School Board Meeting - 8/14/25

001I'll call to order this uh August 14th, 2025 regular meeting of the board of education. Please rise for the pledge to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And we have roll call. Elizabethman here. Mary Lee Hall here. Samantha Hall here. William Hall here. Jeremy Hash here. Jennifer Hankle here. Nathan Hankle here. James Holly here. Joseph Wilson here. Thank you. All right. Moving on to item 2.01. I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda as presented. So move. Second. All right. Uh any discussion? Any ns or abstensions? Hearing none. That motion carries. I'll entertain a motion to approve the June 19th 2025 minutes. Second. Second. Any discussion? Any or

002extensions? Hearing? None. That motion carries. Which brings us to item four, uh, student rep report. Caleb. All right. Not not too much cuz it's been the summer. But first, I'd like to say you guys look great in your outfit. Very, very good. The hot pink might take the cake, but and I I hear it's for a good cause. I'm sure you'll talk about it later, but um just a couple couple dates, couple notes. Um one thing, since I run cross country, we train on campus and I've been running around looking at all the buildings. I'm seeing all the construction. It all looks great. Um kind of like last year. So, it's great seeing the stuff we talk about in meetings actually going out and happening cuz people don't really like think that this is tangible.

003So, it's good seeing it. Um, fall sports also in the same vein. I've been running around seeing all the teams. Um, fall sports starting up. Marching band had its band camp and they're working on their competition show. And football heat week was a success. I've heard from a couple of my friends on the team that they've got got some good guys coming out. That's good. Um, we got back to school night for all the schools and and buildings and everything. And K through 9th starts on August 16th. And then grades 10 through 12, finally me. Um, start on the 20th. Then a special shout out to the new staff and students and incoming freshmen. You guys are coming to the best building. I'm a little bit biased. and you're you're just joining a good amazing

004family community. So, welcome. And I think that's all I got. Thank you. All right. Moving on to item 5.01, educational updates by Dr. Robert. Thank you, President Hankle. School board Caleb. No comment on Dr. Bryson or Mrs. Green. He said they look great. Okay. You all look great with a hot pink. Uh we hope everyone had a great summer. Uh you though the uh summer is coming to a very close end. Really excited to see all the life back in the building today. There was a lot of excitement this morning, but I'll let Dr. Bryson maybe talk about that later. Uh so really excited to get the staff and students back in here. As uh Caleb mentioned, students uh K K through 9 starting next Tuesday and then uh 10 through 12 come in on

005Wednesday. Uh so I will continue with my uh regular reporting of safe, supportive and collaborative culture as I've done in previous years. I wanted to welcome back our bus drivers to annual kickoff. Uh last week it's great seeing a lot of their smiling faces, some of some returning and some new faces of the bus drivers. And uh just to put out there, you know, our bus drivers have what I consider the most important job of anybody within our district, getting our students to and from school safely each and every day. So, you see bus drivers out there, please make sure you thank them. I know they're excited right now about getting those little cherubs and the big cherubs on the bus. Uh but, you know, thanking them for uh the work that they're going to

006do this year. We really appreciate them. Um, our staff will participate tomorrow in an annual safety training uh that will also include uh cyber security. Uh, so real excited for Mr. Matt Lights, our school safety security coordinator as well as Mr. Greg Hunt who's our coordinator of technology that will be assisting in both of those trainings that are required by the state uh act 55 that we have one hour of in-person safety training and two additional hours throughout the year. uh under supportive, you know, throughout the summer. Uh one of our primary goals, we had to close out last school year and get this school year started. Uh but one of the things we really had to do was hire staff uh for the position. So, a big shout out to all those committees uh

007the interview committees, the elementary, middle, high school, even the admin, you know, for taking the time to sit on those committees and hiring the best staff uh for our position. I also wanted to thank all our administrative and office staff for all the behind thescenes things they have done to get this year started. But going back to something Caleb had mentioned about the athletes being on campus and being around. We got to thank our custodians and our maintenance. You know, they've done a lot of work on the outside of prepping, but the the inside of the schools look immaculate. So, big thank you to all those departments. uh under collaboration. Want to thank all the staff who participated in the staff development over the summer uh to really get a jump start on this upcoming

008school year. Uh not only are we going to continue to focus on maintaining safe, supportive, and collaborative culture, but also uh with the effective instruction in every classroom. Um, and a special thank you I want to send out to the administrative team as well as our instructional specialists, our math coaches who did a lot of time in working with uh the staff in their building in preparing for this school year. Couple reminders, Caleb hit them all. Uh, with the exception the schools closed on Monday, September 1st. Uh, then we'll be back here personnel policy on Monday, September 15th, followed by a regularly scheduled schoolboard meeting which will be on Wednesday, September 17th. So, have a great school year or not. The choice is ours. Thank you. All right, moving on to item 6.01, public comment.

009We have one signed up, uh, Captain John Smith. Thank you. Um, this would be a yearly thing for me. Um, I'm here for the voice of voice of democracy of the VFW and also the patriots pen program. Uh, the 2025 uh theme is how are you showing patriotism and support for our country. In case you don't know what the voice of democracy in the patriot pen pen um program is, voice of democracy is a essay and an oral presentation um approximately 3 to five minutes on on the topic. um is submitted um with a written um essay and a thumb drive and a thumb drive um for for the um oral presentation of it. Um, I I'm trying to do this this year because there was there was a lot of emphasis on one of

010the the district commanders last year was a friend of ours and and uh he's now the the district um representative for for both of them. So, what I want to do is make sure that Susquan and Southern Middle School gets their entries in. Um, they come to the post. So, uh, when you when they do it or when they do their entries, they are sent to, um, VFW Post 712, PO Box 417, uh, New Freedom, Pennsylvania 17, uh, 349. So, as long as they get there, um, really good. of the cut off, excuse me, the cuto off date for uh Voice of Democracy to us is October 31st. And after we judge them, um what I would like to see is actually we come to Suspanic or Southern Middle School and and judge them along

011with somebody from the one of the departments preferably English department. So, or history department for that matter. Um but yeah, we would like to come up and and do it with them. If we get get them together, I will contact the school and um they we can get through there and get them judged with more perspective as far as education's concerned as opposed to u a bunch of veterans um saying, "I really like Johnny over there and even though he doesn't know how to spell his name, but so okay. Um, that pretty much covers covers that. The other thing I wanted to do let everyone know is um, in case you hadn't heard or hadn't seen, um, the VFW and New Freedom is actually going to move. It's going to move from 123 West Main

012Street to 345 North Constitution Avenue, but actually the entrance will be off Weatherfield uh, Drive. um like you're going back to the soccer fields. Um we just broke ground on it. Um it's going to be a fabulous facility. Uh we're still looking um for donations um to it um to help build for the building fund. Anyone is interested in doing it um contact the post. Uh there is a nonprofit um cut off for it um in Indianapolis where you would make your donations actually to Indianapolis that will come back as a 501c3 to you and then it would um they would take all that money and send it back to VFW post 7012 that we can use for for construction. Um, this has been a long five years of a real hard grind for me

013and this is my last year as the commander there. So, um, I'm just trying to push it and hopefully maybe get it done before June of 2026 when my uh, my uh, command expires. So, I want to thank everyone here. Um, Susah Hanock doing a great job. Um, I don't like I don't like coming in here as a as a naysayer. So, thank you very much. Thank you. All right, moving on to item 6.2, board discussion and public comment. Does anyone have any? I do. I have a couple of questions. Captain Smith, if you don't mind. Yes, ma'am. Um, so you mentioned about um the essay and you the verbal submission. Where do kids go if they're interested in finding out more details as far as how many words, what topics, you know, that you're

014looking for? Um, it's on it's on on that. But they can go to and I will I'll put it on our website. Um, okay. Or they can send me an email. It's vfwpost712 comcast.net. Then you put commander on it or captain Jack or whatever you want to stick on it. Okay. But yeah, uh yeah, you send it there and and I'll get I I will get back to you for two reasons. Number one, my wife's the one who proof proof reads all the emails because if it was me, I'd probably hit the little box and it would be deleted in that 10 seconds. So So what is the website? Just for anyone listening that might want to look at it when you're done putting it up. Yeah. Excuse me. The website for your VFW. What's

015your website? Uh-huh. Oh, the website is um vfwpost712.org. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Moving on to item seven, the consent agenda. I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. So move. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Any nays or abstensions? Hearing on that motion carries and we'll move to item eight, education. I'll turn it over to Mr. Simple. Thank you. 8.01. Um, that's just information talking about how, and this is actually a pretty big deal. I'm going to pass it on to Dr. Reppert in a minute, but that all of our schools in Southern York County School District have now received certification in level two of HRS high reliability schools. So, Dr. Repert to Dr. Hughes, I believe. Uh,

016thank you, Mr. Hankle. I'm uh going to turn it over to Dr. Hughes, but I will echo uh what you stated there about all of our five schools not only being certified in level one uh safe, supportive, and collaborative culture, but also in level two, effective instruction in every classroom. So, Dr. Hughes, I'll turn it over to you. Wait, I did have one question. How many schools in Pennsylvania are certified? Five. All right. And how many schools of ours are certified? Five. Interesting. We are very excited um because this represents a lot of hard work from our teachers and our administrators in our buildings. Um the hard work that everyone has put forward. One of the things that we wanted to do this year is a little bit different than what we did last year

017with reporting on level one. We want to show you what um each one of our leading indicators, there's six of them, what our teachers and our administrators, how they went about getting certified. So, one of the things with level two, it's effective teaching in every classroom. And we heard today um and I want to thank Mrs. Hall for the the speech this morning with our new teachers and our all of our teachers coming back today. We talked about the excellence that is happening in our classrooms and it can be shown through the certification process. So, we'll be bringing you information every month to show you how we went about that and what the buildings are still doing to continue to make sure that we have that in place and all of the hard work that

018our teachers have done. A lot of videos and things that um were shared were teachers talking about the process that they have with collaboration and working together, which is a very important part of what we're doing in level two and level three. Really working together and collaborating and making sure that this isn't something that people are doing on their own, that we're working together to help every single one of our students. So, we're really excited about level two and we're looking forward to our journey as we start on level three. Thank you so much. All righty. 8.02. Um, again, this is information. This is the update on the Chromebook distribution process for this school year. Dr. Reford. Thank you, Mrs. Hegel. Uh, so just for the school board community, uh, as it was uh, approved

019last school year that we went 2 to one in grades K uh, K through four. Uh, our schools are ready. uh our schools are ready uh for uh the distribution and how they're going to be utilized in grades K 1, 2, 3, and four. Um as well as uh the plan that was put in place because during assessments, you know, we need to make sure that uh some of the devices may need to be moved to support our grades three and grade four uh when they get to the state uh state assessment time. So uh this does provide us uh the flexibility. our administrators uh have had a plan that they've put together with their staff and they'll be ready to roll that out as we get started uh next week with our students. So,

020just a quick update on the the Chromebooks. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for Dr. Rupert? Just thanks for putting in the work. Yep. Yeah. Get that done. Well, the thanks goes back to the buildings, you know, espe at the elementary and how they were going to navigate and put together the procedures in place there. So, that's where the the true thanks would go. But thank you. I want to just go ahead and reiterate as well, we're just moving from a oneto one to a 2:1. We're not taking them away. It's just less emphasis and not having that oneonone. So that that might have been something that could be cleared up as well. But yeah, I think it's a great move for our district. 8.03. Um this is the additional classroom for early intervention

021services at Shrewsbury Elementary School. Dr. Robert, can you explain this one for us? Yes, thank you, Mrs. Hall. Uh, so the early intervention program through the Lincoln Intermediate Unit, uh, we currently have a fair share agreement with the Lincoln Intermediate Unit where we're utilizing uh, rooms that are already designated for the Lincoln Intermediate Unit. Uh, so we're going to have an an early intervention program now, not only for special regular education, but special education students that could be placed. a great opportunity for our for parents to have their children now enrolled in this program that we can identify the supports that they may need as they come into uh you know kindergarten that those following years. Uh the other opportunity that it does provide for our high schoolers you know shadowing internship opportunities and working

022in the early intervention. So you we could be looking at some, you know, future early interventionists, child care, even teachers by having that opportunity of working with these uh children that are coming into our schools. Fantastic. Thank you. I'm going to move to approve LIU's request to operate an additional classroom for early intervention services at Shrewsbury Elementary School starting the 2025 2026 school year. May I have a second, please? Second. Um, is there any discussion? Does anybody have any questions for Dr. Eert? Any nays or abstensions? Right, that motion carries. That takes us to 8.04, which is speakers approved through the vetting process. Um, there were two speakers. This is just for information. We don't have to vote on this tonight. Well, we're not going to vote on this tonight, but the two speakers, it's

023the Engineering Society of York to present a physical science presentation to all Southern York County School District third, fourth, and fifth grade students, which sounds like an amazing opportunity at no cost to the district. And then this next one I'm particularly proud of. Uh, Colonel Brian McCarthy is going to conduct a schoolwide motivational presentation to Suscoanic High School students on Friday, September 19th, at no cost to the district. And many of you might remember he was the keynote speaker two years ago for my daughter's graduation and many others here. He was fantastic and uh he's going to do a fantastic job. So there's that. Does anybody have any questions about that? All right. Great opportunity for our students. 8.05 stage 1 curriculum map as district-wide master maps. Um, I'm going to go ahead and approve

024the following stage one curriculum maps as the district-wide master maps and that's leadership in the classroom. May I have a second, please? Second. And then does anybody have any questions for Dr. Reert? Dr. Reppert, do you have anything you'd like to share? No, this is just another one of the many curriculum maps. Last year as a board, you approved many as we were transitioning uh to our new website. Um, so this is uh the first of a few that uh the board will receive this year as we're looking at updating additional curriculum maps. Thank you so much, Dr. Leert. Does anybody have any discussion points I'd like to go over? Any nays or abstensions? That motion carries. 8.06. Um, I'm going to go ahead and move to approve a quote from Smart Pass for a

