SV Board Meeting 3/11/2025

001here this gr Donald Carpenter here John here Vian D here Dr Ericson here Tracy magn here Dr sh pide I'm present J Santos here Bo president Mr Cedric dear here thank you can I get a motion to approve the agenda so move second any discussion all in favor say I I I opposed motions approved um in uh we did not have an executive session can I get a motion to approve the minutes from February 25th 2025 well moved second any discussion all in favor say I I opposed the motion's approved uh we were planning to uh recog I uh George uh looken bill but unfortunately he is not able to attend tonight so we won't be able to do that but our congratulations go out to him uh we have a presentation from uh Dr

002Wolff all right well thank you so um I appreciate you having me come out tonight talk a little bit about the IE General operating budget and share a little bit about uh some of the impact and success that we've had at the IU over the past year um so some of these slides look very similar um but so I won't spend a lot of time on these slides um but you know it's important for us at the IU that we do focus on what we call the three Rs and that's establishing strong relationships being responsive and then obviously leading to positive results we're continuing to grow at I20 and that's a good thing um and certainly that is through strong Partnerships and certainly thanks to all the board directors for their support the administration The

003Faculty our students and our families and one fact that I found this year in gathering some data from executive directors is that ci20 provides more services face tace to Children than any other IU in the Commonwealth of PA so that's a a pretty nice accomplishment for for Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 our general operating budget um very small budget one of 54 buget budgets 1.5% of our Revenue but it is the core based budget that's supports our our core operations and it is prepared in collaboration with the iu20 board of directors the superintendant and it's the only budget that requires us to get support um from our school districts in in funding this portion of the budget all of the other services that ie20 provides is is specifically through requests for those services and then engaging

004in in a contract uh for for those services so the overall budget uh for 2526 is a 4.1% increase around $173,000 um good news is that we're not looking for any increase um from our school districts to support this budget um what constitutes that 4.1% increase very similar to probably what you see in your your increases back at home South salaries through agreements medical uh which we've were increased uh recommended to increase 10% based on Conrad seagull um some Pacers increases and Social Security so how do you balance a budget without asking for support from our school districts for more money um two main reasons one is our our Chief Financial Officer Mr wallich has done a really nice job with interest um interest rates have been really good so some of those Investments we're

005we're getting good Revenue back from there so we're using that to offset the budget and then continued increases in our state system of support monies which is funds that we receive from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to help support their initiatives um and that allows us to provide service back to our districts specifically around the area of a lot of professional development um but but that's a big portion of this budget so increased Revenue coming in from the the state helps us to balance that budget just just a little history over seven years we've tried to keep this budget as lean as possible so there's not an increase back to the districts over seven years less than 1% is the average you could see there that uh we had a little bump in a road

006in 23 24 that was right around the time that we had approved our act 93 agreement as well as some other Collective bargain agreements so there we needed a little bit uh influx of some money but you could see a lot of Zer perents um especially as the time as Dr wol has been the executive director at iu20 so uh we'll try to keep that Trend moving while I'm there this is just a breakdown of the revenue specific to where that's coming from and you can see there's some of those increases but it does total that $173,000 and then you can see there kind of where the the increases coming off of those four core areas as far as expenditures so really in summary um last year's contribution from Valley was $23,660 for uh next

007year's General operating budget any questions specific to the general operating budget I know I went through that very fast but a0 percent I I guess you can go through it fast when there's Z I think we're good all right if you allow me just a couple minutes like just kind of share some impacts um that that we've identified across uh iu20 services so um oh just real quick so I'm finishing up what I call the road show where we go out to all the districts I do these presentations that'll finish up next month um when we get the proportionate vote back which we'll hopefully be approving that budget we'll we'll take that back to our I board with their approval we then send it out to Harrisburg okay so just real quick with early intervention

008um just kind of highlighting this program this is a program where we're supporting students uh children ages 3 to 5 and our goal is to try to help support um some of those challenges some of those gaps especially developmentally that students are having so that when they come to kindergarten uh to your school district they they either have less barriers um or they kindergarten ready um we are projecting um that we're going to exceed 2,500 kids by the end of this school year that we have serviced that number continues to Rise um so you know it's not a good thing that we we see more and more children with more needs um but we are here to support them and certainly Governor Shapiro and his budget um is adding some money into early intervention if

009that budget gets approved so that's good news um and we're really focusing on literacy and and really trying to focus on on the practices that our staff are using to build those early milestones for reading it's really important important uh for school age and we feel like we can do a better job of of having an impact to to get those kids kindergarten ready as far as uh student services really what we're I think everybody hears about this shortage of Educators nationally Statewide and locally which which is a real issue um so really at iu20 we've really focused the last couple years on attracting people into the field especially special education um retaining our current employees in the field um and and really kind of providing a pathway then for our current employees to grow

010to become special education teachers so you can see some various programs that we've worked on uh we have some grant funding to support those programs one is our developing Future Special Educators program so that's where we're we're offering for high school students um from all the schools to come out to the IU and explore all the different types of jobs that you could have in special education so a lot of people just think it's special ed teacher but there are jobs such as occupational therapists speech therapists counselors training Consultants adaptive phed teachers so we have the high school students come out they engage with all the different um staff that we have at I20 kind of gain that interest um and then we talk to them about a four-year program for example at East straussburg

011University and we have them there partnering with us if that's not in the books what does it look like to have that pathway through a community college so we have partnership with Northampton Community College and if that doesn't work what's a pathway where you can get right into the field working as a power educator for example and then working through with your school district or like an IU to help support that pathway moving forward to get that college education that program has been extremely uh uh great in attracting students into the field as well as opportunity to work in our extended school year program to get some hands-on experience while also making some money in the summer so it's kind of a win-win for everybody our par educator pathway Grant um that's in partnership with

012East rburg University and and that's a grant to support power Educators to move into a special education teaching certification this past year even with our growth we really did not have a hard time finding special education teachers and we really didn't have to interview outside of the IU majority of our employees that we are hiring as special ed teachers are par Educators through iu20 and they have that great classroom experience so they're ready to go right when they walk into the classroom which is fantastic our accelerated pk12 special at teacher Ser program um I did miss a new partner which is Dell Valley University but we are working with East sturg University Moravian College and this is to help people that have a a bachelor's degree or they have a regular teaching certificate and they

013can quickly move it into a special edert with some some training and some professional development and education through those universities those three universities and I believe including the sales just got another grant that will support funding a lot of these programs um and all all those universities has reached out to iu20 and also will most likely be reaching out to our school districts about those opportunities for everybody the region so we're making a really nice impact um in our region to support that shortage well not support it to to make it go away let's put it that way as far as special education um what we're really looking at for our our students especially our children that were serving low incidents is to prepare them for employment and when we look at employment in adulthood

014for people with disabilities we look at as it allows an opportunity for them to continue to engage to connect with their Community which leads to relationships and friendships socialization as well as allows them the opportunity to thrive so we have developed programs specific to competitive employment with our Partnerships with kalahar resort with win Creek Casino with St Luke's Anderson Campus we have community- Based training where job coaches are working with business and the student to prepare them with the right job skills to be ready for employment M we also now have a full service Cafe at iu20 that is operated by our students and then classroom based instruction so we're really focusing on on really fine-tuning skills that maybe the kids aren't ready to go out yet to get that work experience but we still

