SV Board Meeting 3-10-2026

001We just have to wait for our friends to come out. Oh, look who's here. Look who's here. Gold Bird, we're very excited to have our last grade here. It's our kindergarten group, and we're very excited. Shadow's here. Shadow, do you want to come over and get ready? We're excited, too. Okay, yep. Shadow ready? All right. Miss Glenn, are you ready? Okay. My name is Glenn Demko. My teacher is Miss Geraci. Miss Geraci said I am a great example of a positive panther. I always come to class with a smile to share with my teachers and my classmates. I show kindness to everyone each and every day. I put forth my best effort in all that I do. I encourage and celebrate the best in my classmates, too. My name is Laney Ball. My teacher is

002Mrs. Harvey. Mrs. Harvey said that I am kind. I am a good helper. I am a great friend. I'm a positive camper. My name is Wyatt Fina. My teacher is Miss Tiana. Miss Tiana said I am a wonderful young man. She says I can be counted on to work hard. I was told being a good friend to everyone around me. I think of others and their feelings. I do a I am a positive man. My name is Amelia Sobrinsky. My teacher is Prof. Wallace. Prof. Wallace says I may only be in kindergarten, but I already display qualities of a strong leader who will not follow the crowd. I am also kind and responsible, and simply pamperific. >> My name is Carson. My name is Carson Betruno. My teacher is Mrs. Campbell. Our class voted and

003chose me to represent us. My classmates and Mrs. Campbell all believe that I am extremely kind, respectful, responsible, and safe. I am always ready to lend a helping hand in class. They all said They They all said said They are ha- proud of me being a positive panther. My name is Marley Dafko. My teacher is Mrs. Seiford. Mrs. Seiford said that I am a positive panther who is kind. She said that I think of my friends and how I can help them to learn. She is proud of me. You ready? My name is Jackson Fennimore. My teacher is Miss Sulyard. Miss Sulyard says that I am always respectful, responsible, and safe. I am kind, caring, and always make others feel welcomed and included. I am a positive panther. Congratulations everyone. Congratulations to your family as

004well. Come on back. So we can say hello. Bad man. That's just shadow. Great job. Great job. I was awesome. You don't get showered you don't get showered. Congratulations everyone. >> [laughter] >> Way to go. A typical couple. Megan Would you take over for a little bit? I want to go out. Is that okay? Yes. If you don't mind being Yes. What? Yes. Just to be good. Wendy, can you please read the attendance? Mr. William Broom. Present. Mr. Donald Carpenter. Here. Mrs. Vivian Demko. She went to the hallway for a picture. Mr. Cedric Detmar. Here. Dr. Laurel Erickson Parsons. Mrs. Megan Lomangino. Present. Dr. Shamim Pakzad. I'm present. Mr. Jay Santos. And Dr. Jake Christian Tetteh. Here. We met this evening for executive session to discuss a special education legal matter, safety and security, and

005the superintendent goals. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda? Second, Broom. Was that a move you moved it? >> Oh, sorry. So moved. >> Yeah. Uh second, Carpenter. Steve, Mrs. Velocity has one noted change to the agenda, or is it already on that? I do have a noted I do have a noted change, but um I can't find my agenda at the moment. >> Oh, okay. Apparently, Mr. Bottomberger has the details of it on a post-it note. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Uh underneath personnel, um the position that we're hiring for uh Christian Kaler. Um there is an error in the step two uh it should be master six at 73,398. So this was number six on the agenda? It's underneath the Yes, on Personnel, yes, number six. Number six. >> Middle

006school teacher >> number six. >> Middle school teacher number six. And what was the error? Uh it was that uh it was step two. It's she's actually came back to us and said she had a master's plus six. Okay. >> So it's correcting it to master six and the the salary is 73,398. Thank you. We're approving the minutes. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Uh we had an executive session. You did that? Okay. I apologize. Uh could I have a motion to approve the minutes of February 24th, 26th? Lumen Gino so moved. Second. Second, Parvin Bonner. Any comments or corrections? Okay, all those in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed? Hearing none, motion passes. Um no recognition. We have our We do not have her here today. High school Let's

007Okay. All right. Our SGA representative, Kristen, is not here. Um Mr. Johnson winter sports review, please. >> Okay, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It's my opportunity now to talk to you and review the Saucon Valley winter season review. >> [clears throat] >> So, bear with me. There's quite a bit of information here. Um but we're going to start off first with our Saucon Valley United uh Unified Bocce team, which was headed up by coach Mason Stewart. Um this year, this team posted a three and five record. Uh and the year was greatly improved as a team from not only a record standpoint, but also as teammates. All the students built camaraderie as teammates and friends. Students were shy at the beginning of the year, but then by the end of the year, everyone loved being

008around each other. And for only a second year as a team, we look for big step forward as they're excited to continue and grow. So, that's Unified Bocce by coach Mason Stewart. Our second team is competition cheer, which was headed up by coach Regina Albano. And the team took third at Wilson competition. They took third at the District 11 leagues, second at the Easton competition, first at Southern Lehigh competition, third at the UCA regionals, second at the PIAA District 11 comps, ranked 16th of 23 at the PIAA states, and ranked ninth at the UCA Nationals small intermediate division group B, 16th of 30th overall. So, they had some pretty good accomplishments by finishing in the top three of all the local competitions. They came in third at leagues and came in second at the districts,

009allowing the girls to go to states. They did earn a bid to the UCA Nationals at regionals and placed third. They competed at the They competed at the UCA regionals and they ranked 16th of 30 in their preliminary division at the UCA Nationals, missing the semis by only 0.3%. They raised over $12,000 to go to Nationals trip, and they also hosted a two-day youth clinic and had 30 of our youth students participate. Girls track was headed by coach Davis and coach Vidumsky, and while they participated in seven invitational meets and one state meet, we also had students such as Sophia Padden and Virginia Kraus, who both had first place titles in two meets for the first time in the history of Saucon Valley indoor track team. >> [clears throat] >> Sophia for the 60 high

010hurdles at East Stroudsburg, and Virginia for the mile, which is a new meet record at the Pennsylvania Track and Field Association meet in Lehigh. And Virginia also ran the 3,000 m run at the state final meet at Penn State on March 1st, and she took third place. Boys indoor track, again, competed and participated in the seven individual invitational meets. And Gaddy Albino Huertas made the finals for the 60 m high hurdles at the Pennsylvania Track and Field competition, which was a first for the boys in his new team in its second year. Um and they were even fortunate enough as a team is starting to grow that they even had a shot put thrower, Patrick Taylor, this year and several sprinters who are up-and-coming athletes. Saucon Valley Saucon Valley boys basketball headed by coach Brett

011Snyder, who posted an 18 8 and 14 record, 5 and 13 overall in the league. They made many improvements with player development throughout the season. They competed in most games while losing many scores of last year's roster to graduation. Won on youth night against a very good senior led Lehigh team that had two 1,000 point scorers. The youth kids got the chance to rush the court at overtime win and got autographs and posters from players at afterwards. It's a nice group of young players that will together work hard and are coming back. The JV record for the basketball team is 15-6-1 with two freshmen playing varsity. Individual records and accomplishments include one Thomas K Hill, who earned honorable mention for the league as a freshman, and Noah Weiss was selected to play in the Lehigh

012Valley senior all-star game in March. Girls basketball team headed up by coach John Tone this season posted a 12 and 12 record. So, 12 and 10 overall, 10 and 8 in the league, and 0 and 2 in the playoffs. Now, the Lady Panthers had their first winning season in 10 years. This season they qualified for not only the Colonial League, but also the District 11 playoffs. Last year they won two games, this year they won 12. We had two players, freshman Grace Donahue and freshman Sierra Skoda, who were both selected to the Colonial League all-star team. We're also proud to announce that senior Marin Bowers was selected to the Lehigh senior all-star classic in March. Boys swimming, which our teams leave third leave Thursday for states, but the boys team had a record of 9

013and 4 posted up by Shawn Fenoff as the head coach, and the boys are the largest they've been in many years consisting of 24 boys, three seniors, four juniors, six sophomores, and 11 freshmen. And they achieved a record of nine wins and four losses, one of the best teams records in the uh best team records in the past decade. They also had a 63% district championship qualification consideration rate for the boys team this year. We had a very good swimming season. Bear with me. The boys medley 200 relay, Theo Weckler, Brody Warner, Thomas King, and Jacob Wargel broke the school record twice and medaled at districts placing second with a time of 1:40:13. The boys 200 free relay, Jacob Weikert, Steven Gazushan, Theo Weckler, Brody Warner medaled at districts placing third with a time of

