001e good evening it is my pleasure to call to order this December 7th 2023 regular board meeting of the school district of haford Township and to welcome those of you who have joined us here in the Oakmont administration building the meeting is being recorded on our YouTube stream being streamed live and available for later watching we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and now our board members our newest board members will read The District's mission and goals I'll begin with the mission statement the mission of the school district of haford Township is to educate and to inspire a community of lifelong Learners who become
002well-rounded Global Citizens the pillars of our educational system are our school environment is safe and nurturing excellence in education is a shared responsibility and partnership with all district and community members whole Child Development is vital to our educational system supports and conditions exist whereby all students have opportunities to grow and Excel in the areas of academic Technical and career and social and emotional learning finally our decision-making process is student centered and student voice is valued good evening my name is PT man oh not yet 2020 to 2025 District goals social emotional Wellness produce a community of empathetic and resilient Learners with skills to socially and emotionally flourish prepare contemporary citizens modernize and expand learning experiences to prepare students as critical thinkers problem solvers innovators and designers within a complex Global Society diversity and inclusion establish
003a culturally diverse and inclusive educational experience that develops sociocultural proficiency thank you and now Mr Testa can I ask you to call the role sure Dr King Dr Larson Miss Lee here Dr McKay here Mr Schwarz here Dr Shelton here miss Vitali here miss nodr here miss Weedman here uh Dr King is traveling for work and Dr Larson has personal matters to attend to the next might um next item on our agenda is the official minutes I will welcome a motion to approve the official minutes from the November 16th 2023 regular public board meeting McKay moved valal second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor I I any opposed minutes are approved and now we will turn to our reports from students beginning with from haford middle school Payton manfrey great good evening my
004name is Payton manfrey and I'm happy to be here this evening to update the board on what's happening at haford middle school as the winter sport season has begun the teams who compete in basketball and wrestling are eagerly anticipating their first competition which will take place in the following week we are in the midst of our Winter concert season and several of our musical ensembles have performances our next concert is the SI is the sixth grade instrumental con Winter concert on Tuesday December 12th at 7 p.m. in the High School auditorium 7 heav our select Coral Ensemble will perform at the Flyers game on Thursday December 14th Mr heran sent out information for families that would like to purchase tickets to see their performance and game Mr dunie the principal at the high school will
005be hosting a parent information night for parents of students who will be entering the ninth grade the parent information night is scheduled for Thursday December 14th at 6:30 p.m. in the high school Auditorium Believe It or Not December 15th is the date that marks the halfway point of the second marking period we appreciate those who have already contributed to our annual chop toy drive Mr ran sent out information on how to donate at his weekly family meeting and we value any support there is still time to donate toys until December 22nd thank you for allowing me to present this evening and I hope you enjoy the upcoming holidays and have a wonderful evening thank you and next up our high school representative is Aaron Cole good evening everyone my name is Aaron and I would
006like to thank you for allowing me to speak tonight we are back from Thanksgiving break and counting down the days until our next holiday and I'm super excited to see my family all back together again my classes are continuing to become more interesting as we progress deeper into the curriculum through the second marking period this week spark recognition of so many high achieving students as the National Honors Society had their induction on Monday night National Honor Society is currently focused on raising money for our annual toy drive students staff and local businesses are all chipping in to ensure those who are less fortunate can have a great holiday season our school's highq team had their first meeting this week and ended up tying for second so congratulations to them for such a strong start winter
007sports are just beginning their competitive Seasons with boys and girls basketball wrestling and hockey all off the strong starts I hope I can make it to as many games as possible this season and cheer them on the students in the spring musical mean girls are beginning to prepare for their audition starting tomorrow there were great numbers at the interest meeting and it's so great to see so many students engaged in the theater program at Harford harford's very owned student run newspaper the 40an just released their first edition this is full of stories about our amazing athletes the homecoming dance playful crossword puzzles and many more exciting information the newspaper can be found online or through printed copies found at the high school I see all of you have a copy and I encourage you all
008to read every article and try the crossw word CU it definitely few of them did stump me so it was I definitely encourage you to all try it out this club hopes to make two more Publications by the end of the year and I can't wait to see any more hard work that they continue I'm excited to see what more my classes can bring as we approach the New Year recently in my classes I found myself gravitating more an interest in math and science but this week in English we were discussing scientific ethical debates regarding stem cell research human cloning and genome mapping and I was excited to see this mix between English and Science and I can definitely say it was one of my fav times in an English class so I hope to
