001it all right we're live all right good evening everyone um i'd like to call to order the may 25th 2021 virtual board meeting for the methectone school district board of directors please rise for the pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all the public is hereby advised of the audio and video recording of this meeting for the purposes of rebroadcasting given the need to conduct this board meeting in a virtual environment the board required members of the public to make comments wanting to make comments on agenda items or during courtesy of the floor to pre-register by five o'clock today um we'll do our roll call for attendance ms cancro here miss
002drummond i'm here miss hull here mr mcginnis mr navarette here mr miss perdue here miss reese here mr winners and recognition of guests and scheduled speakers dr zurby thank you very much madam president this evening uh dr gravinis our interim principal at methachton high school has shared with me uh the list of m awards uh for the seat for seniors um this evening i want to share the list and we let you know that we are very proud of the achievements of all of our students this year 156 members of the class of 2021 have earned m awards for academic excellence our student board representatives samara goodridge and chris spletzer are among them these members of the class of 2021 will receive an m award in their graduation packet for achieving a 93 percent or
003greater grade point average for the 2021 school year following graduation these students will attend various higher education institutions such as yale princeton brown the university of pennsylvania penn state drexel and temple or begin their career or plan to serve our country in the military congratulations to these m award recipients and to the entire class of these names will be posted to the district website uh for everyone uh to admire the next item on the agenda is the matthackton award of excellence mr scott hensel from first student and uh mr zach lindman from aramark are here to present uh the award of excellence for the month of may 2021 and let me just get to that and who's going first here is it uh i believe it's uh mr lindman is that correct that's correct all
004right mr lindman you want to say a few words about our first awardee are you on i can't see you is mr lin-man there i thought he was in there earlier he was oh now he's back okay his mic isn't working okay so so with that said vera orig has been with the arrow mark and the factor for well over a decade and as a longtime employee deserves recognition for continuous hard work and effort when aramark and the food services team first came back uh to a virtual school setting in september 2020 veer was an instrument it was instrumental in helping to get the district curbside distribution program off the ground as a cafeteria manager at arrowhead elementary school she used the extensive food service experience and her lifetime leadership experience to work with staff
005through all the pivot points that occurred from menu alterations to student diet accommodations to staffing challenges and early days with late nights veer is a one-of-a-kind employee manager and best of all leader congratulations vera zach do we have the microphone working yet all right mr bricker you want to take the next one sure my microphone is working good i don't know if i want to have zax come on the next person is tina kusamano tina's kusamano is an aramark cafeteria manager at woodland elementary her work ethic and organization are second to none with a full year of changes tina can be counted on to take the reins and get the job done most notable was keeping all the curbside distribution packing neat and organized no easy task from the beginning of this year where her
006responsibilities change weekly and sometimes daily she has always managed to put her full force into whatever she was working on she is a great asset and one that has a bright future with methachton and aramark congratulations congratulations tina next we have maria maria shams maria has been a long time aramark employee and before that with methactin itself her positive demeanor pleasant attitude and constant work ethic are some of her most valuable qualities maria's role include running out breakfast carts earning our breakfast cart program at skyview and arcola prepping alongside her co-workers during the day and running a cash register during lunch she's an outstanding employee and despite a pandemic situation throughout the school year that has created numerous changes manages not only to complete her own task but also assist wherever it's needed in the
007cafeterias truly excellent teammate congratulations maria next we have james pendergrass james we have also we have uh scott hensel on the on the is your mic working scott i believe so can you hear me yes we can you're next on yours excellent thank you dr zurby uh so through a difficult and unpredictable year jim has shown to be a tremendous driver for first student his knowledge of the area and willingness to jump on different routes any day of the week has helped us tremendously when transporting the students of the falcon school district safely i do add jim has not missed a day of work this year and was always willing to help out when we were shorthanded thank you jim thank you jim how's it missed a day of work that's outstanding next we have
008steve steve arnwoodian so steve has been with first student uh since 2014 when first student came over and took over from with acting school district transportation his calm demeanor friendliness and experience makes him a perfect fit to be a school bus driver not only is steve a school bus driver but he also works as a trainer with first student he works one-on-one with the new driver candidates helping prepare them for their cdl and life behind the wheel of a yellow school bus full of children thanks steve congratulations steve next we have art yeah lastly we have art uh arthur is the am dispatcher here with first student uh but his role extends far beyond that in a very tough year where staffing has been a challenge art always finds a way to get the children
009to and from school safely when art is not in dispatch he is out on the road his strong work ethic and flexibility has made him a great asset to first student thank you art thank you all congratulations congratulations to all of our mark and first student employees they are instrumental in allowing us to pull off a lot of different things here this past school year thank you scott and thank you zach for your leadership in making all this work so and your partnership with the matthaqman school district thank you so much next we have uh on the agenda uh under guests and scheduled speakers we have dr sergini on a retirement recognition dr sujini thank you dr zerby members of the board of school directors and members of our myth acting community we often refer
010to the staff of mythical school district as our methachton family ourmethacton family members regularly spend years and even decades in dedicated service to the education of our students i'm honored to recognize this evening those members of our methachton family who either have or will be concluding their professional service with us during the 2020-2021 school year together these members of our methachton family represent a collective total of 542 years of service to the thacton school district the good work they've done will continue to ripple out not only into our local community but indeed throughout the entire world as our methachton alumni become the next generation of leaders on behalf of everyone in the entire myth acting community i extend our profound appreciation and gratitude to our retirees and i wish them all the very best of
011health and happiness in the years ahead congratulations to mimi barbudo chris boyle gail brown pat cavanis butch langhine bernie grimm mary mandia lori andrews nancy leno weaver patty mcginnis diane malin ralph mergia bob mcnally jill nickerson kathy o'connell linda wilkinson bruce vogel bard valerio michelle sinnott janice stickley linda phipps diane sieberger and frank buno congratulations and best wishes to all of our retirees thank you dr zerby thank you dr thank you to all of our retirees uh that's a lot of years of experience uh that that are leaving us and certainly they'll be uh challenging shoes to fill the fill but that's where your job comes in to help recruit us the the the talent that we need uh but that will certainly take years and it'll uh these are some very smiling and appreciative
012faces that that are leaving the district hope they come back and say hello or better yet they come back and they uh do some interim work for us or uh substitute or you know all the things that we would love them to do so with that said i hope they i wish them all the very very best uh that there ends the list of guests and scheduled speakers for this evening i'll turn the microphone back over to madam president thank you dr zurby um for reports we have our committee reports attached to the agenda um for dei miss purdue and miss drummond miss purdue do we have an update for tonight i think the update was provided at the work session meeting by dr campbell is that correct mr german yes i believe you think
013that would be the update do you have anything else miss purdue no we don't have anything else there's a committee meeting a full di committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow and um so that's the update we'll touch base later and the survey um was rendered and completed so we'll have more updates to provide next month great look forward to that thank you um intermediate unit ms reese um i'll be brief tonight as always we're kind of a day ahead of schedule here so we have our may meeting tomorrow however we of course did meet in um april um regular board uh business um but just to i need to uh just say a thanks to the president of um the board of the mciu mari moribari whoever if anyone's lucky enough to have met her in
014any school board event she is an uh upper marion's school board member and she is not running for real election and she has been just an incredible incredible uh board president at the mciu so we did have an exact session just to discuss the fact that we need a new a new uh cabinet at the mciu board um the only other major update is uh head start was able to procure a federal bid for um funds for a playground um playgrounds which was fantastic and for those i i know i haven't talked about harrisburg in a while probably mr winters or mr ryan spoke to you last about harrisburg harrisburg but for a refresher to some of you the mciu took over running the harrisburg school district and the superintendent of that school district spoke
015to us again and he's just an incredible gentleman and they are moving in the right direction in that district um and july there will be a golf outing i will share that information with all of you as a fundraiser and i will update you next month on our may meeting thank you miss reece i've been moving on to the north montco technical career center i don't know if that's you or miss drummond this month it can be either do you want to start liz or finish oh good and i'll and i'll pick up okay um north monco met on uh may 17th we did have an exec session beforehand just because we wound up kind of stealing my thunder from the regular meeting um the iu did come to terms with their teachers contract so
016we just needed to discuss that prior to the meeting um 10 to 12 students are all back in some capacity and the nocti testing went very very well the the tech center did not have to give the nocti testing but their students really wanted to take it um and i had told you before they had done very well in the written but now they took the um hands-on and 77 percent were proficient or advanced and one of the reasons they wanted to do that is because it allows them to qualify for state um licensing and credentials and that's pretty remarkable how well they did especially considering that at the end of last year they were also out of the building so kudos to the staff and the students there um there is lunch for anyone
017who has not had an opportunity to pick up lunch or bakery on wednesdays or thursdays please order online it is going well and then finally we had a really really unique presentation and um two of the teachers took on a really extraordinary project and i will share with the board um what they did uh in more detail but two teachers did a a walking in their shoes writing an assignment for the full-time students there and they hope to do continue it with the part-time students next year and it just helped them understand each other more um when you talk about diversity diversity inclusion and equity and the struggles that many have had with the last year and covid and it was just it was one of when you talk about social emotional learning it was
018all of us were speechless some of the responses that these teachers um uh procured from their students and i know liz and i were both really moved by it and we did we do plan to share it with um the fact and administrators and in case any of our teachers are interested in doing something similar but i really want to give a shout out to miss lucas and ms schmidt um one is the cosmetology teacher at the tech center and one is a social studies teacher and then finally there was a grand opening for the mechatronics lab and um uh for those of you unaware of that there's a waiting list on that program in that program and to have a new lab and to be able to open that up to more students it's
