001okay we are we're live on youtube i'm just going to start the meeting um right now and that will that allow the attendees to join and then mr feinberg if you want to give the attendees a few minutes to come in thanks okay okay it looks like the room is pretty much full good evening everybody welcome to the april 22nd board business and conference meeting of the school district of haverford township this is our winter meeting i think everybody was used to it being spring and summer for for a few days but today we got a slap slap in the face so we'll look forward to warmer temperatures we rise for the pledge of allegiance please i pledge allegiance mr regal could you call the roll please okay dr crissman here mr fleischer here miss
002larson here ms minji here mr sinto here mr schwartz here miss snodgrass here uh miss wiedemann here and mr feinberg thanks bob if i could just beg your indulgence for a minute i'd like to uh ask us and ask us as a group for a moment of silence to recognize the untimely passing of uh andy lewis who served who was a public servant in this township for many years both as a commissioner uh then uh first battle on county council um a real dedicated public servant and the township and that county uh we'll miss him our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends thank you i'll accept the motion to approve the official minutes from the april 8th 2021 regular public board meeting center moves moved in second any discussion all in favor
003all right the opposed motion carries thank you want to welcome all our student guests this evening and our next item is student recognition dr ruschi mr feinberg and tonight i'm going to turn it directly over to miss robson our athletic direct assistant principal and athletic director at the high school we have a number of our winter athletes from the basketball teams uh swimming and diving and wrestling who have uh achieved some tremendous accomplishments uh this season and once again they are fabulous representatives of not only haverford high school uh but the school district of haverford township uh so miss robertson will send it over to you thanks for watching thank you dr rishi um it's always very um exciting for me to have the opportunity to honor recognize and celebrate our student athletes um all
004these young women and men certainly represent what it means to be ford tough with with h pride so i'll just dive right in but i do want to thank our athletes our parents and our coaches um we had a lot of obstacles and challenges uh to to get over this winter um with shutdowns and all those type of things so thank you to everyone who helped make these these experiences possible for for our student athletes um i'm just gonna go ahead and dive in the first athlete that we'd like to celebrate tonight is from boys basketball his name is john simon a senior who was first team all central league and he also scored a thousand his 1000 point this year for us ford's is john here tonight well congratulations john he's out shooting hoops
005he probably is our our next uh two gentlemen or both honorable mention for all central league basketball junior nicholas calucci and junior j.r newman congratulations boys i do not see them i don't think all right moving right into girls basketball our first team all league selection was caroline dottie i know she's playing a um lacrosse game right now and then an honorable mention selection senior kiara mcgilvery congratulations to you both next up is our boys swimming and diving team uh our two first team selections was kyle gibbon who's a sophomore i thought i saw kyle congratulations kyle and first team senior john meyer thank you congratulations and then our next two gentlemen are honorable mentions for all central league we have two zacks with us zach graf who's a junior and also zachary skolin congratulations
006guys thank you all right moving right along here we have swimming and diving for our girls um our our first athlete who is not only first team for all central leagues she was also pi double a 3a state champion in the 200im pia runner-up in the 500 free she was district 1 in the 200im champion district runner-up in the 500 free and she was also the central league swimmer of the year this young lady that i'm so proud to announce is katya your solanova our next selection is two second team members um we have sarah chrissinger he's a sophomore thank you thank you and we also have laura seavy who's a senior all right then we have two more honorable mention athletes we have ellie chrissinger who's a freshman thank you thank you and last
007but certainly not least in swimming and diving is alexa castle who's a sophomore i can't connect to your wi-fi okay now moving into our wrestlers our first team selection was stephen lozano who's a senior he was also first he was a first place in central league for his weight class congratulations stephen and we also have cole mcfarlane who is a freshman cole ii was a central league champion in his weight class he was a district one runner-up and also he did qualify and finish fourth in the super region so congratulations cole moving right along here we have two second team selections uh a junior jonathan harwood congratulations jonathan and donnie reimer who's a senior congratulations donnie last and certainly not least we have another honorable mention for wrestling senior jack lacianka congratulations jack and then
008two teams um we have two two winter sports that they do not um currently have their all-league selections but it's extremely important that we recognize them as well our cheerleading squad this year we have madison lawler and caitlin dennis here with us hopefully tonight celebrating and we like their two senior leaders on our team the girls placed uh first in the district one championships and they finished fifth in the pia states this season so they had an outstanding season congratulations ladies and last but certainly not least this team's still going our club ice hockey team um we have jacob arazzi and jagger mcclellan who are c leaders on this team they are central league champions they were undefeated in the central league on tuesday night they were flyer cup champions and they will play in
009the pi double or actually not the pia the pa state championship this saturday in pittsburgh they'll play the pittsburgh cup uh champs and for for a battle of east versus west so we're really excited for our our guys and let's go forwards thank you so much everyone thanks ms robertson and congratulations to all our student athletes next item on our agenda is student reports we have zoe starr from the middle school and erica borby from the high school zoe hi uh good evening everyone my name is zoe starr and i will be reporting for the middle school tonight uh april is world autism month we recognize celebrate and support our autistic community with of students families and staff we have a 30-minute community workout event planned for this saturday from 2 30 to 3 30
010p.m at the ag cornog turf football field at the middle school the spring sports season is in full swing meets and games be began this week and all the students athletes are excited to be competing our athletic director and coaches have been amazing and we appreciate the work they do so that we can participate in and enjoy spring sports this season we are finishing bringing hope home fundraiser this week bringing hope home is a local non-profit organization that provides unexpected amazingness by providing financial support to families in our community battling cancer we are grateful to help our community and celebrate at the end of may with the annual bringing hope home olympics on the field the choral department is hosting a virtual choral concert on thursday april 29th at 7 p.m mrs langley ms hendler
011will be will lead the grade level courses chamber choir fordets and seventh heaven who will be performing that's that i have uh i'd like to thank you for allowing me to present tonight we loser dr richie you're muted yeah she's i guess she let she did after she said thank you it looks like she left maybe she had another engagement okay erica you're up next good evening community and members of the board so many exciting things are happening at haverford and i'm thrilled to share them with you this evening the ford's ice hockey team claimed back-to-back wins this past week first beating springfield 11-1 to secure the central league championship on thursday april 1st and then tackling on downingtown west and winning 4-1 beating the number one seat to certify their win as the flyers
012double-a cup champions next they will travel to pittsburgh on saturday to fight for the state double-a championship i for one will definitely be live streaming the game and i know our community will surely rally behind the forts speaking of states congratulations to our science olympiad team for coming in first place at the traa state competition this weekend six students placed first in their events bringing home a whopping 37 medals our chair team threw up big numbers as well they came in fifth last weekend after state championship competition and ended their season with flying colors on monday april 19th the haverford girls softball team beat marple 7-0 and our boys and girls track and field teams have been putting up consistent performances every wednesday and saturday at league meets as for our clubs leaders are picking
013up the pace as the end of the year approaches winners for the voter registration drive raffle were picked at the end of the day yesterday and to be completely honest i am incredibly jealous of the lucky senior who won the free parking spot haverford's ultimate frisbee team is collecting sneakers for a recycling program and student senate is organizing a soft drive starting next monday and ending on friday may 7th students are welcome to drop off cash donations at the main office or donate new pairs of socks in boxes dispersed around the high school on tuesday april 27th grow up will be hosting collaboration with the african-american cultural enrichment club to discuss historical female innovators drama club has also been hard at work producing their spring play peter and the starcatcher tickets are on sale online
014for any interested audiences next friday april 30th best buddies will be holding april showers for all students students will be able to run through a fire truck close either individually or with a buddy i would also like to extend my congratulations to all national qualifiers and honorable mentions from fbla's virtual awards of excellence last but not least the senior planning committee is working hard to orchestrate several several memorable culminating events for the class of 2021. next wednesday april 28th the committee will be taking a trip to the reserve to visualize prom plans graduation speaker editions are being held on monday may 17 and powder puff is also scheduled for tuesday may 18th as commitment day draws nearer i am excited to see where all my peers decide to spend their next four years it's been
015an honor growing with the class of 2021 and there is nothing more rewarding than seeing hard work pay off thank you so much the board for having me here tonight and i am sincerely looking forward to my next evening presenting thank you erica good to see you zoey had you finished or did you have a technology moment oh no i'm finished thank you okay well thank you both for being with us this evening it's great to hear all the good things that are going on in our schools next item on our agenda is public comment uh speakers remembered uh when you're called to state your name and address they'll have three minutes to speak and then uh anna will ask you to finish it up okay anna um thank you mr feinberg and also i
016i would ask any of the we have 20 comments that came in um to public comment if you could please raise your hand so that we can move you from the attendee list um to the panelist list and also i want to make note that we have students this night tonight speaking and so students just need to say their name and their school um not to say their address because they're they're underage so thank you okay we'll start with our first speaker is graham well let me see graham ryan it keeps jumping i apologize on the right okay graham you can unmute and if you want to turn your screen on hi i'm graham ryan a member of the green team at linwood i'm i'm here here this evening to talk about why it would
017be a good idea to put solar panels on the top of the new school building one reason why solar panels should be placed on a new school building is because the school will not have to get as much electricity from power plants this means that the school will not have to pay as many electric bills thus possibly saving money another benefit is the power plants will not have to make as much electricity this means that their power plants will prove we'll pollute the environment less and will also not use up as many fossil fuels this will help to save the environment unfortunately solar panels are a bit on the expensive side but after being installed they should hopefully eventually save enough money and wildlife to be worth it thank you okay all right next attendee
