001Donald Carpenter here. Mr. Don Ki here. Vivian Demco here. Dr. Laurel Ericson Parson here. Mrs. Tracy Magnado. I don't think she's Dr. Shamine Pax. I'm present. Mr. J. Santos here. Board President, Mr. Cedric Demar. Here. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion's approved. Um, we did not have an executive session today, so there is no announcement. Can I Can I get a motion to approve the minutes for March 25th? So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. The motion's approved. We have no recognition tonight. Uh we do have a presentation from Mr. Lassaric uh on the Babett's uh budget. Whenever you're ready, Mr. Laric. Oh yeah, we need your presentation up there.
002Looks Is that it? [Music] Getting clearer. Before we get started, I do want to I watch a lot of these on YouTube, but I want to say hello to the friends at home. So, We go. I I think Miss Magna is on. I am. Yes. Thanks. Okay. So, here we go. Um again, thank you for Oh, thank you very much. Yep. Okay. Good. Great. Um well, thank you and good evening. Um it's also nice to know the winner's back at least the next couple days. Uh so our budget um for uh 2526. So if uh I first want to start by just talking about our school and how we're proud I I usually like to highlight um a lot of our student achievements and I'll do some of that here uh but I just want
003to give a little bit of overview of our school. 27 unique programs 33 classrooms been hovering between 1300400 students. Uh we're the first school to have career technical school to have a food truck. Uh we're the first career and technical school to convert a car uh from a combustion engine to electric. Uh we've been recognized nationally uh for our school culture. And uh this past year we've inducted 91 students into our National Technical Honor Society, which is an all-time high. Eight of those 91 come from Sulen Valley School District. Uh we had 13 Skulls Skills USA gold medalists going into states which took place last week and uh of those 13 uh four of them were Saka Valley students and six total medal winners uh for going to states and then at states we had
004a gold medal winner in plumbing and we had a silver winner in um motorcycle technician. Uh we have a holiday bazaar now for two years in a row uh leading up to Christmas and New Year's and uh we've been recognized in in the state for our best practice of having navigation nights um coming out of co. So those are some of the highlights that we have and and again a lot of what takes place uh those type of achievements it's not just because of our students. We get great students, but man, do we have an awesome staff. And if you the little picture there at the bottom is uh first time we had a uh senior uh senior night under the stars and the we have faculty members there, volunteers that came out that night
005to chaper on that because they just felt it was important to be there for the kids. So, we just have uh great great staff. When we take a look at the budget, uh pretty standard in terms of where our breakdowns come from. usually around 75% of ours. Um our budget is made up of salary and employee cost uh with the next largest number coming in terms of supplies, tech, software, etc. And you can see those numbers as they go down um with general replacement, professional services, utilities, capital, and other terms of 2526. When we take a look at in increased expenditures, u salary and benefits now that includes we're adding two new positions as we transition towards an expansion. Uh so we have that transition that's about 685940 in salary and benefits increase overall including
006those positions. We're uh looking at expenditures for taking over the factory on the south side of Bethlehem of $250,000. Uh increase in supplies by 12,000 and then in just miscellaneous others another $9,100. So a total increase in terms of expenditures of 957,139 or a 6.56% increase to the overall budget of 15,55538. Uh so when you take a look at our revenue changes, uh we've got an increase in local revenue by 10,000, increase in state revenue by 467,600, increase in federal revenue uh with a net change of $511,000. So when we take that uh from our expenditures, we actually have an increase to our districts of 446,133, which really uh to put that in perspective, it's only a 3.96% increase back to our districts this year, considering all that we've added into this year's budget. C
007could I ask a question real quick? Yes. Is that federal funding like year-over-year? Is that a onetime thing? uh federal funding is usually year after year, but it's not it's not as you can see it's not a large increase. Most of our funding comes from the state level. Oh, state sorry I meant the state one. The big one. Yeah, the big Yeah, the state the state is Europe. That's subsidies for the students that are enrolled and there's been an increase in subsidy for current technical education. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Uh so when we take a look at how our budget uh is prepared and and uh funded it starts with market value trends. So you can see that they don't change too much although we have seen a little bit of fl fluctuation over
008the last three years where Betham has gone from a 6708 to 65.53. You can see that Nazareth I mean Northampton has increased from 21.3 to 23.3 and Sen Valley has dipped a little bit in market value from 11.62 62 to 11.16 with a three-year rolling average for Saka Valley of 11.3. Uh what makes up the majority of our budget though is enrollment um and a three-year average rolling average of enrollment. So if we take a look over the last six years, you can see the changes in enrollment from all of our districts. Uh where Bethlehem has gone down and is slightly starting to come back up coming out of COVID. Uh Northampton's enrollment has increased significantly over these last six years as well as Sen Valley has increased significantly over these last uh six years.
009So when we take a look at district contributions um given that that data Bethland is at a 61.7% of our budget, Northampton 28.5 and then Sen Valley's contribution to this year's budget is 9.8%. So if we take a look at it in terms of the formula effect, if there was no increase, you would see what kind of dollars would each district would still pay. But when you factor in the formula and the increase, you can see that uh there's an increase for Betham at 2.55% for the next year. Northampton has gone up 6.33% and Sen Valley has gone up to 6.21% again with an overall increase to our budget of 3.9% 6% to our districts. Uh this slide I just kind of like to throw in there just to show kind of where we've been
010over say the last 10 years uh in terms of fluctuation of the budget and by district. So our numbers have stayed pretty strong as a whole. Uh and you've just seen over the last couple years that our districts have now started to pay more than what they paid back in 1617. So again uh going back to maximizing your investment and I showed you uh early on about some of the achievements that we had in terms of the food truck, the electric car, all the different programming that we do. It doesn't happen by chance. It's because we do have a great staff that is willing to embrace initiatives uh and follow through with them and do what's in the best interest of our students. So that's what leads to our achievement. That's what leads to our
011enrollment uh all the success that we're having. And again, um, we're proud of our accomplishments, but we're not going to rest. We're continually looking for the next thing, uh, for our kids, for our community, uh, so that we can create a the next generation of great workers in the Le Valley. Any questions? I have a question. Yes, sir. Terms of your new programs, have you given much thought to starting a diesel program? Uh, diesel is not factored into the expansion. Diesel is a very expensive program to start up. So, we've tried to make sure that we could bring in programs that were met high priority occupations in the Lehigh Valley, but also um were cost effective for our districts. Okay. What about on a longerterm basis? Uh we'd have to take a look because that
012would be actually building another another huge area uh that we don't currently have the space for. We also had some discussion in my local advisory committee. This is about 2 3 years ago uh where there was discussion about whether or not we should be looking forward at diesel or whether or not we should be looking more towards electric uh because there you're liable to see a shift in technologies for all types of vehicles. So um they were my LAC was a little reluctant and that was coming from one of my members that works for Porsche America. Okay. But electric doesn't appear to be moving forward the way that originally planned and diesel is already in place. Yep. Right. Yeah. But again, we'd have to that's going to be down the road in terms of another
013expansion or adding a large area because what which it's funny when you're thinking about building a facility, it you don't think that it's going to cost you that much. like just trying to add um a couple years back for those of you that were on the board remember this when we um just added on to the back of our auto collision area just to create some extra space that was a project that was $150,000 just for that. Uh so when we're talking about building an entire basically a whole garage with all of the um uh the facility needs in terms of say utility costs things like that and all the equipment. Not only that, the other issue with diesel for us is we'd have to buy a truck outright. We could not get that through
014a um equipment grant like we can do for a lot of our other programs which keep those costs down. So that would have to be an expense of over $100,000 just for getting one truck for students to work on. Okay. I mean you're you start an aircraft program on a small basis. Yes. In terms of model, theoretically could start a diesel program on the small basins as well, right? You could. I mean, there are diesel engines. I mean, my neighbors have diesel engines in their tractors, right? As opposed to 18 wheelers. Sure. And steamships, right? Yep. Okay. Thanks. Something to consider, I think. Sure. Thank you. I had a question. Yes, sir. Thank you very much for your presentation. Um, I wanted to ask if if uh you were able to talk at all about
015u your awareness of um um the kind of uh long-term outlook of the of Lehigh Valley and um and industries and how they might connect with what's happening at the school. Um, in other words, I mean, we've been hearing uh in the past couple weeks about a flood of uh new uh jobs are going to come back to the United States. And um but setting that aside, um are are there actually specific uh things that you that you hear about um um in terms of the long-term um uh kind of prospects for the valley uh industrially and how it might connect to what is going on at the school? I'm just I'm interested in that, you know. Well, any any program that we do bring on, we have to make sure that it's meeting either
