001so good evening everybody welcome to the thursday november 18th board meeting of the school district of haverford township if we could please rise for the pledge of allegiance the united states of america to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice martha if you could please call the roll dr crispin here mr flasher here ms larson here ms mingy here mr sinto here mr schwartz is snodgrass here ms wiedemann here mr feinberg here thank you very much we're going to rearrange our agenda just a little bit here i'm going to jump to a recognition of our peer assistance group mr haran members of the board dr arushi community thank you for giving us some time this evening to share with you one of our new programs here at
002the middle school last year about this time we actually began planning for some students that will be coming to our school this year who had complex needs we began meeting on a weekly basis beginning in november and met throughout the summer to prepare for this school year if you give me a minute i'd like to thank some of the people that were involved in this program and then i'm going to turn it over to two students or to mr crater who will introduce the program and then a few of our students will take over first and foremost we really appreciate the support of the board dr arushi mrs saxa this is badistelli mrs gondac mrs adelizi who were instrumental in guiding us through this process their support and help in acquiring the resources is greatly
003appreciated our administrative team here at the middle school mrs harvey mr taylor and mr crater have committed countless hours and have been part of that creative team to to get this program up and running we collaborated with the delaware county intermediate unit mrs huey and miss connell were incredible resources for us our families and our students i really want to impress upon the exceptional work of our instructional aides they have risen above and beyond the expectations that we typically have for our staff five of our instructional aides committed to additional training and became registered behavioral technicians or frequently referred to as rbts mrs piontkowski mrs mccormack who's here this evening mrs wright mrs kern and mrs mclaughlin who's here this evening as well committed an unbelievable amount of time learning how to be better resources
004for our kids and our staff and it's paid off because we've had an unbelievable start to the school year our other instructional aides mrs musella mrs ischutto mrs novickis mrs holcomb mrs tucker mrs pochansky mrs kennedy mrs kelly and i appreciate the time you're giving me to recognize these people uh mrs williams mrs woods and mrs kearns again are committing an incredible amount of time care and understanding to help our students our teachers have been phenomenal and their support of our students making connections with families working with the administrative staff in a truly collaborative effort mrs sable who's here mrs meyers mrs courtney who's here as well and mrs smith um have been like the leaders of our team and we look to them for guidance and they've been incredible we have an unbelievable speech
005and language the pathologist mrs divinson who's here this evening an occupational therapist mrs frick we have a board certified behavior analyst an analyst who's who's committed to us for four days a week and that's been really helpful and our pupil services department has ensured that that was available to us on a regular basis we have a few science and social studies teachers mrs bateman this is baradoni mr finnegan mrs stump this is klaus and mrs kindergarten who have committed to some additional training to support our students and our staff and lastly but not least jr who you're all familiar with and mr nolan part of our maintenance crew got our building ready because we actually made some physical changes to the building to support this program and i kind of breezed over the preparation part
006but when we were transitioning our students from the elementary school to the middle school the pupil services department mrs batistelli mrs gondac and mrs adelizi were really supportive and ensuring that that transition went smoothly and mrs adelizi in particular had already developed relationships with families and helped us make that connection with families and ensure that we could begin developing relationships with them so that we could transition them effectively to the middle school so i'm gonna let mr crater introduce our kids and then two of our students will take over and tell you a little bit more about the i'm just going to turn it program we can see everything a little bit better that's all thanks thank you good evening members of the board school community uh haverford community thank you uh for allowing us
007to present our incredible students at the middle school tonight a little bit more about the pag group i don't know if mr haran mentioned it it's a little it's a little acronym that we use for peer assistance group we're going to get shirts and it's going to be really fun for all the kids we just have to make a couple designs so a couple students that have been crucial in the success of our program this year are here with us tonight some some members are here with us tonight we have mara mccormick jess mclaughlin branson harmon uh we have of course our board representative for the middle school bianca salerno and adeline spitz and i can tell you that this is the hottest growing club in the district right now i get a weekly emails
008from other kids in our building asking to be a part of this club it's contagious to be a part of it is uh an incredible scene to see when kids are interacting down at lunch specifically at lunch and during their advisory and wellness class after lunch that is a time where they spend together and uh and then it's really incredible these kids are growing too they're growing and they may not realize it now but this is one of the biggest life lessons that they'll that they'll ever learn and this is going to go along with them uh throughout their journey in life i little bit about me i i have a sister in the life skills program that was in life skills program and i can tell you i i would have wanted nothing more
009than for her to be surrounded by students uh like we have at the middle school they are truly incredible and uh and they're they should be given all the credit in the world so i'm going to pass it over actually now to uh adeline spitz and bianca if you want to come on up they have a little presentation for you as well thank you hi i'm adeline spitz i'm bianca salerno and we're sixth graders from the sea lion and polar bears team and we're here to talk to you about the group that we're involved in uh pag we know that middle school can be a hard place and we're all struggling with something whether we show it or not and it's important that we recognize that we're all friends and need the same opportunity to
010socialize with peers because in the end we're all middle schoolers and we all need a friend pag stands for peer assistance group where select students enjoy bonding and playing with the kids who can learn a little bit differently in this program me adeline and other students sit with special needs kids on a daily basis as well as befriending them in classes we have together and sharing experiences whether it be playing games with them an advisory or just to wave in a hallway we constantly are learning about each other and from each other the way pag interacts with these remarkable kids brings us tremendous joy and reward the laughter and smiles of playing games eating together just brightened all of our days our differences unite us and everyone in this group learned so many valuable lessons
011about friendship kindness and inclusivity i am so grateful for the opportunity to socialize with my peers and grow together i've known some of them since elementary school and the memories i've made with them in the past and the memories that are being made now mix into a collage of happiness and forever lasting friendship thank you [Applause] so we have a we have a student who would like to say something as well and then we have two parents who might want to comment on on their experience oh [Music] hello my name is colin and i am in sixth grade i like to hang out and eat lunch with my friend maura [Applause] all right [Music] yay uh good evening everyone my name is rhea dunleavy and i am uh the mother of jason and collin on
012lady who you just saw i'm gonna try to keep it together um so my husband and i have been residents of harvard township our entire lives moving through the school system ourselves so we had a good understanding of how great the school system here however with parents with special needs trepidation and anxiety took control as we wondered how our children would adapt to the giant leap from elementary school to the middle school as we started discussing our son's transition to the middle school with dan horan matt crater and tara sable our nerves calmed and a wonderful collaboration started that has been nothing short of spectacular all their training planning staffing with bcbas rbts the inclusive model and requesting the amount of funding that is necessary for kids like jason and colin and their peers their
