02/12/2026 - RTMSD School Board Work Session

001Good evening. Welcome to the February work session of the Rose Tree Media School Board. The school board holds monthly work sessions to carry out its responsibilities in public as dictated by the Sunshine Law. At these meetings, the board standing committees conduct the work of the board through discussion with administration. We welcome the public to these meetings and depending on the length of the agenda may be able to entertain public comment. If we're not able to address comments, we encourage emails to either committee chairs or the administration. As a reminder to where our conversations should focus, the students are the center of the RTMSD learning community. Our mission states that all students will reach their intellectual, emotional, social, and physical potential in a safe environment that celebrates diversity, individual talents and efforts, and promotes collaboration, caring,

002respect, and leadership. Students will be wellprepared to create meaningful and productive lives in a global society. And we will begin. We have a few presentations tonight. We will start with the presentation about the K to1 center. An update. Thank you, Dr. Napsson Williams. Uh I'm very excited that Phil Solomon with ICS is joining us again this evening. Um I don't know if the board realizes, but this marks the oneyear anniversary that we've been doing monthly updates on where we are uh with the development of a K1 school. Um so often over the course of the last 12 months, you know, as we've talked about the project and where we are and what we're doing, um it seems like we've been waste deep in it for a long time. Um but it has been relatively short

003that we've actually been um this far. Uh if you remember a year ago, uh Phil and David Schrader and some of their colleagues were here talking about the viability of the property, uh and what that would look like for a full day kindergarten and first grade center. Um there are not a lot of major updates right now. Um we are still in the midst of uh focusing on our application that has to go into Middletown Township um to the planning committee uh before we can move forward with next steps. So Phil's just going to going to provide an update as we do and as we always do the the presentation will be on available on our website tomorrow afternoon. It also be um up there so everybody can see. All right, Phil, you ready? >>

004Yes. Thank you so much. Um, as Joe was saying, pretty brief agenda, just a little recap of prior discussions. Uh, there's some project updates and then discussion. So, in our prior discussion, we talked about the design, land development process, budget, and timeline update. It was a more full complete update last time. Um, not not a lot to present, just a couple highlights. Uh, obviously we're still on budget, but as we're on budget, we're also always going to be look at value engineering things as we go to bid. So, um, you know, that's good news. Uh, a little bit about what we're working on right now. So, if you remember the the land, uh, development package is going to need to have this pin dot realignment in it. This is the part that you've obviously seen

005several times, but this is the piece I'll talk about a little bit tonight. Oops. Sorry, my sorry about that. One of my slides went away. This is back to All right, here we go. Sorry, a little bit of delay. So, uh, last time I was here, you know, talked a little bit about the key steps in the process. So, quite a bit about land development. So, we had to complete the traffic study. Um, we then have to get an agreement with the church, submit all of that to the township, and that will start land development. Um, we talked a little bit about design. So, we're completing design development right now. We'll be reviewing that with administration before we move to construction drawings and we were going to schedule the act 34 hearing once we have

006a little bit more information. So, uh, tonight, you know what I wanted to talk about? So we have we will submit the grant tomorrow. So there's a multimo multimodal transportation fund grant. So that'll be going in tomorrow. It's for about $2.5 million. So that's kind of the first the district's first bite of getting funding for this. There is another grant that we can apply for and I believe about three months uh funded by a different fund. So um we'll we'll be submitting for both of those just in case. Um there's no harm in doing that. So this one's going in tomorrow. design status. Uh, athletics, we're still more at the schematic design until we finish some of the package because all of the civil work has to go together. So, the athletics as well as

007this piece that's going to connect um the Rose Tree Road section. Uh, the building, as I said, is about done with what's called design development. So, a lot of the key components are together and then we'll be working on construction documents after we um get everything approved in design development. We are still in discussions with the church property owners. Um there is that little sliver. It's about a quarter acre of land that is required. That land uh has an easement from PennDOT. Um so, we're just kind of piggybacking on that. So, those conversations are ongoing. Um there has been some back and forth with the two legal teams and we'll see where that stands kind of at the end of this month. Um there has been a formal appraisal of the land so it gives

008a good relative value of what it's worth. That should help in formulating this um this easement or purchase acquisition however that's going to look. Uh the traffic study is complete. I call it a draft because the that draft gets submitted to PennDOT as well the township. They give you more comments and then that finalizes that. So, um, that piece is all done, uh, with what we saw. And then the land development submission, we're targeting March, but it could be April depending on when we get that legal document from the church. So, that's all I had tonight. I mean, it's not a lot, but I did want to, you know, give you some updates and and offer some opportunities for discussion if there's any questions. >> Can you remind us um the total proposed cost or

009estimated cost for the road? It's about $2.5 million. >> So, this would cover the entire >> correct the construction portion, >> right? Thank you. >> I have a question about the timeline. So, um basically once you have the documentation in the church, we're ready to submit. >> Correct. >> For the Okay. And what is the date of the month that usually is for the next round of agendas? >> I wish I wrote that down. I'm sorry. >> Like the 20 >> I think it is >> the firstish or something. >> It's It's about the third week. Yeah. >> Do you have that down? And I'm sorry I should >> I'm just generally wondering like beginning >> Wednesday. >> Yeah. So we would submit in the March time frame for a hearing in the April time

010frame. >> Okay. So if we submit in March, it would be April. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It's about four weeks out last week's out. >> But yeah, we're prepared for all of that. We're waiting. We're waiting on this piece last piece of information that we need. And you you mentioned piggybacking on uh DOT's easement for the road. >> Not so much piggybacking, but they they are Department of Transportation already had an easement for that piece of land. >> You're just kind of accelerating your purchase of that is the maybe that's the context I was trying to get. >> I see. So, so, so it's really the acceleration we're paying for in buying that because otherwise PennDOT would just do it, right? They would do the same process as part of their process. They

011would do the appraisal valuation and then pay them for the uh the value of that land. Correct. >> Gotcha. All right. Thanks. >> Y >> Okay. Are there any other questions or comments from the board? >> A question about that again. So, um we'll own the land from the church in theory like it'll be ours. Correct. And then when the road is done and it becomes Pendot's property, will they reimburse us? >> No, >> that is a good question. I don't believe so. Not sure. >> Jackie, nothing that in in any of the meetings that we've been in um because Dr. Scott and I have had this conversation. We don't expect that PENDOT would be providing any financial enumeration to the district once the the property is seated to them. That's why we are applying

012for the grants to approach it in a different direction. >> Let me let me check on that though because that is part of their process is to pay for the piece of land that they put the gr the road on. So it's a good question. Let me let me do some research and get back to you on that. They haven't offered that. That's in the meetings we've had so far. They haven't. So I can check though. >> Yeah, it's probably true. Yeah. Okay, our board, we're good. All right, I see we have a couple of hands in the audience. And let me just say, um, please when you ask your question, try to be straightforward and succinct because I do have to repeat it so people who are listening can hear it. Okay. Yes. Go

013ahead. There's a question about what the multimodal grant is and if awarded what would it cover. >> Uh so the grant would cover the construction cost of the road. So that's what you can do with it. Um it it will not cover all the engineering costs of it. Uh but it will cover the construction costs. What's the backup plan if we are not awarded the grant? >> There's a question about what's the backup plan if the grant is not awarded awarded and of course there's another one that's on the horizon too. >> So the immediate backup plan is we're going to submit for a separate grant from DCED. um also in the order of $2.5 million. Uh there's no reason that you can't, you know, if as long as one of them gets uh awarded,

014then they will be funded. Um in case that doesn't work, I'm I'm not sure what the backup plan is. >> Okay. And I see there's another question. Somebody else had their hand up. Go ahead. >> What is the rate? This is a question about what is the price of the land of the quarter acre that the church owns. >> Uh that is in the appraisal. It's about $100,000. >> That's what you would pay the church for this little piece of land. >> That's to be determined. Yes. >> I think there's an Okay. >> What if denies request to do this to Rose Road? >> There's a question about what if Pendot denies this request for Rose Tree Road. So, that's a bridge we're going to have to face if we if we hit that. I

015don't know. Uh is my is my honest answer, Miss Wolf. Uh at this point, this is the the remediation of the Rose Tree Road and Route 352 intersection. The design that we are submitting is Pendot's design. This is one that they've talked about extensively um for almost a decade now. It's one that they presented in Middletown Township when Middletown Township hosted Pendot in the evening and they had the sign boards and all that kind of stuff. Um, we expect that this continues to be uh one of the primary focuses of the project for PENDOT to to do. Um, so we will cross that bridge when we get to it, but we have not gotten there uh at this point. >> There there is a another question. Go ahead. Okay. Um, about this being a pin

016dot initiative and there are three parts to it and there's a question about how would it work in that regard if we're talking about just doing one part. I think that is the question. >> Um, >> so what I'm showing on the screen is the complete section from the pin dot plan for this area. There are other improvements they would make off this screen altogether. Those could happen in the future, but this connection solves the traffic problem in this area. >> Okay. Is there another question from the community? I'm sorry. Let me get over here. Go ahead. Go ahead. 7,800,000. >> There's a question about uh something on the a budget update. You say line eight, I believe, about the athletic fields, the January 8th meeting about athletic fields. Okay. Is some answer. >> MS.

017I would have to I would have to see the document that you're that you're looking at. I'm not sure whether that was part of the presentation >> there. Another question about uh >> so the what you're referring to, Mr. Randles, is part of the presentation that the IC folks delivered um that lays out the the cost of the projects. Uh the first one is the K1 uh early learning center >> asking the line item that was added about >> right right the the the people that are watching though can't see that. So I'm just trying to explain what the chart is that's on here. Uh it is that it is in the presentation. There are two other columns that are in there. One is the athletics edition. That's where it's listed the $7,480. Um that's

018for the new athletic complex. The redoing uh where the baseball field is to become a multi-use field. baseball, softball, and a multi-use piece that's there. Yes. The the board approve. >> What is that? >> What's the $7,480,000 to do that athletic field to do all of the work and the installation of the field and everything that goes along with that? The board approved the expenditure for that project during the May or I'm sorry during the June meeting uh in 2025. >> So, without any turf, bids and anything like that. So the without so the question is without any turf bids incorrect. There weren't any bids that were put in before that project. However, we use the professionals to give us the estimate about what it'll take to do that. We can't physically go out for

019bid until after the projects have been approved by the board and then subsequently approved by the planning commission. Uh and going through each of those steps. After all of those things, we can actually go out for bid. Prior to go out going out for bid though, we use the professionals who are in the field to give us the estimates for what it costs at this at that time with an expectation. What would it be a year from now, 18 months from now uh with the additional cost for inflation or whatever else uh to do that? That's where we come up with the estimates for the projects >> that this figure was approved. >> So the project was approved. There was a a lump sum that was approved. There was nothing that said that $7 million

020um last June at the legislative meeting was the second th Okay. >> Not at all for the approvals of the board. >> So that specific it was not in there. That specific amount was not in there. There was a dollar amount that was there for doing the athletic fields. For the athletic fields, if you remember, we spent a better part of a year doing examination at the athletic fields in the district. It includes work to be done over at the high school. It includes the installation of a new uh synthetic field here at the middle school as well as the as well as the all surface track and then work on the grass fields as well. >> I don't know if I So your question is the budget for the school includes all of that

021too. >> Everything you just said? No, ma'am. The what you are looking at lists specifically those two projects that are on there and actually in those three columns there are three projects because one involves the new road I believe. >> All right. Do we have another question? Go ahead. question of whether the district will p pick up the 200 $2.5 million for the the project if we don't get the the grants for the road work. >> Yes. Yes. >> All right. We have another question or comment. There's a question about at the one of the work sessions November um that someone perhaps the engineer said at 352 in Baron Road there would still be a problem. So it's a question about I guess why aren't we dealing with that? So there traffic is a concern

022and a challenge in this area, right? that that's not something that has developed over the course of the last year or the last two years. Um, in conversation recently, I was talking with some folks, you know, and I they said, "Well, what would you do differently?" I said, "I would go back 35 years or 40 years and talk differently about what's being done with the infrastructure in this area prior to the building and the construction of the new residences and everything else that's been put in because I don't think the infrastructure was addressed in time. Yes, there's a challenge with 352 and Rose. There's no question about that. Mr. Chanzik, you and I have had that conversation. Mrs. Wolf and I have had that conversation. We talked about that. We heard very clearly from you

023all as residents in the community back there about the challenge of the traffic that's there. that dramatically impacted the design and the layout of the school on this property and how we intend to get children onto that property because of the concerns that were raised by the residents. the issue that exists at 352 and Rose Tree Road and to be able to address the traffic because we I will get to Baron Road in a second. At 352 and Rose Tree Road, the issue that exists there in order to be good stewards and good neighbors because of what we are going to provide for the community in a full day kindergarten program and a kindergarten and first grade center. We believe it's the right thing to do. The board talked about it. The board deliberated about

024it. We spend a lot of time talking about what are the implications of doing that and in making that determination. It's the right thing to do for everyone. Unfortunately, in this day and age, school districts are asked to do a lot more than they are responsible for. And that goes across the board. But we are. So, because it's the right thing to do, we're going to step forward and to do that. The issues that exist at 352 and Baron Road are real. They also are real. Our scope of what we are able to do and with what is in within our control is limited. We can make a very strong argument to PennDOT to Middletown Township about how this benefits the community and the construction of the school that's there. Addressing the additional road issues

025at 352 and Baron Road are a little bit wider because they're not directly adjacent to our property much like some of the other issues that exist on Route 1 that have also been pushed back, you know, for for 10 years or so. Yes, those all will benefit all of us here. Those are not all directly adjacent to property under which is our locus of control and for which we can do something to develop and to provide something better for the community. We take this on as a responsibility for the entire community. This will benefit everyone. Addressing these traffic issues will have a substantive effect more than the 180 days that children will be in that school. That will impact traffic. putting this in at 352 in Rose Tree Road more than the 180 days that

026we have children that are in those in that school. >> Um I have to relay this. you you're just emphasizing that um one of our um guests emphasized that there's something needs to be done at Baron Road and 352. Um I do not believe he said we were going to do it. He said it something needs to be done and that's goes to what uh Dr. Malash said about the larger issue. Um, and that it needs to be sort of a it's sort of pendot in the community in Middletown, not us because it's not adjacent to our property. Okay. All right. Is there And then we're going to uh sort of wrap this up. Yes. There's a question about what is the engineering cost and time frame for the school. >> I'm sorry, for the

027realignment. >> Yeah, that is still under determination. Pendot's going to have to give us feedback on what they need in their engineering specifications. Uh the road will be done obviously prior to the school. uh road construction about a year but we got to get we would have to get all of the infrastructure in place first. >> Did you have an estimate of what the engineering clause? >> We do not yet like that that is that sits with PennDOT. So this is a multiple multiple agencies work on this not just one or the school district. So there's feedback that we have to submit that they will give us feedback. They will give us some specifications to work with and then we'll develop that. >> All right. Um, is there anything else from the board regarding this

