001e good evening welcome to the March work session of The Rose Tree Media School Board the school board holds monthly work sessions to carry out its responsibilities in public as dictated by the Sunshine Law at these meetings the board standing committees conduct the work of the board through discussion with the administration standing committees function as Committees of the whole with all board members serving on all standing committees with one member acting as chair we welcome the public to these meetings and depending on the length of the agenda may be able to entertain public questions if we're not able to address comments or questions we encourage emails to either committee chairs or the administration as a reminder to where our conversation should focus the student students are the center of the rose tree Media School District
002Learning 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 respect and Leadership students will be well prepared to create meaningful and productive lives in a global societ Society all right so with that we will begin we will start with finance and operations we have the capital projects update with uh Mr Dennis CI yes that's it good okay good evening let me quickly go through the status of our Capital project to date um our mechanical electrical Plumbing project everything's done except the lighting in the auditorium that's ordered so that is a complete lighting package theater uh the entire Auditorium will get new lighting that'll probably take about two months and we're on target to
003start that when school is out window and Skylight Replacements uh again you're not going to see any activity until the summer shop drawings are going on but we are on schedule uh the Skylight I understand is being fabricated this point and uh also the windows for roasty Elementary the springton track new six Lane track um Design's complete fer Providence and we're going to go to De storm water review soon um hopefully that we get this back quickly they're taking three to four months for these reviews at D and there's no such animals an expedited review we've already looked into that so we just have to push the best we can so this could go into the fall not sure yet keep you posted HVAC upgrades rose tree and Glennwood again the contracts were awarded in
004February last meeting and let's see shop drawings are in progress again summertime we will start these we may even start at Spring break doing some ceiling work some lighting I mean some um some wiring in the ceiling depends on the contractor but these are tough projects that get done in one summer we might have to start earlier sorry about that cafeteria expansion um again that is that project for uh as far as the scope goes is in total interior renovation ceilings walls floors um new furniture the uh the capacity the new capacity for this would be 426 to 446 students which is about 100 to 120 more now and also you have 88 outdoor seating spaces in addition to that you have new toilet rooms that are accessible you have a new school store also
005we're probably going to start that I would say early April we're probably doing some outside excavation work for the addition again tough project we got to start early on it and and Dennis if folks look you can see that the picnic tables have already been moved off of the gra lined up along in the parking lot so that the the guys have already been out to check we are getting ready um in fact the contractors are just securing the permits now so we should be ready to start just I know I'm 99% s certain I know the answer to this but I'm just going to confirm that the new um capacity of the cafeteria will be um sufficient to account for all of the new enrollment that's coming up from the elementary school it's based
006on the new short-term enrollments coming up correct yeah yes it is and it's and Sh I'll tell you too you know the the cafeteria when you come over here for lunch cafeteria is packed um I don't know when the last time was yet lunch with 300 sixth graders or seventh graders or eighth graders a little bit of extra space is gonna is going to do them well uh in terms of what goes on you know the U and we are going to outfit it all with new furniture you know as well so when it's ready it open in September it'll look like a dramatically different place the kitchen's not being touched cor's not being reworked the food lines you know nothing like that when they when they bump the you know that sidewall out um
007you know to expand it and then to redo the insides it's just going to be a drama that's there but yes this will accommodate the children who are here um the we've talked about coming and and the ones that are here for sure and you mentioned Furniture actually the capacity depends on the type of furniture that we're buying you may have benches that only hold three people or they might put four on it it all depends on the Furnishings okay pest High School Indian Lane renovation projects moving along consumer science room TV studio family consumer science and the five science rooms are moving along they go to bid as you see here in March 28th will be their first bid bids doe April 25th instruction summer 2025 the contracts for media and Indian Lane HVAC
008upgrades were awarded and we are in the early I mean we yeah very early design phase probably bidding mid Del late fall for summer 2026 construction correct me I'm wrong they didn't have as much of the electrical and control upgrades as were required at Glenwood and Rose Tree yes okay in fact some of those upgrades were done last summer but the balance will be done this summer correct when the when the board originally uh made the approval in the fall of 23 U we looked at the the four buildings we I sat by the side and the professionals looked at the the four buildings and the and the work that needed to be done and made the determination that as we were doing the larger scope um at Glenwood and at Ros tree they could
009start the electrical pieces at the other two so that when it comes to next summer um they'll be that much farther ahead doing the bidding next fall um will absolutely keep us on track you know to get it assigned and to get them equipment built in time for the installation in the summer of 2026 so the the team has done a really nice job in terms of the scope and the timing um to get it all done I think that timing will also give us more competition just like we saw this year yes agreed I did have a question and thank you so much this is very helpful and it's great to see this progress happening um but I I know understandably we won't be making it for the the Heat this year and just
010how brutal that can be for some of our students and faculty um and I don't know if we have what the thought is or what to do temporarily when that happens I know it's probably Beyond you know your purview Mr cinii but just in general what's the plan or do we have one for when it is going to get pretty hot for some of those places we We have dealt with temporary units um we had actually had some window units put in too we've had portable units like we did last summer I mean we we have kept up with it fortunately and and going from I mean the spring we're gonna have to deal with and some is working with the principles uh in spaces that are conditioned in the building where to St you
011know where to sta students get assigned where are the classes what types of activities you know are we engaging in during the course of the day once the projects are finished and school opens it'll also allow us to take those temporary units that are at Glenwood um and at Ros tree and then repurpose them over at the other two elementary schools so we will have more to use and more to work with um Mr Nolan Mike Nolan um who's normally with us Mr Nolan and Dr Scott are at the pasbo conference this week um Dr Scott is one of state officers um so they're very involved that's why they are not here this evening but it's something that Mr Nolan talked about in the interview process last summer um you know because we one of
012the questions we went through was about you know what are some of the the biggest challenges that face schools at different times during the year and he talked about the heat right he talked about what's that air quality you know look like so um something they're working on talking about but yes they'll have a short-term plans that'll be in place uh to address sure can I ask a question d on exactly what you were just talking about with the heat I mean I don't I'm I'm really hoping we don't have any 90 95 Degree Days in June but it's not out of the realm of possibility these days is there has there been any consideration to looking at when a heat advisory is issued for the local area and tying it to a flexible instruction
013day until we can get air conditioning in all of our buildings because it can get pretty unbearable in some of our elementary schools so we talked about the flexible instruction um it's actually interesting Dr R Carrie R who's the new secretary of Ed um has been talking about flexible instruction day and her picture you know her lens on it you know when the district did the application a couple of years ago uh we were approved for five days right there was a limited scope um Dr row has indicated that she doesn't think that there's a limit on the number of days that that districts could use so it definitely could be an option right it's it's not limited flexible instruction is not limited to snow we have not set any hard and fast criteria to
014say if it hits this temperature or feels like you know or humidity you know all those typ different types of things again we will continue to talk with folks as we go through this spring uh about what does that look like you know make more of a short term um we are always you know the Through My Lens always the superintendent one of the biggest concerns is the impact of not having children in school what does that look like for families um and for for some kids being in school is still a better place with limited air conditioning you know than than home you know based on the the reality of of U you know living conditions in in some places so balancing all of that right what's the best we can do for the
015you know for the for the greater good and and for our small educational community and the larger Community as it is okay and questions on Capital no we have one contract I believe yes we go back to the agenda um Dennis the Johnson Controls Johnson Controls this is the contract for um upgrading well replacing and upgrading springton Lake this school right here it's a very old system uh it's outdated um it's hard to get parts I understand for the system so we're going to update it to Johnson Controls all right and I think as you mentioned the HV AC all all our schools eventually after 2026 will all be Johnson Controls standardization across the whole district one energy management system which should save us a great deal in energy and time yes really so that
016yeah we did save money on that one on the budget we had 1.8 million as a budget on that one came in at 1.2 we did well with the bidding process yeah and all the other schools um the upgrades are included in the HVAC packages right we have one school left to do pen Crest and that will just be a partial because Johnson is partially already in pen Crest okay right thank you so next up is the K1 center update I do miss conine thank you find where I am here [Music] there a second it'll catch up there we go so this evening um typically we have had over the last couple of months uh Phil Solomon and Dave Shader uh Phil from ICS and and David from um the Shader group um here with
017us as we've gone through and talked about the new school those gentlemen are both out as well at the pasbo conference uh so they provided me with some bullet points and if they were going to miss a meeting in terms of sequence this is the right one because it it's been a bit not a a LOL is not really the right word um but it was at the last legislative meeting um that the board uh approved the contracts moving forward um so it's only been it's been a short amount of time since those contracts were approved uh but I do have some updates for you so I kind of repurposed the structure if you remember I had a Sim similar slideshow uh back in the fall when we talked about the new school so these
018are the updates um that they've provided some that have already been taken care of uh and one that takes us into tomorrow um the design agreements have been completed right so we have the board has approved those contracts theyve been signed they've been returned they are moving forward um with this whole design phase of everything up to sending the project out to bid um and to bring in general contractors to break ground and to build the new school so all of that has been contracted for um within the contracts that you approved at the legislative meeting sta design team coordination meetings have been established and are ongoing that's with the professionals uh the folks from IC the folks from Shader group group Gus hootman um some of the other professionals that go beyond you know
019just those three um and the team at IC again with the different Engineers uh and professionals that they have there U they're meeting regularly to start to go through the scope and sequence what the project is going to intend detail detail design schedule has been developed and reviewed by the arch by the architect by the engineers um you know in each of the groups that's what we will spend some time tomorrow going through and then a detailed Land Development and permitting schedule has been developed um so they have laid out uh and once we go through and we have and the last thing on this list is a kickoff meeting tomorrow uh we have a a one o'clock meeting tomorrow afternoon so for the district to go through uh all of these different parts of