019a really phenomenal program that will get them far in their education um and we are not in person yet back at the iu one of the excuse me at the um well at the iu or the tech center uh one issue at the tech center is our our room is being used by the health students because the health students can't go to some of their uh hospitals and things like that to go work in so i think that's it unless liz there's anything you want to add or i forgot yeah i would just add the the the plan in the fall is a five-day return um full full return um in the meantime through the remainder of the year there will still be uh masking and um the protocol um and i and i would
020also just reiterate andrea what you said about the walking in their shoes um presentation it was um it was an anonymous exercise designed to um foster empathy and share personal experiences so people shared you know students share their experiences about poverty and dyslexia and parents with addiction and feeling alone um and you know just you know all like a whole spectrum of of emotions so i think it would be a really um valuable thing to you know to build from in in our district and in other districts so we're we're anxious to share that um exercise with you and yeah that's all i have thank you both um and now for the last time with our student board representatives report ms serena goodrich and mr chris spletzer okay so i have a couple things to
021say first i'm going to start off with the ap test ended this previous week now i personally did not take any aps or ap tests this year but i know it's a huge relief for everybody especially with the year we've had to be done so congratulations to all students who took ap test and took any ap course really and we're all hoping for fives for you um this past friday was the senior celebration at linfield national golf club and i was there i'm pretty sure i saw chris there but it was a great time i really think that whoever planned it i know it was student councils everybody they did a really good job for the circumstances that we were under so i just want to thank everybody for putting on such a nice event
022it was really a great time and it was a nice like final send-off kind of thing um and then also today we had the lieutenant governor john fetterman go live talking about the one book one school now i and me and chris personally will not be reading this book because we won't be attending with acting high school next year but i think it was really cool that they got him live on zoom today so that was really nice for the you know upcoming students that will be reading the book so sports news the girls and boys lacrosse both started the district tournament last week or last week they had their first round games on tuesday which they both won but both unfortunately lost in their second round game but i want to say congratulations to
023the girls and boys lacrosse team on such a great season they both were so successful for softball we had our first round districts game yesterday and we won so now we play tomorrow at quakertown so if you know any softball players send them a good luck tomorrow in their game um and then finally i just wanted to say thank you i know chris has his own words but i want to say thank you so much for the opportunity these past few years to just come and sit on the panel and get to talk about my classmates i really appreciated it was a really great opportunity so i just want to say thank you for everything and i'm all done chris you can go right all right uh starting with sports news so boys and girls
024track and field concluded officially on the 15th of may after a packed championship meet with acting performed admirably and had multiple qualifying athletes for districts which were this past weekend and in fact we had a couple of female athletes coco dunham and maddie eastmear who will be competing in states this coming weekend which is a fantastic achievement for them so congratulations keystone examinations occurred tuesday wednesday and thursday of last week the high school operated asynchronously fully those three days last week and frankly these weeks mark the last couple weeks for our seniors graduation rapidly approaches on the 10th of june the week after next will be the final week for the seniors and those monday tuesday and wednesday will be fully graduation practice with thursday being the 10th all in all these events largely conclude
025what has certainly been a tumultuous and unique year providing many challenges for the students administrators teachers at the factoring all these members of the metacan community have come out of this year on top in my opinion i think they're all looking forward to a 2022 full of normalcy um and i'd just like to say thank you to the methylating community for all of your perseverance and here's to a brighter future for this fantastic district thank you very much it's been a pleasure thank you chris and thank you serena for your service to this board in this community really appreciate it i wasn't expecting to get quite so choked up on that we're gonna miss you guys we're gonna miss you guys too so now moving on um we do not have a foundation report this
026evening so for communications miss kelly thank you madam president and good evening everyone the month of may was a celebratory one across the district we celebrated teacher appreciation week which began may 3rd through may 7th to end that week members of the board and the methachton administration prize the staff at each building with a water ice celebration at lunchtime we thank our teachers for all they do to prepare the next generation of learners and for sharing their talents with our school community school community today and every day and dr zurby would you please uh put the video up thank you so the video that you're going to see is going to go with this next story also earlier this month the district hosted a surprise awards ceremony to celebrate the nursing department on may 12th
027which was also school nurse day our school nurses are kelly benarek joni cosgriff annette kramer jody latonzi valerie lozniak kim mcdonald cheryl pifer mary thomas and kathy thompson our nurses were presented each of them with awards for excellence in nursing and certificates of appreciation for their extraordinary efforts during these extraordinary time mrs pifer the district's nursing services coordinator also received the leadership award for excellence in nursing members of the board of school directors dr zerby dr angstead and our methectomy school district principals were also in attendance for this event so thank you to our nurses again for all you do for our families and our students dr zurby you can take the video down now thank you um the new arrowhead element oh i'm not done guys but yes the new arrowhead elementary school is
028taking shape uh last week members of the board took a tour of the construction site for the new era school mrs drummond miss cancro mr navarette and miss perdue were in attendance along with dr zurby mr jones and representatives from kcba architects in federia the new arrowhead is being built on the campus of the current elementary school the new school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2022 for additional information and about the construction project and to learn about the progress go to methecton.org slash arrowhead construction also thanks to the generosity of our school community methectomy school district has received six thousand six hundred and eleven dollars and sixty-five cents through giant food stores feeding school kids initiative we hosted a check presentation with mr kevin walsh he's the store manager of the egypt
029road uh giant at woodland this afternoon students in woodland's fourth grade class read impact statements on the importance of nutrition on learning during the event the giant donation will help support our wonderful backpack program which is grown to provide students in needs with supplemental food and non-food items several people have been very instrumental in making the backpack program what it is today which success may include our board vice president miss drummond our interim high school principal dr gravinis and eagleville office assistant and volunteer mrs gabby winters so for some highlights from today's events just go to our website mathactin.org and finally i know you're loving all this great news uh skipec pharmacy is holding a vaccine clinic for those 12 and older at methecton high school tomorrow may 26th from 5 pm to 8 pm
030enter from the main gym near the fields those interested may make an appointment however walk-ins will be accepted additional information and a link to schedule an appointment is on the district's website thank you now we can clap well done ms kelly thank you can we just end the meeting here sorry no it's always nice to end with something happy and and on a high note but um we have work to do too superintendent's report dr zerby thank you madam president aside from the advisements that are listed for your information uh please know that due to an administrative area uh actually on my part uh we we missed the uh placement of the approval an action item for the full day kindergarten so i'd like to be able to put that on the agenda for the
031june uh voting meeting uh this coming month so with that said uh please anticipate that we will be able to answer questions at the work session in june if there are any that remain for the members of the board and then we will place on and be sure to place on the action item for the the june voting meeting for full day kindergarten that ends my report thank you dr zurby um before we get to public comment on board action items i did want to address one thing because it is relative to one of our action items um i know there has been a lot of questions about when we will be returning to in-person meetings so i just wanted to address that now um and say that we have a plan that we are
032ironing out all the details on but we will be returning to in-person board and committee meetings in july as of right now it looks like our committee meetings will be held at the lgi the large group instruction area in the high school and our board meetings will be held in the auditorium at arcola to allow for adequate social distancing we will be following the current guidance that's in place relative to mask usage as of right now in pennsylvania masks are still required in indoor spaces so that's what we'll be going with but we will make adjustments to our practices at the in-person meetings as things continue to change so as of right now july um full details will be on our website as they always are um but you know meetings the time will always
033be the same but the um location will now actually be a physical location not just a virtual one um and we will also continue to have the youtube stream for our board and work sessions um so in addition to having the um recordings of the board meetings available after the fact we will have a live stream of the board meetings during the meeting um so hopefully it's a good sign of things to come and return to more normalcy here so with that we will now move on to public comment on board action items so we will now take comment on matters that are to be decided upon as outlined on the agenda this evening again we remind you to keep your comments to four minutes or less um if you pre-registered to speak tonight go
034ahead and raise your hand and please introduce yourself with your name and municipality before you start speaking i'm not seeing any hands raised oh there we go okay i have brian earnshaw go ahead mr ernshaw whenever you're ready uh thank you uh brian shaw lower providence um my first two questions you answered about the full-day kindergarten vote and the resumption of in-person meetings um regarding the board meeting minutes um at the end of the minutes for the work session um under courtesy the floor it states that the last line mr mcginnis commented on virtual meeting increase in participation i think that portion of minutes should be revisited i don't think that fully reflects the comments made by mr mcginnis uh which included you know response to a member of the public which was i view
035as inappropriate including some use of very colorful language i think that should be reflected in the minutes um regarding the list of bills followed by questions i had asked at the finance committee meeting that had not been answered check number 199 736 is a payment for natural gas service and for this check number one nine nine seven seven five is a payment uh for natural gas as well exact same building the exact same time period one checks made out to exelon the others to pico just looking for confirmation possibly a duplicate payment um there was a payment to teletin for appraisal service which i understand was for shannon dell and i'd asked if anybody could provide the cumulative amount spent on the shannon dale tax appeal and litigation matter and that was not answered um
