October 27, 2020 Regular Meeting of the Board

001okay we should be good okay we can begin we're recording then yes okay thank you uh good evening everyone i'd like to call to order the october 27th 2020 regular board meeting of the matthackton school district board of directors please rise for the pledge of allegiance hello my name is marshall einenbach and i'm an eighth grader at arcola now please stand for the pledge of allegiance my pledge of 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 um madam president as we typically do uh with the opening of the the october uh meeting we also have another student from arcola intermediate school who will also like to say a few words we have michael angola

002and just bear with me one second while we uh share his message with everyone on the call hello hello i am michael ignola and i am a 8th grade student at arcola intermediate school i have been kindly asked to shed some light on some of the amazing things arcola has to offer as a chosen representative for the school one thing i think that arcola does really well is they allow you to be more independent and they give you more freedoms they don't just make you take that honors class or assign you that language to learn they let you choose if you want to step down and take an easier class or if you want to take french or spanish another thing they do well is their after school programs i feel like those are really

003well organized planned out and just fun for everyone they're probably fun for everyone is because the staff is so kind open to question questions and suggestions and just very understanding and welcoming i feel that ever since the code pandemic started arcola has been handling the whole situation very well seeing as they have been cautious and up to date on all the coded facts those are some of the many amazing things that the coal school has to offer thank you michael and thank you varsha for both the pledge and the uh the wonderful statements and then we will also be hearing from arcola intermediate principal ms mangano here in just a few minutes as well but we can continue with the with the agenda thank you dr zurby and thank you to our arcola junior school

004board directors 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 directors required members of the public wanting to make comments on agenda items or at courtesy of the floor to pre-register by five o'clock today on the district website uh by way of attendance we will do a roll call miss cancro here miss drummond here miss hull here mr mcginnis here mr navarette is not on uh miss purdue here miss reece here mr winners here okay thank you uh recognition of guests and scheduled speakers um dr zurby thank you madam president uh this evening we have a number of speakers we have the m awards presentation uh with dr mangano and also the

005award of excellence dr mangano from arcola intermediate school is here as well we also have a special guest with us and dr angstadt will introduce aaron seifert townsend from the children's mental health department of montgomery county we also have dr spiwak uh with a winter athletic and activities health and safety plan recommendation and then i have a short update as well as uh dr walsh as an update on the returned on premise instruction so without any further ado i'd like to introduce dr amy mangano principal of arcola intermediate school good evening everyone thank you dr zurby and thank you to the school board of directors for having me here this evening um my name is dr mangano and i am the principal at arcola intermediate school although i don't think i could have said any

006of those things better than my two junior board spokespeople oh my goodness and it makes me proud because of some of the things they actually said that's that's wonderful i am here tonight to honor some very special people um the first part of the presentation is to share some outstanding news about our students every year we recognize the academic excellence earned by our cola and effect and high school students who have earned a 93 percent or greater cumulative grade point average during the previous school year for the school year there were 209 arcola students who earned m awards for their academic achievements 90 students represent the 7th grade and 116 students represent the 8th grade so i want to congratulate them because that's a big accomplishment also in light of everything happening people are still

007rising it's fabulous we have posted a video to the a video announcement to recognize the m award winners on the arcola website featured under featured news and announcements congratulations from all of the staff and all of our students on these students and their amazing achievement we're really proud of you so thank you for that just so congratulations for them sorry we can't be here this evening but the video will certainly highlight all of their names thank you dr zurby and next on the agenda we have the award of excellence where we have some fine employees of matthakton school district particularly of arcola intermediate school that i'm sure dr mangano wants to also share with everyone dr mangano thank you again this is like an arcola night and all for such good reasons i kind of

008like that so thank you for having us here and um this is a great moment to be able to look at some silver lining mo you know things as we're going through a difficult time so to be able to talk about kids to see the kids faces and to now talk about some staff members brings me um great joy and great pride the first one i'd like to present to you this evening is wendy mckenzie and i'm not going to read every slide to you you have a long night ahead of us so basically what i want to say about wendy is she's exceedingly flexible and amazing she brings joy in everything she does and she has absolutely played a key role especially recently as she's been asked to come out of her current role

009in the library and assist as a coach she is diligent and outstanding but she brings a smile to every single thing she does on a daily basis she's just incredible so that's our wendy next slide please it is my pleasure to present to you mrs motley when it comes to leadership and student connections mrs motley is as i mentioned here a game changer her strengths are in the area of english language arts however she contributes to our school on a much deeper level she works to collaborate with all stakeholder holders puts her students first and she has a bonus background in technology which adds a dimension to her skill set and no matter what the task for our building she is a voice she demonstrates and it was one of these words the kids mentioned

010kindness and compassion and is truly dedicated i am grateful to have her as a as a team member mr jeff miller comes to you this evening with a full heart for his students he cares deeply for their educational social and emotional well-being and he works tirelessly to make sure they are included in every opportunity possible at arcola he works to collaborate with every teacher every parent and every administrator and advocates for his kids all the time he has served on many staff committees in our building and enters each day with a positive attitude and smile that speaks volumes to his kindness that he shows all kids mr ed lenters is an absolute joy to work with if you have not had the pleasure so on the evenings when i'm about to pack up he's on

011duty and he takes great pride in his work he goes above and beyond to greet people on our building with a friendly smile and hello he's kind and he's caring and he's um and there his assets are and their strengths but he also takes like impeccable time to make sure that areas are done to the way that they need to be and if they're not he wants to know because he wants to fix it right away so he's just a pleasure to have and we're grateful to have him on our staff mrs donnan is the friendly voice um believe it or not on our on our attendance calls so she finds ways to support and help our families and students she's creative in her thinking which we need and helps our office team run very

012smoothly she's got a kind voice she's patient and a great smile and great ideas that help us and mrs nara has amazing qualities and goes a long way to help our families and our staff mrs cecilia is new to arcola this year this past year but we're lucky to have found her she is extremely talented and provides knowledge and support to the staff and our office team she shows patience kindness and compassion she puts our students and staff and families at ease every time they call it's also the voice at the assistant principal's office so you know that's not always the best best and friendly call to be receiving and she handles it beautifully she was also a great help this year in working with the related services group um and was reappointed there and

013became a great leader so she's fabulous and we're looking forward to having her back at arcola that might be my last one that is let's give a round of applause for all those employees for an outstanding work thank you for letting us highlight them this evening i'm very appreciative and thank you to all those employees uh both today and in the past that have made methacton a place called home and a wonderful place to learn and grow so thank you dr mangano we appreciate you sharing both student and and staff recognition with us this evening next on the agenda we have we have uh dr rankstead dr hank said i'm going to ask you to introduce the mental health update and dr said it sounds like you have a another friend i'm so sorry can

014you hear me okay all right she'll stop in a minute somebody pulled up and i told him not to let her bark all right thank you dr zerby i want to share a brief update on the mental health supports available in our district in addition to our school counselors and our home and school visitor we are here to support who are here to support our families and our students we also partner with carson valley children's aid for our sap program central behavioral health who provides five mental health specialists in the district k-12 springfield psychological who supports our students in the reach program additionally the special ed education alliance known as the sca often offers mental health related workshops and i'm pleased to say they will be hosting one on mindfulness on november 19th at 7

015p.m if you are interested in attending that virtual workshop you can find registration information on the sca website the district is also very fortunate to be supported by the montgomery county department of mental health tonight it is my pleasure to introduce aaron seyfried townsend the children's mental health program director for the office of mental health who will be sharing some information on covid related anxiety and supports that are available in the county erin thanks dr einstein um is there a presentation that's gonna be thrown up there it is thanks so much for having me um next slide please um so dr einstein reached out um and the first thing i just want to talk about i think is something that weighs heavily on all of our minds i'm a parent myself um so how do

016we talk about covid19 um because with our kids um because they listen they hear everything that's going on so here are just some quick tips um and you can change these because i think as parents we know our and caregivers we know our kids um the best so tweak these to your liking within your family um whenever we talk about taking care of our kids we have to talk about taking care of ourselves first i like to use the analogy of the airplane they always say you know put your oxygen mask on first so then you can help to support the people around you and i think when we talk about any sort of mental health issue or anything that's going on in the world there's a lot of heavy stuff out there right now

017we want to make sure we're taking care of ourselves first um so that's why it's number one also remain calm um our kids react to us they see us um they are good readers of people um even the littlest ones um amongst us so they will pick up on our cues so when we have these conversations we want to make sure we're remaining calm we want to reassure our kids that they're safe and let them know it's okay to feel upset all feelings are valid feelings and it's important that we talk through those things with our kids make sure that you're available to listen and to talk carve out time i know you know working from home is tough um you have kids at home i have a baby and a kid and you're working

018from home it's it's a lot um so when i save time i mean 10 minutes i'll do it you know carve out 10 minutes of time to talk to your kids um individually if you know about what's going on next slide please this is important i think for kids and for ourselves the media whether it's social media or the tv is inundated with all kinds of information you might want to consider how much your family is ingesting of that information and parameters around that you want to talk to your kids in a manner that's truthful and appropriate again this is where i say you know we know our kids best so whatever developmental level your kid is at that's the level that you should speak to them and you know them best to give them

