001nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I will call the role for the currently seated board members. Mr. William Brun, >> present. >> Mr. Donald Carpenter, >> here. >> Mrs. Vivian Demco, >> here. >> Dr. Laurel Ericson Parsons, >> here. >> Mr. J. Santis, >> present. I'm gonna ask our solicitor, Mr. Fitzgerald, to give purpose for tonight's meeting. >> Uh, good evening. Uh, the purpose of this evening's meeting is statutoily required under the public school code of 1949, where during the first week of December, all 500 school districts in the Commonwealth are required to reorganize itself and to appoint new officers for the upcoming uh governmental year. Uh the statute only requires a president and vice president to be uh appointed this evening. However, most districts also use the opportunity of
002the reorganization meeting to uh identify other positions such as committees and other appointments for for the upcoming year. The whole process does begin with the members who are midterm, our holdover members, uh to begin the process through a appointment of a temporary president. >> Thank you, Mr. Darl. Are there any comments from the public pertaining to tonight's reorganization? Okay, I see none. I will I will now ask for the nomination of a temporary president. >> I'd like to nominate uh Vivian Demco, direct director Vivian Demco for temp to be temporary presidentations. >> None. Nominations are closed. All those in favor? I >> I >> opposed. >> All right, Mr. Deco, you may take over the meeting. >> All right, our next up on our agenda is to seat our newly elected board members. So, Judge,
003please help yourself. [laughter] I shall >> do solemnly swear or affirm >> do solemnly affirm >> that I will support obey and defend >> the Constitution of the United States >> Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of this Commonwealth >> and the Constitution of this Commonwealth >> I will discharge the duties >> and I will discharge Valley School District director. >> Congratulations. I >> solemnly swear >> that I will support obey and defend >> that I support obey >> the constitution of the United States >> of the United States and the commonwealthy valley school district director Move it out. It actually >> swearle and swear >> support >> the important event >> Constitution of the United States >> Constitution of the Commonwealth >> and the Constitution of the Commonwealth. >> I will
004discharge >> and I will discharge the duty >> Southern Valley school district >> of S district. Dr. J Christian >> I J Christian tattoo >> do solemnly swear or affirm >> do solemnly swear >> I will support obey and defend >> that I will support obey and defend >> the >> Constitution of the United States >> the Constitution of the United States >> constitution of this common >> and the Constitution of this common >> I will discharge the duties >> and I will discharge the duties >> Sen Valley School District board director >> of Sen Valley School District board director >> with Fidel Welcome back to our two board members and welcome to our brand new board members. Next up on the agenda is nominations for president. Do I hear any nominations for president? >>
005Yes. I'd like to nominate uh director Vivian Demco, temporary president as pres for president of the school board. I I'd like to nominate uh Mr. Don Carpenter. Any other nominations? Nominations are closed. Um, Secretary, could you uh Judy, could you please do the roll call since there are two candidates? >> Oh, excuse me. Pardon me. Thank you. I asked Cedric to be sure I was doing what I should. Would you like the opportunity to speak, >> Don? >> Oh, that Cedric had the motion technically, so he has first dibs, but >> No, no, I not needed you. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's fine. That's fine. Um, you know, I just want to say that, um, I sent every board director here, [clears throat] um, a pitch for the reasons I felt that I was
006the best candidate for the job. Um, if I'm not elected, that's okay, too. But uh you know I think that we have a tremendous opportunity here and that the board president needs to make it a priority to bring this board together so that we can all make decisions uh as a group with that are in the best interests of our students and our staff and our administration and our community members. Um I made the pitch because I felt like I was the best person, but there are other capable people here as well. Um, I'll just say that, you know, I was the only person that sent the same message to everybody. So, I I hope that that counts for something, but uh I respect uh the will of the board and I hope that no
007matter what happens, we will move forward here uh with a new uh idea of how we work together. So, thank you. >> And I'll take the opportunity as well. I want to thank the community for coming out tonight. I appreciate it. A special thank you to those who voted for me. And if you didn't vote for me, hopefully you've gotten to know me better over the past two years and you understand me a little bit more. Two years ago, I unsuccessfully ran for president and vice president of the board. One year ago, I chose not to run as director Carpenter was putting his name forth as vice president. That was unsuccessful as well. After this past year, I strongly believe it's time for me to step forward and run for president again. I bring honesty,
008integrity, and straightforward communication to the position. I bring a strong working knowledge of the school district, its employees, and its students. I bring a strong understanding of this community and what they expect of their schools. Most importantly, I understand that the children in our community are the priority. All stakeholders need to have a voice, not just nine board members. Does a school board need to work on its structure and policies? Absolutely. There are many talented people sitting on this board. Each have their own unique strengths that can allow us to be greater than the sum of our parts. Together, we can be the support our students, teachers, staff, and administrators need to move our district forward. I hope to bring a kinder and gentler leadership that prioritizes empathy, respect, and compassion as well as holding
009people accountable. Starting with the school board. Thanks for considering me as president. Um, I will call the role and I think we can say either Carpenter or Demco. You're all right. >> That's how we've done that in the past. >> Mr. Dr. Donald Carpenter. >> Um, Mr. Carpenter, >> Dr. Laura Ericson Parsons, >> Mr. Carpenter, >> Mr. J. Santos, >> Miss Demco, >> Mr. William Brun, >> uh, Director Demco, >> Mrs. Vivian Demco, >> Director Demco, >> Mr. Cedric Demler, >> Don Carpenter, >> Mrs. Megan Lmanino, >> Director Demco, >> Dr. Shen Pax, >> Mr. Carpenter >> and Dr. J. Christian Tattoo. >> Uh, Mrs. Demco, >> by Demco, >> thank you for your support. >> Thank you. >> Okay, I got to move. We moving now. I'm fine. [laughter] I'm used to this position.
010Thank you very much. Um, nominations for vice president. Do we have any nominations for vice president? >> Nominate Cedric Demur. I'd >> like to nominate uh Director Lmanino. Um, if I want to say something in support of the nomination, is this a time to do that now? Let's wait for um nominations to close and then >> Are there any additional nominations? Nominations are closed. Any discussion or would anyone like to speak? Yes, I would like to just briefly say that um I I think that Director Lumagino is the best person for vice president right now on our on our school board. Um the community is hungry for change. She's also the top vote getter in the most recent election. I feel like vice president would accurately reflect the spirit that's kind of uh extent in
011our community at the moment and I think it's important to respect that and to let some of that come into the leadership of the um of of the board. So with that I would urge you to vote for director Lmanino for vice president. >> Anyone else? >> Yeah. Um I um I just like to say most of you know my leadership style as I've been uh um in leadership for the last year and and uh before that one year as vice president. Um, one thing I'd like to say is I I hope that everyone has the sense that you can trust me to be straight with you. Um, both in our private conversations and uh, and then when there's a contentious issue, I I always try to express how I feel in public so that
012everyone knows why I voted the way that I did. I also am always looking for a way to find a compromise on tough issues. Um to get as many board members um to yes as possible. Uh it's that's not always easy. Um but I think it's really important to not to have a lot of five four decisions. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if that's uh how that's going to work out, but that would always be my goal. Um, and then just last, uh, I'd like to just say that I think the the experience is a real benefit. Um, I certainly have learned a lot in the last two years, especially the last year, uh, about, you know, running the board and about how the challenges that the superintendent faces in running the district. And I think
013that uh I could bring that experience to to bear to support uh to support Miss Demco over the next year. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Um I am humbled to thank you very much for that nomination. I would be honored to serve in this capacity. I bring an experience of leadership with my role in the past with PTO, but especially in the past year or two since starting to come to schoolboard meetings and paying attention to what's happening in front of us at these meetings. I haven't been behind the scenes yet. But what I can say from this past election is I in my opinion I am extremely coachable. I have taken each item and learned about it and done my best to speak to different members of the board to do be the
014best I can be. I think um either of us, whoever gets the job, will be able to do the job, but I would be truly humbled to bring a different perspective of leadership to that and I would be humbled if you consider me. Thank you. >> Any other comments? hearing none. Could we have a roll call, please? >> Mr. Donald Carpenter. >> Um, Miss Lemonina, >> Dr. Laurel Erikson Parsons, >> Mr. Deur, >> Mr. J. Santos, >> Director Lumino, >> Mrs. Vivian Demco, >> Director Lmanino, please. William Broom, >> director Lumenino, [clears throat] >> Dr. Dmar, >> Dmar, >> this is Megan Loino, >> director, >> Dr. Shim Pax, >> Mr. Dmar, >> Dr. Jay Christian Tatu, >> Director Lmondino, relations. >> Right, we're moving on to the We're moving on to the election of
015the board of representatives. First up is Bethlehem Area Vocational Technical School. Both um Cedric and myself um have finished our term. Is there anyone who would like to serve on this representation for our board? I nominate myself to continue. I it has been one of the most um powerful experiences to be on the Bethlehem votational technical school um group, but I am certainly willing to reluctantly give up that seat if someone else would like it. Anyone else? >> In two years asking. Okay, I will nominate myself. Any other nominations? Okay, my understanding is we do not have to vote. Correct. There's two openings and there's two names. All those in favor? I I >> opposed. All right. I look forward Cedric to serving with you there. >> Thank you. Uh >> PSBA legislative representatives um
016director Carpenter and Santos are serving uh served a oneyear term. Any nominations for this? >> I'd like to nominate myself to continue. Um >> anyone else? >> So nominate myself. Any other nominations? Okay, nominations are closed. Um, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Eyes have it. Congratulations and thank you. Uh, Colonial is taken right now. Uh, Chamber of Commerce representative. Um, we thank um, Director Conte for his service. um on that committee. Um do we have anyone um any nominations for this position? >> Point of information. Um I'm wondering if um we could describe a little bit more about what this person does. Um it's just something I'm in terms of their their responsibilities as a representative. >> Sure. I I have a little bit of information on that. I don't know
017if anybody else did, but I'll start. I happened to be at light up night for Helertown Historic Society and the Chamber of Commerce was next to us. So, I started up a conversation because I wasn't quite sure the position myself or or whether they were attending meetings or anything like that. And I did get to speak to someone and she said it is um the person for the school board would be a guest at the board meetings and the sharing of information would happen there. they'd be interested to hear what's happening at the school as we would be interested to um hear what's happening with the Chamber of Commerce in town. So my understanding would be to attend the meetings. I believe there they indicated there are um the president of the Helertown Historic Society
018was filling me in because he's a board member. They're usually every other month where they meet. >> Do we know what night of the week they meet? Um >> they said it varies. It It's not even the standard. um you know the second Tuesday like ours they it says they varied based on availability I believe they said I'll check with it though um the next one is December 16th at the um golf course sorry it's I live right there it's changed names so many times [laughter] um that they're having the meeting there so um what they do at their meetings I've never attended them I am on their email list and I got the email of the person and um she's already sent me an email today so that when a person is seated then
019we could let them know and get them hooked up. >> I'd like to nominate myself to be the representative for Chamber of Commerce. Um I'm interested in our local businesses and uh and seeing them prosper and seeing making sure that if there opportunities for the district to connect with the local businesses um that we pursue those. Any other nominations? Megan, would you be interested? >> Um, I'm definitely interested in being leazison to the community. That would be something I would be willing to do. >> Okay. Any other nominations? Oh, I nominate Megan. Any other nominations? >> Nominate myself. >> All right. So, we have three nominations. >> I'd like to withdraw my nomination. I mean, it didn't seem like anybody else was going to do it, but uh in light of the fact that we
020have some nominations, I'm going to withdraw my nomination respectfully. >> All right. Any other nominations? Any other nominations? Okay. Nominations are co closed. Please, >> Mr. William. >> Uh, director Lmanino, >> Donald Carpenter, >> Mr. Santos, >> Vivian Demco, >> Director Lmanino, >> Cedric Demar, >> Mr. Santos, >> Dr. Laura Ericson Parsons, >> Mrs. Mrs. Lmenino, >> this is Megan Lino. >> Dr. Pax, >> Mr. Santos, >> Santos, >> Mr. Santos, >> and Dr. J. Christian. >> Mr. Santos. >> Congratulations. Silicon Valley Foundation for Educational Innovation representative. Do I have any nominations? I'd >> like to nominate myself. I just started a little over a month ago and would like to continue working with them. >> Any other nominations? Any other nominations? Okay, nominations are closed. All in favor say I. >> I. opposed. All
021right. Congratulations. Um, TCC delegates. I'm going to admit I don't know what TCC delegates are. Could you inform me what they are and and the rest of the board and new people? >> A few years ago, um, they created a pass collection committee for earning effects. So, um, I sit on that committee and usually represent Lower Sen and Helertown. Um, and at that time it's they're going over what the collections are. We vote on who the tax collector would be for the uh, earned income tax. Um, we adopt a budget. Um, that's what the TCC is, zero income tax collector. >> Sounds like a lot of fun. Um, do we have any nominations? >> I I nominate uh Mr. Bonnenburgger and Denino or whoever the assistant business manager is. >> Who is the assistant business
022manager >> right now? It's Denino until she retire till she retires. >> Any other nominations? So we'll be doing this again when [laughter] [clears throat] >> hearing none. Nominations are closed. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. All right. Thank you. Bethamary Vocational Technical School Authority. Um Brian Ikefeld's term is until 2 2028. Um, Cedric's term is expiring um, January. Do you have any nominations? >> I nominate Mr. Deathmore. >> Any other nominations? [clears throat] Any other nominations? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. Congratulations and thank you. Next up is the approval of time and place of the schoolboard meetings. Um they're listed in the agenda here. It's on the same schedule the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month except we're noted um obviously with the >> Are
023we skipping over the committee assignments? >> Item item 11. >> Thank you. You might have an earlier version. >> You have the one that Judy gave you. >> No. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Yeah, that would be why. Thank you. Um committee assignments. Um I apologize. I had a an old agenda. Um academic and personnel committee. Current members are Mr. Brun, Mr. Demar, Dr. Pax and there is one opening. Do I have any nominations for that opening? >> I would like to nominate Dr. Christian Tatoo. >> I would like to nominate Jay Santos. Any other nominations? Hearing none. Roll call, please. >> Mr. William, >> uh, Jay Santos, >> I'm sorry. Discussion. >> Yes, I'm sorry. I keep forgetting. Thank you. Discussion. Anybody would like to speak? You all know I'm pretty brief.
024Uh, so I will be it's going to be probably hopefully not a long session. Um, I I think the AMP committee is probably one of the most important committees that we have here uh as far as the the board goes and I think that my ability to bring people together will be very useful in that capacity. Um, of course, you know, we're all professionals. we can all serve in great capacity in any position. Uh but I I think that I'll have a keen understanding of being able to bring you know academics and you know really everybody involved in the committee together to be able to have great success there. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Yeah, thank you uh Mr. Demco. I will just uh say I think we would be very well served by
025the uh service of Mr. Santos. I will just uh speak to my own qualifications as an educator of over 25 years. uh the perspective that I would bring to the uh&mp committee uh would be the same thing that uh I've spoken of uh in the time that I've been active in uh as an attendee of schoolboard meetings and that is simply to make sure that our decisions are being made in accordance with the best available evidence-based practice and research and that's what I would bring to the position as well. you. >> Would anyone else like to speak? >> Yeah, I'd like to speak very briefly here. Um, putting aside the fact that, uh, there was, you know, I have a proposal to sort of reorganize some of these committees, uh, which we will have to
026work on in the future. Um, it's kind of I I feel like it was my understanding that the board often gave an opportunity for at least every board member to serve on one committee. >> Um, >> that seems to be in the past. Yeah, that's exactly. So if if if uh Mr. Santos takes the AMP committee uh opening, then the two new directors um unless someone gives up a spot on a committee, one of them will not be able to serve on any committee. Um so because of that, I'm I'm going to support Dr. Tatu so that everyone has an opportunity to serve on a committee unless something needs to wants to change there. I mean, if you'd like, I could resign from the facilities committee if that'll change your mind there. >> That's too
027complicated in the nom in the motioning process at this point, sir. [laughter] >> Thank you. Pause. >> May I um may I ask if the the the two new members um are interested in serving on a committee? Is it's not required. Is that accurate? Okay. Megan, are you interested in serving in a committee right now? I'm sorry. be willing to be on a committee. I also know from attending the committees as a community member that I don't have to be on the board to attend the committee meetings. However, in order if there is a vote about one of those, then by being on the committee, that is how my vote counts. Correct. >> Correct. >> So, I would be willing to step in one of those positions, but I don't have to. Thanks. And I'll
028say that I too would be willing to serve on one of these committees. Um, and I I do think that uh A&P is where my background would I'd give me the pos the opportunity to contribute the most. Um, but I'd serve I'd be happy to serve where I was needed. >> Thank you. >> Don, I'm sorry. Could you explain further? I see academic and personnel as having one opening and facilities having one opening. So that that leaves the opening for our two well >> you don't have to vote that way just saying what was common practice. >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. Any other nominations? Okay. Hearing none uh any other nominations hearing none. Please, >> Mr. William. >> Uh, Director Santos, >> uh, director of tattoo, >> Vivian Demco, >> Director Santos, >> Cedric
029Demar, >> Director Santos, >> Dr. Laurel Ericson, Parsons, >> Director Tattoo, >> this is Megan Lumino, >> Director Dr. Shim Pax, >> Dr. Tattoo, >> J Santos, >> myself, >> and Dr. J. Christian Tattoo, >> Dr. Tattoo, >> you are representative Dman. >> Congratulations. Um, Miss Demco, the uh the policy is that you pick the president picks the chair of the committee. I don't know if if the chair is since the chairs it none of the committees are listed as a chair. I know this committee though for for certain doesn't have a chair. I don't know if we want to do that now. >> Was the chair who was >> I mean I think we've had in the past where a president has thought on it and then appointed >> Oh, okay. >> and then
030maybe announced it at a subsequent meeting. >> Thank you. All right. Thank you. >> Facilities committee. We have one opening there. Um >> I'd like to nominate Director Lomagino. >> Any other nominations? >> Hearing none, I close the nominations. Would anyone like to speak? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Congratulations. Our finance committee is set. Correct. All right. And now we will go on to the meetings. Um, as I said before, um, these are the same times and places, the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, except we're noted there are some changes. I have a motion to approve the time and place of the schoolboard meetings. >> So moved. >> All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Opposed. Authorization of the use of signature stamp until a new one
031is received. Do I have a motion? Do we need that? >> Yes, we do. >> Okay. Second. Is there a second? >> Uh, any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Passes. Any comments from the board? >> May I make a quick comment? >> Yes, please. >> I think that this is probably one of the most needed arrangements reorganizations of a board. Um, generally speaking, at least in my understanding of the Sulen Valley School District's history for the last decade, uh, I think that the new president, the new vice president are going to serve us well. Uh, I hope to bring back that connectivity, that stickiness between all the different organizations that are a huge part of what makes us all great here. Uh, I think that next year it should be
032Mr. Darn Carpenters's time and myself actually as president and vice president. If I could call >> shoot in the dark >> this campaigner >> start the campaigning today. >> Um I I think that that would be really good. I think it'd be a good experience for both of us. But I think that right now what we need is somebody who has been in the district for uh many years and understands all of the interconnectivity in it to bring it back to its glory. and somebody who's fought really hard from the community to not only make their voice heard, but to actually get onto the board. So, I am very welcoming of this new administration and I applaud all of you for all these decisions that we've made to bring us here today. >> Any other
033comments? >> Congratulations to our new leadership. >> Thank you. comments from the superintendent. >> I would just like to say congratulations and I look forward to working with everybody in their new positions. >> Thank you. Comments from the public. Seeing none, I move to adjourn the meeting. Um for your information, we're going to be hold a very short um executive session and then we'll be back for the general business meeting. Meeting a journal. call the meeting to order. The business meeting, regular meeting of the Saka Valley School Board. Um um I'd like to revise the agenda, please, so that we can have the high school student representative speak before. [laughter] You're welcome. Second. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> I I >> All right. So then we've approved the motion for the agenda. Correct.
