001Yep, I'm going to do it on my phone just in case. Can you hear me? Okay, great. All right, thanks. Hey, yep. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. See you. >> Good evening. I'd like to call the May 20th, 2026 Muskingum School District Board of Directors work session meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> The public is hereby advised of audio and visual video recording of this meeting for the purposes of rebroadcasting. By the way of attendance, all board members are here with the exception of um Miss Chandler, who's excused. Um and then we have Mr. Kindle participating virtual.
002And then Miss Austin was here, but she had to step out for an award ceremony and will join us as soon as she can. And then with that, I will go to recognition of guests and scheduled speakers, Dr. Zerbe. >> Thank you, Madam President. Good evening, everyone, and thank you so much for being with us. We have a number of outstanding presentations to share, the first being turning this thing over to Dr. So Genie, Assistant Superintendent, to recognize some outstanding employees of Methacton School District in the retirement recognition ceremony. Dr. So Genie. >> Thank you, Dr. Zerbe. Good evening, Dr. Zerbe, members of the Board of School Directors, and members of the Methacton community. We are indeed fortunate in Methacton School District to have staff members who join our Methacton family and embark on lengthy
003careers of dedicated service to our students and service to the many facets of our organization that all work together to provide a superior education to the children of of the Methacton School District. Each year in May, we come together to honor those members of the Methacton family who have retired from service during the past school year. Tonight, as we near the conclusion of the 2025-2026 school year, and again come together in recognition of our retirees, we honor 24 retiring staff members who collectively represent a total of 518 years of exceptional service to Methacton School District. That's an amazing number. We are grateful to them for all that they have done to make Methacton an an exceptional place for our students who where they come to learn and grow, a place of warm welcome to parents,
004guardians, and members of the of the community that come together in our school buildings, and truly a second home to all of our staff members. On behalf of the entire Methacton community, I am honored to extend our gratitude and appreciation to all of our retirees and to wish them the very best of health and happiness in their well-deserved retirements. I will now read the names of our retirees and ask them to come forward to be recognized and receive our applause. They are in alphabetical order. Linda Beeler Come on down. [applause] Margaret Bonder >> [applause] >> Janet Bowers Linda Bradley Craig Corrao Thomas Davis Barbara Goff Teresa Grossman Judith Harris Janet Horn >> [laughter] >> Charles Holly Jane Holmes Antoinette Jones >> [applause] >> Constance McLuckie Bridget Nemirovich Diana Pantano George Pestino David Riminiski Kathleen Cecilia
005John Smink >> [applause] >> Nina Smith Quentin Swift >> [applause] >> Gerald Thompson and Matthew Walsh Again, 518 years of collective service. I think that says a lot about our district and the fact that we truly are a Methacton family. We wish you all the best. Congratulations and thank you. >> [applause] >> I think we're going to try and get everyone together for a group picture. 3 2 >> [applause] >> And I just want to say thank you very much to all our retirees and their family and friends that came out with them this evening. 518 years truly goes to speak to your commitment and dedication to Methacton and we are really grateful for all your time, dedication, and your years of service to Methacton School District. We will miss you all very much. You
006have earned this time and as I said while we were out there, you are always welcome back. Um we have plenty of opportunities here for you to volunteer and we welcome you back with open arms. And at this time, if any of our our retirees want to um head out, you're welcome to, but we appreciate your time and you can stay also. Thank you very much. >> If it if it pleases the board, I would like to recommend that we move dreaming forward with Mr. Mater up to the podium next because we have some students with us that are also duly scheduled to be here and at the awards ceremony occurring elsewhere in the building here. So with that if there's no objection, I would like to ask Mr. Mater a social studies teacher to
007come forward and share with us along with the students dreaming forward. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks Dr. Zerby. Is Dr. Zerby zone? Is it on? Test. Test. Yeah, it's on. All right, okay. So thanks everyone for having me. I'm going to introduce Taya Tuggle and Adam Smith here in just a minute. I I just wanted to give you a brief overview of the work that they and some of their peers have been up to the last couple of years. We spent a lot of time at Methacton talking about what it means to belong here and and we we put on like our t-shirts and in our email signatures that Methacton is a place to grow and I think really that feeling um you know, it it could be nurtured by teachers and administrators
008and things like that, but the the people that really create that culture are the the students we have in the building and and they and and not just them, but they and and some of their peers have been doing some really fantastic work along with counterparts at the intermediate unit over the last two years to really make Methacton School District a place where every single kid feels like they they belong and they're welcome. So I I want to bring up They're right behind me. So I'm a little flushed. I'm still I think I'm jealous of the crew that just left. I want to bring up Adam Smith who is a senior who's graduating and Taya Tuggle who is a junior and she'll be back with our program again next year and they're just going to
009share briefly their experience at the IU over the last uh 24 months. >> Oh. Okay, there we go. Hi, my name's Tea. Um so, I'm going to be talking about like what MCIU is, and then Adam's going to be explaining like our plan moving forward. Um MCIU is a leadership program between more than 10 Montgomery County school districts, and over the past 2 years me and my team got to work with um all these kids. There's over How like 80? So, 80 75 kids. We got to work with all these other kids about learning different leadership skills. We got to meet new people along with college professors, and we got to work with outside organizations. We've learned so much over this time, and we really enjoy this program. Um every time we go we create
010new connections. We meet new more new people, and we learn things about ourselves that we didn't already know. Um during this past school year we got to learn about the importance of belonging, and what that will look like and can look like in our school and regular community. Um and overall, we really enjoy this program and look forward to going back again. Well, at least I do. Uh again, seeing as it teaches us so much and the people around us so much. >> Hey. Um hello, I'm Adam. Um basically some things that we plan to do now from Dream It Forward. Um Dream It Forward kind of showed us how we can change our school through leadership and communication. Um so, we used our knowledge that we built throughout the year to make an action
011plan. We decided that it's crucial for all clubs in Methacton to work together to get exposure amongst students. Um and examples of how we can do that is a club fair midway through the year, and for underclassmen, and to have different clubs run school events throughout the year. So, that's just a couple that we came up with. Um and to foster belonging we want to foster belonging not only in the school, but also in the district for our community as a whole. Um so, one way we think we can do that is interaction, like just interaction between everyone is is the main idea behind what we want to do. Um, so a foundational part of this is using students who are willing to help, such as leaders of clubs or upperclassmen, to set a role
012model and the proper belonging attitude that we want our schools to have. Um, our first step would mainly just be to reach out to these leaders to start facilitating positive activities that follow our ideas. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Mr. Maeda, is it is it appropriate for the board members to possibly ask some questions? Would that would that be helpful? I Are there any questions from members of the board, Ms. Clary? >> So, I don't really have a question, but I just have a a couple of comments if you'll indulge me. So, Mr. Maeda, thank you. Uh everything you do here is um stuff I usually love between the subject that you teach and all the things that you do with the kids. So, thank you. And then to Taya and Adam, between this and
013your presentation with Community Cares, you guys are super impressive. I'm really glad you're students here. Taya, I'm glad you're coming back. Adam, I don't know why I'm nervous. Excuse me. Adam, I think you're going to do great things. I mean, you come from a great family and you have a lot of support at home. I happen to know your mom and I'm you know, I good things are are coming your way. And again, Taya, I'm really happy that you're you're going to be with us next year to to continue to lead. Um, just super impressive and I agree with what Mr. Maeda said, you know, the belonging, the myth act in being a welcoming place starts with the students and I'm I'm just so pleased that um all the work that you guys are doing.
014Thank you. >> Excellent comments, Ms. Prudhomme. Ms. Deal? >> I will be very quick cuz I know you have someplace to be. I just want to say thank you for a great presentation. Thank you for the work you're doing and what you're bringing back. And I love the idea of getting of I forget how you said it, but you said it really would really well and driving interaction. I think that's what you said. I think that's a great great way to drive that change in that building and just keep doing what you're doing. Great job. >> Well, is Ms. Kendricks here? No. Ms. Ms. Perdue? >> Mr. Mayor, I just want to say thank you very much. Um, you're always a true leader when it comes to really giving our students opportunity to showcase their
015talent. But I think this program along with our partnership with the MCIU really gives them the opportunity to also connect with other students. Adam and Talia, both rock stars. We are very proud of you and we're part of the students that are all the students that may not be here tonight that also participate in the program. I sit as as the board director for Manufacturing for the MCIU and I usually provide an update and I'm sure I provided an update on the Dreaming Forward, but it's nice to see our students come back and share their experiences through the program just really to show how you're able to learn and the lessons that you've taken from that program and how you're bringing it back to make our our schools and and you mentioned even beyond our
016schools, our community, but making our community a stronger community with belonging and it's um what we're looking for and what we hope that you all learn when you get a chance to participate in programs like this and really putting Manufacturing on the map. Um, but I'm truly proud of you and I appreciate your time and your leadership to come back to provide this update to the board. Um, I'm looking forward to hearing more on how you proceed with your plans for next year. But thank you. >> Thank you, Ms. Perdue. Anyone to my right? Ms. Graf? >> Yeah, I just want to say you two are very impressive, and I'm super proud of you. So, um the other thing I just wanted to ask, I mean, I I think it's really important that this start
017at the student level, but I think you know, these things don't happen without a teacher to sort of mentor and provide that role model. And so, I want to thank you, Mr. Maeda, for being that kind of person in our district cuz that's not something that every district has, and we're super super happy to have you doing that. Um these students are lucky to have a role model like that that could sort of step up and give them the opportunity that they've taken. And they've taken the opportunity and run with it. So, super proud of you guys for doing that. The other question, I guess I have for Taya and Mr. Maeda, is, you know, is there are are there things that the board could do to support this further and to help you expand
018and grow things within the district? And you know, you can answer now, or you can think about it and come back to us later. But, >> Yeah, just briefly, because I know these guys do have to get out the door, but um there are things that the district is doing, the administration is doing, uh to both grow this, expand it next year. It'll It'll actually um include like twice the amount of students. Taya, who's coming back to us, and two of her sophomore uh peers are going to act as trainers next year for five well, four new students. Adam's leaving us. We have a freshman who's returning, and then we'll we'll grab four new students. So, we'll expand it out that way. What the goal is, you know, it it's it's hard. Uh we we
019want every kid to feel like they belong here. And I think what we found through the program is uh and they can speak to this is that most kids do feel like they belong somewhere. We're trying to build that belonging uh across spaces in the building and in the district. Um And so, yeah, to your point, moving it from five kids to 1,500 kids is the goal. And then, I know Taya is working on things to to go down to our coal and to Scottie. And So, it'll continue to grow. I think you'll see over the years. Yeah. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Any other questions, comments? Am I right? Don't see none. Go get some awards. >> [laughter] >> THANK YOU. [applause] WE DO APPRECIATE YOU THEM THEY'RE THEY WERE STUCK between awards
020night here in the building and and being here tonight with us sharing the dreaming forward. >> Yeah. Thank you Thank you all for your time. >> And next on the agenda I have Dr. Regina who's been working since the start of the school year on a project. There should be a handout in your in your folder. I think Dr. Regina we kicked this off together at opening day in service and back in August and you've taken it and run with it ever since. So, we're proud of the work you're doing and certainly once you hear the work that our teachers are doing as part of this process you'll be equally impressed with the things that that they're bringing forwards. Dr. Regina. >> Thank you Dr. Zerby. And thank you members of the board for allowing
021us to speak with you this evening. As you can see I'm joined with a number of our teachers Ms. Lennox, Mr. Maeda, Ms. Volpe, and Mr. Zalada. And they're going to be able to share a little bit about what this looks like in their educational spaces well which is super exciting and definitely add a little bit more excitement probably than what I'm going to talk about. But really what I want to start off with is kind of where did we begin as a district with some of the work that we're doing. And so as Dr. Zerby said this year we had a very brief kickoff during in service. And the kickoff really was kind of expanding this idea that AI is something that we want to people to start thinking about embracing but we need
