January 24, 2023 Regular Meeting of the Board

001okay good evening everybody I would like to call the methacton school district January 24 2023 meeting of the board of school directors to order please rise for the pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right the public is hereby advised of the audio and video recording of this meeting for the purposes of rebroadcasting um we are waiting on two school board members who will be here so all I'm expecting all board members to be in attendance this evening next on the agenda is guests and scheduled speakers Dr Zerby good evening Madam president good evening members of the public this evening we have a number of presentations the Award of Excellence student performance data

002and volunteer policy it gives me a great pleasure to introduce High School principal Dr Jamie gravanese for the Award of Excellence please join me uh for a recognition of a number of outstanding staff members from methacton high school Dr gravanese good evening thank you so much for having me here with you tonight I am very excited to share with you the methactin high school Award of Excellence winners for this year first one is Mr Adam Sussman Mr Sussman is an icon at methecton high school he's a beloved social studies teacher and is also the department chair upperclassmen will visit him and continue to talk about his class years after they've had him he has high academic standards for his students while creating a caring environment he uses a variety of teaching techniques to engage his

003students in addition to serving as department chair he also oversees Our Winning Warrior program and is the co-lead who meets with our morning North monco homeroom thank you Mr Sussman foreign teaches special education she is kind but has high expectations for her students she has a vast knowledge of teaching techniques as well as resource knowledge to engage and help her students achieve she goes above and beyond to support her students academically and with their emotional growth as a case manager Mrs ytunas forms amazing relationships with families and they know they can count on her to always advocate for their students [Applause] she was not able to join us tonight next is Mrs Tessa Dunbar Mrs Dunbar is an integral part of our myth Acton High School family Tessa teaches math coaches soccer and is one

004of the class sponsors for the senior class Mrs Dunbar is also a member of numerous committees in the building and often works at many of our sporting events she is the consummate professional has amazing relationships with students and always makes learning fun as a methactan graduate herself Tessa embodies the values and ideals of being a warrior she goes out of her way to make others feel welcome and accepted her positivity is contagious and students look forward to going to her class every day we are so thankful to have Mrs Dunbar at the high school [Applause] next is Nicole Urban ski Nicole urbanski is our lead clinician from the Central Mental Health Services team Mrs urbansky has become a pillar of stability for our students success Nicole immediately makes everyone who encounters her feel welcomed and

005calmed students feel a connection with her and open up about their struggles she provides them with life skills for success in addition to daily counseling services in her tenure at methactin Nicole has led groups presented to faculty and staff parents and serves an enormous role within our child study and clinical team meetings she does anything and everything within her power to support students [Applause] next is Gabby Winters Gabby winders is an instructional aide who works with colleagues to support students in every way possible she makes connections with students through her work in the classroom as well as National Honor Society advisor and as a valued member of the methact and School connections team Gabby also gives tremendous amount of her personal time to support the efforts of the backpack program Gabby is a ray of

006sunshine to our high school and we're so grateful to have her [Applause] next is Casey Rowell Casey joined methactan as a PCA within the last year and has come in ready to help every single student she can Casey effortlessly tackles any assignment which can change depending on the needs of the day she also works extracurriculars to support our students who require a PCA or additional adult support including our spring Musical Casey's flexible approaches every challenge with a smile and is never afraid to look for more more opportunities other than the ones she has assigned to support our students [Applause] and our last Award of Excellence winner is our volunteer Lori O'Neal Lori makes our school a better place every day she volunteers her time in the library and is always willing to help however possible

007Lori's kindness is apparent in everything that she does she cares so much about the school the staff and the students we are so grateful to Lori as part of our volunteer team and truly appreciate her dedication and thoughtfulness thank you [Applause] next on the agenda is actually it's not on the agenda January is traditionally recognized as school board director appreciation month and this evening Miss Kelly is here to introduce an important uh you know recognition to our nine school board members Ms Kelly thank you doctors Irving good evening everyone as doctors are be mentioned January is School director recognition month so of course you know we thought we'd do something special for the Border school to work there's tonight please turn your eyes to the big screen up there and enjoy our surprise for you

008hi I'd like to call to order the January 24th board meeting of the methampton school district speaking from my perspective as a fourth grade student I mean that's almost four and a half years it's a real honor to introduce this video I'd like to have a student from one of our elementary schools lead us in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America thank you for that I'm going to hand this off to our school board president Madam president the public is hereby aside of the audio and video recording of this meeting for the purposes of re-roadcasting and creating a tank top remix there is an executive session there was an executive session of the board who went virtually on December 26 2022 for the purpose of holding in

009information and strategy session related to matters of collective bargaining with the elves and Ranger Association and the North Pole Administration the circular will now protect our honoration Mr Wheeler thank you madam president tonight's guest speaker is our own Katie Reynolds thank you for taking this video tonight thank you Mr Wheeler Madam president our foreign Mr Wheeler thank you I believe we now have a special presentation for some of our members so I asked the presentation being placed upon the screen and that the presenters take the place in the podium Madam president and simulator members of support you should have a copy of this presentation and paper for me as well as the Vietnam excitement as our presenters take their places could we play that video now [Music] with that is campbellski members of the public

010that very informative video is already available on titcon's Instagram and Facebook this presentation will be uploaded and made available there as well students in our district were pulled about what's missing in their classrooms that would help them succeed Mr Anderson the results of this poll really demands that we take action these are the items that students pursue as permission from a classroom environment fuzziness variness nests slobber wobbers I'd just like to say I got this report this morning and speaking from my perspective having served in this District since 2018. I mean that's going on four and a half years but this poll was a startling Revelation for many of us I think we have to ask we do I'll continue this evening we present for your consideration a proposal to choose an adopt a class

011pet for each classroom within the district oh boy as you know the dog is a fan favorite animal among kids of all ages no no of course I want to remind you that you do not need to objects however Mr Anderson I agree what about cats and sugar gliders for that matter oh sugar gliders if I may speak about skunks and squirrels yes but skunks when they scented make really really cute pets and squirrels are so funny I love the way they run around could I finish so as you know thoughts are a fan favorite but cats and turtles are close Runners off I wanted to address a lot of animals as you may or may not know could be new zoter who loves animals as pets in a domestic environment is illegal in the

012state of Pennsylvania snow squids um yes that's what that means and no sugar gliders you have a problem with sugar gliders Mr Anderson Mr Beatty no Miss Reynold I do not they're pretty cute but can we talk about numbers yes I think he means the money Mr Vandenberg I knew we should have addressed that up front I brought that up right away did they not you did but if you remember there was the issue of breeds and species we can't address costs until we understand the needs just show me the money Eli I thought you loved animals Miss Stevenson please I do love animals but we have to consider the mommy I don't want to take us off track here but I'm wondering what are our options in terms of aquatic animals what do you

013have in mind well I'm thinking of our school lobbies in addition to the classroom pets tropical fish are great but what would be looking at in terms of a large tank how big are we talking I mean amenity here too okay sure cableless yes I'm going to go ahead and propose that we table this discussion until the next meeting oh we always do that well we will have a much better idea about our discretionary spending after the elves doesn't mean you're still their contract well I for one believe the case has been settled as to the importance of classroom Pets As long as you show us some money yeah show us the money as I was saying the case has been settled we just have to work out the final details Mr Vandenberg the proposal

014has been made to table the discussion until the February meeting do I hear a second second all in favor all those let the record show that there were two opposed to the motion meaning happy New Year everyone thank you [Applause] all right so as you see here we have a wonderful team of young actors from Woodland Elementary who performed as members of the board so that we could represent you all and thank you all for what you've done one of the most enjoyable presentations we have seen so thank you all for putting that together and taking the time so so at this time our students will be coming up and presenting a certificate to our members of the board members of the board could you please come up forward please [Music] thank you foreign laughs

015[Music] thank you [Applause] revised Edition ladies and gentlemen we'll just take about two minutes and and give some of the parents and students as they as they exit sometime and then we'll get started and thank you again for all your work and and giving us that appreciation we we do thank you come on that was amazing okay they're playing at school tomorrow all right I should get one of those hooks yeah next on the agenda for guests and scheduled speakers we have Dr Walsh and uh Tara Ricky from the curriculum office for student performance data members of the board you should have copies of that at the table and members of the public we have it online on the on the agenda as well as up on the screen for you Ms Ricky thank you

016Dr zurby good evening everyone we are here tonight to present to you our 2022 State testing data do I click or do that I haven't been here in a while sorry um tonight's goals we want to share with you as I said the 2022 data which is now our new Baseline data the state is using the 2022 school year to kind of reset post-pandemic with information they'll share about comparative data and decisions they'll make moving forward we will highlight some of the strengths and opportunities that data demonstrates as well as provide recommendations for moving forward this slide you've seen in the past and this is just our way of resetting our focus on the data and the different types that we collect we are collecting data as Educators all throughout the day throughout the year

017but what we are focusing on tonight is that when that high-end last piece that state data those formal standardized tests as a reminder the state assessment measures include the pssa which is achievement for a particular year at a single point with a different group of students in grades three through eight our Keystone tests which are based on achievement taken at the end of a specified course and they may be taken more than once students are able to take those again those scores are banked until their 11th grade year and the data that we report out is that 11th grade banked data the state goal for 2030 for achievement are listed there on the screen 81.1 percent for that Ela literature 71.8 percent for Algebra 1 and 83 for science which is our biology and the

018last day piece is pivas this measures students growth over time as a cohort the growth goal for 2030 is that 70 for all subjects and again 21 22 data is the first for pivas as that reset occurs some points to consider that were shared out from the PA Department of Education scores have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels in some of the grades and subject areas students and staff absences related to isolation quarantine other factors certainly contributed to scores and scores should not be used for high-stakes decision making on their own they should just be a point in the data that we consider these are our Ela results for pssa for last school year the green is our methactin data the dark gray is the state data and the lighter gray is the county data

019students in grades three through eight are scoring above the state average in language arts our fourth and fifth grade students did perform below County average while the others were above and our scores have rebounded and stayed consistent in grades six through eight to what they were pre-pandemic math results for pssa again green mefactin the dark gray the state the light gray the county students in grades 338 are above the state average in math and our students in grades five and eight are below the county average while the others are at or above our science results science is only taken in grades four and grade 8. our students in grade four and eight are above the state average in science and continue to be as they have in the past Keystone results and again these are