018is lainey kluwell and i she may have they may have a few speaking at the same time so i'm not sure if they're all logging in or if they're all together hi yes i'm speaking with the group um i'm lainey kula and i'm in fifth grade from linwood and i'm going to be speaking about the solar panels online um i'm also speaking with anita feinberg and carly porsche go ahead anita you're first i can't find anita on oh there she is okay okay sorry for the wait here she comes okay hi i'm anita feinberg and i'm in fifth grade at linwood and me and my friends are on the green team a student group that discusses environmental issues hello i'm carly porsch and i'm in fifth grade from lynwood and we are promoting the installation
019of solar panels on the new linwood building hello i am lainey cool and i am in fifth grade from london because linwood is being reconstructed now is the time to add solar panels climate change is a real problem and if our generation does not do anything to slow or stop it then there might not be a world for new generations to grow up in if we had a different power source we would not only be reducing our carbon footprint we would also be able to save money one load payment up front for adding the solar panels would be less spent overall because the solar panels will last also we would not have to play a power plant as much to devote power towards us school buildings in the us use an average of 10 kilowatt
020hours of electricity and 50 cubic feet of natural gas per square foot annually that's a lot of energy that we could cut back on by getting solar panels solar panels are waterproof and show a 57 chance of less leakage which means you would spend less money on roof repairs we're not going to be attending the new linwood building on account of us stepping up to the haverford middle school but we deeply care about the environment and we all have younger siblings who will be educated in the new linwood building please continue our proposal happy earth day and thank you for your time well we have um antonio maloney joining us next i'm bringing him in as a panelist i think my days as a board member are numbered dr ruschi hello um so hello i'm
021antonia maloney i'm a junior at haverford high school and i'm a part of the school's environmental club and the environmental advisory committee thank you to the school board for allowing me to express my opinion on what i consider a very important topic i would like to fully express my support for the implementation of solar panels and solar energy for lynnwood elementary school when opportunities like this arise it is important that our community recognizes and adapts to the growing technologies that can support the use of sustainable and clean energy sources it is widely known that solar energy is the most abundant source energy source in the world is becoming more and more feasible to use due to the declining cost of solar panels it is evident that now is the perfect time to continue our townships
022trends of energy efficiency as a member of the school district in the havertown community i'd be delighted to see the application of renewable energy sources and by taking this step to support sustainable energy members of our township will have another reason to be proud of the thoughtful community they are a part of thank you again for this opportunity to speak thank you next we have ava belle um my name is eva romano and i go to lynnwood lynwood elementary i am second grade at linwood and i'm excited to go back to school in september in the new building only the thing is missing is solar panels to keep clean renewable energy please consider adding this important thing to make it the best school ever we have solar panels on our home and i hope you
023can get some on the new school too thank you thank you okay we have zachary joining us oh yeah there you go i'm zachary kraut i'm a seventh grader at haverford middle school and just like many of the other people before me i would also like to show my support for adding solar panels onto the new lynnwood school building not only would it uh have great cost and energy efficiency and environment benefits you'd also teach the students at the school more about solar panels and it would give the teachers an opportunity to further explain uh renewable energy sources and how they worked and every like everything like that so that the new generation could be educated and then put solar panels on their school buildings uh making the enviro the environment even safer for them
024to breathe thank you next we have joshua hi everyone my name is joshua mintzer and i'm a junior at hagford high school thank you dr ruschi and members of the board for allowing me the opportunity to speak this evening i'm the student liaison between our school's environmental club and the townships environmental advisory committee i'm fully in support of the addition of solar panels at willingwood elementary and i think it's the perfect opportunity to do so especially because a new roof is being constructed i think the addition of solar panels at lynwood would pique the interest of many in the area to follow suit the price of soar has been rapidly decreasing in recent years and you can get a great return on your investment over time our community should strive to head in a direction
025where renewable and clean energy such as soar is an integral part of haverford township i think that it's especially important for people my age to voice their support for environmental measures this is the world that will someday be entrusted to us and future generations we need to do all we can to sustain it thank you for your consideration thank you next we have noelle smythe yeah hi my name is noel smith and i'm a long time harvard graduate residence i sent three of my children to linwood school and i'm a taxpayer and i don't think i can state the case any better than the students that you've had on tonight other than from a taxpayer's perspective i support this 100 percent and please take the advice of the students that spoke and think of the
026future which i know you do and the solar panels on that route and i'll also just say thank you to the school board for your forward thinking and replacing our schools in kind when it's needed so i appreciate what you do and um i'm in support of the uh the solar project so thank you next we have tracy hi my name is tracy lira my address is 1729 hawthorne app i have two kids in the elementary in chestnut wald but i am in full and fully in support of putting solar panels on the linwood school i think it's important that we show our children that we're serious about addressing climate change by taking action in our local communities we talk a lot about it but really our actions are what show you know what we
027really care about they're the ones that are going to be left to deal with you know the worst if we don't act so i think my kindergartner summed it up pretty well when i asked him why it was important he said it's healthy for the earth thank you thank you next we have sarah mccafferty good evening thanks for having me tonight um my name is sarah mccafferty my address is 645 hazelwood road um ardmore in the previous school board meeting two community members claimed that the district was not forthcoming with data that shows systemic racism in havoc haverford township but in fact this data is widely available on the department of education's office of civil rights website and it was also shared by sarah christensen and gary moyer in a presentation about basis at the
028february 18th school board meeting in this meeting we were shown graphs which show that in 2018 black students in haverford schools were 3.9 times more likely to be suspended than their white peers the data shows that in 2019 black students were eight times more likely to be suspended than their white classmates this data is consistent with the data from the u.s department of education which shows that in 2015 black students were five times more likely to be suspended in haverford township to put this another way black students make up less than five percent of the student population but accounted for 17 of all suspensions we can also see data about ap enrollment and there's evidence of systemic racism there as well black students are four times less likely than their white peers to be placed
029in gifted and talented programs in haverford township the school district of haverford township is not unique in this data black students were suspended at a rate 2.4 times higher than their white christ classmates in all of delaware county and also underrepresented in honors and ap courses now when ms christensen shared this data she explained that part of the work basis is doing is to question and to dig deeper into the causes for these disparities a question is are black and white students getting the same educational experience in haverford township the answer is clearly no they are not i do not believe that the color of a child's skin affects their intelligence or their likelihood to misbehave but we do know that people have prejudice unconscious bias which affects how they treat others there's plenty of
030evidence of systemic racism in haverford township as there is in schools all across this county state and country i'm grateful that the district is taking steps with basis to ask questions about this data but let's not forget that this data is not just a bunch of numbers these are our children and the experiences they have here in our schools will have a lasting impact on their lives it is not enough to just ask questions the district needs to be taking concrete action to address these disparities and make sure that every child in this district is offered the same educational opportunities and treated fairly without bias i find it odd that someone would even need to ask for proof of systemic racism the evidence is all around us we live in a predominantly white community because
031many of our neighborhoods were built as restricted communities which legally forbid black people from buying homes here many of our local swim clubs did not allow black members even in my own lifetime my husband was black i'm starving and his family born with all his rights his parents grandparents and great-grandparents were denied the same freedoms that my family were given the effects of legally enforced racism linger in every system in this country and it is not enough to just be kind or not racist we must take anti-racist action in order to undo centuries of harm i'm grateful to the school board for adopting the anti-racist resolution and i hope that is just the first step in addressing the inequities in our school thank you thank you um just let you know i do have the
032alarm set up i'm not sure if you could and if as the audience able to hear it when it went off i can make a little bit louder just to let people know that they've approached the three minutes okay i don't want to interrupt anyone but i'll make sure that the alarm goes a little louder next we have money riley good evening everyone on may 25th 2020 george floyd was murdered by derek chavin a statement we can say with fact as of two days ago george floyd's death sparked a global and i mean a global outcry for racial justice and calling into light the disparaged treatment people receive because of the colorism and racism that plagues our society in february 2020 i along with other district stakeholders participated in the school strategic planning process one
033of the goals developed was establish a culturally diverse and inclusive educational experience that develops social cultural proficiency on august 6th the school district unanimously passed a resolution to support an anti-racist school climate in that resolution you all acknowledge that we must examine our school policies and practices through anti-racist and equity lenses to address the racism and inequity that exists within our own school community and system to actively oppose racism in all of its forms you clearly define anti-racism and equity in the policy for all those who read it to give common understanding of the terminology and yet here we are almost a year later with those who would prefer to keep the dominant culture power structure in place that causes harm disproportionately to marginalized communities there are those who call diversity an inclusion initiative divisive
034but once not very long ago having black children go to school with white children was divisive having black people use the same water fountain as whites was divisive if just simply recognizing that history exists and because of segregation redlining dominant cultural based laws and policies for example ones that police black hair people feel those policies are divisive then honestly so be it but i would also note that those with such narrow lenses to look through should not make such a sweeping generalization about the effectiveness of diversity and inclusion trainings going forward my wish for the district would be that you fully develop a concrete action plan as described in that anti-racist resolution that you ensure the parent and guardian equity team has the resources support and direction to work towards our strategic planning goals that