022to create some structures around that. And so, I had asked for volunteers to join two different committees here in the district. We had one committee that focused on operational efficiency and administrative tasks, which essentially was every time I feel like I speak to our staff, I feel like I'm adding more to their plate. And this was an opportunity where we could talk about how we can create systems utilizing AI to remove things from their plate. And so, we have a group of individuals that works on doing just that. They're developing different systems using different AIs to support not just our teaching body, but our administrators, our support staff. Um we're looking at different programs to develop almost coaches within AI models. And so, they're doing a lot of exciting work. That group is also starting
023to work on a lot of professional development uh stuff that we can do with staff in the upcoming years. Um So, but tonight we're going to focus on the second committee, which is really our teaching and learning committee. And so, we had about 30 individuals on our teaching and learning committee. Um and we had individuals from administration, from our teaching group, and from our our support group as well. Uh and they did some fantastic work. So, in the fall, we focused a lot on professional development, really building everyone's capacity of their knowledge base around AI, not just the great things it can do, but also being very careful about the way we use it, recognizing where really some of the red flags are, what we don't want to get into, what we have to make
024sure that we're protecting, but also what are the things that can also take a lot of things off our plate, as I said earlier. Uh in the winter, a lot of our teachers, and some of them were were ready to go right away in the fall, and I think even have been doing it before then, um kind of opened that up into their classrooms. They started to trial a few things, test out a few things with their class, and they were able to share that with our committee. And we met once a month, so these were very interactive sessions where, you know, we would take sometimes the first 20 or 30 minutes just talking about the different things that they're doing in the classroom spaces, which was really exciting. In the spring where we started
025to develop really recommendations for the board and the administration on where this committee would like to see AI moving forward. And so, that's what you're going to hear throughout this presentation a little bit tonight is really what our recommendations are for the district moving forward for the board and administration to consider. And so, the next slide we really took two positions. One was the AI committee's position when it comes to students. But, we also thought it was very critical to create an AI position in terms of staff. And so, the students, our position is AI should help students think, learn, create, and communicate more effectively. AI should not replace student thinking or bypass foundational skills. Our goal is to develop students who can think critically, create authentically, learn independently, and use AI responsibly. And you're
026going to hear that theme over and over again this evening. We want to make sure that we're not replacing the foundational learning that's occurring that's so critical to have that human relation experience in the classroom with AI. And we're very we're very in tune with that. For educators, our position is AI should enhance educators' capability, boosting productivity and personalizing learning experiences. While ensuring that teaching and learning remain human-centered and focused on student need. And so, everything that we're doing, we're keeping those position statements in mind as we're doing it. The first thing we're going to talk about tonight is really our focus on students. So, some of the major discussion areas our group recognized with really both the positive and negative impacts of AI when it comes to our student groups. And before I get
027into any details, I am going to invite our first guest speaker this evening. Uh Mr. Rebecca Lennox is going to be joining us to the podium to talk about how she's utilizing AI in her Spanish classroom. Rebecca. >> You're welcome. >> Good evening. Um so my name is Mrs. Lennox. I am the Spanish teacher at Arcola. I teach seventh and eighth grade. Um and as soon as I started here, I started thinking about how are ways or what are ways that I can use AI in my classroom. And then I started thinking, well, how did I learn Spanish? I learned Spanish for 10 years. I took it in kindergarten all the way to 12th grade. I mean, I did AP and I got to my first, you know, study abroad program and I could not
028speak one word. I was mute. I said, how did I learn Spanish for 10 years and I don't understand anything that's going on. So, how did I ultimately learn? I learned through conversation. I learned through living with a host family. I learned by going to the market. Learned by going to the bathroom and figure out the word for toilet paper, you know? I didn't learn that vocab word in school. Um so, really what I want to use AI for and what I've been trialing in my classroom and piloting is basically having language labs in my classroom and using AI to be able to support that. So, there are apps called um Misu and also Chat GPT voice that if the board would approve that we would be able to start using in our classrooms um
029that students could have AI generated conversations in Spanish, French, Portuguese, um any language really. Um but what we we would do is customize the chat so that the students would only be able to engage with the chatbot with the questions that we're providing it and the responses. Um ultimately, we can have little conversation pods and practice with our students, but at the end of the day, they're speaking with their peers that are at the same level as them. So, it's hard for them to grow in their conversational practice, especially when I'm only one teacher and there's 30 students. So, we're for doing a lot of repeating and and repetition, but you're never going to be able to speak a language when we're only in a classroom every other day for 40 minutes. It's just It's
030a little impossible. So, through AI, just simulating those real-world simulations, when I lived in Guatemala, my teacher took me to the market, and we learned how to get apples, you know, and then we went to a restaurant, and those are some of the simulations that we can create in the classroom. Um and then secondly, my last one I really wanted to touch on was the differentiation. Um I currently teach 230 students. I teach all of the seventh and eighth grade students in in Spanish. Um and every student has a different way of learning. We do have some students that speak Spanish, but we also have students that their first language is Korean, and they're learning English, and they're also learning Spanish. So, being able to create those differentiated paths for the students is is I'm
031able to do that through the work of AI. Thank you. >> Okay, so there were three areas really that we focused on when it came to student work. And and really these three areas, by the way, Rebecca, that was great. Thank you. I should have said that right away. Um so, really what I would like the board to know is that the three areas that we focused on were really around when we start to talk around whether we want to adopt policy or do we want to adopt guidelines or if we want to adopt an acceptable use form, cuz districts have done all three. Uh sometimes all three combined, sometimes only one of the three. And so, as we start to think about what we want that to look like in our district, we want
032to make sure that there are a couple areas that we focus on for a lot of the documentation that will likely be created in the future. The first one is around academic integrity. And so, um right now there's there's two main things that we focused on a lot, and one is and these are around the idea of when we're utilizing AI, we need to make sure that we're providing clear citations, we're recognizing when we use it, no different than we are any other source. Again, this is one we're allowed to use AI in those spaces. The other is teacher judgment in terms of when is AI being used when it's not supposed to be used. And so there's a lot of talk about AI detection programs. And what I can tell you is there's a
033lot of false positives and none of them work 100%. And so we talk a lot about what are the experiences that we can provide in the classroom that might be able to combat maybe that the interest or the ease of maybe copying and pasting or utilizing AI to do work. And that's what comes into our second one, which is evidence of learning. And so evidence of learning we started to talk about the process of learning. And the assessing that kind of moved beyond the typical input-output phase. And so what I want you to think about is when we are creating assessments or assignments and we say to a student, "Okay, write an essay this evening and come back to us with that with that essay the next day." We are inviting the opportunity for that
034student to possibly be using AI to deliver that information. And so what are ways that we could change maybe the way we do these assignments or the way we even assess them. Instead of just thinking of it as a product only, we can start to assess the process and the product in terms of how students are being assessed. So one of them is we can create digital footprints. And so a number of our staff members as they utilize something let's say like Google Docs, they can create a digital footprint. They can the Google Doc can can capture when things are copied and pasted. We can create video transcriptions of of how they're doing that, how much time they take on the document. And so there's ways for us to capture that. Also version history. Right,
035we're also able to capture that if we're using the right platforms. And so what we want to also do is make sure that we're recognizing that evidence of learning and a lot of it comes down to changing the strategies of the way we have typically assessed and given assignments. And so there's going to be a lot of PD around that for staff cuz it is going to be a major shift, but it is something that's going to be critically important as we start to move down that pathway. The third is our ethics, equity, and access position. And so really the the one thing that AI can do naturally is it does expand access. It can reduce barriers. There's no doubt about it. And that can be a great thing. It can also be a very
036scary thing if there aren't guardrails around it. And so as excited as we are about the access that can be granted to students and the availability to be able to do things like Ms. Lanik said, we also as you heard her say, it's really important to create the model that has the structures and guardrails around it. So students aren't doing something that's maybe something less appropriate that we wouldn't want happening in the classroom. The other is the ethical usage and so this is something naturally that we believe very strongly. Um if you think about the way a lot of technology has come to pass, let's say over the last 25 years, whether it was the internet, whether it was cell phones, whether it was social media, right from an education society and and we've all
037most of us have been here through that whole process, um schools didn't do a great job in the beginning of taking that in and trying to teach students how to use them. We often put up barriers right away. Oh, no, no, the internet's not coming in. No, no, no, no social media here. Nope, we don't want cell phones. I mean, if you go back to the 1970s, they did the same thing with calculators, right? I mean, it's that same idea. And so what our committee said was it's important that we don't fall into that same trap. We have a responsibility to teach students how to ethically use AI. Otherwise, someone else is going to teach them how to use it the wrong way. And so, that's a position we took that it's going to be
038critically important for us not only to be doing this in our classrooms, but to be thinking about where do we want to put AI literacy courses and AI ethics courses within our curriculum in the future is another conversation that our group came up with. And so, as you can imagine, we started to discuss a bit of a red light, yellow light, green light model. Um and that so, I won't get into all the specifics on it and I'll have you basically you can peruse this at at your own will, but um the idea here is green light activities are activities that students essentially have permission to use AI for. And so, those might be brainstorming or study guides, uh feedback loops as we were talking about earlier. Yellow light activities are those that need teacher
039guidance. You know, whether they can use them or how they use them will be provided input by the by the teacher and the student then will then seek approval for that. And red light activities are just that. Things that they cannot use AI for. And so, submitting AI work as their original output obviously is a no. Copying and pasting responses directly into tasks, no. Bypassing required critical thinking process, no. And so, we want to make sure again this is not formal, this is just an idea that we were presenting, but we wanted to give the board an understanding that we're thinking of a very simplistic, very clear guidelines and practice that we'd like to be able to share in the future with our students to let them know when it's okay and when it's not
040okay. And so, I get to the opportunity to present our next presenter for the evening, Mr. Chet Zalada, to the podium and he's going to speak about how he's using AI in his classroom. Chet. >> Hello, everybody. Uh I Chad Salada, I teach English here at Methacton, 10th grade uh honors English as well as the AP Seminar class. We focus mostly on argument the whole year. So, what we task students with is obviously making claims, finding the best evidence they possibly can, and building a strong line of reasoning in between. Uh as we're now in this AI discussion, of course I could definitely sit down in front of ChatGPT and ask it to write something for me. Uh so we have this this little intersection of technology and a lot of hands-on writers' workshop conferencing
041working hand-in-hand. So, this year I've spent a lot of time using the AI to analyze student writing after the fact. Can we look at certain skills that we're going after? For instance, let's say we were working on embedding quotes. We're beyond the part where we picked our best evidence, but can we now embed them so we're not, you know, in 10th grade grabbing our quote and just slapping it in a paper as a full sentence and hoping it looks good. And and usually they describe it as that kind of like I threw it in, I hope it works. So, by the end of the year we would like them to to master using that evidence, building the best part of it into their own sentence, citing it properly, moving it along, and having it it
042enhance their line of reasoning. I spent this year working with the student writing at the end, looking to see how well we hit a task like that or maybe our citations. And it gave me some insight into maybe what some of our worst habits were or which which skill maybe we didn't hit as well as I thought we would. And then because it had the drafts to work with and it had my guidance, I could pull the best examples from both ends, and we could look at it, and it meant a little more to them than, you know, we did start out saying like if it's you, don't say that's me, you know, just take a minute for a great example and and have that pride, but they would get to see everything in action.
