of water costs five sorry cost a dollar. So that bottle of water you have to sell five plus in order to get one meal right. So that's that factor piece of how that works. So, with the reimburseable meal price being at that 470, what we're saying is somewhere between 290 and 335 is if you're paying cash, that is what the meal is worth, but then the state and the federal government is saying that meal is worth 470. So, it's just food for thought, for lack of better words. >> Thank you for having us. And the second item on the finance agenda is a tax assessment appeal which um at the next action meeting we'll uh will authorize and uh the there's information provided here on
069that particular settlement. Is there anything to add on that item Mr. Test the next? Okay. There's nothing more to add to the Okay. Um so now I guess the main presentation for Mr. Testant uh the proposed final budget presentation. Again this is just for our working meeting for information purposes and we'll be looking at that at the March 19th action meeting. >> Okay. So, we did an initial look um just a real brief preview at the December meeting um before we had met with the different departments and um buildings to kind of look at what their needs were. Um so, we do have a we have a proposed final budget package from the state. The organizations that were in had kind of gone through the highlights of what that looks like. So, for Havford, for
070our basic ed subsidy, we're looking at an additional just under 71,000, which is about a little over 1%. Um, statewide, we're seeing an increase of 6% for what the governor has initially proposed in his budget for basic ed funding. Um, and just to note that this is the smallest proposed increase in over 10 plus years. Um, so just something to think about as we move forward. Um, our special education subsidy. So that proposal for Hford is just a a little over $32,000 which is about 1%. And that's based on our ACT16 data. So it's the complexity and cost of students information that we put into the system. It's a three-year look um that kind of determines our share of that special ed pie between all of the districts in the state. Um statewide that increase
071is about 3.27%. So again, it really is dependent upon the complexity of the district and the cost uh for for those programs. Um funding per student has increased about $53 over a 13-year period. So that was something that Pasbbo highlighted in their presentation. So um if we were getting $3,200 per student, we're only getting $3,700 now for special ed students over a 13-year period. So, just something that we're kind of still lacking in funding for for that portion of instruction, our cyber uh cyber charter funding reform. So, we have put that into place. Um, we have revised our tuition rates. Um, just as a reminder, the impact of that is cost avoidance more so than savings. Um, we're we're getting to pay less for those programs. Um, and special ed enrollments would impact the cost.
072So if we had students move from the regular ed category into special ed, we would see that. Um right now for charter schools, we have about 27 students in charter schools, 26 in cyber, one in brick and mortar. So that's been uh pretty stable, I think, in our enrollments. So that definitely moving to this new format for the calculation of tuition has been beneficial. So preliminary budget wise uh local sources so our tax revenue this is based on a 3.5% which is our act one index um we have traditionally done a 96.5% collection rate so looking at the taxes that are available factoring 96.5% and that kind of balances um what we accept for discount payments and then what we receive for penalty payments kind of blend that together um we have been seeing a
073trend a little over 97% So that is reflected in this budget to kind of bring that up because we are seeing at the end of the year. We we we are closer to that 97.15. State subsidies were basically what we had just talked about. They're they're minimal now. Um so I have those built in because they are conservative. If they were to go up certainly we would kind of revisit that and see if our share was any bigger in those two categories. As far as expense assumptions, um this does not reflect any reductions or changes in programs. It does not reflect any retirements or resignations is that would still be um coming to us at this point and as we get closer to final adoption of the budget. As far as insurance on the health
074care side, we will be getting second look rates for our benefits um on March 11th. So hopefully they uh stay where they are or maybe go a little bit lower for us. That would be that would be beneficial. and then property and liability insurance. Um that renewal package is going through now. So there's a percent built into the budget and then we'll see where the final rates land. I know it's been a little challenging um with property and liability insurance to um cover school districts and there has been some cost increases in the past. Expenditures again what are your cost drivers? So, as always with any school district, 60 to 65% of where you're spending your dollars are salary and benefits. So, we do see that that is reflective in our budget. Um, debt service
075to complete renovation projects. So, we've just added the latest round of debt service to complete those projects that we had out there. So, that is that is where it is for now. We have intermediate unit services for um students outside of the district. We have professional educational services, other professional services which include items like OTP, PT, some nursing services for students, um repairs and maintenance, some utilities, um tuition to a priv to approve private schools. That's another item where we do incur costs, and then property and liability insurance, which we'll wait for final numbers on that as well. When we look at expenditures, um this this slide breaks down everything by major category. So we have salaries and employee benefits. Um you have your purchase professional services. So that's where you would have your IU
076costs. Um you would have um any any services from a professional like for psychological services in that category. Um you have your p purchased property services. So that's your 400 object. Um that is where we would have some items for maintenance like if district concrete projects or painting any kind of repairs and also water the water and sewer utility flows through that item as well. Your other purchase services um that is where you're going to have some of your approved private schools which I mentioned earlier. Um your liability insuranceances and then if we have any transportation from contracted carriers that we cannot provide in-house um that will flow through that as well. And then you can see at the very bottom your debt service. Um that was again to add the latest round of debt
077service to complete those projects. And then your capital projects funds transfer. Um that I just put that at the bottom so you can kind of see that what that was separately. These are for the summer projects that maintenance and technology will run um kind of outside of their regular operating budgets. When we look when we compare the revenue to expenditures um we can see that for the proposed expenditure budget the net budget for 2627 um you can see with the budget shortfall at the bottom what comes out of that is your committed that's committed for your capital projects that's where the 1.4 million is and then the unreserved is your 3.599. So you can see that yes that is an increase from your previous year. Um and again we have had the fortune of um
078reserving those items but not necessarily having to use it in the past. So with conservative spending, you know, the hope is that we don't have to use all of that. Maybe we have to use a little bit but um we try to kind of keep that minimal as possible from a fund balance perspective. And I just wanted to just correct on this one slide that balance 2627 budget should be 2526. So your fund balance for the district is composed of two areas. You have your uh committed cap your committed fund balance and your unassigned. So within committed you have your capital projects. So that's where in the past when we've had a surplus of revenue over expenditures, we've been able to put some of that money aside for ongoing projects for capital related that happened
079during the summertime. Um so you can see that's going to go from 2 point a little under 2.8 million to a little under 1.4 given the projects that we will run in summer of 2026. Um the other line is a line that we have used to balance the budget in the past. So there's has been a committed number set aside for the projected shortfall and when that's not used that line will carry forward um to future years. So, it's possible that once we get closer to completing the 2627 audit, excuse me, the 2526 audit, we'll know better how that line will be impacted. Um, if we have to use that or can we carry that forward into the 2627 budget. Um, when we look at unassigned fund balance, that will take from 10 just a
080little under 10.9 million, it'll drop to about 7.3 million given this current year's budget. So, and again, that does put us at a 4.39% of unreserved. So, that's something we want to definitely have on our radar as it will drop below five. Um, we generally would like to stay within five to 7%. It's kind of the guidance as far as fiscal stability and how rating agencies would look at the district if if there was a need to go out for additional funding. Um, kind of, you know, is it is it a good investment to make? So, just something to keep in mind as as we move forward. This last slide just shows next steps kind of where we are. Um we will we will adopt this proposed final budget um at the next action meeting
081with um not doing the final budget adoption until May 21st. So it gives us a couple of work sessions in between that time for us to kind of go back to the drawing board and see where you know what changes we can make and then you know have input from the board as well on on you know where we would like to see things end. and I will open it up to any questions. >> I do um I have a question. I I know that we're putting in for several grants for facilities improvements. Um are those reflected within this budget or are those or are they not in other words to win some of them? Would that impact the >> So if we were to be successful in getting those grants, the match portion, which
082is 25% we would draw from our committed for capital projects. That's how we would look at that. So I don't know that we could do all of them. So we'll kind of we have a couple we have three applications that are just about finished and then we'll see what comes back and you know we'll look at that where that 25% we can best use the committed for capital projects. the but the the funds from those grants aren't included in here nor and and if they if we were to receive them we would incur costs into the uncommitted >> that is correct and the I believe their determination will be made in the fall of this year so we would not know until that point so technically we probably wouldn't start something until the summer of
08327 um if we did if we were successful in receiving any of those awards. And my other question is could you I mean you mentioned that that falling below that that 5% um balance percentage uh to to to the budget um that has an impact on our on on our credit rating. There's potential for it because they could the rating agencies would want to know like is there a plan like so how do you plan on getting from say 4.39 to five you know what you know what what remedies are you making to get to that point? >> There is a plan then we would >> you know if there was something we could share to say here's where we're moving towards and we feel confident that we could we can get to that point
084not that we're just you know letting it just go until >> Yeah. Okay. Right. Yeah. Exactly. >> All right. Thank you. >> Sure. >> And I think that's um you know, one of Tony's goals which I am in full support of is getting us to a fully balanced budget. Um that's also some of the work he's been doing uh with the PFM kind of stability projection is the development of that plan so that we are strategic and intentional with it. Um and looking at uh different opportunities to be able to do that. Um, so yes, the 439 is below, but the plan is to create the plan um to to bring it up in the future and then looking at getting that fully balanced budget. So like Tony said, we're not relying on um you
085know, having to pull from savings or surplus, not necessarily the best way to operate and and being able to be stable. and we've started initial meetings with PFM um and once this budget is once this proposed budget is adopted I'm going to share that with them and they can then run that through their model as well and kind of show us where the stressor points are um that we can put some focus on. So they've been helpful in that respect too >> in this budget which is still in draft. So, are there areas that you would be going back and taking a second look at to see if there may be some gains either on the revenue sources or to reduce expenditures to maybe be able to start getting closer to the the you know
086bottom line budget results that we're trying to achieve. >> Right. So, I'm going to start looking at some of the the other revenue sources just like historically where we've been with interest income, kind of seeing where the market is, looking at our transfer taxes because that is that is an area that fluctuates, but we've benefited from in the past. Um, I know our delinquent collection rate has always been high. Um, it seems like those that maybe don't make the deadline have had the ability to pay during the delinquent collection period. Um so kind of seeing where the um the balances of delinquent taxes where where that exists and certainly as we um come across retirements and resignations, we'll see where um you know how that's beneficial. You know certainly there are times when you're replacing
087you're replacing at a lower rate depending on where that person has left. So we know that there's some savings there as well. So that'll be something we'll definitely keep our eye on and go back to. >> Okay. Um in the guess I'm looking Slide nine, the revenue from local sources, $5 million increase over the 124 from this year is 4% which is more than act one. So is that um where you're saying looking for opportunities with our fees that we collect or the interest earnings comes as adding on top of our >> So it's adding on top of that and increasing our collection rate. So taking our collection rate from 96.5 up to 97.15 because it's historically where we've seen that. So that's how that that has gone and we had a stable um assessment