013hard work has made such a positive impact on not only our children but the children around them we are also so thankful to beth mccormick and alyssa wright who spent hours over the summer completing and becoming rbt trained certified students are often as only as good as the staff that support them and i can say without a shadow of a doubt that haverford middle school has some of the best staff a parent could hope for even though they don't speak jason and colin have finally has a voice and are being heard this is all thanks to the students teachers and staff who have taken the time to listen and understand we've seen firsthand that great teachers staff administration and students can truly change lives i would personally like to thank all of you for treating
014jason and colin as two of your own so thank you very much [Applause] all right thank you again we appreciate your time we know we took a little bit more than than expected but we really appreciate it and uh thank you i want to thank everyone connected with the program and we really appreciate you bringing the folks out to us tonight and thanks for your great work i'll accept a motion to approve the official minutes from the november 4th 2021 regular public board meeting until move first and second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion carries thank you just just like to take a minute uh to express our our deepest condolences to our neighbors in lower marion who are grieving over the loss of their high school principal very
015sad and also with it being american education week i just want to say that we appreciate all of our all that our employees do every day particularly now when so many are asked to fill in and assume additional responsibilities thank you for your for your good work and your service um if there's any way that we can show our cooperation please bring your ideas to the board okay the next item on our agenda is our student reports we start with our middle school student report bianca salerno bianca good evening everyone my name is bianca salerno and i'm so honored to be here again to report the happenings at the one and only haverford middle school lots has happened since i was here last so let's fill you in thank you to hms families our student
016council sponsored their annual food drive this past weekend uh we could not be more uh pleased with everyone's contribution to making our community a better place we collected thousands of items for local families and everyone was just so supportive and kind woo hoo this week is american education week for public schools students will be showing their appreciation for such an amazing staff and school environment by wearing haverford gear on monday uh believe it or not we're already one-fourth done with the school year yep that's right the first quarter ended on friday november 12th i learned many important concepts in my quarter one class which was help with mr brocklesby parents asked your kids about their experience in quarter one and i'm here to hear all exciting stories fortunately there are still three quarters left where
017students can have just as fun as they did in the first quarter excuse me i got a little emotional there talking about the memories of quarter one okay you got this the second quarter started on monday november 15th and i went to a new quarter class infotech with mr wagner i've only been in that class for a short time but i can tell i'm going to have a blast along with my peers we are looking forward to the opportunity to take advantage of the covered vaccination clinics scheduled for this saturday at the new linwood elementary school sports report the winter sports teams have had an initial meeting the season will pick up with tryouts and practices when we return to school on monday november 29th student board conferences are scheduled for november 22nd 23rd and
01824th now these conferences are a little bit different than before because they will be student-led meaning that students will be active participants in the conversation about their performance in quarter one with their teacher and parents not to fear because in homeroom students filled out a self-evaluation form which they will use at the conference happy turkey day no school on november 25th and 26th due to potential overeating of the thanksgiving feast kids are off school as a precaution to avoid feeling stuffed from the delicious meal while in the building thank you so much for having me today and enjoy the rest of your evening [Applause] thank you bianca next up is our high school student report mia diawell good evening all my name is mia dewald and i'm a junior at haverford high school thank you
019for allowing me time to speak tonight again about recent happenings at the high school like bianca said with the weather getting colder and the clocks turning back students have successfully completed the school year's first quarter the quarter ended last friday and with new quarter classes beginning this past monday i am very excited for my english class this new quarter meets a new socratic seminar which we'll be doing tomorrow on pop culture with thanksgiving around the corner and winter break in sight the students are sure to continue their hard work into the next few weeks haverford continues to dominate in the classroom and in athletics as the girls cross country has just finished ninth in the state and the boys in fifth at states last saturday as many prepare their thanksgiving menus the ford's football team
020is preparing for their annual thanksgiving game game at 10 45 next thursday and we wish them all the best a pep rally will be held on the next half day on wednesday to celebrate our fall athletes and to motivate the football players for their thanksgiving day game speaking of thanksgiving with december quickly approaching winter sports will be taking the stage as the fall sports season comes to a close the haberford drama club has concluded its showings of the fall show which aired on live stream and in person last thursday friday and saturday this was their first in-person audience in over a year the shows went fabulously both on and off the stage and we couldn't have been happier with the end result wonderful job to all of the talented actors and crew members in pulling
021off another spectacular performance for the books the national honor society has also just wrapped up taking orders for their annual linnvilla pie sale and all the pies will be delivered on the 23rd just in time for the holiday football followers and our school district social workers are currently having food drives we've already received more food than in past history we thank everyone for their continued generosity during the holiday season in other exciting news the student senate has been working very hard the past few weeks to plan the homecoming dance to be held tomorrow night with the theme enchanted garden school spirit this week has been off the charts as students have been dressing down in pajamas or dressing up with their jerseys from their favorite sports teams tomorrow promises to be a sea of red
022and gold in the hallways as seniors prepare for homecoming court announcements and the rest of the school for a night of fun as the days of november fly by haverford high school students all cannot wait for what december may bring thank you again for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight and go forwards next item on our agenda would be public comment for items on the agenda but we do not have anyone signed up for that there there'll be public comment later in the meeting next item uh curriculum committee report laura thank you here we go um our curriculum committee met on the 8th and the topic was the social emotional health screening tool for use in grades 3 6 and 9. um present we had school psychologist vice principal and the pupil services director
023presenting to us we reviewed initially we began with a review about the mission of the district to provide a safe and nurturing school environment and to support the whole child and a review of the strategic planning process with over 4 200 interviews with stakeholders including students parents faculty staff and community members from that strategic planning process there are three main district goals social emotional wellness to prepare contemporary citizens and diversity equity and inclusion so um from those three goals our focus was obviously social emotional wellness and three action steps were noted provide resources screen and intervene and dedicate time so we are now on the screen and intervene action steps the goal for screen and intervene is that social and emotional challenges before the pandemic have been exacerbated by the pandemic and the goal is
