001Good evening. Welcome to the December legislative meeting of the Rose Tree Media School Board. This meeting is called to order. Please stand if you are able for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Dr. Scott, please take the role. >> Tanita Austin. Hillary Fletcher >> here. >> Michael Fox >> here. >> Jackie Gusk >> here. >> Susan Henderson Udis >> here. >> Shelley Hunt >> here. >> Carlen Kreniki >> here. >> Miles Foster Lner >> here. Erica Jonahan >> here. >> Grace Moore >> here. >> Terresa Napson Williams >> here. >> Madam President, we have a quorum. >> Thank you, Dr. Scott. We'll move on to
002the approval of minutes. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes. Next, we'll move to presentations and awards. We have the 2025 Simon Youth Foundation Teacher of the Year. The Simon Youth Foundation has chosen Amanda Sheldon as the 2025 SYA Foundation Teacher of the Year. Each and every day, students and staff in the Rose Tree Media Simon Youth Academy are lucky to experience firsthand all of the things that make Amanda the phenomenal educator that she is. On top of that, her unwavering focus on creating connections and building relationships truly makes Rose Media's SYA a better place. Congratulations, Amanda. All right. Next, we will move to the student student liaison reports. Good evening. Um, this is Miles Foster Learner. And at Glenwood Elementary, Glenwood students
003enjoyed a special day at lunch called Mix It Up Day. During this day, students sit at different tables rather than with their own class. Guidance counselors Miss Velios Miller and Mr. Mc Monagle provide topics and questions to guide the students discussion and encourage new friendships. The students enjoy meeting new friends and chatting with friends from other classes. The Glenwood fifth grade put on their winter coral concert on December 4th at Penrest. The audience was packed and Miss Skyler Johnson did a great job leading the singers in a wide variety of musical numbers. Glenwood also celebrated American Education Week by opening its doors to families. Each grade level does different activities like morning meetings, math lessons, readers theater performances, and STEM activities. The students enjoyed having guests take a glimpse into their classrooms. At Indian Lane
004Elementary School, students participated in a schoolwide winter candle project celebrating the many winter traditions they have been learning about this month. Through their library encore, students explored how families around the world bring light and warmth to their communities, including through the story Winter Candle. This inspired each child to create a personalized luminary bag representing their own family traditions. Today, Indian Lane hosted two schoolwide singalongs. Families walked through the courtyard courtyard along a beautifully lit path of the student created luminaries. Each student brought home their winter candle with the idea that it can illuminate their homes with the traditions and celebrations meaningful to their families. Indian Lane Student Council hosted a schoolwide pajama day on Friday, December 5th to support the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Student leaders organized and promoted the fundraiser, encouraged their peers to
005participate, and shared how donations would support children and families receiving care at CHOP. Their leadership inspired strong participation, and highlighted how acts of kindness can make a meaningful difference. Indian Lane launched the Bobcat 200 club this fall as part of our PBIS framework. Students are showing improvement in being ready, respectful, and responsible in the hallways, and the grid is filling quickly as students earn student recognition. Each day, mystery staff members award tickets for positive hallway behavior, and students add their names to the display. When a row of 20 is filled, those students receive a prize. Thank you. Hi, I'm Grace Moore and I'll be reading the reports for Media Elementary and Roer Elementary. At Media Elementary, Mrs. Amarosa's fourth grade students had the opportunity to write pen pal letters to students in Aurora School in
006Mango, Uganda. Thanks to Dr. Virginia Einstein, a parent of one of our students. Dr. Einstein is an engineer and professor at Villanova University, who does a lot of work to support and improve the lives of our residents in Mango, Uganda. She traveled to Uganda recently and delivered the letters to the students. Upon her return, the visi she visited and shared more about her experience helping bring bring clean water to Mango. Students saw how the skills they learned in school, estimating, multiplication, geography skills, etc. can be applied to solve real world problems. Students hope to receive letters back from the Ugandian pen pals in February. Fifth grade students completed an indepth study of a reading and writing poetry. They are becoming familiar with literary terms such as stanza, form, tone, implied metaphor, rhin scheme, and federal
007parallel structure. Students have read poetry from Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickens, and have created poems created inspired by the great poets. Me Elementary proudly presented its winter corral concert last Thursday for family and friends at Springton Lake Middle School, featuring performances by the fifth grade chorus, the Mustang Corral, and the media chime choir. Students narrated guided and the audience through the musical selections at Rocher Elementary. This year's Bagels with a Buddy was a wonderful success held over two mornings in mid- November. The event brought students and their loved ones together for a fellowship and of course breakfast. Thanks to the PTG for the sponsoring the special tradition. On December 4th, Rose Tree fifth graders took the stage for the winter corral concert filling the room with music and holiday cheer. The performance showcased
