001I know, right? >> Okay. Good evening and welcome to the regular business meeting of the Rner Township School District on October 28th, 2025. I'd like you all to join us in 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. >> Thank you and welcome everyone. Um, we have no report on executive sessions. The board has not met in executive session since the last report. So, the first active item is the report from our student. Welcome, Miss Bowman. >> Good evening, Rner School Board and community. Happy end of October, but most importantly, happy LM week. Our school is completely decked out in all things music because the theme this
002year is Spotify wrapped. Fundraisers leading up to this week have been awesome. Pine teachers and taping Dr. from Mac to the wall are not only very fun but also help support the amazing pep rally and festivities of the week. In other news, 9th to 11th graders took their PSATs to give a diagnostic as to where they stand SAT-wise. Last Friday, our senior class participated in a very fun tradition, senior dressup day. Last Friday, just like in elementary school, the seniors could parade around the gym, showing off their creative and quite witty costumes. In sports news, the gents and the girls soccer both went all the way to the district semi-finals, and the girls won in overtime. Rner girls and boys crew competed at the head of the school regata this weekend. And in Boston two
003weekends ago, they both attended Head of the Charles. RER girls field hockey finished their season earlier this month as well as girls volleyball. And of course, our football team will be competing in the 129th meeting between our RNER Raptors and the Lower Marin Aces at home this Sunday at 2:00 on our very own Pose Field. Following the game, we will have our second ever LM dance at 7 pm. Also, several colleges have visited our school this month to help students with future plans or to provide insight on furthering their education. Thank you so much to the RNER High School guidance office for that. And we have a very exciting week here at Rner High School, as you can tell. Um, and be sure to be on the lookout uh on YouTube this week to see
004videos of our pep rally on Friday. Go Radner VLM and I'll see you all next month. Thank you so much. I'm just going to follow up for senior parents who may not have seen the email. If you would like to watch the pep rally, that's another fundraiser. The students will do a preview for us on Thursday evening for $10. Search your email for an email from Dr. Magnamera with the details. I think the next item on the agenda is Dr. Bachelor's report. >> Yes, good evening. It's good to see everyone. Uh I have a very brief report tonight. First thing is I want to thank our donors. We have a donation on the agenda. Uh Schwitzer Engineering Laboratories for a donation to Ethan. Uh and we are so appreciative and lucky that in our district,
005you know, each month we have different groups that are donating and supporting our educational program. uh and we're very appreciative of these donations. So, I want to thank them for the donation. Uh next on the agenda tonight under our personnel uh agenda, we have the approval uh of Miss Abby Daniels as assistant principal at Rner Elementary School. We had a um very lengthy um process with a lot of applicants. We were very happy to see it was a really strong pool of applicants. Uh and Miss Daniels uh who is our current uh teacher and coach at the middle school um is the candidate for the position who has really impressed all of us. Um Miss Daniels brings to the position of assistant principal already experienced in working and looking at student data, working with teachers
006to help uh improve instructional practice. Uh she has a passion for um instruction and teaching and we're just thrilled uh to have her on the agenda for tonight. So, congratulations, Miss Daniels. [applause] Uh, our visual arts, our art teachers in our district just recently received an outstanding uh visual arts uh award. Uh, and I want to congratulate our entire art department. Uh, they're being honored by the Pennsylvania Art Education Association as an outstanding visual arts community. U, it's a distinction, as you can read, that celebrates our districts and their strong commitment to visual arts and education. uh our art classes K to 12 are just uh exciting places where there's so much engagement. Our teachers uh bring so much passion and energy and we want to congratulate them for this well-deserved award. Want to also
007congratulate our business department for receiving this is the second year I believe in the row um uh the meter meritorious budget award. uh the business office received that from the association of school business officials and congratulate our business department for all the detail that they put into our our budget process and for achieving this distinction. Um we appreciate the the effort the details not only as a a board but also for our entire community. And then we had a dedication from uh Dr. Deflam deflaminus uh dedicated to our school district his uh leadership library. Uh many are aware Dr. Deflamus was a former superintendent here in Radner, still lives in Rner. Um he had reached out to us and as he after he concluded his time as superintendent here in Radner, he went on to
008the University of Pennsylvania and at the University of Pennsylvania he was very involved in educational leadership uh and then has you know retired now from University of Pennsylvania and he donated his leadership library to us for our teachers to use. I mean really anyone to use but especially for our staff. I want to thank our high school um librarian Michelle Wetzel and and the entire high school library staff for receiving these books, categorizing these books, organizing them in a fashion um that all of our teachers can use and others uh and uh they've already been people have been checking out the books already. So, they are housed in one of our our conference rooms and we had an opportunity to unveil the collection uh and and thank John for his generous donation. And then I
