001thank you foreign good evening and welcome to Springford Area School District's work session of the school board um on Monday October 17 2022 at 7 30 PM please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] the Springford Board of school directors believes the community has the right to bring before the board issues and concerns they may have about items on the agenda or about items in general which affect the district or their children because of this belief and philosophy the board will schedule a time at the beginning and conclusion of every meeting to have an opportunity for community members to share their concerns with the board at the start of the meeting members from the public May comment on agenda items only the school board will move through the
002meeting 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 attending to make public comments should be aware that they are being videotaped speakers will be asked to State their name and the area in which you reside before your comment good evening and welcome um Mrs bickard could you please tell us the board members that are in attendance this evening yes in attendance this evening have Mrs deardorff Mrs Earl Mrs Herman's Dr motzer Mr Schaefer Mrs Weingarten Dr Wright and Mrs zazowski Mr Clinton is absent Mr Jackson or Mr Jackson is absent yes common mistake thank you very much um I have no announcements this evening no announcements thank you very much then we would
003begin with public to be heard on agenda items only if you would like to speak at the podium please approach the podium and give your name and what area you are from foreign Steve fry Royersford PA I want to talk about the trauma-informed approaches policy before you vote on the policy I'm hoping the board members have a strong handle on what it is and what it means for the school as I've mentioned previously I've tried to understand a background of trauma-informed approaches and it's difficult to get a clear picture first the published data doesn't always seem to make sense there's a CDC Kaiser study that indicates that about one quarter of adults have had an adverse childhood experience which they refer to as an ace and if you look at how many issues are considered
004in Ace that seems surprisingly low Ace seems to be a very broad categorization there's a lot in it but I guess that's part of the issue is ultimately what is going to be considered an ace by the school along with how Ace and other issues would be identified the literature indicates much of this information is gathered by surveys the policy indicates that there will be screening tools which likely means at least some surveys so will the tools to be used be disclosed and will the content of those tools be made available to the public will student participation in such tools be mandatory if the intent of these tools is to identify students with traumatic events it would appear that those tools cannot be optional or anonymous but again don't really know and what happens you
005know if a student is identified as having an ace what happens what's what's the downstream process in relation to comments made during the committee meeting this month this policy seems to be one in which the responsibilities of the school and its staff are being expanded beyond what has been traditionally seen and I'm not saying that this policy or initiative well this initiative may not necessarily be bad but even having reviewed some other information sources on this I don't believe there's a sufficiently clear explanation to understand what it actually means and ultimately like my feeling is if you can't explain it you shouldn't approve it thank you thank you very much Diana Kirsch Royersford I'd like to ask the board to put a hold on on any kind of vote anytime soon for the Giza project
006I don't think enough information has been put out the public doesn't really know what's going on and I think that just more due diligence has to be done on that so I'd like to ask the board to consider that thank you foreign thank you good evening Mary Jim McNamara Limerick Pennsylvania I'm speaking on other business section 11. [Music] um uh part A so I I would just like to again kind of reference a strong opinion related to the use of Zoom for the board meetings I'm sorry and for the committee meetings to continue I know the board meetings have been discontinued but for the committee meetings at least to continue to give the community and the public at large the ability to call in and at least listen or ask questions especially since it's been
007referenced several times that that's kind of where the work gets done and by the time we get to these meetings topics have been discussed four or five times so I would just like to express the interest of trying to keep Zoom at at least the committee level if we're we've stopped the board meeting lab thank you if there are no more comments from the public at this time then we'll move on to our next agenda item so our next item is an action is the action here which really was of my understanding this is the approval needed to reschedule the board meeting that is scheduled for next Monday October 24th to Tuesday October 25th at 7 30. this was brought to our attention because the students have the day off that day which it is
008an in-service day so normally typically or we would have still have our meeting in the evening unless um with the teachers are here unless it's something like a you know a Federal holiday however we are we have this day off in several of the board members wanted to discuss whether we should move this to Tuesday and I believe somebody in the community had brought that up so is there anyone on the board who wanted to discuss this if we did we want to look to take do we have a motion to I guess that's the way we want to do that first thank you so we would I would like to know if there is a motion to um approve the rescheduling of next Monday board meeting to Tuesday the 25th is there a motion
009a second second okay so we do have a motion and a second so that would be for discussion on this I haven't took up a couple of questions with regards to this so um I certainly am in support of moving the meeting so that our students and families can observe the Diwali holiday as you know as they see fit if they celebrate um my question is if someone were to come to the board and ask what is the basis or what is the you know I think we need to be objective in rules-based so like what how do we decide when we move board meetings versus when they stay because what's going through my mind right now is it's a partial closure students are off staff is not if that's the requirement then I would
010think that November 21st which is the Monday before Thanksgiving which also is a partial closure day would also be right under the same guideline so I'm not saying that that is the case but I just think we need to be clear as I don't think it's we can be arbitrary with this to say hey this is a holiday where we should move it where this one isn't so I would just like to know um what is the I mean maybe we don't have an answer but what's the rules moving forward so just as I kind of took the responsibility of building the school calendar and then we we do the school calendar and then we have a half a year board meeting to to kind of work through what I've done has gone back to
0112008 to look at Trends and what we have done the only real trend is that when the school is a full closure then we move our meeting to another day we have pretty consistently impartial closure still conducted business in the evening Diwali and Eid are two holidays that we added this year so that added another layer for us to consider but the what we're doing now is consistent with what we have done if we wish to revisit that practice we can but it's consistent at least at this point I like to bring up that this calendar was approved you know at the beginning or at the end of last year or four this year I personally conduct my life around the calendar and I schedule personal events and other business events based on this calendar
012and I can't just tell everybody who's um you know friends family and other acquaintances who have uh accommodated Me by scheduling things to accommodate my calendar to come back and say oh well they changed it and I don't think that's fair to me and I don't think it's fair to the people that I work with on other boards and committees so I would certainly I'm not against making this a holiday you know you know but uh it was added late in the year and I I'm not in favor of changing the calendar at this point Mr Schaefer yeah I just I'm just this isn't a major issue but I mean we I'm just concerned we do lay the calendar out and the calendar is what it is so we should be if this is something
013we want to consider maybe for next year I would be I'd feel more I'd feel more comfortable with it thanks we had a couple of days earlier this year where um the kids were off the students were off and wasn't there one day where we still had a meeting if I recall is that right it was Rosh Hashanah and we still had the meeting that evening so I just my thing is just we have to be consistent so if we're going to be but we were off was Yom Kippur the other one and we were it was a Wednesday okay and okay so let me ask this had Yom Kippur fallen on a Monday would we have had a meeting that night if it were a full School closure and it wasn't already scheduled then
014holiday or non-holidays is that is that what we're doing I just agree with you Erica that we just have to be consistent in how we do it because I don't want to send a message that anybody's one day is less important than anybody else's correct and that's that was so going back to I wanted to ask a clarifying question but I apologize I didn't want to interrupt anyone else when you say that Mr Rizzo that we are being consistent and this is the way that we've done it can you allow I mean what's consistent is that we've been we've moved board meetings for full closures and had them for partial closures so if we were to make this change next week then we would not be consistent with the way that we've operated in the
015past correct that's correct okay so um I know on my my point on this I've given it some consideration is that I think that it is important for us to try to stick to the calendar as much as possible because people do plan to attend and there's a lot of people I know in the community that also plan to attend I think though I would really like the administration to look very strongly at this for next year though the consideration given to not scheduling it if it were to be on a Monday for next year and that I think all of us we approve the calendar so when it comes to the board next year this is something we would want to do um if we can out of respect or at that time can
