09-11-2025 RTMSD School Board Work Session

001Good evening. Welcome to the September 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's 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 with a presentation uh the ESY summer program recap. Thank you, Dr. Napsson Williams. I'm really excited about this presentation to kick off our evening and our first work session for the 2025 2026 academic year. Dr. Tiffany Orin, who is one of our supervisors in the student services department, is joining us again this evening as she has in the past uh to go through and provide us um with some updates. and she has a great collection of folks with her um to to uh speak to the board uh and information to share. So, Dr. Orin, I'm going to turn it over to you. >> All right. Good evening. Thank you, Real. Good uh good evening.

003Thank you so much for having me. And um we do have a bunch of guests with us as well. Um so, our presentation tonight where you're using the theme of baseball. Um so, RTM is knocking it out of the park. Every year we celebrate our summer festivities and our summer programs with a breakfast and this year our theme was baseball and so we carried that through um this evening as well. So just to recap what we will be speaking about tonight um we are going to do a um combination presentation. So we're going to talk about our summer programs that include our enrichment programs as well as our ESY programs. um just the stats of our um special education inclusive program, the highlight reel, the post came live. We do have a um special guest

004with us. Um and then a curtain call for some special um guests we have as well. I learned from Mr. Aronson this week that that is what it's called when the somebody who has a home run comes out. So, I learned something new this week. And then we have some souvenirs that are prepared from our linking learning to life students. So this year for our summer enrichment program, we had three weeks of summer camps and elementary academic camps. They include our jump start to kindergarten programs and they also um include our summer smart programs. This I think I say every year, but this was definitely one of our best summers ever. We had so many students participate and it was really great. This year due to construction was the first year in many years that

005we were at Penrest High School. Um, and we like it there. So, we we did let Mr. Roth know. We really he was very hospitable. We really liked it there. Um, I don't know if it's going to happen again, but we're hoping. And it was just so great with the way that the the building was laid out. Um, it was really a lot of community just during drop off. people were bringing their dogs to say hello to me and we saw a lot of um families able to connect and it was just a really nice environment for our summer programs. Um we had 25 morning camps that we offered um and as I said almost every single one did sell out. We had six PM care um camps offered each week. So that was an

006increase. We've always had our art and craft camp which we called get crafty that Sharon Prior is the teacher. We also um always have our sports extravaganza that Justin Dabberro teaches. But this year we had such an interest in other areas such as board games and baking camp that we were able to offer six programs per week. Kirstston Curry, Jerry Diaz, and Kesha Wolf did an amazing job offering credit recovery this year. Um it offers our students that did not get the credits they need for graduation through the school year an opportunity to maintain um on that graduation track. So that was a also a well- attended program and everyone finished. So we were really proud of their efforts and the efforts of the students. Um we had penrest student volunteers this year and we

007also had job coaching opportunities for students to work in our elementary academic programs and ESY which was great to see them working with the younger students. They were role models. They were really a great extra set of hands. So we hope to increase that again this year. and our summer programs, which is something that I'm very proud of and our department's very proud of, is our inclusive opportunities. Um, you've heard me speak before that having it in-house allows us to really get to know our students and provide those students that don't always have the opportunity to attend summer camp, a real authentic opportunity to attend summer camp or parents know that their students are safe, um, they're happy, which is what's most important to us. Those students that need a high level of nursing care,

008we do have a nurse on site at all times. So, we were really able to have our students be part of the community and that's something up of um being able to prepare at Springton Lake, prepare at Penrest and then the show due to construction needed to be at um Springton Lake. Um they did an amazing job of in 18 days being able to pull off a show and again we had an opportunity for inclusive opportunities for our students to attend ESY in the morning and then go to summer theater in the afternoon and participate in the um summer theater production the way that they were able to do so. And we were able to do that by um having our power professional support our students that were there. >> Krista, do we need to

009pause? I'm having trouble with Wi-Fi. It's okay. >> We're just addressing a little technical challenge. So this year was our first year that we had um food service as part of our summer programs. So we offered summer breakfast. We also offered summer lunch. So, it was great for um the students that would stay full day at enrichment or a full day through ESY or um split the day between ESY and summer programs. Um that students could have breakfast and then they were also had the opportunity to have lunch. Um it was great. Um Jenny Lee did an amazing job making sure that um the programs were running very smoothly. It provided an opportunity for some of our linking learning to life students to work in the cafeteria. Um and it also um was just made

010from what we heard the feedback a lot easier for families to have the the service there as well and our and our um summer staff was able to work and it was some hours for them. So it seemed to be a win-win. We're looking to continue it in the future. Um so we definitely could not do this without um Dr. Andy Kunrat. He is at a conference um tonight, so he could not be here, but he is the assistant director and he we really couldn't do it without him. Um Mike Nolan and his team were absolutely fantastic. We created an elementary school in many rooms um in a high school. There was a lot of moving going on. He built a baking room and the faculty lounge. Um so just a ton of time, a

011ton of planning, a ton of collaboration. It was really great. Um, I had nightmares of what Carline was going to look like the first day and Mike's whole team, he was able to get them out there and it really just made such a smooth day. I just kept standing there and saying, "There's no need for me here. This is amazing." All that worrying. Um, Armando Ragny and his team and maintenance at um, Penrest, anytime we were on the walkie that we needed something, he was bringing it before we even knew we needed it. So, it was really great. They worked around us. We did take over the entire first floor of the high school. Um, and it was they were just amazing. and they were still able to get the building ready to open on

012time. Um, PS PHS administration was very hospitable and was great. Emma Robinson, Sammy McNellis, Dr. Saladino's team in HR were fabulous making sure we got everybody board approved and paid on time. That's important. Um, the curriculum supervisors, Tina Love Smith and um, Jannine Bari were there to support as well. Um, they were a great set of hands. They jumped in where needed. It was great to have their collaboration. Um, Beth Zelelesnik is our summer school secretary. very very helpful. Ralph Harrison and his security team, Martell and Braheim, kept us safe, kept the doors locked. All I kept saying is, "Lock the doors. Lock the doors." And I didn't even need to say they had every door locked. So, that was great to have them um to be a support system as well. Alisa Herman Louu

013is always our nurse. Every year she says it's her last one and she keeps coming back for one more. Um but she is just great making sure that all the students get what they need. Um Lauren Balor was a really great help with helping us order and paying invoices. And Heather Hogan was great in the business office as well. And Jenny Lelay was great as well um to make sure that I skipped over that. Thank you. with her team to make sure that we had um all of the food service and all those opportunities as well. So part of summer programs is also extended school year. We offered extended school year for four weeks with extended day opportunities for those students who qualified for the extra time. We had a 100 plus students attend DSY

014this school year where they were able to not only get academic support but also their related services with um their social skills, the speech, OT, PT and schoolbased psych services continued. So those services were maintained. We were able to provide competitive work experiences um through a lot of partnerships we have with the community as well as with Lawrence Parks Rim Club. they actually hire some of our students through the ESY program so they're able to um those students that are ready to earn money and work. We were able to have them go out with our PAR professionals and then some of our students were able to actually feed back the support and be able to be totally independent. So that's always really a great thing to see. Um we were able to continue our job

015coaching opportunities and we always have our favorite car wash. Um it's our annual event and the students just absolutely love it. It's one of our culminating activities and it's really great to see the community come out and support the the children and the students. I always get to speak about the programs, but it takes a lot of people behind the scenes to make sure that we are able to um have the programs and offer them. Um Dan Harden's our director of student services. We can't do any of this without him. Jen Marvel and Lauren Dailyaly Clark are our supervisors who help um also run the programs, organize. Jen helps maintain and um organize all the BCBAS and all the RBTs that we have. This was Lauren's Lauren's first day was ESY. Um so she quickly

016learned how it goes. It was great to have her a member of the team. Our secretarial staff, Nancy, Kathleen, and Margaret were always great keeping us organized and getting all the reports done. Kendra, Anita were really fantastic at the building level. And I can't say enough about Bonnie Kinsler, best Frankie Doris and Zach Musleman, and all the team at transportation. They move us at a the drop of a hat. Sometimes things pop up and we need a bus immediately and somehow they get it there. So they they were moving us all over the place this summer and we really appreciate all their support. So moving into a little bit more about our programs during the academic year in our elementary school program in the intensive learning support and our low incidence program. We have five

017teachers. We were able to add a new one this year. Um, and with that, we have one student who have returned back from district already, and we're working on um, a possible second. And we've also had um, several new students move into the district. So, it's really helping making sure that all the students are accessing their programs. Um, we have 19 Paris, four rookies, so four are new. We had a large cohort last year of kindergarteners. And so, it's really great to have that support when students are able to access their general ed programs. We have one RBT who is here this evening who is um one of our behavior managers in the um at Indian Lane and we have 29 students currently in the program. At the middle school we have two teachers um

018one in his third year, one in his second year. We have 11 PAR professionals, we have one RBT and we have 16 students in the program. At Penrest we have two teachers, 13 PARS and 21 students in the program. And then linking learning to life. We have two teachers, nine paras and 18 students um come daily to the program. The program is primarily community- based. So our powers really go out in small groups and really help the students really immerse themselves in the community and get all of that real real world um participation. So they're able to generalize all the skills they learn in the classroom. So, in our elementary programs, we're always working for continued independence. Um, our students start their vocational opportunities when they are ready. And one of their favorite jobs is

019collecting the breakfast carts every day. So, they go around um after a morning meeting with two students and one par professional per floor to collect all the breakfast carts. They have paperwork that they fill out in the cafeteria to help them, you know, practice their counting and making sure that they have a checklist. Um, and then they work with the linking learning to life students who make all the breakfast bags. Um, we offer parent training at Indian Lane for those students that were working on creating behavior momentum. We're working on personal hygiene skills and it's great to have that homeschool connection so that we're using the same language and the same visuals at home. We are very fortunate to be part of the Patan Autism Initiative. It is our second year at Indian Lane. Um

020we have consultants come in once a month. We have a dedicated BCBA who is our in-house trainer. And it's really keeping us on the cutting edge of all the different ABA strategies and behavior strategies so that all of our students regardless of level are able to access their programming and increase communication. We take place in um take part in Special Olympics at the elementary level. We have um unified botchi and we have unified track. Um we have a lot of paraprofessionals who we are joined by tonight um that really make it accessible and make our students be able to engage in the activity. It's just such a meaningful opportunity. If you ever get an opportunity to come to any of the games, we also participate in a track activity um every spring. It does always

021rain so bring a poncho every year. Um, but it's just amazing to watch our students work together and um, really build those meaningful relationships. At Springton Lake, um, we have increased access for vocational opportunities and to generalize skills. So, our favorite activity is the coffee cart. Our students are able to um, work with our related service providers, speech OTPT. They push the cart. They're able to greet each teacher. They're able to have discussions um with the staff that they sell the coffee to. They're able to follow the rules. They are now totally independent in setting up and breaking down the coffee cart. We also have school improvement meetings here once a month as an administrative team. And our Springton Lake team is able to prepare the breakfast and set it up um each one Monday

022a month. So, they really love doing that and they love seeing everyone and being able to talk to them. Um at the middle school, we have increased participation in extracurricular activities. We have that through IEP supplemental support which allows our power professionals to work outside of the contract day to support our students. So we had a student who worked at um work with the tennis team and would practice with the team and then was the manager for the matches. Um our paris support the students so they can attend dances um as well as other activities. We also have a unified botchi um club there as well. Our students increase their community- based experiences at Springton Lake. They do go out once a month in the community and they um go to the Acme twice a

023week or twice a month. And then we're also exploring curricular activities to increase access for all of our learners. We have a v variety of learning needs in our program. And so we're spending the first marking period taking a look at all of our programs and seeing if if there's anything in addition that we need to add or anything that we need to modify to meet the needs of all learners. The um power professionals also allow a lot of our students to access increased opportunities for general education in um their encore classes as well as science and social studies. And we also have students that are accessing the learning support program for their ELA and their math curriculum. So I'm joined today by Lee Calvin's mom um who is here. Calvin is a new sixth

