001kind of like good evening it is my pleasure to call this February 2nd 2023 regular board meeting of the school district of Haverford Township to order and to welcome those who have joined us in the Oakmont administration building and those who are watching remotely on our YouTube stream live this meeting is being broadcast live and is being recorded for later viewing we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and we have a procedural matter to take care of in the absence of our appointed secretary and assistant secretary tonight we need to appoint an acting secretary and for that Mr George romundos will fill that role sure thank you thank you and so Mr romandos as acting secretary will
002you please call the roll Dr Crispin here Mr Feinberg Dr King here Dr Larson here Dr McKay Mr Schwartz here is Vitale yeah Mr Snodgrass here miss wiedeman here and Mr Feinberg and Dr McKay are not in attendance for personal reasons oh and then we'll do the pledge of all or no sorry the the mission end strategic goals thank you we've got listen um the mission statement 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 2020 through 2025 District goals are social emotional Wellness to produce a community of empathetic and resilient Learners with skills to socially and emotionally flourish to prepare contemporary citizens to modernize and expand learning experiences to prepare students as critical thinkers problem solvers innovators and designers
003within a complex Global Society in diversity and inclusion to establish a culturally diverse and inclusive educational experience that develops socio-cultural proficiency the next item our agenda is for the minutes I will accept a motion to approve the official minutes from the January 19 2023 regular public board meeting Larson II moved in second did any discussion all in favor aye any opposed minutes are approved and now one of our favorite parts of every meeting is our report from our Middle School and High School representative Sutton gold will report from Haverford Middle School hi um I'm Sutton I'm an eighth grader at Hartford Middle School I'm a student rep tonight today is Groundhog Day Punxsutawney Phil saw a shadow so expect expect below average temperatures for the next six weeks yay we've already reached the midpoint of
004the school year this week marked the beginning of the third marking period and report cards for the second Market period will be given out tomorrow brace yourselves not tomorrow is the HHS Sports interest Sports interest day and anyone who will be entering 9th grade in the fall and is interested in playing a sport at the high school level is invited to attend students will travel to the high school and have to have discussions with the athletic director coaches and other student athletes here the charitable stock in glove drive that one of our students is running is doing really well they organized a collection of new gloves and socks together with Philly socks gloves and love which will then be distributed to the less fortunate donations can be brought to the main office let's hope those
005let's hope these people do not get frostbite we all know how much that hurts on Friday the auditorium at Haverford High School will service the location for the annual HMS jazz festival which starts with which will start at 5 00 PM there will be performances by jazz bands from the middle schools in my neighborhood in the neighbor neighboring area neighboring areas my best friends are in band good luck besties we will celebrate the 100th day of school next Thursday we have planned some fun activities and look forward to get everyone to get to getting everyone involved thinking about the 100th day reminds me of being in kindergarten we did those 100th day projects those were really fun because none of that middle school though instead are part of the county band will be getting together
006for rehearsals over the following week they are looking forward to performing at the concert on February 10th at February 10th at 7 30 PM which will take place at Drexel Hill Middle School my best friend is also in the county band you're going to knock it out of the park Sophia yeah students that are wait I already said that Tuesday kicked off Black History Month we started integrating black history into our classes learning about famous and not as famous black people who played roles in history I'm proud to announce that our favorite choral director is coming back from interning leave on Monday Miss Langley thank you to Mr Fernandez for subbing for the entire time and making a great concert which took place last week we love you Mr Fernandez and Miss Langley welcome back
007sadly it won't snow anytime soon that means no snow days we are all waiting for a couple inches or more of snow down the road the weather God's always big time that just about sums up what's happening at the middle school thanks so much to the board for allowing me to present I really do enjoy June do you enjoy doing these thank you so much [Applause] I'm from the high school we have Mia deal all right good evening everyone my name is Mia dewald and I am a senior at Haverford high school thank you as well for allowing me time to speak tonight January indeed was a very busy month for the Fords second semester has officially begun and all students completed their first semester final examinations as Mr Donaghy loves to say although I
