001Hey, we're just waiting for our YouTube feed to sync up with us. It is synced up. We wait for to see all of our faces. There we go. Here we go. All right, Dr. G, the meeting is synced on YouTube and our Zoom meeting. The meeting is yours. >> Okay. Thank you for joining us this evening. I'd like to call to order the August 19th ECI committee meeting. And we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. Okay. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting? >> So moved. >> Second. All in favor? I. >> Okay. Minutes are approved. Um
002we will move on to theformational items for this evening beginning with the shield update. >> All right. Good evening everybody. Um it's hope you all had a really nice summer and it's hard to believe that next week we will be welcoming back our uh staff and our students. So we're very excited about that. Um we're also excited tonight to bring two presentations forward informational items. The first being um an update to the May work session where you first learned about Shield and we had Dr. McKenna and Dr. heart present back in May, a more detailed presentation. But again, tonight we wanted to let you know kind of what has been happening over the summer and Dr. Sha Arie and Mrs. Rebecca Russo are here to kind of share some highlights with you as we prepare
003to open school next week um with our new shield uh special added to the schedule in five of our schools. So, I will turn it over now to Sean and Rebecca. Thank you very much. Thank you for um having us here this evening to talk about this program and the exciting opportunities that are coming to our students um just next week. We are showing on the screen a vision statement that was collaboratively written by our Shield teachers um and you can see it on the screen but I'll read it also. The Shield program aims to ignite curiosity, foster creativity, and build critical thinking skills through engaging hands-on experiences in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through collaborative opportunities that value diverse perspectives. Students will learn to plan, analyze, construct, and evaluate real world challenges through innovative
004problem solving. So, there's a lot in that vision statement, but you can really get an idea of what this program is driving towards, looking for a collaborative experience for students to work together in multiple different areas and really um ignite and foster all of those creativity and critical thinking skills that bleed into not just this program, but many levels of their lives. So with that we can go to the next slide. >> Okay. So what have we been doing over the summer? So Mr. Russo and I have worked very hard um collaboratively to create um a push and model on a five-day ro rotation cycle with our five shield teachers. Um I thank the principles for collaborating with us to make sure that um you know this the um schedules are embedded into their master
005schedules. Um we ordered a very robust um uh cart that they will use um to travel from classroom to classroom. Um it is actually really a STEM steam shield cart um with a lot of robust activities in of itself. um that they're each grade level will have a theme by trimester and um the trimesters really will focus on um resources like Lego project lead the way um and code.org. I'm really excited to bring in Project Lead the Way because North Penn has been an inaugural member of Project Lead the Way across the state of Pennsylvania, which we will now connect um a coherent presentation to our middle and high school um courses which also have um embedded um project lead. >> So, as Dr. Ernie said we do have themes for each grade level so
006that students can feel the coherence because this is on a 5-day rotation. Um they're going to be sticking in the same theme all throughout the year. So you can see each grade level's theme there as we were building our framework and looking at the resources. We were also looking at the Pennsylvania Department of Education and building it in with the steels standards. And you can see in the vin diagram there on the right, we were really focusing on the crosscutting concepts that are part of steels, the science and engineering practices, but also the technology and engineering practices. And these are all from the state department of education. And those are interwoven throughout all of the activities that we're doing and all of the resources that we'll be using. So, kind of a recap. Um, since
007I don't know, May, we've hired five teachers um that are going to barely kick off our um inaugural steam steam shield special um which we we will hope to build on for the next year. But our five teachers have been hired. We created a budget um and we secured a lot of materials. So, I do want to thank, you know, the school board and, you know, um the cabinet for taking um Rebecca and my dream and um really supporting that with the resources. So, our I we believe our kids are going to be set up with success and a lot of fun hands-on engaging um resources. Um like Rebecca said, we created for the shield teachers a a framework that is organized by trimester that is connected to this uh science and technology steel standards
008that kind of encapsulates a little bit of project lead the way a little bit of um Legos and code.org. So, the kids are going to be whenever they're rotating to shield special, they're going to be heavily into hands-on and minds on activities. Um, we had two days of professional learning with Legos, uh, which was probably one of my highlights of my summer. Um, getting to paid to play with Legos. Um, and then they're, um, they finished, um, or they're actually involved in the training. Um it's actually 16 hours uh required by project lead the way and a lot of them are in that now. Um and um if I took a picture of ESC or my office or Rebecca's office, you could see boxes. Um many many boxes have come in and we're going through
009them and it's it's fun unpacking all the boxes to see all the goodies that we have to share with the teachers and the students when they're delivered. So now for our next steps, you can see in this coming school year in 2526, we're doing shield in the five buildings listed there, which is Hatfield, AM Culp, NAP, Gwenor, and Gwen Square. Throughout the year, we're going to continue to meet with those five Shield teachers and work on our curriculum development and professional development along with resource development. um that goes along with some of the requirements from Project Lead the Way. We did um apply for and earned were awarded a grant through Project Lead the Way that did um help with our registration fee and our professional development fees. So, we're going to continue to work
010through that grant process as well as apply for next school year when we bring Shield to all of the buildings. We're also going to look at the overall budget and how we can make adjustments as we look at increasing the uh span into all of our elementary schools along with hiring those additional staff. So, we've got a lot going on um for this next school year and then for the year 26 27 bringing Shield to all 13 buildings and continuing to refine our curriculum, professional and resource development um as we go forward and continue to build this program. We did also want to include that while we've done a lot and we're very proud of what we've accomplished since May um that we we do have some additional considerations. So we are looking at just
