NPSD School Board Worksession 2-8-22

001all right north bend television is live our webinar is live and our youtube stream is live madam president the meeting is yours thank you mr gilmer okay so i'm going to call to order tonight's work session meeting first off we will start with the pledge of allegiance please i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay so um before we start with the audience of citizens i'm going to read off a statement um that we had posted on our website on the north penn school district website last week the north penn school district seeks to develop students who embody its universal values of achievement kindness collaboration respect responsibility resilience and integrity in

002partnership the north penn school district board of school directors and administration are working extremely hard to install these install and still these values in a world environment national environment and at times a local environment that sometimes feels less than supportive we want you to know that we stand behind our staff of teachers principals support staff and others who are meeting the daily duties of their job plus the added responsibilities that are needed in today's world words like dedicated caring innovative resilient and motivated are not on many official job descriptions but they are the essence of north penn employees day in and day out north penn school district staff members are doing what is asked of them and more for the students of this great school district whether you agree with every step the school district

003makes or not we ask that you remember to treat each other with kindness and respect we felt compelled to issue this statement because of several recent events the most recent one was when one of our principals mrs carter from culp elementary took part in a presentation on the diversity equity and inclusion work that is going on in our district at last week's eci committee meeting this work is being done at the school board's request immediately afterwards mrs carter was subjected to vicious attacks on social media her colleague at cope elementary mrs chappelle has also been subjected once again to personal attacks because of an activity that she did in her class last year tonight i want to set the record completely straight on what occurred in that class activity so we can put this to

004rest to be very clear this port this board supports the dei work being done in this district one of our goals when we got elected was to advocate for policies that make sure that every student that comes through north penn school district feels welcome feels safe heard represented and has every opportunity afforded to them to succeed part of that work is providing professional development lessons to our staff on these topics mrs chappelle took a professional development lesson on teaching perspective and empathy and made it developmentally appropriate for her fifth grade students the students were asked to line up as they are often asked to line up for things like going to gym class or art or recess the students lined up like they do every day in the third group of friends they were asked

005a series of questions these questions are as follows do you pack a lunch is english your first language have you been told by your parents that you are smart or attractive is it expected of you to go to college can you find band-aids designed to blend with blend with or match your skin tone if you have never skipped a meal or were hungry because there wasn't enough money to buy food do both of your parents are they still married do you live in a house do you own a vehicle do you own more than one vehicle do you have your own bedroom do you have a cell phone if your phone is the latest iphone or android is your family does your family have internet do you have a non-school computer have you been to

006disney world more than twice do you have a pool or pool membership these were the questions that were asked of the students there was none of what certain people have claimed to have taken place there was no lining up by color there was no apologizing of white kids to black kids again this was a lesson to teach perspective and empathy unfortunately mrs chappelle mrs carter and the cult staff have been subjected to vile phone calls and voicemails left on the school office phone from people that are not necessarily in north penn school district but from all over the country we debated about whether to play the worst of the worst this evening but i do feel it's one thing for me to tell you how awful these calls are and another for you to actually

007hear how despicable they are so we are going to play them mr gilmer could you please play the audio of the phone calls checking my audio settings one more time sorry here we go well this is for the administration pass it along okay apparently uh you have a teacher making white kids apologize for the skin color well you got my phone number come to las vegas and i'll apologize to you it's six foot nothing 245 pounds and i'll shove my you know what right up here so far your mother will feel it you fire that some of these white [ __ ] you got the number do it thank you mr gilmer so these attacks are demoralizing and they affect our staff greatly this is the staff that has done everything it can over the last two

008years of a pandemic to keep our schools functioning for our children this is not just a north penn school district problem it is a statewide nationwide issue teachers are leaving the profession due to the lack of respect and stress we don't have enough people going into the teaching profession to replace them we are emergency certifying people to be able to sub this is simply not sustainable we need to show our teachers and staff that we appreciate them and that we support them so i will close by saying this again whether you agree with every step the school district makes or not we ask you to remember to treat each other with kindness and respect this is what we try to instill in our children and they are watching [Music] thank you so much if i

009may presidents yes i just may add to that president's goal you know we've had now uh months of people coming and just not following that request to treat people with kindness and respect yeah people have come to the podium we've had people then that spread things that just aren't factually correct and this now has spread nationwide and you have staff at cult for example we had staff at the penfield individuals that are getting calls and just being subjected to all sorts of things they should not have to deal within the education world likewise we've had to have uh security at cult because individuals have felt threatened there because of these uh attacks on them that have come from uh various places across our country and that's just not right we don't want to have an

010environment in a school where little children are watching to see what is going on and i personally visited those buildings and i saw firsthand the impact of that necessary step in order to protect our staff to be able to have security there like that and uh it's it's concerning and it's upsetting to our children so we definitely are asking our community to stop spreading falsehoods things that just aren't correct and we're calling upon those individuals across our country to treat individuals with kindness and with respect and even if you don't agree with things we can have discussions about those things but we need to do it in a civil kind of a way i'm just disappointed i think just buying orange across our country we have far too much of this lack of civility when

011people don't agree and we that needs to stop we need to be able to be able to have discussions and talk about things and sometimes agree to disagree but all of this craziness that we've been experiencing in education uh with people getting to the point they're getting now and treating people in the ways of being treated is just uncalled for so with that i'm going to throw it back to you president thank you dr dietrich very well said so is there anybody else mr fresco i think you want to make comment thank you miss stole i i hope not to be redundant but i am somebody who's been a big proponent for the dei work that the district has undergone um over the past four years um and i was a part of the eci

012meeting the other night and i just i'm an educator and i just couldn't not express some thought so if you could just you know give me a minute here there's an old expression about teaching high school teachers teach content and elementary school teachers teach children if you plan to reach the children in your classroom you have to meet them where they are wherever that might be i keep hearing people say that north penn needs to just teach the kids math and reading and science and lean the other stuff to the parents the truth is that public schools are absolutely responsible for teaching children and i mean the whole child and that means teaching them about the larger world around them and the people who share that space it is the role of educators to help

013students understand that the world doesn't end at their doorstep there are people in this world who look different who speak differently who worship differently and it's important for us to teach children that all people have value and that we are a part and they are all a part of the american experience we aren't judging children by the color of their skin we are helping to build the content of their character and that's what happened in miss chappelle's classroom at cult elementary in may of 2021 that was the purpose of her lesson not to make students think less of themselves the purpose was to expose their students to the wider world around them by providing perspective about their situation in the situation of others not only was that the purpose i frankly applaud her for that

014for the effort i applaud the work that i call elementary is undergoing much of which was on display at our dei meeting last week ms carter put on display all the wonderful ways cult is working to reach children making sure high school meetings are accessible to all by making them virtual making sure notices sent home are able to be translated into whatever language a family needs in order to be able to read them highlighting different language every month in the morning announcements and most importantly digging into academic and behavioral data to identify to identify which students we haven't yet reached and seeking answers about how to reach them ms chappelle and ms carter were attacked this week frankly miss chappelle has been attacked for months over this lesson and let me be clear the people

015who are attacking her and that are attacking ms carter they're attacking them for doing their jobs we believe in this dei work and we are aggressively putting it into action we believe in the urgency of the need for this work and although i believe very strongly that they believe in the work as well it's not right to attack our staff because they're doing their jobs those of us who stood before this community and promised to prioritize this work myself and my fellow board members we signed on for this we knew what we were getting into they did not they are simply doing their job and i urge the community to keep that in mind when they're expressing their objections to this initiative and further it's worth pointing out that those two women who have been

016harassed most visually viciously this past week in social media threatened in emails and phone messages are both black women that's not okay it's not okay when people request to have their child not placed in someone's classroom because of their race or ethnicity it's not okay when people address dr g and dr lewis campbell as misses and to intentionally disrespect them it's not okay when other teachers or administrators of color are made to feel disrespected by certain members of this community the community that they serve christina carter kelly chappelle the cult elementary staff and any and all staff members across the district that hear these words that have had this experience with these kinds of micro and macro aggressions hear me hear us we support you we have your back we believe in you and the

017work you are doing we stand with you and we thank you for pushing through despite all this negativity we know why you work so hard it is because you love your students all of your students you do your job with grace and with compassion and with the best interest of the students first and foremost in your mind thank you for being part of this diverse community and thank you for working so hard for north penn thank you mr fusco mr casa thank you madam president thank you both for your statements we are here because we represent the entire community and compromise and consensus is essential in our civic duty as citizens no matter how much we may disagree with one another my entire career has been dedicated to school safety and security i'd like to

018open with a statement made just a few days ago by the department of homeland security national terrorism advisory system it's a bulletin dated february 7th 2022. it's a summary of the terrorism threat to the united states the united states remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories and other forms of miss this and now information introduced and or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors these threat actors seek to exacerbate social friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest which could potentially inspire acts of violence now in no way am i saying that we are facing a terroristic threat our schools are safe and and sound but it's obvious that something is changing we