008the entire fifth grade class among with the select choir and roaster rumble recycle percussion ensemble. This year's literary book fair made American education week even more exciting. Students and families in K through 5 had a great time browsing the wide variety of book posters and fun little trinkets that the fair had offered. Our K through2 classrooms have been busy learning through hands-on exploration. Kindergarten students are building early math skills by working with a number of bonds through interactive games and manipulations. In second grade, students brought literature to life after reading Balloons Over Broadway by designing their own character inspired parade balloons and sharing them in a mini classroom parade. Good evening. I'm Erica Jonan and I will be reading the reports for Springton Lake Middle School and Penrest High School. At Springton Lake Middle School,
009Mrs. Kylie Buchcci was recently recognized as the excellent educator of the month for Delaware County. Mrs. Buchcci is the co-sponsor of Springton Lakes Community Service Club that supports the annual turkey trot and canned food drive, the MLK Day of Service, and the Hoops for Hope annual teacher versus students basketball tournament that raises funds for the Eagles Autism Foundation. In addition, Mrs. Bougie plays an integral role in coordinating the club service projects, including work with the Caring for Friends organization, which provides meals to food insecure groups throughout the Chester area. This month, the sixth grade social studies department organized an assembly to support students learning about World War II. As a part of the program, Holocaust survivor Ruth Cap Harts presented her survival story to sixth grade students. The students gained a better understanding of the
010events and a sense of what Mrs. Harts endured. On Friday, December 5th, the Spartan Jazz Band and Springton Lake Middle School honor strings brought holiday cheer to the King King of Pasha Mall with a festive performance in the lower level court outside Macy's. Our students represented Springton Lake with poise, professionalism, and outstanding musicianship. On Saturday, December 6th, a small ensemble from the Spartan Jazz Band brought lively holiday spirit to the Indian Lane Elementary School Holiday Extravaganza. Our musicians helped create a joyful atmosphere for the entire event. At Penrest High School, Penrest Food Force ran a successful food drive for the food bank of Delaware County at Campbell Ame Church and Media. Thanks to our students and teachers, we donated 1,49 items. Thank you everyone for starting out this season of giving in such a great
011way. Nine students from the coding club competed in a competition Wednesday at the Microsoft building in Melbourne called Hack the Valley. The team consisting of Nigel Seager, Aditia Murthy, and Matthew Gunwan walked away with first place prize. The Eyes on the Cure Club hosted their first 5K on the penrest track, and it was a huge success. More than 60 people attended the race with all proceeds going to the fund for fighting blindness. From November 15 to 17, 2025, 105 students and 15 staff members participated in the annual Penrest student leadership retreat at Sandy Hill camp and retreat center in northeast Maryland. The trip included teacher-led leadership development workshops that featured identifying leadership styles, communication, goal setting, motivation, group dynamics, project planning, and beginner and advanced team building. Our students returned to PHS ready to make
012a positive impact on our community. On November 18th, 28 Penrest Art students were inducted into the National Art Honor Society. Our speaker was Billy Haynes, class of 2009. This is the 30th year of the NAHS at Penrest. Hi again, I'm Grace and I'll be reading the student report this month. Good evening and happy holidays. This semester has started off smoothly, but with students eager to be on break again, spending time with family, friends, and just enjoying break. Another month has gone by and we're still seeing or in our case, the same issue, feeling the same issues. The heating in our school has again been a problem that students and teachers can't stop talking about. The other reps and I had the opportunity last month to speak to some of our staff that works with the
013heating and cooling in our school and gave us some feedback on what we should be doing when something like this is bothering us. They said to tell your teacher and they would know how to send in a ticket straight to them and that is how they would be informed of the issue. I followed what they had told me and my teacher told me how do you do that and does that even make a difference. I believe that the school should tell the teachers that this is an option because they might not even know they can do this and that they truly do want to help us so students have to students don't have to be freezing in their classrooms. Another issue that has been brought up to me by many students recently, students have that