008miss my old classes I am enjoying AP government with Miss Jackson and statistics with Dr Peterson in other news I had the privilege of visiting some students at coopertown elementary school yesterday with my teachers Miss naughty and Miss McNulty Brown as well as some other peers to act as a coach for their upcoming science fair although I am a proud Chatham Bulldog I had so much fun speaking to students who were so excited about science and can ensure the middle school science department that they are getting a wave of very bright students next year even though February has just started students are already buzzing with anticipation for some of the events we have coming up donation competitions began last week for the annual Wing Bowl the staff and students that raise the most money will
009compete on stage in a very entertaining chicken wingy chicken chicken that is a tongue twister checking I can't say it you guys know what I mean competition run by the best buddies the drama club continued to make leeway on their spring show into the woods but they aren't the only ones filling the school with music my all-time favorite school event singing Valentine's is just around the corner and I'm having a hard time expressing just how excited I am students can purchase a valentine for someone of their choosing and a group of our talented choir members will perform one of their rehearse songs in front of the class in preparation for the upcoming Super Bowl rumor has it that the band choir and Orchestra will be doing Renditions of the Eagles fight song Next Friday moving
010on to sports the wrestling team won their latest match against Lower Marion where Haverford Coach Jones was recognized for his years of dedication to our wrestling teams the Haverford lady Ford's cheerleading team finished third in the 3A large division at the PIAA state championship the hockey teams had numerous successive wins in the unified Bocce team celebrated their senior night all last week the girls basketball team has also remained undefeated and will be heading to playoffs next week congratulations to all our athletes and we hope they keep up the good work I think it's pretty clear that February has a ton of exciting events in store and as the Fords Coast through another semester we can't wait to see what else will happen in the next few weeks thank you again for allowing me time to
011speak tonight for those of you who are wondering there are 126 days until graduation thank you again and go forwards [Applause] the next item of the agenda is our superintendent's report Dr Uchi thank you Ms wiedemann um always a tough act to follow our student reporters um I want to draw your attention to an item that will be on our agenda in two weeks when we meet and that is our health and safety plan that is on there as a requirement at the district review it every six months so there have not been any changes to that but the American Rescue plan act requires that school districts review that plan every six months that the board votes on you know any changes that may or may not need to be made to that plan we
012just received communication from Delaware County Health Department that they no longer want any information statistics any kind of data about covid reported to them they sent that to all school districts across the county so they will no longer be gathering that data we'll just handle individual cases if there are cases of concern at each one of the districts so there are presently there are no changes that are listed on that on that plan that plan is on the website it will be on the agenda in two weeks and we will be seeking the approval of the board but I wanted to explain tonight why that plan will be on there and the upcoming this week just to remind the public that we've got two Comm actually two committee meetings of the board occurring this week
013on Monday evening the curriculum and pupil Services uh committee meeting will take place at seven o'clock and on Thursday evening the finance and Facilities Committee of the board will be meeting at seven o'clock here here in this room those meetings prevent provides greater opportunity for questions answered deliberation across the discussions across the board to ask further questions for items that will eventually come before the board for approval mm-hmm the next section of our agenda is for public comment for items on tonight's agenda and we had one person's sign up the board values public comments as an essential component of school governance that adds information for the deliberation of the importance and complex matters that come before the board it is an opportunity for members of the community to address the board regarding topics that the
014board discusses while we conduct business in public in open meetings according to the sunshine act it is not a meeting with the public nor is it a question and answer session our public comment is divided into two sections and this first section is for items on tonight's agenda the agenda is published on the school district website in the board School Board section under board docs there is a later time for public comment on other school related topics I remind you that together we are engaging in this very local Democratic process while the board welcomes comments and critique and should be held accountable to fulfilling our duties as the elected and volunteer governing body for the school district I ask us all to remember that we each of us on the board and who come tonight
015to observe or to speak we are all neighbors that we all have good intent and act with care and concern for our schools and community we ask that commenters refrain from personal attacks on board members school officials or other members of the public let us all take this opportunity to model good government and Civic engagement for our students 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 everyone a equal opportunity to speak and per 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 your residency in Haverford Township if you