016I ask and maybe this is my ignorance the school calendar when I approve that school calendar my thought was we're talking about looking at a calendar that impacts the students and the staff was there something on that calendar that reflected when we would have our board meetings no whenever we approve our whenever we have a reorganization meeting in December we establish all of our board meeting dates at that same meeting and in this particular case three months later when we approved the next school calendar so we already had established whenever we did the calendar because I was totally on board with improving that calendar so I don't want people to think that like my questions here are because I'm backtracking and approving the calendar I think that the account are Reaper approved for our students
017and staff is a fine one I think the question is if we're going to make a change moving forward I just want to be clear with the community that they know it doesn't have to be full closures yes partial closures no but I think there should be some Rhyme or Reason as to understanding when this would happen and not just being arbitrary and having something on the agenda moving forward when we see fit right and I and I apologize for not being clear on that the um board meetings to come out separately from the calendar but you will have the opportunity when to um at that time state if there's anything we want to change on the board meeting schedule all right so we have if there's no more comment here do we need to
018bring it to the public so no we do not so it's just a vote all right so you're voting if you would like to have the meeting moved from Monday to Tuesday all those in favor say aye those opposed no no so miss spickard that passes eight zero fails eight zero thank you just to clarify if that holiday if someone participated in that holiday they're free to take miss the meeting for that without being there yeah absolutely okay just to be good [Laughter] and um maybe some one more thing one more comment maybe we can revisit this before we start to approve the calendar for next year um if there is some type of Larry clear-cut rule space like reasoning as to when we could do this and when we couldn't and funny that you
019say that I've already begun working on the 23 24 school calendar so I have three drafts ready to go um so I know what those days are going to look like from August through December next year but don't we have to be clear then on on what qualifies for this because if we're saying it needs to be a national holiday where everybody is off versus when just the students are off but the staff is still in attendance so I think they're they're big differences and we could be having a whole lot of more holidays if that's the way it's going to be so I think we need to be clear on on where we stand on that sounds good we'll plan for it all right thank you very much um so now we're going to
020move on to our presentations and tonight we have Dr Elaine rubert here to present she's our 12th grade house principal good evening Springford Senior High School is pleased to announce that four of our senior students have been named semi-finalists in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship program these five students were among the 16 000 highest performers out of more than 1.6 million students in the country who took the 2021 preliminary SATs last October the following high scoring semi-finalists represent less than one percent of high school seniors Vania makunchu samyan s nakeella Arnav s pollen sunidi h srinivas to continue in the competition and be considered for a monetary award these semi-finalists had to fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level submit a detailed scholarship application be endorsed and recommended by a high school official
021write an essay and earn SAT scores that confirm their earlier performance on the PSATs they will all be notified in early February if they have advanced to the finalist stage monetary scholarship winners will be notified in March we are immensely proud of these students we would like to call them to the front and recognize each of these students and their families who are here with them this evening come on up students support okay [Applause] Springford Senior High School is pleased to announce that 10 of our senior students have been named commended students in the 2023 National National Merit Scholarship program these commended students placed among the top 50 000 students who entered the 2023 competition by taking the 2021 preliminary SATs last October although they will not continue in the 2023 competition for National Merit
022Scholarship Awards the following scholastically talented seniors have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success Andrew J E Ross Ashley n gutshaw Tyler J Holland adidi mango mahidar R regulla Nathaniel J Roach Reika Santosh Suresh Kumar Albany Viet we are extremely proud of these students I would like to call them to the front and recognize these students and their families who are here with them this evening [Applause] foreign sit here [Applause] good job yeah good job Springford High School is pleased to announce that two of our Junior students and three of our senior students have been named recipients of the College Board National recognition program awards for the 2022-23 school year each one of these students are among 62 000 students from across the country to earn these academic honors from the College Board students who may
023be eligible must have a GPA of 3.5 or higher and have excelled on the PSAT nmsqt or PSAT 10 or earned a score of three or higher on two or more AP exams and our African-American or black Hispanic American or latinx indigenous and or attend school in a rural area or small town these National recognition programs Grant underrepresented students with academic Honors that can be included on College and scholarship applications and connect students with universities across the country helping them stand out during the admissions process colleges and scholarship programs use these honors to identify students from underrepresented groups through college board student search service the following students have earned this recognition by excelling on their PSAT nmsqt PSAT 10 or AP exams and in their classrooms the national Hispanic recognition award goes to Junior Brooke
024mcpike and the national African-American recognition award goes to Jamie Silva Jr Natalie wamifa senior Sophia nanji senior and Vania makanchu senior we are extremely proud of these students I would like to call them to the front and recognize these students and their families who are here with them this evening congratulations once again to all our students and their families thank you Dr Rupert that we'll move on if there's no board comments to our board and committee reports our first report would be from our student reps do we have a report tonight yes we do have an October monthly board report to share so good evening everyone so we're going to delve into some of the past events that have occurred throughout the district both high school and the elementary schools as well as the middle
025schools so we did have the 1012 open house on September 20th which was a great way for parents to be able to meet the teachers and be familiarize them with students schedules we also did have the College and Career Fair on September 21st which I will admit I was amazed by the number of colleges that attended it was awesome we did not have school on Rosh Hashanah on the 26th of September we had a Fall Fest for about the five and sixth Center and then seventh Center and eight additionally we had PSATs on October 12th we had high school picture retakes on the 14th of October and the Dig pink event for volleyball was a huge success as well so next we want to delve into some of the future events that have been occurring
026that will be occurring in the high school that includes the much awaited spirit week which is coming up this week or already started as well saw a lot of decades day Spirit uh so as part of that on Saturday we will be having a homecoming parade we will also be having the sfea picnic and the homecoming game and throughout this week we have the activities and we have we're going to have a nine and ten homecoming dance and 11 and 12 homecoming dance so both be separated and um five and six and seven and eight have similar spirit week activities as well that they are observing additionally we have the Irish Exchange program commencing on the 17th and sfhs unity day on November 14th another um remarkable thing that we have uh so with that
027I'll turn it to our Han to go over some Spirit Week reminders yeah yeah uh yeah so as a DD said we're in the middle of spirit week right now which is uh probably the most exciting time of the school year as many of us know a lot of events are going on right now there was decades day today and some other and I think tomorrow I believe is dressed like day and then I have some other few days coming in the events all in cultivation for the big pep rally this Friday following by the followed by the Powder Puff game also this Friday um on top of that we also have some really great initiatives going on right now um The Shoe Drive is one being run by snap so any students who have
028any extra shoes at home or even teachers who have extra shoes please donate that that is a really good program on top of that we also have a food drive which we have yearly non-perishable food drive throughout the rest of your week these those are really great causes who what we're really in support of and it's really wonderful things that the students and teachers have put together here and as for just some general reminders the SF school-based newsletters um the ram the up the weekly updates sent out by Dr Collier and staff give a pretty much a weekly sum of what's going on per week and they're really great so please be on the lookout for those thank you very much so then we move on to our policy committee report from Mrs Earl policy
029met on Monday October 10th at 6 30 and policy 204 on attendance and 8 15.2 on social District social media were put forth for first reading in on tonight's agenda um 218 student discipline and 249 on bullying and cyber bullying have been sent back to the solicitor and they will come forward for a first meeting first reading in November if there aren't substantive changes 246 School Wellness is going back to our administrators and Mr Rizzo to consider putting in adding mental health to that and we'll look at that again next month so um that's about it thank you very much that brings us to the curriculum and Technology meeting in which I am chair for technology we talked about the pickup Patrol Mr catalino shared answers to specific questions that we had about it about