011communication plan for various stakeholders as well as how we can continue to support kindergarten through their exploration stations, grade level buddies. There are times when the shield teachers may be able to collaborate with the kindergarten teachers and even collaboration with our high school level. We have a very robust uh program going up into the secondary level and how can we use those students in those programs in our kindergarten areas because in this time they're not going to be having a shield special and looking at how they can partnership with the other specialists. Are there ways where the other specialists in kindergarten can also bring in some of those components? So, those are just some things that we are going to continue to refine as we build this program and and really get the ball rolling
012next week. And with that, that is our our update on on Shield. We are uh very excited to bring this experience to our students and uh hopefully get some of these boxes out of our office soon. Thank you for the update. Um, I'll pop out one question and I'm going to go to Mr. Fusco first. Um, or after I ask the one question because I know he has his hand up. Um, when I was looking at the beginning of the slides, um, first of all, just thank you for all of the work that you've done to pull all of this out. I'm really thrilled that it's going into five schools. looking forward to the full move into all of our elementary schools the following year. Um I am curious um it look like the way
013it's organized is that if I'm in first grade I'm only going to explore the one area of for the whole year. Is that for this year because we're piloting it or we're kind not piloting but we're kind of this is our phase in year or is is the intention to continue to only have them explore the one area? Um in my experience when I've seen other models of this it they would explore more than one area. um even though it is a five-day rotation, they're still going to have about 36 um sessions. So, um I think there is an opportunity there to expand beyond just the one area and at least have them explore maybe three components of the of the steel standards. So, just wondering if um Dr. Arie or um Rebecca, either one
014of you could speak more to that part of it. Um, I guess I could start. I guess what you're um talking about, Dr. G, is the themes >> um in each grade level, but the themes really don't do not encapsulate all of the opportunities that the kids are going to do. So, what what uh Miss Russo and I did is we looked at the at the Pennsylvania Steel Standards, specifically the science and technology um standards that were being taught within each and then we created um activities that are different for each grade level using code.org, Project Lead the Way, and uh Lego. So, they're not going to be kind of capitated to the same activities every rot um day or it's going to be changed every rotation. So, they're not going to be with Legos
015all year or project leadway all year. It's all the theme is really like a global overarching topic for the year. >> Rebecca, >> I I think I'd be interested in um at some point maybe just as a followup for us to be able to see more of a scope and sequence of what that looks like for um you know, what are the targeted st what what's the what are the objectives? What are we trying to hit? because motion I think the one was motion and something for 36 sessions even though it may be different activities. I think we want them to be able to be exposed to just some different areas. So I was just wondering if maybe the progression was to move towards that. Um I would just be curious how that what that
016kind of looks like throughout the year. >> Yeah, we can absolutely get that over to you now. You know, we've kind of refined that working document. Just to add to what Dr. Arie said a lot of the resources in this area are in grade bands. So the you know with Lego with project lead the way it's a K to2 band and a three to five band. So as we were trying to pick out um activities and they do range. So motion outdoors is a grade one kind of the theme for grade one that was more just to help us kind of clarify the activities that we would be picking and help us differentiate between a grade 1 and a grade two. But those activities in there, they do vary between ones that focus more towards
017environmental literacy, ones that focus on coding, ones that focus on um you know a different science standards. So they do branch uh into different areas, but more for our sake and trying to bring a little clarity to what we were going to select, we we put a theme to it, and it's always fun to have a theme. >> That's helpful. Thank you. I appreciate it. Uh Mr. Thank you. Um, thank you Dr. Arie and Rebecca and your team for uh putting us together on a very uh short timeline. U this is not just dream of yours but uh some of this board as well. Um has been looking forward to this program being uh unveiled for quite some time. So very excited about the prospects. Um so what I'm wondering and actually my question my
018first question is probably for Dr. Waters. Um, in the long-term planning of this uh roll out this year, next year, um, are we considering doing something like a facility study or some sort of space study to see how we move it eventually from a cart to its own space? Um, have there been discussions about that and what what have they involved at this point? >> Yes, actually um, there are there have been some discussions around looking at space and Dr. Dr. McKenna and I just touched base about that today as I came back from vacation. Um so as we kind of see how this year goes, it's always, you know, best and more ideal to have um a special in a classroom. Um so we'll definitely kind of look at how things go this year
019and as we move into next year, we've already had some conversations about a couple of our schools in particular where um you know, they're kind of busting at the seams a little bit. Um so to short answer, yes. Um and we'll kind of work through this year um as a pilot and then for the next year hopefully we'll be able to um make that happen. >> Okay, cool. >> Promised it though, but that that's always the goal. >> I have just one other question for Dr. Arie perhaps or Rebecca. Um the steel standards, do they have tieins with the actual science curriculum standards as well? Is there any synergy there? Um or is it kind of completely separate um relative to what the activities are and the out the the learning outcomes? >> That's a
020great question because this is the first year that we're adopting the Pennsylvania steel standards. Um so um just as we're rolling out the shield fifth special, we're also rolling out the Pennsylvania steel standards. Um they run in tandem. Um so the language when you uh heard us talk about crosscutting concepts and science and engineering practices um you know all of the all of that language has already been presented to our teachers so they know what they each of one of those tenants are. Um so it's not really about the science per se. It's about persevering through problems. It's about failing and, you know, grit. It's about collaboration and communication. So, so all all of what we're talking about with shield and steals run in tandem. Um where we get the best lift right now with
