001the regular business meeting of the rner Township School District on Tuesday September 24th 2024 we're going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance please join me I pledge allegiance to the pled of the United States of America and to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you everybody for joining us this evening um the first uh the next item on the agenda is the report on Executive sessions the board met this evening on September 24th to discuss a Personnel matter our next item is really exciting we have a new student representative and she's going to join us come on up this is Martina push the button and introduce yourself just while she's getting ready we we usually have a student representative come speak to
002the board and uh usually there's a little bit more crossover so you get introduced by your predecessor but tonight you're going solo so welcome good evening everyone I hope you had a good weekend my name is Martina Bessel and I'm a junior rner high school since starting today I will be the new student representative to the school board I would like to give you a brief intro about myself some activities that I'm involved at at rner high school are being the president of the Latin X Club hard head Arts editor of the Rite a model un team member and founder of the sumba club it's a sub Club some Hobbies I have are reading learning new languages public speaking and exercising now I will begin with my report okay today marks 3 weeks since school
003started for students this means learning a lot of new enriching material and settling back into their study habits throughout the 3 weeks we have seen a variety of events taking place and slowly unfolding in our rner community the high school's annual back to school night on September 12th proved to be excellent with everything running smoothly parents meeting their children's teachers Refreshments being served delightful music being played by the band students appalling improv being performed by The Improv club and enchanting songs being sung by the our students to continue delving into the art side of Radner the fall play has arrived it's called You're a Good Man Charlie Brown and has their set dates for November 21st 22nd and 23rd with separate AM and PM dates moreover September is a month full of excitement briming with
004already chess clubs because of the popular activities Fair it kicked off on September 19th we saw a plethora of freshmen joining clubs and ultimately pursuing their interests on a celebratory side to honor Hispanic Heritage Month the Morning News has started playing uh music Hispanic music from different Latin American countries every Friday with an explanation on the country shared and the music per the Latin Nexus Club request for sports related content I'd like to highlight the girls field Hy team who received an impeccable win 6-0 over Unionville and rner boy socer had a great win 2 to one over our huge rival Lower Marion the football team is also out bringing with them the band and color guard teams who have been performing at their very best from dazzling flags being twirled around to Trumpets blasting
005the school spirit it has truly been shown at its best additionally there is a new face in the football crowd that is Rowdy the Raptor you'll see more of the mascot at Future football games moving into the township level very recently the township had the rtsd multilingual resource Fair on September 21st where local organizations shared their resources and information with non English speakers there were Radner high school students present helping out and making it smooth for for the public to obtain this information in a clear and concise way chatter and joy is beginning to escalate throughout the hallways because this year rner high school will have its very first LM dance on November 2nd from 7:30 to 10 p.m. and a king and queen will be crowned as well as a homecoming game will take
006place on October 18th thank you so much for your time and I hope you all have a a good night thank you thank you Martina see that wasn't so painful next we have the report from the superintendent we hear from you every month but let's yeah this one's more painful so um good evening good to see everyone and I know we have student recognition so we'll get we'll be to the recognition shortly I just have a few items to share with the board and uh community maybe my clicker is not working nice sound I do it's a nice sound I can play a song with it want me to try to oh there we go you that's unfair you made that too easy um so we're off to a great start for the year uh
007and it was exciting to hear uh talk about uh the the mascot that has been present at the games I was excited to see Friday night all the students gathering around um you know the mascot and excited to see it uh but the year has been off to a great start uh you can see many of the pictures there from around our district moving on to the next slide I just want to thank our we have a few donations board members U from the friends of rner Music uh and then also rner wrestling um and booster club uh again we are so appreciative to our community for all the donations and support uh and especially that the top one in honoring uh two of our our former staff members uh you know our retired teacher
008uh and uh honoring both of them I think is wonderful moving on to the next uh tonight we have on our agenda we're going to be talking about the upcoming act 34 hearing so we do have a team here tonight our design team to talk about exactly what is the act 34 public hearing to advertise for our community on October 16th at Ethan Elementary we will be having our hearing to share our intentions uh and our plans for building a new Ean Elementary so this is part of our requirement uh as we move forward in that process um through the design and then ultimately to the going out to bid and building a new Ean Elementary so that is on our agenda for this evening but want to let our community know that that is
009an open hearing um a very structured hearing that we're required to have on October 16th and then tonight I want to just mention congratulations to our business office for a meritorious budget award uh I want to uh congratulate Mr Pauling and his whole entire department um for this award that they received um from the school business officials international organization and the letter that I received was you know congratulations to you your staff and the district for receiving the 2425 meritorious budget award from the association of school business officials International your participation in this program is a testament to your commitment to sound fiscal management and budgetary policies so I'm really excited uh Mr Pauling does not like a lot of attention so I will not make him come up uh are you sure you don't
010want to make him come up has has shared with us a plaque uh that I as long as I don't have to dance yeah Ju Just at the beginning of the year only once uh uh the plaque that they have sent recognizing you and your whole team for everything that you do uh to not only put together such a detailed budget and all that you go through but also to make sure that we are continuing to be good stewards of the tax dollar so congratulations to you and your team for this award and then lastly we have the the year is up and running uh though it's it's week four it feels like it's it's week like seven or eight it's been uh it's been busy the light switch gets thrown and we're back at