016have 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 tonight if appropriate an administrator will follow up with speakers to discuss or respond to issues raised thank you and with that the speaker in the section is Beth class hi good evening Beth Klaus I live in Ardmore a resident of the township um first I want to thank all of you for your dedication and hard work in support of our schools and our students it is very much appreciated it's been a long few years and I just want to lead with that thank you with the attendance policy being on the agenda tonight I
017wanted to highlight again the petition in our district to have more diverse holidays be represented with a day off I wondered if it would be possible for the new school pass system to incorporate a simplified checkbox format for families to note the reason of their absence I thought this might allow the school district to get a clearer understanding of when students might be missing school for a religious holiday also when considering the safety and wellness of our students looking forward I would greatly appreciate I wanted to share that I greatly appreciate the wellness days being offered to students throughout the district it's been a wonderful addition and these activities that promote Wellness trauma-informed practices and creating a sense of belonging in our schools truly help all students we know that a worried stressed or anxious
018brain is not a brain that is ready to learn and when students don't feel welcome in schools it affects their learning as a parent they appreciate the district's continued efforts to build a wellness forward inclusive and trauma-informed practices which align with academic success thank you thank you since as Dr Rishi mentioned we did not have a board committee meeting between the meetings there's no committee report tonight so we'll go on to the finance and facility section of the agenda and item a is the bill list I accept a motion to approve disbursements from the general fund totaling 960 thousand dollars 221 dollars and 24 cents King moved towards a second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor um any opposed illest is approved in section seven of our agenda for human resources item a
019is retirements and resignations I will accept a motion to accept the following retirements and resignations as listed II moved and seconded any discussion with uh with our thanks for their years of service all in favor any opposed motion is approved section B is for appointments uh 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. has been moved the tally second moved and seconded any discussion Miss wiederman could we just have a reminder about the grow your own program yes that's yeah so requested to talk about throw your own we have a position here where um Leon Smith has been designated to the grow your own program he has been designated for that program and also um with the dciu
020we are now calling to Future Educators program Academy actually future Educators Academy so um Leon wasn't able to come to the first one but we're hoping he'd come to the next session with the kids so we're really excited about the program and Miss Carter has also been involved with that program as well too so we're really excited about it and continuing the ground we have seven students total we have five students in the future Educators Academy from the high school so we're really excited about that and that is to help students learn more about the field of education and hopefully get into education so the first meeting we had um was just for the kids to get to know each other because they're all the kids from the Delaware County that came and met with
021each other so to get to know um and then the next part dciu has um members there that are going to talk to the kids further about getting into the field of Education goal is truly to develop Educators that will hopefully return to the district neon has been an integral part of that as well too working with the kids up at the high school as well too so we're excited for this work we're in the initial phases of it right now okay I know yes Statewide it is a topic psba is looking at it there's work groups in different strategies coming up so it's nice to see something actually getting implemented and that our students are able to participate in yeah and all of our students told Mrs Carr and I they want to come
022back okay excellent yeah thank you thanks for the question yeah any other comments or discussion all in favor any opposed appointments are approved item C is leaf of absence I will accept a motion to approve the following leave requests sure it's moved Vitali second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion is approved D is for professional employee I will accept a motion to recognize the following temporary professional employee who has fulfilled the three-year promotionary period required by law and having received satisfactory ratings during this period has met eligibility to receive their professional employee contract effective January 20th 2023. moved and seconded any discussion congratulations congratulations the teacher is Jennifer McNulty Brown and did I hear that she was got a shout out in your board report we didn't plan that
023did we you didn't agenda nice coincidence and yes congratulations all in favor aye any opposed motion is approved in Section 8 of our agenda for people Services item a is educational service agreement I will accept a motion to approve the following educational service agreement for a District student moved and seconded any discussion all in favor um any opposed Ocean passes B is for an out of District Educational Services contract I will accept a motion to approve the following educational agreement for a student attending out of District placement for the 2022-23 school year 's been moved short second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor um any opposed motion is approved section 9 of our agendas for curriculum and instruction item A is for student educational excursions I welcome a motion to approve the following