020what they have prepared and where we are um and to get the next step uh in what the the time frame is for the opening of this school I know that um David is already a little nervous of how much am I G to push of what's August of 2027 look like can we get there you know and and where are we I don't know that we can but that's my question giving it so if he's if he's listening out in Hershey be prepared to answer that tomorrow uh just a little you know little uh map little road map of of where we are um I'm very excited but we still are only the second step in the process right the design process is is where we are we have a number of steps you
021know to uh to move forward and all right this was one of the big questions or the three big questions that we had back in the fall as we were going through here the decisions for the board to make and after a lot of consideration uh and deliber deliberation and discussion folks weighing in from the community you know listen listening to our recommendations administratively Professional Services proposals the lawsuit and the Edgemont property the board has successfully at this point taking taking care of all three of those items um which certainly is expedit where we are um so some some big weighty things to think about and to discuss um I told anybody that would listen to me after the the last board meeting the 27th that was truly a historic evening in the radry media
022School District I don't know that folks always realize or that we always step back and take a moment to appreciate what takes place in a meeting like that with with your votes leading up to and then getting there that evening but with your votes you voted to end the lawsuit you voted to sell the church property that's out there you approved the contracts to move forward to design an elementary school a prek to one Center we believe is going to cost about 81 and a. half million uh to get the professionals on board and to move forward in that process that's generation change that's going to take place here that's absolutely incredible and again I don't think folks always realize what happens during the course of a legislative meeting or the gravity uh of the
023decisions that are made um and in perpetuity your names will be attached to that decision that was made um you know for this so uh we will look back and reflect on that at times as we go through the significance of that evening because there will be a lot more evenings of discussion and debate and conversation uh to go through you know one of the things that I've learned in the you know year and a half or so that I've been here is that the folks in our commun in our community are passionate about the schools and they want the best for the schools might not always agree about how to get to the best but they want the best for the children and for the for the community so uh a significant piece so
024kudos to you as a as a board of education and then just a little laugh thought I do love a Hau Susan I I I I can't help myself I changed it out from the one that was there right so my inspiration was and and it's a hard word for me at times is patience right drifting clouds above winds will guide them when it's time Stillness holds the path right so we are continuing forward this is where we are uh and again you know one of the things we will continue to talk about is we get ready to launch our website for the the full day kindergarten the the kindergarten First Grade Center uh which will be called a time to bloom right Mrs Wilson um you know one of the things that we'll continue
025to talk about as we go through this truly is the gift of time and space and what that means for five and six year olds um as we design not just the physical facility and the plant um but talk about the curriculum and what does instruction look like and to finally have a building um that truly is dedicated to Children of the this developmental stage and will help to support the incredible staff that we have our support staff our professional staff uh the folks in the cafeteria our custodians but to support the work that they do and to really uphold we expect uh to take place right Mrs con I'm going to stop sharing thank you Dr M very much I have a quick question yes sir what's the status of the lawsuit has it
026been so the status of the lawsuit is that the folks from lamb Maan are in the I don't think it's been filed yet they're in the process of filing whatever whatever needs to be filed in legal E I don't know whether our two lawyers has a has a word for it um but to uh to end it so I Believe by the time we're together at the legislative meeting that that will have been done sure good question and on tonight we'll go through I believe it's it's in here um there's a a contract in here with a a realtor you know to list the property we're going to list the church property initially at at $1.5 million um we paid $1.25 million for it um when the district purchased it originally um so that's here
027as well uh the other items that are here on the agenda the first one uh the exclusive listing agreement with Frontier commercial real estate um that is um the listing of the property we're going to be using Frontier commercial real estate Joe Patty is the real estate agent that we will be working with uh that we've worked with throughout the the district has worked with throughout the process um and it's it it provides him that Focus for the next six months we expect that we will be under contract U certainly in less than six months months then we have uh Del County Community College the DCCC we have new trustees um the the Community College went through a process uh and a recruitment process and interview process um shelle who's on our board who represents
028you know the Roary Media School District on the the Board of Trustees was I think you ran that process Shelly right yeah and so what I'll say is the new president is making sure the trustees are fully there were a number of vacancies that were just left um uh unfilled for many many years it was kind of a standard there and the new president has said all all trustee positions must be filled so that will be coming up at the legislative meeting and it is a roll call vote so just to let everybody know it's great um and as you look I had the opportunity I've seen the resumés for each one of the candidates I've not met any of them uh on paper incredibly impressive and the fact that they're willing to commit to
029a six-year term to serve the community college and they want to be able to get back to Delaware County um I think is admirable so um that'll be on the legisl legislative agenda the next three items deal with uh the annual budgets for the dciu um as a sending District we have a a financial stake and financial responsibility uh in these budgets the technical school budget the regular Opera operating budget and the special education agreement um there are additional details that are in there for board members you have an opportunity to go through and to take a look at uh the dciu does incredible work Mr denn K dennit represents us um recently being appointed and approved following the great work that Hillary Fletcher did for so many years as the Road stre Media representative
030um you know to the the dciu board so that's on there um this occurs every year it occurs with all the districts in the county take a similar action uh as the Middletown Little League um our our friends at Aston Middletown Little League uh have would like to donate um work time uh and uh service and equipment uh to two of our fields that they use regularly uh through a use of a facilities agreement uh at Indian Lane and at Glenwood Elementary School again uh received a very nice letter from the organization detailed laying out specifically what it is that they would like to do they are tremendous stewards of the properties when they use them um and I I think it's it's admirable that they are able to step forward and provide some addition
031financial assistance to do some upgrades to those fields we are grateful for that we will ask you to approve that piece that's on there J and K are the contracts for the DJs for the proms Junior and senior prom are coming up they are exciting um the high school does contract with the same Entertainment Group uh to provide DJ Services uh I know Mr Roth used to do music in the morning at the high school I know he has offered his Services uh but the kids and the advisers did decide to go go out uh to to find uh listen you're not kidding um musical theater International contract uh musical theater International uh is is one of the gigantic probably the largest of the Clearing Houses U that have the rights to the musicals uh
032that that not just we do but other schools and colleges and Community Theaters uh in order to get the rights to do the shows this is for our summer theater program as part of our summer camp program that goes on and we will be doing The Descendants so I'm not sure how many are familiar with the descendants very exciting if you're not familiar with them this is your chance between now and the show goes up the last week in July I think missc conin ises that sound right because up the last week in July gives you a chance to get caught up so you're familiar with the characters it will be we are it's a good question we we are working on that we had all the lights all the stage lighting there's a tremendous
033amount of work being done in the theater over there so if not pen Creston here at springton so announcements soon to come but we do know it's going to be the descendants no matter where it goes up um there's a budgetary transfer that's on here and then the budgetary comparison reports Dr milash I have one as a dciu representative I wanted to clarify something on the operating budget yes uh item G it says the operating budget is an increase from the current Year's budget but the dciu is holding the district's contributions steady so that's that's a point they are using State and earned money to make up the difference in the increase in their budget we will budget absolutely adjust that in the language that's on there thank you for pointing that out and can
034how is the how is each District's portion of the budget calculated it is a combination of fact yeah I'll start and you can tell me if I'm wrong they they have almost 60 budgets the operating budget is only a small portion of their total budgets but the calculation for each District's contribution is based on the adjusted Act One index for each district times some factor of the usage number of students involved yes so yeah sort of lower down is that is the same also true for the technical school budget is it yes okay interesting okay thank you and the dciu the the new campus is slated to open um they took over the the um yeah over over Arch Pras oh DCCC new Campus of DCCC is expected is slated to open I think this
035fall right yeah we'll see there it will be yeah it it I don't know if it'll be ready for students this fall or in January but I I know the goal was this fall another update from DCCC that if you wouldn't mind I'd like to share because it's time sensitive and if anybody's listening it was a brand new program that was announced this week I did share it with some of the the people who run the pencrest um Facebook pages so they could share the information as well but there's a new welding program um and when I say program it's not a new program given by the school it's a um scholarship program so that there is um scholarships for 40 students who would like to um get trained and certified in Welding which there
036is a a big shortfall in apparently having needed Welding Services from the local guy here in media um and so um in order to encourage more students to go into welding um 40 students will get a free welding education so sh program night program oh you on that one but anyway I just wanted to put it out there because it's such an important thing you know people really want to get job training to to do better and to be able to better support their families and and to guide their future and this is a great opportunity for um a free education all right are there any other questions from the board all right I think we have a question or two from the audience yes Dr and about the new school yes ma'am how confident
037are you about the estimate of 81 half million to build this new school in line the position power on steel wood aluminum and what's the game plan if the cost exceeds 81 and a half million so we feel very comfortable right now with with what with what we're pro ing right so the the crystal ball gets a little bit cloudy um when we try to look too far forward but based based on what the current standards are based on what the experience is for Builders um again that's why we rely on on the professions it's not our area the board members or us as as Educators why we rely on on the folks from Shader group and from IC who are doing this and and building this is certainly not the only job that they
038are working on um but to give us a perspective and then there's also a contingency that's built into those dollars I want to say satini the guys will be able to tell you next time they're here I want to say it's like 23% or so is what's built into that um yes yes to with that flexibility the soft costs and then the the ABS the the opportunity for things to grow uh or for the cost to change will that change again with the project and the time frame the scope for it to be design to to be done go through all the design go through the you know start permitting when we get time to bid it out to see what it actually looks like it could look different um it could be higher it
039could be lower they could be kind of right on with where they are but again the the volatility you know that the potential volatility that exists in the system could look dramatically different 12 months 18 months from now as they're getting in there um so so as we sit here today and move forward the projects we feel comfortable with where those numbers are and I have a second question sure about uh the new school estimate obviously the 81 and a half is based merely on physical construction of the facility have you worked up numbers with respect to Staffing maintenance ongoing operational cost of M to school so we've had discussions about staff uh and the comparison between the staff that we currently have that works in the that works in the district with the number
