001um good evening it is my pleasure to call to order this March 2nd 2023 regular board meeting of the school district of Haverford Township and to welcome those of you who have joined us here in the Oakmont administration building and those who are watching on our live remote YouTube stream this meeting is being recorded for later viewing we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance 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 now our board members will read The District's mission and goals the mission of the school district of Haverford Township is to educate and to inspire a community of lifelong Learners who become well-rounded Global Citizens the pillars of our educational system are our
002school environment is safe in nurturing excellence in education is a shared responsibility in 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 social emotional learning our decision-making process is student-centered and student voice is valued our 2020-2025 district goals are social emotional Wellness produce a community of empathetic and resilient Learners with skills to socially and emotionally flourish prepared to Capri citizens modernize and expand learning experiences to prepare students as critical thinkers problem solvers innovators and designers within a complex Global society and diversity and inclusion establish a culturally diverse and inclusive educational experience to develop social cultural proficiency now our next titling of the role our board
003secretary Ms Martha Q Dr Crispin here Mr Feinberg here Dr King here Dr Larson here Dr McKay here Mr Schwartz here this is Vitale here Mrs Snodgrass here is wiedemann here all in attendance thank you the next item is our minutes I will accept a motion to approve the official minutes from the February 16 2023 regular public board meeting King moved Crispin second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye any opposed minutes are approved and now the portion of our agenda as for our reports from our students and from Haverford Middle School we have Tegan day [Music] good evening my name is Tegan day and I'm happy to be here this evening to update you on what is happening at the Haverford Middle School on Friday February 17th I went to the dvcee
004student Leadership Institute with several other students this year's theme was overcoming your fears and letting your genes fly it was nice that I got the opportunity to go on this trip this week a lot is happening at the middle school this week is read Across America week and we have some events to promote and promote reading and literacy we learn about the annual we learned about the annual day of awareness and the theme of going all out in advisory and made a promise to be more inclusive March is women's history month and during advisory class we will talk about the contributions and achievements of women throughout history we have been getting ready for our student-led conference every week we work with our teachers and go over our presentations for our families to get ready we
005had our p i a a spring Sports meeting on Wednesday and we are excited for tryouts and practices to start the week of March 20th tonight is the first night night of our Musical Shrek over the next few days there will be several more shows the ticket link is on the PowerPoint for the weekly family meeting one of our students is responsible for organizing the first annual 24 math competition that will take place on March 14th any student can use the QR code on the family meeting PowerPoint to register several other students are collecting donations and we welcome donations to be dropped off in the main office of socks and gloves for needy people in our community canned dog food and dog toys for service dogs peanut butter and jelly and mac and cheese off
006local food bank we are looking forward to our annual bringing hope home event we are excited about the opportunity support to support local families struggling with cancer on March 15th 16th and 17th this bringing hope home Olympics will be held and we are looking forward to celebrating the amazingness we bring to our community thank you for allowing me to present this evening and have a wonderful rest of your week and from our high school our student representative is Mia dewald good evening everyone my name is Mia dewald and I'm a senior at Haverford high school thank you as well for allowing me time to speak tonight the second semester is officially one month in and now that we've moved past the icebreakers in the first test the learning is officially in full swing well I've
007Loved learning about the types of variables and statistics and separation of powers in government we just started Jane Eyre with Mr Mullen and I think it is becoming one of my favorite books the orchestra is also preparing for the string orchestra Festival adjudification also known as sofa on March 15th in Upper Dublin with retired Haverford teacher Mr Brennan being one of the judges I'm very excited for that with all the Juniors and seniors of Buzz would talk about upcoming Proms and graduations it's hard to believe that it is already March Haverford will also be hosting a job fair on March 27th with some local businesses and there will also be a college fair on March 29th to help Juniors start their college search best of luck to them because college applications are certainly quite the
008undertaking Ford's athletes are definitely heating things up the boys and girls swim and dive teams travel to District playoffs this weekend where renowned swimmer Katya Ursula Nova won districts in 200 free and lowered her own School record with the time of 1 minute 48 seconds and 47 milliseconds the girls basketball team remains all the range All the Rage undefeated 24-0 and will advance to the finals at Temple this Saturday continuing the boys and girls basketball teams will both be in the state playoffs beginning next week and both of the boys and girls cross country teams are distance medley state champions wrestlers Luca ramosco and Cole McFarland won District titles in their weight class this past weekend with Michael Lozano taking home fourth place and Cole taking home most outstanding wrestler our ice hockey teams also
009had a great season but unfortunately lost their semi-final game against Lower Marion on Tuesday fantastic job to all of our athletes and keep up the great work the high school's clubs are also very busy as spring show rehearsals into the woods continue and preparations for the spring blood drive and some mental health awareness month plans begin to unfur all we have coffee houses jazz festivals and coral cabarets helping to Showcase all possible musical talents it really is amazing to be around so many young virtuosos even though time is flying I know that the Fords are making every moment count especially on these days with the beautiful weather because I know that everybody is dying to know my graduation countdown has officially reached the double digits and since 98 days until June 8th thank you again
010and go forwards [Laughter] and with that we're up to the superintendents report Dr Rishi thank you Miss wiedeman as Tegan mentioned it is read Across America this week I just want to thank the staff in each one of the buildings that organized put their time into organizing that uh inviting readers to come in having books selected that you can choose from if you're going to read in a classroom and also to thank our board members some were able to serve as readers in classrooms this week so thank you my constant public service announcements registrations for the 24 23 24 school year underway so if any friends neighbors particularly might have little ones encourage them to make sure that they complete the registration process it's important part of our planning process in looking at things like