024student educational excursions as listed below is the new Vitali second moved and seconded any discussion good luck to everybody's Club to the robotics Club yeah yeah two different words well when they have to win first though we have to okay right yeah it says they have to qualify all right it's always fun to see what our students are up to in all the ways they go out and represent the Fords uh so well in in their Endeavors and um going far and wide go forth so all in favor aye any opposed motion passes section 10 of our agendas for policy matters and tonight we have four policies that are up for approval item a is policy 204 on attendance and so I will accept a motion to adopt policy 204 attendance moved and seconded any
025discussion I look right to Miss Todd brass um yes so this is now had two readings um at the board level and before that I was in the policy committee um so tonight we will um accept this policy and it will the revisions that we made to it during the policy committee and during our board deliberations will then um become implemented and that policy will be revised accordingly there was a question um I think it was at the last board meeting about the uh the different legal citations that are in this policy as well as other policies and um some of them are enumerated and then some of them are just listed and um my understanding of that now is that the enumerated uh um policies or sorry the statues that are listed here under
026the legal section that happens after the actual policy itself are to explain where this language is coming from where the authority is coming from um that that is in is basically subsumed within our policy so where we are pulling this from uh several of them are enumerated the policy 204 for example has one through eight and then it has like another couple dozen um references to the code or references to the Pennsylvania statutes or specific policies so um the reason that they are all listed there but they're not enumerated is because they don't have footnotes so in the policy itself are listed eight footnotes and those are specifically referenced and then the rest of them are basically just ones that also touch upon this specific policy and where the general um Authority or otherwise um
027relevance of the statutes come from and and has basically been within this policy in in some manner or uh subject matter so that's the the answer to that question for this policy um otherwise we didn't have any substantive comments between our last public board meeting and today so uh no other um changes were made to this or the administrative regulations and I'll just add thank you for your explanation about the notes and citations at the end so the footnotes are included where specifically related to that sentence and the other ones are kind of General references to sections of code but um it applies not just to the specific 204 policy but that's a format that is is recognized throughout our policy book right and that's for the reason that all of our policies well most
028of our policies come straight from the law from state law or federal law and so these are just references to let folks know basically when they're looking at this policy this is how we have articulated it this is how we formulate it in our district but the actual uh Authority and the subject matter that's within the policy is coming from state or federal law which are then have these references and it's for this one it's an entire page of references and not each one was specifically um you know pulled and put into the policy in a specific sentence at Pennsylvania school code has a lot to say about who attends school and when and circumstances and our policy is just conforming to all that right is there any other discussion on the attendance policy just
029for clarification so I'm looking at the AR right now um when I look at the AR and I'm looking under excuse absences and the letter K observance of religious holiday which is observed by a Bonafide religious group upon prior written requests from a person in Parental relation information regarding how one might complete this that's clear accessible and easy to find on our website okay um the question was that I'm repeating it because it wasn't clear at this end of the table though in the ARs there's a section on the second page excuse absences item K is we have 1K observance of a religious holiday observed by a bona fide religious group and the question was how does that get kind of administered or put into practice and how would people find out what the procedure
030is for that how would they know that they need to put it put it in writing I would think you know communicating right once a parent would communicate that or even that's a reason for an absence that the principal would say you you know give that if you can give that to me in writing so that they have it on record okay and even like if someone would not know that's a possibility to do that like how is it communicated to parents to know that this option is even available is more so of my question parents and Guardians excuse me I'll have to look and see how we do how we currently do that if we need to make any change too okay thank you thank you so that they you're saying Dr King said