043and if we had a common mistake, how do we fix it? How do we make it better? So it helped me move some data along a little better. The English teacher's curse of course is there's always a pile of papers or there's always two piles of papers. So I wouldn't say this necessarily cut down on grading time. However, it gave me better feedback. It helped my instruction along the way to help them build those skills. So I feel we may have had the best year that way in quite some time. >> Wonderful. Thank you, Chet. So we're going to now move into the second part of what this committee worked on. So most of our work as you can imagine was centered around student learning. But naturally there's also an aspect of staff usage and
044and this component of it was how can staff use it and really not just in the classroom. It really can be all staff members because these are all critical components and you'll notice a lot of them are about education and but some of these practices could reflect in in offices. They could reflect for our support staff and so you'll you'll see what I mean as we go into it. And so first thing I want us to think about here is AI is a powerful tool but our impact comes from naturally how we use it. So yes, it can create efficiency for us. There's no doubt about it. But we need to be very responsible. We need to ensure that our process, whether it's assessments or the way we do things, is going through a human
045filter and we're not just counting on the AI to do everything for us. And we need to make sure that we maintain a sense of rigor in the work that we do in the classrooms. And so you know, I I think the bottom quote there says a lot. Emma Facton, we will use AI to enhance not replace the work that matters most in keeping learning human centered. And and I told you we were going to see that theme ongoing throughout this presentation, and it is what this committee believed. So, really, here's a graphic uh generated by uh AI. And so, um what I what I do what I did like about this though is it really kind of spoke to the words that we were using. And we want AI to augment what we do,
046not substitute or replace what we do. Um and so, I get the opportunity now to present our third presenter to the podium. Uh Ms. Volpe will be joining us here to talk about ways educators and students can use AI. Ms. Volpe. >> Good evening. I'm Jen Volpe. I teach social studies and science, fifth grade at Skyview. And um I wanted to share with you that I started using Google Gemini Notebook LM um in my classroom to help support student learning. It's The tool is part of our Google Suite. Um and what makes it different that um from many general AI tools is it doesn't just pull information from the internet. Notebook LM allows me to upload um my teacher assessments into a drive, um scope and sequence, curriculum that we've done that goes along with
047our curriculum for social studies and science, and using just those materials, the AI will pull study guides, podcasts, create flashcards, um videos on anything that I'm teaching. I could even say, um "Have the video be 5 minutes based on Valley Forge, and make sure that you include these vocabulary words." So, um I've been using it really to help me all the needs of students in the classroom. Social studies and science, we have full inclusion. We have ELL students. So, I'm able to differentiate and meet the needs of students, but I'm still in control of what's being put in the AI. So, what makes it great is I can then send it right to their Google Classroom because Notebook LM is part of the Google Suite. Um students know that I'm using it. I've even asked
048them for advice. Um you know, what make what can I do to make this better? Or what can you use this for? Um and they they have their scores have improved in um their assessments since the beginning of the year. So, I've been doing the pretest and the posttest and collecting data that way. Um and a lot of the students in fifth grade have said that they've never even knew how to study before. Studying was new to them. And using these different um the variety of the different things the AI have produced for them, um made learning they could understand what we were learning in their way if they didn't get it. Um I've also used it for students who are saying that they're going on vacation or if they're absent. It's an easy quick
049way to use my material to then um create something that they can catch up with. Of course, I'll still meet with them, but it's available for them. Um One example that I used Notebook LM recently is I provided information that I wanted to analyze different perspectives of patriots and loyalists and neutral and um colonists who were neutral. Instead of memorizing those definitions, the students engaged in deeper historical thinking and perspec- perspective taking. So, it gave me some ideas on not only what you're seeing up there, but how to teach differently in the classroom. Um and I'm in control of what it it puts in and and takes out. So, um I found it very useful. I was a chat person before, but after I started using Notebook LM, part of the Google Suite, it's really
050user-friendly. Shared it with my team. They didn't even know that we had it at first. Um and I found it really beneficial. So, that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ms. Fulmer. That's great. And so, one of the areas naturally with staff that were critically important for us to be discussing was the professional learning that wants to that we want to be able to take place. And so, um really we want to stay dedicated to the continuous support. So, next fall, we will be running something we're going to call AI Ed Camps, um which are going to be small choice sessions that each one of our committee members, if they so choose, will start to offer different sessions based on people's level of comfort around AI. And so, most of the people here, they're they're
051actually populating a Google Sheet right now with ideas of things that they could share with staff members and areas that they could be helping them. And it could be everything from AI 101 to advanced custom GPT building and workflow analysis if they want. Um and just depends on where a person's comfort level is. The second is we want to focus on how to formatively and summatively continue to assess and evaluate students in a world where AI can make it difficult to know what's created by students and what's created by AI. So, this discussion around this idea uh students were able to use So, we want to think of students are able to use this technology to complete assignments. And we need to start shifting out of the assessment of their work around using it to
052complete a product, as we talked about earlier, and what's the process that they're doing in order to complete the assignment. And so, we got to start thinking as we talked I said a little bit earlier about the process of assessments, the process of assignments, the process of learning. And so, as a math teacher myself, you know, we teach process in mathematics. There's never the same answer every time you get a problem. And so, it's critically important that you understand the process of what's occurring. And so, we think about that in terms of how we're going to be educating and assessing in that same manner. The third is making sure that we stay vigilant about ensuring high levels of instructional rigor and not overusing technology, AI or not, in our classroom as to not stifle cognitive
053development of our students. All of this while continuing to understand the balanced importance of ensuring to know how students use technology and AI when they graduate from the fact and for the future. And so, we recognize that there is a delicate balance between using too much AI and still use or technology and using technology. But it's critically important to us that when the students graduate from here, they know how to use these tools when they go out into the world. And so, as a staff, we recognize that balance. It's something we continually work on, but we also know the importance of teaching the technology behind it as well. And so, similar to the students, we created green light, yellow light, and red light activities for staff. So, green light activities might include brainstorming, outlining, differentiation
054as you heard earlier. Yellow light activities are those activities that teachers might use, but it's still they want to pass it through a human filter before they send it out, right? So, it may be drafting materials for class or generating feedback for students or sending out family communication. Right? And these are the areas that you don't want just the AI to generate them. You want to make sure that you're reading over them and ensuring that it is what what you think it is before you send it out. Red light activities. Um so, entering personal identifiable information, right? This is an absolute no-no. We talk about this all the time with our staff. Uh we do not put in student data. We don't put in student information. Um and so, when it comes to the AI
055itself, if we are looking at to analyze data, we do remove the identifiable indicators of what students there are. And so, if we wanted to take a look at averages in a classroom or growth data, we do remove those personal identifiable information. Uh bypassing grading. Um so, it may assist us in the foundation of giving us recommendations on how to score, but we do not put every test into an AI and then have it spit out what the grade is. Okay? It still has that that teacher filter uh when it comes to the grading system. And then it does not replace foundational learning. This is not a new concept. Okay? It just looked like worksheets years ago. Right? It's the same idea. Right? You you we would never put worksheets in front of students and
056sit at the desk for the next 45 minutes. That's bad teaching. We know that. We don't do the same thing with AI, right? With that does not become the teacher. It's critically important that the human in the center, the teacher, is making sure that they're directing that learning with students. And so, that still continues in the world of AI. And so, next uh I do get to introduce our last speaker for this evening, uh Mr. Mater, who will be joining us at the podium to discuss how he is using and customizing Gems in his classroom through Gemini. So, Mr. Mater. >> I'm back. You thought you got rid of me. Um so, two things. I I I think the first thing I'll say is um one of my fears in teaching, like way before AI,
057was always how do I know that the issue in the classroom isn't me? Um like I we start, teachers start with the end in mind. We we have a learning objective, what we want kids to be able to do, where we want them to go. And then we plan lessons and deliver instruction. And then in theory, as we're assessing, we're we're seeing if the kids got where uh we we led them to with all the activities and all the things we do. But if if your activities aren't designed to well to get kids to that learning objective, then the issue is the teacher. And so the the first way uh I've used this all year, and I really do think it's been the most impactful professional development thing that the committee uh that Dr. Regina
058put together. It has been fantastic for me. Uh I was able to build a couple of GPTs and now Jams um and help the staff create Jams to to make sure that what we are teaching and what we say we're teaching and how we say we're preparing kids is actually the thing we're doing. So um learning objectives mathactons, um Danielson model for evaluation when they come in and do observations, state standards, reading standards and writing standards in in my content area in social studies, um lesson plan templates and things like that. I would say nearly every activity that I've done and some that I I created myself uh 10 years ago and the kids seem to buy into them and I think they're cool. And obviously, you know, my ego tells me they're great. Um
059but but now I have this feedback that tells me sometimes, and it's humbling, you might love this and you might have created this and it's good in in a lot of places and you're there's this like hole in your lesson where you said that your learning objective was this but your lesson didn't quite get there all the way. That has been the the single biggest impact for me uh because now it's it's instant feedback for me. And and I'm I'd be lying to you if I said that I I wasn't I didn't make changes in between classes sometimes. Where I could tell I missed something. Something was off. And I can run it through a bot that I that I made. And it says, you missed this little thing here. And I can tweak it.
