001hillary fletcher jackie goosick yeah shelley hunt here robert kelly susan lane here jim morrison here kelly schaefer ava finnegan mackenzie grant neilson theresa nebson williams here susan henderson here madam president we have a quorum thank you so first up we have approval of the minutes for um our last legislative meeting september 23rd do i have a motion do i have a second discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries next up i would like to do presentations and awards and recognize bonnie kayla's for her retirement the board of school directors recognized bonnie kayla's for her eight years of service to the roaster media school district bonnie has served as supervisor of elementary special education since she arrived in the rosary media school district and we thank her for her advocacy for children and
002for her support and show the right and success of students with disabilities thank you so very much bonnie we hope you're off living your very best life in retirement i wish you nothing but the best as does the band [Laughter] we do not have any educational presentations at this time but we are ready for our student liaison reports hi everyone um i'm ava finnegan and i'll be doing the report from pancreas high school tonight um to begin i want to start by walk my new principal mr roth to penthouse into our district um and here are his first impressions from his first first month at pengrest starting pancreas in october provided me with the chance to learn the school by observing our students and staff in action i've been very impressed by so much of
003what i have observed our students are engaged in learning proud of their school and very polite and respectful of course they're also a lot of fun many of them have gone out of their way to welcome me to pen crest and this has immediately made this feel like home our faculty and staff also have a great deal of pride in our students and our school i feel as though everyone i speak to tells me you're going to love it here and we have great kids i've observed many classrooms where students are not only learning but laughing and enjoying the work as well this is great to see any time but especially now as our students are still making the adjustment from zoom to the classroom i'm excited to join and lead this amazing community as
004we build upon our great foundation and collectively push forward towards an even brighter future ed rock next i want to congratulate our field hockey team and boys soccer team make it to the district's playoff district playoffs and another congratulations to the roaring lions marching band on their well-deserved state champion title um moving on to our child development program students katie baylor and cara de jean spent their psat day observing in elementary schools and similarly the math department has provided us with a detailed curriculum report as the market period comes to an end in algebra 1 students participated in the map testing in early september and have been exploring solving equations for the past couple of weeks and students will begin to discuss and investigate inequalities in the coming weeks in accelerated and honors geometry the
005students are working on a cumulative group project for chapter one to three the students are creating a town map with different geometry requirements this assesses content knowledge and vocabulary while letting them exercise their creativity in college prep geometry students reviewed content from algebra 1 and are beginning to see the application of that content in the foundation of geometric concepts like points lines and planes in honors algebra 2 the students are working on an activity that assesses their understanding of scientific notation and proportions i'm taking measurements for stacks of pennies and then trying to conclude how many pennies it would take to reach the moon an accelerated algebra 2 recently used cbr units to interpret graphs and uncover the relationship between distance rate and time in precalculus and fst they are collecting data from the distance
006a robot card traveled in a given amount of time to determine the linear regression equation they looked at the strength of the correlation between distance and time and converted the car's speed into miles per hour it was determined that the robot cars are quite slow in fst they will be demonstrating their knowledge of linear functions and their graphs with a t-shirt fundraiser projects students will compare bids from four companies writing graph linear equations and then determining which company is the best buy for their fundraiser in calculus ap costs have been working through methods to determine their the derivative of functions and relations they're analyzing graphs to determine how the first and second derivatives relate to the original functions in statistics students compiled accumulated accumulating group project for unit 1 on data analysis by taking random
007samples from the census of school data graphing analyzing the data and presenting the graphical analysis to the class an ap statistics students analyze class data involving their birth weights their heights and other data that we collected in class to learn about percentiles we did several graphical analysis of class generated data students also learned about the process of data collection random sampling and bias and data collection through analyzing the lyrics of beyonce song and sampling bands in the justin timberlake costume in ap computer science they have been coding using java practicing primitive types and using objects ap computer science principles started using the javascript language to speak and in other fascinating news we will be starting the coding club which means monthly to talk and learn about different software languages in the world we also started
008the esports team at pencrest which will compete in two games through the pia organization overwatch and rocket league that is that is pinecrest report thank you [Music] hi my name is kenzie grant i'm going to be reading the reports from springton and media elementary at springton lake student council sponsored the first spirit week of the school of the school year this week this year spirit week is being done in coordination with red ribbon week red ribbon week is celebrated annually to focus on positive and healthy decision making and the importance of living a drug-free lifestyle students who dress according to daily themes earn spirit points for their grade level in addition to red ribbon week student council sponsored a school-wide pink out today in support of breast cancer awareness all students were encouraged to dress