011how many classrooms you know for either incoming kindergarten incoming first grade students at the last all right the prior curriculum committee meeting we talked about the 24-25 school year calendar and what goes into generating that calendar and some of the decisions that need to be made around that at the April meeting we will be bringing forth a draft of that calendar for the board's consideration to uh to move forward and for my next piece for our student recognition I would just like to go to the podium take your time that's great work this evening we're asking a school board to recognize one of our eighth grade students Emma Carroll along with being one of the students in in our Middle School Emma is a member of Girl Scout Troop 5393 and part of the work
012that she does is help out that Dennis Pantry Grans stepping up and while there she noticed that there were a lot of food packages that were in the pantry that were not always maybe interesting or could use a little bit of spicing up so to speak to it you know encourage people to utilize those sources so what Emma did was create a cookbook and you may have heard about what she did because she was featured on one of the local news stations uh for the for that work so she has created a cookbook using all of the ingredients that are stocked in the in the food pantry um and that book is available at the pantry uh and it's supposed to be all food that tastes good right we have the video that we would
013like to show it if you if you don't mind um but it may be Girl Scout cookie season but one local member has been spending her time in the kitchen on another worthy cause at your news reporter Catherine Scott has the details in this week's be kind 14 year old Emma Carroll of Havertown has been a Girl Scout since kindergarten as part of earning her silver award the eighth grader needed a sustainable long-lasting project my grandma thought it'd be a good idea to buy cookbook since I cook so much not just any cookbook a cookbook that would help clients of grand stepping UPS Dennis's Pantry in Havertown the whole Carroll family has supported the food pantry since it opened in 2020. so I came in to see what they had I have a contacted president
014and founder Karen Barnes about the project Last Summer she came in and inventoried all the canned and boxed items donated to The Pantry on a consistent basis it was pretty hard to find recipes for like some of the stuff so I thought what could I make out of this and what what people like it she went out shopping with her parents and got all the items she really is very creative in creating things that we have right here at Pantry Emma try different recipes at home her family the testers Emma wanted to make sure the recipes tasted good and were not too complicated basic recipes is not going to like take hours Small Things Philly supports dozens of food pantries including this one you're getting items from a food pantry you don't always get to
015like figure out what that is you may not know how to utilize it to have this resource to be able to pass out to the community is really just an amazing thing the original idea was to help clients in this food pantry but it turns out this gift will go far beyond Small Things executive director Vito baldini surprised Emma with the announcement that their non-profit would make this cookbook accessible to all their roughly 50 food pantries in the region and put it on their website that's a lot of people people that leave like Emma I think it really paves the way for other people to step in and be involved as well having this guy this road map if you will to be able to utilize this foodie and I could not be more proud
016of her in Havertown Catherine Scott Channel 6 Action News Emma we congratulate you on your community involvement what a wonderful role model you are for other members of The Troop and students in our middle school as well you saw a need in your own community and you really very creatively looked at a way that you could solve that need and help so many people so I just want to thank you on behalf of the district we are so proud to be able to call you a member of our Haverford Township School District as well our board members might have some questions for you if that's okay what was your okay so I I do a lot of cooking too so sometimes it's a success and sometimes it's a flop so I want to know what
017was like your favorite recipe that you think turned out the best and what was something you tried that was kind of a vlog I'll ask you to come over here uh I think the best was the condensed milk ice cream and I wasn't exactly the fan of the chicken a la king what a diplomatic way to say that how many recipes are in the book I think like around 20 so it was culinary arts in your future are you taking this bigger uh I want to cook when I'm older so yeah how can we get a copy of the cookbook can we make a donation to the food bank like how can we or the pantry I believe it's on the Small Things Philly's website thank you check it out well thank you so much
018thank you the next portion of our agenda is for public comment on items on regarding items on tonight's agenda the board values public comment as an essential component of school governance that adds information for the board's deliberation of the importance and complex matters under its purview public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to address the board our meetings provide an opportunity to model good government and Civic engagement for our students our public comment is divided into two sections this first section is for comments pertaining to items on tonight's agenda the agenda is published on our school district website in the school board section under board Docs residents of the township May in advance of the meeting sign up to make public comment by emailing public comment at haverfordsd.net in order to give
019everyone an equal opportunity to speak and per our board policy you will have three minutes to address the board at the three-minute point a timer will sound and you will be asked to conclude your remarks please begin your comments by stating your name and confirming whether you are a resident of Haverford Township if you have materials to distribute please leave them at the end of the board table your name and the topic of your comments will be recorded in the meeting minutes and your presentation is being broadcast and recorded 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 two people sign up for this portion of the agenda the first is Bernadette Lawson hmm hello my name is Bernadette
020Lawson and I'm a resident of Haverford Township I'm speaking tonight regarding homework which was discussed at the February 23rd curriculum meeting and I'm concerned that the board's approach to homework may eventually impact higher grade levels after outlining how homework parameters Ms saxo was met with immediate pushback from four board members Dr King remarked that we are quote not going back to pre-covet that can't even be a goal unquote well I'm a parent who had three children in those Dark Ages before the pandemic when students were assigned homework I'd like to assure the board that my children were rarely assigned the maximum amount of homework and not even on every school day their brief assignments typically math reinforce the lesson from that day and also provided a quick exercise and personal responsibility Dr Crispin you reference
021socioeconomic status when pushing back against homework you cited one study from outside the U.S and said quote pupils belonging to the upper part of socioeconomic scale perform better when homework is given but pupils from the lower lowest part are unaffected unquote I've provided the board tonight with downloaded data from the U.S Census Bureau which Compares Haverford Township to Delaware County and our neighboring Philadelphia and Montgomery counties as well as the United States I've highlighted for you poverty levels percentages of individuals holding Bachelor degrees or higher and percentages of persons without health insurance coverage Haverford Township for lack of a better word outperforms each of these counties in each category I highlighted combine those data points with our median household income of a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars I'd argue half of our households fall into
