001foreign good evening it's my pleasure to call this Thursday December 1st 2022 regular board meeting of the school district of Haverford Township to order we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance the pledge allegiance United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and now our mission and goals [Music] 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 school environment is safe and 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
002and Excel in the areas of academic Technical and career and so showing emotional learning our decision-making process is a student-centered and student voice is valued the 2020 2025 that District goals are social emotional Wellness produce a community of empathetic and resilient Learners with skills socially and emotionally flourish prepare contemporary citizens modernize and expand living experiences to prepare students as critical thinkers problem solvers innovators and designers with an accomplished Global society and diversity and inclusion established a culturally diverse and inclusive educational experience that develops social socio-cultural proficiency thank you and then I asked our board secretary Ms Martha Q to call the role Dr Crispin here Dr King here Dr Larson here Dr McKay here is not grass Mr Schwartz here is Vitality yeah Mr Feinberg here is wiedemann here and Miss Snodgrass is traveling for
003work next item of our agenda is the minutes I will accept a motion to approve the official minutes from the November 17 2022 regular public board meeting Larson's second moved in second at any discussion all in favor uh any opposed minutes are approved and now we're on to our student reports and tonight we welcome from the Middle School Zora Alvarado hi I'm Sarah Alvarado I'm a sixth grade student at Harvard Middle School I participate in yearbook club and just finished participating in the musical theater Club I used to go to St Lawrence and move to Havertown when I was in second grade last school year I graduated from Chatham Park Elementary School early morning before school starts every Monday and Wednesday I do chamber prior at HMS thank you for the opportunity to speak in
004front of you about Haverford Middle School's updates the study of the winter sports season is here this week students in 7th and 8th grade are taking part in Childs and practices the rendition of Carol of the Christmas bells given by 7th Heaven choir Ensemble earned them a spot in the semifinals for the B101 Christmas choir competition unfortunately though we earned it we did not make it to the final round but congratulations to the Mr Fernandez and the rest of the 7th Heaven students on their achievement our music department is now in the in the heart of the winch of its Winter concert season the 7th and 8th grade instrumental Winter concert is going to take place in the auditorium of the high school on December 7th at 7 pm the 5th and 6th grade instrumental
005Winter concert is going to take place in the auditory on the high school on this the 13th of December at 7 pm the rising 9th graders and their families are invited to the high school on Tuesday December 19th at 6 30 PM in order to meet the administrative staff get a sneak peek at the scheduling process learn about the opportunities the high school has to offer and take part in this tour of the building last but not least an important an important announcement that came from the theater from our theater program is that we will be putting on The Musical Shrek Jr this is a big deal considering our theater program hasn't been able to put on the show in the past few years the show is open to on March 2nd additional performances on
006March 3rd and 4th everyone is thrilled to have an opportunity to put their talents on display thank you for listening I hope you have a great rest of your night and from the high school we have Aaron Coyle good evening and thank you for presenting me with this opportunity to speak so far the school year has been flying by and it's crazy to think that we are already in December we are past Thanksgiving and onto the winter holidays the lead up to break always seems to tick away very slowly but prior to Thanksgiving break the school had so many fun and exciting activities planned to make the days go by so much faster we're getting back into the routine of our classes and I'm currently having so much fun in AP Physics where every day
007it's new and fun activities to come Mr Schultz always does great at coming up with fun and interact interactive ways to help students understand the difficult Concepts that are covered in that class the labs and demonstrations really make that class so much fun before Thanksgiving break the homecoming dance took place in the gym on Friday November 18th this was a blast the carnival theme made it made the dance so much fun and was greatly executed the school really accommodated to their students by providing a space to dance with the friends to the great DJ while also being able to take a step back from the action and have a nice seat down in the cafeteria it was very well organized and so much fun one of my personal favorite activities prior to break was the
008door decorating contest my homeroom is very competitive since we won last year so we had to do something even more elaborate this year so we decided to do a 10 foot mural that basically covered the entire wall surrounding our homeroom we did not win but we are already coming up with ideas for next year the Tuesday before break powder puff and the bonfire took place prior to Powder Puff the high school hosted a huge bonfire and thanks to the help of the fire department who made every made sure everything was safe this this set the stage for the exciting game that was to come Powder Puff is where the junior girls played against the senior girls in flag football this was so much fun and my favorite event of the entire week I was surprised