019do have power in this community to still make a difference and stand up and have backbone to what is now impacting us from outside our community over the past year and now increasing in frequency the school district community regularly experiences viral myths and disinformation campaigns from unsubstantiated gossip to false narratives and outrage which often have no regard for victims and their families wishes let alone due process and establishment of facts these things take time this community can do better we owe that example to our children and students we may not be able to control this manufactured outrage especially from the outside but the adults of this community it's time we set an example of civility we've had this conversation before we've written about this in board newsletters we have to protect our schools and our

020students by not accelerating this information jumping to social media instead without any regard for progress is clearly not working maybe it is for your agenda or someone else's but is not working for this community we have civil and well-established processes which have served this community for over five decades multiple school-related incidents have resulted in regional national and ultimately worldwide attention what we heard tonight is just a tip of an iceberg over the past year toxicity harassment and calls for violence have become routine in north penn as a small vocal minority revel in the chaos created for the school board mr fusco alluded to this the school board understands what is going on that's our role to sit here and try to lead by example but now this this is our staff these are our students

021our school community that are being traumatized they're under siege from outside manufactured outrage that begins here at north penn we can never control what happens outside of north penn but what we can do as a community is appeal to just reasonable nature we all have it in us the erosion of truth is an apolitical problem let's pull together as a community to set the right example for our students that's all we're trying to do here our schools are safe let's maintain that safety now our community must face a new reality and this is what wide led with that dhs statement disinformation is altering public opinion fostering biases dividing communities and increasing risks that may trigger community unrest and perhaps even violence you heard that call all this does is harm the educators and children of

022our schools who come under siege each and every time these lies and half truths are amplified this needs to end for the sake of our safe schools they're members of this community who can stop this by changing their reckless behavior on social media now's a time for us to change direction come together as a community ensure that our schools our staff and our students especially remain safe thank you for your time thank you mr casa mrs ramich thank you i just want to second dr dietrich's comments and call for civility i can't tell you i'm just sitting here shaking um hearing that message again knowing that that threat came from outside of our community but was inspired by the lack of civility that we've seen from within and i think we need to call it

023what it is we knew that when we invested in our work with um diversity equity and inclusion that we would face discomfort that we would face the need to really struggle with our identity and who we are and really focus it's hard work but we knew the work was worth it but that call and what is it inspired and the threats that have been made against us are rooted in what we need to label and we need to clearly state it it is white supremacy and we must address it as a community i'm going to speak now as a parent and i want to say thank you to the teachers and principals who work with our children every day i have so many examples of difficult conversations and wonderful activities that have inspired my children

024to think beyond the curriculum to take on life lessons and to really think about the issues of the day they've had teachers like mrs chappelle and principal carter that have inspired them they've brought those conversations and those questions home and we've kept those conversations going and teachers and principals like that have made me a better parent they've made me a better community member and they've made us all stronger and to threaten them and to see this happen and to tear them down is the is not what our students need is not what our community needs and we need to do better and just as they are continuing to find the good and to find the why and to continue to be motivated by their passion for teaching and for public education we will continue to

025find inspiration to keep going as well thank you mrs ramich mr mcbean thank you uh i'm also touched by the comments of my fellow board members both teachers and not myself as a regular education teacher um it's been a couple years we've had uh quite a time you'll find the teachers are not upset because they can't uh do the lessons they used to do you'll find the teachers aren't upset because they can't make their classroom um look the way it did before you'll find the teachers are upset because they can't reach kids that have spent so much time dealing with these crises um they've been through enough our our north penn teachers have been through enough we don't need to do much more to to motivate these folks they came motivated right um and i

026think for our student's sake and our teachers say uh it's time to turn to our community and focus ourselves there thank you thank you mr mcpain mrs rahman did you have another comment or okay mr rush i think you were next and then miss dr g i just want to say i support the board i said and i definitely support the staff from north penn school district i appreciate everything that you do for for my grandchildren your job is hard it's a tough environment and thank you i appreciate it thank you mr rush dr g did you want to say something as i was considering what i might say this evening i am fortunate to have fellow board members who really spoke to what my heart and my mind was thinking i decided that i

027would end with a poem that many of you have heard and i think is will resonate with this moment in our community as well as it being black history month when the day comes we ask ourselves where we can find light in this never-ending shade the loss we carry a sea we must weed we've braved the belly of the beast we've learned that quiet isn't always peace and the norms and notions of what just is isn't always just ice and yet the dawn is ours before we knew it somehow we do it somehow we've weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken but simply it's simply unfinished we the successors of a country and a time where a black girl or a biracial girl like me descended from slaves and raised by a single white

028mother can dream of becoming president or an educator or a principal like me only to find yourself reciting for one and yes we are far far from polish far from pristine but that doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect we are striving to forge a union with purpose to compose a country committed to all cultures colors and characters and conditions of man like our community here in north penn and so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us we close the divide because we know to put our future first we must first put our differences aside we lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another to seek harm to none and harmony for all let the globe

029if nothing else say this is true that even as we grieved we grew that even as we hurt we hoped that even as we tired we tried that we'll forever be tied together victorious not because we will never again know defeat but because we will never again so division scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid if we're to live up to our own time then victory won't lie in the bleed but in all the bridges we've made that is the promised glee the hill we climb if only we dare it's because being american is more than a pride we inherit it's the past we step into and how we repair it we've seen a force that would shatter our

030nation rather than share it would destroy our country if we meant delaying democracy and this effort very nearly succeed many of us heard this poem at the inauguration of president biden it's written by amanda gorman the hill we climb i hope that these words can help to bring our community together because i believe most of my neighbors and all of the teachers my children have had and the principles i believe we are stronger together and i believe that as north penn residents we can all come together and i hope that those who stand with us and know the importance of respecting and loving each other for who we are will start to speak out against those who are trying to sow hate in our community thank you madam president thank you dr g is there

031anyone else that would like to make a comment if not um i think we'll move then on to public comment um before we start that i will read off the statement 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 ensure compliance with this requirement it is 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 allow time for all those who wish to speak to the board the board president

032may ask an individual to yield the microphone to the next speaker 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 requests that a member of the administration follow up with the speakers after the meeting so with that we'll start with um public comment i believe mrs charlay was the um first one signed up for tonight's public comment mrs roulette would you like to make a comment at this time go ahead and open up her

033microphone yep standby all right alexis your uh microphone is enabled so when you're ready to begin state your name and address for the record and your municipality please hi mr gilmer could i switch with mrs conby rudnick she's tuning in from a phone that is rapidly losing battery power i would uh defer to mrs still but i'm sure that's okay okay thanks yup you got it i couldn't be you are on so if you would like to begin your comments please state your name and um your municipality and begin your comments please thank you can you hear me yes you can all right perfect this is kundi rudnick from montgomeryville um i just want to and i have uh two daughters at montgomery elementary thank you mrs jorley for giving me your time i want

034to you know thank you for the board for the transparent report and what appears to have been a thorough investigation i have to say it was very moved in different ways from um the last 15 minutes or so both from just listening to that phone call and the notes from all from all the the board members um i think it's what's most important is that you have investigated um reported and now i do hope that we can heal and move on this is a time where misinformation is rampant and we know that it has the ability to cause significant damage and distress as was shown here tonight by the message that you you played um i think the the situation for the highlights the importance of this work and the importance of the continued development

035of our teachers in this space um so i do sincerely hope that it does not deter other teachers and administrators from you know flexing their learning muscles and furthering their understanding and practice of the work i would humbly like to take this opportunity to encourage our teachers and administrators to continue to lean into the discomfort of this work it's not easy but easy things never lead to transformations and we all know that transformations require courage and persistence i want to thank you all so very much on behalf of all the students that i know will grow and flourish from the positive environment that you're nurturing and i also want to add that you know as a community we do need to continue to heal band together work together to create this nurturing and safe environment

036for our students again thank you for the time thank you mrs rednick okay we will go back to alexis alexis i have enabled your microphone so you're ready to begin again for the record please state your name and municipality and begin your comments please thank you alexa stroller montgomery township um i'm not gonna lie i didn't really know what i was getting into tonight when i volunteered to um or what i decided to speak because i live under a happy little rock and i had no idea the magnitude of what has transpired but a lot of what i wanted to say is still relevant so i'm going to go on and read what i had planned um first of all i just wanted to thank everyone in the technology and communications department for the work

037i know that goes into facilitating the digital broadcast of these meetings to make it accessible for everyone to tune in from home or tune in the next day i am generally in the camp of someone who tunes in the next day so i had some comments on things from meetings that i have watched recently really quick um the block scheduling there was an informational meeting last week and i just wanted to give kudos to the district for the steps it took to gather feedback they set priorities they proposed a model to address the most pressing concerns and i talked with my middle schooler about it and we are both really excited about what this proposed solution looks like we love the idea of the common pen time the core subjects meeting all year etc i'm