011school and it's been really exciting uh to be back at the swing of school and just some upcoming events are all listed for our board and community and that concludes my remarks for this evening not too painful thank you very much Dr Bachelor uh next on the item is recognitions we're going to honor our National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists and Miss Stern has asked to honor these students this evening so I'm going to give her a second to get down there do you want me to read the introduction to you all right good evening every wait good evening everyone can you is it working oh it is okay great Radner High School dist Radner school district is pleased to announce the following High School seniors have been named 2025 National Merit Scholarship program semi-finalists by the
012National Merit Scholarship Corporation Sonia dockerty William Duff and you can come up as I say your names William low adidin morisy Eric Mortenson Caitlyn Rolan ariv sadashiv and Charles young over 1.3 million juniors in approximately 21,000 high schools entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship program by taking the 2023 preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship qualifying test which served as an initial screen of program entrance representing less than 1% of us High School seniors just 16,000 of the 1.3 million students who took the 2023 preliminary sat National Merit Scholarship qualifying test were named semi-finalists to be considered for a merit scholarship award semi-finalists and their High School must fulfill several requirements to to advance to the finalist level of the competition including submission of a detailed scholarship application in which they provide information about the semi-finalists academic
013record participation in school and community activities demonstrated leadership abilities and honors and awards received a semi-finalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout High School be endorsed and recommended by a high school official write an essay and earn s scores that confirm the students earlier performance on the qualifying test the superintendent along with the board and the Radner Community congratulates these students their parents and teachers on their outstanding accomplishments [Applause] conratulations and then typic I say we're going to have the students step outside with our communications director for some photos I think if their families want to join them and get pictures you're welcome to do that I I'm just going to take this second to say some of the pictures in Dr bachelor's presentation really it's wonderful we have a very active staff that
014supports our communication staff and taking pictures all over the district and if you don't follow us on Instagram you really should it's a lot of fun to see what's going on in the district from on a day-to-day basis okay next item on the agenda is public comment uh do we have any public comment this evening I'll take inperson public comment first sign that's fine just come on up just give your name and uh the town you live in and we'll go from there good evening Mr Lee good evening everyone uh my name is uh Thomas Lee uh parent of uh two Radner graduates um so oh and I live on Robert's Road and binmar okay so the purpose of my public comment today is really just to um support the uh you know diversity in
015in hiring but also in retaining um you know you know basically uh people of color um so as background for those who may not necessarily be as familiar with me since I often I think this might be my first time actually speaking um I've had the distinct privilege of working with Ken bachelor's um Administration on many parent volunteer groups um in particular I guess the Sleep committee um I think we we were able to achieve quite a bit and it was a heavy lift um but the idea behind that was at the at the time it seemed perhaps impossible you know it's maybe one word uh to kind of characterize what we did uh but we're able to do so uh because we had a common goal common objectives uh and one of which is
016the betterment of our community and I think certainly um the diversity of our staff would you know go a long way towards that um so that's kind of like you know one aspect the other aspect would be uh I was also very proud to have uh LED our math counts um Team um you know winning the national championship oh not National I'm sorry the state championship my my apologies um and and I remember so part of it was at the beginning I remember sharing with them it's like trying to get them to Envision themselves on a 4day three night free shindig in Orlando because that's what you know winning the championship meant um and I remember their reaction was sort of like just very downtrodden and kind of like looking at the floor and like
017there's no way we could do it and sure enough that's what we did so uh my second message is really like if you picture it you know only if you picture it first can you potentially make that a reality for yourself uh and I was very happy to see um two of the members here actually receiving uh Merit Scholarships as well or at Le semi-finalists um so I wanted to kind of encapsulate those two kind of ideas into this and I think certainly um especially our student body while the majority of it is still you know white uh but we are getting an increasing you know percentage of of non-whites in the district and um this is proven itself throughout where you know for example uh women's sports whether it's the soccer team or the
018recent basketall team you know the fact that you know they've done well on a national level it encourages other young girls to also follow that and so they see themselves in these you know Role Models really and ultimately that's what teachers and administrators are all about you know it's how we conduct ourselves it's you know it's what we look at on the outside but hopefully people judge us more on what's in the inside and so by having a divers you know diverse staff we're able to offer these students who may not necessarily have any exposures to people of different walks of life to then be able to say hey this person is just like me I mean just as much as everybody wants to care for their family we're all driven by that and um
019so that's why um I think you know strongly that I think making a concerted effort in diversifying our our staff is extremely important and it's something that I think you know should very much be something that rener itself should commit itself to So to that end um I also want to address perhaps you know people who again you know may be listening later whatever um we do have a Dei you know initiative we have four pillars and this has been years in the making four minutes has expired I'm sorry there's minute limited time comment so if you could just wrap it up okay sure sure my apologies um so I just wanted to say that um you know my belief is that it's really about I'm a firm believer and I've said this in other
020forms about meritocracy and that Dei is not about handouts it's really about um purpose you know being purposeful of where we hire how we hire and more equally important how we retain people of color um and so you know like the hope is that by doing this in a more pragmatic fashion and being with more uh again smart goals right specific immeasurable and so forth um I think we can very much do that just as much as we did with all the parent initiatives thank you very much thank you Mr Lee and not related to your comment from a timing standpoint but just so you're aware the I think you're a lot of your comment was actually addressing the one of the items on our consent agenda which is the district initiatives and we actually
021I'm actually pulling that from the agenda for tonight and the board's going to um deal with it next month nothing to do with your comment but just because I know that's what you were probably referring to so you're aware um I'm going to be pulling item 13.01 from the agenda this evening thank you is there anybody else who wanted to make some public comment as long as everyone has signed up on the list by the door I moved over here oh it's okay so it should be by the door but I got moved Miss low hi Hi how are you is it on it's on okay um so I'm Rachel skrlac low I live in do you need my address or just I live in Wayne just the town is fine Wayne Pennsylvania uh and