009to see so many girls come out and play the best part was everyone took it very seriously and got into the spirit of it the sidelines were raging and full of Cheers after every play and so many smiles and laughs were seen all over the field it was so much fun and I cannot wait to do it again next year the Wednesday before break was full of Wellness activities and an amazing pep rally to get the school excited and pumped for the Turkey Bowl that would come on that Thanksgiving morning for wellness activities there was a wide variety of different activities from the last one I chose to do tape painting which is where you use tape to section off pieces of the canvas to make geometrical patterns that turn into an overall landscape even
010though I lacked creative activity like creativeness it was a lot of fun my friends although were able to make beautiful mountains and sunset Landscapes it was a really nice way to spend the morning this was followed by a pep rally which was so exciting and really got everyone pumped for the Turkey Bowl it was filled with performances from the band choir and Robotics club which really showcased tire for its talents throughout its students this was Then followed by fun childhood games such as tug of war musical chairs and even relay races these events had everyone laughing and out of their seats cheering in the end the football team came in and really added to the fire that already filled the student body the crowd at the Turkey Bowl was then filled with amazing enthusiastic students
011who helped contribute to the victory over Upper Darby in the 100th Turkey Bowl game now that we are past winter break sport winter sports aren't not winter break sorry Thanksgiving break winter sports are in full swing and ready to dominate the student athletes trained vigorously during their off season and are now prepared and excited for the upcoming season also High Q is prepared to defend their national championship robotics is in full swing and world affairs and debate teams look forward to their new seasons and presentations I cannot wait for what is to come and what is coming up in the upcoming weeks thank you all for letting me present and go forwards great thank you there's always so much going on thanks for those reports and now on this section of the agenda is far
012superintendents report Dr rushing thanks MS wiederman MR Donaghey and I will acknowledge our National Merit Scholars this evening good evening everyone thank you for having our National Merit uh Scholars with us tonight thank you for taking time out to honor these uh wonderful students uh with all due respect to the uh former commended and uh National Merit semi-finalists and finalists I think we have the most well-rounded group here this evening since I've been the Principal so don't tell the previous winners but uh Truth Hurts sometimes uh this group uh just some of their activities are involved in frisbee robotics crew Bocce High Q world affairs Club best buddies Club Band Orchestra choir uh the play state cross country team and Haverford Sports media just just to name a few uh and that was just off
013the top of my head uh just knowing that the students that were going to be here tonight so it's a great honor to recognize them and their accomplishments the national uh married semi-finalists and commended students there's 1.5 million students who take the PSAT exam the students with you tonight uh are the top 34 000 in the nation so it's a pretty big accomplishment uh I don't know the math off the top of my head but they do that's why they're in the top uh in the top uh so we're very honored we're going to call them up one at a time we have a little gift for them uh so when you hear your name please come up and then just stay up here we're going to get a picture all together Bridget Brennan there's
014also a few students who couldn't be with us tonight because they are just naming their uh activities and what they're involved with we do have Athletics and some of them are employed also Nora Burns Josh Decker Nick fitty foreign [Applause] James Lozano foreign [Applause] Gene Park Alice Quinn [Applause] Quentin Ryan [Applause] Finn Vora foreign Weaver Odin's a national marriage semi-finalist he's going for finalists so we wish him the best of luck and we'll find out about that later in the year Katie Yoon we also have our national commended Hispanic African-American and Indigenous people uh Award winners there are commended students we're very proud of them Marlena Duque Bart [Applause] sorry I put the Delco R in there it's Malena Malena not Marlena apologize Zach cipiano [Applause] Tyrone corsi Gabe zwilling foreign Grace yoshiako again we
015thank the board for just taking some time out to recognize these wonderful students they do so much they're leaders in the school and they're just generally wonderful people so congratulations [Music] thank you [Music] okay eventually today [Applause] and if it's okay with the board if we can excuse them you don't get to the top one percent by not studying on a Thursday night congratulations and Miss Wheaton and I just have a few comments I thought they might be superintendent remarks this evening at a recent uh or at recent board meetings some public comments have been made about safety in our schools particularly the high school safety is certainly a topic that is always on the minds of school administrators everywhere it is something that we have focused a lot of time energy and resources on
016because it is a significant priority my remarks this evening are made in an effort to clarify some of the information that we've heard later in the year we can welcome the secondary administrators along with Mr mccunney who can provide a more detailed overview depicting how safety matters are addressed in our schools we see and truly believe that the majority of our students know how to stay safe they know how to report safety issues and to avoid unsafe situations Additionally the respect that our students demonstrate towards School personnel and one another is exemplary is it always perfect no but it is exemplary our goal is always to use instances of poor Behavior choices in school or at extracurricular events as learning opportunities for those students involved unfortunately there are times when the behavior exhibited must be