040of children what it would look like in those buildings right or in a single building when you look at kindergarten in first grade um we know that we will have to hire additional teachers right we know that from the beginning how many uh we are starting to work through estimates right now there is an economy of scale that occurs when the four schools come together for kindergarten in first grade right based on just based on the numbers and what does class size look like how many children do we want to be in a kindergarten classroom and a first grade classroom what are the special ed programs that are offered how many teachers do you need for that what do the special area classes look like art fizzed music those types of things that those two
041grade levels will receive so we are working through as we met with the designers through the number of spaces that we that we believe we will need based on the potential enrollment and then we're continuing to have the discussions right now about staff we'll have a better idea uh and a closer number as we go into the budget building process next year right not that those folks will all be in um you know for the the 26 27 school year but there are some staff that we will add next year because we know we will need them with the number of kids that are going to be in the district and then look what is that going to be for 27 at the earliest right so there's still some flexibility because of the timing so
042we know how many how many spaces we will need but the actual numbers we don't have a final answer yet we will continue to work through those okay all right yes man I think we have another question go ahead um for I thought Bud presentation was today so I missed that but um I got a chance to go back and look through these phases what is the district doing to plan for the extra borrowing was going to be done because I look at this proposed budget it's showing a use of fund balance of $4.4 million definely that suggests to me that based on what we're doing here those numbers are real there's no room to borrow money so are these numbers real should we assume that these are correct because you know I'm all for
043the K1 center but this is kind of fright scary scarying me because there's no room and we pull them back on anything Mr or Dr Pon I'm not sure that I understand what you mean by are the numbers real projecting a use of fund balance of 4.4 million next year we are that's going to take our end ofe general fund balance down to about assuming everything else is spread or5 million how be positioned to borrow if we sitting that so as as we go through the the financial piece both the the planning of the annual budget um and then when we have the folks come in the the financial planners as we talk about borrowing additional funds to fund the school and additional work and that kind of thing um we use the financial planners
044to analyze where we are analyze what it is that we are putting in and you if you if you look in the the presentation um we did we were here Monday March 3 I know it was listed on the on the website to go through I'm sorry that you you missed it it's definitely online uh we have it recorded happy to follow you know if you want to come in Dr F I'm happy to to sit down and talk with you uh Dr Scott and I can certainly have some discussion um but yeah we we believe that the numbers are real if you look at um the the history there are years that we've used fund balance and other years that we have not used fund balance we maintain a very healthy fund balance in
045our school district right we are there's a state mandate and I believe Dr Scott is not here uh I believe it's between 2% and eight% uh what our budget is um so we have been on the higher end with that this will place us back in the middle range between the 2% and the 8% um of what we currently have on hand um there's a a fiscal responsibility that we believe in terms of as we prepare the budget um we are well below what the Act One index is right we have not approached the Act One index in the last couple of years again we believe that we have a responsibility as a school schol District to to keep that level and to keep that balance um with how we are spending the money that
046the taxpayers are providing for us and what we are asking the taxpayers for in terms of additional funds um but shoot me an email I'm happy to to sit down and go through some more discussion with him can I also point out one thing um we did ask this question during the meeting and one of the line items I just forget which one other properties or something was elevated you'll see it as the percent increases as one of the bigger ones because the board asked the administration to be more aware of increased borrowing so I think our usual debt balance is just below 11 million and next year it's like at 14 to give us a little bit more room for these um new bonds would say that [Music] um we we need to move
047on because uh that's not one of the agenda items but we have the entire video that discusses and provides answers to some of your questions um and so although we of course appreciate it we can't go through everything that we went through on March 3rd but it's a video that's detailed where um like Jackie said some of those questions were answered in some detail and you can email us um about it a point of clarification so there's no misinformation when people leave this meeting is that we do um worst case scenario budgeting here in this district and we've always done worst case scenario budgeting we have to be good stewards and plan for things you don't want to go over your budget so we have always had a three to four million projected fund balance
048utilization for the last three or four years we have only used some a small portion of I think it was a million dollars in one of those years so we do have to do worst case scenario planning but we've been fortunate enough that the district is very uh I don't want to say Frugal but they're very good steward SWS of the money so that we don't end up having to use our fund balance all right it okay we good but the the entire video and I've watched videos from uh our work session and I this is an opportunity for me to say the uh the audio is great the audio is great so thank you Miss conine um I know we have complained about it in the past but you know we got to let
049you know that it's it's working cuz I I listen to everybody what I would say for people for board members for people who are in the room make sure you speak up right because you're sort of especially you guys on this side because your back is to the people who are in attendance and even though it it'll pick you up on video they might not be able to hear you so and I want to just thank technology I'm sure they're listening because Ron and Kim have worked very hard to make this audio successful so thank you Ron and all right so we're moving on to education and wellness so Dr nson Williams we have Mr Roth the pen Crest principal um Mr David Ry shle one of the assistant principles at pen Crest to provide
050an update on the Block scheduling and just let everybody know where we are where where they are busy times at pest gentlemen uh good evening everybody uh thank you for having us here this tonight to talk about this uh just want to give you an update uh it's kind of a brief update and of course we'll be happy to answer questions if you have them at the end uh I want to start with uh sharing you the the completed Gant chart for the scheduling process uh I know I showed this very briefly um first time I presented back in November uh but this will take you through as you see we started this school year building our uh new AC mic guide uh which had to be revamped for the block schedule we are about
051to wrap up the scheduling requests process um the students last dat or request courses is Monday March 17th and then we will go through the verification of those requests uh counselors will review them first to make sure um students are choosing courses in alignment with graduation requirements um and then those verifications will be mailed home for parents to verify the requests once we have the verification process complete we will move into the actual building of the master schedule uh which kind of takes us through June and that that that third quarter of the process uh where we will look at the number of course tally requests we have for courses and uh build a schedule around those requests um and I do want to highlight that this is a very student Centric Pro way to
052build the student the schedule um it is it is completely built around the requests that they make um and and we will hold true to that um as we map that out we will go through probably various rounds of what would it look like if we moved this English class here and and moved this art class here uh again trying to make it so the students uh we can maximize the ability of students to meet the requests that they made uh within that schedule inevitably we will have uh students who U want to try to do everything and it just doesn't work and that's why we ask the students to choose alternate courses uh so we know what those are and even sometimes with alternates that still doesn't quite work out for maybe about 6%
053of the kids uh and then we will contact them as we get closer to the adoption process and say I'm sorry you're going to have to make a choice here are your options um and we will work with the students and their families to make sure that's being met there once we have the adopted schedule then we will move into the phase of uh revisions so this is a process of okay the 6% of kids that didn't quite get their entire schedule the way they wanted we need to move them around or we might need to move around uh a couple of things for uh special education students uh or of course we'll have new enrollments that will come in after the schedule is adopted and we will have to uh make some adjustments for
054those students did you have a question yeah I do is that 6% different from how different is that a larger number than how we've done scheduling in the past are we inconvenience inconveniencing more I don't know if that's the right word I am completely making an arbitrary six perent here from my past experience it falls somewhere between five and 10% of students that have to be hand scheduled Mr Roth do you know would that be different than our scheduling in the past I don't think that it'll be significantly different um with you know the the schedule change doesn't necessarily make it harder to you know for students to get their request um there's always students who um you know especially as students are selecting uh classes that we always refer to a Singleton you know
055the student that wants uh you know AP Chemistry and AP 2D art um you know uh Advanced you know engineering you know things that there one section of um now obviously if groups of students want those conflicting courses we scheduled them differently um but there's always some students that need uh you know those individual it's something that you know when Dr Sweeney was here she would spend all summer uh making friends all over rad treay media calling and you know uh you know making those adjustments uh now Mr Ryme shle will also add to his friends one of the so there are there are two two thought processes in design designing a schedule right for a high school I prefer the one that we used here use here at pest which is we put out
056these are all the courses that we would like to run you tell us what you want to take and then we build a schedule based on student requests the other way to do it is we build a master schedule and then tell the kids to pick the classes that we have already decided we are going to offer um having you know between that that five and 10% I will tell you honestly I'm interested to see what it looks like with the additional period right with what does it look like for kids because we're going to the block right so all the students will be able to choose eight classes during the course of the year what will that look like will that have an impact on the number but that number that range um is
057the same in any High School throughout the country that does scheduling in this manner where kids tell us and we build based on what they what they tell us and honestly I will tell you that it also goes through there are waves and Trends right like you might find that one year that everybody taking Orchestra also wants to take AP art history you know or is taking um Chinese four you know that you get a block all of a sudden they're just together you know it doesn't happen the next year so that's where some of the tweaking goes in in terms of what the guys and their team of schedulers uh over at the high school will be looking at and be and and doing but that's inevitable um and you end up with with
058kids who have varied interests and high interests and you know push thank you I I would also add that you know in just looking at some preliminary numbers which I will share with you in a moment um we are seeing that we'll be able to provide more opportunities of classes uh health class for example um right now we're a I think we're running uh 10 sections of Health where next year we might be able to run 16 sections of Health just simply because each teacher in the building will be teaching an additional section of of classes uh and so that'll make it more more likely that students will be able to get the requests that they want so I would expect the normal percentage of students that we have to hand schedule will go down