036let's see there was a payment to i think that was the answer okay and that was it on the list of bills uh regarding the keystone agreement um the copy of the minutes i downloaded showed say the agreement is extended through 2022 but the agreement says 2023. um i'd asked that the finance committee meeting and that went unanswered as well somebody could clarify that for me i'd appreciate it and um that was all i had on the action items thank you thank you mr earnshaw okay anyone else for public comment on board action items jessica bradberry whenever you're ready miss bradberry we can't hear you are you unmuted all right so i'm going to um [Music] whoops looks like you dropped from the meeting um but if you rejoin i will bring you back in
037for public comment um so then next i have chun ling ma whenever you're ready hello can you hear me yes i can hi chillin from our worst lester township uh just want to comment down a few things of the action items uh first one was the di program um i did some research on dr bruce campbell and i found out on internet um he is a social justice radical with a political agenda seeking to indoctrinate our kids with his personal ideology i just don't know pause you for a second there is there an action item for the gei uh i saw it on your agenda the dii yes there was a dei report but i don't know if there is a voting item relative to dei i mean you're welcome to make your comments at
038the end of the meeting during public comment but i i don't believe that there is anything that we are voting on this evening relative to dr campbell and dei okay all right i'll wait if i'm wrong it's possible that i am missing it but i i'm not seeing it so you're correct madam president okay all right okay i'll i'll just wait until the course of the floor um and and also like uh the policy uh is that also voting item i don't i have a comment on regarding the policy second reading yeah that that's a voting item that is a voting item okay all right so can i recount my my time like uh i won't i actually stopped the time while we were discussing this so you're okay all right thank you so um
039i saw uh the the performance for the policy second reading and there's a performance assessment of the superintendent and there are a bunch of scopes in terms like a pssa scores all that but i don't know if their criteria i posted like a like for each scope what uh level we should reach and then in order to uh like uh evaluate whether the superintendent is meeting the mark you know whether we should continue hiring him something like that i just don't see something with the number or data i only see the scope so it's wonderful can answer me this question and then we don't have anything on the curriculum right on for the voting item do we that's okay okay all right that's that's all i can say yes for now okay thanks okay thank
040you so much okay thank you okay let's try again for jessica bradbury hi can you hear me now yes i can all right excellent i switched to my phone sorry about that all right jessica bradbury lower providence township uh with regards to agenda item a i'm so happy to hear we're returning to in-person meetings and i'm hoping over the next couple of weeks could you possibly clarify a few items um does this mean that you that will have to be present in person in order to speak and will we be discontinuing that 5 p.m deadline in order uh where we have to register in order to speak um i know that we have technology that has enabled remote participation and in-person participation for our students so i'm hoping the board meetings will also enable remote
041participation as well with regards to 14f the health and safety plan update i think that's up for vote tonight and as i'm reading it it looks like we're intending the children to stay masked outdoors for the remainder of this year as well as throughout the summer for any summer programs they may be participating in effective friday may 14 2021 the montgomery county office of public health is no longer requiring masking and face covering while individuals are participating in a high exertion outdoor activity such as sports and exercising which i know was discussed last week for our older students i believe that our younger students should also be permitted to remove their masks while they're outside engaged in exercise like at recess or a gym class other public school districts have implemented this policy as well
042as local sports organizations as we all know the district took an extremely conservative approach with regards to returning our students to the classroom and once again we're watching our district take a slower following instead of leading position with regards to masking so i would implore you not to make the same mistake twice please reconsider and follow the montgomery county office of public health guidance to allow our children to remove their masks when they're playing outdoors as the heat continues to rise it still provides a choice for parents and children if they wish to continue to wear masks and choices and important freedom that we deserve thank you okay thank you and next i have kristen sherman whenever you're ready hi can you hear me yes i can hi thank you kristen sherman lower providence i
043just want to follow up with um what jessica bradberry talked about um i'm i'm concerned i have a daughter who's in fourth grade and it's going to be 90 degrees tomorrow and wearing a mask for fourth grader and younger outside in that heat is just not safe at least 10 other school districts have permitted children at in the elementary school their whole district these districts include curcumin valley springford north and colonial school district phoenixville school district radnor school district salarton lower moorland boyertown and potts grove all have allowed their children to remove their masks outside and during outdoor recess i'm sorry outdoor gym class and recess um i'm just curious as to why we aren't following the recommendations of the county which is was discussed or shared with just by jessica bradberry um why are
044we not following them now but we were in the past that doesn't make any sense to me um so i was just wondering if you could readdress that and maybe include kindergarten through 12 to remove their masks if they're outside for recess or doing class outside thank you next i have joe rittenhouse can you hear me yes i can hey joe rittenhouse slower providence i just very wanted to speak uh to the meeting back in person um i think it's awesome i'm so glad we're about it uh we're going back to it um i know that there was uh there was talk about how much it was a benefit to be virtual and i i completely agree when it comes to the the use of both youtube and zoom in relation to the in-person meetings
045and i'm i guess i'm offering more so than asking a question if i wanted to just make sure that like those who don't feel comfortable or those who want to participate virtually will they still have an avenue to ask questions i i know that uh youtube and zoom offer ways to um engage and like so if are we pre-registering for questions for people who want to speak virtually and then maybe we you know someone will read the questions uh our only question is going to be taken from people in attendance the meeting uh and i'm genuinely willing to help facilitate if this is a technological thing to help uh you know those parents or those families that don't feel comfortable coming back to an in-person meeting or just simply just don't want to to come
046back um to have them still be able to participate so i just hope the board will consider like hey we there there are a lot of options available at the moment to get uh to keep you know like uh those hundreds and hundreds of parents who are listening you know now or after the after this to be able to still engage um with the meeting in real time so yeah if if uh there's a solution to that i just we should be talking about that's all thank you thank you next i have lauren nelgen lauren nalgen worcester um i just wanted to i guess piggyback off of what some of our other speakers have mentioned about the masks i did email dr zurby and the board and i just first of all i wanted to
047acknowledge i appreciate the responses i did receive um you know i know the board is a volunteer position and honestly you know it is nice to be acknowledged whether or not it's the answer we want to hear or not i think it's important that if a parent takes the time to send an email receiving some type of acknowledgement is really appreciated and i think that um you know that should that should be mentioned but i guess my bigger concern when we look at the answers i received regarding the masks you know it mentions that we're following the county guidance and perhaps some districts are interpreting it differently than others um at this point there are plenty of districts they were listed uh also missing were you know and while it's not relevant to the public
048school system the archdiocese uh private schools et cetera they have also lifted it for outside and you know i think it's important to note that organizations are doing this all over the place i coach a t-ball team and we just had a game where our four to six-year-olds they can choose to wear a mask if they want and if they don't they stay six feet apart and it it's been working all season um as one of our callers mentions tonight it's going to be 90 degrees tomorrow i just don't see how any parent wants their child in a mask outside at this point when the county is allowing it to happen that they don't need to so considering we're considering doing this for the summer when there's going to be a significant less amount of
049children in the classroom which would allow for more distancing um you know i feel like we should really consider figuring out a way to make this work that the children who are able to remove their masks can do so safely and work out the kinks so that i mean no one's mentioned what's happening in the fall but if the fall is here and this is still happening county guidance says that we can take them off at recess and you know i was told the pandemic team decided this what are the metrics for us to remove it and be like the other school districts and i really just am asking you to consider that share that information with us so we know what we're looking at because when our neighboring school districts have their children on
050the playground unmasked it seems incredibly unfair thank you thank you uh next i have marissa rocco hi uh marissa rocco low providence um i share the same concerns i i feel like as as the caller ahead of me and a few others i feel like as a district we've talked so much about being inclusive yet we're being anything but inclusive we're including our athletes and their health at a critical time in the heat but we're not considering our youngest kids in the school i know woodland had field day last week two days in the heat and kids wearing masks i live across the street from arrowhead i'm gonna come home at lunch i see them outside masked up 90 degree days it's not i think we're prioritizing the wrong things and it makes me think
051back to when we approved sports for our students in person but yet our kids were home learning i feel like our priorities might be a little mixed up we shouldn't just be focused on the athletes not needing them during their activity but including everyone thank you thank you i have julie stern delphiner good evening everyone julie still julie sterndale finer from lower providence township um thank you for uh letting me speak this evening first i just want to thank the board for all of their hard work over the past year it's been a really tough year for everyone and uh your hard work has been noticed by many um i've been listening this evening about the question about masking outside and and this is obviously been a challenging time for everyone i think um you
052know having the board follow the department of health guidelines which have been changing and trying to accommodate those changes along the way has been you know a really thoughtful way of going through this process it has been difficult as it's been getting warmer outside but currently the department of health guidelines are for strenuous strenuous exercise um and you know of course one could debate the um definition of strenuous exercise in younger children versus older kids who are playing uh sports but you know clearly this is something that has been changing uh over time and i would caution the public to to not um necessarily think that whatever decisions are made today are not open for uh discussion and change over the summer and into next fall to be able to say that whatever decisions being
053made today is going to be what's going to be in place next fall i think is disingenuous i know that our board and our school health personnel and our administration always have the um utmost you know concern for the health and safety of our children and i appreciate that i also would like to say that i really appreciate my facton continuing to require masks indoors because the mask mandate continues for people indoors if you're unvaccinated and that is the obviously vast majority of our students um and i think that is a very critical thing that that we keep uh in place at the moment um as people become vaccinated that may change with time um but that's uh sort of a separate issue i do also want to say that while masking can be uncomfortable
054it is also not as dangerous as many have tried to say that it is at this time and i think it's a little disingenuous to say that you know there's no way to be outside on a hot day in a mask and have it not be you know detrimental to your health that is just not true thank you you dr stern delphiner um next i have john carr whenever you're ready yes can you hear me yes i can great john carr worcester township um yeah i was about to say i agree with everybody who just spoke the last three or four people but um this is obviously in regards to the masking we have we have four children and and two of them would have been at uh worcester this year we we decided to
