March 28, 2023 Regular Meeting of the Board

001[Music] that was something oh my God thank you I see it [Music] all right [Applause] you're crazy thank you [Music] thank you [Applause] for some entertainment [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] it's gonna stop and see us some of the good guys thank you okay good hey how you doing thank you [Applause] [Music] something else [Music] there we go [Music] [Laughter] thank you [Music] um thank you yeah good evening I'd like to call to order the methactin School District Board of Directors meeting on March 28 2023 for our Pledge of Allegiance Dr Zerby thank you madam president please join us in the president elections led by Christian green student at Woodland Elementary School hi my name is Christian I'm a fourth grader at Lola Elementary School please stand up for the plugged one nation under God indivisible

002with liberty and justice for all next uh please pay attention to the screen where we have Rachel Fitzgerald a student at Woodland Elementary School sharing why she loves Woodland Elementary School hi my name is Rachel from Woodland and I'm in fourth grade Miss Bender's class I'm here to tell you why I love my school when lenses so much I'll go in for a lot of reasons one of my favorite reasons is on the teachers assistants and aides there are so nice and our schedule they know what to do when there's a problem and whenever you do a little extra help you can just ask one of them and they'll be right over here the best part is that no one's ever knew they're all so when I say caring they're just awesome they deserve a

003huge round of applause for everything they do every day of the week and every time I love to dress up and enjoy all the silly and serious spirit days they are mainly based on holidays or partly meetings one of my favorite days is when we have dropped everything into read we call it tear for sure I also love the days where we can dress up and be whatever you want to be you can always have fun and forward to the fun the student council kids have planned for us another thing I love is extra activities you can choose from chess club is for students who want to play chess it doesn't matter if you know how to play or not everyone's welcome after school sports is open to all fourth graders that want to participate

004in after school activities such as football basketball soccer and gym games there are a lot of music like band where you can play instruments there's like wind and brass instruments you can also play percussion and an orchestra where you have an offer between Viola violent cello Aries Third Coast leaders continued in cores with missing one you can learn songs for the concert and things funniest songs and plays other percussion instruments when the news is from third and fourth graders work together to inform women about all the things that are is happening student council is a few kids from fourth grade that come together to make a bottom between the teachers and students there's also on the Green Team and other clubs and activities that students can participate in the last time I'm going to talk

005about is Dr eager doctor is the best principle they can be she's so kind and caring she never yells and makes work fun Dr Iker is responsible for all the fun elements these are just a few reasons why I love my school build them so much [Applause] thank you so much they are junior board representatives and the president is now signed the certificate and will issue those certificates to those students tomorrow all right thank you Dr survey um next is the uh the public is hereby advised of the audio and video recording of this meeting for the purposes of broadcast rebroadcasting and uh there's an executive session announcement um board vet and an executive session immediately prior to tonight's meeting here at pedrocola Intermediate School for the purpose of discussing a matter involving the continued

006employment of an administrative employee of the district um by way of attendance um Miss Rocco and Mr Winters are absent okay and now it's time for recognition of guests and scheduled speakers Dr survey thank you madam president before we go into the recognition of yes and scheduled speakers I'd like for the members of the board and the audience to bear with me till I read these words words cannot express the tremendous grief that it's built by so many as a result of yesterday's tragic school shooting in Nashville Tennessee please join me in a moment of silence here this evening for the victims and all those affected by this terrible act of violence at the Covenant School thank you this evening March 28 2023 we have a number of guests and scheduled speakers but as it

007was mentioned here just earlier by the Woodland student the best principal please come forward [Applause] to some of the employees and volunteers at Woodland Elementary School with the Award of Excellence Madam president if you've done the front uh thank you Dr zurby and just so you know I'm not responsible for all the fun thank you for having me tonight we're here to um with Woody we are here to uh acknowledge some excellent uh people at Woodland and for the job that they do every day at Woodland the first one that we are going to honor is Megan Morgan Megan Morgan has been staff member for over two decades and the kindergarten teacher at Woodland since 2017. you can easily see Megan's love for teaching reading as you step into her classroom there are so many

008stuffed characters around her room students love being in Megan's class because she puts learning to life and plans fun and engaging lessons medkin is an advocate for every child and is a true team player Megan is always willing to share her knowledge and expertise with her team the only two things that may come close to her love for teaching are Diet Coke and glitter to maintenance Sparkles and caffeine make the world turn Woodland appreciates Megan's passion and [Applause] next on our list we have Mrs Michelle Johnson [Applause] Michelle Johnson is a second grade teacher at Woodland she serves the needs of regular education and special education students Michelle is hard-working and dedicated to her students she knows every student's needs and plans fun and engaging lessons so those needs can be met every time I

009walk into Michelle's class I can see high level of student involvement and excitement for learning Michelle's students illustrate an extraordinary level of respect and responsibility when they are outside the river Michelle is the perfect example of those qualities for her students Woodland is lucky to have Joe Johnson [Music] next we have Mrs Lynn Bellow [Applause] explain yeah that was an instructional assistant at Woodland flexible is the best word to describe her no matter what is as he does it willingly and without complaints from first grade to fourth grade when does it all she's willing to accommodate any requests and does an amazing job at work whatever she is asked Lynn can be found helping students in small groups working individually with students for helping students stay engaged in full group lessons students appreciate Lynn's kindness

010compassion and willingness to help Lynn is a good friend to other staff members she always participates in team building activities and everyone enjoys Lynn's company Woodland has a friend named lindella treatment next we have Trish rubendall now [Applause] Trish Ruben I'll joined the team as an office assistant in at Woodland in 2017 Trisha's friendly positive and a pleasure to have as a staff member on top of her office duties Trish helps teachers laminate copy and cup materials for students Trish loves working with the students as well as a lunchroom monitor which is claim to fame is creating a woodland American Idol for fourth graders during their lunch time this is so popular in fourth grade that Woodland Idol became part of the fourth grade pillows popcorns and pajamas right in that activity Woodland is a

011better place because [Applause] [Music] we have Mrs [Applause] the social and emotional growth of students is just as important to Kim as their academic growth students in Kim's room show incredible growth in all three areas students can thrive in Kim and know that she has their best interests at heart staff turned to Kim for advice as well they know she will be understanding and supporting and offered whatever help she can one of the many things people look to for Kim is her expertise differentiating content kid makes this look easy and many people have turned to her for help Kim is an amazing teammate Woodland is a better place because of what Kim contributes every day [Applause] next we have Mrs Joan Ross [Applause] is an instructional assistant at Woodland for years until her recent retirement

012[Applause] we are thrilled together tonight even though Joe has retired she still comes back to volunteer at Woodland never has there been a more patient person than Jim her calm voice and caring major make her a joy to have at Woodland no matter what she is asked to do Joan does it well with a smile students trust Joan because of her kindness and compassion whether she was helping in kindergarten with the writing or teaching phonics skills to first grade Joe never stops helping others we thank Joan for continuing to volunteer and love and see and love seeing her walk through the doors Woodland will always have a special place for John Ross [Music] so the next couple slides are going to honor a team of volunteers called the do-more do-more comms and helps teachers and

013staff members with certain duties so there's a couple individuals who we want to thank all part of the do-more organization the first person to do more and it would like to thank is Miss Karen Whitten [Applause] Karen went down to do more an organization that involves adults with special needs in volunteering in the community every morning Karen opens her home to the do-more family then they load into her do-more van to be taken around town helping others parent dedicates her life to helping others aside from volunteering at Woodland and Skyview Karen and do more visit Dogtown an animal shelter and Care and Share a local food shop variety The Volunteers that do all learn and diversified set of essential life skills the entire Woodland Community thanks Karen and the do-more organization for their helpfulness and

014the kindness they show week after week [Music] first member if you would want to thank two is Mr Chris Moore [Applause] and has been volunteering this time since 2008. in fact due war is made that difference he loves coming to Woodland and says it's his favorite place to go the only thing man can even come close to the fun he has at Woodland is when he gets to watch his two favorite television shows Seinfeld and The Andy Griffith Show unfortunately Chris has been mending a broken hip for the last several weeks so Woodland has not benefited from his smiling face the entire Woodland team wishes Chris a speedy recovery and looks forward to when he returns [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] from Vanguard in 2014 Scott joined the do-more organization he has been helping Woodland

015with the necessary tests of cutting copying laminating and organizing materials for both teachers and students Scott's favorite part of Woodland is when he is sitting in the fourth grade hallway and one of the teachers starts playing Ho Hey by The Lumineers this is his all-time favorite song and a big smile crosses his face when it plays would not at Woodland Scott enjoys playing video games at home Woodland appreciates everything Scott has gotten for our school community [Music] and the last person we're honoring tonight is Eric bats [Applause] thank you talk do more since he graduated from Abington High School in 2020 he helps with the copy and laminating with his absolute favorite part of coming to Woodland is the shredding machine it does make a very relaxing sense Eric also helps out the animal shelter

016Dogtown he walks the doors and dogs and does some light cleaning Eric is honest and told us that he may like dog town but that's okay we understand it's difficult to compete with cuddly puppies like so many of us Eric loves his Disney movies Woodland is so grateful to have Eric as part of our role [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you [Applause] thank you [Applause] thank you ladies and gentlemen we're just going to wait about a one minute give some folks some time to exit if they so choose to [Music] thank you very much thank you [Music] director of North technical career center she's here to give us an update on some of the wonderful things happening at North Marco technical Career Center Dr cardovich thank you Dr servi thank you to welcome the opportunity to

017talk about my very favorite Commando and if you are visiting us a few weeks ago and know that you talk about the school endlessly but I promise I share with your mission statement if I put it up there because I want to make sure everybody understands that the staff and more non-protechnical Career Center is truly dedicated to the community and all of our districts and of course with that especially I need to know that we try to Endeavor to ensure every student that leaves our program become empowered and enriched members of the community that is one of our biggest goals let's take a look at the numbers right now Career Technical education is having a bit of a Renaissance it's not just our school it's a Montgomery and Bucks County the current school year enrollment

018is about a thousand ten students the capacity for this year however was 11 34. we had a number of students over 200 on a wait list which caused us to pause and take a deeper dive into why that happened we needed to determine Why students remaining weightless and didn't want to take the open seats that we had for this school year and that created what we call the capacity project which I'm going to walk you through in a minute the anticipated enrollment for next year is 1200 and yes we increased the capacity for next year to about 12 34 and that is due to the outcomes of the capacity project I'd like to let you all know that while we stand here right now and the fourth Market period is not concluded there are 95

