001um [Music] good evening the thursday february 17 2022 regular school board meeting of the school district of haverford township is now called to order let's rise for the pledge to the i flag allegiance to the blood of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all 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 our 2025 district goals are social emotional wellness to produce a community of empathetic and resilient learners with skills to socially and emotionally flourish to prepare contemporary citizens to modernize and expand learning experiences to prepare students as critical thinkers problem solvers innovators and designers within a complex global society and diversity
002and inclusion to establish a culturally diverse and inclusive educational experience that develops socio-cultural proficiency thank you as we call the meeting to order i want to remind everyone that as required in the district's existing esser health and safety plan all students staff and visitors must wear masks properly while in our school buildings during times of substantial to high covered transmission rates the most recent delaware county data indicate that we are in a period of high transmission all visitors including people attending this meeting in our high school auditorium must wear masks properly such that they cover your nose and mouth until you exit the building when we invite participants to the front for public comment you will need to keep your mask on if you do not have a mask we have provided masks in the
003back of the room please now go get one to wear during the meeting if you choose not to wear a mask during the meeting we will ask you to leave the building you may then watch the meeting on the district's youtube page where it is being streamed live we thank you for your cooperation everyone we have a full agenda tonight and a lot of people in the room um i we appreciate your cooperation as we work through tonight's business the first item is the roll call ms martha cue please dr crispin here dr king here ms larson here dr mckay mr schwartz here ms snodgrass here ms vitale here mr feinberg here ms wiedemann here um ms mckay is or dr mckay is traveling next is the official minutes i welcome a motion to approve
004the official minutes from the february 3rd 2022 regular public board meeting moved in second did any discussion all in favor aye any opposed the minutes are approved and i'd like to remind the board to please um speak clearly into the microphone and to state your name when giving motion so that the minutes can be properly recorded and i will turn it over to our assistant superintendent and uh superintendent ms jenn zaksa to introduce our first student reports thank you ms wiedemann it is a pleasure this evening to welcome to the front of the room and to share with us a bit this evening dr jabari whitehead who is the principal of chatham park elementary school and he has brought along several students who will be telling us more about the community of caring that they
005have created at chatham park thank you for being here dr whitehead thank you [Applause] good evening school board members have for township community members chatham park bulldog parents we're excited this evening to talk about our community of caring core values and the place it holds in our school community of what it means the best part about this tonight is that we had opportunity myself along with teachers and our outstanding school counselor ms malum who is here with us tonight we were able to identify five students who really exemplify the five core values of caring respect responsibility trust and family as you can see i probably don't need a microphone so so part of me if it gets a little loud so we're going to get started uh at china park we have some core beliefs
006i believe any organization family or entity needs to have identity have a belief system if you've been around chatham park long enough you'll see these terms and hear these terms be brave not perfect we all want to show up as our best selves every day so that gives permission for us as adults parents family members community members our students and teachers of staff to show up to be our best but understand at the same time it's a journey so we want to instill that in our students growth mindset every expert was a beginner that's what we're looking for in our students we want to make sure that our students understand the power of yet like if you have a barbell in front of you if you're doing a deadlift and it's like 135 don't worry
007about the guy next year's doing 700 that's okay because he probably started off at 135 as well so it's about the power of yeah every expert was once a beginner strong mind strong body will want to model healthy habits those habits are very important the mindset understanding our mental health and healthy activities so that ultimately our children can grow up and make sure they can achieve the goals and the gifts they want for their lives to become their best selves and obviously the practice of gratitude i often often shudder when i hear someone say they're self-made or they did it all on their own there's a great chance that you do not know and i remind our students no one knows about that sliding door moment that someone spoke your behalf behind closed doors that's
008important we serve and we practice gratitude there's so much science behind the benefits it is for your for your body honestly we all look if we look hard enough if we look hard enough for things negative things we're very easy way you're sure to find it what you look for you're fine so we want to practice gratitude again our core values at chatham park i arrived at chatham park four years ago and we were able to we're really trying to hold on to our identity shadow park was already a special place it was all in great hands before i got there but we were looking for something to tie us all together as a bond so we had caring respect responsibility trust and family we highlight these core values over the course of school year
009and pull them into our curriculum so we found ways to celebrate our students we want to recognize the small wins and each month and see you see from that when we when we were taking our photographs to celebrate our students and that's a group of students that were recognized not by just teachers but by the school staff uh lunch monitors etc recognize our students uh there's another one and you may some i think a couple of them were in this picture let's see gemma and look little shawnee and jim oh told to dorbz um so my eyes are closed there my kids make fun of me for smiling my eyes shut i don't know why i did i had too much teeth in my mouth but that's another one all right bulldog bread we started
010a bulldog break finding another way particularly these times to honor our students so basically it's a way that anybody in the building can acknowledge the small wins for our children the more we see ourselves being successful the higher efficacy and or the greater belief in ourselves so i'm not going to read to you the process as you can see but basically anybody can take a moment and identify something good catching our children being good and that's it that's what we want to do quick fast and it goes home with a smile so again that's the front back it looks like here's some smiles that come as part of it look at those faces look at that yeah all right all right so we again we're celebrating our students all right all right and now our
011presenters tonight we have jimmy hoffman who will present the core value of caring ben robinson who will present about respect claire dehaven who will present about responsibility sean healey who will talk about trust and family is sophia snipe and she was first gemma [Music] when dr whitehead became the principal of chatham park about three years ago the most significant thing he brought with him was the community of caring and today i'm here to talk to all of you about what i believe is one of the most important community of caring core values caring being caring is a fundamental way of life that helps bring communities together where you feel cared for is most likely your happy place because we all feel comfortable in the place we feel cared for and at chatham i feel all
012staff members try to create that type of atmosphere that type of place where you feel comfortable i just came back from a family vacation and the day i came back there were screaming kids waiting at the school entrance to greet me i felt really happy that day knowing that people miss me while i was gone and i was happy they welcomed me back with open arms even just when i dropped my pencil case on the floor going to social studies and somebody picks it up i feel cared for this atmosphere at chatham is the key to why i and so many other students are so happy every day when we walk into school staff at chatham park are thoughtful and work hard to try to get to know each of their students as individuals that's
013why at chatham people can be recognized outside of academics people can be chosen for projects not because they're good at a subject but because they bring their unique selves to the projects caringness is something that i experience every day and sometimes i think i take that for granted because there are plenty of people in the world that feel neglected every day and are never even called by their names the caring circle has never got to them but at chatham we make sure that if somebody does something caring for us we spread the kindness and we care for somebody else in return and that's a unique thing i know that chatham will always be a comfortable place for kids to learn and grow because at chatham people care for each other mr robinson chatham park can
014show respect in lots of different ways respect is more than just a word you can't just say it you have to show it respect is as easy as saying thank you you're welcome or even hi as one school we should know and understand how and why we show respect you can show respect in the classroom when you do not talk over people or listen when people are talking you can show respect when you are in the hall you can open a door for someone or say a simple hi you can also show respect to your teachers you shouldn't talk over them or talk back to them even just listening to them will show respect to them you can also share um wait you even just listening to them you can also show respect outside of
015school like saying hi or good morning to someone you can say hi to someone you don't even know when you say please or thank you people will like you more and want to be around you more also when you say please or thank you it is kind and respectful when you say thank you you have to know what it means when you say thank you you're expecting and appreciating what the person you are saying it to is doing if someone shows respect to you you should pass it on chatham park is the one big family we respect one another the dictionary refers to the word respect as a feeling of admiring someone or something that is good valuable or important at chatham we are all valuable and important in our own way everybody should show
016respect when you show respect and somebody passes it on it leads to a good community when we have a good community we have trust caring responsibility family and respect [Applause] dr whitehead has had some great ideas for her school but the one with the biggest impact was clearly the community of caring the community of caring has five core values caring responsibility respect trust and family chatham park is a space where you can be all of those and feel safe because people are those too people in our school have opportunities to be responsible being responsible means being able to have a clean workspace and being able to do your homework on time it means taking care of your school grounds and being a good role model for other students it means pushing your chair at the
017end of the day so the janitor doesn't have to do it for you responsibility in general can look like listening to your teacher or staying quiet in the halls when someone else is speaking responsibility is important to our school community you can be responsible when you help younger kids you show respect to your school by being responsible your school like returning library books other people can trust you if you are responsible because they know they can count on you to help you when you need it most caring for things on your school ground to make sure they can stay pretty and safe is responsibility lastly working together as a family to get things done is being responsible i walk my brother and friends home from school and make sure nothing bad happens to them that
018is responsibility it is important to be responsible because in dangerous situations you might know what to do in order to help others when you grow up no one will be taking care of you so you need to know how to be responsible and do things yourself in conclusion responsibility ties together all the core values of chatham park [Applause] trust trust is an easy and simple word to use yet not many people truly understand its meaning trust is defined in the dictionary as belief that someone or something is reliable good honest and effective we can build trust with others and within ourselves trust is hard to bill but easy to lose when someone breaks trust it's hard to regain it trust can also come in many forms but one of the most important is showing trustworthy
019behavior when no one's watching chatham park is a place of learning and growth where you can express yourself as a person it's also a place where we develop trust every day we see this in the example of the leadership of dr whitehead our teachers and students thank you dr whitehead at chatham parkway take our duties as students seriously and demonstrate trust every day some examples of this include being respectful and quiet in the hallway so other students can learn listening to your teachers finally using our school recess equipment in return and with respect and returning it to its proper location also our teachers have trusted us to complete our assignments and projects at home when the fifth grade is doing centers on our chromebooks we are trusted to work with maturity and respect as a
020fifth grader i know channel park has helped us develop skills and trust ourselves it can be hard to put pressure on yourself and complete the tasks in the long run our channel and park students will succeed because we learned about trust for our teachers and ourselves this is why children park is such a special place to learn [Applause] good evening board members faculty and families it's an honor to be before you today to speak about the core value of family family is important because it represents those who love you invest in you guide you and encourage you to be the best you can be those who keep you safe and provide a place of belonging i have a personal connection to the core value of family because my real family has had a great impact
021on me they love and care for me they spend quality time with me ensuring that we make special memories together they push me to get good grades and to always do my best even if i might not want to in the end it always turns out to be something that i'm glad i did as it relates to school chatham park has really been a second home and family to me they have made me feel welcome especially dr my head in the morning he always says may your day be full of sunshine and jelly beans everyone tries to put that into action and it really helps chatham is a safe place it's a place where i feel valued and my teachers invest in me we respect each other's differences and show empathy when our friends are
