001good evening it's my pleasure to call the thursday june 16 2022 regular board meeting of the school district of haverford township to order let's rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge of the allegiance states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all the mission of the school district of haverford township is to educate and to inspire a community of lifelong learners who will 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 and excel in the areas of academic
002technical and career and social emotional learning our decision-making process is student-centered and student voice is valued our district has three 2020 2025 district goals the first is social emotional wellness to produce a community of empathetic and resilient learners with skills to socially and emotionally flourish the second is to prepare contemporary citizens to modernize and expand learning experiences to prepare students as critical thinkers problem solvers innovators and designers within a complex global society and the third is diversity and inclusion to establish a culturally culturally diverse and inclusive educational experience that develops socio-cultural proficiency thank you and now i'll ask our board secretary martha q to call the role dr crispin here dr king here dr larson dr mckay here mr schwartz here ms doddgrass here is vitalik mr feinberg here ms wiedemann here uh ms vitale
003has a travel conflict and dr larson has a work conflict tonight the next item on the agenda is the official minutes i will accept a motion to approve the official minutes from the june 2nd 2022 regular public board meeting snodgrass moved crisp in second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed emotions are approved tonight unfortunately we do not have our student reporters always a highlight of the meeting they are about to enjoy their summer break uh the superintendent's report is then next great thank you mrs as we're winding down this uh the school year many of us have had opportunities to join in celebrations at the various various schools whether they've been fifth grade moving up ceremonies or awards nights at the middle school graduation and other culminating events i want to thank our
004teachers and our building principals who do such a great job organizing these events and the ptos who play an important role in supporting many of the events in our schools as as well in addition these events don't come off without the involvement of our custodians our maintenance staff there's just a lot of people that go into making these these events that look so simple and easy making them come on come off looking that way so i just want to express my appreciation in addition to the uh to appreciate our board members who are making time to attend so many of these events at this busy time of the year and the second part of my report tonight involves the wellness update and that is a you know required sharing of information regarding the wellness commit
005what the wellness committee has looked at in their meetings this year and uh ms batastelli is here tonight to provide that information for us thank you okay all right good evening dr ruschi miss swederman members of the board community members and colleagues tonight i'll be presenting our annual update on wellness um the topic of wellness has been discussed many times throughout this year at board meetings um specifically in may we went over mental health awareness and identified a lot of the supports in place in the district with regards to mental health and um and wellness in addition to our strategic goals and our social emotional wellness goal for this school year so the school wellness policy um the policies required by usda and pde it was last updated in november of 2020 and actually will
006be due for an update um in november of 2023. um the policy includes the forming of a wellness committee which has actually been in place for many years now um this community includes administrators parents community members teachers students nurses um and they need to discuss the wellness policy and wellness activities throughout the district the purpose of the policy to support physical activity and wellness it's also required to implement the usda nutrition guidelines requirements for classroom celebrations and fundraising and we typically um communicate these activities through haverford happenings and other um you know principles emails et cetera and on our website that there's a board member oh yes the board member i'm so sorry dr mckay is our board member um she joined us this year um and we met recently so the wellness committee meetings
007the topics covered have been wellness activities across the district at all levels obviously a lot of activities um are back um this year so it was really great to discuss those new activities there's always a food service update from our food service department and one of the things we've been discussing is also the cooking demonstrations that our food service department's doing with students which is really popular with our our children um some of the activities for the elementary level um we continue with morning meeting birthday shout outs and the announcements we continue to utilize brain breaks um we have the social emotional learning lessons that happen for each grade level there's group and individual counseling available to our students peer mentoring restorative practices student-led morning announcements so the students it's not that just they're reading
008the announcements they plan the announcements they plan the activities they're super involved social emotional learning day our fifth graders this year at linwood and chatham had a mindfulness presentation from minding your mind and in addition we have mindfulness activities at all of our elementary levels and the social emotional wellness newsletter which is actually k-12 that's been on the website and been coming out every month at the middle school this year again some of this is going to sound familiar because we uh implemented the social emotional social emotional wellness screener um it's sixth grade and the interventionist for the students who required intervention that was part of our strategic um goals in addition the social emotional wellness newsletter is also part of our strategic goals but we continue to have daily morning meetings on zoom with
009administration they do birthday shout outs students reports sports reports um the kids really love this it's like really um they really enjoy it in addition they have this so um the wellness period um at the middle school which includes art therapy music therapy media meditation brain breaks and teaching building challenges for our students the high school the high school has so many activities that i'm not going to be able to list all the activities in athletics um that you know give our students a sense of wellness but um again the social emotional wellness greener was at the ninth grade this year uh we continue with brain breaks the activities fair and college and career fair returned this year and they were very popular they had a school-wide wellness day the students very much enjoyed on