028CAD one center update? Right. If it's the question is quick and because then we have to move on. >> Do you need in the school desks, chairs, cafeteria? >> There's a question about the overall cost of the school and whether it includes everything that we need to put in the school. um desk, chairs, etc., etc. >> Yes, that's called FFN in the budget and that's all budgeted for already. >> Correct. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. Now, we we have another presentation um curriculum K to8 for math and ELA. >> Thank you, Dr. Nass Williams. Uh and Miss Conine, I believe you're going to do some introductions for us. Um Dr. Nillians and the board, I am very excited about this presentation as as we laid out um back late in the summer,

029guess August and then into September presentation schedule, the tenative schedule about when we want to bring certain things forward. This is one that's been marked on my calendar that I've been excited to see and to be a part of and to hear about uh with the work that's going on. And we have some wonderful, wonderful people that are here this evening to talk about the good work that's going on in our district. Focus as they will talk about is going to be K through 8 um and English language arts and mathematics. So Miss Considine, if you will jump them off. >> Great. So thank you for letting us come. Um we have we brought a team. So we are very excited to be here. Um Dr. Janine Mberry is here with us. She is our

030supervisor of CNI um in English language arts among some other responsibilities. But tonight um she'll be talking about our English language arts program. Um Tina Loveland Smith is here to give us kind of a an update after four years of our implementation with Eureka. We've also um are very lucky to have um Lauren Daily Clark. She is also a supervisor and in the um in student services and she's been working handinhand with us um as we have implemented CKLA and ELA. Um this year we have Miss Christine Johnston who teaches fourth grade um at Indian Lane. Um she's going to talk about math a little bit and Miss Kotrris is fifth grade at Media Elementary. She's going to be sharing um some feedback about her classroom and CKLA and I'm not going to talk at

031all. I know it's shocking, but it's true. So, I'm going to move out of the way. Tina, take over because that way it won't sweep. >> Okay. Okay. >> Um, so my piece of this, um, I feel like it was eons ago, um, that I sat here talking to you about, um, adopting Amplify or not Amplified, that's you, Eureka, uh, Math Squared. And so today, I'm really excited to be here. Um, we are in our fourth year of implementation. So, we're about, you know, halfway three and a half year three and a half years in. Um, and we have some data that we can share and I'm excited to do that with you. So, for a few minutes, I just want to kind of take us back in time. Um, I'm going to be sharing

032some statistics that are uh growth that are rooted in growth expectations for our students and then we'll talk about overall percentages as well and performance with percentages. Um, so we're going to start with PEOS, which is our Pennsylvania value added um, assessment system. And basically what PES does is um, takes baseline data from students when they first start take their PSSAs in third grade and they begin to predict expected growth of the students. Um so in 201819 um you can see it starts 18's at the top and then it goes fourth through 8th grade and then we have 2019 4th through 8th grade and then we have keystone algebra and as you can see we were in a situation um where many students were significantly below the expected growth. So administration at the time recognized

033that and I was still in the classroom at that point and then the dark time hit and and that just sort of took over everything, right? Um so I just wanted to take us back for a minute because I mean I'm not going to lie and it's for a fact because of what I'm about to show you. Um so I'm going to jump ahead to 2023 and the reason that I'm doing that is because one 2020 we didn't have PSSAs. um in 2021 we didn't have growth data at that point because we had just they had just taken the test again and in 2022 when Dr. Kunrad and I sat down 2022 our district was still really affected by by coming out of the pandemic. So in 2023 you'll see there there is some movement

034with our growth data and this was the first year of implementation of Eureka Math Squared. So the students were about 2thirds of the way through the first year of implementation when they took um the PSSE and >> I just want to be clear this is gain not total proficiency this is how much >> this is growth okay >> this is just growth so these their achievement you know we we have students that achieve on the high end m middle low end but this is whether or not they were basically growing a year's worth in a year's Okay. So here 2023 is still at the top. we have a lot of growth. We are in the dark blue which means there was significant evidence to support that students had exceeded their growth targets. And in 20

03525 um you can see almost across the board we did have that little blip that um sixth grade class that kind of came through sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, but they were still meeting their growth standards. So if you're in the green, they're still meeting their growth standards. Um and so and there was work being done by teachers um at the high school and in the middle school working with um algebra and aligning things for algebra 1 and the keystone. So I think this is really good. Um I am extremely pleased. Um, and really, you know, I I've just got done doing a tour across all of the buildings, meeting with grade levels who are implementing uh, Eureka, and I said to them, I said, you know, our teaching staff hasn't changed much. Of

036course, we've had some turnover, but I think what really mattered is that we put a solid core program into the hands of our teachers. And it is a program that is rooted in helping students understand the why and really conceptualize math. And I believe that because of this program and because of the wonderful teachers we have that we are seeing this type of growth. It's not um you know we can look at the overall population but it's also our responsibility to look at how this is affecting students at either end of the spectrum whether they are students who are gifted with GIPS or students with IEPs. It's important that we take, you know, and keep our eyes on that, especially because in 2023, as you remember, we um exited the acceleration program for math at

037the elementary level. Now, students um are not uh given the opportunity to accelerate until the end of seventh grade. they are screened and decisions are made and then they move into eighth grade either eighth grade math or they can enter into algebra 1. So when we look at our students with GIPS again um I like to look at cohorted data. So you know if we look at this fourth grade class in 2023 they really were not making any growth. they were well below um in 2024 in fifth grade they had come up a bit into the blue and then by 2025 they have an 8.18 in order to enter into that um dark blue that region of like well exceeding their growth expectation you have to have a 2.0. So looking at those numbers with,

038you know, 8.73, 8 8.18, 6.94, we have students who are well exceeding those projected growth targets. And again, with our students with IEPs, you know, obviously in in our goal is to have all of our students in that blue and dark blue range, whether they are gifted, whether they have IEPs, whether they are somewhere in the middle on that continuum, we want them all there. But even with um what we're doing with students with IEPs, we are seeing some progression towards that green and blue and dark blue. And obviously we keep a close eye working. Um I I just had a Zoom with um teachers that teach um support classes at the middle school and we were talking about just how they're using Eureka Math um how it is serving the population and just kind

039of brainstorming ideas for how we can streamline and really support those students. Me oh I'm sorry um this is the overall long-term performance. So these are our percent of students that are proficient and advanced. And again, you know, we're looking Dr. Kunrad pulled up from 2017 to to our current year, well, not our current year, but 2025 current data year. Um, I made the table on the right just because I think a lot of discussion has been had about, you know, have schools reached their preandemic levels? Have they recuperated? And happily, we have in almost every grade level um exceeded where we were pre- pandemic. Um I think all of this Christine has been wonderful. Um she's been one of the classrooms that I have spent a lot of time in over these last couple

040of years. um because she's so welcoming and I just kind of like to see what her class is doing. So, I just wanted to give her an opportunity to kind of give you a day in the life of of what it looks like in her classroom. >> Thank you. And thank you for letting me be here to talk about um something I love and honestly a program that I I really do enjoy working with. Um I think it's important before moving forward to seeing what our classroom looks like now is to kind of remember what it used to look like. And I was one of those teachers. I was teaching middle school math. I was at the front of the board. I was giving my kids the steps on this is how you solve a

041problem and they were repeating and mimicking exactly what I was doing. It was this is how you do it but there was no depth of understanding. Um now it looks completely different and it's really exciting. Uh if you were come if you were to come into my class now the first thing that you would see is this. You would see these kids engaging in a task. Um the first thing we typically do is a low floor high ceiling task which means that it is accessible to every single child in my classroom. This gets them engaging with math. It builds their confidence. It's pretty incredible to watch. Then this is our lesson and again you can see this is not teacherled. This is students um being given a task and exploring various ways to get to

042the end result. you see a lot of connections being made. You see collaboration, discussions. Um, and my favorite part is that the true understanding is coming because they're doing it. It's not me telling them how to do it. Um, a good example is today we were doing um renaming improper fractions and mixed numbers which I taught all the time at the middle school and I said to the kids, "This is the way I used to do it. It was like four and two fifths." I'm like, "So, I used to multiply the denominator by the whole number. You'd add the numerator. Why does it work?" Gave the kids a minute. Hands were raised and they could tell me. It's because I have four groups of five and then the numerator is my leftover parts. It's like

043magical to watch these kids truly understand. Um, the other part that I love is that at the end of each class, uh, we do an exit ticket and it's kind of the time that they come together and really, um, put out what they have learned that day. And it's neat for me as an educator because within one minute I can go through all of those exit tickets. I know where every student has landed in terms of their understanding. Um, I think one of the cool things about that is then my instruction is immediately informed moving forward, whether it's during core extension or the next day. And I think again that prevents like these large gaps of misunderstanding. Um, and that is another way that they build confidence. So, um, I love the program, the kids

044love it, and I, if you don't mind, um, I asked them why they loved it because they're the most important part of the equation. Um, I said, "How like what do you love about the way we do math now?" They love that they have multiple ways to solve one problem. That was not the way it used to be. They love the warm-ups and I think that that's because they're engaged and that it builds their confidence. They love learning from their peers. I'm not the only person telling them what's going on. Um it's cool to see why it works. I personally love that the most. And they said they get to do the work. So, um, it's really a fantastic thing to see in the classroom and I appreciate you letting me talk and share that

045experience. So, where are we going looking forward? Um, the plan is to continue to use Eureka Math Squared as our core program. uh to continue to support individual student needs as they arise and to continue to support teachers in their understanding of best practices around math instruction and assessment because I think it's really important to give kudos to our educators because anybody of a certain age, which is everybody here, um we did not learn math this way, right? Like we we learned it the way that Christine explained how she taught it um earlier in her career. And um so we have teachers who really are you know educ having to educate themselves first to feel really comfortable in that and then to turn around and to have these conversations with students and and that's a

046big lift and I think that's one of the best things over the past couple years that I've seen is just teachers really feeling more comfortable with this. It was it was a heavy lift. There's a lot of manipulatives with this program to help students really um construct their own meaning and really build that conceptual understanding and all of those things come along with systems that have to be built within the classroom and that's all done by by our teachers. So I I just I have to give them um their their props because they deserve it. So I sort of love them. Okay. So Oh, I didn't I didn't actually. I've um we've had two surrounding school districts reach out to us. Um and the one came to me from um the director of the math

047department in a in a district that's very close by and very large. And um he said, "Uh do you have any time for a Zoom call?" And I said, "Sure." You know what what's up? and he said, 'Well, I was looking through, you know, the state data of, you know, our surrounding districts and I want to know what you have going on at the middle school. And I said, 'Oh. I'm like, sure, we can talk about that. So, um, so we met and talked about that. Um, and in addition to that, um, our implementation specialist that I have worked with with Eureka Math Squared, she reached out. She said, "I had a school district contact me. they were looking around and saw that your district uses this and noticed that your your data is really

048good. Would you mind um meeting and just having a conversation with them about about Eureka? And I said, "No, absolutely not." Like, I believe I think every student should have the opportunity to learn math the way that our students are learning math. And I'm so incredibly proud of the work that's being done here in this area. So, all right. >> Thank you, Tina. >> Yeah. So to share the other side of the coin, um, at Rostream Media, we're in our first year of implementation of Amplify Core Language Arts in grades K through five and amplify English language arts in grades 6 through 8. In 2023, the district made a strategic decision to change our K to8 literacy programming to ensure that we're aligned with the science of reading and evolving state expectations. Today we use

049Amplify CLA grades K through five to support systematic phonics, knowledge building, and comprehension and Amplify ELA 6 through 8 to engage students in complex text, vocabulary development, and writing to strengthen reading. As you know, we piloted Amplify in the fall of 2024 at the middle school level and expanded our pilot in the spring of 2025 to both elementary and middle school classrooms. We knew that by strengthening our reading instruction, we would see growth in our students skills. So, part of the why behind this decision is Pennsylvania Act 47 passed into law in 2025. The act requires districts to strengthen the literacy instruction statewide by requiring the implementation of evidence-based reading instruction aligned with the science of reading. The law emphasized structured literacy, systematic phonics, vocabulary development, and comprehension. Act 47 also mandated universal K through

050K through3 literacy screenings, targeted intervention, and ongoing professional learning for educators. Both Amplify CKLA and Amplify ELA meet this state requirement, positioning Rose Tree Media School District ahead of state expectations. In addition, the district has completed structured literacy training for classroom teachers grade K through 12. Launched letters, that's language essentials for teachers of reading and spelling. I had to make sure I heard that. Um, it's a 2-year intensive research-based science of reading professional development. We currently have 21 educators um working through that course. >> Thank you. So when looking at reading performance data over the years, the students in the Rose Media School District have generally performed pretty well, but our struggle has also been growth of our students. In 2024, we brought the Delaware County Intermediate Unit to examine our instruction. We found that

051in order to grow our students, we need to adopt a more systematic approach to reading and writing. Through Amplify, we've increased student engagement, built stamina, and shifted our writing instruction to better strengthen comprehension and critical thinking. That's so cool. >> So with Amplify, our elementary instruction in intentionally connects phonics, knowledge, vocabulary, and writing. So students build stronger reading skills at every grade level. For example, our first graders are exploring the moon and the solar system while building reading skills and learning about science content. And our fourth graders are sailing the ocean with Long John Silver, developing comprehension, vocabulary, and writing. >> Yeah. >> In middle school, Amplify ELA continues this con connected approach to literacy. Our sixth graders are analyzing myths and historical text while building vocabulary, background knowledge, and learning how to site evidence

052in their writing. By eighth grade, students are engaging with complex text, developing arguments, analyzing author's craft, and using writing to deepen their comprehension. We're ensuring students leave middle school prepared to read, write, and think at high levels. The front touch the light. >> Okay. Hi everyone. It's great to see you again. I haven't seen you all together in a long time, so thanks for having me. Um, just wanted to report a little bit on special education and the new curriculum, Amplify CKLA and ELA. Um, so Janine and I have been working very closely together all year um, specifically to support uh, the elementary teachers and now we're moving in I'm moving in more to support the middle school teachers as well. But given that this was brand new for all of our K to5 teachers,

053I wanted to spend a lot of my time supporting them in that way. Um, so our teachers have been fabulous this year with reaching out with questions to myself and to the other supervisors and also have been very collaborative with their regular ed colleagues to support the students with IEPs within their classrooms. So I'm happy to report that many of our students are fully included for the entire ELA block. um in previous years they have been pulled out for different parts in different sections but this amplify CKLA curriculum really allows students to be engaged in a different way. Um specifically for our students in K through two there are really um explicit instruction routines that will help support students for decoding and fluency word reading early literacy skills. In addition, across the curriculum, there are

054scaffolds built in um for our teachers. So, differentiation tools, things like that, so they can um differentiate their overall instruction for the needs of the students in their classrooms. As Janine shared, like this curriculum is very rigorous and robust in building background knowledge and strong vocabulary for students. So our even our students who might be reading below grade level are really engaging and listening to um texts that are well above their grade level. So they're really building that background knowledge which will overall help in their reading comprehension. The opportunities for remediation and enrichment are embedded in daily instruction as the curriculum spirals not only throughout the grade levels but if you looked at the K through five span you would see that the curriculum spirals throughout the um different grade levels as well. So topics

055that are students are exposed to in first grade, they will revisit them perhaps again in second and third grade. Um which is going to benefit our students with IEPs because they need that repeated exposure and repeated practice. Um in addition, CKLA comes with a supplement called the assessment and remediation guide which our special education teachers are starting to tap into. We truly didn't want to throw everything at them all at once. um we really wanted them to get comfortable with supporting that tier one instruction before we layered on that extra intervention and support. So that assessment and remediation guide just allows for reteing of skills that students may not have mastered specifically in that decoding and word recognition word recognition strand. So things like phenology and phonics. >> Um what am I missing here? Anything?