024grader who is loving middle school. And so I'm going to let um Lee explain a little bit about the program. >> Um good evening everyone. Uh a little bit nervous. Um I didn't expect so many people. >> So yes um I think I did a u make a very good um decision this summer to let Calvin uh go to the ESY in the morning and then um the camp in the afternoon. First of all, I would choose school camp definitely over other camp because we feel safe and Calvin feels safe. He sees the teacher that he saw before and then he has his friend there with him. And the other thing is that helps him maintain the routine and his academic skills. Uh so in the morning the ESY he can practice the math and

025then uh practice the language art have speech therapist also the the social skills practice and then he went to the cafeteria to have lunch with his friends just like a typical school day right and then after that he went to the um the camp but he uh join I think it's got crafty which he loves arts you know get him motivated and then be creative if um so I think it's mimic the the school day just like you have math and language art for academic classes and you also have special classes so it's very similar and he can uh he utilized the school transportation to get home which helps us a lot thank you so much everyone and um and also I want to point it out the teacher in the yes why is very

026very good Um they send me the daily communication log so I know what activity he did every day. It's not just copy and paste. It tell me oh what's the the details of the activity and also how did he enjoy them right and they are very uh quick responders. I just need to put a question or comments on the you know comment section and next day I'll get the answer. So very good. So I just came back from the back to school night for the sixth grader I mean for the all student. Um guess what the uh Mrs. Simmonton his math teacher was saying uh for the first two weeks we are going to focus on fraction operation. I'm like, that's exactly what they didn't like practice for Kelvin in the ESY, even though it's

027not in his IEP, but the teacher reach out and asked me where is his math level because he he went to the gen uh math in the elementary school. So, I I told them and they changed the practice worksheet immediately. So, I'm very happy. I'm satisfied. and Kelvin, it helps Kelvin transition from the elementary school and then summer break and the middle school. Um, I think it definitely have a positive correlation. Thank you so much everyone. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> So, at Penrest, as you know, we have started a block schedule about seven days ago, I think we're in. Um, it seems to be going really, really well. We were very concerned um for some of our students. Like 88 minutes, that's a really long time, but it's um the the staff

028did such a great job. We were able to go visit schools and the administration always made sure to really make sure that um you know, they met with us and they met with the teachers and we really were able to craft a perfect schedule for each student and it really allowed for a lot of flexibility. The students are really seem to enjoy it. And part of that block schedule is we were able to create a new transitional skills class that is um a half a block dedicated to vocational skills. Um we have a lot of skills and jobs in school um that the students are able to do and then again they're able to collaborate with their related service providers so that all the opportunities are generalizable and authentic and they're generalizing those skills to

029things that they'll be doing in the future. Um we were able to start unified electives this year which we're really excited about. our gened students and our students with um needs are able to go into the different encore classes for as much time as they're able to sustain. We are hoping to build that as the year goes on um with the help of our BCBAS and our teachers and they're able to have selection of different electives that we've had in the past. So, we're really really excited about that opportunity as well and it seems to be going really well. So for linking learning to life this year we have added um additional work sites. Um we have a student who is really really loving her opportunity to work at Indian Lane Elementary School as a

030par professional assistant and she is also working at Christ Church as well to again just expand her repertoire and her resume that she is working on in her class. We created a vending machine partnership last year. We have vending machines at Glenwood and we also have vending machines at Penrest. Um the the proceeds from those are going to our scholarship fund. So Glenwood has one and we're able to start the Pride of the Pack scholarship here at Penrest where we're able to um provide the scholarship and recognize a student that really embrace inclusion and is going into the field of special education. So we did that last year. We're really proud of that and we're going to be continuing that. Um last year we started a snack cart at um Glenwood and so it was

031really exciting to be able to take our program that we have here like the coffee cart and expand it to other buildings. Of course my pride and joy the football program it is just so exciting um to see the students on the field every Friday night. They just love it. Um and that you know it's a great for the team and it's a it's an inclusive opportunity. And this year we are starting and we started last year as well the print on state partnership. So, um, through the Top Shop and through Game on State, they've also started print on State. Last year, we printed all of our own autism, um, t-shirts, which was the first year that we did it. And I actually have a video on the next slide of a student totally independently

032printing all the shirts. Um, so we're really proud of that. We're hoping to partner with some of our sports teams at Penrest and make some of their um, um, spiritware and I'm able to have some other options through our holiday catalog as well. And so this is a student independently making the t-shirts. The machines are made to be accessible so that there's very little burn risk. Um you'll see it pop up on its own and um it immediately cools down when the student goes to pull the shirt out. the students had a lot of pride that they were able to print them this year and something that will be continuing in the future. Um, one of our students is taking part in the vocational technical experience and is also attending an approved private school and

033penrest high school. Um, there was a lot of worry in the beginning on the student and from the parent. He is thriving thriving in the environment and really learning a skill that he was very passionate about. Um, the vocational technical school has been doing a great job collaborating with us and it's just been a really great experience. um he has had the support of one of our power professionals that has really um increased his independence and promoted his independence but provided the support when necessary. Um so it's just been a really great experience to see him grow through that program uh with care and support and through dual enrollment. We do have four students that are dually enrolled at the um community college. They work very closely with Mr. Henderson on those student skills that

034you need for executive functioning. So, it's great to see them able to work on skills that they need to in their IEP through our academic program and also work on that post-secondary piece and have the support that they need. So, for spring training, we've been doing a lot of training. Um, this year was our second year after convocation. The special education department offered bus driver and bus a training um on deescalation, communication um and behavior modification. We offer paraprofessional training for um 20 hours every year and then we are also using Patan through the autism initiative to provide training to our teachers and our support staff and related service providers. So my new term I I been using it all week. So um like I said before I am very fortunate that I get to

035provide these presentations to the board each year um to conferences and to other districts that ask us to come over. But I have a vision. and it's really everybody that works daytoday on this. Um we could never do this without the support of all of you um with our central office with Dr. Malashsh and Mr. Doerty. Definitely not without Mr. Aronson and you know Jen and Lauren um being able to support all of our programs. Um we are so lucky to have the best kids and the best parents. Um they they are really so supportive and such great collaborators and um everyone else in the district that supports us. Most importantly, I am joined by a lot of our power professionals this tonight. So, please stand up without them. Thank you for being so many

036go above and beyond so many times to make sure that all of our students are getting what they need. And um we wanted to use this opportunity to be able to thank them for everything that they do and for all of their support. We do have souvenirs that our students and Miss Mchuan will be passing out. Um, again, they were made by our linking learning to life students. They go with our theme. We love a good theme. And, um, I just added my contact information. If there's any partners, business owners, business partners in the community that would like to partner with the Linking Learning to Life program for opportunities for job shadowing. We're always open to new partnerships. Thank you so much. Could I ask on that? >> Just on that last note, I remember

037you mentioning that last year as well that you're looking for partners. Could you give us examples of what a good partnership might be so that we can kind of start thinking? >> Yep, that's a great question. So, we're really looking for any we're looking for any business in the community that would like to have us. We um we tailor, we are very customized and we like to customize to what the job needs. Um we're really great at clerical work. We're great at cleaning. We're great at organizing. >> Thank you. >> Go a >> um at organizing. We're really good at um >> setting things up and following directions. Um we love office tasks like filing or shredding. Um so, and we have so many students that have so many varying levels. Um, some of our

038students love to um, do data entry. So, really, if there's anybody that's interested, I'd be more than happy to come out and see your space. Um, explain a little bit about what we do and then we'll be able to talk about the specifics. >> Thank you. Um, just real quick, I just wanted to say thanks again too and sort of parrot what Lee mentioned. Um but also just sort of tell an anecdote about how important the inclusive um Special Olympics especially at Indian Lane >> has been to my family of course. >> Tommy is not coming but thank you so much. >> Not tonight. You'll see him tomorrow. But um just how it's even helped with his transition to Springton. Um some of the older buddies he had from Indian Lane have seen him here

039and just how awesome it is that they were here to welcome him. and I don't know if he ever would have had the opportunity to meet those fifth graders when he was in third grade and vice versa because now they're eighth graders here. Um, and just I hope that the program never goes away because it's fantastic and um I hope we can expand the Special Olympics Unified program throughout the district because it's awesome. So, thank you. >> You very much. >> Thank you for our favorite presentation I think of the whole year. All right, we are going to move to uh finance and operations and we're going to start with the K to1 center update. >> Thank you, Dr. Napster Williams. And again, um such a wonderful presentation to start the night out, Dr. Orin.

040Uh and it was nice those of you that are are watching online, you couldn't see there were um probably eight or nine of our uh PAR professionals that were here this evening. Dr. Warren kept highlighting the impact uh and the effect that the power professionals have on this program uh and throughout the programs in the district. We're incredibly lucky to have uh that type of support uh and the type of humans that are here working with our children every single day. So, and when you see our paris, make sure you say thank you to them. The next exciting presentation again it continues on this path uh of where we are going as our update on the kindergarten first grade center. Uh tonight Phil and Yanni are here from ICS uh and Jennifer here is here

041from the Shrader group uh to provide some background and some information. Jennifer I think you're going to share your screen. Yes. >> Excellent. All right. Well, thank you for having us back tonight. We're excited to share kind of the progress. I I turned it on, but I'll I'll be close. Let me know if I'm too low. Okay. Jennifer is just pulling it up real quick. So, you know, since you've been gone, we've made a little bit of progress going from kind of schematic design into uh design development. So, uh brief presentation tonight. If you could just go to the agenda real quick. So, just uh we're going to give you a little refresher on where we were. Uh Jennifer is going to walk you through what we've done from that point forward. Uh just going

042to have a quick refresher on land development. We're starting to kind of move into that process now. Um then we're going to talk schedule and budget uh with Yanni. So uh just starting with where we were. Um you can scoot forward. >> We'll make it bigger. >> Um >> Dr. Because on her screen it looks like >> on her screen it's full. Why you stretch it? >> Huh? I don't know what just happened but that was great. Tada. Uh so just just starting with where we were. So just some inspirationalish um images that we started with to kind of set the tone for for how did we want this building to look. So, you can see it's very playful and I'm not an architect, but it looks like a fun place to be. Um, oh,

043thanks, Jennifer. Uh, oh, okay. Yeah, it's a little delayed. Uh, we had the the basic um layout of the site plan. You see the building down in the lower right hand corner and then you have athletics and then you have it connected to the high school. So, that looks a lot the same, but you'll see some a little bit of advancement as we move forward. Go ahead to the next one. This is just showing how the the site plan worked. Uh if you remember, uh we were going to take buses from the high school, run them around the back of the building to drop uh kids off, and then go back up through the high school. So, this was just kind of a circulation plan. You can see circulation around the front of the building

044as well. And you'll see that get advanced uh tonight. Go ahead. A couple of floor plans. You see more of a community section on the lefthand side and more of the educational section on the right hand side. And you can kind of see the pod structure shaping up. This is the first floor plan, then the second floor plan, and you'll see that move forward as well. And then we had, oh, I don't I remember this didn't come up very well. Uh, we had a couple different options for roofing. So, there was kind of a gabled roof and then there was more of a shed roof. And you'll see that kind of landing tonight as well. So, I'm going to move to Jennifer. She's got the exciting part of this which shows a lot of the

045work that's been done. Right. So, um there's we this is again that overall campus site plan that includes uh the work around the Penrest High School in the plan. Uh not a lot of change from what you've seen previously, just a little bit of refinement. We have um you know, we're demarcating the bus entry coming off of Baron Road, the parent and visitor entry coming off of Rose Tree Road. We've got uh parent and visit visitor parking at the front of the school. uh bus drop off and uh staff parking at the rear of the school. We've got linking learning to life on the east or the west side of the property with some additional parking over there for those that program. And um I'll scoot I'll go in a little closer on the next

046slide here so you can see that in a little bit more detail. Um the one thing that I think changed from the last time is we really just sort of organized the building um so that it's a little bit um uh orthagonal east to west on the site which um helps us with um solar orientation. And we also realign the front entrance. The front entrance previously sort of ran at a diagonal um and we straightened that out um to align better with the parking. But fundamentally not a lot of changes to the overall uh plan that we shared last time just some further refinement. Uh similarly with the floor plans again not a lot changed here from what you've seen previously. We did want to demarcate it a little bit closely uh more more clearly