022the upper socioeconomic bracket the very bracket in which Dr Crispin said that students belonging to this category would benefit the most from homework now having said all that comparing socioeconomic statistics in order to defend the concept of homework doesn't sit well with me the idea of our district using income is the foundation for its academic expectations is offensive to District families at both ends of the financial Spectrum in closing I'd like to speak about Ms Vitale a quick disclaimer at first I do not have a personal relationship with her now an observation at two different board meetings Ms Vitale has offered her experience as a district parent only to have her experiences brushed off by board members as some privileged parental aberration her November 2021 School Board election results whether via in person mail-in ballot
023or provisional voting Ms Vitale received more votes than doctors Larson McKay or King so clearly her approach to education resonated then and still does with Haverford Township residence I ask that the board reflect on this when you minimize Ms Vitale's experience you are dismissing the experiences of a far larger population as well as betraying the district's goal of inclusivity for all thank you for your attention the next speaker is Marianne Butera my name is Marianne and I live on Woodcroft Road I am here again because the school board and School District continue to waste our taxpayer dollars on Revenue neutral discriminatory and constitutionally in-firm reassessment appeals to date records indicate you have spent over 100 000 taxpayer dollars on these appeals on tonight's Bill list is another four thousand dollar payment to Scott catel it
024is my understanding that Mr gattel will no longer be representing the school district which means Mr Dodds will have to enter an appearance and file Mr gattel's withdrawals wasting even more taxpayer dollars in the process until an unnecessary replacement is hired one of your board members has called these appeals a cash grab because the school district itself is not benefiting in any way whatsoever so I have to ask what is your objective who is benefiting it's certainly not the school district or the taxpayers you have been complacently following Mr gattel's unsound advice all along and every argument he has made we have been able to discredit with factual evidence and law at your August 25th 2020 meeting Bob Regal's justification for targeting us was that our Tyler assessments were way out of line with all
025the other reassessments however as data indicates this is not true we were not undervalued in comparison to our neighbors in fact the County's reassessment of our property was consistent and therefore uniform with the reassessment of our neighboring properties we want to pay our fair share but because of your actions some of us are paying more than 60 to 70 percent of our fair share in comparison to our neighbors with similar fair market values the fact that you have gone from an argument of targeting us for possibly being way out of line to now clearly discriminating against us because you are now settling with property owners at values far less than Tyler's assessment recent sale prices and fair market values needs to be taken into account I previously informed you of two of my neighbors whose
026settlements came in at over two hundred thousand dollars less than their Tyler assessments their assessments are now uniform to neighboring properties so in their cases you adhere to the law as is as it is set forth in the PA and U.S constitutions as such we asked Mr gattel to settle with us using the same ratios applied to one of those properties since it was a 2018 sale he refused which is further evidence of discrimination and disparate treatment do you understand how you're clearly discriminating against us you have been settling consistent with or less than Tyler's valuations but in direct conflict with the criteria you created to Target us that is unlawful our attorney recently sent a letter to Mr Dodd's requesting settlements similar to our neighbors if a mathematically comparable ratio is applied to our
027properties we would actually be lower uh we would actually be valued below our Tyler assessments we're not asking for that even though that would be Equitable we're asking for you to reconsider your actions and agree to settlements that are consistent with our Tyler valuations we ask you to let us know by February 22nd however we received no response I'm asking you again to consider our require request if this continues we will have no other choice but to seek other relief including pursuing action under section 1983 in which school district officials including board members may be sued in their individual and personal capacity I'm hoping it will not come to that because it will be costly for all involved and again no benefit to the school district maybe you could familiarize yourself with it the next
028item of the agenda is the board committee report we had the community or curriculum and people Services report doctors thank you the curriculum and people Services committee met on the 23rd um the first part we had two um two large presentations um so the first was the K-12 guidance plan the guidance team from the elementary middle and high schools came to give us our presentation um required by the excuse me the guidance plan is required by the Pennsylvania Department of Education to be updated every three years it will be coming before the board for a request for approval at our next board meeting um part of the plan involved developing a counseling mission statement the counselors reported that there are now two counselors in every Elementary School five in the middle school and seven in
029the high school there was an overview of the role of school counselors providing academic career and social support and guidance there is sel curriculum at all levels at the elementary level it's bi-weekly at the sixth grade level it's developmental guidance course and at the high school level it focuses on skills assessment goal setting school life balance career resources and more um and then they outline some of the program goals at each level um every level had an academic goal a career goal and a personal social goal um at the elementary level the academic goal was reducing unexcused student hardiness the career goal was connecting interests with student with career paths and the personal social goal of emotional awareness to communicate needs at the middle school level the academic goal is reducing truancy the career goal
030is connecting interests and skills with careers and the personal social goal of developing healthy coping strategies at the high school level the academic goal is to reduce the number of student meetings excuse me students meeting the graduation pathway using the IEP or waiver the career goal is connecting interests and skills to careers and the personal social goal is to develop coping strategies and resiliency through Wellness days um we had a great presentation about the mtss program um that is uh the multi-tiered system of support that you may have heard about um it has evolved it started as sort of the INE program um and then it evolved from there in Spring 2021 using um Sr funding that we received it's a daily 45-minute period for elementary students with targeted instruction for student growth schools are
031alternating between Ela and math most of the goals set out initially have been met or are ongoing goals the resources needed include time during the day additional staff mtss resource guides and evaluation tools such as map growth several different graphs and charts were presented and the map growth is one of the metrics that's being used to assess student learning and student growth the main takeaway is that the first year seems to be successful um and it is one metric to determine student growth and achievement Ames Webb has been used prior and is mostly now used for K to one as a screening tool and there was a very detailed discussion of how the assessment works and how they're used to develop ntss curriculum and groups and then finally there was a discussion about how we're