009think we already heard there's something going on at the high school this week. Is there something happening? Uh so it is an exciting week um at the high school. We have the lower Marian football game Saturday. Uh there's activities each day as we already heard about um taking place at our high school. And then yes, the second annual dance that was the first that uh was created last year. We'll have a a dance for the students uh and the game this year uh at at Po Field at 2 PM. and then our upcoming events. Uh it's busy October, November, time is moving quickly. That concludes my remarks. Did you want to mention soccer team soccer? >> Um you can go ahead. >> I I just wanted to mention and I you know I know we
010do recognitions later, but I I like to say something when it's more recent that the boys soccer, not soccer, the boys golf team, no wonder you were looking at me funny. the boys golf team uh won second in states uh just a week or two ago. So, congratulations to them. I'm sure we may see more official news of that, but it's nice to say something in a timely fashion. >> And I have one other thing. Um I think tomorrow we have exchange students from England arriving and I I always get kind of a chuckle that they come for LM week. They must think like, wow, [laughter] it's like quite an experience. So, they arrive tomorrow. >> Okay. Uh so the next item on the agenda is public comment. Um per board policy, the board provides
011an opportunity at regular board meetings for eligible participants to comment on matters of concern, official action uh or deliberation which are or may be before the board. Um during this first public comment period, they can be live or they can be recorded. Um, and public commenters should state their name, um, the town in which they live, and, uh, you can make one comment per public comment period. Is there any public comment? Welcome. You have a special dispensation because your work here. Oh, thank you so much. Um, good evening. My name is Amy McN. I am the president of RTEA, the Rner Township Education Association, and I thank you for allowing me to address the board, especially since I don't have that address. Um, tonight I'd like to talk um on the appointment of Miss Abby
012Daniels um as assistant principal to the Rner Elementary School. I have two parts to my comment tonight. The first part um and I'm speaking on behalf of our members of RTA that we are pleased to watch our administration um not only nurture and guide um our members um through their um guide them um with their leadership potential is what I'm saying right um but also to appoint them into such a po important positions so thank you to our administration at all levels for doing this to recognize the talent of Miss Daniels and our other members as Um, I'd also like to take a second to talk about Miss Abby Daniels. Um, for those of you who do not know Miss Abby Daniels, I have worked with her since 2006, and I am so pleased to
013watch her take this position. She's a problem solver. She's a relationship builder. Um, she is a data expert. Um she I've watched her take an idea from a tiny seed and make it come to f and bring it to fruition with systems in place and process in place. It is a talent and I think Rner Elementary School is just going to love her. I think the best thing about Abby is I know she will never forget that she is a teacher not only of students but of all of us, right? I think our best administrators never forget that. So, um, congratulations to Miss Abby Daniels, and thank you to the administration for appointing her to that position. >> Thank you very much, Miss McN. Is there any other public comment? Okay. Is there any recorded
014public comment this evening? Okay. Next item on the agenda then is the report from the board committees. Uh, first is curriculum committee. Dr. Babson. >> Okay. So, uh, the curriculum committee met on, uh, Tuesday the 21st. Uh, Drs. Kierney and Whitlick updated us on high performing middle and high schools. Uh, there was an investigation on that. They updated us on that. Um, uh, Dr. McNamera um, RHS principal updated us on the committee on the off and away cell phone initiative at the high school. And then Mr. Be told uh discussed the increase in cost of the annual fifth grade campus trip and our uh next curriculum committee meeting will be gosh I didn't write down the date but >> 11th at 4 p.m. >> Thank you the I want to underline the 4mm part for
015all of you writing it down in your calendar. Don't be swerved by the four o'clock instead of five o'clock. So thank you. Thank you, Dr. Babson. Uh, facilities, Mrs. Duffy. >> The facilities committee met on December 14th at 6 PM. Um, we had a pretty light agenda. We just had an update on Ethan um which really we received some good news about approvals on some permits that are necessary and that we are on track to um have a very key month next month with reviewing getting ready for bid, the approval for bid. So next month um we'll have a important committee meeting on 1111 at 5:30 and we'll be um receiving the presentation. I they are not going to go through the entire at depth because we're going to that's going to be the same
016presentation that we're going to receive on the 18th but it will allow all board members to preview it and you know decide you know if they have some questions to forward them so that we're prepared on the 18th because we will be taking a vote that night. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Uh finance, Miss Solomon. >> Yes, the finance committee met also on October 14th. Um on our agenda, we reviewed some uh approvals of some contracts that are on your agenda tonight. the RNER Aquatics Club pool use agreement, the Vanguard School one-on-one aid support services, and approval of food vendors for the 2526 school year. We uh also were informed [clears throat] about the approval of a memorandum of understanding between Radner Township School District and the Radner Education Support Professional Association. We
