June 3, 2021 School Board Meeting

001welcome to the june 3rd 2021 board business and conference meeting of the school district of haverford township uh if we could please rise we're actually going to be able to rise for a change for the pledge of allegiance mr regal could you call the roll please dr crispin here here ms larson here here here is whedon here here thank you bob miss mingy is out of town tonight sends her regrets it's very nice to actually see human beings in person it's been a while to celebrate we turned off the air conditioner which i understand uh took some kind of electrical hit yesterday so you know we're sorry about that uh i just want to ask our board members when you speak please lean into the mics because we're going to get some practice doing what

002our teachers have been doing for the last year we're going to be zooming also and the microphone for the zoom i don't know where it is in the room but we need to make sure that that mic picks up our voices okay in addition to having a broken air conditioner i think this is a i can tell you uh truthfully this is the first board meeting i've attended actually wearing pants [Laughter] in 14 months and and i think that our other board members could tell you some similar things so so there's advantages and disadvantages to being back uh with that being said i'll accept a motion to approve uh the official minutes from the may 20th 2021 regular public board meeting moved in second any discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries next item

003on our agenda is the dominic retudi award recipient dr rushi sure always a pleasure to honor and recognize uh both staff and students in in the district uh and this is this is the dominic refugee humanitarian award one of the recipients this evening has been described as someone who is involved passionate a well-rounded individual who takes pride in our school and our community she's a student representative to the school board a member of student senate a member of the haverford high school equity team a member of the track and field team and serves as her nominator megan malligan referred to her as a incredible role model for all youth who have the privilege to meet her and interact with her familiar to our board and her voice is familiar to the members of the public

004who've been watching our board meetings erica borby what a year you've had at serving as a board rep for all the meetings that we've had this year erica okay so nominated by nicole battistelli this dynamic duo have had another incredible year together throughout this last year we all as a community have been presented with a variety of obstacles due to the covid19 pandemic these two became our essential workers throughout the entire community they spent their own time their own money on groceries for families who were left with no other option than to depend upon the kindness of others they worked with food services our transportation department and staff all across the district to organize school lunch deliveries throughout the community as time went on the haverford township education foundation was able to raise funds donated

005by our community members here within the township to supply families with much needed gift cards to grocery stores uh and for others other essentials kathleen and and jocelyn did all of this while they maintained the high level of support they are known to consistently provide for students and our families throughout the entire community the recipients of the dominic you recudi humanitarian service award to jocelyn drukas and kathleen mcandrews our social workers okay [Applause] so and our final recipient this evening is joining us via zoom uh because this was too close of a window for him to be able to arrive here from the class that he teaches at villanova after he's finished working with our students at the high school nominated by becky mortland and a second nomination for dr jeremy tomaszewski submitted by megan

006maligan dr tomaszewski some of the words used to describe him unfailingly student-centered cares for his students as individuals and seeks to grow and learn himself as a teacher over the past four years he's actively sought opportunities for his students not only to be involved in science in meaningful ways at the high school but to share their passion for science with our district elementary students his was the inspiration to bring the haverford science academy to the school district of haverford township he is unflagging flagging in his unwilling in his willingness to set his own projects aside to support a colleague to offer advice never has his generosity of spirit and dedication to our haverford community of students teachers and staff been more apparent than this past pandemic school year however we have no doubt that jeremy's

007efforts to support the district as we moved into our online virtual environment were critical to our to our success he guided each of us through this process he has sacrificed countless hours the past summer as well as throughout the school year to ensure that the process of moving our programs online was as seamless as possible he's been a pivotal member in getting the high school faculty advisory committee together and running he serves as a constant reminder of a leadership and pillar of successful communication and procedure with this with this venture doctor jeremy tomaszewski haverford high school science teacher congratulations for being a recipient of the dominic or cutie humanitarian service award thanks dr ruschi and congratulations to all the award recipients next item on our agenda is public comment hannah how many do we have

008tonight and are they zoom are they live mix uh when you when you uh are they gonna speak it at that mic when you go to the mic please state your name and address and you'll have three minutes and then we'll ask you to finish up okay and we have we do have the names here adam yep our first speaker is going to be christine barnes i just don't know if you can hear me can i have to read this off on my phone okay here i go my name is chris barnes and i'm here first to give a shout out to the special ed program in haverford our daughter jane is a student with an intellectual disability who has been well served by haverford school district and i'm here to express our gratitude jane

009started at age six in the incredible miriam miller's learning support classroom at manoa she moved through the middle school with the help of dan haran sue mann and catherine hogue through the high school with kim dislake donna mcmahon and pete donaghy and she is now exiting the path program at age 21 with thanks to mary hennigan and nancy o'halloran who have helped jane to work confidently at both the haverford creek and safe faith preschool where jane will continue after she takes her diploma later this month the list of names that i am not including is many as through these many years jane has been supported by amazing principals teachers secretaries band directors club sponsors coaches bus drivers nurses theater directors dciu staff paraprofessionals best buddies and lots of students and friends who have gone out

010of their way to help jane actively participate in so much that our school district offers we are incredibly thankful to all of these people for helping shape jane into the incredible young adult she has become over the years we have watched our district take many steps forward in providing so many more opportunities for students with special needs to be included in the larger school community inclusion is an important priority to our family and we are proud that our district has signed on to programming to promote inclusion for all students including those who operate on the edges of our school culture we have a son who was part of the lgbtq community and it was through the basis program that he found supportive guidance from administrators and was empowered to raise his community to the surface

011so it became more visible and appreciated within the high school i think we can all agree that our current students in haverford are unbelievably kind and we go out of their way to make sure that other people feel safe and included in our schools the basis program is a good start to formalizing an intentional approach to inclusion a way to build bridges between student groups who tend to feel very comfortable at school and between those who feel a little less a little more isolated we ask that the school board and administrators continue to support the basis program in this vein i would like to express agreement with the school board signing on to promote anti-racism i believe we all want to live in a hammer town that is welcoming and free from disrespect and i

012believe we can achieve that with education on what racism is and its history in our country when i heard a former haverford student give a lecture about the history of slavery in haverford township i was floored when i looked at this when i look at the statistics related to over-representation of black people in americans prisons and then i hear a resident talk to the school board about how data shows a similar over-representation of suspension expulsions for students of color in our school district i am highly concerned when my daughter asked me what does that mean when a neighbor says they are no longer shopping at a local grocery store because it is changing i am reminded that racism is alive and well in our town our school can help provide education on how to recognize

013and address these issues thank you for listening thank you for taking on these challenges we are grateful for your leadership and you're listening to all of the perspectives brought to you before brought before you at these meetings people may have different opinions but i believe we all want the same things in the end well-educated students both academically and civically i want you to know our family has been well served by all of your efforts over the years and we cannot thank you enough thank you next speaker is alexis pasternak hi thank you my name is alexis pasternak i live at 609 woodland drive havertown i'm just going to keep it short i've sent numerous letters to the school board i've never heard back from one school board member not once i'm kind of you know

014i'm kind of guessing that you know unless i'm part of h can i'm not a real stakeholder in this community okay i have lived here since 1979 my mother has still lived here my mother is her boyfriend he's not white i think that's progress okay i'm really getting sick of this equity anti-racism stuff where you really can't seem to define for us what anti-racism actually entails please can you please define what it really means okay you haven't done it your resolution last year you left so many people out of that conversation that is upsetting to me i am a stakeholder my son is going to be in this district for seven more years i want him to be here i love havertown i don't want to move anywhere else you're not going to push me