019students of the just under 300 that are going to leave us already working in their field in Cooperative education does not count the number of students who are working part-time after school we can't track that because they don't all always let us know and taking a look at last year so we do a survey every year at the end of the school year and the students are happy to share their information with us I'd like to share that 50 of the students went on to a post-secondary experience and in their field of study what does that mean well it could be a registered apprenticeship it could be a two-year it also could be a four-year University 23 percent were employed in their field before they actually walked out the door four percent enlisted in the

020military 13 which post-secondary for an unrelated field this is interesting we believe if students finish with us they have a successful career that graduate high school and they make a decision that that's not their career that's a decision right right so they made an informed decision they knew that the program they read was not for them and they choose to do something else that is still a positive and of course working in unrelated field that 10 they all had jobs when they left we don't know if they retain them we do a one year and a three year out but I have to tell you the truth as you well know it's really hard to find the students once they leave us so let's talk about this capacity project so we took a look at

021the students on the waiting list we took a look at those open seats and we did an analysis three-pronged approach to the physical space let's take a look at the space are we using every inch of space optimally so when we set capacity numbers in a program does that mean that is a safe amount of students that we can put in there with the teachers that are assigned to the program the program analysis is it a successful program are these students getting jobs do they stay in the field does the employment Outlook in that field look sustainable is it a living wage will there be openings in the future if we continue our whole students in a program and then we took a look at the time Summers to see if there was any way

022we could change our delivery that might enhance the student experience and allow us to have more students come into the programming I can tell you the delivery is not going to change so we are still a three-section delivery many of you may not know this we have two morning sessions they do overlap and we have an afternoon session so we enroll students from grades 9 through 12 even though some of our districts only enroll students at 10th grade so let's take a look at the physical space for a moment we did uh an arguing right now of renovation and the renovation took our drafting class and it's going to convert it into a property maintenance a lot of our students on last year's wait list were on the wait list because they wanted one of

023the Building Trades programs either HVAC carpentry or electrical and this program will teach them a little bit of all of that I can tell you now at the first go through of the enrollment forms that we have single digit students on the wait list for those three programs they were double digits last year so where electrical had almost night routines I think it was 19 students in a wait list they're only two carpentry had 20 they're only three because those students chose to go into the building property in the internet we evaluated our drafting program and we are we are closing it we will age out the last three students next year it has rolled with single-digit students for the last couple of years and it was put on probation last year the teacher is

024retiring and I will tell you from experience Engineers do not want to leave engineering to come into education when they are the need of their career because we just can't pay them right so we had to replace a mechatronics teacher a number of years ago we were grateful we found Brian Brian found a teaching position much closer to his home in reading and it took us the months to replace him and we found the second teacher of which we were hoping to do for the last couple of years but it takes time and since all of our districts deliver drafting or some sort of maker States or design and some of them have multiple levels we knew that the students were going to come to us because they said why would I go to the

025tech school when I can stay here to high school with my friends and that is the reality of exactly what happened so that program flipped and now we've reduced our waitlist for next year and we'll be able to increase capacity so that's one program the other program is horticulture we actually are going to close it at the end of this year that program was also replicated by all of our districts all of our five districts have greenhouses and they teach some level of body plant science or some sort of horticulture on a different level that program had single digit students that program will flip into something we're calling the service occupation program that is for students who may not be expected to complete a full program of study some of our programs are very very

026rigorous and some of them I spoke about electrical that's one of them had very high levels of mathematics students need to earn their industry credentials while they're in there and their end of program test by their senior year so those students will have the opportunity to gain skills in the service sector in the service occupation program those students will come to us by recommendation from the supervisors of special education and then that takes me to the next one so by moving uh programs around I mentioned mechatronics we expanded ekatronics during covids we've had two teachers teacher because that program had a waitlist for a number of years we put that in an old Warehouse of Maintenance space and then the space it vacated we moved our Cisco networking class too because that program had a

027wait list we were able to add four seats by putting it into a larger space we reduced the wait list that program hasn't had a weight loss the last two years but now we have the old space left so we put out there and surveyed our students and some of the middle school students to see if they'd be interested in a social media digital marketing class and they were very interested and that collapse in the morning session will be full we did have a lot of interest from the older students but you know it'll take at least a year for the 10th graders to roll up to the third section so it will be full we have about four students that'll be in the afternoon session and well that's not great the morning sessions will

028be full as well so by adding those programs and retooling the configuration of existing programs we're able to add seats and that increased capacity so we can have more students enjoy the benefits any questions for me thank you so much for that update uh any questions from members of the board to my lab Ms Reese I don't have any questions but I um want to just quickly thank you publicly because I probably will never get the chance to do that again I'm always up here bragging about North monco but for those unaware I have um been part of North Monaco on the Joc for almost eight years and I have known this phenomenal educator for that amount of time and uh she runs as she said just to put it in kind of layman's terms

029three different sessions from students from five different school districts so she's dealing with five of superintendents I don't know five schedules um she also deals with 11 of us because the jlc is number 11 11 of us um she keeps up with the trends and she listens to her students and her staff and it's been a pleasure to know you and I thank you for all that you do for all of our students and the um cheerleading and initiatives that you help are technical uh students with so thank you so much and we won't ever be able to do that [Music] probably [Music] any other questions I just have one um in reference to because I know just the programming that is offered at the North Marco most of them are very unique and I

030know the metatronics is one that was unique and there you have the staff and issue so I was wondering when um you have that like what are some of the ways you go about with ensuring is that right because I think with mechatronics like you said you had a longer wait just because of the unique skill set to find someone else to come in so what are some of the ways that you taught to help to keep the students going where there's the turnover mid-semester great question you're very fortunate to actually have a former PB stem student who graduated college come back as a teaching assistant so he was really able to to hold down the floor for a few months while we searched that does not always happen but but he was there and

031he kept it together we have to use unique methods we just can't go out to read to look for teachers when we hire at North Monaco we have to bring an occupational experts we have to verify their work experience and then once they come to us then they enroll in a teacher preparation program right so where people at the industry to find individuals who are ready to step out of industry and come into the educational field and money's always an issue and the fact that they have to go back to school because they have to get credentialed sometimes as an issue I will tell you you'll be the first to know I just had um the property maintenance teacher except our offer this morning so that would be going to the Joc this month and

032we were able to also hire a teacher for the new social program as well so we have to look at unusual places and believe it or not indeed has been very helpful but word of mouth is also helpful that's how we found our mechatronics teachers so yeah we're very happy we have an individual who actually was an Administration that was in the western part of the state and as many of you may know salaries are more lucrative in the eastern part of the state and his daughters with grandchildren in this part of the state so he moved to the east to join us and the second teacher is actually someone who went to school to actually study mechanical engineering and physics because of money issues went into service served for seven years was deployed returned

033home finished his degree but really never lost his passion for wanting to be an educator that's why he had a minor in education um and when we made in the office or secondly Electronics teacher he was just thrilled and actually he's moving to the center part of the state so that's just sort of what we do thank you you're welcome and before you sit down I just want to Echo a little bit of what Andrea said and thank you for your vision of North Monaco and your efficiency and your vision of efficiency and um and and but you've really made it a very desirable program for all of the five standing districts and um made it a really viable place for a great career path for um for our students so I thank you very

034much see no other comments uh Dr cardovich I hope that you will just stay for just a few more minutes as we go on to the next item which is a recognition of growing Rocco students and it gives me great pleasure to introduce that there have been seven North manko Career and Technical students who represent who are the thank you students who earn medals in the skills USA District 2 competition this year when I call your name would you please come forward so that we can recognize you and Dr Paul dobage if you want to come down we're going to we're going to get a photo with everyone so we have Junior Addison zip one first place in the automotive refinishing category Adam please come forward right we have sophomore Ali poorini won first place

035[Applause] [Music] we have senior Daniel Johnson won first place in the next contemporaneous speaking category being senior andalia Basta ashtava who won second place in the prepared speech category seniors Sophia Ryan and Jacob gromwell who won third place in the quiz Bowl team competition congratulations [Applause] thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay next on the gifts and scheduled speakers this evening we have Dr Susan angstadt who is the director of pupil services and represent representatives from Springfield psychological to provide an update on the reach program Dr einstead tonight Brianna Bernardo from Springfield psychological and I would like to provide you with an update on the district's speech program that is being implemented in all of our schools across the country and within our own Community there is a growing need for mental health services shows that

036having access to school-based Mental Health Services helps to reduce or address the following it helps reduce barriers seventy percent of students with mental health disorders do not receive adequate treatment due to lack of access to services it helps to support mental health disorders that could impact academics attendance discipline social and emotional well-being and relationships with peers and adults there is a great deal of research that says half of mental health disorders begin before the age of 14 and three-quarters of people with disorders manifest systems symptoms before the age of 24. and there's a growing positive evidence that says the treatment helps 81 percent of teens with anxiety and 71 have change the depression see improvements in system and symptoms as a result of evidence-based treatment some of actin is very fortunate to have the reach

037program a school-based intensive mental health program that provides the following we have six mental health clinicians in our schools our age program director and assistant director to supervise the clinical staff and provide administrative support our clinicians are available to support our staff and Springfield psychological has provided a lot of professional development for our staff throughout the year I would also like to acknowledge and thank Dr Bernardo and Dr Alicia Hufford our assistant director for collaborating with our administrative team and providing the supervision and oversight of the retirement on the right I included a breakdown of the timeline of the implementation of reach started back in 2018-19 with a pilot of the Arcola Intermediate School in the 2020-2021 school year that program was expanded to include Skyview and MacBook high school and in the 2021-2022 school

038year the reach program was expanded to our elementary program our elementary schools is part of the sword program hi everyone it's so lovely to see you I wanted to share with you just a glimpse of The Smiling Faces of the research each day also wanted to provide a summary of the current reach case loads so you can see which students are currently in the program as well as some incoming possible referrals we've also been able to discharge some of the students due to meeting their goals students can enter the program throughout the entire school year so not everyone starts with us right off the bat in August September by the beginning of the year excuse me so even some of the students who you know again have current incoming referrals we're able to create spaces

039in the program by moving again some students out due to meeting their goals and then the last column shows you any alternative placements that have occurred and we've only seen those so far this year at Acton high school and of the three that have moved to an alternative placement one student has already been able to return back to the high school and one student planning to be returning shortly and again they can re-enter into a program like ours you know receive that therapeutic support on a daily basis so here's an overview of what the day-to-day looks like within the reach program students are depending on the particular school's schedule they're in group therapy usually on either daily every other day uh roughly once a week basis and again that depends on particular Schools schedule and