056>> I think that's >> okay. That's it. and to tell us a little bit more about thank you for letting me come in and share. This has been an exciting year. I did get an opportunity last year in the spring to uh participate in the pilot. So, I kind of got my feet wet last year, enjoyed it, only got a couple of units in. So, then this year I got to see all the different topics. Um, what you're looking at here kind of feels similar to Christine. Kids are on the rug. Kids are, you know, working together. Kids are getting into it. This was from our ancient civilizations unit, which was our second unit. We started with personal narratives, then we did ancient civilizations. Um, so it had geography. It had history. And what's really

057cool when I was talking to Janine about is kids have ties to this as far as travel. Um, they know people who went to these places. I brought in artifacts. My mom had gone to Machu Picchu. Um, we were able to get our hands on things in the hallway. We played pocket talk like we made it come to life. Um and that makes it memorable for kids. So students in the bottom right corner are making a codeex project and we kind of used like old Trader Joe's bags because it looked old and we tore it and we made it dirty and we did all the stuff with tea bags and things. um they were comparing the Aztecs to the Inca to the Maya and this was a progression over time and that speaks to the

058writing strengthens comprehension and thinking and it's kind of different in that as we went through the unit they were adding they were learning how to paraphrase they were taking their own notes and it just felt like really strong skills that they would be using later in life and it was really self-driven. Um the students in the bottom picture to the left on their own decided I was explaining to Janine they kind of came to a group they each had to pick a topic that they were going to focus on whether that was farming social class or architecture and that group I think was doing social class and they delegated to one another and said you read these pages I'll read these pages we'll come together we'll collaborate and they were so excited they couldn't wait

059to just push their desk together and take their notes um and I think the other students were doing maybe the farming one but so many opportunities to work together. Um, as previously mentioned, these are robust texts. Um, we're doing the deep ocean now, and that's the other cool thing. We switched topics. The different units are vastly different. So, we went from ancient civilizations to poetry. Um, and they kind of had cool spiral little notebooks that they were taking notes in and writing their own poems and sharing the poems at home and sharing with the other grades because the other grades do poetry as well. Um, so we kind of had a mentor program going on there. Then we did Doniote which was also interesting because I said maybe your parents have read this and they

060went home and talked to their parents and their parents had read a version. We had a simplified version of course but um and it was just interesting because in fourth grade they had done or this year fourth grade they would have done it if they had the program medieval times and so these things do spiral and it's going to be fun to see over time how they carry over that information. They were very involved in knights and what it took to become a knight. So the interest levels there that speaks to the increased student engagement um the stamina they're reading more they're reading longer texts they're reading more complex texts and it is a consistent routine we're always reading we're always coming to the carpet together we're engaging together today we had a very long

061discussion about marine biologists and what are the roles of marine biologists and what are they doing and you know conservation and these bigger issues that sound complicated but kids can come at it from lots of different angles regardless of their uh reading ability and what their background is, but they're building a lot of vocabulary and background and they're contributing what they have from their families and also taking the conversations home, which I think is really valuable because in other opportunities, some of those kids might might not have spoken up. So, I think it is very engaging. We've had a very successful year so far. We're also looking forward to future topics. I was jotting them down. Um, Native Americans, there's going to be a novel study with a fiction novel and then global architecture as

062well, which I'm personally very excited about. So, um, the kids are very engaged. they're having a really good time. It is a shift, but it's a positive shift. It's challenging them in ways that they haven't been challenged and I think that's what some of our students needed was that extra boost. So, we've had a really positive experience with the CKLA and I'm looking forward to the future topic. So, thank you for letting me share that with everybody. The kids are very much enjoying it and they're going to be happy that I got to share that with all of you because they're really interested. So, thank you. >> Thanks. >> I have a quick question. I >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Thank you so much for the presentation, everybody. all parts. I'm really curious um if

063this has translated at all, even anecdotal evidence that it's translated at all to students reading in their free time. Have there been more trips to library? Can you talk about that? >> Absolutely. I mean, >> and it's and it speaks like different genres. So, we're doing a lot of non-fiction, so in their free time, they're they're coming up with other novels. Um and like historically referenced stuff, too. I was saying to in a group session at our school about a timeline. This kids kind of don't understand timelines necessarily. When we talked about the ancient civilizations, it was like hold on a second. We need to take a day to like really go back go back. And I say this cuz like I physically back back with kids. And then we talked about Doniote different time

064period. We're going to talk about you know Native Americans different time period. Um so it kind of gets them a little bit interested about okay medieval times. What else can I do with that? And it kind of kind of spi not spirals but like makes them think about other things and it does get them interested and then alternately you know they'll pick up their fiction books too from the library so they kind of have that balance so they're kind of reading more I would say more often so they can have that balance and it's also pulling them into other interest levels that they probably wouldn't have picked up donote to right they probably wouldn't have done that and somebody who didn't think about knights or maybe wouldn't have even conceived of knight it's like oh

065this knight character is kind of interesting like where can I go with this and what else can I talk um you know knights in medieval times and there are other time periods that maybe I never would have touched. So yeah, I I would think so and we've only seen a little piece of it but I think it is opening their eyes to more conversations and more topics and the potential to open that other book that they wouldn't have necessarily opened. So yeah, if that helps >> on that as well, just for an anecdotally, my second grader at me elementary has talked my ear off about the Greek mythology uh section and in fact had different Greek mythology things that were on his Christmas list this year. So it does translate the bay now that I

066ever would have. >> Any other questions, comments from the board? I will say that I mean I felt very excited listening to all of this, right? It was I felt a lot of energy and it's clear that the kids are picking up on that. So, thank you all for that. >> Just just for clarification, this was the first year of the ELA, CKLA, so we have no actual like testing data on that at all yet. Right. Okay. >> Sorry, going off going off of that. Um, and I'm so excited, by the way, for the Eureka Squared update. I I'm also still in shock that we started this four years ago because I feel like it was just the other day, but um, but I'm very excited for that. And then now also, I know going

067into Amplify. So, I'm hoping that moving forward um we'll continue to get updates to hear how things are going uh from all of this and um if it gets kids to be more interested, but also as a teacher on my own day job, like for kids to be able to ask the why and to see the importance behind it isn't deeply gratifying and I'm glad to hear that that is what's happening and they're also learning such skills as working together, helping supporting each other and peer-to-peer learning. Um, so that is fantastic and like I said, I would just love to hear more updates moving forward so that we can continue to just bask in their glow. Well, you >> I think to me the most interesting thing is even since my kids went through this

068system here is that it's not just words for the sake of understanding the phonics sequencing or the you know diagramming a sentence and understanding verbs and nouns in ways that are just infinitely boring to the kids. this is something that completely puts together both the learning of all the language skills but also something that's interesting for them in a way that's much more comprehensive. So very grateful. Thank you. Um we might have something from the community. Yes. seeing better and everything. I'm happy that you know a lot of people, but it seems like it's still >> Okay, there's a question about the the math and that maybe there's something missing. Um, and she wants to get some more information about that. And so it seems like you're saying all through elementary and middle school you're

069saying you're all going to be the same. Nobody can like try to be better. No one can try to get better. And then >> all right, let me >> we need to make sure people can hear what you're saying. And that's why I asked for questions to be clear and succinct. So the the question seems to be that there's a feeling that maybe some kids are not getting it. And so, can you respond to that? >> I'm sorry. Let her I'm sorry. She's going to have to respond to it. Okay. I'm sorry, but I'm trying to repeat it so people can hear and it's sort of long, so I'm trying to break it up. So, maybe she can answer this part and then we'll come back to you. Okay. >> Just so I'm sure that

070I understand your question. So, you're wondering if we have students. It's on. >> Don't hold it. >> Correct. Okay. So, um, two things. There's there's twofold there. Number one, um, if we have students who are showing that they understand the skills, we have teachers who obviously our teachers are observing all the time, right? So in those types of cases, we have protocols where teachers can begin to allow students to complete their exit tickets for daily lessons or even preassess with a topic assessment. And if those students demonstrate that they understand those skills and don't need that seated instruction, then we have been building over the last several years more and more enrichment projects, right? Because what the data or not data research tells us is that when you have students who are performing, what's really

071beneficial for growth um is that we give them opportunities to dig deeper and to take the skills that they're learning and apply them to novel situations to real life types of scenarios, right? So we have those types of projects and we give those students opportunities to let's say you know student A tests out of their daily exit ticket. They will then go they will complete the the last page of their that lesson which is all word problem application type of problems. There's usually four or five maybe of those and then they have projects that they can go on to either working independently in pairs or in small groups. Then this last year I guess the gifted program was turned over to curriculum and instruction. We now have acceleration guidelines in place. So when we have

072students who have data that is because we will we will have students who who need more. We are responding to those students individually on an individual basis. There's a team that reviews the data. There's assessments that are done and then those students we currently have a few that are being accelerated because they met that criteria. So it's like there's multi there's many tiers to this and then we have students with GIPS who have math goals and those goals are being addressed with a combination of classroom and gifted support. >> Yeah. But so when do they is there are they being put it in a separate class maybe in the elementary because in middle school I'll tell you it's it it's still the regular class and it's okay you can do this you have to do

073some delta math but you have to do it on your own time so it doesn't feel fair >> okay the question is is are in elementary school are they being put in a separate class those who may need more help >> not with math specifically I mean we have students who have gips who go to gifted support that's built into the elementary schedule and if they have math goals then those math goals are addressed there as well as other you know other goals that they may have. There is not there is no longer a separate accelerated math class. That's not happening. That's being addressed within our class because we have heterogeneous grouping. So typically we do have a a small group of students who are on that higher end being addressed. In the high school

074it may look different or I'm sorry middle school. the middle school may look different. >> It just seems like, okay, you're you're good at this. You have to do more math on your own time. >> Well, that's what's happening. That's what's happening to my and >> that is a conversation absolutely had at the building level. Yeah. That is the first place. And I do have to say for our middle school, this is, you know, we're looking at our schedule right now because this is a 60-minute program and we know at the middle school currently they have 46 minutes period, right? So that is an ongoing com. We just had our our first scheduling meeting actually today. But definitely that is a building level discussion to where you should begin with your teacher and the principal.

075Certainly Tina or myself >> can participate in those, but that's where you begin. >> Great. Um, I'm sorry. We We're going to >> I'm sorry. There's somebody else who has a question, so we're going to move. Go ahead, please. >> We're really pleased to see you sharing math results specific to your IEP and your GI populations. Um, I think it's very important to understand the whole scope. You shared benchmarks for your general population. I was wondering if you have similar benchmarks for your IEP and GI populations and if you don't because I know that there's data issued potentially how can you evaluate beyond your growth numbers sort of those schools how they're performing. I'm sorry I have to interrupt you because um I want to make clear and I'm I'm not going to I'm I'm

076the uh the IEP and the GEIP. You say you want you wanted to see benchmarks and you're curious about that. Let's try to get that answered and then we'll >> So when we talk about benchmarking with PEOS and growth data, it's third grade uh their PSSA results. That's their benchmark. So all students take that. >> My question was benchmarking against similar cohorts who experienced the previous curriculum. >> So it's a question about um looking at benchmarks from other cohorts from uh previous programs. Is that what the question? >> Sorry. the impact of the curriculum on those >> I mean the impact of of that was shown in the growth data from Oh, you're saying I getcha. I understand you want that broken out data for 2018 2019 for the gifted and the GI. >> Gotcha.