035you gear more teacher and staff professional development trainings to understanding diversity and inclusion and how to de-center themselves from situations that we hire a full-time equity officer in this district that we work with agencies familiar with haverford's demographics that can align their program outcomes to our designated strategic planning goals and that you remind your bypoc students teachers and staff that this school district and board fully supports them their well-being and that you intend to stand on the right side of history schools have long been on the front line of the social justice movement and it's time to stop pretending social justice and academic content have to be separate if that was the case our students wouldn't learn about the civil rights movement if haverford as a district wants our students on a global stage we
036should decide if we want to be on that stage as well are we following in the footsteps of districts like lower marian or do we plan to remain to be silent and sit in the audience it was very disheartening to not receive a message from our district administration wednesday knowing the immersion emotional turmoil many of your families went through waiting for tuesday's verdict even if you personally cannot understand that inks showing solidarity with families that did would have put us one step closer to being on that stage and i realized i didn't give my name and address so monet riley and i'm at 400 glendale road and haverford i'm sorry thank you our next speaker is meredith mccanty hello good evening um i just wanted to uh say thank you to dr rushi and the
037board members for allowing me to speak tonight i'm just reaching out tonight to request request that you make a commitment for full-time in-person learning for all students for the 2021-2022 school year currently the haverford elementary schools are operating on a full-time schedule for families who choose this but the middle school and high schools are not it is imperative that we get our older students back into the classroom full time it is if not this year then at least for the next school year at the moment other local school districts have made this commitment and i ask that haverford do the same in addition to the need for full-time in-person learning it is necessary for the district to focus solely on ways to ensure that students education needs are met and to make up for any
038learning loss over the course of this past year private schools have been in session this past year and our older students will be competing with those students for college admittance and scholarships we need to ensure that they are able to successfully compete with their peers lastly i ask that the district provide adequate mental health resources for all students to help them cope with the changes this past year has brought yes our kids are resilient and strong but they also had no choice in the matter the full outcome of the effect of the lockdown will not be realized for some time but it is the responsibility of the district and dedicated professionals to make sure these effects are as minimal as possible thank you for your time tonight and thank you for allowing me to speak
039thank you our next guest is jenny england good evening dr ruchi and board members thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight i wanted to speak to address my disappointment and frustration over the district's summer school plans for families this year i was glad to hear that the district plans to offer options for children who are suffering academically due to the lack of an appropriate educational model this year for our youngest learners however i was dismayed to see that the district plans to charge a hundred and seventy dollars per subject for families that are given this option this means for families whose children are recommended by the district for both math and ela summer programming families will need to pay 340 dollars in order for their children to participate in this programming participation
040in this programming as described by the district is based on teacher recommendation teachers are recommending students for this program based on testing scores such as the aims web testing which we know was significantly low for kindergartners first graders and second graders um in the winter and other factors such as grades this this suggests that these are students who were not successful during hybrid and virtual learning based on district assessments throughout this school year parents have privately and publicly commented that about the failure of the district to adequately educate educate its youngest learners in these formats the hybrid and virtual model these same parents are now being asked to pay the district in the hopes that 14 additional days of in-person learning the program would run from june 28 until july 16 will be able to
041undo some of the academic losses their children have incurred to say that this is unacceptable would be an understatement of the most egregious kind furthermore at the board meeting on february 11th at saska in addressing the concerns regarding ames web scores for k-5 stated that parents would not be asked to hire tutors or pay for research resources to catch their kids up yet parents are being asked to pay the district to catch their kids up the cost of this program should not be born by families of this district in any way shape or form parents of students in the haverford school district have already paid the district to educate their children the fact that the district has failed to provide an appropriate educational model for some students and will be recommending those students for additional
042support is and should be the first the financial responsibility of the school district thank you again for giving me the time to speak oh thank you oh i forgot [Music] our next speaker is andrew pigeon i'm going to sorry about that i am here now uh good evening school board my name is andrew pigeon i'm at 1728 hawthorne avenue in havertown pa um i did want to start before i read the note saying that everything in regard in this note has to do with the chester county health department's guide quarantine guidelines and i realize that you are not making those policies but i did want to make sure that you are aware of them and anybody else that was listening and how they can have real world effects um last tuesday at 10 am i
043got a text from my wife that someone needs to pick up my first grader from school i was on my way out to an appointment in lancaster and she was at work unable to leave at the drop of a hat so i cancelled my appointment for work as i've done so many times this last year due to virtual and hybrid learning to pick up the first grader who struggles with virtual learning i have been writing to you about for the better part of a year there are nine kids in the class who have been exposed to a presumed positive covet patient and musk quarantine every child who sat within six feet of the presumed positive patient for more than 15 minutes musk quarantine due to exposure those are the guidelines from the chester county health
044department i would like to be clear that both the school nurse and the principal were excellent in their presentation of the situation as well as listening to our frustrations okay so when can they return they can return after 10 days if no symptoms are present or they can return in seven days with a negative test after day five this is the story of our presumed positive exposure in its entirety and here are my questions if my child is within a six feet of a presumed positive case while wearing his mask why the need to quarantine if masks are effective if he still needs to quarantine because of an exposure to a presumed positive while wearing a mask why bother wearing a mask at all why does my child who was exposed have to stay home
045from school but his brother and sister who live in the same home are still able to go to school safely he got a negative test on day five and he can't return to school until day seven he does not need another test on day seven he just can't return until day seven if he tested negative on day five why the need to quarantine until day seven if another test is not required what if i was in lancaster and not able to answer my phone for a couple hours what would the school have done with my son then i know there's no logical question to any of these questions excuse me no logical answer to any of these questions nothing we have done to mitigate this virus has been logical so we get another week of
046virtual learning and there is still yet to be a confirmed positive case why are we putting our kids through this they are breathing through a mask for seven hours they are surrounded by plexiglass they are not eating together or playing together as they should even after all these mitigation efforts we still get sent home to the horror that is virtual learning when they are exposed i realize these aren't your rules i know you're following the guidelines from the chester county health department but here's the thing we didn't elect the chester county health department we elected you we are looking to the school board to ask these questions and implement safe and logical policy lead don't defer to another county's health department whose main role prior to covid was to send out flu shot reminders these
047quarantine rules are nonsensical garbage that have real world consequences why would a virus which has so little to no effect on the kids who are always wearing masks and learning in a building where every single adult has been given the opportunity to be vaccinated caused this big of an overreaction you have done a great job of providing a safe environment for all students and teachers it is safe due to the community's sacrifice [Applause] and ma adherence to masking and distancing please think this through it and step up keep in mind that these kids are playing sports going to parties playing with friends outside of school and families and our families are vacationing nothing is transmitting at school it's happening by living life if there were no mitigation efforts in place that would make sense for
048everyone within six feet of the child to be sent home but what's the point of everything we're doing if they're still going to be sent home anyway thank you very much for your time i appreciate it thank you i'm trying to turn the alarm off the same time okay okay our next speaker is elaine conroy smith i'm not sure why everyone can't hear the timer but i guess it's close to three or three minutes i'll let everybody know all right thank you if you can say your name and address please sure my name is helene conrad smith i live at 32 east westwood park drive havertown i'm speaking today to the board to implore you to open up the school board meetings um to the public to allow us to all come to want together
049in the high school auditorium so that parents can come in and to speak i'm also looking at um the dis on december 3rd 2020 i asked for all curricula to be placed online i still have not heard from the district nor have i heard from any of the school board members parents have the right to know what is being taught to our children and they we are moving towards legislation in harrisburg to have this done and i feel as a right as a parent we should all know what our children are learning i also would like to say that um i am for a multicultural program for equality and i believe that that is much more important than developing a fluid definition of equity that was admitted of several school board meetings ago that it
050changes that definition my tax dollars are being used for an equity committee that can certainly be managed in the community and through the use of their political party and that is something that can be done there the 1950s civil rights movement by dr martin luther king was one of the most important movements to fight for equal rights using a peaceful model movement to be inclusive for all and so right now what we're having is to continue to see our children be politicized in an agenda and to me it's unethical and it's also unconscionable our contracts with this school district with other agencies clearly are not in line with the entire community and when we use public funds those public funds need to encompass all all taxpayers thank you thank you our next speaker is alex's
051pasternack alexis out you're muted i'm sorry you're muted street address please okay hi my name is alexis pasternak and i reside at 609 woodland drive in havertown thank you for letting me speak today uh board members and dr ruschi in the latest issue of haverford happenings you indicated that with the help of the equity leadership team's teachers and staff are learning more about equity inclusion racism and bias through books book clubs resources such as learning for justice and dialogues about race of course i felt compelled to find out what uh exactly the southern poverty law center's learning for justice platform offers to help our teachers and staff i did enjoy the mix it up at lunch day you get out of your comfort zone and you connect with someone new over lunch i think that's
052a wonderful simple idea but honestly i was concerned by what i saw one featured article for teachers from issue 64 was what white colleagues need to understand why white supremacy doesn't stop at the teacher's lounge door another recent article another recent article was titled a flaw in the foundation if we're serious about dismantling white supremacy in schools teacher preparation programs are an obvious place to start will our teachers be subjected to this kind of training if they haven't already who exactly suggested that this using this particular resource what kind of books will you be using who will be paying for those books or will they be donated what exactly is haverford school district's definition of white supremacy because let's face it we know that's coming if learning for justice is a resource please provide more