022sad we sit with them listen and encourage them we even get even give hugs don't tell my parents about the hugs you're on the pandemic i have loved meeting and making friends since first grade and i've grown a lot as a result as a child park family when brothers when one of us succeed we all succeed to close i would like to leave you with this acronym for family f is for friendly this is contagious a is for always be empathetic m is for make make memories together eyes for include others l is for love each other and wise for you succeed we all succeed thank you [Applause] and uh thank you all and uh just for the record these students wrote all their words on their own i can't take any credit for that
023um it's a real telling sign when the students can articulate how meaningful something is to them well we're not doing it for them or giving them things to say so there's a lot of insight for us it helps us grow as well uh just a couple more things our fifth graders in honor of our community of caring values wanted to demonstrate some ways a psa for our students to watch so they can understand what we don't do at school and how we should respond in the restroom so just to play okay don't be the kid that destroys bathrooms they tripped on their mess because they destroyed the bathroom it's bad for your school yourself your classmates so please don't be that kid [Applause] we remind students every day as well that we don't want cvs
024size receipt size uh paper towels no this is where it's coming from okay make sure you do it every time you come in the best and make sure it gets in the trash can and not a lot of paper towels [Applause] don't run in a hole oh sorry sorry are you okay don't [Applause] so so to wrap this up we had 30 days of kindness we're still on random acts of kindness week as well so our students were involved in a challenge they followed a calendar and again it's driven by 5th grade but you can find this throughout our school as well and in conclusion at chatham park elementary school community thanks for your time this evening and just remember shadow park is a special place so once a bulldog always a bulldog we have
025bulldog power and we are bulldog strong uh i'm going to invite these students back up come here real quick so i could have a little gift for you come on up so face the face the audience get over here you don't pick back people [Laughter] um because they are always showing up being consistent a character every day it's like they're always ready to play like being in the game so i go i don't know if you guys have a game on arcade and media oh yeah so it's a great opportunity to play and parents take your children there to hang out have a good time so each of these guys have two hours worth of arcade time here [Applause] all right make sure you let your parents play thank you very much everyone thank you
026school board thank you [Applause] dr whitehead we'd just like to thank you and and the students and of course the staff at chatham park as well as the community for uh instilling all of these wonderful core values that you've shared with us into your community and just for sharing a little bit of the fun with us as well this evening i would like to add on to your comment about the absolutely impressive essays that the students have written to um explain what their qualities were as well as to give us examples and might i add some strong concluding sentences so i do want to recognize their work specifically and thank you all for bringing it here this evening thank you [Applause] the next item is our middle school student report and we have sutton gold
027hi um i have to follow that good evening everyone my name is sutton gold i am the middle school representative for tonight i'm a seventh grader at hms and i enjoy being a for i enjoy being a ford very much i want to thank the board for allowing me to speak tonight the winter sports team wrapped up their seasons last week our student athletes coaches and families really enjoyed the opportunity to to participate interscholastic sports one highlight of our winter sports season was our wrestling team went undefeated it was it was pretty cool coaches jones and hope hoban and the wrestlers battled through a tough central league and won every match an accomplishment that deserves recognition we continue to prepare for our spring student-led conferences we have weekly tasks that our advisory teachers guide us
028through so that we can confidently run our conference i'm excited for this because now i can actually participate in conferences and talk about my grades with my parents and my teachers we are looking forward to to tuesday tuesday as in t-w-o-s-d-a-y 2 22-22 next week this is a palindrome date and we have a bunch of school spirit activity to celebrate this anomaly twinning and like two tacos for lunch which is pretty cool yesterday was theme night for students in select chorus ensembles which took place right there the theme was the beatles and everybody knocked it out of the park this jazz band students orchestra students seventh heaven four deaths everyone we are excited to announce that the hms jazz festival has been has been rescheduled for friday february 25th at hadford high school the festival
029is from 6 30 to 10 30 p.m and nine middle schools will be performing in february we are recognizing black history month our teachers are highlighting our heritage appreciation club which is a student club which is sponsoring some educational activities and a door decorating contest which we decorate our doors it's kind of self-explanatory lastly um we hope that we you enjoy the crumble cookie and gift card we left for you today is national random act of kindness day um for my act of kindness i noticed it was about to pour when i was on the bus i was the last one on the bus and all the windows were down and i went around and shut all the windows to spare my bus driver the trouble on the day's work happy national kindness day to
030you all thank you for allowing me to present thank you so much the high school student report tonight is from mia dewald good evening everyone my name is mia diwald and i'm currently a junior at haverford high school the second semester has started wonderfully i'm currently taking chemistry ap human geography string orchestra and intro to calculus i've had so much fun meeting my new classmates while these classes are academically challenging haverford's teachers always make it worth it in the world of standardized testing students received their keystone results from last year and have had the opportunity to register for the march sat the beckon the second back to school night is also coming up on the 24th allowing parents to meet all of their child's new teachers haverford's athletes have been upholding haverford's esteemed sports reputation
031as the haverford bocce team won their most recent game along with the boys basketball team haberford's cheerleaders just returned from showing their age pride in florida at nationals after earning second place in the league the girls basketball team has certainly made us proud as they finished first place in their regular season the boys and girls basketball teams had some tough losses in the central league playoffs but are fifth and ninth respectively in district one and are looking to make a run at states numerous swimmers and track teams are currently achieving their personal bests in competitions and wrestlers are grappling with the upcoming playoffs the athletic department has just started a new sports broadcasting club which has already begun calling basketball games they look forward to expanding to outdoor sports shortly this past monday was our
032annual singing valentine day choral students have been working incredibly hard the past few months selecting songs coordinating outfits and attending regular hearings to prepare for this wonderful treat haverford best buddies also held their annual wing bowl this past friday staff and students headed to the auditorium and supported their fellow peers teachers in the chicken wing eating competition this year's victor was none other than mr desina who generously donated his 100 prize back to best buddies the young democrats and future republican cubs have begun teaming up in a non-partisan effort to register seniors to vote in the upcoming months not to be forgotten is the high q team they have just advanced to the semifinals for the ninth year in the row haverford hosted this year's semifinals just this morning while haverford delivered a fantastic win
033and will advance to the finals this week was also haverford's week of kindness as members of the no place for hate club and the student senate teamed up to hand out hot chocolate and positive affirmations to students as they came into school with the drama club's production of mamma mia continuing and fun activities like spring sports and prom on the horizon our h pride only continues to grow with spring in the air these next few months should offer some wonderful opportunities for students i thank you all for your time thank you so much those student reports and the presentation are always a highlight of the meetings thank you for sharing all that's going on in our schools ms saxo you will have the superintendent's report tonight thank you miss wiedemann uh good evening i'll begin
034tonight with a few remarks and then be turning it over to my colleague nicole battistelli who will be able to provide a few more details regarding the recommendation that is currently before the board just as a little bit of history regarding the health and safety plan it has been revised throughout the year to respond to changing circumstances you may recall that in december we began our conversations by looking at what the current data was at the time and we've continued to discuss that health and safety plan at every meeting since those december meetings we've shared updated information with the board and have begun making whatever changes we felt we could at the time two weeks ago at this board meeting we proposed shifting from mask mandatory to mask recommended beginning february 28th at that meeting
035the board shared their questions and tonight nicole will respond to those questions by providing just a little bit more clarity about when we might need to return to mask required and how we will support students with disabilities so i'm now going to turn it over to nicole for that information as well as some updated statistics thank you thank you can you hear me [Music] okay can you hear me okay so this evening i'm going to present an update on the data i presented two weeks ago as we stated at the last board meeting this chart is the same chart that i presented two weeks ago at the board meeting but i've updated it to february 15th which is the most recent data had available on their website as of today so you know last week
036i presented on this data and here is the updated slide um showing where we stand today and this is in delaware county according to the cdc website in addition i updated the district wide case counts i updated this right before the board meeting so i have up till today again i include it today and this week even though we're not quite through the week which is what i did at the last board meeting um as you can see the case accounts continue to decline across the district and again this is other cases um as of you know six o'clock this evening that i had from today um as far as the proposed revisions um as discussed at the february third board meeting we are proposing to move to mass recommended as of february 28th based
037on the information and guidance that we've presented over the past several meetings mass will still be required on school buses as federally mandated as well as for those returning from isolation from five days of isolation and those participating in tests to stay we will continue to support those both those who choose to wear a mask and those who do not and i want to note that n95 mass will be made available through the office of emergency management and that's being distributed through the dciu [Music] when discussing uh discussing uh the math um recommendation of the last board meeting a board member asked a question regarding what would trigger mass being required again and so here we have outlined a proposed addition to the health and safety plan this recommendation is based on the pa department
038of health's definition of an outbreak obviously we would not want to have an outbreak and therefore mass would be required again in any building that reaches three percent over other population testing positive over seven days this will be in place until the total case count drops below three percent in that given billing over seven days this does not mean we're looking at three percent of the population testing positive in a day it's three percent over seven days so the total over seven days this will be monitored um in a rolling seven days similar to what the pa department of health requires us to do for the 14-day five percent uh rolling uh total and i've linked there uh the pa department of health link that outlines the um outbreak criteria for school again the point
039of our health and safety plan has always been to keep children in school and that is what we feel will enable us to continue to keep our schools open another proposed vision revision um a school board member at the last meeting uh asked about students with disabilities and this was already in our health and safety plan we're just revising the language slightly everything in bold would be the new language so that we can state that it's necessary it's to consider reasonable accommodations to allow students to continue in-person learning to the greatest extent practical and that is the presentation this evening i'm going to turn it back over to miss cesca thank you nicole so our recommendation as nicole just described is before the board during the business portion of our agenda this evening we know
040that you are aware but i think it bears repeating that we do not take the decision-making process lightly and i would like to recognize and thank nicole for all of the work that she has put in over the course of the past two years to continue to keep up with the many things that have changed throughout i will just say in conclusion that if approved we will continue preparations that are already underway to ensure that we make this as smooth a transition as possible for students staff and community thank you now there's an opportunity for the board to ask any question yeah i have one i um sorry i wanted to to know you mentioned that um n95 mass will be distributed through the um through the icu and wondering just if you could detail
041that a bit more if you if if you know if you're a parent who is concerned um or you know compromise and wants a child to have him ask what what process do you go through will you hand out school or i don't have all of the details as of right now we receive notification that they'll be distributed through the dciu they're coming from the office of emergency management once we receive them we're going to treat them like the mass we have in our schools where they'll be made available to students and staff throughout all of the buildings in our district okay and do we have it do we have a sense of how many we have i do not i have a question um so regarding the three percent threshold that's in place i
