001I would love to hear Good evening everyone. Pardon me. Good evening everyone. I'm going to call this evening's work session meeting to order and we'll start with our pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. First up will be audience of citizens and I'll read I will read the policy. This meeting is being videotaped for community cable channels and streamed live. Individuals attending this meeting and intending to speak to the board should be aware that they are being videotaped. In order to meet the requirements of Pennsylvania's sunshine law, it is necessary to record the names of all citizens who speak to the board during the meeting. To asssure compliance with this requirement, it
002is essential that those planning to address the board state their name and municipality. Members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to three minutes. As a reminder, the audience of citizens portion of the meeting is designed for residents and taxpayers of the district to provide comment and feedback on matters which are or may come before the board. It is not designed for debate or discussion with the board. When appropriate, individual school directors may choose to respond to public comments that have been made once the audience of citizens period has concluded or request that a member of the administration follow up with the speakers after the meeting. This is in reference to board policy 903. Good evening. Okay, Jason Lansdale. Um, wanted to talk about about June and Pride Month and the
003the amount of not only resources that the that the school is putting into Pride Month, but whether or not it's beneficial. And I mean that sincerely. I don't I don't know if there's objective benefit for anyone. But first on on on just the cost, I know that there's the rainbow connection happening next Monday. Who where's that budget? Where's the budget on on holding that event in this school district next Friday? Where does that get build from? And what is the benefit to the school? What's the benefit to the students? And I say the empirical evidence shows that this sort of thing is not good for children. It is not. There is a 2025 study that was completed. A lot of the data from that study was buried because the concern was from the the people
004who the investigators, the lead researchers that it would be used against the pride month, the LGBTQ alphabet uh indoctrination. Why why would why would they want to hide that evidence? evidence paid through paid for by the NIH. So our tax filers paid for this study and yet they want to hide all the the information. But out of that they found that the puberty blockers and everything that used to promote transgenderism was a net negative on children. Not a positive. Net negative. There's there's no empirical evidence to show a positive. Why are we doing this? It's a detriment. And for a lot of things, that's the my question. We're doing things that because it seems like it's a good idea or it's it's a political drive or or for whatever reason, but not to the benefit
005of the children. So why are we doing it? And if any one of these board any one of your board members could answer the question, it would be fantastic. Why are you doing something that is not beneficial? I know there's a lot of personal feelings and you want things to believe, you want them to be true, but they're not. And this study shows it. And if you want a copy of the study, I can send it to you as much as they have released so far. But it's not beneficial yet. We're doing it. And we are putting our tax dollars into in promoting something that is a net detriment to kids. And that's got to stop. This is not a good use of public funds and it's a net detriment. So if anybody you would
006like to answer that question, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Would anyone else like make public comment this evening in the audience? Okay. Thank you. We're going to continue with the agenda and I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Bower. Thank you. Uh thank you, President Mc Merry. Good evening everyone. Uh first I recommend approval of the personnel items as per the attached. May I please have a motion? So moved. First is Mr. Fusco. Second by seconded by Mr. Casa. Any comments or questions? I will note that in looking through that agenda um in the last couple months we've had relatives of people up here. Um there is someone on this agenda with the last name Bower. It there is no relation. Just pointing that out. So thank you Dr. You're welcome. Any other comments
007or questions? All righty, hearing none. All in favor say I. I. There are no opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you everyone. And with that uh nomination and subsequent vote, I am very pleased to share that Dr. Nicole Kelly is in the audience and she will be the new special ed supervisor at the middle school level. Congratulations, [Applause] Nicole. After the meeting's over, Dr. Kelly, uh Dr. Kim will walk you around, introduce you to some of our board directors. Uh, next, I'd like to recommend approval of the contracts for the district as listed for June 3rd, 2025, copies of which are on file in the business office. Okay. May I have a motion for contracts? Second. Again, Mr. Fusco, and then seconded by Mr. Casa. Any comments or questions? Hearing none, all in favor say
008I. I. No opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. I recommend the approval of the waiver for facility use fees as requested by Hatfield Township as their facility does not have adequate capacity for the amount of anticipated attendees. And just a note, um you may recall now three summers ago, uh the ESC's HVAC was down and we rotated our board meetings around to multiple municipalities. Hatfield was very nice uh supporters of us and did not charge us rent when we held meetings in their facility. So I ask that we extend that same courtesy to them. They would like to use one of our facilities for a meeting. All righty. May I have a motion, please? So moved. All right. Mrs. Stole and Mr. Casa seconded. May I have any questions or comments or questions? All righty. Hearing
009none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. The motion passes. Thank you. Okay. Uh, next I recommend approval for the administration to take all the necessary steps to implement a STEM course pilot program at five elementary schools for the 202526 school year. And if we have a motion and a second, we will then have two cabinet level administrators give a presentation. So moved. Second. Mr. Fusco first and uh Dr. G seconded. Yes. So uh with that, I'd like to introduce uh no strangers to this board of directors but our chief academic officer, Dr. Dr. Mike McKenna and our director of curriculum and equity, Dr. Pamela Hart. Good evening, Dr. McKenna and Dr. Hart. Good evening, everyone. Wait for the uh presentation. You take care of that. Stand by. Ethan on the move.
