Virtual School Board Meeting - September 2, 2021

001miss vegan yes we in addition to live on youtube live on the local cable yes we're we are we're yep we're going from youtube right now on to the um cable station so we'll [Music] sorry sorry we're having a little repeat come up okay [Music] where's my where'd my uh where's my zoom where'd my zoom go i'm sorry my zoom is just bring the zoom back up okay okay we're live on youtube more oops we're live on youtube we're live on cable and the meeting and i'll bring up the agenda for everyone to see okay mr feinberg thank you for your patience thank you anna i'd like to call the meeting to order welcome to the september 2nd 2021 board business and conference meeting of the school district of haverford township we could rise for

002the pledge of allegiance please pledge allegiance to america indivisible with liberty and justice kelly would you be kind enough to call the roll for us please sure dr crispin here mr flasher here miss larson here miss mingy miss benji is under the weather this evening mr sinto here mr schwartz here miss nog grass miss snodgrass is on vacation this evening miss wiedemann here and mr feinberg here thank you very much i have a couple items before we get started first off i hope everyone is safe and dry after the terrible storm that went through communities within our region suffered significant damage and a loss of life as a result of last night's storm we are thankful that our community was spared the devastation and send hopeful wishes to those who are dealing with a sense

003of loss and disruption secondly i have a welcoming statement for the new school year that i'd like to read on behalf of the board of school directors i'd like to extend a warm welcome to the entire school district of haverford township community returning for a new school year with special welcomes to our new students and families and also to our 39 new educators the safety of our students families and staff is paramount and our focus is on being fully open for in-person instruction while minimizing potential disruptions due to the increasing cases of covet and subsequent quarantining this focus has been guiding our decisions and will continue to guide our collective response to the challenges of changing conditions to that end and based upon sound professional medical advice we will continue to strongly encourage eligible community

004members to get vaccinated and will require everyone to be masked while in our school buildings i'd like to note that the district sent a survey to our three thousand elementary families during the end of august we received two thousand seven hundred and thirteen responses to that survey one question asked given the current masking requirements what is your plan for your child just under 98 percent responded that their child will attend school in person 98 thank you to the administration and our principals who continue doing yeoman's work in readying our schools to reopen thank you to the many folks who have expressed their support and their concerns as we continue to navigate through this ongoing pandemic and thanks in advance for your patience and cooperation as we go forward in helping to keep our schools fully

005open and our students fully engaged and learning we wish you a great healthy and successful school year since march of the 2019-2020 school year our teachers and our staff have worked tirelessly to support our students and keep them learning under incredibly difficult circumstances chances are the summer break that we just had felt like the shortest one ever and i'm sure there is apprehension heading into this school year as we all wonder what's ahead and hope for the very best one thing is certain our staff and faculty will continue to do an incredible job making a difference every single day for our students no matter what capacity you serve in whether it's a classroom aid a paraprofessional a classroom teacher a bus driver a bus aide counselor secretary cafeteria worker member of our custodial and maintenance

006staff or a member of district office please know that the school board is extremely grateful to you for your contribution your hard work and your dedication i'll accept a motion to approve the official minutes from the august 19th when yes oh i'm sorry that's okay i didn't work it off [Music] i'll accept a motion to approve the official minute from the august 19 2021 regular public board meeting it's until first and second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries thank you next item on our agenda is our first public session of the comment session uh for for this session we have four speakers you'll have three minutes uh and then we'll ask you to finish up if you could please uh state your name and address at the

007beginning of your speech that that would be great our first speaker is stacy kaiser thomas check she's muted we're at the yesterday on youtube there you go okay i'm sorry um i came here to um just express my thanks um i'm first of all i'm stacey tomaszdick i live at 204 earlings road in havertown i have two boys attending uh chen park in the fall and i'm elated that they're going in uh full time and in person um for many many reasons and i came here to thank the district the board and the principals and the teachers and the staff for coming up with and executing a back to school plan that's allowing my children to safely attend school in person full time and thank you for enforcing the masked mandate even before the governor

008did and i agree with this decision and um the scientific community at large agrees with this decision also so i i truly thank you um and i also just want to express my thanks to the board and the district for continuing to support basis and other programs that promote diversity and equity inclusion there's so many very upsetting headlines throughout the country um and boards are swayed so i truly truly appreciate um remaining steadfast on this because i think it's um incredibly important just that we are all equal and all different and um just about um talking about our differences and knowing our differences and having a conversation and actively listening to people um i think it's imperative for us as a community so i look forward to events like hopefully that promote all of that

009throughout the year and um thank you also for making this meeting virtual just in closing um because i prefer in person i prefer everything in person for my children to learn in person i prefer to go to meetings in person and say hello to people um but considering people not following a mandate to mask and it was disruptive and it was volatile and i didn't feel like it was safe so i appreciate going virtual and hope we can go in person again um i wish everybody uh good luck this year thank you our next speaker is erica eazold i'm i'm going to promote her to a panelist she's joining the room hi hello dr ushi and members of the school board i want to thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight um i'm erica

010eazold i live on kasmir road in havertown my two boys ages six and nine are very excited to be returning to chatham park next week and i want to come tonight to express my support and appreciation to all of you both for continuing to prioritize the basis program as well as enforcing a mask mandate indeed before that was mandated by governor wolf to keep our children teachers school and our school staff safe to me the issues basis and masking are actually interconnected i really do believe in my heart that everyone in this district wants what is best for their children but we can't be solely focused on our own children and what works best for our own family alone we are all part of a larger community in havertown and we can only thrive if

011we work together coretta scott king said the greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members so it urges all to be a bit more compassionate math squaring protects both the wearer and those around them programs that focus on inclusion help all children to feel safe at school we should be prioritizing our children in our own lives but not at the expense of someone else's thank you thank you our next speaker is lynn tronsteiner abruzzo hello my name is leonard constantino bruzo i live on woodbine road in havertown uh pennsylvania and um i wanted to say a few things i uh to uh specifically uh with regards to the revised health and safety plan that i reviewed and while i'm ecstatic that we have a mass mandate and i

012think that was the only sensible thing to do i actually believe there's a couple things that should go beyond that in order to ensure um that our students stay in school i think that's the most important thing that our students stay in school oh i meant to say also that i have a my last child is going to be a senior at the high school this year so i really don't want her to miss her last year um the first thing i'd like to ask uh or for consideration uh for the board and the superintendent is that we publish a and maintain a district-wide covet 19 dashboard if possible obviously by school that would be fantastic i would love to see also some of the vaccination rates obviously as with a student at the high

013school i would expect also a lot of students to have to be vaccinated or at least it would be interesting to see how many in addition to which i'm thrilled that you're going to have testing at the schools my understanding however is that you're testing symptomatic children and staff but under the circumstances that children and vaccinated people tend to be asymptomatic i think it would be a really good idea if we had some kind of regular preventative weekly testing you know randomized test samples or if that's too expensive there's also the possibility of pool testing you know these were things that were done successfully by other districts um and schools uh both in the us and in other countries massachusetts did this successfully austria successfully did this and was the only european country that kept

014all their schools open throughout the um uh coveted outbreak so far so i'd love would love to see us do something like that also regarding testing the it is no secret that last year the majority of uh outbreaks in the spring were thanks to the sports teams at the high school i think uh considering that the sports teams will be participating in these activities without masks as well as being uh in our will have interaction with other districts and students from other areas uh we should have specific uh and rigorous testing programs for these uh students that they don't carry it back into the high schools and the middle schools where they uh have teams that play with this and finally i was wondering whether the district has considered a vaccination mandate for eligible staff

015and or students similar to those already in place for communicable diseases such as mmr gtp hepatitis chickenpox now that the at least one or the vaccine that's most important to students is fully approved that might be of interest thank you very much for letting me speak and i would love to see some of these things put into action thank you our last speaker and for our first public session is corey watkins corey hello if you can hear me out there or my phone unfortunately on vacation uh i just want to reach out i want to thank you first of all for hearing me um in your semi-public meeting that you're hosting here um my family and i name and address please sure it's corey watkins 517 upland road in havertown thank you you're welcome so