030it this is a product that it is on the agenda to be voted on next week that we hope to have piloted at Oaks Elementary this year to see whether we would like to have it next year it will be paid for out of the Oaks building budget um it will be a way to streamline the process of notes at dismissal times so that parents would have that opportunity if they would like to to use this way instead of sending notes or calling in and if they have an early dismissal so we've he was very good about answering all our questions about that uh then we talked he talked about the the No No before which um had previously been approved it's the email security awareness training so we had asked for an update as
031to how that was going and he um said that it was working very well it was very pleased with the results for that then with regards to curriculum Mrs angelucci provided an update on the curriculum and resource review process for k-6 with the English language the committee will work on identifying resources that are needed to align with the district literacy plan comprehensive plan and support current literacy research we also talked about the K4 literacy and math night the curriculum and instruction department will be hosting this at Upper Providence elementary school on Monday November 7th from 6 30 to 8. there's a registration information available online so we hope that parents of students K through 4 will join in for that professional development updates Mrs guardi provided information regarding the upcoming in-service dates and information about
032the professional development that is being offered to our professional staff then the next meeting will be held on Monday November 14th at 7 30 p.m in the district office so moving on then with Finance Mr Jackson is not able to be with us here tonight is there anyone else on that committee that has a anything they would like to share then moving to the if not moving to the property again Mr Jackson's not here is there anyone else on that committee that has information they would like to share from that I just like to mention that those meetings were not on Tuesday they were on Thursday they were I was in attendance at both of those meetings I didn't prepare to come and speak about both of those meetings there was a load of information
033a very heavy lift at both of those first in property regarding the projects that they want to have done mainly facilities projects and uh then in finance the bonds that would be falling off and the new bonds that would go into play so there was a lot of heavy discussion about that I think I'll leave it at that and I think and if Erica if you want to share any um if you want to dig into the weeds a little bit on that um I will say that there are a couple of things on the agenda today that we did discuss in finance so of course we did our normal reports right monthly reports but in particular Mr Fink did do a 2021 2020 review in terms of Revenue contributors and on the expense side
034where we stood for the fiscal year so that was a great conversation the other thing that we discussed was the Giza Project funding as you mentioned but in particular we had Aaron Bond Underwriters from Steve will come and we're able to have a great conversation so I know that as we go through the agenda tonight there'll be some things that I'll want to bring up or have Mr Fink and or Mr Hunter reiterate but yeah good good meeting and Mr Hunter had ICS do a presentation also so it was a neat package so to speak with property first presenting the needs of the district followed by Mr Fink talking in finance about how that had could be funded logistically and also I think it's important to note there's uh an item on here called act
03557 resolution I'm not sure if everybody understands what that is but it is a it is a waiver for new homeowners if their tax bill is not received in time so that they would not have to pay the penalty so I think that's important for the community to understand that was shared with us in finance what that is and it is on the agenda to be voted on next week hi thank you thank you very much for that that moves us on to the Western Tech Center Mrs zazowski do you have something I do um so we met on Monday October 3rd seven o'clock at the at the tech center and Hunter engineering did a presentation to the board talking about utilizing the diesel tech space in our building to expand that program and it
036would be a training center that they would be creating there the equipment for that that training center would all be purchased and maintained year-round by Hunter engineering with the exception of the lift lift is super super expensive our director over there does have plans for hopefully how to fund that and we'll see how that goes before we have a full approval on that we would want to know that the funding is definitely in place there is a competitive equipment Grant which is due the end of this month that would help very much with that purchase well we're hopeful that that will go through but again we won't agree to anything until we have those funds in line so the agreement will be with Hunter who is really the cream of the crop in that industry
037they are known for they're having their hands in that diesel tech industry so we're fortunate to be getting um that training center there they do have another Training Center a light Training Center that they operate I think was it at the North monco the tech school there so um they're familiar with how to do this we raised some questions and concerns about anyone coming into the building and we would have students there they would have to have background checks they're familiar with the logistics of working that out and we've asked our director to get in touch with North Monaco to talk about how they facilitate that and be sure that our students are not inconvenienced nor they put in any Jeopardy at any time by bringing people in for the training centers so that is
038going on also we as a board had asked the administration to provide some further information on the enrollment process for students there were as you know I think as most people know there are three partner districts in the tech school and there's not always an equal distribution of spots and so we wanted to understand what the Hat what the trends are what's happening with that and we asked them to look at a five-year projection of where that would be so they're going to work on that and create a or share the rubric that they use to decide who is accepted for the different programs CTE has become very much it's very much on the scene right now they've turned a lot of people away we'd like to expand the programs as much as we can
039to include as many students as possible so there has to be some planning and some conversation around how that's how what's taking place at this time and most importantly out of that out of that meeting was that the Teachers Association agreement was approved 9-0 very happy about that and I'm indebted to our very own solicitor Mr Fitzgerald for all of his work to assist in getting that done so we are finished with that all in all I think both sides were very happy with the outcome it is a five-year contract so we are moving forward from this point and that was the big news for that night so our next meeting will be November 1st at seven o'clock thank you thank you Mrs Earl or Mrs Weingarten did you have anything else you wanted to
040add actually just to put it in perspective the lift that she's talking about is basically a lift for semi-tractor trailers so if you can imagine what this is it's huge it is expensive but what it means is our students will always have the most current tools technology and anything they need that Hunter makes or upgrades they will always have that as long as we our commitment is basically buying this lift and and we inquired about how long it lasts and how safe it is and all of those things and apparently they last 30 something years in a shop that's using them all day up and down and you know our students put them up leave it up for you know maybe a day or so so it's not nearly getting as much use um it's
041getting a lot of use for the students but not use as if as if you had it in a shop so it was a really really impressive opportunity for our students in that group so hopefully we have the funding for it great thank you for sharing I just want to elaborate a little bit on the on the part about the the attendance or the shortages of that and I don't want to get down too much into weeds which is some of the things that were discussed would maybe not having it as four-year programs but um consolidating some of them into two or three so that they're more students but wouldn't go all the way down to the ninth grade level that they might be starting later in some of the programs especially the most who
042don't really want to turn people away but the alternative is building new buildings and I don't know that any of the districts involved are ready to cough up tens and hundreds of millions of dollars to do that so that's just kind of nothing has been decided certainly and they're going to be taking a look at it and studying the the attendance Trends and and things like that so thank you so we move on to the American Legion report Dr Mozart do you have a report I do on September 28th I attended the monthly board meeting of the Spring City American Legion Baseball and since this was my first meeting I learned quite a bit about the organization its sole purpose is to build it did build and now maintain the baseball facility for the spring
043Ford Community there's a 14-member board I am one member there's also one member from the American Legion Post and then the other members are just community members at Large the baseball stadium was opened in 1999 through their fundraising efforts grant funding and then the partnership with the district and since that time the district along with the Spring City American Legion Baseball have shared in maintaining the facility so much of the conversation at our last meeting was all about the maintenance that needed to be done now that baseball season is kind of winding down in particular there are some updates with a new sync encounter in the concession stand they need to replace the indoor outdoor carpet at the batting Pages new tarps for the Mounds and there are also a couple sprinkler heads that need
044attention so that they're safe for the players we are meeting a couple weeks again and I'll have another report next month thank you very much so we move on then to the assistant superintendents report Dr Murray Dr Gia Batista good evening I would first like to start off by offering my congratulations to the students and families presented this evening this is certainly a tremendous honor one that represents many hard years of hard work and commitment and we're very proud to celebrate this with them we're also excited to share that Springford will be hosting a support staff job fair those interested can meet with representatives from substitute teacher Services General Health Care Resources custers Interstate Building Maintenance Corporation and Aramark for positions including substitute teachers student substitute prayer professionals full-time part-time bus drivers bus attendants full-time
