001Good evening. I would like to call this April 3rd, 2025 regular board meeting to order. Can we all stand for the pledge, please? I pledge allegiance 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. I'll exper members to read the mission and goal statement. The mission of the school district of Habford Township is to educate and to inspire a community of lifelong learners who become well-rounded 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 all students have opportunities to grow and excel
002in areas of academic, technical, and career and social and emotional learning. And finally, our decision-making process is student centered and student voice is valued. The 2020 to 2025 district goals are social emotional wellness to produce a community of empathetic and resilient learners with skills to socially and emotionally flourish to prepare contemporary citizens by modernizing and expanding learning experiences to prepare students as critical thinkers, problem solvers, innovators, and designers within a complex global society. And finally, diversity and inclusion to establish a culturally diverse and inclusive educational experience that develops socioultural proficiency. Thank you. Mr. Tessa, can you call the role, please? Yes. Miss Lee, Dr. McCay here. Mr. Schwarz, here. Dr. Shelton, here. Miss Snagris here. Miss Vitali here. Miss Weedman here. Dr. Larson here. Dr. King here. Uh, Miss Lee is absent. She's actually attending
003the National School Board Association conference. Next item. Can I have a motion to approve the official minutes from the March 20th, 2025 regular board meeting? Shelter moved. Second. Moved and second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Motion passes. We'll continue with our reports from our students. First up, we have Hford Middle School student Zora Alvarado and I am an eighth grader here at HMS. I am a current runner on the girls track team, a member of Black History Club, and a former member of Hford Middle School Theater. I'm excited to share updates on what's happening at Hford Middle School. This week we celebrated our pair of our pair of professionals in the school librarian who are truly dedicated and play a crucial role at Habford Middle School. We are so grateful for their hard work
004and the impact they have on our community. Our hope Olympics fundraiser was an incredible success. We raised over $100,000 and the final total is expected next week. We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to support our friends, family members, and local community members who are bravely battling cancer. Our spring sports season is in full swing. Our student athletes are thriving, embracing the competition and making the most of the beautiful weather. As a member of the track team, I can say that we are grateful for the great weather during practices because it paid off when we won our first meet. Our jazz musicians and teachers are excited for the 44th annual evening of jazz tomorrow night at Hford High School. This special event kicks off at 6:30 p.m. and we look forward to the fantastic night
005of music. Next week is assistant principal appreciation week. We are fortunate for three kind, caring and hardworking administrators who make a tremendous impact every day. Dr. Hollandback, Dr. Crater, and Dr. Gario provide strong leadership and opportunity and and we are incredibly grateful for the for all they do throughout my years of middle school. They've helped me so much and I'm thankful for all the work they do they put into making our school a better place. Lastly, as we kick off our fourth quarter, we are excited for the remainder of the school year. Everyone is looking forward to the fun events ahead, including Potter Cup, grade level trips, spirit days, and student recognition days as we celebrate the close the close out of our year. That's all for my update. This is this is my last
006report because I'll be moving to the high school next year. Thank you for the opportunity to share the share updates over the past 3 years. Good evening everyone. My name is Beatric Cox. It's nice to see you all again. Our other high school reps have been busy with Austin playing for the undefeated volleyball team and Lucy throwing for the track and field team, but they will be back soon. The Fords have enjoyed a great couple of weeks with a few exciting updates to share. The high school has officially transitioned into the fourth quarter, marking the final stretch of the school year. I have PE and health this quarter, so I'll be getting my daily workout in whether I like it or not. Students and teachers are now focused on wrapping up the semester and preparing
007for the upcoming end ofear challenges. With that comes spring break, which is just around the corner with less than two weeks to go. The excitement is building as everyone prepares for some well-deserved time off to recharge and enjoy a little rest. This past Tuesday, the high school held a job fair where all grades could go to learn and apply for jobs in or near the township. I signed up for several summer camp counselor positions. And I know a lot of the students were happy to learn about all these opportunities in the community, not only to get paid, but to also get involved. This past week, 410 juniors went on the college road trip from places as far away as Rowan, Princeton, and Kutztown to places as close as Villanova, Delaware County Community College, and Penn
008State Brandy. For our sports highlights, our baseball team has had an amazing season so far with a score of 70, ranking third in the state. Huge congrats to them. On Tuesday, Harvard crushed the competition in all sports with boys and girls lacrosse beating Hariton. The girls flag football team having their first program win. Bo boys volleyball and tennis winning against Laurian and the girls softball team winning 18-7 against Ridley. Unified track also had a meet this past week along with their senior day. Tomorrow the jazz lab band and jazz ensemble will showcase their talents at the jazz student assembly where where they will be performing for the student body. The WHHS station is currently hosting a coffee house right now. Um, students will be singing not only covers but also originals. Also happening tomorrow at
0096:00 in the high school amphitheater is the drama club's first ever night of scenes, a showcase of comedic and heart-wrenching student written and directed scenes. Overall, the arts are alive and well at HHS. So, thank you all for your time tonight and go fors. Thank you to both Thor and Beatatric. So, next we'll have superintendent comments from Miss Axa. Great. Thank you so much, Dr. King. Uh, I'm very excited about our first presentation this evening. It's going to be coming from Coopertown Elementary School featuring uh what I will assume someday is going to be the very famous Jack Kavanaaugh. Uh uh Miss Mastercola, will you do the introductions? Great. Thank you. And sorry, Eric Swick is our school counselor and Jack Kavanaaugh, our premier guest, a fifth grade student and Coopertown student council president. He
010is also joined by Coopertown friends and family tonight. When we are asked to come to a board meeting each year, it is entirely up to us what we would like to feature. I see it as an opportunity to give you a glimpse of something we do at Coopertown that is unique to our school. Something we do that we are particularly proud of or we feel sets us apart. We chose to feature Jack Kavanaaugh tonight because of the ability he has provided our building to ensure that every student in our school is given the opportunity to live up to their greatest potential and truly shine. Since we met Jack in kindergarten, we have tried to meet this challenge. And where we have landed with Jack has transformed our school. And thanks to Jack's incredible talent beyond
011what anyone anticipated. So, let me give you the the backstory first. Jack Kavanaaugh is the third child in a family of five. He has one sister, three brothers, and two dogs. They live walking distance from Coopertown and on any given day you can catch a member of his family taking a jog or actually a sprint should see his mother run around our neighborhood. They are extremely athletic family and track and field is their number one calling. They all love sports including Jack. At recess, Jack has played cornhole cornhole with his friends, but then discovered his passion for for street hockey, which has easily played in our pavilion on our campus. We had burned through quite a few hockey nets at the at this point in his academic career. He loves these activities, but we knew
012he needed more. His fourth grade teacher, Miss Jan Festuka, begged to have Jack in her home room. She wanted to make sure he had the best fourth grade experience and had some ideas for how to make that happen. Janet grew up in a family of 10. You guys are ahead of me. Hold on. And had three brothers that helped her develop a love of sports and constant activity. She's also a passionate teacher who takes risks and goes beyond the curriculum to create further experiences for her classes. Last year, she decided to do the play King Midas in her ELA classes, and she knew just who would be King Midas, Jack. His oral reading abilities demonstrated so much personality that she was confident he would captivate an audience. And boy, did he ever. He brought down
013the house more than once as he did at least two performances of the play for his fourth grade classmates and then for the entire school. We were amazed by his acting and vocal abilities. So that started Miss Fesuga thinking, why not combine his love of sports with his vocal talent? Why not have Jack announce the morning sports report every Monday morning at Coopertown? She turned to Mr. Eric Swick for assistance. Without hesitation, and because of his endless devotion to every student at Coopertown, Mr. Swick was instantly on board. He and Jack met and discussed the plan. Every weekend, Mr. Swick and Jack would catch as many sports events as bedtimes allowed and write a report to read over the morning announcements each Monday morning. At Coopertown, fifth grade students do the announcements, so they would
014just share the mic, or in our case, the telephone with Jack each Monday. The best part about this idea is that I had absolutely nothing to do with it. As I've shared with you in the past, my favorite ideas that occur at Coopertown are the ones that I just have to say yes to and then get out of the way of other people's genius. This by far was one of my personal favorite approvals. I think I've provided enough of a backstory. Now, it is time for you to hear Coopertown's Monday morning sports announcements made famous by Jack Kavanaaugh himself. Take it away, guys. Good morning, everyone. Um, thank you for letting me be here. I'm going to take you back to the two best sports reports I've ever done. Um, this first one was right
015before the Super Bowl when he was at its peak and everyone was really excited. What's up, CO? It's finally Super Bowl weekend as our Eagles get ready to take on Taylor Swift and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs are destroying history as no team has ever won three Super Bowls in a row and the only thing standing in their way is St. John Barkley and Jay Herz. This match up is a rematch from two years ago when Jer nearly led the Eagles to a championship only to watch Patrick Williams do what he does as he snatched the Super Bowl away from the Eagles with a 3835 victory. However, all Eagles are different from a group that fell just short against Kansas City 2 years ago. This time in NFL was Diana Bur and Berkeley as
016he's rushed for over 2,400 yards with seven touchdowns of over 60 yards in the regular season and playoffs. The Eagles also have the league's number one ranked defense and emerging superstar at defensive tackle Cardinal who could be the tips the game in the Eagles favor. I'm hoping that the Eagles win 4221 and on Monday will all be Super Bowl champions. Woo! And then this next one is after the Super Bowl. Good morning, Cooper Town. It's super victory Monday as Cooper and Josh Smith and the Philadelphia Eagles ferocious defense denied Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and the Kansas City Chiefs as soon. And it wasn't even close. The Eagles defense deserves so much credit as they sacked him six times the most of his career and forced him into three turnovers. The biggest play on defense came when
017Cooper on his 22nd birthday picked off Patrick Williams and took it to the house for a big six. Jer came up big as he threw for two touchdowns and ran for a score on a dish to earn the Super Bowl MVP as he absolutely smashed the Chiefs 4022. Even presence couldn't help the Chiefs as they lost for the first time in 10 games this season with the top superstar in attendance. Any can score a single point until there's only 34 seconds left in the third quarter. It sounds like the Super Bowl will be this Friday. So any fan who wants to get in the parade welcome to school on Friday. Start that appearance now. I just wanted to finish by saying how how excited are you to be able to say I knew him when
018I also wanted to add that Jack and Mr. Swick will be the MC's for this year's track meet on Monday May 19th at 2:45 at Cornog Fuel. Please come out to see this historic first where a student will MCE the event. Turn it over for questions if you have any for this. No question. But you are awesome. I mean that got me out even though I know what happened. But I have to ask did you really pick 42 to 21? Did you really pick that for your score? You really called that before. I mean, I was off for like one point. I know. That's why I'm like, I might have to call you before I get like, you know, you might have another career that maybe your parent. But awesome job. Just awesome. You're awesome.
