001e e e good evening welcome to the spring for Area School District board meeting today is March 24th please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I 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
002of the 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 good evening everyone Miss crew could we please have a roll call sure in person tonight we have Dr Sharma Mr Lackey Mrs wi Garden Mrs Westwood Mrs hermans Mrs deardorf Dr Wright and Mrs Goldsmith thank you very much and as far as announcements go the board did meet an executive session prior of started
003today meeting to talk about a legal matter as well as safety Mr Rizo anything on your end nothing at this time thank you okay thank you very much so we'll move on to public to be heard and this is on agenda items only so if there's anyone that wishes to speak please approach a Podium with your name Township or residence as well as the agenda item for which you're referencing seeing as though no one is approaching the podium we will move on to our first presentation of the night and only presentation we'll invite Mr miscavage athletic director to the podium to recognize our winter athletes good evening everybody thank you for having us uh first we'd like to recognize our individual packed champions from boys and girls swimming uh our girls we have two of
004our four Representatives tonight Michelle Figaroa CC Bryant and then Ka Griffith and Abby ker or our pack girls 200 meter free relay champions on the boys side for our individual Champions we had Justin Delp who's our pack 500 meter freestyle [Applause] champion and blae Sadowski was a two-time champion pack 100 meter breaststroke and 100 meter butterfly [Applause] then our boys team was the pack team swimming and Diving Champions represented tonight by freshman Ryan Tai sophomore Dean Beal go around the table guys okay sophomore Justin Delp sophomore Clayton hinesman sophomore Jack herpel Juniors Jake comp and Trevor comp Junior John starovic seniors Jack mavage Nate Reagan and blae Sadowski [Applause] and hopefully we'll be back for some in the spring thank you thank you Mr miscavage and again congratulations to all the students and again to
005their families for supporting them in those Endeavors much appreciated and something to be celebrated all right so we'll give it a minute as people leave the room and we'll move on to our board and committee reports starting with our mciu report Dr Ray um we did not have a meeting since the last time our meeting is this Wednesday thank you thank you Dr Wright moving on Mrs W Garten the Western Montgomery career and Technology Center thank you the Western Montgomery career and Technology Center J met on March 3rd uh we we had presentations from the skills USA District Award winners Miss Samantha Godel participated in the skills USA District competitions and won third place in welding she welded a vertical 3G double with back and strip I don't know what that is but I was
006so impressed by her winning third place in a uh highly competitive field she had also attended the skills over uh stereotypes event to promote the welding program and I think it's pretty exciting to see a young woman uh showcasing her incredible skills there uh we also had an update on the Western Tech Center goals and excuse me Mr living good uh met with Gilbert Architects regarding a feasibility study and a lot of this conversation goes around what's possible as you know we have a lot more students apply for these programs that can actually fit into the program so we end up turning down a number of students um so we're looking at the space and seeing what is possible there um Mr living good will include updates on expansion ideas and considerations next month um
007we're also invited to the April 9th Co-op luncheon uh this is an invitation to all of our board members you should have gotten an invitation to that and let's see we had um some administrative reports representative shuran spent four hours La um at the end of February touring the facil facility uh Mr living good was recently appointed to the Workforce Development board this is the first CTE director to sit on that board so it's pretty impressive for Mr living good and the Joc uh we were also featured in the American Welding Society magazine so we'll get a copy of that article to all of you once we get a copy of it um let's see and they had an incredible turnout to the skills over stereotypes of event uh at the I think it's the
008end of February 115 sixth graders attended two programs so that's across the three participating um high schools another update currently we have 40 students out on Co-op and another five students shadowing the workforce those co-op programs are a huge part of what helps place these students into jobs after they graduate it's very very impressive right now we have 28 applicants for the tech center next year uh the deadline for applications is April 15th and there are 190 spots available so you can see with those numbers looking at the expansion becomes really important um let's see uh some important dates we have the host of leadership conference March 26 through 28 um we have the state competitions for still skills USA April 2nd through 4 and our next Joc meeting is at 5:00 pm. on zoom