088assessed val total assessed value this year which I was happy to see. I know in previous years we there was a lot of appeals and that was impacting it but we get it certified from the county in I think it was November or December um and it was stable from what we've had. So that has helped as well. >> That is helpful. Um on slide eight you have the expenditures and was just curious about supplies having um an $800,000 decrease compared to the prior year. Can you explain is that just kind of a cyclical thing or are we trying to like save money in particular in that line item? Um that is uh a cyclical thing because we do have our curriculum review cycle and as the board and public may recall we have invested
089heavily in replacing our science materials which are particularly expensive. We are now finished purchasing those and we are in the process of determining which materials might be needed for social studies but we don't anticipate number one that they will be as expensive and number two that we will be purchasing them yet. We're still in a different phase of the review cycle. So, that's my long- winded answer to say that's this year, but we will be coming back in future years. We typically ask for anywhere between a hundred to $500,000 a year in supplies depending on what we're able to get as open educational resources and uh what we're able to get or sort of manage with what we have. So, um, we will be as conservative as we can and, um, do hope that in
090future years we will still be able to equip our students and staff with updated resources as is determined by our curriculum review cycle. >> And I think this is one of the line items that sometimes helps to translate it into dollars per student, right? That we are still investing in the materials and supplies to offer the high quality education. Um, and I think this is one of those tangible um, line items that people see and experience, our students experience in our schools. where there are opportunities to take all these rather big numbers. We're talking about a budget of over $160 million, but to turn it into um things that are a little more relatable on a per student basis. Um I think that just helps show, you know, our budget is a reflection of our
091priorities and our values and um where we're making investments. And so I wouldn't want somebody to look at this budget and say, "Oh, we're not supplying our kids or our schools with the resources they need." There is that kind of explanation and it still is um nearly $5 million of investment in our schools that serve over 6,000 students. Right. So >> yeah, and I just I appreciate saying that I just wanted to emphasize what you had said. It's not, you know, you look at I caught what caught my attention was a a decrease of 13.9% supplies. It's not a reduction in supplies. It is like Miss Saxa said, part of that cycle, right? So, we're still providing the supplies and resources necessary. Um, but in order to do that, we do need to consider the
092future so that we can keep up with all of our curriculum to provide that to our students. Any additional questions for Mr. Tesa? >> Okay, we'll we'll look forward to future discussions on the budget. Thank you. Next item on the finance agenda is technical tech technology capital request for summer of 2026. And would that Rob Anderson are are you covering that Mr. Tessa, I'll turn over to you. I see you sitting over there. >> I was trying to hide back there, but just caught me. Um yeah, so these were just two uh we we spoke uh I think at the last meeting about the two -ate project which would fall under um capital and then these are two additional projects that aren't -ate eligible um but that we would still have long lifespans on um
093and so therefore would be using capital funds to purchase those. >> Right. And just for the information for the public, there's upgrading the public address system at Chestnut Wald and door locks and interior for interior doors at Chestn Wall. Is that safety related? >> Yeah. So um the first one is the public address system was installed when uh Chestn Wall was renovated in 2005 2006. Um so it's about 20 years um old at this point and and as we've learned um some of the older PA systems as parts start to fail, it's harder for us to find replacement parts. Um so proactively instead of waiting for something to fail, we're going to replace the EPA there um to keep that working for the building. The other part of that is um as was discussed at
094the last meeting, the additional wireless door locks from Chattam Park that are being moved over to Chesterald will handle about a third a little over a third of the building's classroom doors. Um this would be to purchase locks to then finish out the interior doors at um Chestnald. So then um at the end of this summer, Chesnald, Coopertown, Chattam Park, and Lynwood would all have that safety of having card access readers in all their classrooms. >> And so uh that's for action at our next action meeting would be to approve Mr. Testo would be approving this. Okay. Thank you. And and if I to skip ahead to items six and seven, the Chromebook lease, could you cover the Chromebook lease? >> Yep. So, we're we're we're we're bringing the Chromebook Police uh to the board
095a little earlier than we normally would. This would normally be something we'd be looking at in May. Um due to the rising cost in RAM, we've been advised by our supplier that um originally the re the suggestion was that we would be looking at a $100 per Chromebook increase. I had a meeting with them yesterday. They're currently quoting at $200 more a Chromebook. So, across the 1400 Chromebooks that we'd be ordering this summer, it's a pretty substantial um cost increase for us. as as it stands, we'd pay about $300 um for the Chromebook plus um licensings and everything like that. So, it's a pretty I mean, it's what's that 66% increase on a Chromebook. Um so, we they've worked out with their um leasing company um a deferred lease for us where we wouldn't actually
096owe them any money till July. So, there's a little increase in the percentage on that lease. Um, but it's significantly less than we would pay if we waited until um when we would normally do our lease and purchase with them for those Chromebooks. Um, so they they've already kind of reserved some inventory for us that um once at the next meeting we can get approval for the lease and we can move move forward with purchasing them at the pre increased rate. >> Great. Any questions on the Chromebook item? >> What's the cycle that we um replace or turn over that inventory? >> Yep. So, um our practice has been um to purchase for sixth and nth grade. So, as they enter the middle school, um now that the elementary Chromebooks are staying in the classroom,
097the sixth graders are not coming to middle school with a Chromebook. So, we give them a Chromebook at that point um that they use through their middle school years. Um and then we um exchange that at 9th grade. And then the ones they turn in become some of our loaners for the middle school and high school for students that may forget their device or um need repairs done and things like that. >> Any other questions? And and then do you want to cover item seven, retired district tech equipment recycling? >> Yep. So, um, as we replace teacher computers, um, we collect the old ones. We look at the inventory. We send it off to a couple of, um, recyclers to get proposals for what they'll give us for those pieces of equipment. Um, usually we
098at least the last two years, we've gone with two providers. One that'll purchase all of our Mac hardware at an increased rate and then one that basically purchase anything that they won't take. Um, so that's what we have there is the proposal for the equipment that came out of refreshing. Um, believe it was Chesnalt's computers this year and some of the high school computers. >> So those those uh three items will be up for action being for approval. >> Um >> just have one question before we continue on. So, in general for for all of the the Chromebooks, the um the MacBooks, how how are we as a district tracking whether it's students or teachers? Um the devices that we're giving out and if and when they do return, what type of system do we
099use? >> Um so, uh for the students that they're assigned at the you know, as I mentioned, it's sixth grade and nth grade. We keep a record within um our power school system of what device has been given to them. Okay. >> Um and then and then as they maybe if a device is completely swapped out for them that gets updated there um and then as I mentioned we'll collect it either if they disenroll from the school we get it back from them then um or if they you know obviously move on to nth grade um we then collect them back and and generally the practice has been they they hand over the Chromebook that they had from 8th grade and then we give them the one for ninth grade. So, like if a student
100changes schools, moves out of the district, are we sending something to them to get the device back or we just >> Generally, it's it's uh the the offices have generally collected them um that they're first to know that they're going to be leaving the building. So, they've collected the Chromebooks for us at that point and returned it to the tech in the building to then give to another student at that point. >> Thank you. And this is um a program with the recycling like truly recycling in both an environmental sense of um making sure these >> equipment doesn't end up in landfills that it gets to be used by somebody else. >> Yeah. Obviously um some of the ones that are and then the prop we proposal we have there is if they came in
101in pristine condition. So those ones would be then turned around and um maybe sold off to other other entities that might be interested in those older in those uh those devices at that time. Um the other thing that a lot of these companies do is they'll kind of part them out. Um so for example um we do some of our repairs. So we'll buy parts from them um to repair our MacBooks and Chromebooks. Um, so they'll also sometimes take some of the older devices because it's it's not worth it to sell to someone at maybe $50. But, um, the screen, the keyboard, the motherboard, like all the different components within there, uh, the sum of the sell selling them individually kind of brings some value to them. >> And then there's the service of the
102hard drives are wiped and >> Yeah. So, so we wipe all the hard drives before they leave the district. That's just part of our practice before it ever gets on their truck to leave the district. But then um they als we also make sure the companies we work with don't do another wipe. So there's kind of a double check there that even if one happened to slip through on our side um which is probably going to happen, they're going to do another wipe on and then they'll provide us with um records of the destruction of the data on those devices as well as the that they've taken ownership of them and that they um will do appropriate things with with those devices. >> I just wanted to revisit back to um Dr. King's question. We
103also just recently updated 7061 um which I think came up on we discussed in the fall but uh in January was adopted in um and that update was to also make sure that we distinguish between capital assets district owned property and having that disposal process in place with the AR um also noting all of the you know tags or the inventory process that will be there too. So we follow that newly updated policy as well. >> Okay. I guess I was also thinking about just, you know, for the devices, for example, that are used in middle school. If a student has to take it back to go get it repaired, replaced, whatever screen breaks, they get a new device, right? If it happens two or three times at the middle schooler. Right. Um h how
104are we tracking each time the device is returned and when do they get back their original device or if they don't get their original device or um is it going to be you know senior year graduation time and you have a a a bill for five devices. I just want to make sure that we have no >> I want to make sure we have a tracking um because I've I've seen some devices floating in and out and I'm just wondering who's keeping track of it. >> So my our tech offices generally when they come in are keeping record of the loaner device that they're handing to them. >> Um obviously the device that they're repairing still has the student's name attached to it. Um so once it comes back for repair they'll reach out to
105the student and say your device is ready for pickup. please bring the loaner back to our office. Um, so that's that's that practice so that they don't hopefully end up with two and three devices. >> Okay. >> I guess I'll ask a follow. What if they don't bring it back? >> Um, if they don't bring back the loaner, right? >> Well, they have to bring the loaner back to get the >> Oh, the back. >> They're they're back. Um, back. >> That makes sense. Okay. All right. Well, thanks for looking ahead on the price of RAM. It's a it's another uh it shows how what's happening globally with supply and demand affects our local operations and increase our costs. So, thank you for trying to minimize that. All right. Um so, backing up to item
106five, we have um a proposal for uh the township to lease a couple of our school buses. Do you have any additional details on that, Mr. That's true. So, what the township um has done in the past with us, and we're this is kind of just a renewal of that agreement um for their summer camp programs, they have asked for the ability to use our buses. They employ the drivers. Um they pay us a rate, I think it's a $150 per mile plus, um we have them at $45, I believe, per day for for those buses. Um they come to the transportation center to pick up the buses. Um they drop them off when they're done for the day. um they provide clearances for their drivers. Um they're reviewed by our staff to make sure
107that they are compliant. Um and so it had it did work out last year. So it's beneficial to them to be able to get their students back and forth to the program. So it's been a good partnership. So just they had asked if we could renew that for this year. Um and speaking with Kevin, the transportation director, just this is the best format to have them kind of lease the buses and utilize them in that in that manner. So we'll have that up for approval at the next meeting. Um, and I'll make sure too with the township that they have put it through their board as well just to finalize the agreement on their side. >> Great. But sounds like an example of a good collaboration between the township. >> Yeah, it's worked out well.