032ramping back up to meet board policy with homework the saxa presented um or sorry discussed how homework is ramping back up um there was a lot of discussion that ensued from that the District administration is going to review the policy and current practices and this is going to come back a future policy and or curriculum committee meetings Ms not grass noted that our homework policy has not been reviewed or updated since 2010 so probably should be moved up in the queue for the policy committee to review um and it is Coming Back to Future meetings so there's plenty of time for public feedback and comments um if it goes to the policy committee for review there would be time for comment there and then if and when any changes came we do two readings so
033at two subsequent meetings and then it would be adopted in the third reading so lots of time for comments and feedback um so anyway it was a long meeting so it's a long report sorry but it was great so um the recording as always recording is posted um on the district website and on the YouTube page the mtss overview was particularly useful I felt like because we have been hearing a lot about it but hearing more of the details and there was a lot of um teacher comments quotes from students about what they like about it what works for them that sort of thing so that was really useful and I felt that that was a really good presentation so it's all there in the recording if you want to check it out and thanks
034for taking um good notes to condense a two hour and 15 2 hour 20 minute meeting the next area of our agenda is for finance and facilities and we have the bill list I will accept a motion to approve disbursements from the general fund totaling one million three hundred eighteen thousand nine hundred eighty four dollars and 32 cents Weinberg Vitaly second moved and seconded a new discussion all in favor uh any opposed the list is approved in the Human Resources portion of our agenda item A is for retirements and resignations I will accept a motion to accept the following retirement and resignations as listed a second move did not race for a second any discussion just that seems like there's someone here that's retiring after almost 24 years so thank you for your service yes
035Ms Doppler is an instructional assistant in our elementary school she'll be with us till the end of the year any other comments or discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion is approved Item B is for appointments I will accept a motion to approve the following appointments as listed below contingent upon receipt of all necessary clearances including act 168 of 2014. King moved first and second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye any opposed appointments are approved item 7c is for leap of absence I will accept a motion to approve the following leave requests crisp and move Vitali second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor all right any opposed motion passes item D is for resignation separation agreement I'll accept emotion to accept a motion to authorize the voluntary resignation and
036separation agreement with employee number 216597. moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion passes item e is an employment agreement I will accept a motion to approve the employment agreement for the position of Director of Human Resources between George romendos doctor of education and the school district of Haverford Township commencing on July 1st 2023 and ending at the close of business on June 30th 2028 for the salary of 175 thousand dollars Feinberg Valley second moved and seconded any discussion so excited congratulations yes it's great wonderful I love being in this district and I'm looking forward to this opportunity come on thank you so much we haven't actually voted yet buddy um and I just wanted to add that your tenure is such a nice example of the experience that you will
037bring to a human resources position transferring from one position in the district building your skill set and looking for opportunities to grow and we look forward to having you cultivate that Talent within the district in the position that we will soon vote for for Director of Human Resources all in favor any opposed motion is approved Section 8 of the agenda is for people Services item a is an educational service agreement I'll accept a motion to approve the following educational service agreement for a District student McKay moved short second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor any opposed motion is approved under the curriculum and instruction section of the agenda item A is for student educational excursions I accept a motion to approve the following student educational excursions as listed below Larson moved in seconded
038well did I say that there was a I will second yes yes sorry I thought I was stepping on yeah someone else saying it yep second moved and seconded any discussion well it's been frisbee huh it's awesome excuse me that looks like they're going to States at the end of May and then we've got some 11th and 12th grade course students attending the pmea All-State Chorus in April representing the foreign any opposed motion passes the next section of our agenda where we have topics to discuss is public comment other items there are seven people who have signed up um I will not repeat the Spiel but if anyone wants any instructions I'm happy to remind you of of the instructions the first speaker is Brian seidman [Music] good evening my name is Brian seidman I
039live in the school district within Haverford District I have four children my oldest son graduated from Haverford High School in 2021 my second child googie will graduate from Haverford High School this year I have two daughters that could enter the school district in a few years I haven't had any major issues with the way education has been managed in the township of Haverford I am here though this evening representing fellow tax paying citizens who may one day find themselves in a similar circumstance as myself and this matter may seem immaterial to you but the hope would be that you won't treat people the same way that I've been treated I'm extremely disappointed with how the school district conducts itself as a business and how they treated my family recently as it relates to the collection
040of school taxes on October 31st this year I dropped off my second installment of school taxes owed at TD Bank just like many other taxpayers do in the community I have a stamp receipt that reflects I did this on that same very day my bank account associated with the check was compromised by Bad actors and monies were withdrawn from it my wife noticed this that day notified TD Bank who promptly disabled all access to the accounts and transferred all monies that remained in our accounts to other accounts to prevent further crimes from occurring I want to be clear here and Trish holder who's the manager at Havertown T branch has made the district aware of this as well in writing my family was a victim of a crime TD Bank was supposed to take any
041checks that posted to the old account and withdraw funds from the new account but due to the timing of events they made a mistake with my school tax deposit and it came back to you as not having the appropriate funds the bank has verified my story with you in writing and as at the school district and I'd like to emphasize as a business TD Bank as an institution has done everything in their power to support our family through this event after learning the check balance to reach out to TD Bank explain the situation they collect taxes for you and they said it shouldn't be a problem at all to work this out with the district the same district that they collect taxes for the bank manager spokes to your tax clerk on several occasions and
042they as they came to collect payments from the bank that were being remitted and we're always told we're working on it after a month of waiting for a response I said enough is enough and I went to the school district building myself this is when I was told by Mrs q that you would not waive the penalty that you would not accept a payment of all the taxes that were due other than a penalty I was told by your clerk that she was extremely sorry that she knew that I did nothing wrong she told me that she had pleaded with Mr Dodds on several occasions to do the right thing here but that his was it was his opinion that the bank should cover this penalty this to me is infuriating it's not the amount