045and part-time Food Service workers and shift custodians so anybody who's interested is encouraged to check out the website for more information and to register also last year we launched our first series of the community connections with superintendent Mr Rizzo this was an opportunity for families and community members to visit with Mr Rizzo and have a brief informal conversation we are excited to be bringing that back again this year all Springford community members are invited to drop in at any time during their sessions the first session is scheduled to take place this week on October 19th from 5 to 6 o'clock at Royersford Elementary and finally math and literacy night is scheduled to take place Monday November 7th from 6 30 to 8 o'clock at Upper Providence Elementary School this is an exciting opportunity for arcade
046of four families to engage in various Station activities related to Reading Writing and math I'd like to give a shout out to our amazing curriculum Department Katie gardie Jen reinheimer and Brianna angelucci as well as our instructional coaches and all of the teachers who are working to bring this event back for the first time since the pandemic that's what I have for tonight and I'll turn it over to Dr giamattista good evening everyone on Saturday October 15th the Springport Area School District along with the A-Team and the special education parents committee hosted its first special education resource Fair the event took place in the High School auditorium and there were over 42 vendors in attendance from various providers and different agencies the event was well attended with a steady stream of parents families students children
047and friends we were overwhelmingly satisfied with the outcome of the event and received many positive comments from families and vendors I would like to thank our parent committee a team members special education supervisors facilities Food Services transportation and lastly our Communications Department thank you everyone crew for your management and organization which helped this make this event such a success and secondly in the area of the school play in November on November 5th I am excited to announce that The Velveteen Rabbit play will be offering what's called a relaxed performance a relaxed performance is specially adjusted sensory friendly show designed to create a theater experience for individuals with a wide range of Sensory Learning and communication differences and of course all families and friends and students with special needs of small children are welcome to attend
048to Aid in the inclusion of all these patrons at this at this performance special adjustments are made to the show such as the reduction of startling sound and light effects freedom to vocalize and leave seats during the performance as needed and freedom to use personal electronic devices for communication or sensory reasons the Springford Area High School company will also offer a chance to borrow noise canceling headphones and a variety of stress sensory toys from our sensory Library prior to the show prior and during the show there will also be a quiet area in the lobby for patrons who need a break during the performance the single most important accommodation however is the establishment of the shush-free zone in which paper patrons are free to experience the show in whatever way is most comfortable all modes
049of expression are not only accepted but expected and celebrated everyone in attendance as well as the actors and crew is aware of the relaxed nature of the performance with the aim of creating an environment that is inclusive and judgment free by combining this understanding with the accommodations described above our hope is that all patrons and their families especially those who have been reluctant to visit the theater will feel welcome and included and if parents would like more information it is described in the weekly update so we're very excited for that that's the end of my report thank you very much all right that we would move on to our solicitors report Mr welcome I'm sorry please um just a follow-up question for Dr Murray so um you reference the support staff Fair we have to
050register I mean I just popped on the website now it didn't jump out at me so when is this where is this that's part one of my question and um and then part two is I heard substitutes and bus drivers so I think we Outsource therefore compensate companies that are supposed to do the recruitment for us is that correct if you don't mind I'm going to defer to Beth lease to answer these questions she can answer them more specifically thank you we held this job fair last year as well it will be held at Brook Elementary School on this coming Wednesday October I'm sorry next week October 26th um starting at 4 30 until 6 30. yes we do contract out with these vendors however a lot of these vendors do like to draw from
051the communities in which they serve so we're providing an opportunity for our community to meet face to face with the vendors without needing to travel to where the vendors may be it was fairly successful last year we're looking for increased attendance this year and hope that people will come out and join us okay thank you did you say it's a brook that is correct thank you very much any other board questions then we would move on to the solicitors report Mr Fitzgerald yes uh good evening and just just briefly uh Mrs zazowski mentioned act 57 which will be approved uh next week There's a window of the next three months for districts to to approve such a resolution again it's it's a pretty narrow issue it deals with new homeowners who may have not received
052their tax bill they would not be charged the penalty as a result of of that that mishap this is effective for next tax year so even though it's going to be approved next week it will not be effective for this tax year but next year um two other action items that are worth noting that will be significant next week and that is uh in finance H which is your parameters resolution my office has been working with Mr Murray and Mr Fink uh to prepare the language for that resolution um for your consideration next week and also in property a this is the gisa contract with Johnson Controls I would anticipate by mid to late week we will have a final contract we have a meeting with them tomorrow and or Wednesday to to work out
053some dotted eyes and cross T's but we should have a a draft for you hopefully in the board memo for for the weekend thank you very much any board questions all right then we are moving on to um on through the agenda that's the end of our reports so the next section would be minutes um is there any questions by board members regarding the minutes that we'll be approving next week and moving on to section 6 Personnel a through f any board questions then we would be moving on to section 7 finance a through I any board discussion I had a and I wondered if um and I don't know Dr James Batista if you can elaborate on um six or not that that's a pretty big number that would be D6 the Chester County
054energy the Chester County Intermediate Unit to provide services for students who receive special education services for their IEP for a total cost not to exceed is that in line with what we or is that I'm sorry it's okay yeah so the um there has been a slight increase with the number of students who we are sending to their CTC in fact this year there were the students who were denied from the Western Center have been sent to the cciu and that's that number is sitting at 11. um this year others we have 32 students with IEPs getting Services through the Chester County IU if had been at Western this number would be lower yes okay and so then we're back to that discussion about what are we doing at Western to accommodate the greatest number
055of students possible okay thank you and um in Western Center's defense some of these students are in module that the Western Center does not offer so a Horticulture or something that but not all not all of them correct thank you any other questions about Finance I do it's okay um so 7h so this the so for those that have attended a property and finance right so this is a bond that essentially adds the gisa program which is roughly 17 million right with a number of um which it's not stated on here and I'm just wondering if we could be a little bit more specific Capital project with other Capital project which I think should be other capital projects as presented and the only one that I see presented at least on this agenda is about
05686 000 for the heat pump right so we've got a Delta somewhere in there of a lot of money and also I think just for clarification um I believe the projects that went through property that were to be included on this would have roughly added with Giza around 24.5 million so can someone just explain why it's 29 million versus 24.5 million yeah okay um go ahead I know the answer because we talked about but go ahead Mr thank you I have with me uh our bond underwriter uh Mr Ed Murray from C4 Financial who was referenced earlier um and I know he can uh certainly answer the questions a lot more clear than I can so I'm going to hand it over to him there you go through here up there I'm just gonna skip
057to the is it going keep going go to go to four keep going one more that one that's thank you so yes um at Thursday's meeting the finance uh committee meeting I I described some of this um for them in a parameters resolution we generally ask for more than we need to finance the project and the reason for that is there's a very specific dced requirement for approving these financings I haven't sold the bonds yet and I don't know exactly where they're going to fit and you can see the chart up there on the far right hand column I know somewhere in there I'm going to need some extra bonds you know it might be 10 000 it might be twenty thousand might be two hundred thousand so I asked for some percentage more on
058each one because I have to I'll probably only need one or two but the dced rules tell me that I have to ask you for a percentage increase so it's all level so in those years I've asked for a whole bunch of additional indebtedness that I know that I'm not going to need that will never do this is very similar to what we did in 2018 where your project was going to be 7.4 million dollars we asked for 11. when the bonds were sold we came back with about 7.2 I'd also let you know that the parameters resolution does not bind the school district to anything there's an addendum after we sell the bonds and we know we have to sell the bonds we'll ask the president the school board to sign an addendum of
