SV Board Meeting June 9, 2026

001Oh, you're live. >> Like to call the meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge. nation. >> Miss Whis, could you take the attendance, please? >> Mr. William Brun, >> here. >> Mr. Donald Carpenter, >> believe he's online. >> Yes, he is. >> Mrs. Vivian Demco >> here. >> Mr. Cedric Demar >> here. >> Dr. Laurel Ericson Parsons. Mrs. Megan Lmanino >> here. >> Dr. Shim Pax, >> I'm present. >> Mr. Jay Santos, >> present. >> Dr. Jay Christian Tattoo. >> He was absent with previous notice. >> I'm here by the way. Missed the mute button. >> Gotcha. Um just an announcement of the executive session for this evening for the purpose of discussion of the safety report. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? >> Move. >> Any discussion? All those in

002favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. All right. Um there is no recognition and we have no high school representative at this time. No presentation. Superintendent report. Good evening. Uh so I wanted to take this opportunity to uh go through some items that need our attention. Uh just as a little bit of an introduction to it and reintroduction for some. Um about two years ago, we started with the comprehensive plan and we had a committee that worked together to uh revise the mission statement, vision statement along with the values and identify those that we hold true to in Sen Valley. And as part of that that has seen another year of planning was discussing um our branding and obviously that was part of the mission and the vision and the values as well. Um and

003part of that discussion was how we can distinguish ourselves from Skoal Valley School District because those of you who are familiar they have the same mascot as us. They use the same hashtags on social media. They have the same colors. they have the same SV and it was brought probably to our attention more in the year prior to that because um for news when there were Skookul Valley events that were taking place and the SV would pop up on the screen people didn't hear Skookul Valley and they immediately thought Sen Valley so we were getting emails as administration about board meetings and how dare us do certain things and we realized maybe now is the time that we start looking at how we can distinguish ourselves without having to do trademarks and you know become

004Skooko Valley's enemy uh trying to distinguish ourselves. So there were surveys that were sent out from that committee and we uh took a lot of feedback as to how we could distinguish ourselves, what people would want to see if we did change the logo um or the mascot. And there were a lot of ideas and a lot of survey results that came back. And the committee met for about a year to uh go through those survey results. And there were a couple of ideas that Mr. Fry and Miss Griffithton are going to go through uh to show you. But we think that now after two years that we've landed on something that they're going to introduce to you now uh because the roll out of this is going to be in the start of the

005school year in August. So, we wanted to have your eyes on it and uh hopefully bring a little context to why this was also happening. >> So, I'll turn it over to you. >> I feel like we can't start a presentation about this without actually showing the Skookul Valley logo and panther head. That gets confused sometimes. The same SV, the Panther head. Um you know, if you're not from the community, you could easily confuse this. So, I just wanted to show that up. Put that up there just to see, you know, show that. Um I'll let Mr. Fry take it away because he was here for the beginning of this process. I kind of came in towards the end. So just to go through some of the iterations of where this has where this all

006went. >> So uh going back to the first two I'd say that we uh looked at is uh kind of a rendering here to give us some inspiration and ideas and some of the things that came back from that survey uh was uh the integration of the panther if possible but also local landmarks. and it kind of gave us a panther in a in a circle here with Sen Valley on it and a kind of a main street feel uh to incorporate some possible landmarks uh around our community. So, we took that inspiration and and worked a lot of different a lot of different uh variations of it probably uh here's another kind of idea where we put a panther into some of now our buildings. So on the left side is just the same

007thing that you just looked at, but on the right side uh replace that with the Frank Moonlet Schoolhouse begin to make this take take shape. Um that led us into I know it's a little bit harder to see here. See if I can blow up, but um especially the bottom one. They were the same just with the uh dates a little bit differently. But uh you see a ring of S Valley School District, our uh three landmarks uh that were in there to kind of represent the school district and landmarks were the Franklin Lit Schoolhouse uh the first Tertown High School and then our current high school uh with those dates associated with them and then uh we moved on to Grac. But I I'll let her lead into what we have here. >> Well,

008so I came in kind of as a different perspective. I hadn't been here a lot of that and I kind of got the tailwind of what seemed like a lot of people passions and care for this community. Um, but it led to a lot of different as you saw different iterations. There were at least 20 iterations of locos. These are just a couple um and even more iterations of the iterations. So I think I I I sat in Mrs. Velocity's office one day and said, "Well, what if we did something that still played on the SV that people have come to know and love, but make it just something simple?" Because some of the feedback we ran into was that it would be really hard to show those school houses on they they just wouldn't

009display the right way because there's so much detail to them. Um along with the dates, some of the feedback we heard um internally uh from the Donovan group was that you know people couldn't land on the dates. So what could we do to merge this love of Sen Valley with um you know just something that could be applied everywhere? Something that could be on merchandise, something that could be a sticker, something that could be just something to really start to brand us. And this is this is where we came. We came to an SNV that kind of plays off the one you've seen for a while. Um the circle that you saw with the school houses. Um the stars are decorative. We did try to take the stars out. Um but it ended up there

010was a lot of feedback over you just need something there. Um but we we feel pretty strongly about this. >> I think it's important to note though that the Panther is not going away. >> Panther the Panther is not going anywhere. The goal of this really was to just differentiate ourselves academically and give us more of an academic identity. Um, so you might be wondering there's two different versions. So there's a primary and an enhanced. And the primary is something that can be used on clothing. It can be embroidered. It can be shown. The enhanced can be on digital signs, on social media, on other materials just to give it a little more. >> Mrs. Deco just said it's not purple, right? It is >> not purple. It's just the screen. >> I do have

011copies in that red folder if you want to see it a little more up. >> Um, so the idea is that the Panther would remain and mostly still remain in the area of athletics and activities. So, you'll still see the Panther on uniforms and how we normally would see it. Um, the SV would take the place on something like letterhead or uh official messaging. So, it's it's they're different. They're still working at the same time within our in our school. Um, and they're having we're going to have a branding guide that's set up to distinguish when those are to be used and by whom they're to be used by with making sure the colors and the fonts and everything stays consistent. So the brand, and I keep using that, but the brand of the school

012district, the messaging stays consistent and on point. Um, but the Panther is not going away. I just want to keep echoing that because I know that was a very big concern of many. Um, Mr. Fry can also probably elaborate more on some of the older iterations, but the Panther is become so loved that even some of those other iterations that were more, you know, academic in nature, they would using with the panther that we already have. So we've moved away from that. >> So where where is where is this this particular one used as in this is replacing what? Like I mean I'm like diplomas are are these going to be used there? Uh letter heads. Uh which ones are the ones where we we see one of these two? >> Yeah. Yes, >> all

013the above. Official communications, letterheads, business cards, diplomas, um the front of our board table here. Um where anytime we see want to convey that that academic logo of what we're doing uh versus the athletic and activities of the Panther, um you would see that replacement on on a lot of our official communication and documents. >> So the the other thing is that and this is something that I'm I'm asking so that you know we are consistent. You know one of the reasons for this exercise was to differentiate uh from Skookul Valley. It feels like probably at the end of it we are not right because uh you know there is still a big SV and uh you know uh you know unless someone like starts reading and and in particular you know they are not

014changing their thing so theirs going to still resemble you know our athletics. So uh that problem I'm just saying that probably will persist. It didn't bother me that much, you know, uh except then, you know, when I don't know, there was like a bus driver strike there and then I would get yelled at here at Giant or uh you know, there was a uh weapon on campus there and then, you know, here someone would post it on uh you know, complainers of Helertown. You know, uh those are sort of like very few things. I don't know whether I'm, you know, I just want to know whether Mr. Fry has uh some uh more significant instances where we really wanted and needed to differentiate and whether this is uh sufficient for that. >> Well, I think

015it it's some of the one of the uh things that we're going to have to get this information to. For example, our media outlets. Um there's going to be uh places for that to be used and we want to get this new graphic to them. Uh when you see a um athletic event on television, you're still going to see a Panther and it's still going to say Sen Valley, for example, on the score. Um but when you see a news event of something that's not maybe sport related, um being able to have the seal that has an SV but also says Sen Valley on it, um I think would help clarify that because you have those those words there identifying the school district. >> Mr. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh Mr.