015need to develop those skills internally so then we can can replicate those outside in the workforce so a real strong attention to that so um when they're ready for adulthood they can thrive in their Community resolve be Behavioral Health we hear all the time locally as well as Statewide more and more challenging behaviors with children they're struggling so we have been doing Behavioral Health at iu20 for maybe 20 plus years um we were the first in the state to have a a school-based partial hospitalization program so we're here to support all three tiers so if the school district needs support with professional development to build capacity within we can help provide that training and technical assistance if you're missing a couple gaps and you say hey we don't want to we don't want to take

016on this responsibility and hire this person into our school district we need the IU to help support that it kind of comes around like with social work um possibly um truancy intervention we can supplement and and support your school district or when kids are really struggling and they need that specialized instruction then you can contract with us and and we'll kind of take point and and work with those children Colonial Academy um again we're really working on having the students get some exposure to the workforce and those again create really great opportunities for the kids to to engage in success increase their self-esteem and the bottom line is when the kids come to us at the Academy they've done something that has a negative impact on your school community and also they come to us

017and they're kind of down their self-esteem isn't good so our job is to support them build the skills help them to start experiencing more and more success feel better get some experience giving back to the community so you can see some of the things that they're doing in the community through our culinary program as well as our Building Trades program and then they come back to you hopefully ready to make a positive impact back to your school Community professional learning one of the things that we're looking at is how can we be a hub for Early Childhood so there are thousand of daycares whether it's a big daycare center or it's the mom and pop down the street doing a daycare and one of the things that we identified is how can we have an

018impact in putting the right resources and tools into those Child Care Centers to make sure that they're doing activities and programs that really support building those early Milestones again for kids are ready for for ready for Co kindergarten so we partnered with with pbs39 and we had our our first event we had about 50 Child Care Centers join us provided them with programs that's something that we're going to continue to do throughout the year and moving forward and we hope that that word spreads that more and more people are coming to us so we can keep helping to build those Partnerships and increase the the um skills that are being provided in those centers driver ed we can do that driver's ed to to kind of build the skills for the student we can test

019them out get their license um and then quite honestly having two children that are driving another one coming on the way I know how the impact is on your pocketbook especially with insurance so you know these programs do help to to cut your insurance rates down a little bit so that's always helpful too for the families but we do have that driver ed program that we can you know help to to be really um convenient to to help support our children technology and operations good news is there the internet that we're providing for our districts um we were able to to move on to a new provider that allowed us to cut the costs but double the bandwidth so it's a win-win all the way around we're really proud of that um and continue to

020provide that high-speed internet to to our districts and then a real focus on cyber security this is a big issue that's happening Nationwide not just in schools but business as well personally so really our our director of Technology Dr kalinoski is working with your technology um departments and they're all really looking at how do we protect our our data how do we protect people not hampering the technology to shut us down so we can provide really good education throughout the day and that's an ongoing task and and that team is doing a great job and then last is just a little plug for an advertisement and that's our print shop at iu20 um we do have a print shop full service that we can do any of your any needs that you that that that

021are out there and from at least what I'm researching we're lower cost than anybody um one example of that was my daughter I like talking about this she was doing her Deca project she said Hey Dad I need to when I go out to Hershey I want to have these posters made for my poster presentation about the event that I did in my school and she said will you pay for my posters at Staples and I said no I won't I said however if you contract that service with iu20 that'll pay the cost then um because it's cheaper so she has some really great posters made um at a lower cost and uh she she didn't move on to Nationals but she was really upset but but she did have a great presentation so if

022you need anything there please let me know and I can make those connections for you and that's the presentation so if you have any questions I'm happy to to answer any questions yes thank you for your presentation um are there increases to Services you know you said no increase to our budget but if we contract you for services have has those prices increased yeah so we're we're currently working on that right now um what what I have shared to the superintendent and what I've asked our our CFO to share which I hope he did um was that if you if you want to put kind of a a safe bed in there um probably what we're looking at is 3% but we're continuing to try to work on that to bring that down um you

023know to to as far as we can to still provide you know proper services to meet our budget needs but I think is 3% is a a safe number at this point also do you have any clue as to why the early intervention is going up so much I mean like just a hunch I'm not asking for um I I think one is just we we have an obligation for child find because we're the the the Lea local Education Agency for early intervention so over the past couple years we've really tried to partner with um pediatricians childhood Care Centers talking about what we offer um so if you see some of those needs to connect with your IU so I think that's part of it um I think this and the second part I think

024is I think with all the information that's out there available to families they're better informed to start seeing where some of those developmental you know gaps might be and and then they are able to connect with resources and get in touch for those type of services so I I think that has also increased you know the awareness has increased the ability to get Services which then leads to to more referrals had a question do you um with that the literacy um events um has there any been any coordination or um presence of the events at the S Community Center I'm I'm asking because that's sort of our local um you know Community Center yeah we we have not had any events other than our one event so far at iu20 office um but certainly if

025there are centers that offer different types of programs that we may not have on our list um you know please share that information with me because we would love to to connect our resources and and show that we're here to support if there's anything we can do to support you know any program yeah I would I would love to know if there is any kind of uh communication happening with the community center um I'm not sure it's like more of a follow-up kind of thing yeah I mean I certainly will check with with with our team that's that's kind of leading this event to see if they're on the list and if they're not certainly we can make that connection thank you very much yeah but but any Center if you hear of anybody and

026says hey what's going on iu20 or we don't know that please have them reach out to us so we can get them connected thank you than you for presenting all of the services I think they're incredibly important for the community and the students and I do refer a lot of patients to early intervention I did not realize that um you all were providing some of those Services it was really nice to see that yeah anyone else okay to say thank you very much Chris uh I appreciate you taking the time to come here and uh uh present what uh IU does thank you yeah thank you yeah and again thank you for your support and and certainly the support of your Administration your faculty you know all the programs here that that are in your

027buildings um just amazing support all the time um you know every day and certainly making all the students families feel welcome so thank you for that and and everyone's efforts thank you thank you Dr finally add one thing sorry I will never forget you I was in Te 2 training with you oh okay and you put me in a head loock oh Jee I will never forget I don't even remember that I put a lot I do because I went because I hate when somebody does it did you get out I did thank you okay um moving on to our high school sgaa Representatives report good evening everyone I'm Zoe and this is the Student Activities report for the the high school as of today March 11th so for academics read Across America week was

028March 3rd to 7th and the library celebrated with a contest guess the library mascot Clues were given on the announcements and through the library's Instagram each day and students were allowed one guest a day to receive a prize the last clue was that it was found in titles of books by Dr Seuss and John Green on Friday the mascot was revealed a turtle for music theater and arts we had a very successful Pops concert it was well attended and our kids sounded amazing they worked so hard in a short amount of time and we are so proud of them Ryan paxat is auditioning for States on March 21st and performing at regionals on March 21st at Northwest Middle School at 7 p.m. please come out and cheer him on the amount of work he has

029put in is truly staggering I look forward to seeing his placement and listening to his concert he is representing our school with pride next up Carnegie Hall March 28th we are busy preparing our literature and look forward to our world premiere the svhs Jazz Band participated in the Lower Marion Jazz Festival this past Friday and received a rating of excellent they're going to Central book South Jazz Festival this Friday where they will get to perform and then will get a clinic with artists in residents for Temple University Mr Mark Allen the saken valley indor percussion Ensemble participated in their first ever competition this past weekend at Kutztown Middle School they competed against ensembles from other districts and came in second place with a score of 6765 we are so proud of their hard work and

