001I got one. Good evening. I would like to call this Thursday, May 8th, 2025 regular board meeting to order. Can we all stand for the pledge? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] Can I have members of the board to read the district 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 pillars of our educational system are our school environment is safe and nurturing. Excellence in education is a shared responsibility and partnership with all district and community members. Whole child development is vital to our educational system. Supports and conditions exist whereby
002all students have opportunities to grow and excel in the areas of academic, technical, and career and social emotional learning. Our decision-making process is student centered and student voice is valued. The 2020 2025 district goals are social emotional wellness, produce a community of empathetic and resilient learners with skills to socially and emotionally flourish. Prepare contemporary citizens. Modernize and expand learning experiences to prepare students as critical thinkers, problem solvers, innovators, and designers within a complex global society. Diversity and inclusion. Establish a culturally diverse and inclusive educational experience that develops socioultural proficiency. Thank you. Miss Mc Williams, will you please call the role? Ms. Lee here. Dr. McCay here. Mr. Schwarz here. Dr. Sheldon here. Miss Snogress here. Miss Vital here. Speedman here, Dr. Larson here, and Dr. King present. Thank you. We'll continue on with the official
003minutes. Can I have a motion to approve the official minutes from the April 24th, 2025 regular board meeting? Shelton moved. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? The motion passes. We'll continue on to section two, report from students. We have Hartford Middle School student representative Payton Manfrey. Did I say that right? Manfrey. All right. Thank you. Go ahead. Good evening. My name is Payton Manfrey and I'm a seventh grader at HMS. I'm excited to share some updates on what's happening at Havford Middle School. As a part of teacher appreciation week, we have we've had the privilege of celebrating the exceptional educators who made Havford Middle School such a remarkable place. Our teachers are devoted professionals whose impact extends far beyond the classroom. They shape the lives of our students and strengthen the
004very fabric of our school community. Their unwavering commitment, creativity, and tireless efforts never go unnoticed every day. They bring care and passion to their work, cultivating an environment where students feel seen, supported, and inspired to thrive. The secondary art show wraps up tonight after a week of showcasing the incredible student artwork in the middle school gym. This annual event highlights the creativity and talent of our students and is always a celebration of their hard work and artistic growth. Tomorrow marks the midpoint of the fourth quarter and the end of the school year is fast approaching. Families can expect to receive more communication from the school in the coming weeks about end of the year events and activities. Our spring sports season is in full swing, and our student athletes are thriving. They're embracing the spirit
005of competition, demonstrating teamwork and determination, and making the most of the beautiful weather. Our seventh and eighth grade PIAA students and coaches will have a special opportunity next week to take part in the Philly's strike out the stigma initiative. This impactful program will feature members of the Philly's medical team, a current player, and a represent a representative from Minding Your Mind and even one of our own teachers who competed at the division one level. Together, they will lead an important conversation with our student athletes about mental health, aiming to reduce stigma and promote well-being both on and off the field. Thank you for allowing me to present this evening. Have a pleasant remainder of the week. Thank you, Payton. Next up, we'll have superintendent's comments from Dr. Rushi. Thank you, Dr. K. I'm going to
006move a few things around on the agenda this evening. We have um some recognition of athletic achievements and Mr. Dina is here from our high school to share some of the accolades uh for our students. Good evening everyone. I'm so happy to see so many kids in here. It's unbelievable. Um, good evening everyone. Tonight we celebrate and honor two incredible Harford High School athletic programs. Uh, defining and celebrating success in athletics can be challenging. There is winning, but there's so much more. These programs make it easy to celebrate as they are thriving in the wind column, but also academics, service, and inclusion. Unified botchi and girls basketball have consistently been two of our strongest programs on and off the court. And tonight, we honor those two programs who have excelled to regional and state level
007competition. The Harford High School Unified Botchi program champions competitive athletics and inclusion by challenging our student athletes to practice together, compete together, and be better together. And due to the hard work of these student athletes and staff, we are honored tonight. Harford High School has been celebrated by the Special Olympics as a unified champion school. This year, Harford Uni Unified Botchi ended the regular season undefeated. They hosted the Delaware County League Championships and earned the title of Delaware County Champions. Winning the Delco Championship gave our Botchi team the opportunity to compete at the regional tournament where they placed second overall. The regional championship was also a platform for Harford Botchi's own Jason Lar Roa aka the voice of Haraford athletics who was invited to sing the national anthem. And for those you don't know, unified