043of the penalty that makes me angry it's the fact that I'm a member of this community I was victimized by a crime and the board the tax collectors the solicitors will do absolutely nothing to help our family in this situation you make things worse and victimize a citizen even more there are large Global corporations that were not able to draft our accounts at the same time for electricity cable Etc that did not charge us penalties or if they did they waived them when they explained what we what happened final point I'd like to make I deposited my third payment with you on time it's been cashed I got a note from you that it will not be applied to my taxes and you have not returned that money to me so literally you've taken a
044third payment from me and you've said it doesn't count towards your taxes but we're keeping it so I'd like to get that money back from you if you're not going to apply it to my tax bill to me that's unethical it's criminal if you were buying if I was buying a toaster from you and you said time is up okay thank you for your time and someone will reach out to you thank you Michaela McDonald is the next speaker McDonald Todd Hall good evening Todd Hall I reside in Haverford Township there are board members here who are listed on a certain political party's uh web page as they are candidates for re-election and that same political party has put out a newsletter describing the actions and activities of many who have spoken here in public
045comment the grip has assumed the political party of those to speak in public comment and stated that they are attempting to spread information obstruct a progressive agenda and intimidate our local officials with a goal of selling confusion and chaos they advise that the speeches are nonsense and Noise by a fringe group of right-wing extremists they asked their party to speak up at these meetings to defend democratic values I reviewed public comments I found the results to be mostly contrary and a faulty analysis so this board's affiliation with this group concerns me for speeches were to express concerns regarding Pennsylvania open meeting law and the board complying with directives and suggestions from them open meetings are fundamental to our democracy save our democracy defend democracy sound familiar there's more to it than just elections forward for
046fiscal responsibility asking questions about spending I don't know if this is a democratic value or not what I do know is that asking a question is not spreading misinformation and to whatever extent there could be misinformation spread and asking a question the board could respond to public comment during meetings as is suggested by the Pennsylvania office of open records three were about safety raising safety concerns is not sowing confusion and Chaos it's in a re it's a reasonable item for a parent to bring up we've heard a lot about health and safety safety it was brought up in the core values at the beginning of the meeting these are the concerns that are brought up here two were to focus more on education and one of them it was even stated that diversity equity and
047inclusion bringing it up that's not an issue in and of itself it's a good thing but maybe the amount of time spent on academic education should be considered too asking for a board to think about the school and it's time spent on academic education apparently this is a fringe right-wing extremist concept another was about a legal concern on gender expansion and note the comment or didn't have any issue with gender expansion they just said is the board prepared to deal with illegal ramifications that could come out of this in a legal process that also gets to the point of fiscal responsibility two were concerns about surveys in schools and the use of survey data by for-profit corporations opposition to capitalism is in the Progressive Movement including here locally four speeches were indeed anti-progressive two were
048about concerns of descriptions of explicit sexual accident School library books if anyone supports this then you come here you speak up read from the specific passages don't give a blanket statement about inclusiveness or understanding your belonging no read the passages and explain why they need to be in school libraries uh there was also a speech um given by me uh wrapping up here about um Pennsylvania training that divides people into groups also I said the school is not a calendar is not a religious document um also maybe this speech was anti-progressive homework we can't give up because of equity finally um on these types of points we need to have better understanding of who's being enrolled in our schools and pay attention to that better but that could be anti-progressive because you know the president
049of the United States doesn't pay attention to the U.S border so wrapping up this is my conclusion nothing in that model modeled good civility it was sent on fax for a newsletter to start with me or the majority but others are showing up it's not welcoming diverse inclusive remodeling kindness finally you've had presentations from students up here discussing character Concepts like respect and responsibility now it's your turn to model it by reflecting your involvement with this group thank you [Laughter] thank you my name is Chris Shelton I'm a resident of Haverford Township thank you for letting me speak and thank you for your service and the approval the recent Renovations complete on District buildings I have two children in the high school music program and they just really love the new band facility it's it's
050beautiful um also congratulations on completion of the Linwood School um I do I am a little bit disappointed the Linwood School didn't come back with solar you know implemented I think there was a proposal but I do understand there's reasons and and there was some indication that that might be expanded with a bigger or you know a better proposal later in October 2021 the Township Board of Commissioners approved a formal action plan to set targets for greenhouse gas emissions and prepare our community for the impacts of climate change there are a number of recommendations in the plan around residential and Commercial Energy utilization transportation and waste management however municipal government is not the largest public user of energy or source of emissions in our community it's actually the district the footprint of the high school
051is actually greater than the township building crack and Skadium put together um so the district has made some changes you the school buses have been purchased that operate on propane and that uh that provides uh you know reduces emissions compared to diesel so thank you however the district does not have a formal comprehensive plan to set and meet sustainability goals similar to the Township's action plan I encourage the board to develop such a plan to bring the district in line with Township planning so for example under the Township's comprehensive plan and energy audit in one particular area saved 32 percent on energy costs over a nine-year payback period so that I think that's great so coming back to the Linwood School my understanding is because air conditioning was installed the school actually uses more energy
052than the old school and I think with the comprehensive plan which uh the energy audit mentioned were minor changes to control systems things like that they were able to realize savings so we can continue to improve our district but it's not only economically peaceful I think our students are concerned about climate change and such a plan will demonstrate our commitment to building a sustainable future that they will inherit so thank you for your time the next speaker is Janice Miller no there we go good evening and thank you for allowing me to speak tonight my name is Janice Miller and I'm the Haverford Township resident I am up here tonight because last week I became aware of some concerning and frankly false information contained in the latest Democratic newsletter whoever wrote and so I quote