017met with consequences which may include involvement of police if a student engages in illegal activity we will and we do call the police have we experienced fights yes are we aware of the vaping that takes place in the high school and at the middle school yes are these actions ignored no they are not have students been arrested yes if a student is carrying or Distributing an illegal substance this year the substance is more along the lines of marijuana if students bring a weapon if students make threats police are immediately involved and if the behavior warrants an arrest will be made these data points are all included in our safe schools report which is submitted every year to Pennsylvania Department of Ed and available on the state Schools website a concern was expressed during public comment
018at a prior meeting that a student had been arrested one morning carrying a gun outside Haverford High School that is not accurate information our director of Safety and Security reached out to the police immediately following that meeting to verify the chief of police confirmed the inaccuracy of that information if you hear something concerning about our schools our students or our staff please contact us directly if at any time your child does not feel safe at school please notify either your child's teacher and assistant principal or the principal our building staff very much want to work with your child to address any safety concerns that they express coming I do next item on the agenda is for public comment the board values public comment is an essential component of school governance that adds information for the
019deliberation of the importance and complex matters that come before the board it is an opportunity for members of the public to address the board regarding topics that may come before the board while we conduct our business in open public 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 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 boards section under board Docs there is a later time for public comment on other school-related matters 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
020our 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 to 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 for the citizens we hope our citizen our students will become residents of the township May in advance of the meeting sign up to make public comments by emailing public comment at haverfordsd.net per our board policy you will have three minutes to address the board at the three-minute point a timer will sound
021and 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 have meeting 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 will follow up with speakers to discuss or respond to issues that are raised we have two members of the community who asked to speak on matters pertaining to tonight's agenda and the first is Sarah Johnson hi good evening sir Johnson um I'm a resident of the district um I just had a comment tonight I know you're going over policy 912 with
022the AR um and basically that policy is research involving students and staff so it allows kind of outside entities to come in and do research um but the the one issue that I just want to bring above concern is this AR that's attached to it because I just think that anytime the AR just means that just the superintendent gets to decide and has oversight and it won't be publicly debated by the board um and I just think that anytime we're bringing in for-profit companies um which I assume most of these companies are to do research in the schools it you know it should be public um so that's really uh my concern again these are for-profit companies it's just one person I think this is a very gray area I think it's a big loophole
023that's being created that will have consequences for decades I mean anytime you put one person in power of making these kind of decisions um you know I just think there's a lot of danger here um you know again people you know later on when Dr rushi is not the superintendent anymore the next superintendent I mean they could bring in their brother-in-law's company or you know it's just I just think that there's a lot of potential for abuse when you just have one person making a decision like this and I'm not sure why it needs to be an AR I mean I know I went to the policy meeting when you guys discussed this and I know Dr Rishi you said that this never comes up so if it never comes up I'm not sure why
024we need the AR attached to it um and you know I'm hoping that you don't vote on this tonight because again I think this is a really really big deal although it just seems to be this kind of simple little policy um you know I I like the Patriot Act nobody thought that that was going to turn into over you know this and the the NSA surveillance that it did it's just I think you have to be really careful when you start to open up these things um where there's not a lot of oversight and it's just kind of this one person that gets to make these decisions without um any kind of transparency and especially when we're dealing with children and and taxpayer money I think it's really important to have that transparency so
025I'm hoping that you don't vote on this tonight and that this this the question can continue to go on because I know it's the second reading um and I know Miss not grass isn't here tonight but I know she has talked a lot about how like when you guys are creating these policies you have to think about the long-term consequences so tonight I you know I really want you to think about the long-term consequences of when you're not on the board when Dr rushi's not on the board I mean again I think this is a really really big gray area and a big loophole that we're creating here and bringing in for-profit companies to do research on the students and staff I mean just the focus should be on the academics I don't know why