019Thank you. Amazing all the stats you pulled out there. I mean, you had number of time, you know, kitties over 60 yards, you know, most of Mahomes's career. I mean, did you do you do that research with them? Well, Mr. great. I am this impressive though. If I could just add something to you, like when I wrote these, I think the first time we did this, I had it in my head that I was going to like kind of walk him through, but this is what I want it to sound like, like let's emphasize it this way. And he did the dry run and it was like, okay, that's just yeah, just do that and just and um it's kind of been like that from from the beginning. He's uh I write him, but he
020is uh he is the star of the show for sure. I think my main comment besides just that was awesome is Dr. Huran, are you preparing for what comes next? Oh yeah, Jack, that was amazing. And I cannot wait to hear um what your wit and wisdom fluency passages sound like. I'm reading off the charts. Jack, do you do you have a favorite sport to cover? I I heard that you have to play a lot of different sports and and like to be active, but do you have a favorite one to cover? Football. Eagles. Football. Oh, the Eagles. They're super good right now, but Yeah. Okay. I mean, the Phillies are doing okay right now, too. You know, is that okay? Would you cover Phillies games, too? Nice. So, I would just like to say,
021um, like everyone else, that was amazing. I think what excites me the most that I love when I see our students have an opportunity to do things that they love and excel at that um that to me um speaks wonders about what we're able to offer our students in our community and our district. And so um when you're able to do what you love and be great at it um that will take you far in life. So kudos to you. Thank you. Well, many thanks to Coopertown, uh, specifically to Miss Vastuka, and of course to Mr. Swick and Miss Mastercola and to Jack. Now, I have a few more comments to make. How would you feel about reading them? No, I'm kidding. I will not ask you to do that. It was really, really great.
022Thank you all for for coming tonight and for sharing this special experience with us. Uh, I do really have more comments, though. Uh, so uh moving on. Uh be I am going to uh introduce uh Judy Wilson in just a moment, but I'm going to give you a few announcements in the meantime while she sort of gets herself over to the podium. Um I wanted to mention as did Beatatric uh a congratulations to the high school and Mr. Patrick Bader who organized the annual uh student job fair. We had uh that occurred this week. We had hundreds, literally hundreds of students sign up to attend uh with over 30 uh employers from from our local area and connecting folks to make sure our kids have opportunities within our community. Uh I also just wanted to
023mention that neurodeiversity and autism awareness weeks are being celebrated this week in our schools. Um the aims of these celebrations are to really celebrate the uniqueness of individuals with autism and neurodeiversity and to promote inclusive practices. So we've seen a lot of um elementary schools, some of them were having walks with some suggestions for conversations with buddies, others were doing uh bracelet promotions, others had t-shirts and spirit weeks. It's just been a really nice opportunity to um enjoy some readalouds, learn about each other, and celebrate uh all of our students uh and and what they bring to us in all their uniqueness. Uh I will also mention, as I believe I may have mentioned the last time I was here, but I know that Dr. Rushi had sent home a 60 seconds with the superintendent
024recently just talking about um our focus on recruiting more substitute teachers. So, I wanted to just provide a short update on that. Um, following that message, we had approximately 30 community members reach out to our HR department showing interest in working some sort of schedule for us, which which has been uh really helpful to know there's that kind of um support in right here in our community. Um, additionally, we've been able to secure more guaranteed building subs at the elementary level, which means those are the folks who report every day, even, you know, before we know what the positions are that'll be open that day. Uh and we've seen an increase in the number of daily substitutes who come specifically because of an open job. Uh our HR department hosted what they called a pop-up
025job fair in March which actually yielded additional instructional assistance which is also a group of folks who we'd like to have more of. Uh and so we they are continuing to attend our local career fairs at colleges, universities, and to recruit interested teachers. So, we're pleased to see an uptick in the fill rate of these substitute positions. We're not resting on those laurels, though. We are continuing to press and we'd like to uh continue to encourage folks to um go to our website if they know of someone who's interested in being a substitute teacher, send them there. Uh and we'll continue these efforts throughout the rest of the year. Um I also have just a few friendly reminders. As we also heard, spring break already is May is Monday, April 14th through Friday, April 18th.
