001Give you one minute to direct us to there. We are live. You may begin. >> All right. Thank you very much, Mrs. Fakish. Good evening, friends. This is our February 10th ECI meeting calling into order. And I'd like to start with the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, thank you very much for that. We have a great meeting this evening. Looking forward to hearing from some of our tremendous staff members. Uh but before we get to some of theformational items, we have a few things to do business-wise. And the first I see is the approval of minutes. And so could I please have a
002motion to approve the minutes from the ECI committee meeting that was held on January 13, 2026. >> Second. >> Thank you very much. Motion by Mrs. Coin, second by Dr. Tio. And all in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? >> All right, we are approved. We have some student travel this evening. >> Yes, we do. Good evening, everyone. Uh just one item tonight for student travel and we are recommending that five uh Key Club students as well as two staff members attend the Key Club Pennsylvania District annual convention which is in Harrisburg April 10th through the 12th. The cost to the district is about $769. Uh that's mostly for transportation and the half-day subs. And the remainder of the cost uh will be $125 per student. Any student experiencing hardship will be getting assistance
003from the key clubs activity account. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Waters. So I have a motion, please. >> Motion by Dr. to second by Mrs. Coin on FA. Oh, I'm sorry. Any questions or discussion? >> Well, just happy to see the district supporting that kind of that kind of uh club. >> Yes, absolutely. One of many. Good stuff. >> Uh all right. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Good luck, kids. All right. All right. Now, we have someformational items. Who do we have with us this evening? >> All right. Tonight, uh, we have, uh, several people here tonight. I think taking the lead though on the presentation to just give you an update on what we've been doing, uh, professional development wise. We have our supervisor of
004professional learning, Mrs. Jackie Giamarco will pres be presenting, and Mrs. Rachel Early who is one of our supervisors of humanities and ELD. Uh they work very closely together with what we uh call affectionately goal one which is all around professional development. We also have um our new elementary director here who just transitioned from being the curriculum director. So she's still here and able to answer some questions. And we have Dr. Sean Arie, who is currently our interim director of curriculum filling in um while we try to replace Dr. Hart. I think that's everybody. So, I'm going to turn it over to Jackie and Rachel to kick things off. Hi everyone. Thanks for having us. Um Mary, could you um bring up the slides? Thank you. So, I'm excited uh to be here with Rachel to
005talk all about our professional development. Um particularly what we're focusing on this year. Um if you could go to the next slide. Uh we thought we'd start with just key components of professional development. Both the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the US Department of Education have really been um emphasizing what qualifies professional development. And so we want to ensure what we're offering actually qualifies for professional development. And so the emphasis is really on sustained, so things that are ongoing, collaborative, and job embedded um and really use evidence and data to kind of um uh prioritize sessions. Uh we hope to really support all of our staff. So again, we're not just talking about teachers, but we're talking about paraprofessionals, which I know our directors of special education just presented to ECI recently. Um, but also
006all support staff. Um, and aligning it to district and building goals and needs. Um, and also that professional development provides flexibility, recognizing that we have many employee groups in the district. And so trying to be flexible on how that's delivered and sessions that are offered and taking that into consideration when we're planning it. If you could go to the next slide. So this year our focus uh areas really you can see them on the slide. School safety uh cultural proficiency equity and inclusion. I'll talk about those kind of sub bullet points a little bit. Curriculum instruction and supporting new teachers. And I think what's important is these focus areas really are directly tied to our comprehensive plan. And so we had a large committee together. Uh Dr. Waters held many sessions around that. We uh
007surveyed stakeholders uh looked at academic data and really identified some key areas of focus for a comprehensive plan. And then that becomes kind of the driver in our professional development as well. again, making sure that it's tied to district and building goals and meeting the needs of all of our employees. Um, this year, uh, through our c cultural proficiency and equity, uh, and inclusion work, we really, and this is outlined in our comprehensive plan, it wanted to take a look at PLC's, which are professional learning communities where teachers come together and really collaborate on common goals. They look at student work and data and then use that to address um any needs and shift instruction um as well as supporting our multilingual learners. Um so curriculum instruction again taking that data um to kind of
008identify you know where are we in curriculum review what are the needs of those departments and planning sessions accordingly. And we'll talk about each of these components a little bit um tonight. you could go to the next slide. Thank you. So, first you saw first and foremost school safety and I know Mr. Brandon Ran has presented to both ECI and the larger um uh board as well, but really an emphasis um throughout the year. And so, we always start our year with in-person um school safety training. We just had additional school safety training in January. And then there's additional trainings throughout the year um at each individual building. So lots of training happening throughout the year. In addition to those um we have cyber security training. So again if we think about safety in totality