015out you're not going to do it you're not going to teach my son that his father who is a police officer is a horrible human being if you please do not ever show my son a blm protest video again if you do please have the courtesy to give a warning ahead of time so that i can view it and i can make the decision for him to view it i don't care if you want to have white fragility and white privilege and all that stuff in your life don't teach it to my kid teach it to your own kids go about your business please leave my kid out of it i am i'm really saddened by the turn this district has taken i really am and i am upset because we have not been hurt

016i have not been heard i just i'm getting the impression that only certain people in this district matter anymore that's all i have to say thank you our next speaker is beth claus thanks um beth klaus i live at 638 woodcrest avenue in ardmore first of all i just want to thank all of you for your dedication and your hard work this year um such an incredibly challenging school year so i just wanted to lead with that as a parent of a fourth grader and a sixth grader in the district and as a school social worker i'm so very appreciative of the basis work and initiative being done in our district and of the long history and commitment the school district has made to social and emotional learning this work which aims to promote inclusion

017emotional well-being and a sense of belonging truly benefits all students in our district social emotional learning and diversity and inclusion efforts will better prepare all students for success in their futures as they navigate a diverse and multicultural society i'd like to end with a quote from an article in the association of supervision and curriculum development magazine called education update we owe our students an education that centers their lives and explicitly addresses the socio-political context this will not only prepare our students to engage civically and peacefully across difference but will also allow them to become the change makers and the leaders that we desperately need thank you for your time and consideration our next speaker is mark verde okay next up uh sarah faye hello my name is sarah i live at 47 waverly road in

018havertown um i would like to address the mask policy at haverford school district at the last board meeting you went over the 2020 school plan opening but maths were not mentioned most of the copic prevention policies including mass mandates in school are all about reducing adult anxiety at the expense of the health and well-being of our children it's concerning to me that there has been no effort to do the one thing we know would decrease transmission of the iris which is boosting our immune systems you recently got a grant from giant supermarket perhaps that money could be used for workshops for kids and guardians on how to boost your immune system through nutrition pharma products and mass mandates are not the only answer to preventing covenant 19 syndrome as people get free donuts and beer

019for getting a vaccine there has been little done to address the low levels of vitamin d in our population in general especially in children sitting inside for months on end staring at screens will results in low vitamin d levels that is a fact parents adoptive parents and legal guardians have primary responsibility for the health and welfare of their children governments and school districts may not assert this natural right requiring the school that students wear a mask is a violation of civil liberties mass do little to nothing to protect children's health studies and medical literature support this statement moreover very few children have contracted cova 19 and nearly zero have died from it more children died from the flu in 2019 than covet 19 in 2020. you could research this on the cdc website yet we

020never required students to wear a mask to prevent the flu masks harm children's health studies show that mass lower oxygen intake which can lead to acute or chronic injury that can worsen underlying health conditions alarmingly interfering with the breathing of a child is one indicator of child abuse children are in danger of social and emotional harm due to masking mass are a tool for social distancing which medical literature clearly equates to social isolation a human rights violation mask wearing is especially cruel to special education students and those with mental health challenges at the last boarding meeting one of you stated we need to keep kids as far apart as possible in the next school year after a year and a half of isolation shouldn't your goal be to get them back to face-to-face interaction students

021learning is curved due to masks data is emerging to show learning loss especially in speech and reading for special education children or english language learners mass can be a direct violation of least restrictive environment under the special education law the us is one of the only countries using mass mandates on young children in europe where culvert rates were high even at the height of the pandemic children in elementary school were never required to wear masks to attend school in the leveling up leveling update to families emails that went out yesterday you said you reversed course due to a meeting with and i quote delaware county school district leaders and the medical experts with whom we've been engaged throughout this entire pandemic but there is no transparency as to who these medical experts you've been engaged

022with are this lack of transparency needs to change i have seen a lack of critical thinking in regards to addressing the mass mandates by the haverford school board it's not a skill that everyone has but it's what's needed now we can't have people following along with quote unquote health experts when there is only one voice dr fauci follows the cdc the pennsylvania department of health follows the cdc the chester county health officials follow the cdc do you see there is only a small number of quote unquote health experts even allowed to have an opinion if our children wrote a paper inside of the same source over and over again they would receive a failing grade why do we expect less of the adults in charge we don't need followers we need people in charge that

023can think critically i hope going forward that you are up to that challenge for the 2021-22 school year thank you for your time [Applause] our next speaker is helene conroy smith good evening my name is helene conroy smith i live at 32 east westwood park drive let's talk about equality it's providing everyone with opportunity and have an equal chance at them equity ends with everyone receiving the same the crt initiative in the school district is real under the guise of diversity equity and inclusion which are huge buzzwords our district is working on a national platform using words like global citizen anti-racism disenfranchised it's the missions it's in the mission statement our district needs to work towards our needs here in havertown your taxpayers as a whole have been disenfranchised the discrimination occurring is is definitely

024happening to our elderly stakeholders who are driven out of their homes due to an almost 43 percent school tax increase over the past 12 years this year alone another 155 dollars will be taxed on to the median homeowner do you think that's fair or equitable how about payments that you're making out for diversity equity inclusion sixteen almost sixteen thousand dollars to be a member of psba we're promoting dvcee another equity program for twelve thousand dollars thirteen thousand dollars for equity and stage wellness and n net for hiring diversity recruitment retention it's 175 to 295 dollars per person to attend a job fair or workshop depending on what we've paid out already how much are we spending on critical thinking math and reading our national i think that we need to spend more time on our

025education nationally recognized assessments such as the sats right their scores that test ability in children's knowledge over the past four years haverford scores have remained stagnant 2019 356 kids took the sats 596 was the score for math 583 verbal 11 79.6 is your total go back to 2016. 356 kids took it 505 in math 523 and verbal and the composite was 1579. we're not seeing changes districts with similar demographics such as downingtown stem and avong grove school district had scores in the mid 600 range i think our school district needs to focus on our children and not an agenda i'm going to give you a little story i have a child here in the school my child heard someone using an inappropriate derogatory term and she spoke up and she said we don't use that

026kind of language here in school we don't say that kind of thing and that child then went off on my daughter and called her a cracker and you know what she said we don't use that kind of language here in school and she gave that child a lesson about how important it is to be inclusive she's inclusive my children are inclusive they don't need to be taught to be inclusive i work with them i am their parent and so is my husband we take care of our children and i'm asking you all to stop cease and desist with the political agenda on our children thank you that's it for our speakers lists uh good evening my name is adrian seltzer and i am the vice president of the mainline branch of the n double acp

027we do need your we do need your address my address is 705 gray thorn road windward haverford school district is in our i'm sorry it's one of six school districts in our jurisdiction ma'am if you're not a resident of the township you you can't speak in public session you can certainly submit comments to the board would be happy to read them but those are the rules that we operate well um some of the comments aren't really directed to the board ma'am ma'am you're out of order i'm sorry that's nothing now please you know all right um for the person who wanted a definition of anti-racism anti-segregation and equity is different than equality folks this isn't the forum for for a public dialogue okay we're running a meeting you're welcome to have a discussion outside hi

