001e is all right good evening everyone I'd like to call the springf area school district work session Tuesday February 20th to order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Al 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
002the board at the start of 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 good evening everyone welcome Mrs bicker can we please have a roll call yes in person this evening we have Miss Goldsmith Dr Sharma Miss Miss wi Garden Miss Westwood Dr Wright Mr Jackson and Miss hermans absent this evening is Mrs deardorf and Mr Lakey Lackey thank you very much no worries
003Mr rer do you have any announcements for today none at this time thank you likewise I do not have any so we'll move on to public to be heard on agenda items only if there's anyone that wishes to speak please approach the podium with your name Township of residents as well as the agenda item for which you are speaking hi Steve fry Royersford uh this is on agenda item 6 D4 uh the agenda has another approval related to training around the culturally relevant and sustaining education guidelines also called the crse guidelines uh this comes from the Department of Education we're often told that cultural responsiveness is just about being inclusive of various cultures but there's actually more to it and I think the crsd guidelines show a little bit of that um the guidelines seem
004to use a lot of terminology to avoid saying things in a more straightforward way I can't cover everything in the guidelines of three minutes but I'll discuss one aspect uh if you dissect the first three competencies of the guidelines I believe you'd find this first I need to do what is called an identity inventory people need to assess themselves based on inherent characteristics like race ethnicity skin color Etc second and need to see those identities as social markers and then categorizing people in terms of dominant and non-dominant social groups I think if you strip away all the exess exess language I believe what it really boils down to is the application of what is called the intersectional feminist model which requires that everyone be categorized in terms of oppressors and oppressed based primarily on identity
005group things like race ethnicity and gender and everyone one must see themselves and others in terms of identity-based power dynamics and then everyone must act based on in those terms it's my experience that many people don't approve of categorizing people in these kind of blanket in this kind of blanket way based on identity groups and many believe it's also divisive and counterproductive uh so let me try to initiate a courageous conversation with the board with this question um what does the CRS train used to determine which students fit into either a dominant or non-dominant social group because that seems to be a key part of the process okay because there has there's been some amount of CRC training that was previously approved in November so it would seem like somebody would have the answer to
006that question thank you thank you is there anyone else that would like to approach the podium with your your name Township or residence as well as an agenda item okay moving on uh we do have some action items on the agenda for tonight and because they do involve different um different topics I will take them separately so first we're going to be looking at action item 2 a do I have a motion so moved is there a second second questions and discussion um maybe I could just turn it over to Mr Rizzo to give a little Clarity on what this is all about um sure there was some discussion this is related to the Spring City project uh in order to move forward with the project and get to our vote in April there's required
007timelines we have to follow one of which is to hold an act 34 hearing for the public which is scheduled for next month on March 18th uh in order to do that we have to have uh an approval x amount of days prior to that meeting so pushing it to the board pushing it to the voting meeting would have would have cut into that time frame so we're requesting the board appr approve it tonight thank you very much any questions or discussion okay all those in favor say I I I any opposed the motion carries 70 moving on to items 2 B do I have a motion so moved is there a second okay any questions or discussion um just to refresh the board's memory we did um defer this from the January vote to
008now in particular because of uh wanting some clarity around the costs and so forth so Mr RZ is there anything that you would want to add to that I would just say that Dr Murray's had several meetings with uh both the 9th and the 10th through 12th grade principles to talk about process and procedure and making sure that we um we've uh memorialized those also the committee the policy committee's recommended policies 121 1211 and 122 to be reviewed which will also kind of work on somebody's timeline so thank you great thank you okay any other questions or discussion do I have a motion so moved I'm sorry my apologies ol all those in favor say I I I okay any opposed the motion carries 70 moving on to section 2 C do I have a
009motion so moved is there a second second questions and discussion just a couple of questions we've been down this road before and I think everybody know I'm going to talk about it and I understand you know we have policies procedures and I'm just trying to understand why does this keep coming up this has come up before regarding Chromebooks and these Chromebooks what's going to happen with the 15 or 16 that's being replaced it's my first question second question is this is a rush to provide a purchase order tonight which I think I don't think it's fair to the board as a whole because we have procedures and process and this process is for us to discuss in detail and vote next week now I know things come up but this has come up several times
010so maybe the administration needs to have the same discussion with this department that Dr Murray is having with her Department regarding process and procedures so we're not being rushed to vote on 7 $125,000 thank you so this did come up thank you at the curriculum committee and we did have a discussion regarding that and actually U Mr catalana I am going to ask you if you can answer more about how we have this opportunity now which will save the district money and the work that you have done behind the scenes to make this available for us and the reason for the rush because I do respect Mr Jackson's comments about this but thank you m uh Mr Jackson excuse me uh we typically uh do these purchases in uh March or April with our relationship
011with Shi they prevented us with Lenovo and opportunity to get promotional pricing on the Generation 3 of the laptop there's Limited stock available of that model and we wanted to have the opportunity to save the district approximately $147,000 that's why the urgency the new model has been introduced and with the new model it would be he said approximately $147,000 more than we budgeted for this purchase so with the relationship with the vendor and the opportunity presented it to us to save that money we thought it was best in the interest of the district to bring that recommendation I apologize but with the relationship and The Limited quantities of the the generation we have the opportunity to purchase which is why I'm bringing it to the board with the opportunity to save the district those funds
012so I appreciate that Mr kolano and if you would go and listen to council Rock's Schoolboard meeting that was the same thing they said so I guess there is a a a big quantity of these units out there in the industry so so basically what we're buying here is an older unit a new unit is being introduced to the market and that's what we're buying now our are there any pitfalls with us buying an older unit from a licensing perspective from a warranty perspective is there any liability to the district for buying this old the unit no sir uh the model has a lifespan of 7 years uh the warranty will not start until we receed the units and our lifespan is typically four to 5 years so there's no liability we're currently using the
013Generation 3 model we've had no issues with it uh there's a slight difference in the Gen 4 and the screen size other than that is the same specs we evaluated both units in January from Lenovo and my recommendation is to go with this unit especially with the significant cost savings well we we can't save money we haven't spent yet but I I appreciate the approach is there when will these units be delivered or anticipated purchasing requ requirements are I cannot receive we cannot receive the units until July 1st the vendor has agreed to hold them for us with a valid po so we'll get the units allocated to us and we'll receive them July 1 can I can I ask a follow-up question just based on what Mr I can finish please yeah go ahead
014okay I'll so Mr calano so the purchase order that we will issue to SS Shi that's the total value the 7 45 the purchase order that we will issue will be 745,000 I'm sorry $725,000 it's not to exceed that number it's actually less so what is you you know so what is the actual number the quote I received is for 699,000 so what is the so what is the Delta been used for if you may I if you don't know just say I don't know I don't the Delta is not being used for anything it we we are rounding up so we don't have to come to the board in case something would happen it would exceed the 699,000 whatever it is we wouldn't have to come back to the board to ask for a
015few a few more dollars of coverage so it's really just a buffer to protect us so it's a $26,000 buffer so how do we how do we determine $26,000 would cover would be the buffer versus $110,000 $112,000 $5,000 what was the metric used to determine that we needed that buffer I round it up Sir um the purchase orders for $699,000 I just didn't want to have to come back if there were a situation the quote I have that will be part of the pl will be $699,000 thank you Mrs Westwood you had a follow-up question I did thank you um just the second part of his question just out of curiosity because you mentioned um Mr Jackson This has come up before I think I remember it last year or something maybe similar is there