042understand that it's lower than the five percent um that's listed on the department of health website but do we have um any data to support a actual number where a threshold is recommended not before we get to an outbreak but actually to mandate mass a number i'm sorry a percentage so in other words do we have any data to support why we're choosing the number of three percent we chose the number based on that would let us prevent um get to the five percent uh threshold so we just chose it as a number prior to getting to the point where we'd have to contact the department of health considering closing schools okay and then by any chance are there other districts that are mass recommended that are using a percentage lower than three percent a
043year away in our area i believe i'm not sure if they're doing it now or if that's what they're voting on soon because many districts are you know voting this week or next week i believe there are two local districts using a percentage i think one is 2.5 one is two um and their time frame is different i'm sorry i missed the last part of what you said the time frame so we looked at we're gonna look at a week um and i think their time frame and some one district's 14 days and i don't know what the other district is okay and if i could just ask you to clarify for me again the three percent number it's over the course of seven days yes so it's not meaning that three percent has to
044be each and every day no so when um back in january when our numbers were higher we were very closely monitoring our numbers to make sure we didn't hit the five percent in our buildings and what the pa department of health requires is to have a 14-day rolling timeline for these cases so on day one one person is positive at uh let's i'm just gonna say chatham park day two two p you know two people three two people and then you tally that up and if you get to at the pa department health five percent over 14 days that's when uh there's a concern now we get the day 15 child on day one drops off the total because it's a rolling 14 days so we're gonna do the rolling 15 days or i'm sorry
045five days but with three percent or seven days a week okay thank you any other questions from board members can i i'd like to ask i think i can you hear me sorry can you hear me okay sorry um at the at the last meeting i asked about um cafeteria and the maintaining six feet of distance we are still maintaining six feet of distance in the cafeteria yes so we are going to make changes gradually so we're not gonna change right now we'll you know collect our data see how things go and then start to make those other changes as time goes on but we're not recommending that change as of today okay thank you thanks i have a couple questions as well um i you know and my first question because i really appreciate
046all the work that the administration has done on this just like miss sax has said um you know there's so much effort has been put into this since we started discussing it in december and one of the questions i had asked at the last meeting was whether we would be getting guidance you know within the next few weeks about new uh benchmarks and um because i think that we collectively as a community are seeing that case counts is not the benchmark at least you know community case counts and so i really appreciate the effort um by the administration to um you know to keep our schools open to avoid that five percent and and putting um you know really a measure that would that would automatically put put back in the masking but i just
047want to come back to my previous question about the guidance because i am hearing potential cdc changing guidance about masking as soon as next week i haven't seen any official guidance coming from um chop or other you know healthy either local or state health departments and um just you know i know that dr roshi attends you know meetings among the super superintendents and i just wanted to get a sense of whether there has been more discussion about whether we would be receiving guidance um because i i i truly believe that there um that that there has been a failure of leadership at the top here with um the health departments and the state really not giving us that guidance and leaving it to us so you know to the extent that guidance is coming to
048the extent that guidance is coming down the pike in a week or two um have we heard anything about that and is that something that we should be considering tonight so what i can tell you is that i was able to attend a superintendent's meeting this week and there was no indication that the delaware county department of health would be in a position to be providing any additional guidance at any particular point in the near future as far as the um what we've probably all read in the news for the per chance the cdc will be providing additional guidance next week i have not um you know we don't have any inside information about that obviously um but i also have not heard that they are specifically addressing schools in that updated guidance so that
049would be something that if we were to look for something we would be wanting to look for that and and we don't know and same question i know that we follow um dr rubin i know that we followed dr rubin a lot and you know his appear he has been very helpful with his guidance to um to provide advice through you know his blog and also you know media appearances but i don't think at this point we have any sort of official guidance from from chop or the chop policy lab and i just don't and i know that he has provided us with specific guidance in the past and so i had another question about uh whether we we see that happening in the in the near future as well i am not aware of
050any indications that he would be providing us in particular any guidance nor am i aware of any updated blogs that he has put out since the last time we've met yeah sorry actually my question was more about chop as a whole not just specifically dr rubin because i know that we are following him very closely but more of a guidance coming from the organization we are not as i said um we are not aware of any specific guidance that's coming out they do publish the blog every couple of weeks um it is not always local it is sometimes data about wisconsin or somewhere else um and thank you for pointing out it is not just dr rubin it's the whole policy lab that puts that out so unfortunately i can't share with you that there
051is anything upcoming that i'm aware of thanks um like i said i really appreciate both of your work on this um i guess what is the plan for you know if the board votes tonight uh to go mass recommended what is the plan for communication because like i've pointed out in the past just because you want everyone not to be in a mask anymore uh that's not what the what the vote would mean the vote would mean that someone is continuing to either would would from that point on can choose not to wear a mask or would choose to wear a mask and i'm just concerned i'm just concerned that there are going to be teachers that continue to choose to wear a mask and so what would the communication be to make sure that
052the community would be understanding of those choices thank you dr we would love to answer i'll take that one nicole thanks um so thank you for being you know aware and sensitive we recognize that you know there are many differing opinions and differing family situations and and we actually have some time set aside tomorrow for all of our faculty and staff to work through some some just uh questions that are going to arise for them and some messaging and really the messaging for this goes along with what you heard dr whitehead talk about what you've heard our student reps talk about is just really respecting that people are coming from different places and that if this is the decision that it is recommended and that people have differences and we're going to be okay with
053that and we don't know everyone's family situation and what that decision will be and it's our job to make this uh you know this transition as smooth and accepting as possible for anyone who is uh within our school buildings thank you i really appreciate that and like i said i appreciate all the effort that has gone into this um decision and and everything that goes into it thanks thank you [Music] so i think it's really important to also note that the purpose of the health and safety plan [Music] can you hear me now fabulous um so it's it's really important for us to keep in mind that the express purpose of the health and safety plan is to maintain safe in-person schooling these are not just arbitrary recommendations it's not arbitrary guidance it is to
054keep our students in school in person learning with that in mind also that this is a fluid document and this acts as you mentioned earlier on it's been responsive to changes in circumstances throughout the course of this pandemic we are at a place we are now considering removing one of the the last i guess fail-safes we have in terms of in-school transmission um but i'm also fully aware that you know life is life goes on i mean people outside of school you know we we don't control whether they wear masks or not they make their choices and go about their lives in the ways that they choose what does give me pause though is the three percent threshold um so going to the five percent five percent would be an outbreak rate and that would
055constitute us needing to go virtual and that would then show that there was a failure in the health and safety plan three percent um i would need to see that there's there's um some real numbers attached to that three percent sounds low right but in terms of real numbers like in a school building could you give an example of you know in one of our schools what would three percent look like as a as a real number sure many of our elementary schools that would be 20. excuse me folks this is an important discussion you want to hear a decision later if you need to be quiet so that the board members can hear each other that's what i'm asking for [Music] in one of our elementary schools that would be 20 students typically okay
056so would that be a cumulative so over the course of seven days 20 total okay so three days uh three students one day or three cases one day five cases the next and adding up to that 20 that would then trigger um that masks would be required for seven seven days until that number decreases okay thank you thanks for clarifying bye public comment is on the agenda before the vote we have a couple more components of the superintendent's report and then the public comment period this is the time for the board to discuss the health and safety plan are there any other comments or discussion from the board so just going back to the fluid nature of this plan if the cdc were to change its guidance would there be the potential that we as
057a board would come back together rediscuss and um as an addendum to that if there were a change in the state of um covet cases would we also come back would we reconvene and discuss potential changes to the health and safety plan yeah one of the conditions of having a health and safety plan is that it continue to be reviewed throughout the time period that it's in place thank i do you one more question there's um another question here um so just regarding the current legal matters that are that we're all reading about hearing about are there any concerns given the the recent litigation brought to various school boards that the haverford school district could be in the same position provided that we make changes to our health and safety plan sure so at the
058last meeting i reported on two known cases we are aware of four cases currently in pennsylvania the status of those cases there are two in the western part north involving north allegheny school district and the upper st claire school district in the north allegheny case at the temporary restraining order phase which does not involve testimony the judge in that decision did require the district to return to masking in the upper sinclair case at the original phase they did not require it that decision was appealed to the federal court the third circuit and the third circuit initiated an emergency order requiring upper sinclair to go back to masks in the eastern part there is a decision from the perkins valley school district there they did have an evidentiary hearing in front of the federal judge and
059at that time the judge did order that perceived valley reinstate their mass required plan and in the springfield school district the initial request at the temporary restraining order was denied so springfield could enter into their i forget if it was mask optional or mask require recommended plan however that case has a hearing scheduled for february 28th the other two cases from the western part have arguments scheduled for march 24th so the current status is that of the four cases were following in three of the situations the district was ordered to return to their mask required plan that was tied to transmission rates and in the fourth case which is springfield that is hold there will be a hearing on february the 28th so again as i as i stated two weeks ago these are all
060in the process of litigation so none of these decisions are final decisions um but they are the standard that's out there and if if the question is could haveford face one of those actions the answer is yes all four districts made changes to their health and safety plan and all four districts were sued we know of other districts that have not been sued but it is a possibility thank you um sorry uh one more question um should should this be approved tonight um and go into effect on the 28th um i know that you i know that you mentioned that there um was additional language about accommodating students with ieps and 504s do you feel that that will be a sufficient amount of time to make any additional accommodations that should be needed to um
061to follow that policy okay good i'm just checking in with nicole who has already begun to have some of those conversations with families yes we we do believe that that would be sufficient time to start the contact and start the processes to talk about each of those individual cases as needed as needed okay thank you [Music] question on the springfield school district was that delaware county or montgomery county that was delaware county this question might be for jen or nicole is it conceivable that a student who has a 504 or iep accommodation related to mask masking that it would require other students around them to be masked so that student can access education so we will view every single case on a case-by-case basis um everything reasonable is a possibility and we'd work with the
062family and typically the family's physician to make reasonable accommodations um and also would a family or would a student qualify potentially for a 504 based on an amino compromise status or another need to um be in a space where masking is required um by space i mean a classroom where they themselves are master their teachers are masked so they would already require a five like it would be a student who already requires a 504 because of medical conditions can they request a 504 um based on a need they could that's what typically happens we couldn't hear the last part of that oh i'm sorry if any any child who has a medical diagnosis that significantly impacts their um you know ability to perform in school or their major life functions they would qualify for a
063504. just a tip that's not a covid that's just typical so i think it's important to note that our schools are communities right and there's interconnectedness interdependence and that certain students may have certain needs and that we will be responsive to those needs so that's it's good to know that the 504 is an available option for families and students i also want to clarify if moving to mass recommended would impact our the status of our arp esser funding it will not not sure if you could hear me there no our understanding of the arp sr funding is that there is no requirement to adhere to any specific uh piece of of that advice but it is that we have to address those pieces of advice as required in the plan such as say how we