019a little bit of control you want to teach them what they can do to keep themselves safe and also when school opens if school opens talk about what their teachers are doing what you know we just highlighted a wonderful custodian that's taking extra care of the buildings so those are the sort of things we want to let our kids know what's going on all the stuff i found on the cdc website there's so much information out there so i invite you to you know if you want to know more that's a great resource and now i will talk about some local resources that might be helpful next slide please so within montgomery county dr einstein did mention student assistance through carson valley children's aid maria markis is a program supervisor i love to put you

020know a name and an actual person behind an agency so she's wonderful they offer individual and group support and that support is free support it's provided you know through funds through the county to the school district and through carson valley children's aid um so that is available um and then so you know people want to go to therapy they want to talk to somebody is that still happening you know with the pandemic absolutely it is um parents and caregivers might not feel safe taking their children to an actual office i want you to know that virtual telehealth services are available if you have private insurance i would encourage you to call the back of your insurance turn over your insurance card call the back number and ask for behavioral health services if you have medical

021assistance insurance creative health services is the closest provider largest provider to the massactin area i would ask you to call their admin case management the number is listed there and just kind of explain what's going on and they can help offer support sometimes our kids don't want to talk to us they want to talk to somebody else so we have the teen talk line which is available seven days a week from one to nine it's a warm line which means kids can be anonymous they can text they can call in and it's going to be appear on the other end and that sounds scary you know it's another kid on the other end however they're closely monitored they're trained and it is linked to the montgomery county mobile crisis unit so if anything goes topsy-turvy

022they're directly connected um but kids you know they're validated they can talk about relationship issues issues with being on virtual school all that sort of thing they can cover there the next site please and then some resources for caregivers so both of these options are provided by family mentor and advocacy network of montgomery county claire higgins is the program supervisor for that program they are offering virtual support groups it is what it sounds like you know it's a support group but they've moved online um and then they also offer virtual drop in office hours which is less i would say it's more informal than an actual support group so people can just call in and say this is going on this is also out there for teachers administrators anybody that is helping to support a

023family or a student um and maybe need just a little bit of guidance in the mental health world because with acronyms and all different sort of things different levels of care it can be quite confusing and i've been in this and you know you see my title so um it can just just help guide um guide folks through that and then the last slide the second to last slide i always like you know put this number in your phone for yourself for your family for your friends for supporting students um one eight five five six three four hope is the number for access mobile crisis um we do fund them at the county so again no charge um it is available to the entire community we like to say that we wish crisis wasn't in

024their title because these folks are wonderful and they are there to help support people so they don't fall into a mental health crisis so they can help support prior to things you know snowballing out of control and and now you know and also when stuff snowballs out of control they can also help but they are there 24 7. um so please put it in your phone and offer it to friends and family um if they're in need of support and then the last slide um this is a link so i this doctor i think that said i could talk for five minutes so there's no way i could talk about everything we have in five minutes um so there is a link here to our very extended guide with descriptions of all the different levels

025of care there are there's a multitude in the kaleidoscope out there of mental health services for kids and that guide really goes through each thing in detail and i i don't know if we can take questions on this format but i'm happy to take any questions or or comments certainly are there any questions from members of the board i don't have a question i just wanted to say thank you so much i mean even i loved your your um pleasant manner of um presenting um such a heavy topic and my only question is for dr zerby will this be somewhere very accessible for our families yes we're going to post this in the uh uh i believe it's called the parent uh parent center on our on our website uh ms brucker had started that

026and there's a number of other uh support services but we'll add this presentation and we'll highlight this link here for uh families since it takes us to a full collection of resources as aaron had pointed out thank you are there other questions from members of the board yes i i just also have a similar comment i just um want to say thank you for coming to present this really important material to our the families in our district and and to provide these resources so we have everything in one place and i just want to ask if we could um the presentation that the sca is sponsoring if we can add that link to our website and in a prominent place for upcoming events that would be great thank you we'll do and and thank you

027aaron and to all that uh you know your organization does in partnership with with not only the thacton school district but all the school districts here in montgomery county we really appreciate all the support that you provide dr x do any final comments do not but i do want to just thank aaron her and i talk often and collaborate often jen johnson is also part of our core team and so i just appreciate all her support that she provides to us we're happy we're in this together you know we're happy to happy to partner thank you hold on mr winners you have a question yeah one one last question i just popped in my head uh do you are you the ones that have provided us the roar uh program dr hangstad i'm sorry about

028what program i think it was called roar with the uh early child it comes out of the montgomery county department of health okay but i'm not sure it's out of the mental health department they're like our cousin in the building thank you sure any other questions if not aaron thank you so much for your time this evening and sharing this valuable information with us and being a partner in education thank you okay thank you thank you thank you so much next on the agenda we have uh dr speedwack dr speedwack is here to uh present the winter athletic and activities health and safety plan recommendation so dr smubach i will uh post that on uh the uh the screen and you can take uh the board uh through that presentation thank you dr zurby and

029and thank you members of the school board for allowing me to present our plan of action for uh for winter sports to begin their off-season the date for the official start of winter athletics is november 20th while that date uh could change um at this time november 20th looks to be the official start and this is our plan of action very similar to the plan of action that was presented for our fall sports to begin on september 7th the same concept here with a a basic start return this is just a a statement about returning to activity following inactivity while we recognize that many or most of our student athletes that are participating in winter athletics most likely have been active we don't want to assume that for everyone so we would take an approach

030that would allow for a lighter week one transitioning to a heavier week two and moving forward into uh november 20th with enough time to prepare uh for full contact uh winter sports as it stands today this next section just talks about our high-risk groups this is the same section that was listed in our previous off-season plan i'm listed as the point of contact for questions or concerns regarding winter athletics and activities as well as our athletic trainer uh in terms of uh uh this section at the top here just lists what would take place uh prior to uh any practices or games with regards to the ppe requirements and also uh the pre-workout screenings very similar to what we're doing now in the fall which we feel has worked really well you you would notice

031that some of the areas that we discussed with the property committee changed some of the verbiage to must wear masks when when possible depending on the sport in the situation in terms of the pre-screening form as i mentioned this will continue to be updated uh per um you know what we feel is the is the most up-to-date screening process but the format would remain the same which would be done uh by the coaches through a google form with the results page being accessible by the athletic office and the athletic training office the next section references social distancing which similar to fall sports social distancing would take place uh when possible with an emphasis on times where you're not participating in the actual athletic event coaches would continue to remain six feet apart when possible and

032then as we move forward with the plan to november 20th there would be full contact as you know the light at the end of the tunnel here would be uh moving into our actual competition which would take place in december or january depending on what the pia in the conference determines is is the best approach in terms of games the number of participants i did want to mention would be fluid uh it will either be determined based on an overall number like 25 which was a number that we utilized often in the beginning of this fall but certainly if there were opportunities to to look at percentages with 20 percent or 25 percent of different facilities we would be doing that as well for both our practices and our events but ultimately the number of

033participants will be monitored by the athletic office and we will certainly be dictating uh to each individual group depending on size of facility and number of of athletes but we will be working together with our coaches to make sure that we have the space and the plan of action to be to participate in our sports in full uh while still uh being as safe as possible similar to the fall our equipment sanitizing process will be put in place for both the equipment and also the facility that is being used and the facilities department has been outstanding in working with us to make sure that they have a schedule of events for practices and games to make sure that we're able to uh sanitize those areas uh you know contingent upon the number of uses by

034our athletic and activity groups uh the bathrooms depending on the size of the facility we would try to hold to a maximum of two individuals at any time sent by a specific coach we will work with facilities to make sure that we have a large number of indoor facilities available after hours and again facilities has been amazing we communicate with each other so that they know which bathroom facilities are used after hours after the school day and which are not in terms of hydration we will require that students provide their own water bottles and hydration which we did in the fall the one difference is we will allow use to our touchless water spouts that will allow for safe refilling of those water bottles but the same concept exists here in the in the winter

035where they're going to need to be marked and they're going to need to be utilized only by one person and they must have water with them in order to participate terms of hygiene very similar to the fall we're just going to ask that they continue to wash their hands and use and use their hand sanitizer stations that will be provided ventilation we just wanted to confirm that we will be again this this could be fluid depending on what we deem most appropriate but we will be working the athletic office and the facilities department will be working together to make sure that we're providing the best possible ventilation system for each of our indoor athletic facilities and the cleaning process will remain the same as the fall will be as i stated already be working together

036and make sure that that the facilities department knows exactly what uh what gym spaces and pool area that we're using on a daily basis same as the fall the next section just talks about what would happen if if we uh if we did have a covet case or a secondary covet case we've been working through that all fall um cheryl pifer has been absolutely amazing and dr zerby we all work together to make sure that we're communicating with the county health department to do what's in the best interests of our individual athletes and our teams this next section is is the same section that you saw in the fall in terms of the classification of the different sports the reason why that's important for off season is because there are aspects of certain sports that