022so I'd like to thank the board Administration and schools for their efforts to support students and their families I attended the resource fair at Radner Elementary School this weekend and it was a wonderful event it was filled with families and teachers and the I was explaining to my students in the C course I teach at Villanova on literacy and English language Learners how Comm is so important for students especially newcomers to the country so it's really exciting to be part of that and to have those resources in our district I'm also so amazed at how many languages are spoken in rner so that's exciting so I'm going to speak to the point that you've just pulled because I'd like to put it on the record um I'd like to affirm the district's effort to include
023belonging as an initiative I heard um Miss Lao speak to her concern about measurable objectives last semester or I'm a professor last week last month and um I just wanted to affirm that um I support the objectives and I support um identifying measurable objectives as well so I hope that the board will um put those into place and think about how do you know if you're achieving something and I'd also like to extend that an objective can never be met sorry an objective such as this can never be met because belonging is always an ongoing issue just as we start to feel comfortable with our space we realize somebody else maybe doesn't feel like they belong so as we uh as you work towards making measurable objectives to account for success to always also put
024into place those practices so on behalf of myself and my family I want to thank you all for your commitment to Dei and the students and their families faculty and staff and rner thanks very much thank you Mr SK who's next welcome Mr Rosen thank you um's gonna be my closer so I'm gonna start here um so for the past 20 years or so I've been teaching the topics in philosophy and writing class I'm sorry Mr your name in town Carl Rosen um I live in Wayne and I'm a 26 year veteran of the rner high school staff um for the past 26 years I've been teaching a course that I that I developed with a lot of students help um called Topics in philosophy and writing and one of our projects our first unit
025of in the philosophy of education and our first project in that unit is um called the imagined program of studies and the imagined program of studies the idea is that students have to create a an interdisciplinary course that they would love to have offered as an elective at the high school and this is looking at the the idea like what kind of things would you like to pursue what kind of passions do you have um what do you love one of the central criteria as I suggest of course is that it has to be something that they would have credit from multiple departments so examples from the past some going back now to students who are probably close to 40 years old um include just a sample um home ownership music of the 1960s and70s
026power generation in environmental science modern dictators Stadium design roller coaster history um Beyonce's influence the study of dreams and uh AP barbecue just row with it it's called just row with it crew in Philadelphia and and dozens more and and from this year's class we have several examples including Aviation international travel and culture math and literature which apparently Mike McBride and I are supposed to teach um criminology mortuary science and all about chocolate um this board has been very supportive of interdisciplinary education and philosophy at rner high school for which I'm grateful and I just want to take the opportunity to to you know kind of mention some of the things that we get our students to do the way that we trying to engage them and they resp respond in in you know with
027wonderful things after all you know as Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living so we want to look at some of the assumptions that might be around education and say well if you would change this up what might it look like um this builds muscles in noticing and in creative thinking and and in creativity um which are all things that we'd love to see in our kids and it's not purely imaginary which is why add's here um at least I hope Addie um class of 25 who took philosophy last year developed a course that the rer high school English Department is going to propose for a potential um English elective which I'm going to let her talk about right now hi good evening I hope you're all hope you're all well and enjoying
028just give your full name oh Addison Carter um way and I live in Wayne as an African-American women living in and attending rner I often feel underrepresented within the educational system and how English and history subjects are being taught when directed towards women studies or black history my proposal is to install a woman's studies class within the Radner curriculum to educate students on Wom history current events within the same within the premise of women's rights and create a safe space for women to bond over their experiences we will read pieces from Sylvia Plath Tony Morrison include and include pop culture to make the curriculum more inviting to everyone this course will not be solely directed towards girls because it should remain educational to everyone thank you for your time thank you very much sounds like
029a fun [Applause] class who's next hi Miss jazell I have a few things written here my my name is shilou jazal I live in brinmar hello everyone um I'm here um to voice my concern over the initiative the final initiative that um under belonging which is um and I have some questions um regarding that I know that you're going to table it next month but um I just have some questions about these socalled efforts that um the township is saying that they have my um first question is what is the what is our HR department doing to attract qualified diverse teachers and administrators um why is Radner not able to retain or hire these diverse Workforce um since you know the verbi says continue continue to enhance and expand efforts to recruit and retain a
030highly qualified and culturally and demographically diverse Workforce so since this is a continuation what exactly was done to enhance and expand these so-called efforts and um and I know I'm just shooting all these questions but these are just some of the things that come to mind like who's responsible for this initiative um what has this person identified that our school needs to improve and attract diverse Workforce did they evaluate the recruitment process and figure out what needs to change um what has the HR done to change the recruitment process um is there any plans for advertising do we partner with Penn State with universities to hire this diverse Workforce and is there a plan to create a pipeline um this diverse diverse Workforce um I am just I am disappointed that our Workforce our um
031teachers and administrators are not as diverse as we would like them to be and I hope that um we put actual procedures to actually start implementing um this proposal to make our Workforce diverse thank you thank you who's next hi everyone thank you all very much for your leadership and your work uh my name is shuen Wang Wong I live in brinmar I have three kids at three different rner schools Ean rner middle Radner High School we've been here for uh we've been in the school district for 9 10 years now and I've been very deeply uh engaged with our schools uh the PTO um different kinds of chairing of clubs and so forth and also was very deeply engaged with some of the uh initial efforts about three to four years ago among parent