009on April 7th and as I mentioned the co-op banquet is at noon on April 9th and that concludes my report yes thank you Mrs we Garten and again just to go along with that um mention the co-op banquet you did get an invitation today to it formally so looking forward to seeing you all there any questions for Mrs warten okay moving on Mrs Westwood legislative committee good evening the legislative committee met on March 5th at 6m uh we were joined for the first half of the meeting by Lisa Walter who is the chief of staff for uh Senator Tracy peny cook and she shared that the state budget hearings at this at this time obviously since past were just finishing up and that the senator is still assessing where Revenue will come from the budget
010requests however she did share that the sener will be supporting legislation in two specific areas one was Raising reading and math scores um that is something that we've talked about at this table quite a bit so I was happy to hear this um one for reading this is based on a Mississippi study that students be held in third grade until they meet the required benchmarks for math the senator will be co-sponsoring the legislation with Senator Lisa basca from Bethlehem um there weren't a lot of details shared about that yet so stay tuned um hope we'll hear more soon um committee members shared concerns about the negative impact later in life of holding students back um additionally committee members question whether there are studies that show the impact on test score scores as a result of
011Cyber Charter Schools um we know Cyber Charter test scores on average are much lower than public schools but there are studies that show what the basic existence of Cyber Charter Schools and their draw on public resources have on test scores um Miss Walter confirmed that she would investigate this second area was Cyber Charter reform we've talked about that at this table as well this was a Hot Topic um last year year to um Miss Walter confirmed that the senator supports changing how the Cyber Charter Schools are funded um additionally committee members advocated for additional support for CTE so that Echoes a bit of what Miss Mrs we Garden said which the senator has previously been very supportive of um and support Facilities Management so things like HVAC and roofs uh the topic of how the
012school safety grants and the period products are budgeted for was also discussed with the group expressing concern regarding competitiveness for some funds and the lack of ability to plan when the funds are not assured until later in the year um couple quick updates of legislative breakfast which I think I mentioned in our last update we've invited Senator Mar Maria Colette representative Donna shuran to take part a panel discussion at this year's breakfast um additionally superintendant from Abington Norristown and Springfield will be sharing remarks um and there will be a press conference after the event um lastly um there was an update on the student for voices for education program that the mciu has been doing in partnership with children's first as a result of this discussion there will be an invitation um for Brandon longer
013um from the mciu um to join our next meeting in April um so share our updates on that um our next meeting is scheduled on April 2nd at 7M any questions okay thank you Mrs Westwood Mrs Goldsmith uh psba so just a couple updates one uh I will be forwarding to miss steer and Miss Herman's uh psba announced the uh 20 25 board officer exchange connect learn series that allows the president and vice president to participate in zo zooms I believe or teams where you are able to connect with other presidents and vice presidents across the uh Pennsylvania the other thing that I'll be forwarding to the full board is a webinar that psba is offering again free for the ethics act and how to stay out of the papers and out of trouble is
014the is actually the title um which I think is useful the other thing psba that'll be forwarding is the Ninth Annual state of educ ation report was just released uh pba's report so I'll be forwarding that so that all board members have an opportunity to review and lastly May 13th has been because we talked about this last time we didn't have an identified date but now May 13th has been identified as the psba advocacy date thank you thank you very much questions from Mrs Goldsmith okay Mr Lackey American Legion update yep uh Spring City American Legion Baseball met on Thursday February 27th uh there were a few it it I want to bring back to the board the first is that the legion will be adding two teams this year bringing the total number of
015teams to eight uh there are League Tri outs taking place on March 29th and 30th if you're interested in signing up for any of these tryouts you can check out the Spring City American Legion Baseball page on the league lineup.com website uh the legion will also be hosting a regional tournament this July uh right here in our Ram Stadium uh this tournament will be a total of 14 games taking place over a span of 5 days uh and lastly planning has be gun to put up the new Outfield signs um the next meeting will be this Thursday March 27th uh that concludes my update thank you thank you anything for Mr Lackey okay we'll move on to superintendent report thank you just a couple of brief things first of all round up at the register
016we have a few days left to round up at the register spring forward is proud to participate in the giant feeding school kids initiative through March 31st you can round up with the register to support our school district's efforts to eliminate childhood hunger uh Spring Ford received just about $8,500 last year through this initiative uh to support our students funds from this program were applied to outstanding Food Service balances uh thank you to all those who rounded up and thank you GI for supporting our students uh stop by Giant on Main Street and warriors Ford to round up at a register and support Spring Ford schools through March 31st next indoor percussion we honored our swimmers a little bit ago um our indoor color guard and indoor percussion has had a great uh weekend performing