025one-year license to an electronic hall pass system at a cost of $5,61823 through June 30th, 2026. May I have a second? And Dr. Reppert, can you explain this one to us? Yes. Thank you, Mrs. Hall. Uh, Mrs. Hankle, we apologize. Um so the previously uh the board had approved a a program called e-h hall pass that our high school and middle school had utilized. This is where students that if they're going to the restroom or going to the guidance are going to another teacher a way to track where the uh students are going. So the e-haul pass had uh the challenges that our high school was running into is during their intervention period at at at the end of the day that they're running into some issues with signing in and out and students signing

026and out. So, as our current students would say, glitching and you know, after some research with it and communication with the high our high school had with e-h hall pass, they had a fix, but it would be an additional $5,000 of an add-on to add what they call flex pass. So, I have to applaud the administrators for really looking into it. uh because that total would have took took us to $10,322 with that add-on. Uh whereas the uh smart pass as uh Mrs. Ankle mentioned would be about $5,600. So, uh, definitely providing the district the, uh, the savings as we're looking at, you know, being able to track our students and identify where they are. And it also going to provide a more of a seamless transition into using that going into this upcoming school

027year. Thank you, Dr. Bert. Better service at half the cost sounds like a win-win to me. So, does anybody have any discussion points? It absolutely does, and I thank Dr. Cerner and Dr. Bell for that amazing board briefing. It was great looking through it to see what this past system is going to do that also improves what we were using and how it can be used in the future. So really nice, lots of detail, very helpful. Thank you. Agreed. Any nays or abstensions? That motion carries. 8.07. I don't have any other items of business business. Does anybody else? All right, that concludes education report. All right, we'll move next to nine, finance and budget. And I'll turn it over to our treasurer, Mr. Wilson. Thank you, President Hkle. Uh 9.01, we've got our financial reports,

028and this is a combination of June and July since we weren't here last month. Took the month off. Um you've got your treasuries report, tax collection report, budget status reports. Um no, um no cafeteria report because cafeteria wasn't open. Uh I do want to do the uh rundown of the numbers real quick for the general fund. Uh we started June with a balance of $4,738,6846 and we ended July with a balance of 3,769,8182. Uh for the investment counts in June we started the bal we started with a balance of 3283,455.90 and ended July with a balance of 27,199,56249. Um you may read the rest of these at your leisure. Uh 9.02 02. Going to make a motion to approve the bills for payment as presented. May I have a second? Second. Any discussion on this?

029Hearing none. Uh any nays or abstensions? Hearing none. Motion passes. We pay the bills. 9.03 and 9.04. We have nothing for exonerations or budget transfers. 9.05. Uh we're going to get an update from Mrs. Green about the state budget and all the fund from Harrisburg. Mrs. Green. So, as you know, um, we do not have a state budget. So, over the last 20 years, there's been more than half of the years that we have not had a state budget when we started the fiscal year. Um, so this is not unusual. Um, so when we look at the impact on our district, um, there's two different situations. One would be, um, when it's only a month or two. Um, so we'll talk about that first, then we'll talk about if it goes longer. So, because we

030only get 34% of our funding from the state, um, from us, there's really not a cash flow issue right now, um, because we just started the fiscal year, but we do have loss of revenue for interest earnings, especially now that there are actually interest rates. Um, so we get about 4% or more um, on our money. So, we should receive approximately $3 million of state funding in August, which at this point does not look like that's going to come, and another one a.5 million in September. Um, so each month um that we don't have a budget, we are probably losing interest earnings between 10 and $15,000 um that we would have earned. Of course, that money would go to offset any costs into the future. So, um each dollar is very important. So, for us,

031that's that's the big piece right now. um from a financial standpoint, even without the budget, we will receive about $900,000 in act one money. So that's being considered separately. So we believe at this time we will get that um our first installment of the homestead farmstead money. So if there's an extended um budget impass like in 201516 um in my recollection that was the worst year that was not we did not get money until March um we will be in a different situation at that point. So hopefully we don't get into that secondary impact of not having a budget is understanding the funding we're going to receive for 2526 so that we can look at 2627. So, for instance, um recently there's been talk in Harrisburg of level funding the budget for us. If ba

032basic education and special education funding stays at the 2425 levels, um we will have a budget shortfall of $240,000 because we budgeted for additional funding in basic ed and special ed. Additionally, last year, for the first time in many, many, many years, we received charter school um funding of about $136,000. We don't know where that stands and that's been kind of silent. Uh the other piece that we're unsure where it'll be is we received, so you remember we did a lot of budget presentations in the fall last year to understand the budget. We received about $520,000 in adequacy funding. That was supposed to be the first year of seven years to close the economic gap in school districts. So those those are the three areas that I'm most concerned about. they add up to about

033$900,000. So depending on where um those fall is going to depend where we are. So all the time I'm asked what's next year's budget look like? Uh and my response is always I don't know because I don't even know what the funding is. And so for us the importance of of getting the state budget passed is understanding what kind of funding we have for this year so we can start to work work on um what's happening for next year. it's very difficult for us to determine where we're going to be when we don't have 34% of our revenue streams. So, that's really the big impact for us. So, we're very hopeful that it gets passed soon. Um, from the federal standpoint, I know you've heard a lot about there was the stall on the federal

034funding. So, that was title two, title three, and title four. For us, that was about $100,000. Every dollar counts, but it wasn't a huge impact. Probably the big impact there was they opened the applications for the federal funding. We filled everything out. We were ready to submit by the beginning of July, which is the time frame. And then they closed them and they wiped everything out and it's all gone. And so now this week they opened them back up again and we get to start from scratch because everything's gone. Um so now they're not they're due in a couple weeks. So, um, that's really the impact and I I think it's going to be similar, um, from the state budget, but it is difficult to understand, especially when we get into things like the safety

035grant funding and all those things. We don't know where any of that lies right now. So, that's probably the biggest impact for us, but as time goes on, the impact will be more and more if we don't have a budget. So, any other questions? I know there were a couple questions from the board on that. Any other questions on where we are with um, state budget? I think you've answered them all. Okay, great. Thank you. Hope for the best. Great. Thank you, Mrs. Green and Trevor. I'm sure he's definitely involved. Uh 9.06. Uh this is an information item uh about the engagement letter from Smith, Elliot, Karns, and Company. These are our auditors. Um that's there for your review. You don't have to take any action on that. 9.07. This is for a quote for

036desktop inventory tracking and management software. I'm going to make a motion to approve a quote from Divot Assets, Inc. for a one-year license to its desktop inventory tracking and management software for the district's fix fixed assets at a cost of $1,750. Now, I have a second. Second. Uh, any questions on this? Any discussion? I think they really missed it with the name of the company. should be a golf asset management. Um any nays or abstensions hearing? None. Motion passes. 9.08. Uh this is for the MSISAC cyber security services. going to make a motion to approve a subscription to the multi-state information sharing and analysis center for cyber security services at a an amount of $1,995 for a term of 18 months. May I have a second? Second. Any questions on this? Any nays or abstensions?

037Hearing none. Motion passes. 9.09. Other items of business? I have none. Does anybody else have any? And back to you, Mr. President. All right. Turn it over to our personnel and policy chair, uh, Mr. Samantha Hall for personnel and policy. Thank you, President Henle. Item 10.01 is policy um number 815.1, the use of generative artificial intelligence and education. This is for second reading and approval. And before I get into saying the motion, I just wanted to give a recap of this because it started last year and I think it's helpful to remember. So this policy was requested by the AI committee and it was drafted with revisions based um initially on the PSBA policy template. Um we presented it as a first read at the May board meeting. Following discussion at that meeting, the policy

038was sent to our solicitor for review. um due to recommended additions to the policy language, it then shifted back to a first read in June. Um at that meeting, after additional conversation, the solicitor was asked to provide counsel on adopting age restrictions as part of the policy. And tonight would constitute the second reading with a vote. Um so with that, I would like to make a motion to appro Sorry, I'm on the wrong thing. There we are. We're not We're not Anyway, um I'd like to make a motion to approve policy number 815.1, the use of generative artificial intelligence and education. Do I have a second? Second. Um any discussion? I do have some discussion. I did not see an update with age groups, appropriate age groups in the new policy. Is that something that

039I'm missing? Has anyone else seen that? Because I did not see it. the the addition that was added uh based on the discussion from the June uh which we just added in there would be specifically the district will hear the specific and user age restrictions for approved generative AI tools. Um I'm looking in the in the prohibited use of generative AI. I see a lot of information there, but I don't see what you're referring. Uh, under authority. Yeah, under authority. The second authority paragraph, it's a one letter. Specifically, the district will adhere to specific end user age restrictions. End user, age restrictions for approved generative AI tools. Okay. So that's not the age specific like hearing from staff, teachers, elementary schools, how they're going to be using it. Anything that we can add to this

040to just be a little bit more specific there? Is this something what I'm getting at is students in the elementary school, are they going to be using this or is it just a tool for staff to use to help with lesson planning? I think that's under delegation of responsibilities. I if I may um on the second page under delegation of responsibilities I think that fourth paragraph talks about the age appropriateness. So general tools used in the district shall be evaluated and authorized and on the go for age appropriateness and then immediately above it does have the uh informed consent of a parent guardian for their sty their child could could use an AI tool too. of these those under delegation of responsibility. I will just say as a parent I find this policy very hard

041to read and understand and to know what that would mean for my children. So I'm still struggling with this one. So I think I think one of the difficulties is that at the moment um these tools are being introduced into uh software that we're already using. So we've approved the software but now there's a generative AI component in software that students were already using. And so we need to have a sense of the landscape of what's even there. So, I I think one of the the important things that's here is that there's going to be um there's going to be a a um what's the term an inventory of um of AI tools that are in use. We don't have that yet. And so, it's very hard to say what we're going to allow to

042be used. I think that we know that the use of generative AI in elementary school is pretty limited at the moment. Um but yeah, Dr. Bryson can speak to that. Yeah. So, I'm going to speak from a general term and then an implementation, you know, to give you kind of a broader view. So, right now, if you were to look at the use of AI, specifically generative AI, it's extremely limited. However, at the elementary level, and you see that begin to increase at the middle school level and again at the high school level. When I'm speaking to AI, I'm not speaking chat GPT. That's not what I'm referencing. I'm referencing, for an example, software that we pay a licensing for like Canva or student information, a student manage or subject management system where it has

043the ability to create a PowerPoint. Well, there's an AI component to that which will help you search for images within Canva to utilize in your PowerPoint. Or I might put my bullet points for the PowerPoint in that and utilize Canvas's AI tool to create the structure of the PowerPoint and it'll create it based upon the topic of that PowerPoint. So, we're approving Canva. they update it with an AI component and we're saying, okay, there's not a data risk. There's a student data risk. There's not a risk from being out in the internet and searching all kinds of things that you wouldn't utilize in an elementary PowerPoint presentation. So, by definition, it's AI, but it's appropriate use. So, we're concerned about honestly from a management perspective just saying there'll be no use of AI at the

044elementary because I'm not sure we can manage that any longer. Um, it's it's being infused in almost all of the software that's out there. Even existing apps that have been approved, we're finding ourselves going back and saying, "Okay, should it still be approved? Is it still appropriate?" Um, and so Nathan spoke a little bit to an inventory. So our goal now is going back to the drawing board and saying what is it that is being requested to be utilized or that we already know is now a part of as an example be Canva. Um, and a very short list of others that are actually utilized. Another example maybe for our community. We're no longer using I Ready software to generate uh problem sets for kids at the elementary school. It's expensive, super expensive, but you

045can utilize let's say a Khan Academy for a a generator of problems and it's got an AI component now. And the basis of that is as a student, let's say a fifth grader, I may do three problems, I get two of them wrong. That AI is able to at least begin to hone down what is the skill that I have wrong that I need more problems on to get better at and it'll generate those those additional math problems for you. It's almost identical to the functionality of a system that we used to pay a whole lot of money for. It's not got student information, but what it's doing is using the responses to generate new problems that are specific to that student. Is and I also want to say, is that the teacher now? Are

046we just putting that? No. No. This is a subset of what's happening in the classroom where that student might work on that for 10 15 minutes because they need help. they might need additional problem sets in that area. Um, so we have a handful that of AI that's utilized the elementary school, but we're not we're not utilizing chat GPT. We're not utilizing those tools. And to speak to Jeff's uh topic of age restrictions, that type of tool is 18 and above. So, we're not going to be utilizing that at the high school moving forward either. Um but though each tool has a guideline for age restriction. So that statement in the policy says when we review the request for a tool that's going to be utilized, they're going to have to list the name of

047the tool, the grade level used, the purpose and example of how they're using it and determine then is it age appropriate regarding restrictions for that tool. It go will then go to the principal. It will then go to the tech department and Dr. Hughes to all approve it for that reasoning. Tech department looks at it for whether it's collecting data which we then if it's personal data we're not going to be utilizing it the age restriction on it whether it's appropriate for the age and the purpose and educational value for the curriculum. So that we're almost going tool by tool. We are going to tool by tool. And it's really the only way to not ban everything, but only utilize the tools that are appropriate for age level and use. To start that process, we're

048going to have to do an inventory and go through that process with tools that are already being utilized. And then we have a starting basis of here's the list that's being utilized and we will publish that list so that it anybody could go on there and see oh here's the tools that are listed here's a couple examples that are listed on how it's being utilized and we're going to have to be far more vigilant in in staying on top of that list because unfortunately next week five of those apps could change in how it's utilized. Sure. And do we have the capacity to put that on a director of technology so to speak as far as going through all of those things in a in a timely manner so they can be used? The heavy