032groups really advocating for more attention to diversity equity and inclusion in our wonderful Community um and I want to First just express my appre apption for the school district's work uh over these past several years uh in particular uh with regard to diversity Equity inclusion and belonging in our schools this really makes a world of difference for all of our kids and all of our families not just in their experience in school right now which is incredibly important we want happy healthy kids who feel supported who can explore and embrace their authentic selves who know that diversity as a strength and a fact uh of the world around us both local and Global and who can also then strive to do well with all of the curricular and extracurricular opportunities they have but attention to
033diversity is also important in preparing them for the future a world that's increasingly more Multicultural more complex requires expansive thinking and understanding of perspectives and issues and more honed interpersonal skills for navigating multiple fields that they'll be in so rner has made great strides uh certainly since 2015 uh when we first came in supporting this growing diversity of radner's community I continue to strongly support these initiatives but when I look back on uh the four pillars for the Dei initiative that launched in 2021 I can't help but feel a little bit puzzled and disappointed especially when we think about pillar number four uh which was very specifically about the hiring uh recruitment hiring and retention of diverse uh a diverse representation of Staff teachers and administrators that really reflect um our community uh right now
034and let me also just Echo some of the other comments from earlier on that diversity is Excellence there is inclusive Excellence diversity is a strength so my comment is really just to encourage you all to prioritize these pillars we need metrics we need goals I'm uh reminded of this I'm going to run a fem race for the first time in my life on Black Friday and it all of a sudden occurred to me I probably need to start setting some goals and start training for that um and so you know that's just my kind of fun reminder about the fact that we can have aspirations but none of that actually means anything until we have metrics um I'm an educator myself I know firsthand how important it is to have reflection among those of us
035who are Educators and what that means to students who for the first time see someone who they can find a personal connection with and that might be one of the few times or the only time they see someone in the classroom who represents that um that's incredibly important uh the literature is pretty conclusive about the importance of seeing oneself reflected and validated and affirmed in a real way and I can't imagine a more important way to do that than to set metrics to um examine our hiring processes to examine uh the actual um operations we have in place for making that happen um but again thank you all so much for for what you do I'm very proud uh to be a resident of rner and to have all of my kids in rner schools
036thank you thank you very much who's next M up first will be the last right welcome thank you so hello everyone my name is Jackie McKenzie I've been I live in Villanova and I've been here for since 2006 and um one of the things I really wanted why I moved here was because of the school district and when we were looking for a house everybody said you have to move here cuz the schools are wonderful and I didn't have kids until much later and then I was blessed with twins and I was so excited that they could and it was the first year that they were going to have full day kindergarten I was like thank you Jesus CU I do work in the main um in the main in Philadelphia so I mean kindergarten
037was amazing and then my kid had my child had um some learning difficulties and I kept I'm a pediatrician so I didn't want to overthink this but I kept on saying there's something wrong with my daughter you know my son is you know she's very I mean she's very smart but when it came to reading you know she wasn't getting it and I was told that it was because she was in Radner that was why she was struggling and if she was anywhere else she be fine and I kind of didn't understand that you know I was like you know my husband went to Princeton I went to Harvard not to brag and M Holio you know and I said you know so and and my daughter is an end of one to me not
038enough enough because we live in Radner she's struggling because it's a difficult School District that was not very I wasn't very happy so anyway we but the teachers were amazing we loved the the teachers we made friends and we were very comfortable here I might have an accident I'm from Ghana so I've been traveling a lot so this is I mean I've been here in the in the US now longer than I've been in where I'm from but so that was hard but we got through it and then it came to middle school and of course Co hit and she was still having issues and so I went back to the school district and I said I think but there's something wrong with my daughter and you know I think she's dyslexic I got her
039tested my first said she has ADHD I'm like no she's very focused she does not and I tested her I work at Children's Hospital so I have all of those I can use those people because they're my friends I said no she doesn't so ended up being that she was dyslexic and people were very supportive but it was covid and so I I didn't want they couldn't tell me whether she would get the Wilson nobody could tell me what she would get and so I decided I couldn't wait and I would send her to a different school so I sent her to a different school and the reason why I bring this up is because my daughter has blossomed in this school she won the Pennsylvania biomedical award and she would never have had the
040courage to do that my son who is I don't want to say that this is broadcast I shouldn't say that but he was reading at two so he's a better reader than my daughter would not have had he's still here um at Radner would never have entered into a competition and I remember if I go beyond four minutes please tell me because I do get um I do get emotional with some of this stuff but I remember um when I went to her biology class the teacher was a black woman and I sat there after all the parents left and I started to cry and it was the first time my daughter had had a black teacher and um and I don't know why I cried but that was the same teacher that encouraged her
041to apply for the it was either you did an essay or you did my daughter's an artist and she won and the teacher said to me you know I've been in the school for a very long time this is the first time and I've applied for this award it's the Pennsylvania Medical Society and this is the first time we've wonn me and your daughter so we're de and she was so proud and the school was so proud and I was when we went for the award in in Hershey um I was thinking I'm like this is this is why I was crying when I was sitting there when I listened to a teacher welcome all the students CU I realized that it is important you know I teach at pen um I'm a a professor
042of Pediatrics there and I always do so many things and people ask me why I'm so stretched and I say because it matters it matters that my students see me it matters that the residents see me it matters that the undergrad see me cuz they have to know that I can do it you know and I'm tired I get home really late four minutes is it elapsed thank you so just to say that it's not that would I'm speak and I'm so happy that other parents spoke cuz I'm always the only one in the room there was a student here I was happy to see her so just to tell you that you know I take care of lots of kids in my profession kids need to see that they can do it I know
