001She is online. Mrs. Megan Lowman Gino. >> Present. >> Mr. Jay Santos. >> Is he still on? >> Dr. Shireen Paxon. >> I'm present. >> Dr. Jay Christiansen Tattoo. >> Here. >> And Mrs. Vivian Demko. >> Here. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion passes. Um announcement of executive session. We discussed the superintendent goals as well as um budget contract issue and personnel. Um May I have a motion to approve the minutes of March 10th? >> So moved. >> Second, Detmar. >> Any discussion? Questions? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion passes passes. Recognition we have none. I don't believe our high school
002students here tonight. No. All right, so we'll go on. We have a presentation from Mr. Adam Lazarchick from Bethlehem Area Vo-Tech. Please. Good evening, Adam. >> Good evening. Okay, so we have the budget for the 2026-2027 school year. Uh as normal or usual I should say is the majority of the um expenditures fall under personnel salaries and employee cost make up usually around 75% of the overall budget. Uh seconded by our supplies, tax, and software costs. So, increased expenditures for 2026-27, uh you can see salary and benefits are up by 1.371 million. Um building operation cost up by 13,486. Supplies are up by almost 84,000, and then other expenses about $66,000 with a total increase of uh 1,535,316, which is a net increase over last year's budget of a 10.13% or an overall expenditure budget
003of a 17,093,54. In terms of the revenues, um the changes in revenues, we have a a small decrease in local revenue, and that is just cuz we've altered uh we normally have money that are donated come donated in, and we budget normally about 100,000, but we've never really reached that mark, so we cut that back to 75, so we're seeing about a $25,000 uh decrease in local revenue. Uh we are in it's an increase in state revenue by 437,555, and increase in federal revenue of 23,219 or a total change of 435,774. So, when you put that against our expenditures, we're seeing an increase required to the districts of uh 1,099,542. And when we take a look at the proposed budget and funding formula, so uh when we're looking at that 1,099, it's actually a 9.38%
004increase back to our districts. So, a couple of numbers that um come into play is anything that's a capital project is based on market value trend. These numbers don't shift too much, as you can see, Saucon Valley has hovered around that 11.15 number over the 3 years for uh an average of 11.15. So, that doesn't change too much. Uh really the significant change in terms of contribution to budget comes down to enrollment over a three-year average. So, when you're taking a look at say Saucon Valley, uh your number really didn't change too much because um your 117 came off from last year's budget and was replaced by 117. So, you're averaging 110 students over a three-year rolling average. And then to put that into context, you can see that uh Bethlehem and Northampton have actually
005seen lower numbers fall off their three-year average replaced by much higher numbers. So, um that then brings Oh, I'm sorry. Is that slide for those who can't see it? Uh so, when I'm taking a look at your uh contribution for this year's budget, so Saucon Valley's contribution is a 9.1% uh slightly lower than last year's 9.8% And how what that comes down to is if we're taking a look at the increases, actually your uh increase back to the district is a 2.10% or $24,000 more than what you um contributed last year. Any questions? >> Well, I was only just going to ask. >> Anyone? >> I just I just have a general question. I not I understand that our numbers 2.1 whatever, but what was the largest driver for a 10% increase on your end?
006>> Uh well, we are adding some staff during the expansion cuz we do have some positions we're bringing on boarding uh next year 26-27. And then the other part, and I'm sure most of our districts have faced this, health care cost. So, we had about an 18% increase from our health care um cost. >> Thanks. >> Yep. >> Anyone else? Could you give a little bit of background on the building and where we are, the Southside? >> Uh yeah, I was just down there today. So, uh it's funny. I mean, if you've ever been in the building, it's it's pretty big. It's like a long hallway, but now a lot of it's been kind of taken out and gutted and now it really looks like a long hallway. I mean, it looks looks like you
007need to ride in a in a golf cart to go down, but uh but it's all opened up now. They've got the elevator trench dug. They've poured the foundation for that. They've opened up There's each room needed to be opened up so that it could create one whole classroom. Uh so, they're they're humming along down there right now. So, they're slightly behind schedule, but that's cuz they're waiting for some steel to come in. They expect to make up that time once once the steel comes in. >> Anyone else? All right. Thank you very much. >> All right, excellent. Thank you. >> Dr. Wolf, please. Again, apologize for the delay in getting started. >> No, no, no. I was just I I don't think I could do my presentation as quickly as Adam just did. >>
008I'm sorry. Didn't know. >> Perfect. All right. All right. Well, thank you for having us come out tonight. I'm also here with Dr. Bartek, our assistant to the executive director for student services. So, we're actually going to split the presentation. I'm going to do the budget part. She's going to do the fun part. Um You want to do the budget part? No. All right. So, um just our mission and our vision, um you know, biggest thing is relationships, responsiveness, and results. It's what we always strive to do at IU 20. Um you could see there, I think I've shared the slide last year, just the the scope of IU20 with 13 school districts, three career centers, five charter schools, 52 non-public schools, um, just the number of students that we serve um, on an annual
009basis. And we are um, one of the largest providers, if not the largest provider, in providing direct services out of any IU across the state. The general operating budget is just one of 55 budgets. It's a very small budget, um, comprises 1.6% of our revenue, which equals about 301, uh, over just of the 301 million. So, it's a really small part, but it's the base budget that supports the core operations of of, uh, the IU. So, the executive director's office, the business office, HR, this is a budget that's in prepared in collaboration with our IU20 board, um, with Dr. Paxson. He's part of that. Um, also discussed with our superintendents, and then we come out and we share that, and we look for support from all of our school districts, um, on this budget. All
010your other budgets are really, you know, in services are services that you pretty much agree to or request from us, and you have that control. Like, I think there's something on the agenda tonight for some, uh, behavioral services. Again, that's a separate contract. You're asking us for that service. You vote yes or no if you want that. This budget is more of a contribution and support across the region. So, you can see this budget, uh, 4.6 million dollars. Um, it is an overall 5.99% increase, or $256,000. And we are asking this year for an increase in contribution from the districts of 3.5%. I'll explain to you what that looks like in dollars in a future slide. What's driving our costs? Salaries. Um, salaries budget at 3.2% for our administration, um, pretty much across board for
011all of our employees. Um medical has been up about 20%. Um you just heard uh Adam talk about medical for for Babbit's. Pretty much across the region, across the state, everybody's kind of battling right now with medical costs. Um our salaries do make up and benefits make up 87.7% of our budget. So, it's it's staff intensive. We don't have a lot of fluff. Um we did have a little bit of increase in PEACERS contribution, social security increase, and we did increase non-salary and benefit items by 1.5%. So, some of the people we do business with they're increasing their costs, so we had to adjust that cost. So, those are the cost drivers. Balancing the budget, um looking at receipts, some extra revenue from IU other sources, um some interest, so John, our business manager, um
012has been, you know, looking at investments with interest, and we use some of that interest to offset the budget costs, well, some from social security and retirement, and support from withholding. You can see there over the past 8 years, we try to keep these increases as low as possible. We had a couple years where we were able to do 0%. Seems like we're we go 2 years with zeros, then we ask for a little bit of an increase. Um not that I can say that 2027-2028's going to be a zero for the next 2 years. We'll try, um but you can see there over 8 years, you know, we're we're around um a 1.24% increase, 1.13% increase in both areas. So, we do try to keep this this as lean as possible. You can see
013there where the revenue's coming in from last year to this year with the net change. And that extra revenue reflects what the expenditures are, and you can see across those line items um where those expenses are. If you really want to get into the weeds and the detail, um you do have your booklet that was sent out to you that really goes line by line with everything that's in here. And certainly, if there was anything in here that stood out to you, that you said, "Hey, this looks a little off." Certainly, um you could ask me those questions, or if you look at it later and you have that question, you can let um Jamie know, and Jamie certainly can reflect that to me and I can get back to you on those questions. So,
014overall, when you look at it, Saucon Valley's increase is 24,000, or their your contribution to the general operating budget is is a little bit under uh is around $24,500. That 3.5% increase represents an increase of $828. Next steps is really looking for approval from our 13 school districts for the general operating budget. When we get that approval, we take this budget back to our IU 20 board for final approval, and then we have to send it into the state um by May 1st. So, those are really the next steps. And I will pause right there for questions on the general operating budget, and then I'll turn it over to Jackie. >> I have a question. Um And you may you may not be able to answer this, but um the medical costs that seem to
015be going up everywhere, um um do you have any understanding of why that's happening? Like, as I understand, part of it is because of the injectables, you know, and um uh in the last couple years, um injectables for weight loss have incredibly increased medical costs for um um but does that impact something like the the the the IU? >> Absolutely. Yeah, 100%. So, um with with the current contract, um our our all of our staff um do get coverage um for the injectables for weight loss um and that has been a cost driver certainly across all the school districts across the state. Everybody's kind of talking about it. Initially when the injectables came out for weight loss not a lot of people were were using it. They kind of it was new but also because
016it was new to the market the pharmaceutical companies they they have the they have kind of the hold on the market so they can increase those costs and there's a certain amount of years that those costs kind of stay there before they have to kind of give away their trade secrets to everybody and then that's where a lot of generic starts to come out or the competition starts to bring down that cost. So we're still kind of in this phase where the pharmaceutical companies really can kind of control that cost and keep it really really high but now as those weight loss injectables are becoming more popular more and more people are using them. So what we've seen and and this is trust wide this is across the state is that I mean we they're
017they're seeing increases of almost $500,000 $1 million dollar increases because more and more people are using these. So really the only way that you can control that is to really kind of reopen your contract and do something different with the coverage of of those type of you know injectables or there might be measures you can put in place to put more restrictions like maybe you have to you know adjust your BMI or something like that to to kind of qualify for those. So there are things that you can do in your plan design change. It's actually something right now with our teachers contract. You know those are some of the things that we're looking at as far as what what health care costs we can cover and and moving forward. But that's the time to
018make those changes. >> But if there's if there's all this weight loss that's apparently going on isn't health supposed to get better? >> That's the plan with injectables is to to get your your weight loss to a certain a certain level and then be able to shift over to kind of healthy habits, right? And out there your nutrition, walking, you know, exercising, those type of things. Um in most cases that's that's the plan. So there are some things that are in place that with um you know, when you go for to your primary care, you get the script, you know, and and having to get those scripts, you know, kind of renewed and they look at the different factors. Um certainly complicated. The other complication with it is if if you try to adjust, like
019maybe increasing your copay for those, what happens is then that could possibly affect your rebates that you're receiving on these drugs from the pharmaceutical companies. So it is a very very complicated trying to figure out how to manage those costs. Believe me, I've been working with Conrad Siegel to try like what's the magic formula, right? To try to work this. >> But but it helps us at least give some explanation for what's happening cuz I I'm I'm amazed at the fluency with which you're able to talk about this cuz I clearly this has been something that you you've thought about, right? I mean it's you're very aware of which is interesting to me. >> Yeah. Well, and part of it is I'm chair of the EPTAB Health Trust, so I have to somewhat understand this
020too as part of the chair of the Health Trust. Um the other thing is just experience. So like we've had a little bit of difficult experience. We've had some some people that have had some tough situations with some high claim costs. Um you know, if you have someone in your in your uh school district that, you know, has been diagnosed with cancer and now they're working on maybe like experimental treatment, those costs really go high and and you take the we take most of the burden on that, right? Um cuz cuz we're covering most of those costs. Um the other thing that, you know, is higher use. So, you know, now that we kind of came out of COVID where people were a little bit worried about going to the hospital cuz they're worried about
021getting sick, now that kind of that has kind of filtered away, people are back to going back to the hospital or maybe catching up on things like, "Hey, I had this surgery. I delayed it, but now it's kind of safe, so now I'll do it." So, we're kind of It's like a perfect storm in in the medical that that's really challenging for everybody. >> Thank you very much. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Just a quick question here. >> Yes, but could I follow up on Bill's first before we get off that topic? And then you can be next. I sit in on the trust and I thought they weren't covering the injectable weight loss. Could you check on that? I thought they weren't. I thought they stopped that. >> No, so for the for the So,
022so everything in in at least the IU 20's health trust, the AB 10 health trust >> Yeah, I sit on that the Humboldt Tech, so I'm at those meetings. >> Yeah, so so it really depends on your individual >> Oh, I see. >> and then your plan design and how you work through that. >> So, some don't cover it while others do. >> So, some have things in place, yep, that don't cover it, but others have not done anything. >> So, you're saying the IU has not? >> So, we have not yet. Those are some of the conversations that we're talking about. Really, the time to do it is when you have contracts expiring because now you can start to negotiate and talk about those type of things, right? Is, you know, let's look at
023things like premium share, copays, you know, those type of things. Now is the time to to do that. Um, but it's also important that you're working with like your actuary like a Conrad Siegel kind of getting, you know, kind of information on projecting out what are those costs going to look like in the next 5, 6 years. What are some of the things that we can do to help support those those costs back at home. >> Thank you. Thank you. Please. >> So, this is I'm going to also ask a question about that. So, no no no no no. I I I had another question, but since you opened the door, I just want to sort of like ask that question. The drug coverage, is it a whitelist or blacklist? Things that are excluded or
024excluded or are they included by default unless they are excluded? >> Yeah, so they they kind of fall on different coverages. So, like you you kind of have kind of medications that are on like generic, right? Kind of very low cost. Then you have like your formularies that are kind of a little bit more specific to brand names. And then you have your non-formulary which kind of that's where it falls in with more of like the real high specialty drugs, the experimental drugs. >> So, >> Did I answer that? Is that what you >> Well, I mean I'll I'll I'll ask more questions. So, let's say tomorrow Pfizer announces a a new a new drug. >> Mhm. >> Would that be uh included in the coverage or would that be excluded unless it's included? >>
025So, I don't know the answer to that specific question. I would have to look into that. What I think happens is, you know, at least for us, we use a company through the trust called Express Scripts. So, they help us kind of manage what kind of falls in line with the formulary, non-formulary, generic. They kind of help to manage that and manage those costs. >> I mean that's that's one aspect of it. The the generic versus non-generic and so forth. But this is the the reason I'm asking is that again, I mean the Pfizer example, you know, let's say tomorrow there's something and the cost is I don't know a million dollars per dose and you have to do it, you know, every day, right? And it's you know, creating wonders, right? But this is
026the the health care plan that you have. Does it include that by default unless you sort of like open the contract again and say that this one is excluded or is it out unless the next time that you have the contract open you bring it in. I'm asking this because it's obviously important you know with case like this. I don't think anybody in any of their contracts here you know in the schools or other parts of the the sort of like broader enterprise specifically said that we are going to include you know with Olympic right? They did not say that this was sort of like you know just you know crept in uh uh by by some some default and especially for for the big one. I mean like there was there there is the
027diabetes uh sort of like applications which I I don't think you know anyone would want that to uh to go away but uh anyway that's that's it. That's a question to just wonder. The the real question that I had is uh is about the budget. So what you presented here and by the way thank you very much always very clear and uh uh and concise. So uh is that this is sort of like almost nothing compared with what we actually pay you right? And when I say you I mean the IU. So do you do you have the sort of like that other number if not for next year for last year as in you know $24,000 is not worth your coming down here. There is a like $3 million you know check that we
028sent to IU every year right? And do you know what that number is or what magnitude is so that everybody will >> He knows the special ed at least special ed cost right now. >> I don't have that number with me. >> I can I can ask this guy but he's going to send it to some >> You have it? >> I'm just giving him a hard time. It's okay. Yeah the the reason I asked this is that so so that the public knows that this number is not what Saucon Valley spends on on IU. >> Correct. >> This is just like your salaries and Jackie's and you know a few people who are up there in the in the in the office. >> The base the base kind of or operations. >> Yeah. With
029with all the services what we budgeted for this year was 1 million 455,253. >> This year as in 20 20 >> 25 26. We don't have the new numbers yet for next year. >> almost? >> Yeah. >> So and that number does fluctuate, right? Based on services. So you know, if if you want more services, it's going to go up. If you want less services, it'll probably go down. Now we are looking at rate increases. And you know, where we're at right now and what I think John, our business manager has shared is to at least start to put in as like a kind of a number to to be safe with around 4.5%. >> Right. >> Um so it is a it is a little higher than what we normally do. Um but again,
030what we're looking at with that 4.5 is we're anticipating with contract negotiations, you know, where that might land with with our our teachers' contract, our Act 93 and then you know, even projecting out with our support next year and our transportation. I will share that across the region um where we were 4 years ago is we got our contract to be around the average. And we projected that contract to kind of withhold through the average. Um but over the course of the 4 years some of our school districts in our region have escalated those compensations to their teachers. So we now are are kind of below the average again. We're out of the 13 school districts, we're we're in like the bottom three or four. Um so I think what happened is I think because
031of the shortage with personnel, I think school districts probably said, "Hey, we need to retain, we need to attract. Let's get a good healthy contract here." Um and that has now kind of put us down at the bottom. So, so we have some ground to make up just to get to back to the average. Um so, that's kind of why we're projecting a little bit higher of an increase than normal. >> I I have two more questions. One is based on what you just said, which is that has that impacted your retention uh uh filling open positions and the services that the students and families receive? >> So, we we're doing better than we've ever done before. So, even though we do have vacancies, we have we have gaps. We have a couple teacher vacancies,
032we definitely have power professional vacancies, we have some one-to-one vacancies, um some speech and language therapists, some of the tough positions to fill. >> Two psychologists, psychiatrists. Well, yeah, yeah, we're working on that. Um so, we do have we do have vacancies. However, our staffing is better now than it was prior to COVID. So, some of that is due to some of the partnerships that we have with the universities um and actually kind of growing our own. So, looking at our power professionals that have worked in the field, that have that experience, and then working with the universities to get them through some of their programs to get their teacher cert. So, many of our special education teachers were power professionals for us. We're not hiring a lot of people from the outside. Um and
033then we're kind of attracting power professionals into the field because they're saying, "Hey, I can build a career pathway at Colonial IU 20." Um so, so we've been pretty fortunate with our partnerships and our work um to to help with retaining and even kind of recruitment of of staffing. >> Last question and I I don't know whether you're the right person to answer that, Dr. Bartek or Mr. Bonnenberger. The $1.5 million that you mentioned, that's for how many students? >> I don't have that on me right now. I can look while Dr. Bartek presents. I probably will something up. >> That's That's good enough. >> Yeah. Yeah, or I can send that information to to Jim. >> If you can look it up, that's perfect. If not, if you send it, that's great. >> Absolutely.