014have async or flexible schedule first block when they get to school at the start of second block are having problems with having to walk to the front of the school from the teacher from the student lot. I have heard that students have fallen because of rain and mud and the temperatures that make the walk unbearable. The administration has sent out an email that this change is happening, but students have reported to me that the door is inconsistently been open. In good news, our reps thought it would be a good idea to hold focus groups once a month to get input from students that we might not be able to talk to from around the school to hear more feedback in our for reports and so the information can be told to you. Thank you and
015we hope you have a great winter break and we'll see you all in 2026. Thank you. All right. Um, let's see. We have the board liaison report. Uh, Miss Hunt, do we have anything from Delaware County Community College? So, in addition to the semester ending at Delaware County Community College, the big news there is that the new building will be open for students for in January of 2026. 115,000 square feet approximately of new buildings and six different programs. I encourage you all if you ever have an opportunity to take a trip down to the facility or hop on the trolley and go down. Um it's really quite remarkable. So thank you Miss Hunt. Uh the committee highlights and reports are contained within the minutes. So we'll move to the superintendence report. Dr. Malashsh. >> Thank
016you Dr. Napson Williams. As we approach the winter holidays, I'm reminded once again of the tremendous strength and warmth of our district. This season brings with it a sense of togetherness, an appreciation for traditions, for generosity, and for the small moments that connect us. In schools, the spirit is felt daily in classrooms, in hallways, and especially during celebrations and events that bring the community together. I want to begin tonight by thanking our students, our staff, and families for continuing to foster a district where people truly care about one another. The importance of a closely knit community cannot be overstated. It is the foundation that allows our students to feel supported, our staff to feel valued, and our families to feel welcomed as partners in the educational journey. There was a tremendous response to the annual
017collections in our schools for coats, shoes, gifts, and food items. Our community truly stepped forward. One of the greatest joys this past month has been attending the winter concerts that have occurred across all of our schools. These performances were nothing short of remarkable. Our elementary school showcased the enthusiasm of young performers who sang with joy and confidence, many of them appearing on stage for the first time. At Springton Lake, the band, orchestra, and coral groups demonstrated impressive growth in musicianship, delivering performances far beyond what one might expect from such young ensembles. And at Penrest, our musicians and vocalists offered polished, moving performances that truly highlighted the depth of talent and the commitment to the arts that exists in our district. These concerts do more than entertain. They strengthen the bonds among students, families, and staff.
018They remind us of the power of the arts to unify and to uplift. I extend my heartfelt appreciation to our music teachers and directors whose countless hours of preparation made these events such a success. Their dedication helped shape lifelong memories for our students. I heard some excellent feedback from our elementary and middle school conferences in late November. It was great to see so many families engaging with the schools to talk about their children. Taking the time to focus on our children is always time well spent. As we prepare to close out the calendar year, I'm proud of all that our district has accomplished during these first months of the school year. We will continue to focus on academic excellence, student well-being, and strong partnerships with families. And in the spirit of the season, I hope
019everyone finds time for rest, joy, and connection with loved ones. Thank you for your continued support of our schools and honestly for the privilege of serving this wonderful community. I wish you all a peaceful and joyful holiday season. >> Thank you, Dr. Malash. We'll move to the president's report. The 2025 calendar year has been an exciting and busy one for the Rose Tree Media School District. We continue to make tremendous progress in our academic program as we continue to address the physical needs of our schools. As a board, we take great pride in the comprehensive program that is offered to the students in our schools. We are grateful to the staff across the district who provide such a wonderful environment and such a high level of education. On behalf of the board of school directors,
020we wish the members of the Rose Tree Media educational community a restful winter break and a healthy and prosperous new year. We will move now to scheduled presentations. We have Janette Verdor from RTMA. >> Good evening everyone. The Rose Tree Media Education Association wanted to extend a warm welcome to our newest board members, Mr. Fox and Miss Austin. Thank you very much for your willingness to serve the education community. We appreciate it. Um, we are also very proud to congratulate once again Miss Amanda Sheldon being recognized as Simon Teacher of the Year and then Mrs. Kylie Buchcci for her um, recognition in her work at Springton Lake. And we're going to add to that the excellent educator of the month for December as awarded by the substitute teacher service has been bestowed upon Indian Lane's