021the fifth special is complementing the um science and science and technology standards. Um because they were have been enhanced um with the steel standards um especially when you add in the um environmental literacy and sustainability. The um shield teachers now have the ability to support our science teachers in sharing the load of the standards. So they run in tandem. >> That was Yeah, that was done purposefully with um by Mr. Russo and I when we planned this. >> So just let me just say and I I don't think the community can appreciate the break neck pace at which you guys were asked to put this together and find staff and do this. So, just before I'm done on this, I just want to thank you again for what I'm sure was a lot of work
022on your part this summer to to make this a reality. And I think that the students in the district are truly going to benefit from your efforts. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Fesco, Mr. McBain. >> Good evening, folks. I also want to thank you guys for this hard work. I know it's it's quite a bit to put together a curriculum uh and then try to make it fit what we have and all the standard uh differences between our elementary schools and uh what students need. So, I really appreciate that. I'm really excited to see the programs that you chose. A lot of them offer extracurricular activities, ways for students to go home and go online and just keep on doing things like they did in class earlier that day. Uh and in this
023age group, how exciting is it to ignite that kind of fire of of thought and interest and curiosity? I was wondering if you could explain for some of the parents that are listening. Um, is this going to be very different from uh other courses or specials that students might have as far as are they going to have to look for homework assignments? Are they going to go to Target and buy some Legos as part of that? You know, is this going to look the same or is it going to be a little different? And what can parents expect in general? >> Well, I'm going to give you a disclaimer right now. I'm not responsible for the purchase of any additional Lego materials. Uh I know for a fact as an adult I had a lot
024of fun with the Lego training. Um so there may be some um families uh kiddos coming home wanting to have some energy in that way. Um right now for our pilot year, we're not anticipating any um homework. Um all of the work is going to be done within the time frame of the class. Um, I think where it's going to be uh different is, you know, there there's going to be a lot of controlled chaos in the classroom with kids, you know, you know, putting together robots, trying uh different things with their Legos. Um, so we're really encouraging our shield teachers to be facilitators of learning um and not really uh you know the sage on the sta stage so to speak. I don't know if Rebecca you want to add anything to that. Yeah,
025I would say the the one sort of larger difference with this course is that it is primarily uh group focused. There's a heavy focus on collaboration and students being able to respect one another and work together and share out their learning and their thinking of not only themselves but their teammates. And so through that, most of our resources are based on groups. You have Legos that are done in a group of four or in a group of two. So, it is heavily focused on a partnership or a group relationship. So, that's where I would see there would be a little bit of a difference um from the other special areas and not really because of that groupness, you're not going to see a lot of homework because it's mainly being done in the classroom together
026as a team. >> Thanks very much. I look forward to uh the the ripple effect this will have in years to come with students starting more clubs and getting more involved with the types of clubs that already uh tackle this in middle schools and the high school. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Um and again, thank you both for all of your hard work. um not just echo what the team has said again that we recognize um that you know you really worked hard over the summer to pull you know to push this through and it's just really going to be exciting to see it. I would say Dr. Waters as a follow-up I'd really love it if um perhaps um Mr. Gilmer could um maybe put together a video that could be shared at,
027you know, October um ECI or um that I think it would be really nice to be able to share with families um what this looks like in real time um because this is so new and it's ultimately going to impact a lot of students. So um just really exciting time when you're rolling out a new program. So, um, thank you very much, Rebecca and Sean, for making some schoolboard educator, um, dreams come true and a lot of students as well. >> Dr. G, if I, if I may for a moment, um, there's a good deal of people in the attendees in our meeting today, u more than usual. So, I wanted to make sure that I see one hand up um that they know that we're not ignoring them, that there's a public comment period
028at the end of this meeting for those who don't know or unfamiliar with our format. So, please know we're not ignoring your question, but we're going to wait till the end of the meeting to address uh questions from the community. >> Thank you, Mr. Fusco. >> Dr. Are you ready to move to the next? >> I am ready to move forward. I was just trying to find my agenda within the >> Hey, I got you. I I have it ready. Um All right. So, I also want to just um thank everybody who's been involved um with Shield. Um this is also something that I'm really excited about. Someone who taught in North Penn way back in the 90s and this was even a thought back then. So, just kudos to all of you. I think
029everybody on this call had a hand in it and um I know the students are going to absolutely love it and I'm really looking forward to when all 13 uh elementary schools will have this uh opportunity. So next up um and Sean and Rebecca by the way if you want to jump off feel free. Um one of the um the next topic is high school renovation. This is another topic that many of you if you watch work session or if you attend any of our FNO meetings, you have been hearing all about the high school renovation project that is well underway. Um, at one of our recent meetings, um, I know there was a request to kind of hear just what does the input look like as as we plan for the spaces at the
030high school as well as the technology. Um, do teachers have input? Do students have input? And so tonight, uh, Dr. Pete Nicholson and Mr. Gilmer are here to talk to you a little bit about what that process has looked like. So again, this is more of an update. If you are interested in more detailed uh, presentations about the high school renovation, there are several um, in some of the other meetings um, and you're welcome to look for those um, on YouTube at our NPTV channel. But tonight um again just asking Pete and Bob to highlight uh how you have included some of these stakeholders as you're planning. >> All right, Dr. Waters, thank you for the introduction. Uh members of the committee, good evening. It's uh my pleasure specifically and Mr. Gilmer as well to