009see more connections like this where I can embrace my interest but in a different way so I hope you're all enjoying your start to your holiday season and thank you for allowing me to present tonight and happy holidays go forwards next item on our agenda is the superintendent report Dr rushi thank you Miss weed thank you Miss Weedman and we'll begin this evening with a recognition of Our National Merits Scholars U Mr dunie is here from the high school and welcome thank you for having me anything that's in the foring about me is not true I have a a letter to the editor uh that that that will probably be in the next Edition uh but with me tonight I have uh some wonderful students who did uh very well in their PSAT the PSAT
010is an exam given by the College Board once a year um and these uh people that we're going to call up in a couple minutes are over a million students take the PSAT and they are in the top 32,000 some of them are in the top 16,000 uh in the whole United States um I do want to give a shout out to our guidance Department who uh and our uh fellow my fellow administrators who put on the PSAT over 800 students take the PSAT just at Harford Alone um we also have a school day uh sat that we added a few years ago in 67 seniors took advantage of that test so um not every district has those tests and provides those opportunities so I just want to thank you know Dr rushi and Miss
011saxa for making sure it's an important part and it's done during the school day it used to be done on Saturdays and as um you know when I took the SAT it was on a Saturday but uh it used to be done on Saturdays and we saw the enrollment declining so we we felt it was best for our district to do it during the school day and and as you'll see tonight the results are are very impressive with me tonight we have our national commended Scholars we also have our national Hispanic Rec recognized Scholars our national African-American recognized Scholars uh pretty much every category there's a Halford student that has uh garnered an award so it's pretty impressive so I'm going to call you up when I call you up um just come up you'll
012get your certificate you get a little prize I don't want to tell you what it is here uh the other students will be jealous and uh just stay up here because we're going to get a picture of everybody couple people couldn't be here tonight uh Isabelle vasis Janik Gian Bon Jeffrey U Anastasia West streight Abigail lint Josh kraal Elizabeth Peta I think that's it they couldn't make it tonight so you see the people that are in the room if you add all them we'd have to go to a different venue um First National commended uh scholar elain dong Emily Gallagher Brian Heckler Jared Johnson Elise [Applause] jman Amy Lee Chris Lyn Katie [Music] Yun K did I say it wrong Quay Elliot Rainer sorry about that Jorge tador Gideon Deo Lena fidu Daniel zy and
013uh these these last three are semi semifinals it's always great um very fortunate to have uh both commended and semi-finalist semi-finalists will have the opportunity to become finalists they have their applications in and we're hoping good things jevie chide John Delan and Taylor Flynn and just just before we get the picture I just want to uh tell the parents here this is the most humble uh group that I've had since I've been uh principal here at haford they just they just work these kids are just very nice students that are generally on the quiet side and they just work and anything you ask them to do they do uh and they do it very very well and that's that's why they're here so congratulations again two rows maybe come like almost like in and out
014like kind of a little bit I can you guys hold it look that way your this way congratulations I do have just a couple announcements tell them they can leave and at this point at this point we're going to move more into the business part of the agenda um so might want to use this time to exit if you weren't planning and and staying and listening to the rest of the board business tonight and just a a few announcements um as the closing portion of the superintendent report uh one month tomorrow one month we start kindergarten registration for the 2425 school school year uh so that uh reminder information will be going out to families soon uh but that our portal everything will be handled online and that portal will be opening on January 8th
015for kind for kindergarten registration uh next Thursday December 14th our finance and Facilities committee will will be meeting um and I want to point that out specifically because we will a a significant portion of the meeting is dedicated to hearing about the expansion renovation at chattam Park that um is potentially planned for chadam Park and the expansion of the cafeteria in our middle school and that's next Thursday evening the 14th beginning at uh 6:30 the um local library has their temporary location at monoa shopping center we are not sure if that's open yet or not uh but in being in communication with the folks at the library uh they said that we could announce to people if you go to their website haford library.org they will continue to put updates on there to let the
016Community know where they're holding events for you know children School AG children um and what they're doing with book checkout uh and finally just wishing everyone a happy Hanukkah thank you the next section of our agenda is for a public comment pertaining to items on tonight's agenda and we had no one sign up the next section of our agenda is for board reports for the Delaware County Community College uh Lan king would be the reporter and she's not here tonight and I I not aware of a meeting the next leaz on report would be for the dciu and uh that's Kristen Larsson is liaison I Believe Miss Mass has her report yes um I will do my best Dr Larson impression um this is from Dr Larson uh she attended a uh dciu board of
017directors meeting on Wednesday December 7th um Wednesday December 6th and uh the board approved a number of agenda items that will enhance and expand the educational experiences available to students in Delaware County of particular note the board approved uh an agreement with Delaware County Department of Health for dciu to support an increase in assistive technology used for T children in Delaware County from July 1st 2023 to June 30th 2024 at a cost not to exceed $84,000 with Title 5 funding it also approved an agreement with Synergy physical therapy and Rehabilitation to provide Health Care experiences to dcts Medical Careers program students from December 7th 2023 to December 6th 2026 at no cost to dcts it also approved an agreement with tenum Township Fire Company to provide student learning experiences for the dcts emergency and Protective