016uh the high priority occupations currently or we're looking at projections in terms of what those jobs are going to be in the future. So, uh, when we bring on, say, we're adding a second welding program, we've got a, there is, um, a need because we've got so many students that want to be in welding, but b, there's going to be a need for welders because a lot of the welders are retiring and those people need to be replaced in industry locally. Locally, we know that. We know that. Yes. and locally as well. One of the areas or the big areas in the Lehigh Valley, manufacturing is huge in in the Lehigh Valley, which I don't think people necessarily understand that that's probably in terms of um GDP for us. What was that again? Manufacturing. What
017what kind of manufacturing? Oh, you name it. So, you've got Fresh Pet, you've got Boston Beer, you've got Ocean Spray, you've got Nagger Waters. Um they're I mean they're everywhere. Bimbo Bakeries. They're all manufacturing uh plants that are growing. There's a lot out there in Fogglesville, but then you see them coming here into the Lehi Valley, Fresh Pad, of course. So, what we've heard from the um Lehi Valley Economic Development Corp, is that there's a need for those technicians, which we our program for that is called Meatronics. They're the ones that um can ma uh program, maintain, and fix the automated manufacturing lines so that they're up and running for those 247 facilities. They're not the lowkilled kind of No, no, no. These people need to know hydraulics, pneumatics, um computers, programming, etc. Thank you
018very much. Sure. And healthcare again is another area that just is huge in the Lehi Valley. Appreciate it. You're welcome. What else? Thank you very much, Micharch. Excellent. Thank you very much. You guys having a nice evening? Do we have a high school represent? Okay. All right. Um, next on our agenda is our high school SGA representatives report. Um, good evening everyone. I'm Zoe and this is the student activities report for the high school as of today, Tuesday, April 8th. So for academics, congratulations to senior Jacob Kelly for winning states for Skills USA recently and he is headed to nationals in June. The high school library celebrated National Library Week a week early with a name the library mascot bracket contest all last week and a party during all lunches on Thursday. Name suggestions for
019the mascot a turtle were given by students from Friday to Monday. Then the sweet 16 of the top names were paired against each other and voted on throughout the week. The final four names were Dwey versus Shelby and Noodle versus Greg. Dewey was the final answer. Students then celebrated in the library during their lunch where snacks were provided and if they brought a snack to share, they received a free book. For music, theaters, and arts, the high school choir performed a world premiere at Carnegie. It was an amazing day and they also had New York City pizza for dinner. Everybody was happy. They're getting ready for their spring concert upstairs and downstairs. Ryan Paxad will find out his state ranking um tomorrow. He will be ranked 1 to 30 in the state. So regardless of
020the outcome, his achievement is outstanding. He represents the music department with great pride. Um in the middle school, um EMTT Cook got the solo for Homeward Bound at District 10 Songfest. This is the first time ever one of our students was awarded a solo. He sounded amazing. On Friday, April 4th, Miss Sakasitz took her sixth graders to District 10 Elementary Songfest, and nine of them were selected and had a concert the same night. They gave up extra time to learn their music and worked very hard. On Saturday, the Saken Valley Indoor Percussion Ensemble competed at the Saen Serton competition. Sorry. They came in first place with an amazing score of 78.8. They are hard at work preparing for their upcoming competition at Salisbury on Saturday, April 12th. They perform at 12 p.m. You don't want
021to miss it. The high school jazz band performed at the Get Jazzed at Burks Festival earlier today. They received educated feedback, had a clinic and a master jazz musician, and attended several master classes taught by professional musicians on their instruments, included Zakai Curtis, a 2025 Grammy Award winner. Moving on to sports, spring sports are in full swing, and here is the current records of all the teams. Baseball is 6-1. Softball is 2 and four. Boys tennis is 7 and three. Girls lacrosse is 3 and two. Boys lacrosse is 1 and five. Girls track 1 and two. Boys track 1 and two. And unified track zero and one. SJ's next event is a schoolwide egg hunt to be held on Monday, April 14th to Wednesday, April 16th. Prizes include candy and gift cards. Good hunting to
022all. This wraps up the student activities report. Are there any questions? I just want to say thank you for that incredible report and uh congratulations to all the student u who are achieving and bringing a lot of you glory to the the district and to their you know the community. It's really incredible and um yeah some names some familiar names in there. So thank you Zoe. Zoe uh uh do you know uh anything about the musical that is starting this Thursday? musical like the play. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I plan to go see it on Saturday. Do you know what the times are and dates? That's a really great question. I I'll say it's outside my paycheck. Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 6:30 and uh Sunday 2 p.m. Mat. That's actually what I had. I hear
023it's the best show in town, by the way. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. Superintendent report. Miss Velcity. Thank you, Mr. Dmar. Zoe did not give an update on uh the senior assassins game that's happening at the high school, but I wanted No, no, but I wanted to give just a brief update for the superintendence report. you saw a message that went out from me um to the school community about the senior assassins game that our seniors are partaking in along with many other seniors across the country. So, we received word today that the senior class had a scheduled uh what they are referring to as senior assassins, which means they bring in um water guns to the school or they keep them in their cars and they have a scheduled location
024that uh they have a water gun fight um at. So, this public location was going to, I believe, start in our parking lot and probably carry on to various locations within town. So, we sent the message out to the community and also spoke with the students. Uh, the staff gave a message to all of them and those who had water guns on them uh disclosed that during a certain time to us and handed over their water guns to us uh so they would not get in trouble. So, the reason this was such a concern for us was as many of them recognized as they were handing them to me, many of them are neon pink and blue and don't really look like water guns, but many of them did have them uh looking like pistols
025or uh small and concealed in their in their pockets. So, the these were not necessarily the guns that little kids are playing with that are the green and blue and pink. So, um, we explained to them, had a nice discussion with them about what could possibly happen if that did come out at a time when police or security were around them, and they were very, uh, very happy to turn them over to us. And, uh, they continued to have, I think, the senior assassin game off of campus as we suggested. So, I'm not sure where in town that's happening. We did have parents call and um want to know where to drop off water guns to their kids as well, which is concerning because we believe that there was an understanding that the school SGAA,
026student government association or the school was endorsing this activity and we actually were holding it here. Um administration was aware. So, I just wanted to make that clear that we are not endorsing and we had no knowledge of it and we just want to make sure everybody is safe and there's no concerns, but this is something that's happening across the country. So, we will keep our ears and eyes open for that. So, that is it for the superintendent report. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Um, courtesy of Florida visitors agenda items only. Would anyone like to speak? Seeing no one, can I get a motion for the presentation of the bills? So move second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion's approved. Can I get a motion to approve the treasures report? So
027moved. Any discussion? Just a quick question. Uh Mr. Boner, what the budget transfers are. The budget transfers are mainly for technology. um and they're transferring out for technology licensing uh that the balances came out because price increases on multiple products that were on budgeted. Um there was also um same thing. So 7,400 of it is per that another 2,000 same issue is that uh balanced the account because of price increases. And then there was um $2,000 that were for unplanned non-instructional level hardware needed uh transferring out of supplies uh for the building but into the district technology. So the other 9400 uh that that you mentioned where are they coming from? It's all coming from what was budgeted underneath technology um software but it was underneath for the each building level 10 2030 but then
028it's going into the district technology to cover that cost. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments or discussion? All in favor say I. I opposed. Motion's approved. Um on to education. We have an academic and personnel committee summary report from April 2nd. Um, our first item is the district comprehensive plan. Can I get a motion? So moved. Second. Discussion. No discussion. Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion's approved. Um, item number two, changes to the 2025 2026 high school program of studies. Can I get a motion? I'll move. Second. Um, can uh, Miss Blasty, can you just give us or or someone give us a quick update on what the changes are? Sure. I believe Dr. Cowsky will do that. And I just want to say thank you to Dr. Cowy and Miss
029Davis. um we had gone back to look at the program of studies um after Dr. Casky came on board. There was some word smithing that needed to take place and the changes that you're going to see though majority of them are minor are actually taking place because um of our in dual enrollment. This is one of the goals for the district to include more dual enrollment courses and opportunities for students at the high school and we've been in collaboration with NCC throughout the course of the year. Um they had gotten a grant and we were looking forward to providing some opportunities for next year. So the inclusion of those NCC opportunities also is where some of the adjustments came in. So Dr. Casky, I'm turning it over to you. Am I on? Okay. Uh yes.