028everybody my name is jeff kowalski i live at 129 hastings avenue havertown i am a resident um first of all it saddens me to see people so divided on some issues that i think probably should not be this divisive um first thing i'll mention is i grew up in tulsa oklahoma for a long time people didn't know about what happened in tulsa oklahoma and a lot of people are just learning about it now 100 years ago a huge part of our city where black americans lived was torched and 300 some odd people were killed now i would call that racism i hope everybody in this place would call that racism is wrong it was based on prejudice it was based on racist types of feelings that the whites of tulsa had to the blacks who

029had made that quite a prosperous area of town now i also when i was a kid in tulsa was given the opportunity by my mom to get in an organization that got us across to the north side of town where black people lived and white people lived on the south side uh you can say that's just the way it is but it's also part of a kind of an ongoing racist structure in our country and it's not something that's good for our country i don't think i think we need to work on trying to find ways to live together where we support one another we treat people with respect and dignity whether you're black whether you're white whether you're asian my younger daughter is asian we adopted her from south korea you may have heard

030you know you've seen the pictures of some asian people being punched out and and demeaned in different ways as well so what i'm trying to say is that the reason i want to try to find ways to hold up people who have been marginalized or against whom prejudices have kept them from realizing their full potential than their full selves is because my own faith tradition tells me that what i have to do is try to empathize and that means trying to look at somebody including the people who say some things that i find not quite to my liking but looking at you now and i'm saying i i really try to hear what you're saying as well and i'm looking for more harmony and more understanding among people on different sides of this in this

031country that is really what we need at this point in our life as as a democratic republic and as a nation that needs to come together instead of tearing itself apart at the seams and i do support efforts to make sure that kids know that they need to treat each other with respect dignity and support regardless of what their background is if it's i i hate that somebody called somebody a cracker or any other kind of word that's demeaning based on superficial aspects of their personality or their personhood and i'll just leave it at that thank you to all our speakers this evening i'm just i'm just going to uh read the mission statement for the district because i find that that's a useful thing to do is there another speaker okay i'm colin mccracken

032okay i'm colin lacrosse and i live at 600 george's lane ardmore and haven't forgotten um i'm just reading adrian who is not a resident this is from the mainline branch of the naacp and adrian is the vice president of the mainline branch of the naacp which is one of the nation's oldest and most historic civil rights groups she says that haveford school district is one of six districts in the jurisdiction of the mainline double naacp and naacp and it's come to their attention that there may be some pushback against basis and equity policies in the district so she wanted to address the board about this she says that it's hard to learn about racism especially in a majority white community where there is a lot of pushback against any sort of discussion about race in

033general and that racial equity doesn't mean that one group is going to get less of something it's just a rebalancing of resources and being aware of when and how policies benefit one group over another and take care and one of the goals of the naacp is to fix that the naacp believes that kids in the district deserve to learn about everyone's experiences and stories children in haverford township school district deserve to know about america's full history and experiences and this is important in knowing these stories can benefit all of us uh the naacp's education committee held a forum last week that highlighted the progress of over five other school districts in the jurisdiction and their uh diversity equity and inclusion efforts um it was helpful for all of the participants to hear what the other

034districts are doing because they are so similar demographically and geographically sharing our efforts publicly builds trust in our communities as we move forward towards equity and inclusion for everybody and there's a link to the forum online if the school district would like to record a presentation or be involved with a mainline branch of the naacp they're happy to work with you too and i think you have in the past the mission of the school district of haverford township is to educate and inspire a community of lifelong learners who become well-rounded global citizens and i just want to reiterate that this board and this administration are committed to ensuring that every child feels welcome and is ready to learn in our schools next item on our agenda board liaison report and i believe the only one

035we have this evening is policy is that correct there was a policy meeting and we have several of the policies that we discussed on the agenda tonight so i will um if if it's okay i'm just going to wait until after we go through the policies and then if there is anything that um we need to report out beyond that then i certainly will but i believe that we have several first readings tonight on the policies thanks antoinette next item is superintendent's remarks dr rushi thank you mr feinberg a few things uh this evening before i get started though i do want to recognize the efforts of folks in our facilities department our technology department uh anna deacon in communications the room that we're sitting in tonight the technology that is at work this evening

036and enabling people to be here with us zoom in if they need to zoom in setting up another room for and for an overflow room what was no small feat it looks great when you when you come in here it's you know comfortable and i just don't want to lose sight of the fact to say thank you uh to the people who have have made this happen because there's a lot behind the scenes so blue rob anna sarah and bob please let our facility staff know that we really appreciate the number of times they rearranged and moved chairs and tables and i've got all of the technology set up we are looking at an exciting week coming up beginning with tomorrow tomorrow being the date of the prom for the students at the high school

037um kudos to the haverford reserve uh it's they've been terrific for for us to work with their collaboration on the event and and making this a special event as it should be for our students really is greatly appreciated by the district in addition to the haverford reserve over at the creck we want to thank all of the blast parents for setting up those decorations again making it such a special event uh it's all about the kids that's at the end of the day it's all about the kids uh and those folks have done a great a great job stepping up and making sure that our children can have the experiences that are so important to their see their senior year their their high school experience next week is graduation for us and i want you

038know just a few public service announcements again sometimes when you hear the number there will be over 2500 people over at haverford high school uh next third next thursday so please we are encouraging we are asking if families can carpool please carpool let's try to avoid multiple cars for the same family uh tr you know traveling to the high school looking for parking that uh that evening uh graduation will be live streamed so there will you will be like let your family's extended families friends neighbors know that graduation is going to be live stream the gates will open at four o'clock in the afternoon they will not be open earlier but at four o'clock they will open with our goal of a prompt start to graduation at five o'clock we are very cognizant of the

039warm week that has already been predicted uh and are you know remaining aware that our parents guardians family members will already be in the bleachers 45 minutes to an hour before we um even even begin so we're writing i have like maybe two maybe a minute and a half two minutes uh limiting the remarks um so that we can again focus on the on the kids at 3 30 in the afternoon if we have to make a decent make a decision that is weather related that's the time that we will make the decision we will not push the decision late and then have people you know on their way uh or or will you try to give them enough time that if alternate plans need to be made if graduation needs to be moved indoors

040it will be indoors for students and then live stream and that's why we're making that decision early enough so that families can make the arrangements that they want to um to make for that in the spirit of thank yous i want to you know thank the staff at the high school i want to thank the students who really have worked so hard this year to do everything they can to make it make the best of the year and they've looked at new and different ways for creating those experiences that are important to them and they deserve a lot of credit for what they've been able to pull off this year as students at the at the high school so with that i will say thank you conclude my remarks thanks dr richie the next item

041on our agenda is the wellness update is nicole battistelli has been chairing that group okay good evening everyone the yearly update for us uh good evening dr rushi um mr feinberg members of the board can you hear me lean in lean in oh this is gonna be comfortable okay members of the board community members and colleagues uh tonight i'm presenting the annual update on the school district's wellness policy and the clicker i have the clicker so just for some background the school wellness policy um it was actually recently updated in november it was developed roughly four years ago and it involves the development of a wellness committee that committee includes administrators faculty members students parents community members and a school board member and the purpose of the policy is to promote physical activity wellness and

042the implementation of the usda school lunch program and guidelines for classroom celebrations and fundraisers communication about the activities go out through the schools through haverford happenings and through our various social media accounts oops i went too far oh my goodness okay this year some of the topics we covered are um appearing on the slide there we talked about snacks sold at lunchtime some of the activities uh healthy ford's outdoors was promoted through the haverford happenings we did a review of the policy using a policy review tool provided by pde and there were food service updates at each meeting this year the wellness committee met via zoom we obviously shifted to zoom meetings last year and continued with zoom meetings throughout this school year thank you the next three slides outline some of the activities that