077I'm sure that we can get that and I know we communicate. So that's something that Dr. Kunrad and I I'm sure can work on to provide and let you take a look at. One thing I know we the peos isn't broken down the way that you're that you're discussing, right? So the state doesn't give us that. >> That was and that was the issue I think uh when he dug back now that I'm like processing everything. That was why he wasn't able to give us because PEOS doesn't hold on to the data that long for years. >> Yeah. So I don't know if we can get that. I think he tried to produce that but wasn't able to because of the way that that the state holds on to the data but I will double

078check that. >> Okay. I think we have a question from the board. Okay. Go ahead. >> Um I just had a question. I'm looking at the overall performance percentages between 2019 and 2025. Like can you explain the like the grade eight? Excuse me. Um, some of them are really accelerated, some of them are not, especially grade eight and grade seven. >> Which slide? >> Um, overall long-term performance. And then again, um I was also going to ask about um learners with um disabilities, math disabilities, like how do they play and are they in the if they're in the same classroom? How are they their needs attended to? Um how do we know if they are actually um increasing in their knowledge? because some of them there's just certain things they'll never grasp like other students

079you know like um um so I think when you look at this at this um table here you have to remember that in 2025 there are varying degrees of the number of students and of how many years they have had with Eureka right so um when you look at 202 25 with grade three. You figure everybody here had two years, right? The issue is when you look at fifth grade um when you start a new program, okay, fifth grade is dropped into the last year of elementary math with a new program and especially with a program like Eureka or like Amplify where there are so many routines and strategies that are built in um to the program and they're starting at ground zero but with really hard really difficult skills, right? So it's a bigger

080jump for those students. Um so when you look at grade three, grade three has this giant jump, but they had had two years of this and so that would mean they started in grade one, right? they had they had the foundation and now they have two years starting from the foundation of the program and now they're sitting in third grade and we can see that you know they're doing really well. We're not going to see I can also speak to grade four. There were some questions about whether the modules in Eureka were aligned to really serve the students. So there was a little bit of of shifting that we were doing with teacher input to see if the the progression of the modules really matched what we needed because with any program right this program

081isn't specifically aligned to PSSAs. So we have been looking at that. We have now this year solidified a progression that we're using. We are following the progression. We've just made a little bit of tweaks with how teachers can expand on lessons to kind of blend it together and get those students where they think they need to be prior to the assessment. But I think that's part of the reason why you see some grade levels. The other thing is when you look at performance 2025 is a snapshot of a particular cohort of children, right? So it's you may have a a we have groups that come through that are really at the top of performance. It's just it's like what was in the water that year. You know, there's sometimes just those years it's just one

082snapshot. That's why I like to look at the growth data more because then you're looking at the same cohort of kids go through multiple years. Um I'm going to let Dan speak to what's happening as far as learning support because he's the expert. So yeah, so specific to a student with a math disability and we're very fortunate with the board support to have the continuum of services that we would want to offer. Some of our students have their math instruction that's happening in that general education classroom with pushin support from a special education teacher. Sometimes that support is coming through the the work of a par profofessional who may be co-eing or supporting a classroom. And then if a student has a specific math disability, it's a high likelihood that they're also then going to

083get a bonus amount of I shouldn't say bonus, that's a bad word, an additional amount of math intervention through core extension where they're getting direct instruction from a special education teacher. So they would get the regular ed math instruction plus that extra help in in the core extension time. And then at the far end of the continuum, we we do have a small population of students who might be re uh receiving replacement instruction that's not with Eureka, but if their disability is at as at a level that's, you know, a little bit more complex, they're going to get a different type of curriculum that's going to meet their needs >> contained within these numbers or or is that >> ultimately? Yes, it is contained with it within the numbers. All of our students who took

084the PSSA would be included in this. We have a very small percentage of our students about 1.3% who take the alternative assessment and then every year there is a handful of students maybe about 3 to 4% whose families opt out of that assessment. So you're talking a good 95% of our students are encapsulated in this data. >> A benefit to really pull out some of those specific learners to see how well they're doing versus overall. >> We always want to look at that data and especially with a student again specific with a dis a math disability. We want to look at not only that state data but also their individual data and progress monitoring that's happening as part of their individualized plan. And to me that's that's happening in real time in the buildings like

085that that actually exists. That's where it gets down to the granular level you know is the the principles and the MTSS teachers and the special educators and the teams they get down to the individual children and can pinpoint specifically where are the weaknesses where are the strengths what needs to be adjusted or modified. We don't go to that granular level typically here in the presentations just because of trying to get the big perspective about what goes on. But it's a great question. But that that is active and what goes on. That's it's one of the strengths of our student services department um you know which literally is built on the backs of the teachers and what they are doing in the buildings on a daily basis. >> In the slide that is showing the IEPs.

086You're right. So that would be sorry I'm so loud. That would be students with an IEP. Right. So you're right. wouldn't we in that snapshot it wouldn't have been students just with a math disability versus it would have been all students with an IEP just the way the GIP is not students who necessarily had the math goal versus a reading goal it was all was a snapshot of all the learners so did that clarify >> yeah something else from a board member >> no sorry I was just going to suggest we move on and anyone with questions you just email the administration directly since we're kind of outside the board's work at this point. >> Okay. >> Um well, if the the question is relevant to this presentation, yes. And just remember the the guidelines,

087please. I'm just trying to relay the information. So the question is how this model fits with the high school and block scheduling. Okay. Okay. That I mean can she she has to answer the question. All right. Go ahead. >> Thank you because we're going to segue to that exact presentation. So I'm gonna let CNI and um student services and our teachers thank you so much. Um, and we're going to switch over to Mr. Roth who's going to talk about that a little bit. >> Thank you guys. >> Great. >> So, now we're So, we're just setting up for the the high school presentation on academic programming and pathways. I am professional with the mic. Here it is right here in front of me. Um, so we're moving on. Um, it was great to be able

088to talk about our ELA and u math program K8. And so we're transitioning. Mr. Roth is here with us this evening to talk about um our academic programs um and the pathways that that our students have. So, I will turn it over. >> Thank you very much. Uh, good evening everyone. It's nice to see everyone again, both members of the board and members of the public. Um, and of course our administrators as well. Um, especially Dr. Malash. >> Um, so, uh, one, I got to tell you, as a high school principal, it's exciting to sit and watch the presentation before. Um, you know, I I think that we do really nice things at the high school, but I know that everything that we do is built on the foundation that our, you know, colleagues K

089to8, uh, you know, that they put in a lot of work and our kids come to us very well prepared. Uh, so it's exciting. It's very exciting. Uh, I cannot imagine teaching first grade. So I'm glad that we have people who are very, very good at it. Um, we have, as you know, over the last few years, we have really gone through some significant changes at Penrest. Uh, and I want to just take a moment, uh, to kind of walk through the two major changes that we have gone through. Uh, because they all play into the conversation about what comes next. Uh, so first, we have, uh, tweaked the levels uh, at the high school. Um, sometimes this has been referred to as that we've dleled the high school and I do want to make

090it clear, we have not dleled the high school. There are still levels at the high school. Uh, I think that what we did was we undertook change uh that ensured that our system uh is best equipped to meet the needs of the students that we have coming to us. uh the old system that we had, our levels went from advanced placement to accelerated to honors to college prep. Um for a a you know, the the data that we had on our students even going back four or five years ago, um our group is our group of students is not as widespread across the continuum uh as those levels would uh you know would offer. The other thing is some of the nomenclature was just confusing. um you know having honors in the middle uh through

091students office they were applying to college sometimes it led to you know students not being sure what to sign up for coming out of 8th grade and so we we tweaked the system and our new system now offers advanced placement honors college prep and we do have just as we did before uh we do have some adapted courses uh for students with disabilities uh who need modifications to the core curriculum. Um, I do want to also point out uh that the college prep uh that you see there uh it is not really the same level as the college prep that was offered in the old system. College prep in the old system uh tended to be about 35 students per grade per in a subject. Uh and it was really our lowest academic level. Uh

092college prep here refers to uh you know really that level that is below honors. uh but it is serving a much broader population of students than those you know 30 to 35 kids in the past. Uh when we first made these leveling changes we referred to that as a standard level and again we want to make sure that our nomenclature uh matches what colleges are asking for. Uh the common app asks students how many college prep courses they've taken. Uh and so we want to make sure that they know uh you know that the courses they're taking are at the college prep level. Um we also made a really big shift to making sure that our placement recommendations coming out of middle school uh were really based on data. Uh we wanted to make sure

093what we were seeing in the data was that we had a lot of students who were really high performing uh but their schedule did not necessarily reflect that rigor. Um we saw a lot of students who were capable of being in that highest level. Uh but that was not where they were. And so we wanted to make sure that we were presenting students and families uh with our recommendations to say, you know, in a nutshell, hey, you can do this. Um and we've seen really good results. Uh I sat here with uh some of you uh on the school board in fall of 2023. Uh we talked through these changes. We also have been uh blessed through this process. We've worked with uh teaching, learning, succeeding, TLS. Uh the district had done work prior to

094me being here uh to work on differentiation with TLS. Uh we then rolled that work into TLS directly working with our teachers as we rolled this level change out grade by grade with 9th grade and 23 24 followed by 10th and 11th and next year our entire school will have our new leveling system and then we changed the schedule. Um, our change to block schedule, we've talked about it a bit, so I'll try to be very brief here. Uh, we started with conversations about how to better maximize the benefit of our intervention and enrichment period, which used to be two days a week. That first started in winter of 2023. Uh, that really led to internal discussions about if we're going to make changes to IE, it's going to impact the schedule anyway. Let's look

095at the best schedule for the needs of our students and our staff. Uh that then was followed with, you know, talking to central administration, our building coordinators in April. And then we did a lot of really great school visits with neighboring schools. In the spring of 23, we visited four different schools. And in the fall of 24, we visited 13 different schools uh who ran different versions of a block schedule. one so that our teachers I think we had about 60 to 65 teachers uh go and visit some of these schools so that they could see it talk to teachers talk to kids uh and also so that we could learn what schools were doing best bring it back uh we saw a lot of great things but of course we wanted to do it

096better than all the rest of them. um our professional development focused on lesson planning and instructional practices uh you know throughout the fall of 24 uh and August uh to August of this year. Uh and obviously that work is ongoing. Um you know as we said often Dr. Malashsh would often say in these conversations uh you know that the schedule kind of is what the schedule is to paraphrase but it's what we do with that time that really makes the most difference. And I think this has given us a great opportunity to really have great conversations about instruction with our teachers. Uh and then we also utilize TLS to support uh a number of our teachers uh and working with our district instructional coaches this year. Um even a 30-year veteran at Penrest has never

097taught in this schedule before. uh and so uh people were trying new things and sometimes you question some of the things that you've done in the past and it was great to have both folks with TLS and really great to have our district instructional coaches working with teachers. Uh it's one thing to have an administrator in your room giving you feedback. It's another thing to have a colleague who's in your room giving you feedback. uh where there really is no fear of evaluation and just you know we preached to our teachers at the beginning of this year just be vulnerable try new things uh it's okay to try and fail sometimes that's the way that you know we grow uh and I am so proud of the work that our teachers have done uh and

098really it's been a great way for our teachers to get to know uh how to work with our instructional coaches um very quickly you know here's what our pathways look like in the current academic guide so we are in the midst of course selection as we speak. Uh so our students and families are going through our academic guide. They are selecting courses for the 2026 2027 school year. That doesn't sound right, but it is. Um and as you can see, uh you know, English is pretty straightforward. Uh we've got the, you know, our college prep level, our honors level, uh and our advanced placement, you know, where we offer the AP capstone courses. Uh we offer AP language and comp and we offer AP literature and comp. Um in math um certainly one of the

099biggest conversations honestly about the transition to the block has been math. Um I for one uh I am very excited about what we are seeing in mathematics. Um we are seeing students coming to us uh with a really solid foundation mathematically. Um, I know I have said this before, but I will repeat this. When I first got to Penrest, we had about one out of every five freshmen uh had completed algebra 1 and geometry in 8th grade. And so they were coming to us in algebra 2. A third of those students never took a math class the senior year of high school. Um, it wasn't just because they didn't need it, but it was because they felt as if, and I had many conversations with them, that they were exhausting. uh you know they were

100kind of maxing out. Um that fits in very well with research about math acceleration. Um you know there are students every year who complete AP calculus and then go back and take math 060 at a community college the following year because those foundational skills are not there. And so I think the block gives us this great opportunity in math to take students who are on a really solid foundation coming to the high school uh meet them where they are. So whether they are coming to us in geometry and algebra 2, coming to us uh ready for a one semester algebra course or coming to us bless you or you don't have to apologize it's okay uh or coming to us uh you know where they are ready for high school algebra but they would benefit

101from a full year full block of that course and with the block we're able to do that and then still get that solid foundation and not hold them back um not keep them from taking classes uh you know like uh statistics, you know, advanced placement, pre-calculus, you name it. Um I'm not saying every student is going to do this, but you could realistically start in our kind of pre-alggebra foundations of algebra course and still get to advanced placement math courses. Um our schedule allows us to do that. uh and the more that students have that solid foundation, the more that they want to exhaust those math pathways. So now, you know, we're seeing students who are, you know, going to move into advanced placement calculus, advanced placement statistics, linear algebra, and we know that, you

102know, we're going to talk about what work is to come in math. It really probably is about what comes at the end of that pipeline. That's where we used to end. I think we're going to have students that are going to exhaust that and need what's next. Uh looking at things like an algebra 3. Um and for our students that maybe aren't that advanced placement calculus student, looking at things like a a college algebra course uh where we're again making sure that they don't take remedial mathematics uh when they get to college. I think that there's no better benefit we can give our students than making sure they don't go to college and pay for courses that don't help them towards metriculation. um science, our current pathway, uh that college prep, you know, level. 9th

103grade, our students take environmental science. Uh 10th grade, our students take biology. Uh our students are able to take uh advanced placement biology. U in 10th grade as a full year, every day full block course. Uh and then science really opens up in 11th grade. Uh and again with the block, the ability to double up. uh you know this year we we came to you and we you know we added uh AP physics 2. We're going to have more kids that are getting further in that sequence. We have seen great increases in the number of kids that are taking advanced uh placement chemistry. Um but we're also again I not every kid needs to take AP chemistry. Um and so we're also excited to see the growth of courses like uh forensic sciences um our

104integrated science and technology courses um our chem theory course uh you know kids that are continuing in science uh at a high level uh you know able to branch out into their different pathways. Some kids want to pursue that physics engineering track. Some kids want to get into bio and anatomy. Um, and we're certainly seeing kids uh start to enroll more and more in those courses. Uh, social studies, all of our ninth graders take our global studies course. Um, we have uh about uh to probably about 70% of our freshman classes in honors global studies. Uh, which is phenomenal. They do well in the course. It sets them up well to stay in rigorous courses both in and out of social studies in the future. Um, our students then have the ability, you know, to

105take Western Civ or AP European history in 10th grade, uh, US history, AP US history in 11th, and then government or AP government in addition to other courses like advanced placement psychology, uh, sociology, economics, uh, there's a number of social studies electives that are available to students as well. Um, I don't I feel like I say advanced placement a lot. I don't think AP is everything. Um, but one of the things that was glaring to me when I first got here was we're a really high performing school with really high performing students. Um, we have a lot of the things baked into our schools and our community uh that afford us the opportunity to really offer high levels of rigor to our students. And when you looked at the data in 2022 and saw that

106out of the Central League, only Ridley and Upper Derby had fewer kids in advanced placement courses than Penrest was eye opening. Um, it's one of the things that we talked about a lot uh as we went into this level change process. It's one of the things that I think is really important as we change uh our, you know, our schedule and allow kids that, you know, have more options in their schedule. Remember the block schedule not just afforded them the opportunity to take one course in the first semester and another course in the second, it also added an eighth course each year for all of our students, giving them the opportunity to take four more courses in high school. Um, if you look at that comparison 2022 to 2025, the growth might look slow. Uh

107one of the things that I will tell you is that uh the current seniors uh as juniors uh 8% more of them took an AP class as juniors than uh the cohort before them. We are seeing that growth. You're going to see us climb that chart. I could give you a very similar chart that not just includes AP and IB uh but includes what PTE terms as rigorous courses which includes uh career and technical education and includes dual enrollment. We are seeing more students enroll in dual enrollment. Uh and we have a solid enrollment in uh the county technical school. Um and I'll be quite frank, we have more kids who want to enroll in the technical school than they have the capacity to take, which I think is great. I think it speaks to

108uh the value of a wide array of post-secondary options uh that kids get in talking to their counselors, teachers, and families at Penrest. Uh so again, you're going to see us move up there. And one of those reasons really is the old leveling system put an artificial barrier in place uh where kids were two levels away from advanced placement. And while there was nothing barring them from making that jump, it sounds like a jump that you shouldn't make. Uh and so now that we're bringing kids in, uh a large number of our kids are in uh honors classes in 9th grade. Um we're seeing more and more kids willing to take that leap and we say we think you're ready for advanced placement. Um, some people will say, "All right, so you're going to put