026And Monday the 21st is an inservice day for teachers. So there is no school for students on that day. Uh, another announcements, you've heard this before, I'm just going to take advantage of the the space here. A reminder that this year it's the fifth graders who will be taking the science PSSA. Traditionally, that has been a fourth grade uh assessment. The state has moved it to be a fifth grade assessment, which means last year's fourth graders get to take it again, which I'm sure they're super excited about. Uh, PSSAs do begin after spring break, the week that we come back. So, if you have a student in grades 3 through 8, that's something that you should be hearing about from your um school's principal. They they've sent home some information. And the final sort of
027PSA is that residency verification is now required for rising sixth and 9th graders. So, if you have a a child who is a rising sixth or ninth grader, you should already have received some communication from the district regarding what that process entails and how to go about it. We also have the relevant information on our website if anyone would like to find it easily. Okay. Now, I am pleased to introduce uh Mrs. Judy Wilson who has facilitated um two of our strategic planning processes uh including our most recent one. And uh Judy is here to provide uh for us this evening an overview of that process and where we've landed. Thank you Judy. Thanks so much. So note to self, never follow Mr. Kavanagh. Oh, you're doing just a great great job. Um but I
028do want to say before I start this kind of more formal overview of your strategic planning processes, prior and current, um don't take what happens at Havford for granted. If you think about just the last 20 minutes and what you heard from three exceptional students, faculty members who support them and lead them and the work that is told, the story, the journey that is told of sports, arts, academics, um please just don't take it for granted. If Herderford's all you've ever known, um always realize that it truly is a diamond that shines among hundreds of school districts. It's not just in Pennsylvania had to be said. So, um it has been my privilege uh in the last decade to facilitate work uh through two strategic strategic planning processes and um some other work in between
029with professional learning. You have a cohort of teachers um traditionally but especially today who are both leaders and learners. They excel in the classroom but they're here with an eye to the future and as learners also. So in this work uh just a note that the last process started in 2020 and if we had ever had a crystal ball right we were planning goals and had a focus and knew where we were headed and mapped that out beautifully and we thought we knew exactly what the next 18 months would be and about 2 weeks later shut down for co. So no crystal ball. Uh but I mention it because even through that time period, your district kept um laser focus. Not just in the logistics of those months, but you kept a laser focus, did
030not lose momentum, thought everything through systemically. And I think that really the progress that's been made, the areas in which you've excelled, the journey which you've taken in the last 5 years is attributed to uh a board over time that has changed. Yes. But a board whose legacy from board to board to board has been to keep that focus on students. um you deal with a lot of things, negotiations, facilities, budgets, but at the core it's all about the mission. So to keep that laser focus on how are we making progress, what is the work, what's the professional learning that goes with it, what resources are needed to be allocated, and to really think about things always with a systemic approach. And I know the board works hard to do that, but so does your
031administration and so does your faculty. And I think that's why when you look at the results both in terms of academic testing and in terms of feedback from students, community and faculty, it's because of that focus. This is um a quote from 2023 actually with Richardson's one foot in the future and I shared it as we started this second round of strategic planning. So you know that plan is never over. You don't check it off, close a book, say it's about compliance, we're done. But it is a journey and there is evolution to it. And so here in 2025, yes, things have changed. societal needs, expectations, the workforce. So, Will Richardson reminds us school communities that are not engaged in curating new information, building capacity to understand the impacts of change, and constantly revising their
032visions are risking their relevance in a world that seems to be spinning faster day by day. And that relevance is the relevance for our students. our students who in 2025 and beyond have to be prepared for something different than we might have even been thinking about only five years ago, let alone prior. And so this year um a new body of great thinkers and leaders uh students, faculty members, administrators, board members, many teachers and parents and a couple community members uh convened for two full days in this room to take stock. Where are you now? Where's the world? What are the needs? Five years ago, we certainly weren't talking about AI. We certainly had a different take on the workforce and we needed to do a little bit of both gathering input again and recasting.
033So that input as you know had many facets to it and my hat is off to have a word for always always looking at inclusive processes. Um, you know better than to have three people in the middle of summer set goals for a year. You know better than to change goals every year, right? You understand that all of this is long time, long-term hard press work. Uh, that doesn't stop in June and start again in September and that needs time to meet success. So, in the months prior to February, um there were online uh surveys and we had over 4,600 responses to those surveys. Again, parents, students, faculty, and community members. I held onetoone conversations with 25 leaders across the community in the district and facilitated seven forums that had about 125 people participate. And
034then a core team as I mentioned uh met for two days just a few weeks ago. 38 very fine thinkers who were leaning forward into this work and many of them are here tonight and I just I would love for you to stand. I would just if you were with us um there are many people here on the board just like thank you thank you thank you. You really represented you really represented the best of thinking for Havford and were very very student centered and um Beatatric kept us straight along with Austin and Zach. Uh quite often it was your student voices and input that led the way. Uh we checked with him. Does this make sense? Does this resonate with you? We on the right path. Does this seem like a your experience? and
035be your hope for the students coming after you in the years to come. And where we landed at the end of those two days were four. You've been working with three major goal areas. Four major goal areas. Understand that these are the big picture umbrella buckets kind of that will guide the work. The nitty-gritty of how, when, what, where uh is now in process as well. But before we get to those action teams and the action plans, the Havford commitment, we will lead and support the academic growth of all learners and will guide them to be intellectually curious, empathetic, hardworking, persistent, resilient, and kind. To do so, we will focus on these four areas. academic excellence in an evolving world. What looks different for today uh as far as we can follow the research, follow
036the workforce, follow the changing times. What do we know today that we might not have known again even 5 years ago? Prepare future ready learners who persevere, adapt, problem solve, think critically and are supported by an engaging learning by engaging learning experiences and intentional use of technology. This is not a goal about technology and tools and software, right? This is about the intentional wise use of technology to support excellent learning belonging. We saw this again and again and again through surveys from parents, from students, from teachers. Honor every individual's inherent dignity through equitable, inclusive, and diverse practices, instructional practices, counseling practices, supportive practices. social emotional competence and this has a different twist than the way we knew social emotional learning 5 years ago. Build a learning community that prioritizes social emotional competence as a foundation
037for academic success, resilience, wellness, and strong relationships. No child is able to learn at their best if not strong with social emotional competency. And lastly, but all equal here, community pride and civic engagement. And this is something that really rose to the top in this round of input. um something we saw more strongly than we did in past um surveys, forums or interviews. Empower students to be active, responsible and contributing citizens through shared responsibility and community partnerships. How are Havford students engaged in your local, regional, and wider community? And how were those community partnerships formed to support academic excellence, to support belonging, and to support social and emotional competence. From this point, as you know, we move forward with action plan co-chairs. Those wonderful leaders met with me uh just last week on the 26th.
038Is that just last week or two weeks ago? On the 26th. Uh they have chosen committee members from across the district to align with each of the major goal areas and they are already very hard at work determining what the next best steps for the next 18 months will be. Just an 18-month chunk, right? Because we're beyond that can't see, can't predict. We want to go over two budget years over two summers, make great use of time, capture those next victories, and then reassess every 18 months. They're already hard at work. Uh they will have action plans probably before um June 1st rolls around and most likely we recommend some work for the summer as well. In that time period, we'll also transition with some engagement with Dr. haste and bring him in on not
039only his status but the conversations, the hopes he has, how he might contribute to the early shaping of this work before you come to the end of the school year. That work plan again will carry July up until January of 27. And just as you have been very very true to the communication every month at board meetings, um 60 seconds with the superintendent, the Hford newsletters, you've been very actually you've been a model of how well to communicate process on a monthly basis. Uh that will continue and will loop community members, faculty, more and more people into this work as the next few weeks unfold. That was a lot of work that people did. Hundreds of people, dozens of people in different configurations, all lending their ideas and their voices. I am very pleased to
040say that you're a district that listens to that input, that says, "hm, didn't think about that. That's stronger than I would have expected. That rose to the top in a way that it didn't only a short time ago." What does that mean for our students? And um that's been the key question always for Havford. That's why you excel in so many areas. It's still the key question. What does it mean for our students? Never finished, never a checklist, never just a compliance done it. Uh it is a journey but it is a journey that is systemic, focused, well communicated and it yields good results for your children. I just give people the right forward to do it and your Havford community source little status report. Lots more to come. Happy to answer any questions. I
041just want to comment that I you know I would I was very privileged to be a part of the workshop and I just want to thank everybody who participated the community the teachers the administrators they were so dedicated and hardworking I mean we went into the workshop with 4600 surveys you know that and we read every one of those and at the end of the two days you we had this product with you know this commitment and I just want to thank all the hard work that people put in. Thank you. Want to echo that and I also wanted to give special recognition to the to the students. Their formal beatress was a star. You held the room whenever you spoke. I thought that was fantastic. Um, a couple things I wanted to point out.