016Fry. Great. Thank you very much. And uh there was a committee that worked on this and as Miss Velocity mentioned I just want to acknowledge uh the work of the committee also the uh it it was it was a long long process. >> Yeah. Uh I know that uh with the the whole branding question the you know the the work that the committee has done which we're we're of course very grateful for um and and to to to you um that the the logo is you know it's it's just part of that. It's not you know it's it's a small part of it really. It's um um and you know that all the the work that committee I mean it goes without saying that we we thank people who serve on those committees. Um um

017so with that said um yeah I'm not a huge fan of these uh at all. Um the I'll tell you why. Um it looks like something that is sort of designed like artwork that's kind of designed by committee first of all and that often doesn't work very well you know um the shield is like a heraldic u you know element that is very European to me it doesn't really have any connection to Sen Valley shields the stars um I'm not quite sure they seem kind of random um to me it looks like a logo maker you you know, like when you turn on logo maker and you say, you know, make me a logo. Um I I think that um the confusion about the the use of the date um is personally I I think

018it's a bit silly because we can really just pick one, you know, we're allowed to do that. There's no like the the date police the history police aren't going to come to SAN and say you're not allowed to say 1768, you know. Um it's a perfectly valid, you know, but to to to try to do them all and then to say, oh well, we picked we put all the dates on a logo so that everybody would be included and now it doesn't work. Well, of course it doesn't work. you know um it doesn't f follow kind of artistic or um or even um you know the the the laws of the artistic laws but also just coherency and focus you know we can pick a date we can say okay we want that one you

019know um as long as it correspond I mean the I think the 1768 date is important because I mean to me that it shows how long people have cared about education in in Sen Valley yes you could say oh well that's not really but I mean Anyway, that to me that's not a big thing. Um, but the the shield I I don't get the shield. Um, I don't know. I don't like it. So, sorry to be sorry to be I'm just I'm being honest. I mean, would you rather I you know, these are great. You know, okay, they're great. You know, I'll shut up. Any other feedback? This is why it's in front of the board. >> I like the panther. Love the panther, you know. Oh, one last thing just really quickly that I

020was going to suggest is um with the the Reading uh Eagle and the Morning Call and and Sen Valley um or Senource. Boy, this would be a great um story to offer them or to to talk because this would be such a fun story for reporters who do regional, you know, because it's it's got, you know, the confusion they could, you know, it would help it would help uh get the message out that we're not the same, you know, and also kind of for for them too, you know. So >> and to to that to that point, it also shows that you can you can uh have something that you don't like and instead of yelling at each other uh you know come up with a solution that is sort of like inside or inward

021looking and uh you know uh resolve it that way which I think is a uh lost uh art uh you know in many areas that we wish uh was more of it. I think um I actually do like these logos. Um the I think simpler is better sometimes with logos and the ones that were shown up there were incredibly busy with a lot of details that I agree with you would be very hard to copy along things. Um and for me they were just too busy. There was too many things going on. Um so I actually do like the the simpler logo, the details of the the shield and the stars. Uh um I'm fine either way, but I I like the way that this looks. Nice and clean. You can see exactly what it

022is and what it's about. >> May um it it's not my favorite design personally. Um I might agree with Bill that the shield does doesn't necessarily resonate with me personally. Um, maybe the stars could be the years that we're we're discussing here. I'm I'm no expert in graphic design, so please take my words with a huge grain of salt, but there there's something here that just it doesn't resonate necessarily with me. Maybe if we can change the shield to something that is Sen Valley specific or, you know, historical in nature, that might be, you know, moving forward in the right, you know, the right direction for my appeal and tastes, I guess. Um, but I add a quick question. Do we know who had their sort of SV logo and the Panthers first? Was it

023Skoo Valley? Was it us? >> You had done a deep dive on those, Mr. Santos. And he could probably give you the history. >> Skookul Valley. I'm not sure when they became the Panthers. I mean, we have almost a hundred years of it now. So, >> yeah. Um, I would hope they're number one, but I couldn't tell you what year they became the Panthers, but Uh yeah, we're we're going to be approaching 100 in the near future. So >> we should definitely ask them to change their logo then. >> Just to the the dates were very important too to us. But I think what and and as soon as someone suggested it or it was suggested several times, we took it back to the the Donovan group which helped design things and they were concerned

024that because there was so much inner turmoil with the dates that it would cause more turmoil within the community that if the group so just just to give you some feedback on some of the conversations there, but the dates are absolutely important and we talked about internally could we do some sort of history page on the school district website that's more pronounced to show some of the you know how deep rooted this community is. >> That's fine. >> What's the date in question and why is it not agreed upon? >> So originally in the if you go back there is three dates on there. Uh you have the 1768 which reverts back to a deed in which the Yep. Uh in which the land for the LZ Franklin schoolhouse um to make that an educational

025uh facility for a schoolhouse. You have the 1898 uh which is the first graduating class from Helertown High School and then you have uh which is where you see Sen Valley come in when Heltown and Lower Sen School District merge and and became Sen Valley School District. So they all all three represent something that's important to the history of the district. So I think that's why it's a little bit difficult to come up with one versus the other. Um, I I just want to say I I appreciate the work of the committee. I've served on committees like this and uh I I know how vulnerable everybody feels when you put your work out there, especially when it's artistic like this. Um, I I agree with Laurel that the I liked the simplicity of this, but

026it it does like the first when I first looked at it, it seemed like, you know, like it's like a Marvel superhero kind of thing with the Captain America and the shield and the stars. So, um, you know, it's it's >> you liked it. It's it's like I mean I could live with it for sure, but you know maybe you know I don't know that it would be better maybe if it had more of a connection to Saken Valley but you know that's just my two cents worth for even if it's worth that. Can I add something? This is like I M Mr. Brun mentioned how hard it is to design something by by a committee. uh it's even worse uh designing some uh something by a board. So uh that's a that's a that's

027a that's a trouble with this. But this is just a to to go back to the points that were mentioned and I'm like saying this just as feedback uh uh for the diplomas I think something more elaborate uh probably is not a bad idea. So uh I don't know whether sort of like we are at a place where uh we need to settle on one thing for all of the academics or sort of like there is still sort of like the possibility for uh some nuances there. Uh uh the diplomas are not the type of things that people sort of like need to react uh you know to them instantaneously and repeatedly. It's something that uh is sort of like a piece of uh artwork for uh for a lot of folks. they put it

028on their walls and so forth. So something, you know, more elaborate may be uh may be appropriate for the letter head, you know, something uh uh that is easily absorbable, but uh just just sort of like as a as a point that if you are considering to go in a different direction, I don't know what's the what what we are doing here today, right? Is it just basically FYI or is it uh sort of like some uh feedback from the full board uh to uh go back and look look look look at it or or what uh whatnot but uh that is my feedback but at the same time I mean if this is what uh everybody's okay with I mean I'm not going to make a fuss about it. I I I would like

029to clarify. I I could live with this, right? It's it's definitely not a game changer for me. It's It's not a showstopper. Uh I can definitely live with this, but it it does look a little bit Captain America. It looks a little bit like uh maybe we could provide more of the Helertown, Sen Valley feel while keeping the simplicity of the design. to to today uh you would be the last person who would complain about Captain America or anything like that, you know. >> Oh, absolutely. I I definitely love those movies. So, >> I was just going to say we tried to do a bridge design because the bridge kind of it's so unique to Sen Valley. It bridges the three schools. It's almost like a like a metaphorical bridge between the two municipalities. um

030just to more historical context, but it that didn't really morph well. There were so many there were even iterations that haven't there were so many iterations. I happened to have a copy of a diploma on my phone. I took a picture of my friend's daughters the other day and it it's what was up on display behind us for graduation and it actually was a shield. I don't know. Like that one is a like a three-pointed like it kind of goes down whereas this when I saw it reminded me of like an old Letterman jacket like where it had that behind it. I didn't see the Captain America but now I can't unsee it. Um so I don't think it it didn't bring the idea of a shield to me. I would agree that I liked

031the simplicity, the cleanliness of it, easy to read, it's not getting lost in the shuffle, whereas I am a little more overwhelmed with the more on there as something like that. Um, and again to reiterate, I don't know if we need to come to an agreement tonight, but I am thankful for everybody who has worked on it up until this point. Um, and I I don't want to just keep repeating what other people have said, so I won't say much more. So, Miss Felacity, is this up for our vote or this is just an FYI? >> It is. >> There you go. >> Would be in a different section. Uh, but we did want to bring it to your attention because we did not bring it to you guys. Uh, we did just only have

032it in committee and some of the parent groups and among administration. So, this was kind of just the feedback that we have received and we just wanted to hear from our board as to any feedback that you had. Maybe I'll be regretting it in about appreciate the feedback. Grace will be crying, I'm sure afterwards. There's been a lot of time and effort put into it. But we've tried to listen to everyone's uh opinions and feedback as much as we possibly can. So, we will bring it back and see what we can develop and if there's any further developments, we'll bring it forth to you guys again. So, we appreciate it. >> If not, you moving forward with it. >> Moving forward. >> Got it. Thank you, Captain Sen. >> I will stop presenting. >> Thank