034>> I have a follow-up question to you. Is it okay by um um is there a way for me to or somewhere where I can kind of look at Saucon's contribution uh and how it compares to uh the other contributors to the district. Is there um Is that on there somewhere? Okay, sorry. >> look in your booklet on page 14 um you'll see there the 13 member districts and then you'll see the contribution from all the districts. >> Great. Thank you so much. Sorry about that. >> Yeah, no problem. Yeah. I think you're 10 out of 13. >> That's That's based on size. That's based on size size? >> It's based on size. It's based on um your market value. There's a formula that we actually get from Harrisburg that says this is how we
035calculate that out. So, yeah. >> That one is not based on services. Basically, that's the That's a membership fee to the club. >> Yep. >> Right. You can You can go all the way. You can never use the services. That's just to be a part of the consortium, you have to pay that. >> Yeah, so what you're getting for that is is also things like some of the professional development that we offer um that you're not paying for. So, some of that professional learning. Um you know, and and some of those things come with this funding that we get through the state that flows through here to then provide professional development back to your school district to your staff. >> Well, did that answer your question or were you looking at how much we expend
036on services in comparison to other districts? Mr. Brune. >> Uh, so sorry. I'm I'm I was reading this and trying to figure it out. >> answer your question or were you >> Yeah, I mean it >> Yeah, in short it does. Yeah. Yeah, I don't >> interested in how much we spend versus other districts for not just being part of the club >> Well, and also understanding the way that the waiting works. >> Okay. >> Cuz it's sort of meaningless without understanding that. That's why I was Sorry, that's why I was trying to figure this out and um, but this is very helpful. This um, this is all I need really. I appreciate it. >> Yeah, and I think in the Q&A there's like a question and answer. There might even be an question and
037answer of how that's how that that works off the look. But if you want to know more about the market value, I'll get that information from Mr. Wallach, our business manager. He understands those calculations better than I do. Okay. Any other questions on budget before I turn over to Dr. Bartek? She gets to do the fun stuff. >> Okay, not hearing any. We're ready to move on. >> ready Dr. Bartek? Okay. Yeah, I can pull it up quick. >> Well, thank you again for having us. And we always like to come and show a few highlights um, of a celebration of the services that we provide to your students and all the other local school districts. Um, so we always like to start with early intervention because as an intermediate unit, we serve students in
038our IU 20 region from age 3 to age 22 now. Um, so with those EI services, every year we service at least 2,500 students or more um, in EI classrooms that we run, but really focusing on that least restrictive environment and providing those services as push-ins to Head Start State cares kindergarten registration, we have a little over 600 students transitioning from EI to kindergarten and we work very closely with all your school districts to help on those registration um, giving that information to your families. Um, we really focus on literacy, um, instructional coaching and positive behavioral supports. We wanted to highlight one of our school age programs tonight. We wanted to highlight our partial hospitalization program. Um, it was established in the early 1990s. Um, and IU 20 was um, kind of the first IU
039to start those partial hospitalization program services. Um, we are the largest um, provider of those services for our districts. And it really is beneficial to our districts because your students who need that mental health support and treatment get to stay within the region of the IU 20 at least. Um, and they get to be in a school building where they could still be with their peers, still be part of their um, academic instruction, but at the same time get that mental health support they need from a psychiatrist and mental health treatment specialist. So we can work with them, the students, the families and the districts on those mental health needs and discharge them successfully most of the time um to come back to your school dis- district buildings. If we didn't have all of those
040programs that we have and we had 20 partial hospitalization um classrooms across from um Rowe in Northampton County, it would be a very costly service for our districts for those students that may need those mental health and academics um because of transpor- transportation outside of the IU 20 region, residential facilities, hospitalization, that can be really costly to the districts. So, having those partial hospitalization programs here where we can all partner and meet the academic and the mental health medical needs at the same time is really a win-win for the students, the families, and our districts and helps keep our districts costs down. >> We wanted to highlight our professional learning department a little different this year um and make sure all of our board members know the impact it has on your students. Um just
041alone um this year um we serve about 600 of your students through Junior Tech Leaders um the media and design competition, regional academic competitions. So, you have your students come um sometimes our events at Northampton Community College at IU 20, but we really wanted to highlight those activities that your students get to attend with other students in our region to build relationships, share their creativity, their academic success, and be innovative with their projects. And lastly, we'd like to share our Local Task Force 20. Um so, local task force, every intermediate unit across, um, Pennsylvania has a local task force. Local task force has been in place for many, many, many years, but it kind of lost its like thunder and and participation over across the state of Pennsylvania. We are thankful that our local task
042force, um, has been very supported by our families attending, some of our districts attending, but our, um, Bureau of Special Education really did a revamp and building capacity with our local task force across the state of Pennsylvania to ensure that all the LTFs have participation. Um, we are proud of our model because it is a success model that we get to share across the state with other IUs. Through the building capacity, um, there's a three-day training over the summer and then there's been a couple other meetings throughout the school year to share successes, create goals and action plans to really increase the participation of families, but at the same time increase the participation of the school district, um, directors of special eds, special ed supervisors attending those meetings and help listening to families about some
043concerns, sharing resources. Um, so, we want to thank, um, Victoria. Um, Victoria has been part of our team that we created, um, to go through this year's building capacity of the local task force. I can say that it has increased, um, our district attendees, which is really nice, and we have, um, increased our family attendance, as well. And befo- >> Okay. So, Mhm. Sorry, Dr. Bartek. So, last year, just just in total of number of kids served, um aggregate-wise, um in our programs, it was 36 students. So, 11 in autistic support, four in emotional support, six life skills support, five MDS, and partial hospitalization. Um right, this year currently, 34. So, you're kind of on track of very similar numbers. Um emotional support partial sometimes grows throughout the year. So, you know, those kind of
044numbers, kids are entering in and out, a little bit more transient. For itinerant services last year, which includes like your hearing, um occupational therapy, O&M, which is orientation mobility, physical therapy, speech and language, vision, um we served 82 students um with those type of itinerant services. This year, we're currently at 71. Again, that number grows, um as the year goes through. And then, Fluvanna Academy, last year was five students. This year, currently is three students. So, that's around your aggregate number um of where you're at as far as numbers. >> Thank you very much. >> Yep, you got it. >> Right. And before we get to um the video, I just want to share um the 20. It is our monthly article that we share highlights, what's going on in our region, um staff spotlights,
045and some of your student success. So, there is a QR code if you would like to join and receive our monthly 20 newsletter. All right, I might need some help from Mike with the video. Sorry. >> Time and time again. There's all nights. I've stayed asleep. Cuz I don't want to leave the comfort of this place. But there's a hunger longing to escape from the life I live when I'm awake. So let's go there. Let's go down to sleep now. Let's go there. Let's all go to sleep. >> All right. Would like the world to change. It parallels with you. Appreciate those nights and those dreams. But my friend, I've sacrificed all those nights fighting me. Your sin might be the same. The world here here fell still. Let love replace all of me. Let
046me get over there. It's out of sync. Let's go there. Turn off the sound. Let's go there. Turn off the sound. >> the end of our presentation. So, thank you so much for having us tonight. Any questions? >> Thank you. I'm I have some questions, so Thank you very much. Thank you both. Um I wanted to ask um I I had one general question. How How does the How are I independent units in Pennsylvania? How are they evaluated in terms of quality? Like how do they How do we compare one unit to another unit and get a sense of its quality versus another one, you know? >> Yes, I I don't think you're thinking out there. Um I will share that uh you know, with both many of our programs, especially like our health programs,
047are audited several times throughout the year for compliance. So, we we go through all those audits. Um we find standards our academy. We have licensing programs that uh we go through those credit audits. Um looking at all of our services, our intervention program, we go through them step by step by the state. They will step by step by the state. We have to see this stuff that we have to comply with. And then we have that evaluated by the federal government. So, they do that. So, they go through those step by step things. Everything are kind of audits and check-ins with the state. Uh state on the federal level. The school district they get kind of audited as well. >> But in terms of the achievement, there's not like a I I guess I'm trying
048to say is how good is this independent unit versus another one? Like how do I know that? Like how do I know That's what I worry about. It seems impossible to say. >> Basically I see the main part of the grading school leaders together in agreement for the meeting. >> M- Ms. Demko C- Could Could Dr. Wolfel please uh speak to the mic so that >> Thank you. >> So, so like a lot of the base, what you see with that general operating budget, is really kind of our role as a liaison with the Department of Ed. So, bringing the school leaders together from the different factors, whether it's superintendents, curriculum directors, special ed, getting information, taking it back to the state, the state giving us information, driving that out, um as well as um
049the professional development through our training and consulting. So, kind of there's initiatives to the state that drives out. Some IUs, that's their base operation. That's That's kind of what they do. That's all they're required to do. Um where us, we we have really kind of got into providing um more student services, direct services, whether they're through programs, itinerant services, um driver's education, running the internet, um you know, the health trust. So, we have kind of we kind of really grown with all the different types of things that we're doing um at our IU, which is different again uh compared to IUs Every IU is a little bit different. I mean, just little kind of thing. We Our our board has uh been sometimes uh confronted with the the the the the quality of special education
050that is being offered to students in the district. I'm not saying the board has been blamed or anything like that, but there's it seems like when there are questions about the quality of special education, uh it's hard to find like one point of accountability. Um um but we ultimately are accountable. Um but how do we know what kind of product that we're getting, you know what I mean? Because for that we're contracting, and I'm just trying to learn more about it myself, you know, it's not I it doesn't I don't have to get that answer today. I've just It's a question that I I've had. Um um I had a second question, too. Um With autism, the the number of students uh, uh, uh of the students that we send from Saucon Valley, um, the
051the greatest number were under the heading of autism, and it was it was significantly more than other kinds of, uh, students. Is that uh is there is it possible for us to get, uh, um, a kind of at some point a breakdown of what different kinds of autism uh, um, are are are we talking about? Because there's clearly autism is not a monolithic, um, you know, um, um, >> diagnosis >> phenomenon. Diagnosis, um, it it it there there are a lot of different kinds of autism, and um, for me at least it would be helpful to know you know, what our district what what where in our district were, um, um, especially in need. You know, that's, um, and that would be a question that I'd be interested in, so. >> Yeah, I mean I
052mean the the kind of the the quick and dirty answer is, um, you know, those 11 students, 13 students are are most likely being provided services in a classroom-based autistic support program. Um, well, some of those students might be with us all day, some of the students might be with us part of the day going out into general ed, um, you know, with support, what have you. Um, for some of your students that are maybe more high incidence, um, so, you know, cognitively more communicative, those type of things, um, we're probably not servicing those kids. You're probably servicing those districts within your own school, where we might be coming in to help support is through our training and consulting department that comes out and maybe provides a little bit of of professional development on different
053strategies, um, for inclusive practices, and then maybe some coaching. >> And then the last question I had is temp uh, when somebody has a temporary certification to um, how common is that and is it on the rise or is it going down? Do you consider it Do you consider it something that's problematic if it's you know, is it helpful? I'm just trying to learn what your attitude about that is uh, from from the perspective of administrators of the colonial or of the independent unit? >> Yeah, so I would say with shortages across the state and the need for special education teachers, emergency certificates are on the rise. They are higher. Um, so that's something that is is a challenge. Um, you know, and and quite honestly, if you don't have a special ed teacher, whether
054they're you know, certified coming out of a university, going through the program or emergency certified, if you don't have the teacher, you don't have a program. So the kids need to get educated somewhere. Um, now what we have done through our intermediate unit is when we are looking at emergency certifications, we're trying to be very thoughtful about looking at at our staff that have been paraeducators, that have worked in the classrooms, that at least have some base understanding kind of some of the the I would say the grit because these are tough programs. They're they're challenging. Um, sometimes we get people fully certified out of a college and they walk into our classrooms and they go, I didn't sign up for this. This is too difficult and they they resign. They'll go into a learning
055support classroom. >> I'm sure of that at at their at Kutztown and ESU or wherever they're coming from. Shouldn't they have had some exposure to the the profession, sure. >> In in field in field experiences? >> Yeah, but until you're in the field, until you're working in a classroom, you really it's it's different um until you're in it. Um I can even go back to 25 years ago when I came out of Penn State, felt fully prepared to walk into an elementary autistic support classroom, and within the first day, I was kind of like, "Holy cow. I didn't learn this at Penn State. They didn't tell me this one." So, you're kind of learning um as you're kind of working through. Um and you know, and getting those supports from our supervisors, um some of
056our training consulting programs, and you know, working together. Um so, but we've tried to really focus on our power professionals. Because they at least have been in the classrooms, they have some background experience. Um they know what it takes to work in an IU 20 classroom. >> Okay, thank you. >> May I? >> So, I have a few questions that are actually related and inspired by what Mr. Brune asked. So, one is that and you may know the answer to that. What percentage of the teachers at IU are emergency certified? Do you know? >> I don't have that number off hand. >> 1 2%? 10 20%? I mean >> I wouldn't want to throw out a number if I don't have the actual fact number. So, I would have to check with Dr. DeFelis. >>
057I can get that number over to Jamie. >> Fantastic. Uh the second question is uh and you kind of like alluded to that in response to Mr. Brune's question about uh uh the maybe like the support, right? So, you you talk about supervisor. There's one thing that is happening in the uh in in the schools like like ours, which is that there is a large community of support for the new teacher, whether the new teacher is like brand new out of Penn State or uh emergency cert or whatnot, there are a lot of other teachers. There are mentors who are there in their building, right? So, you know, we have a new third grade teacher, there is another third grade teacher who is like literally next door who is the who is the mentor. There
058are the supervisors and uh uh administrators who are again like right down the hall hallway. And that community helps a lot in sort of like that teacher acclimating and being able to sort of like get to the place that they want to be. Now, the nature of the uh operation that IU has is different, right? In the Colonial Academy, you have maybe like more of that, uh but it's still sort of like not like a school like like we we we don't have a big school, but but still uh you know, 40 teachers in each of the buildings, maybe a little more than that. Whereas in Colonial, you don't have 40 teachers, right? You have many fewer than that, but there are supervisors and so forth. Uh so, that's sort of like a little comparable.