053transparency in your pursuit of equity and please consider opening up your equity team so that all can be involved in your pursuit of equity thank you very much thank you um mr feinberg there were two other people that it emailed but they're not in attendance or nor is there hand raised under a different name so that's all we have this evening thanks adam you know i'd just like to uh thank all of our student speakers for taking the time to come uh speak with us this evening eloquently excuse me mr feinberg yep in response to the student speakers i had an idea maybe we could add a web page to the um website about the linwood project that highlights all the environmentally friendly features that the building already has uh incorporated into its construction is
054that possible by any chance we can talk to mr matthews a little later and see what we might be able to set up next item on the agenda superintendent's remarks dr rishi thank you mr feinberg a few announcements uh for some some public service and some updates i'm thrilled to report that our students at the high school those who are 16 years or older as of april 20th have an opportunity to obtain the pfizer vaccine tomorrow we are partnering with radnor high school marvel newtown high school and haverford and those vaccines are being provided by springfield pharmacy uh in a partnership that is countywide uh with springfield pharmacy uh so we're excited that our students will have that opportunity between the hours of one and seven tomorrow just a reminder most of our parents and
055guardians already know this if they are scheduled to go out tomorrow but if the child is not 18 years of age they must be accompanied by a parent or a guardian we have already had our first planning meeting to discuss what a rollout would look like if in fact the vaccine is approved for children between the ages of 12 and 15. i have no idea at the preliminary meeting we were not given any indication how quickly that may happen whether it would be prior to the close of the school year or prior to the opening of the new school year but we will continue to participate in those planning meetings have a seat at the table and offer to help in whatever way we can help um to to make that possible for for our
056students um the and we did have one speaker speak a little a little bit about this and i will take some of those uh questions that that individual raised to my next next planning meeting but you know just as a as a reminder chester county uh health department still has not changed their definition of a close contact so anyone who you know our students are all less than six feet more than three or three feet and what that does is it increases the number of students who are then identified as cl as close contacts um what i will say and somewhat in alignment with what mister the concerns that mr pigeon raise you know many students are quarantining you know many have been since the start of the school year um but the perspective that
057we are taking in our current advocacy and that weeds not just haveford but all 15 districts across the county the perspective that we are taking of all of the students who have been quarantined because they were identified as a close contact to someone who was positive in school since september three have tested positive so that they're the data points that we are using um we are not looking to be haphazard we are not looking to throw caution to the wind we like take whatever other cliche you want to put with it we still want to be very mindful of health and health and safety but we want to look at what we what we're experiencing i'm not even going to say learning we're not scientists but what we are experiencing with this virus for over
058a year now and we are trying you know advocating to have some of those changes you know some of those changes made um because we know when you know in some instances when students are quarantining their out and about with more students uh you know more context than they would have if they were in school we have always felt that to the students being in school is the best place for them and we're going to continue to advocate to to do that we have already undertaken our planning for next year uh we are looking at even in the event that six feet of social distancing is still a requirement when students are without masks and eating and i'm just saying if if that is i have no knowledge or any inclination from anyone with whom
059i've spoken whether that will or will not be a requirement but we as a district already are planning if that is a requirement uh what needs to be put in place so that we can have our students at the secondary level in for you know for longer periods of time we can we will not start the school year on this same schedule that we currently have right have right now um so we may be coming back to you and talking about um how to how to use the space around some of our buildings a little bit differently as a reminder moving off the coveted topic um communication has been sent out about pssa testing the only choice that a district has been given is when not if we are still required within the state of
060pennsylvania to administer pssa testing that window for administration a district can choose to uh can opt to administer the tests in the fall we are choosing to administer in the spring we do not want to start the school year because if you choose a fall administration that administration must be completed by september 30th we're starting our school year after labor day so it's a very short window of time to welcome students back you know enthusiastically start the school year and then administer pssa tests and then we would also be required to administer them again in the spring so we will be we are administering them this spring all communication has gone out to two parents uh and guardians if you did not receive that please reach out to your building principal if you've got questions
061about the administration about the options please reach out to to your principal as well so we can direct you to the appropriate source to get those get those questions answered my public service announcements uh we are desperately in need of substitute teachers so if you know anyone anyone at all please put them in touch with with our hr office uh on our website uh they can get direct directions for how to contact us but we are in need of substitute teachers and again that's not unique to you know unique to us but we really had such a great response when we let our community know that we needed lunch monitors at the elementary level um you know if there's anyone out there who can can help us whether it's a per diem basis or you
062could fill in for a couple weeks when someone is someone is out but we're you know asking our community to reach out and tap someone's shoulder if you if you know that they can serve as a substitute substitute teacher may 8th our ed fit the ed foundation is going to hold another food drive the previous food drive that they had was so well received they're going to that's they're going to be in the same location um in front of our middle school and they are they have been contacted um by food banks asking if we would you know if they would conduct another food drive so you'll hear more from the ed foundation but that's going to be coming up on on may 8th and in closing we celebrated george ramplin today our director of
063transportation whose official last day after 41 years with the district will be tomorrow so in haverford fashion we picked george up for work uh in a school bus uh and many of his current uh and former colleagues were at the bus yard to greet him as as that busser as that bus arrived um and it was it was just nice to see uh how many people wanted to be there today uh to appreciate george to thank him for all that for all that he has done uh and to let him know how much he's going to going to be missed so that's it for to for tonight mr feinberg thank you for the time thanks dr urzy next item on our agenda construction update uh ken matthews from cb development ken good evening everyone uh
064well with your question regarding linwood we'll jump right into that and sustainability uh i know in the past uh early on during design the board had asked questions about that specific topic so there are a number of items that are incorporated into the design of the building you know for energy conservation etc so we can certainly provide uh that list so i'll pass that along to uh district administration um so then moving into progress uh linwood you know it really a lot of loose ends are getting finished up you can see the bulk of the facade of the building is down but there's little missing pieces loose ends a few window pieces etc so we're trying to push to get all that complete on the inside of the building where we continue to work on
065punch list and just about wrapped up with the bulk of the work so really it will be doing final cleaning uh doing the final pass-through with the architect ourselves making sure all those punchless items are completed and then as you know and we're presenting a few items here tonight is some of the change orders uh the cafeteria work uh continues uh that work they've uh taken down the exterior wall they put the new one up at this point to meet some of the new steel so that that work will continue in the coming months uh so as far as progress you know the building's in good shape the site work there's little loose ends being done and then we're really you know waiting for the school to end and you take down the existing building
066and start doing the parking lot and the bulk of the site work to wrap it up this summer so things are on track uh remain on track so that being said we did have a handful of change orders this evening for linwood and wanted to see if any of the board members have any questions questions from the board internet thanks ken can you speak at all to the immediate impact and boost taking linwood off line the old linwood offline and putting in a new linwood that's going to be inherently more energy friendly more energy efficient could possibly be towards the environmental impact i mean that alone has to be significant uh yes i mean we can certainly get numbers on that ari i mean there's an energy study that's required that's done on the new
067building uh certainly the existing linwood doesn't have air conditioning so the new building has air conditioning but you have very high uh energy efficient systems between the boilers the chill the chillers so there are actual numbers to that you know energy consumption so if that's something you're interested we can certainly provide that data well certainly i think the students would be interested in that data how about green roofs i know um the high school needed to have one did linwood um also need to have one was that part of that um that was not part of any of the conditions of the approval uh there you know there were some discussions uh about it but um you know again with the the r value which is the the rating of the thickness of the roof
068you had pretty significant insulation value so it wasn't deemed necessary at the time at that time for the high school that was part of the zoning one of the conditions of the approval was that a green roof had to be installed antoinette thanks my my raised hand zoom function is gone so thank you um i look like i'm high-fiving everyone um um i did have a couple questions on the change orders just because there are some really um some line items for the covid um yes uh extensions it looks like and so can you just speak to those sure the actual change order didn't give too much detail so thank you no so sure so as we you know the cafeteria change order we've been trying to finalize that specifically uh for wescott electric and
069for jbm who's the mechanical contractor and the plumbing contractor on the job they all submitted cost for uh the covid delay and extension of time for the project and we've been going back and forth uh with them having numerous discussions uh frankly getting them into what we consider fair and reasonable uh we started out significantly higher um over the life probably the last two months we've really been going through this so now we've gotten to the point where uh we feel it's in the reasonable realm for for that delay in the project in the middle of a pandemic and we kind of combined some of that with the cafeteria cost as we went through uh to make sure again it was fair and reasonable it started out a lot higher and we came to a
070good you know essentially negotiated to make sure we got to what what was a good number so and that's where we are today thanks kristin can related to internet's question is there anything in any of the the contracts that we have that would kind of limit these costs i mean just that is a this is a big number for what we we owe and coven costs uh yes they are when you look at them just on paper uh kristin they do come across as big numbers but when you look at a project of this magnitude of 34 million dollar job they're they're quite in insignificant uh you know they're less than a half uh less than one percent uh for jbm and steubner and then westcott's a little bit higher so that's there is contractual