043my kids see me and my husband and they know that we've done it but it's so important not just for our kids but for all the kids in the community this is a wonderful Community I'm so happy here it's safe it's clean and it's everything but we have to make sure that we care about what we say and that if we're really really really really and I diversity I am excellent not that I I've been blessed but I also work hard and I'm I hate to say it but I have done excellent things in my life so it's not just um we just don't want EI just for the sake of it but because that person could be the next neurosurgeon that's going to save all of us our lives so let's just make sure
044that our kids feel as though they can do it and that they are represented and sorry I didn't mean to go over four minutes but thank you so much for listening thank you so much much for all you do thank you Dr [Applause] McKenzie I forgot to ask is there any recorded public comment this evening okay yes yes hello my name is Rob Armstrong I live at 439 m Avenue in Wayne and I'm calling with respect to the board meeting on the evening of uh September 24 uh 2024 and I'm calling to provide um a comment as to um wording that the board is contemplating in its belonging category um I concur with Janie LA and her proposal of the Waring to recruit hire and retain The Talented Workforce that is representative and reflective of
045demographic and cultural diversity of the Radner student body I think it's important to include this wording because it sets the the attainment of a goal not necessarily a quota but also as we look at rner continuing its excellence and uh educational Mission uh part of that is creating a learning community in which both the teachers and the students uh are in a collaborative and diverse environment both intellectually culturally um and I think that having the administration uh use that as a lens and as a guidance uh is better I think uh just merely stating that uh your leer of of of U setting quotas I think is untrue if you actually look at other school districts such as with the hickens they have an active board U meeting uh called board racial Equity oversight committee
046meeting uh and they meet and they address issues not only from discipline academic um you know curriculum all the things that interlat I think that this is an important area that brager needs to develop and uh not just kind of sit on their laws so again it's Rob Armstrong and I concur with Jamie LA's propos wording and it's um a pleasure to talk to the board thank you bye hi my name is Jennifer unterberger and I reside at 820 Lawrence Lane I understand tonight the board will be voting on The 2024 2025 District initiative and I just wanted to express my frustration for the lack of clear and concise goals related to our Dei goals I was in attendance at the curriculum committee meeting back in April of 2022 when Dr Stevenson reviewed our agreed
047upon Dei pillars and we all including many of you in the room tonight committed to having measurable goals at the time the board specifically mentioned wanting measurable goals one of the most important things we can do to meet these stated goals is to ver to diversify our staff and represent all of our beautiful children that attend our schools I believe all students in rner need the opportunity to see themselves in their teachers and their school leadership which is crucial for their ongoing success when our kids graduate and leave rner they will embark on a journey in a global world I know we can all do better in recruiting a more representative staff which would make a difference for all of our kids at rodner I hope everyone can review the notes from that meeting back
048in April of 2022 and remember how each of us including many in the room right now committed to doing this work I appreciate you listening and taking this message to heart thank you for your time this evening and for all you do for our schools thank you good morning my name is ariona Howard and I'm a resident of Browning Lane in roson I'm calling in regard to the September 24 2024 regular business meeting I want to publicly voice my support of rtsu member Janny K L's position regarding her suggested verbage of the belonging initiative proposed by the administration I believe it's important to implement measurable goals and I do not think the language used by the administration to describe the initiative can be easily measured it is subjective and vague and as a member of
049a diverse household I believe implementing measurable Dei initiatives is particularly important I hope all board members will consider supporting this loud position thank you for your consideration and have a nice day thank you for all the public comment uh next item on the agenda is the report from board committees uh Dr Babson okay so uh the curriculum committee met last week uh on the 17th and we discussed uh a few big items actually that are featured on our consent agenda tonight actually um first the title one schoolwide plan for Wayne Elementary um along with the summary of federal programs um you can see that item on uh the consent agenda item number 13. 04 we also had an update from Dr hand and his staff on artificial intelligence and uh which I thought was um
050extremely enlightening and and really welcome and we also had uh an overview of our district initiatives which is just the topic of uh some conversation already in this meeting and um that's on the consent agenda as well 13.01 but um that has also been um uh commented upon by um our board president uh so far so um those were the three main topics of our meeting thank you thank you facilities the facilities committee met on September 17th at 7M at the Radner Township and admin building um we had an update on the rner high school roofing project by tremco um essentially going over phase one all the work that was completed over the summer it's due to wrap up in October um and that will represent about 49% of the overall project so we'll move
051into phase two next year um we have two items and then we H we also had an update on um on building a new Ean which we will have as a priority um action item today um or discussion item so we'll have a presentation today um and we had um and also on the on the consent agenda tonight is the donation from the wrestling booster club of wrestling mats in the um so we're appreciative of that our next committee meeting is Tuesday October 8th at 7 pm oh wait one other thing we we um missed um Dr Bachelor mentioned in his ad admin administrative remarks but um the ACT 34 public hearing is on October 16th at 6 p.m thank you and the next next update is policy Mr Finance didn't meet this month that's
052the facilities meeting agenda Mr thank you the policy committee met on September 10th at 5:30 uh we had several updates on some new administrative regulations that have been written um there on the agenda of the policy committee meeting we will not see that on the board agenda but on tonight's consent agenda we have three policies that are up for first read mostly they are changes as a result of change in law or incorporating Title 9 and also recommendations uh from psba to codify our memorandum of understanding with law enforcement so those are on our agenda for first read and our committee will next meet on October 15th thank you thank you and you may notice there are no updates from Finance or the um GRCC that because they didn't meet this month they will both
053be meeting next month I believe next item on the agenda is 8.01 the approval of the ACT 34 resolu resolution and legal notice for building a new Ean Elementary School um we have Representatives here from site Logic the construction management firm as well as Brin Architects to provide an update on building the new Ethan along with the review of the upcoming act 34 resolution and legal notice so um can I get a motion to approve the ACT 34 resolution and legal notice to proceed with the ACT 34 hearing so moved and a second a second thank you gentlemen would you like to come up and present thank you turn over to Ken oh I'm sorry let me turn it over to Ken to introduce Mr morrisy Ken morrisy for Morris thank you thank you yes