042One thing that I think were very that that that I caught from my teachers and administrators was that to not, you know, to to be explicit about academic excellence. We always kind of talk about that. It's always there. It's explicitly stated in this in this plan though. I think that's very important. The other big thing that I think is really, you know, a big selling point of of this plan, if you will. One thing that that we have not had, we we, you know, district does a lot of work with the community. There is that H pride, you know, feeling throughout district. There's never been though in our plan, we talk about global citizens. We we had not mentioned local citizens yet. And that I think is one of the major um things of of
043of you know, one major aspects of this plan. Um, you know, words do matter. Language doesn't matter. You will not see the words foster or encourage or seek in here. You see words like, you know, prepare, build, empower. I mean, these are things that that you can look back on in in a couple years and measure them. Say, did we do this? It's not like, you know, well, we kind of did. You can look back and say, yes, we did. No, we're falling short. You know, here's what we do. So th those action uh teams I I'm looking I really am looking forward to how they bring these into fruition. They've done great into that work. Yeah. And it was fantastic. Great process. I would encourage anybody on the board to be a part of
044that at at some point in the future. People in community administrators. It was a it was it was it was fun to see how how it comes together. And it was lightning to see how it came together too. Um, I just want to echo something that Mr. Schwarz just said, um, about my appreciation for putting in academic excellence and that was one of my feedback things. You know, before I was preparing contemporary citizens and I know we get and I was critical of it as well, but we'd hear that where's the academics in the plan and it's well it's under that but it doesn't say that words do matter and that is you know everything else is great too but if we don't have academic excellence nothing else like that's where school district. So, I
045really am very appreciative of the wording there. Thank you, Judy. I want to thank you for putting all of this together, compiling this, and also um echo e echo what others have said. Um thanking the community, just some incredible participation across the board in this process. Um my question is thinking about our previous plan rolling into this plan, like do we kind of the old plan falls away? Um is that kind of like is the new one more an evolution? I I'm just I guess I'm wondering we're also at this inflection point where a new superintendent will be joining us. A lot of transition going on. Like what does the transition between plans typically look like? So in in some ways it is very smooth in that you do have direct carryover from some of
046your previous goals. um and there's work from those goals in each one of them whether it was the social emotional wellness diversity inclusion or um contemporary citizens which really did have a lot of academic work accomplished just have that word in there um so much of that work will continue but what rises to the top will look different in the action plans right so none of that will stop right there's no but where do we need to shift where do we need to shift with more professional learning. Where do we need to shift with resources? Maybe with time um that can include everything from student time to you know um professional learning time. I think those plans not only will bring that specificity to you but also the measurability of them. How do we know
047right? What what are our benchmarks and our progress markers? How do we know? Great. Thank you. And we will be looping in um in this transition. Your next superintendent. Hi. um about like what this is um are these our goals like has it been decided that these are 25 30 goals? This is what your core team designed wordsmith thought rose to the top. So the short answer is yes and it will be the very specific work areas. Okay. Um, I guess I'd like to hear more about social emotional competence and how this got written the way that it is and and here's like how I'm reading it. Um, and it's comparing it with like our old one which I felt like focused a lot on whether our students are doing well and whether they are
048socially and emotionally well. I love the use of the word flourish actually and whether they're flourishing from the inside. This feels like it's the opposite of that where they're looking from the outside. They understand other people's social emotional capacities, like the social emotional competence that they have as a foundation for success, resilience, wellness, strong relationships. That seems to be more outward looking than inward looking at our students. I don't know if that was a conversation point or if that came up. Um that that's sort of that's how I read it on on first glance and and sort of like is is really striking to me on how the differences between this one and our and the last social emotional wellness goal. So a couple of um comments. The the first was the word competence in
049that it really is a set of skills and so it is individual. It really is like what are my skills? What do I need to work on? Um, and that those skills are teachable, learnable skills, not just I feel this way, you know, uh, this is my mood meter or this is my color of the day or whatever it might be, but really how can I take some responsibility in a positive way with support and learning, right, to build sets of skills to be resilient, to have relationships, but also to know myself, right? So, it is it looks both ways. It's internal and me and the world. Okay. One of the things we discussed actually during the the session was don't just make kids feel better. Teach them the skills to help to help themselves
050to be better. That's that's that's kind of what it was. And you know, I'll point out every every word in here was poured over pretty much. I mean, you know, it got very much in the weeds. But I think what you said is is is perfect. Don't just, you know, don't just make sure that that they're okay. help them to be to be okay, you know, in perpetuity with skills with competencies and it's it's inside outside very much both. Yeah. Maybe I just have a different understanding of like what the word competence means and when when we think about like core competencies and and sort of like that's like checking a box that I've like succeeded here and I'm able to um s perform this task or something like that. And and I guess like
051my my concern is like reading this that it's more like like I said just it's more focused on like like the skills aspect which is great that they have skills for social emotional competence but like are our students actually well like that's my question and like where is that in here? So the question the overarching question is are our children well and are they not only well but well enough to then be able to excel right. Um I think this is also about confidence right students having the confidence to know themselves to know where they are to know what they need and then and then to build outside relationships. So in terms of that I would say building confident young learners in their own skill sets uh both for wellness and then for academics. But
052your your question can be taken back to the action plan committee also. Um I I will say that um I was part of the planning five years ago and this is probably a good opportunity to just consider the ways in which that plan that we've resonated with for 5 years did evolve and get interpreted and get embedded in so many aspects of our school um programs, climate uh activities. So I um one I would say the district did a great video kind of a a recap of the strategic goals and would invite people to look at that and see the ways in which it has been rooted in our our school community but also using that as an opportunity to look at this and and knowing that it will um it will kind of grow
053and take root in in different ways. And I think there is I I see the um it resonates with topics that I hear the community talking about, things that people are concerned about and how it it is a building from uh the work that's been done and um has really taken root over the last 5 years. And and I wouldn't hesitate to say you've been a model in the social emotional wellness world for public school districts and a lot of people have contacted Havar to say what are you doing? How are you making that happen? You know whether it was counseling or wellness days or student input. You you've done a beautiful job with that. So perhaps the answer is really in the action plans that you'll see. Yeah. Um so and you said we'll
054we'll get an update on the action plans in the summer. Is that No, prior to the end of the school year. Prior to the end of the school year. That will be there will be one for each area. Yes. Right now you have um co-chairs uh three co-chairs for each goal area working with teams of with about five other committee members with them doing some research looking at other models making sure we're grounded in 2025. Uh taking inventory a little taking stock of what has happened across the district recently. and then thinking about their next best steps. And so I do want to um first off take a moment to thank the committee for all of its hard work for getting this plan together. Um I want to echo Miss Miss Nagrad's comments in relation
055to social emotional competence. Um and I I guess we have this similar understanding of the word competence. And my only question would be um for the students in our in our community that may struggle with social emotional competence that may have difficulty managing those emotions um if we are tying that to their academic success, resilience, wellness and strong relationships, what does that say for the student that is incompetent and I am and perhaps this will come out in various plans. How are we supporting those students? How are we supporting the classrooms and teachers and administrators to make sure that we have this overall arching goal of inclusion? Yes. Um because for me um it doesn't completely feel inclusive. And I think that you really hit the point that I was trying to say and you
056said it more eloquently, but like if you can be competent at something, you can be incompetent at something. And so are we saying that like we expect our students to be socially emotionally competent? That's much easier for some students than others. Absolutely. Yeah. And so I just I it feels almost like um like an an expectation more than than a building. Right. Whereas like I felt like our last goal was was the district's recognition that social emotional wellness is important and that we are here for you and that we want you to be well on the inside whether or not you are traditionally competent at that or not. And so that's where and so I'm sort of just like struck by it. Yeah. And so perhaps it's even in that label, right? In the label
057of the goal. So we'll take that back to the group that had these discussions. I appreciate that. Yeah. Happily. Anything else? Right. Well, I'm very appreciative of the fact that um there's energy around the work here, that this isn't just uh we did it, we'll do it again in 5 years, we'll see what happens. It's purposeful. it's intentional and it is inclusive. So, um I'll look to see really great work evolve over the next five years as well. Thank you. And thank you to to Judy for your leadership, your facilitation of uh the process. It's always impressive to see um wow to it's a joy uh to see 38 uh people digest all of that feedback and Judy somehow wrangles the group into um coming to some kind of consensus around these things. So we
058thank you for that uh and look forward to more to come. And then the last item in the superintendent's report this evening is Mr. Testo's presentation of the proposed budget. Thank you. Okay. So, some of this is going to look familiar from when um I made the presentation at uh last month's board meeting. And some items I have highlighted just to kind of high just to kind of show um maybe what some changes have been since the last time and just some additional notes to help explain um some of the budget report. Um so we did look at the act one index. Um we do know that uh 4.0% is what's scheduled for next year. And then the projection uh by the independent finance office fiscal office um shows you what it is for the