031that they know that this wouldn't be an unexcused absence right and that that would go on to their transcript or whatever it is used yeah because they wouldn't want someone to um be missing school for a legitimate religious reason and not recognize that as a district we do have protective factors in a policy that ensures that your child is able to observe their religious holiday and not be penalized in any way and so sometimes it's just information is not um not aware right right everyone doesn't read our policy backwards [Laughter] um and the speaker tonight did mention and I have not tested the um the update to our school pass and and how you can log on and Report absences that way what capacity it has to um designate the different kinds of excused absences
032and if it is for religious observance and Dr King our solicitor was just pointing out to me policy notification was actually something that was added in this year got a copy of this policy along with the administrative regulation would be included in student handbooks so as we're getting student handbooks ready for the 23 24 school year and then also having it on the website thank you and I think this is an example of a way in which our policy is something that has practice practical implications on a day-to-day basis for members of our school community and kind of being familiar with where to look and if there are questions that come up that it's not clear on how to put it into practice the ARs have a little more flexibility in their review and update
033and Improvement um so if there are things that don't adequately address the kind of real world workings of this policy those can be considered in updates to the AR then that everyone would have access to and I'm sorry I don't think I had heard Dr Larson speaking um we're the so the family handbooks will be looked at as well yes it has to be added nice robust discussion on policy 204 is there any other discussion all in favor aye any opposed the policy 204 attendance is approved the next item is for policy 205 I will accept a motion to adopt policy 205 postgraduate students Carson moved Crispin second moved and seconded any discussion this again didn't have any substantive changes it's a two sentence policy it had significant revisions from the last version [Music] um
034that was adopted in 2010 and our version the new version that we are potentially adopting tonight basically says that the district is not responsible for continuing education or education of residents in any other school district continuing education past the age of 21 or a high school graduate any other comments or discussion all in favor any opposed policy 205 is adopted IMC is policy 208 I will accept a motion to adopt policy 208 withdrawal from school the tally second moved and seconded any discussion um just need to make sure the title withdrawals spelled crop properly in the file name and now it says withdrawal oh withdrawal yeah it is spelled properly on the document itself I think that was just saying it's filed on foreign no substantive comments to this one though either so it had
035no changes from uh the second reading to today's um potential adoption of the policy uh but again this was one that I think did go through several revisions of the policy committee and uh was a um then revised accordingly for that and the discussion among the board any other comments or discussion all in favor um any opposed policy 208 is approved our final policy tonight is policy 918. I will accept a motion to adopt policy 918 Title 1 parental guardian and family member engagement because the move the tally second moved and seconded any comments or discussion um this was one that had a very good discussion at the policy committee and then I think it was the first reading uh several revisions were made we discussed the differences um to use the word engagement which
036comes straight from the statutes and that are relevant to this and that there were no substantive comments between the second reading and in today's adoption foreign all in favor any opposed policy 918 is adopted the next section of our agenda in which we have topics is the public comment for other items and there were four members of the community who signed up again when you come to the podium please state your name and confirm your residency in the township and you will have three minutes the first speaker is Marianne Butera foreign my name is Marianne I live on Woodcroft Road in Haverford Township as you are aware in 2020 you approve property tax assessment appeals which targeted only 48 out of over 17 000 properties in the township and as you are aware we presented
037the school board and our Township Commissioners with data showing how the reassessment is fundamentally flawed and cited the law in regard to how you are violating our right to uniformity however you deliberately ignored the facts and proceeded with the appeals whereas our commissioners listened and withdrew the appeals with one commissioner's stating it is an unjust process we don't want to be a part of two years have passed and much more evidence has been discovered that shows how the school district is violating our constitutional rights to uniformity and equal protection for example there are over 100 properties you failed to appeal which met your approved criteria some of those properties had a sale date within your specified time frame While others occurred after when the common level ratio was 100 however you failed to vote to
038Target all of those properties at your July 22nd 2021 meeting your former attorney claims that there was some preliminary criteria that applied a sale price to reassessment ratio however that was never approved by the school board and data indicates the preliminary criteria was also not applied to all properties meeting that criteria regardless a preliminary criteria cannot apply because it was a reassessment year and all property was to be reassessed at its fair market value as of July 1 2019. you should also know that Although our cases are stayed due to a pending Supreme Court decision in Berkshire the facts of our cases are significantly different therefore whatever decision is rendered will ultimately have little to no impact on our cases more recently the school district and County have been settling with property owners who filed
