School Board Meeting - 3/21/24

001e 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 um before we get to um to roll call uh I just wanted to to mention really quickly um that we uh many of you may be familiar we we have a student at uh at friendship Elementary who is uh currently in the hospital uh fighting fighting really hard um so I'd like to take a moment of silence uh for anyone who'd like to uh pray or quietly reflect um so if you please join me in a moment of silence that student all right all right thank you um can we

002have a roll call here here here will herey here here here here here all right and then before we move on I need to announce uh three executive sessions um we had one on uh student discipline uh another on a Personnel matter and then a final one on uh safety uh school safety um we also had our uh education finance budget meetings this past uh Tuesday um all right uh moving on to approval of the agenda um I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda as presented so moved I have a second second all right I have a motion in a second uh any discussion any n or abstentions that motion carries uh next I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes as presented for the personnel and policy committee meeting so moveed have a

003second second Motion in a second uh any discussion any Nas or extensions we have several minutes I'll go ahead and roll 3.02 through 3.04 uh and we'll go ahead and I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes for uh items 3.02 through 3.04 the regular board meeting the finance and budget committee and the education committee minutes uh do I have a motion no moved do I have a second second any discussion any n or extensions that motion carries and then finally uh or next we'll move on to 4.01 our student representative report take it away Bross I'm a sophomore at s high school and I'm filling in for Caroline so we're entering a busy season spring season the spring musical is this weekend with shows on Friday Saturday and Sunday Saturday at 7 Sunday at

0042 and tickets will be available online or at the door spring sorts of starting it'll be a competitive season some postseason hopefully and there will be a signing day for committed seniors who are playing sports in college you should let Mr Keeny know if you are any one of those PR will be soon tickets are on sale the theme is Tangled in our memories after the movie Tangled and there will be a Balsa and salsa competition which pairs two engineering students and two food students to construct a Wood Bridge and make the best salsa this will be judged at the Arts and Science Fair on April 25th and dual enrollment night is tonight so anyone interested in dual enrolling should be contacting their guidance counselor or anyone else familiar with the matter there will be

005a indoor drum line competition this Saturday at Cumberland Valley High School and a jazz fest thank you all right thank you uh next we have uh item uh 5.01 uh National Merit scholar Awards uh are we is oh wait sorry that's uh yeah I printed this out too early okay that's actually happened next uh next month all right we have 5.01 educational updates uh are you taking that Dr brys I will I'll take that in uh Dr reppert's absence although we uh all missed Dr repert this evening I will try to do the educational updates Justice in his absence which is a challenge um this will also be a collaboration uh of his update and I'll try to do my closing remarks at the beginning so that I combine them all in one um and

006since I'm going first this evening I'll not have to scratch anything off my list hopefully uh earlier this month the district participated in our annual bus evacuation drills which represented a collaborative effort with our bus drivers transportation and maintenance departments and school and administrative staff uh practicing safe quick and effective evacuation from the buses uh big thank you to board director Mr hash for attending observing and supporting during our bus evacuation procedures during our record in service uh our recent in service our faculty and staff participated in districtwide safety training sessions focusing on Mental Health our presenters included susky Alum and local licensed social worker care boyek uh Jenny Beetle from pcbh Cindy Richards from suicide prevention of York and detective Richard Blaze from the Southern Regional Police Department and school resource officer for a

007neighboring School District not to be mentioned as the district continues its focus on mental health awareness and values the Partnerships and support from organizations such as these as many uh as many event participants and Spectators experienced this year's Battle of the buildings uh was outstanding competition was intense but loads of fun and the best part the event raised over $8,700 benefiting our students in the form of scholarship opportunities from the sycsd foundation in conjunction with the alumni association in addition to coats of friendship also benefited through donations of outerwear for those in need throughout the community all in all an outstanding evening also under Dr refer supportive as a followup to the information shared last month regarding the Y Community Art Scholars exhibition sponsored by YC College which featured entries from a number of students

008two of these entries received special recognition Alyssa fer photography entitled man Manara one first place and Audrey Reeves digital media piece named Red Demon one second place congratulations to both Alyssa and Audrey and to all of the students recognized last month for amazing entries that highlighted their exceptional artistic gifts and talents our students continue to Excel and sh this time with the spotlight on the Pennsylvania media and design competition where all five of our student groups placed in the top three throughout all of the entries from across York and Adams counties Emma Blazek Place second in the logo category Christian break break placed first in the third 3D design category Jacob Brent and Aiden Mosley plays second and third in the 3D design category Ryan re placed first in the animation category and Isabelle repel

009Place third in the logo category in addition first place winners Christian and Ryan will progress to comp complete at the state level at Dickinson College on May 21st special thanks to Mr Bowers and Mr Lewis for their ongoing support of our students each of our elementary buildings has hosted special events over the last several weeks Multicultural night and art show at as as uh as their theme out of this world suggests it was out of this world FES literacy night was a magnificent success as well and the entire building was packed with parents and community members and Shrewsberry Multicultural Fair um this past Tuesday night was phenomenal as well as we have mentioned a number of our board members have enjoyed reading to several of our elementary students with with this month welcoming Mr Hinkle

010and Mr hash to the reading chairs we appreciate our school board directors sharing special time with our students and staff which is an enjoyable which I'm I know is enjoyable for them as well as the students and staff uh that were there speaking of reading sh invited some folks from our admin offices to visit and read classrooms at each grade level in celebration of read Across America it was the best part of the day by far um and the students and staff were great hosts and and totally amazing the months of February and March have been months for music with grades 3 through 12 treating us to outstanding orchestra concert the ssang high school orchestra chamber concert performing with Excellence as well as a number of regional festivals staying with the music theme we are

011looking forward to the upcoming shs spring musical Once Upon a mattress which was just mentioned starting tomorrow night and running through Sunday um if you've never been around the high school at this the week before I think they're here well beyond Darkness um so a lot of hard work put into that and I think many of us are excited to to go out and see the performance Mrs Doberman will share more but our spring Sports programs are off to a great start congratulation goes out to our shs powerlifting Club under the supervision of Mr Nick Duca several of our susky students received medals at the competition in Allentown on February 24th Addison Vickers first place Megan Voss first place Jaden collapsable Second Place Charlotte Road second place Sean marks third place Evan Allen second place

012uh I didn't go into all the events because we get in all kinds of weights and events but overall uh for a brand new club uh outstanding performance and I also want to note that many of the sesy power lters set personal records 18 of our lifters I say that again 18 successfully qualified for Nationals in New Orleans this April and finally uh Sean marks has officially qualified for and will be competing at the 2024 ipf World bench press competition uh championships in Austin Texas this may again a big thanks to Mr Duca for volunteering his time for these students and providing them an opportunity to show their Susy Pride through a program sponsored by the New Freedom Lions Club our fourth graders were given the opportunity to research a number of nonprofit organizations and

013then select three of those nonprofits to be the Grateful recipients of a donation on behalf of the Lions Club program give from the heart which our students epitomize the York County SPCA and Y York County Veteran Outreach as well as penmar human services were so appreciative to be chosen by our students to each receive a donation as provided by the New Freedom Lions Club uh a partnership we continue to Value throughout our district once again this year shout outs to our operations director Mr Buffington for sharing his expertise during last week's Pennsylvania Association of school business officials conference in Hershey Randy's presentation this year facilities 101 what every facilities manager needs to know was extremely well attended and much valued especially by individuals new to the position in operations and management Randy always does the

014district proud and certainly spotlights his vast experience uh and just for the Public's understanding too uh I know from experience and being there facilities uh managers are much like administrators and teachers right now very hard to come by um and they really tap on Randy as one individual to come and present to help support the new facilities uh managers across the state and from my understanding the room was absolutely packed so thank you Randy most recently in keeping up with our District's goal preparing our students to be College and Career ready shs hosted The College and Career Fair provided by our students provided our students the opportunity to speak with representatives from businesses the military as well as various colleges and universities special thanks to College and Career transition coordinator Matt amberman as well as

015our guidance and counseling staff for a great event and uh lastly for Dr rep's collaborative culture I want to congratulate the faculty and staff of sasu high school and Southern Middle School for becoming certified in level one of Marzano's High reliability schools your buildings need to be proud of this accomplishment at this point the southern York County School District is the first district in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to be certified in level one and a huge thank you to the entire school district and Community for your dedication and support last but not least the past Monday evening we hosted nearly 100 guests including representatives from local businesses representatives from state and local government staff students administrators board directors during our annual community Community leaders and partnership meeting the topic this year the mystery of science

016throughout the district focused on the district's fascinating and second to none science curriculum the evening's program featured science activities across grade levels highlighting the district's implementation of the Pennsylvania's new science technology engineering environmental literacy and sustainability standards and short for that is steals so if you hear the term steals that's what we're talking about presentation was provided by our students and staff engag the evening's guests in the exploration of science through Hands-On activities the the responses were overwhelming that the presentation absolutely set the evening apart with requests to continue to provide these Hands-On curriculum related opportunities in the future thank you to each of our Valu guests to our amazing presenters to our witson culinary group and to all those who had a part in the evening's event big special thanks to Dr reer and

017Dr Hughes who both played a a significant role in the planning of that evening and as the participants in the evening learned we were already started planning for next year so just a few reminders the rising senior night will be held on Monday April 8th starting at 5:30 at cesco antic High School the second third grade music performance is at friendship Elementary on Tuesday April 9th starting at 7 happy upcoming birthday during the month of April the board director Mr Holly didn't know you were on the list did you and if you hadn't realized the yet spring break begins on Wednesday March 27th and extends through Monday April 1st we hope everyone has a relaxing spring break as we gear up for the home stretch of the school year to merge Dr repert and my

018closing remarks have a great spring break or not choice is yours and always remain War strong and keep living your dream thank you Dr Bryson moving on to uh item 6.01 public comments um uh just want to remind uh when you come up to speak uh please state your name and your mun Municipality of residence um each speaker is limited to 5 minutes uh we are going to be uh enforcing that and we will have uh in order to help you we'll have the time up on the screen I believe we've got that going um also I want to remind uh because it seems like it's required uh courteous and proper decorum are going to be required during a presentation that's going to be required from the speakers as well as from uh those sitting

019in the room and uh I'm going to send that extend that to the entire board meeting uh we will be expecting that uh during the presentations that is part of our board policy uh 903 um all right so uh first commenter uh Roland opar good evening my name is ran abar I'm a resident of the Glenrock burough I appreciate the opportunity to speak here tonight uh the reason I asked to speak at the meeting uh it relates to the just under 200 Acres that the school district owns outside of the New Freedom burough I believe it's in the township and uh I believe we're coming up on 20 years that the school district has owned that property and to the best of my knowledge it's never been used in any real meaningful way for the

020district so the only thing that I ask of the board is to maybe reassess uh whether that should be retained or since the real estate market seems to be strong in both Agriculture and residential whether that property could be sold whether it's in in its entirety or partially and that money may be reinvested back into the district in a different way so that's all but if if you'd be willing to at least and you may you may have looked into it already I don't know but it's just something I've thought about over the years and so that's all I have to say so if anybody has any questions to me I'll try to answer them but if not that's it I do have one question if you don't mind uh what makes you ask the

021question were you looking to purchase some of that land or no not at all just just as a you know a stakeholder being a a property owner within the school district you know I mean for years I've just wondered you know sure what the district plans and you know nothing would happen nothing would happen so I figured the appropriate form was was here and you know just bring it to your attention and it may already be on your radar maybe not but um so no I have no interest in in purchasing anything sure I know before I was here there the Shrewsberry where Shrewsberry Elementary School is that land was owned by the school district for many years Mr Holly you would probably know how many um and that was one of my first questions

022com on to the board what are we doing with all that land and New Freedom and the answer that I got was that we keep the land because you just don't know how many kids we're going to have what it's going to look like in the future in census um and we will need it eventually um but I I really didn't get any further answers from that would anyone else like to add um I mean I think we can we can discuss this a little bit later if you want but uh I mean I think it it's worth looking at our enrollment Trends uh in considering that and and whether there are any other reasons so thank you I appreciate it thank you for your time Val Dennis my name is Val Dennis and I

023live in Shrewsberry Township tomorrow our 2016 ssoh hanuk High School alumni son will become a father and we will meet our first grandchild thank you for the opportunity to share ideas and observations this evening I will continue to be at the Mason Dixon Diner on Tuesdays at 7 to have conversations with anyone who would like to discuss education thank you to all those who have come to the diner it seems that there is more of a tendency to argue than to discuss it seems that there's a whole lot of US versus them right left left left right right and in many more directions not none of this will be useful to our students it is time for us to talk with each other instead of at each other in whatever committee or meeting or situation

024we find ourselves in and then make choices that benefit our students I realize this this is not simple it is however essential last month was black history month this month is women's History Month I'm often asked why we have months and I believe that we will have months until we know just as much about the achievements of marginalized peoples as we do about the majority the movie winner Oppenheimer left out all of the women scientists there's a book about these women and how many of us can name five scientists how many of us can name five female black scientists this for me is why we have the months at the February school board meeting we experienced powerful emotional courage how will we respond we have multiple options to listen most of all to ask students

025families and School staff to share their experiences so we can understand to ask questions fear of other people taking something or fear of conflict job loss lawsuits frustration or anger ethics taking action new conversations and policies and procedures we are choosing now how we act in response to the emotional courage that we heard last month from our parents my intention tonight is to share ideas and the words and stories of others I will run out of time and I'll return moving education forward for our students is not a race or an argument it's a marathon and it's teamwork I have chosen um to listen and to ask for the experiences and stories during my 34 years in education poor wealthy white black Hispanic Muslim Hindu gay trans Christian Jewish and many more ways that we

026Define ourselves as being human when we choose to listen we do not necessarily agree we do begin to understand and to see how we can all live together in this democracy we are the same and we are different and that's okay it would be be easy if we were all alike it would be easy if education was simple and neither is true each Community has its compassion and its challenges the compassion and the challenges are different in each area for multiple reasons over the past decade in our community here and in communities next to ours I have heard and observed the following when I was little I used to drink lots and lots of milk hoping my skin would become lighter how did someone as poor as you get into National Honor Society they said

027we should be in ovens like the Holocaust students here don't use the n-word students have received phone calls from the KKK and been given KKK membership cards by other students I looked up the word democracy this morning the American Heritage dictionary one of the descriptions is the common people considered as the primary source of political power and just who are the common people Everyone or not a democracy does not reach Perfection a democracy requires continual teamwork by each of those who live in the Democracy we have work to do here in our part of this democracy Mari and turki a survivor of the alitz concentration camp in Poland recently warn do not be indifferent when any minority suffers discrimination I watched German teenagers doing volunteer work at El switch several years ago during a class

028discussion in Manheim Germany teenagers in my friends English classes asked me what is the reason that people in the United States do not want to discuss the tragic and dark parts of history there public schools are a mirror of society we have work to do and it begins with respect thank you thank you uh Natalie Bor Natalie bore New Freedom thank you for hearing and really listening to the outcry of parents and children and addressing the no tolerance policy when it comes to the racial hate and bullying there's still a lot of work to do but it's a start some people in the community have asked me why I brought up issues last month that happened over even a decade ago to my children and my family well if you've missed the point it's because

029it shows a pattern a pattern Within These Walls and a pattern that needs to be broken and how long our children have been affected by the racial harassment while in school and you know Lord I've I've been overwhelmed with the social media presence um this last month with people fighting in the community making assump ions based on misunderstandings and not fully grasping the light that's being shed on this subject so many people are making this out to be a political agenda and again like I said last month this isn't a political view this is bigger than the left and the right as a community and as parents in this District we're divided which reflects on our kids I pray we can come together in unity because this type of behavior only leaves room for more

030discrimination when you demonstrate Anger from misunderstanding the email we all received was inclusive not just about racial attacks but bullying in a hole was the email prompted due to the recent racial attacks I'm sure it was but it shows that our Administration is actually listening and trying to not only encourage the children and the parents to be compassionate talk to one another and explain what racial hate and bullying does to someone's mental health it lasts a lifetime you know addressing racial hate and bullying I need you to understand that the bullying and the racial harassment it's a double-edged sword let me ask you where's the Love The Compassion why aren't we embracing equality and diversity speaking up about racial discrimination is far from a decisive tactic as stated by one of our sitting board members

031on a public comment a couple of weeks ago and may I add it never will be a decisive tactic sir our children's minds are being filled with poison daily a poison that isn't healed over overnight like I said that'll last a lifetime the community can hopefully follow the lead of our Administration and work together to create a healthy non-hostile environment for our children and I would also like to speak about the M educational opportunities that our school district is providing to fail or you know failing to provide um our children two months ago it was brought up about the lack of knowledge and education that our students receive from our school name where it was derived from about the native tribe last month it was brought up um in regards to you know the lack