026we need to to be helping for-profit companies and using the students and staff to do research I don't I don't see how that's really beneficial to the students or the district um so thank you for your time I appreciate it the next speaker is Helene Conroy Smith hi I'm Helene Commerce Smith I live here in Haverford Township I also am asking for you to not take a vote today on policy 912. in the policy further down number two it says prior written consent or an appropriate opportunity to opt out of the educational research by the students parents guardian or the student if the student is 18 years of age or older as a law required by law I just want to go back and say this kind of it violates the law so number two
027under title 22 chapter 4 the law specifically states it is an opt-in only so when you were asking for prior written consent it had you can't ask for that you have to have there is no provision for an opt-out it is always a parent's opportunity to opt in so I would re-look at this policy and check it out with chapter uh title 22 chapter 4 and make sure that you're looking at that this is important part of policy work and I'm not quite sure if the solicitor had an opportunity to look it over because that's concerning to me as a taxpayer that you're allowing to give our students surveys without parental consent or to bring someone in for research without parental consent next item well that's um Miss Congressman the second item that you wanted
028to speak about is actually an item that's on for vote this evening so we really should have that in the first section of public comment if we're in understanding the item that you submitted questions about the bill list it yeah it's more appropriately priced here because it's something the board will be voting on this evening whereas if you wait until the end I have a question my question is why why is the October Bill to the attorneys for Whistler pearlstein why was it 46 776.50 for November why was the bill to Whistler pearlstein sixteen thousand eight hundred thirty five dollars and nine cents for October why is the bill for the attorney Whistler pearlstein's 73 59.59 for December meanwhile I asked for a right to know for the October's Bill listing we should have a
029listing of what exactly is being paid out that should be on there okay that's part of your duty fiduciary to watch over what our district is spending why is it that I have the right to know it and I did ask for the right to know in October and I have yet to go back to it because I am busy but the bill was stated to me that only one thousand twenty dollars was paid to Whistler pearlstein for October the bill list for October I have is 46 000. so there's a big discrepancy so I'm like pretty concerned about that and why are we hiring a con controller an accountant and assistant at ninety dollars an hour for the bill rate is that because we paid Wells Fargo we had to pay them out for
030a folio on 509 Haverford Court because we over build a taxpayer I mean I'm looking at these bills this is on unconscionable what is going on in this town and if this is the new math God help your kids foreign next item on the agenda is our board committee report about curriculum and people services will be presented by Dave Schwartz all right thank you very much so we had our curriculum and people service meeting on November 21st at seven o'clock it was a marathon meeting it took what two and a half hours I'll try to take less time in two and a half hours a couple of things were fairly were fairly easy one of them is kind of in in administrative change um involved PowerSchool Mr Rob Anderson shared some information about our proposed
031change currently we um host a server for power for the PowerSchool system he simply wants to make a change to allow PowerSchool to host that actually is pretty common we actually are in the minority um currently and with districts who who manage Power School ourselves so that we think that by changing it to the actual Power School program to to to to to manage it eliminate some issues that we've had and increase efficiency so mostly Ministry of change High School administration also um presented the proposed 2023-2024 course selection guide um there were a couple of or there was one additional class EP APAP pre-calculus which is very similar to honest calculus it just allows for AP credit for those courses they also were three courses with names were changed other than that just to clarify
032what they actually um would cover that guide will be on our agenda for approval at December 15th once it's approved it'll be published to to students the course selection can begin after winter break the third thing I took about two hours 15 minutes of up of our meeting was by our academic performance update now now obviously it's probably our our way we have academic and non-academic measures of performance knock them include things like clubs activities after school types of um uh programs this however was a purely academic report on just the you know testing and those kinds of things I won't go into detail into a lot of details there are the presentations up on board docs the live charts a lot of color graphics and so forth if you're into seeing that encourage you
033to have a look at it if you wanted to see anything in in particular there are breakdowns by by schools and grades and everything else it's very good I'll just go over some of the quick highlights um now nationally it's me you know the news generally have been Grim post pandemic there's been a lot of declining scores and everything um the good news for Haverford is that many cases we have not declined as um you know in line with the national Trends in some cases we actually had have bucked the trends some examples um ACT scores were the lowest they've been nationally in 30 years we had only a very slight decline in NXT scores SATs also declined nationally in 2022 RCT scores actually went up and then um math reading declined again nationally in