018Services Program students from December 7th 2023 to December 6th 2026 at no cost to dcts finally it granted permission for 50 students and five staff members from the dcts Health Sciences program to visit Riddle Hospital in Media Pennsylvania on January 23rd 2024 at a cost not to exceed $2,000 to be funded by by the Pennsylvania Department of Education dual credit Grant and Mainline Health Systems additionally on behalf of dciu we're excited to announce the recent opening of The dciu Innovation and inclusion Studio at the Morton campus this studio provides a center for student creation social and emotional learning applications a maker space Esports Center and the dciu stem lending library since the studio opened the girls who code Club was launched laed to build confidence and Leadership skills and Bridge the gender gap in the
019stem and gaming Industries the DCU Esports program is also underway with opportunities for teams to compete dciu continues to offer professional development to Educators and administrators who want to expand their programs and increase stem Innovations D your report thank you uh the next L on report would be for the legislative Council Kim McKay there's no report their next meeting is next Wednesday December 14th thank you psba Dave Schwarz thanks um so as as I believe our our two new our two new members Dr um Shelton and M Leno there are some required board training uh I think you guys both are both aware of that and doing the virtual training uh for the board members who who were re-elected myself Miss SASS and Miss Weedman we we also don't out the hook we have some
020board training as well um there is just for everybody in um you can do it virtually I believe it's on the on the 9th this weekend there also is an in person um one available locally in um TR different East Town on January 13th so that's another option if we wanted to stay local and uh you know go there actually as a person as opposed to being on on Zoom so um that's it okay well you are up next as well for uh any finance and Facilities meeting report just that there's a meeting coming up next week about the um school expansion which is which for engineer is exciting so feel free to show up all right the curriculum people Services meeting has not met since our last board meeting but I will report that
021that will next convene in January on January 11th policy anet the policy committee has also not met since our last meeting but we do have a meeting coming up and it is on a Monday and I want to get the date right um it will be on uh December 18th at 6:30 p.m. will be the next policy committee meeting all right thank you and the next item is the board president's report tonight's meeting marks the start of a new board year when we had just had our reorganization meeting on Monday and with it we are changing the format of our board reports to help us conduct our meetings with more efficiency and um more effectively while providing better notice and time for deliberation of the important and complex matters that come before the board board
022reports will focus on information from the Delaware County Community College the Intermediate Unit the Delco legislative Council and psba and from our committee meetings as you heard with summaries from the various appointed Leons while board members are still very much encouraged to attend events throughout the district we will recognize and Report out on their activities more succinctly and we will seek to cover more of the many events across all seven of our district schools otherwise and has always been the case if board members have topics that they would like to introduce on which they'd like to get more information or to discuss they should raise such requests to board leadership and Dr rousi so that such matters can be placed on an agenda this allows for the topic to be given notice in an agenda
023allowing for transparency about what the will be discussed during a meeting for both the board and the public it allows for the topic to get appropriate time and attention and the opportunity for a full presentation questions and deliberation these changes reflect that in past meetings board members myself included have introduced topics in their board reports that really warranted a more robust discussion among all of the board but board reports because all members did not have the same information and are not part of the meeting intended for deliberation never allowed the board as a team of 10 to engage in the complex and important topics that were raised I will note that board reports by individual members are not required by law by Pennsylvania school code or the sunshine act what is required by the sunshine
024Act is a timely posted posting of the agenda items which may only change under a limited set of circumstances and with specific actions anyone watching our recent board meetings would likely remark on the content of board reports as a key thing that was presented however these items were not on an agenda giving no notice to other board members or the public and did not allow for the full presentation of information or a chance to question and discuss the matters that were raised further the topics that were raised in a board report aren't included in the minutes because they aren't part of our official action again board members are as always are encouraged to submit topics in which they are interested or concerned to board leadership so that they can get an appropriate time and attention
025on a committee or regular board meeting agenda this will improve transparency notice and preparation and allow us as a team of 10 to better fulfill our responsibility to lead plan evaluate and communicate so we can work together on the matters that impact our students staff and community Community continuing with my report um with Monday's reorganization we welcomed our two new members who uh were elected in November uh Lata Lee and Chris Shelton who have taken their places with us at the board table here tonight Antoinette and I would also like to thank the board for its unanimous vote on Monday for us to continue in our leadership roles as vice president and president respectively we look forward to working with all of the board and administration this year after the reorganization meeting on Monday the