059the contract and that will only be signed after the Chief Financial Officer approves of the final terms and conditions so the interest rates and the amounts uh we expect the amount to be written at 24 million dollar range if I could ask for less and not confuse you I would it's just one of those state regulatory purposes where they have to make me ask for something I don't know so it's built up way bigger than it needs but you'll have another crack and and Mr Fink's office won't approve if it isn't right where it's supposed to be and it'll be right in that 24 24 3. I just haven't sold the bond so I don't know exactly what it's going to be but it won't be anything over 24.5 million so the First Column there
060in green if I was selling the bonds today it would be that first column in green it would be that 23 million I can't see it all the way from here 23 475. if I was doing it today that's what it would have been today so I really expect it's going to be in there but I have to ask you for a small cushion just in case some of the bond sizing moves around just a little bit so follow the question for uh what Mr Schaefer had mentioned that you know they're has been some talk around what are we earmarking these proceeds for and I know that we've talked about it in the September presentation at Finance where it was the Giza it was the heat pump at the flux Center it was the roof
061of the Ninth Grade Center and the roof that Oaks is there Merit to including that in the motion so that it is crystal clear or does that hamstring us so it's delineated in the in the long form of the resolution it is which marks firm it's laid out specifically it details the Giza project the Furnishing equipping of Capital Improvements for the heat pump roof at the ninth grade building roof at Oaks okay so it's fully delineated papers Point proposed Geezer project and other capital projects has presented is there Merit to just including those those projects that we have earmarked in the actual motion so it's clear to the public what this the proceeds are being used for I think that Mr Fitzgerald did you want to take that I would I would suggest maybe the
062alternative would be and I don't know if we make it public or not but that once the the the parameters resolution is finalized and I think we're in Virtual final form of it at this point we can have that as a as something available to the public um in advance of next Monday night so I wouldn't I wouldn't change this motion so much as allowing the the proposed parameters to be to be available but to be clear that there's like I just want to make sure that the public doesn't think that we're just taking we're rolling the pros you know that this debt is maturing and we're taking 24 million arbitrarily without anything being earmarked as it's been discussed at multiple meetings um the other thing I wanted to ask about that and I know
063that we talked about it at Finance is the creditworthiness of our school district so can you give me some insight into like the last spawn issuance and how how and has the school district been rated in the past and what are you aiming for so the um the district in this board and Boards before it have done a very very good job and very good stewards of the school district's finances the school district's current rating is by Moody's and it's double A1 it it's only one notch lower than the best rating that you can have that Moody's gives you which is AAA um so very very high rating and because of that it saves you a lot in the cost of issuance process we don't have to buy Municipal bond insurance we don't have to
064pay other higher costs it really benefits you to have this rating so we expect by the time that we sell the bonds there's always a very very big audience for these bonds because of their High credit worthiness there's there's a much larger pool of investors of money managers who have very very specific requirements that say I have to buy something that's double A or better into this portfolio so because you fit in that we get a much broader amount of investors and when we have more investors your rates go down so we always have a really really good reception when we sell these bonds it's really a great Kudo to the school district to Mr Fink's office they do a really good job I would tell you in the schedule that I had laid out
065before we've scheduled the Moody's rating call for this Wednesday and we'll detail for Moody's the credit again and go through it all this Wednesday so that's what will be happening next thank you and I just have one more question I know Miss wingerton has a question um this 24 million or 29 million depending on how you're looking at it is not um nude I don't want to say it's new debt that the district is taking on so we have this debt that has matured and we are now rolling it into a new issue and so we're not increasing our debt ceiling as a school district all else being equal saying that we're taking on more debt than we have in the past we are remaining um I guess flat I like to say budget to
066budget budget there's no impact when you raise when you incur this debt they'll be you're right more years but because the old debt will come off your current annual Debt Service load today is what it is and when we're when we're done with this it'll still be lower after we're done this project than it is today so there will not be a budgetary impact once you've incurred this debt thank you Mrs Weingarten so I just had a clarification for the community this is not a new thing for us this is something that you've done before you mentioned uh that was it the eight eight million or seven and a half million dollar project this was the same Bond acquisition you've done before so this is not a novel activity oh it's very very normal there's
067not a school district in Montgomery County that doesn't have outstanding indebtedness everyone has a facility that needs to be refreshed everyone has a you know population increase at a high school or an elementary school there's a life cycle to these buildings again it's very familiar Perkiomen Valley has it Boyertown has it everyone has to finance projects and has some amount of indebtedness for their capital projects for their Capital stock y so we discussed the other night when we had that meeting too that with with the debt falling off we don't want to lose our buying power because we do have to refresh our buildings and do that to keep our buildings in the condition to maintain the condition and in some cases as we discussed in property improve the condition of some of our buildings
068um but I guess when I walked away from from there and just here tonight I know that the um information about the bonds and the and the purchase plan was sent over to us later this afternoon did not have time to to go through all of that in a couple of hours but what is the bottom line how much is coming off with this Cliff Where We Are and when is that happening and and then we're taking this on so I know the question was was asked and I think I'm still in that still in that zone um that we're not going to incur more debt in fact when we get to the end of it we're going to end up with a lower debt than what we have now but but how much how
069much is coming off when and that will be prior to us taking any of this on that's my question yeah Rich if you could Advance the slide I had a feeling you might ask this I had a feeling you were going to ask this so what there you go that's good so I I created it in um I'll go through this with Mr Fink's office about 20 or 30 times just because there's any number of different iterations this is your current debt load on a bar graph if you go up just a little bit more at the bottom shows each one of the outstanding Bond issues they have outstanding so there's the bank loan in the 28 in the 16 and the 15. all right and you see them stacked there so it goes from
070what is it 14 to 8 and then it goes from eight to two so you've too large this is our budget room right because the budget yeah budget to budget so you're paying just about 14 million dollars a year currently oh that doesn't have Western Center a little over 13 not including Western Center then it drops and then it drops again I think it was like 14 8 and then two so that's what it looks like now and we're going to make Provisions um I'll run any number of different scenarios for the business office what if we did this later what if we did that later I've actually run it about 22 times to make sure that we have room for any number of different scenarios that would come after this so I'm making room
071in this schedule for the next one so this is what it looks like after we get done this series so if I take the debt service that I think when we sell the bonds again you'll see I've put two so most of this is front loaded in the first three years so it doesn't drop down we don't let it drop down budget to budget but it still drops off there's still plenty of room after this issue to fill in with additional projects should you have them if there was a major Capital project for a new building if there was a major Capital project for a renovation a major renovation there's plenty of room left after this even considering budget to budget that you can fit more Debt Service in for more capital projects without increasing
072budget to budget the amount that you're spending on capital projects you are or or Debt Service that you are today thank you Mrs deardorff this is kind of like three comments ago but I couldn't get my hand on the buzzer in time I just wanted to um kind of speak back to what Miss Herman's mentioned about kind of listing out when we do approve this because you mentioned some of the mechanical and functional aspects that this funding would be for for the district but it's also including Life Safety it's all life safety it's light bulbs it's windows so in addition to Roofing it's you know it's not luxurious items these are the things that we need to keep our students and staff warm safe cold in the in the summer so I just wanted to
073add that piece that the life safety piece in addition to the mechanical do we want to have Mr Hunter come up again and talk about some of the things that would be included in that I'm satisfied in his presentation I mean since January when I came on the board we've been discussing this in committee um so I'm satisfied with that I don't see a reason for that but I'm on board member well I know Mr Hunter loves the microphone in the spotlight that's why I offered no okay thank you Mr Mary sure thank you all right is there any other board comment or discussion on this all right then we'll move on thank you very much we are moving to property a through C any discussion on property okay so since we're on property I
074guess I'm kind of with um Abby that I I think maybe maybe it's not even Abby I'm not sure maybe it was Mr Schaefer who said this before but I just think it's a little vague to have the capital projects I haven't been able to study yet the two pieces the very lengthy pieces that were sent over this afternoon but just in a cursory glance I don't see the project specifically named out I don't want people to have to dig for them to see what we're spending money on so I know which item are you speaking of I I'm not just I'm just just I'm just back I'm back to the so I don't know if it's possible that we could have something a little bit more descriptive than than what's there because I just