0141:31:72. We had many kids on the swim team posting their individual records such as King Aris in the 500 free, Angel Avila in the 200, the 500, the 400 free relay, Kyle Che in the 200, the 100 breast, Dominic Faro in the 500 free and the 100 fly, Steven Gazushan the 100 fly, the 100 breast, the 200 free relay, and the 400 free relay. Thomas King the 100 fly, 100 back, 200 medley relay, Brady Shrock 200 free, 100 back, 400 free relay. Benjamin Shrock 500 free, 100 back, 400 free relay. Brody Warner 100 fly, 100 breast, 200 medley relay, 200 free relay. Theodore Weckler 200, the 100 back, 200 medley relay, and 200 free relay. And Jacob Weikert 50 free, 100 free, 200 medley relay, and 200 free relay qualified for the district meet at

015the Parkland at Parkland High School. So, these district district medalists and results and records, Theodore Weckler medaled at districts in fourth place in 200 IM with a time of 2:05:63. Brody Warner medaled at districts in second place with a 100 fly time of 52:99. Theodore Weckler broke the school record at districts in the 100 back with a time of 55.69. And Brody Warner medaled at districts in third place for the 100 breaststroke with a time of 101 .49. And our senior Thomas King will be going to Elizabethtown College in the fall and be and participate on the swim team. Boys that are headed to states are Theo Wettler, Jacob Weikert, Brody Warner, Thomas King, and Stefan Goz Gozian. So, that's our boys swimming. Our girls swimming, while posting a 0 and 13 season, um the

016accomplishments are smaller with the girls team this year consisting of only seven girls. One senior, two juniors, two sophomores, and two freshmen. The team battled through every meet and improved skills and times and meet over meet. They had an 85% championship qualification consideration rate for the girls team this year. Going into the season, the girls 200 medley relay, Julia Court, Amelia McTague, Sarah Shaffer, and Navya Gozuzian medaled at districts placing fourth with a time of 201.16. So, individual records set by the kids this year, Amelia McTague in the 200 IM, 100 back, 200 medley relay, 400 free relay. Victoria Lading in the 100 back, the 400 free free relay. Navya Gozuzian, 50 free, 100 free, 200 medley relay, 200 free relay. Zoe Bocan, 200 free, 200 free relay, 400 free relay. Sarah Shaffer, 200, the

017100 fly, the 200 medley relay, and the 200 free relay. Julia Court in the 50 free and the 100 free, and the 200 medley and the 200 free relay. And Aubrey Hollman, the 400 free relay. All qualified for the district meet at Parkland High School. So, the district medalists in this are Julia Court who has repeated as a district champion in both 50 and 100 free with times of 24.10 and 52.13 respectively. She will be continuing on to PIAA State Meet for both events this weekend at Bucknell. And Julia Court will be going on to the University of Richmond in the fall and will be part of the swim team there. Saucon Valley wrestling, headed up by coach Chad Sherer. The team record for the Colonial League was 6 and 0, 6 and 3 non-league,

0184-2 postseason, and a 16 and 5 overall. Their accomplishments were Beast of the East, which is 33 out of 200 teams, they're considered one of the top wrestling tournaments in the country. Quakertown Duals, second place finish and competed against all AAA schools. We are a 2A school, so we wrestled up. Colonial League Division champions. District 11 2A team dual meet champions. This is the seventh title in school history and now we lead all 2A schools with the most titles in District 11 2A all time. We also qualified for the PIAA team state champions. We advanced to the quarterfinals in the PIAA team state champions. Final Morning Call Lehigh Valley team rankings, we were posted eighth, only 2A team that was ranked. Our junior high wrestling team, District 11 2A champions, they placed third overall in

019junior high District 11 and championships out of 40 teams. Nine wrestlers placed in junior high district tournament. Junior Carter Chunko committed to Rutgers University, which is a Big Ten conference. And Carter Chunko um excuse me, the coach's career record so far is 438 wins and 81 losses, 22nd most winningest coach in PA wrestling history. Wrestling is still going. Carter Chunko recorded his 100th career win in the district championship match and in District 11 individual championships, his top four qualified for the SE Regional champions. First place was Carter Chunko and Max Santoro. Third place, Gavin Chunko and Dominic D'Ambola. Fifth place was Noah Torres. The Southeast Regional Championships was Carter Chunko and Max Santoro took second place. Gavin Chunko, eighth place. Carter and Max were both state qualifiers. PIAA State Wrestling Championships, Max Santoro went three

020for three on his way to sixth place finish. Max Santoro is now a two-time PIAA state place winner. Carter Chunko beat a previously undefeated opponent in the quarter in the quarterfinals, beat the returning state champion in the semifinals, and lost to Freddy Bochman, currently ranked fifth in the country, in the finals. This is Carter's second runner-up finish. We ranked 15th overall in the team finish. Spring sports have already started, and it will be 30° again next week. Thank you very much everybody. Now, thank you. The one time we want to see small fonts with all those student athletes to recognize. Thank you. Superintendent's report? Thank you, Ms. Dunko. Um, it will be short and sweet this evening given the presentations. So, in light of recent events, I just wanted to highlight a proactive measure that

021the district is taking to strengthen some of our district safety protocols. On March 16th, our administrative professionals will be participating with a specialized training led by our state police here on campus. The session was scheduled before the recent closure, but it's become more relevant and timely as we see with recent events. Our administrative professional staff are often at the front lines concerning phone calls or emails. This 30-minute training provides our team expert guidance on how to act quickly and handle sensitive information, coordinate effectively with law enforcement to ensure the safety with our for our students and our staff. I'm also proud to announce that our district has been honored with five distinctions from the Pennsylvania School Public Relations Association, and you can find more details about those recognized projects on our website. And that's it

022for the report. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um Um I Please. >> [clears throat] >> The public relations recognitions, um that seems pretty impressive, and um it is that could you talk or just tell me a little bit about um uh is that connected to some of the new staff members that we have and Yes, thank you, Mr. Brune. Um it is. So, uh Grace, who's hiding back there right now, could come out and actually talk specifically to the awards. Um we have been honored for some of the work that Grace has done and some of the work that Donovan Group has also done with our district. So, Grace, I'll hand it over to you since you should be the one recognized and acknowledged. >> Um so, full credit to the Donovan Group for our

023single Award of Excellence. They um in conjunction with administration before I was there, uh put together a comprehensive plan flip book, and it's beautiful. Um an Award of Excellence is basically the highest award you can receive from Pennsbury. But, um um oh my goodness, I'm blanking right now, and I apologize. I'm not communicating very well. Um a social media campaign, um since I arrived, I've been really trying to focus on especially going um in line with the Rachel's Challenge theme of kindness is kindness and connection. So, I put together, you know, just a a list of all of the posts that have kind of radiated that theme, and that was honored. Our annual report um received a distinction, um as well as uh a really cute video, actually. I have to give credit to the

024elementary school. It was their door decorating contest, and that um they liked it. Uh it was just a quick social media video. The It wasn't anything really special. It I mean, it was special, but like it was vertical. It wasn't, you know, I'm going into way too much video detail. But, um that was honored. So, it was really nice and it was really nice to um I later in the in the um >> [clears throat] >> the board meeting, you know, just go and be among professionals of of communicators for school districts and see what they do and see how maybe we can get more of those award of excellences. So. I I really appreciate it and thank you for making this possible, you know, both of you. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you.

025We now proceed the floor to visitors. Then items only. Uh Hi, everybody. My name is Bob Catmar. My principal is Amy Braxmeier. She said that I'm a positive panther because uh >> [laughter] >> She won't even like look at me right now. Sorry. Um Bob Catmar, Homestead Avenue, Bethlehem. Um speaking as an employee tonight. So, good evening, members of the board. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. I'd like to address the item at the end of tonight's agenda, which is approving the use of employee numbers rather than names for employees requesting leave under the Family Medical Leave Act. Let me start with something we can all agree on. Medical information is deeply personal. When someone needs medical leave, it often means they are dealing with illness, surgery, a family medical crisis, or another another

026sensitive situation. While the agenda may not list the specific medical condition, simply publishing an employee's name alongside a medical leave request inevitably invites speculation and discussion that should never occur in a public forum. Teachers, support staff, and administrators all deserve the same dignity and privacy that we expect for our students and for ourselves. I also want to be clear that this is not about transparency. The board absolutely should approve leave requests and the public should see that the board is conducting its business. But transparency does not require identifying the specific employee in a situation involving personal medical matters. In fact, many organizations balance transparency and privacy by using employee identification numbers in public documents while maintaining the full record internally. We already follow a similar principle when dealing with sensitive matters involving students. And if

027a leave affects a classroom or program, parents will still receive the information they need through normal district communication. Principals and district administrators routinely notify families about staffing changes and explain how instruction will be covered. That communication can continue to happen directly with the families involved without attaching an employee's name to a public agenda in connection with a medical leave request. For educators, privacy matters. We work in a profession where our names are widely known in the community. When a medical leave appears on a public agenda with a name attached, it can quickly become hallmark talk, hallway talk, social media speculation, or community gossip. That's not fair to the employee and it's not necessary for the board to conduct its work. Using employee numbers instead of names would be a simple administrative adjustment. It would not