049lift's going to be up front for the for auditing what we have and it's not like tomorrow, you know, this has to be in place. So like as we're speaking now, right now there's nothing in place. So yeah, they're going to need a couple months to do an inventory, potentially go through those and and I've already ventured to say I just had a conversation with Dr. Repper today and Dr. Hughes. I indicated look if we have 150 apps that are on the list, which is roughly what that list looks like now, how many of them are actually utilized right now? Sure. versus those that were put on that list two years ago and they've evolved and they're utilizing something else now, right? So, I want to start with the inventory because I don't want our

050people going through all these arbitrary tools that may or may not be even utilized right now. So, let's start with what are we utilizing? Let's determine whether they're they meet the criteria that we have in the policy. If so, good. you can continue on and what are the new ones that we don't see on the list and those would be the next set that we'd have to go through and and determine what is what is the priority on these and do they meet the criteria and I think the the the answer is you can continue on for now right because because I like I said before I think this policy is one that we're going to have to be reviewing every policy cycle for a while now um to see if it needs updates. Um

051there I remember a few concerns expressed by various board members that I think this policy addresses better than what we have now which is no policy. Um it addresses now I'm not saying none of this language could be improved but it does now address that we'll adhere to the end user. I I would like to uh talk about the grammar of that but I think you're saying you also have I was thinking about that. Yeah. Uh so I know you wanted to to talk about that one. So we'll come back to that one. Um another one was the idea that the AI would replace that that that that the AI might replace something students should be doing that was act that actually becomes part of the learning process. So for example developing an outline um

052this was a I haven't heard this from from an English teacher but I've heard it from someone who was saying okay this might be a good use for AI developing an outline for an essay. Well, that's actually part of the learning that goes into writing an essay. So, if we get this in, what I think addresses that is the inventory. If we get the inventory that talks about the purposes and examples, it may not catch everything, but we may see, oh, we're using it to de to to to generate an outline or to to or to give a list of essay topics. No, that's something the student should do on their own. Um, and that's something we can have discussions then with with Dr. Hughes um and or or with the the teachers involved to

053say, "Okay, you know what? What's actually happening here? Are we replacing something that the student should actually be doing and having the AI do it?" Um I think the inventory helps with that. Um I think that Yeah, I think the inventory helps with a lot of concerns. Um but it's it it is backward-looking. It doesn't help it doesn't necessarily fix the concerns now, but it allows us to identify them. Yeah. Um, one of the things I was I was thinking about adding in here, the evaluation monitoring piece. I know in there it says that uh we would be we would be uh given the approved list uh once annually. Um I think we should adjust that at least because this is such a fast evolving marketplace. um change that to at the end of each

054marking period. As I think about that, and I think it's more ease of access, we're going to publish it. So, it's going to be available on the website and updated as quickly as we can go through there. Right. As Okay. So, yeah. Okay. As collection. So, it's going to be live. Oh, so it's going to be a live. Yeah, I think there's going to be a delay to it and it's not going to be real accurate here in the first couple months for what I just but ultimately, you know, a couple months from now, you should be able to look at that in two weeks from now see a new one that popped up as a role that it brings up a I'm sorry, who was I interrupting you? Go ahead. It from the implementation

055standpoint like I understand what you're talking about with an inventory log. That's not necessarily something that the board is approving. That's the behind the scenes as you're collecting what you're actually using AI for. But I just want to put that put out there for a second since we say that we are already going to revisit the AI policy I'm sure several times we need to understand and I guess the general public also needs to understand that because the inventory log is coming to us new like it is to everybody else and we get to see what we're actually doing and what we're not doing. What happens if the board sees it being used in a way an app that we don't like? It would be perceived as taking away something that we've already given permission

056for even though we didn't ever give permission broadly with the log of inventory. Does that make sense? Yeah. I I think your policy right now as it would be written now is you're giving us guidelines that you want age restrictions. You want it to be a part of the curriculum. You want it to go through a vetting process, if you will, to to meet those criterias. That's not to say that you find that well, we don't want this particular like you're right. So, you're right. There is a reality to that. just as if we uh potentially approved a textbook and later find that okay this part of it isn't what we thought. Yeah, I think it's not it's not explicitly stated because it's in in a way this isn't quite the right way to say

057it, but I think every AI tool right now is is a bit on a probationary status because it hasn't been reviewed by administration by any of that team that's going to review this tool. to evolve. So maybe we're all in agreement that we like it right now, but six months from now it does something that we don't like. And so I just I want some kind of language flexibility there to like you said that everything is kind of on a contingent temporary basis. It says the board of education will receive the approved list of generative AI tools or resources on annual bas. Yeah. So, um, I mean, if if we're going to have it live on the website that we receive that's fine, but that should be stated here. Yeah, we should match it. It

058does talk about the website. Um, it does not give the frequency. I think partly because at the moment we don't know yet but it says the district shall inform staff, students, parents and guardians and other users about this policy and the list the list of approved generative AI tools uh or resources by posting on the district website and by other efficient methods and and since we don't right now have a frequency that like I think I I would expect to see it updated kind of like maybe in a couple months. months and then monthlyish after I like to see updates just flowing in over the course of the year. Uh you know and and wouldn't be surprised to see a few showing up every month maybe at various times in the month. Is that a

059reasonable expectation? Basically they would be initiated from a classroom teacher or principal and that could happen. Yeah. Yeah. as as we as we review the tools that are in use just sort of as staff have capacity to review those tools. Um and then I guess it would be good and again I don't know that this has to be in policy but it good it'd be good to know something about you know how far along in the process are we so if we can be provided updates of obviously you're guessing because you don't know what's out there but but you know we've had 80% of the teachers at Southern Middle have reported in on what AI tools they believe they're uh you know get getting information like that as we go. Um again I don't know

060that that has to be in policy but but that would be useful to kind of know are we you know we we see you know we see 15 tools here. Are we 20% done or are we 80% done? Yeah the process would be probably 100%. because it's going to be this group of teachers is going to get together and share what tools are you utilizing this school year. Okay. And here's the existing list. Cut out anything you're not utilizing. Okay. So, it's a reasonable goal that we can aim towards. I think it's a reasonable goal that you know two to three months from now we have a pretty stable list to start and they also will have an awareness of the process for approval of anything moving forward. That's really good because that that gets

061us that gets the list to us before the next policy cycle. So then we can we can review if we see issues then you can we can recalibrate it. Also, I I'm really pleased with the district. I mean, it is the onus of the district to I mean, this this directly coincides with our transparency for curriculum. This is an aspect of curriculum. And so, what would be the point in having all the transparency that we have for curriculum, actual tactile books, but not when it comes to the other things. And so, I'm I'm very pleased with the district taking that responsibility on themselves and being able to to meet that goal. That's that's pretty fantastic actually. So under delegation of responsibility, I do like that um the third paragraph down the district shall obtain prior

062informed consent from parents guardians before allowing a student to use generative AI tools and resources in school. However, I do wonder what that looks like for families and parents. Like as a parent myself, I go on to Sapphire and I fill in all the information before the beginning of the year. Is it just a blanket approval or is this something on the teachers that they have to get this from parents every time they're going to be using something? Is that something that can be easily applied? What does that look like? So, yeah, you're you would similar to what we're doing with COPA, which is an annual approval 13 or under or 13 13 and under. Um, this is going to add to that. There's a where now it may be okay that was fine but

063now you'd have 13 to 16 or what depending on the tool and that permission is going to have to go out potentially annually but potentially if a teacher's interested in utilizing a tool a month from now or two weeks from now it potentially would have to go out to that class through that teacher that permission It it's cumbersome, right? It is definitely cumbersome, but I mean it's the same thing we do for field trips. Mhm. You know, we we get permission for field trips. I think this is something that's potentially more impactful to children than, right? So, it may be healthier to pre-plan throughout the year rather than have this come up regularly for teachers to wait for parents to approve each request. Just thinking through it logistically. Any other discussion of the major features

064this policy? I just want to say generally again, a policy is in place to be able to help people understand what they can and they can't do. This is an albatross of reading. I don't know how a teacher would know what they should do. I don't know how a parent would know what could be expected. We say that it's not about generative AI because it could be something that's built into Canva, but yet the whole policy reads that it's generative AI. I just think it's not well written. I don't think it's understandable. I I don't know what the we're saying. Oh, well, we don't want to be liable, but h how like what are we I don't even know what I just don't think it's well written. I don't think it's understandable. I don't I

065would look at this and I wouldn't know I wouldn't know what to do with it. I do think it I I do think there's a lot of complexity and I think there's there's some vagueness because of the unknowns. Um but I I think it's hard to get around that. And what I don't want is to continue forward with no guidelines. But are they guidelines if you don't even understand them? Well, I I think I mean I think the the critical guideline I think that we've it started here with the well enduser age restrictions. I think that is the key piece because frankly that that is you know that pretty much puts some really hard boundaries on who can use this in the school. I don't think this policy is perfect, but I think it's a

066lot better than not having any, you know, any age restriction on perplexity or any other of the AI tools that we know students are being asked to use. So like today, I don't want to interrupt on this, but like this is just my question. I mean, as a board, we govern, right? Like we set what happens. I feel like we are being pushed into this because technology is pushing us into doing this. And I just reject that premise. I don't I feel like that's abdicating what it is that our responsibility is. Well, I think sometimes external forces do push you into making a a decision and especially because this is being in this is being incorporated into tools that are already in use. It would be pretty disruptive to remove those tools just because uh

067generative AI has been introduced into them. So what we can do is we can get an inventory of those tools and see how they're being used and manage the use of generative AI that that those tools present. So you may be able to still use the tool, but once we see, okay, this tool has this capability, we now we know this tool's in use. That's the first thing we need to know. This tool's in use. Okay, maybe one of us does a little bit of research and finds this tool has this capability and I don't think that's a good one for students to be using. Well, then we can come back and say, okay, are we using it in this way? Hopefully, the answer is no. And then if we feel the need, if we

068feel like it's a strong enough issue, we can actually say in policy th this use case is not is is not approved. But I think until we have an inventory, which this policy uh directs the administration to create an inventory, I think it's it's difficult to we have some some guidelines here. I I do think there are guidelines here. I think they are necessarily vague at this time. Um because the con the the the subject matter is is very fluid at at this time. Yeah. I I I want to push back a little bit with the the perceived ambiguity and the vagueness of it. I do understand that this is an overarching philosophy and the guidelines are a little bit ambiguous, but we this does go along with other policies that we have that almost

069read exactly like this but aren't technical because they're not technology based. When you look at the vetting process for guest speakers, when you look at the vetting process for supplemental materials, when you look at curriculum broadly, how do we how did we write those policies? How what is our orientation towards those policies? What do we say? They're largely philosophical. They say that they have to meet these ends, that they can't sometimes do this thing, that we don't want it to do that thing. All very vague. And then we go into what the principles of our education is going to be, the requirements that they have to for the vetting process. We have to talk about, you know, different curriculum um portions that we have that it that it speaks to. But could it also do

070these things? Well, maybe. We don't say. It's very vague. And then at the end of the day, with the guidelines that are written in the policy, we then trust our curriculum director to be the one that picks the textbooks that I mean, what is our orientation towards textbooks? What are our guidelines toward textbooks? Largely have them submitted to us. We have a little bit of overhead with the board where I look at them but I mean we don't really have a hu besides philosophy what what is our orientation towards curriculum it's the same kind of policy it's very opened I don't I just see it as different I don't know if it's because AI is new and emerging and we don't have that baseline of knowledge with it but when I read the you know

071the instructional materials I understand that when I look at this I I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it. I mean, I'm not, you know, the most stellar astute person at these things, but I'm probably the average parent who is out there who would be looking at this to understand what does this mean for my child? And I I it just doesn't pass that test for me. So, so only only certain parts of this I I think are uh are really directed at parents as the audience. An awful lot of it, I think, is directed at the administration and staff. Well, that's problematic too, don't you think? No, because the they're the ones are primarily governed by the policy. I mean, parents parents are not govern I mean, parents who send their children

072are here are governed by our policies to the extent that they send their children here. And they and and so while their children are here, they have to follow our policies in, you know, in cooperation with us. But they could they could withdraw their children. they they they have more uh more ability to much much less of their life is is governed by the policies. The policies we pass primarily govern administrators and and staff, right? But they're understandable by parents. It's a it's a it's a it's transparency as to what goes on within the school. I think some policies are understandable parent by parents and others are hard to understand by parents because some of them get into very technical legal issues. I think it would be helpful if there was some kind of legal

073direction from the state or federally. right now there just isn't any. So I can it it does bring up an interesting question though Miss Hall was was saying about parents and that it could potentially be a problem. Could we maybe put a portion in this and we can even because we do have a policy in our supplemental stuff. There is like let's say as a parent I'm okay with most of the software that that are and I understand it but then something pops up just like you said it's going to come up live in the next two weeks that I don't like. Is there a place in this policy where a parent can challenge what I would call supplemental material just like we have in our vetting process policy? Can we can we have that

074say that they can challenge one of these tools because we don't have that right now and it is just like curriculum. If if I'm reading the policy correctly, you guys elected to keep the language. It says the district shall obtain prior informed consent from a parent or garden before allowing students to use generative AI tools and resources in school. But is that every tool? Well, it it does say tools and and I guess that goes to how that permission slip um might be prepared. Um, and again that gets to the point where you're trying to put something together. Uh, because I could see maybe at the elementary level where it's a very finite thing and a teacher might say, "Hey, there's really only one or two tools and I can tell you what they are."