008botchi and girls basketball have had a relationship for a long time sharing the court as Jason also sang the national anthem at Temple's Leo Center before the girls basketball district championship in 2023. It was such an incredible season for Unified Botchi um because we have an incredible group of coaches, an incredible group of student athletes who are championing the mission and the vision of the district every day. Congratulations to the 20242 Harford Unified Botchi team. Here to represent the team are the following student athletes and coaches. Jason Lar Rosa. Jason, you can come up as we call your names. Come on up, bud. grass. Dalton the win. Jason, you can stand up here by any minute. Micah Tyson, Dominic May, Ryan Cle, Lizzy Gond, Steph Gond, Brook Parker and Alice Clearary and our coaches, Coach
009Kayla Carol and Lauren Herbert. Congrats, guys. It was yours. Yeah. Sure. Perfect. Congratulations, guys. Congratulations. Congrats. Congrats, Jason. One more time for you to find you, please. Unbelievable. We're also here tonight to honor the Harford girls basketball team who has been consistently one of the most competitive teams in the state of Pennsylvania. The commitment it takes to practice on long nights in a long season that includes a playoff run that mirrors their regular season and still compete in the classroom in rigorous courses and AP classes. Takes a very special type of basketball player and a very special type of student athlete. It is a grind, but no one handles it better than this group of student athletes and coaches. When you watch half a girls basketball compete, you can see on each student athletes faces
010the focus, discipline, and hard work as a testament to them and the messages preached by the coaching staff. But you also see an incredible response to adversity. Players picking each other up after their mistakes. You see multiple come from behind victories, including games where the team was down over 10 or 20 points at halftime and came back to win. Opponents quickly learned that the worst thing you could do was give the girls basketball team and coach Pelican Kane 10 minutes on a white board at halftime because they were going to come out and challenge you to the last second, leading to state playoff wins over Eastn Area High School and Downtown East, which took him to the state quarterfinal and earn them the title as the farthest advancing basketball team in Alford history. The girls
011basketball team finished 24-7 overall, including the fourth 21 season in a row. The team qualified for the PIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 6A tournament for the fourth straight season. The Elite 8 finish is the best finish in school history. Congratulations to the 202425 Howardford girls basketball team. Um so here to represent the team and I'll call our student athletes up. Um, Lucy [Music] Ardy, congratulations. Stephanie Garc again. Congratul Jasmine. Oh, sorry. That's the one. Kira [Music] Hansen. Ryan Dotsy. Ryan, we have one one other thing for you. Ryan Dosy is also as a senior uh was earned the class 6A all state second team and she's the 11th player in school history to tally 1,000 points during her career. Congratulations. You're very welcome Gleon. Scotty [Music] Capello. Congrats. And tonight, uh, our coaches, Lauren Pelican and Aaron Kelly. Congratulations,
012girls. You've done this before. [Music] Nice. [Music] Yes. Yes. Certainly you can you may leave. Thank you. [Music] Sorry. Um, a few announcements that I'll make this evening and then we'll move into um our wellness uh presentation. But while they're getting getting themselves into the room, uh, this year's National Merit Scholarship winners, there were 830 recipients who were selected from over 15,000 finalists. Our district celebrated a record number of National Merit finalists, seven, the most in Hford High School history this year. And this year, Hford High School has three winners. We congratulate Samuel Graph, Maxim Maru, and Jorge Tessador. We um acknowledged and commended all of the uh commended and semi- finalists um previously um at a meeting. So, we're delighted to indicate that we've got um three of the National Merit Scholars. Congratulations to
013those students, their families, um and the teachers who have worked with them. Um, speaking of teachers, um, during teacher appreciation week, this week we celebrate the dedication, passion, and lasting impact our educators. Teachers do more than impart knowledge. They ignite curiosity, foster resilience, and inspire students to reach their full potential. They create an inclusive and supportive learning environment to empower learners to explore, to question, and to grow into compassionate and thoughtful individuals. Their dedication often extends beyond the school day, offering extra help, attending events, and providing guidance through some of life's challenges. This selfless commitment shapes not only academic success, but also the character and values of their students. In today's rapidly evolving educational landscape, where technology and innovation continually reshape our classrooms, the teachers remain the steadfast anchors. They adapt, learn, and integrate new
014tools to enhance learning experiences and ensure that our students are equipped for the future. Let us express our deepest gratitude to our teachers for their unwavering commitment and the indelible mark that they leave on every student's journey. It's a happy teacher appreciation week to all of our teachers this week. Um, in case you missed it, our Pennsylvania teacher of the year, Mr. Leon Smith was on NBC's Today show Monday morning. Uh there's a link to that uh on our website should anyone have have missed that segment. Um continuing with the theme of celebration uh next week we recognize school nurses u or on May 10th we'll recognize them next week u and all that the school nurses do uh to to contribute to the experience that children have each and every day um in our