028reduce the board's authority, oversight, or transparency. What it would do is demonstrate respect for the people who work in this district every day. When I was thinking about how to present this tonight, I reminded myself that a persuasive argument should consider the counterarguments. I honestly struggled to come up with one. I simply don't see what meaningful purpose is served by continuing to publish employee names in connection in connection with medical leave requests. If there is a compelling reason to continue that practice, I would certainly be open to hearing it. But if there isn't, then this seems like a straightforward opportunity to better protect employee privacy while maintaining transparency. Small policy choices communicate what kind of organization we are. Protecting employee privacy whether whenever we reasonably can sends a message that the district values professionalism and

029respect. I'm encouraged that this issue is on the agenda. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Anyone else? Hi. My name is Robin Heppenheimer and I'm a Saucon Valley High School teacher. Um I'd like to thank the district for considering the move to using employee numbers when approving medical leaves on board agendas. I wanted to speak briefly tonight as someone who has had medical issues in the past and has had my name listed publicly on board agendas for medical leaves. I can tell you that this felt like a violation of my privacy. I actually can't think of anything more personal and private than a person's health. Some may say that since we are public employees, it's okay to share this private information on board agendas, but I can tell you that having my name attached

030to medical leave requests felt like a different level of exposure because it indirectly revealed personal health matters. Now, a simple Google search of my name reveals to anyone and everyone that I've had health issues in the past that have caused me to take a leave from my job. That information exists permanently in a a publicly searchable board document. So, I ask you to please consider the fact that when someone needs to take a medical leave, they may already be in a vulnerable position. Knowing that their medical leave request and approval will appear publicly on a board agenda and remain on board minutes that become searchable documents living indefinitely on the internet can add unnecessary stress during an already difficult time. Using employee numbers instead of names is a thoughtful step that allows the board to

031fulfill its responsibilities with openness and accountability while offering employees a reasonable level of privacy and dignity. Thank you very much for considering this change and for supporting the well-being of your district employees. Anyone else? Hello. Uh Jason Stern, Biola Lane. Uh I actually wanted to talk just real quickly about two things. Uh first of all, was I just got back from a conference just a few hours ago uh on Civic Learning Week. Uh this week is Civic Learning Week in schools across America where teachers are encouraged to uh focus on civic education and a main a main focus is given to civic education. Uh but the conference I was at was very enlightening because it was 400 people and I expected it to be mostly teachers. And it was probably only about 50% teachers. There

032were nonprofits, there were foundations, there were philanthropy groups, there were all sorts of groups who were in uh who were interested in civic education in the schools. It seems to me this is This is going to be the next trend. I I know we've had STEM for a while and we put a lot of money into that, but just seeing the amount of non-teachers, the amount of foundations, organizations, nonprofits that were there and interested and flew people in from California, from Oregon to be at this conference in Philadelphia. It it it sort of just blew me away. So I just number one wanted to say thank you for for sending me, but number two just to say that this is this is a trend. This is something that I think is going to be emphasized

033more especially because like I said the the money. You follow the money and that's what people are starting to want to put their nonprofit money into. So I learned a lot from that. Second thing is I would also like to echo what was just said about the employee numbers on the board agenda. I very much support that for all the reasons that were said already and I hope that can pass today. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Presentation of the bills do I have a recommendation to pay the bills? Second? Seconded. Lamugino. All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Hearing none it passes. Treasurer report anything to add to the treasurer report? Let's see. Nope. Any questions about the treasurer report? Okay. We'll move on. Committee reports academic and personnel there is a

034written summary attached. >> Don't we need to vote on the treasurer's report? Do we? I apologize. Yes. All those in favor of the treasurer report say I. I think we need a motion first. Oh, sorry. >> [laughter] >> I apologize. Do I have a A to accept the treasurer report? So moved. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Committee reports. Tonight we have academic and personnel. Director Tattoo, would you like to add anything to the summary? Uh no, but I would like to just report on the summary for uh public consumption. There were three uh agenda items that evening, none of which uh required the committee making any recommendations to the board. But just briefly for the public's edification, um we discussed the update to our uh K through 12 school counseling

035plan, which is simply required as a matter of Pennsylvania state law to be updated every so many years. Um there do not seem to be many uh substantive changes there, and all of that information is publicly available on the district's website. Uh we also heard from Mrs. Velocity regarding a three-year plan uh regarding our world language programs offerings here at Saucon Valley. Um every effort is being made by the district to try to keep our offerings as vibrant and as uh diverse as possible under uh the restraints that we have and the demand for those programs. And finally, there was a uh discussion regarding um advanced placement testing and efforts that the district might make to uh increase participation uh in the AP exam. Uh we currently have about 20% of our students who to

036uh decide to take advanced placement courses do not end up taking the AP exam, and discussion involved uh how we might incentivize more Saucon students to take the exam. And once again, none of these items required any uh official recommendations from the committee and everything was for informational purposes. Thank you. I had a comment on Go ahead, please. Yeah, I'm I'm not uh shy to criticize the superintendent when there's something I I I feel I I want to criticize uh in terms of um her work, but I um so I think I should also be you know, equally valuable about uh praise and I have to say and and I know it was just it it wasn't just me too, the the the presentation on world languages um it was actually inspiring and it it

037was really a powerful vision that was presented that um it was one of the the first times when I really felt like I could see our district really kind of aspiring, you know, in in ways that go beyond my own expectations which you know, are pretty high, you know, and I that was really a brilliant thing to see and um I just really uh am extremely grateful for that. I thought I it was one of those meetings where I, you know, the public doesn't often go to the committee meetings, but it was a great meeting. It was just really a great meeting and um I you know, that's all I just I I felt like it was important to share that, you know. Thank you. Um there's no unfinished business, new business, education, elementary data

038presentation. And academic plan. I was waiting for Mr. Kacmar to tell me that I was his positive panther, but that didn't come, so maybe we could do a mutual one next time. Okay. All right, good evening. Um I'm Amy Brackman, I'm the elementary school principal. So, tonight I'm here on behalf of myself and my team at the Sauk Valley Elementary School to share an overview of uh the school's ELA and math uh data along with our instructional action plan moving forward. Over the past several years, our work at SVES has focused on strengthening tier one instruction and building strong academic foundations for all students. This has included implementing the science of reading practices, adopting Arts and Letters in 95% Group for Literacy Instruction, transitioning to Math in Focus 2020, and strengthening our MTSS process to

039better support students who need additional help. As a result of these efforts, we are beginning to see encouraging trends in both literacy and mathematics. This evening, I will highlight areas of progress, our instructional focus moving forward, and the steps we are taking to continue supporting student learning at SVES. So, again, we're going to set the stage, talk about areas to applaud both in ELA and math, talk about the focus areas, and then plans of actions um in both ELA and math. With that, you're not definitely not going to be able to read all of this, and nor am I going to take your time tonight uh to read it all to you. However, I do believe that you have um the presentations at your seat. Um basically here, I do want to highlight that the

040plan that I'm presenting to to you tonight has been built over 3 and 1/2 years, and we're continuing with that plan. This vision was set out before our uh to our teachers about 3 and 1/2 years ago, and it focuses on some key areas. It focuses on the development of our MTSS process, the implement the implementation of the science of reading practices, extensive PPD on the science of reading, implementation of science of reading resources, as well as transition to math in focus 2020 tier one resources, extensive PD on CPA instructional strategies, as well as the inclusion of spring math to enhance math computation and fluency. These efforts have helped establish the instructional foundation that you will see reflected in our student data, as well as where where we are moving forward to address the next

041set of issues or um focus areas that we're going to be looking at. So, with that, Dr. Tenore, um a few months ago, I believe, presented to you um our uh future ready index. And this is our achievement in ELA and math. So, that's kind of one point in time or one one metric that we looked at, but it's a very important one. And this data did help guide our instructional planning and improvement efforts. So, we're going to start with ELA and look at our areas to applaud. So, as Dr. Tenore had shared with you, uh although our ELA uh achievement was where we wanted it to be, our student growth is high. So, from that um future ready index, you can see that our ELA achievement in third and fourth grade fourth grade was

042high. Additionally, we do have strong foundational skills. One of the first things that I introduced when I came to the building was that the expectation in K through 2 was that we were shooting for that 80% end of year dibbles, and we continued to do so. So, that was really a bar that we we set and the expectation that we we wanted to continue to see. Um last year was the first year that we began measuring dibbles at the grades 3 and 4. We had never done that before. Um and last year we saw no growth. We did not really see any growth at all in the composite for three and four. So, what we And we saw minimal growth in the subtests that were given. This year by adding in arts and letters as

043well as 95% growth grow group, we started seeing some very positive trends. So, if you look here, um, this is just one of the subtests that's given in grade three and grade four and it measures basic comprehension. Last year you'll see the beginning in the middle of the year comprehension for grade three and grade four. This year you will see the growth that we saw. So, last year beginning of the year, um, for this subtest was 60% and they went up to 66% proficiency. This year beginning of the year third grade was 66% that went up to 70 75% proficiency just on this subtest alone. Last year in fourth grade, 44% proficiency went up to and middle of the year was 59. This year we went from 62% proficiency up to 80% proficiency on that