064will handle masking how we will handle hygiene spacing et cetera thank you that seems to conclude the comments from the board i just want to um appreciate everybody's thoughtful consideration of these plans and note again um the long period of with which we have attended to these covid related matters our health and safety plan was passed last summer we were attentive then that it would need to be revisited that the conditions in our schools and in the community would need to be reassessed periodically that our plans would change we've made changes throughout people may remember there were times when there was more plexiglass or things like that in the schools we learn we take things into consideration the we are able to be at this point tonight because of the thoughtful preparation of the of
065the district of um the availability of vaccination which is a different um circumstance than when we initially approved the health and safety plan i appreciate that the district is being careful to consider the needs of all of our students and i appreciate the board's thoughtful contribution to this process the next item on the agenda is a registration update on our kindergarten class i would just remind the public we have an agenda it's posted on our website um we appreciate your attendance in our meeting um there is a lot of business for us to conduct and the vote is near the end of the meeting so please be patient with us as we conduct the regular business of this district good evening mr hopefully you can hear me good evening we'd like to take this opportunity
066to provide the board with a brief update on our new student registrations on our first slide here you're looking at our early early registrations for beginners as pennsylvania department of education defines beginners as students entering the school system for the first time could be kindergarten or first grade this particular shot snapshot is approximately 30 days out from our launch from the online registration system these numbers are more or less in line on rough averages with what our projections were have been over the last several years and historic patterns you'll see more about that here in a minute and as i normally do if i speak too fast or too quickly please feel free to interrupt me this slide captures uh briefly approximately 72 hours out after launch the last three years again looking at our
067beginners because that's the focus of our update here this evening across the five elementary schools you can see uh general pattern uh early registrations we we tend to see a bump within the first 72 hours definitely within the first 30 days uh but i i started capturing the first 72 hour snapshots for dr rushi a couple years ago and it was just a pattern we started to repeat to see what types of information we get we might be able to gather from that for long-term processing this slide is the same information as the previous i'll go back oh no i won't go back here we go i'm sorry same data as this slide is here is this represented slightly differently separating out the kindergarten registrations pre-registrations from the first grade pre-registrations and you see some
068general trends over the last three years so again not to give anybody motion sickness but this is the same data here as we have here it's represented slightly differently from a visual perspective on this slide and this is the one i expect might generate a few questions from the board we see again the last three years a general timeline of snapshots at 30 days at the end of june at the end of august and truthfully i you could say arbitrarily picked june 30th in the end of august based on my observations over the past several cycles it tends when you look at all the data you know over eight ten months or so uh we tend to see general lapses at the end of the school year and then a slight spike at the end
069towards the end of the summer as you go into labor day um and then um a lull again if you will uh right after labor day weekend so uh with respect to the board i i chose these time frames uh but again we could represent the data in any which way it would preference the board also i would like to point out if i could use the table on the left side of this pickle in chatham park for the moment the 21 22 table china park you see kindergarten 70 and 9 kindergarten first grade those numbers as you track from left to right there are cumulative totals so if you look at 70 for kindergarten chatham park as the example 79 on june 30th and then 81 on august 31st that's a cumulative total that's
070not an additional 79 students or an additional 81 students uh that's just trying to attempt to illustrate again we see a significant bump within the general first 30 days once we launch registration and then we have a pattern that is not yet predictable by my estimation of over the next six months or so how other registrations will flow through certainly as we heard from mr montgomery and associates in previous board meetings uh registration i'm sorry home sales and and different types of sales you know residency data falls into that and birth data that type of thing this slide here is our last slide in this brief presentation this evening again it's the same information as on this slide just captured visually differently you can see if i pick on the 21 22 representation there that
071initial pop if you will of 405 combined beginner registrations combined kindergarten and first 405 in the first month that cumulative total of first grade i'm sorry kindergarten in first grade by the end of june was 508 and then by the end right before labor day approximately not approximately exactly 552. so those patterns have been i wouldn't say predictable but relatively consistent from a statistical point of view for the last several several years that's all i have for this evening and my quick slides any questions from the board is there any comments from the board yeah um thank you for this presentation and for the multiple i'm tending to our multiple literacies and sharing the data in multiple ways i appreciate that um so looking at the in this last slide here the 20 20 21
072school year um so there's it seems like a decent amount more students enrolling that year do you have any sense of what was different in 2020 um the number of title students so the total number of students in the 2021 school year um so we're seeing 1929 there's that spike up and then 21. overall i'm sorry i know you found your question i wasn't following it first yes and uh if i i don't have it available visually for from the public um but referring back mentally from mr montgomery's presentation from last june i believe mayor june then we had relatively specifically speaking an unusual number of a spike across all grades that particular year 2021. we have not identified a pattern from residential sales uh from birth rates uh the mr montgomery did provide the
073board with an update uh from their projections uh i believe it's december 10th or so roughly 21 the analysis that at that point was inconclusive about again causality uh the recommendations from mr montgomery and associates was if we were to consider another projection analysis not to begin or proceed with that before april of this year just to allow the kindergarten registration numbers and first grade exchange k and one to trickle in if you will as we get closer to june that's helpful thank you one takeaway for the public would be that from this we might want to encourage people to register as soon as possible there is a significant amount of planning in terms of teachers and staffing and class lists and things that happen over the summer and when we don't get the registrations
074until august 31st that just adds a challenge in placement i mean of course we welcome all students but um to the extent that um as a public service announcement we can ask people to register their incoming students um as soon as possible that helps with the staffing and the planning and class assignments um that that will need to happen certainly we will never be settled by the first day of school of course all right thank you very much for other questions i'm sorry thank you we're now at the public comment portion of the agenda the board values public comment as an essential component of school governance that adds information for the deliberation of important and complex matters that come before the board however this is not a question and answer period and while we conduct
075our 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 this first section is for comments pertaining to items on tonight's agenda the agenda is published on our school district website in the school board section under board docs there is a later time for public comment on other school related matters residents of the township may in advance of the meeting sign up to make public comment by emailing publiccomment 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
076confirming your residency in haverford township if you have any materials that you'd like to distribute please give them to mr greg parker who is seated in the front to the side your name and the topic of your comments will be recorded in our meeting minutes we have 16 or 17 speakers so a fair amount of public comment to get through again three minutes um when i call your name you can come to the microphone up front mr todd hall is the first speaker good evening um am i on hello okay um good evening my name is todd hall i reside in the school district of haverford township i've spoken many times before so my speech this evening is is brief i do have a few points with the way that the meeting was structured tonight
077to be able to respond after the board discussion there was a point about the cdc and guidance next week i learned to be a critical thinker for my education case counts are declining hospitalization is declining there's more concern about the impacts of masking i expect the guidance to be a loosening of mask rules now it may not speak directly to schools because let's be honest this is political football it just is the way it is so there may not be exact school guidance but there will be cdc guidance and i can just assume where it's headed secondly as far as using mass there's an issue for caring or thinking about others caring thinking of others there's nothing wrong with that at all that's a great idea i don't see masks that have a questionable limit
078of ability to stop the spread as a vehicle for that i also don't see it being a vehicle to show caring when the case counts and the transmissions are so completely low right now finally for down the road uh bussing and the executive order about federal public transportation i would just encourage you to look at that a little more closely i think if i walked to the corner of manoa road in westchester pike and asked to get onto a school district of haverford township bus that wouldn't go over very well so i don't think it's public transportation similarly the entire um entire uh school district is not served by the bus system so it's not you know public in that regard so i thank you for having this on the agenda for tonight and i
079am in support of optional masking thank you bernadette lawson is the next speaker sorry good evening my name is bernadette lawson and i'm a resident of haverford township and the parent of a haverford high school graduate and current 8th and 11th grader first i'd like to give an overdue thank you to the district for its efforts to keep our children safe during the pandemic i also want to specifically thank the district for providing vaccination clinics which were so accessible for parents there is no question that there appears to be two camps in so many of the discussions at school board meetings parents are broadly viewed as either anti-vaxx anti-mask or provax pro mask tonight i want to provide the board with some nuance i am a vaccinated boosted individual as are my children over the
080last 20 some months i've worn a mask and prompted my children to do the same however given that vaccines are widely available case counts are significantly lower given that the scientific community has acknowledged that we are moving from pandemic into an endemic i ask that the district change its policy to mask optional it's time i'd also like to comment on contract tracing or more specifically any potential reinstatement of this in the future thank you to dr royce for recommending the scaling back of this at the january 20th meeting and to the board for approving i can only speak to my personal reaction to the many district emails i received by the week before winter break i stopped reading the emails all together with the understanding that yes omicron was everywhere and yes my son did
081get it two days into the winter break our vaccinations did what they were supposed to do no one else in our household got it and my son had mild flu symptoms our district gets so much right but our schools are not perfect as long as administrators spend countless hours tracing student contacts and are off task the education of our children is compromised i feel the current model providing case counts by school is sufficient and should remain so going forward even with inevitable variants that will likely arise seasonally in closing i'd like to address the two board members at the january twentieth meeting that despite dr reuty's compelling presentation voted against reducing contract tracing and eliminating testing of asymptomatic staff this would be ms snodgrass and ms larson i was incredibly frustrated at your obstinance they
082contradicted the guidance of a highly respected pediatric expert from chop i fell into the trap of trying to determine your motivations and then thankfully settled on two facts that i do know your school board members and at the end of the day your parents as well i'd like to provide you with one additional fact that i've learned as the parent of a young adult and two teenagers we cannot protect our children from every bad thing we just can't and i ask that both of you keep this immutable truth in mind as you vote on the evolving health and safety plan over the coming weeks thank you to the board for providing this opportunity for me to speak next speaker is amy needle [Applause] hello everyone my name is amy needle and i reside on the
083200 block of sagamore road in havertown i have been an icu nurse for the past 15 years both locally and in center city when my mother is pregnant she is given the choice for prenatal testing with those results the doctors give her the facts and statistics so she can make the best choice for her child when a baby is born severely premature or sick the doctors use the facts that they have about the condition and the statistics for the outcome and then the parents choose how they would like to proceed with care the american academy of pediatrics along with the cdc recommend keeping your child rear facing in the car seat until two and then you have the choice to turn the child around or wait longer i put a helmet on my child when
084he skis i feel their best interest many doctors and professionals speak out against tackle football at a young age due to concussions yet we have a football team and we allow the parents to choose if the benefits outweigh the risk these are all choices that a parent doesn't take lightly they choose what is the best for that particular individual the benefits outweigh the risks viruses are out there they aren't going anywhere they have been around forever even chop stopped testing their new admissions parents should be more afraid of rsv influence a and b pneumonia happily only had the swine flu which killed way more children my family included i lost enough you to it the facts are out there it's not just my opinion it's not hindering it's not only hindering our kids social and