009really just being able to um navigate the digital world as well. Um we just completed Title N training. Um myself and uh Dr. Arie and Rachel are also part of the emergency response team. And so we have a large um team of administrators and teachers who um are trained and are receiving ongoing training about you know should something significant happen, what's the team response there. Um and then also we have safe and positive approaches which are really um approaches used to deescalate situations. We have um we have teams at each building that are trained each year and we work with our special education department to ensure that that proper training happens um in a timely manner. It it goes in like a cycle. So making sure that everybody's up to date on their training for
010that as well. Um so that's kind of a summary of our school safety. I know Mr. Ran presented in depth recently as well. um but consistently and constantly a focus um as we move forward. And I'll pass it to Rachel. Thank you, Jackie. Good evening, everyone. Um I have the pleasure of talking about our cultural proficiency, equity, and inclusion work um that has gone on so far this year and will go on um for the remainder of this year. As you can see at the top of the heading there, we have the dates listed for our four sessions this year. which were very strategic. As you can see, there's was one in the fall. We recently had one in January and then we will have two more, one in March and in May. And these
011are just great times because when with particularly with our focus of data and data to impact in the fall, we can look at beginning of year data. In January, we can look at our mid-year data. In March, we can look at our data right before state assessments. And then in May, at the end of the year. So there are four key times. Um and as Jackie shared um in addition to that data to impact focus, there is a focus on professional learning um communities and that work goes on in every building. There is a minimum of them meeting monthly. So that work in terms of data and student focused conversations can occur each month in between our cultural proficiency, equity and inclusion sessions. So that kind of provides the full picture of meeting as a
012building but then also meeting within their own PLC. Of course we have an equity focus that all students are engaged, inspired and successful and really asking intentional questions. Why are students succeeding? Why are they not succeeding? How can we help them succeed? Um so that's just really an important part of our overall plan for this year. We can move to the next slide. Okay. So, as we also kind of highlighted, a big part of our professional development plan is supporting multilingual learners. Um, we took a different approach this year. Um, we've read, we do feedback for every single professional development session. Teachers complete a feedback form and we do read it. Um, and there was a lot of notes in regards to we have an increasing multilingual learner population. I need training in order to
013meet the needs of this student population. And we had offered a lot of sessions in the past on our professional development days, but never an entire day where this was the core central focus. So um we had a session in the fall on October 20th. Um we were fortunate enough to have a wonderful keynote speaker Dr. Pash Patel who is a community member and an administrator in a neighboring school district. he himself was an immigrant and started off the day with sharing his story um as an English learner and then his journey and then also um his own experience as a parent and community member in our school district. Um and a lot of our teachers found his in his story to be very inspirational and he also led breakout sessions and we had 53
014other sessions to accommodate all of our staff at elementary and secondary. Um and just some highlights of those 53 sessions were mindset and awareness, um how to engage families, um instructional strategies. Um we also had sessions that were content specific for math and others because a lot of that was another feedback item from many of our teachers. I want a content specific session. Um and our tech team offered some sessions on digital tools as there there's many new tools that are developed every single year to help multilingual learners. And another key hallmark of this day was we had the conference style session as one part of the day and then another half day just for application. So teachers received resources and they were able to take that time and apply it to their classroom because
015so often our feedback with professional development is okay this is great but when do I have the time to implement it into the classroom. So that was part of that session. So, we were really excited about that and I think that overall our staff benefited from all of those who were willing to present on that day. And then we can move on to discuss overall curriculum instruction. And as Jackie shared, this is pretty broad. Um, but we're going to do our best to really hammer down all of the specific areas that we've offered so far this year and we'll offer before the end of the school year closes. Every August, um, our colleague, uh, Nina Fencmaker, who's our ELA supervisor, um, hosts a or at least for the last couple years, a literacy symposium for