031um present a little bit of uh the behind thescenes work that's gone into the high school renovation project. um those of in the community, those on the board, you know, there have been many many presentations at work session at action agenda action meeting um and many agenda items over the course of let's say the last four years. I look back and I believe really the first organizational meeting we had on the administrative side on this was was somewhere in October of 2021 where we really got started. So we're on the precipice of four years and in May we just kicked off the the phase one renovation project here in Cape Cod in the Nitorium. So, kind of the makes sense to talk a little bit about what's under the hood here, how we came to
032where we're at, um, and talk a little bit about what input kind of guided our thinking and guided the design process as we move forward. So, Mr. Gilmer, if you can skip to that next slide. I'll start with teachers were integral in the design process uh for this renovation and addition project. Um, I can say there were months in the last few years where I spent multiple days every week in design project meetings with our architects, with department chairs, with teachers within each department designing and talking about the spaces that they'll eventually be teaching in, some as early as this November. Um, every department chair was in multiple meetings. In most cases, after an initial meeting, they were then invited to bring back other teachers with them that represented other parts of their department to
033get um other uh aspects and other ideas into their their rooms. Um and additional meetings with those members really focused on some of the specific needs. So, if you think about a reading classroom, an English classroom, in many respects, most of those classrooms mirror each other. They have a lot of the same needs. So getting two or three folks in the department to to collaborate and getting feedback works. In other departments, let's talk about uh family consumer science where we have a preschool lab where we actually serve our community and bring preschoolers into the classroom space, our cooking labs, our textile labs. They're very different needs. So we had multiple multiple meetings and in many cases phase three family consumer science drama music uh health and physical education technology education those meetings are still ongoing.
034So it's an iterative process where we meet with the department chair we meet with members of the department. We come to some sort of idea of some of the changes that need to be made. Our architectural team will get information back to us um with some of those changes made, make some more tweaks, have another meeting, and you know, as we move through the process, come to a resolution on exactly what the teachers are looking for in their space for their programming. Mr. Gilmer, if you want to go to the the next slide there. Uh the import meetings really focused on these few things and I won't read each one but certainly safety was first and foremost talking about how we make sure that we ensure safety for all of our students and accessibility. We've
035talked over the course of the last number of years one of the major aspects of this renovation project that we kept in mind throughout the entire process was making the entire high school building accessible to all of our learners, to all of our community, to all of our teachers. So that and I was kept on that throughout the entire the entire um project planning cycle. We really wanted to be flexible. Um we really wanted to understand and know that as time goes on, our current building has served us for 50 years. We know that this renovation is going to need to serve our community for 30, 40, 50 more years. So we want to be flexible. We'll talk a little bit about that in the technology planning. Um, but in understanding that, you know, a
036room that may be needed for math this year as things change, as things move, may need to move over and be different for next year. So, trying to keep that in mind also as we we move through. Mr. Gilmore, the focus on a lot was a lot of the focus here was on our special programming. For instance, the the photo that's here is a uh a rendering of our post 12 lab. Um this was one of the the areas that took us a number of meetings uh a number of hours um some meetings on the side again as I said an iterative process where we talked about the needs of our post12 programming. We talked about what we would need to see to make sure that our students no longer need to go to Penddale
037um to work on their their um their skills for uh their post2 programming but could have an apartment-l like um building or apartment like room within the high school. So, you know, this was an example, but many examples are given here of really looking at the nitty-gritty of each and every program and what's needed and taking that feedback from teachers, you know. So talking to the teacher in the the cooking lab and what exactly do you need? Do you need range hoods? You know, do we need to um have I know one of the things we've gone back and forth on our are garbage disposals and how that would work or how we could make that work. So really taking cues from them. Our architects did a wonderful job of coming in and saying, "Here's
038some of the things we've included before. Does this work for you?" And that was really our idea for all of our teacher meetings was does this work for you or how can we tweak this to make it work for your program? Not just in 2025, not just in 2030, but 2040, 2050 moving forward. How can we make sure that we have everything we need to function um rightsize the program for what we have at North Penn and make sure we're prepared for the future. Um, again, I won't go through each and every one of these, but there's an example in each one of these of how the teacher input was just absolutely crucial in making sure that we have a space that's ready for our learners for the future. Mr. Gilmore, when we talk about
039students, um, we've also hosted a number of meetings with a wide variety of students. Um, in every meeting we had, we tried to have a a huge cross-section of our student body. So students that participate in music, students that participate in drama, in athletics, um AP students, students that um are are engineering focused or FCS focused, art focused to really get their idea, you know, they're the students that learn in these spaces. And we wanted to learn from them what helps them be better students in the classroom. Excuse me. You know, specifically, we wanted to hear a lot from them about what kind of furniture, what kind of feeling they want in the hallways, in the classrooms. Um, we did take a field trip with a number of students to the Corvette Experience Center in
040Norristown to to actually look and feel and sit in um chairs, sit on different benches, sit in different spaces, and give us feedback on how they feel that would make them um a better learner or maybe even more distracted, and they don't think that would be a good idea. Um we held most recently in May a branding and graphics meeting in a focus group of students where the graphics team from the architectural side presented three different um largecale kind of concept ideas um and garnered feedback from the students and we're still working through that. So we haven't unveiled that yet. Um, but they were crucial in steering us in a certain direction for what some of the graphics throughout the building will be and how we will represent North Penn and how they see North