075Uh, but that may be something we want to encourage at the building level to try to be specific as possible. Um, and I can see at the secondary level, uh, particularly maybe some teacher wants to do something more with AI, could be a lot more tools. And, um, but so with that language that you just read there, um, would that then be circle back to this inventory? I I think in part the the background why I think PSBA put this in is we do have this federal law COPA child online privacy protection act that says hey if you're 13 or under you need prior parental informed consent before you can get personal information so I think that cloms onto that so there is a a privacy protection piece but the other piece is when you

076look at some of the bigger generative AI plat platforms like Microsoft and Google and things. They allow for the creation of accounts just like you have in other social media accounts. So Joe Wilson or Jeff Litz could get an account or little Joe or little Jeff could get an account potentially. And they they say no, you got to be 18 unless you have parental permission uh or parental supervision. So again, depending how we use it. So, if you're talking about using tools in the sense of I'm going to allow a a student to create account, but by law and by the terms of uh service, you need to have prior parental permission to do that. Could can we check that because I did read I was reading before I came in about Google and Gemini

077because that was a specific question for me because we have um it as part of our board emails, right? And so I see the little Gemini thing up there and I don't have any other like chat GPT. I don't pay for any of that. So I went in there and I could see that. So then it made me look to see like what who is able to see Gemini, right? Because presumably if it's in my interface, then wouldn't it be in our kids interface? And so what I was reading is that if Google Gemini is part of the core service as part of our Google work education suite that they actually don't have age restrictions on. So, I I'm just saying like I Well, I I if we had a list of everything that we

078had, then it makes it more tangible what we're looking at, but right now we're like, well, it's I don't know. So, well, I mean, we looked at the terms of service for some of the bigger accounts and I have the language if you want it. Um, but generally that's when they're talking about user in these terms of service, it's the creation of account, but you're correct. You go to Microsoft, that's your chosen platform to search the internet, you know, they got a co-pilot feature just pops up now, you know, and and but you have to pay for that. No, for generative AI. Yeah, big search has a generative summary. Yeah. Okay. See, this is like again where I'm so frustrated because we're using AI and I'm not talking about it coming up as a summary

079to me. Maybe that is generative AI, but that is not the same as going in and trying to be able to use um Gemini to be able to write an outline, write a paper, be able to ask them for mental health help, any of those things. And I'm just saying that when I am on my computer, I can see Gemini is on there and it said that it does not have any age restrictions if it's part of the core service. So, I appreciate everything that you're saying. I'm just saying speak plainly for me. Are you telling me that when my third grader gets on their Chromebook and they were not going to see that Gemini up there and they're not going to be able to go in there and be able to use chat like

080a chat GPT type function? I I can tell you that I reviewed my son's who's going into 9th grade his Chromebook um two days ago and the Google interface that they go through does not have Gemini enabled in it. So I don't know if that is a district level setting. We may have to ask Greg about that. Okay. Um because we we were also told that couldn't be disabled. So like again, is it automatically there or it's not there? Maybe it can't be disabled for staff. Maybe it's automatically. Yeah. I mean for for Well, again, we're we're viewing it as as a staff member at some permission level. So for staff, they would normally all have access to, you know, ask that. H can we ask? So my understanding is similar to what Joe just

081said, staff have can have different settings than what students have. Thus a student does not have as access to Gemini. The the interesting thing is while staff member or adult would sorry complete sidetrack um our students are apparently able to add their own extensions to their Chromebooks. Dr. is you want to speak to I actually had a long conversation with Greg about a lot of this. Um we've been already behind the scenes all summer. We've been looking at what apps we have all of those pieces. An extension which would be what would be added to the computers or an app goes through a whole process where it is not allowed to go onto a student computer. So there are very limited. Right now we have 159 different apps that we are evaluating. We found that

082like 18 of them do the same thing. So why do we need 18 of them? So that goes back to what Dr. Bryson was saying. We want to really narrow down and make sure that what we're having is the best thing out there. But one of the things that is able to be um locked out and I actually went the Greg today and said we can push out this goes to students, this goes to this set of students, this goes to a teacher is able to put these things on there. We have very specific things. We've been doing a lot of work with different um IUs around us that we have generated lists that have over 30 different questions the look and say. So when Dr. Bryson said for elementary, there are very few that

083we would allow to go into our um onto our students Chromebooks because there are only so many that are allowed for that age group. When I looked at I can tell you right now we have about five at the elementary, three of which would be um have it has like a a subp part that's an AI component. So it's not completely an AI generated information. It's saying if you want this there's another button you can press. So we would talk to our teachers to say this is Canva what Dr. Bryson was talking about. We'd say we're not using that feature with our elementary. So that's where we're doing a lot of pieces and as we're going through Dr. Um, Repardert and I have been working this summer on making sure that we have a system

084in place with multiple levels to be able to go through and shore. We've all looked at it from a curricular standpoint, from a safety standpoint, but we also don't want to limit the ability for our students to be able to learn on some of these pieces. Um, and I can use our Dash and dot robots. So, we have Dash and Dot robots that are for coding for elementary. They're designed for elementary. They're now getting an AI component in the app that allows a student to say go forward, go back. For an elementary kindergarten student, they can say forward or back. They're not going to be able to type that in. So, in some ways, they have where we've done colors where you code with color. So, that's where we're looking at saying, is it appropriate

085for the age that we're looking for? So, that's where we're kind of um we've been looking at all of these components to make sure that we are still allowing our teachers to have the components that they need to instruct, but also making sure that we have very specific guidelines to say, and I'll tell you, there are very few elementary um ones out there that are approved. And it it'll say right on there, this is not approved if you're under the age of 13 or under the age of 18. So, we are taking all of those components and we're already saying, you know, to our teachers and talking with them and saying, we have to look at all of these components. Please do not just go out and take the newest AI out there and just

086start using it. We want to look for all of these features. Thank you. At the risk of saying something philos something philosophical and not really beneficial to this policy. Um I had an interesting conversation recently with um somebody in the health area who uh shared with me. It was interesting. He was at a conference in the health field, surgical field, and said, you know, one of the main topics out there, regardless of what field you're in, is AI and the use of AI and the fear that AI is going to take over my job. And the statement he shared was, "Your job's not going to be taken over by AI. Your job's going to be taken over by somebody who can utilize AI to do your job." And I think that's a powerful statement. If

087if we're going to preach that we're preparing our kids for the future and the and the careers of tomorrow, and I'm not claiming we're saying we're banning AI. We're not banning AI. We have to be very cognizant that they're going to have to utilize it appropriately and they will have a job in the future. So, as we move forward with updating this, I just need to keep in my back of my mind. It's not something we can run from. We have to somehow have guidelines, guard rails in place. Um, but our kids really do need access at some point to be able to learn how to do the jobs of the future. So, I just want to say I love that I don't want to run from it. I just want to understand it. So,

088one of the other things we're doing uh a board workshop in October. We're going to instead of discussing it, we're going to engage you in how is it being utilized in the classroom. Here are some examples and you'll be working with it so that hopefully we're able to develop your understanding of it as well. I I think this policy does create some guard rails uh some important ones that have been added. I think it's it's a substantial improvement over what was originally given to us and many other districts passed without without even you know contending with it. Um I think that that inventory is essential and this policy directs the creation of it uh while also while also creating some of those guidel guardrails and at the moment we have no guardrails um and and

089so even if there are pieces of this policy that could be clearer um I think that what's extremely unclear is the current environment where we have no guidelines or guardrails at Um, so for me, this is an improvement over that. Um, but I'll acknowledge there are parts of it that I want to see the inventory and then revisit as we've done with policies in the past. You know, let's have something as opposed to nothing. Mhm. And then we can modify, change, update as we see fit based on the current, you know, climate of what AI because it's going faster than we can and it's going to just accelerate. Um, we can adjust our policy to that. And I'm I I want something in place as opposed to Yeah, I mean, you're right. It's being pushed

090upon us and I don't like it. But what's the alternative? Alternative is we have nothing. And I mean, I heard from a student say, "Yeah, our teacher tells us use chat GBT to just do it." That's unacceptable, you know. So, I rather have this than a free-for-all, as it were. And Dr. Hughes highlighted like from from a writing standpoint of a policy. How would I even begin to have what she described, how do you have a policy for that kind? It has to be open-ended because I never would have anticipated that's what we would use it for and have it be, you know, subject to does it fit our curriculum needs? Is it age appropriate? Is it like that's the only way I can think to do it right now. Maybe we'll come up with

091something different later on, but well, and I think our prior discussions um centered around having the AI committee meet a little more regularly than the couple times we've met and just have that be an ongoing standing committee of the school. That way, we've got teachers, we've got leadership, we got the board all involved in that conversation. Um, I mean I I I I would support this policy with one well two changes. One is I'd like to define the age restrictions a little more clearly based on kind of the industry standards. I think that you would had found Mr. Let's language you'd add language. I would well first you know specifically the district will adhere will will adhere to specific and this is a change it says and it should say enduser age restrictions and while

092we're at it comma should be an and because it should be end user and age restrictions I believe uh otherwise the comma shouldn't be there I don't know and then what's the but the second part is you know what and this is kind of where I'm going to lean on you Mr. It's, you know, something along the lines of, you know, that we would adhere to the the prevalent industry standards of 13 to 18 with parental permission and 18 and older open permission. So, you want to tighten that part of Well, well, I mean, we we say age restrictions, but the general public isn't doesn't know what that is. I think, you know, we have a definition section up here or in here, you know, does it should it go in as a definition here

093to define what those age restrictions are industrywide or that's interesting. Well, let me just say this. If I wrote down this correctly, we have a motion in a second at this point for the policy. Mhm. According to policy 003, uh changes in a proposed board procedure or policy except for minor editorial revisions at the second reading shall cause the the reading to constitute a first reading. So if we're talking about substantive additions beyond minor editorial revisions, that's going to kick this back to first reading. What Mr. Wilson said is that minor is is a definition of the of an ambiguous term um minor or a major editorial revision? Um I in my mind a minor editorial revision would be to correct a typographical error, a grammatical error or to correct a a conjunction or or

094an article. uh adding a definition that doesn't exist I think is something more than minor and editorial. I'll say it that way. Mr. Wilson, would you be I'm trying to figure out a way to to make it work. Would you be okay with making those changes at a later date? um as in passed. So the guardrails are up and then proceed with changing the definition of age restriction because in full disclosure the changes you want to make I can say I'm absolutely on board with those so if we reviewed it at a later date. When does our next because I know we have we have our policies to be reviewed. Yeah it could. When does our next policy cycle start, Mrs. Hall? Well I don't know if we could get it on this one. I

095I think we we could, right? Because we're receiving the set the list of policies uh tonight, but that's that's just information. We could receive the policy in the interim and do first read at September. Right. Right. Yes. So, one thought would be if you would want to add it on for the next session, the personnel and policy meeting is that Monday night, you could add it on at that point and then we could add it on for first read. I and technically we're receiving it tonight. If we pass it tonight, we're receiving the the version that we passed tonight and then because we just passed it and then we could put it on for first read in September. I I think that I would be I would I would acquies to that. Um I think

096that would be a good way to handle it because I think philosophically I think this policy needs to be in place before our kids are back in the buildings. That is my that is my core sort of gut feel. Um whether we take it down to the bolts in, you know, in September when we're on a first read. So I I understand what you're saying about wanting to have it in place as the, you know, school year starts. Um, however, its implementation is a process. It's a it's a a multi-month process um that is going to sort of shake out probably sometime between now and you know the end of this current calendar year. you know, as we're as this list is developed and turns into something tangible, uh, that people are able to to

097see the list and understand the list. So, Dr. Bryson, if if this goes to if this change is made and goes to a first reading, does that preclude you from being able to begin this process of creating this this list? and then um you know that vetting process of you know moving through the IT department and Dr. Hughes and and so on. Um so I I think that puts him in a little bit of a strange position because he'd be effectively trying to implement a policy that hasn't passed. Let me let me turn that around. understand hearing what you're hearing from the board tonight that and and we can just get a general sense because there's nothing in the policy that says you can't do what Mr. Wilson is proposing. So understanding I mean is

098the board generally uh favorable to Mr. Wilson's suggestion? Absolutely. Anyone not favorable? Okay. So you'd be doing yourself a disservice to not incorporate that in the implementation of your policy given that it's likely to uh be amended in that way in the near future. So the policy certainly it permits you to implement the policy in that way. Um and it seems that like likely that an amendment of that sort is coming. Could you repeat what you're requesting Mr. Wilson? Um, basically I think the the definition of we we say in here and I'm trying to find uh under authorities first the second paragraph specifically the district will adhere to specific end user that still is a typo aid end user age restrictions for approved generative AI tools. Um I believe that we need to define

099what those age restrictions are based on current prevalent industry guidelines. um specifically you must be 18 to use CHAD GPTs in that class of tool and then 13 to 18 is with parent parent or guardian permission priority consent because what you're indicating is what we're doing. Mhm. So it's not something I'm changing. And I think the purpose of it being added specifically into the policy is for the outside individual that doesn't know what those standards are. Right. I did not mean to imply that you weren't doing that. Right. But I guess what I'm saying is and then and I don't know the answer to this. Is there are there industry standards? businesses. This this is how AI tools are categorized and here are the specific age requirements for those categories. We could run chat GBT

100and find out, right? No, no. Oh, I I I what I'm saying is double check that. We're going tool by tool to approve these because I'm not certain there is that what you're requesting. And so I'm operating off of here's the tool. Here are our four questions. One of which is the age restrictions based on the enduser agreement and that's how we're going to approve it or deny it and also require permissions based upon it. But I don't know that there's a nice categorized list that you can put into the policy for a parent, right? But I mean philosophic like if you look at the you know Jeff you you saw all of the you went through the legal the age things for the variety of tools. Yes. I had an associate do it that

101well but yeah we we looked at OpenAI Meta AI Google Gemini Deep AI Microsoft Copilot Claude I so those are the the bigger ones but I think I hear Dr. Bryson's saying in in Dr. Hugh's comments, there may be some curricular pieces, for lack of a better term, that we typically use in the educational setting that may not fit within that little wheelhouse there. It's sort of built in. And again, it depends what you mean by by use uh on that, whether it's a teacher directing something versus a student creating it on on on their their own. So the con example that you had said earlier, things like that. Uh I think maybe a a solution is if the board wanted to vote on this tonight. Um I think as Nathan suggested, I think there