034All right. We had an executive session um for a legal matter. Can I get an a motion to approve the minutes from November 11th, 2025? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Okay, SGA, thank you for being here. >> National Honor Society and Leo Club food drive. Both Sen Valley High School, National Honor Society, and Leo clubs are asking for non-p perishable food donations to replenish our Sen Valley High School pantry. These donations help fellow Saken Valley students in need of supplemental food, and collections occur year round. However, we could use your help right now. Please drop off any food donations to Mr. from Marco's room in the high school at room 413. No donation is too small. Every donation is valued, especially around this time of year. On
035the morning of November 21st, seven teams of girls playing and boys coaching started Powderpuff 2025. In a double elimination tournament that was held all school day and at night in the stadium, students watched and staff rallied as the teams battled it out. Fremies smugged on their eye black, tied their flags tight, and stood shoulder-to-shoulder as the whistle blew. Beneath the glow of the stadium lights with real football officials, the Velvet Trail, one of the senior teams claimed the crown for the second time. The Sen Valley High School Gymnasium hosted a memorable evening on November 11th, temporarily turning into the area's premier destination for fun family entertainment as Sen Valley faced off against the world famous Harlem Wizards. This high energy event served as a major fundraiser for the Socken Valley competitive cheer program. The bleachers
036were packed, the smiles were contagious, and the fundraiser was a success, exceeding expectations. It will help fund the cheerleaders trips to nationals. Coming up on December 4th, the district will host the winter choir concerts from 5:15 to 9:15 in the high school auditorium. The elementary school choir will be held at 5:15 p.m. The middle school and high school choir at 6:00 p.m. and admission is free. On December 11th, the district will host the winter band concerts from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium. Fifth and sixth grade band is going to be at 6:30 p.m. The seventh and eighth grade band is at 700 p.m. And then the high school band is at 7:30 p.m. It is also free admission. The district will host the Holiday Joy K through 2 theater performance
037from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. High School in the high school auditorium and doors open at 5:30 p.m. Free admission. Next week, the high school scholastic scrimmage team is headed to quarterfinals against Emmas. Their matches are on PBS to watch. Their first match this year was against Katakawa and their second against Notre Dame where they won both matches. If they continue to win, they'll make it to the finals. Thank you. Any questions? >> Um, I just wanted to say the uh I I appreciate how well written that report was to you. >> Well, thank you. Mr. Donson wrote that. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Well, it's very well written. Lots of strong verbs and great imagery. >> Not me. [laughter] >> Thank you very much. >> Oh, I just want to say I uh I I
038was actually at the Harlem Wizards game with my son and uh it was really really cool. It was really a good time. Um and uh Dr. Casky was was like shooting some hoops. It was pretty awesome. I mean, I saw it. So, yeah. [laughter] >> He said shooting. >> Yeah, I didn't say making. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, recognition fall athletic review, please. Mr. Johnson. Yeah, Now, now I know why you changed the order because of because of the weight, not because of what he's going to say. >> Just wondering if he wrote this report, too. There we go. This is dramatic suspense. That's what I'm building right here. You can see up top it says trying to connect. >> I don't know. It was just like every other day for me.
039This is actually taking longer than the presentation. So All right, while we're getting that settled, um unless we're going to do it in the next minute or two, we'll move on to the superintendence report. So, good evening everyone. I hope you all had a relaxing and joyful break. Uh we recently served our Thanksgiving lunch and this year we're excited to announce that nearly everything was from scratch. Our food service team led by Nikisha Downer were able to share her creation, their creations with students administration and then again with our distinguished alumni who came back after the wall of fame ceremony. The morning call even covered their efforts and the story and photos are available on our communication page if you'd like to take a look. Our inductees were also featured in Lehigh Valley News and
040WFMZ and we're thankful for the time these accomplished individuals spent with students inspiring them to dream big, work hard, and never forget their roots. We're also grateful to everyone including our friends over at Sen Valley Alumni Association who helped to make the celebration possible. Looking ahead, winter weather season is coming. Apparently, it's here and our proceed written before the today. And our procedures were posted on the website. Families will want to keep an eye on the district website as well as WFMZ to stay informed if there's any schedule change due to the weather. online. You'll also find updated bell schedules and the most commonly used forms, a new website footer with more readily available links, and a new digital change of address form for families who have moved within the district. Um, we're very close
041to rolling out a new district calendar that will allow you as the user to filter out events um by school and families will also have the opportunity to print the calendar. We're also working to make our food menus, which is one of our most popular website pages, more responsive and interactive so they can be easily updated and viewed online. And on the parent engagement side and community engagement side, we're developing a series of short videos for parents and anyone who's interested to help keep families connected and informed regarding various topics that um will hit home and that will also assist with supporting their children at home. We've also added descriptions to the administration page so the community has a snapshot of everyone's core responsibilities in case you need to contact anyone within the district. And
042I have also created three committees that are new that we have received uh many people who are interested from the values team, the student advisory council and the superintendent partnership council. And these working groups will collaborate with me as we create shared goals and solutions for our mission and our values. And we've received a diff decent amount of submissions. um we're reviewing them right now and I'm looking forward to seeing the work that we accomplish in the months ahead and I can extend it longer if uh Mr. Johnson needs to and if you have any questions regarding anything please. >> Absolutely. >> So uh this is you you mentioned adverse weather uh and uh snow calls, snow day calls and so forth. Can you explain uh I mean since you're starting the season and that's
043one of those things that a lot of times a lot of people don't know uh how these calls are made and what are the bases for them. If you can just explain what the process is I think it's good for uh for the community. >> Sure. I consult a magic eightball that's normal on mine now. Um I do have one on the side of my desk, but um the superintendent in the Northampton and Lehigh County start talking last night at approximately 2 o'clock in the afternoon and uh are all making calls. So everybody's communicating in terms of uh with each other uh because the IU and VOTE also play into how we make these calls. So everybody starts communicating. Um I would say within that time period when we're making a call here, we're contacting
044usually facilities. So Mr. Degan is usually contacted about transportation. We're watching weather reports and we wait until we know the weather is not really changing. Um, so when as today would be an example, everybody, as you could see, were making closures as of 4:00 last night, which is when we knew, even though people weren't getting contacted on WFMZ until probably 8 or 9. Um, and we knew that Sen Valley, where it's located, usually does not follow the same weather patterns as Nazareth and north of us. So, I usually am contacting Palisades, Southern Lehigh, and we're usually following the lead of districts that are usually with us. Um, so we called the 2-hour delay in hopes that we knew the weather was still changing and possibly could still change. Um, it changed in the opposite direction
045that we thought. We probably could have gotten everybody in and safe, but we made the call this morning. So, um, this morning we were notified that the roads were not touched, which usually drives the decision. So, if we know that they are untreated and they remain untreated to a certain point and we know we can't get buses in on untreated roads, usually is going to be when we make the call. >> Just sort of like from from someone who is not making those calls. Uh, you you guys are educators. you're not uh weather people and weather people don't know how weather is. So uh it's just a just an impossible task. the fact that uh uh this is sort of like so much of a guessing game and there's no uh sort of like procedure
046that is uh you know more settled is just baffling for me and I'm just uh wondering whether there is any sort of like uh additional information or policies that uh policy I don't mean board policy I mean uh procedures that uh are are being followed if these are uh uh if if these are uh shared with the community. You know, it's it it's helpful. You know, anytime you make a call or any superintendent for for that matter to uh to close the school, you have all of the tough guys who say, you know, back in 1948, you know, they would never uh close the school for uh whatever 5t of snow. And uh don't make a call. uh there are people who say that they have seen a uh uh snowflake in the sky and
047uh if the school is not uh closed that's uh really uh adversely uh impacting the students safety. So it can't be can't be like that right. So there has to be some sort of like form of uh shared common understanding you know amongst the community that this is the this is the process. It's not going to be exact like they like today kids could have come in uh before the snow start and uh could have gone home after uh the adverse weather was uh was already over. But uh this is sort of like the the risk in in these type of uh calls always. I had a comment on the superintendence report and a a question. Um um I I've have in general been hearing really uh positive things about our communication in the district
048and I know that it's easy to I I mean I I think complaints about communication in the district are are are never going to stop, you know. Um there there always going to be people unhappy about communication. Um but in in general the the amount of positive um uh uh feedback that I'm hearing in the community is is is marketkedly, you know, perceptible, you know, and and above what I've I've I've seen in the past. I mean, things are it just seems like uh there's more professionalism. There's more of a of a kind of unified vision. Um and um and more uh from what at least I can observe more professional cooperation. Um and u I just really thank you for the the work on on communication uh in general. That's um one thing I
049I I did have a question about was just um or comment question is I don't know where we ended up finally with our uh a kind of uh AI policy in in the district but one thing that I I just feel a little bit of a concern about is that when we use if there is any kind of use of AI in communic in district communications um can we acknowledge it um uh when when we do so because I think that when if the community I think the community is very alert to the materials that we send out and I think when they're electronic um especially I I think that they look for AI you know I think people want to know that we're not using AI without acknowledging it and um when we do
050put out uh documents if we do if we I should say or if we have web pages where AI um generative AI has been used to write content. I I think we need to acknowledge it, you know, in in a fine print, you know, um um and may it might even be at some point where we um need to do that um have a general disclaimer somewhere, you know, if we don't already. Um I also just wanted to ask since since you know with with the website are we work are we working on um accessibility um issues connected to the website? Um um do we have alt text incorporated? I think that we do but um I just want to um ask about that if we have alt text if maybe in you know I
051don't know if if if anybody can answer that now but it's something I wanted to bring up. That's all. >> Hello. >> Don't touch the computer. Okay. >> What's that? >> Don't touch the computer. >> I will not. No, I'll probably break it. Um, yeah. So, I have been trying to incorporate all text as much as I possibly can. I'll be honest, I definitely could be better. So hearing your feedback will, you know, at least give me gives me feedback that the community wants it. So when I >> Do you mind explaining to people just so they know it? Sorry to interrupt, but just so they know what it is. >> I'm not an expert in it, but it's essentially a way to let people who have um what hear uh v uh hearing and
052visual disabilities uh be able to understand what they're looking at. So here is a like for instance if there's a photo of the group of school board members I would list off in the alt text from left to right school board directors uh Jay Santos and uh William Brun just in the alt text of the photo so that they are able to understand what it is. I think it's so you can it feeds it back to you. >> That's right. >> Yeah. So I could definitely make sure as I'm uploading because I think I do the primary uploading of the photos just make sure that I'm being more cognizant of that. >> Thank you. That's great. >> Could you could you tell me who our provider? I'm sorry, she's sleeping. [laughter] Our provider is for
053our website and do they offer any services for accessibility at all? >> Um, uh, it is final site and I am fairly certain they do and it's something that we can definitely look into and make sure that we're taking advantage of. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other comments? I too enjoyed seeing all those new things come out. I was like, whoa, whoa. It's exciting to see. Thank you. Okay. Are we ready? >> We are. >> All right. Awesome. >> Um All right. Thank you. Congratulations to our our new members and and for those of you new appointments, congratulations and thank you for everything you guys do for us. Um I'm just quick few minutes here just to kind of do a 25 26 um fall review of our sports teams. Um, and we're going
054to start off. Our first team is cross country. And this is headed headed up by uh, coach Mike Vadumsky and Jason C. Mr. Coach Stern, I believe, is here tonight. Um, and they posted a team record for the boys of 20 and eight and girls 21-7. The boys finished fifth in the Colonial League in the regular season, fourth at the Colonial League Championship meet, and sixth in the district 11 championship out of 15 teams. Now, this is the first winning season for the boys team since 2017 when they were 13-11. The girls finished fourth in the league, fourth at the Colonial League championship and fourth at the district, 11 championships out of 13 teams. Now, there were individual records set. Um, Bridges Cidle qualified for the state championship meet by finishing 13th at the district
055meet. She placed 133 at the state championship. Theoa Wckler finished fifth in the league in district 11 meet qualifying for the state championship meet where he finished 63rd and was the second fastest freshman in the race. Virginia Krauss capped off her senior year by winning her fourth consecutive league district and state championships. Virginia is the only cross country runner in PIAA history to win four state titles, girls or boys. She also set the course record on the state championship course. Um, just a footnote to this, I believe she just won up in Boston. The competition in Boston is headed out to uh San Diego to to continue her competition. Our cheer squad, this is headed by uh coach Tara Mattis and our sideline cheer. Um, they had a youth program participate in the high school
056game during this year uh this year's youth night. And so cheer also had 36 alumni cheerleaders come back for the homecoming. Uh this year they held a fundraiser where they sold pinkout shirts to benefit breast cancer and in the league competition they took third place. Um football headed up by coach Anthony Brinkley had a team record of five and six overall five and five in the regular season. The accomplishments achieving a 500 record with a young core of athletes who demonstrated resilience and growth throughout the season. We hosted our first home playoff game at Sen Valley in seven years. We had individual records set at Sen Valley with Braden Ran, junior quarterback who set a new school record for most completions in a season. Thomas Cahill, freshman wide receiver, broke Sawen Valley's single season receptions
057record. Thomas broke the District 11 record for receptions and receiving yards by a freshman, passing both Carter Vasa from Bethlehem Catholic and Jan Dodson from Nazareth. Boys soccer was headed up by coach Terry Baker and the varsity team posted a record of 410 and two which was an improvement from the last two seasons and the junior high posted a 73 and2 record. They are proud to tell you that all student athletes maintain the PIAA eligibility at the high school and middle school junior high level for the season. Um we take eligibility pretty seriously here and this this group in particular did a great job. individual record. Steven Gazozan, who is also the Lehigh Valley Soccer Scholar Athlete Foundation nominee, led the team with the as a goal scorer with eight goals on the season and
058a hat-tick. And Benjamin Ash lead led the team with saves as a goalkeeper and also balanced his schedule playing football for the Panthers. Sulen Valley he le uh league uh excuse me, head coach was Cage Almond for the field hockey team and they posted a 5-12 record. They had a very heavy freshman roster and they made great strides in the team's cohesion and collaboration. They have numerous players who will be playing out of season to grow in our skills and freshman Lauren Hawk scored 15 goals and had two assists for the team leader in scoring. Girls tennis headed up by coach Mike Tren overall post a 9-5 record and in the conference were 8-4 and in the district tournament went 1 and one. The team finished third in the Colonial League in the regular season
059and in the league tournament. They're also semi-finalists in the district 11 team tournament. Individual records by Emma Svengrass, Sarah Shafir reached the quarterfinals in the district doubles tournament. Emma and Sarah also played in the district singles tournament and Sonia and Tanya Nambari Nambodiri completed competed in the district doubles as well. Our golf team headed up by coach Tim Shook posted a record of seven and five this season. The team played well in all matches. Two very close losses to Northwestern Lehigh and Palmeron could have swung the record even better. The top two players on the team, Anthony Albano and Renzo Octareno, played very consistently throughout the entire season. Four seniors anchored the remaining members of the team who will be missed. Individual records were set by Anthony Albano and Renzo and Maiden Heis and Madden