059But as soon as you're sort of like out of that setup, uh then the situation is very different, right? So, there is one classroom in one building, and I'm I'm saying that as sort of like I don't want to make it sound bad or anything, but uh you know, you know, the the building kind of like doesn't consider that class as theirs, right? It's like the IU classroom, right? Uh the rest of the teachers, you know, they have, you know, they're teachers for whatever like school district, but then this person is not, right? The principal is not the supervisor of that teacher, and the supervisor is like some other place, right? Every once in a while, you know, they would show up or they may uh you know, uh get a call or something. It's
060not that same sort of like level of uh supervision and support. And uh and this happens to also happen for the I'm going to say most vulnerable of the students. And uh uh sort of like the the students with the most needs, right? So, this is actually where sort of like that expertise and uh experience becomes uh a lot more important, right? In in a sense. All right? So, uh this is just sort of like a long way of uh me pleading if uh you can uh reinforce that part uh uh because I think that's uh that's really important for uh for for these kids receiving the services. But, that that was not a question, as I said. I mean, uh since I won't see you, you know, on Wednesdays, you know, a lot more
061and uh uh I can't uh say that in that context. I wanted to mention that here. The the the the third thing that I wanted to uh mention is uh uh somehow uh sort of like follow up to what Mr. Brune asked you and that is about uh uh evaluation, he said, I think. And I'm asking it uh in the context of accountability, right? So, uh I'll I'll expand on what uh Mr. Brune uh mentioned. If uh in this school district something bad happens, uh you know, at the end of the day, the school is accountable, right? I mean, there's a lawsuit and there is uh arbitration and this and this and that. Uh that structure sort of like to that extent does not exist for the IU. You know, you can still get uh
062sued in federal court, you know, for for something, but uh it's not sort of like the same because you're not the LEAs. So, uh this this is I I think if you kind of like uh you explain that a little bit sort of like so that, you know, my colleagues here and the community would sort of like understand what is it that you are worried about. I I know Dr. Wolford and Dr. Wolford is great and I know Dr. Bartek and Dr. Bartek is great, but uh we should not have a system that is uh working based on the greatness of people, right? The system should have the sort of checks and balances in it, right? So, what is it that makes a Dr. Wolford sort of like say, "Hey, you know what? I need
063to do my job well or else." That or else is like something that I'm not sure if all of us know what it is. Other than the goodness of your heart and your professional experience and so forth, which are you know, we know that you have it, right? But if someone is sort of like saying that, "Yeah, you know what? Why is it that you wouldn't be cutting your corner?" Except than your conscience and uh you know, uh goodness of heart, again. >> So, that was a lot. What's your question, sir? >> Yeah, no, the the question is really is what are the consequences if the IU doesn't do something well. What are the consequences for the IU? >> So, I would say if if you know, I'm going to look over here to to
064to our colleagues over here that you know, request services from IU 20. If you feel like we're not providing quality services and good services, then we would expect you to let us know, and we would work through that and have a conversation. If if you feel like we can't then come back and provide that quality service, then our consequence is you'll go elsewhere to you know, to to get those services. I mean, it's it's like a business, right? If you're not happy with Amazon, then you go to UPS. If you're not happy with Netflix, then maybe you'll get Hulu. Like I mean, that's that's our consequence. If we don't do a good job, we possibly could lose business and services. >> Thank you. Amazon and UPS are not competitors, but uh the other one you
065were uh right on. >> was in my head right now. >> Hey, I know. I know. Thank you, Chris. I I'm just trying to make sure you won't miss me much, you know, so. >> Yeah. No, I'll I'll never miss you. And I know you're still asking me questions even if you're not there. >> I um sure. I mean to me I I I I appreciate the the levity and and and and uh um but I mean it is in a business and the consequences are human lives we're talking about. Um I understand the the the the but I to me it's a serious question how do we you know, we can't just as a district we can't just press a button on the internet and go to a different servicer. We don't have that.
066It's hard to get these services arranged. It's incredibly hard. We're we're stuck a little bit, you know. Um uh and it would take it would take, you know, having an earth practically to get to reproduce um you know, the kind of services that we get right now from the colonial um from from the intermediate unit. Um we could perhaps do that, but it wouldn't be easy. I mean I I think that's important to say that. It's like we can't just, you know, order it up, you know. >> I I I I mean if if you feel like there's something that's not a service, then I would ask you to communicate that to Mrs. Velocity. And Mrs. Velocity will work with her administration, have those conversations with us, with our administration, and we'll work through what
067those issues are. Um and if there's glaring challenges and issues, we'll put a plan in place to address those. >> I appreciate that. >> Yeah. Yeah, 100%. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Thank you very much. >> All right. I'm calling Adam. I'm going to tell him to come back so you guys can ask him some questions. So, I'm kidding. Thank you guys. Thank you. >> Curry uh superintendent report, I apologize. >> There was no superintendent report for this evening, and uh given the time, I if the board approves, I would like to move my presentation uh off of tonight's agenda to make room for my other administrators' presentations since Dr. Wulff will talk a lot. >> Give me a hard time, Dr. Wulff. >> Okay. Um courtesy of the floor to visitors, agenda
068items only. >> Thank you very much. Um Victoria Optof Cordero, I am here as a resident of uh Saucon Valley School District um as a parent. Um So, first, I want to say thank you to the board for everything that you have um done that I have seen um at least in the past 30 days um since I was here in February 24th, I think it was. Um and for listening. Um I really appreciate that, and I I see just this evening that there are some questions that are showing me as a parent that you're listening. So, um I think that that's important. Um I just want to invite Dr. Wulff to come with me to stand with me because I feel like it's an important demonstrative exhibit. So, So, um Dr. Wulff and I
069have known each other probably since my son was in the preschool program, which you heard about from the three to five age program. Okay? And Dr. Wolfel um implemented a program which you saw highlighted this evening called the Colonial Parent Support Team. Um I think you saw it this evening. If you didn't, it should have been up there as a highlight. But that team that parent support team was a step forward for parents to collaborate with the IU 20 and try to bring forward concerns and address things so that he at the highest level could see things and try to implement changes that would benefit everybody. And I just want to thank you for that. And I sincerely say that that's one of the most important things because I as a parent with a young
070child who was in preschool didn't know anything about the special education program. And I didn't know anything about parental rights as far as what things you could advocate for and what things or responsibilities parent you know, school districts had um and accountability. I didn't understand any of those things until I went to that parent support team and got to meet with the parents. And I can say that I have seen courage from Dr. Wolfel. I have seen courage in him taking initiatives including um including when he tried to propose and implemented for a period of time music therapy and his and his autistic support preschool classrooms as a program um that would help students learn. So um I think Dr. Paxson mentioned, you know, the goodness of people and how important that is as as
071as as one factor. I think that Dr. Wolfel you are a good person and you have courage and you have hope that you use that hope to move forward. I think in looking at everything Ooh. Siri is talking to me. Um so um I I think in looking forward, one of the things that I I have seen is that there is a gap. There is a gap right now in the certification process for teachers to have the right training, the right mentorship, to have people help them when they're brand new, and needing support from somebody to say, "This is what I need, and what do I do? I don't know how to do things." Um and that's really hard to solve, but I think that there's an opportunity here. And this brings me back to
072we both attended PDE, and I found that PDE was I always find Pennsylvania Department for if you don't know, PDE is called the Pennsylvania Department of Education conference that's held by the Bureau of Special Education every year at Hershey. And it's a three-day conference where they bring in special educators from across the state, IU 20s, and um experts in different fields to kind of I I think of it as a cheerleading exercise to really promote educators and people who care about students, and provide further training and further hope. This year they highlighted the 50-year anniversary of IDEA. 50 years ago, my student my child would not be able to go to school. 50 years ago, that's really not that long ago. So, they highlighted that, and during one of the presentations, they talked about um
073something that happened in the 1990s, which you might have heard is called the the crawl on the capital. And that was an opportunity where it actually took people with disabilities who could not walk upstairs to crawl up the capital steps as a dem- demonstration that they could go forward and and be able to have access to their government. And it took that type of courage, it took that type of uncomfortable moment for the government to move forward. And I challenge this district and I challenge Dr. Wolfall and I think that he has the courage to do it to do things that aren't always comfortable. But hold people accountable and make sure that those students who are the I think we had high incidents where you you heard him talk about students that don't have to
074necessarily be in an autistic support classroom, they get pushed out into Salk and Valley's general ed and they get the benefit of a paraprofessional that has 40 hours of training as an RBT off the bat as a bare minimum if they get a one-to-one. They get a certified teacher who's had how many years of experience and then they also have their what is it? 180 act act 180 where they get you know how many hours of training. But when you have the children with the most disability they are faced with and it's not necessarily one individual's fault, it's the it's the system. But it's very difficult to have somebody who doesn't have that level of training to teach the children that need the most help. And you know most recently I I was able to
075learn exactly how what training do they have and I'm sure Dr. Wolfall you can share that with the board and you can share that with everybody. But a teacher that's going to work as a teacher in the autistic support classroom has 20 hours of training over five different subject areas. One of which is ABA. But it's 20 hours total. So that if I give it even wait maybe it's 5 hours. Maybe it's more. I don't know. I just know it's 20 hours. On top of that there is a 3-day, right? A 3-day onboarding where they come to the IU and they learn and they get I mean it's 5 days. 5 days. Got me. 5 days 5 days and in those 5 days three of those days are dedicated to tattoo training. And tattoo training
076I think some of you have been through tattoo training. But if I add 8 * 3 I get 24 hours of tattoo training which is specifically designed to assist with behavioral supports as you know to help children that have behavioral concerns. So when you're walking into an autistic support room and this is just as a parent I see 24 hours dedicated to behavioral support and 20 hours which some of which could be gone to ABA support. Then like Dr. Paxson said they come into a school district and that may be the only autistic support classroom run by the IU and you have teachers from the school district who may not feel like they're on the same team as the IU staff so they don't collaborate in the same way. And so what do you have?
077You have a bunch of people who have the biggest hearts that want to help people who are are not don't have the skills and the training and the support to make that really happen. And I think that we can move forward collaboratively in a way that we can walk together. We can have that courage and we can have that hope to make it better. And you know I didn't know what I was going to I never know what I'm going to say when I come up here. But um I had courage tonight tonight and I saw hope and I feel like we we this this board you can either be on the side of the capital where they sat in their chairs and they didn't want to have something happen for people with disabilities, or
078you can be on the side of the people that had to crawl up the capital to make a difference. And that's what I'm hopeful that we can make happen together in a collaborative, friendly way. That's all. >> Thank you. >> I'll be back. Please. >> I'm Stacy Cook, 2583 Readington, and I'm really going out on the limb here and I'm going to speak underneath recognition because I have to pick my kid up from play rehearsal. We would like to recognize and remind you all that The Drowsy Chaperone is coming out in April. April 16th. I am the co-president of the Saucon Valley Performing Arts Association. We would like to formally invite all of you to our senior citizen community dinner this year. I'll send an email with more specific information, but we'd love to have
079you all in attendance and I'd like to recognize these students. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? I saw you get up. >> Hi, Jason Stern, 1822 Viola Lane. I don't know if I'm going to make it to this part of the agenda, so I just wanted to comment and congratulate Amy Kishbaugh, Chuck Austin, and Jess Smith, who are retiring this year. It's on the agenda. I've had the opportunity and pleasure to work with all three of them at the middle school and just fantastic teachers who are are dedicated to kids and will be missed very, very much by the staff, by the kids, and by everyone. So, just wanted to acknowledge them as three people who've been here. I've been here 20 years, they've been here longer than I have, and each one of them
080has has taught me a lot, and I've enjoyed working with with all three of them. So, thanks. >> Thank you. >> I don't think we have anyone else, so we'll move on. Um presentation of bills, do I have a motion to pay the bills? >> Second, Lo Man Gino. >> Any discussion, questions? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Um treasurer report, um anything to add, Don or David? No, okay. Um Do I have a motion to approve the treasurer's report? >> So moved, Datmar. >> Second. >> Any questions or discussions? Hearing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Uh committee reports, academic and personnel did not meet. Facilities, Laurel, do you want to add anything to Wendy's summary that she provided us? >>
081Uh just a quick um repeat of the summary in that we discussed the SCS music and art classrooms, and the potential to move those to improve spaces for each of those classes over the next year and a half to 2 years. >> Okay. Any questions on that? All right. Um finance, Mr. Carpenter, do you have anything to add to Wendy's summary? >> Yeah, yeah, just to um give a little bit more detail to the uh the uh summary there. We discussed um some various uh, parts of the budget. Um, there was a there was a discussion around technology as, uh, it is sort of the year that we are due to replace the technology for our instructors because of its age. We've actually pushed it beyond our policy. Um, our policy, I think, is 4
082years and we've pushed it already to five. Um, so we've already delayed that and then, uh, inclusive of that discussion was the the next year for students because they just think thinking ahead for next year because the students' technology is refreshes projected to be next year. So there was a discussion around those and the that sort of options that were that were available. But on the whole, the the sort of the top line summary from the meeting was that the administration proposed, um, reductions to the budget in various categories. The mid The biggest one being capital projects, um, such that, uh, the the savings, sort of, uh, was about four 5.4 million dollars. It says 5.2, but I think it was 5.4. Um, and, uh, if if that were to be the budget that we
083would vote on, that would bring the deficit for the year down to about 3.8 million. So that's just to provide some context into what was proposed and what would that would bring the deficit down to. There was, um, there was some back and forth about what the next steps were to consider, um, all the repercussions for what those cuts would look like. And these these were sort of the minimal least effect, uh, least to no effect on, um, on, you know, especially the students. Uh, and there was some discussion about what like the next the next level of cuts would look like and what those effects would be to be presented at the next finance meeting. So that's kind of the top line of of that. There was also a minor discussion point about um
084wrestling and um the the It wasn't an official proposal yet, but um normally our our our procedure would be to when a new sport is starting up, that sport would be self-funded by the community and the participants. Um and they're looking to start up a girls wrestling and there was a discussion about not following that that typical uh procedure because of the effect it would have on the athletes and their ability to compete at certain events and things like that. So, there wasn't a proposal yet, but there was just sort of a discussion of like informing why there may be a cost to that program that, you know, we may not have seen it before and didn't follow our past practice and why that would that would maybe come up. But, there's no proposal yet
085and the structure hasn't been solidified, so. >> May May I? >> Please. I had a question >> I'm going to offer two uh I'll say uh corrections maybe and I know that correcting Mr. Carpenter is not easy, but one is that there is no school board policy about technology. So, I would rather not use the word policy for that. It's uh practice or what Mr. Hanson wants more than policy. When you say policy, it refers or sort of like people think that it's something that school board has approved. Uh and uh second is that I don't think the administration made any recommendation about any savings. They just presented options as to if you want to do this this amount. If you want to do that, that amount. The recommendation hopefully will come at some point