016teachers who want to attend. Um, and just really bolster their skills to start the school year. Um, so we offered that in August. Um, and it's really great because teachers can attend right before the school year starts. Um, structured literacy, professional development that she offers every single year. Um we actually had one this morning um a training that occurred at the ESC. Uh she also led a table scoring session for elementary where grade levels were able to meet take a look at rubrics and talk about consistency and scoring within the ELA area. We've also had our K through 12 steels um cohort um leadership and science team meet and that's really been a wonderful example of K through 12. So until that cohort started um that group has not been together K12 and it's been
017really great to see all the work that they've been accomplishing with making the steel standards a reality at North Penn. Um we've also had our shield group. So Shield was new this past school year um at elementary the new special and so they've received training from project lead the way Legos and code.org which code.org which are some of our vendor partners for that program. We also held something new the last two years which I think is something we'll continue based upon teacher feedback which is a secondary resource showcase. Um we decided part of the calendar for this school year if you remember there was a early dismissal day in that Thanksgiving week and um so we decided to during that time period really partner with a lot of our vendors such as linkit which is
018our data warehouse some of our other assessment providers and offer a variety of professional development sessions for teachers to dive into whether they needed to bo bolster their skills in a particular area. Other trainings included technology integration with support from our tech coaches and tech team. Um 504 training for our guidance counselors, specialized classroom trainings for special education. And then as Jackie also shared, every single year we have areas that are going through curriculum review which require time to analyze resources, take a look at updated standards, write updated curriculum frameworks. So that is also going on this year like every other year and we are also fortunate enough to have some learning coaches that provide that job embedded coaching. I will just say before we move on to supporting new teachers that this like scratches
019the surface for all that's happening this year within curriculum and instruction. when we were talking with the other supervisors, we tried to highlight a little bit from all areas, but it just really kind of highlights that we really try to um identify the needs across all areas. Um, but there's so much more um happening in addition to um you know, everything that's on this slide, but amazing things happening all year round um for all of our staff. Um awesome. Thank you. Uh can you go to the next slide, Mary? So in addition to professional learning, part of um that I supervise our induction program uh which is our new pro our program for new teachers coming into the district. Um and so every year um in August we have a two-day orientation for all new
020hires. So it's usually a pretty large group. I think this past summer we had over a hundred new educators coming into the district. Um, now not all of them will enter the induction program. So, for example, if you have um a teacher who's been teaching for for a while from another neighboring district who's just coming to North Penn, they'll come to orientation, but they may not, if they've already completed induction, need to participate in the induction program. Um, this is the first year. Um, the state uh changed the requirements for induction and so it is now a 2-year induction program. Um, so we have two co cohorts going. We have a secondyear cohort who started in induction last year and we have a new cohort who are they're in their first year. Um and really
021it is all the program is built around um you know the state's chapter 49 guidelines for induction programs which some of them are bolted there in regards to like professional ethics, the common ground framework, navigating the evaluation process, universal design for learning. So you heard that on the previous slide with um you know some of our curriculum work as well. It's really a big focus on inclusive practices and trauma-informed practices to meet the needs of all learners. Um so that is really woven throughout our induction program and we have kind of structured it in a way um that uh our educators are really building on that. So they kind of get we talk a little bit about it at orientation and then gradually build over the course of the two years with an emphasis again
022on that application piece. so important to not just talk about it, think about it, but actually have time to try some things out and reflect on what's working, what's not, how do I meet the needs, or this is popping up in my class, you know, what could I do differently? Um, so that's really how we structure the program. Um, a key component of any successful induction program really is our mentor program. So, uh, first year teachers coming in are partnered with a mentor. Um, we I I don't think we've had any issues with this, but we really try to make sure the mentor is in the same content and level. So, if I'm a second grade teacher, I'm really going to try hard to pair it with another second grade teacher in my building. Or
023if I'm an art teacher at the middle school, uh, I'm going to have a middle school uh, art teacher as my mentor. So, really making those efforts. Sometimes we end up in tricky situations where maybe we have one person at a building and so then we'll connect them to somebody in another building and just have a point person in their building. So we really do try to make sure it's a layered approach so that they have both the building contact for all those you know questions at the building level but also that curriculum and content contact so that they can get all their questions answered from that regard. Um and then again built into the um coaching coaching um I'm sorry the induction program is job embedded coaching. So we work very closely with our