053we need to show up and counter the extreme Republicans dominating the conversation at local school board and Commissioners meetings these extreme poor rate Republicans are attempting to spread misinformation dominate the discussion obstruct Progressive policies and in some cases intimidate our local public officials this person counted on others reading it to take those words at face value and not go and look back to the speeches this is a very serious accusation and so with due diligence I thought back to some meetings within the last year or two now I couldn't go through everybody but I chose the usuals as you have nicknamed them Larry and text to Dr rushi when disgusting speakers for the meetings so here it goes the usual number one Helene Conroy Smith the most popular one of all she likes to speak
054about information gained from right to nose by the school district so when she does speak it's facts and statistics provided from the school district and she relays that information to the community and as tax paying teacher parent in the community she has every right to question where and why our money is being spent now into usual number two Alexis Pasternak no see in Pastor Nick Larry she comes up and speaks on many different topics that quite honestly many parents in the community are concerned about but for fear of Retribution loss of jobs or Community status Etc they do not come to meetings and speak up like she does but then again according to the Dem letter this is bad now on to the third usual Mr Hall Mr holzman's hours of his time researching and
055gathering information from the school board to the Commissioners to the library Etc he may call a point of order from time to time or use an amplified speaking device some may call a bullhorn but he has never threatened spread in misinformation or be disrespectful in any of his speeches as for me I am not a usual maybe next time I'm on the list you can say special guest appearance By Janice Miller when I was done watching the Leia school board meeting I texted Victoria one of the head of the Dems and told her she had a very nice speech so I'm not sure if that's considered extreme or not maybe Dems aren't used to kindness I don't know one may say that community members who may be Dems spreading false information about Vitality speeches slash
056her children being threatened slash her getting emails condemning her for saying books are important and saying they are disappointed in her and heard I'm sorry and saying they are disappointed in her and will not support her if she decides to go for re-election may be extreme someone in this room's child being confronted by another child in fifth grade last week calling his mom a homophobe and a racist due to her school board speech 20 seconds and a local Dem lawyer likening to concern parents about Mass negotiating with terrorists extreme with this being said as an all-dem school board and such a serious accusation against all of you I think it's best to condemn this newsletter either at the end of this meeting or next meeting let the truth be known no one is threatening no
057one is the right woman extremist and I hope you agree but doubt you will spreading this information at school board meetings is up please denounce this letter remember silence is compliance thank you thank you good evening my name is Helene Commerce Smith I live in Haverford Township I posed some questions last meeting about contracts several of them I did receive an email response yesterday from Dr rushi but not from the board who are elected officials one contract I discussed was about a staffing agency Dr rushley rushi kindly answered there's a position vacant due to an employee leave of absence along with an additional vacancy so we've been paying an exorbitant amount of money for a vacancy got it during public comment I named a number of agencies um although they didn't provide Staffing as a
058temp service these agencies named nemnet dciu dvcee and talented all provide a funnel to attract School District future employees as in the business world we call them Headhunters perhaps as the Sunshine Law act requires all contracts be provided to the public that might really help we want to be confused about contracts attaching them to the agenda like the school board prior to your this board in 2018 the agenda included all contracts along with detailed Bill lists Sunshine X states that issues to be deliberated on and any planned official actions such as votes that would include contracts are to be provided to the public if contracts are posted as required we would save taxpayers of Haverford Township over fifty thousand dollars a year since we pay Whistler Pearl seeing you Mr Dodds to review our documents
059that are all ready to be public by law thanks so as taxpayers I'm telling you I am not threatening you never have threatened you I never even called out your address Miss King so I want to just make sure if you attach them to the agenda we won't have to ask for it so what I'm saying to you and this is not a threat we can sue you in Common Pleas Court for male Administration again not a threat it's the law in Pennsylvania to allow government transparency another issue I'm going to raise is the allowance of the bias of this board let me provide an example okay of your bias on January 5th 2023 I requested that the comments stated at the beginning of each public comment session that went something like this we need
060to be respectful and remember we're all neighbors I asked to have that monologue ceased Miss wiedeman's words along with others who helped you craft that fashion speech was chilling speech it's a First Amendment right for us to say things and to call you out we had two more meetings where there was a directive on how to speak at board meetings and to conduct our Behavior however after February 2nd When Miss Victoria Brown also the Democratic haverford-like writer also called upon Miss wiedeman to not use this language since it was does stifle speech on February 16th this chilling speech four-minute monologue sits to occur after that meeting a Haverford Democrats spoke but apparently that's who matters in this town the next speaker is Alexis castroneck uh good evening Alexis pasternack um I live in Havertown board
061members and Dr Rishi I'm here tonight to say that it has become abundantly clear that there are two kinds of stakeholders in Haverford school districts the relevant and the irrelevant and I don't foresee that changing anytime soon especially if the relevant stakeholders have anything to say about it parents and Guardians and groups who are being advocates for their kids maybe those that don't agree with the district's changing methods those have expressed discontent or ask questions are the irrelevant and need to be silenced for example at the most recent curriculum and people Services committee meeting last week excuse me for school board members said all but no we cannot let that happen regarding homework commencing again in elementary one stated we are not going back to pre-covet ever and that can't be a goal that statement
062reminded me of an article I read from early 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic the Articles from the National Institute for health health written by a member of the United Nations educational scientific and cultural organization about education and covet 19. in it he stated quote the massive damages of kova 19 may be incalculable but in the spirit of never wasting a good crisis covid-19 represents an opportunity to rethink education the re the rethinking should not be about improving schooling but should focus on the what how and where of learning this article goes on to highlight some of the questions that schools can ask as they reimagine post-covet education and recreate human institutions we know that this remaking of Education isn't happening because of covid it has been happening for years but rather covet is