086as to what uh the administration uh would uh be comfortable and what they wouldn't be comfortable with. I don't think I didn't hear that uh uh and I thought that the conclusion of the meeting was not that uh there is a uh administrative recommendation for any cuts for that matter. >> I don't think there was an overall recommendation, but I believe the things that were presented were all uh comfortable. But Jamie, you could comment. >> You see, I I I did say that it's very difficult to correct you, you know, you will never you will never agree. >> I don't think you proposed anything you were uncomfortable with. Is that correct? >> I was comfortable. There were no recommendations, but these are the thresholds that we are exploring right now, and the next level would
087be a threshold a little bit deeper and maybe a little more uncomfortable for everyone including myself. Yeah. >> Well, um that that starts to answer the question I had was uh Director Carpenter, could could you give us just a little bit of a sense of what some of those were that were um um mentioned um yeah, and and you know, your I maybe it's too early to ask you what you thought of that list, you know, like cuz it's just kind of like but opaque that when I'm when I'm hearing so far, but um but I'm just kind of curious if you had any uh assessment of that list. >> I I can provide a little bit of context. I I have probably not the the most recent about what was proposed, but the largest
088cut the largest uh sort of comfortable reduction of spending was in the facilities projects. And this largely largely, but not perfectly, followed the recommendations that were given in the facilities meeting about um what was the priority, like priority number one type projects, like things are leaking, right? They uh and then sort of project priority two or B projects, which were like, these are things that are going to become a problem if we don't address them, but it's not necessarily to do it right now. And then there was the sort of like the long-range. Um so, the biggest reduction was, you know, I I think of the 5.4 or whatever, 3.8 of it was facilities projects. Uh in terms of the the reduction of spending options. Um there's uh a large talk about the lockers in
089the pool, which is a very high-ticket item. Um and, you know, people have talked about how uh they're sort of in need of of some attention, but it's a very high-ticket item. The other other uh high-ticket I think it's over a million dollars, right, for that one one project. Um and the other high-ticket item that was included in the nine, but isn't included in the like, you know, 3.8 level would be the playground, which is a million dollars. Um and uh and uh I think some of the stadium redoing the stadium press box was quite a high-ticket item. So, those are not included. So, the largest was the sort of like putting off capital expenses or choosing to decline some optional capital expenses. Um so, I think that's the biggest uh item. There was also
090um a discussion about what what teaching positions of the ones originally proposed were like absolutely definitely critical for the, you know, educational offerings that we're having next year, and then even, you know, what it would look like the year after and maybe there. So that that was another that was another reduction. Probably like $900,000 something was there. >> I have a follow-up. I I don't go to the facilities and deep finance meetings and and honestly it's still I deliberately don't go because I feel like we have to be able to share some of the work and trust our fellow you know, board member or the directors to uh to to help us, you know, um um So this is a little bit of a you know, this is what kind of the thing I I
091would say if I was that one of those meetings just FYI cuz there's really no other opportunity to do this in a way that isn't in front of the community. It's just that's why I'm saying what I'm saying right now. But like what matters to me absolutely above all is is is the um you know, is academics and so it's like the curriculum that's a huge thing curriculum related resources um and then um you know, obviously that connects to you know, human resources uh in a big way um um you know, top administrators that matters to me a lot and then um you know, communications cuz I think that um I think that we've been doing a really good job of communications except for our misspelled um sign from last week we had a um
092I know that's I think that's been fixed um but uh the Drowsy Chaperone sign was was misspelled on our sign. Chaperone was misspelled um doesn't you know, we're a school district. Come on. He's like but but you know, that was but but we're doing we're doing such a good job and and there's so much great stuff happening in that area. So I those are my priorities just FYI. But you know, I know there's that movie um um what's it called? Bad Education where the superintendent is embezzling from uh uh one of the highest performing districts in in Long Island and they have a leak the the infamously this is based on a true story they have an they have a leaking roof, you know, um while money is being embezzled. Um but they have great
093academics, you know, um but you know, it's the thing about that movie is it kind of makes it seem like you have to either have a leaky roof or great academics, but that's only if you have embezzlement going which we don't. So, it's like you know, it's um I think that we should be able to take care of the roof and do great academics, you know. Um anyway maybe not a good path to go down. I'm going to I'm going to leave that part out, but I will say that um to to just uh answer your question that none of the none of the um comfortable cuts that were were offered um were cutting curriculum that had already gone through our curriculum process. Like if it's already like gone through the teams and been piloted
094and the administration was ready to do a recommendation, there was no cuts of anything like that. >> So, thank you very much. Thank you. Great movie by the way. Comedy. It's a comedy. >> May I? >> I just have to say how was AI picking up that one bill? >> Yeah, I know. >> It was intentional probably. That's what I want to say. >> Go ahead. I'm sorry. >> So, uh congratulations Mr. Brune, you know, uh I I I that's what I wanted to say that, you know, you are making sure that uh AI will pick up a story about our meeting every time. Uh >> Sorry about that. >> Uh uh uh sorry. Uh I I since uh Mr. Carpenter went uh through uh some some of these, I just I just want to
095say that uh uh uh I I I think the uh the the full uh budget and things that were included in the budget are the really sort of like desires and uh uh hopes of the school district and the community and uh you know, the administration and this board, you know, to have uh to have all of it, right? Uh uh who wouldn't want a uh you know, uh renovated uh locker room for our pool? Who wouldn't want a uh you know, a very nice uh press box for the stadium and uh and the rest of it. So, I don't think uh there was anything in there that was uh sort of like the type of uh expense that you would say uh one would sort of like object to that uh uh out of
096a principle, right? Uh that, you know, this is sort of like something that should not happen, right? Uh in a in a school district. All of them are really sort of like legitimate uh uh uh expenses for a uh for a school district. The uh the the job is to, I guess, balance these versus the sort of like the affordability of the community and uh uh and as you said, sort of like uh try to prioritize, you know, uh where to sort of like put the uh resources first. And uh uh each one of these when uh there is a change that happens in that uh in in that list, it has a consequence, right? I just want to make sure that we are all aware of that and uh we make that decision with
097that sort of like full knowledge, right? Uh you uh don't fix the locker rooms. Uh people from other districts come here and uh uh by the way, it's the boys locker room, which is uh kind of like uh you know, not not uh not good. It's I'm I'm ashamed of that, right? I wish the boys here for the past 30 40 years had taken better care of the boys locker room. They haven't and we have visitors who come here and they look at it and it's not good and if you've ever sort of like stepped into that locker room, you know that it smells and it's you know, all of the rest of the stuff. So, that's the consequence of that. The question for us is Do you think this community today is able and
098willing to pay a million dollars to fix that and I think when Ms. Malasity and Mr. Bonnenbergers and others have said we're comfortable not doing that, that doesn't mean that they like it, right? That means that they are sort of like trying to do that balance. On that list, there are other things. Mr. Carpenter mentioned about the million dollars of that or our staffing, right? So, these are sort of like things that when the principal sat down and looked at their curriculum and the programs that they want to offer and the courses and all of the rest of the stuff, they said these many people, you know, we want each one of them said and that was the sort of like that million dollar that was associated with that. What uh the superintendent shared with
099us at the at the committee meeting was that we can offer all of those courses with either a reduced amount of staffing compared with what it was or uh basically bit a net uh what's it called? With no no net addition, right? Uh That means that there is uncomfortable things that would happen, right? That means that there are still sort of like people who will have a assignment that is different and they probably won't like it. That means that you know, all of the things that we've heard over the years, you know, will probably again happen, right? So, and what the criteria that they used to say that this is comfortable was that this will not impact the course offering. Right? The courses that we wanted to offer, the sections that we wanted to provide,
100those are going to be possible with this level of staffing that that we have now. I just want to make sure that that is sort of like in everyone's mind, right? That you know, when we are talking about it and we when we are uh debating it and voting on it and so forth, these each of these has a consequence and we have to be comfortable with the consequence. Thank you. >> Just to clarify one point. I do believe that it was a net positive of one staffing position, I think. There was some There was some like, you know, some We have some retirements and then we have some additional world language. I think it was a net net increase of one, but I I could be wrong. >> Nothing to follow in the discussion.
101Yeah, those. Okay. Moving on. Thank you. Um thank you, Mrs. Velocity, for being willing to put off your presentation. Mr. Hauser. Please. >> Uh in the interest of time, I have trimmed this down to about an hour. No, I'm not. I have a stopwatch on myself. >> We'll try to trim it down. No, no, we don't. This is an important presentation. You take your time. >> Absolutely. Thank you for the time tonight. Uh give me the opportunity to discuss what has been happening uh at the middle school. Uh again, I've been here since October. Um I'm very excited to dive right in. I I've learned a lot about about our school and uh all it has to offer. What what it's been It's been a great experience. Um so, tonight Dr. Caskey and I I
102I think you. Yeah. Uh Dr. Caskey and I are going to present about uh some action plans for the middle school and the high school. Um we did uh collaborate on our structure. So, what you see on the screen now, this is the structure that Dr. Caskey and I will both follow um as we present. So, we want to take a look at uh some things to celebrate, the good things that are going on in our school academically so that we can build upon those successes, uh then look at areas for growth, um diving into our data to look and identify areas that are, you know, in need of targeted improvement. And then the third part of that will be our strategy and action plan uh to go into our next steps. How do we
103address those things that are coming up in part two and move our our schools in a positive direction and where we need to be. So, the first thing I'd like to point out about Saucon Valley Middle School as an area of uh of of success and an area to celebrate is that our growth in English Language Arts is exemplary. We're rating in the dark blue on PVAAS with a perfect 100 score. Uh I'm very happy to report that three of our four grades have met or exceeded state growth state growth standards uh consistently. So, that that is wonderful. Our um we are nearly 25 points above the state average in growth in ELA uh and that is reflected again in the the building's overall score. What you see up there in the kind of gray
104square, that is a representation of our advanced achievement. Uh that is the school's percentage of students scoring advanced on the ELA PSSA exams. We are about 7 and 1/2 points above the statewide average there. So, lots of good things going on uh in ELA. Locally, we did administer the MAP Reading assessment so far twice this year and our building is trending both high achievement and high growth. When we look at these reports, uh this uh this kind of scatter plot map here, we want to be in that top right quadrant of that and we are there in all four of our grades. Two are higher than others, but we're trending where we need to. In mathematics, we met the standard for growth, earning a score of 72. Uh that is about five points below the
105statewide average. However, grades five, six, and eight show growth above or well above the standard, uh which is good. And in the bottom corner, you can see another uh map uh map assessment. All grades are rating in the higher achievement range on map. However, we do see grades six and seven as a little bit lower in the growth measure. Uh those two grades uh are growing, but it's not at the same rate as the other two. So, I think that's something important to uh point out. And we'll talk more about that as I get later in my presentation. So, next I'd like to talk about identifying uh areas for growth. And I'll break this down again in ELA and mathematics. As I go through this, you will hear me reference a few times uh state
106averages. I will say that what matters most is our students, our data, and our results here locally, but it is good to kind of norm us and compare us to what are the trends we are seeing in the region and also across the state. This is not to lower expectations or make an excuse by saying, "Well, look, you know, we're we're here compared to others." It's a way to put our numbers into context. It helps us understand what problems are there. So, our work is internal, and we set uh expectations internally. But this helps us answer the question, "What needs to change instructionally and in terms of our curriculum?" So, the first thing I'd like to point out here uh in uh English and language arts, the Department of Ed has set an achievement goal
107by the year 2033 of about 81% proficiency. Along the way, they have interim targets that we have to hit. We get a rating in achievement of red if we're not hitting that interim target. So, we are about 11 points above the statewide average, but not quite at that interim target and that's giving us a goal to work on as we try to make that larger statewide goal in a few years. I'd like to talk a little bit about why that is happening in ELA. As I've attended board meetings and the board has looked at different data points at various places, I've heard the question from a few board members, "Why is this happening?" We kind of know what is happening. Let's dive into the why. So, I'd like to spend some time talking about that.
108Um what I did to analyze our ELA performance is I I completed an item analysis of our last 3 years of PSSA results. I get a report that breaks down student performance by every individual skill and standard that is assessed, the points possible and the points earned and I'm able to calculate trends in certain areas as as I look at different years. That allows me to look at areas that are consistently strong, or consistently weak, or areas that kind of ebb and flow. And that's great for pointing out issues with maybe the curriculum, maybe we're hitting things too much, hitting things not enough, or maybe there are gaps somewhere in our our learning and thus in our instruction. So, PVAAS shows lower growth specifically in grades six and seven. And we also saw that a
109little bit on the MAP results. And that trend is year over year. So, when I dove in a little bit more, I found that there is a small improvement in literature standards since the year 2022, but we're not meeting our growth measures particularly in non-fiction and informational text. That's an area where we are losing points at a significantly uh greater gap than than in fiction uh and literature. And that is also most pronounced in grades six and seven. Questions that are text-dependent analysis, these are more of the writing prompts, those average scores are on the decline over the last uh few years as well. Some anecdotal information that I have pulled from teachers in in department meetings is that there may be a kind of direct correlation between a decline in academic stamina in our
110students. Uh since pandemic time, we are seeing more difficulty engaging students in longer prompts and prompts that require multiple steps, prompts that require planning and revision. That continues to be a focus point and an area where teachers have to invest significant amounts uh of time. The other thing that I did was dive into our PDE-monitored subgroups. These are classifications of students uh that may be having different levels of achievement than the greater student body. Specifically at the middle school, students who are known to be economically disadvantaged are scoring 11 points lower on achievement than their peers. And what you'll see in our data here, uh that kind of dotted line, almost flat, and then I put the actual percentages there at the bottom for your review, that's showing me year-to-year stagnation. So, our economically disadvantaged
111students, even though we are comparing a little bit of apples to oranges that every year is a different cohort of students, generally that student population has been very stagnant and not growing or achieving at the same pace as their peers. So, that is something we need to address with deliberate interventions for that group of students. In uh mathematics, I'd like to display uh the data slides first just to refresh our memory. We have the achievement from the PA Future Ready Index on the left-hand side. Just like ELA, that's showing in the red for not meeting an interim target, and then we have our PVAAS growth on the right-hand side. So, again, I'd like to focus on what are we seeing in a >> Mhm. >> Okay, now. Now. Now. Yes. Check, check. There I am.