059years following that and that's a projection that they will uh revise. We looked at our aid ratios just to see where they were um and what they mean. Um there's the different impacts that it has on our funding sources from basic ed um special ed and transportation and then our what's called our authority rentals and syncing fund. It's the reimbursement that we get on the construction projects that we have done when there were plan con funds with PTE. Um so we still have some of those bond issues where we are receiving some of this revenue. Um we don't get it on the newer sources of the bonds that we have taken out. Um but we do still have some that remain when we look at our proposed revenue. Um one thing I just wanted to
060highlight on this schedule was the decrease in the federal revenue. And just to clarify that that's a result of ESSER programs that were may have carried into the 2425 year completed in that year and that's why you do see a drop off in 2526 because those programs have not been um regenerated. um hopefully that the world doesn't need another um set of ESR programs but um we'll see. So that's why that partly does drop off. Um and then a reduction in federal funds um also is reflected because we had some carryover funds for title one and title two. So that's why it was a little higher. We don't have to spend those funds by June 30. Um in most of the programs you get to spend them um through September 30. So that's why sometimes
061we will see some carryover of those programs. This one I just wanted to add um just another way to look at our revenue just to really show the impact of um where the majority of our revenue comes from and that would be our local sources um and the tax revenue that's generated um throughout the community. Um this was one where we look had looked at the proposed tax revenue. we do see that there's a change in the assessed value from the current fiscal year that we're in to what has been certified by the county um for our next set of um tax bills that would go out um this summer. Um and again, that's primarily driven by any appeals that take place um with our taxpayers. And with a CLR rate that continues to decrease,
062um it does kind of give that opportunity. It opens it up for more appeals where um residents can look to bring down what their assessed value is based on the market value. Can I ask a question about that? I'm sorry. I don't know if this is your questions, but I I guess this is just mindboggling to me because I feel like real estate values are at an all-time high or I feel like they are like that's reality. So, how is this happening? So, a lot of it has to do with the because the assessed values are not keeping pace with the market values. So that gives them the ability um when they look at that ratio that keeps coming down. So they taxpayers have that ability then to um kind of make that appeal to
063bring down closer to what the assessed value is. So when we had the um countywide reassessment back in 21 that was supposed to level everything. So assessed value was supposed to equal market value. So then but then it changed. It never kept pace with that 1:1 ratio. and that's giving the ability to kind of make that adjustment and that appeal. Not that I would recommend another countywide reassessment, but that's kind of what that was supposed to write. So, we're challenged in Hford Township by not being a community with a lot of new developable land, right? Like we um if there aren't new developments, new construction, new things, then we're not adding to the tax base. And Correct. Yeah, this just erosion of the basis is frustrating like when you said when I think it would
064feel like to everyone that our property values are going up. It does seem like 2020 was the worst time for that to happen too. Thinking about how much home prices have ballooned really since then and it seems like the assessed values have have done the opposite, right? And there's nothing that we can do about that. No, I mean we could look at the appeals that come forward to the district, but as far as, you know, reassessing the whole our whole community, we we we would not have that ability would have to be countywide. Uh again, this was just looking at our proposed revenues. Um we looked at local revenues, but that 4% millage increase, it really only reflected a 3.73 increase. And that again was due to the change in the assessed value. Um our
065basic ed funding, we will see an increase in the governor's budget of 107,000. That's in his proposed budget. And as far as special education, we see a slight reduction of $4,000. Um but that's still early because a lot of the data that they utilize as far as ADMs, average daily memberships, um they're still finalizing that information to come to final allocations. One thing that we did get in the 2425 year was a cyber charter reimbursement. So we received $52,000 um for Hford, but that's not going to be uh put back into the 2526 budget. So when you look at the 100,000 that we're going to get in basic ed and you take away the charter school funding that we've received this year, we're really only seeing an increase of about 55,000 between those two streams.
066So it's and basic funding is is a pretty large portion of our state subsidy. So it really minimizes what the district will see as an increase. Um when we look at federal revenues, um we're about just a little under 2.2 million. So a question was asked, you know, what if there's a loss of federal funds? So that would would have resulted in a budget with staffing cuts. Um certainly we would have um prioritized those positions that have direct contact with the students. um they would kind of have you know been looked at last but um definitely it would draw um on our staffing to have because it is the majority of our expenditures in the operating budget. Um another component of that that doesn't come through the general fund but comes through our food service
067fund is the federal reimbursement we receive for the meals that are served. So in the 2324 fiscal year we received a little over $1.1 million. So if you take that away, if you had taken that away from the program, it would have caused a deficit of about $627,000 in the food service program, which at some point the district would then have to cover the loss of a food service program because they would eventually if that trend continued would not have sufficient funds to operate the food service fund. Um even though they are a separate fund, the the general fund would have to help support that. um if that were to happen. Again, proposed expenditures. So, proposed expenditures are about a 3.34% increase again with salaries and benefits being your majority um of your expenditures net.
068So, when we look at your expenditures overview, so what we have presented maintains all co current programs with no cuts or reductions. Um it maintains all contractual obligations and benefits. Um we were also asked um to identify any staffing requests that were part of the 2526 budget. Um the directive this year was to not bring any staffing forward unless it was due to an increase in enrollment. um as it was we had staffing that was identified for the 2425 budget that we're currently in that we did not uh put forward which was an assistant principal at Chadam a curriculum supervisor and a custodian for Chadam for the new uh to accommodate the renovations that were taking place in that building. Uh when we looked at the proposed budget that I presenting this evening compared to
069what we had seen on March 6th, we do have um a favorable change in the budget. Um one of the things that did increase was an update to our prescription premiums. Um the our benefits provider had provided us with some new calculations. Um some of the things that were able to offset that and some of the previous uh deficit that we had was attritional savings on two FTEEs. um some operational department budget reductions and maintenance vehicles that were deferred um in the 2526 budget that we had also deferred in this year's budget. So that's something that we'll have to watch um as we go forward. So as far as fund balance um in the center where the two blue arrows meet the 2,71,000 that's what we have set aside we've committed for this year's operating
070budget loss. um watching that on a monthly basis to see where we are. Uh right now we're not at that point. So we're hoping to not have to utilize all of that 2 million and then that way it goes kind of back into the committed balance and allows us to use that to balance the 2526 budget. So it doesn't add as much of a stressor on that committed balance. Um and then the items in red again are the operating budget shortfall for the 2526 year. Um we would use 2.283 283 million from unassigned fund balance and then 500,000 from that committed fund balance. And this just kind of shows that uh balancing the budget with um with hope to uh you know we don't require all those reserves. So we want to just make sure
071that we're not um kind of increasing that reserve um assistance. Mr. Tessa, can you remind us on the unreserved fund balance percentage what the the guidance is in terms of a recommended cushion there for districts? So based on our revenues, we are able to um hold 8%. If we have more than that, then we're unable to raise taxes. Um generally the finance industry will recommend 5 to 8% as a comfortable point. Um obviously um there are districts that can go beyond the 8% based on their size, but they really recommend for ratings purposes just to kind of show fiscal stability that we stay between the five and 8%. Um as far as capital projects, uh we have reserved a million we have set up a million dollars to do capital projects for this year and
072that does include solar. So, um I know coming up in May, May 20th, the Commonwealth Finance Authority will be making their decision on solar. So, we do have two applications out there. Um one for Chadam and one for Lynwood. So, we'll see how um we make out on those. Um I just wanted to kind of note what makes up the solar for schools project. Um the project at Lynwood is 676,000 in total. Um we hope to receive 202,000 almost 203,000 from the solar for schools grant. Um there's an investment tax credit that would be give us yield the same amount. Um the PA utilities would give us around a $31,000 credit and then local funds which are the funds that the district would ultimately uh be in charge of is $240,000. So after those three
073sources come back to us, the net cost to the district would be 240,000. Um their investment tax credit and the amount that comes from the Pennsylvania Utility Commission, you would see those in the second year of operation. So once that um solar project has been up and running that refund would come in in that year. Um just again to touch on solar for schools. So DCED has received 88 applications from across uh 25 count uh schools from across 25 counties and requesting 88 million of the 25 million that they have allotted. So um be curious to see how we make out on that. Um kind of what they're using as a guide. Um there's hope that they Governor Shapiro will put another 25 million into his next operating budget for this program. So hopefully um
074we'll have a if we don't have a chance this year, hopefully we have a chance in in the next budget year. Um projects such as district-wide concrete, gym bleachers, HBC controls. These are just some of the projects that we're going to defer for this summer. Um and then future projects that we have in in consideration in the 5-year plan. Um so kind of we'll hold off on those for the time and then we'll see um how we can allocate capital in the following year for those projects. And then this was a three-year projection. So this was something not much of a change from what we saw in the last presentation and just kind of shows what the reliance would be on fund balance. Um just given some general projections 3% on expenditures. um looking at
075taxes at an act one index and flat on state subsidies because it's very uncertain and you can see from this year's budget um it's uncertain that we would receive a lot in state subsidies. So we don't we just want to be conservative um when we look at that. And then your projected ending fund balance. Um so this just kind of shows with that previous slide what the fund balance would look like um coming out to the 2728 year. Um and again just the the items in red were just to show that the how low it goes at that point. Um no other significance uh for that change and then next step. So on April 24th um the board will adopt the proposed final budget. So it's not your final final just proposed at this point.