024to address small challenges before they become bigger problems grades three six and nine were chosen as intervention years for the screening tool because these are transition years the social emotional wellness team met repeatedly to determine which providers would be used to screen they narrowed it down from four choices to one recommendation which is called my savers it is a 15-minute total screening device with three minutes for questions and only done with parent and guardian consent then following that any interventions that would be recommended would be provided by a licensed counselor during the school day it's important to know that parents or guardians can review these questions in advance and they can opt out of screening and or intervention and at the meeting there were questions about data privacy and ownership of the data and in
025response to those questions our attorney reviewed the contract and several additional provisions have been added and this is an item up for vote tonight so thank you okay the next item on our agenda is the finance and facilities committee report dave thank you the finance facility committee met last thursday on on on the 11th couple of items on the agenda one of them was our capital construction financing updates uh bridget is probably much better speak about this than i am but it was it was a report some of our bonding lots of numbers and we went over a bond schedule for um upcoming projects where we'll be seeking seeking bonds in december we'll have requests for preliminary official statement mid-december we will have board meeting opposition to proceed with the bond issue january we'll have
026a preliminary official statement a rating call in mid-january board meeting to adopt breeding will be finalized at the end of january and bond pricing and sale will be in early february and bond issue will be in early to mid march just in case anybody really is uh has desire to get into numbers and dig into it i'm sure that we can uh hang on give them to you lots of numbers we also had an update on on solar and energy from our energy consultant providence who came and gave the board presentation about how how our interviews transmitted some of the financing options some of the um some of what they will offer at as as our consultant as we move toward potentially installing solar at um a couple of um of our schools and then
027finally received a couple updates on linwood one of them was regarding certain safety enhancements that they'll be placed there including fencing and uh plantings to address some of the potential safety issues um on on a couple of couple areas around the the um the school and we also had an update on some of the signage our friends out in front of the school and getting some quotes on uh potentially improving that as well and think about it thank you dave next superintendent's report dr richie we we can go right to our recognition of our employees who have been serving our district for 25 years and this is not something we were able to do in person last year so we had some who who we would have been recognizing last year so i'll ask you
028mr feinberg and mr parker to go to the to the podium and joining us this evening are as i indicated employees who have shared their time and their talent with the children of this school district for 25 or in some cases uh 26 years uh we had an opportunity to meet briefly with some of these the employees just prior to this evening's meeting um giving the setup and the lighting we did take some pictures in there so we won't be doing that a whole big group uh group picture here that provided us with a better setting setting there so first we'd like to recognize laurie orderline um lori has shared her time and talents at lindwood elementary where she thought third grade fifth grade teacher of the gifted as well laurie thank you for your
029years of service [Applause] mary pat bon giovanni has shared her time and talents as a nurse at chatham park um i did there was some time at manoa i understand mary pat that you were sharing time and talents with the with the children there and thank you for your years of service to the community [Applause] also joining us able to join us this evening mike burkharner his 25 years sharing time and talents here at the athene middle school as a social studies teacher thank you mike for your dedication [Applause] congratulations and mike carterelli uh has spent his time sharing his time and talents with children in the fifth grade at chatham park and also our middle school student students here [Applause] judy higson judy has spent her time in in the district working at coopertown
030in our special ed classrooms grade five in lynnwood elementary working with the elementary students there and now spends her days at the high school working with high school students judy thank you for your dedication to the district [Applause] kim kennedy has shared many years of time and talent with the children at coopertown on elementary school a grade level teacher and also a teacher teacher of the gifted thank you kim for your dedication [Applause] nancy naylor's days were all spent in the middle at middle school as a guidance counselor i'm working with uh with our students nancy thank you for all the time that you've dedicated [Applause] and sarah shaman is here with us tonight for sarah chatham park has been home for her 25 years where she has taught various grade levels at chatham park
031elementary sarah thank you for your dedication [Applause] and for the for bill whitney the middle school has been home but for his time in the district uh currently in eighth grade he's a science teacher here with with us bill thank you for your dedication to the children [Applause] and continuing that pattern it's amazing to see how many of our honored colleagues this evening have spent their 25 or plus years uh in the one building um and april wolf is no exception she has spent her time at linwood elementary serving that community [Applause] and last but certainly not not least uh someone who's retirement is actually on our agenda this evening maria rosensweig has worked as a curriculum secretary a library assistant at manila and now serves all of us in our people services department marie
032thank you for your dedication and for sharing yourself with our district [Applause] there are employees who were unable to join us this evening but in this class or this cohort of 25 plus years ms susie kinsley teacher at oakmont and chestnut wald francine scott from our transportation department janet vestuka who's worked at middle school lynwood manoa and currently at coopertown maria hernandez lynwood and currently at manila and steve hinkle who has worked in our maintenance department we congratulate them as well congratulations [Music] what are you gonna do gosh i guess i really clear out a crowd any door you want a shortcut so wonderful that they brought their families i'm just gonna you know just add that i mean it's such an important thing that they've done for us and i'm thrilled that they thought
033enough to bring their families with them it's great to see them thanks i want it all absolutely next item on our agenda is a construction update we have our good friend ken matthews from cb development ken all right thank you very much so obviously there's a lot of things going on so we'll uh get started and go through the through the project so we want to start with chatham park and cooper town so we're here tonight to kind of show you what uh the projected budgets are for both projects uh just to remind everybody both schools essentially are the same scope a few nuances but basically we're going to be the intent is to add new chillers replace the boilers reuse the existing hot water infrastructure just to try and save as much money as
034possible and then in each of the classrooms throughout the building would be putting a new fan cool unit and putting in new ductwork to evenly spread climate control uh throughout the building so it's really very mechanically heavy there is a little bit of improvement replacing some case work and sinks throughout the classrooms but and doing of course all led lighting to get tremendous energy savings from that as well so just to walk through we'll start with chatham park you can see the hard construction costs at a 5.4 million you have 1.2 million in soft costs with a total project estimated budget of this 6.7 million or so both buildings uh the schedule is is the essentially the same so the goal would be to start this may uh and then continue the first phase through
035this summer which is getting probably 70 to 80 percent of the work done get the infrastructure in the new boilers the chillers so that come this next school year in 2022 september be ready and have again it's probably about 70 percent of the building that will have a full climate control then for the last bid for chatham park you have about 17 classrooms essentially the 1990 wing and the second floor of the original wing would be done in the summer of 2023. um oh thank you so for cooper town uh the costs are a little bit higher but there you'll see here there's a little bit additional scope hard construction costs for about 4.7 million soft costs or about 1.1 and then a big difference for this school is the roof is in need of