060Like on the fly. That's been game changer. You know, I'm a Chat GPT user only because you know, I have an educator's license through our committee. But the kids don't have access to that. And the staff by and large doesn't have access to that. So yesterday we had this in-service day and I taught some of the classes that Dr. Regina is talking I'm assuming you're talking about the same. Yesterday I I did a a class for a couple of sections of just teachers on how to create these these gems through Gemini which we all have through the Google Suite to do this for every curriculum. And I used four different curriculums that I do not teach and have no expertise in. And I had uh Chat GPT create activities in in AP Calculus and Anatomy
061and Physiology, things I don't even think I passed in high school. Uh and and we were able to take those fake lessons and run them through these gems and and and evaluate. Am I actually teaching the thing I say to kids that I'm teaching? That that's been game changing for me. So there's this awesome alignment now. And then the other way I would say that's been really effective this year. And and Dr. Regina is talking about, you know, the green light activities and and some student green light activities, things like feedback. You know, I teach AP Government. I have 50 AP kids in two classes times four required writings. That's 200. We have about nine assessments a year. So roughly 1,800 free response questions that are, you know, pretty rigorous. And I and I would
062love to have one-on-one conferences with kids for 1,800 free response questions, but time doesn't allow it. There's literally not enough days in the year. And so in my classes this year, we were able to the have the kids you're talking about responsible use and teaching responsible use. The students in my AP classes created their own gems to act as a college board AP reader for a specific free response question where they fed it sample free response questions that had been graded by college board and were publicly available. The the rubric that college board uses to grade their free response questions and then a set of custom instructions that made the gem act as an AP college board reader. And then they wrote their essays. I gave them a prompt they'd never seen before. They wrote
063their essays and they could put that stuff into this gem that they created. This on their Chromebook and they got instant feedback. Here's how we'd score this. Here's why you missed the point here. And the the instructions of the gem were required to give them ways they could tweak it and make it better or why they missed the point. That was game-changing. So I piloted that in in two AP sections this year. Next year I'm going to roll it out for everybody because it's just too valuable. And we don't do all the same style of writing in honors government and things like that that we do in AP gov, but there's just so much potential there for like instant feedback for student writing. So if kids are truly interested in becoming better at that the
064the you know, the sky's the limit there. It was That that was the the other thing. And like I said, I'd be lying to you if I said I used Gemini myself. I used ChatGPT for for 99.99% of this, but the opportunity is there. It's overlap. I don't know that they're any different. It's just personal preference at this point, but those two things specifically I thought worth highlighting. And not to mention, you know, I have Dr. Zerbian to help me teach classes. I know Dr. Sergenis been in to help. The other piece of this that I probably should mention is the stuff that would take hours and hours and days and days to plan and tweak and and chat has been great and and just immediately we did a budget activity this year where I
065just copy and pasted the URL to the construction project you guys are doing and we put together a lesson and activity for kids in 30 seconds based on just a web link. So it's been great and uh you know, I really like to thank Dr. Regina for for putting this committee together. >> Very well then. >> So so some obviously great interactions with AI from all four individuals and there's dozens of these stories and and a lot of them are around how to create efficiencies, how to use it ethically. Um it could even be our administrators now. So you know, talking about custom GPTs and gems. We have one for those that have ever been through an evaluation process or heard of one in the education system. It is more cumbersome than any evaluation process
066I've ever heard of. Right? It requires a lot of steps. It requires notes and evaluations and artifacts and a very large document and what happens is we have administrators that go in and do a 45-minute observation. They take notes and script out every minute that they can and then they go back to their office and they have to apply every note that they took to the best of their ability to a specific domain in the evaluation. There's four domains and about five components in each domain so there's 20 different options this could be. And that takes hours, sometimes days. Well, we now have a GPT or gem that literally just put their notes in and it automatically categorizes it for them within a minute. And so it didn't take away the fundamentals of the observation
067or the evaluation. What it did was it took away the mundane task of categorizing notes and putting them in the right spot. And so it's those types of things that we want to utilize it for. We don't want to turn the AI on to evaluate the teacher. That's not what we're asking for. We're asking for it to take care of those tasks that take us so long to do. And so when it comes to next steps, um what we would like to be able to do first is we want to focus first on policy, guidelines, and training. And so at and we would like to in the future discuss really the the full proposal of what we have uncovered as a committee. We obviously this took a lot of time. We even have more notes
068of things that we have prepared, but this is really the the major overview of it. And see where our interest lies within creating policy, guidelines, or acceptable use forms in terms of moving forward with this as a district. Um and for the 2026-2027 school year, we certainly are going to be extending and expanding on the AI staff training that started this school year. Additionally, Doctors and I had the opportunity to meet with a group of students about a month ago. And we talked to them a little bit about AI. And we spoke a little bit about their experiences and what they would like to get out of it. And would they like to form a committee? I think there was 30 students in the room and 30 hands went up wanting to be a part
069of this committee. Um what was really seemed to be an overwhelming response from the students is they want to make sure they're using it responsibly. They want to make sure everyone is. But they also recognize that there right now what we're hearing and and many of the experts are saying is by the year 2030, 70% of the profession and positions they're going to be going into are going to be an expected AI literacy component to those jobs. And to not have that skill set coming out of our school district will be doing a disservice. And those 30 students recognize that, and so they all want to be a part of a student committee next year around AI. And so we are going to be marrying our two committees, members of our staff committee with our
070student committee to do a lot of that work next year with our student body. That ends our presentation this evening. We appreciate your patience working through us. I'm super grateful for all four of you joining me this evening. They did a great job, and we'll take any questions. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, teaching staff, Dr. Regina. Are there questions from member of the board to my right, Mr. Winners? >> Yes, thank you. You guys did a excellent job of summarizing it. I just have one real question and on the student side, certainly practice and developing prompts or whatever they're called in Jam, at their I assume they're all called prompts. Um but I imagine there's a lot of learning that they get for the creation, the perspective, the tone, the formality, and the
071tweaking. So the actual execution of the writing of the prompts, is that something that we uh are providing professional training towards for our students or is that something that is sort of up to each teacher on how to develop at the themselves? >> Yeah, it's a great question. So I can certainly if any anybody has anything to add on if they're utilizing prompt writing and training in classroom, they can certainly add, but but that's a component that we're doing as well, and we want to do with staff next year. So there's a number of things within I call it prompt 101, really about how do you how do you write a proper prompt? How do you give your how do you tell the prompt who you are and what position you're coming from? What do
072you want the output to be? What kind of tone do you want it to take? Um do you want it to be in a table format? Do you want it to be 20 cent 20 words or less? And so when it comes to good prompt writing, that is one of the things that we we work on with staff. Um and it will be something that we work on with students. Uh Um, I'm not sure that anybody's had the opportunity to do it yet in their classroom or not. Um, but it will be something that we are focusing on for the future. Good question. >> Thank you. Any other questions to my right? Ms. Graf? >> Yeah, thank you. Thank you all. This was really really helpful to have real-world experiences. I think that really makes
073a difference for me. Um, I guess my one question for you, Dr. Regina, is have we used AI to help us in implementing any of the new curriculum? Like the science curriculum comes to mind and whether there's an opportunity or whether we've been doing that this year as rolling that out. >> Well, I I mean Peter, you in that, too? I I know I know AJ definitely So, we have people doing that right now with our science writing. So, you guys are welcome to come up if you want to talk a little bit about that experience, but you're good. >> [laughter] >> But but yeah, so what one of the things that we looked at is how can we So, so curriculum writing um, when it comes to So, now you know social studies is
074up next year as we're doing this process and then ELA is the year after that. And so, as we're looking at this and we start to dig into it, how can we utilize AI to one, create some consistency about how we do this? Because as you can imagine our professionals are outstanding, but when you're bringing different ones, it they're very different processes and different backgrounds and different ways that's done. And so, can we utilize this technology to support the work that we do? And can we create a more efficient process? Instead of having our staff come in and for 4 weeks out of the summer to try to figure this out, instead, they're able to conquer I mean, they did so much work just in the spring while they were here and they started to
075utilize the customized GPTs and gems that they're talking about to help them start to write the social studies curriculum. It still goes through them. They're still writing it, but they're utilizing the GPT to do a lot of the legwork that they don't necessarily have to spend the time on. >> Right. And you actually introduced the >> You actually introduced the other question I had was which was how are we making sure that across a particular grade curriculum, all teachers would be teaching the same level or using AI at the same level? Because obviously you have early adopters like the people here, and then you have other people who aren't. I would just like to make sure that our Methacton students equally get the same exposure to AI while they're here. >> Yeah, great question. And
076that is not happening today because we we naturally have not had the opportunity to train. Some staff members, as you said, are first movers. They want to know as much as possible. They join the committee, those 30 people. They want to trial everything and and give feedback. And then there's those that we have we have done trainings. Um so at high school, I know I did I think last spring I did a training and there were two sessions. In my first group, this room was packed and and it was the people that were excited about that was cuz it was their first choice, right? So I knew it. The second one was, "Okay, you didn't choose AI and it's the only thing left." group, right? And so that was the group that's like, "Trey, this
077is the devil." So I recognize that. And so there's a whole opportunity of learning and growing for some. Um I I use this reference a lot. I again, maybe it's my my math mind, but you know, when I got in as a math teacher and a physics teacher, I still was working with people that had been in the profession at that point for 30 or 40 years that cursed the calculator. That recognized that is not a technology that helps the foundation of mathematics. It should be out of our classrooms. Now, we wouldn't necessarily think much about that today, but then it was critical. And so we recognize this being so new, it's that same moment in time for some. And so we want to make sure that we're offering courses, professional development training that puts
078them at a comfort level, a safe level to not impose this idea on them. And so, really it's going to come down to our curriculum coordinators and directors within our teaching body to develop these practices that everyone feels comfortable with so that students get that same level of exposure. So, great question. It is something that's definitely on our radar that that we know we're not there yet, but we'll be. >> That's great. And then I guess the other thing I just want to point out is Um so, I'm I'm on a >> [clears throat and cough] >> an alumni board of a university and I will tell you that the university is talking about how can we get our students comfortable with AI because our incoming freshmen do not want to use AI because they
079were not allowed to use it in high school. And so, it's become like they're doing the same thing you guys are doing at the at the college level because they're saying we want them to use it to develop their outline. We want them to use it to learn more about do this calculus problem. We want them to unit use it to get to that next level of learning and they're not they're afraid cuz they think it's cheating, right? They think it's not it's not fair. So, they're really limited in how much they'll use it. Um and the other thing I guess I just want to share is my daughter takes every single assignment and puts it into AI with the rubric to get feedback before she submits anything just to say, "Okay, where am I?