016is there something from a process perspective with the vendor that we can be aware of these things within the timetables or is it just not how that works with some of these deals that was my question unfortunately it's a random thing with the vendors but like you said that we have a strong relationship with the three vendors that we work with and they bring these opportunities to me when they're presented based on our relationship to help us out and if I may just for clarity sake this was brought up at the this is brought up at the um cric Tech committee and at that point I believe there were 75,000 available and there was not a rush to get these because we thought the stock was going to be there so we could approve it
017at the voting meeting but as the week went on they dropped significantly to the point where was no guarantee so this is rolling the dice at this point if we don't approve it tonight we can bring it up next week but it is rolling the dice for $147,000 and thank you for that Clarity Mr uh Mr Rizzo I Just Want to Thank You Mr Catalano because there are things that we can control and things that we cannot control and supply chain issues and inventory is one of those things so I appreciate you cultivating the strong relationship with Shi to make sure that we aren't in a position where our students don't have the resources they need to do their job so thank you for that any other questions or comments oh never mind I'm good
018okay thank you all those in favor say I I I any opposed the motion carries 70 okay moving on to board and committee reports Mr call Miss Stein uh yeah thank thank you so um as you know this time of the year is pretty busy for both Administration students and teachers alike um so there's a lot of stuff that's happened and a lot of the major activities that are going to happen especially in that category um over the coming uh month month and a half so to start off with some of the uh past events um we had midterms on the week of January 18th to the 23rd um U every student in the high school as well as um a decent amount of students in the Middle School such as the seventh eighth grade
019centers um has had midterms for their major subjects um the whole process went very smoothly I'm I'm confident um the tests were administered well and I don't think there were any major issues throughout the whole process um with the end of the midterms came the end of the second quarter on the 23rd as well as the beginning of the new third quarter so for the past month or so we've been operating in the third quarter and um that went off without of hitch as well we had National School counseling week on the week of February 5th which um we would like to especially thank all of the uh counselors and uh support staff in the entire District not just in the high school um for their work with helping um students in every level uh
020we also had high school course selection uh so students in N grades 9 10 11 as well as 8th grade students met with their counselors to determine um their next year's courses um potentially figuring out you know the path for the future uh we also had a big Vex robotics competition um I know the school board recently increased funding towards that program for events such as this and I know that went well so that was great to see um and finally in terms of Athletics we had the um boys swim team win the pack championships and that was the first time in I believe spring for history that the boys team won a team championship um those teams are now getting ready to compete districts so great to see the uh ramp ride there so
021yeah as far as future events goes as arhon said we do have quite a few of our sports teams competing in uh districts so our boys and girls basketball teams will be competing in the PIAA District 1 playoff games and then our wrestling team will be competing in the district one tournament which its date will be to be decided um the bowling team will be competing in the regional tournament again date to be decided our boys and girls swinging teams will be competing in the district one tournament again to be decided and then finally our boys and girls indoor track teams will be competing in the state championships and that will actually be this weekend and then we have quite a few things going on on March 1st and on March 2nd we have our
022spring Musical which will be um on March 1st and on March 2nd that will be the musical big fish and during that musical uh people will be be actually able to enter into the snap basket raffle as they walk in so that's a good way for um snap post prom to uh raise money and really gain a lot of money for um what they're doing for our seniors and then we also have the ASVAB military aptitude test on March 1st and that will be administered here registration for that it will end on February 23rd then we have spring sports starting on March 4th and then our first digital sat will be administered here at spring for on March 9th and then finally Junior Prom will be on March 16th and then tickets for that uh
023ticket sales for that will be ending tomorrow um February 22nd through school pay so make sure if you're a junior and you would like to go to prom make sure to buy those tickets quickly and also if you have an obligation to pay pay your obligation and then you can buy a ticket and uh as always there's a few major reminders uh continue to monitor um the weekly updates for districtwide news um this one's new um register for AP exams by February 28th so students in grades 9 through 12 um you have till the beginning of next week to register for your AP exams um spring forward covers one AP exam cost each uh for every student so if you're taking multiple one you won't have to pay for but um do register if you
024want to really get those credits um for college and finally keep up with current assignments and um yeah that's all from us thank you very much any questions or comments for our student reps I have one question on the obligations for prom is there a is there a ceiling on that or is it is it $1 or $25 or $50 where you couldn't go if you guys know or anybody else to my knowledge I don't think there's a ceiling from what I know but yeah I don't I don't think there's a ceiling I think it's like for example if you have like an overdue book and you have to pay for that I think it's something like that like it's nothing too major or anything but I do know that if you have say too
025many detentions or you've been suspended too many times disciplinary issues like that um I don't believe you're allowed to attend if you've had certain certain uh one too many disciplinary issues in that category but as for like overdue library books things like that I don't believe there's a limit okay thank you thank you any other questions or comments okay moving on to me um community relations so the community relations committee meeting uh was held on Tuesday February 6th we welcome Dr Sharma to the committee um and Mrs we Garten and I are both continuing to serve on it um a a handful of new uh topics to be discussed but um as part of bringing on new board members to a committee Miss crew and Mr rothamel presented an update from the Communications Department that
026included a handful of topics um that included future plans for spring fors communication tools rctv updates ramcast podcast News Guard C uh the gold card program which um I think we are up to over 400 is that right Miss scw I mean that is amazing considering just a couple of years ago um you know we were having conversations about how to Market that program so that's wonderful and uh pens BR news as far as ongoing business uh Mr rothamel shared some stats for the year so far with regards to rctv updates um and indicated that Mr petti um our AV Specialist will be providing a view Sonic project update next month um and again as part of getting Dr Sharma up to speed just kind of um gave an overview of the rctv team which
027is a you know a a small But Mighty team of four and of course with um student support you know for those that are look that are minoring and majoring so it's just amazing how much they're able to accomplish um and how many events are able to cover given the size of the team um next up we talked about the spring Ford sign Garden so if there are any nonprofit organizations in the springing for footprint that want to have their yard signs on spring for property please reach out to miss crew and she can um provide you more information about that program um as far as the and let me pull this up here because we actually have a recent update um Point C on the agenda was with regards to the 2024 pensburgh excellence
028and communication submission so at the time um Miss crew mentioned that she had submitted 17 projects which was the most ever submitted um and include a variety of different um of different projects like the HR web page Code of Conduct Handbook um highlighting some of our um rctv segments like the brook uh Kindergarten Center animal hospital and you know over the course of I think the last um five six seven years um since 2016 right if I do my math about seven years we've received 34 different Awards um so as I mentioned 17 were submitted and we weren't expecting to get any information with regards to um what the outcome of that would be until March but actually am I allowed to share this Miss crew okay wonderful um just last week we got an
029email uh that stated that um the communications marketing and media Department um received recognition for seven of our 17 submissions um in particular Award of Excellence around our social media campaign Award of Honor for photography Award of Merit for public uh Publications like our welcome brochure news from the Middle School newsletter Springford golf aing promo Brook Elementary Animal Hospital Spotlight as well as the spring Ford Area School District Eagles hype video so again um I I can't um tell you how happy I am uh in particular um especially as taking over chair of the community relations committee from Mrs xowski to to work with these folks because um I just think that you know every time I see something online or see something in print like it just makes me so happy that we have