033you so much. >> Thank you. >> For the record, I I I do think that this design is the best out of what I saw >> tonight. >> Someone said though, the best we can get and that like just so you all know, it really matters to me. Even though I'm kind of new to the district, I don't want to I don't want to screw this up. >> It's your legacy. It's your it's everyone's legacy. >> I just wrote a note that um in our next set of videos, the Helertown Historic Society should focus on the schools. So, you'll have that history piece and maybe we'll make a logo. I'm joking. >> Thank you. Um I'm going to go back to number six. I missed approval of the minutes. So, do I have a motion

034for the approval of the >> So, move for >> Yep. time. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Don, you you're you are not muted. >> Oh, is that who it is? Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. Do I Sorry, I was distracted. Do I have a motion in a second? >> So moved. >> All right. Um any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion passes. Since we have no um visitors today in attendance, we'll move on to the presentation of the bills. Do I have a motion to approve the bills? Paying of the bills. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Hearing none. We'll move on. Treasures report. Um we have no reports and nothing to approve. So, um we also have

035no committee reports. Um no unfinished business. On to new business with education. Um we'll take these one at a time. Um number one is the approvement of a settlement and release agreement for a student. Do I have a motion for that or do you want to Okay. Second. >> Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? >> I. >> Motion passes. All right. Um, let's do the first policy. Policy 815.1, artificial intelligence. Do I have a motion? This is the second and final reading of this policy. Do I have a motion? >> Second. and any discussion? >> Yeah, I have some comments. Um, I I took a real careful read of this. Um and I was reflecting on the input that I received from uh one a student who I

036talked to a month or so ago um about the importance of the policy not being just restrictive and viewing AI as something to be used properly and not used uh um you know when it's not supposed to and and to and rather to lean more toward um being able to learn about how to use it and how to apply it as a as a tool, a valuable tool for the students to know about. And so I I um made five changes to one of the paragraphs. Um they're pretty small changes. Uh I I ran these changes by uh Miss Demco since she was also on the technology council. She can comment if she wishes. Um, I'll just um I'll just go through if you want. I don't know if you want to open up the

037uh policy. It's on u sorry. Oh, here it is. It's on the It's in the um bottom of the second page. It's called uh instruction on AI tools. And uh so I in the first sentence it says um the board directs students to receive age appropriate instruction on the proper use of AI tools and it goes on I change that on the proper and effective use of AI tools to um convey that they can it's not just restricting but to learn to to to use it in a way that is helpful to the student and can get things done with it and then I also um added after the proper and effective use of AI tools to achieve academic and personal goals. So for both of those things, not just um not just for school

038work because it's achieve uh I have I have a print out I can give you but um it's to achieve academic and personal goals and that uh that that phrase ends with the comma right before encompassing and then uh and then I I'll just read through real quick encompassing fundamental principles such as the need for proper human supervision, critical thinking, skept and skepticism regarding the accuracy of data and information. Such instruction should aim to empower students with knowledge and skills needed to navigate and then after navigate I added and apply the increasingly prevalent presence of AI technologies in their academic and personal lives. So all I changed there was the add the and apply. And then um it goes on by fostering a culture of responsible and then I I added um I added there

039were two items in the list of of uh of adjectives. I added a third. So before it was responsible and informed use and I added in a responsible informed and goal oriented use. Um by fostering a culture of of uh responsible informed and goal oriented uses students will be better able be better equipped to use rather than navigate to use AI tools effectively while understanding their limitations and implications. So it I tried not to I tried to minimize the um the changes I made but to shift the focus to to make it more equal uh between restricting and uh teaching students how to benefit from AI. So that was my goal there. So I hope that you I would like to uh request an amendment to the motion to make those changes. I do have

040one other one other um typographical oriented change in the very last sentence of the of the policy uh I'm sorry the second to the last paragraph um it refers to it says the district prohibits the use of generative AI in making final determinations. We eliminated uh generative AI as one of the defined terms so that should just become AI. So, are you did you >> move to include that? I'd like to include that in my motion to amend. >> I second that >> changes. >> Any discussion on the motion to amend? >> I have a question. Oh, go. >> I was just going to say I think those are all great suggestions. I support them. Uh I was also going to bring up the second to last paragraph where it says generative AI so that

041we can change that to just AI. I had a question. Um, Director Datmar, um, you suggest that there are efforts to restrict AI use or or or or that you have an awareness of um or you have a concern about of the restriction of AI use, but I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about, like there in in the last year, you know, there's been like a couple trillion dollars invested in AI in in our country alone, you know, and um as as I understand it, um um it doesn't seem like there's really any effort to stop AI. Um but you're talking about in our policy and I'm I I'm not understanding where that's happening. I I don't see that. I don't see where where are people saying you need to we we're trying

042to restrict AI. I'm where where's the evidence for that? >> Well, um so I'll I'll try to respond. So it isn't it the the sense I don't believe is and and you know this is somewhat secondhand or it is secondhand you know it's it's coming from a student u but I I I definitely understand the sense and it is that not in the wider world of AI it's in the education setting so this student is apparently his sense is that uh it's all about don't use AI I to cheat on your homework, right? Don't use AI when you shouldn't be, you know, just don't use AI. That's kind of the I don't know if it's an explicit message or a kind of a sub you know subliminal message that the students are getting uh you

043know in their in their classes and and you know and I can totally understand why teachers would be um you know panicking because you know there's just tons of assignments that students are asked to do like you know write a write a you know a a a 300word essay um about X and someone can put that into AI and there's a totally good sounding essay about that and they've done no work. They've learned nothing. Um and so so it's like don't use AI, don't use AI and that's the message that um either they're hearing directly or indirectly or they're just getting that subtext in the education setting, not in the wider world. >> But that you called it a subliminal message from based on a conversation with a student. That's well I mean I can

044totally un well when I read the when but I read the policy with that idea in mind the the instruction on AI seemed very oriented toward learning how learning when not to use AI or um you know learning about how to navigate AI rather than using AI. So that th that was the sense of the of this paragraph in the policy that I wanted to to shift from uh seeming the the sense of it from seeming more restrictive to trying to emphasize that that Silicon Valley needs to not just teach our students when not to use AI but teach them how to use it in an effective way to achieve their goals because you don't just naturally know how to use AI. Well, I mean, it's easy to put your prompt into AI and get

045a get a 300word essay, but if you want to actually achieve something significant, um, then you need to know how to go back and forth with AI. You need to learn uh when to trust it and when not to and to and how to challenge it so that you can get the most out of it. And those are the kind of skills that you don't necessarily just know how to do. In fact, no one I don't think anyone really just knows how to use AI. It's something that we need to teach our students. And I know this isn't going to start happening right away because our teachers need to learn how to use AI first before they can teach our students how to use AI. So, there's definitely a time, you know, a time factor

046on this and it's not going to start right away. But I want our goal to to to be for our district to teach our students how to be um uh competent users of AI so that they can um bring the power of it to all the things that they do in their lives. But doesn't our didn't our policy already um um honor that mission in the um the idea of the purpose of the board's the board's purpose in implementing it policy on artificial intelligence is to support the responsible use of AI technologies right and and so that's a good example so the responsible use that kind of implies that you should You can use it sometimes and you can't use it sometimes. It doesn't say anything about learning how to use it. >> May I

047May I ask a question here? >> Yes. >> So, unfortunately, I was not able to attend many of the technology committee meetings just for timing purposes. But for someone who did attend the meetings, was the tenor of the conversation, this balance that Cedric is talking about, as in it was not just the idea of writing a policy to restrict, but a policy to govern and also, you know, effectively, you know, utilize when when needed. Was that like the tenor of the discussion in these that led to the policy that that's in front of us? >> Yes, I believe it was. >> I I would I would agree that that was our goal. >> Okay. And so then is this just like semantics of the of whether we believe the word na navigate is like the

048right word for both restricting and also embracing like navigate's not the right word. That's that's what we're debating here. >> Um well I I added navigate and apply. Um, so that it I I I mean, you know, you could you could say, "Oh, well, it doesn't really make any difference." Um, I I think it does. Um, if you don't agree, then I respect that. But I I think that that the changes I suggested uh shift the message of the of the policy more toward um teaching students how to effectively use AI rather than teaching them when not to use AI. May I miss him? >> I mean yes. >> So this is I I it changes it changes it I mean from my perspective ever slightly not uh fundamentally uh it changes it uh from

049my perspective in the right direction I think uh uh you know and I I didn't read it uh with that u sort of like view Mr. that Mark before but uh you know seeing the suggestions that you have I think uh there was maybe unintentionally a little bit of a sort of like uh skepticism about the use of AI in the previous language based on the words uh like navigate I mean you navigate when you are uh going into a lion's den right uh uh but uh you are not talking about application of anything in you know that that but but Now that you know when you add navigate and apply then it means that it's not a uh you know negative dangerous place where you have to sort of like watch uh you know