036replacement so that's a estimated two million dollar budget there for a total project cost of the 7.8 million and again it's essentially the same schedule phase one get the major infrastructure in the boilers the chillers uh it will be the gym wing that whole area of the building that was part of the night again 1990 uh addition that was done for this summer and then summer of 2023 come back and finish kind of where the front main office is where you come in and that wing there so similar fashion the roof schedule split over two summers uh because we were told that the material we needed we couldn't get until a year from now so we have to split it up into two pieces we'll take care of the metal roof areas first this summer
037and then the goal will be to finish the original uh building uh next summer 2023. so uh right now the climate control project's out to bid so we're trying to we're just with thanksgiving in the holidays we may have to slide the bid due date just a few days but the goals get bids back here at the beginning of december and then come back to the board for the second meeting in december hopefully to approve the project uh assuming everything's uh of course within budget uh and go from there and then similar with the roof that's separate from the engineers that designed that another engineer that you're is on the agenda tonight for you to approve to put together a roof package go out to bid in december get bids back early january and then
038award that at the second meeting in january so that's um kind of the quick summary for chatham park in coopertown but does anybody have any questions about those questions from the board so could we see the district working with three different contractors or less uh so well so they're serials you know well it's still a multi-prime contract so you have a general contractor hvac contractor and an electrician but each building is being bid as its own separate project we didn't want to combine the two into one now some of the same bidders look like they're going to bid both but um you know electrically it's not a huge contract it's a big mechanical uh so that's that's really um while we're trying to we may have to slide the bit back to make sure we
039get a couple good bids for each of those trades because i wonder if there's any efficiencies there that we can realize by condensing that down as much as possible since it's i understand three different contracts but essentially other than the roof really it's almost the same job different buildings but essentially the same job across the two schools sure a lot of the trouble re is that you have a lot of contractors bidding work that's sandwiched into the summer so they're already stressed for workforce so that's why we wanted to try and make it two smaller pieces instead of combining it to one so that was the thought process there and i was i was just going to add the note that um for mr schwartz's uh finance and facilities the bond financing that we that
040he presented um would look at raising the first seven to ten million dollars to fund these projects um so the bond receipt would be in time to get the work going this summer yes other questions from the board thank you ken well we have two a couple other projects so uh so for linwood as everybody knows the updates you know fairly brief we're coming to the end um you know the sod's been done you can all see the trees going in out there so it's getting close to being about wrapped up i think there's a few little things to finish punchless items that are typical that run out but overall i think everybody's happy with the building and it's turned out very well so there are a few change orders tonight ford if anybody had
041any questions about them but those will kind of we're finally you know the paperwork follows trying to get everybody to close out the project so there will be some of that straggling probably for at least the next month or two until we really can close out the paperwork questions on change orders or linwood so then have referred to the high school project phase one as you all know is also complete moved in that's uh real close to getting closed out especially essentially everything's done punchless etc you know parking lot's been open so uh really things are have moved along well with that and again there's some change orders in front of you tonight for that and they'll trickle in but there's very few left to close out the high school phase one project and for
042phase two uh phase two has started they put up the fencing about a week ago they've already ripped out all the asphalt they started digging foundations this week they're gonna pour the first of the foundations already on uh monday uh first pour and steel's getting made steel's uh supposed scheduled to be here the first of the year so it'll be hard to believe it'll quickly very quickly take shape so things are moving along very well with that there's no material procurement issues we did have a roof material issue but we changed the roof that's a change order that's in front of you this evening as well so that we can get it on time because the original roof was not going to get here until november next year seeing that we have to open the
043building by september we had to jump into action so we'll be here in plenty of times you'll be here come may but that's it any other questions from the board just keep managing the weather the way you have been and everything should go well yes we have connections okay well thank you very much thank you all have a good night [Applause] thank you mr feinberg uh i would like to make some uh remarks relative to our health and safety plan and look at what kind of a process and timeline we would use to examine our current health and safety plan specifically with respect to masking first of all i think it's imperative for us to keep in mind that our the second day of our clinic is scheduled to be december 11th so i'll put
044in another club for the vaccine clinic for children aged 5 to 11. the first day is saturday the 20th of november those children will return on december 11 for their second shot and it is two weeks after the second shot when an individual is considered fully vaccinated so a change to our health and safety plan with with respect to masking if any were to occur would take effect sometime january third or after the timeline that i'm proposing is that we identify tonight what we are looking at and what else the board might like us to add to that list on december 2nd we would present that information for the board's cons boards consideration and on december 16th that would be the evening if there are any revisions to the current health and safety plan when
045the board would take a vote i see options for the board i think we have to identify what are the data that we would use to describe the circumstances around which masking would be optional what are the data that would be used to describe the circumstances around which we might have to return to masking does the return have to be the entire district could the return be one particular school or maybe even one particular classroom given the circumstances we know that in january there will be a delaware county health department and we and i'm pleased to report that we have learned there is a willingness to assist districts with local data i do think it's time that we should examine what metrics however we want to use are positive cases when when we look at
046them and in the aggregate or should we start to look at what are positive cases that would be unique to our school building our school classroom we don't yet know if delaware county health department will be issuing guidance for schools or if we will still be held to the pennsylvania department of health guidance for schools in any event i think we should be ready to identify any of the changes that we would want to see take place by that prior to that november 16th meeting one of the things that we are have already started to discuss and are looking at is what happens to a close contact how a close contact is defined and examined if masking is optional we know that when someone is unmasked there's no exemption from being a close contact so
047if they were within three to six feet of an individual who is tested positive for covid they're considered a close contact so clearly we know that one of the things we would experience would be an increase in in closed contacts given that if an individual is vaccinated they would then still be required to wear a mask unvaccinated and a close contact if they engage in tests to stay the test to stay program requires that they would wear a mask so there are certain circumstances around which children and adults in schools may continue to wear masks and some of that may be personal preference and their own choice but it is it will be important for us to clarify what those circumstances are and when masks might be required and when masks can be optional how
048would an outbreak in a school be defined i'm not posing these questions as questions to be barriers to moving forward i am posing them as topics to be looked at and considered when we decide how we wish to move forward um after effective january 3rd and beyond thank you thanks dr ruschi next item on our agenda is informational martha the financial statements as of september 2021 we are providing these financial statements for your review we did not include the food service financial statement this month as we were bringing on boarding the the september year with the new claims through the usda there were some questions on some of the numbers so we held that off we will provide it at a later time thank you questions comments from the board do you like what you're