060uh excuse me, Maddenheiserman. All qualified for the Colonial League tournament. Madden placed 18th out of 54 players with a score of 84. Renzo placed eighth with a score of 80 and Anthony shot a 75 and won the Colonial League 20 after a two-hole playoff. Anthony and Renzo both qualified for district in which Anthony played great again and ended up tied first with a score of 78 on the challenging steel club. He was beaten in the playoff round in second place finish. Renzo finished one stroke off first with a 79 to finish third and both Anthony and Renzo qualified for the PIAAT state tournament where they both played well. Girls soccer headed up by coach Trent Seabbert posted 11-4 record with a season and two-2 playoff overall having a total of a 13-6 record. They made
061it to the semi-finals for both leagues and district playoffs. Tessa Makuda broke the school career record for goals with 104 goals. Elliot Policare now holds the school record for total points 326 and assists 120. Elliot was Lehigh Valley girls live girls soccer player of the week and also chosen for the PA Coaches Association allstate team. And our volleyball team headed up by Harrison Henning. The varsity went 11-8 this season, 11-8 with the playoffs included. JV went 13-6 and the middle school posted a 9-3 record. Varsity was third in the Colonial League for volleyball. Made it to the first round of the districts and we hosted a district game for the first time in volleyball. We beat Notre Dame for the first time in eight seasons and the first double-digit record in eight seasons. Brandon Krueger
062had 142 kills on the season, 229 high school career kills. Addison Stupac had 162 digs on the season, 252 high school career digs. Eva Ferranti held had 106 digs on the season, 214 high school digs. and Renee Mars had 205 assists on the season, 474 high school career assists with one more year to go. And our marching band by directed by Miss Caleb Bidding held a team record and finished bronze in the championships with a score of 92.325. The accomplishments included one outstanding ranking, one second place award, four first place awards, two high percussions awards, one high color guard award, one drum majors award, and an overall high score for the Soundfest 2025 award. Thank you very much. And that concludes the fall. >> Impressive. Thank you. Athletic and academic, please. Um I just wanted
063to make a quick comment. Thank you for all of that. All the teams did a fantastic job this year. Um this was the first year for junior high soccer um boys and girls in the fall and I had personal experience it with my son being on the junior high team and I think it was fantastic and so I really commend the district for starting that junior high those junior high soccer teams. >> Uh I wanted to comment too uh some of those uh thank you for the report. some of the I mean all the teams were fantastic. There were some incredible uh the soccer goals from the on the girls soccer that was the 104 goals. That's incredible. That's just that's stunning. And then um but just also yeah the junior high soccer, the um
064the tennis team, the the golf team. Uh just so many incredible accomplishments. Um sometimes in the past um just something I I I personally would be interested in hearing sometime about any of the do we have any uh college recruitment stories that you're able to share in the future or um I would love to hear about um you know any scholarships that people have got where they might be going um um and sometimes also we've heard we've bragged about the GPA of some of the teams um especially cross country for some reason. Um, but I'm just curious about that. So, >> yeah, and I appreciate the comments. I mean, these kids come out here, they start actually all year round for those of you who are parents of these student athletes. I mean, you know,
065I know we say they're seasons, but they are working constantly. You're driving them from field to field and from gym to gym. Um, but this year, what we're going to look for for the for the recognition, the signing days, so we just had one for three of our students. We're going to do another one in February and then one also in May. Um, I think it's really important regardless of division one, two, or three or whatever the case may be, we're celebrating all of our kids. Uh, so we took the opportunity to hold the one here, uh, in the main lobby and then post it out. And we had we had our communications group here. And, um, you know, you actually have to get permission from the universities once they they commit to say yes,
066you can go ahead and do that stuff. So, we're going to host another one in the winter and then another one in the spring because quite frankly, we have quite a few students going on to the next level. Wow. So, it's really impressive for such a small district. >> That's really neat. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Any other comments? >> Seeing none, we'll move on to courtesy of the floor to visitors. Agenda items only. >> I'm share. You all know me. Um, I was just looking at the agenda and um, under section A, education number two, the revised calendar, it doesn't say what you're revising. Um, I personally, as a parent, would like to have seen what you're proposing so I know if it affects my child, um, what building or if it's something with
067staff. Um, so I would just like to know what it is in the future. I tried to click on that, but it's not a link. It's just an underline. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, let's move on to the I'll ask during the thing. Let's move on to the um pay the bills. Can I have a motion to pay the bills? >> Any discussion? >> Sorry, I didn't need to speak up. I have old ears. [laughter] >> Now time. >> Second. >> We Okay, we got it. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. You guys have it. We're paying the bills. Can I have a motion to approve the treasures report? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Yeah, although it doesn't pertain necessarily to GF before here. Um, I just want
068to uh comment that I've been um looking at um some of the balances in our accounts and things like that. And um uh close followers of the school board will remember that uh I think it was a year and a half ago um when we were working on the budget, not this year's budget that we just did, last year's budget, um there was a discussion that the budget was $800,000 in the red and at the time this then the board voted to split the difference with the budget to take half the money out of our of our fund balance and to into a very small sub 1% tax increase to the other. And uh it having now learned about some of this process, it takes like an entire year then to audit what happened so
069you can know the actual real result of the number. And so I just got that information recently. And so um if in our projected deficit that year was 89,000, but now that we've gone through and done all the math and corrected all the reports and everything, our actual deficit that year was 1.5. You can correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Yeah. So we not even covered half of the deficit from two years ago. So it's just a reminder for everyone that this is kind of like the time scale that we get to check our work here. It's quite long. So it's just good to remember that. So, so what you're saying is that we're almost 100% off on the estimate. >> The budget was Yeah. >> Well, I mean, I I didn't mean to interrupt
070you. >> I I just wanted to ask very briefly, is there any worry about that happening again for this most recent budget? >> May May I jump in? So it's a you can look at the uh you can look at the difference and look at uh how big it is. You can look at the difference compared with the total bills and see how big it is. Right? So on a uh $55 million budget uh $800,000 or 1.2 million or zero are all kind of like about the same. So these are sort of these are numbers that translate into you know 1% 2% sort of like uh and it's not even error it's uh error in projection of uh various uh objects each of which has a variation as a result of various things you know
071the uh the interest rate for example that uh was considered at the time was a was a number by the time that it realized it would be a different number the amount of revenue that was coming from the federal state and uh and local were uh certain numbers based on the information that was available and the numbers that uh come out uh you know once these sort of like materializes a different thing. I'll just say that as a uh as as a side uh almost uh Bethlehem uh their board was uh looking at the budget uh I think yesterday and uh the delay in the approval of the state budget what I understood is that cost them more than $2 million so uh in interest. So, the fact that they basically could not receive that
072money in June or July and they had to wait for that money until uh until now, that cost them $2 million. So, my point is that uh the fact that uh Mr. Bonenburgger has uh come up so close to uh to the numbers is actually sort of like amazing and remarkable uh from uh from my perspective. So I want to thank him and I uh would just assure you that we understand how difficult it is to come up with uh with with these numbers so accurately and you've done it, you know, year after year consistently. To >> to to be clear, I I think Mr. Barber does an amazing job. So kudos to you for getting these numbers to where they are. I was just more so asking how do we handle right that extra
073700 grand and you know >> comes out of fun. Yeah, there is a uh there's a $16 million or something was at the time now $11 million $12 million uh fund balance which is actually the sort of like the buffer to uh to cover all of uh all of these numbers that >> I just did it as a note that um you know we kind of made a decision and it's good to look back on the decision we made and how it wasn't describing blame to Mr. about no so you're all getting to my point which is that fund balance keeps going down and so I just wanted to better understand what our resources are for these resources right so that we don't every year just keep touching on the fund balance and then as
074Mr. you know, director Poxide, as you're mentioning, there's interest that's gained on that amount of money. So, I want to make sure that our interest is, you know, going up rather than decreasing. >> Yeah. I mean, we we were not supposed to be talking about this, but we're doing it [laughter] debate of a sort, and since my name was invoked, I I would like to uh to respond. So, uh uh we have uh about 20% of our budget in the fund balance. This is not uh our money. This is the taxpayers's money. And uh if anybody's getting interest on that, I would rather the taxpayers get the interest on that, not uh not not the government. So absolutely that's a uh the the the number that is uh uh that is uh allowed by the
075uh by the school code and I think uh uh between uh Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr. Bonenburgger they would uh they would correct me. It's I think either 6% or 8% of the budget. 8% of the budget. We have about 20 more than 20% of our budget in the in the fund balance. So we have a lot more of the people's money that we have sort of like collected over the years and put it in our saving account and I think it should be in people's saving accounts shouldn't be in ours. >> Yeah. Know absolutely. And so what I'm saying is I want to avoid having to have any sort of more increases in the future as far as taxes. Heck, if we can even do a rebate that'd be fantastic. We got to make sure
076that the fund balance is healthy so we can get interests so that we can keep up on all of these costs. >> I'd like to suggest that we continue this discussion in a financial meeting or when our budget comes up and where we could ask Mr. Bonenburgger, you know, what did we anticipate lower that that went higher and where where that came in. you know, I just wanted to report what what I had from the past. >> That as well for keeping track on that. >> All in favor of the treasures report. >> I I opposed. >> Eyes have it. Passes. Um >> we have uh under the agenda items in education, we have um two items for discussion here. We have a data presentation from Dr. Tinor. Um I hope [laughter] um before we
077get started we have a habit of interrupting presentations so you tell me are you going to take a break in between u we usually have a lot of questions on data so I'm asking you want to take a break if you wait until the end we're going to forget [laughter] um so you tell me and you decide how you want to proceed with um offering the board an opportunity to ask questions Please >> feel free to stop and ask questions during the presentation. >> That that's the way that I like it. Thanks. [laughter] >> Well, how about you review a slide and then we'll pause for 30 seconds and then we'll move on. [laughter] >> Okay. Sounds good to me. >> We'll do the best we can. Thank you. >> All right. All right. Well,
078good evening members of the board and congratulations on our new appointees. Welcome, and I hope everyone had a wonderful uh Thanksgiving break with their families. Uh so right now this presentation uh will provide a reflection kind of an overview of the 202425 uh for students grades and building achievements uh from last year and over the last couple years as well. So for the agenda again we will we review uh district demographics also district goals and progress. We'll also look at building goals in progress. We'll also review local data and kind of end it with a uh data summary. Um data sources uh and again for those who may be aware of these data sources uh please forgive me. I don't want to sound redundant but I do think it's very important to give some context
079to some of these metrics that we use uh for us for our data reporting. uh we use a different variation of different assessments to make informed decisions for instructional practices uh and decisions to uh better analyze student growth and achievement or over time to make decisions immediately or long-term. So we have the e-metrics which is a PVE supported data system uh that provides online state reporting uh state assessments and offering detailed uh student reporting from grade level as well as performance uh to provide instructional decisions. We also have the Pivas which is the Pennsylvania of valute added assessment system. Uh it's a web-based tool that shows Pennsylvania schools how students are growing academically over time which I'll I'll go over a little bit later as well. Uh we also have the NWA which is the
080Northwest Evaluation Association. It's a benchmark assessment used to measure students achievement over time. And then also too we have the Dibbles and Acadians. Uh it's a series of short researchbased early uh literacy for for math literacy benchmark assessment used to identify foundational skills that are needed for uh students and also we have the also the college board um provides a standard assessment uh for college and career readiness offers benchmarks and opportunities for college uh credits. If you can see right here this is uh student demographics. I think it's very important to discuss and analyze uh student demographics. uh it serves as information uh could the impact it may have in a particular school district. So this right here for those you can see here's a pie chart that represents kind of the demographics of our
081current uh students. Now this is a line graph. Yes. >> See any of it? Could you just give the general gist? >> I can't see any. >> Thank you. I didn't be the one to say it. >> Um so right here I'm going to take this right here. So right here if you can see there's a blue line coming up that's our economic disadvantage right up here and as you can see there is an increase in that over time for that I just want some context and clarity for economic disadvantage because there is an increase in that as well too for Pennsylvania economic disadvantage for years uh kind of identify for low income right now over the last five years it changed um now what economic disadvantage means expands the following one, they're looking at
082the quality for students of free and reduced lunch. Uh but also two, families that are receiving public assistance as well, too. So, if you're in SNAP, which is a supplemental nutrition assistance program, uh that's considered some kind of state assistance, that's considered economic disadvantage. Also, temporary assistance for needy families, that's also classified as someone or a family who's considered economic disadvantage. They also uh classify students or families with foster homes, group homes or institutions also as economic uh disadvantage or experiencing homelessness and also to a migrant or runaway uh program that meets low income criteria. So again over time there has been a slight increase but again the classification has changed to give some more context why you're seeing kind of an increase uh in that as well. >> I'm going to see if I
083can make this a little larger. >> Give me one second. Would you mind sending us a copy of this report? >> Absolutely. >> Thank you so much. >> Well, if I can and I apologize I'm not able to. >> No, no worries. >> Next, we're going to talk about uh >> Can I ask a quick question? Yes. >> So, what why is military connected a category there? >> I'm sorry. >> I think if I read it correctly, the last item is military connected, right? >> Why is that a category? is one of our subgroups that the state of Pennsylvania document. >> Are there special accommodations for them or any anything? Just >> it's just a subgroup they classify. They use race, they use economic disadvantage and military. >> Okay. >> In regards to the future
084ready comprehensive plan, uh this is a three-year strategic road map and this is where we're going to pull our our goals from which we'll go over. Um this is kind of guides the district improving you know student achievement you know over time for over schools overall school performance also collaborative planning process as well too looking at setting goals assessments and needs and what are some action plans as a school district we're going to do to help support um our students and also district submissions as well too. So right here if you look right here this is the our goal we have three goals from 2022 to 2025 in regards to where are we right now. The first one was to increase the participation in rigorous course study uh to 60%. And these are kind of
085a baseline of what the metrics we're going to use to evaluate that. So as you can see over time uh there's been an increase and also too last year our goal was to 60%. Of the increase of participation in rigorous coursework study the actual goal was 72. So that's just shows a significant growth which we're you know obviously proud of in regards to the increase. Again, this is I'm sorry this small, but this right here just shows you the state average right now. And if you look at the state average is about 56% and right now we're at 72. So we are um well above the state average for rigorous coursework. >> Do we know what's working why that number is much higher? >> But there's many factors why in regards to u you know
086why that is increasing too. I know the course offerings that you know we have at high school as well too. Um that has been pretty effective over time. So >> So are are these uh uh associated with particular new courses or new uh dual enrollment opportunities that uh Dr. Cowsky potentially can kind of like point to and say this course and that course we offered and then so many students took it and that's what uh brings the >> Yeah. Well, if you look at the baseline right there. So these are the metrics that's used right there in the baseline. The future ready index, AP college, the dual enrollment, the CT. So that's the baseline that's being used. So everything to answer your question, uh these are the metrics we're going to use to see that.