050your surrounding and make sure that you don't uh you know that you should do that all the time. Uh but uh it sort of like that the in in a in a very distinct way it's uh basically neutralizes the tone to uh both responsible use but also effective use. I think this is uh this is very important. Uh I I'll just say something a little sort of like broader and I know that there are uh different views about uh AI in general and what is happening around us and uh the impact of that on the society and uh whether it's good or bad and these are all I think very very important and uh uh uh worthy conversations that are happening in the society. Uh I'll I'll just say one uh one of the quotes

051that I heard recently from um one of uh the favorite authors who I uh listen to and uh uh that's this uh u Israeli uh historian um you've all know Hari people know him because of the uh book that he wrote a few years ago that became a bestseller Sapiens very compelling interesting story about the history of us uh humans. But uh there was this quote that I thought was very interesting. He said uh and he's he's a skeptic to AI just uh so that everybody knows. He said that the largest uh mass migration in the history of this country is about to happen. They are coming uh taking your jobs. They are uh changing your culture and they have no allegiance to your government. uh uh so in the past you know the way

052that we have kind of like dealt with that have been like very uh different probably with the way that we are going to deal with uh this new wave of uh migration to this uh to this country to this world. So it's uh it it matters how we how how we deal with that. So those conversations are absolutely necessary. Uh there is a completely from my perspective different and separate conversation about uh uh the kids who are growing up now and about the rest of us who are in the workforce or part of this uh society and uh our ability to uh be able to uh be an AI literate person and uh to be able to use AI uh uh is going to uh be probably similar to uh literacy itself uh in terms

053of uh predicting the success that uh you know we have and the kids have in the in the future. Uh I you must have heard the version of this people say you know don't worry about AI coming for your job but worry about someone who knows AI coming and taking your job. uh I want uh our kids to be the ones who uh know AI uh to not be the first one who are uh uh losing out in the new AI enabled economy. So uh from that perspective uh uh educating students for uh that future which is not really sort of like that far in the future I think is critical. Uh I uh I understand that some of these words that Mr. Detmar had uh suggested we include here uh may seem semantics or

054small and you know at the end of the day you know it's not about these words it's about the way that the school district with uh you know teachers and uh uh all of the adults who are here and the parents and the communities are sort of like treating this but uh I I think it's important for our community overall including in particular our schools and our educators to sort of like have that attitude that we really sort of like need to uh make sure that uh because we may not agree with uh you know the changes we cannot sort of like put our heads in the sand and uh and and and pretend it's not happen. >> Any additional comments? >> Yeah. >> New comment. I I view um the the the sort of

055binary that we're um we're reduced to in either being kind of pro AAI and pro-responsible use of AI or being restrictive about AI. I I think it's a false dichotomy. I think that we have to be willing to see that um there are really good reasons to be really really careful and to be articulate about that careful particularly in creating a culture that doesn't put human beings and the dignity of human beings at its center. You know, which is there's really nothing in here about that except for responsible. that word responsible, you know, like that that to me suggests a humane approach to AI, you know, um um on the other hand, you know, I mean, we want to obviously, yes, we want to be positive. I, you know, we want to be excited about

056the possibilities that AI offers. Um, we also want to make sure that people aren't doing things that are a am a am a am a moral in our school district using AI, you know, um whether that's, you know, things like cheating, you know, um or uh creating a culture that doesn't recognize the the, you know, the the the the beauty of of human mistakes, you know, and the dignity of that, you of errors, you know. Um, so I I just, you know, I mean, I was talking to someone about this today and I I don't I don't object to um the changes that are proposed at all. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of them. Um, I don't think that those changes open the door to a, you know, um, you know, like a, you know, Terminator

057Terminator 3, you know, whatever they call it, Skynet or something like that. I'm not worried about that, you know. Um, um, you know, but I I think it's good that we have these discussions and um, you know, I I would support the the proposed changes, you know, what what you said, especially after this, the shields of Captain America is >> That's exactly where I went to. >> Yeah. >> Um >> I I would just I would just say that since we're debating the amendment only right now, um you know, this was like worked on for like eight months with with all these discussions being had. And I'm confident that this discussion was had many many many times and those meetings contain stakeholders from both the board and the teachers and the administration and I think

058the community as well and to to like relitigate those exact changes and come in here as a board and make what I think are changes that are not going to really like affect how we implement the policy in any meaningful way. It's just not I just don't think that process-wise it's what I would support. So, I'll leave it at that. >> Okay. Um Okay. Um so though all those in favor of the changes proposed by um Cedric say I >> I >> opposed. Hi. >> Okay. So, um the changes carry and now we're going to vote on the changes. >> Okay. Overall policy with the amended changes. Do I have a motion for the overall policy with amend it's already on the It's already >> Thank you. >> Any more questions? >> Okay. Tell me

059what to say next. >> All those in favor say I. I >> opposed. >> I motion passes. All right. We have policy 113.1 and 113.2. If I recall, these were just minor changes. Do I have a motion for these two policies? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> I just have one minor change that was changed on the 113.1 on page one under change in educational placement. Item number two, it had 15 consecutive. It got changed to 15 cumulative is what it should. >> Okay. Is that a change for the law? Yeah. Okay. All right. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Um textbook adoption. We have business with personal finance um listed. Do I have a motion for that? >> Second. >> Are those Oh, any discussion?

060>> I had a question. Um, how many are are these are these books? Are these um I guess I'm trying to understand. Are they books? Um I I I apologize, but I it's like I I don't really remember this coming through the um maybe it was one of those um uh it was a book that I uh was was we talked about with other things or um it might have been after I left too or um >> they did not come through AMP. These are the two these are two that uh have come just for individual classes instead of a program. So the last one that you saw was the science textbooks that were part of >> Okay, that's okay. >> So that's the difference. >> Um the business and personal finance is one of

061the uh classes for the business department that was added for the upcoming year and that was along with number four which was the other. So >> are these books? These are books. So how many do we need? I'm I'm just how many books do we how many students are typically in the in the classes? Um >> they have ordered 60 uh which is above what the current requests and enrollment is. I think the current I have to look back at I want to say it was about 49 students requested the course who will receive it um for next year. Um, so they order a few more just in case they're lost processed, but there's Yeah, there's 60 altogether that are being purchased. >> Okay. >> Y, >> is that for each one of the books

062or just the one we're discussing now? >> Uh, that was just the one that we were discussing now. >> And the books cost about like $175 a piece. >> They have uh the textbook. there is a digital component, but they're not both both textbooks have digital components, but they're not quite sure they want to use the digital component of it. Um, and then there's the teacher editions. >> How much are they a piece? Like about 150 175. >> Uh, they run about 140, I believe. >> 140 for >> Yeah. I mean, I know chemistry books are like $300 these days, you know. Um, so I I mean, we need the books. We need I was just kind of curious about how big the classes were and I appreciate. Thank you. That's all I had. >>

063Any other questions? I lost where we were. Did I have a motion? That was discussion. >> All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion passes. Next textbook adoption, Foundations of Financial Literacy, 12th edition. Do I have a motion? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> H how many uh books are in this class for this class? >> Um I believe it's around the same amount. >> Okay. >> This class is um part of your family and consumer science class. And this class is your independent living course that's currently being offered that's being changed um to meet your financial literacy standards that have been put into our schools for the state. So this course currently exists but what essentially is happening with this specific course is that the cooking element is being taken out to put

064the financial literacy standards into play. um your independent living course, your AP business course, and your financial management course, which is also currently running at your high school. All three of those um have each level of those will meet your financial literacy requirement for the the students in the >> That's what I was going to ask. So, thank you. >> So, is so it sounds like this book supports a part of the class, not the whole class, right? >> Okay. >> Any other discussion? I guess just one one thing I would say to the community is is am I right to understand that these are important building blocks for our um reputation as a district too. And um that the financial literacy is something that gets it it it eventually gets you know it becomes

065a score for or or part of our report card as it were for the district. something that we have to report that we have met standard wise because it's the new implementation. Um I will say that there's been extra care put in to how we're implementing it because in most cases school districts are putting just one course in. They do not have the differentiation and options for the students. Um there's one course where all students now have to take it in many school districts. we were trying to assure that meeting the standards and making sure we had options for the students depending on what level and what area they're going into. So there may be an additional um way to meet those standards for next year that may be coming, but we're still trying to

066work through that. But we wanted to be able to meet what the state is requiring, but do it in the best way possible for the kids in different pathways. So you're not just filtering all kids into one class. they're not really getting that much out of that course if that's the case because of the different levels of students and where and what standards we're meeting and what at what time period they're taking the class, what grade level. So, we were trying to to give them many options in which they can meet it and still hit that. So, we're fortunate that we were able to do that in this district. So, >> that's great. >> Just back back to Mr. Brun's sort of like initial question, it is a graduation requirement. It's not something that we