020those Bank scores for 11th graders for last year the fact that students are above the state and County averages in all Keystone tested subjects sat results we have our 2021 and 2022 results here uh we also have listed the number of test takers there were a significant number more of students who took the test in 2022 and that is definitely something to be considered when looking at the results that we receive our SAT scores continue to be greater than State national averages and our math scores are particularly strong levels of proficiency this is our AP placing above three scoring above three um again we have our from 2018 through 2022 again it's important also to look at the number of students who test it we are flat from 2021 to 22 with 89 yet we

021had a significant number more of students take the test the AP test and score above a three in 2022. and our building level data this is a compilation of information from all of our schools the building level score we want to stress is not a flat kind of grade it's compiled of several pieces including achievement growth for the year or achievement data for the year growth over several years there are other factors that can give kind of boosts or deficits to the scores such as participation rates attendance data um our factors for free and reduced lunch so it's not something that you can just compare from building to building from District to District it's really uh there's a lot that goes into that figure we have here our Ela proficiency data for each grade level

022as well as our math proficiency and science where applicable and then you see the growth score 100 is the max score 50 is the lowest score so you see that for each of the subjects all of those are pieces of what goes into compile that building level score but there is more to that as well at the bottom of the presentation and what will be published online we have a link to the Future Ready PA index which can help anyone who wants to do a deeper dive get more information look more closely at those scores that's all available there for anyone who's interested in that he clicked okay thank you miss Ricky good evening everyone so looking at the next uh portion of our presentation let's look at the data from a a deeper dive

023the learning loss overall did impact the fact in students but it was to measure it to County and state data so while our reading scores rebounded that pretty much as indicative of what happened across the county our math scores did not but also the county is also in the same rebound so we have some goals and you'll see in the future slide some things we're working on to help bolster some of those results for our students so again districts were expected to have higher numbers of students needing remedial math and math instruction especially in the earlier grades as well as using mtss in order to achieve those grade level goals we started a curriculum review with math schedules resources and instructional framework just prior to the pandemic obviously then the pandemic happened that stopped but

024since that time we have continued our work in that area of math and again you'll be seeing that in a future slide but importantly to note is our Benchmark data that's what we give in addition to all the other assessments that Mrs Ricky had mentioned this is a leading indicator for our future performance and our students are currently taking Form B or Benchmark assessment mid-year data as as we speak so we found that our Link at benchmarks are highly correlated to those State assessments so again we use that data to drive our instruction to make adjustments and provide supports for students so as they complete these tests in the next few weeks we'll be coming back at the March Ed committee to give you an update on how our students are performing Midway through the

025year and projections for how they'll do on the pssa so here's some things that we have implemented already we revised though Ela wonders resource for grades K to five it was implemented this year we had a pilot last year so we're seeing great success with the resources and updated materials for our teachers and our students we also added additional time for fifth and sixth grade math we went from uh in the mid 40s from our minutes now we're up to 75 minutes from math so that's a major increase so more time for instruction more time for supports we have math coaches as you know now in place at all levels K to 12. we have three um one at the elementary one at the middle level and one at the high school level they're supporting

026our teaching and learning our instruction and the safeguards that we're put in place are now back in for small group instruction we're in the process of bringing in a new resource to be implemented next school year we have several pilot teachers and that program will be recommended at the February Ed committee and I'll move forward to the full board approval in March and of course we're using the observation evaluation process to provide feedback to teachers to improve our instruction so what are some of the recommendations stations we're recommending adding two math Specialists using srs3 funds the posting went up and we are actually reaching out to STS to make sure we can secure some of our people that we can put in place as soon as possible we're adding additional math specials for grades five

027to six so that's three additional Mass specialists at those levels K to six to really help our students at our early levels obviously as I mentioned before we're bringing a new textbook for a recommendation next month we are continuing to use our math coaches to help support teacher efficacy we have that virtual math help desk for grade 7 to 12. that's been running well we'll be continuing that through the month of May using the CSR the curriculum support room at the high school as well as our eighth period intervention at Arcola intermediate and again we're looking at a math progression work we'll be bringing that forward to the board for your review and consideration as well next month really looking at those students who may struggle in the areas of algebra and breaking it up

028over two years that is the best practice that several districts are using and we know that'll Provide support for our students what about recommendations for ELA or literacy uh it has been posted we're in the process of identifying uh candidates to bring forward next month for reading Specialists grades seven to eight at Arcola we are looking next fall to implement uh two literacy coaches at the K to four level and one to five eight to support act 55 which I'll talk about in a minute but uh the continuing support for our teachers which will then translate to students for our reading and we're looking to explore an intervention specialist at both our Cola and high school we're looking to start that process in the fall and make a recommendation to you some time of uh

029later in the fall or early next year and of course we're continuing to provide Lexi which is a support online for students in grades one through four they can do it in school or at home I mentioned briefly about the structured literacy act 55 of 2022 was implemented from an approved as recommended from pde and is now a requirement for all teachers with any certification in Elementary reading reading Specialists or ESL they're required to go through it's really what Pennsylvania is Loosely calling the science of reading training professional development plan that addresses the structured literacy in the five areas you see in green phone you make awareness phonics fluency vocabulary comprehension applying a universal screener for all our students act 55 also has a specifically targeting how we're going to support all students and closing

030that achievement Gap and we use that through the mtss process so how are we going to measure our success well we're going to be using the fall and Benchmark data we're having every student to meet or exceed their expected growth Lincoln provides that information to us our teachers have that and they're setting goals for each individual student in order to achieve from Fall to Spring and again we don't have the winner in there but it's fall winter spring all tested in grade subjects will show at least one year of growth in ela and math for the following year 24 25 are looking to increase our building level scores into the next death style so if the schools are in their 70s our hope is to get them into the 80s those are in their 80s

031we hope to move them up into the 90s in our PS based on achievement and growth in pssa and keystones that's a quick overview and it's uh Mrs Ricky mentioned there is the website on slide 12. if you're looking for a deeper dive into the data because there's a lot more data that can be shared and you can certainly do that at the Future Ready index site thank you thank you Dr Walsh and thank you for your leadership in the curriculum office and for all of and for our most important aspect uh here in the district which is uh teaching and learning uh it's it's clear members of the board that um we recognize that um this evening there's a number of uh recommendations that are in front of you many of those recommendations are

032supported uh through the sres funds uh uh grant funding that's specifically designed to help with learning loss and those things are indicated in here and as time progresses over the next several months many of those things will be coming for you in specific recommendations in a specific order but this evening um are there any questions from members of my left uh Madam president yeah thank you Dr Walsh I just have a couple questions just if you could expand on them um the role of the intervention specialist can you tell tell us more about that please sure we're looking um and it's we're in the preliminary process we're doing the windows and mirrors if you will looking at what we do well with our experience for students who may need interventions as well other districts who

033have an intervention specialist so it would really support the child study process of those students who are not yet identified what supports can we put in place for them um it's very similar to what we might have it let's say at the sky view level with the intervention specials providing IST if you will an intervention support teacher really working targeting um specific goals and skills for that child before they get through the hopefully they won't get to the process being identified okay and that's one one person for the role for seven to twelve uh one for our Cola and one for the license one for each okay thank you correct um and then my other question was just um if you could tell me more about the professional development around act 55 the structured literacy

034sure as part of our comprehensive plan we talked specifically about what areas of literacy we can support it really is targeting teachers it really focuses on PD for them um and it's in the big five whether it's phonics phonemic awareness fluency vocabulary comprehension it's providing explicit direct PD we'll be partnering with mciu because every district is going to have to put their own professional development plan so we'll be submitting that on a yearly basis as far as what we're doing for our teachers so we haven't developed it yet um it's in its initial stages but we are partnering with the IU but it will be all delivered through methactin partnering with you thank you thank you Ms gentleman um Ms Graf yeah I'm I have a couple questions about the math side of things I

035know surprise surprise um so the first question I have is on the pssa results we noted that in fifth and eighth grade the students are below the county average correct what were they before the pandemic members taught me but there was a gap we saw the slide start in probably the mid 2010s so it was continuing to decrease there were some programs interventions being put in place right when the pandemic started such as the schedule review program review the resource review that obviously stopped as we had to Pivot to Virtual learning and focusing on the instruction but now that we're out of that the curriculum review process started for math okay and then the other question I had is um on the strategies for improvement again on the math we're talking about using observation and

036evaluation process to provide feedback to teachers how is that evaluation and observation going to be different moving forward than it's been in the past so we've worked very hard as a district with our administrative team um using ACT 13 as the backbone of giving specific and explicit feedback to our teachers whether through a formal observation process or through the walk-throughs so tying and our teachers ask it's now back as part of their evaluation if you're in a tested subject area how your students perform is also a piece of their overall evaluation and that was put on hold for a few years so are you saying that teachers whose students are struggling will be given poor evaluations or potentially given poor evaluations not necessarily no but there is the teachers do have access to their data

037so for pssas and keystones that's readily available to them and that is a portion of their overall evaluation but the data can also not be used to write a teacher on satisfactory there has to be other things besides the data I'll defer to Mr Regina if he needs to jump in because he's well versed in act 13. what I think it's also important to know that when we're doing the evaluations and observations we're triangulating the data that we see in our benchmarks in these test scores and what we see in observation so it is a conversation when we're going into classrooms the principles are well versed in this and there's a lot of instruction coming from Dr Walsh's department on how to utilize that data to help guide their instruction in the classroom so it

038are you saying then that if if a teacher has a class of students that are struggling that teacher May alter their approach or change the curriculum a little bit to address the struggling students rather than just continuing to move forward with the curriculum that's planned the certainly would be encouraged to differentiate their strategies in the classroom to approach different instructional outcomes from those students based on how they're producing what other results they are typically their benchmarks because we get this data these kids take this in the spring we don't get the data until the fall or the summer so sometimes it's a little difficult to do something about it the benchmarks allow us to apply that right away and as Dr Walsh said there's a strong correlation between our Benchmark data and what we see

039on the pssas or keystones so we're able to utilize that to help guide instruction during the year so we don't have to wait until next fall to do it right okay thank you and then the last question I had is on the recommendations again for math we're talking about coaches to support teacher efficacy how is it determined which teachers get coached or have access to coaches and and is it equal opportunity for everyone to have coaching well let's start with the end yes there's a Any teacher can reach out to any one of the math coaches at any time we're looking at supporting obviously our new teachers that's a main focus teachers who have been identified as a need from their principal or other administrator teachers who have changed grade levels or subjects oftentimes they

040need a coach to help them learn the new curriculum learn the new standards for that grade level there's a lot of PD happening whether it's one-on-one or through a grade level or through a team they're really busy our math coaches and they're supporting teachers which obviously translates we hope to student achievement we'll be reporting that out as we go along okay thank you so much you're welcome thank you Miss Graf Miss Perdue thank you for um the presentation I do have a few questions my first one starts with the math pssa results I think it may be good I think as indicated already to provide um a little bit more timeline as far as not just the um 21 and 22 dates but I mean data but if we can get a little bit more