109more kids in rigorous courses. How are they going to do?" Well, we've been doing this work. Uh, last year was, we have data going back the last, I think, 20 years, uh, for our advanced placement. We had more kids take more exams and do better than in any of those years. Um, and that's before the schedule change. And I think that just speaks to one uh kids get the credit, the kids are in the classes, the kids take the exams, the kids are the ones who put in the work. Uh they work with great teachers who are dedicated to their craft, uh who have really accepted these challenges and embraced them uh and helped the kids do really well. And it is because the system allows more kids to get into these classes uh better

110prepared than maybe they were before. Not saying that we were illprepared, uh, but I think they're just on a really solid foundation as they come to us. Uh, and we're able to get them to a strong foundation as they enter these really rigorous courses. There's a lot of information on this slide. U, I don't want you to leave here with with the migraine. So, u, this really just shows our enrollment changes. Uh, not every AP course is uh in the quote unquote core 4. Uh I'll be honest, I'm not a believer in the core four. I think world language is a core subject. I think that for some students, art is more of a core subject than math. Um you know, so I only say that because it's kind of common nomenclature. U and you

111can see this is an order from left to right, uh of the you know, descending, you know, net gain and loss in our AP courses uh from 2023 to 2026. Um, I will say at the very end you see statistics. Um, our statistics numbers have always been pretty strong. U, they will continue to be strong. Uh, I certainly anticipate, you know, and those numbers are still pretty strong, but uh, I think that you'll see, you know, more growth there as well. We're have a lot of kids right now who leave us taking calc and stat. I think those numbers are going to grow. Um, psychology, you know, one of our social studies electives, tremendously popular. uh great chance for kids to engage in an AP course. Uh and our English language numbers uh are really

112taking off. Uh and I think more than anything else that really has to do with that change in level. Um you know when we went about making this leveling change was only about 40% of our incoming nth grade c or not 40% 40 incoming nth graders uh were rostering for accelerated nth grade English. Um now that number is over half. Um so that then puts them in position to take courses like that. Um you know you can see our bio numbers are are growing, our a push numbers are growing. Uh and chemistry you know those numbers might look small. Um AP chemistry is amazingly difficult. Uh and both the schedule change, the math changes uh and the leveling changes have all resulted in us more than doubling the number of students that are taking those

113courses. Um it's important for us to look at, you know, demographic groups in our school. Um you know, it's important for us to remember that, you know, swings by a percentage when you talk about uh you know, some of our groups uh can happen quickly, right? You know, we have uh we're about 4% uh you know, of each grade is black or African-American. Um so percentage- wise uh you know, percentages can swing. Uh but trends are important to look at. Um one of the things that we saw uh was that we did not have uh you know students coming out of 8th grade uh four years ago were self- selecting their levels. Um and we were seeing that there was not a single African-American student who was selecting accelerated English in 9th grade. Uh that

114doesn't mean we didn't have any African-American students who could do it. uh it means that uh they were not selecting that course. Uh we've been able to look at the data with our friends here in the middle school uh and we've been able to uh ensure that all of our students uh are going into the most rigorous courses that they're ready to handle. Uh and then making sure that at the high school level, you know, you might not come to us as an honor student, but we're looking to move you up as you go through. Um you know, and I think you can see that with our black students, our Hispanic students. um you know uh you know and you know with the you know the 80% of our school that is white as well

115um I think we're kind of seeing this across the board that our numbers are growing and again it's not all about AP. I think you know this would mirror what you're seeing in honors. This would mirror growth that you're seeing going from adapted to college prep. Um and I think that the more you know I often talk to my students that are in cosmetology at the tech school. It's one of the hardest programs you can be in. When I taught psychology, the kids who knew the parts of the brain and the nervous system were my Cosmo kids. It always shocked the rest of the class. U but it's not shocking. It's rigorous. Um and so, you know, making sure that every one of our kids uh is taking rigorous courses is going to set them

116up for success, not always in an AP course, but in a rigorous course. Um just kind of some numbers that mirror that. Um, you know, again, you can see the numbers are small. Um, you know, for our black and Hispanic groups, we're talking about about 12 kids per grade level. Um, I'd like these numbers to be higher. I think we're on a path to have them higher, but I think we can also see growth uh over the course of the last three years, and I think that we'll continue to see growth as we move into the future. And we're also seeing that growth for economically disadvantaged students, our students who are granted fee wavers by a college board for their AP exams where we're seeing them enrolled in almost twice as many courses and taking

117almost three times as many exams. Um, and again, uh, you know, making sure that our model really fits the needs of all of our kids. And again, we're not just putting kids in these classes, they're knocking the test out of the park. Uh, I think it's really interesting to look at this. I this is just what the numbers are. I can't explain all of this to you. Uh the top AP courses for female students on the top left, male students on the top right. Um I I you know, this is something for us to kind of dive more into. I'm really interested in those bottom two columns. Uh on the left there's more where there's more female students than male students in descending order and on the right where there's more male students than female

118students. Um, you know, you can see psychology, environmental science, they're large gaps between female and male students in those two courses. Um, they are heavily female enrollment on the on the male side. You know, physics, stat, computer science. Um, again, some of this mirrors national trends, but just because it's a national trend doesn't mean that we have to accept it. Uh and we want to make sure that we're pushing all of our students, you know, uh to make sure that they're enrolling across the board in the most rigorous courses that they can take. >> A quick question about that. Are we still seeing after all of these years the divide in math for girls and boys? I mean, that's what that looks like to me, right? we're somehow still getting the message to students, young

119people that I do. >> How many black, you know, female doctors come here to speak to students? How many female scientists or >> um biologists come to speak to the student body about what they do? >> Yeah, no doubt. Um yeah, I mean these these trends are real in our school and out of our school. No doubt about it. um you know in in STEM you know in math and science there's certainly an under reppresentation of female students um in our high level literature courses >> sorry and what about our educators what about the people who are teaching the students do we have a disproportionate number of men teaching math related curriculum and a disproportionate number of women teaching softer uh subject material? >> No, not really. Um, >> you don't >> Yeah. No, I

120I it's a great question, but I don't think so. Um, >> yeah, our AP stat teacher is a is a a female teacher. Our AP calc teacher, uh, is a female teacher. Um, you know, English is a mix. AP Chem is a female teacher. Um, AP bio is Yeah. Yeah. >> A Psych. >> AP Psych is male. Yeah, it's uh, it's a great question. Um, it's absolutely a great question >> and honestly Hillary probably more of a mix of staff by gender in those areas here than other places that I've seen which were more in in the traditional you know what we would consider the traditional male female um the assumption of the roles but yeah I mean here it's a just picture walking up and down the hallway of who's teaching those classes >>

121it really is a a representative group male female >> you have to be inspired to take the class for >> yeah you have to be inspire. You have to be connected. >> Yeah. And and there's no doubt. I mean, they're great questions, right? Representation matters. There's there's no doubt about it. Um I also do want to mention uh David Ryan Trussell and Jody Dunston uh two of the best assistant principles on the planet uh are here um you know with us as well. >> Ed, another question about this uh environmental science you say skws female, but I thought it was the only ninth grade science course. So this advanced placement Oh, >> only AP. I'm sorry. Yeah, I missed that. Thank you. Yep. Yep. Okay. So, all of this talk about what are our next

122steps. Uh, one I mentioned we are going to see a rather, you know, significant increase in the percentage of kids taking AP courses, rigorous courses. Uh, with this year's senior class, um, we have a lot of analysis to do. Um, you know, we're in the middle of course selection right now. Where, you know, where do kids continue to double up? uh you know where they're taking uh you know uh one math course one semester, one math course the next semester. Uh are they doubling up in in science and social studies in English? Uh you know are they taking uh portfolio prep and AP drawing in the same year? Um so we've got a lot of trends to look at there. Uh it's kind of a brave new world at Penrest because the old, you know,

123what you knew was coming in course selection is not quite there. Uh, I think that's exciting. Uh, even down to the way that people are advertising their courses, um, is interesting because there's nothing nothing's a given anymore. And I think that's great for our students. Um, I think, you know, as we make this transition next year to having uh, the majority of our advanced placement courses run in a semester, we're going to have, again, a lot of data to analyze. I'm excited. Uh, I don't really um, that's a lie. I'm a I'm a data nerd. Um, but I'm really excited this year to see our Keystone exam results from the first semester after having semester courses. Uh, and I'll be really excited to see uh, you know, what if any impact there is on the

124semesterization uh, of many of our AP courses next year. Um, obviously, you know, our job is to analyze data, reflect on it, and then adjust accordingly. And we're going to continue to do that. And then we've got a lot of discussions to have as we look at the student achievement data, as we look at course enrollment trends, as our counselors continue to do a great job of working with their post-secary peers uh to gain insight into what they're looking for and what their, you know, students need. uh to then look at our pathways uh of what we require uh what our sequences are, what our prerequisites are uh and see what is best for our kids, right? Um you know what courses should we continue to say like you must take this before you take

125this? What courses should we say you've got the option between A, B, or C um and they all fit this graduation requirement? um our teachers need to have, you know, a voice in that conversation. Um and those conversations are going to be rather widespread, I think, because in order to make change, there's also curriculum work that would have to happen in those courses. There's vertical curricular alignment that would have to happen in some of those courses. Um, and again, I think we have to continually go back uh to our friends and colleagues in the counseling department because they're the ones who have the best insight of, you know, hey, look, you can offer for kids to not take underwater basket weaving senior year. Um, but I've got 60% of the schools saying that they really

126need to take it. Um, you know, how many how many lab sciences do kids need for your state schools, for your for your little Ivy's, for your Ivy League schools, for your Patriot League schools, uh, you know, for your southern state schools, which for some reason a lot of our kids are wanting to go to warm weather places. I don't get it, but they do. um you know and the the relationships that our counselors have built with those admissions counselors will help inform those decisions to bring the the conversations that are happening in our professional learning communities in social studies English you don't see math up there and I say that just because for the most part the math pathway is large and sequential but like I said before there are certainly things to look

127at at the end of that pathway. Uh and then as we think about if there were changes in science, how does that how is that impacted by where kids are mathematically? Um you know, part of the reason that I think we've got a lot of kids that are taking AP Chem is because mathematically they're ready for AP Chem. Uh and so how that all ties together. Uh I think while we're doing all this, a chance for us to just, you know, investigate how to better recognize the community service that's provided by our students. As you know, we have a longstanding uh community serve requirement here, which is great. We transcribe that. Um, I'll be honest, is the number one question we get when people look at our transcripts is what what is this? Uh, because

128it's not uh a traditional thing you see in a transcript. Um, but community service is something that's embedded in our school and our community. We want to keep that and make sure that kids are recognized for that work. Uh, and we want to continue to increase dual enrollment opportunities. Uh, we have a strong relationship with Delray County Community College. uh spent a lot of time uh this past summer exploring uh other relationships uh with local colleges and universities. Uh we've you know got a great partnership with the University of Delaware and our business department uh where they do amazing things. Uh I've got a forensic science teacher who is uh having conversations with uh NJIT uh about dual enrollment forensics through uh the New Jersey Institute of Technology. So, um I think those are things

129that we will continue to look at again as kids have more options. Not everything needs to be AP. Dual enrollment is rigorous. Um it's also honestly usually not as taxing as an AP course, uh you know, for the students, but it's great for their transcript and great for them looking ahead. And as we think about all these changes and as we look ahead um you know and I shouldn't say all these changes as we think about potential changes we always have to keep in mind uh you know the options that exist uh for the wide array of post-secary options our kids want to pursue you know how do we help our kids that we have a a number of kids who have a strong interest in welding. Um, I can't think of a better career

130path to get into uh than if you can get into the welding program at Del County Community College. You're going to walk out uh making a lot more than I did as a beginning teacher. Um, we've got kids that want to do these things. We need to continue to look at everything from dual enrollment opportunities to internships and ex externships uh to help out all of our kids, whether they want to weld or whether they want to to run a company. Um, we do both. Um we always have to look at ripple effects. Um every change you make in a schedule or in course pathways has ripple effects. Um and those ripple effects have other ripple effects. Uh and it it's why as much as we need to dive into this work, I think we

131also have to be very methodical about how we approach this. um you know because if not we're going to make a change and and find out that we have to then make another change uh whether we want to or not or we'd have to reverse course. Um we have to continue to look at how course selections impacted by the block uh by new state requirements. You know next year I I'm really I think it's great every kid will take personal financial literacy. Um, I can also tell you that there's a lot of tenth graders right now that do not think it's great. Um, because they had their 11th grade year scripted out and now there's a half credit course that wasn't a part of their plans that they've got to take. Um, and as much

132as we sit and tell them like, listen, I think this is going to be a great course for you, they're like, that's great, Mr. Ruff, but I've had my eyes on this course in 11th grade since I was 10. you're ruining it. Um, they say it a little nicer than that, but um I can't promise you there's not going to be another state requirement that comes down the road. I think you all know that's probably likely. Um, and then again, you know, feedback we get from college admissions officials, not every kid needs to go to a four-year college, but 80% of our kids do. Uh and so we also have to make sure that we are very mindful um you know that uh you know everything from you know you you know there's arguments to

133be made by some that you could get through high school mathematics and never take geometry um and maybe you could um you also would not get into some colleges because you don't have that transcribed uh and so we need to continue to have those conversations u and then again how do we vertically align the curriculum to meet student you know state standards student needs uh and how do we balance student choice uh with them benefiting from being exposed to things that they wouldn't ordinarily take. Um some kids would never take global studies if we didn't force them to. Um but maybe there's great benefits to that course and I'm just pulling a you know course out of thin air. Uh and so I think you know we will continue to you know a couple times

134in the last few years we've surveyed kids about courses they'd like to see us at. I think we'll continue to do that. Uh it's good insight for us. Um you know with good conversations to have with kids. Uh but then you know also adding of course you know eventually you got to take away something as well. Uh because we can't run everything. Um that's it. I'm happy to entertain any questions. >> Questions from the board. I will say that um I'm glad to see the information especially broken down by race and gender um because a lot of times we talk about that and it's I think it's important to actually see it so we can begin to address it right or to look at what we need to do or um what we need to

135continue doing. So, I'm appreciative that that information was there for us to see and for the community to see. >> I was uh happy to see this presentation in this style. I for some reason this was much easier for me to comprehend than other presentations you've done on courses, you know, the the annual course presentation. I I don't know what it is about this one that made it easier for me to maybe it was the path. It's this path thing that was easier for me to relate to. I'm wondering when I was a wee lad and taking AP bio, we had bio and then we had AP bio and we had chemistry and then we had AP chem. Is that still the way it works? People take bio first and then they take AP bio