021Mr. Ron Frank. So if you attended Indian Lane any time in the last 30 years you had Mr. Frank for physical education class and he's not only shephered kids through their elementary years, he has maintained relationships with many into adulthood. Ron believes a little bit of support and love to our students does a multitude of good. He is incredibly thankful to be a part of all his students journeys. Pancress teacher and faculty adviser for the award-winning literary magazine The Griffin has just released his latest book. Jim Zervanos has just penned a novel titled American Euro. Little play on words there. Um add this to your winner reading list. We're really proud of Jim and his authorships. We were all captivated by his last publication, Your Story Starts Here, a year on the brink with Generation
022Z, which was a memoir of his teaching here at Penrest and um takes on his personal journey as a teacher and the joys and challenges that he shared with his students. We are RTMA proud of our colleagues for their outstanding accomplishments. And finally, just about every day throughout this month, somewhere in the district, you can catch a musical performance which involves hundreds of students and 14 very talented and dedicated music teachers. When you need a moment of joy in your day, just stop in and listen. Thank you. All right. Now, we will move to unscheduled presentations. The district residents and taxpayers wishing to address the school board are encouraged to do so at this time. Written items are strongly suggested. Speakers will state their name and their municipality for the record before commenting. Comments are
023limited to three minutes. The school board may suspend the public comment period after a reasonable amount of time. Use of profanity, shouting, or personal attacks are discouraged. Please note that the public comment period is intended to provide an opportunity for citizens to address the board. However, it is not an opportunity to participate in public debate or a question and answer dialogue. Therefore, contact information should be provided to the administration and board so that the school district can follow up with citizens concerns following the meeting. And we have no unscheduled presentations. So we will move uh to old business. A vote on policies for second read and approval. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion passes. Next we'll move to human resources. I suggest
024we group letters A through I. A through I as in Indian lane together. Is there any objection to this? Hearing none. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> I I >> opposed. Motion passes. Next up, letter K is the policy first read and review. So there is no vote. We'll move down to finance. I suggest we group letters A through G. Letters A through G. G as in Glenwood. Is there any objection to this? Hearing none. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. discussion. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes. Next up, we'll move to letter I, a vote on the act one resolution. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> I would just like to point out that
025this is um this vote tonight is part of the process mandated by the state. Our budget discussion will start in earnest at the special session held on March 2nd at 6:30 in Springton Lake Library and we encourage all taxpayers to join us there. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes. Next up, I suggest we group letters J through X. J through X. X as in Xanadoo. >> Xanadoo. >> Okay. X. [laughter] Is there any objection to this? >> Hearing none. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Uh I would just like to thank uh Dr. Scott and her business office for once again a successful and clean audit um as listed in letter J. >> All in favor >> I opposed. Motion passes. Next up, uh financials and bill
026list A. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second, >> Shel. Discussion. All in favor? >> I. >> Opposed? Motion passes. We'll move to the addendum letter A. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> I discussion. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion passes. Moving to announcements. Executive sessions. There was an executive session held from 5:30 until 6:30 before the legislative meeting on Thursday, November 20th, 2025 to discuss privilege matters with the board's council andou discussion. The executive session held from 6:00 p. p.m. until 6:30 p.m. before the reorganization and work session meetings on Monday, December 1st, 2025 was held to discuss privilege matters with the board's council and confidential student matters protected by law. future meetings. We have a work session on Monday, January 8th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m.
027at Springton Lake Middle School in the library. We have a policy committee meeting on Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. at the education center in the boardroom. And our next legislative meeting will be on Thursday, January 22nd, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. at Penrest High School in the auditorium. >> January 22nd. >> Okay. Um, let me clarify the work session. It will be on Monday, January, it will be on, sorry, Thursday. The work session for the school board will be on Thursday, January 8th at 6:30 p.m. at Springton Lake Middle School in the library. >> Also, you said January 26th for the meeting should be January 22. >> I said 2. Okay, I'll read them again. Okay. The policy committee meeting will be on Tuesday, January 20th, 2026, 400 PM at the education center in
028the boardroom. The next legislative meeting will be on Thursday, January 22nd, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. at Penrest High School in the auditorium. And as we have reached the end of our agenda, this meeting is adjourned.