017at WGI Regional events this weekend uh competing against groups from Connecticut New York Pennsylvania New Jersey and Delaware most notably our indoor percussion and concert percussion groups both won first place and while this may seem just like a continuation of last year's percussion success it is important to note that they were promoted this year to the Scholastic open class division despite this heightened level of competition their score from this weekend ranked them third in the country uh congratulations on to the coaches and musicians for a job well done clap for them yep lastly um congratulations uh for our retirees we have two to announce Ellen dog guidance secretary at the Eighth Grade Center with over 19 years of service at Springford and Denise Whitmore HVAC control specialist with the maintenance department with approximately 30 years
018of service with Springford combined those who have served our spring forward Community for almost 50 years and we thank them for that thank you that's my out thank you Mr Roso and certainly we wish our retirees the best Mr Fitzgerald do you have a solic report tonight just very briefly um since we met last week just one one tidbit of information for the board's consideration and this was something that we had discussed I a number of months ago surrounding uh special education eligibility for uh students who would Age out potentially at the age of 22 um as you know there is litigation going on at the Supreme Court surrounding um previous changes to the regulations by the department about a year and a half ago um last week the Department of Education introduced rul making
019um surrounding the eligibility requirements and and it's effectively what they had sought to do a year and a half ago surrounding a child's eligibility for for services really through that that that till that 22nd year um what's going to be the interesting issue is whether rulle making can be accomplished when it would run a foul with the statute itself in terms of who is eligible under state law for for services so I I I think while I believe pde has to do it through rulem it is unclear whether we need statutory changes to accomplish it so more more to come on that but that process has begun thank you any questions for Mr Fitzgerald okay so then we will move on to the voting portion of our meeting uh as a reminder for the community
020uh the voting portion of the meeting is actually covered in our work session last week so we did have a lot of questions and conversations with regards to these action items but if there is any additional questions or comments um feel free to separate it and uh ask so moving on to section five letters A and B do I have a motion is there a second second any questions or discussion all those in favor say I I I any opposed motion carries 80 moving on to section six Personnel letters a through n I'll give you a moment to look at it and see if you want to separate anything do I have a motion a second second any questions or discussion okay all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 80 moving
021on to finance section 7 letters a through l okay do I have a motion Mo there a second questions and discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 80 moving on to property Section 8 letters a through d C can we pull letters c and d for voting purposes only you want to pull C and D for voting purposes sure okay any others okay so let's start with Section 8 letters A and B do I have a motion so move is there a second second questions and discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 80 Mrs Goldsmith can I take them together or would you prefer them separate you can take them together okay so on the uh motion next is Section 8 property letters c and
022d do I have a motion so mov a second second okay any questions or discussion okay all those in favor say I I I any opposed no opposed okay so that motion carries okay moving on to programming and curriculum and we have a lot here letters a through I and as we talked about last week many of these maybe with the exception of the last two are tied to the state uh structured literacy Grant from Senate District 44 is there a motion move a second second any questions or discussion I just want to say thank you again to Senate District 44 for this very generous Grant and it's not the first one so just very appreciative what it will do for our students thank you any other comments or questions all those in favor say
023I I any opposed motion carries 8 Z moving on to section 10 other business we're looking at letters b through F A is a first read okay do I have a motion so MO is there a second second any questions or discussion all those in favor say I I I any opposed motion carries 80 okay so that moves on uh away from the voting portion of our meeting and now we have one discussion item on the agenda and that is school safety and so uh this is a agenda item that I specifically put on the agenda asked for it to be on the agenda for this meeting so as the community may know um last week there was an incident at Royers Ford Elementary on Sunday evening where two underage individuals entered the building and