016my family and i would just like to say to you that we are in favor of optional masking for the students and the staff in the district obviously the mandate came through from the governor you as the school district as the school board have the power to make your own rules and make your own um man base as far as that goes i'm sure you'll align yourself with the governor and the mandate that he has proposed um however i'll probably want to make it known that there are many families in the district that are in favor of optional masking in addition to that just wanted to reach out and make it publicly known that a great many emails have come to your board from myself and my wife and we haven't gotten any response we've

017been asking for the data you've been asking for um all the science that goes along with masking we've asked for all these things in multiple emails and we've gotten no response and we're not sure why we're not getting the response back we've gotten um the auto reply saying that you've gotten our emails we've gotten them from dr rushi as well when she was on vacation and out of the office so we just want to make it known that we're not getting communication back from the district the district that told us that they're going to be transparent through this whole thing and they're going to be supportive of all families in addition to that the zoom virtual school board meetings are exclusive to certain people in this district which is supposed to be a public meeting

018in a public area where people can voice their opinions and their approval or disapproval of what's going on in the district with their tax dollars and having these zoom meetings it eliminates the elderly and other groups of people other demographics from participating so just because you don't like the message that goes on in public doesn't mean that you should make it private it's supposed to be open to everybody who's a tax paying member of the community thank you for your time thank you next item on our agenda we're going to make a slight change to accommodate dr brennan's schedule dr brennan is the chief medical officer and senior vice president of the university of pennsylvania health systems board certified in infectious disease and internal medicine and a selected member of the delaware county board of

019health dr brennan thank you very much for joining us this evening thank you uh the pleasure to be here um uh you noted that i'm a member of the uh county repel and i just want to uh stay up front that i am not representing the board of health for the county council in any way here um i'd like to bring up a new slide to begin my presentation um so um i'll just show a few slides make some brief remarks and then be happy to take questions so uh this first slide represents the epidemic curve in uh in southeastern pennsylvania and you can see that in earlier phases of the uh of the pandemic there was a little bit of separation among the counties but uh uh they've now sort of come together in

020a unitary uh pandemic curve uh that you can see uh continues to trend upwards in the uh in the most recent data this slide i think is is interesting because it shows the changing age distribution of the uh of the pandemic going back to the very beginning so there are basically three groups of by age in here the darker colors represent those 65 and above the lighter green and blue colors represent those between the ages of 18 and about 50 and then the the gold and yellow colors at the bottom here in the early phases of the pandemic represent uh younger individuals between the ages of zero and uh and 18. and what you see over time is that the uh older age group has moved from uh representing the largest proportion of cases in

021the uh first wave and uh and into the second wave of the pandemic to uh the present time where uh they really represent the the bottom of the pandemic although there are still cases uh occurring in that age group and i think that reflects the very high vaccination rate in those 65 and above in delaware county more than 90 percent of those 65 and above have been vaccinated the um uh middle-aged group between uh about 18 or 20 years old up to about 50 uh has moved to the the top of the pecking order and then the younger population moved from uh the lowest uh uh the least affected group uh into the into the middle range and is even pushing to the uh the the top rates of uh of infection in the current

022wave of the of the pandemic so as we've moved along and as vaccines have become available uh the age distribution has shifted this is an interesting slide and it's it's complicated and i'll i'll walk you through it each one of these colored bands represents a different variant of the of the virus at the top here this light blue band represents the b1 strain of the virus this is the wild-type virus that appeared last year uh it's the basis for the for the vaccine and you can see that that strain of the virus uh and and the the far right here represents present time the the light blue strain the wild type strain has essentially been extinguished we're really not seeing that around anymore looking over here at the right red the red orange gold and

023these purple colors all represent different strains of the delta virus starting with uh starting with red here uh 0.2.3.4.5 and so on each of these are variant strains of the delta variant so the virus continues to uh to evolve uh from the original delta that appeared to further mutations that have developed this uh green band here that was so prevalent in in the may time frame is now barely present at all in in our environment so this is the alpha or the uk strain and that's really been crowded out beginning in the may time frame by by delta and really delta and its emerging variants are all that we see all of this data is from one of the microbiology laboratories at penn led by dr rick bushman and uh he's been sequencing the genomes

024of the virus going back into into 2020 this panel just shows you from march 1st on and you can see how delta has emerged very quickly and squeezed out everything else and we're really not seeing any other strains at this point in time so i make that point to say that the virus is still replicating and what we're doing is watching evolution in in real time the this slide and the next slide are our maps that uh speak to the translation transmission levels by county in the united states and then on the subsequent slide you'll see uh vaccination rates and you can see these lighter colors represent lower rates of transmission and this is where we were around the july 4th weekend this year and how it has progressed uh until this week with uh

025now the southeastern states and southern states and some of the mountain west and northwest being most heavily represented in high levels of transmission uh pennsylvania and the northeast uh while still at high to very high levels of transmission are less affected as is new mexico and the uh and the upper midwest you can juxtapose this map with this next map and uh what you see is that the areas of the country that are most uh vaccinated are those that are having the lower levels of transmission so new mexico the northeast florida is an anomaly and i think despite having a lot of vaccination the lack of mitigation efforts there have really led to infections becoming very prevalent in in florida so i'll i'll stop sharing that uh i think that where that leaves us is

026the need for ongoing mitigation measures uh those measures uh include uh most importantly vaccinations vaccinations are incredibly important they're safe and they're effective as you know i know the teachers in the county have received the j j vaccine and [Music] i know there are questions about whether they should be getting boosters or not and we just don't have that answer yet data has been uh submitted to the fda and and i expect we'll will get answers soon and i expect that there will be uh boosters for for jnj but the uh the approval for that is not out yet nor is the approval for boosters despite the administration's recommendation that there be boosters for uh everyone uh who has previously been been fully vaccinated that those data are still being reviewed by the fda and

027there's been no final recommendation on that uh the advisory committee on immunization practices has asked for more data and they will hopefully make a recommendation in mid to late september and then we'll we'll know it's a it's actually a controversial issue what we're seeing is very sustained levels of antibody and um uh with the with all of the currently available vaccines in the united states and um um uh to stained uh memory and uh b cell and t cell immunity so uh there is some controversy uh and and we'll see where the fda comes out on that i expect that eventually uh whether it's uh later this year or or next year i expect we will uh be seeing recommendations for boosters for all of the all of the vaccines but in the meantime in

028addition to vaccines mitigation measures like screening before coming to school or going to any public place or workplace uh is is essential that doesn't necessarily have to be screening at the at the front door but you know people who have uh symptoms should not be um interacting with uh with others uh with the um the the vaccination rate that we have and the um uh the the emergence of the delta delta variant in in vaccinated people we're seeing more and more milder symptoms people who are vaccinated uh are largely protected from infection at all but those who do get infected uh have tend to have milder symptoms they're certainly dying at a much lower rate 99 of the deaths that are occurring are occurring in unvaccinated people most of the people who are being hospitalized

029and are seriously ill are unvaccinated uh when people do get infected having been vaccinated they're they're presenting with milder symptoms cold type symptoms and so they should be uh screened for the virus so vaccination screening masking [Music] distancing to the extent that uh that that's possible uh hygiene although i the we have not seen um a major contribution to the uh pandemic from surface transmission but hand hygiene remains remains very important and then barriers are still being used in some instances but plexiglas barriers are not likely to prevent transmission of virus that's being carried on small light aerosols they'll drift around on air currents and probably breach those barriers they probably barriers probably do provide some protection against heavier droplets in in face-to-face uh situations so um i'm supportive of the of the masking mandate