032of teaching with black Scholars and black history throughout the entire year especially during black history month but instead we were in here fighting against the racial harassment that has been going on for over for decades you know we have National Hispanic month that starts in September so I'm hopefully you know we see that next school year um we need to embrace different cultures this is you know if we want to be a fully cultured District in a teaching environment these teachings need to be incorporated and one last thing you know it's great that we have culture clubs in high school but I feel these clubs should start at an elementary level and be student L for the needs of the students in a safe space for them thanks for your time thank you Katie Weber

033[Applause] po uh during the meeting last month um Mr Mr hle you uh mentioned Mr Rogers and I've been thinking about that a lot so Mr Rogers took a stand Against Racism so that his young viewers would be less burdened by the over racism of his time in 1969 Mr Roger shared a footbath with officer Clemens a black police officer an act of kindness and inclusion that they that they could model for young viewers it may seem simple but at the time swimming pools all across America did not allow black or brown kids to swim it was an incredibly courageous act to take on a national stage as Mr Rogers knew our children learn from our actions not just our words Mr Rogers advocate for teaching children about anti-racism mental health awareness mental health awareness

034disability grief and loss he encouraged open honest and heartfelt dialogue about these topics with young children Nathan you and I agree we need more people like Mr Rogers in the school system as we share our as was shared by the courageous mothers last month kids in our district as as kindergarten are facing racism in our schools and I was so pleased to see that the board sorry I have a migraine and I was so pleased to see that these stories had such an an impact on the board and I was pleased to hear that the board wants actional steps on how to address the racism in our district that is causing very real harm to our students the challenge is the only way to address the racism that exists in our schools is to acknowledge

035the board's own actions and words that have had harm had have had a harmful impact on our students it's important to understand how concept like colorblindness shared by Miss Mrs Hall last month in her comment about not needing to learn about race is at its core a refusal to take public note of race which allows people to ignore manifestation a persistent discrimination it is also important to come to terms with the harmful impact of resurrecting the warrior head mascot that it has had on our community this act is racist at as it appropriates power from the Koga Sanic people in favor of an already privileged folk who feel entitled to the image and when we as a community use dehumanizing mascots we are planting the seeds of future racism to take root if you truly

036want to see discrimination or if you want to see a decrease in racism among the students it has to start here when we find ourselves becoming resistant in a heartfelt Dialogue on the enormity of the impact of racism in our culture think becoming angry at terminology like white privilege or uh what is it critical race theory if you find yourself getting reactive to that you need to check in with that if you find yourself dismissing the experience of students of color you need to check in with that I encourage us all to come to the understanding that the discomfort that that discomfort is our growing Edge it is the experience of cognitive dissonance it takes real strength of character courage curiosity and empathy to lean into it and only in doing so can change happen

037without this piece it is like framing a house without pouring a foundation I can only hope that the board can muster up some courage like that of Mr Roger to make real meaningful change it's hard to do these things especially if your political identity is tied up in not doing these things but kids in our district are hurting and I for one my kindergarten kindergartener I don't want to see him be impacted by these things um thank you thank you uh Chris rary good evening Chris Jerry New Freedom Pennsylvania uh thank you for letting me uh comment tonight I wish to comment on the proposal of Schoolboard director's access to school buildings while I appreciate the board's motivation to oversee the operations of the district firsthand I see no reason to develop a special access

038profile for them I take issue with the type of request being proposed in the December board meeting Mr Joseph wuss Wilson quote requested School Board directors have access to all school buildings all the time my direct concerns for school board directors having such as access includes a lapse of knowledge for secure entry and exit protocol calls due to infrequent visits not realiz an access badge was lost or stolen between visits which could be an extended period of time an inability to attend drills and maintain familiar familiarity with school response to emergencies and disruption to a conducive learning environment if observation extends into the classroom or other activities furthermore this type of unfettered access for board directors would likely add legal requirements for the board including background checks mandatory reports of arrests or convictions recording security

039training and attendance of drills revising School handbooks for Access protocol and a district policy to address security violations by board directors ranging from censure to expulsion from the board to be honest I think we're trying to solve a problem that doesn't really exist after reading through complex Pennsylvania statutes in the district policy people needing access to school buildings already fall into one of three categories employees which are the administrators teachers and staff volunteers who are responsible for child welfare or have direct volunteer contact with students which I have I have clearances on file and visitors which are all those wishing to visit the school without clearances on file my question is what additional access or privileges would board directors need that someone classified as a volunteer would not have with v visitation policies already in

040place and adequate I see no reason to undertake the chore or risk of developing special access for school direct board directors they can apply for volunteer access just like their constituents moreover it could be perceived as dubious for the school board to vote on a policy that provides itself with special privileges while likely well-intentioned it could be construed as self serving without scrutiny and could create yet unrealized security ramifications finally and most importantly this proposed policy would likely violate an existing District policy already in force policy 709 for building security Authority for granting access to District buildings is vested solely with the superintendent as it currently reads section 709 policy 709 quote the superintendent or designate shall develop administrative regulations designating who may be authorized to access District buildings and the designated level of access

041in other words if Schoolboard directors want special access to buildings the board would need to request the superintendent to grant them such access access pursuant to policy 79 thank you for your time safety is Paramount for our children and we must remain Vigilant in protecting them at all [Applause] costs Samantha Cole thank you Samantha Cole Glenrock my daughter was six when she got her first pair of glasses glasses are a lot cooler now than when I was a kid so she had no issues with bullying when she showed up to class with her brand new accessory thankfully we also purchased a warranty because she was still six when she broke them for the first time it was that first day without them that my sweet shy six-year-old daughter told me how a boy in her

042class told her repeatedly throughout the day that he quote liked her better with glasses her voice started to break and tears filled her eyes he said he likes me better with glasses to hide my ugly face later that same year I was made aware by parent volunteers that there were serious issues relating to Violent words and behaviors in my child's classroom that's at friendship now to be clear I talk to my kids but no matter what I wanted for my daughter when I asked questions like did anything happen at school today I got the usual replies of not really it was good or every parent favorite I don't know I didn't hear how another student's behaviors targeted girls including his teacher and escalated to throwing chairs and desks at them but she got an extra

043recess when they were rushed out of the classroom for their safety I heard about the extra recess but not the reason and from the administration I had proactively heard absolutely nothing that spring she climbed into the car and opened with hey guess what students stabbed me with a pencil today her crime was sitting down next to him for math centers and this story may be familiar to some of you because I wrote to the Schoolboard at that time about it so thank you to Mary Lee Hall for being the one person to reply at that time and for your compassionate responses I bring this up today because we have had many students and parents stand here and speak up about bullying in our schools as a parent and an active volunteer in our community I

044know that this is something we all collectively care about I am shocked at how often little girls in our schools are being called ugly or similar by little boys it happened to my kid at 6 before she was jabbed in the arm in the first grade but after hearing the stories from those around us how much worse would her treatment have been if she was black what if she was Native American what if she was anything else that made her different when we see a mother crying at one of these meetings because her child was a target of racism and bullying starting in kindergarten we can and should be sorry be heartbroken but I don't think we can be surprised as I mentioned earlier I have had positive and compassionate exchanges with certain board members

045and so I hope that you will listen to me because I do think that some of you have your hearts in the right place when we speak about things like a logo the Crux of the issue is the culture that having that logo feeds when a statement or action is called out as racist it can feel like an attack it's not it's okay to course correct when you learn that your words and actions or lack thereof are hurtful doubling down in your efforts to change absolutely nothing for the better is not no matter how well mean meaning saying that our families didn't need to learn about race growing up is dismissive when used as a response to the pain of people speaking about what they've endured I don't think it's meant that way but I

046urge you to think about how you would feel if you stood up here and said my child is hurting every day and I'm required to keep sending them here every day year after year please help us to hear only what we care about God's children in your eyes do they cease to be God's children if they're not white or straight maybe if families had learned about race growing up then you would feel differently I'm also a volunteer with Sandy Hook promise which is an organization that seeks to prevent violence in schools among the top 10 indicators precipitating a violent event in schools and I'm choosing my words carefully in case children are watching and I don't want to terrify them are chronic loneliness and social isolation bullying especially if targeted toward differences in race religion

047gender or sexual orientation and bragging about access to guns or weapons if families glorify weapons on one hand and dismiss the concerns of people who are not exactly like you and your family on the other then your hands are building a culture of violence in our community when you receive questions about the reason for your push for unlimited access to our schools and our children and your response is nasty or accusatory you are building a culture of intimidation and fear you have heard all of us speak so the tired line about how can we know what's going on in schools if we can't see it is an obvious deflection it sounds more like piggybacking on real concerns that actually matter to us to drive your own agenda of intimidation why should anyone let alone someone

048with so little respect for the mothers of this community who dare to question them so much that they can write review and send such belittling emails comfortably from their official board member email address have unfettered access to the children of York County you were voted in to provide more transparency correct you related to a lot of us about the lack of transparency in the past but when asked you act as if you're the god you speak of that's a lot of protesting for a board that supposedly has good reason for what they do thank you thank you uh Steph muser good evening my name is Steph muser I'm a parent taxpayer and alumni living in cador's Township thank you for the opportunity to speak the topic I'd like to address is expanded access to all

049school buildings for school school board directors I assert that some additional research is necessary prior to the board crafting new policy in the board policy manual under item 002 board Powers it reads the board in accordance with its statutory mandate shall prepare procedures for its own operation and policies for the guidance of the chief School administrator in the operation of the school district such procedures and policies shall be consistent with law have a rational and a substantial relationship to a legitimate purpose of the board and be directed toward the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education in this District in my professional capacity as a fundraiser when I propose a new strategy to a client I take several steps to ensure that the strategy aligns with the goals that we

050want to achieve and try to minimize risk first I identify the problem we're trying to solve I gather any data related to that problem or specific case studies that will help identify where the current strategy is failing next I determine the outcome that this new strategy is meant to achieve being sure to outline exactly what metrics look like for Success because I work with nonprofit organizations cost is a foremost concern so the next step is to identify any barriers to success potential liabilities that this particular strategy could involve I urge the Schoolboard directors to take a step back and develop a more thoughtful approach lay out the problems they are trying to address identify where current policy is failing to achieve their goals and be clear with taxpayers what the metrics look like for a

051successfully executed plan use the data you have available dig into specific case studies and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current process if the board decides to proceed this evening with a newly expanded access to our teachers students and school buildings without careful consideration of the pros and cons I have several concerns how does arriving in the middle of a class unannounced interrupt instruction for the day will our youngest students have difficulty paying attention to the lesson what about our students who have an IEP does arriving in the middle of a lesson without any discussion with a teacher truly offer a clear picture of what classroom instruction is meant to accomplish do any of you hold a degree in education or are you qualified to make judgments about the quality or effectiveness of a

052classroom lesson has the board examined potential legal liability does this policy run a foul of teachers contracts or infringe on the rights of students our teachers opening the school to costly litigation what would the added cost be to taxpayers if your policy does flout the law how will the Board address the concerns of parents that don't want Schoolboard directors interacting with their students and interrupting their day I thought long and hard about what I'm going to say next but I think it's important I ask you as school board directors and your surrogates to please stop using a victim of sexual abuse to justify your policy decisions again yesterday on social media I saw community members talking about a student and it is a frequent topic in public comment at these school board meetings survivors of

053abuse have already had very essence of their privacy and personal bodily autonomy stripped from them by their abusers please don't abuse them again let them decide when and where or if they ever want to talk about this again in their life I don't think it was any one's intention here to harm an innocent child but if you and your supporters continue to do so I will assume that is your intent in closing dealing with issues like disciplining the classroom bullying or prevention of abuse and providing the best possible learning experience for all students are complex and challenging they require the close collaboration of the administration teachers parents students and the school board and there's no single simple solution creating a chaotic as atmosphere in the school and cultivating a relationship with teachers and students predicated

054on suspicion subjugation and fear will make it impossible to collaborate and come up with effective Solutions as elected officials you owe it to taxpayers to take a careful and considerate approach one that is consistent with the law and is directed towards the maintenance and support the thorough and efficient system of public education in this District thank you for your time um Michael Hopkins hello my name is Michael Hopkins and I reside in Shrewsberry Pennsylvania and I'm here this evening uh to express both my gratitude and my appreciation and my prayer support for you all as a board it's obvious that as I've listened to the discussion tonight uh obvious that there are many things that you have to deal with and that we know the greatest answer the best answer comes from the Lord and

055with this in mind I would like to uh pray a prayer of benediction for you all that God would bless you that God would give you all wisdom As you move forward in dealing with the issues that you face so I'd like to pray at this time let's pray dear heavenly father we thank you for this day and Lord we thank you uh for your saving grace through Jesus Christ Our Lord father we thank you that your word teaches us that where there is no vision or no word from the Lord the people perish but Lord you've told us that if any lack wisdom we can ask of you and you'll give to all men liberally Lord we pray that you would bless the board tonight and moving forward may you give them wisdom as

056they seek your will and they seek uh your mind on these issues dear father we pray that you would uh bless uh them and may they uh follow that scriptural admonition to trust in you with all their heart and to lean not to their own understanding and in all their ways may they acknowledge you knowing that you will direct their paths Lord we pray that you would bless them and use them For Your Glory and Lord as we think about this time of year this time of Easter Lord we are so grateful uh for your gift to us to give us your son Jesus Christ to die for our sins that those who put their faith in trust in him might have eternal life and Lord we pray these things in Jesus precious name amen

057thank you for your time thank you Mr Hopkins Megan Gil hi everyone I am Megan Gilbert I live in New Freedom and I have three children um in high school uh I want to talk tonight about the proposal to um give extended access to the school buildings by School Board directors it's a little hard to comment because it's very hard to find details of exactly what this policy will look look like um so I thought I'd post some questions that I have that I hope you're able to um address my first question is why uh do you want to do this how do you plan to use this access what will you not use this access for will everyone be required to go through a background check uh do you plan to walk into classrooms

058unannounced if you do plan to do that will be the will there be a limit of how many times that you can do this uh certainly if you plan to walk into a class CL room in the middle of instruction I have serious um questions and concerns about uh doing that I think it's very disruptive to do that to the children I think it's very disruptive to do that to the work of our teachers um and certainly walking into a classroom unannounced would be very disruptive I think of all the pressure on our teachers right now to make sure they get in all of that work as that testing comes um at the end uh of the year and I'm also curious if that is your plan and again it's it's still I'm I'm wondering

059like what do you expect to to learn from that if you are able to go into um a classroom you know when you go into a classroom it's a snapshot you don't see all of the context of the instruction that went in the days and weeks um before that and to my knowledge you are not professional Educators you do not have the credentials to evaluate the instruction that is happening it's like me walking into an operating room and trying to judge what a surgeon is doing I am not qualified uh to make those kinds um of decisions I certainly support parent involvement I certainly uh support parents being informed you know but I certainly want professional trained experienced Educators making decisions uh about uh instructions I think if parents want to dictate everything that their

060children is taught that's great I think homeschool is the appropriate uh venue for that I I know a lot of you talked about wanting to make sure that parents have a choice and my choice for my children is that they have this level of professional education that they have received uh every year at um in this District more on that I I plan to speak um at other meetings but I want to stick to the topic um here and again this is all I I'm making some guesses as to why um you want uh to do this so certainly I think you have a responsibility uh to be transparent with us um on the details of this policy why you want to do it how you plan to do it I Echo what other people

061said this seems like a solution in search of a problem not really sure why you want to do this I have deep concerns about how this will impact um our teachers and um their desire to stay in this school district um I it's no secret that there is a teacher shortage now and it is only going to to get worse and I think we need to take some serious consideration about what the policies we do will impact teachers how they will impact our students and how they will impact their parents uh so I look forward to hearing from all of you about why you want this policy I don't think I can stay for the whole meeting so I will um watch it later but um I want you to take some serious consideration listen

062to what other people have said um because this seems like just not a great idea thank you thank you m Gilbert uh c y SI y shrewbury I would like to first show recognition to Southern y County School District superintendent and principles for their efforts to publicly acknowledge and address the reported and non-reported incidents that are happening throughout the schools in the District also congratulations to Southern yo County School District for being named first in PA to have all schools schools certified High reliability in order for southern yo County School dist to continue this reputation of first Pennsylvania School District to achieve level one high reliability certification it is imperative that the School District administration be consistent with the student code of conduct board policies state and federal laws and regulations implementing these policies will