024uh vandalized certain spaces some classrooms hallways in addition to the cafeteria so naturally an incident like this raises concern in the community and uh we did hear from families both via email and likewise some families that chose to come to the podium last week and make public comment um and as if anyone did watch the meeting um you saw that I at the end of public comment directed them to Mr rone administration because while uh the board would love to sit here and answer the questions we do understand our role is governance and day-to-day management of the district is in the purview of our administrators and so um Mr Rizzo did meet with those individuals and have a conversation after yesterday's meet uh last week's meeting so as part of the district response to the
025event last week um as communic in the announcement section and then furthermore later in the week um through emails to families and in Mr wi reso's weekly update um there was a comprehensive safety assessment done um in particular we had our school police working with local law enforcement um there was an ongoing investigation we had um to check and clear the buildings to ensure that it was safe for our staff to return uh which they did as of 2 p.m. on Monday and subsequently our students returned to the building the the following day and um I want to thank our police for remaining present at roers Ford Elementary throughout this week um in part you know to ensure student safety and staff safety but also to give our community some peace of mind um and
026to have that presence there so uh as I mentioned the students returned to the buildings on Tuesday and some families um did decide to have their students remain at home which you know as a parent myself is a very personal decision and uh one that every family is entitled to make so that um is absolutely something that um like I said is is a fair point and needs to be a personal decision with that said you know I do think that there is something that needs to be addressed with regards to the um narrative that was circulating on social media out there with regards to um faulty doors at Roy's board Elementary and this narrative um went so far online as to state that doors were quote unquote um able to be accessed um after
027our board meeting on Monday and were found to be quote 95% to be able to get 95% of the way open and to get a hand in there and so I've seen a lot of stuff which is what prompted me to ultimately ask for this to be an agenda item and I do want to put uh this inform this community's mind at ease and and really um hopefully clarify the misinformation that's out there so at this time I'm going to ask Mr David Boer our chief of police to come to the podium to share um what he can in terms of what was uh facilitated last week hello everybody um Safety and Security is obviously my highest priority here at the school district and with the school board and whatnot the school board Administration have
028been extremely supportive of our safety culture that we've been trying to change for the last seven years and our security initiatives with grants and all the things we're putting into place obviously on the evening of March 16th we had an incident that happened at ruford elementary as Miss Herman said and and within the first seven minutes once we got on scene which was about 5 minutes after the uh custodian rang it in we were able to identify the two actors and and now both of those pen perpetrators are facing criminal charges I just want to bring the uh the attention of everybody we did have a security and safety assessment done through pccd grant money back in November 7th through the SE December 17th of 2024 in that assessment we had a company called Largo
029Consultants on behalf of Cardinal Point home security come here and they did an assessment on all of our schools except for Spring City which is under construction right now part of that assessment is they look at all the doors all of our security processes our protocols and make sure that we're in criteria with what PCC C CD standard is um when they went through all that we were either partially in the standard or we were fully in the standard or wasn't any situations where we were not in the standard so again we're trying to put together a a situation of all the loow hanging fruit and start to correct those things as we went so again this is an ongoing process that we do anyway before this incident even occur since the discovery of that
030incident on March 16th the district has taken the these actions and immediate actions right now our facilities department has directed uh uh Mr pelgrin to inspect all the external doors at all our school that has been completed all the doors were inspected for security and functionality by Spring Forward facilities Personnel Mr pelgrin immediately contacted Quality Door Services which is a leader in the industry for uh door Safety and Security and they went the rors for elementary school on Thursday the 20th qds Quality Door Assurance right checked those exterior doors at Elementary School all 19 of them some drawers were adjusted as what whatever was needed to be found was done and corrected on Friday the 21st Mr pelgrin Ben galotti from Largo consultants and um Paul LA from the cold enforcement from RF for burough