055pull them out um so they didn't have to be subject to wearing masks and as i have watched every board meeting and um and my wife and i are trying to figure out the best route for our our family and our kids um this still hasn't went away obviously and um we're just trying to navigate through this but it seems like it is um to have young children um exerting their energy and wearing mass and then to talk to a school board member um a week ago or so that we're still looking at it into october i would ask that we look to fall in line with some of the other schools i i don't want to send my kids somewhere else i want to send them to our public school i was a former
056educator i believe in public school education i i'm all for it but uh the mask issue is is a big thing and with the positivity rate being so low right now i think that um it could be a safe return with uh unmasking through the summer especially with the heat with young kids but also two for next school year hopefully that some of those decisions get made sooner than later so that parents can make a decision uh you know where what direction they're gonna go with their kids so i'm in favor of uh unmasking the young kids for the summer school i hope that uh you guys take that into consideration thanks thank you and with that um we'll move on from public comment on board action items um so may i have a motion
057to approve the board uh suspension of board policy zero zero six point two with regard to limitation of school directors participating electronically well thank you miss hall is there a second winner thank you mr winners any comments from the board seeing none all those in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries nine zero uh may i have a mission to approve the work session meeting minutes from april 20th and the regular board meeting minutes from april 27th thank you mr mcginnis is there a second average thank you mr navarrette comments from the board ms hall um can i just ask our council um there were questions about the board meeting minutes on one of these um is what we have sufficient for the recording of the minutes it is there the the meeting minutes are
058not a transcript of the meeting so it's not necessary to capture every word that every single person says during a meeting um as well and really it's at the discretion of the board if you're satisfied that the minutes capture those items that were discussed and and accurately uh describe certainly any action that was taken at the meeting uh and and it's really my opinion that they meet that that standard thank you any other comments from the board okay all those in favor aye any opposed motion carries nine zero now two fiscal items mr bricker thank you madam president tonight for your approval we have the list of bills treasurer's report budgetary transfers the approval of the insurance carrier and the extension of the keystone agreement all right does anyone just and just as an advisement
059uh there was an error on the uh item 10e on the date i believe earlier today we recognized that it said 2022 rather than 2023 so i just want to make sure that from the work session everyone knows that that was changed today so 2023 is the correct date as it stands on the agenda that's correct thank you dr zurby does anyone want to take any of the fiscal items separately all right then i'll have a motion to approve all fiscal items as listed mr mcginnis and mr winters with the second any comments from the board mr winters yeah uh tim can you speak towards the natural gas service exelon and pico bills please i'll have to look at them but i don't think there's any double payment on those i'll research them by pulling
060the invoices tomorrow and at that same time the shenandoah cumulative expense most of the elements related to the legal expense uh assessments and assessment appraisals um i don't know the exact number but i can assure probably that 95 percent of that is associated with the shenandoah settlement or settlement that is a very fair estimate yeah obviously there would be appraisal costs prior to 1718 so it may not be including all the costs but it gives you a pretty good estimation and the the number i'm looking at it is 518 000 um is what's listed under appraisals and assessments agree with your numbers all right thank you mr winners and mr brecker any other comments seeing none all those in favor of these physical any items mission carries 9-0 moving on to personnel items dr sergini
061thank you madam president for your consideration this month we have the following personnel items two resignations professional three resignations classified in addition to to uh what i presented last week we had the addition of the retirement of ms joy withrow instructional assistant at arcola we thank joy for her 18 years of dedicated service to the students of mathacton and we wish her well in her retirement we have one employment administrator mr william branic for the position of director of technology one employment classified one change of status administrative and that is the appointment of dr jamie graveneys to the position of principal of methachton high school one change of status classified two uncompensated leaves professional including one edition from last week one uncompensated leave classified and a series of contracts with two editions from last week
062one is the uh appointment of miss tracy murray for bba crosswalk developer as we move forward with planning for grade 7 to 12 curricular alignment with our virtual offerings and this week i'm pleased to recommend to you mr lou orth as the recommended candidate for the position of the thacton high school varsity football coach as with our other interview processes the interview process for varsity football coach included multiple rounds and representatives from a multitude of methachton stakeholder groups including student athletes and parents mr ortho recommended candidate has been coaching football at a high level since when he started his career as an assistant football coach at weidner university he then became an assistant coach at nearby or sinus college and then later at cheyney university western connecticut university delaware valley college fairley dickinson university and
063texas lutheran university in 2016 coach orth took over as the head football coach at valley forge military college where he coached until the college disbanded their athletic programs in 2019. coach orth served as an assistant football coach for the methectomy warriors in during the 2020 season and we look forward to his many years of leadership with the warrior football program we also have one classified substitute and the attached list of volunteers including several recent math acting graduates that concludes my report thank you dr sergini does anyone want to take any of these personal items separately all right so may i have a motion to approve all the personnel items as listed reese thank you miss reese is there a second winner thank you mr winners any comments from the board on any of these personnel
064items mr mcguinness uh dr tortini in regards to coach worth um i saw that he's also the head coach of a of a postgraduate program i'm assuming that won't interfere or that's a current job that he's going to leave there's no conflict there no conflict we have done our due diligence in ensuring that okay and the other question i would have is um and again i'm a football guy so i am biased um we seem to fill the head football coach position very quickly do we have any other head coaching positions open in fall right now not to my knowledge no we are we're filling the uh girls varsity swimming position for winter and then also the varsity football position thank you mr winners yeah uh three three quick things uh one i see congratulations
065to miss davis for moving on uh but i assume there's going to be discussion on right to know support at some point um be interested to see where that lands i also uh miss goodrich also pointed out that the uh the class sponsors did a fantastic job but i think it's really important when we have these supplemental contracts not sure it's actually a supplemental contract or uh it's part of the point system but the class sponsors for the senior class uh mrs eldafar and miss fabrizio i don't know if i mispronounced your names i apologize um did a fantastic job and well above and beyond uh to make the senior event this past friday uh i think we need to point out the money well spent in having those senior advisors i do want to
066speak to dr gravinis for the appointment i think uh it's a fantastic choice um she's already shown how respectful she is to the students in the staff and as a caring and nurturing environment um she has fantastic communication skills as we've seen already in the last three or four months and i think she's really i think it's really important to point out that as a as lifelong learners uh she was put in i believe this special education position and was sort of thrown into the deep end in an area that she didn't necessarily feel uh that she never had the experience and succeeded in that area and has developed the confidence uh to take on the high school principal position so i think it's really shows it's a great example for all our students of
067uh taking chances and really showing the progression that they can i think it's an outstanding choice for the facton i just want to piggyback on the end of that um dr gravinis was the first administrator at the high school that i had the pleasure of meeting um several years ago when my oldest child started at the high school and um any of my my fears and and concerns that i had about my baby starting high school were immediately gone once i met her she is an outstanding administrator and educator and i'm very pleased to have her as part of our district and have her taking this role at the high school anyone who is willing to step up and lead a high school in the middle of a global pandemic um must truly love what
068they do um and and she has shown that she is more than fit for the task so i i'm glad that we have dr gravinis um do we have any other it's just mr mcginnis i'm sorry i i neglected uh i want to follow up with mr winters that regarding the uh senior event on friday uh all seven of the kids that i dropped off and who had to come back to our house to get their cars were raving about it and it was a first-class event um and dr zucchini doctors derby um dr spiwak please pass that along to everyone who was on the organizing committee as a parent of a senior and to see the seven seniors actually act and look like seniors in high school it was refreshing and all of your
069work was worth it thank you very much thank you mr mcginnis we certainly will pass that along mr navarrete yeah i just want to add i had the pleasure of sitting in on the interviews uh for the high school principals and i will say that dr graveny's shown brighter that i've seen her shine yet so i look forward to seeing what she does at our high school she is certainly the right person at the right time uh for the needs of our students coming back to school in the fall out of this pandemic um she is a uh she is a shining star from the facton and it's great to see us uh promoting from within um oh go ahead hey let's get her approved okay let's do it we're getting there all right we're
070gonna give me a chance i do also want to recognize gail brown gayle has taught with my wife at second grade in eagleville for a lot of years i've known gail uh for a tremendous amount of time she is a tremendous teacher tremendous asset the fact that she's stuck it out uh for this year along with quite frankly everyone else on this list that probably could have retired at the end of last year and stuck it out through what was probably the most difficult year of their entire career says something about the character of these individuals so certainly there's a lot of big shoes to fill uh throughout this district but uh second grade of eagleville will be a a little bit emptier and i know dr zurby wants us to hurry up and approve
071dr uh gravity's but i i already spoke last week so i'm not going to repeat myself but in between last week and this week i just want to uh tell dr gravinis to keep up that whole child approach because somebody told me a story this week when they heard you were up for principal and i'm not going to name names uh but it was a ballerina and dr graveny says an assistant principal was one of the first people to say to her what do you want to do young lady and that young lady said i want to be a ballerina and dr graveny said well we need to change up this schedule and what you're doing here at our high school because you know you want to be a ballerina and anyway that uh young
072woman is a working ballerina and uh dr gravinis was part of that so i know she'll continue that whole child approach all right let's get her approved come on i don't know if i have enough tickets to get through this meeting you give me the accolades after i want to bring her on i want you to approve bring her on and get rock and roll let's do this is there anything else for personnel all right so all those in favor of the personnel items is listed including dr gravinies any opposed the motion carries nine all right dr gravines you want to join us turn on your camera all right there she is congratulations thanks so much everyone it's a love fest here i'm getting i'm getting a little choked up at this thank you so