039their own appeals as evident from public record and your recent Bill lists many of these settlements have come in at far less than their fair market values recent sale prices and Tyler's assessments two specific properties the school district has settled are located on Woodcroft one of those properties actually was a recent sale and the settlement value is directly contradict your own approved and preliminary criteria with the property now valued at three hundred ten thousand dollars under their 2018 sale price if this property owner was reassessed by Tyler at the amount you approved to settle you would have been um they would have been part of your targeted Appeals your intentional discriminatory appeals against us have resulted in assessments at a much higher percentage of fair market value than the above mentioned properties and many others
040throughout the district you continue to clearly violate our right to uniformity and equal protection for your selective appeals and refusal to offer us settlements on a uniform basis and for what what is the school district getting in return because as you know and as Miss Q admitted at the August 12 2021 finance committee meeting 2020 was a reassessment year and the reassessment is revenue neutral by law which means according to your records you've wasted over a hundred thousand dollars of our taxpayer funds on legal fees to gain no additional revenue from these appeals we're asking you to do the right thing adhere to the law and at the very least settle with us on terms that are uniform with our neighbors settlements to or consider withdrawing your Appeals as the township did at the very
041beginning of this unlawful and unjust process the next speaker is PETA Peter orashewski hello thank um hi thank you Peter ashesky uh Haverford Road Ardmore in the township um thank you for allowing me to address you again I was here at the last meeting to address Haverford Township youth wrestling program um and some of the discrepancy or some of the issues that we've had with the scheduling um our uh events in the school district it's interesting because with the middle school and the high school representative here today I was at the middle school meet um today where Haverford Middle School wrestlers wrestled Radner and did a really great job as a matter of fact the Radner wrestlers who have a very small team were allowed to wrestle two or even three times today because we
042had so many wrestlers who at the gave the Radner wrestlers the opportunity to wrestle um and that's the kind of kids that they are the majority of whom came through our program there were high school wrestlers who honored Coach Jones for his many years of service to the the community and to the wrestling program at the Haverford high school is in the Hall of Fame not just in the state of Pennsylvania but in the wrestling hall of fame for his many years of service in the wrestling Community all of the coaches at the Haverford high school went through our program all of the coaches at the middle school went through our program uh what this program means to the children of this Township and again I want to thank you for your work for the
043children of the school district of this Township is that we have the opportunity to uh share the gift of the opportunity of wrestling with children um of uh this year 40 families um be pre-coveted we had 80 to 100 families of the township that would wrestle for our program our goals are to teach confidence courage respect and discipline and those are the types of children that stay with the sport what happened to us this year was that we on the 21st of uh of January we had a meet with 230 wrestlers that our permit was pulled we had another permit pulled for February 11th um there was a a rumor that went around that our tournament our novice tournament which is a renowned uh in this part of the state for being the one of
044the true novice tournaments which is for just kids very first year first year wrestlers very one of the very few tournaments for them uh that our that permit was going to be pulled uh luckily for on the 21st we had a greater Norristown step up and take methactin we've had 130 wrestlers we were going to have 230 wrestlers here in Haverford luckily we were able to get Drexel Hill to help us out and we and all of the wrestlers that were scheduled the rest of that they were able to wrestle uh on the 11th of January we still haven't until February we still don't have a place your time is up um and uh again there's 230 wrestlers that have no place to go the next speaker is Victoria Brown foreign Brown 720 East Manoa
045Road Havertown at the July January 5th school board meeting I have referred resident with whom I disagree on almost every public policy Rose to protest the silencing of free speech and public comments she objected to the statement we've heard earlier this evening about the fact that we're engaged in a very local Democratic process and while the board welcomes comments and critique we should refrain from personal attacks on individuals remember that we are all neighbors that we all have good intent and act with care and concern and that we should take this opportunity to model good government I regret that I did not rise before January 5th to criticize this statement it is within the board's purview to make specific rules on when to speak on agenda items when to speak on non-agendal items and to