010june 3rd and then there's been additional clubs and activities that are listed there and then athletics there's too many athletics uh groups to list but we have a lot of them and they all do very well um and then uh we say breathing with booze which is mr boos the licensed professional counselor from lakeside who does breathing exercises with staff during monthly faculty meetings but also to train them so they can turn these exercises around to their students in the classroom which is part of the brain breaks as well that they utilize for food services last year at this presentation we were presenting a lot of plans for this year because we had new new food services and so a lot of those plans actually worked out we have presentations in our school on the
011importance of breakfast and class demos on plant power and the importance of vegetables nutrislice is an app that's out there our website too the parents can get nutrition information for all the food that's served during our lunches and then next year where the food service department's hoping to put out a quarterly newsletter with information for families these are some pictures from some of the activities this year we had the elementary track meet which i attended and there was many many children there enjoying the beautiful day running and potter cup happened this year that was a big hit and then also some pictures of our chef josh doing some cooking demos in our elementary schools so that's my update for this year and i'm happy to take any questions all right thank you okay thank you
012anything else under your report nope okay uh the next item on the agenda is a public comment for items on the agenda we had no one sign up so we'll move on to item five the board committee report and that will be from mr schwartz about the finance and facilities meeting okay thank you very much finance facilities committee meeting was held on june 6th had some updates on on the project on the construction projects expression updates with um linwood no changes still on schedule just some minor cleanups approval by township and delaware county conservation district expect to be done with everything by this summer installing some ball netting some library shelf replacements some very very small things high school phase one is also in close out with with the with the township should be done
013probably in august high school phase two is on schedule demolition started um a few weeks ago actually the inside is now weather tight boilers and chillers are being put in and there are no long lead items um for for the high school chem is also on also on schedule as cooper town we actually got some money back for a couple of items for on those two projects which is nice we also got a um so some responses to to to the rfp for our propane tank at the m t lot i'm going with um the results are are up we're going with um wilson it was about a hundred thousand dollars less than the next lowest bidder so that's going to be good um so that the construction on on the lot and propane tanks
014will start around june 21st we're also transitioning our um our bus routing system um it's going from one system to another better software and there's initial price obviously for for purchase and training after that is about half the price of our current system so it's going to be a savings in the in the long term we also reviewed some responses to the feasibility study for for facilities and finally we talked a little bit about our insurance renewals and thanks to workers comp actually came in less than with budgeted so um that's about it all right thank you i just wanted to make a point of clarification that the items that were presented at the finance and facilities committee meaning most of those are on the agenda for approval tonight right so we saw the proposals
015the recommendations got the background um but we will be voting on them tonight yes thank you i didn't mention that yep all right thank you um item six on the agenda is for finance and facilities item a is the bill list i will accept a motion to approve disbursements from the following funds as listed king second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye any opposed bill list passes item b is change orders i will accept a motion to accept the recommendations of project architect kcba and associates inc and owners representative cb development services inc and authorized the change orders totaling eighty three thousand nine hundred eleven dollars and eight cents as listed crispin move short second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye any opposed change orders are approved item c
016is a chestnut world pto donation i will welcome a motion to accept a donation in the amount of nine thousand eight hundred forty dollars from chestnut world pto to be used for the purchase of a swing set at chestnut world elementary okay moved congress second moved and seconded any discussion this is a popular item yeah swings that's great i walked by chestnut old regularly and they had one of those thermometers on the front it was a whole school effort to um track the dollars that are coming in i um appreciate the support of the community there to um fundraise for this sure to be fun amenity at the at the playground yeah congrats to the inviting students yeah yes all in favor aye any opposed thank you to the chestnut world pto item d is
017a propane tank replacement award i will accept a motion to approve the award of the propane tank replacement project to wilson of wallingford inc at a cost of two hundred twenty four thousand three hundred fifty one dollars and the two thousand or twenty twenty two twenty twenty three liquid fuel price feinberg move king second moved and seconded any discussion um at the finance and facilities meeting there was a discussion of a three-year lock-in but this looks like just a one-year just one okay good thank you and i think that was um a question that the board had just about the volatility and pricing so one year felt like a more comfortable bid thank you for considering the range of options there that makes sense good any other discussion um i also was impressed to see
018that the fuel price will be 1.65 a gallon propane is seems like a bargain compared to what everyone else is experiencing these days all in favor any opposed the motion passes item e is the feasibility study rfp award i will welcome a motion to approve crabtree rorbaugh and associates to complete a district-wide feasibility study at a lump sum fixed fee of twelve thousand five hundred dollars plus reimbursable expenses with the reimbursable expense capped at five hundred dollars the year three update to the study will be at the fee of two thousand five hundred dollars schwartz moved crispin second moved and seconded any discussion i just wanna thank uh both e.i and crabtree uh rohrbach for coming in to make their presentations uh i think both were very qualified yeah we had um a lot of
019interest here given the um eight bidders that we had and thank you to ms q for coordinating to have the two low bidders come in it was interesting to hear their approach the feasibility study will look at the current property conditions of all of the district's buildings as well as look at some of the enrollment trends and consider options and alternatives as we look forward several years to consider the capacity of our buildings and the enrollment and programmatic needs that we have um so yeah it was interesting to get the opportunity to meet with them and um crabtree uh gave us an impressive proposal and some good responses to the questions that were asked any other discussion are we still anticipating a report sometime november um i think there will be about a six-month time