009in pink student councils sold t-shirts and all proven profits from the sale are being donated to a cancer-related charity on behalf of springton mike congratulations to our october spartan students of the month the following students were selected by their teachers for consistently demonstrating our core values of being ready respectful responsible and resilient gabrielle montaluise dane bellucci joseph birch abigail francis santino gandolfo royce toussante williams ella b volci francis branchio iii thomas quigley samantha richie catherine hartman and justin tellenzy shaw paul hearn charlie kratz wilson lee aurora monroe kyle chen and aaron lee each student received a certificate and this year's student of the month t-shirt clubs are up and running at springton link earlier this month students had the opportunity to attend a virtual club fair during core extension students had access to video and
010introductions to each club with the chance to express their interest in participating last week with this big reveal of the school's of this year's school musical the production this year is disney's beauty and the beast junior after not having a production in the winter of 2021 spring to lake is ecstatic that we are going to be able to provide this experience once again for our students we hope that everyone is excited with the choice of the show and that many students will be involved in the cast and crew up next is media elementary greetings from media elementary school it's october and school is in full swing all the beginning of the year assessments were completed in time for a full data review by each grade at the at the october data conference interventions were identified
011and implemented across the grades the progress monitoring that we use to see if the interventions are working are already underway and showing us that the interventions are having a positive impact on many of the students acquisitions and retention of learning we will continue to intervene and progress monitoring the media ptg fair committee hosted their first meeting of the school year on october 7th the evening kicked off with some light fare by engaging everyone in thoughtful trivia and proceeded with a reflection of last year's goals suggestion of this year's goals and discussing on how to support the different activities here at media elementary school thank you ptg stream committee the media pg recently hosted a virtual bingo night on friday october 22nd this year's big event of the year featured five rounds of bingo terrific prizes
012and some great dancing music and dance moves even marty the mustang was there it was a fun way to spend on an autumn evening thank you ptg bingo committee tomorrow we're looking forward to our annual halloween parade if the weather permits we will host two densified parades outdoors with family in attendance if the weather does not cooperate we will host our own media elementary school independent the media elementary school ptg has provided each learner with a pumpkin as well as decorating the supplies to decorate their pumpkins for display in the classroom it is certain to be a festive friday it's a great day to be a media mustang i'll give them reports for glenwood lane and roastery elementary schools so this is for glenwood on thursday october 21st trooper tobin from the pennsylvania state police
013and mr harrison assisted and observed everyone conducted our lockdown security drill the students and faculty did an excellent job reviewing and implementing our procedures we continue to practice our drills to maintain a safe environment for our students faculty and staff as part of our pbis program students are are awarded a paw for praise if they are found being ready respectful or responsible by any of our staff members so far this week so far this year we have earned over 1500 everyone receiving a paw is entered into a random drawing and if selected they will they will have the opportunity to select a book from the book vending machine in our library we are excited that many students have had the chance to earn some of these wonderful books this week we are participating in red
014ribbon week and focusing on making safe and healthy decisions this is randy lane october has seen the return of many activities that were not able to happen last year the ptg hosted a movie night which was held on friday october 8th from 7 pm to 9 pm on the blacktop at india lane the movie this year which was chosen after a school-wide vote was wonderful nearly 200 people were welcomed and stayed to enjoy the event families were invited to bring chairs blankets pillows and pillows snacks and drinks were sold during the event it was great to see the return of activities for our kids and families it was a beautiful fall evening and a fun night and and was a fun night for the whole thing after a long hiatus club activities have returned to
015indian lane students are very excited to once again be involved in various after school activities with their friends and fellow students and will be able to and will be able to make new friendships unified bocce sketchbook club garden club board games club and bobcat choir have started with several additional additional clubs starting in the near future each club is hosted and sponsored by our indian lane teachers and the last is roseville elementary so uh roastery elementaries the roster elementary school community launched their first starfish service project of the year this month during the month of october families are donating pairs of socks for men women and children that will be given to the homeless shelters without our local area thank you to all the families who have already contributed to the project the collection is
016impressive at the end of the month a candy collection in support of candy cares will also take place red ribbon week was recognized on tuesday october 26th discussions about the meaning of the red river program this year's theme as well as the importance of keeping our bodies healthy were held in each classroom all members of the school community were read yesterday as a sign of support for this year's message of drug free looks like me thank you very much i have to say it's so exciting to hear about our schools being able to do so many of the things that they couldn't do um last year [Music] all right next up would be the board liaison reports um do we have a report response we do so every year it's every year in october um
017the dccc has its annual um dinner for the board liaisons and um it's we meet with the administration and um for the last two years it's been virtual um as you would expect but that is the big this is the big update on everything they're doing so i'm going to try to go quickly through it but it is the annual update so bear with me so the southeast campus that is the former um archbishop pendergrass school the sale was final they've been doing inspections they're gonna you know start taking care of all the preventative maintenance and all that kind of stuff as they plan out all the spaces inside the building they're supposed to be a couple of um specific um centers in there one for nursing one for um science etc um finance mr