063Foster safe supportive and Collaborative Learning environments to all of Southern York County School District students I would like to apologize for using profanity last uh month during a public comment um as a loving mother that is heartbroken by the discrimination and the harassment that my children and other children are facing in this District um I allowed my overwhelming and frustrations get the best of me and I was out of character on February the 16th 2023 I spoke at a a southern y County School District board meeting regarding how my children's civil rights were being violated in southern yo County schools and how the school administration was failing to uphold their discrimination policies I shared that my son was victimized with racial slurs and comments twice twice in one week by two different students in shrewbury

064elementary school and a racial incident that my daughter experience in tusco Hest High School resulting in her being struck with the object in the classroom merley Hall was one of the first and only two boy members members to immediately approach me after the board meeting ended to offer her sympathy and Ure that the board would look into my concerns I never heard any followup or feedback from her or any other board member after that meeting th on the last board meeting Marley Hall also was the first to express how she was touched and felt pain that was being relayed by other discrimination and harassment incidents that were purported moreover she stated we are Christian people we never needed to teach our children about race my family are Christian people and we teach our children about

065race we teach our children about pre prejudices to all all people in this world that they facing on a daily basis we believe every word in the Holy Bible including Proverbs 22 verse 6 train up a child in which he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it my children are being raised and taught with Christian mes and values therefore we discuss all all forms like I said of race daily and biases as God as she stated as well God knows our hearts and only a true Christian can be identified by the fruits of the Holy Spirit it was also stated that this the administra that Administration are doing all as much as they can to follow the policies that are written and question how much more they could do

066I should judge mandatory cultural sensitivity training for all Southern y County School District students teachers and administrators hold students and faculty accountable for their actions for all forms of discrimination while amending the student code of conduct to specifically prohibit all acts of discrimination or micro aggressions this is a proposal not to infuse our children's education with CRT or or political indoctrination that will divide rather than unite I propose that the title n and coordinator oversees the district efforts collaborate with school administrators to ensure that proper discipline is being executed keep reckon and expel repeated offenders and Report these harassments going on that is reflecting the community more than a district it was mentioned that the reports that are seen did not align with the amount of public comment that is received stating what is happening

067myself and another parent publicly spoke on how reports were being silenced up under the rug and how school officials failed to offer tit n reports to parents or teachers and to parents or students until 2023 parents have been reporting discrimination harassment incidents for over a decade in the school district and until the recent racial comment that went viral School administrators felt acknowledged publicly addressed or addressed problems moreover many of black brown students are raised that are being raised in this community become desensitized as a psychological coping mechanism and have learned to ignore the racial comments and slurs therefore they aren't reporting the experiences to their teachers counselors or the school administrators I'm not going to go over time this time so that's that's F thank you uh Peggy C hi p is Peggy comp and

068I'm from the freedom burrow I'm not speaking tonight because I have concerns and questions as been many other speakers tonight uh regarding the agenda item 10.02 which is the proposal of the new board policy regarding School director visits I'd like to express my concerns in advance of the first reading um the first question is why is a new school board policy necessary at this time currently board directors are encouraged to visit the schools in the district but must operate under board policy 907 the policy that Volunteers in the district must follow as the types of the clearances that the board members typically have um they don't have the same level of clearances as teachers and staff under board policy 907 School Board directors already have the right to visit the schools they must just arrange

069their visit in advance with the building principal sign in and out at the main office and wear a badge while in the building if a School director wishes to visit a classroom they are already welcome to do so but they must request the approval of the building principal and notify the the teacher in advance of the visitation this is the same policy that is used in all 15 York County School Districts if the goal of the director visits is to engage with staff and students and to observe inperson activities and if you can achieve those goals already under the current policy why is a new policy being proposed at this time what is the new policy going to allow you to do that you can't do already number two my second question is that will

070this new board policy Grant 247 access to to all schools in all districts as suggested by Mr Joe Wilson at the December 7th board meeting the request caught my attention because it rings a lot of alarm bells for me in fact I was so concerned after the meeting that I reached out via email to all 15 York County School Districts to see if this is a common policy in the area I heard back from 11 of those districts and of those 11 only one District the Dallas Town Area School District offers badge access to the board directors with proper clearances however that access is only granted during operational hours it's not 247 access and even with that access School Board directors are expected to follow the protocol set forth in board policy 9007 building and

071classroom visits must be run through the principal and board directors must sign in and out at the main office following a visit the director must provide the full board with a verbal report of the visit this seems appropriate however 24/7 access is a different ball game and means that board directors would be able to access a school unattended both before and after school hours if they wanted I'm curious says why that access is even being proposed a third question is to board do the board directors plan to use a visitation time to make unannounced and unsupervised visits to classroom as a teacher this is a frightening Prospect and could easily be viewed at an intimidation tactic on the part of the board while our board members have potentially have many professional skills not one of

072them is a certified trained instructor I question the value of a potentially unsupervised visit and fear the misunderstandings that could result during an observation by an untrained Observer who does not understand the ins and outs of the daily classroom Dynamic and has no deep knowledge of curriculum development or pedagogical best practices especially when that Observer is in a position of power in our district finally I'm super concerned about the message that this new board policy could send to the teachers and to students in the schools by suggesting that a change in policy is needed it appears that our board is suggesting that something is wrong that for some reason there is now a need that did not exist previously for an increase in the oversight of in-person activities in our schools at minimum the desire

073for increased and potentially unsupervised visits borders on micromanagement and risk going beyond the scope of the director's responsibilities which by the way is to make policy and not to administer the teachers it says to the teachers that we do not trust you that we think something is happening behind the scenes that we need to get in and uncover sewing the seeds this trust between the staff and the community and the board is exactly the opposite of what a scoreboard director's Mission should be and it's definitely not on the list of seven characteristics of a highly affected board director I would definitely look elsewhere for a teaching position if I felt that my Integrity as a teacher were being questioned given the distrust and the disrespect for public education in general that is expressed on the

074websites of three of the political packs whose endorsement was sought by five of our new board members I find myself sadly suspicious of the motives behind the new policy proposal happening tonight and I'm fearful for the teachers and the students whose political religious and social beliefs do not fall in line with the rhetoric that I see on these sites I hope that my concerns are unfounded and that the first reading of the proposal this evening and any discussion that follows will address and alleviate my concerns thank you for your time thank you all right moving on to item seven the consent agenda I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved do I have a second second uh we have a motion in a second are there any uh any

075discussion any NS or abstentions that motion carries um moving on to item eight education and I will turn the floor over to Mrs hle all righty 8.01 we have the proposed District comprehensive plan 2024 2027 it is an action item um I'm going to go ahead and kick this to Dr qes do you have a presentation or are you just there for questions or open for questions and also to let you know that when we had um public comment um one of the things that we did add was to um incorporate the um annual review with the board um we want to make sure that this is a living breathing plan and we're looking at the data to be able to support and make changes as we need um I move to approve the proposed

076District comprehensive plan 2024 to 2027 presented the January board meeting and posted as required uh do I have a second second second do we have any board discussion and any questions for Dr Hughes um just a quick comment that we really appreciate the um the additional detail we got the other evening especially the um the retrospective on the previous plan just so that we're making sure that we're moving in the right direction so really appreciate I know you and Dr RIT worked hard on that thank you as well yeah I'd also like to thank you for uh your passion and and your diligence into the matter it really comes forward uh in the presentation um it it was uh it was refreshing to see your passion for the students and for education and and also

077for you Dr Grayson even doing a little bit of standin but uh the passion that you have for our school um was evident and I really really appreciated it in both of you thank you and to uh relay some of the conversations that I had with Dr Hughes uh I believe it was just one feedback point that you received about but because she's such a professional and she knows what she's doing that was baked into what they already had because it was a committee all the questions along the way all the feedback along the way was being handled in real time and so that's why it wasn't a surprise that there was only going to be one feedback or or a few after the fact because it was an evolving document and a moving document

078was happening at the same time so well done with that as well all righty let's uh go are there any Nays or exstension all right that motion passes on to 8.02 revisions to the 2024 2025 Elementary School student handbook Southern Middle School handbook and Sanic high school student handbook um Dr Bryson are you handling that it is just public yeah I I'll just add to that quickly um you've got a series of handbooks and summary of the changes so that it'll draw you to uh what the proposed changes are throughout those and then those will be up for approval then next month and those documents are for board member to digest moving on to 8.03 the 20242 Elementary Digital Academy student handbook the secondary Digital Academy Digital Academy handbook the elementary Digital Academy student contract

079and the secondary Digital Academy student contract again that's also public uh Dr Bryson anything more on that or the same right same yep moving on to and this is going to be Dr Hughes again 8.04 the 95 phonics core program I am excited to hear what you have to offer with this this is where I believe you shine so please take it away so we're very excited to um our teachers at friendship elementary school has been have been implementing the 95% and working with the other two buildings and one of the things that we identified is that it really does a nice job at doing a foundation for phonemic awareness and our phonics program that blends very well and will take the foundations program that we're currently using and allowing that to be laid on

080top of the 95% so it really does fill all of the holes that we were finding in our foundations program by allowing us to do 95% as our core and then filling in pieces with foundations we really went through a careful analysis of the program and we had several teachers that were willing to come tonight to really talk about why they really felt that this program helped them to instruct on phonemic awareness and phonics at a different level and how they've seen a lot more growth so we're really excited to be able to bring this to our other two School schools to be able to continue to see this progress and really collaborate together with this all right um I move to approve the purchase of the 95 phonics core program and accompanying instructional resources

081from 95% group at a cost of $92,900 using Esser grant funding this is a reading intervie ition program to students in kindergarten through grades three at friendship Shrewsberry and Southern elementary schools may I have a second second any discussion by the board or questions I'm really excited to see the The increased focus on ponx um it's a absolutely very proven proven very effective way to uh to teach reading so other questions any Nays or extensions that motion carries next we have 8.05 contract with Bradford Pearson to speak to members of the Sanic journalism students Courier students and AP US History classes Dr Bryson did you have anything that you wanted to add with this one I really don't okay all righty I move to approve a contract with Bradford Pearson to speak to members of

082the Sanic journalism students career students in AP US History classes at a cost of 525 sorry 62 $5 may I have a second please second all righty any board discussion any questions all righty any Nays or extensions that motion carries 8.06 PSA SSA testing schedule Spring 2024 this is public information Dr Bryson do you have anything to add with us just it's uh requirement for us to post make sure folks are aware we'll certainly get the information out as we get closer to the parents and community and our board directors you have that link right there 8.07 stage 1 Curriculum maps as districtwide Master Maps this is a Kim Hughes so one of the things that we're looking at doing is making sure that all of our curriculum is updated and online over the next

083few years and right now we have have three maps that we' have brought forward this evening for approval um the third grade map um third grade ELA one of the things that you'll notice with this map it's more um detailed than some of the maps that we've had in the past you'll be able to see this online parents and Community will be able to pull them up and see all of our stage one but one of the reasons that we really are excited about this is that it really does put in a very system atic approach to our hmh program and really gives our teachers a very clear what we need to be doing in each step of the process so this map we're excited to see will continue to have these for the next

084few we also have I believe Child Care on the the agenda I have quite a few that are coming in the next um so we have the child care and one of the things that um this is our um program that is for our high school students where they're look learning about um teaching and instruction so this map will help us to um continue to move forward Mr Luca took a long time to really update the program that we have and we're very excited in the partnership that she's having with even our science classes to get our students to be able to see those and then our final map our grades K through six art K through six thank you um we have kindergarten through sixth grade art Maps our teachers have been working very

085hard this has been an ongoing project and um they have made sure that we have a cyclical um amount of information so that each grade level it builds on the skills every year so as you look at the maps you'll see some of the same information but it gets deeper every single year you'll see that also as we work forward our physical education maps in the near future is there any way we can show these so I think um yes so I just you want to give me a minute there's just so much there's just so much in here it's it'd be great to share yeah do you want us to move on to another one table absolutely well I think we have to we have to take the vote on this one can I

086just got a motion on the table Mr LZ can we can we table it and then move it to the next can we do that I yeah we can go you want to go 88 do we need a table I mean I think we've all seen these so yeah I me we can we can pass it but still still in I could do a whole presentation on the new system looking forward that myself all right so we have a motion on the table we have a second no we we don't have a motion or second thank we need a motion um I move to approve the following stage one Curriculum maps as districtwide Master Maps one art grades k62 English languages Ela grade 3 and three preschool lab 1 and two may I have a

087second second any discussion time we should show them right there you go it's a good idea there's the discussion so yeah I think next let's say it's fizzed we could do a while you're looking at fizzed this is also Edge planet that they will have access to we'll have I think four for next time so any Nays or abstentions that motion carries next my favorite part 8.08 novel adoption I move to approve the following novels Frankenstein by Mary Shelly Project Gutenberg uh literary archive grade n and the bicentennial amand by Isaac isov Orion publishing company for grade 12 may I have a second second any discussion by the board or questions I would actually like to take this time to do something different the uh literature teacher in me demands that I do it I

088just wanted to show some transparency for some of the curriculum that we have in our district and the robust unbelievable vocabulary and story that come from both of these but particularly Frankenstein I read through both of these uh the novel Frankenstein and then the short story that's a part of a larger uh work by Isaac azoff and uh all of my children they knew the rule was if they got in the car they had to listen to Frankenstein and that's just the way that it goes in the hle family so uh Dr Frankenstein as a valuable man that had many ups and downs and of course there's the discussion of who the real monster is in the story um he even on his deathbed was able to Rouse some of the most stunning speeches and

089to hear what our students are going to be able to digest in real time I'm just going to read a paragraph so you guys can hear but he was talking to uh all of the people that had gone on an expedition and it was a captain that Victor Frankenstein was actually kind of stumping for and trying to Rouse the rest of the the ship to follow what the captain was saying and so he dies like literally 2 hours after this speech so oh that I have this kind of energy on my deathbed what do you mean what do you demand of your captain are you then so easily turned from your design did you not call this glorious Expedition and wherefore was it glorious not because the way was smooth and Placid as a Southern

090Sea but because it was full of dangers and Terror because at every new incident your fortitude was to be called forth and your courage exhibited because danger and death surrounded it and these you were to to Brave and overcome for this it was glorious for this it was honorable undertaking you were Hereafter to be hailed as the benefactors of your species your names adorned as belonging to brave men who encountered death for honor and the benefit of mankind and now behold with the first imagination of danger or if you will the first Mighty and terrific trial of your courage you shrink away and are content to be handed down as men who had not strength enough to endure cold and Peril and so poor souls they were chilly and returned to their warm firesides why

091that requires not this preparation you need not have come thus far and dragged your captain to shame of a defeat merely to Pro prove prove prove yourselves cowards oh be men or be more than men Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock this ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say it shall not do not return to your families with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows return as Heroes who have fought and conquered and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the foe my Heavens to write something like that I am so unbelievably encouraged about what our teachers get to do and I know that both with Frankenstein and with the Bicentennial

092Man the debate that comes with that it's also very engaging and just well done amazing curriculum and so with that I'm sorry I interrupted we had a motion on the table is that correct and we had a second got carried away with literature all right do we have any Nays or abstentions that motion carries and that is all for Education all right uh moving on to item nine uh finance and budget and I'll turn it over to Mr Wilson thank you um 9.01 Treasures report for February 2024 uh for the general fund concentration account we started the month with 22,4 198,50 67 the balance at the end of the month is 8,913 418 this reflects kind of where we are in the year this is where it gets drawn down a little bit closer to

093the end of the fiscal year in the investment accounts we started the month with $ 29 mil 85860 $860 And1 and end of the month at 30,31 the full document is there for you to review moving on to 9.02 um the bills for payment I'd like to motion that we approve the bills for payment um one quick note on this this is um I think the first run of the firefighter tax credit checks this should be all of the fire should be all of them y okay so that is what's in here this month so uh do I have a second second any conversation questions okay any NES or extensions hearing none motion passes 9.03 exonerations and refunds um unlike the last several months we actually have some this month I'd like to motion to

094approve the exonerations and refunds as listed in the attached document do I second second any questions there are six total here right Sue I wrote six looks it looks like six double check okay yep definitely six okay any questions nope uh any Nays or abstentions hearing none motion passes 9.04 the tax collector report as of February 2024 this is document is attached for your information 9.05 the budget status report for February uh this the documents for the cafeteria fund as well as the general fund are attached this is for your information 9.06 budget transfers um I'd like to motion to approve the budget transfers as listed in the document do I have a second second okay any questions or I had notes on this any questions or comments okay these budget transfers do not affect