024learning coach team. Um Ron Martiello is uh helps us run the induction program and then really the first session that we have with inductees is meeting all the human supports that we have in North Penn and it's amazing. We bring in the learning coaches, inclusion facilitators, um people from different departments just so that they can see the people that they can reach out to and sometimes at that point they already have questions. So they'll connect with them, exchange emails, um and we just encourage them to utilize that support. But love our new teachers, they do a phenomenal job um and love being a part of this program. Um if you could go to the next slide. So upcoming PD um we have a few days left. So uh March 20th we have that role specific
025professional learning and so we started using that term again to make sure that we were meeting the needs of all of our staff members and planning accordingly. Um and so we'll have that for half the day and half the day will be that um from data to impact session really focusing on data PLC's and our cultural proficiency and equity work. March 30th um will be virtual. Um and so because of where this lands, we try to provide again the flexibility where we can. And the day is really focused on universal design for learning um and artificial intelligence in K to2. And so teachers will have a variety of sessions that they can choose from. Um but the idea is that they'll have at least one session in UDL and one session for AI and then
026they'll have an opportunity to again apply those skills and strategies so that it's meaningful in their spaces. um May 19th and is our last day and again we have some role specific professional learning where sessions will be developed specifically for um the educator in their spaces and departments and our final from data to impact session and we'll do a little bit reflection and ask for feedback is so that we can plan for next year. The last thing that I wanted to mention is um flex. So this is seven hours that our teachers complete on their own and it's really customizable professional learning. So it is they get to choose how those seven hours are spent. Um we encourage teachers to really think about areas that they want to develop in their um content or you
027know ways that they're interacting with students. Some of our supervisors or principles offer sessions and teachers will attend those, but teachers are able to um submit an individual proposal and really make it what they want. Um and so we are um excited to offer that and usually teachers have to complete that by June 1st. And I think that is it. Um does anybody have any questions? Oh, before we go to questions, I'll just I just want to add so after every session we ask for feedback um and so not only do we complete a needs assessment in order to you know de um develop our you know focus areas and priorities but then after every session we reach out we ask everybody to complete a Google form um to get feedback on how the session
028went maybe what questions remain so that if we need to make adjustments moving forward or we need to rethink future sessions, we can do that. And so that becomes really important. Um sometimes we follow up individually with, you know, people just based on their feedback. Um it's one of my favorite things to do is read all the feedback forms after every session. Um and so that just becomes really important in our planning process. >> Okay, awesome. Thank you ladies. We were really excited to see professional development on the agenda uh as you guys are such a key component to uh how the district functions with the communication just between teachers as colleagues and then also trying to understand how our initiatives are coming down the pike and getting them ready to do their best work
029in the classroom. Uh so I'll open up my colleagues I know might have some questions and student reps I know you guys are here Celia and Malachi if you want to think of uh a few questions from the presentation feel free to chime in as well. Uh, I just want to offer Celia, would you like to go? Would you like to go first if you have any questions or comments? >> I did not have any questions or comments about the presentation. >> Okay. Um, thank you so much for the the presentation. Um I think one of my um areas I would say to learn more is is more on the staff side and what their experience is. So I appreciate um the effort that goes into place to make sure that they have what they
030need to service our students. Um I did have I did have two questions um about the multilingual learner. I just a point of clarification that's not part of the cultural um prof um the equity and inclusion quarterly. It seemed like a every like um the four sessions that was a once that was a one-time thing in 2025. >> Correct. We had a standalone day for supporting multilingual learners. >> Okay. Wonderful. Um, and uh I guess is the is the assumption that would that be an annual type of training since it was a large it seemed like a very a lot of effort and a lot of time um and you know it's really hard to balance you know certain certain trainings over others that all have to be done within the calendar the uh the
031school year. Um, so is is it the thought that that is a um not a oneanddone but maybe not an every year thing or or is it more like an annual idea? I think um so what we're doing now is we meet periodically with our PD committee to get feedback on that as we look at the calendar for next year um and starting to kind of say okay this is what we did. Certainly, we don't want to just have that amazing day and not, you know, do it again, but really tying it everything that we've been doing into then what we're continuing to do next year. And so it may look different next year. Um but definitely we will continue to um you know reinforce and um offer similar sessions but it just might look
