001we are live Mr rash we're on YouTube We're on our webinar the meeting is yours this meeting is now in session please stand for 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 can I have a motion to approve the minutes from the last policy meeting so moved second any comments or discussions seeing none all those in D say I hi uh items recommended for work session or Action meeting or policies 803 805 and 85.1 would you like to take over Dr Waters sure good evening everybody and as Mr rush just stated We are continuing to work through our psba updates and so tonight we are recommending uh to
002go to a first reading policy 803 which is school calendar policy 805 emergency preparedness and response and policy 85.1 relations with law enforcement agency so at this time I would love for you Mr Summers to give an overview of each thank you Dr wers uh good evening everyone um so uh as Dr Waters mentioned these are our psba updates um and relatively straightforward uh mostly based upon changes to statutes so the school code uh sets out essentially all the rules uh by which school districts operate the state legislature revises those rules from time to time and when that happens psba revises its recommended policies to reflect language that's consistent with the law as reflected in the school code so um the first policy 803 school calendar uh pursuant to the school code the board does
003adopt the school calendar on an annual basis that is prepared by the Admin ministration it goes through the committee process it's it's shared with the board um and then ultimately voted upon by the board the change to this policy is essentially to um revise the language about the 180 school days that the school year will typically be 180 school days there was a change in the law uh to say that um it is possible to meet the the mandatory amount of time for students to receive instruction without being in school for 180 days so long as students at the elementary and secondary level receive a requisite amount of hours of instruction 900 hours at the elementary level 990 hours at the secondary level um it was designed the change in the law was really designed
004to provide greater flexibility to schools throughout the Commonwealth um I don't necessarily uh Envision anytime soon that there will be a significant change in uh the the number of school days or or hours for students uh in this region but it's certainly possible that at some point a school could choose to to adjust um whether students are in person five days a week um and so this change to policy really just says what the law says now which is schools May provide the amount of instruction that students require by either meeting the 180 day requirement um or they could meet the 900 hours or 990 hours of instruction um that's really the only adjustment uh to that policy the other two policies on the agenda 805 emergency preparedness and response and 85.1 relations with law
005enforcement agencies um deal with school safety issues um 805 uh it it reflects um primarily one of the changes we've been talking about for I think the past two policy committee meetings is um instead of using using the term local police department revising that throughout our policies to say law enforcement agencies to reflect that it's oftentimes more than just the local police department um in some other school districts they don't have a local police department always it might be the state police or some other uh law enforcement agency so it's updating um the language in 805 to that law enforcement agency language and not just local police department and then also providing a little bit more specificity in terms of the training that school staff have to receive for emergency preparedness um it lists out
006the number of hours specifically that school staff uh will will receive in training that's certainly something that the district has been doing um in practice and in providing uh its employees with the requisite number of hours of training but this just ensures that our policies are also consistent with that um and say how many hours of training in a variety of school safety topics um our employees will receive 85.1 again replaces local police department language with law enforcement agency language um and then the other changes uh are it it states that there was language that said that we would comply with the safe schools act um and that was largely referring to a certain section of the school code that um has been revised and so instead of saying that we would comply with the
007safe schools act it just says we will comply with safe schools requirements you know um as set forth in the school code uh as opposed to the safe schools act um the other thing that it 85.1 does is it talks about the memorandum of understanding that is required to exist between the district and the uh police department with jurisdiction over school district uh buildings and so that's something that has has been a requirement for a while um but there's some updated language in terms of what that memorandum of understanding needs to contain um that those M us are signed between by the superintendent the principal of each School building and then the chief of police for each department that has jurisdiction over each of our schools and um largely ensures that there's a common understanding
008of what types of incidents are reported to law enforcement um how law enforcement will resp respond to incidents that may occur at the school um and ensuring that there's ongoing collaboration and coordination um between the school and local law enforcement so um uh the other thing that theou does is it talks a little bit about um the process for reconciling essentially the incidents that the district keeps track of and what law enforcement keeps track of uh at our buildings and each year there's a process for ensuring that those things those reports match up that the school district is is reporting the school district's records indicate the same uh incident as what the the police records indicate and then that information is shared with the state um so it's all all things that have been occurring
009but it it updates the language a little bit to ensure that um the policy says all of the things that theou um with local police needs to contain um and that uh is those are our changes for this month uh I have a question for you Dr Bower do do our reports sync with what we give to the police yes so we actually have an exchange of information with reporting systems uh that we are able to access some of their reports um and then we meet with them quarterly to align our reports with them um so in the sense of the number of calls types of calls date and time those types of things so we actually have to provide them to the state every year and we meet quarterly with each municipality to make
010sure that the that data aligns thank you very much does anybody else have any questions yes I do oh no I do sorry no I didn't click uh quickly enough um so just a question on the 180 school days and and then how that translates to 900 hours in elementary and I think 990 okay 990 um I think I'm sure you know the school calendar has just come out um I'm sure like parents such as myself are trying to just understand and I am trying to understand how we are we typically over 180 and then the minimum requirement is 900 hours trying to think through that I'm assuming one is the defining and then the other is supplementary yeah so we are typically um in years past we've had 180 school days for students 191