095the budget they're we around onetime expenses for snow snow removal and athletic equipment so um and a or abstentions hearing none motion passes 9.07 the cafeteria report that is attached there and I do want to give a shout out to witson for feeding us for the community leaders dinner there a great time great food um the other thing I did want to call out from this is that over the last four years we've gone from serving 23,000 breakfasts to over 103,000 so a lot of our students are taking are taking good um taking good advantage of that okay 9.08 this is update on the proposed 2024 2025 budget for this I'm going to hand it over to sue um so just quickly uh Tuesday night we had the U budget presentation for the board um

096in that presentation U Mr Carrington and I presented um the plan um that we're recommending for this year it does not include a um tax increase um for next year um the revenues are flowing um getting more subsidy than we have before um and with the interest earnings and earned income tax being strong um we feel that we can balance the budget without a tax increase uh so the next steps would be at the April 11th to approve a proposed budget um with final approval of the budget in May any questions any questions no okay thank you very much 9.09 uh awarding Insurance Brokerage services to Keller Brown I would like to motion to award the insurance brokerage services to Keller Brown for three years with an option to renew for two additional years the

097briefing there's a briefing document attached um may I have a second second uh any questions comments discussion no any Nays or abstentions hearing none motion passes 9 10 I have no other items of business so back to you uh president hle thank you um moving on to item 10 uh personnel and policy uh that's all um item 10.01 second reading and approval of new and updated policies as per our board policy review process 20 policies will be presented this evening 19 policies were distributed at the January 18th board meeting and reviewed at the personnel and policy meeting on February 15th with the first read conducted at the school board meeting on February 15th tonight we will conduct the second reading of these policies as part of the policy adoption process and then they will be

098sent to psba for a final read through as just a final check one policy tonight under item 10.02 is introduced um this evening for our first reading so last month I provided an overview of the purpose of policies which is to guide the board Administration staff students parents and the public this month I would like to provide a brief overview on the process of policy development the first step is the board or Administration identifies the need either our current policy can be revised or a new policy can be created to address that need some needs might be from pte creating a law it could be from a board or administrative request it could be by a legal challenge or it could be through an administrative assessment um that the policy language needs to be updated

099after that need is identified information is gathered from various sources including other districts psba and or other laws or regulations the second step is that a draft is created usually from psba as they have a policymaking um part of what they do or it could be in consultation with our school solicitor it goes through a review and adoption process including review by the solicitor readings by the board and the opportunity for input from stakeholders and public comment and then final approval step three the policy is then implemented by the administration including administrative regulations to ensure consist consant implementation across our schools step four data and feedback is then collected by Administration to determine if the policy is meeting the identified need and that that data is provided to the board and step five the policy

100is evaluated by the board Based on data and feedback to determine if policy should be amended I think some of these steps outline some of the questions that were brought forth in how how we do that and you know what kind of things that we look at at this point since we had reads at the prior meeting I'm just going to highlight the 19 policies based on the reasons why they were amended we had two policies that were amended at the request of a board member one was on policy 006 with meetings and this was updated to include the vice president and Treasurer to cooperate in the agenda preparation with the board president admin team there was also another request um by a board member um on policy 800 and this had to do with

101records management and this was also amended by a board member to retain um uh permanent record of the District board minutes any recorded videos of public board meetings annual Auditors reports Financial reports and to retain this by the district for a period of not less than six years so those are two policies that were related to a request by a board member there were three policies um that were updated just to include administrative regulations as attachments so there was no change to policy we were just adding those ARS in and then there were two policies that were updated um just for policy language that just needed to be made made more current and that was policy 14.1 and policy 200 and then um there were three policies we had a lot this month there were

102three policies um that were updated based on recommendations from psba and from their policy guidance that they give us and then the final piece is there were eight policies that were updated and really what happened is we um had policy that wasn't necessarily amended but it was um merged together 300 400 and 500 all these sections related to Administration professional and support employees and so we just brought them together with one so there were eight policies that did that and then there was um one policy that was updated for a legal regulation and that had to to do with being consistent with submission of child abuse clearances so just to give you a little perspective we're on our second read we've talked about these before but I just wanted to give a summary of what

103those policies and what those changes were so I make a motion to receive for second reading and approval the list of new or updated policies second do I have a second second okay um any disc question okay thank you for the outline thank you uh hearing none any Nays or abstentions okay motion carries all right item 10.02 this is a first reading of policy um so this policy deals with School director visits to schools this is considered a first reading and this tonight is for information and discussion and we are not voting on it tonight we would be voting on that we will discuss that if we would vote out that at the next meeting so going back to the overview of policy development I wanted to share how this particular policy is moving through

104the process so first it started with a request by a board member back in December a board member requested consideration of a policy for school board director School visitation the identified need was for the following purposes to have engagement as part of our five School certification as a high reliability School level one safe supportive and collaborative school it was requested to Foster connection and support with building principles teachers instructional AIDS and other staff it was um identified to help learn about the school's instructional models which is now part of our HRS level two effective teaching in every classroom I want to point out that when these visitations occur it is not for the purpose of evaluation or observation it is for the purpose of learning and being able to uh participate in that level two

105certification and last but it was in response to some parent and Community feedback as part of the responsibility of board oversight prior to developing the draft proposal that I will highlight for you tonight there was consultation with the teacher Association leadership with the assistant superintendent and the superintendent and with our solicitor then it goes into a draft an in consultation with the solicitor to look at all of our laws and make sure that we are um in compliance with all those and also to provide a common definition definition of School director visits what that means and what we would be doing the policy sets forth the expectations and requirements for school directors individually or collectively to participate in such visits I'm just going to highlight um what we have here I think it will be

106enough um just to be able to get the essence of what it is so in terms of the authority the board believes that the Fulfillment of its governance role can be enhanced through school directors being able to visit district schools and or non-educational facilities to directly observe District activities educational programs property conditions or operations this policy sets forth the expectations and requirements for school directors individually or collectively to participate in such visits and there are two types of visits that are outlined in this policy scheduled board visits this is commonly what has been done um and so at the um this would be at the suggestion of the superintendent of schools or the board president request board visits to school or non-educational facilities may be scheduled on pre determine dates and times to allow all

107School directors to participate in organized visits to observe instructional programs the status of construction and renovation projects property conditions or to familiarize the board with other District program and operations Advanced notification of any scheduled visit shall be given to all School directors to provide them with a reasonable opportunity to plan to participate in those scheduled visits the superintendent of schools or designate shall accompany the board on scheduled visits under this section and the requirements for School director initiative visits as set forth below shall not apply the second time of visitation is a School director initiated visit a School director on his or her own initiative may visit a district school subject to all the parameters outlined under the section School director initiated School visits May be for the purpose of attending scheduled school events such

108as assemblies concerts field days or classroom celebrations or to observe schoolwide conditions educational programs or other activities that take place during the typical school day a School director is strongly encouraged but not required to coordinate in advance with a school principal before initiating a visit to the school the parameters to be considered for these visits include eligibility a School director must have completed the child abuse clearance and criminal background checks required of volunteers under policy 9916 confirm no prohibitions exist against volunteer service and have those documents on file with the Human Resources officer prior to initiating any school visits under this section number two during each School visit the school director must enter and exit the school through its main entrance Reg register at the office where he or she will sign out provide the

109reason for the visit and receive any necessary instructions number three a School director is required to wear a district issued identification badge throughout the entirety of the school visit number four a School director God bless you shall be limited to two director initiated School visits each week and no director initiated School visit shall be longer than one half a school day so those are the eligibility requirements guidelines interactions with staff and student during visits a School director May engage in polite interactions with staff and students during director initiated School visits a School director shall abide by all board policies while participating in director initiated School visits a School director may not interfere or otherwise disrupt classroom routines educational programs or the daily school schedule during a visit the superintendent of schools or School principal may

110ask a School director to leave the school if his or her conduct is disruptive and the educational environment or violates the board policy and then there's just a couple little situations of when and when and where to visit so visits will not be done outside of normal school operations no visit will take place during a time when State assess assessments or other standardized tests are being administered Ed there are no visits to private spaces unless accompanied by a building principal and these spaces are empty um a School director shall not be allowed to bring another individual with him or her while on a school visit a School director shall not visit non-educational facilities without prior consultation with the superintendent of schools and any failure to comply with the above procedures could result in temporary limitation

111on future School director initiated School visits at determined by the board I don't know Mr litz or Mr Wilson if there's anything that you wanted to add to that it's okay to say about the non-educational thing facilities yeah yeah the one question that Mr Wilson did ask me since I I I drafted I Ed the term non educational facilities that Mr Wilson asked a question about defining that in the policy and I said that's fine the intent on putting a potential limitation without you know some other administrator pres is you know there are some safety sensitive facilities uh the anote I'd share uh is I think we had a situation uh in a district where I had someone innocently visiting something a staff member see someone on school grounds reported as an intruder and it

112was just a big misunderstanding So to avoid those types of things or not to unwittingly get into a uh you know some facility issue I agree with Mr wels weeken to find what those non-educational facilities are and I just think it's a good idea have someone with them so you want us going into the boiler room and leave it unlocked yeah leave it unlocked or unwittingly touch something um and and and something like that um so that was the the one comment I I shared with Mr Wilson and I said yeah we can we can add something on the on on the next round of revision but I'll be happy to answer any questions if anyone has any questions yes chff the background investigations didn't say anything about who's responsible to pay for those the

113int of that would be uh to have board members that wish to participate that to go through the same background check that volunteers go through but who pays for it well volunteer background checks uh are free of charge uh you can get the criminal background check from the Department of Public Welfare uh and ien is like 20 bucks yeah but so so in my mind if someone wants to participate they should they should you know assume the cost of that but it would go through the same volunteer checks you know Sue and her staff look at that see if there's prohibited offenses and clears people and then we keep those on file so it be the same process volunteers um my only comment is one I don't think it needs changed because obviously we've never

114been denied access to the school if we've asked the superintendent that we can come um but two I don't think it should say that it's not required to talk to the principal before coming I think we should have to let the principal know that we are coming if we're coming so one one should be yeah I one one reason that I I prefer not not to require that is if I want to schedule I mean I'm not going to walk into a teacher's class without the teacher knowing about it if I want to schedule lunch with a teacher uh I I want to be able to come in just write down teacher visit and that nobody has to know other than that teacher that that teacher can speak candidly to me and that teacher's uh

115you know boss doesn't necessarily know that they did uh because they may have something that they want to to inform us of in our oversight role uh you know that that that they don't necessarily want to raise it's common common thing to be able to raise issues not only with your manager but with other avenues in case you are uncomfortable raising the issue with your manager um correct but they also could just contact you if they have issues um without the principal knowing um but I I I strongly suggest that we contact the principal before we go in no matter what I mean it won't matter anyway so Nathan what what you just described sounds like what a supervisor would do yeah and one of the first things that psba talks about duties of Schoolboard

116members is not to become micromanagers that's not become a micromanager it's it's it's to hear a teacher's concerns directly I'd like to be able to hear a teacher concerns directly as well as as well as through through the the CH why can't the teacher call you in the evening they can but if I want to visit them at the school and they don't necessarily and if the teacher doesn't want it to be known uh exact or you know exactly that that I'm coming in or what I'm what I'm you know what I'm coming to talk to them about obviously someone might see it but I'd like it would be nice to have the freedom to go and just visit that teacher if that's if the teacher wants to talk to me directly I'm not going

117to do that unless the teacher wants that's it you don't realize the impact you're going to have on a lot of the other teachers because they're going to know you're there that they're going to know what that I'm speaking to one of the teachers absolutely individually absolutely at at that teacher's with that teacher's consent and and with that teacher wanting to meet with me because in the school H you're in the school building yes you don't think the word's going to spread that you were there and you were talking to so and so I just don't think that's what it's not going to be a sec School Board it's not going to be a secret it's not going to be a secret and I appreciate that but we've had comment from our community now in

118multiple meetings making the assertion that what we are seeing in data does not match what they are experiencing in our school that's not fully ref so that may not matter to you Jim but that really matters to me and if there is a disparagement one way that I would be able to see whether there is or is not a discouragement in in that is by being in the school and observing and listening maybe not interacting in any way shape or form but being in the school and listening to the interactions between students being you know in the described but there are many there there not there's not necessarily only one reason being able to observe there can be multiple reasons yeah being able to observe the the changing of classes in the hallway and what

119what also though cuz you're like going to investigate to make sure that everything's going well in it's not to investigate any specific but it is I mean if you're going there with an agenda to see oh I got you know I've heard word that this is happening at the school so now I'm going like I hate is that agenda when when we have you know moms standing here you know pouring out their hearts to listen to what they say and then try to juxtapose that to our own data and then go in there and just listen and see and observe on the behalf of these moms that are are you know obviously hurting for their students okay but why does it have to be hid from the principal why do you have to come unannounced

120why not say to the principal hey I'm coming well I'm coming to meet with the teacher I'm coming it doesn't matter because they're going to know you met with that teacher because word's going to spread it doesn't matter like you can't hide that but I mean all you have to do is just send an email to the principal and say hey I'm coming today I mean like I don't understand why that would be hidden unless you are going for an agenda so like that's why I don't understand why we even need to add this but it is so so how would it be how does it indicate an agenda versus coming into the school versus emailing before you get there how does that indicate that there's an agenda in play well I mean you're coming

121into the school for a reason I mean you're not just coming to observe you know that well no we're com to observe that's the point please don't dis Purge my comment yeah I in my comment that I would like to observe yeah but why can't you observe with another the respect of students between one another I would like to observe that right but why can't you observe by just saying hey I'm coming and then go observe well the policy says you can yes says we can right but I'm saying I'm saying you should let the principal know you're coming I I think they should know I I don't think it should be a surprise visit because that's just not right like do you want your CFO doing a surprise visit on your job no like

122I mean it's I mean we're not a CFO but it I don't think that we need to surprise anyone I think it should be whether we're not talking to the superintendent and scheduling a visit fine just send an email to the principal saying hey we're going into to the school and I don't understand why that's a problem to let them know I hear what you're saying um Mrs Doberman and I think that you are rightly and accurately showing the tension that we have I mean that that is that is a concern is it not and I think that the board right now is between a rock and a hard place we have and I hope everybody understands this is not accusatory in any way shape or form I'm simply reflecting comments that we've heard these

123are not my my uh personal opinions but we're hearing things like from public commenters that quote the administration is hiding things and that students are are experiencing all sorts of bullying and that the data that we as a board are getting is not reflective of reality in the district and so that would be all right well and and and them telling us that we don't know what it's like to be in the buildings you're right we don't and then we also have and and this is something that has been unsaid thus far teachers who have come to us and some who have left the district but some who have not who have said as board directors we don't know what they go through we don't understand what they have to deal with to which I

124have to say you're right I don't and it's not I can understand how it could be misconstrued especially in the political climate that we find ourselves in that it's monitoring the teachers it's not it's to come alongside and help we have no idea what I'm not and I know that was not your I'm not against that I'm against the surprise visit part that's what I'm against that's what I'm asking to change in here that's all I'm asking to change even though I don't think the whole thing needs to be done but if it has to be done cu the vote's not going to go my way um I think it should be amended to say that we must talk to the principal at least that's all that's all I'm asking I also like to add

125if there are staff members that want to reach out to a board member but feel that they can't for whatever reason um that a third party survey might be a good idea you know at the end of the school year you know just to see how things are going you know how are things going with discipline you know how are you feeling supported in the classroom those kinds of things that when we do have some of those conversations with staff that wants to share those concerns are raised so that would be another way to get that feedback if you want to have that you know in a manner that isn't making a staff member feel uncomfortable or you know requiring anything that would seem like is hidden because it's really not we're here to represent

126everyone in our constituency and be available listening ears for staff and students so those are my thoughts well I have to agree with Liz I don't see any reason to have a separate policy if you want to come in talk to Dr Bryson get his permission and arrange to do what you want to do my question is what what background do you have to do what you want to do I will I will say we were elected yeah that's that's not what I'm talking about sure I I made a very clear distinction that when we go into those rooms we are not in there and an observate we are there to observe we are not looking to be able to evaluate or provide any feedback on that our second um in our high reliability schools

127it's all about effective teaching instruction when I sat on the comprehensive plan committee it was very helpful to be able to have some insight in just visits that I've done as a parent and as a board member to see what goes on in the classroom because I could relate to the content that was being discussed I could contribute fully as as a board member because of that experience of being able to be in the classroom and being able to see things it's just my experience you don't have to agree with me it's okay it's just my experience I'm sharing but you don't you don't think your presence in that classroom disrupted what was going on in the classroom when I went in as a parent absolutely I was invited in as a parent well I