071language we go through that we talk with the district solicitor and try and come up with the best solution obviously um something like a a pandemic that hasn't happened in over 100 years is it was something new to deal with so we tried to work together with contractors and come to a reasonable uh reasonable settlement so that we can finish the project move on avoid going to litigation and you know shake hands have a great job they've all done a nice job and you all walk away with a wonderful building for the next 50 years and to that point could you speak to some of the things that these change orders like the cost that those are intended to cover it's not just they needed to you know get hand sanitizer and face masks no
072that's yeah they you know a lot of it was you know the everybody was stuck with these uh their project management their staff that you know there were no other projects for them to go to so now you're paying them for that you know they um they had all the trailers they're being on site that they they weren't using so you have those are smaller costs it's really staffing costs is a big part of it uh you know you have superintendents that couldn't work anywhere else so you know they're basically paying paying them to be there and then now you've extended their time out farther so the contractual completion date was february 1st this year we came to an agreement that they would basically have the building done march 25th so which is actually a
073seven week period or so a little more than the six weeks so um it's it's all those overhead and general condition costs uh or make up the big big the bulk of that hey can i i think it's also good to point out that our continues our budget for our contingencies are it's still we're still in a good spot with regards to to that aspect of the budget is that is that accurate yes that's correct and that's and look that's when you do a project like this that's why you put contingency in for you know certainly i nobody thought of a a pandemic of course but you know for for the various changes that can happen and construction is a big risk and we that's what we reiterate to a lot of our clients and
074um i know you all understand that um having done so many of these projects in the district so um so that's that's what it's there for and it's been able to be used to resolve these issues and and move on ken are you saying language in um i guess contracts for current more current construction projects kind of related to covid kind of uh yeah for the high school project right behind me we put in language regarding covid that as part of their bid package based on the current state and all the cdc guidelines uh et cetera that that all needed to be included in the project and there be no no cost associated with that if anything if there was a delay by the government for some reason they would have been allowed an extension
075of time thank you so it sounds like these covid charges are related to um a work stoppage and materials that were needed to come back to work to work under covered conditions is that correct so yeah as part of closing this out any associated cost of uh of any material delays etc so it basically closes out that there are no there is no other uh submissions at all for that the contractors can come up up through to up through today basically that you know anything any cost that they've incurred due to that material delays storage of material etc is part of this change it's very similar to uh delay claims which are very common in construction and if you don't get it done in april and you uh and it goes and you know these
076extra days they're viewing it as those men could go to their next project and spend their time at those days so there there's lost income at their next project and then they kind of rationalize that as you know being an additional cost to us so that they come to work here even though it's six weeks beyond the deadline or however long the covet delay was we don't lose them to another job essentially right right any other questions from the board regarding lynwood ben all right then for the high school uh you know you can see there's great progress uh behind me here it's probably about a week and a half old picture they've poured the concrete floors this week the roof is starting next week so the building envelope will really take shape and then
077they're gonna basically within the next two weeks start the interior fit out of work they've also done some work in the basement as soon as the boilers are shut down here at the end of the month uh some of the new pumps and tying into the hot water system all that infrastructure will really start so um you know really uh you know the month of may june and july are going to be extremely busy uh getting things done and with the anticipation of um august 20th is when the building needs to be complete so and the site works moving along parking lot work will start in the next week or two so things are moving along well um in addition we did have a handful of change orders for the high school this evening if
078anybody had any questions about that questions from the board not seeing any okay great well we'll get you that sustainability information here shortly and thank you and have a wonderful night thank you sir next item on our agenda is the proposed budget for 2021-22 mr rival okay uh we have a familiar slideshow and the budget process actually starts in october and the first look happens in january and a lot of updates and refinements happen between january and april and then we approve what is called a proposed final budget and at that point uh it's kind of getting close to the final and uh we we post uh the uh budget for 30 days prior to the approval in june and we hopefully improved our final budget which is the working budget for the next year
079uh if you go to the next slide um you can see the assumptions are very similar the act one index is 3.0 percent uh because of the reassessment we were limited to 2.6 percent uh there's no act exceptions available to us our visas our retirement employer retirement contribution on the expenditure side is almost 35 cents for every dollar spent on salaries we had to adjust our certified assessments almost double what it used to be but our uh millage is half of what it used to be so it it all works that way it's way out but that's the effect of the reassessment uh we do have money in in there for uh debt service for phase two uh the linwood is all fully uh funded and so is phase one of the high school so
080phase two and then the uh uh the projects that coopertown and chatham park are left to be funded uh we have 625 000 with a capitalized interest which is part of the the funding bond funding process and it helps to alleviate some of the uh budgetary pressure in this year if we go to the next slide we still have five new teaching positions in here one psychologist one elementary assistant principal a 0.5 increase to our registrar position and student tech positions going this is if you look at the first look uh budget that we prepared back in january our use of fund balance or our gap between revenues and expenditures was over 3.8 million dollars now it's down to 934 000 so we're like over 2.8 million dollars in reductions that we've done uh during
081that refinement period and uh and we got the number down to uh a manageable number that we can say will will work this in the 2122 school year if we go to the next slide this is a summary that i i always do it's called financing the budget it shows revenues prior to any tax increase compared to expenditures we do have a budgetary reserve but the shortfall is three million five hundred sixty two thousand uh at two point six percent increase we generate 2 million 627 000 in taxes that leaves the 934 000 uh balancing figure that we have to take out our fund balance or or our account there it it leaves uh on the average it's a tax increase of about 155 dollars for the average taxpayer so but it it finances everything
082that we need if you look at this i think the biggest part of the revenue budget is that there are some inconsistencies that we've had because of the pandemic interest earnings has dropped very low uh but as you can see out of the 131 million dollars in revenue 105.5 million is local so a huge part of our budget is local compared to other districts there's other districts that might get 50 or 60 or even 80 percent of their revenue from state and federal we get like over 80 percent of our budget comes from local taxes the next slide shows our expenditures as you can see a different line items show the variance between last year's budget and this year's budget it shows how salaries benefits are you know 1.5 million dollars of our increase iu
083services and other contracted services are 600 000 um we have that way down at the bottom 1.3 million dollars is an increase in our debt service and that's predominantly to fund uh the 62 million dollars in in capital projects that we've been doing uh for lynnwood to high school and and the two elementary schools if you go to the next slide this shows the cost drivers back in january the cost drivers were 6.4 million so we took the major cost areas and took the difference between the prior year and this year and those are the areas you want to concentrate on to reduce to get your budget down to a balanced budget as you can see we did pretty well we we reduced our cost drivers from 6.4 million down to 3.7 million some of
084those are very hard to get down at this point obviously teachers and other contracts generate the 1.1 so they're contractual you have benefits that are tied to rates that are contractual you have debt service which is our needed debt service and funds to for construction and as you can see charter school tuition is a number that had creep had increased significantly during the pandemic when people sent their students to our parents sent their students to charter schools uh i think they were thinking that it wouldn't have a cost effect to the school district but it does and it it cost us in this current year almost 600 000 and additional expenditures to pay for the students that went to charter schools um this is i had provided this before the 10-year average increase as you
085can see the 10-year average increase in millage is 2.85 percent which is really very good it's you know when you're thinking about it uh there's ups and downs but uh that's that's uh you know only going up uh i you know probably the index increase during those years is probably very similar to what that is for all those years that what the index was for but we also compared it to enrollment and as you can see the enrollment during that same period averaged out to 2.05 percent so uh there is some correlation between the increase in enrollment and the need for you know additional teachers and staff to to educate them and and then also to expand for instance the high school uh classrooms and so forth to accommodate additional staff so a lot of
086those costs that we did were needed because of the increase in enrollment next slide we're down to two dates uh tonight we're asking you to approve the adopt the proposed final budget and that's really it's somewhat of a formality but it's kind of adopting what we would consider the what we think is the final budget from the administrative level and other than some smaller refinements uh we would probably present something very similar or maybe tweak it a little bit but something very similar june 3rd to adopt as your final budget i wanted to show the capital planning because we are taking this these funds out of fund balance committed for capital our fund balance had gotten over eight percent and actually was 17.7 so we committed to um spend 1.5 million of that on much
087needed mid-range i would call mid-range capital projects and those projects um there they've been presented at the facilities meeting in the finance meeting and but there was one small change that i wanted to show as you can see where the two yellow lines are we had i think about 107 million dollars worth of paving repairs to do and we dropped that down to 27 million our 27 000 uh the reason why is because right after we presented all the capital planning uh jr our facilities director contacted me and said that our chiller went down one of our chillers went down at the middle school and the uh re re uh working of that chiller to get it up to where it needed to be with was gonna cost us 78 thousand dollars so we're just
088gonna shift that and some of that paving that we were gonna do it at oakmont and uh chatham park will probably be done the following year and then one one more slide uh we had the sale um yesterday for of our bonds that we were talking about we did a parameter resolution which enabled um efm to go out to bid when they thought that the market was at its right right here we weren't going to just do it on a a board date you know and then and um at that time so the we did the what it's called an internet internet auction and an internet auction instead of negotiating with one underwriter you uh you get bidders uh to come in and bid uh the price of each bond at each uh maturity point