026board their partners and administrators had a once a year opportunity to dine together it was a really lovely evening in which we enjoyed a fabulous dinner prepared by our Chartwells cafeteria staff led by Chef Josh and it allowed us to connect and build the Rapport that is a key piece of us being able to successfully work together I've already mentioned a couple times tonight the concept of team of 10 but it was clear last night or um that Monday night that there really is a much bigger team supporting the work of this district with our talented cabinet of Department leadership in all aspects of District Operations and with the sort support of our families who lose us as board members to many committee and regular meetings I also received one other update from latan Lee
027uh that she attended the seventh and eighth grade Winter concert on December 6th that we heard about from um our board reporter um it was was taking place at at the high school and it included the seventh grade band the HMS Jazz Ensemble the eighth grade band all led by um Mr Joseph Marano Morano who um each of those groups played three songs and then the seventh and eighth grade Orchestra performed three songs and was conducted by Miss Judy King and again these performance are a wonderful celebration of the musical Talent of our middle school students that concludes the board report tonight um we will move next into our section of the agenda for finance and facilities and item a is the bill list um I will accept a motion to approve dispersements for payment
028totaling 1, 62,939 it's not grass moved short second moved and seconded any discussion just one quick thing I want to point out just for for benefit members of public because I I was asked this by uh somebody the other week if if you um are really interested in seeing precisely what these Bill lists are we vot on them as like kind of one in in in one Pell suit but if you're really a gluton for punishment on board docs you can go on there and you can click on the actual bill list and goes through every single bill um line by line that's paid for by the district to see where tax dollars are going anything from $113,000 for tuition to $7.50 for uh supplies I think I saw one this this week for like
02920 cents I mean it's it's it's very detailed it's very very thorough um but in case anybody's curious it is all recorded it is all available publicly um so feel free to um use that for for nighttime reading because it'll put you to sleep any other comments or discussion on the bill list all in favor I any opposed Bill list is approved Item B is a request for proposal for wide area network Transport service so I will request a motion to authorize the proper officers of the board to prepare and advertise documents to request proposals for least lit fiber or dark fiber as part of the e- rate year 2024 to 2025 okay moved Vali second moved and seconded any discussion I think since I just said a bunch of words that um people may
030not be familiar with um could we uh get um some description of what uh the least lit fiber or dark Fiber service will do for our district and I'm looking out at the technology folks in the back there good Mr Anderson our director of Technology just happens to be here this evening in the event there was a question thanks Rob Ju Just by chance I happen to be driving by interesting um so we currently uh we have fiber that runs between our schools that gets internet to each of our schools from the Middle School um this is just going out to um renew the contract for that um and to be able to apply for uh reimbursement through the eate program um which the district receives 40% back on okay thank you and for the
031e- rate that is a federal service um and I understand we have uh we have previously approved a consultant who is helping scope this project and will make sure it it complies for that generous rebate correct he he worked with us to develop the RFP um and then make sure that we're meeting all the regulatory guidelines for timing of everything and then we'll help us in the selection process to make sure that that selection also meets the guidelines set for by your eight all right thank you very much any other questions or discussion so all in favor for the proposal for the wide area network Transport Service I any opposed motion is approved item C in this portion of the agenda is the Chester County Intermediate Unit instructional technology audit Services agreement I will accept
032a motion to approve the agreement between Chester County Intermediate Unit and the school district of haford Township for instructional technology audit services at a cost not to exceed $4,000 CH it's moved second moved and seconded any discussion um I will just say I'm I'm very strongly in support of this I if any my only critique could be I think it's very much long overdue we've had um just in the short time between my oldest children and my youngest and we're talking my middle son was a 2020 lywood graduate so he's a current freshman in high school and um the change in technology use at the elementary level has been significant um and I I think we went from minimal Tech um iPad on a cart once a week and just typing out final drafts of
033reports uh to technology being really embedded um in our children's uh education throughout the day and I'm I'm focusing particularly on the elementary level so I think there's a lot of issues we really need to explore there's the bigger issues I think everyone would be in agreement with the cyber bullying inappropriate websites but then there's also um other smaller issues uh children shopping playing on games and um I can vouch that they figure out how to do that at a young age um uh very easily and um I learned that in third grade when my son seemed to come home and knew all the World Cup scores because a little boy in his class figured out how to stream the games on the Chromebook and at the end of the day he would try to