030such dedicated crew uh to highlighting everything that is going on in this district for our community to see so thank you to our Communications teams I'm going to give them a round of applause that's okay all right wonderful um and then other points that we discussed was trademarking uh Miss crew gave a Brie update still in progress working with the solicitor so more to come with that and then um the last piece was around um just past and upcoming events so so we talked about the speaker series uh event for February which was um body metric so if you um recall back in January we had another speaker series event it was the mock team bedroom event that was held on January 18th um and on February 13th we had the speaker series continued with
031it uh Andrea Delgado from body metric on healthy bodies for teens and twins so I love the fact that um you know we're offering this you know to the community to come out there and learn about these important topics as it relates to Parenting any questions or comments okay thank you uh moving on uh Dr G I understand that you'll be giving the extracurricular report I am thank you so the extracurricular committee met um on February 6th right after the um community relations meeting at 7 o'clock uh we have a new team on extracurricular um Abby deardorf is our chair who could not be here tonight and she took some time to welcome Miss Westwood and Dr Sharma as um co-chairs and committee members um to the team so congratulations and thank you um we
032had a couple of guests in the area of arts and clubs um our first guest was Alex Celli and he with him he brought three of the theater students um to present on their experiences being in theater throughout their years uh at the high school Mr Celli did a brief presentation on the Arts and all of the different um plays that have been going on throughout the years it was quite impressive and the number of participation that has been climbing over the last several years we did take a little bit of a dip postco but then it started to climb again um so it was it was very nice to see that in the area of clubs um we did have three other students from the take action club that um was recently joined this
033year they came to present and showed us um what they were doing in their club and they have recently um developed a tutoring system for students and that is a complet a completely online system where students can go in and become a tutor and tutor other students online they've developed that um themselves and they also were discussing a debate that was um forthcoming that they were participating in with another District or and or Outside Agency so that was very well received as well those boys did a tremendous job um presenting to us and then finally Dan um miscavage in the area of sports uh generally reviewed all of the the sports that have taken place over the past season and came up with all of the totals he also discussed Bri briefly where we are
034where we are in the girls flag football process I believe to date um we have just hired a flag football coach and an assistant coach and Mr miscavage is in the process of having a meeting to determine interest in the girls moving forward so that's where we are there uh no actionable items that came up and no needs for next meeting our next meeting will be on March 7th at 6 o' any questions I got two you're not mine sure on the girls flag football the initial seed money I think was $3,000 from the Philadelphia Eagles and Mr miscavage was goingon to establish a budget or projected budget of cost going forward because if this is going to be an ungo initiative which I support there's going to be funding needed to support beyond the
035$3,000 correct so that wasn't discussed I guess no not at this meeting what was discussed was be it becoming a Coach position which would be in the CBA become a collective bargaining unit position moving forward the coach will be part of the CBA M really really okay all right thank you just to clarify uh the position would be the coach could come from anywhere but the position would be a stien position within the the cont than you okay thank you any other questions Mrs West just not a question a statement did you want to talk about girls wrestling or skip that I think that was the only thing we didn't cover or do you want me to you can I mean I can you can you can do it okay so girls wrestling the question
036came up we were kind of at stalemate because they did come out and um there was there was interest raised in whether or not we were going to be having a girls wrestling team uh Mr miscavage had reported that the interest to date has been rather low um so we're not quite sure what or where or how that's going to continue if it's going to continue at all okay thank you just I have one quick question remind me will the Big Fish performers be at our meeting next week is that I think they are the big according Miss crew is nodding her head yes yes that's exciting we'll have to invite Colleen thanks my memory isn't good any other questions or comments all right moving on to Mrs we Garten for policy fantastic thank you
037um the policy I'm sorry I think I recall being uh the big fish group presenting on March 25th no it yeah their per the performances are March 1 and 2nd so the next week February oh okay so I think that's okay all good how worries thank you Mrs warten policy yes thank you um the policy committee met on Monday February 12th it was well attended with a special guest of Clinton Jackson Mr Jackson was there um just that was a first right um our right our um committee members are myself Mrs hermans continuing and welcoming Mrs Goldsmith very very thrilled to have you there um we went over old business and policy 21 is updated in the board docs to uh reflect the date of February 12th uh the policy 707 is still in progress
038of review which will take a little bit of time and then you'll see listed our new business um you can also see on see these Poli policies on pages approximately 29 to 45 on the digital version of the agenda if you want to go a little bit deeper into that and then uh the proposals for next meeting's agenda is policy 21 204 619 and and bringing back to committee policy 707 903 9006 and 9116 and that is everything any questions any questions okay thank you thank you Dr R curriculum and Technology thank you very much so the technology and curriculum and Technology committee meeting was February 12th at 7:00 uh the board members that are committee members are myself and also so Heidi Goldsmith and Dave Lackey and Karen wearden we also had um Teresa
039Westwood and Eric hermans there um to participate so um and then with the as far as the administrators were there we it really is um managed by Dr Katie gardy congratulations on that so um so with technology uh there were um there are seven items I think it is today on the uh um agenda that we'll be voting on for next week but um Mr Catalano said that we are um updated the Staffing and that we are fully updated we have all of um positions currently are filled in the technology department so he's very happy the previously open positions that um have been filed and new staff members have started working in the district including the systems administrator and the five support technicians so we're very happy and looking forward to that with um that
040department um Mr Catalano also mentioned that the on the the no before the um he provided an update on the successful campaigns and use of the software to eliminate potentially harmful emails that the latest results of the campaign indicates that spring for demonstrated a 3.4 4% response rate and the industry average for an organization our size is 30.3% so we are doing actually an excellent job with that there had recently been right a a potentially a bad email that was sent and our staff responded beautifully to it so all the training and prep work that we've been doing is paying off so that department um and also regarding the the summer refresh for the student devices as you're aware we have a plan in place to replace um our Chromebooks our student Chromebooks and our
041staff um computers and that um that that was the 100 the um 1,500 devices were going were secured it was was discussed earlier we just voted on this uh that is saving the district approximately $147,000 um due to getting the Generation 3 now instead of waiting a little bit longer for the generation for so regarding curriculum uh you will see some several items there for purchases of materials um the advanced placement French and French 5 Dr gardy provided a curricular resource update for these courses in the board agenda contains information regarding the text names quantities and the duration of the products the Spanish five Additionally the board will um has the information there on the agenda regarding those materials and these are all parts of cycle that we have regarding replacing materials and they are
042budgeted for with social studies uh Dr reinheimer provided a curricular resource update for the course again this social studies is one of the the courses that every seven years approximately we review uh the board agenda contains information regarding the text names quantities and duration of the product um at the next committee meeting um I'm sorry we have specifically the digital platform offers accessibility options such as reading text aloud highlighting areas of taking notes changing color text enhancing text visibility and automatic scrolling all of these um things that we have um that were discussed at the meeting regarding our specialed um access to this High School resource we investigated and found to be um in keeping with what we want as a district um so you also see that Dr reinheimer um is requesting for the