030uh i think it's important that we maintain the mitigation measures masking has been a part of many infectious disease prevention efforts it's difficult to tease out the exact contribution of any one of them but as a set of layered recommendations including screening and vaccination and masking and distancing and hygiene it has been uh helpful in limiting the spread of the of the virus and has helped us in previous phases of the pandemic so i i do support it um i think i'll uh i'll stop there mr chairman and uh and be happy to take take questions thank you sir questions from the board it's awful quiet bridgette i see bridgette uh whitman's hand up yes hi thank you so much um i know one of the questions or concerns people have is about um children

031the cases of children that result in serious illness hospitalization or death can you i saw the the trends and and having more cases but can you speak to the um severity of cases in children and what you're seeing with the younger kids yes the um the the trends um uh are towards more cases in children uh uh even with the delta variant uh the uh the severity of illness is not as great as it is in uh in older age individuals uh in this region we've had uh about a third of all the pediatric hospitalizations in the state have occurred in the uh in the philadelphia region uh but the northeast you know consistent with what i showed you on that map does not have nearly as many pediatric age hospitalizations or severely ill children

032as we're seeing in other parts of the country um adults are the hazard for kids uh unvaccinated adults are are spreading it to uh to kids there are about 400 deaths uh in in children now and tens of thousands of hospitalizations on the order of uh 30 to 40 it's probably more than 40 000 hospitalizations now so uh there are uh severe outcomes in children uh but they are not nearly as common uh as they are in adults i apologize i apologize to the board i i wasn't able to see the zoom hands race so i do have a list and i'll get to the list sorry to interrupt you bridget okay not a problem um i also wondered if you could speak to um the changing guidance for um what contact tracing and quarantine

033instructions are going into this school year compared to last school year and how masking and vaccination um help with those instructions yes well um you know facts people who are vaccinated uh as i said are less likely to have severe disease many will be asymptomatic they will shed virus but they shed virus for a shorter period of time and most people who are vaccinated will not become infected so that has really changed the uh the whole dynamic of the uh of the quarantine process so uh we are um uh following people uh encouraging encouraging people to watch for their symptoms where masks uh be tested early but uh not necessarily be be quarant thank you i see several of my other board members have questions so i'll let them jump in next up laura thank

034you dr brennan for being with us um i had a few questions um one of them is to sort of follow up on bridget's question um related to closed contacts so before when we had six feet or more of social distance between our students um it was only people within that distance i believe that were considered a close contact um how i guess i'm a little unclear about how we're designating a close contact now without social distancing but with masking particularly in cases of um children who are not yet eligible for vaccines yes uh and you know kids under 12 are are not eligible so i think we have to be you know thinking in terms of the of the time of exposure and uh whether there is uh um unprotected exposures whether whether masks

035are off and you know to what degree uh the the uh index case is uh uh is wearing a mask so um you know everyone i think i think a lot more people are gonna be within that uh six foot radius as you as you point out you know three feet four feet five feet uh all provide some degree of uh protection uh six feet is is better and probably statistically significantly better than uh than three feet but i think we'll probably be doing more testing in uh in children that are exposed now because of the limited social distance thing that we can implement with everybody back in school okay thank you um another question um we've heard a lot about masks lately in the news just in terms of like what masks should we

036be wearing and should it be cloth and should it be and n95 or whatever can you talk a little bit about i know a lot of parents are doing back to school shopping so they're gonna be you know trying to get the best masks for their kids to keep everyone safe can you talk a little bit about what we should be looking for um both for adults and for children sure so i think the first thing is looking for a mask that fits uh that that that's very important if if the mask gaps you're really breathing around the mask so and you're exhaling around the mask so it doesn't provide much protection at all there's a gradient in the filtration capabilities of masks from gators which are you know very thin cloth and uh probably

037only filter 50 or less of particles that are being being exhaled surgical masks probably uh filter about 80 percent of the particles and then k and 95 masks which have uh very high efficiency not as efficiency as as n95 but they have very high efficiency and they're much more comfortable to wear because they're not as not as tightly fitting but they do form fit around the face they're they're very good masks if you can get in in 95s it's it's a it's a universal size so it might not fit a lot of smaller children that's a very good mask uh n95s have 95 or greater filtration efficiency but they they seal the face they're tight and the work of breathing is greater and it's it's hard to wear for a long for a long period

038of time so you really do get tired wearing them one of the things that that i do and that i recommend is double masking so the the top mask holds down the bottom mask and really really help seal it to the face and you get the benefit of the uh the filtration capability of both masks as well as a as well as a better seal so uh you know getting a mask of reasonable filtration capability which you should be able to discern from the package and uh and double masking i think is is a very effective way to go right thank you um and last question um have do you have any information about where we are currently in the process of the vaccine for kids the 5 to 11 year olds you know i

039know i i don't have any insider information uh i'll just say that um the fda has surprised us several times now i do know that they have an all hands on deck process the latest i've heard is late this year or early next year but uh some of the information about immunocompromised patients and even the fda approval of the pfizer vaccine uh really happened very suddenly there was about you know a 36 hour leak of the you know to the news media that uh preceded the approval the following day so um you know i'm hoping it happens sooner but i'm i'm hearing later great thank you next up kristen thanks dr brennan again thank you for being here tonight um laura i had a similar question about ages 5 to 11. so thank you for

040asking that um i did have a question you mentioned plexiglas barriers dr brennan and their um mediocre effectiveness i just want to get a sense of um you know whether or not we should be using those i'm thinking about lunchtime when students are unmasked um so i guess yeah plexiglas but also related to lunch time what would your recommendation well lunch is going to be one of the more hazardous situations because masks are going to be off and it's a you know it's a social time there's a lot of talking um you know loud talking and and vocal projection uh spreads um uh aerosols farther than uh normal speech but the plexi glass is in in close range is not likely to be protective of the lighter aerosols they're just going to they're going to

041drift around we've learned that over the course of the pandemic they're going to drift around in the air the the best protection there i think is to eat quickly and get a mask back on and have a well-ventilated space i think for people that are encountering you know cashiers and and folks like that having a barrier for them uh is is probably helpful uh it will um uh it will help with the larger particles that are going to fall out in a short radius and might strike the barrier and uh and prevent exposure in that way but um you know by and large we've you know we're moving away from uh from the plexiglas thank you next up ari hi dr brennan um thanks for coming back it's good to see you again my pleasure

042this is some somewhat of a policy question related to the previous public speaker who seemed to suggest um so dr ruschi and larry this might be more for you he seemed to suggest that districts can have their own say pertaining to masking and not follow the recent mandate from harrisburg is that correct or was he incorrect my understanding mr fleischer is that that is not a correct statement we are required to follow that order out of the department of health i i saw an email to later today indicating and perhaps dr rushi and others among you have seen it already but um it um it indicated that there will be an amendment from the governor's office to the mandate that was that was just put out with the intention of closing some of the loopholes

043and um it uh it spoke to uh although it wasn't explicit uh my reading of it was that it spoke to uh enforcement for uh for non-adherence so uh it seems that um it's i'm certain that with a mandate uh the governor's office did not intend for there to be opt-outs just to be clear we as a school district with local control must follow governor wolf's mandate for k-12 masking um mr fletcher the order the language of the order does require um a school entity to enforce the requirements for mask or for face coverage in the order thank you next up dave thanks most my questions actually were already answered um by you dr brennan and thank you uh once again for showing up we certainly appreciate it um i had i i did have

044one left um you you mentioned that plastic glass is not all that effective um what are your thoughts on face shields well face shields are like uh worn plexiglass um now a face shield with a face mask underneath it i think is a is a an effective barrier because it will protect your eyes uh but as a as a solo piece of protection you're going to breathe under the uh the opening in the uh in the face shield so a face shield alone i don't think is is protective and i want to mention your question uh prompted me to think of one other thing dave one of the things that masks do is prevent us all from touching our faces so you know you can still rub your eyes but you're not going to be

045able to touch your nose or or your mouth and uh if your hands are contaminated that uh that does prevent uh you know the spread of germs that might be on your hands so that is an added benefit okay and then my my my last question is is this if if a student an older student you know for not at least were vaccinated and were to contract covet and test positive the quarantine time between them being asymptomatic and being able to return to school would not change from somebody who or i guess you can verify this would that time period change from an unvaccinated person who is no longer symptomatic or it still be the um recommended 10 days it would still be 10 days it would still be 10 days asymptomatic or a vaccinated