041Penn as being represented um in those large gathering spaces. Next slide, Mr. Gilmer. So again, I could spend all evening, but this is a quick update on all of the changes that came from this. Um but something as simple as the temporary classroom space um and where we included temporary classroom space as we know we have 15 new temporary classroom spaces within the building um that have been allocated so we don't need to bring modulars onto school um onto the campus and we can still host robust educational um activities throughout the renovation process and even the the location of some of those uh were guided by conversations with teachers that said hey instead using this space for temporary classrooms, what if we use this space, could that work better? Could that actually save us some
042money and be a better learning experience for students? Um, and I will say walking around the building, the temporary spaces look phenomenal. The feedback from them, um, has been very positive for the teachers that have seen them. Um, in fact, I had a teacher last week that said, "The temporary classrooms are actually pretty nice. Could I could I maybe be in there instead of my current space because that looks pretty good." So, I think teachers are in for a really good time when the actual real renovated space opens. Um, but other adjustments um just where furniture could be placed, where um and how we would update classrooms and where we would put things um where we would put programs. You know, I can give an example of our art and and special ed programming working
043together. the addition in the back of the building, that whole layout was changed and switched a little bit based on accessibility needs, not just of the special education programming, but of the art teachers. There were a couple of programs that were programmed to be upstairs. Um, and we ended up because of their needs and their need for um for washing things out and being able to um make sure their materials are taken care of, they needed to move downstairs. So, the architects actually revisited that, moved the addition around a little bit, kind of revamped the layout, um, and make sure made sure we hit all the needs of those teachers and that programming in that space. Again, that's just one or two examples of a much larger process that's unfolded over the last number of
044years. Um, but it's really credit to our teachers, to our students, of where we are today. And hopefully all of them are are really going to be proud when they they see this at the end because, you know, as we said to the students and the teachers know this as well. They'll be able to look at their spaces. They'll be able to come back if they're students and no longer, you know, with us as students when this is all complete and say, "Hey, I remember talking about that and now I see that graphic on the wall." So, it's really a it's been a great process. It's been a great learning experience for me um working through this and taking all that feedback from teachers to to um move it into the the project. Finally, if
045we want to move on to technology, I'll just briefly say a couple things here and then I'll turn it over to to Mr. Gilmer. Um he's been integral in this, but again, I mentioned this earlier. Flexibility for the future. That was really what we're looking for. There's not I won't say there's not a lot baked in technology-wise, but we knew when we started this process, as I said, first meeting in 2021, that by the time this process is over in 2030, there will be technology invented and being used in classrooms that wasn't available in 2021. And again, 20 30 years down the line, we want to be flexible. So, Mr. Gilmer, I've spoken a lot. Why don't you take a couple minutes? >> Couple minutes. Wow. Hold on. I'm going to take 10, 15 now.
046Uh quickly just talking about you know the flexibility that is the same key when we looked at what we did with projectors and smartboards and Prometheian boards here at the high school. One of the things we were looking at knowing that we were going to be renovating the high school is all the way back in even 2019 2020 when we started looking at the budget here at the high school was we didn't want to invest and pay for new projectors to be installed on the walls and all kinds of cabling because we knew we would be doing something within the next couple years. And at the time we thought it'd be real quick and in about a year or two that was coming up and of course you know we all know what happened there
047in between and we got restarted here uh shortly after we got through co there. Uh one of the things that's interesting you talk about technology changes. You know if you told you asked me in 2017 what the classroom would look like from an AV standpoint and our displays. You know my mindset was more of a college setup where I wanted every single room to be the same. So no matter what teacher walked in, they'd be able to connect immediately, uh, project, you know, have sound, be able to control everything from one location. Kind of like the podium look that you see in many colleges is how I saw the high school being built out when we'd come to to renovate. And as we went through our hybrid learning and all the different pieces, obviously that
048changed. The technology has changed and we really found the need for really having that flexibility here at the high school. two things. We knew we didn't want to install stuff right away and then also saying, "Well, we don't want to invest in in pieces that we can't use when we renovate." And so, we started piloting um 75in displays, LCD, LED displays that were fully touch capable, just like any other smartboard. We're familiar with the touch and drawing on a projector and being able to share those pieces out. And in 2021, we piloted a couple of those displays here at the high school, particularly in math, because they're really uh use a lot of the interactive displays for doing math equations, those types of things. And that went really well. And what we started to find
049is people love the fact that they we didn't determine what the front of their classroom was. So, we mount all this gear. We determine what the front is. This is going to be the front. All your desks are going to have to face that way. That's where your display is. And once we got our display on a cart, you know, the plan had been, well, we need it on a cart so we can move it when we're renovating and moving around for the next seven years, um, it really came back to saying that flexibility was just as important for instruction. And so it kind of happened at the same time. So we've been using 75 in interactive displays in the classroom uh, on carts and being able to push that anywhere we want to. And
050there's no infrastructure that's needed from a standpoint of connecting your laptop to it. You can connect wirelessly. you could connect directly with an HDMI cable. So that key was that wireless component. The teacher wasn't tethered to the display. And the other cool thing is it just gave us so many other options with the the newer software and displays that students could share what they're doing on their screen. So it was really easy for the teacher then to just say, "I'm showing you what I'm doing now. You show me what you're doing." And back and forth. So you have your standard touch. Um but it's it's really all of the wireless capability to share whatever you're doing in the classroom. And then there's other features that are within there that simple things like uh captioning. You
