NPSD School Board - Worksession 6-8-21

001okay north bend television is online so is youtube the webinar is live president stole the meeting is yours thank you mr gilmer okay i'm going to call tonight's work session to order first off we're going to start off 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 first up we are going to have the suspension of policy 006.1 attendance at meetings via electronic communications we recommend the suspension of board policy 006.1 with specific regard to the limitation on the number of school board directors participating in a meeting electronically and the requirement of having a majority of the board physically present at a meeting location do i

002have a motion so moved do i have a second motion by mr fusco and seconded by mr rush any comments or questions all in favor say aye or raise your hand any opposed motion carries thank you okay so next up we will have um the audience of sit-ins for public comment and i'm just going to read off the statement and then mr gilmer can let us know who wants to speak so this meeting is being videotaped for community cable channels individuals attending this meeting virtually 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 assure compliance with this requirement it is

003essential that those planning to address the board raise their hand electronically and state their name and address members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to allow time for those who wish to speak to the board the board president may ask an individual to yield the microphone to the next speaker okay so with that mr gilmar is there anyone who would like to make public comment this evening yes we do have one hand raised and for the others that are in the room if you do want to make public comment uh there's a little raised hand on the bottom of the interface you just click that once so i know that you intend to speak tonight up first is jesse bradica jesse i've enabled your microphone so you're ready to begin

004please state your name and address and begin your comments please hi i'm jesse bradica 1821 mifflin drive landfill i want to first thank the administration the teachers and the staff for their hard work and efforts to make the best out of this unprecedented year and i also want to commend the district for seeking input from parents students and staff to use as a factor in their decision making for the opening plans of the upcoming 21-22 school year which includes masks as optional and full-time return to school for students i truly hope that this board is now comfortable acting on behalf of its administrations and community feedback and approving their proposed plan unlike they did last summer thank you thank you mrs bradica [Music] mr gilmer is there anyone else there is several ops okay i'm

005going between two windows my mouse wasn't let's move it over there i apologize so up next we will have christina k christina i've enabled your microphone so when you're ready to begin you can state your name and address and begin your comments yes hi can you hear me yes yes hi so this is christina kaye i live in montgomery township i first want to start by praising the school board in the school district for the past year i know it was a difficult year for everyone but i think the school board handled the pandemic really well getting our kids back to school giving parents the option to send their kids fully virtual hybrid or fully in person therefore accommodating each family situation so that was very much appreciated as well as the protocols that were

006implemented in schools i think that kept the kids and the teachers safe and ultimately the community so that i recommend the school board the school staff teachers did a great job so with that said with the new school year coming in the fall i'd like to see the same protocols put in place for elementary school kids a reason being they are not yet eligible for vaccination and probably will not be until the end of the year or early next year specifically these protocols i'm talking about are masking and social distancing i know we all have pandemic fatigue i know we all want things to go back to normal we all hate masks i get it however the pandemic is not over yet our elementary kids will not be vaccinated yet the guidance from experts for

007these elementary kids have not changed they should still be masked indoors and social distancing kids can still get the virus and transmit it and there's a risk i mean there have been kids who have been seriously ill and even even died right and then even fully vaccinated adults have become seriously ill and died so there's new variants in at work right now so even if the risk is low i do not want my child or my family member to be that small percentage of people that can die or even be in the icu i've experienced this in the past my husband almost died from the flu a few years ago in the icu for two weeks fighting for his life i do not want to see any more family members especially my child to go

008through this so though i know my child can continue to wear a mask remember that mask is most effective when everyone around you is wearing one and social distancing and the other thing is do we really want another outbreak in school and have the schools close again i did not like virtual distance learning i prefer my child in school so please do what we can to keep everyone safe keep the schools open and you know i know the numbers are good now but we don't know what they will be when the fall comes and everyone's indoor again so i know you know it's it's just a little bit longer hopefully until all our kids are vaccinated and it's for indoors to keep everyone's safe teachers kids and the community thank you okay up next thank

009you mrs k up next is jessica walker jessica i'm enabling your microphone so you're ready to begin you can state your name and begin your comments please sure my name is jessica walker i reside at 2604 west walnut street colmar pa i just wanted to karis the woman who spoke before me i have concerns in the fall regarding making mass optional for a multitude of reasons um completely agree with the social distancing fatigue and vaccines are coming out and things of that nature but i want everyone to keep in mind that it is evident when you walk into my child's elementary school that their deaths are not able to be physically social distanced we saw a record drop as a country in the decrease of the flu because of mass we've seen drops in covid

010positivity for a multitude of reasons but in part is because of mass and social distancing i have concerns regarding the parameters of what constitutes exposure and whether or not children have to stay home from school my child specifically had a classroom whereby there was two family members in the same exact classroom both were coveted exposed but only one of them was currently being tested for covid19 the other sibling was not being tested not showing symptoms but was allowed and permitted to go to school i don't understand how it's possible i don't understand why any sibling would be allowed in the building if another sibling is out because of covet related possible reasons that's extremely concerning the additional thing is i do feel very strongly that we should know if there is a child in our

011children's classrooms that is suspected to be out because of covid19 i am seven months pregnant i will have a brand new baby come september and while many of you on this call will say well that's not my problem it's a community problem so i have significant concerns about exposing my household to things that i don't actually know for certain are going on within the school because we're not actually informed so i just want us to take a look at the big picture of is it really the end of the world for our kids to continue to wear mass until they are actually able to be vaccinated children under 12 are not supposed to if you want to have 6th graders or kids that are 12 who are vaccinated that were mass spine but as for

012the rest of us we either have the inability to be vaccinated or there are some families that for whatever reason choose not to now in the end that's ultimately their responsibility and their choice when masks come off and vaccines are more widespread for the younger kids but if we can get our kids back in the classrooms they're not going to be social distanced it's not going to be possible but masking must stay in effect thank you thank you mrs walker okay up next is aaron blanc aaron i've enabled your microphone so you're ready to begin you can state your name and address and begin your comments hello we got you okay um i will just say right off the top of my head well i this is erin blanc i am from hatfield i am

013not completely prepared i am sort of reacting to the comments before me um i've had some email communications with the school board and my children's school this week and throughout this time and i am so curious about what is the end game here is it the vaccine for the younger kids that is the message i'm getting and i'd really like to know how many families actually want this vaccine and how many don't and how many are waiting for it because i think that would help us direct to the next direction okay i want to know how many people actually want masks next year and how many don't because i think we're going on a lot of like supposeds and guesses and i have a question and i believe i asked tina this when do my

014choices matter okay so i've been in a different opinion from some people throughout this year more so now and i'm wondering when do my kids matter in this decision thank you mrs blanc okay up next is nabil azar nabil i've enabled your microphone so when you're ready to begin you can state your name and address and begin your comments hi yeah my name is nabil from hatfield street in lansdale i also wanted to comment that i i also would recommend or highly prefer that the kids at least in the elementary school stay masked in the fall again because of the same reasons that have been brought up before regarding the fact that they are not eligible for vaccinations just yet i do want my daughter to go back to school she's been virtual this whole

015year and i want her to be in person now but i don't think that that can be done safely uh unless at the very least masking is mandated and not optional uh as is being discussed right now at least for the elementary schools uh for the kids that are not eligible yet for vaccination and i think that uh the two women uh before me uh christina and i forget the other one i articulated it very well so i just wanted to express my support for that thanks thank you mr azar okay up next we have uh molina di matito molino molina i have enabled your microphone so when you're ready to begin you can state your name and address and begin your comments hi my name is melina excuse me demario i'm at 1037 barley

016way in landsdale pennsylvania um i i don't have anything new to say than than the man who spoke immediately prior to me and and the other two women who spoke a little bit earlier i just wanted to be another voice who is strongly in support of requiring elementary school students to wear masks for the reason that they are not yet eligible for vaccinations to the extent that this is a question of choice you know families can choose whether or not they want their children to be vaccinated um but for those of us um who believe you know that science and the vaccine are are things to be trusted um as i would hope most people do um you know we and do you plan to vaccinate our kids we're not i personally am not comfortable

017um with my children attending school in person without a masking requirement um i do not want my family to be in that low risk in that possible low percentage of the population who is at risk for the virus so thank you very much for having this meeting and for considering our opinions i know we all want to keep our kids safe so i would encourage everyone to keep the mask requirement in place for a little bit longer thank you thank you okay up next is megan mustachio megan i have enabled your microphone so you're ready to begin you can state your name and address and begin your comments hi um thanks for letting me speak i did email out this question it's kind of specific um regarding the um the plan that dr dietrich had

018um put out um attached the agenda my um my concern is because of course you know social media and all um there was that um the sign up sheet that it's um north wales um elementary that they have the i believe four fourth grade classrooms and they go down to three um fifth grade classrooms now at knapp elementary we have the same issue um in which our children are kind of they're smaller classrooms or class sizes with regarding to student sizes and then going into the fifth grade where they kind of get more content my concern is that with the students who had been kind of almost robbed um for lack of a better term from that third grade um year they went from you know january and lost most of the spring if not

019all of it um and then into the fifth grade and i think that or to the fourth grade rather and they really did catch up really really well and i would hate to see the students lose what they had gained so my um question really is can there be an assessment of um more faculty or another instructor in that fifth grade for these schools that are having the um fourth graders who are matriculating to fifth grade um in regard to those class sizes and that was it megan if you could could you state your name or not your name i apologize megan i apologize it's 849 concord place in lansdale very good thank you thank you thank you mrs mustachio up next i have stephanie harrison stephanie i've enabled your microphone i've enabled your microphone

020so when you're ready to begin please state your name and address and begin your comments hi sorry i'm stephanie harrison and i'm from 1118 pine grove avenue in lansdale uh just another voice in favor of masking for the little kids under 12 next year we will 100 be vaccinating our kiddos when it becomes available but unfortunately that may not be for several months into the school year so until then i just would love the elementary school students to stay masked i know it's super difficult for them to stay socially distanced and the masks will help to protect the kids the families and our teachers and of course our staff thank you so much thank you mrs harrison okay up next is katie hirsch katie have enabled your microphones and you're ready to begin state your

021name and address and begin your comments hi katie hirsch 102 chops wave north wales um just a quick comment that i know we've had a lot of discussion in the past about trying to be more transparent about the data and metrics and guidance that we are using to make these decisions and so i just want to see if we are going to be including the information that was shared by the montgomery county office of public health recently about the effectiveness of masking i believe it was somewhere in the neighborhood of cloth mask and surgical mass being effective in reducing transmission from zero to fifteen percent based on all the studies that they had reviewed and i know that we have relied heavily upon the montco oph for a lot of our reopening plans so i

022just want to make sure that that factor is being considered as well when we look at this for our little kids in the fall in terms of one just the effectiveness of mass overall second about how the younger kids in particular spread and transmit the disease and their susceptibility for it especially when we talk about it in september and still heat and i know that the elementary building or the most part the elementary buildings are air conditioned but we have young kids who are learning how to read social cues learning how speech language phonetics all the things where they need to be able to see their teachers their teachers need to be able to see their own mouths and so when we look at these early childhood development stages it's extremely important both academically and