054this evening we have uh again representatives from site logic uh we have Walt task and Damen Spar um along with resent architecture um we have Julian pelus and Steve Barons um they're going to do an overview um of the ACT 34 um booklet uh the resolution and the legal notice that was first presented last Tuesday at the facilities conference welcome good evening my name is Walt Tac with site Logic the uh vice president preconstruction for for site logic um wanted to give you a brief overview the project where we are and the ACT 34 hearing uh let me hang on went too fast so we're going to give you like I said uh upcoming we're going to look at the upcoming board me meetings or board decisions uh look at a do a quick review
055of uh major milestones in the project schedule and then review the ACT 34 hearing um so coming up uh this evening you've already authorized the the advertisement for the ACT 34 Hearing in November after the ACT 34 hearing you will then be uh asked to approve the plan con d and e which is a pro even though there is no longer a uh reimbursement process we still have to go through the ACT 34 and the plan con D process that'll be happening in November and then in January we will be asking the board to authorize the release for bid um looking at the a more a little more detailed look at the uh major milestones and the schedule uh the SE about a third of the way down in first red you see the board
056approve approving the ACT 34 advertisement this evening the hearing uh was previously mentioned scheduled for October 16th um board approval of PL con D on the 19th there is a 30 day 30-day waiting period at for comments after the hearing before the board can actually approve PL on D so that's why that's in November uh we are asking we will be asking the board to approve release for bids on January 28th um that still gives us plenty of time to uh start construction as as planned in June uh we anticipate receiving bids on or about March 5th exact date to be determined but we want to thene uh review the bids with the board at the March meeting and ask for the board to approve Award of contracts at the April meeting uh we will
057then be able to start construction in June after we've received all all of our permits we're anticipating by then we should have all of our permits get them sooner may be able to start sooner um we anticipate uh construction completing in March of 2027 and the plan is to uh start classes in the uh new school in April after spring break of 2027 that's a change from some previous discussions and that's after a a lengthy discussion with it with multiple uh party uh people involved in the process about the best way to sequence the constru the demolition of the existing Ean Elementary School get the parking lots constructed and get while still getting students in and out of the school safely um we're having trouble figuring out how to demolish the school get the parking
058lots in over a what's essentially a two and a half month summer uh and get and do it in a safe manner we determined that this was the safest best way to to do it the added benefit is we get out of your hair sooner um which I'm sure by then everybody will be glad to get us out of the uh that build or out off that property um Steve do you want to talk a little bit about the ACT 34 hearing good evening everyone thank you for this opportunity to be here again tonight to advance the project so this is a slide that you've seen before and it's understandable that it is worth a a repeat act 34 can can be confusing for some of us who work with it frequently so just as
059As a matter of reminder act 34 is a law that applies to um School construction and generally the intent is to monitor the cost the expenditures of the board you'll recall that the capacity of the building is calculated and a that uh capacity figure is multiplied by an applicable per pupil cost which is updated by pde each year and that um that number is called the aggregate building expenditure standard which we um we uh you know give it the nickname of the limit and that is the limit of the cost that that that includes the building cost only not the site fees certain fees and FFN Associated Furniture fixture and Equipment associated with the project that then the budget of the project is compared against and so that um if we were to exceed that
060limit it triggers certain things but ultimately a uh a voter referendum would be required to exceed that limit with the cost of the building so that's something we've been monitoring very very closely as the project has progressed so this next slide to put that into real numbers relevant to this project this is a slide that's modeled after the slide eight that you saw in June for the design development approval so we're we're seeking to to keep this in parody so so it's easier to understand stand and so these this includes numbers that appear on both the forms and the ACT 34 booklet that becomes part of the public record and so we'll just take a moment to go through some of these so the top section there includes that that uh that Elementary capacity that
061I referred to earlier and then also the per pupil cost so that aggregate building expenditure standard that I I described is is listed there as that $ 55.7 million so that is the what we refer to as the limit and then below that in the next section are some line items relative to the cost that goes into the maximum building construction cost this is the result of the estimates of the project and that that bottom line there of 55.1 million is is that is that the estimate of of those relevant costs what I'll point out is that those numbers you'll you'll recall we went through an extensive value engineering and cost reduction process in evaluation and went over that in detail in June and that included items that through conversation with the design team the
062administration and then ultimately approved by the board those elements were just removed for the from the project which were essentially cost reductions and that's that's represented in that number um there were also things that we chose to carry in the project as alternates so things that will be bid as part of the project but then once bids are received we can evaluate those against the budget and then it puts the board in a position to be able to um react to those bids and either bring Val value back in or have to make decisions to perhaps remove some items to bring it back in line with the budget so that's what is so those those alternates are not included in that 55 million but we're we're adding those back in so that when we set
063the limit I said previously that if we exceed that limit it could force us into a a second hearing or rebid situation so we want we want the the limit that's on the ACT 34 forms and in the booklet to include those alternates thereby giving the board the ability to bring those back into the project by vote when when the bids are received so I'll if that requires further explanation I'll certainly do so but then in this in this lower section so we see that that highlighted blue number there is the difference between the expenditure standard or the limit and the estimate so you'll see that's a much smaller number than than you saw in as as about a a two over $2 million buffer at that time but now that's reduced so even so