047where the entrances are. We've got the front entrance at the building here. Uh we've got administr We've got dining here in the green. My mouse is not working, so I'm just not going to do that anymore. Everything to the left hand side of the page from that main entrance is really the public spaces. The or big orange volume that you're seeing there is the gym. Uh above that on the plan is the the kitchen and the service spaces. And then off to the left of that where you see the linking learning to life entry is where that link l linking learning to life program is located. Uh if you're moving towards the um other side of the page towards the right hand side this is where we enter the academic environments. Uh we've got those

048same four learning clusters. Um and that repeats on two floors and in the center of that little H is uh the media commons the library. And again, the second floor is very similar to the first floor. Uh, and it's pretty much the academic spaces are the only things that are two stories aside from the gym which has a double height space. Um, this is where things get a little bit more exciting. We have taken those renderings that didn't um translate very well on the big screen last time and we've fur further advanced them. Uh, we're starting to look at materials on the outside of the building. We're looking at the volume and we're also looking at the quality of space inside um that these volumes create. So, this is an aerial view um that similar

049to what we showed last time. And you can see in the background um in white is Penrest High School. This is as you're coming in off of the um main parent drop off road. This is the building. Um as you as start to approach it, uh we're starting to show materials. We're showing brick. We're showing some metal panel with a wood veneer appearance on it. Try to give some warmth and some natural material feel to the building. Um, we have some accent colors which are to be determined. They're just a placeholder right now. We haven't discussed any of those kinds of details yet, but um, you know, certainly those those discussions will come, but we are showing some opportunities to get some color in the outside of the building and make this really feel like

050a an elementary school. Uh, main entrance. This is looking a little dark in this rendering. It's a little lighter on my screen. Uh so I apologize for that. But we've got the gym off to the left. We've got the main entry here. And if you can just kind of see it there, we've got the Rose Street Media logo on the side of the building. Something fun. We'll start to look at graphics as well. This is a little bit better in terms of lighting here. What you're seeing on the right hand side, this is the media center. So it's a a double double height space. really beautiful volume inside and then the space outside of that is an outdoor play area and that we're in the early stages of the development of that as well. And

051this is oh this render is not in progress. I forgot to change that um note. I'm sorry about that. Uh this is a look at the entrance to the linking learning to life program which is on the west side of the building. So um nice entry, big canopy um you know welcoming to those students. So that's the exterior of the building as we develop it. Uh this is a peak of the inside. We're the early stages here. We don't have a lot of materiality shown, but we wanted to just show you the quality of the spaces. Um this is the dining entrance, the dining area, which is also the main entrance. This um space here off to the right. That's actually the main entry corridor. This is the dining space. The area where the students

052would get their food is directly behind us in this view. And straight ahead, the stair tower, the stair that you're seeing there um is the main access to the um educational portion of the building. Uh some of the features we're trying to do here is we're trying to make it warm and inviting. We're also pulling handwash sinks out of the bathroom so they're easily accessible to the students and just really thinking about how this is going to function for these um young learners. And next one, this is the beginnings of the media center uh library right in the heart of the building. We're looking at creating some tiered seating. We're trying to create some really warm and inviting atmospheres for these students and also trying to give them some differentiate differentiated learning environments. Here you

053can see perhaps creating some nooks underneath stairs and giving some plate students some both wide open areas to um to learn and then also some more self-contained areas um for students who who need a little bit more um indep um uh insulation. And then this is um a learning common. So surrounding this space there are five classrooms and a small group instruction. So there are eight of these total um in the building. There's four on each floor stacked. So this is really um an open collaborative area shared amongst classrooms. We've got um a a sink area for students to not only wash their hands but to also for arts and crafts. Um just really nicely lit open space for all these classrooms to um collaborate and share. And that is it for our renderings. >>

054Excellent. I know it doesn't look tremendously different, but there's a lot going on in those models to make it look like that. >> Yes. Sorry, I advanced. >> So, just um when we get through schematic design, uh we start to really get into what's called the land development process. And I'm just going to give a quick refresher just of what that entails. There we go. So, it's it is a rigorous process, right? There's a lot of layers to it and there's a Oh, I'm sorry. You know what? A lot of layers to it. I always forget to grab the thing. Um, I need a microphone instead of a disc. Uh, a lot of layers to it and it involves a lot of different approval gates. I mean, you have the township, but you also have

055the county department of environmental protection, you have PENDOT, and all of this process needs to be completed uh prior to getting a building permit. And when you think about it, it's really designed to mediate a lot of different concerns that the community has. And we've heard some concerns from many people already. Those are the things that are going to be mediated in this process. And those are things like traffic, storm water, sewer, and wastewater, environmental, and I know many of you have been through construction, but not everyone has. Also, zoning compliance. Uh, one of the things that the township has asked to do or has directed us to do is to actually have a a twopart process in the in the land development. So, we're going to have to present a preliminary submission and a

056final submission. This is to give them extra time to work through any issues that they've heard so that, you know, everybody's concerns can be heard and they are there to mediate all of this, you know, for your best interest, the community's best interest, and make sure this all makes sense. So, really, that's the process we're working into. Um, Yanni is going to talk a little bit about where we are and then how that works into the schedule and then we'll finish up with budget questions. Okay, we'll take the disc. Yeah, >> thank you, Phil. That was uh that was very intuitive. Appreciate that. So, a few milestones in the land development process. Uh so, a traffic and scoping document was submitted earlier in the summer. Uh we actually just got comments back yesterday. Uh I'll

057skip over line because the traffic study that we are now incorporating those comments to is going to take place over the next several weeks and we hope to have that study completed in October, November. Uh we did present the sketch plan to the township last Wednesday. Um we're uh upcoming also as well as submission of the primary the preliminary land developments for land development drawings which is anticipated in October and November as well. Uh we'll be meeting with the township planning commission in November December for preliminary land development and then following that will be the submission for the NPDES application in January and February of 2026. It's a little bit on schedule here. Uh there's a proposed timeline here. So we can see here uh the proposed start the proposed finish on the right. Uh

058schematic design was completed down it was back in June. We are now deeply involved in development design since June with a targeted completion date in October 2025. Uh approval for the act 34 resolution we're seeking for in November of 2025 with an act 34 hearing in January of 2026. Uh during that time period, once the design development drawings are complete, we're going to move right into construction development drawings. Uh construction documents, which will start in November and conclude in May. Uh we anticipate going for permits and approvals in June. Well, actually, no, that's the start. We're going to go for them and get them completed in September. Uh to go out to be able to bid in June of 2026 and anticipated award of August of 2026. uh construction will take approximately uh two years

059with an anticipated start of September 26 and completion of August of 2028 and everybody can move in for the 2028 school year. >> Can you go back to that for a second? >> Sure can. I was just a little >> the permitting and approvals finishes in September 26, but bidding starts in June of so it's there's a little overlap in between. >> There is because we need the contractors on board in order to secure the permits because we need to pull the permits in their name. We need their licenses to do it. So we actually have to award the job in June so we can submit the applications to get the permit September 2026. that we've combined the land development and permitting process into one line item. There is a longer schedule. It's got like,

060you know, 100 lines. So, you know, part of that does and we can't do bids until after land development, but then we can't do permits until after brids. So, it's all kind of combined. Gotcha. All right. Thanks. >> That's a very good catch. >> Okay. So uh up here is a budget update. So on the left in the green you can see the new construction is the cost of the the K1 center and itself uh $84 million. We are on budget. Uh the column to the right now includes the multisport synthetic turf complex uh which is now going to be uh part of this project but separate at the same time which we have uh which is added to this cost here for a total cost of construction of 91,480,000. And we are on budget.

061ask a question. >> Sure. >> Um I think previously the solar array was not included in that 84 million. Um is that included now or >> No, that's that's still going to be an option. So it's solar ready. So that means that the switch gear and everything is prepared for that. Uh so that at some point it's an easy ad. Uh but it was not it was not carried in the original budget. >> Do you have a price for that? And when will that be presented to us to decide on the option? >> Um we did not put it in the but we certainly could like if we could do that as an option as well um as part of the option of the project but in the original base package it was not um

062yeah it was not in there. But if you would like we could we could certainly as part of design development bring you back an option for that. You don't have to make a decision on that right now, but just to give you an idea and we could do a little bit of life cycle cost analysis as well. >> I think that'd be great because we've been talking about sustainability and what our opportunities are um across the district but also here and I think we should just really talk about it. >> I do too. And my only concern for that, I was thinking about that is with changes in the administration and renewable energy, how does that impact what we once thought might be doable? I I'm just curious about that. >> Yeah, there go ahead.

063Yeah, so there there's been, you know, there's a lot of flux obviously and uh we had gotten a lot of money through the IRA. We're not certain about that now, but remember we don't we wouldn't have to have that decision made for quite some time. So hopefully we'll get a little more clarity on that. So a lot of times what we're doing now when we're looking at renewables is we'll do it with and without kind of IRA. Um so just like what's the raw cost and what's the raw payback on that as well and then you know anything above that would be would help the payback period uh if you got grant money. I just want to clarify as as well because the budget update is on here as Yanni talked about um the budget

064for the the new K1 center is still at $84 million. We're on budget. We're where we expect to be right now. Uh want to remind everybody that in June uh the board adopted a resolution to uh do the installation of the athletic fields at the high school and to do uh the parking lot to replace the field at the Scott Stadium and to install the field uh here at Springton Lake. Um part of that those monies the board I believe approved $11 million in June. Part of those monies are listed on here for this part of the project. um that does not impact what the cost of the the K1 center is, but because it's on the same property, um the projects are inextric inextricably linked, which is why they're listed on here, so that

065you can see it all together, but that has not impacted what the cost of the K1 center is, just for clarity. >> And those two things will be tracked independently as well. So those budgets can be tracked independently. >> Is the construction also linked? I know the permitting is, but what about the construction of those two projects? Is are the athletic fields also slated for August 2028? >> Yeah, that that was the plan for the whole the whole piece. Okay. Is uh is for that all to be ready at that same time. Yeah. >> Just want to call it the two contingency buckets that are baked into the total cost. It's about $8 million of contingencies that may or may not come to fruition. Correct. >> That is correct. Yes. So that those contingencies are

066there for uncertainties as well as there's cost escalation. There is uncertainty in that as well. The whole tariff thing. I don't have a crystal ball as to what you know. So you have to have contingencies in there. Hopefully they do not materialize and then that that reduces the cost of the project. However, if they do, it's never a good idea to underbudget. That's that's usually bad. So, you want to you want to be realistic with it. Um, but have those contingencies in place. Yes. >> I know one of the appeals this is more to the design aspect. I know one of the appeals of this school was that all of our K1 students would be in the same learning environment at the very beginning when it's really crucial to identify any types of additional needs

067for students and to get everybody on the on the best playing field before they no pun intended, Tiffany Orange. um in when they go back to the all their elementary schools and most of our elementary schools were not fit for purpose. Media was a high school, you know, Indian Lane and Glennwood were middle schools. Um, so when we talk about this being fit for purpose though, when we say K, you know, that it's really built for little kids, um, do we are is it really just for that age group or if there's ever a need in our district to bring more students over to the school? Um, will it also accommodate that if it ever happens? I I'm keenly remember the media elementary roof problem where we had to go find uh a whole other

068school for them for a year. So just in terms of when you're looking at this from a strategic planning perspective at how many you know things how many things can you do with a a new building does that at all like if we ever needed to put K through five in there would we be able to do that? >> I mean I'll I'll start by saying that we are trying to consider the youngest learners when we're designing this. So, you know, things that we're thinking about is, you know, handrails, sinks, toilets, those things are all generally a little lower than you would have in uh like something for like a four, five, fourth, fifth, sixth grade or above. So, everything is definitely a little like scaled down to that level. Um, it it it doesn't