030Uh just wanted to mention where uh some of the changes occurred. Uh some of the courses removed from the POS uh since December 17th that uh you saw on December 17th was English A, B, C, and D. Uh basically uh that was uh English language learner courses and new courses English one and English two that use data to place the English language learner uh at the levels based on their uh wida access scores. You know we thought that uh you know the English A B C and D didn't really have that distinction and we went to English one and English two after conferring with Mrs. turn and um I think that is what's best to uh have students in English one or English two based on their widow access scores. Uh we have um NCC
031intro to communications uh that is being added communication essentials is being uh removed uh NCC intro to communication. Uh we are in search of a teacher who is going to be uh willing to teach this dual enrollment uh class at the high school. We're working with NCC right now to identify that teacher uh based on their coursework andor certification. Uh honors analytical writing, heroes, tragedy, and sitcom. Uh they were uh removed from the program of studies and English 12 and English 12 honors were added to the program of studies. Uh reason being is that we are going to have and we're going to push writing across all of the curriculum 9 through 12. So you're going to see a increase in writing in English 9, 10, 11, and 12. Uh what the teachers are going
032to do for the first semester is they're going to utilize their resources and their materials from courses such as heroes, tragedies, honors, analytical writing, and what we currently have in the curriculum. And then in the second uh semester, what we're going to do is we're going to pilot the materials that we hope to adopt uh for the future. So, you know, next year, uh, they'll do their best with once again pulling materials and resources together and then piloting materials and resources in the second semester. So, that's the change for that. Uh, AP research, you saw that down in the program of studies on December 17th. Uh, reason that was pulled was that you have to successfully complete AP seminar for the full year prior to taking AP research. So next year in the program of
033studies, you'll see both AP seminar and AP research. Uh other additions uh to the program of studies uh graduation credit for middle school courses. you know, we discussed that, you know, if we're offering Spanish and French in the middle school and we're offering algebra 1 and other courses in the middle school, you know, if they're being taught and, you know, assessed the same way with the curriculum at the high school is that uh these students need to get graduation credit for these for these courses. Now, that does not mean that, you know, they're going to be graduating early, all of them, or anything along those lines. What that means is that by getting credit for these courses, this is going to free their schedule up to particularly take maybe something that they're interested in uh
034you know around the core required courses that we have at the high school. Uh dual enrollment uh that's a big uh change in the program of studies. You know, we're working real hard like I said once again with NCC and other institutions. We're trying to get as many dual enrollment dual credit offerings that we can here uh taught at the high school. you know, we'll be meeting with uh you know, the representatives from each of these colleges and universities and basically what I'm used to is comparing our curriculum to the curriculum that's offered at the colleges and universities and you know coming up with an agreement that okay, you know, we can offer this class uh for dual enrollment. It could be taught here at the high school and uh everybody in the class can
035get dual credit for it which is high school graduation credit as well as uh college credit. So just making it uh you know making it more available to our students and you know I talked to a few students and I said and even in our presentation to parents uh last week that dual enrollment although it seems like a lot of money here in high school uh it is uh just a tenth of the amount of money if they waited to take these courses at some universities. And a lot of these community college courses, you know, trans transfer over in articulation agreements with major universities, especially state universities that they might be interested in. Uh the course advancement policy, which is policy 215.1, uh mentioning about acceleration and students and families having the opportunity to do
036that. Uh it was not in the program of studies. uh we include it in the program of studies. You know, just so to be transparent with everyone that this is an opportunity uh if you want to take advantage of it and that was something that wasn't in the program in December but is in the program now. Along with the advancement guidelines, there's guidelines uh if you're going to uh try to advance and take uh accelerated courses uh in your schooling from you know K through 12. And then uh the only other major uh thing that was changed in the program of studies is that on the right with every course description uh on the left you have the uh the amount of credits on the right you have the prerequisites and course prerequisite requirements. So
037what we thought is that if we put the word elective uh into this portion of the program of studies for every course that would go into and into graduation credit as one of those 8.5 elective credits that uh you know students would realize that this is not going toward your credits for math or your credits for science or your required credits for social studies. So any course that you see in the program of study that is not listed as an elective on the right that means that that course earning credit in that course will go toward required graduation credit for the 21 credits. So like I said in addition to that a lot of word smithing uh we had uh an expert in journalism uh take a look at uh the uh course of study
038and recommended all of the grammatical changes and uh Miss uh Davis and I went through it and uh tried our best to follow those uh uh recommendations. But uh I think overall uh it's more transparent overall. We're you know turning some courses that may have been uh just out of place into courses that are based on data and obviously the English department. We're going to stress uh writing next year across the curriculum as well as pilot uh new materials for the future. Any questions? I uh I I just trying to make sure I understand what you said about the credits for courses in the in the middle of school. Yes. So uh let's say a kid takes uh alge one in seventh grade and alge 2 in eighth grade. Does that mean that uh if
039those two courses those two credits are uh used for the math requirements then um they would need to only take two classes in the high school, two math classes. Yes, that is correct. And that's part of the that was part of that acceleration policy. Uh the acceleration policy even says that uh if requested it could possibly go into their GPA and class rank. But what I'm talking about is that you know we offer algebra one in the middle school to many students. It's like an it's an offering. It's not a an accelerated uh course. Sure. So this is I I I I wish we had uh talked about this at the at the committee level. This is a uh this is a big change. Uh and I'll say that this is you were not uh
040here for the uh for for the for the conversations that we had about the math topic uh uh only two years ago. So uh the idea was that uh we want all of our students to take one math class in every grade of the high school. And uh uh not only that, but the principal at the time actually wanted these classes to be year-long. So all of the math classes in the high school uh converted to year-long and uh every student is supposed to take uh those. So this kind of like uh uh is is is a step in the opposite direction to the point that you know many of these kids would be done with their uh math credit requirements by their 10th grade and their 11th and 12th grade they just don't need
041to take any math courses. And uh I am in favor of uh kids and families having choices, but uh this is sort of like contrary to a sort of like stated uh uh I I think desire of the district and I it came through the administration at the time, but uh I'm not sure if I if I like that change. So I I I want to sort of like make sure that you know we we keep that or at least we have a conversation about it as opposed to sort of like this, you know, showing up on the pro like revision of the program study. So no, we're going to uh encourage and there's not that many kids that are coming out of the middle school with algebra 1 and algebra 2. There are many
042of them. So this is I think uh I think a good uh 40 50 of our middle school kids uh take at least uh algebra 1. Oh, algebra 1. Yes. But I mean coming out with both. Yeah. Yeah. But one means that you know then in senior year they don't have to take a math course. And again I mean my my my point is that this is sort of like not I'm going to use the word that Mr. Fitzgerald uses. this is not dimminimous. So this is a this is a major change in the policy and I would like to sort of like have uh a uh whole discussion about that you know at the board and the committee uh level as opposed to sort of like this being just sort of like a you
043know change in the revision in the uh in the in the program. So that's all what I want to say. Um if I'm understanding correctly Dr. Casky just took the policy language and placed it in the POS. So our current policy is actually reflective of that language and he's just putting it in there. So if we would like to review what the policy language states then we will bring the policy itself back to um the AMP meeting so it can be revised and also and reviewed. And also one of the big reasons is that if you're completing algebra 1 and algebra 2 in middle school uh it should go on your transcript. Uh if you're completing Spanish one in middle school or French one uh it should go on your transcript. And uh you know
044colleges are looking for that. uh they they would love to see uh those students that if you take two algebra 1 and algebra 2 in middle school, you just have algebra 1 in the the your grade, algebra 2 in your grade, and then you have the ability to take higher level math classes and higher level classes in in high school. You know, I would never encourage anybody to not take a math class, but I think it frees up people to take some higher level courses. Yeah. Just just to be clear, first of all, I mean, thank you for uh for for the for the context. I really didn't understand that to be the case. I really thought uh based on the conversations that we had here uh two years ago that uh uh that all