034fourth and eighth grade levels when there are tests we had mixed results there we had some increases some decreases just to um get a little specifically and then I'll um I'll uh I'll pass this um along but just uh so it's memories for for for growth remember goals will be to continue to build back to pre-pandemic levels for all grades and subjects were on route for that we we want to examine some potential areas for growth in grades four from math Ela and Science in grade five math look at achievements for specific buildings um in title one and look to um Bridge the achievement gap for certain subgroups are historically underperforming subgroups we did have also some celebrations I wanted to to talk about we saw Keystone achievement growth in pretty much all subjects seventh
035and 8th grade math Ela and science there was significant growth there on pssa achievement score has generally increased from 2021 to 2022. we returned to 2018 or a greater achievement in grades for math Ela and science grade 7 Ela and grade 8 science and our national assessment participation for things like SATs acts has been increasing they're not been any big dips and as you may have know on the non-economic side we've been to clubs activities for elementary school so if you want to dip into the numbers and get and and and dig into it it's up on board docs a lot of information a lot of good stuff generally speaking you know things affect them reports don't always come up all roses nor do they all come up all thorns but in this case I
036think there's more good news than bad news so with that so long all right all right in the finance and Facilities portion of our agenda the next item is the bill list I'll accept a motion to approve disbursements from the general fund totaling 438 341.63 moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye any opposed Phyllis is approved Item B is a Professional Services agreement I will accept a motion to approve a contract agreement with Robert Half Talent Solutions moved in second did any discussion can we hear a little bit about the um Talent Solutions and the position that they are trying to fill sure Martha currently the assistant business manager is expecting she'll be leaving the district at the end of December for a FMLA leave and we needed someone to cover her position
037while she is out taking care of her new daughter congratulations to her yeah they're just all in favor any opposed motion is approved in section 7 of the agenda Human Resources item a is a resignation I will accept the following resignations as listed except a motion to accept the following resignations as listed McKay moved worse than a second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor any opposed motion passes Item B is for appointments I will accept the following accepted a motion to accept the following appointments as listed below contingent upon receipts of all necessary clearances including act 168 of 2014. continued Vitaly second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor any opposed motion passes item C is for leap of absence I will accept a motion to approve the following leave requests King
038mode moved and seconded any discussion all in favor any opposed motion passes the next section of our agenda with material for us to um for tonight's agenda is the policy section item a is policies 006.1 remote board meetings I will welcome a motion to accept the second reading of policy zero zero six point one remote board readings Italian move ment um any discussion there's just a couple public comments about voting tonight these are the second read normally Antoinette's here and she tells us like the procedure these are the second readings so we have this time to discuss them and then one more chance for public comment before we vote on them to be adopted as final policies all right thank you so I I believe that at the first reading there were no comments from
039the board making changes to this one this is a policy which outlines the likely rare circumstances in which the board would need to or want to convene in a remote virtual setting people any comments or discussion on this one all in favor of accepting the second reading any opposed second reading is approved second one is policy 200 for enrollment of students I will welcome a motion to accept the second reading of policy 200 enrollment of students moved and seconded any discussion so again I don't think this one had any comments from the first reading and it pertains to eligibility and circumstances which are largely outlined by code to enroll students in our district too any discussion all in favor any opposed second reading is approved item C is policy 201 admission of students I will
040welcome a motion to accept the second reading of policy 201 admission of students short second moved and seconded any discussion of this one you know this is again kind of further first kindergarten first grade age and these are cleaning up some of some language but not really changing um yeah one second reading is approved item D is policy 202 for the eligibility of non-resident students I will accept a motion to accept the second reading of policy 202 admission of non-resident students moved and seconded any discussion the only change I think from last time I noted there was sort of the random bullet points that were blank so thanks for looking into that it doesn't look like it was just a formatting thing to remove so thanks for looking into that sure and it looks good
041now clean the presentation and also at the last meeting um Mr Dodds provided a very succinct overview of when students who are you know non-resident are eligible um by law to be educated in the district so that was very helpful as well thank you yeah and this section also includes when we would have an exchange student yes International Institute any other discussion all in favor of the second reading uh any opposed motion passes policy 912 research involving students and staff I will accept a motion to accept the second reading of policy 912 research involving students and staff Larson Vitaly II moved and seconded any discussion I know at the last meeting we had discussed putting in information about required background checks I just want to make sure that we added that that there are references