038assuming this is going to come up in front of the board for approval at some point in the near future so i just wanted to chime in with my support the next meeting that i watched was the infamous eci meeting um this is where we got to hear from four different schools about some of the ways that they are living into these collective goals of equity and inclusion and see what it looks like in their building day-to-day i listened to it and was so proud to be a part of this school district that's helping to teach kids to be open-minded and aware of the world around them and i'm not going to reiterate everything that they said because it was a lot and i think people should actually go back and watch it and learn

039for yourself what is happening take advantage of these digital replays put it on while you're making dinner one night and just listen because you will see that 99 of what is happening is not these privileged walks and it's not shaming kids about the color of their skin it's allowing students that fast for ramadan to not feel like outcasts in their cafeteria it's teaching kids what the word inclusivity looks like in practice and making it a part of their school culture it's creating an environment where students see themselves in the displays around the school and the books in the library and they hear their native right language represented in daily greetings and in library books the work that is being done at the building level around cultural proficiency and equity is something that we should all

040be really proud of and i want to praise these teachers specifically mrs carter for the work that has been done um and it's a shame that everything that i just said is not going to make the headlines because it's always parents sound off at local school board meeting about whatever and it's the angry opinions that get the headlines because that's what sells and i wish i could go on the cable news circuit and sing these praises but praise isn't click worthy and kind words don't usually get much airtime so tonight i wanted to take my three minutes and just give it some thank you mrs truly very much appreciated i believe mrs wilson was the next one on the um list of signed up speakers yes uh there she is i couldn't find her at

041first on the list all right uh lauren i have enabled your microphones and you're ready to begin uh state your name and municipality for the record begin your comments please thanks i'm lauren wilson from montgomery township um i actually called for a different purpose i too was able to listen to the eci meeting from last week i along with alexis lead the north penn parents in equity group which is a group of parents from every school within the school district that really helps to pull through on the cultural proficiency goals and last week when i watched that eci meeting i felt this sense of pride excitement and and just overall joy to see the work that's being done really broadcast throughout the district i'm really proud to be a part of it i'm also really

042thankful for the commitment of our school board our district administration principals and teachers to continue to bring forth and prioritize this equity and cultural proficiency work it's really important as alexis already stated to make sure all of our students feel comfortable and that we make sure we meet every student where they are and i'm proud to be a part of that process i actually think we should be doing more but i'm proud of where we've come in my few years in this school district and i look forward to where we go i had no idea that the eci meeting that i was so proud of had such negative backlash from something that i saw so praiseworthy had such a negative impact and you know mr fusco said that these people were being attacked for doing

043their job and i'll i'll go one step further and and really define that they were doing their job well and i think in north penn from my perspective that's what good looks like where students teachers staff parents are all understanding how each other can feel and understanding the perspective it chilled me to my core to hear the voicemail that was left on the school i can't imagine that type of repercussion being necessary in any instance i think that one thing that it's important to say is that this type of hate crime should not be tolerated within our school district i'm glad that the appropriate police presence was taken as was mentioned in this call but more needs to be done as it relates to cultural proficiency work as it relates to standing up and standing

044behind our teachers and staff and administration this is important work and we need to continue to be forthcoming with how strong of our stance is like we're doing tonight and i'm i'm grateful to be here in this district under the leadership of this administration and this school board and see where we go forward together thank you thank you mrs wilson i think that was all the pre-registered we had for tonight right so if there's anyone else that intends to make comment now would be the time to raise your hand in the interface at the bottom of your screen i do not see any additional hands at this time so that will conclude our public comment um for this meeting okay thank you everyone so now we'll move on then to new business and uh we

045have a presentation i believe on the middle school schedule dr bauer please yes good evening everyone uh thank you president stoll um i just wanted to thank everyone for their comments this evening in support of our administration and our teachers and all the wonderful work that everyone has been doing um i'm at a loss for words which those of you who uh know me well know that that's not all that common um mrs drillet thank you for your comments uh they were very moving uh mrs wilson and mrs redneck you as well um i'm just really proud to sit on this this panel with this group of individuals i don't agree with all of you all the time but you're just good people who are here for the right reasons and who care and that's

046all we can ask for is good people who are willing to work together and care about kids because that's what this is supposed to be about i said after that eci meeting it was really nice to have a meeting where we talked about teaching and learning because it feels like that's we've gotten away from that and tonight i'm pleased to be talking about a schedule because it's about teaching and learning and it's about trying to have kids be successful so with that mr gilmer if you wouldn't mind please pulling up the presentation and i am going to begin here by saying if you are interested in the full-fledged presentation and all the information we did have a parent information night on thursday evening that lasted nearly an hour and a half i believe it was

047over an hour and 20 minutes we did q a all the principals were involved we've met with the cabinet administration of course dr dietrich's cabinet we met with the secondary administrators met with department chairs in all the buildings we've met with smaller groups of teachers then we did a parent and student night as mrs derle referenced and tomorrow i'm actually meeting with the principals and all of the middle school teachers as well to answer further questions and to get to collect more feedback so this will be a a very abridged version just to kind of keep everyone in the loop we are still collecting feedback and hearing from stakeholders but the process has been extensive thus far um and i'm proud of the outcome uh thus far so pardon the redundancy but we are still

048tweaking and making small adjustments as we go um so mr gilmer if you will advance the slides for me and kind of point through some things um so that evening and again i'm going to give an overview of this presentation that was well over an hour on thursday evening which is now live on youtube and was also emailed out to families following the presentation so we provided a history of how we got to where we are with our current schedule and then we talked about the study that was conducted by hanover research as a result of the district operations survey which was a version of a climate survey last year given the unique climate in all of our schools due to the pandemic then we had focus groups with stakeholders parents teachers administrators and students

049hanover provided their findings and that resulted in ultimately this proposal mr gilmer um so i did outline for everyone and certainly this board knows but for the community the difference between a traditional schedule and a block schedule um a traditional schedule is what perhaps you and i had when we were in high school with eight periods and a six day cycle typically letters a through f um and then those periods are roughly 45 minutes and most of your major classes would last all year long and then your minor classes sometimes a marketing period or a semester in a block schedule it looks more like a college schedule a traditional four by four block is you have four classes for one semester for half the year but those classes are twice as long so and then

050you would switch classes halfway through the year certainly there were some concerns with a typical block schedule but we transitioned to that format if you recall as a result of the recommendation for one of our school reopening committees the middle school scheduling committee said they would prefer that we have four classes instead of eight due to the uh unpredictability of the 2021 school year because of being virtual being hybrid whatever the year may bring for us we thought the contact racing the fewer transitions and the fewer classes being held online for students would make things easier for our middle school students so that's why we transitioned to a black schedule in the first place it also happened that pedro rivera who was the secretary of education at the time for pde recommended that school districts

051move to a blocked schedule due to contact tracing and limited contact points we had already made the switch but it was convenient that the secretary of education released a recommendation that said we should move to that so then last year we issued a as previously mentioned a district operations survey and in that survey uh bob if you could go to the next slide one more please there was a finding uh one of their primary findings from five thousand over five thousand respondents was that they made a suggestion that we take a closer look at the block schedule to identify specific opportunities for improvement most middle school respondents were not satisfied with the block schedule as experienced this past school year and this is their most selected focus area for improvement however a majority of them

052did indicate that black scheduling had a positive impact in many areas surveyed so the district should start to look should start by looking for ways to improve in areas that are rated relatively lower such as student attention span and information retention or teacher planning time looking for key words related to block scheduling and the open-ended responses could reveal additional information so that was why we then leveraged hanover to conduct focus groups with parents teachers students and administrators next slide please and the goals of that project were to understand uh the perceptions and the benefits and challenges of the current schedule this was last year and this year um identify the impact of the implementation which regrettably was not ideal right we decided to move to a block in middle july i would say of the

053summer of 2020 typically what is at least a year process we did in roughly a month and a half to two months out of necessity so trying to make those adjustments and then prioritize our needs next slide please so you'll see a bunch of quotes here and again i would encourage the board in the community to review the presentation it is posted so i'm not going to read all of these quotes but you will be able to garner the themes as we move along here so you'll see highlighted on the left that parents students uh staff and administrators recognize that the block allows for teachers and students to develop deeper relationships and with this relationship teachers can focus on student development and identify their needs um it allows additional time for to support student social

054emotional needs and decrease the number of classes that students need to focus on whether it be in a given day or at a given time of year and decrease the stress next slide bob other positive perceptions was that it provided opportunities for critical thinking and skill development especially in english and history some might call that differentiation in some areas the staff felt that it was more time for activities for deeper understanding of the course content and the students felt that they were learning more than they would in a traditional schedule administrators agreed that the block supported differentiation in the classroom next slide please perceptions of the implementation and overall this slide says like look the transition was too quick we didn't get all the professional development that we needed and it was fast and not

055everyone felt that the plan was communicated uh well and i agree with that um it was done very quickly right before the start of school when they proposed it to me initially i for lack of better phrasing i laughed like we can't pull this off in a month and a half but as evidenced by some of the comments earlier this evening our staff is incredible our administrators are committed to doing what's best and they did but again it was not ideal circumstances next slide uh here's another uh quote and this would be more of a concern they just said look it's really hard to have students for that long so this says that it can be torturous for a student to sit there that long an hour and a half is too long and there's