010Oh, there we go. We got it. Got it. All right. Well, we this conversation of a fifth special or additional special elementary is not a new topic. I think it even started well before I even came to North Penn as a conversation or item. Um but also we've been comprehensively looking at elementary specials for a number of years. Um just looking at the space we have in buildings. Um the traveling of teachers. Uh as we know some of our larger uh uh schools need additional teachers, our special area teachers to come facilitate their schedule. Um so our smaller schools uh special area teachers do travel each day to uh support our larger buildings and that creates some at times in inequity in spaces right when they're going another art teacher or music teacher is going
011to a building um they're al they're not always teaching in the same similar space as an art or music teacher would be because we have two art classes going on at the same time in a building. So we've been always looking at uh our our elementary specialist schedule over the years looking how we can improve it and enhance it. Uh, and then really the timing right now is really ideal in looking at this STEM special. Um, as many of you know, Pennsylvania is implementing the steel standards. They were approved back in 2022 and over a three-year period implementation period. Um, they're now right on the horizon and they are fully implemented in the state of Pennsylvania starting July 1 of 2025. The steel standards stand for science, technology, and and engineering and environmental literacy and
012sustainability. They're modeled after the next generation standards, which are adopted in 20 states across the country. Of course, Pennsylvania likes to do their own thing and didn't adopt next generation standards. They created their own new thing called the steel standards. So, the timing of that um really coincides with us analyzing and looking at the elementary um special schedule uh and what we're providing students at the elementary level. Uh this chart uh really just shows as we dug in and did a little research across Montgomery County and some of Bucks County what school districts are currently offering not only a fist special but a STEM special. So, in uh reviewing the data across 24 school districts, almost all of Montgomery County and also some of Bucks, uh over 80% uh of the of the school districts
013offered a fist special. So, 20 out of 24. And of those 20 school districts that offered a fist special, um 75% of those offered a STEM special. So in looking at the data across not only our county but also Bucks, we realize North Penn is not currently offering something that is commonplace really across Montgomery County and parts of Bucks as well. Thus the rationale not only the timing of the steel standards being implemented next year but also really looking to redefine and adjust our current elementary special schedule. Um some of the areas of as we look at the positive impacts uh always looking at our four E in elevating learning, exceeding expectations, ensuring belonging and engaging community. All really tie nicely with what this STEM special will offer uh to our elementary students. Again, we're
014looking at kind of a quasi pilot. Um five schools we're looking at implementing, as Dr. Bower mentioned, next year and then a full imple implementation, which Dr. Hart will speak to in a moment. But with those uh implementation of the steel standards, you just so you know too, we are also uh adding or augmenting our current science curriculum. Um we've already done some professional development training with some new curriculum to add across all of our elementary buildings. This would also be another way to supplement what we're doing across some of our five buildings as well again with a full implementation for the 2627 school year. But in addition to that um providing a foundation as we know we have uh amazing uh STEM related coursework in the middle level and of course at the high
015school being able to provide that foundation in STEM learning for students starting in elementary school and then looking to transition that into the middle level and the high school level. Um adding more inquiry based and project-based learning which is always instrumental and also part of the newly aligned steel standards across the state. Um ensuring belonging. uh there many students really excel in the areas of STEM. So providing another opportunity learning experience for those students who uh really thrive in those areas of hands-on learning and STEM uh that ensuring belonging really meets the needs of some of our diverse learners and engaging community I think is where we can engage with not only our high school projects and our CHIP programs and other uh teched programs we have at the high school but also partnering and
016looking at what our community can do to partner with them in regards to the offerings in this current uh or new STEM special. So, I'm going to turn over to Dr. Hart to do the last two slides. Thanks. Uh, Dr. McKenna did a really beautiful job in providing a frame for our why and what we hope to accomplish. Um, and so I want to take just a couple of moments to talk a little bit about the work that we are going to do over the next year or year and a half or so to make it all come to life. Um so you can see the proposed structure um is that by the 26 27 school year um in grades 1 through six all of our elementaryaries will uh have this fifth special. Um it
017is a five-day rotation. We currently have four days. We'll move to a five-day rotation. Um it is going to be a pushin uh special. We as many of you know have some very tight spaces in our elementary schools. Um so it will be um the materials will be kind of on a cart. Um and once again as Dr. McKenna shared uh really making some very strong connections to content areas really around everything related to steel standard um and to STEM. Oh, here we go. There we go. Um so I want to take just a moment or two to talk a little bit about next steps. Although our goal is to have um this special in all 13 elementary schools in the 2627 school year. We're going to start with a pilot of five schools. Uh