037we can modify in order to at least begin with minimizing the risk we did discuss this with with the property committee and came up with a determination that in week one uh you could utilize for example use basketball as the example uh you would be able to utilize your own basketball and practice your own sport specific drills and skill development but without sharing of equipment in week one this would allow for students to set up a scenario where they'd be able to get involved in the activity allow the coach to be able to start working with those student athletes but without sharing of equipment in week one however in week two we would up uh the time uh of the workout and also uh move towards the sharing of a basketball for example uh but

038still with no contact so the coach would still be uh setting up practices in a way that would allow for depending on the sport would allow for individual skill development and for sharing of equipment but in a way that would allow for the least opportunity for the spread of the virus and so therefore they would not be utilizing full contact at this time and week two would then move uh towards november 20th and as we stated in the property committee meeting we would continue to evaluate this the same way we did in the fall and if members of the school board dr zerby the athletic office administration uh believe that there's opportunities to make some changes either with you know more restrictions or less restrictions then we certainly would be able to have those conversations

039to try to adjust in the best way possible for our student athletes the next section just takes and i won't read each individual sport unless somebody has questions this just lays out the most current uh recommendations for each individual sport in terms of how they would best be able to prepare for the season but in the safest way possible uh piaa continues to state that they will be releasing just as they did in the fall they will be releasing winter protocol recommendations guidelines for each specific sport as soon as those are released i will plan to share those right away and adjust our protocol accordingly uh but this is the protocol that we have in place uh at this time without uh guidance from the pia and that should be out we keep hearing soon

040but again each individual sport here has been listed and there are certainly some challenges that we're going to be working through in the winter that we didn't necessarily need to work through in the fall but we are prepared to to work through them together and uh a shout out to the fall coaches who continue to do a great job with the protocol and i know the winter coaches have been in contact with our office and we have a plan of action to uh to take this very seriously and make sure that we're preparing our student athletes but in the safest way possible just one uh one one comment dr spuwak in terms of the number of participants i think that is also strictly related to the ruling in montgomery county department of health for the

041number of participants in a facility so while we will be while we have a the numbers listed here uh we will also be uh confirming any change in those numbers uh with the montgomery county department of health just just to make sure we have that squared away other questions from members of the board again this is an item for your uh for action this evening as you recall we were going to we had this on the agenda for the work session um but we had uh you know canceled that meeting uh as a result of a lengthy uh special meeting that same evening and uh dr speedwork is here to answer any questions you may have miss reese um i was part of the property committee so i don't really have any questions he addressed

042them all at that time i do have one because you brought it up the the participants of 25 and below i would imagine there are some sports winter sports that have more than the more than that number of participants so i would imagine they'll be taking turns or we'll be updating it as montgomery county updates us is that how it'll work that's correct we would be working we would be working with each individual sport and those sports that either through their number of athletes or in combination with the coaches would exceed 25 we would be working with the county for that particular facility uh to confirm that we have approval to to either have in excess of 25 or as you mentioned we would then split our groups accordingly depending on what our max number

043would be from the county okay and just a quick comment as a as a board member as a community member as a parent of three student athletes i've just been really incredibly impressed with the fall i do not want to jinx it um so i won't say anything more about that other than to say that i was very just impressed with the athletes the coaches the parents for following everything and i will also note our security staff at several events i saw very politely and firmly remind people about masks and it just made me feel better um like i said as a parent a school board director and a community member so as you shout it out to your staff shout out to everyone involved um thank you thank you ms cancro so i don't

044i had a lot of questions from parents and i know it's not per se under sports it's under the club um just dealing with the ski club both in the arcola level and the high school and just you know what is our steps on researching whether the ski club could continue and how we're looking at that i can answer that generically only in the sense that that's similar to several other uh overnight types of activities that we're certainly open to proposals from whether it be staff members or you know the people that would typically be running those types of trips like the ski club we do have concerns regarding i'll speak for myself i have concerns regarding overnight trips it's you know it's one thing if you have two or three hours uh where you're

045looking to put in protocol to try to keep everybody safe but i've been on those trips before and and while they're amazing experiences and i would love to see them continue there are there's just so much down time for uh opportunities for what about like even even if there's the offering of the day trips of like the ones that are closer to see if that's the different options but absolutely there was a high interest in those questions from parents about continuing the if ski was open in pa that we look at it and research it absolutely our our philosophy at this time is that we're willing to to take a look at at uh proposals from any uh activity sponsor and if we're able to work together and find a way for it to be

046uh safe then we would go through the proper channels to make sure that it was approved and vetted and we would be open to to those types of experiences for the students absolutely other questions i'm sorry anyone else uh ms aubrey larsenis um not so much a question but um just a comment um there's a um a policy blog that children's hospital of philadelphia has put out that um our fellow board member mary hall has been so kind as to share with some of us um and one of the things that i saw that came out of that was they're finding that the um i know that there's been some talk at the county level about um increased transmission of covet in youth sports but what they're finding is that the increased transmission rates are

047not happening on the playing field um it is the before the game the after the game the the parties that happen in conjunction with the games um it's it's the off the field behavior um so i think that that underscores the importance of having this health and safety plan for sports um and for the the families and people in the community that are watching it underscores the importance for our families to follow these protocols um i will say having um gone through the fall sports season i have been very impressed with the methectomy parents and myth and families on the sidelines um i every once in a while you see somebody without a mask but i can tell you most of the time it's not someone from a faction so um i do appreciate how

048seriously our parents are taking this it's what allows our kids to continue with the sports so um thank you dr spiwak for the work that you put into this plan um it's keeping everybody safe so thanks thank you and thank you to miss hull for sharing that article i i certainly plan to reference the article as we move into our winter coaches meetings while i believe our winner coaches believe they understand how serious this is it certainly acts as a very uh necessary reminder that that we need to not only be worrying about while we have these student athletes during practices and games but making sure we're reminding them of how important it is for the entire you know athletic operation that we make sure that it's a 24-hour uh process that we're making sure

049that we're taking care of this the the article makes total logical sense that that many of those team gatherings that we in the past found so important can really be detrimental to this process if they're not done correctly any any other questions or comments uh for dr speedwork on this matter seeing none uh we'll move on to the next item thank you dr spivak for uh providing the presentation and uh and your work in this area we do really appreciate it um the next item on the agenda is an update on the return to on-premise um and it's not something that i have a presentation but it's a little bit of information that i and dr walsh are going to share here this evening as we progress um and more detail of that will be

050provided in our weekly memo to the board but generally speaking the district's parent survey was completed with a 95.74 percent uh return uh we are in the process of uh you know calling uh the families that are still outstanding but we feel that's a pretty good uh return uh thanks to uh ms kelly for all of her due diligence and communications um not only not only in in the regular uh six o'clock uh phone call the last couple of days and we're only smiling because you know i got them too and i don't have any kids that have to register for this process but that's okay um but the good the good news is and certainly she can speak about this but we were able to deliver those in many of the home languages of

051our families and i think that as a a good start to you know you know improving our communications uh on just on a larger scale she also did a wonderful job in making sure that all the documents associated with this were uh translatable in in a number of languages uh through um an applet that's uh included within our website so i appreciate her work on that so a lot of a lot of work was done in the communication aspects and and i think the the entire administrative team for other work on that um but of that 95 response we had 41.3 percent of the students choosing um a factor online and fifty eight point seven choosing the return to a hybrid model uh these these percentages for the hybrid then are broken down in this

052fashion and as and member board members i'll send this data uh with a couple more details for you in the friday memo but arrowhead had 66.7 hybrid eagleville 67.6 woodland 49.1 worcester 71.6 skyview 61.8 arcola 62.3 and matthackton high school 50.8 overalls of of the students choosing hybrid 60 are choosing to return to hybrid instruction by using district provided transportation to just give you an idea of some of the numbers based on the on the survey data that we had so a number of us are working through that process and we are targeting uh hopefully even before november 2nd but but november 2nd there will be a communication to all families to let them know what the uh the day or sequence they'll have for the uh for the return to hybrid in terms of

053other matters that we've been working on and accomplished ms kelly is also working with me on on finalizing a data dashboard for the website uh this will keep our families and our community apprised of how the district is handling and what cases are are maybe occurring inside the district in addition to posting the county uh data that we've shared in the previous presentations uh last week uh we've also updated the health uh uh screening self check based on the county recommendations and the help of our uh our nurses from the pandemic team we've created a health and safety uh quick guide for our teachers that should be going out in the next day or so we are finalizing the why care program that's the before after and during school care again uh we found space

054for that and we're we're uh we're finalizing all the details and trying to communicate that out to the families that are already taking advantage of that uh during school care and ms kelly and our facilities department has been working with our building principles to finalize the posting of signage and classrooms cafeterias common areas the main lobbies restrooms hallways stairwells all the things that we said that we were going to be putting uh signage in and we've received a a a number of questions from the matthackton education association that i'll be responding to tomorrow to hopefully better communicate with not only the association but with all of our our staff and lastly we have dr walsh who has a couple items that he wants to share as well dr walsh okay thank you dr zuri good