087And as you can see over time, the baseline and the actual there's been growth. So um again, those are the metrics we're going to use to see um the growth over time. But but just I'm I was just asking if there is any any any particular sort of like action that sort of like increased this number. Yeah. So drastically. >> Yeah. >> You had you had so the the increase in dual enrollment classes is also AP course uh classes have been offered as well over time. >> And one other thing I'm going to ask you humbly don't compare us with the state average. I hate that. Okay. Comparing with state average means that if you're above the state average is good, right? Yeah. And uh I would expect from the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania,
088we are always going to be better than state average. So uh saying that kind of like lowers the expectation to a level that I think is not consistent with uh with with the culture of this district. >> Speacity, did you want to add something to the courses? >> Yes, thank you. The specific uh indicator that makes the significant difference is the rigorous coursework went up from 0% of dual enrollment courses to an increase. So last year it was at 0%. So there were two AP courses I believe that might be the difference between last year and this year but the dual enrollment percentage increasing in the manner that it did did make the difference. >> Could I ask a quick question? What does uh 60% achievement mean? It means kids are taking the course or
089passing the course. >> That's taking the course. >> Taking the course. Okay. >> That's just shooting the shot. That's not making it. >> Okay. >> That was also a like comparing to average. >> Okay. We're ready. >> The actual percentage indicator is the num the percentage of 12th grade students who took an AP course. >> 12th grade. >> Yes. At some point in time in their high school career. The second goal for all core mathematics courses uh will have benchmark assessments created and administered. So looking at all the grade level the grades spanning for each building and looking at the benchmark tools that can be used to assess uh students skills over time. So K4 you have the cadence map and dibbles assessments that's been used uh as far as benchmarks and screeners. Uh it's
090fully implemented. uh 58 in the middle school you're looking at the reveal curriculum the math curriculum that's been implemented also uh classroom diagnostic tools the CDT which is a diagnostic tool and also to end of course diagnostic as well too has been fully implemented for the middle school level and also for algebra one at the high school level looking at the CDT again which is a state diagnostic assessment and also firefly which is a state uh benchmark assessment that's been used which will be fully implemented Do the um K to4 the new curriculum do they have any benchmarks throughout the series at all or are we just using those nationally? >> Okay. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> All right. for goal three for increased proficiency in rates in mathematics P SSAs to 60% in third
091through 8th grade. Um right now you can see over time uh in regards to the baseline but over time uh this was the mark right here. So we had a goal for 60% for three four five six seven eight uh we did not make that uh goal which will be discussed and targeted afterwards. So before you move on, so uh this there was a uh there was a news in u in the morning call or an article morning call about uh the PSSA results and uh there were numbers for uh for other districts uh and I I I looked I looked pretty quickly and I didn't obviously uh look at the third to 8th grade uh o overall it was about it was it was building by building uh the way that it was reported
092but the numbers that uh some of the districts that I would like us to compare ourselves with uh were were higher right uh so they were not in the you know 60% uh range they were uh maybe in the 70% and 80% range is there a uh u is is that consistent with uh how you understood uh the numbers for other districts also or is it something that it's because third to 8th grade and if you sort of like look at like let's say southern Lehigh and aggregate the elementary and middle school for all of the buildings that they have their number would also be something similar to us. >> Yes, a very comparable I will at the towards the end of the presentation I will have data to support in regards to other districts
093as well too. No, good question. Thank you. >> Do we have a plan to increase those rates? I'm sure that that's part of the presentation. Yeah. Excellent. [clears throat] >> I I'm I'm very excited. >> Yeah. I think what what could skew that data as well is there may have been some higher and some lower. Obviously, this is an average. So, um when I looked at the data that was out there, >> um it's not they're not all that well. >> So, now we'll look at achievement data for math ELA achievement in elementary, middle, and for Keystone achievement high school. >> Yes. Go ahead. Just in Dr. Tor's defense, when you see the next slide, this is coming from the future ready index, and that's why the state average is on there. So, he's getting
094this [laughter] purposely putting these back. I I don't mind the numbers being there. The the thing that I mind is uh for us to say we are above state average. So, uh so that's good. I don't like that, you know. Otherwise, you know, state average being there is fine. Uh but uh if you want to compare us with anybody uh put the highest score in the state also and say we are better than the highest score in the state then I I will say that's good. >> Yeah. And we echo your same sentiments as well too. We have high expectations and we'll go over to towards the tail end of the presentation regards to comparing um as well. So again uh for the future uh ready index um it is a system used by the
095PTE Pennsylvania department of education again to report school performance in a broader more holistic way for scores. So if you look right here this is going to be for elementary. I'll go over elementary, middle, and high school. Uh for elementary right here and again this is just from the state of Pennsylvania. I'm just reflecting the information that they're sharing right here. If you can see this is going to the state goal for 20 uh for math uh the state set a benchmark goal for all school districts uh to 81%. All right. So again this is just what they report and this is where we are right now. The reason why this is red right now because the year prior uh compared to last year there has been a slight decrease in that. Again that's just
096indicating and showing that we're still have work to do to trend up to the goal in 2023. However, uh again there's some rational we'll discuss a little bit later behind that. This is >> is it accurate to say the state sets incremental goals correct for every year and that's they're they didn't meet that goal despite whatever last year was correct. >> So there is there is a long-term goal for 2020 uh 33. That's the long-term goal. And this is right here where it says state 20 uh 2033. That's inter in incremental goals or interterm goals that they would like you to meet slowly graduate uh gradually going and shifting to your long-term goal for the year prior. There's a slight dip in that that's why it's red. Although we're again this is the number we're
097going to still look at and address this concealing goal to meet the goals within the next within the next eight nine years. However, is this res representing that there was a slight dip that was for ELA for uh for elementary right here. This is math. Um so this is grade right here for math and this shows that their intern goal has been met which is again this is great. Shout out to you know Mrs. Braxmeer and the elementary the staff and the teachers and the team working very diligently hard. I believe it's the first time it's been green from till since 2018 if I'm mistaken. Woohoo. some celebrate. Can we give a round of applause? >> So that's progress. The state recognized as progress or we have work to do, but uh this just shows
098the hard work that this uh administration team and the teachers are working very hard uh to make sure we're meeting these goals right here. >> Yes. >> Because we can better. >> Yes. Some absolutely. So, so for context, uh, in regards to the red, um, in regards to the PSSA, it shifted. It went from pencil and paper that's traditionally has been used. The state wanted to save an auxiliary amount of money and they save multi-millions of dollars. They went digital. So, that's been a big shift um, in regards to going from paper and pencil, doing your state assessment, shifting to iPads, and that's where we saw the dip as well, too. So again, these is this is something we're analyzing and we're you know looking to thoroughly investigate what more can we do to support
099uh because again that shift at the elementary level um you know some impact. >> Yeah. Two two two questions for you about this one is u uh you know for for math 63.3 is green >> and for ELA 64% is red. So what are the thresholds for each of those? I want to know by how far we uh sort of like exceeded the threshold for math and by how much did we not uh reach the threshold for uh for ELA. In other words, if the if the number in the ELA if instead of 64% you you tell me 64.2% would be green, then I'm saying that just like it's as good as green, right? >> Yeah. I have that in the next few slides, but just give it some context as well too. Uh this
100is students for our district performing proficient or advanced. So again, this is comparing data annually. When you see the red, the year prior, they're set at a certain number. If you see red for this past year for 20 242 compared to 2324, there was a slight dip. That's why you see the red. >> Yeah. Yeah. But is it just like any reduction would bring you red? So, so when you said that since 2018, we have never had green, that means that since 2018, we have year after year after year we've just declined because I don't believe that that would be the case. So, do we do we actually know what the goal percentage is for the past? >> I'm going to get to that. I I'll show you right now. So, >> so the the
101second question about the thing before you move on from that slide is that you mentioned the paper and pencil. Was that just done for the ELA or was it the same for for math also the move from paper and pencil to >> Yeah, it was it was for both. >> Okay. So, I mean I wouldn't say that then. So uh you know I I understand that it's something that you may sort of like think is important but uh it was done uh for both of them. It was done across the state. So uh whatever the effect is uh it would be for everybody you know. >> Sure. Sure. >> Yeah. But it it's definitely a variable that's taking consideration uh in regards to um a test taken. >> Okay. >> Mr. Lassie, did you want
102to add something? It wasn't done across. It wasn't done >> right. >> We knew it was coming so we did it a year early. The other thing I mean we can probably dive deep into like the very small incremental things that we know probably did have an impact um because at the elementary level there was also uh opt out of students that also took place that does affect our score. So, if we know that some students opted out and they're your advanced or proficient students, that does impact that will impact the score. So, we know that that was significant in that grade level. Um, but we also don't want to just say that these are the reasons, but we know that they absolutely do impact it. >> Mrs. Rexire, you wanted to add something else?
103So we are not taking that as a oh my goodness you know we are not concerned but we are you know contining to move in the direction of If I didn't if I didn't start the year with the math data of the high, you know, low7, I would be much more concerned than I am right now and we will continue to measure that. But we are very excited about our [laughter] >> and and they're they're highly predictive as well. >> Yes. elementary. I >> Dr. Tenner, I warned you. That's all I'm saying. >> It's okay. But ju just miss Demco just a just a request that if uh others are speaking they should come to the podium because uh otherwise there would be long uh periods of uh silence for uh anyone who is uh
104watching this on YouTube. >> Thank you. >> I'll move to the math um for middle school for ELA and math uh in regards. So here again here here are the scores and and again as we alluded to earlier for the elementary and and which we for the high school the same one. So again is looking at uh right here at the middle school for ELA and also for math. This is high school for the PA future ready index. So high school obviously right here there's been some significant increase. So again, uh team's working hard uh at the casting scheme in regards to looking at the scores right here and uh for the high school for ELA and for uh math. >> Could you just tell me why there's a science waiver? What is that about?
105>> Yes. So the sciences waiver in regards there's a new steals assessment um in regards to uh where you at right here. So yeah for the science technology engineering environmental literacy and sustainability standards new standards that they align that with the new science. So therefore this year was last year was a a waiver. So the scores there will be scores released but they will not count it for next year or this coming up year that's when it'll count for the testing. >> Thank you. >> Yep. So right here I think answer some questions in regards to the PTE indicator of success for proficient advance for ELA for the PSSAs and for in uh Keystone is elementary, middle school and high school as you can see you know over time. So again right here is over
106the last three years but this is the actual data. This is our goal that we set was a year ago and the actual data you know that that occurred over time. So right here last year there has been uh for elementary which we alluded to earlier where Mrs. Braxmeer was indicating [clears throat] there is a a slight dip over here and also two for middle school for ELA for high school right here where my green pointer is that that did increase the bench uh set goal was 72 and high school went up >> and those were goals set by the state not by the district >> by the district >> district. >> These are district. >> Yeah. So these are district. So right here this is the state. This is what the state's looking for
107right here >> on the left. It says set by state. So that's what I think we're just >> the other ones the ones that this is 20. >> Yep. >> But these are so again this is this is going to be the state. This is state right here. And then these are incremental goals. So the goals this is why you see the red in the future index. These are incre these are like incremental goals. They want you to progress towards the main goal by 2023 which is going to be 81%. So we're looking at goal incrementally yearbyear. to meet the 81%. Uh this is for math P say keystone again for elementary middle. So right here you can see elementary. Again this is going to be for math. So this is great. Shout out to
108the math uh team and and the um Mrs. Braxmeer and her team working. Give me a round of applause please. That is some great that is some great work they are doing. And again the goal is 58 and they're at you know 62 and trending up. So that that's great >> right here. >> So since we are uh you know clapping for for that what's what's the deal with uh with with the with the middle school map uh >> that seems to be looking in the in the opposite direction. So Mr. Hower is not here but I I hope he has some plans to sort of do some cleanup there. Yes. Yeah. We work >> as as Mr. Santos said, right? >> You want to see that number high too, right? >> I do. >>
109Yeah. >> Okay. Good. >> We all do. >> And for high school again too, Ben 58 and right here. So, there's an increase for high school. Shout out to Dr. Casky and his team again working diligently hard uh to meet progressing goals. >> Has nothing to do with me. has everything to do with the departments at the high school work really hard to make sure they teach the standards and eligible content. So not not no credit for myself and uh credit to the teachers and the English, the science and the mathematics department. Uh and I know at the high school level if you remember uh you know we have a little bit easier than the elementary and middle school because we have keystones. We don't have PSSAs every year uh that kids uh have to
110take but uh and also if you remember with these state benchmarks remember in 2013 2014 under No Child Left Behind how everybody was going to be 100% proficient in math and English. That's what we're talking about here with projections. Some of them are okay but others are just too lofty. So right now I'm going draw your attention to this data point right in the data path for student who score proficient in advance in ELA. Now this at the elementary level uh again this is data we just discussed but you're looking at where we are right now. So we're going to continue to work um this is at the team this is bra for ELA and continue uh to address that. Now I will say this too there are a lot of excellent uh evidence-based resources
111been implemented um arts and letters u which a core program to address you know writing reading uh listening speaking also 95% which is a a foundational skills for phonics and also to lexia so those are resources and programs that being implemented with fidelity um that are being currently used uh middle school again to and I apologize the red Again, it's just disagregating the data in regards to what the average is compared to where we are. Again, we want to be at the highest. Uh we're going to continue to move and trend that way as well, too. So, that's a middle school right now for ELA. And that's the data points right there, the data path. Uh for high school, as you can see, uh there is a nice gap uh for average and where we
112are and where it's trending. So, we're going to continue to work diligently with the ELA uh in regards to how we scoring for high school. For math, um again, this is the this is great. As you can see, the last data point, it is trending up, which is a great sign. So, the trend line is indicating that there is an increase and we're going to continue. Yes. >> Yeah. Is is this the new math program or results or the new math programs are implemented this year, right? So, we haven't seen the result of that yet. Yeah. No, just just come to the podium, please. I think need a break from from over there. >> Dr. Pax, this was the 2020 edition that we adopted last year that well, we worked with Patan and um when
113Mrs. Schultz came down and was working with Miss Davidson and Mrs. Hand and Miss Dennington and we were working all of the teachers together, PLC's etc. This is what we implemented last year. So there was a lot of work we did last year with um math. So this is when we got everybody on board. >> Just just just trying to make sure I understand. So the math program was a new math program that was implemented both in the elementary and middle school. >> Yes, we well we both I mean I believe they did reveal last year as well was the first year we did. Uh >> so the answer is yes. Right. So so it's it's a new math program in the elementary and middle school, right? Yes. So any of the support that you
114had in the elementary school, did they not have it in the middle school? >> I I didn't implement it in the middle school. So I don't want to speak for the middle school. >> Okay. Thank you. >> But yes, we did. >> What I'm saying is that this is from from the same point with the same math program, the same support. You know, one of them went up, one of them went down. So I mean, I'm just sort of like trying to uh you know, put the puzzle together as to uh you know, what happened there. >> Mrs. Brax, are you using reveal in the elementary school? >> We are not. >> Correct. So they're not using the same math program. >> We're not using >> they're in the middle school. I just want to
115make sure that you're that she was clear on your question because you're saying the same math program. It's not the same math program because middle school is using reveal and elementary is not >> math and focus 2020. This that is the version that that is what we implemented. We updated everyone to math and focus 2020. We brought in uh Patan Chuck great man. Uh we shared Carrie with the middle school last year. And then we also utilized that math lead team of um Jen Davidson, Stephan, uh Caitlyn Dunnington. I'm not sure if I'm forgetting anyone and did our whole PLC's and things like that. And then we brought spring math in this year um right with our teachers. >> Yeah. I just wanted to make sure the clarification was that you were not using the
116same program math program as a middle school. >> Thank you very much. >> Yes. And we're very excited. All right. So this is middle school uh the progress with the middle school in regards to that. As you can see the data points are leveling uh for students at the middle school for proficient or advanced in math high school. As you can see uh the data is trending up in regards to um students scoring proficient or advanced in math as well. So, all right. So, now uh want to just briefly just go over some PAS data and I'm going to just do a brief synopsis on what this is. Again, it's a web. >> Before you move on, I'm just going to say say one thing because the question was asked about uh sure >> about
117science. Mr. Kakmar is sitting here and you would be glowing with the science data. Unfortunately, we are opting out of that. So uh I'm I'm I'm sure they are great but uh this is at some point tell them to add it to the slides uh part of either the uh the local data or something because uh I >> was there were keystone scores um for science and in the Lehigh Valley uh Sen Valley placed the highest on the ski keystone scores uh for proficient and advanced skids. So taking Dr. Tor's thunder because that's a slide coming up but he said it >> appreciate your enthusiasm to share that as you always are. Yes. Yes. I just I didn't want you to take Dr. Tenor's thunder here. >> That that's that's the size, right? >> So
118how about the middle and elementary and the >> Okay. That's the one that you were doing, right? The other one. >> And again, so I just go over the PES. Again, it's a web- based tool. Kind of shows Pennsylvania schools how they grow. So they're looking at growth over time, predicting the future performance, and tracking past test results. So not only looking at achievement, but again growth. And please again, please forgive there's a lot of these. Um you can see in regards to um a lot of information here um wasn't and I apologize for the screen being this small. I wasn't expecting to be this small. However, I just want to draw your attention uh to here. So if you look at the color code, it's just a category that describes the amount of evidence
119that groups of students meet exceed or kind of fell short of the growth. So the state is just looking at are students who perform at a particular level are they growing? How are they how are they achieving and growing over time? And there is right here where my green that's like kind of like the mean right here. And if you're showing growth over time, the state recognized that as something positive that they're predicting that the students will perform over a period of time. So right here is fourth grade. This is fifth grade. This is sixth grade. Seventh grade and eighth grade. And I did want to pull a three-year analysis in regards to comparing contrasting the three years. This is the PSS math data. So right here again this is just looking at performance predicting
120where you're going to go. So 2023 the first year 2024 and it's going to be 2025 right here. So starting off three years ago as you can see the students uh slowly fell below of the growth of what the state anticipated and what they actually scored 2024. But then you look at 2025 here as you can see it there's some some significant growth right here at the fourth grade level right down here for fifth grade as you can see right here they started right here and there is some growth at 2023 look at 2024 and 2025 you saw a significant growth over time for the fifth grade students in 2024 and 2025 for the sixth graders as you can see 2023 you saw a Slight slight reduction but then a significant increase last year in
1212025. Again this is going to be fell below significantly below the green right here is we the medium. This is above and exceeded or extremely high. Again this is look at that growth where the state anticipates and where you we actually landed. You look at seventh grade right here. As you can see, seventh grade it uh fell well below on this side for the math. And again, that's something we'll we'll discuss and address. And then eighth grade, as you can see, 23, 24, and 25 uh exceeded as far as the growth of what they say anticipated and what we actually scored right here over time. And that's the value added PSSA math data system. >> I have a quick question on methodology. Is is it growth from the year prior? >> Yes. So what they
122>> so when you have one year like that sevenyear where you you kind of have you have a student at some level of growth and they don't achieve as much as they you thought that they would on average and then the year after that if everyone you you kind it's affected by that right? Yeah. >> So like you get blue because you kind of brought your >> Yes. Yep. Absolutely. They kind of look at like the the normal the normal curve equivalence is just like kind of the bell curve one to 99 and right here the middle is 50. So that's how it looks like. So they predict a number specifically on where they predict or projecting where you would test compared to the actual test and that's how they find out growth. Are you
123growing contingent upon what we predicted and what you actually scored? And so what what you're really saying is that if you are after a strong year >> then you have a hard time being stronger. If you are after a bad year it's easy to be strong. >> Correct. That's what I was asking. >> Yeah. Yeah. And uh and what we are seeing here is that seventh grade you know they just dip. Right. There's like no way around it. It's not just one year after year after year. Right. >> Right. Right. >> And just uh to uh Miss Braxmire. Right. I just wanted to congratulate you on that fourth grade thing. You know, whatever you did, it was uh it's it's great. It's it's working. >> Great job. >> Um >> you got to do it
124in seventh grade also somehow. >> Uh yeah, I had a quick question and a comment. >> So for seventh grade, I mean, what is what is the theory on what's going on there? I I understand what you're saying, Dr. Fox that if you have a really high performing year in sixth grade, let's say, and seventh grade might be hard to like really shine and then eighth grade, you might bounce back from that. But is there something going on with seventh grade that we should be aware of and math in terms of math, >> you know, and again there's a lot of variables that we're still, you know, evaluating and looking at obviously new uh curricular program, uh the reveal program that we're analyzing and looking at, you know, look at the that resource um the
125implementation. So all that right now is under conversation investigations analyzing why over that course of time are we seeing a significant dip in seventh grade and you know looking at a plan to address that significantly and swiftly. >> So Dr. Tino we can we cannot say it's instruction. >> No I didn't say it was instruction. I >> I know you didn't say it. I'm saying that can we not say it's instruction? >> I I would be very hesitant. I think at this time um we should be looking at the data and then in the future delve into exactly what is happening with a particular grade or not or is it prior or is it what is it? Um I I think based on the time we have right now I think we can look further
126into that and we'll look for u an academic and personnel an update on what we think the root causes of that are. >> Yep. Thank you again for PSSA ELA data. Uh again, so kind of the format 23, 24, and 25 for for fourth grade, fifth, 6th, 7th, and eighth. Kind of following the trend as well, too. So fourth grade, elementary as you can see right here. Um well well above and we get, you know, fifth grade uh you're going to see some balance in some years um which we're looking at right here. uh we have sixth grade 23 then you have 24 and 25. So over the over those years you saw some growth and in seventh grade for ELA um pretty consistent but also there has been some slight reduction right here in
1278th grade 23 24 and 25 you saw a significant increase as well too as far as growth. Uh this is the keystone data um for algebra. So we it's over the last three years as you can see right here. Again the state looks at if you're right here in that black line that's going to trigger where whether left or right where the growth is as you can see over the last couple uh three years uh either above or well above the anticipation of where they thought you would score and to where we did score. So it's above and then right here for Keystone for lit as you can see 23 was high slight meet goals and then again 25 above again. So right now we do want to look at growth of subgroups and I
128think it's very important uh to demonstrate this data in regards to how are the subgroups being impacted as well too. So we'll start with the uh students our Hispanic students right here as you can see right here for students to do the keystone and algebra the right here all of them as far as growth met expectation also too right here for the ELA uh keystone lit the students right here all has met expectation yes >> do we have uh samples that are large enough for these to be meaningful if you have like two Hispanics I'm I'm not saying that that is the case but If you have a very small number of students in these subgroups, uh would would those mean anything? >> Uh yes, if there is not a large enough sample, the state
129will indicate that it's insufficient data and they won't report on that. >> So So these numbers have been reported and they have sort of like determined that those are >> significant subgroups. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. students with IEPs. If you look right here, um, for the PSSAs for math, uh, this is broken down by grades right here for fourth through 8th, I believe, right here. And as you can see, for each grade level, they either either met or well above kind of the expectations right here for all the grade levels. So again, that's a special uh shout out for our special education department, our teachers and our staff working dig diligently and very hard in having high expectations for our students uh with needs. >> Does does that include gifted IEPs or just non-gifted IEPs?