044subtest. And they're seeing the same type of results in that composite. So, just in this subtest we're seeing in in 0.5 year of just these new programs, we're seeing some really positive results. Which takes us to our middle of the year map ELA trends. Uh, in grade four, uh, beginning of the year we were at 69% proficiency. By the middle of the year we're at 81% proficiency. Grade three beginning of the year 73% proficiency, middle of the year 83% proficiency. Last year middle of the year, uh, grade four was at 71% proficiency and third grade was at 74% proficiency. So, we're definitely seeing um some positive trends. Um again, it doesn't include the TDA, but we're we, you know, we're definitely seeing some positive trends in there. And that's not to say there aren't instructional

045focus areas that we're looking at. What the data shows is that strong student growth in reading with that PIVAS score of that 100, that that positive growth and the math trends increase, you know, showing some improvement. It still means that we need to take a look at that academic vocabulary development, the informational text comprehension, and the writing about reading in grades three and four. So, really deepening those comprehension skills. We're also taking a look at upper grade literacy priorities. As students move into grades three and four, the reading expectations increase, making sure that that comprehension stamina is there, academic vocabulary, and writing about reading. And we'll talk about those in the plan. Additionally, Dr. Tenore, when he had spoke, talked about talked about the Hispanic students, their proficiency level, and what we need to do

046about that, as well as our students with disabilities, and their proficiency level. And our response is going to be ensuring that there's strong alignment between our tier one instruction and our tier two and our tier three supports. So, our uh instructional plan of action. And I included that background knowledge because we're just not going to say like, you know, we're not on the right track because we do believe that there are things that we're doing that are in place, and we're not just going to veer off of that. But what we need to do is we really need to make sure that that strengthening of that tier one literacy instruction is there. That continued implementation of arts and letters, which is the knowledge building curriculum K through five. So, really and it has that writing

047component. So, they're learning about TDAs, those text dependent analysis. They're not They're not just starting that in third and fourth grade. They're starting that in kindergarten and they're building their way up. And it's amazing to see it so that when they're writing a painted essay in fourth and fifth grade, third, fourth, and fifth grade, they're starting that in kindergarten and finding that evidence. Continued implementation of 95% group in those foundational skills. They're building that morphology and that rich vocabulary in third and fourth grade that they didn't have before. There it's all science of reading based. Integration of Geodes decodable text to strengthen reading fluency and comprehension in K-3 and that continued use of Lexia Core 5. Instructional consistency. I should have really started with the ELA lead team. We have found that to be so

048valuable and really making sure that we're doing that vertical alignment. They meet We meet monthly. And then we also do grade level PLCs so that we make sure that that work is that is very valuable in looking at the data and what are we working on. Administrative walkthroughs. We have been trained by Arts and Letters at least three times this year. They come in, they do walkthroughs with administration. We also have done walkthroughs with the non-evaluative walkthroughs with our reading specialists to give feedback with the goal being to build capacity so that teachers can do non-evaluative team learning walkthroughs. To say, "This is working. This is what we want to see. These are the expect expectations." So, we have that instructional consistency. And then finally making sure that that those MTS supports and targeted interventions

049are in place. Tier We already have tier two 95% that's what our reading specialist use. Miss Broadhead and I have just begun train we haven't begun training but we've worked with the 95% group that's bringing in the wrap tier three special ed that is aligned to 95% so that all of our students are talking that same talk so that we're not using different program programs and different language but all of our students have that same language. Focus supports for identified students our ELL students and our special ed students are getting prologues that go along with our arts and letters to help build that capacity before they're even getting that tier one instruction. Refinement of our IE time so that the students that are staying in the classroom are really building the skills that they need

050so they're not just not getting re-taught but they're really using that to build any gaps. And then ongoing tier two progress monitoring making sure that they're getting actual progress monitoring and that's shared with the parents. And again we continue to use our dibbles and our map benchmark data and then we review that for our data leadership teams and our grade level teams. And then we're going to transition to our math so while we're seeing encouraging growth in literacy we're also seeing some positive trends in mathematics. Um last year was the we did very extensive training in CPA instructional practices we formulated our math lead team and we implemented our math 2020 edition and we sent some we saw some very promising initial results and this is where we were we were a little excited about

051where we saw some growth because we did see some strong student achievement on our PSSA. Uh we did go our third and fourth grade went from 2023-24 52% PSSA proficiency to 63.3% PSSA proficiency. Do we think we can do better? Absolutely. Do we think you know, would we like to see that in the 70s and 80s? 100%. Are we there yet? No. Can we do better? 100%. Uh but we did see some growth. 2023-24 fourth grade was at 44.9% proficient. That was her That was horrific. It was not where we wanted to be. Was not where we needed to be. We were able to get it to 61.5% proficient last year. And that was a celebration for us because it was it was a big reach and they worked very, very hard to get there

052last year. Can we do better? Yes. Is it still an area of focus? Absolutely. But for us that was a huge improvement. Um and other areas to applaud, uh we are making some really strong um improvements in our K-2 data. This is from this year from our beginning of the year to our middle of the year. Our K-2 is showing some very strong um improvement in their number sense, computation, and early problem solving. Um so again with that that bringing in those CPA um instructional strategies and the training, we think that's really helped our teachers along with that um math 2020. And again, everyone using that same dialogue and that consistency. You can't see this and I wish you could because I would really like to thank the board for this more than anything. The

053board and Ms. Davidson particularly. Um I came to you at the summer last year and asked you to consider um purchasing Spring Math for us. And, um, last year we was the first year that we used Acadience. I'm going to take a brief minute to talk about this. Uh, we used Acadience for the first year, and it's a measure does some measurement of different, um, skills for students at different grade levels. But, one of the areas that it measures is computation uh, fluency and automaticity. And we had been struggling with that because we were using part of the Math in Focus time. Everyone was using it a little bit differently, and everybody was kind of not arguing, but really couldn't sit on a good way to increase our computational fluency and automaticity. And when we

054were researching, we really found that Spring Math was a great way to increase this. And I came to you, and you agreed to go with it. And for that, I am appreciative for you and for Ms. Davison. She trained our teachers. We We did get Spring Math training, but she really trained them and got them to buy in. If you could see the numbers up there with from our beginning of the year to the middle of the year, and I hope you have them on your your sheets, our teachers' jaws dropped. This is the compa- This is just the computation fluency. First grade went 68% to 79% proficient. Second grade went 61 to 70% proficient. Third grade went 67% to 82% proficient. Fourth grade went 70% to 80% proficient. The prior year, they were either

055stagnant or dropped in proficiency for computation. So, that has been They are just They're blown away, and they've all attributed it to using Spring Math. Uh, across the board. So, we are We are very appreciative for that. So, um, those are the areas to applaud. Now, the trends in math um for grade two, we did see an increase from middle This is again for this year. Beginning of year to middle of year, 51% to 66%. Third grade, 54% to 68%. Fourth grade, 34% to 46%. So, we're not quite where we we want to be. Um that is actually higher than it was last year in the middle of the year. We were at 40%. So, we're still um looking at at what that's going to look like. Um and we still see areas where we

056need to grow for that. So, our instructional focus um two main areas where we see structural instructional focus and particularly for the upper grades uh third, fourth grade uh strengthening our conceptual reasoning and application. While computational skills are improving, continued focus is needed on that conceptual understanding of mathematical relationships, applying strategies to those multi-step problems, and flexible problem-solving approaches, as well as that mathematical communication and problem-solving. So, students will benefit from opportunities to explain their mathematical thinking, justify their solutions, and apply math in real-world contexts. Uh as well as we still see that continued opportunity for growth with both students with disabilities, although there has been this group has showed uh has trended upward, as well as our economically disadvantaged students, which this group has also trended upward. Our instructional plan of action uh right

057here is again strengthening that tier one math instruction. We need to continue that implementation of math in focus of 2020. It is working. However, we need really need to make sure that it is being done with the continued to be done with fidelity. The use of the CPA instructional strategies to develop those deep mathematical reasoning as it's working its way through those younger grades, that that that deepening has to happen, but our fourth grade make we need to make sure that that discourse is continuing and those problem-solving routines are getting strengthened. Uh we continue to have our math lead um run by you know, myself. Um Miss Miss Davison has done a great job. We do our math PLCs. Uh we do we uh will be beginning administrative walkthroughs that are aligned specifically to math

058and focus in CPA instructional practices next year. And then we do want to begin the non-evaluative team learning walkthroughs as well. And then finally, now that we've really strengthened uh and we know that we have strengthened our um computation, we really need to target those concepts and applications. And what we're looking at doing for next year is now that we we've really honed in on we know that the concepts and applications are really what needs to be built on in fourth grade, we're looking at using that IE time uh to work on specific systematic uh problem-solving multi-step uh problems uh justifying students' answers, and then spiraling. So, really working on um that systematic look at what that IE time is used for and not just kind of not that we're randomly guessing, but really laying