018morrison um last year there was no increase for the fiscal year for the supporting and sponsoring school districts this year there will be a one percent increase from each of the different districts overall i can see that very fair given what's going on right now um there was there's an educational foundation um that raised two million dollars during the pandemic to support student access and success um for students at risk at the school and then as of january 1st i think i mentioned this at a previous meeting if you are a local community member or if you're one of our students who does dual enrollment proof of vaccination will be required for all students faculty and staff for the spring term and you can go to the website there's information there i also mentioned before
019they joined the moon shot for equity and that is again to try to close these large achievement gaps that are based on either gender income race or first generation status and the statistic in pennsylvania is that 44 of caucasian students complete degrees compared to 22 percent of hispanic students and 27 of african-american students and similar uh numbers in the 20s for students of low income and first generation they they cited a statistic that currently um 40 of their female students are single moms who are also first generation so um it was a that's a huge number and they are really trying to with this moonshot for equity as well as the educational foundation to try to help um support all these educational initiatives um some well myers who is the chief diversity and inclusion officer
020last year they did a couple of events called dialogue in diversity and everybody in the community is allowed to participate in that the first one is next month i'm sorry i don't have the um the date if you go to the website to the diversity they have really great um dialogue and communication opportunities with speakers um they gave the total enrollments by school district so all students in the uh rose tree media school district there are 254 that includes um 16 of our dual enrollment students and the restaurant members of our community um they are starting a new dual enrollment high school career pathway um they have several already and this is a new one it's for um heating ac refrigeration mechanics and installation there is one course that is taken in 11th grade or
02110th grade two in 11th grade and one in 12th grade each for two credits and then they do one more additional year at delaware county community college they have 90 job placement and an average starting salary 57 000 um each department then gave an um an overview of what they're doing um in the new year and they're focusing a lot on their digital learning support they have found that some of the students really enjoy the remote learning but they want to make it more robust than what's taking place in the emergency setting of the pandemic and so they're working more for disability services and learning commons for students with learning disabilities so that they can um excel in the digital platform as well and they are also for their stem program they have a pen
022port teaching mentors where there are biology doctoral students from the university of pennsylvania who come and learn how to teach and what they say is that there's a lot of doctoral scientific uh students out there who would like to go and teach but they lack a lot of the teaching skills and the certification so that they're trying to bridge the gap between high-level science learners and who want to then um teach that to the rest of the community yeah they had a lot of great things this year i was overwhelmed by how much there was i said you have to send me the presentation so that i can remember everything i'm supposed to say um so i'm going to leave it at that but it was an action-packed um event i will say i think
023you know having grown up in delaware county and remembering what it was like when i went there for driver's ed and a few other courses it's amazing the transformation of delaware county community college and now covers chester county as well there are so many campuses so many courses and they really are an educational um you know foundation of this entire community and they really are for everybody who wants to learn at any point in their lifetime so thank you so much that is it's really exciting and i appreciate you sharing all of that with us um and i can see by ms fletcher as well he does as well so absolutely it's a true asset to our community and while we're able to be partners with them uh so anthony fletcher then i don't know
024if you have a report super quickly okay um so just to let you know this morning dr dave dr knabson williams and i toured the uh toward the aston campus of the delaware county intermediate unit and technical school i'm going to try to set something up for this spring so we can tour another another one of their campuses but um talk to one of the people who went it was an excellent morning um i will leave it at that for now um two pieces of legislation that have been kind of high on people's watch list um there is an out of state teacher reciprocity bill that is moved out of the house and on to the senate if you're following it senate bill 224 and then the bill that was um for posting a curriculum
025moved out of the education committee and psba was able to amend some of that legislation to dial it back a little bit um and it looks now where it uh like it sits at posting of books um state standards and course syllabus whereas before of course it was like they were asking to post every daily teacher's [Music] um curriculum so so this is good news that's all i have thank you very much [Music] i will go ahead and move on to our superintendence report thank you um on the agenda this evening is the test to stay program which will be an added measure to help our students and staff be able to remain in school under this program students and staff who are identified as closed contacts from an in-school exposure and are asymptomatic may
026continue to remain at school for work and learning through testing using the binex now rapid antigen tests on days one to two three to four and five to seven following an exposure a centralized testing center will be set up at springton lake middle school from seven to nine o'clock am for parents to bring their children to be tested if they have been identified as an in-school closed contact as long as the student or staff member continues to test negative they may remain in school contingent on the board's approval the health and safety plan will be amended to include the test to stay program we are targeting the week of november 8th to begin this program and further communication will be provided to parents and staff our focus these last two months of school have been