043have been happening at each level as you can see we're still able to promote wellness this year some things may have looked a little different because of covid but we still had a lot of activities going on and what you'll notice over the next three slides is brain breaks continue to be popular at all three of our levels oops the elementary school you know morning meetings birthday shout outs brain breaks mindfulness mindfulness activities and then the middle school you can keep it there that's fine at the middle school something that's really great that kind of came out of us adding zoom was that they could have school-wide morning meetings so the whole school participates in a morning meeting and students very much love it it promotes a sense of community and belonging and it's just

044very popular at the middle school right now i hear a lot about it we also were able to add a 43-minute wellness period so there's art therapy music therapy you know meditation brain breaks that our students are participating in so that was really great for our students this year and at the high school again brain breaks every level our students really love brain breaks as do we we had minding your mind virtual assemblies for every grade level our seniors still had activities to participate in to celebrate their senior year such as the senior sunrise there's a picture you'll see in a moment of the senior sunrise we continued with our clubs and added even new clubs as some of you may have heard from our esports club at one of our more recent board meetings

045and our athletics team still participated we had unified bocce track and field our best buddies program had a tennis clinic with the boys tennis team and all of our sports were able to field teams this year and our students really liked the virtual office hours we were able to offer this school year due to the setup of the with zoom so these are some pictures of some activities the senior sunrise it's a little difficult to see with the lighting here but what you can't see is a bunch of seniors uh outside in front of the sunrise that's a little difficult to see there's a picture of our best buddies walk we usually participate in the st patrick's day parade but that was not going to happen this year but we still maintained having the walk

046and some other activities you can see pictures of our students enjoying physical activity and some updates from food services starting next school year we will have the discovery kitchen through chartwells which is a nutrition education program but also cooking demonstrations so students will get to learn about the food that they're eating and there's a theme every month and the children will watch a cooking demonstration and learn about the nutrition in the meals that they're eating and some of the themes for next year are listed on the slide they also have a mood boost program which teaches children the connection between the food they eat and how they feel not just physical health but mental wellness and sometime hopefully between august and september and the start of the school year they will launch the nutrislice app

047slash website which will show students and parents pictures of the school lunches that are being offered as well as the nutrition information that goes along with those meals um thank you for taking the time to listen to my wellness update and if you have any questions i'll be happy to take them questions from the board i just have a comment um it's nice to hear that uh chartwells is being a partner in our wellness program um some people may not know that they are a new food service manager that was engaged this year and a strength of their proposal was their interest in the kind of learning activities and working with the kids on understanding nutrition and how food connects to a healthy lifestyle and having some of the services like the menus and the

048nutritional information was something that we were interested in um that they could bring to the district that we hadn't already been offering so um i just wanted to say that that's great that that kind of participation is happening no sorry questions from the board i want to thank everyone for being me want to thank the district for all their work in making this um tech friendly um i mean wellness is one of the the things you just that needs to be in person right and you know everything that's been happening has not been um promoting wellness generally um throughout this pandemic and i don't mean what the school district has done just the way our lives have been because of the pandemic um so thank you for finding ways to make this work throughout kobe

049any other questions well thank you very much thank you good report i just want to mention it's not a public open forum our meetings are structured and i apologize but this is the way that we we operate next item on the agenda is an overview of the final budget for uh 2021-22 mr riegel tonight we'll be approving the final budget uh we've been working on it for nine months since around october early october and we had a preliminary budget in january and then uh proposed final budget in april uh and now we're finalizing things and we're adopting the budget so that we can uh incorporate it into our our financials for the 21 22 fiscal year the act 1 index a lot of this i've said at other presentations but the act 1 index immediately

050following a countywide reassessment is the act one index from the prior year and in 20 20 21 the index was 2.6 so we were not eligible for any act one exceptions so 2.6 percent was the ceiling that was the maximum village increase that we could uh have in in the 2122 budget so pscrs which is our contribution employer contribution into the retirement plan uh is 34.94 so every dollar of salary payout we also pay 34 35 cents for that pension we do get half of that back in the form of a subsidy from the state of pennsylvania but uh so it's really half of that when we did the reassessment the total assessment pretty much doubled um and the of course the millage was kind of cut in half so it all worked out but

051when they did the the reassessment the certified assessment was closer to 100 percent of fair market value and the number was six million three hundred sixty uh six billion three hundred sixty million twelve thousand five hundred seventy five uh that was in january first and that's what the townships used for their budgets but uh there probably has been a little bit of growth uh since then um debt service has been added to the budget for phase two of the high school project which is the renovation to the fitness area and the music wing and some parking and some other areas um so debt service will be in place for now for obviously for linwood would be all funded uh phase one of of the high school uh renovation is all uh funded and now phase

052two will be funded there's 625 thousand dollars in of capitalized interest in this budget and basically capitalize interest is very similar to if you uh borrowed had a mortgage and you borrowed extra money to pay for the closing costs it kind of finances some of the borrowing in order to spread it across more years and and makes it smoother transition into the budget instead of all hitting it in one year um we've cut since january we cut 2 million 998 000 out of the budget through various different reductions salaries benefits supplies different different areas debt service in order to get the budget down to the point where our rev estimated revenues would be balancing with our expenditures the state property tax reduction allocation everyone's heard of the homestead property rebate well basically uh the state

053provides us with an allocation of uh two million let's see two million one hundred three thousand and there's 12 070 approved homestead uh properties so if you divide that into the 2.1 million you come up with 174 dollar reduction in your taxes that gets converted into an assessment and then that assessment gets re removed reduced from everybody's assessed value on their property and that's how your reduction happens there's new positions uh these have been in pretty much the whole way five new teaching positions one psychologist one elementary assistant principal 0.5 increase to our registrar position and student tech positions to help support our technology department this is a one-page financing of the budget the revenue budget on the top 130 one million expenditures 134 million five hundred forty eight thousand two seventy five it leaves

054a shortfall three million four hundred ninety seven thousand uh a tax increase at two point six percent brings in two million six hundred twenty seven thousand five hundred thirty two dollars and that leaves uh a shortfall of eight hundred seventy thousand one hundred and eighteen and that's uh gonna come out of our savings account our use of fund balance uh we're kind of banking on the fact that we'll find savings somewhere along the line and and we'll balance our budget and and be able to recoup that 870 000 use of fund balance the increase in taxes 2.6 percent the average increase for the taxpayer is 155 this is a little harder to see on the screen but this is our revenue budget i i think the biggest part of the revenue budget is the fact

055that uh however 80.5 one percent of our sources of revenue is local you have 131 million dollars worth of revenue and 101 million of it is coming from real estate uh and 105 of the 131 is coming from local we're getting 23 million 792 000 from the state of pennsylvania from subsidies and the federal government is giving us 1 million 748 000 so we do we have a low aid ratio our wealth is such that our subsidies are a lot less than some other districts and that's why 81 of our our revenue comes from the local here again it's not that easy to see but this is our expenditure compared to it's a budget to budget expended mature comparison 2021 is in the one column 21 22 budget is in the other column and the