130>> Yeah, I believe this is just the IEPS. >> And right here is going to be the ELA for PSSAs for the grades. Right here, all the students for each grade level who've taken the exam were met uh the growth And shout out to the classroom teachers as well. >> Yep. >> Uh economic disadvantaged students. Earlier I did give a uh kind of description of how it changed and shifted. So if as far as a category so this is economic disadvantage right here per per grade and right here this is fourth through eighth right here. Each grade level is looking at specifically for our students who are economically disadvantaged right here. Either above or in the dark blue is well above. I think one grade I believe that was seventh grade. I believe that was
131a little uh below for that subgroup last year. >> Seventh grade everybody was >> and then right here again uh the students right here either well above or or met the growth. So again, that's just uh shout out for the admin team, for our teachers, our staff, and our, you know, our community to really uh focus high expectations for all students for the subgroups regardless if it's an IEP or economic disadvantage that we're still going to all students were with high standards, which is a testament to this district. >> Yes. >> You want to come come talk to me? >> Sure. with the economically disadvantaged group. Um, you know, I have a concern that that is that's a number that will ding our our our kind of our our reputation in in the um in
132the realm of the um you know the the the rating services and the um the the niches and the great schools and etc. I think that's one area that they really they really hit you hard if you if your economically disadvantaged students are somehow underperforming, you know, and um so it's something I think that we definitely need to >> all, you know, be careful about um and and really zoom in on. I mean, yeah, I I agree with, you know, I I heard what Dr. Pac said about, you know, everybody did bad. Uh and but that's an area that really I think has a big big impact on on um our reputation, you know. >> Absolutely. >> I would just talk about the seventh grade but this is like when I I agree with you.
133I'm looking at this and this is from from that perspective that you say it's it's it's very good. Right. So this is for math uh all grades except on one they either were above or well above and for uh uh for for English they were all above or uh well above also right and the high school is amazing the high school uh you know they're all good right? >> Yes. >> Blue and dark blue. >> Yeah. And just to be and just to be >> this what I'm saying that this idea that you know in this district we don't care for them is just not correct right based on the data. >> No bad idea. No, no, I didn't say you. I didn't say you. I said that if anyone has that idea or whatever
134places, you know. >> I actually wanted to bring attention to this because I I'm sorry if I'm stealing your thunder though, too. Dr. Tor, I should probably let you finish because this is something though that I do think needs to be recognized and we always could do better. But these three subgroups are the subgroups that we hear administratively at least that we hear that we are not doing enough for in the district and we're not paying enough attention to and there's not resources going to but this is demonstrating that we 100% are and yes we always have room for improvement but this is demonstrating that. So I think it's really important to draw attention. I'm sorry Dr. Shore if I just stole that but given the conversation that was happening. >> Thank you. I have
135a quick question. Is any are any of these numbers tied to any grants that we might receive or can they be right that I would imagine that the better we perform, the more money the state might give us? >> The other way around. >> Oh yeah. The better we perform, the less money we receive is what you're saying. >> Yeah. The better you perform, you get less money. >> Well, that doesn't make sense. Who do I need to talk to to change that? We're doing a >> go to Harrisburg. >> Let's leave it at that. We're doing a good job on our own, >> right? >> Well, send me to Harrisburg. I'll change it. >> All right. So, I I'll briefly go over our kind of a local data in regards to some of our
136reporting. Uh so, this is again the dibbles assessment given uh for K2. There are two years right now. For some reason, PES didn't update to 2025, but I will show you some uh excellent data right here for growth. This is kindergarten to second grade for dibbles assessments benchmark. This is a from beginning of year to end of the year grades one and two and then also last year was K 1 and two. As you can see again the color coordination in regards to where the students where they have performed. So first grade 23 24 while above second grade was above. When you look at the the math I'm sorry that's ELA that was math for ELA as you can see right here. well above in kindergarten. So again, shout out to the kindergarteners out there
137uh with their scores looking at the first grade data and then also the last two years the second grade uh data for 23 and 24 where they projected where they landed and then last year right here uh again this is the NWA again this is uh a tool used to again assess and we use it for K8. So if you can see right here, this is going to be a kindergarten through eighth grade assessment. Right here is [clears throat] going to be some growth. So this number right here looks for growth. These are the students that kind of performed and where they performed. As you can look this right here, this is number 65 I believe it is right here of where when they from K8 looking at all the students right here [snorts] 942
138where do they start the year and then at the end of the benchmark where they land 70% right there percentile. So that you saw from K8 an incremental growth overall in for reading for K8 for NWA for math assessment K8 again you see right here you see a number for achievement looking at from the beginning of the benchmark to the end as you can see right here there is a growth I think 68 and then at the end of the benchmark there's 72nd top percentile >> yeah I just want to clarify that these are 68 percentile to 72nd percentile there's Growth >> growth so so if if 68 percentile remains 68 percentile that would also mean growth that means that uh uh that means growth on level whereas 68 percentile to 72nd percentile means that
139you grew more than you exceeded correct exceeded >> yes sir correct >> and I'm sorry so this is again this is going to be very hard obviously but this is going to be uh the AP courses taken over the last three years. I will share this uh information for you to review. Um but this just shows you over the last three years the course works for AP that has been offered and kind of the trend uh specifically uh that's been taken over time. >> Say which ones were the most popular or have gained the most students. >> Yeah, >> just a couple just so we can >> hold up. Yep. We're here. Try to make this big over here. >> Uh, >> so you can tell the most popular are the one that has >>
140No, I can't. Yeah, I mean I can't either. >> I just if you just read whichever one has the top one that would be that would be good. >> It's a good pivot table though. >> I got it. >> As far as pivot table goes. >> I'm going to say psychology, right? They won't let me zoom in. >> Psychology. >> Yeah, I cannot I think it's college. >> Dr. Tenor, it's psychology. Yeah. Escology statistics. >> Yes. Statistics is the one that's also over there. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> All right. So right now we're going to go over ranking our school performing schoolwide uh data. So right now we're going to show you in regards to how we performing for last year for 2025 top performing math PSAs in the state. So
141I did highlight right down here where we are. So if you look at the 498 school districts in the state of Pennsylvania in regards for the math PSs in the state, we're 123 out of 498. puts us at a top 75 percentile statewide. This is just the raw numbers. If you look at the top performing ELA and PSSA in the state, it's 90. We're right down here. We're 91 out of the 498 schools. Uh this places at the top 82nd percentile statewide. If you're looking at the 2025 uh top performing district for algebra keystone for the assessment, we were 86 out of the 498. That put us in the top 83 percentile statewide. And then for the 2025 top performing district lit keystone, uh we were 119 out of 498. That put us in the
142top 76 percentile statewide. Now, we're going to go over ranking performing schools in a Lehi Valley area. How do we compare in regards to our neighboring schools and counties, our neighboring counties? So, as you look at the Lehigh Valley, top performing in math PSSAs, we rank sixth in the entire Lehigh Valley for our scores right here. Number six. Uh, so what was the This is I I couldn't breathe here. There was six in the high valley. How many? What was the second in Northampton? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Who's first? >> Nazareth. >> Who's first in the county? >> Nazareth. >> Yeah. Nazareth first in the county. Um Nazareth. Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Yeah. And the numbers are actually pretty close if I could read it correct. Right. So it says 58
143to 52, something like that. Yes. Uh for the top the Lehigh Valley top performing ELA PSSAs, we ranked fifth uh in the entire Lehigh Valley. And for 2025, the Lehigh Valley top performing lit keystone um again was was number five right here. >> Yo, [laughter] Dr. Casky indicated NASA's below us. >> [laughter] >> And >> so for that one in this last slide that you had uh the top one was the charter school, right? >> Yes. Yes. >> Uh and for the top performing Keystone algebra, uh we ranked second in Lehigh Valley but number one in Northampton County. Okay. Yeah. So, so at the end uh to conclude we're looking at right here kind of next steps. So we have right now for our comprehensive planning uh for the next three years looking at what
144are our goals. So what does this all mean? Analyzing the goal looking at the data and what can we do to continue to improve. You know everyone here has kind of a common goal is for excellence and we want to make sure that we uh do what we need to do to make sure that we perform at the highest level. So the first goal we do want to uh look at student meeting the ELA standards for academic growth from 58 as a measured by the PES. Our goal the second goal is going to be 50% of our students will participate in at least one advanced placement course each school year. Our third goal we want we want to develop dual enrollment opportunities for the students from 9 to 12. And finally, our last goal will
145be to uh address the math standards and for academic growth for fourth grade students uh measured by the PEAS. So those are our goals that and our steps our action steps to really kind of enhance what we're doing as well as other um supports that are needed to support our our staff and our teachers and collectively with our admin. >> Um can I make a comment? Um um so I wanted to thank Dr. Tenor. I mean, one thing, um, this this is it's a big it's a big ask to to do a big data presentation on a, you know, a district where you you just started a couple months ago, you know, and um, you know, to me that I I think people need to know that, you know, you're presenting data, but you really
146have nothing to do with the, you know, any of any of this stuff. Um um but obviously you have a big role in in in in in the future and in in in finding the you know where the problems are. I I I myself I'm not really into celebrating achievement. I I just don't I feel like I want to celebrate the kids who work hard. I want to I want to support the teachers. Um I want other people to celebrate us and to be in awe of us as a district. I don't want to do that as a board member. I feel like that's not a good that's not a good idea. Um um and I think it's pretty to me it's pretty clear where there are some weak weak spots. Um and uh I
147I hope that you can find the cancer cells, you know, and find out what's going on and figure out how we can start some chemotherapy on those on those areas. Um because uh it seems really clear that you've is you know in what you're presenting you've isolated some weak spots and also shown when things are not weak how it leads to better things down the road in high school especially you know and and that's really important to me and that's that's encouraging because you know you see that it's not just some kind of like mysterious you know amorphous problem that we can't fix, you know, um, uh, you know, where where we have weak spots. Um, and with respect to where we are in in the in the in the in the Lehigh Valley, um,
148I other people are going to disagree with me on this. That's fine. But to me, I I feel really annoyed that we're not higher, you know, um that we're not number one or we're not number two everywhere, you know, and um that's how I feel, you know, and again, if people, you know, people need a pat on the back, I'll come over and give you a pat on the back, but it's like I don't feel like as a district, I don't want us to be doing that. I want us to be, you know, people saying, "Wow, wow, how do they do that?" You know, so thank you very much for the presentation. >> Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Um I we do echo your sentiments. Um, we do want to acknowledge the hard work
149that teachers are are doing, also the admin team, the putting the work in the resources to really help our staff, but I do think we should acknowledge the good work that it's doing to just reinforce what the staff and our admin team are doing and our admin team highly competitive and we all want to be number one. I mean that's the goal and I think you know continuously the work that we're doing and all these admin that are sitting to my right and to my left work diligently to plan and collaborate to how can we become better and that's the goal for all of us too. We want to become the best everywhere and that's our target. Thank you. Y >> any other comments? >> Okay. >> Thank you Dr. Tenner. safety presentation. Yeah, we
150got one more coming up. >> Yes. >> I was I was worried somebody left. While they're setting up, we're going to juggle again and we're going to go on while they're setting up so that we are we are not wasting any additional time of our community member and ourselves and our administrators. Um so I want to read through the agenda items we have under education. Number one is an overnight conference. Number two is the revised school calendar and number three is our um foundation mini grants. Um do I have a motion to approve those? >> So move >> second. >> May >> discussion. >> Yeah, just uh the second one which was the question that was asked if there is uh some explanation of what the uh what the what the revision is. I appreciate
151that. >> Yes. Uh the calendar the additional day is in April. So on April 6th, it now becomes a uh closure, an extension of the the uh holiday. It is Easter. Yes. So on Monday, there was a miscount on the calendar and uh this is something that we go over with our uh association and probably have oh I would say 25 eyes on this and for some reason we all missed it. So there was an additional day because there was an overcount of the student and teacher days. So we had to give a day for vacation. So we have uh talked to the association. We had options from them on uh what they were suggesting from teacher perspective and uh we discuss it from admin and this was the day that we had added uh
152that was the easiest and probably less less disruptive for families and staff and uh district operations. So >> just six is the additional day. Out of curiosity, why wasn't the it an option to uh take the day at the end of the year and end the school a day earlier? I don't know what the last day is. Uh June 6th, June 5th, whatever that is. So, did you say why wasn't an option or why wasn't it chosen? >> I don't believe there was an option on the table that we were discussing. >> The what? >> It wasn't one of the options that was being discussed. So, I [laughter] can't tell you. >> Seems like >> it would be another option that you've added to it. So, >> why why was it not an option then?
153>> You know, I'm not really sure. I'm not really sure. >> I mean, you're the superintendent. I mean, who should I react? >> I understand what you're saying, but this was in collaboration with the association. We had three options and it was one of the options that we didn't we didn't consider. So, >> no one wanted it. >> The answer I mean what's the reason for that? Because this is at the end of the day, we are voting on it. So I need to know why we couldn't end the school a day earlier rather than, you know, just a random day in the middle of the year because >> I probably have to look at the calendar. [laughter] I I honestly I >> I thought it was going to be quicker. I apologize to you.