040you know what what can be allowed for with group therapy they're also meeting regularly with their therapists for individual counseling covering a number of different topics symptom management relationship building certainly academic and personal success we're working very closely with families School professionals any outside medical or mental health professionals with students working with we really want to have that successful continuity of care across environments um students can also and families can also access their therapists after the school hours that could be something where you know students might be having an issue in the evening they're able to get in touch with their therapists all skills coaching in a moment hey this is when we said you were going to use these certain skills um as well as planning for a success to start to the following

041day you know why don't you come meet with me first thing in the morning when you come into school you know those kinds of things that really allow the students to feel supported when they're coming into the building if necessary you know we can certainly provide family therapy sessions for the student and their caregivers as well this could involve virtual therapy this could also involve parents coming into the school and then the district has been really lovely and supportive the board has been so lovely and supportive to offer summer Services you know to be able to provide some more therapy for students again working with the school teams to determine the clinical need here's some additional supports and interventions that we utilize within the school district we're meeting regularly with the school treatment teams again

042that could look like attending child study team meetings it could look like um you know just meeting briefly or bi-weekly with counselors and then other professionals within the to your school it's a time for us really to come together and say you know how is the student doing right now you know are there any other ideas or strategies that we need to be implemented with the student so again working very closely with the school council teams making sure that everyone you know is aware of what's going on we're also able to work with any other like I mentioned community-based supports provide referrals sometimes kind of hold students you know with our program while we're on the waiting list reading this for other community-based supports we also work with any of the other again parents meetings

043phone calls emails any way we can get them you know parents are very busy we want to make sure that we're accessible and available to do that and then Alicia Dr Hereford and myself are going out to the schools on a weekly basis meeting with the staff you know regularly for supervision and just talked about cases discuss treatment interventions that we're utilizing again as well as just going to be available on an as needed basis it's been really wonderful to work directly with the district to figure out you know what's going to be helpful for teachers what do they need in this moment and how do we deliver it in a way that feels easily accessible to them so some of the more formalized ways that you've done that have been through different professional development

044sessions on in-service days um and that's usually good again so I'm going to District reaching out and saying hey I think we need a session around this topic and us working together to you know formalize something and be able to meet with teachers um any other instructional AIDS whoever's coming to that in service day so this is just a sampling of some of the different topics we've been able to cover teachers have really asked for you know what can I use what are my strategies in the moment so we've tried to be very concrete very focused you know with the type of presentations that we offer so it's not just hey in theory in a perfect world here's what you can do but no on a day-to-day basis what can you do how can you

045feel more empowered you know to work with the students that are in your classrooms this slide shows some of the quotes on our students about what is helpful about the reach program and while I won't read them all there's a few that I would like to point out many of our students talk about reach being a safe place a place where they can go in the school day when they're feeling overwhelmed will never having a bad day when people just don't get them and these counselors are there to help support them and work through whatever those concerns are at that particular time the other one that I wanted to point out was a student who shared the the reach program gives them a feeling of belonging they appreciate the helpfulness the urgency and the care

046that they receive and the willingness of their counselors and clinicians support them when they're struggling we just wanted to share some of those quotes with you additionally it's important when we're looking at our program is to really solicit feedback from our students themselves so we can think of ways to improve and enhance the program this graphic represents the data from our students in grades 5 through 12 that participate in the reach program I'm not going to read it to you but the overall results are very favorable about the individual counseling support that they're receiving and they would definitely recommend program to other friends that are in need similarly we talked we looked at soliciting feedback from students that participate in group sessions again feedback very positive students from grades 5 through 12 responded the one

047area that you will see is a little lower is the bottom one which is group topics that were relevant to their needs this is where we really try to get them to provide a lot of feedback to the clinicians about what topics they want to talk about and we continue to use that feedback to talk about other topics that we need to cover in the region and now now I'm just going to share with you the program policy so while there's a number of goals that we're you know addressing a micro level with the students each day obviously their personal goals these are the overarching goals that we're working on within the program within the district again to show that Effectiveness and really feel like we're making careers so you can see that the the

048main one that we're looking at is decreasing symptoms related to their emotional difficulties we also want to stay very focused on their academic success in order to do that they have to be here in the building you know we're trying to increase their attendance we're trying to increase or maintain grades not every student Who's involved in the reach program is struggling with their grades certainly a large number of them are we know that the more students experience mental health stressors the more their grades obviously suffer um and then of course working to reduce the need for those alternative business you know if we can keep students here in their Community Schools that we can really help them again continue to Foster those relationships continue to Foster that success so I think we want to always

049be looking at how do we provide that highest level of care within the building you know so specifically looking at their emotional and mental Wellness symptoms there's two measures that we use throughout the year on a monthly basis students just love filling them out every month we get through it so one specifically targets their depression [Music] left hand side the percentages of students grades 5 through 12 who have been able to decrease their depression symptoms over the course of the year and then on the right hand side we specifically also look at their anxiety scores and what you'll see are their total anxiety scores cost again multiple different domains as well as the specifics of generalized anxiety social anxiety and overall School avoidance Syria might see the percentages of students who are able to decrease

050those symptoms and we'll work closely with the school and the families to increase attendance and again there's a number of different ways that we're really able to be very creative in our intervention this might look like again that kind of off hours communication planning for a successful start to the day getting in touch with students first thing in the morning you know we have families will reach out and say hey so and so it's really struggling to get to school today we're able to talk with them and plan for success to start um you know we can go right out and eat them at the car door if they made it um you know to really help them feel more comfortable entering your buildings days so again you can see the percentage of students who

051have been able to increase their attendance while they're involved in the reach program we also are working very closely with the classroom teachers obviously we are not we never want to you know pretend to be the the education specialist until the teachers say here's what you have to teach but we'll certainly work with them to come up with creative ideas and interventions you know again how can you support this student right in their classroom how can we give you more Tools in your teacher toolbox to use in those moments if a student is struggling with any mental health needs um we'll work in our group therapy sessions you know okay everyone pull up you know their school assignments let's see what people are missing how do we claim your success with completing those um so

052that's always a folded in part of our treatment as well and again you can see the percentage of students who have been able to increase and maintain their grades while being involved in the rich building foreign at the bottom a chart summarizing again the alternative placements so far this year I think it's also really important to emphasize that sometimes students aren't going to an alternative placement but they do need a higher level of care students may need an inpatient hospitalization or a partial hospitalization where they could be out of school for a week or possibly 10 days and oftentimes those are the really difficult times for students to re-enter the building right they've identified it had this much higher need I've gotten this intensive level of support and then it's okay go back to school

053good luck you know and as much as the course of school is trying to program for that and trying to anticipate a student coming back and making sure that they feel supported having a program like reach there just softens that Landing for the students you know it allows them to maybe know ahead of time okay what are my teachers expecting of me as I come back in where do I go how do I again physically just enter the building on that first day these are the areas that can become such a barrier for the students that is increasing that avoidance I don't want to go people are going to stare at I wonder where I've been you know any of those kind of concerns this is what the students we're able to say okay let's

054do it this way let's help you let's support you why don't we meet with this teacher um so it's another way that again even if students are going to that higher level of care outside the school when they're coming back in having a program like reach they just feel so much more supported so much more comfortable um and I think it really allows the other school supports to shine as well the counselors this classroom teachers the emotional support teachers you know they're really able to work closely with the reach staff too again how do we support this care coming back in so our next does the reach program we continue to work with Springfield psychological to analyze and discuss we monitor the mental health needs of our students and always think about ways we could

055potentially enhance moving programs in our school additionally we want to continue to have Springfield or Springfield psychology I'm sorry to conduct mental health trainings for our staff awareness of mental health needs and that also helps to reduce [Music] I think it's also important to point out some honors and recognition of the rich program and I'm not going to read them all but in March 2020 the Muslim reach program was honored by the Pennsylvania Association of the people's Services administrators been selected as the recipient of the Robert B Carney Award of Excellence and a word of Distinction in October of 2021 the center for State schools did an assessment here in the district and they noted that the reach program was a strength for the schools and orchestra that were implementing school-based intensive behavior and Education

056Foundation has supported the expansion of the reach program the reach program has received many competitives grants for the expansion and sustainability of the reach program more recently the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services the office of mental health wrote a grant using the district's reach program and its outcomes as its model the office was awarded to five million dollars that is now being shared between the schools in the county to develop more school-based intensive mental health programs and we have also been meeting with other districts to talk about the reach program in Wisconsin and since we have talked to several schools North Penn and public school districts so in closing I would love to officers thank the board of school directors and doctors Irby for your support of the reach program over the

057past few years since implementing reach in the district approximately 185 students have participated and benefited from this program and the needs of our mental health and families our students and our families greatly appreciated thank you thank you Dr nextet and thank you thank you um I I must say that this program would not be a reality without doing the issue about Wednesday and your vision for supporting students through your district and there's no there should be no uh question that this was an effort that was derived from your desire to make improvements in the lives of students in the Latin School District and I gotta say I'm so proud to be able to work alongside you I love him bringing this forward to the students here in the community so thank you so much [Applause]

058Mysteries the questions one you've answered with uh the other District so thank you beat me to that um and for me seeing that 185 plus students and I remember you bringing this to us my question to you is in when you brought it to us you were very passionate and and I know we were all thinking about this is amazing thank you for this initiative because I believe one other District you had gotten the idea from et cetera is and I don't mean to put you on the spot but is it everything that you envisioned the fact that the student or home school of knowledge you have the fact that students can remain here and get the support they need rather than going down the district to get therapeutic services that makes our students feel

059normal and it's okay to have [Music] and I um and just one more thing um in that it's not really a question but I know we have spoken about caseloads and I believe that 18 was I don't know if we called it the max but we figured 18 is manageable each clinician can have approximately 10 students on their cases but it's very fluid so as a student comes in a student they exit and also on level two level of support through our Central Behavioral Health clinicians so a lot of times students will be in tier three with Springfield and then up down to a lower level of support or low access the programmer but it's very fluid so that there's always great students being seen in referrals and I know it's I only had two

060but I have one more sorry um has this also made I would imagine has this also helped make the sac program a little more efficient I'm you know having to not wait and go out or yeah I think the fact that our team does a referral to Springfield psychological for read for reading you don't need to have a photo plan if there's a need that referral has made Springfield's still determined it was eligible for those services to treatment and they need to be eligible for that but accesses in a lot thank you again so much thank you first of all thank you for the presentation um I'm happy to see like this version of how far we've come with the reach program and able to have it in a lot of schools I think is

061very helpful and I think that's it is that it it's just the opportunity to keep the students here instead of sending them up I think it's a really great and I'm I'm sure you can attest to how to help students to be able to stay in their regular environment instead of gone now I had two questions one was about the feedback um how are we conducting as a Lifest service received or is it um first student yeah so it's part of a feedback survey that would give the students at the end of the year and those other questions listed and then there's a record scale you know one to five that they can write experience and then um I get the in reference to the case laws that you indicated that for this school year