080How much more? What did I do? What do I What did I miss?" Because there's always times when you miss something on a rubric and it tells you. It just spits out the data. And it's super easy for you then to think about what else you need to do and and address it. Um and that's to me, that's a lot of learning that's happening in her own independent study versus you know, it's not it's not cheating. It's really giving her the opportunity to do a little bit more digging and learn a little bit more. So, >> Absolutely. >> it's great and I'm glad you guys are taking the initiative. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Uh questions to my left, uh Ms. Perdue. >> First, I want to say thank you. Um and I do
081want to thank our teachers here. I thank you guys and the team that you have are definitely our early adopters. Um I don't know if it was 2 years ago or last year when it was brought up, I think there's a lot of hesitation towards AI. Um but I have to tell you, I think the data that you shared in reference to how things are changing and even in reference to Ms. Graf's comments is the data that you're seeing out there that if we are not embracing it, we fall behind. Our teachers fall behind and our students also fall behind just because it's it's a tool that can help us with eliminating a lot of the administrative um things, but also a tool uh shared by our teachers, you can use to learn. It can
082enhance your learning, can teach students how to study, can help them in language development. So, I think it's it's within our best interest and the fact in to embrace where the future is going. I know I say I sit in a company where when we talked about AI when it was first brought up, there was a lot of gas, right? Because people were concerned because to ensure confidentiality of our information. And um but we took that step and our CEO really took the step to say, "How do we ensure that everyone can speak the language, right? Everyone is aware of where the technology is moving and how to use AI correctly." I appreciate the presentation here because you touched on a lot of things that I I've been following and I've been doing and how
083we were able to incorporate a the use of AI even at a farmer level, but you guys have done some of that work. Just realize that it's a continuous process, right? As we're adopting new tools, as we're learning the use of things, it's also changing, right? So, the professional development to our staff have to also be we have to be able to do it continuous basis, right? Um I have to say I sat on this board when we had to go to Zoom to teach students, and we have staff that were not comfortable with it, right? They had to learn, we had to give them the support to make sure they can do it. I appreciate the work the teachers have shared, and I think they are early adopters, and they can share as mentors
084to um those, but I also want to make sure we don't get what we're now seeing as a AI divide, right? Where we have those that are well versed on it, they know how to use it. Um I even have a question to these teachers like I feel like you may have learned some of this already on your own because I want to ask if all of your learnings and how you're using them in the classroom come from what the district is providing you, was a lot of that outside because the things you have shared, I'm impressed by it, but I also know it's not just a matter of just maybe the um PD that Dr. Regina and the team have offered, the district offered you. I think you took the initiative. So, it would
085be good to ensure that whatever the learnings are, we are able to pass that on to those teachers because you're not going to always have the ones that will embrace it. One of the previous seminars I was on on AI specifically in education talked about the bias, right? Where two sets of essays were written by students. One with a caveat and then they'll say AI was used for this, and one without one. Um the ones that have the note on there, teachers graded it differently, right? Than the one that didn't. So, you can see the inherent bias in there, and I think it's just really important that we make sure that if this is something that we're looking to do, we are making sure people are comfortable with. We are giving the training. We are
086supporting our staff that may not be so comfortable with it. And we're also making sure our students have the resources they need. Um with that said, I heard a lot of things here in reference to what you're doing that I like the components of it. I raised my questions in reference to security and the risk with AI, right? We know with AI, the way it works is that the data that we're continuously putting in is also used to make the AI better. So, what I would ask is who in this Miss Hackett is responsible to ensure like risk, data, like is that you, currently? Or like how are we moving along with that? >> So, we A great First of all, great question. Um there are uh two different platforms that exist. And when it
087comes to Chat GPT and Gemini, which are the main two that we're utilizing that you heard of today, both of those tools that we use in the district are the educator license tools of those of those Bless you. And so, the educator license, for instance, of Chat GPT is the most secure system of Chat GPT that you can have. And it does not use anything that we put into it to train its models. And so, we are in a group with about three to 500 I'm not quite sure what the number is other educators in the Commonwealth that are all part of the same educator AI group. And the individual that leads that group sits on the curriculum board for open AI. And so we we still even with that information though, no it's safe
088it's as safe as the Google Doc you're writing, maybe safer. We still don't put in personal identifiable information, right? But but we do recognize and and know that it's not training the AI. The Google education license does the same thing. It literally has right in in the literature of the contract that we have, it is not used to train the anything you put in here does not train the AI. But that only comes with the educator license. We also tell people if you use a free version of that or you go in your own personal Google account, that will not happen. of our training. It will now use that information to train, but it does not with the ones that we have here in the district. >> Okay, thank you. And and it goes to
089where where it's like making sure those tools are FERPA compliant. >> Yes. >> based on state privacy law, right? You you know the nature of our students, ensuring their data there. And so I do appreciate that, but I think it's important to make sure that we are cognizant of that and um as we're adopting new tools, we're looking into that and um more to come, but my other question for you um and I talked about the professional development already. Are we working with any third-party vendors? >> In terms of the tools that we have with AI, the only group that we work with is the educator AI group. And again, so that is it's actually led from the director of innovation out of Garnet Valley. Um but there are a number of groups in our
090area. It's not necessarily a third-party group. Um but it is a collective group that works together on a lot of the stuff that we're creating in terms of these custom GPTs or a lot of the AI training that we do. And uh and actually that group is the first group that came in to train us. Um my initial training was done from the group. It's actually the the third-party group is called Advative, but it's um it's the one that actually runs that group. And that's did our first initial administrator training here in the district. I believe it was in January of 2025. >> Okay. All right. Perfect. And um for me, I think is and I've stated before, I think it's a matter of um policy, right? You talked about whether we do a policy,
091a guidance, or acceptable use. You provided us with a lot of the the traffic light system for it. Um it's helpful, but I know you're dealing with different aspects or different groups for it. How would you How or how are you communicating um this, right? Because why can look here, I can't remember all these things, right? So, as an educator, I'm helping students, so I'm doing How do I know what is a red light and or keeping it at the at my forefront? >> Yeah, great question. As a matter of fact, I think that's why the red light, green light, yellow light system is is valuable because as much as probably all of us love to believe that everybody reads every policy that we we pose and accept, the reality is they don't. Right? The
092reality is we have a lot of policies, and to expect that every person has memorized every part of our policy as an employee here would would not be realistic. And so, if we create an AI policy, we very well will be teaching it, but it's likely going to be multiple pages of words, and many people want to see something a little bit more concrete, something that's a little bit easier to look at and understand, which is why graphics like that are much more helpful. If we can utilize graphics like that to be able to educate people on what the policy actually says, we have a much greater likelihood of people remembering to do it and ensuring that it happens. And so, what we would expect to do if we move forward with a policy and
093are able to develop something like that, we would share that with staff members. We would put it on our Google Drive and our Google Classrooms. It would be part of our first day of class. We would ensure that it's done there. And so, but that's part of what we typically do. Um if we did an acceptable use form, it would be a sign-off. But again, it is something our teachers would be producing the first day of class and likely go back to multiple times as the the class progresses. Um but that that is definitely part of the training Miss Perdue that we would have to focus on with all staff. >> Okay. And I do uh want to say thank you all for your time and sharing how you're using AI in the classroom. And
094I look forward to hearing more where we go with this. But thank you. Thank you. >> Miss Cleary? >> Yep. Thank you, Dr. Regina. I um huge supporter of AI, and I'm super thankful for uh you taking the lead and all the work that you've done. It's nice to to feel like and I I do you think this is the case that Methacton is leading rather than um as you said, like with the calculator being behind and and catching up. So, I appreciate that and I um in my own business have watched We use AI and we're still learning, but we use AI constantly [clears throat] and our underwriters um use it to make their job so much more efficient. Um and I've watched my children, one both of the one in college, one just
095graduated, struggle with how to properly use AI in college. And to Miss Graft's point, that was something that I worked with my kids on as well, the way uh her daughter Hannah is using it. And they've struggled because nobody ever taught them. So, I'm thrilled that we will, um, you know, start to graduate kids who can, um, use AI in a responsible manner. But, I do want to shift my focus for a minute on policy. So, to just to follow up on a couple of things that Ms. Purdue asked you about, um, do does PSBA come out with a AI policy? >> No. Have any of the districts around or in Pennsylvania come out >> Well, I Pennsylvania's it doesn't have to be relevant for Pennsylvania in general. >> The last statistic I saw, I
096think there was 30% of of districts in the Commonwealth may have any AI policy. Um, the and and it's done different ways. Um, some individual school districts will create a standalone policy for AI. And some will embed the AI policy into an existing curriculum policy potentially if that's where you wanted to put it or a technology policy. So, they're embedded in existing policies and they're putting AI language around it. And so, it's done two different ways. On the western side of the Commonwealth, they're doing more guidelines. So, they're not even putting it in policy. They're actually developing administrative guidelines because what they're saying it's changing so rapidly to continually go back in a policy and change it. They're able to adapt quicker in guidelines. And then I was just at a think tank training at
097the MCIU 2 weeks ago and people there were sharing that they're not doing either one. They're going to an acceptable use form. And that's how they're applying it. They actually have no policy or guidelines around >> mean, acceptable >> So, almost like a students and parents are signing an acceptable use form saying, I I agree that I will not use AI to do this, this, or this. Um, but they don't necessarily have a policy or guidelines around it. >> What point how far away are we from whatever you administration's recommendation is going to be to the policy committee how far away from >> I I I would I would certainly like to talk to Dr. Zerby about it but I I would imagine this summer we can certainly come up with a position on which
098one of those areas we would recommend to the board moving forward for next fall. >> Okay, thank you. >> You're welcome. Any other questions to my left Miss Deal? >> Thank you. Thank you for all the information you shared and I found the information on its use with curriculum and supporting that really really interesting to listen to. I do have a few questions. Um One question that I do have when it comes to student data just coming back to that. Um And this might not be anything that's been thought of yet but if student identify identifying factors >> Yep. >> information is put into one of the systems um is there an ability to sanitize it? Get it out of there. >> So I can look into that Mr. It's it's a good question that
099I'm not sure of. >> Okay. All right, awesome and I just wanted to check cuz I think I understood it correctly both Gemini and open AI are the educator versions so they're the versions that so both of those systems that were presented are the ones that are closed completely. >> That's correct. Yes. >> Excellent. Thank you for that. A lot of my questions revolve around student use. Um with AI um and so I think first I want to ask what research and evidence on student learning informed practices from like organizations like MIT has a has a I think they're literacy lab I think it's what it's called what evidence on student learning has been reviewed? >> So, with this committee, none. We have not We We didn't go into the research around AI for student
100use at this moment in time. Um it naturally is something that we're going to engage in with our student groups next year. Um but we did not dig into any specific research. Quite frankly, I've done a lot of research and and it's all over the place, actually. And so, um I have read the horror story research uh that comes out on the overuse of AI and what it can do to students who think for them in their thinking process. And then those that are able to utilize it efficiently in their process of of whatever they're learning and how that can be very effective for students. And so, um I even attended a speaker in a doctoral study that did one locally, Dr. Zerbe and I both did. Um they did a local study on AI
101usage of students and the different feedback and information that we shared during that dissertation. So, I've been involved with a lot of them, but to say that any of that was used in our discussions with staff, I I didn't share that in any of our PD. >> Okay. Um I would encourage it. I just worked through a research paper where some of my students engaged in that research. It's very interesting and developing quickly. Um but I would encourage that with the evidence of learning um has the science of reading and the science of learning informed any of the usage? >> We did not get into the usage of AI specifically in any one subject area. They were purely just testing the tools and what they currently do in their practices. And so, I don't want
102to mistake the idea that AI is teaching cuz I think that might be getting confused here. The The teachers are teaching. They're utilizing the tools to create efficiencies in their classrooms. They have not changed their practice. And and And as you said, we saw multiple times in the slide deck, we are not asking anyone. Matter of fact, we're we're telling them not to change the practice. The human-centered part of teaching has to remain. The tools are to create the efficiencies and to be able to complete some of the that can support their learning. Whether it's feedback that they're doing or utilizing gems in in Mr. Maida's class, we we think that's a very appropriate way to do it, but we haven't gotten into the learning styles because we haven't changed anything of what we're doing