046person who is um uh they're likely to shed virus for a relatively short period of time so 10 days it's uh is is going to be sufficient uh and we're still not recommending testing out of uh out of the quarantine at uh at that point in time um one thing that i want to mention about uh vaccinees and and unvaccinated individuals who get sick at the at the onset of illness people who are vaccinated and people who are unvaccinated both shed a lot of viral rna and i and i say viral rna rather than virus because that's what we're detecting viral rna it may be that the vaccinated individuals are not shedding as much live virus that the virus is being bound up by antibody and and inactivated we do know that in vaccinated individuals

047the amount of viral rna they shed drops off very quickly much more quickly it drops off within two or three days so even if they are shedding live virus they're probably shedding less and they don't shed it for as long and so they're less likely although they can spread infection they're less likely for because of those reasons all right thank you very much appreciate it bridget did you have another question i do thank you um one of the comments that has come to the school board and you see in kind of broader discussions of masking is that masks potentially cause their own set of harms um that they're unhealthy to wear that their discomfort you know they're not comfortable that um they impede communication and socialization and result in um you know feelings of isolation

048or concern there and i'm just curious what your thinking is of how you kind of prioritize and weigh some of the disadvantages of mass compared to um what we as a school community might gain from universal masking yeah thank you i i'm glad you asked that question uh there's there's a lot uh out there uh in the media and uh information that's uh being spread around about masking so um i oversee a center at penn called the center for evidence-based practice and i asked the center to do a literature review uh looking specifically at at harm related to masking and the short answer is that there is no significant information that indicates that masks are are harmful now no one likes wearing masks nobody's happy about it i think we're all depressed about being in

049a pandemic and uh you know it's difficult to tease out mental health issues related to wearing a mask from just the general malaise that we have about being back in the in the thick of this again but um you know when you're when you're breathing in and out of a mask you're you're breathing air that you're exhaling from your nose those are uh germs that are uh you know mostly normal that are on your mucous membranes they're your own germs uh they're not uh they're not going to be causing disease um carbon dioxide levels uh which have been cited as a as a significant issue uh in mass can be raised but we have uh normal physiologic mechanisms that counter that we breathe a little bit faster and blow down the carbon dioxide when the

050mask comes off it's normalized there are not significant changes in blood oxygenation uh i saw an opinion piece that suggested that there may be differences in the development of the mandible the lower jaw from wearing a mask so i spoke to one of our oral surgeons about that and he told me that it takes about 15 to 20 pounds of pressure sustained on the chin to alter the development of the mandible and the joint the temporal mandibular joint back here near the ear masks don't create anywhere near that that kind of pressure uh the literature that we reviewed really um was was silent on this there was really no evidence of uh of significant injury and now you know the issue there was a paper from germany that purported to show that uh masking had

051adverse effects on mental health the study wasn't designed to come to that conclusion there was no pre-trial measurement of mental health status it was not reported by the children there there was no randomization it was just uh you know uh it was a lot of kids in the throes of a pandemic all of whom were wearing uh a mask and you know they didn't feel so great but um the conclusions were really uh an overreach and in my mind uh invalid so uh we just don't see harm and the uh uh the benefit of wearing a mask is a part of a larger set of mitigation practices far outweighs any theoretical harm dave did you have another question yeah so i just just one last question you made me think you made me think of

052something there as with that last answer do you um recommend having for for for kids to have masked breaks to go outside and take it off for a few minutes i do i do i think i think that's good uh i think that uh you know everyone feels a little better we're all happier when we get back to our cars and take our masks off at the at the end of a day or go into a private office take the mask off i think kids ought to have uh brief mask breaks and even just pulling the mask out a little bit uh you know and uh you know giving yourself some relief from the pre from the pressure on face uh i think is uh is a good thing to do any other questions from

053the board dr richie any questions from dr rishi no no no no questions a huge thank you once again dr brennan uh for your willingness to to assist us with as we wade through these many questions and try to make the best decision that we can with the information we have and i want to say how fortunate we are to have the university of pennsylvania health system and and chopped as world-renowned uh institutions in our backyard and and these are the folks that have been providing us with uh medical advice uh throughout the pandemic so dr brennan we thank you very much for tonight and for your previous visits and i have a feeling we'll probably see you again it's been more than a year now so and thank you thank you for your comments

054and i'll take them back to my colleagues as well thank you bye-bye thanks good night you have uh back to the superintendent's report yes dr roosie thank you mr finder oh the enthusiasm and excitement that is bouncing off the walls in our in our buildings and that's just with the teachers being back uh our schools have been really exciting places to visit over these last few days um and the teachers are so happy to see one another to collaborate with one another to plan and to get their classrooms ready to welcome welcome to children next next thursday we finish off the week tomorrow uh with our district-wide celebration in the in the morning and then staff will be re uh well not returning because they'll be virtually in their buildings our technology department has done

055a phenomenal job we have nine locations across the district where staff will be located our central hub for information and presentations will be the middle school and we will have a super zoom call in that instead of seeing individuals on the screen we're going to be seeing the nine locations uh on the screen and able to interact uh with one another as we celebrate and that's what tomorrow is about celebrating uh the launch to it to a new school year uh linwood and the edition over at the high school we'll hear more we'll hear certainly from ken about those tonight but um they do contribute to the enthusiasm in those two buildings uh they're beautiful beautiful facilities uh it'll be exciting to find a time where we can get the public in mrs mcgilvery has

056let lynnwood parents know that is a priority for us to determine what's the best way and safest way that we can provide some tours for for families so that they can can see that building speaking of our return to school uh just a reminder that uh our folks in transportation and we as a system sincerely appreciate everybody's patience uh once those buses get rolling we all know that the first day picture taking and reconnecting with kids at the bus stop is is somewhat of a tradition and the fallout from that is that it slows the buses and the traffic uh moving throughout the kit throughout the community so allow our children and their families to experience those milestone moments and please be patient as our buses get back out onto onto the roads bus passes

057for all of our students in the in school district of harvard township will be emailed shortly from our transportation department and my next public service announcement so to speak as we speak of transportation on we are still short about five bus drivers a number of bus aides food service workers custodians and the township is experiencing a shortage of crossing guards we continue as ll districts do to experience the short shortage of substitute teachers so if there's anyone that you know who might be interested in doing any of that work please put them in touch with our hr department on our website you can go to the h area of that area and apply for those many openings that we still have with the school year about to begin in in one week as mr feinberg

058mentioned earlier this evening the survey results from the survey that was issued to our parents of elementary children those results they're on our website uh we have created an area on the website that we will now based on feedback we've received on when we do a survey we'll be sharing those results uh of the survey so that people can have early and easy access to them and be able to reference them at other points in time our curriculum office they've already been in touch with families who've expressed an interest uh in the haverford online option uh so they're they're communicating uh with with those families um tonight on our agenda you see the item the revised health and safety plan for the 21 22 school year i just wanted to clarify that it's the plan

059is not there for revision based on the mandate or the order out of the department of health uh around mass wearing um that's certainly you know something that we are bound to follow uh whether or not we have that within our plan our primary reason for bringing that health and safety plan back to you this evening is that we have been able to embark and engage in assurance testing of all staff now certainly if a staff member is vaccinated they can opt out of that of that assurance testing but otherwise we will be assurance testing all staff and that was not part of our original plan um so that's the primary reason that that plan is coming back to you this evening so that that element of it can can be noted and with that

060i will close my remarks and continue to be excited this evening waiting for an anticipation for tomorrow's celebration around the opening of school you very much dr rizzi next item on our agenda it's a construction update okay we're we're we're right here at opening of school how are things looking good evening everyone things are things are looking good so as you all know we're down to the wire here school is only a week away uh so i'll start with the high school uh pretty much the addition is complete uh we are in the middle of just finalizing a lot of little punch list items little cleanup trying to get everybody all the contractors just complete and out of the way teachers have moved in furniture some of the furniture has arrived unfortunately due to supply