055evening everyone just a couple updates um one of the things that dr zurby had mentioned earlier was our return to uh on premises for those students who are whose families chose that so one things we were going to get is in the teacher's hands by later tomorrow or thursday morning at the latest is a teacher guide and it's basically going to provide some instructional models procedures and ideas that they can use to incorporate the technology into the students that are in front of them as well as those who are at virtual at home as well as how we can support all our learners our special needs students as well as ell reading support etc so that'll all be addressed in this teacher guide that'll be coming out again later tomorrow or early on thursday we're

056planning professional development for november 3rd and 4th so on tuesday november 3rd we've been working really hard i have to just take a quick moment though it's been a herculean effort and i just want to thank the teachers staff members and all the administrators for um helping to launch this um what i'm expecting to be a very successful professional development so um without further ado i'll just say the building principles who are a big part of this are meeting with their staff on november 3rd to go over the health and safety plan they'll be going over procedures routines as well they'll be working with the tech coordinators and the coaches i mean the integrators throughout the day and they'll be providing support as needed on november 4th which is the wednesday that's the act 80

057day continued professional development we'll be focusing on the instructional models um we'll provide teachers some choice based on their needs interest they'll be time for department grade level um common area subjects etc so there'll be a myriad of activities going on those two days um and it's just going to get our teachers ready to welcome students back in and continue to work with the students that are choosing the distance learning through the hybrid model and then also uh for the week of november 9th when we actually will officially welcome those students who chose to come back we're looking at a district-wide green white spirit day just to build that community spirit k-12 lots of things going to be happening in the building through orientations through tours um it's just like i mentioned last week it's

058that gradual dip toe in the water to get the students uh accustomed to having um you know school back and i think it's important to remember it's been eight months for some of these students who have stepped foot in school so you know really understanding it's like three summer vacations it's been a long time for some of these students and those students who are new to buildings uh the principals have worked very hard on putting plants together to make them feel welcome make them feel warm and it's really just about connectivity connecting the students who are at home and who are going to continue to stay at home as well as those students who are coming in every other day so it's really about building that caring community working on social emotional and just really

059we're going to make a huge difference and i think this is just a great first step to getting some normalcy back in to what that would be and our regularity so again thank you to to the board for their support thank you for the teachers administrators and um all the support staff it's it's a collaborative effort and it shows so we're well on our way to getting there so thank you again thank you dr walsh uh are there any questions from members of the board on the current status of the returned on-premise plan um oh sorry samira you raised your hand and i did it and as a teacher i should know better i called out i'm so sorry all right but i'll just be quiet and start talking i won't do it again sorry

060um um oh now i forgot my question oh yes sorry um just to reiterate i heard some questions from parents and you brought it up dr walsh um november 3rd and 4th students have off and those days the teachers have more help preparing for this hybrid and learning about not only some of the technology pieces but the health and safety plan is that what you were saying that is correct and there'll be a district reminder going out as well reminding parents that those are off days for the students the election day november 3rd and then act 80 day november 4th okay so do ours does our staff and i'm not questioning their work at all they're working hard that's i'm so one of those days is definitively for them to get ready and is one

061day one of their flex days i i forgive me i forget what act 80 is and what act 80 isn't because i don't have flex days so i don't know what they are yeah it's a non-student day but it's uh around professional development so that wednesday november 4th is all about professional development for teachers and there'll be a myriad and a menu of activities that they can choose from as well as time to work with their apartment their grade level um common subject areas and miseries if you're referring to the flex day as part of the um uh the mayak process the the in service in service days as labeled in service are not part of that process and nor is this additional act 80 days as per the approval last last week so there's

062not it has nothing to do with the mayak uh okay thank you you're welcome uh ms perdue has a question she she kindly had her hand up mr purdue um just wondering what some of the plans i know he said the building principles are working on it but i was wondering if we have a general idea of the plans to bring those students that are new to buildings i'm thinking that kindergarten is viewing to manufacturing itself and you to maybe um skyview arcola and even a high school do we have an idea of what some of those welcome plans will look like yeah um yeah miss perdue uh i i have a couple of i'll just give you like a top side view um you know the ninth grade will be doing um freshman mini

063tours of the building getting them acclimated to the high school um there's similar things happening at arcola as well as like as you mentioned the new students at skyview the fifth graders and um building some uh commonalities and some uh getting the students accustomed in kindergarten but we also have new first graders that's why we included them in those first days as well because if they went to a private kindergarten um just again each of the building principles are working on real really robust things that will help get the students acclimated because normally we do that orientation in the spring or the summer so this is those days are dedicated starting on november 9th okay and that's why i was going to ask exactly what days do we plan to do that but it'll be

064on that first day yeah and like i said we're we're bringing small groups in um you know we're not bringing all k to 12 in the week of the ninth uh the week of the 16th is when we'll go 100 percent okay thank you you're welcome any other questions uh mr mr winter says his hand up mr winters yeah uh two quick questions uh i imagine the numbers actually surprised me a little bit i believe that uh in many many districts it's about uh uh 70 percent coming back uh often i don't know if that's it's just an interesting aspect of uh we're only just under under 60. i'm wondering if that changes the decision-making for some staff that had concerns about uh the number of students that were going to be in their class

065so my question is actually maybe for che what is the the timeline for um both the mea and mespa members to weigh in on what their decisions are good question we uh we actually set up our interactive calls starting tomorrow um basically for waiting for this data so we can share that with them as we call um so we now have a number of requests that have been filed with the office and our natural first step is to call with any kind of checking on accommodation starting the interactive process and this will be one of the items that we share i don't have specific information about their exact classrooms but um we're obviously pretty confident with some of the averages of the buildings that will have a pretty good indication of what those rooms may

066look like okay that was my follow-up if they had specifics and then the the second question may be uh dr wolf is the the commitment and the transition um so an individual signs up for the hybrid and they what their experience is is not what they anticipated um i imagine moving back to online is uh is something that probably could be done almost without really a formal process but what about if there's somebody online that decided they want to go back into the hybrid is that are we more or less committed to the next uh marking period or i i'm sorry if i lost the this may have been already explained in previous meetings so i apologize that's okay no uh miss jones we are definitely looking for a commitment um through by the end

067of january and then at that time we'll reevaluate and put another survey out and parents can either choose to stay in the hybrid model or go to a factor online and of course there are extenuating circumstances that that'll be done on a case-by-case basis but we're really looking for that commitment just so it helped build the social distancing and making sure that those routines and procedures are in place um so yeah we are hoping for the second marking period for the secondary and it'll be the middle of the second trimester for elementary okay but if someone who is on on uh has decided to go hybrid and chooses to go back online is that a different type of uh decision making it's that's it's to shift it back is a little different than going from

068online to the hybrid model yeah okay thank you you're welcome any other questions from members of the board um ms cancro thank you for raising your hand you're very welcome i'm sorry ms reese i just want to clarify i'm i'm excited for you to have that teacher's guide and the different options of how you're doing the delivery as we're doing the live stream i think i love the video that we showed but i had a lot of questions follow up afterwards of well are the children going to be sitting in the building with the computer open would that why would that happen and this basically they're doing online in the building so there's a little bit of misconceptions for the elementary school kids you know they thought they were going to be wearing their headpiece

069being doing a virtual zoom while they're sitting in the class so i i don't know if there's some way that we could even do like a follow-up video showing different demonstrations or sharing with the parents after we get started just to show them that the child will be sitting there looking at the presentation of the parent you know the teacher doing it on the board um there's no need for that computer to be open so they won't have those kind of zoom sounds coming out and back sounds so i don't know what i just want to make sure that the parents have a clear picture because i thought the video was great but i definitely understood why some parents were concerned because the demonstrators had their their computer open it opened it up they had

070a side view i just want to make sure the parents have a clear picture so yeah that's a great point uh and that was just one model miss cancro so just this instructional uh faculty guide that we're putting out in the next year too we'll go over that and also the tech integrators will be able to share um and the coaches will be able to show more information next week on the third and fourth but yes our goal is to have those laptops closed whenever possible so there can be some small group interaction independent work as well and the teacher can still be engaged with those online learners and any any any other final questions on the matter see no no others so that ends the oh oh we have a hand i had my

071hair freezed i was actually raising my hand on behalf of miss drummond but i have something as well so go ahead thank you um so uh thank you for all the information um i just wanted to clarify a couple points about november 3rd and november 4th and um the the time allowed for or allotted for the teachers to set up their rooms versus for professional development so do they is it choices both days or can can you just explain or clarify that further yeah sure and it's just this is a real rough draft we fine-tuning it but um so they'll obviously be on tuesday november 3rd there'll be the staff meeting that'll happen at each building and that's so important that's where they'll go over the health and safety plan the routines the procedures almost

072like the welcome back that they would normally have in august and then in the afternoon later that morning in the afternoon there's room prep there's tech setup support as needed with the integrators and coaches so that'll be happening pretty much on november 3rd so there's some room time as well as that really important faculty meeting that staff meeting because there's just so much to go over with the health and safety plan and then on november 4th there's sessions um choice sessions as well some required sessions going over covert 19 training additional protocols there's just a whole myriad of things for the instructional assistants the pcas the recess aids learning those procedures as well um so that'll all take place uh you know on november 4th that's that act 80 that's where that's more professional development