069suggest that others couldn't use it, but certainly like if you had to bring others in, you would that would be targeted more towards a younger population. we would not bring be able to bring high school students in there and have them use those spaces, but certainly younger younger students would would be able to use those spaces. I mean, we also have certain building codes and accessibility codes that we have to follow. So, they do give us guidelines for what an like an ADA toilet for um a younger student needs to be. So, we have to comply with those regulations as well. So we we can meet the regulations for the youngest learners, but we still have to meet regulations to make those spaces universally accessible. >> That that being said, you still have classroom spaces,

070you still have all the, you know, you still have uh, you know, food service spaces. So yeah, in a pinch, you can certainly do that. We we worked through Upper Dublin, had a tornado come through, very similar, and we helped them, you know, disperse the population, rebuild the building, get it back. So, I mean, you can always adapt the space if need be. >> I think the things that are really targeted towards the youngest is going to be like the bathrooms, the tray slides in the cafeteria, you know, everything else is tradition. I mean, parents are teachers are adults size, so we have to accommodate them as well. all and and Shelley, all of the instructional spaces um both that we're doing in in this building, the new science labs we put in at the

071high school, as we are doing that, they're all designed to be flexible, right? And not to be static to say, well, for the next 30 years, this is what your space is going to look like and how education is going to be delivered because we know it's going to continue to change and and to evolve. >> It's just so exciting having a a school that's going to be younger than me in this district. Um, so I have one more question. So just to confirm because we saw some drawings over the summer and everything about the whole bus route because that's what we had um really asked for. So just want to confirm the buses come in through Penrest, they drop off in the back and then they go back out through the same Penrest parking

072lot and over to the transportation center or they come from the transportation center. So it takes a lot of the bus traffic off the roads. Correct. >> That is the plan. Yes. >> Okay. And then I wanted to say I think that was the greatest decision. Not only that, because when you look at that, you see that the bus entrance to the school is completely separate from the main entrance to the school from a security perspective. What a huge win that is. And then linking to Learning to Life having its own entrance. It's really magnificent to see that. I didn't really consider the security aspect of it, but boy, that's a really big deal. Oh, you want me to go next steps? >> Sure. >> Yeah. So, we'll just touch on some next steps here.

073Keys and key steps in land development. So, we like I talked about earlier, we're going to complete the traffic study hopefully by October, November. Uh we'll have a preliminary land development drawing submission. Uh meanwhile, the design development drawing will be continued to advance. uh we are meeting with enduser uh groups whether it's kitchen IT curriculum transportation security safety uh meeting with the individual group users and further defining the the the development of the design that cater more to the needs of this school in this area uh while we're further developing the design we're constantly estimating the drawings to make sure that we're we're on budget um also um starting in the next week or so uh it will be the geotechnical investigation we met on site today. Uh so we'll have a crew out there

074doing geotechnical borings anal doing an analysis of the soil uh to make so we can further define the structure of the building and there'll also be doing a geothermal conductivity test out there uh for the new geothermal field that we will be having in this project as well uh to make sure that our proposed design works. Uh and then it'll follow up with the act 34 hearing. I think with that we're we're into the Q&A. >> All right. Are there any other questions from the board? >> Yeah, it does look great. Yeah. >> Okay. I was going to say I like this design better than all the other previous ones. So, this I I really like this. I really love how the public spaces are so separate from the learning spaces, too. All right. Thank

075you. >> Thank you so much for your time. >> One second. We have a question from the audience that might um had a handle before. All right. There's a question about what happens if one of the entities does not signed off on uh this proposal. >> Would you like us to answer that? Okay. Yeah. Just sorry, I just wanted to make sure. Um well, you can't actually build the building until it's signed off. So, yeah. So, so literally you're going through land development, you know, you're mediating all those different modules. And although I only put like four things up there, there's a lot of subm modules to that as well. So everything has to be satisfied before you're able to build. Um what happens if it does not get signed off? Then >> the account

076says >> uh if that were to happen then you know we could not build the building. Yeah. You could not build the building without signoff. You can't you have to you have to move through land development. You have to move >> Yeah. There's a question about if there's no sign off, what's the backup plan? >> Right now, there's not a backup plan. This this is the direction. This is the the message, you know, this is the the vision that the board and the district have talked about for more than a year now. Um for what best way to address the needs of the community, serve the needs of the children. You know, we are operating as you all know, you know, we've talked about it. We have 10 modular classrooms that are in the district.

077We have classes at Glenwood. We are are currently in fifth grade is closed at Glenwood. There are 26 children in each one of the fifth grade classes. As new families moved in, they're being told that fifth graders, you know, we'll be sending them to another elementary school. Um, so right now there there's not a backup plan. The blackup plan is to work with Middletown Township to work with the local governing bodies and if there are questions and things that we need to do to address what needs to be done within the code, we'll continue to do that. >> Sorry. >> Right. >> Okay. There's a question about um a community meeting or a town hall about the uh the new school. >> Now, there there was never a town hall meeting that was scheduled for

078the summer. We have historically found that summer is not a great time to get lots of folks out and folks who are interested, especially families. Um they're busy doing other things. U we have not scheduled a town hall or anything like that in the fall. You know, we had the one that was back in April and then just the ongoing meetings that we've had here. But certainly we can have that discussion. >> All right. Is there another I'm I'm going to move on to another question. Do you have a question? And I'm just going to let you guys know that if you could just be clear and um about your question because I have to repeat it so people know what we're talking about. There's a question about who did the district meet with with

079the Middletown Township last week. We met with the land development committee for Middletown Township. The agenda is posted online on Middletown Township's website. There are I'm sorry, the land development committee at Middletown Township. There are three council members who are on that committee. The agenda is online. It's on Middletown Township's website. Then there were other professionals who work for Middletown Township who were there as well. What the question is, was the agenda posted online? It's on Middletown Township's website. It was on there prior to the meeting. So there was a question about did we we said we mitigated traffic by moving buses to Baron route Baron Road coming off from Baron Road and creating a bus loop. Yes, that's what we said. The question is how do the residents of Baron Road feel about that?

080I don't know that I've spoken to any of the residents on Baron Road. So I I the question is who's conducting the traffic study? >> It's TPD, third party contractor. So there's only certain people who are actually qualified to do that. So that's who gets hired that gets submitted. That submission gets reviewed. They get comments to it and then whatever the whatever is uh the ident the identified issues we have to address in the land development process. That's to come. That's not done. So where where we show everything now is what we submit. Then there's comments that come back and we might have to make changes to that. >> All right. Now there's another question. You have a questioning falls into us. >> A question about um the parent drop off for Rose Tree Road

081and have we talked to Pendot about that situation? Yeah, Pendot's part of Sorry, do you mind if I Yeah, uh Pendot's part of this whole process. So that's that is who helps uh determine what the requirements are, you know, where you can put things, uh how the road has to operate. So that's they're reviewing all of that and and yes, we are familiar with the with the plan for them to realign the road. That's that is several years down the road. They do, you know, five and 10 year planning. Um, but that is being coordinated through all of this. >> What about all those parents on Rose Tree Road? I mean, >> we're not using Yeah. Yeah. >> Traffic study is going to show, but like I have my own traffic study I've been conducting

082for months now. So, >> yeah. So, we're not going to use the piece from PNDOT that that we're staying away from that. So it is planned to work all together. So we would be well before that. Uh assuming everything gets you know moves through the process. This will be built well before that that piece even gets built. That's a 2030 type project. >> All right. Thank you. Okay. Uh one more question. There's a question about how many acres would be left if we're not going to be involved with Penn Dot's pieshaped uh design. >> I don't know the acreage off hand, but we're we we're not using any of that space that's in the it it's yeah the property is just under 15 acres. >> I'd rather get back to you with an exact number

083than than shoot one off the hip if you don't mind. >> Correct me if I'm wrong. All of the schematics and all the drawings have already taken into consideration that change which is going to come in like 2030 or 2033. Now >> I I know PENDOT keeps pushing that back at like four years at a time. So I know it's going to start or something and two years after the school opens and finish four years after the but you guys already took that in consideration in all of the drawings and all the development. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. All right. Um we are going to move on to the capital projects update with uh Mike Nolan and Dennis Seini. >> Yes. >> Mike and Dennis have a lot

084to talk about work that occurred in district this summer. It's down gentlemen. >> Good evening everyone. Good evening on Okay. Uh, I thought tonight we would do our presentation for capital project in a more visual manner. Um, so we could show you how we our team so masterfully accomplished these great projects for this summer. Take your horn out and blow it. I know sometimes you got to do that. >> Go ahead. >> So Mike and I will go through these. Um, all right. at Glenwood. You can see in the middle there, we have a new air conditioning system, heating and air conditioning. You can see the unit there and the duct work that's coming off it. That's a typical layout for Glenwood. So, they're all finished. And also too, along the outer wall, you can

085see we replaced all the cabinetry and shelving. >> Yep. And then on the right, we have uh two new modular classrooms. um that that picture there does not show the ramp that was built onto that for ADA compatible and um they're up and running and the students are very happy in there. They're they're actually very nice modulars. >> Can you tell me the total number of modulars we have at Glenwood? >> Uh six. >> Six. And how many do we have at Rose Tree? >> Four. Okay. as part of the out there. It went for a while, but now grown more and so we have more services out there. Very nice that you can see and that everyone is back as well. >> Yeah. If we keep adding modular, we're going to have our own

086little school out there. So, >> yeah. enough. >> Absolutely. >> Um there's some more work at Glenwood. We had a retaining wall that was uh old timbers that uh you know became became quite a high sewer and not so much a hazard but definitely a eyes sore. So and then we also was we did a retaining wall there went a little bit higher and we also added some steps more of a landscaping step that the kids and the parents kind of just walk down that hill. So we just wanted to give them some footing. self. Um just some pavers and some stone. >> Indian Lane. Uh you can see on the left the ephus outside of the entire building uh all stained and on the right hand side we did the whole entire exterior new.

087You can see the kindergarten that's again sample of it. >> We also did uh carpet in the main office. um new VCT and the kindergarten classrooms and another little classroom in Indian Lane as well. Um just trying to keep up and and you know keep things looking fresh. Um and then we also so the dumpster enclosure and then you have where our gas meters are. They were looking pretty bad as well. So, um, we did some new fencing with privacy slats, um, just to clean everything up, make everything looks nice and safe for the kids. Penrest, we took five science rooms. You're looking at the before pictures of the science rooms, and you can follow up and see the new science rooms. >> The picture with the dirt was two weeks ago. No, I'm just

088>> three. >> This might have been three, but yeah, >> we've come a long way. Really quick, >> you could see everything. New flooring, new cabinets, new ceilings. >> They are nice. Penrest also the project was the stu the TV studio. We renovated that. You can see the before pictures there. And these are some of the after pictures. >> Already occupied. I mean, teachers are ecstatic. Um, everything's going really well so far. It's It's really come together really fast. >> The um air conditioning at Rose Trail Elementary, a little different setup. Units are more in the corner. Um they're where a window used to be. And you can see the duck work there also. And again, all new cabinetry and shelving on the outside wall. And there's the facult new faculty toilet rooms, >> new

089windows as well. >> And thank you, Mike. New windows. Correct. >> Yep. >> So they uh all those rooms there, they got all new windows. And then where the unit is, there's louvers, brand new louvers. So aesthetically from the outside, um it looks really, really nice. Really nice finished look. And then this is the playground at Rose Tree which was I think a big hit on social media during the summer. Um I mean a lot of stuff that we do in the summer isn't you know it's a lot of behind the scenes stuff but you know when we get to do things that directly affect the kids. I mean it's it's really makes us happy to do that. So, uh, we got all new concrete curving around that, uh, stone under there, mulch, and again,

090the kids just love it. So, it really turned out great. Springton Lake Cafeteria here. Um, again, you can see the before on the right hand side, I mean, and left hand side. And here's partially new toilet rooms and new part of the cafeteria. The addition is still under construction. We have another couple weeks left to finish that and the outside space, but >> big difference. >> So, if you look there, you see what looks like drywall. Um, they that will be access to the bathrooms there in the back kind of like a little to the left of the picture there. Right there. So, that will probably be open tomorrow or Monday, um, I'm being told. Um, so I was just in the bathrooms before the meetings. The bathrooms are pretty much done. Just a couple