023socially emotionally to have that full face recognition for these kids so i just want to make sure that all of the data is being considered when making these health and safety decisions and that we are being transparent and open about what metrics and sources we are looking at to make the decisions thank you thank you mrs hirsch up next we have vicki flannery vicky you have an older version of zoom so there is a second of audiences citizens if you want to be able if you want to download that and be able to speak at the at the end of this meeting but uh right now i cannot enable your microphone so update zoom join us again all right up next we have owen wilcox own i've enabled your microphone so you're ready to begin

024state your name and address and begin your comments please good evening owen wilcox 32 east school street in hatfield i didn't get a chance to see the presentation so i just tried to run through it quick and you know i happy to see a lot of things in there and i just want to voice my support for the plan or at least the presentation as laid out with mask optional i don't know about the rest of the speakers and supportive mess but i know my uh kids get out of school take the mask off go down to the playground and play with at least half the kids in this class anyway without the math so you know what are we really talking about here you know all the kids are playing with each other anyway

025and frankly aren't getting sick anyway so again i just want to voice my support for uh next year looking as normal as possible with manchester and the full five-day in-person learning with the option for people to choose some other form if they're not comfortable thanks again thank you mr wilcox okay one more hand i just popped in here stand by up next is jason lanier jason i've enabled your microphones and you're ready to begin you can state your name and address and begin your comments please jason air 100 oak drive lansdale i don't have a kid in grade school but um i would i would recommend to all those people who are pro mask don't go with your feelings and go with what the actual science says on the masks don't go on the recommendation

026by some doctor you see on on a news program you can read the the science on it and in montgomery county they would they said zero to 15 percent i think katie hirsch said uh i i i'm dubious of the 15 because uh from the studies that have been released masks only serve to stop spittle they do not stop to spend stop aerosols if you can't stop aerosols uh you are likely then spreading the disease these masks are only good for stopping some something like a sneeze or a cough but not any normal breathing it's it's not very difficult you guys shouldn't be swayed by uh nervous people who don't really understand it don't want to take the time to to read through the the scientific literature you can read through the released emails from

027dr falchi saying this much they do not uh do not serve to prevent any kind of spread of uh respiratory viral infection uh i want to get back to the the critical race theory thing but i don't know if i want to do it right now uh and you guys should really be able to speak with some kind of uh articulation on uh why you chose the pccy curriculum and why you're pushing it in so quickly it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense other than you have an agenda and and to dovetail with my closing comments on the last uh last meeting session this this this pushing of an agenda is what's causing people to talk to the representatives about about uh voucher systems and people do not want their kids to be

028to be indoctrinated either in religion and or uh politics by the state people want to do that on their own they want to take their kids to their own church they want to teach their kids uh the politics that they think is correct you guys are pushing a political agenda through this curriculum and if you can't speak to the pcc why curriculum and why you're you're you're onboarding it maybe you should decide whether or not this is really the job you guys want to be doing you this might be too much responsibility if you can't push understand why this is negative for kids why kids should not be segregated by their race by their race and told one group told that that they have too much in another group that they have too little and

029some groups don't count even though they seem to do really well that's the one here yes that is not what we're doing and you know that we've told you that numerous times now we're doing the exact opposite okay the um cultural proficiency is being inclusive and i think dr lewis campbell put it to you what couple meetings ago very well like we it is our job to prepare the children for going on to become productive adults right and productive members of society so you know i just want to give you an example because i knew you're going to bring it up again it doesn't matter how many times you say it though we do not teach critical race theory okay but there is stuff out in the real world i work in the insurance industry

030right and i get trade magazines and i've gotten three magazines in this month alone all about diversity and inclusion this is not a north penn specific program it is not our pet project it is something that the kids need to learn to you know go out and function in the real world that's all it's being inclusive we are not segregating anybody and we are not telling anyone to feel bad about themselves so no matter how many times you say it it is not true okay thank you mr gilmer is there somebody else that would like to make yes uh we have two more hands up uh up next is louis del godici louis i've enabled your microphones when you're ready to begin please state your name and address and begin your comments luis not sure

031if you heard us there just double check your microphone make sure you're unmuted yeah i'm not sure what's going on with his mic give it one more chance on the unmute there luis all right can you hear me oh okay all right luis i've re-enabled your microphone i was going to move on there so go ahead and try it again i apologize nope thank you very much there you go uh louis delgades old 40-foot road harleysville pennsylvania i would just like to state that we are a family in favor of making mass optional we are talking about disease with over a 99 survival rate has been documented have a low transmission among children children don't get sick most of the teachers are vaccinated and that is a low risk for transmission we believe that parents

032if you are worried about your kids getting sick they should wear a mess or stay home for virtual but everyone else for children should be optional to have it or not so thank you thank you okay up next is carrie rox carrie i have enabled your microphones ready to begin state your name and address and begin your comments hi can you guys hear me my name's carrie rox i'm at 208 spruce circle excuse me north wales um i do not agree with mandating these masks at all i think it should be optional and the reason why i think it should be optional is we're the parents you know we know what's right for our kids none of these vaccines are fda approved at all there's side effects left and right i won't i'm not mrs

033rocky you're going vaccinating my children we will i also want to just i also want to just state that you guys are indoctrinating our children i have seen links direct to your site that says that you're doing so and i just want to know why you think it's your job to parent your job is to teach our children math and science and social studies not to tell them what race is right and what race is wrong that is a parent's job no answer that's not what we do that is what you do it's not what we do just tell me where it says that it's your job to parent my child your job is to teach my child my job as a parent is to teach them between right and wrong not yours and you

034wonder why these charter schools are getting money now it's because they don't want to deal with this crap you are not their parents you will never be their parent no answer again this is rocks madam president manny yeah go ahead uh i would invite you to come and take part in what we do here i would invite you to allow us to contact you and define for you who your neighbors are as opposed to what it appears you're getting information from i invite you to take part i invite you to call me my number is on the on the website i'd love to self you i will give you my phone number right over this zoom meeting because i i see what you guys are doing and you can keep telling parents that you're not

035doing this but you're allowing i got taken off of a post today just for asking a question i was silenced is that right those are my tax dollars i pay you guys but i i can't voice my opinion parents are being shut down in the dark i don't know what you're referring to what posts were you north penn parents connection i asked a simple question if people thought it was okay or if they were concerned about what you were teaching that's not up that's not through the district it's a private group man that has nothing to do with it that's north penn it's yeah there's a lot of things that say north plan but that's not through the district came off of north penn's website that is the district and that's where my tax dollars

036are going well whoever cut you off though that's not a district thing well that doesn't make a difference because it's still included on your website exactly what you're teaching them and asking parents to put money in for these new books about critical race theory it's not right it's not right what you're doing and you guys are gonna have no funding anymore because everybody's gonna go to charter schools everyone thank you mrs rocks your time has expired there'll be another opportunity at the end of this meeting though yeah and i'll take this opportunity to the the north pinned parents connection is definitely a parent's group it has no affiliation to north bend school district other than there are parents of the north penn school district who discuss items they'd like to talk about it has no

037affiliation whatsoever with the north bend school district all righty up next is amanda butler amanda i've enabled your microphones you're ready to begin you can state your name and address and begin your comments please yes hi can you hear me we can okay yes um amanda butler uh 2225 mulberry court in lansdale um i just wanted to say that um i'm against the mass for especially for the elementary age children children need you know the chance to be able to breathe without the mass especially this week it's been very hot on the buses as well it's been horrendous with the heat i really think it should be a parent's decision it needs to be a parent's choice uh whether their child should be masked or not um so if some of the parents are against

038the kids not being masked they have the choice that they can mask their children it needs to be optional it needs to be a choice it's a parent's choice um and i do agree with the um speaker before me crt needs to stay out of the curriculum it needs to be a parent's decision what they teach their children and um you do have links on your website that uh are about this critical race stuff and it needs to be out of the curriculum thank you thank you mr butler okay there are no more hands up at this time that'll conclude the audience citizen for this section of the agenda madam president yes clarification from dr dietrich or dr bauer is there a pccy curriculum that i i'm just dreadfully unaware of missing a meeting or

039something i am curious to understand what it is that the caller indicates it's a pccy curriculum um i i am familiar with pccy i know the executive director of pccy and i'll make a call tomorrow to find out what it is that is a pcc curriculum i i'm not providing that i i and so i i wasn't sure dr g trick i don't want to assume but i did hand mr lanier a report from pcc why on disproportionality in the collar counties so perhaps he's making some assumptions or connections that i'm unaware of that that is curriculum but it was actually at a time when he rushed to the parking lot to meet us and confront us about crt after a meeting and i thought i was helping matters by handing him information so my

040apologies if that was misinterpreted as curriculum and to mr lanier to clarify at no point did i say the word curriculum and that was simply to share the same information that we're we're reading you wanted transparency it tells us to google things that's why i gave it to you um dr dietrich or dr bauer i think it was um mrs mustachio i think um that was concerned about the class sizes and nap could we um maybe address that under other business what the guidelines are for um establishing class sizes yes thank you okay so moving on then um i guess we will start off now with the new business and go on to the um presentation dr dietrich all right so we do have a presentation this evening i'm looking ahead to the 2021-22 academic

041year mr gilmer if you could call that up it's in board docs for those that are also logged onto board docs at home and dr bauer and i the superintendent and i will be walking everyone through this presentation we'll do a tag team so if you could skip to the next slide there bob we're going to start with a look back we have some sources of information and data and todd you can take the next few slides here we have some snapshots of data that were taken at various times when we had meetings uh coming up it wasn't that we hadn't picked these particularly but uh we did include these slides this evening and todd you can just take the next couple slides regarding that certainly dr dietrich thank you and good evening everyone um

042happy to be presenting this to you this evening um so as dr dietrich just outlined these dates that you'll see here are actually kind of checkpoints along the way when we reopened opportunities for folks to come in for five day um so after kind of the first wave of five day instruction here is a data point you'll notice that the data this is specific to north penn so the data that you see on the left hand side is specific to our school district of incidence and positivity rates for district residents so on the left-hand side for on these next couple slides you'll see the data related to our community and on the right-hand side you'll see what's happening in our schools in particular and there's there's a slide at the end of this portion of

043the presentation where you'll see kind of longitudinally the kova 19 data for north penn but i'm just i put it side by side so you could see and if you look at on the right hand side bob i'm not sure if you could use your mouse to kind of highlight the percentage of uh five day there at the the top slide a little bit left just over yeah there you go that's total 34.5 of our students at that point were five days or had selected five days um 32 were hybrid and 33.5 remained entirely virtual and you can see the distribution across the grade levels it's almost a perfect curve um from kindergarten to 12th grade we've presented this data publicly quite a few times over the last six eight months but mr gilmer if

044you go to the next slide and we're just going to briefly go through these just to kind of show you some trends here you will notice that in the heart of winter we're getting close to spring at this point um we are noticing that more students are coming five days so the last slide we were in the 30s we're now at 44.2 percent overall and at our elementary level it's of our families have returned five day but overall the virtual 100 virtual across the district still remains a little bit over 30 percent so 31.9 percent um next slide bob and in april we did see a spike in in data there there's no doubt about it in terms of covet 19 we noticed within the school district shortly after spring break you are noticing there