073much for the kind words i'm i'm so excited about this this is going to be an amazing experience it's been a kind of full circle moment um from starting with student teaching and then kind of making my way i i know myth acted inside and out and i can't wait to continue to make it an amazing amazing place and i hope to make you all very proud um one just small thing i think one group that we forgot to thank in the senior event was the prom because those um those volunteers worked so hard with heidi alderfer and gina fabrizio who literally walk on water at this point with what they were able to pull off but i just want to thank them because we wouldn't have been able to set up without all the
074parent volunteers and all the post prompts help and we wouldn't have been able to organize it and we wouldn't have been able to do it without them and it's that amazing partnership that we are just so thankful to have and we look forward to continuing to put on some amazing events for all the kids she'll do great things for us thanks jamie and um i just want to say the same way that i received tests when parents found out that um mr sorgini was leaving the high school um and there were a lot of upset parents i do want to say that there are many happy parents that are looking forward to having you dr graven is joining the high school well officially as the high school principal so we're looking forward to when i
075was part of the um the interview panel and i'm looking forward to all the things that you have mapped out for the high school when we come back in the fall so thank you and thank you jason also thank you so much all right again can we just end here sorry okay moving on thank you dr graveneys have a wonderful evening good night everyone thank you so much so we don't have anything curriculu for curriculum and programs this evening under policy we have 10 policies up for a first read and six for a second read which means those six are up for approval this evening can i have a motion to approve the six policies up for second read as posted i do thanks miss purdue is there a second oh thank you miss hull
076any comments from the board on these policies um just that we are voting on the first and not the second and i just wanted to let the the woman know who asked about the performance assessment of the superintendent that um we uh we will answer her questions um you know we're gonna vote on it next month so um i don't have the policy open in front of me but i'm sure that somebody will answer those questions i as far as uh what exactly that policy reads i think you're i think you got to crisscross andrea a little bit oh i apologize yeah we are we're voting on the second grade policy you're right sorry you know my policy i apologize um it's been a little while for policy yeah well and i was on the
077policy committee before property of course second reading means we vote on it i apologize thank you for correcting me so i don't know if uh miss hull or mr or dr zerby wants to answer that or if we could pull it up um i know personally that we don't ask for certain numbers for a pssa for the superintendent what i mean by that is we don't get asked for a certain number because that would not be correct because if we do that then that's all our school district would do would be to um uh you know focus on a pssa which is not what us education should be but i'm not sure if her that answers her question there is no number that has to be reached for dr zerby or excuse me for dr
078regina to perform the way that i took the question was that um she was looking for more specific information in the um the measures that are put out in that uh policy uh there are eight different uh objective performance standards that are listed and i think in general in policy we try to keep things as broad um so that we can work within that framework um kim did you want to add anything on this oh no you you are the policy group yeah so in addition to that the board then sets uh goals and within those goals there there are objectives uh to to reach so according to those eight areas and and the goals are set uh by the board for the given year uh then the the performance evaluation is then posted uh
079in summary fashion on the uh district website as per law and and to be more semantical a little bit is the it does say the objective performance standards may be based on upon all or all or all upon any or all of the following so i know in my six years now five whatever five and a half uh we have not i have not uh been a part of the group that's put goals associated with a specific uh performance in keystone exams or pssas or or pvas uh for that matter often the goals are around uh operational um and educational changes so and i just pulled that up and it looks like that citation is referencing school code so all of those items are directly pulled from from law and thank you and i apologize
080i i um knew that this was there because we didn't have an assistant superintendent before so i knew they were relative to what we do for the superintendent so i apologize for my confusion no worries it's been a long year other comments on board policies seeing none all those in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries nine zero other dr zerby yes under other we have no gifts and donations we have trips approved the trip from the factory high school cheerleading team to participate in varsity spirit cheer camp and homesdale pa august 19th through the 22nd no cost to the district election of board treasurer and board secretary as listed the employment contracts as as presented at the work session by uh mr bricker and uh mr regina uh are listed there for both or
081for all for all three groups the collective bargaining agreement between the school district and the teamsters the benefit and compensation plan for confidential and exempt employees and the benefit and compensation plan for the act 93 employees and then the last item uh is the health and safety plan update while it's rather extensive um it does address uh what we're doing uh for the the summer uh and uh moving forward i do want to make some clarification and i said this back in i believe either april or march we did approve a modification to the health and safety plan for the st for next school year as part of our process for allowing parents the most up-to-date information at the time when they make their selections here in the first week of june for coming in
082person or choosing an alternative option for online learning it was at that time and i i believe this will occur that in july we'll be making our final modification uh recommendations to the board for their consideration uh likely that will include matters associated with masks it'll include matters associated with distancing the two most prevalent matters that challenge our operation or challenge uh the the uh interest of uh students and staff from uh working and or attending in-person instruction with that said uh we will we will review in early july with the pandemic team get advice from the montgomery county department of health and have a recommendation in july for the board's consideration if there are any other questions on that particular matter for for the from the board members that i might be able to
083answer i'd be glad to do so and that takes care of item number 14. let's wait until we have a motion before we start taking questions um so what i'm going to do then is i'm going to ask for a motion for items 14 uh b c d and e we'll take the health and safety plan separate so miss reese with the motion thank you in a second thank you mr neverett any comments from the board on those items okay um thank you to all those who participated in the collective bargaining agreements and negotiating the benefit and compensation plans it's much appreciated so with that i will take a vote then all those in favor aye any opposed motion carries nine zero um so now i will take a motion to approve the health and
084safety plan update as posted reese thank you miss reece in a second thank you mr winners uh comments from the board ms reese um first dr zerby thank you for clarifying about the summer that there's one more opportunity to to look at this um and second i wanted to ask you um about recess um because i believe um being a third grade teacher the the issue with recess is that there's like 100 kids out there at a time so i believe miss uh that the principals have put a plan in place where children can take mass breaks during recess i just wanted to clarify that that's correct is it that that is correct in fact as part of this as part of our process here going into the summer into the warmer months we've increased
085uh the locations and the frequency for mass breaks at recess again the reason for maintaining mass is to maintain the routine and the consistency uh within this process uh for approximately i believe it might be eight more school days and that's that's really kind of uh the uh the impetus of of the matter as described by the the elementary principles they felt it would best for the operation of the schools the uh and for the teachers and for the consistency and thank you and i i just i i do understand parents concerns and i understand you know parents concerns about the heat um you know i just it's not about me at all um because i do not have any children that are at recess or in full transparency but you know my family had
086not had to quarantine this whole time um we were very lucky and luck is all all it was um but we recently did have a quarantine and um i would just hate for any of those little guys to have to quarantine and miss any end of the year fun activities um so you know i do understand parents concerns and i hope that they will reiterate to their children that for the next eight or so recesses to please take that mask break and that water break and that they feel that they need and um we will definitely uh look towards the summer for for the guidance um and uh um thank you for all of your all the parents patience and uh um that's it dr zerby i had a question um our summer programs when
087will they be starting dr walsh i'm going to i think they start in july but i i don't know the first week of july through uh some run actually the first week of august most will be ending the end of july okay and is there um an outdoor play component to summer programs is there recess and things like that yes there's a time for them to take a break um the groups obviously will be a lot smaller so it'll be a lot more space for them to take their breaks um during some of our our programs that we're offering this summer okay so let's just make clarification uh we have breaks for them but it's not technically recess is that is that correct that's correct yeah just like a stretch break get fresh air um
088some of our programs require them to actually go outside and be introduced to the equipment um at kindergarten we're offering later in the summer okay but there won't be not recess okay um okay that that helps so what we're looking at then is just getting through these last few days of the school year um and i miss reece i appreciate um you sharing your your personal experience there and that you know wait it's a fair point that um a quarantine at this point in the the school year would just be um it would be hard um i i feel for for people um is there anyone else that has any comments or questions on this item seeing none all those in favor any opposed okay the motion carries nine zero um moving on we have
089our dates for board members calendars which all of our remaining virtual meetings um next month we'll be looking at dates for in-person meetings there um do we have anything for old business um just wanted to make note um dr zurby thank you for letting us know why full day kindergarten was not on the agenda tonight i appreciate that mistakes happen i did notice you know the new board agenda is a little wonky um excuse the term wonky i don't i don't know the official term for that but um i hope that it become i don't know if it's glitches in the new update or or what but i i did see that it's you know it has a little i i know people don't like change but i did notice there's some issues there so
090if we have to get the board agenda reps out or reconsider board agenda maybe that's something we need to do mr winners yeah the one item that we haven't talked about for a long time and i realized that there's been a lot going on and the full day kindergarten probably is a domino the decision on full day can narrate as a domino but i do want to reopen the discussion related to the use of audubon and what we're going to do with that uh so hopefully and then we can put that in the summer agenda please yes we should have some updates on that um in the months ahead anything else for old business uh new business mr navrat yeah just just to address paul's comment um yeah paul um we did have a meeting