051know, we're all in the Netflix generation of students now. There's a bit where now we can turn the microphone on and you can have your text go on at the same time. Uh some of those things we use in certain situations, but there's so many different tools that are available to teachers to do whatever their instruction is there. And from the classroom itself, the only thing then we were looking at is and I have to give a tremendous shout out to our technology department and Kristen Landis is that the teachers have the technology they need in their hands with their laptops and Chromebooks with the software that we we're using Canvas. All of that is very very powerful. So our piece was how do we how do we show that in the classroom and make
052Northland High School consistent and flexible. And the things that we're we're adding to the classroom as part of renovation moving forward is we're going to have our View Sonic displays. We're pushing and rolling them around. And it's awesome to see. Also, Pete, as we look at those temporary classrooms, not not any of those, you know, you look at the senior calf and the auditorium, everybody's set it up a little bit differently because they can because we didn't determine where they had to teach and what direction they had to teach in. But we've added uh two different things to the construction of each classroom and every single classroom has this is that there is a voice lift system in every classroom. So you have a sound system uh for sound reinforcement where the teacher also has
053a microphone to to reinforce their voice and along with that the reason that's important along with we also have assisted listening in every single um classroom for all of our students or any of our staff they're also heart of hearing. So we're real proud of you know our consistency with making sure all of our public sound systems have assisted listening and devices for that. But now all of North Penn High School, every single classroom, every single space will have um systems for our heart appearing students and staff and community members that come into those rooms uh without the need of dragging a cart along with or the speaker that's got to follow the kid to the classroom and then and then different gear per room wherever they go. So between all those pieces, our our
054infrastructure piece is really dealing with sound. The connectivity piece is dealing with Vonic and our wireless connectivity. and then our flexibility to push that card around wherever you want in your classroom uh as part of your day. And that's that's been a big thing. And all through that the last couple years here, our teachers here have been getting training on that. We've had over 20 different training sessions from the vendor from Vonic directly as part of our purchases when we've purchased these displays that they've come in and done training over the summer during the course of the school year during our big inservice days. So, we've had the opportunity for lots of inservice and training for our teachers as well. Um, and it's just one of these things that, you know, it's relatively easy to
055get into for our teachers here on the board. Uh, that you maybe the first time you used a Smartboard or a Prometheium board or some kind of interdactive. There's just a lot of cables and connecting and USB and is that connected right? And um, it's not rocket science, right? But it's it's a lot of stuff to connect and I think the direction that we've gone here with the high school, it's really given our teachers flexibility and an ease of connection where it's just natural to come in wirelessly connect and begin teaching. Um so that's what I have on the stuff that we're talking about here. And of course I've been working with Dr. Nicholson and the groups um and the specialty spaces, the music rooms, the sound systems and how to be able to teach
056and do these specialty courses. the cooking classes. We've talked about uh you know how you know if you've seen most of our cooking classes, it's a mirror for kids to look through a mirror to see what's happening on the on the cooktop as they're showcasing cooking and those kinds of things that we're using some technology to make that happen as well. Uh but generally, I'm really proud that every single classroom here at North High School is going to be consistent. A teacher is going to walk in and going to have the same resources in every single room and our students should have access and accessibility in all those pieces wherever they go in this building. All right. Thank you, Mr. Gilmer. >> Thank you so much. Um, uh, oh, I'm sorry. Dr. Nicholson, is there
057more after this? Oh, >> no. Nope. Not at all. Mr. Gilmer is saying he can he can go to the question slide and we can field any questions you may have. >> Great. Um, you would be surprised if we said there are no questions at this time. >> Um, so, um, thank you again. I really appreciate the intentionality of making sure that we're including teacher student voices in how we approach what learning should look like as we move forward. Um, and so I appreciate that. Um, the carts um the uh having the the large projection screens on carts I think is really important. I know I have that in every classroom in my own building. So, I get to see how that can work and it's really um very impactful to be a for teachers
058to be able to shift to I'm going to roll this card over here and I'm going to work with this group over here or small group or here's the I'm going to use this part part of my classroom today. So, I'm really glad that we're doing that and also appreciative that we're being really intentional um and inclusive by ensuring that we have the lift the lift voice technology um in every classroom as well. So, I'm appreciative of those two things. I had one quick question. Um, uh, Mrs. Mcurch has, uh, spoken about this before, wanting to know more about internship opportunities, and I'm wondering how our CHIP program is connected to this type of work because this is a a really um, this is something that we should leverage, right? what what are the opportunities
059for students to be able to engage in this work from an internship kind of perspective because this is the kind of work that they can do. They can't build the school but they could be part of the design process. So um I was wondering if you could speak to that and then we will go to Mr. Fusco's question. >> Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a great question. It's definitely an area that uh now that the project is underway um you know I've been in close communication with Mr. Fry talking about how we can get students in incorporated. I've actually been going back and forth just today um with a rising senior that's looking to do an internship um and then with Sher Group architects on how they can help support that. So actually as you