045though that our five days is now across that fifty percent barrier uh virtual days still hov or virtual instruction still hovering around thirty percent so the students have come from hybrid to five days and still almost a perfect distribution from kindergarten down to 12th grade next slide bob and this is the most recent data that we have from the county in terms of covert 19 incidents number of positive cases and positivity percentage for 14 day average so you'll notice that those statistics are way down and the current data in terms of how our students are receiving their instruction it's at across the district it's about 53 percent have elected to come back five days 18.7 for hybrid and virtual is 28.3 percent if you slide over there to the right a little bit bob you'll

046see that elementary is nearing 70 percent five days of instruction and the next slide and this as previously mentioned longitudinally you'll see here right there at the beginning of april you're seeing the spike that i referenced and then it has been declining since certainly there's uh many reasons warmer weather more people outside more vaccinations there are many reasons why we're seeing these trends but it's important to note that we look back at what's happened this year with the data and how our families have responded bob next slide so as referenced i think in the presentation we did see a jump after spring break uh presently the number of cases incidence rate and positivity percentage all continue to decline as as the numbers have declined our families more and more families have elected five days of

047in-person instruction and roughly 28 of our families are still 100 virtual at this point in time and dr g chuck you want me to take this one too or you want to take so we will do it together so we did seek feedback consistently throughout the year and recently we had the hanover survey and dr bauer is going to give you just some highlights it's loaded with a lot of information we're going to be taking some time later this summer to do a full blown presentation on it but just hot off the presses coming in this weekend uh we got some information back from them that uh we're going to give you kind of a high level you know sneak peek on that um then we also had focus groups in the buildings where we

048went out from cabinet members to speak with a cross-section of staff of course we've had lots of emails and phone calls and board meetings and opportunities for people to give us feedback in that regard i do hold meetings consistently with the community and with the home and school leadership and with our staff members i am myself i'm also on buildings quite frequently and then we did a district survey on the 22 intentions and we'll be sharing that data with you next slide please so the results of that interest survey are we ask the question you know as it stands what are your intentions it's not binding but we're trying to get a feel for where people are and 89.9 said they're intending to send their student uh back to in person come i'll call it

049september and uh 7.9 said well they're undecided and 2.2 percent said um i'm looking at virtual and they're not returning next slide please so you can see that uh there in the numbers with the various grade levels um you know the percentages again 89.9 said in person two two percent said uh virtual or they're not returning to in person and you see that group there that's still undecided you can see it by grade level too you can actually see i think it's the next slide go to the next one by numbers there um in person we had 3 700 plus for in person at elementary and that's a total of 4 100 respondents there we have 6500 ish elementary students so you can see the breakdown there 83 students out of that percent that returned

050the survey saying they were going to be looking for virtual options middle level 1400 for in person another 140 that are undecided and 39 said you know for virtual options in high school you can see those numbers there so um that's what we got in terms of those tallies by level and with the respondents that we had we didn't have of the individuals responding um but you can see what we got back next slide please dr barr if you want to take the next few slides on the hanover district operations survey this will just be an overview as i said but go ahead and take the next couple slides if you don't mind absolutely so dr dietrich alluded to the fact that this is hot off the press so this uh was a large instrument

051with many constructs or areas of interest and um we had uh over i believe bob could you slide back uh one actually never mind forward i think it's on the next slide there we go okay 5600 participants okay bob if you could go back one slide perfect thank you so uh we had over 5 600 participants which is was a great response rate especially this year and it was a likert scale survey so families could choose somewhere between strongly dissatisfied all the way up to very satisfied and neutral and unsure were options in the survey but uh the things that we were interested in hearing more about were academic needs social emotional needs transportation protocols coveted 19 safety precautions in our buildings our communication our scheduling and then the needs for next year again we

052had the raw data they cleaned the data and gave it to us just this weekend and our data analyst was able to put together some information for us but hanover will be delivering an executive summary with some recommendations and findings which i will present to the board along with dr dietrich in a coming work session i would assume next slide please bob so just to kind of give you the lay of the land here um nothing to point to specifically on this slide i just wanted to outline who the participants were and then what the data kind of looks like so we had 5 670 participants of which 1 692 were parents over 1100 were staff members which was our highest response rate and 2 800 students so if you look at one of the

053uh the items from the instrument here in person instruction you'll notice that the blue which are your colors that are right most are indicates agreement so strongly agree um for example so the light blue would be agree dark blue would be strongly agree the gray the light gray and the dark gray i don't want those to be misinterpreted as good or bad so they were either neutral or unsure neutral says yeah it wasn't good or bad and unsure was i don't know how to answer that question for example um so just to kind of give an indication here of so the the number on that first line that 69 would be the sum of agree and strongly agree the nine percent would be the sum of disagree and strongly disagree and then the 13 and

054the nine percent are represented by the two shades of gray there so just kind of give a lay of the land of how to interpret the data next slide please bob so um from our hot off the press preview some of the positives that are very clear and i just grabbed some screen grabs of a data dashboard that we put together and look forward to sharing with everyone really high ratings and we were not expecting that this survey would come back with glowing marks across the board of course we can hear that there are varying degrees of agreement with certain decisions and some of the challenges this year has posed but uh communication results and if you're just looking at a snapshot there there's a lot of balloon in communication transportation and safety precautions i'm

055seeing that families agreed and all stakeholder groups quite frankly indicated a level of agreement with the measures that were put in place this year in those three areas bob next slide the areas of i don't want to say negative but concern and if you look at some of the statistics there you're seeing for example under hybrid instruction 53 said agree or strongly agree and then you have 26 and four percent saying neutral or unsure so 30 on top of uh what is 53 sorry 30 so 83 say either they agree or they're neutral um so it's not horrible data but clearly there's more red and yellow uh in these charts than we saw on that last slide so some areas where we we heard just some concern or less than positive worth a hybrid instruction

056and that's from across stakeholder groups and concerns about social emotional needs whether it be physical health and mental health we're seeing some of the early results are showing that people are just concerned that our kids our employees are all of us okay as we come out on the hopefully on the other side of this pandemic bob next slide okay as we look ahead to 2122 we've broken out here for elementary and secondary and i just want to make sure i think this is clear but i want to emphasize it and that is this is what we're expecting as of today but you can't say it's absolutely said with certainty um we'll see we'll see how some things progress but all students are welcome to return it's our hope that all of our students return and

057that we're at full capacity we're not anticipating social distancing restrictions we've had a lot of conversations we're constantly on calls with the superintendents across montgomery county on calls with the office of public health and with children's hospital of philadelphia they're in constant contact with the cdc so there's a lot of discussion that happens and we don't know this for certain but as it looks right now we are headed towards uh some much better numbers and the expectation is that we will not have social distancing restrictions put on us by the state now just before i go on i just want to also make it clear to everyone that uh there's a difference between regulations and then also guidance so i'll get into an example of a regulation in just a minute here but there's a

058difference between that and guidance so we're going to continue to be tuned in for that guidance from the cdc from the pennsylvania department of health from the montgomery county office of public health but as it looks right now we're thinking that mass would be optional the board can certainly determine that mass should be mandatory um and there would not be a regulation saying that we couldn't make masks mandatory unless some law was passed in that regard we're expecting that you know this would apply to both the adults and the students and then some of the callers made a point here in the vaccine timeline it's uncertain we don't know when the vaccine will be available for those under age 12 for those that would like to get their children vaccinated we're hearing it could be

059it could be sometime early this fall but um we're not sure so at this point in time it's not approved for under age 12. we're looking at events and field trips and extracurricular opportunities as being available and we're not envisioning capacity limits again not envisioning we're not certain about any of this we're looking at being able to offer a synchronous online opportunity at the elementary level this would be taught by north penn school district teachers and it would be as students you know from across the district in a certain grade level so it wouldn't be you know only students from one particular elementary school it would be students from across the entire school district taught north penn curriculum by north penn teacher we would ask parents to make a commitment at the elementary level for

060a trimester and space would be subject to availability we just need to be able to have a slide later in this presentation about the timeline it's it's challenging for us to know how many want a particular option for us to properly staff we would expect specials to return to their normal four day cycle and virtual days could be utilized for inclement weather or emergencies we also have been told that we need to be prepared that if the virus numbers would increase as the year progresses and we're not certain what will happen with this virus but there might be recommendations coming to change the guidance that's initially in place when school starts so we'll have to see that and we'll have to be ready for that we'll have to be agile so right now no promises

061in any of this but this is what we're anticipating at the elementary level the next slide please at the secondary level again the same caveat this is what we're expecting it's all subject to change of course but we would expect that we would have all students return that one return we could be at full capacity for the secondary students who want a vaccine they've had that opportunity if you still haven't been vaccinated and you are interested in being vaccinated those vaccine doses are available for secondary students above age 12. we're not anticipating social distancing restrictions anticipating that mass would be optional but again as the data in the community changes this could change we will continue to be tuned in to the guidance from the department of health and from the office of public health

062in montgomery county and as i said earlier for the elementary slide any local board could uh determine that they would like to make masks optional um but at this point in time while we're excusing mass mandatory what we're saying at this point in time is we're anticipating the mask would be optional before i go and also want to make sure i mention that we are looking for that cdc guidance and we're not sure when we're going to be getting that the pennsylvania department of health and the montgomery county office of public health is very interested in getting that cdc guidance we've been pressed upon the cdc that it's really important that they gather that guidance and publish it you know as soon as possible because people need to make decisions and the pennsylvania department health

063and the montgomery county office of public health does rely pretty heavily on that cdc guidance so they are really looking to try to get that as soon as is possible same thing as the elementary are looking at events field trips extracurricular opportunities to be available now there's a difference here at the secondary we're saying we would offer a north penn virtual academy it would be the asynchronous virtual option recall the numbers aren't that high at the secondary for an interest in virtual and those students have had the opportunity to be vaccinated so be our north penn virtual academy we've had that now for a number of years it is an asynchronous virtual option but it is a virtual option it does have a teacher a record from the north penn school district and that teacher

064does have the office hours and opportunities for support the curriculum actually is a fully asynchronous which means you can log on whenever it is you'd like to log on and complete your school work in the case of the secondary we're looking at having parents make a commitment for the full year it's just very very complicated in terms of being able to properly staff classes getting those students assigned to classes and we don't we don't see anything changing in regard to the vaccine coming along it's already here so that's a difference between secondary and elementary in that regard so we would say if you want that virtual option uh it is available to you through the north penn virtual academy it would be asynchronous so next slide please this is really important for everybody to understand

065contact tracing and isolation and quarantine any requirements that are out there regarding contact tracing isolation if you are positive for the virus quarantining if you fall into the necessary requirements for that those are all per the montgomery county office of public health and those are not guidelines those are requirements they're written into the public health code so we have been told very clearly that contact tracing and then if there is a positive and there is close contact isolation quarantine whatever it is the montgomery county office of public health would control that and would direct us on that that is not something that is optional i will jump down to the last bullet on there and presently asymptomatic vaccinated individuals per the montgomery county office of public health do not need to quarantine if there are