067I mean financial literacy is a topic where the students have to have some education on. >> It's a graduation requirement. You may not see it in that official report card piece that you're seeing and our report card is going to be a requirement, but from the state it's not something that you'll see in that official report card from the state that we see on future ready. >> Yeah. >> So, so, so they they want they want us >> for the classes. >> Yeah. They want our curriculum to include financial literacy either as a class or a part of a class or uh pieces in several classes or whatever. But they want the financial literacy to be a part of the curriculum. >> Financial literacy standards that need to be part of a curriculum that you

068need to >> for all for all students >> for all graduating students >> for the students that are now your freshman coming in. >> Okay. Thank you. Is that sorry my apologies >> is that um difficult to follow which course that they took one of the courses or is that rather the counselors >> that the counselors will track it. So it's something it will be easy to do. It just takes a little bit of visioning. >> Okay. Making sure they get one of the courses that have it. Okay. >> But making it as accessible as it is in different areas. So in your family consumer science in your business like making it as as accessible as is and and having those options will make it easier to also students hit that mark. >> I just

069wanted to stress the importance of a course like this financial literacy in general um wholeheartedly support us invigorating this program as much as possible. Um, you know, in in in a time where currently Americans collectively have over a trillion dollars in credit card debt, about 7% in terms of credit card default, and a lack of understanding of how to balance a checkbook, which is something that's from a bygone era. I think it's incredibly important for us to support and educate our students in how to manage their finances, how to be smart about income and revenue and expenses and uh provide as much support as we possibly can for this type of program. >> We are very fortunate that one of our business courses already hits all of the standards. So that financial management course is

070unchanging that hits all the standards. That's what Mr. Sherk teaches at our high school. Um, so it's already in that business area. So adding these two other courses are just pretty much the icing for us. So >> love it. Thank you. >> Looking forward to it. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Motion passes. I'm going to take the next two together. The Lakeside Youth Service Agreement and Pennsylvania State Affiliation Agreement for student teaching. Do I have a motion? >> Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Motion passes. Motions pass. Um personnel. Does anybody want any of these um considered separately? All right. Um so we'll do them together. Extended school year 2526. We have a power professional. We're adding a middle school

071administrative assistant, home school visitor, Glenn Brown, accountant. Uh we have curriculum writers, a bunch of them. We have 26 27 athletic coaches. We have a family medical leave um request from an employee and the retirement of a cafeteria monitor, Janice Edwards. Do I have a motion? So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> I just have a question. Um >> could could uh you just remind me the curriculum writers? Um what do they do exactly? Why do we have them? because I remember it from last year. But I'm and and I apologize to about being so dense about this, but I want to um make sure I understand the like this pattern which um this is the third year. I mean well this is it happens every summer, right? Um >> it happens every summer

072if uh the curriculum is up for a right. So if it's being reviewed so there are certain um there are certain courses that will be triggered to write. So if there are new courses that are being added or uh if there are courses that are coming from off of a year of a pilot that they have to be fully written, those will be triggered. But also Dr. Tenor's work with certain content areas uh throughout the year will trigger that content area to then write what is needed. So they're either rewriting the curriculum that they already have or they're doing a full write. So, what we do is we post the um teachers will apply for the curriculum writer positions and they'll receive it. Uh the the job if there's if they're the only applicant, if

073they're the teacher of of that course, they'll be writing it. But that usually happens each summer depending on where we are with the curriculum process. >> How are they capped these like either, you know, in the in the budget or um uh by, you know, other other means? So, a rewrite is they receive 20 hours to write um a rewrite of a curriculum. For a full write, it's 40 hours and they do it $45 per hour. And that's actually in their CVA. >> Okay. Yeah. Okay. >> So, we know from a budgetary standpoint where the new classes are in the process of getting approved or if there's work being done within a department. um we know going into the budget what we have to budget for based on those numbers that I just gave you.

074Okay. So it gives us the idea. Yep. >> Thank you. >> I have I have one question also. This is there is algebra 1 A. So like we have algebra 1B also. I thought there's just one algebra 1 and then >> program of studies. Your algebra 1A course was an added additional course that was put into the program of studies back in when it was presented >> for high school. >> That's correct. >> Why is that? So, we have two one-year algebra 1 classes potentially that students would take. Is that the I mean I I'm just asking to see what's the thought. Your algebra 1A course is the course that if students are not meeting proficient I can't remember off the top of my head Dr. Chor is it if they're not hitting proficiency coming

075from normally 8th grade into 9th grade they're being placed in the 1A course >> and then they will the in 10th grade they will take algebra 1B and then at the end of 10th grade they will take keystone. There's not an algebra 1B. >> Then they go to algebra 1 >> studies right now. So they're gonna I believe, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, I believe that the plan was that from the algebra 1A course, they were going to be looking at the data to determine whether or not those students are able to then go into algebra 1. Okay. or or there would they would be proposing an algebra 1B course at the next program of studies if they feel like one needs to be added. So my understanding about how the curriculum

076is related to the course offering is what is that and you know this is probably a good uh opportunity to uh to clarify that uh if if you will was that u we don't write curriculum for every uh instant of a uh topic. the curriculum is uh something more encompassing and then you could have different sort of like manifestations of that. Let's say uh uh biology right we have one biology curriculum and then there is uh you know two different versions of bi is that not correct? If if I understand your question, you if you're writing biology um or English 10, you're not writing for an honors biology, >> right? Or or AP biology or right. So there's there's one biology curriculum that serves like three classes. The regular biology, the honors biology, and the

077AP biology, right? >> AP is differential. It's the call. >> Okay. But so we don't write it. That comes from the like gods of Right. >> Sorry. Um there is a usually a either a revision to it or we're writing it based on what that college board curriculum looks like for us and the resources that we're choosing. >> I see. Yeah. >> So, so, so, so in this case um this um algebra 1 a that's a portion of the curriculum for algebra 1 that we already have or is it sort of like new things that uh there are like gaps in the students knowledge. So in other words I'm just trying to understand whether it is like a pre-alggebra or is it algebra one? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean >> like November conversation. >>

078I will I will I will >> so >> I will not ask for an administrator. If you feel like an administrator needs to come to the podium, I assume you will uh direct them to do so. >> I am calling on Dr. Timor because I cannot follow the November conversation. >> Uh you know we one of the things we discussed so when working with the high school we wanted to make sure that uh when we had individual we identified students that may have had some remedial skills. this class was designed to help support them. So, this is going to be algebra one. They're going to follow curriculum, but it will be at a different pace. Uh it may not be at the more intensive or rigorous pace. The rigor is going to be specifically if

079we identify students that may have gaps at a young a younger age going from 8th grade to 9th grade kind of the pacing and the sequencing will be as such that we can follow to help support them. So um if there are uh individuals with skill repertoire deficits um in certain areas in math where they're solving equation or expression um or component rules uh they're able to be taught at a pace that can they'll be able to um support. >> Yeah. So so help me help help me help me understand this. So uh Miss Velocity just mentioned that uh we have one >> biology curriculum and then there are >> uh biology and honors biology. Sure. Right. Okay. But there's one curriculum for that. >> Yes. >> So, uh how is it that if this

080is just about pacing, why do we need to have two different curricula? One for algebra 1 A and one for algebra 1. >> Yeah. Again, uh if you're students who perform proficient or advanced, obviously they'll go into algebra 1. But again, if there are individuals that may not have scored proficiently based on our information and based on all of our data, there there's an opportunity for the students to um receive the pacing a at a rate that can meet their needs rather than accelerate it for such an >> I I understand that part of it. So this is let's focus on algebra 1 A. Sure. >> So is this the same topics in algebra 1 just at a different pace? >> Yes. So if that's the case, then it's not a new curriculum. It's not

081even a new rewrite of the curriculum. It's a new pacing. And that's my point is that I thought the pacing is not something that happens in the curriculum. I thought the pace is something that happens once that curriculum is uh translated into the like syllabus or uh uh what is the uh the the stuff that they you know have to do every every for every class. uh lesson plans and things like that. So it's not about uh the the content which is the curriculum. It's about sort of like how fast you apply them and give them. So that's not a new curriculum. I the reason I'm asking is that I just want to make sure that it's not a class where it's it's not a donkey that we are just uh you know painting them

082and uh you know presenting them as a uh zebra right the the content is it the content of algebra 1 or is the content pre-alggebra just sort of like called algebra 1 a >> that's what I'm trying to understand if you know the answer to that that's that would be helpful >> yeah it is going to be the the content of algebra 1 however again it's upon a teacher to differentiate instruct um within that classroom based on the skill repertoire students have to make sure that they're instructing based on the skills uh the current student has that may have not performed proficially or advanced in their assessments. >> Okay. Thank you. Um I just had a comment because I I I would also think that uh the you know the math with with with algebra