061chain issues not all the furniture is going to be on site but working with pete and jr and their staff there's we have temporary tables in so the rooms are are full and they'll have obviously everything in there for the students to start class aside from that it's really cleaned up well parking lots complete and it and it really looks good so i think it's been it's been a success does anybody have any questions about the high school i do not see any hands raised all right so for linwood i'm sure as you drive by you can see there's a lot more activity obviously the the site work continues and there will be a lot of site work that will continue after the start of school that was always part of the plan uh for

062the project as they finish up kind of the the little mini mountains of dirt and from the old demolition uh that that will continue over the next month month and a half or so until that field gets completed aside from that we're down to there's a little bit of paving left to do they're working on a few sidewalks that need to be completed but between tomorrow tuesday and wednesday all that will be wrapped up there'll be some fencing that goes up to try and keep all the children out of the mud so to speak until the grass can grow there is some sod that will be put down to help prevent some of that but we could not side the entire site so there will be some seeding that will take a little bit of

063time to grow but the building itself looks incredible the custodial staff has done an unbelievable job cleaning it teachers are moved in uh you know the building has really come to life you know certainly we've had little punchless issues to clean up and deal with their but they're mostly done uh certainly a few things here and there that are always uh as you complete a building like this that you're trying to get contractors back to complete but you know overall the quality of the building the finishes uh it really looks fantastic uh i know you all got a chance to walk and you know we're excited to finish it up for here for all of you and and get the project closed out both of the buildings just look marvelous i don't know lynnwood i've

064been through and it and i just i can't believe how great that building looks so thank you for for job well done thank you question questions from the board kristen kristen thanks um kenz you mentioned that there's still going to be some site work going on at linwood um just want to make sure you know what's going to be in place to make sure there are minimal disruptions to students teachers whether it's inside or outside the building i know the inside's mostly finished but sure um so really you know we're having a couple more walk-throughs with the contractors the biggest thing is going to be with the trucks and the equipment you know when school children come to school and when they leave school so we're going through that with them we're not going to

065have any truck traffic during those windows of time you know during the day there's not going to be a lot of noise and really the bulk of it's in front of the gym not really too much around the classroom wings so there really should be minimal disruption um there's around the classroom wing side is probably the least amount of work that has to be done really you have all the landscaping to do there's a lot of trees to plant get all that done there is in the parking lots there's rain gardens that's part of the storm water collection system that has some landscaping that needs to be done uh so we'll we'll coordinate that you know we're on site daily to do that we're gonna work with jillian the principal to make sure that's done

066and you know there will be fencing up areas all roped off uh certainly we won't be able after hours to prevent anything but that will be the message of course to make sure people stay off the areas as much as possible and we are keeping some fencing up especially between the township property and the school's property until uh probably middle of october end of october at this point thanks um just one other question did we see any impact from the storm yesterday all that rain water on either of the sites uh there was a little bit of a panic moment but thank goodness uh you know we went down there at 7 30 last night with j.r and his staff randy and i and uh it was okay uh it's it survived so um we're

067very lucky for that because it was a tremendous amount uh so but the storm warner systems you know did their job uh they were filled up but they they did their job the ultimate test right thank you yeah uh for sure yes did you yeah so it sounds like it did better than my basement so that's good and the question is um when you're looking at the like parking area of linwood um the the big field up top there is going to be built in as like a soccer sized field can you talk about um what the timeline is for that and when it will be available to the school and community for um athletic use sure so that you know by by october sometime in october that field so all those dirt piles you

068see will be gone the field's actually a little lower than where you walk into the building so there's a lot of dirt that has to come out it's probably about five or six thousand cubic yards of soil and then it just gets we are installing sod so that we don't have to wait for uh the grass to grow because that can take you know a full year sod takes about eight weeks to start to root and then it's really going to be up to the district when they want to let folks on it or the children but you really want to at a minimum get through an entire growing season uh if not even some of the early spring before you let it especially for sports you know with cleats and all that and we

069had talked about that early on uh you know two and a half years ago with the township as well as the district that it may be a little bit of time before folks can get back on it any other questions from the board dave all right raise my hand a bit late there ken one quick question and i apologize i didn't see them because i i missed a tour on monday i i i believe two bioinfiltration rain gardens were were being installed um at linwood it were those were those put in i guess number one so the grading is complete dave there's amended soil that has to go in about 500 yards so they're not complete yet but they're meant to be naturally infiltrating into the soil so they filled up uh for sure but

070they were actually empty this morning when i came in so so you know they were doing their job uh and then once we get all the landscaping and obviously that will help with that stormwater management and stabilization yeah so so the plantings haven't been done yet no and you wouldn't want to do it in august because half of them would die so now over the next month we're in the planting season for trees and all the shrubs sure my another concern was that there was plants recently last night may have caused some issues yes that's for sure okay that's good to hear thank you and it's amazing that they were dry this morning that's uh yes that's good soil any other questions for ken okay well ken thank you thanks very much thank you and

071there was one change order so if there's no questions on that it was for linwood for undercutting some soil ari has a question sorry he was waving oh he was faking comply okay well thank you all have a good night you too thanks ken bye-bye next item on our agenda i'll accept a motion to approve disbursements from the general fund totaling 601 hundred eighty dollars and twenty nine cents arson moved christmas second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries 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 order totaling thirty thousand to fifty thousand dollars as listed and just a comment that this is to um help with the

072paving the extended driveway that um goes to the back parking lot at linwood any other discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carried i'll accept a motion to accept the retirements and resignations as listed place your move marcin second moved in second any discussion all in favor all right any opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to approve the following appointments as listed with one clerical change for the high school english position identified as a long-term sub to be identified as extended sub excuse me effective date 8 30 21 to on or around 11 29 21 at a rate of 281 dollars and 53 cents per day larson any discussion welcome the board all in favor sorry discussion point could someone explain the difference between long term sub and extended sub mr parker

073is here yes our contracts make a distinction between extended subs who serve from 15 to 94 days in a single assignment and a long term sub is 95 days of service or longer in a single assignment so essentially one half of a year or a semester and the employee are potential employees aware of this i'm sorry the employees are well aware of this yes we certainly uh we certainly communicated with the employee yes thank you any other discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion cards i'll accept a motion to approve the following non-acceptance of appointment christmas the second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion cars i'll accept the motion to recognize the following temporary professional employees who have fulfilled the three-year probationary period required by law and having

074received satisfactory ratings during this period have met eligibility to receive their professional employee contract effective august 30th 2021 larson moved desperate second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion cares i'll accept a motion to approve the leave request as listed morrison moved read them in a second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to approve the following educational service contracts for services provided to students and or staff with the district for the 2021-2022 school year pleasure move for a second moved in second any discussion could we hear a little bit more about what these services include and what a bcba is sure so a bcba is a board certified behavior analyst so they provide us with support with behavior

075support plans consulting with students they're actually a majority of that contract is actually funded through our school-based medical access program so the two full-time bcbas are funded that way the 0.5 is not any other questions or discussion all in favor i'll accept a motion to accept the recommendation of special counsel and authorize the resolution of a pending special education administrative proceeding and authorize the administration to implement the terms of the resolution as listed below larson moved first and second moved in second any discussion nick should we read this since nobody can see it other than us what is this preceding resolution please um mr fleischer this was this is a confidential special education administrative proceeding concerning a student and it's a recommendation of council to resolve the matter as outlined in the agenda perfect thank

076you confidential any other questions or discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to approve the recommended revisions to the health and safety plan to include assurance testing for staff and alignment of masking guidance to cdc and pennsylvania department of health guidance flasher moves worse than second moved in second any discussion yes i have some comments to make but if anyone has quick questions they can go first no okay and i i appreciate the health and safety plan the update that was made i think it provides a good outline of the district's plans and responses for the current situation and outlines a way to maintain to the greatest extent possible in person schooling for yet another pandemic school year but i also think that the health and safety plan