049seeing martha with these statements well i'm just i'm just glad we're getting the statement yeah um have they become more refined as you're doing them we're working on trying to refine them and get more information for the board our problem is our current software system does not produce the financial statements we are literally winning this information out of our financial system and creating them in excel so it is a very massive project to create them questions or comments from the board okay next item on the agenda i'll accept a motion to approve budget transfers in the amount of 172 and 11 cents moved moved in second any discussion this is a roll call vote dr crispin yes mr fleischer yes ms larson yes ms minji yes mr cinta yes mr schwartz yes ms snodgrass yes
050ms wiedemann yeah mr feinberg yes nine voting yes thank you next item i'll accept a motion to approve disbursements from the following funds as listed twice for a second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion carries thank you i'll accept a motion to accept the recommendation of the project architect kcba and associates inc and the owner's representative cb development services inc and authorized the change orders totaling two hundred four thousand one hundred eighty seven dollars and forty seven cents as listed second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to approve the proposal for cb development services inc to provide owner's representation services for the construction and closeout phases of the high school addition phase ii project at a cost not
051to exceed three hundred fifty one thousand nine hundred dollars place your move second moves in second any discussion i just wanna commend um cb development for the work that they have done for the district on a variety of projects and um appreciate that they are you know being considered uh for uh this next phase um the work that they do serves the district's interest in managing the budget the schedule addressing questions about project on the job and working with all the variety of contractors and architects and helping to manage that so that the district gets a good result in a quality project that's done on time and on budget thanks bridget any other questions or comment all in favor any opposed ocean carries i'll accept a motion to approve the proposal by mark j sobek
052roof consulting inc to provide roof consulting services for coopertown elementary at a cost not to exceed 31 hundred and thirty two dollars second moved in second any discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to approve the agreement between the delaware county intermediate unit and the school district of haverford township for title 1 and title 2 services for non-public participation for the 2021-22 school year at a cost of 8 and 17 050 dollars and 75 cents respectively upon solicitor's review person moved second moved in second any discussion can we get some background since this is um funding or services that are being provided to non-public students where that money is coming from i understand [Music] that that is correct they're federal funds that come through the public school district for services
053to be provided for children in those schools and we can contract to provide those services and that's what this is and that's required under federal education any other discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to approve the retirements and resignations as listed move second moved in second any discussion congratulations maria wears some wiggies she's i guess she's not here anymore she left well congratulations maria she was she was just a pleasure to work with and i thank her for her job well done thanks susan all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to accept the following appointments as listed twice removed moved in second any discussion all in favor aye aye any any opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to approve the leave requests
054as listed moved in second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to accept the recommendation of special counsel and authorize the resolution of the pending special education administrative proceeding and authorize the administration to implement the terms of the resolute resolution as listed below moved in second any discussion all in favor i'll accept the motion to approve the following educational service contract for services provided to select district students okay moved in second any discussion i would i would like to just say one thing this was um the opportunity that was presented to us at the curriculum meeting last week i guess and um all i want to do is my concerns were addressed i want to make sure everybody knows my concerns were addressed by council and i just
055want to tell parents third grade sixth grade ninth grade um to be aware and it is um absolutely call and find out you know what they're doing and how they're doing it if you feel uncomfortable with it but i think it's one of the things that we need and one of the things the parents have been asking for let's figure out how our guys are doing after what i like to call the pandemonium of the last two years so i think it's an important piece that we're bringing to people's services but i just want parents to know that europe can be involved as well as all of us it's not just for schools thank you thank you for uh bringing that up susan and just to clarify uh for the board we're going to begin
056with sixth and ninth uh because we still are working on getting the staffing for the third i just want to add if people wanted more information i mean i gave the board report but the meeting is um reported and the presentation that was part of the meeting is recorded and people can view that that is our website so if there are questions i thought it was a very thorough presentation and we asked a lot of questions so there was a lot of information added so thank you i just want to add that the aspect of this that i um found to be really important is that this uh intervention is really led by the students themselves they're the ones who takes this um you know um uh you know answers these questions and it's really
057just another way for a student to ask for help that they need and to be able to get that help for themselves um so i really appreciated the district bringing this to us and just any way that we can reach out to students and and help them uh you know at a time that they need that uh you know thank you for for bringing that to us and i encourage all of the parents of those six and ninth and eventually third grade students to participate in this any other questions or comment yeah i would just want to be sure that we're examining other data points as well when considering you know interventions to support students who may need additional emotional supports i mean there are so many ways with a computerized test to kind of
058answer what you think teachers might want to read or adults might want to read but maybe not express how you're truly feeling about something so i just i hope there are multiple data points that staff are looking at any other questions all in favor by any opposed ocean cars i'll accept a motion to approve the student excursions for the varsity and jv cheerleading teams as listed second moved in second any discussion um i just have a comment that um i always get excited to see the opportunities our students have to travel and experience things um this just piques my curiosity because we get these asks without a budget attached to them and something i'd like to learn more about is the ways in which all of our student groups have the opportunity to travel whether
059it's for workshops or competitions either as a team or a club and the ways in which it's funded and and what part the district pays for versus um what part is done through fundraising of the clubs and teams themselves but like i said i'm always happy to see that our students have these opportunities we'll work on that any other questions or comments all in favor any opposed motion carries good luck cheerleading good luck our next agenda item is a general public comment and before we get started i just want to mention that there was a court ruling in the pennsbury school district this week that makes a a couple of changes to the way we do public comment while residents will still be asked their name and address when they call to get on the
060list to speak when you actually do come to the microphone we'll ask you for your name and just an acknowledgment that you're a township resident you'll no longer be required to state your address in public comments that being said we have one two three four five six uh residents who signed up to speak our first speaker is patty lake quinn patty if you could come to the mic and state your name and tell us that you live in the township you'll have three minutes going once going twice okay next speaker is william bryan william good evening william bryan and i'm not against giving my address 210 shelbourne i'd like to offer some hypothetical sample questions for student quiz it's in two separate parts these are rhetorical questions don't feel obligated to shout out answers at