031and chief of police Scott Fenley all met me at ruford elementary and again we reviewed all the doors to make sure they worked in proper and order the two officials from Springford corre from roers for burrow were satisfied with the progress that we had made Mr gady expected all the exterior doors the interior vest doors and office doors and found the doors were in working order and to follow the Safety and Security criteria established from pccd which is the Pennsylvania Commission on crime and delinquency we follow the standards they're the ones who put together act 44 which takes care of all Safety and Security Mr L and chief fley both were satisfied at the end of this inspection which took approximately 2 hours Largo Consultants then recommended ruford Elementary School interior Lobby doors and interior
032vest doors always be secured so again Mr pelgrin and facilities are in the process of securing the vest Lobby doors and adding some other features to that staff get in and out while the doors are still locked so i' would like to close with this just a reminder the community extremely challenging to secure any large unoccupied structure after hours of operation I I fully understand some parents fear in this situation I want you to know that the law enforcement was there very quickly and rapidly and again search this entire place and I want to emphasize that with our camera system and some of the things we have in place we're able to solve this very quickly and understand that the two people that did this were in and out and were not in the building
033when we checked it out again I'd like to finish up with Safety and Security is our priority and our mission and I'd like to thank some folks here Dr Carboy for just being a Fant fantastic leader through this whole thing and communicating all this uh Chief fenny Fenley from R for bur and all the police officers that showed up their very rapidly because again they don't know what they have until they check it out they're very concerned with our Safety and Security uh Mr LA from code enforcement again one phone call and he was there for me um Mr Ben galot from Largo Consultants again came out very rapidly within his schedule to make sure that we're doing what we need to do to be in compliance and to be safe all the facility staffs
034for a quick change I I mean I was there that morning I was very surprised with the progress they were able to make in a very short amount of time our tech support staff again we had a lot of things that were destroyed they were replaced immediately there was a plan in place Dr Hilt took care of that very rapidly and finally I want to thank one of my officers his name is Jason corop police who took care of the um video footage for that night we're able to rapidly identify who these two persons were how far they went without the school and there wasn't really any doubt by the time I got there that this was over and done with again we're taking every step we can to make it safe and secure again
035that's our priority and I'd like to thank the board for the support they've given us for this week it's been a difficult week thank you Chief uh additionally I would like to defer to Mr pelgrin who's our director of facilities in the back because in addition to the police presence and all other efforts I know our facilities Department took steps not just to focus on wor Elementary but really the district at large thank you and what I'd like to add to this whole situation that happened this last week was the district basically has 420 doors throughout the entire School District the maintenance department after this event went to every door in the entire district and every door was secured so I just think that's something some people don't realize how many doors we actually have
036the district but that's the count of doors that we have to maintain you know just about every day thank you Mr pelgrin so um let me be clear uh that any Community member that wrote in Andor approached that Podium to speak was uh not only encouraged by Mr Rizzo to speak directly with our chief of police but also was encouraged by me to speak with our chief of police and for whatever reason they declined so um let me be very clear there are no faulty doors at roord Elementary in fact this board has seen the video footage of the individual who making this claim going to every door at Ro red Elementary and incessantly pulling on the door knobs and the door handles claiming that they are to be opened or they did open when
037in fact they did not so we know for a fact that that is purely lies for whatever reason um and if I see seem a little bit frustrated please forgive me because um you know I think it's pretty disheartening that this board and me knowing who is sitting at this table from our administrators to our board members I may not always disagree or I may not always agree with you I think you all know I I disagree with you a lot but there's one thing that I don't doubt which is this board's commitment to student safety and the well-being of our kids period end of story um I'm also particularly frust ated because um over the weekend we have been notified that some board members have been targeted and I am not talking about being
038Jered at while I go buy a screen protector for my daughter at Best Buy this weekend which happened and was a great learning moment for her in terms of what is inappropriate adult behavior um I'm actually talking about our board members privacy being violated and that angers me and so I'm going to defer to Mrs Westwood to share her story good evening um the same Community member that Mrs Herman's previously mentioned that attempted to pull the doors at Royersford Elementary after our board meeting last week um sent the board multiple emails um and was provided um by me an individual for a for with a for a dialogue with this individual so I offered to speak to him by phone um this member of the community took advantage of my kindness and without my knowledge