020frame they would use the summer to do some of the facility tours inspections bring in um the engineering specialists that they would have for that and then begin to meet with district personnel on understanding uh the programmatic needs space needs and all of the buildings and um there will be different points of collecting data doing interviews so that time frame they said that it could be in six months in some cases they said it could take a lot longer but i think they'll be interested in a um tighter turnaround due to the time that we're starting this also in the summer time chances are the the interviews aren't going to happen quite as quickly as as as you know we're able to but what did they come up with so i just want to say
021thank you to those of you who put extra time in to do a deeper dive into these proposals those were some pretty thick proposals so thank you for for all that effort thank you any other discussion all in favor aye any opposed the motion passes item f is professional services agreement i will accept a motion to approve the agreement with rave swift k to replace school messenger as our district notification system christmas move king second moved and seconded any discussion a little bit of background on this would be helpful i assume it was talked about at the meeting but this will be the this actually yeah this actually was not discussed at the um finance and facilities meeting um and it's i think it's been a while since we had mentioned we've had uh difficulty
022on several occasions with school messenger throughout this year uh it has even come up when i've attended idc meetings um parents reporting problems that they are having with school mesh and school messenger so our technology staff started months ago to take a look at like what are some other districts using what and went through the process of looking at other tools so we are leaving school messenger for uh this communication system okay and when does that change require anything on the community's part or is that all behind the scenes it there will be like a different face to it okay so we'll do a series of videos and we'll have material ready for the principles for back to school nights that can be communicated to parents uh and do have some tutorials online that people
023can go to okay how to use it but it doesn't affect powerschool right or interfaces it interfaces with school but people won't have to download a different app from powerschool powerschool but something different than the school messenger app yeah right okay got it okay and um i will note that the cost for this and the one-time implementation fee is 14 150 any other discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion passes item g is contract software license and hosting agreement i will accept a motion to approve the contract software licensing and hosting agreement with transfinder for the transfinder software system at a cost of forty six thousand two hundred seventy five dollars for twenty twenty two twenty twenty three and eleven thousand three hundred fifty dollars for the following any discussion just just expand upon
024this a little bit this is um transferring to give us a very good presentation at the finance and facilities um committee meeting it seems to be like a much better software for for half the price going forward so it's really not very very rare for a win-win but yeah our transportation coordinator um presented and he had me like on slide one it seems yeah um really effective it's gonna be a google mapping platform much more up to date easy to follow easy to plan the roots and then also incorporates a better communication system for our families yeah mia hello one one thing to note though is that it won't go into effect for two years like we have a we need to have an interim year that maintains our current system and then we transfer
025over right they have planned for that transfer thank you for pointing that out so um yeah this year we'll have the opportunity to have some dual duality in the systems before making that transition thank you any other discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion passes item h is district fund depositories i will accept a motion to approve the depositories for the district funds as listed i'm bergmov snodgrass second moved and seconded any discussion um i recall from prior years that this there is some strategy in kind of diversifying accounts um and perhaps ms q could you just speak to a little about the strategy about the depositories well now that interest rates are beginning to increase again we'll have the opportunity to be able to invest our funds and gain more interest earnings so
026we're trying to get some flexibility between the various accounts so that we can invest at the best rates thank you any other discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion passes item i is auditor recommended budget transfers i'll accept a motion to approve the authorization for the business administrator to make auditor recommended budget transfers to close out the 2021-2022 school year in preparation for the year-end local audit king moved crisp and second moved and seconded any discussion i gather this is a a routine process to close out the year it is all in favor all right any opposed motion passes we are still in the finance and facilities item j 2022-23 insurance renewal i will accept a motion to approve insurance coverages for the 2022-2023 school year as provided by arthur j gallagher and company
027the district's broker of record as follows congress moved christmas 10 seconds moved and seconded any discussion all in favor any opposed motion passes item k is the 2022-2023 final budget and resolution i will welcome a motion to approve the 2022-2023 final budget and corresponding budget resolution the final budget for the fiscal year 2022-2023 totals 138 million 120 921 dollars this amount includes eight hundred thousand dollars in budgetary reserve the millage rate will be 17.6880 an increase of 0.5069 mills or 2.9 percent over the 2021 2022 millage rate of 17.1811 mills feinberg moved snowed grass second moved and seconded any discussion just want to thank martha for all of her um board presentations at the board meetings at the committee meetings i feel like i've seen this presentation budget presentation a lot of times but it's
028um but it's better that way um and i appreciate all the effort that went into the presentation went into crunching the numbers and um thank you to everyone as well um you know i know this isn't just martha and so um thank you to everyone involved in putting together the budget and this is actually the final budget correct until next time yeah until next year's the presentations and um note that the 2.9 is below the act 1 index of 3.4 um and we were able to do that and still add some important staffing positions to fill some critical needs to respond to our growing enrollment and and the programmatic um goals and strategies of the district um and appreciate dr rushi for the way you've been able to explain that and um show that the