061what temperature fahrenheit and celsius does water freeze at sea level what country attacked pearl harbor what is the emancipation proclamation and who issued it what is the answer to 670 divided by 37 what is a winner or summer solstice part two is your teacher a christian a jew a muslim an agnostic or an atheist has your teacher ever used or abused alcohol or controlled substances is your teacher heterosexual bisexual lesbian gay non-binary or other has your teacher ever been divorced when was the last time your teacher violated the law too often students have difficulty answering part a part one all too often students can answer some of the questions in part two i would strongly encourage each board member to take time to reread your owes that you took don't read into it what you
062wanted to say don't read into what you wish it to say read the actual oath as written parents should be the children's first and best teachers by the way is the rainbow flag still on display in the coopertown elementary gymnasium we're here we're not run away and we're going to be heard schools should teach accurate math science history language arts and not political or social agendas are schools no place for indoctrination ever thank you our next speaker is anita anita scotland my name is amita skellen i i've i'm 76 years old i've lived in harvardtown for 70 years i attended catholic schools but i sent my sons to our public schools and my three grandsons currently attend our schools i'm a retired public school teacher and i was an active member of the pta and
063my sons were students i'm a very proud supporter of public education and i'm happy that i live in a town where we have an excellent public school system thank you for your efforts to constantly improve our district as i've gotten older i've not been as focused on school board meetings or district business but recently before the school board election when there was so much agitation in our township i began watching meetings again first with interest and then with concern my concern was not based on the fact that citizens were disagreeing with the school board i think it's healthy for birds to hear other points of view but rather i was concerned because the disagreements i was hearing were not based on fact but fueled by half truths and innuendos spread on social media and cable
064tv and the public statements by these disgruntled people were often delivered with hostility and disrespect haverford township was not the only boy doing dealing with these kinds of attacks school boards all over our country are being accused of the same outlandish things and these attacks are being well found funded by out of township organized conservative pacs and donors whose goals are political and far-reaching in fact haverford township republican candidates receive funding from such a pac whether the speakers at our school board meetings were aware that they are part of this broader attempt to use school board elections as fodder for grievance politics i don't know but surely these outside forces know how to make use of the frustration we are all feeling since coven so tonight i'm here to refute some of the more egregious
065accusations leveled against our school district because i don't think it's healthy to just move on and let these statements remain publicly unrefuted these lies dangle in the air all around us and need to be squashed we have to say loudly and clearly number one critical race theory is not being taught in our schools number two the goal of equity initiatives is to make all students no matter their differences feel safe and comfortable in their classrooms it's not designed to make white children ashamed number three there is no pornography in our school libraries number four our school district does not have a marxist agenda number five our school district is not i'd ask that you please show the same respect to this speaker as you would like to have shown to you please keep it down
066while someone else is speaking thank you number five our school district is not trying to indoctrinate our students but rather is striving to make them critical thinkers who are distinguished who can distinguish fact from opinion or propaganda in what they hear and read number six mask wearing does make our children and teachers safer and does not harm children psychologically or physically and seven the members of the school board are concerned with our children and are working for the good of the students of havoc thank you i'm finished and thank you for cooperating together to make our school district an excellent one i appreciate your efforts our next speaker is helene conroy smith helene good afternoon my name is helene conroy smith i too have a full-time job like most of you on this board and
067for a long distress that you don't have a full-time job and you don't have time to really look at everything at the tuesday november if meet and greet is concerning as a stakeholder larry see i too have a full-time job and i understand what's going on in the school district you have online a statement that says we recognize that there may be selections and books that raise concerns among students parents guardians and members of the public any criticism or material shall be treated objectively unemotionally and as a routine matter these concerns should be submitted to the principle of the school in writing using this form i can't believe that me as a parent i'm not getting paid by you 150 000 to do your job okay you under policy 109 any material that comes into
068our school district any resources materials any books that you use you are supposed to take a public vote doctor yushi you alone are the one to look at the material they need to go to the booth into a public vote two friends of vote must disagree that resource material not doing through this school district so we are placing material in our children's hands and through their eyes it's all on you and let me say you also have continually permitted to put pornography in our schools and it is pornography it is out of darkness is child pornography sex is a funny word in our elementary school and our middle school it's pornography to children what girls are made of in our high school is pornography it's perfectly normal depicts sexual acts it is child pornography so
069i'm just going to say that we need an internal audit that goes through and looks at what is happening because in my opinion or some bad advice being given you are acting outside of your program since the school board has not followed vocal controls you have policy that guides this school district i'm asking for an audit from and i'm asking for an outside resource and ombudsman and this order to address economics and efficiency of the local age education agency to examine internal controls our school district policy is based on principles boards of governments communication with public we are asked to act ethically and to have open and honest and respectful dialogue and this comes from psba and i'm asking right now that you start to do that why are you not following your own policies
070and also i just want to state that the democratic party has been indivisible that's a national organization which you all are part of so if you want to talk about politics it started there thank you our next speaker is alexis pasternak alexis hi good afternoon alexis pasternack 609 woodland drive in havertown in october of 2017 the school board adopted a standalone policy 259 gender expansive and transgender students ensuring equity and non-discrimination this was done after months of work to address this issue in our school community and to foster inclusivity for these students in particular all these children should be able to go to school receive an education and learn in a safe and supportive environment i agree with that wholeheartedly however i am a little bit troubled my first concern is that a large portion
071of the policy that was adopted specifically the administrative regulations uh were only outlined i poured over old meeting minutes watched and rewatched meetings and basis presentations to make sure i'm not missing anything yet i can find note me and bones supporting the policy uh the policy which was read um pardon me anyway my second concern is that there is a privacy and confidentiality clause under the guidelines of this policy which chips away at parental and guardian rights the part that stands out for me is all persons including students have a right to privacy this includes keeping a student's actual or perceived gender identity and expression private therefore school personnel should not disclose information about a yet student's gender identity and expression to others including the students parents and guardians and or other school personnel unless