077in this form and throughout the school year warrants discussion um and to be revisited regularly as we monitor covid conditions adapt to changing guidance and learn from the experience in our schools and from other schools so i do have some questions and observations about the plan there's like 12 of them that i'd like to make that i offer in hopes that they contribute to a future revision of the plan that is more clear for the district and its families considers more scenarios and provides more flexibility in our response to coveted situations so i'll read them here briefly if that's okay um i think there's just a couple of like quick things like on page three there's a couple dates to fill in regarding the initial approval of the date of the plan and review and

078revision dates um on page four there's a comment about the district offering free lunch until 12 31 21 but i think her district communication that went out to families that's actually for the duration of this coming school year um if that's the case that should be updated um on page four and five where it talks about our masking perhaps this should be clarified that we're talking about inside our school buildings but should we consider the possibility that there may be outdoor masking requirements that are warranted at some point for large groups outdoors we talk about the low or moderate conditions based on incidence levels but i think the cdc when they give the transmission rate they also include a consideration of the positivity rate in the community so just to be clear like which of

079the data points are go into our um our assessment there um the plan kind of suggests that if we go back into lower moderate um we would be mask optional at that point and i just wonder if there might be situations where we want to consider that at that time that the community designation goes down and reserve kind of the ability to look at a broader set of data points than that designation um on page five where we talk about um supporting people who want to wear a mask in our schools when it's optional perhaps we can go further and encouraging it and the plan doesn't talk about signage about appropriate mask wearing or mask wearing requirements um the plan does have a signage for respiratory etiquette and i just think masking is an area

080where signage would be important as well when we look at the changing community incidents the plan provides for kind of a two-week period and a lower community threshold before we would change the masking requirement but it doesn't specify if we're in that lower community transmission how quickly we would um respond with changes to masking if we were to go back up into the substantial or high um in the section on physical distancing um i think it might warrant um some notes about lunch which is a you know a particular moment in the school day where there's different kinds of risks and kids would be unmasked so talking about spacing and the use of additional areas for lunchtime um and we just heard from dr brennan um about the efficacy of plexiglass you know at what

081point would we kind of consider or revisit that for lunchtime um in the section on contact tracing and quarantine um can we add language there about masking and vaccination limiting the need to quarantine to the extent that that's true we i appreciate that the plan includes assurance testing for our staff should the plan allow for the possibility since there are programs that support assurance testing for students or maybe groups of students that are warranted or possible at some point during the year um the plan also doesn't um describe and i understand that it was a template from the state that you know we're working within that constraint but um it doesn't speak to kind of how the district will respond with outbreaks and um if we need to for safety reasons um return classrooms or

082grades or schools to virtual maybe that's not part of this plan but i think should be communicated or understood for parents and and kids in the schools to understand what you know kind of plan b is um and finally um is the like the plan um should it perhaps consider that we may need to implement different mitigation strategies for different groups um perhaps like elementary different from middle school or high school or from vaccinated or unvaccinated students or even in a like a particular classroom to accommodate someone with a particular health need so there may be particular mitigation strategies that are in a room um kind of similar to how we have peanut-free designated classrooms um there might be kind of more covid protocol classrooms for the protection of a vulnerable student so those those

083are my comments i ran through them quickly i don't um really expect a response um tonight like kind of on the spot here but did want to lay them out as points for further consideration as we um you know start the school year and consider a range of scenarios that we might encounter i think it would be helpful to have more of that thinking um reflected in the plan as it evolves over the school year um and i look forward to the administration's um response on some of these points which i can email because i know i went through them quickly um but um look forward to response perhaps in the form of an updated revised plan at some future point thank you thank you bridget and thanks for uh emailing those as as well

084um just you know to put your mind at ease for tonight certainly the pieces that you mentioned like you know having a date included and looking at the at the food service if that we can you know we can adjust that with your approval of the you know of the plan tonight uh and then look at like assurance testing for students like if there's something that the board wants us to look into we could look into and tell you what it would entail what it would cost what it would you know because while there may not be a cost to the test administration of it might have an unforeseen cost that you know built into that so we're happy to come back with that kind of information as you would indicated uh in some kind

085of a future presentation if you know if that would be if that would be helpful you know updating you know updating the plan we weigh the pros and cons to how specific we want the plan to you know to be one of the things we learned last year was how challenging it is when the plan articulates a lot of detail and then something needs to change we felt the need to reconvene the board bring the board back you know where we saw some of our colleagues in college districts you know able to move more quickly and make some decisions not that i'm implying to take decision making away you know away from the board we're trying to balance you know what level of specificity so your questions will be helpful for us in taking a

086look at that um i will say you know because nicole is our pandemic coordinator if there's anything that you mentioned that like me she feels she could speak to tonight to put your mind at ease to vote on this um i'll invite you to do so or i think it'd be really helpful to explain the quarantine um and the change for people who are vaccinated and also the exception for children who are three to six feet from someone who's contagious but both wearing masks so um we did not put this um specific language regarding quarantine into the plan because it is subject to change so we're going to follow the pa department of health's isolation and quarantine recommendations um you know which could change but for right now just you know so everyone's aware if

087someone's vaccinated and they're identified as a close contact to someone who's positive they do not need to quarantine they're asked to wear a mask while indoors for up to 14 days or until they get a negative covid test and they recommend taking that test between days three and day five from exposure to the positive person so that is super helpful in areas where we have students who are old enough to be vaccinated you know if they are identified as a close contact it doesn't necessarily mean they're going home from school which was not the case prior to having availability of vaccine the change which is only for students not adults um for close contact identification last year we looked really we were looking at anyone within six feet of someone who was contagious for 15

088minutes or more that is still true of adults for students if the child is three to six feet from the contagious student and both students are wearing well-fitting masks the closed contact does not need to quarantine um we are still going to notify families that their child was that close uh to someone who was infected with covet 19 so that they could make a decision if their family needs to make a decision based on that information but those children will not be required to quarantine so that is a significant change from last year because um and and a really um the mass can be really helpful to keep kids in school because of that change last year it was regardless of masking within six feet so now we have that guidance that will enable us

089to keep more children in school um i hope that was helpful i appreciate all the feedback and i you know have started jotting down some notes so if you have an email that would be great thank you yeah and i just want to reiterate if um the comments were offered um to consider a broader range of circumstances i understand that um being kind of locked into certain language here at the start of the school year um could end up being a complication or a constraint later so and i offer my kind of questions and observations with um a sense of you know different scenarios could roll out in different ways and there are other ways that we could kind of preview some different like if-then scenarios and give a broader range of responses than um

090than the more limited language that i saw in the plan today kristin you have your hand up yeah so um i still have concerns around lunch and i don't see any explicit language in here around lunchtime so i'm just curious as to what that's going to look like in each of our buildings is there any consistency around what's being communicated to lunchroom staff what kind of protocols are in place we heard from dr brennan tonight that plexiglas may not be the best thing um you know what what is what are the expectations and or requirements during lunch time throughout our buildings well i will tell you we have plexiglass in our schools so so we you know we will certainly be revisiting that and and and quite frankly it has made some parents very comfortable

091and it has made others uncomfortable um yeah we have received some quest emails expressing question concerns and asking questions about that plexiglass we had those families have been working with their building principals to you know provide the best and healthiest environment for the children to eat lunch in our conversations with the elementary principles in particular exactly what dr brennan reiterated this evening we had talked about that really the best thing is without causing indigestion encourage the children to eat as quickly as possible but to put the mask on our elementary principles report reported that that became habit for so many students last year that as soon as they were finished eating uh even while they were waiting for for their peers to finish and go outside they put them put the masks back on so