045of the high school kids would take four years of math and four years four years four years of full uh period math and four years of full period uh uh uh English. That was uh that was my understanding of that uh conversation. Now uh again to clarify I am in favor of including the courses on the transcripts. My point was about whether it would satisfy the graduation requirements. Uh and uh that is I think a slightly different uh different different topic. If this is not a change then I didn't like what we had before. No, I I think that that's just my suggestion is that if the board would like to review that uh you know right now it says that there are three mathematics that are required. Uh it is not in no that
046is board decision. If you want to look at those graduation requirements and require four then that would be a decision that you would have to make. You're right and you you just judged my memory. So initially I think the high school principal wanted four and we had the conversation here and we kind of like convinced them that three is probably the the right number and the the reason for that was if uh somebody fails in a class then they don't have to double up in their math the the next year. So that's how we sort of like went from four to four four to three but but the idea was that they would take a math class every year you know generally speaking. So, well, I would love four social studies as well if we're
047going to go to four math. There's a difference between math and social studies. And I know you're social studies teacher, so I appreciate that. But, uh, no, but well, I think that part of what's changed is in the past, it wasn't quite so easy to get your middle school classes to count for high school. It it was there was an option in the policies, but it was generally not exercised. And if we make it automatic, then that's kind of a a significant change as Dr. Poxad mentioned. into the flow of what classes students might take. Can I ask a question about dual enrollment? Yes. Um, so how many dual enrollment classes are we offering next year and in what subjects are they? Uh, because I think I only saw a couple in math and that
048was it unless I'm missing other ones. No, the the intro to communications which I which I talked about the NCC intro to communications. We have two out of the University of Pittsburgh in mathematics, two out of uh uh NCC in in mathematics. And you know what we're like I said what we're hoping to do is we're hoping to meet with the colleges and you know come to agreements that you know I tell the students that some of the classes that you're sitting in right now in Sen Valley High School may be more than you're going to be getting uh at a college. So sitting down with the college representatives. Sitting down with the department heads or just meeting with you know representatives and saying hey this is what you demand in this course. This is
049your curriculum. This is our curriculum. We actually go above and beyond your curriculum. Is there any way that you know our teacher can be approved as a uh adjunct professor and teach the course to our students and the students get credit? So we're looking to do that. Now that that's not that's not those specific courses aren't down in the program of studies because we still have to meet with NCC and talk about that. And I know they were waiting uh on their funding. The government, you know, gave colleges funding to increase dual enrollment. So, you know, once uh we meet with them, we're going to talk about those things about what courses that we currently offer that we could offer for dual enrollment credit. Okay. So, to clarify, dual enrollment is taught by Saken Valley
050teachers who are credited by the that institution. That's dual enrollment. Dual credit is yes, it's taught by Sen Valley teachers. However, we do have uh students that uh can duly enroll if their schedule allows and can go and take it at a college. Thank you. You're welcome. Go ahead, Bill. Um where are we? Um uh I just wanted to just to quickly what what's the motion right now? I just want to make sure I'm in the right place. Approve the program. Motion is item two uh the high school program of studies in under education. But didn't we also mention the comprehensive plan? We we we voted on the comprehensive plan. We're doing them one at a time, too. I'm sorry. Yeah. And I I got mixed up. Um um c do you mind if I
051just um talk a little bit about the comprehensive plan just to add something? How about a after we finish this one then? Great. I'll give you a chance. Great. Thank you. I just want to say one more thing and just everybody realize unless it is school district policy all of the program of studies, you know, you approve it, you bless it, but it's procedural. So there are things that can be looked at and you know changes that can be made but uh in terms of you know the policies and in terms of the graduation requirements that would be up to the board of education to uh to change those. Just have a quick question. Um when I was sitting in the comprehensive plan you had mentioned if they're taught the same course and assessed the
052same way. I remember a distinct conversation that the same assessment is or is not given for the al middle school and high school students taking the same course to algebra one. Is the same assessment given in the middle school as the high school? I can't specifically get down to the assessment but the curriculum is the same. I'm going to say that assessment is very important especially since this is a grade that is so uh this is again one one more thing to uh to make sure that they are assessed the same way also right previously they the length of the classes were not the same at the high school and middle school now that that issue has been resolved I think this is the uh most glaring uh issue that I see in terms of
053like the transfer of credits Anyone else? All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. The motion's approved. Uh, Mr. Brun, go ahead. Yeah. Sorry about that. I thought we were doing them together. I got a little confused there. Sorry. I usually do that, but I significant tonight, so we're doing them one at a time. Of course. Um, I I just wanted to stop just for a moment to uh recognize some of the work on the on the comprehensive plan. Um this is a lot of the work on this plan happened in in you know in in committees obviously and um and behind the scenes uh not the not the you know discussions about it but the you know the labor that produced the sort of deliverable you know which is online will be online that
054that will probably be its primary home. Um, and I I just think it's really I'm not I don't want to sort of give a speech here, but I I think it'd be easy to to sort of understate how much work was put into it. And um um I I really just wanted to quickly name the people who were from the community and the parents if you don't mind. Um um um not that we don't want to pat ourselves on the back on the steering committee, but um you know there and also there were a lot of great teachers. I mean teachers did so much too and administrators um but they're you know um you know they're more in looped in on a regular basis but I wanted to just mention that uh the community members
055Tanya Sharer uh Gail Nol uh and Gary Gorman. Um these are all members of the steering committee for the comprehensive plan. And then parents, uh, Jen McCarthy, Millie Dignetti, uh, and I, sorry, I apologize in advance if I get these names wrong. Uh, Pam Silverthorne, uh, Hannah Tatoo, Cara Parites, Jason Bananis, Lynn Casper, Barrett Guyire, Victoria Opth Corder, her name is misspelled here, by the way. Um, somebody note that, please. Um, Bridget Lucier Lucier, uh, Christian Tattoo who's right here. Um, um, Pam uh, Masio, Brandon Kazan, and my Shunk, and then the student Courtney Ziggler. Um, wow, what a great gift you've given our our district. um going back to the 18th century, this uh this community has cared a lot about education and um we see it with the the hard work that so
056many community members put into helping us. Thank you very much. It's a big thing. Thank you. I'll just add my thanks to all of the folks and all the committees and all of our staff and our teachers uh who participate in this. I know it's a very big deal. We don't do it very often and uh and that's because it's a lot of work. Thank you. Okay, on to item three um policies, the second and final reading. Um can I get a motion? I'll move. Second. Any discussion? Yeah, I I would like to pull out uh policy 824 and uh uh in particular uh if you uh are trying to find it, I don't know how you're going to do that easily, but uh that is page um uh two of six u in the
057middle of this massive thing that you have. So this is this is maintaining professional adult student boundaries. Yes, maintaining professional adult student boundaries. So that is uh uh in in the 800 operations policy the only one that we have I think on no maybe the second one. Yeah. So I'm going to let everybody find that view if you will. So uh I I would like to uh bring to your attention uh under uh prohibited conduct uh which is page two as I mentioned there is a paragraph this is about romantic or sexual relationships and then there's a there's there's a short paragraph prelude to that and then there is prohibited romantic or sexual int interactions involving students include but is not limited to item Number eight uh is accepting massages or offering or giving massages
058other than in the course of injury care legitimately administered by an athletic trainer, coach or healthcare provider. So uh I I would like to uh make a motion to strike uh the word coach from that uh uh from that item. I don't know of uh any coach who would uh want to be in that position to accept or receive massages. I don't know uh uh whether u a course of injury care would uh require sort of like a situation where we say we can't really wait until the athletic trainer or uh the uh healthcare provider arrives and it's sort of like such an emergency that uh somebody's got to kind of like start giving giving massages and uh uh I I was thinking about this and speaking with a And uh uh the the one
059sort of like situation that I could uh I could envision that uh something like that would be uh would would be necessary is uh let's say if the cross country coach is two three miles sort of like out of the school and somebody has a cramp uh and uh you know running with the coach you know but that is a stretch that's not massage. So, uh I I I I I think for the for the sake of uh protecting our coaches and our students and making sure that families are uh uh more comfortable with this, I I want to just basically ask that uh uh coaches be exempt from um being a mour. Are you making a motion? I do. Okay. Do we have a second? Second. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I I mean I
