001Good evening. Welcome to the Springboard Area School District board meeting. Today is Monday, August 25th. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge alce 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. The Springford Board of School Directors believes the community has the right to bring before the board issues and concerns they may have about items on the agenda or about items in general which affect the district or their children. Because of this belief and philosophy, the board will schedule a time at the beginning and conclusion of every meeting to have an opportunity for community members to share their concerns with the board. At the start of
002the meeting, members from the public may comment on agenda items only. The school board will move through the meeting agenda. Then at the end, when prompted, there will be a time for public comment. This meeting is being filmed to be broadcast on community cable channels and online. Individuals intending to make public comments should be aware that they are being filmed. Speakers will be asked to state their name in the area in which you reside before your comment. >> Thank you for attending. Good evening, Miss Schmidt. Do we have a roll call? >> Tonight in attendance, we have Mr. Lackey, Mrs. Hermans, Dr. Wright, Mrs. Dearorf, Mrs. Westwood, Dr. Chararma, Mr. Jackson, Mrs. Wearten. Not in attendance is Mrs. Goldmith. >> Thank you very much. As far as announcements go, I'll just say happy first day
003to the district, teachers, families, staff alike. And Miss Dr. Scandal, I understand that you did some tours today. How was everything? >> Uh, it was a a really, really smooth opening. U, I mean, a good start to the school. I got I got out to um eight of the schools today. It takes a while to get around the school district because there's a lot of territory. Uh plus an opportunity to get into some classrooms and and talk to some students and teachers. So, it was it was a it was a really exciting first day of school. >> Great. >> Wonderful. Okay. So, we'll move on to public to be heard on agenda items only. If anyone wishes to speak, please approach the podium with your name and township of residence. No one is approaching the
004podium. So, we'll move on to committee reports. And we'll start with Dr. Wright. I'm sorry. All right, we'll start with Mrs. Wearten with the Western Montgomery Career Technology Center. >> I do not have a report. >> Okay, then we'll move on to Dr. Wright with the MCIU. >> Uh, >> no, I'm sorry. My apologies. I'm looking at this way too fast. Legislative Committee, Miss Westwood. >> Um, good evening. We have not had a meeting since June, so I also do not have a report yet. >> Thank you very much. Uh, Heidi, Mrs. Goldmith is not here for uh PSBA and so we'll move on to Mr. Blackey with Spring City American Legion. >> No update. Our first meeting is this Thursday. >> Fabulous. We'll wait to hear for it in uh September. And so that
005takes us to our superintendent report. >> Sure. Thank you very much. Uh my first two weeks here have been uh very exciting uh and uh learning procedures and policies of Springford. Uh we began uh a few weeks ago where we had a two-day meeting with our administrators uh and to prepare for the school year and our topics there included a focus on student academic, social, and emotional well-being as we again got ready for the school year. Uh we were also provided uh the latest legal updates from our solicitor Mark Fitzgerald and and members of his team. Uh and began the analysis of our capital plan which the board heard some some information on that last week. Uh but not to be all work and and no play, we did take part in a team building
006activity facilitated by Dr. Jen Reinheimer, requiring all of our teams and administrative teams uh to create some form of a bruschetta. But it wasn't just taking the ingredients. We actually had to negotiate with other teams to get the ingredients. Uh so it required kind of reaching out to other other team members. Our team, Dr. Murray, Dr. Bentista and and myself put together what I thought was a very impressive product, but we fell short of making the top three in the final decisions for for that team building activity. But it was a lot of fun and it was a great way to get to know get to know our administrative team. Uh we welcomed this earlier uh last week, we welcomed more than a thousand staff members on Tuesday uh in a very energizing convocation. our
007our marching band, our vocal ensemble and string quartet from our high school greeted us with some some wonderful and inspiring music. Uh our director of technology, Dr. Hilt, provided an uplifting presentation on technology as well as some Gemini generated door prizes, which was a lot of fun. Uh Beth Lee, our HR director, recognized 30 of our 25 year staff. Uh we had a lot of people who have 25 years or more staff. I think we have another big crop next year as well. Uh so so we got a veteran staff out there. Uh while Kelly Murray and Tina GMista tag team to recognize staff uh for some of our Golden Ram awards. Uh thanks to Aaron Crew and her team for organizing the entire morning and keeping us on task and on time. A couple
008of areas that we want to focus on this year. I shared this with the staff. uh as interim superintendent, it'll be my role to keep things moving for the board and for the and and for the school district uh while the board conducts its search for a new superintendent. Uh capital planning obviously is one of the big big topics that the board is going to need to dissect and and address. Uh you heard that presentation last week. Uh we'll be working to narrow down some of the options for a possible decision later this year for the school board to consider. Uh we we also are focusing on a multi-tered system of support, MTSS. You'll hear that acronym thrown out a lot last year and this year and working with all of our schools to identify