011for teachers and because they have professional development days on top of the student days and then um we are well over the 990 okay in the case of an emergency and the 900 we're actually further over in elementary over 900 than we are at the high school and that's because in particular the high school uh but that's because there's a lot of loss time and transition time right so when you switch switch classes eight times seven times a day for eight periods um that's four minutes times 7even that you're not in class you can't count lunch you can't count the transition time s um you can't count a study hall there are other things that aren't you know a Home Room period unless there's a curriculum so for next year it's the first year we're
012actually doing 179 days instead of 180 which will give us one additional professional development day um and we still hit the that 990 Mark right so um any days that's helpful because I think that's what I was thinking that the 990 probably is the most important one to criteria to hit and then you know we'll be close to it at the number of days all right so with any early dismissal snow days Etc that's all then therefore captured as long as we hit 990 yeah so great question um the snow days like emergencies they don't count um so the state doesn't dock you for miss having a two-hour delay for example okay okay a full snow day when you don't go to school of course you have to make that up but if you have
013a two-hour delay or an early dismissal because of weather however a regularly scheduled early dismissal day does count um so what they do is they take the average school day and let's say um just for round figures let's say there are six hours of instruction in the regular school day so 6 time 60 is 360 minutes for the day right um and then they take the total year times 180 and they deduct the early dismissal time okay so if you have scheduled early dismissals they do hurt those hours but an unscheduled emergency does not okay awesome thank you for explaining that great questions yeah appreciate that all right no no additional questions Mr R okay is there anybody else have any questions seeing none I recommend policies 803 805 and 85.1 for first read do
014I I have a motion to approve policies 803 805 and 80 5.1 so moved have a second house second uh any comments or discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I I um sorry are there any information uh are there any informational items for discussion tonight not tonight uh does the student um does anyone from the community wish to speak yes we do have one hand raised for a public comment tonight individuals attending this meeting virtually and intending to 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 to speak to the committee during the meeting to assure compliance with this requirement it is essential that those planning to address the
015committee raise their hand electronically and state their name in 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 meetings on matters that may come before the policy committee it is not this designed for debate or discussion with members of the committee when appropriate committee members may choose to respond to public comment that has been made or request that a member of the administration follow up with the speaker after the meeting to allow time for all those who wish to speak to to the committee the chair person may ask an individual to yield the microphone to the next speaker thank you very much all righty uh so up first is Mr Jason laner Jason
016I've enabled your mic so when you're ready to begin please state your name and municipality for the record and begin your comments please uh Jason lir Lansdale um I'm kind of thinking the best way to phrase this but uh uh you know looking at the policies and and what's coming down from federal you know the federal uh requirements on education and you guys aren't don't seem to be jumping to removing you know your your policy on Equity or Dei or any of that stuff um I'm wondering you know what it would what what is your plan are you waiting to actually see if it if it if it comes out in trial or something you need what is your evidence that that or I guess your process for determining whether or not something is law
017because it sort of seems like law to me um I know it's an executive order as opposed to passed by Congress and maybe that's coming down but it wasn't passed by Congress the first go around it seemed more like like you're really interested in jumping on the bandwagon instead of actually waiting for some kind of legislative process so what is your what point are you going to be withdrawing these policies um and I guess sort of dovetailing with that in in a way would it be you know if if I were if I were to get anxious and this is hypothetical and say something to the effect of you know I'm part of a group that uh you don't want to F with you need to follow my policy or my my recommendations for policy
018would would that be deemed a threat because you have board members who who write that sort of thing and how do you how do you do the Justice bus I know these are sort of they're not directly dovetailed together but they're similar in terms of how do I get you guys to behave in a way which is which is commencer with with federal policy and and what what deemed what at what point do you deem it necessary to actually follow federal policy and uh and what do you deem to be a a a bully bullying or a threat uh when it comes to comes to to uh posting online or or in in social media and it would I would really kind of appreciate an answer here not just kind of uh uh Slough it
019off and and don't you know just ignore it outright because you know you know what I'm talking about on both ends you know where you need to actually where things are coming down the pike and and when you're going to react and what the cyber bullying is I know there was an issue just today with with with threats and cyber bullying so when is where's the consistency here and and when do you plan to follow uh the federal guidance and I'll leave it there thank you thank you missia um do you would you like to reply uh Kyle sure just just to speak in terms of the um Federal guidance uh primarily in the form of executive orders uh that had been recently issued by the president or uh memoranda that have been issued by
020uh various department heads um certainly I think that the school district actively monitors all of that information uh reviews those dear colleague letters that are issued by the US Department of Ed um and and gives them appropriate consideration certainly they are a a source of information they are an important source of information to understand what the um enforcement priorities of the federal government are um but they are also taken into consideration alongside other pieces of information like Federal Court decisions state law um State Court decisions and all of that information helps guide the district so um I know for certain that the district is actively monitoring um that guidance uh that's being issued at the federal level looking at our policies looking at our procedures determining is there anything that that needs to be adjusted
021in order to ensure compliance um at this point that there isn't anything in in board policy for example that's been identified as uh in conflict with uh the recent guidance that's been issued um in terms of enforcement priorities and and how the law will be carried out so um in the event that there are things that need to be adjusted in order to um ensure that the district follows the law those items would certainly be brought before the policy committee uh for further consideration and review thank you very much uh Kyle um is there any other business before the committee seeing none summary items for work session or policy 803 School calendar policy 805 emergency preparedness and response and policy 85.1 relations with law enforcement agencies the next meeting is March 24th at 5: PM
022can I have a motion to adjin so moved thank you have a good night everybody thank you everyone you thanks everyone