062yeah and then no go ahead and I they just have one in reference to the professional development for the teachers just because I think that goes hand in hand and then helps a lot um are you trying to I think you've captured maybe some of the for your goals that's some of the things that you want to work on I don't think you're thinking to increase that a little bit more and I was wondering what is the feedback just because you could buy the feedback on students are you also engaging from staff and reference to how the professional development offer is helpful yeah yeah I think do they do feedback surveys as part part of the yeah as part of their in-service days that the feedback series are part of that um so I think

063that that data is collected on the particular session but we will also you know when for example the most recent one um district attorney said hey we'd love to do something within this sort of topic range and then the people who are going to be presenting on those particular uh for that particular session went to some of the teachers at that school and did again what this is kind of the parameters we've been given are there more specifics within that that you would love that your fellow teachers would enjoy to try to narrow that down a bit further you know it's kind of like strategies for working with students of mental health needs is kind of this broad spectrum and then okay in terms of content how do we make sure we're going straight to

064the source and saying what are you looking for you know what would be helpful for you no thank you and then I'll be interested in how because the attendance I think I looked at that and I know you would probably employ different methods at the different schools based on the high school because you mentioned going out to the doors to reach them and I was just looking at it based on the 50 at the high school I'm wondering if there's something there that when you're looking at your goals is that something that you plan to work on yeah absolutely and I think you've across the board you know post pandemic there are some students who have just really struggled to re-engage with being in that school environment um so there's certainly ones that you know

065we're looking at again having to be more creative how do we really get students back in the building thank you very much thank you for doing this craft yes thank you both this was a great presentation and I appreciate all the work that you're doing um my question was around the case loads so when I looked at the list of the caseloads for current students in the elementary you've got 18 case loads for one clinician is that an overloaded situation it's not and that this is where the reach program is really um I think very exciting and flexible we've even entering into this District we were able to say hey here's what we've done in another District but we want to personalize it to what methampton needs and then as we've gone into the lower

066grades as we've gone into something like the elementary school we were we started off with here's what we've seen with the older grades here's where the caseload balance has really felt like let's live with it in the elementary schools let's try it out let's see what really feels like a good balance and so that particular therapist will spend one day out of the week in each of the elementary schools and then have a floater day where depending on where the need is you know he's able to move to certain particular buildings and I think that really allowed him to expand that caseload and we've been able to see okay 10 you know we could handle more you know and really working with that particular clinician and if we get with the needs of that building

067to say how do we do this in a way that this therapist is accessible again on as needed basis what we've seen some other levels of service struggle with is they get so so scheduled that them and students are having that crisis from needing more it's like oh gosh I already have a full day you know Facebook plan so to speak um so keeping that pace with small has meant that we can intervene in these different ways but yet really working with that particular therapist and again soliciting that feedback from building principles from school counselors um you know how are we making sure that this person feels like it's manageable and not too much and we've been able to really utilize groups in a very interesting way at the elementary level with the school saying

068hey we have this group of you know this particular cluster of students who could really use a group around this topic so that allows us in again work with a larger caseload because many of those are students who are just in group and not receiving the individual therapy sometimes students are doing both sometimes just individual um so again just being really flexible and working with each building you need um so I think it's worked out really well when we've been able to see okay at this level here's how it can work as opposed to a high school level and again the needs to be seen at those students that sounds great it sounds great my other question I guess is sort of forward-looking in terms of you know the growth in the program as more

069students and parents become aware of the program it's possible that the demand may become more higher than it is today and is there um you know I just would encourage you to start thinking about do we need to expand the program do we need to bring in more people to support the program because it does seem to be doing such a wonderful job with our students so I absolutely thank you and that kind of expansion you know is really only possible because the district is so supportive you know because this is a district who says we want to fully support our students um so just the fact that we've been able to go K-12 I mean this is a district that really said okay we don't want to keep this in just one place and

070that's something that it's just been so amazing to see thank you Mrs thank you again also for coming and presenting and seeing the number of students that we're support has been fantastic I would love to add into this when you first came up with the tier one tier two and the tier three the different ones I really like that slide when you introduce the program I would love to add that to this because it really what I think is important is understanding that these students and how they're referred it's not only by the teachers but parents who are at home dealing with a crisis that they're not sure of and these children haven't been diagnosed with anxiety or depression these are just kids that are truly needing support So parents should feel comfortable and know

071that reaches for them and to come and investigate it because I think that's super important you know if you're you're thinking your child is you know scared for suicide prevention like this is this is an area that we can help and support them so I love that slide because the referral really comes from a group of teachers but it could come from parents as well so um I would just love to add that and then I would also say that we when it first was started we got to walk through our Cola and seeing the safe space it's warm it's comfortable it's inviting so knowing that parents know that this is really a safe space for their child that they could go to when they really need support is fantastic so thank you for that

072I appreciate it tips and comments in the schedule thank you so much for this and for um implementing this amazing program here and I was at the nciu for an event and was talking to the person next to me and said where I was from and she said oh you're my captain wow that's not that you have that amazing reach program and we're looking to implement that in other districts and we're using you as a model so thank you for allowing us to be this model for other districts um in their Mental Health you know customer good mental health for their students and um I just was wondering I know that you talked about professional development um but I know that there was also um other support for students not who are not necessarily in

073the program but there's a lot of supports in place or we were told that there was you know in development um ways to support just all of the students all of the time I don't know if that's what assemblies or programs or just information so that you have any more information about those kinds of supports for all the students who are not necessarily in reach we haven't done kind of a yeah we haven't done an assembly or anything like that yet I know it's a topic that's been thrown around at different times um we've done some different things such as um being a like a drop-in session availability during some parent nights that have an offer um where again parents could come in you know very quickly 15 30 minutes um as well as some

074River materials that we're prepared to send out to teachers to parents especially with returning to school after the pandemic um but yeah I think that's a lovely idea and again an additional way to support you know that full student load or student body yeah and I think that would just maybe introduce the idea so if it becomes something students maybe feel like they need down the road or it speaks to them as something that would benefit them just as a way to introduce the program and um you know and some other mental health supports to the student body thank you thanks for your comments any questions or comments am I right again thank you so much and thank you for the leadership and supporting all the services we appreciated next on the agenda with food

075services update I'm just going to run through the podium quick thank you good evening and thank you first of all I want to make sure that I'm clear on what this slide this first introductory slide says it's a pre-recommendation presentation so there's nothing for you to act on there's nothing uh more than just information because we will be asking you likely within the next month or so to make a decision on a number of matters next slide please the purpose is to advise the district stakeholders of imminent matters related to The District Food Services advise the board on Futures award actions and potential budget impact and advise the board on a communication plan relative to the Food Service matters next slide The Guiding matters are there are three basic uh or actually uh five basic

076items the national school lunch program which in a simple summary is the USDA assisted meal program operating in public schools the program specifies food standards such as food types ingredients and preparation standards on the on the school in order for the school to receive a subsidy or money back from the government we also uh as part of other guiding matters here at the district policy 246 which is our school wellness policy and the matters that have contained within that and then policy 808 808.1 and 808.2 those are the Food Service policies the three reduced lunch meals and the point of sale policies those are just guiding uh items for our consideration as we make our decisions going forward the current status of the Food Service program all segment schools operated under the national school lunch

077program that means from all four elementary schools today we were called the high school they all participate in the national school lunch program for not only for breakfast but for lunch Aaron Mark provides the management and the operation oversight that means they uh they are the management of the firm that acquires the food and they're also the management firm that acquires the staff to deliver the services during our breakfast and for lunch hour Mark has been the food service provider since 2011 2012 school year and that was the first year in transition from an in-house program here at Mac and for probably forever prior to that particular point in time in 2022 Niche ranking has food services and effective ranked as a c uh the district required uh to is required to issue an RFP

078or a request for a proposal every five years this is the end of the five-year agreement sequence cycle which requires us to issue an RFP Staffing challenges and Food Services has limited the availability Choice quality of foods we are currently seven staff short at other times during the school year we were in a neighborhood of sometimes 10 staff short we also know that the free breakfast program instituted by the Pennsylvania and the Department of Education also increase the challenges associated with the stackable limitations that we have next slide in terms of a plan of action in the Strategic plan as you know one of our our two goals is to increase our ranking and we reviewed the rankings of the top 100 A-Plus districts in the Commonwealth who also had an A-Plus ranking in food

079services and this is under a nation and we determined from that review that uh those listed and they're listed in the green box uh we are used a third-party provider electrifactin does those providers sometimes are error marks sometimes other major companies in the marketplace we also determine that others had all the others have in-house food service programs and almost all did not have their high schools in on the national school lunch program so given that information um Mr vicker our director of uh of financial services and I started contacting other districts some that are on the list here some that aren't on the list and trying to determine some of the information associated with you know how do we have a program where some schools are on the national school lunch program and maybe the

080high school is not so we put out a goal to improve the access to better quality variety and dietary options for all the goal is to increase our ranking into Food Services We Believe by making a movement in the food service ranking it will increase our overall ranking as a district if we look at uh the actions taken we created in our colon High School Food Service review teams that included students and staff we had discussions we had memory selection uh sessions we did some taste testing and the high school students actually went on on site visits Mr Burke and I went on an additional site visit as well we issued the RFP about a month or so an hour and we're going to have those they provided feedback in order to support the RFP

081they are again going to help us here in April as you see in our timeline coming up how they'll help us select and reviewed the final vendor for providing food services to the fact that schools next slide the RFP component components we included menu updates based on student selection and discussions from Marcola Skyline High School in the high school we did product specification updates to the RFP compared to our previous submission so for example if we if we may have said in a previous submission we want a a ticket the chicken sandwich would have been a chicken patty or more along the lines of what we consider a process of children Academy are specifications in this round include you using whole meat a chicken as part of the chicken sandwich so if you could just

082give you an idea that the better quality of food was included in the rfpe process we also discovered that many of the districts that have done well in the rankings also had What's called the Mr chef and we added that to the requirements for this so we have Cooks we have a manager we have wine workers but a chef is someone who you know has an expertise in the food industry we can then support the cooks and also be able to jump in when a Cook's not there right now when it Cooks out we our manager jumps in on and while she's capable there's also management so I'm just telling you about some of the track some of some of the challenges associated with Staffing and being able to provide a a first-in-class food service

083program and so with that we also added the option for a high school to go off the national school lunch program so the rfps will will respond by saying this is what it will be if you're on the national school lunch program for all seven schools this is what it would be if you're if you're a 60-7 schools on the national school lunch program and one every month the next we added an option for a grab and go a beverage a cafe for the high school only what our students at the high school discover when they did site visits was that uh their the uh the schools that we visited had beverage stations and these are things similar to that you would find uh for Wawa or at Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts and it also