136or >> So it was and still can be. Uh so we have um we have had traditionally students would take uh bio in 10th grade and then if they want to take AP bio they would take it after that and then chemistry in 11th grade and AP chemistry after that much like you did in 2017. Um >> so any chance I got to suck up I do it. Um, we've also always had an option at Pancress. It predates me. I don't know how long it's been there, but uh they used to call it like hybrid option or blended option where students would take biology uh and AP biology kind of combined. And so it used to be that they would have that course, you know, in our traditional schedule and they would also meet during

137IE as a part of the class and it was a one and a half credit course. Um, chemistry was offered the same way. The bio course always ran. Um, the numbers were not always huge. Um, we would still have more kids take the traditional AP bio than the blended. Uh, the the chemistry course did not always run that way. Um, doing AP chemistry that way was just kind of too daunting a test for some students. Um with the block we have run that blended model this year uh as a full year every day both semesters course uh and we've seen success uh AP Chem is running that way uh full year every day. Uh when we talked to other schools uh who operate in a block schedule um some of the feedback that we got

138was hey like you know make sure like look at uh the college board documents for AP bio for AP chem. They are fullyear college replacements unlike most other AP courses. Uh and so it really led us to we know our students can can do this now. We want the tra we want the new traditional way of taking AP bio to be not doing bio one year and then AP bio but if it needs to be a full year fullb block two credit course. Let's jump right into it. Uh we're covering the bio content and the AP bio content already. Now, there will still be the occasional student who's going to go through honors bio and then down the road say, you know, I want to do AP bio. Great. They will still take that two

139credit course. Um, it's not going to hurt them taking bio and AP bio. Um, but, you know, that's something that we still want to, you know, make available to them. Um, and chemistry the same way. Uh, we're going to offer chemistry as a two credit fullyear full-block course. Um, will there be a student that gets done honors chem and then says, "You know what? I didn't think AP Chem was for me, but I can do it." Yes. And we will offer them that two credit course. um you know what was happening a lot in chemistry, we had a lot of kids that were trying to uh skirt the system is probably a bad way to say it, but um in order to try and get to AP Chem quicker, they would do a dual enrollment

140chemistry course over the summer. Uh so that way they had that chemistry requirement done. Six weeks of chemistry over the summer, you're definitely learning a lot, but I don't know that you're learning the same as you are in a full honors chemistry course. So we think it suits both students better uh to take that course as a two credit course. >> Um I have a quick question just a point of clarification when you were talking about dual enrollment earlier which is amazing. I had a student I had a child my child who took advantage of that but she was also an AP student and and I something about what you said led me to believe that those things are not necessarily congruent but I just want a point of clarification that you can be engaged

141in AP classes and also be a dual enrollment student. >> Oh yes yes absolutely. Yeah. So, can I follow up about the um AP bio and AP Chem because I am with our current pathways for science. if you can put them up on the board by now making so that that program where you said it was like a year and a half worth of bio for AP bio and a year and a half worth of chem for AP CAM that was only around for a couple of years um prior to you coming here and a lot of it was trying to get kids to be able to access all the classes that they need because relatively speaking we have a lot of graduation requirements at our district more than other local districts. So by going

142back now with the block scheduling and making bio to AP bio a fullyear class and chem to AP chem a fullyear class. I am very concerned about the implications for our STEM students. I'm talking about whether you want to go into engineering or if you want to go into prehealth or med school, dental school, PA school, whatever. Because when you look at what the colleges want from those kids, for prehealth, it's generally AP bio, AP Chem, and AP Physics. Um, for engineering students, it's always AP Chem and AP Physics. They don't really reference biology at all. But then about half of them, and this is looking at whether it's Pitt or Penn State or Temple, UVA, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, WashU, I looked at tons of the engineering programs. I would say about

14350% of them went in AP uh computer science class too in addition to AP Calc. And so there are also programs like UPEN has um and other ones. There's lots of engineering college of schools that now offer summer camps for high school students. And to be eligible for some, you have to have taken some of these classes already. But our pathways don't allow these STEM students. They have to either take AP Chem or AP Physics their senior year because their full year two credit that's already taking two of their eight courses a year for AP Chem and AP Bio. So they have to pick that they delay one to their senior year. So all those kids that are really competitive in vying for these positions for STEM positions in colleges, they want to see that

144on your application when you apply. More than 60% of college students now apply early option or early decision in November. So really that coursework, they need to be able to access it by their junior year so that they can be the most competitive students. Whether I agree with all of this or not, and I think it's too much pressure or not, it is what the colleges are requesting of our students, but our pathways, the sequencing of our pathways doesn't really allow for that. I am so sorry, that's me. Um, and so when I look at it, I say, you know, and biology is a prerequisite for AP chemistry. And so there's all sorts of some prerequisites in there for the for the um college board. But the one thing that's not a prerequisite for anything

145is environmental science. Now, I know we're going to have conversations later about whether we should remain the only district in the state that requires it or not, and that's not for today. But requiring it in ninth grade is a real sticking point for STEM students. And if you if you never had a STEM student go through this program, it can be difficult to understand. But these kids are doubling up. And before they used to have to pay $300 to take summer gym just to be able to get the courses that they needed. And some great changes have been made. But here we are excluding some of our STEM students from being the most competitive students because not only do we require environmental science, but we require in 9th grade and the only school district in

146the state to do so. So if we can think about the sequencing of things because I think this does a real disservice to our STEM students who really want to pursue the most competitive schools for STEM programs and it's been this way for many many years and I think we really need to have a conversation that addresses satisfying their needs and their needs are really dictated by the programs they want to study and what the colleges are asking of them. I do just say one thing. Um, in the college applications, you list what you're taking senior year. So, you don't have to have everything complete by the end of junior year. You do tell them what you're taking senior year. So, it's not like you have to >> frontload everything and they're not counting what

147you're doing. >> I understand that. I just makes them more competitive. Just done it and done well. >> The way you said it is >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I didn't mean to say that. But to be competitive, if you've got two kids that look very similar, I >> know what you're saying. I just wanted to clarify completed them all. >> I just wanted to clarify the way you said it. >> Yeah. No, no, no. You're correct. I didn't mean to imply that, but if you know, >> um, okay, we Yeah, let Mr. Ross sort of address some of that because that was a lot. Um, >> Sure. Um, so I I I certainly I think that it's incumbent upon us to look at all of this, right? Everything you just said, we should be

148looking at. um when um you know I I'll go back to um you know when we were having conversations about K12 mathematics right um one of the things that we did you know at the high school level to kind of inform uh you know inform those conversations but also to inform us as we were starting to think about changes at the high school was you know I went and pulled all of our kids who were applying to uh you know in Navvians they're all grouped as uh highly selective schools. So your your IVs, your little IVs, your you know yada yada yada. Um and at the time we were looking at math right so um you know there's article after article about how you know like ah you know you don't need calculus anymore. Well

149maybe you don't but you're not getting into some of these schools without it right. Um now we were also having conversations about do you need to have AP calculus uh as a junior to get into some of these schools and in that particular case with math what we found was no. Um and in fact, you know, there was not a single school uh with well, so there was a single school um that kids from Penrest that were getting in uh only had AP Calculus their junior year, every school was a mix except at the time for the Penn State Honors College. Um it was the only one. There was a handful of kids who had gotten in there. It was really interesting. I'd love to know why that was. U but that was the one.

150uh it wasn't Harvard, it wasn't MIT, it wasn't Yale, it wasn't you know Kale. Um I think we need to do that work with all of us, right? um you know the the surface answer that you get when you first start talking to college admissions reps is well we look at everything in context of your school right and I think to a large extent that is true right you know it's the even going back to those articles about you know you don't need calculus to get into Yale true if your school doesn't offer calculus if your school does offer calculus you better take it um they will look at you know our pathways and take it into account. That's not me telling you that this is how it should stay, right? I think we need

151to look at again our curriculum. I think we need to look at what does put our students in the best position um you know to get into the schools, programs, trade schools, you name it, that they want to go to. Um how do we guide students by major? uh how do we also I'm I'm also uh a strong proponent of ensuring that students take a a wide breath of courses because the kid that wants to be a doctor in ninth grade uh sometimes wants to be a poet by 12th right sometimes the person who wants to be a broadcast journalist ends up as a high school principal at native >> yeah well I got a face for radio so that wasn't working um so all of these things have to come into the equation I

152think it's We have to be very methodical, right? We need to do a lot of homework on the impact of whether it's environmental science in nth grade or western civ or global studies or US history. Um, we need to take a look at all of that. U because if we don't, we're going to let these questions linger, right? The questions are good ones. I really do think they are good questions. And then we have to look at the ripple effects of that, right? So if AP biology is a two credit course, there's, you know, effects of that, right? You know, yes, there are schools that have honors bio in nth grade. There are schools that allow you to take AP world history in nth grade, but then there's ripple effects, you know, in the rest

153of the schedule. We just have to examine all of that together. Uh I think it involves input from our students, from our families. Uh it involves input from our counselors and admissions reps. Uh, and it certainly involves input from our teachers saying, "Hey, if this kid's going to be successful in AP Physics, 2, here's what I need them to have in 10th grade." Um, so the questions are good ones. Um, this guy's smarter than I am. I'm going to take over. >> Uh, David Ranches, assistant principal at Penrest. Um, certainly not smarter. Um, I just have numbers in front of me. Um, these are very, very preliminary numbers. We're only two weeks into the course selection process. Um, I'm already seeing trends this year that we didn't see last year. For example, I'm looking at

154about 60 current 9th graders who are doubling up in science um for their 10th grade year. So, they're looking to take honors biology and AP physics um in that 10th grade year where that was not possible before and now is possible with the block schedule. Um, we're seeing students um, uh, doubling up in both AP chemistry and AP physics. I'm seeing um, students who are doubling up in AP physics and AP environmental science. Um, >> so can I just interrupt for a second? Just for context for the people that are not sitting in the room with us, Mr. Ryussell is actually looking at data in real time within the system uh, is where he's pulling this information. Um so uh numbers that just were not there last year. Um and overall again very early in

155the process. Uh we're looking at about um close to 175 students that are doubling up in science for next year. Um currently numbers of students that doubled up in science were maybe 75 80 students that did that. So I think as we continue with this process of the block schedule, more and more students are going to look at all of the possibilities that we have and all of the doors that kind of open to them and they're going to choose their own pathway, what makes most sense to them. Um certainly I also we doubling up in world language is increased for the next year. Uh doubling up in art and music classes is what you know Mr. Ross mentioned earlier. Some kids that is their core. Uh, so we're seeing that trend and >> I

156think you just hit on something that I was talking about with the sequencing of science, right? You said kids are doubling up in um one half semester course and AP physics regardless of whatever that half semester course is. But you can't do that really with AP physics until you get to the bitter end after you've passed AP CAM and AP AP bio. No, because those are fullear courses, right? >> No, they're they're they're semester courses for next year. >> AP Bio and AP Chem are fully year two credit courses according to what you just said. >> AP bio and AP Chem are Yes. But the AP physics are are >> semester focus. That's why I'm saying AP physics is a halfyear course. >> Yes. >> So when we're thinking but you can't take environmental science

157freshman year and AP physics in the second semester of your senior of your freshman year. So that's why I'm saying the sequencing of environmental science might be off-kilter for a lot of those kids who need these AP science classes because they could do AP bio for a whole year, AP Chem for a whole year, come back another year, do a semester of environmental science and a semester of AP physics. I'm just saying the sequencing of things makes the science program here difficult for our STEM students and it's a really sequencing is really a key to it and you just you just mentioned it with some of the kids who are taking that kind of half half your courses together >> and I like with the with the analytics that Mr. Ramshell and Mr. Roth both

158talked about um you know that when we come back or when they come back we'll probably be here before that Mr. broth does come pretty regularly too. Uh I like to admit you're back here late in the fall, Decemberish, whenever it is. Um talk about course selection, you know, in the course of study guide in December of 26. I expect that we'll probably see continue to see additional adjustments based on what they find by June of this year and get through the analytics of the summer from the 25 26 academic year and then where they are that gone into the fall 26 and 27. But that's where the discussions, you know, he needs to empanel lots of folks to sit down and to go through and talk about that. Um, I agree with you, Sh

159that that the questions that are being asked, as Mr. Roth said, they're they're good questions, right? It's the only way that we're going to make it better is to put the stuff out there. You know, the same thing as as Dr. Napsson Williams talked about, you know, putting the actual data of who are the children that we're talking about, what are those actual numbers? This is the value that they see, right? this is what is important to what's going on at the high school, you know, and and yes, it's about the high school over it all, but it's about individual children and their experiences. We want to be able to provide the most for the most children we can. You know, the numbers, as Dave Ryel just talked about, 175 kids, you know, is between

16014 and 15% of the student body, you know, that that he can look at today that are doubling up in in sciences to go forward. That's significant. But what will that mean? How many kids will be in those classes? What does that look like going into the fall? you know, and that's where we need to continue to play it through. >> Are there any other questions from the board? >> Uh, I'm curious if you have information about how many students are taking advantage of flexible schedule and sort of either first or last block dropping off and you may not have it, but even just anecdotally, are students taking advantage of that? I know he has a data. >> Give me a moment. >> Not up. I'll say something else. Um I'm glad to see that

161community service is on your list of things to look at. I I think it is admirable. I love that we have it. I wish it were more robust. We talk our mission is about students who are global citizens and that starts here first. And while we have it, um, what you have to do to meet that credit is minimal. And I think if we could make that more substantial, um, it not only helps the students, but I think it helps the community. And when we go to the community and we we talk about taxes, like it would be nice if there was a more direct correlation between our students and the community. When we come to them and we say, "Look, we need a new kindergarten school." they're going to feel more invested in our

162community and giving that to the district um because they see our students out there and we're making more of an impact in every community member's life. And so I just hope when you're looking at that um I just advocate for just beefing that up as much as possible. Can I before you respond to that, can I piggyback on Jackie's comment and I may have said this before not to bore people, but I uh had my oldest son graduated from a district in another state where the uh civic requirement was a point of pride for students. They turned in, you know, more than a 100red hours of community service over the course of their high school tenure and some like far exceeded that. But it was a real core uh po point of pride for those

163students and I'd love to see us not asking students to do 100 hours of community service in four years. But but um it it can be such an important component that I think I agree with Jackie that our students are missing and that also um make our community obviously much a much better place to be. I mean, let me just say that I I agree that, you know, the community service is important. I'm not sure I would go with Well, we'll see what you come up with, right? Because beefing it up for me, I'm I'm just aware of the the the student body and the availability. in I mean I went when long ago when I went to high school I didn't have a community service but I understand that it's important um we just