108>> Great. Any questions on the that item? >> Can you just confirm that the agreement that's proposed here was um reviewed by our solicitor? >> Yes, it had it has been in the past, but I'll make sure that they see the draft as well. >> Thank you. Okay, the final item on the finance agenda is the student activity fund report. And I see there's been a turnover of close to half a million dollars um among all our clubs at the elementary, middle school, and high school level. I don't know if you have any additional comment, Mr. Tess. >> No. Um activities are are going fast and furious in our schools. It seems like this is the time of year where we're really seeing a lot of lot of activity. Um you'll notice some of the
109accounts look like they have deficit balances. Um that's just essentially where um students have or they're going on a trip. So trips have to be paid in advance to those organizations as we collect the funds to offset those. Um so yeah, so now now's the time of year where they're they're on the move. >> Great. Any other questions on the clubs? If not, that concludes the finance agenda and I'll turn over to Dr. King. Thank you. That takes us to policy and personnel. Mrs. um we do have quite a bit of um discussion ahead of us in the policy realm. If it's okay with um Dr. King and Dr. Hayes, I would like to start with the policy 200 consolidation discussion. >> Um so this one I think has been alluded to a couple times.
110We sort of looked at it um as a general overview I think back in January. Um but we really want to get down to the point where these policies can be consolidated within these different groups and um and then built out from there. Um I cannot take responsibility for the color coding although I do love it. Um but you can see here um and if uh it would be helpful to the board the way that I looked at this earlier was um to look at it alongside the actual policies that we have in our book. So I thought that was really helpful um to see how they fit together the language that's used um specifically with not there's not that much green okay as is um and a lot of them you know I think
111really are going to have to be reviewed updated etc. Um but uh but this I think gives a really good framework. So I don't know Justin if you wanted to give another introduction to this document or Dr. Hayes. >> Yes. Um so after discussion with the board I think it was January workshop we initially began this discussion about the consolidation. um some of the background work. I I know we didn't have the 200's consolidation discussion in February because um Justin was working on some of uh board feedback to uh essentially categorize um where we best see things fitting in. Um so part of the discussion I I think the primary of the discussion tonight uh is centered around that categorization and where we see uh the policies falling under those uh various sections um in
112order to you know continue providing the trans transparency also the navigability for families um who uh go into our you know people policy 200s um and also making sure that the policies are categorized correctly um and that as we go through this process um the intent is really to ensure that we're providing consistent um practices and policies for students across the board throughout the multiple policies we have in the 200. So I can't speak again to the actual work Justin did, but that's kind of the purpose behind it. Yeah, I don't have much to add um other than we tried to just note for the board what type of updates or um potentially you know creation of new policies that we don't have but we were suggesting um be added to the four different subsections.
113Um, and again, I think we talked about this two months ago that there will also be accompanying ARS to this. Um, and once the project is complete, um, in theory, we would then be able to repeal because everything would be living in one place. Um, approximately, I think it's 22 policies that are going to going to be incorporated into this omnibus. So, um that that's really all I have to share other than the sheet itself. Yeah. I think the other thing and you know this is um obviously open to uh board members for input u but when we look at some of the legislation coming through such as act 44 and things really thinking about where things fall under um you know for example weapons uh versus the discipline or the due process of the
114uh response to the violation of the policy. So, it's really thinking through how we put things into those categories so that we're able to feed that continuity between them as well. >> I have Sorry. Go ahead. >> Um, yeah, I I really uh looking through these policies that some of them are, you know, older, some are newer. Um there's there's a number of I mean I I really appreciate the idea of doing this project because it will help be helpful for our parents, our students to be able to access and know like for you know a number of these policies for example will mention things like harassment but in different sections and and so you what is the you know quote unquote harassment policy. So I look forward to that simplifying and consolidating Dr. King,
115did you have an overall comment before we get into the >> I do, I guess. And I want to just talk about a little bit about the the process of consolidation. And so I know that we have the colorcoded. Thank you so much. Um it it is helpful to to see things um in this way. I guess are we when we're looking at how it's organized now as a board and we're going through the policies, should we be considering if a certain policy should labor exist in another section or if it's tied to a different policy? Is that the goal? >> Yes. I mean, if if if there if the board wants something moved to a different subsection, we can certainly do that. We um we've done this in I want to say two at
116least two maybe three or four other districts. Um so we kind of based this model off of our previous work. Um but that you know it's we're not wet to that in any way, shape or form. And if this board wants something rearranged, we're certainly happy to do that. >> I have suggestions. I guess I I would like, you know, I think it's helpful for us to kind of to talk that through >> because when I I had to this was one that I had to print. I don't often print the draft, but I needed to see it and touch it. But I was each policy when I went through I wanted to think about how would it be used and if I were looking for something, is this the place I would as a
117community member look for or as a board member look for it to be? And so like there are a few that stand out to me, but I want to make sure that I'm using this process the way that we're intended. Otherwise, my question may be >> No, that's exactly what I was going to do. So, I was going to start with student rights. Okay. >> And ask the board if they have any um comments on on the specific policies that we're proposing for that section. Got it. >> Um whether there are other ones um to be added, moved there, etc. Questions, you know, if there are questions from the board, why is that being put here? you know, um like even if you go into our dress and grooming policy right now, it maybe doesn't
118look like it would fit under student rights, but I think that the purpose uh that we would want a student uh dress and grooming, especially with the new legislation, uh that does fit under student rights. And so I think that policy will look very different um you know, when it's then merged into the student rights. But if there are questions like that um like for example I uh last night got very um uh uh into the the 200 policy and um so I noticed that there are a couple in the 200s that maybe would be lingering and aren't included here. Um, and so I was I haven't seen a draft of like what student involvement and decision- making would look like, but I am wondering if that would be potentially merged with what we have
119right now 228 student government. Um, and that's that's a policy that uh has one legal citation, but it looks like mostly was just kind of made up um with the 2010 policy review that we have surmised has happened since a lot of our policy book is from 2010. Um and so that would be a suggestion that I would include within this student rights um to have this student government probably merged in with that. >> Sure. >> Um so that's just an example of like how I how I'm looking at this, how I'm u reviewing it. Um you know, I think 219 says it looks to be reviewed for ensure compliance, but I think when I looked at student N 219, it's from 2010. I would say it's probably also outdated. I would have color coded
120it as orange, but um that's okay. Um uh but otherwise, I mean, those are I think otherwise the student rights um portion looks accurate to me. Um and so if the board has any other questions, comments um for discussion on the student rights piece, we can talk about that. >> We we had a discussion about non-resident students a while ago. we actually revise I believe that um that policy would that fit under student rights or would that be somewhere that's different I guess that's more of a eligibility >> yeah standoint I wouldn't see that as student rights um especially when you look at the non-resident policy it's very um particular as to when we need to educate someone um who lives outside the district >> that's a good thought >> and that that would consolid
121validator fall into which then we look at that >> the non-resident I don't think >> I mean um in terms of the categorization >> or would that be >> I think that be it policy >> yeah so we'll still have >> a bunch of delineated 200 policies enrollment of students admission of students around greeting and all that and then but this will be some sub portion of the 200s that get consolidated >> yeah that's a really good point and maybe where um some of the confusion was coming from. This isn't to make all the 400s just for policies. I think the first 15 are nowhere included here and they and that's on purpose. Those those need to be their own separate policy because they don't necessarily um have these like interweaving that a lot of
122the policies that you see here on this page do have. Um like like Mr. Shelton brought up it was like the harassment was kind of in a bunch of different places, right? And so we want to make it one place. Um all right. So uh maybe we can move on to student responsibilities, equitable and respectful treatment of others and property. Um so when when we look at 247 hazing, 248 harassment, potentially dating violence, bullying, cyber bullying, um those to me seem like prohibitive behaviors and actions. And so I did want to ask what is the the thinking putting them in student responsibilities and not prohibited behaviors because certainly like hazing, harassment, deeming violence, bullying like those feel prohibited. >> Yeah. Um I think because it's it's student responsibilities but then also equitable and respectful treatment
123of others. >> So um but I don't disagree. I mean I think they could live there or they could live in the prohibited behaviors as well. >> I see. I think it's also important to note that while they may fall under the student responsibilities because it is related to the treatment of others, um it does not preclude them from being prohibitive behaviors and that can also be things discussed during the administrative regulations that associated with these as well. >> Yeah, I guess um what where I'm thinking of it is because I'm thinking of this a little a little bit iteratively. And so like when the last section is discipline and due process, I'm thinking that those will kind of call back to these prohibited behaviors. And um that seems more logical to me then because
124I think like the hazing, harassment, cyber bullying, those would would would then fall into that disciplinary due process as well. But I think I see Justin's point here where it's like those are like mental prohibited conduct whereas the prohibited behaviors here are more physical as you know weapons, tobacco, that kind of thing. That that sort of seems like >> Yeah. And the I think that the discipline and due process um we can we can maybe I mean it would almost it could almost even be retitled to um due process procedures for discipline. >> Yeah. or it's more it's more the um it's more the how than the what. Um but again, like I like I said at the beginning, I mean, there's a lot of flexibility here. Um and I think there can be strong
125arguments made that that some of these should live somewhere else. Certainly. >> Well, I guess I'll just can't get to the rest of my uh my fellow board members. Um I I can see it could probably fit in both. I mean, does the board feel um strongly either way for it being in that equitable, respectful treatment or should it go into the prohibitive behaviors? >> Um, I was thinking along the lines of what Dr. King had mentioned earlier about thinking from the perspective of a parent or a student looking at these policies. I don't think I would necessarily go to student responsibilities to look for those. >> Yeah. >> Um, and you know, then you'd have to kind of dig through that. And if you're looking in discipline and due process and you don't find
126it, then you think, do we not have this policy? >> So, I think we just have to wherever it lands, it should be very clear for somebody going to look for it. I also think if I could add to Miss Snider's um comments in addition to that things like hazing, harassment, dating violence, bullying or cyber bullying are um extremely concerning behaviors and and almost might want to live on its own. >> Yeah. >> Like I I thought about as there are different category of these types of behaviors that we need to create to separate it from student responsibilities. Um, I also just in general student responsibilities, um, if I'm a person that is experiencing hazing or harassment or dating violence or bullying, I wouldn't want to misconrue that that student responsibility fell on me to
127make sure that I'm not harassed or hazed or experiencing violence. And so, I'm uncomfortable with those um, for being there for multiple reasons. But, you know, the original point, I want to be able to know where to look for a policy like this. >> Yeah, I think I think it would fit under pro prohibited behaviors and actions. I mean, I I think it it logically fits there. And if I were going to look at look for it, that's probably where I would put it. Or or to Dr. King's point, make it its own category >> just for the board's consideration. um back in January when we talked initially about part of the purpose of this um the administrative team and I mentioned this in January is actively working on um reviewing procedures and ouror approaches