091finishing touches. Dividers are up, toilets are in. Everything's ready to go. Um, I I suspect they take that wall down probably tomorrow. We open them up on Monday. Uh, some work at Sprint Springton Lake on the left. There is the before with the post and rail. Um, this will be a project that we'll we'll chip away at years to come. There's a lot of, you know, post and rail out there. So, we'll, you know, we'll work on that every year. So, on the bottom there, excuse me, is the picture of the curbing complete. On the right was the soccer fields um had netting um that was, you know, always falling down with the wind and then the snow gets on it and pulls it down. So, we replaced that netting with 12 foot high chain

092lick fence and really helps our our grounds department too as well. Not hit it with the wee whackers and everything. It's a lot a lot cleaner. Look, >> can't sneak through it anymore. >> No. Um, so the pool the pool started out this summer. Um, we drained the pool, we acid washed the pool and everything looked really good. But when we really got down in there, we realized that the plaster has almost seen its life and probably had another year in it, but the pool was empty this summer. So, it was empty. We were ready to go. So, we pulled the trigger and the pool has been replastered. Um, and there's the, you know, the after picture. It's filled. And we also changed from a tablet chlorine to a liquid chlorine. That's better for the

093water, for the hardness of the water. Um, we're also getting new grates on the side. They're just looking a little dirty and worn at this point. The stainless steel has all been polished. Um, it needs a final clean, but right now we're focused on the cafeteria, but we really need to get in there and clean everything else in that room from the plaster. But, um, yeah, that was that was another one that we were really excited about to get done. So, um, the railings on the right there, um, after talking to Dr. Salino last year and having all the events in the auditorium, we thought it was, um, only appropriate to put railings down the ramp and, you know, just just for safety. Um, we also did new bathroom partitions in all of Media Elementary

094School. Um, they turned out great. As you all know, we had a little incident down at our shop this past year and you know that that you know, hey, with with with everything that happened, we came out, you know, on the better half of it because if you look at the yard now, uh it really came out good and new fencing with privacy so people playing tennis don't have to see our trucks and things like that. And we had some drainage problems as well in that yard. We had some puddling. So we we took the opportunity to pave the whole parking lot so everything drains properly. >> Keep the road intact. >> Yeah, for sure. >> Just a couple followup items. Um we did the road windows over the summer. Part of that project was

095the skylighted media. The delivery time was getting pretty tight on that one. So we decided to put that next summer. the skylight. Also, we are currently um in design for the Springton Lake track and turf field that is currently being designed by ELA architects and Gus Hootman. Drawings are in progress for Upper Providence Township and D review. Schedule-wise, we hope to bid that in January, February. construction summer 20 26 and HBAC upgrades media and Indian lane that's our followup for next summer those drawings are being prepared now we're scheduled to bid in October early and construction again spring summer and our 2026 capital projects we've just recently met with all the principles and facility foreman and we are now having those projects up to see which are feasible for next summer. We did a lot

096of work. We did more work this summer than we have ever done. >> Hey, if I >> I just want to thank the whole team, the architect, the contractors, very diligent, >> right? And all Mike staff. Hey, if I could just take a minute to thank um Armando Ragny, Bob Nice, Anthony Bazari, John Collins, Ryan Mete, Greg Boast, maintenance staff, tradesmen, if you would have saw these schools two weeks before teachers came in, you would have never thought it was going to happen. So, the hours and the time that they put in to get these things done was was nothing short of amazing. Um, you know, I I just really have to give him a shout out. And then on the other hand, uh I have Dr. Malash Dr. Scott that when I was losing

097my mind Dr. Dr. Malashsh just always seemed away like it looks okay was good you know so so just uh I appreciate you know the support from them guys >> it's and and listen Mr. Nolan just celebrated his oneyear anniversary >> in Rose Media on Tuesday, right? >> Yeah. >> September 9th was his >> the longest 10 years of my life. >> It was quite a quite an endeavor and uh excitedly as Dennis just highlighted at the end of their presentation uh in October on the 9th we will be discussing the list of projects for next summer um so we can get moving on those as well. Um but yeah, a tremendous amount of work that was accomplished and a lot of lot of people involved. So grateful to the board for having the vision

098to address the facility needs that we have and to allow us to continue to move forward to support the great work that the staff does in all the buildings. Uh but yeah, so many behind the scenes folks um who were here that we had guys that I think probably worked 100 hours a week. >> Oh yeah. Some of the staff worked 6:30 in the morning till 11 o'clock at night. And you know the team is in my year here you know has really come a long way in the last year and every you know we had people working in different buildings that typically don't work together and you know they they really all came together and it was it was it was great to see >> agreed right questions for the guys >> I have

099three things and I say three so I can remember one I love the photos like a lot it really helps bring to life what you are telling us but also becomes record >> and then you know our community sees what we're doing so they see where you know where we're spending our money and has a visual for it because most of the community doesn't get into the buildings right so I think it's really great to have the photos um and then two questions the first one is um the track it's no the um turf at >> spring >> I think we're going to have a larger discussion about turf and so that will include both the penrest and the spring tin lake >> correct >> yes it'll it'll honestly about all three fields. >> Okay.

100And my last thing is um is GKO the architect for all of these interior projects? >> Ones we just did. >> Mhm. >> Yes. Y >> like the science rooms and things like that. So they're the ones who are >> Yes. >> Great. Okay. >> Thank you. >> I'm just going to say a huge thank you to Joe because the air conditioning has been talked about in this district for 15 years. the elementary school and I know you came in and you said it's one of the things we just got to do. So, thank you Mike and Dennis for getting your teams aligned to execute it in really short order. Joe's been here exactly two years took two years to complete one two of the schools are already done and uh the next two are

101coming on next next year. So, thank you all of you guys for making that a priority because, you know, while these last two weeks are not indicative of our normal September, it is just beastly and if it's so hot the teachers can't teach and the kids can't learn. So, thank you. I think we have something from the the audience. And >> why is it not possible that instead of being actual modulars, it can't be wings that are like brick and mortar wings? It could even be two floors. >> There's a question about the modulars, I guess, at Glenwood and Rose Tree. A question about whether they can't just be wings to the school. Well, they're not intended to be permanent. Let's put it that way. >> We did look we did look into we did

102look into the feasibility of building wing as opposed to trail possible but it was more expensive. Right. >> So part of our initial feasibility plans which Bill could speak to is we looked at putting additions on other buildings and we really couldn't for a v variety of reasons all the buildings couldn't support that in terms of the properties and by that I mean like um Roale Elementary couldn't handle more traffic because it's in a neighborhood. A lot of a lot of a lot of the other properties cannot support additions to the libraries, to the cafeterias because that also needs to be expanded when you're adding classrooms. So, it it was looked at, it was studied, it was not only not feasible, but also was more expensive. >> Great. Thank you. >> Couple other items. There's

103a bid award. We had a bid opening for replacing the uh interior freezer at Glenwood. Have that. And we also have a proposal um from AVT to um upgrade the lighting in the TV studio, lighting and controls, which is a continuation of our upgrade of that TV studio. >> Any questions about those two? >> Okay. Uh the remaining items on the agenda are primarily consent agenda items unless there were any questions. I just want to say for the first time in many years um del uh the Philadelphia area will be represented on PSBA. Um, even though the 5count area has the prepoundonderance of population in the state of Pennsylvania, there hasn't been a single representative from the 5count area in many years. And um, uh, Tesla Morales is from the Chester Upland School District and

104she I met her last year at the PSBA conference. She's a force of nature and she will, you know, is very much planning on representing Delaware County and the five, you know, really the fivecount area of Pennsylvania for the to the best of her ability to represent this area's needs, most of the um representation are very small school districts in the middle of the state. So, big win. >> I have a question about the uh budget comparison report. um uh year-todate on state and federal revenue. Um we know the budget situation at both the federal and state level and uh obviously the revenues are much lower this year than last year. Not that federal and state funds make up a huge percentage of our revenue, but I'm wondering if you can speak to any needs

105for changes going forward if we don't see more funding coming through or when you can expect the money to catch up. >> Unfortunately, I don't have any idea of when the funds will catch up. It would have to wait until the budget gets passed at the state level. So, the subsidy primarily, so we get more state funds than we do federal. So, the states funding is really lagging behind, which you can see on the on the chart. Um, but right now, I don't I have no idea. And outside of some districts that are having to make loans and hold off on stuff, we are okay right now. So, we're just hoping that the budget impass ends sooner rather than later. >> So, are there any if it doesn't end for three more months, say, would

106that necessate some changes to budgeting? >> Um, not for us. No. And I know we're only supposed to get like $434,000 from the federal government this year, but do we expect that that may not come at all? >> We did receive our um Title One funding that we use for additional math instruction, not just um another teacher, but we also um fund a pair of professional u and professional development through some of that. So, we did receive those funds. The full 434 is that just a portion of that? >> It is a portion of that. I don't think we've ever quite >> Yeah. Almost a reimbursement. >> Gotcha. >> What we spend? >> Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. >> I think we're good. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, we will uh move on to education

107and wellness and we have a a curriculum and instruction presentation. No. >> So, Mr. Dockerty is working his way over to the table. He is going to join us for uh some discussion about a strategic planning process that we'll be engaging in this fall. Uh and then he and I after that we'll jump into goals. >> Hi everyone. So um am I supposed to I didn't zoom that. Is somebody going to move the slides for me? You got it, Chris. Okay, great. >> So thanks. So um I'm giving you an over Thank you. That's helpful. Um so Dr. Kunrat and I will be um facilitating the process of developing our strategic plan over the course of the year. So we have developed a schedule as you can see um and those first steps are developing

108a committee and which we are in the process of now and the next slide will show you who the committee what the committee me members will be comprised of. Um we will be looking at our vision and our mission statements, data collection and or and organizing that data and then doing a root cause analysis and then setting the priorities, goals and action plans and then we should have a draft scheduled for January and then approval then in February. Um this is a smaller group that is designed to like a steering committee to really take the work that we've done bring it together and then we bring it to um the board and the public. Um these are will be the participants as part of the process. Um we will as you can see um high

109school students will we will work with the administration to choose those students. will work with RTMEA um for selection of teachers and that is the schedule. >> What's the district director? >> Oh, you okay? Oh, you >> curriculum curriculum >> curriculum director student services director. >> So, we will need a board member to be seated on the committee. >> So, Dr. and absent Williams. However, you know, you can pull the folks and just let me know, but we will need we will need a a board member to sit uh on the committee. >> Okay. So, my purpose tonight was to tell you about the process that we're going to go through this year. >> Sorry, I do have one question. Couldn't get to the button. Um but and thank you. This is great. between the

110um the draft review in January and approval and communication in February, did you say there is some public input or it's board input? Like what is that in between there in terms of like a feedback? >> Yeah. So, I don't there's not it's not the same as a comprehensive plan or even the budget where it has to be posted for a month. There's not that piece, but we'll certainly put it up on the website and advertise and let people know that these are our priorities um prior to any approval, official approval. Does the public have a chance for input at other points along the way? Like I kind of kind of remember maybe being like it was open to the public and then people went and got divided into small groups and classrooms at some

111time. This was done in the past >> that was part of a comp the comprehensive plan. Let me >> um we have not done this process for the strategic plan since I've been in admin since I've been in central office. Um right so this is a smaller group but we do have input right so we will use when it like for instance like data collection we will look at our belonging and all those and our student belonging and input from parents and when we get into developing goals and priorities that's when we take the information that we've gathered over the past year really and and in the past from the community >> we're using data in the survey that we already have. >> Yes. Okay. >> Y >> and Jackie it can be part of

112the disc I mean once the committee is seated I mean some of that is why have that initial initial discussion about vision and mission and then in those discussions is there anything else that needs to be pointed to to find but we'll get those those voices. >> Um and what period of time will the strategic plan cover? What's the length of the strate the time period? >> Yeah. um three to what do we do we want to do it's four to five years total? Um yes, it doesn't mean that if um we'll use it as a guide, but it it doesn't mean it's not so set in stone that obviously if if priorities suddenly change that we couldn't open it up and and change it. We have the ability to do that. >> And Kelly,