059I can't guarantee that right now because the complication of the semesters might have a variable in there that I haven't predicted I'm sorry I have a question and I don't know if I should do it now or later or um first I want to thank you also I'm very excited about blog classing I mean classes as an educator Outsider there's just so much more can do with it it's very exciting and I know change is hard but I think it's it's wonderful um and also thank you for being really good about communicating with the students about having backups as a parent of an eighth grader it's like you've got to have a backup and that's an important life skill and all of that and you've done a really nice job about communicating having those one
060thing I was wondering about is also how is the communication going with eth 8th grade faculty because I think that there is some uncertainty at least from my perspective and on how they can prepare their students mentally emotionally for what they see is a big change um and I've just gotten an undercurrent of discomfort from some faculty in the middle school about what is this going to be like will students be able to handle it or how that's going to go and and so I just know you know it can be difficult too right they know their normal way of communicating and how to set their students up for success for the following year and that changes hard for the eighth grade teachers as well in that respect so I don't know if you've been
061communicating with them or how or what the plan is so that they feel prepared and able to prepare their students uh we certainly have been communicating with the eth grade it's been a partnership um and it's been done in in various ways I know Mr Roth has spent some time uh meeting with the e8th grade uh uh faculty and the parents just to discuss what the block is going to look like and and what that's going to mean for our students moving forward uh we uh actually came here to inton Lake back in January and met with the entire eighth grade team and went over the course selection process with them this is what it's going to look like this is how you can help your students uh we showed them the um course selection
062guide uh and went over what it means for all of different things uh we reviewed with them how we were going to be doing uh academic placements uh and the the process for how they would give us input into those placements and um even share with them the process where parents could uh weigh in on that as well and um for lack of a better word challenge those placements and work with us on on making sure that we're all on the same page of what's best for the children with that uh as questions come up uh Susan how has kind of been the contact Point uh for a lot of it uh The Faculty might might go to her um and she'll kind of collect all the questions and bring them to me or they
063can reach out to me or Mr Roth as as we move through this with the questions I think from an instructional point of view um you know the preparation at the eighth grade teachers do with their students now um you know as they were preparing students for our traditional schedule um you know that that same thing will still serve them well preparing students come to the block right you know I think from my perspective um students who go from any school to the next whether it be from elementary to you know middle school middle school to high school you know we certainly spend a lot of time trying to prepare students for college um but we also have no idea what the classes look like at the 100 different universities that our students go to
064each year um and so when it comes down to it I think it really is building skills um you know building those executive functioning skills that you know carry well whether it's a 47 minute class or an 80 minute block um and you know when the students come to us you know well prepared which they certainly do um I think that's the best preparation that we can have the first day of ninth grade is a is an eye-opening experience for any student even if the schedule at springton Lake and the schedule at the high school were exactly the same everything else is different um and then I think as students set a in they start to realize that what made them successful in middle school also makes them successful in high school I agree and
065I just want to clarify I'm not actually worried about our students being prepared I think they'll do great with this schedule and as a parent I'm not worried ninth grade's a different beast but I but I think it's going to be a good change what I guess I was trying to indicate is that I have been approached by different faculty or or getting undercurrents I think they tend to some of them feel a little bit uncertain about how their students will do and that uncertainty can sometimes you know be felt by by students right so that's more where I am I think honestly it will go well but I'm just wondering how do we sort of lay some faculty concerns because it is a bit of a change just just throwing it out there yeah
066no and I think that that's real and I think that you know I think that we're kind of doing the same thing at the high school right you know even though you know the high school teachers uh are actively preparing for this change because they're going to live it um they haven't lived it yet right and so I think some of that same you know anxiety you know teachers are not just thinking about you know how they're going to teach 10th grade next year but they're also have that same eye on like how am I going to get my 10th graders ready for a block in 11th grade next year um I think this is maybe not the best answer I can give but there is a certain extent of this where we we just
067have to kind of get through it once right um and then it will you know help us just kind of remind ourselves collectively that teaching is teaching and learning is learning um you know and what's good in a 47 minute block is going to be good in an 80 minute block and what's not great instruction in a 47 minute period is not great in an 80-minute period for sure um I certainly understand and I appreciate that um you know that anxiety I think that that's you know something that's you know kind of healthy I remember the group of teachers last week um and I you know I said that the only people who really scare me are the people who aren't nervous at all about the change um because it's change right you know I've
068worked in a block schedule before but you know I haven't worked in this one before I haven't done it at pen Crest before um so you know I don't know that there is a a message or a training or you know anything that we could give to you know our friends here at springton Lake that would alleviate that concern um I think it's a real and a healthy concern we're living the same thing at the high school and I think that as we learn uh you know some lessons in the beginning of next year not at the expense of students but alongside our students um then we'll be able to communicate as we articulate you know from you know 6 to 12 or really K to 12 um you know maybe what some of those
069things are that would have been helpful to maybe have a different focus on uh in the future one final thing I want to point out with the Gant chart here is um as we get toward the end of this process a lot of these dates are kind of in here as a must be done by this but in all likelihood a lot of those things will be accomplished earlier than that um and and so I just want to if you're looking to see something exactly in those blocks there it may have already happened so I just want to point that out to you um this is an update on our bell schedule uh for next year so as you can see this is a horizontal picture of what the periods will look like um each
070day we'll start with um our IE period from 7 to 8:00 and then we'll move into block one um each instructional block is 80 minutes a couple of them are a little bit longer than that just to account for lunches uh and then lunches are 35 minutes um in time frame but there is time in between the transition of uh the instructional time and lunch so it's not like students have to gobble down their lunch and then run back to class we do have a Time built in there for that you can see the darker highlighted blocks kind of indicate um where lunches will fall so right now we're in the um in the 8 period day we're running three lunch periods where the entire period is lunch um in this case now lunches will
071be embedded into the blocks so one of those lunches is in the middle of second block and then the other three lunches fall in the third block time so in two of the cases students will have um uh lunch bookended by instructional time and then the other two cases lunch will uh begin the period and then they'll have instructional time after lunch or they'll have instructional time and then go to lunch and then our fourth block is like a mirror of our first block this view here will give you a vertical view of the uh bell schedule um taking you straight through all of our periods and then our um four lunches kind of are out broken here so you can see what that will look like we've also in included in here uh a
072couple of sample student schedules um what it might look like for um students who have multiple AP classes what it might look like for a ninth grader what it might look like for an 11th grader um we can also do uh take a look at what sample teacher schedules might look like and I do want to again highlight the idea that this is a sample uh we don't know for a fact what whether Any teacher schedules look exactly like these or not uh so this is this is all the things that are highlighted in this uh bell schedule spreadsheet is this the same thing I know gosh last month maybe you guys had a presentation for a lot of the incoming um ninth graders is this the same sample you had um I think it
073was my apologies when I went was with my daughter and my brain was elsewhere but is this like the same sample schedule you had and you showed to the everybody there or has it been adjusted at all I'm not sure it's exactly the same I I can't remember if this version we showed shared with them before had the final final schedule with iie at the beginning of the day or not okay um but that's really the only change that's happened since the last so largely the same then I mean there might be some small tweaks but largely the same and then this will also be posted to our website so that people can take a look in case they have any thank you oh I have a quick question to that um you mentioned the
074ie um portion was that at the end of the day when you first showed us this months ago or what's the reasoning for it being at the beginning of the day and can you just remind us what that's for sure so IE is our intervention and enrichment period uh in our current schedule we have IE uh twice a week we have it on Tuesday and Thursday uh and we have it in between first and second period um part of this process as we were preparing our teachers uh and also making sure that we were you know trying to start with the best iteration of a block schedule that we could have um you know last spring we went and visited four of our neighboring schools uh that were on a block schedule this fall we
075visited 11 uh schools uh you know we had been looking you know just at a number of different schedules uh prior but one of the things that we saw in a number of the schools that we visited uh was that they were utilizing the IE period differently than we were and they were experiencing a lot of Success With It uh some of them were doing it at the very end of the day um you know Strath Haven for instance does their I think they call it Fifth block um at the end of the day um many schools you know do it at the beginning of the day so uh Garnet Valley Ridley certon um we we ventured out of Delo which was very exciting um but they you know have their periods at the beginning
076of the day and so what it has allowed uh them to do is to utilize the time that's a little bit differently um we are not going to consider a student late for school unless they miss a minute of first block unless we specifically assign them either on a daily or regular basis to come in during the IE period it is instructional time it is time where when students need to be there getting stuff done they need to be there and get stuff done um it is also you know right now for a lot of our students that I period is a period That's utilized as a study hall period um and so we would you know one of the great themes that we saw in visiting these 11 schools was a little bit more
077flexibility on the students end um and so while you know that was something that going into this process I'll be honest this is not where I saw IE you know ending up it was something that uh in visiting these schools seeing how it was working talking to their administrators talking to their teachers and I think most importantly talking with their students which was a great part of many of these visits um that flexibility uh allows us to give students and families a little more flexibility over that time um it also then you know right now if you come in let's say that I have an an ie period I might have 25 students that are assigned to my IE plus then the six kids who come to get help on Geometry or well they would
078not be coming to me for geometry but um and so now I doing classroom management 25 kids in a study hall and I'm working with six 8 10 12 kids uh you know to help prepare them for their test to remake an assignment um you know to do you know executive functioning work with the student on my case load um we think that by giving students flexibility um either to come in a little bit later or to come into the building and have flexibility within designated areas where they can be themselves eat breakfast uh you know have that study hall period but with with peers of their using um and not in arbitrarily assigned rooms um we think we'll give our students a little bit more ownership and we'll make the actual IE rooms a