128to student conduct and responses. Um so as we look at that just being considerate of 218 with student discipline um and how some of those responses in the future may be captured and communicated um in terms of uh what the actual behavior that's prohibited is. So that's also a consideration that it could fall within the categorization of due process and discipline within that 218 student discipline policy as well. >> In other districts, has council seen those four um on on its own? And if so, what did that title per se look like? No, we we've generally housed them here as we've presented it in this document. Um I think if you want them to be a standalone, my recommendation would be to to separate the student responsibilities from the equitable and respectful treatment of others
129part of that. And you know, if you want to use that title or a different title, um probably put them under that like another like a fifth heading. >> That seems to me that that seems to make the most sense that it separates out and to to to I believe was Dr. Kings or point. I forget who it was. I apologize. Uh it it it you don't want that responsib responsibility is one thing. Treating others I think is something a little bit related but So I think if we can separate those two out one of others um I think that it makes the most sense but I'm looking for these things that's where I think you would logically think that they've been housed. Although I'm confused by the heading um to say like if if
130we're saying like equitable and respectful treatment of others and then the topics under there are hazing, harassment, dating violence, right? It just feels like we're putting a >> positive name or category of right we're not saying like um safety in schools and then having weapons tobacco control, right? So I I just think we need to have some consistency. I agree. >> Yeah, I agree. >> I think new name. >> Yeah, new name. >> It's either new name or just to live let it live under prohibited behaviors. I mean, I I agree. It sounds like the board's interest is really in adding those serious and significant behaviors under the prohibited behavior section >> because that's what they are. >> Yeah, I think I mean I think they fit there for sure. So, >> and then if
131we wanted to frame some policies around more positive behavior, right now we've got the use of, you know, bicycles and how kids can get to school and care of school property. That might be a section that we look to um supplement with other examples of positive responsibilities and ways of being in our school. Student government could go in there. Yeah. >> Yeah. Student fundraising too was another one that I thought maybe could fit there. >> So that's 229 >> that doesn't otherwise appear on the >> paper and I think that can fit there too. Okay. So does the board generally agree to take those um and put them into prohibited behaviors? Okay. Um, all right. So, now we're on prohibitive behaviors. We've added a couple from the previous section. Um, my question here was about
132the potential ad. Um, and what that would that would look like. Um, just because I mean and maybe that maybe this piece should go in the into the the student responsibilities one if you're talking about plagiarism in subordination, which I have no idea what that means. Um, but like plagiarism, I'm thinking actually could also implicate like our AI policy and what that looks like and um the the the responsible use of AI um plagiarism, those types of things. And I think they probably fit more with that student responsibilities piece than these like really severe prohibited behaviors. Um, but I don't know what other prohibited behaviors and actions are. I mean, certainly misconduct from bosses could fit here. So I I think for that one I just don't know what it looks like. So I don't
133know what to think about it. >> So that's that's kind of your um we'll call it the the catchall in in your kind of student code of conduct the horse play. >> Yeah. >> Um I I think insubord I mean insubordination is literally at least to my experience and um I'll defer to to Dr. Hayes and Miss Sax and Miss Batistelli on this. But I mean the I mean it's typically a directive is given from a teacher to a student. Put that away. Stop whatever it may be and they keep doing it. That kind of thing. Purposely actively not listening to a directive. Um I also just want to be mindful again of the ARs um and that the schools and the administrative team there are a number of prohibitive behaviors that could become exhausted
134if we include all of those in. >> Right. and the schools and the administrator do a phenomenal job addressing those. So, we do also have to consider allowing for that to continue, but setting general policy to allow for that to continue, too. >> I think that makes the most sense then is sort of having something that allows the district to put in place the more nitty-gritty of those other behaviors that aren't these really big ticket items that we want to have a policy. >> Dr. Okay. So, we want to kind of frame that as at a kind of discretion at a building level. Yeah. I think we can if we're going to potentially add the policy itself, we can discuss what the language is to allow for that building level discretion. Um, so that we're
135not not just creating an exhaustive list. And I just want to clarify, you're referring to the potential ad. Yeah, I'm referring to all of the litany of behaviors that we could see from the very minors and that we want to allow, you know, our administrators to continue doing a very nice job of uh, you know, using our culturally responsive teaching practices and using our intervention and preventative measures um to teach expectations and set positive trajectory for students and not necessarily supersede that with detail policy. >> Okay. Um, so we're in the same direction because I was going to my concern was if we begin to add additional prohibitive behaviors, then we're going to have this long list of discipline and >> that's the exhaustive piece that I think we have. >> Okay. >> My suggestion
136would be that we do not have to go to that detail from a policy standpoint. >> I agree. >> Yeah. One um consideration might be those um disciplinary matters that need to be logged and reported. So if we have an obligation to track that information, track the behavior, report it for, you know, state safety or whatever, um that we are sure to identify those actions um in our policies. um that might be a way to delineate um ones that kind of rise to um having >> policy to specifically address and others that kind of fall below that line. >> Yeah, I think that also goes I'll have Miss Badestelli kind of expand upon that further, but also going to uh actions that potentially could come before the board as well, right? Um but yeah, Miss
137Badestelli has been working with our administrators on kind of that, right? What are those trackable and reportable pieces? >> Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> All right. Currently 218 is where that would fall. So the um code of conduct, the broad, you know, insubordination, all these things you can think of, 218 is kind of the catch-all policy that has that outline and the state reportable. While some are listed because, you know, bullying would be state reportable, certain things. This is not we would again have 25 policies for each of those. So, um, putting specific policy out for the things that we have to follow certain process or by law we have to do certain things and then having everything else fall under 218. Um, that's where it lives right now. And I think um, Miss Vatiselli,
138I remember presentation that we had as it relates to student discipline um, and trackable behaviors. And so, um, Miss Weedderman's point reminded me of the education and support that we want to make sure that our teachers and administrations are receiving. Um, again, I don't want this to turn into a long list of behaviors that we're tracking, you know, from K through 12th grade and then what does that say? And then we're then we have to start to look at what population of students are being more identified than others. And so um I just want us to all be mindful of that as we are looking at these policies. Um have another question about a different policy though. 237 electronic devices that mentions beepers. >> Yeah. >> And >> 1999 is when it was done >>
139from 1999. >> I had a beeper in 1999. I think >> maybe it was a little earlier than that, but >> there was at one point a a a draft and we had it in here. I can't find it now, but there was a draft update for that I think by PSBA. >> So, yeah. So, there are >> old too by the way. But >> yeah, Justin colorcoded you can see that is orange, right? There are a number of >> updates. A number of policies update need updates, >> I think. Right. deletes or or repealing of. And um for tonight's conversation, it's important to be familiar with the policy, but also understanding that >> right now looking at the categorization and then going back uh already identified what needs to be updated um will also
140help us group and expedite the updating of policies. Once we can merge uh and potentially repeal ones, we may not need to update them because they may become obsolete within that categorization. >> Perfect. I think depending on what h where we go with the electronic devices that might better fit in student responsibilities. I think it will depend, right? And and and maybe certain portion of it needs to live in both places. I don't know. But I think where we're going with prohibited behaviors and actions is like pretty serious stuff. And the electronic devices, while we know that it's not good for our children to be on them all the time, um certainly doesn't rise level of a weapon. So, you know, that that might actually go student responsibilities piece. >> There's also keep in mind
141um I Dr. Shelton there's some current legislation that may significantly impact that policy. >> Yes. >> So just you know kind of >> obiate the need for it right >> Harrisburg is going to do it for us. >> No potentially. >> I I did want to comment that the bill that's in the assembly right now would require the board to go through a process to develop a policy. So, um, that one we may want to just see how that plays out. We may, if we do it now, then when they pass the legislation, we we've had to go through a whole process again. >> Well, the problem is waiting for Harrisburg to do anything. We've been waiting for our whole lives, >> especially have this policy from 1999 stay on the books forever. >> Is
142that a House bill, by the way, or a Senate bill that's in >> it? It passed the Senate and it went to the House and it's under consideration and you got Governor Shapiro uh put you in his u his budget address he he wants that passed. >> He want Okay. So it's likely so it's >> and that has to do with a bell to bell cell phone ban. So that would be a ban >> build ban. Right. >> Right. But yeah, I tend to agree that one defination. Yeah. Legislation. >> Well, we'll see where it lands, how it how it goes for us and if Harrisburg makes progress in the meantime. >> That one, by the way, is the one that is most commonly brought when people bring up policies like at PTO meetings and
143stuff. That is the one that is always the first one that's brought up. People ask, "What are you doing about cell phones?" So even if so I mean honestly for right now I I guess I I guess we can wait what be what time frame be for would it be this session or it be like referred to a committee and or a subcommittee? I >> I believe it'll be past this session. >> That would be my bet. Um >> we'll know by >> by the summer. >> Yeah. I for when the last date the you know the last when the session ends exactly but yeah we'll know by the summer. Okay. Um, all right. Moving on to discipline due process. Um, and for anyone who did print it out, there's two on the next page,
144which I missed when I first looked at it last night. Um, very confused. How could this not be on here? It is. Um, so my only thought here is when you're looking at policy 225 about students and police, there could be some language there that could also fit into student rights. So um same thing searches searches on school property just like the you know obviously you're aware lots of uh first amendment implications and um so you know I think most of it does fit into the discipline and due process but if there are a piece or two that fits into student rights that's my only comment on that one. I have the same comment, but I'll also add for 226 um I thought about are there other instances where we as a um school or
145administration would need to search the building not necessarily for a disciplinary action but if there's something you know reported to be unsafe somewhere and we're doing you know a building sweep um >> and it's not student specific >> right and I wouldn't want if we're continue this path I wouldn't want something not placed by a student found under the policy as it relates to discipline and due process when it's really a safety issue unrelated to the student. >> So, Dr. King, if I may, y >> um your version of 226 was adopted in 2010. um and even even the PSBA models um which are released every couple year. I mean there's a lot more um that is addressed in in the current versions and including kind of generalized searches and um uses use of technology
146technology based searches um sometimes uh K9's things like that that that are that's just not in this current version. should be in orange. Those ones update. >> I only comment I had a comment on 225 students in the police because we have the welcoming students policy in place. We just want to be sure that uh those definitions encompass any sort of um enforcement activity. >> Yeah, that's what I was thinking with like it could potentially fit under some student rights. You know what I mean? >> Yeah. Right. more talking about how the superintendent, the principal, the schools are protecting the child in that instance. >> Yeah. Right. So, I think there will be pieces that fit into both. Um, going through the 200s, I also notic that should be repealed, but we can do that.