076Um and then we do actually advertise that we put it up for the public to be able to inspect on the PTE 2028 form. So, it's a summary level budget that um is required for public view and then with the final adoption occurring on June 5th. Take any questions. Yeah, I I just had a question about the the the long-term um projection that you had that uh the second to last slide and what what would be some changes that could be made to prevent the fund balance from falling? I mean, I know it's the last year where it really takes a dive, but is there any conversation about how we can prevent and really just conservative spending would help to, you know, there's years where we we set aside funds to balance the budget. So,
077if there are years where we don't have to use all of that and that helps push out um and keep some of that fun balance place, that's really where um where the key would be, just conservative spending, just kind of watching even though we put it into the budget, do we really need to spend it when that time comes. Got it. Sure. One thing that um I noted on the three-year projection, there's a line item other financing uses is that our debt service the 14 $15 million. It is. Yes. Yep. So, it's a culmination of the bonds that are taken out. And so, that number isn't really growing. That's not um proportionally like contributing to the trend. We've borrowed and we have plans to borrow what we need to finish the capital projects that are
078on deck. But um and our our financing company has done a good job of wrapping around our debt. So as debt falls off in future years and we take on new debt, they really try to minimize that millage impact going forward. So I guess is there a couple of things that you can point to that changed? Um, for prior years, I recall that we budgeted conservatively, generated surpluses that were able to go and build the fund balance, um, contribute to the capital fund. Um, what has changed in the last couple years so that now we're at a this tighter deficit outlook? Sure. I think part of it's our share in the state subsidies. I know this year we did receive an additional 300,000 after the budget was passed. Um but I think our share of
079the basic ed funding and the special ed funding is not as great as it was and there's not as much money being put back into the basic ed funding. Um I think the presentation that I had seen on the budget, this is the lowest in 10 years as far as the money that they're circulating back into the basic ed funding. So that we're not really seeing a a bonus from. So, while we're still um you know meeting our obligations for staffing and benefits, we're not seeing that offset on the basic ed funding side. Um I think on your local revenues also um we're not seeing as much movement in the housing market. So maybe interim taxes, transfer taxes, we're not seeing a large um a large increase there. Um once we are once we come
080out we're in a um an inverted yield market right now. So once we come out of that um hopefully we can look at investing some of our money on a long longer term basis. Right now um the the rates are not favorable to invest longterm. It's more it makes sense just to keep it in the short term um than we have it now. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Great. Thank you. All right, thank you. So that brings us to the next section on the agenda, item four, public comment. 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
081agenda 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 for residents of the township to speak for 3 minutes. A timer will be set at the start of your comments and alarm will sound indicating that your time has been completed. Should you have any materials for members of the board, please leave them at the end of the table with Mr. Tessa 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. Um, I do not have anyone that is signed up for public comment for this section, but if there is anyone that wishes to speak for an item listed
082on the agenda, you may at this time. Seeing none, we're going to continue. Section five takes us to board reports. First up, we have Delaware County Community College, Dr. McKay. Um, yeah, just the um March um update was sent to to all the board members. Um I just wanted to highlight the fact that the teacher education pathway program has started for the spring of 2025 and there are 27 um students who are enrolled from all of Delaware County. Um at this point in time, we have one Herford High School student who's enrolled. So that's great news that there's one who's doing it. I hope that we can hear from them and hear their excitement and maybe that that can recruit future more students. Thank you. Um for the DCIU is Miss Lee, but she is
083absent. Uh we'll continue with C the Legislative Council. Dr. Shelton, no report. Thank you. Um we have PSBA and finance and facilities by Miss Weederman. PSBA, no report. Finance and facilities, similarly, no report, but um we will meet on April 28th and continue the discussion of the budget and other fun finance and facility matters. Thank you for curriculum and people services. Dr. Larson. Thank you, Dr. King. Um I'm going to be reporting on the curriculum and pupil services meeting from Thursday, March 13th. Um we had a few presentations from district staff. We um first presentation was on the instructional technology plan. Um Mr. Anderson, Miss Hearn, Dr. Wells and Miss Corkran presented that um they shared that the instructional technology plan is currently under development and that it will serve as a strategic framework for
084integrating technology to enhance teaching and learning, support equitable access, and prepare students for success in a technologydriven world. Um they shared that the plan will be a three-year plan and have three focus areas including instructional technology tools, software, sorry, technology tools and software, purposeful screen time, and digital citizenship and literacy. Its development is being driven by data that was collected during the CCIU technology audit in the spring of 2024. Um, also during this current school year, the technology a technology advisory council um made up of a cross-section of staff from the district is working to develop the plan which will guide um the work district's work um and the council will also do ongoing review and feedback of that plan um to monitor its progress. During the first year um of implementation, there is a
085focus on establishing that um that council I just mentioned and starting to put in place communication to staff about the tech plan. Also looking at some professional development opportunities for them. Um the second year we'll look at a plan with um a focus on feedback loops and that third year will involve evaluating and adjusting the plan as needed. Next we had a presentation on the science audit um and as well as curriculum alignment by Dr. Nesbbit. Um Dr. Nesbbit shared that the science audit is currently underway and that PD has recently updated its science standards. Um the PA steels, as they're called, are being piloted by the state this year and they'll be officially tested next year. Um in the meantime, the district is aligning its curriculum to these new standards. They're survey surveying teachers,
086students, and families to deter determine the best approach. Um, also through a review of the standards during this audit, um, it was discovered that the current curriculum we have here in the district covers about 75 to 85% of those new standards and that there will be next steps needed to include writing curriculum to help cover 100% of the standards. Um, as well as procurement of additional resources to fill some of those gaps. Um, Dr. Dr. Nesbbit highlighted that our science scores across the district are overall strong. Um with the Keystone scores um being highlighted as among the top in the state um and the biology keystone being in the top 1% of the state um in the state for the last three years. Um, additionally, some of the surveys during this audit have shown that
087parents and students show have positive um, outlooks and results on the science curriculum with 75 to 80% of students feeling prepared and engaged in science classes and parents giving good feedback on science um, the science instruction that their students are receiving. Um, in terms of what will come before the full board, um, there will be an ask to update the science curriculum and materials. Um, we're looking at anticipated costs of up to $50,000 for elementary science kits. Again, to meet the new needs and requirements of the PA Steel standards, um, for the middle school science units, um, about $200,000. Um, I think it was 200. May have been 20. That's not good. It's 200,000. 200. Okay. It was 200. Okay. All right. Middle school was 200. Um, high school books and resources $150,000. and curriculum
088writing and PD again to fill in those gaps between the old standards and the current um around $20,000. So that will be coming to the board at a later date with more specific numbers but again those are anticipated costs. Um next we have a presentation on the psychological sense of school membership survey also known as the PSSM that was presented by Miss Carter. Um the PSSM is used to measure adolescent perceptions of their school. Miss Carter and her team analyzed the data and recommended systemic changes to support equity and inclusion for students in the district. Um, in the previous year, in previous years, this work of analysis has been done by the P the PEN GSSE catalyst program, but now it's being done in-house to build the district's capacity and Miss Carter's leading that work.
