001Yeah. All right. It's 7 o'clock. We'll call the meeting to order. Would we all stand for a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisibley and justice for all. seated. We have a roll call, please. Mrs. Cross, here. Miss Jal, here. Mrs. Hollowal, here. Mr. Lady, present. Mr. Lustik, here. Mrs. Plank here. Mr. Walmer here. Miss John Cover here. Mr. Wiggle here. Thank you. All right. We had no executive session uh before the meeting. Uh can I get an approval of tonight's agenda? So move. Second. Roll call. Miss Jalal here. Yes. Mrs. Hal. Yes. Mr. Lady. Hi. Mr. Leic. Yes. Mrs. Plank. Yes. Mr. Walmer. Yes. Miss Shan Cover, yes. Mrs. Krauss, yes. Mr. Wigle, yes.
002Thank you. All right. We have no public comment for tonight. Uh so moving on to uh personnel. Uh Mr. Lustic. All right. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh we have two important items to consider this evening. I'm going to uh recommend that we consider them separately. Uh if you have your computer, you can go to uh 9.2.1. uh the issue of the superintendent. Uh I can tell the community that we had a very thorough search. Uh we were uh assisted in a very excellent way by Dr. Edward Albert who uh helped us with the search and Dr. Bell, our interim superintendent. Uh I'm going to make the motion as follows. Uh I move to hire Dr. Todd Desong, Superintendent of Schools for a 5-year contract effective 712025 through 630 2030 at the starting salary of $165,000
003pending receipt of all required paperwork. We recommend the board president be authorized to execute the employment contract on behalf of the board of school directors. Uh in indeed I'm very pleased to be able to make that motion and very honored and I think we've um chosen a very excellent u uh person. Thank you. Second. We have a second. Any comments before we take a vote? I'll just make a quick comment. Um this uh search turned out really well. Uh, I'll say that I think the school's going to be very proud of the superintendent we're hiring tonight. I think the board worked really, really well together to make this happen. And while we'll do the formal vote tonight, um, during the process and especially towards the end, the um, this candidate had a unanimous decision from
004all board members. He was a unanimous pick and I think that speaks well of our our board right now and I think it it's a sign of good things to come. So welcome Dr. Deshawn. We're very happy to have you here. Thank you. [Music] We have any other comments? All right. Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Lady I. Mrs. Krauss. Yes. Miss Young. Yes. Miss Jal, yes. Mrs. Hollow, yes. Mr. Lustik, yes. Mrs. Plank, yes. Mr. Walmer, yes. Mr. Wiggle, yes. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. We do have one additional thing to consider under personnel. Uh if you're on your computer, you can look at uh 9.2.2.1 job description. And you'll notice uh here the issue of uh approving uh for upper atom school district speech and language pathologist and uh there in
005the attachment is a very thorough summary of the purposes essential functions etc etc. As we uh consider this more we'll go to uh 9.2.2 to uh new hire. And you will see listed the two uh people that we would like to bring onto our staff, Emily Scavio, uh as a pathologist, step one, and Maggie Ratkowski as a speech and language pathologist, step nine. Uh and uh then for further explanation we would go to um post and advertise 9.2.2.3. And uh there's some important information there for us to keep in mind. Uh and uh as we advertise the position uh we should uh remember that indeed the um arrangement has no budget impact for the 2025-20 2026 school year uh because we are replacing various other contracted services. So the uh the expenses thereof will remain
006the same. And that concludes my um second part of my report. And I would recommend uh approval of what I've just discussed. Thank you. Second. All right. Any comments, questions? Um Dr. Bell, could you uh summarize the differences in the roles for these three speech pathologists? Sure. Uh ultimately what we had uh recommended to you was really a half-time position addition because of the two candidates that we had that applied for the position. Uh it's extremely hard to get candidates. Um we have uh numerous other people around including the IU that is looking for people like this and we moved ahead to recommend two very quality individuals uh that I think will serve the district extremely well. So, we will also be, and this kind of reflects what Lauren said, we'll be taking out the
007uh online or virtual speech and language pathologists. That'll be pulled away. And we also utilize some time from the intermediate unit. So, that will be pulled away. Those job duties will be pulled back into the individuals uh that were recommending to hire. In addition to that, one of these individuals will work uh some additional part-time duties in filling the previous uh position that was full-time uh but is in jeopardy, the college advisor position uh but in a little bit of jeopardy because the uh Franklin and Marshall uh has suspended much of what they've done, laid off numerous people and kind of keeps that person in limbo, which really is unfair to that individual. So that's kind of a brief rundown. Uh hopefully that provided the clarification. So the the students who are receiving virtual instruction,