027on reacclimating our students to the routines of school and building academic stamina and engagement universal assessments have been conducted an analysis of these results has been completed to identify skill areas which need reinforcement and targeted intervention our teachers are working diligently to support our students recovering from the impact of cova 19 on social emotional development and learning we appreciate the continued collaboration and support of our families and helping our students stay safe healthy and ready to learn thank you thank you very much dr g marino linden i'm next that would be our solutions report mr kelly thank you madam president you had my written report and i've been reporting for some time on and off for the last couple of years the case was going to come into trial regarding the cafeteria flooring into the
028pancreas high school on the eve of that trial a week and a half ago the case was settled literally on the eve of that trial and it was settled with the school district retaining the funds that would would have otherwise gone to the contractor or initially replaced the floor but it did so in an effective manner and as a result the school district has retained those funds and the parties have withdrawn the remaining claims that each of them had against the other uh also you have in my report i indicated that was waiting notice for commercial tax appeals for 2022 we got them a couple of weeks ago and during afghan hill unfortunately they're only about 14 appeals for 2022 which surprised me i thought it was going to be larger than that we'll be
029awaiting uh decisions on those appeals from the board of appeals should be out on or about november 15th and you have in my report two residential tax appeals that i'm requesting authorization to settle those appeals one of those you'll know just went to settlement about six weeks ago and so that that kind of sets the mark for that the value of that problem so i would ask for authorization to uh settle those two types of deals uh as such worth in my attachments to my report and that concludes my report madam president thank you very much mr kelly uh that being the case do i have a motion to settle thank you thank you thank you very much all right um so that moves on then to the president's report um there was an executive
030session prior to the legislative meeting on september 23rd there was not an executive session of the school board for matters of personnel at 6 30 pm prior to today's legislative meeting of october 28th although we anticipate having an executive session to discuss matters of personnel at 6 30 pm prior to the next legislative meeting which will be on november the 18th of course um the legislative meetings are always recorded on tape and are currently live streaming on youtube so you can always check out our channel as well there it is a constant work in progress um we're going to move on now to schedule presentations just as a reminder for anyone who is not scheduled to speak but has an interest in doing so you may certainly do so by signing up in the sheet
031that um should be in the back area where the gentlemen are standing so please if you are interested in speaking later on go right on up and thank you so very much sir and sign up for sign up sheet there so now for our scheduled presentations we have jeanette herder please good evening everyone it's great to be here again here we are at the end of october we're 40 student days into this school year the full picture of where students stand as a body of learners is now coming into focus and what i can tell you from educators that i represent is that this year is way more difficult than last and you might say how can that be the kids are back every day sports and clubs are back there's a moderate sense of
032normalcy in most of the buildings we'll be in education recovery for years i do not share this with sorrow or discontent it's the reality each of the 321 plus members of this union who make their careers as teachers know how different our classrooms are this year we are collectively struggling we're overwhelmed and we're only 40 days in educators are great problem solvers and i have no doubt that the academic challenges of our students are facing will be skillfully addressed by rose tree media teachers eventually the kids will be where they should be however specific expectations have ramped up in recent weeks in our district and priority seems to have shifted away from recovery and into a level of academic rigor which might be unrealistic at this juncture and to clarify academic rigor is a fundamental
033tenet in where's tree media and i'm not implying we ignore it we are suggesting it be tempered to align with recovering learning loss and the torn between the holistic needs of our students and specific academic expectations are the teachers trying to make it all happen now what's the difference between this year and last well primarily it's time the physical time teachers were given to create fully virtual and then hybrid and then all in school has now evaporated the challenges this year are no less and the time is gone our union members have a social media page to show support to one another and just in the past week two articles were posted and i'm going to be sharing these with you via email um so i hope you'll take the time to read and listen
034uh one article from forbes magazine is entitled this is the hard part of teaching it's getting harder and that was by peter green and he's an educational contributor to the magazine and then there's a really delightful podcast by jennifer gonzalez titled teachers are barely hanging on here's what they need i urge you to read and listen to these timely articles that have just been released they speak volumes i want you the school board to have some insight into what this year is like for us the teachers today we completed the 40th student day and tomorrow we'll be back for day 41. thank you very much our teachers have worked incredibly hard over the past few years and um i know that i can speak for the board and administration we're very very grateful uh moving