059it out for um our students. And then uh again, continuing with Spring Math, utilizing our math specialist for support for small group intervention, and then ongoing progress monitoring and data review two And then finally, well, not finally, uh um math instructional plan of action continue building computational fluency, number sense in the early grades, and then strengthen that conceptual reasoning, multi-step problem solving, and then the mathematical communication. So then in conclusion, moving forward, I agree with everything I have here. However, I just want to publicly thank my staff. They have implemented science with the help of Mr. Tack Marshall. Say he is a positive panther for that. They have implemented over the last three years updated science curriculum resources and curriculum. They have updated math and CPA and have have done so willingly and with vigor

060and with fidelity and with everything else. And then they have gone through professional development with the science of reading reading and taken it on vigorously and just jumped into it. And I've never seen a staff work so hard for the good of their students and just really with the vision of doing what's best for kids. So I could not be prouder of my staff and all that they have done in continuing to work for the betterment of our students at Saucon Valley Elementary School. So we have work to do and we're going to continue to work on it and I believe that we can get there. And I believe that we can be one of the premier school elementary schools within the district. Thank you. Uh any questions? Yeah, may I? I thought you would

061have no problem. Go ahead. I just Thank you very much. I I really appreciate um the uh updates and uh also uh the good news that you shared about both uh math and ELA. So uh uh for that uh congratulations to you and and all of the staff uh Ms. Braxmeier. Just uh wanted to uh say one thing that you usually hear uh from me or from Mr. Bruno or from both of us, uh which is that uh good news, but uh and you acknowledge that yourself, this should uh absolutely not sort of like uh be considered as uh the end of this uh this process. Uh a few days ago I was looking at uh website that has all of the information for all of the districts uh in Lehigh Valley and there are

062uh many, many elementary schools that uh were performing better than us both for math and and uh for the ELA. Mhm. And uh these are not uh uh whatever like I mean very affluent areas and this and this and that. Some of some of them are uh uh elementary schools in Bethlehem that are uh performing better than uh uh better than us in in both both areas. So uh I'm I'm I'm always going to qualify my congratulations and say that, you know, un- until and unless it gets to 100% but that may not be uh reasonable but uh I think, you know, a much, much uh uh higher number that uh really shows the capacities of uh uh this district. Uh I I I I would keep uh reminding you about that. I I don't

063need reminding. I look at it every day and I 100% agree with you and I share it with my staff. We can be better and we should be better. We owe it to our students to be better. Um that is who our number one priority has to be and I don't disagree with you at all. Um because I think we were hitting a ceiling in ELA that we needed to break. Number first and foremost and I remember coming to you guys as the board and saying, you know, should we just be comfortable with the 70s in in ELA? And the answer was no. We were doing a disservice to that other 30% of our population um that was not getting beyond that ceiling. So, I don't disagree with you at all. I 100% believe that

064by the time I retire and hopefully sooner than that that um and I've said it to Mrs. Velocity over and over, we should be where those higher performing schools are. Those schools should be saying, we want to come visit Saucon Valley and see what they are doing. Saucon Valley Elementary School. >> Good. What one one other thing uh is that So, this is we were just talking about the school, right? That this is the sort of like report card of the school. Uh the there are I just want to make sure that we don't lose uh sight of uh every student and their potential. So, uh uh you know, a kid uh getting a really good uh score on PSSA does not mean that that kid is uh achieving their potential. Mhm. And uh uh

065the the other side of it is also that if somebody is uh you know, not as a high uh score, it doesn't mean that they haven't made uh uh great uh uh uh achievement growth uh in in what So, both of these should be also a part of uh consideration. If you can have that data in one of the sort of like uh future presentations that you make that says uh the top uh uh quantile, how have they moved? The bottom quantile, how do because this is like the the numbers that you showed were sort of just like the the whole population. But, uh different portions of the population just want to make sure that we are not uh sort of like sacrificing one for uh for for others. Well understood, and I I believe

066even when we look at our MTSS data, you have to look at both sides. You have to look at your high achieving as well as your your students that are struggling. So, you have to be looking at both both sides of those. I I completely agree. Thank As well as our Spanish immersion students. So, you have all of those. Any other? Go ahead. Uh yeah, I just want to thank you and all of the staff that have been working on this. I know when we, you know, when I came on, uh this data was was something that was uh important, and I know that it takes a tremendous amount of effort to both acknowledge a challenge and then work towards bettering the challenge. So, I just want to thank everyone involved uh for doing that,

067and I want to mildly disagree with you that, you know, that uh I deserve any credit. >> [laughter] >> Um you know, deciding to provide the resources that the professionals say that the kids need for their education is like the easiest possible decision to make up here. So, but I just want to thank you all for for all the effort. Well, we do appreciate it though. We do appreciate You didn't say your job was difficult. She just said that you did it You did it well. We always appreciate it. Director Broom. Uh yeah, I It's funny cuz I I wrote down almost the same thing. Don't thank us. I was like, please don't thank us. We don't deserve thanks. Um Uh but um I I also uh yeah, thank you so much um I I

068get from what you know, I get that um from what uh you know, Dr. Cox was saying and and and what you said and and um that um you know, we can do better, but we're in the right direction, you know, and that does matter, you know, that like um in terms of um just I mean, people can't feel like there's no hope, you know, and I I do think that there I mean, you can look back at the numbers and there was a ceiling, you know, for several years, you know, and um I'm really glad to see that that's been kind of busted open a bit and um but I I also just wanted to thank um I wanted to thank the teachers um that they're in the trenches. They're eking out, you know,

069little little victories, you know, and um they don't a lot of what they do is in the shadows and um and also the the teacher leaders, you know, I the people who um you know, are the are the people doing coaching and and and and um especially with the new curricula uh uh helping to um bring it online and and so I I really appreciate all the hard work that the teachers that everyone deserve that like Don Don said everybody deserves thanks, but um you know, I I I know how hard it is to get people to improve and um it's really uh it's you know, I I thank you guys I and and also I thank the community for supporting this because they you know, the people want they want to see improvements, you

070know, and they're um they're you know, kind of motivation it it it it's what drives everything, you know, so thank you very much. Anyone else? I just want to say wow, what an improvement. I had an opportunity I was here early for the exact session and I went through the data and your reduction of the kids who were not proficient is unbelievable. So, congratulations to everyone that it is. And I have an answer for you. Can I give you an answer from my reading specialists from last week? They wanted me that to answer you Miss Abco. But I have a question. You had a question. So, my reading specialists were were very very intensely wanted to answer you. So, they said they are still seeing the same and I was going to come up and

071I was pretty sure but I double I didn't want to double check with them. And and Leah and Tori and Heather they're like, you have to answer Amy. They said we are still seeing the same number of students. However, it used to be that they were only seeing the intensive students. Now they're able to see the strategic students as well. >> Wow, and so they're very excited about that and they did want me to publicly share that with you so you were aware that it is impressive. They did you said the just go back and be really quickly the ELA areas to applaud you said the composite score was similar to the maze were the other as well? With the subtests they are they're close to 80 and I think the one the one has

072exceeded the 80 already. Third grade I want to say has exceeded already and they were nowhere close to that last year. Nowhere close. Yeah. Um and did I see like we're doing social studies inside of ELA now? So No, I interesting for you to ask. Um and do you want me to >> seen it somewhere. They are social studies because our citizen letters covers it. We're still doing um part of it, but we are going to be stay tuned for April 1st because we are looking to um supplement it and we'll be sharing that >> that and need all this April 1st um meeting. Okay. AMP meeting. Yes. Thank you. Congratulations to everyone. Okay. >> Students as well. Yes. And teachers. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Um new business number two, civic conference and Lucky's back

073already. >> [laughter] >> So for two and three, um just to let you know, I'm going to do all these separately. But for two and three, there was a glitch in the system and typically if it's um a conference and things, those are approved ahead of time as in comparison to a state wrestling trip which you never know whether they're coming. So can I have a motion to retroactively approve uh the civic conference? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed? Motion passes. Uh I don't I don't know the Penn Supra Symposium. >> [laughter] >> It's my best guess at it. Um again, the same situation where um there was a glitch in the system. Do I have a motion to approve this retroactively? So moved. Lamendina. All those any

074discussion? Questions? All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed? Motion passes. Um we have the state wrestling trip, which we saw is a very productive. Uh do I have a motion to retroactively approve the trip to Hershey? Second? Second, Tattoo. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed? Motion passes. We have the state swimming trip. Do I have a motion to approve that? Second, Salamangino. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed? Okay. We have the grievance settlement um with SVEA. Do I have a motion? Second. All those in favor say Oops, sorry. Any discussions? Okay, all those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Personnel. Would anyone like anything um considered separately? Could you Could you consider number nine separately, please? Yes. All right. So, we're