041maybe two three years information that may be helpful sure looking at that yeah I'll caution you though because 1920 there were no pssa's 2021 school year parents have yet could opt out we did not have a lot of participation so really as Mrs Ricky mentioned this is our Baseline year so we'd rather Focus here moving forward we can certainly go back to the 1819 yeah but that's such a lagging indicator those kids are now four grade levels Beyond um so I appreciate that but I just want to caution using the previous two years data I understand and then um in looking at that chart also just because Fifth and eighth grade stands out have we started to dig into that a little bit just to see what we think that may be attributed to so

042our which are now our current Sixth and ninth graders so our sixth grade we're giving more time at Skyview in the area of math which they did not have last year so they're getting approximately 30 more instructional time um to provide some supports and interventions that they didn't have before so again we're pretty hopeful looking at our Benchmark data that's making a difference and we'll be able to report out specifically to you at the march at committee so that's just this um now it says great what about ninth so ninth grade they don't take obviously the pssa so we'll be using Benchmark data as well to see how they're doing some kids may be taking a keystone um but as Mrs Ricky mentioned if they struggle with the Keystone in ninth grade they can take

043it again in 10th Grade it's the highest Bank score and we're also looking at that ninth grade um for the upcoming year on looking at students who may not be ready for a one-year algebra program we may be breaking it up per recommendation to do it over two years and the benchmarks you said will be ready in March so would it becoming a committee first in March so we'll be coming ahead in March yes okay okay now so we won't be ready for February I'm sorry they're taking them now so we'll be ready in two weeks for February okay and I just I had a quick question on the I think is the universal reading read um that was indicated here can you um provide a little bit of information on that yeah we're looking

044at a diagnostic uh uh program um through a company that can give us some specific information we also use some other data we use Dibbles we use uh FNP so there's a lot of data that we have but a universal screen or something that was given to all students so that's part of the criteria for structured literacy it's Lea decision every District can come up with their own Universal screener so working with Mrs Ricky and the reading Specialists will be coming up with something that can be used at least at the elementary level k-6 is a universal screener okay and just one more in reference so I think part of the um I guess the goal or measure of successes for um to increase the building level scores can you give me a little bit

045more on what goes into the building level scores sure this is Ricky if I picked something coming up the building level score and it varies from school to school and level to level but roughly 40 is your proficient in advance for proficiency towards meeting the end of the year standards another 40 is based on the growth data um and as as Mrs Ricky mentions anywhere from 50 to 100 is the score 10 is your attendance rate and 10 is the graduation rate graduation rate only applies to the fact in high school so that other 10 is folded into the participation rate so it's 40 achievement 40 growth 20 attendance I should send that participation attendance rate so attendance is significant and I and I asked that and just um thinking about I mean if we're

046seeing any Trends I'm just wondering because we are capturing it on here as part of uh how we'll measure success if we have any concerns with the attendance right yeah yeah not with attendance um it's a participation rate even that's not part of our building level score really getting that 95 participation rate on the Keystone or pssa That's essential so there'll be some communication coming out how we can really get all families to participate in the pssa in Keystone thank you thank you Mr Perdue anyone else on my left on my right uh Ms Rocco just a quick one regarding the virtual help desk which I've heard very positive things about but regarding that the eighth uh period intervention supported Arcola intermediate I know we all would like to think that our children sorry that

047our children do the right thing and go for extra help when they probably should but very teenagers and they probably don't always do that so parents are being notified of these resources as well right that's correct and I know Mr Boudreau and his staff are encouraging the use of either the virtual help test or that eighth period period to make sure our students get the support they need okay yeah I think just the more we can just you know tell them even if it gets redundant is probably the better thank you would agree thank you Ms Mr Winters yeah I was gonna the the reminder the parents on the virtual desk and the CSR room it might be something they're not aware of so I I completely agree with Miss Rocco the more we communicate

048the better A lot of times the parents aren't even aware of those support systems that one thing I I think you should point out that CSR is supported by an mea is that uh throughout the day before it was a mess employee and I believe now it's an mea and there are supports in the CSR throughout the day um it is correct before I say anything yes yeah so that's a change from the previous years I believe correct so um one other point I believe that we have decoupled uh pssa scores from the evaluation in uh where students are placed all the time in fifth sixth seventh eighth is that true or not true because I believe one of the disincentive uh items is that PSA pssas can hurt you in an ability to get

049into a class even though you're maybe a strong performer or not that is correct that's not part of the rubric of the SSA so the the more we can get that out to debunk that myth and encourage participation is yes excellent um I want to thank the supervisors for I think it's really paying off to have the supervisors and the ability to to look across grade and see those common Trends uh in your staff and doing that data analysis with the the key Concepts and you can see often the the we saw in the education committee that there are a lot of the same type of areas that they're struggling they're not all the same but they're similar ones so they're usually they Cascade to later grades as well um so you can start to

050see that and we're actually using and analyzing the data in a way that can be targeted so my last question to you real quick is that how competent are we to fill if we approve these three math Specialists and I think the and one reading special so four positions mid-year do we believe we can fill those we believe that at this time all right thank you and you'll be seeing that information shared at a later date any other questions Mr McGinnis just a quick one you said the underlying data would be available to the general public and I I think you said it's going to be on the website I just I just want to clarify that that's where exactly will it be um Luigi's under the board presentations but it's also under the agenda

051manager right now of this presentation is available to the public thank you any other questions from members of my right left seeing none Dr Walsh thank you so much and thank you to your team for getting this information together for us and for leading Us in the instructional process here in the district next on the agenda we have uh volunteer policy we have Mr Regina Miss Kelly and Mr branick who will will team up to provide an overview of the newly adopted policy on volunteer uh uh participation here in the district the key element to this is was driven by strategic planning process that now has come to fruition with this policy adoption and then this subsequent implementation and um I would just like to interject with a note that all board members are now

052present we're all here thank you everyone for listening us out this evening uh we're here to talk about the volunteer policy updates uh typically when we do a policy update for those members of the board and the administration there may not be significant changes to that but one thing that you'll recognize is our volunteer policy has some pretty significant changes that are important for all of us to hear and also important for the public to be able to digest as well because it will affect them uh quite a bit so um I have our movement up here for an agenda we're going to just look at quickly just a couple definitions talk about the classifications of volunteers and how that's changed from the past go over the new TB test requirements we're going to talk

053about the superintendent superintendent approval process and how that's changed and then we're going to turn it over to Bill give us some technology updates and to Amanda to go over the Raptor system and website updates so for definitions uh a lot of these are pretty straightforward adult we can all Define naturally but certifications when you see this in policy they're talking about clearances and the one thing that we talk about with clearance is there's typically three that we worry about the one is the state police clearance which is that clearance that is typically done rather quickly it's done online and you get the feedback immediately once you submit it in most cases the second one is the child abuse clearance which is uh one that can take a little bit longer although there is some

054online response or email response to that and the last one is the one that's the FBI check which is a fingerprint clearance it is not always necessary for those if you're in the state for 10 years or more you can do the affidavit program assign an affidavit that you've been here and you can be excused from the fingerprint clearance which is an option the ones that are probably the most important is recognizing the difference between visitor and volunteer this used to be the break-in service between what one group can do versus another group The Visitor historically did not need clearances they were coming in specifically to visit they come into the school maybe to get their child maybe to drop something off maybe to visit a classroom but they weren't necessarily engaged in the process

055a volunteer was defined as anybody that had any interaction with students and staff during the day and so that that has changed fairly drastically in the new policy the two type of volunteers we have now the first is called a position volunteer the position volunteer is defined very similarly to what we used to call just the volunteer they're still the individuals that need clearances these individuals to the best of our ability we have to find those positions that are currently volunteer positions in the district that would fall into this category and we try to categorize them the best that we could uh to volunteer organizations chaperones service project building helpers and mentors and coaches this will be on our website and man is going to talk a little bit about that here in in a

056bit so that way people can kind of get an understanding of what these positions are and which positions they would need clearances for the next group Next classification is called guest volunteers this is a new classification and the guest volunteers of those individuals that are still volunteering but will not need clearances for these positions now I will warn you I did we did speak with the administration and said you need to be cognizant though of what guest volunteers are doing some of the restrictions to clearances is if an individual has direct student contact without the supervision of a district employee they will need clearances so if you recognize that something on this list is a guest volunteer and you're going to utilize that person in one-on-one student contact without a district employee that person still

057needs clearances so I want them to be aware of that so that's something that we naturally will be looking into if we recognize any of these positions would have more contact than we originally had thought activity helpers concession stand and presenters and guests so just as an example I'm going to talk about concession stand if we know that we had an adult in a concession stand with just a student we need to know that person needs to have clearances now we're we're told that that is not going to happen but it is something that we need to make sure that we recognize and our athletic director is fully aware of this as will our booster club presidents the new TB test requirement so all volunteers previously needed TB tests the new requirement is as defined

058by school code it's only individuals now that have direct student contact for 10 hours or more per week so that's a very different change from what it used to be in 10 hours or more after we looked at a lot of our research of direct student contact is very very few individuals in the district and what we did on the website and we'll talk a little bit about this later on WE Define which of those positions are those that we would typically see to have direct student contact and we do have a monitoring system that we're able to see and track hours through our Raptor system the TB language as we talked about was was that and these are the positions that we had defined as positions that could quite quite possibly be TB eligible

059hours classroom helper recess volunteer cafeteria volunteer Mentor tutor chaperone volunteer coaches we recognize that this may be this might not be all of the positions but this is a pretty good summary of those positions that we would consider to have direct student contact when they would be when individual would be would be in them uh lastly the superintendent approval as you know volunteer approval that typically happened as a board vote on our agenda through policy change now this will be done by the superintendent gives him the authority to approve volunteers this will be done on a weekly basis once all of the volunteer requirements are completed by an individual so Miss Kelly and Dr Zerby will meet during the weekly meeting she'll be able to review all those people that have completed their packets for

060Dr zerby's approval at that moment in time and it will be done rather quickly which is great for us typically as you know having to wait till the end of each month to do a sometimes can be difficult for us when we're looking for volunteers immediately so without further Ado I'd like to turn this over to Mr Brannock to go over some technology upgrades bill thank you Mr Regina and good evening everyone as Dr Zerby alluded to in his introduction a Target within this review is to be able to drive our strategic planning items specifically item number four e which is to increase volunteerism by 25 over the next three years outcomes that we look to accomplish include an online portal to allow volunteers to apply upload their clearances and manage their volunteer profile to