043math 180 an additional professional development day uh the Math 180 is a a program that we already have in place as an intervention for grades 5 through 7 for our teachers and uh the other training was was very successful for the math 180 so they are requesting an additional day of professional development for that which I think was a great ask because we always are saying to our teachers if you uh would you know need more professional development please please let us know and they they were happy to uh to have us provide this uh then also there was information on the summer programming the summer pre kindergarten Dr gardy provide information regarding the screening process uh summer pre kindergarten um I don't know if it's going to be discussed later on but it was
044it's July 8th through August 1st at Brooke Elementary School there'll be much more information forthcoming also we're very happy that the summer instrumental band camp will be happening again that had changed format um due to um the pandemic and was been very successful and we're very grateful to our um music teachers that are willing to offer that in the summer the band camp July 8th through July 11th um and let's see the summer Rams Dr gardi provided information regarding the summer programming for students K to8 uh the summer Rams will be July 8th through August 1st at either Upper Providence Elementary or the 56 Center and information is coming out about that as you know this is the last summer Rams that will be paid for by Esser money and so that um we're already
045discussing how we're going to proceed with that if we are or not um the English language development Camp Dr gardi provideed information regarding this summer camp parents and families of eligible students will be contacted regarding that this is one of the things that we really are um need to be offering to our students it's paid for by title fre money for that and um then also the structured literacy Grant materials there was some additional money that we had um so Dr gardy provided information regarding two intervention resources being requested uh to be purchased those are both there on the agenda um forget the name there was Rave something from University of Florida and also Rave o um the materials that we can purchase through this structured literacy Grant are limited to kind of a a
046menu selection uh we really were very happy with some of the resources we were able to get there was some additional money available these are two resources that were vetted um that were available and so that is what we if they're asking the money for that our next meeting will be Monday March 11th at 7 o' at the district office conference room thank you Dr wght any followup questions or comments okay mciu that would be me as well so we had a meeting on January 24th uh the mciu board board welcomed um board members from several other districts that had transitions of new board members from aubert pery Omen and Colonial school district and methacton they also appointed me as the uh to fill the vacancy as the board Treasurer until July 30th 2024 um
047Dr speaker the director of the IU thanked the Montgomery County Intermediate units Board of Directors for their dedication commitment during um board directors recognition month Dr speaker also invited our board members at at the IU to participate in this year's reading Across America program which will be celebrated during the week of March 2nd to the 6th um by have selecting books and having us go into the classrooms to read them and she encouraged us to share that opportunity with our own districts that perhaps someone on you know members of our board here might be interested in going into the classrooms during that week and with an opportunity to read allowed to students during um the read Across America week uh we also approved the um election of Dr Regina for the executive director for another
048four years so we renewed her contract with that a lot of presentations from facilities we have had a training for the ACT 55 train the trainer which I believe um was a Safety and Security one that um that Chief Boer probably participated in uh we also the mciu board approved a part partnership agreement with Lazar iu8 to offer countywide special education teacher certification programs that's something that um Mrs Lee has also worked in our district that we've already been ahead of the G uh the game on that so it was good to see that this is something that's expanding into other districts and um the mciu board approved a letter of understanding with uh Drexler University in order to offer a tuition discount program for mciu employees their families and this is the part it
049says employees of mciu member school districts so I didn't realize that that would be until I got the notes Here may be extended to um um spring Ford's um families of of the District employees so I'm going to look into that a little bit more because it was a significant discount to Drexel V for that so we have have um our next meeting is Wednesday this Wednesday February 28th at the mciu boardroom at 6:45 and that's about it questions thank you questions all right uh Dr Murray Dr G assistant superintendent good evening we're excited to share that 10 Spring Ford seniors have been named as finalists for um in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship program out of approximately 1.6 Mill ion high school students who enter the program approximately 16,000 students Nationwide are named as
050finalists we wish our students all the best as they continue in the next steps on Friday February 6th Mr Rizzo Dr Jan Batista and I attended the Western Montgomery Career and Technical Center skills USA competition at the Western Center and center and we were honored to serve as judges students from multiple technical centers competed in various activities it was a great experience for the three of us to participate and support all of our students today the district Wellness committee met we welcomed members of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services the Department of Health is conducting listening tours and are trying to meet with all of the districts in Montgomery County to learn how they can support overall student wellness and understand ways that they can further support districts and with that I
051will turn it over to Dr Jan Batista thank you Dr muray as our student reps mentioned spring for hosted the annual Vex robotics company comptition earlier this month spring for hosted 71 teams which is our largest event um to date students in grades six seven and 8 are encouraged to attend the Western Center's upcoming skills over stereotypes event skills over stereotypes will be held on Wednesday February 28th and encourages students to get hands-on experience in fields that they might not necessarily otherwise try visit the Western Center's website for more information and to register and finally the Springford Area School District's human resources department is hosting a teachers job fair for the upcoming school year on March 5th available positions in elementary teachers secondary teachers special education special Area Teachers and more please visit the spring
052Ford website for more information and to register that is the end of my report thank you very much any followup questions yes Mr Jackson yeah I did attend that event and I found it to be extremely interesting and that is definitely a club I would consider investing in are you speaking about Vex robotics that is correct and I agree with Mr Jackson I attended as well it was it was a great event great to see all the students and and the coaches were engaged so it was it was great thank you it's wonderful any other questions or comments okay solicitors report Mr Fitzgerald uh yes briefly um and good evening everybody um I wanted to just briefly draw your attention to the finance section of the agenda and in particular um letter O the item
053that I wanted to mention is probably more traditionally a property item but it's in the finance section uh for the agenda next week um this memorializes a deed of conveyance between the district and the burough of Spring City surrounding a third roughly a third of an acre of land that has generally already been in possession for about 10 years already um this is all to kind of clean up um land issues as we proceed through the the building project it's an unusual action item in part based on how we are essentially conveying the land the school code has particular ways that a public entity like ours can can convey land to another entity and in this instance it being a a burough another municipality um it doesn't require Court approvals it just requires a super
054majority of the board to approve so next week we would need six votes to approve the conveyance the deed is two pages long it's not terribly exciting but it it will finally memorialize a sliver of land that has really been um kind of misidentified for about 12 years okay thank you very much yeah so we'll make sure we review that come next week and uh talk about the uh two-thirds vote for that one okay thank you anything else Mr fitgerald uh nothing else this evening I just had one question before we moved on from the solicited report the last time we were here there was the memorandum of understanding was brought up and it was subject to solicitor approval has there been any movement on that we are speaking of the one for the one
055University why am I blanking immacula col immacula yes and there was significant uh change in that um I based on subsequent discussion um with administrative Representatives what was memorialized in that document wasn't what we were doing so a lot was taken out um some of the information that we were doing is in there and I can promise you Heidi that the indemnification Clause is gone well that's good is is there a way to get a copy of the what was finally sure uh yeah I mean we have a final version um somewhere that has been executed I'm sure that can be provided okay perfect thank you any other questions from Mr Fitzgerald thank you Heidi all right uh moving on we'll review the um what will be the voting portion of our agenda for next