030dedication in getting this program started and for showing the performing art community their talents in the Middle School six kids are going to the intermediate songfest at kataka and nine kids are going to the elementary song fest Pleasant Valley songfest audition choirs within district 10 and students have to learn Advanced Coral music outside of the school day moving on to sports the San Valley wrestling team competed completed their season this past weekend seven wrestlers qualified for the PIAA State Wrestling Championships the team finished tied for 10th place with three State Place winners sophomore Carter chunko played second freshman Max Santoro and Senior Jared Ron placed eighth congratulations to Cole Hubert for tying the all-time wins record at s Valley Cole finished his career as a two-time PIAA State place winner with 164 career wins we

031would like to recognize the five seniors that have contributed to the team success over the last four years Eden Grog Jared Rome Hector Mato Jackson Albert and Cole Hubert they combined to win 651 individual matches and had an amazing team record of 77 to 12 congratulations to Caleb Grim our 2025 scholar athlete nominee for the Lehi Valley chapter of the National Football Foundation also congratulations to Julia Court for breaking the district is ex a a and school records in the girls 100 free with a time of 51.98 seconds Julia also set a new school record time in the 50 free with a time of 23.8 seconds Julia and our girls 400 free relay swim team are heading to States today this girls swim team also set a new school record with a time of 3

032minutes and 50 seconds SGA is sponsoring a powderpuff volleyball tournament next Friday March 21st currently there are six teams registered to compete in the double elimination tournament to be held in the high school gym this event is free to all students and participates good luck to the model un team as they attend the East Penn model un at Lehigh University on Friday March 14th and good luck to the svhs debate team as they participated in the lvid semi-finals to tournament tomorrow Wednesday March 12th at Northwestern Lehi High School this wraps up the Student Activities report are there any questions thank you Z thank you thank you I I just wanted to say thank you very much for uh bringing uh all of these great things that have been happening to uh to to the board

033uh uh I I attended the pop concert it was uh it was great it was fantastic I I've seen these kids many of them from when they were uh third and fourth grade when they started picking up uh a musical instrument and uh uh it's uh it's it's it's very different what they are playing now compared with what they were playing at the time and I I uh I was very impressed um also thanks to their teachers Miss bidding and others who uh have worked with them for for a long time also wanted to uh uh congratulate uh our uh uh girl swimmers U there are five of them who are I think today uh competing at the State uh uh Mr Fry is that correct tomorrow so uh Julia quartz uh you mentioned she

034actually broke a bunch of records and uh is is an amazing swimmer Angelina Deckard uh Katrina price Kylie Johnston and uh Na gusan so uh good luck to uh to them this is uh this is great the the these kids again are are working as hard as any other athlete and uh I'm I'm personally proud of their their work and accomplishments and uh I also wanted to uh say uh good luck to our uh boys uh basketball team that uh they are in the second round of uh playoff uh right now and the game just started and uh they're playing Valley View they had a amazing win uh just a just just a few days ago uh and I hope uh they uh they can advance to the next uh next round so tell them

035all that uh that we are proud of them and uh we hope to to see them here with the accomplishments that they're going to have of course have a good night oh thank you yes thank you okay superintendent report Miss BL yeah thank you Mr dmar um most of our administrators are actually at the basketball game or uh or they have participated in a very lengthy training uh for the board and Community update today tomorrow and Thursday um some of our administrators and staff are engaged in the AAS bullying um prevention program so they are putting that into practice next year and hopefully we'll be off to a good start um and I just wanted to update the board and community staff does know this uh internally but we have obviously posted for the assistant

036superintendent position and we already went through the first round of interviews uh we had 21 applicants for the position and we interviewed for the first round 11 applicants and next round will be next week and we we have five applicants that will be interviewed for that round so hopefully we'll have a candidate to bring to the board for approval very soon um and that's all for the update great thank you uh next up courtesy of the floor to visitors agenda items only anyone like to speak seeing no one uh can I get a motion to approve the presentation of the bill I move any discussion all in favor say I I I opposed the motion's approved can I get a motion to approve the treasures report any discussion all in favor say I I opposed

037motions approved uh on to education um there is a summary of the uh most recent academic and Personnel committee meeting from March 5th just last week um we have U an affiliation agreement with uh Lehi University can I get a motion I move second any discussion all in favor say I I I opposed the motion is approved uh next up we have uh uh a set of policies uh Miss fasty could you just give us a quick rundown on these uh sure I can also toss this to Mr bonenberger because he's up for policies I I will gladly give an update the U policies 336 and 339 um we're in the process of combining we have 300s 400s 500s so these policies will be ones that will be taking the place of and combining because

038we have administrative ones professional ones and classified ones so that's part of what 336 and 339 are um 336 and 339 for uncompensated leave and personal necessity um language and legal citations red to those policies to address situation in which paid or unpaid leave or absence may be part of an accommodation under pregnancy workers act so that's the main thing for for those policies um 339 was also updated to reflect provisions of uncompensated leave upon request by a School employee who has been elected to a public office or county office uh official in Pennsylvania um policy 807 is opening exercises so that was based on um the act 25 and 24 created a new section of PA school code section 1555 which includes requirement for each School entity to conduct a moment of silence during

039instructional hours for students and faculty to observe the anniversary of 911 uh as remembrance of the thousands of military service persons government employees civilians and emergency responders who lost their lives um and then policy 824 maintaining professional adult student boundaries the language addressing discrimination and harassment in this policy guide was revised to more broadly referen the coordination with the title one Title 9 coordinator and updated terminology from policies 103 and 104 uh and their accompanying attachments so that's what those policies changes were great thank you uh any any questions from the board yes yes um so the opening exercises it also has in there that it's now they shall have a moment of silence every day so that's mandated now I think it said May and it was changed to Shell I think it's only

040for the remembrance for the 911 it's on 911 right as part of daily oh okay so that cover that's 911 that's not separate okay and the maintaining professional and adult boundaries there was a lot of things about technology in there are we eliminating technology that disappears like Snapchat and things like that are our coaches permitted to use something like that or they only permitted to use the email what is the you know I I don't want and I'm sure there are many other apps that I have no idea about that they should not be using SnapChat it's Team snap is what we tell them they should be using so Team snap is the product for athletics that is run through the district is monitored by the district and how they should be communicating it should

041not be Snapchat disappear on us that is something that we can monitor and we can see what's going on with that okay yeah go ahead so uh I also have a a question similar to uh What uh Miss Demco asked about uh 824 uh to we and I I was looking at this and I'm not sure if I kind of like completely understand what the ramifications are for uh uh what I would consider uh to be in appropriate contact between adults and kids uh I I don't think uh under any circumstances uh it's it's appropriate for uh for for adults to uh send text messages and obviously Snapchat is even uh even worse from that perspective that uh no record of that uh remains is that how our policy is uh written and more importantly

042implemented that there is like the strict understanding that that is just like never acceptable and uh it's a frankly a discipline issue from my perspective so on page three and four of the policy it specifically outlines that communication needs to be on District communication devices and platforms so if you are using and it outlines social media um and what that looks like for adults whether it be teacher staff volunteers on campus so if that is not adhere to there would be steps disciplinary that were taken and and this is implemented also it's not just a policy that is uh correct just in the books correct thank you I'm sorry I didn't hear Dr PX the last thing but are they handed this policy I wasn't sure that's what you said or not are they handed

043this policy when we hire them as coaches I mean I don't want to have it oh it's available to you you should have read it kind of thing the the policy is pushed out through navigate so through navigate which is where they do all their training for the child abuse and everything else they have to read the policy once it's updated we'll have to do that and sign off that they read it thank you any other questions so just to clarify here without violating any of the of the like inappropriate uh bullet points here the policy is clear that just even with communication that would be considered appropriate if it was on District email or something it is a violation of this policy to text it individually to the kid even if the content was