066close contact so if you're on the fence about being vaccinated and you might determine that you know that could be something that would sway and then to go ahead and have your child vaccinated because if they are a close contact and i would expect that without the social distancing requirements in order to have the numbers back in terms of what we're seeing in this interest survey an intention survey we would have close contacts if somebody would be in school who would be positive if you're vaccinated the montgomery county office of public health says you do not need to quarantine if you're not vaccinated you will have to quarantine and or isolate depending on the situation and those other two bullets on there are both potential there's a potential that we could have available to us

067antigen testing we do use the binax now test we've been using it since january and uh those are likely to be available and funding would be available we're not paying for those now to use those in connection with any suspected cases of covid and then also there's a potential to use this antigen testing the vinexnow test for a test to stay program so what is a test to stay program a test to stay program is something that is being considered by you know the cdc and by the pennsylvania department of health and the montgomery county office of public health whereby if you were a close contact and you were not vaccinated you could continue to be tested and stay so long as those test results are negative so that is not yet approved so everybody's

068clear about that that's just being discussed as a potential program that might be available come september where you could get tested if you were a close contact that was not vaccinated and as long as you continue to be negative you could stay in the schools next slide there bob so the timeline this is where it gets it gets challenging um so we're doing this presentation tonight and for planning purposes we need to know if people intend to have their children be in a virtual environment because we would have to properly staff that especially at that elementary level where we're looking at north penn staff being the synchronous teachers and also at the secondary level because we're assigning north penn staff to the caseload to be available for the office hours and for consultation where students

069are doing asynchronous through the north penn virtual academy so in order for us to properly plan we need to know that information as soon as we can so that we can properly staff our buildings there also have been some comments about class sizes and depending on the number of students who would be opting to go with fully virtual it can impact on the class sizes where you know there's some that arrive in the bubble and it may or may not then necessitate that extra teacher so it's important for that reason also so we're looking at a formal request for a commitment in that time period there in june then we would contact the non-respondents and then we would go ahead and do um our planning and preparations for the remainder of of the summer just

070a reminder there the first day of school i've been saying september technically the first day of school is august 30th so we do have two days in august but we're basically people talk about september when they talk about the new school year so that is what we have for the board for consideration this evening um dr bauer would be a very willing and interested in answer answering any questions the board may have thank you dr dietrich and dr bauer does anyone have any questions or comments mr casa i think i see your hand raised thank you uh madam president uh yes dr dietrich in your communications with montgomery county office of public health is there have they discussed yet and if they haven't can you impress upon them uh that it it would be helpful

071at least from this board director's uh perspective that if we're to go forward with what seems to be some recommendations that that there isn't masking at the elementary level you know will there be some type of guidance as to a threshold should a variant you know take hold and begin to spread in one of our schools or in the district that okay you know so at least families will have an uh understanding while we're reporting any um increases you know when there should be more concern or this is when you could be prepared for mandatory masking is is that yes so we've we continue to have our weekly meetings with montgomery county office of public health and children's hospital of philadelphia on those calls and they are very interested in seeing the cdc's guidance um

072and they were hopeful that that will come out sometime in you know june or july uh and we're impressing upon them the need that if you know the cdc is going to put guidance out there they really need to get it out there as soon as possible um so they've explained to us that they look at that very carefully and then they also have discussions on calls with pennsylvania's department of health so there are five counties that have their own office of public health and montgomery county is one of those five so they have those conversations and with the pennsylvania department of health to arrive at um you know the guidelines from the office of public health so we are looking constantly for them to give us that kind of guidance and they keep telling

073us that this is the best information they have at the moment and the way it appears to be shaping up but um we're waiting for something more definitive well certainly not the first time we didn't have all the information but i i find that where it seems to be trending now with uh optional masks uh we at least need to have that backstop if we're gonna see that type of recommendation coming from cdc to state to county uh then you know families are going to need to know uh you know where this might go in the other direction hopefully it won't but i i find that to be important so thank you as you continue to uh carry that message forth yeah i'm not willing to you know say with any certainty what we're going

074to see on that on the masks i i'm just not sure i heard that the city of philadelphia public schools have said they will have masking required come fall so um like i said i mean a board can say that thank you very much for any kind of guidance from the cdc but they can go above and beyond in terms of being restrictive if they so choose so um city of philadelphia i've been told uh is saying that they will have masking in place in the fall i'm not positive if they're saying it's k through 12 or only in those that are not yet vaccinated in those age levels um but again that's what i had heard thank you mr casa mrs ramich i believe i saw your hand up great thank you and thank

075you for clarifying that um those practices around isolation quarantine and contact tracing are broader and bigger than the district that these are um county requirements so thank you for that um but during this year we were able to if a child was needing to isolate or to quarantine we they that child who was unvaccinated at that point was then able to access programming or classwork through a virtual synchronous environment so if a child is not vaccinated in the upcoming year and are needing to isolate or quarantine again a decision not based on district policy but on county policy what would what would be the option for that child during that 10-day period so it's a great question and you're spot on with the you know kind of thinking ahead towards what you know questions we're

076getting also from our teachers and from our parents also so we do have the equipment we made an investment in the streaming equipment we've had some preliminary discussions you know with teachers about that it's a stressful situation for a teacher to to do that but you know it is there so that is something we haven't decided yet with certainty what the recommendation will be in regard to that um but we do know that that scenario could arise where there are students who you know are home for whatever reasons and then the question is you know do you want to make that only for those that are isolated uh because of covid or if they also have another medical reason where they can't be in school you want to have it that broad you want to

077say it only you know goes into effect if it's um you know so many days but it wouldn't be for just a short term um you know absence uh those are those are complicated matters that we don't have uh yet fully uh finished and ready for a you know a recommendation but those are things we're talking about i just i think that i i you know as a parent myself and and choosing that hybrid option for our children this year um for at least part of the year for one um but it was such a necessary step this year and it was um an incredible undertaking but i also do want to note that we've received incredible feedback from people about just the incredible challenge of having to manage children in a classroom and in

078an online setting um i think it was a necessary thing to do this school year and i appreciate and applaud all of the efforts that went into that and i just want to be mindful of the data that dr bauer shared from the hanover survey that i think does indicate that that was recognized as a necessary step but that is um incredibly stressful to to be able to operate well thank you for that and that is spot on um and we've discussed that you know we do have equipment we made the investment in that equipment it doesn't mean we have to use that equipment exactly the way we've used it this year there may be some middle ground on that presently if a student is out for an extended period of time they can be

079on homebound instruction if they're out just for a shorter period of time it's a matter of gathering assignments uh from teachers and uh you know trying to keep up with their schoolwork as much as possible without the benefit of of listing in or hearing any of the instruction being provided by the teacher so there's another option in there somewhere where it could be that we would permit a student to um you know log on and listen in if you will like they do this year but not as much interaction necessarily with you know the big screen um so you know again something we're working out trying to get down to you know what do we want to do here but it's complicated and it it has its own challenges no matter which solution you choose

080so does anyone else have any comments or questions i think dr g was next oh i'm sorry dr g then mr rush um thank you uh madam president i i guess i'm wondering um if and thank you for the presentation and it looks like that we have a the beginning of a plan um that hanover survey is as we've started to review it looks like um in terms of communication that we that overall families were impressed with our communication i think it was around like 81 or something like that um and so i think we see that we need to continue that and how important that is i'm sure that families might be wondering when they can have more firm guidelines and i know you can't give us a date like it will we will

081know but you know i think they're wondering about masking um and you know social distancing um i am i mean i'm sure they're wondering about some of those and i know that that is somewhat dependent on cdc but do you have kind of a date of or an idea of a time frame of like it has to be done by then whatever whatever the whatever the time is whatever the guideline is going to be we have to make that decision by this date in order to plan for it so if it's august 1st or july 15th we kind of have to know and plan moving forward based on that what do you see is that kind of drop date that people can expect some communication from us about what it will be on september 1st

082yes so that's that's the challenge dr g to know when are we going to get any additional guidance if it does change we're giving you the best thinking we're hearing in these meetings that we're in uh when we do have some individuals that are present there from you know the office of public health and uh children's hospital of philadelphia so at this point in time their best thinking is that it's quite likely that we wouldn't have to have them asking but again um not certain when the cdc will put their guidance out and the way it typically works is cdc puts theirs out then pennsylvania doh reviews it there's a call between montgomery uh county office of public health other you know local offices of public health that are in those counties or those areas

083that have their own office of public health with pennsylvania doh and then have those discussions so it really comes down to what you know what is the latest we could possibly still appropriately um you know make staffing decisions and you know get everything lined up uh we had laid out a timeline there for you we can certainly make some adjustments to that timeline but at some point in time we just have to know what it is that a family wants to do and i think if you start getting past july 15 it starts getting extremely difficult we've lived through this already we know what's involved you're trying to look at your class sizes you're trying to look at your resources to assign and it just gets really difficult so i'm not i'm not sure that

084a lot is going to change uh this summer it's trending in the right direction it appears that we're starting to achieve what they call virus suppression virus suppression is um doesn't mean eradication but virus suppression is when you start getting that incidence rate down there and numbers that are around that 10 per 100 000 and a positivity rate uh that's under three percent so we're approaching virus suppression and i think we may have achieved virus suppression in montgomery county right now but as you reference with variants and we have a very mobile a mobile society so people travel and there can be other countries where variants start to you know proliferate and people travel so we don't know with certainty uh what's going to happen um that's that's the best thinking we could share tonight

085on it and uh as i said earlier i think it's going to be difficult if we don't have a commitment by mid mid-july thank you um mr rush i think you're next on mr fusco then mrs ramich were you next question or do you want me to go um if things do change on the health front what is our commitment to communicate with the public well it's extremely important that we have that communication so we got you know good good marks on that if you will because we had real thorough communication and we would continue that you would hear that pledge from us i mean that's what we need to do um so you know everyone needs to stay tuned and what the numbers are and what the positivity is and you know what we're

086seeing in our community i think we have a commitment from the montgomery county office of public health that they will continue to communicate those numbers to us you'll recall those resident numbers that you know those come from them that's where we get that information we don't have that information ourselves we have our own for our own students we don't have it for the district residents that comes from the montgomery county's office of public health so i'm i'm confident they will continue to supply that to us and we so that means that we'll be keeping up our dashboard for one so yeah the dashboard the dashboard i think was you know well received um and we can commit to be able to have a dashboard like that um it's you know again the office of public

087health needs to be in communication with us for that to be valid and they have but i i want to talk to them but i'm pretty sure they're going to be able to do that and and if things should take a drastic turn you'll put out an uh uh notice to the public that it has or communicated yes so we'd have to have those discussions and what they have told us is that we may start the year with a recommendation saying masks are optional but if it should come to become november or december and uh you know the numbers start ticking up again that they may make a recommendation that's different so uh what they said in the call uh last week was tell people don't throw the masks away wash them and put them