089and also the underwriter fee that the underwriters get for selling those bonds is also negotiated so if you have more than one person one company vying for that it drives the cost down and and that's what it's done uh i think there was also uh we had five bidders and those five bidders put in 20 bids and jenny montgomery scott was the winner on that uh we had a 9.6 million dollar bond issue 8.6 was for construction and 1 million five thousand was for the ten buses the over overall yield of the total issue was one point two seven percent which is probably the lowest uh rate that i've ever had in my thirty almost 34 years of of doing i don't know how many probably 100 bond issues and when you say yield versus
090interest rate i mean that's net over your all year issuance costs so we might have been at 1.07 and uh it was adjusted up 0.2 for all the closing costs that are part of that process but another interesting part is the b series was for 10 buses and that's over a 10-year pay payment the yield on that was 0.8 so we got we're paying point eight percent interest on the purchase of of ten uh propane buses and uh and that's pretty amazing in itself um that says 20 21 but that should be 21.22 uh that's not reflective in the 2122 budget uh but i we can actually reduce the debt service line item by twenty four thousand dollars uh because of the savings and the low interest rate uh the number that i put in
091three hundred eighty five thousand was high uh uh it was conservative and we can actually reduce that between now and the final budget on june 3rd and i know somebody's going to ask this uh how did the getting the double a2 rating from you know moved up from the double how did that affect it it saved us over 150 000 in interest so uh the effect of just getting that uh rating increase saved us 150 000 on this issuance and that's it does anybody have any questions on any of this questions from the board i just wanted to say thank you for um adding some additional context i know this is a presentation that you run through um you know different times this year and in prior years and and i appreciate uh you know
092the way that you're adding to help board and the community understand how we're budgeting for future years and also trying to be good stewards of our financial resources and i feel like that the presentation is is hitting those points home and especially you know that last slide talking about the success of this latest bond issuance and and how it reflects well on the district's financial condition and the favorable pricing and the work that went into presenting the district's financial condition and outlook is a testament to your hard work and i appreciate that other questions comments from the board kristin bob thank you for all your hard work and putting this together um i just wanted to um ask if you could explain to the public the change in millage for this current year the numbers
093there was that shift to 21.22 could you just explain the reasoning behind that okay uh because of the because of the fact that you're when you do reassessment you're trying to get your assessment closer to 100 fair market value and usually over time the assessment erodes to the point where it's a percentage of your fair market value and you know obviously newer homes uh might be closer to fair market value than older homes and older homes uh are under value their assessment is undervalued the whole attempt of a reassessment is to get everybody on the same you know level playing field and when you do that your assessment ends up going up but then your millage for every property uh goes down so that's why you know we were talking about millage last year in
094the 30s now we're talking about our final millage as 17. so assuming that you didn't they didn't say if you're if you're one of those few people that they're when their assessment changed and then they applied it to their millage there are people that their milk their taxes probably the same because the effect of the the asset reassessment didn't affect them but there are other people that are probably winners and there's others that are losers in that group and you know we've had people upset or or have actually appealed their uh assessment but um now from this point on we'll be using uh when we look at a history we'll see you know village in the 30s and then we'll see uh that this year's converted into uh using the new millage and then moving
095on and comparing uh increases a 2.6 increase is is based on 16 to 17 not 32 to 33 mils you know and uh it's really just a math equation where you're rearranging the numbers that's helpful i just want to make sure people didn't think it was a typo if i may in case i found that accurate yet complicated because you have a very um business manager's mind if i if i'm correct bob um a more lay way of explaining that change is the real estate values went up and we can't nor can any taxing authority in delaware county generate any more money as a result of the assessment so therefore to compensate for the real estate values going up the millage rate must come down correct and i had to make the adjustments so that
096the millage the new millage uh generated the same tax revenue as the old millage and then and then we applied the 2.6 increase to that number so uh you're making the adjustment so that you know that we're i cannot generate more money by you know manipulating the the index i mean the millage when i convert it it has to be exactly the same generation of the same revenue so and that's uh what we did and then added the 2.6 on top of that so and in fact in some ways we probably are uh behind because normally you would that they certified the reassessment in january and i'm not so sure they're good normally you would have growth in your assessment from january till may when you start issuing you started you finalized your taxes and
097issued tax bills in in july so there would be some growth in your assessment most likely that's not going to happen because of uh you're probably going to get something so similar to the certified that we got in january so there might be less growth because of that because it's very similar you know you're trying to keep it at a a number that's similar to the prior year yeah any other questions on the budget i just want to also say it was helpful to see the enrollment numbers uh year by year uh and how they correlate with the increases so that was good information all right so we'll bring this back in june okay thanks bob okay thank you next item on the agenda is a second reading of policy 824 maintaining professional adult and
098student boundaries mr parker thank you mr feinberg members of the board so um as uh mr feinberg has indicated we are bringing back to the full board uh for a second read uh policy 824 that we looked at at our last board meeting we did take it back to the policy liaison group for some discussion uh and the only note that i want to make is that we did take a a careful look at uh mr schwartz uh points that were made at the last board meeting we took a look at you know the category of inappropriate social interactions to see whether we could perhaps distinguish a few of those in some respect and add some language in the end although we we toyed with some language to to address particularly number 18 in that
099group uh and maybe uh one or two others in that group it was felt that um it was not advisable to to add additional language uh to make that uh distinction uh in that the uh the introductory language in that section of the policy under inappropriate social interactions specifies that these are examples of conduct that violates or could violate professional boundaries and it was felt that that's enough latitude to apply the discretion administratively and beyond uh to those various uh types of conduct so that even though some of them look much less gray than others we think that that language will work and and the more we tried to add some language to distinguish number 18 and perhaps others we felt as though that might get us into some trouble in applying the policy so
100we bring it back to you uh as you saw it for the first read and uh but we did want you to know that we took a close look at that and tried to address those concerns okay anything from the obviously the policy liaisons be happy to hear or questions from the board questions or comments okay so we will we will bring this back to you for adoption at a uh future meeting the next meeting thank you thank you next agenda item i think for the first time in a while we have liaison reports from all four groups any volunteers to kick it off antoinette yeah just because um mr mr parker gave uh the majority of the summary already um but the policy liaisons met on monday and um we continued to discuss policy
101based off of what the suggestions that we had received at the last board meeting and um as you just heard we ultimately um after a lot of going back and forth just decided to keep it as it is and um because of because of the the preamble in that section and we felt that it was cohesive enough to to um to cover all of the the below items um we are also um continuing to discuss policy zero zero six meetings um and we're discussing it in a couple uh different ways um to codify the liaison structure that we have um right now and also to discuss uh future meetings um in person and uh what what that's going to look like uh these discussions are ongoing so we don't have any as you can see
102from the agenda we don't have any um revisions uh right now but we are just sort of in the um the the very beginning phase of of uh revising that specific category okay thank you who'd like to go next bridget hi the finance liaisons met on april 13th and um from the board those liaisons are um mr feinberg dr crispin mr fleischer and myself um for a portion of the meeting we met with legal counsel to talk about a request that the board had received about a new tax credit against real estate taxes that would benefit firefighters and ems volunteers there's been a recent amendment to a state law that would permit school districts among other municipalities to grant tax credits up to 100 percent of real estate taxes the um the liaisons and with
103our council talked about various um questions and concerns that we had about how this would apply to us and what the potential impacts um on the district would be and ultimately decided that um we did not recommend pursuing this tax credit at this time um we also talked about the the budget update that mr regal just went through and got a preview and had opportunity to ask questions about some of the further budget tightening um one additional note i don't think that was said in the earlier presentation is that the budget for the next school year does not include any um federal covid relief grant sources that the district may get nor does it include the expenditures on which we would apply those funds so we may be hearing about additions to the budget that
104come in from such funding sources when they're approved we also had an opportunity to look at three-year budget projections that mr regal had prepared those were done for the district's own planning but also were useful in the um presentation to moody's for the bond rating that was improved and and helped prompt the upgrade that we received there um that future outlook assumed um 2.8 annual tax increases and the forecast showed that the district's financial condition would continue to improve there are key variables for the district to monitor and to watch as as those budget periods come closer which would be on future debt issuance costs contract negotiations and special ed services are some of the key variables um and we also got a report on the forecast for the end of this current fiscal year
105or school year that it's looking like because of some cost items coming in under budget and um increase in revenue from transfer taxes that um we will have a surplus at the end of this fiscal year currently budgeted about two million dollars thank you bridget facilities all right thank you very much well this is a very um pro discussion on earth week and based on um many of our students and many of our citizens had had comments this evening we had a great presentation last thursday from the clean energy cooperative they are a group of investors um who who do what's called socially responsible investing and essentially they are cooperative that helps to invest in solar panels for local non-profit and community organizations they pay for upfront installation of solar panels and are paid back
106over a 15 to 25-year period essentially instead of you know the the the district in this case would pay a standard rate similar to what we paid currently for energy and over time that would pay off the solar panels there is a buyout option at some point where you could purchase the panels outright and then realize the energy savings once those panels um once the investment is paid off um it's a very interesting kind of idea uh they're we're talking about linwood um in particular because the roof there is new and therefore it will last 15 to 25 years needed to to recoup the investment hopefully get some more savings afterwards um the uh in addition i believe one of our students mentioned that they would like to you know that th this be a