083the the pacing of the instruction cannot just be sort of disentangled from the content itself that you know they you know the pacing changes the way that the content is understood and has to be presented. It changes the curriculum. So it you can't just like there's not a little pacing dial on on a curriculum that you just turn it up. It changes it. You know, one curriculum at one pace is a very different curriculum from a curriculum at a different pace. Not the same. >> Yeah. I' I've taught maths for decades. So this I I I I understand that uh >> I've taught for decades too as you know. So >> other things not math. Uh so uh because you you I think I you implied that this is a math problem not because we

084are doing sort of like things with different paces uh for other things with one curriculum. That was the point that I was trying to kind of clarify that in other subjects and even in math I think like fourth grade math we have uh maybe like two different versions of it right uh Dr. to know and they have the same uh the same curriculum but uh one of them is math 4E and one of them is math 4 and you know the math math 4 is going faster and going uh you know to different places and going deeper maybe some some other uh differences so that that in that case it doesn't require two different career I'm just like again as I said trying to understand whether content is the same content >> yes that is

085correct um and again for example you gave if there's going to be more additional resource that may be needed uh within that content area, then that's going to be added to the curriculum or for the mapping as well too. Or there be variation or differential instruction for the pacing that needs to be remediated that may require additional uh supplemental resources. But you the content is the same but the pacing and other supplemental resources may be different. So if is there any scenario where a kid takes algebra 1 A and their algebra is now completed. >> If they take algebra 1 A, are you saying it is completed? >> Yeah. >> In these criteria, >> they they've gotten credit for algebra 1. >> I believe the way it was written, they believe they would need to

086go to al the algebra. Uh, >> so then this is a >> believe I have to correlate and double check that with Dr. Casky. >> Then this would be a pre-alggebra course. >> I I'll confirm. >> No, it's half. No, algebra 1A is half of the content. It's because of the pacing of it. They're only going to cover half of >> the content that you would in algebra one. >> Right. That's so most likely then we will need the B class. possibly depending on the numbers. Yes, because it's all based on the proficiency of the students from eighth grade coming up on their PSSAs. So, you're essentially it's it's essentially a tier one >> um course for passing the keystones. So, it's to it's to slow down the instruction ca cover half of what you

087would in algebra one and prepare them because they're still going to be taking the keystones at the end of that. It's to prepare them for that. So, you're essentially slowing down the pace and covering half of what you would in algebra one, but you're covering the content of the keystones in more depth and at a slower pace. >> Yeah. >> Which exists. >> So, it's not so it's not necessarily just the first half of algebra one. It's like a set of key concepts that are going to be tested in >> uh the PSSAs. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> This has existed in this the high school >> before. I'm I'm going to say it was like eight years ago or something that this course was in existence because they had an old curriculum to it.

088That's >> correct. >> Yes, that is correct. It did exist. Um then they removed it and they added back, but it did exist years ago in the past. >> Okay. So, back to Mrs. Demco's uh question variation of that. So, could a student take algebra 1A, take the keystone, and be done with algebra, move on to the next math? >> Believe that that's why they need to look at the data. So the answer is yes because they're going to have to look at the data to see if there are the kids that are meeting that or have to go into another >> remediation course which would be your 1B or they can go directly into an algebra one course now and repeat that or >> bunch of stuff. Yeah. >> Yeah. There's like they would

089have to determine at the data at the end of next year or after one of the classes to determine whether or not they need to have multiple pathways from that course or not. >> Yeah, I I I'll just I'll just note and this is this is saying it with support both for the curriculum and also for this plan. It's uh I'm going to say two years ago we had algebra 1 one course one semester and now it looks like we may have that content spread in two years. So two full year courses. That's the in other words we're going from half a year for the same content to two years. So and this is again it may be necessary to uh you know the point that we were making uh earlier pacing in math is

090critical is important it impacts retention it impacts uh progress so I I understand that I support that but but it's a drastic uh change you know if you look at uh you know two years ago here in this district we had students going to nth grade uh taking algebra 1 one semester course they were done with algebra 1 now there are some students who stay on that topic for two years. >> You're also talking about the students though that historically are not passing their Keystone exams because that's the >> which is why I said that I support that. Right. So this like I understand I support that. It's just you know >> what you're saying. I just don't want it out there that the graduation requirement or something has changed and it be interpreted differently

091that kids are taking now more math than they need to because these are historically the students who are not proficient and at the end of that that course they will score if they score proficient keystone their keystone exams they won't be continuing on the pathway like repeating another graduation. I just don't want it out there that they're taking we've added more math to the equation for all kids. >> Right. Right. The Yeah. The thing is that I mean the important thing about this is that when you create these pockets right it's it becomes places where uh uh the chances of students who don't belong there so like being placed there becomes higher right and that is the that is the worry that I have that you know people say yeah you know what uh you

092know we'll put you in algebra 1 A because why not we have it right whereas when we didn't have it you know we would sort of like challenge the kids uh in math you know at the level that uh was appropriate for them so It requires the counselors and everybody else in the math department to sort of like be really critical uh when they are sort of like making these decisions that uh it's not just done sort of like uh uh as a uh as as as just one of the options you know in the book. This is sort of like for for kids who really need that >> one that course is specific to the data and not teacher recommendation. So controversially, I hate to say that, but that's teacher recommendation is being removed

093from that specifically because it's PSSA data and and data data data. >> Thank you. >> Any additional comments? I have one. I just want to thank Janice um Edwards for her years of service in our cafeteria. >> Thank you. I wanted to say that to you. Thank you. >> Um all those in favor say I. >> I. I >> opposed. Motions carry. Uh facilities. Uh we have a list of surplus and obsolete items. Do I have a motion? >> Second. >> Any comments? >> I have a quick question. Is this typical cleanup that we're doing? This seems like a very long list of different uh either textbooks or materials that were many cases copywritten over 20 years ago. So, I just wanted to know if this was cleanup that we hadn't done in a while

094or if we knew anything more about this. We purposefully have uh required the teachers to have it done at a certain point of year. So we weren't having this cyclical thing happening throughout the year that we would have to store it in warehouse. So it's that's you're going to see this as a larger uh amount, but that is because they were cleaning out their classrooms and you're seeing old textbooks and lots of things from many many years ago come forward. That's >> that's fair. Thank you. Seeing no other comments. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Um budget. Anything new on our budget Dave? All things. >> Um no. I will update um the budget. I'll cut out what we talked about last time for the stadium and we'll be bringing it

095back for the next meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, Northampton County, I'm sorry, Northampton Community College billing agreement. Um, we'll take these together, the rest of the finance, unless someone would like one removed. All right. Um, we have Northampton Community College billing agreement. We have yearbook digitization and those are from two of our former classes. Empower Edendum. Um, Dunovan Group Agreement and Yearbook Consultant. Do I have a motion for those? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> The question. Sorry. >> That's >> just a question. Um, h how with the Donovan Group, um, how much how many hours do we use them these days? Um, monthly. I'm just um this you know I just would I would like to know have a feel for what actually is going on with the Donovan group these days and

096um that's all it's I know it's up to six hours right >> that's fair and if Grace can grace if you want to speak directly to any of it um this is a decrease so what you're seeing with the Donovan group it's um I think le it equals less than half of what we currently have in an agreement with them. Um the idea is and we've always known that once we had someone internally that that transition was going to happen. Um Grace has been spending a lot of her time with social media and doing a lot of the internal uh things that you're seeing obviously on social media but also out on websites and things like that. So um she's doing a lot of the internal vacuum filling shall we say. Uh but we have

097kept the Donovan group because there are larger projects that may take Grace's attention. So until we can kind of figure out how to transition those things um and you can speak directly to this and be there for just help right now from like a crisis management if something were to occur, but there are little bit of pro uh I shouldn't say a little bit bigger projects that may just take more attention and it's uh the ability to shift it to them when we need to. But Grace, if you want to talk more. >> Yeah. So right now um I do I sit on a meeting with them once a week. Sometimes it's 15 minutes, sometimes it's an hour um just to go over different things. I tried to when I came on board to take

098as much on as I could, including um the spotlight on videos and social media and really just kind of knowing that the goal is to get them, you know, to trans transition away. Um, but they've I've been able to lean on them, especially with branding and like Jamie said, some of the bigger projects. Um, but with some of the other smaller things, I've tried to take it on right from the get-go. I definitely feel like I have a better handle now and I think that will only continue to, you know, I I came into this communications role with the the the, you know, the skills I had and they're slowly morphing. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> there are a lot of hours that I'm you should speak to this, but with all of the videos that