128have to say as well if I can add that as you're not going in as a parent you're doing what there are so many other things that we do at least I know for myself volunteering for Junior Achievement or other things that happen within the district that are a delight every time I've come in it's always been a welcome by staff you know and students and it's been a wonderful experience it's never been disrupting in any way so I just want to share that because as a volunteer throughout regularly um The Experience Is Not A disruption it is always a welcome that's not what we're talking about I understand that but you're sharing that we would be disrupting if we're going into to volunteer or what have you and doing what you want to do

129is going to be disrupting Mr Hol walking down the hall and and seeing the change of classes and hearing if there are disruptions happening in one of the classes that has the door open um I mean honestly I I'll say that that classroom disruptions are have driven our family's educational decisions and I know that there's at least one of other person who spoke today where that sort of thing drove theirs and it it's a concern and I I would like to be able to speak to it from a place of knowledge I'd like to be able to speak to it from a place of having seen okay this is what they're talking about look at the end of the day you know we've seen a lot of data we've seen our proficient data go downward

130we just got that presentation the other night we see our climate survey that's our staff that's going downhill over the last 5 six years we've seen our disciplinary information we're actually tracking it now but we are seeing that it's going in you know higher numbers there's something going on Jim and you don't get to you don't get to resolve anything if you just you know stay on the outside you know we do want to partner with teachers we've been told well you need to establish a relationship with teachers well you can't really go in and visit with the teachers m to me micromanaging would be stepping in and trying to solve the situations that we observe this is simply to get an understanding that goes beyond data yep just beyond that data are real children

131yeah you know and you know as we hear from from moms you know real real sons real daughters real people and it will help us to be able to feel the humanity of the data and what's going on in our school not just sit at a table and crunch numbers right and we also heard from real people that they didn't want you in the schools but you know I mean whatever well I mean I'm just saying like I mean you're talking about real people but I'm talking about the other real people I mean it's I do understand that but I I personally uh listen to the moms who are talking about their children being um discriminated against and I take that to heart and it is strange to me that the the desire to really

132have a real understanding of that flies in the face of those that that also really want to have an understanding of that however people are dichotomist you know they can have their views and their opinions just the same as I can um and that's fine but I do want to understand um the disparagement between the two and be able to see the level of Discord and respect or I IE disrespect um between our kids and just be a fly on the wall you know I don't think the the children are going to know or care if I'm a school board member here um but I do care about them and about their interactions and the fact that I want them to leave this District every student all of our students to be able to leave

133the district feeling like they loved their time at susal hanok and Southern you know all the way through so that is a desire of mine and and a real reason why um I want to be able to be an observer inside of the school and I understand what you're saying but you will not be a fly on the wall you will be a swarm of bees or something that as you're walking down that Hall every teacher is going to look out and go oh A board's members here sorry but they're just going to be like crap they're here like let's you know like prim and proper kids you know and and we don't want anything to look bad does that happen when a principal walks down the hall probably but I don't know but the

134principal needs to be there yes to perform we hired that duties we hired them to to do that right and people elect us to oversee to oversee not to go in which part of which is is to understand what's happening we're that umbrella we're not and and and I think this policy does not would not support the idea of us actually engaging with an issue that we see it's simply to understand what's happening okay then then make it right and email the principal at the beginning that's all I'm saying cuz it sounds Shady that we're doing spot checks and surprising the school in coming but that's subjective it sounds Shady to you it doesn't sound sh I mean it all depend I mean I'm just saying this like honestly it depends on what your intent

135is right like you're looking at through the lens of seeing Shady I'm looking at through the lens of we have a lot of new board members and it would be wonderful to be able to get into the schools to Foster that collaboration and to to break down any assumptions of what a board is or what a board isn't so again you're not wrong I'm not wrong but it's our mindset but we can't take that mindset surprise them but I mean again you're calling it surprise I don't call it a surprise it is if you're just showing up at the front desk it's a surprise hello I'm here true very true there is a difference between a volunteer and there is a difference between a board member who was elected for citizen oversight into it's very

136different at the end of the day all of us even if we don't agree on this we are accountable for what happens in this school district at the end of the day we are the ones that were voted in to be accountable so it is different yes we are volunteers we do not take pay for this but we are a different level of volunteer in that we were elected in as opposed to somebody going in and reading in a classroom those people are not accountable for our district we are well s thank part of this is develop those those relationships more in in a more direct way um however um this was just the first reading uh do we have any further discussion on this for now I mean we can always discuss further at

137the next uh the next meeting um so nothing's happening right now um no public comment is done um Sue just in terms of moving this forward so we would put this how would we put this on for the next for April is that what we're discussing that we would do CU we talked about that like is that assumed that we just discussed this a second read in April that would be up to to the board um her board policy you have to have a first read and then um it has to be on every other month until it's approved so you could discuss it again in April you could vote for it in April for the policy it's up to the board okay and I I I would like to thank um Mr Wilson for

138um working with uh Dr Bryson and our solicitor um to to sort of to try to um account for all the different concerns from the different P from different perspectives on this um ultimately it was uh it was Jeff that crafted the the policy in by taking all of that uh that input and and and that was uh to attempt to ensure that the legal issues were were um well considered uh by by actually allow having him draft the the language of the policy uh whereas with some other policies we've drafted it and had him review we we took special care with this policy we actually have been in discussions you know I've discussed with Dr Bryson I know Joe's had a lot of discussions with Dr Bryson and Mr litz um about this and

139um it's it's it's been so much that it fell behind all of policies in the policy adoption schedule um so we are taking it we are we are considering it carefully and have been well what excuse me you don't get to call out from the audience please while we while we have been discussing I think it's I feel obligated to speak for um and while I can't speak for every staff member I don't want to sit and think that this is good or bad for our teaching staff so much as what I will say is there are concerns and I think there will be concerns um and I heard a little bit about what their opinion was and or our ability to survey um and that the climate cultures down we survey staff I'm I'm

140not sure what particular piece of data Joe within that climate culture is down we can certainly take a closer look at that um but I would suggest either the board may consider asking your staff whether they feel comfortable with board members coming into the buildings without prior knowledge of of their direct supervisor um I can tell you in majority of staff are extremely comfortable with their principal walking down the hallway if I walk down the hallway it's a little less comfortable and I've been here 29 years and I'm in ja and helping the volunteering and trying to get out as much as I possibly can I'm still the superintendent not Bob Bryson the superintendent Bryson um and so I would just caution uh in respect of everybody's opinion this will impact the staff of this

141district and it may be worthy to get feedback from them prior to official approval um and that might that may be as as much as also hearing from um Mr Nan at some point as the association president um we don't need the details tonight but I think it's worth worthy of our our efforts to potentially get their opinions too so it was said earlier that uh teacher representation was was brought into this is that correct and and who did you work with um Chris Newan Jen Collins we had we've had several conversations so you have a talk with Mr about it and I believe Nathan you did as well yeah yeah that wasn't the highlight of our discussion we we discussed a number of topics but this was I believe this was among them I

142just C out of curious I was not a part of those discussions um was did they directly say they supported the board members having Open Access and being able to come and go as they chose or I'm paraphrasing the exact words but well I mean the idea of more collaboration between the school board and teachers as employees of our district as literally our most valuable resource was supported on both sides of that conversation so and that was literally the direction that my intent my initial request my continued efforts on this are solely to make sure that we have really great teachers let's keep them let's figure out what they're seeing let's be more of a partnership than we have than they have with prior boards mhm mhm cuz that's you know look we saw almost

143half of our teachers and staff leaving in the last four years that's not an accident you know I want to keep them I want to you know I want to have that relationship and because great teachers means we're getting great education for us all the students of our district so Mrs Hall um brought up the the concept of doing a U teacher survey um I believe you said third party third party teacher survey um I would think that that would be an interesting component to put into if we were to discuss doing a teacher survey um an interesting component to put into that so that the teachers you know sort of individually but then as a whole in the data would be able to talk about um their Express their opinions uh on the situation

144and obviously many other things you know through that um but to be able to get a a good litmus test on what our teachers think um because I mean although I have had teachers come to me and talk to me about things I have um um multiple times I mean I've lived in my in the district my whole life I I know a lot of people people are going to come up and talk to you um this would be maybe a much broader Approach at getting the opinions of of those teachers and you know on many many issues but this could also be one of the issues that we could get their perspective on I I agree and uh to highlight something that Mr Holly said I think that that you're absolutely right that there

145are some Futures that that never would have have a sit down in a school I think that that that the reality of the climate that we're in that that probably wouldn't happen and so that gives the secondary option of being able to have their feedback in a way that isn't quite so but it's again the intention of the policy at least from my standpoint is not to it was brought to my attention that you know this policy is only here because we want to survey libraries we can survey libraries now the catalog for books is online I don't have to go into a school to know what books are in our library we might see posters on walls I see posters on walls now that's not what this policy is about that we want to

146Target students that we want to Target teachers I see students now I see teachers now that's not what this is about it really is to Aid teachers it's not to scrutinize it's not to deliver any advice at all it's to just be able to Aid them and to hear them and to listen to them it's it's not for lesson plans they don't need us for that it's really just to be able to experience the culture and climate of our schools and when we're hearing public comments say that we don't know what it's like that things are happening in our district that we have no idea of you're right we don't that's all this is well and there's other avenues too in addition you know like a fall fun night you know the everyone has their

147own tables right the board could come in and we could do a table right and give out candy to the little ones and just you know get out there and get to know uh the staff a little bit better through evening activities and things too you know so there are things that that we can um enjoy with the staff and the students in the community other policy never told us we couldn't do that right it's just the doesn't need to be amended that's what I'm saying I understand everything you just described can be done with the policies we have ex except being able to just walk through and and observe what's going on on with without anyone you know taking us a particular way just being able to walk through a hall and hear what's

148happening classroom to classroom um you know is is is the environment disruptive is it is it are the children learning well I mean the classroom that I went into with the uh with with the uh what I read to them it was a very young classroom they were extremely well behaved but I've on certain parent visitation days when I came before I was a board member I saw some some things that really really made it difficult for me to continue to send my kids to that to that particular school at that time um and ultimately we didn't um and so we know that people sometimes pull out for that reason um and so that's that's the thing that I want to I want to see what what does that look like what when we're talking

149about a disruptive classroom what does that mean and because teachers are sometimes suffering under that um but it it doesn't it we don't get the the information we need to really understand what they're experiencing so in closing we have heard a lot um and so we'll come back in April and go through our second read meting but we do a survey before that or not I mean the teacher survey the independent teacher survey everybody survey not just teachers Care Professionals everybody through staff yeah yeah I think that needs to be done before we would move forward with this I'm not opposed to it would do we need a an item on the next agenda for that or is that is that how it needs to be done or can you just well we can't vote

150on anything tonight no no yeah I'm just saying do we need what I mean does for a survey like that do we have to vote on that or is that something we can just say hey Administration I I don't have a problem if you trust the administration put together a survey talk with the associations about it and then sharing it with you guys if you're comfortable with that if you prefer to approve something then put on the agenda next month all right um let's see during new business if anyone wants to put that on the agenda for next month you do a survey what are we putting on the agenda uh the board approving a a survey that would be if we want to have more more input I suppose into the content of the

151survey so then that way we would be waiting on that policy for a second read that would not appear because I mean we can read it as many times as we want we we can pass it we we we can take as long as we need we can't pass it if we're going to do a survey right so I would say probably if if there's General support for doing a survey we probably would not pass the policy until the survey was done the only question is if if we want the board to have input into the content of the survey then we may need to wait until we may need to put the survey on the next board meeting um which would delay the that would potentially delay adopting this policy um so we can

152discuss that business I didn't know if that if we could just put out a survey or we really have to motion on that I mean that's what I'm asking I'm asking out of stupidity well what Mr lit said was um if we trust or you know if we trust the administration but it's also um we can't deliberate over the contents of that survey outside of a public meeting so I can say Dr Bryson could you put together a survey and here's what is important to me and we could each send what's important to us and have him coate it all and in that case we can get it done faster um but if if anybody has concerns about what exactly the survey looks like so I'm just not I'm not taking a position on Mr

153litz gave us the options and I'm not taking a position just asking one way or the other on it I'm saying during new business we can discuss whether we want to put that on the next or if we want to just hand it to Dr Bryson and we all just send him any any uh anything we'd like him to include in the survey okay so let's leave that for new business um all right moving on uh 10.03 memorandum of understanding with the southern New York educational support Personnel Association and miss Patricia McGee um the recommended action um for this is to well the public comment the Board of Education to consider approval of a memorandum of understanding with the southern York educational support Personnel Association and Mrs Patricia McGee concerning a temporary assignment um and

154just the background on this is that Miss McGee has been doing um a different part of her job and so this is anou to be able to compensate her for doing that it's outside of her scope of responsibility so I make a motion to approve a memorandum of understanding with the southern York educational support Personnel Association and miss Patricia McGee concerning a temporary assignment do I have a second second any discussion uh hearing none any nams or exensions okay motion carries and item 10.04 a memorandum of understanding with the southern York Education Association the Board of Education to consider approval of a memorandum of understanding with the southern York Education Association concerning additional compensation for providing additional services and case management coverage for the balance of 2023 2024 school year and again the background on

155this is that we have a teacher that is providing these additional Services outside of the scope and the memorandum of understanding is to be able to compensate um for those Services I make a motion to approve a memorandum of understanding with the southern York Education Association concerning additional compensation for providing additional Services case management coverage for the balance of the 2023 2024 school year do I have a second second um and any discussion hearing none any Nays or abstentions okay motion carries um and item 10.05 other items of business I have none and that concludes my report Mr President H I would like to add the survey to the um agenda next month or we going to do that under here a new business oh yeah sorry I mean we could we can do it

156under other items of business for this that's fine um so you do want to you do want to include a survey on the on the I mean I totally trust Dr Bryson but I mean if we have to look at it and discuss it then put it on the next agenda I mean can we just get a temperature of the board is is the board generally uh amendable to the idea of just sending our um any any any concerns we have any any input we have into what that survey would look like uh first of all is the board is everybody good with doing having Dr Bryson do a survey um I would prefer the survey with the third party third party well for the so that the teachers can feel no no level of

157of they they can feel free to say whatever they want to and and specifically about building access that you'd like a third party survey on that um I would like to be included in it included necessarily encompassing that oh but but but included in a third party survey um more of a climate survey conducted by a third party with that component added into it okay so that will probably further further delay adopting this policy um right Mr Hall if I could just add to that I think the natural scope of a survey is at the end of the school year so then that would if if we're going to add to that third party survey for discipline and whatever we wanted to ask you're wanting to add this in so it's not going to be

158too separate surveys you want it to be all combined into one is what you're trying to do I would um I understand this may create delay I I do understand that um I do think if we have a real desire to observe in the school we we do have a mechanism we can work inside of at the moment um but I I would really like to see um a climate survey for the school um and I'm completely uh acceptable Mr doberman to include others Beyond teachers that's completely uh accept that I think that that's fine uh it may add to to the cost of it however uh I think it's very beneficial to us to be able to have that it's going to be more of a of a roll data situation in the end

159it's going to be a roll data situation however um it will give us a uh a good indication of of where our staff is at and and um maybe it will give us some indication to some of our our our our staffing lows maybe it won't um but I do think it's worth having a better understanding of it as a board um and I do think that as my desire to be a asset to our teachers and an asset to our students asset to our Administration I think having a better understanding of it of all of that will only help us to have a better policy in the end and if that means that this policy is essentially tabled until the beginning of school next year um I'm willing to accept that to have a

160a ultimately my desire is to have a better understanding and although that's not taking the cons the consideration the students in it's delaying time on on on seeing and understanding the climate of our of our students and that is what it's effectively doing it's delaying it for our students um I do agree with Joe that our our our teachers are our our greatest asset and um I think having a solid and clear understanding of of what they think will only help us uh to be more effective board members and for this policy to be more effective in the long term so the suggestion then would be to to um whether it whether we can as soon as we can because I guess there are issues to consider you know who would be the third party

161and and and and is there a cost and and those sorts of things so I I suppose um I'll just get a temperature from the board is there any uh opposition on the board to that course of action no could we redo the survey that we did with the Liu so yeah I'm going to add so we do a multitude of surveys under level one for Hrs which is about safe supportive collaborative um we have those results from last year which we can certainly provide but we can update to some extent this year um and many of the parents may have remembered getting those surveys as parents as well an abbreviated version that being said it's not necessarily third party the survey itself is third party we still implement it but that data for instance