063being used exploited some may say to propel the change that relevant stakeholders have been demanding for some time the Nea aft UNESCO CDC political organizations non-profits the list goes on uh based so common sense and basic research is the only thing needed to know what is going on please do not take Us For Fools thank you I will Circle back to see if Michaela McDonald is in attendance the next item on the agenda is board reports Mr Schwartz sure uh first of all a couple of quick announcements here I guess you could say um PFD advocacy name yeah I mentioned I talked about that before it's on April 18th that has now been altered it is no longer an in-person event it is now all virtual so if there's anybody who doesn't want to take
064a tripod to Harrisburg and just pretend that's a much better way of of doing so I've been to um to one of these in the past it was virtual and I think it was very very helpful to speak to some violets into this about education the um there's another announcement is we've kind of just we kind of mentioned in the past that we are awaiting the um report by our new governor for the um for the state finance that is happening on March 7th I had the wrong before but it's March 7th and I believe it is from 12 to 1 um and you can watch that on I I believe he has a YouTube channel so you can search for for that and I believe I I think it will be done live I
065have not been able to really figure that out but I believe that's happened that's happening as well um able to turn the PTO meeting last night at Chatham Park a virtual PTO meeting actually so that was nice with um Dr King and um and of course Dr Rishi so that was um great glad to hear from folks I will encourage people that those are great forums to discuss things one-on-one with board members if you would like to to do so and finally I was happy to hear Tegan mentioned Shrek Jr my 14 year old is going to that tomorrow last or if we want two tickets or one ticket I was told true tickets would be weird dad so mm-hmm so if you if you have kids who are entering between ages all right um
066so as Mr Schwartz mentioned last night I was able to join um Chatham's virtual PTO meeting although Chatham does not call it PTO they call it awesome sorry thank you I'm sorry thank you um a test level we say ptos that always sticks with me but I enjoy an opportunity just to engage with parents and I feel like coming to those meetings allows for more of a conversation and dialogue to happen so um I certainly encourage community members when members of the board especially Dr rushi were there to kind of talk on a one-on-one basis or as a group I should rather say um today is root cause America and I had an amazing experience with Mrs Gray's second grade class I was able to read a book from them that was already selected there
067for me at the front office um they had some amazing questions they were somehow able to have a question for every page as well as find an aspect of of the book that related to them which for me demonstrated their level of understanding and their ability to relate to one another and just to witness them have like a conversation about the book was pretty amazing and so um thank you again to Mrs Gray and the second grade class there for having me I truly enjoy opportunities to go into the schools and interact whenever those opportunities present itself I'm glad I missed it I had to work um I did have the opportunity so I missed the PT or the Hassan meeting because I was at Linwood literacy night uh Linwood literacy and I was fantastic
068um so thank you to all the teachers and volunteers and staff members who made that happen it was packed they were going through Pizza like crazy um a lot of great activities in different classrooms we got to meet a lot of different teachers the library was open it's a beautiful Library always loved to be in the library um the gym was open the kids got to run around there were some activities and then everything was related to literacy so we did some read the room activities and word searches and it was all superhero themed because the school-wide read aloud book is a superhero book um I think almost super is what it's called but don't quote me on that is that right do you remember well I think it's almost super okay don't quote me
069on that but I'm pretty sure that's it so it was a superhero theme so they got to you know do a coloring activity where they um created their own superhero and wrote about it so just lots of different things it was really fun um really good energy lots of people there lots of teachers a lot of families it was really fun so I was glad to be able to participate in that thank you so there's a theme of board reports I had the great opportunity of going to Manoa Elementary today to do read Across America as well I joined Miss Hill's second grade class and I just thanked them for that I think sometimes being with kids and helping the education of children is a lot of why many of us are doing this volunteer
070work but yet we don't get the opportunity to be in the schools very much and so any chance I can get into the schools just feels like a really grounding experience and they were fabulous I had a wonderful wonderful time with them so not as read a part part of read Across America but I was able to be the mystery reader in my daughter's first grade class at Chestnut Vault this week which was such a wonderful time we read a piggy and Gerald book let's go for a drive except they don't have a car so um the kids had a really good time I I would read to a group of first graders any day um earlier that morning though in the capacity of my my job as a professional I was in a first
071grade classroom in Northeast Philadelphia where there are 32 students 20 of whom are newcomers many of whom are refugees from either Ukraine coming from Russia or former Soviet States and then to in the afternoon then be in Chestnut world where there are 19 students in the classroom just really reminded me of how truly um lucky we are here and how we you know we have tremendous resources and just you know our children not saying that there isn't great education happening in other places where class sizes are much larger just um really grateful and fortunate for the education and class size we're able to provide our children here um just wanted to share that that perspective um also um last night I attended dciu's um it's March March board meeting a couple big takeaways from that
072we approved the board approved Dr edelberg's contract so she will continue with dciu as executive director from July 1st 2023 to June 30th 2027 um so you know the board is excited to continue under her leadership or continue partnering with her under her leadership also with dciu we approved the submission of the Head Start supplemental assistance program application that will go to the state to get additional funding for the Head Start program that we have here in Delaware County for the amount of 1 million 230 1 million dollars 236 000 and that would be from September 1st 20 um 2023 to June 30th 2027. um just to give you a little bit of background on the Head Start supplemental assistance program known as hsap those are State funds that then supplement the federal allocations that
073we receive to expand high quality Pre-K Head Start here for students who are eligible in Delaware County I'm also going to make a really quick plug as a non-golfer for the 2023 dciu Education Foundation golf outing um I hear that you don't have to be a golfer to attend it will be at the spring Haven Club from on May 15 2023 I believe they start at 8 or 8 30 the cash prizes Raffles um I've heard it's a great time so if you're interested check out the gciu website thank you thank you much like Dr Crispin I was at linwood's literacy night last night which is an awesome event that the teachers put on supported by the PTO who provides a pizza dinner and drinks for anyone who comes it was wonderful I did not
074see Mia there but she said she saw me but I did see our other representative Aaron Coyle I got to speak with her there she was volunteering for for the high school at my eighth grader was there with members of the gold team volunteering it was such a nice not just School event but Academy a community event and it was great to see all the enthusiasm and excitement and children just having so much fun throughout the building and I guess continuing on that I'm thrilled that um we'll have a book fair next week at Linwood so I'm happy to help set up for it this Sunday and I'm just thanks to the wonderful Linwood PTO and all the ptos who go out of their way to put on these events as a child the book