079little more beneficial you know that's that's a big deal when I'm thinking about it um that would have really helped my kid because he used to get there right before the bell ring at like s whatever 30 um but I I I I'm thinking that that will really only help those seniors who have a car and have a parking pass or whose parents can bring them later right because the buses are when the bus is okay but it's I mean for for seniors from your seniors out there I know you're not listening but you'll hear about they actually regularly listen to Bo okay yeah I figured you know why wouldn't they I mean that that's pretty exciting I mean most of your the people will be there at 7:30 or earlier and you can come
080in 7:50 or 7:55 you know or whatever the time is so that's that's pretty exciting um can I ask a question about that because you know if to Teresa's point if you're a senior or you get a ride with someone or your parents drive you you can kind of take advantage of that but all of our buses arrive by 7 o'clock all of our high school buses arrive by 7 o'clock just due to the nature of how big our district is it's the biggest in the county it's the big you know and so it takes a long time to trans support our kids it's an hour cycle per school so they have to be here by 7 just for anybody who's listening to understand why that is so if all the kids are here at
0817 what do they do between 7 and 7:30 all the kids who ride the bus uh to be honest largely what they do now right um you know our cafeteria is yeah so I mean we we do right now we have students who start entering the building as early as 6:40 um they come in they go to the cafeteria and it really really is um you know it's a it's a loose free period for the students you know we dedicate some areas where they can be we you know make some areas off limits um one of the things that will be a little bit different for us with this IE period at 7:30 is when students come in at 6:45 in the morning that is you know uh 35 minutes before our teachers are contractually
082obligated to be there and so it makes it that much more important that we are are uh keeping students in a small number of limited areas we will have greater flexibility for the students that come in during that IE period because all of our staff will be there um so we have kids right now you know who say Hey you know if I come in early in the morning can I go to the gym and and play basketball well right now I can't do that there's nobody to staff it that's something that we might be able to do during that IE period that's one of the things that some of these schools have done um and so one of the things that those schools have said to us was that some of the kids are
083not just coming to school but they're coming to school earlier than they even have to because they're able to do something that's of high interest to them um so you know that little bit of light and loose in the cafeteria eat your breakfast um you know we'd like having them close to the cafeteria that way we can get them fed um you know high school students tend not to take advantage of breakfast as much as uh their K to8 peers um but we think by having them there it'll be you know a little bit more incentive um and then you know we certainly you know have uh you know some some sessions just to kind of talk you know with uh Transportation um you know just about you know the impact of this schedule a
084lot of our students do not take the bus in the morning um percentage wise uh but obviously a lot of students do take the bus in the morning um you know I don't have the numbers off the top of my head but eyeballing it if if a third of our kids take the bus in the morning that might be High um I think this will decrease that a little bit but again some kids are going to come in and then we also have to set parameters some kids will need to be there um you know and that's something that you know we need to talk about internally um you know as a staff and obviously you know with the you know with Central Administration um you know what do those parameters look like you know
085what triggers get put in place where I.E is not an optional period for you anymore um you know how much flexibility do we give a ninth and tth grader versus a 12th grader um and you know and yes I'm sure it will greatly increase the number of Junior who tell me that they absolutely need a parking pass uh but there will still not be a parking pass for them um just wanted to say I like Teresa really appreciate um the autonomy this allows students I think it's so important I would be in favor for students having even more autonomy and I was wondering and maybe there the answer is no but I was wondering if a block schedule if our new schedule would allow for even more instances I I can't think of a way
086off the top of my head but I'm wondering if you've thought of any well we actually have we've embedded a couple of those into um some of the programing that we're offering um one of them is is what's called flexible schedule so we might have a couple of students who are doing some dual enrollment classes or going to work early or um need to help out at home uh in the mornings and and so uh if you are a senior that has uh you know you're in good standing you're going to graduate and everything's lined up you can have the option of the flexible schedule which allows you to have either first or fourth block off um and again those parameters all have to be met before you can sign up for that so that
087gives them a little bit more autonomy for those options as well okay so moving uh further I just want to show you um a couple this is these are um preliminary numbers of course requests uh and and what they they'll look like um and so you can see you know these are actual student course requests um I'm not going to go through all 234 pages of this um but what we have done is we've taken would you like me to go through all 234 pages okay not is ready she's ready so uh what we have done though is um I have had the ability to to um create pivot tables from this so I can look at the numbers of actual courses um and um based on the number of credits how many sections of
088these classes will we need to run um and almost as important is how many periods will we need to run so for example if it's a half credit course it only takes up half a period um so I mentioned before about 16 periods or sorry 16 sections of health is actually only eight periods of the day so it's essentially we would be running health every period of every day there would be a health class option for our students um and so we will be able to go through all of this and make decisions on that um and and based on the the class sizes uh and how many teachers we have available what we'll be running uh from these requests to try to meet again the the needs of the students uh I will meet
089with um Department coordinators to kind of review this and then we'll begin is saying okay if we're going to run this many sections of this class which teachers would be teaching that and then we'll start to plug that together before we even ask the computer to um build the schedule for us that'll happen I don't want you to go through all the different draft or schedules or sample schedules but can you give a summary of the um classes that don't necessarily fit what we're looking at is the traditional block schedule you mentioned health is half a credit is it a two is it the same one plus hour of Health for one for half a semester or is it a half that time period for the whole semester do you see what I'm saying so
090all of our half credit courses will run for 80 minutes every other day for a semester so they'll be paired up with some of the other courses like I know the AP courses have to run whole year is is it that that the half credit courses and some of the year-long courses kind and Orchestra and things like that yeah so here's here's uh this will help highlight that a little bit better so you can see here um forensics that I'm highlighting right here uh in this 12th grade schedule it says red which we're designating the alternating days red and gold um so that'll that'll be helpful as you're looking at this uh we thought it would be um I apologize for that I should have said that that in order to try to keep things
091straight for all of us the blocks will be numbers the lunches will be letters so blocks one two 3 4 lunches AB B C D and then the alternating days are colors red and gold that way we don't have a situation where it's first lunch third block on day one and then you're like what I don't know what the numbers are so that helps us keep straight uh so here you can see um as I was saying forensics is a half credit course net games is a half credit course both of these courses are running in the second semester on red days and gold days so on red days forensics would meet for 80 minutes on gold days net games would meet for 80 minutes and would alternate for the there above that you'll see
092preal which in semester one will meet 80 minutes every day to meet that block requirement so every class will be 80 minutes it's just a matter of does it meet every other day does it meet daily or does it meet for the full year or a semester so for our um courses that go a full year um here you can see uh where my music samples here's here's our music samples you can see the Ambassador choir and the Wind Ensemble um Ambassador choir meets every other day for the full year on red days Wind Ensemble meets every other day on gold days for the full year um so can I assume that we're out of the business of have running eight day cycles nine day cycles s day cycles it's just a Monday through Friday
093and every other day is gold and red so that when we have off from school we just resume the red or gold that we left off on you weren't here but we used to have like nine day cycles like oh are we're on day nine you know and yes so I believe the way we set that up is and and I have to recall um is Kim mccan still here I know I saw her earlier we we had to go in in in the echool and set this up um so that if you're in school on a red day and the next day was supposed to be a gold day um and we don't and if we don't have school for whatever reason the next day back would still be a red day because of
094that's the way it was set up in the cycle so that calendar day is still that um we can override that if we need to uh so if we wind up having like a huge blizzard and have like three or four days off and need to get back into our cycle we can do that um but and the reason why that that is is because um teachers might have guests lined up and and they know that I know that day was supposed to be a red day and now you're telling me it's not and now my guest that I had isn't going to be there or students um you know think of our entrepreneurship class where you know sometimes they have to go on those trips and it was lined up on that day and
095now it's not so it's important to kind of keep it consistent that even if we have a FID that the next day still is the day it should have been um this is just a a real quick um when we're building the master schedule um you can see here um the top gray is what the teacher's current uh teaching schedule is and then we'll turn it into the white here so we're going from these eight individual period blocks to the four blocks um that's how we're going to line that up and build the master schedule um so that's kind of how you'll be able to see that and and and look at that uh we do have a couple of trainings coming up um uh April 2nd we're going to be meeting with the echool
096team um this the entire um scheduling team is going to have preliminary U training which will help us prepare things in echool to make sure the scheduling process is done right and then once we are able to have final numbers um we're going to U meet with echool again and they're going to walk us through how to build a block schedule in echool and in theory everybody keep your fingers crossed we could have a adopted schedule really early because they're going to help us build that uh in this process all right any other questions from the board all right sounds good oh wait we have a question from the audience about this right Staffing level or how are Staffing levels affected by the block scheduling do I remember that you said is Staff neutral it
097is it's staff neutral um so we actually gain more teaching capacity with this schedule um right now all of our teachers teach five classes in a day um but every class is all year so they teach five classes a year um with the block schedule while they will teach fewer classes in a day they will all teach one additional class in the year um so we pick up uh you know about 80 something sections um at a in a budget neutral way that's not uh you know I do firmly believe the teacher work day will be a better one um you know they will see fewer students in a day they will have fewer test to grade fewer lessons to plan uh but throughout the course of a year they will all teach one additional
098section so in most cases we actually think a lot of our class sizes are going to go down a little bit um and then as we get the higher numbers that are coming through uh the middle school we have that capacity uh to add those students into the high school schedule without out at elevating course numbers to a point where we would need to add a ton of additional staff yep uh this guy's amazing I just have to say that um I had one quiet fear when Dr I had a lot of fears when Dr Sweeney said she was retiring um but one was can I actually make this change to a block schedule with a new scheduler coming in uh and then I met David Ryme chle and I knew that it was all
099going to work out so he is way more impressive than he even seemed here tonight and I know he seems really impressive here tonight um so I just need to say that publicly he is phenomenal I think thank you sir all right before we move on I overlooked someone in the audience who has a question so we're going to sort of pause and backtrack and allow them to ask their question please sorry what metrics do we use to trigger an additional section Beyond class size so traditionally there there are not a whole lot of metrics other than the number of children who are in the classroom take take a breath when you say that right thatass specific has very very intense um emotional and behavioral needs that has become quite um untenable for all of