085emotional well-being but some kids are having physical side effects my daughter has a skin infection all around her mouth her nose and her cheeks from the mask kids in this district have open lesions behind their ears from their mask and bacterial growth in their mouth are leading into more cavities the really little kids have never been to school without a mask and are having learning delays and speech delays delays and infections from a material that isn't even protecting them from covin that enough my two-year-old has never seen she's never seen people's faces and she thinks her baby dolls came with a mask it's their bibs i'm sorry we vote you all into office to make these decisions based on facts and statistics and when asked if i live in a good school district i want
086to say that i do and i want to say the board makes decisions based on facts and not their opinion or a feeling miss vitale you said in your opening statement yourself you are here for the emotional and social well-being of the students your votes matter so much more than just the school the preschools and the camps and the sports and the fitness centers are suffering my kids have to wear masks to play basketball and ballet you're taking away my parental rights to make their choice we know what is best interest of our children and the people that signed that petition two weeks ago felt that that was their representation in this room and they didn't know they needed to be here we can recommend to mask all and those who want to can please
087give us a choice as this is the way forward please choose wisely next speaker is riley martin hello my name is riley martin and i'm a sixth grade student at hms i am here in support of optional masking for students i have been absent and went home early more this school year than any year prior due to overheating headaches and dizziness from having to wear a mask for the entire school day there are times throughout the day that i need to put my mouth down for a brief moment to breathe but i guess threatened by staff to be sent to the principal's office to sit i'm asking you to please let them ask me mandy immediately and let us finish the school year out with some normalcy let us see our friend smiles let us
088see our teachers faces let us breathe fresh air we do not need a transition period the students that want to continue to wear them are able to do so give the rest of us the option to go masculine starting now thank you for allowing me to speak leslie blocko is the next speaker leslie walatco okay stacy tomaszek hi my name is stacey tamashik i live on arlington road in the district my kids go to chatham elementary um global dogs um first off thank you for dr bhushi um thank you for your service and navigating us us through these confusing and stressful times thank you for doing your best to keep our kids and our community safe and a shout out to our teachers my first grader learned to read during these very unorthodox first years
089of public school and that's a credit to our schools and our district so i really thank you i felt compelled to speak tonight after viewing the last board meeting online i was dismayed by the several instances of what i thought was disrespectful and overly dramatic behavior i am feeling similar feelings tonight i didn't think that voice i don't think that angry angry voice represents the majority of our community it definitely does not represent the community i know and love i felt compelled to speak tonight with a plea to the entire community for sanity and rationalism with the understanding that our children are watching us and listening to us they hear and see every single thing we say and do and how we say it and how we do it how we speak and how we
090treat each other especially when we disagree is imperative i'm not here to plea with the board to vote yes or no on the changing the mask mandate because i understand and i empathize both positions i find it all very confusing to think about just to understand what the best options a few weeks ago a doctor told me that logic had nothing to do with making a decision about getting a cova test and today a doctor told me we need to stop testing already it's very difficult to navigate all the guidance with anything having to do with this pandemic or masks keeping our community safe or not in our current situation one side says they're useless and doing more harm than good the other side is desperate for the continued protection against scary consequences for their
091immunocompromised child or family member the world is opening up though right our school district seems to be following suit with the world we are going to have to live with kovid and all the other viruses in the world that can harm us we all need to be respectful of how each family decides to navigate this new world it's going to get it's going to take some getting used to i asked the district for consistency in your messaging and clear guidance on how to handle our children's illnesses district-wide if masks are no longer mandated we might see an increase in our kids illnesses especially since we are currently in the middle of a winter surge or because oh that's me thank you that's all clear guidance thank you next speaker is elena wisely good evening my
092name is elena wisely i live in the district i'm a mother and i want to remind you again that i am also a nurse i am disappointed tonight to see that after all the compelling arguments of science that masks are harming our children and providing little if any benefit your vote tonight will be to remove mass only if positivity rates stay below 3 percent do you know my medical history man i was interrupted please stop the clock i have an exemption and i don't need to prove it to you absolutely is it's a medical device order order not for that side i'm sorry could i ask that there not be interruptions to the speaker yes we will give miss wisely her full three minutes what happened to the environmental concerns that massacre creating more pollution
093than the plastic straws that haverford thinks we need to ban in a small town to save the world you have all the information you need to know that these masks are not working that's why so many of you have already switched to n95 how can you not feel foolish sitting there in your n95 after two years of lying to yourself that your cloth mass were protecting you and now after the stark realization that you have not been in fact protected these last two years your burden of fear places an n95 on your mask one i'm sure that you are reusing which is not only against science but it's disgusting and your fear is not going to dictate our children's lives i assure you regardless of this vote regardless of positivity rates our children will not
094wear masks any longer we are done while you are working to create obedient soldiers out of our children we the parents have control over their devices and they will listen to us it's not that we want our kids to be disobedient it's that we don't want them to have a chronic illness as a result of your unlawfully practicing medicine on them i don't care what your mugs say you're not physicians just because you don't like the truth doesn't make it untrue on what level would you say that you are capable of comprehending cerebral hemodynamics do you have knowledge of changes that occur to cerebral blood flow caused by partial pressure carbon dioxide that is stimulated during mass squaring or how these changes affect vascular tone and intracranial circulation which directly impacts cerebral metabolism do you
095have any idea that every single body system is reliant on cerebral metabolism for homeostasis you can see mask wearing causes fatigue anxiety decreased ability to concentrate dizziness drowsiness headaches skin breakdown fainting decreased empathy perception you want kids to be nice take off the masks you are seeing an increase in behaviors headaches ticks seizure anxiety and chalking it up to the pandemic no these are metabolic changes caused by your masking policies and they are only the surface imagine what's taking place on a metabolic level that is yet to be seen education is destroying our children's brains for an experimental study these ailments are not being seen where masks have not been worn we have a control in this study and it's called florida although these myths have distracted us we have not forgotten the rest of
096the fight our children are not your social justice warriors and we are working harder than ever to teach our kids to think critically you claim that your libraries are filled with books for alternate perspectives so that kids can see multiple points of view i see no books opposing critical race theory in our schools there is no opposing you only your liberal ideologies that's why in honor of black history month i'm donating a children's book to to manoa highlighting the accomplished economist and social theorists former marxist 91 year old thomas sowell who fervently opposes he fervently opposes crt and marxism after having extensively studied both sides for decades i would like to quote him since i know many of you probably have no idea who he is much of the social history of the western world
097over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good thank you jordan lyons is the next speaker jordan lyons jordan lyons okay meredith mercante i'm sorry sir i didn't william brian i am a uh president of 210 excuse me um i i'm calling speakers by name who signed up and i have not gotten to your name yet sir it's very difficult to hear i appreciate that um you are on my list to speak in the second public session we will get to you thank you it's a meredith mercante's turn good evening my name is meredith mercatante and i'm a resident of haverford township my comment tonight is brief but i just wanted to say that i'm here tonight to show my support for optional masking for all students staff and visitors
098in the district buildings i'm also here tonight to read a letter written by my nine-year-old daughter currently in fourth grade who was here but then left in her words she says when i wear a mask in school i feel upset and annoyed because masks are difficult for me to breathe in i miss seeing my friends faces and being able to understand and hear them when we talk and play i feel like i can't be myself when i'm wearing a mask it is also hard when my mask falls down my nose and teachers keep telling me to pull my mask up kids should be living a normal kid life and i feel like it is the time for math to be optional please consider revising the health and safety plan to allow for optional masking for
099all thank you madeline d donato is the next speaker madeline d donato hi everybody good evening my name is madeleine de donato and i am a resident of haverford township i spoke at the last board meeting about our freedoms and to stop the discrimination against the unvaccinated and the unmasked it should be our choice to make tonight i'm here to talk about the same thing we know the pandemic has affected all of us our children more than you know the anxiety and the stress on them is unmeasurable we are teaching our children to hide behind masks it's heartbreaking and unhealthy we need to stop living in fear i'd like to speak to all of you board members as mom and dads what do mom and dads do we lead and we protect when it comes
100to our children no matter what it's about we are unstoppable so i'm asking you to please stop the discrimination the abuse the coercion the shaming and the segregation of the unvaccinated and the unmasks please vote and lead us to the right to choose because that's what makes this country amazing it's for our freedoms thank you for your time elena kane is the next speaker elena kane is the next speaker my name is elena kane and i'm a lifelong resident of haverford township i have two sons in high school i'm here tonight to urge the board to vote for the move to optional masking and also to end the discrimination and segregation against those who choose not to mask or to vaccinate these are personal choices that must be honored and respected not just within the
101school walls within our entire community i'm well aware of the lawsuits in some in some of the neighboring districts and i'm sure this is something that the board is taking into consideration i was outraged to learn that the intent of the parents in the lawsuits against perky omen and springfield school districts was to restrict the rights and freedoms and punish every other child in the district by imposing their choice for their children on everyone with no regard or concern and stripping away others rights to choose what's best for their children my youngest son is immunocompromised he is type 1 diabetic diagnosed at 22 months old and asthmatic he is covered by the americans with disabilities act just like the children in the lawsuits his disability is our family's burden and responsibility at no time has
102my child's disability ever been an inconvenience to the others in school at no time has the school district needed to impose restrictions on his classmates let alone the entire district to accommodate him because his of his disability his disability is our family's responsibility alone and it will never be a burden put on the shoulders of our community at the end of january of 2021 both my sons developed symptoms and both tested positive for cobit my oldest had straight flu symptoms for four days fever body ache headache my youngest the one who's diabetic had a head cold no fever no other symptoms thankfully both recovered fully along with 12 million 801 other us children i'd like to present to the board with a new scientific study from the uk in the journal of infection this study
103shows that immunocompromised children and young people are at no increased risk of severe covid19 my son's case is in agreement with this study with that being said a victorian area urged the board to move our district forward to optional masking and restore our personal choice freedoms and liberties we have five more speakers andrew pigeon is next [Applause] good evening andrew pigeon uh however president um for the first time in the history of humanity children have been asked to bear the burden of protecting adults since the beginning of time it has been the adult's responsibility to sacrifice anything in order to protect children it is wired in our dna to ensure that humanity endures protect the kids at all costs why are kids the only ones having nests forced upon them please ask yourself that simple
104question i don't know the answer in every non-medical setting in this country masks are recommended it is an indisputable fact that kids are the lowest at-risk group when it comes to getting spreading being hospitalized by or dying from covet 19. why are we jeopardizing their learning and their social interactions to manage some adults anxiety quite frankly it's disgusting what we have taken from them and we won't know the full extent of the damage for years to come but you can fix that tonight with one vote we can begin to heal we can interact normally we can learn the way that we have learned for hundreds of years face to face i know when this is all said and done i will be able to look back and know that i've done everything in my power