061allow us to move away from the the manual process of bringing paper copies to each individual building sending those in our office to the foreign education center manually managing them approving them and then communicating those approvals back to the buildings the ability to be able to automate messages regarding clearance expiration dates well in advance of the need to update those documents by our volunteers and a future ability to be able to send messages about upcoming volunteer opportunities recognizing that we have Raptor in the school district specifically in the high school we investigated its volunteer management platform as a side note Raptor also owns the pre-existing system that had been in our K-8 buildings Lobby guard during our vetting process of the Raptor volunteer management system we learned that one of the strategies for Raptors that

062they will be moving all of their K-12 clients from Lobby guard over to Raptor in the near future so it was a good coming together point for our two systems given that the volunteer management system is embedded within the visitor management system and we have now made that transition an improved volunteer will proceed into the vestibule of our buildings as any visitor would they will scan their ID via our kiosks and our lobbies K-8 where we'll sign into the main office in the high school and approved volunteers will be presented with the ability to sign in as such when scanning into the visitor management system and they will receive their volunteer badge and proceed into the building now I'll ask Mrs Kelly to speak more to the specifics of the application and the requirements thank

063you Mr brannick so I will go over over the Raptor uh volunteer management system so it begins with an application process it's a strictly all online application um process as you can see on the screen we're going to pull up what the application would look like to a new volunteer so it's you're going to be greeted with a welcome page and let uh it'll let folks know that our volunteers are two classifications position or guest and then as you walk through the system the very next step is you would enter all your personal information you would select which buildings you're interested in volunteering in and then the functions area that's where we get into position volunteer or guest volunteer is going to list all those activities that may fall under position volunteer or fall under

064guest volunteer and when you move in that next stage it's going to prompt you whether or not you need to upload clearances related to that position so that's essentially what the volunteer application looks like once um an applicant submits it um several people within the Communications Department would receive um an email immediately to say that there is a new applicant in the queue um and then we would go in and review the clearances if they've been attached and then as Mr Regina mentioned earlier we compiled that list and then weekly bring that to Dr Zerby okay next slide and then I would like to take you to the website so we've we've updated our website with all of the new information related to the policy um thank you Mr David So at the top of

065the page you'll see you're on our volunteer uh page we're letting folks know in big bold letters and in red that our volunteers now have two classifications as you scroll down a bit you'll see there are two columns one that defines what a position volunteer is one that defines what a guest volunteer is and it lists all the activities that are related to those two classifications and Mr David if you continue to scroll just a little bit stop right there thank you you'll notice there's going to be an asterisk next to some of the items under um position volunteer and that those are the items that Mr Regina mentioned earlier that may be counted as TB eligible hours so if you if you filled a duty in any of those roles you know those are

066the ones that perhaps may be required to submit a TB test if you worked 10 hours or more per week and as we continue to work our way through the volunteer your website next steps we tell you what the clearances are required depending on whether or not you want to be a position volunteer or a guest volunteer as you continue through the website this is where you would get to the application piece so once you've gotten all your clearances gathered and you're ready to go you click that button there it's going to take you to the application and if you did have clearances at that stage you would be able to upload them The Next Step Beyond once you're an approved volunteer the Raptor system will provide you a a volunteer portal it's not something

067that our volunteers need to use but it's it's great information to provide your profile it lets you know when your clearances do expire so you can maintain that currently the system is um you know we get an email from a volunteer who says hey I think my clearances are going to expire can you let me know when they may so you know because usually we would send out an email um six months or a year and then six months before they expire that was a manual process the Rapture system will do that automatically 90 days before your clearances are set to expire um if we can move to the next slide please so communication so the communications plan uh regarding how we're going to communicate this and new information to the public as well as

068our staff and our parents um so and communication with the public we plan it of course we already updated our website with all the information related to our volunteer policy and any necessary clearances that may or may not be needed we're also planning to post that information to our social media they're also planning to develop Flyers to share with our townships as well as the Lower Providence Library and other organizations within our um two Township area so that we can kind of get the word out to let people know hey we have a new process this may make it easier for you to become a volunteer you know please check us out see what's available to you we'll also be communicating with our our parents through our school messenger email system just to know what

069is um what's what changes have happened and what to expect we'd also share this information on social media and then we'll also be communicating with staff to let them know about the new changes and to also um give them an understanding of what the program can do and how these how it may assist them in the future and I thank you all for allowing us to present to you this evening thank you Miss Kelly Mr brownick and Mr Regina thank you so much for your leadership in moving this strategic matter forward it you know our district while we we often think that um you know a lot happens in the classrooms with with just our teachers we also have you know not only support staff but volunteers that that make a well-rounded fact in the

070school district experience possible so this opportunity uh is is in in direct support of making sure that we give an easy but obviously careful of a process for our volunteers to get involved in the fact and activity so thank you three for for this questions from members of the board Ms Drummond not really a question but thank you for this and the updated policy and putting together the system um and and hopefully to elicit more engagement from our community and I would just um suggest I would like to see Shannon Del Meadowwood our retirement communities be made aware of this policy change because I think there's a wealth of opportunity there for engagement with with that population and our and our community here great suggestion thank you any other comments Ms Graf lines of communication

071I think this is a great new specifically reach out to the home and school leadership as well as the booster club leaders and the post-prom leadership to make sure that those very large organizations all have direct reminders to parents especially as events are coming up they could keep it on the Forefront of people's minds Ms grapp that's a great suggestion but I will let you know that all three of those groups were uh were a part of this process so they worked with Ms Kelly Mr Regina and Mr Bryant as and different phases of this but your point well taken thank you Miss Perdue I just have um I appreciate the work on this just because I think some of these changes will definitely help when we are thinking about increasing the number of Volunteers

072in our schools for events because I know many times we get the emails and they're searching for volunteers so I'm hoping this will really help us out and especially with the Raptor system also able to give you the information so you're not finding out your clearances have expired when you sign up to do an event and finding out last minute um one of the things that I was going to ask just because I was checking on the website so I don't know if you're looking on a different version from what we are seeing is it's not revealed yet it will be up tomorrow we wanted to present it to you first and then switch the perfect I would say way is my system out of date so that's that's helpful and then um because I

073know we updated the policy also do we know when that policy will be updated on the website also to reflect the changes yep we're hoping to have that done uh within the month we've looked at that process of speeding up that a little bit so uh we're hoping within the month we'll have that completed as you know we have to submit it to psba and they put it then on the website so that's a bit of the delay of that we see but we're hopeful that that won't speed up a little bit more than it has in the past and I do appreciate because I think some of the um as people are signing up to volunteer for events I think home and school has been doing a good job reminding them that the new

074process is in place or will be in place what I'm wondering with the Raptor system would it migrate like if you're in the system the previous system already will that migrate your information over do or do we have to start all over kind of a fresh so that's a very great question we have currently 2400 volunteers with current clearances and what I mean by that their clearances do not expire um within say from February um of 23 through 20 okay so all of those individuals we will pre-populate them into the system so what's going to happen they're going to get a communication that lets them know this is coming um this is our new system this is our new policy to anticipate an email from I believe it's do not reply at Raptor just to

075let them know that that's coming you're going to be in our system there's nothing that they need to do except to set up their uh portal access if they choose to um it's not a requirement but um they would be in our database so that our buildings would go right into the Raptor system if a you know parent comes they swipe and it shows that they're a volunteer then that badge gets printed out it pulls it right into the system it connects everything thank you anyone to my right Mr McGinnis thanks for the work on this guys as someone who went through this process just this September I'm glad you removed some of the the hurdles although I was relieved to know I didn't have tuberculosis um the only thing I would say and Dr

076sergini I'll look to you for this you don't have to come up now but I may be majoring in minors here but the superintendent approval of volunteers will be done weekly following the completion of a volunteer requirement and I'm contemplating a volunteer coach in the summer um where you meet and make this decision on Tuesday at nine o'clock and and Tuesday at three o'clock they get their clearances and would have to wait a full week I know we deputize you to kind of wave that wand with paid coaches but maybe some alignment between both of them um maybe not on a weekly Cadence just make the wording will be done whenever the superintendent deems right or something like that so again I may be making making a mountain out of a mole that doesn't exist

077but uh I wouldn't want a volunteer coach that was probably hired in haste uh late to fill an open position to get stuck uh that's again probably not a real world scenario we bump into too much but if we do maybe plan for it no I think you're I think you're absolutely right um it's just it's just on a weekly basis we we process it generally if in fact there is an immediate need and all the requirements are met we issue that right away so it could be within the within the hour that all the requirements were reviewed and met so we we will do that it would notify that in an emergency or or you know we'll go ahead and do that but but as a practice we move from monthly to weekly so

078I mean we're certainly in a better a better position um but uh but by all by all means uh your comments uh well taken and and that's the whole purpose of the authority provided to me so that we we make sure that the experience and the turnaround can be done properly and it doesn't have to wait 30 days after they've completed all the paperwork thank you any other questions for members am I right left thank you well done and that ends the guests and scheduled speakers uh for the evening of January 24th I'll turn the meeting back over to Madam president thank you Dr zervi um next we have reports the committee reports are listed and then we have Miss Washington with our Dei report please thank you good evening it's good to be back

079after a while um so throughout the months of December and January I've begun building communities of practice and relationships with our school-based Liaisons that were approved back in November of 22. um the school-based Liaisons work with me and they're building principles to help create a vision and opportunities for all within the myth Acton School District Community to feel healthy safe engaged supported and challenged so in addition to weekly meetings with Dr engstadt and Mr Regina I am now meeting with our school building Liaisons on a monthly basis and discussions with our school-based Liaisons are focused on what is occurring in each of our schools and have themes consistent with student or staff Wellness which is also consistent with our SEL and trauma-informed care training some of these examples include that all students in grades 9

080and 10 at the high school participated in an assembly supported by Ed Garrity on creating a positive School culture filled with gratitude and compassion for others this assembly has received positive feedback from all students and they were asking how they can Implement his message about school climate into their school community Mr Garrity will be sharing his message to all students here at Arcola later this week um also at the high school thanks to Dr ravanice and her support students in smaller focus groups such as our athletes and Multicultural awareness clubs are also participating in workshops on student leadership and to belonging and many of our other schools are working towards creating ways to recognize and celebrate our staff that work directly with our students by acknowledging their efforts on a monthly basis with examples such