056a need to do 20 minutes here 20 minutes there and vary the instructional mean this is a cry for professional development there's no doubt next slide you'll see here and you can again read all of these quotes but some of the challenges of block scheduling include a loss of continuity in a student's schedule so when you only have math for the first semester for example there's really a long break in between when you have math one year and until when you can have math the next year which could be the second semester the following year next slide in particular the continuity of math and language courses anything that was cumulative if it's only for a semester there could be up to a year-long break in between the two courses you'll notice there that it says

057the types of flexible scheduling could include a block an alternate day class rotating schedules or dropped schedules and in a more creative arrangement of block scheduling the length of time devoted to each block may vary based on the instructional needs of the teachers and students so what they're essentially saying and i think the next slide says it even more explicitly down there in the red circle that districts should modify student requirements to reflect new schedules and a pure 4x4 schedule is rarely appropriate adaptations will be needed and that's what this proposal is adaptations to address the four by four next slide so these are kind of a summary of the findings of the study continuity of cumulative courses in particular math and world language a better balance within the schedule of math science english and

058humanities and a common pen time right now we don't even have a common pen time per grade pen time is essentially like a an additional intervention period some might refer to it as a new school homeroom where students can go get help but we don't even have the full grade with the same pen time let alone the whole school so that we heard that one loud and clear teachers would like to have more planning time staff need some support and we need to provide the professional development and training to make sure that this is successful next slide again the block schedule provides more time for teachers to understand their students the block schedule allows for an increase in the amount of content and critical thinking opportunities and the scheduling helps to limit some of the

059exposure during the pandemic which let's hope is behind us when the fall comes and parents essentially said we need to know the plan when this is was initially implemented we felt like it was only a one-year thing and honestly when it was proposed it was but this year we again knew that much would be kind of uh in the balance and we weren't sure so the decision was made to stick with it for one more year and then let's do it the right way and let's conduct a survey and have focus groups and then build the schedule that we think meets our needs and that's what you'll see before you this evening next slide um again there's some reiteration here of the gaps of time difficulty focusing more than two different difficult courses in the

060same semester no common pen time and the teachers need some additional plan to adapt additional time i'm sorry to plan and adapt so in prioritizing we listed student success and achievement more common planning time for teachers cumulative courses need to be all year we need to maximize the instructional time have that common planning time append time excuse me establish the relationship building with the students provide that professional development for our teachers and communicate the plan and as i kicked off the hour here we've met with all as of this evening all stakeholder groups uh to some degree and many to a larger degree so this is all part of the communication plan next so some of the specific challenges when you're doing a schedule in north penn are that our ninth graders have to come

061up to the high school if they want to take high school courses and that's a challenge um right now it's roughly 13 of students come up to the high school and that does not include extracurricular activities so that's just students who come up to the high school for a class whether it be for north monco whether it be for an intervention an enrichment opportunity jrotc we had 13 of our students come to the high school at some point we have to work around north monco our technical career center schedule the sixth graders do come up to the middle school some sixth graders do for math purposes reading intervention can be a challenge to schedule and then we share staff not only among our middle schools but in middle school and the high school so trying

062to balance all of that and sharing our staff that's a challenge when we schedule in north penn next slide please so here's a quick overview of our current schedule you'll notice here and we did try to use softer tones to be inclusive of those who might have trouble with colors but quarterly minors is referring to for example fcs art tech ed business right and then the other minor courses we refer to as our cycle minors music pe and exploratory language so this is an example of a current schedule where you have your minors but then your major courses are for one semester so bob if you could kind of highlight english there and social studies so this student has english and social studies in the first semester and then come late january they switch over

063to math science and reading so that is what we currently have where their major courses are just for one semester and if you'll go to the next slide the proposal this is actually an a b schedule where we alternate what classes students have every other day so it is still in a block format which is longer than a 45 minute period and i'll get to the specifics on the time but now that this student has quarterly minors on their a day or their blue day um but then math on their b day and then ela on a day that's english language arts but science on b day and then lastly there at the bottom you'll notice um i gotta slide this window over you have social studies on day one and reading on day two

064so it would alternate all year they would have their major courses all year their minor courses those that could benefit from a block like fcs for example imagine having up to 80 minutes in a cooking class as opposed to 45 or in an art class our hope is to implement longer periods for some of our minors but keep the shortened periods for others some of our minors teachers like a pe class they don't want 80 minutes for gym class so we can make that adjustment accordingly now you will notice here there is that eot time that's an additional period in students schedules and that is something that we need to refine um we really see that as an opportunity one could be an intervention period for students to meet with their teacher one more time

065per cycle just to get additional support and help i met with some teachers today that recommended you know incorporating some uh mental health and stress management into that period we also really have a creative and innovative idea where students could take an online elective course so a course maybe an edge annuity in an online platform that's asynchronous or a student can select a course that isn't currently in our course catalog something like coding architecture digital art digital music composition something that is available in edgenuity not only does it give access to curricula that we don't currently have but it would also keep our students learning online and it's 2022 and online learning was not just a thing of the pandemic our students need to be equipped to to learn in a virtual environment next slide

066so here's a quick summary uh just a slide i put together for this evening all of our major classes would be every other day the block does uh get reduced from 92 minutes to 84. that creates that buffer in there for the universal pen time our minor classes will have a similar schedule to what they have now but we would be able to implement that universal pen time the additional period would need to be we need to clearly establish what that will look like and we're going to work with a small stakeholder group to do so and then that universal pen time will also give our teachers an additional prep period once a cycle and we'll give department time and plc time once in a cycle so it's actually going to give our teachers three

067more periods whether they be department time or prep time per cycle so essentially every other day they're going to get an additional period of time for planning and collaboration next slide so i won't go into the 7th 8th and 9th i did this the other evening and explained what it would look like for your average 7th grader 8th grader 9th grader these are all here they're listed what this is a student's schedule over the course of six days um we did have i'm proud to say over 600 attendees at the meeting the other night mr gilmer you can give your unfiltered feedback but we had over 120 comments many of which were just great we love this we can't believe you were able to kind of merge all of that together there were some questions

068um and we were able to navigate those questions and i think people feel felt appreciated and heard with this proposal next slide so we outlined the strengths which i've done for you this evening throughout the presentation a couple things i didn't hit on here was that if you had english or math in the first semester and it ended in january you weren't taking the pssas till the spring so there could be four months in between the course ending and the pssas that problem has been fixed and now better aligns with the northbridge schedule for students who are transitioning back and forth from northbridge it aligns better with the north bend high school schedule because your classes are going all year and it's a better balance within the schedule of major and minor classes next mrs

069rivera was there that evening and share that the special education department is thrilled with the proposal in that kids will be getting their services all year they can get reading all year not just a semester we can have math all year writing all year and then that additional period that's in there that eot time would allow for some pull out services otp speech or hearing and the universal pen time is invaluable a special education teachers will be able to not only pool their students but every student will have every teacher available during pen time to get some support and then some of the things we need to do is make sure we need to do our to make sure we provide that professional development for our teachers are we working with dr hart and her

070team to develop a plan for next year offer some flex opportunities over the summer we will need to help students that the schedule is a bit different than having the same thing every day for 90 days having that alternating schedule will be a challenge and we'll have to work with our students but if they could handle eight periods in one day in a six day cycle i do think they can handle this um we need to flush out what that i period will truly be and then continue to evaluate monitor and adjust like we try to do so well and i believe that is it so i did say 10 or 15 minutes i think it was a bit longer more like 20 minutes but um there's a quick summary of the presentation we gave

071the last evening we don't need any action on this for now we're just simply sharing it with the board and trying to keep everyone apprised um dr dietrich and i are happy to answer any questions that you may have missed thank you dr bauer it's a very thorough presentation thank you for all your work on that does anyone have any um questions or comments for dr bower or dr dietrich mrs ramich i saw your hand go up first and then mr maybe yes it's easier to raise my hand than this um i just want to say as a parent of a middle schooler i love this concept and idea of the eoc time and letting students explore so i am looking at my daughter and her summer time there's she's too old for camp too

072young for employment and so we were exploring some of those options that she could do but to have it built into a school day and to let that free you know that that flexibility and that choice to find an online course or to or to engage in an intervention or an activity i think there's opportunity to then carry that learning and that exploration forward and i i just i think that is so valuable to have that choice and that opportunity for our middle schoolers i think we see a lot more of that in the course selection at the high school and certainly have grown to expand that as well but to offer that at the middle school is is is incredible thank you mrs ramich i believe next up was mr mcbain then dr g