091with lower providence again um about revisiting uh the idea of a community center there um kind of post-covered and what it would take for them to raise money so hopefully uh we'll be working through those issues and have more to say as kim said in the next couple of months here anything else for new business mr mcginnis uh dr derby and you can put dr graven east on this on our first full day of the senior high uh having seven seniors at your uh your house on friday uh the chatter around the and i'm probably not calling it the right thing the senior clap out where they visit their elementary schools um was shockingly important to them so if there's any way we can find a line of best fit maybe that's something we can
092try and do i know that there was discussions on that matter i don't know where it currently stands but we'll we'll get that uh looked into and report back to the board thank you um sorry real quick just on a personal note which i try not to do i am not going to attend graduation this year which was a hard decision for me it's such an honor as a school board member so just a quick shout out to all the seniors um because i chose to stay with my students because june and substitutes is difficult so um i just wanted to say a quick shout out to all the seniors and best luck to all of you and thank you for your resilience and your patience and i think this class will be phenomenal in
093the future and i feel good with you guys if you can get through this year and last year um that uh so it's it's i really wish i could hand some of you your diplomas but anyway good luck thank you and to the seniors thank you miss reece uh anything else for new business i did want to mention one thing um that we had talked about um just between dr zurby and ms drummond and i um we had looked into at miss drummond's um suggestion the possibility of continuing to offer um our free meals to students at lunch um in the the next school year and it at first glance seemed like it wasn't going to be fiscally possible but um due to miss strumming's persistence that we we take a closer look at the
094numbers it did turn out to be something that we can um not only is it a much more manageable amount but it's an amount that's covered by um i believe there's a federal program that is covering it i don't remember the exact details but i just wanted to acknowledge that you know i know that next year is going to have its own challenges as kids are coming back into the building some of them for the first time in a year and a half um and many families are still feeling the effects of the pandemic so i just wanted to say that um you know we will be continuing to offer free lunches and i appreciate miss german's persistence in making that happen here's a quick question and miss film i don't know if you know
095do you know if we will continue the backpack program through the summer also the backpack program will not continue through the summer we have two more distributions one is tomorrow morning and one is two weeks later where we're also going to hand out pantry staples but what we're going to do in preparation to have the the distribution points be at the local school level instead of one distribution point at the high school we are going to work on replenishing our stock over the summer so um if anyone is following the methachton backpack program on facebook um you're you're welcome to do that it's atmos actin backpack um and we are going to put out our needs list out our needs like at the end of july august so we can get ready for the next
096school year so the plan is to the distribution points will be at each each school um so that's that's how we're going to do it thank you thank you all right oh mr neverett yeah i just i don't want to turn this into a dr graveny style love fest here but honestly liz thanks for all you've done over the last year um i don't know that there is anybody that has done as much in our school district to keep our families fed as you have so thank you for those efforts i know the time that you have spent uh committed to this during the day on the weekends um it is appreciated by everyone and you deserve to be recognized for it so thank you well now thank you you're very welcome it was it's
097it's been a pleasure and and working with dr gravinis on on the backpack program and with gabby winters has been has been a real pleasure and we're a great team all right so we are going to end our part of the meeting on a high note look at that um with that then i will move on to courtesy of the floor so this is an opportunity for members of the public wanting to make comments um we ask that you pre-register by five o'clock today um again please keep your comments limited to um four minutes and if you could introduce yourself with your name and municipality um okay first i have mark bradbury you are in whenever you're ready looks like you're still muted i'm sorry i apologize can you hear me now yes i can
098all right good evening mark bradbury lower providence township i've been a silent observer from the methactin community and i stepped out of my comfort zone tonight to voice my disappointment the past several months have been extremely disappointing to me in regards to several school board topics i want to emphasize that i'm not mad however i am disappointed there's a vast difference between being mad and being disappointed when a community member says that any elect to any elected official that i am not mad at you i'm disappointed in you that phrase should be alarming that phrase should mean something it should strike a nerve the reason why i'm so disappointed result revolves around mr mcginnis's comments during the working session meeting on 4 20 21 mr mcginnis's inappropriate and disparaging comments served no purpose in a
099public forum in fact mr mcginnis's comments serve no purpose whatsoever i invite the public to view what exactly i am talking about on youtube the myth acting working session meeting held on 4 20 21. please watch around the 2 hour 21 minute 50 second mark it is at this point where mr mcginnis curses at a member of the community i registered to speak at the april regular board meeting however i later found out that my registration was never recorded or accepted and that i was not allowed to speak at that meeting this is why i'm speaking about this issue a month late miss aubry los angeles what is your stance as school board president in regards to mr mcginnis's cursing and a member of the mafacting community i would welcome and appreciate any response after
100mcginnis comments last month at the working session i know for a fact that many members of our community also feel disappointed and disrespected is this how nefactant is to be led where is the response or admonishment from the school board is this how the community is this how community leaders behave mr mcginnis cursing at a citizen taxpayer mother of the matthackton community is beyond unacceptable i've sent two emails in regards to mr mcginnis's comments to both dr zerby and mr mcginnis that one unanswered i would like to remind the community who are listening that mr mcginnis said in the 4 20 21 working session meeting and i quote mr mcginnis to say that we are hiding is nonsense i still have not received a response from mr mcginnis from the two emails i sent on
101wednesday 4 22 21 and saturday 4 24 21 not answering two emails is the definition of hiding mr mcginnis all i wanted was a response i never asked for an apology you have failed to respond to me on two occasions in my humble opinion you appear to be hiding and avoiding responding to me mr mcginnis have you seen or read my email i sent it twice respond to me i would greatly appreciate your response again i am not mad i am disappointed school board members are elected by members of this district to be leaders in our community and advocates for our children i appreciate your time thank you good night okay next i have a person whose name is not appearing and it says call in user one um i'm not sure how to go
102about identifying that person so i'm going to let them in but um i just need you to please identify yourself so that i know if you're on our list of pre-registered speakers go ahead okay i'm gonna put you back into the main room um and if you want to try again um please raise your hand uh so next i have joe rittenhouse hi there am i heard yes you are perfect all right thank you so i'm going to speak very specifically about one topic it's proposed changes to right to no requests that the district is looking to pursue uh last week in the working session there was a presentation that showed an exponential rise in the costs related to the legal fees associated with right to know requests i thought it was very jarring however
103i believe that the more jarring thing was the response the district chose to do which was publishing the names and the types of requests requested from people coming to the district there are two ways to incentivize behavior there is reward and there is punishment and i do not believe the concept of publishing requesters names certainly does not fall within the category of incentives uh so obviously this is a punishment uh to be as blunt as possible i truly believe this is a terrible policy that will have the opposite effect of what is intended publishing the names of people requesting right to know requests will not target the problem at the slightest honestly and truthfully i believe it is unethical and a massive form of bullying directed at students parents alumni uh grandmoms grandmom grandpas mom
104moms pop-ups anyone who wishes to have a change in their district and get information this will not affect companies or individuals who abuse the right to know requests this will target normal methacan families who are being fee are fearful of being doxed and offensive effectively end how right to know is used in the district there was a poll uh done in 2020 that said 65 of americans are genuinely scared of voicing their opinions publicly for fear of how their neighbors will react the group that was most comfortable speaking publicly was actually elected officials uh so i don't actually believe this comes from a place of malice from the district but i believe it comes from a blind spot that i think needs to be addressed uh anecdotally uh last month i i believe people are
105aware i spoke in opposition to an openly partisan textbook passed by the district i spoke because i believed it was important since then apparently one listener of the call proceeded to contact my employer and attempt to get me fired calling me a racist calling me a nazi another person uh filed a false dcm a uh takedown claim against some of my online content affecting my income uh this doesn't scare me because this is fairly new this is fairly common at this point but i want to emphasize that this proposed change to published names will not affect the root of the pop problem in fact i believe it will make a financial incentive for those who do file lots of right to know requests to continue to do so acting as a proxy for those that
106are too terrified to speak their mind because they don't want their names published i know that there's an organization based in philadelphia called fire that is the foundation for individual rights and education that has become increasingly interested in k-12 public education and its transparency and they would absolutely take this up i cannot speak to legality i can only speak the morality and and that is what i believe is the heart of this change i do not believe that this is the best uh interest of our district that single one layer of anonymity is the best defense against people feeling that they can speak their mind there are many many ways to fix this and i i believe it starts at home i have a ton of list of solutions i'd be willing to share i
107don't know if i have the time but um i really really hope that the board will consider not pursuing this line of inquiry into publishing the names and doxing individuals who seek the use right to know to get information from the district thank you thank you i'm going to try again for this call-in user one so you are in if you could just identify yourself please all right unfortunately it does not appear that that's working so if you um would like you can please email us with your concerns um and and i'll respond to acknowledge receipt next i have marissa rocco thank you marissa rocco lower providence i have a couple of comments i want to make tonight and i will follow up with an email because i want to make sure i have this
108information correct but when i was looking at the enrollment and report from august 2021 well i guess the beginning of the school year i saw 4707 and at present or may i see 45.99 do we know what happened to those 108 students and and maybe i could have those numbers wrong but if that was 108 that we lost through this school year i would love to know some reasons to why i for one withdrew my son and was never asked for a reason of why simply was just sign the form and that was it when i've now sent my daughter's release for transcript form there's never any question to why so in the eighth grade class for example i'm seeing rough numbers of 377 eighth grade i would love to have the numbers published of
109how many actually then attend methachton high school now i know you'll gain some from the catholic schools that will come into the high school but i first i know firsthand there's approximately 20 plus students leaving myth acton to go to private schools next year so i'm just wondering if if we're at all concerned with that i know percentage-wise it's not a high percentage but it's a good chunk and maybe that's the norm maybe you lose that every year eighth grade to ninth grade but i just wanted to raise that concern um brian earnshaw at i think it was during the last work session meeting said regarding the right to know requests that perhaps he was one that said he did need to file one but perhaps he wouldn't have if he received follow-up and and