147Um, all right. Anything else on the general grouping before we go on to we have a couple um policies talked about tonight as well. The ones we had mentioned on like student government and fundraising. Are we considering moving those into the right section? >> Yeah, I think so. I think 228 229 should go within the student responsibilities. Um, let's move on to hopefully an easy one here. 209.1 food allergy management. There were no provisions. No, this is this was just I didn't have any provisions myself. >> So, this was um after the last meeting, right? possibly during the last meeting we talked about creating an AR and just moving the regul uh different components of the regulatory language into that AR and so that's what we did that's that's what the changes are >> right
148so basically just giving the district some flexibility to be able to revise those specific procedures um as they may need to be and update the board when that happens this uh would be the second reading so if anyone has any questions or revisions, we can talk about it. Otherwise, it would be up for adoption in the next meeting. All right. Um, you guys thought 1999 was bad, but now we're moving on to 809, which was last updated 1995. Um, so looking at that original one was fun. Um, and there's no updates reflected because it's a completely different policy, >> correct? So, it's all just imagine it all being redlined and this is all green. Um, but I'm I'm glad to see that this is being updated here. It's needed obviously. Um, and so we can
149go. I don't have any revisions on the first few sections. So, if any board members have any revisions on the purpose, definitions or authority, you talk about those. >> The the the authority to me is a bit confusing. Um, I mean I we're we're doing the whole thing, so that's good. But I mean, so the board's the board authorizes the use of video and audio recording on on school buses and school vehicles. >> Next line, board prohibits the use of audio, not video, is audio recording on any school bus as not being used for school purposes. So, and I I would assume that this means like if we're leasing it to somebody like we just like we just had why are we prohibiting the use of of audio and not video and why we're prohibing
150the use of anything at all if somebody else using our buses? Wouldn't we want to see what's if there's damage or misuse somehow? I mean, that seems kind of kind of kind of a no brain. Is there a legal thing? Is there a legal issue I'm not aware of? >> Yes. >> There you go, there is. I'm not a lawyer. >> No. And and and I think Mr. Schwarz, I mean, what we could we could maybe do is um work with the language. I think um and Mr. Anderson and his team worked extensively on this, too. But I think it's it's really um if if we're putting folks on notice that there's a recording for safety or security purpose as the district, that is acceptable. But when we're the prohibition against the recording is um
151is the Pennsylvania wiretap act and not allowing folks to start audio recording unilaterally um without putting somebody on notice or getting their consent. >> We can see video. >> So video is okay. Audio is not. >> So no we can we as the as the public entity if we put the the passengers on notice that we are doing that that is acceptable. what you can't do is is record without giving notice to somebody that you're that you are recording and receiving their consent. So that then that's where I what I what I started off by saying we probably can clean the language up a little bit more so it's clear um why in in what context um we're we're essentially saying that FYI there is audio and video recording on the buses but FYI you
152cannot use audio recording individuals cannot audio record. >> So if an individual does auto record on a cell phone, on a tablet, on a student Chromebook that they got back from um it what where does that lie? What happens then? >> Yeah. And and again, I think >> there's an again, there's an argument that in certain circum certain circumstances, if it's kind of just a a happenstance occurrence and depending on the nature of it versus you're sitting there next to your pal on the bus and you're running the phone and they don't know. So that like that. So, I understand the the concerns and looking at it now, you know, a couple weeks later, we we can work on that language. >> And are those concerns unique to the school bus setting or just in
153any school setting? >> I think the point is that just because we are authorizing the use of audio and video for safety and security doesn't mean that we're authorizing anyone to use audio on our buses. and and like that's >> right. So, should it be district? >> Yeah, I think >> audio and video recording like that's what we're authorizing. >> I think the wire tap uh the wire tab you mentioned is is in any situation. >> Also, just going back to your question, Miss Swedman, um no, it is not specific necessarily to school buses. Um we're looking at the transportation one right now. Um but also within the 200 consolidation electronic devices is one that needs to be updated and there's a number of those um also within 218 that we would consider obviously within
154the AR within policies you know addressing those as well for assistance. >> Okay. So this authority is that the board authorizes the district's use of video and audio recording on school buses that are being used for school related purposes. Is that correct? And then the thing about prohibiting audio recording on school bus is not for school related purposes. Is is that still um does that still need to be in there? >> I I think like Justin said, if we just adjust the language, it'll make more sense. >> Okay. And then I guess I had a question with um are we just saying the the district is permitted to have video and audio or are we saying we want video and audio recording and we are like this is to be implemented anytime we are operating
155school buses for school related purposes. Our uh intent is to essentially let uh let students from families know that there is audio and video recording on buses specifically for those safety security purposes. Not necessarily that we want or need it, but it is there for safety and security reasons. So I think one of the questions I had when looking at this draft was um what are the the kind of expectations that are being set is it um then assumed that every day every bus run somebody can say let's go to the tape and see like that that exists or is it just a um a general permission that may or not may or may not be in use on a daily basis. >> We and um I don't know if Joe or Rob can speak
156to it further, but I mean we do have the audio and video recording on the bus for general purposes >> and it is in use each day. >> Okay. >> We don't necessarily go and seek to retrieve that. >> Sure. Um but I think yeah just that kind of sense of expectation right like is it something that um any given day any situation >> our expectation is there is this recording that is available to review um I wasn't quite sure in reading this policy if if we were saying that it was that um broad and um kind of like fully implemented or was it just a authority that we just have in our pocket and we're just kind of giving notice that it yes it might >> yeah correct we we have that authority if
157we would need to utilize that >> and so if I could just continue on to Miss Reman's question I guess um then is there a responsibility if by chance we do need to go review the cameras and then we find out the cameras are not working >> before because we've had that before >> we did have with that before. We we do frequent checks. >> Okay. >> Um we work with Provision I believe for our audio and video recording with the buses. Um so we will we use their support if necessary, but we do do as many frequent checks as possible to make sure the audio and video recording is operable at all times. Okay. >> Um and then if for some reason there's an issue, we work with that vendor. Yes, we did have
158that issue previously I think at the beginning of this year which is when we started put in place more of those frequent checks. Would it be useful to have like a AR associated with this? Just like some of these details about how long we're retaining recordings, you know, the operational details, it might be helpful for the community to understand. >> Yeah, I mean it sounds like there's a couple revisions to make. So, I think it could be beneficial to speak with administrators transportation and see that looks like from an AR guideline down. And I I want to be careful about setting up a policy um that it's clear when we are in compliance or in violation of it. And right now I I don't know how to quite interpret what the expectation is in this
159and if we would be in compliance or not. So, there is there is a draft AR that I think just didn't make the list this evening that does address um parent or parent guardian access to the recordings themselves. Yeah, for some reason I I don't have access to that, but um does it also talk about retention video footage? >> I do think that would be important too. >> It's in the records retention policy. >> Okay, >> got it. because right now this seems to be more about just giving notice that we might record um and if we expect it to have more specific implementation and utilization hopefully that's picked up in the AR and some of that could be carried to just give some clarity to what this policy is what the real objective of
160it is besides people should have noticed that video and recording video and audio recording are permitted >> I think the can say like so number four under delegation responsibility um is that parents and guardians will receive annual notice and I was just thinking um when and where that notice would appear and I think a logical place for it to appear it's on your child's bus assignment letter um if it's not already there and so I think that would be another you know but that but that is a more appropriate place for the AR >> and referencing we can reference the student records retention And also in the AR again it's um it is in the draft version on board docs but there um there is an updated section for parents screening rights as well. >>
161Okay. Aside from Missrad's mention of it being on the bus assignment, do we have actual signs on the buses inside the buses that says something about >> Yes. All of our buses say that. Okay. >> And just for the bus pass, I just it can go there in addition to somewhere else, but because children might go on a field trip that wouldn't otherwise have a bus pass, that can't be the only place. >> That was my next question. Yeah, >> that's definitely a good point. But I do think it's important. Like I think that the bus pass is also a good place to go. So I think a couple revisions here I think maybe well together we'll see >> discussion next >> at the next work session I think this is ready for >> I
162bring it back session >> I ask a quick question about the provision that Dr. Hayes mentioned >> to say again, I'm sorry. >> Um the provision firm that you use, is that who um are they just helping to service those the cameras and audio or are they housing our video content? >> They I'm would defer to Rob to this because he knows the technical aspect, the technology detail more. >> Oh, they don't host any of our video. All the video is maintained on the recorder in the bus. >> Okay, that's good to know. >> That's why Dr. H was mentioning that we have to check the bus periodically. You actually have to take the card out of the bus and check to see if there's video on it, then put it back into the bus.