073then mr roach then mr fresco so mr marquez thank you i want to start by mentioning i was approached by a number of parents who were shocked at dr bauer's ability to explain a very complex scheduling situation as well as uh mr gilmer's ability to speak in educational terms it turns out our ed our our technology specialist is one of our best educators as well um in any case uh i wanted to to mention some things that they had noted to me which was uh the great way in which these uh new steps bring a continuity of education we're giving teachers a lot of opportunity to to spend time with kids throughout the year we're not going to say goodbye for very long at any point and certainly our students are going to be able

074to develop from one step to the next whether it be in analyzation historical or english classes in the humanities or science and math i think we're in a really good position now to move forward uh there are still a lot of questions you know i had a few questions about how middle school students might transition to the high school with a different schedule there i know that that's also something we're talking about as well so uh but just congratulations on on getting such a huge step uh planned out and underway and communicating to the community in a way that that makes a lot of sense so thank you for your work sir thank you mr mcbain dr g dr bauer um thank you for um you know the presentation i think um we talk about

075the things that have come out of covid that uh you know you realize that maybe there's something positive about it and that you should kind of reevaluate what you're doing then and i think this is one of those things right you know we were pushed into this quickly because of covid but we have the opportunity to reevaluate how we can better serve kids and so i um you know i think i just compliment your our middle school administrators and teachers on on just being open-minded and thinking through that i think as mr mcbain stated one of my questions was how we would we will support ninth graders i think myself and mr fusco experienced this at the same time ninth graders going from having four classes and and really finding that to be very manageable

076um especially having two kids that are athletes um and sometimes get home at like nine o'clock at night which is our choice um you know but nine ten o'clock at night you know managing four classes is just um i just think i mean from a workload standpoint i found the stress level to be a lot less and so i'm wondering how we're to support those ninth graders going into 10th grade and i don't expect you to have a full answer to that at this point i believe we're in discussion i just want to hear that we're continuing to discuss that because you are going to have ninth graders that go from having four classes to suddenly having eight classes and already the transition from ninth to tenth grade is a lot because our kids are

077changing schools while others you know kids in montgomery county wouldn't typically do that which is why you know hopefully we will be looking at a ninth grade center in the near future um but i think i'm interested in hearing more about that over the next couple months and how we are starting to think about what then happens at the high school what does this mean for the high school um and i also was wondering about languages um specifically as it relates to north montreal students i had asked this i think prior how we address the idea that if you want to go to north montco that you don't have to give up taking a language which is important as we know from our pathway to college or career um specifically for college so were we

078able to address that or is it still the case that if you choose to go to north mont code that you can't do a language at the middle school great so thank you for both questions dr g and mr gilmer if you could promote mr hassler from the audience to our panel he is prepared to answer any hard questions from dr g that that said um yeah you're absolutely right one i do think this schedule better aligns with the high school because students won't have just four classes at once they'll have four classes a day so they will have all of their classes all year so i do think it helps smooth the transition a bit but we do need to address the structures right so we are working through with a homework policy um

079which was guided initially well it was a combination of eci and the policy committee under mr fusco's leadership and now mr resha's leadership but also you dr g we have a large group of educators and some parents and students involved in establishing the homework guidelines so you said you were hoping to hear that we are continuing that conversation we are and we will report back probably to eci on those topics but mr hassler i know that you and i have spoken about that challenge with world language coming into the schedule for a north monco student which wasn't previously a capability of ours but if i recall correctly you think we can work that through is that correct yes that's correct can can you hear me okay you can yeah can you give some detail kyle

080sure so with the change in the schedule it kind of it frees up some room in our teacher's schedules as far as section wise so this year when our students went to north monco language did not necessarily fit into their class with this new schedule when they come back they'll come back in halfway through block three and with the the changes to this schedule that will allow potentially them to take that language class when they return so with the switch to the a b it does create some time where i do believe that we'll be able to fit that language option in for our north monco students great thank you mr hassler thank you i don't think i gave you the proper introduction mr hassler for those in the community who aren't aware is the

081principal of penndown middle school so thank you mr hassler i appreciate that i just think just for people in the community um all right we did not want students to have to choose between i would like to go to north bronco and explore engineering or health sciences or any of the wonderful programs that they could explore there as they're beginning to think in middle school about what do i want to do with a career and then forego a language which they do need in order to apply to every college in the state of pennsylvania um so that was important i thought to kind of begin to think about in our system so thank you mr haskell for your work on that and dr bell thank you dr g um i think mr rush was next

082um i know one of the key goals of the eci committee this year is making sure that students don't have more than two hours of homework at night i see this new block scheduling as facilitating that goal and i i i think i think it will be a lot easier with the block scheduling to make sure that the students have the appropriate amount of homework i also see mr fusco i talked earlier about thinking about bringing languages to the grade schools i really support that uh um activity although we haven't discussed it on any uh at any length in meetings as of yet i also think that they would make it easier to bring foreign languages to the grade schools thank you very much for this initiative uh i didn't quite understand how box scheduling

083would work and wasn't sure it was better for the students but i understand now and i appreciate it thank you thank you mr rash and i do agree there are some structures in place in this schedule with the universal pen time and the intervention or eot time where students can get more work done throughout their day and hopefully we can help with some other systems put in place we can help to eliminate the work that needs to go home thank you all right mr fusco all right i'll try to keep this brief it's just a little feedback um i um was one of the people that was actually in attendance for the hour-long presentation i i encourage my fellow directors if they have the opportunity to watch that it's worth the time to understand the

084details of this program i think some of the benefits were actually a little undersold to be perfectly honest and i say that as having had a conversation with dr bauer prior to that presentation and being a skeptic of the presentation i was won over um there's a lot to like about this the the uh the eot time the additional the the ability for teachers to have more time to collaborate um i believe if i'm not mistaken dr bauer we discuss this there's actually technically they spend more time in their subject areas right than they would in a traditional box schedule or traditional seven period schedule yes yeah the way that the schedule would work is you actually have more face time with your students uh per course but less time in front of kids in

085general because penn time is shorter right and it's your kids for that eot time it would be your students so it's more time with your students but less time supervising kids as a whole which creates an additional buffer in there that we can get some more prep time and collaboration time right so this is a plan that i think addresses a number of concerns we've heard from from staff uh more ability to have that face time less time spent you know in the in the pentile marine of having more collaboration um i i definitely um continue to worry a little bit about that transition piece although um having seen the way that you and the team have tackled this problem i'm looking forward to you know hearing you know how the homework policy or the

086homework committee is going to address some of the concerns that i had hoped before day or four class semester essentially would address that problem um i do think it may be something that we need to look at perhaps at the high school level moving forward um because it is kind of an awkward transition for these kids um but i'm certainly open to whatever those ideas are and then the final thought is i want to make sure that it's it's echoed and and the point is made salient that we need more professional development for teachers to best utilize this time um i have no doubt that when they have and i'm sure plenty after two years you know are quite nimble in this model um and there are those who are still trying to figure out

087their way around it and we need to support them and we need to make sure that they are getting the proper professional development in order to utilize this time to the best ability to get the most out of their students but kudos on this point very much dr bauer um i i'd like to also commend you and uh and the team because as our educators have mentioned everyone's very impressed with this and even as a parent who who initially we struggled with that that block scheduling but there were strengths that came out of that it's interesting how you said it from that feedback with some fine-tuning and i'm really happy to hear that that's we're going to be adaptable what the the community needs to hear and i think most most of the board members

088probably already see this as well but i want to highlight that this is the strength of using data and hanover we don't want to underestimate how large a district this is and how we need to collect all this information sort it collate it analyze it and then bring it into something actionable for the community to have a dialogue about so that we can make these changes and i'm very happy in the way that hanover which we've used from the initial climate survey is an excellent resource for us i'm happy the way that tool has been used and it's an investment that i believe uh evenings like tonight and with the presentation that vice president fusco brought up um you know we can see the return on investment um so thank you sometimes there's so much

089to do and this is a pandemic we're still coming out of there's so much for our leaders in the administration to do that they need to have these type of effective tools and i'm really happy to see when they're able to use it thank you thank you mr casa and i would be remiss if i didn't say before this board that uh that the entire middle school team was outstanding in all of this work but i do need to give an extra tip of the cap to mr hassler he it was really really resilient because model after model after model we would find kingston and i was a real pain in his neck putting out some issues with the schedule um but i think he was able to accomplish uh nearly all of the objectives

090um and it was it's just really well done it's not a hundred percent finished yet but we are darn close and i said to the community the other night i expect the schedule will look an awful lot like this well thank you dr bauer and thank you dr or mr hassler for your work as well okay if that is it for the questions on that we will move on then to um the superintendent's report dr dietrich please all right the first item is the capital project update and that will be facilitated by mr schneider our director of facilities and operations thank you dr david uh good evening everyone on the facilities and operations committee meeting on january 31st uh a short presentation was given uh to give the facilities and operations committee an update on