075it you have to dig deep and that's fine and I'm not opposed to reading I'm just saying that I would like to see bullets or something that specifically I think we could I think we could accommodate that I don't want to overly limit you at the same time so we can maybe balance both both interests here more specificity in terms of what projects we know are coming down but also leave that flexible language that we lawyers tend to sometimes put in things okay that works with the intended allocations or for that that is that is pretty easy to do I think I mean that that would accomplish what you're saying too with because there were a number of things mentioned and Erica you mentioned that earlier Schaefer you did too Mr Schaefer yeah yeah thanks
076um no I was can we possibly have like the time frame for those projects as well because if we're we're gaining access to this capital and we're just holding on to it and then these projects don't happen to me that doesn't make sense either right so I don't know if that's that might not that might not be in the resolution or or in the action item itself um but maybe additional specificity as to what's in that agenda item I can I can do in terms of the timeline I I would defer to Mr hunter in terms of targets all right so I know they've been discussed sorry that's all I just it's not out here that's all so uh Mr Fitzgerald would this um be are we making a motion to have this change nope
077no we will we can just make the change in advance of that that's the beauty of the work session so we'll make that make that change in advance of voting next week so the the action item will look slightly different but we've talked about it here so we're good great thank you very much if I could just add one last thing of note for this act this agenda item is this is um work that will impact all students and staff in all of our buildings not just certain ones where we've done major borrowing before was only for specific groups that not everybody was able to benefit from so this will benefit everyone that's correct at every one of our buildings would be impacted by this so this work thank you for mentioning that all right
078anything else under Finance if no other comments under Finance we would move on to property a through C anything in property and we would move on to am I moving too fast programming under well I want to go back to see and just commend Mr Hunter for getting the um Auctioneer on board to take care of some of our items that we have sitting there thank you very much for doing that and that will offset the increased price of our new vehicles coming in so I commend him for that thank you okay anything under section 9 programming and curriculum question about that um which one A and E for a what is your question regarding Tom Stecker and Associates he's been here for some time um did Mr rizzogo did you want to go with
079him is that was this from your recommendation or is this maybe something new that he hasn't done before I just want to make sure that we're keeping it fresh sure no it makes sense and I'll defer to Dr Murray to get more information but but we're comfortable with him in our relationship and what he provides Dr Murphy want to get more info um similar to what you said as well um the the high school is looking at their Unity Aid project and they have had a relationship with Tom Stecker and they he's done activities before with our avidum and our resiliency Club as well so they felt they're they are the ones who made this recommendation to bring Tom Stecker on for Unity day I did see Rob Collier here before I don't know if
080he can speak to more specifics on that um but that did come from the relationship that they've had there before so a is completely separate from e e is um we are required to spend some of our Esther money the seven percent set aside on SEL professional development I see Dr Collier walking back there we are required to spend some of our money on um SEL professional development and the nurses reached out to Dr Jam Batista and asked whether or not they could bring on Tom Stecker as well again I think because of the Rapport we've had with him in offering some professional development so I don't know if you want to talk about that more sure it is different it is actually a workshop on health and wellness for the nurses they have requested
081it after the last couple of years has been a little taxing so this is specifically designed for the nurses and it was at the request so Dr Collier I did see you come in here hiding will you be able to speak at all about the Tom Stecker and Associates with the unity day at the high school and how you came to the decision that this would be a good presenter to have you know a good program for our students sure thank you so Unity day is nothing new to spring forward in the high school so Tom Stecker Associates has have supported this work for a number of years probably a decade or more so we have had a a number of dedicated staff uh to this with this SEL work um and as of late
082uh due to retirement and just due to people uh getting involved in some other things were were kind of rebuilding and uh getting some um new staff involved in this work so it's really really important that uh Tom Stecker and the folks who have supported us in this work uh be part of this uh process again and so we were fortunate to partner with uh Tom and and his associates for an in-service day coming up in November in preparation for the unity day itself on November 14th so I know I feel very strongly that our students benefit greatly from their involvement and we have an opportunity to have student leaders um involved in this as well as student participants so I think it's really beneficial and a variety of fronts so we have student leaders
083that have been involved in this work for a number of years and they're now upperclassmen and we'll we'll lean on those students to lead these student groups in in various team building activities and so forth throughout the unity day uh but but Tom stacker and his associates will come in and be able to work with some new staff members that will hopefully carry on this work moving forward so that's a little bit about our Unity day and some of the work that we've been able to take advantage of with Tom Stecker and his associates we are able to pay for letter A through the possum health and wellness grant that was a portion that was written into that Grant we've already received that money um and or that's already been granted to us so that
084was part of that as well Mrs Weingarten did you want to say something no any of the board comment Mrs Dierdorf I don't want to put anybody on the spot so feel free to say I'll get back to you on this but it seems that social emotional learning is on Trend to be like the next dirty word at school board meetings so I was wondering if any of you are able kind of to speak to our commitment here at Springford about social emotional learning and what we are doing and plan to do and just a little something because I want to kind of get ahead of this um if possible good morning good evening all right let's get her some water all right let me actually interject because this came up in policy meeting um
085when was that this month the first week of this month where we were going through a nutritional and um what was the actual policy called nutritional and physical wellness policy as it stands currently School Wellness School Wellness excuse me there was a school wellness policy but one arm of Wellness that wasn't reflected in the policy was our commitment to Social and emotional learning and so as it stands right now and Mr Rizzo please correct me if I'm wrong there is no type of guidance or policy or even just a statement that demonstrates our commitment in this area and the policy committee did task Mr Rizzo and his team with starting to think about what that might look like so I don't know that anyone right now has an answer to that because it doesn't exist
086and we're in the works is that fair Mr Rizzo that is fair I mean we've had gone prior to my appointment we did an audit an SEO audit in 2018 where we collected information over 2019-2020 each building had SEO goals and a lot of those are still in play now so our commitment to SEO is ongoing and Tom Stecker has been a big part of that work we don't revolve all of our work around Thomas Decker but he has helped us get things moving from coaching and core team meetings Etc so yeah we are going to be looking at policy 246 and seeing if social emotional learning does fit within that and if not however we're going to articulate or memorialize our commitment to the work thank you um and I will say that I
087was really happy to see that even though the um Pakistan I mean we talked about this at the end of last year with the pots and health and wellness not being what we had expected that we're making good use of it um you know stretching that as much as we can so appreciate it just a small comment I mean I I pray social and emotional learning is not a dirty word or words so I've not heard that and I I fully support social and emotional learning with our children so thank you no Dr Collier thank you very much anything else under programming and curriculum and we'll move you on to conferences and workshops a through e h there are no board discussion on that then we'll move on to other business a through D yeah
088I have a little issue here like what with with a no with um a gap between C and D like C is one thing itself the one two three and four under are policies that are here for a first read and there's no title over that and under D is policies that are submitted for approval so the structure of this agenda is a little screwed up we'll fix it okay we'll fix it thank you yeah thank you for pointing that out I would like to under other business look at a for a moment this is the board approval that is needed to discontinue the use of Zoom for committee meetings starting November 1st 2022 so this is something that we would want to to talk about as you are aware we had made the decision
089as a board not to have zoom at the continue Zoom at the commit at the board meetings however in looking back in the notes the committee meetings when we started it with zoom or at one point with zoom it was a board vote that we have the zoom meeting so therefore if we choose to discontinue Zoom at the committee meetings then we would need to vote on that decision so currently we are we still have had the zoom meetings on the zoom for committee meetings so as a board here we need to discuss how we want to move forward with that if we are going to continue the zoom then we would not need to vote on it but if we were going to make the decision to put in a motion to discontinue Zoom