018we're still refining the exact five schools, but we're very very close. Um and in the process, we know that we've got to be hiring um teachers. We the job has been posted and we will actually start the interviewing process not too long from now. Uh we're going to spend this summer uh really working with Shawn Arie um who is a supervisor of elementary STEM, Rebecca Russo, um who's one of our um coaches who's really taken on a lead in this particular project. So I definitely want to give her a shout out because so much of the research is really a lot of the work that she and Shawn have engaged in over the past few months. and Jackie Giamarco uh will all be working together to um think about the professional development that we'll need
019um as well as actually developing the curriculum. Uh we've have identified a variety a really nice cross-section of staff members uh that will work throughout the summer to kind of engage in this work. Uh we've already begun to reach out to other school districts who have already established a fit special around the area of STEM to see what's worked well, what are some of the pitfalls so we don't fall into them to have a really smooth um implementation um in the fall. Um and you can see that's really a lot of the work for the summer. Um so it's going to be very action-packed in the curriculum office. Um you'll see um on the slide that we'll have Shield in five buildings. Um and we'll continue to um kind of think about the curriculum, make
020revisions, um get feedback. Um and then we know as the year is kind of winding down, we will need to really get ready for the 2627 school year. So additional staffing um and making some choices in the budget to make sure we're able to uh support the work as well. And then in the fall of 2627, we are hoping that we will have a smooth transition for all of our buildings and kind of considering the refle continuing the reflection process to make sure that we're making a really nice uh transition. Uh you will see on this slide that there are a lot of considerations uh that we have to keep in mind throughout this summer and as we're moving forward as well. Um and so I won't necessarily read those, but one of the things
021I do want to speak to is I'm sure that someone who's watching is thinking, what about kindergarten? Don't they want to have a STEM opportunity as well? Uh we are going to try to integrate um the STEM concepts in through their exploration stations which are already an integral part of our kindergarten program as well as kind of extend some of the buddy opportunities and really some partnerships with middle school and high school students as well. So they will definitely have those experiences embedded within their kindergarten experience. And then we will move to that fifth special uh once they get to um first grade. And I think that is a brief overview. Uh we are happy to entertain any questions um or comments um from anyone here. I know it's the most concise presentation I've ever
022I have I can start. I'm working on it. I'm working on it. But I'll definitely open it up. You do shorter presentations now to allow room for all of our questions. There you are. That's what you do. I've practiced with you, Dr. G. I know. Go ahead. Um so thank you to uh to uh Dr. McKenna and Dr. Hart. I know you've been working hard and we I had a chance to answer ask many of my questions behind the scenes. I am thrilled that this board has been supportive of this initiative so thus far and moving it forward. Um I personally think that STEM is uh very important for us to have at the elementary level speaking as an elementary principal um who is fortunate to have STEM in our buildings. Um I am I
023have a few questions. I'm curious because I'm sure other people will be curious. Have we identified um which five buildings um or are you still working through scheduling? We're very close. Okay. Um I'm sure we will we will be happy to hear the update on what five buildings it will be. I am wondering when we move into 26 and 27, will kindergarten be able to be included as part of the true STEM program? Because in many of those 75% of the school districts, kindergarten is included. that I really would like to see. I do believe our five and six-year-olds can still um have that hands-on opportunity. I've seen them do robotics and all sorts of of things that I never thought my kindergarteners would be able to do. So, I'm hoping that I understand why
024you may want to start with first grade this year, but as we move to 26 and 27, you know, I personally would like to see it be a K six or K6 program. Yeah, I definitely think it's something that we're able to explore, but I don't want to give the impression that just because it's not part of the fifth special that they don't have those experiences. Um, and so, um, there is a level of flexibility that we have in kindergarten. And so, we'll kind of look at the logistical considerations. I know we've had those conversations kind of behind the scenes. Um, but I do think even for this coming year, even though it's not part of kind of the formal fifth special, um, some really dynamic and opportunities I think they will have to kind
025of set the foundation. Yeah. And we've been obviously we have some smaller buildings that where we can share staff. So there definitely will be some traveling of STEM teachers as we move forward with this districtwide. So as we look at that we believe me we've created you know multitude of schedules. So it's really trying to identify if the number of staff can can meet the needs across all 13 buildings and and also teach cover uh grades K through six as well. So, and um my last thing is I I noticed that it says, okay, it provides an additional teacher availability during the day for coverage. really am hoping that the focus is on the STEM part of this and not on the extras that you get in addition to um it's important that when we