060I'd like to hear if uh as well as you or the administration has any objection to that. I if there are sort of like circumstances that you think this would uh make things uh uh unworkable, I'm happy to reconsider. I believe that I have no objection and I believe that our administration would also be okay with that. But no objection. Any other comments? All in favor of the amendment um say I. I I opposed. Okay. The motion is now amended to exclude coaches from the prohibited romantic sexual interaction uh list in policy 824. Any other comments about the collection of policies? Um I have one question about that same policy on that same page down number three. Um, one up from the bottom. It said for I guess teachers or anyone they can't give personal
061gift cards or letters to students without written approval from the building principal. Is there I'm just thinking of all the thank you cards that they write for all the gifts they get and all like is there a blanket these things are okay or every single time they want to write a letter do they have to go get approval? Because that seems a little extreme. It does seem a little extreme. However, there are circumstances in which uh I think we're hoping that there is approval that is given beforehand just because I don't think any adult wants to be put in a situation in which anything that they're even writing in a thank you card could be misconstrued. I would I would suggest also uh to the extent there needs to be some guidance surrounding this policies
062an administrative regulation can be developed that provides some additional steering for administrators in in that for instance that particular scenario or others just just to your point uh Dr. Parson, this is sounds like this, you know, a relic of the past when emails did not exist because sounds like you can actually do emails. That's not a violation of the letter of the policy, but uh you cannot do a uh hard copy letter. That's that just doesn't make sense. Well, I'm sure there's probably something in here that says you have to use district communication. If it's not in this policy, it's in another one, right? And letters are Yeah, letters are by definition excluded from district communication, right? Yeah. Number number two has emails in it. Yeah. Well, it has to be written on something unless
063the pigeon speaks it to you. Okay, enough of that. Um, any other comments or questions about the policies? Okay. All in favor of the amended motion. It's all the calls. Yeah. Yeah. All All of We already voted. The amended was already passed. So, it's the amended it's the amended motion. Um say I I opposed. The motion's approved. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve the grades 6 through 8 ELA curriculum? That's item four. I'll move. Second. Any discussion? Um yeah, definitely. Um yeah. Um I mean once again, you know, this is there there was a real labor of love in um in seeing this curriculum come together come together. There was so much work that um administrators and um and and you know my my sense especially um the the passion of of the
064of our teachers um they really I mean I I wish people could could witness this. That's that's the one problem about the the subcommittees that we have, you know, um they don't necessarily get to see the public doesn't necessarily get to see what happens and and and and um you know, and all the work that goes into these coming up with these curriculum and all the all the work that they did to just even come to a point where they could really study one of them and start to pick it apart and try it. And um it's unbelievable. And uh the teachers are are we have incredible teachers in in Sen Valley School District and um you know they are were they're not like that everywhere, you know. Um and um you know they they
065one of the things that I really got out of listening to them in this um and it goes for the administrators too. The the building principles and um and all the administrators who worked on this um this is something they thought about after they left their jobs. you know, in at the end of the day, you could tell that this is something they thought about in the in their lives, you know, and um that's that's just very generous, you know, that's that's the kind of thing a lot of us don't do, you know, and um so I just wanted to kind of pay um a little tribute to to those teachers. Thank you very much out there. Um that's all. Thanks. Anyone else? Yeah, I'll just uh echo Mr. Brun uh uh this uh uh
066in the in the middle school fortunately we have uh good performance for the uh English language arts and uh this uh you know kudos to uh everyone who's uh who's who's worked uh on this for for many years and a big part of it uh comes from a uh really strong strong foundation in the elementary school. So uh uh I I I I want to I want to uh second what you said about uh the work for the for the curriculum and for uh you know assessing and recommending these programs that we are approving today but also all of the work that is being done you know day in and day out uh in instruct instructing the kids and u making sure that they can uh read read and write. Uh there was uh uh
067uh there there was a lot of uh good things that were sort of like shared with with the committee about uh these two programs. They seem to be uh uh uh programs that are according to the science of reading and uh compatible with uh uh with the with with the current sort of like knowledge about how to uh make sure that the kids can uh read and write. So, I'm very hopeful that uh this uh investment that uh the community is making here, which is a significant uh uh investment uh will will pay off and will result in our kids uh being able to read and write even better. You know, these are these are really mainstream programs, too. And and and I say that in in in a you know, in in a good
068way. They're not um this isn't sort of wacko curriculum, you know. Um, it's really strong and they they you know the the publishers are are are you know they're they're fine publishers. Um I'm I'm really glad that we're using you know stuff from from highly regarded publishers. Um I used to walk by uh when I was in college um I used to walk by what um you know HMH basically in Boston and um you know I saw just the it just radiates literacy around that building you know um and it's you know it's on Beacon Hill and uh it's just a great you know it's a great publisher you know and I'm not saying that they do everything right but you know anyway that's Anyone else? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion's approved.
069Can I get a motion to approve the grades K through four math supplemental program item number five? So moved. Second. Any discussion on this one? Just a quick question. I don't know whether Miss Velocity or uh Miss Braxton Meer can tell us this. Uh we have I thought uh well let me ask the question. So supp supplementing what for who? Um so Dr. Paxad um just I'll kudos I'll um I I'll kudos all of our teachers as well. They at the elementary level they did a heavy lift this year and really um working through our math program. Um they've done a lot of work with the fidelity of the math and focus program. With that being said though, we still see that there are some areas because no program, as we talked about with our
070ELA program, will will necessarily fit everything. Um, spring math is a targeted daily practice designed to strengthen foundational skills to build math flu fact fluency. Um, one of the areas that we noticed as we were working through math this year was that every grade level does um, math fact fluency a little bit different, those foundational skills. and it's one of the areas where we really are seeing that cumulative effect come fourth grade. Um so for that reason um you know as they're doing the math and focus with more fidelity we still need to identify like a practice a consistent practice K through four. Uh spring math was recommended to us um by PTE. It's a highly um evidence-based program. It's 15 minutes a day. Uh that would likely be done at the in speaking with
071the teachers at the start of um their IE period. It's a tier 1.5 program uh paper pencil program where students work together like they they do the problems and then they talk about where the the areas of um or where things needed to be corrected. Um so that's you know this would replace that fast math or just putting students on um a program. It would you know the teachers would get the results that and then the students aren't just you know going to be getting time tests every week of how they're doing fact fluency wise but rather it's just going to be more improving their scores as opposed to reaching like you need to get 50 problems in three minutes. Oh. Uh so did I answer this is yeah if I kind of like missed
072a few things about the name of the program and so forth I would think that you're talking about and the same goals and so forth so why is it that uh we have another program is it uh reaching a different sort of like group of students is it uh it would be all students so this would be a tier one program um that every student would get um so it's really building that fact fluency more than anything else those foundational skills So instead of maybe doing flashc cards in one grade or doing some Oh, go ahead. Do we still need Well, that's a very good question because that's kind of when we were talking and we're working through what we're talking about um at the elementary level is we really now feel that we've got
073a strong solid tier one math and focus program with that. Just like in ELA though where you have that foundational skills, we feel that this spring math will meet that. And then that final component that we may need is more of that personalized learning like we do with Lexia that we may that they're currently using specifically more in grades 3 through 4 and some in grade two and we may need to find a something for grades K through two in that area as well. But those would be like that that trifecta or that triangle that would bring the whole math the whole math program together from our looking at it uh you know throughout this year. But we think these are the components that will really bring us the most success. Okay. Thank you very
074much. Any other comments? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion's approved. On to personnel. We have no items uh for discussion. Um we have seven items for approval. I'm going to group these together. Uh would anyone like any of them considered separately? Okay, I'll read the items and then ask for a motion. Item number one, long-term substitute. Item number two, summer IEP writers. Item number three, retirement. Item number four, athletic workers. Item number five, 2024, 2025, dedicated substitute teacher. Item number six, paraprofessionals classification change. And item number seven, educational sbatical. Can I get a motion? So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. The motion's approved. On to facilities. We have no items for discussion. We have one item surplus obsolete. Can I get a motion? I'll move. Second.
075Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. The motion's approved. On to finance. Okay. Uh Mr. Bondenberger, do can you give us an update on uh our progress for the budget? We will be discussing it tomorrow at the finance meeting. Okay, great. [Laughter] Okay. Um we are for for those who may not be able to attend the uh committee meeting in person tomorrow. We are making progress toward uh um finalizing our um um what's the right word for our initial initial budget there, Dave? Um it will be a preliminary budget. Preliminary. Yes. Our preliminary budget. Okay. But the meeting tomorrow is open to public and uh is held at uh what is it? Uh 6:00 at the district office, right? Yeah, correct. That is correct. Yeah, you're all invited. Okay. We have um we
076have five items for finance. I am going unless anyone likes would like to have them considered anyone considered separately. I'm going to read the items and then ask for a motion. Item number one, Hogan Learning. Item number two, paper janitorial products bid award. Item number three, Karen Foundation agreement. Item number four, athletic trainers room renovation bids. And item number five, school nutrition association conference. Can I get a motion? Any discussion? Could I ask some questions about these? Absolutely. Um, for item number two, uh, is what's the percent increase from the last time we had a bid? Okay. Yeah, we can discuss it tomorrow's budget meeting. I mean, it it's minimal amount that we're buying from them. It's our toilet paper. It's our zero. paper. It's um it's still probably about the same around 25,000 24.
077It's the number four. Can you explain what it means to reject all the bids and authorize administration to go through KPN purchasing? Yes, we went out for bid um and we got bids back. We're not happy with the bids. KPN is a state contract purchasing uh which is allows us to go to them and then they can give us a price and we can negotiate then as to different things compared to putting it out the bid. So we have which again we'll be discussing tomorrow at the facilities meeting prior to the finance meeting which will be at 5:00 but we did get pricing from them and there's some adjustments that we're discussing that we would like to make and we had rejected the bids because because it was a lot more than what we expected
078it to be. Um and the last one um how how is the trip being funded the trip to the conference because it says it's no cost. I'm assuming there's a plane ticket and hotels. She's paying herself for those plane tickets, the hotel room. Um, and then she um, so she's paying for herself basically. Is that her decision? That was her decision. Yes. I wanted to um say something about that myself. Um, are you are you done? Sorry. Yeah. Yeah, go for it. Yeah. Um, I know that she's she's new. I mean, I wanted to say to her, thank you for enriching our our district uh in this way by um you know, attending a national conference for the in that that professional um uh field. Um it's it's again another example of someone kind of
079doing something that's generous. Um but um I guess I was thinking maybe because she's new like she wasn't able to um um I guess don't don't don't um people have to ask like a year they have to ask in the year previous to for this kind of um dispensation that might come up in the I'm trying to remember how that works. I I just thought it would be um because it it's certainly the kind of thing I wish that we could help with, you know, and and it makes me feel a little sad to think that uh you know, someone's going to the national conference and and which is like really to our benefit as a district and to our children's benefit. Um but is it the kind of thing like next year she would
080be able to purs pursue if she wanted if it was distant again? you know, like assuming it's not in Allentown or something like that, the next conference. Apparently, my business manager is a man of few words this evening, so I'll jump in. Um, this is something that's usually planned. So, any of the professional development that we usually provide any of our staff is usually budgeted the year before. So, um, this is something that would be inclusionary in next year's budget if this is something that she would like to proceed with. Absolutely. So, Um, I just want to say that like I' I've been really impressed with the what she's brought to our district. My son has been really impressed. I mean, like the the the amount of excitement he has for eating school lunch has
081increased dramatically since she came here. And you know, this is professional development. And I just I don't see why to someone who has done like probably brought more value to this district than we're paying her. So like why don't we just make a motion and just pay this? Can I caution you and all of us to uh not do at you know at the board meeting? I think uh you know things like that uh there's no one of of these. So this is unless uh the position is that uh you know uh in you know in all of the sort of like future cases uh that is the sort of like u approach I'm just um I'm a little hesitant uh for that this what are we technically approving here then I think her uh
082absence from district right or we always have to be the time to go is Is it time off or is it paid? Is it a week? Conference time off and overnight out of state. It's in July. She's 12. She's 12 month, right? We do have a travel travel reimbursement policy. Yes. Yeah. And this is there is there is a uh I can't remember which title it is. Is it title four or title? Title two would be conferences. Conferences. So this does not count as a conference. It it it no person who handles title. No. Yeah. Correct. [Music] Yeah. So, so there is a uh so that's that's I think the sort of like the uh the the catch here and I I'm I'm completely sort of like supportive of people doing things that as Mr.
083Brun said you know are for the betterment of the students and services and so forth but uh like you know start doing it. I hear everyone's concern and I would just um perhaps recommend that because this is in July this isn't something that we have to approve today. So why don't um we strike it and bring it back. Maybe we can and we can find out the details of all of this and then we can bring that back obviously. Yes. Yeah. So just say and I I I'm I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to make a uh so so here's you want to motion the table. No, no, no. Here's my suggestion is that uh there may be u uh planning that she may need to do for this, right? So uh my
084suggestion is to approve this as is and then uh they will bring back uh the compensation part of it you know in the future so that she knows that she has the uh approval of the board to uh make the planning and so forth and I say that because I have to do all of these uh for my own work and I you know if I'm sort of like staying in limbo for two more weeks then I can't uh buy the plane ticket I can't uh reserve the uh hotel and all the rest of the stuff. So, so this this would not sort of like take away anything from the conversation that we have, you know, in two weeks. So, would we revise the motion um to so that that there's doesn't include there's no
085cost to the district. So, we're just approving what what we're going to do is we're going to continue as is and then next time um we'll consider an alteration and vote on that. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments about motion about items one through five? All in favor say I. I opposed. The motion's approved. Okay. On to community updates. Um the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Ki. Nothing to report. Okay. Uh the uh Sen Valley Foundation and Miss Magna. Hi. Yes. Um so I actually have a report tonight. The Sen Valley Foundation wants to extend its deepest gratitude to the Majestic Reality uh Foundation for its $2,000 donation. Just want to say that the foundation sincerely appreciates Majestic Reality's generosity and will use these funds to directly impact the students of our district. Thank you.