046speak for only three minutes it may even be within the board's purview to make a rule that no one may reveal personal information about another person about another person during public comments and maybe if that happens there should be a consequence it is not however within the purview of any government body to direct citizens on what style of speech to use what tone of voice is appropriate what type or level of emotion might violate some neighborly code of honor in a Democratic Society such official suggestions do not model good government if I were in Florida tonight angrily addressing a school board that supports covering up books in school libraries and classrooms and members of that board told me that we all act with good intent and I should speak in a neighborly tone I would
047know I was being silenced and shamed if I were a black mother in Memphis speaking about police brutality and a city council member told me to calm down not me raise my voice use proper decorum I would see that as constraining my speech I know that you're simply trying to create civility but the First Amendment doesn't care about civility I know that civility is the most effective strategy for discussing policy but the First Amendment doesn't care about strategy or policy the First Amendment cares about one thing and one thing only and that is that the citizens of this country are free to express themselves in loud raucous angry ways and the government can do nothing to discourage it you are members of the government you define yourselves as Defenders of diversity equity and inclusion that
048means you have to revise your statement and perfect Protect free speech in this space because this is not a historical moment to become timid about democracy thank you the next speaker is Stacy Martin Stacy Martin long-time Havertown resident resident appreciate all of your dedication and time and the resources that you provide to our students on a constant basis and I'm here to speak about the importance of youth wrestling and it was good for me to hear a restatement of your mission and purpose because my notes include creating better citizens so if I may for those of you who don't know wrestling is a sport of athleticism and a mental game of chess its moves and counter moves it is a thinking man's thinking person's sport boys and girls are doing it competitively together as they
049are in the current youth program the they learn discipline they learn respect every match begins with a handshake and ends with a handshake with your opponent and their coaches the the practices are long for the discipline part there are many hours that are spent so that they may compete for three minutes on a Saturday morning maybe they'll get two or three rounds um but they'll spend six hours that week training at the Youth Level they develop mental and emotional resilience they walk out onto that mat by themselves they have their coaches behind them and their team behind them but the courage to walk out on the mat compete win or lose and walk off that mat into the reception of their teammates and coaches that takes courage and that they learn resilience by being able
050to tackle that by themselves and learn the self-confidence that it can do that by themselves and carry that as a skill later in life leadership skills are another thing that's learned in the wrestling room they can encourage one another challenge one another and support one another both verbally and by demonstrating good skills it teaches self-defense I'll save you the story my son shared with me and his using it but it teaches a physical self-confidence so that you do not have to respond with aggression you can you know frankly it's an antidote for bullying because you know you have the self-confidence that you don't have to be threatened by that aggressor and if it escalates you can reduce it to a submission hold then in my son's story he had to do that and said are
051you done yet that was the end of it the um some of the myths that come with it are that it's expensive frankly it's the least expensive Sport and I'm a wrestling mom soccer mom hockey mom Gaelic football mom this is the least expensive but part of that is the partnership with what you provide those resources of having that gym space and it's not just Haverford students that benefit there are many teams that compete at the Youth Level that don't have that resource and depend on using your space to do that and as a community when apartments are pulled the other townships are aware of that thank you for my time the next section of the agenda is for board reports I'll start with Mr Schwartz thanks I just want to give a quick reminder
052to um everybody that the um advocacy Day is coming up for um for for our our our day on the hill so if you um if you're interested in attending that you know just uh shoot me an email or or a call we are inviting or there is limitation this year for high school students so yeah that's interests you I'm sure that um Dr rushi and other folks can help too hopefully arrange a couple of uh of students to two two up there we'll we'll see I know that there's some things some hoops jump through there but just a matter of responder to everybody to um get involved thank you Dr King um last night I had the opportunity to go to Chestnut Falls PTO meeting um as a member of the school board although
053I'm a parent there but it's always a great opportunity to um join PTO meetings and have parents and Guardians in the community ask questions and hear information related to what school board does and what things we may be working on and as always additional additionally um thank you to the ptos our schools are greater because those programs exist you are volunteers you create all sorts of amazing programming and experiences and opportunities for growth I would say for the the children that are part of those programs but also I imagine for the parent volunteers the relationships that come out of being a part of a PTO organizations exams and it's a really amazing part of the district that we serve and that we are part of so thank you for having us that one so first