105to protect my kids from the enormous government overreach my kids asked me to do what i have been doing for these last 18 months i've seen a community come together for a common purpose to allow kids the opportunity to learn an atmosphere that works best for them catholic and public schools alike have united for this cause this week the archdiocese has announced optional masking in their schools and even though those parents have gotten the answer they receive there's some of them here tonight to support our cause because they know it's the right thing to do if other districts have already gone optional in delaware county and the catholic schools within our county excuse me within our district have done the same logic will dictate that you vote recommended masking tonight we have data from across
106the world on what the fact masking has had on the spread amongst kids i afforded study after study to year that proves as much dr rubin has given countless interviews that the choice of whether or not to mask shall be with the individual at this point not dictated by a government body at what point did we become so hung up on what the cdc said go on the cdc's website look at some other non-covered recommendations and tell me if you think we should mandate what the cdc says to redis reduce the risk of alcohol related harms the cdc recommends that adults of legal drinking age who choose to drink or drink in moderation by limiting intake to two drinks or less in a day for men one drink or less per day in women first
107of all this is sexist and the cdc should be canceled for it but it's not mandated that beers be sold individually or girls are cut off after one drink at the bar the cdc also recommends that you don't taste raw dough or batter do not let children handle or play with raw dough i know i don't know about you but i know three generations of people in my household that would be out of compliance of those cdc recommendations but there is no mandate the truth is that people should be prepared for the government health experts to preach excessive caution indefinitely because that is what public health experts have always done thank you your time lessons normal does not mean the cdc grants permission to enjoy life again normal means ignoring the cdc and enjoying life
108anyway it's never too late to do the right thing era johnson is the next speaker sarah johnson sarah johnson good evening my name is sarah johnson i'm a resident of the township i just brought the sign up so you can see it up close um i'd like you to vote yes for recommended and asking for all tonight um i just i i don't have a long speech um i just have a couple of notes you know i'd like to thank miss best if she's still she's probably somewhere here um because i know she's done an enormous amount of work and taken on additional responsibilities besides the responsibility she had pre-paid america so um i want to say thank you to her because i know this has been a very long journey um and i just
109want to remind you know there's been so much division um this is not a political issue that it shouldn't be this should be a health issue um you know physical emotional mental health we're starting to see a lot of adverse effects to the kids you know i think that the television has really helped divide this country and tonight i do hope that we can start to hear some of that division and i just want to publicly state anybody that wants to wear a mask you know staff students i fully support that a thousand percent um you know i'll talk to my child about respecting people's choices and um you know i don't think that's the point of this is to tell everybody you need to take your mask off the point is just to let
110people make the right choice for themselves um mr feinberg thank you for publicly stating at the last meeting that you would support this um you know that meant a lot you know i know that you really stating that publicly was you know an important step in the right direction so thank you for that um and you know i would also like to just say like maybe you're not going to do it tonight but i i would consider you know looking at removing the vaccine requirement for parents um you know i understand dr renundos had requested that maybe when the case numbers were very high it's creating a lot of division i know there's the test option um it's just it doesn't scientifically really make sense uh to require parents to get a vaccine to go
111on a field trip and it's also we talk about all these staffing shortages and now we have staff members like managing all these you know vaccine card uploads this doesn't personally affect me but i see that it's it's it's people feel that they're being punished because they've made a choice that is different from the school board and you know it is it's upsetting i know there's been a lot of emotion but ms laura saying like we cannot mask kids for money that's i mean after the last meeting of all the people i mean even the suggestion that we would you know they suggested that we would we would continue to mask children any other additional day more than we need to knowing that all the adverse effects that are happening to them is just it's
112it's upsetting when people hear that okay it just is no amount of money is worth you know kids having open source and all the things we've seen so we can't mask children for money and that has been publicly stated dr rushi has talked about it the sr funds are not tied to masking i mean i think miss uh can you mention that again okay i'm done with my time thank you [Applause] steve westhoff is the next speaker steve westhoff good evening my name is steve westhoff and my family and i moved to the township last year we are in the philadelphia region for the health of our children a kindergartner and a second grader now at coopertown elementary school actually recently returned to school in person they both have complex medical needs we don't know
113dr rubin but we have seen many of his colleagues at children's hospital of philadelphia where i assure you they will continue to be masking our kindergartener in particular has health conditions that make him particularly vulnerable even though he is vaccinated if he were to contract covet 19 that has required all of us including our second grader to be even more cautious with our activities on top of that our kindergartner was unable to attend school in person until today due to a region-wide medical staffing shortage if the board access is recommended today we are really not sure what we will do in a little over a week and i don't think we are alone for many reasons family likes families like ours are still less likely to attend in person and to speak up at larger
114indoor gatherings on a school night especially if we have tuned in to school board meetings over the past year by the way i don't want to do this but part of the reason i'm here is because of the public commenter from last meeting that accused some board members of playing doctor but then went on to diagnose some of them and implicitly families like ours with moonshots i came here tonight in part to express to other perhaps yet less outspoken families and community members they are not alone in being concerned and confused about the proposed lifting of health and safety measures during this ongoing pandemic i urge the district to continue its existing health and safety plan measures and failing that to ask what director mckay asked at the last meeting how will the district continue
115to meet the needs of its vulnerable students staff and their family members certainly those discussions should occur very quickly with families like mine we have what 10 days but the logistics of working out those issues when even exposed untested factually close contacts are unmasked in the classroom and respiring need to be thought through at a district-wide level as well being done through with covid declaring a return to normal and encouraging the community to simply live with the virus sounds great but it is not self-fulfilling the only way to wheel away the virus is by diminishing its prevalence through continued health and safety measures and perhaps exploring additional options such as as i heard tonight providing high quality mass for students and staff i hope they fit and potentially exploring improved indoor ventilation i will note
116that the district has already largely revised away its close contact tracing testing and reporting there continue to be health exemptions from masking as miss wisely did express tonight i respect that dollar county community transmission is higher your time is up it's continuing to be high and i urge you to maintain the measures thank you very much michael litz is the next speaker michael litz good evening michael litz have for township um i had a speech prepared but after hearing from the icu nurses the moms here i don't know what else i could add that would convey the urgency with which we need to get these masks off our children and if parents don't want to remove the mass from their children they don't have to that's the beauty of making it optional and recommended um
117i will note my son who's here he's immunocompromised i would never place that burden upon another child or another parent to do whatever it is they think i should be doing i would also never presume to tell any of you what's in your best interest for your health and i would ask that you extend that same courtesy to my family thank you we've gotten to the last speaker who signed up alicia sterbakov hello my name is alicia stovakov i'm a three-year resident of half of her township i'm speaking tonight on behalf of mass choice in the hands of the parents i have four points i'd like to highlight number one there was a woman recently interviewed on cnn it was actually a doctor dr liana wen she said the science has changed that one way
118masking is now okay [Music] when for the past four years or i'm sorry for the past several years our children have been told they're going to kill grandma if they don't wear a mask and that was based on science she also said that we need to take a serious look at the harm mask are doing to our kids in other words they are hurting more than helping lastly she said that the cdc is becoming increasingly irrelevant this same woman was singing a completely different tune a few years ago both masks and vaccines shaming anyone who didn't go along with the cdc recommendations and may i stress that is exactly what they are recommendations only number two seventy thousand plus people were in attendance at the super bowl they were masculine strangers okay screaming yelling high-fiving
119to celebrate for six plus hours while our children went into school muzzle the next day that is hypocritical double standard hypocrisy to say the least and it makes no sense strangers mass list our kids who are not strangers to one another and they have more than ample opportunity to develop herd immunity amongst themselves if given the chance number three i believe masking children is about two things only control and a way to make adults feel less anxious and safe neither are okay the last i checked we're supposed to make children feel safe not the other way around that is disturbingly narcissistic view and way of thinking number four mass harm more than help i can present hundreds of articles on the physical emotional psychological and educational harm that they have both short and long term
120but we're only given a short period of time to talk and i won't belittle you all because i know you're all intelligent enough to do the research for yourself i believe wholeheartedly that it is beyond time to cease following the quote-unquote increasingly irrelevant cdc's school masking guidelines please let our kids breathe free fresh air let their smiles shine bright maskless a quick story if i have time my 11 year old daughter came to me the other night and she said mom i did something really weird i was walking from the hallway into my room and i went like this and i desperate to pull my mask up that's called conditioning okay and it's creating almost like a neurosis and a psychosis in our kids please i'm begging you to stop this or at the very
121least leave it in the hands of the parents to choose i'm urging you to do the right thing thank you next item on the agenda we are in section five a board committee report on finance and facilities from dave schwartz thank you very much as i understand that there's some kind of board happening tonight so that if you folks here are interested in so i'll try to be brief a couple quick updates just just on on the silvia's side um ken matthews gave an update of some of the facilities projects in district limited is almost done a couple of things remaining a fencing signing some gym pads but we're pretty much done now with the new school at linwood high school phase one is also nearly complete a couple of table tops the counters need
122to be replaced there but those are now those classrooms are now in use phase two has started you can see it outside there if you take a a walk a couple of things on back order obviously but that is moving along about twenty percent done cooper town and shadow climate controls again those projects have just started there are a few things that are on back order supply chain issues and so forth but all of those are scheduled currently to be completed by the summer of 2023 so no more window units for ac hopefully pretty soon we also got some updates on bus purchases as many people may know the district has been moving to propane busing over the the past a few years from our diesel fleet there's requests to purchase 10 more of those
123buses and that is um that's on the docket tonight to be approved there also is a study of the of the bus lot that's a lot that has been disrepaired for for a number of years there's going to be a study done a flight plan done i believe the engineering from planning for that's also on the agenda for this evening we also had a couple of presentations from [Music] mcq about revenues and budgets if you really want to dive into those numbers i encourage you to check out the website and presentation long story short harford township has paid a lot in residential taxes i think we are fourth in the state which surprised me major cross drivers are peacers which is the potential which is the pension uh plan for for teachers and special education
124of which we are chronically underfunded from both the state and federal level after that there is some discussion also about the demographic study that is going to be upcoming pretty soon to figure out uh to do an analysis of our facilities how much capacity we have and to build off our recent demographic study but like i said a lot to get to still this evening so i'll end it there thank you item six is for facilities and finance item a budget transfers i will accept a motion to approve budget transfers for pre-approval in the amount of twenty nine thousand four hundred forty three dollars and ninety nine cents and transfers for ratification in the amount of thirty two thousand eight hundred sixty two dollars and sixty cents king moved crispin second moved in second did
125any discussion all in favor oh i'm sorry budget transfers are roll call vote thank you for the reminder um cue could you walk us through the roll call vote dr crispin yes dr king yes ms larson yes mr mr schwartz yes ms snodgrass yes ms vitelli yes mr feinberg yes miss wiedemann yes the vote is eight to zero motion passes thank you item six b is the bill list i'll accept a motion to approve disbursements from on the following funds as listed larson second any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes item 6c is for change orders i'll accept a motion to accept the recommendation of the project architect kcba and associates inc an owner's representative cb development services inc and authorize the change orders totaling one hundred thirty seven thousand ninety