088in the drawer because you may be using them again um so thank you thank you mr rush mr fusco you're muted thank you you're welcome uh so first i have a question for dr dietrich it's clarification i want to make sure i understood what i heard you say if a student is in an isolation situation you're suggesting that at that point the classroom may become a hybrid classroom where that student will continue to participate in that room or are you is it a separate so what julianne was asking basically if there's a student that's in an isolation situation where they're not permitted to come to school because they have to be you know isolated in their home what are the possibilities with that and we don't have that totally determined yet but we're looking at

089different options one option one option could be that the student would be able to participate in some way but as i said in their response to julianne we'd have to determine is that only for cobit or is that for any medical situation does it only jump into if it's you know more than so many days uh i don't see us being able to manage that easily if it's a real short like a one day thing when somebody says i don't feel well today and i'd like to be able to you know log i think the teachers will find that pretty hard to be able to manage um but if you're looking at something that's you know a 10-day exclusion because of uh you know being positive that's what the numbers are at that point in

090time that's what the exclusion would be then you're talking two weeks there and uh you know as i said maybe there is a possibility that we could have a kind of a an opportunity to to listen in not necessarily um you know have as much interaction as you do this year when you're online so that's something we have to talk about and i'm very interested in inputting that from all the stakeholders so i mean obviously i have a hard time divorcing my own personal experience from these conversations i first didn't know the disruption that the hybrid program caused i agree that it was necessary we needed we were committed to the six foot distance it was like almost impossible to do without a hybrid model we have an investment in equipment um but i would

091be concerned about it being disruptive even in a 10 day or longer and especially for including other conditions um because of then an on off nature of it and i'm wondering if certain other considerations just to throw a few ideas out there we have the equipment maybe something more along the line of recording the instruction with asynchronous work that could be included with an office hours component or something so that there's still teacher contact there's still the ability to swatch the instruction but to not have to have the management piece of this person's on the computer and these people are in the room and it doesn't take too many even on the computer to just make it a little unmanageable i know there are some teachers that enjoyed it and and you know really i

092think me being thrived in that environment and if that's something they're comfortable with then you know maybe there's more individual you know i'm certainly interested in hearing more about that conversation as it progresses but i would say that i i i concur with the the teachers that have expressed their reservations of continuing a hybrid model because of that disruption because of what they saw was a deterioration in the quality of the education because of the management piece so just some thoughts on that and then second thing is regarding elementary school and mask optionality i have reservations about that my first reservation is i think that there's going to be a number of families that it will otherwise may want to return we'll actually have the inverse reaction and say well i don't i'm not comfortable

093so i'm going to keep my child home so you know i don't know what percentage that would be but i think that is going to serve as a deterrent for some folks and i think as we look at the numbers that look like they're going to return we're clearly not going to be able to continue to have six feet and you know when we have a spread if there is you know an issue it's going to impact classes unless guidance changes about you know the proximity of a student who may or may not be symptomatic i i i have reservations about it there's still variants out there we still as to mr costa's point you know i would be more comfortable if we had that information to say here's the threshold here's where we'd like

094to see that two week positivity rate to say yeah we're comfortable with the optionality it's not that i'm i'm pro-mask but like i said i'm in elementary schools every day all day they're not the dystopian hellscape that people make them out to be kids or kids most times are down on their notes and then we tell them to put them up and they do and they get their mass breaks and you know they're an annoyance i'm tired of smelling my breath all day but i do think that in my opinion in my estimation because i think that you know i i am cautious i'm very cautious in terms of still what is unknown when these students are going to be able to have the opportunity to be vaccinated you know i and the fact that

095you know i don't like telling the community that we're going to commit to doing x with a caveat and then have to go back before school starts because we're going to end up with pushback at that point so i'm not entirely comfortable with that particular part of the recommendation well thank you for that and it's important that the elected officials from the community the school board uh voices you know opinions and all of this um you know and we're trying to work through this um it's just it's challenging to know i know that the governor has said that when we hit 70 percent of adults who are vaccinated and or june 28th whichever comes first then the the masking requirement from his point of view would be dropped so as we're watching that you know

096unfold and seeing you know how the community behaves come july and august i think that'll be interesting to know and to watch and also have to see what the impact is on you know not having masking um but schools are a congregate setting so it's a bit different than if you're you know outdoors um then also you need to be looking at what is the data say on on the age of the uh of the kids and uh you know where are we with that so this is a weighty decision there's no doubt about it what does the law say and what is the plan on the district based on that about finding out for ourselves what the percentage is of our students who are vaccinated so it's based on this across the state so

097it isn't just an individual municipality or an individual county regarding percent of people vaccinated actually montgomery county is up there near the top in terms of percent who are vaccinated uh we had some reports shared with us on that and it's pretty impressive what montgomery county has done relative to other counties in pennsylvania there are some counties within pennsylvania that don't have near the vaccination rate that we've achieved in montgomery county but we don't have 100 vaccinated when you start getting up to the older age groups the number of individuals that are vaccinated is very high um so dr akush had shared that information with us in a meeting and um we could probably get that and get that forward to uh to the school board also my question is about our students specifically are

098we able to find out which of our students have been vaccinated so they asked for a survey and we did share the link uh the county asked to have us each district to forward that link so we did that we haven't seen the results of that i don't know what rate of participation they got on that but we don't we don't have that information um are we allowed to ask for it i don't think that they they might be able to maybe they could disaggregate it i don't know i honestly chris i don't know the answer to that i'm not sure um we could check i don't know they have it on the county if they just aggregated it it's possible it might be i think that that might also help inform that again you

099know if we if the students when they are vaccinated or hitting that threshold you know then again my own personal comfort level it is going to be different than the other eight you know members of this board um i can only speak for myself and my own questions and concerns um but that would certainly be information that i would be interested in to know what what what is the percentage of students in north penn and even building by building that have gotten vaccinations when they become again my focus right now is really on that elementary school because we know that the secondary students are now getting vaccinated they have that opportunity um but that guidance would be i think instructive for us well this board will have to make a decision on a health and

100safety plan we've been told that a health and safety plan will have to be developed and submitted uh so that is something that uh you know this board will have to you know eventually approve and this conversation is helpful i'm interested in hearing from from all board members on uh you know what the thinking is i think our community is interested in knowing you know where to where do we expect we will find ourselves knowing how difficult it is to say it with certainty but this is very helpful to me and thank you for the presentation thank you all for the presentation very informative very well put together appreciate it thank you dr dietrich what is that health and safety report due so they've explained to us that it does need to be completed by

101the 30th of july a health and safety plan must be filed this connection with the esser funds but pennsylvania department of education has said that they would expect that to be turned in by the 30th of july so would you anticipate another work session or action meeting in july i think it to update i would say that's probably pretty likely okay um mrs vromich i believe i saw your hand up i'm sorry um one more question um and this was already um somewhat addressed but i just think that um i just want to make this abundantly clear to the community that you know we are asked you will the timeline did state that we'll be asking for another survey the presentation indicated that we would be asking parents to commit to a trimester or for

102a full year but there could be changes in that health and safety plan so that we might start the year with masks optional but we may have to then reinstate so knowing that there's going i think we're all looking for kind of normal and a level of certainty but i just want to make sure that we're abundantly clear that we'll do everything we can to ensure that but it may not be we're going to have to have that community buy in community support and community flexibility for the upcoming year to to make this work again agreed is there anyone else that has any questions okay i see none so i okay well i hope this was helpful uh sounds like it was and uh we'll have additional discussion uh we want to just give a

103window into the thinking as it stands right now we'll go back administratively and put our heads together based off the feedback we got here um and uh we'll give an update again at the 17th of june our action meeting on um you know any anything else maybe by that time we'll have even additional information or we'll discuss to when we absolutely need to know what the commitment is in order to properly staff our buildings thank you dr dietrich and dr bauer um okay so if we don't have any further questions on this then i will move on then to um dr kim and the substitute teacher recruitment and retention plan good evening everyone um thank you for the opportunity to share the substitute teacher return recruitment and retention plan for next school year i do

104want to note that mr scracky was really uh played an important role in coming up with this plan because he and i both collaborated on this i do want to give credit to him as well um i think it's important for us to recognize i know um you know dr bauer and dr dietrich talked about plans for next school year you know what that's gonna look like so you know we certainly know that this school year is nearing the end but we're already planning for next year right so um it's and we're doing the same thing for our you know um teachers as well so with that said for part of tonight's presentation we're going to focus on three areas um trying to understand you know the reason for low rates of subject substitute teachers

105working for the 2021 school year and also what are some of the new recruitment strategies that we are going to utilize or propose for next school year so that we can attract more substitute teachers and also once they're on board what are some of the strategies that we can use to make sure they stay with us i do want to note that you know that while tonight's conversation is focused twice presentation i should say it's focusing on subs teachers i also want to recognize that you know we do want to also increase our substitute assistance that's implant but for tonight's presentation we're focusing on substitute teachers with that said um trying to identify the reasons why we had um so uh you know low number of substitute teachers working so we did put out a

106survey to all the substitute teachers and assistants and when looking at it we um haven't so our we have received 81 responses and of that a little bit less than our subs teachers and they range from folks who actually have pde instructional certificate as well as people who have gone through the guest teacher program so based on their responses from the survey thus far you know i'm trying to understand why they have not worked that often or not at all during the 2021 school 2021 school year and then also trying to understand what would motivate them to resume uh you know their substitute assignments and and those who have worked um the school year you know what is it that we could do to increase their work number of working days so based on the

107preliminary data in the reoccurring thing was higher compensation and also the working condition so those are some of the things that we're examining along with that we also want to take a look at qualitative data by having um a focus group with number of subs teachers which we want to facilitate towards end of june um where we can you know meet with them trying to understand you know what were some of the root causes of them not working some of them could be due to child care they have not been vaccinated well as more and more people are getting vaccinated is that going to increase their you know likelihood to resume substituting for next school year so and we do want to include subs teachers to participate in that focus group going as far back

108as past three years with that said um one of the things that's really important for us to you know also um understand is how do our substitute teacher pay rate compared to other montgomery county school districts um because you know the space on the survey at least the substitute teachers did note that you know they would like a higher compensation um so in looking at that we had 13 school districts within the montgomery county that have participated in the survey including north penn and you know there are a handful of school districts whose per diem rates are higher than ours but north penn is not the lowest by any means however you know the reality is one of the things we need to consider is supply and demand pde has issued fewer teaching certificates and

109studies have shown that fewer college students are going into education as a career so we have you know it's a supply and demand there aren't that many teachers available and yet there's a greater need so how do we combat that so looking at that you know some of our recommendations are to increase their pay rate meaning per diem substitute rates currently for folks who are for substitute teachers who are working um days one through 25 for random assignments random assignments means they're not in a particular assignment for you know consistent period of days um current rate is 130 dollars we want to increase to 180 and we wanted to increase 50 dollars per day so that it's enough of a difference maker so that we can attract subs teachers you know i do want to