032different depending on um again like just where how the calendar falls and how we need to schedule it out. So it really depends on how that works out in the end. >> Thank you. Um, and I do appreciate the the effort with equity and inclusion and um that it's kind of like uh it's not quarterly but it's four four times a it looks like four times a year. Um because again very much the efforts to be inclusive I feel like and I know it shows that it it improves the experience for everyone. So, I I appreciate the the dedication to that, but also curious and perhaps this is another call or another conversation. Um, it's data driven and I I I guess I would like insight into what is that data and then what is
033the measure of success that it's having a positive impact. So I'll just say it's a little bit different like as we yes we look at state data um at each level but then also the specific assessments that are used at each level in each area. And so again like um this is where our building principles are looking at that with their data teams every year. Um and then um we're using that information as well. So, um it is like an iterative process, if you will. Um currently our we're in the process of updating some of our secondary assessments. Um and so just helping teams be able to kind of like set goals. Um and really recognize, okay, where are we making that progress and where where do we maybe need to continue to do some
034work? So, it is an ongoing process. >> That's it. That's all I have for right now. I there's there's more things, but I it it'll come. I know. Thank you. >> It's really easy because each of these bullet points could be their own presentations and and often are right in in their different meetings. So, uh we appreciate that because you guys have to be experts in all of these different things. Uh Dr. Tea, anything from you, sir? >> Just a question and a couple of comments. Um first, just compliments to Miss Early and Miss G. Marco for the really thoughtful and comprehensive presentation and um also for the slides. They were um they were quite informative and so I know that probably took a lot of work to put those together. So really thank you
035so much for doing that. Um really want to underscore and plus one some of the work that you all are doing around the data to impact and PLC sessions. uh really appreciate strewn throughout the conversation around how you're using data to inform practice both um whether it's standardized tests but also in the feedback you're getting from the other educators uh who participate. So really appreciate that effort. Um this is just a a curiosity around how North Pen is working on AI issues and so excited to hear more down the road post March 30th and your session on the AI work and what uh North how North Pen is approaching it. Uh so the only question that I think uh remains for me is uh you mentioned the seven hours of flex time that teachers have
036to choose uh some of their own topics or external professional development and I recognize full well that um the full range of hours that a teacher and staff spend on professional development ranges probably uh for the instructor but uh curious like how you think about how many hours a teacher has um over the course of the year or the school year to spend on professional development and then how much of that is impacted or or determined through like the collective bargaining agreement or state requirements etc. Just curious about like a rule of thumb or some way to gauge how many hours are available to the district to the school and to the teacher as they map out their PD. I actually so the it is kind of dictated through the collective bargaining agreement and correct
037me if I'm wrong others on the call but I believe teachers are in 191 that so if you think of students are about 180 depending you know if we do total hours or to total days so that you know factors in so that's how you can kind of gauge about total hours um and it is kind of outlined then in the CBA Um, and the the 7-hour specifically, you know, again, that's done in a variety of ways. Some are really just like curriculum focused. Some are more like want to do like um we've offered like a a responsive classroom, which is more like classroom management support. So, it really depends on where they see the need. Um, and we see teachers take advantage of that completely. Sometimes they do it over the summer, sometimes they
038do it after school. Thank you very much. That's perfectly helpful and appreciate and again compliments on the uh really helpful and informative presentation. Thank you. >> Okay. Yeah. Thank you ladies so much. We appreciate your work and you know the calendar illustrates how often you guys are on stage right that you put a show together uh with all the experts and and think about the right way to go about things for the best impact and then within a few weeks there's something else to tackle too. uh and there's always something going on with PD. So, it's very much appreciated. Um and you know, once again, allows us to be nimble to see things coming over the horizon and prepare our teachers and that's a really important piece uh for the quality of education our district.
039Uh so, with any without any other questions, uh ladies, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. And now I think we have another presentation from our parents and equity group. Is that right, Dr. Waters? >> Yes. Thank you. And I just want to also thank uh Jackie and Rachel for such an informative uh presentation. Uh they work alongside Dan Ma who's our elementary Walton Farm principal and the tri chairs. Um the three of them together are just um a dynamic trio. So u much appreciated for all you do. Okay. So yeah, right now we're not going to have a presentation, but Dr. Hart and I thought it would be nice to give you an update um around our parent group. So u Mary there's just one slide for background. You want to put that up?