090at committee meetings we would need to have that put on as a vote on the agenda so we could do that we could make a motion now or we could do it for the agenda for next week as somebody that supported oh it's honors everything it's on here to be voted on next week to be voted on next week can we maybe change some of the language possibly yes so I'd like to see board approval is needed to continue the use of Zoom for committee meetings and continue the use of Zune for every board meeting that's what I would like to see that's changing it that's including the board meeting so that would be separate from this one I believe because why can't we include include this I'd like to see it used well I
091realize I'm changing my position perhaps but I didn't all right well whatever I I think we should use zoom for for everything right because I've listened enough so if we were going to revisit having Zoom at board meetings that that would take five board members that were interested in just furthering that discussion because we did vote on that last month to discontinue that um this is this part for the Committees is already on here so it's Mr Fitzgerald something we would want to keep separately or well I mean there can only be so many zoom discontinuation and continuation votes I mean if we're if we're go if we're gonna resolve it I we can do it in one motion if that's the desire of the board it's just how we'd articulate it um obviously if
092there's a desire to kind of reverse this we would need to have majority direction to essentially rewrite the the motion so first of all are there five board members that would be interested in revisiting having the board meetings have zoom yes so we have one two three four so he's not but he's not here so he can't speak to that so I think they should be kept separate because we're the board meetings are on RAM TV right so they're still so people can still see them and I I understand they can't comment but they can certainly send us emails the next day on things that you have to say the committee meetings are not on ramp TV to my knowledge and so having them on Zoom requires um I a staff person or people to
093run them which is class which costs the school money and there's not a very high participation in them so I think they should be considered separately all right so we we don't at this moment have five people board members to discuss having the zoom um brought back to the school board meetings but we do still want to discuss whether we want to continue the use of Zoom at the committee meetings so that's what we wanted people wanted to express their opinions about that so this is Dr modzer I've been trying to talk for like four rounds here um sorry what I wanted to say was that as somebody who was okay with removing Zoom from our board meetings a huge factor in that was because we have the live streaming so I do see them
094as different because right now at the committee meetings if we remove Zoom from that then people have no remote virtual live stream options so I don't support removing that from committee meetings at all okay thank you Dr Mozart I was just hoping for a little bit of clarification about the difference between the live stream and zoom as far as what goes into supporting both um on behalf of the district what what does you know the district need to provide as far as Personnel cost for both because I also support some type of virtual streaming for the committee meetings I just don't know which one is better so the question being that if you um you would like to be to continue some sort of virtual at the committee meetings and which would be better for
095our staff to maintain for the committee meetings whether it be Zoom or live streaming I would basically like to know the the pros and the cons of both for the committee as for the community as well as for our staff Mr Rizzo in terms of our staff and Miss Krug can chime in if she needs to on this or Mr Rother because I know he's listening as well essentially setting up for Zuma committee meetings is actually easier than live streaming from a user standpoint we have been doing it for a while we're kind of accustomed to that the live streaming option at this point is a little bit more cumbersome but I know Mr Rothman was also working on how that can be streamlined so that it's a little bit easier for us but at
096this point Zoom is actually easier on for committee meetings than than live streaming discussion is fairly easy to use our committee meetings are a little more while they are formal they're a little more informal most times so I think setting that up it seems like the easiest option so if we were to leave the emotion the way it is and you were interested then in maintaining Zoom for the committee meetings you would just vote no for it so instead of having to rewrite it the other way it would just be that it would not pass and that way Zoom would continue at our committee meetings can I say that I actually am edia of having writing agenda items um what's the word like in a negative way like I would rather write them in a
097formative way so that it's very clear right because I'm thinking to myself okay board approval is needed to discontinue so am I voting yes or no like I actually have to reflect on that just for a split second and I don't want to have to reflect I wanted to be clear well and Crystal truthfully at this moment if we were maintaining it we don't need to change anything so what you would be saying I think is just removing the motion oh if the status quo anti is zoom at the committee level then we don't need to vote can we just move that guy then to remove it or again you guys I mean collectively if the decision here is there's not a desire to have a essentially a negative vote but that would be the
098way we'd have to handle it then we can actually simply remove the action item are there five people or more that would like to see this removed from the agenda yeah okay yeah so that we will remove that from the agenda thank you so if we wanted to revisit the zoom at the board meetings I I wanted to revisit and resume at the board meeting we need five people five people and we have four tonight that's correct okay so thank you thanks any other discussion under other business a through d all right then it and is there any board comment at this time I have one and this isn't to point fingers because I know this this wasn't a mistake but um I I don't know if this is in any of our policies or
099anything but I don't think that the if someone wants to change a meeting date it isn't the responsibility of our superintendent or our board president to contact the committee members I think it's the responsibility of the chair of that committee to contact the committee members before then going ahead and seeing if our administrators can can attend and taking it from there I was extremely put out that the finance and property meetings were changed and I wasn't consulted at all and I really don't want to see that happen again so I don't know if we need an official ruling on it or if the board members just need to be aware that your first obligation is to consult your committee Members First and then go to Mr Rizzo and the involved administrators that's all thank you
100Miss Earl for bringing that up I agree completely any other board comment well just that I'm working on the trailer I'm trying to confirm all of that I realize well where else am I going to put it on this agenda so anyway that is um expect to see everybody it's one hour I don't have to be best friends we just have to sit together and throw out some candy that's all we're going to do we're going to be decorating that trailer on I'm going to say Thursday night because Friday night's the Powder Puff game so we're gonna decorate Thursday night I'll get an email out to everybody how that's going to go and yeah just be ready on Saturday I'm going to be very specific about Saturday wear your spring forward I'll send all the
101details out about that wear your spring forward gear absolutely no political innuendos whatsoever or I will ask you to either change or not get on the float I I'm I'm putting it forward and being very direct this is not that this is not a political event at all this is the board we are one group we are going to ride together for one hour in the neighborhood and throw kid throw candy through kids to our students throw candy to our students that's what we're gonna do and and that's where it ends so they're we're not making any political statements I want to be very clear about that because I don't want to be rude I don't want to get into an argument anything like that the day of but this is not a political event
102so please leave it at home and come and have a good time and support our district any other board comment we'll move on to public to be heard what if I have a hay allergy I'll get you a mask Mr Schaefer all right then we'll move on to public to be heard if there's anyone who would like to speak please approach the podium state your name and what area you reside hi good evening Mary Mary Limerick PA I just would like to remind so so I don't think SEL is a bad word either I hope that we all can come to agreements with what emotional learning needs to be and needs to be promoted as in our school district it's necessary in today's world we have to move forward with something it's complex not everybody's
103going to like it but we got to get through it um so I I don't know if this is the right time or night but as a community member when presentations are being done and I'd ask that committee but understand that until we go to board I think um we can't get presentations but it would be nice and if they're already available someone just point me to them to have the ICS um presentation that was done available be I don't know if it's at next weeks or before next weeks or tonight's and then the the stifle presentation or Stephen sorry with regard to the Giza stuff so there were two presentations that I as a community member wasn't able to get at committee and I understand that and I I think like it would be
104nice if Community were able to take a look at things that were being presented or being voted on prior to thank you Steve fry Royster PA um I guess I have a couple of issues so first I'm not sure maybe I missed it I don't understand what the issue with zoom at actual board meetings actually is why does it actually need to be taken away in the first place I hear a lot of discussions around it but I don't actually hear what is the problem that's trying to be solved by taking it away so again I just I don't think I've actually heard that and I've attended quite a few of these meetings also as far as SEL it's not necessarily the name as with any of these things it's not the name that's the