162our staff are the ones who analyze it so there's a safety to that in that it's not superintendent analyzing data and saying this is what's wrong it's they figuring out what they what is what could be done better and that's a whole different feel um and I we want to continue to do that data it's on an abbreviated version each year um so you're not doing a six page uh survey um so I think we need to investigate it a little bit just because I you can go in a multitude of directions with this and I think for this particular topic you're looking at maybe a couple questions is probably going to Garner the information that you're looking for um and that can be done fairly quickly um but let's not lose sight of the

163culture climate we are doing those and certainly can share the kind of data that we have in those areas that you can get a better look as Joe had talked about um having three four years of data we've been doing climate culture surveys for over 10 years now um and so that gives you a big a feel maybe we could compare that that uh survey d uh survey questions maybe not the data but the the approach of that survey or with what liu3 did during the superintendent search and maybe it could be a blend of the two and then of course adding in some of these concerns of what we're discussing right now yeah although the I the iu13 that's several years old now so true if you're wanting to compare to something like that

164we might need a refresh oh yeah you say the approach yeah the approach so do we do we have those available the I 13 um the qu the surveys that they circulated that time uh yeah we'll take a look at what we have I mean we certainly didn't get rid of it but yeah and they're certainly willing they do the climate I mean they utilize pretty much the same climate culture survey we were we were using because it's aate generated and they've done all the work to normalize it Etc so however it's not very you can't manipulate it with whatever questions you want to throw on it so it's not going to fit the bill for this particular topic um but we can have conversations with them at least to see yeah so you can

165you can look U bring bring back uh a lot of what we're currently doing with HRS and then I'll look into some third party options for um does h Franklin and Marshall does polling too I just haded distri Franklin Marshall yeah okay and Mr Hall more I think about it I I really don't think that there is a delay because you could just write right now right you could reach out to any principal and say hey you know I've got a free couple hours tomorrow I wonder if I could come in and just observe you know um and I that wouldn't be a problem I don't think I think if the clear through superintendent right now I think that's still the policy that's in place right now and I mean so if if the concern

166right now is uh is is solely uh that the building principle ought to be informed we could I guess we can always pass a policy and then pass a further amended policy down the road we could pass a version of this that since I believe Mr Au your only objection was that to that particular element well my objection so so we could we could reach out only to the building principal and and it's definitely for the whole change I mean like are the teachers comfortable with having us come in just like whenever we want um and are they comfortable I I would like a survey before we okay all right so so your objection more than more than just us don't have that kind of flexibility I know I work 40 hours a week right

167during the school hour so for me I like to plan I like to know what what I'm doing ahead of time and you know I I certainly don't have any opposition to letting anyone know whatever is going on you know I've reached out before and said hey I've got a couple hours can I come in and help and the principal has been like sure you know I've got let me let me see what I've got you know so it's always a welcoming the current yeah the current policy doesn't doesn't prevent any ability to to gather information on the school environment it it simply it simply make certain certain types of information gathering um more difficult or even or even impossible um so today M bird food service committee the four individuals on the Food Service

168committee visited a school multiple schools today to observe what was going on in their lunch programs we came in specifically and intentionally unannounced because we wanted to have a real perspective of the day-to- day of what what was going on um I do not feel that anyone felt like that was an imposition because we showed up there and they had no idea we were coming and a little bit of irony in it that they were very well connected in their communication and when we arrived at this second location they knew we were coming so that that was a little a little humorous to see the their efficiency internally also the area regional manager who I I think he did said he has 18 schools that he goes into I made the comment that he had

169in the center console of his vehicle badge on top of badge on top of badge that he would have to dig out the right one because he was able to walk up to the door of the school and swipe his badge and walk in and I I think there's a little bit of irony in all of the time that we have spent when this individual is he's not a School employee he's a a manager higher level manager of a institution that we hire and we in intentionally showed up without them knowing we were coming because we wanted to get a good feel for what it was really like for the students in a in a non censored environment and I I feel like a lot of what we're asking for resonates with all of the

170things that we did today uh as a first food service committee uh for our kids so I'm not against a survey in any way sheap perform in fact I think it's a good idea but I I think that we did today what we are talking about and it it was the proper way to to do that the proper way to observe them uh and it's anecdotal evidence I understand that but it is how we as a district conducted ourselves in this process so you went to cuz I didn't go I did not go on U I didn't know if you I didn't know if we wanted to say where we went no that's okay we it in the district you went or District was there a representative though from that District that was with you

171so you let them know we were com so I feel like the the staff know right right right the the Food Service staff correct you're just walking through and feel like for what we're talking about if the three of us are walking together I I don't send notification out to the building that there's board members in the building it will get out as you just indicated but there's a comfort level for folks knowing my face Sue's face lens's face that you're supposed to be there because know a face with the group that's all like so and so that's I think the piece of it is it's not that we need to announce it to the world it's more can one of us just go to provide context or to provide a familiar face for the

172staff and and that and because many don't know who you are just because they're not necessarily watching the board meetings um and relieve some of that anxiety that they may have that we spoke of when we're walking down the hallway or whatever it may be and that you can I mean some of you have been in with me at times and I I I don't tell the cafeteria we're coming in to get grab something to eat or I don't you know and and if if you want to see a music performance great you know and and um so I I I wanted to touch on that because I'm thinking to myself now somebody from that District was with and because of some of the same concerns that I think run through my I don't want

173anybody to accuse somebody of you know this or that or the other thing um and if you have questions we want to be able to provide some context that if we know and we might not know um so anyway all right so I'm leaving try if we're leaving other items of business I think you've got a few things to look into um I've got a few things looked into in terms of third parties um is there anything else that we're missing there I don't think so all right all right item 11 Mr Hall take it away okay buildings and grounds report 11.01 we have the buildings and grounds report for February of 2024 Mr Buffington the uh report's been provided for your information I just highlight that the uh work for the southern Elementary kindergarten

174playground uh has started uh and actually has now been completed um as well as um work on the uh baseball and softball batting cages and um warm-up pitching areas have started as well and um we did have um a couple volunteers here um helping those efforts the water test report 11.02 is also um provided for your information as you can see um the color form test taken at the main campus and friendship um we're good are safe so 11.03 we have the susqu high school uh project progress report financial report and timeline so I would like to to say that um although we're not going to have a a slide tonight um for no I think we I think we do we are going to have a slide we pulled that off all right very

175good thank you thank you I'm glad that happened good job Mr go ahead so putting the the three items together um with the progress report financial report and timeline just um kind of update the board seven months to go you know we're pretty excited to try to get this thing uh completed and and we're well on its way just this week um some more classrooms uh were occupied um several months ahead of schedule you know so things things are going well there um still a bunch to go but um doing well um so for the financials and that information comes off of the report just kind of highlight um overall the original budget and then um you can see the expenditures to date the incumbrances and remaining budget um 97 um for that first slide

176and then if we go on the to the second slide show the um contingency um at the beginning of February the contingency was um just under 400,000 uh in February um almost 14,000 in change orders um and then you can see the uh contingency at the end of February of $383,500 uh doar we'll uh in a moment talk about the uh the one change order um for this month as well as there was one that the board approved last month that uh is reflected in those numbers any questions with that um you did mentioned that we moved into some classrooms early is those different from the ones we we did the tour I guess what a week ago you said there was more classrooms that are coming online after spring break are they the same

177ones they are okay yeah so even earlier couple days ahead of the spring break even you know so um yeah for picture basically from the new addition to the new to the tower um that that second floor um they're they're moving in there's still some to move in but uh yeah okay great okay 11.04 change order approved on site for the Cs high school project um as he mentioned earlier uh one of the change orders was uh what we approved in the last board meeting uh and that change order ultimately was uh paid for by architect and then we had one more change order uh unfortunately dealing with asbest and if you want to elaborate a little bit more on that sure yeah um those that have been around cesco Hanah col school for a

178long time uh know that the original um cafeteria was actually in the basement area uh there was duck work that runs from that basement uh all the way up through the roof uh unfortunately L uh gaskets in that duck work actually have asbest that duck work is in the area of mass demolition um so it was not a choice to leave it in place we needed to to remove it so that um that cost is is to remove that um the the duck work and with the asbestos gaskets in it okay thank you okay moving on to the facility study um so I guess I'll I'll I'll start the motion first and then we can have some some time for discussion um about this so motion to approve the following request our attorney to update

179the request for proposal documents for a facility study number two request proposals for architectural firms to complete a district facility study with the emphasis of greatest needs projects at the shury elementary uh Southern Middle School and Southern Elementary School and three approve of team to evaluate the proposals including myself William Hall and jery Ma Jeremy hash as board members and Mrs Green and Mr Buffington as well on this committee do I have a second second discussion so we in our budget and finance meeting talked a lot about our future uh future spending you know uh how that was all going to unfold um this study will basically be the backbone of how of what that will look like in our future and uh will give us the the the older study uh is is it

18010 years old Susan it's about five five years old sorry so five years old um I know some of the things on that we're taking care of already on that on that study um so this is going to give us a good picture of where we're we're moving in our facilities and the the work that that we need to be cognizant of and and a timeline of of trying to get it taken care of so how long does something like that take like I just I don't know what the timeline is to do a feasibility study so I was just curious so our recommendation would be that um we work to get the um feasibility study out with the intent to hopefully be able to approve um a design team by um the June board

181meeting okay that would allow um folks to work over the summer and get the information um with the goal of of mid to late fall next year um being able to bring back that study and then walk through the buildings to kind of understand what's going on so that's our hope um we have a lot of other things going on so we hope we can pull that off but um that's that's really what our our goal would be okay thank you there's just a little tiny projects going on around here I mean lot of um so again you know one of the things going to be um you know we did this about five years ago um Mr Hall mentioned having the attorney updated um it's really important to to make sure that um when

182you're looking at the AIA documents that um we have those Rewritten to um make sure they protect the school district when they're really written really written to protect the um professional um Team um so we have our our folks go through those each time so that's an important part um depending on how long that takes um is going to kind of determine our timeline but that that is a critical piece that U Mr Buffy and I really want to make sure we get that right before we go out for our thank you thank you oh no just have to any other cols any n or abstentions you know I do have one comment if I could just back up for a minute how do we choose who does the feasibility study and is that for

183sure that whoever does that is not guaranteed the work so that it's not inflated so so what will happen is we'll we'll get the documents um prepared uh then we'll go out for request for proposal um we'll get firms we turn in their proposals we'll narrow that the four of us as a team we'll narrow those down um and do interviews depending on um you know uh which firms We Believe were scored the highest on the on the Matrix um we'll interview those teams we'll bring those back to the board hopefully no later than June um for a recommendation for for that professional um generally how it works is they're not guaranteed to work um but usually they put a smaller fee in there and then you get that fee back if they end up

184doing the work um but the reason why we want to make sure all these documents are prepared um to the to our best um in the best way we can is because um generally you do award to that architect if they do a good good time with the the feasibility study then we are going to give them the work so we want to make sure we set everything up ahead of time uh to make sure all the legal things are in place okay does that make sense it does make sense I've just I've wondered you know over the years and getting these things is is that same contractor inflating the job as far as what is needed so that he believes he can get that work and take more from our person so that will

185be another thing we'll be bringing to the board um we we were we're debating whether to bring it at this point we our recommendation is we'll wait to bring that but um we also recommend that we have preconstruction Services um so that we have an independent person looking at at the the costs in the feasibility study to make sure that they're correct um because you know there is a difference between an architect and construction manager on how they're looking at things so that is another recommendation so you're a step ahead of us a little bit um but that that is one of the thoughts as we move down the timeline um just because it is so important before you before you award bids before you break ground um that you have all that leg where

186have that all put in place um in the best interest of the district Randy you're an expert on this do you want to add anything yeah I mean certainly um it's a lot easier to stay within budget um talking about construction manager and things and precon services and things how how important that is um we want to stay in budget and it's easier to stay in budget before the shovel hits the ground than you know afterwards you know obviously you can do both but um yeah certainly uh The Architects not guaranteed to work but if they do do good work and you know uh we like what they're doing you know it's good to to keep a good team together and and what we're approving here is first the ability to make sure that our

187our paperwork is in proper order and then secondly the process of working through multiple firms narrowing down to to that one firm that then potentially may be one so there is a narrowing process of firms in in this in this motion uh it's not it's not looking at one individual you look at multiple firms uh to boil down to who you think is going to be the right firm for for what we're looking to do and accent again the um the importance of that the request for proposal and have an attorney's draft that is you know obviously to protect the district you know um so certainly encourage that just change order weary any other comments or questions all right then any needs or exensions okay hearing none motion passes thank you thank you okay moving

188on to 11.06 uh I have a motion to award the base bid for ACI limited of York PA PA in the amount of 20,5 758 for the purchase of HVAC HVAC filters for the 2425 using Esser funds I have a second second and um this as we've spoken before um this is the purchasing of the filters uh the actual implementation of them being changed is something that we handle internally we do yeah our staff do that and um this the annual Supply districtwide and this this also came out of a of a bid process correct it did and this was the the basically the the best shot at the the most frugal shot at getting these filters you know for good prices so yeah we don't always bid I mean there's ways to use co-stars

189and and different cooperatives you know but but we we look and see you know the best way and and it was we believe that you know bidding in this um was was good for us and you know we got two competitive bids and a third um company that considered good thank you so any questions or concerns appreciate the bid and the explanation and the savings saved about $6,000 there that's good okay uh any n or abstentions none motion passes okay moving on to 11 07 a motion to propose uh a motion to approve a proposal for engineered Design Services for the repair of the retaining wall at friendship Elementary from Robert Walsh Associates LLC for a fee of $1,000 so um as per our discussion this is a retaining wall at friendship that the top

190courses are are um are pushing they're they're getting out of alignment um and there's concern of making repairs that would then divert water onto the neighbor's property so we we Mr Buffington felt that it was proper um for $1,000 to have an engineer come in and look at these things to make sure that uh first that the repairs you know solve the problem and secondly that the repairs do not create another problem by uh shedding water off of our property onto the neighbor property so um that's a little bit of background did I have a second second second okay thank you uh any questions or concerns no thank you for the background and explaining so thoroughly any ner abstentions hearing none motion passes moving on to 11.08 um we have use of facilities uh this

191is informational for each one of us moving on to 11.09 I have other items of business which I do not have any I actually uh um based on uh Mr abgar Right abgar um based on his uh his comments I think um I've had some of the same questions myself um so I think it would be good to hear um I know our next board meeting is short notice so I'm not going to give you that short a timeline but it would be good to hear in a near in a in a near-term board meeting uh some kind of analysis of um you know is there a reason we're holding the land uh is there any kind of projected use for it um especially given that enrollment Trends are downward um and and there there

192doesn't seem to be any change in that for the foreseeable future I think that it's it'd be wise to look at that and see whether whether the schools interests are served by continuing to hold that land um so again April April meeting is a little probably a little a little rough to ask for that but maybe shoot for a uh and if that's if that's really difficult I because I don't know what I'm asking uh if that's really difficult let me know um that can be just a really preliminary analysis I mean we can we can take the time we need to to look at this issue okay any other items very none Mr President all right moving on to item 12 uh transportation and safety I'll turn it over to Mr hash uh we

193have a transportation report from February um their first student is still actively recruiting for an um a location manager position um they have somebody as acting but still looking um during the month of February there were a total of eight red light violations reported of the eight violations one was called on a camera and seven were captured through driver observation um that is all I have for that we are going to move on to a transportation presentation by Susan green and uh Miss Shields before they do that though you going up um I did reach out to uh Susan and uh Administration to observe the evacuation of the school buses and just for the rest of the board let me tell you they got hundreds of kids off these buses and back on for the

194Middle School in 20 minutes it was fantastic um M Shield's had her team which she pulled from every Department it seemed like running very very efficiently so it was very cool to see that um she did not waste any time making these people move so that was kudos to you and your staff for doing that and for letting me come watch okay good evening everyone so we're just going to do a little dive into um transportation information for the board um there is a lot to our system um of Transportation so we just give you some information um so our objectives this evening just to give some background information um talk about our types of Transportation including home to school special needs and private school transportation um emphasis on safety for our students and we'll

195talk about that and then some of the transportation Challen Alles uh that we experience on a day-to-day basis so our Fleet um is made up of um buses from first student who is our student transportation um company uh they're not our employees but um they're definitely our team members and our drivers um so um we we consider them part of our team um we have um 27 full buses so that includes 72 77 and 84 passenger buses so you'll see we're getting some some larger buses to do some of the bigger areas um in the um District where they can navigate uh we do have one 48 passenger bus uh five mini buses um one me wheelchair mini bus and then five Vans um we transport um almost 3,000 uh public school students each day