100our different classrooms we're all from different classrooms we're not classroom um different teachers um and we've all just had some pretty intense experiences this year um and is that something that you guys ever weigh in on if there's like a high number of high need emotional baby girl students and even along with with just that um you know I think five words whatever um because I think you know the current the current third graders when they were in second grade um they had 98 kids in their class and they triggered a fifth teacher and we have 92 kids in our class currently in second grade however our needs are very intended um I think while people haven't said anything explicitly to me I can see how utterly exhausted our teachers are and how they're with
101end and I'm I have a I have a current sixth grader so I've known these people for a long time I just see the toll by my observations that it's taking on them and frankly the toll that it's taking on all of our kids okay let me let me just interrupt you because uh people can't hear you so I just want to say that you're you're asking about um an additional possibly an additional classroom for media for third Rising third graders okay all right so um well first thank you thank you all for coming out I do appreciate it a couple of things um as we go through and plan Staffing right so Staffing discussions start in the fall uh Mr doerty who's sitting next to me one he's our assistant superintendent he met with
102all the principls and leaders of different programs in the district starting back in December I guess um you know as we start to look at planning as we built the budget and we did the initial presentation of draft budget you know um 10 days ago or so in here um we have some additional teachers that are included in there um that we've already identified I can tell you that there are um at at least well three of the elementary schools um right now one Indian lanee was already identified that there are two grade levels where adding teachers at the other three um Mr dockerty and I have had conversations with the principles as there are grade levels that we are watching right to see what does it look like what's it look like today and
103we track it month by month and we'll have discussions with the principles um to go through there is always the possibility that an additional section gets added the the fastest trigger certainly is more children right what does that look like and then you know when we separated out what do we believe is a is a good class size there's no right class size there's no exact number there's nothing like that right um to look at uh but we also you know rely on the on the expertise of the principles and the Professionals in the building right to to tell us about the experience you know and what does that look like and then what are we providing um you know during the course of the academic day throughout the course of the Academic Year um
104for children who are struggling for children who um or just all the children really right because there's a struggle that occurs for every child you know in a classroom where there are disruptions or where things are taking place um so it certainly is you know as we sit here in the middle of March um you know it it will the classes at the elementary level will not be uh locked in stone um for another four plus months right it'll be mid to late July before we finally say that's it we're done this is where it's going to be um so there'll be a lot to be discussed between now and then uh I would encourage any of you or all of you uh if you have not had conversation with Mrs stter to do that
105reach out to me via email or to Mr dockerty um we're always happy to have to followup conversation as well um I will tell you that Mrs that Mrs St Lisa Stoddard is a tremendous Advocate uh and strong voice for media elementary school so um I would I would also just suggest that may if you haven't put it in email I think we got an email maybe from someone here um I think that's important too to put it in an email and exactly what is going on I see we have another question sure yes are 23 students in the class SP teacher a teacher an aid for two and a half months we had to wait for another full-time Aid who was needed in the class because they were get pulled out evacuated to the
106auditorium multiple times sometimes a day sometimes for week the whole class 23 kids up out to the AUD it's a lot of kids it's a lot they did great a teacher is amazing right so all the things worked with two and a half months finally one more agid terrific that one difficulty is now full but we have 27 people in that classroom now right so now all this the sort of like low level Behavior behavioral issues are taking up the teachers time as well so like you know everything multiplies right we can have more kids we have more issues there are behavioral issues in those classrooms as great as the teachers are it's just asking a lot for them to pull their attention in so many directions and you can add more people to the
107class when there is such a need from a special educational standpoint get another fulltime Aid I see budet there are more of those coming into the school but there will also be more kids who need that so now we have like full grown adults in the a bunch you know it gets crowded it it's loud so and um it's just kids are not having a Beal issues as you know are getting overlooked in different ways you know so the teachers can only do so much and they are telling us that they are doing the best they can of the resources but they are looking ahead as well everyone is looking ahead this year's kind of like it is what it is um but we need another teacher for next year okay um I'm sorry I'm
108just I have to there's there's sort of dead air so I just want to sort of summarize um it's just a a that we have some parents here for media Elementary who's who feel as though there needs to be more staff maybe uh support staff or teacher in the uh in some the classroom in media um and they're just expressing um some of the issues that they've faced um and I think that's important we need the administration needs to hear it um it needs and I think it just needs to be in writing too to document it because I mean people I mean everybody has good intentions but sometimes they may say something and if you bring it to this guy Dr Mage right I mean he is the superintendent of the school so um
109I just think that's important to write to the board make sure you include Dr malage right to the the school principal Miss Stoddard to get things documented um so when those discussions are had at the administrative level they'll know what is going on from your [Music] perspective we have an amazing media Elementary staff I'm hearing question e okay and it's just another comment about the idea of making sure that all the the needs of all of the children are um focused on and maybe not just the ones who [Music] are most active in the classroom okay and if we can I'm I'm sorry we because we we really have to move on because this wasn't on the schedule but um if there's another question I'll take it and then we have to move yes um
110so the question is when we consider class sizes do we consider the number of adults that will also be assigned to the room the answer is yes um and the makeup of the classes uh and I will tell you from the Elementary uh level all the way up uh through the middle school there's some input in the high school but definitely through the middle school the class makeup um is directly impacted by the voice of the staff right our professional staff where in the buildings are intimately involved and what does the plan look like for the following year personalities of children to be together all that kind of thing um to try to keep a balance but we absolutely consider the number of adults that would be assigned to the classroom at the same time
111good question all right thank you and don't forget those emails thanks appreciate it all right um so let's move on to the cni discussion of the surveys Mr doery yeah hello everyone um I have a really quick really just announcement just one informational update for you that we do have our annual surveys going out and as you may remember we moved away from that really long comprehensive expensive youth truth survey and now we have our own shorter surveys that we are have prepared and are ready to distribute now we are not going to um distribute the surveys until April 27th we will send an email to parents um they'll have a chance to preview the student surveys that will be out as well and um so we have surveys for students families and staff and
112we will report out on those results and at our June work session thank you that's very exciting I'm very excited about it anyway um will we get to see some sample when you report it will you share some sample questions because I would be really interested to see better our is well you know the questions are similar um but we sort of took our favorites of some and reworded a few um and again now that they are ours we can also tweak them as we need to in the future so we we'll be a little bit more agile with our surveys and and of course um you know the results are only as good as our followup right so um this gives our administrators a chance then to follow up with whether it be our
113our students families or staff on what the results reveal and I appreciate it I was being flippant I I do really appreciate that we had that as a basis and I know you looked at other samples Beyond youth truth as well or surveys I should say so you could craft these um and I'm sounds weird you can't do a survey to follow a survey but how will you gauge how was your plan for how you will gauge whether the survey questions what needs adjusting or or what makes something successful well again I think a lot of it will come down to um when we see the results and then the follow-up conversations right and we always had a few questions where where we had to ask students what did you think this meant and there
114are a few that were definitely pretty tricky and some of these we don't think they will be but you just never know really until you get the results and talk to the kids and um yeah so I mean the plan is really to follow up a conversation of course with um staff and families as well and one of the surveys is a cell phone use policy survey so um I was gonna ask what are you get feedback for that what are you trying to learn from the surveys um topics are belonging and academic um academic challenge in school culture those were we took the same themes that we learned from youth truth and talk to the principles about what we and as as administrators what we're looking for so with students it's belonging and academic
115challenge in culture um for families it's communication and engagement as well as um you know how they feel about how how are we doing with our cell phones cell phone use um I don't think that that is one of our uh one of our questions yeah so these are the ones that we are I just want and I will say this though I mean that's a good point these are not um these are the ones that we are doing consistently districtwide however our Administration has the right to ask and survey and poll um their constituents at any time so if there is an opportunity to do that they are certainly allowed to I not to belabor the point and I'm sure the survey is great but I do want to pause on Jackie's question because
116uh it might be interesting to ask the kids their thoughts on sell phone use because I think that um there may be kids who might want to take the pressure off themselves and perhaps more than we realize but yeah in particular obviously at the secondary level right so that is something I would ask the principles to talk their kids about for sure their students okay thank you okay all right we're we're good with surveys yeah all right next up is the pssa and testing date yep and this is just um they here here are the dates Tada um so just to make you a we a little bit different um at the middle school um than they are at the elementary um and there are the Keystone um note the Keystone is also done in
117both um high school and our eth grade okay and that's it all right thank you the um and I apologize I shouldn't have stopped sharing jump back to the agenda Maybe stop sharing um there we go um so the rest of the items are consent agenda items which I will show you in just a moment there we go ah there we go yay all right were there questions about any of the consent agenda items no just if they need extra chaperon for France I'm available great yeah after me Shelly I took four years of French in high school right thank you well I I can't hear you because your microphone's not on so it took 12 years does that count I think we're good um so we'll move on to uh Human Resources it's gonna
118be me again Dr nson William I I apologize listen I don't want to hear myself this much let alone you won't have to hear me this much let me just get in here and share take a minute for it to catch up on there we go so the last couple of years um there have been presentations and discussions about substitutes and the and the fill rates and what does that look like are we getting the substitutes that we need I definitely don't want to watch what the what that is telling yeah I was about to say I don't remember that com up before do we do we remember do we do we remember how to shut that off no well I guess it'll give us a little close to caption as we go in and