042to other policies that require people who are in our district or working in our schools and with our students to have clearances and checks that's I'm working on doing a quick review I do not see that Dr Larson so I will look to get that changed me apologies and just a quick question I wasn't at the I watched the last meeting but I was not present for it um and as I understand it I believe Dr Rishi you said the research involving Stephen in your tenure as a superintendent this situation has never you've never encountered an outside organization coming in for research so be which was interesting to me um my question would be given that this seems to be a very rare occurrence could the policy was there a reason that students would have
043to opt out why the policy is written that students would have to opt out versus to opt in what is the reasoning for it yes probably more so for an efficiency's sake but also like the communication around it is typically I would imagine if you were doing something like this you know that there would be a lot of communication around it so it's not that people would not be aware okay I'm just wondering is is there I mean you said that we haven't counted this very often can what would be an example I guess of one of these outside groups would be Universe we're talking University a for-profit Mr diet's going to give when I not had it just for instance just as a as an example um no I didn't Haverford but in one
044of our other clients they were approached by researchers from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill to engage in student related research and that proposal had gone through the institutional review board so this policy even though it may never or very frequently come into play provides protections that you have guidance in case we do have College professors on the board shaking their heads we have a body of subjects that researchers would like to potentially use this provides some guidance for that mechanism at the board and the administration should agree to that great thank you and there was a I'm wondering comment about um for-profit researchers most of the research that I'm aware of is um not for profit like professors doing academic research for publication um I know that there probably are for-profit companies out
045there but um you know that that's certainly not research that I would encourage the district to engage in I guess or to not engage in but um allow into the districts um but you know there is very valid academic research kind of like the one that you described but I think this policy at the beginning of the policy is fairly clear that um unless required by law the district will generally not permit the facilitation of Education research so I think we're kind of saying that you know unless there's a very limited circumstance it seems to me like this just isn't something that we're going to be actively promoting and engaging in so I think having a policy like this is extremely important that specifically says that because we don't want to be in a position
046where any sort of research entity approaches us and we have no guidance and so we and it's certainly possible so let's have something in place in the event we are approach by an institution looking to do research within our district prior written consent um I mean there's a second piece that's prior written consent or an appropriate opportunity to opt out now my experience doing education research I mean consent is an ongoing process throughout the research so it's not it's not just something that happens up front I mean you have the IRB sanctioned consents that you receive so you get written consent from the family and with the student or verbal Essence um it's and they can opt there at any time so I'm wondering maybe that language can be more clear because I don't really
047know why it has to be an opt-out um my experience personally going through IRB and successfully um you know conducting education research with proper consents you do prior written consent and the consent is ongoing throughout the process so I would almost rather reword it that way um or consider wording it that way and see Dr Larson's Point that's consistent with IRB which is the um the research board that the typically School entity or researcher has to go through it's it's a part of their understanding that at any time your um individuals or participants in your study can absolutely opt out you can be all the way down they can say never mind and so since that language is consistent with every IRB um I think it's worthwhile to have that same consistency within our policy
048I I would just like to add this may not be a favored statement but I I do want to be clear when I said this has not occurred in my tenure in the district a lot of our conversation was around um you know for-profit groups you know asking to do research we very frequently are asked by doctoral candidates if they can conduct research and as much as it pains me because I am in the profession the number of requests that we get I say no to every single one of them is they either want to survey our students or survey our teachers or survey our building principles or conduct focus groups um a lot that's that is pulling away from other times so in the time that I've been here the number of requests that
049have come through it has been no even for students who are doctoral candidates with that consideration is there a reason to put like maybe a Max number that we would consider per year in the sense of like that this is a policy that's in place when you may not be here anymore to to have that decision making like is there a benefit to put I just I'm proposing as like is that a benefit to have we would only consider this many research projects within one year so are you asking Dr McKay the item six that indicates consideration will be given to the number of existing research studies in place that we've put an actual number in there I don't know like I'm just like wondering because I didn't actually know that you had that many