040Okay. So PI the PI committee and mission and vision. Um just want to talk to you about this for a few minutes. A few years ago back in 2019 u when I was actually in the director of curriculum and equity role I worked um with Jackie Rachel and Dr. Marjorie Die and we started a pie group and we brought some parents together who were really interested in making sure that all of our students felt that they belonged in their schools. They were really interested in making sure that students had a positive experience. and we put a presentation together and I would say we got to maybe slide two and we decided to kind of just throw the presentation out because it was really nice to just stop and have a conversation with these parents just
041about their experiences and it was really eyeopening for us because a lot of times we think that we're doing things that make everyone feel great and then you find out that that's not always the case and although that's sometimes hard to hear um because we pride pride ourselves in North Penn on making sure that everyone feels welcome and we work really hard at that. Um we recognized that for some people that wasn't happening and so we really had some really hard conversations, some honest open conversations with these parents about how we can work together and really partner with one another to try to change the culture and make sure that when we say all students that truly all students feel the way that we hope they feel. And so we started this group together. We
042worked alongside these parents. They um were an amazing group of parents. Some of them are still with us today. And um back then the really uh the real thought was to have these parents serve as a liaison. So all of our schools, we asked them to have a CPE and I task force, which is really a cultural proficiency, equity, and inclusion because it's so long. We just have a little acronym. We call it CPE and I. And at that school, we have teams at the schools who really work to make sure that when you walk into the school, you feel that sense of belonging. So, we recently uh were at Montgomery because they were celebrating Lunar New Year, for example. And sometimes the parents are the ones who are really instrumental in helping bring um
043you know people into the school to uh give those assemblies to the students. A lot of times our home and school associations will fund things like this. And so this group of parents really was a liazison between the school and our PI group. We would also bring the parents together just to share ideas with one another so that if they did something really amazing at their elementary school or high school, you know, they could exchange ideas and not reinvent the wheel. And so it really ended up being a really great group. Over time when I switched roles and Dr. Hart came on board. She and I have been working really closely together to co-chair all of our CPE and I work. And so we were able to work with a couple of parents. Um Alexis
044Jole and uh Lauren, why is Lauren's last name escaping me in the moment? But Lauren's amazing. >> Wilson. >> Thank you. Thank you, Lauren Wilson. I hope she's not watching. She'll be like, really? Anyway, Lauren and Alexis worked really closely with us and they ended up emerging as the leaders of this group for a really long time and Pam and I would debrief with them after our meetings. We'd have our evening meetings with the families. We'd share district updates. Um they would really lead the work and make sure that um idea exchange was happening across schools. We would make sure, you know, we would talk with the principles to make sure that those parents felt included in the task force at the school level. And eventually, you know, life happens, work got in the way
045for them. And so, we took a step back from having those parent leaders. Um, but Pam and I really wanted to make sure that we kind of got things going again because it did kind of fall back a little bit. So, I'm going to kick it to her to kind of tell you what we've done since then. We've got a new name. Um, so Pam, why don't you share kind of where we are today? >> Great. Thank you so much. Uh so during a time of transition sometimes it's hard but it also provides an opportunity for us to think about things a little bit differently. Um and so one of the um images I think that Dr. Waters uses often is like a pie kind of this whole pie kind of image where we had
046families getting together or parents or community members getting together on a regular basis to share ideas. when we um spent time engaged in those conversations, one of the things that sort of happened as a little bit of an offshoot is that um folks who were participating were looking for opportunities for um various um aspects of identity or affinity groups to kind of be created. Um and so this idea of kind of a whole pie sort of kind of transitioned a little bit into pieces of the pie. So, if you think about the rainbow connection, um families that get together periodically, uh the work um that Janelle Delissy and I have done over the past couple of years, um connecting grandparents and kinship caregivers, uh just so they have their own group to kind of get
047together. Uh Barbara Moore Williams has spent some time working with families or community members who are interested in issues of race and culture and the impact it has on school as well. So for the past couple of years, we've had lots of different groups kind of getting together, people finding people with similar experiences. Um, and that has been really very powerful. We also recognize that there are families who missed the large group and wanted to get together. Um, so uh, this year, um, Dian and I got together and said, you know what, how do we sort of maintain kind of both of these, um, opportunities for family members and community members to kind of find themselves? Um and so PI sort of evolved into the mission has stayed the same um but the name has