102appears to be consensus on on desire to ensure that we're considering each stuff and the administration can take that in account and gathering this information and being very cognizant of that and reporting that back out to you guys. uh at least that gets started and then if there's a need for a assuming the policyy's adopted uh if there's a further desire for amendments that we can take it up later. Okay, Mrs. Hall, what would you like to see that would obtain a yes from you? Oh, I would like to see it rewritten to be understandable. So, yeah, I have a suggestion just along these lines. Um, so I I was going to ask you three questions on on this. Is the policy is written. Is it something that you believe you understand well enough that

103you can implement it at your level? Yes. Okay. Would it be and probably you were already going to do this. Will uh would it be possible to create a teacher summary um and a parent summary? I don't know. the teacher summary you're probably going to have in some form of of AI of the implementation a parent summary would would you be comfortable making those two documents that basically pull out the pieces that they actually because they don't need to worry about the technical part about our technology people are looking at what will this expose student data they need to report the the use of the tool so our technology department can look at it and they and they need to be generally aware of that but that's not their responsibility to find out if it

104does a teacher or a parent um would it be possible to create summaries for those particular uh stakeholders? Yeah. And I I think two potentially I don't know if it's two summaries or it's an administrative regulation that we create that says here's here's what we're doing. I think the separate summaries might be useful just because the stakeholders have very different um interactions with the policy. I think parents interact with policy in a very different way from teachers. And so by by pulling out only the pieces that they need to be concerned about uh that might make it easier to understand. I think part of the difficulty understanding is that this is directed in a way at so many different people. It is directed parts of it are directed at parents. Making sure that your student

105isn't using an AI in a way that's going to get them uh punishment for plagiarism um would be a a parent concern. But uh is it exposing student data? That's something a parent would be concerned about. But in terms of val verifying whether it does or not, that's a technology as in teachers need to understand and implement, parents need to understand, right? Yeah. Then the things they need to understand are different. Yeah. So I don't know if that would be at all helpful for you. Um and I to see it. You'd want to see it. Yeah. Would you create? we can attempt to create those and get some feedback. Yeah. So, I don't know if that brings you to a to a yes, but I think it I hope I hope that the creation of

106those will help to address your concerns whether you vote yes or no. Well, and I think you're on to something there, Nathan, in that. Okay. Yes, we're going to have this this inventory or this list available for for parents to go and see, but um this summary might help them to understand what they're looking at because it is, you know, very, you know, ambiguous and complicated, difficult to to wrap your your head around. So, I think it may give parents um a greater likelihood to allow their student to opt into something like this because we are going to have parental um acceptance or they they have to accept that it's okay for their ch child. Um but if they don't understand it, there may be a sense of I I don't I don't want my

107kid doing this. I don't understand it, you know. Well, and maybe there's a, you know, we do we do during our back to school nights, you know, presentations to the families that come out for those nights. Maybe this is some sort of a topic that we can broach with parents at that point to sort of help them be better informed. I know we've had mixed turnout for our other parent focused uh evening events. Well, and I mean it is going to take it's going to take time. It is this is going to take time. It's just not going to happen quickly. The the the the other thing that I'll I'll kind of put it the opposite way. The only way that I would be comfortable voting no on this policy is something that I think

108can't happen uh because it would involve uh additions to the agenda. Um which is we would have to give directives for because otherwise the we're we're effectively by by telling Bob to do all these things we're kind of setting policy by saying come up with an inventory. Don't let uh don't let students be using this without parental consent uh if they're if they're under a certain age. Um you know v various things that are actually covered in this if a student is caught using it uh you know uh for to replace their own work then then discipline them as plagiarism. we'd be we'd be directing him to do all those things um and to make that direction binding and and give him a basis for doing it because he may not be comfortable enacting uh

109plagiarism offense without a policy saying that that's what the offense is because a parent might challenge him. Um I unless we could give him several directives that this policy does direct, I I'm very uncomfortable with where we are. Um because he would have to be doing them kind of unofficially. Yeah. And so if there's anything this policy directs that is directs as an official directive that is something we do not want, that would be a reason to hold back, especially if it was worse than the the than the good things that it does direct. Um, but apart from that, I'm I'm very uncomfortable not having several of the directives of this policy go into effect. And I don't see anything in it that is for me a a poison poison pill um that we can't

110rectify. You know, fairly there may be problems with it, but there are things we can rectify and there are things that could happen now. So, there's nothing in it. I don't see it causing any problems, it making anything worse than it is now. I see it addressing a number of issues and then there are a number of areas where I I do think we'll have to tighten it up as we go. Miss Hall, do you see something that makes I mean I don't understand why we have to have a policy to make an inventory list. Well, otherwise it unofficially. We had a field trip inventory list. I mean, he can do he can do things like that administratively, right? But but there are a number of things here that we're we're effectively asking him to

111do and some of them are are you know I mean coming up with the the industry standard is maybe not something that that that that came from the board. And so I think because several of these things are coming from the board it's appropriate to put them in policy rather than just say hey why don't you do these things. So it's like we're making a policy before we have a framework or research. That's the part that I'm uncomfortable with. No, there is research and and a framework that went into this policy, but there is more that needs to happen, which is why it's I think it's going to be amended. I mean, I think the the AI committee took this policy up eight, nine months ago and tried to wordsmith it as it went along.

112I don't think that that work is ever going to be done. I think there's, you know, your feedback as far as distilling this down into something that's a little bit more straightforward would be a great thing for our next meeting, which um I'll I'll send you an email and ask about when that's going to happen. I also think there are important things in here that we need we need to make sure are being done and I'm uncomfortable with the continued usage without it. I'll say it again. The one the one that I as when I was working with the AI committee prioritize critical evaluation understanding of the risks associated with generative AIS over usage. I mean, Bob just a little bit ago was saying our students need to learn to use this in order to

113be, you know, employable in the future. And that that is likely true to for many for many employments, maybe not all, but many. That said, I think it's very dangerous to not start with critical evaluation because AI hallucinate. uh when I was using an AI to come up with problem sets for my kids with multiple choice answers, sometimes there were no correct answers given. So you need to be you need to be looking at those results critically. And I I I want a policy that says look and and is that policy extremely clear in terms of what needs to be done? No, because it can't be what critical evaluation that's an entire class. Um and so that's a curriculum that's going to have to be developed now. It's a curriculum that will exist across many

114classes. I would like to see it I'd like to see a critical thinking class all on its own that would maybe include some of that. But whatever, yeah, some of its judgment calls for sure, which is why it's open-ended, but a no to this policy, and I I hate saying it this way because it is a false way of framing it, but it also is mostly true. We can go in that direction. A no to the policy is a yes to I'm cool with things being not age appropriate and I'm cool with things not being educational because that is in the policy. I I see it differently. I mean why can't we just say no we're not going to do this until we have a policy? Like I don't I mean don't we govern like

115don't we say what we can and can't do? We are it's being done now and it's incorporated into tools that are currently in use. Right. Respectfully I know this conversation isn't I'm you're not moving me. So like if you want to vote we can vote. We know where I'm going to go with it. I don't think it provides guard rails if you can't understand what it says. Well, I I we will I understand that and as a but you know at least this this policy is coming up again very soon with more information over and over and over again. Yeah. And probably multiple times. So Dr. operation. Before we move on, um what is your perspective on the framework of the procedure that this policy requires from you? You procedure for approval, the school. Yes,

116correct. We we created it. So, I mean, that's a part of this policy that we did create and we're comfortable with. And quite honestly, that's the most important piece to me. It covers your age, it covers your data, it covers all of that. That's the important piece to me. And we've already begun the process of moving forward with it. Whether you approve the policy tonight, um, I don't feel like I'm being forced to do that. I think it's ethically correct. So, we're doing it. This is another another thing is we can't say we're not doing it until we have a policy because we don't have a policy that says we're not doing it. So, we can't the board is not like I'm not comfortable saying that. I'm not comfortable saying but also we would have

117to have an agenda item saying we're not using AI. That could have been the policy. Um and then they'd try to figure out how to do that and it would be a nightmare. Um but we can't do that because that's not a policy that's been proposed. Um and so right now if we if we pass nothing then the use of it can continue under the current lack question. Mr. President, I call for the question. All right. Um we have a move to call the question. Um sec I'll second that. Uh any discussion? Any naysay or abstensions? All right. So, we'll have a vote. Uh so, I think this is me, right? Yeah, you can call for a vote and so we have a second. We had a lot of discussion. Thank you for all that.

118Any nays or abstensions? Yes. So, hearing do a roll on. Yeah. Well, well, so you're voting no. Is Does anyone else want to vote no? I I just wanted to make sure there was an opportunity. Okay. All right. So, this motion carries. All right. I It won't be as long going on, I promise you. Well, it might be maybe one little other piece. Okay. Um item 10.02, policy revisions for consideration. Um this actually is what we were talking about. Um that we Oh, no. I know I went into policies. Um this is what we were talking about that we have policies that are up for um September. So the information that we have tonight is what those policies would be. The first reading of these policies will be at the September 17th, 2025 board meeting.

119Review of these policies will take place at the Personnel and Policy Committee meeting at 5:30 p.m. on September 15, 2025. Um item 10.03 03 agreement with the communication solutions group to provide a training session. I make a motion to approve an agreement with the communication solutions group at a cost of $1,000 plus mileage reimbursement at the IRS rate to provide a training session titled strategic communication improving clarity and preventing message missteps. Um do I have a second? Any discussion? Any nays or abstensions? Okay, motion carries. Item 10.04, memorandum of understanding with the Southern New York Educational Association concerning two supplemental positions. Um, I make a motion to approve a memorandum of understanding with the Southern York Educational Association concerning two supplemental positions. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Second. Any um discussion? Any nays

120or abstensions? All right. Motion carries. Item 10.05, Dr. Robert Bryson's attendance at the LI12 Superintendent Symposium and AASA National Conference on Education. I'd like to make a motion to approve Dr. Bryson to attend the LIU 12 Superintendent Symposium and AASA National Conference on Education. as follows. September 24th through 26, 2025 in Washington DC at no cost to the district and two February 12th to the 14th, 2026 in Nashville not to exceed $2,800. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Any nays or abstensions? All right, that motion carries. All right. Um item 10.06, athletic director. I make a motion to authorize the superintendent, Dr. Robert Bryson in consultation with the board president and chair of personnel and policy to provisionally hire the athletic director prior to the September 17th, 2025 schoolboard meeting. Any such hiring

121of these administrators shall be subject to a ratifying vote of approval by the school board at the next scheduled meeting. Do I have a second? Second. Um, any discussion? I have a question about that one. Do we currently have an AD? Like who's doing that that work in that position? Uh your high school principal and assistant principal are currently filling in for the past AP. Okay. Yep. So big thank you to Mr. Bonds and Dr. Sterner and our assistant AD who I don't want to forget. Um who's Mr. Kerr? Any other discussion? All right. Any nays or abstensions? Okay. Motion carries. Item 10.07. This is a discussion on student cell phone use. So, Mr. Wilson asked to have this item. Yeah. I did ask to at least get this on here as a discussion. I

122know we've been talking a lot about AI, but I think we do need to at least maintain the conversation on cell phone usage in schools. Um, as of this this coming this starting school year, uh, the following states have banned cell phones from bell to bell. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Washington DC with California, Georgia, and Vermont. They are going to be joining the next school year. Um, it is, and I don't know if this might be in your legislative report. I might be stealing something here, but uh Pennsylvania State Senate is supposed to introduce a bill this fall to ban cell phones in schools from bell to bell. Um PSBA, although disagrees with that state level ban,

123saying each district needs to decide for themselves how best to address this. Um, I just wanted to have this conversation to see where we're at with this because this banning cell phones from schools bell to bell. We're getting close to 50% of the states already going down this road. Um, and I don't want to, you know, Harrisburg's having enough trouble passing a budget, right? um to address something like this, I think. So, you know, it's kind of it comes to us to at least make sure we have these conversations to um make sure we're doing the right thing for our students. I agree with you. I think it's already the case here for elementary school and middle school, right? Um, so we're basically talking about the high school and I think getting ahead of legislators,

124it would be a good idea to hear from staff. You know, maybe send out a little something. you know, how did things go last year and rely on our administrators to, you know, help us understand if students were able to um, you know, restrain themselves from using their cell phones when it was inappropriate, when they shouldn't be, or if the staff was really having a hard time um, managing that in the classroom. I think that would help us to be able to know if we need to do something additionally before we wait for legislators to do it. for us. Um, one thing I think I spoke deep briefly with Dr. Reppert about currently any sort of cell phone violations are not state reportable offenses. So, they typically fall under our student student code of conduct.

125Um, I think we were one of the things that we're going to at least take a look at at some point is to figure out if we can get a sense from that Yeah, actually uh back in April I did report uh because it did come up about what our cell phone Yeah. concerns were and I reported those. Uh so I did reach back out I I did check u since we're at the end of the year uh taking a look at our cell phone incidents that have been reported in Sapphire discipline. Um so in Sapphire we have zero at elementary. Okay. uh for the year. Um at the middle school uh we finished the year with 133 uh total infractions. Now I do want to let me rephrase that uh with 101. I do

126want to say that back in April there were 59 then we went to 101. So as I spoke with the administration according to the handbook first offense is a warning. That's not something that goes into second offense is a parent contact and a teacher attend a detention. So we have students that had their warning and then ended up having a a second offense and ended up in a consequence. So then that ends up getting uh uh noted at the high school in April was 114. Uh finished year at 133. Uh so when you're looking at, you know, the the total amount of infractions, you know, you got 181 days, middle school, you got 450 students, okay? And you had 101 infractions through the entire year. I don't know, Bob, you're the math person. You can

127kind of figure out what the percentage is, but it's it's minimal when you're looking at the amount of where students are receiving consequences as a result. Now go to the high school, just under a thousand students. you have 133 um incidents that ended up being uh where students received consequences. But it does show, you know, that first offense is a warning does not get documented as a disciplinary piece. But it is noted so that if a student has a second offense that there would be a parent contact, teacher detention, second or third would be an office referral with an additional consequence and so on. So, you know, when you're looking at the number of infractions, yes, there are issues because there are numbers. It's not at zero. Uh, but as Mr. Wilson and I have

128talked over the years, there's a lot of other code of conduct things that we we're not at zero. Plagiarism being one. Uh, driving without a permit, you know, a parking placard, another one. So we do have infractions that occur, but when we're looking at the specific number of incidents, they're small compared to the amount of times that the students are in seven plus hours during the day, 181 days of school, you know, and then looking at the total number of uh incidents that were actually recorded in Sapphire as a result of infractions. So the so the middle school one you said was 10 101 for the year but the first warning was not recorded first warning it does get recorded because that allows the administration to know if there's a second okay that there is

129a so that number first and second okay which by your by your other uh data, your end of year data, that's you know 18th of the student code of conduct numbers. So I mean well this is districtwide but this would include the middle school and the high school which middle school and high school out of two and some right I think well I actually this is actually pulled this is separate from what you have in front of you because I was asked to pull specific regarding uh cell phone so I compared it based on the April to the end of the year total that was provided to me from our uh from our end of the year report. But you're saying the annual total is 200 and some across the middle and high school. Yes.