084included grab-and-go meals so that at any time throughout the morning and into mid-afternoon students they were hungry or thirsty and could participate in in those those services and we also uh we also included I think the rating Matrix in order to score the rfps we have to cut this Matrix and we incorporated a focus on Food Service staff salaries we believe that the salaries that our Aramark is currently offering for starting uh service workers is is much vulnerable you know it's much lower than you'll find in the marketplace and therefore it is impeding our ability to stop the entire operation with that said we we are leveraging the Matrix and staff sellers to make sure that that's a priority for us next slide so when we talk about making decisions and impact in the future

085uh we're likely to come forward with a recommendation of a vendor for all seven schools buildings in April of 2023 we're also going to come forward with a recommendation of either staying on or going off the national school lunch program and the high school again that'll be in April and then if we choose or if we recommend at the board so accepts the high school going off the national school lunch program there will be a potential a budgetary impact and we'll be talking more about that um in the months to come if in fact we are going to be making that recommendation and it's those budgetary impacts is specific to the RFP response so I really don't have numbers for you here this evening what is the anticipated impact all schools will provide free and

086reduced meals either on the nslp program or off the NSLC program so I want the board to know that we have been as part of this process looking out for all students and we want to see nothing change other than increasing quality increasing options and increasing service for all students regardless of their ability to pay or not to pay we also know that all schools will benefit from the district shift having better quality variety and options we also know that the schools will benefit from an increased Food Service staff wages that will also uh you know help us with the ability to track more staff to provide more options and services we also know that the school most milk prices will comply with the national school lunch program pricing tool whether we're on the national

087school lunch program or off so give you an idea the tool limits your ability to increase uh the the price of meals from year to year and I believe in Mr record question if I'm wrong but I think the maximum we can go is it is a 10 cent increase so I just want to give you an idea for that would be for the standard meal that would be the meal that would be accepted for we'll call it the the least expensive meal um and the meal that would be available for free and reduced students as well um and and likely what we're also suggesting is that there are other more rather more expensive meals that could be made available to the students that would choose to purchase those we also know that all School

088meals will increase in product quality based on the specifications in the RFP we know that Sky New York Hall and the high school will gain access to additional premium meals that they don't have today and also the high school will gain access to a grab-and-go cafe beverage station that I mentioned earlier and one thing that's a great interest is that and we just held our first sustainability uh task force meeting last evening and one thing that will likely come out of that is how do we maintain uh or reduce our food waste the the simple fact that the high school going off the national school lunch program will allow students to go through the line and just pay the regular rate for if they just want to get a sandwich or they just want to

089get a drink right now as part of the national school lunch program you have to take all three components so you need to take the the sandwich you need to take the the second and third component and that would qualify for a meal so by taking more you would actually pay less if you were a free and your new student rather than going and just getting the sandwich alone because having a sandwich alone qualifies as an A La Carte purchase versus a national school lunch program purchase was which is considered a complete meal and that's where the modification occurs and that is where also most of the waste occurs when you are required to take a full meal you may not want to eat the vegetable you may not want to eat the food that

090comes as part of the full meal and then that gets thrown out so we have a likelihood of decreasing food waste is part of this next slide so when we look at the production of costs schools on the national school lunch program the uh the vendor provides a financial guarantee so you may know that from you to here we've got different guarantees for operation of our food service program and that would sometimes be in the neighborhood of thirty thousand dollars or something to that effect that guarantee would be would be put back into the Food Service program and that money would be used to take care of food service equipment it would also be used to take care of things like cafeteria tables anything that's related to uh operating Food Service program that would still

091take place for all six schools if we actually removed the high school from the national school lunch program the second thing that the that will help with staying on the national school lunch program is access to the federal Commodities those are the the foods that are made available uh at either free or reduced cost to the uh the third party provider that helps provide those students to us if we go off the national school lunch program at the high school the district would would have to separate the financial operations from the sites that are on the national Schools lunch program we'd also have to cover their free and reduced price yields I believe from speaking with other districts that do the what we're potentially suggesting or potentially recommending is that the the purchase of the

092full pay students actually covers the cost of those that are on free and reduced and the districts that are doing what we're potentially recommending on breaking even with this particular uh operation however the districts will need to cover the food startup costs so because we'll have to separate all the Commodities from which we originally acquired under the national school lunch program and put put them in our other schools there will be some costs to the district at least in the first year for food startup cost and then also the likely cost for the stops the grab and go Cafe at Beverage Barn High School next one timeline April 5th the RFP for round one we'll review there's a number of individuals I completely a member of the board we have some administrators and Mr Burger

093is leading that process on April 14th the RFP second round will occur uh we not only have those same members but we'll also have students and staff from the high school and from and some of our parents from the uh uh effective coordinating Council on April 18th at the boardwalk session November national school lunch program on or off will be presented and open for discussion in April 25th if we would vote on the recommendation and May 17th we'll incorporate uh budgetary impact into the final proposal of the budget if the high school goes off the national school lunch program so if we talk about Communications we've already started talking we've already started communicating with our families we've started back in February updating to our parents about through the communities and conversations newsletter you can see

094the rest of the dates as they're ISO listed here and we're trying to make sure that um provide as much notice to parents about what we're planning to do how we're planning to do it and if we get to the point where we are recommending a change for at the high school from uh being on the national school Life program to not being on the national school lunch program we'll have a specific communication to all of our our students parents um letting them know the what the why and when and the impact the identity for their children on this and the next slide I should be the last slide yes so questions from members of the board again this is not for your enough no vote on this um this is something that will likely

095in Greater detail will come to you uh again in April but we wanted to make sure that we set a basis for you to know that this is on this on the horizon and it might be a matter for you to decide on in the future I believe it's a significant matter it would be able to take us imagining taking us home from a seed Food Service program to an A plus service program Food Service so without any questions the only thing I would just re-emphasize that it's for old K through 12 that we're really trying to change your experience even though the high school we're trying to remove them from the program the national program we really want all students to enjoy their meals so that's our Focus absolutely and that's why we've been

096bringing the ship in to help with the training of our Cooks the training of our staff the and the specifications we're bumping up the quality quantity and options available for students across the district it just so happened that in in reviewing all the other schools that are that are a plus Food Service schools you know their high schools are not on the national school lunch program and it gives those young adults uh an opportunity uh to uh you know have access to a a number of other varieties and make you know personal choices in in connection with uh you know their conversations with their parents other comments and questions um I was wondering from the schools that implemented this um and remove their High School from the national school lunch program they also end up

097going back to remove their other schools they did not it just did the high school and we're not recommending any other school uh go off the national Schools lunch program and I think it's there's there's a number of reasons for that but we can certainly go into that in future presentations you know can you provide that um I guess that the future presentation why thank you any other comments so you know the comments thank you thank you Dr Zerby next section is reports uh next on the agenda um Miss Washington will provide our Dei update yes thank you um so I do have a number of updates that I would like to share with you from the month of March the first is a thank you over to the school bar doctors RV Administration our

098staff students the entire life acting Community for what was a very engaging world processary as one of our building leads on shared with their students and Natasha buddies it was a day to celebrate all of our differences and acknowledge all that we have in common um and so in recognition of our diversity and our work towards inclusion and belonging for example Skyview hosted a Buddy Walk that day and staff also participated by donating socks to a local pantry probably five minutes before the board with they they actually received 187 stocks and that was just from our elementary schools also participated by Sean Awareness on all of our differences and kindness in the high school posted a week-long inclusion week the high school also hosted a second Workshop titled we belong part two um We're the

099Chief diversity equity and inclusion officer of the Commonwealth universities Mansfield rockhaven and Bloomsburg was Robert Jones um he led that and students who volunteered their time and participated learned how to create a sense of belonging in school how to create positive relationships with their peers faculty and staff and how to improve the climate and culture of their school Community Mr Jones also gave students the opportunity to speak with the assistant director of admissions for Commonwealth and her prison graduate from Commonwealth about the college admissions process student life and Student Success Through early career exploration and also at the high school on the social emotional leadership team was able to meet with 10 students that participated in their student voice Day in February to begin communication regarding School climate and culture and this small group of

100students will serve as an Advisory Group for High School administration the goal of the group is to meet on a monthly basis and continue to engage between the students and administrators students in this Advisory Group and then all of the other students that attended the student for this day also have been invited to participate in a leadership conference with Tom Stafford and Associates this summer and so more information will be shared as we get closer to that date we're also planning on rolling this down to Arcola in the month of April and we have also started discussions in particular at the high school about Student Activities for next year and really welcoming the incoming high grade students and again I'm looking forward to being being able to share more information as we get closer to

101the end of the Academic Year about what that will look like thank you very much any questions from the board um next is nciu and Lauren um my IU meeting is tomorrow but I do just want to and I will keep reminding you until May 15th Monday May 15th is the golf outing and I know the um Island board um is really trying hard to pump that up because it does help pay for some really important programs and um I know we're even getting fast best Montgomery County so I put something together so Monday May 15th if anyone wants to play hooky um go play golf Dr survey can but maybe other people can play puppy he's shaking his head um and North mofo um Liz and I we met uh the 20th when was

102that was it last week I can't can't keep it straight anymore and I uh Dr partovich spoke about mostly everything that we talked about at that meeting um but um the facton administration had a nice visit to the um check the center and I believe we and then we did we kind of advertised that and we as a board were given an update on the five-year Tech plan which was really helpful um and Gina went over with us some of the plans for Health Sciences um which is a very Academic Program through Montgomery County Community College and I'm not sure if she mentioned that tonight but they're hoping to just be able to add a few more students to that program and restructure a room over the summer um to do that and I just

103wanted to add when you mentioned your fundraiser that Marathon codes have education foundations having a car show on April 22nd 2023 when you can find the information on nmtcc.org if you're interested in that um next we have our student board Representatives Leah Zhang and samisha good evening everyone recent events many found was held on March 16th which included events such as an escape room various team sports laser tag and thing of puppies with that can raise a total of 70 000 and 500 for the Four Diamonds organization by pediatric cancer every student attending moneyclown raised a minimum of 25 and each marathon committee members and minimum of 100 for inclusion and diversity Spirit Week the black student union had a guest speaker Albert Jones coming to talk about diversity inclusion in this belonging on March

10420th as we are approaching from tickets went on sale on March 20th and will continue until the 31st regarding Sports and effects in the boys varsity wrestling team competed at the Southeast regional tournament at Souderton high school on March 3rd and 4th and place 35th all spring Sports began on March 6th the girls lacrosse team had their first game of the season on March 15th and the boys across the team had their first game on March 11th at Strath Haven High School the boys tennis team had his first game on March 16th regarding music and events in the MHS jazz band competed at Central Bucks South High School on March 3rd and received an excellent award they also competed at Lower Marion High School on March 10th and received an outstanding award the methactin signs