075fair week was always my favorite week at school and I know my oldest two loved book fair week at Linwood so I'm so glad it's back and I'm happy to help our PTO president set up this Sunday and for all the kids to get a chance to see some great books like [Music] on the legislative side I believe the the governor's budget address uh is at 11 30 on Tuesday and I'm assuming that it will be available on his website streaming I'm curious to see what if any uh impact does the school funding lawsuit decision might have on the governor's proposal as you might have been aware the the state house has had essentially been in limbo for the past few weeks and that has finally ended they've elected leadership they have not posted committees
076yet we still don't know who's on the house education committee but I think that'll probably become clear in the next couple of days and I'm curious to see what they actually get done this legislative session I'll keep you posted me on Monday I was able to attend the IDC meeting at the middle school that consists of various representatives from each of our schools elementary middle and high school and Ms wiederman Dr Ruchi and I were able to just have a really great question and answer session some some information about us and to hear from each representative of the schools um and I really enjoyed again that conversation just like Mr Schwartz said it was it's it's great to get out in the community and talk with folks in a more informal setting and secondly we
077have a policy committee a meeting coming up it's on Monday it's 7 P.M it's right here and we're going to talk about a couple of different policies we go for two hours and talk about as much policy as we can so open to the public we have public comment there too and everyone is welcome to attend and view the discussion online if you miss it thank you um I recently received a Pennsylvania's 2023 state of education report is prepared by Pennsylvania School boards Association it is available online you can find it at the psba by looking up 2023 city of Education it does a really nice job with a lot of graphs and and data points collected from I think there's 280 school districts across the 500 in Pennsylvania that participated and it does a
078good job of encapsulating a lot of the challenges that we've talked about here at this board and that are facing Public Schools across the state puts them in context two of the top priorities heard Statewide resonating in all public schools is the need to address student mental health needs and Staffing challenges and we are not immune from those and you'll see our efforts on on hiring and retaining staff and our last curriculum people services with the counseling services talked about some of the ways in which we support our students mental health needs other things that the report identifies are over the trend in the growing need for special ed services um and the increasing costs associated that while the proportion of funding from the state and federal government to support special education has decreased pension
079costs are another mandate not discretionary for school districts noted in here that only one other state in the country has more dollars per student dedicated to employee benefits which include pensions than Pennsylvania does you'll you'll hear about this issue as we look to plan our budget that will be finalized in June Charter School tuition which is one that doesn't have the biggest portion of our budget but that's another one that is way outpacing inflation salaries and other services that school districts need to try to do more with less because of these increasing costs in in some of these um mandates that districts need to budget to again you can find the report online and it does give some good context and information for the challenging environment and also some there's some good news in here
080thing too so check that out um I did want to just make a comment about public comments and I acknowledge that I have changed the remarks I was not ever attempting to um uh frame the conversation that we hear I think the the list that was heard tonight of the many participants in public comment that we've had recently um demonstrates that we have an open Forum the board welcomes public comment um and I look forward to continuing to have a robust discussion and getting input and and the board takes all of the comments into consideration and look forward to that continuing the IDC meetings the ptos and NASA ways those are more informal Gatherings the the board operates this is a business meeting it's not really a forum for engagement with the community but the
081IDC and PTO and Hassan meetings that we've been able to go to recently brought up a lot of interesting topics talking about the facility studies and some of the space constraints and and demographic Trends asking about you know what the district might consider with full day kindergarten looking at the ways that technology is used especially in the Elementary programs and I'm getting more education around appropriate computer use talk about some of the Staffing challenges and the ways that the district hires super or higher substitutes we looked at it's a different supports that have been available and ways that we've helped the students adjust from the disruptions caused by covid the homework policy was a topic that came up [Music] um so a broad range of topics but I will say today that I had the
082opportunity to go into a third grade classroom at Manoa for read Across America day those kids asked some really good questions too asking about why there's not recess at the middle school in high school and I'm really curious about the music offerings that third graders are seeing ahead as fourth you know fourth and fifth grade and then I was able to talk about the the classrooms that we added on to the high school and so as they go through their music program the resources that they'll be able to enjoy in the district um the another meeting that I went to was the spring Sports night and it's nice just to go sometimes as a parent and attend but it was a great demonstration at the high school of the ways in which um are athletic
083director and the coaches really think of the student athlete experience as a way to demonstrate values they can link it to ways to support diversity and inclusion and and social emotional wellness and to provide those skills that will help help in their adult life and and citizenship so um exciting to hear that and there is so much enthusiasm I don't know what is going on in in the environment there but um if you follow the um Twitter of our Sports Department you'll just get pinged all the time with these amazing accomplishments um I have a daughter who plays on the high school basketball team so I've been focused on that um go into those games especially recently as they've progressed in central league and districts gotten a great crowd Community comes out um I will
084say there is a price of attendance and when you hear the students sing the national anthem I'm like that was worth the price of attendance right there we it's a great form to demonstrate so many talents across the student body not just the athletes that are playing in the game but um the singers who who do the national anthem the robotics Club has this amazing mini um model T4 that honkson the remote control all around you've got the cheerleaders you've got the pep band and the student section that comes out so it's a really great environment to be in and has a lot of H Pride so I hope all the teams continue that success and represent us well and with that that concludes my remarks um we had executive session this evening to discuss
085a confidential Personnel matter an ongoing litigation matter with Council potential acquisition of real property and two confidential student matters that the next regular public board meeting is scheduled to be held on March 16 2023 at 7 30 PM in the boardroom of the Oakmont Administration Building welcome a motion to adjourn moved second night everyone thank you