089Um, the PSSM has had a great turnout of students participating and the overall results show that teachers are interested in students, respect them, and that students do not wish they were in a different school. Um, these are top areas of belonging according to the survey. Um, the administrative team has been examining trends over time to identify patterns in student sense of belonging. Um, and the data was broken down for the board. um looking at demographics such as race, ethnicity, religion, and gender to provide insights into how students from various backgrounds experience belonging. And there's also discussion on the importance of fostering a culture of belonging here in the district. And um Miss Carter shared how the how district leadership is engaged in professional development to create a culture where students feel valued and respected um
090using the principles of feeling accepted, appreciated, treated fairly, and validated to foster that belonging. Um, we also saw the data from the 2425 PSSM where the district's belongingness reached a score of 3.97. Um, which is the highest since the pandemic years um with students feeling that their relationships with teachers are crucial for their sense of belonging. So that's that's a glow for sure. Um, in terms of addressing a sense of belonging, um, the district plans to collaborate with school leaders, align data findings and current initiatives, and integrate student feedback into its ongoing efforts, um, through responsive classroom, for example, and restorative practices in our secondary schools. Um, Miss Carter also highlighted how the district offers various initiatives to enhance students sense of belonging, including leadership roles, activities, um, various events in the elementary and secondary
091schools, um, as well as the work with the D DCIU coalition for student voice and agency and the student leadership institute. Um, finally, Miss Saxa shared an information item for the committee um, looking at the grouping grouping practices for English language arts. Um, Miss X has shared that elementary principles principles have been gathering information on best practices for grouping students in core instruction and are considering changing their practice for fourth and fifth grade language arts to move from leveled to unlevelled groups. Um, the goal of this potential change is to ensure that all students have access to high quality learning experiences. Um, Miss Exa cited the current curriculum resources and NTSS structures which provide supports for differentiation and allow teachers to support students at a variety of levels. And um, she mentioned that she will
092provide an update to the board on the outcome and any potential next steps in May. Um, and that is it for the update. Thank you for policy. Miss McGrath. Yeah, thanks. There's just been a schedule change. So, um, we had a policy committee meeting set for, um, later this month. I think it was going to be next week and looking at the schedule and the policies that we have on the books right now that we're moving through the board and what our, um, schedule is for reviewing policies going forward, new policies at the committee level. Um, we felt like that was a little bit too soon for um, the committee to meet. So, that one will not happen. But the um policy committee that was on the schedule for May 15th will continue. So that's
093going to be our next policy committee meeting um in case anyone is planning on showing up next Thursday night. Thank you, Miss Lagrass. Is there um any board members that would like to share community events that you may have attended? Yeah, last night I attended the uh Chestnut Wald PTO and uh they had a truncated uh meeting so we didn't have a lot of time but um you know discussed uh some of the questions they had were around you know they did discuss the love language you just reported on um they they also um noted that Dr. Hayes or knew as a superintendent had reached out and then of course they were interested in the changes at the federal level um you know the funding changes so that was sort of the discussion points that
094we touched on. Thank you. Dr. King and Dr. Shelton and I were at the Ed Foundation 20th celebration last Thursday. Um, celebrating 20 years of that organization's support for innovation and programming in the district. Uh, there was a tribute to Dr. Rushi for her tenure and to a high school teacher, Mr. Cipher got a big check to continue to uh support the oceanography uh program that he has, the aquariums and tanks and and the curriculum that goes with that. So, um it was a really nice uh event to connect with and and talk with uh members of the community who share uh interest in supporting programs and innovation in Hford schools. Thank you. Anyone else? I would just like to note that um members of the district should have received communication from um announcing that
095Dr. Hayes will be hosting various Zoom sessions. There'll be two opportunities for elementary as well as secondary students and families April and May. Um an opportunity to have a a Zoom session with Dr. Hayes there. It'll be focused on two questions that were posed. The information is listed in the email. It'll also be listed on the the website as well. And so, um, I'm hoping that for members of the community that have didn't have a chance to come to, um, the forum with Dr. Hayes that perhaps this is a chance for you to join at an elementary or secondary Zoom meeting. All [Music] right. Next up, finance and facilities. 6A is the bill list. Can I have a motion to approve dispersements for payment totaling 1,230,2792? Okay, moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All
096in favor? Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 6B, tax assessment appeal resolutions. Can I have a motion to approve the settlement and stipulation of council and tax assessment appeals pending in the court of common please of Delaware County and authorize council and proper officers of the board to execute necessary documents. Moved on second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I I. Any opposed? The motion passes. Section seven is human resources. 7 A retirement and resignation. Have a motion to accept the following retirements as listed. Moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Quite a few years of service here. Significant. 35 years. Miss Foreman and Miss Campley 21.5. Thank you. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? The motion passes. Item 7B, appointment. Can I have a motion to approve the following appointments as
097listed below contingent upon receipt of all necessary clearances including act 168 of 2014? Shelton moved. and second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Any oppose? The motion passes. We have nothing listed for uh section 8, people's services. We'll continue with section 9, curriculum and instruction. The first being 9A, student educational excursions. Can I have a motion to approve the student educational excursions as listed below? Moved. Shelton second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Congratulations to the select members of the music program who will be at all state and all eastern music conferences. And then uh I love the robotics team's um confidence in uh putting in for the local tournament and then world tournament if they qualify. I wanted to note that the last meeting we we were unclear about the upcoming band and
098orchestra year of the trip and I see that we've clarified it's 2026. Presumably they didn't take advantage and go. I know they did not. We appreciate that. Any other discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 9B. Can I have a motion to approve the agreement in and co, excuse me, corresponding um mutual understanding with KZtown University to see Hutherford Township School District as placement site for graduate students as literacy interns. Okay. moved second. Moved in second. Any discussion? Um just a quick question about that program. Do we know if they have um if teachers in that program are receiving training on um structured literacy looking at um PA act 135? Yeah, that is part of their program there. And then when they come here, we also train them in structured literacy.
099So they get it twice. Great. Any other discussion items? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Section 10 brings us to policy for 10 A is policy 246 wellness. Can I have a motion to accept the second reading of policy 246 wellness? Sigress moved. Shelton second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Um yeah, I'll just address the six policies that we have here. They're all up for a second reading. A couple of them on after discussion of the board at our last meeting had some um some changes. We felt like they were minor changes and could be made and so board members can see the changes that have been made to each policy um in green in the policy that's attached to the board meeting agenda. So certainly if any board member feels like
100their comment has not been incorporated yet from the last meeting um we still have another chance of of u reviewing and revising that. We'll have one more uh reading which will be the adoption at our next um regular board meeting. Um I appreciate that you changed the wording. I think Miss Widman I had the same issue um with withholding physical activity in school. I I just again I'm a broken record with this, but I'd be remiss um if I don't say this. Um I recognize um and this is I guess for anyone following on page four under the physical activity section, we do not withhold physical activity in school as punishment unless there is a potential safety risk. Um for example, taking away recess. Um I recognize the importance of recess. I do not think
101it should be taken away lightly. But I don't agree with putting it in policy that no teacher ever can take away recess under any circumstance. And before I make a couple of your comments, I guess I do want to ask and I know um Dr. Rushi's not here, but Miss Saxa is what are teacher options at the elementary or they look like a child and I'm not talking safety cons like you know big you know massive threats or stuff of that nature of course but typical classroom misbehavior over and when it keeps happening over and over again what what options because I I mean I do hear criticisms from our teachers and staff at the elementary level about their limited options. Tell me what what does the district say they should be doing. What are
102their options when they're encountering this and not with um and I'm not not anyone on a who has special needs. I'm talking just typical general ed student. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. So um well I mean I think teachers will tell you too our our first step is always to attempt to be preventative, right? You know set up a classroom environment, have the things like morning meeting. Um logical consequences though are part of what um we've trained teachers in and what we uh hope to see them employ. So in those instances it might be like if uh a student took somebody else's paper and and crumpled it up and threw it on the floor. you know, logical consequence for that would be for them to help replace the paper, have a conversation of apology when when they're
103ready to be in a space of apology, uh, and and make it up to that student by restoring whatever it is is now missing from the student. Um, there are also instances where after, you know, a couple of times where redirection doesn't work, teachers will tell you about the sort of classroom tricks, right? proximity and and going near them and and having a private conversation with them where they uh do consult with the school counselor who may be able to talk to the student about behaviors, help them build their sort of social um skills so that they can better handle frustration or whatever is at the root of that. Um we have the good oldfashioned going to the principal's office that also occurs, right? uh whether you speak with an assistant principal or a principal.