073as opposed to the third which is more of the staff meeting work in your classroom meet with the tech coaches and tech integrators but the teachers will get involved in the next primarily on the third i mean there will be ample time for room setup and everything it's not going to be a lot of professional development aside from the faculty right yeah that's mostly dedicated for the fourth okay and then um i have another question more like an idea um and that is about maybe providing an opportunity for the students who are remaining virtual to come in and meet their teachers in person um i just think that that would add a lot of value to the educational experience for for those children you know remaining virtual um just something to think about if there's

074any way to possibly do that i i think that because there is a you know pretty high percent um who are staying back but you know it would be i think a great opportunity and and really help them out thank you thank you ms drummond uh miss abu las denise did you have a question yeah i just had one question um and it's really just about one particular day so when the um hybrid students are coming in for their orientation um the you know new ones in each building um what will be going on for the virtual students so they'll be working out a plan um there may be some um asynchronous it may not be the whole day where that orientation will take place it may just be a part of the day maybe

075a certain period so they're working on specific plants at the building level and they'll be communicating that out as well but it's not going to be a whole day of orientation just like it wouldn't be um for the other students but there's so that may be a blended learning day but again that's going to be decided at the building level grade level and department as well but again more that there's more information going out probably later this week to families and the teachers okay thank you you're welcome any other questions not seeing any others so that ends the uh presentations uh scheduled for this evening i'll turn the agenda back over to madame president thank you dr zurby um okay so we have our reports up next um i'm going to assume that all the

076board members have submitted their reports and they are attached and if they haven't been they will be in the very near future um i know there's occasionally one or two stragglers um okay can i just yes mr winners i'm sorry there was a recommendation that we walk through or is that we're planning on do since since we did not have the work session last week that we would walk through before we took comment on voting items walk through the entire agenda yeah because i i think there's a dialogue that goes along with there that i think the purpose of the work session still could be performed here prior to but you could do what was just an idea so okay um if anyone else has any thoughts okay i think it's it is important for

077us though to to make sure that we have um discussion as we always do during the work session and uh you know really dive into any topics that we have questions on um so we have our our committee reports here um it does actually look like they're all attached there so good job um the intermediate unit ms reese um the intermediate unit does not meet in october but i will jump ahead to north monco very briefly if liz doesn't mind um we did meet this month and um as most of the parents know but just to allow the community to know so 9th and 10th is going to start back it's very complicated but they did an amazing job um i won't get into too many details but there are a lot of ninth and

07810th graders and you know with five sending districts they were able to figure it out they have pretty strict parameters in place and had to limit it to a certain number but but they're working very very diligently on it and it's a huge undertaking i heard a little bit of um just people questioning it and i and i understand that but it's a really big undertaking undertaking between not only the staff at north montgomery but all the superintendents of the five schools so uh that's just great and uh the director gina padovich wanted us to know that the students are doing a phenomenal job she's been so impressed that the students at north monco who are currently in the building have had like i don't want to say zero because i have my notes but

079like such limited discipline issues with the on premise and just the the staff and this and uh has been incredibly impressed so kudos to those students um and on another note cosmetology under very strict guidelines has been able to resume or will be able to resume and montgomery county worked very diligently with the tech center because it's impossible for those cosmetology students to get their hours without working on human beings and human heads so um they're working on that so that's great news and the restaurant is a whole nother uh piece of this i know many of us have gone to lunch at the restaurant they're working through that but when it does reopen um it'll first their hope their first hope is curbside pickup so if if and when that occurs i will let

080everybody know and i will volunteer well maybe not because i'll be teaching but maybe i'll volunteer somebody to go pick curbside pick up that um and i think that was really the gist but i really wanted to give a shout out to our tech center staff and students for their great work thank you miss reese miss drummond do you have anything else on north montco nothing really additional to add just to echo really the sentiment from gina was that you know the the kids are doing the students are doing such a great job everyone's really working well together and um they're you know they're looking forward to um increasing student attendance thank you mr drummond uh moving on to our student board representatives report um we have chris spletzer and doreen goodridge i'm sorry serena

081goodridge um so not sure who's up first i am going first so um colleges have started doing visits for seniors but they're online so the class of 2021 can just sign up via naviance and then the link will go live when the meeting starts and even with kovid the sports have been doing really well boys cross country has improved their record to four and one and uh they are qualifying for districts chris is a part of that team that's why he's cheering volleyball beat ojr recently in three straight sets that's super impressive um the girls soccer had their senior night on october 15th to celebrate the class of 2021 and field hockey had their play for the cure game on wednesday october 21st and they raised over 2 600 dollars chris hi um yes so

082just wanted to note uh seniors are starting to get their college applications in with an early admissions deadline of november 1st and that's exciting the ap exams all have been officially ordered and notable this year is that there is no cancellation fee so students are able to order whatever they'd like and cancel them at no additional cost which is exciting um as far as the hybrid plan goes i thought that i could offer a different perspective perhaps to the rest of the board and i found that in most of my conversations with peers and other students in the district most of these students are trying to balance the possibility of interaction with their fellow students as well as the potential benefits of the in-person environment versus the online environment and i just like to say

083in ap government recently we just did a project about trying to find the best system to go back to school and i needless to say it was exceptionally difficult so i think i speak for everybody in the district when i say thank you for the plan and all the work that you've all done and i'm excited to see how it goes thank you chris for a second there i thought you were going to solve all of our problems for us i was holding out hope all right thank you both um we have for the methachton education foundation uh we have miss nikki krelovich thank you very much um tonight i'm excited to let you know that we finally officially launched the methacton alumni network um i know we're going to pull up the website today

084but uh the official name of the mythactin network is the mythton alumni and friends online digital community as you know connections are more important now than ever in 2020 and the methachton education foundation has built this online alumni network where our alumni supporters teachers parents partners and local businesses can connect this is a digital community where you can find old classmates connect with new friends learn about special events when we have them again find out about opportunities to give back and connect with mathacton so we invite all of our methachton alumni and friends to join today our website as you'll see here is mathactonalumni.org and if you take a look at the top here you can see some of the fun things that are available to members of our website it is free to join

085but to get past the gateway you do need to sign up um as we're pointing at the join tab here and you can click on that to sign up your information is protected and you can choose what information you want to share publicly the directory is also a gated and private directory only available to those folks who sign up for the alumni website and [Music] there are some [Music] firewalls i would say in place so that you can't just people aren't going to get spammed by signing up for the alumni website to be able to look people up you have to have two pieces of information about them if you look at the directory tab here you'll see that the um you need to enter to you'll have to log in and you'll have to

086sign up to be able to look people up and then you'll have to enter some information about them to be able to find who they are we also have a news section here which will include um things about the district and about our alumni about things that are happening and then of course um [Music] to learn more about alumni in our alumni spotlight section um you have to be a member to view that as well um so all of the good stuff you're going to want to join the fact and alumni and friends to see what's going on we will have volunteer opportunities and of course because we are the education foundation you can always donate because we're here to build stronger schools and that's pretty much it um i don't know if anybody has

087any questions about mathakton alumni and friends i just want i i just want to say uh nikki this is a long time coming and this is outstanding work so i know you you you took you took the uh football you got it across the goal line um it's been uh you know 50 years in the making so congratulations thank you very much i'm really excited to be able to provide this value for alumni i think it's going to be a great way for people to connect and and yes it's going to be able to help us provide more opportunities for all of our students and my fact and graduates both past and present so thanks for the opportunity to do this and to connect our almost 20 000 alumni graduates and connect them with our

088kids who are currently in school thank you ms krelovich i'll be encouraging the two alumni that live in my house to uh to sign up uh for communications miss kelly thank you madam president and good evening everyone as we prepare for the return of students in the hybrid environment we are also excited to announce that meals will continue to be available at no cost for all students through the end of december 2020. beginning on november 9th breakfast and lunch meals will be served to students on their on premises days while they're in the building we will also continue to offer meals for families to pick up curbside but on a new day and time schedule we've emailed this information to district families as well as posted on the uh district website facebook and twitter pages

089and some more good news to share about the methectom backpack program uh we have station donation boxes outside of the east wing entrance at methachton high school and the arcola intermediate school main entrance to provide an easily accessible way for members of our school community to drop off pre-packaged food donations for the backpack program so please visit the methectom backpack program's official facebook page by visiting facebook.com with actin backpack for a list of most needed pre-packaged food items and for more information on how you can help support our students through this incredible program thank you and have a good night thank you miss kelly and now for our superintendent's report dr zurby thank you madam president uh this evening i just want to bring the the public and the board up to date on the

090act 34 process so it's important that uh everyone knows that the board of school directors have completed all the required actions as outlined under the act 34 process that is prior to accepting any bids on new construction of a school building in previous presentations kcba our architect firm had used slides indicating that the board would take an action to accept the hearing documents and related comments that matter was reviewed by our solicitor and was determined not to be a requirement under the act 34 process in order to remain consistent with the law i am hereby acknowledging that the board completed the act 34 process and has posted the comments received on our public website and have provided the board with the same we appreciate all that have provided comments and attended the hearing and we