034get next to him to watch soccer but he's like but it's it's the World Cup and I'm like no you should not be watching the World Cup so it's it's something there's the big issues smaller and then I think it's something we have to look at in terms of how much we're using it in our academics I know Co necessitated a change where we had to go to more online just to survive to get through that time um but we are spending a lot of Elementary time on devices and it's actually in my survey I've been doing with some private schools it's not consistent with what some top private schools are doing particularly with math and I do am concerned about even the increased amount of typing skills which is writing especially for fine motor
035development so I'm I think this is long overdue and I'm very excited that we're we're moving forward with this I'll just read a a section of the the background of the request and then maybe Dr rushi if there's anything that you could elaborate So within the proposal um it says that the audit will uh help school district of hord Township develop a technology plan aligned with evidence-based standards and then it lists the international Society for technology and education and to guide the future use of technology in classrooms into to enhanc learning outcomes so with the idea that um it's looking at the the Ben benefits of Technology uh can you speak to whether the um audit will consider some of the potential harms or um other consequences of um accessing and utilizing technology that might
036replace potentially some other skills or things that we would want students develop and and how will this audit help us um assess what's the right amount of Technology what we know within the categories of digital uh digital literacy they'll be you know looking at what do students need to learn and and when um digital Wellness uh we can pretty pretty well understand that they're going to be taking a look at you know things like time but I I just I want to be careful giving that answer because this audit will will not the result of it I would not anticipate is going to be first graders should spend this much time on the computer or high schoolers should spend what they will Prov provide us with resources they will provide us with information that then
037our internal team our teachers our administrators just like they work they take the results of a curriculum audit and then start looking at or English language arts curriculum as they're doing now they'll take the results of that and then look at how intentional do we want to be how intentional should we be and then identify what are those skills that students should develop at certain grade levels um and look at some of those other things is that it Rob I get it any other comments or discussion okay so the motion is to approve the agreement between the cciu and our district all in favor I any opposed motion is approved in section seven of our agenda for human resources item a is retirements and resignations I accept a motion to accept the following resignation as
038listed what's moved not address second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor I any opposed motion is approved Item B is non-acceptance of appointment I'll will accept a motion to approve the following nonacceptance of appointment moved Shelton second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor I any opposed motion passes item C is for appointments I accept a motion to approve the following appointments as listed below contingent upon receipt of all necessary clearances including act 168 of 2014 M moved short second moved and seconded any discussion it's always nice to see a much longer list in this section than in the other all in favor I I any opposed appointments are approved item D is for leave of absence I'll accept a motion to approve the following leave request Mass moved second moved and
039seconded any discussion all in favor I I any opposed motion is approved item eight of our agenda for people Services item A is for educ ation service contracts I will welcome a motion to approve the following educational contract for services provided to a District student for the 2023 to 2024 school year Shelton moved second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor I I any opposed motion is approved Item B is for Educational Service agreements I will accept a motion to approve the following educational service agreement for a District student this agreement covers reimbursement for privately obtained legitimate Educational Services as incurred by the family for the benefit of the student sass moved Shelton second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor I any opposed motion passes item C is for outof district educational
040contracts I will welcome a motion to approve the following educational agreement for a student attending out of District placement for the 2023 to 2024 school year moved second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor I any opposed motion passes section nine of our agenda is for curriculum and instruction and item a is student educational excursions I will welcome a motion to approve the following student educational excursions as listed below okay moved second moved and seconded any discussion there a lot of frun excursions no idea that the ski no Club went to Killington but that's uh that's fun skiers get some good trips and the whole middle school will be delighted to know that there's kenned ensis Dorney and Hershey Park Park yeah I was thinking the same thing I'm gonna get to tell aora
041first so all in favor I I any opposed motion is approved Item B is the 2024 to2 High School course selection guide I will welcome a motion to approve the 2024 to 2025 haford High School course selection guide as presented at the November 9th 2023 curriculum and people Services committee meeting M moved for second moved in a fight for second any discussion I I I know that some people expressed an interest in sign language as an additional course and I know there's a mechanism you know that is PARTA adding courses into the curriculum I don't know if we could elaborate that on elaborate on that for um audience sure thank you for bringing that up uh by the way we would love if anyone is aware of someone who is certified in American Sign Language