035on to unscheduled presentations so uh district residents and taxpayers wishing to address the school board are encouraged to do so at this time our written items are strongly suggested and speakers should state their name and address for the record before commenting comments are limited to three minutes and the school board may suspend the public comment period after a reasonable amount of time uh profanity shouting personal tax will not be permitted and please note also that the public comment period intended to provide an opportunity for citizens to address the board uh but it is not an opportunity to participate public debate or question answered dialogue um additionally questions or concerns will not be addressed publicly by the board during this time therefore contact information should be provided for example on our sign up sheet here so
036that way administration and the defense in the district can follow my citizens concerns following the meeting i do sincerely apologize in advance if i mispronounce anyone's name um but with that said i'm michael straugh it's our first speaker good evening michael strong 499 west jefferson street apartment 507 media borough i'm here to speak on the recent policy change that has made headlines that our superintendent has initiated i'm not here to necessarily speak about whether the decision was right or wrong i am however here to let the board know that i believe how this was handled and approached lack transparency and opened my eyes to whom our district government prioritizes it amazes me that i spoke at the last board meeting about two months ago and i didn't hear any comment back from anybody from the
037board in regards to my questions in regards to the new school that was being constructed yet a leader of a secular group not from the school district does not just get a faster response from our own superintendent but a policy change to boot why did our superintendent not bring this policy change to the board meeting to discuss prior to them making the decision why didn't the school board get the information out to the district residence before the decision was made why is it that i'm hearing about this for the first time from a news reporter asking me the question about this secular group making of having asking for a policy change outside of the media post office rather than my own school district it's baffling but yet again is another example of the lack of
038communication and transparency that i have seen this board provide to residents of this district some of our own school board members in fact have recently been stating that they have increasing communications with families without children in the district i don't i believe that this couldn't be further from the truth since residents with and without children were blindsided by this decision i know i was because i first learned about it at the meeting of those stars november 2nd is just around the corner and it could not be clear in my view that we need new people on our school board thank you and vote on november 2nd our next speaker is james cunningham good evening my name is james conahan from media bar i'm a former director of the registered media school district and i'm sure
039you're all delighted to see me here tonight however i digress i'm here to support my neighbors and my friends in middletown township and edmond township as a former rtm school board member i have a few comments i'm here to oppose the foolish proposal to develop a taj mahal style elementary school campus in edgemont township i opposed this proposal when i was on the board and i was the only member at the time to oppose it i must say and i'm even more opposed to it today than i was then why would any responsible school official with any common sense think placing an expensive school in the middle of a residential area when a hairpin turn on one of the most congested roads in the school district was a good idea it certainly does not meet
040the singer meatloaf's idea of paradise under the dashboard late i opposed the plan because there were more sensible alternatives to a fifth elementary school including relocation of the existing glenwood school away from a controversial pipeline and reasonable expansion of existing elementary schools to deal with the marginal projected student growth and housing development still in flux then and they were never seriously considered by that board specifically the future of the vast elwin institute property and now the closed delaware county juvenile detention center property has added a new wrinkle to this whole matter despite statements to the contrary in communications from the school administration to edgemont residents the rtm school board as a whole never never vetted or examined 24 sites for this project they only looked at one i know because i was there this is
041despite assurances to the contrary and at each school board meeting on the subject there was always another problem with the site not enough frontage for a vehicle and busty celebration lane percolation test questions and yes even the appearance of another pipeline on the site surprise surprise but yet it did not seem to matter because i was the only board member to offer any alternatives to this plan i urge you to show this foolish project you've already lost your credibility and trust with residents of the district create a real citizens committee of parents and residents let them look at these 24 sites and on other sites available thank you our next speaker is geralyn patterson [Music] this project if it continues will turn out to be a super spreader maybe here's a statistic for it fifty
042percent of the people running for the school board this year are opposed to this project and if you look the ones who aren't on the board bye-bye all right our next speaker is geralyn patterson that was all very interesting my name is jarelyn patterson 127 walter drive in full disclosure i am a candidate for school board this year school board has represented itself as transparent and empathetic leaders but actions always speak louder than words recently board members running for re-election uh were put out a statement that the candidates empathized with taxpayers who saw increases in their taxes due to the reassessment yet they still voted to add their usual maximum increase in taxes on top of this this is not empathy this is disingenuous and disrespectful to the taxpayers that you have been elected to
043serve in speaking with constituents one elderly woman in particular mentioned to me that she was afraid she lost her husband she was afraid that she was not going to be able to stay in her home because the taxes continued to increase and she was on a fixed income i shared this with the superintendent her response to me was well i understand my mother lives in the district she can't afford to pay her taxes either i pay them for her well how lucky for her mother but too bad for the poor woman who doesn't have a daughter to pay her taxes this is not understanding it's a cavalier response which demonstrates that this superintendent and school board do not feel any responsibility to the taxpayers instead they will govern as at their pleasure taxpayers are an