099are put out onto the website or things that are put on social media, the hours of production that it takes for you to actually put this together is like I mean, you could spend a whole day on one three minute video. >> Yeah. And it still wouldn't be up to the par that I like because I'm a like a crazy overthinker and you know, try to get it as good as possible. Um, and even then I'll find like I should have did it this way. Um, but the family engagement videos we've done, oh my goodness, at least nine or 10. But sometimes because some of them are five, six minutes in length, they can take a very long time and coordinating with schedules and, you know, going back and forth and finding time to fit

100in with if a teacher's doing it, getting their students. So, some of those have taken a long time. Um, and um, mostly all of the social media content for the most part minus one post here or there is is me. Um, but you know, we do, especially if something comes up that's sensitive in nature, it's nice to have them. Um, you know, with the understanding that eventually the goal is to to move away. >> Yeah, that's um yeah, that would just be my hope. I mean, I I really like, you know, the relationship that we've had with Donovan Group, but um you know, the arrival of of um Grace has, you know, really changed things in a big way. And um I also feel I mean I'm confident that uh she's going to continue to

101um uh uh you know develop her professional uh knowledge and and skills. Um, I noted that, you know, recently she was going to like a conference, which is to me really a huge thing because it it kind of keeps us in the in in the middle of the bed, so to speak, when it comes to PR and so we're not doing anything weird. We're we're aware of what other districts are doing. And um and I you know I appreciate that and that and and for me that that covers a little bit that um you know that kind of apron string that's tied to the Donovan group. You know what I mean? Because we're we're getting that kind of u round knowledge of of of you know practices and standards in in public school district you

102know public relations. So anyway, I just wanted to ask about it, but thank you >> to also transition with that communication guide. I don't uh know if you remember that bill, but the communication guide where it spells out like what's being sent out publicly. So like this the spotlight on sock and videos and those sort of things, we're trying to tighten that up. So the idea was to use the Donovan group for at least one more year until that's tightened up. So, we've kind of filled so much space on social media and had Grace really go probably further than but it's all been very good, but the amount of the amount of stuff that's going out, some of it because of the production or just um the way that we're putting it out from a

103building level or district level, they've been very good with uh Grace and our team here trying to filter what can we cut back on, what's kind of um doubling up on messaging going out to just make it more concise and hopefully more manageable for Grace as well when she's taking over that fully. So that's what we're hoping that this year the Donovan group is they have been very good with us and kind of always known that we're not going to stay with them long term and the idea was to transition someone on. So they're working with us and uh working with like the agreements and stuff with us to do that. So I think this is probably going to be the last year that you're going to see this come across. >> Yeah. Thank you.

104Thank you. >> Also have a question. This is not not for you. uh pro I don't know whether Mr. Fry is doing the um yearbook stuff or is he related or not? But uh some I I just wanted to know why we are stopping at year 2000. What happens with the digitized uh versions of these? Are they going to become uh publicly available or not? Uh I know at least uh one person here on our board who has uh uh painstakingly tried to go through the old yearbooks and uh get stuff out of it. I'm talking about Mr. Brun. Uh if if this becomes uh something that is available to a uh uh to to to more people, I think that's a that's a good thing. It will make Mr. Brun's job a little easier

105maybe. I don't know. Some of them you may not have access to. So uh anyway, so this is the question is why is this stopping at 2000, year 2000? I'm assuming that you know post year 2000 uh there are a lot of uh yearbooks that probably are already digital, right? Uh no >> no no we don't have any digital copies of actually any of them. So uh the thought process here is two things. One to digitize them for uh eventual public display and people you can come back and and look at the old yearbooks but also preservation a little bit too. some of the old ones are getting uh old and uh kind of falling apart a little bit in some areas. So, being able to kind of protect them and preserve them is is

106important. So, it goes up to 2,000 at least right now. That's uh the class donations will take us the funding through that. It's a per page expense. Um so, without going through and and uh counting exactly the number of pages from 1933 to 2000, that's kind of the estimate and working with the uh company that would probably get us up to with those funds. uh and then we would have to close the gap in in the future um with some funding for that. But also um we also spoke a little bit about what that would look like in in rolling out uh your books and probably not digitizing them and posting that to the public right away uh only because we don't want to do anything that's going to affect the sales of books or

107or people buying books as well. So it probably be eventually maybe like a a four or five year gap once once people uh get through school and and being able to post them publicly. But the goal then eventually is to have them all p uh uh posted. Um we do have a full or almost full I think collection in two locations. The the high school library has a full collection and the Helertown Historical Society has a full collection. So we want to be able to uh take those find our best options um scan them and preserve them in in another area. So this is I mean the old old ones obviously are higher priority because there are fewer of them and they are u that that that's that's perfectly understandable. I I just uh you

108said one thing that I didn't uh love I should say which is that uh you don't want to impact the sale of the you know new ones. I don't care right. I mean if people are uh uh you the one one one good thing about digital the hard copy is that they get signatures of their friends and so forth and if somebody doesn't care about that uh and just wants to have the pictures of their friends and so forth you know it doesn't bother me right uh you know so I I I don't this is not something that generates any revenue for the district right this is like purely some uh you know pass through uh type of uh financial transaction and you know at the end of the day it is what it is.

109>> Question I >> um and this is uh partly for uh Mr. Fitzgerald but um are we allowed to is a district allowed to monetize access to uh old yearbook digitiz uh digitized old yearbooks. Um, I I I I would actually be in favor of that. Um, if it was if we were allowed to do that because there are services that are quite expensive and if there was a district a district-based way of monetizing access to old yearbooks. some I don't know if we're allowed to do that but but boy I would be willing to pay half you know of what I have to pay now to look at old yearbooks because it's pretty expensive you know to it I mean people profit off this they they get you know there's they're they make a

110lot of money you know I don't think there's a legal prohibition to doing that um it's probably more of a PR thing than legal yes you could do that you own you own those books you own those records to the extent you want to have a a price for access to it. That could be something the board desires to do. You you're within your prerogative as a board to do that. >> What What do we own? I don't think we own the yearbooks. They are It's a It's an outside company that produces them. >> The the books from the You're your from the 30s. >> Are we allowed to digitize them? Did a good question. Yes. >> The Okay, so you we we heard what we needed from Mr. Fitzger. I'm not going to argue

111with him. I I agree with you. uh the I think the I suspect the problem with monetizing them is that uh the cost of sort of like setting up that system is probably more than the uh revenue that you're going to uh produce as a result of that because we don't currently have any sort of anything that would sort of like uh uh process that right uh >> and ask AI to make it >> you know that's a that's not a bad idea so it's not all evil >> okay >> Bob um you said It was it was a joke joke by the way Mr. Brook was pure. >> Um you said that um we don't have digital copies of any of them. Are we keeping digital copies of our recent ones? >> To my

112knowledge no to my knowledge. >> Can we start doing that available? >> So there there's they would be digitized in a sense from the production standpoint of how they build the book. Um, but I'm not I'm not aware of it being like in a book form where you can say there's a a PDF or a link of just to put it out for view. >> Like when you get proofs, aren't isn't that like a PDF version of the book? >> It's all within the building program that they use. Um, okay. >> Yeah. >> Well, maybe you can see if you can download it. >> That'd be owned the copyright to that book. I would be surprised if we granted it to to the publisher. It's interesting that they don't offer that already. >> It it

113might be for the for the mo more recent books. It's certainly something that we're going to look into because once we get up to the the point that we have all of them, being able to just make sure that that each year is digitized, >> right, >> is is obviously the goal. Yep. >> Thank you. >> Hearing no other comments, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion passes. Um, community community updates, Helertown, Lower Sagen, Chamber of Commerce. >> Next meeting is the 16th of June. I will have an update during our next board meeting. >> Foundations. >> Okay. Northampton Community College, Miss Baxter reports that there's nothing new to report. Uh, Betham Votech, we're meeting >> next week. next week. All right. Uh are you 20? >> Yeah. So I am

114pleased to say that I attended my first meeting um just a couple of weeks ago. Two weeks ago or last week, I don't remember now, but um there was a lot of information to take in and they just had their IU prom and their IU graduation which were um both very successful things and I'm looking forward to the next meeting at the end of this month. >> Thank you. correction. Sav is meeting tomorrow. >> I thought I like next week. Okay. >> All right. Um PSBA, Don or Jay? >> Uh yeah, I actually have a couple updates here. Um starting today through the 18th, there is a PSBA policy portal training uh that is virtual. could be very helpful for us to, you know, effectively better understand how to create policy for the school district.