042uh or even interested in becoming certified if you could reach out to us and let us know we did have a World Language audit uh I believe it was 2 years ago and and they have been finishing up we were exploring additional languages um they challenge with that particular one was at the time even in the state there were very few folks who were certified but we're hoping it was it was fairly new at the time so we're hoping that maybe interest will grow and uh we are certainly eager to take that up again uh as we do uh our cyclical curriculum audit and get to World Language again but certainly be in touch um I believe that there was some interest in starting some clubs too at the middle and the high school so
043even often that's a way a course gets started is it for gets some interest as a student club and uh we'd be we'd love to see that happen as well great thank you sure the presentation that we had at the curriculum and people Services committee meeting um did a really robust discussion of the ways that different courses are added um this course selection guide includes some um seemingly minor changes to course titles that better reflect their content and this you know what the students will get out of those classes um but then there were uh I'm not recalling there were several AP classes that were introduced and then other um level two for classes which have generated a lot of student interest and um want to develop a higher level skill I think um the
044there's a haford sports media class that's being introduced in the business department um I'm seeing some fans in the background there um there are also changes that will allow more of the electives to be offered on the ab schedule to uh make a broader range of classes available to our many students who have um an AB schedule with their um musical commitments and things like that so um a lot more flexibility and it was great to hear uh how the uh teaching and principles at the high school respond to student interests and really take that into account and and try to make it work and um while I just mentioned a bunch of classes being added I I believe it was noted that those can be accommodated with our our current stff current staff y
045yes any other comments or discussion about the high school guide and it has a fresh new look too it was um it's more snazzy and kind of accessible yeah all in favor I any opposed the high school course selection guide is approved always one of the fun things that we get to do each year and policy thank you section 10 of our agenda is for policy and tonight is exciting because after two prior readings we have four policies that are here for a final read item a is policy 137 I will welcome a motion to adopt policy 137 home education programs any comments or discussion moved settle down um Miss nass as the um the lead of our policy committee could you just walk us through the process and any changes that have um happened
046with this policy over its various readings yes um policy 137 has not had any revisions since the last meeting and I don't think there were revisions before it either um this one is before the board we had um with with all four that are before the board today they had robust discussions at the policy committee some of them uh several times this one I think we we discussed one time at the policy committee and then we had two prior readings um and today it is finally up for um acceptance as a an official policy of the district any other comments or discussion all in favor I any opposed a second I don't think we yeah I moved it oh you jumped the gun moved second can I get a second for sorry we're not understanding
047so yeah I'm so sorry was moved and a second second second we'll repeat all of the UMES no I'm just kidding but we had the good discussion with a moved in a second and discussion is there any additional discussion now all in favor of adopting policy 137 I I any opposed policy is adopted Roberts Rules of Order okay Item B is for policy 211 I will accept a motion to adopt policy 211 student accident Insurance okay moved the second moved and seconded any discussion yes this is one that the policy committee really did labor over and we had a very good discussion uh revisions to this one to make sure that it was accessible to everyone that it made sense it at first it was a policy that U was difficult to understand for us
048and so I appreciate the work of the policy committee to really get this one into better shape and um we let's see the last time this was revised was two thou or was adopted in 2010 so we've had a policy on the books that was a little bit confusing for a while and I'm excited to finally have this one um replace that one and and again be accessible to anyone who uh needs to understand this one any other comments or discussion all in favor I any opposed policy 211 is adopted item C is policy 251 I will welcome in a motion to accept to adopt policy 251 students experiencing homelessness foster care and other educational instability shelter moved second moved and seconded any discussion this is one um that was newly mandated so the policy
049committee took it up um as a new policy and we discussed it at the policy committee looked at several um pieces of the language we we were able to revise some of it to be in line with our district but also in line with the uh the new mandate to have this type of policy there were no revisions between the last board meeting and this one any other comments or discussion discussion all in favor of adopting policy 251 I any opposed policy is adopted our fourth and final policy tonight is policy 8:30 I will accept a motion to adopt policy 8:30 security of computerized personal information breach notification agress moved second moved and seconded any discussion this is another brand new policy for the district and also comes to us um as something that we
050should was recommended to us because of a change in the law requiring this type of policy the majority of this came from statute I'm not sure we actually made any revisions um between the time that the policy committee saw it and today um because it really does mostly just come from statute and something that we need to have on the books and so uh this one certainly did not have revisions between the last time the board read it and today any other comments or discussion all in favor I any opposed policy 8:30 is adopted the next section of our agenda is for public comments on other items I will begin with um the comments that the board values public comment as an essential component of school governance that adds information for the deliberation of the