054thanks again to the the Linwood kids who gave us the cards um I don't know if you all look through your cards out here we're meeting but they were adult lights um I got a really big kick out of them they were great so thank you again for that that was really sweet um the um Delaware County community college has sent us a recent update um a few things um that might be interesting to members of the Haverford Community some enrollment for spring 2023 um for Haverford Township in our district there are 285 students enrolled with a total of 2 575 credits for spring dual enrollment at the high school and we have 17 students um I'd love to see that number go up a little bit um looking at some neighboring districts like rose
055tree media they've got 21 high schoolers Upper Darby has 54. um Springfield has seven so you know we're kind of in there but I'd love to see more students at high school level taking advantage of that amazing opportunity um the Community College has announced who the new president will be um Dr L Joy Gates black is retiring on June 30th um Dr Marta Yara Cronin is a husband named the fifth president now of the Delaware County Community College and she will take over after Dr Gates black retires um and then there's also a new liaison Shelley Hunt is a school board member of The Rose Tree media district and she's taking over as the chair of the liaison committee and so she's going to bring us all together um although Liaisons together um to serve
056the the Delaware County Community College um and then last but not least um they are making progress on their new and amazing renovation of the Pendergast area um and they've given us some presentations about that so they're well on their way they've got a lot of funding locked in um and fans are coming right along so very exciting thank you that location will serve Haverford well by its proximity so maybe you'll get more uptake on your interest in seeing more enrollment so hopefully our students will take you into it um so just a quick February dciu board meeting update the board for dciu met last night and as many of you know pde has created this new CTE or Career and Technical education program for K-12 education for high schools for high school students across
057the state and this program's in response to the significant decrease in instructional teacher certificates that have been offered in Pennsylvania between the years so from 2010 to 11 there were 21 000 certificates issued that year and in 2020 2021 there were about 7 600 so there's been a significant decrease and that decrease has continued um so as part of a way to stem this problem the state has created this new program making K-12 Education certification part of CTE to get students really interested in you know public school or kids 12 teaching as a career earlier on so great news the Delaware County Technical Schools dcts approved the teacher preparation Academy program which will start next year so this means now the technical schools can begin recruiting students from the different sending districts and in the
058meantime dcts and dciu which have they're not quite one in the same but they they are definitely overlap so we're hoping to get that approval by May 2023 from the state to actually get that program rolling but in the meantime we'll begin recruiting students and we've also approved the position for the teacher who will teach this class to students so we're very excited to see where this goes that's the update I think so now hopefully Haverford students will participate in that I've heard about the grow your own and it's nice to see these different Avenues being developed to um prepare our next teachers in the classroom no report S no report um all right so I just wanted to say thank you um I think this board report demonstrates all the ways in which board
059members do a lot more to represent Haverford not just here at these board meetings twice a month but as Liaisons to State and county level agencies that are working in collaboration for the benefit of our students in public education so thank you for all that additional time that you dedicate to to serving uh have referred in those capacities and I on a on a Thursday night when there's a basketball game I'm I'm here but I can report that the girls have continued their um undefeated season so congratulations to them look forward to being a cheerleader uh as they go into the playoffs and um just wanted to mention there was some in the student reports about some of the music for the Eagles and spirit um that are going through the hallways if you look
060at the landing page on the district website there is a wonderful rendition of Fly Eagles Fly by our fifth grade band and that will definitely get you in the spirit too we've got music demonstrated you know at all levels of the school and we had a great performance recently from elementary students all the way up so um then the fly goes fly by fifth graders is a great way to get in the eagle spirit um we have a report on the executive session tonight the board met to consider the purchase of real estate property and to discuss a confidential Personnel matter the next regular public board meeting is scheduled to be held on February 16 2023 at 7 30 PM in the boardroom of the Oakmont Administration Building and with that the business of this
061meeting is concluded I will welcome a motion to adjourn moved good night everybody thank you