015schools. um with techn there is something I want to just mention about technology and we will be sending this information home to parents tomorrow. We want to inform parents and guardians about a concerning trend circulating on social media platforms particularly Tik Tok and is known as the Chromebook challenge. This challenge encourages students to insert metal objects such as paper clips, push pins, or pencil leads into the charging port of their schoolisssued Chromebooks. Such actions can cause the devices to shortcircuit, lead to overheating, fires, and the release of toxic smoke. While our district has not yet experienced any serious outcomes to this challenge, schools in several states, including Connecticut, New Jersey, and North Carolina, have reported building evacuations and even hospitalizations due to fires that were caused by this dangerous behavior. In addition to the risk
016of physical harm, tampering with school property can result in disciplinary actions, and some may carry legal consequences. Families may also be held financially responsible for any damages to schoolisssued devices. We urge our parents and guardians to have a conversation with their children about the serious risks associated with this and similar online challenges. Encourage them to think critically about the content they encounter on social media and to prioritize safety over the pressure of some of these trends. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to your building principal. As I mentioned, we will send this information home to families um tomorrow. Along the same line with technology, we feel it's important to um make this additional announcement. As was noted in our recent issue of Hfordford happenings, beginning with the 2526
017school year, so that is September of 2025, Chromebooks in grades 3 to 5 will remain at school and will only be sent home when a teacher determines that they are needed for curricular activities. In order to prepare the devices for this change, all current third through fifth grade students will leave their Chromebooks and chargers at school before the end of this school year. So students currently in grades 3 through 5 will not be bringing Chromebooks home for uh for the summer. And we just want our families to know that. Uh we'll send a reminder to families closer, you know, as the school year draws near to an end um with some instructions to send Chargers back to school that may be um currently at home. And two final pieces, um we will the district will
018host its third annual Ford's diversity career networking event on Wednesday, June 4th from 6:00 to 8:00 in Harford Middle School Library. and the Hford uh middle school will be hosting a senior citizens social. Um and students are encouraged to attend with a special senior friend, maybe a grandparent or a neighbor on Friday, June 6th from 6:00 to 7:30. And now we will move to our um wellness presentation, Miss Batistelli and Dr. Crater. Good evening everyone. Tonight we're going to uh present the annual presentation on school wellness. This is a requirement of the school wellness policy. Um so here's a little bit of information about the school wellness policy. Um this policy is required per um the USDA and PTE. It was last updated last month following the trienal assessment. The wellness committee includes administrators, faculty,
019students, um parents, community members, and a schoolboard member. Dr. McKay is our representative right now. Um it supports physical activity wellness and the implementation of the USDA nutrition guidelines, classroom celebrations and fundraising. And the communication of the activities um go through the schools and through the annual public update. So these are just some of the topics from this year's meetings. We usually cover wellness activities across all levels. Um there's a representative from food service who gives us an update on happenings in the food service department and this year's highlight was making recipes with students. Um we completed the trienal assessment um which then resulted in an update to the policy and during our meetings we have middle school and high school student representatives that like to give their input and we um take that back
020to their buildings. The policy also outlines uh information and requirements for our health services department, which is our nurses and our staff nurses. Um we continue to offer physical and dental exams for students who need them. Um new this year, we talked about the new um PA Department of Health type 1 diabetes fact sheet for parents which will be as a requirement to um post that and send it out next school year. Also, there was uh legislation around uh the removal of ticks and um our nurses got up to speed on that requirement, which requires us to preserve a tick for a family to send it to a lab if they choose or for us to send to a lab. And also the Telaw County Health Department. Our nurses are going um to the Delaware
021Health um Delaware County Health Department on May 23rd. They were invited um to go there for some training and to tour the new health department. So, they're really excited about that and they're looking forward to bringing back resources they gather from the health department. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Crater to talk about some activities across the district. All right. Good evening. Uh wellness is alive across every level of our school district. In elementary schools, students participate in brain breaks, peer mentoring, ecoaction clubs, recess referees, amongst many other activities. At the middle level, uh we continue to implement restorative practices, host wellness days, uh support students through advisory periods and extracurricular activities. Our high school offers monthly wellness days, several fairs, including job fairs, trades fairs, um activity fairs, and promotes leadership through