105for a team competed in the annual Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science event at Souderton High School on February 25th with 13 of our high school students receiving first place Awards in their categories who will move on to compete in the state competition at Penn State University in Maine the science group team also competed in the Montgomery County science research competition at Germantown Academy on March 24th receiving a total of approximately 2 500 in Awards our team also won the 2023 all Mac group for excellence in chemistry award which comes with 700 which would be used to promote and support stem activities at the high school good evening my name is honored to be talking to you today as a student representative for the mafactory school board at the high school the third Mark you heard

106is almost over and both students and teachers are prepared for the school spring break from April 5th to 10. the high school recently held the sat on March 11 2023 and the next test day at the school will be on June 6 2023. registration dates for the this exam are now open for students to sign up 13 MHS seniors have received the National Merit finalist distinction from the national marriage scholarship program which is an academic competition that recognizes students from Across the Nation exhibiting exceptional Scholastic achievement approximately half of the finalists will receive monetary awards from the competition as with active seniors prepare for the end of the year on graduation they are being advised by the counseling department to apply for community and National Scholarships in order to Aid their post-graduation plans and sentence

107all information is located in the counseling office or on the MHS virtual bulletin board MHS FCCLA Club held its annual Mr mcfacton show on Friday March 3rd featuring 17 senior boys as they competed in casual and formal wear events a talent portion and a q a penis of Judges included High School library Miss Evans teachers Miss Ames Mr Schnabel and Miss Eisen and superintendent Dr survey who ended the night crowning Bobby klepner as the winner proceeds for the Shelf onto the Ronald McDonald houses charity 10 the background high school students were featured in the 9th Annual Tri-County High School Art Exhibit Exhibition at Montgomery County Community College Junior Summer Melo was recognized for her work entitled Blue Wave and she received a special award members of the community are able to view the artwork up

108to March 24th sophomore Dylan Wang earned a place in the Pennsylvania music educators Association or pmea All-State Festival music ensemble the highest honor of high school musicians can received Dylan was chosen as one of only two students in Pennsylvania to accompany the pmea All-State mix choir at the festival which will take place from April 19th to the 22nd the NHS Academic Decathlon team competed at the 2023 state championship from March 2nd to 4th where they placed six in the state the highest in club history members of the team individually meddled in various categories including math science essay and speech the McLaughlin Red Cross Club also recently held a student blood drive on Thursday March 2nd where over 100 students were in attendance and 68 students were able to donate blood in support of the American

109Red Cross organization regarding upcoming events and extracurriculars the MHS and Multicultural Club will be hosting its first ever holy celebration on Friday March 31st free to attend for all students the Hindu festival is celebrating the start of spring will feature music and students learn color powder and finally the high school art department will hold its end of the year art show on April 21st and 22nd it will feature pieces of different perspectives and it will be held in the high school library thank you thank you so much for your report um next from the detective Education Foundation we have Donna perganini hi good evening um first off we want to close here we want to say thank you to everyone who participated supported and volunteered was a spectator at the Education Foundation dodgeball tournament we

110had over 500 people attend the charity event for the methampton community and shout out to the Farina Fireballs for tough life But ultimately The Game of Thrones composed of the Eagleville Elementary staff won the major division and affectingfoundation.org dodgeball and we also want to thank Michelle kirschner and Jen zabernick for being the volunteer co-chairs and organizing the event they did an amazing job and we can't wait till next year um the grant cycle for spring 2023 is closed we've received eight grants for the program support committee is reviewing the applications for part two the applicants will be notified in the next few weeks um we are kicking off our senior Advocates campaign this week and this campaign helps raise awareness among the seniors and grandparents in our community and how they can support the Education

111Foundation and the district and last the alumni and Friends is planning a special walk through at the coast promo event and then in a social event after on April 29th and if you're interested in more information please visit thatsonalumni.org thank you guys for participating thank you so much next we have communications this is Kelly good evening we had a terrific turnout for the Audubon Community walkthrough next Thursday the rain pailed off long enough for hundreds of people spanning several Generations support through audubon's doors for a final time we have posted pictures from the event as well as a handout program with pictures from the past on the district's website and social media pages from what one walkthrough to another please save the date the Arrowhead community walkthrough in new building dedication is scheduled for April

11220th from 5 30 pm to 7pm additional information will be shared and committees and finally the district is home to some very talented to see artists in their art will be on display during a series of art shows taking place in April and May as mentioned a little bit earlier by our student board members the second High School's apartment show is April 21st the 22nd arcola's art show is May 18th skyview's art show is May 17th Woodlands art shows April 18th in eagleville's art show is April 20th War sister hosted their art show earlier this month all the show dates and times are posted on the district's website thank you very much on the agenda next is the superintendent's report last meeting I gave a more thorough update on the Audubon Elementary School property but

113I do want to bring the board's attention to a single piece of paper and it says what do you think it is a slide from a presentation that I used last evening in my sustainability task force meeting I mean it says this it says what do you think future use of Audubon School partnering members of new science Technology and Engineering and environmental literacy and sustainability standards too provide a learning space for all levels inclusive and pond indoor outdoor Garden walking craft coverage structure small group spaces information for solar wind farm and more there are examples of this across the Commonwealth as well as across the country again I'm just sharing that as another idea on top of the other ideas that I can share with those other ideas real quick are utilizing that property operation

114from the high school to that area or potentially leaving it as a a walking path with a public program things of that nature so with that said I'm just going to briefly mention that that's in front of you and that the more information will come as we work towards making the determination of that property next on the on that uh under my report was facilities assessment I provided that update at last Tuesday's meeting and the last one is a reconsideration of instructional materials request that gate so I do have an update for the board this evening over the past eight months maybe even longer than an effect in the board of school directors administrators and school librarians have been communicated to uh from from the members of the public including parents with regards to their

115concerns of certain library book titles contained within the circulation within certain effect in school primaries while similar concerns are being raised in neighboring school districts and school districts across the country is important to recognize that in fact the school district has policy administrative guidelines that specify the selection of resource materials the board and school directors the administration and the staff from The Faculty School District are focused on providing our students with an exceptional learning experience to that end the board of school directors the administration and our staff believe that our Library resources are important and integral part of that living experience the value of the learning experience is continued upon the quality of variety types subjects and representation of viewpoints on problems and issues of our times internationally and actually and locally as such as

116superintendent I approve the purchase purchases and of these recommendations from the professionally trained instructional staff and building principles annually for Library resources with the board approved policy and annual budget as superintendent I have established the procedures with which the professionally trained instructional staff are to purchase Library materials material requests come from staff as part of curricular needs and from student interests as well as recommendations from the American Library Association Publishers Weekly PA State Library Association on book magazine Montgomery County Intermediate Unit and the school library Journal given the determination is made by the professionally trained staff under their adherence to the administrative guidelines and the school board policy pertaining to the selection of Library materials the board does recognize the right of an individual parent Guardian to request that their child or children not through

117reviews certain materials therefore the board makes available for inspection the listing of resource materials online this is done through the online call that system link that's located on each School library website recently on nerve policy 109 the district received 10 formal requests for reconsideration of eight library books the books uh asked for review include the title's tricks The Kite Runner The Bluest Eye me and Earl and the dying girl this book is gay The Perks of Being a Wallflower all boys on blue and out of Darkness as per policy Dr Walsh the district's director of curriculum and instruction form the committee of at least two two teachers a librarian and a building administrator to review the material and judge whether the resource conforms to the these eight resources conform to the principles for selecting materials

118the committee realized that the school district criteria for evaluation of K-12 instructional two is formed this is a three-page form that among several other considerations considers the content the organization format the instructional design the support of student learning the assessment along with what are the outstanding features of the text and what are the shortcomings of the particular text among other questions a written report was sent from the committee to the director of curriculum instruction and a copy was sent to me on Monday March 27 2023 I provided a copy of materials to the board of school directors this evening and will be sending a copy of the results to the requesters tomorrow I will also make available for inspections of documents associated with this review at the district office doing regular business hours through April

11928 2023. in the instance that the requester is not satisfied with the outcomes of the committee report the requester can file a written rebuttal with me as superintendent in terms of the summary report provided by Dr Walsh following his review of each of the individual eight book reports upon the committee he states that after reading all Eight titles in their entirety the committee unanimously determined that each book shall remain in circulation in the library thank you [Applause] with that notification I want to thank you our requesters for their patients in allowing the committee at the time to properly review the titles and I want to thank Dr Walsh from director for his work informing the committee and I want to thank our committee members for their efforts and time uh involved in the process are

120there any other comments or questions from the members of the board on that particular ly seeing none we then can move on I'm done with my uh report now the board will take comment on board action items which is an opportunity for residents to comment on matters that are to be decided upon as outlined on the agenda the forecast that you keep your comments to three minutes or less and we may choose to respond to matters following the conclusion of the comments on board action items please state your name and municipality thank you the bills I assume you get paid once a month rather than all went on some at the end of the year I'm just trying to identify it in the bills I'm going to urge this board not to pay your salary

121I'm going to urge this board not to pay his side your disgrace any other comments on board action items would it be possible for the districts to adjust the agenda format so that it is easier to identify which items aren't for vote will the reports reviewed under 5B be posted to the website in the future regarding item 9A within the list of bills there are 10 line items with a description of nurse sub coverage totally fifty six thousand dollars and fifty six thousand nine hundred and sixty six dollars could you please elaborate on the nature of these charges regarding item 9f did we get any other vids from contractors besides Chester County IU to do the communication honor do we have an RFP Matrix like you mentioned for Food Services could you please explain the

122difference between professional versus classified resignations and employment what criteria is used to label a resignation or hire as classified can you also elaborate on what the requirements are in order to classify a change in compensation as for everyone ever made there are a number of career and academic goals outlined are these new measurements or something already in place how will these goals be measured and will parents have access to the results finally regarding item 13A although she's not president tonight I would like to thank Marissa for the work she's done for the district not only for the past two years on the border but for all the years leading up to the election where she was a very vocal advocate for our children and their writers I'm sorry to have witnessed her being bullied and

123bashed and the board's attempt to drag her reputation through the mud online by both president and past four members I wish her circumstances weren't changing with her family moving out of the district and I wish her and her family the best of luck thank you anybody else on public comment or board action items all right seeing none um okay uh board meeting minutes um uh motion to approve the February 21st and 20th 2023 minutes as attached Miss Perdue may I have a second Mr McGinnis any comments or discussion on this all in favor any of those Paris 7-0 thank you next we have physical items Mr Burger 99 [Music] weeks of presentations and the addition which is to improve the cciu completely discussion with my doctors early may I have a motion to approve all