119off the off the cuff hiu uh so anyway so um just to go through and to take a look at uh what does it look like in in terms of substitutes we use Kelly Staffing so the presentation was prepared um by Kelly Staffing by Kelly the education section of Kelly Staffing uh the district has had a um number of years relationship with Kelly that provide our substitutes um most school districts went with a third-party provider um after honestly after the Affordable Care Act came into play uh and the impact that that had on um payroll and Benefits Offices and and that kind of thing so I know the administration came to the board a couple of years ago and said we are not getting substitutes we are not getting enough people uh to come in
120to meet the needs in our building on a daily basis see I this change there and came to the board and said we you know the administration was make a recommendation to increase the sub rate um and increas in the sub rate definitely had an impact right it's a competitive market out there for substitutes for substitute teachers for substitute educational assistance the pool of candidates looks nowhere near today what it used to look like five years ago 10 years ago 20 years ago 25 or 30 years ago um back when some of us originally got into to you know this field um for so long that there was a built-in Cadre of folks in communities who were stay-at-home parents uh more often than not stay-at-home moms there were some stay-at-home dads they may have had
121an education background they may have had a college degree that were had children at home and then decided they want to ease themselves back into the workforce outside of the home and went into substitute teaching that does not exist anymore it's just not real to the state to the level that it was at one time there are so many more dual income families and so many fewer families where there is an individual parent who is at home um so increase in the sub rate definitely uh made a difference so these are a couple of charts that they put together on the leftand side you'll see the school year it takes us back to 2019 2020 we did think it was important to show what it looked like pre pandemic because the pandemic absolutely had an
122impact on the number substitutes as well um you can see total absences total filled absences total absences and then the fill rate in this sheet and on this sheet the total absences and total fill rate you are looking at the percentage of teachers and educational assistance right it is combined on this slide so you can see where we were pre pandemic at the end of the year uh total absences there were a little over 5,000 um you know 4,181 of them were filled or a fill rate of 82% which was about industry average or so and a little bit on the positive side right as a suburban school district we saw a little bit better here than than some of our neighbors may have seen you can see the impact of of the pandemic year
12377% in 2122 remember there was a bit of that glow going into September of 21 everything's going to be right uh I'm going to tell you 2122 in some ways was harder than 20 21 um in in what we dealt with the fill rate actually went down the total number of absences absolutely went up um for a variety of reasons listen I will say that one of the things the pandemic taught us and I think so many people learned is if you're sick stay home right that's not a bad thing that came out of it if you are sick stay home so many people would you know try to come to work send their children to school we believe that more people are are staying home when they are sick which is again not bad
124thing uh then took us into you know so 2122 65% that's bad 23 I'm sorry 22 23 63% that's bad um that that's bad that means that one-third of all absences was uncovered in the district that's bad during that Academic Year it was in the the winter of that year that you all um made that decision had the discussion made the decisions to increase the sub rate um last year we were up to 83.5% almost this year for the first semester that's the first half of the Year took us to the end of January we're at 88.9% as our fill rate um which is fantastic I yes please that next slide answers it year over year key measurements I was like what is yoi so now I know okay y year over year uh and
125again you just did it's the same information that's presented on the right hand side you can see um you know in a in a bar graph sometimes I think the numbers are just easier to look at so this breaks it down by month uh and it's year-over-year comparison of the last three years now this just takes us through December right because it's a report out and I will provide for you the same thing after the end of the year um I don't know well we're going to try and look to see that we have it on June the 5th is our work session is that first Thursday in June I don't know whether I will um it worse comes to worse we'll share with the board and we report out out on it on the
126fall um so we can actually have authentic numbers to compare this year with where we were the last two years and you can see the change um and it it is significant for this year with where we are um so again kudos to our partners uh in Kelly education I will say I'm also between this slide and the last slide I really am moved by the positive trend in that people who are sick look to be calling out and on top of that we have a much higher fill rate like overall that's better for everything in our school so better for everything you know again you know to the to at the behest of the administration and working with Kelly over the last few years too is we also have a number of uh daily
127subs who are assigned to the individual buildings principles have the opportunity to identify and say you know I want these two or these three people to be my every day assigned to the school regardless of whether a single person is called out yet they are assigned to those schools 180 days to be in there I will tell you they are used 180 days in those buildings that makes an impact on the on filling them right it also makes an impact because of the relationship that they have they are part of the staff if you talk to the children or the people that are in the building they would tell you that that this substitute is just as much of the staff as the next adult who's standing next to them they know the kids they
128know the families I know we have a couple we had a hard time even getting building sus several years ago are we back up to where we want to be with building Subs I guess the question is to avoid the the um gaps and Phil is there have we looked what is the optimal number of building Subs to have good question sh yes so we do look at the optimal number are we back to them no because they're not all filled today right and for a variety of reasons um Extended leaves open up during the year so sometimes the the natural first move is to take one of your building Subs who knows the building knows the kids and move them into that long-term sub position for paternity maternity whatever other reason somebody might be
129out for extending period of time then that creates that Gap again in that that Daily building sub that's there they are not all currently filled um some of that is based on interest some of that is is just the reality of where we are uh I expect as we get later in the year and as um some of our potential candidates graduate and they're there usually in May and June we have no problem having all the daily subs filled uh as well so this slide is just teaching so we asked them to break it out teachers so you can see just what it looks like with teachers when it comes to teachers the numbers actually are even better right so you look at last year 23 24 we were at 88% just teachers this year
130we're at 93.742118 and the flow of what's taking place in the buildings it's better for kids it's better for the flow it's better for the the expectations to going through um that is really good uh again and some of you remember when you come to back to school night we had somebody from Kelly Staffing at all of our back to school nights everyone he was there uh and he's fantastic right wonderful young man he's been with us the last two years he comes in during the summer they do interviews they do a little open house bring people in but he came to every back to school night and people signed up while they were there right just because it's there and if you have somebody to where it matches and the opportunities there because it's
131not a bad dollar to make either you know when you when you come in again just break out a little bit in terms of the months with year-over-year for teachers what that looks like where we are where we've gone through and again what the percentage is and you can see even with higher numbers each month right from August all the way down through December we have an increase when where we've in the last two years we've been over 90% every one of those months for Teacher Phil uh in the district this year par professionals um again similar have them we have them broken out the pool of candidates to fill par professional roles is even smaller than the teacher par professional roles um so again historically we go back a decade when we were looking
132for substitutes for power professionals often we could find people who were certified teachers who were looking for jobs because there were so many people to sub you were also getting people to come in the power professionals same thing that does not exist anymore it just is not there as a a difference in pay rate and qualifications required for the two different substitute okay for both all right same thing broke break out of the chart power professionals year-over year you can see that we made some improvements last year you can see it was terrible terrible in 2223 those folks just were not there and you can see where we are we are back getting back to being respectable right the total lines are wrong on the first two years there say I'm sorry the Total Lines
133aren't totals that they're repeat of August in those first thank you y oh you're right I also had a question why thank you on all the slides there have been absences in July and August but only from this year so July would be the summer programs that we run I don't think they were attributed to or used through Kelly Staffing in the previous years and then in August we also have people that work in August uh as we come in um summer school and then the report dates for everybody uh comes to work in August uh at some point and another question about I mean I understand and I appreciate people staying home when they're sick that's really great but looking at this academic year compared to the previous academic years it's way higher absence
134rates do we know what that's about this year we do not okay mostly teachers yeah they're both both are up but teachers are not feel right but rate but total just overall we're doing a great job of filling but it's also seems like I mean I do have to say just as a parent um at the elementary level my child has had flu a flu B and some sort of stomach bug um just in the last month and a half yeah and then the poor teachers also because so it's been a very high year I'm not a doctor and I don't have the stats on that but I believe this year in particular anal helps anecdotally I will say in my school obviously not in the district but like I've been very fortunate knock on
135fake wood but my colleagues have dropped like flies as far as catching yeah just it's been bad this year for what people have been catching don't been really surprised and they are really sick yeah yeah that the vaccine absolutely that the health folks have said that it did not match up with the strain that's been out there um yeah had tough here yeah other than that I don't have any other explanation as to why you know more impressive that it was build at the rates that we're filling that's the end so just a a quick way of saying we are making out well it's going well right and again because a couple of years ago you agreed to plan to look what needs to take place for that to happen um and put a concrete
136plan in in place we have really good partner um in Kelly Education Services as well they're accessible they're good folks they listen to us um they're responsive so yeah um we do have a question from the audience yes so the the question is about for for substitute teachers Miss sabatini uh I don't for substitutes I'm not sure Bill Christa fewer credits for substitute you have to have a college degree um for substitutes for substitutes but not necessarily does not have to be an educ an education so in I think that but you just want to make sure I'm clear because you asked about substitutes as well as our regular teacher staff because I want to make sure get both of those yeah substitutes first yes okay and I know um also previously there were times
137and I that we had the HR Director do emergency um sub like certifications to get some people in so College was needed but there could be some ways that they could also College was always a given but there were other things they could try to get people in faster if need be for those emergencies because they was really getting quite bad to get substitutes in and especially during the pandemic ER they were doing um emergency certific ification as long as you were currently pursuing your certification um and you had a certain number of hours you could be hired for the position as long as you completed everything on schedule but I don't I don't think that's still the case that was during the extraordinary times of teacher shortage during the pandemic for substitute my question
138I should focused it just on the sub said that hasing has some so so the question is has that improved the pool um that the somebody's degree does not have to be an education I I would tell you miss anecdotally yes and where I think that we see it more um is with people who have retired or coming out of another career right so I don't know that it's necessarily kids or anybody that's coming right out of an undergraduate program although we do get a handful of those I think more so you find people that have been in another career and are making a transition or have retired and are in the community that want to be able to come out to do it that have a degree in accounting or you know chemistry or