039taped our entire phone conversation and distributed it to members of the Royersford PTO I know members of the community have asked for more dialogue with our board and when I tried to provide this my privacy was violated and my trust was broken regard regardless regardless of my role um as an elected official I still entitled to the same legal protections of anyone else and this unauthorized recording was unethical and it was wrong um as the community may know wiretapping is a felony in the state of Pennsylvania and this issue has been reported to the authorities and a cease and desist has been issued to this individual despite this incident I remain committed to serving my community and having open and honest dialogue with the public thank you Mrs Westwood I know that wasn't easy um
040as she stated wiretapping is a felony and so is listening continuing to listen to it and circulate it um anyone who does that is complicit so um I want to thank you for sharing your story because I know it wasn't easy um with that said I do want to reiterate that to the community there is a chain of command if you have have questions you go to your building administrator you go to the superintendent and then you go to the board um there is a China command and you know if you're not getting the answers that you want when you want them there may very well be a good reason for that it could be that there's an ongoing police investigation it could be that we're dealing with minors and regardless of the situation we
041are still bound to confidentiality and we are still bound to furpa the uh the Privacy Act uh or lastly um it could be that Safety and Security which you know our police officers in the back here have been um very forthcoming to be able to share what they can Safety and Security is an executive session privileged topic so while I understand that especially in the case of this individual uh who was pressing Mrs Westwood for details on everything that we do to divulge how we approach Safety and Security in the District the fact of the matter is by doing that we actually put our students at greater risk right in that that information in the hand of Bad actors actually puts our students at greater risk so um why am I sharing all this and
042I'll just summarize because while I know the actions of a few do not ref reflect the amazing families that we have in our spring for Community I want everyone to understand that social media is not the answer getting your information second-handed and thirdhand is not the answer because I see what's out there right I have Facebook I have Instagram and what I normally see is inaccurate and incomplete information and sometimes I'm even questioning if it's actually with the intent to deceive so if you have questions please follow the chain of command come to the source um you know if you're not getting answers from the building principal go to Mr Rizzo if you're not getting Comm Mr Rizzo come to us as the board the board may not have the answers and we may actually
043decide to defer it back to Mr Rizzo or administration because different from board members of the past we do understand the RO role of the board in terms of governance versus data Day Management and we want to make sure we get you to the right people who can give you the right information so with that said I'm done okay thank you okay moving on to section 12 informational items donation acceptance I want to thank the Evans Elementary uh School uh excuse me m Mr John Johnson who is donating to our Evans Elementary ramquest program um and as you can see here the different items 3D printer anti vibration seat uh feet and all that goes along with it so as we recognized you last week I'll recognize you again thank you Mr Johnson for your
044generous donation to Evans Elementary okay and moving on to board comment okay with that said we'll move on to public comment so if there's anyone that wishes to speak please approach the podium with your name and Township of residence there we go can you hear me now okay um so good evening um thank you for the time so I believe I have about three minutes so I'm going to make it quick um so I'm here representing the white Springs Community and we have some of the some members of the community here in the audience today as can you just state your name and oh I'm sorry my name is and where where you live in the community okay and you can start yeah please start the time over okay hi my name is Bola aay
045and I live within the spring um spring uh within spring forward but in the white Springs Community uh so just for reference the white Springs communities within walking distance of the Providence uh Town Center so I'm I'm actually here representing the that Community um so just for reference the community is is relatively new it's it was starting to be built around 2016 or so and a lot of the residents there are newe to the community but have been there since that time um that Community has about 110 houses of which um about 50 of the residents or or 50 School aged children are in that residence um and many of them about 40 or so at any given time during the the morning or the afternoon is taking um the bus stop um that bus