164have to be mindful of the variety of students and families and all that when we talk about it and it's important but it's not important to everyone on that same higher level and I I can appreciate that um but I I do see that the value of it is I I'm we'll be interested to see what um you guys come up with with it. >> I just want to add on for that quickly and I definitely echo what you're saying Teresa because what's can sound very easy to us can be very difficult for some of our students to actually make happen as much as I appreciate um all that. The other thing I I think we have to be mindful as you say no matter what you do the ripples right there there are big

165ripples out there and if we're talking about um students only have so much time and if we're talking about hey they're going to take a personal finance course because the state says they have to and it's a noble and it's an important course but it does mean reconfiguring things. So if we're also now saying well you know on one hand it's difficult for them because you know I know Shel's passion is this science pathway um but also then we're talking about well we want to bone up community service. These are all good things, but I think it requires um a more comprehensive look, a thoughtful look to make sure that we're not and I know you all are doing this, but just to make sure that we're not inadvertently messing up other things um that

166are important as well for our students and sort of going beyond that point view. So, >> but I to echo Ken, I do thank you for the presentation. The pathway linear format was very easy for me to follow even at the end of a a tough day. So, I do thank you for that. They are screenshots of the academic guide. >> Oh, I mean tip of a hat. >> Again, I don't want to take credit for that because I literally just uh command shift for >> So, one thing about the community service is that there are some groups that are really engaging to our students. So, I'm going to say um the food bank, the Delaware County Food Bank, run by Paul Mikl, an alum of Penrest who took over that food bank when he

167was 18 years old and still a student here because of the death of the founder of that organization, his mother and his mother's friend. And Paul has an ability to engage with the students and they really want to participate in that and they do and they do it in abundance. And so the question is are there other organizations out there that are re because most people would not consider a food bank a really fun and engaging place to be yet the service work is incredibly valuable and the kids love participating. So I don't I don't necessarily know how to replicate that, but those kinds of models are really really appealing for for our students somehow to really engage them in the cause. >> I think one of the things I think about, you know, is

168twofold. One, you know, we it's always been the term school and community service, right? Um, you know, our kids do a ton of community service. I think there are many organizations where kids are are really bought in. They're spending a lot of time there. And we have kids who are uh you know creating their own organizations um you know putting in hundreds of hours. Part of this is um you know making sure that we are finding authentic ways to recognize their work. Right. U Mrs. Dunston's office uh you know is is always it's always hopping for many reasons. Um kids love Mrs. Dunston. Um, but it's also hot because they track all the community service hours. Um, and you know, we have students who, you know, they're they're five hours of community service to satisfy

169the requirement. They've got that done by the end of August. Um, you know, they've got hundreds of of hours by the time they're done. We have other kids that, you know, they're getting 20 hours of community service and it's coming because they're involved in our lacrosse team and the lacrosse team is always doing community service. Um, I think, you know, these kids when they are completing their college applications and putting together their resume, what they're realizing is they've done a lot more than that, you know, that quarter credit a year on the transcript really shows. Uh, and I think that's really, you know, as we look at this, I I think making sure that, uh, throughout their high school career that we're encouraging, uh, you know, continue to encourage that service. Uh, continuing to encourage

170them to join clubs, sports, you know, music, uh, theater. By the way, come see Phantom of the Opera this weekend. >> Um, it's going to be the best high school show you've ever seen. Very talented group of kids. Um, but doing all of that, right, and knowing that, yeah, some kids don't have the time to to be as involved with Mr. Mickel at the food bank, who does amazing work and is a great supporter of us, and I hope we're, you know, he sees us as great supporters of of his work. Um, some kids, you know, they're putting in 30 hours a week in the marching band, right? And so, they're not able to be as invested there, but they still have other ways to give back to our community. So we want to look

171at that in a holistic sense. Make sure that the kids you know see the the value of their work. Find better ways to promote their work. Um and you know just like the rest of it make it just as meaningful uh you know as advanced placement you know welding. >> And Mr. Rime is going to go back and answer the first part of the question. >> So you were asking about flexible schedule. Um so currently this year there are 50 students who are taking the flexible schedule for the fourth block and 35 for the first block. Um that may or may not change a little bit on red days and gold days. We have some students who have unique schedules that only needed the red day flexible schedule. So I would say on average maybe

172about 45 students per block. Um it's really early in the process right now to have actual numbers for next year. Um part of the pro part of the reason for that is um students who sign up for flexible schedule have to go through a process. They have to go to their guidance counselor and explain I would like the flexible schedule and here's my rationale. There's a form they get take it home to their parents, talk about it with their parents, sign off on it. Then we have to verify they're in good standing and they're going to graduate. Um they're not late to school a whole lot already. Um don't have those issues. Um and then their administrator signs off on that and then it gets added to the schedule. So very early in the process.

173Right now we have 23 and excuse me 33 43 about 50 kids signed up for flexible schedule for next year. >> All right. community service from blood drives to raising money for cancer to book drives to, you know, shoe drives and all of those things. They are doing a lot of great work, a lot of great community service. >> And that was Mr. Charity Duncan, >> the one and only. >> Anything else from the board? >> Um, I I know the even the students were talking about doing more for MLK day. That could be eight hours of community service right there if that was implemented where the students would already be in the building. >> That's a good point. I mean, at the legislative meeting, they were talking about wanting to do more and you

174know, so there are opportunities out there. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Also, really quickly, it's just great to hear you list off the the items that you did list off and I think we and because we have microphones here, we'd really love to hear more about that occasionally. >> Yeah, that'd be great because they are doing a lot of great work and they are advocating to do more, right? We want to do this and we want to do that. So, and they're starting clubs themselves, right? Things that they're passionate about, which is great. Maybe some of the stuff can go in the reporter that gets sort of the larger audience too because again I think it's our students are great and I just want to tell everybody, right? And if if you don't know, you don't

175know. So we have a something from the the community. The first one first and then we'll deal with the second. Okay. There there's a question about the the math sequencing and what if um students don't love math and so where would they go for say senior here >> to not have a gap. So, you're okay. >> Okay, we got to get the question. Okay. >> Yeah. So, they're they're good questions. Um, you know, I think that uh our again we we talk a lot about, you know, things like AP calculus, right, which um some people love. I taught history. So, um I think one of the things that's important to remember as you get later in your high school experience is that the higher level math gets used more across the curriculum, right? So you

176are using uh you know if you're that student where you're not you don't necessarily want to dive into AP calculus um you don't even want to you know maybe not AP stat um but you're in you know functional statistics and trig um you know you're you know we want the kids most kids I think should at least uh you know try and get to pre-calculus um you know if you're looking to go to a four-year school um but also though increasingly you're going to use that algebra in chemistry, you're going to use it in physics, you're going to use it in uh in your business courses. Um and so the gap, which is something that as we transition to the block certainly has been talked about a lot, right? Um and uh it's something real

177to consider, right? We all know I mean the summer slide is real, right? So tack five more months onto that and you know it has an effect. Um that effect bless you. Um, you know, while that effect is real, it's also something that is I think we we sometimes think of it as insurmountable. Um, and I I have never found that to be the case. You know, having worked in other other schools where, you know, we utilize the block. It starts to become more common as kids get into their junior and especially senior year to start to see those gaps a little bit and it starts to mimic, to be honest, your your college schedule, right? where, you know, as a journalism major, I did not have math every semester. Um, and yes, there were

178some things that I had to brush up on. I think that's different as a junior or senior than it would be as a freshman or a sophomore, you know, to be honest. Uh, and I do think that the way math is utilized across the curriculum, uh, becomes something that helps carry some of those skills through. Um, are you doing algebra 2 every day in a business class? you're not, but you know, you are starting to apply those mathematics in a way that quite frankly, you're not applying them in an algebra classroom. Um, so I think the other thing going back to what we said before is we while I don't think we have a ton of work to do in terms of this these pathways that you see here because you know algebra, geometry, algebra

1792, pre-cal, they're they're always going to be part of it. Uh but it is that kind of at the end being able to add to it. I do uh I literally stood in the cafeteria today speaking with Mr. Fure uh who's one of our other assistant principles. He works with the math department. Uh and him and our math coordinator were talking about exactly this question. Um what is maybe that next step for the student that is not a STEM major, you know, not wanting to dive into linear algebra. Um, you know, a lot of schools do have that college algebra option where coming out of that you're taking the ACUPPLACER so that way you have something to show to college that you do not need remedial mathematics. Um, you know, that's valuable. Um, you know,

180to what degree do we offer, uh, you know, we offer honors, pre-calculus. Do we offer a pre-calc option that's not at the honors level? Um, you know, do we offer, you know, various levels of statistics? Um, these are conversations that need to be a part of this conversation as we go. >> New York, double up, double up. What's left senior to get? >> Well, it's a question about if you double up and you might not have what is open for you senior year. Okay. >> Sure. Um, so if you're, you know, let's say you you begin your high school career with, you know, al algebra 1 and algebra 2, you're essentially taking algebra 1 all year, right? So we break it up into two courses. >> Okay. So, >> um, you know what? Um, >>

181Yeah, we need to we kind of need to move on. That sounds like you guys can have a maybe you can email Mr. Roth to handle that. Okay. Sorry, we we kind of need to move on because we're still in the first section um of our presentation, but you can email the as I said in the introduction, the administration, the specific people about it. I understand, but we are moving on. Uh thank you, uh Mr. Roth. Mr. Roth, I'm we're moving on. Okay. All right. So we're now we finished the first section and we're moving to the second section uh finance and operations. Um and we have Dennisi who is here. >> Thank you Dr. Napsson Williams. Mr. Seni is heading up to the table to go through some updates on our capital projects. Mr.

182Good to see you. Check that. Push the red button. There you go. Good evening. Just go quickly for our capital projects. We're still on target for our wind I mean for our skylight repair replacement and media. Spring Lake track and turf field is moving along quickly now. We just got um storm water management approval from Upper Providence. Yes, that's a good one. We're on the >> we're on the planning commission for the 23rd for review and we got preliminary comments from the conservation district. We should have those final two to three weeks at which time we will start listing proposals for that. So doing pretty good there. Pen Crest Field, that's also moving along fine. They don't need the approvals that we need for Springton. HBAC upgrades for Glenwood and Rose Street. Uh we have

183two remaining units at Rose Elementary which are going in now and should be done by the end of next week and that will complete that project. Springton Cafeteria, everything inside is complete. We just have work to complete. Um, media Indian lane HBAC upgrades. We have a pre-construction conference scheduled for the 17th. Shop drawings are in progress and that's our spring summer project. Last one everybody will be air conditioned. 202 capital projects. Uh, drawings are complete. Advertisement for bids. bids are due on March 10th. So, at the next meeting, I hopefully will bring you those for approval. >> Just want to say thank you so much for everything being so nicely organized and efficient and for always keeping us updated and for really making the HVAC systems happen. Um, I know it's a team, but I

184am really excited to go into a warmer season eventually and not have poor faculty come with tales of woe and all of that. It will be really nice. So, thank you so much. >> I feel the same way. >> I bet you do. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay, we have >> we have some change orders. Um first one is a change order for reimbursement for the building permit for the media HVAC project uh to Donald Reing over 64,189 reimbursement. The next one is a credit change order for deletion of four windows at Ro Street Elementary windows project. Instead of the windows, we had louvers. So, we got a credit there, 35,000. And we have another credit for the framing and the blocking for those same windows. So, made some money. >> You like

185credits, Mr. >> I like credit. >> You can never get credit. >> That's right. I like credit. >> Thank you. >> Oh, excuse me. We have one more. We have one more contract. Johnson Control. This is uh for replacement of the building management controls at media elementary. It's 517,715. This is the last project for Johnson Controls. Everything in our district will now be Johnson Controls. >> Just please correct me, my brain's fuzzy at this time of night. Um, but this is the one where everybody now will have it because they're on the same system should be much simpler as far as everyone being able to use any issues, training, all >> everything easy to monitor all the school. Yes, this is perfect. >> It's like all of us going on one gauge track for trains.

186It's very exciting. Thank you very much. >> Right. that we're we only get a one-year warranty >> for this >> for all all of all the contracts we have our basic one-year warranty. Yeah. One year parts and labor. Yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Take care. the remaining items unless you have questions we can just do consent agenda and go through. >> Yes. >> So in they're replacing like four CG and two diesels. >> Yes. >> These are all going to be diesel. They haven't made CG buses in a few years. So these will all be diesel. There is a something from the community. >> Oh, one second. The board member, go ahead >> real quick. Just the Peter Pan is up for summer um camp. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >>

187Peter Pan is for summer camp. >> Pennsylvania. So >> there's a question about what is the Pennsylvania trust agreement. >> So we're required to do um it's called the OPED, the post employment benefits um evaluation. So we have to find a different auditing vehicle separate from our local audit to audit all of our op. So they they do a a liability of if everybody retired all at once, how much the district would owe. So then it shows up on our audit as a liability. So we do them every other year and then they're they give us two years each time. So you'll see the number when we get to audit. It's normally the largest number on our audit as a liability. You're welcome. Okay. All right. Thank you. We will move on to education and

188wellness. We just have one item. >> Thank you everybody. Uh pediatric therapeutic services is a staffing agency. We currently have a contract with them to provide specialized services for students with IEPs. Uh what we're approving tonight is an addendum to that contract for specialized tutoring. We currently have staff within the district who can provide this service, but they've reached their case load maximum and we've had new students qualify for the services. Previously, we would contract with DCIU to provide these services. Um, it was $125 an hour uh for the IU and we had limited flexibility with the scheduling because the IU is providing services across the whole county. So with PTS, we were able to one, get a cost that was a little bit more favorable to the district and two have total flexibility with

189the scheduling. So we didn't lose anything on the service for the child, we're saving a few a few dollars, um doesn't sound like a much, but at $40 an hour when you provide when you, you know, do it four or five times a week, it it, you know, maths out to about $6,000. And if we're able to save money in special education, you know, it's it's a nice thing to do because we know that those costs are going to go up in other areas. So, anytime we're able to do something like this where we're giving high quality instruction uh at at a you know reduced price, that's a good thing. >> That name therapeutic sounds medical, but it's not in this in this case. Do they >> correct? Just the name of the company. It

190is not a medical service. It's an academic service. >> Okay. And they offer exclusively academic services or they also >> they they do also uh contract out if you need nursing services. Uh but most of it is occupational therapy, uh physical therapy, uh specialized reading instruction, specialized math instruction. Uh we've actually used them for a special education teacher if we've had a student with a medical need who needs instruction in a home or instruction in a hospital setting. So um you know that it's not medical services >> just just to make sure and I think where the disconnect from what I understand for their services they are academic but specialized with students who have learning differences. Correct. >> Right. And so that's where the therapeutic comes from because of that background and understanding expertise. >>