091the summer capital projects which are we're planning for for this year next slide mr gilman so as previously discussed a few months ago we had prioritized some projects which include chiller replacements at bridal path and walton forum elementary school relief exhaust fan installation at bridal path gwenett square and walton farm elementary schools and roof replacements we had discussed uh looking at the high school roof realizing that there's a potential for possible renovations in the future not doing an entire route but just selecting the roofs of the worst condition and planning to keep those in good condition by either restoration or replacement then also looking at the gwendor elementary school sections of those groups which are the warranties are expired next slide please subsequent to those discussions earlier some other priorities have risen we've been dealing

092with some humidity control issues at bridal path when it's square and walton farms libraries these locations are in the center of the building without any sunlight without any uv light coming into them and the areas are very difficult to control humidity the types of hvac systems in those three buildings were constructed in the 1990s and the humidity control is very difficult on those not so hot 70 degree days with high humidity it's very difficult to control humidity in those spaces and of course with libraries you really want to try try and keep the humidity at a certain level so that you don't develop mildew and mold situations also in connection with that where there's recommendation by the mechanical engineer snyder hoffman to look at the equipment have a commissioning agent come through and survey all

093the classroom equipment and the terminal equipment to get a list of what is necessary uh to consider in the future and then a couple weeks ago the an air handler at the esc for conference roommate the boardroom failed one sunday and this unit needs to be replaced and part of the recommendation is to engage schneider hoffman to size this unit then we would try to utilize state contract contractors to get that replaced as soon as possible next slide mr gohan one of the items discussed previously was replacement replacement or restoration of the esc roof that roof is out of a warranty but unfortunately we cannot support that project at this time because of the current capital reserve revenue so that project will be put on hold if the the board approves the project list next

094slide please so with the hvac projects the project budget for each one of the items is for the two chillers at bridal path and walton farms 900 000 the relief exhaust fans at the three elementary schools are about around 75 commissioning reviewed for the three elementary schools 10 000 humidity control systems at the libraries about 100 000 and then the esc replacement would be about a hundred thousand for a total construction budget of 1.185 million dollars for the hvac budgets next slide please as far as the design snyder hoffman associates the mechanical engineer who has performed the engineering for knapp elementary school the pembroke library roof when it's square tiller replacement in the past they provided us a fee to design the chillers for the two elementary schools bridal path and molten farm at 46

095500 the relief and exhaust fans will be included in that fee commissioning review would be uh not to exceed three thousand dollars it would charge us an hourly rate just to provide some documentation and support for that project uh the library humidity controls uh fee would be around twelve thousand and the error handler for replacement at the esc would again be an hourly rate not to exceed two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars because basically what they're doing is selecting the unit um for us to go to contractors with a total hvac design budget of around sixty two thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars next slide case for the roof restorations after uh reviewing the not the high school ropes in 2016 we did an extensive review of those rooms and most of the roof

096roof sections were in fair condition in 2016. after looking at it in 2021 the high school natatorian roof is in very poor condition uh the roof was installed when the natatorium was constructed in 2005 and unfortunately the the system is failing the membrane is still intact we are not getting water in but the the insulation board that is adhered to the metal deck is releasing from the metal deck and uh it's very loose you walk across the roof it it just gives and moves and it's releasing from the deck which could be problematic in the future but there could be a possibility in strong winds where a section of it could release completely we are all and through our investigation of the high school group there are other sections of roofs which would be a

097priority but we're going to maintain this schedule on an annual review of all the sections of the roofs of the high school and come forward to the board for recommendations in the future if we feel as if it's necessary to replace additional sections but the natatorium roof is a high priority in our mind at this time when newer elementary roof replacement we have a couple areas area j k restoration um so those those restorations or replacement restorations the replacement would be 667 625 and the restoration area will be 425 437 and we also found that there are metal panels around the upper section of the multi-purpose room which are providing areas of leaking water into the hallways those panels are also planned to be replaced with this roof replacement total roof replacement restoration budget will

098be 2.2 uh two million two hundred seventy five thousand eight hundred twelve dollars and schrader architects provided us with a design fee of sixty nine thousand six hundred fifty six dollars next slide please this brings a total project construction budget of 3 and a total project design fee of 132 506 for total project budget of three million five hundred ninety three thousand three hundred and eighteen dollars uh this is the recommendation uh we're making for the projects uh one point that i'd like to make is with the supply chain issues that we're experiencing in all construction materials especially roof insulation these roofing projects if we go out to bid may not be able to be completed this summer we may need to push them out at a longer range possibly next summer we are looking

099at this point there are deliveries of insulation board reaching 12 months from the point of order so it's very difficult right now with roofing we can there are plenty of materials for restorations of roofs but for the replacements could be difficult we are looking at alternatives potentially state contract purchasing of roofs or public bidding also for the chillers those units are instead of about 10 to 12 week delivery which they used to be they're approaching almost 24 to 36 weeks so we would be planning to replace those chillers in the winter time once we're out of cooling season we'll replace them next winter the library humidity units it appears that they are readily available at this point so we feel as if we can get those done uh this summer so we are still dealing

100with supply chain issues throughout the whole construction industry and we will have to work our schedules around those supply chain problems uh that completes this presentation yes thank you mr snyder um so um i know we had this discussion at the facilities and operations committee meeting and we wanted to bring it to the work session because of the large amounts of money that we are discussing um one of the things before i hand it off to mrs wesley i just wanted to ask um at the facilities and operations meeting you spoke about the natatorium roof um because i was kind of taken aback by how much um that's gonna cost to repair you you mentioned something about i think there was no um metal like no nails or whatever to hold the roof down right

101um those adhesive can you explain to the rest of the board um what is happening to the roof why it is so important that that gets fixed thank you yes i can yes well if for a natatorium roof uh well let me let me start off your typical building roof on a commercial flat roof you would have a metal deck and when you would install the insulation down onto that metal deck you would just run large screws with large washers through the metal deck and that holds the insulation in place when you deal with a natatorium that has humidity and corrosive materials chlorine in the air you do not want to penetrate that deck once you penetrate the deck with screws you could actually corrode the deck because the galvanizing of the deck materials on

102the surface not throughout the whole material so when you run a screw through the metal deck you can actually start a corrosion of the metal deck and the screw will release so when they install roofing on natatorium roofs they glue them down and in 2005 they would utilize a contact cement adhesive that would glue the insulation board down to the metal deck metal deck is corrugated metal so you have flutes and valleys flutes and valleys so they're gluing it down right to the to the flutes and what's happening is that blue is releasing from the epdm and the epdm is actually lifting and curling it is in a situation where uh if the if we get strong heavy winds um there is a potential that you could start to develop more release of that insulation

103board and possibly the roof could be lost it could blow off uh that's the biggest concern of the natatorium um we we certainly have had strong winds uh the roof has not blown off but the possibility is there and so that's where we're making the recommendation now these the i mentioned one thing in the discussion where the membrane is intact but the system is failing the warranty that we have on that roof is a membrane warranty it's not for the full system it's not from roof deck all the way up the membrane so the warranty doesn't cover that insulation release uh the warranty covers the membrane if the membrane was failing and separating that would be a different story that would be under warranty but the the system is not the insulation board is not

104so the uh a new system um would be a system where uh a product called secure rock will be adhered to the metal deck and we would have factory mutual representatives come out to ensure that that meets a 100 mile an hour tear off uh there we would have different procedures put in place to ensure that this does not happen in the future so we would be looking at a slightly different system than an epm system and we would be seeking a full system warranty from roof deck one up so that if anything were to fail in the future it would be covered by the warranty thank you mr schneider um so i'm going to hand it off to mrs wesley um as the facilities chair hey thank thanks president stole thanks mr schneider and

105i know we talked about a lot of this at the um at the committee meeting but just for the board because we're spending a significant amount of money for the capital project budget i wanted to make sure that this didn't just go directly to action meeting that everyone on the board and the community had um a bit more time to understand the focus of what we're trying to do in terms of maintaining our assets and making sure that the money is spent well i had the opportunity to go uh up and look at the nanatorium roof and as mr schneider said it is failing um it is lifting not failing it is lifting and it's different sections of the roof it's not just one small section so it's not isolated you can't say it's because

106it's at the east and it's it's exposed to winds or whatever so it is across the board and totally support that this needs to be done in the short term as well as the other roof projects so i appreciate that work and and i hope the board and the community um as we go forward with other projects and we bring it to you all that you'll get to see what we're doing in terms of making sure that all of the district's assets are in good shape and what mr schneider talked about just then about that uh warranty that was just for the one section um and i think it's really important and we're focused on that that we look at the types of warranties that we are getting and for and the durations of them

107so again you know the other one was at risk i would say it it had inferior materials and inferior products used i can't speak to the installation but clearly you know you're having this failure of this glue um we will have a system warranty so that we'll be able to protect ourselves at a much higher level so thanks mr schneider and mr scrafty thank you uh chairwoman wesley uh i i i also want to point out that for the community if you think this is a lot of talk about roofs and for our board colleagues it's that facilities and operations committee meeting where we literally go through every single item and alternative and discuss each opportunity so if this isn't enough roof talk for you there's plenty more in in just last week's meeting mr