154>> Are we still mid motion? >> Yeah, we're in the >> debate. Discuss. >> Oh, we're in the discussion. >> Can I say one thing about the grants? >> Yeah, I was to ask. >> Yes, please. >> Go ahead. Um so there are three grants on there from the Sock Valley Foundation um for educational innovation. We were very happy that we received three grants and were able to fund all three of them. So the first one is um for the middle and high schools and it's for the functional academic program um that will go towards a variety of items on the field trips in the community. The second one is for the elementary school in the visual arts and STEM classes and that is for a laser engraver and cutter. And the third one is
155for the high school for the afterchool competitive indoor percussion group that will go towards transportation and competition. Um so very happy that we could fund all of those and I encourage next year um for everyone who would like to to apply for those grants. Thank you. >> All in favor? >> I I >> opposed. >> I would I I vote no on uh on the calendar. >> You can't you can't do that. The motion hasn't been split. I I request that the motion. >> No. [laughter] >> So I thought you were not I thought you were not voted as the president. [laughter] >> I'm the parliament self-appointed parliamentarian. [clears throat] >> We've noted the no. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Um so we're going to be giving an overview like we have done in past
156years uh looking at safety security um various uh of the groups that we have across the district MTSS SAP um as well as some of the information um from the OVAS survey that the students completed last year. So like we've done in past years looking at the framework um we'll be looking at mental behavioral health, health and wellness, physical safety, school climate, culture and community operation and emergency management, law policy and finance. I'll also be taking taking a look at uh the school climate, the safety, learning um they're not separate endeavors. So safety goes along with learning and what we're doing in school. interdisciplinary collaboration and building a multi-tered system of supports. Uh beginning with proactive school leadership. Uh balance the needs of physical and psychological fa uh safety go along going with that school
157climate. Remaining grounded in the mission and purpose of our schools uh that is teaching and learning and provide services that are needed, appropriate and sensitive to our unique student needs. Okay. So, one of the things that we're going to take a look at in a data review is is some of our safety numbers. I'm going to explain a little bit about what you're going to see uh on the screen and go through that. We can take any questions as we did with the with the last one if anything uh comes up. But our data on the first few slides are going to include some averages uh and averages of incidents compared to the state. Also, Northampton and Lehigh County schools, our Northampton Lehigh public schools averages, and our bordering school district around Sen Valley. um
158data on the specific incident types that we'll then take a look at are going to be looking at Sen Valley data uh over the course of the last four years from 202122 school year up and through the 23 24 school or 2425 school year um as well as looking at four-year totals for our similar size schools that border us uh at Sock Valley. The first thing that you'll see here are some incident rates and this is incident rates per 100 students. So, it kind of gives you an average of where we sit um in total uh with the state average and Lehigh Northampton County being your first two columns uh followed by all of our surrounding school districts. So, you can kind of see um where we stand on some of the uh reported issues
159for incidents that have gone uh to the state of Pennsylvania throughout the course of the last four years. >> Mr. Right. >> Yep. >> What's the what's the reporting standard? Are we sure that uh everything is reported consistently across all of these various uh sort of like uh regions that you are uh comparing? >> Well, that's one thing we'll we'll see as we go through. you'll be able to pick out some of the uh discussions that we've had and some of the inconsistencies and why it's hard to sometimes compare um data not only within our schools but also um the schools around the state as far as when an incident takes place, how they categorize that incident and what it actually counts towards your safety report. So you'll be able to see that in some
160of the things that are coming up for sure. So the first thing that in kind of understanding are two categories uh and it's non-code of conduct versus versus code of conduct issues. So our code of conduct issues which you're going to see uh in a lot of the slides coming up are are the infractions that are deemed a violation of school the school's code of conduct that does not necessarily meet uh a standard for your school's safety rating. So these are things that might be an action that a student takes. uh they might get a consequence for it uh because it's something that they shouldn't do, but it's not categorized as severe enough necessarily count towards your school safety rating. When you took a look take a look at your your uh ratings throughout the
161school uh the state. The non-code of conducts are a list of uh over 50 different reportable instances and categories which we're going to take a look at several of them um that meet the standard and then count towards that safety rating uh at the end that you'll see where we stand uh in comparable districts. So the first one is our non-code of conduct. So this is taking those total incidents that we just took took a look at and these are non-code of conduct incident. So these are the state averages uh per 100 students of the incidents that count towards our safety rating and you can see where we stand uh compared to some of the averages uh locally. These are the code of conduct violations. So, these are the violations that schools are logging um
162as well as a state average and Lehigh Northampton County average that do not count uh as part of our safety uh ranking throughout the state. So, where you see uh Eastston and Wilson, for example, uh this is going to be one of the things that we're going to take a look at of of why that's kind of happening and and some of the different categories that uh you'll see uh coming forward here that show some of those differences. Uh one of the things to take a look at and compare is we're going to look into actual numbers here. So when we look at the actual numbers over the course of the next few slides, these are total number of incidents um in the four-year total. So um taking those numbers, putting them all together uh
163to kind of see a comparison on the number of actions that take place. And what you're looking at here is we begin to see how these different schools are categorizing their code of conduct and no and non-code of conduct offenses. In this case, for example, Wilson has categorized 1977 incidents as code of conduct violations. So these are things that are happening uh in the school that they students might have a consequence for uh but are not counting towards a school safety rating. Um but we can't really see what those specific incidents are in looking at the data. Um but you can see uh the blue instances in this case are non-code of conduct incidents. The blue numbers are what's going into that state rating. the red numbers would not to get into a few um
164specifics as far as some of the categories that we see. We the first one we're take a look at is law enforcement contacts and arrests. Um this is Sen Valley specific. So we take a look at the last four years. Uh in the in the black column you'll see the number of law enforcement contacts that we've had. The red column is the number of arrests that we've had each year. And taking a look at that as we look at the numbers on the graph, one thing to keep in mind is the number of law enforcement contacts that we have um is every time that a school a school an officer Lower Sen Township comes to the school or we call them um and it's not just something for maybe something that's super serious or or
165something that's very quick. It could be something that every time we call them for example to test a vape um to determine whether that's a tobacco product or a THC product. Um, and what has happened, you'll see as we go on, uh, last year and and hopefully into this year, those numbers are are going down. Um, because we have our school police officer that's now involved in helping with that process where we're not calling uh, Lower Sen Township to the school for each of those. >> So, the years that you have here listed, are [snorts] they academic years? >> Yeah. So, 20 22 is the 2122 school year, the 22 23 school year, 23 24. So these are all completed years. >> Completed years. Correct. Completed years. >> So uh this this was reported by
166the Loren Police Department at some point I think a year or two years ago at the uh Lor Sen uh township council that almost every day they have a call from the school. So that to me sort of like translate to 180 and I don't see any year we getting even anywhere close to that was I mean does the police chief not know not this or uh is there something that he's counting that we don't uh count here or what's the sort of like what's how do you how do you reconcile the two uh the two the two accounts of >> Well, I'd have to go in and find out look at their reports and find out exactly what their numbers are to compare it to this. These are the numbers that were pulled from
167the PTE site that goes into our incident system that's reported and see, you know, where that discrepancy might be. But, um, these are the ones that, uh, go into our system as as logged as an incident, whether that incident involved, um, law enforcement contact. >> There's a big difference between 9 and 180. So, that's agree. >> That's not like there like a little bit somebody sort of like miscounted something or >> uh, Mr. Is the is the contact to law enforcement uh contact that's done by our administration or is it also include when the law enforcement shows up to our campus for other factors like returning a parking pass that they may have found on the part of the road >> that that's included but >> right yeah so if anytime they would log uh
168an incident where they're coming to the school we would get an incident number from the police department to log into the system so something like that example could be used in in the data as well. [sighs] Taking a look forward, what we're going to take a look at here is uh our similar size schools. Um and I'll kind of name them out because it'll be consistent across the board as we go through this data. So these are our similar size schools that border us. So the first column will be Palisades always, then Salisbury, Sulen Valley is in the middle, Southern Lehi, and then Wilson. So just alphabetically as we go through this comparison. Uh so what we see on this slide is of the law enforcement contact and arrest. So the same data that we
169just saw, our total numbers were 120 and 42. Um but you can see the comparison of what schools are doing and why sometimes uh there's uh kind of taking a look and comparing apples to apples is is not the easiest thing to do about what schools are doing because you can see Salisbury has 237 law enforcement contacts with 91 arrests. um Wilson who had an awful lot of incidents in their reporting have eight law enforcement contacts but zero arrests. So um it's very difficult sometimes as we go through and and look at this data um to try and figure out exactly what schools are doing and also how they're reporting some of their incidents and um as we move forward as we seek some of that um comparisons as we go through a couple of
170these uh different slides. These are our physical contact violations. So these are going to be things like um simple assault, fights, altercations that we might see. Um and throughout the course of the four years, you can see where we stand here with 740, 51, and 19. Um and really the state, the hard thing is the state doesn't necessarily give us a written um description of what all of these uh incidents look like. So it's really up to the school districts that determine how they're categorizing those. Um, so some of the difficulty is what someone's interpretation of an altercation might be someone's interpretation of a code of conduct violation or might be a fight. So depending on how each person who's handling it administratively categorizes that really makes it difficult because um you really have to
171see what your school district is doing. But another school district that surrounds you or throughout the state might have a little bit different description of what some of these incidents are and categorizing them differently. Um these are the physical contact violations for uh our local school districts. And one thing to keep in mind with the the physical contact violations um just so everybody's on the same page about that is it not necessarily just always a fist fight. You might think that as far as a physical contact violation. Um a lot of going back through our data um are connected to elementary school students. So if you look in our physical contact violations are uh elementary school students as they learn to kind of regulate their emotions and what's going on and and um are logged
172at that depending on what they do and what that physical contact would be. Um but that is one of the aspects that we've categorized as a physical contact violation that isn't necessarily for example a fist fight. Um getting into our our bullying numbers. Um so the definition that we see of bullying is is uh through our our policy um it's an intentional electronic written or verbal physical attack that series of acts that is directed at another student or student that is severe persistent pervasive um and has effects of the following. So this is something that is repetitive. Okay. Substantially interfering with a student's education creating a threatening environment. Substantially disrupting the orderly operation of the school. Uh a lot of times you'll see definitions of bullying too. It often demonstrates a real or perceived imbalance
173of power between uh two people. Um so that is a definition in taking a look at our policy of how these are categorized. Um and talking about other schools as well. So over the last four years, these are number of bullying incidents that we've seen in in 21 through 25 with two three one and one uh as compared to our surrounding school districts. So we are sitting uh pretty much right in the middle with seven incidents uh over the last four years comparable to southern Lehi um who's our neighbor. Harassment and intimidation. This is a category again that is uh combined with a few different things. So this is going to include um either racial or ethnic intimidation uh cyber harassment or the other category that they have in in PTE is all forms of
174other harassment. basically don't catch that uh number. And you can see uh what our numbers here. Uh obviously 2024 is our highest there with 26 uh and then comparing that throughout our schools uh local schools we are uh at 57 uh compared to other other neighbors. So these are reported to the state. >> Yes. So here is I think the the call to the police is one thing right. I mean you either make the call or not. uh everybody has to sort of like report you know one way or another but uh but these are the ones that are I think you know a lot more uh dependent on uh how uh kind of >> objectively you know any school sort of like treats these is that consistent with how your >> correct some of
175the things that we're seeing as as we continue on to see those numbers is really kind of what happens and how someone interprets what happens they could call it harassment they could call it bullying they could call it a code of conduct violation you know, so depending on what happens in those incidents and how the school administrator and how each district looks at that, that can certainly affect these numbers. >> Yeah. And I'm just saying that this is like you look at that number and you can look at it two two different ways. One is to look at it and say there's a lot of harassment and intimidation happens at Sen Valley. The other way of looking at it is to say that when these things happen at Sak Valley, they actually call it, they
176report it. Whereas at other places I mean I can't imagine that Wilson would have one incident of uh harassment and bullying you know in the past whatever many years it's just like you know incredible. >> Yeah then that's some of the difficulty in comparing. >> Would it be accurate to say also that another way of looking at is that pe there are we have a lot of people who feel like they're being harassed you know that are intimidated. Mr. This is not the feeling. This is the incidents that have been reported and recorded and has been sort of like identified as such. Right? So the feeling part I I understand what you're saying. That's that's the part that you know somebody goes to someone and says something but this is the part where somebody who
177receives that report actually says you know what I take it seriously. I write it down. I report it. Whereas at that other place I'm not going to name name right? They say hey you know what uh boys are boys you know go deal with it. And >> I understand that. Yeah. >> Is is Sen Valley consistent in the reporting across all buildings? Do we have a standard, you know, or >> Yeah, absolutely. And that's one thing that we have been working on diligently the last year or two really to kind of take a look at that and try and make sure that um what is taking place even throughout the three buildings are kind of put in the same place as far as a category. For sure. >> Thank you. I'm not going to mention
178the school district, but I learned a lesson as a 29-year-old assistant principal in a school district when I started to be the one responsible for reporting these. I reported these like they should be reported. And I sent it down the central office and I got a call from the superintendent. Superintendent brought me down and said, "Uh, hey, we have increased reporting up to the utmost under you. We can't have that. We don't we don't do that." So, a lot of these that you're saying, Dr. PC said, uh, yeah, there are some situations where some school districts don't report as often as they should. >> So, so we we are acknowledging the sense of harassment and intimidation, too. I mean, and that's I mean, to me, that seems like a good thing that we're we're listening,
179you know, we're responding, you know, u to to the and that makes people feel like they're being heard, you know. >> Sure. Absolutely. >> [snorts] >> Next category is um possession of our of weapons. And you can see our uh numbers over the last four years three, five, four, and two as compared to our neighboring districts. Um so this is actually one of the more consistent um areas as far as numbers in our our surrounding districts. You can see uh 8, 10, 14, 15, and 10. Um so that's one of the more consistent categories. Disorderly conduct. This is one to kind of take a look at because obviously this one stands out. Uh these are our numbers with 0 1 2 3 and one. Um so this is one thing that we can take a
180look at at our net numbers and go back into those incidents and pull them and find out okay what are the descriptions of that? Um is it really a disorderly conduct what it is? And this helps us refine some of the things that that we're looking at too and making sure that categorization is consistent. And then our comparison throughout other districts. Next category we have threatening student or school official as compared to our surrounding districts. possession or sale of a controlled substance. So, a lot of these are going to be, for example, it might be your THC and vapes um or any other uh drug paraphernalia or things like that. So, these are those numbers for us for the last four years as compared to our surrounding districts. And then these are possession of tobacco
181and vape materials. So, these are most likely going to be your uh vaping incidents that are tobacco and nonTHC related as compared to our surrounding districts. Okay, these are the the uh going into some of the consequences that we see with some of these uh violations. Uh this is Sen Valley's data for the last four years as far as number of ISS assigned inschool suspensions, number of out of school suspensions, number of expulsions. Um so you can see how that trend takes place over the next last four years. Um we saw in 2024 in a lot of those categories that some of the numbers in some of the individual categories we took a look at were a little bit higher. Um the consequence kind of follows that trend as well. This is specifically ISS and