081as positive notes or treats just small times to unwind and build community together um in the same framework of connecting with our communities I'm personally actively engaging in sessions sponsored by the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit that focus on building connections with other practitioners that lead the work of equity access and belonging in their school districts the Montgomery County IU is hosting opportunities for district leaders working in Di and SEL to participate in professional development opportunities to learn about various Frameworks of practice and to allow opportunities just to meet others throughout neighboring districts doing similar work so that no practitioner is working in a silo the mciu also is working with opportunities for District staff members to begin conversations on how to support the growing numbers of our English language Learners who meet the criteria for

082being a newcomer or slife which are students with limited or interrupted formal education um so a small group of counselors and our ELD coordinator for the district met as a team with the IU and other District teams to begin discussing the enrollment process for newcomers and we'll continue discussions on innovative ways to help students and families feel welcome and supported from the first day when they enter our school community I'm also led by Dr engstadt the district is continuing to go through training on social emotional learning and trauma-informed care I mean we had a session in December and we'll be returning tomorrow on learning more about this work and how it applies to myth fact and School District in previous sessions it was 65 staff members that gathered together to help lead this work and

083tomorrow we've invited members of our community including parents and Guardians of the students that are in our buildings into this work as well so I'm looking forward to that as well thank you Ms Washington any questions from members of the board to my left saying none to my right Ms Rocco just one really quick one when you mentioned the positive feedback from the students I think that was based on um I think that one was from the Middle School level based on an assembly or presentation but how are you get getting the feedback is it survey based or are they being asked after the presentation I'm just curious how the how the students are providing the feedback it's um it was the high school Arcola hopefully will have the same message later this week um

084it's usually either after events or during their clubs activities or during lunch opportunities when we can ask them after an event I'm just asking hey what did you think or even overhearing students wanting to know more about how they can support yep thank you seeing no other question Ms Washington thank you so much okay next we have um uh the Intermediate Unit and North monco Tech Miss Reese thank you um first I apologize for being late I mean no disrespect to the high school staff I apologize Dr gravanice when I left my home at 4 30 a.m to help a family member in a in need of the health support um the Schuylkill Expressway was lovely at 4 30 a.m not so much at uh 6 30. so I apologize to uh to miss the

085staff recognition and I thank the Woodland the Woodland young students for um uh changing things up a little bit so that I could um see them and receive my certificate and then real quick because I don't want to wait till old business um I just renewed my volunteer um clearances um for that methactin post prom so a little plug there and um it was a couple clicks of the uh of the computer for the clearances and those of us who already had our child abuse they have all your information in there so you don't have to put in all your lovely addresses from you know the last um 50 years of your life anyway um to the uh Intermediate Unit we meet tomorrow um our meeting is tomorrow and we did not meet in December

086so I will have a report for you in February which I'm sure will be a little longer than normal because it'll be two months worth and North Manco we met on 118 virtually we would have met on the 16th but it was a holiday so our next meeting is uh on a Wednesday as well because of President's Day so we will meet virtually again it's not always easy to get five sending districts um together when you change the date they have their Mondays their third Monday solidified so anyway the biggest news from North monco is the tours have started and I know many of the sending districts have sent their students as well as Arcola so I would encourage you to speak to your child about the wonderful programs that North Manco offers um the

087other big discussion was um there's been capacity discussions for months there's always talk of new programs how to update old programs our old programs not 2023 anymore so that is a bit another big part of our discussion and um mechatronics Staffing is always another mechatronics is an incredibly um popular program at the school there's often a wait list and um Staffing is not easy because we lost one of our incredible staff members because they're a position finally opened um you know closer to that person's home which was over an hour away so they're still in the process of working through that um and other than that that was that was the gist of our meeting that's it thank you I just want to add that we will have Dr pardovic here on in March for

088one of our meetings okay all right thank you thank you and now we have our student board Representatives we have Miss Erica and miss shamiksha hey y'all back again so but Canadian ladies and gentlemen my name is Erica I'm one of the representatives for methactin I will be starting off with the sports team but that thing with the sports teams are preparing for pic championships along with the district play and their Futures last week the boys wants me to defeated upper Maryland leading the boys being 5-0 in PNC conference the Manhattan High School girls basketball team currently stands 10-4 in the season and six to one in the PAC after two wins this past week the team had wins at upper Perkins 60 23 on Tuesday January 10th and then 6123 at Border Town on

089Thursday January 12th the JV team is five to six on the session after two wins this past week 42-11 at upper Perkin on Tuesday and 43-12 at Bordertown on Thursday unified botch beat him sorry if I'm pronouncing that wrong 4-0 last Friday on January 20th the last botch mass of the session is next Tuesday at Harrington one if not both teams have a chance to lead to Regionals next month with Acton High School boys basketball will be pregnant by last week and won 59-58 the boards are 12 to 6 and rates 7th in the district regarding both Acton high school wrestling Damian Moser went for the Saran pack Champion since with a Pac Championship weighing at 285 pounds this Wednesday the team will travel to Springfield to take on the south and both teams to

090second place finally girls swimming beat Pope John Paul last Thursday 16 96-71 and their next homie will be January 26 as well as their senior night being on January 31st for now we're moving on to our you know prom clubs Etc on January 11th the BSU Club sponsored the first Multicultural awareness Club Workshop we belong this ongoing martial series is in partnership with apple Jones The Commonwealth University Chief diversity equity and inclusion officer baboons Park Lock Haven and Mansfield universities where students learn the microaggression and Leadership there foreign and I'm honored to be talking to you today as a student representative for the McLaughlin School Board so at the high school the second marketing period is almost over and both students and teachers are preparing for the annual midterms which are taking place this week

091from January 24th to January 27th during this week students will have an altered half day schedule based on their respective schedules and Midterm grades will be allocated to the second marking period MHS will be holding the sat on March 11 2023 and June 6 2023 registration dates for these exams are now open for students to sign up throughout December mathacton hosted a series of guest speaker events for students including the Lower Providence Police Department Montgomery County DA's office and Montgomery County Health and Human Services office for the juniors and seniors where they discuss where they discussed drug education decision making addiction family notification drinking and driving freshmen and sophomores discussed anti-bullying and character education with Ed Garrity the high school also hosted Eric Woods a representative from St Joseph's University who discussed leadership social media

092impact and a positive online presence with MHS fall and winter student athletes in the raise the bar assembly spread school spirit MHS hosted a holiday hallway contest where the different departments decorated hallways with various holiday themes and student voted for their favorite to determine the winner the winner being the math department on Wednesday December 21st MHS held its annual Winter concert at Arcola featuring its orchestra band and chorus several of the students from these ensembles have also recently placed into multiple pmea District 11 ensembles and Senior Mimi Cavallo also qualified for the nafme all Eastern Division ensemble the MHS medicine and Science Club hosted its annual stem day for methactan elementary students on January 14th to promote stem engagement and raise money for Saint Jude's cancer research hospital regarding upcoming events and extracurriculars the senior

093banquet for the class of 2023 will be Thursday February 16th and the semi-formal for freshmen and sophomores will be on Friday February 3rd tickets for both events are still available for students to purchase and finally the MHS theater company will hold its annual spring musical Footloose this year from February 23rd to 25th 2023. tickets are being sold on their website thank you so much for your report Madam president if if we could we're going to ask to excuse both Eric and samika at this point they have midterms this week and I think that's hopefully they can get home and get studied that sounds like a great idea thank you you are excused good luck thank you good luck all right our next report is Donna pergolini from the methactan Education Foundation good evening everyone um

094thanks again for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the facton Education Foundation I just have a few quick things tonight um first our grant cycle for the spring 2023 is open so we encourage all teachers staff and administrative to review our website and submit ideas it's missactinfoundation.org and hit on the what we fund um in the fall we receive 13 grants and we'll be funding seven and we will make an official announcement on it the February school board meeting about what we're funding um second is the really exciting limit actin dodgeball tournament again is on March 26th I'm gonna keep coming and telling you um we'll be at the high school and again the focus of this charity event is to bring the community including family students staff alumni and the school board together

095we have a fun-filled day and we raise awareness for the Education Foundation and proceeds will help fund programs for both stem programs that benefit economically disadvantaged students career Readiness and student wellness so we ask you to start forming your teams the teams are six to ten players we encourage creative and fun uniforms and teams will compete against similar age and divisions only team registrations are accepted so no individuals and their first come first serve serve first serve basis and it closes at the end of February or when it's filled and right now we have about 12 teams so we're hoping about 30 to 40. so we're filling up quickly and again that is on our site with actonfoundation.org dodgeball and then the last is just simple we invite everybody to visit our website and learn

096more about us and sign up for our newsletter and they'll tell you about our upcoming events incube including dodgeball the grant Cycles we have a dine and donate every first Tuesday at the Eagleville Tap House and we're doing things like a paint with a purpose on February 26th so we're just really trying to have a bunch of community events so we hope you can be all part of it so so anyone have any questions good all right thanks for your time thank you Miss piercolini next we have Miss Kelly with Communications thank you and good evening again last week more than 50 mifactin students parents and staff helped kick off the MLK Day of Service with a sock roll challenge an annual service project at Arcola with the original goal of 300 sock rolls they

097assembled 620 sock rolls that each contained a snack and a kind note that would be distributed to individuals in the community who are experiencing homelessness the activity was organized by arcola's counselor Mr Mueller and a local non-profit called The Giving Tree channel 3 also came out to cover the story and you can see that on our website an Eagleville teacher through her work outside the classroom and a methactin program have received topped honors reading specialist Maureen stanko and Unified sports program will each be recognized at the 2023 Arc Alliance Awards The Arc Alliance is a family of related agencies that work together to support individuals with disabilities throughout life and advocate for their inclusion in the community the awards ceremony will take place in March so congratulations to those two groups the curriculum office will

098be hosting an online session of their annual kindergarten overview program this Thursday at 7 pm more than a hundred people have signed up to learn about full day kindergarten and make the Atkins which is very exciting registration for full day kindergarten opens on February 1st at 10 A.M and myth Acton High School will host their open house for families of private and parochial school students on Monday this coming Monday and the district is once again partnering with giant uh the supermarket on a special school program to help support our students from now through February 28th giant customers can round up at the register to support the fact and backpack program customers at the Egypt Brew giant can round up their grocery total at the register and the cumulative total of all the spare change donated

099will go into a fund for them effect and School District last year this fundraiser awarded more than forty six hundred dollars to the myth act and backpack program and as presented earlier tonight by the incredible students at Woodland we all know that January is School director recognition month the video that was presented this evening will be posted on the district's website and social media channels thank you very much thank you Miss Kelly and now it's time for the superintendents report Dr survey thank you madam president the first thing I'd like to just be recognition to is this evening marks the last school board meeting that Mr Jones will be joining us for so congratulations on your retirement Mr Jones and uh secondly I want to just give you a real quick update on the Audubon