009ways that we can support students academically and emotionally this year. Uh we're doing some data walks. Our administrators will be developing ways to assess student progress um in ways other than just standardized tests. And we want students to tell us what they know and are able to do in the classroom. Uh so these data walks at MTS are going to need to work together to help provide students with the best learning environment possible. Spring city uh thanks so much to our Spring City staff for the dedication in opening of the school. Uh last week we had boxes everywhere and if you went through that building you would you would be scratching your head saying are we ever going to get this thing open? Uh but our teachers, our administrators, and most especially our custodians and
010maintenance staff pulled together for a smooth opening today over there at Spring City. Uh after a year of hiatus while the school went through its renovation, hold the date for an official dedication ceremony. I think we sent this to the board last week, tenatively scheduled for October 14th at 5:00 and we'll officially uh dedicate that building. I think that's before one of our uh finance committee meetings. Uh welcome our student reps. uh Jason Drover and uh Anika Gupka. I look forward to working with the both of you this year and hearing from the student lens on on what's happening in Springford. So uh welcome to the two of you. Uh today was obviously our opening of school and uh we had a relatively smooth opening as we welcome back more than 8,000 students to our
011classrooms. I had an opportunity to get out and visit eight of the schools. I'll finish I'll finish that tour tomorrow morning uh to get to three other elementary schools that I that I didn't quite get to today. I ran out of days and by the time I got there, the buses had already left, which is good because that meant the buses got out of the schools. We got everybody home safely today. Uh teachers were eagerly awaiting children. Uh they greeted them with smiles and there was just a lot of energy in all all of our buildings. Uh if you drove past any of the schools today at drop off or dismissal, you might have seen some traffic out there. That's that's pretty typical and pretty common. Uh I know that uh getting the first week
012of of busing and things under control is uh not unique to Springford. I will tell you that my own children the bus never showed this morning. Uh so that is not in Springboard school district. So there are there are bus concerns everywhere. Our transportation office has been working extremely long days the past two weeks to schedule a lot of last minute registrations. I think as of la Friday afternoon we still had nearly a hundred people just registering and needing transportation. So we had a scramble to to to try to get everybody plugged into those schedules. Uh as we do each year, our transportation office will be making some adjustments where it can to bus schedules after this first week of school. Uh so we can provide the most efficient way to transport students to and
013from school. Um a particular note, the high school complex and the 567 complex, they have some unique traffic patterns around there because of the way we schedule them. We we we pick up seventh graders and eighth graders, as you know. We we send buses over to those other schools to pick up a second batch of kids. Uh that takes a little little bit more time. And as we navigate uh the traffic and the traffic patterns, uh we'll try to streamline that as much as we can. But I would say overall it was a very energetic opening to school today. Uh and for a closer look at at some of the activities, I know uh our a lot of our district office people were out in the schools. Uh Aaron Crew and her staff were out
014there uh our communications department and they prepared a brief video that we'd like to share with you just on some of the things taking place today. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] [Applause] We will have a little longer version uh as we finish the week uh out there on our on our website and uh and up on our our uh social media channels. But uh that just gives you a little snippet. You'll saw the smiley faces of the of not only the children, but also the staff. We'll take another picture of the staff Friday afternoon after we get a week under our belt and seeuh see how much energy they have. But it was it was a great opening today and uh we're off and running and congratulations and thanks to everybody for for all the
015hard work to the parents, the students, our staff uh just just to get this year up and running. So So thanks and we're looking forward to a great year. >> Thank you Dr. Scandlin. Yeah, seeing the smiling faces definitely brings a smile to my face. Any questions or comments for Dr. understanding before we move forward. Okay. So then we'll move on to the voting portion of our meeting. Um as community may know that at the work session last week we went through some of these uh items and had questions and discussion. So if there are any feel free to separate the item and we can uh continue to have that dialogue. Otherwise we will move forward with section 4 A through C. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Is there a second?