029this seems like a budget that is is balanced and managed but also enhancing our our school program and services to our students thank you any other discussion all in favor any opposed budget is approved item l homestead farmstead exclusion resolution i'd um i will welcome a motion to approve the resolution implementing the homestead farmstead exclusion for 2022-2020 pursuant to section 342 of act 1 of special section session 2006. crispin move short second moved and seconded any discussion perhaps miscue you could um describe this a little bit i understand there's it's a rebate in effect and and the attachment shows 217 dollars per homestead as a tax relief but if you could give a little more context to that um the district has some 12 203 eligible properties for homestead reduction this is where they filled
030out an application and were approved by the county for this reduction the state then provides us with a share of basically the gambling proceeds that we then have to divide over those 12 000 properties and that's how the 217 dollars is computed there will be a reduction to the assessed value to create that reduction in the taxes thank you very much any other comments or discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes and we have made it through the finance and facilities section of the agenda so we are on to item seven is human resources and item a is resignations i will accept a motion to accept the following resignations as listed king moved chris moved in second did any discussion all in favor any opposed motion is approved appointment um item b
031is appointments i will accept a motion to approve the following appointments as listed sawgrass moved for a second moved and seconded any discussion it's nice to note how many more um on the incoming appointment side there um all in favor any opposed the motion passes and dr rushi wanted to recognize someone who's with us tonight yes who's here with us this eve joining us this evening is mr chris coffey chris has been serving at manoa elementary as as the lead custodian and is known as someone who is outstanding at his work a very strong work ethic highly dependable anytime he's asked to do anything at all and has remained a dedicated employee to this district and we're thrilled to bring you on to our team now as supervising all of our custodial staff in the
032district so welcome back and jen has a little swag bag for you not that you don't have we have to get you out of the manoa gear thank thank you [Applause] thank you item c is leave of absence i will accept a motion to approve the following leave request pineburg move it's not a grass second any discussion all in favor all right any opposed motion passes item d is miscellaneous rates i will accept a motion to approve the miscellaneous salary and aller hourly rates for the 2022-23 school year crispin move king second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion is approved item e is confidential secretary compensation plan i will accept a motion to approve the confidential secretary's compensation plan effective july 1 2022 to june 30th 2024. mckay moved
033crisp and second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes item f is a negotiated agreement with the education support professional association e-s-p-a i will accept a motion to approve the negotiated agreement between the school district of haverford township and the haverford township education support professional association effective july 1 2022 through june 30th 2024 and authorize proper offices officers of the board to execute said agreement subject to legal review snodgrass moved crisp and second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion passes item g is for the negotiated agreement for the professional support personnel association pspa i will accept a motion to approve the negotiated agreement between the school district of haverford township and the haverford township professional support personnel association pspa effective july 1
0342022 to june 30th 2026 and authorize proper officers of the board and administration to take actions necessary and execute documents subject to legal review crispin move it's not gross second moved and seconded any discussion i just want to thank the the teams for both of these contracts both professional association and the personnel association and also uh our administrative uh teams you're welcome any other comments all in favor all right any opposed motion is approved in item nine of the agenda item a is the 2022 esy baby yeah what did i say i said okay it is item eight i read that i had my little like highlight on it item eight is people services and item a is 2022 e s y contract approvals esy is extended school year i will accept a motion to
035approve the following educational contracts for students attending out-of-district placements for the 2022 esy program mckay moved crisp and second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor any opposed motion passes item 8b is special education administrative proceedings i'll accept a motion to accept the recommendation of special counsel and authorize the resolution of the pending special education administrative proceeding and authorize the administration to implement the terms of the resolution as listed below crispin moved snodgrass second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor all right any opposed motion is approved item c is educational services contract i will welcome a motion to approve the following educational contract for services provided to students and or staff with the district shorts moved crispin second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion is
036approved now into item nine curriculum and instruction item a is instructional time template for the 2022-23 school year i will accept a motion to approve the instructional time template for the 2022-23 school year kristin moves back moved in a fight for second is there any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion is approved item b is trauma informed training i will welcome a motion to approve an agreement for the seven for seven thousand dollars with lakeside to provide seven asynchronous professional development sessions in the area of trauma informed care crispin move audrey second moved and seconded any discussion um i was curious do we know um how this training will be evaluated um after use yeah part of the training includes a required um sort of assessment that is a google form and
037it not only asks about the content but it also asks for a reflection on you know how it can be used and and uh feedback about the format and the content in there okay and does lakeside review that and they give that back to us or do it comes directly to us to us i just have a slight concern about i mean i completely understand the need for asynchronous it gives us much more opportunity for training opportunities but this content in particular seems a more difficult one to be able to absorb and have conversation um in an asynchronous method so it would i would like to see how the evaluation process goes with it as well sure we'd be happy to include an update to the board and just you know it's it's a layer
038um a couple years ago we did have some in-person training for it and we will continue to have it in in various locations but this is you're right the asynchronous portion who is the training available to is it for a specific um group of staff or all professional staff okay it's actually available to all staff yeah okay great thanks and they choose two of their own choice is what they're required to they're required to do two of their own choice among the seven a professional staff are however we also have a number of what are called flex professional development hours where folks can choose to do more than two thank you all in favor aye any opposed motion is approved item 10 is policy sec item a is at the second reading of policies 907