064that the takeaway here is by this estimate even if all of the alternate um decisions that were made were brought back in were still under that limit although by by by a narrow margin okay so then as we add back into that cost the um the site work that's not in the ACT 34 limit other fees soft costs contingency that sort of thing we end up with a total project cost with all of those alternates included in the number of of of 77.7 55 million now that's higher than the budget Target that we have for the project of 75 million so that if if those alternates were not included or um according to this estimate of course the bids will tell us for sure but according to this estimate if the B if the alternates
065were not included were at that 75 million budgetary number okay if if you're paying very close attention that bottom line 75 or I'm sorry the $77 million is a little bit off from what we showed last week that's simply due to a little reconciliation in the financing costs of the project it's within within $20,000 so that that's the reason for these two numbers at the bottom the one the larger one is what we're carrying as the total project estimate for approval so that it gives the board the ability to act on those alternate decisions once bids are received and not by accepting some alternate end up exceeding the limit and thereby triggering um a second hearing or something like that so that's that and we can certainly um come back to this with questions if
066needed so um this is this is a detail of the schedule surrounding the ACT 34 here hearing so uh Mr Tac presented the overall project schedule this is sort of um magnifying the portion of it relevant to the ACT 34 process and we're here tonight to uh potentially act on approving the resolution and legal notice that would then be advertised and then at least 21 days needs to have passed before the hearing can occur that as has been mentioned a couple of times will occur on October 16th and then in and then once uh the comment period has passed then the board would act on plan con d& and that is as you note as it notes there 30 days of past the comment period and then um that that is the board action to
067to accept the um the the the plan on DNA forms which contain those act 34 elements and then and then move um move forward towards bidding the project and then the remainder of the slides are just informational to show you what we keep talking about this act 34 booklet and the advertisement and so forth in here are the pages of those book of that booklet here's the table of contents so this is this is what um is is the components that that make up the the required elements of the ACT 34 process and this is the agenda for the hearing so um this just identifies the topics of conversation that and presentation that are in the in the ACT 34 uh hearing it's it's a legal process it is a a a a somewhat um
068prescribed and sometimes a little bit of a drive here during legal process but it it's important to advance the process and um so a lot of information about the project the history the justification why are we here um a description of the project itself a a definition of the financial plan associated with it and then um an opportunity for public question and comment at that time um those it it's not a a a time when there's um discussion or response necessarily to those to those comments that's what the comment period itself is for for the for the hearing and and reaction to those elements so again just some pages and this there's uh the drawings associated with that describe the project um the a relevant plan conforms that that explain the estimate project estimate the
069financing and accounting for the project and then um on D20 this this page that's where that uh that $55 Million number that that is um that represents the uh the the uh estimated construction cost and then in accounting for the for how how we arrived at the capacity of the building and then analysis of the financing options and then once we get through that pages of very small fine print of numbers then there's the actual resolution and then in in the resolution then you will see those numbers that I referred to earlier the maximum project cost on page 29 and the maximum building construction cost according to the estimates and there's the advertisement itself and I believe that's it okay thank you very much thank you both very much happy to answer any questions you
070have do we have any questions how about on this side Miss Miss Solomon I don't have a question about this I do want to make a statement so have at it do you want to have that now so I'm G to say something very direct and very brief um and I'm really addressing the community at this point and I don't know what camera to look at but I want to say as a board member who was on the board when this project began we went through different options and at the time when we said oh let's build a new new Ean Elementary School we were looking at an estimate somewhere around $50 million which to me is still a hefty amount of money for an elementary school um and then over time and as you
071know the various parties looked at the plan that they wanted to put together it's now blossomed to I guess we're putting a cap at $77 million um I was assured that even with change orders and it won't be above that we don't know exactly what it will be because we don't have bids but my comment is that myself and I know some of the other board members we do not take it in any way lightly that we are saddling the community with a million construction project however we're I'm bias because I'm pro-education and I believe we should spend money on education as a community I want to say though that I have not heard a single Comm Community member come forward and say to this board that this is a lot of money or we're
072concerned about this money or we're concerned about our tax bill from the school district I don't believe a single person has come forward and so I don't know if that's because you're not following what's going on um that this has been talked about for at least a couple years in all of our committee meetings or should we assume that you're all in complete agreement with this and that you are happy to spend this kind of money for excellent facilities for education in Radner so I'm putting it out there you know we as a board really if we really need to know is there support for this because nobody said that they have a problem with this amount of money so far um I'm losing sleep over $77 million that I'm saddling you with as taxes
073but um maybe I shouldn't because no one else is no taxpayer or Community member has come forward and said that to us so I'm putting it out there this is really kind of your chance um this is when we look at the finances of it in a framework that's required and so um you know that that is my comment is that can we assume that there is agreement that people want to pay for this um by have by silence or or do people are they not aware um and I still have that question thank you thank you Miss Solomon um I I will say uh I believe a lot of people do know about it I in the meetings I've been in people have said Ean Elementary needs to be replaced it's not necessarily I
074know I think we're very biased though Sarah you're can't for the community either because we're all in the same you know no parents no no it's not about where you and I live and my kids you know no one who lives in my house will go to Ethan Elementary so it's I don't live in the eth en catchment probably even once we redistrict no it's social events throughout the community I have not had people say to me that this is too much I do think people are paying attention to our meetings they they come to our meetings they comment on other matters so um I'm not saying everyone's happy about it but I I think you're right I don't think anyone has stepped forward publicly uh to raise concerns I don't think the number is