110apologize to my colleagues in different school districts but that it's enough for them to want to drive over to north penn and then for um working 26 to 75 days it will go up to 190 days going from moment 40 and then for 76 or more days going from 150 to 200. i know it seems like it's a lot but the reality is this year has not been great in terms of getting subs teachers and so on that note i do want to thank all of our teachers staff students and families and administrators at the building level for working really hard um you know under the circumstances that we've had the school year so we want to change that for coming school year and also our law what we call ltpd is long-term per diem

111subs who are working less than 90 days but more than 25 days in a single assignment raise their rate to 200 a day from 150. and other financial incentives that we want to try for coming school year i is you know again looking at um having spoken to many of my um counterparts in our private sectors um they talk about you know um bonus that they give for signing on bonuses so we took that idea and wanted to apply to folks when we have substitute teachers that are signing on with us you know we would after having worked for two weeks we would give him a signing bonus for two hundred dollars and then subsequently how do we you know it sort it is part of a recruitment but also part of retention portion would

112be that after working 20 additional days that we get 250 incentives as an ongoing program and then also fridays are days where you know most people tend to take days off and that applies for substitute teachers as well so using friday as a day that we want to be able to pick you know provide additional 10 a day i'm sorry additional on fridays alone to incentivize our subs teachers to work on friday coupled with you know providing a raffle ticket if they work on fridays where they can enter into earning a prize so the raffle will be held bi-weekly in coupled with you know we also want to reach out to substitute teachers who have sub in the past three years and to see you know if they have not been with us and want

113to recruit them on as well and also um some of you some of the board members have attended the retirement dinner and at that point i did try to you know do a sales pitch asking for the retirees to come back and work as a substitute and for them because they have been with us for a long period of time we do want to recognize the service and their areas of expertise so that their per diem substitute rate will be set higher at a day that would be the highest per diem rate that we would have because currently our ppd so ppd is permanent per diem subs so they're similar to building cells their daily rate is little under 210 dollars so i thought it would be for our retired teachers to get 210 a

114day again it's a one-year trial period because at the end of the the year we want to look at the data has all these you know recommendations and strategies has have they generated additional subject teachers where our fill rate is much higher than it has been so that's the goal an additional recruitment strategies are to you know look at different ways to advertise other than just traditional um you know pa leap or or indeed or on a district web page looking at our you know our website yar signs those signs and local shops including in my previous district we did we were successful in putting it even on local libraries um even wawa's where there's a job posting sites and local religious and cultural centers and even um in my conversation with mr scracky i

115talked about the fact that in a local tv where i live you know there's the you know local school district stations and on that there's a constant banner ads you can run so we took that idea while our our four meetings are posted on youtube maybe we could actually post an ad soliciting folks to come and sign on being our substitute staff and also with mr scracky's idea of you know this school district health clinic once that opens we could make it available at no charge to our substitute teachers after they have worked 25 or more days in that school year that will include free um you know visits including free medications that they dispense and free testing that the three that the clinic would provide and then um additional retention strategies that we want

116to utilize is um you know enhancing our training and orientation program for our subs teachers yes some of them are certified because they have gone through educational programs as an undergrad or as a master's program but then we also have guest teacher program participants who may have bachelor's degree but actually have not had an educational program so we want to make sure that we provide them with a robust training so that they are set up for success sometimes you know it can be pretty intimidating to face you know a class full of kindergartners even though they may be little so we want to make sure that they are set up for success and you know um they have all the um great classroom management strategies and you know safety protocols and we also want to

117partner with the montgomery county intermediate unit because they are um really ready to kick off their own guest teacher programs so we at north penn we have conducted our our own guest teacher program but that was twice a year so we certainly want to pick that up um but the reality is it's difficult to facilitate that yes teacher program on a regular basis so if we partner with the iu on the months that we don't conduct our our own guest teacher program you can pick that up so that it also allows us to you know have more opportunities to bring folks on as guest teachers and also um you know we want to um who does not appreciate you know a pat on the back for doing a great job and we want to take

118that to our subs teachers as well giving them a substitute teacher of the month awards and also on an annual basis it's kind of similar to you know um what the superintendent could give out that way we're you know showing appreciation for their hard work and the additional um retention strategies is that you know how do we make um our support staff i'm sorry a substitute staff including support subsidy support staff as well make them feel like they're part of our staff because based on the preliminary survey they talked about you know having a more welcoming place so we want to you know develop a substitute handbook along with providing them with the north penn id badge all the district employees id badge come with access um i guess chips that allows them to enter

119their assigned buildings but for the support staff i'm sure subs to staff they wouldn't have that chip embedded in there but it still serves as a badge and believe it or not that badge can provide um you know um discounts to local shops um i certainly know that yeah j.crew and other shops do provide um discounts and certainly to museums and to the zoos and other um places as well so we want to be able to provide that opportunity and also um you know certainly i do want to note that i have not had this conversation with mr bartle at all but free entrance north penn athletic events you know that's you know um i think it's it's a wonderful opportunity and also gets all of our substitute folks to be part of our school

120community along with on friday again days that's really difficult to fill free lunch you know um so that would be a wonderful opportunity as well and other ideas that we have is you know oftentimes we focus on absenteeism right why don't we flip that and talk about presenteeism you know what is it that we can do to have more of our staff you know come to work if they're able certainly if they are sick we do want them to take the time they need to rest up but otherwise you know what is it that we can do to encourage them to be present because studies have shown that you know while as great as our substitute staff might be it does not do justice to what our regular teachers can do to students performance and

121learning so that means we want to partner with the association to see you know what other ideas that they may have as well so it's a lot of ideas out there but i do think they're um you know definitely something that we do want to um you know spend time and energy into it and so um you know um i'm i'm very hopeful that you know it's going to result in a very uh fruitful outcome i do recognize and i think um some of you have heard mr sprockey mentioned that you know it does have a financial implication but the reality is that you know again supply and demand we have fewer folks going to education and what is it that we can do to make sure that you know we do have a teacher

122even if it's a subject teacher in the classroom so that our students learning can continue even when their regular teachers are not there so that's my presentation if anyone has any questions i certainly um entertain them thank you dr kim i applaud you and um mr scrappy's creativity and coming up with all these ideas um it was a problem before the pandemic and um it was a very big problem during it so thank you very much for all your work does anyone have any comments or questions mr fusco i think i see you in a mr mcbain uh just comment um i i love this plan i i think that this is an ongoing problem for every district um not just in montgomery county not just in pennsylvania but probably we have a nationwide teacher

123shortage so you know outside the box thinking is really needed because you mean you hit the nail on the head we're not you know finding teachers substitutes under rocks we are trying to pull them from other districts and uh congratulations for getting mr skaraki to agree to a plan that increases sub rates to the tune of 50 a day but i will say that you know again my first hand experience here i even was a sub for a while that you know teachers marginal differences in pay rates are not going to move the needle it's not worth the travel time many times teachers are hoping that their subs are hoping that their time in a district is going to translate into you know full-time work and obviously the closer to home that that allows them

124to be there's a trade-off there 50 is definitely a number that will move the needle and will i think will have an impact on getting them in and then so many of these other recommendations on keeping them here right on so i'm very much in favor of a lot of these recommendations i think that this is exactly what this problem needs well what it needs is more teachers but short of being able to produce more teachers you know to to address this problem here in our backyard in north penn i think this is a very strong uh idea with some really strong um suggestions that we need to really put some consideration to thank you mr fusco mr mcbain yeah thank you just to reiterate uh as a teacher from one of the districts that's

125lower on the comparative list of substitute salaries and and benefits um i can't express enough to the community how essential a substitute staff can be to the functionality of a building on any given day i know this isn't going to be the headline newspapers tomorrow after a three-hour meeting about substitutes and their value to the community but i tell you what um if a principal can spend a day uh doing their work to build the community and help the building operate properly as opposed to triaging classrooms and trying to find someone to take a class for 45 minutes so another teacher can get a lunch uh this is essential to um our abilities just being functional i applaud this effort this is aggressive it's exactly what we need and you know there was a time

126years ago many of you know when a substitute pool was not just the folks we relied on for a day-to-day basis but also the training ground for those folks who might step into the district for a contracting position after we had gotten to know them after they helped us out you know and i would love to see that come back there's no better way to introduce an educator to to north penn with a contracted position to know who they are um understand that they understand us and our students and and just set the pipeline in that way so this is a wonderful effort and i support 100 percent congratulations dr kim well done thank you thank you mr mcphain uh dr g i believe you're next yes so i mr mcbain uh did a great

127job describing my mornings of the triage process and so um i fully support and am impressed with really just i mean the ideas that are on here and i i i'm great grateful that we're really we need to address this because uh we're just such a large district and i don't know that the community recognizes and and i'll turn this into a question um that maybe dr kim can just generally um just state you know on average our absences per day like that it's it can be high and it's been really difficult in this in this climate because you have quarantines mixed in with that and so then you have unfilled classes and unfilled classes means sometimes students going to an auditorium or holding space and their teacher will post things asynchronously online but it

128is not the same as having a trained skilled teacher in front of you it's never the same as having one of our north benton school district teachers but certainly this is something that we really need to figure out how to address and i'm hopeful that this will move the needle because i don't think i think we've tried the five dollar and the ten dollar and it's just not getting us there so thank you dr kim i will ask just for you to talk just you know briefly about what those unfilled like kind of absences can look like for us as a district so people see the magnitude of it right like that we're not talking about a few people that we can't but we really need to do something drastic um and i think it

129might that might fill in a little bit of information for for the community if they didn't really recognize that okay so i'll just i'll use one elementary school as an example so when we have a school that's relatively mid-sized and i'll just pick um york avenue because actually that is a small school right so for that school when they only have two sections in every grade when they have like three teachers out on a given day they can't get they can't get those classes so that's the reality so what ends up happening is that if they have other related service providers like the reading specialist math specialist or you know art music teacher they're not able to service their students so they end up being pulled to provide you know being the classroom teacher and

130one of the biggest concerns that i get is you know reading specialists those of you who are teachers you know and administrators you know that they play such an important role in start providing much needed reading you know supports to students who are you know who are in need of academic support but yet they can't serve so they get because they get pulled you know and so those are some of the challenges having been a principal myself you know sometimes you you're you're spending all day as a substitute teacher and so that's a challenge and sometimes when in a one-on-one assistant is absent you end up being an assistant so the work of supervision for the school and the staff gets missed but at the end of it that's why i'm so appreciative of all

131of our staff not just the teachers but also all the you know assistants and also principals who are stepping in and doing what they can dr kim if i could just too to address dr g's question we looked at the three full school years prior to the pandemic and we averaged 11 400 teacher absences average per year so that comes out to 64 absences every day for 180 day instructional days so that's what we're looking at eleven thousand four hundred absences during an average year to cover and i think if i may uh piggyback on what mr scraki said if we think about it we have over 900 teachers and so 10 of them is 90. so you know sometimes there's a language in you know in a collective bargaining talks about you know x