091look forward to you know continuing the conversation about the arrowhead elementary school in our property as well as work session and voting meeting in november thank you dr zurby i also have just a brief statement about contract negotiations that i wanted to um to say so our board has a negotiations team and we have met with members of the methectone education association approximately 16 times beginning in early january of 2020 and as recently as just last week both sides have agreed in these meetings that we've made substantial progress in our effort to come to an agreement while things did slow down at the beginning of the pandemic progress has still been made since march and the board remains committed to continuing to work towards an agreement at this point we will take public comment on

092board action items this is an opportunity for residents to comment on matters to be decided upon as outlined on the agenda we ask you keep your comments to approximately four minutes or less the board may choose to respond to matters following conclusion of the comments on board action items it can be helpful when you are speaking on board action items to reference exactly where in the agenda the items can be found um it helps us in being able to address those comments when we get to that part of the agenda so for anyone that registered to speak this evening if you could just raise your hand in the zoom call and i will begin calling on some participants miss larcenies a quick question first like this is my hand you you didn't uh pre-register but

093i'll allow miseries all right um i just wanted to ask you i because i'm not on the negotiations committee did you say you've met 16 times i want to get that number correct approximately 16 times between early january and now um with some members of the negotiation team and some members of the association okay thank you you're welcome okay so first up i have mr john andrews mr andrews you are in whenever you are ready i'm ready uh john andrews law of providence on the list of bills uh page seven i don't have a check number but uh it lists uh keystone realty advisors and and assessment fees something about forty five thousand dollars uh i'd like to get an explanation of of that line item uh also uh uh i'd like to speak ahead

094of courtesy of the floor relative to the november education committee meeting it was posted on the on the meetings listed mr andrews says if it's not a voting item it really should wait until later well i think that there's an issue of a november second education meeting that was not at the end of the working session agenda i feel i've been cut off no you're still there oh okay thank you uh and also uh the policy committee meeting from november was originally listed as november 4th and now it's shown as november 2nd so i think some clarification on those would be appreciated ahead of courtesy of the floor thank you mr andrews next i have mr bickelman whenever you're ready okay are you there yep just state your name and municipality please my name is

095joe bickelman i'm from audubon uh the village without a school in lower providence i'd like to speak to item c 3. it's the uh approval of the resignation for retirement for mary mandia uh she was the sec she is the secretary to the superintendent i just want to say that i had the opportunity to meet mrs mandia when she was at eagleville and she was very professional and she had a very pleasant personality and i'm sure she served a lot of years here at mathactin and i'm sure she'll be missed the other item i would like to speak to has to do with the fiscal reports it's item 10 b the treasures report i'd like to speak to the 6.4 million dollars that is held in escrow for the shenandoah appeal this appeal has been

096going on for an excess of 10 years shannon dell pays their taxes and 25 of their taxes each year goes into this account while this is being litigated discussed negotiated between taxpayer for taxpayer and the district six hundred thousand dollars went in there this year okay so this has been going on 10 years an assessment appeal which is ridiculous i know the district just hired a forensic accountant probably to discuss the income power of that development and estimate the income if they're going to do the assessment based on income generation but this is something that should have never gone on for 10 years i can't imagine what the legal fees has been on this for over ten years the six hundred thousand dollars that represents twenty five percent of the bill this year that was

097put away that was put on the backs of the taxpayers their millage went up to cover the six hundred thousand as it did every other year before that to cover the 6.4 million dollars so i think when this finally gets settled somehow and whatever is left for the district and i'm sure there will be money left for the district to put back in their coffers this money should go back to the taxpayers in the form of a rebate check they should get the money back since they've been shouldering the burden for this assessment appeal for over 10 years 10 years that's a lot of legal fees and i don't know why this couldn't be settled long before this so this money any money that comes back to the district favorably needs to go back to

098the taxpayers in the form of a check because we've been shouldering it thank you mr bickelman next i have brian arnshaw okay whoops looks like i got the wrong person and try again okay mr and shaw you should be in whenever you're ready thank you brian earnshaw lower providence um first thank you to mr winters for suggesting that the board run through the agenda for the meeting and as you would during the work session um there are a number of items that i did under fully understand on the agenda that i had hoped that that would occur um so i really can't comment on because i really don't know all the facts behind them or or really what they're all about so it's very disappointing that mr winter's suggestion seems to have fallen on followed

099on deaf ears here um that being said again i i've also comments on fiscal item 10 b which is the treasures report i i just a lot of the same comments about as mr bickelman had about the shenandoah reserve and i agree with everything he said and including the ultimate disposition of those funds when this matter eventually gets resolved i will also point out that that six and a half million dollar balance is equivalent to the revenue the district it gets from tax increases over about three and a half years so it's a sizable amount that as mr bickleman stated that the taxpayers have borne um also in the treasury report had a question regarding the plight government obligation bond 2020 a account that has 18 million dollars which is the early borrowing for the

100arrowhead construction um i note that the interest rate on those funds is now down to 0.07 percent and the district is currently paying over two percent um out on those bonds so right now it's carrying the annual cost carrying cost of this by borrowing early is up to 360 thousand dollars so i'm wondering if there's anything to be done to mitigate the cost of the district borrowing early for the hourhead project when interest rates are really going nowhere for the foreseeable future uh thank you thank you mr earnshaw anyone else who pre-registered that has comments on board action items okay moving on with our agenda may i have a motion to approve the suspension of board policy 006.2 a specific regard to limitation of the number of school directors participating in a meeting electronically reese

101thank you miss reese is there a second always second thank you miss hull comments from the board seeing none all those in favor all right any opposed motion carries may have a motion to approve the minutes from the work session held september 22nd and the regular board meeting held september 29th as attached reese thank you miss reese their second drummond thank you mr drummond any comments seeing none all those in favor all right hi motion carries eight zero um fiscal items mr berker thank you madam president tonight for your approval is the list of bills the treasurer's report budgetary transfers 2021 capital projects we have two items one for eagleville to approve david blackmore associates to perform the geotechnical exploration at eagleville 5 650 the second one is for the high school canopy and pad

102project which is to approve zug and associates to review the construction submittals for a fee not to exceed 1500 and finally we have an approval for the connex open system recommendation uh to approve conex for a fee of 24 900 to be in work on an open system for the hva system at the high school both items uh d and e were moved by the property committee in this month's meeting thank you mr bricker and dr zerby um does anyone want to take any fiscal items separately okay can i have a motion to approve items a through e as presented under fiscal winners thank you mr winners is there a second drummond thank you mr drummond any comments from the board mr winners yeah uh tim if you could speak towards the item that we

103discussed in the property committee meeting related to the keystone and how that process works okay keystone advisors is a company that goes out and identifies properties that are under assessed for evaluation to see if they would fit the criteria of the school district which would require a minimum tax increase of ten thousand dollars that's due to the fact that that would cover the cost associated with doing the tax increase appeal on this specific invoice there was two properties that were completed we paid the keystone for the years associated with the original appeal on each of them it can be it is no less than three years but can go longer depending on the time frame that it takes to i guess either litigate and or get a settlement associated with that thank you mr bricker

104are there any other questions okay seeing none um all those in favor aye aye any opposed the motion carries 8-0 personnel items mr regina good evening madam president we have a number of items for the board's approval this evening we have one contract renewal we have three classified resignation for retirements and and to mr bickelman's point all three of these individuals are are major losses for the district um he spoke to mary mandia and i can tell you from working closely with mary and with diane sieberger we are losing two very valuable teammates um from the farina education center i've had the opportunity to meet bernadette as well and i know she's a fantastic pca for us so three major losses for us we have two classified employments one professional uncompensated leave and six supplemental

105contracts each of those coaching contracts sponsorship contracts and i believe there's two supplemental contracts for duties that were from retirements that had occurred this summer and individuals that had to fill in to finish up some of the duties for those individuals that had retired and then one volunteer list thank you mr regina does anyone want to take any of these personal items separately okay may i have a motion to approve all personnel items as presented reese thank you miss reese is there a second winners thank you mr winners any comments from the board aye ms reese um one question uh well one question couple comments mr regina winter coaches there's not too many vacancies there's always some so i just like to know kind of where we are in that process we i actually um

106haven't had the opportunity to speak with dr spuak in a couple days um so i'll uh i'll follow up with him tomorrow but i know he's working diligently to make sure that we have all those positions covered by the start of the year um uh understood and then um as far as comments uh thrilled to uh renew that number that first contract on the uh the uh the list there not too happy to accept those retirements but wish those three ladies all the best thank you miss reece any other comments from the board mr winners i'd also like to comment on uh the retain or intention of uh mr rajini um i think your ability to uh gain the respect of all parties in the district in such a short period of time um speaks

107uh as a tremendous asset to the fact and uh i'm thrilled to be renewing your contract thank you mr winners mr drummond and i'll just echo the um the thoughts around mary mandia's retirement and what a warm and and wonderful personality she is and and just all the care that she's brought to the to the district it's been a real pleasure to work with her and um i wish her all the best in her retirement any other comments yeah i'll just reiterate um mary mandia in addition to being the superintendent secretary is the secretary to the board so um she has to deal with the nine of us and our occasional craziness and our failure to respond to emails and um trying to schedule executive sessions and and all of the other insanity that comes