022groups like the student athletic advisory committee, amongst several others posted up on the screen. uh programming supports continue to evolve throughout all levels. At the elementary level, we deliver social emotional learning lessons and guidance, morning meetings, and restorative um classroom practices. At the middle school, we utilize PBIS to encourage and celebrate positive behaviors across our school building. And at all levels, we offer support through SAP, student assistance program, child study teams, and additional resources through our uh social emotional wellness screener, our virtual calming room, and our online mental health uh resource guide. We have uh a video that a few of our middle school students uh one star of the video is in the crowd. Um and we'll post that for you. They're talking a little bit about our PBIS lesson. Hi, I'm in seventh
023grade and a couple ways you get a robot tickets is by being ready, responsible, and respectful in class. If a teacher sees you during this season, they will reward you with Rob tickets for your hard work. Hi, my name is Elsa Johnson. I'm in eighth grade. And if a teacher gives you a runoff ticket, you can turn in to win a raffle on Fridays, which you can win many prizes like a wallet, tickets to musicals, speakers, popcorn machine, and this time we had a chance to win to play the Turkey Bowl, which is a flag football game. I'm not I'm in seventh grade. PJ is my latest school. Use me in line burgers and encourage you better. All right. Thank you. All right. Food services. Our food services department is actively involved in promoting student
024wellness through innovative programs at the elementary level. Discovery Kitchen program features different themes each month incorporating nutrition information recipes with cafeteria and classroom presentations and sampling of food items. A notable initiative is mood boost implemented at the elementary and middle schools. This program uses signage in the cafeterias to educate students on how different foods can affect their mood. Uh for wellness, uh I'm sorry, for middle school and high school students, we offer student choice where students can taste new menu items and vote on their favorite items to be featured at lunch. We also tie in wellness days with food demos such as hands-on hummus demos by Seth Chef Josh. Uh the Global Eats program is a monthly feature at the middle school and high school highlighting different ethnic foods along with handouts and giveaways. All
025right. Supporting the mental health of our students is a critical component of our wellness strategy. We have a dedicated team of professionals in various staffing roles to provide these supports. This includes home and school visitors, school counselors, and school psychologists. We also utilize Lakeside neurological support at both the middle school and the high school which includes our dedicated lakeside counselors. Additionally, our team includes uh BCBA's board certified behavior analyst and our social emotional awareness screener update. Uh our screener continues to be an important uh datadriven initiative that we have in grades 3, 6, and 9. We used the My Saba screener for students in these grades. Uh this year we've identified 20 high-risk students across the district. Of those seven participated and targeted interventions depending on parent consent and these interventions are either done by
026school counselors at the elementary level or uh the lakeside staff at the middle and the high school level. This tool helps us to actively support students and their emotional and behavioral needs. Thank you. Are there any questions? I just have a Thank you for the presentation. So for the students um just on the last slide nine. So for the students um you had who are deemed high risk you had seven across all levels who participated in therapy. Obviously, that's a parental choice that we respect, but is anything done if they're considered high-risisk to make sure that is there any sort of followup that the school does just to make in terms of those students for the students who don't participate? Yes. Who you deem high risk? Yes. So, our school counselors are aware of those
027students and they're available for extra support. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I'll just say one of the things that I love most about the meetings are when the students themselves come and give suggestions and I um usually there are suggestions around wellness days and improving wellness days or other ways of improving our schools and I just would encourage our administrators to keep meeting with students and gathering their their input because their creativity is great. Best part of meeting. Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next item in the superintendent report um is just a discussion item. It is not something that we're asking the board to vote on this evening. Uh the board will eventually be asked to vote on their calendar of meetings for the 25 uh 26 school year. on what
028we're asking you to consider this evening. Um have a discussion around and ask any questions that maybe could be addressed before you would be asked to vote on May 22nd. Um there are what if you look at the count the calendar that is there um all board action meetings u are highlighted. So those dates for example July 17th and then you'll see the title board action meeting u highlighted that meeting would begin at 7:30 and would run just as as your meetings have been running in terms of board action. The board action meeting is a board is a meeting at which um items are voted upon similar to tonight. Um we will go through a bill list. We will go through hiring. Um you can see within each one of the sections the board is
029asked to take a vote um on any of of those items. We're proposing that the other meeting of the month. So, if you move along to August, the first me the first Thursday, we're keeping them on Thursdays because that is historically what people have been accustomed to um both on the board and within the community that in instead of having two action meetings that are meetings that where um items are voted upon that one of those meetings become a board work session. Um, if you wanted to look at, we've had committee meetings throughout this past year. Committee meetings. We might have, you know, a number of board members attend. We've tried committee of the whole in the past, meaning that all nine board members will attend. Uh, what we're looking at now is a work