046stop is located on arola road um so as you know it's pretty busy road um there's a roundabout also sometimes called a radio um and the bus stop is just after the radio um recently uh the Springs the white Springs Community had been just recently finished um Toll Brothers was the was the contractor that did that um many of us found out that the main road that we usually wait with the kids is a fire lane so when there's inclement weather or otherwise you would want to have your kids sort of driven to the bus stop for many reasons um you can't just keep your car there um recently uh police have told us hey you can't have your car there um we have a couple of reasons why the the bus stop per that
047issue is not the right place for the bus stop again there's about 40 School AG children taking the bus at any given time um you may see dozens literally of kids that are are waiting by the bus stop on that busy road um very high traffic uh safety concerns for the kids themselves as they are waiting for the bus stop and that's why one of the reasons why we want uh parents there um we have the filing restrictions so as I said if there's inclement weather or any issues um you can't just keep your car there with the kids securely inside until the bus comes um as we mentioned a large number of of students there in the community is definitely growing um and so our petition we we actually have a petition here signed
048by many most of the residents in in in White Springs to actually see if we can move um the bus stop to somewhere within the residence I forgot to bring up with me I have a little poster that kind of shows you where U the bus stop is in our Cola road but what you'll see is that where it is relative to where the high traffic area is there's a really big concern there thank you um here's the community our Cola road is right here and the bus stop is thank you sir just there thank you um so I will just say that because this is again um an issue that would be in the purview of our superintendent Mr Rizzo will be in touch with you tomorrow okay thank you uh do you need
049any of my information or I will yes we'll get it from yes I'll need your contact information afterwards all right perfect thank you thank you hi uh Mary Joe mnar LMR Pennsylvania Mrs Westwood I'm sorry that you had to experience what you experienced that makes me really sad to hear um and that your privacy was violated and that someone took advantage of you by doing something like that and then went ahead and shared it socially that's not how we can get things done right um so I I so I have a question and and maybe somebody can direct me for members of the community that no longer have children in the school district but have questions is the chain of command to go to the principal of the school where incidents are current like what
050if it's not a principal of a school so that kind of a question and maybe this is just food for thought I don't know um perhaps we can bring back some kind of Q&A through the board meeting or working sessions or committee meetings I I know it doesn't have to go in the days of covid where it was a little bit extreme um and when and how do we know what happened at the elementary school I can only assume that the door was open I don't know I'm I'm just curious um and does the community know how much damage was actually done in the school so I'm going to kind of leave it there I know you guys don't typically respond on but um thank you thank you and you are correct that public comment
051is not a Q&A as there's been a long standing policy with policy 903 public par participation at meetings um however I would say that that is a dialogue that Mr rzo can have with you so Mr Rizzo feel free to reach out to miss mcnamer okay thank you can I say one thing uh not right now no thank you hi uh my name is s uh I live in Upper Providence and uh I'm here to talk about a busing situation and World Transportation uh whether we answer any questions or not but I just want to share my frustration with the system um just for reference and context I have two kids uh one just started Oaks Elementary in kindergarten and one who's gone through the Oaks Elementary program to now in fifth grade uh Center
052and this is my first time here so you can imagine like frustrations taking some time to build up uh I don't see why busing is a treated as rocket science and why it is not where School cannot fix busing and notifications there's three major issues with this buses not coming on time second notifications not getting on time we get a notification 10 minutes standing at the bus stop that your bus is 10 minutes late and we don't know if it's the from the original time or is the time now and then the bus comes 20 minutes late after that today's an example the bus we got a message the bus is 10 minutes late but bus was actually 22 minutes late 1: p.m. the kindergarten starts p.m. kindergarten the bus picked up uh my daughter
053at 1 101 or 102 p.m. we're already dealing with a uh full school and uh half day kindergarten program which are not helpful anyways to begin with but on top of that if we have to stand at the bus stops with the kids and kindergarteners I cannot we cannot leave them by themselves if I have to stand 30 minutes before the bus comes in 30 minutes when uh the school ends that's an hour of me standing at the bus stops and then the notifications don't help at all and when you call Transportation they brush you off as if it's not their problem they don't give you straight answers they don't get back to you there's no response there on top of that you know I want to say this because we are sort of I