056week and since we did not have a work session in January it was combined meeting voting and work session um I just want to remind our new board members that at work sessions typically we don't require separation raing anything out we're just going to go through it and if you have questions feel free to jump in so um section 4 a minutes any questions or comments okay section five Personnel letters a through S I do want to bring one thing to your attention here with regards to letter s uh there is going to be a a slight adjustment to the wording of this action item the effective date is going to be changed from February 21st to February 2 7th that is what it should read so that will be changed for next week any
057other questions or comments okay Finance section six letters a through o and as Mr fitzgeral just mentioned he went through letter o yeah can we I'm sorry go ahead no go go ahead Mr Jackson uh D4 I I do have questions about this I'm trying to understand it um so can someone educate me on this what it means what it means uh PD has imposed on us requirements to provide professional development for pre-service and service and induction um teachers um um so there are three there's the professional ethics standards there is the structured literacy and then the third is the crsc standards culturally responsive uh cultur culturally relevant and sustain education framework um so this motion is um us asking the board for the opportunity to U bring in an expert in the field and
058one of the authors of the crsc framework um to work with us and to train to trainer model with our administrative team over the course of this school year and part of next school year uh it is broken out over both school years so that we can um just so that we're not crossing over and we're only paying for the current school year we're not paying for future dollars or future ass sessions uh I have Dr Moyer Mr Moyer uh back there who is one of our three um Liaisons for um our Equity diversity and inclusion committee uh that can ask answer questions if there are any from the board but the idea is to help us with the crsc standards sorry Mr Jackson continue I guess I and you said a lot and thank
059you I guess I'm trying to understand what all that really means I see the title and I'm trying to understand what the title means you know culturally revent and sustaining education so can Dr moror or someone sort of drill down on that or give me a document to read or something to help me understand it so um the answer is yes uh I have put it in board members in the past and I will put it again in the memo this week um to kind of refresh you before there's a vote that'll help okay thank you yep so if I can just respond cuz I actually in fact some of us a while ago actually attended a program about this uh because there's you know what is what is culturally responsive uh training versus what
060is critical race the they're both CRTs um this is actually something just it's one it's required by the state so there's there's not an it's not an optional thing it's a state required thing but I think it's really important because you know often times when we're expecting teachers to walk into our district and teach our students them understanding the culture and the different what makes our diversity so great and and I explained it to someone is if you dropped a teacher from Pennsylvania into Minnesota and or a Minnesota teacher I should say a better example Minnesota teacher here and she walked into class and said ah yeah you bet you we're going to have a hot dish and you're going to bring bars and we're going to play bags you know most the kids here
061would not have a clue what it is because again that's not their culture it's not their lingo it's not their language and the reality is and I'm oversimplifying it very significantly but my point is we're teaching teachers to be open that when they move into new areas to understand the the community in which they live in the the culture in which they are teaching and to be able to connect to it and and another just again an example because I think it's so important is that you know how this breaks down to academics is if you approach things from not a understanding who you are teaching regardless of the reason and often times it's limited to to race it truly is so much bigger than that for example when my children underwent uh testing one
062of the testing I sat there and it was a speech and language test and they showed him a picture and he was three of a needle and thread and I will out myself right now is I do not sell so he had never experienced a needle and thread so ask and determining his speech and language abilities among a needle and thread really was not getting to the heart of it and again it's that that kind of understanding the kids your community and being able to make lessons that are not only interesting to the kids but the kids can connect to um is that's really the whole goal of this by the state initiative of really kind of again understanding the culture in which you teach in and being able to connect to the kids and
063I don't know if that helps Mr Jackson as we say the South clear as mud man clear as mud okay well thank you very much Mrs Goldsmith and um I'll again thank you for continuing to put it into board memo um I will say that I think that if you are going to have a state mandated training a state mandated training on a topic who better to hear it from from the author of that framework so really excited for that opportunity um any other questions or comments with 6 a through o uh G okay just trying to understand word Services is there any details about spending 1.5 million for Montgomery County Intermediate Unit member services so Dr Murray I don't know if that was something was on your radar to speak to if not I
064certainly can so we're talking about the member services agreement with the mciu so um we are required to uh in part in relationship with other school districts and the IU to pay a portion of their of their budget and this this I got the right one right Mark because there's two of them they're Shar service this is the like statutorily required okay I didn't want to missp speak because there are two there will be another one coming up at some point for other services but this is a requirement for us to contribute to their overall budget um a percentage go ahead Mark better this either this came up here or in another district there it there's a kind of a market value component to how what we pay versus say North pen or methacton or
065pots grve the the budget that you will get in the future future will be essentially based on the services we then specifically get from the IU whether it be special education services or other other uh services for programming for students but this is essentially to keep the IU running and it's split amongst the the sending districts and just to be clear that 1.5 million is not what we are paying it's not our share right that's the overall mciu budget so what spring forward what we action item is is uh spring for's um share based on enrollment being 120,000 of that .5 million that helps thank you so much way more clear than I put it so thanks could I could I just ask a followup question that just my understanding though is although we are
066supporting the running of the mciu that we it that we get programming as a result of that so that there is services so do we how much of like the services are we getting for our contribution because I think that's important because we get a lot of services from the mciu that that would be a a a Mr Rizzo question in terms of what we get for the 120,000 I mean there there will be I'm usually more aware of the over and above Serv sure um and Dr jti is probably ready to speak to how it directly impacts our students uh from our lens there are services that we are that we are we are privy to by being part of this and very simply whenever we have board uh professional development sessions um IU
067members coming in to work with are covered under that agreement that's something that's that's an included service we don't pay for that above and beyond that's a small small small small fraction but that is one example of some of the services that are provided so um I mean I can get a list for you and I can put it in the memo so that you know what is included okay that'll be helpful thank you yep Dr G your mic's on was there anything else you wanted to add no Heidi was your question answered in terms of the mciu yes I had others thank you is there any other questions with Finance in terms of uh letter D I had a couple um one in terms of number five for the Lincoln Center uh family and
068youth is that a an array of services or for a single student that is for a single student okay and then in terms of D7 uh Dr Jesse sandel Barrett is that a contracted employee with the district or is that like through the IU or H how is it decided who to Outsource the psychiatric evaluations to so because we don't have Psychiatric Services on site in our district we utilize the mciu okay to either give us a referral or um sometimes we'll do that through a flow through contract I believe in this case this was a referral because right now the mciu doesn't have a a psychiatrist on staff either okay um and then a letter e again kind of same question is that a single student or is that a multitude of services one
069single student okay and then letter F I had a couple questions about letter F and I and I because it involves psychological Ser Psychology Services and school year Services um for 2324 so one if we already started to utilize the Chester County Intermediate Unit as part of like their work with us yes so this contract the the psychologist actually started in September one was to fill in for resignation the other one was to fill in for a leave and we just received the invoice from the cciu okay and so the $294,000 how many psychologists does that cover two okay and is that for full year services and Does it include summer Pro like from what point to what point do we get for two psychologists full year full year and is that full-time status part-time