112Mike, can you hear me now on there? Okay. I'm taking 2 minutes off my stopwatch, by the way. No, I'm teasing. I'll restart this slide. So, one of the things I wanted to look at in analyzing the why of our mathematics achievement and growth is look at that that trend where we were had very good achievement, very good growth in two grades, and then it kind of kind of dropped in grade seven, and then rebounded in grade eight. And I wanted to see if that was happening in other places and what it looked like because that was some that was very puzzling. So, um as I said, I took the all of the statewide um scores, all the districts in Pennsylvania, I ran them through an AI model and asked it to analyze what was
113happening in all the PSSA tested grades uh across the state to see if this trend was something common. And what I learned, grade seven across the state does have the lowest math achievement in Pennsylvania among all the tested grades, and roughly 1/3 of students are reaching proficiency. There is a consistent statewide decline from grades 3 to 7, followed by a rebound in grade 8 or algebra 1, depending on what the students are taking. Our data trends match that right across the board. Uh this pattern is is considered widely recognized across the state, and it appears in both higher-performing school districts and also lower-performing school districts academically. Statewide math achievement has been incrementally improving over the last 3 years, but gains are known to be very modest and uneven as we go toward 7th grade. Most
114commonly, PIVAS in grade 7 is flat or negative even in high-performing school districts, indicating that students are not making expected yearly progress. So again, our data is right in line with that. So, to dig deeper into that, once I came to that conclusion, again, I wanted to know why and was there a correlation? Like why was 7th grade different not just here, but everywhere? So, I took those results, and I had that program I was using run an analysis of all of the mathematics standards. I literally uploaded all of them from grades 3 through 8, and I said compare year after year and how does this touch the data this macro data that we're looking at? And what I found is that there's a major cognitive shift in the mathematics that are not just every
115year getting harder and more difficult, not just every year building on one another, but the jump from grade 6 to grade 7 was found to be the highest cognitive leap in the transition from grade to grade. And part of that has to do in just different types of mathematics and and and reasoning. For example, there's a shift from 6 to 7 from what's known as additive reasoning into multiplicative reasoning. That involves using more ratios, proportions, doing things to scale. There's also an an increase in abstract thought. And what research is finding is that these any gaps that kind of appear from grade 3 to 4 to 5 to 6 to will compound. So that by the time we're making this cognitive leap in grade 7, many of the prerequisite skills have compounded that that leap
116becomes much more difficult than the grade level the grade level changes that have been prior. Uh there's a greater demand for the transfer of knowledge into uh problem solving, which I've noted. >> May I ask a question now or should we wait until the end? Cuz >> I know. I'm just listing my questions. >> I'm really enjoying it. >> Thank you. >> So again, uh going into the why is this happening, we are seeing above average achievement but low growth. Uh high achievement can mask uh more limited growth. So we we could have students who are incredibly talented in mathematics that are performing at the advanced level, but they're not necessarily increasing to the point that they would rate as a high growth student. So that phenomenon also does exist. Growth requires pushing all learners,
117especially the top third of our learners, because without those deeper tasks, they're not going to grow at the same level uh as their peers. Getting into an item level analysis for our building. Uh the things that come up repeatedly in our data over the last number of years is geometry and some expressions uh remain persistent challenges for for our our Ratios, proportional relationships are showing gradual improvement, but they're not showing the increases that other areas uh show. And um we you know, I'm seeing a need in some areas where within a standard you might have three or four different skills. Some are okay, some are not good. So, we have to target specifically where our students need certain supports. When I looked at the achievement of our economically disadvantaged population just as I did for
118ELA, I found a similar trend in ELA. Uh it's a little bit more pronounced in mathematics in that these students are 14 points lower generally than their uh peers. So, you can see a similar data trend. And here part three, I'd like to go over some of the strategic actions and next steps that I would like to take uh in our middle school. Um the problems that I expressed that are both kind of exhibited in state data and also in local data are not unsolvable. We can solve these problems, you know, working together to to target exactly what is happening uh in our classroom. So, uh a few things that that we can do. So, first in ELA. In ELA, uh we need to stay the course. We have some fairly new curricula in ELA,
119Arts and Letters in grade five and the HMH program in grade six to eight. We need to resolve issues of appropriate pacing to ensure that standards are covered properly, that every standard is giving the time students need to really master it and comprehend it. We need to ensure that differentiation exists for both students who need extra support and for those students who are in need of enrichment. And we also need to measure how these programs are targeting the historical areas of weakness that were identifying in our data. We also need to spruce up some of our systems. Um in MTSS, we we to refine and improve that process at the middle school, and this can happen and will happen in a few ways. Uh first, we have to take a look at our resources. Uh
120both resources for remediation and also resources for enrichment. What choice of tools do teachers have available to them? What is the administration using to make recommendations and guide that instruction? And are we making the best use of the tools and time we have available? I also think we need to look at our faculty capacity. We have amazing teachers at the middle school, but I would like to lead that building in some data literacy. Actually, not just looking at our data, but digging into the why and how of things, not simply looking at it and then um you know, making referrals for supports, but using that to guide what's happening in day-to-day uh instruction. I'd also like to refine our ELA 2 classes and our IE periods, depending on the grade level, to make sure students
121are getting the supports they need. Positive behavior support also goes uh into this. Uh I think at the middle school, we need to adopt a more age-appropriate PBIS model. What's there is fine, but at the middle level, we I think we need to shift away from more simple compliance to behaviors and get it to be a more academic focus. If our teachers are telling us that academic stamina is something that they're seeing again and again in their students, we can put expected routines and behaviors into our positive behavior support plan that reinforce that. So, I'd like to do that and then monitor how such skills like that impact the overall climate and culture of learning uh at the middle school. Additionally, uh we need to focus our professional development on increasing overall achievement. Uh so
122far over the last number of weeks, I have been getting into department meetings and grade meetings and trying to encourage teachers uh to get out of what I call their content silos. Sometimes we think that ELA achievement is only for the English teacher, and that's not the case. Uh every subject can reinforce literacy skills, and I'm sharing this data across content areas so that we can all look at that. So, really pushing that culture of of collaboration and getting people out of their content silos. I also like to focus on some strategies that are specific to helping economically disadvantaged students. These strategies help all learners, but they tend to help economically disadvantaged students to to a greater level. This can include explicit vocabulary instruction, more concept reinforcement, and building relevance to the real world in
123their learning. In mathematics curriculum, uh we're presently in year two of the Reveal curriculum in core math classes, and we need to continually evaluate how this program is addressing our needs. Is it hitting the areas where we need refinement, and how so? From a system standpoint, I can just say ditto to ELA because that will also touch uh mathematics. And overall big picture, the way that we can kind of beat these trends statewide, and what what I'm seeing schools that are beating these statewide trends doing, we need to treat proportional reasoning as a core of our mathematics uh seventh class uh because that's how those standards are framed. So, getting students thinking differently about mathematics, that can include building our teacher expertise and capacity in those uh specific standards, and really understanding what the standards
124are asking. Uh we need to work on fixing gaps in learning that have compounded over the years prior to them getting to seventh grade, so that prerequisite skills are there, and then that dramatic leap from sixth to seventh uh isn't as cumbersome uh for the student. And we need to design instruction for growth at all levels uh leveraging the strengths that we uh you know, that that that we have and build on them. I'd also like to work with the administrative team to develop some type of walk-through tool uh that can be used to specifically monitor teachers in more informal capacity as we are visiting classrooms uh to give them the feedback that they need uh to be able to effectively enrich more students. I'll hit thank you. I'll stop my stopwatch and I'll take
125any questions. Thank you. >> Dr. Paxson >> You have the first question. >> No, go ahead. >> So, you talked about the uh uh thank you very much, Mr. Paxson. >> I'd like your tie. Uh the uh I have one just like that, that's why. Uh I the you you you talked about the seventh grade uh math and uh the fact that uh the topics are uh are are different. Uh Are there school districts that uh perform well in seventh grade math? >> Yes, and that that was part of my of my look. I tried to find some school districts that are are beating that. And this this last slide um some of the things I outlined on here are things that they are doing to to be able to better prepare >> So, so
126my my my point that I I I I noted that, I just want to say that uh there are two ways to look at it. One is to say there is material that can't be taught, right? That's option one, which is what you sort of like initially said about this. Option two is that this material actually could be taught, right? So, uh the reason that there is a slump and the slump may be sort of like bigger than just uh one classroom, one uh building, one school district, it could be across the uh Commonwealth is not because the material is sort of like fundamentally there's something, it's that, you know, everybody except then you know, a few schools are not doing the right thing in terms of teaching it. And that sort of like seems
127to be more consistent with the evidence that you presented, right? In other words, if that thing was a thing, right, about the you know, completely different sort of like transformation from 6 to 7 grade, then everybody would be in the same boat. But some people are beating it, right? Which means that they are doing stuff, right? And And that is what I call curriculum and instruction, right? So I mean, they have the right curriculum and they're doing the right instructional things so that they are not impacted by that. What What I'm trying to say is that the same phenomena could happen between, I don't know, 5th and 6th grade if everybody did a bad job in instruction and in curriculum, right? Uh if the if if the if the topic that they were supposed to
128teach was topic A, B, and C, and they taught D, E, and F, right? And that or they didn't do it well, everybody did that, then you would see a slump from 5 to 6, right? You wouldn't call that a real slump. You would say, "We didn't do a good job," right? Because there is a way to do it. I'm just saying that I I I just don't buy it that this is a problem with with the with the topics and subjects and so forth. Always, you know, you go from one grade to the other grade, the topics are going to be different, right? You go from the first quarter to the second quarter of the same school year, topics are going to be different, right? So this is that in itself, I I I'm
129just sort of like not convinced. >> So, now that's that's not entirely what I what I had said. I didn't say there's some things that are not being taught or anything like that. What What my analysis shows and what I'm looking at in overall um research that I've done, and I haven't done like a dissertation on it, but just general things that I'm looking at is not the focus of instruction or curriculum in the grade level contributing to that gap. It is the demands of the standards that are assigned by PDE. So, when you look at the grade five standards and how they connect to the grade six, what what is the jump that a student has to make? So, for example, um in lower grade levels, if I use ELA as an example, students
130may have to identify the theme of a passage in a particular grade. The next level, they may have to look at how certain paragraphs contribute to that theme. So, the prerequisite is they can find theme, now it's identifying how paragraphs. The next grade level might be how two or more themes are explored in the same text. The next level after that might be themes across text by an author. So, what what this is showing is the leap that is made from six to seven is higher than leaps that come before. So, it's not it's the standards as a full package, not as what's being instructed. >> I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
131I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I >> What is the constant? The leap. What is different? What different schools do to address the leap, right? >> Sure. >> So, we should not say that the problem is with the leap. We should say the problem is that we are not doing the things that we need to do so that they can jump over the leap. And where is the proof that that is possible? All of those school districts that do those things and they can do it. So, that's a I mean to I I I just I just don't understand why this would be about the leap as opposed to the way that we address the needs for the kids to make the leap.
132>> Because how how we address the leap depends upon the data that we have locally. Because depending on curriculum in other schools, the the the gaps might be different, the prerequisite learning achievement might be different. That could all be something that is that is very unique to it to a specific school district. That's why I did also an item-level analysis. And I did look at several schools, not at not enough yet. I'm getting there. Of Okay, those that are beating this, what are they doing? Can we do that here? If we can't do that here, what do I need to do to make sure we can do that here? And some of the successful strategies might not work for us. Some of them might work for us. So, we have to look we have to
133evaluate what is going to lead to the results that that we want. I think I think most importantly, building building some more data literacy capacity in in our faculty so that we're all kind of talking the same language. And I also think we need to get um some professional development in what those seventh-grade standards are specifically asking compared to what the year >> I I I I I like what you're saying now. So, this is here's what I'm saying. There are things that are happening that are outside of our control, right? For example, the standards for sixth grade and seventh grade, right? You don't determine that, right? The state puts it there and with like little to no input from from from anybody, right? So, the students who come here, you know, walk from the
134door, we don't have control over that, right? We don't have control for the most part about anything that they do, right? We don't have control over their family and home and all of none of that stuff. So, I want us to not talk about those, the things that we don't have control over, and focus on the things that we do have control over. What do we have control over? The resources that we have, the curriculum that we have, the instruction that we provide, right? What we do here is because every time anytime, you know, I hear all the rest of the stuff, it kind of like sounds like you know, lowering the expectation and saying that you should not really worry about it. This is okay, right? And I just don't think it's okay. And
135this is not a This is This is more of sort of like me sharing the sort of like the the thought about sort of like These are the things we can do, right? Other people have done it, and we're going to go try to do those. And you know, if we try and we don't succeed, that's good, right? But I just don't want anyone to say you know, you're good because there is a slump across Pennsylvania, and we are not so much worse than the rest of the district. >> But yeah. No, I don't I don't look at it as a barrier we can't overcome. I look at it as something we have to we have to go through. We got to get the right tool to go through it. >> Um Or um okay.