044atm to them with unlimited funds our taxes continue to increase but our rankings are dropping we need to ensure that our tax dollars directly pay and support for education instead we're paying for administrative positions one costing us 276 000 this board superintendent told me that our district does not have enough administrative positions resulting in overwork and long hours for the administration and my response to her was this is not unique to the school board or to to the administration that the taxpayers in the district that you serve they also work hard they also work long hours this is not an excuse to burden additional taxes on our district but this board seems to forget who they actually represent finally our new administrator will not release the youth and truth survey in any format but an
045in-person review with parents won't send a copy because questions can be copied and shared he's not responded as to why garnet valley has published their survey why can't roadstream media why because you are not transparent thank you our next our next speaker is joanne mclard my apologies man joanne mclarty or joan i just wanted to let everybody know i want to sleep tonight there's no time limit for sign up sheets so i know you guys took the list and brought it back there but there's still people that might want to talk to sure absolutely oh okay oh oh thank you very much uh about joanne i'll make a note of that and yes if people would like to add on their names i'm happy to do that i i will be happy to share that
046i don't know we have an extra sheet or whatnot our next speaker right now we'll go through and make sure it's passed around is cynthia sabatini good evening cynthia sabatini upper providence in the name of full disclosure i too am a candidate for school board i'd like to address the proposed new elementary school in edgemont this school has and will continue to cause problems for the taxpayers much has been stated and rightfully so about the complete lack of direct communication from the district to affected residents in edgemont one danger is the risk for cost overruns even before construction of this school would get underway i attended the october 12th committee meeting whereby different energy sources were evaluated all sources but for the traditional electric and propane one will add anywhere from 1.48 to 4.02 million
047in additional costs over the original estimated cost of 39 million several board members were keenly interested in the combination of geothermal and solar which would increase the estimated cost by the aforementioned 4.02 million one board member noted that the district should be a leader in the community regarding instituting environmentally sound practices this is certainly an admirable goal but i would like to ask whether there is any consideration of balancing this goal with respect for the taxpayer's wallet additionally i would like to ask board members if they personally are leaders in the communities where they reside and have installed environmentally progressive fuel systems in their own homes or is the philosophy to leave only come into play when it comes to the taxpayers wallet also i'd like to know if the board has reevaluated the cost
048of the school in light of supply chain shortages and related increases in building costs taxpayers do not want to buy a pig in a pump poke additionally in 2017 records exist that two current board members noted they were very concerned about the district sale of an easement near the glenwood elementary school to sunoco for the construction of the mariner 2 east pipeline where is the same concern with respect to this pipeline that is in very close proximity to the proposed new school in edgemont in light of declining test scores in the school district isn't too much emphasis and taxpayer money being put on brick and mortar empire building let's get back to basics otherwise known as education thank you next speaker is joanne carrillo [Music] good evening my name is joanne tarrillo and i reside
049on rock hill road in edgemont township the number one role of a school is or should be to provide education in pa a system of free public education is mandated under the state constitution article 2 section 14. well i strongly agree that we should celebrate and respect the diversity of our student body the one opportunity they have in common is the right to an education parents should be concerned that our math scores continue to plummet and our district has dropped in state rankings per the rtmsd 2018 strategic plan concern although district achievement scores in math are well above state averages percentage of students scoring proficient in advance on the pssa has dropped significantly prior to 2015 the percentage in math was approximately 90 from 2016 to 2018 that number dropped to in the 2022 niche
050report the number reported is 65 what is happening i can tell you what shouldn't be happening that's in the spring of 2021 phs math classes spent four class periods watching a movie to check a box in the name of diversity equity and inclusion maybe we should get back to teaching math i did see in the minutes from the office of curriculum a proposed contract with dciu for math professional development and coaching not to exceed twenty eight thousand twenty five dollars how do you think this will help the second thing i wanted to discuss is my concern for how our fair groups are being represented as a parent volunteer for 14 years in the classroom on ptg's pab and sab there has never been a time in my years that i've brought up an issue and
051i've been up here before that involved a person's race gender sexual orientation or socioeconomic status our district serves all students and taxpayers in addition fair groups are part of their ptg's which is funded by parent donations fair evolved out of a parent group called the melting pot in our constant effort to get more parents engaged this was a very exciting opportunity to connect with parents from different backgrounds cultures and ethnicities on the phs fair page it says pencrest is committed to improving our society today and for future generations for outstanding education and awareness and appreciation of all people the fair mission is to promote unity and respect within our student body so imagine my surprise when i attend september's meeting and heard media fair representatives talking about and i quote cultural insensitivity white male dominant