048shifted and um to partners in engagement and our goal is um that community members, parents, guardians and even some students um have an opportunity to be engaged in ways that feel most meaningful for them. Uh we know all the research says that the more engaged a family member is in addition to a student, the more positive the schooling experience is. Um, so we've held a couple of PI meetings um, since the beginning of the year. Um, really well represented um, from many different schools across the district. Um, and really had an opportunity for people to get reconnected um, to see um, people who have great ideas um, as we think about um, the idea of even recognition month or holidays. What are ways in which various schools are recognizing them, celebrating and how do we
049share those ideas as well? Um, I send um, information out to staff um, every month regarding upcoming holidays or recognition months. Um, I shared in our most recent meeting, which I think was last week, just all the things that are happening in February uh, between Black History Month, the Lunar New Year, the beginning of Ramadan, Lent. Um, and we just spent time just kind of going through those resources and then people that were in the meeting had an opportunity to share ways in which they were honoring these important um, dates and then just really sharing as well. Um there's something really magical about community and people getting together just to share but also to learn from one another as well. So we very often will share we'll shape and structure the sessions where we do
050some ice breakers. We spend some time for people to kind of really get to know each other and then we kind of get into a little bit of work and then we actually have the sharing. Um the structure really provides opportunities for people to be learning and growing and also kind of thinking of ways in which they can stay connected outside of the 90 minutes that we allocate every other month or so um to get together. Um so some really amazing things are happening um in our schools. Um it's an honor for me to be able to kind of be bought from school to school and see all the things that are happening. Um and I think there's a lot of energy that takes place um when um community members, parents, guardians get together and
051be able to share that as well. Um so we have one meeting left um as a celebration that we'll have um later this year, but we've created or in the process of creating or updating, I should say, a hub where all of those ideas um um are really shared. Um there's a lot of incredible creative and innovative ways in which people have been able to either show um have displays or organize assemblies um think about books that they want to add into their libraries or even just connections that they want to make. Um and we want to be able to find ways in which for people to be able to do that really easily. Um, so it's been really a joy um to see the evolution u the core and of who we are and
052what we're intending is not shifted since 2019. Um, and I think it's just been a little bit more um innovative. Um, and so we're excited about all the work that has been done. And I just want to thank for anybody who's watching who's ever put any time and effort into things that are happening in their schools, how much we really appreciate that because we know that people are really busy and lots of other things they could be doing, but their commitment to their school community, but also this idea of identity and connection um being really important and we're just really pleased. >> Thank you so much, ladies. Uh I think you guys know in ECI this is just absolutely one of our favorite things. uh you know teachers aren't supposed to have favorites but uh
053this is one of those things that North Penn does that is not checking off a box. This is is not to fulfill any requirement from the state. This doesn't fill out any form. Uh this is just another way in which uh we as a team with administrators and teachers included uh try to connect to students and families. You know I mean when students are walking into my classroom uh I have to prove to them that I'm their ally and sometimes like Dr. Waters said, "I would love to think that I I know exactly what they need and be able to provide that for them. But sometimes as allies, we have to ask. We have to set time aside for those things." And I love the way in which uh ladies, you're approaching um reaching out
054and finding out about our community members. But before I gush over this anymore, I want to make sure that my colleagues have a chance to ask any questions. >> No, no questions at the time, but uh like Mr. Bane is saying this is a great way to fulfill the district's mission of ensuring belonging. And to Dr. Hart's point, like when we do visit the schools, we see it on display. We also see it uh really embedded into how our young people are treating one another and how our educators, we know this is really obviously really challenging work um that's also on display amongst how young people treat one another and what have you, but uh this is the the hard work that you're doing at the school level and also in building that with community.
055And so uh really appreciate uh the really time and commitment it does to do it takes to actually make that happen and build those relationships uh with community members and parents who are looking for opportunities to get engaged. So really appreciate that Dr. Hart and Dr. Waters for doing so. >> Yeah, I I have to echo what Dr. Teio and Mr. McBain shared. Um, I I think not enough credit goes to the effort that that you you both and your teams have done to make sure that families have been heard or and and and open to feedback of how to be even more engaged. I think it's a lot of off hours. It's a lot of um effort and it's not all, you know, the feedback isn't always positive. Um, but it's always worth it.
056Um, and as like from a parent and a parent has been involved with some of these things, I I can say it definitely is impactful. Even if you are making a difference one family at a time, it it's impactful. Um, so I really really appreciate um the effort and the focus and that it is a pillar of our district. Um, makes me proud to be part of it. Um, and I would love to see how this grows and and adapts. Um, like with time I I think the needs of the community shift. Um, so again um I've always uh um appreciated your your willingness to take feedback and and shift with the the needs of the community. So thank you so much. >> Thank you all. And I just um want to say Mrs. coin.