075specifically $77 million I think you just said that was over budget I think the number is 75 million in change it's not change it's 155,00 th000 was a lot of money but I would like that um are there any other questions or comments about the ACT 34 process oh yeah Mr turn so sorry I had to um if the bids come back you you mentioned if the bids come back we have to start this part of the hearing over again if the bids come back and they're higher than what we've allocated what's the step then well um Steve alluded to the fact that we have bid alternates we have about I think it's about $2.5 million dollar worth of bid alternates that we could take out of the project if we have to reduce the
076cost if they come in higher than than estimated if it's more than that then we're probably we're faced with two things frankly and that that is either having to have a referendum or redesign and rebid the project I would recommend redesigning and rebidding the project I don't think that we're going to face that situation though we have been finding recently that costs have started to settle down contractors are becoming less squeamish about locking into contracts for long periods because they're seeing it their costs are are settling down a little bit and we're actually seeing cost starting to come within under our budgets by a reasonable amount not an excessive amount but a reasonable amount to the point where we're starting to feel pretty we're feeling very comfortable about uh where where the market is heading
077and where things are going so we're confident that we will be within budget but we do have safety measures put in place to keep the cost under control I I I hope that's the the case because the budget has grown dramatically since we first started talking about what the budget would be I appreciate that um so I I hope you're correct but thank you for outlining what the process would be appreciate that biggy back to one of your comments Mr Stern is that part of that was also a cost that the Land Development cost right that we really got rocked on last spring which was six million over so I have no comment about that piece of this but that piece you know we can't you know there's there's no savings to find there so
078it's all in the building construction correct okay uh if there are no other comments I will call the vote all in we that we read the resolution already I just flipping back um all in favor of approving the ACT 34 resolution and legal notice to proceed with the ACT 34 hearing say I I have a 90 vote okay the next item on the agenda is the consent agenda and although board action is required it's generally unnecessary to hold discussion about this type of item these types of items and so with the consent of the board members we uh group them together and approval is given in one motion if a board member does want to discuss any item on the agenda I will pull it and we can discuss it separately um as I mentioned
079earlier we're going to be I'd like a motion to approve items 10 through I think it was 15 um items 10 through 15 with the exception of item 13.01 which we are I am pulling from the agenda some moved thank you Miss Stern nope that's I mean Lydia that was me sorry Miss Solomon thank you and a sec you be it's it's item item 15.0 no no I 03 10.01 15.03 sure I was doing 10 through 15 but yes 10.01 to 15 .03 with the exception of um 15 I'm sorry 13.01 let's let me get the motion first please motion from Miss Solomon yes can I get a second second from uh Mr thoron uh yes Miss Miss Lao thank you chair D um before we vote I just wanted to thank every member of
080the community who came out tonight to share their public comments with respect to item 1301 including um those who submitted their comments via voicemail um you know I'm very pleased that as a board um you know and I fully support that we um pull this item so that we can revisit uh the language of one of the initiatives that were um that was the subject of all of these comments um I take all of those comments to heart and um I appreciate your support I really am heartened by the fact that so many of you are um not necessarily um members of the community who um have commented and um in the past and I just feel um just really grateful that you felt um comfortable um and and and are speaking out on this
081issue um you know I've been told by a board um I've been told as a board member that My Views don't necessarily reflect those of our community and so you know when um Miss Solomon you know your comment about um the Ean project you know that I I really just do appreciate hearing from members of the community because it can be hard as board members to really know um whether we are um you know being receptive and and listening to members of our community so um for me I you know I really look forward to revisiting this item hopefully um we can all come to an agreement um that we can all agree on and that you know is is attentive and responsive to the comments that we heard tonight and I just you know
082appreciate um this motion thank you i' call the vote please all in favor say I okay nine the the consent agenda passes 90 uh item 16 report from board Liaisons first item is Delaware County Community College Miss Solomon yes thank you um the Delaware County Community College is going to be hosting their annual dinner again to which um all of you Schoolboard members are invited I would encourage you to attend um it so the dinner is prepared by students from their culinary arts program typically it's um going to be held at the Delaware County Community College at their campus at 901 South media Line Road and it will be held on Wednesday October 30th so again I encourage all of you to please come and uh meet and hear about what's happening meet the staff
083at the community college and you'll meet fellow board members from around Delaware County and you'll hear what the community college is offering for our students after they matriculate from Radner thank you I just as a heads up I think you should check your email I think the date to respond is October 16th so just make sure you get your um response in earlier if you're going to attend yep I can confirm your RSVP by Wednesday October 16th perfect uh Delaware County Intermediate Unit Dr Babson sure so we met on September 4th and 11th for monthly business and committee meetings respectively and I'll just say that a highlight of uh uh of at least the the business meeting was an update on major facilities um improvements at both the marble and fall coft campuses thanks thank
084you uh Delaware County school board's legislative Council I have no report this month so the last item is psba yeah absolutely one item to share uh recently the psba released a State Legislative report uh the report details actions of the governor's office and the department of Ed and other updates um from that perspective so that was just recently released about a week and a half ago great thank you very much uh next item on the agenda is board announcements um were there any other community announcements I forgot to ask for that when we did the board leay on sometimes people have other items to bring up okay um the meeting of the for October for our committee commes are set we planning to have curriculum and Facilities on October 8th uh Finance policy and GRCC
085should meet on October 15th the as as mentioned a lot this evening the ACT 34 public hearing will be held on October 16th that will be at Ean Elementary just for people to know it's not in the administrative building and then next Tuesday October 22nd uh we will be having our regular board meeting here in the Radner Shire room of the township building uh last item on the agenda is uh live public comment uh seeing none I'm going to pass on that so now uh may I have a motion to adjourn so moved thank you Miss Stern second okay Miss Solomon thank you all in favor