132number of you know 10 of personal days can be given on a day but that's a lot we don't have 90 subs teachers available and i also do want to recognize that not all of those 90 teachers that may be absent on a given day are classroom teachers some of the subs some of our teachers don't need a substitute based on the virtue of their duties and jobs so i recognize that but the reality is depending on the size of the school you know even having five six teachers out and not having subs filling them in can have a tremendous impact and i think dr g knows that as an administrator what kind of you know what kind of day you're going to have so it's always trying to strategize so we at the end

133of the day we want to make sure that all of our students you know learning continues because they will never get their time that day back so it's really really important that we continue to provide that you know learning opportunities even when their teachers are not there thank you i appreciate it and thank you mr scraki i think those numbers that you know that number 11 000 right we're trying to really describe to people how the magnitude of what this looks like we're not talking about a few things not covered and i think you describing um that everyday reality that is pulling literacy specialists for example i depend greatly on our literacy specialist to do what they're this time of year many times they're screening children kindergartners for next year and if they get pulled

134they can't do that then they can't do their job which is critical to an elementary school so thank you for describing that and thank you for the numbers i'm hoping that people are listening to that um and because this is an important issue thank you thank you dr g is there anything else anyone else that would like to comment or have a question for dr kim okay i don't see any so thank you again dr kim it was a great presentation and i hope uh it works thank you mr schrake will this be on the board agenda well the way i listed it on the agenda tonight since the board is hearing it for the first time i did have for a recommendation to formally place it on the june 17th agenda that way you

135have nine days just to mull over the presentation and the recommendation i mentioned earlier in the finance committee meeting we do have the additional expense for these recommendations included in the budget it did add about six hundred thousand dollars to the budget but it is now factored into the budget that i updated the finance committee on earlier this evening so you could do two things you could vote on the complete plan tonight or uh follow the recommendation that's in the agenda tonight and then have it for placement on the 17th okay do i have a motion for placing it on the uh action meeting or i moved okay second second hold on so uh motioned by mr casa i think and then seconded by mr mcvean is this hand i saw a second so um

136if any further comments or questions seeing none all in favor say aye or raise your hand any opposed emotion carries thank you okay um under other business i did want to have dr dietrich or doctor bower maybe quick address um megan's question about the class size in nap so we do have uh class size guidelines um now i think the public needs to understand that in recent years we have not been pushing the upper limits of those class size guidelines instead we've been trying to have those upper numbers um be lower particularly for those grades four through six um so it does say in the class size guidelines goes highest 29. we've been trying really hard to avoid that and trying to get it down more in that 27 as the upper limit perhaps even

137less than that in many cases um but part of this whole complicating factor of course is how many students are going to elect to go to virtual um and then is that you know commitment for the entire year is that a commitment you know only for a trimester we're talking about a trimester commitment but then we need to have an ability to bring students back in after they come off of that virtual experience if if in fact vaccination is a major factor for them and they want to return um after they've been vaccinated at the end of the first trimester for example so it gets extremely complicated when we're trying to be able to assign resources but i mean that that's the gist of it tina uh we'll have to see where people are on

138this um right now we're seeing you know seven point some percent undecided another 2.2 saying they're gonna want virtual how will that break when it comes down to it um how many of those undecided we'll say they're going to go virtual we'll see i mean that's 10 right there right thank you dr teacher um dr g oh i'm sorry mr wright should you have another question oh is is there any chance this year that we'll be looking at redistricting no we don't have that on the agenda in terms of for this coming school year or you mean the year thereafter uh this coming school year no not for this coming school year however those classes if they are virtual what we're anticipating would be that they would be district district-wide classes that wouldn't be made

139up of only students from my particular elementary school i think people need to know that if they elect that option um it's you know they're gonna have to change a teacher if they change their mind then once the vaccine comes out but the numbers don't support having um like first grade a second grade and third grade et cetera at every building a virtual option of that that we're not there thank you is there any other new um yeah any other business mr casa did you have something you want to say just doing the um i have a follow up with dr dietrich thank you because it every year this happens uh it's one of the reasons some of the community members have pointed out you know it's how i really got involved in going to

140school board meetings and um and wanting to have a more responsive board so i i appreciate all the factors or the variables that still have to fall into place understanding it's not perfect i'll just reiterate what i do every year seeing the work that's done behind the scenes and the commitment to have us trend towards those lower numbers you know until we can get to that uh uh you know to a larger plan uh really want to make sure that you know if there's a date that we can have for parents where it's not august 15th august 1st you know and i'm not asking for a date today but as we get through june uh i'd certainly i am much more interested in knowing how these variables are coming together and you could say okay

141community by this date we're going to be able to give you a much clearer picture and i i would like to point out to the community that um you're doing a great job advocating for your students for your family members and those schools but if you look at the track record of what dr dietrich and the team have been doing over the last two three years i expect that trend to continue when it when it comes down to that commitment so thank you dr dietrich i just really look forward to getting answers to parents sooner than later and i know you're committed to doing that as well thank you mr casa is there anyone else that has new business okay seeing none i think um we'll move on to our second public comment then uh

142doc mr gilmer is there anyone in the audience that would like to make public comment at this time yes we have a couple hands up i'll begin with deanna nicolosi deanna i've enabled your my microphone you do not have an up-to-date zoom i'm sorry deanna uh so in order for you to make a comment you'd have to update your zoom so i'm going to disable redisable your mic if you happen to download it in the time we have comments i'll bring it back up here again uh so up next would be nabil azar so nabeel i have enabled your microphone and so when you're ready to begin please state your name and address and begin your comments yeah uh this is nabil azhar again from hatfield street in lansdale uh i just wanted to clarify

143one thing is the district going to be asking us to make binding decisions on what we choose in in person or virtual before you get the guidance from the public health departments about what the criteria are for changing masking rules social distance rules etc because i would feel a lot more comfortable making a binding decision after i know what those criteria are going to be so yeah thank you for that question and we it's going to be difficult to know when we will get that guidance for me to make a ironclad promise that we'll have that guidance before we have a binding decision necessary um but we're going to try everything we can to delay our you know decision and that means we're going to have to work super hard once we get those numbers

144in if it's later rather than sooner um but we'll try to hold off as long as we can but i can't say it with certainty because i don't know when we're going to get that guidance um i'm on meetings and we're hearing we're trying to impress upon you know cdc and then montgomery oph is waiting on cdc and pennsylvania doh um so i'll have an opportunity i'll be on the call on thursday morning again there'll be some cdc reps on that call at least they've been invited to the call i know i will impress upon them the need to get that guidance as quickly as possible okay yep thank you uh up next is jesse bradica jesse i've enabled your microphone so when you're ready to begin state your name and address and begin your

145comments uh jessie bradica 1821 muslin drive um i i guess i'm a little confused with the um the questions on on waiting for the department of health with the masks because um dr dietrich stated and it's and it's it's published on the pennsylvania department of health that masked mandates are going to be lifted for the state on june 28th so i don't understand why our our school would wait for other direction on that um but i'd also like to second fusco's and ramich's concerns for quarantining and i agree with fusco's thought of providing an asynchronized option while capitalizing on the technology investments um that you guys made to keep kids from falling behind when um you are going to require school children to miss school based on on these quarantining guidelines um and we you

146know i i was in the finance meeting earlier and the district still has nine million dollars left to spend from covid um funding from federal covet relief funding um so it sounds like you know we could easily use that money to do with the testing that you had you know hopefully said that you could implement are you you're testing kids now to participate in extracurricular activities um i don't understand why you wouldn't test for class participation that would sounds actually more important than testing for extracurriculars um and then the second thing is i need to really state my concern on the request of knowing who is or isn't vaccinated especially among students that is to me a violation against hipaa and it also opens up i think some explicit and implicit biases and discrimination that

147goes beyond race and lastly i wanted to know what the plans are for block scheduling and when will that be addressed thank you thank you mrs bradica okay up next is john ziegler john i've enabled your microphone so when you're ready to begin you can state your name and address and begin your comments this is john ziegler i live at 622 west mount vernon street in lansdale pa i just wanted to comment uh on the discussion tonight about uh the need to take uh additional steps to ensure that the district has a sufficient pool of substitutes to meet the need it's for pto of their permanent staff they mentioned one example uh i think dr g did of having to pull resources that are there to support um assessment and providing supports to students uh

148with disabilities and uh were to prevent uh students from falling behind who are at risk and you know when you say talk about it in terms of on a single day you have to pull those resources to staff a classroom because you don't have a substitute well now multiply that right and multiply the effect the cascading effect of of multiple uh cancelled group learning sessions small group learning sessions for students who are in desperate need of additional support and when when will the administrators find the time and the resources to make up the those groups with the continuing uh demands uh placed on them to staff classrooms without the necessary substitutes so i'm just thrilled that you're you know i heard dr dietrich mention it earl earlier in the year that this is a huge

149issue and um i'm glad you're uh prepared to do what's necessary and recognize that what the market is and will do what it takes so that students have necessary resources and opportunity to learn not only students that need extra support but regular education students that have a qualified teacher in the classroom when their teacher has time off thank you thank you mr ziegler okay up next is megan mustachio megan i've enabled your microphone when you're ready to begin state your name and address and begin your comments hi uh megan mustachio 849 concord place in lansdale um i just wanted to first thank you for addressing my question earlier i just want to impress um once again that the change in the numbers in the classroom impact the faculty as well as the students i did

150speak with our fourth grade instructors and i really just want to make sure that it comes off that i'm advocating for our instructors as well as the students the only other comment i wanted to make was or ask rather regarding the substitute teachers i'm curious if there is um any kind of relationship with the local universities i know that um as a university and level instructor we had a large class of new grads that are education majors i'm just wondering if there was any advertising to that to local schools for um kind of pulling in [Music] substitutes that's it thank you mrs mustachio okay up next is michael len lennon michael i've enabled your microphones you're ready to begin state your name and address and begin your comments hello uh my name is michael lennon

151i'm at 21 east 4th street in lansdale um i just wanted to speak today about um you know a concern with the mass and the heat i know we've had some heat waves uh recently and i got some kids at um penndale and as everybody knows infrastructure is pretty old no air conditioning and my concern is that you know we're forcing these kids to wear masks in in very hot uh environments um with no air conditioning so i know that you know the mask is supposed to help with one thing but it can be hurting um in another so i just want to make everyone aware of that and and if um you know if you have any um solutions for that you know that'll be very helpful that's all i have tonight thank you

152mr lennon um there is a update on the heat protocol posted on the north penn website um so that is available um and also i just want to congratulate you and your son on north penn baseball winning their game today i already had a great game so okay up next is aaron blanc aaron i've enabled your microphone when you're ready to begin state your name and address and begin your comments hello this is erin blanc i live in hatfield and i have a couple questions and again they kind of come out of listening here um i have a question and maybe you could clear this up so like there's uh the issue of critical race theory brought up maybe you could explain what we are teaching instead of like what we're not teaching and then

153it might be more clear to you know everyone what actually is being taught um i think that teachers have discretion in their classrooms to teach what they think personally is appropriate and there are topics of politics social justice current events coming up in the classrooms that maybe aren't on the actual district curriculum so i think maybe that needs to be addressed and looked at and maybe it could be more clear for the parents what is expected in the classroom i think that would be very helpful um thank you and then my second thing is um i'm not understanding what um who we're looking for at for guidance so i've been told we're looking at the pennsylvania mass mandate that's in the north penn mass policy that we're following the pennsylvania mass mandate i've been told