050coming in request wise especially from doctoral students so if I don't know if that is beneficial or not to have it's more a question than proposition and that would be like similar to um in the international students we have a number that the district would be able to accommodate it's another policy you know to kind of set a threshold if that would be relevant to consider here if you put a number on there I think we should probably say you know something based on you know based on I I mean it's going to outclaws also for you know we can do I guess what doctor here is saying is a maximum I think I think that's a good thing to say too because there might be situation where we don't want to have any and
051I'm glad to hear that we've saying no I guess you know as opposed to you know forwards to everything but yeah and I think maximum number is okay and there might be situations where we need the additional academic classes you know if there's been snow days and such and and pull children away from classes so I think the maximum number is good but um sorry Dave good I guess my concern then would be why isn't our policy say the district does not allow research involving students and staff right like if we're creating a policy for something that's not happening anyway I mean I think while there are concerns that we need to have about research happening in the district I worry about um you know staff who are working toward their doctorates it might be
052doing practitioner research to further their classroom practice and improve you know outcomes for students in their own site of practice like why would we not consider that at all um so I think maybe we need to just revisit this as a process like why are we just blankets saying no we don't do this but here's the policy um I'm just it's feeling very incongruous right now we want to take this back to the policy committee to address some of these concerns and our next policy committee meeting is later December yeah but the procedure there's a motion on the table to accept the second reading um so if we could if we could characterize Mr feinberg's request to amend the motion to return this to the committee we would need to ask the member who made
053the motion and the person who's second if they agree with that Amendment okay we're getting all parliamentary here um Martha can you remind us who made the motion and the second Larson made the motion okay so the question is um do you agree with amending the motion to be a motion to return this Paul excuse me this draft policy to the policy committee for further consideration yes and do you agree with that amendment I do so the motion now has been amended to the emotions return policy 912 is drafted to the policy committee for further consideration and it can be considered moved and seconded since both people have agreed to that Amendment okay right any further discussion on the amended motion so we will now vote on the amended motion that would return policy 912
054to the committee for further discussion all in favor um any opposed going back to committee all right the next section of our agenda that we are two is the public comment for other items and we have two speakers who have signed up Victoria Brown is the first foreign again just state your name and confirm your residency hello my name is Victoria Brown I live at 720 East Manoa Road the grandson at Chestnut Walden so um I want to speak to the fact that two weeks ago I have a free parent called on the school district to make academics the focus of all of our efforts and as a person who spent 40 years in the classroom I want to really strongly Echo what that parent said two weeks ago but I'm gonna stand up here
055to differ with one of the claims that was made in that comment that raising academic rigor means that we must lower our investment in Dei and I think it's really important for us to make very very clear that these two educational goals high academics and a commitment to Dei are not at odds they're inextricably Linked In fulfilling our duty to prepare young people for the 21st century so my point is that our students are not going to survive much less Prosper without the ability to labor alongside and inevitably and indisputably diverse population of fellow workers neighbors and voters so the future of every child and I mean every child will be impoverished if we don't Ensure that skills are provided equitably and that all talents are included broadly for our shared benefit now as it
056happens we achieve those goals the exact same way that we improve our academic rigor by increasing students Mastery of critical thinking which means teaching them in every subject in every class how to gather data assess its accuracy build an argument that accounts for all of that messy probably contradictory data and then interrogate their own argument question their own thinking find the holes and the weaknesses make sure they haven't lied to themselves by cutting out data that doesn't fit the argument that they started out assuming was correct believe me we all are inclined to do this students become critical thinkers in mathematics in biology in physics in history in economics and in literature when and only when they learn how to step back and critique their own assumptions and arguments and that is the same way
057that we become productive members of a diverse Society so solving the very real problems of diversity equity and inclusion demands Mastery of critical thinking and Mastery of critical thinking is sharpened when students must grapple with the sorts of difficult and often contradictory data and arguments and assumptions that are inherent in Dei students are inspired to do tough academic work when it's utility I'm just about ready to finish in their lives is obvious so if we want our students to roll up their studying sleeves we must give them opportunities to Grapple with real world problems like Dei thanks for the after a couple of seconds thank you the next speaker is Jennifer Brennan good evening my name my name is Jennifer Brennan and my husband and I have been residents of Haverford Township for over 20