163And that's really the only way to confirm there's video on the bus. >> That's helpful to know. >> Um the next policy is um 918 title one parent guardian and family member engagement. And um I didn't see any changes So, it's um primarily part of the annual review. >> Okay. >> Um and then I do know that um Miss Carter is probably going to have some additional um language that we're going to add probably between this obviously this meeting and the next time that you see it. >> Okay. So, I think it probably just makes sense to talk about at the next work session when we have the language unless you want to preview it now. I can preview and I'll tell you exactly what they're asking for. So although we have a review of
164it annually, our regional coordinator has reached out to several districts that she supports and she their PD is doing their own review of policies as they review theirs. after review hours and then shared that um in our policy we are missing the how although we've done the work I think it was 2023 and making sure it met the checklist of guidelines under each of the like numbered areas. So for example it says conduct outreach to all parents and guardians and family members. how do we do that and when do we do that has to be outlined or we're not really fully implementing it. So they want to see it in that place as well. >> Okay. Um that makes sense. Thanks for the background. Um so I think you could bring the proposal language to
165the next meeting and there >> and um just for the board's edification PSBA did issue an update in August I think it was um because I think They figured out that that was missing from their template. >> Got it. >> And that's the trickle down effect. >> Yeah. Because I'm sure that's what we used for 2023. >> It was. >> Okay. All right. Well, more to come on that one. >> Okay. And then our last policy to to discuss is um 314 or will be the new 314 for physical examination for employees um which is a consolidated policy of 314, 414 and 514. So there's obviously a lot of changes here consolidating three different policies. Um I don't know Justin general um summary. >> Sure. Um so this is one um we actually started working
166on I think last school year and then we just didn't quite get to um as we started working through some of the 600s toward the end of the year. Um so in an effort to keep moving advancing these um we brought it back and this is I mean it's it's generally speaking um you'll see at the bottom of the the policy itself I mean this is largely um taken out of of Pennsylvania code and the language updates were really just to reflect um for the most part a modernization of the language. Um, it's largely based off the PSBA model and um, I worked with Dr. Raundos to make sure that it's also accurate and reflecting the district's current practices. So, I think seeing all the code references, the footnotes, um, the majority of this comes
167from code. So, if any board members have any questions or comments on this, um, proposed consulting policy. Um, okay. Well, that uh finalizes the policy discussion. Thank you everyone for um coming prepared and having this robust discussion. It's much appreciated and going to really shape up our our policy book this year. >> Yeah, we'll um we'll bring back 2091 for second read at the next meeting. We'll also continue the conversation. >> Well, this was a second reading. I'm sorry for correct for adoption and then we'll continue the conversation at the next work session with the 200s uh and additional policies >> and 918 >> correct >> y great >> all right thank you that takes us to facilities >> yes we have just one item the capital project update and I see our representatives from
168CB Development have been patiently waiting through this agenda to be able to tell us what's going on in Coopertown Good evening everyone. Uh so it's very brief as far as uh Chattam Park is concerned. Of course uh you know everything's been done. We're really just uh waiting to get to the final number uh which we're getting very close. So that should be uh soon as far as the additional you know funds that were moved from Coopertown over to Chattam Park. Uh then as far as Chattam Park solar project, there's really uh no additional update this evening other than um they're continuing to work through some of the details with the manufacturer for the ballasting. Um and they will uh we're waiting on Pico uh to get their final response and see if there's any tweaks
169or changes that need to be made, but everything's on track to get started at the end of school. So that's it for that and then we'll talk about Coopertown. >> All right. Good evening. Um, so just in general with Coopertown, we put, excuse me, an update an update together here, cleaned it up a little bit, put it in a PowerPoint. Um, so the first picture here is of the ball field edition. So currently, this is the furthest along addition. Um, I'll show a picture. Uh, so this is basically the windows have been installed. The only thing really remaining is some roof metal, a little bit of sight work, um, and some metal panels which will take place this month. Last month, we uh dropped both of the rooftop HVAC units. This addition is currently um
170being powered and the heating has started and it's uh climate controlled. The next edition um for the Coopertown side. Actually, let me just So, this is just a standard classroom uh right now. So, the flooring's installed, the windows are installed. Um everything above the ceiling has been completed. The design team has reviewed it this week. Um, we actually dropped all the ceiling tiles. They're going through and then case work will start and be completed next week. Um, so all the the classrooms uh will, you know, come together. This is uh the tile work at the um I believe this is the boys and the the girls restrooms and the and the ballfield edition as well. So, they're working on the resonous flooring right now. Um, again, everything above the ceiling's been completed and inspected and
171all the tiles have been dropped. So, that's, you know, moving along. This is the uh Coopertown edition. So, this is slightly behind. Uh, still waiting on windows. They're due back tomorrow um to start installing frames and then glass will follow in uh you know, next week and hope to have that completed by the end of next week. Again, this unit has been dropped um as well. Everything is tied in. Uh they're just waiting on a a little bit of work and then this unit will be started most likely either tomorrow or on Monday to start uh heating this addition. This is the library which since I updated this about last week, uh the entire ceiling has been painted. Uh the majority of the walls have been painted. They're starting on the clouds above the the
172carpenters are. So, that work will be progressing in the next week or so. And then we'll you get the flooring, the windows will will also go in hopefully next week. Um and then uh the case work and then that'll pretty much kind of wrap up the library. So, you know, hoping to have everything finished um and and tied in by the end of the month for turnover. This is the front edition which is not being turned over until the beginning of next school year. But a good milestone that we were able to hit with the better weather was that high roof as well as this roof was roofed uh earlier this week. So the roofing has been completed. So that'll help us to be able to progress on the interior of it, especially in that
173high area to try to catch up on that um in terms of the schedule. Uh and then this is very small for me to see here. Um so in general right now uh you guys uh approved the change orders that we had roughly around 10 um 10,461 I believe. In terms of overall allowances uh of the 297 or the 294 we're we're at roughly 210 left. Uh in terms of contingency we're roughly around uh I believe it's 585 of the initial 900. Um, in terms of overall billing of the project through, um, February, we're kind of at about 56%, so just over halfway there. Um, and so building will start to catch up as material and and you know, the summer phase and and all that work starts. Um, but that's the the update I
174had. Are there any questions? >> I like how you said the weather's gotten better and helped. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yeah. We we had like a two-day window. Um and we were uh very politely encouraging them to finish the roofing. So, >> get it done, right? Um can you remind us and the public what you said about the turnover, right? What that schedule is in order to um have the classrooms starting to be used? >> So, right now, the back two additions are currently on schedule to be turned over to the district uh the week of spring break. So substantial for those are the previous Friday I believe is the 27th and then they might have a little bit of punch punch list work. So there are some loose ends we're chasing down right now
175but again the goal is to have those turned over to the district so that the um awing which is when you come into Coopertown it's the first grade and the kindergarten wing. They are relocating to those back editions with some special education classes that are right by the cafeteria so that we can take that area in that wing and kind of get a jump start on that. Um there's a lot of bathrooms in those areas that need to be brought up to code. Uh so there's a lot of um in terms of plumbing and mechanical electrical work. So instead of having everything done on in the summer that gives us a jump on about a third of the building of the existing building, which is great. Um, so right now we're working with JR and
176and uh Beth at Coopertown to have everyone relocate and move out from that wing in those two classes over spring break. So that's the goal, the target. Um, which again we're currently on right now and then that'll open up the other space to kind of shut down and get moving there. >> Okay. Yeah. So less than a month that big milestone. >> Yes, we we're filling it and we're uh relaying that to the contractors. Absolutely. >> It's exciting to see it take shape. >> All right. Is there anything further >> comments or questions? >> Thank you all for the hard work putting in. >> Thank you. >> And thank you for uh enjoying all of our meeting up to up to this point to be able to give the presentation. >> Thank you. >> That
177is the uh end of the facilities agenda. So, I'll turn it back to President King. >> Thank you. Um, so that takes us to academic and people's services. Miss Lee is absent this evening and it looks like we just have twoformational items that are listed there. >> That is correct. No presentations from us this time. >> Sounds good. Thank you, Miss Axa. >> Thank you. >> Can I ask a question about the the transportation service agreement? Um, I'm trying to find a way to phrase it. Um, what what is the purpose? I mean, I guess I Why Why is that agreement there? >> We'll um we'll be providing information for that. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I was trying to administrative contact. >> Okay. Thank you. All right, let's continue on to section six for other
178items. Um, we have the superintendent transition phase findings and I'll um allow Dr. Hayes just to give us a >> Yeah. >> presentation. >> I do have a presentation for you. Um, and if it Yeah, thanks. If it's okay with the board, I'm going to present from here instead of the podium. But um so just for um community members and for uh new board members about a year ago which I believe it was 51 weeks because it was March 12th um of last year board appointed me superintendent um very welcoming and supportive uh from the community to staff um families across the board for my entry. Um, you know, one of the big drawing aspects uh for me for Havford was that alignment of vision and values where the district can continue its excellence, honor
179those unique traditions um while also really pushing the envelope with innovative practices. part of my arrival um I stepped out a four-phase entry plan beginning with uh connections uh and then moving into an investigative and collaborative phase um which then you know at about this point now uh in sharing my findings will help guide the implementation of different strategies and initiatives um that will continue to build on our strengths. Uh so that's really what I'm providing tonight uh is a brief summary um of the results of that entry um with the district. How my connections, conversations, and observations um have uh informed uh some of um the priority focus areas moving forward. Um just for brief awareness um the stakeholder engagement at a glance, it's important to understand the timing of the data collection. Uh
180the first meet and greet actually occurred back in April of last year. It was a virtual meeting. Um and uh over the course of almost a year at this point as a district, we've already begun to address and resolve some of the priorities and focus areas that were shared by stakeholders. Um you know, one of the examples I'll just give right off the top of my head is uh you know, it was shared back in April that there was a substitute shortage concern and we've had a significantly high fill rate this year with subs. Um it's really supported uh the the schools. Um we've seen a lot less stress um in that area and that's really been some of the direct work with Dr. Ramundos and HR and our building administrators to lead that effort.