026in terms of being fiscally responsible when we adopt a position that we are being intentional with how we're utilizing that resource and it's just really important I think that we are focusing on this really great opportunity to focus in on STEM and ensure that the staff is really serving all the students in in at in that way. And I am hoping that the stu that the buildings that are that we do choose are a combination of smaller neighborhood schools, title one schools. I understand we want to hit the larger schools for particular reasons, but I also think it's important that the smaller community schools aren't the last because they're small and that the title one schools also have those opportunities as well. So, I'm hoping that there's a combination for this first year among those
027five buildings of that so that we can see what it looks like in different settings. U, but thank you for all of your work and I know the curriculum office will be very busy this summer and I'm excited for what that is going to look like and hope to have an update of what that truly looks like in September with at ECI. I'm going to hold off on a lot of questions at this point because I I do understand that this is a rather recent development, but I I am going to say that I'm I'm thrilled thrilled that we are finally taking this step. This is definitely something I know I've talked about um on my time on the board and it's going to happen before I leave. So, thank you for that. Um you
028know, I I do work in a district um that has STEM at the elementary level and um we call it Ramquest in my district. Um, and you know the things that students do in these programs, they work with robotics, they work with 3D printing, they use like the Google uh suite of tools, learning how to do presentations, which is important because, you know, speaking is now part of the curriculum in and of itself. So to be able to tie that into the ability to give a presentation, coding, we just heard from Shayla about the interest in coding clubs at the high school. You know, this is the kind of thing again that gets students excited. And it's not just because it's their interest. It's because it's hands-on. It's because, you know, it can be a
029little monotonous with these curriculums with ELA and it's writing and it's reading and it's the same routine over and again. And no matter how much we try to make it entertaining, you know, there's nothing that can replace just that engagement that you get with this kind of hands-on learning. And for a district that is as impressive as it is in terms of turnurning out graduates who go into STEM fields, it it's mind-boggling to me that we have been this behind with this particular initiative. So I just want to thank everybody who was working on this and I know it's being done at a bit of breakneck speed, but thank you and I'm very excited to see what this is going to look like in the fall. And I'll reserve my questions for the fall. I
030recommend two slides. So, as the as the North Penn representative to the MCIU board, I would be remiss if I didn't also remind um that as we're developing the curriculum and ideas that the IU does have the environmental mobile unit. And so, see, which is lovingly called the EMU um but being able to possibly see that engaged and used within our buildings. Um and then I am going to date myself but I think when we were in the and this in the days when we were implementing and planning for full day kindergarten there were also discussions about maker spaces which was supposed to be like the groundwork and the start for STEM at the elementary school level. Do those still exist? Are we still trying that? And is that something that once you get through
031the summer and you get through the curriculum and you get through all of those pieces and we're piloting it, are maker spaces still a way for those other schools to still have access to begin the process, you know? Yeah. To begin to introduce this to all schools as a post-pilot kind of easier roll out. when we were um meeting with the librarians kind of provided a little bit of an overview before we shared with everyone the first question the librarians asked was does this mean that we're not going to have a maker space any longer and we said that's not it at all right our goal is to really expand opportunities um so I really appreciate you raising that question and just making sure that we're really explicit about we want to hold on to
032what we've been doing and really take it to be a little bit deeper and wider so students have lots of different opportunities and experiences so it it has STEM has and integrated in through the library special for you know and so being able to separate it out have a standalone dedicated day. Okay, that that's helpful. So thank you. Yeah, I mean the library special to a degree has tried of course there's literacy there's book checkout time there's a lot of other important things that happen during library but um but we appreciate also we're looking into a lot of resources right now code.org Oregon and some other ones and also visiting other districts, but the IU is another good definitely resource to look into. It wouldn't feel like an ECI meeting if I didn't chime in