107good learning opportunity for students tending linwood one of the interesting things that can be done with these panels is to actually monitor them and have a kiosk or or or or tablet or laptop or something that actually can display how much energy is being generated by the liquid by a solar roof on london wood so it's a very neat idea the thing is near to my heart i used to be on the ac so it's one thing that i that they really do want to pursue and i think that that we're pursuing this in a very economically responsible fashion the csc looked at through space on linwood did some initial calculations there are several large spaces that would be suitable for the roof to install panels if every last square inch was used which is
108not going to happen probably i could generate up to 250 000 kilowatt hours per per year now that will that will come down some but the current limit building requires 350 000 um kilowatt hours per per year the new one will have will have much less energy needs however even if the roof generates more than what we need because we have different facilities within two miles of one another pico has some has sort of like i guess you call it a energy transfer if you will let's say that the new school requires a hundred thousand kilowatt uh um kilo hours per year the roof generates 200 the additional 100 000 would not be lost actually would be used for other schools the uh just for example the manila school requires 47 000. the middle school
109requires 3.1 million so even if this if we do install a roof and generates more power than is needed we would realize all of those savings power go right back into the grid so it's a very very neat idea like i said we would um end up saving some money hopefully in in in the long run there's some questions some were raised by mr regal just to see if you know a 20 to 25 year period with pico rates that at the current fairly low numbers if we could actually uh reach the investment and pay those off we have to go through some numbers um miss baxter of cec i believe is gonna be working on developing some of those numbers um jr also mentioned uh we we asked jr to talk to other districts
110who have panels to figure out their maintenance needs if there were any other issues that we're not thinking about now the as long as cec owns the panels they would be responsible for all maintenance if we were to buy them at some point we would then take over maintenance but um that would be something that we could kind of learn over time and we'll find out more hopefully as this process moves moves forward and we'll have more information at future meetings so it's very very exciting idea i think it's a it's a you know thing that we definitely want to look at and uh appreciate all the members of the public who came today to to comment about it so we are moving forward with this and and and more updates to um to to
111follow second item uh i won't belabor this because ken mentioned it already the change orders for linwood cafeteria expansion and the covert costs can do a very good job of explaining that i'm not going to go into that in detail it's nice to say cp development is still working with some contractors to bring the covered costs that they quoted down and more updates than that to follow another item that that was discussed was were the user fees for school facilities we installed a new track last year and was covered now with things reopening we started looking at some possible user fees for some of our facilities now just be clear the facilities were still open to the public they were open before the 10 days they'll be open after the pandemic we're not going to
112charge people for running on the track that's going to be open as well as have been to to the community the mo most of the facility um costs or the facility fees we would not charge anything for uh been sponsored by the school district ptos organizations that that have most of the membership within the township fees would be charged for entities like universities uh pacs organizations from outside the township um mr regal presented a cost table that uh listed some some possible costs that are comparable to other neighboring districts we're going to go over some of those fees in the future to see what neighboring districts are are charging come up with kind of finalized costs per per day or per hour for many of these um facilities additional items like if you want to
113use the scoreboard for pa system in a stadium so we're not to follow but that's something that they'll be coming down the um down the pike and then just two more very very small things that uh mr beagle mentioned the chili repair middle school we're gonna have to take some money from from the block top that we're going to lay down and use that to repair the um chiller and there's some very minor damage to the new generator at lin ethanwood school it was a truck backed into it unfortunately and uh there's some damage it's just cosmetic just the um casing was damaged that would be repaired at no cost to the the district and um kenji indicated that that that uh generator is going to be fenced off in the future it's in the
114plan it hasn't been done yet so we don't see it happening again um and then chiller bob mentioned and with that that's it it was a long report and i apologize but a lot a lot of good stuff going on in facilities just want to mention thanks steve that you know the facility use fees haven't been nothing's been finalized there yet nothing to finalize no no that's just we're just looking at some uh i it's not some options um at you know at some of the some of the entities who we may charge and we've grouped them um bob did a good job we grouped them in different categories based on their relationship to the township and to the community and we'll look that in in into more detail so sort of a preliminary bodybuilding
115if i'm wrong you can yell at me but i believe this is sort of the first blush right okay thank you and last up is curriculum great thanks um all right so on monday we had our curriculum liaison meeting uh just to remind everyone it is myself dave schwartz sue minji and larry steinberg first the curriculum audit continues there is a math update for students in the life skills and autistic support programs two programs are going to be recommended they are able net equals math and unique learning systems the goal is to provide a consistent program from k through 12 grades for students with the most complex learning needs these two programs both um align with standards for students who are taking the pasa which is the pa alternate standards assessment instead of the pssa
116and it's about one to two percent of our student poverty um specifically they liked these programs because they met all of the the goals um for education as well as considering an equity lens and making sure that these materials are both developmentally and socially appropriate for our students the team is considering a restructure of the emotional support at the elementary level the strategic goal is to provide emotional support programming in each elementary school currently students are using emotional support services being bus to cooper town where their programming is more centralized and so decentralizing these services would require small changes to the schedule and to logistics but no additional staff the goal would be that students could remain in their neighborhood schools um and you know for students who are currently receiving these services they would
117be able to remain at coopertown if they so chose but then new students entering the program would be in their own home school um the math curriculum and resources uh eureka math and cern are going very well um the math and focus materials that was the program we used to use before eureka math concern they are copyrighted and they are out of date as a they are from 2012. um the district has tried to sell these materials back to the publisher they've tried to sell them to private schools and other other groups but to no avail and so these are going to be recycled for a small fee um the social studies and ela curriculum uh there is a new text that will be incorporated into the fifth grade curriculum it is called never caught
118the story of ona judge by erica armstrong dunbar it is a young adult adaptation and it would be supplemented with slideshows of images to go with each chapter this would provide another perspective on the founding of our country currently at the fifth grade level we are teaching about george washington and other founding fathers using the text to be the people so this would provide another perspective there's discussion of the health curriculum that is undergoing an audit at the middle school and high school level currently there is no textbook there's only teacher created materials based on standards so there is going to be a proposal coming forward at a later meeting for new textbooks they would be aligned with the standards and they would be more inclusive the middle school textbook would cover 6th through 8th
119grades it is entitled comprehensive health skills and different chapters would be covered in each grade the high school textbook was sort of similar but at a high school level and that would cover 10th grade health the approximate cost and again this is not for tonight this is for a later meeting would be about 17 000 for all of the books we would need um and that would provide us both hard copy and online access um summer school um typically 40 to 60 students are signed up it is a virtual sign up this year sign up is usually at the suggestion of the teacher or teachers it will be open to any student in the district who's interested in signing up summer school will be in person using online resources and extended school year is also
120happening for those that qualify but it might look different due to covet and the need for compensatory services for students in autistic support and life skills programs post-pandemic planning it was so exciting to hear about post-pandemic planning um ongoing dialogue with teachers and administrators considering what to keep and what to revert back to one change that was discussed was with respect to math and ela leveling the teachers like having more heterogeneous groups of students and they think that it will allow the inclusion of more students in their courses but that is going to be an ongoing dialogue and i'm sure we'll hear more about it at a later meeting as well um and then finally strategic planning is also ongoing again it was nice to hear about the future um planning groups have been meeting
121again which is great they're getting back on track which is also great and we can expect an update from each group in june or july uh with specific action steps proposed um to work towards our strategic plan goals thank you thanks laura next up kristen a report on the parent equity team yep thanks larry so the parent guardian equity team met for its final meeting of the 2020 2021 school year on thursday april 15th the team's three subcommittees met to share their work in the areas of family school and community and to discuss possible next steps for the group's work i want to thank all of the parents who shared their valuable time expertise and desire to support tangible opportunities for increased equity within our district and in our community that's it thanks kristin next
122item on the agenda budget transfers i'll accept a motion to approve budget transfers in the amount of 21 479 and 58 cents second moved in second any discussion roll call vote please mr regal okay uh dr crissman yes mr fleischer yes miss larson yes miss mindy yes mr sinto yes mr schwartz yes uh miss not miss nogress yes miss wiedemann yeah mr feinberg yes nine voting yes thank you thank you mr eagle next item on the agenda it's the bill list i'll accept a motion to approve disbursements from the funds as listed larson moved for a second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries thank you i'll accept a motion to adopt the proposed final budget for the fiscal year 2021 2022 totaling 135 million four hundred twelve
123thousand nine hundred fifty two dollars this amount includes eight hundred thousand in budgetary reserve the proposed millage rate is 17.1812 an increase of 0.4354 mills or 2.6 over the 2020 21 millage rate of 16.745 e congrats moved moved in second any discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries bob good job thank you for your work on that budget next i'll accept the motion to approve the budget and adopt resolution number 03-20-1-a for the delaware county community college for the 2021-2022 fiscal year in the amount of 90 378 whoops ninety thousand three 90 million that's the whole that's that's countywide yes 90 million 378 thousand 107 haverford share is 1 million thirty 369 dollars crispin moves second moved in second any discussion larry i'll just say a quick word about um the work the liaisons
124around the county do for the delaware county community college this has been an unusual year and it certainly has also been an unusual experience uh as a liaison we've had some zoom meetings and some have been cancelled and these are for the sponsoring school districts not every school district in delaware county is a participating sponsor we are one in return we get a lower rate per tuition credit we get extra services provided to us in the form of dual enrollment for our high school students our share or our participation participation rates continue to go up so while our our sponsoring dollars also are going up we're getting more as a community for our money the rates that they have increased have gone up nominally they do a good job managing their budget at the dccc