181Um it's also important for uh the purpose of this um to really understand that throughout this entire stakeholder engagement process um the uh what was heard and my observations uh were areas of values. they were not specific focus areas. Those priorities and perspectives uh that individuals voice help to inform uh focus areas and ideally focus or support within the work we're currently doing. Um and it's it's really nice on on my end on our team's end to see that that there's really no observed urgency to shift priorities. It's really a matter of how do we work within what we're currently doing to further support the work. Um, and every department and school and individual has has really exceptional practices. Um, we have a really unique um, community. Um, and it's really engaging in those common
182practices across the board and how do we really push this district forward um, to build on our strengths. Some of those strengths uh, that really came through um, are are listed here. uh while there's kind of four categorical buckets here when you look at you know ac rigorous academics was observed and voiced as a significant strength as well as um our social emotional learning inclusive practices uh our human resources and operations and then community engagement. Um there were also a number of um themes that emerged from the stakeholder input such as community connections um graduate readiness skills came up a number of times. How are we really preparing future ready learners? Um those are actually some things that we really do at a high level. Um you know we currently monitor career ready indicators such
183as attendance um workforce learning hours, industry certifications um and engage in different partnerships and community groups. Um and there's an opportunity for us to publicize that more and really take advantage of some of those community groups um and organizations um to really strengthen that effort. Um, another key example, uh, is really how we're, um, intentional with our integration of technology, uh, and conscious of our screen time. Um, you know, I know earlier we talked about, um, electronic device, um, you know, policy. Um, but what we're really seeing in schools and what even students are communicating um, is the intentional use of technology and and also some of the minimal use of it. Um, I was at the high school Tuesday uh, in the support class, there was a real focus um and a lesson on
184executive functioning skills using paper planners and really focusing on less tech dependency. Uh so there's some really good things that we're doing across the board whether it's within academics, whether it's in social emotional or our operational standpoint or community engagement practices um that are real strengths of this district and came through uh very very apparently. Um, one of the things uh that also came through is um really uh the need to kind of systematize some things uh and create some consistency whether that be with communication um or whether it be within some of our practices. Um and that's where you know a couple of the areas uh that identified as opportunities for growth emerged from. Um so really looking while we have rigorous academics um where do we see and have an opportunity for curriculum
185alignment um MTSS practices uh aligning evaluation frameworks for example um how do we ensure that the feedback we're providing and the evaluations um that we're providing create continuity um we have really strong academic and curricular practices. We have really strong financial standing. um our ability to allocate resources um looks forward thinking and it's that systemic systematic approach that is really going to be able um to provide resources and supports and opportunities for our students and staff. Um when we look at the systems we're really looking at, as you can see up there, uh on the third bullet point, the operational efficiency. Um, and I I want to be clear uh with operational efficiency and systems um through that clarification of roles um even things such as staffing models. It's looking at how we work, right?
186Not how many of us there are. It's assessing assessing staffing models for efficiency about aligning smart deployment of people. It's not about adjusting positions. It's not about um revisions or realignment or reductions. It's really a long-term approach to allocate resources and remain financially and fiscally responsible. Um, and an additional area within that that that can support with that is also our internal and external communication. Um, you know, food services chartwells presented tonight. Uh, and they have a bunch of information within you know that we could put an opportunity within our wellness committee or put um, as Dr. I said or even putting they have it on their website, but we can take an opportunity to convey that to our community uh members as well. Um and improve some of those internal and external communication methods
187um to increase that uh stakeholder agency and voice. Um utilizing intentional strategies going back to some of the um uh the communication audit that was previously conducted, revisiting uh areas of that uh that are still relevant uh and beneficial and providing training. um inclusive decision making uh was also and and input was also uh voiced um very much. There was a lot of input from staff and families and administrators who want more opportunities to share their experiences and perspectives on how well we're meeting our needs. We do a really good job of gathering input regularly on things like strategic priorities and initiatives. Um but it's there's also an interest and an opportunity um from a number of stakeholders um to share their day-to-day experiences within our schools or departments. Um and by building that feedback
188loop um and engaging in in practices like that, we can understand where we are strong and where we can need to continue uh growing and moving forward. Those strengths and those opportunities kind of bulleted out. Um, I say kind of because these are kind of four again buckets. There's a number of things that we are actively working on right now to continue keeping this district an an incredible district. Um, one of them was, you know, we were down at Drexel today with just some amazing stuff with our student group of ours, uh, who's been working with the MindBrain Learning Lab there. Um so um there's a number of things we are working on but really uh priority areas and the progress monitoring that progress monitoring also talks about the uh references I'm sorry more of
189the communication channels and providing continual updates on uh how we are um addressing student needs, how we are addressing staff um supportive measures um you know whether that be our data informed practices, our tiered supports um whether it be increasing that agency and voice or really looking at that strategic intentional planning. Obviously, we talked tonight um about um you know, the budget and and really needing to be cognizant of of how we're planning strategically moving forward to be fiscally responsible and allocate those resources. Um working through cohesive governance to set the conditions for the district's operations um and really engaging in those mutual mutually beneficial partnerships um and those strategic communication efforts. Um and that collective effort um you know really works to use data to improve both learning and leading. Build the partnerships um
190you know and regularly gather that feedback um to ensure that we are continually improving and one of the the things um of one of the areas of focus area is really that continuous improvement model. How are we ensuring that every day we're getting better and we're providing uh it's incumbent upon myself to make sure that I'm leading and guiding our team with the appropriate direction uh in alignment with uh the priorities and the values of this district. Um and what I heard within um my entry um was a significant amount of strengths um and really more so just an area to continue building upon and expanding because there are some phenomenal things um that we uh that we do already um and even hardressed to find areas to to really narrow in and focus on
191because of the strengths we have. Um so you know you saw and heard some examples tonight of the programming and services we have. Um but you also saw some areas that you know we need to really keep uh a strict focus on so that we can continue to provide uh the best experience for our families for our stakeholders. Um and by gathering this input and going through this process and developing the relationships um an incredible team here in the district across the you know from the classroom to the boardroom everywhere. Um very supportive very invested in our district's pursuit of high quality public education. Um, so it's just really really um exciting for me to to reach this stage um where we've identified some areas that we can really continue to uh to strengthen where
192we currently are and all the excellent practices that um that we currently have. So that's uh that's kind of my last eightmonth journey, 11 month I guess if you count since April. any uh any expansion or anything questions? >> Thank you for putting all this work in the community and um really looking at it uh I think from a thousand foot view but also looking at it in a detailed view. Um I'm not surprised to see um and inclusion as the top priorities of everyone that you're meeting. I think that's the pride of the district. Um when my oldest started the district and it was called guidance then I I thought it was the most revolutionary um fascinating thing that we had guidance counselors come in person and teach them every day or not every
193day but you know once a week and um I think it would be great for the board to just get an update on SEAL um in particular and how it looks throughout the different elementary schools and I think I'm also really interested in is um how that off week works and the because my you know the students in elementary school have seal every other week um with the school counselor and so you know how is that other week being used um and in what way and is that consistent throughout the elementary schools and that's sort of just something that as um looking through your progress and and priorities um I would be interested in um learning more about >> Yeah. And um part of that uh is is exactly what that building upon the strengths
194area uh really focuses on, right? We have exceptional practices um and we do we actually do a really good job of of sharing our practices using teacher leaders to lead discussions and things um but also looking at, you know, how can we create some consistency um so that every school has similar experiences um but also we're not taking away the uniqueness of each school. Um, so a lot of times I'll go by like that 8020 rule where you know we have 80% consistency and then you put your 20% spin on everything to really make it yours. Um, but leveraging those different things. So, uh, also communicating it and then that was, um, I don't know if I emphasized, uh, that to the degree with which, uh, Miss Deacon and myself have really been working hard
195on, uh, being able to communicate and publicize, uh, working with a number of staff on a number of different projects where we're engaging with, uh, you know, community partners to leverage their expertise. Um, even taking the community meet and greets, it's been a really nice opportunity for me to connect with individuals. um you know a professor of Villanova the other day has expertise in AI and you know talking to us and sharing some practices again uh you know finding some opportunities with Drexel just to get some of that outside experience um and that relates to the counseling piece too right are we engaging in those best model practices and are we doing it consistently and most importantly are we communicating that to everyone so that there is that full awareness right um and then gathering
196their input to see how they're actually experiencing that as well and if it's meeting their needs So, we'll continue to provide updates and and that's one of those priority areas, not necessarily listed, but kind of alluded to in the communication is that continual progress monitoring updates. trying to say the the feedback, you know, I like the focus on communication, feedback, uh because I think we do, you know, we um we're good at collecting information, but on specific, you know, things and and then but I think what you're focusing on is like how can we provide avenues to provide just, you know, any feedback. >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. >> That's great. >> Yeah, we do. We do. Um we're constantly getting input uh from a variety of individuals to make decisions and that really is a
197best practice. Um you know we do do a nice job of understanding people's experiences uh in certain situations. Um there is an opportunity to do that on a broader scale to make sure that we as an entire organization are meeting those collective needs. Um, and also identifying, you know, a lot of times that feedback can confirm that things are going very well, right? And and you don't always have to adapt or eliminate or adjust. Sometimes you can just continue moving on and that information confirms that the progress you're making, the trajectory you're moving in is the correct one. >> I appreciate these observations and learnings. If we think back to where we were a year or so ago, we were undertaking both the strategic plan and the superintendent search and there was some question about
198what were were those things being done at the right time in the right order and um it's affirming to hear that what um process the district had gone through for the strategic p plan and was something that we had prepared um with the idea that the new superintendent would want to have that very current pulse on the district, that sense of of feedback and priorities that um it does sound like there is a lot of alignment that you um you know, you received that information and a report from a process that you weren't here to participate in, but then through your own investigation and outreach in the community are corroborating and building upon that. And so I think that um is a testament to the ongoing communication that we do have with the members of