136Um Yeah, I uh Thank you very much for the presentation. I um I you know, when I hear the thing about the statewide averages, I I I do I feel sick at my stomach just even hearing that phrase. I don't want to It's like I don't want to care about it. Uh I want to hear about what we're how we're going to get better here. Um although I understand it completely. Um you know, um and it's not that I don't recognize that. It's just it's not something I want to focus on because we don't we only have so much time. Um and what I want to focus on is what we're going to do better. Um Um When And but I there is one way I'm going to really disagree with something that um Director
137Park said uh with respect is that I I do think that we we can't control what happens at home, but we can influence it, you know? Um and maybe that is um a a bit um grandiose to think that way, but you know, that's the way I am, okay? And I I do think that we have got to reach out to help Borough's families better as as a district. Our school district school districts in Pennsylvania and the school board is responsible for the education of the community. The whole community. That is our job under the law. It is not just building buildings and you know, teaching classes in classrooms. We're supposed to educate the community. And the we have a problem, you know, Hellertown Borough's you know, median income is $50,000 less than Lower Saucon's,
138you know. That's pretty big, you know. That's massive. That's where our economically disadvantaged students are many of them are concentrated. It's not the only place. There are you know, there are economically disadvantaged parts of of of the of the township, we know that. Um, but we have um we have a lot of children in uh Hellertown who are not having a chance to sit down with books, you know. They're not have They're not having things read to them regularly. The schools are not reaching out to them, you know, um outside the classroom. You know, what are we doing to get out into the Hellertown Borough? What are we doing to reach the parents where they are, you know? And instead of just having them come to us through like kind of convenient channels that are
139set up already, you know? What are we How are we innovating in terms of our outreach to parents? What it because that to me, that's the problem. You want You want to talk about academic stamina, you know, how do we get a children to a child to learn how to finish a book on their own? You know? How do we get a parent to take the time to read to their child? You know, how do we support that parent? What are we not doing? What can we do? You know, how can we how can we liaise with government officials locally to help support education in our community? The school board is not the only answer, you know. We have other government bureaus around here government entities here, too, you know. It takes the whole community
140to provide whole education. So, I'm just And then that includes that includes special education, too, you know. That's all I that's that's my my rant finished. >> Can Can I Can I respond to the rant because you mentioned my name and that's he disagrees with me. So, so uh that I I I understand what you're saying, Mr. Brown. The The thing is that these are the same families who send their kids here in eighth grade and they're doing pretty well. And in sixth grade and they're doing pretty well. And they are in the high school and they're So, whatever that is, it's uh it's you know, spots uh during their education and we have to kind of like acknowledge that. That's uh that's the thing. This is like uh I have uh no objection to
141us reaching out to the families here in Hellertown or Lower Saucon or anywhere else, right? That wasn't part of his plan, right? So, this is like if if somebody came here and said, "This is what's happening and this is what we're going to do to address that, right?" And that thing that is happening that they are identifying could be whatever. Could be the family thing and they say, "This is the plan that we have for reaching out to the family." This is the leap in the curriculum or the standards. This is how we are going to reach out to the PDE and say, "This is completely unreasonable and we should not have a leap in the standards." Or whatever else that is. That would be at least sort of like consistent. But uh talking about
142things that are really sort of like out of our control, generally speaking, and are probably not the reasons for the for the problems because this is happening, you know, at spots grades, uh that kind of like dilutes the I'm going to call it the urgency of uh action, right? Because it's sort of like puts three other sort of like uh targets on the uh on on the map, and we really need to sort of like focus on the things that we can, you know, really control and uh and and do that. But, uh anyway, thank you. >> Thank you. Um yeah, I I I first I just want to say that I I appreciate the your presentation and you observe, you know, the observations that you made and the recommendations that you made. I do
143though want to um piggyback on uh Mr. Brune's comments about the statewide average. It really rankles me when I see us compared to the statewide average. I know that the graphics that appear on the Future Ready Index website put that right out there, so it's hard kind of not to uh to to see it and to talk about it, but if you if you want to compare I mean, the statewide average is dominated by big urban school districts that with families that have all kind of challenges that that we have very few kids here that, you know, have those challenges. We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Um it and I know it's so extra work for you, but what I'd like to see, if you want to make comparisons, is to find
144other school districts that share our demographics. Compare us to them. That would be a lot more helpful for me to know whether we are on the right track or we're falling behind. Thanks. >> Sure. >> Um I just want to say I really uh appreciate the work that you put into this presentation, and uh I have like a constant drum that uh I don't just want to have data thrown at me. And you gave us the data, you gave us your analysis of the data, and you gave us the plan that you have based off of data, and I'm really, really I hope that every time I see PIVAS data, that's the structure. So, thank you. >> Comments? Go ahead. >> I just want to add that from Mr. Carpenter's comment there, I really do
145appreciate seeing past years' performance like you presented it so that we can see how we were doing in past years so that we can see trends. That's really important for me to judge how we're doing. Thanks. >> Okay, my turn? Sure. Okay, I just had a couple of questions. Um So, on part two, identifying areas for growth, English language arts, uh how far are we off the target? I'm sorry, I don't know the target offhand. >> Um as far as the interim target? >> Yes. >> Yeah, so uh for I mean I think >> This was language arts, it was 61.1 that we achieved. >> Language arts, I believe right now is at and change. I don't know I can't get it to the exact decimal, but what it was about about 10 points. >>
146I just wondered how far off we are because >> Math is about the same. Um don't hold me to it. It's it's it's about 10 points. Um I will say though in looking at those those interim targets started being developed in 2018. And their progression did not respond to pandemic learning. So, once 2020, 2021, 2022 hit, those interim targets didn't stop, and they they continued to go up. So, I'm not sure it's an adequate reflection of where we are, even though we're years beyond that, there's some stalling that occurred over the course of those two and a half three years that are not reflected in how the interim targets go. >> I know you weren't here, but we had most, you know, 80% of our students in the classrooms. >> Yeah, I understood. Um, but
147the the the the targets themselves didn't didn't fluctuate. >> it was divided by the number of years to get to 81%. >> but that but that's that's where we are. Yeah. >> Okay. Um, the the other comment you said about they are not regressing. Students are growing and not regressing. >> Right. >> But they're not near the expected level of making one year's progress. I'm not sure why you don't believe that's not regression. So, if a student is expected to make a year's worth of growth, is the 50, right? Is that accurate? On your charts and on your scatter plots, it's 50 is a year's worth of growth. >> So, if you if you look here where the dots are in the green, okay, that's that's one year growth. >> Right. That's off of the
14850. Correct. Yes. >> I I'm I'm defining it in just a more statistical kind of like direct way that I would define regression as, let's say, an eighth grader comes in uh, with beginning of the year eighth grade skills and then as the year goes on, actually starts testing more at like the seventh grade level, sixth grade level. That that I would consider statistical regression. Um, in this, they're not they're not growing the full year. They're still improving, but they're like a score in the red would be an eighth grader by the end of eighth grade that's in the red would probably show the same level as like an eighth grader with one marking period of learning as opposed to four marking periods of learning. So, that's still definitely an issue. I didn't want the
149board thinking that they're losing ground and kind of missing prerequisite skills and going back to lower grade levels. That's not what's reflected here. So, I'm not I'm I'm being strict constructionist on my on my defining. That's all. >> Um you said there's a consistent So, I pulled out the elementary. I don't see any consistency with the third through seventh until I mean up to seventh until we hit seventh. That's where I see our trend, you know, cuz I pulled out, you know, what do we report in the math at the lower grades and we didn't see that trend of downsliding until we hit seventh. >> Yeah, what's what's really in the overall macro data is not there incremental gains in mathematics across the state when you go grade by grade, but there are particular skills
150within the standards that just are are are declining or are not making that that improvement. And then those things compound. So, for like for example, let's say a a younger student is uh learning multiplication and they they just never really get multiplication. When they advance a grade level, there's going to be new skills that are there that are based on multiplication, but they don't have to prerequisite. They might be wonderful in other areas of mathematics. So, it it when you when we look at some of that data, you're seeing the overall performance of all standards, not just individual gaps where they come up. So, I think that's more of what I was referencing. >> Um And you said um why is this happening in math? High achievement can mask limited growth. Um Yes, I understand
151they are proficient. Um But if they're again, if they're not making years worth of growth, um when I look at PIVAS, if they're not making years worth of growth, pretty soon they're not going to be advanced. >> Correct. >> Then then they're going to be sliding backwards, which I would term as regression. >> Yeah, we we definitely >> We have to all students have to make a year's worth of growth. But you know, or sh that's should be our goal, at least a year. >> Ab- absolutely. And I know >> more, so that they're moving up levels. >> Correct. And and so sometimes we see that where where a student their their achievement will be excellent. You could couldn't ask for anything better. Uh but maybe if they've always been there, are they making gains
152that are that that that that they're capable of. And they might be excellent, but could we go even further? So, one of the things I do want to address with differentiation and making adjustments to our instruction is targeting that kind of that top 1/3 of students, where we get some of that growth stagnation, where you have the high achievement, but the growth is stagnant. Because those students can be pushed further. Absolutely. >> I have a question. I had no Is there Does the district have any This is actually for I mean, this is probably more for the superintendent and the assistant superintendent, but do we have any data on academic achievement that's connected to like neighborhoods in in our community? Um do we know where most of our economically disadvantaged students are located? Zip code
153is definitely not enough. Um you know, I I almost think of like the voting districts is more a kind of more useful tool, but but there must be neighborhoods somehow. Like do we And do we Do Do we have any awareness of what kind of educational resources are out in the community besides school buildings? Uh for example, libraries. I mean, I know I know we have a library, um but I'm interested in that. We are talking about this at the um the lower Saucon um uh and the lower Saucon Lehigh Valley I'm trying to remember the name of the >> planning board >> planning. Yeah, the planning commission um um uh event where at the at that level in long-range planning for the township the township was talking you know there was a pretty good
154conversations about how to strengthen cultural resources in the community because we see that as part of nurturing education too. You can't separate. You can't like you know it's not like there's the borough, the township, and the school district and you know they have to they they they are always going to be interconnected and so I'm kind of interested if we have in the district any sense of like where there are educational I don't want to call them deserts cuz they're not anywhere, you know? I mean but where are the problem areas, you know? Um do we even know, you know? >> Have the ability to we have the ability to drill down that data? Like we have the data that could And to be honest with you, I don't think we've taken the time to
155do it. So I actually have it written down as something that we need to dig into from our level a little deeper. >> Because if if there was a way to liaise with um our local governments and we don't really have anybody on the school board who's kind of like the liaison, the local governmental liaison, right? We don't We don't have that role right now. We don't have a liaison. Um and I wish that we did have something like that, like somebody who could talk to the officially on you know without having to you know out in the open you know liaise with our our our our borough council members and our um our you know our township council members to try to strengthen community education. To help you know, Mr. Hauser. You know? >>
156Can we define when you say economically disadvantaged? Is it a specific dollar amount? Is it based on the households and the free and reduced lunch? Or is there another number that you are using that you can share with us? >> It's it's based on free and reduced lunch application. Um typically the number the number I get from that when I go into PIVAS as an administrator, I can do searches just based on that particular subgroup. Um the future ready index also identifies that with those little squares on there. If I click on those, it'll give me all of the breakdowns. That was an area that I felt was very pronounced. Um so we got to pick an area that would that would be that would be one. I can search for that on PIVAS in
157particular. Normally what we see as far as like the percentage in a school district the actual percentage tends to be a little higher uh by several points in some cases double digits uh just because some people who do qualify for those uh the free and reduced lunch programs just don't apply. Um so that the numbers tend to be a little lower just as an FYI. >> Uh one more question. So uh uh Mr. Brown asked about the neighborhoods. And that's interesting. Uh the have you looked at uh whether the students who are performing well or not performing well in that uh seventh grade what uh math class they have taken? Because that's one of those things that once we hit the middle school, there is there are a lot of pathways and so forth. So
158uh uh do do you know the answer to that as in like I don't know those who are in algebra, you know, there is the uh they don't see a slump for seventh grade, but those who are in I don't know math core seven, they maybe I'm just asking whether uh that level of sort of like data is available. >> No, have have I looked at it like a historical math pathway based on where they are? No, I have not done that. That that would be a next a next step after we can get a little bit of >> the reason that I'm saying it is is is that uh we really don't have like seventh grade math. You know, we talk about it, you know, as if we do, right? We are talking about
159students who are seventh grade, biologically they are like certain age, but they are at like completely different places in terms of their math instruction and background and achievement. And I think it's probably sort of like not really a great idea to sort of like lump them all together in like one number, you know, at one dot and that thing. I understand why it's being done, but uh if we want to know, you know, what's happening, we should really kind of like look at that. And I'm going to sort of like say it's completely possible if you come to if you come to us and say, "You know what? The students who didn't have the the proper level of growth were the ones who were too advanced in math and they had hit these topics two
160years ago when they were in fifth grade, right? Because they were sort of like taking this class and these topics, you know, like back then and by now they forgot, right? I'm just saying that I wouldn't be surprised if that is the case, right? The same way I wouldn't be surprised if there is something that is happening in the seventh grade or math core or whatever that is. That So, so we we need to kind of like know the answer to that before we can we can you know, try to address the the problem. >> Sure, you you describe a very common phenomenon. For example, in in algebra one, we could have eighth grade students, seventh grade students in algebra one. Um there are I think the number is 14 uh standards that appear in
161in math eight that do not appear in Algebra 1 because it's assumed there's proficiency in those standards and they go in. The issue becomes students get double assessed and we know we know how it can be. Sometimes if we don't hit a particular math concept for a while, it gets a little rusty. If you asked me to do long division right now, I would probably take a time out and get some tutoring and then come back. >> Yeah, but but this is like my my my my my my broader point is that when we have a number like this and we've had sort of like numbers like this for a long time, that that level of information is really important. You may come back and say, "Hey, you know what? Uh the kids who are
162not doing well in terms of their P vast data are kids who are much more advanced, right? And uh they they learned this stuff, you know, a couple of years ago or last year. They don't remember it, but I as a principal and you know, math teachers in eighth grade and ninth grade, we are not worried about that, right? And I'm more than happy to swallow that red number there, right? Because in that case, you know, you have an explanation, you have looked at it, you know what's going on and you're like, "This is okay. We are we understand what's happening." Whereas right now it kind of like looks like a little bit of a sort of like average that doesn't contain that granular level of uh information that is needed. >> Dr. Caskey. >>
163I I have a quick question if you don't mind. Could you please restate what those double-digit numbers are for those students who are economically disadvantaged and restate the plan for them if you don't mind. I don't have the presentation right in front of me. So, my apologies. >> Sure, no problem. In ELA, um economically disadvantaged students are scoring approximately 11 points uh lower than their peers, and that's in terms of achievement, uh not not growth, but achievement. And in mathematics, that goes up to 14. Um there are specific strategies that we can use to address economically disadvantaged students. There's not a one-size-fits-all. Uh we do have to couple that with that whole student. Um most commonly, we can do strategies that impact um vocabulary building in ELA and mathematics. Uh more high-frequency words, direct instruction
164of those, and then also key content vocabulary, reinforcing that consistently. Um one of the more common things in, you know, generally economically disadvantaged learners is um they don't necessarily want have the the experience with reading to be able to comprehend some of the texts that they will encounter. So we have to do some more explicit instruction in vocabulary. With that comes more formative assessment, um as far as are they picking up things in increments. Um and then those students will generally uh typically thrive when more thrive when they have uh built-in relevance as part of their lessons, showing how what they are learning will connect outside of the four walls of the classroom. That can be a motivator for engagement. There are many other things that can be done, but that would be more student-specific.
165>> Thank you very much. I I only asked because technically growing up, I myself was economically disadvantaged. Uh I wasn't read to growing up. Uh I also had other challenges in terms of the school district that I went to. However, and this may be anecdotal or amorphous, but what helped me was to learn to love learning. Uh that was really one of the big things that changed sort of my outlook on school and the appreciation of finding new information. So, maybe that could be something that could be incorporated into the plan, uh just teaching these students that learning to love learning is a good thing. Um and of course all of the physical strategies that you will entertain as well. That That was my only comment. Thank you, Dr. House. >> Thank you. >> Okay.