110received emails back regarding his concerns and i think that that's one place this board is lacking i for one have received emails back from every board member except paul winters and drew mcginnis and i have actually asked drew mcginnis pointed for information and have never received a reply that leads me to my next comment not only has drew mcginnis used colorful language and cursed at members of the community his condescending tone with his correspondence with dr zurby at last last um the last work session meeting around right to know was extremely offensive it it was jovial in a way and and he was trying to prove the point that what did we uncover with these right-to-know requests the condescending tone from him has to stop i know he's not up for re-election but this is
111now the third time because at the beginning of the school year over the summer he made comments about not wanting to hire young teachers into the district when we needed teachers and i emailed him about that and never received a reply i just want to be clear without with the community that i hope you're listening to these board meetings so we can make some changes moving forward my last comment is around foreign language i have an eighth grader who has foreign language every other year i mean every other day she will repeat language next year at her private school but if you're going into my facton and you're going into foreign language too you're required to complete summer work to be ready for for foreign language next year i i'm still not understanding why we're
112putting this on the kids to be self-teaching over the summer to have them prepared for foreign language too i hope they have the choice to repeat foreign language because they don't feel every other day and most of it being virtual for them is enough for them to start second year language there's children being placed in honors foreign language that are not ready they might have a 98 or 99 as my daughter does she said there is no way she'd be ready for a second year of language so i really hope that everyone's looking at that every other day foreign language thank you thank you all right we're going to try one last time for this call-in user okay you're in am i am i unmuted hi can you hear me yes i can hear you
113can you just enter um say your name sure of course clifton uh barber or providence thank you yeah um you know i was taking a look at the uh the safety department page today on the um the fact and website uh specifically with regards to uh drills um active shooter intruder uh it made me very happy to see that the community was working with local law enforcement uh in conjunction and in concert with those drills i think that's very important uh my question is and this is kind of i guess more in the spirit of transparency and efficiency uh i think would be helpful for dr zerby and the dei committee to maybe voice their anti-police opinions and partisan rhetoric uh face to face with our local law enforcement um i think it's very easy
114to put that up on the website with such partisan uh links sent to families to talk to their children to places like the adl to places like the southern poverty law center none of which backed the blue all of which said that the police are systemically racist and taking shots at young black men because of their racism which everyone knows is demonstrably untrue now if there is an active shooter in the school god forbid i think everyone in the community would certainly not want that police officer to hesitate but fear for the color of the active suitor's skin and the position our superintendent and these radical leftist dei hustlers and the game they're playing on you now anyone who's curious about right to know requests and being doxed and not being anonymous i would suggest
115they look into freedom of information act requests that organizations like parents defending education no left turn and others on a more national scale as well as the national media would be more than happy to file on your behalf without your name with regards to kids in masks and the very hot heat i would ask all the grown-ups in the room who support it to go outside and play a game of tag or kickball wearing a cloth mask next time it's 95 degrees now in the spirit of not using up all of my white privilege in my time i'd like to give the rest of my time back to mrs chung uh who seemed like she had some very interesting things to say about dr bruce campbell that a lot of parents in the community are
116concerned about thank you next i have john carr john carr worcester um i just want to bring uh something to light that came across my plate it was a video from the intermediate school and i'm going to quote this it's uncomfortable leaving saying it but i guess it was a morning announcement and it was a queer fact of the week and i'm not sure um i would i would be very interested to to know if if this is known if this was approved by dr zerby the school board um do you know this is happening um you know as a as a christian family again my children i want to get them back into my thacton school district this is very concerning for me uh at this time um i understand and i and i
117believe that there is a a group for for students and and a club and different things like that and i'm all supportive that um i even reach out to my my former principal up north to see if i'm missing something i've been out of out of the the teaching realm for several years now but um it seemed to catch him off guard too and uh like mark bradberry said i've been a very silent observer uh haven't haven't called in ever uh didn't really want to but this is this is something that we feel very strong about and i'd like to get some answers on um kind of where and what direction mcfacton is going as a district as the board decides dr zerby and and even the teachers if you guys i just want to
118make you aware that something like this is going on not that i'm i don't want to i don't want to be labeled that i'm against something like that but i think in the realm of a morning announcement to all students i think it's uh some some harsher language and i'm not sure if it's known that that's going on um so that that's about it thank you for your time next i have channeling ma whenever you're ready hello yeah can you hear me yes uh where's the township um i just have a couple of things to touch upon first is the dei program um i did some research for dr bruce campbell on the internet i think everybody else probably can do the same thing i found him as a social justice radical was a political
119agenda seeking to indoctrinate our kids with his personal ideology i just don't know if our board or the administration when we um hired him or approved the um the di program did the same bike on background research or not uh for example if you look at his facebook page uh there's one called dust and plus dignity it's a podcast there's also a podcast the same name if you look at his uh video on may 28 2020 and there is uh a song uh video and there are a lot of people protesting for social justice and then some and you can literally see it he has anti-police undertone there for example there is a person having the slogan saying us please begin as a slave patrol what does that mean doesn't mean u.s police still doing
120slave patrols whoever they want to um capture must be like a black slave or something you can just tell by watching that video another thing is he he he was a contributor of a book called how we fight white supremacy i just wonder if our board and administration think mustactin has a problem in our district with white supremacy i i i think what i can tell here hiring him to do our dei program is to divide us more than to unite us i think mustactin should be united not like the rest of the country is doing and our main focus should be focus on education how to improve our education another thing about it yeah is the transparency first i had the questions about the community's uh selection and i think most people were selected
121uh just by by the likings of the maybe the the dei um was her name uh dr darby uh to her own personal liking likings that and all the criteria i checked it was quite subjective you can say if you don't like someone you can just say you don't qualify for those standards and it ended up most of them are their friends going to the committees and they are mostly democrat credits and i don't think school school board or any school community or program should be political and if you want to have a more objective view trouble to select people from both parties into the committees and also the meetings that are private uh they don't allow public to join and i don't know if they're going to publish uh the meeting to the public
122just like the in the youtube it's just quite uh under the under under the table everything and i also had a question regarding the survey uh if you you guys talk about like mr mcgillis uh had a colorful language then you should look at the survey with all the section oriented orientation described and i you know had to look up in my dictionary what does mean and you ask us how old like a 8th grade 7th grader to fill out fill out that survey it's just really disturbing to me and next i want to touch on the about the critical race theory and how do the board administration feel about it do do you advocate equality or equity equality means equal opportunity for everyone equal equity means equal outcome no matter how hard you work
123or no matter how talented you are in this area you get an equal result um last i probably i have other things to cover but just i run in at the time i just covered my request i i i call it mr bradbury and mr ernst uh mr earnshaw uh they're they're concerned about uh mr miguel's profanity in the april 20 meeting and i think as a school board director he should apologize just be a man do the right thing thank you next i have julie stern delfino hi everyone thank you very much this is julie stern delphiner from lower providence um just a couple of things uh in general the first is that i really commend the school district for working with skip back pharmacy to have a vaccine clinic on site for tomorrow
124afternoon from five to eight o'clock this is open to the public for anybody age 12 and older and i really encourage families to take advantage of this great opportunity i have volunteered with skip back pharmacy several times in their vaccine clinics that have been at north penn high school they're well organized they're well run and they're very safe the vaccine is very safe for everyone over age 12. if you are looking for good information about the vaccine and i totally understand that there are very legitimate questions about why we should be vaccinated who should be vaccinated at the risk of the vaccine and everything else there are some really excellent resources available at children's hospital of philadelphia if you go to chop.edu the vaccine page is incredibly well researched and and speaks to a lot
125of questions that people in the public have so i do encourage um as many people to get vaccinated as possible it is really um the best way that we have of combating this uh this illness in addition to masking and social distancing um i also uh just i know that we didn't vote on um full day kindergarten uh today but did want to um just give my full support for this uh when my son is going to be a sophomore next year when he was entering kindergarten we were talking about maybe possibly having full day kindergarten that was 11 12 13 years ago it's time to have full day kindergarten we are losing people who have decided not to move into our school district because we do not offer full day kindergarten and the program
126that's being proposed as a play-based program is well thought out it's educationally sound our students are ready for it our families are ready for it our teachers are ready for it and i i really commend the district for uh working so hard to make this a reality so thank you thank you dr stern delphiner uh next i have lauren nelgen lauren nelgen worcester i just wanted to follow up with my comment earlier regarding the masks i was just wondering if you can share you keep referencing the pandemic team and i just wasn't clear who that was i think during the pandemic you know it's been clear that you know we've had certain certain metrics we have to hit right our governor has shared once x percent is vaccinated these etc so with the confusion of
127some school districts following the guide if people so choose uh during certain times and we are choosing to not follow that guidance what are the metrics for us to follow that guidance moving forward um are we waiting for montgomery county to put out a statement regarding a specific data point and just unclear who is making that decision and how it's being made based on the science um i think i'm and i'm speaking for the teachers and i can't you know certainly do that but just to guess i have five children and i know when they come home from school and they mention recess there's a lot that happens in that recess yard i mean i think my kids have participated in more football games at recess than they have at home and they have come