072legally required to do so when it goes on i inquired about this part of the policy in late september and the response i received was simply all policies are reviewed by the board and the district's legal representative prior to approval no legal citations were provided to mitigate my concern or to sincerely answer my question my third concern is changes were made at some point to this policy specifically the administrative regulations portion according to board docs the provide policy date is august 19 2021 there was a regular school board meeting on august 19 2021 over in the high school this policy was not on the agenda nor was it mentioned definitions have changed and a paragraph was added regarding the privacy and confidentiality clause i've looked at ferpa and ppra for u.s department of education's guidance
073sheet local education agencies are required to develop and adopt policies in consultation with parents to address the protection of student privacy and parents rights under ppra local education agencies must directly notify parents of these policies at least annually at the start of the school year and within reasonable period after any substantive change to the policies please note the administrative administrative regulation portion of the policy could not be found in the middle school transition handbook just the two paragraphs about the equity and the um nondiscrimination so i would like to pose i know you can't answer have you not violated sunshine law how do you not buy your own policies specifically zero zero three which states in part the adoption modification repeal or suspension of a board procedural policy shall be recorded in the minutes of
074the board how is this not an added weight on our teachers and staff and when did the schools become the parent thank you our next speaker is sarah frame sarah uh hi my name is sarah fahey and i am a resident of uh haverford township um first i'd like to say uh you know thanks for giving us that update on the masking um i came tonight to speak about the masking um and i another um parent had shared a statement that they had written and i i asked them if i could um read part of their statement and and i revised it a bit um as i am sure you are aware a court ruled to lift the pennsylvania mask order on december 4th because failing to do so would would and i quote from
075the judge cause irreparable harm um as a community case numbers are no longer relevant to the covert crisis vaccinations protection against serious illness and death renders case number numbers and not in inhabitable as a metric it and i i know that you've already addressed this dr ruschi that you are going to look at the health and safety plan um this district has stated time and time again that mass were necessary in order to avoid quarantines now with that the test to stay program and vaccine availability for all this is no longer an issue if you're going to continue forcing mass and children after after the mass disorder is lifted then you will need to justify this action with clearance specific goals which outweigh the harms and um i know that the the solicitor is sitting
076to your left doctor she and i really think you need to look at the legality of that as well i mean we can't keep putting masking orders in place with no end date um i mean that's not it's really not legal and that's why uh you know the pa health department ruled against governor wolf and allison beam so again i think we need to look at the legality of this um all of your equivalent measures do in fact have a cost to children further children have the least risk of cohorted illness and the most to lose as a result of covert mitigations if you're going to force them to amass knowing that you are obstructing learning communication social emotional development and knowing that you are causing mental harm then you will need to show why
077this is necessary and that's really been my biggest disappointment is that i think we've heard a lot about how cold mass can can help stop the spread of kobe but no one has ever addressed the harm that this is doing to these children and it's time to do that because we're starting to really see the results of it so you need to please tell us what is the purpose in asking children any longer are you sacrificing the education development and psychological development of children to quality rational feel fears of others because any educator who has undoubtedly studied child development should know the grave implications of doing such a thing and further that this is morally and ethically wrong it is your job to do what is in the best interest of children i think we
078can all agree that it would be totally inappropriate to use children as a shield to protect others from feelings of anxiety and please tell us what is the risk of covet to children that is so big and so important that it should without question supersede any other aspect of their life and well-being health is not just about a single illness there are many risks and illnesses that pose a greater threat to children in addition the mental damage that you're doing has a huge impact on their public health and risk of illness and also increases their chances of suffering mental health issues for the rest of their lives sir if you could finish up please yes i will this is a very vicious cycle given that the aaap has declared a national emergency of children's mental
079health and chop is overflowing with pediatric psychiatric patients and and that you know your students are behind educationally and developmentally will you continue to mask them just in case i i do not understand how anything could be more important and pressing than this topic the educational overall well-being of children is the whole reason that you have taken on your role as administrator board members time's up okay thank you our next regular public board meeting oh excuse me board reports antoinette really quick i do just want to encourage everyone to if they haven't already gotten their children vaccinated to attend our the district's vaccination clinic on saturday my understanding is there are still several appointments available if that time doesn't work for you pharmacies potentially your pediatrician has the has the vaccine i really encourage everyone
080to do this i have a five-year-old and a ten-year-old they've both already gotten their first dose they had no reactions and just really looking forward to getting all of our children in our community vaccinated i look forward to the the deliberations about our health and safety plan um both about masking and about our other covert procedures that we have in place right now i think with this uh with this environment where our everyone in our schools from youngest to oldest has the opportunity to be vaccinated i think it's a good time to take a look at that and i look forward to doing that with the board um if you've been waiting to get yourself vaccinated or get your booster or get your older child vaccinated please take this opportunity to do that so that
081we can move forward in a safe way as possible in our schools thanks thanks antoinette arie uh thank you larry um this is my second to last meeting so i would like to make a little report uh first and foremost congratulations to our newly elected board members i wish you the best of luck and do good work i agree masks suck but not being in school also sucks so i know this has been a long year uh i think we've had to do what we had to do to keep keep our kids in school and that has been accomplished so i'm happy about that and very thankful that we have been able to stay in school as soon as they can come off i'm pretty confident i won't be here but i'm confident that this
082board will do the right thing for the school system and the children and follow the letter of the law uh we don't have the right to buck harrisburg if we want to we can't do it so hopefully harrisburg will do what they can to help us take these masks off and come to school and express ourselves and learn and breathe freely i agree with all that and i think everybody else up here does it's been my pleasure to serve the community i'm thankful for this opportunity i'm thankful to all the other board members that i served with and um i think i will miss this experience uh six years is a long time to do anything and i'm glad to be able to pass the baton and uh i'll be doing that with sal and
083susan so i look forward to our our last meeting in a couple of weeks after thanksgiving i hope everyone has a safe holiday and we'll see you then left with all of you but they have any pleasure and i miss you guys and i am and i i look forward to welcoming our new board members on we had our first training um for that and we'll be continuing those throughout the next couple of uh meetings last week in addition to the facilities and finance meeting we also had a community forum a community question answer session and that was i think a great experience it was good to meet people face to face i have a chance to talk one-on-one i know it's frustrating to come up here and talk at us sometimes you know it's