075looking at considering one through eight. One being a dedicated building substitute. Number two, paraprofessional substitute. Number three, an elementary LTS. Number four is a lifeguard. Number five is middle school LTS. Number six is a middle school teacher with the uh revisions that we had spoke about earlier. And number seven, we have some spring athletic coaches. And number eight, um mentor. Uh do I have a motion for one through eight in personnel? Second. Any discussion? I just had a question. Um Yes. Um Could someone define um the mentor? Cuz I don't I don't know it from the I guess it's in the it's in the um the the professional agreement, um but I just I still don't know what it is. I'm I'm I'm I'm I want to know what I'm approving, you know. All right,

076Mr. Bruin. Um the mentor is assigned to someone who is new into the position. So, it's usually one of our veteran teachers or somebody who's been here for quite some time, knows the routine, the procedures, can help uh the the new teacher adapt to the classroom, show them direction and materials, uh get them acclimated to the school and the routines. But, it's a professional role that's defined by the the the contract. It's Um it's defined in the contract, and then we have information outside of that that's in systems that they complete logs and with their mentor. Yeah. I was just curious. I mean, I obviously I understand what a mentor is, but I not within the con you know, the confines of the con Thank you very much. Any other questions? All those in favor

077through one through eight, say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Number nine is Family Medical Leave Act. We have one one, two, three, four teachers. Do I have a motion to approve the Family Medical Leave Act? So moved, Bruin. Any discussion? Um yeah, I just [clears throat] um I wanted to consider it separately as I'd I'd like to make a motion which would technically change the agenda um which would require a two-thirds vote, just FYI. But, I'd like to make a motion that we replace this with the employee numbers if the later motion passes. So, that this file, at least when it's hosted online online, also follows the same rule that we may approve later. So, if that passes, I'd like to change this on the on the website as well. Okay. You're >> And

078I I don't think we're going to have to address this under the 24-hour rule process. I'm I'm going to view this as uh connected to something that's occurred emergently this evening. So, we can we can just act on it as a as a as a a motion to amend and then we don't have to go through the the whole entire process. So, um actually, we don't even do need to do the motion to amend. We just simply need if you want to add that now just as an additional consideration or item, we can just add that as an additional item instead of an amendment to the agenda. Okay. I mean, whatever you get. Yeah, I'm just playing that one out. We can just do that as a And I I move So, I move for

079that. >> [laughter] >> So, that would be uh Retroactively. >> Say I don't know what I'm doing. Retroactive is the word of the day. To replace names with numbers um should the discussion um move in a direction that we are replacing names with numbers down the road. Is that properly >> the motion that's on the table? Yeah, it is. Or you can just replace it. It's fine. And Wendy, I can I can work with you on that one after this. Good, cuz I have no idea what I'm doing. Just ask for a second. I have a second. A second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say I. I. >> I. Opposed? Motion passes. So, now we're up to approving number nine. Now we're approving nine. Now Now we're approving nine. Yeah, which has already been

080on it's already on the Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the Family Medical Leave Act? So moved. Any discussion? Just note for the record, three of the four are FMLA-related. I think the other one is a non-FMLA unpaid leave. So that name would stay? Or it would it would go with the >> I think it goes uh it's it's the same I think it yeah, okay. All right. So I the the motion was for FMLA the uh the agenda item that we have later in the in the agenda is also about FMLA. So I am I I I thought I'm voting for FMLA not for a more blanket one uh to the FMLA >> FMLA. Anything that has FMLA next to it, that's the That was the motion. So yeah. Uh we had

081a first and second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Um next up is facilities. We have the stadium repairs WTI contract. It's to approve the weatherproofing technologies proposal and it's not to exceed 591,854.51 cents. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Yeah. Quick thing about this because this is what we talked about in our facilities committee meeting this month. Um so this came to us because the expansion joints in the stadium feature our um letting a lot of water in and the sealant that we used before there's better technology now in waterproofing and so there's been some deterioration of the concrete risers and there's concrete coming off and it's becoming a safety concern. So this came to us in facilities to approve um the expansion joints and uh

082waterproofing them and along with fixing the concrete that is falling apart and repairing the roof restoration. So, we had a We've had at least two or three facility meetings on this now. Um and so, this is what we came to in the end that was the most important to fix um while being the most cost-effective. I I I'll be voting no on this. This is I I was there at the uh committee meetings and I uh uh understood that I uh agreed with the uh with the solution at the time, but um looking at the budget numbers that we have, I don't think we can justify that. At least I can't for myself. Uh there have been options in the past that uh have cost about uh uh 10% of this for temporary uh repair

083of this. Those temporary repairs had to be uh repeated uh in a couple of years in the past, and I think if this is uh doing just that, uh that's uh that's that's the preferred way to uh move forward for me. Uh Uh looking at a $9 million uh deficit, I just uh can't justify it for myself. I see you're in. Yeah. Anyone else? All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed? No. No. Did you get the no's or do you want me to do roll Do you want to do roll call or you have it? All right. Sorry. Mr. William Bruen. No. Mr. Donald Carpenter. Yes. Mrs. Vivian Demko. Yes. Mr. Cedric Detmar. No. Dr. Laurel Erickson Parsons. Mrs. Megan Loman Gino. Yes. Dr. Shirin Paksad. No. Mr. Jay Santos. And Dr.

084Jay Christian tattoo. Yes. So, that's three no's. Motion passes. >> Five. All right. Motion passes. Finance, um, our budget is coming due as someone reminded me on May 31st. Um, but there are the dates there. Um, our first thing that we may approve here is the center stage lighting and rigging. Um, this is a backdrop that we use for graduation. Is that accurate? Yes. Yes. Do I have a motion for number one? This is >> Slemmergino. Second. Any discussion? So, just making sure that I So, this is just for the for the first one, not for the second. That's correct. >> Okay, thank you. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed? Motion passes. Number two, um, is the mobile technology graphics. Um, so they produce a video of the graduation at a

085cost of $7,936.25. Do I have a motion? So moved, Slemmergino. Second, Carbonaro. Any discussion? Yeah, I'll be voting no on this also. Uh, I I understand that, uh, having a, uh, video is, uh, is nice, but I think the price tag is, uh, for me not, uh, justified that, uh, at this time. Uh, again, when we have $9 million, we have to show that we are, uh, uh, tightening our belts and, uh, this just doesn't, uh, sound like that to me. Any other comments? Can I ask Miss Velocity what specifically is included in that? This is not just a video. This is their streaming of the graduation, um putting it out for the streaming and video creation, and doing that and doing the sound for us during doing the graduation also. I've got to ask

086a question. Um we've had uh Like I said, I'm asking you um uh uh Dave, uh we've had this kind of thing before, right? And how much did it cost before? Can I ask you that? Um this is a a reduced price cuz in the past we used to also rent the big screen. So, since we have a big screen, we [clears throat] don't do that rental anymore. Um off the top of my head, Mr. Fry might know better what that total was in the past. Um Like 20K. It was probably like $20,000. Okay. So I have a question, I mean for for that if Mr. Fry uh could come to the podium since he was already halfway through. For for for athletic events where we do streaming, uh do we spend $8,000 uh every

087game? Every game, no. No, that that streaming that is through of Huddle is a yearly subscription. And uh is there an option for us to stream uh uh the event through Huddle? You would not uh probably. So, there's one little tiny just microphone on the outside of that that just picks up noise that's around it. Um so I don't believe there's a way to necessarily put a uh sound through that because it's mounted on the top of the press box. So, you wouldn't get a sound feed from the stage uh into that. Could you move that camera for that day to the uh stadium somewhere uh near the stage? Um I'm not sure how it would work um only because that is a a setup for an algorithm to follow like player movement and balls

088and that's kind of automatic, so I don't without trying something a little bit closer would uh give you a confident answer on that. So so so the the correct answer is that you haven't tried it. It could work, it could not work, right? Yeah, I don't know how it work with a stagnant Yeah, I have no idea to be honest. I I'm I'm going to guess that there is just uh one box that needs to be clicked which says do not follow the people who are moving or something. Usually that's uh what it takes with uh you know, other things that >> Yeah, uh some of them some of them are There's a There's a setting is set it per sport and that sport has the algorithm in it, but they're all they're all listed

089as sports. So there's not like a non-sports selection there. I would have to call them and find out what what the possibilities are there. Okay, thank you. Yep. Uh just to be clear, this this also includes like all the speakers and microphones and everything that that we're doing and uh I mean I'm looking at here like the audio engineer that's doing the mix of the live sounds. It's not just like a video, right? The streaming. Yeah. No, it's more than that. >> package. >> Rental of the equipment that's that we're using to have graduation. Yeah, so they would they would be the production essentially too. So the music that you hear and and choir singing things like that, they're they're doing that all in the background. Th- This not not for the in the stadium