108schneider just a couple of questions to clarify uh this this expense for the natatorium uh will this be a one-time cost that's not going to be in conflict with the renovation of the high school i would suspect that it would not be in conflict with the renovation the natatorium is a clear span wide open roof because you have a pool underneath of it in other areas of the building we may need to put rooftop equipment on we may need to renovate some some areas to provide some additional ventilation or something like that in the natatorium all the equipment is uh not located on the roof that we're talking about replacing so i would not foresee any need or anything that would happen to that roof in future renovations even if an addition would be built

109next to that building we would be able to put an expansion joint in and keep that roof intact so [Music] the natatorium roof i could not see anything happening to that area even with future renovations and that's really good to clarify one or two more questions following up on that uh and i'd also uh commend that you know the the system we have with our matrix for facilities and operations uh to assess what our needs are across the district and prioritize them mr schneider you and your team and mr skaraki the administration uh we saw this coming it's just a matter of how many resources right and now now these systems are failing um they're beginning to fail based on you know multiple uh demonstrations of uh deferred maintenance so this adhesive i just want

110to make sure so we know going forward not to cut corners the adhesive that was used uh my understanding is that was common at the time we don't know why it's failing but it's failing but the adhesive that was used was there an alternative that was also commonly used but just might have cost a little bit you know might have been more expensive for the natatorium project well the epdm roof systems are well accepted systems throughout industry they've been utilized since the 80s i the first epm roof i was involved with as a project manager was in 1985. they're they've been utilized now the glues have gone through many many generations uh you know you you go to the hardware store today and you can purchase blues that'll blew anything together whereas back in the

111you know 1990s early 2000s you may not have had that so um there are other systems that could happen in seoul um utilizing asphalt in lieu of blue but um you know at this point the reason and what happened it's very hard to tell once we start demolition of the existing roof we may find out that the glue wasn't spread evenly enough for enough of it was spread so you know we may be able to uh do some triage and ascertain what the problem might be but um at this point you know it really depends upon the system and that system was uh an accepted system and still is today that's good to know mr schneider i think for us as a board with expenditures for the high school renovation what we've learned from what

112is right now likely to be a very successful map renovation in crawford uh it's in not cutting corners and materials or the way we can move forward so that that's we can learn um even from the past here uh but the fact is with deferred maintenance over decades uh you know we're we've kicked the can down the road but instead in this case so this in facilities we've we've kicked the can you know off the roof there's no more space left and now it's cutting into other projects now we're having to defer even further so that's why that matrix is so important to prioritize and be able to transparently show the community what it is that needs to be addressed um you know usually a short amount of time with a very limited amount of

113resources my last question is safety related uh you know based on the the trouble we may have with supply chain is there a plan to mitigate the current potential for safety issues on that roof yeah we can look at different alternatives to [Music] simply just apply some ballast onto the roof just to hold down the loose areas typically they start to release close to the parapets we can start to uh look at that we monitor uh frequently now so um yeah we will be you know doing some things to try to mitigate any potential hazards in the in the future and also we're also looking at different purchasing methods of the potential of possibly expediting the uh the installation of the roof system thank [Music] hi mr snyder we know that the ten-year maintenance plan

114is a living document and it could change on a periodic basis i was uh kind of surprised that uh the number of projects that got the priorities got changed here is this something that we could do to um uh improve the uh 10-year maintenance plan or is it just this is what we should expect well um the high school uh projects were not part of the ten year plan because of the potential uh of a renovation project those those projects were put on all the high school projects were put on to the 10-year plan i believe in january of 2020 just to give a perspective of what type of magnitude of work is necessary for the high school we can expect periodically to have other priorities come to the surface depending upon some of the

115uh failures that we we go through as an example the bridal path chiller last year uh the chillers have a total of four compressors we lost one of those compressors last year the control system for the chillers is outdated uh it we cannot buy parts for it anymore that's the reason why they're when it's square chiller was replaced so as we go through and we we experience either failures or maintenance issues that we have to find different ways to keep things running the priorities could and may change in the future thank you mr is it i'm sorry no i'm sorry president stole mr schneider does it make sense in the capital projects list since we know we're going to move forward at some point with the high school and when we get a better estimate

116of dates for starting and completing it looking at the projects that are on that list that are specific to the high school would would knowing an estimated completion date for the high school possibly change or would that be a component of determining what stays on from the high school or for the high school um i would i would agree with that yes uh the once we start to plan the the whole high school project after the master planning process and once the board decides a direction that we want to go in then we can start to look at the different projects and there may be some things that are needed to happen ahead of time ahead of the renovations just to keep systems operational but we'll have to wait and see at this point you

117know our boilers are operating or pumps are operating or chillers are operating you know how domestic hot water is uh flowing so you know things are um we're just doing our daily maintenance and repairs as we run into failures and keeping the equipment operational so we may need to change priorities and i think that once we do get a schedule then we would be able to pull things and separate things out a little bit better but i think with the you know one of the biggest my biggest concerns uh with any building is the envelope we want to maintain that envelope of the building because that's preservation of the asset of everything inside so we're just going to keep an eye on the roof and we're going to do annual inspection just like what we

118had done in december and we're going to continue that and bring forward any concerns that we may have of any potential group failures you know to make sure the envelope is tight on the high school prior to any renovations thanks i'm available for any more tours too thank you very much okay so um i guess the next thing with them would be the design contract roofing projects to recommend approval of that or yes okay so the next item would be that uh recommend approval design contract for roof restoration replacements from north carolina high school and gwyndol elementary school to schrader group architects of 69 656 dollars i have a motion motion by mrs ramet seconded by mr rush are there any comments or questions seeing none all in favor say aye or raise your hand

119anyone nay no motion carries recommend the approval to advertise to bid the roofing projects for the northern high school and nor elementary school can i have a motion please i believe that was mr russia or seconded by mr casa that's what i'm gonna go with anyway all right all in favor say aye any opposed motion carries recommend approval of design contracts for the hvac projects as listed can i have a motion summary motioned by mr fusco seconded by mrs wesley any comments or questions all in favor say aye aye any uh opposed motion carries recommend the approval of permission to advertise the hvac capital projects for bridal path glenn square and walton farm elementary schools can i have a motion motion by mrs wesley and seconded by mr mcbain any comments or questions all in

120favor say aye or raise your hand any opposed motion carries the next item would be the high school master plan update and that would be mr schneider back home again thank you thank you mr gilmore [Music] the facilities and operations committee requested that we have any updates for the high school master plan brought forth to the work session for the full board's information last monday we discussed the recent activities of the high school master plan go to the next slide mr dillon so on december 2nd we had our task 1 the project kickoff it was a visioning session the schrader group architects came in with slides and images of uh 21st century high schools and we talked about items that would be interesting to have in our high school and it was a very successful

121meeting so the the north penn team included many people and then we went on some tours of high schools task two um we went to upper mary high school and springfield high school delaware county on january 27th this thursday we'll be going to meridian high school in falls church virginia and the state college area high school tour has been scheduled for february 25th so those four um high schools are being toured to see what 21st century high schools look like and what features will be brought into our high school next slide please we have parallel activities going on currently the survey for the hazardous materials survey is ongoing that started on january 18th criterion labs is in the high school on second shift surveying the building for hazardous materials the preliminary traffic study is an

122item for discussion this evening we received responses to the request for proposals we received those responses on january 27th and we do have a recommendation this evening for the traffic study and also we have the enrollment study the roman study will be performed by the montgomery county planning commission and it's scheduled to commence in april next slide so that's that's the update for the high school master plan um process and we will be bringing forth additional information in the future thank you mr snyder so and then i guess the final thing is the traffic study yes on january 27th we opened responses for the traffic study the um low responder is heinrich and klein associates at twenty twenty thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars the uh civil engineer tnm associates has worked with heinrich and

123klein they are a smaller firm hence the reason for their lower fee and they have worked successfully with tnm associates in the past so the recommendation will be to award the traffic strategy to 100 client associates in the amount of twenty thousand seven hundred fifty dollars okay is anybody um oh we have to have a motion to move forward mrs ramet i see your hand up do you have a question or should we have a motion first is it about this traffic study it's about the enrollment study i just wanted to know the last time an enrollment study was done that covered north penn school district mrs ramish i can answer that that was actually completed in 2017-18 school year and that was also done by the montgomery county planning commission thank you mr scraki

124okay do we have a motion for the uh traffic study so it moved do you have a second second motioned by mr casa and seconded by mr fusco are there any comments or questions seeing none all in favor say aye or raise your hand any opposed motion carries thank you dr g trick thank you mr schneider thank you mr scratchy okay that brings up other business um and just two quick things dr dietrich could you give a brief overview of the covet situation in the schools yes i can so uh fortunately we are now in uh three weeks of decline in our school district from some really incredibly high numbers uh but we still are in a very high state of transmission within the community namely at 320 cases for 100 000 and a positivity