126eight dollars and fifteen cents as listed second any discussion just one quick note on that there is an item on here for the lynnwood elementary signed it for for twelve thousand dollars that actually um while we're paying twelve thousand we are getting five thousand dollars back from um kcba to help pay for that change of signing that's a quick question um did uh at the facilities meeting did ken give um an indication of whether i i think you said dave like we're close to the end here are we gonna soon stop seeing change orders for linwood um yes we should be getting very close the allowances have been depleted to get rid of a lot of the change orders that we had discussed at previous meetings so really should be trickling down at this point
127okay that's great news same for high school phase one there's a couple here this evening and that's it and that uh phase one is done then as far as change orders and ken i'm recalling there was a significant um residual in our contingency for the linwood project yes there's a significant amount left you know we'll get it finalized it was a little over 800 000 at this point so once we get all the final calls for the job then we'll flush out the exact final number thank you any other comments is there a point with the project where it's closed out done like yes it takes there's a lot of paperwork we have most of it at this point and then we get final documents affidavits final release of leans all of those things to
128close it out we checked that with uh whistler pearlstein um and then so we're getting very close to that for high school phase one especially and linwood's not too far behind it just takes a long time it's just the nature of the beast unfortunately thanks for the guest star appearance yeah thank you all right hearing no other conversation all in favor aye any opposed change orders pass thank you item 60 is for new school buses i will accept a motion to approve the following purchase of new school buses and provision camera systems as listed through bright bill body works at a cost not to exceed one million two hundred fifteen thousand eight hundred sixty one dollars using the co-stars state pricing contract shorts moved crispin second any discussion um there was uh really if you
129don't care excuse me excuse me the room will come to order there was a nice discussion from [Music] thank you you want me to keep going um there was a there was a nice discussion from the director of transportation um outlining the current state of our bus fleet and um the plan going forward for the future to upgrade some of our older buses that are becoming um a little bit outdated um and to upgrade them to the new propane buses so for any of our board members or any of the public that wasn't at that meeting i definitely would encourage you to watch that it was a very detailed presentation outlining all the details of the bus fleet so thank you right these um this was to replace buses that had been on the roads
130for 12 plus years and had the most mileage on them and we're incurring the most maintenance costs and they're also taking diesel-powered buses off of the road for the replacement of propane which benefits the district with lowered admissions less cost to operate and maintain it is a quieter experience for students and drivers and it means there's no diesel exhaust or smell um and so the motion is to approve the purchase of the buses at the costar state contract pricing which is a is a negotiated approved price is there any other discussion all in favor any opposed the motion passes item 6e is for the m t paving project which is the maintenance and transportation paving project i'll accept a motion to approve the following proposals for the engineering bid specs and project oversight for the
131m t paving project not to exceed eighty two thousand five hundred dollars congrats second any discussion again they did a really nice presentation jr presented to us at the last finance and facilities meeting and um the photos he had a lot of photos and the drone flew over and showed us the whole lot and like it really needs an upgrade very obviously so i'm glad that we're able to vote on this tonight that's for years and this is um the maintenance and transportation is district property at um off a hilltop road behind barnaby's if the community was not aware of its location any other discussion all in favor any opposed motion passes into item seven human resources retirements and resignations i will accept a motion to accept the following retirement and resignations as listed crispin
132move king second any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes item seven b is for appointments to approve the following appointments as listed it's not grass moved fatally second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye aye aye aye any opposed motion passes item 7c leave of absence i'll accept a motion to approve the following leave request removed any discussion all in favor any opposed motion passes we're now into item eight people services item a is a contract approval i'll accept a motion to approve the following contracts for services provided to the district is listed vitaly moved larson second in second did any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes in item nine uh curriculum and instruction item a is a student educational excursion i'll accept a motion
133to approve the following student educational excursion as listed progress moved king second any discussion this is for the high school boys track team to go to an away meet all in favor aye any opposed motion passes item nine b is to ratify high school girls track meet i'll accept a motion to ratify attendance of the high school girls track team at a meet that was rescheduled for february 12 2022. crispin move larson second any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes item 9c is a change in our graduation requirements i will accept a motion to approve an additional graduation requirement for students of the class of 2026 and beyond to pass a half-credit course in financial literacy is there any discussion um again the curriculum committee meeting i reported on this last
134at our last board meeting um there was a fantastic presentation about the financial literacy program um and i'm so excited that we can do this i think it supports a lot of our district goals for um our strategic plan um including preparing contemporary citizens and um as you mentioned ms wiedemann um social emotional wellness help excuse me social emotional wellness because financial health is very much tied to our own um health and wellness so i'm very glad that we can do this um so thank you for bringing this stuff i really appreciate it any other discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion passes item 10 um is a policy the first reading of local board policies section zero zero zero um it will be presented by antoinette snodgrass but first we'll get a motion
135to accept the first reading of the following policies zero zero one through zero zero larsen moved crisp and second and then okay great again thank you tonight we're presenting the first fruits of the policy audit as i reported at our last meeting we had our first policy committee meeting in january that kicked off our policy audit um you'll recall from last fall we made the decision to review all of our policies we have dozens of them i don't know the exact number but and you know what has been done in the past is that a policy would come up for review to the board when a change in law occurred or if something spurred it but we really want to be proactive at looking at some of our at all of our policies one of
136the policies that we looked at at our meeting was from the year 2000 so you know really want to make sure that we are looking at everything and making sure that is up to date for the school district that we um that we have today at the meeting we discussed and what we have for tonight is the policies in the zero zero zero section which is our local board procedures so [Music] as a reminder to the new board members and the public we have a policy committee meeting that is uh recorded that is available for viewing but regardless of what we discuss at our policy committee meeting all policies that are up for either adoption or revision come to the board for two readings so tonight will be the first reading of these policies that
137we will go over and so we can kick it off policy 001 name and classification we reviewed this policy first our solicitor reviewed it and then it came to the policy committee for review um my understanding is that we had no edits to this one so um something that we discussed at the policy committee meeting is that we would add a line on all of our policies for not just adopted but also for reviewed for circumstances like this one and that we have in front of us to you know keep a track of what we have been reviewing i don't see that or let me see am i have them up here um did we have that added we do we have last reviewed added uh also it'll say january 24th 2022. will that say
138that when we actually vote on it yes okay so that will um after our second reading and then on the vote that that date will appear um if any board members have questions on zero zero one we can talk about them now that one's easy um zero policy zero zero two um we did have some changes made just to reflect um the current state of the law so this one was last adopted and reviewed in 2010. we had a change in the required school age that we wanted to reflect and some other administrative matters and the second paragraph on powers just to make sure that it reflected current law if anyone has any questions or comments on zero zero two we can talk about them now the policy committee meeting was very exciting so if
139people want to go back and view that we're next we'll move right along to zero zero three which is functions of the board for this one the the major review was to add the definition of our emergency so you'll see that reflected in the the draft uh policy and some other um administrative uh uh nits here and there also not substantive feel free to chime in okay we can move right along um policy 004 membership this one did have some more edits to it and one that i want to point out um is that we we changed all of the um the gendered terms to be inclusive and neutral to reflect a general gender neutral and inclusive atmosphere that we provide um so all throughout all of the policies that have any sort of gendered
140term we did change them to reflect that um so you'll see that throughout this policy um and those are the major changes we um we did also add a section on um civility and civility um among board members and what we expect so i'll read that out loud because i think it's important the board expects its members to be role models of civility while attending district sponsored events on or off district property the board expects its members to promote a respectful environment all members of the board are expected to communicate with each other and with district employees students volunteers and members of the general public in an atmosphere of civility and mutual respect and um that's something that i'm glad that we're adding here because we've discussed before how we are all a model of
141how we want our community and our students to present themselves anyone has any questions on zero zero four [Music] zero zero five is organization you'll see here again gender neutral terms and um let me see notes on this one so this one another change here is to language on committees so i think it's the last paragraph that's presented in this one um yeah so it's the last section zero zero five on committees and um just to give the board some um background on the genesis of this since since creating our new community structure last year we have been operating under a committee of the whole and what that means is that every board member is welcome and encouraged to attend all committee meetings and participate meaningfully in all of our meetings the policies committee the
142policy committee's impression was that this should continue there we found out that there are districts around the state that have specific board members that are assigned to committees and those are the really only ones that are supposed to participate we didn't think that that's how the haverford school district wanted to conduct our business so we continued with the committee of the whole and that's what we have reflected in in this paragraph is there any questions or comments on zero zero five okay moving on to zero zero six is meetings this one did have a lot of changes because we moved a lot of the technical procedures to administrative regulations since those are really more fluid they are more appropriate in administrative regulations that can be changed more easily by the administration since the um the
143district administration is really the ones who are implementing those whereas obviously as you can see adopting revising board policies takes much more effort um than than what goes on to administrative regulations so a lot of what um the changes in meetings was moved to administrative regulation is there any questions on zero zero six we did also beef up the language for special meetings that was recommended by our council [Music] zero zero seven is access to policies [Music] this one really didn't have any changes so another one and actually it was recently revised in 2019 so that one we didn't have much to discuss um and i finally the last board policy that's presented today for the first reading is zero zero nine review of school board policies this is a new policy for our district
144and one that's being added to reflect the ongoing audit it also does reflect the new committee structure of the board again as i stated before that it would be a committee of the whole we did add here that it would be helpful to have board members who are committed to making reasonable efforts to attending all of the committee meetings for a specific committee so that we can make sure we have meaningful participation at each committee meeting but with that said we want to continue to encourage all board members to attend all committee meetings so this policy was originally i think one sentence and i had revisions to every single part of it so um again the policy committee meeting is available uh to watch online and you can really um look at what was discussed
145um sometimes word by word um [Music] that is um all of the um for the first reading that's what we have unless there are further comments of the board um so just like i said this is the first reading which means that at which means that at the next board meeting we will go over all of these policies again um to the extent that there are public comments on the policy um you can email us or you can come speak at the meeting about about the these policies um and our next policy committee meeting i think is in march but we can update that uh at the next meeting i think that's available online thank you is there any other discussion from the board all right the motion has been made and seconded to accept
146this first reading of these policies all in favor aye any opposed motion passes thank you antoinette for walking us through that and now item 11 other items item a revision to the health and safety plan i will accept a motion to to move i accept a motion to approve revisions to sections 3a 3d and 3h in the 2021-2022 health and safety plan as noted in the version attached to the agenda which specifically includes the following revised language in sections 3a as of february 28 2022 and less mandated masks will be recommended for any staff students and visitors in all buildings the district will continue to monitor case counts within our buildings should case counts in a building reach three percent or more of the total population including students and staff for a period of seven