196um including our special needs students and we transport 66 Private School uh students okay now that we know a little bit about our Fleet I wanted to talk a little bit about our some terms maybe we can we can we can talk about a little bit more about some terms I'm sorry my mouth is so dry right now talk a little bit about some terms no I have some thank you um so one of our terms I like to talk about is our secondary and elementary school routes the routes specifically a lot of times parents will give us a call and they don't understand what the word secondary means they think that it's kind of all encompassed everybody all the kids get on the bus from the same area and things so I think going

197over the terms might be a little bit helpful for the community so our secondary routes are composed of our high school school high school students and our middle school students from all over the district for all five all all of the areas for all five of the schools our elementary school students are all for our three elementary school zones for friendship Shrewsberry and Southern Elementary our second term I'd like to talk a little bit about is our IND District uh transportation for specialized services this is services that we provide for any students who have special needs this C is for specifically the wheelchair or special kind of chairs or things like that or seat constraints and things that students may need specialize for the next term is a little bit about a layover I'm not

198sure how many people know what a layover is I always think of an airplane kind of thinking uh when you're flying pardon me one second so with that I get a lot of parents uh what's a layover I see a bus driver sitting on the side of the road over there why are they sitting there what does that mean what are they doing so helping them understand what a layover actually is a lover really is just a part of a part of a plan where a parent where the the person may act actually have to pull over for a short period of time in order to maintain their time frame and travel distance so they have to wait in order to start for their second their second run the next one I want to talk

199about a little bit is a double run a double run is probably one of the most confusing that I've talked about with parents on the phone a double run really is just an example would be more of one school bus particularly going to a school picking up a load of students in the area going to the school dropping off at that school and then going back and picking up more students in that same area and then going back to that same exact school for a double run we see that right now with our Shrewsberry students uh let's see our next one I'd like to talk a little bit about is a delay this is one of our favorite right soe so a delay can happen any time of the day so we have um a

200morning delay that we can experience we have several afternoon delays that we can experience so some of the delays we usually see or hear about in the morning are high volumes for traffic a lot of the ones we might have for calling on the radio radio are they're stuck behind a buggy or a trash truck so they're they're experiencing those types of things other delays are just very unpredictable it could be a weather issue it could be a power line down a tree we're not sure like what the actual delay could be a cow a cow several cows my chicken um in the morning that's a lot of the things we hear in the mornings however in the afternoon it's a little bit different so some of the times we struggle with getting kids loaded

201on time of the school and the reason for this is because we want the students to be careful we want to make sure first we're taking safety precautions very serious we want to make sure each of these students are getting on the correct bus we want to make sure each student knows that it's okay to take your time and get on this bus we don't want them to trip and fall and hurt theel so we do take some time a little bit of extra time I'll say at the school loading the school let's see drivers may experience issues um with students when they're loading to school there's always sometimes sometimes there's behavior issues where we have to address it at the school before they even leave the school building so it's not always time it's

202not always a timely process and we at the at the district from the building we don't always know about these things so they're kind of going on simultaneously why there's you know other parts moving okay so the next one I want to talk a little bit about is route changes as our community grows and develops it really does reflect those route changes so a family changes address they move from one location to another location that address affects that route so understanding that that route change is going to happen it's it's inevitable anytime as student mov from one one location to another it affects that route tremendously in some cases depending on where you are in the community right so if you think about that the one thing we want to communicate is um so if

203we have a student moving they might move within our district but if we had to take them off one route put them on another the route they took off is going to get faster route they put on it's going to get possibly slower depending on whether it's a new stop so um as we're talking about some of these things um this is the thing to understand this is a huge Mammoth system that has a lot of moving Parts um and we really want to that's what we're trying to communicate tonight um some of the things that Mrs Shield's talking about um with secondary and Elementary School runs and layovers and staggers we can't have three buses get behind each other or they're all going to stop we can't have them all come on campus at

204the same time or we're going to have a traffic JM we have to stagger them as they come in when when Mr hash was here last week for um bus evacuation you saw they they come in a couple at a time and that's purposeful or else we're going to have a big old traffic going on here so um it is a well oiled machine um and there's a lot of moving Parts not to mention the least of which is we're dealing with small children um so they're unpredictable too and with those route changes come roster changes so we do our due diligence to make sure that we're updating those rosts every single time a student comes off of one bus and moves to another bus it's very important that we know and identify what students

205are on those buses as critical for the case of an emergency um sometimes kids get bus passes and the parent might forget that day where that kid is going for that day it happens I'm a parent my kid told me she was going to a friend's house I got a bus pass I'm thinking she's on her bus and she's not there we're all human so those things do happen so in the case of rosters we do have a very significant um oversight of that particular process as well as the bus pass process okay so now we're going to just jump into the day of the life of a bus driver so as a prior bus driver I do have a little bit of experience in that area um you can get up as early as

2066:00 a.m. and start your shift we started with a pre-trip inspection for anybody who's had CDL you're familiar with the pre-trip inspection you're really just walking around that vehicle to make sure nothing's broken nothing's leaky nothing's um not you know the the the vehicle can move properly so that's what your pre- inspection is each bus has two two morning runs and two afternoon runs a lot of people um when they call they have questions around those runs like well I thought it was all one run so it's really breaking down helping them understand that it's two runs two morning runs two afternoon ones ones for elementary ones for secondary same thing in the afternoon uh at the end of their day it's a lot of paperwork sometimes it's in the morning as well depending most

207kids like to sleep in the morning on the way to school however there are situations where kids may not want to sleep on the way to school and there may be some Mischief going on there may be some reports such as misconduct reports that they have to do midday especially around the end of the day we do see those things so at the end of the day they're doing a lot lot of paperwork um mileage reports misconduct reports any kind of an incident report we have them write all of those those things up so that we can keep track of what's going on on each bus any other thing that drivers are doing is I'm not sure that a lot of our community is aware of field trips and things like that the drivers help

208out throughout the day in the in the middle of the day they're also taking a lot of athletic trips they help support local churches with uh programs that they have comeing to and from although we may not host those those events personally those buses are still out there moving about for our community so I just wanted to say did you know that you have to be a CD out operated driver's LIC person with a driver's license in order to operate a vehicle a lot of people are not aware that you must obtain a CDL in order to be a bus driver so it's a very um it's a very critical phase you go through it's a lot of training that you go through for anybody who may have a CDL I see a small over

209there um and most buses now suit alluded to earlier the size of the buses now this specific bus here is our 72 passenger bus that we have it's around two 2,000 pound two I'm sorry 20,000 PBS total and it's about 40 foot long so can you imagine that thing going down the road just thinking of those numbers 20,000 lbs of a hard bus going down the road at you know 25 miles hour may not seem like much but it is particularly 40 foot long so turning around is definitely not easy and backing up is definitely not an option it's not it's not something we like for them to do so also did you know that the incidents one the sorry incidents that occur during Transit must be addressed right away so we take that very

210serious a lot of times I'll take calls from parents that are concerned because the bus had to pull over to a safe location in order to address behaviors there may be a nose bleed a student is injured we have to stop and make sure we're addressing those right away so if you do hear from community members I see a bus sitting on the side of the road it's more than likely that they've radio radioed that into the school district so we're aware of what's going on we know that they're sitting there we know who's on the bus we know what's going on in most cases I say that they're very good to communicating them okay so the next one's mine too special needs transportation in District and out of school district so for our out

211of school district I'm sorry for our in in school districts transportation we utilize five we utilize first student as our vendor for five different schools all five of our schools for out of District um schools I'm not sure that a lot of people are aware of we actually work through the IU and we are supporting 12 different schools out of District so we're actually in a total of doing 17 schools total for all of our students across the entire School District we also support for transportation for our homeless students so anyone's um anyone experienced in homelessness we're transporting them sometimes in the school district or out of the school district in the event that they have to be placed out of the school district so we're also doing that so we also do private school

212transportation um we have in the last 5 years we have anywhere from from 55 to 75 students that go to private school transportation um we utilize five vehicles for um the the schools listed there shrewbury Christian Academy St John the Baptist red Li Christian School and York Country Day School and you may say when you look at that list some of those schools are outside of our district we'll talk about um why we have to transport to those schools um private school transportation um we use um one 48 passenger bus One Mini Bus and two Vans to transport those students um so we are required by law in the state of Pennsylvania to transport private school students um within a 10mi radius of our borders so for instance um you're basically going from the border

213not from the where the child lives so a child could live in cador Township and want to go to St John Baptist if they're an elementary school student in our district they would go to friendship which is very near their home in cador's Township or in Glenrock but um if they're going to St John the Baptist it is far for them to go from cador to there they also that same family could choose to go to York Country Day um because York Country Day is 10 miles from our border um we do need to transport there but it is a far drive from cador Township or New Freedom um to go to York Country Day uh so as you're thinking about this it's not really whether they're in the district or where they're located it's

214really about our borders um so we do have students going to um St Joe's in Hanover also we do a private school uh contract with the parent for that because they're willing to transport and we have a couple children there um so we do that um if it's um feasible and and the parent agrees to it it's it's a win-win for both parties um but just so everybody understands we are required to do that and it is that 10 milei radius of our borders not from where the child lives okay so we wanted to take a little bit of time tonight to talk about red light violations I'm sure most of you have heard about the red light violations across our school district and the in initiative that we've been taking on it uh a

215bus driver Dave Leo and I did a presentation last year on it and we just kind of wanted to touch base a little bit on it today as well so some of the things that we're trying to educate the community on is the must stop you must stop kind of role so some a time one thing that we want to try to get out there to the community is that if you see the r the red flashing lights regardless of what your thoughts are you just stop if you're not sure you're not you know certain 100% certain of what to do just stop um at the intersection a lot of people are very confused with an intersection what you're supposed to do and I've seen it myself you come up upon an intersection you see

216a bus they're on one side of the road and you're stopping they have their Reds deployed they stop their bus um a car may turn in front of them they think it's okay because they're not on that side of the road so really helping them understand that you must stop at an intersection all way all the way around you must stop um the best practice is I tried to look it up to see if there was an actual rule for it but it sounds like it's more of a best practice for the 10 feet away from school bus to stop um I really learned that very early on when I got my drive my CDL license for the 10 ft because when you're going at high rate of speed in a car and a bus

217is going at 25 mes an hour down a road that 10 ft may seem like nothing to you in that small car but in that big vehicle your stop time is very different it's very different so that 10 ft apart is very important for drivers to understand particularly students so we're seeing a lot with students not really noticing that we'll talk a little bit more about that another that we're trying to get out there is if you're not sure and there's students walking just make sure you're stopping and making sure the students across the street before you start moving again so the question we get and it's actually a question I've asked the bus drivers and and Mrs Shields is what happens if I'm driving down the road and I'm getting so close to the

218bus and the red lights go on now what do I do because I'm already that bus is moving and I'm moving stop so we we just want to emphasize at that point you may be halfway past the but just stop one once you realize those red lights are there stop because you don't know where the kids are and where the buses are um so that is a question we we have quite a bit and that's that's a good point too s so one some of the things that we're doing um in this school district as well as with the drivers is being more proactive trying to come up with ways we can help the students and the parents educate them on what they can do to help support the process as well so um signaling

219the drivers have a signal to the students and I know that sometimes we forget to mention that when we get new kids on board so really having them hone in and understanding how important it is for each student to understand what that um signal is so the signal for most bus drivers is a thumbs up so you're you're engaging with that student before they even start crossing the street or being able to board the bus you're making sure you're making that eye contact you're giving them the thumbs up to make sure they know that it's okay to go past you know to come on board the second thing is they they're starting to don't open your door policy so if you're we had a red light Runner the other day was really a yellow light

220Runner so ideally if that driver is being Vig Vigilant and they're looking down that road they're getting ready to deploy your Reds you have the ability to control that door you're not going to open that door until you know that car has passed although your red may be out and a person may see your Reds out you have the ability to open that door keep the door closed until you see that car is passed because you don't want to harm any children you don't want anybody get off that bus so they're not practicing that a lot they don't open the door policy that's when the children are on the bus and getting off correct so they are the only ones that can control that door so if you you're out there and you see those

221Reds and you're thinking oh my gosh the door is going to open just pause they're they're kind of understanding that we're not going to fly that door right open they don't have an automatic wor just flipping out there they have the ability to put that hand up to make sure that it's there so you could see the Reds and you may panic and you may say is there a kid running if they see a car coming they're doing their due diligence to make sure that they're getting that car passed they put that door switch um so the last thing is really educating the parents on those types of things making sure that they understand what part they can take to help those students understand to make sure you're making that eye connection and that that

222door that door is not open and the kids not coming out [Applause] oh oh we went really fast there okay so the next thing we want to talk about um in relations to safety is awareness and and advertisement use so we have um a couple folks coming forward to talk about um ways we can can get this out in the community more um so we will have continue to educate the community like we're doing tonight um continue with newsletters we put it in our new newsletter almost every month um we we also want to emphasize to our bus drivers to continue to submit all red light violation forms even if we don't have the information um so that's one thing we're continuing to work on even if we don't know everything on that list it's

223important for us to analyze what happened um sometimes it's we have a situation in an intersection where if we can move the bus a little it might help so we're asking them to even if they don't have a lot give us anything you have so we can try to figure out what the solution is um we're also looking at mitigating the risk with stop assignments um where we can um moving the buses to a more safe location have students get off on um the door side if at all possible now I'm going to say this about that because um we want to be careful we cannot do all door side drop offs um so I I just want to be careful as we're talking about that um if we have a road that is 25

224miles an hour you can see in all directions um we're probably fine having the the student cross the street and remember we are working with our students you don't cross in the morning and you don't cross in the afternoon until you get the signal from the bus driver so again it's only going to be harmful we we don't want anyone running the Reds but we're doing everything we can to not have the children move until we know it's safe and that's really our probably our most proactive thing we can do um so that's something we're really continuing with um the other thing with um with this is we we can't have a bus stop you know every couple feet we have to stay 100 feet away um so we can't a lot of people don't

225realize that but you only can have a bus stop every 100 ft um so as we work through that um we're continuing to to to look at those um continuing to rotate our bus cameras so we do have three bus cameras but we have the ability to put them on All Buses um so we purposely did that um so if all of a sudden um you know someone's bus has a or start have issues we can move that camera around um so some of the things that we're exploring our awareness possibilities to discuss um while we put it in our newsl letter frequently we also want to reach out over the summer months to see if in August we can have it put in the newsletter of all the municipalities um we think that would

226be very helpful to try to get out to more residents because it's not just our parents that are that are out there in the mornings um when our buses are moving it's it's other community members um we also looking at the possibility of maybe doing banners um we could you know there are a lot of community members that would be willing to put those in their yards um to kind of look at um you know especially in those places where we're having problems and then the third option um well I don't think it's it's necessarily a bad option um is the Billboard option um it's a little Limited in that um we would put it up probably for a month or two is a little more expensive um and then it's really only in one

227area of our community um so that's probably the thing that concerns us the most about maybe using a billboard is that you're really just hitting one area um and with newsletters Andor banners we might be able to hit um more areas in the district so the other thing we wanted to talk about is some of the challenges we're facing um we we are facing a challenge of unreasonable expectations um we we have quite a few calls um on a daily basis of things like my child is 4 minutes late um my bus is not here um the bus didn't wait my kid was putting their shoes on um so you know we just want to make sure again that we're emphasizing expectations um students should be at the bus stop 5 minutes before the bus

228gets there um we have a 10-minute roll um they that can fluctuate 10 minutes either direction um because remember you think about when you're going to the grocery store on a Saturday morning um the things that you can can encounter on that short trip um we're doing big trips with lots of children um so it really is not reasonable to think that your child's going to be home at exactly the time or picked up at exactly the time so we do need a little bit of leeway there we don't mind the calls but when we get when we get the same calls over and over there's really not a whole lot we can do about that um four minutes I actually when Rita tells me this I always say that's pretty good um because I

229think 4 minutes for for this kind of transportation is is is very reasonable um you know we can have ride time up to 60 Minutes um because we get that too my child's on the bus too long we don't have any children unless maybe they have special needs in another District or in Lancaster that we have to take them that they're on for that long um we we try to keep those very very reasonable we talked about the stop expectations um we're getting a lot of that where I need a home stop we can't do home stops for everyone um so again we we have to look at where is it safe for the bus to stop um and that's our that's our biggest piece where do it safe for the children and for the