057That's how we met, right? Because you and Dr. Hart, I think, were, uh, facilitating a session that I attended and that's where I met you. So, um, appreciate you being involved as well in this work. >> Of course. Um, actually, I met you before over a complaint, but we won't talk about. >> Oh, well, you know what? Those I just kind of try to push to the back of my mind. >> Yeah. >> I like to hold on to the positive things. >> Yes, we met. We met during that session. Yes. Whatever helps communication happen, right? That's okay. All right. Uh, very good, ladies. And if there's no other comments, uh, once again, thank you so much. I see some of our earlier presenters on here. You don't have to stay for the meeting. You
058can hang out and, you know, do do whatever the evening calls you to do with your families. I appreciate you hanging out there. All right. Next on our agenda, I see that we have a student update section. I'm very excited to hear from our crew here, Celia and Malik. Hi. What's going on, guys? What's going on? >> I don't have any pressing updates for you guys other than the high school is very cold. Dilia, it felt like spring today because it was freezing last uh the last few days. So, it feels good today. >> Yeah. construction through the winter in a school building is a thing. I've I've worked through that, too. I understand. Uh the the light is on the horizon for sure. We'll be sure to add um the temperature of the high
059school to the FNO committee, but Malachi, you have any updates, bud? >> You're muted, Malachi. >> Whoops, my bad. Hey guys. Um, no pressing, nothing pressing for me, but I'm definitely very, very cold in the high school. >> All right, it will be noted. Thank you guys for that. Appreciate it. Keep doing what you're doing. Enjoy the time we have here in our in our North Penn school district before you guys jump out and do awesome things in the world. But anyway, um, thank you very much, folks. appreciate. Are there any other uh additional topics from my colleagues this evening? Okay, hearing none, looks like it's time for public comment. And I see we have some folks here possibly ready to go. So, I'll read this for us. Individuals attending this meeting virtually are intending
060to speak to the committee should be aware that they are being recorded in order to meet the requirements of Pennsylvania sunshine law. It is necessary to record the names of all citizens who speak to the committee during the meeting. To assure compliance with this requirement, it's essential that those planning to address the committee raise their hand electronically and state their name and municipality. As a reminder, the public comment portion of the meeting is designed for residents and taxpayers of the district to provide comment and feedback on matters being discussed at tonight's meeting or matters that may come before the ECI committee. It is not designed for debate or discussion with members of the committee. And when appropriate, committee members may choose to respond to public comments that have been made or request that a member
061of the administration follow up with the speakers after the meeting. Members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to three minutes. And this is in reference to board policy number 9003. Mrs. Fish, do we have anybody this evening? >> Um, at this time we do not. Um, now yes, we do. We do have one. Mr. Lineer, when I unmute your mic, uh, you may unmute yours and state your name and municipality for the board. >> Jason Laneir, Lansdale. Um, where do I begin with this? It seems like there's a lot of talk about uh BEI or inclusive and inclusivity and all of that sounds very very nice. You know, there's a lot of platitudes and language involved, I suppose. But the question is is they they talked about the cultural proficiency
062and uh and what we're going to do or sorry uh prof uh professional development and cultural proficiency. They talked about the data impact and I think as coin touched on it uh the data where's the data that supports these efforts meaning prior to doing this what did it look like and now that we're doing all of these uh DEI and and inclusivity things have things gotten better because they should have. put a lot of time and effort into doing this or have they not gotten better? And from the data I've seen, and I've I've I've shared this with everybody on on the board and I've shared it with the administration, when we look at proficiency on the Keystone exam, and let's not talk about all the other exams. Let's look at how things are rated
063as kids are graduating from high school. And it looks like the proficiency, it doesn't look like the proficiencies have dropped significantly. since prior to doing this. So what what benefit has this achieved? And I mentioned this a couple years ago when I had a a meeting with Dr. Hart and Dr. Bower. Uh show me show me where this in any c any uh school district in the country where this has been beneficial. And Dr. Hart couldn't come up with one at the time. So, we're we're working on I don't know four years now of of trying to figure out where this the the equity and proficiency and cultural inclusivity has been beneficial to students because in in the raw data of it, it doesn't look like it has. And that does that's not to say
064that you need to be uh dismissive and and angrier or whatever about things, but what you need to do is create standards and make make kids achieve a standard, work harder, get out of their comfort zone and not just being feeling welcomed and comforted, but actually having to work hard to achieve a goal. That's I don't know is this is this just me saying this or don't you do you all not believe in this? Because if the data is showing just the opposite of what the intended goal of all of these programs are, then why are we continuing to do this? This is a real simple one. And is can this data be provided to me? Because I've been asking for this data and I I did some RTKs at one point and told I
065couldn't see this sort of data. So I have to go off of of what I can pull out of the state and the state information shows that this has not been beneficial. Correct me if I'm wrong. Shoot the data, make it public. It would be great. I'll leave it there. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Lamir. I know we've discussed this at length. I think that uh you've mentioned inclusivity and rigor, and I think between those things is where student buyin comes. Without student buyin, we cannot apply the rigor and help the students grow. Uh but we can solve that more. Any other comments this evening? Okay. Our next meeting dates for the ECI committee will be on March 10th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. in a virtual format. And I believe that's all we have
066this evening, folks. Uh, thank you all so much for coming out. really appreciate it. Uh students have a great day tomorrow. Educators have a great day tomorrow, too. Uh can I have a motion to adjourn, please? So moved. >> Thank you very much. We stand a journ. Thanks very much folks.