147consecutive days that building will return to masks required until the case counts returned to below three percent for seven consecutive days short second moved and seconded is there any discussion yes okay mr feinberg you know we've been following this for feels like forever [Music] i had a number of concerns that i had the opportunity to raise in our previous discussions and i feel that that they have been well researched and addressed you know specifically was interested in what provisions the administration would have for students with disabilities and it sounds like there's a mechanism in place [Music] i was concerned about n95 masks and it sounds like there will be enough it's my understanding there will be enough for all students and staff through the iu i was concerned with [Music] a mechanism in the event
148that case counts kick up again that we could implement limited masking at the school a particular school where that's occurring and that that change has been added to this and also add that you know the case counts have been coming down and it is our expectation that cdc will be taking action over the next couple weeks so i uh it's been a long strange trip and i i support this change i think you know just the the one word i think that should come out of the uh of of this vote tonight is respect and it goes both ways both for those who who choose to continue wearing masks and for those who will choose not to and that's got to start at home be reinforced in schools and permeate through the community i think
149that's a very important message it's got to be really hit hit home but that is one thing that i think really needs to be emphasized as we move forward with this revision to this policy any other discussion i just want to say that i really appreciate all of the hard work thought um and emotion and rationality and all the many um just you know it's been a roller coaster i'll put it that way so just thank you to the administration um for constantly following the ever-changing guidance um to you know facilitating these discussions that we've been having since december and also i'm looking forward to hopefully not discussing the health and safety plan at our next school board meeting um but also thank you so much to um you know my colleagues here on the
150board because this is not an easy decision and we all know that we're not we are not qualified to be making this decision but it's been placed upon us so that's that is the place that we're at um i will also say that i appreciate that the three percent threshold has been built in and now that i have a better understanding of what that means um and how it's being calculated i do think that that is a reasonable fail safe um i think as well that keeping in mind that this health and safety plan is its sole purpose is to maintain safe in-person learning um that we're being responsive to the ever-changing conditions of the pandemic hopefully soon to be endemic and that we will just continue to roll with this and adapt as necessary
151i guess i just wanted to i just wanted to add i've thought a lot about this decision over the last two weeks and you know we're in a much different position now on the cusp of march 2022 than we were in march 2020 and you know art now and i think you know as the our knowledge base has evolved and expanded on the virus and the virus itself has changed i do think now is the time that we need to change with the current reality and we need to adopt the policy recommendations that not just because chop is saying it because that is the reality and i think you know we do have to learn to live with covet and i think you know it's i understand for some people and change is not always
152easy people have been doing this for two years and um and i'm not unsympathetic to that at all and for the member but i do think it's unrealistic to think that we'll ever eradicate covet i think we have to learn to live with it and and i appreciate the board bringing this forward thank you yes i appreciate the districts the administration's efforts and the boards i'd like to reiterate that throughout this i think the board and the district have worked in good faith for the care and concern of our students and our staff and our community i hold that that this change will be something that some people embrace and others have concerns about and the district you know needs to communicate that there will be accommodations where we can make them and try to
153keep school safe and in person as much as we can this is an important change but it is an incremental change to our health and safety plan the plan will be revisited this is not an end to masking in schools um masking is still required under certain circumstances and we need the community participation and support so that we can keep this going that we can keep in person school going by keeping kids home when they're sick by doing the symptom checking by adhering to the quarantine protocols after close contact and isolation after covet infections that's how we keep this going and i think this plan can you know still has all of those protocols in it um i appreciate that we're at the point where we can consider this incremental change with removing the mask
154mandate mask will still be recommended and there's no other discussion it will be time for a vote on the item of revising the health and safety plan which has been moved and in all in favor any opposed no the eyes have it the motion passes the room will come to order [Music] hmm [Music] as the room is clearing we did have one speaker signed up for the second public comment period mr william bryant he left okay [Music] i'll call one more time mr william bryant for public comment no okay we will move on to board reports dave schwartz would you like to start i didn't mind i i didn't mind doing facilities so no report i'm good dr king um i'll just speak on me continuing to attend the psba meetings i always enjoy open
155dialogue the room could quiet down as you dismiss we still have to conclude our beauty our business thank you can you hear us back there uh i lost my train of thought um i always enjoy the open dialogue with other school board members there's a good opportunity to receive new information and continuing to learn this process that's it thank you thank you no report um ms snodgrass i just want to say that this um i think this past week was a recognition of our um guidance counselors i'm sorry we are still conducting our business please go to the hallway we recognized our guidance counselors this past week and i just really want to send heartfelt gratitude to all of our mental health professionals that work in our schools our guidance counselors do wonderful work i
156know that um the sel class in the elementary schools is something that is so unique and wonderful um to our district it's something that when we joined the district when my oldest daughter was in kindergarten was such a a pleasant surprise to find out that she had guidance now sel and to talk to i mean even today um you know my she's in fifth grade and um i still love speaking with her about what they're talking about in their sel class and she loves to open up about it um you know her guidance counselor is hosting a wellness session um once a week after school and so you know these are really um you know some of the heroes of our community and so i'm glad that we had the this week too to celebrate
157them and um and i just i want to send my my thanks out to them thank you thank you and we'd like to note that the chair of our counseling department is here tonight thank you you want to see her catherine mallam is our elementary school school counseling department chair and she coordinates with all of our other elementary counselors and is um a person who was one of the chief architects of that curriculum that you have mentioned there so thank you catherine to you and to all of your colleagues elementary and secondary alike we appreciate all that you've done [Applause] and i didn't really have a report but i want to echo off of what antoinette said our elementary school counselors um thank you so much for all that you do they're truly phenomenal and
158i only really have experience with mrs popiel at linwood and she is honestly a treasure and i know she has helped my youngest with some anxiety issues and and for a child who was not who was hesitant to work with her she has made it such a joy that it's one of his great pleasures um we are so lucky to have her in the district and i know all of the counselors so thank you so much hey um just want to start off by thanking those of you who have stuck around um the credits aren't rolling yet um and as i'm sure you've seen um from tonight the our board deals with a broad range of issues that keeps our schools operating um so i appreciate your you know dedication to hearing us out and
159what else we have to say as we close out this meeting tonight um i did want to give a quick update um as i've mentioned in the past i am now representing haverford on the dciu board dciu stands for the delaware county intermediate unit um this it's a big learning curve for me and it's it's a role that i'm excited to have taken on uh mrs mingy had previously served on the dci um dciu board um so just to give you a little bit of background on what intermediate units are in 1970 pennsylvania passed act 102 and that created 29 intermediate units in the state of pennsylvania or the commonwealth and these ius are mandated to provide educational services to public and to non-public schools some of these mandated services include curriculum development and instructional
160improvement educational planning services instructional materials services continuing professional development pupil personnel services management services state and federal agency liaison services so there's a broad range of work that they are tasked with dciu has over 60 budgets um that they manage and they have a 140 million operating budget um and that budget will be coming before the board ms q you might know better than i do but um in the next month or two for us to vote on um so that would be our share that we pay into the dciu for the services that are rendered to our district um just to give you another update um dciu houses um you know our career and technical programs for the county and they're looking at some upgrades substantial upgrades to and renovations to the full croft
161site and that would include additional classroom space for cte programs for the practicing nurse program practical nursing program sorry early intervention and early childhood education um so that that's something that the dciu board will be voting on um you know in the relatively near future additionally um as we learned tonight dciu will be providing masks to ken kn95 masks um to students who and staff who would like to wear those and i believe that that is part of the arp esr funding the third iteration of that that dciu has received they did not receive funding the first two rounds but they did receive some money for this third round they're required to set aside 10 of those funds um by pde for statewide initiatives um they'll be using these funds to address staffing challenges for
162the remainder of the 2122 school year and through 22-23 so that will look like retention bonuses and other incentive financial incentives to help keep staff um the funds will also be used to support the ongoing equity work of the teaching and learning division um and i do hope that ms christensen will be a part of that i'm assuming she will um and also um to provide instructional program support for dciu student services division um and member districts so there will also be some additional programs that we may benefit from as a district that will be offered and the funds are also being used for the continued implementation of their health and safety plan um so this is my first dciu update to the board and i will continue to give these hopefully on a monthly
163basis and just apprise you of where our contribution our to the budget is going and how those funds are being spent thank you thank you mr feinberg on on february 8 the governor governor wolf delivered his budget address and has asked and i i would underline the word ask is for 1.55 billion 24 percent increase in basic education funding statewide with 1.25 billion to be distributed through the fair funding formula and 300 million to go through the level up program to the hundred most underfunded districts 200 million a 16 increase for special ed funding another part of his budget address dealt with uh charter school reform uh he's proposing charter school reform that uh is projected to save 373 million dollars statewide it would apply the special education funding formula to all brick and mortar
164charter schools and that would anticipate 174 million in savings it would also establish a statewide cyber charter tuition rate of 9 800 which is projected to save 199 million in savings so will any of this happen uh not with these numbers but we're hoping that uh as the budget process uh gets underway and uh negotiations get underway that there hopefully they'll be significant increases in the budget that's due june 30th and i'm particularly interested in where the proposed charter school reforms go just like to also uh i thank kristen for taking on the dciu position it's a it's a it is a huge learning curve before susan minji had that position phil hopkins who served on this board for 24 years i think also served on the iu board for almost all of that the
165iu does so many different things and and they're essential to school districts functioning so thanks for taking that on kristin oh i had one other thing if if the governor's budget goes through what would it mean to the haverford township school district we would get an additional 1.4 million in basic education funding we would get about 293 000 increase in special ed funding and we would save about 156 000 uh on charter school tuition so that's it thank you for that i don't have much of a report i feel like i've spent the last two weeks doing a lot of um prepping and consulting to get to the point of this vote tonight i appreciate everyone's thoughtful consideration and all the work that everybody in the district and the board brought to get us to
166this point tonight i also wanted to acknowledge and thanks each of the board members tonight received a recognition from our representative state representative greg vitale and state representative mike zabel in recognition of school board director appreciation month um as mr feinberg is talking about you know what's going on at the state one of the things that our district enjoys and appreciates is the strong support for public education that we have from our representatives and it's nice of them to acknowledge our work and it is a good partnership in trying to advocate for the best policies the best funding for public education to enhance not just haverford but districts all across the state and so i think i can just wrap up with that for my board report on executive session isn't item 14 on the
167agenda we did not have an executive session there was an informational topic for board development um so item 15 is for adjournment i'm sorry item 15a is uh the next regular public board meeting is scheduled to be held on march 3rd 2022 at 7 30 pm in the auditorium at haverford high school i will now accept the motion to adjourn king motion crisp and second thank you good night