051important and complex matters that come before the board it is an opportunity for members of the community to address the board and our board meetings are an opportunity for us all to model good government for the engaged students engaged citizens our students will become this uh there was an earlier section for items um under action in tonight's agenda uh the agenda is published under our school district website in the Schoolboard section under board docks residents of the township May in advance of the meeting sign up to make public comment by emailing public comment at haford sd.net in order to give everyone an equal opportunity to speak and per our board policy you'll have three minutes to address the board at the three minute point a timer will sound and you will be asked to conclude
052your remarks please begin your comments by stating your name and confirming your residency in haford Township if you have meeting if you have materials to distribute please leave them at the end of the board table your name and and the topic of your comments will be recorded in the meeting minutes and your presentation is being broadcast as part of our meeting if appropriate an administrator or I will follow up with speakers to discuss or respond to issues raised we had four people sign up for this portion of the agenda the first is Danielle Vitali my name is Danielle karad Vitali I live in the district and the views I'm expressing are mine and not necessarily reflective of the board obviously there's been a drastic change to the meeting agenda involving board reports not only are
053board reports earlier in the meeting but now individual board members all of whom are elected officials are no longer able to give a board report unless they are a board aort at liaison or called upon by board leadership anything a board member wants to say or any events and activities they uh done in the district need to be sent to board leadership who will then report on these events and activities in the board president's report so I have a question and a comment about these changes my question is how did these drastic changes which though legal cast aside years of precedent come about when there was no board discussion or vote on the matter uh this dramatic change on the agenda obviously did not occur on a whim there had to have been meetings or
054phone discussions about it and this demonstrates a lack of trans of transparency in our district I do not believe though that this change derives from board leadership I believe this comes from District administration as a method of squelching negative commentary and feedback about the district and I would like to remind the board that we do not work for the district we were elected by the people in hord Township to best serve our schools students and staff so that's my question the who went when why how did that happen my comment is I get it when I spoke about instances of anti-Semitism the removal of classic literature from our curriculum against teacher recommendation and the subsequent horrific treatment of those teachers when they spoke out about it it doesn't sound good no one wants bad press
055but most things I speak about have one of the following in common either a the people involved were too scared to speak out on their own B the people involved did speak out and they went through the proper channels and nothing happened or C in one instance um changes were made in such an underhanded fashion that it deserved to be made public for full transparency I understand what a lot of people I have spoken to have gone through when they try to go through the proper channels I've been there myself as a parent and a board member you meet with administrator ation there smiles and head nods and then nothing changes so I get why people come to me and I'm honored to have their faith and trust and I will continue to try to
056Advocate wherever I can help out as long as I remain on this board if Administration does not like criticism the solution is quite simple to do better when you do write by people and do the right thing people don't usually look for an advocate this drastic change to meeting to meeting agendas which amounts to just shut up and smile is not just obvious it's cowardly but the best word honestly for it is pathetic it's pathetic what the district is doing and it's also beneath the school district of havord Township we need to do better next speaker sorry the next speaker is Jason Conway good evening my name is Jason Conway I live at 350 adore Avenue as many of you know I'm an attorney and I'm a former chair of the haford township human relations
057commission the very commission this Township charges with investigating and responding to complaints of racism and discrimination including with respect to the school district I'd like to raise three quick points first during Monday's reorganization meeting I recommended strongly that the board formally create an office of student Advocate independent of the Stu of the District administration and which reports directly to the board in order to further the district's goal of welcoming a diverse student body and ensuring equity and inclusion for all I believe the district has an opportunity to become a lead leader in our region on such issues and during my tenure as chair of the human relations commission we received the first ever complaints of racism and discrimination in the township those complaints were made against his very School District nearly every neighboring school district
058has created an office to deal with diversity equity and inclusion this district has not we are the hall in the donut if you look on the map let me repeat that our neighbors take this issue more seriously than this board and this District while basis is a start the board must do more to ensure that the district is working to advance the interests of all students I believe the creation of robust office of student Advocate is vital to meet the district's broad diversity goals I urge the board particularly the new board members to take an active role in the creation of such an office and to do so with haste if I may indulge a board with uh one more comment just briefly I don't know if that was the alarm that went on I