230bus and for the community um and pick up an arrival times um you know we kind of joke we're not a taxi service um you know we just want to set the expectations um that they're reasonable and for us safety is Paramount um we do have things with our students and when we have a safety incident we're not worrying about getting out the school messenger we will get out of school Messenger as soon as we can but what we're worried about when we have a safety incident on a bus like a child injured or or something else going on um we're worried about taking care of that situation um we are hearing more I didn't get a school messenger my boss was 15 minutes late I didn't get a school messenger so here's what the

231expectations again we want to put out for for that is if we have cuz we talk about secondary and Elementary if our SEC if our Bus Gets behind on the secondary run and we know that that they're not at the elementary school on time we can definitely send out a school messenger we do immediately but if that bus loads and leaves that elementary school on time and something happens on the route we're not going to probably be able to get a school messenger out because by the time we hear from the driver who's dealing with the situation craft the message and get it sent out the bus may or may not be there at that point um the other thing we find is if we put that school messenger out and we say that bus

232is going to be 15 minutes late and it's only 11 minutes late now we don't have parents to the bus stop to pick up those children which we see as worse than the parents having to sit for five minutes is a child getting off the bus when so it is a very tricky situation how late is that bus going to be after we deal with the situation because we don't know and for us I always tell R you think it's 20 tell them 15 tell them 10 because we have so many times where well you told me it was going to be 20 minutes so I wasn't there well we can't have children standing there so it is not of while we try really hard um we're not going to be able to tell you

233every time if it's a couple minutes late um and that's really something we're really seeing a lot of this year I kind of wanted to it's one of the reasons we wanted to do the presentation is to to make people understand what we do the best we can but it's a lot of kids and a lot of things going on that we have to to work through um okay and then this summer we will be looking at routes um we we do expect that there'll be some maybe significant changes um we do have a little bit of change of enrollment our buses at Southern Elementary School are pretty full um because we were getting more of our enrollment there so we're going to have to make some changes so we wanted to kind of point

234that out and we'll try to get that information out for parents as soon as possible um but it's something we probably will need to make some more some bigger changes than maybe we did last year sure so it's our it's our pleasure to do transportation of our children we really do appreciate the support that we get from the community as well as the bus drivers they're they're they're phenomenal at what they do it's not an easy job um I did it I loved it I miss it I just I really emphasize on the support that they need from us as a community as a school district as well as the support the school district needs from them so working together I think it to be helpful in continuing to talk about those issues that they're

235facing the issues that we're facing and the issues the community is facing I think is going to keep us all together in a in the right direction um Sue alluded to it a little bit earlier safety is our first priority that's as the school district and the bus company regardless of the situation parent may get frustrated um we're always going to take that first step in the safety Direction before we communicate before we do anything it's always going to be safety first um our goal is you know to have a positive encounterment with a positive encounter with every child every single day at the beginning of the day that might the driver may be the first person they see in the day that's going to smile at them you never know what they're going to

236experience so keeping that positive interaction with that driver as well as the school district and keeping it together again the more Co cohesive relationship we can build I think would be the best thing the best thing that we can continue to do any question questions thank you thank you um so it does it does sound like um the red light violations have been in Decline uh which is which is great mhm um do you feel like we have enough red light cameras I I don't know that I I don't know how to answer that question I guess so I don't feel our presentation that we did prior year really focused around the camera itself and not the ability for that camera to save a life so in my opinion do we have enough cameras I

237don't think I think we have enough cameras for the purpose of what we're doing for data in terms of the purpose of saving a life I do not think there will ever be enough cameras anywhere for that case because the camera itself can't actually save a life correct but it does sound like that they've had some positive movement in yes so I driving down the violations yep so I think with the cameras what I have gotten out of it a lot is really mitigating that risk being able to look at that video going out to the location seeing what's going on and figuring out how we can move that route and keep that student more you know keep that student safe instead of trying to figure out how where to put more cameras thank you

238um oh sorry go ahead that's okay what would you say is U bus driver's biggest challenge in the school bus on the way to school outside of everything else that they a great question um student Behavior student behavior on the bu is probably the most difficult for a driver um I think some people think that they're just driving and we have to realize they're a classroom on Wheels they are literally Susie needs a Band-Aid Johnny hit her with a book um you know there's traffic coming at you they have to focus 100% on that road as well as keep keep an eye on what's going on behind their mirror so those student issues that they experience every day um we value the the misconduct reports that might sound crazy but we value value that information

239the feedback we get from those misconduct reports because it allows us to get that information to the buildings to the principal so they can have those conversations with those little ones to really dig in and figure out what's going on what can we do to help fix so to answer your question it's definitely the misconduct okay and do you feel like the support in policy and student handbooks and those kinds of things that that's helpful and it all works itself out when those M misc misconduct reports are coming in they're being action the students are being deterred from those behaviors and improves over time I think so I do I think um one of the I guess for lack of better words one of the misconceptions is that we are sticking to the policy from

240a board from a um School District standpoint a driver's frustration maybe that they're not getting that information back from us about what steps were taken because we're not we're not going to give that information it's not for us to give information about what's happening with that child or that student's Behavior after it's been reported we do let them know that have addressed the situation and usually they see quick results um but I think sometimes they want to know what happened and we can't get that information thank you um uh just on the um on the awareness possibilities among newsletters banners and billboards I really I I I I think one of us proposed that during the um uh during the session we had going over this agenda um the the banners in particular I I

241I just wanted to highlight I think that of all that's I think that's the most effective and probably most costeffective option it's it's they're Reus they're cheaper than a billboard you can put them in more places they're reusable and a banner stands out in some ways more than the billboard because it wasn't there the week before you put them up during that first week of school or so and then you take them down you know once you know after a few weeks have passed so I I think that's that's really worth worth uh board looking into uh cuz it's you get you get 10 banners for you know $500 or whatever and you can reuse them year after year um whereas a billboard you pay pay for it once $1,000 and it's you never get

242it again unless you pay again and it's usually in one location one location yes you put the banners in a lot more locations you can choose what the best locations are and you guys highlighted that but I just wanted to bring that up um when it comes to the the challenges of letting uh parents know about delays um I wonder if these days there's an app for that uh because I mean now it's a much more complicated thing but I mean like I know how when my kids are going to be getting home because there's an app that actually tells me like how far away they are and and that sort of thing I know when my Domino's Pizza is going to arrive more or less um so this is far more complicated so I'm

243not saying that any of those apps would do it but I wonder if there's something out there that because it' be really nice to make it more effective but also take that off your off off off of your plate in having to write those emails all the time and and and try to stay on top of that and and getting all the and fielding all those calls so just something to consider if that's out there I think on a on a perfect day I believe there is but one of the one of the challenges becomes so your little one might B ride bus too but we had to have bus two in for um inspection so now bus two is really Bus 18 with a sticker over top of it so now your app's probably

244not going to work because they're not on well unless it's an app on the bus driver's phone cuz if it's the same driver right then it would it would track the location of that driver relative to where their drop off is Amazon deliveries I mean I I I don't know if this is even something that exists we'll have to we have to yeah just just throw it out there if it makes your life easier y def I feel the the banner thing when we we were talking by the billboard and like we said one location we looked at to when we ran for you know it's expensive mhm if somebody in cador US is not going to see a banner a billboard and Shrewsberry so that was like the least effective we we thought banners

245would probably be in the mid M but for a newsletter for every municipality what we call it that goes to every house in that municipality and I would guesstimate that most of them would do it for for low or no cost and that's you know there are people that are going to be driving around that aren't going to see a banner mhm they get new they do get newsletter a lot of them don't look at them true yeah but how many times you go buy a banner and don't look at right I mean well if I see a banner that's not normally there I probably I probably notice it but but I mean I think that's that's one of those things that could be both and could um because I think the newsletters I think

246most municipalities probably willing to put that in the newsletter without any cost us so that's that's the most cost effective there's no downside to that yeah there's no downside to the newsletters uh the question is do we do banners as well because that's going to catch different fully open to it but I would say as where as far as cost Effectiveness it's probably going be newsletters banners then Billboards probably last because I just I wonder also in terms of banging for your bu participation with the local buus and um you know the municipalities what what their participation with banners might okay I mean it's worth reaching out and seeing yeah like like I said I think most most municipalities would probably be willing to put it in their newsletter no no the banners oh the

247banners oh okay we be will put them out yeah new freedoms newsletter goes out quarterly M might be so that might be an issue if the timing is not near the beginning of the school year try to shoot it for beginning close to the beginning of the year yeah either try to hit before or or shortly after the school year starts just when to for whenever it comes out maybe with the banners you might be able to get close to the areas where the infractions are happening maybe raise awareness at that you know where the is I don't know if there is frequency that is occurring in the same places there isn't that's exactly the reason why we thought more about on the banner side of it because you could put them in those areas

248where the infractions are occurring we just didn't want to put all that information out today um because we're still studying a lot of it so we don't want to freak any out about this area is a hot spot that area is not so we definitely could solidify some areas with banners that are are potential hotpots and it's hard to imagine a member of a community saying oh oh no I I don't I'm not behind that well they do their neighbor probably will so in one way or another you can probably get one around there I will say that first students trying to get very creative with the way they're putting out some information as well and they've reached out to us on several you know Avenues and Partnerships to figure out ways to get more

249information out to the community um over the past few months they've did a lot of parades they've handed out flyers with safety messages on them they're going to continue doing that um there's a parade I believe coming up in New Freedom soon they're going to do a big uh school bus safety thing on that handout Flyers as well so hopefully they'll gather a lot of information for large target audience down in New Freedom during that time thank you thank you thank you all very much for that um I will turn it over to other items of business anybody all right president hle back to you all right um Mr alberman um thank you um item number 1301 the athletic report um The Warriors are currently wrapping up a strong winter season while spring sports are

250starting to ramp up which they already are ramping up they're already playing um below you will find the current highlights these are mostly from last week um I didn't get the updates for swimming for States but um I will update you with districts but wrestling congratulations Warrior wrestlers Jack Van tassle and Jada stoneberg for reaching the Pia AA Southern Central Regional tournaments in their respective weight classes also congratulations to the Warrior wrestling team for winning the Y AI daa division 2 sportsmanship award this season for swimming and help me with names here we go on March 1st and 2nd the warrior swim team competed in the PIAA District 3 championship at Cumberland Valley High School the girls team finished eighth overall while the boys team finished fifth place below you will find the medal winners

251the boys team for the 200 medal relay fourth place Tyler Burgess Tyler Wright Isaiah Voss and Jack Hammond the 200 free relay they plac seventh Isaiah Vos Jackson Hollinger Jackson Elliot and Jack Hammond the 400 freestyle relay they placed fifth with Tyler burges Ben Holm um Jackson Hollinger and Tyler Wright Jackson Hollinger also placed seventh in the 200 freestyle relay or not I'm sorry not the relay just the 200 freestyle and he also placed fourth in the 500 freestyle Tyler Burgess play sixth in the free 500 freestyle Tyler Wright play second in the 100 butterfly fourth place in the 100 fresh stroke Jack Hammond placed eighth in the 50 freestyle for the girls the 200 freestyle relay they placed fifth Kate and Lauren covic and Gracie buron and Caitlyn kman the 400 free freestyle relay

252they placed fifth was Caitlyn kman Sarah Whit sorer Lauren and Kate kalmanovich Kate kalmanovich placed fourth in the hund butterfly third place in the 500 yard freestyle um Lauren covic play six in the hund backstroke the Warriors swam Estates um at Bucknell University um on March 14th and 16th I know they didn't do as well as they were hoping but I don't have those current results so um and that concludes my report thank you um item 14 other business I have none anyone else wonder if we need that and new business not sure guess um uh moving on to item 15.01 legislative Council um merley Hall all right yes thank you Mr President so the Senate and the house representatives were adjourned from our last board meeting until Monday this week so there's not a

253whole lot to report there but they continue to discuss the governor's budget proposal and there'll be more to come in the next meeting Grant application periods are opening for public school facility improvements and environmental repairs the Department of community and economic development will provide a $100 million in Grants to school districts for eligible facility improvements and the Department of Education announced $75 million in funding available to Abate and remediate environmental hazards including ASB bestus so the public Department of Education or Pennsylvania Department of Education excuse me will accept applications from May 1st to June 30th for these grants only one application will be accepted from each school district and can contain several projects in more than one school building within each district so to the grants will be awarded based on the typee of contamination

254incurred after July 1st 2023 so I know that Mrs Green and Mr Carrington and Mr Buffington are on top of that and if we qualify for anything I'm sure they will be on it Southern Middle School student council is also doing some exciting things up at the capital they paid a visit this month house representative Kate clunk and Senator Kristen Phillips Hill welcomed our students and shared the beauty of the capitals architectural history and the important work that takes place within hats off to our young leaders at SMS um the student council exemplified courtesy interest and joy during their tour so thank you to our local legislators for showing them around psba is also hosting spring advocacy day at the state capital on Monday April 8th all School Board directors School business managers and superintendents

255are welcome to attend this complimentary event and advocate for advoc at for key education issues psba will schedule meetings with legislators and provide resources and messaging to support your visit morning check-in will be around 8:00 in the morning at the Capitol rotunda and the Secretary of policy and planning Akbar Hussein will be joining participants at 8:30 in the morning in the 60 East wing for a morning brief to discuss educational Administration priorities the psba website offers the opportunity to pre-register using using your my psba account access if you plan on going also the 2024 psba legislative platform will be open soon for school boards to submit changes to additions or additions to the core legislative principles of advocacy throughout the following year pba's purpose in doing so is to provide the best possible education for

256children develop responsible self-reliant and independent citizens with Essential Knowledge and Skills it's important to look over these principles and offer any Collective board feedback that will add to pba's advocacy efforts for public schools in Pennsylvania the window to submit proposals to psba will be April 1st to June 28th so be on the lookout for an email communication from psba welcoming board feedback with an attachment including the current core legislative principles fore review so I encourage all my board colleagues to go over those principles and prepare any feedack back for discussion in our next few board meetings we'll need to submit anything that we'd like to adjust to Mrs Green so that she can give it to psba within that deadline period and that concludes my report thank you uh 15.2 your uh York County School

257of Technology uh Miss Alber I don't have anything to report at this uh 15.03 liu2 there is a report attached for your uh information you want to have any additional information on that no um York Adams tax Bureau U Mrs Green nothing to report all right bur through this uh so Southern York County School District Foundation uh back to you Mrs Mar Lee Hall all right yes thank you so our last meeting was held March 12th at Southern Middle School the annual Foundation leadership recognition dinner committee met as well as the scholarship awards ceremony committee the AA is full of excitement as the time is Drawing Near to recognize student achievement with scholarship Awards give local York is also coming up soon the sycsd foundation looks forward to par participating once again in give local

258by hosting a silent auction to begin April 22nd at 9:00 a.m. until Monday April 29th at 9 p.m. all proceeds will be used to help fund scholarships and alumni programs if anyone out there or any of you have an item you'd like to donate for the silent auction please contact Tia Walker her number is 7 17235 4811 extension 7278 or you can email her at tia. Walker sycsd.org and of course the foundation is grateful for any contribution you might like to offer that someone would like to bid on also a huge thank you as Dr Bryson was saying earlier to the community staff and students for their participation in the support of the 20124 battle of the buildings the event was a tremendous success raising $876,000 for the foundation and attendees also came prepared donating

259much needed warm outar outdoor gear for coats of friendship thank you to the ssan high school student council for offering incentive there they had raffle prize opportunities for visitors with donations and they worked very hard to make some really fun baskets that were offered so lots of donors walked away very happy with their winnings and it was so wonderful to see all the smiling faces of students in the district from every building thing looking forward to next year so the next Foundation meeting will be held on Tuesday April 9th at the high school library and that concludes my report thank you uh moving on to item 16.01 the uh Student Activities report for February 2024 is attached for your information 16.02 resignations and retirements uh looks like there are six of them um got four

260four retirements two resign ations uh all in board dos for your information item 16.03 other items of business I have none anyone else uh moving on to item 17.01 um the uh home education outside Cyber Charter and Southern York uh Digital Academy education uh statistics are attached for your information and announcements by board president and superintendent I don't believe I have any so I will turn it over to Dr Bryson nor do I oh all right get out of here before 11 after all uh new business I think we probably covered it in the other items of business from the committee reports anyone have new business no all right to make some up you want no no no no we're going to make it out before 11: um all right uh I will entertain a

261motion to adjourn second I entertain a motion motion yeah there we go all right uh any uh Naser exensions we are [Applause] adjourned