166>> Yes. >> Thank you. Uh good evening, members of the board. I just want to first of all, Mr. Hauser, excellent presentation. I I appreciate all the hard work he's been doing as the middle school principal. Um you know, working with Mr. Hauser and actually all the principals, I just want to clarify a couple of things. One, I think the question was for economic disadvantage. There are the criteria did change not only free and reduced lunch, but it's also foster care, group home, uh public assistance, and migrant runaways as well, too. So, those are some of the variables that could impact uh of economic disadvantage. Um just to clarify a couple of things, too, just for statewide and we know you don't like that and and that's something we don't press upon as far as
167statewide. It It's like, you know, you do some kind of simple subject design or an experiment, you need baseline. The state average is the baseline to just say where we are. And And to your point, there are going to be a lot of schools that may bring the average significantly down that are very challenging. However, it's just a baseline, so we don't predicate ourselves specifically just analyzing ourselves with the that is. It's just a baseline to see where we are and it works in the world. Absolutely the idea of grabbing the top 10 schools in the state and aligning ourselves with that, I mean, absolutely we can definitely um do that. But again, I just don't want When we do have dialogue, and you're going to see in Dr. Cassie's presentation in the presentations when
168we do statewide or building-wide data, we are going to have that. So, um please understand we're not um accepting um where we are is just, you know, the baseline. Um And to the point in regards to the information, when when the we give some kind of context to why there's some barriers, it's by no means to make any kind of um pejorative or some kind of excuse. It's more to just give us potential context of what's currently going on right now. And then from there, we come up with an action plan. So, you will see action plans proposed to address the concerns cuz we see it as a concern. All these leaders right here take everything very seriously, and we want to make sure achievement is number one across all levels, across all students, regardless
169of uh status, uh socioeconomic status, and academic performance. Um we are going to look at the four the four call the four prong in the quadrants. You know, looking at curriculum, analyzing our curriculum, making sure that curriculum um where we are, our level of instruction, what are the instructional methodologies that are occurring in the classrooms. We looking at our assessments, making sure there's common assessments across, you know, um you know, departments, and making sure organization, looking at classroom management and and the performance in regards to classroom management skills, which are also impacted uh performance. So, those are always going to be the things we're always going to be examining and the components and the variables that, you know, when these building leaders go into their schools, we're assessing that as well, too. So, we identify
170we identify highlight the wonderful things that are occurring, but we also going to make sure that we address any of the challenges to get and meet our goal annually and the state goal as well, too. I just want to make sure I preface that. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um can I >> Sure. >> Um is this to me or or Mr. Hauser? >> Well, to to to all of all of y'all. I uh Yeah, I really appreciate that comment and uh um I hear the the hunger for improvement and um Um, and it you know, I think there's there's a really good team here right now and um you know, I think that um You know, the the reason why there's so much focus on the middle school with the uh uh
171uh you know, Mr. Hauser's presentation is because that's where we all know that there's been an an issue and um you know, that's that's you know, that's why we're you know, we've got our tails up around the whole issue, you know, and uh I I appreciate the your your words uh uh to uh uh Brusa's fantastic. So, thank you. >> Dr. Noor, sorry. >> It's always neat when you're thinking something over here and then somebody says it and I like to thank Mr. Santos for saying uh mentioning that. That's what went through my mind. I came from a a just below middle-class family and my mom and dad who worked numerous jobs, but uh they didn't read to me. They didn't have the time to read to me. Uh they were the first to graduate
172from high school. Uh I was the first to go to college and it wasn't until I went and fell in love with social studies and non-fiction texts and informational texts which we need more of, okay? Uh that's that's a key. What you know, regardless, I know socioeconomics have a lot to do with it, but whether or not your parents read to you and instill in you a love of reading. My four girls, thank God, they have my wife's love of reading and not mine, but thank you for saying that uh Mr. Santos. Uh after hearing the presentation and the concerns, I'll say this. Uh mine could be short and sweet. The high school's doing well. We want to do much better. We don't care where we compare with the state. And my proud teachers, who
173are Keystone teachers, are working their butts off to increase proficiency. Thank you. All right. Pretty much uh don't have to go through that first slide because it's uh You want to go back to the slide. We'll just go back to the first slide so I this one cuz it's pretty similar. Uh I just wanted to say something. It's it's just to make sure everybody realizes and maybe you do, maybe you don't, but at the elementary level and at the middle school level, you know, these are teachers and buildings that deal with grade levels. They deal with standards and eligible content, a a plethora of them at each of the grade levels. And it is very difficult for teachers to uh you know, touch on all of those. And in my experiences uh throughout my career,
174you know, you're looking at four things basically that dictate uh whether or not you have success at a grade level. First, you got to make sure that those standards and eligible content are taught before the test is given. You know, that's dealing with scope and sequence and curriculum mapping. Two, you got to expose students to the type of questions they're going to get on these tests. Uh because if they go into a test and they see a question and they haven't been exposed to that, they're not going to be able to know how to answer it. Local assessments designed by teachers should be questions that are, you know, Mr. Hauser talked about item analysis, questions that are linked to standards and eligible content so that on those local assessments that we create, uh you know,
175we're measuring whether or not students are mastering that. And then four is you must motivate students. I mean, no matter what grade level, you have to motivate students to do their best on assessments, whether that be local, diagnostic, proficiency measurement, or standardized uh test assessments. And it's it's a very difficult thing to do, but we're educators. That's what we want to do. We want to impact the future. And I just wanted to say that now I recognize whereas we have three tests, a biology, an algebra one, and a literature, you know, they have PSSAs that really are more vast than those subject-specific tests that we have at the high school. So, presentation overview, like I said, it's pretty much the same thing. Uh as Mr. Hauser was saying, we go to this slide. I'm not
176going to compare with the state assessments, but ELA and math achievement, uh basically all, you know, they're in the green. All student groups meet uh interim uh targets uh for both uh English language arts and mathematics. The reason why the science is in gray is because science was waived this year. Uh this year coming up in uh May when the students take the biology Keystone exam, it's going to be a brand new exam. It's going an exam that was designed to uh implement and incorporate the steel standards. So, everybody in the state of Pennsylvania, all students uh and all teachers are going into this exam being brand new with new standards. And uh you know, typically what happens when that happens is that uh you see lower scores throughout the state, but you know, once
177again, it's its first year. And you know, Mrs. Mertz uh went for 2 days and uh worked out, I think it was out in Harrisburg uh on the uh She goes that works on the Keystones and contributes with other educators. But uh there are a lot of changes, and it's our job to make sure that we prepare our students for that science test. So, that's in ter- terms of proficiency and uh and achievement. When you look at PVAAS and ELA and math and growth, uh we're in the blue. So, we are definitely exceeding the standard domain for growth. I'm very proud to say, you know, 100 in both. And then once again, you see the gray in science because it's a waved uh test this year and it's waved for this year and it's going
178to be measured a new test next year. Okay. Uh PA Future Ready Index basically advanced proficient on ELA and math versus the Commonwealth but it just basically where we stand in terms of advanced percentage. You could see that in English 20.1% of our students who take the literature's Keystone are advanced and in math 28.4 students are advanced. Uh college and career readiness is a highlight for us. If you look you know we have rigorous course work. 72% of our students participated in the rigorous courses. That would be include AP dual enrollment or you know center for technology education concentration. So this is significantly exceeds our goal overarching goal of 60%. Uh if you look at that closely that picture there of all student group you could see that 54.5% take AP classes and participate in
179AP classes. Uh percentage college course enrollment that the dual enrollment is 4.9 and I only see that going up in the future with providing more opportunities for students to take dual credit dual enrollment courses here at the high school and then you could see the bottom one is the percentage of CT CTE programs of study concentration that's our students going to the uh to the technical school and that's 16.8. So looking ahead you know these are comprehensive plan goals that we put in the comprehensive plan. Ensure that 50% of students participate in the at least one advanced placement course each year. I think that we are going to well exceed that goal. It's a lofty goal but uh you know having uh you know thanking you for talking about paying for the test for the
180students that take the AP exam. I think that's going to encourage students to get into these courses and take them and succeed. And then also obviously continue to develop dual dual enrollment opportunities, as I said before, for our students in grades 9 through 12. Uh some assessment highlights once again, uh you look at your industry-based learning. Uh if you look over on the left, it's in the blue. That's the 24-25 school year. If you look over in the gray, uh it's 6.3 uh percent of advanced in this category. Then you look down at the components uh of the indicating components, you have 17.5 students uh who are advanced on the NOCTI or uh NMS test. Uh obviously, we want to see that improve with our students going to the technology center. Uh we want to
181see them uh score better on the NOCTI tests. Uh the percentage earned uh industry-based recognition credentials, that's once again over at the uh CTE, 18.2% leave the CTE in 24-25 with industry-based credentials. And then if you look down at the bottom, you might say, "Wow." Then you see 97.2%. That's the competent uh comp- uh sorry. The competency work-based learning experience, and that's what we require our students here uh in order to graduate. That's uh they have the opportunity to do uh job shadowing, they have the opportunity to do uh community service, or they have the opportunity to do a internship over at the uh at Babette's. And then if you look at the uh chart on the right, it just talks about post-secondary transition to school, military, or work. We have 66.1 of our students
182go into secondary education. We have 8.9 enlisted in the military, and then we have uh entering the PA workforce 42.9. So, you could see that uh that's 22-23 data. You could see that a lot of our post-secondary education students, you know, uh go into the workforce as well. And that's nowadays with students and how much they have to pay for college, that that makes sense. Next slide, uh once again, PA Future Ready Index, uh career standards benchmark. You can see that uh we are well above 98.1 um high school graduation rate, um 95.5. Is that the correct number? My eyes are bugging. 95.5. And then if you look on the right at the gray, that's a 5-year cohort. So, within the last 5 years of Saucon Valley being measured, we are at 97% uh graduation
183rate, which is which is phenomenal. But as I said when I introduced, uh we want to get better. Okay, and the last uh Keystone assessment highlights, uh you're looking at, you know, algebra Keystone. I know there are 40 or 498 districts in the state, and I know there are tons of uh schools in the state, but uh we're in the top 17th percentile in the state, being ranked 86. And we're second in the Lehigh Valley in algebra Keystone scores. Biology, we don't have those numbers because it was waived. And once again, I just want to reinforce that this year's test is based on steel standards. And our literature literature Keystone, we're ranked 119, uh top 24th percentile, and fifth in the Lehigh Valley. But once again, as I said, uh we're not satisfied with those.
184We want to get better, and we want to make sure we impact uh more students. And then high school benchmark and CDT results, um you know, this year we implemented the well, we have been implementing the classroom diagnostic exams. We decided this year to go with the Firefly benchmark. Now, we have some mixed messages on that, and may or may not go with that with certain subject areas next year, but um you know, targeted diagnostics, the uh the tools are successfully being used. Uh we are using these things. I have up here and I didn't want to get into great detail, but on the in-service day I challenged the Keystone teachers, the ones who teach biology, literature, and uh algebra one. I challenged them to meet for an hour and take a look at the
185data from the latest CDT. I think it's the third CDT we gave. And I asked them to say first, I wanted three key findings. Examine the overall performance trends for the students and identify patterns that you see across various reporting categories. The second is use these reports to determine which three Keystone standards we require an additional instructional focus. So, prioritize on those standards that you see from those first CDTs that the majority of kids are not mastering and tweak your instruction before the next CDT in order to get better scores on that. And the third is, you know, plan three instructional interventions. You know, consider small group instruction, targeted practice, formative checks, something where you could measure from the third CDT to the fourth CDT to see if we're making growth. And a lot of
186our departments, the the three departments, they want to give an additional CDT about a month before the Keystones to get that final final drive to see, okay, what do we have to reinforce and what do we have to teach prior to these students going in, but each department handed me this within 3 days of that in-service day and I think they did a very good job at targeting the things that we needed to target. All right, finally, areas of improvement. Um you know, once again, while the high school math percent proficiency saw excellent growth up to 63.5%, you know, we are still working towards the long-term goal and even above it. Uh the state goal is 72%, but uh you know, we want to score higher than that. Uh algebra one, while student growth is
187strong in the PVA areas, you saw that in the blue. Our Keystone proficiency is slightly below expectations, so we want more students to score in the proficient and advanced area. Uh biology students, you know, growth meets expectations, but we need to push outcomes to consistently exceed expectations. You know, once again, meeting it is one thing, but exceeding them is another. And then we have achievement gaps just like the middle school. Our achievement gaps that we focused on from the PSSA growth measures are economically disadvantaged students, students with IEP, and uh Hispanic students. Okay, our action plan overview. We are focus areas are definitely Algebra 1 and biology. Um you know, our overarching goal is to uh use the data uh in order to grow you know, to see growth in proficiency, and also to move
188growth outcomes from meeting to exceeding expectations. Algebra 1 action plan, uh we basically uh after analyzing the data, this was probably about uh 2 months ago, 3 months ago, we said, "Okay, what are we going to do uh in order to uh act upon and uh you know, focus on these deficiencies?" So, strong growth not fully translating into Keystone proficiency, our goal was to increase the proficiency while maintaining strong growth. Um uh you know, we talked about what percentage would we like to see? Uh that's we would like to see it go from 34% to 44% or and and of 10 students uh to increase proficient and advanced. Uh key strategies, uh curriculum, you know, evaluating our curriculum, uh making sure that uh we uh have curriculum maps that teachers are able to follow and
189make sure they're assessing uh at the right time, align instruction and common assessments to standards and eligible content. I talked a little bit about that before. It's so essential that we uh uh measure these things, standards and eligible content on our local assessments. Uh once again, exposure to the type of questions, embed Keystone-style questions, multi-step constructed response. Uh data use as we're doing as I just described, uh you know, making sure that we're identifying the kids and know there are some that be be in the basic level but that are near proficiency. I mean, those are the kids that we really have a chance to impact and get them from basic to uh to proficient. And then intervention, provide targeted intervention uh via small group instruction within our 60-minute periods we have at the high
190school. What that would look like is the, you know, the teacher would separate the class out where they would work with uh small groups on eligible content and uh standards that that particular group is deficient in. You know, monitoring tools for algebra, once again, we have the curriculum-based assessments, the CDT, the Firefly, and then we utilize the PVAAS and projections. Uh indicator of success, how do we indicate success? Uh you know, like I said, we're looking to increase 10 students from the basic and below basic into the proficient and advanced on the Algebra I Keystone, and we're also want to sustain our PVAAS growth. Targeted math supports and you'll see that these are pretty much the same when what we're going to talk about targeted biology supports in the second. But supports for students with
191IEP and English learners, you know, students will receive SDI, specifically designed instruction and accommodations as needed, our special education students. We want to strengthen the collaboration amongst the general education teachers and the special education teachers. I was just talking today about how, you know, proud I ever proud I am of the special education department and how well they work together. We were interviewing uh young lady for a emotional support paraprofessional position, and we were just telling her about the the family that we have in the special education department, but I think more work between them and the general ed department, more of an understanding of what each other does and what are responsible for uh will help us in this area. Support students with IEPs and English learners. Same thing. SDI and accommodations as needed.
192Strengthen collaboration amongst the general ed and EL English with English learner staff. And then finally, supports for economically disadvantaged students. Going to increase family communication and engagement around math expectations and Keystone readiness. You know, once again, if we were having some major issues in ELA, it would be getting out there, trying to you know, sell the fact that you have to read to your children. The more of the the family reads their child, the the better scores that the child is going to have, the better understanding as they go throughout their their career from K to 12. But you know, reaching out once again and increasing communication with those parents to say, it's very important for you to play a role in your child's life and it's very important for you to also assist us
193in educating the child. And when you look at the biology, this is once again the growth movement. You could see that our Keystone biology is in the meeting expectations. We want it obviously to go to exceeding expectations. You could see the CDT biology which is that diagnostic which predicts and you might say, "Oh well, you know, those are in the blue and why is the Keystone biology in the in the green?" Well, CDT once again, you have multiple administrations of CDT whereas the biology exam, you have one test one day. And you know, what we try to do is that if we're seeing that in biology that we have on the CDT in the blue, but we're in the green on the on the Keystone biology, once again, it's you know, targeting, okay, what are
194we doing? What do we have to do prior to that biology Keystone exam to make sure that they're scoring as they are predicted on the CDT biology and that just has to do with adjusting your instruction to meet the needs It's on the data. And I noted that the biology exam once again was waived. Um biology action plan key strategies once again uh look at key resources, curriculum resources that align to steel standards. Uh rigor, uh you know, when you were talking about uh asking questions, ask questions at a higher taxonomical level so that students can get to those uh stages of analysis uh etc. Uh assessment straighten the straighten our formative assessments. And once again, as I said before, line it to the Keystone anchors. And then daily practice embed Keystone style questions into
195daily instruction. We could see the pattern for both math and science. And then identify near proficient students using PVAAS CDT and benchmark data to say, "Okay, what do we have to do to move those students who are close to proficiency uh to get them from basic to proficient?" Uh monitoring tools is the same as before uh as the uh the math. Uh indicators of success whereas we looked for uh I'm still looking for a 10 10 student increase to go from basic and below basic to proficient and advanced. So that would be from 60% to 66%. And then also once again sustain the PVAAS growth, but increase the proficiency. Uh these are the basically the same the targeted biology supports for students with IEPs, with English learners, as well as economically disadvantaged students. So you