030session. We think that might better meet the needs of the board in terms of presentations that the administration or others can provide in that type of a setting. um you will not have the constraint of you've got all these action items that you need to get to in order to have them approved. Hopefully, it could be a more relaxed environment, an opportunity for discussion, an opportunity for questions to be asked and still maintain the opportunity for public comment uh as we have uh in those meetings. These would all be public meetings uh but they would just be termed a little bit differently. The action meeting would be the second meeting of the month. The first Thursday meeting would be identified as a work session. You might title them as such as they're titled here on
031the on the proposed calendar or you could simply title it work session and that gives you the opportunity to look at what the needs are across the district at that time. Uh so there might be finance and facilities items that are presented and the second presentation is something about policy or um curriculum and pupil services depending on the timing and as I said what's you know what's going on. Um so our goal is to have a calendar that can then be posted on our board website. How you meet is really up to you to have the discussion and decide. The important thing that we need posted are actually the dates of the meeting, but we just thought that it was a good time to talk about what structure might work best and serve the needs
032of the board. Just a quick comment. I I like the idea of the work, you know, having a work meeting and an action meeting. um you know the the work meeting could potentially allow more community input as she said uh you know more discussion and uh you know we can reserve like um you know the voting get through the action items more efficiently. So I do like that. Thank you. Mhm. I will say one thing that would be a little bit different. Um because we have two action meetings a month. Um we are paying bills twice a month. Moving to one action meeting a month means you're paying the paying bills once a month. That cannot always happen. A very simple example I'll give is utilities. We can't say that we're not paying our utilities
033because it doesn't align with our board meeting. So you may start to see actually two bill lists. A bill list for things that are ratified and a bill list for the bills that would then go out the next day, so to speak. One of the highlights of these regular board meetings are the presentations from students recognizing and celebrating staff and student achievements. Um would those still fit into one or the other of these meeting types and and which one? And I I wouldn't want to lose those opportunities. They can fit into either one. I I wouldn't presume to, you know, to make the decision, but yes, they would fit. I would encourage you to continue with it. I think that what's most important is that um with this potential shift in structure is, as Dr.
034Shelton pointed out, the level of engagement not only from board members, but also from members of the community. um having a streamlined schedule to know that essentially, you know, two Thursdays of the month is a time for the community to come and join the meeting to hear information um to give public comment um and and to continue with the dialogue um that we have as board members as well as just providing that input um receiving that input from community members during public comment. So, um I think that this is a positive move I like the idea of going away from limited committees to um the work sessions which would the expectation that the entire board would be present would be able to participate ask questions and um uh go over what was what was being
035discussed in the work sessions. Um my questions are just around you know how would we or who would decide what would be put on each work session? How far in advance would the board and the public be notified of that? Um right now our committee structure shows us you know very clearly this is going to be a policy. This is going to be finance and facilities. This is going to be curriculum. If we don't have like a set structure like that how how are we supposed to know like what's going to come up? Um, a lot of times, you know, we'll think about questions ahead of time if we if we can and I think that that helps the administration. Um, you know, if if if we can um collaborate on that, but you know,
036if we don't know what's even going to happen or we're just getting it 24 hours ahead of time, um, I just wonder sort of how that's going to go. I'm not looking for answers. These are just questions that are coming to my head um, about this new process. And so um would just be interested to hear more about the um about how it would actually work in in practice. I think I've captured those questions. Thank you. [Music] Great. Okay. Well, thank you, Dr. King. If there are other questions that board members think of, please send them in and we'll have them ready in advance of the 20 meeting on the 22nd. All right. Thank you, Dr. Rushi. That brings us up to the next section which is section four, public comment for items that are
037on the agenda. Um the board values public comment. There are two opportunities on the agenda for members of the community to provide public comment during the meeting. The first opportunity on the agenda for public comment is to allow members of the community to speak on action items listed on the agenda for a board vote. The second opportunity on the agenda is towards the end of the meeting which allows members of the community to speak on any topic. Public comment allows residents of the township to speak for 3 minutes. A timer will be set at the start of your comment. An alarm will sound indicating that your time has been completed. Should there be any materials from members of the board, um please leave them at the end of the table with uh Miss Nick Williams