008there's there's an increased amount of pay for that. So if we are pulling away the virtual that's actually adding to the speech, correct? That'll that'll just be done face to face now. and and the fact that if there were students doing things virtually, there still had to be an adult there to supervise. That is correct. We we uh had one of our uh central office administrators that had to actually supervise that every Friday. This will now free up his individual time uh to go back to his regular job duties. Okay. So then basically we're we're recovering the the money that we would be paying for virtual instruction and also for paying that person to monitor instead of doing their regular jobs. As well as the IU. That's correct. Okay. It's it in summary it's it's
009a costneutral uh proposal as Lauren highlighted for you that'll provide better services with quality individuals and move to a face-to-face operation for speech and pathology uh K to2. 12. [Music] Okay. We have roll call, please. Mrs. Plank, yes. Mr. Lady, hi. Mr. Leic? Yes. Mr. Walmer? Yes. Miss Young? Yes. Mrs. Krauss? Yes. Miss Jal? Yes. Mrs. Hollow? Yes. Mr. Wiggle. Yes. Thank you. All right. I would just say welcome Dr. Desong and and Lisa. Welcome to the upper school district family. We are as a school board, as a community excited to have you all here. Um and welcome and we look forward to some great things ahead. So, welcome. Chief. Yeah. Would you like to Yeah, sure. Go ahead. So, does this mean I have to reread the public comment? Just so you know, I
010worked on this for a couple days now. I I had it about an hour, but I got it down to 40 minutes. So, um but uh but seriously, I am deeply honored to stand before you this evening as your next selected superintendent at Upper Adam School District. I want to thank all of you and express my gratitude uh to the board of directors for gaining your confidence, placing your trust in me, and giving me this incredible opportunity to serve as the next district leader. And as all of you are an extension of the community, I want to thank the overall community and burrows of Bendersville, Biglerville, and Artsville, and the Manalan, Butler, and Tyrone townships. Thank you also to Dr. Bell for his professionalism and supporting the process. He has been nothing but cordial, kind,
011and extremely supportive. I also want to thank my wife Lisa who was here this evening for her patience, love, prayers, encouragement, and constant support. Uh during this time, she's been like my manager, uh editor, photographer, technology support, sounding board, and always my constant source of comfort. Lisa and I moved to Adams County a little over two years ago to be near our two sons, Jen Silas, and our daughter-in-laws, and our grandchildren, Hayden, who will be two on June 7th, and our granddaughter, Leah Joe, LJ, who is due to arrive on June 1st. And we're pretty excited about that. We truly see our move as providential and a tremendous blessing to be close to our family, to live in such a beautiful area, so rich in history, tradition, and apples. Apples here, apples there, apples everywhere.
012And now also to be part of such a wonderful school district, Upper Abs. My role as with all rules in education, uh have a huge responsibility and I look forward to working alongside of our faculty, staff, administrators, board, and community in relentlessly pursuing excellence for our learners academically. their social, emotional well-being and preparing them to be college, career, and military ready. I know we will continue moving the district mission, vision, and share values forward with a congenial and collegial approach built upon strong relationships forged with trust, collaboration, and being student centered in all we do. I'm looking forward to meeting and getting to know everyone in the district and hearing their thoughts and ideas on our globes, what is going awesome, and also in areas where we can grow and get stronger. I can tell
013that Caner Nation is the place to be and that there is more to the name Caner than being in an area where there are factories for canning food. It's evident that can or nation has a can do attitude and a stick tuitiveness. A place where we can is prominent. Where we can and will get things done. Where we can and will do hard things. Where we can and tackle ch will tackle challenges. Where we can and will grow and learn. And where we can and make and will make an impact. I'm positive that we can't is not in our vocabulary only we can and I know that we can and we will be prepared for our future. Once again I sincerely thank each and every one of you. This is an honor and privilege and
014I am excited to begin this new educational venture and journey together with you, our learners, faculty, staff, administrators and the community. Thank you all very much. Thank you. All right. So, uh, moving on to the very end items of general information. Uh, since it is a board meeting, I do have to, uh, give you the dates of the upcoming meetings. Uh, curriculum and extracurricular committee will be on 56, 2025 at 6:30. Business and operations uh, will be upon the completion of the curriculum and extracurricular meeting. The next board voting meeting will be on uh 2025 upon completion of the business operations committee meeting and the policy committee meeting will be on 51 2025 at [Music] 9 and then uh moving on. Yes, sorry. The regular school board meeting will be on 520 2025 at 700
015p.m. Anything under old business? I think we're all excited. Fast meeting 10 minutes. All right. Do we have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Thank you all. Have a great evening. Thank you. Quick one.