039visitors 908 relations with parents guardians and 909 municipal government relations i will accept a motion to approve the second reading of policies 907 visitors 908 relations with parents and guardians and 909 municipal government relations snodgrass moved okay second moved and seconded any discussion um yes so this is our second reading of these three policies it's our i would call it our step three of four steps um to get a policy reviewed and um enacted by the board um the first step is to go to the policy committee who reviews it um and then decides whether or not to make a recommendation of the changes if it's a you know an existing policy or of a new policy the um the second step is then the first reading which we had at our last board meeting
040of these policies and then we're now at the third step which is the second reading of the full board um and then after this there will be another step where we actually have it in front of the board to vote on um to um adopt the rivet in this case revisions to these three policies um i think the differences between the first reading and the second reading there is actually um there's an administrative regulation for policy number 907 which is for visitors and um that that wasn't um available for viewing before even though you know we that the policy committee had reviewed it had given comments on it just as background the administrative regulations do not need to be adopted by the board they are the administration's regulations that they implement and so it's not
041actually a board policy it is how the administration envisions implementing the board policy and so it's there um it when the when it gets changed there's notice given to the board but it does not go need to go through this sort of rigorous process of um amending or adopting policies so this is avail available to view if anyone has questions on this um or or anything like that we can discuss them at the next meeting or if anyone has had the chance to review them now before the meeting we can certainly discuss them as well since they weren't available for to view last time policies 908 and 909 do not have administrative regulations so that's why those are not there and not all of our policies do have administrative regulations it's really just the ones
042that are a little bit more complicated that we want to see you know a plan of how the policy is going to be put in place um so if anyone has any further discussion on these three policies you know happy to discuss thanks i think there were very minor changes from the first read to this i think that's right maybe a couple typos any other discussion thank you for that um all in favor aye aye aye any opposed second reading is approved on to item 11 other items item a is school board treasurer i will accept a motion to appoint tricia mcconney as school board treasurer to serve the remainder of the 2021-22 school year and a one-term year effective july 1 2022. feinberg moved crispin second moved and seconded any discussion this is to
043fill the retirement cafe kathy yep all in favor aye aye he opposed the appointment is approved item b is school board assistant board secretary i'll accept a motion to reappoint kelly kaiser as school board assistant board secretary to serve a one-year term effective july 1 2022. crispin move king second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor all right any opposed motion passes item c psba delegate assembly i will welcome a motion to appoint the board members listed below to represent the district at the 2022 psba delegate assembly hybrid event on saturday november 5th 2022. moved and seconded any discussion thank you very much doctors mckay and king and to to to larry for for joining the delegation yes thank you for representing us at the um at the delegation thank you any other discussion
044all in favor any opposed motion is approved with our thanks item 12 is public comments on other items the board values public comment is an essential component of school governance that adds information for the deliberation of the important and complex matters that come before the board it is an opportunity for members of the community to address the board it is not a question and answer period while we conduct business in open public meetings according to the sunshine act it is not a meeting with the public our public comment is divided into two sections the first section was for comments pertaining to the agenda the agenda is published on the district website in the school board section under board docs this is the time for public comment on other school related topics residents of the township
045may in advance of the meeting sign up to make public comment by emailing public comment at haverfordsd.net in order to give everyone an equal opportunity to speak and per our board policy you will have three minutes to address the board at the three minute point a timer will sound and you will be asked to conclude your remarks please begin your comments by stating your name and confirming your residency in haverford township if you have any materials to distribute please give them to ms q at the end of the table your name and the topic of your comments will be recorded in the meeting minutes we have six people who have signed up for this section of public comment first is elena wisely good evening my name is elena wisely and i'm a resident in the
046district i'm here tonight to ask you to do the job that you happily volunteered for and that job is to educate our children and keep them safe you are not to use that stage for political purposes our children are not your platform larry our children are not your social activists kristin who's not here stop giving medical advice antoinette you are not a doctor and nobody wants to hear your opinions on guns bridget i'm sorry but i need you to focus on your job which is our children's education because efficiency is declining middle school students are getting high in the bathroom some taken away via ambulance for overdose for overdosing and the principal lies to the parents as he reticently holds a different view of the word overdose and you still refuse to vote on narcan
047to save lives kids are selling drugs in the middle school and rather than removing these children they remain in the district the rest of the kids are treated like they're in prison and penalties for going to the bathroom at lunch without reporting are equitable to selling drugs freshmen in the high school are making and sharing sexual videos not surprising with the sexualization and vice principles which we have no transparency on planned parenthood programs want to teach masturbation at six years old a wise man once said that there are no solutions only trade-offs you have traded off meritocracy for equity not realizing that humans are not born with the same abilities and you are holding down excellence because you do not think equality was good enough you have traded off kindness and decency for inclusion not
048realizing that you're confusing kids at a time when they are most vulnerable what about our neurodivergent kids there is no safety net for them they are drowning in the middle school in high school many of them feel lost where is the safety net for our republican children whom you and your party have so wrongly labeled as bigots racists and homophobes they're getting treated the same way in school why are children suffering in what used to be one of the best district in the state the policies you have created a harsh environment for our children not suitable for learning at manoa character awards are given every month to one student my child holds three of the nine that were given this year because his mind has not yet been poisoned with hate however the other day