070status full-time full-time okay and then the other question I had is looking back at previous um board member or um sorry board agenda I apologize there was Psychological Services by us medical staffing and that was in the vicinity plus I think for uh PCA service or nursing it was one of the it was some additional services that that but it did include psychological was that for additional Psychology Services us medical yeah it it well included Psychological Services it was in September it was like almost $300,000 for that to was that was how much was that for Psychological Services I'd have to go back but us medical we generally use them for pcas and support staff okay I guess and I'm just going to make I you know the comment in terms of you know $294,000
071for two psychologists who for a year it's it's a large budget item and you know I'll just be blunt I this I know the school psychologists are overwhelmed but I guess my thought process is is instead of Outsourcing this money should we start to look to including that as part of things that the Board needs to look at because I'll I'll never you forget you know Mr Jackson um back during there was a question that came up it was actually Mr Rizzo many years ago 2020 about you know where we were at this is before year time um where we were at with Psychology Services and that they were going to be behind and there was delays and Mr Jackson said should we hire someone new and I guess and I and I trust me
072I understand the staffing issues but I guess I'm just trying to say is for the level of Psychology Services is that something that looking to try to start to include going forward like in terms of In-House yes I've been speaking with Mr Rizzo Miss Lee and Mr fin about the um the the potential for filling those positions permanently in house for the upcoming school year part of the problem is um is a staffing issue this this type of position is very difficult to staff and has been in the past and even when we wanted to hire inh house ourselves we had great difficulty f f finding a school psychologist and I'll just point out and I think this is when we're looking at the budget I think though when we're looking at Staffing that cost
073I just I think the board members we all need to everyone needs to look at the fact that if we don't staff it the kids still are required to have it legally we still need to provide it and how much is it going to cost for us to pay someone else to do it and Mrs gold smith um you are bringing up a really good topic of conversation that um to fill you in generally as we head into the months of March and April we have quite a few exec sessions with regarding person now specifically as it relates to back filling positions or bringing on new positions so um it is the work of the administration where they will bring forward what their recommendation is in terms of what is required what is nice to
074have and what would be like I forget how we bucketed it last year but yes that conversation typically does happen prior to uh you know as part of the budget conversations okay that's very helpful to know um and then I had one one last question I think that that would be to you which is letter I Valley Forge Educational Services is that Vanguard and is that for one student yes yes okay so that's the Vanguard APS school it's approved pivate school and then the only other question I had under and I wasn't quite sure why it was there um it was letter O and I know we touched upon this but I'm just trying to I'm just trying to understand because I'm a little confused what my understanding from looking at the deed is we're
075conveying this for a dollar is there was there some mistake is it not our land if so how was the purchase price decided I I'll take the first shot so this goes back to 2010 and this involved the Springford athletic sports athletic league and this was a agreement that was signed off based on a survey of two sheets or two drawings and the final documents were never processed so this sort of came back to life when we started the Spring City um renovation project and meeting with the township they respectfully requested that we sort of put a bow on this and tie it off since all of this ties back into uh the Spring City area being Chester County okay so this is an old decision by a former board to to do this this
076this is almost 13 years ago over a decade ago and it was just a document that got lost in the process and it came back up when we started this process again and we were asked to just close it out no exposure to the district or anything in an attempt to Qui title and just to to ensure that while when while we're building significantly on on this property that any disputes with regard to even the sliver of the parcel is is addressed and that came up through due diligence of the uh of the process okay that's all the questions I have thank you Mrs gold smith any other questions okay moving on to property section 7 a through h I have a question about a um in light of what um Colin sski would say
077if she were here uh we are paying additional money for cutting of grass when we have our own uh grass cutting lawnmowers and things is there a reason why we need additional money for that yes we overextended what was projected the equipment that we have is on what we can cut and you're correct we've had this conversations with Mr zasi and the board on several occasions but um Dr Wy really came down to we cut the larger Fields more than than we anticipated I don't know if you want to add anything to that Mr Mr Dan that is exactly correct so it was basically additional cuts that were needed for the fields to keep them at the level they needed to be at for certain athletic events so this is specifically for the athletic fields
078it focused on that mostly yes I just also would like to just bring up again the idea of letting some of our other fields that are not our athletic fields go um fow with you know so that we didn't cut them as much as we talked about last year um because it's good for the environment so just putting that out there again it's a new maybe we want to consider that again so thank you thank you doctor I duly noted duly noted okay any other questions with property letters a through H we talk uh I have two questions about F okay Mrs Westwood so just um quick question so it doesn't say here and I didn't see in the board memo so apologies if I missed it but which fund is the 65,000 assuming we
079approve it coming from and then just one F question so this $65,000 and before I start this is all part of the original budget this is not money that's being asked for outside of the $341,000 that was approved for the board from the board in the 1.1 mil um these are items that should have been line items that should have been included in phase one and two but unfortunately IC placed them in phase three which has not been approved yet and in order to complete um finalizes of design um and with the Township's review this is the cost of our exposure right now but as I mentioned um in the beginning this is not money outside of the original budget we're just moving the money requesting to move the money from phase three up to
080phase one and phase two thank you that answered my second question too any additional questions property uh Yes actually I had a question about G for the $360,000 for blacktop or asphalt replacement coming from capital reserve was that part of our plan of you know maintaining our facilities or is that something that came up um and has to be addressed no this is part of the uh capital projects that we do every year in the summer um and asphalt as always or the replacement um of asphalt as always done in the summer to not to impact um the school district as a whole and this is a cost that was planned for however um this goes through the state procurement process so this is the cost that um that came through the K the kenp
081contract thank you anything else property a general question um in regards to S selecting a vendor do we go through RFP bidding process or do we have annual contracts with these vendors uh because I see some big ticketed items here not sure how the annual process has been um going on we go through the Commonwealth of PA procurement process so that is uh the process that we go through to stay within those parameters that are established and everything on here um has gone through the various levels of the state procurement process not sure that that answers your question everything is processed through the state so you have to register with the state be certified through the state in order to bid on school work in this particular case right I mean I I you're right
082U just to kind of add a little bit to it so generally speaking for contracts in excess of I think it's about $24,000 we would need to bid out and look for the lowest responsive bid however as Mr Jackson noted and this is extremely helpful to school districts we can utilize these the what I'll call these State procurement sites that have bid these contracts already essentially on our behalf so these contracts exist for us to look at and potentially utilize and they've already gone through the the lowest responsive bid process so the vendor in question here which is SJ Thomas company has a contract through the site that allows us to utilize it and it's already been bid through through the state process thank you any other questions with property okay programming curriculum Section 8
083letters a through G I just had a comment about f and g because I just think it was something that came out a curriculum that I was not aware of um and I thought was something that would be useful for us all to know as so we were lucky enough to get the structured literacy Grant um and so part of that was making sure that we're utilizing the funds in line with um what the grant gives us as well as the ti me of it and it was just in terms of those two programs f and g there was a list of programs of which we were given to accept from so it wasn't like a cart blanch here's you know x amount of dollars to spend as you will on whatever reading program you