108with managing a group of nine volunteers um and she always does it with a smile and she always does it with humor and it has been an absolute joy to work with her over the last few years um and yes she will be greatly missed um but she's not going to be gone i we will we'll find a way we will track her down when covid's over we're going to have a night out with mary mandia all right um if there's no other comments on personal personnel matters then i'll take a vote here all those in favor hi hi any opposed okay the motion carries eight zero uh curriculum and programs dr walsh i believe you have the evening off in that arena tonight um policy we have seven policies coming up for first reading

109and 12 policies up for second reading um are there um well first may have a motion to approve the 12 policies for second reading i'll make the motion thank you miss hall a second one mr winners with the second any comments on these policies okay seeing none all those in favor any opposed motion carries eight zero uh gifts and donations it looks like we have two music donations from the o'brien family for the skyview music program thank you so much um and then we have the approval of the winner athletic and activities health and safety plan so may i have a motion to approve the gifts and the winter activities health and safety plan is presented reece thank you miss reese and sarah second my goodness thank you mr mcginnis any comments from the board

110seeing none all those in favor aye aye anyone opposed motion carries eight zero uh dates for board members calendars um dr zerby i know there was some questions about um whether or not these dates had been changed um can you confirm these are the correct dates or that where we can make sure that the dates are correct as of right now i would not um count on the dates listed on this agenda okay so um our the dates for the the meetings have been advertised as required and are posted on the district website so um board members we should all have these in our calendars um but for members of the public if you are looking for one of our meetings um please just look to the website and the calendar that's posted there for

111the correct dates and i apologize for any confusion that that created um is there any old business this evening um not really old business but just quickly wanted to mention two things i wanted to um acknowledge all the winner all the staff that dr mangano mentioned at arcola because all of them have probably worked with my own children in some way or another and i wanted to profusely apologize to miss motley who is dealing with one of my twins this year who does not seem to know how to do an attendance ticket so she deserves that award even more so i like to be open and honest and although this meeting is not about me i have received comments from some members of the public that they sometimes see me making faces or what have

112you and i just wanted to acknowledge that i have been on zoom for months and i live with four humans and six animals so i apologize that sometimes my humans get in the way and i know i've also people have commented that um about my dog recently so i just wanted you to know that um for those who care and wonder um i've been nursing this little guy back to health for about three weeks after a very serious accident so he has she has popped her head in and is doing very well so she's not barking but i apologize if it seems unprofessional or what have you but uh living on zoom for all of us is a challenge so thank you to the members of the public for their understanding and to the members

113of the board for their understanding thank you miss reece yes real life does spill over into zoom uh sometimes at the most inopportune uh anything else for old business can i just make one comment absolutely miss hall i i know that my article was referenced that i shared earlier and i wanted if anyone did not receive it from me and was interested i just wanted to point them to policylab.chop.edu blog that is where they have numerous articles posted and the one that was referenced tonight was dated october 14th there's a lot of good information on that site thank you miss hall i i sometimes think maybe you should get your own blog going just to share all the information that you find viewer always a wealth of information for the rest of us on the

114board so thank you anything else for old business miss drummond i just want to shout out to the hour mark the cafeteria staff for the lunch distribution i know we've been moving a lot of lunches out to families and um i just want to commend them for all the work that they're doing um standing outside and doing that and it's it's much appreciated by the district's families so thank you thank you mr man anyone else with old business anyone with new business ms hope actually i'm not sure if this is old or new but um i have actually been watching some of the live streaming of the sports and i was curious while we have dr stewart on the call if we know um assuming that we will be moving forward with winter sports if

115we will continue to try to attempt to stream those games and if we would have announcers for any of them yes uh first a shout out to mr bradley wolf who you saw on the agenda tonight he has gone above and beyond uh to announce and the attempt was to announce many of our events but we did have some challenges um throughout the installation process but we had a very successful streaming process friday night and to answer your question uh the camera system is installed already in the main gym and is fully calibrated and ready to go for our winter season and so any event that would take place in the main gymnasium would be streamed and with a little bit of additional support moving forward we should have opportunities to stream events outside of

116the main gym as well so yes absolutely thank you very much mr winters so this is an idea that um um that may fly fall flat on his face but maybe for amanda one of the commun comments that have been made to the to us many times is the ability to reach out beyond those that are involved with the schools and getting more of the community understand what's going on um i don't know if there's a way to partner with lower providence that sends out a i don't know if it's i don't know how often it comes out but there's a lower providence newsletter that comes out with many much information of what's going on on the township if they would give us a page to provide some updates on a monthly basis for from

117the facton and then similarly if there's something in warchester township that could be used so that we can get a broader perspective without really a tax uh impact and uh hopefully lower providence township supervisor we consider that and possibly war sister as well to broaden our communication to the to community members that may not be actively uh having a student go through the district ability for us to be able to do that is being investigated so stay tuned anything else for new business all right so the board will now take courtesy of the floor this is an opportunity for residents to comment on matters that could come before the board of directors we ask you to keep your comments to four minutes or less we may choose to respond to matters following the conclusion of

118courtesy of the floor and i neglected to ask earlier if you could um just begin by stating your name and municipality where you live so anyone that has pre-registered to speak during courtesy of the floor if you could just raise your hand okay mr bickleman you are in whenever you're ready hang on are you there yes i am joseph bickelman from audubon lower providence i just want to speak to the fact that it's been uh printed it's on the district website that there would be a vote on act 34 tonight it's hard to believe that we have an architect that does many fine school designs that actually puts on a slide pack 34 vote and it's also on the website still on the website and it's not going to be voted on so you have

119an architect that put that on there and the architects to blame and we don't run it by the solicitor nobody checks it out till now so it just seems a little bad business before you reject the bids in november for building an arrowhead i want to say that you shouldn't build a new arrowhead because of capacity you have a arcola intermediate school that has 771 kids it holds 1290 functional capacity according to dr zurby and uh you should move sixth grade over there and set up the k to five you shouldn't build a new arrowhead because you don't have enrollment figures that dictate building a school for 625 kids okay you don't have an enrollment projection that says that you're building a building for 625 kids the current one is 550 students okay so you

120shouldn't do that you shouldn't build a new arrowhead because you didn't have the money to do it in the first place you had to refinance 2013 and 2016 debt at a cost of five hundred thousand dollars in order to afford the payments in the budget so you didn't have the money to do it you don't have the money to do it you couldn't fit the payments in the budget for the new borrowing for our head get this you had a capital improvement plan in 2016 done by aem a professional consultant telling you what it's going to take to fix all the buildings and catch up on the capital repairs it was 14 million to repair our head and the board estimated or had estimates done that would be 25 million to rebuild sounded like you

121were gonna repair arrowhead then the architect comes in kcba kcba says it's not going to take 25 million to build a new arrowhead it's going to be 34 million to build a new arrowhead so that 14 million in repair looks pretty bad you'd repair it if it costs 34 million to build a new one so the new architect said it's going to be 32 million to repair which is up close to the 34 million to rebuild so the decision is basically easy to make for the board oh by the way the architect is getting five and a half percent of the total cost which is about a million and a half i need an answer of why the gym at the new arrowhead is two and a half times the size of the current gym

122why it has a separate cafeteria in the new arrowhead you need to tell me why it's that much bigger the act 80 day on 11 3 counts as a student instruction day counts towards those 990 hours of student instruction teachers in front of the room instructing the kids it's an in-service day for teachers and there's other 80 days the kids lose out because they're not getting instructed i want to say that chris spletzer and serena goodrich did a great job on their student report today and chris really looks sharp in his tie he knows where he is dr zerby no comment on your secretary retiring that's bad taste i just don't get that thank you mr bickleman next i have john andrews whenever you're writing mr andrews providence a few weeks ago i had some

123email communications with mary mandia and they were written so pleasantly that that i wrote to her at that time saying that when she took the emily post course whenever she did it that she must have gotten an a plus so her her wonderful uh way of working here will will be missed this evening there was an agenda item act 34 vote that the superintendent addressed that as if nothing happened over the last 60 days of comments uh 60 days in which uh the public opposition to a new arrowhead loomed huge uh perhaps an eight to one opposition to it i think this evening would be an excellent time for the board to have some discussions relative to to this series of of events the public discourse and the uh urge via the superintendent that there'd

124be no discussion i would have liked to have heard the board president speak to the issue it's not an education matter it's a board policy matter and the president should be capable of speaking for the board not relying on some administrator to speak for the board there also is diminishing support for arrowhead there are only 28 parents that spoke up for it at the in terms of hearing testimony high school rank has been in decline that came became obvious in 2019 and in 2020 rank has gone from 11 to 65. perhaps that's related to the enrollment decline over 11 years 12 decline worst in the county it says we need to fix something replacing arrowhead won't be the fix for that something the arrowhead plan is extravagant and unjustified and in terms of capacity addition

125there's no enrollment projection to support that the logical enrollment projection is a continuation of the decline adding to excess empty seats the full day kindergarten plan is unsettled it's still the fall and and maybe that's a tbd for later this fall we shouldn't be contracting out for rooms that we'll never need the debt load of the arrowhead school may limit future financial flexibility and it will certainly have an impact on the salary's schedule over multiple contracts the debt load goes out to the year 2046. again i say that this evening when it's not even nine o'clock that the board should not be silent on the issue of further discussions of the arrowhead project thank you thank you mr andrews next i have brian earnshaw whenever you're ready mr earnshaw uh brian earnshaw lower providence um