139or something like that has the pool number actually increased like how's the number in the pool increase so the number the pool our pool of Subs has increased anecdotally I would tell you because of the pay right people are because of the pay right so the people that are choosing to sub here has increased because of what the pay rate is for substitutes I if and this might just hopefully clarify a smidge when we were going through real struggles also our neighboring districts were going through real struggles we were all trying to get substitutes everybody expanded their if you will the ability to get substitutes by having you don't have to have a degree in education so everybody expanded so then once again we were all competing for the same pool of candidates um and
140the problem was what became very clear is that the others had increased their rate just enough that we really were if you're looking to substitute there's a small pool people just weren't coming to us and so we had to increase our rates to be competitive with them but because we are a desirable place to substitute compared to some of our neighboring districts by now having pay that is comparable to what the other districts pay their substitutes in addition to the fact that we like the other districts have expanded what we can accept we are now having a much more um satisfactory fill rate I I think so because we all we all expanded and we still were having as you saw those rates they were very low and that was just a real problem is
141that you have the same group of people who let's say are retired well you know if you're going to go here or Garnet Valley and Garnet Valley is paying a couple bucks more that's where you go but now that we're equal it makes it much more desirable for a lot of people and that really has made a major difference so um all right I guess we're we're moving on yes uh there number of of consent items in the HR agenda uh for legislative meetings everything from uh retirements to hirings um but typical traditional things at this time of the year um supplemental contracts all that kind of stuff and correct me if I'm wrong March 15th is the cut off for all retirement notifications so there's so March 15 there's a a clause in um
142the rtma contract to notify Us by March 15 in order to receive compensation for accumulated sick time okay so yes so weuse there's a big incentive for there's to announce that there tremendous incentive for people to announce by March 15 um I Noti there's a it seems like there's an extraordinary amount of retirements at the elementary level this year there there has been a definitely a spike in retirement M over the last week as we get closer to March 15th which is Saturday um I expect that we still may hear from some folks tomorrow um to go through now I also expect we may hear some folks from some folks later in the year you know we have a a very experienced staff in Rose Tree media um so we will experience a number of
143retires over the next number of years uh there there we are definitely sitting in that category with people experien as they hit years of service and age um mandates from the state in order to be eligible um you know and they start to consider what it is but yes there there definitely has been an increase over the last couple of weeks the elementary level this year than pass I would say yes um definitely more this year at the elementary than we had last year that's true then can I give the M host uh goodbye at the legislative they always do that of course the more people who give positive yeah yes she did the pen Crest librarian yeah yes okay my son loves her so we're okay with you see the athletic what that springton
144and Pen Crest we're good so we move on to the policy committee and come along actually I was unable to attend the policy committee meeting so I want to thank uh Mr doery you know for wrangling the the committee together with uh with Miss hunt um so I'm gonna let uh Mr do kind of go through just where they were in discussion um and where we are right now thanks yeah we did have a chance to discuss a bit and review so um for the and please jump in if I miss something in our conversation um but with the 26 Calendar we said that um we're going to approve the 2526 calendar and just jumping over to the 2627 can I jump in on that one right now because there was something I noticed um
145the May 2025 um date for the election the primary election that is actually not set so for long-term Pennsylvania residents it was always the first Tuesday in May and then a couple of years ago that changed and it got moved up to April but then it coincided with Passover so it got moved again and it got moved back to this third Tuesday in May but this has only been happening for the last two years I think it is and when you look forward to what the future dates are it all says TBD so I don't know that those dates I mean next year it does say it for for uh or sorry for this year it says but for the rest of the out years it's a TBD so some Tuesday in May there'll be
146a holiday and we'll have to revisit it as a board if it changes thank you I had another quick question on this too which um this might just be my misunderstanding I don't think that I um understood this June 15th full inservice day but also a half day for students how does that work if staff are with students for half a day they're also having full day EV service am I misunderstanding something the circle and the triang it should say it should be half day in service on there we'll make the note get it adjusted it's the the 15th is the last is the last student day so students in the morning in service for the teachers in the afternoon oh God got it well we are working on a different format we used a
147different format in 2019 and 2020 that was much easier to read but we went back to this format the following year and so we're going to try and go back to the easier to read one okay are we good okay so um policy 249 our bullying and cyber bullying um the conversation here and the change that we made was um we did link the form um we wanted to make sure that everyone understood what where that form was and could easily located um so that was the the change on that policy okay with Athletics um we did have some conversation about um policy 123 and a lot of it revolved around discussion discussion at the bottom of the policy um revolving around adding um new sports and so um we wanted to make sure that
148we kept that language in there as that you know we may need to apply that policy in the future we also talked about transportation of students we did and um we we did talk about transportation of students and again I think a lot of the um discussion of Transportation it's covered in the motor vehicles policy in terms of um how people can use their vehicles to transport um we can I think the three key areas of Transportation where there are two high school teams that do not play um at the high school we it's the girls softball team which we've talked about before and the swim team which swims here and then the other thing was how do we transport how are students transported up to or out to um state championship um and making
149sure that we have a plan for that and making sure you know plan is doesn't involve teachers or Coaches Driving students and things like that making sure that the we have a legitimate Transportation uh plan for the state level so are we saying we want to look go back in and put some language specifically for those things in this policy okay all right so we'll look at that again why would what are we talking about individual students who um not like a team right so if if like two swimmers are going to the state championship who how do they get there if they can't drive themselves or they yeah they have to be there the night before it starts very early in the morning if the parents can't drive them how do they get there
150um same with wrestling there's golf tennis there's a bunch of sports that would have individual competitors and not a whole team I do want to mention that the boys basketball team is in the state tournament they are what is it are always at lead are we the elite elite eight yeah Elite eight so that's a big deal and I know they're getting there so tomorrow night first time decades yeah so that's exciting policy 229 fundraising and we didn't have a whole lot of discussion on fundraising but here it is the conversation around this was really about um are we you know making sure that what's in our current policy is how we're doing things and if not we need to change the way we're doing things or do we need to change the policy um
151because some of the fundraising you know how we collect the money by approv school organizations or through the school itself is there a different policy that discusses the type of fundraisers that are acceptable and the promotion of those fundraisers yeah that would be um under our food services I'm not Joe I don't remember the name of the yeah policy but um yeah we had a yeah and we did actually um our discussion was a bit about what constitutes a school organization so we did add a definition there what why is that under Food Services candy candy um yeah and you're you can't it's competing against Shell's messing with this speak um I uh I I apologize but um uh so it's under food and and under that policy it speaks to the type of fundraisers
152that are allowed and the advertising of those fund fundraisers and I haven't looked at that one before this evening so I'm not I don't want to misquote the policy but I know that there's language in there about competing products against you know our food service program yeah it's it's not so much competing as we can take a look right so this is one of the ones that was for discussions it'll appear on the on the agenda when we get together again in 10 days okay or so okay 12 days 11 days okay then policy 304 this was again like um Dr malasha said with initial discussion about a nepotism policy employment of District staff and we spoke specifically about what that means if you are employed and a direct supervisor or an indirect supervisor I
153think we acknowledge that we have a rich pool of people in our community who live in our community and who went to school here and then they come back and they work for the district they teach they work in the office they do other things and we're really grateful for that we just want to make sure that nobody that we hire reports into a family member and really at the cabinet level um we can't have cabinet level people have employees in the district because no matter what they almost I certainly funnel up it to the cabinet level so and this would be a new policy correct this we do not have policy policy yes um that's structured with this yet so okay and then um we wanted to have more discussion around the 2627 calendar
154before um we brought anything forward we've had requests from the community about um honoring different religious holidays that in the past we you know traditionally haven't done here a lot of other communities have including communities in the Delaware County area as well as the central League what do we you know looking at our constituents and what they celebrate what holidays do we want to incorporate into our calendar and um the the discussion about spring break has come up several times because it floats and has such a wide range this year it's very late we've gotten some emails from some people complaining about how late it is one of our um local districts Radner said it's so late we're not we're not doing it then they've already had their or their spring break is this week
155I think so they departed from the traditional um spring break schedule it is definitely an East Coast thing around the country it's not like that so we're having a lot of conversation about how we want to have calendars and what kind of policies we want to have around our calendars um to really accommodate the educational needs of our students but also um the cultural identity of many of our families and go a part of the surveys you're doing help identify those things we don't have one specifically for that but we certainly can do that we can pull our families yeah I think we need to otherwise how are we going to answer these questions about Y what to celebrate agree my question is not a substan you're right I completely agree with what you know
156everyone is talking and bringing it was up there um but for 26 27 I think it was November 26 to me it just indicated like it it's really hard to read or maybe it's November 25th you got a circle over a a triangle I guess I only say it's I try to put together a family calendar and it's it's hard to read and when I see something like that it is it is a little tricky [Music] um we're definitely looking at it I promise you this other format that we used in 2019 2020 if we bring it back you will no longer be confused I promise you I have all those degrees so I can read our c um I just have a followup to um what Jackie mentioned about are we surveying about I
157think was your question about religious holidays or just what people celebrate what people celebrate Shar um yeah right right no um because this did come up at policy a couple U months ago and my concern that was that because a family celebrates something that does not necessarily indicate their preference for days off school um so just we're careful about how we phrase that if we're asking it and we interpret it we get it back thank you we have had some requests for additional holidays that came in we've all seen um I think now which one will are any of these on for second read on the legislative the calendar for 2526 is that on second and 249 and 249 okay the rest are are first read all right okay good question that looks like that's
158it uh have a good night thank you