113we will look at it. We you want the strategic plan to drive the comprehensive plan, right? The comprehensive plan is what's mandated by the state. we don't think it provides us uh enough detail um on a regular basis about what the work is that we are actually doing and then annually the goals will then also come out of the strategic plan. So the strategic plan will kind of oversee that piece. If we come to a point that you know because again we're looking at four to five years process-wise so that there isn't a dead time. We don't have anything you know that's in there. Um but this is the first time we're going through it like this. So we might look at it and say you know we just did the comprehensive plan last year

11418 months from now we'll be working on it again we might get that finished and say we need redo strategic plan you know but just to have it so that it's there. So some of it is going to be the growth and the evolution of it for what does it feel best for what we're doing internally but you know part of it too is is establishing the process. So again regardless who's sitting in chairs that the process will live on. You know, we've had discussion in in policy committee about that as well about how do we memorialize it, you know, to make sure that it will be sustainable. >> Questions? >> That's all I have for Mr. Doy. >> Oh, Miss Conine, hang on just a second. I guess I never got Let me just

115get in the zoom which you so graciously sent to me hours ago. >> So, we're going to be moving to the district goals discussion. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. What's the score of the Phillies game? Anybody know why we're waiting? >> It was a heartbreak last night for me. >> Why do you have your arms raised? What do you What is that? >> Nebraska. No, she's not. >> So, we're going to have just some discussion about district goals. Um, again, these are done annually. They serve a number of purposes. One, they're required. We have to do these, right? PTE requires us to do district goals each year. We use these as um the signposts along the way. We identify um the top priorities that we want to make sure everybody is aware that these are

116things that we are focusing on. Never are district goals meant to be comprehensive of everything that's going on within a school district. They just can't be. Uh but it does call out um the priorities in terms of what's taking place. So we do want to point out where we are at the end of 24-25 uh kind of the finalization of what took place and what occurred during this past year and then going into 2526. So we have focused our district goals in three topical categories. Uh this will also as we just talked a couple minutes ago with Mr. into the discussions about the strategic plan focus on teaching and learning, safety and wellness and environment and connections. Um, and each of those three areas we believe appropriately covers all of the things truly comprehensively that

117we do within the school district. So for 2425 under teaching and learning um you'll see a statement underneath that gives a little more clarity and and that primary focus in this area is to continue to improve student achievement at all grade levels for all students. Right? A primary focus of what we do. Each one of these topical areas will have a line like that. Each of the smaller bullet areas that you see um will change yeartoyear. These were the three that we focused on for 2425. The first one, develop a district definition of student achievement. We've had a lot of discussions about student achievement. What does that mean? What is it? Right? We all define achievement in many different ways and there are a lot of factors that fit into that. The second to analyze

118student achievement data from 1819 academic year through 2324 to define trends in performance. create and implement datadriven and research-based school action plans to address gaps where they exist. And then the final one, design and implement instructional model focused on effective pedagogical practices that support individual student success. Under safety and wellness, provide supportive and inclusive spaces for students and staff that are responsive to individual needs. Again, that line, the italicized W line, the top bullet, um, is you will see yeartoyear each of the three areas um, that we focused on. The first one, examine the use of the E, the C curriculum at the elementary, middle, and high school levels and develop a long-term plan for implementation. The second one, excuse me, increase staff training opportunities in deescalation, trauma-informed instruction, and universal safety protocols. And the

119final one, develop a tool to quantifiably measure student, staff, and family experiences in the Rose Tree Media School District. And the final topical area, environment, and connections. And again, the primary is provide physical spaces, material resources, and appropriate staffing that provide for student and staff needs in developmentally appropriate ways. And then the three items under here, initiate and complete a comprehensive planning process and a strategic planning process involving stakeholder groups culminating in board adoption. Engage in in an audit of all athletic fields, creating a plan for enhancement, redevelopment and maintenance of each. And the third one, enhance communication with internal and external stakeholders, implementing the recommendations from the 23 24 communication audit. So those are the things that we focused on in 24 and 25. So how did we do right? What are those results?

120We talk about this a ton in internally. We provide updates to the board. Uh we want to make sure that community has an idea of all right. So where are you after you talk about these? So the first one develop a district definition of student achievement. It's completed um through the work Mr. Dockerty led work with our curriculum and instruction department, our administrative team, other people weighing in about how is it that we define student achievement. So there is a blanket statement that we will be sharing that we'll go through that we started to use in our training this summer with staff. And then there will be specific examples of this is what it looks like in high school, this is what it looks like in middle school, this is what it looks like in

121elementary school. Because there's one thing to say this is what it is. and just to have that as some beautiful line that's out there and another thing for people to have a practical understanding students and parents um to know what does that really mean for what children are experiencing. The second one taking a look at the achievement data over the course of that time period and then to implement datadriven researchbased action plans to address the gaps where they exist. Uh and the wording in here is specifically chosen, right? So we know that there's there are achievement gaps that exist that that's something that is universal in education and goes back generations. Um so but they're not universal. They're not the same in every district, nor are they in every school within a district. So one

122of the things that we wanted to look at and Dr. Kunrat, one of our curriculum instruction supervisors, worked on this, the man is a is a whiz with the data and the data analysis and taking the information that we get from many different sources. breaking it down and saying, "Here are the trends. Here's what we see. Here's this is what it means." It's able to go then back into the buildings, the building principles as the instructional leaders in the building lead the discussions about, "All right, we're seeing this trend in third grade. We're seeing this trend in geometry. Here's what we need to focus on and here's what we need to talk about." One of the things that we did see as we did this analysis of the data, especially of the standardized data that's

123out there, um, are the the traditional waves that existed, especially pre- pandemic, midst of the pandemic, and post pandemic, and the impact that it has had on student achievement. As you will see later in the fall when we do the annual presentation, as we've talked about, roster media school district students continue to achieve very highly not just at the state level but also in a much more competitive area which is Delaware County, Chester County and Montgomery County. Uh and then and that has been completed. Final piece um implement design implement instructional model focused on effective pedagogical practices supporting individual student success has also been completed. It was a year-long journey. Um, all of the administrators, the school psychologists in the district were all involved in that journey and in the discussions. Like I said, we

124have led uh as as Tina Levelin Smith, one of our curriculum supervisors, led the new staff induction uh and that was a highlight and a piece of what went on. We also in introduced the results of that work at convocation uh to all the staff in the district. So that was also completed. under safety and wellness. Again, you can see that we completed all three of the tasks. Um was great discussion uh about the C curriculum at the elementary level. We have piloted last year and this year at Rose Elementary and at Glenwood uh where we have a an additional teacher who is teaching the Curriculum as an additional coverage because of the um how crowded it is in those buildings and the overenrollment u that's there. Uh, so we had a a great practical

125area to see what it was that was going on, development of new lessons, and then the documentation of the new lessons that are available for all staff in the district by grade level that are available online um that the curriculum instruction office and the teacher coaches uh instructional coaches have been working on additional training and opportunities in deescalation, trauma-informed instruction, universal safety protocols. Uh also through grant funds that we received, we are working with effective school solutions. Um they are doing additional trainings with all of the counselors in the district. We have 20 self-identified champions and doing air quotes uh in the district who are also going through additional training as well as the building based training. Uh Mr. Harrison and the team through student services office uh and the work that they are doing

126uh have been very specific and targeted about what is available uh and what can be provided for staff. And then the final piece to quantifiably measure and develop the tool to to do the measurement um were the surveys that were implemented uh this past spring. We transitioned from the youth truth survey uh to um districtbased ones. We actually got some great information. We've talked about the data a couple times both at the board meeting and as well as the policy committee meeting. Um and involved students, staff, and community members. Uh and we will continue that. You'll see in a moment this coming year. So those three were all completed under teaching and learning. Um the first one was not completed. We did not com go all the way through and complete that uh the comprehensive

127planning and strategic planning process. Um we will continue with the strategic planning process this year. We did accomplish the comprehensive planning process process. Uh the plan was adopted by the board back in February I believe and then submitted to the state uh along with the guidelines are required by the state. Um but then we did not want to rush the the strategic planning process. So we will do that and complete that this year. So that is still in process. Um the audit of the athletic fields development of the plan uh that went on for the majority of the last academic year. Um we did have a community meeting that was part of that discussion. ELA sport was highly involved developed a a plan and recommendations. Um and we are already moving forward with some of

128the recommendations that came from that plan. We're in the process right now as well as developing um the plan for for our grass fields and the natural turf. What does that look like for the ongoing maintenance, including when we have a situation like we did this summer where it rained like crazy. It was hot and rainy in July and everything was green and and thick and then in August it was just hot and dry. Um, and that has a dramatic impact where our athletic fields are. You know, across the district, it's not has not always been the greatest place to to grow grass. Uh, so we're in that process of development. You'll hear and see more about that during the course of the year. Then the final one, the communication uh enhanced communication with the

129internal external stakeholders implementing the recommendations of the audit. Um you know thankfully Barbara Wilson joined our team um 10 months ago at this point, 11 months ago, October of last year. Um you know as we had started as a district to implement the recommendations from the audit, uh Barbara certainly in her role of communications and um and grants uh has picked that up. Um, you know, we've seen increases in our connections with community. We've seen increases in our connections through social media. Uh, we are taking some different steps to share information. One of those is we're going to be a regular advertiser with information in the Middletown Middletown magazine. Middle the what is Middletown Neighbors, which I don't know if I just wanted if I've mentioned, but the Considine family is on the cover of

130Middletown Neighbors for the month of September. We had already committed to the ad before that was done, but if you haven't seen it, I'll bring a copy next time. It's actually I'll make sure you get st scanned in so you can see it too. It's really well done. It's a very nice article. Uh so again, branching out, how else can we better communicate? We launched the RTMSD is me initiative last year with highlighting some different folks who are connected with the student with the district, students, staff members, community members. Uh we're going through a redesign of that a little bit right now. Kind of focusing um we have great discussions. We realize that if we post a five minute video, people are not watching anywhere near five minutes of the video. Uh we want to

131make sure that the information that we were putting out there, people are able to uh digest within that time. So overall, incredibly successful in terms of what we did. Um set goals that stretched the work that was going on in the district, gave focus to a lot of of what we did this year, and again serves as a foundation. Uh as we are moving forward, you'll see as we move into the 252 26 year um we maintain those three topical categories. Uh and the areas of focus uh and priority for us really rem remain these three things regardless of of the categories. Comprehensive student experience by comprehensive student experience what does that look like right from the time the child leaves their home until they return. What's it look like in the classroom? What's it

132look like when they're being transported? to look like when they are in the theater or the cafeteria or the bathrooms. What's look like if they're playing a sport uh or involved in in the musical or in the band? That comprehensive student experience is our responsibility. That is our primary focus, right? And the safety, security, all of those things fit into what the comprehensive student experience is as does staffing, right? Those things all tie in. Second piece is the breadth and the scope of services that are provided. Um, and that is across a number of different areas, right? That it's what do we do in regular instruction, in specialized instruction, what opportunities do we provide? Um, what does access look like to those opportunities? And then the final one, which is always a foundational piece for

133school districts, facilities and infrastructure. That's our responsibility, right? Just as we all live someplace in a home, an apartment, um, the infrastructure, what goes on in those little spaces, uh, is then magnified with what goes on within a school district. That's our responsibility and that has to tie in with the work that we do. So the goals that are proposed and again we've had some discussion that where they are in draft form some discussion tonight. Um interested in feedback from the board if you have any. Um you know there's things that we need to work on. Ideally we want to get these adopted sooner rather than later. Uh so again you'll see under teaching and learning continue to improve student achievement at all grade levels for all students. Um and then the primary areas of

134focus implementation of the new instructional model and the new instructional coaching model. Um so we have expanded the instrual coaches who are in the district as we redefine what it is that we expect teachers to do on a daily basis in their classrooms and how we are going to measure measure success. We need to make sure that everybody is supported professionally and what that looks like. We have asked our teachers over the last couple of years to take really large steps forward and what instruction looks like in the classroom and the materials that we are asking them to use uh even so much you know in in how we organize the academic day and the academic year uh as we did with the transition to the new schedule at the high school this year. Uh

135so primary focus second primary focus development of the full day kindergarten curriculum and a tentative daily schedule. This is a primary focus for a number of different areas. What does that look like? It's going to involve curriculum instruction. It's going to involve teachers. It's going to involve the facilities focus folks. It's going to involve food services. It's going to involve transportation. All of these people will be involved in this work that goes on, but has to be a primary focus of what we are doing this year as we continue to progress um towards the new K1 center. And then finally, the development of a new elementary progress report to be implemented for full use in the 26 27 academic year. So the progress report card, it's what exists at the elementary level that's issued three

136times a year. Um the tool is supposed to be a service that's provided by by teachers to families so that they have an idea about where their children are and if they are progressing as we expect them to progress. We believe that we can do better than the tool that we currently have. The tool that exists currently is challenging for everybody. Right? I have multiple graduate degrees in education. It's a challenging tool. Right? So, um the other one this other focus can be what does that look like in the development of a new progress report for uh to be implemented next year. So, these are the three areas of focus under uh teaching learning that we are recommending for 2526. Okay. Under safety and wellness, again that same uh in italics is still the same.