182OSS comparison for other school districts. So over the course of four years, we're exactly a 50-50 split with 233 ISS and 233 OSS. Um but you can see some of the other school districts are a little bit more imbalanced with some of their um consequences that they give. For example, uh Salisbury is is more heavy OSS and ISS. Uh and you can see Wilson obviously has uh quite a number of of ISS and OSS incidents there. H >> how are the codes of conduct and the consequences in these districts are are similar or different? So, so just because for example like a a code of conduct issue um if that's an incident that um you know a school categorizes a code of conduct that doesn't count in your safety rating but it doesn't necessarily mean
183that a consequence is not given. So they're going to put in the incident a code of conduct. Um but they're also then going to assign that consequence to it. So the consequence is going to show up in the numbers but not necessarily the incident. >> Yeah, I understand. So this is like my my point is that there could be that there is the same violation and uh one school does nothing and one school gives ISS and one school gives OSS. So these numbers could be kind of like all over the place. This is the only the only way that you can compare is if you actually compare the codes of conduct and say that these are uh you know kind of like similar codes. >> Yeah. because there's no there's no real hard description as
184far as that coming from the state of what every every category is. It makes it very hard to to make that comparison. And we're going to get into that. That's one of the upcoming slides to basically explain exactly what you're talking about there of how the more serious uh uh offenses and how schools are kind of um giving those consequences what they are. Um this is the expulsions. This kind of leads into that. Um, expulsions of any type basically means uh less than a year, one year expulsion or more than a year uh combined. And you can see that Palisades is at one over four years, Salisbury zero, Sen 2, Southern Lehigh zero, and then you have Wilson at 29. This is that slide we were we were talking about. And kind of for everybody
185to be able to digest this a little bit, I took the two kind of more serious offenses, uh, possession of a weapon and possession of a controlled sub substance, which are the red and the blue, uh, and put those numbers there, as well as some of your more serious consequence, which is your expulsion and your arrest. So when you look at for example um Salisbury and Wilson as a comparison, Salisbury and Wilson's incident number as far as weapons and controlled substance are nearly identical. Um but Salisbury has a lot of arrests and no expulsions and Wilson has a lot of expulsions and no arrests. So it kind of gives a you know a picture of what that looks like. And then when you compare, for example, Sen Valley and Southern Lehi, our incidents in those
186categories are not that far off either. However, um our consequence is obviously a lot more in number than southern Lehi. So, Southern Lehigh, for example, controlled substance and weapons had um 15 and 37, but they had zero expulsions and just four arrests as compared to us. So, when you look at those comparisons and try and uh connect a little bit of the data that might that might work as far as your more serious offense and your more serious consequence, um we are actually probably the more consistent in that. So the arrest decision is not made by the school, right? I mean this is like call the cops, they come here, they do whatever they do, right? >> So this is I'm not sure how to sort of like digest >> th those numbers. Uh is
187it uh is it more of a uh kind of like comparison of uh I don't know what it is sudden Lehigh Police Department versus uh you know Loren police department or is it uh sort of like the type of incidents because I just can't imagine that you know we would have you know 42 uh instances of you know whatever and they would only have four you know school district that is uh about 50% larger than us. >> Yeah. Yeah. And you can remember too, it's just that law enforcement contact too as far as the differences in the amount of times law enforcement was contacted. If they're not contacted or if it's not logged, um that arrest might not be in there, too. So, um you obviously can't have arrest if law if law enforcement is
188not contacted. So, that's very difficult to compare some of those numbers in those cases. >> Can I can I ask a question about expulsions since it's a topic that has uh been discussed at length around here? there's a statutory respon there's a statutory requirement that a possession of a weapon uh carries an expulsion in the state of Pennsylvania. Uh so if if this data was reflecting that uh there would be at least one expulsion for every possession of weapon but that is not the case because >> special education law that I think that's part the big part of mitigation because the numbers for us were not also matching right so that's the the things that there are cases where there is a weapon and that is reported but that's for for the mitigating factors does
189not result in >> okay thank Okay. >> Then last but not least on the data, just taking a look at the the safety ranking and some of the difficulty in that um in comparison. So uh on average over the last four years, this number has fluctuated a little bit from the uh mid 690s to a little over 700, but over the last four-year average there's 699 LEAs uh in Pennsylvania that are reporting. Um and we fall in 454. So um you could see uh southern line high Wilson Palisades are considered um that the I'll call safer schools based on their reporting uh where they're at the difficulty in this um when you saw for example Wilson had a lot more incidents um a lot more uh code of conduct issues which are not put into
190this number. Also uh as you see in the upper leftand corner there the average number of schools per year with zero incidents is 51. Uh and that comes from two different places. A lot of them are, for example, a cyber school who do not have buildings and and may not have reported incidents within a building because they don't have students there or schools that did not report. There are a few schools that did not report numbers over years. Um, and looking at that data, one of the interesting things is if you're zero across the board, you're one of the safer schools and um in that top ranking. So it makes it very difficult in taking a look at that because um there's at least 50 plus schools a year that are zero um that you
191know take those top 50 spots. >> So all we have to do is either under or not report and we'll be one of the safest schools in the country. I mean that that correct way to go but [laughter] I >> mean seems like what Wilson might be doing something similar to that effect. Well, it's it's very difficult on know they're still reporting obviously their consequence. They're still doing something. It's how they're calling it or putting it and categorizing it. Yeah. >> Right. So, moving on to some of the other areas here. Um our staff that is uh on campus to support our mental and behavioral health needs of our students. Um, so we do have a counselor from LVHN that is here that can provide outside counseling services during the school day to our students
192across all three buildings. We have a master's level social worker who is here. Um, a school counselor now at the high school that is specifically devoted to working um, with students on mental health specific related issues. Um, a board certified behavior analyst that is here 5 days a week. Um, as well as our Karen treatment staff. We have two different staff from Karen this year. um and they cover all three of our school buildings as well. Um so for health and wellness, um obviously our school nurses are always working on um different screenings for students and working with families on the health and wellness of our students. Um our PE and health teachers uh cover those things within their courses. Um we do training on health management, related health conditions, mandated reporting, uh nutrition awareness,
193and continued updating of our district policies. our physical safety uh or the first two bullets evaluating evaluation of current security measures and review self-evaluation through the security review and PCCD grant are constantly ongoing to uh review things that we do uh for example through drills and and reviewing that and and finding out what we can do better. uh evaluation of the communication systems that we use especially during emergencies uh strengthening relationships with our public safety um through our safety and emergency preparedness meetings with our our local first responders and also staff alice training. So uh going through each year with our new staff and doing a live simulated training with them as well as doing our refresher training with our returning staff again. >> There we go. Um as far as this uh some of
194the operation emergency management things that we're doing um is our emergency management plan. Our emergency plan uh is a 80 plus page document that outlines all the things um that what different scenarios that could happen is also uh who's responsible for different things when um something might happen at our school uh and if someone's not available um to do that job, who's next in line to be able to do it and cover some of those responsibilities. So that's constantly looked at and updated uh multiple times a year. Um our threat assessment and crisis teams are located in each building. Uh there are threat assessment teams that are established uh in our high school, middle school, and elementary schools. Um Miss Broadhead will talk a little bit about MTSS and SAP here coming up. Um but
195also our drills and and reunification that comes up that is in connection with Alice uh for some of the safety drills that we do and and the navigate app for things like attendance and things like that and communication during an emergency situation. Um just real quick with the threat assessment and crisis teams as well. Um the staff are conducting assessments of students for mental health concerns or if a threat is made um by them. We have the SAP teams and MTSS teams in each of our buildings. Just to give an idea of numbers of referrals from last year. The elementary school had 54 SAP referrals. Middle school had 96. The high school had 126 um for MTSS. The elementary school had 151, the middle school had 196, and the high school had 187. Now, all
196of our uh SAP referrals do go through MTSS to make sure that if a family declines the SAP services that the team is still aware of the concerns with that student and works on what is the plan that they can do from an MTSS perspective. Um the SAP referrals are also influenced by the uh ESPERT that we do in eighth and tth grade um which is a survey looking at uh substance uh use as well as mental health concerns for students in those grades. Um we had 64 uh sorry 68 referrals for SAP from 8th grade and 57 from 10th grade. So, those are students that responded um yes on those questions to two or more items were the ones that were flagged from that. Um and it could be things something uh related to
197mental health like I said or substance use. It's it it's not necessarily one or the other. It could be a combination as well. Um we've also made sure we've done a variety of trainings for staff over the last few years in those areas to make sure that they know what to look for. Go ahead. Right. Uh some of the law, policy, and finance. So, our district policies continue to be updated uh including our health, behavior, and safety. Uh continuous review of our funding opportunities um to improve some of those areas and refresher trainings for administrators on on different regulations that take place. >> And as far as climate, culture, and community, we've done professional development, like I said earlier, for staff. Um we have students participating in a variety of clubs and extracurricular activities as
198we heard earlier today about our fall sports. Um we have Rachel's challenge and PBIS initiatives uh being rolled out. Um we have the ACE program um an SPO in security and theou with Lower Sen Township and Helertown and Fire and Rescue. So looking ahead some of the outcomes um positive sustainable outcomes for students integrating continuing to integrate that mental and behavioral health for students. Um continuous you know re-evaluating our physical security of campus policies as well as staffing needs based on our student needs. Um we continue to update staff trainings. Uh the parent information series will be rolling out as well in the new year. um reviewing strengths and gaps in existing services and the pillars which I'll be talking about um as we get into the oveas information. Um so we had mentioned this
199last year at the end of the year our students completed a uh survey um related to the Alveas bullying prevention program. Um the program is one of the most widely researched and best known anti-bullying programs across the globe. Um it was developed by a Norwegian psychologist in the 1980s. So it's not just a curriculum. It's looking at a total systems change. Um it looks at schoolwide classroom individual and community. Um the goals are to reduce existing bullying, prevent new bullying, improve peer relations, and create a safe climate. So about our survey, um so you'll see as we go through the data there is a basis for comparison. So there was a national comparison that is used um that the uh oveas baseline surveys they conducted. It's based on uh students results prior to implementing the
200program. So for some of the numbers you'll see we have a a comparison to the national um numbers. Um the collection period for the national comparison was from August 1st, 2014 to June 30th, 2019. It covered over 246,000 surveys. So who participated in our district? In the elementary school, we had 256 participants out of the 275 in the building. So about 93% particip participation rate. Middle school had 552 students of 612. So about 90%. And the high school was 388 participated out of 485 at about 80%. The elementary survey was 37 questions and the middle and high school was uh 39. So the first question was uh asking students how much do they like school. Um you will see that uh elementary numbers for liking school very much and liking school are very high. Um
201and you can see for the middle and high school that those numbers vary a little bit. Um and that there's a little bit less of a likability of school for those grades. Good. So, this was the definition of bullying that the students were given prior to completing the survey. This was exactly uh the teachers all had a script that they had to read and this is what they had to read to the students. So, um, you were looking at, uh, a student's being bullied when another student or several other students say mean or hurtful things, make fun of him or her, call him or her mean and hurtful names, ignore or exclude them from their group of friends, leave him or her out, hit, kick, push, shove around, or lock him or her inside a
202room, tell lies, spread false rumors, um, do other hurtful things. Um, you know, they're talking about these things happening more than once, um, and that it's difficult for that student to defend themselves. So we just wanted to make it clear that this was the definition that the students had in mind when they were completing the survey. So first is looking at where is bullying happening in our elementary school. So the purple is what our rating was and that diamond shape is where the national comparison was. So you'll see our primary locations for elementary are the playground, athletic field, lunchroom and classroom with the teacher present. Um, for the against the national comparison, our teacher in the classroom, lunchroom, and school bus were higher than the national average, but everything else was equal or lower to
203those national comparisons. For the middle school, um, our highest numbers were class with teacher in the room, the lunchroom, class with teacher not in the room in the hallways and stairwells. Um, when you look against the national comparisons, the class teacher in the room, class teacher not in the room, and the lunchroom were higher, but everything else was below. And then for the high school, the hotspots were hallways and stairwells. Class with the teacher not in the room and class with the teacher in the room. Um, the class with the teacher in the room was higher than the national average, but everything else was at or below. This is the just I'm I'm I'm trying to understand what these percentages are. This p what does 11% mean? >> So the students had to answer the
204question of where is bullying happen and they had to pick anything that was applicable. If they had been bullied, where was it occurring? So this is the students responses that out of the students that reported bullying, 11% said it happened in the playground or athletic fields. So uh just trying to understand you know what what what the number is let's say 100 students were given the survey and 20 of them said that they were subject to bullying and of those 20 some of them picked one place and some of them picked five places and so forth >> and if uh only let's I don't know let's say the first category playground uh two people selected that would that translate into 10% or would that translate to the incidence of that which means that uh you
205know one has chosen three places and one chose one place so you you know what I'm saying I'm just trying to sort of like see what that number translate to because you know when you when you present something as percentage I would like to see that the sum of the numbers would be 100 so and you know in none of these cases obviously that was the case >> yeah it doesn't so um I if a student um responded and picked one area and another student responded and picked five, they're all going to get categorized into the same thing for your overall percentage for an area. So, it is difficult because it doesn't all add up to 100%. Um, they're talking about based on the number of kids that completed the survey in that building and
206reported that they had been bullied, this was the percentage that said this is where it occurred. >> Yeah. So, this is just a comparison of all of them together. Um, you we talked about where the the highest scores were in each of the buildings, but you can kind of see the black is the middle is the elementary school, red is the middle school, and gray is the high school. And if there are questions as you think about this after and have some questions about some more specific numbers of what they looked like. There are some of these that they give us the actual numbers for some things they didn't. They only gave percentages. Um but I can you know if you think of things after I'm happy to answer additional questions. Um so one of
207the questions how often have you been bullied in the last couple of months? So the answers were haven't been bullied once or twice, two to three times a month, about once a week, and several times a week. Um so the elementary had the highest rate of uh frequent bullying at 23.8%. So that's including things that are um once uh two to three times a month and higher. The middle school had the highest rate of about once a week and several times a week. the high school had the lowest rate overall. [snorts] Um, so for the elementary school, two to three times per month or more was 23.8%. The national uh comparison was 20.8. The middle school rate was 15.1. Um, the national comparison is 15.1, our rate was 20.9 and the high school R was
2088% and the national comparison was 10.2. Um, so this is two of the questions that were asked. How often do students intervene and how often do teachers or adults intervene? Um, so again, the black is the elementary school, red is the middle school, and gray is the high school on both of these. Um, our rate for uh how often students intervene at the elementary level was 24.5%, middle school 9.4, and high school 8.1. Um you can see that those numbers are uh the elementary is close to the national comparison. The other two numbers are definitely a little uh different. And then how often does a teacher intervene? Our rate at elementary was 45.3%, middle school was 31.5 and high school was 31.7. Um, this was what students reported how often an adult contacts the school.