056increase or decrease in line items is in the second from the end and the percent increase or decreases on the right if you look at the increase or indeed decrease you can see that the makeup of the increase in the budget at 1.1 million dollars comes from an increase in salaries 450 000 comes from uh increase in benefits 600 000 comes from iu services and contracted services a lot of things entail entailed in in professional services that includes legal service that includes our sub contract there's a lot of different contracts under that area uh 195 000 purchase services which includes uh tuition special ed tuition charter school tuition was a large increase over the pandemic period supplies are down uh equipment is up 118 000 and debt service is at 1 million one hundred and

057eighty one thousand so the putting the debt service in place for 62 million dollars worth of projects including uh the high school renovation linwood and climate control at chatham park in coopertown the impact of all that is seen in the debt service increases that we're having so the total increase of the budget to budget from last year is three million four hundred seventy six thousand four hundred fifty seven and that's a two point six five percent increase in our expenditures from the prior year this is a uh this is a 10-year average of our increase as you can see our 10-year average of our increases in taxes is 2.85 percent uh if you compare that to the enrollment increases over that same period you can see it averages out about uh 2.05 increase in our

058enrollment so it's not that far ahead of what is needed to you know because of the fact that we also had increases in our enrollment that's that's my presentation hopefully the board will adopt the final budget and we can move forward with the 21-22 year thanks bob questions or comments from the board can you hear me okay um the charter school tuition um it looks like if i'm reading this right though six hundred and forty thousand compared to last year of three hundred thousand um we had talked i believe at a previous board meeting about reaching out to those students and seeing i i believe they were cyber charter students primarily is that correct so um where are we with that do we have any updates on that yes we continue to reach out to

059the families from whom we have not heard we last week we had about nine students confirmed returned and we were still waiting to hear back from about 20. so we anticipate that as people get more information about what's coming in in the coming months that we'll hear back from some more families but we continue that outreach okay great thanks um and then my other question about the sr money which we've talked about at a previous meeting as well um that does not get factored into this as well as the sr expenditures is that correct because we don't know exactly okay norm because uh we're still working on the expenditure plan for that okay some of that might come out of uh what's budgeted here which would be a savings some of it if it's new

060expenditures would be added to this normally what you do with like a federal program that's not in here now though bob i think that was the question it's not in right now it's not in there but at some point you would do a amendment to the budget probably in october and you'd put the 1.3 allocation on the revenue side and the expenditure side so it would kind of be awash in a sense because the same money comes in as goes out so great um other question from the board thank you um so i am on the liaison committee and just wanted to reiterate that um for the i mean for the finance liaisons and reiterate the amount of time that this budget has developed over the year um and that i appreciate all the efforts

061to bring that gap down to narrow the expenditure so we are closer to being on budget the district is in good financial condition and i think this budget does a good and appropriately conservative job of looking out to next year there's some uncertainties there's a lot of mandates and obligations that the school district needs to manage and include in the budget and um i think for a budget of 100 and over 30 million dollars the board and the administration have a lot of appreciation as that 80 percent of our budget is funded locally we appreciate that our district um has the community support and ability to fund our schools at a high quality and we know we are fortunate in that regard and we don't take it for granted um it's one of the reasons

062that we continue to advocate as a as a board in the district and individually as board members for more fair and equitable state funding and federal sources that would support our special education and other programs in our schools and kind of level the playing field for all students in our region to have opportunities to go to schools with robust programs high academics quality buildings and the technology and programs they need to learn i think that our budget does a good job of delivering those things for haverford township and look forward to a day when our state and federal government support all of our kids in public schools to that level thanks bridget other comments or questions from the board yeah i'm curious at a future meeting if we could hear how our budget has grown

063in relationship to our enrollment i'm sure you don't have that handy but it would be kind of nice to know and i think interesting for the public to see our budget's only gotten bigger as our enrollment's gotten bigger and those two are tied together the reason i think our enrollment's gotten bigger and therefore we've needed more monies because it's a high quality school district that is attractive to people um from around the region not just within haverford township but we're seeing an influx of people from around the region coming to this area for what group quality life and excellent education any other questions or comments from the board i had a question about piecers um are we getting to the ceiling are we i know there's like we're paying almost 35 right now of payroll

064into that system um i know this is all the state is telling us what we are required to pay are we gonna be paying less i know it was zero at one point in time we're we're leveling off been us a long steep climb and i'd just like to say both for haverford and for all 500 districts statewide there are mandated expenses that we have no control over pension the pension increases are have nothing to do with this board we have no latitude they're established by by the state's pension board special ed costs we operate under federal laws that require us to address any needs that that our our students have the state doesn't do much in terms of funding special education and third is the the charter school expenses and likewise that's based on

065uh formulas so we have no real latitude in terms of those three budget lines and generally for most school districts that's the lion's share of increases so i want to thank bob in the business office and the finance liaisons for the for the good work with this budget this is i i guess the fourth or fifth time that we've presented uh the budget in process at a public meeting over the last year and tonight we're going to put it to bed so larry speaking of peace the community may know that um in the inquirer recently have been some pretty eye-opening and shocking articles exposing some potential issues with regards to the peasers management yeah it's absolutely true any other questions or comments thank you bob [Applause] would you like to print this one up and

066take it home and put it on your refrigerator you could frame it that might be the first time there was applause for every budget bob you can finally empty your pencil sharpener thank you next up first reading of policy 626 federal fiscal compliance mr parker thank you mr freinberg maybe you don't want me to get close to the microphone for policy work but i'm going to anyway tonight we are presenting two relatively routine policies i believe and we will begin with policy 626 federal fiscal compliance and even though i noted in mr riegel's presentation that our federal funding is i think you said less than two million dollars right out of our 130 million dollar budget we have a series of requirements that uh that are imposed upon us and and mainly upon the business

067office that and this policy really captures uh those requirements so 626 federal fiscal compliance uh technically it's being presented as a new policy because we don't have a 626 currently however the business office in the district at large has already been complying with the requirements that are contained in 626 and the and the attachments that uh that go along with 626 so it's a new policy but in some sense it's really not new we've been using these regulations and mr riegel you'll jump in and correct me if i get any of this wrong but we have been using these provisions and requirements for federal funds for for probably a decade or more however the federal government wants to see this policy and the attachments in a formal board adopted policy and that's what we're trying

068to accomplish in the next couple of meetings so we're presenting six two six before you which contains formal technical requirements again as imposed by the federal government on the receipt and use of federal funds there's really no latitude so in that sense this policy presentation and the work that that we've done leading up to it is a little bit different than the other policy work that we do because their requirements that we need to utilize anytime we receive manage and utilize federal funds even if they're not very large so uh the the policy itself uh provides that the board shall ensure that federal funds are received and administered in accordance with the federal requirements uh the policy designates the business manager as the district contact for all federal programs and funding however that's going to

069be done in collaboration with the federal programs coordinator at the district and in our district that's sarah christensen so uh there's a good bit of work that's done in that office with respect to these requirements it requires that we have sound and compliant internal controls and federal grant management standards where are they they are contained in this ream of paper that we did not burden you with because again they are the if you will non-negotiable technical detailed requirements covering topics from travel reimbursement to procurement to allowability of costs and cash management procedures in connection with the receipt and management of federal funds so essentially this makes up the manual if you will that the business office and the federal programs office utilizes to make sure that we continue to comply with federal law so again