092it's in line with what bridget just mentioned you know something that we will revisit and we'll you know we'll take a look at uh at the high school and middle school level you'll recall uh that was one of our barriers last year no pun intended they're talking about the plexiglass but the the barrier was with the six feet um required social distancing uh we do not have students at six feet they are at a minimum of three feet uh when they are in there but both of those buildings have added locations and added a lunch so they have lessened the number of students who are going to be occupying uh those spaces at that point in time he has a follow-up to that um so in terms of ventilation i mean we're kind of at

093the the highest level of what we can be offering for health and safety in these spaces correct or air purification yes we have and one of the things that we've already asked jr will answer some of those questions when our finance and facilities group has their committee meeting coming up but last year we brought johnson controls in and you know provided our employee employee groups with an opportunity to ask questions of them to talk about how frequently filters are changed they went through the air exchange how many times that occurs in the buildings reiterated the importance in those buildings with newer hvac systems not to be opening with opening windows um i feel like i'm shouting at you but i'm really not it's they're doing great um and to keep things off of unit ventilators

094that you know sometimes we as educators look to decorate as much space as as is available to us and to really keep those unit ventilators free from materials that would be prohibiting that air from circulating and the return air into the room as well thank you and just um one final question about how this is going to be communicated to families and to students um so it's great to have the plan but then we need the education of the people who will be implementing it and participating in it what principles went over that with staff um the health and safety plan nicole created a video for staff uh that all stat all staff were reviewing upon their their return uh teachers will have those discussions you know with students particularly at the elementary levels um

095discussions really balancing what we had to do last year that we no longer have to do this year so you know for example we're not going to be putting library books in quarantine for 14 days before another child can check those library books books out they are allowed to share some materials in the classroom and we're our teachers are very much aware of the fact that for some children that may be uncomfortable because they spent all year last year being told they could not share materials in in the classroom so our teachers are very aware of what our children what should be communicated to them and how to do that in in the classroom uh our building principles have offered a combination of virtual and in-person tours people have seen the setups in some of

096the classrooms and the principals have done a really i think a really good job when parents had a few have expressed concerns the principals will call them invite them into the to the building work to make some accommodations uh so that the children ultimately do feel comfortable and the plan will has been residing on our website um and will again great thank you any other questions from the board all in favor all right all right any opposed function carries next item on our agenda i'll accept a motion to authorize the board secretary to cast an affirmative vote for the following candidates for the offices of the pennsylvania school board's association martial second pleasure moved in second any discussion one of the candidates is in our neighboring upper darby district and is ed brown's somebody that

097i've had the opportunity to work with and think he will be a great advocate for our region i'm glad that he's stepped up to fill that role i want to echo that bridget i've uh spent uh a bunch of time in meetings with that and he's he'll be great so it's it's wonderful to have somebody local uh going back up there the only contested item here is the president-elect race and i would recommend david shap he's got more board tenure and he also has a broader experience serving not just on his school district board but also the his career and technical ed center board and uh i believe a third board so the rest of these are uh one candidate one for one position uh type uh situations under the insurance trust trustees uh had

098the pleasure and the honor of working with rich frerichs and bill akoff both of them were served as president of the pennsylvania school boards association while i was serving on their board of governors and they're you know very solid citizens they have passion for public education and they know their way around nathan means the third name listed is the executive director of psba and i s when i served on the governing board uh we hired nathan maines and i had the uh pleasure and honor of working with him for for a number of years so um it'd be nice you know going forward if any of you would uh want to think about a pspa office in the future it's uh it provides you with a very different perspective than the southeastern pennsylvania perspective that

099we're grounded in you know psba represents 500 school districts urban suburban rural and they're as you might guess from just from reading the press over the last few weeks they're they are very different uh anyway all in favor hi any opposed motion carries thank you and i have a question we had two speakers who spoke in session one who are also signed up for session two because they split their topics but to my recollection i think both of them covered both of their topics if that's not the case could they please let you know before we finish the second public session uh yes if they can raise their hand if they if they want to speak um we have that ability and then we can have them come back into the room and speak again

100okay so i'm going to move on to the to the third speaker on the list okay correct and i'll move them into a panelist role now okay our next speaker is chris demala she's coming into the room thank you sorry about that so thank you and thank you to the board for going back to zoom tonight um in the interest of our health and safety we really appreciate that so my name is christa malott and i live on 833 aubry avenue argor i want to thank the district and our teachers for the efforts that have been made to address the issues of diversity equity and inclusion in our district with two kids in the district one in elementary and one in middle school it's important to me as a parent to know that my kids

101are discussing and thinking about these real world tough issues in the classroom and with teachers who are trained to help them do that at a developmentally appropriate level so that they can thrive in life and in their future jobs whatever those jobs end up being i heard some parents express fear that talking about our differences divides us but i can say confidently knowing from the research based on the work that i do and also hearing my kids talk as they've grown up that our kids begin to notice difference from a very young age by age two they begin to learn about racial gender stereotypes from the world for instance and so they start to think that they can and can't do certain jobs for instance just because of who they are and how they're born

102so talking about those differences openly in the schools and at home reduces this issue and so i appreciate the teachers doing that by age five our kids have developed their own biases about people and themselves and research shows that those biases are stronger in our kids when the parents and the schools avoid talking about our differences in the tough topics talking about all groups of people in our curriculum and especially showing how all of us contribute to our society in positive manners and how we've also overcome some of our problematic history has shown to actually reduce bullying across groups of kids and increases a positive sense of self in others this is important because when our kids feel positive about themselves and others they actually perform better academically which of course i think most people

103know who are listening right now on the board our school can work to continue promoting that success in this way with those conversations so finally i wanted to advocate for continued hiring for diversity as we've been working on doing and supporting and training for our teachers so that they can continue to learn to address these hard topics in the classroom diversify their curriculum effectively etc i know the work isn't easy and so continued support for the teachers will be wonderful in the form of hiring whatever they feel they need i want to also make a case for hiring a full-time district dei coordinator one whose degree in training is in this area and who can devote their time full time to making sure that all of our kids feel included of all identities research shows

104that having diverse professionals and dei coordinators etc can make a huge difference to the career and the educational outcomes to all of our kids regardless of their identities thank you again for your consideration [Music] thank you our next speaker is alexis pasternack um hi can you hear me yes okay thank you um okay um my name is alexis pasternak i live at 609 woodland drive and i just wanted to take this time to reread the district's policy on controversial issues and make a suggestion so the purpose of the board believes that the consideration of controversial issues has a legitimate place in the instructional program of the schools i agree with that properly introduced and conducted the consideration of such events can help students learn to identify important issues explore fully and fairly all sides of

105an issue weigh carefully the values and factors involved and develop techniques for formulating and evaluating positions for purposes of this policy a controversial issue is a topic on which opposing points of view have been promulgated by responsible opinion and is likely to arouse both support and opposition in the community i think that's that's actually what's been occurring this last year and a half it's free objective discussion of controversial issues as the heart of the process of representative government freedom of speech and free access to information are among our most cherished traditions most pupils in the senior high school are mature enough to study the controversial issues facing our citizens it is the responsibility of the teachers to make provisions for the study but policy on controversial issues should be defined in the terms of the

106rights of pupils in the study of controversial issues in the public schools the pupil has four rights to be recognized one the right to study any controversial issue which has political economic or social significance and concerning which um and concerning which at his her level he she should begin to have an opinion two the right to have access to all relevant information including materials which circulate freely in the community three the right to study under competent instruction in an atmosphere free of bias and prejudice or the right to form and express his or her own opinions on controversial issues without thereby jeopardizing his her relations with his her teacher or with the school to guarantee these rights of the pupil is therefore the duty of the teachers to see that the study of controversial issues

107is objective and scholarly with a minimum emphasis on opinion the teacher must approach controversial issues in the classroom in an impartial and unprejudiced manner and must refrain from using his classroom privilege his or her classroom privileges and prestige to promote a partisan or factual point of view if after careful evaluation of all materials by teachers administrators there is any doubt as to the suitability of presenting certain controvers controversial material the material in question shall be submitted by the superintendent to the board of school directors for approval for use in the schools so just having said all of that um i've mentioned the controversy controversial issues policy before i think it needs to be looked at again it's from 2010 times have changed in 10 years i'm suggesting you consider updating the policy to specifically include