103in the classroom. >> So, my my question didn't connect with learning styles and it didn't connect with necessarily um teaching methodology. I found the feedback of the AP reading very interesting. Um but the brain and the science of reading brain is deeply connected to this when it comes to um neural pathways and the development of the neural pathways and deep reading and that development and that understanding is pretty foundational, I think, to then deciding how to use this and where it's appropriate and how to protect our students' brains going forward. Um there's a lot of discussion right now um across the country about the NAEP scores and the national re- and how across the country reading scores are going down. And a lot of people are very slowly coming to the conclusion that as the
104use of it's happened before COVID as the use of technology goes up tech- reading scores are slowly going down and there is evidence coming out that it is impacted including the way including the use of handwriting. So, I ask what this that that evidence and that knowledge be you know, shared, looked into, understood um because that's vital to informing and and protecting our students not only deep reading, critical thinking, but long-term deep reading, the brain sweat of being in area. And that is my massive concern with this. Um so, I would ask that some of that be pulled into this the thought process going forward. Um my other question is are there areas of the school and areas of the curriculum going forward where AI would not be part of the conversation. So, different classes
105where AI would be where computer where technology is closed, pen and paper, and books, and other areas of the school building be let's learn the technology, let's work with it. >> So, let me understand your question. Are you saying are there classes that we will not be using technology at all? >> Not at all, but less. More focus on handwriting, more focus on note-taking, more focus on annotating on a physical book. >> I I think there's opportunities probably in any class to be able to shift back and forth between different methodologies. Um I don't know that anyone would remove technology completely from the class if that's what you're asking. Um but I do think there's some classes naturally that have less in it if that's the question. >> I only ask that question again based
106on what we know from brain cognitive science and brain science and the connection between handwriting and reading on paper versus reading online. And they're all there, but the training is different and that knowledge is important. Um the other question is when it says what grade level should um where students where AI should help students think and learn, what grade level are you targeting there? >> So, repeat that again. >> There's um I think it's in the statement. Nope, I'm looking at it. >> So, you're you're saying >> should help students think, learn, and create. What is the grade level being targeted? >> For that we believe students >> AI committee position. >> Uh all all all grade levels, we think AI should not be replacing student thinking, bypassing foundational skills. Where we think students should
107think, learn, create, and communicate more effectively. That was the line? >> It AI should help students think, learn, create, and communicate more effectively, but it should not replace student thinking. Yeah. >> Yeah. So So right now our focus on AI has been at the I guess right now it's been at the Skyview on up level. Um we have been utilizing it in I think there's a few students in Skyview that have been trialing it in class. Um there's a few at our colon that have been trialing it. Most of the work is done at the 9 to 12 level. Um but we have been experiencing that um at all of our levels to ensure that students are able to recognize and know how to use it ethically and responsibly. >> Okay. I would just really
108ask and consider, please pull in the brain science, the cognitive science that is going on. There's a lot of research being done at MIT. Um >> Yeah, so that's not specific to AI though, Ms. Dill, right? That's specific to technology. Right, which I totally get. >> to lit It's actually aligned with the literacy goals. >> But but it's the technology part that you're you're concerned about, right? Which I totally understand. >> technology, then there's AI, cuz AI does generate what looks like reasoning. So, there's learning how to use that, but in order to plan, there's like you have to understand the impact on the brain and the cognitive thinking. >> Yeah, so again, they're not using AI to generate words or papers. They're utilizing it to create efficient tools in their classrooms, but they're still
109doing the same practices that they did the other day. Like they have not changed that. The technology in terms of cognitive development, I totally appreciate and understand where you're coming from, but they're not taking AI and doing anything drastically different that they are in the classroom yesterday. They're just creating tools that students are able to utilize to be more effective in the classroom, to create more efficiency in the classroom. That's what they're doing. >> That um I understand that. Thank you. Um [clears throat] as as this moves forward and as it is as when it comes back to the to the board, when it comes back to things, I would love supported evidence with student use specifically, not necessarily teacher generated differentiated, but student use. Evidence from outside sources showing the impact on the learning
110and the remembering and the idea generation from the student side. That's what I request going forward. >> Thank you, Ms. Dill. >> Thank you. >> If I can just add, and I was on a PSBA conference, Ms. Dill, that they had, I believe it was just a few weeks ago. There are some that and I will actually request some of the information, but you have to think about it also. The the data around some of the student use is fairly new. Yeah. So, there's there's there's not a lot of published I know you like published literature and I I as a science girl, yeah, I understand. Um is is limited, right? And I think they are building some of that out, but there are some, but it's very limited. A lot of it is coming
111from like places that you mentioned like MIT based on what they're seeing, but it's also on a different level, right? It's not it's at more of the collegiate level than maybe what you would see in a K-12 setting. But I know there was um one of the um one of the um doctors on there, one of the PhD um speakers on there had some good information that she's been collecting. I will try to get some of that and and share with you, but I think it is somewhat still new, um but maybe more to come later. >> Yeah, I I appreciate I know it's very very new and early In fact, how I I had my own 11th grade students research this and I changed I had to change the research from last year to
112this year cuz it's going to keep changing. Um but what we know about the reading brain and how the brain reads text online versus on paper and also how it builds knowledge with handwriting versus typing. That is knowledge that we know about, which is why I asked to review that information because that like writing by hand builds our neural pathways. Like that makes our brain store organizing by hand gets the information into our brain more deeply. And that's what that's why like the work of Maryanne Wolf, the work of Reader Come Home and Naomi Baron. Those are some people who are at the forefront of that information. >> Thank you, Ms. Deal. >> Perfect. >> And then can we just check if Ms. Okendo have any comments or any questions? >> Can you guys hear
113me? >> Yes. >> Hi. Um, thanks so much for the presentation. I will say personally I I am not an early adopter so I have my own biases against AI. But I am glad to see that we are exploring expanding the use of AI, you know, at least in terms of like educator efficiency and administrative assistance in in a slow and thoughtful and responsible way. I just want to make sure that you know, as we are developing a protocol or guardrails to start, you know, encouraging or allowing the use of of students using these AI tools. One question is are students also going to have access to this like educator license where they're inputting information into a closed a closed-loop environment or or is the expectation that students will either have to purchase their own
114licenses or use one of the free kind of open platforms. >> A great great question. They're they're part of the same educator license. They they have access to Notebook LM. It's part of the Google suite, part of their Google classrooms, that they would have access to the same tools if if we chose to open it up that way with all of them. Good question. >> Thank you. Yeah, just from an equity standpoint, I want to make sure that if if some students, you know, are able to use it, all students are able to use it. Um and that it's encouraged that the students use the the programs that are in kind of within this um this closed-loop um system. Sorry if I'm not explaining that um as technically as possible. Um the other thing I
115I want to be clear is, you know, I would love to see what when you come back with some recommendations or some guidelines for um for student use is a is a real focus for students understanding um that AI can be used as a tool, but also that, you know, as the adage goes, garbage in is is garbage out, right? So, helping um students understand um how to discern uh information that's um disseminated by AI, right? And like how that can impact their work and how other people perceive uh perceive their work and understand the quality of their work. So, just like to see, you know, some some critical discernment uh being taught to students. And um kind of as part of the guiding principles if engaging with AI for student work. >> Now, that
116There's great points. We We actually use a phrase um you know, utilizing AI as a thoughtful partner, not a vending machine. And so, we want to make sure that people recognize how we can engage with it to enhance our own work, not input in, output out. Like we That is not our intended use, but I really appreciate that comment. It is something that we certainly have been focusing on the whole year. Thank you, Elizabeth. >> Thank you. >> Um on your next steps, you um you've indicated full proposal with the board to determine if we are interested in policy guidelines or acceptable use updates. Um, when are are you coming back to the board with a proposal? Is that I just want to make sure we have the our next steps clear. >> Absolutely. So,
117we have a lot of So, our entire committee has a lot of notes. Um, we have a lot of thoughts. We captured and summarized it well in this, but naturally there's a lot of intricacies that that we want to make sure that we share. If we do indeed go with a policy or guidelines, we will want to be able to share that with the board in its full full proposal uh method, I guess, um on what we would recommend at that point. And so, yeah, the idea would be to share whether we would believe a policy or guidelines would be more appropriate. Um, and like I said, we'll hopefully we'll be able to do that over the summer. Dr. Zerbe and I will will speak with members of the committee and be able to share
118that with the board in the fall. >> Okay, thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any final thoughts on Mr. Musky? >> No, I just wanted to make some comments and um highlight some of the things I wrote down listening. I mean, I I really appreciate the efforts that everyone's put in here and it's obvious that you're early adopters and you're enthusiastic about figuring out how to use this and introduce so I reinforce all the accolades that everyone's and appreciation of your efforts. Um, yeah, one of my biggest concerns is the security and ownership of the information. So, I'd like to see some evidence of what you're saying. Right? And I mean, I under understand your explanation, but I'd like to see some proof before we adopt this widely. Um, I'd like I am interested So,
119so approximately you know, we're piloting this, right? And you're you and other some other teachers are like So, today, how many students and how many how many students are participating in this today in the school district? Approximately, you don't know the exact numbers, so 30, 120? I mean, it it But but but in the like in the last 6 months or how long you've been working on this? Like approximately how many students? >> And we do that So, we if we run a training, we ask people to trial it in their classes, give feedback, tell us how it worked. We had an individual in fifth grade that used it to help with text-dependent analysis feedback. She said it was the most engaging lesson I've ever had. Students wanted to see the feedback from the AI.
120And so, but it's very concentrated and very protected within the job. >> me explain why I'm asking. >> Sure. >> Because I mean, it says here that we we intend to expand this to to continue to develop a a approach and a policy, right? So, we're going to expose more kids to it, getting involved, and using this in teaching them and and also their use. And I I would add like I mean, it's obvious that we have to prepare our children to use these tools. It's not like we can crawl under a rock and pretend like the world's not changing and we're not going to you know, like they're not going to have to understand how to use these responsibly, right? Um But but, you know, like we're we're going to be involving hundreds of
121of students in experiments on how we're using this before we even establish a policy or approach. So, that's that's the nature of the question. Like to understand like okay, so we're going to move along and try to figure this out and I'd like to understand like or what you know, how what extent are we exposing students in this process and another point so and I don't want to well, the I'd like I I definitely I I understand the whole thing's evolving the whole topic's evolving and how to use it in teaching and allowing students to use it in learning and producing product, right? That the learn um but but um understanding the like published studies on the impact on how on using it in learning to Miss Miss Teal's point I think Miss Purdue also
122pointed out like like as that comes out, I think that needs to be integrated into our approach. Right? I mean, I'm glad we're cutting edge, leading edge, not following. That that's a good thing. It's just that I think those things are useful particularly as this we develop a policy around this, how we want to use it, how we want to what's acceptable, what's not. And then lastly, whatever we decide around guidelines, it needs to be flexible. Right? Because it's going to evolve. And we're [snorts] going to need to change like like I I like trying to write this into a policy that we have to revise every 6 months is kind of crazy. I like the idea of like guidelines or some like a flexible approach that we can evolve over you know, the coming
123years as this technology get develops and and there's more feedback. Right? About what what works, what doesn't, what the pitfalls are. So those are those are my comments. Thank you. >> Thank you, Glenn. So, it's >> [snorts] >> Go ahead, Ms. Teal. >> Thank you. I'm so sorry. Oh, sorry. Oh, sorry. Um >> too. Hold on. >> Wait. >> No. >> [laughter] >> Go ahead, Ms. Teal. >> So, Sal was also part of our group. So, like he So, can I make a comment? I said, "Well, we'll have to wait on that." >> Thanks. Um I just wanted to echo what um Mr. Mersky said cuz I know I I know I ask a lot of hard questions and I know I ask a lot about let's talk about the brain for a minute. Um
124but every single person in this room, I'm almost positive except maybe the really young ones back there. Um which is awesome. Thanks for sticking it out. Um but all of us learned how to read and write on paper and pencil. All of us learned how to read and write and how to critically think and how to organize an essay on paper and pencil and paperback books. It just wasn't around. I mean, I could still sing the the AOL pet dial up. And the students that are in school now are different and their brains are different. And I appreciate the early adopters and the thoughtfulness and there's some really great stuff doing on, but as we develop a policy, I just don't want 10 years down the line to be like, "Ooh, we made a mistake."