070in some respects the adoption of 626 is something of a formality if you will and i don't mean to minimize it it's just that the the policy is relatively straightforward and again the requirement the detailed requirements are non-negotiable that's what we have before you this evening as 626 be happy to try to answer any questions that you might have from the the document itself it has been uh preliminarily reviewed by the policy liaisons and and of course the business office and others in the district to utilize these requirements questions or comments from the board comment on as we said earlier the policy liaisons did meet on this um that includes myself um mr cinto miss wiedemann and um miss larson and um we we discussed this policy and i think as anyone who has thoroughly

071enjoyed all of our policy discussions in the past it's it's probably obvious that we like to take out our red pen whenever we look at any draft policy whether that's coming from psba or from council or or wherever it may be and so um as mr parker said we did not take the red pen to this and it's for the very obvious reasons that um this is mandated and so it is it is a formality for this one so while we reviewed it we did discuss it because i don't think we can help ourselves from discussing it um but we didn't actually change anything here as mr parker laid out the reasons why thanks antoinette any other questions or comments from the board all right moving right along okay and the second policy that we're

072presenting this evening is policy 800.1 electronic signatures and records this is a new policy and it was generated by the pennsylvania school board association primarily i think because the use of electronic signatures and records is accelerating obviously the last 15 months has contributed to that but even before the pandemic the practice of utilizing and accepting electronic signatures and records had been occurring at a greater rate so this is a psba generated new policy that has been recommended for school districts across the state recently recommended to be reviewed and and adopted at least in some form again there's not a lot of leeway in that it's relatively straightforward relatively routine the policy as it's before you this evening has been reviewed by the district solicitor's office the whistler firm and as we've said the policy liaisons

073have preliminarily looked at it before we have we're presenting it to the full board tonight and to the public the policy in essence supports and authorizes certain current practices that we utilize i know that in in my corner of the district i frequently use electronic signatures with state-related uh documentation for certification and the like so this will provide a a basis for the district to operate with electronic signatures and records in a formal sense a policy basis we are expecting expansion of the use of electronic records and signatures obviously i i think this world is not going back from that it permits what is becoming common practice and the policy specifically allows for the use and of an acceptance of electronic records and signatures establishes certain guidelines unless a manual signature is required by law

074regulations or at the direction of the superintendent or designate so there were many instances where practice will allow it and if a manual signature is not required then we will utilize this authority to accept those the policy also speaks to the expanding use of electronic records and again frequently now we're receiving records for instance at least again in my corner of the world and my colleagues could cite other examples in their corners of the district but in uh certainly in the hr department we're receiving electronic records of all sorts all the time including clearances the like that's been a practice for years so this policy now uh really catches up with with practice and provides the sound policy basis for us to do that so if there are comments from the liaisons or other board

075members i have one i just for the public's benefit um and this was something that wasn't clear to me and my first read of this policy is that um it applies not just to the district's business operations and internal things but as a parent in the district who has signed umpteen forms over the years i look forward to a time where we might um have this ability to submit permission forms and and health pla you know like respond to health and safety and signing up for sports and activities and all of that so um i think we in the community will see some benefits from this policy as well yeah i'll jump in as well and we did take the red pen to this it was minimal but it was to ensure that the policy

076read exactly how bridget just laid out the way that we are reading it which is that it doesn't just apply to district to district you know internal communications or otherwise district you know business communications but in fact um i do think this is going to be welcome to parents who um who maybe are all are already signing things so this could just be again a codification of a practice um but now with some some teeth behind it um but certainly you know i think that we uh the district is looking into those sort of electronic signature different programs that that can be more formal but i certainly know that when the pandemic started and i realized i didn't have a printer that was something that was very interesting um just getting just getting forms signed

077over and so this this hopefully will will help with things like that but again um minimal changes to the psba sample which which was uh recommended to us by psba and um mainly just to um make sure that it reads so that it can be used by the community um so i i do think this is an important policy to adopt so that we can sort of enter the 21st century here 2021 electronic signatures other questions or comments from the board do any of our student handbooks address electronic signatures is that if not is that an update we need to consider in light of the policy an increase of electronic signatures that's probably a good point i i don't know exactly what the student handbooks provide but that would be worth looking into and maybe

078it could even just refer to the policy you know a lot of times with these things they're constantly changing and i think this would be something that could potentially change again just depending on if the if there is software that we get or something like that um so to the extent that there is a manual signature provision within the student handbooks i think that we should consider maybe just instead of having it be specific in the handbook refer to to the policy and um to the board policies as a whole also good point and you you use the magic word software and i know that mr anderson rob anderson's in the back there we've we've been discussing this over time not just myself but others in the administration and so this is an area of

079interest for for rob anderson and who will be instrumental in sarah christensen in finding the appropriate software to allow the expansion of the use of electronic signature any other questions or comments from the board we'll we will look forward to the second reading of these exciting policies you're welcome thank you mr feinberg the next item on our agenda is the school calendar for wait for this now ready 2022-23 that's i think that's the first time used the 2023 term uh which is back to me okay so this is the school calendar um the first reading of the 2022-2023 school calendar um when we developed the school calendar there's a lot of givens you know there's not a lot of wiggle room and not a whole lot of creativity that goes into a school calendar we

080know the holidays we know spring break and winter break we'd like to end the school year for students on a friday so they're not coming back to school for a day or two so we made our best effort to have all of that happen in this calendar we start after labor day we have 184 student days and 192 teachers days and again not a whole lot of creativity in this calendar most of it is set based on holidays and but we did meet um the school days and the requirements for the teacher contract in this calendar and nicole the la the first day of school for students and the last day of school for students is usually the number one question people have september 6 2022 and june 16 2023 for the first and last

081day one observation is about spring break and people who might be thinking about oh we get to travel and do things again um this calendar does not have what might be called that wrap around easter monday in it can you speak a little to the constraints that um made that not be on part of spring break this time sure and it's actually not part of spring break next year either so there's some years where it works and some years where it does not work and this is a year where it does not work if we add it that day students would be ending school on a monday there was no wiggle room um we had to take a student and teacher day and you know you add a teacher day but not a student day

082you know the numbers are not equaling what they need to equal so this is um that is why that monday is not here um that's consistent with next year's calendar but you know that may not be the case the following school year depending on when holidays fall and just one other question i know this year with the access to virtual learning there was a broad discussion of like oh no it's the end of snow days um and i i loved that our district had the snow days i would wonder if in the planning for the 184 days what the district's kind of thinking is about building in that cushion above the 180 mandated days for inclement weather in how we might continue to use technology for virtual days has there been any thinking around around

083that regarding the calendar we will submit to have certain days of you know approved um the flexible plan but there's no guarantee that that submission will be approved and there will be a limit jen is it four uh days so i'm glad actually that you asked this question mrs wheeman because uh it's it's probably important that we communicate to people uh we don't have the unilateral authority to choose any day next year and say that's a virtual learning day and it's going to count we will have to get approved approval for those for those days there may be some flexibility there if pennsylvania department of ed continues to look at covid and the impact that kovid may have on the next school year but we have been told not to assume that we can choose

084days in our calendar and identify them as virtual learning days and have them count so we're continuing to build our calendar as we have been in building that thank you i i have a question um and it's about september 2nd i'm just um surprised that that's not filled in with a color so that is before the school year starts so um the blue represents teacher and service days and then for employees who start when the school year starts that's starting you know september 6 so that is not a holiday but it's also not a teacher in service day so there are no teachers in the building that day regular staff that work um you know 12 months are are in the office that day but it's not since it's prior to the start of the