044fine yeah so I just want to clarify that's correct okay and I I I I just want to say that I I was hoping that that is the case because uh these things I mean this is you you you start the conversation uh kind of like off of these uh more personal uh means and uh you know the starting point is up to you the where it leads is not and the way that it's uh perceived by the kids is also also very different and this is just not a good situation uh to to have that kind of communication uh with with a minor that's just for me the bottom line I think it's also there's a power differential so they're going to feel forced to respond to that text or reply might on their

045part they might not feel comfortable with that no I just want to make sure we were all clear I wasn't arguing in favor the alternative to be very clear um there's been ongoing communication also with the association probably up until about 3 o'clock and Miss bean and Mr Fry are also going to address this with the coaches um and just reinforce the language and the policy with the coaches and Club advisers which is really I think where the the shade is right now um and how to communicate it's not shaded here it's shaded in people's minds the policy outlines specifically what needs to be platform and what communication um is appropriate but it is important because I know this was raised by um adults in the district uh staff and teachers about relationships that they

046already have that are pre-existing this is really just to clearly define the role that you have when you're on school campus and interacting with kids so if there are relationships as we know happen in the community because of people's roles in the community friends the families that communication will look different we understand that but when you're maintaining a role as a coach or an advisor or a teacher this is the policy in which you need to adhere to to clearly Define where that boundary is and what your role is with that student at that particular time anyone else okay um all in favor say I I I opposed motions approved um sorry lost my place here um so um item number three Ka through five Ela curriculum can I get a motion second okay discussion

047um we we talked about this uh extensively at the uh most recent academic and Personnel committee meeting um Can is it possible to get kind of a summary of the different components and how they'll help our program sure Mrs braire actually will gladly come to discuss um so we're actually looking at kind of a rectangular model uh that would fit all of the components that we feel are essential uh for our students arts and letters would be the uh knowledge based component so part of structured literacy is really making sure that we're giving Equity to all students and really building up their knowledge from kindergarten so we're actually you know um exposing students to texts that are above their reading level uh to build up their vocabulary and their comprehension their listening comprehension 95% group

048um is going to be working on uh the recognition of printed words uh it's going to be working on the phonological awareness um the word study and that's going to be built up K through five so we found that you know we were pretty strong in it in K through 2 where maybe we weren't as strong in the knowledge build in K through 2 but this will really really enhance especially third through five and it will give a consistency K through five uh that we're really excited about so common language geodes are the decodable texts that will work with both 95% group and arts and letters so as uh students are are working through the the two components geodes will add a component of print text um for the students and then the final component

049which we have already utilized for the past three years at the elementary level is the Lexia core five and power up uh which I believe the Middle School may or may not be um including in fifth grade so those would be the the four components uh that we feel would bring a phenomenally strong Ela program um to the elementary school and fifth grade great questions I don't have a question but I have a comment that way [Music] um thank you by the way sure um when when we ran for office um last year um well it's longer than that now um uh a subject that I I myself you know often referen was a promise to try to stay out of the culture wars and um when it came to curriculum and to f focus

050on academic Excellence uh research-based learning methodologies and fundamentals you know um structured literacy which this uh product or program um is embodies is or or uses is really the only game in town in right now in Pennsylvania in my in my own you know research that I did um it's broadly supported by Republican and Democratic and not Affiliated uh elected officials and appointed officials it really is what we're supposed to be doing if we want kids to read you know um this is an extraordinarily mainstream curriculum from the um the organization great minds uh it's about as culturally conservative an approach that's offered by a major you know producer of curricula so it it's from from at least in my inquiries with um with staff I I I was convinced of that from their feedback

051with me [Music] um still um a lot of the core text used um in this curriculum um there's fewer literary Classics and I wish that there were um um many of them focus on the stories of under represented groups um great works of literature but you know we're here in suburban small toown purple Pennsylvania you know and we need um we we do ultimately you know our students deserve a a more heterogeneous selection of works you know and I and I hope our teachers will suppl what's offered in the product with works that help represent more of what we see in s and Valley you know um um I don't think um you know white working class people of which there are many here they have their stories too and they need to be represented

052in in the in in in the worlds that our students are are exploring um they need to see themselves and the PE and their peers and the stories they read uh even as we strive still to shed light on emerging or new arrivals to America that's the America dream American dream that I'm that I know you know um part of the reason we see so much reactionary anger about so-called corporat driven elitist woke curricula is that there's a feeling that there needs to be more balance uh it's not something that we can ignore and just hope the anger goes away um and I think that um we had a good discussion in the academic and Personnel meeting that I I feel like we were able to make clear that you know um it it's it's

053kind of what about the best that we can do do right now with this curriculum um um the thing that got me was that um that really gets me to really want to support this new curriculum is that our teachers seem genuine and and administrators seem genuinely excited about this new set of very mainstream structured literacy teaching tools and I mean honestly ultimately that's what wins me over because no matter what the content is well not no matter but for the most part it's if it's mainstream content and the teachers are super excited about it and the principal seem super excited about it I've got to have some humility here as a as a board member and and and and just celebrate and try to support that enthusiasm because that's going to teach our kids

054better than anything else you know that that that that passion for teaching um I believe in that more than in our teachers I believe in that more than than the curriculum you know that's all I've got thank you and I would just like to say I and publicly say this um we had over 13 teachers at the elementary school and three at the middle school from fifth grade that did put in a tremendous amount of time on their own um along with myself and Dr nicolov and and Miss Dobson to really investigate different uh programs different um opportunities materials for our students a and it it really came down to this one thing I you know I didn't mention is that knowledge building arts and letters focuses heavily on science social studies and the Arts

055and and many of the programs do but that that will be built within um that component thank you can I make a sure go ahead okay um so thank you Bill for your comments I actually do think there's a huge benefit in having a diverse um number of books or amount of books to read from and having different people represented in those books is extremely important I think especially in this day and age for people to understand what other people go through and put themselves in their shoes and um I just I would say that I wholeheartedly support that I think that there are a lot of traditional books out there that people read that not everyone is represented um in and I think the more that you understand people who are not the same

056as you the more that you can accept people and um really know what they're going through and support them rather than make assumptions if I may offer some comments sure you um the teachers did an awesome job I know these teachers I know how well they're trained they presented this and quite frankly I know 95% group and Lexia for a long time not phenomenal phenomenal programs I don't know the other two but based on their presentations I understand what they are I understand they'll be build background knowledge Etc my concern is not with what they're asking for but the and not with the amount of money they're asking for because we're K to five my concern is that we haven't seen all the budget yet and we're approving this amount of money and I know

057um it was said in the meeting that this is such a small percentage of our budget but I don't know what else is coming out that may rise equally as Dr poad said in the meeting um that our K to 5 language arts is doing kind of good good and it's you know it's a crapo but I'm going to tell you honestly I don't think there'll be the implementation dip in this at all as a matter of fact I expect to see it go up um based on what it is and what it provides for our students this is where everybody should want to be but I am concerned about the budget I truly am I you know we we got the preliminary budget and it was concerning I I'll say that um and I'm

058not sure what other curriculum is coming up and those kind of things that may rise I I that's my concern not about the teachers that I'm looking out at you did a phenomenal job um they were thorough uh hours they spent on their own and hours they spent trying to educate us about what it is um because that's a big uptake so that is my concern it is not with this it is not that I'm against this by any way shape or form if you know me at all I am I just have to when we we took that oath we we're representing everyone here our community and um that's that's that's my comment can I just chime in I'm actually at standing outside of the basketball game waiting to go in support the boys