052narratives reflect on your privilege no one should be made to feel guilty we don't want to make white students feel bad help them learn from their mistakes and not make them feel like they are their mistakes our lives have been centered on white male heterosexual able-bodied neurotypical gender binary conforming middle to upper-class so while parents are asking to be seen and i see you understand how you're being heard students with no context will feel exactly as they say does this sound like an inclusive group thank you for your time and have a nice evening the next speaker is susan scanlon good evening my name is susan scanlon and i live on timber jump lane in upper providence i've been a very involved parent and volunteer for about 17 years i felt the need to speak
053tonight as i am saddened and disappointed about what is going on in this school district i have watched educational scores slide particularly math scores for about the last six years or so maristry media rankings have now fallen behind even more local school districts i have watched speakers who profess inclusion spew hate and direct comments to audience members at this podium without being addressed by the board even though that behavior goes against public comment policy i have witnessed a good football coach who is also a good person to many students be forced to resign despite much support while other inappropriate statements behavior and curriculum items have been allowed i've recently been told that there is at least one book all boys are blue listed in the school's library which depicts explicit graphic child pornography and sex
054i've heard from varied sources about ongoing behavioral issues at the school including vandalism student defiance and disrespect of staff members i am also aware of some inappropriate posts by staff and administration over the past year in spite of the claim to promote a safe and inclusive environment recently our district has made the news by now allowing satanic clothing to be worn in school i have heard that some students are feeling less comfortable and more unsafe than ever before how is this acceptable how is any of this good for our kids almost anything seems to be okay and excusable as long as it supports certain beliefs actions have at times been inconsistent and even hypocritical meanwhile the focus and priorities of the school district seem to be getting lost while all of this is out there
055and being talked about very little seems to be said about how to improve our educational scores the goal of providing a quality education appears to have been moved to the back burner this is sad for our district our families and most importantly our children we need to reevaluate everything that is happening in the direction we are going thank you for listening and for your consideration to address these multiple issues our next speaker is happy busting i'm kathy buckley i'm on antler drive in edgemont and i came last week last month and i was completely shocked my kids went to a private school so i am paying for this as well as paying for private school and i was so disappointed you have been off for the last year online what private schools have been going
056i thought you would be saying how you're going to catch up academically instead i'm hearing about this program that program this program dividing this whole school district up based on little check boxes now one thing was about academics you have lower schools in mask how are they going to hear the teacher how are they going to learn they're covered up and all i hear about is this program for this special person i'm upset then i hear about a school you know there was no notification i found out a month ago about the school that you already bought i guess i'm paying for that too i just am so disappointed with this board i can't believe you sit here and make these decisions and not worry about the kids and academics so i think there's time
057that some of you guys should not be here have a good one our next speaker is terry coaching good evening i'm terry kochi from west blind circle middletown um i'm here speaking about the dress code i sent you all an email this afternoon um see panic symbols have gone well beyond the realm of just religion okay in secular settings satanic symbols have always represented evil a quick look on dictionary.com simple right [Music] satanic adjective of satan characteristic of or befitting satan extremely wicked devil diabolical look up on thesauruses.com satanic hear the words we have cruel maniac great devilish diabolic diabolical evil fiendish frenetic hellish infernal mad possessed unhallowed vicious wicked in our uh dress code we talk about students should not dress in a manner that advocates illegal or anti-social behavior all these behaviors to
058me seem like they're anti-social so i don't understand why we would remove the nature of or satanic in nature from the dress code just doesn't make sense to me thank you our next speaker is austin jensen hello how's everybody doing my name is austin jensen i reside on lemon street in media pennsylvania sir could you put your mask back on please oh i he he didn't have his mask on when he was talking so i thought that was like a thing if you're talking my apologies it was an oversight on my part could you put your mask on please so different rules for different people i guess okay it's on yeah tom kelly he wasn't wearing his mask earlier when he was speaking uh so anyway uh another year has gone by where our students
059have to wear a mask for six hours during the day healthy kids every day coming to school with masks not able to see each other's faces look around look around the town during the day okay do you see anything i see senior citizens eating in diners packed to the brim every night media restaurants and bars people fraternizing parents of students going in having fun going home but yet healthy children who are no threat to anybody have to wear a mask every day this is causing them damage is causing them to live in fear for a virus that doesn't even affect them so how much longer when will it stop when will your overlords give you the next order because i think it's going to be all students must be vaccinated to go to roastery media
060school district schools and you will willingly abide and you will lose probably 35 to 40 percent of your district because you just want to dictate things you make everything political when in reality kids should be free without ask to see their friends and play on the recess yard and not have to deal with your oligarchy rules in the teachers lounges all the teachers take off their masks and probably laugh it up all the offices around the school district nobody's wearing their masks all the time but the second a child pulls his mask down it's like code red alert you got five people yelling at him get your mask back on it's ridiculous okay very sad what about the kids how much longer do they have to deal with this nonsense my next keeper is casey