085school year it's really not you know being highlighted as a holiday or not a holiday it's just not an in-service day okay okay thanks other questions or comments from the board is there some way to designate on the calendar when the first day of school is maybe just putting a circle around we do and i don't know if you just can't see it because of the way it's projected or there's usually a darker um highlight around like a square around it okay yeah so when this is published that's what you know it'll be have a square around it and we're not asked we're not seeking your approval this evening i'm just bringing this forward for a first reading see any other questions or comments okay thank you very much we'll look forward to seeing this

086when it comes back next item on our agenda is for information purposes only the secretary to submit for insertion into the minutes proof of publication as it relates to the legal notice of the intent to approve the 2021-2022 final budget there's no motion on this but i i'm glad you found it to be moving soon next item i'll accept a motion to approve disbursements from the general fund totaling five hundred seventy eight thousand five hundred nineteen dollars and thirteen cents 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 owners representative cb development services inc and authorized change orders totaling sixty seven thousand six hundred ninety two dollars and fourteen cents as listed second

087moved in second any discussion can we since ken wasn't here can anyone speak to some of these change orders or just i think with the lynnwood project you know some of them are related to the expand the expansion that was added late in the project but you know if you read through at this point in in that project you know we're we're probably looking at punch list items and things that may have been overlooked previously and having gone through several of these construction projects over the last 20 years this is pretty normal stuff i guess county's schedule i i do have ken's notes here if there if there is a particular one that you were that you were curious curious about i can try to no that's okay usually we get the update from him

088before the change order so that's all that i was looking for looking at the descriptions um in the documentation we received just looks like they're finishing touches you know final things to put the building together and right just for the public's information um the board did get uh kind of an outline into description and ken's assessment that the change orders are fair and reasonable for each of the items listed yeah in the case of linwood they're just trying to clean things up and get it ready because obviously in the middle of june we have to furniture is being moved in now 80 of the furniture's already in the building we have to get that completed and cleaned up so that taking all the furniture from old land would put it either putting in storage or

089it's going to be part of the demolition or removing some of that into the new building not really furniture but other really about getting everything done in the building so that we can set everything up thanks bob any other questions or comments from the board all in favor aye any opposed motion carries next item on our agenda i'll accept a motion to approve the 2021-2022 final budget and corresponding budget resolution the final budget for the fiscal year 2022 totals 135 million 348 275 this amount includes 800 000 in budgetary reserve the proposed millage rate is 17.1811 an increase of 0.4353 mills or 2.6 percent over the 2020 2021 millage rate of 16.7458 mills the proposed expenditures are four 476 fifty seven dollars more than the twenty twenty twenty twenty one budget for an increase of

090two point six five two percent second moved in second any discussion bob remind me again auditor has a copy of this as well correct or where do they come into this process i know we've seen them before but they're not here tonight the auditor comes in and they like 2021 they'll audit in july and august and september and then they'll compare 2021 end result to budget so we also look at that internally just say what can we do better to you know budgets an estimate or a projection so we try to get it to be more closer to accurate so we look at trends and things like that but then the auditors are not going to look at this budget state well we have to send a budget and we have to for instance you

091have to see that we're within the 2.6 on our village too so they'll look at all that information but the auditors won't look at it until 21-22 is done got it thank you any other questions or comments from the board all in favor aye any opposed motion carries thank you very much next item on our agenda i'll accept a motion to approve the resolution implementing the homestead farmstead exclusion for 2021 2022 pursuant to section 342 of act 1 of special session 2006. moved in second any discussion i just want to mention that this act one of uh special session 2006 that's the that's where the gambling money was supposed to reduce our taxes and that's where this homestead farmstead exclusion was created so thanks to the good folks who have been gambling over the past

092year each of our registered homestead farmstead uh properties will get uh what was it a 174 dollar credit on their taxes 31 cents don't spend it all in one place all in favor aye any opposed emotion carries i'll accept a motion to authorize special counsel for tax assessment appeals to resolve the following assessment appeals pending in the court of common pleas of delaware county as listed moved in second any discussion all in any favor motion carries i'll accept a motion to appoint kathleen schwartz as school board treasurer to serve a one-year term effective july 1st 2021 so moved moved in second any discussion i think i asked this every year um could somebody just speak to the role of the board treasurer and um that would the board help is a signer on checks also

093depends on on the school district what they give but it might include signing agreements for bank documents kathy predominantly serves as the third signature on the checks so it just helps us facilitate doing business our signatures have the board president uh board secretary and treasurer usually paychecks thank you any other questions or comments all in favor aye any opposed motion carries thank you kathy we appreciate you doing this and doing it again next item on our agenda i'll accept the motion to accept the resignations as listed in second any discussion in favor aye any opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to accept the appointments as listed then second any discussion just like to point out that one of the appointments that we're approving is the new principal for the chestnut waltz school joseph denosbeck

094joseph congratulations welcome aboard we look forward to working with you and it's kind of nice that for all of our little learners there at chestnut world that they can keep saying mr d is my principal joel yeah jd all in favor aye aye aye any opposed motion carries thank you please doctor thank you thank you mr feinberg mr dental's back comes to us with experience as a principal at all three levels uh in an education system at the elementary middle school and the high school level uh in speaking with his uh references uh former supervisors who have worked with him i'll just share with you some of the things that they very willingly shared with me they talked about joe's dedication to his work in particular the children the children are always first he's one

095of the hardest working principals that i have ever worked with and that's from one of your super superintendents joe we as a team were impressed with his sincere belief that community is at the heart of the school experience that came across loud and clear in all of the four how many rounds we have several rounds of interviews here to uh to our process so to take over the helm at a school that has been recognized at both the state and national level for its work around character uh we warmly welcome you into that family at chestnut world and our larger community here thanks for joining us joe [Applause] typically we shake your hand now but we'll just next item i'll accept a motion to approve the leave requests as listed moved in second any discussion

096all in favor aye any opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to approve the student educational excursions as listed and second any discussion how did we do it at the track and field does anybody know how he did congratulations to everyone thanks eric and erica thanks for staying around there again so we had to move in a second did we vote i don't think so hi all in favor aye any opposed next we have this minor detail i'll accept a motion to approve the list of graduates in the class of 2021 on condition that students continue at a satisfactory level of performance for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year no senioritis five more days five more days you can do it move i proudly move this one you have to abstain oh no on

097your behalf second lifted second any discussion how many are there total over 460 students in the in the class they are on this list it's not we'll set some records for a couple of years now on the largest graduating classes they're coming through that's why we're building classrooms and i'm seeing a lot of honor society or honors recognition designations next to these names so that's exciting as well another very accomplished class again it's great all in favor and he opposed last year erica i'm gonna let him go i'm gonna let it go motion carries we're we're looking forward to graduation and we'll do whatever we can to appease the weather gods next item on our agenda is board reports uh antoinette i just want to say congratulations to all of the the graduates i'm very

098excited to attend for the first time and i approve of the whatever we need to do to have the weather be appropriate um but you know as the school year comes to a close i do um i do also just want to say that we've had a lot of of thanks to our teachers and our staff and um and that all still rings true but i just want to say thank you to all of our students this year for being so resilient and for really just being models uh for everyone in our community and how to respectfully handle something that none of us have handled and every time i meet with our students every time i meet someone new at every level i am i'm constantly amazed at how well spoken they are and how