104Um often a conference is enough, but sometimes that includes a phone call home. Um often it could include a development of a a plan, you know, sort of an incentive plan or some way to get the child um to focus on the positive or replacement behaviors. And and those are instances where it's like really not stopping after the first couple of things. Um and then um there's always the opportunity if if none of that is working in consult with the the uh the child's parent or guardian and the school counselor. There's the child study team process which would sort of look at all the things we've tried and um attempt to find other interventions that might work uh before testing to see something you know in the instances like you're talking about where a student
105might have an exceptional need and and and I completely get logical consequences. I use them in my house and I get and I've heard this from teachers. Yeah. If a student scribbles on the table with crap, I have them wipe it up. That makes an art and now you're going to clean the table and that I completely get that. I just don't like and again I mean no one needs to go back. I know it's going to pass. I it's it's fine. These are my opinions. I'm kind of old school with this sometimes. I think there needs to be a repercussion not taken lightly. Someone who just talked out in class once. I know. I think I mentioned at my son's school, three calendar signs in a month. You um miss recess. They reset every
106month. It's not they used to have I know this was something that was done when my older sons were at home. Um sometimes I think you need a consequence. I know, you know, this I think we talked about like reintroducing I think you mentioned one of our new plans, executive functioning skills. To me, sometimes you need this falls into that. sometimes you don't do what you're supposed to do over and over and again there's no exceptional special needs. Um I I think this I I think writing this that this can never happen ever is is a is an a stretch and um again knowing it it's just going to be me and I know that but I just wanted to put it out there. I think it's um it's just not something I'm comfortable with
107but that's just me. I think the thing is is that it's really subjective and and so what we're hearing at least anecdotally is that recess is being taken away from from students in times when I certainly would not think that it isn't that serious event. And so the I I I like the logical consequences concept, but that's really subjective, too. And so when you think about the the research that says that students especially at that young age need to be active, they cannot be so sedentary. It's unhealthy for them physically and emotionally and um mentally that that could actually exacerbate whatever problem is going on. So I think that the recess piece is really crucial to have in a policy because it it some leaving physical activity except in the circumstances of safety concern taking
108that away in a way that is very subjective that has no um real line is is is I think what when we talked about it at the policy committee level that that's what we were thinking. And so, you know, we do there this is not boundless like a safety concern is is within the the realm of possibility to take that away, but for using it because like you said, someone spoke out of turn or or or stepped out of line in a single incident, which I think a lot of people in the community know has happened recently. Um, that's too much and and and it it should not be happening. And I want to be clear, I completely agree with you. Someone's like steps out of line or runs down the hallway once, no, you
109shouldn't lose your recess. And if something happens over and over, I think there's a middle ground between and I agree with you like recess is important and and it is subjective cuz you could have a teacher having a bad day and you made your recess and that I mean everyone is human. I'm not going to bl like that's not fair and I would agree. But I think there h there could be a middle ground between we'll never take away recess ever and you know like I said my son has this at his school it's a nice little threecal it's happened once to one girl in his class and I will tell you he came home and be like they said the girl's name she got her like she is it was the biggest he was
110horrified it was and it I mean it's once all year to one kid not I mean it was it's a consequence and it has it resonates and again I I think there's could be a middle ground, but that's um that's just me and that's I one of the things I'm concerned about though like that anecdote that you just shared to me I hear shaming a lot of shaming that happened to that that child and I think one of the important things that this is doing is saying that recess is a time it's important it's valuable there are other ways for consequence it's not at all saying no consequences happen that is not what this says and so consequences are happening in different ways um and in ways that hopefully are not involving shame and taking
111away resource recess definitely is something that um that can involve shame and I I I do not think that is a healthy consequence to have I think that's an overstretch shame when you do something and you're 11 12 years old you repetitively do it I think you have to I'm okay with emoting that and that's just me and that's a difference of opinion And um but that's just my thoughts. I appreciate that this is in there because I think it highlights Miss Kongress like you mentioned if a student is having some behavioral issues. It can in some cases be because they're not getting enough physical activity. So by saying okay well you're you're acting very energetic right now. You're doing things you shouldn't be and then saying you can't have physical activity like you said
112will exacerbate the problem. Um, I mean, I think this is very much in line with the spirit of the policy. So, in that sense, it makes sense. And I also think, um, we would never say to a child like, "You're going to miss core math instruction because you're not behaving well," or, "You're going to miss um, wit and wisdom today because, you know, your behavior wasn't right." So, I I think showing this treats recess less as a privilege, as something that's built into the school day that the student needs to and should have access to as part of their well-being. Um, in the spirit of the wellness policy, I would just add to I think just based on like past incidents in the district, I I would say we shouldn't withhold physical activity, but we
113also shouldn't um use it as a punishment because there have been instances where it was, you know, you need to go do laps around the school in the rain um because you weren't behaving in the lunchroom. So, I I just think if we're going to mention this, it also needs to be um stated that physical activity will also not be issued as a punishment. I think that makes sense. If the rest of the board agrees with that, we could add that um I agree that change in So, I guess you could say we do not withhold or assign physical activity. Um, I think it needs to be two different sentences because like because we have the safety component and there's never going to be a safety component with forcing physical activity on someone. That's true.
114So, I think that can be a stronger statement, right? I do agree with the sentiment that recess is an important component of the school day as with other course work and so it shouldn't be a tool for punishment. So just to clarify um with with Dr. Larson's comment after for the example taken away recess a new sentence will go there. Um what are we thinking in terms of the wording? I I think it can be um physical activity cannot be used as a punishment in school. Okay. Does that mean that it needs to go back to the like does that change? Is that significant enough to change from the second reading to the third? It's up to us. Okay. I just want to make sure sometimes Mr. Dodd lets us know something is significant enough
115of a change. I believe Excuse me. And I believe it's sufficiently related that it does not have to go back to committee unless the board sends it back to committee. I'm comfortable with that change and us continuing. I don't know how others feel. Okay. Um any additional discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. That brings us to 10B, which is policy 317, disciplinary procedures. I'll accept a motion for the second reading of policy 317, disciplinary procedures and corresponding ARS. Moved. Okay. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? some minor typo changes in the um the policy itself. Um I'm not seeing any other changes to the ARS either. So um again, if any board member feels like the change that they suggested last time was not included or if um there are additional
116changes, then we can discuss them now. Any additional discussion? All in favor? I I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 10 C, policy 619, district audit. Can I have a motion to accept the second reading of policy 619 district audit public moved second? Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Couple more changes um nominal changes made for um stylistic and uh consistency purposes here in the policy. Any other additional discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 10D, which is policy 620 fund balance. Can I have a motion to accept the second reading of policy 620 fund balance? Address moved. Shelton. Shelton second. Moved in second. Any discussion? Um the change here was uh to remove that the delegation responsibility would include um assigned assignments from the finance committee which we all agreed I
117think that was just um was inappropriate. So um while the finance committee reviews it and you can see that from one of the later paragraphs um the the delegation responsibility there um remains with the board and that was the only substantive change u between the last reading and this reading. Any other discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 10E, policy 804, school days. Can I have a motion to accept the second reading of policy 8004, school days and corresponding AR? Moved in second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Um, again, the policy here has some revisions just based on the way that we write our policies to be consistent with that. Um, nominal revisions to the policy itself. Any additional discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Policy 816,
118social media. Can I have a motion to accept the second reading of policy 8:16, social media and corresponding AR? Shelton moved. Shelton second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Um, we talked about this one at length at the policy committee and at the last reading and there were not any revisions between the last reading and this one. Any other additional discussion? All in favor? Any oppose? The motion passes. We have nothing for section 11. Other items section 12 bring us brings us to the section second section, excuse me, of public comments um signed up. I have River Schwarz. Oh, I think you tried to cancel your All right. Um I also have Chase Zho or Chase Zho. How do I pronounce your last name? Zho. Okay. Zo. Thank you. Can you come to the podium for
119me, please? You can just state your name and confirm your residency. You'll have 3 minutes to speak. A timer will sound at the end of your remarks. At the end of the time, excuse me. I say my address. Nope, not your address. Just say your name first and say that you live in the township. Um, my name is Chase and I live in Havford Township. There we go. Um, I'm a sophomore at high school. Imagine a centralized hub where students can share artwork, music, discover clubs, and feel truly connected with the Hford community. This platform would allow students to showcase artwork, share music, get peer feedback, and foster creativity and a school spirit. Importantly, this isn't just a social media site. Specific features would target school needs, such as sharing. Let me back up a
120little bit. Clubs would have dedicated accounts to easily share announcements and event details. For example, the drama club could share sneak peeks of the set before the audience sees it and share sneak peeks of their cast practicing for the show. The robotics club could share their latest creation and the cleanup crew could show their impact on the school. A centralized calendar would also be implemented to allow students to easier to see easily where the next club meeting is and when the next school event is. And the school could also issue announcements and easily gather feedback directly from students. High school can be daunting even for students coming from the middle school and especially for students coming from a different school district entirely like myself. This site would serve as a lifeline for those students allowing
121them to find their own niche, discover clubs, build connections with other students at the high school. I know I would have benefited greatly from this when I first moved here. Moderation would also be very important and with the help of the website club, I believe every comment and post could be manually reviewed before allowing it to show. I have already spoken with several teachers and students about this idea and they have shown great interest in it. So, I think this would be great for the school. I would be happy to handle the creation of the site. I have several years of experience building websites myself and I understand the importance of online security and userfriendly design. I would be happy to work handinhand with the school board to make this reality come to life. Thank
122you. Miss Taxi would just ask if we could have someone follow up with the student. Thank you. Is there anyone else that wishes to speak? We will continue. Section 13. The board met before tonight's meeting for executive session to hold information and strategy session with the lab labor council on matters related to the negotiations of the HTA collective bargaining agreement. The next regular board public meeting scheduled to scheduled for April 24th, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the Oakmont Administration building. That brings us to the end. Can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? So moved. Second.