086Great. Thank you. Uh uh we don't have a report tonight uh for the community college. We'll have one next time. Um, Bethlehem Votech. Uh, Miss Demco, do you have anything special? I wasn't able to attend the meeting. Okay. Um, we obviously heard from Mr. Lazar. Uh, the big item at the meeting was the budget. Um, the, uh, intermediate unit, Dr. Pakad, there was a meeting uh, uh, there isn't anything really like for me to share with you. Uh, was routine matters of IU. Okay. Thank you. um PSBA uh Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Santos. Sure. Um there is a um AI and education uh professional development opportunity for school leaders. So that's not us. That would be actual administration. Uh that is offered. It piqued my interest only because it's a you know it's a hot
087topic amongst uh school districts and universities of how do you use it to improve the educational how do you what what guidelines can you realistically put on restricting it. So there's a there's just a professional development opportunity. Um and uh the other thing is that it we have to uh pick our delegates for the uh voting portion of PBSA by I think it's June or July. So it's just a reminder that we have to do that at some point in the next two months. Thank you. If I may add to that um the AI session that I attended, I have a recording. So just email me if anyone wants it. That way won't clutter up your email if you don't want it. Anything Mr. Santos is on the knowledge of Great. Thank you. Okay. Um,
088any new business? I have a quick legal update for everybody. Um, I don't know if there's been some articles in the newspaper surrounding uh directives that came out from the US Department of Education late last week surrounding uh certifications that state education agencies and potentially eleas like ourselves uh may have to commit to in order to ensure continuation of federal funds. The certification that did come out uh I think Thursday, maybe Friday, said um states and potentially districts have to commit to adherence to to title six, which is um prevention of race discrimination u which this district does. Um and there's a secondary commitment surrounding uh a commitment that no districts or seas uh have any sort of quote unquote illegal DEI. Um, and they're they're referencing a a case a case that dealt with
089affirmative action in uh uh post-secondary institutions both in Harvard and the University of North Carolina. Um, so that was placed out and and gave a 10-day mandated response from the states or potentially losing federal funds. Um, that has been extended and I do anticipate that there will be at some point some level of requirement that the districts have to respond. Um, I questioned the legality of what was wassued. Um, simply because it's relying on a case that's really not applicable to us. Um, but that is right now a a moving target and it's it's getting a whole bunch of folks that have to potentially commit to signing something like that. Uh, a a little bit uh, nervous right now. So, I just wanted to at least update you on where that stands. Nothing for the
090district to do right now, though. Mark, yes. What does illegal DEI mean? Well, that that's part of the problem, right? Uh, I don't know. and they don't define it. Um, and chances are um, probably virtually every district certainly that I represent and probably virtually every district in the the country doesn't do anything of the sort. So, it's just unclear what I think we know why it's being done, but it's unclear um, you know, what really is going on here other than for some sort of PR initiative, shall we say? This was I did I understand what you said that this was not just for the public schools but this included also the uh institutions of secondary education right um well the the case that they're relying on to say that we should not be adhering
091to some sort of illegal DEI like we have quotas in who we hire or we have quotas in who we enroll which we obviously we don't have and never have and never and statutoily we can't we have a township in a burrow. Pretty, you know, pretty simple. Um, so it really is not applicable to us. The the case that they rely on dealt with affirmative action. It dealt with a quota based system at Harvard and and the University of North Carolina and Michigan. It did not deal with what what we are dealing with in terms of our enrollment. Um, so I just don't see the applicability there. What I did mention though was the states have the same certification form and like a state like New York has already said we're not signing it. um
092the dep Pennsylvania Department of Education and we our office has pressed PD on this already from Friday night on we've been sending emails where is PTE stand on this certification form and PTE consistent with PTE they have yet to actually give any guidance to any school entity whether it be a charter school a public school uh throughout the Commonwealth as to what their position is on it. Is it just about hiring or also uh acceptance to programs and things like that? Well, that that's the it it's unclear. It could be anything. It could be what we teach in class. It could be that this is like you you you said that uh we don't do it. Nobody does it in the public school, right? My uh and and it I just wanted to sort of
093like make sure that I understand what you mean by it. It means uh uh hiring people based on let's say race, right? Admitting people based on race. I think those are the two those are the two clear initiatives from it and and and we don't um now to the extent that a legal DEI stands for something beyond that whether it be what is taught in the classroom [Music] um extracurricular activities that have initiatives for various groups um that's unclear. I don't think it's applicable but they don't define it. It's a it's a poor frankly it's a poorly written communication. Um and and there in lies some of the the concerns that I think is being expressed by many school leaders out there. U Mark can I ask you something? Um, one of the things that
094we've been hearing in in national rhetoric from uh or national communications, including the um the executive orders that are kind of pouring out of the White House related to education, there have been a number of them. I've read some of them, you know, I've read them really carefully. And um is a desire to uh leave uh educational policy up to the states. And yet what you're telling us today, it sounds like it kind of is really doing the opposite of that. Um, so I'm I'm kind of left like what's it supposed to be? You know, are we are we leaving it policy, educational policy up to the states or are we not leaving it up to the states, you know? Um it to me that smells like pol, you know, politics, you know, and it
095smells like um performative kind of statement making u and not, you know, a caring, thoughtful policy that's pro- education in our community, you know, um that's community based. This is and this is why I mean you know what we can do here in the district is is the best that you know that that's that's where we need to start our education for our students because you know we're not getting help outside the district in terms of like the the you know the the federal government if that's the kind of um nonsense that we're going to get. You know it's up to you locally. We want to leave it up to you. uh except when we don't, you know, when we want to make a political statement. So anyway, I'm I find it very irritating because
096we have we have so much to do um to, you know, to educate our kids locally and here's this intrusive kind of like, you know, thing that takes up our time. I mean, our solicitors having to think about this, you know. Yeah. I I I would just add one thing to this bill and and I I don't disagree with that. I I I also don't think it's necessarily exclusive to say this administration. I I think it happened in the past um in more subtle ways in how it was handled um so I don't think I I think sometimes unfortunately we at at at the local level um are are are pawns to um kind of the back and forth of of of these policy initiatives. Now what's going on right now is is absolutely unprecedented.
097So it's not like we can say oh well this happened in the Obama administration or this happened when Bush was in office. So, there's a lot of new things going on here. Um, but I I do think that from time to time we're kind of stuck in the middle of of of a tit fortat. Yeah. Can I can I just ask a clarifying question? Um, did you say that like just the state departments of education would be required to sign whatever this thing is or do you say like individual districts would be required? what they what they are saying right now is first they want the states to commit to it and then they essentially want to say to the states like hey Pennsylvania we're giving you you know we give you 200 you know
098million dollars in IDA funds um you need to figure out a way to collect that commitment from your local districts as well okay so they're starting with a state commitment correct correct yeah those would be very expensive so this is just just to uh so like you know translate it uh uh if if if we were dealing with the federal federal government with regards to any of these things the portion of the federal funds that we receive directly is very very small I think it's like less than 1%. But uh uh the state receives a lot more of it. The state doesn't give it to us right gives it to Bethlehem and Allentown and so forth as we saw uh in the in the budget that was uh uh proposed. But uh nonetheless for the
099state that's a sort of like big chunk of money. Yeah. Yeah, I mean a perfect example was they extended the esser funding um for for districts and districts committed to that extension in in ESSER funding and then I believe it was last Friday uh the government noted oh by the way what we promised you the extension of the s funding we're discontinuing it effective two days ago. Um so and PD has been caught essentially like blindsided. We don't know what's going on here. So that's part of the part of the issue as well. Any other new business? Any old business? Yes. Um, sorry. Um, I I would like to request um since our Spanish immersion um program is up for revisions, if we have any um if we could do any research. I did an
100AI quick research um on what are the characteristics of a student who you would anticipate being successful in a Spanish immersion program. What is the research on that? um and especially in correlation with their ELA achievement. The quick research I said said something different perhaps than we may realize. I just wondered if we could get that research so we know we're making good decisions on student enrollment in this program. Shouldn't the company that we hired have that information or have given us that information? It seems like that would be part of their purview. I mean they did have a list of research that they had noted in their report I believe. Um their report itself though and we can gladly look into this as far we probably can go into the depths for the next
101months and year about the Spanish immersion program. Um and we can gladly do that if that's so the desire of the board. But I think that the program itself from the development of it has been based on the surrounding programs and the interests of the community and what we have gotten feedback tonight we obviously will take into consideration. Um the report itself was based on what the parent feedback was and what they know to be best practices in the country. But it is I mean if you read the report the interpretation from us as administrators are it was really based on here are the factors that make the program um or the factors that make the program the best program but based on each community that they go into to do the research based on
102what their needs are and what they're hearing back is the feedback is what the recommendation is coming from. So, we can probably do what you're saying and look in all of that research, but I'm asking for I'm not looking for it and I can do it myself certainly and bring it back, but is is us counseling students out who who, you know, what level of struggle are we talking about here when we're counseling them out of the program? I think that's my real question. Does it have to be a severe, you know, where there's auditory processing, those kind of issues, or is it just, you know, you didn't make proficiency, we don't anticipate you on dibbles, being a proficient reader by third grade. Like, what are our qualifications? What is our administration, our teachers using