038this evening uh 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. I do not have anyone that signed up for public comment. Is there anyone that wishes to speak on items listed on the agenda for a vote? Seeing none, we will continue. Section five brings us to board reports. We will start with the Delaware County Community College. Dr. McKay. Yeah. So, with the update that they sent out this um this month, um I thought there were two things that I wanted to highlight. One of which was that um over the past couple of months, they've had several transfer fairs um which include included 13 colleges and universities. I think it's just important again, we have a lot of high
039school students here in the room to know that the Delaware Community College is a great opportunity to be able to do your first two years and then there's opportunities to be able to transfer from there to complete your degrees. Um so that that was one that they held and um also there was an apprenticeship and trades fair that occurred on April 5th. Um another thing to look out for in the future. Um and upcoming um Monday May 12th there is the golf classic. Um if that is something that is of interest to you. Thank you. Next up we have the DCIU Miss Lee report. Thank you. PSBA. Miss Weedman. Yeah, just a couple of updates. Um, a reminder that we have the opportunity to submit our delegate appointments and any legislative platform proposals. Uh, both
040due dates are June 27th. Uh, we have three delegates that we can name. The delegate assembly will be on October 21st in the afternoon at Kalahari Resorts in the Poconos. um as part of the PS or the PASSA PSBA school leadership conference. Um and then for the legislative platform, this board has submitted for several years proposals to amend or support or create new uh language for the legislative platform and um this opportunity uh ex we have to would get in and would need board action by June 27th. So just reminding of that um PSBA has a new uh report out on school mandates. Uh mandates dictate what public schools must do, how they do it and costs invol and they have costs involved. Uh this new report aims to highlight costly mandates and their impact,
041illustrate the cumulative effect on school districts, provide a better understanding of compliance requirements, encourage policymakers to limit future unfunded mandates, and demonstrate the need for mandate relief, and uh PSBA has some advocacy resources for board members to engage in when they're speaking with legislators to uh talk about the benefits to public schools of mandate relief and that's it. Thank you for the legislative council. Dr. Shelton, uh yes, next week, uh there's going to be the legislative breakfast on Friday. Um make sure that's Friday, May. Yeah, Friday, May 16th at 7:30 a.m. Um coffee, they'll have coffee and blank fair. It'll be at DC IU on in Yale Avenue in Morton, PA. Uh the event highlights our student panel discussion with the DCIU AI student forum as well as uh uh Sam Mormando who's a director
042of technology at Garnet Valley will speak about the good, the bad, and the ugly of AI. And then finally, Kevin Busher um who's an advocacy officer at PSVA will talk about the state of education. And um I was wondering where the invite was and I discovered it in my spam folder. So I I forwarded it to everybody. So, uh there is an RSVP. It's due tomorrow. Thank you. Um for finance and facilities, Miss Weedman. Yes. Uh finance and facility committee meeting met on April 28th. Uh Mr. Schwarz and I were in attendance as board members with Mr. Ta and Dr. Rushi. Uh we had several presentations. Um and I think we generated a lot of good conversation just amongst the two of us. Um Provident Energy uh was the first presenter. uh they talked about
043uh a comparison of our energy use intensity compared to other schools in Pennsylvania and it indicated we were in the lower half of um like in the worerer half of uh energy use and so that's something we may want to investigate and see how we can uh continue to improve the efficiency of our buildings. Uh they spoke about the wreck purchases. Uh the district currently purchases wrecks uh sufficient to offset 100% of the district's energy utilization uh for 100% renewables. Um, one of the things looking forward is, uh, the way that the contracting works, um, we may want to hold off or think of a different strategy for, uh, continuing that, uh, energy offset, the utilization of renewable rerecks. um because with uh solar on our buildings coming in line, our energy use may change
044and and we would want to look at um right sizing uh the purchase or the contracting for that. Um another note that uh Provident gave was that we're seeing a significant increase in the transmission costs that represent 20% of our energy bill. Uh there is not much that the district can do but needs to budget and and plan for this. Um there is one strategy is to try to reduce our energy uses on peak load days in the summer and uh that's something that our facilities manager will get a um alert about and can make adjustments to the AC and and other energy use in the district to try to uh reduce uh the transmission to the district and um the costs for that. Uh a second agenda item was food services management. uh the
045district is required on a uh cycle to go through a RFP for the food service management company. We had six companies that uh responded to the RFP uh and there is a required scorecard rubric that is uh prepared by PTE uh and we had a committee that was comprised of Mr. Ta, Dr. Shelton, Dr. Haran and uh Ms. Mc Williams and uh with their thorough review of the different proposals uh the district has uh proposed to move forward with Chartwells as the provider again. Um it was nice to see Chartwells in the wellness um presentation that we just had the ways that they work with the district um to u make the lunch program the meal program part of the curriculum and services. Um a third item on the agenda was for gifts and donations.