124fiscal items as attached Mr McGinnis may I have a segment Ms Brown any questions or comments on this fiscal items don't deservey if you could just clarify for 9f is cciu and the process about with the RFP and again our Communications of of evaluation Services of time but also the lowest cost associated with the the service that we're requesting range any other questions or comments um I'm not sure if sorry I'm not sure I think Mr Bricker can clarify or Mr sergini can at Human Resources but the question about the nurse coverage I have to look at what the invoices for for whether they're for subs or whether they're additional nurses that you have you can get the answers thank you anybody else all right uh all in favor thank you and next we have

125a personal doctors good evening and thank you madam the president for your consideration this month we have the Personnel items as outlined last week at commuting as well as several additions including additions to the supplemental contracts for coaching and also one casual custodian Stephen Castleman we welcome Stephen and then I'm pleased and proud to welcome our One Employment administrator recommendation everyone would stand up please we have Mr Douglas Kenwood patiently this evening thank you Doug for the position of director of facilities by way of Doug's background Mr Kenwood has been the director of facilities and operations at Upper Perkiomen School District for the past four years prior to that he served as the deputy director of facilities and operations for the county of Burke's Pennsylvania Mr Kenwood has a Bachelor of Science degree in finance

126from Penn State University and he is a designated Facilities Management professional through the international Facilities Management Association many in the myth acting Community likely will recognize Doug as a life member and officer below a Providence Fire Department and also as a coach and a volunteer with the methact and baseball association and the fact of the United Soccer Association we're very pleased and proud to welcome Doug from the fact and family and we look forward to the good work that he will do Doug executor searching I just very briefly wanted to thank the research committee for bringing me forward and recommending me for this very important position I'm excited to work with everyone administrators or the school directors exciting to make a significant impact in the facilities management program either the fact that and honestly it's

127it's great to be home thank you Doug I want you to know my sister-in-law who sits on the upper perfect School Board is very upset with us having stalling you so I guess he had a very good sign I look forward to you jumping jumping on board thank you thank you Mr McGinnis and Doug we do have a welcome back including a teacher t-shirt inside as well [Applause] all right thank you um may I have a motion to approve all Personnel items as presented Mr Brookstone and I have a second place any questions or comments from the board um just glad to have a facility facilities director to vote on and an excellent candidate that welcome and thank involved with that and can you please I know we've gone over this but I realize that

128everybody um always here to hear this explanation but if you could um explain the professional versus classified certainly professional employees require certifications under the Pennsylvania Department of Education classified employees do not so classified employees generally fall into our invest and Teamsters categories here with that Miss camper and then I think also the other question was about the income uncompensated leave classified and then come see me in class yeah professionally classified certainly uncompensated leave is as defined on compensated that means it does not include usage of personal vacation or sick leave so the delineations between professional and classified would be those categories so if it's an administrator it would be separately in the administrator category professional it's generally a member of the fact that Education Association classified generally Falls in mass murder teams any other questions

129the changing compensation confidential look what's up certainly I'm sorry confidential that category generally involves the limited number of individuals who have access to negotiations materials as those negotiations are ongoing so there are four individuals in the district outside of the superintendent assistant superintendent business director and myself who would have access to that material and that's those four individuals in the organization all right um the motion is to approve all Personnel items that's presented all in favor any opposed seven zero thank you very much and congratulations and welcome [Music] [Applause] thank you next we have curriculum and programs Dr Walsh thank you madam president I request to approve the instructional resources listed under Section 11a as well as approved that's under Section 11b chapter 339 K-12 Counseling Clinic for 20 22 23-26 school year thank you

130and you may have a motion to approve our curriculum or program items as listed on the agenda Mr McGinnis and Purdue any questions or comments I do thank you and everybody else involved with all this this is like the big you know there's lots of involved in your job but obviously all these new resources are a big part and um I didn't want to interrupt Dr survey's report earlier but I did want to thank you and your committee for look for reading all of the books and forgiving such thorough um information I will let the requester um you know read everything when they are privy to that information I just you know it is not our job it is your job and for you know it's I appreciate the committee very much but I did

131we have remained relatively you know it's not our role that's your role you're the you and the committee are the people in charge I have not read all eight books but I've read about four of them and I did want to just um mention I just finished one of them and I'm so glad it was brought to my attention by this list this was a really powerful book and I would really suggest um uh one of the books um it was just such a lovely story of family and I fell in love with this man's grandmother um so I wanted to uh to approve to um to thank your committee for reading these books and for um keeping them in our libraries um and after meeting all boys are blue I really value that Author

132George Johnson for writing such a powerful piece for our young people um and anyone who's read it they just love nanny so thanks again for all your efforts thank you any other comments or all in favor any opposed seven zero thank you I think I just want to take a quick moment to thank you for your support of the new math resource and math program we're really excited to get down your way and start a professional development Market so thank you we're excited too thank you um next good policy Mr thank you madam president uh pretty quick looking for us tonight just the five policies for a second read very few edits to these policies so please all right may I have a motion to approve all policies as presented for second grade student school

133I have a second this camera any questions or comments from board members seeing none all in favor any opposed Carrie 7-0 thank you and next we have other doctor survey because I believe there are no changes from the work session but I do want to bring attention to the board on the 13A boardroom resignation to approved resignation School Board director of Minnesota effective on March 29 2023 as you know we were able to set a revised at the last meeting and you also know that we publicly we put a publication out to notice by of the depending vacancy with an application process for members of the community to apply that deadline is April 6th and 12 noon and then in the uh the board will hear the top three applicants at the at a special

134meeting prior to the work session on April 18th with a with the intent of making a selection and appointed an individual as that community thank you may I have a motion to improve all other as presented the streets may I have a second Mr McGinnis thank you any questions or comments under other no I just wanted to comment on 13A board member resignation I you know I do wish Miss Rocco well and I and I have to say that I don't feel that in any way that she was a bullied I worked very well with her professionally and I was open-minded with her in the committee so I you know to say a statement like that just really bothers me um because I think professionally we we worked well together and I do thank her

135and I think you know this area will miss her she moves to another area with her family thank you Miss Ken crew any other comments I I just had a quick question um about the the process so we're going to appoint and where I know we have to have the people come and interview them and appoint someone and that appointment will go through to December I I get that part but um and and because it's under two years there will be a seventh opening so then we won't know well that doesn't get all handled till over the summer is that how it works and then there will be a seventh spot so there'll be seven board members new seven people to vote for so with this resignation there will be five four four year disease

136and two to two year seats that'll be up for election in the general election so five four year and then two two year because the people lasted less than two years is that why five and two I believe it has to do with the date of the resignation within a term okay thank you any other questions or comments under other and I would also like to Echo as cancers thanks to miss Rocco and her commitment and her time that she spent on the board serving our district um okay with that um all in favor any opposed seven zero thank you all right now we are up to dates for board members calendars um just a note of a date change for the policy committee is April 13th um that is due to the district calendar

137and the school's being closed on April 6 when we normally fall next is old and new business does anyone have anything for old or new business I have some sort of new business I just want to wish everyone a wonderful great as we remember uh will be from April 5th through the 10th all right thank you anybody else for any old or new business it's pretty good I do want to say thank you to the fact and Education Foundation for the DodgeBall um tournament this weekend I know um many people in our community we're looking forward to it they had their teachers from when it was supposed to happen two years ago and many of us were happy to see it happen being there and posting just to see the from the costumes to the

138teams it was just great and then just to see the competitiveness in our schools right from looking at the schools all the way to the administration and those in the community that showed up to participate for our Frozen thing I know at the foundation meeting they mentioned at other school districts that I've had this event they started with about 12 teams so we ended up with 20 plus teams so I do thank you because I think it went very well it was well organized and I know people in our community we will leave Jordy and looking forward to that event last year so hopefully we can keep it again next year so thank you thank you anyone else all right it is time for Courtesy of the floor an opportunity for residents to make comments

139on letters that are or maybe before the court the forecast that you keep your comments to three minutes or less and uh we may choose to respond to matters following the conclusion of comments and you can submit questions via email to information.org anyone who care for Courtesy of the floor time excuse me so I am Erica salt and ski from Laura Providence parent of a our tallest yeah in Stockton high school student um first on the lighter note I'd like to say maybe we could get a sign put on the lady's bathroom in the hallway so we know it's the ladies bathroom there hasn't been a sign for a very long time now that's not why I came up here um I wanted to comment on the recommendations to keep all eight books under review

140these books were evaluated based on content but not for the content that the requester would have you believe let me be very clear about this the content in these books is that of the experiences of people of color of non-cisgender people of people that express feelings that do not fit the heteronormative narrative those with mental health issues those that have experienced sexual abuse and violence the experiences of this vast group of people portrayed in these works of fiction and non-fiction are the content that offended someone enough to have these books reviews when books featuring people of color people from the LGBT community people with mental health issues and those who experience sexual assault and violence are removed from schools it tells the students of those schools that see themselves in the books that they too

141do not belong in those schools they are being told that they don't deserve to be seen represented respected or heard in their school community that they are not worthy when the content of these books is being questioned and deemed inappropriate we are telling our students that their content who they are is inappropriate but they deserve better we owe them better we owe them a library full of books representing all of our students wherever they are in their lives at that time and folks that can help them get to the next steps in their lives so I challenge you to look at these books and then to look at our students and to not tell them that they don't belong because to tell them that these books don't belong is to tell them that they don't

142belong tell him tell my child that they don't belong to maybe tell your child that they don't belong because while you can say your child can come talk or a child can come talk to their parents we don't know that a child can talk to their parents their first step might be to read that book so don't tell our children that they don't belong by telling them that these books [Applause] [Music] good evening Sheila Smith Lower Providence 78 of the budget is paid by local taxpayers in 2015 under care rebranded with acting first Miss Reese and Mr winners being the founding members promise transparency and decisions that balance the interests of students parents taxpayers teachers with bipartisan bias we've also promised a board that would listen and be more respectful responsive to the needs of

143our children and the entire community lastly we were promised fiscal discipline to our budget process and end wasteful spending since 2015 our ranking the kids excuse me continually declines despite raising our taxes every year since they became board members the 2022-23 school year U.S news ranking is 62 niches 51 School District 87 which is 30 points defined from last year our neighboring districts are one and two right now consistent year over year even without covet with asking School teachers do not have confidence in the facts and Leadership 320 responses over 60 percent disagree strongly to the question I have confidence in the mythical leadership eighty percent eighty percent response rate the information can be found in the June 2021 with that's an Education Association survey I've been told by several teachers nothing has been done