103to counsel people out of the program? Yeah. So currently uh we do recommend overall dibbles proficiency. However, that doesn't mean that that's what every student has by the end of the year. So we do have students, you know, we do look at um MAP scores, uh Dibble scores and uh MA, I'm sorry, MAP math and MAP um ELA and then Dibble scores as well. We do have students that apply and and do get into the program um with scores that are below prof proficiency level like in the math map scores. We might have students that are in the yellows um that are not in the you know the greens or the blues um or they might be in the oranges as well. Dibbles they might be you know still needing having below um proficiency levels
104as well. The students that are typically counseledled out are students that across the board are in the reds that really need that really explicit instruction in English moving forward. Those are the students that that we are most concerned about that they are not going to get that explicit instruction if they're in the Spanish immersion program with the 9010 model and and with the 9010 model and um uh we students that have been in there I have not seen any of the students um I think my first year there was um a student that Proface Barlink asked that we meet with because they were struggling Um but that was like three I think three years ago. Since then we haven't had a student and we have also um brought in we've actually had an opportunity to
105bring in um one of the years a student that was new to us that um was an ELLL student um and we had him in there for part of the day. So we have done some hybrid as well. So, um there's no like strict written policy about who we it's a holistic educator decision right now about who who gets counseledled. Again, it's non-binding counseling, right? We the parents can just ignore it. But, um but that that but there's no policy or written procedure or like strict hard guidelines. No. And then um if we do find that they're struggling, we do offer interventions to them in in English and first grade if they're struggling in in like dibbles as we continue to check on their their uh English assessments. But as the parents said, they do
106often speak with the the kindergarten teachers just to really see how their foundational skills are. So how would you anticipate that affecting I'm I'm sorry if this is the wrong time. You don't mind. Um, how would you anticipate that affecting the entire program if you were going to start kindergarten? How would it impact it? I mean, I we're definitely going to have to take a look at, you know, the kindergarten screening as students come in um really to get a better handle kind of on where the kiddos are at um that would be entering or wanting to enter that program. Um I other than that I mean it do you mean like from a from what perspective? So if you're saying you're using this criteria which is you know pretty objective the criteria with MAP
107and they you don't have any of those assessments and so we're relying on data that is preschool experience which we have no control over where we we had that concrete data from kindergarten. So, so then it would be more of uh you want to sign up that's that's it because really I'm not sure about using um yeah I understand here's where the kid is but they may not have had that any home experience in you know because some parents actually don't believe in that you know they believe in play, you know, teaching them letters or colors or whatever. Mhm. Yes, we would we would look at screener uh data and again just as we open it up to um all students and and typically again we do have students that do get in that are
108below proficient that do not get in but that sign up and and are registered and and do perform well in the the SIP program. And we have again more in the past when I first started um a few students that struggled and um felt was a better fit um getting more of that explicit English instruction. Do you ever consider any any other factors? Um just I know one student personally and um that I was tutoring. So it's a very you know I don't want to go any further but um and the mother was asking me my input and I said well why why are you doing this? And she actually said um because my daughter can't speak to her grandmother. Yep. That comes up a lot. Oh, we consider a lot of I mean factors,
109you know, we've considered there's been and we don't like exclude like there's not a perfect fit. So, you know, um I know one of the parents spoke about, you know, her child having some behavioral issues through, you know, ADHD and things like that. It's not like we're counseling those students out or or, you know, not recommending them. We actually think the program has been very beneficial for for a number of our students that, you know, because it's really given a lot of structure to their days. So we do take a a Yeah. Thank you. May I I just want to So u maybe I don't know Dr. Casky would be the right person to answer. So this is a I I I this idea of counseling people out of the program. I uh kind of
110like heard about it maybe sort of like so many times the first time tonight. So I'm I'm just going to ask you, you know, sort of like for a uh potentially similar sort of like scenario in uh in the high school, right? Let's say if there is a kid who uh uh signs up for a class and then uh you know two weeks, three weeks into the uh into the semester or into the school year, everybody decides that uh you know this is probably not the right class. Uh is there a kind of like counseling out of that class that happens there at that point? counseling out of the class? Uh, not necessarily. We would try to intervene as much as possible, providing supports, whether that be teacher extra work with the teacher after school,
111uh, someone, you know, pulling in the student to do, uh, you know, just the counselor advising the student or talking to the student about the difficulties. There's a lot of things that factor into a student's performance. But, uh, you know, a lot of people, a lot of kids get into a challenging class and it's maybe the first time they have a challenging class. um you know we try to counsel them. It's best to stay in there and and deal with that and uh get past that first initial nervousness period. Do they all stay? Not all of them. No, they so so my point is that there are some of them who uh start a class and then at some point sort of like the collective wisdom decides that this student probably should not take this
112class. Right. Okay. At the end of the day, it remains the students and their uh their parents decision whether to you know follow the course or not. Is that something that happens in high school? Yeah, that's something that happens in high school. But the thing in high school that which is the biggest problem is that say you do have someone struggling in a class and they need to drop that class or move to a lower level. What happens is that if it's in that same period, you're maybe looking at a class a lower level class that is packed and doesn't have any room or Right. I'm just But it does happen. Yes. The concept also I don't know whether uh you uh are familiar with uh with the VOTE uh situation that we have. Uh
113all of the students who sort of like sign up for for Babbitts, are they ending up in a Babitz program? As far as you know, I don't think all of them. I I know that uh you know, our freshmen have to go through a vigorous application process and then we'd have to determine who gets in and who doesn't get in. So some people don't get in. However, who determines that? The counseling the counseling staff. Correct. Here at at the school. I don't It's like Miss Bro somebody. I mean I I I'm just you want to um the process for the vote students. So um when students put in their application um we get feedback from all of their teachers on uh similar criteria that they use to grade students um on their work work ethic
114grades at VOTE. um gather that from every teacher that they have uh all their core instructions, if they take any elective courses that align with what they are looking to go into. Um we look at attendance, we look at grades, we look at the level of challenging courses they've taken, discipline records, all of that stuff gets kind of put together to tally to see who um gets accepted, who doesn't. Um as of right now, we have 60 I think it's 68 kids that applied for next year. Um we've had a few that have changed their mind of going we only have 55 slots. So uh so that decision sounds like you know in in that case is actually made uh not even necessarily sort of like with the agreement of the student and parents right
115so someone makes that decision and uh my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong is that uh in many of these cases there is a conversation that is uh uh that that is held uh between uh our counseling and administrative staff uh Babit's counseling and administrative staff with the student and family and uh in that conversation the sort of like the message is that you probably are not going to be successful or there are these sort of like red flags that we see in your continuation in this program and as a result of that we suggest that you sort of like take a different course of action. Is that accurate? Yeah, there's a conversation we work together with the counselors over at VOTE. Um the students are very aware of what we're looking at as
116far as a criteria when they're filling out those applications. Um the counselors really stress that from the start of 9th grade that we're looking at all of these things for you to get into the program. The only thing that we do not have a hand in is the students that apply to those specific programs like cosmetology or the senior only um medical program. Those decisions are made strictly by Babbitts. Babbots. Yeah. So the point that I'm trying to sort of like make is that this idea of uh the school providing feedback to the student and parents and letting them make the decision based on sort of like the best best course of action for uh for for the for their children is uh very at least from my perspective is very sort of like uh
117uh uh very mainstream. it's not a sort of like extreme uh uh process. Would you agree with that? I I'm I'm asking to just sort of like if if that is not the case, in other words, if you know we have never done that, we have never sort of like told the parents, hey, you know what, your kid may not be successful in this program and you know, for the first time ever for the Spanish immersion, you know, that is happening. That's that's one thing. If uh there are many other examples of that approach in the school then we should really sort of like look at it you know holistically from that perspective that you know from K to 12 and not every kid is uh suited for every educational opportunity that uh you know
118is available to them right and that uh point is communicated with the student and parents and some will choose to go elsewhere sort of like from what I understand actually in the case of the Spanish immersion uh the decision at the end of the day remains with the parents as opposed to you know in the case of babbbits that uh you mentioned missed which actually the parents don't have any choice right so they are basically told you know you can't do that right so uh we have a uh you know case of much stricter sort of like uh uh heavy hand uh by the by the school in the options and opportunities for the kids and uh uh and so as a result I I just it that part of it really doesn't bother you
119know me at all. Right? So the fact that uh we have a program and this program you know works well for uh some students and uh may not work well for some others and uh there is a conversation that happens between the uh educators and the families and uh you know they make the decision that they make. So I mean from from my perspective it just perfectly fine. I don't have a problem with this. I just I just wanted to make a point. Could I ask just a quick quick clarification there? You had 68 applicants. Is that is that only freshman year applicants or that's the full that's the full ninth and tth grade current 9th and tth graders that applied. That does not include the students that applied strictly to those separate programs like
120the cosmetology program does not count into our 55 slots and that number is not including them. Okay. So, it's two grades worth of Yeah. One one quick question. What is the maximum capacity for a class in the Spanish immersion program? 26. According to board policy, it's 26. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Any other old business? Okay. Um, citizens inquiries and comments, um, you may speak about any topic. Seeing no one, um, announcements, future meetings. will be meeting again on April 22nd at 7 p.m. here in this room for another business meeting and then again on May 13th at 7 p.m.