033as well. Right. So, uh, but I was going to mention that. Thank you, Mrs. Ramage. That's excellent point. Um, thank you for taking this on because one of the four-letter words in education, especially elementary education, is cart, right? Teaching from a cart. and for something that is going to have to be so hands-on. Uh I just want to make sure that you understand that you have this board support in in diving into that task. That's going to be a really tough thing to find a way to get done and and we want to support you through that. So thank you and good luck and keep us updated. I I'll add one component to that Mr. McBain is that we are looking at trimester themes. So one of obviously with a lot of focus on environmental
034literacy the final trimester is we're going to look to do some outside envir experiments. So to really map out the weather and the temperature to try to navigate that to not only have to push in but utilize other spaces as well. That sounds excellent. I think this might be the first thing that my daughters won't take part in because they age out of it and now I'm so disappointed. But thank you very much. Welcome to the club. I I can talk to you about you know missed kindergarten, missed you know all of it. I'll just make one last comment only because I'm really excited. Um, first thank you to my fellow ECI members because uh they we have three educators on ECI and so we uh when we get behind something that's kind of how
035things kind of start to move in lightning speed and then Dr. Bower, you know, keeps it going for us. Keeps it going for us. Um um so really just um thank you thank you to my colleagues though um because it it just is important the fact that we do have educators on our board and we have others in the STEM field on our board to really get behind this. And I think as I think about that that cart word which is what made me think of this was just to make sure that we were communicating that um while it is on a cart um we want to make sure that we are investing in this program in a way that's very intentional. So as you are doing your curriculum development over the summer we don't
036want you to say don't do robotics because that's that's there's going to be a certain level of cost to that. We want to do it correctly. We want to make sure that we're able to invest in this as a real program that will make a difference in the long term. If you have a student who has STEM for six years once a week, think about the amount of exposure that they're getting to science and technology and engineering. So, um just really want to be intentional about the materials and things that could be need to be used recognizing that we are use um working at a certain speed. If you go to Dr. devour and he says that you can't have something, then sneak a sneak a note to me or something and we'll see what
037we can do. Well, we both appreciate the board support. So, thank you. I'm I still I always have something to say. Um, thank you to everyone that spoke here because it does echo how this board feels and there is true support. Um, but I am a fan of chain of command, so we'll go up the chain. Um secondly, I'd like to and I don't want to sound um uh dramatic, but implore um the administration staff to utilize the high school project regardless of the level um that a child can learn. It does take a lot of work. Um, but it's such an opportunity from so many different lenses, whether it be the science lens, whether it be the project management lens, the, you know, all of those components. And particularly since you're starting at elementary
038school to get them comfortable, all of them comfortable with it. So, truth be told, we go into the engineering lab and it's all males. So for me candidly, when I think about what can happen at an elementary school level for little girls or little children of color, I'm like, "All right, you they'll get comfortable with it. They won't they'll be more comfortable with themselves, I think." So I really would like everyone to focus on when they're thinking about this, how can we use the building as an opportunity? You've got five years, so I'm sure we can do something. Great. Thanks. Yeah. Thank you all. Thank you. Really appreciate your support. Jeez, Louise. All right. Any other comments or questions? With baited breath. On three. One, two, three. All righty. All in favor say I. I.
039I. No opposed. Motion passes. That concludes the superintendent's report this evening. And I don't believe we have any new business. Thank you, Dr. Bower. We do not have any new business. I do want to congratulate as I did with the ice hockey team. The boys varsity baseball team won division championship for the first district. Oh, sorry. District. I'll get it right. District championship. First time in 17 years. That I do believe is right. So, congratulations to them. All right. Any other business this evening? Just commencement is June 17th, 6 o'clock Crawford Stadium. If not that we look ahead to the weather, but it looks like it's going to be roughly 79 degrees with low humidity. So, uh, really looking forward to it. Let's hope that forecast holds. All right. All right. May I please have
040a motion to adjourn? I have one more comment. Oh, I'm sorry, Doc. Mr. Thank you. I just made you a doctor. Sorry. Surrounded by some smart people. U just want to make sure um to wish everyone uh definitely uh prideful month because uh it's really simple. We've been raising the flag for a number of years. And uh when we listen to the students, that's when we learn it's just about kindness, compassion, and acceptance of family members, neighbors, staff, um students especially. And if we listen to those students over the years, I think it resonates with a super majority of this community. And that's really all that matters. Not the baggage that anyone else brings to conflate or add about conspiracies and theories. It's about kindness and acceptance and uh really making sure that we embrace
041every single student in North Penn. Thank you, Mr. Casa. All righty. Now, may I please have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. All right. Thank you, everyone. Have a good evening.