016>> Second. Questions and discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. Moving on to section five, personnel, letters A through K. I'll give you a moment to take a look at it. See if you'd like to separate anything. >> Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> A second. Second. >> Any questions and discussion? >> Uh, one question, Madame President. On the item A on the resignation item item three, the manager of technology operations with that retirement, do we do we think there's going to be any impact to the current operating process within the district as a whole? It looks like Dr. Hilt's reaching for the microphone. >> I can't see that far. >> We have a short cord back here. No, there will not be
017a negative impact in the district. Short term. >> What about longterm? You shouldn't have said that. Okay. >> No, there will not be a negative long-term impact either. We will be uh in the next board update providing an update on the uh the planned reorganization of the tech department. So that'll be coming later this week and then we'll begin the hiring process shortly. >> And Dr. Hill, correct me if I'm wrong, the communication that you're looking to put in board memo will also likely be dialogue at the committee meeting, curriculum and technology committee meeting in September. >> Absolutely. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Well, my question would be if you're saying restructuring, is that on a district level or just at the ninth grade center and is that leadership or is that also below leadership
018restructuring? >> So, that note about the ninth grade center was just where uh Miss Bernard's office was located. So, this is a district-wide technology department uh restructuring. So based on that projected restructuring, do we foresee any additional staff being asked for or a reduction? I will come to the committee meeting, but since it's on the table right now, if if you don't want to answer, I can come to the committee meeting. We aren't proposing any additional staff uh beyond the the current numbers that the tech department uh the existing tech department numbers. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Hill. Okay. Any other questions or comments? >> All those in favor of section five letters A through K say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries 80. Moving on to finance section
019six, letters A through B. I'll give you a moment to see if you want to separate anything. >> Pages All right. So, it doesn't look like we're separating anything. Um, so do I have a motion? >> So, move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any questions or discussion? And, uh, maybe I'll just make a comment because I know that Mrs. Goldmith is not here today. However, last week she did ask a question. Um, and I think it's important for uh the community since it was asked at the board table as a follow-up to the community to get the answer. So, her question was around the um letter V friendship ambulance uh contract and her question specifically was if we were have if this uh contract uh allowed or required ambulance to be on
020site for all the football games. So, Dr. Scandlin, I don't know if you want to just quickly take that. >> Yeah, it it does it does require and allow enough uh for for ambulance to be on site at all football games. Yes. >> So, thank you and thank you to Mrs. Goldsmith for bringing up that question. >> Madam President, I think part of the discussion there was that if the ambulance would be dedicated, so it wouldn't leave if there was another call. I think that was the issue that happened last year. We uh we also have uh coverage with uh doctors on site as well. um in and our you know in our trainers but if an ambulance is is leaving for to go on call to another emergency then somebody else I guess would
021be um on call for you know for emergency for us >> and it looks like Mr. Msgavage is coming to the microphone. >> Good evening everyone. Um no for varsity football games the the ambulance will stay. We we have that two level of coverage. The $150 for have a rotation to come in, $300 for it to stay. For all varsity football games, they will stay. >> Thank you. >> So So just for clarity, they are dedicated. >> Correct. >> For that purpose. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mscavage. >> Okay. Uh you have a question, Mrs. Westwood? >> Yeah, Mr. Mscavage. I'm sorry. Can you I didn't I wasn't fast. So with with the other grades, seventh, eighth, 9th, JV, lacrosse, etc., like what's the ambulance situation there? >> We pay the
022$150 to have them rotate out as needed. The the reason for the difference in the two levels was is the the backstory when I checked into it was the number of people in the stadium and the game that itself. So when we have middle school games, even JV games, the crowd isn't as much. The game itself isn't as high level and fast as the varsity game is. So, seven, eight, nine, JB, they rotate out and bring another ambulance in if they need to go away on a call. >> Thank you. Okay. So, all those in favor of finance letters A through B say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries 80. Um, moving on to section seven, letters A through C. Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> A second. >> Second.