125cuz that's a whole generation. So, that's my biggest concern, which is why I please ask you, look at the reading brain, look at the deep reading brain, the work of Maryanne Wolf, the work of Naomi Baron, and everyone who goes with them because that is information that yes, the new information on AI is coming out, but the information about the impact of technology and the difference between reading and what deep reading is and why we need to protect it is there now. So, please have that inform the work going forward so we take sure we take the right steps and we're not saying, "Oops." cuz their brains are different. I want all of I I want our generation to have a better brain than mine. Not that my mind you know, anyway, I'll be quiet.
126>> Thank you, Ms. Teal. Dr. Regina, uh teaching staff, thank you so much for your time this evening and your work all school year long. And members of the board, thank you so much for your engaging uh discussion. This is all good about us being able to move forward as a as a district. And as such, there'll be more conversation to to this respect, more work, more experimentation, policies, guidelines, all that kind of stuff. Great work. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful evening. Appreciate it. >> Oh, gosh, great job. All right. >> Madam President, next week we have a number of other additional guests and scheduled speakers. We have the Spirit of Methacton Awards and awards for athletics and academics. We have the ceremonial signing of high school diploma. Ms. Ellie is going to
127be with us to go over a belonging presentation. And then Ms. Steppy will provide us an update on the uh proposed I'm sorry, on the final budget ready for adoption on June 16th of of this year for the 26-27 school year. With that said, there'll be reports and we'll have all of that information, obviously public comment on those action items. But as we go into this agenda this evening, we're going to go right to fiscal items, Ms. Steppy. >> Sure, there are nine six fiscal items that we'll ask the board board to approve next week. 9A, list of bills. 9B, treasurer's report. 9C, budgetary transfers. 9D, we'll ask that the board approve the four taxes listed for the 26-27 school year. 9E, we'll ask that the board approve the renewal for the food service management
128company with Aramark Educational Services LLC for the period of July 1, 2026 to June 30th, 2027 at a break-even guarantee. 9F, we'll ask the board to approve that any unallocated fund balance ending June 30th, 2026 in excess of 7% of the 26-27 budget to be transferred to the capital projects fund. >> Thank you, Ms. Steffy. Are there any questions from members of the board to my right, Ms. Graf? >> Yes, hi. Um I I just my only question was on item 9F, are we anticipating that we will have excess in a in excess of 7%? >> We're anticipating a surplus. Um the exact exact percentage I I don't know. Yeah, I can get back to >> I just it didn't come up in finance, so I just was curious. Thanks. >> Any other questions to
129my right? Seeing none to my left, Ms. Perdue. >> I just have a quick question in for um 9D3 for the earned income tax, is it the same for um Lower Providence and Worcester? >> It is 1/2% >> Okay, thank you. >> And can we check with Ms. Candow to see if she has any questions on finance items? Seeing none, any further Thank you, Ms. Steffy. We go on to area 10 personnel items, Dr. Sergiy. >> Thank you, Dr. Sergiy. The personnel items for this month include the following: one resignation classified, Diana Pantano, power professional at the high school, resignation for retirement after 25 years of dedicated service to Methacton. We recognized Diana this evening and her entire Methacton family wishes her well. There are five employments classified, four personal care assistants, Daniel Ryan at
130Worcester, Anthony Bota at Woodland, Vanessa Coughlin at Worcester, and Dana Barthold at Arcola. And there is one power professional at Eagleville, Erica Owens. We welcome Daniel, Anthony, Vanessa, Dana, and Erica to the Methacton family. There are two changes of status classified, Aaron Pallerin from secretary to the assistant principal at Skyview to secretary to the principal at Skyview, and Dana Fornicola from power professional at Arcola, to secretary to the assistant principal at Arcola. We thank Erin and Dana for taking on these new roles. There are two uncompensated leaves classified, Jessica Cox custodian at the high school, and Marni Yudis personal care assistant at Arrowhead for the dates listed. One sabbatical leave, Andrea Angler, music instructor at Woodland for the second semester of the 2026-2027 school year. And then there are supplemental contracts for chaperones, ESY room
131movements, and pupil services department. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Siracini. Any questions uh for Dr. Siracini to my left? Can we check with Mr. Kendall, please? No. How about to my right? Any questions for Dr. Siracini? Seeing none. Thank you, Dr. Siracini. Uh next we'll move on to item 11, curriculum and programs, Dr. Regina. >> Thank you, Dr. Zerby. Uh we have a number of items here under curriculum and programs. First, we are looking to revise the revised curriculum for ELA both for 7 and 8. These are revised, so they do not need to sit. Uh for 11B, we do have the resource adoption of our statistical reasoning for everyday life. Um being as a new resource, this did have to sit, so this was announced in the April meeting and will uh be
132able to be voted on at the May voting session next week. 11C is our flexible instructional days. Um and this is the application for the administration to reapply for what is commonly known as FID days or flexible instructional days for the 2026-2027 through 2028-2029 school years under the PDE guidelines as attached. And D, to approve the participation of the Acton School District in the following federal programs for the 2026-2027 school year, and that is Title 1 Part A, Title 2 Part A, and Title 3 and 4 Part A. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Regina. Any questions or comments for Dr. Regina to my right? Ms. Graf? >> Yeah, for 9C, the uh flexible instruction days, I just had a question about that memo. It references 180 days, and I know that sometimes we do
133days and sometimes we do by hours and I just wanted to make sure we didn't have to have 180 days parentheses or x number of I I just want to make sure we had it right. >> Great question. Yeah, so um if we take a flexible instructional day, we're awarded the hours of that day. So we'd still meet the hour requirement. So we are okay with the number of hours. We're we're actually under the hours guidelines. >> Right. >> Um and so yeah, we would we would still be okay if we took a flexible instructional >> So my question is in the memo it only references 180 days that the the flectional flexible instructional days will can will be accounted for in accordance with the 180 day requirement. And so my question is should the
134memo also allow us to use them >> Let me look into that. I I >> didn't want us to say days and then next year be caught that we said days. >> that they created but I'll I'll easily check on that and have that I mean it to be changed. I'll have it changed next >> I just don't want us to get caught for not being able to >> Thank you. >> Any other comments or questions on curriculum and programs to my right? To my left? Um it is important that we announce that Ms. Austin has has rejoined. >> Ms. Austin has joined. Ms. Austin joined us a minute ago. Welcome and hopefully the award ceremony went well. >> Um any other uh anything from Ms. uh Akendo? Uh program Okay, with that said though
135we'll move on to policy. Uh Dr. Regina. >> Thank you Dr. Zerby. Uh we do have a few items for first read and uh for second read they'll be voted on next week. 006, 008, 914, 916, and 917 will all be voted on next week for second read. Thank you. >> Are there any questions for Dr. Regina on any matters of policy as listed? To To left? Ms. Perdue? >> But I'm happy to see some of these policies that sat for a while moving forward to first read. So, thank you. And I do want to commend the policy committee for all their work. Um um I think you guys went through the whole cycle. And so, I do appreciate all the work that went in. Having sat on policy, I know it's a lot of
136work. So, I appreciate all your work. Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments on my left? To my right? Seeing none. Thank you. Anything from Ms. Akendo? Okay, good. They're giving high fives over there virtually. Uh go for it. Okay, under other, uh is area 13, uh we have uh trips approved the Methacton High School overnight trip for teams. Um that is the test of engineering aptitude mathematics and science to attend and participate in the national competition 22nd of June to the 26th in Washington, D.C. Uh transportation approved the the drivers uh roster as listed. Uh 13D, the YMCA age child care services does to approve the agreement with YMCA of Greater Philadelphia to establish and maintain a school age uh child care program in the Arrowhead, Eagleville, Woodland, and Worcester elementary schools before
137and after school after care services for the district parents from August 31st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029 at no cost to the district. And then under uh MHS uh uh ARCAP grant is to approve the contract with ICSMCTA in collaboration with Total Grant Services to serve as Methacton School District professional representative for the application and oversight of the redevelopment application capital program uh grant at a fee of $6,600. Also under other, we have PSBA policy services approve the Pennsylvania School Boards Association policy services member agreement as presented. Policy services are included in the standard membership and are valued at $2,025. Under 13G is a school board treasurer. Annually you would approve the election of the school board treasurer. We have here to approve the election of Danielle Penza to serve as a treasurer of the
138board for one year term beginning July 1, 26 through June 30th, 27. And under 13H is the regular summer hiring authorization from the board. To authorize the superintendent to hire personnel to fill open budgeted positions between July 26 through July 1, 26 through September 15, when the failure to hire a prior to the 15th could in the professional opinion of the superintendent impair the ability of the district to appropriately fill open positions for the 26-27 school term. Are there any questions on items under other to my right? Mr. Winners. >> That last one Dr. Zerbe, I when you say fill open and budgeted positions, I thought that purpose of this was usually that we had a spike in enrollment in elementary schools or some area where we don't have a extra third grade teacher in
139Worcester, but we need one. That wouldn't have been budgeted for. So that's why the phrasing here is a little confusing. I thought we it was a little more um wide open for our authority to do that because otherwise you won't have the authority to to do that. So that's why it's just worded in a different way than I remember the purpose. >> Well, I I will tell you that we worded it differently in different years. This wording is similar to the wording from last year. But I do recognize what you're saying. I think last year we wanted to make certain that we were hiring within only those positions that were budgeted for and anything that had to be hired beyond budget would come to the board as part of a regular cycle within within that.