105issue it's what it's attempting to do and how it attempts to do it and that doesn't mean it's bad because you know again that's something as many of these other things that we see cultural responsive teaching SEL strong foreign approaches it's when you try to read up on these activities and it's just filled with vague concepts with very little tangible information that tells you exactly what's going to happen how it's going to be accomplished it makes it very difficult to support it and quite frankly it seems like we have a large number of institutions educational institutions who are putting these things together and pushing them onto a variety of other schools like high schools and yet the how is largely missing and basically how they go well you guys do it you figure out what's
106best for you it seems like if they're the experts and they've gone to the trouble of putting all this together and saying you need to do this or it's important for you guys to do this it seems like there should be a lot more guidance provided up front because if they develop these ideas and they understand it and they think that's good for you they should be able to explain how to do it and they should be able to explain it in a way that's understandable to most people and that's where I have the issue because it seems like things are not being transparent and it's not being transparent intentionally and that typically sends up a red flag for me saying well why isn't so why is somebody not being transparent about it what are
107they what are they hiding that's why when these things come up I have a lot of questions and it's not that then it name's bad it sounds like it has good intent but if you've if you've watched the government over the last several years they put out bills all the time the names sound wonderful do the Bills actually do what the name implies to some degree maybe but there's a lot of other things in there that may or may not be good so it's not the name it's what it does thanks so I have to say something back to that I know this isn't typically a back and forth but I'm not as a school board member as a community member as a parent I'm not gonna just sit here quietly when the implication is
108that our teachers our staff members are doing anything that could possibly harm our children there's no like hidden agenda with the children there's no indoctrination that any of us are here trying to do and I'm like super frustrated with constantly hearing about it we have doctorates of Education that are in charge of our curriculum and our district I'm a nurse I'm not going to stand and say you know I think me like my trust is with the with the district I'm here to support the district I don't care what's being said in the news in the media like I see it all I know what's being said and as a school board member again as a community member as a parent I just can't sit here silently and and let you imply that there's something
109that any of us especially our teachers who are on the front lines of this still dealing with the effects of everything we've been through over the two years these kids do have negative trauma effects from not being in school you know there's learning loss that we're all trying to make up for and I would give anything to give those kids what they need to succeed and feel safe and feel represented here so again like Mr Schaefer I 100 social support social emotional learning and you don't have to send me an email about it because I'm not going to change my mind sir thank you please state your name and your area in which you reside Tony Patrick Oaks one I I um you guys wasted like 12 minutes on the zoom question one little item
110here with 12 minutes at least there shouldn't have been a that long of a discussion like yes or no and that would have been it but we've talked to you guys before about this we need zoom on even the school board level because not all of us could get here my children can't get here they have all their sports activities going on they might or may not be listening in and this um the regular thing on YouTube or whenever you guys talk about that doesn't mean if I'm like sitting at home I could call in because I can't get your information that you're giving out tonight to you guys until the following day and you've already made the decisions of votes on things like that that's not fair to our community and then I was
111in the finance meeting there's no you're coming up with uh the budget we tried looking for that budget online it's not there you guys told us at the finance meeting that it should be there like an itemized uh list is not there where is it how can I find it in the community again you guys don't make that transparent on here for us and I want to see that flu non-political and I'm a very political person I want it to be gold and blue Springford is gold and blue not rainbow although we are all in a community together we're still under spring forward's Banner it's not the whole different things of the different clubs they want to include that's good that we have the different clubs it's great but still we have a flute that
112represents Springford thank you uh Miss crew can you take a second and address that because I do think it's an important point to miss Patrick brings up where the budget can be found and where some of those presentations can be found sure and Rich I'm going to ask you to pull up the website on the projectors in-house so that everyone here can see it as well so when you go to the website spring dashboard.net you'll hover over about Springford and you'll click on departments we'll start we'll start with Mr Fink I know that Mr Hunter is a favorite but we're going for the number two tonight we'll bump you up so when you click on departments over on the left navigation you'll see business office and we have quite a few drop downs if you
113rich will drop down that 2223 budget documents you'll see the proposed the final and Mr Fink you can talk probably more about the three difference anytime we present anything budget related it's posted and we have recent archives and then much much more information posted there and Mrs um Patrick I can go over this information with you and show you how to do it from your phone also if that's more helpful actually if you just Google Springford Area School District budget it's the first thing that comes up no yes thank you Miss Korean can you go to the other the other document please sure and then Rich under departments click on planning operations and Facilities also on the left navigation bar a little bit further down planning and what was presented at committee this past week
114if you drop down Rich large-scale projects the investment grade audit report that's the 242 page document that is linked right there thank you Mr appreciate that thank you thank you very much all right um if there's anyone else who would like to approach the podium thank you good evening um I want to publicly thank Mr Rizzo sorry can you state I was going to start can I thank first all right so my name is Carmina Taylor I am the founder of the movement for black and brown lives in Montgomery County it is a group that focuses on policy initiatives in the county related to educational Equity the disparity of Health amongst black and brown residents of Montgomery County and Juvenile Justice issues related I'm here tonight because I specifically asked the district if I could
115come back from the first time that I came because I am relaunching our educational Equity report card tour and as a group an entity in Montgomery County we I emailed all the superintendents from the district from the county to tell them about this report card that we were having because at the time the federal government had issued Esser funds funds to deal with recovery for covid and I thought it was necessary at this time to really look at what the what school districts in the county had I'm going to go over three minutes I hope you bear with me because it's very important but I really want to speak to the audience here so we developed an educational Equity card because we wanted to treat all school districts the same to ask them four major
116questions do you have an educational Equity policy that's implementable that that that produces measurable outcomes that develops a practice that's different than just a statement of words it's a plan that everyone could understand and it's a commitment to the plan and with that commitment you have measurable outcomes that eventually develop a practice and how you you perform in the school setting so number one does your school district have an educational Equity policy does your school district have an educational um a Dei officer does your school district have a educational Equity audit process because that deems the work that you need to get done when you do an audit to see what gaps exist right and then the fourth was what are you doing with your answer funds but I want to clarify something right educational
117Equity is not about race it's not critical race Theory it's not any of that Mrs Taylor you need to direct towards us to the board okay thank you oh well I'm just saying because oh well because it's important for them to know because listening to your board meeting today I think that it's very timely that I'm here because educating the public is so very important my group is a neutral entity for this County I'm treating all school districts the same but I want to be clear that educational Equity is about access and resources to access to make sure that the kids or students that are marginalized have equal opportunities to thrive it's about knowing what to do for each child so they can Thrive so I use a metaphor and I'm going over three minutes
118and I ask that I can be spoken because I will have a few more things to say very simply um we've hit the three minutes and this is uh our non-agenda public comment section we don't allow anybody to exceed the three-minute mark so we thank you wow that's deep because there's a lot more I have to say and I asked to be here so yeah unfortunately um but I do know that if there's um we can leave our your information with the board if anything so what I'm going to do is I'm going to create a statement and hopefully somebody can read it or provide that your comments are finished for the evening thank you you can certainly email the board the board would get that information so can't get a special treatment to individuals
119so again I just want to be clear that I wasn't asking for special treatment I initially asked to be a speaker no thank you I did want to make sure clear in case there are any questions with board and with community that that Mrs Taylor was invited or allowed the opportunity afford the opportunity to speak here today because of our board policy 903 with public participation because she represents people within our community so that's why she's permitted to speak here today thank you is there any other public to be heard okay if not is there a motion to adjourn the meeting in the meeting a second meeting adjourned