046This is something that's going to come up at the policy committee. Uh but it does some of the gifts that are generously made by members of the community have impacts on our facilities, grounds and maintenance. Uh so there are some considerations uh that we would want to be mindful of as we look at you know how we accept gifts and um another idea that came out of our discussion was whether there should be like a minimum dollar amount uh that comes for board approval. Currently the board accepts almost any contribution. So um maybe some efficiency there. Uh we briefly discussed the final budget. There are no changes to the budget that were discussed at the committee and we'll be on a schedule to be approving that in June. Um there are two information items that
047we discussed that are on tonight's agenda, a budget expansion and budget transfers. Both of those are uh neutral to the bottom line of the district. Um and those are to be voted on tonight. And there are also some booster accounts for high school sports that are going to be closed because those activities have been transferred now to non-district accounts. And that was it. Thank you for curriculum and people services. Dr. Larson, no report. The next meeting of the Curriculum and People Services Committee will take place on Thursday, May 29th at 6:30 p.m. You for policy, Miss Ngrath. Likewise, we have an upcoming policy committee meeting. It will be uh next week, so May 15th at 6:30 in the boardroom. Thank you. Um are there any board members that attended district events that you would like
048to share at this time? I can share quickly about the um Chestnut Wald Art Show, which this week is a complete blur. So, I ran into you, Bridget, so it must have been last week. It was last week. Um the third graders put on a wonderful coral performance. They also um got out the recorder and played We Will Rock You on the recorder, which if you can imagine, there was a lot of squeaking. It was great. Um but then just seeing all of the work that the staff, the art teachers and um just you know the entire Chestnut World community put into all the beautiful art artistic creations that were um just around the schools. It's a beautiful evening of art at Chestnut World. Thank you. Thank you. I will just note that um Dr.
049Hayes will be having his next virtual meeting with secondary families on Wednesday, May the 14th. Um that'll be via Zoom. There should be information in your email as well as on our district's website if there are um any secondary families that wish to join during that time. Let's continue to section six finance and facilities for 6A billless. Can I have a motion to approve dispersements for payment totaling $582,28029? Okay. Moved. Second. moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 6B, owner's representation service proposal. Can I have a motion to approve the owner's representation service proposal with CB Development Incorporated for the cons for the construction phase of the Coopertown Elementary School renovation and additions project? Shelton moved for a second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor?
050Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 6 C, Chromebook lease approval. Can I have a motion to approve a technology lease for the acquisition of 1,279 Chromebooks for grades 6 through9 and 70 carts for grades 3 through 5 with Vantage Financial at a cost of $675,200 pending solicitor review of the final lease. Larson moved. Shelton second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Cart. Oh, the Chromebook just loading the loading purposes. Okay, thank you. Storage. Sure. Okay. I just had a question about um so it looks like the we're spacing out the costs over a 4-year period and um I guess with the tariffs that that seems like a a good idea, but I don't know if it that factors in at all, but it is a we are spacing it. This is going to cover it for
051the next I'm sorry. Yes. Yep. And that's usually the way we have done them in the past the leases and space them out over a period of time. Okay. Thanks. I I see there is an option in the or it looks like an option. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the um the proposal here that there's a dollar buyout lease charge or just a fair market value lease charge and they have two different interest rates and we're going for the one with the dollar buyout rate. Could or could somebody explain the leasing option? Rob or Audrey? I whichever one can speak best to it. Thank you. [Music] They're still functioning and useful. Yeah. And things like that. um with the fair market value, we would have to collect them all at the end of the school year and
052and ship them back to the leasing company at that point. So, logistically, that's also kind of difficult. Okay, that makes sense. Thanks, Rob. Any other any other discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? The motion passes. Item 6 D, Coopertown Renovations and Additions furniture purchase. Have a motion to approve the purchase of furniture as planned for the Coopertown Renovations and Additions project from Corbin Incorporators co-stars 035 E23197. My goodness. in nextgen furniture co-stars 035 ET2189 at a combined cost not to exceed $350,000. Whereas moved first and second moved and seconded. Any discussion? Somebody just speak to what um additional furniture and the needs are for in Coopertown. Um sure. Uh so it was to furnish all the new classrooms and then there were tables sorry there was new desks and chairs for all the principles and
053there was additional kidneyshaped tables. Right. We're going to have all these new learning spaces and exp. Okay. Any other questions? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 6E, budget expansion report. Can I have a motion for the approval of the budget expansion report as presented? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? I can just point out this is an example of the district getting um funds under these different programs and there is an offset for the amount. It's not an um addition to the bottom line. The the revenues that we got under these programs were matched by eligible expenses. And then just so that I could have some clarification. So like for example the first two I am looking at the the actual budget expansion reduction report.
054So the first two where I see carryover from 2023 to 2024 that is carryover from what school year is this? 25. So from last year from last year. Okay. All right. And then if I look further down where it says like final allocation. So if there is anything, there should not be anything left following this current school year. Got it. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 6F, budgetary transfers. Can I have a motion to approve budget transfers as presented? We have been moved. Shelton second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Section seven takes us to human resources. 7 A is retirement and resignation. Can I have a motion to accept the following retirements as listed? Okay. Moved.