130And if that becomes part of the student code of conduct violations of 835 for the year, that would be be about a quarter of 25%. Yeah. Well, and I think it would be helpful also to hear from our student rep in regards to this because you were voted in. And not that I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you, do you think we should ban salts because I think everybody would be mad at you if you said yes. But what are your thoughts? seriously about cell phones in the classroom. Do you think that it's something that is very hard to manage? Okay, I I wanna I think we need to be careful and define what we're speaking to a little bit because Okay, when you say classrooms, they're not to be utilized

131in the classrooms right now. Yeah. Right. And so there are restrictions, but as Mr. Wilson indicated banning bell to bell is something different. Mhm. So I think we have to recognize that which is the case at the middle school. So you're banning so to speak bell to bell. You have 100 in one 10 101 incidents. We're not banning bell to bell. We're banning in instructional time at the high school and there's 130 incidents with twice the number of kids. Now, we can all perceive that differently, but for me, you're still getting a 100 incidents and we're banning it already. We're not banning in another building, we have aroundund and some incidents. Um, banning it doesn't get rid of them. Pouching them up doesn't get rid of them. Pouching them up, you put them in metal

132detector, right? Right. Right. They just carry a second cell phone. That's what's happening. or they get their own demagnetizers and they open their batch up. So, so think about what we're really saying is if you ban it at the high school, which is really the only thing we have left, bell-to-bell, no cell phones. You're talking about cafeteria in between classes. That's what you're adding on to the the no cell phone list, if you will. And I'm not sure, Mr. Wilson, I because I did a little bit of research on it, too. So, I'm not sure. I'm not sure, but you may be absolutely correct in what you read that it's a bell-to bell ban for 27 states cuz what I was seeing is very specific differences in restrictions, but not necessarily bell to bell. And

133I think we are restricting cell phone usage from an allout. you're not going to have them from bell to bell to a high school situation where they are allowed to have them in certain places at certain times and if not then they go they get referred and you go through the same process right so I think we need just to understand the terminology cuz the devil's in the detail right if the state says bell to bell well what does it mean for us high school loses cell phone use through the day now I'd throw out there to folks Does that mean adults as well? Cuz it's hard to model a ban on cell phones from bell to bell and yet your staff is utilizing their cell phones. I think you also need to find what

134bell to bell is because a bell rings when the class starts and when it ends, bell rings to start day end of day. I I get it. But yeah, right. I mean I think that conceptually most of the time they're thinking I walk in the building. Right. Right. And yeah, I from a from that perspective. So I had to look that up to to see does by bell to bell which one do they mean? It looks like that typically means starting bell to end bill. So I I think we we may be a little bit ahead of the g were a little bit ahead of the game in that we placed restrictions K through 8 and some restrictions 9 through 12. Um, and philosophically, it's different than the AI thing for sure, but these kids

135are walking out the door as 18 year olds, and some of them in our high school are 18 and 19 year olds. They're walking out the door and potentially they're not going to have any kind of restrictions going on. I mean, some do in college and some jobs you have to hand your cell phone in. I get it. But potentially again, we're teaching them how to use them responsibly versus getting rid of them at an older age group. Just the I'm just sharing where we are now, the philosophy where we are now so that I hopefully your terminology and your understanding is we're similar in that piece. Um, but I'd have to look deeper at the 20 the number of states uh that have already gone that way because I think many of them have

136taken different strategies on at different age groups with the restrictions. Yeah. I mean, last year Pennsylvania was doing the the magnetized pouches and get $100,000 from the state grants implement that and we're I think the board at that time said that's a waste of money. That's so yeah, uh I would a couple things to to add to this. Um, one the main concern I had about or I don't know if the main a concern that I had about this policy from a perspective of some of some parents um and especially if their child has you know a reason to need to contact them during the day and there are all sorts of things that could be going on uh is is taking away the ability to contact parent during the day. Um, it's my understanding

137now that parent email addresses can be added to an approved list of emails that students can can email. Is that is that a a thing that can happen? I know that that I I think uh one of my children tried it at one tried to email me at one point and it got bounced back or something or or vice versa. We had can parents email their children's sycd? Right. Right now I don't think it's anything out of the district. So we something out of the domain or wait I I guess it was that we could allocate email addresses to parents which caused a problem because then they would be a part of our network and then we'd have fishing problems and all that. So that's okay. Yeah. So those neither of those. So can we

138make it such that it can receive outside approved emails? But then it's all we run into accessing zooms and all of the things that I think we had concerns about previously. So if there was a solution to that that would take away one concern of mine and maybe it's a maybe it's a chat app that has a certain that that can send text messages to a pre pre-approved list of like four or five people um that have to be you know parents, grandparents, you know the parents basically have to specify. Um, that would take away one concern that I would have about it. Um, in favor of it, um, now that some of the states have those bell-to-bell bans in place, uh, they're we're starting to get some information back on how it's working and

139a number of students have actually reported that they didn't like it in the beginning. Actually, they're they're they're happier at school uh, with with with the ban in place. Um, now you know I don't know if there are enough results to call that a but you know maybe it's still anecdotes but that that may turn into data. So, I think that's that's a thing to watch. Uh because being really present in what you're doing when you're, you know, if you're going to school and you're really present in what you're doing there and in that you're there to learn that you're there to to attend each class and learn what you have for that class and and yeah, there's going to be some talking among students between and at lunch. there going to be breaks but

140but by keeping it all students talking to each other not contacting people outside or checking what's happening on on it by by keeping it all within the school environment uh that helps to maintain that focus I think so I think there is a a case for it on that on that basis I'm open to to that one of the analogies I saw about it was okay well when our athletes are out on the field playing a game or practicing, they don't have their cell phones with them, but when they're in the classroom, they have their cell phone with them. So, we're we're saying, okay, we should really really focus on the sport side of things, but not the academic side of things. There's a little bit of a disconnect there. Just philosophically, I feel like

141the main focus is already on education and by putting these rules that I think are fair to have like no phones allowed but not locking them up and restricting restricting people in any way. I think that that still places an emphasis on education, but you're still saying you have this access, but you don't need it. I feel like what people are going to be upset about if you do end up doing a bell-to bell ban is taking something away. And people obviously don't like when that happens. Mhm. So, I feel like there would be a lot of discontent from students and parents alike if something like a bell-to-bell ban were to go into effect. I see that. One one way to address that because we already have it for a lot of our students is

142to simply have it follow grade levels up. So, you do it. Now I guess high school that can be that can be difficult because I guess yeah 9th grade and 10th grade students can be in the same class. So that I guess there's a challenge there. Same class. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One thing we're not noticing like I I followed up on I think it's I think it's West Virginia. I'm not sure. Don't quote me. But I I looked up the legislation because I was interested in what Dr. Bryson said. Is it bellto bell? Are these states handling it different ways? I want to say that it's West Virginia, but I was reading the legislation on one of them and it did bring up something. You know, as we're as a school board evaluating, we asked

143Dr. Reppert to give us the incident rates. And so, yeah, that obviously tells us when somebody has their cell phone out, they're not supposed to. But there's more to consider because that we can't quantify distraction. Mhm. So, currently you're not allowed to have your cell phone out when in in high school during class, but you can get the notification that somebody likes something on Facebook on your Apple Watch. You can't quantify the distraction. And so, some of these legislations we're talking about, it wasn't just having their cell phone on them and having it be restrictions that way. It was the constant distractions throughout the day, notifications, things like that. Yeah, which I I do see that. And yeah, it would be a distraction. Going back a little bit to the the AI, the point of

144school is to prep them for life, right? Prep these kids for life. And your cell phone is going to be with you. I never leave the house without it ever. Wallet, key, cell phone, right? So the point is to use it responsibly and if in if we're banning bell to bell which to be honest I'm not really for and in more of an effort to how do we get them to just be responsible a warning tiered system you know warning hey put it away two okay now you bring to the front of the class in a basket or whatever three now we're talking to your parents it's never getting past number Mhm. I know, you know, going back to when I was that age, I wouldn't want to have my parent have to come in

145and get my phone out because then my phone's leaving at home and I don't want that. So, when you're when you're teaching that level of responsibility and and encouraging them to grow that within themsel, I think that's more advantageous than outright ban you can't have it. In addition to that, Matt, you might have some insight on that on this, looking at a worst case scenario situation. Let's say we have to evacuate the building. Okay. The the community grape vine goes out. You're going to have a bunch of parents calling a bunch of phones that aren't answering. You're a bunch of freaked out parents that are now showing up to what could just be a a fire drill, okay? or a um evacuation of a building, something like that where it didn't need to happen. If

146the child could just text back, it's fine, just fire drill. Or a relocation situation could happen, right? You could avoid a bunch of freaked out parents. Again, worst case scenario stuff, but if if you put it if you make them put in their locker and they don't have it on them, when you leave the building, it's with you. Does that make sense what I'm saying here? Um, I don't think we want to go that extreme because we could avoid some issues if some stuff if some endline stuff were to happen. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And and I can see that. I mean, the reason I want to at least have the conversation is that there are states that are already going this way and more than likely it is going to reach Pennsylvania at some

147point. I think what if we wait and see? I hate to say that we already have rules in place. Wait and see how these other states pan out. Hate to say if there is a worst case scenario and they dealt with this, what what happened? What did these schools have to deal with? I don't want to see that happen, but what if? And then we're going to see if that was really a good option or not. And I I mean, we have a role in place right now. We're monitoring it. We're telling students, be responsible. Well, we trust you with your phone and you know that's the best we can do. We can't take everything away. You're going to have to have like the the reason I want to at least have this conversation is

148this is going to reach Pennsylvania at some point. Absolutely. Oh, you know that it's either legislature could make a decision. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's fine. And then that's not our fault. I want to add I want to add one thing on the on the uh notion that we are you know of preparing our students for life that you know they have it but they have to be responsible with it. I I I do see that argument and that that actually fits with the idea that we're not allowing them to have in elementary school because we don't we don't make elementary school students make all the decisions about responsibility that we expect from high school students. That said, um, in preparing them for the real world, this is just anecdotal, but, uh, there's a there's a

149college professor that I I really, uh, you know, a good friend of mine from, uh, from James Madison, uh, taught when I when I went there, and, um, his penalty for, uh, having your phone out in class is a letter grade off of your grade for that class for the semester. No warnings. the penalty is severe and and and that's what he has. So that is out there in the real world when they go to college they may have a professor who will take they very it is very possible they would have a professor who would take a letter grade off of their grade for the semester that sort of severe consequence. So we may need to consider that okay you get a warning and then it gets taken away for the day and then

150the third time we contact that may that may be step like if we're talking about outright bans maybe maybe the penalty needs to be a little bit more severe. Maybe we need to jump jump one of those one of those levels to let them know hey look some people are not going to tolerate this if you have it out during class. Well, that they're going to have do what all adults do is figure it out, you know, and and once you get to that point, you're going to have to evolve. Yeah. If I if I were to go from high school to college, and that's what the professor said. Well, that's a little harsher than high school, I guess. So, I I guess you got to adjust. Yeah. It's it's but a lot of times

151preparing is a matter of of there's a certain amount of gradualism to preparing. So, uh that you don't want a massive learning curve as compared to just a learning curve. Yeah, I get that. Yeah. If we if we have data though that's telling us that in an outright band situation two grade levels 100 infractions and then a not outright banned four grade levels equivalent number of infractions. I I feel like we would be trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. I mean it's a lot of our student code of contact violations. It's quarter of them. Yeah. That's it is his point is you have I think and you may already understand so I don't want to I think what I did a really poor job that's where I was going with it Bill previously

152but you have 500 kids thousand kids roughly you've roughly got the same number of incidents and this building has a ban well so part of what may be going on there is students may think in the middle school they may believe they can get away with between classes, but every one of those that gets caught becomes an infraction. So you're you should expect higher infractions where the rules are more strict. Um if if the students are so to a point, I mean sometimes having very strict rules that are very that are very going back to your college example then well so there's the strictness of the rule and then there's the the severity of the enforcement. Those are two separate things. um and and a a stricter rule that does not have severe enforcement, you'd

153actually expect to have a higher number of violations because people in high school are doing things that vi that would violate the rule if the rule restrictor. So I wonder how many kids hit the parent level and stopped or how many kids redid it and redid it like I don't have that specific. I didn't think you would, but And I don't expect you. I do expect you guys, but I'm just like I mean like was it 50 kids that did it twice and like this is I I you're going to have kids that are good to it. It's going to happen, right? But as the progression step goes higher, it's going to get less and less and less and less because you kids don't want to deal with parents taking away their phones. I promise