196that is the same as I stated in math. And that is our presentation and uh once again, I thank you for listening. I'm open to uh any questions. I may have some answers, but I may not have all answers, but you know, it's our goal for uh you know, this team here uh to work together to make sure that we're identifying the areas we need to improve in and setting our students up for success. >> I have a question. >> Sure. >> A comment too. I uh thank you very much. I Um I think that this is this a great um I'm I really appreciate that classroom targeting. Um um pretest um That's fantastic and um I'm really glad to hear that uh your uh characterization of the teachers sort of doing you know, doing
197the work to to to sort of try to meet your challenge um and that you know, you're giving that positive reinforcement at a community meeting is really great. Um I really appreciate that. Um uh you know, um my parents they they hid they hid from us that we were you know, that we had we were on food food stamps for so many years and um you know, I read comic books, cereal boxes and World Book Encyclopedia. Like that's that was my like sort of like, you know, reading material that I I loved, you know, and and then until I until I really encountered teachers who took an interest, you know, um and the teachers changed my life. Um uh but um you know, I really when you're talking about um trying to work with parents
198that's huge for me. I mean, you can throw all the data you want out there, but like when I'm hearing about that, it's it's like what I want to hear and I I do think that, you know, um I don't want it to go to your head, but I think that we've got one of the best uh principals in the in the area for high school and um I think we're really lucky right now. >> My my wife will not let it go to my >> Well, here and and don't say young ladies, say young women cuz they yeah, people don't like that um and and I I I I I I I know I don't want to sound politically correct, but I I I definitely think that uh uh it's one of those things
199um um but um yeah, I was a library rat in the local libraries and, um, and and I think that that's a, you know, it definitely, um, you know, that that connection to the community is such a huge thing, um, um, I I I don't want to sound like, uh, I'm I'm not acknowledging, uh, um, Mr. How- Howers- Howser's presentation, too, but the high school one is easier for me to understand some ways, too, so I'm I'm especially excited about it, you know, and I I really and and of course the data is is is really great right now, you know, so thank you very much, uh, uh, Dr. Caskey. Thank you. You're welcome. Anyone else? >> I I just have a I have, uh, just a a few I have one question. Um, in
200the chart about the post secondary education, those percentages don't add up to 100. They add up to more than 100. Could you just explain like how that one works and why that's the case if you know? >> Yes, uh, let me get there for >> Yeah, that's the one >> right there on the right. >> Yeah, because post secondary education meaning that 66.1% of our students go on to some sort of a two-year or four-year college. >> Okay. >> Down below there, 42.9% that may be some of those 66.1% who enter the workforce as well. >> They do both enroll >> They do both. >> Yes, yeah. >> Yeah, like oh, okay, okay. >> I My daughter's in school now, but she's also, uh, MTI technician on the weekends or MRI technician at Chop to
201make the >> Okay, I understand. Thank you. That that makes sense now. And the other thing I wanted to to just note, and it's not a question, is, um, this exposure that we're giving basically every student to like work-based learning experiences. I mean, I've had people ask me, um, you know, what are we doing for for students who don't go to college? And I think this is like a really clear thing that like what we're doing compared to some other districts is huge, right? We're providing experience for everyone in addition to BAVATS, right? But but then our students are getting this kind of experience and this is clearly not something that all schools do based on those numbers. So, I just wanted to point that out and and say I appreciate that that data point
202being in here. >> No, and we're saving parents and students a lot of money by exposing them to different careers prior to making that choice of what to go to college for, so. Yes, sir. >> Um I I'm just curious um the state I gather the state captures this information about who goes to college and who enters the workforce, is that right? >> We we enter that. We have a senior survey and then we provide that into the system and that's how the state generates those, but yeah, that's based on our senior survey. >> Okay. Okay, great. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Anyone else? I just have one question. Um so you in the targeted supports, you list SDIs. That that's a standard for kids who have IEPs, right? That's they that specifically designed
203instruction is there all the time. That's not an additional thing you're doing or those things. >> No, but you need to take a look at what SDIs are in there for those those children and maybe there needs to be they need to be tweaked when the IEP comes upon the year review or maybe something else has to be added. That's what I mean just by examining what's in there and making sure that we're providing them with the you know, the adequate supports if they need it, if we increase or decrease. Obviously, the goal of special education is to pull that back and not be in special education at the end, but you know, there are some students where they They need additional SDI and accommodations and that's what I was talking about there. >> Thank
204you. Anyone else? >> One last thing. >> And and please let us know what we can do, too. And don't don't please don't forget that. Um I know a little bit about your history. You're incredibly courageous. You're willing to fight for, you know, for students, their freedom to learn. I mean, honestly you've done some stuff that is incredible, you know? I mean, you've stood up to really horrible, you know, sort of oversight and uh let us know what we can do, you know? Give us ideas, you know? Um shake us up, you know? Challenge us, too, cuz we, you know, I think that it's got to be the whole community, you know? >> Yeah. I I would just be happy if no one asked me or Mrs. Alascity to take any books out of the
205library. That would make me happy. >> Any other questions? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Moving on. We have the number four in education is Capstone Academy extended school year to approve the agreement with them um from July 6th through August 7th for a specific student. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed? Motion passes. Number five, this is to approve the Colonial I Colonial Intermediate IU 2 IU 20 contract for Applied Behavior Analytics services for an additional 50 hours. Um could you tell me uh well, excuse me. Do I have a motion for that? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Amy, could you tell me a little bit more of that applied behavior analytics services? Is
206that for specific student or just something we typically contract for? >> for a specific student, yes. >> Okay, thank you. Any other questions? >> This is for the What's the What's the time frame for that? Is it for a month, one week, one year? 50 hours? >> All right, can you come to the microphone, please? >> The hours are for the remainder of the school year. >> For this year? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Any additional >> The other one that we just approved, that is for for the summer, right? So >> Correct. >> And and this is one child or more than one? >> This is for >> The IU contract is for uh >> The IU contract I'm just since you're up there, I'm just talking about the Cap So Academy. >> They
207are each for two They're for individual students, both those agreements. >> And this is Is it Is it typical for for that amount for only a month? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? >> No, thanks. Thanks. >> Okay. All right, thank you. Um All those in favor, say aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Personnel, we have nine personnel items. Does anybody want any removed from the group? Do I have a motion? Oh, let me read through them. We have number one, extended school year. Um approve the following individuals for extended school year um as instructors and power professionals. Middle school LTS to approve um a person for being a middle school LTS. We have an elementary team leader, um someone that is taking over that position. Food service, we have a temporary
208salary increase. Um number five, uh approved the mentors. Number six, athletic workers. Number seven, resignation of dedicated building substitute. Number eight, retirements. And number nine, unpaid leave. Do I have a motion for approval? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Yeah, I have a few questions. >> Discussion? Yes. >> So, uh uh the first question is uh for the ESY for 2025-2026, are all of these individuals that you have listed uh under teachers, are they uh Sacavado teachers, or are they uh people potentially from outside? >> They are, I believe, out- um ex. >> So, uh back to the question that was asked before, any of them uh not duly certified? >> I don't believe so. >> Okay. Uh and I know that duly, I mean, uh imagine that they are duly certified, so >> Highly
209certified, yeah. Highly qualified, yeah. >> The second question is about the middle school LTS. Could Could you uh what what is this uh uh LTS for? >> Uh that is for Mrs. Marsilio's position. >> Oh. >> So, we have uh hired a replacement for her, so full-time that was on a previous agenda. Um she is currently one of our long-term um subs in the elementary school, and she'll be remaining there for consistency for kids. So, in that process, we have hired a long-term sub to take over for Mrs. Marcille until further notice. >> The next question is the for the team leaders. So, could you could you say what's what what are the circumstances that we have a team leader starting March 12th? >> One of our uh elementary school teachers is currently out and
210served as a team leader. So, we have another one stepping into that position in her absence for the duration of the year. >> Okay. And last but not least, I also wanted to uh uh acknowledge uh the three teachers who are uh retiring. I've had the uh uh pleasure of uh knowing them. But, in particular, Mrs. Kishbaugh who uh will be missed. >> Yep. Yep. >> Yes, uh Charles Austin, Jessica Schmidt, Amy Kishbaugh, Kishbaugh, I wanted to thank them for their service to the district. And um you know, I'm it's a it's a long meeting. I'm tomorrow morning I got to I'm going to get up early and teach 80 students. Uh and I've got a headache right now. And I know how hard it is to teach, you know? Um and for for all
211those years and all that hard work and all those difficult times, I just want to say thank you to those teachers for their service. >> Any other comments? >> I as well will join in on that. Um quite frankly, it's hard for me to believe they're at retirement age. And I'm not assuming that they all are, but they're all retiring. Um I it's been a pleasure working with all of them. And they will be missed and appreciate your service and your longevity here at Saucon Valley. Thank you. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motions pass. Facilities, there's no agenda items. Finance, um again listing the budget timeline. Um we have um 1 2 3 4 5 6 um items. Does anybody want any pulled off separately under finance? Okay, then let
212me read through them. We have approved the 26-27 Northampton Community College Buzzard resolution. Approved the 26-27 agreement with the Karen Foundation. Approved the donation from Giant. Um Nomark amendment. For a student Be Social event contract. Um this is an agreement between Big Panthers and Little Panthers pending review of the solicitor. And public school facility improvement grants. This is um applying for those grants. Uh do I have a motion to approve those agenda items? >> So moved, Brooke. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Uh just thank you to Giant. >> Yep. Anything else? All right. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motions pass. Uh community updates. Hellertown Lower Saucon Chamber of Commerce, Jay, do you have any report? >> Uh nothing to report currently. The next meeting is next month. >> Okay.
213Saucon Valley Foundation, Lara? Okay. That seems like no report. Northampton Community College, Susan is She's here today. Bethlehem Vo-Tech, we have the meeting coming up right Cedric. >> Yeah, 2 weeks from tonight. >> Um Dr. Paxson? >> Meeting tomorrow and you heard from >> Yes. >> Dr. Wolf Gordon. >> All right. The SBA, Don or Jay or both? >> Uh just a quick one, there's two um registrations and that you could sign up for now. There's an AI virtual symposium. There was one uh last year but there's another one coming up and there's also a law webinar about developments in the right to know law. >> Thank you. Anything Jay? >> Uh nothing on my end this time. >> Okay, thank you. Uh there is no board director initiated items, citizens inquiry and comments. >>
214So, I stayed and I will say just for an anecdotal note, um your meetings are longer than my meetings now. So >> Now, okay. >> Yeah. >> It does not feel like >> Yes, this is true. >> We can always come to your meeting. >> Um so, first I wanted to say I saw the long discussion about um opportunities to engage the other munici- are your municipalities about um engaging the community and I welcome that. Um um you know, I'm I'm one individual on a five-member board but I can say that I I I feel like there is a desire to re- reestablish the Saucon Valley Partnership. Some of you may be familiar with that from years past in which the school board and Hellertown Borough and Lower Saucon Township officials met collaboratively to address
215issues across the board. I also think that there is an opportunity with the Hellertown Library. Both Hellertown Borough and Lower Saucon Township have committed to long-term agreements to fund that library and that library does many things in the community year-round. So, we're talking about I know we were focusing on middle schools, you know, so Miss Andrea does a very wonderful young younger students program, but I think she does middle school, too. And she does a whole summer program where she comes to the parks and does reading. There are so many opportunities. We do movies in the park in Lower Saucon. There could be collaborations there with middle school students. Just even like leadership roles so that like me perhaps you're giving them an opportunity to engage with with students and maybe read to those students
216that are younger students or do different things and then also there's Heritage Day on May 16th, which I know the library is coming to read to students in the community as part of part of Heritage Day at the Saucon Valley Conservancy in Lower Saucon's property off of Water Street. Hellertown, well, it's right on the edge of Hellertown Lower Saucon. But anyway, bottom line is there are lots of opportunities and I welcome that on behalf of myself as an individual council person in Lower Saucon Township. And I think that there is some some energy and appetite for the partnership to reorganize. And then in just going back to some of the things that I heard and questions I heard I know there was a question about how do you know, you know, how do you check
217and balance like what happens when you contract with the IU? Like how do you know what they're able to do and and how do you test things? And I think if you did like a column and you said what are the basic basic foundational skills that you expect of your of your staff at Saucon Valley, are there equivalent expectations within the IU and if not how can you help the IU bridge that gap or what what can be done in that respect? I I identified at least at minimum like your paraprofessional has 40 hours of RBG training. Um I didn't get a chance to identify and mentioned that their teacher has 20 hours of training. If they're on an emergency certificate, they get that 20 hours of training. And then they get three days of
218tact two training which is um aggressive behavioral techniques. So that's for students that have severe behavioral issues and how to handle them. So you can see the concern on the in that programming and that training is really focused on aggressive behavioral techniques and not so much on maybe the ABA stuff and the other things. A paraprofessional at the IU 20 has three days of tact two training again. And then they get a half a day to work with a case manager. Um and they do one day of observation. So then they are immediately permitted to then go into the class. So there is a huge disparity there and so you can ask that question as far as your general education students and how do you how do you do a litmus test? I'm sure you
219have you have one, two, three special education um experts here within your your superintendent, your special education director, and your um assistant superintendent. Um and I'm sure that they can tell you that every year there are goals and then the goals have to be mastered. So if you put in parameters to say that you expect however many percentages of your IEP students to master their goals in a year, that could be a standard. Another standard could be, you know, um if they um if they change a goal, why did they change a goal? If a If a goal is is is reduced or watered down to an easier skill, why did that happen? How often are they taking data? A special education teacher recently said that she takes the data from Saucon Valley daily when
220she's with a student working one-to-one on with them. And IU um the IU autistic support program is designed that they take data once a week. So, there's there's disparity there, but you can also track data to find out how often they're taking data and what they're taking data on. And you can place parameters on what your expectations are as minimum data taken to understand what to do. And if the data doesn't show progress, they do graphing. Each IEP individualized does graphing, so you can look at the graphing and you can say to your staff that if their graph is flat or going down, then they need to redo something within a month. So, that there's expectations that you can go in. So, it it it's a little different than your general ed where you have
221a whole curriculum, but you can start by looking at an IEP and there are plenty of opportunities with PaTTAN that are free to the school district that all school board members can have access to to understand what are the different parts of an IEP and then what are the minimum standards that are expected when a student has an IEP and how to grow. So, just wanted to share that with you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Victoria. >> Mayor. >> Sure. >> We'll We'll move on to board comments. >> Yeah. You know, I'm I'm reflecting that I wish you had said all of these things when Dr. Wolf was sitting here, right? Because when he was here, you were just saying that it's so great and it's so wonderful and it's fantastic and everything that he's
222doing is is great and let's look at >> absolutely wonderful and he has heard everything I said to you. So I promise you that. >> Okay. >> And I absolutely welcome a collaborative meeting with all of you including Dr. Wohlford. But he has this is nothing new to him. >> Okay, thanks. >> Any other board comments? >> Uh I do. Not about this. >> Yes. >> Um I wanted to encourage our administration to make sure that parents are aware that they are off the Monday of Easter. There is a lot of chatter in the PTO group today that parents were unaware of that. So I wanted to uh take this time to make sure administrators know to let families know or if we partner and ask Grace to do something on social media, things like
223that. Um or something through Parent Square. I just wanted to bring that to everybody's attention that not all families seemed aware of that decision. >> So. >> Yes, um would would I um if we wanted to um uh create a municipal liaison or to have a liaison to a reactivated uh Saucon Valley partnership, um would would it start with Don now with um um with policy? Uh would would there need to be an adjustment to policy? Um how could we begin this conversation? Um >> You you I'm sure you we could just pass a resolution that we want it to happen and then work to achieve that. But I think it could be pretty informal that way. I mean if there's a desire just generally of the board to explore an outreach to Hellertown and
224to Lower Saucon about re you know instituting that that that um that program. I think that can be done probably on an informal basis and maybe having your board officers just begin that process and bring something to >> the >> pa- it's the like yeah, cuz I wasn't sure if chicken or egg how how it would work. But so the policy would come out the >> Yeah, well there was never a policy for for that particular um community outreach uh would need that. No, there was it was it was simply it was something that had over the years it just been a position had been had been created and then it kind of faded away because the other I think my recollection was the other municipalities just really weren't engaging with us and vice versa
225at that time. >> Yeah, I ask are there um two board members who would support that becoming going on to an agenda? Or is mine not allowed to ask it right now? >> Yeah, no just say just just a point I I think the proper the proper process is uh uh for uh that uh what was it called uh the partnership, right? >> Community partnership. >> The Saucon Valley partnership, I think that's what it was called. For that to be revived, right? Uh we never sort of like withdrew uh just so you know. This is uh when the there was a feud between the municipalities uh uh I I think uh Hellertown didn't want to have anything to do with it and Lower Saucon didn't want to have anything to do with it and they
226just basically stopped uh you know, having that as a functioning uh body. Once that starts, and I don't know I mean uh uh Ms. Opt of Cordero is uh here. I'm not I'm not saying you should say anything. What I'm saying is that uh she can she can take the message to uh Lower Saucon and then I'm sure someone in Hellertown is also uh watching it. If there's interest to uh revive that, I think the action of this board would be to appoint a person to be the liaison, which is what we had. So, I I don't think we need to I think that's I don't think we need to sort of like approve anything or have a policy. Once the thing is there, then they say what's the who's the liaison from uh Saucon
227Valley and then we will come here in the same way that we've had uh liaisons to other uh uh entities, we would have a liaison for that. >> Okay. Yeah. Thank you. >> Any other board comments? >> Uh very quickly, I would just like to re-emphasize that Heritage Day is May 16th. So, anybody who would like to attend, please put that on their calendars. >> I'm sorry. Uh we couldn't really hear. Did Did anybody hear exactly what he said about Did you Were you saying >> Apologies. Correct. Yes, I was just mentioning that Heritage Day is May 16th. >> yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you. >> it on their calendars. >> Thank you. Yes, it's the 250th anniversary. So, they have big plans for that day. >> I think that uh we uh we have to
228do a very brief executive session after this. >> Yes, I just I don't know if we're announcing that or Yeah. >> Yes, we're going to be holding a brief executive session after this meeting because, you know. It's been a long day. Um >> you so much. >> Announcements with future business meeting April 14th, 2026 and April 28th, 2026.