137The next piece, implement the social, emotional and ethical learning curriculum and developmentally appropriate pacing guides and tiered resources through fifth grade. Um so again work that we did last year to take an analysis to develop the lessons and now it's going to be that full implementation and to monitor the implementation about what does it look like what's working so that we can build stepwise into the middle school and then into the high school. but to track the work that was done. Again, continuing that focus that we established last year. Second piece, perform a comprehensive audit of the continuum of services provided through the student services office. So, the student services office uh led by director Dan Arison who joined us uh last spring um is responsible for a lot of different areas, right? special ed

138programs that we have, counseling services in the district, uh nursing programs that we have, 504, um services for, um children who are outside of district, um services for families and children who may be struggling for a variety of reasons all come through that office. Um we want to do a comprehensive audit is so we can identify and specifically say this is everything that we have. This is everything we believe we need. if there's a gap, how do we address that? How do we enhance the services? And does everybody know the services that currently exist, right? How are we sharing that? But we're going to do a full comprehensive audit uh of that and then be able to share that. You'll get an update during the year about that uh final report we presented to the

139board. Um and then recommendations about next steps. Uh the third one launched the bannual student, staff, and family experience survey reviewing results to inform school climate and wellness initiatives. So again, last year we transitioned out of youth truth. We moved into new surveys that we did from in the district last spring. We're doing some refinement of what those surveys are. Uh we'll be launching again in the fall, doing a bannual um assessments. We'll do fall and we'll do spring to be able to compare and give us uh concrete actual authentic information coming from the school district about the work that it is that we are doing. And then finally, strengthen school-based crisis response teams to address emergent needs swift swiftly, safely, and compassionately. Um, so there are con crisis response teams at each one of

140our schools. Um, the needs of our children are different today than they ever have been. We are seeing that in our schools. There are challenges that children are experiencing individually that classes are in in experiencing as groups that teachers are experiences that buildings are experiencing. So again, we want to take an authentic and very direct look about what is it that we are able to provide? What are we providing for staff? What are we providing for families? What are we providing for children? Um and to have that. So we believe a a a critical uh a critically important piece of what it is that we are doing in our six schools. And then under environment and connections um major focus continue to be the major focus finalize the development design of the new K1 center.

141Right? That is a primary focus. Second piece begin the phased implementation of the athletic field redevelopment plan prioritizing safety accessibility and equitable use for all programs. And again that that involves a number of different schools. And then final piece host two district-wide community forums and three family engagement events per school to strengthen relationships, transparency and collaboration. Uh so again, you know, as we've worked on the communication uh and the enhancements to kind of broaden that even more, you know, be beyond just sending out information, receiving information back in meetings like this and via emails, but also to have larger events um to do topics TBD to be determined. So those are the three areas. Those are the the recommendations for the primary areas of focus underneath each of those areas >> question discussion. So when

142we get a strategic so are how is this going to be fleshed out over time uh particularly around some of the I mean I was looking at the instructional model will that be laid out in more detail and >> yes >> yeah you guys will you we'll share with the board again through uh Bill's office the curriculum instruction office about what that looks like with additional training with staff what information is being shared what gets posted on the website what do we share publicly you will see the roll out of that as we go through this year >> and all the results of what was checked off. >> Yes, >> we'll see in more detail. >> Yes. >> How do um what is there a place on the website that this information lives? The goals.

143>> That's a good question. I'm not sure. Barbara, is there a place on the website where the goals live? Yeah, that's that's a good question. >> And I think also the results >> are more important than the goals, right? Yeah. So that we're we're constantly doing that evaluate. Did we do it? >> Yeah. And we can take a look or you can take a look start to look at that and see. Yes. Great question. Both of them. >> Um thank you. It's a lot of work that you put into that. um >> lot of people >> one of the questions I know that the data going back to pre- pandemic to present and all that analysis so my oldest child started kindergarten in this district 19 years ago and for 19 years we've been talking

144about the oddities of the assessments in the state of Pennsylvania and if you you know we often talk about this because we always show the PSSA data and if you just look at ours in isolation it looks like we are really failing our students, but we're not. There's all sorts of artifacts of the test, whether it's adequate yearly progress from the No Child Left Behind era or the constantly changing PSSA test. What do they want? What do they want us to focus on this year? And we don't know, surprise, every year. And I don't think it's a really good measure of how well our students know English or math. And then when you compare our results to um the rest of the schools, like you mentioned, a lot of the central league district schools, Delaware

145County, Montgomery County, um Chester County, we're doing great. We're, you know, we're all very um high achieving schools. Just if you look at the raw numbers or anything, it doesn't look good. So my question is this, is there a better way? because our our kids leave here and you look at um you know the p it seems like almost everybody who graduates has a plan whether they're going to trade school to a four-year college, a two-year college, they're going into the military or they're going straight into a job. Um they don't seem to be faltering for their lack of reading skills or math skills as might be suggested from a lot of the standardized testing. Is there a better way to measure? like is there something out there that you guys know of that we

146need to focus on more than PSSA? I know we use map testing a lot, but we don't review, you know, the MAP testing and how kids progress um in a board meeting like this, but is there something that's better than always looking at PSSA, which is so flawed in in what it's measuring? >> Yeah, I don't know that it's um it's one piece, right? So, I think that we have to use several assessments. So we use the map which measures annual growth which is also line of PSSA for the little you know for our youngest learners we use dibbles and um it's like one piece and there's the curriculum based assessments which you know are either produced by classroom teachers or by you know which are aligned with the programs that we use. So I

147think we have to use all of that. But also what really came out of our student our conversations about what is achievement here in Rose Tree Media. It really came down to a discussion of the whole child and growth. And it didn't mean necessarily just growth. It could be in any particular area. Um and a lot of what we do as you know I've said this before too is that um we try to quantify things sometimes that are really difficult to quantify right like how much can you measure someone's love of learning right like we know that the kids here love reading and we've we only know that through a survey but our you know you can't measure that on PSSA right so like the things that we really care about is growth we want

148kids to be lifelong learners we want them to be independent learners, problem solvers, critical thinkers, and all of those things are super important. And all of those things are not measured on a standardized assessment. >> And Shel, some of it is really just that dichotomy between the purpose of public ed, right, the origins of public ed, and why we are here to serve the needs of a of a local community, right? Local control. It's why we're sitting with y'all, you know, who are the locally elected board of directors versus what expectations are at different levels, right? You figured, you know, state testing, federal testing, this always based on money, right? In order to be do it. Is the measure the right thing? Is it showing us the right thing? Depends upon what the question is

149that you want to ask. I think all of those different things that you talked about, you know, and highlighted at graduation, right? All the kids that are going on different paths and there are lots of different paths. Listen, it's one of the things we we've been talking about internally um and with families is that there are many different paths and that's okay, right? The the the right path is not four-year college for everybody, right? The the right year path could be two-year college, right? Or three-year college. Could be going to Delaware County to start and then transferring someplace else or going to a vocational school or into a trade union work in a trade or to take six months or a year and say, "I'm going to do some working. I'm not sure yet because

150I'm only 18 and I don't know what I want to do. Right? All of those paths are okay. And kids become successful adults out of all of those paths, right? Some of us were really good test takers. You know, didn't mean we all understood stuff, but we could we could take tests. So, I do think and and the work again that that Bill led and the team led and what they were able to produce that we'll share is is um really a human-based this is what it means to be successful, right? It's not just about test scores. There's always going to be a piece with test scores that's going to be skewed to the children that sit and take them, right? There's also piece, remember, nobody gives us tests to take. Nobody's out there developing

151this test that everybody's using because it's philanthropic, right? They're businesses as well, right? Huge businesses that that go through. So, are there other things? There's lots of other things. I will tell you, you know, in the couple years that I've been here, I you know, I I I do applaud the work that goes on and what is recognized by the school district. You know, um it it's it's broader than other places. Can we still improve? We're going to improve. That's the path that we're on. >> My comments are not that I think that our school is deficient anywhere. I'm concerned that it looks like it is even though it's not because the testing is so imperfect that um you know it I I think that we need to be always cautious when we're looking and

152showing PSSA data only because I would like I don't think we should ever show it until we have the rest of the school districts around us that are we have their data as well because in isolation it makes people panic and it's not you know helpful >> and I I think I'm I'm sorry. I think it's important that we show it because so that we get to tell the story behind it because it's out there, right? It's public information and people will get that information somewhere. So, I do think that the context that we can provide here is really important. >> The other challenging thing with education, right, is is everybody went to school in one way or another. You know, they were homeschooled. So, everybody's an expert in school and and for people um

153school should look and feel like it did when they attended, right? It's one of the biggest challenges for making change in schools because people have in their mind this is how school is organized. This is what it should look like on a daily basis. This is what they should do. This is what homework should look like. This is what grades should look like. So that makes it really challenging um often, you know, when when you want to try to make that change. But the change has to be there, right? That's got to be the the evolution of what goes on. The other thing is the relativity of what does the score mean, right? years ago, we used to all take the test of minimum basic skills, right? It was minimum basic skills. That's that's not

154what these tests are. So, is a good score 80% is a good score. Listen, if we were down at the stadium, if I could hit a baseball three times out of 10, I I could be really wealthy, right? I couldn't hit a baseball probably 10 times out of 10 if you want to know the truth. But it's relative, right? You need to know what's that relative factor. The hard part with with tests in public education is there is no consistent standard about this is what it it is. >> Sorry to You're ready. >> Well, I it's a small uh thing but the um the community actually not the community engagement piece but the family engagement piece and I I you just said that people expect school to be like it was when they were in

155school. I had thought for years that um we really miss an opportunity in the way that we do our parent teacher conferences and I we don't probably need to dive into it tonight but I would like an opportunity to chat with you about um some thoughts on that and I think that we again are just missing an opportunity to engage our parents that way. >> I would love that. Thank you. I would say I generally don't have any um comments about the goals themselves because it feels like it's the same trajectory we've been talking about, right? So, it's like continuation. My only comment is that when I I read it earlier today and I was like, what are all these words together? It was almost like corporate speak. It was like ede and I was

156like, do I understand what you're really saying here? Now, when we were talking about it here, Joe, when you were reading it, I was like, oh yeah, no big deal. like questioning myself from earlier, but so I'm just putting that out there in case anyone else felt the same way. >> I'm glad you said that. We'll we'll get that perspective from some other folks, too. Thank you. I take it all the way. Thank you, Mr. Doerty. Thank you, uh, Dr. Malashsh. All right. Um, so we're ready to move on to human resources and, uh, Dr. Saladino, our new director of human resources, is here. This is his first work session. Yay. >> Good evening, everyone. >> We're good. >> Good evening, everyone. I'm excited to be here tonight. Um, we have a number of relatively

157routine uh human resources items on the agenda uh for your consideration. Uh, these will be on the agenda for the legislative meeting at the end of the month. U, we are still working to uh fill some support staff positions in some of our schools. Uh we have the appointment of a long-term substitute teacher on the agenda for a teacher that's going to be going out on leave uh this fall. We have some uh employees that are changing roles in the school district uh including uh one of our maintenance members who is being promoted to a foreman position uh that was vacant. uh and we're really excited to provide uh him with that opportunity. We have some teachers that have been working hard uh in graduate studies and so they are advancing uh changing classification for

158uh their degree advancement on our salary schedule. So we congratulate them as well. And there is a memorandum of understanding with the RTMEA uh which is something that has been um before you previously uh since co uh it's a memorandum of understanding that allows us to continue to offer a cyber education opportunity at Menum uh for those students that need that as an option uh instead of them pursuing an outofdist cyber option. Uh and so this is uh something that has been um before you before >> later. >> Thank you for catching that. >> I have a question probably more for Joe or or Bill. um just how we've been assessing that program >> you had mentioned. >> Okay. So question was how are we assessing admentum? Well, we do get progress reports on students

159and they are assigned an administrator inhouse to um to track their progress. So then at the end of the year just or actually mid year I actually get some email updates as well. We constantly get progress reports administrators um also follow up with their with their teachers on their progress. So >> follow up directly with with their educators through admentum. student in the MTSS process whether they um they work with our counselor very directly they work with special educator they work so that that is in communication we did have our first graduate last year from um RTM cyber um and so that was very successful she joined us at the pandmic and graduated last year. >> Awesome. >> And how many students do we have in the program now? >> Do you know how many

160people we have going to cyber charter schools? Um, our director of student services in the back there said that we spend just under a million dollars. Correct. >> That's like 30. >> We can find out the we can find out the exact number for you. um ch changing back to the open um positions. How many support staff um positions are still unfilled approximately? >> I would say less than five. >> Okay. And how are we handling that current shortage? >> We are continuing to interview candidates. Uh we do have all of the positions are fully staffed uh using some of our agencies that we have contracts with. So we are not without uh staff, but we are looking to fill them with Roee Media employees um that would be with us on a permanent basis.