144with those results so in addition um in 2022 this year mcaxton School District saw a proficiency decline by more than 25 points in our pssa math scores according to Future red APA index in 2022-2023 school year that that didn't fail State assessment measures in English and math algebra 1. in fact several mythical students who qualified to take regular geometry in ninth grade failed and had to retake the algebra 1 Keystone in December 2022. in the February 28th board meeting there was an inaccurate nervous simplification of the department and auditor general audit from summarized by Miss Drummond District failure to implement adequate internal controls resided and resulted in an unaudible 8.2 million in transportation reimbursement that was not discussed student spends 1080 hours a year in the academic setting that's 12 of the time two percent

145of their time per teacher that leads 88 spent with percentile parental oversight engagement according to several studies from the Yale child study center parents involvement is their chart that parent involvement in their children's learning is a more powerful predictor of academic success than any other variable including race for class one study finds that 80 percent thank you for your comments Jim Malik horse says here um Miss canker all due respect you don't know what you're talking about no bullying of Miss Rocco you were at the meeting go check out Dominion theme I did lasted for 20 minutes in public in front of everybody eating on a clue what you're talking about um so now we have a ranking problem we have a ranking problem now blew us off Dave for two months in a row

146oh man we were 11 but we're 123 and we're just mediocre in the 50s and your solution to get us back to 11. isn't it more new for the menu that's your solution to get us back to Greatness in the factor unbelievable 30 drop in test scores and you're worried about the food this is why you shouldn't get paid this is one of the reasons um what I gave you today is satire or what it is it's an application for you to open a pack for the Care Group oh wait says nothing not care with fact at first because they didn't want to be associated with care and what they've done today what you're doing is you're the biggest care of pond just on the planet with your narratives false narratives that could be considered

147in any kind of contribution so I wanted to make sure that you know you're covered so you might want to do that um well I gave Miss Reese is a application for online anger management classes excuse me I'm an anger management problem here the last meeting I'm over here watching and she's chewing out Jim Beam I mean like red face chewing him out right now Jim Beam is Switzerland okay he's Mr Switzerland nobody attacks Switzerland okay your behavior has been and it is inappropriate you owe him an apology what I saw over there was absolutely ridiculous so thank God you're not running again now leave you know you're um the Veritas what a name for these people the Veritas report I was here two months ago and I told you what you were gonna do

148you had to vote on their little project or report I'm like why would he do that oh they're gonna say it's a draft and I can't hand it and guess what that's exactly what happened you claim it's a draft and I can't look at it why can't I look at it Dave I got an invoice that said the draft was completed in December why you hold on to it don't you think you need to be transparent with the public as Kyle about section 506 of the right to know law that allows you to get me that because of how significant it is so thanks anybody else refers to the floor tonight Jessica Bradbury Lower Providence yesterday there was another tragic and unnecessary loss of life in Nashville it is common for the reaction to this

149devastating news to turn the conversation to gun control but instead I'd like to talk about the letter Dr zerny sent yesterday stating please know the methampton school district is committed to maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment I don't believe we're achieving that commitment but I don't blame doctors Irving the reason this district is not as safe as it should be as a result of the extreme views pulled by this board member these board members I watched Purdue March in her test next to people holding signs sending defund the police supporting an organization that wants to destroy the nuclear family she abused her platform as a board member to campaign from the podium two years ago during new business and then watched silently when the board denied a member of the public their freedom of

150speech to address her comments we watched Greece Winters and beginnics roll their eyes and cursed members of the public and the lawyer representing shinyville when I came to this board with questions about web filtering tools that are used to control content on District issued devices Winters told me to be a better parent and watch my child child closed labor safety for all is not your agenda you want to divide our children based on race gender sexual identity instead of focusing on raising proficiency scores in English math math and when concerned parents approach this board seeking Clarity and asked to be included in the oversight process this board peddles fake rhetoric twists words makes false applications and Slanders member of the public parents want them deserve oversight over their child's education yet being extremists it's only

151a matter of time before we see this board put in front of us a policy we see in neighboring districts where they would keep information about the students private private from their parents they want to withhold information about our children from us this is not a safe environment students have had their properties be faced for supporting the police students are bullied for having pro-life viewpoints Ms Grafton even return my email asking why we don't use the service that is provided by our Hospital company to allow parents to monitor their child's location many other districts offer that service why don't we the faction has a problem a problem with safety and bullying both in our schools but more alarmingly at the board meetings and until that is addressed this district is not a safe place for

152everyone thank you for your time good evening Kathleen Thiel Laura Providence [Music] um there's a few things that I wanted to come up to address however I will agree that there is some bullying that Disney to be addressed though I am not 100 sold on where the divide and the Community comes from I do know that suggesting that people who work in education have ulterior motives of bringing corn into the school district is not something that is brings our community together and that's what I have to say about that but I do want to talk more about our rankings because I know that's a topic of conversation and that's a concern and I do want to share some information and it connects to my things for keeping all the books that were reviewed in our

153school district our school has a goal as most schools of being College and Career ready and we do I think a good job of trying to do and Achieve both of those the books that were questioned were from authors and titles that are in college prep programs and I want to share some Villa Maria which is a college prep school has in their curriculum The Kite Runner The Bluest Eye and beloved blue sky and beloved were both written by Toni Morrison along those are other banned books such as 19 minutes or in a crime 1984 in The Red Tent those are in their curriculum not just in their Library St Joe's Prep has the Odyssey which also has explicit content if you can figure out how to understand it Gwyneth Mercy has beloved by Tony

154Morrison the color purple and their eyes are watching God Germantown Academy has the hate you give in their middle school and this is on their summer reading Haverford school has The Kite Runner in their curriculum along with mouse one and two which were both challenged the Hill school has the hate you give and their eyes are watching God these are just a few however they are examples of how keeping these books in our curriculum helps our rankings because it keeps really good literature in our schools I read The Bluest Eye I read it with nuns and the thing that I remember as a high schooler reading that had nothing to do with an explicit passage it had everything to do with challenging me as a reader and helping me grow to understand complex text and

155that's really important so I really want to thank the district for keeping them in our schools for our children and for their success thank you so much [Applause] foreign ers as parents we can agree that we want our children to have every opportunity to grow into thoughtful educated successful Global Citizens we want them to thrive chat friends into loved for the special people that we know they are removing books eliminates access for all of our children as we strive for higher test scores higher ranking why would we entertain the idea of removing existing resources literature can be a mirror or a window when it is a window it offers an opportunity to peek into something we either know something about or know nothing about at all it allows us to reflect on how we connect

156or don't connect with the material we can open the window as wide as we want or keep it tightly closed but it broadens our understanding of the world around us when literature is a mirror it becomes familiar we feel comfortable because we've been there we know these experiences that is powerful it's important to recognize ourselves and our experiences and the value they have the trick is finding literature that serves both purposes so every student without exception can see themselves in what they are reading suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people age 10 to 24. lgbtq youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers more than 1.8 million lgbtq youth 13 to 24 seriously considered suicide each year in the U.S at least one attempts to decide every

15745 seconds in the time I am speaking that is at least three of texts in the time that our speakers in courtesy of the floor that is 18 attacks I don't think any one of us wants to hear about this acting student in that statistic research consistently finds lgbtq youth young people report lower rates of attempting suicide when they have access to lgbtq affirming spaces 55 report their their schools are referred in spaces only 37 percent say that their homes are hurting spaces with our reach program the faction is making a phenomenal effort to address the mental health needs of our students including our lgbtq students when literature is a mirror it's because I'm sorry the whole page thank you thank you for your colleagues [Applause] Jim Beam Worcester I just want to take a

158minute to in fact I didn't know what Shannon was going to say but I'd just like to say this I thought the presentation about the reach program was very powerful and very important and I want to thank Dr amstein for whom I had the highest admiration I think she's doing a phenomenal job I think Dr Zerbe was very smart to have her in his ministration and keep her there we're all very blessed by her efforts I think what happened yesterday in Nashville and what happens every day throughout our community as well as other communities just accentuates the importance of looking at the reach program now I threw a bouquet to her I would like to throw a challenge to her and to all of us and that is to really continue to evaluate the reach

159program to make certain that it continues to do the very best job that it can do Shannon indicated to the fact An Education Foundation has been very interested in this we helped fund a part of the program and we're delighted that it's reaching all of the students in our community it began with just certain students and most importantly it's now down in the elementary level where it really needs to be I'm not certain that one therapist for 18 students is the right number I'm not going to second-guess anybody however I do think that as we go forward the one thing we're seeing is that in all the turmoil that we have locally let alone nationally keeping that program making sure that Springfield is the best institution that we should hire in the in this District

160making certain that we're evaluating everything and particularly in the elementary level where we can catch kids before they get too far off the track I volunteered in Eagleville with my wife and her class and I've seen some of the kids who I'm pretty certain I don't know the names of anyone who's in the reach program but I have a pretty good idea that there's some kids that I saw that are in it because they were identified in first grade which is disturbing but it's still a fact the simple fact of the matter is again I applaud what we're doing with respect to reach and let's make sure that we really keep our eyes on that and work with Dr amstad work with our teachers so that we can identify these kids and get to them

161most effectively so that they get back on track and don't get off the track which can lead to terrible problems like we saw thanks very much for your time if anybody else tonight courtesy of the floor okay same none all right um any comments from board members all right seeing none there I have a motion comments uh there were some comments made on the access to the Veritas reports I thought it was pretty clear when the presentations were presented to the board that there was uh obvious errors in the presentations uh not only and the reports and so similar to what we've done in the past facilities assessments we've given the administration a specifically about building principles and our central office folks as well as members of the board an opportunities without understanding the expectations

162so so that is why we do what we do and that is why there's a process for us to review that those materials and then make sure that all the eyes are dotted T's across so that when you do accept those we've been accepted them under the obligations that we were proceed forward with addressing those particular matters in the vein of the final report in with respects to uh to ranking again it seems like I'm repeating myself on a number of occasions each time that we have members in the public talk about rankings but it should be clear that there's a strategic plan there's actually 83 strategies in that plan that are that range from addressing matters of food service facilities academics and many other areas so it's certainly not a a singular plan to

163use Food Services to increase the ranking is one of 83 strategies so as we proceed with all other 82 strategies and the work that we're doing from our teachers to our principals towards District administrators is members sit at this table I just want to encourage you to keep an eye on the prize because making those efforts will help us with not only our our Iranians forward but the that said I'm finished okay any other wrap-up comments seeing none may I have a motion to adjourn and see Mr McGinnis may I have a second I see Ms Graf thank you very much this meeting has adjourned foreign