108elementary and middle school because i think there's a lot that's trickling down into those grades that's um i don't want to say it's i don't necessarily think it's not appropriate i i don't know how it's being discussed um i also think there needs to be an opt-out option uh considered for students who want to opt out of certain um topics or refrain from discussing certain issues um and and that's all i have to say so thank you for your time thank you our last registered speaker is grant schmidt um yes mr feinberg i'm trying to promote him to panelists but he has oh he's joining now thank you hi can you hear me yes awesome all right uh hi my name is grant schmidt i live at 2945 haverford road and um i'm going to

109be speaking much in the respect of the last speaker about um overt admitted uh self-admitted propaganda making way into our schools as young as as the kindergarten age um and i uh request that this material be moved from the kindergarten level to the teenage level and then it be made clear that it is propaganda and not simply children's book material to make my case i'm going to be reading from a is for activist which is uh in the school system um this book is um it says right in the inside cover a is for activists will inspire the next generation of progressives it says on the back by occupy wall street uh reading it is almost like reading howard sins a people's history of the united states but for two-year-olds and i'm going to be

110reading it from the back to the front and just going over a few pages here to prove my point z is for zapatista which is a militarized guerrilla movement uh in mexico that's exchanged a lot of gunfire and is the result of a lot of loss of lives and i just don't think that's appropriate for kindergarten age children x is for malcolm uh a's and malcolm x history's lessons can be complex remember parks remember king remember malcolm and let freedom ring um i just don't think it's appropriate to i mean what are we supposed to discuss from this and what would the township be discussing from it are they going to be discussing the hanafi siege in dc where the banabrith and and dc mayor were held hostage and how malcolm x was assassinated by

111the muslim brotherhood and such you know this is designed to elicit conversation um and for someone who's got a political bent it's great if you're machiavellian about it but otherwise i just think it's not appropriate for kids and otherwise teenagers should have should be able to have access to it but it should be very clear that this is a propaganda u is for unions and t is for trans trains tiaras tulips tractors and tigers too trust in the true proper noun and he she they that they that being proper nouns is you again i don't think that's that's appropriate s is for sun soul solar superstar stellar power fuels all life not just flowers energized homes cars and showers which sounds good until you get to the to the bottom let's see if i can

112throw it up against myself and then it says silly selfish scoundrels sucking on dinosaur sludge boo hiss and you can go through the entire book yourself it's in it's in your libraries and and i just think that this kind of propaganda along with the slew of it needs to be moved to a more appropriate age level and we need to understand what it's what it's doing um at the purported age level of two because it is prov and it should be removed or at least contextualized with with additional ends of the spectrum conservative media if you want to bring in the tuttle twins and stuff like that all that i think is fine it just should be in the appropriate age group thank you next item on our agenda is board reports ari no report

113tonight dave yeah i'll get just a brief report if you if you don't mind um it's with regards it's a kind of personal thing but with regards to to mask and probably the reason why i support it i found um i found out about uh just a little while ago actually that um my two nephews my sister and her husband and my two nephews who live in different states actually i started school a few weeks a few weeks uh ago in the beginning middle of august they both the both my nephews came down with at first after one week of school reopening where masks are optional they both contracted coveted my sister got covered my brother-in-law did my mother and my father all did as as well the adults were all vaccinated um three of

114them did did okay my mother who has a healthy who has had some health issues did not do quite as well she's recovering now my two nephews one of them handled pretty well the other one is actually still very very sick and the reason why i bring all this up is um you know nobody liked virtual learning everybody absolutely hated it including us saying virtual learning in you know board meetings now is almost a dirty word we we don't want to bring it up we we want to keep kids in schools and the reason why i bring this up is that one of the few things that's worse than virtual learning is virtual learning with the child who has coveted and what's even worse than that is trying to teach a child with covid when

115you also have kobit and that's what my family is experiencing firsthand right now not personally but very close family obviously that's what we're trying to avoid that's absolutely what we are trying to avoid if you do not like distance learning you would or virtual learning you would like covid or quarantine learning even less so i'm i'm very happy that that that we have um that we have mass requirement that's a statewide statewide thing right now that's a statewide policy right now just ask you know no one likes masks we don't like him either actually but please help us get get through this time for for right now this is important you not want to have your kids at home for weeks and weeks on end struggling through both the sickness and um trying to learn

116at at the same time so thank you very much and i'll pass thanks dave kristen yeah just wanted to wish our staff and our students a safe and healthy beginning of the school year um it's very exciting that you know the majority of our students will be coming back in person and um thank you to dr ruschi um to miss benistelli and and staff for everything you've done to prepare us again for this safe and healthy opening thanks kristen laura so i've been busy getting my incoming kindergartner back to school and uh we're really excited to start next week um i did want to echo some of the things that's already been said i know the teachers especially the linwood teachers have had a pretty heavy lift getting all of their classrooms ready uh it

117was really exciting to tour the school and see how it's coming along i love seeing all the art hanging in the building um it was great to just see how wonderful this new school is going to be so really excited for that um i wanted to thank the teachers i know the teachers um many of them especially for like incoming kindergartners um have been doing like little zoom meetings to meet the students um and just kind of you know get them comfortable with what's going to happen and you know the the other kids in the classroom we had ours today it was really fantastic so thank you for all of that effort that the teachers are putting in to get the kids comfortable to um especially the incoming and the younger kids um and then

118i wanted to thank the ptos i know they've been hard at work uh providing uh coffee and donuts and all kinds of you know happiness and cheer for the teachers um and then they've also been doing a lot we just did the um the playground meetup um for the kindergarteners to meet some of the kids in person so that was really fun so thanks for organizing that um really excited um i'm i know that uh you know we had a lot of heavy conversations today about covid with dr brennan but i really hope that we can all have a really positive and happy and healthy incoming school year for everyone so that's all i wanted to say thank you thanks laura sal no report bridgette hi thanks um i had two meetings between our last

119school board meeting um one was with the delco other district board members we met on a saturday morning by zoom and talked about some of the common threads that you've heard here tonight in our meeting planning for the start of school looking for some guidance on masking and quarantine and running through what-if scenarios and you know what it was looking like at some of our neighboring districts um you know just talking through being able to plan for um you know who knows what's going to be thrown at us this year and then the delco legislative council again representing the 15 school districts in delaware county met the other morning and one of the requests of that group to state health authorities is to get better data for our individual districts right now what we largely

120have access to is for the county and um having better data will help us make better decisions so um that is a group that helps advocate for um things like that and can kind of band together to to amplify our voices um and other than that it's just exciting uh to see the start of the school year coming around the corner um i live quite near chestnut walled and there's been a lot of activity there with staff and then some meet and greets um even sprucing up the landscaping and getting everything looking really good for the start of school i've seen buses start to drive down our street making um those early runs and um the sports teams are back in action i'm going to my uh first official high school soccer game tomorrow so

121um that's all a lot of fun and um definitely is buoying me as we as well um dr chrisman said like we you know have to address some challenging um challenging work to you know get to this point but it's really great to have so much to celebrate and look forward to and i just also wish everybody a safe and healthy start to the school year thanks bridgette about i guess 20 25 years ago when my kids were in kindergarten the kindergarten teacher used to tell me at the end of summer that she would dream about the smell of chalk dust in the air so i don't even know if we still have chocolate but it uh it's great to see us going back i'm thrilled with the with the the new facilities at the

122high school and uh with the new lynwood school again thanks to everybody top to bottom uh for all the work that's been done in preparation and it should be a great in-person school year the board met in executive session both on august 30th and also this evening prior to this meeting to discuss multiple litigation matters with council our next regular public board meeting is scheduled to be held september 23rd 2021 via zoom and with that i'll accept a motion to adjourn moved moved thank you everybody have a