059so I just want to pipe in I was waiting for this part of the presentation because um I just want to express my support of you know bringing this program into the elementary school I don't think it's any secret to any of the teachers at the elementary school or or the administration from way back when I was never a fan of super kids so I am very happy to see that we are moving on from that program and moving on to something else after 10 years and um I fully support you know the teachers work in selecting this new Pro program and you know their enthusiasm about implementing it and I'm going to go root on the boys now but you have my vote thank you Tracy thanks any other comments I'll uh yeah I

060I just um I wasn't able to make the uh committee meeting I'm also not on that committee but um uh you know I think that largely speaking the constant analysis and uh implementation of new or or proven curricula that is going to increase our students learning is like the core function of a school right is the is the absolute thing that has to happen uh there's so many other things that are also very important but that the literal core Foundation of a school is this and this is for our youngest Learners and so you know if the administration and the teachers are aligned and that this is the way to go then um I'm extremely supportive I understand that there's budget or whatever but um you know that's that the budget includes things that are

061are you know uh that we'll work through but that I don't think that we should uh not do the core function just because we're going to have to work on the budget this year yeah go ahead so uh first I I'm just bringing this this is on the agenda we have 95% group uh but we don't have geod oh the geod is the part of the first okay okay good so so okay H Bill uh Mr Brun talked about you know his view about this and uh uh I I hadn't uh I hadn't heard about any of these programs or uh looked at them closely before the meeting and and the meeting I'm referring to is the meeting that was held uh last week and uh at the meeting I think all of us asked

062questions to sort of like learn about uh the the the programs and uh you know as uh as you mentioned you know some time ago I asked maybe like a little uh more questions than uh than others but uh that never sort of like for me means uh lack of support I was just really trying to understand what the program is uh before uh before that before learning more I was already supportive of this for reasons similar to what Miss magnata mentioned this uh uh program that this is replacing is one of the reasons that I'm here uh I uh didn't think it's uh doing service to our kids uh it was definitely a program from uh from what I understand and uh what I researched at the time and uh looking at uh at

063the results and uh talking with many parents uh that was was very good very appropriate for uh for for many of our kids but it wasn't uh the right program from my perspective for for all of our kids and uh uh and and that's how I started so so anything for me would be better than what we had but uh uh the conversation that we had last Wednesday was uh was extremely helpful I uh I really appreciate all of the work that uh uh our elementary school and couple of Middle School teachers who were there they they did over a over a long period of time I think this wasn't something that was uh Chosen and uh and and uh and and reviewed uh hastily it was done uh several months uh maybe even yeah

064yeah yes uh and uh as Mr Brun mentioned there was a lot of passion in uh what they were saying uh uh one of uh our uh uh reading Specialists who was who was there and she's always uh a a delightful person to uh to to to hear from but she was speaking about this with such passion and uh with such such interest that uh you know I I I I I give a lot of uh Credence to that and a lot of value to what uh what she said and what what the others said so she's watching tonight Dr pad so so uh so thank thank you all for doing all of the work that you did U uh you mentioned uh Miss Brax me that you were intimately involved in this uh Dr

065nikolov Miss doson uh and I know that U Miss Broadhead and Miss velocity were also uh intimately involved in this uh so I thank you all for really doing this and uh bringing this uh to a uh to a point that uh we can we can finally sort of like talk about adopting it uh with regards to the cost uh this is a uh or majority of this cost is a one-time cost and it's the purchase of the program so uh uh and it's not a uh secret to anybody that I uh am in favor of having a budget here that is sustainable I I I do believe that we have to have a uh have a financial model where uh what we bring in what we spend are uh are balanced and uh uh

066and that that is uh that is a function of uh any governing body in any organization and in particular you know here this is a uh actually a government entity so we are talking about uh people paying for these things without necessarily wanting to right so it's not a product that uh you know uh people like to go out there and you know purchase or not purch this is taxes and it's the most sort of like authoritative way of separating people from their money so uh uh so that that's why I I I think uh I think we have to be extremely careful with what we do with that money uh now uh having said that and uh and Mr Carpenter mention mentioned that and and others also which is that uh this to me

067is the leanest meanest uh uh best uh sort of like way of uh uh spending taxpayers money in a school setting right this is like you know doesn't get any more sort of like fundamental than uh books and programs and uh you know worksheets and so forth for the for the kids uh to uh to do their work there's aot lot of other things that we can uh uh we can talk about and we will to uh uh to to to make sure that that financial model that mentioned that sustainable financial model will will will exist and will be the outcome of our uh uh budget consideration and uh I'll just add one more thing uh with regards to this which is that we have uh I don't know $81 million uh in the bank

068and uh I am more than happy to uh spend $250,000 of it or whatever the number is $300,000 of it uh to uh have a reading and uh writing program for our uh elementary school that's uh that that that doesn't give give me least uh any pause could I ask one more question please is there a reason that you wanted approv now as opposed to when the budget goes through I'm assuming you want to order materials or get them in the hands of teachers I I heard that at the meeting two components really uh so the first would be that um what we would do is in come I mean we're already at the mid-march point we would want to get a leadership team meeting so a reading leadership team meeting set up with the

069Arts and letters and geod so that would be that first professional development that we would have so that we can make sure we have a very systematic plan going into the fall um we would also we are also looking at doing either a 95% or the geod one of those trainings in the spring as well we would like to get that um ready for the teachers and then uh we would like to get um teaching materials in the teachers hands before they leave for the summer and the companies can accomplish that yes I i' just like to ask all the board members to please not interrupt each other while they're speaking I I had a long pause that's okay oh I'm sorry said one more thing I apologize I had no idea I tend to

070speak slowly and sometimes I have a long pause so this is like I you said one more thing I should know better yeah that's that's fine uh I can't count also so but this is like one the last thing that I wanted to say is H is is that I just wanted to actually say something that was relevant to what uh you said and Miss Brax me's response which is that uh any uh new program uh will require people who are implementing it to know what they doing and uh uh I think one thing that was mentioned uh at the meeting was that at least some components of it are the things that are already uh here in the school and teachers and staff are are familiar with them so so that's good but there

071are other parts that I'm sure they need the uh PD and uh some work and uh and I don't know what the sort of like but the schedule is for that that uh you know I I I just wanted to sort of like bring that up that uh anything like that without that uh uh PD and training component would not work uh uh quite as well uh this is uh this is a Ela program six years ago we had a similar uh experience with the math program and one of the reasons that a lot of teachers favored that program that we were bringing uh at that that time was because uh that program was coming with a lot of PD kind of like involved uh and integrated in the in the program so I I

072I just wanted to sort of like make a uh make a point about this and U uh ask that uh we make sure that we will provide what we need to provide for the uh program to be able to be uh uh implemented I'm going to use a word that you guys always use Fidelity right I knew you were gonna say that with Fidelity with Fidelity yes thank you thank you very much please convey my thanks to uh I'm sure many of them are watching and they are very grateful of whatever your vote is tonight but but they have definitely put a ton of work into this and we're very proud of that you m you don't mind oh go ahead Jay are there any other is there anything else that you might require outside

073of this program like perals let's say books any any other it's a great question we we scoured everything we believe that this truly would be exactly what we need um because it would it gives that personalized learning through Lexia which we're currently using it gives that knowledge building through arts and letters and really that word work the phonics through that 95% group with the decodables which I mean we're really getting exactly what we need I we couldn't ask for anything more and I don't think it would be prudent to because it would be too much this is exactly what we what we determine that we need thank you it's the point of order uh just maybe we should Define decodables for the the public they don't sure if you can know so if you're if