049a girl said i'm a girl and my son quickly said but girls can do anything boys can do right mom i said of course they can why did you need to say that does anyone indicate that they can't and he said well no but it just makes me so mad that there's different rules for boys and girls and i told him you don't have to be mad because that's not true but there it is the seed of hate and anger has been planted in my kind innocent and loving boy and he deserves to be a child and not to be molded into your social justice warrior i recognize that a lot of this comes from the higher power with political agendas and if republicans held those offices and their views were being promoted you would
050refuse and decline them so step up and refuse politics in our school stand up for our children make our children safe and educate them without your politics thank you next speaker is jacob jacob hebedian i'm sorry if i mispronounce it jacob habedian not here the next speaker then is helene conroy smith my name is helene conroy smith i'm a resident of haverford as discussed previously haverford receives 81 of our taxes back which will be over a hundred and eight million dollars for our budget we will fund our 663 6653 students in seven schools with only half day kindergarten one my question how are local tax dollars are being spent i question how this board is spending our tax dollars along with the school administrative team an ad hoc committee stated we need an equity audit
051well i believe we need a performance audit why aren't we reviewing how our special education students need more funding in their budget to support special education as the data shows that the special education students are underperforming 20 percent of our district 20 are still underperforming and i like to see that money go to them i would like to see a performance audit an outside agent needs to review the consultants and the membership contracts especially when many of these consultants and memberships have the same repertoire of services secondly how much cash is in our current reserve funds is it within the recommended 20 of the current value of our operating budget for the rainy day fund as a taxpayer we have a right to know and i think a performance audit will clarify some information since
052one has not been done in eight years and to address the board particularly miss wiedemann taxpayers see your position as legislators we don't want our school district politicized last support meeting you continue to promote partisan politics your own board policy zero zero two says the board shall act as a general agent of the residents of the district in carrying out public education matters for this district haverford school district that's who you're worried about it is this that we shall be established educational goals for district students and govern a program of education designed to meet the those needs of this district your this is your own policy public school code of 1949 does not give you the authority to use your position on the board to express your singular political views legislators may act politically on
053their own time thank you the next speaker is alexis pasternack good evening thank you alexis pasternack woodland drive in habertown board members and dr rishi i want to address what occurred at the board meeting on june 2nd i wholeheartedly agree that the tragedy you vote had to be addressed i think we can all agree what happened was devastating and quite sickening what i found unsettling is board members use board members used their time and ours as an opportunity to opine and lecture you brought up the nra and the next election how is that okay i have no doubt that if there was a board member who identified more moderate conservative libertarian and started pushing the nra and their personal political beliefs or the next election people would be livid we know how things roll here
054in haberford township though i do hope you have a plan when it comes to the safety of haverford students not just on school property but then when they walk out during school hours march off school property and protest for whatever reason because let's not pretend let's not pretend it's not a possibility i'm sure you're aware that it has happened in a neighboring district okay so if you don't have a plan whatever happens is on you all right so let's talk about safety turning now to the recent release of the 166 pages of documents in the tredifer and easttown school district showing that training of the district staff by consultants pacific educational group peg included exercises on walking through the barriers to teaching critical race theory at your school and how critical race theory is a
055vital step in your school transformation action plan peg was founded by a man named glenn singleton and mr singleton graduate of u-pen is also the founder of courageous conversations i'm pretty sure however to use courageous conversations it's referenced in the basis slides lastly if we get an equity audit will that be yearly uh we already paid towards upenn's dvce we already paid the dciu where does it end and can we expect a report from sage wellness this summer and will this report be made public be made available to public i would rather not have to file a right to know thank you next speaker is todd hall good evening all my name is todd hall i reside in haverford township and i'm here to speak on the subject of board reports in recent meetings we've
056heard discussion of the events at the u.s capitol on january 6 2021 and more recently the topic of gun control we didn't hear the topic of school safety we heard the topic of gun control without a doubt the loss of human life in texas was tragic and it was concerning and i'd be lying if i didn't say that as a result of that i hugged my kids tighter the next several mornings the school board does have a duty to keep an obligation to keep the students safe and i'm glad there are policies and procedures in place to ensure their safety the tragedy in texas resulted from a door being left open and potentially the lack of an appropriate police response we have a policy in the district that our doors are locked we have a
057very competent and capable police force here in haberford township so accordingly i'm puzzled why it was necessary during board reports in the last meeting for board members to discuss the upcoming midterm elections are to discuss their personal fears related to the misuse of firearms it was stated from the board it's not political it's just a matter of doing your job i couldn't agree more with this statement your job is to steer the school district as an educational institution which like any place or organization does have procedures involving safety we have them in place board reports are not a time to bring up personal fears or congressional elections i don't want to hear an all democrat board discuss gun control and i don't want to hear an all republican board discuss support of the nra to