090experience. For the streaming. No, they're doing it live at the stadium. So they're controlling all the sound, playing all the music. Um they're doing that from their production center under under the stadium. Okay. Okay, thanks. Any other comments? Yeah, maybe video production there led to a different idea of, you know, we're we're having a video that you could watch at any time. I I've come >> Go ahead, please. Well, I mean, I I I appreciate the motivation of looking for you know, places where we can get the scissors out and you know, cut down the budget. Um, I just think this is an extremely tender spot and I you know, I think that it would um really disappoint a lot of people, you know, if we weren't able to um at least give people, you

091know, a modicum of what they they've had before and I I'm not a audio or video production expert really and um certainly not for doing events, you know, and and um and I know that there's certainly a lot of sophisticated um there's an art, you know, and it's a sophisticated process doing a graduation. Um, having, you know, seen one, it's it's incredible, you know, how important it it it is to the the family. So, I just um while I I really admire the idea of trying to find places to uh to kind of nip and tuck the the budget um and and that there and that there is a lot to do with that and and that that is something we do have to deal with. Um, I just don't think this is the spot,

092you know, that's my personal opinion. Any other comments? Yeah, um I certainly considered this an area that we could cut to help with the budget. Um but it does seem like it's going to be a a a big challenge to prepare an alternative in the amount of time that's available. When we used to do graduation inside, we have a lot of equipment there that we use that we own and that we had people that work for the district that would operate it and so it didn't cost us anything. Uh I wonder if maybe in the future we could consider if there's a way for us to utilize that to to do this in in a more economical way. Thanks. Any other comments? >> Yeah, I'm just going to say one more thing. This is I

093uh I will vote for this after the conversation. Uh just uh so that's uh everybody who is uh following this conversation knows where where we are. The the the background of this was that uh uh as Mr. Dettmer mentioned, if we held the commencement uh indoors, which is uh the what the practice was here in this district for uh decades. I I I think always, right? Maybe you graduated indoors also, Mr. Emko. Uh you're right. So, uh and you turned out just fine. So, uh uh uh so uh that that was the practice for for a very long time and then uh uh COVID happened and uh 1 year of the COVID we had to uh have it uh outside with uh drive-by and uh and all of the sort of aggressive stuff that came

094with that. That was 2020. And uh since then we have sort of like uh done this outdoors with a lot of uh financial pain. The cost before the uh the stadium was equipped with the big uh Jumbotron or whatever that is called was about 20k and uh the expectation was that once that is installed and in place I thought that the 20k is going to go away. But now that I'm looking at it only maybe $9,000 of the 20 has gone away and 11 of it is there. And um uh that is something that I'm just sort of like asking if Mr. Fry and others who are uh involved in that can look into it if not for this year because I understand it's too close and don't want to make drastic changes but look

095into that for for for next year. Um and uh uh the other thing about outdoors graduation is that it's always a subject to weather and you know it's kind of like places and other critical sort of like call and uh you know travel disruptions and so on and so forth for the for the families. We've seen how that worked. Was it last year or 2 years ago that we had you know a close call and you know lots of people who were upset. So I'm just saying that the combination of the cost and that uncertainty I'm just inviting the superintendent and the administration to take another look at that the venue and see whether uh uh outdoors graduations is the right thing for us to do especially considering that the number of graduating students in

096our district is going down. So uh uh 5 years ago 6 years ago the number was 19200. Now it's down to 150 so they can be much easier accommodated in in the auditorium. Any other comments? All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed? Motion carries. Uh next on is a transition from Fox Fox Rothschild to McNees Wallace. Do you want to address that? It's a long motion. Um I I my practice group is leaving uh Fox Rothschild at the end of the month. We uh we're looking for over the last year a new home to expand our practice and uh a group of us were roughly about 30 individuals um are moving our practice from Fox to McNees Wallace effective on uh April 1st. Uh so it's pretty exciting time for our group.

097Uh the motion in in front of you is just simply to acknowledge the transition. Um uh McNees uh Wallace has indicated that any rates that are currently in place they will be maintaining for a full another year. So this is just to to extend that [clears throat] and to maintain the current rates. Uh do I have a motion to approve this? So moved, Lemonjello. Second. Um any discussion? Uh yes, I Um I I just because it this doesn't we don't have that op- often that oppor- an opportunity to really talk about the the solicitor and um I you know, with the transition I I I would it mean there were more resources um for the district and um um to to me the most important thing with the solicitor is that you know, well first

098that you're good at the law, but also that you tell us stuff that we don't want to hear, you know, and that you're really brave about, you know, we don't we don't need a friend, even though you're really nice. >> [laughter] >> Appreciate that, though. We need somebody to tell us the truth and but will there be more resources with this? Well, that was part of our year-long analysis. And that is we wanted to land in a place that maintained what was already a a great amount of resources at Fox Rothschild and expand upon it. There's far more offices of McNees Wallace in Pennsylvania than there is at Fox Rothschild. Um our entire group, um that is real estate council, right-to-know council, special ed council, we're all we're all going together. Um so, the the

099the individuals who have provided services all these years to Saucon Valley will continue to be doing that just under a different name. Sounds excellent. So, should we uh should we expect the same uh excellent services from the new entity that we were uh uh hoping to receive from Fox Rothschild? That's a loaded question. Uh absolutely. What what what else the new uh new firm uh uh bring to the table in terms of sort of like other things that uh occasionally uh you know, we've had to rely on Fox uh to sort of like to provide legal uh services for us? Well, an area that we definitely wanted to expand upon, which we we needed support with, was in the area of construction litigation. Um which for districts in Pennsylvania generally, um whether they have aging

100facilities or they're seeking new or expanding facilities, um that is something that we've seen a lot of and and we wanted to find a robust public construction practice group, which they have, um to to kind of meld with our group and and the construction practice we have. Uh also, the other area, and this doesn't happen here that often, but it's something that does happen from time to time, um we wanted to marry their public finance practice for for bonds and and and debt and the like and and merge it with what we have and it it it's going to create the largest public financing practice group in the state that regularly then services school entities. So, we're we're very excited about that. Is there anybody who is staying at Fox that you are missing? Not

101I mean both emotionally and also from your expertise perspective. Well, sure there are definitely friends that that will be staying but in our within the practice group and and importantly people that are what I'll call ancillary to the practice group but but also provide sorts of supports to the group are coming which is kind of one of the more exciting things about it. So, really in terms of people who ever touch an education file for any school entity they'll be joining us on April 1st. >> Okay, well congratulations. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay, all those in favor say I. I. We vote. Did we make a motion? No, okay. No. I don't think we did. >> I apologize. I don't think we did. [laughter] Do we have a motion to accept this? So moved,

102Lumenti. >> Second. It was I I thought so but I've been trying to keep track. Not always successful but I'm trying. All right, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Number four under finance is approve the IDA part B use of funds agreement with Colonial Intermediate Unit 20. Do I have a motion? So moved, Datmar. Second. Second, Lumenti. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Community updates. We have the Hellertown Lower Saucon Chamber of Commerce Commerce. Jade is not here, right? No. Okay, so no report foundation? I'd like So the Saucon Valley Foundation for Educational Innovation would like to thank the Majestic Realty Foundation for their $2,000 donation to the annual fund. The annual fund supports our fall grant program. The Majestic Realty Foundation, founded in

1032002, is a community investment program which supports non-profit organizations who focus on youth and education. Thank you, Majestic. Also, in addition, this weekend Saucon Valley is hosting the state robotics championship in the Saucon Valley middle and elementary schools. The top 40 teams from across Pennsylvania will bring their high-tech robots and business skills to score the most points and impress the judges. The robots will battle from 3:00 until 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and then again on Sunday from 8:00 a.m. until noon. The final matches beginning at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. This free and exciting event is open to all. The Saucon Valley Foundation supports robotics in all of our schools through our 21st Century Grants Program. Please join us on March 14th and 15th and consider donating to the Saucon Valley Foundation to help us support

104this valuable program. Find us at sbafoundation.net. Thank you. Um Northampton Community College? Okay, I just want to say thank you for my reappointment at NCC. I was not expecting that, but thanks and I'll continue to work hard and always be here to answer any questions that you have. Thank you. I don't really have a lot of new information. All this stuff about spring enrollment, that's one of those things that continue continually readjust depending on the date they're talking about. Finally, at the end of the spring enrollment, we're up 2% total. And new registration for summer and fall starts March 16th. Uh we did really well in our Northampton men's basketball this year. We came in number two in the national ranking and number one in our district ranking. And I guess our the coach Brendan

105McCarthy was named coach of the year. And then we also did really well in the women's basketball. And Carly Gallagher was also named coach of the year. And let's see. On April 14th, the with the annual humanities program we have acclaimed historian and author Annette Gordon Reed come to speak at NCC and you can go online if you would like to reserve your tickets for that. And we have a new program starting in the fall that might be good for the counselors to know about and about precision machining and tool design, which is really an art that has gone down. And many industries need that and they're going to all be guaranteed to have jobs. So, that would be good to make sure that we encourage those students that might be of interest to do