161So we're we're fully staffed with people in our buildings, but we are continuing to hire Ro Media employees for those positions. Thank you. >> Welcome. >> I have a question back on the admentum. So, sorry, don't look around. Um, so not just about evaluating how our students are doing prog progressing through the program, how are we evaluating if the education those students are receiving is what Rose Media wants them to learn? >> So, you know, that is it's not our program for sure, right? So like we haven't done I mean when we initially vetted Ed Mmentum we looked at that to see that there was some level of rigor but it's certainly not the same experience that students would get here and that they cannot say the voice liked Um, oh, >> um, and, um,

162they do have a a report card. Um, and we made sure, um, last year we really worked hard to make sure those were aligned so that if you were getting a certain grade in algebra 2 from penrest and the same course in edmentum that they were following those same kind of criteria and the student was getting the same skills taught. So >> at the building level, I can tell you that our counselors and our administrators work closely with the Edenum staff to be sure even when we're registering the student for the classes in the Edenum program that we are selecting coursework that parallels what they would be taking uh if they were in the brick and mortar building, which also is helpful if we have a student that maybe begins in Edmonton and then decides

163for whatever reason that they would like to return to the physical building. It just aids with that transition. >> David Ryussell does that for us. Um, so because most of our students are secondary students. Now, >> are there any other questions about the human resources agenda items >> from the board? We have something uh from the audience. Three students are current. >> There's a question about the RTM. How many students are enrolled? And the answer is three >> right now at the beginning of the year. Yes. >> There's a question about how do we justify the cost of theum with such a small number of students. >> We're paying by license. So at the pandemic time, we purchased quite a bit of seats um and because we needed to fill those I say seats, those

164were licenses. So now we we don't do that because we know we're not going to have a large enrollment. So we're not spending a lot of money that goes unused on the program. So we're buying licenses per students. So per seat. >> This is separate. Miss Miss Sabatuni, this is this is not the same as the cyber charter school. So, it's a unit. Right. Right. >> Okay. >> RTM. >> And you're saying it's really just a variable cost. There's no fixed cost whereby a certain minimum would need to just >> No. Last year we had 10 licenses. We had 10 students. >> Okay. >> And correct me if I'm wrong. Admentum is a much more cost-effective solution for cyber education. >> Absol. Absolutely. >> All right, I think that's it. Thank you, Dr. Saladino. >>

165Thank you everyone. Have a great night. >> All right. So, we're moving on to uh policies, the policy committee policies for discussion. Dr. Napson, can I say one thing? I'm so sorry. I did want to clarify. We do use admentum um also with the Simon Youth Academy. So those students also participate and that's we again we purchase what we need for the students. So I did want to be clear about that. It is it is so problem. >> All right, Dr. Napster Williams, we um we had and sorry, I'm just looking at what it was saying on the agenda. We had our we had an initial policy committee meeting um in at the end of August that will bring us to um where we are and and what's being discussed. Enlisted on the agenda are

166policies to be discussed at the September 22nd policy committee. Um there was nothing new I don't think that was moved forward from the last one. Right. There were second >> uh sec admissions of students is the second read I believe. >> Second read. >> Um and that's just you know we're preparing for a K1 full day kindergarten and first grade centers. We need to make sure we have specifics around our enrollments. It was not >> and the second read of 2011 which is mission of students and then finalizing the 26 27 calendar will be on the legislative meeting for adoption this month. >> This month or no I thought that was a first read. No >> for which one? >> 26 27. >> That's the second one. It was read initially back in the spring.

167>> Um one quick question on that. I know when we were talking about it, you said that we were under contract with Newman, but it looks like from one of the consent agenda items, we are not >> We are not. >> That's correct. >> I have I have that on our list for next week, too. Or two weeks, I guess, since the 22nd. >> Okay. >> Yeah, we do not have a long So, the question was about whether or not we had a long-term contract with Newman to host our graduations, and we do not. We have a yearly. >> So I know that that that played a role in um our calendar setting because >> it was the first Friday in June always had to be graduation and that played a role in how we

168set our calendars. Um but without that in there, are we still going to always target the first Friday in June for all graduations? I mean that could be June 1st, which is very very early in June. Bill, what was the because that this was one of the questions that came out in the survey from last spring. Did we ask about graduation in your in the survey when you put out? >> I'd have to look to be 100%. No, I I think I asked about when we wanted um the school year to end. Yeah, I didn't ask specifically for graduation. I have a few um items with regard to the AI policy. >> Yes. >> And can I share those now? >> I would love that. >> Okay, great. >> You want to bring them to

169the session? >> Well, I don't know if I'll be able to attend. >> Okay. >> Um I I can also share them, but a couple of things stood out. the open source AI definition is incorrect and I would recommend it's just stripped from this policy altogether because I don't think we reference that definition again. I don't think it's necessary to the policy to be in there. >> Yeah, it's not and it's just uh not correct. Um also actually some of this I will just send a note about but yeah >> one thing that I wanted to bring up is the AI detection tools. We had a note in there about uh their use and how we would not hold students accountable if if their uh work was run through an AI detection tool and found

170to possibly have been created with AI. Those detection tools are highly inaccurate. >> And I would recommend we look at that part of the policy again, too. I would I would I mean, yeah, I'll just leave it at that. are highly inaccurate. The other thing that I wanted to note is that I think we need um I think we need a an item in there that uh asks the uh counseling department to develop its own set of administrative procedures and training to address the potential uh issues that students might have with getting uh dependent on AI in a in a relationship whe you know a developing a friendship or a relationship with an AI metal and it sounds silly but it's happening and and it's very serious and I think that our counseling department needs

171to kind of be on top of that the other things I'll share and >> and I just want to say the the AI policy this is going to be our first AI policy and it's not slated to go through one run two runs because we wanted to have community meetings to talk about it we also wanted to root loop in a lot of people um teachers and stuff like that to have feedback on it. This um policy is a combination of DCIU as well. Yeah. And more DCIU than PSBA, but the other piece of it is that we've asked um Fox Rothschild, our new um solicitor, they have a lot of experience with policy um and so they also have feedback for us on this as well. So, this is not like all the other

172policies that we have first read, second read, and then we approve. This is going to be a longer process. And I encourage everybody on the board and anyone listening to take a look at what the draft looks like because I agree with you, it's super important to get it right. >> And Hillary, we're going to be seating an AA ai committee in the district for discussion. Um, you'll get an update probably in October because we're going to want a board member to sit on that as well. Uh we've been a little bit slower than I initiated because we're looking for the appropriate people to chair um and have the appropriate people in district to be involved because of the opening of school. That's been the slowest of them um to get started just timing wise,

173but there'll be a discussion about that. I'm going to expect probably at the October 9th um work session to say this is what the schedule's going to be. This is where we are. We have administrators that are involved um through the training through BCIU, you know, that's going on. Um and we want students to be a part of the discussion, you know, from the high school. So, we're looking at people from all the different levels involved. As Sh said, the policy discussion will be ongoing. We don't want to just adopt something so that it's there. We wanted to do the best we possibly can for the first time, you know, um moving in. So, I appreciate the feedback and if you again, I'm sure you have some additional things to put through, send them uh

174because we'll be discussing this again on the 22nd and then again in October. It will not it's not going to appear on an agenda as a first read at any time in the near future. >> That actually helps to know that that because I did have a question about that that we're putting this policy out there before the other round of the Okay, great. Perfect. >> We we need those other people to be involved in the conversation first. >> Thank you. The other aspect of um AI that this brings to mind is um designing assessing student learning in a way that doesn't even tempt students to use AI. Uh in the um in the in well I mean at the higher ed level the blue book is back right you know people are sitting down

175with pen and paper and pencils and writing it down. Is there an equivalent to that kind of educational assessment at at lower you know in our levels? >> So one of the things that ties in with right how do we identify student success you know what does our instructional model look like? One of the big questions is always how are we asking students to perform and when are we asking them to perform, right? Because there's lots of ways. Listen, even when we were kids, if you were if you had an instrument and a Memorex tape player and you could pra record yourself playing scales, you could put that on in your bedroom, your mom would think you were playing your trumpet for quite some time, right? >> It's not I would not have. >> I'm

176just saying that that was out. I know people that did it. >> I don't I don't know. I don't know who, but I do know people who are out there who did, you know. So, I mean, so there there's always been things, but at some point they have to be able to perform, right? It's going to be the same thing in the classroom. What does that look like, you know, for the kids? What are our teachers asking them to do? Um how are they asking them to perform and to know, you know, that it's it's where it is. And I think that's where, you know, some of us have had, you know, more in-depth conversations about a AI. Um AI is not going away, right? AI it's not whether or not there should be AI

177in our schools. AI has been in our schools for decades, right? This is not a new new thing. The type of AI that children can access, you know, what they can do and what can they ask and where does it go? Certainly dramatically different. But um yeah, how do we ask them perform as part of the discussion with this implementation this year of how does this instructional model, if this is a good lesson and we know that students are being successful, how do we know that it's them? >> That question also applies to educators too. as educators come to rely on it more and more and evaluating and making sure that whatever output they're using is under constant evaluation, it's just so easy to use it and and plop it in front of students. So,

178>> I just want to add, I know we're talking about like the ways we would not want students to use it, but it's just as important that we teach students how to use it appropriately because it is all over the workforce and kids will be expected to use AI appropriately when they get jobs. And so, we have to look at that from both sides. >> Absolutely. New technology, right? Again, we new technology being introduced into schools is not new, right? Right? We can talk about all the different things that have been introduced just in in generations that we've gone through. How do we do that? What does it look like? The world that we again ultimately we have to prepare children for the world they are entering, right? Looks different today than it did when

179we all graduated from high school. For sure. >> One other quick comment. I thank you for the calendar and the the new color coding makes it much easier to read. Very appreciative. Uh also note that it does start next year before Labor Day which is >> uh something to >> it does >> note for >> Yeah. Happy that's >> we shall celebrate. >> Yeah. Yeah. The survey results said people >> Yeah. >> And and this is a unique year. Um it and I think the last the only other time that it's happened here in Roster Media is the same thing when Labor Day is the 7th because Labor Day is so late. um you know that but yes part of the survey that we put out back in the spring was about starting before Labor

180Day. There are some who would like there are more who would not like to start before Labor Day but this is the exception to the rule. >> The exception to the rule because of the timing um with where we are. Correct. Right. Are there any other comments questions about the policies? No. Okay. All right. Have a good night.