058the extent that board reports reflect what you are focusing on i'm concerned thank you next speaker is rich mcglory and i come here of course on a more positive note and i want to just give you a report of the most well my name is rich mcglower i still live at 1246 still alert i'm sorry about that file proper protocol all right i had the wonderful opportunity of going to a birthday party for a girl in my grandson's autistic support class it was one of the most wonderful experiences i have ever had in my now 47-year career as a public school educator and advocate for the best practices in public school governance leadership and pedagogy i came here to celebrate what i saw all right i saw kids in the special ed program interact with
059kids in their typical classrooms at manoa elementary school it was like you wouldn't even know the the autistic kids the way they interacted the way they socialized though they were just accepted and it was a diverse group of more than just neurodiversity it was diverse in every way it was one of the most amazing things i did and i and i texted pictures from that to to michelle kaksmarski our special ed autistic support teacher on a saturday afternoon mind you sis said to her would you like to see the product of your work and she texted me back within three minutes those pictures are amazing and it was amazing to see what happened because of the wonderful artistic support program we have at manoa elementary school which is a product of our whole community the
060students he goes to my grandson little johnny goes to school with their support they receive at school from the kids from the parents i see every morning and every afternoon dr rucci my team shirt when i wear that i love someone with autism i get more thumbs up from those parents of those typical kids every morning they love it it shows what can happen when the administration and you are the leader enables a teacher to create her own program with the help of the speech therapist the occupational therapist the principal and the parents who have input on what goes on and the reading specialist that was assigned because of my advocacy did wonders for my grandson and i think that we need to support our special ed program with reading specialists we had a vibrant
061uh iep meeting myself just had 30 seconds to close up your time a vibrant iep meeting where i pointed out like see michelle welch did exactly what i wanted she diagnosed johnny's reading needs provide instruction which was appropriate for him which was beneficial and i wanted and i want two-year two thank you no two uh two times every week time is up thank you once group and if it involves another special education teacher being hollow uh uh being hired i will advocate for that too but that program is wonderful thank you i'm gonna circle back mr um jacob pabidian has he joined us all right the next item is board reports what's your name i'm sorry i didn't get on on the list that i have in front of me thank you for thank you
062for letting us know hi good evening my name is mark shagney and i live on woodcroft road in haverford township as you may recall back in august 2020 this board voted to appeal just 44 of approximately 17 000 township property assessment values from the county-wide reassessment i am one of the unlucky property owners whose county reassessment value was appealed by this board at that time i and several of the other targeted property owners attempted to explain that your conduct was unfair because it targeted just 0.26 percent of township property owners when the data demonstrated large and widespread variations in the county's reassessment values a fact confirmed by your own appraisers analysis of the county's reassessment we further argued that the board's arbitrary appeal criteria violated the pennsylvania constitution's uniformity requirement and the united states constitution's
063equal protection clause you may also recall that haverford township was initially a co-appellant with the school district in these cases however when we presented the same data to the township commissioners and explained how these appeals violated our rights the township commissioners understood empathized and voted to withdraw the township standing as an appellant with one commissioner stating it is an unjust process we don't want to be a part of since that time further data has been analyzed the research has revealed that the school district's appeals are even more unjust and unlawful than initially perceived in short we found that over 100 properties which met this board's appeal criteria should have been but were not appealed in 2020 in 2021 the school district's selective targeting of less than all properties meeting its appeal criteria is a clear
064violation of the equal protection clause of the u.s constitution the equal protection clause of the pennsylvania constitution and the uniformity clause of the pennsylvania constitution whether the board's unequal application of its appeal criteria was ok was careless or intentional is irrelevant to the law as the board had a duty to ensure the accuracy of information upon which it is based it which it based its appeals by acting arbitrarily the board violated our constitutional rights and caused our families real economic harm not only has the board of boards appeals cost me and and the other targeted property owners thousands of dollars in higher property tax payments in my own case my property taxes increased by over 60 percent or almost 60 percent and far in excess of the taxes paid by my neighbors who live in
065similar houses but i have spent thousands of dollars in attorney's fees fighting against this board's unjust actions i should point out that the board's appeals have also wasted the taxpayers money given the fact that by law a county-wide reassessment is revenue neutral which means the school district is not entitled to additional revenue from appeals let me just finish by saying our attorney recently filed a motion to the court to hear um our constitutional issues your attorneys should be aware of that we intend to fight this all the way to the supreme court if necessary i encourage you to talk to your attorneys review the facts of our motions and do the right thing which is to drop your fight and allow us to have the property assessment values that the county established when it went
066through the entire reassessment process because we just want to be treated like the other 17 000 property owners in the township thank you the next item on the agenda is board reports i'll start with mr schwartz i'll be brief i'll just uh say it was great to be able to attend an indoor graduation for high school seniors last week at uh at st jones and good luck to all the graduates and for everybody else to summer i just want to take this time to extend thanks and appreciation to all the teachers and staff um who have continued to just go with the ebb and flow of constant changes um and provide amazing experiences for all of our learners regardless of what's happening on the outside role and so thank you to our teachers and staff
067and administration for another great school year thank you yeah it was great to be at the high school graduation um it was a really it was a really fun day and so it was really nice to be a part of that um and this week has been a fun and exciting week full of all kinds of different events going on so thanks to everybody who had a role in making all of that happen today was the last day of kindergarten so congrats to all the kindergartners who are moving up to first grade um tomorrow's the last day for everybody else so congratulations everybody and have a wonderful summer report thanks i had the opportunity to attend graduation as well um of our senior class and i also had the opportunity this morning to attend linwood's