128home very sweaty i have two children with asthma i did share with the board that one of my children did collapse in a mask we now have since obtained a mask exemption for him um he has asthma but you know there's a lot of people that don't have that opportunity and i think to just dismiss the fact that it is hot um and there's x amount of days left it's really not the point the point was that the guidance was put out there and you know just moving forward since it's already been voted on please inform the public what are the metrics for us to make the change like the surrounding school districts have done i think that that would be fair to share with the public so that like another caller said we can
129make decisions for our children this has been a very difficult year and no one is is arguing that point but as we plan for the fall you cut out yeah the last we heard was as you planned for the fall i'm sorry miss nelson and she will have been at the playground with them that you can provide to the public would be really helpful thank you i'm sorry miss nelgen can you repeat the last part of what you said you cut out when you said after the fall my phone's cutting out um i guess i don't know where i cut out so i'm just going to say i have an incoming kindergartner i don't know if you heard that part um i have an incoming kindergartner that will be attending the summer program which i'm
130excited about i want her to to see the building and i'm thrilled that's going to be an option for her um but i think that you know we just need to know what that updated guidance is going to look like for the masks and like i said just the the decisions you know how they're being made um because i know you know as we're watching the governors and them they're sharing that information of what you know we need to obtain i mean governor wolf tweets it out every week what percentage we are of that 70 percent vaccinated there's a lot of people who are watching those numbers so what in methactin has to occur for us to follow the guidance of the other school districts thank you thank you for bearing with us and repeating
131that last part i appreciate it next i have kristin sherman hi kristen sherman lore providence i just want to follow up um regarding the mast um just again who's on the pandemic committee again if we could get more information on that that would be awesome um i'm also confused too if positive positivity rate in montgomery county as a whole is three percent i still don't understand why we need to wear masks outside especially if there were recommendations or guidelines saying that you don't have to um a mayo clinic and low-risk activities which are safe to perform outside which incur little spread include walking running rock climbing and fitness classes all of which elementary students do on a daily basis outside my children attend arrowhead oh my daughter attends arrowhead and she i asked her several
132times this evening is there a mask break outside at recess and she every single time said no absolutely not um so i will definitely check on that tomorrow because again being at 90 degrees i really don't want her to wear a mask but i also don't want her to break the rules um the other thing that really bothers me is hypocrisy and what bothers me when i saw a picture of school board members taking a tour of arrowhead and they weren't wearing masks and they were outside yet you're going to tell the children to wear a mask that blows my mind and the fact that a board member asked to have seniors go in and have a clap out out of their elementary out of their elementary school is also disappointing parents can't even go
133into the school building why the heck would i ever want a bunch of seniors who are strangers to my children go in and have a clap out i find that that that's just irresponsible um so that's it thank you very much thank you okay so with that we will conclude our courtesy of the floor um i did want to respond to a couple of things that um questions that were raised um the pandemic team there is a link to the list of the pandemic team members on the methecton website it is methacton.org page slash 547 i'm sorry i don't have a better url than that but it is posted on the district website it's under if you're looking um at the site it's under the road map to reopening methacton schools so that is there
134for those who are asking about it i just wanted to say one thing before moving on i um i attended a um qpr training last night which is a um suicide prevention training it's uh question persuade and refer and it's an approach to um to suicide prevention that um you can be trained in and get a certificate and it's one of the things that stuck with me the most out of this program is the importance of connecting with people of when someone is is struggling of asking them not what's wrong with you but connecting with them and asking what's happened to you what's going on um some of the comments that i heard this evening i'm concerned that we are approaching a place where there are students and faculty and staff in our buildings who
135may feel that someone is saying what's wrong with them i want to make it abundantly clear that it is part of my personal mission on this board and with this district to be an inclusive place for all students regardless of race regardless of sexual orientation regardless of gender identity we are a place of diversity we are a place of equity and we are a place of inclusion and i don't want any of our students staff or faculty to feel that this is any different anyone else have anything before we adjourn miss purdue i do have a few things to say i know there were several comments on here tonight about the dei task force and they've been several comments since we started this initiative and um i know there are people in the community that
136may think everything is okay within this acting but the task force really when we think about the dei initiative was started beca at the request of students so our own very students and i i'm a parent within the district i have kids and so with the callers on there or our listener our very own kids are coming back whether alumni or current currently enrolled in our school are actually coming back and asking us that this is needed they're coming back and sharing their experiences they're having when they're going on to college or working and saying that this is something they wish ms acting had prepared them for because they would have to be prepared to work in the world with others and they just did not feel like with everything that they learned and i
137actually sat down with an alumni that's enrolled currently um in the health care field looking to go into medicine saying with everything that ms hackney taught her when she think about everything she learned academically she felt like we could have done a better job in this so this is not something that came up it wasn't a drive by dr janine darby which has come back many times and i've made the point to let them know within our own before when i first joined the board there was a group of us that sat down to look at our strategic plan for the district and i remember specifically this was brought up as one of the things that we wanted to look at within our our school district it's hard to be ensured that we are being
138more inclusive that we are making sure everybody within our district teachers parents students everyone within our district still welcome and this is not just for the students but there are teachers also within our community there are staff also within our community that also need this so this initiative is not just driving at one group of students or one group of parents or one group is really to ensure that everyone within our community every student that walk within our door every teacher that walk within our district still that they belong with them in fact and i i personally believe it's something that we need but knowing that our own very own students that we strive to educate have come back and said to us that if something can do a good job in this aspect i
139feel like it's needed and it is it's something that we need to drive to one of the other items i want to talk about is a question or a comment was made about raised about selection the selection process was not something that we we were part of or recommended or say oh we like this person let them be apart i sit on one of the subcommittees and i have to tell you those individuals that are in those subcommittees these are their expertise when we talk about human resources and professional development this is what they do full-time and they're putting in their time each time that they meet with the d.i committee they're putting in their time to be part of it to really bring us the expertise that they work at every day to bring
140that to us so none of those individuals are on there just because somebody like them and put them on they're on there because they demonstrated that they have the expertise to be part of this um committee and so i just wanted to bring that up also i do i don't want to um dwell on everything i would say but i do want to remind everybody as um as one mentioned that we do have the vaccine clinic going on and i hope many people will take advantage of it and if you have kids that are in a 12 and um older age group please do take advantage of it just because if we want to talk about being in a position to now stop masking being able to have our kids outside with our mask on
141or in the school building that's the only way we can get there by practicing some of these things vaccines masking and social distance and it's what has gotten us to this point and it's what will prove to work and whether the health and safety plan is not changing right now as things are changing the guidelines are changing every day with coven the administration is looking and pivoting and making those changes necessary so with that we will continue to do that we will continue to look at how we in incorporate those changes into our health and safety plan to make sure that everyone that walks into our building whether outside or inside our building still safe also and that's all i have thank you miss perdue mr winners uh well said this purdue i just uh
142one one of the questions was related to uh mr rocco uh referenced a drop in students from august to uh where we are today i believe um actually che or jason probably could answer this but i believe in what happens is that the exiting students that are losing the leaving the district are not necessarily identified uh so they're in the school district at the end of june and they're expected to uh come back into the fact in the new school year and many of them leave the district for either moving or whatever and we do get new uh students registering so during the uh month of september there's identification of students that are no longer in the district so i think you would see historically that there's almost always a step down between the summer
143months and then the official number of october 1st and i think we also have uh i don't know i can't reference it sorry but we did talk about the number of students that we there was additional students that left mcfacton during this school year and we've acknowledged that that has been done throughout the country um not something to necessarily be proud but i'm just saying that their students have left because the choices that were available at the different times did not meet the student's need or the family's needs so there were additional students that left the district but there is always students that um leave for germantown academy or malvern or wherever pg uh pjp etc so the ninth grade attrition rate has incoming and outgoing um but collectively there were more students losing the
144leaving the district and we're hoping that many of them uh and budget wise we assume that some of them that will be coming back into the district next year um i just wanted to point out the last point um i have no problem taking uh lots lots of criticism uh sometimes it gets under my skin i will readily admit and sometimes i lose my temper i can start rubbing my head i know all those things but the one thing that i will not accept i don't think there's any one of the 20 people that i'm looking at on this uh face on the on the team um zoom not teams on the zoom call here that you're looking at there's not one of us that's any anti-police i will not accept any type of uh
145just drop of that comment to be unanswered uh for me or for anyone else um and certainly the circumstances and my family would not allow me to leave it to go on on uh unaccounted for i'm sure joe appreciates that paul anyone else before we adjourn i just want to say thank you again to nurse cheryl pifer for all of the work that she's put in especially in getting this vaccine clinic done for us um i know jen and i when we were in attendance that the nurse's appreciation went up to her and said you are a rock star and she really is so i just want to send thanks to her again agreed um the work that our school nurses have done this year has been above and beyond what was ever expected of
146them and um i have no doubt that they have kept numerous methachton families safe and healthy through their actions this year so thank you to all all right anything else mr mcginnis the most non-condescending obscenity-free way i make a motion to adjourn thank you mr mcginnis i see there's a second from miss reese meeting adjourned have a good night everyone