084think is appropriate it really was limited to a certain selection so these were selected to try to as the term I used was provide additional tools in the toolbox in addition to the other reading programs that are still in existence and at the school buildings so it's it wasn't a replacement situation it was more giving more options to our teachers reading Specialists and other people providing curriculum uh to to have other options thank you for the context Mrs Goldsmith any other questions or comments I got a question so once this grant is gone then what is it a program it's a a starter and if you don't if you get in great if you don't get in then you missed out or or what are we looking to do here going forward so we actually
085did talk about that at curriculum committee I know that there was a um a couple of questions brought up about this and the priority was to try and keep that in mind and not select programs or select um things that we would not be able to continue over time Katie do you want to talk a little bit more specifically about this so these particular materials the ones FNG on this will give us some extension to the uly the University of Florida some of our buildings already have those resources so this will give us additional resources for teachers as well as our Specialists the letter G is a new program for us so I think to answer your question Mr Jackson that would give us the supplies that we need in order to provide that in
086all of our elementary buildings and the larger buildings will get more than one uh just because we be would be able to serve students um and the question in that meeting was with 11 did that mean 11 students and that's not the question not what would happen here many students would be able to provide get provided this resource um ultimately we always have curriculum review Cycles Dr G and I have been working together to plan out our mtss and look at what resources we may need in the long term this to me like Mrs Goldsmith said is extra tool in the toolbox to provide our students those interventions that we it has been a gap that we've had over the last several years thank you and one quick question Senate District 44 I know I
087should know that but k mo oh okay you're welcome any other questions or comments okay moving on to section nine letters a through J conferences and workshops for um G uh we're sending um Dr reinheimer and Teresa Silverman and Jessica saloi I'm probably saying that incorrectly to the pctm conference that would to me um if would would be such a valuable conference I don't know whether we had um other you know our intervention teachers things like that other people who would be able to benefit from that from the uh pctm conference so at this time this is all that we have planned to attend however the goal um especially with these three particular is to bring back some of the content and be able to turn it around as well Dr wght I don't mean
088to interrupt but the the three of them will also be presenting so they are not only attendees but they will be part of the presentation um so I just wanted to make sure that that was clear they're going to represent us as a district um and share their knowledge thank you for sharing that that's really good to hear thank you okay any other questions with conferences and workshops section 10 other business of course we have our typical first read one policy for approval um any questions or comments no I just want to speak to item C if I could briefly um we are likely going to pull that off for the voting meeting um there could be another shift that we have to look at and I don't want to come to the board multiple
089times so I'm going to pull that off until I know what I have so either in March or April have come back and we'll make that update uh we we will probably still need to do something with this date but I'll do that in conjunction with anything else we might need to adjust so next week you won't see it thank you anything else can I just a quick question just about e just to refresh my memory so I feel like this came up in another um meeting but can you refresh my memory around so we have things like Deco where the students pay but things like um certain levels of sports I'm just remembering like where that level is and where we pay versus um students in C cost sure so we have um we
090have a policy I think I think that one is um excuse me we have uh many clubs we have student um student um requested or facilitate organizations Athletics Fine Arts and in that policy 122 what we cover and don't cover is is for the most part clear there are some there are some things in there that we have found that are a little bit unclear that we're going to work on but this the pmea thing is is clearly identified in policy 122 as something the district does cover um for the students but this is an action item with regards to our staff this is not about yes well actually it kind of is um because the pme state conference is an interesting conference in that is both a student event but it is also a
091staff event this part right here is the staff attending and they would go and Dr Murray so I don't fumble over it you want to jump in here sure um Mr Rizzo is right this is the the student trip portion of it but it is also a field trip and it is a conference so you you will see there's an agenda item under conferences for Andrew walls um letter e to attend that is the conference portion of it we already have had um the approval for uh Miss OD day and Miss granahan MC granahan to attend as part of the conference earlier on as well so this is the only one where it's both a field trip and a conference so we get them approved as such how many students will be attending that is
092still yet to be completely finalized but I believe it's up to nine students if I my memory serves me but the the requested value is that the limit or is that predicated on how many students yes it will cover the maximum amount it it's dependent on how the students do and progress so I believe it's up to nine um if I'm my memory serves me correctly so if there's less than nine that 6500 goes south it should yes so then we can approve this next week unless the numbers are finalized I don't think we would have finalized numbers we've approved it this way in the past where we are approving it not to exceed especially trips like this there's there's several trips that it's very difficult for us to approve a final number because it's
093dependent on how the students do in previous competitions so what the way we've approached it is that we've approach we've approved as a not to exceed amount to cover the maximum amount of students that we know would attend okay thank you I had one question follow up to that then my confusion then is if we are covering Transportation lodging and meals for Andrew at 2080 under e why are we also paying for transportation lodging for the the same dates for Andrew under e sure Andrew eats and travels a lot e under conferences and workshops we're spending $280 for him to do the April 17th to 20 which is lodging and transportation of meals we're also approving for the same dates and the same location for him I guess for lodging transportation and meals it is
094it's not a double approval the approval for um the teacher to attend is through the conference on letter e of conferences and Workshops the letter e of other business is the overnight trip approval so you just have all of the information in there for the overnight trip approval but you're not approving his expenses that way it's it's being approved the same way we approved Ivan o day and Emily mcran in a previous motion that was similar um I want to say in possibly November for their conference piece we do it that way because if we were to have no students attend the teachers could still attend as part of the conference so then what's the six um I'm confused now sorry um so what's the 6500 covering then that covers the students it includes registration
095lodging transportation and meals for students so do the simple math okay seems okay I think the confusing part is that you list the names of the staff members and E under other business and it's really sounds like it's a cost for the students so the framing maybe is just confusing I don't disagree the reason we do that though is because all of the overnight trips also list the staff as well so unless this is the only one again that's both a conference and a field trip but to stay with the same format that we've approved all the other overnight trips we do list the staff members there so that's why they're listed there as well so that you're aware of who's chaperoning the trip suppose the motion was not there for the conference piece all
096of the overnight trips look the same as motion e under other business if that makes sense so that leaves the The Substitute part of it where that's paid for so under e with just Andrew walls it says um that it's the 2000 we're approving the 20080 for registration lodging Transportation meals substitute coverage is needed but it's not part of that 20080 we're approving is that coming out of the 6500 The Substitute coverage actually is never included in in in the cost of the expenses here um it is part of it's something that we do cover um so it would be covered again the reason why it's written that way is because if students don't go then we would still be covered to be able to have him attend the conference and have sub coverage is
097there any reason why we can't rewrite this reframe it to where I mean the cost is going to be the cost I'm I am happy to rewrite it in any way the board wishes it to look I'm just following what we have done in the past if there's a better way and things that we've done in the past were wrong period you know so if it's something that oh you like that miss her right could you say that slower and louder some things we did in the past were wrong except for property and finance um I I think reframing it might help you know ask AI to do it I don't care just something that it's a little bit simpler to understand so we we will work on that if I could be I have