100Elementary School which Mr Jones is still uh you know helping us get get through here so the administrative discussions have begun with respects to potential future of the use of the property uh as those ideas develop we'll be sharing them with the board of school directors uh secondly bids are due for the abatement work by the the end of this month uh there is an auction of materials and supplies remaining inside of the Audubon Elementary School uh that will occur in February and March the bid for demolition contract is slated for mid-march with a public tour of the facility targeted for the mid to end of March and then the board would award the demolition contract in April with demolition expected to begin sometime in the beginning of June with topsoil and final inspections slated

101for July of 2023 that ends the update for the Audubon project and and next I want to just give an update on matters related to last week's conversation so it is important that we clarify some of the comments from last week and provide an update to the board and public on matters pertaining to school library books several references were made by members of the public at last week's meeting with respects to library books and passages within those books in relation to Pennsylvania crime code as such for clarification purposes I am asking our solicitor to clarify these claims and and bring notice to to the public and the board as such I'm sure Dr Zerby so uh my understanding is that there were comments made during the work session of the board suggesting that that certain

102books being in the possession of the district in the library could result in in criminal liability for um the district specifically there was a section of the Pennsylvania crimes code that was read that address is obscene and other sexual materials particularly a section that addresses distribution of those materials to minors so I did review that particular section of the crimes code and I would just note for the board that there is a a section within that particular law titled exemptions that specifically states that nothing in this section shall apply to and there are a list of specific categories so nothing in this section shall apply to among other things any public library or any library of any school or any library or archive under the super supervision and control of a political subdivision which would

103include a school district so put simply the section of the law that was that was at least referenced or seemed to be referenced during the work session of the board by its own language does not apply to any school and so while there certainly can be room for for disagreement in terms of what books may may be in a library or other location in a school as far as any suggestion that there's criminal liability or criminal charges could be brought against a teacher or a librarian or an administrator or a school board member um that's just not supported by the law thank you uh and so so it's I think it's also important that uh the the public recognize that the board and I recognize that uh you know there are members of the public

104that are passionate about this particular matter and as such it is important to allow us the opportunity to follow a process so I I just want to make sure that the the public knows that I plan to uh Continue to update the public Enterprise them of any progress on this particular topic uh whether we get uh uh a request for uh reconsideration or or not and that everyone allows us the opportunity to properly review those those requests it just so happened that um following that meeting and between that meeting and this uh the district has received 10 formal requests for reconsideration of library books since uh since our last meeting Dr Walsh the district's director of curriculum will as as per policy 109 form a committee of at least two teachers a librarian and a

105building administrator to review the material and judge whether the resource conforms to the principles for selecting materials a written report will be sent from the committee to the director of curriculum and a copy sent to me as superintendent the curriculum director and I will review the report and provide the report to the requester and to the board in the instance that the requester is not satisfied with the outcome of the committee report the requester can file a written rebuttal to me as superintendent again as as per this process as as it as it unfolds and again this is something new for probably for all of us but I want to make uh note that the from the 10 requests we receive eight books that are up for review the book entitled tricks by Hopkins the

106book entitled The Kite Runner by hassini the book entitled the blue The Bluest Eye by Morrison me and Earl and the dying Girl by Jesse Andrews this book is gay by Dawson The Perks of Being a Wallflower by chopsky all boys aren't Blue by Johnson and out of darkness by Perez Dr Walsh the director of Christian will be in contact with with the individuals that have submitted those requests for uh cons reconsideration and like I said earlier we'll keep the public apprised of the progress on that please note that a list of eight books will take some time for completion and once we have formed the committee and once we provide a proper estimate of the amount of time that it will likely take to formulate a report we will communicate with the requesters we

107will let the board know as well and I will update the public uh here in these meetings as as that will progress uh that there ends my report thank you Dr Zerby um now it's time for public comment on board action items and just a reminder because I do see some new faces here um which is great the the public comment this public comment time is for items that are on the agenda um that you picked up in the back of the room or that you see online specifically these agenda items if you're if what you're going to speak on is not specifically contained in this agenda then your time to speak would be during courtesy of the floor which is at the conclusion of our board action items um so now it's time for

108public comment on board action items um as I said these are for matters to be decided up upon as outlined on the agenda and we ask 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 foreign thank you for that explanation um don't know why you did it I think I do but I don't know whether that was really needed um I'm going to talk about the payment of the bills right to no cost for November twenty three hundred dollars right to no cost for December zero for the year thirty thousand dollars from May till present nobody says a word nobody says how do you go from 70 grand a month to thirty thousand in seven months

109somebody please explain Dave explain that to us how that worked I know how it happened you got rid of the solicitor and that's how it happened question is did you make a provision with your new budget did you adjust the new budget because you're going to come in way under budget 500 600 Grand so would like to hear that um I'm going to talk about 9e which are the change orders for the uh quote-unquote water being turned off at Arrowhead I get a bunch of emails right to know process is great now I'm getting the stuff that I need from Che um there's an email that says here that a significant leak was identified in the meter pit here so you had a leak there was a leak and it says here we used a

110hundred and twenty thousand gallons of water in three days resulting in the water being turned off because they didn't have any pressure because it was all going out the spigot at your place that's why the water got turned off there's also emails that showed that the folks were sitting up there talking to your guys at the street when the water was turned off so you guys knew what was going on the whole time well you're trying to blame the water company so my suggestion Dave is to give us the facts I mean I'll just give you a short synopsis give us the facts tell everybody exactly what happened you had a huge leak they turned the water off to protect everybody else in the area so they did they were they were not having a

111safety issue um so again the narrative is isn't flying your initial budget for 2122 was 114 million dollars the mailer you sent out which was corrected is 127 million dollars have the auditor please explain to us where the 13 million dollars is break down the 13 in Revenue that's extra that it wasn't accounted for and then break down the expenses and tell us where the extra 13 million came from nobody will tell us well he's got the report you didn't put it online so I have to ask you the question about where it came from so if you can ask him I appreciate it thanks thank you any other public comment on board action items all right seeing none um can I get a approval a board meeting minutes can I get an approval of

112the December 5th 2022 reorganization and regular board meeting minutes as attached please Mr McGinnis and a second Miss Rocco thank you um any questions comments all in favor any opposed 9-0 thank you next is fiscal items Mr Brooker thank you madam president this month for your approval are seven Financial items none of which have changed from the work session all right can I can I get a motion to approve all fiscal items as attached Mr McGinnis and a second Miss Graf and any questions or comments yeah just to make some uh clarifying uh comments when someone uses the right to know process to get emails uh they they lose the context for which is actually what actually occurs so what happens is when you're trying to read through that it's hard to understand when someone

113says there must be a leak or someone sends an email to send it must be there was not a leak but there was an email that was sent by I think one of the contractors or someone says there's probably a leak that's usually what happens with the amount of water that was being used on the site at that time Bob Jones can confirm that there was no leak uh it wasn't an issue with the leak and has nothing to do with the leak okay thank you any other questions or comments Miss Reese um I want to thank you Dr Zerby just from property we lots of discussions about water so I appreciate you clarifying that I just wanted to um comment on a matter last week due to finance we weren't able to do that

114because we had to adjourn the meeting um and someone had uh questioned why the audit was not um uh posted yet and that is because once we approve it it will be posted for the public to look at so I just wanted to make that clear thank you Miss Reese anyone else Mr Winters yeah I'm pretty sure that comment related to was described in the uh in the minutes and also at the meeting uh that uh could certainly be used as a reference point related to the audit uh additionally I believe we've discussed uh Mr Bricker the adjustment in this year's budget related to right to no expense if I recall we reduced the budget 300 000 it doesn't mean we won't save even more fantastic I am talking about right to know the right

115to know request is lower than it was before so we did take that down in the budget is that correct that's correct we took it down to 402 000 for all legal fees thank you thank you any other questions comments okay seeing none um all in favor any opposed 9-0 thank you all right now Personnel items Dr swardini thank you madam president and good evening for your consideration this month we have the Personnel items as presented at the work session last week with only one edition a change of status classified carlavidi from casual on call to a recess assistant at Arrowhead thank you foreign thank you very much may I get a motion to approve all Personnel items as attached Mr McGinnis and a second Miss Rocco any questions or comments on Personnel items all

116right seeing none all in favor any opposed carries 9-0 thank you thank you now uh I don't see anything under curriculum and programs so we'll go to policy thank you madam president uh there are no items actually for board vote this evening since there are no second reads but there have been no changes to First grades on the policy so that's only update I have for the night thank you all right thank you nothing under second read okay um now we have other doctors Arby Madam president there are no uh changes from the work session listed on the agenda okay no changes for items under other may I have a motion to approve all items listed under other Mysteries and a second Mr rookstall thank you any questions or comments under other Miss Rocco yeah

117I just want to wish uh the fact and cheerleading team that is on here under other uh I don't know but if I couldn't catch if it was in the athletic report from the high school earlier but they do head to States this week um so I'm just wishing them luck um in Hershey this upcoming week all right thank you Miss Rocco any other comments or Mr Winters yeah I'd like to thank the administration for um being in front of next year's issue related to the graduation and putting a tentative date on the calendar for next year and I also like to thank Dr gravanice for taking the extra time to support the seniors through this issue and uh being cooperative through the process thank you um any anything else Ms Reese uh Miss Rocco

118and Mr Winters took the words out of my mouth I did want to thank Dr gravanice for working through um the and helping the seniors I appreciate that and um and administration like Mr winter said um now that things are a little different with winter and things like that we're hoping that uh we can continue letting students know sooner and sooner about their graduation um and the cheerleaders um there was a lot in the student report but they um I'm not I don't also don't know if they mentioned that but they did mention um Good Luck to miss Cavallo so uh good luck to her I know it's in April but that's a big deal to uh participate in that Eastern Division chorus um and the Academic Decathlon good luck in the beginning of March

119and I want to hear more about that Business Leaders after the April uh trip and for those who are unaware because I was unaware before I was on the school board the school calendar is being approved this evening so I know everyone always is looking for their vacations and things so it is now time to write those hopeful Vacations or time away in in ink uh as of this evening hopefully thank you anybody else right seeing none um all in favor any opposed carries 9-0 thank you okay um next we have um dates for board members calendars um now we're up to old or new business does anyone have anything that's Reese just real quick I I could I didn't want the Knight to go without recognizing um the the bocce um the beginning of