154you. I'm I'm like I said, I'm somewhat open-minded on the policy. I can see both sides. Um I will say I do not consider a quarter of our student code of conduct violations to be a small uh issue when it comes to student code of conduct even though the issue is a small issue. Well, it's if if it's distracting I mean what are the other student code of conduct violations? If it was h if it was fighting we'd be having a different conversation but it's have the cell phone looking at it. It's it's not as big as a deal as a fighting issue would be. Well, but those aren't student fighting would not be student code of conduct. Student code of conduct is the minor stuff that that tends to create distraction in class. So,

155it's talking and classer, you know, dress code violations. Dress code violations. It's it's the things that create more minor issues than fighting. So, it it fits in that category, but it is it does make up a large percentage of of the things in that category. Yeah. I'm not saying the hundreds fine. I'm not saying it's okay, but I mean I'm also I don't know. I'd say wait for the state for a little bit. See how it goes. Yeah. Give it a year. And also, you know, as we said, all these states are currently doing it for going into the school year. By November, we're going to start hearing some some data. We're going to hear start hearing some data as far as how it affects the students, the environment, staff. So we would also have

156some opportunity uh potentially with Mr. Templeton to you know through surveys, focus groups, you know, hear some feedback from the teachers and about what effect they're seeing in the classroom. Um and I I wouldn't be willing to consider doing anything without having an understanding of that. It would Yeah, it would be good to have the the teachers perspective on on how big of a problem this is because the number of violations. Yes. It's a it's a large percent of our violations, but only only they can tell us how how disruptive it is in class. Um, all well, they can tell us part of the story. The students can tell us the other part of the story, but they're not necessarily all going to. They're not going to tell us, "Oh, I was distracted because I

157was looking at my watch." I was distracted because my parent text me. Like, I mean, how many parents are reaching out to their kid going, "What color do you want? I'm out shopping right now." like and the kid answers because it's their parent like I mean like I you know how many kids got in trouble for that? I I do think that there is at least a component to um students in this culture with cell phones and they're dealing with pressures that you know we didn't have to deal with when we were in school. Um, so it would be interesting to know if in these states that are doing bell-to bail if there is some reprieve from that pressure, right? Um, I I don't know how you really really quantify that data, but it would

158at least be interesting to understand it because I do think that um it can be for some students very brutal. um the the whole social aspect that comes with cell phones or maybe the antisocial aspect that comes with cell phones. Um however um I I I think it would the unintended consequences would be enormous. So therefore, it would take some pretty um actionable data to convince me that it would be a good idea to do it because I think the unintended consequences would be um things that may be wor the the solution that or what we're trying to to solve, we may create a worse problem than anything we would ever be solving. It's possible. Yeah. I'll say I'm glad we uh don't allow them out in class. Um yeah, to me that's Yeah, that's

159kind of table stakes for this that should they should not be out in class. And I'm glad that that we are already taking, you know, recording that data and it's something that we can see, you know, it's already so it's it's not like this is something that's being ignored. It's not, you know, we are already paying attention to it. We're already recording it. Any more discussion? No. All right. Uh 10.08. Other items of business? I have none. So I will turn it back to you, President Henle. Thank you. Next, we'll have uh item 11, buildings and grounds. I'll turn it over to Mr. Hall. Thank you, President Hankle. Moving to 11.01, building and buildings and grounds report for July of 2025. Mr. Buffington. Yeah, the reports there just for information. Certainly a busy summer with

160a lot of work to do and heard comments um about the grounds and uh the buildings. Certainly our staff has done a wonderful job preparing the buildings for for school to start and uh I would imagine we've had some challenges with all of the weather through the past couple of months and certainly get projects completed. Certainly a challenge um for roofing projects. Um do want to mention uh because of the rain and things the roofing project is uh behind schedule. Um but they have a plan to to complete. Um they are going to move to second shift uh next week as as school begins uh and will be done within a few weeks. Thank you. All right, moving on to 11.02. Uh the water test report is there for our information. Moving on to 11.03.

161Uh advertise a request for qualifications for a guaranteed energy savings performance project. Um, I would like to make a motion to advertise a request for qualifications for a guaranteed energy saving performance project. The project would be the greatest needs project approved in June of 2025. Boilers, rooftop equipment, and roof. Second discussion. So is everybody uncomfortable with understanding where what we are doing here? It's a different type of bidding process than would typically be that um I do I've talked to it with with Susan and Randy in great detail and I'm very comfortable with with the process. I think it is a a great um opportunity to to see how this uh works and go go forward. And one really great thing that comes out of it is that there will be no change orders. There's

162it's not possible to have change orders. So, um you know that does give you the potential that um you might maybe have a slightly higher bid because of that. But as we all know, change orders can make that up and then some in a very very very quickly. So, um I I think this is a good um this is a good time to to try this. It's something I that Susan had made mention. They had tried to to look at in the past and and projects really were too large to to really accommodate it. Um but you know, we are really focusing in on a lot of things here that have to do with energy savings. So, it's a a good opportunity. Yeah. And if I can u the one really um big piece that

163um we're looking for in it is it gives us the ability u with the performance company to have the contractors look at the plans and if they have more innovative solutions or ideas then we can move on that as part of the process with a bid you put the plans out that's that is what it is. You really can't change it. Um, so that's one of the things we're really um excited to kind of explore um with this opportunity, which is uh to me that's a huge benefit because sometimes you end up doing something in a way that you end up having to change it later. Uh and and so the money you thought you saved going, you know, with the lowest bidder, you know, you you end up spending a lot more because you

164have to tear into something because oh, you know, this was done in a notoptimal way because the engineer didn't get to go back and forth with the contractor. Um so yeah. Yeah, I can see that as a huge benefit. Any other discussion? Any nays or abstensions? Hearing none. Motion passes. Moving on to 11.04. A motion to approve including select Shrewsbury skylights in the project approved in June of 2025 boiler rooftop equipment and roof as an alternate. Do I have a second? Second. So, this is just as it says, the uh opportunity to um address these skylights while we're on that roof doing the work, which um I I think we should uh we'll see what the alternate comes in at, but that definitely should be very high in our consideration. Um we're up there on

165those roofs working. Um to have to go back onto them later, um is is counterintuitive from my perspective. So just like we were mentioning, I mean this this certainly gives us some opportunity to to look at that in in this process where it brings the designer and the uh contractors closer together to where um yeah uh alternatives that we can consider. Yeah, we wanted to make sure we're clear. So we use the word select because there are skylights um in the canopy. We're not doing the canopy at this time. Um, so it is particular skylights, not all the skylights at Shbury. So it's the skylights in the areas where we're working in the main roof of the building in the flat roof. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think that necessarily impact my vote in any way

166on this matter because the skylights here in this are already there. We do we have any sense um whether skylights have been a net positive? Uh you know I I understand they they save on lighting costs although lighting has gotten a lot cheaper. uh over the past couple decades, you know, with the move from incandescent to LEDs, uh they I suppose can help with heating. Well, they they heat up in the summer. It can help with heating in the winter a little bit and that you get some some uh thermal, you know, get some some heat from the sun, but they leak. Uh they're very prone to leaking. So, if we do we know, you know, if if we had to make a future decision about whether to even include a skylight, um do we

167know if they're a net positive? Um there's also the aesthetic, but it has to be considered. But are they if you just consider aesthetics is hard to quantify. You just consider like energy and and energy savings basically. Are they a net positive? Yeah, we we could look into that. Um certainly the ones we're talking about aren't aren't adding any new ones. Um it may be modifying. Uh certainly have an opening through the roof and then there's a skylight. Um, one of the things that we've experienced at at Shrewsbury, um, is that the sunlight is so direct, you know, and it does heat up the rooms and particularly in summer in in summer or springtime when it's warm, you know, so so we do um battle the the extra heat that Yeah. So, there's an energy

168cost. There's an energy cost there that, you know, doesn't need more tinting, you know, on on the glass. Um, you had mentioned leaks. um they are susceptible to to leaks. So looking at um potentially if you would change out that skylight um right now a lot of them are pyramids, you know, um it's potentially going with uh maybe a flat roof type um where it has kind of a clear story windows around um less chance of of that direct uh light on or direct um water on the glass. But back to the the beauty of of GISA guaranteed energy savings act that we just uh talked through. Um we can look at these alternatives um and and come back with u recommendations with costs uh associated with it. Okay. So is it is there a

169possibility that in this case that they might look at it and say you know what delete this skylight let's just let's just have roof here. Is that a is that a possibility? Certainly a possibility. Um yeah, certainly uh with that they would want to look at the lighting and things that okay, if you do get rid of a skylight, do we need additional light in inside? Um but yes, they that is one of the possibilities almost surely require some interior changes as well. Yeah, if you were to do that. Well, as long as long as we communicate to them that that is an option that we would consider and that we want to consider that in terms of energy savings um and and and you know eliminating le eliminating the potential for leaks uh then

170then it'll be a yes on this or what you said like the roof with windows on the side that was kind of nice too because I do like the light that comes into elementary school like it's mood. It does. It does. You don't feel like you're in like this. Yeah. And it does give you a volume, you know, as well. So there there's alternatives and and we'll have those discussions of let's look at different alternatives. Okay, sounds good. One of the things as we're on this, I I did pass out um at your at your seat um the design development cost summary. um don't need to spend a lot of time on this but um as you know throughout the process we do several estimates. Initially we we had um the conceptual estimate back in

171February and there was a low end and a high end. Um so I'd just kind of point to the the uh first page at the bottom. you know, back in February, our estimate was between 5.9 and 7 uh 26 uh million for for the total estimate. Certainly, as they're putting the design together and and putting numbers cost to to those um different uh items and the breakdown to those items on on the back. But, uh I just want to point out in the DD estimate um design development estimate, we're we're still within in that range. We're we're at the high end 7.24, but but are within the range of that initial estimate. As we continue on, we'll continue to do we'll have another um estimate uh as we get closer to um being able to

172select the project. So, we would come back with with cost things uh as we move forward. But good news with that, we're we're still within budget. Is this estimate internally developed or is it in consultation with consultation with uh the architects uh and um construction manager? Okay. So, we're um we're in this motion uh for adding the skylight alternate. Um do we have any other discussion? Any nays or abstensions? Motion is approved. Um so Randy, um I don't want to cut off that that level of discussion about these numbers. So if we want to discuss that uh a little more in depth before we get to the uh high school project financial report, I'm I'm certainly willing to entertain that. Do we want to talk about these numbers? the ones on the greatest needs. So,

173um the the original um range that was given to us when we voted on this um in in a prior meeting. Um we are the the bold numbers or the the DD estimate is still within that range as long as we were all on the same p. Obviously, it's above the low end, but it is it's is within the range of of what our original estimates were. Um, and this is not this is not a direct representation of what it will look like when the bidding process is complete. Um, because, you know, although um that bidding process will be essentially third party uh with what we approved, um it's still going to be a a bidding process. you know, it's not uh it's not necessarily going to be the the numbers that are in front

174of us right now. It's just estimate. So, so we understand that and it's certainly the other thing, you know, to point out if we are going to look into these skylights. Um certainly that would, you know, be above above this that estimate as well, right? You know, um in the alternate. Yes. Yes, of course. But then you know the alternate is exactly that we we can decide to do it or not to do it uh depending upon you know what how it comes back. Okay. So um 11.05 Sysquant High School project financial report. Yeah, I just totally just spend a lot of time other than, you know, um similar numbers on budget, you know, working towards closing out this closing out the project, but just uh provided for your information um you know, as as

175we're closing different accounts and things um you know, and and going to start closing out the the contractors. Where are you at on far as timeline? Yeah. um couple months yet probably. I know over the summer contractors made some some good headway. Um certainly there may be some that um I'm sure there will be some contractors that their contract will will um be open longer. You know, uh I would think um there's going to be a couple here closed within the next month. Are we getting the issues fixed such as like the leaky windows and things of that nature? Absolutely. Yeah. And uh Oh, I was going to say James was there, but I was gonna look to James to obviously he's living in the building, you know. Um but um very comfortable with um

176the items and particularly, you know, the item you mentioned with the the leaks. Uh yes, they were very responsible. Um and the the general contractor in particular has has been uh very good to very good to work with. Um, one of the things you will notice, um, as you look at our grounds, you know, there are, um, some dead trees and shrubbery. Uh, they are committed to replacing that. Um, however, right now is not the best time. As we get into to fall, they'll be they'll be replacing that, you know. So, thank you. That's coming. Whenever I drive by, I wonder, oh, when are they going to come back and fix those? I appreciate that. Um, Yep. And that's it's a warranty item, you know, so which is different than punch list, but um they

177are committed to to to replacing those. So So by close of calendar year, we're looking to close the projectish hopefully. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, typically uh I think early on, you know, um I had noted that uh a project of this size can take six to six months to a year to to close out, you know. um by the end of the year would be a bigger year. So we'll we'll keep pushing to to get it closed out. Thank you, Mr. Buffington. Moving on to 11.06 uh proposal to heritage lawn and landscape care of Thomasville, PA for top dressing the athletic fields. So I have a motion to award the fulfilling proposal to Heritage Lawn and Landscape Care of Thomasville, PA for top dressing athletic fields. Uh portion of multi-purpose field number six for

178a cost of $271.70. The old baseball field, field number three, for the cost of $2,717. the old softball field number five for a cost of $1,19548 and the track infield field number seven for the cost of $2,390.96. Do I have a second? Second. Do we have any discussion? If I can, I just note, you know, the board will recall that um you know, we're continuing on the efforts of um ariating, seating, and top dressing our our fields. One of the things if you look back um you'll notice these costs are lower um than the past um time that we we did these efforts because um we're actually going to do the ariating and the seating inhouse. Um when you look at our the monthly report I provided and you see the attachment that we bought

179for one of our pieces of equipment um that's going to allow us to avoid cost of contracted service. So, um, we're excited about that. Um, see that, but between these efforts and the wet spring and early summer, we have we have seen great results, you know. So, we can control the one effort. Um, we just need mother nature to control the other to continue on to the to good results. Thank you. Any other discussion? Any or abstensions? hearing none. The motion passes. Moving on to 11.07. The propo proposal for Promax Fence Systems of Reading, PA. So I have a motion to approve the proposal from Promax Fence System of Reading, PA, Able Fence of Writesville, PA in the amount of $19,960 for fencing around the equipment project using CoStar's price to add protection around the