074you're using a CBC uh Contin so if you're using a continent vow consonant like the word cat or something uh to that effect the student would be reading about it so if they're learning about cat or how to decode cat they would then be reading it in the context so the decodables allow them to put in practice what they're reading thank or learning thank you great thank you Miss braxmeier I just wanted to add uh that uh seven years or so I uh or eight years ago I started running for the board and um one of the big things that uh was really important to me was you know just how effective uh our school is and compared to how well it it you know I thought it it should be or could be uh

075and then also that that we are very efficient with the dollars that we SP and um and I sat out in those chairs in this room uh for many years before I ran for election uh seven years ago and uh I saw things go by that I really didn't agree with and um coming back to this uh these uh uh uh curriculum tools um I I just want to uh just indicate that I I agree with uh Mr Carpenter and Dr P side that this this supports the most important thing that this school does uh which is to you know help our you know our youngest ones learn how to read and write um I agree there are other things that I think are equally important but there's nothing more important than this and uh

076and if we do if the budget is tight and we have to cut this is not what we should be cutting we'll we'll find something else to cut so that we can do this um okay he moving on to Personnel s if I could oh yeah you g take a vote you have to vote on that oh sorry yeah we have to vote okay yes go ahead ahead just to address some of the concerns that have been raised about the budget and um where we are there was a pause on the curriculum cycle during Co this is something that everybody internally is aware I'm not sure if everybody externally members included are aware of this um and there has with that was a pretty emotional response among educators of what that looks like it was

077done for the right intention but then trying to pick it up and put it back into place um you know a few years later this took a lot of uh conversation and really tough conversation and it started with Administration we all are Educators we have all been involved in the curriculum review process and the pressure um the concern that we had with data the pressure that we had with data obviously from every level but the accountability that we had we had to look at what that review process looked like and there were many of ours spent as administrators negotiating what this looked like in our heads and we had roach this uh new Endeavor and we did this probably a year and a half at going on two years now um by reviewing the curriculum

078policy and putting steps in working with the association about what this looks like Miss doson came here and did a presentation um we really wrestled with trying to continue the curriculum review process as is I and once we negotiated it with ourselves and really came to terms we realized that part of that process that exist that everyone is used to an education exists for exactly the reason that Miss Demco brought up which is sustain a budget so you know when the purchase of materials are coming and that shouldn't really be what drives that process and we took a very intentional stance of making this less about the curriculum materials in a six-year purchase cycle and more about being responsive and being responsive in a whole program sense so it's not just about the materials coming

079up for review and purchasing new materials but looking at it from how we're responding through mtss what PD looks like what quality instruction looks like looking at the data and being responsive to that and that was part of why that policy was revised the way that it was and that new process was put into place and saw that last year around I believe the same time when the curriculum leaders were coming and laid out a very intentional plan of what was being looked at and what was coming forth in that timeline so we knew that this was broaching and we knew that this was coming up and this was in response to all of the things that we saw and the question was raised you know ATP and we've discussed it many times of is

080it the right time for ELA and would it have been better to do it four years ago and Amy shaking her head right now is like absolutely not like now is the time for all of the reasons in being responsive to all of those things and in making that revision and changing the thought process and being more responsive in that sense it's almost as though we administratively board our um accepting that when we need to respond we're going to respond and we're going to do that in the best interest of the kids and the data and What needs to change and the cost is there obviously but it's not something that necessarily can be predicted in that six-year cycle and it is coming at the time that it needs to based on what we're seeing

081and responding to it in real time and not having to wait four years out until we're in a cycle to purchase new materials that's something that we were trying to get away from so this is coming at the time that I think is right I think that we've discussed it as Administration and like I said we've discussed it from an elementary standpoint of are the teachers ready are the is the PD going to be put into place is it going to help with that quality instruction that we want and all of those things are yes to us and programmatically at the elementary level it is there are things that are in the works from a middle school and high school level but just as we're talking about being responsive all of the things that are

082coming into play from now until the end of the year are also being looked at so with the best intention of plans moving forward of adopting new curriculum or um new resources those things are still in review because of things that are happening within our departments or our buildings we want to make sure that when the time comes that we want to bring that to you that it is the right time to do it um so to answer your question there are things that are coming there's Middle School curriculum and that was um from the ELA perspective they're coming in the next month um the high school was under review for their Ela and math and they were piloting programs but that is an ongoing discussion even now about whether or not now is the

083right time to even continue and to bring that in the timeline that we suggested to begin with so that's why we want to be as responsive because things change internally with you know our data and our instruction and administrative oversight and PD that we want to make sure it's the right time so it we are not trying to throw a curve ball at anyone or trying to make the budget process more difficult for you as a board or community and um we just want to make sure the decisions are being done at the right time and and being responsive as we possibly can yeah and that was not sorry no um that was not my intent it's just that when we approve something at this level prior to really getting into the budget is my

084concern this is not my concern although it's making people are making me sound like I don't believe in this that would be the further thing from the truth uh I'm just concerned about you know then next next time are we approving something else before we actually see everything I I yeah that's all all in favor say I I I opposed motions approved H Personnel um we have no items for discussion uh we have uh nine items on the Personnel agenda item one a retirement item two a retirement par professional item three unpaid medical leave extension item four 2024 2025 day-to-day substitute item five change in classification item six homebound instructor item seven 2024 2025 spring athletic coaches item8 K to2 musical assistant director item nine supervisor of Campus operations and administrative assistant would any of

085would anyone like any of these voted on separately okay can I get a motion for items one through nine so move second any discussion I just wanted to uh acknowledge uh uh four individuals uh three of them are uh three teachers that I have known for uh for a long time here Mr Baldo Miss Prager and uh Miss Miller Miss Prager was uh is our uh uh nurse and uh Mr Baldo uh Middle School uh counselor and Miss Miller is the fixture of the high school and one of those people that uh it's impossible to interact with her and not uh leave that conversation with a with a smile uh I'm sad to see them leave but I'm happy for uh what's uh in front of them I know they all have uh uh great

086and interesting plans and also uh uh Lauren Terell who uh has been here a um a par professional for a for a long time and uh is one of those people fixture of this community every time you go to the football game you see her at uh at the gates uh greeting uh uh visitors and U and The Spectators uh thank thanks uh to all of them for uh many many years of service that uh they have dedicated uh to this community to this school and to our uh students I I just like to add to Dr pxa sentiment and and thank these uh these four people who are retiring for their long years of service to our district anyone else all in favor say I I opposed motion's approved uh we have no items

087uh for facilities uh for finance uh Dave can you just give us a quick update on our what's next for our budget we're still working through the process uh Mrs blaste and myself met with the Departments and looked at their budgets in detail um and as to what their needs are um on tomorrow's meeting for finance we'll have the health broker coming to talk about the health benefits for uh for next year and what's driving the cost there so that's where we're at great thank you um no there are no other items on the uh no no actual items on the agenda for finance so we'll move on to community updates uh um the Chamber of Commerce Mr KY nothing to report okay um saken Valley Foundation Miss mag oh miss magn is I believe

088in the basketball game at this time so we'll have to get information from her if there's any updates uh Northampton Community College uh Miss Baxter uh our enrollment remains positive we're at uh 6% increase over last spring in credit hours um on March 24th registration Begins for both summer and fall semesters uh two of our wrestlers which is a relatively new program in our um community are moving on to National Championships in Iowa and um we have an annual Humanities program and this year the presenter is Dr Yousef Salam I don't know if you know that name but he was a member of the exonerated five from New York City when they were wrongfully convicted so he's coming to speak and that's April 15th if any of you are interested in that and that's all