209Um, the far left is they haven't been bullied at all. The second one over is no, no one has contacted. Then yes, they've contacted once or yes, they've contacted several times. Um, you can see that the numbers for no, no one has contacted are very high. um showing that per the students people are the family members are not calling to say that this was reported um that this occurred for a student. Um the national comparisons for once or more um and our rates are down at the bottom left. Our rate for elementary was 24.6% 6% middle school 38.3 high school 51.7 um high school you can see that their contact has been higher uh than what the national comparison was and the other two buildings are closer in line. Um and then how much has
210the teacher done to cut down on bullying? Um again you can see much a good deal somewhat fairly little little or nothing. um and where our scores are in comparison to the national comparison. So the plan moving forward each of the buildings has identified um an Alveas team. Um all of our assistant principles um Mr. Fry as well as our school social worker were trained. um they will be training those teams in the next uh month or two um and then slowly training the staff as well in the building. Um the plan is to completely roll out uh for the 2627 school year um as part of what we are doing um incorporating with PBIS as well as Rachel's challenge. Um each of the buildings has come up with pillars that they're going to focus
211on and that will be the central point um with lessons as well as the language that is used in the buildings and here you can see what they are. Um elementary obviously they have a very strong PBIS where the kids know being safe, responsible and respectful. Um so that is part of their pillars and they have added in kindness as well. The middle school is looking at growth, teamwork, creativity, flexible thinking, and leadership. And the high school accountability, adaptability, determination, and self-regulation. Um, as an admin team, the each building worked on these. Um, we talked about different options and worked together to come up with what these were. Um, these are things like I said that will be rolled out into next year. um lessons will be incorporated into these as well as the the
212language that all staff is using across the building. Um and we wanted to go the route of looking at pillars versus just implementing a single program to have the kids as well as the families and community understand these are the things we want to see from our students um as they go through the different buildings and the things that we want to exemplar be to be able to show um other communities what we are at Sen Valley. These are the things we want our students and our families and our community to be known for. Um, and we thought it was really important to focus on these as a handful of words instead of, like I said, just implementation of a program. Um, so like I said, this is something that we'll be working on next
213year. Um, and uh, over the course of the rest of this year, the teams in each building will be trained um, related to OLES. Um, a lot of them already have PBIS pieces in place um, and Rachel's challenge for different levels. So, they will all continue to be incorporated and built out into these for next school year. the pillars. Um I I just wanted to Could you go back to that because I um >> um you said that the and thank you by the way. You said that the the individual buildings came up with these um um can I ask in general like who at the buildings came up with them? >> So elementary a lot of those were already in place from PBIS. So that's something that the team the PBIS team has already
214used there and the kindness piece was added. The middle school team um I believe it was discussion with not just administration but also with the teachers that they had come up with um their terms the high school I don't remember if it was building administration and the teachers together that came up with it. I think they're all things that they've already been enforcing this year um with the students as far as the words that they've been using um you know they've been talking a lot about accountability up there um and you know self-regulation so they're things that they've already started to use and then are continuing on. I mean, these are these seem really important to me. And I I um the elementary school um to me the that one just seems um having the
215kindness seems like a really important thing. [laughter] And um I'm glad that that was added on there. The the high school one is um um it seems it's I don't know. There's something kind of harsh about it to me, but [laughter] um it just seems very it has these big Latinate terms, accountability, adaptability, determination, self-regulation that I wish one one pillar that I wish I was seeing more was was honesty. Like um and I don't really see that there. I I love the kindness. I wish there was some of the kindness in in the other ones, too. I love the creativity. That's cool. >> But um anyway, just some feedback. >> Yeah. No, and the the Rachel's challenge piece too for what it looks like at elementary is they're doing the kindness club, so it
216really ties in there. Um the other buildings look a little different with um the four club. Um and I think with the high school, you know, they were really talking about skills and that they want to see for kids, not just as a high schooler, but as an adult. Um, and having that, you know, accountability to your actions and determination to keep going on and being able to, you know, put yourself out there as an adult and be able to control your reactions to things, too, I think was kind of where they were going with it. And they are much bigger words, you know, um, compared to the other ones. They definitely are, but I think that was their their whole thought process was to really, you know, these are important skills for the students
217to have as adults. Well, one of the things that I I mean as a college professor that I'm I'm running into a lot is um our problems with um and I I hate to kind of you know go back to AI, but like I I'm running into a lot of AI [laughter] and um and the the the problem seems to I mean I guess you could tie that in with accountability, but um but I think it's important that they get that message that AI you know I mean even even the Pope was saying be careful about AI in the last week. Yeah. Yeah. >> Um, and so that I mean like that is a really big deal with me because I I find at the college level when I get students from the high school
218if they have a sense of the problem with accountability when it comes to AI or authenticity when it comes to AI, they're better able to handle um, you know, professors saying, "Hey, there's a problem here." you know, and and they're they're more they're they're honestly they're they acknowledge it more and and that which is actually helpful, you know, >> thousand%. >> Um, Mr. Brun, I could appreciate what you're saying. I think the pillars were a place for a starting point. Um, like the words are there, but I think most of the conversation that needs to happen, and I know it's happened in some of the buildings already with the groups of teachers and even students are what does each one of those words look like, right? what does a portrait of a student who demonstrates
219that because part of why we wanted to create the pillars also was to um have some somewhat of a I don't want to say criteria but something that we can start recognizing those those students and staff that actually demonstrate these things on a day-to-day basis and being able to work through with a group of staff and students as to like what does that look like and how can we pick it out in somebody else within the school or in our class when it comes to adults or kids that are in building, how can we how can we say that that person is an accountable student or someone who shows kindness and what does that look like? So, that's more of the work that has to be done at the building level is working with those
220teams and really just demonstrating and choosing what that looks like, a portrait of that that adult or student. >> So, it more to come. Yeah, absolutely. >> Thank you. >> I have a just a quick like thought. I was just Are you guys done? Sorry. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, um, you know, I think the second half of it about the the bullying thing kind of had like here's some data, here's the data we've gotten and here's our action plan about it, right? And the first part which was the security data was was was slightly more interesting in the sense that the data was I'll just go say I'll just say like uh almost non-helpful because what we've learned is that because there's some statutory requirement to report this but there's no auditing of that that
221uh that everyone's free reign and so the data is not able to be useful for us to then take action off the data. So is our I know you kind of like alluded to this, but like is our plan because of that to just focus more internally on developing like a rigorous thing here because data ultimately informs action, right? And and if the data from other schools is not useful, then maybe we should just really focus on having a rigorous internal structure that we then make our decisions off of. Yeah, that was just a >> and I think that like the last few years we have really started to to have more of those conversations and talking to each other and and how are we categorizing things and really working together and that is the
222the plan moving forward to continue to do that to make sure that we are all on the same page of what we're doing for our own reporting purposes. What was the uh what was the words underneath those? Does that saying like for the high school? >> Yeah. >> Are you talking about the slogan? >> Are you talking about sport pillars? The pillars the this >> Oh yeah. So with the the pillars um each of the buildings will have similar sayings um that incorporate all three of the programs together. So elementary would be dream big, include all students, be respectful, responsible, safe and kind, and start a chain reaction. So it's incorporating the PBIS model, the Rachel's challenge, and oveas. The middle school is dream big, include all students, be creative and flexible with your thinking,
223show growth, be a leader, start a chain reaction. And then the high school is dream big, include all students, be determined, be accountable for your actions, and control your own responses, and then start a chain reaction. And so each of those buildings will then take those pillars and have those slogans as well around the building. >> What's the chain reaction? >> So the chain reaction is from Rachel's challenge. Okay. >> That's the the whole they what they want you to do is to um do an act of kindness and start that chain reaction where someone else sees what you're doing and now wants to also do an act of kindness and continue that to continue to grow so that we're all doing things to help each other and to be kind to one another. and
224to see that continue to grow in versus, you know, bullying putting students down. >> They're they're uh so there's like also like a chain reaction between the buildings too. Right. >> Exactly. And that's what we wanted to do with the pillars even though there's different words in each building having that same focus. So a student when they start kindergarten all the way through their senior year, they have they know there's going to be that similar message in each building, but we're going to be focusing on different skills. >> The kindness continues kind of. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Nice. Good. >> If I can jump back to what Mr. Carpenter um had said, I it is significant in the fact that we're ranked right now one of the most violent schools based on the data. I
225mean that's what so it's significant in the fact and I know what you're saying but it's significant in the fact that when uh you're looking at data and we're being coined as that and people are also using that to pass a judgment right on a district. We want to make sure that we are transparently and understanding what this data looks like for us internally. So to your point, we're taking the data, we're looking at it, we're making sure that we're aligned to what we need to from a reporting standpoint, and what we're doing is consistently across all three buildings, and we're transparently reporting what we need to for community, to staff, to students, and what have you. I completely understand your point, but at the same time, >> when the state's coining us as one
226of the most violent schools and we're getting questioned about how we are reporting bullying or reporting things that are coming into our building, we want to just make sure that we're obviously communicating what the data looks like and we know what why the data looks the way that it does for us here in the district. >> Sure. Yeah. Yeah. being able to like speak to that is is but to actually fix it, you would either have to act without integrity or lobby Harrisburg to audit the process >> 100%. >> Like that's the only actual way of fixing that problem. So, >> I mean, and it's a real like you're probably going to hear it in the upcoming months because there's a there's a school there's a new um code that had gotten passed that we
227as a school district every time there is a weapon that comes in, we are now obligated to message this out to the community. So, and Mark can jump in, I'm sure, at this point because we're as superintendent still trying to navigate what the actual communication looks like. Now, here we pretty much know when it's happening. Everyone knows when it's happening gets around fairly quickly, but from super Do you want to stop? You're ready to jump in, >> right? From a superintendent standpoint, when this is being discussed, I mean, I'm going to say transparently, we were on a call and a lot of the superintendents are like, we can't imagine ever having to communicate it because the stuff that we see comes into our schools, we're going to wreak havoc on our community. And from from
228some of our stances where we're already doing it or it's already being communicated out, it's not that big of an impact. But there are some schools where you're now seeing things are being reported that are never going out and it's going to look very different for some of the school districts and some of the superintendents from that standpoint. Now, do you want to jump when you have if you have a district like um like Bethlehem or North Penn where you have, you know, 25 buildings and you might only have to report it to one building, easy enough, not a big deal. But here and and certainly for the board who recalls some of the issues that were addressed a year ago involving uh we weapons and I'll put that in kind of statutory quotes. Imagine
229that having now to be notified the entire community being notified simply that a weapon was on campus >> and it's not based on the discipline either which is what it's it's based on if there is a weapon that comes into the building not based on >> in place now not being appealed. This is like active. >> It it was our >> representatives, our state legislature and and governor who signed it that now will mandate those that level of reporting. And I think it actually hurts the student because think about it. The student then I think his or her due process is going to be wildly out the door when we have to do these notifications in real time to whole communities. >> Yeah. What's the I'm not sure if I understand the harm to the
230student. >> Oh, I think there's wild harm. You know, if a student has is is potentially going to be expelled for the the incident. Um, and we have to notify the entire community about an event. I think it spoils the evidentary process. >> Isn't that something that happens on a daily basis when there's a crime happens? you know in the what I'm saying that this is like when in the criminal law you know you have the you know have you know incident happens and it's all over the news and uh you know there is no sort of like suppression of the news because of the due process why is that any different you know in this case you know if the if the Harrisburg in its uh infinite wisdom has decided that something is important
231enough uh that needs to have transparency associated >> I think it's different standards and I and I I see what are saying and now a prosecutor's office will want to make sure that they put out a press release. We got the bad guy and we're going to prosecute him to the hilt. I think it's a little different here on on the civil level. Um and I I I you know when there's easier avenues to appeal what could be um spoiled local agency hearings or spoiled expulsion hearings. I think that creates a problem just generally for us. So it's it's a I think it's universal issue. the the thing that we can agree on is that uh it is the law now and doesn't matter whether we like it or not but that's a correct I'm
232just trying to sort of like understand whether it's something >> it is the law it's not this wasn't you know this wasn't a regulation this was this is a law that's been passed I think act 44 I think it was called >> is it applicable in effect now or is it something that would start sort of like on January 30 like a lot of other >> I I usually laws have a 60 or 90day 120day window I I I believe it starts sometime I think it starts January I don't don't >> It's January. Yeah. Okay, there you go. >> I hate to spoil all the fun, but it is almost 11. >> I was just checking to see if Mr. Fitzgerald was still awake. >> Hey, we're all awake. That's all I'm saying. All right,
233let's move on. A a wonderful thing and thank you for your presentation and I apologize for the length of time. Cedric has the shortest meeting and thank you Cedric for giving me one of the longest. [laughter] All right, let's move on and congratulate Miss Kimble um for um attaining tenure. Very impressive. Thank you very much for your service. Um we have personnel. We have um eight items. Would anybody like anything considered separately hearing? Not let me read them and then I'll ask for a motion. Uh we have the recreational membership pool supervisor. Uh lifeguards. Thank you for being there. Lifeguards, family medical leave act for two people. Um resignation of administrative assistant. Another resignation of administrative assistant. Resignation of dedicated building substitutes and winter coach um athletic coaches which they appear to be all volunteers.
234Thank you. and approving day-to-day substitutes. And I have a motion to approve those. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh any discussion? I'd just like to thank the people who are resigning from Sakali for their service here and wish them well in all future endeavors. And again, thank you to those volunteers. All in favor? >> I opposed. Um there is a facilities summary attached um for you to read in the agenda. Um the one thing I wanted to say about the facilities committee was um there was an excellent report out from the facilities committee. So, I'm not going to go in detail, but other big items were also mentioned like um the soccer field and um lighting for the soccer field as well as the elementary playground which are not currently they're projected in the
235budget but not right now and they were pretty big cost items. Um and the finance committee summaries there as well. Um designation and commitment for the language of the fund balance. Dave, do you want to share anything about that or >> uh just yearly we do this uh for the audit that's designating to keep us under the 8% as Dr. P said we're all have designations um again the commitments can be changed the assign is for the capital project to pay the vote for their construction and then the unsign for considering those unknowns that would happen throughout the year. >> Okay. And also under finance, we're um approving the recreational swim membership hours and fees. And from what I read about them, they were adjusted for um waiting for the heater to be installed. Um
236as well, all in favor of the two items under finance. Oh, wait. Did we do that already? >> We need a motion. We need a motion. >> Sorry. >> So moved. [laughter] >> Second. All uh any more discussion? All in favor? >> I I >> opposed that pass. Uh community updates, chamber of commerce, we have no report. Um foundation, we we had a report. Anything else you want to add? >> Yeah, one more thing. So, the foundation does offer teacher tributes, which are a meaningful way to honor a teacher or staff member who's made a difference in your child's education. And whether your donation is large or small, it will be paired with a personalized certificate to show your appreciation for their dedication and impact. And your contribution to the Sen Valley Foundation supports programs
237that enrich in and enhance the educational experience for all students. Um, and it is on the Sen Valley Foundation website where you can make a donation to the foundation and they will provide your teacher with the tribute. Thank you. Um, Northampton Community College. Cedric, did have you heard anything from Susan at all? [clears throat] >> Yeah, I spoke with Miss Baxter today. Um, they didn't really do very much in November. Um, they aren't meeting in December, so she'll have a report for us in January. >> Thank you. Uh, Bethlehem VOTE, we haven't met since. We meet tomorrow after our executive session. Colonial, >> no meeting since last meeting. >> Thank you. PSBA representatives, do you have anything to report on? >> Yes, I do. Um, there uh there are a couple symposiums coming up. Uh
238there's a AI symposium actually before the AI technology council meeting that we have. So more data that we could bring and information to there if you want to register for that. There's a non- attorney uh legal overview uh overviewing SCOTS cases and their effect on local districts. That's December 5th at noon. The um the AI symposium is on December 11th all day. Um there's also a January 17th board officers workshop for aspiring and current officers um uh that you could register. Well, one of the bigger pieces of information that came through PSBA was that there's a PA Supreme Court decision um and and they sided with the Parkland school district actually that um uh school boards uh are not in violation of the sunshine law if a majority of the school board adds an agenda
239item less than with less than 24 hours notice, which means you could do it in the meeting. So, so a majority of a school board now can add an agenda item in the meeting and act upon it uh so long as they follow uh a couple of uh a couple of rules which is that they must announce the reason for adding the item. They must approve adding the item with a majority of votes which is distinct from voting on the matter itself. and they must you must amend the agenda uh no later than the day after the meeting. You must assure the meeting minutes reflect the substance of the added matter, the vote and the announced reasons for adding the agenda item. And uh so so that is a pretty large change to uh to
240current law. >> It's a large change, but it's also what the law how we were interpreting the law before the Parkland case. Remember in Parkland they at the meeting decided to add a collective bargaining agreement to the agenda that hadn't been on the the the agenda that had been posted. They it was then challenged by a taxpayer. It went through and it was actually once you got to the Commonwealth Court that everything changed and we were dealing with you can't amend the agenda. So it hung at the Supreme Court for about a year and then a 4-3 decision just on a statutory interpretation brings it back to allowing the amendment of the agendas which I I think is generally a good thing as long as you follow the protocols. So um the PSBA itself is
241actually um releasing guidance language for board policies 006 on meetings because of this uh because of this change. So just that will come up in a few minutes. >> You think? >> No, no, no. I'm saying I'm saying the dis the topic will come up. Surprise tool for later. >> Um, anything else? I'm sorry. Jay, did you have anything? >> Oh, no. >> I thought I heard your voice. So, >> no, no, no. I think uh Don covered it all. >> All right. There's no new business. Um, old business. They do actually have something new business that I sorry >> so uh this is the the issue of transparency has uh >> uh come up a lot um uh taxpayers always talk about it parents community members and uh I was uh perusing through our
242uh uh our policies and I noted that we have almost nothing on on it and uh we have uh we have a policy on the conflict of interest and that is also sort of like very limited and uh you know you you you brought up Mr. carpenter the uh the the sunshine law and the changes that are uh uh basically sort of like statutory right and that's uh that's one thing uh there is nothing in this process that says that we can't uphold ourselves to standards that are higher right I mean be the agenda you know which is which is one one topic but then uh other things so uh I I wanted to bring that up uh to the attention of of the board uh and the community and say that I I think
243it's uh something that we should work on. I'm uh more than happy to start with a uh with a draft for some uh some some policy language uh you know share it with uh Mr. Fitzgerald to see whether it passes the like legal muster from uh uh his perspective and then we can bring it up to the to the board. I'm similar to what you did for five and six uh Mr. Carpenter. That was uh something I just wanted to sort of like share that here if anyone is interested to sort of like work with me on that. I'm >> I agree with that wholeheartedly. >> Yeah, >> I have a I have a new business then as well. No, it's okay. Um the in light of the change to that the change to the
244sunshine law essentially the reversion of the sunset law uh and the hour and the uh [laughter] and the I and I think the need to have an actual discussion. Yeah. and I and the need to have an I think a more in-depth discussion about what the values of how we agend uh edit agendas and things like that are. I'm asking that we not remove the policies from the table. They're in the table right now, but and I I would I would like to I'm not going to do it right now because I don't want to have two votes on it. I would like to propose that we actually form a policy committee and work on it there. Okay. So, that's I'm not going to do it right now, but for the future meeting, I think
245that that's something we can do. >> Yeah. This was this was just commentary from your perspective. So, this you you're you're still not uh you're not talking about the old business yet, right? >> I No, I suggested we not remove it from the table. It's tabled right now. >> Right. Right. But this is like she hasn't brought the old business up yet. So, >> nowhere. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What I'm saying? I I just wanted to know whether you're >> But I wasating what I was saying. Open up the policy committee as new business. that we should consider in the future. >> Yeah. >> Old business. Okay. So, I was talking to Mark here about um what we could do about this based on the hour and those kind of things. So, >> the table.
246>> Pardon me. I >> I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> We We don't have to remove it from the table. It's not automatic. >> So, you can just let it go. >> We don't have to pick take it up and talk about it. It was It was tabled before. So unless unless unless somebody brings it up >> then it's just dormant. >> Okay. We were discussing the potential to um pass it now and then work on the language for the second reading and Mark assured me that we could >> we could do that but it sounds like because of the some of the intervening events that it right now can be held from you know on the table and it might be brought back at a at a later date. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> So
247we can move we can move on. >> Leaving it on the table kills it. Yeah. We'll have to do the process again. That's okay though. >> So okay. >> Sorry. Lateness of hour and new at this. So we are just going to not address this old business. Y. >> Is that accurate? >> Skip over it. Yeah. >> Keip over it. >> Yeah. We're leaving it on the table. >> There's no motion to remove >> still on the table. Got it. >> It's true. >> No, there is an argument that >> Mrs. share. >> We are impressed with you. >> You've stuck it out. Do you have any citizens inquiries or comments? >> Would you please >> I would like to know that Fry and Mrs. Broadhead was going to be sent to the parents. And
248I also wanted to know, I thought it was a great report, but I would like to know um like the arrests and the violence and all of those things. Um they were schoolwide uh how they would break down by building. Um like what are we seeing? We seeing an increase in the middle school or the high school or the elementary school. It was districtwide, but I would want to know if they were could be broken down a little bit just to know, but and I also like to know if that was going to be sent to the families for us to review. And congratulations to the new board. >> Would just publication on the website that that would that would >> any of the presentations that we're going to be sharing at the board or
249committee meetings will be posted on the website. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Well, seeing no one else out there, our future meetings are December 16th, 7 PM. Here I have a motion to adjurnn. Thank you for