125but as everybody knows they're taking on a pretty big campus expansion in upper darby and so therefore they've had to ask the sponsoring districts to pay a little bit more this year i don't know the exact number maybe bob does i believe the materials which are usually funneled through the liaisons this year went directly to business officers and superintendents not off the top of my head but it has gone up a little bit uh not the normal two point eight percent or what that we normally see any other questions or comments on this one all in favor aye aye aye host motion cares i'll accept the motion to accept the recommendation of the project architect kcba and associates inc an owner's representative cb development services inc and authorized change orders totaling 357 and 295.86 cents
126as listed second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to approve the nominations and corresponding resolution for the individuals listed to serve as board members to the delaware county intermediate unit number 25 for a three-year term beginning july 1st 2021 and ending june 30th this is a roll call okay okay dr crispin yes mr fleischer yes miss larson yes miss minji yes mr sinto yes mr schwartz yes ms snodgrass yes miss wiedemann yes mr feinberg yes nine voting yes thank you i'll accept a motion to accept the recommendation of the owner's representative cb development services inc and approve the additional services with kcba architects for an amount not to exceed twenty five thousand dollars towards moved second moved in second any discussion probably should
127just be noted for the public that um this is related to exterior work done around the high school that will be um incorporated as we're doing the other um phase one and phase two improvement project thanks bridget did we vote all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to approve the proposal for scope of work from johnson controls inc for overhauling the chiller system at the haverford middle school at a cost not to exceed four hundred seventy five dollars participants second second any discussion i was just gonna note for this one too that this is a co-star bid so um this is um kind of at the state competitive rate um so it's it's a good number for us to work with and didn't require multiple bids or consideration that
128way thanks bridget all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries [Music] i'll accept a motion to accept the following retirements and resignations as listed second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion carries i'll accept the motion to accept the appointments as listed second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye aye aye and he opposed motion carries i'll accept a motion to approve the contract of miss martha q for a four year period beginning on or around july 1 2021 but no later than august 23 2021 through june 30th 2025 under the terms and conditions set forth in the employment agreement between ms q and the board of school directors second then second any discussion if we don't approve does that mean bob has to stick around longer
129well if i can work from florida now all in favor hi hi any opposed motion carries welcome aboard martha we look forward to working with you uh the board met an executive session prior to the board meeting to discuss personnel matters larry there was a excursion in item nine who's going where um i'm not seeing it on my agenda i'm not seeing anything under item nine other items i'm i'm seeing it yeah it's for the ice hockey team we heard the ice hockey to pittsburgh yeah i can read it if you're larry okay um recommendation is to approve the boys high school ice hockey team approximately 20 students to participate in the ice hockey state championship at upmc lemieux sports complex in cranberry township pittsburgh pa on friday april 23rd through sunday saturday april 24th
1302021. getting motion moving moved seconded moved in second thank you any discussion go forwards i hope gritty look all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries does anybody know if this is on tv closed captioned is there a way to follow along i don't know that's a great question i will find that out and let you know tomorrow hopefully the um ford athletics ford followers twitter feed could put out the post so people could get this the link that way that would be great okay our next regular public board meeting is scheduled to be held on may 6 2021 same zoom time same zoom place uh we'll keep the public informed as we uh hopefully move into uh some some venue for a live meeting in the not too distant future with that i'll accept
131a motion to adjourn you don't want to hear our board reports larry go ahead kristen i'm not going first but alphabetical order antoinette i just want to say really quickly thank you dr ruschi and everyone who was involved with the student vaccination clinic that's happening um this weekend um i really appreciate the entire community thanks you and um thanks all of the students who signed up to get vaccinated um i want everyone who knows someone who's a vaccine hesitant to go to them and to give them the facts and hopefully we get our entire community backs needed and that next week we don't have an average of 200 cases per day in delaware county um so thank you to everyone who's gotten vaccinated and thank you to everyone who will and everyone who is facilitating
132it thanks antoinette thank you to all the community members who spoke tonight especially the young ones from linwood and the middle and the high school it is uh it's wonderful to see the work that happens uh in our schools at our board meetings at such a high level and as i said earlier i think we're in trouble as board members there are some really wonderful presenters and speakers here who know how to eloquently um compel us with their arguments to do more for them um and this community thanks sorry dave thank you very much um first of all i want to thank you for your comments earlier by andy lewis and your thoughts with his family um to his very untimely passing he i worked with him for precious little time um but you know
133i i i had spoken to him on a couple of occasions and and and he was a good public servant i just want to mention one of the members of the public mentioned the um the derek shelton trial that included this week obviously i think we all probably saw it um obviously and you know it was a very small measure of accountability i won't go as far as call of justice but it certainly was some accountability small step but a step in the right direction one thing i didn't expect actually was the backlash though that a lot of us have heard about that some of the criticism and some of the rehashing of the violence that that that took place this summer i i i thought a very interesting stat though that i wanted to
134to share the protests this summer 96 97 percent of them depending on which numbers you read of the marches including the one that was held here in haverford were peaceful you don't see that you know mostly you saw you know some of the writings and the violence and so forth but most of these were completely peaceful and you know i just wish people would would stop focusing on the chaos caused by the vibrational injustice and focus more on obtaining justice and that just leads with me right back to why i basis program anti-racist policy in haverford i is so important and i just want to thank the district for continuing to support those efforts and the board um also who is very much in support of those efforts as well we have a long way
135to go you can't get there fast but we're taking at least the the smallest of steps so take a deep breath and then work clothes on thanks dave kristen sorry technical difficulties um in light of tuesday's verdict in the trial of derek shoven for the murder of george floyd i know this week has been particularly difficult for our students family staff and neighbors of color i'm disappointed that the district chose to publicly remain silent on this particular event given its historical significance and given the pain trauma and anxiety it evoked for so many people across the country and right here in haverford township a simple message of solidarity could have gone a long way in reassuring our families of color that our district and our board are looking out for them and their children that's
136all thanks kristin laura it's earth day and so i was really really excited to see so many especially linwood because that's my home school um all of our linwood lions here to talk with us um i it just makes me extremely proud of the students and families in our district who are taking real action towards rectifying some of the climate change so thank you for coming to us i hope you continue looking for ways that we as a district can make changes that we can do better for the earth and just in general i love seeing the students coming and speaking their mind i think it's so important to hear from them at our meetings and so thank you and nice child linwood thanks laura sal no report susan no report bridgette i wanted to
137echo the appreciation for the students who shared a very relevant earth day message with us today um and congratulations to the students student athletes who were recognized at the beginning of our meeting i think we all think that having that interaction um and seeing the highlights of good things going on in our schools and good things that our students are doing is the very best part of these school board gatherings um good luck to the hockey team um just a couple of the meetings that i've attended over the last couple of weeks there was a delco legislative council meeting um larry is a chairperson so he can speak more to that but obviously he talks about new legislation that is affecting public education there was talk about testing and piecers and a new charter school
138that's been proposed in radnor township that will certainly be making an appeal to haverford and other surrounding district students um i also attended the um fourth in a series the fourth and final of a psba leadership training for board presidents and vice presidents and this one was on communication in a crisis um had some good tips and resources and opportunities to talk with school leaders across the state on different experiences they've had and ways that we can work together through things the psb will also be offering a start strong training on board onboarding and orienting new school board members which our board will need to be um taking up that task with new board members joining this fall there's also again the kind of weekly meetings with state across state leaders um statewide and you
139know the topics remain covid mitigation strategies um testing um the availability of federal funds and how those will be applied questions about um vaccinations and you know what what impact that has on um on our schools and and the outlook for um getting back to a more you know typical uh school settings so um the things that we talk about here again that we're in good company grappling these topics um and you know we're in good company with boards all across the state um so i think that's it for me thanks thanks bridget i'll say in one of the statewide psba leadership calls this week i asked folks if they had received inquiries about this tax credit for firefighters and whether any of them were granting tax credits and at this point the short answer
140is no there were a few that had received inquiries as we have but none that have uh taken any any action at this point in terms of uh the legislative council you know that the top issue statewide continues to be charter school reform a good chunk of the legislative council meeting this month was uh spent discussing uh the status of charter reform at the state level we're also planning our annual may legislative breakfast and the agenda is pretty much loaded up with uh char charter reform information uh we'll have uh superintendent frank gallagher from seattle who heads a statewide group of superintendents uh advocating for charter reform as one of our speakers we'll also have our own state rep mike zabal zabel in his role as a member of the house education committee and state
141senator tim carney in his role as a member of the senate education committee both giving us updates of pending legislation by the end of may things start to come into focus a little more as the mad rush for the budget uh really speeds up so we'll look forward to that that that legislative breakfast is on the 21st and it's open to all school board members uh in in the county so uh it's virtual so you know if you want donuts you have to buy your own but um it's you know we've typically had uh 70 or 80 people in in the room when it's in person and it's uh it's a good opportunity to really get a a county-wide perspective on things so i apologize for almost missing your board reports on my agenda here
142at this point i'll uh just repeat that the next regular public board meeting will be a zoom meeting on may 6 2021 and with that i'll accept a motion to adjourn thanks everybody good night good evening