060were asking the question the the senior emailed me back with some questions I had. So helping facilitate that I think is a very important part of this. um you know when we talk about STEM you know we talk about engineering we talk about steel standards this is all of that in action right live and in in living color at the high school so you know we talked about down the line and I don't I want to preface this with down the line because we don't want to overload anybody but looking at ways in which potentially the uh shield program can interact as well with some of the the folks that are doing some of the work and some of the engineering practices there to to see it in in um you in action at the
061high school. So that's an evolving process here. I know we have lots of students that are involved or or would like to become involved with engineering, with electrical, with mechanical, with structural engineering. So um it is something that Mr. Fry and I have talked about quite a lot and we are actively working to get students involved. >> Thank you. I think I would just ask um you know just for once you guys have kind of fleshed out some of that I I think we'd all be interested in hearing more about what that can look like for our students. >> Absolutely. >> Mr. Fusco, >> thank you. Uh thank you for the the time, the presentation, the investment in the teachers and the students input that is invaluable. Um I'm going to nerd out for a
062minute here with Mr. Gilmer cuz I am a hearing support specialist by profession. I had actually been prepared to ask some questions about that and I see that you are way ahead of my thinking. So first of all I completely agree that the idea of the teacher room arrangement with the board is is so necessary as a sport teacher. Oftentimes they'll you know my things say put the student in the front of the room and the students in the front of the room and the teacher teaches in the back of the room. So, you know, logistically we do have to think about these things. So, kudos for that. Um, so I'm wondering about the um you're going to have to tell me more about the lift uh the voice lift. We'll talk about that privately
063because I'm just very curious. But um in terms of the assisted listening that you were referring to, is that a T-coil system or what is the actual cuz the voice lift would sort of address that, but it sounds as though that there's thinking has gone even beyond that with um the actual devices that I'm assuming the students would be wearing like their hearing aids and stuff. >> Yeah, it's both. It's both. So we have the packs for the room. So there are several packs for the room and then also um it's actually um also T-coil and Bluetooth. So there are a couple different options for the user. So again, not all not everybody, as you know, not all heart of hearing folks necessarily have a hearing aid, right? But it will go it can connect
064directly to the hearing a hearing aid those two different ways. And then on top of that, um then if you need a device and you need headphones, you can wear that. Obviously, we're just trying to minimize the amount of things if if you if you're hard of hearing that you don't need all this somebody following you with gear and that basically you should be able to walk into the room and be able to hear without a whole lot of extra effort on on the student community members or teachers part. Uh so yeah, we use uh we've specified and we'll go through actually didn't see all the bid openings. So we had specified um something similar to a Williams AV system. Um, I can send you all the specs on those types of things, too, where
065you can see what that does. Um, but that's that's our goal is just to minimize stuff and the the work that a student has to do on their own when they have uh a loss of hearing and then having to have to like, okay, well, the speaker gets set up here and now I have a special mic and I'll give that to you and I got to carry it with me because the teacher may not have it. We're trying to make it consistent in every single room. the fact that you guys are putting that level of consideration into this planning when hearing loss affects less than 1% of the population and in particular in high school those kids don't even if they have their own technology they hate having to bring it to the front
066of the room every class I have many times tried to figure out ways around that by finding systems to just provide so that the student will use it to their benefit so I mean that really speaks speaks volumes to me in terms of the actual listening and responding to what you're hearing being implemented is doing with this team. So, consider me very impressed. Thank you. >> Yeah, Mr. Fusco noted that he was going to nerd out for a second. Here's another teacher who's feeling a little targeted. I feel like I'm with my people here, you know, talk about education and giving teachers opportunities. So, uh, yeah, I love the flexibility built into these classrooms. We were touring part of the high school now where some lockers have been removed and there's benches and tables slated
067for the edges of the hallways. Uh, boy, what I wouldn't give for that where I teach in an unnamed district locally, there are so many different ways in which education has changed recently. Um, you know, we don't have to go through the the last uh, seven, eight years of history in comparison. we know how it's changing and I'm just very glad that my daughters in a district that are that is so uh uh hands-on, right? So aware of how these things go in classrooms. Uh the only thing I would ask and this is something I was reminded by one of our uh North Penn educators this morning at the North Penn Education Foundation builder bag uh work. Shout out North Penn Ed Foundation. Good work all the time. uh one of our educators uh helping
068to uh pack up the backpacks just reminded me you know through all these changes keep on listening to the teachers and what they need uh and I know you guys will be doing that. So just a pat on the back from this jealous teacher uh and uh you know wishes that we continue to uh look ahead and keep on having those meetings with teachers as uh what the building and the logistics look like emerges. Thanks. And just another note um you know as you say that something I'd wanted to say but one of the things I've found over the years too is and I've been doing this for a few now is that the the the fact that you know when we first got here we had like a couple TVs that would get rolled
069to a classroom or if you remember some of us are old enough that you had the projector rolled to the classroom right and you got a projector day and then you know we kind of went from projector to TV uh and then it came to like LCD projectors and they were really expensive and it wasn't something you could put in a classroom and then those got so inexpensive that that was the preferred way to do it. Install a projector in the room and now you had a permanent display and now we're back to TVs again. Right? So there is a cycle to how we teach and that will change and that'll change for the next 30 years I'm working here. Um, but one of the things that we did in the design, uh, with the
070different classrooms is is that obviously we have our sound system. Those we're always going to need sound. We're going to need to be able to to support that. But we have the infrastructure in place that as things change. You know, 10 years from now, there could be another cycle of other things that I don't even know has been invented yet. But trying to keep the classroom not built in a way, even simple things like the whiteboard. You know, some of your schools may have where it has a whiteboard, a gap on the wall for the Smartboard and more whiteboard and those kinds of things. And then the Smartboard goes away, but now there's this gap and you kind of staple another whiteboard in the middle of it. So, one of the things we wanted to