089I have unless you have any questions thank you okay thank you um Bethlehem votch um Miss Demco do you have any updates yeah I just wanted to let you know we had a big recognition of all the skills USA people going on to states there are like 14 of them and the host uh future health personnel is going on to States as well we had a presentation on LPN evening and weekend program proposal that there might be offering depending on peral um we did have the budget proposal to the J is that what's coming up in the finance I seen a Bethlehem votch thing just a question um and the the group um their school culture did another presentation that's that's all I have yeah I just I just wanted to add that the uh

090proposed uh budget increase for for Sak and Valley is a little bit over 6% 6.21 which is a cost of $67,000 15 I I pulled out that data in case someone asked okay all right um uh Colonial Intermediate Unit Dr pide Dr wola was here today so okay I don't have anything on top of that brought us up to date um psba representative uh Mr Carpenter Mr Santos yeah I have a couple of things there's uh there's P there's scholarships for students through psba the application deadline is March 14th it's a 500 onetime scholarship for graduating seniors um there are several categories one is someone pursuing a bachelor's degree in education uh another one is Public Safety criminology forensics uh another one is Bachelor's in the Arts and finally there's a scholarship for uh the

091student representatives to the high school uh to the school board so our uh SGA Representatives there's a scholarship just for them so they left but hopefully maybe they'll still be watching uh that they could apply for the deadline's March 14th so what else do they have that is more important than this they're absolutely watching uh in addition um there is a call for uh school-based uh performance groups to perform at the leadership conference um as part of like an entertainment package I think it's a Kalahari um in October so the deadline to complete that is June 1st and I think it's dance music or theater so uh there's that um and I think that's it yeah that's it for today for me okay anything just U now thank you for mentioning the scholarship uh there

092are a few events UPC coming as well in the next few weeks there's an AI Symposium a spring legal Roundup and ethics act webinar that should be quite a hoot uh and I also want to remind uh all the folks here that and October uh we will have the school board secretaries conference uh as well as the school board uh leadership conference so those are some events to look forward to and maybe something that we can all attend great thank you um any new business uh yes um I've met with um Bob this morning um and we are at work on a proposal uh probably um I don't know I we didn't talk about what we were shooting for in terms of the um the timeline but we T it's we're trying to revive the

093rifle team at um at s High School and uh I learned a lot it was a really good it was really great to meet uh with Bob and talk about this because um you know one of the things I learned is that there's a shoo range here on campus um um probably not one that would be involved in what we did but because it's it's now used for something else but but uh I thought that was pretty interesting um two teams from um local high schools um practice in our district you know um that you know so there's a strong League that's something I think it's important to note that the league is is fairly um well established and uh and they're kind of looking for people um there's a lot of questions that we

094would have to address about um but um also I just would mention that it's you know um both it's you shooting rifles and um is both an Olympic and U par Olympic sport that are um incredibly receptive to people who don't sometimes fit into other sports you know um in fact some of the best Shooters in the in the uh national team are from this area right here including um you know someone from EMAs who's like a I think like a a a medalist so we're really um you know I'm excited about this process but it will be a while before something is brought to the board great thank you anyone else I want to give a shout out for the senior citizen dinner so Thursday April 10th at 5:00 P p.m. in the high

095school cafeteria for anyone who is 65 or older and is a resident of s Valley School District um there is a free dinner followed by free admission to The Adams Family uh Show musical by the high school theater students at 6:30 p.m. the phone number to call if you would like to reserve your spot is 2380 um and they are taking up to a 100 people thanks thank you yeah I just have a um something new to bring up so congratulations to our swimmers who left today um um but when I I was quickly checking the time on Facebook where it was it ended up they they didn't have a parade they were just out here in the um in front of the flag pole and um when I asked what happened they they they

096said it was the school so I would just wondered what happened and and why we didn't have the standard parades before it gets out there and people are you know because the parents who were here were a bit upset yeah sure no problem so um many go back many years ago probably 10 plus years ago uh we used to have the gatherings in the school in the lobby for um anybody that was going off to the state level um about 10 years ago um fire department's actually approached for when the football team made their run into States uh as far as incorporating the escorts so he Incorporated the escorts in um the concept of the teams uh teams that were going to advance the states but not individuals the individuals continued to have their send

097off in the school um and some of that is logistics as far as some of the sport but also um the amount of time that that could possibly happen with the individuals throughout the year um with the number of individual sports and the number of times that could happen it could be multiple times in a week even um that you would have that so um at that point we stuck to having the team Advance uh when a team Advance the states for the escort with the individuals sticking to the uh indoor uh send off and that is really kind of the procedure that we have stuck to to remain consistent with that recently um since 2015 so when the individuals so this was true for every sport so when the team wasn't wrestling team was

098wasn't going out to States as a team the individuals did not have a parade through town correct we didn't have we had a wrestling team parade but not when they went to individuals we did [Music] not may I follow follow up with what what you said I so how many times you it 10 years uh we've had the about the yeah how many times a team other than baseball football or wrestling has had a parade which had had the fire and police and so forth other than those three would be basketball and girls across yeah basketball I should have said basketball also yeah so mostly both boys teams right so you would agree right yep the girls across is the only ones that went to States I I'm just saying that this is that fact

099alone should sort of like give everybody pause right that we have set up a system and I'm not questioning the intentions and I'm not questioning the operational problem that you've had but if you have a system where uh the output of it is kind of like pretty uh predictable for everybody you know from uh from far distance and that is kind of like not a good I'm going to use the word uh uh Fair uh out I think we should sort of like change something so uh uh either not do it or expand it in a way that these other incredible students who are uh doing a great job they are again this is not uh you know anything negative about any of those who are part of the teams who are uh you know

100being sent off but uh I don't think Julia Court has uh worked any uh uh less hard than uh you know any of the others who have had the uh the the the escort and the parade and it just basically it's it's one of those things that becomes deflating for a lot of the kids it becomes uh questioning it's uh again and you you know Mr Fry that you know most of these uh questions are asked about you right so if I were you I wouldn't want to be in a position where uh uh where this is uh this is something that is sort of like every time that something happens like that so so just change it you know so that it's uh more Equitable and it's uh uh it includes you know some

101girls also right so uh uh and and and one one other thing about this and I I appreciate the uh Team versus individual aspect that you mentioned but uh uh uh the the the thing is that this is uh you know that that results in basically team sports to be eligible for something like that basically and then we have a lot of individual sports so there's nothing wrong with that we want to be supportive uh of uh those kids the same way so uh it's it's one of those things that I just wanted to uh plead that you uh please uh uh revise that thank you are there the acknowledgement of the kids who are uh uh who are meddling at the at at the district I think it's a uh uh it's amazing you

102know so this is like what if uh we have uh a lot of kids who uh are being acknowledged on our Facebook page I mean I don't see any problem with that right so it it shows the fact that you know we have all of these kids none of these are trophy medals right uh this is you know every single one of these kids who goes there and at District you know a u second place they are incredible athletes right so it's just so happens that there is maybe like somebody else who was uh you know that day a little better than them or sort of like you know had a better uh dive into the pool or or whatever so so these kids should be recognized and I think uh I think the more