099much they care about our community and so um and positive throughout the whole pandemic and so um you know we're back in in the oakmont building and we're excited to be here but our students have been have been going in and out of buildings for the last year and so i just want to say thank you and congratulations to all of our students for making it through this year especially to our students who are graduating thanks antoinette ari we approved a promotion from the offensive coordinator and middle school teacher luke dougherty to the new varsity head football coach thank you coach gal for all your years good luck to you mr coach dougherty the most important thing i think any of us can do to get ready for next year and to see the most

100normal school year we could possibly have is to get vaccinated that seems to be the trick it's going really well i think we can probably still do better and this is obviously a message for parents uh who have kids 12 and up as of right now um other than that one last note the middle school just finished their help hope live olympics so i want to thank the middle school students teachers and faculty for a successful help hope live charitable campaign thanks ari dave thanks uh yeah so on on this last wednesday uh i along with dr crispin and fresh susan was in here this evening but we attended the time capsule opening and new time capsule placement at linwood which was very exciting we got to see what was in the last one not

101everything survived not very few things survived actually but it was still there seems interesting to to to see they had some amazing facts up about the old school i believe it was built in 1954 is that right after russia okay what what uh what meeting with that was price tag at the time one million newest one is 20 times something something for that but um it was it is great big thanks to everybody who participated in that including some of our seniors who um who sang at our event to write to to ring in the new building and like i said i wish mrs muji was here she's a walk encyclopedia of that building and and that school and i'm sure she'll say about that next time we um we we meet but great event

102thank you very much and like antoinette i'm looking very much forward to our first in person graduation and welcome back to all of you as well who came to stay night good thanks dave kristen i just want to echo what antoinette said in terms of thanking our students um for you know getting us getting themselves getting us through this year and for all of their resilience throughout it all throughout the uncertainty um as we the adults tried to figure out what was best and you know thank you to our teachers and staff and good luck as you wrap up the end of this school year i'm also looking forward to graduation um it was it was kind of weird not to be able to celebrate our graduates last year so um yeah it'll be good

103to be out there again and thank you for all the work that went into setting up this room to allowing the public to come back thank you to all of you for your engagement and coming out and for wearing your masks thanks kristin laura yeah i just wanted to echo what dave said um it was such a pleasure to be at the uh at the ceremony my daughter will be going to linwood next year so it was really fun to be there and it was like the first fun school board event i've been able to attend everything that i've you know i mean these other meetings haven't been fun is that what you're implying i thought you loved xander nothing but a zoom party um but no it was it was such a it was

104such a pleasure to to be out in the community and doing um such a fun event and for my own home school so that was it was wonderful i am sad that sue couldn't be here tonight to talk a little more about it since she was such an important part of the history of linwood but it was really great and just looking back at some of the historical documents and everything that were blown up on the side of the building it was just wild to see some of that information like enrollment numbers and the cost of the building and i think that included purchasing the land too so it was the purchase of the land and building the building the big land by the way um right so yeah that was it was just wild

105um i think the picture i saw showed a board of all men and a superintendent so yeah it was also just kind of exciting to think like they're taking our photo and like we're you know the next time they open the time capsule it's going to be us so that was kind of neat anyway um other than that i did the uh my first legislative breakfast i kind of did like that it was on zoom because i wouldn't have been able to attend in person but it was really great to hear from so many of our legislators about their priorities and their support for public education um and i'm really looking forward to graduation like antoinette said it'll be uh many of us our first graduation so great thanks lauren so just congratulations to our

106graduates um on what has been an amazing and memorable and crazy year did it and congratulations and uh best wishes on on your next moves forward so thank you yeah bridgette thank you i have um a couple reports from the psba weekly buzz that uh i attend and then larry's on those calls too um in the past two weeks we've had one presentation from the pennsylvania department of education on their plan for accelerated learning that's the kind of re-engagement in getting schools and to plan prepare for having almost all kids be back in our school buildings next fall with importance on addressing social emotional needs high quality academics scaffold scaffolded supports and healthy system conditions and they encourage that the process for planning for next year is part of a regular cycle of improvement with

107stakeholder input performance assessments thoughtful use of technology skill building and all of that is to facilitate supportive learning environments and then the second weekly meeting had a presentation from the pennsylvania association of school school counselors um and featured the importance of their role but also noted that pennsylvania is unique in the whole country and not having a comprehensive framework for what the school counselors do and so it can vary from district to district what kind of services and supports counselors provide and that kind of credited the counselors for providing support for academic achievement career readiness safety and trauma responses dealing with attendance and truancy issues and also addressing suicide prevention and attention and so they encouraged us to just take a look at our ratios and coverage for school counselors and how they serve our

108school and i wanted to in addition to saying how excited i am for graduation in particular this year i'm very much looking forward to it um i wanted to give a special thanks to mr mullen last night there was a broadcast of the senior awards and it was held virtually for the second time um but it was done in 35 minutes it was kind of amazing and having it online had an additional benefit this is a really busy time of year for everybody and the students and so we were able to participate in frisbee senior night in the stadium and then go home and catch up and watch the awards afterwards and so the community could tune in and see both the outpouring of support from different members of our community that honor and recognize

109and give tribute through scholarships and prizes to our students and then to the wide range of students who are recognized for many different contributions that they've made in our schools and in our community and like i said it was in 35 minutes so it's time well spent thanks bridgette i want to thank blue taylor for the organization and planning for that time capsule at linwood thanks a lot blue it sounds like it was a great event i'm sorry i missed it but i was out of town on vacation night that week so for the board members who have not previously attended graduation in person i will tell you that even when graduation is in an air-conditioned building gowns are real hot and i would suggest that you wear the lightest clothing you can underneath the

110gowns and don't even think about putting a tie on it's going to be 90 degrees and we don't want anybody passing out during graduation oh and the turf is going to be like 15 degrees hotter yeah really selling it here could have been last week i feel like it was real nice you know could have moved it up it was like in the 60s just just the thought next year calendar is not done yet right laura mentioned the delaware county legislative breakfast that was friday a couple weeks ago right after our board meeting and we had about 70 or 80 board members and superintendents from delaware county in attendance the focus for the session was on charter reform we had almost all of the delaware county legislative delegation present so it was great to have

111the state senators and state representatives and also right congresswoman mary kay scanlon attended the meeting and it was great to have her and get the federal perspective on some of these issues our state rep mike zabel was one of our speakers because he's on the house education committee and state senator tim carney who covers eight or nine of our neighboring districts was another featured speaker as he's on the senate education committee we also had frank gallagher who's a superintendent of the saturn area school district as a featured speaker because he's been very active statewide with superintendents organized for charter reform in closing i know my colleagues have offered their thanks and i want to follow in that regard it's it's not been the best year absolutely appreciate the the efforts of our entire school community

112superintendent administrators principals i know that those folks pretty much worked 24 7 for 14 months and you know it can't thank you enough all of ours all of our teachers and support staff maintenance staff bus drivers um am i leaving anybody out um you know it's just been a heck of a year um and students parents the whole community i know it it has not been a joyride but it looks like we're rounding the clubhouse turn we look forward to whatever the new normal is we know it's not going to be like the old normal uh you know but we'll we'll uh grow into it together so i also want to thank all my fellow board members especially the folks who haven't had any real board experience that's normal we don't always operate like this

113you know it hopefully i mean it's nice to be back in person and hopefully things will return to some sense of normalcy so looking forward to seeing everybody at graduation looking forward to seeing you on the job and with that i'll accept a motion to adjourn thanks everyone