154we're looking at the cdc and i've been told we're looking at monco directions so i am not clear who we're looking at i've also been referenced chop the aap c you know the who all different groups so who are we looking at and i've asked this again what is the end game because last year i don't think the vaccine for kids was even like we didn't even know if it was going to happen and all we kept talking about the beginning of the year was to get the teachers vaccinated and then we could go back to like more normal and that has been done so now that they have been taking care of the age group that is of most concern why is it now chasing another target the kids so if we could address

155all of those issues at some point i'd appreciate it thank you so much thank you mrs blanc and i appreciate your suggestions about um explaining what we're teaching as opposed to what we're not so we will address that at some point okay up next is katie strahorn katie i've enabled your microphones you're ready to begin state your name and address and begin your comments you're still muted katie all right we're gonna try that again thanks so much uh my name is katie strahorn i'm from harleysville i just want to thank you so much for your plan for the fall that you shared earlier tonight the elimination of the hybrid model is the most excellent idea based on the feedback from all the teachers that i've spoken to and from my own child's experience i second

156mr fusco's comments that it is extremely uh challenging and it's highly ineffective for students at home in the classroom and the teacher who's just trying to teach the plan to utilize uh the north penn virtual academy for those students who wish to stay home makes the most sense so thank you thank you for thinking through that and just putting that all out there um secondly dr g mentioned that parents would like more firm guidelines to be able to make a school choice i know that you've talked about this already tonight and we would just completely agree with that june 24th to have a binding decision especially for a parent like myself who has one in north penn and um my husband and i have pulled our other children out of north penn and placed them

157in charter schools which have been going extremely well uh we would like them back in north penn but our hesitation stems from examples like mr fusco mentioned a bit ago he said there may be a deterrent for some elementary families who might not come if masked or not required however let's flip that over and then there are some families that will come not come if mass are required uh you know in our charter school setting we're able to meet friends have great conversations they're learning their learning doesn't stop they get to read facial expressions which are all important for the socio emotional health of our children we saw that slide that dr bauer shared and there are negative areas to be noted and one of them is the social mental health of our children and

158our staff and it should be a huge concern for us mr fusco mentioned something about whether or not students um have been vaccinated or not and seem to get some of that data if you start polling and separating children or teachers and staff inclusive of bus drivers lunchroom teachers aides custodians the list goes on who are vaccinated and who are not you are not apps you are not setting yourselves up just for major discrimination which is explicit or implicit but also a major mental issue that will potentially have irreparable damage all of this is part of an arbitrary masking discussion um it's just it's kind of crazy that we're still allowing ourselves to be subject um to this and um lastly i just want to say about the cultural proficiency in the crt is again

159it has permeated professional development and um unfortunately there's speculation through from teachers from parents from students and you really need to share with us how you are not how this is not critical race theory because there are so many concerns uh with that so thank you for your time for a moment to clarify that absolutely any questions i was asking about vaccinations it was not to know personal information it was to know what percentage of a building may have it right i don't think it's anybody's business what individual was or was not vaccinated or grouping them by vaccination or any such um idea just simply for our own you know knowledge what percent it was just a suggestion it was just a question really i don't even know if we would be permitted to do

160that to ask that question i it seems that we might be because we obviously require certain vaccinations but that aside i just wanted to clarify i'm not trying to group people by vaccinated or unvaccinated or or put a scarlet letter on anybody for one thing or another just to have that knowledge that's all thank you mr fusco okay up next is jason lanier i'm enabling your microphone jason so when you're ready to begin state your name and address and begin your comments jason lanier 100 oak drive landscape first off i want to say uh doc dietrich should should just don't don't don't be soft don't don't be mushy going in and seeing the the cdc versus the the uh montgomery board of health versus what the state says make the decision and do it follow

161the the scientific data don't listen to the bureaucrats bureaucrats have uh they have an agenda that they they're they're pushing i don't know why i don't know why they're they're pushing an anti-scientific uh solution but there it is they just follow the data don't worry about what they're saying specifically it's very easy to come by um and then circling back to the the the uh pcc why you know uh this you know this isn't your curriculum however they make all they get first they pack it with full of data i have no reason to doubt any of the data they have listed in there amazing mainly how uh black and hispanic kids are falling behind based upon um whatever rationale and then they go forward to make some rational uh solutions so they they diagnose

162a problem and then they have a prescription and in that prescription north penn is following many of their suggestions this is in in the in these suggestions there's no there's no data unlike what they saw is the problem as they diagnosed the problem their solution doesn't have any data which shows it benefits anybody it seems to just cause problems now you said that there's no you know throughout the nation there's critical race theory being taught in schools and it's it's being hit up against a lot of parents saying what are you talking about in in in this in this this this document from the pccy they are implementing policies or they suggest implementing policies that will help alleviate these problems now this this outfit's been in in philadelphia for since 1980 i think they've been

163doing education since 90 or something along those lines philadelphia has not improved at all their education system is really faltering and it's not because because of anything other than the prescriptions that are applied here aren't actually addressing the issues and those are those are a lot more to doing than just making the the kids see uh if they're black see a black teacher or if they're hispanic see a hispanic teacher there's a lot more to it than just seeing a a familiar color face and in just yes that's that's the solution that's going to fix all the problems it's just silly and then like i said before dividing up kids based upon their race and making them them feel bad now mr said that that doesn't happen in in some areas they've done such things

164as line kids up based upon their their skin tone lightest to darkest and make the light the kids that are whiter apologize to to to the darker kids now is that sort of thing going to be seen in north penn school district because that is horrible what is not in north pennsylvania i didn't say that i said is that something that will be happening in school districts no that is not something that's going to happen in north penn school district is you're sure of that i promise you it's not going to happen in north penn school district okay good to know there are no other hands raised at this time that'll conclude the honest citizens for tonight okay um does anyone else have any any school board director have any other comments mr casa let's

165have a comment i just wanted to clarify with um uh dr bauer i i believe there's a question about block scheduling and i thought that that was cleared up in the presentation that the district will be moving forward i think there's a slide or two to cover that can you verify please certainly mr costa yes um in in getting the feedback and and looking at the early results from hanover and and meeting with the teachers uh what i ended up hearing was we do need to make some adjustments um and there are some there are some things on the table that are going to take some time for us to work through uh but one theme that i did here was um we really didn't do it in its entirety this year with all the

166aforementioned reasons right the hybrid learning the in and out it admits the pandemic so i would expect that our bell schedule for next year will look very similar to this year and then with some adjustments for the following year um but for now um making a change at this point when we haven't fully implemented uh we don't have enough data to support or negate the change thank you dr brown you got it mr casa um madam president i i just wanted to um just follow up on um curriculum just from an eci standpoint curriculum in our district refers to the content that teachers are teaching not a specific theory so what the teachers are teaching we have a curriculum review process in the district as most school districts do and that requires that a committee

167of teachers review national curriculums as in terms of what our teachers are teaching if you have a kindergarten through fifth grader for our language arts curriculum it is journeys it's a national publisher putin mifflin which is used in many many school districts it is a mainstream curriculum if you're in social studies it's mcgraw-hill again a mainstream curriculum right now our math program is go math we just approved a new one so these are all mainstream curricula that all of our students are earning that contribute to the very high quality education that all of our students receive in the district relative to and dr bauer can certainly chime in on this but basically our course guide our course selection guide i have two high schoolers is available online it details every single course at the high

168school level and the same with middle school you can go on the website my kids chose from a math a social studies a science a language um we have a pretty mainstream curriculum um so i just am trying to make sure that we are not providing misinformation um in terms of what our teachers are teaching there's a scope and sequence it's aligned with common core standards um and certainly dr bauer or dr dietrich can if there's something that they needed to fill in there but i just wanted to kind of clarify that so that we were not providing this information and that i could answer there was someone's question about what are we teaching um that that is in essence what we are are teaching yeah i think you covered it very well dr g

169of course that the program of studies and the course catalog that you referenced has hundreds of courses in it uh which are very clearly outlined in further detail for those courses can be a scope and sequence units uh all those uh items can be found and shared so i'm happy to answer any questions on the individual basis my email address and phone numbers clearly out there uh happy to entertain any phone calls or reach out to folks thank you my pleasure thank you dr g thank you dr power mr rush i see your hand up for my own clarification dr bauer i believe that the only input we really have for this process is to either approve or disapprove the the course selection that the teachers in this committee make and and we don't really

170tell them what books to choose or anything like that uh we listen to the experts all the time just like we do on the health policy we determine who the experts are and and uh we listen to them and that's what we try to implement am i right [Music] yes certainly so typically when we're under curriculum review the curriculum supervisor guides department chairs and other teachers within the department through the review process with the latest standards and guidance as just referenced by dr g but then the suggestions of the committee comes to eci uh each fall october or november um then ultimately those suggestions are only the changes to the program of studies in the curriculum uh make their way towards the to an action meeting um so yes you are correct that through the

171curriculum review process that's where we would recommend changes or implementation of for a great example would be the the go math that dr g just referenced that dr arne shared at eci um full 50 member team was brought together uh different vendors brought in to show presentations vetted out through a guided rubric and then eventually presented to eci thank you dr power and i um just a reminder to the community the community meetings were going to be um virtual going forward um action work session and finance will be in person but all the other community meetings will be virtual so easy enough to log on to an aci meeting and to see what's going on um and to keep up to date dr lewis campbell do you have a comment uh yes thank you madam

172president and thank you colleagues for clearing up uh what it is our curriculum is and what we are teaching um i'd be remiss if i didn't address the comment that the parent made about it's silly to think that a student seeing someone that looks like him or her uh doesn't have an impact you you wouldn't know because you've seen all your life people in schools and other positions that look like you but look at some of these other children these black and brown children these asian children these latinx children these uh um lgbtqi students who have never seen someone working in schools that look like them it has a great impact and until you walk in their shoes please watch what you say don't sit up here and say it's silly to have a person

173that looks like a student in a classroom it makes a big difference my children came through this district and on one hand i can count the number of teachers they had that looked like them and i can count the teachers who were culturally responsive to them that helped them get through this school district teachers that had empathy uh and understood that what they brought to the table was just as important even if they didn't see a teacher that looked like them but we're trying to do our best to ensure that we bring educators into this district um who can understand all types of students whether they speak with an accent whether they practice a different religion whether they look a different color but we need to have people that understand what what is important to

174all students not just the majority and any parent that would be opposed to that you need to do some soul-searching parents because it's to benefit your children too to see a teacher a teacher that looks different from themselves to interact with people that don't necessarily come from their background it will benefit your children as well as it would the others so don't ever downplay the impact of having a diverse school district and the impact that it makes on all children thank you thank you dr lewis campbell does anyone else have any comments or questions this evening okay seeing none do i have a motion to adjourn so moved thank you all right thank you everyone have a good night