180pump house tank. This project is part of the capital improvement plan. Do I have a second? Second. Do we have any discussion? Any nays or abstensions? Hearing none, motion passes. Moving on to 11.08, a proposal from Johnson Controls Fire Protection. I have a motion to approve the proposal from Johnson Controls Fire Protection LP of Cumberland, PA in the amount of $2,225 for the installation of of cell dialer for burglar system the burglar system at Shrewsbury Elementary. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Any nays or abstensions? Hearing none, motion passes. Moving on to 11.09, use of facilities, which there are none. And moving on to 1110, other items of business, which I do not have any back to President. All right. Thank you. Uh, next, uh, Mr. Mr. Hash will give us our uh

181transportation health and safety committee report. Thank you, President Hingle. Uh 12.01 student transportation report for June 2025. Um just wanted to brief the board. Uh Susan and the transportation team, they went through all the um and along with first student went through all the bus routes. They looked at all the stops. They looked at all the u red red light violations, the bus stop risks and they adjusted the routes to ensure student safety as best we can. Um they have reorganized all the routes and it it was quite a heavy lift. Um, good news is as we prepare for the 2025 2026 school year, um, the routes are ready, the bus drivers are ready, the buses are ready, the depot is ready. U, they did have a transition. We uh, Mr. Tristan, the uh, location

182manager, he took a different position with him for a student. They moved in Mr. Dorne Straer as our new depot manager. um from what I've heard, she is very eager and willing to work with the district and um excited about the new opportunity with our district. So, moving on to 1202, I would like to make a motion to approve the following items for the 2025 2026 school year, including summer programs of 2025. Number one, bus drivers, and number two, bus routes. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? questions, nays, or extensions. Just welcome Mrs. Strayer. Welcome, Mr. Straer. That motion passes. Moving to 1203, fourth quarter and year-end discipline data from Dr. Reppert. Thank you, Mr. Hash. Uh for the board of directors, you do have with you or in front of you a

183uh two-page document, well one page front back uh year-end discipline uh which includes market periods one, two, three and four for the state reportable incidents and then on the back side is the year end data. Um it say it says fourth market period which is actually the year end data for at the end of the fourth market period for last year uh for the 2023 24 and 2425 school year. Uh a couple things to note is as you take a look at the comparative data on the back sheet which has the uh the green column for the 2425 uh you you can see that the uh discipline infractions for state reportable um has decreased um just just over 100 incidents. Uh two items I do want to do do point out uh where there was

184an increased uh altercations or actually number 17 for fighting we did have more physical altercations with students um as you're looking at a comparison through the year. So you have a plus five u compared to the 23 24 school year. Um and the other one that I just wanted to point out is possession use and sale of vaping. uh previous year was 18. Uh we had 21 incidents. Uh this past school year, I know we do have the uh the vape detectors that are in place. Uh I know between Sergeant Smuck uh the administrations at the high school and the middle school uh have been really pleased with the the ability that they're able to, you know, get to the areas or the locations where those things are occurring. And then uh as they search

185and identify the students, you know, being able to kind of go through the uh discipline and uh whether it's, you know, citing, you know, if it's for, you know, uh first offense, second with with drug use or if it's uh you know, tobacco use. So, uh just wanted to kind of point those out. Uh one one item I did want to note, it was not on the uh comparative. Uh I did do a quick run. The total number of state reportable incidents for this past school year was 917. Previous year 2324. I did actually just look that up because I thought Mr. Wilson was going to ask that. Uh would be uh 1,048. So there's actually a decrease as you're looking at state reportable incidents from 2023 24 to this past school year. Okay. Thank

186you very much, Dr. Reppert. Uh 1204. Other items of business? I have none. Back to you, President Hickle. Thank you. All right. Um Mr. Alberin, do you have anything? Well, um I have no report, but if I can recall from last year, um fall sports are starting up and it's going to be a great season is what he would always say. And I'm being told that meet the team night is Tuesday the 19th. Am I correct on that? Anybody? I think so. Well, I know it's sometime early next week. It might be then. Let me look. I just I just I put it in my work schedule so I wouldn't It's not on the calendar. I did look I was texting reaching out to a phone of friend and they said the 19th. So hopefully

187it's the 19th. I might be telling false information, but that's all I have. I think it is the 19th. That that what your calendar says? Yes. Good. Don't quote us yet. If it's not, it's your fault. Direct any complaints to me. All right. I do have other items of business under 1302 for athletics, please. Mhm. Do I wait for you to introduce that? Okay. Um, so, uh, I'm sure you recall from our last meeting that, uh, event ticket prices went up for various adults and passes. So, I would like to just do a thumb check with the board about making our students free going into athletic events using their own school ID pass as their ticket. Would that be something that So I know if you said we give if we give a discount to

188all of our own people, we probably get rocks at our bus. Um this isn't everybody. This is our students who are the number one attendees at games. I mean, would you say Mr. Ross? I feel like that's probably true. Um, I'm usually not able to go to most games, but the ones that I do go to, I see a majority of students. Sure. And how often do you have cash on you? I always carry cash on me. You do. Good man. But I know a lot of other people do not. Yes. So, so what does administration think about that idea? Did you get free kids getting in free? Just the high school for Sescan high school and kids, you know, at the middle school, elementary. I I would say where's the revenue that's currently supplemented

189by that? Whatever that amount is, right? We just raised enough to cover that. But is that going to make up for No. You said it was the biggest students are the biggest contributor to I mean from a business standpoint but since I just have to say so but we're going to charge the away students double. Yes. The pass the pass for our including the players the student IDs would be their tickets. But, you know, here's the thing. I feel like when our previous athletic director was here, he did say, you know, our bread is not bothered butter buttered by what event tickets earn. Um, and so I just want to throw that out there because it has been brought up on several occasions and it hasn't come to the board for consideration. So, I just

190wonder would that be something that maybe we could put on the next agenda and maybe we can get some support for it. Okay. Your ticket can be your admission, but then you got to pay to get it back. No. This is free for high school students. What if What if you forget your student ID? Well, then you're out of luck. You got to pay just like anybody else coming to our district, I would think. So anyway, a thumb if it's a thumb check, I'm probably a I'd be a no on making changes to the athletic prices that we've already established for the year. So it could be something to consider for next. But that's that's just me. No, I agree. Right. But we were also talking about sponsorships possibly, right? But we're not like let's

191let that take like I'd like to see our fields improve too, you know, with that money of sponsorship too. Not just, hey, our kids can get in free now because we got a sponsor. So, I'd rather see the fields be or something be fixed or a pole vaulting mat, you know, or anything. I'd rather see that happen out of our sponsorship for now. All right. I haven't heard many people complain since since we brought up athletic tickets, though. Um, I would like to see us Sorry, Mrs. Green. No, it's okay. I would like to and I know Mrs. not like the idea of of part of the last part of this. I would like to see us accept credit card or electronic payments and and the fee goes to the person who uses it. Um

192just because of the convenience we are on that I'm not sure when we're going to bring it to you but u one thing talking to Mr. Carrington who sat on the interviews for the athletic director. Um they have done that previously. So we are excited to talk about that and move forward with that. So that is something I'm not saying we're going to be able to do it for the football season this year. U we'll see how fast we can ramp it up. Of course we'll need board approval, but um that is something we're definitely um committed to doing. That's awesome. I I would also one recommendation I would make and I'm not going to weigh in on whether it's free for students or not free for students, but um one recommendation I would have

193from a from a financial standpoint and a budget standpoint is those kind of changes. I would recommend we do that through the budget process. The more we can make those kinds of changes as part of the budget process. So, if there's things like that, think about those. And I think we start to bring those up at the November meeting when we talk about putting the budget together because we're really putting the budget together based upon um the framework of what we have and right now we have student ticket pricing. So, if we're changing midstream, that makes it more difficult to to really stick to what we said we were going to do. So, um, not opposed to those kind of concepts, but that's why a couple years ago, um, the board brought up in June

194that we want to change the home the, u senior citizen tax rebate. Well, we already had budgeted an amount for that. So, that's why we now bring it up in November, like if we want to change that, we need to do it then so that we budget it correctly. So, that's just a recommendation I have from that standpoint. Okay, that's all I had. I just wanted to throw it out there, see where it lands. I think that that balloon didn't go very far, but we'll see. I'm glad to hear about the electronic payments because I think that'll be a nice convenience. And and it's also very important to me that that the fee be paid by the person using that convenience. So so the people who are paying cash can get get the cash price

195and and not have to subsidize the or or you know not have that they don't have to subsidize. The person who wants the convenience, the credit card, taxpayers don't have to subsidize. If you want that convenience, well then you paid the fee and and that's fine. That concludes my report. Again, Mr. Din, Mrs. Din, just to confirm. Dr. Sterner just sent me a message that the uh meeting night is next Tuesday, 7 p.m. Thank you. Now, it concludes my report. Don't direct your an if if you have anything, we're now at committee report other business. No. Okay. Second second chance. Um all right. Uh 15.01 legislative council. Mrs. Marley Hall. Thank you. So, of course, you all know that the state budget is well past due from June 30th deadline, but there's been progress in

196the House and the Senate, excuse me, positioning bills to pass the budget when an agreement is settled among legislators. So hopefully more to come in the next meeting, but maybe tomorrow would be better. All right. And passed from the House, Bill 1407 updates the grade span for Pennsylvania teacher certification to primary ages 3 through 11, secondary ages 11 to 21, and specialized areas prek through grade 12. And the legislation expands employment opportunities and increases teacher placement flexibility. and passed by the Senate, Bill 877 and 878 converts barber and cosality training through career and technical center pilot programs from a temporary opportunity to a permanent option for students. Um, and one last bit of information that isn't necessarily legislative, but very helpful is that if you may have missed the Shrewberry YMCA back to school event

197this past Sunday and in need of school supplies for children in kindergarten through sixth grade, there's one more opportunity available and that is going to be at the handovers factory outlet. also sponsored in part by the handover branch of YMCA and they're hosting their back to school supply event Tuesday, August 19th from 5:30 to 7:30. So, next Tuesday evening, kiddos will be able to pick up a backpack of goodies and there will also be a certified technician available if you'd like to have your child's safety seat checked for younger children, ensuring their seat is installed correctly and peace of mind while parents drive. And that is it for me today. Thank you. York County School of Technology. I don't have a lot to report. Um I think Bill went to the June meeting. I I

198actually was not able to go. I got COVID. Oh, all right. So, I don't have a lot to report at all. Um so, they have a start date of August 19th and 20th. And that's really all there was going on. There wasn't much going on in July, so that's all I have to report. All right. Thank you. Uh, LIIU12, I have nothing to report. All right. York Adams Tax Bureau, nothing to report. Southern York County School District Foundations meeting next month, so I don't have any new information for you, but next month I will. Other items of business. All right. The uh student activities report for June 2025 is attached for your information. Um, item 16.02 2. Uh, this is just for your information. There's a donation of four adult and four infant CPR mannequins

199along with carrying bags to be used by the Suscoamic High School's EMT program. Uh, from resident Mr. Jack Osman. So, thank you, Mr. Jack Osman. Thank you. Uh, resignations and retirements are attached for your information and other items of business. I have none for this. So I'll move on to 17.01 uh is also there for your information. And 17.02 announcements by board president and superintendent. I will announce that we had an executive session immediately prior to this meeting uh to discuss a legal legal matter. Um and then uh a personnel and policy committee meeting will be held on Monday, September 15th, 2025 uh in this same building. And then the next regularly scheduled meeting of the board of education will be held on Wednesday, September 17th, uh 2025, also in this building beginning at 7

200p.m. And if I didn't mention it, the personnel and policy meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. Over to you, Dr. Bryson. Thank you, President Hinkle. Uh, as is evident by the wardrobe choices of several of those here this evening, we held our opening day program this morning, which proved both interesting, entertaining, and somewhat enjoyable for some of us. Um, as I mentioned this morning to staff, the cabinet administrative team are committed to making sure the message of safe, supportive, and collaborative learning environments is shared. even so much as to uh far as to perform a 1970s disco routine in full period attire during the opening day celebration. It was inspiring that our education association took things a step further on behalf of our students in challenging us to attend tonight's board meeting as we appear uh

201before you this evening as a part of a prompt fundraising opportunity for dollars for scholars. Uh so thank you to Mr. new and Miss Collins who uh jumped up and took advantage of our dress attire this morning to raise money for dollars for scholars. So uh Chris and Jen, thank you so much. Great idea. Our administrators and staff um members have been busy over the summer obviously from what Mr. Repper, Dr. Reper had shared uh earlier as well as just all the collective efforts of our custodial staff um maintenance staff, everyone that got our buildings ready and shined up and if uh you see them right before the beginning of the year, it's it's pretty amazing the way they look when you go in. Um but also all of our staff who've been attending trainings

202throughout the summer. um and our administrative team and coaching staff for putting those together and supporting them, including Dr. Hughes. And with that being said, I wish everybody the best of luck both athletically, marching band, um and throughout the school year as we get started here at the end of August, living your dream. I don't think the viewers at home got to see you with sunglasses. Um carry on. There you go. Green. I don't I don't think they got to see the dance. Did we hit the The goal was $1,000. Did we hit it? Or we don't have to. Cut. All right. Well, um uh we got to finish the meeting. Um all right. Uh 18 new business. Anyone? Well, there's just one question that Mr. hash raised but didn't get answered. Do we know?

203Did we hit the number? Do we know? We will. We will. The goal is $1,000. We're getting there. All right. We did it in a day. Very close. We're getting close. That's good. But not close enough that we don't need your um All right. Uh with no other new business, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Move. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Uh any nays or abstensions? Hearing none, that motion carries. Okay, so it is