061coburn gerardi good evening everyone my name is casey coburn gerardi i'm a resident of providence road in media borough i'm a parent of two children at media elementary school i have a small business in the borough my husband is president of the media alliance club we're very active in our ptg we're very active in our community we're very active in our school and i want to thank the board i wasn't going to speak tonight i've come to these meetings now virtually and in person for the past two years but i felt compelled to do so because i feel like people are not recognizing the board for the work that you have done over the last two years i have emailed this board i've emailed dr d marina lennon probably 50 times over the last year
062and a half and the board i always get a response even if it's just thank you for your comments or i get an actual response addressing whatever new comments i made and some of those were taken into effect i know very strongly that the coveted tracker should stay on the website that was not part of the original health and safety plan for this school year this board listened to those comments responded brought that up in the committee meeting and instituted it this board has exercised so much transparency for this community that is going so unrecognized we have a youtube channel people talk about not knowing about edgemont school i've been going to ptg meetings for the last four years at my school our principal has talked about that school being built at every single meeting
063because this board has talked about it at every single meeting we all know the need for that school because my children go to a crowded elementary school and that's not nearly as crowded as glenwood adversary but my kindergartner has 18 kids in her class my third grader has 23 kids from her class that's too many we need a school so that our children can get the education that they deserve and the attention that they deserve and i thank this board for their transparency for their willingness to engage with our community and for their efforts to put the education the health and the safety of our children our unvaccinated children first i'm not gonna dress maskings i've done it incessantly for the last two years but i thank the board for everything they've done to put
064our community and our children first and i hope that the community listens and reviews the history of this board and not just the loud minority than they vote on jesus thank you very much [Music] and that concludes our public comments for this evening moving on we now go on to old business and before us today we have policy it's our second read and review policy zero zero five organization do i have a motion so move do i have a second discussion i'd like to thank susan lee for all her hard work doing everything communicating investigating and researching and researching everything and putting all this together for um everybody's feedback and adoption thank you very much i appreciate that and i want to share that with rob kelly who i don't know if she eats on
065virtually tonight but uh uh and really the whole team for working on this uh over several working sessions to see what might work best so appreciate everyone supporting them and just for a clarification clarification of the record rob kelly is not on virtually tonight but do be sure to pass on those best wishes to him of course any other discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries all right next up going on to new business we've got i'm going to suggest that we group 1 through 27 together in one motion is there any objection to my doing so hearing and seeing none do i have a motion to pass one through 27. do i have a second second discussion all in favor all right next up for overnight trips great um i'm going to propose
066that we group one through nine together is there any objection to my doings no hearing and seeing none do i have a motion to pass one through nine do i have a second second discussion again thrilled to see all this stuff up here for the students it was nice to have the previous phone which is expanding our options to get teachers into the schools but this is for our students this is very exciting great i i certainly echo your comments there miss hunt and i would point out um these are all uh also hopeful things that we're going to be doing we don't have guarantees and everything but we need to be prepared and wish our students the very best that they can make it this far all right do i have emotion um sorry
067uh all in favor aye aye opposed one through nine pass all right next up should be letter c yes that would be the test to stay program i'm going to suggest that we group one and two together in one vote is there any objection to my doing so hearing and seeing none do i have a motion to pass c one and two do i have a second second discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries next up would be finance and i'm going to propose that you group let me try to force okay that's right i'm going to propose to be group 1 through 15 together in one motion is there any objection to my doing so hearing seeing none do i have a motion to pass a second next up would be the motion
068to ratify uh the dciu math official development do i have a motion derivative do i have a second second can we try that again who is the second thank you any discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries next up i'm going to suggest we group letters c and d the financials in the bill list together in one motion is there any objection to my doing so hearing and seeing none do i have a motion to pass c and d to have a second second discussion all in all in favor aye motion passes next up we'll move on to addendum so first up will be human resources we should have one through nine oh it's gonna be one through eight ten change okay thank you one through eight all up there i'm gonna suggest then
069we group all one through eight together in one motion is there any objection to my doing so hearing and seeing none do i have a motion so moved do i have a second discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries you do not have any finance attendance so that being the case last but not least would be our announcement for the end of the meeting as a reminder that there will be a plan executive session of the school board for matters of personnel at 6 00 prior to the meeting the legislative meeting of november 18 2021 and that meeting of course will be held here again at penn crest high school and will also be live on youtube and the legislative links are also available for reporting that being the case do i have a
070motion to adjourn do i have a second discussion all in favor aye any opposed