068fifth grade stepping up and both ceremonies were were just wonderful um it was it was really a joy to be at both the latter i was a parent and a board member so i appreciated being double duty there but but it really just goes to show how hard these kids have worked to get to this point how hard the parents have worked to help their students the the teachers the staff um the appreciation goes you know top to bottom um and to put on these events to to guide our students through through the last year and everything before that and um thank you to um everyone who made speeches at the graduation i thought that all were wonderful i found myself really on the edge of my seat i mean they were they were just
069it was it was um what a joyous event um truly it was a it was the first one i was able to go to as a board member and um not only were the speeches wonderful the students the student speech and then also the you know all of the administration speeches but um i just have to remark on something that really struck me during the graduation um i had the opportunity to sit on stage with some of the students in front of me who were participating in the graduation um a couple things um how student-led the graduation is it's something that um thinking back to my own high school graduation is such a departure um from from what i thought was the norm and maybe this is the norm now and if it is that
070is just wonderful because it was really the students running the show um i mean they were announcing the names they were going through the program um they they knew exactly what to do it was it was so well run and more than anything else the um the entire ceremony just exuded kindness and and i just want to focus on that a little bit because obviously it is one of our district goals um you know social emotional wellness and we have a lot of initiatives for um for kindness for inclusivity um but this was my it was one of my i think really biggest interactions with the students with seeing our high school students and how they treat each other and i can't tell you um how many students would pass to go right past me
071and and um you know collect their diplomas on stage and how they were all you know saying congratulations to each other giving each other little high fives like little little just words of affirmation and congratulations and it was to everyone to every student that passed um multiple students that were on stage multiple ones going past really just just just chatting with each other and enjoying this moment together and again i'm liking that to my own experience um it was it was very different and i i like to think that we are raising kinder and kinder generations and that is just truly what i'm seeing um from haverford township and so i just say congratulations to the class of 2022. it was a joy to be with you at graduation you are just going to do
072great things um you know together and and um wherever you go forth after this and uh thank you for allowing me to be part of that ceremony because it was just truly special truly wonderful so thank you [Music] mr feinberg just like to echo thanks to uh all of our staff top to bottom and congratulations to uh to the students from kindergarten to graduates it's a it's a great time of year on the legislative side we're keeping an eye on the state budget and i've been told that the way that you'll know whether the budget's probably going to be on time or not is if the legislative staffers tell you that their vacations have been canceled for fourth of july i'm not hearing anybody saying that yet so uh uh as of today at least
073uh it's looking like we we may have a state budget uh by june 30th and then we'll know what the basic education and special education subsidies will be at that point so we'll keep you posted thank you um are there still opportunities for um some advocacy in that area i know that um two of the meetings that we both attended since the last board meeting were the delco legislative council where we had children's first who is an advocate for public education and services for young kids they talked about the state budget and the need for school funding then at the psba school leadership monthly convening they also talked about the state budget with particular emphasis on need for adequate and fair funding from the state for special education level up for districts um and other
074um aspects affecting the budget so do you think there is still an opportunity for voices to influence the outcome yep never hurts so the um children's first i would recommend as a resource if you're interested in advocating for um funding identifying needs that we see here in our own district and uh concerned about public education in general they have some great talking points about how to reach out to legislators and and maybe get some of the surplus that is sitting at the state level to be directed to some of the immediate school needs that we have and you know here we are this is our last board meeting of the school year and um it's been a year it has been a year so i'm wanted to express my appreciation to the administration for guiding
075us through um and navigating the challenges that kept getting thrown at us this year to our staff um and and to the families and the students for just um a really remarkable year i've gone to um some of the uh move-up ceremonies in graduation and i think it is it was just such a refreshing moment to be like okay we are on this side of it we are at this point and there was so much to celebrate um i was at chatham park for their fifth grade move up and then at chestnut wall this morning for their awards for third fourth and fifth graders and between graduation and those two events i don't think i've clapped so much it was a lot of clapping a lot of enthusiasm clapping for all the students who were
076recognized the uh i will say from the high school graduation i've told different people if you have a chance to um look on youtube and and listen to mr donaghy's very clever fables of havertown it's worth watching it he he did a good job with that um kind of added to the lore of haverford high school um and then yeah the the awards celebrating students participation and achievement in music in writing competitions in math in athletics in service to school in art um so much to celebrate and clap for and it was a really great way to end the year and um i think everybody uh you know at this point is ready for a bit of a summer break those of us who aren't um you know slogging through the summer trying to you
077know get ready for um the next year and all it will bring but i hope everyone does get a chance to take a breath and recover um and rest up and you know just with a lot of appreciation that we're here at this point so with that um i conclude my remarks and we'll announce that the next regular public board meeting um is scheduled to be oh executive session sorry we did meet an executive session tonight to uh discuss the safe schools report um the next anything else okay the next regular public board meeting is scheduled to be held on july 14 2022 at 7 30 p.m in the board room of this oakmont administration building and with that i will welcome a motion to adjourn so moved happy summer