055second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Mr. Garrett, he had over 30 years of service when he's retiring. Yeah. Yes. He works at the police. Mhm. Thank you for your time for everyone here listed. All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 7B, appointment. I have a motion to approve the following appointments as listed below contingent upon receipt of all necessary clearances including act 168 of 2014. Moved and second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? The motion passes. Item 7 C, leave of absence. Can I have a motion to approve the following leave requests? Move. Morrison second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? The motion passes. Item section 8, excuse me, takes us to people's services. So for 8A out of district educational service contract,
056can I have a motion to approve the following educational grievance for students attending out of district placement for the 2024 2025 school year? May moved. Shelton second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. We have nothing for section 9 curriculum instruction or section 10 policy. That brings us to section 11 other items. 11A is Delaware County Intermediate Unit Board member nominations. Have a motion to approve the following educational agreements. I'm sorry I did not move down. Have a motion to approve the nominations and corresponding resolutions for the individuals listed below to serve as board members to the Delaware County Intermediate Unit number 25 for a three-year term beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2028. Okay, moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Any
057opposed? The motion passes. 8 item 10 11B. Special counsel. Can I have a motion to approve the engagement of King Spry as special investigative counsel to conduct internal investigations when determined necessary by the superintendent or design and as outlined in the attached engagement letter. Shelton moved. First and second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Section 12 brings us to the second uh second time for public comments. This is for public comments for any other items that are not listed on the agenda. Um I have no one that signed up to speak. Is there anyone that does wish to speak? I do. Miss Fatali. Will you please just state your name for the record? Um, there'll be a threeminut timer set for you. At the end of the
058timer, will you please conclude your remarks? Uh, my name is Danielle Vitali. I live in the district. At the last board meeting, I objected to a policy. Among no other board members obligated to share my views, my opinion was discarded as privilege because my sons go to non-public schools. Rather than disparage a person for having a difference of opinion, I think it's important to understand why that person thinks the way they do. but makes the choices that they make. So tonight, I want to speak on why I pulled my youngest from Lynwood after fourth grade and placed them in a non-public school. My older sons, who are now in 10th and 12th grades, attended K through8 Hford public schools. So my decision to pull my youngest has no precedent. My youngest wasn't being bullied. He
059had no special needs that required a different placement. I moved him because the quality of elementary education in our district is plummeted. My older sons had meaningful homework at Windwood that reinforced skills and kept parents involved. Daily math act practice. They had spelling test, grammar assignments, expectations and responsibilities. My youngest had none of that. When he entered his current school in fifth grade this past September, he had never had a spelling test, a grammar test, taken notes, completed a book report, or even had to study for a test. When I tell people that, they're shocked. One parent even asked me what part of the country I moved from. My fifth grader now has spelling tests, grammar tests, science test, social studies and geography test, vocab test, and he studies for these tests from notes he
060has taken or a study guide that he fills out, key executive functioning skills. My son, honestly, who never cared about school, now says things like, "Mom, I have three tests next week, so I better start studying this weekend." In short, he is thriving with expectations and standards. And I'm angry that I have to pay for this. I'm angry that I had to pull him from his friends before his final year of elementary school. I'm angry that I had to provide daily math practice all last summer to catch my son, who was in honors math at Lynwood and doing great, up to his soon tobe classmates thanks to Jeff Nesbbit's weekend math curriculum. But education and academic rigor are my priorities and he was not being challenged or pushed to his potential. Many of my fellow
061board members outright disregard me when I speak about the changes to our educational standards that have taken place between my oldest and youngest sons and I'm mystified why they think I'm lying because I have nothing to gain. I'm not a politician or an activist. I'm just a mom. I challenge everyone in our district to speak with friends, neighbors, relatives whose children attend private, prochial, or top performing public schools to confirm what I'm saying. I made a lot of excuses for our district's academic decline. But it was only after talking to my brother last year about my then second grade nephew who attends Picopson Elementary, a public school in Union for Univille Chad's Ford school district that made me realize how far Hatherford had fallen. My second great nephew was getting among other things nightly homework
062and cursive practice spelling grammar test had his first book report. In short, he was getting a more challenging curriculum than his fourth grade cousin. I say this to show that public schools can promote and achieve academic rigor. have her first administration, not their teachers, administration, just choose to focus their agenda elsewhere. Morin Rushi inherited the eighth best school district in the state of Pennsylvania from Dr. Kyle Ballal and under her agenda, we have plummeted to 49th. My son deserved better, so my family made sacrifices to help him reach his potential. And that's not privilege, that's parenting. Is there anyone else that wishes to speak? All right, that takes us to section 13, report on executive session. Um, the board met prior to tonight's meeting to discuss with council two matters of agency business that if
063discussed in public would violate a lawful privilege or lead to the disclosure of information protected by law. The next regular board meeting is scheduled to be held on May 22nd, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the Oakmont Administration building. Can I have a motion? And can I accept a motion to adjourn the