09818 years of doing this right um as a band director it is the only thing of its kind and that staff goes they're required to be there to support the students it is a conference which is a separate bucket of money and it's handled separately than students so we have been it is convoluted there's no doubt every time pmea comes up Dr Murray and I kind of scratch our heads how are we going to how can we account for this they have a district a region and a state Festival you don't know who's going to to Regions until you go to districts you don't know who makes States until they go to Regions and regions happens next month so and there's a time frame that we have to get things approved because they have to
099get approval and secure transportation of things so we will work on how to make it cleaner it has been done this way historically and if it's been done historically incorrectly then we'll fix it but uh but we'll definitely take a look at that we agree it's issue with the cost I think just the way it's framed and however you can write it to simpler read I'm good with that thank you all right thank you any other questions with other business okay moving on to board comment um I will defer to Mr Rizzo first if that's okay I know that you wanted to make a comment or a question to the board one second oh I'm sorry my apologies well the board can go since it's board correct and he is one he is the me
100we are a member of 10 so Mr Rizzo continue just very simply I did put in the board memo um last week uh about wanting to make make the temporary seventh grade principal permanent I we just wanted to make sure that we had an opportunity to ask questions or ask for clarification if there was anything at this point iel like I was pretty clear in the memo but an opportunity to ask questions if you had any doesn't sound like there are any of questions I do have questions but I will Mr Jackson reframe to a later date okay feel free to reach out to Mr Rizzo um and again if you want to review the board memo between now and our voting meeting to refresh your memory feel free um any other board comment go
101ahead Mr Jackson then we'll go to m uh Dr wght I'm curious to the number of nurses that we have on at at the district at this moment how many nurses do we have 18 thank you Dr R I had just wanted to mention that um on January 31st um I attended via zoom and also Teresa Westwood an offering from the mciu for the 2024 Symposium on school Finance it was presented by a pasbo um member and uh it was very informative it was from 7 to9 it was a lot of information I don't know if any of the other board members attended as well because it was Zoom you did so we had um Dr Sharma and also Mrs Goldsmith that she attended to it was a lot of information but it was very
102good and I think by continuing to attend these and I'm glad that they offered that um we'll it by osmosis maybe it continue to absorb more knowledge but it was really good so thank you thank thank you for that Mrs warten well I will give the Western Tech Center report next week I just wanted to um let everyone know on March 7th they have they're having one of their spectacular dinners which um they have two seatings at I think they're sold out on the one I'd be surprised oh they might be sold out so they were sold out of the six p.m. seating when I had registered and I think uh 4:30 at that point in time was very limited so I would hold off on I'll hold off on it but it's Italian n's
103kitchen and keep your eyes open because their their food is amazing um also and I know um Dr G touched on it there is a skills over stereotypes I wanted to just reiterate that um it's allows non-traditional students to consider the trades and they can you can go on their the Western Tech website and see details and how to register but that's on February 28th and it's a fantastic program the biggest problem they have over there is the overwhelming um the over overwhelming response to students who want to get into these programs so it's something we're working on um there is a snap so it's our post prom party for the senior prom there's a snap volunteer and fundraising meeting tomorrow at 7 pm at the upe library and just because you do not have
104a junior or senior we really would like more volunteers to come because it's it's pretty fun we need people to help run the event it's one of the most dangerous nights for students to be on the road so this event allows them to go to Arnold's Family Fund center it's just students and uh their if they bring a date they can go to it's all funded by um the snap Group which means students need and I always get this wrong students need after prom or alternative party that's it sorry um but that's at 7 o'clock tomorrow at the upe library and another reminder is to get your tickets to The Big Fish musical which will be on March 1st and 2nd and uh we will get a preview of that at our meeting next week
105so I've heard that's all I have thank you any other board comment I had to have one thing Madam president okay this is not a voting meeting correct and I caution the board there are a lot of items in this agenda that come with a cost be mindful of that as you vote next week thank you thank you for the reminder any other questions or comments okay moving on we will go to public to be heard this can be on any topic if you wish to speak please approach the podium with your name and Township of residents hi Steve fry Royersford um I had talked planed to talk about something else but I just wanted to follow up on some comments that have been made during the meeting uh particularly on the culturally relevant and
106sustaining education guidelines the crse uh let me read two items from competency 3 to show you how I'm saying it's not just about being accepting of different cultures there's there's more to it so here's uh one of the items in that compens 3 design learning experiences and spaces for Learners to identify and question economic political and Social Power structures in the school Community nation and world it's not really learning about other cultures it's a little different then there's another one provide rigorous learning experiences and relevant projects in culturally supported spaces that integrate advoca advocacy skills deep listening and thinking collaboration resource Gathering and strategic iic actions now to me that sounds kind of like activism training but you know sometimes these things are worded in such a way it's very difficult to make out what
107they actually mean and how what they may actually result in so those are just a couple of examples and just as a general followup to earlier my earlier comments um well and also some of the comments here at the board it said that there was training where culturally relevant teaching is not critical race Theory and you can say it's not but I also think as I try to explain email there's there's a lineage here that is I think pretty well documented that it started out with critical race Theory critical race Theory evolved into um intersectional feminism and intersectional feminism became a primary Foundation of Dei and culturally relevant teaching falls under the umbrella of Dei so it may not be critical race Theory but it's in the family and I think you can see particularly
108I would say the influences of intersectional feminism in these guidelines and to some lesser extent critical race Theory as well um but again these are somewhat semantics but I just think we should acknowledge kind of all these influences they inter relationships and I think with some of these things like these crse guidelines coming down from the state and they're being influen in my opinion being influenced by significantly by things like intersexual feminism it would have been nice at some point to have somebody really explain what intersectional feminism is and what it means in application because I think that's been severely missing and I think it has a lot of influence on crse and other aspects of Dei and I think we go right from saying we need something to implementation without ever having explained that
109bit of it that has a lot of influence thank you thank you any other questions or comments from the public thank you approach we have another person approaching the podium do we have to sign anymore we don't have to sign there's clipboard under here but Mary Joe mnam lmer Township um I just have a comment I think at the last board meeting meeting or maybe it was a combined board and working session meeting one of the board members brought up the um not a mandate but the um presentation of the budget and that the presentation of the budget hadn't occurred and um then there was some commentary back and forth and then there was a conversation about that presentation in whatever terms it was defined was going to happen at the um finance committee meeting
110the upcoming finance committee meeting and the committee meeting I think was cancelled abruptly last week right so I have a question I know I'm not allowed to ask it but I'm going to just make a Brie a comment I'm curious as to when that presentation and however it's defined is going to occur before we start talking more about like the Spring City stuff and some of the other things that have come up at the meeting thank you thank you very much and um I will defer to Mr Fink so you are correct we did postpone the but uh the property as well as the finance meetings uh last week due to the weather um because the students had a FID day we are having that this Thursday 6: p.m. for finance 700 p.m. for property
111and um just to clarify the presentation on the budget uh I I would say that it's probably the presentation I think we're referencing the audit the presentation on the audit um so we have present on the budget preliminary proposed budget in November but the audit is on the agenda for finance correct Mr Jackson Mr fank that is correct and it's also on the website but it is will be discussed at Finance thank you all right any other questions or comment I say questions or comments any other public comment all right motion to adjourn sove [Music]