071have a consistent classroom and not have the technology of the room change the room, right? That the instructor should be changing the room for their needs. So, we have the infrastructure in place that from a power standpoint, like it wouldn't be a whole new thing that if all of a sudden we have a new wall-mounted something that is way better, way more effective or whatever it would be that we couldn't make that adjustment and just do that when that time comes to update this technology in 10 years. Um so we we put that thought process into it too that we think what we're doing now is it makes a lot of sense the flexibility everything else but we can't say we know everything that's going to happen in the next 5 10 years but we
072know it's good for now but we have rooms that are not going to be all carved up because tech carved it up and we see a lot of rooms are just carved up with holes and pieces because of tech. So, that's one of the things we thought about too is how do we how do we plan for the things we don't know we're doing yet? And we I think we put the right infrastructure in place to make that happen. >> Be ready for holograms in like 40. >> Get projectors in all four corners. We'll just have it. Yeah. Who knows what it's going to be, but we're ready. We're I can tell you believe we're ready for that. >> Thank you. Um everyone, are there any additional questions? >> Hey, really appreciate it. We will
073of course continue to ask for updates just because this is really exciting and we want to continue to um just hear, you know, how everything is kind of progressing in terms of um technology and just the programming and what that's going to look like as we begin to move forward with each phase of the high school. So, thank you both for that update. We really appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Okay, Dr. Waters. Yes, >> I I have lost my window with the agenda. So, what agenda next? >> The next item would be the student update. And our students are still enjoying their last week of summer vacation. So, we will look for them in October. Um I think you can move to the audience of citizens if anyone has any questions or comments. >>
074Okay, let me um >> as you're pulling it up, Dr. G, I just want to remind we have a I see a couple new names here tonight in the uh audience. So, I just want to remind them how to do public comment. If uh you would like to make a public comment, you would raise your hand on the interface. It's at the bottom of your screen. It says raise hand. You would click that and then your hand would go up and I would know that you would like to make a comment. >> Hey, tonight's meeting is our regularly scheduled committee meeting. As we all know, 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
075ensure compliance with this requirement, it is essential that those planning to address the committee state their name and municipality. Members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to no more than 3 minutes. This limit will permit time for all those who wish to speak to the committee. When whenever members of the audience exceed this time limit, the committee chair may ask the individual to yield to the next speaker. Okay. >> All right. This would be the time. If you would like Yeah. If you'd like to make a comment, go ahead and hit that raise hand at the bottom of your interface for us >> and we have one hand up so far. So, up first will be Jason Laneir. Jason, I have There we go. Enabled your microphone. So, when you're
076ready to begin, please state your name and municipality for the record and begin your comments, please. >> Jason Laneir Lansdale. Um, of the two topics, I kind of leave the high school thing as it is. I there's a lot of information there and and it seems like there's a lot of thought going into trying to make the classrooms um as flexible and as user friendly, if I could use that term, uh, for the teachers and the students. And makes a lot of sense. do what is going to best benefit the students. Um, and leave it there until something else pops up that I'm not quite sure of or I have a have an issue with. I I'll I'll save comment on on the high school program or the high school project. Um, regarding the the
077the steel standards and and the this new traveling science cart thing, um, I I I went and I read the steel standards and for the most part there. I mean, it makes sense a lot of ways. It it it seems like there's a a benefit to trying to uh uh I guess make make the uh make science more consumable for for for kids. Um and so I I don't have a problem at all with with it in that regards. What I do have a problem with, however, is this drive for um equity and justice in science. And I'm not those aren't my words. Those are words that are used in in some of the slides that were uh regarding adoption of the steel standards. In which case I now I have a problem with it.
078I don't know what that means in terms of you know I understand you want to make it as consumable as you can for mo most kids which is fine. I think the idea of of having all kids be as equally successful in science is is a bridge too far because that's that's a that's an unachievable goal. There are kids that are going to that are going to excel at things and the kids that aren't going to excel at things and trying to have equal outcomes of of things makes no sense. Um and it is is it is an irrational um is an irrational goal and and and to further the justice in science I the this is the there's a there's an informatic there with traditional contemporary and future and the future talks about students
079having uh science justice and science explain social challenges and design justice uh centered solutions. Now that now it sounds political to me and that's that that's the thing that kind of irritates me and if if there's one thing that I've I've been been saying for the last however long that when you look at these equity standards and what it has achieved in since 2015 it's not a good sign. I mean the the the kids that were in 2015 who were the who were the most uh historically underperforming are outperforming everybody now. So all this change has done is make things worse and I'd like some comment on that from from the board because they're the ones that are are implementing this stuff. Thank you. >> Okay. Is there anyone else for public comment >> at
080this point? I'll count it down, folks. Here we go. Three, two, one. Uh that should conclude public comment for tonight. >> Okay. Thank you. I don't believe we have anything that we are moving forward to work session. Um so there are no agenda items. Um the next ECI committee meeting Dr. Waters >> October 7th 5:30 in a virtual format. >> Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting please? >> So moved. >> Okay. Meeting adjourned. Thank you everyone. Have a wonderful evening. >> Thank you. >> Have a great evening, too. Have a good start to the school year. Everyone on the call that's going to be doing that next week. >> Take care. Some of us started this week. Oh, >> today is