120the bocce season I was lucky enough um to watch a home match last Friday and it was an awesome way to to end the work week um we won which isn't what it's all about but congratulations to our athletes and their parents and I wanted to specifically thank them and the staff because watching it it was incredibly well run and it is exactly um why we wanted to add another sport for unified and with Miss Kelly um acknowledging that the arc Alliance is also going to be acknowledging our unified um team at their Awards in March it's it's a point of Pride for for methactin so congratulations thank you anyone else for any old or new business this evening all right um moving right along now it's time for Courtesy of the floor now this

121is the opportunity for residents to make comments on matters that are or maybe before the board we ask that you keep your comments to three minutes or less and we may choose to respond to matters following the conclusion of comments anyone for Courtesy of the floor this evening all right hello my name is Julia nucley and I live in Lower Providence my daughter is unable to be here tonight because she is studying for her midterm midterms she's in 10th grade at mathacton high school I will be reading excerpts from an essay that she wrote parents are Banning books and sterilizing classrooms at an ever increasing rate and this could spell Doom for the future thinkers and current readers of the world Banning books is detrimental because it does not succeed in Sheltering children instead it

122limits World Views and censors the experiences of real people books that tackle situations and subjects that are difficult to talk about are often instrumental in helping the real life people that are in those situations When Alan Hopkins tells how a reader of her book saw herself in those pages and suddenly knew she did not want to be there she exemplifies the power of books that deal with controversial and difficult topics to change their lives for the better books that can tackle subjects and situations people do not want to engage in or acknowledge should not be banned since these books help the people that are in those situations by showing them that they are not alone someone may think that a book contains material that is not appropriate for children to know about but it needs

123to be acknowledged that there are people and even children who are actually in those situations if these lives are declared something to not to not be talked about then these people cannot get help or even know what to do to help themselves Banning books is generally to Shield children from situations parents do not want these children to see but in the long run this attempted shielding proves ineffectual and even detrimental at times a student points out that banning books can't hide these different Lifestyles from our younger or young people by pretending they don't exist Banning a book in an attempt to shelter children from its two two real contents simply does not work children will no doubt eventually end up seeing such things in real life having read books containing various situations and like situations

124and Lifestyles will prepare children for encountering such things in real life and pretending such things do not exist will only deprive Children of the preparation of knowing and having read about it in a safe environment beforehand books that contain controversial topics are often written by authors that have experienced those very things and banning these books discourages people from speaking up about their situations the Banning of a book that depicts that depicts negative subjects experienced by the author sends the message that others who have had those experiences should not speak up discouraging people from telling individual stories from their experiences is harmful both to the person telling it and to potential readers as it limits expressions of the self and the potential expansion of World Views actually teaching children why something is bad is infinitely better

125than just saying it is and using these books as examples is the perfect learning opportunity if it is handled property properly read banned books read them to children and discuss why they were banned examine the morals and situations in the book if all of this can be accomplished and banning books is rendered in the past and the Youth of today will come up with wider World Views [Applause] anybody else here for Courtesy of the floor hello members of the board my name is Abby Drummond I go to mathacton high school and in addition to the previously made point I think that a point that really needs to be brought please State your municipality Eagleville look thank you for a problem I think that a point that really needs to be brought home is the fact

126that when children are excessively sheltered they are unable to feel safe in the real world because they've never been exposed to any of it in a way that's palatable and age-appropriate some of the topics that you were mentioned in the books that you listed doctors or be where lgbtq issues and racial issues these issues and crimes happen in real life and by not exposing these topics in an age-appropriate manner to children we leave them unprepared and frankly uneducated I've never felt traumatized or Overexposed by these books in fact I've always felt the opposite books provide comfort in children when they feel ostracized due to who they love or the color of their skin and I believe that keeping these books in our libraries is vital to creating a diversity accepting environment in bethactin that will

127allow children to learn and understand that it's okay to be who they are thank you [Applause] thank you and anybody else for Courtesy of the floor this evening uh Erica savinski Lower Providence I'm the parent of a seventh grader at Arcola and a ninth grader at um methacton when students have access to a vast array of books they are lucky enough to be able to learn a vast array of things when they open a book and find characters and situations that mayor their own life experiences or communities it reassures them that they are valued they feel seen they feel like someone at least one person the author valued them enough to tell a story about someone like them if that book is about a trauma they suffered it might give them the strength to speak

128up because they no longer feel alone to me saving one child the pain of feeling alone unwanted and unseen is worth the discomfort of a few adults who don't want others to read about it when a student opens a book and finds a story they haven't heard before that they haven't experienced they haven't connected with that have a whole new they have a whole new learning opportunity they are gifted the opportunity to learn empathy and compassion they are gifted the opportunity to see life through another person's point of view to see it from the inside to see it from that person's experience they've become better equipped to enter the world as an adult which when it comes down to it is the purpose of school so no matter how you look at it removing books

129is removing chances to learn and grow growth through developing self-confidence growth through widening knowledge of others the more variety in our libraries the more growth we are offering our kids [Music] anybody else for Courtesy of the floor Peter Schleicher lower province I really wasn't planning on speaking about this tonight but I feel obliged to one thing I want to point out when I spoke last week I was not con uh commenting on the book itself I was commenting on a specific portion of the book that had graphic sexual activity and not only in activity instruction in it I was not commenting on uh the fact that the book was this book is gay that book has the right to be in the library by that title I do not think that that material in that

130section the graphic sexual section has a right to be in the library here with that being said I do have a question and it's probably directed more toward the solicitor but I'm bringing it to the board since the solicitor brought this up does that mean that there are no legal standards for what books and periodicals can be placed in a school library thank you [Music] thank you anyone else for Courtesy of the floor this evening foreign I'm from Lower Providence and I'm a sophomore at the high school I wanted to speak tonight about um how having access to books with representation growing up helped me feel like I wasn't alone growing up I was bullied I wasn't a popular kid and I didn't have a bunch of friends friends I felt alone and I felt

131like no one around me was going through the same thing in seventh grade my uh reading teacher Mrs mcclucky taught me how to find books I was interested in the first book I picked out was Blended by Sharon M Draper not only did this book show me how I wasn't alone in being bullied or popular or not being a popular kid but it also taught me to learn and understand from other people's perspectives it showed me how my life as a white girl was different from the life of a black girls it showed me how we are like in a matter of Interest like music and art but different no matter of how we are treated by People based on the color of our skin Mrs Matlock he is the reason I love raising to

132this day reading reason I love reading to this day another book that showed me I wasn't alone was tell me again how Crush it'd feel by Sarah farazan starting in fifth grade my mental health became worse and I felt different from my friends because they were boy crazy and I wasn't having access to books appropriate for my age group with lgbtq representation was very important for me I finally felt like there are people in the world who were who were feeling like me and every kid deserves to feel that way every kid deserves to feel heard and to feel like they aren't alone I completely agree that parents should have the right to choose what books their child reads but they do not and should not have the right to take away from somebody else's

133kids experience everybody has the right to their own beliefs and it only becomes a problem when you apply your personal beliefs to something everyone has access to limiting our resources like books because of your personal belief is detrimental to kids like me who want to see representation of people like us or even of people who are not like us because it teaches empathy and awareness the book The One book one school program is a good example of helping students around the school look at different perspectives and teach empathy just Mercy by Brian Stevenson Night by Ellie weasel and I will always write back where really great options to open discussion about how everyone has different experiences through life by giving us access and having us read these books mythackton is preparing us for the world

134outside of school when we leave with Acton will be going to college or working with people with different experiences coming from different places culturally and geographically and we need to know how to be respectful and educated about each other's backgrounds I know all parents want what's best for their children I want you to know I just want you to know books help us understand ourselves our children folks help us understand ourselves and our place in the world and have and having access to books with representation is fundamental thank you [Applause] anybody else for Courtesy of the floor hi there Shannon she's Lower Providence um I did not come here to demand anything from anyone but rate anyone or be hostile I came because I truly believe that this school district and the school board strives

135each day to educate open-minded not small-minded compassionate not angry accepting not judgmental children our children like my 18 year old macton senior will leave this school district and enter a world no matter if you like it or not that is changing and sorry and is more accepting um of all Races ideas and Lifestyles as a school district we can remain in the past or we can choose to move forward like the rest of the world is doing foreign [Applause] courtesy of the floor this evening no hi my name is Michelle Sanford and I'm from Lower Providence I hate um I just wanted to bring up um back when I was a teenager and was growing up are you there God it's me Margaret was a big book that they wanted to ban and it was

136banned in my household I didn't have great parents that were teaching me those things that I probably needed to be alert that I needed to learn I've snuck and I read that book I ended up on my own at 16. and that book was crucial in me knowing things about myself about feminine hygiene things that really important that we don't think about but that was my resource was are you there God it's me Margaret was my resource for growing up and knowing what to do because I didn't have parents that wanted me to know that stuff that were willing to discuss that stuff with me so when I did go out on my own that was a book that was pushed and pushed and pushed for years by Judy Bloom that back in the 70s

137and 80s was the worst thing known to man and we are doing this again and we're going to prevent more people that may need that and that may be their only resource to how to survive because their parents may be blocking them let us not do that let's not be the ones that are blocking these kids from learning what our parents may not be wanting us to learn and I don't it's not explosive it's not horrible these books it's learning these are the verbatim these are the children and what they're feeling and what they're learning you pacify them what are they going to learn giving out of here we keep picking them up and saying you can't know this you can't know that the ignorance of things that people have had to teach me that

138I feel like I'm a failure because it's something that I should have been taught that I couldn't learn in books because they start Banning everything don't do that these lgbtq kids these black kids there's only a handful of them they need that they need the choices we don't go in and do it on the basic white I might feel some type of way somebody else might feel some type of way we don't do that to the straight people it's not fair to do to anybody else and that's what I have thank you [Applause] foreign [Music] Lower Providence um so there's a lot I've been watching this for several years um I just found out that the same eight books that are being questioned here also made it on the PV agenda so this is not

139an organic movement this is not an original movement I think parents feel a certain way and they have a right to feel their way but I one of the things I wanted to point out is these are coming from well-organized National groups so for those who aren't aware who are listening no left turn moms for Liberty citizens renewing America Chris Ruffo Jeffrey Yaz resources that you can look for more information are pen America those are all these are happening you can watch it happen in waves across the country The Playbook they're there I've read them I can see them line by line but what I wanted to talk about was last week's meeting because it really got me thinking so we had people come up and said oh we can't expose children to things before