125rate of 19.8 percent so we're looking closely at that we're pleased that the numbers are declining but we are still well above the thresholds for high and then uh substantial uh very recently um there was a court case that uh has some uh implications i do believe um and mr summers is prepared to quickly summarize that for the board and the community so kyle sure uh thank you dr dietrich just as as many of you may have seen in the news recently um there's a lawsuit currently going on involving the the issue of of students wearing face coverings in schools and whether they are required to or not the case most locally involves the perceivement valley school district just on monday of this week a federal court in philadelphia issued an order requiring the district

126to impose a mask requirement on its students the district that particular district had previously required masking had been in compliance with the state mass order however as we've talked about in prior meetings the the state mass order is no longer no longer in effect once that order was removed the school district for a period of time had a mask order um but it's vote it's board uh decided my understanding is in a five to four split vote to remove the mask requirement um that led to a lawsuit being filed against the district by several families of students with disabilities who allegedly are immunocompromised and the the suit alleged that by not having a mask requirement in effect it would force a choice on those students with disabilities of either needing to come to school in

127a in a dangerous environment or needing to learn virtually and they allege that that violated the americans with disabilities act in section 504 of the rehabilitation act um the court granted an emergency restraining order requiring the district to go back to mask required and then as i mentioned on monday of this week issued a preliminary injunction requiring um that the district have mandatory masking in effect at this time there are a number of other very similar cases that are currently being litigated throughout the state there are two in western pennsylvania there's also another case in delaware county where a similar request by students with disabilities was denied however there is a hearing schedule later this month in that case um so the bottom line is that the court a number of courts have recognized that

128moving from a mask requirement to mask optional at least during a period of high transmission um may cause issues in terms of compliance with federal disability law so certainly i think that the the the lesson at this time is although districts have the the right to determine the level of uh or the amount of masking that will take place in a school um transitioning to a a mask optional environment during high transmission is is a risky endeavor in terms of facing potential litigation certainly i think many of you have probably seen stories in recent days of other states um reducing or planning to end their mask requirements delaware and new jersey being two of them um later on in march i believe removing their mask requirements certainly i think the hope is that transmission levels

129will drop as all of you know north penn's current masking requirement is is masking required at certain levels of community transmission those being high and and substantial but masking being optional at lower levels of transmission um certainly our position would be that that is is permissible it recognizes the reality of the situation in terms of the level of risk and and adjusts our policy based on that level of risk so that does appear to be in compliance with the decisions that the courts are issuing in these cases um but it's certainly something we'll continue to watch and we'll continue to develop um in the coming weeks thank you mr summers that's very helpful um actually i wasn't planning on asking this question but it seems relevant and with kyle here i'm going to um i

130spoke to a parent last week about her her son who was a special needs student he um because of his disability is unable to wear a mask when this particular student trans uh contracted um covid we had the mask to stay program um and this student or for that matter any student a special needs student who can't wear a mask because of their specific disability um this was one of those sort of um unforeseen sort of circumstances that you know when you're making these policies and putting them in place that it you don't realize can come up until people bring them to your attention and i want to make sure that hey i'm clear about you know what we as a board can or cannot do um and what your opinion is about the way

131in which the law is sort of being at play here so if a student can't wear a mask because of their disability and they've contracted covid um they can't wear the mask and return to school therefore they can't mask to stay correct even though the the they also then can't really at least many of them usefully access our our streaming education because that's not how many of our our special needs learners are able to access their education so it does seem as though there's a there's a very strong point that this parent made that these kids are kind of um being made to stay home because of their disability um in your opinion mr summers first and foremost do we as a board have the ability to wave that provision and say well because they

132have um because they can't wear the mask due to their disability if they are going to shorten that time as long as they say test um and and their test is negative right do we have the ability to even allow them to come back in a circumstance like that so in general i think there's a distinction between um our ability to make accommodations which certainly we have an ability to accommodate make accommodations to our own policy my understanding is that the isolation and quarantine requirements which would be which which the issue of mass to stay would fall within those are are set by the montgomery county office of public health um so those criteria um are not established by the district and so i would certainly be hesitant to take any action that would be

133contrary to those steps i i do think and dr dietrich might be able to speak to this but we certainly are partners with the office for public uh public health and and if there were a particular circumstance involving students with disabilities i i would certainly suggest that we run those scenarios by our contacts in that office to determine yes if there are certain exceptions that could be made in the unique circumstances so we've had this discussion with the montgomery county office of public health and their conclusion was as mr summers said that uh students that are unable to mask would not be able to participate in the mass estate program so we had a very thorough discussion about that that is a recommendation um in terms of what north penn has done consistently we have

134followed the recommendations of the montgomery county office of public health and i think also in light of the court case we're on solid ground doing that we do have a tiered system as mr summers says which i think is positioning us in a better place and maybe districts that moved more quickly to uh no longer enforce the mexico requirement in their particular district when transmission levels were high so i think uh you know what we're doing here is what we need to be doing i do think that our numbers are on a decline and once we can get down beyond this number right now the discussion will become closer to when we can say the masks are no longer required thank you dr dietrich thank you mr summers i think you know we'd all love

135to get rid of the mask it's but in a safe way well i just last point was just that you know i do worry about the learning loss um in particular for some of our special needs community and if what we are able to divide in that 10-day period is insufficient in terms of educational delivery i really urge administration to take a look at what alternatives what we what is within our ability to do for those kids because it really is fair to say it's not acceptable to say well it's kind of the rule so you know these regular egg kids they can stream they can participate if your special needs you know i'm not sure that we can do much for you i think we could try to look you know and see if

136there is something more because you know i agree i mean we're all hoping that we're trending down but every time we turn around another variant comes and hits us in the face so you know i'm not gonna bank on that i'd rather see if we could maybe put our heads together and see if there's something we could do for those kids thank you mr fusco thank you um okay and then one other question i had was um for mr bauer uh could you give a quick update on some of the functions that are being planned for um the high school and the middle school like specifically about the prom and that kind of thing thank you yeah absolutely those who tuned in for the riveting show at the finance committee heard from our student rep

137that they are still planning to move forward next week with the winter ball junior and senior prom are on as scheduled and the middle schools are also continuing with their events that are on the calendar so ninth grade formals valentine's dance and other activities field days things of that nature the plan is to do these things we have had concerts we have had athletic events we've had kids in the stands at basketball games we've been saying all along that we see a difference and dr dietrich has been pretty strong in this we see a difference between an event that's on a friday evening or a saturday and families are choosing to come uh versus packing the auditorium in the middle of the school day and we are forcing folks to come so we do see

138a junior or senior prom as an elective event and if families aren't comfortable the students just won't come certainly we're going to be careful and take precautions but we are planning to try to make this spring as normal as possible for kids so excited to say events are on as scheduled and on that note i was able to attend this the um the strings festival last week it was a phenomenal performance and kudos to our our north music department our strings and uh teachers uh wonderful job thank you dr barr i know lots of people are looking forward to having as normal as spring as they can with the events that um you know everybody looks forward to every year um there's also the oratory competition that is coming up for black history month can

139um one of you please give an update on that there was some information on that uh dr waters i think would be the best person she's one of the co-chairs i believe unmuted yes hi good evening everybody yeah we are really excited um about the black history or rhetorical competition it's going to be held on thursday february 24th at north penn high school will be able to spread out you'll be able to make sure that you know there's plenty of space you can put in between the other people who come out to watch we had about 58 students submit a video we currently have about four teachers reviewing them and this thursday will be letting students know who's going to move to who are moving to the semi-final round but we're really looking forward to

140the event it should be great um we weren't able to do it last year for obvious reasons but did do it two years prior and it went really well so we're just hoping to continue to make it better and better every year so i hope you can all join us um thursday the 24th thank you dr waters looking forward to that i'm glad we're able to do that this year um and then i think one last thing mrs wesley wanted to make a comment thanks president stole so i didn't speak um at the start of the meeting after dr g because the poem was so moving i didn't think it was appropriate but i do also want to apologize to the staff to the administration particularly to culp for the outright aggression the threats the

141intimidation that you've all dealt with um and i think mr fusco said it well you didn't sign up for that uh this board is unanimous and being it's in its commitment to diversity equity and inclusion so i want you to hear from the last member of the board that it is a unanimous front and we will continue to do our work and really want to thank you all for your support your confidence in this board um that we are sincere and authentic in what we're trying to do and truly hope that the messages that you heard from everyone on this board about civility and agreeing to disagree in a manner that is acceptable that our kids can be proud of and learn from is something that will go forward from tonight so thank you thank

142you mrs wesley does anyone else have any comments or questions this evening go ahead there's a quick one and we're done uh mr uh dr bauer iron knights please is it gonna happen drum roll please mr casa yes uh i did just hear back from mrs giamarco who is our curriculum supervisor whoever sees pe and she said we are absolutely planning on it so iron knights is on the schedule we already have this sign up sheet with the little cube so i guess it's happening okay well that answers that all right great so um with that do i have a motion to join the meeting so moved thank you very much everyone have a great night thank you everybody thank you bob thanks mr gilmore good night good night bob good night