199the community. We're hearing the priorities. We are um responding to those and setting that into our our work. Then with having the new superintendent come on board to be able just to to continue and build off on that um is you know it feels good to be here a year after we made the selection to to bring you on board and to to see how uh that work was um supporting your transition into the role and into our district community. >> Yeah, it it should be affirming because it is very much aligned. um is that it's also testament to um the administrative team um they do a phenomenal job leading and guiding that strategic plan um which also allows me to focus on some of the priority areas because that strategic plan which is guiding
200our district work um is a significant strength right one of the biggest strengths that we have um and it is very impactful too um so from myself it's nice to be informed and aware of that progress but have to be in the weeds with that and being able to focus some more collective efforts on that broader picture leadership efforts and that is a testament to the team and also to the subleaders of it right we have so much involvement in the process um of what we're doing the work on uh from you know um the district level down to the classroom level um and even engaging in in student voice right um we've uh uh I have our elementary and our secondary student advisory groups uh that I meet with for the superintendent advisory group
201on a monthly basis. Um, and even they, you know, Miss Saxa joins me as well and they share great insight. The nice thing about meeting and talking to students is they'll hold back. Um, and they share really good information that, you know, we take back and and consider as well um to also understand what is the impact from the students perspective of the decisions that we are making or planning to make. So that also talks to that collective feedback and an effort to really get all of those voices in agency involved to make sure that what we are doing is actually impactful and supportive of who we're hoping to impact and shape. >> I think it's important to also note um to Miss Reedman's point, you know, a year or so ago, we were all
202undergoing a superintendent search as well as looking at strategic plan. there was lots of movement in the district and certainly it felt like a heavy lift or heavy load. Um, but we were very intentional about the process and and what we were looking for and what traits were important to us and what we saw as a vision for our district and our and as our community. Um, and I appreciate the fact that although yes, you talked about it in the interview, you're you're doing it in real life, >> right? And so, um, I it's it speaks volumes of the ability to work with the board as well as to get to know the administration as well as the community. Um, you've mentioned here the different community meet and greets and the school visits, but I
203also think it's important to note the intentionality with ongoing communication with not just board leadership, um, but with each and every one of us sitting here. um the the frequent or regularly scheduled calls um the increase in emails and communication that's something that we all recognize it's an opportunity and so you know it starts from the top and so we are intentional about increasing our communication I appreciate that you're also being intentional with that too um it certainly is exciting to know that we're going the same place the same direction which only can mean great things for the district as we continue >> yeah I'm sorry. I was going to pile on here. Um and and and and say yes. One of the biggest things that that that I think was very important to community
204and and and us transparency. We we hearing that that you know we we we hear that a lot. Fact that they they've been out there I lost count of how many times we've been out there talking to people. One thing I I hear constantly from community members is that you you're very easy to reach accessible and and I think that that's critical. So I'm so so that love the uh the the increased communication with the board as well and the fact that you recognize we're excellent but want to get as too exemplary I think is a is is is a is is a great uh way of of putting it and fact that these areas for improvement I mean fact they align with our plan that is exactly I think where a lot of people
205on where a lot of members of the board wanted to to to go. So, I just wanted to say thanks. Could be happy actually with uh with having you on for almost a year almost now. >> The the um and the community meet and greets have been great and we're actually going to continue those um for forever. Um we may shift the term from meet and greet after people have met me now, you know, community conversations or something. But it does provide good insight, right? And it does give people an opportunity to engage. Um, I do think the district as not I think I know the district as a whole needs to be very proud of itself. Um, because tackling a search for superintendent plus a strategic plan plus all the other ongoing things in
206the district on a regular basis which at the time search was undergoing and the strategic plan was undergoing. You were also getting ready to adopt the budget for the upcoming year too, right? Um, so that's a significant accomplishment to be able to not only manage all of those tasks, um, but also as Dr. King had said and others have said, um, that this there's really a lot of strengths and it's really just an, um, a focus on systematizing some things, creating some consistency, opening up communication channels. There's also a difference between transparency and frequency of communication, right? we can communicate more frequently um and we can be transparent but they don't have to occur at the same time would be the same thing. Um and that was also voiced as well, right? Just an opportunity
207to engage and participate from community members which uh which is is very easily attainable. >> That is Oh, go ahead. >> Just going to say from a new board members perspective, I don't have the historical context. That's fine. >> Um but you know, I think uh I have really appreciated the one-on- ones and it's incredible the that you have been able to absorb and share with us. You know, whenever I have a question, you have an answer right away. Um it's not like, oh, I need to figure that out because I don't know it yet. Like you you are so embedded into our district that um it's clear to me that like you it's almost as if you've been here forever already. Um so I really appreciate that, especially as a new board member. Um
208the time that you take to answer questions and just kind of walk me through things. Um I'm sure Mr. Flagler feel might feel the same way as a new person on the board. >> And that's important for the board governance. Um, fun fact, I don't always have all the answers. It's the team that gives it to me, right, and knows that information. It's my job to be able to communicate that effectively. But like Dr. King said, um, I think sometimes we assume people know. Um, and by uh opening up those communication channels, it creates good board governance which guides those decisions for the district um, and creates those conditions. So, so that's my um that's kind of where where we sat. Like I said, there's a number of priorities. I know I kind of grouped
209them into four, but there are some things we're actively working on. Some of those things um the board has already supported our work on. Um some of those things will continue to come up. Some of those things are currently um engaged in. Um and we'll continue to provide the progress as we go. Um but we are in a really really strong place as a district and as a community. Um, and like I said, I'm really excited to continue uh with this team and and and you know, take us um again on an even further trajectory. So, appreciate that and thank you for letting me um kind of share my uh initial entry. >> Thank you, Dr. Hayes. Um next up under other items, we have the DCIU board candidate. Um and so this is for
210discussion information purposes. So, first I'll share that Miss Lee is currently serving as our DCIU um rep for the school district. Her term will expire on June 30th of 2026. So, as a board, we'll need to designate a candidate um from the membership uh to start the new term, which would be July 1st of 2026 through June 30th of 2029. um know that we do have a timeline that we have to submit to submit um the nomination obviously upon voting um as a board you'll see here there is a resolution that's attached um that would be nominating Miss Lee to serve as a designate for the DCIU board. I'll al also note that prior to Miss Lee serving um Dr. Larson was our board liaison and so when Dr. Larson resigned from that position early.
211She was resigned earlier from her term. Miss Lee um was nominated to continue within that role. So um Miss Lee hasn't served the past three years, but she took on the role from Dr. Larson um as the liaison for the DCIU board. Are there any questions? >> She knows that we're nominating her. >> She does. >> She's not here to >> She knows that we're nominating her. She had a last minute work commitment, but >> it is not a surprise. >> We could vote now. No, I'm joking. We can't vote now. >> But this will be on the agenda for uh the next board meeting. All right. Thank you. We did not have an executive session this evening, so we're going to continue. That brings us to section eight, which is the second opportunity for
212public comment on the agenda. Um, I did read the introduction earlier on, but just a few reminders. Um, I have a list here of individuals that have signed up. When their name is called, I would need you to please go to the podium, state your first and last name, confirm your residency in the township. Mr. Tessa does have a timer that he will set for 3 minutes. When the alarm sounds, please conclude your remarks. If there are any materials that anyone has, members of the board, please leave those um at the end of the table for Mr. Tesla with for later distribution and if there is a need for anyone in the administration to follow up um that would take place um after the meeting. Okay. And before we begin public comment this evening, we
213want to remind everyone in attendance that the 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 you have related to the school district of Havford Township, we also want to remind you that due to student privacy and confidentiality considerations, any speaker who references information that may identify another student will be instructed to redirect comments. In addition, parents and guardians are urged to use care if you elect to speak about your own students personal situation because that information will be part of a permanent schoolboard recording. >> Thank you. So, I have two people signed up this evening for public comment. The first person is Michael Glenn. Keep going. Um, the other person that have signed
214up for this evening is Kathy Little. Good evening. Kathy Little. I reside at 3244 Derby Road in the district. Uh this evening, I'm going to continue to read the letter that I sent to Dr. Hayes in which he said that I was threatening people. I was threatening to kill people. So, I'm going to continue with that letter. I see that other students receive homeschooling at the expense of the school district. That was never offered to my son despite the district knowing that William was in crisis. Also, I just want to add I am the mother of William Neely and Daniel Neely. Will was left with the option to be socially ostracized in a program with high school dropouts that stripped him of any classes of his interest and that was designed to make him feel
215less than or to homeschool himself. Neither of which would be considered within the parameters of a FAPE for a person with an IEP. Again, a FAPE is a free appropriate public education which is required by law. What the law clearly states that the student is to be put into a least restrictive environment. What was offered could not have been more restrictive and more lawless. By the timing of your email, I'm guessing that this letter is in retaliation for my request to speak in front of the school board tomorrow evening and a preemptive strike aimed to deter me. I'm guessing that you and others would not want me to speak my truth in a public forum. What the school district of Harford Township did to my sons was discriminatory and based on nothing but lies, conjecture,
216and jealousy perpetrated by a group of people with tentacles in the school district and the police force who would like nothing better than to destroy my sons and me. If asked, I am most happy to name names because I know who some of these people are and that's a good place to begin an investigation. I'm certain that the school district would not want people to find out about that. and having me at the podium speaking while you you have to silently listen might be more than all of you can bear a horrible reminder of Hford School District's role in the illegal derailment of an innocent minor's education. Let me assure you that I am not intimidated by any of you. Not you, not the teachers, coaches, and administrators that bullied and discriminated against my sons
217making my son William throw up in the sink every morning before school. throwing up in the sink. Sometimes I had to pull over and let him throw up on the way to school. And most of all, not the police. Please send police who have integrity to my home so that we can discuss this. I will fully cooperate with a lawful, unbiased, and appropriate investigation of what really happened, which they should have conducted about 5 and a half years ago. and I will point them in the right direction to help them get started. Let's get some subpoenas. Let's get some texts, telephone logs, and emails for starters. Let's get some IP addresses from my home internet. And let's get to the bottom of all this nonsense because you and I'm going to continue and I'm going
218to keep continuing. >> Thank you. The next regular meeting of the board is an action meeting scheduled for March 19th, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the Oakmont Administration building. I have a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> The meeting is adjourned.