017received an update on the Ethan school financing. Um, oh, and this is important. We, um, were informed about the 2026 2027 act one index, which will be 3.5%. And uh the last item I believe was the approval of the fund balance commitment parameters review on how that works and the fund transfer for the 2425 school year. Our next meeting will be on November 11th at 7 p.m. >> Thank you very much, Mrs. Solomon. Uh the policy committee. >> Thank you. The policy >> Thank you, Mr. >> Sure. The policy committee met on October 21st and on tonight's agenda in consent, you'll see seven policies for first read. Um, that sounds more ambitious than we actually were because three of them are what we call the three, four, and 500 series. They're basically uh policies that
018deal with our various employees and the language is is almost identical uh with an adjustment made for each of our employee categories. Uh so you'll see those on the consent agenda for first read and our next meeting will be in the new year 2026. >> Thank you very much. Uh last committee that met this month was government relations and communications. We met last week. Um we had a great presentation. If you're interested in knowing more about what our curriculum or I'm sorry, what our marketing and communications group does, uh I encourage you to watch it. We had a lot of information about the work they've done to make sure that um in the very near future all of our communications will be translated or translatable easily into foreign languages. And actually families will be able
019to actually establish what communication they want to get it in and as what language they'd like to get their communications in as a first choice so they don't have to have it translated each time something arrives. Um they've also just been very very busy and won some awards and given great presentation at a recent conference. So um we appreciate all the work that they do. The government relations communications committee doesn't meet that regularly and we will not be meeting again until sometime in the new year. So next item on the agenda is the priority discussion action. This is the parameters resolution for the bond series of 2025. So the recommended action is that the board approves the parameters resolution to authorize the administration and financial advisor to proceed with the planned third borrowing associated with
020the new Ethan Elementary School construction project series 2025. May I have a motion, please? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Miss Solomon. And a second. >> Second. >> And thank you, Mr. Thornton. Um I'm going to read this in detail and then I understand we have a roll call vote um if if there's no if there after any discussion. So the administration is presenting a parameters resolution authorizing the administration to proceed with the third borrowing for the new Ethan Elementary School project. The borrowing is estimated not to exceed 12 million and will be financed under bank qualified status. The parameters resolution will allow the administration to proceed with PFM financial advisors, stiffle, lead underwriter, and RBC second underwriter on the sale of bonds in the 2025 calendar year as bond series of 2025. Is it
021stifle or stifle? Did I steif even better? Okay, thank you. Um, is there any discussion? Did everyone have a chance to review this the finance committee meeting? No questions. Okay. Would you like to run the roll call vote? Mr. Paulie. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh Miss Dunn >> I. >> Okay. >> Miss Duffy. >> I. >> Dr. Babson. >> I. >> Miss Girtton. >> I. >> Miss Laauo. >> I. >> Miss Rosenlum. >> I. >> Miss Solomon. >> Yes. Miss Stern >> I. >> And Mr. Thornton. >> Yes. >> Okay. Nine affirmed. >> Thank you. Uh the next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. Although board action is required, we it's generally unnecessary to hold discussion on all these items and so with the consent of the board members,
022um we will approve them in one motion. Uh is there any member of the board who would like to pull any item from the consent agenda? Okay. Seeing none, may I have a motion to approve items 9.01 through item 14.03. >> So moved. >> Okay. I got a motion from Dr. Babson. May I take that? I have a second from Mrs. Solomon. >> All in favor say I. I. >> Okay. I think I have a 90 on that. Welcome, Miss Daniels. It seemed kind of antilimactic after that, I'm sure, but you're in. [laughter] Uh, so the next item on the agenda is the report from board liaison and community announcements. So, uh, Delaware Community College. Miss Solomon, did you have an update on that? >> Yes. So, we received a lengthy update from Delaware County
023Community College. Um, I'm just going to highlight some portions of it that I think are important to note. They are offering tours of the new Southeast Center. It they're going to be on November 7th um at 10:00 a.m. So, if anybody is interested in seeing that um let me know and I'll tell you who to get in contact with. um their office of transfer articulation finalized dual admission transfer agreements with a whole bunch of higher education institutions. So they have a new one with the PA college of arts and design. They updated their agreements with Ursinus, Millersville, Point Park University, Westchester and Widner. And just to sort of summarize what these are, this allows you to take your credits for your first two years at Delaware County Community College. If you take a set curriculum
024and maintain a certain grade point average, these institutions will honor your first two years or maybe even more credits towards a BS or BA degree at their institutions with just two more years. So you can finish the whole thing in four years, pay two years of community college tuition, and transfer all of those credits that you earned if you take certain courses and if you maintain a certain grade point average. So this is this is a great I think underused service for people that want to seek higher education that are really concerned about the funding of it, which you keep hearing about all the time. This is a way to get your first two years at a really low price close to home. You can save money on tuition. I don't know if kids want