084and it's frustrating that that we can move back and forth but we hope to have more of those kinds of events to have some actual discussions back and forth space to face i think that's a great thing i also would encourage anybody who who who have children who are age five to 211 to attend um the clinic on saturday and get the ducks made the sooner we get kids vaccinated the sooner we can get rid of these masks i look forward to a time when i come up here without a mask on and our kids can can come to school without them if um if possible it's just a matter of doing everybody doing their part so i encourage you to to to do that and um happy thanksgiving thanks dave kristin yeah just another
085plug for the vaccine clinic on saturday um i understand there are still slots available so if you haven't signed up your child yet but you're thinking about it go ahead and do that um my five-year-old daughter got her first shot a week ago and she's doing great and she's really proud of it and she and her friends in their kindergarten class like to show off their band-aids and their vaccine stories so it's it's good news we're getting back to normal thanks kristen laura yeah i'll i'll be at the clinic so i'll uh i'll see you there my kiddo and i will be there um looking forward to it i hear there's gonna be signs to hold up and we can take selfies and so looking forward to that other than that no report thank you
086thank you sale their report you know this is angie and i are working on rehearsing a little song a musical song and dance farewell she doesn't know it yet she does now she doesn't thank you sal we'll look forward to that we do susan is it my turn yes um delighted so whatever you need i'm about it i i i am also as a as larry and that's our next to the last meeting i have i feel like spent two two kinds of jobs on this school board because i was lucky enough to go down to the intermediate unit and work on their school board so i was on this school board and on the intermediate unit there are representatives from every single delaware county school district so not only did i have the opportunity
087to sit with my colleagues here and talk about masks and talk about all of the things that are going on as far as the panda pandemic goes uh i got to do it in a more global sense with all delaware county and it was a very interesting eye-opening um experience something that i will never forget dr murray edelberg is the head of the iu right now and to my joy when i walked in marie and i worked together as i was a special ed supervisor and she was a teacher um a lot of years ago and so it was it was just wonderful to have watched her progression and see the amazing work that the iu does for all of us they do workshops for our teachers they do things that none of us really
088know about um and when i think when i watched tonight and i watched mr haran and mr crater talk to us about their program it just made me so proud because we talk about inclusion when i was in special ed parents were very anxious about where their children would go excuse me and everyone wants their children to be included and mr haran and mr crater and all of the wonderful staff up here at the middle school made sure that that happened i congratulate you dan that that was a task but i'm sorry 20 years ago wasn't really there um i am going to say something about as a principal one of the things that we did that we had that probably no one knows about was a available money to send children on field trips
089that they didn't have the money and some of the field trips as i'm sure you know are pretty expensive so i would like to say the name of that fund was the skull fund and i would like to thank you with all my heart because i can't tell you how many times i used the skeleton fund so mr skullon left us money just for kids who needed help with field trips and it's something that um we're all very grateful for you're the famous name and have it for town for mrs scone and thank you um the last thing i'm going to say tonight and the thing that i'm going to ask for all of my board members but especially dr rishi and mrs is can we get back to teaching and learning can i get
090more teachers and students up here to talk to us about the wonderful things that are going on in our school i think all of us miss that don't we the joy and the energy that they bring to our schools that is the thing we're not talking about anymore hopefully we get the masks off we everybody gets ourselves under control health-wise and we get back to the joy of teaching and learning next time i guess i'm singing so thank you all for listening to me thanks thanks thank you susan bridget thank you um a couple of meetings that i attended over the last couple weeks one was the delaware county legislative council that talked have representatives from children's first to talk about their justice and education program where high school students are learning to be advocates
091for public education and our representative mike zabal who covers part of our township was one of their first legislative connections to talk about that important work um also focused on the start of the fair funding lawsuit which kicked off on friday and is looking for more equity across pennsylvania's state funding that goes to all of our school districts and school students haverford would benefit somewhat in that calculation um as we are a growing district um neighboring districts would benefit considerably more um and it's an issue that i'm certainly watching and it will have hopefully some good consequences for public education across the state and our neighbors there was some legislative updates looking at charter funding reform and we did talk about something and i need to issue a correction when i gave my report last
092time about the pennsylvania school board's advocacy platform for the year um there was a section that was debated on non-partisan school board elections i was mistaken in my report that it became part of the platform it did not move into the platform but it remains an important topic i know it's important here in our community and want to you know assert that this board works for all of our community all of our students and looks forward to working with the community for the best interests of our schools mr schwartz mentioned the community listening sessions that we did i think that was an important um opportunity to connect and learn um have some good discussion and dialogue not just with some board members in the community but with the community with each other and i look
093forward to finding other venues and opportunities to continue that discussion i also attended the psba monthly leadership meeting where we talked about reorganization which is what will all school boards do annually to elect board leadership and then in election years to seat the new board members and that will happen here um as across the state the first monday of december um december 12th um i just wanted to comment on two things that were brought up tonight dr rishi in you kind of invited some points to be considered for the health and safety plan and one question i would have would be in an environment with optional masking i know we've just rolled out the test to stay program what is our capacity if more students not wearing masks would be identified as closed contacts and
094would we be able to keep up the test to stay program if if there are more students not wearing masks and the other question i would have is what vaccine data is it possible for us to collect and to know about our schools and district i think understanding the level of vaccination may be an important data point in understanding what what it would mean for mass to comes off so those would be two requests i would have as you explore um the options and the data that's available to us um and then there was a comment tonight about the ways in which the board reviews policy and administrative regulations on the policy committee just started to roll out a process of auditing all of our policies but it might be helpful for the administration um
095at an upcoming meeting just to give an overview of the ways in which policies differ from the ars and how those are established and changed as as the years go on so thank you very much thank you bridget [Music] as a couple members have mentioned we we held uh informal uh conversation sessions on uh wednesday november 9th we had one at nine in the morning up at the crack and another one at seven in the evening i thought it was a good opportunity uh to just you know just share uh views uh and thoughts and to have some discussion that we're not able to do in the formal setting of a board meeting i think that there seemed to be agreement in the room that it was time well spent and that folks would like
096us to plan uh additional similar sessions in the future so we'll we'll be working on that i think it was certainly was helpful for board members to have that opportunity to to listen and to respond so thanks to all the folks who attended those sessions we we appreciate it our next regular public board meeting is scheduled to be held december 2nd 2021 at 7 30 p.m in the auditorium right here at the haverford middle school and with that i wish everybody a good holiday and i'll accept a motion to adjourn