106that. And that's all I have unless anybody has any questions. Thank you. Thanks. Wait, wait, wait. Yeah, I just wanted to say Miss Baxter, this is uh uh pretty amazing that uh you were uh asked and uh approved to do a volunteer job and you came here and thanked us. So, >> [laughter] >> All right. Uh Bethlehem Area Vo-Tech, I was not able to attend. Cedric, do we have a meeting Do we have a Yeah. I think they uh the the main thing that I took away from our last meeting is the uh budget for this coming year was proposed. And uh the uh Saucon Valley's share of the overall budget um actually went down because the other two districts sent a lot more students and we sent uh exactly the same as we have

107averaged over 3 years. So, um they're paying the overall budget went up about 10% and uh uh but ours is actually staying pretty much flat, just down just a sh- just a shade. Um, so, um, that was, uh, welcome news on that front. Thank you. Thank you. Are you 20? Uh, no updates. PSBA, Don, do you have anything? Yeah, um, there's a couple of things. There's a, uh, there's a yearly report that gets released by PSBA. That's like the Pennsylvania's, uh, whatever state it is, state of education. So, uh, it's about a 50-page report. You can find it on your, um, your, uh, PSBA portal. There's some interesting, uh, tidbits in there. Uh, you can see that, uh, there's a math proficiency challenge in the PSSAs that's statewide, right? So, that's in there. There's also

108some comments about, um, uh, you know, I think we talked about it in here, but PSSAs have moved to a fully online, that is, students have to take them digitally. They cannot take them with paper and pencil. We We opted into that a year early before the the law went into effect. Um, there was a lot of reports that I saw that districts were complaining that their scores went down after putting their kids onto an online thing. I'm not sure if that our did, so if I think that's the case, so kudos to everyone involved that they did not crash the scores by by moving to the required digital offering. So, I just wanted to mention that. Um, there is also, uh, there's one other thing. Yeah, there's a, uh, safety and security board report

109webinar on May 13th. That's the other thing. So. That's the, uh, that's the update for the month. Thank you. Um, F is board director initiated items. Um, this is approving use employee numbers rather than names for all employees requesting leave under the Family Medical Leave Act. Do I have a motion? So moved, Lemonjello. Sec. Any discussion? Um I mean I I just have one one thing. I It's not um I feel like this one is a kind of a no-brainer. Um but um I had um I had wondered just I I just wanted to emphasize uh that this it's going to cover all employees and um I think that's important cuz I I think sometimes um some of the um uh non-professional employees um are in especially vulnerable positions, you know, um in the community

110and their I think their job security person frankly is is a little less and uh and I think that they have sometimes bigger challenges in their in their lives and I I'm um I should say big challenges in their lives, not bigger um because medical issues are are you know the you know, it cuts through all levels of society um and so there's that too and it and I think I think partly I I just wanted to articulate that because it's not it's not the um you know, teachers like it's all about the teachers. It's just that um the you know, this is there's a lot of you know, advocacy for it from teachers and naturally we're thinking teachers, but I think it's important to also recognize that it also cover other employees and that's

111that's a great benefit too, you know, it's so it's it's really a great thing, I think. So I'm very happy about it. Anyone else? I would also like to echo what uh Mr. Kachmar said earlier that this goal is have that use the numbers instead of having people's information health-wise out there, but it is in no way intended to overstep that any communications that there's still that level of expectations from as as required by the administration to let any parents know why or not why, but know if their child's teacher will be out for a prolonged time or if there's adequate long-term sub coverage and what to expect for that. So, I think that is something that all of us can agree on. You know. Yeah, just just one thing and that is that that

112a slight uh I think adjustment to the motion needs to happen because it does not say on the board agenda. So, uh this uh could be kind of like read that uh from that point on anytime that you want to communicate anything about uh those people to anybody, you have to use their number, right? Which is not the intention intention of the uh the motion. So, uh uh I I don't know whether uh Mr. Fitzgerald will require me to amend this. I I think we should. So, it's a simple motion to amend the agenda. >> So, I'm I'm doing what he said. Uh two it'll be a motion to amend the agenda to reflect that uh this will be the utilization of employee numbers on the board agenda. So, we can just note that at

113the end of the the motion itself. Do I have a second for the motion? Second. For the motion to amend the agenda item. >> that's going to be specific to the board agenda. And then we proceed to debate on the amendment and then we can do two two votes. Okay. Do I have a second that we're approving using the employee numbers rather than names for all employees requesting leave under the Family Medical Leave Act on the board agenda or somewhere it fits in. Give me a second. Okay. All right. So, we have a second. Any discussion? All those in favor of the motion. Aye. Aye. >> Aye. Any opposed? Okay. And now we will now vote on the amended um agenda. >> Before we do that, I I just have a question for uh maybe

114Mr. uh Fitzgerald. So, the uh just clarifying that uh this uh item is limiting what is uh printed and preserved on the agenda, right? This is not uh limiting the conversations and discussions or the ability of the uh directors or the administrators here or the public to say the name for whatever reason. I'm not anticipating that, but what I'm saying is that we are not saying that someone's first amendment rights or uh uh their right to exercise their uh duty as a board member is limited by this. Correct. This This is a a narrow motion for this for this board as to what will be on its agenda with regard to approving uh FMLA um approvals. Okay, great. Thanks. Any other comments? Question. Because one of the people on our agenda was for an unpaid

115medical leave, so that would not fall under this. Does that mean the name would still be on the agenda? Under this motion, yes. Uh this is limited to the Family Medical Leave Act um which and if we want to down the road revisit other leaves, we can talk about it. I think from an FMLA perspective, one of the aspects of that leave request is it's already come through the administration and there's a kind of a strict process as to whether it would qualify or not. And candidly, by the time it gets to the board, it it's qualified. Um other leaves that are out there are are a little bit more complicated. Either they're driven by policy um or they're driven by um other statutory uh considerations. So, this would be specific just to FMLA for

116now. Anyone else? All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed? Motion passed. Citizens inquiry and comments? Seeing none. Are there any board comments? I have one. Um I received an email this past week in regards to um virtual learning, and I uh wanted to talk about that because the person had mentioned various other school districts that do that and questioned why we don't. So, if Ms. Velocity would not mind explaining that procedure. You said virtual? You can discuss virtual and the FID, which is Yeah. Okay. So, uh we have the option of flexible instruction days, virtual days, and our classic traditional snow days. So, uh flexible instruction days are filed with PDE um and they're used in usually emergencies. Your uh FID days is like how we usually refer to them are days

117in which uh most schools have or you're required to have your students uh check in. They're either completing an assignment uh and checking in with their teachers in the the of the day. That counts towards their attendance for that day. You have the virtual instruction days where your students are engaged in learning. So, it's not a day of no instruction. It's they're engaged in learning online for the uh majority of the day, and then you have your traditional snow day, um which we're used to having. So, we have four days that are built into our calendar that we use for those purposes. Um other school districts in the area that you often see and that we're often compared to do not have those four days. So, we opt to use those four days before going

118into any other um options, which is either adding on to the end of the school year or taking away any vacation days that are optional for taking away. So, we are compared to a lot of the other districts. Uh I can provide some information to the board uh and our community in terms of what school districts in our IU currently are operating on 180 days, um and that's usually what their guidance is. So, we have that information readily available that we can share out. It We do take it we could I mean, the option is there that we could do fit days, but we've opted not to do that. It It is a lot on our our community. It's a lot on our teachers because you are still requiring for attendance purposes for students to

119be online. Um and that's something we just haven't opted for in the past, but it's something that we can consider um moving forward. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Any other comments? Go ahead. Uh yeah, I just have two comments. The first is that um the finance and facilities committee meeting is tomorrow. So, if you are interested in hearing the next round of budget uh talks, we will be Will be discussing that tomorrow in the committee meeting? 6:00 start time. 6:00 start for facility, so it's delayed by an hour. And the second one I just want to address an email that I got just so that it's it's here. I received an email that I was added to a petition which was to um in response to a recent event which was to install metal detectors

120at every door of the of the school. And I completely understand where that that sort of idea was coming from. I did look into it a little bit and you know it's an incredibly complicated and disruptive procedure, right? It would require us to start school significantly earlier. It would require us to hire professional staff. It's not foolproof. The evidence that it actually stops any incidents is murky at best. And so you know I I totally understand where the community was coming from that. I just want to acknowledge that I received that email but not even considering the high cost even just considering the disruptive amount of the education I'm not sure I would ever support something like that but I do understand as a parent myself that situations like that can make us all want

121to do sort of anything in our power but we you know we have to we have to be more thoughtful about what the things that we do and the effect that they have on our students and and their education. Any other comments? All right, seeing none the announcements are we have a business meeting on March 24th, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. We have a business meeting again on April 14th, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. Seeing no further business