191That is correct. >> Okay. I just want to make sure I understand. Yep. Okay. >> All right. Thank you. Can I ask one question about uh just something to be mindful of? It's about the overnight trip that's on there for the FBLA students. Um can we I know Bill's not here, but making sure we roll that into that analysis because they're going to pay for their own overnight trip, but there are other teams competing for academic um things where the district pays for it. And I want to make sure that we are equitable amongst all our groups. >> Any access and opportunity spreadsheet, right, Shel? Yes. And I actually spoke with Mrs. Baylor today addressing some things with the script and she had mentioned it already so they know to have that as part of

192it. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, we can move on to human resources. >> Good evening everyone. >> The uh human resources agenda. many uh routine personnel items as we continue to hire folks on board folks. Uh it is that time of the year where we are starting to uh see and receive some retirement notifications from our teachers. Uh the uh collective bargaining agreement has a notification uh deadline of March 15th. So last month, if you'll recall, the board approved uh the retirements of two of our teachers. Uh we have another teacher who has uh notified us of his intent to retire not until next school year, halfway through the year. Uh but Mr. Walls, our orchestra teacher, uh has provided a lot of advanced notification. Um and then I can tell you that we

193have just today received a couple of additional retirement uh notifications that will be on the agenda for the legislative meeting in a couple of weeks. And it is possible that we'll receive a few more even between now and then. Um lots of dedicated uh team members uh who are winding up their careers in the Rose Media School District. Uh we have a bus driver as well who has provided notification uh of his intent to retire. Um we also have again some some folks leaving some resignations, some on boarding of some new employees. Uh we're continuing to uh ensure that we are fully staffed for our spring sports season. Uh we I think are down to maybe one coach uh at Penrest, but I believe that we have someone for that position and they'll actually be

194on the agenda for um uh the legislative meeting at the end of the month. question. The uh resignation of the school psychologist, will that have any impact on the timing of evaluations? Um is that in the works to replace her ASAP? >> So, we have made a very comprehensive plan. Mr. Harrison uh joined me at the table here. I can tell you that that position was immediately posted. Uh the posting has closed. We have a number of applicants uh and interviews are taking place uh round one next week. Uh and so we are moving on that very quickly. Uh this is a big loss. Uh Dr. Pley has been with the district for many years. Um uh and we're very sorry to see her go. Uh but we are eager to be sure that we

195have a plan for continuity. Uh and I can tell you that Mr. Harrison can chime in. Dr. passion has worked very closely with student services to be sure that we have a really good plan. So >> yeah, I don't know if you want to. >> So first first um let's start with Dr. Pley. I am immensely saddened that we're losing her but also incredibly happy for her that she was able to find a position that is much closer to her home. So her quality of life with her young children at home is great for her. So that's amazing for her. It's a huge loss for us but an a major win for her. Um Miss Critici to the direct answer to your question is absolutely not. There will not be any any loss of time

196on um evaluations for for the students. Students that are currently in time Dr. Pley you know as the constant professional that she is she already had a plan of this is what we're going to do. We went through the the students who are in an active timeline to make sure that they were either reassigned to another psychologist or uh Dr. Pley will finish them before she uh finishes with us. uh as new per permissions come in, if our psychologist cannot meet that need, we would actually then look at a company like PTS or uh another staffing agency that we would be able to contract a psychologist to to um to meet the timeline. Working off of that, you know, obviously we're going to try to hire someone. I'm going to work off of an assumption

197that that person's probably going to get held somewhere else. So, they may not be here right away. So if there's a gap then we would we would look to contract those services. >> Can you just remind me we're obviously back filling here. Did we we approved another school psychologist correct last year? >> Yes. So currently there are we have five five including Dr. Pashley in in our district. Um and Dr. Levy has been immensely helpful in keeping that that that work uh moving along at at the right pace. we have not had to to uh refer out to the IU for any uh evaluations this year which is something we did have to do in years past. >> So five seems to be the right number to have in district >> right now and it

198>> yeah it it's we're we're making it work for sure. We're making it work. Absolutely. >> But if money were no object you would possibly like >> Money were no object. >> Well, Dr. Scott, did you hear that? Cuz I took up on it. >> I am kidding. I say that in Jess. I am just clarifying. >> Taking the bike from me now. Here we go. >> The need that the need is um being met. So that's >> No, we are able to meet the needs with with five obviously, you know, needs and wants. You know, we we we always love to have more, but we can meet the needs with five. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Of course. >> Um I noticed five substitute bus drivers. Any reason why so many right now?

199So the with the bus drivers, we are constantly onboarding bus drivers. Um and so that is a continuous process. Um we are anticipating some additional retirements that I think that you'll see in addition to the one um we are always in need of bus drivers and that's why if you go to our website you will see that the posting for bus drivers never comes down. We are never not in the market. Any other questions about the HR agenda? >> Thank you everyone. >> Thank you. All right. So we will move on to number five, the last thing for discussion policies. >> Thank you Dr. National. It's been a a nice meeting on January the 20th. Um good discussion, some pretty deep discussion at times. Uh Kyle Berman who's our solicitor is joining us for the

200policy committee meetings now. Um this was our was it our first policy committee with Mr. Kreniki as the chair. Um which was nice. So Mr. Kreniki was there, Miss Kusk and um Miss Hunt and then Mr. Dockerty, Mr. Harrison, myself. Um Bob, I don't you weren't at that one, right? Um so we discussed we went over the the policies are listed for a second read this month which you can see on the screen. the diabetes management and participation in board meetings um just to go over and solidify make sure there was nothing that needs to be adjusted. So those are set for a second read and a vote two weeks from now. Um we had additional discussion uh about the civility policy and about whether or not we need to implement disability civility policy. Couple

201of different examples. Kyle provided some good uh perspective and some good information. Um there's some follow-up that he's doing prior to our next meeting. Uh and then we also began to touch on the student activity fund policy 618. Um Shelley had suggested that we bring that into discussion as well um as a parallel to what we're doing with the access and with the access and opportunity committee um to see what do we have written in policy versus what is actually uh in practice. Our next meeting is in March. It's on March the 23rd. We will actually share some additional policies um for folks to look at on the on the 23 um which is not this Monday, it's the following Monday as we have traditionally because we're doing the policy meetings um the Monday prior

202to the legislative meeting. This is our first cycle where we're going into an every other month meeting. But we are going to share some stuff for folks to give feedback and then we will do the same thing again prior to the March meeting. Joe, >> um I very much would like to talk about our um our uh comment policy. Um not so much for legislative comment, but I would like to discuss if you need policy for this setting because uh I love hearing comments from the public. I think it makes me think more deeply and and learn more about their needs, but it's become a bit of a conversation and this is our meeting to do work. Yes. >> And I think it's really getting in the way and I I do think we need

203some clear guidelines around what we're going to do and I think it puts our president in a very challenging position to not have those guidelines. >> So, some clear guidelines and definitions. You know, it's interesting the the way that we work, the work session, you know, the work session is is literally singularly the opportunity for the board to do their work, right? It it's the the magic of the sausage being made in public. Um the opportunity that this school district, this board of education provides for members of the the public to ask questions, I think is very valuable. Um, I agree that at times it can devolve into very personal questions or or things that really need to be followed up at the building level that just don't touch where the board is. Um, let

204me talk to Kyle and see what does that look like to codify it in policy. Um, just because of of how it's not a formal public comment that exists. It's something that's been permissible by this board to provide better access to the community um and more uh opportunity I think for dialogue uh that goes on. But let me have some conversation with him and we will we will list that on the agenda then for the March meeting. >> Just one more thing. So for for that reason I don't know if it belongs in policy I think is the first hurdle to >> I agree. I don't I don't >> it doesn't we still do need some very definitive guidelines that we share with our public. We make sure that they're shared everywhere >> and that

205there is this understanding that this is where we do work. They're more than welcome to email. We will entertain. I hope we continue to entertain some questions, timely questions, but there has to be limits and this can't continue. >> And Hillary, we did have >> very specific conversations. That is not the the one we'll be voting on, by the way. That's the 2002 version. That is not the one we revised. >> So, if you read the one we revised, we put great specificity into both legislative meetings and work session meetings. We decided to take it. >> I believe we decided that the policy was only for legislative meetings. >> So that is correct. I was just looking at it. We had a lot of discussion about this and we actually wrote something about work session

206commentary and then in the end decided to not have it and to just say is discretion of the presiding officer in order to in order to give uh leeway and feeling like it didn't belong in the policy. I I I think that giving I absolutely trust our president. You might not always be our president. And I think it also still puts that person, whoever's presiding in a really awkward position, >> a really unnecessarily awkward position. >> Who's in the quote awkward position? And I don't feel that way um honestly. But I do think we need to have some flexibility at the work session and I understand that sometimes the questions may go beyond. Um but I try to give people a little grace because sometimes people want to have their say. Um so I just

207think we just need to be mindful of that. I I don't know if this is the best way me sort of interpreting what people are saying cuz I do feel I do have to cut people off because other people who are listening can't hear but I agree it shouldn't be in the policy. Um but maybe that's just something we need to sort of figure out some more. Just looking up our website. On our website, we do talk about the different types of meetings and what happens at them. And perhaps there's a way at the what happens at a work session to it just says connect see connect with us for information related to the public comment at work sessions. Hold on. I see there's >> you see that that but the intro go there. But

208remember the intro we put together. I do say that you know we if time permitting or whatever I got it written down somewhere. >> So but people don't always when you come to a meeting and you have an issue people don't you know it's like well I know she said in the beginning that we can't do this but I'm going to do it anyway. So that's why I'm talking about flexibility and just trying to to be understanding but >> having a limit, you know, and >> and that's something we need to be mindful. >> I have to say this isn't necessarily the the place for an issue. The the place for an issue is connecting with our superintendent, connecting with the >> But I mean an issue an issue with something that's being presented, right?

209>> An issue is I feel like it's different than an issue. And I just feel like this gets to kind of a circus level and that we're exhausted by that sometimes and might not even get to our questions because so much time has passed. We're concerned about people getting home. Even me talking about this, I know people are still waiting to go home. So I I'm just throwing that out there and I'll end there >> to to add on and it's it's one small thing, but one thing I would just consider us figure a way to craft is sort of to outline expectations better for each time we are going to have the board ask questions first so everyone can keep hands down. We will then after each thing then turn to the public because

210I it kind of reminds me honestly when I'm teaching class where I have to remind students like you don't need to keep waving your hand as soon as we are done with our thing. Um because I think there's an understandable fear that some people are like well we're not going to get to audience questions and you never forget Teresa you're always very good right so but I think people who don't come very often or what not they might not so if we had some sort of structure built into play of each time of okay now it's time for board questions after this then it'll be sort of constantly reminding I think that might allay some concerns >> I mean I think that I think that is a a good thing to do But we all

211know that things people don't always pay attention to what is being said. But I will keep that in mind. I also think we have to realize that things can be very dynamic, you know, in terms of people asking questions and you have to sort of get through it, right? And it might not be what we all want >> and we all realize that at a certain point we need to cut it off and that's fine. But it's going to be dynamic. It's it's I mean I guess because I I teach and I I get all kinds of questions. No. >> Right. And so I'm I'm okay with it, but at certain points you have to sort of okay, this is where we're stopping and we're moving on >> just to be aware of that. But

212I think emphasizing that could help. >> I think and I only just to clarify it's not even so much the dynamic of like the length. I as a someone mentioned like this is for us as the board to ask questions. I actually found it a little bit distracting when I was talking to I forget who it was asking question and I kept seeing some people behind waving their hands and so I'm just saying as a board member it is a little bit distracting and I'm wondering if we just gently remind people after the board we will then turn I I don't know because it is just a little bit tough to see this when you are >> that's why I sit here >> right >> you understand that I mean I do and I will

213say say that but >> it will be what it will be. I mean quite frankly >> I can tell you one of the one of the most straightforward things that we can do simply even before we change anything that that gets written down formally you know is we certainly can create a a poster sized board on a tripod that sets out that's in visibility >> right we can also provide note cards you know if somebody wants to write a question if they didn't get a chance to ask their question you know I we can certainly and we can we can put it out and say this is how it's going to function Teresa can still do her piece can still announce that, but we can refer to where that is. >> It might allay some

214of the anxiety that they won't be heard, which is I know is something that often can happen. So, thank you. >> As I say, I I do like the thing at the beginning, but I feel like it's maybe gotten long and so I I feel like I'm zoning out a little bit when you're reading it and so a lot of it I think is I know I'm sorry. I >> I know it's not you. It's not the delivery, it's the length. And so I know you say you say that you say those things about it, but like I don't think anyone's like >> cataloging what actually they're you're saying. And so I think also though if we're going to look at what that is, I think we should really emphasize this meeting is the work

215of the board, right? Like we talk about our mission and I think that's great because it centers us, but I think we also need to say what are we doing here? this is the work of the board and the public is allowed you know to see it of course but like this is our chance to do the work and if there's time you may ask a question like just like it's it's getting too much and I think we need to emphasize this is the work of the board right here this is our only chance to be together to talk about talk about things >> and it's it's the part for me again I love the questions that makes it some of the questions are great it's when it devolves into a conversation when you've answered

216the question and then it's another question and another question and another question. >> It's it's too much. It's too distracting. >> So, okay, we're we're kind of this is devolving, too. But, uh >> I mean, I I think everyone's point is well taken. Ken, I think you wanted to say something. I I think I think if we can figure out how to draw the line between a question about what is being discussed on the agenda and a question about how how something on the agenda might affect my kid is are two different things and that line has to be really clear uh and u should be reflected in in what you say at the beginning or what's posted. >> Agreed. But things are very dynamic and sometimes you got to go with the flow. Just

217remember that. Yeah. Yeah. And yes, it is. And it it will depend on certain circumstances. I mean, >> I told my family I'd be home probably 10:30ish. >> Girl, I said 8:30. >> Like, and they all laugh at me because they know that's not true. mind being here until 10:30 if we're actually discussing things that are pertinent to to what needs to be taken care of for the district. So also Teresa there's um for you Teresa for you even we talked about revamping your opening statement at legislative meetings because several years ago during COVID we had to change our language of profanity threats and things like that will be discouraged not we used to say prohibited and now apparently we can prohibit it that that stuff you know we've gotten legal advice. So for your

218from your perspective, even your opening statement will change because there we we can prohibit more than what they said we could prohibit years ago. Okay. So we're good. >> We're done. Yeah. Um, just I want to emphasize our our legislative meeting is on Thursday the 26th, 6:30 at Penrest High School and we have the budget work session on Monday, March 3rd 2. You miss our budget meeting. All budget, all the time will be Monday, March 2nd at 6:30 p.m. at Springton Lake Middle School in the library. >> Yes. >> All right. And good night. Good night.