023>> Questions and discussion. It's more of a comment. Um, I think this came up last week, but in case it didn't, but um, I for one was very pleased to see that our title funds were released in time for our school year to begin. So, thank you for for that. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries 800. And that takes us to the ends of our votes. As section 8 is a first read, section 9 isformational. And that takes us to board comment. Is there any board comment? >> I have one or two and I'll try to be brief unless someone else wants to go. >> All right. As the new year starts, I do get the emails from parents about transportation and
024I um definitely respect Dr. Scanland's comments. However, we're going to continue to have traffic issues. I keep making the same statement year after year that the infrastructure is not changing, the population is. And the same paths that our buses travel, they continue to travel. except now there are large there are more stops and the population continues to grow. So this is going to be an ongoing issue that needs to be addressed with the township. But for the parents that come to the school board to voice your concerns, I again and again implore you to go to the township. Go to Upper Providence. Go to Limmerch. Who am I missing? Anybody? Go to your townships. They're the ones that approve these developments. So over on Lynfield Trap, there's a new development with Toll Brothers. I'm I'm
025in the vertical world, so I support the building. However, they're putting a million-dollar homes, which is families. So Lynfield Trap size doesn't change, just the population, and we're going to continue to have this issue across the board. Um, and the question, well, Mr. Jackson, how do you change it? There needs to be greater collaboration between the board, I think, on the property side, um, with the township because we're being impacted. They're not being impacted. Um, and when you look at some of the I use the term financing of these developments, if you go and sit in some of these township meetings and I've gone with Madame President, they will come up with a number and as you guys know, math is math of how the district is benefiting. Well, I continue to disagree with that.
026Um, the b the benefit is not with the district. It's just more kids in the district. And as I always say, if the kids are here by law, we have to educate them. So this is something I would implore this board to look at long term because the impact will be long term. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Jackson. And just to follow up on a comment that you made around um engaging with the municipalities. So after the meeting last week, as it was kind of the directive of the board, um Miss Schmidt is in works with um the municipalities to see if we can meet with them in October. The thought was doing it before the election in case there's any changes and of course we can meet again after the election in our
027regular scheduled time at March. Okay. So, thank you Mr. Jackson. Was there anything else you said? Two comments. >> Yes, that was one more. I know Dr. Scan mentioned the facilities plan of the district and I know there going to be further discussions with that. However, I just implore the board to understand we can only build what we can pay for. Um, if you look at what was discussed, it's a lot of items that need to be addressed. And in my little quirky engineering head, I think the approach should be based on financial projections, how the district should move. You tend to design and build based on funding at hand, not funding that you hope you will have. So, I'll talk more about it when we have the discussion, but I think that's one and
028I think Miss Westwood brought it up brought it up also. So, I think that's how we should be looking at it, but I'm only one board member, but that's my comment on that. >> Thank you, Mr. Jackson. I think that's a good preface to some of the discussion deliberation. I know Dr. Scandlin, you want to start having in September at our committee meetings, correct? >> Okay, great. Any other questions or comments? Okay, moving on to public to be heard. Is there anyone that wishes to speak? Okay, seeing as no one's approaching the podium, motion to adjurnn. [Music]