126also have some comments regarding the arrowhead project um i certainly hope that the board is planning to if they've not already done so read all the acts for act 34 testimony that has been submitted um i found it interesting that 60 of the comments were against this project and i there's a lot of good feedback in there both for and against but again 60 against um i also think it's important that you note the current enrollment trends um against projections which were an important part of this project if you look at cater for enrollment in october 2020 actual is 1588 projected was 17.08 so current enrollment is 7 or 127 120 students below projected for k to four looking at ira specifically um current enrollment 384 projected at this time was 417 8 below projection

127another interesting note is that if a school with a capacity of 625 students is built it will open at a 61 percent utilization rate which is essentially where our coal is right now highly inefficient at the september meeting mr brooker gave a dead overview uh master called it a master plan debtor overview um i thought it was going to be more keyed around arrowhead some key points missing from that presentation that makes sure everyone's still aware of is that the irid project will increase the debt service requirements of the district by 70 percent to 140 million well over 100 percent of the annual budget uh as mr andrews mentioned the final maturities of debt will go from 2035 to 2046 an 11 year increase mr bricker also didn't mention in his presentation that you know

128there's still bars to be required for the master plan those were not factored into any of the analysis that he had put together um and i think that's that's very important because it doesn't give you a complete picture of where the debt load is going to wind up um once all these capital projects are completed um so all very important points um a lot of these issues have been raised over the past few months if not a couple years and it'd be good to hear in the final discussion i was kind of hoping that it would happen tonight with this supposed planned act 34 vote but obviously that's not happening so i'm hoping any of the property committee and or work session and board meeting that a lot of these concerns get addressed um and

129i think it's important that uh taxpayers here answer these questions um and understand what the thinking is thank you mr earnshaw next i have sharon kaplan miss kaplan you're in whenever you're ready sharon kaplan lower providence township um tonight mr winters asked about students who are returning for hybrid that the students who did choose to return if they would be able to go back to virtual and i um i just think you should know that parents are receiving mixed messages to this question depending on what school they're in some principals are saying yes they will absolutely take the students mental health into they'll look at the mental health and what's working for the student and if the student needs to return to virtual that that's a possibility other principals are saying no you make a

130choice and that's what you're stuck with until january 28th i think we need to remember that we have students who will be returning to our buildings after being away for eight months and that alone can cause anxiety in students who who have never had anxieties before and i think that when we are talking about a pandemic and looking at what we have asked of the teachers in showing grace and flexibility to our students since march think that the school board and the principals need to also show that same grace and flexibility to the students who are returning to school and if it's just too much they need to be given the option to return to virtual i understand the um difficulties in transitioning from virtual to hybrid but the change from hybrid to virtual really

131isn't as big an issue as some people seem to think it might be so i'm just asking that some flexibility be shown to the children who are returning to our schools thank you miss kaplan next i have channeling ma whenever you're ready you can unmute hello can you hear me hi uh chun ling ma from world sister township i just have a question regarding act 34 a vote um because on september 8th the hearing the act 34 uh we heard uh they will collect the comments until october 8th and then there will be a board vote happening today but i do not see the vote on the calendar in agenda i just want the board to give me an examination or i believe the board owes the public explanation on that why this one is

132not happening and then we were told in september on september 8th there will be a poor vote okay this isn't really a time for questions and answers but we can address your comments later okay thank you okay did you have anything else um no i i also like the board to address uh or discuss uh the the feedback uh you received uh the comments you collected from the residents uh have a summary something like that like i think of brian earnshaw and they also also mentioned they would like the board to discuss have some discussion on that okay thank you okay thanks okay and i have amy smith miss smith whenever you're ready hi amy smith warcester i am i just wanted to say uh thank you to the board um i know that it's

133been a lot of work um for everyone the board as well as the administration and and teachers to prepare for uh presenting a hybrid option and for bringing that forward and i also want to say thank you um to for us to still have the virtual option um as well and i appreciate all the time and effort people put into it uh one thing i would just like to bring to the board's attention is that the dei office that was voted on back in the summer there haven't been any public updates to where we we stand with that uh where we are in the process i know that it's something that's going to be in development and i know that there's other other things that have been uh much more pressing at the moment in

134terms of logistics and and education but i would just like to um ask that we have an update on that uh at the next meeting so that people are aware of where we are in the process because it will be a process right to establish that office and and to bring someone on board to to help the district with that and to collect the the data that's needed for analysis before we institute any any policies or make any changes in the fact in so i would just ask the board and the administration that we have an update on that next month's meeting thank thanks miss smith okay it doesn't look like we have anyone else with hands raised at this time so i did want to give the board an opportunity um i had a

135few things that i wanted to respond to in the public comments there um obviously that the big concern right now is the fact that we did not vote on the act 34 um hearing documents um i understand that there was some confusion and i do appreciate that our solicitor weighed in on that um and and that was ultimately where our decision lies is that the solicitor has said that there was no need for an act vote um and honestly i i think there may even be there can be implications of voting for something when it's not a requirement to vote so um if it's not something that we're required to do please know it it does not in any way negate the feedback that we received i can assure you that every board member has

136received the feedback um i know that we're all reading through it and we are very much aware of of the public um input as part of the act 34 process um some of the specific things that i've heard called out a lot in the recent comments about arrowhead i know that we've addressed some of these things in the past and maybe as we move into our november meetings we can address them again we've talked about issues such as the capacity at arcola we've talked about how capacity at arcola has actually changed with the construction of skyview um portions of arcola of the original arcola six to eight school are now part of skyview so the capacity of arcola is not the same now as it once was it's actually reduced um some of the so-called

137extra space that arcola is spaced that is being used for some of our special education services um they it is also includes um shared science lab space um if there's a room that's in between science classrooms that's used for storage of lab equipment and things like that that is considered to be an unused space even though it is very much in use in the building um so that is another factor that weighs into the um capacity factor or the capacity figures that we see for arcola um another issue that i've heard brought up a lot lately is the capacity for arrowhead the size of the gym the size of the cafeteria and i do know that we asked some specific questions of kcba as part of their process and found that um reducing the the

138overall size of the building whether you know we build for 525 or 625 whether or not we have that the size of gym that we have right now um it's my recollection that that did not significantly impact the overall cost of the building and maybe that's something that we want to revisit and clarify but that that was my recollection specifically around the number of classrooms um obviously it does make it a little bit cheaper but um not of a magnitude that it um not of the magnitude that some may think um act 80 days counting as instruction time um i'm not sure who it would be that would clarify this but i believe act 80 states that days that are used for professional development for teachers by law are can be counted as instructional time

139because they are directly impacting the instruction that is given to students so dr zurby i don't know if that's something that you can speak to if that would fall under dr walsh um but just the act 80 i believe is referring to an actual statute or law correct yes it refers to the the fact where school districts in lieu of an instructional day for students where instruction is delivered can provide professional development to their staff it does not uh minimize the obligation of the district to meet the hour requirement but it but it allows for the district to forego the obligation for the day requirement okay thank you and obviously um you know that being a professional development and in-service related to the delivery of the hybrid model um is going to have a very

140significant direct impact on our students so i have no problem with with us using an act 80 day for something that critical at this point in time um i think that is all that i had um i do sorry i do have a couple more things if we could um dr zerby maybe um reach out to building principals over the next few days and just clarify and confirm that everyone is on the same page regarding um students shifting from hybrid into virtual so that we can make sure that all of our families are getting the same message from all building levels um i know there's been a lot of information coming at people over the last few weeks and so it's it's understandable that there are some things that we could have mixed messages about

141so it sounds like this might be something worth clarifying we'll do and um do we have any updates i know that our dei um team has met our ad hoc committee has met um do we have any updates on where that process stands i see you raising your hand miss purdue are you is that regarding that thank you so um i was actually going to provide an update last week but because we um didn't have the meeting last week or we moved it to this week i didn't provide one we did capture immediate um updates from the ad hoc committee and that's in the education committee media minutes so in those media minutes the information is there and briefly um to say we met on october 2nd and in that meeting we just reviewed a

142proposal that's being provided to us by dr bruce campo who's working with other neighboring school districts on the efforts of diversity equity and inclusion i believe dr zurby have a meeting with the building principles to review that proposal and along with that some questions that were provided to him to provide some input to dr campbell and then we plan to meet back together again hopefully in november to capture some of the information and just see where we'll take um the next approach to but we'll be working with um based on what happens we will review whether we'll um take the approach to work with dr campbell in the future in our efforts for diversity equity and inclusion thank you mr purdue i appreciate that and it's good to know that we can look for those

143meeting minutes within the education committee minutes does anyone else have any parting words comments points of discussion going once going twice okay um i will take a motion to adjourn mcginnis i know i can count on you is there a second okay thank you miss purdue all right um meeting adjourned i think this may be the earliest we've adjourned in months so enjoy everyone have a good night good night