058years and we have four children I apologize uh doctors you kind of touched on some of the things that I'm going to speak about um I have a few concerns that involve our school district with safety and education my husband and I loved our years at Linwood with our children but unfortunately or slowly losing our love for the school district over the last few years when we enrolled our children in the school district years ago we signed papers stating that we had that we lived in the district if we were caught living outside the district we would have to pay money back to the school district today we have children from outside of the district coming to our schools and nothing is being done to stop it I'm not talking about International students I'm talking
059about local students this infuriates me because my taxes keep going up you want your children to go here pay my taxes fares Fair this is causing our schools to be overcrowded increased student teacher ratios our teachers are burned out it's not just because of covid they're not allowed to have control in the classrooms they cannot correct or discipline students for inappropriate behavior well certain ones certain ones don't get corrected some are made an example of I don't know if this is fear of lawsuits maybe it's a lawsuit from somebody that doesn't even live in our district safety we are currently looking at schools with one of our children because he does not feel safe he unfortunately was involved with the kids at the stadium in September sorry my son was hit in the face by
060an upperclassmen and was spitting up blood my husband was the one that pulled up and that's what stopped the fight I think they thought it was an off-duty police officer that student is still in school and still walks around threatening to hit people again no consequences yeah some of these kids are scared to death to even report it none of us want to be on the news for the next Mass school shooting you may think it won't ever happen here but it's becoming a huge fear of mine what about the drug dealer that was on the high school property a few weeks ago to collect money how about the two seventh graders that overdosed in the bathroom last year from drugs they got from an eighth grader I just want to know do we have
061metal detectors can we plan on like thinking about getting metal detectors in our Middle School in our high school do we have cameras do we search bags I was told that in 2010 we used to have police presence in our school and that is since gone we don't live in an easy Society anymore and I just want our children to be safe I just one last year my son's Locker was broken into and his Lacrosse equipment was vandalized nothing happened they were not able to catch the child who did this to my son or his equipment because there were no cameras to catch the person what if a kid was attacked in that locker room I just asked that you try and we need to do something to step up for the safety for our
062kids thank you the next section on our agenda is board reports I'll start with Mr Schwartz um no report this week new report sorry I'm sorry no report no report no report well we're zooming well there was an election and the State House still have flipped the majority however it's uh there's some extenuating circumstances so although the two-year uh 20 21 22 session just ended yesterday it's sort of up in the air who's going to be the speaker of the house and one of the reasons this is important is that the majority party gets to appoint committee chairs and committee chairs are the people that get to decide which bills move and which which bills do not so there's a seat that's vacant because of a death and they're working on scheduling a special election
063to replace that there's also two State reps who run for a higher office so their seats are going to be vacated and they'll need to be replaced also so we're curious to see how it plays out and the the the leaders of both parties are both claiming that they're in control so just stay tuned and we'll see how it how it all unfolds okay it's always something and yeah all these um elections impact public education in the state of Pennsylvania so we will stay tuned um I think it was a quiet week with the Thanksgiving week Thanksgiving holiday in there um but I did have the opportunity today to go into the middle school and um Dr Finn and Mr Whitney's seminar class with sixth graders had their projects on display where the students imagined
064improvements and projects around Haverford Township and the way to make the community better and it was a great opportunity to go around and see the creative thinking the the models and and diagrams that the students had come up with the ideas that they had observing our community and ways it could be better there were ideas for parks and pedestrian Crossings over busy roads beautification projects and just fun places to hang out and it was really exciting to see the students like their ideas sparked putting together a proposal that um had some real world implications in advocating as engaged citizens and members of our community because they were fortunate to have the audience of several of our commissioners who listened to ask questions and hopefully got some ideas that will help them as they you know
065plan for the resources and amenities in Haverford Township by listening to some of their youngest members of their Community who did a great job today so it was always inspiring to see the good work that our students are doing um the board met an executive session tonight to discuss a confidential Personnel matter and six current and potential confidential student-related litigation matters with Council the annual reorganization meeting is coming up is scheduled to be held on Monday December 5th at 2022 at 6 PM in the boardroom of the Oakmont Administration Building and our next regular public board meeting is scheduled to be held on December 15 2022 at 7 30 pm here in the boardroom of the Oakmont administrative Administration Building and that concludes tonight's business so with that I will welcome a motion to adjourn
066um thank you everybody