140We can certainly reward that if it's the if it's the interest of the board where by if it was outside the budget it would be it would require me to notify the board via memo if if that's so the the the interest of the board to do that but either either way this this is generally designed to make sure that as resignations occurred during the summer especially during months when we don't have board meetings to approve people we can do those replacements without having to wait you know you know almost 60 days to get that their their approval. Mr. Mersky So are you okay with this wording? >> I'm fine with the wording. >> So then I wouldn't want to change it. >> I like the idea of coming back to the board if we're
141going to add positions that aren't budgeted. >> Yeah, I'm I'm I'm fine with that as well. >> Thank you. Other comments on Miss Clary? >> Just a quick question on 13D. Um So the YMTA contract is it always a three-year contract? >> Is it always a three-year contract? >> Yeah. It's usually a yearly contract. >> No, I don't I I don't know >> It's okay. I'll we could follow up. I haven't looked at it yet so I just before I go back to review it I just wanted to know if that was normal. >> they've been with us for a long a long time. >> why I'm >> And and and the reason I believe this is is coming before the board at this point in time we had done some investigatory work in terms
142of getting feedback from other vendors that could also provide the service And through that evaluation process, it was recommended by Dr. Gravanis, who who led that process, that the YMCA could provide the best service for our families. >> Sure. I I My My only question is, and I can follow up with you outside of here, is is it normally a 1-year contract, a 3-year contract, something I That's all I really want to know. >> I I >> And that's okay. >> Yeah, I can't tell you that. >> Okay, thank you. >> Ms. Austin? >> Yeah, thank you. I'm just curious about the date on 13H, the summer hiring authorization, because I think we do have a board meeting on August 25th. So, So, I'm just wondering why it goes to September 15th, unless because we'll
143already have met again in >> Sorry. So, if if in if in August we would We do What we're going to do is put them on the agenda for like a retroactive notification, but if if something happens at the end of that after that board meeting until the date of September 15th, we would still be unable to fill the position and have to wait till the end of September. >> Understood, then. Okay, thank you. >> So, it's it's Yeah, I I don't know if you recall, but it was probably 2 years ago we had a lengthy discussion about what's the best way to do this. I had a a much shorter timeline. The board recommended make it a bigger timeline, and and and and this is exactly, except for the actual years, it's everything's the
144same. >> Understood, thank you. >> Any other questions under matters of other? Seeing none, I'll turn it back over to Madam President for our dates of board members' calendars. >> All right, the board meeting dates are listed on the agenda and also available on the district website. As a reminder, we approach the summer months, we have an abbreviated schedule. So, some of the meetings or plan committee meetings are on here. I know there's still a discussion in reference to education committee and I believe the committee chair will work with Dr. Regina as far as their plans for the summer. But I do want to highlight finance committee will be meeting um in June um just in preparation for the um final budget um meeting. And then with that I will check from the board if
145you have any old or new business at this time. Yes, Ms. Graf. >> Yeah, I just in with respect to the budget, um do we So, finance committee's going to meet on the 10th and we will have the updated budget at that time. And then the budget update slides will be available for the rest of the board in advance of the 16th meeting? I just want to make sure we're giving the board enough time to be able to review it before coming to the session. >> Assuming that there's no recommended changes to the slides from the finance committee, we would issue the slides to the full board the following day. >> So, we know there's probably going to be slide changes. Right, as a result of that conversation in that meeting. So, I guess well,
146that's what I'm asking. Like I want to make sure that the board >> don't know that. If If there are, we would we would make them as soon as we possibly could unless there's um you know, other calculations and things that need to get done. It's It's a difference between making slide changes and making um you know, reductions or additions in in the budget based on on the conversations. >> So, what I'm asking is can you give me a date by which we can guarantee that the rest of the board will be able to review the slides in advance of the meeting on the 16th? Whether there's changes or not. I just want to like the end date. Like we will definitely have updated slides by the 13th or the 14th. So, that's all I'm
147asking for. >> We we can provide that uh, once we're closer to the 16th. I think that's probably the the the the You you I I just don't know how I don't know how to answer the the question when a meeting hasn't occurred yet. >> Can I just add um, so the meeting, the finance meeting is on the 10th, which is on currently a Wednesday, right? And I think what we stated just due to um, the nature of things and what everyone have going on, because the meeting will be on the 16th, maybe I can ask if possible, can we have the slides by the Friday, um, even if it's the end of the day, just so board members that may not have opportunity to review it on a Monday or Tuesday before the meeting,
148maybe have some chance to review it over the weekend. It You can consider it. I think it's a fair ask to see if we can have it over the weekend. >> I think our goal is if there's no substantial uh, modifications, we would provide it the following morning to the board. >> So, the reason I'm asking is because I would hate for those slides to get posted on the 15th and then people come to the meeting on the 16th, have questions that either cannot be answered in real time or are going to take time and now we're running out of time. >> Yeah, and that's >> So, my objective is to make sure that people have adequate time to review slides and ask for clarification and get those responses before the board meeting on the
14916th if possible. So, however you decide to do it is fine. I just want to make sure that people are aware that that is going to be sort of like coming and we need to be prepared to >> That's that's a fair request and and we we agree that we will get it to the full board as far in advance as we possibly can. >> And I'll also make sure once they're available I'll send a message out to the board just to let them know it's available so they have it at their review. Perfect. Mr. Winters? >> Yeah, just want to highlight Ms. Purdue that the next meeting is on Thursday the 28th. So, this we are here on a Wednesday because of election day and then next week because of vacation. So, anybody that
150we say usual dates, no. It's next Thursday is our regular scheduled board meeting. >> Thank you. Ms. Thill? >> Hi, thanks so much. Um, I just wanted to to maybe make an ask and I don't know where what committee this would be in. It may be ed committee or maybe just a memo. Um, and it's just more keeping an eye on recent conversations, recent things in the news. Um, we use a number of um, online programs. Um, I-Ready, AIMSweb, IXL, STAR, LinkIt, and I would love to know if in the contracts there is anything about the protection of or selling of student data. And I think that that would be some good thing information for us to have however the best way it is to get it get there for us to keep in mind.
151I think I worded that wrong so please phrase that in the appropriate way. Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ms. Thill. Um, Ms. Query? >> Just a quick question for Dr. Zerbe. Um, at our seats is a a ballot for the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit Election Board of Directors. Is that something that we can fill out and give to you to give to Beth or should we be filling it out and sending it back on our own? >> You can give me the ballot. I can give Beth is going to collect them all but I'll just give them to her. So, if you have them here this evening I can take them. Um, if not just scan it, send it to her. >> Okay, thank you. >> Either way, thank you so much. >> And
152thank you for bringing that up. What is that day? I know Beth sent that email also with a day for us to provide it by. So, I think if everybody can So, they have to go back to the MCIU no later than June 1st. So, I believe Beth and our memo have a date on there. So, maybe just check your email and try to get it back to her by that time. Or if you want to fill it out tonight and provide it to Dr. Zaremba, that would be helpful. Thank you. And then I'll just check if any Miss Okinda or Miss Austin have any old or new business. Perfect. Okay, with that I will now move to courtesy of the floor. This [snorts] is an opportunity for this the board to take questions from
153the public. The Board of School Directors will now provide opportunity to make comments on matters that are or may be before the board. The board asks that you keep your comments to 3 minutes or less. The Board of School Directors may choose to respond to matters following the conclusion of the comments. You can also submit questions via email to [email protected]. And I just have to remind you as you approach the podium, just please provide your name and municipality, whether it's Lower Providence or Worcester. Thank you. >> So, good evening. My name is Arnav and I'm a sophomore in Methacton and I'm from Norristown in Lower Providence. So, my friend and acquaintance Ian and I are here tonight because we want to speak about the planned removal of the German program for the 2027 to 2028
154school year. And I understand the district has budgets and and enrollment numbers and long-term planning when making decisions like this. I know these responsibilities are not simple, but I also think that it's important to consider what students lose when a program like this disappears. German is much more than just another elective to take for a credit, and learning another language gives the students another opportunities that can help them far beyond the high school. And it helps with communication skills, cultural understanding, the problem-solving in that requires inside of the language, and the future career opportunities that language knowing can open up. Germany also has a major role in fields like engineering, technology, science, and international businesses. So, this language is genuinely beneficial for people later in life. For students, this pro Sorry. This program is better
155for making school feel more engaging and meaningful, and not every valuable class can be measured by how many students sign up immediately. Also, I want to address the idea that not many people are signing up in Wachusett and taking German right now. While that may be true at the moment, there are still people entering high school who are interested in taking it or would choose it if the opportunity continued to exist. When programs like this are removed, >> [clears throat] >> Sorry. the future students lose that choice uh before they even get the chance to make it. And once a language program is gone, it's extremely difficult to rebuild it later. The teachers move on, the courses disappear, and the student interest becomes harder to restore because the program is no longer exist for students
156to experience. I think the school should continue offering the students a variety of academic opportunities, even if some of the programs are smaller than the other programs such as Spanish. Public education should prepare the students for different futures, and not everyone follows the exact same path. And if the district ultimately decides the German program cannot continue, then I hope that another language or another meaningful academic class can take its place so students can still have opportunities that broaden their educations and interests. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um my name is Ian McAdams. I'm currently in 10th grade, and I live in Worcester. I am here tonight on association with Arnav Soni, my friend, and also to represent at least my class as well as majority of people taking German. That we do not want
157to lose this program, and we still deeply care about it and want to continue it. We both have been in this program for 4 years now and continue to plan to go on possibly definitely a fifth, possibly even sixth year of learning it if it does not get cut. While cutting it, we do kind of hurt Methacton and its environment here. We limit our uh possible languages down to two from three, which will hurt our reputation when you look at schools around us such as Spring-Ford, which has all three, or even Wissahickon, which has a fourth language program that people can choose. I also do want to address the situation that there is low sign-up for the German program. I do know personally multiple people and multiple people's younger siblings that do show interest in
158taking the program and want to pursue it so that they can then learn it. There is still an interest to take German. And personally, it is hard for both of us to realize that we have been doing this for 4 years now, a quarter of both of our lives, and we're going to lose the possibility to do a sixth year apart from the proposed virtual option, which takes away the idea of having a teacher up there in person to teach you such things as AP German, to be able to go on and actually learn and advance to a college level. We also believe that everything that we've learned so far and everything that we will learn does help us in the future and gives us the opportunities to go to Germany and the multiple Germanic-speaking
159countries such as Austria or parts of Belgium, Luxembourg, and be able to experience the culture there and understand it instead of not being able to because this program is soon going to be cut. Germany historically and modern day has been one of the largest is one of the largest economies in the world and is a huge importance in any type of engineering sciences, even geopolitical things, which I'm in Model UN, I do have an interest for. If I want to go pursue that path, knowing German is a good thing to know. But with the cutting of this program, that would hamper me to be able to go off in the world and make my own living. I thank you for listening. >> Thank you. And then with that, I will just say thank you Ian
160and Arna for your comments and raising your concerns in reference to this. Typically, we're not engaging in questioning and answer for the board, but I have to say I was in receipt of email from Ian's mom in reference to the program and making programmatic changes like this is not easy for the board and definitely when it comes to us from the administration, there's multiple factors that's looked at. It's not just based on the enrollment and as you said, there's we have rising students that come in that have interest. But I hope we can work on that and I am hopefully connected with director of curriculum in reference to a transition plan, right? And then we do have a transition plan in place, but I realize that the sophomores that already have some years of German,
161you stand at a loss maybe of 1 year based on where you are in your program. And I I I Dr. Gola is not here right now to speak to um what plans they provided, but I know you mentioned maybe the virtual option um provided may not be suitable, but I hope we can connect with you um with Dr. Golar maybe with Dr. Yuca to look at what alternatives we have. I know when we sat here and had a discussion on there was brought up I believe by Ms. Austin to ensure what else can we put in place. Is there any additional things that we can consider instead of if if we're cutting the program, do we offer something? I think um you guys raised that also, and it's something that maybe we can talk
162about, but I may stop and see if my fellow board members have any additional comments they want to add and then maybe see if there's anything else, but I think we'll I can check in with Dr. Golar in reference to what she's proposed, and then maybe hopefully she can connect with you both. Is there anything? >> Yeah, thank thank you for those comments. Yeah, I I did have concerns about about cutting the program. Um and you know, I I agree. I would I would like to see a better or if see if we can discuss further the transition plan. Um you know, maybe there's a way we can you know, work with a univer- university and have a dual enrollment class, um something like that where you could still get that that AP that college
163credit. Um we do have relationships with the community college with Ursinus, and I think if we ask the administration to explore some of those options um so that you can get what you want and what you need out of the program. Um I I thank you for raising your concerns today to us. >> With that I'm sorry. You you can you can unmute and speak. I can't I'm sorry. I can't hear you. You're welcome to speak. Oh, yeah, I will give opportunity. I just wanted to see if the board had anything else and then with that I'll check if there's any other members in the I forgot the designated chakras to make sure they get home safely and so I don't want to you know, assume that you don't have comments but we hopefully will
164touch base with you too and then but in reference to other opportunities available and how we transition but thank you for your comments. And that and with that I will see if there's any additional last comments from the board and if not I will adjourn the meeting at 9:15. I'm sorry. Can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:15. I'm too quick. Yes, Miss Deal and Miss Graf. All right, meeting adjourned at 9:15 now. Thank you all for your time and I appreciate you guys for staying on with us to provide your comments.