140the age of 18. so I posted something on my site and my question was to my friends how many people have experienced these things and I wrote eight things in there had an adult touch them sexually before the age of eight had an adult touch them sexually before the age of 18. had a pier touched them or kiss them without their consent been in a situation where they were threatened sexually been unable to talk through confusing sexual information or thoughts when you were under 18. felt shame or guilt about their bodies and their own sexuality would have benefited from reading books about young people who had encountered difficult sexual situations so you didn't feel alone and finally had an adult stranger expose themselves to them I had 14 women respond four of our three of

141them had four of those eight happen to them before the age of 18. three had five of them happen to them before the age of 18. eight including myself had seven of them happen to them before the age of eighteen I would love to say that every child in this school district under the age of 18 had never had that experience but we can't Shield them from reality it happens it has happened to 14 women that I know personally it's happening now to children in this District we cannot Shield them from that and I would just encourage everyone to keep that in mind um this is not this is not for the say the what's happening is not for the sake of the children parents have always had the opportunity to limit what their children

142have access to they don't have the right to limit what other parents let their children have access to in public education so thank you very much [Applause] thank you anybody else for Courtesy of the floor tonight okay hi good evening Katie Thiel Lower Providence I want to talk about two topics real quick the first one is I want to reiterate what most people have said tonight um limiting access to literature will have an impact on all of our students educations whether we whether they realize it and we realize it or not a school district should have the goal and I know we have the goal I know all of you here all of us here have that goal of students who are prepared to critically think and contribute to real society that means giving them

143things to read and a variety of things to read that opened their views um I do want to speak to the list that was read two of those books I believe either have been or still are AP books that we should all have access to so when considering removing books that's a big thing that we need to consider because that's huge the blue I'm referring to The Bluest Eye and Toni Morrison who is an AP level author and um The Kite Runner and also those two books at my high performing high school we read those as part of our curriculum it was an all girls high school where we wore uniforms and worked with nuns so I'm really confused when there's parts that are really uncomfortable how I was able to read that with nuns

144but for some reason our students here wouldn't be able to so that's something that I think really needs to be considered and when it comes to the thought of removing books once you start removing them where do you stop and that gets really uncomfortable for me real fast because I want all of our students to have access to good information there isn't a there is a huge body of research in the science of reading that says you have to give students something to read and write about for them to read and write and critically think writing is thinking on paper but they need something to read and write about and high schoolers especially need to do that with one minute left I also just want to talk about the drop in test scores real quick

145when you're looking at that drop-in test scores from pre-pandemic to now you have to also take into account that you went from on paper to on the computer you're not comparing Apples to Apples with those test scores they're actually apples to oranges because the brain the science of reading it's part of it it doesn't look it doesn't read the text the same way in our district you teach students to read on paper with crayons and paper and then they don't read that deeply online so I do want to encourage you to consider going back to paper and pencil um only because I really think with all the amazing things that the curriculum department is doing I think you'll that will complement a rise in test scores and if you don't you do need to share

146that messaging with the community that that's part of why the test scores probably dropped the researcher is Marianne wolf um in the science of reading I'm happy to share you that thank you so much for your time you're wonderful [Applause] thank you anybody else foreign sister my litmus tests for the books and the passages is have each one of the board members read the passages quoted by the complainant at a public meeting I challenge the board they're so proud of it they think it's so good read the passages to the public my second litmus test is take the book out of the library and take it outside the school district property and then tell me whether it's not child pornography if it's shown to a kid outside of the school and if the answer to

147that question is yes and you're using your exemption to Shield it think you have a problem um we got our the law enforcement tonight for four officers here tonight I guess maybe they came because Mr McGinnis was flipping out at the last meeting yeah he was in he was in timeout for telling Miss Bradbury to check her I'm going to paraphrase her at the door so profanity's okay up front all right um I could challenge you guys to go look at the Audubon hearings when you guys are sitting in the audience yawn screaming and cursing at the board and I would think twice about it what I handed you guys is that about the test scores somebody said something about the test scores being you know not valid this that here's the thing you didn't

148compare the test scores pre-pandemic it's a post-pandemic nothing from 2019 to 2020 or 2022. first thing I gave you was from the news article that put my facton down 30 percent test scores since 2019 of course you don't want the public to hear that you just want your narrative to be talked about so first thing I came right out of the news you guys are in like the top five of the worst schools in performance because of the way you handled covid masks social distancing closing things down virtual learning that was on you you know compare yourself to the rest of the state you could have done things different right so the second thing I gave you is from somebody who exhibited leadership Mr can't grow Jen's husband here's a guy with a plan right

149our objective to improve our current Niche School District ranking from 59th to the top 10 in Pennsylvania by the year 2023 husband that back up there here's a guide in right and then he then he threw I read it at your leisure he's got a plan to get there right that's what you guys should be talking about instead of worried about sex books in the library thanks control anybody else for Courtesy of the floor tonight okay [Music] good evening Sheila Smith Lower Providence I'm struggling to see impactful progress over the past eight years under this care board majority the following the following documented facts have been buried on the methactin school district website and these presentations here tonight here we go over and over the past years increased taxes and debt currently the board is

150considering a 4.1 increase to the 2023 taxes again last year you raised our taxes 1.5 despite having a surplus of 11 million five hundred twenty eight thousand seven hundred and seventy three dollars and not including the 7.2 million dollar Shannondale settlement which brings a surplus to about 19 million regardless of how the board hides oh I'm sorry reports it when the board School Board approves an annual budget you are entering into a contract with the taxpayers and need to be held accountable for a digital expenditures Arrowhead is a great example of how expenditures have been mismanaged let's talk about Arrowhead the care board despite promises closed Audubon on February 2016 six years ago it's been vacant and cost of taxpayers about 1 million because the board closed the school without a plan you let the

151property deteriorate you could have leased it but you did nothing at the expense the taxpayers Now 60 years later you're tearing the building down let's talk about plummeting performance we went from 11 to 62 under care test scores are now down 26 since 2019. also tonight why are we only benchmarking against County and state we're operating in a global economy we should be benchmarking against the best within the U.S and internationally where's the plan the strategies presented were very high level and there's no kpis there are numerous violations not complying with requirements Section 504 parents are forced to secure lawyers and file complaint with the U.S Department of Education Office of civil rights and you know parents will not come out and speak at this meeting because they're protecting their child identity I've spoken to

15215 families this year's fighting to have their 504 plans honored it's really heartbreaking I close with this the PA Sunshine act guideline States answering questions informally at a public meeting can reduce future right to know requests which saves time and money board policy wanna one excuse me zero eleven communicate clearly promote open honest respectful dialogue among the board staff and Community encourage input from the community not sure how Mr McGinnis outpours telling the Community member to shut the hell up and get the hell out of here accomplishes this and this is just last week I spoke with a solicitor from another district and it looks like I'm going to have to finish that later thank you have a good night anyone else for Courtesy of the floor seeing none any other comments from board members

153this evening Miss Rocco this one um to the last comment on not the last but from the last commenter on the tax increase I I just want to clarify and maybe Mr Winters Ms Rocco if I'm sorry I can't hear you oh I'm sorry um just to one of the last comments that was made in and maybe Mr winners can correct me if I'm wearing this uh wrong but it is not a proposed 4.1 um percent tax increase rather that we will not exceed um the index of of the 4.1 threshold correct it's the preliminary budget and the principle is that we do a preliminary budget to decide if we're going to take exceptions if we have them the capability of taking those we do we're choosing not to so right now at the budget

154the preliminary budget is at the maximum of act one uh which is 4.1 hopefully it will get lower but it will not get to that 1.4 of last year it will it will there's we will work to make it lower but the the choices that we have made around a um the employment of our mespa and our MAA have certainly put some Financial requirements on us in this coming school year there's other things that we are doing so I have no problem admitting that the tax increase will be in the threes because it's the right thing to do and we're making the choice based on an education and delivery mechanism first as opposed to an arbitrary number that somebody believes that should be the right number thank you I I didn't mean to put you

155on the spot but I knew you would explain that better than me so thank you and I guess Mr Winters if you can clarify just um we're not exceeding the Act One index and we could exceed the X One index because of some extraordinary costs that we have is that correct and our tax increase could be had we not voted could have been what yes it mathematically it could be I don't think it would be very uh uh there's increase in costs are associated with that I also wanted I I choose to just uh point out one thing so I do receive questions directly from the uh from members of the audience uh directly to me and in the past I have answered those questions the best I could I have also consulted with Dr

156Derby or Mr Bricker along the way most recent I received some questions and passed them on and the response back from the audience was well I don't believe that I was trying to understand if you really understood them and in the same spot was a copy of my response as an addendum on a right to know to say that I'm not responding so I'm damned if I do damned if I don't but the reality is there when you are going to be um what's the right word you're trying to be responsive in a respectful manner answering the questions but everything you say gets spun in a way that doesn't tell the whole story uh it becomes difficult to respond to individuals if that's how they're going to use the data um so I just wanted

157to clarify that that if anybody wants to do a right to know on the right to know that uses my responses as evidence that I'm not responding to someone they're welcome to do a right to know on that any other board wrap-up comments Miss Reese um just uh I wasn't going to say anything but I felt like I needed to address something one of the students said um first we did hear the people last week um and what we were trying to tell them is to fill out still is to fill out the forms to follow the policy because from passages we don't know what the books were that you had an issue with seeing the list hearing the list is a little surprising but I will leave that up to the to the committee

158I would encourage the committee to think about what some of those young people said and although I am a board director so I can't be courtesy of the floor I will in a few months be able to speak courtesy of the floor this is my little courtesy of the floor I'm a reading teacher in seventh grade and I used to read my students that book Blended and because it wasn't on the list from my curriculum I stopped reading it because I was afraid it's a lovely book and I I couldn't believe Miss pfeffer brought it up today and I'm embarrassed that I stopped reading it to my students because I was afraid so to those of you who have issues with books I understand and hopefully you can address that with your your children and

159hopefully this you know if you fill out forms in the committee can address it um but I'm gonna try to hold steadfast and talk to the curriculum people at my school and if it's not on my curriculum I'm gonna start get making sure that it gets approved so that I'm not afraid to read those books so thank you for your Brave um speaking here tonight because I know that's not always easy and thank you to anyone who expresses themselves in a respectful way including you sir because you were correct you were very respectful last week and last week was a little scary and thank you tonight for all everyone who spoke in a respectful manner because these meetings are watched by children thank you final thoughts all right may I have a motion to adjourn

160Mr McGinnis may I have a second Miss Perdue this meeting is adjourned thank you so much