054feel like we have enough time to fix this situation before the next school year starts and I think this is a time to start thinking about it and planning about it because this is getting literally out of control and the lack of accountability in general with the transportation and school because I've been told multiple times that you have to be at the bus stop 10 minutes prior so freezing temperatures rain like this morning we get there 10 minutes early but if the bus comes early they don't stop they don't wait so I come 10 minutes early the bus comes 20 minutes late that's 30 minutes of us standing so at some point I feel like the system of kids to or students to show up at bus stop 10 minute early is sort of us
055washing our hands off our accountability that yes we will enforce busing to be on time okay thank you we we've H three minutes what's that we've hit the the three minute L okay okay all right thank you thank you for hearing similarly if Mr rzo can get your information he can reach out and have that conversation with you thank you I'll be here okay anyone else that would like to make a public comment hi I'm Stephen Wagner I live in Montclair uh I just I was just curious I know you guys have the new uh welcoming program uh that you're uh for students that uh may have questionable immigration status um my concern is that uh there are there are currently outbreaks of different diseases and stuff from uh populations that maybe are not vaccinated
056are we requiring all students that are coming to the school to be vaccinated before they come to the school it's just a concern with the current disease outbreaks yeah so that's that's all I had to say I appreciate how hard you guys work too you got a lot of difficult decisions to make so thank you thank you sir is there anyone else that wishes to speak can you talk about the same thing that somebody else just mentioned we have uh this young lady that is approaching the podium thank you hello uh my name is Adrienne mcgar I am the uh librarian at the Royers for free public library you all know who I am it's wonderful to see everyone again I just have three points about what the library is doing going into spring and
057summer first of all we've never done this before but we are putting out an all call for volunteers both teenagers and adults you need to be 14 to volunteer at the library but if you're looking to give back we really need program assistance during the summer we have sometimes over 200 people that come to our events we would really love some people that want to come and help us manage the crowd so any sort of help would be wonderful second of all we are partnering with Longwood Gardens if anyone has ever been there it's absolutely lovely we are doing a terrarium program on April 12th partnering with cozy cozy quarters core we will be doing a program for children ages 5 to 11 pretty much as long as they can handle a pot without dropping
058it you're welcome to come it is registration it's the first time we'll be doing it and it's just a partner with long Wood's um ongoing stretch to try to get people to go outside and enjoy their Public Gardens and then last thing summer readings coming up it starts on June 9th this year which is right after Spring Ford finishes school the theme this year is color our world which promotes the way that Arts enrich our lives and the programs are going to be in the area of painting and drawing as well as artwork that people don't always think about like textiles so please come sign up and feel free to ask me any questions if you have any thank you for your time thank you hi my name is Barry shefsky I also live at
05912 iron Hillway in Collegeville in white Providence and spring and I just want to talk about the bus stop there it's on our Cola Road basically on the corner now I was the very first house in the whole development 13 years ago I've seen it changes as more and more people come there the biggest change is on our Cola Road people come flying up that road when I first moved there I saw uh speak uh cars going 50 60 M an hour on that stretch and the police were always there now I never see police they put up a monitor there that lets you know you're going too fast or thank you for driving the speed limit and I've stand there and I see cars going 50 65 miles an hour and that's thing this
060the machine reports it it's very dangerous for the kids to go to that bus stop your elementary school kids they get Sid TR track one of them steps out accidentally on the street going after something a piece of paper that flies out of their hands a book it would it's very easy and there's almost been several accidents that I've noticed there and I really think the bus stop should be moved inside the development the development is two circles even if we just had one stop there's a parking area um by one of the circles the bus would come in and it would only take them except for picking up the kids it would only be about an extra minute or two for them to drive around that Circle they wouldn't even have to back up
061they'd have no issues they' pull in the entrance way it's very wide and the turn is very wide it's 28 ft there for the bus to turn they could stop right there as soon as they come in uh and again there's plenty of room it wouldn't have to back up it could just continue to go around the circle and right out the exit right where it came in at I think it's something that should definitely be considered because someday we're going to have a child there get gets very seriously injured so I just want you all to to realize that I went to the superintendent myself for the buses and she refused to even think of moving the bus so I just wanted to bring that up thank you very much is there anyone that
062else that wishes to speak motion to adjourn