025to do this, but you could live at home, save money that way, and then you could still earn a degree from a four-year institution kind of at half the price. So, um, I wanted to just highlight that they, you know, still have those agreements and get the word out to the community that that is available. And I don't know that Radner takes advantage of it maybe as much as um that people could. So, um that's out there. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um the next item is the Delaware County Intermediate Unit. Dr. Babson. >> Sure. Before I go into that, I just wanted to I know it's a little bit out of term, but just follow up on what Miss Solomon was talking about. Um, you know, I've I've been at Penn now
026since 2012. Um, but I've also adjuncted at um, Arcadia, taught a course there, and I taught a course at Temple for many years. I met a lot of kids uh, at Temple and at Penn that transferred. Transfer, it happens all the time and people do it successfully. So, um I'm glad that you've underlined this option and in in today's days of of pretty high tuition. I don't think it's any uh any mystery. I think it's a really smart way to go if if it's for you. >> Yeah. And I just mentioned the ones that they updated their agreements with. They have agreements with Villanova, Penn, >> Drexel, >> Temple, um probably other institutions that Yeah. So just do if you're peak if that piques your interest do check that out. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, I
027I just wanted to spend a minute to to underline that because some people might have the impression that that no that doesn't happen or but it does happens quite a lot. Okay. Thank you for that. So uh about DCIU. So right now we're in the middle of our executive director search. Um just wanted to mention that we've narrowed down the field of [snorts] um of applicants to two finalists and we're holding interviews this week for both of them. Uh there will be one last interview scheduled for uh well pretty soon we're there's been talk about it being scheduled for next week, but there's also been talk about scheduling for the week after that. So we shall see. Um so that's the big news at DCIU. But we also just uh attended as a group the
028PSBA uh I I think it's called the PA school leadership conference. It's sort of a um kind of a catchall of of PASA and PSBA conference um in the Poconos uh last week. So that's it. Thanks. >> So I asked you about this last month. They decided not to actually engage a search firm and a more serious look. >> Uh yes, that is correct. uh the the process has been handled by uh us board members u and the HR department of the DCIU >> and the urgency in hiring a new person is is the current director retiring at the end of this calendar year. >> I believe she is going to be stepping down at the end of her contract which is next August >> 26th. >> Okay. So it seems a little early to
029be rushing on that. Maybe just my editorial comment. [snorts] >> Okay, >> thank you. Y >> uh I do not have a report from the Delaware County School Board's Legislative Council. Uh but I will point out to members of the public who are paying attention that we still have no budget finalized at the state level, which means that states are or school districts are not getting money from the state. And while we appreciate that taxpayers in Rner can and do pay their taxes largely on time, that is a extreme financial burden for a number of our sister school districts, especially in Delaware County, but across the state. And some of them have had to borrow money to pay their staff. So, if you care about public education, now's the time to call your state legislators
030and tell them it's time to start paying the bills to their school districts so that they can educate students across the Commonwealth. Now that I'm off my soap box, uh PSBA, Pennsylvania School Boards Association, Mr. Horton. >> Uh Dr. Babson mentioned the school leadership conference uh from last week. Uh but nothing further to add. >> Great. Thank you. >> Oh, sorry. I have a question about the DCIU. Was there any discussion about the funding there pertaining to the 15 school districts in Delaware County? because some of those are more dependent on state funding and federal funding than we are. >> Uh so are you saying was there discussion at the conference about that particular topic during the delegate assembly? >> Yeah. Did you get any or >> I did not attend the delegate assembly? >>
031No, I think she meant either at the conference or at the DCIU board meetings. >> Oh, okay. Um I don't have any comment on that particular issue. Not nothing notable that's coming to mind. Thanks. Okay. Uh, any other community announcements before we move on? Okay. Uh, so board announcements. The board will be meeting, I think we've mentioned this, but just to really highlight it for people, um, the three committee meetings in November will be held on Tuesday, November 11th in our garden level conference room at the administrative building. The first one is at 4:00. Curriculum will be meeting early this month. We do have a lot to cover. So, curriculum will meet at 4, facilities will meet at 5:30, and finance will meet at 6:30. Uh, and then the school board will be back here
032in the RERSH room of the township building uh on Tuesday, November 18th at 700 p.m. That leaves us with public comment. Is there any public comment to close out the evening? >> Okay, seeing none, may I have a motion to Oh, I'm sorry, Dr. Point of order. Is it really 7:34? >> Just wanted to double check. >> Are you trying to lengthen this meeting? >> No. [laughter] >> May I have a motion to adjourn? >> So moved. [clears throat] >> Okay. I'm going to give that to Dr. Babson again, but I'll Miss Solomon, I'll give you the second. >> And all in favor? >> 90. Thank you everyone. We arejourn.