059don't think that was our timer that was something in the audience if I still have some time um I'm appalled as an attorney and a citizen in this community that we would try to Squatch each other's speech and do so in such an underhanded manner Madame board president as to require a fellow board member to seek permission to speak each of your as board members are elected officials you may be a team of 10 but you represent each and every taxpayer and student in this room and in this community each of you has a First Amendment right to speak you cannot quell that I uh implore directed by Tali for her um heroism in speaking up and I implore her to continue to speak on behalf of the constituents and students for whom she believes
060should be adequately represented at this board level the next speaker is Janice Miller this sorry okay if I may can I have a picture confirmed before I speak on this matter please your question I'm not sure what you're asking is that a question to me of MERS I need confir before I speak on the chis can I confir this is this is my family yes yes thank you okay good evening Janice Miller resident of haford Township uh there is a picture that is going around on social media of a current Schoolboard member I will not speak negative about the school board member he seems extremely enthusiastic I saw him come in with a smile I saw him come in with um what I want to see in a Schoolboard member um I am however disheartened
061by this picture going around I can only assume that this was maybe two years ago I do not have any knowledge of this photo um I was disheartened because to have elected a Schoolboard member who has a photo with his family of defund the police by the Delco Democratic Association and especially all cops are bastards is extremely it's hard for me to take um as a Schoolboard member you want to represent the community and like I said this was pre Schoolboard um the reason it's disheartening to me is because those very members sorry those very members of the community are the ones who God forbid if there was a school shooting would come running and risk their lives for our students the ones that you guys as Schoolboard members are representing um to generalize them
062and have a sign that says they're bastards is I I just I don't even have words um but basically tonight I'm up here to say um this is the past uh as a representative of the school board I would appreciate if you did better um for our students I would appreciate if you did not hold up signs in public generalizing our community police as bastards um I I I really wanted I I really like your enthusiasm and the smile that you bought in tonight I would just like to see basically let me put it this way every day and every night to my daughter I say make smart choices I would just like it if you made smart choices thank you our final speaker is Helen Conroy good evening my name is Helen Conroy Smith
063I'm a resident here of haford Township Barbara karuso wrote a book called The Bully the bullied and the bystander in 2009 in education it was the gold standard to teach children to be upstanders and discourage bullying even though there's an ideology taught the messaging includes good morals and values while teaching how to find strength so one may be an upstander not follow the crowd Mr Schwarz in a meeting in November you stated there were a lot of Voters that came out for the vote in November 20 2023 election that's not really accurate that's not true and sometimes when we say things that are not true we can can call them a lie we can also call them propaganda um and that's something that I would not like for our school board members to be promoting
064untruths the majority that voted may have voted for you agenda ISS that are now on the board the majority of Voters in this town did not vote people didn't show in this town many are disgusted by what's happening in this town in our school district in the state in the country therefore they decided not to partake and they're sadly in the Civic in their civic duty Mrs Weedman you stated you at Umbridge about the unveiling of the UN of the anti-semitic toleration of behavior at HMS rather you should be thankful the veil was moved we saw bystander by your behavior and your dismissive words your behavior in fact was disgusting as an educator in conclusion most of this board now and then pushed an anti-racist resolution into the school district of haford by proceeding in
065everything through a racist Les lens you've created conflict a conflict theory model where we promote bullying and we set up a deconstructive approach encouraging children not to get along but rather follow along you are encouraging bullying bystanders await on the sideline Al Bet waiting please don't pick on me maybe it's time for you to relook at kuso's book Because as an outsider looking through a lens I see an increase in violence in Earth schools lower test scores and soon our homes to be devalued I pay a lot in taxes and I really don't want another uh program started in the district that's going to cost me th more thousands of dollars we don't need an equity officer we need people doing their jobs that's what we need we need less violence in our school and
066we need administrations to be upstanders so that there is no tolerance for any child to be bullied and you say that not one child in this school everybody should feel welcome everybody that's the whole premise of basis it's utopian it's not possible and you guys are not promoting [Music] it that was our final speaker for tonight um I've heard a couple comments bringing up basis as um a a current program in our program in our uh curriculum or our approach to the de work and um I think that is an outdated uh view of what's going on in the district so um I would ask uh Dr rousi and her staff to maybe reach out to um some of the people who spoke to to give a better sense of uh the staff people who
067uh lead and encourage the diversity and inclusion and belonging work in our district and how it is rooted throughout um the administration and our buildings um just sounds like there's some misconceptions about uh the leadership and the work that's being done in those regards the next regular public board meeting is scheduled to be held on December 21st 2023 at 7:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the Oakmont administration building and with that I will seek a motion to adjourn so moved second