115Uh, that's one update. Also wanted to note that the uh state, the the House and the Senate will be returning to Harrisburg as of yesterday in order to discuss uh legislative deliberations as to the budget. Uh that is the deadline will be June 30th. So they are hopefully uh working on that currently. Also a few things to mention there, as we know, has been a house bill introduced in order to effectively have a cell phone ban uh statewide in schools. Uh the PSBA effectively is not opposed to restrictions or bans, but believe that those should be handled by the individual districts within the state. So, that's something to keep an eye out on. And I also would like to mention that uh the state senate has had a another bill introduced, state senate bill uh

1161150, which would have revisions to the Sunshine Act, whereby uh the bill would legislatively overturn the recent uh Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision in Coleman versus Parkland. Um, the PSBA did file an amicus brief, but in that decision, the court affirmed that the state law permits school boards to amend meeting agendas during a meeting with a majority vote. However, the bill would effectively eliminate that uh flexibility. So that's pretty interesting to me in terms of the Sunshine Act and it would effectively hamper our ability that bill to uh make amendments during an actual schoolboard session. So those are our updates. >> Thanks Jay. I just have a I just one clarifying point because I was going to discuss this but Jay mentioned it. Um, it's not just the House that has passed the cell phone ban

117bill. It's actually the Senate and the House have passed different versions of the bill. And so, currently they need to align on the language to send to the governor's desk, but that's where it's at right now. So, both of them have passed a bill has slightly different language. So, um, they need to probably do one more pass and negotiate who's going to change whose language. Um the the current language just to to be very quick about is that it starts in 2027 2028. It's a b-to bell ban. So there's no exceptions for students to have it in lunch or in the hallway or anything like that. And uh there is a section right now in the bill that says that school districts shall and the quote is establish the manner in which a student's possession

118of a mobile device is to be restricted during the school day while on school property. I suppose we could say that there is no manner but that that language is in the bill right now. So just to note uh PSBA to be clear was was a no on this. they actually lobbyed. No, but the but the bill passed both the Senate and the House pretty easily and the governor has already said he's in support of it. So, if they get their uh if they do align on language, I I would expect that some version of this is passing. >> Yeah. I mean I I mean I would just add absolutely we are going to have a a whenever there's a budget and whenever there there is a a a school code bill this will be

119likely included and I can assure you that there's going to be some headaches put on every school board in in the Commonwealth to either implement the Senate bill which provides as I understand it more flexibility to how we we regulate it and and flexibility within the day and then the more draconian house bill regardless it's it's going to come to to a schoolboard meeting near you. >> Wait. >> So that that needs to be reconciled before we get it. So we're not going to have a choice between >> No, we're not going to That's not how it works. >> They they are going to have to reconcile it. >> They're going to do that. So and it's back into the it's back into the Senate's hands as to whether they want to essentially approve the

120House bill. >> What's the school board pedict? Well, some dictate of either bill will have some responsibility on us to implement the the statute whether it be some additional guidance or regulation um with regard to how a a phone is possessed or not during the day. Senate bill is going to give some more discretion to the local districts as I as I've read um the description of the Senate bill versus the House bill. You're saying that you you favor the House bill because >> um if if it's purely about the amount of of headache that will be placed on school boards and what I've seen in terms of the the cell phone debates which have not generally manifested themselves here, um yeah, the House bill would be easy because you're going to be you're going

121to be forcefed it. Uh if it's about more oversight, then it'll be the Senate bill. But suffice to say that there will be a lot of uh passionate arguments on both sides. >> Also, do you have any comments about uh what Mr. Santos mentioned about the sunshine and uh all of that? Yeah. I mean, I I I I think if there's a Senate bill to to to revoke or or or minimize your ability to govern, I that was never the intent of the original statute that was put into place um back about 10 years ago. So, if they're going to do that, yeah, it is going to handcuff how school boards govern and and that is, I think, an overreach of of of the state house. I mean from your perspective what are they trying

122to do? >> They are trying to follow what the Commonwealth Court did and that was if you recall that the debate was whether there was this additional provision of the current Sunshine Act that allowed the flexibility to to modify the agenda. The Commonwealth Court said there is not and the Supreme Court said there is. So they're looking to essentially correct or or or or or or modify the decision of the Supreme Court >> over the rule the Supreme Court. >> Yeah. Which which can happen. I mean they can do that but that was never the that was never the intent I think of the original law. If you read the law if you can you can read the law now. There is this um failsafe or safe harbor provision to allow for modifications under a

123certain set of procedures. And by the way, I I'll just note that in the policy that we adopted, uh we uh we are a lot closer to sort of like that uh sense of uh actual sunshine and making sure that the transparency is uh preserved. Uh we have in our own policy we have said that we are not going to change things willy-nilly willy >> willy I wanted to say but it doesn't work that way. So uh uh but anyway, thank you. >> Yep. >> And to be clear, the PSBA is not in support of this bill. >> Of course not. >> Small partnership. >> So I I don't have any updates currently. I hope to meet with the lower uh council uh prior to next meeting. Um yeah um when I think that there

124um there will be a meeting I'm hoping in u the beginning of July um hoping with um Mr. Fry uh with uh Jay I I hope if that's you know we'll we'll see who's available um with uh principal Braer um probably um you know officials who are on the burough council or or an official on the burough council and um um the lower sen uh C council and that to discuss some kind of um pilot for fourth or fifth graders. I think that's something that we have to talk about. Um that um is a voluntary, you know, cultural program that allow that leverages some of the historic and science related and um cultural uh resources in the valley to kind of spark interest in community learning for for children, especially in in times like the

125summer, you know. um uh where sometimes there's the they call it the summer slide, you know. Um so, you know, h how this would work, all that is up in the air. Um it would it it would be basically a supplementary program, maybe something that works with like a stamp book or like um QR codes or something like that. um where children are encouraged to um I mean just to give you an example like I was um in Demick Park uh yesterday making myself walk and um I saw that swailes the the the swailes you know the big nerdy swailes >> um placard which you know I I was like what the heck is this doing here? It's like it's a kind of it looks like a textbook, you know, and um I don't know

126who wrote it. It's very nerdy, you know, and that would be a great thing for kids to check off their list, you know. Did you read about the swailes over in, you know, because I I didn't know about that. And you know, I met one of the people who worked on some of the geological signs on the on the path on the talking about a rail trail and um it was amazing and those would it might be a way to help you know some of our students get more interested in you know their academic work if they're able to use some of the resources that are in the community. So, so that's I mean, you know, so that's the hope. In in July, maybe we can have an actual meeting. So, we're working towards it,

127>> right? Thank you, >> Bill. Just for clarification, the is it the summer between fourth and fifth grade or are you is it >> I don't think we know. We would have to ask you, too. >> Yeah. I Well, I was just wondering too because I heard you say that your Mrs. Braxmire was being looped in. So, if it included fifth grade that uh Mr. Howard >> Yeah. No, I mean I think that's the I think that you know I I think the concern is that if the children get too old they become kind of too cool for school and and you know they might not be interested in getting a stamp book filled or something. So you know so I I don't think anybody knows for sure but we have to have the meeting.

128So >> all right uh we have no board director initiated items. We have no citizens present this evening. any additional board comments? >> I mean, I I did I'm sorry, but I'm a lot tonight. >> Um I I wanted to ask kind of a a sort of like a blunt question like when are the next big times that our test scores come out? like when when can I I feel like I'm I'm I'm not aware enough about when I need to be paying attention to new um scores coming out. When will we know this year um how things are going? You know, >> I believe the release date, unless they change it next week, which may happen, you never know. Uh is June 12th. And so that is for the >> district should have the

129access to their PSSA reports. >> Okay. >> Those aren't the final ones though, right? Is that just >> the final ones? Those would be the initial ones that we would look over before they release it. So we would have the preliminary data. Um and then we have the end of the year data that they would have for their MAP scores and the stuff that we do internally. Um, so we would bring as soon as we have access to everything that we need, we would bring that data to you as an >> as we did with the presentation. So >> Okay. That's that's very helpful. Thank you. >> No problem. >> How about high school data? >> What's that? >> How about the high school data? >> The Keystones should be there, too, on the 12th.

130Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> But not the APs. >> The APs? No, they usually come a little later. I want to say it's the end of July. >> Yeah. >> Seeing no additional comments. >> I have one comment. Sorry, I didn't know I didn't know if my sound cut out or if it was just me. Just a quick comment because I know that I've heard people talk about it in the past about like why with all the reading issues, why programs like Book It don't exist anymore and for a variety of reasons, they aren't done during the main school year. But there is a summer book program that you can sign up if your child is from K through six and if you log their reading every day, they get free Pizza Hut pizza. Not an

131advertisement for Pizza Hut, but the program still exists, but only in the summer. So, you know, if you want to go if you're interested in summer reading or incentivizing your student to summer read. >> Okay. I was I wasn't sure there was Pizza Hut around here anymore. I don't know. Maybe someone knows better than I do. >> There there's a few. Yeah, there are a few. >> Oh, okay. All right. So, sign up. I'm sure the library has some as well. Um some programs. Thank you. Um announcements. business meeting on June 23rd, 2026 and July 14, 2026. Um, seeing no more business, I call the meeting adjourned. Thank you >> for fire.