103you do the better it's not one of those things that uh you want to uh you want to hold back that's my uh that's my two cents just checking if you're finished because I almost interrupted you again is there a and I don't know the answer to this even though I swam is there a team state competition for swimming is it a team so you can it's very similar to um say track and field for example so you can earn and win a state a district or a state championship uh but it's based on your finishes and your points that you accumulate as team members at that event so it's not as um we would send all 30 some team members to States it would be everybody who has progressed up the districts earn those

104points for the team to win that District Championship that then qualify for state so it's a little bit different the team doesn't have an opportunity to go correct is what I'm they wouldn't travel as a team as neither does the swimming ever have an opportunity to travel as a team correct correct okay how many individual sports do we have there's cross country wrestling swimming track and field off the top of my head uh tennis cross country um okay golf gotta um track and field wrestling swimming diving we have a diver there separate time um UniFi track winter track so there's quite a quite a few just stff up my head but yeah right and how many of them have gone to States individually uh in the last couple years we've had a golfer we've had

105cross country we've had tennis um we've had wrestling we've had swimming we've had track um so almost all of them just about yeah thank you yeah we had we had we had a track girl who uh W the state right country you know cross was it cross country or cross country Virginia absolutely incredible athlet y I wasn't advocating for changing whatever you're doing but I just wanted it clear in the community then so that there was not the misconception there was a lot of upset set people today out there just just this is half joke but I I am advocating for you to well I don't think it's my not my job to Advocate what they do okay I I have I have an item also that wanted to so uh this is this is

106a you know question clarification about the change of schedule that uh sometimes happens and I know that it happens uh you know in the schools for various reasons I was under the impression that the parents get uh notified last year uh the uh this you know some of this was happening in the elementary school where kids were being pulled from the class that you know the parents thought they are in and uh they were put uh in something else that the parents had no idea and uh you know if it's an elementary school you usually sort of like take some I don't know months before the kid sort of like comes home and says hey you know what I'm actually not uh you know with Mrs X or you know so uh that I think

107I think we should sort of like have a consistent uh policy that we would uh uh we would let the parents know if there is any change in the kids schedule uh now in the in the in in the middle school there is a uh related arts and the rotations and that's that's understood but if there is anything that is happen happening that is sort of like breaking that understanding at home I I just wanted to sort of like make sure that we we let the parents know before we do it uh uh even if it's just for Courtesy that's good if uh you know if a parent has some questions and they want to ask and they want to sort of like I think that's a that's that's a fair thing for them to

108uh to to want to do so that's that's one thing that I wanted to bring up I I I'm not asking any person any questions today but I just wanted to sort of like make make sure that I I express this and uh before you go on to point two I'm sorry because now I'm interrupting you but I just want to make sure before your next your next statement um just to clarify the change of schedule that you're discussing I am assuming is when what you're speaking of of when a child's schedule doesn't necessarily change like we see at the high school where they're changing a class and putting another class it's when a student if I'm understanding a student is being pulled from a class to get additional reading support or mass support or

109remediation or gifted support or something along those lines that the parent isn't aware of yeah yeah yeah so there is obviously you know the the high school issue that you mentioned not that but if a if a kid in high school if they were supposed to be in uh you know certain class and there's a change of schedule I'm I'm assuming that everybody would sort of like get notified I especially in the earlier years and also in the mid midle school that's when uh when this kind of like causes more of a problem because there is no that that natural sort of like change of schedule is not expected uh at home uh and the second question that I wanted to sort of like ask if um if you or uh either of the principles

110have uh any information to share is about uml um I uh we this just you know recently was brought up and I was thinking about it and there were questions that uh parents were asking and I didn't know the answer so I uh I said I'm going to I'm going to ask the question is it you how how how does it impact the instruction uh how are we using it uh who uses it which grades uh are there any data that is uh sort of like affiliated with uh with the use of it and the impact of it in the in this instruction I'm just asking these I again I'm not expecting any answer today because I didn't let you know before but uh um so that's that that's one but the question that I

111I think maybe you you can answer Miss velocity is are I Exel are they graded or not because that's when when when the program was brought here and we talked about it the one thing that I think I asked at the time was that they are not graded and uh I I'm not sure if that is the case so or that's uniformally the case so I just wanted to ask if you or you know either principles know know the answer to that and can um can kind of like share some information so EXL is being implemented in each one of the buildings but we do have two of the building principles here so if Miss braxmeier and Dr nicoloff can speak to what's happening in each one of your buildings that would be ideal I

112can speak to the elementary building um currently I EXL is being used in primarily second third and fourth grade uh for Math and Ela uh with the new Adoption of the ELA program we are not going to be continuing withl uh for ELA we we we don't see it as a need um for math we are looking at a a a variety of resources we don't really find it useful at the K1 level um at all um and so we're we're not really sure if we're going to stick with it for uh second through fourth grade we're looking at what that will look like we're not positive quite on that yet um it's not graded um at the elementary school um and I forg oh Spanish Immersion we have it right now available we have

113the Spanish um available I don't know that it's used a whole lot in the third and fourth grade but right now it is available and that's all we use it for sure one of the things that we chatted about in um various m p meetings I think and as well as maybe mentioned in some uh regular board meetings regarding um schedule change that we made a couple of years ago at the middle school and the implementation of intervention and enrichment for fifth and sixth grade as a formal structur formally structured part of the day um the board had asked I believe uh the last time that we uh presented when we were presenting either reveal or open-sided um it that we would update or provide some updates with regards to intervention and enrichment and so

114one of the things that we've been working on or planning with Mrs vity is updating at our meeting next um next April um and including how we're using ISL as a a component of the intervention enrichment program so in the Middle School primarily um the largest use is in intervention and enrichment for fifth and sixth grade as well as uh our remediation or remedial uh classes for sth and eth grade math 2 and Ela 2 um to a lesser extent but they use them in those courses as well uh but in intervention and enrichment for individualized um practice opportunities and then um some small group instruction as well and it is not graded in the middle school and the the grading thing you saying is categorically right so there's no grading of that as part

115of the students grade so I I I just wanted to sort of like you know make make sure that uh that is the case and I can yes we have I I can speak to it there's one um accelerated teacher that uses it as well um again for largely for um ident sometimes when we have students who accelerate and Skip classes there are there are some gaps that they that they have missed um in you know if they skipped fifth grade math or sixth grade math and then they're in a 78 class or an algebra 1 class or a core 8 or 8 plus um sometimes there are you a couple of Standards categories that they didn't get uh but that doesn't preclude them from being successful in the next class so um I know

116at least one of our accelerated Math teachers does use it for that as well um some that teacher I believe does um some participation points but it's never graded so sometimes uh teachers will use it as encouragement for students to engage um but never um graded for accuracy in ter of grade book yeah so the the uh encouragement or what you said participation particip or class class work points so that is not in the form of anything that would go into their uh first grade this is like a piece of candy that they receive or whatever right what I'm saying that it's not an academic uh uh assessment it's a non is not an academic assessment but they can dance or they can go to whatever like have a piz sometimes sometimes yeah yes um

117but uh some sometimes depending on what the practice opportunities are for that class and you know in that class period um if a student is you know participating they get five points if they're not participating they don't get Five Points so whether that's ISL or a worksheet or a class discussion or you know uh collaborative word problem solving activity it's part participation that is part of the grade a very small part of the grade but it's basically were you participating in in the activity that we were engaged with in class or were you not make get points for that so and then one other question you mentioned that it's used for basically both side of this sides of the spectrum and uh you know when when my kids were uh in elementary school this wasn't

118available through the school so we we purchased a subscription and uh I I sat down and I sort of like I I I did uh look looking to it you know for for a for a good amount of time and the kids were also doing it and there was like a lot of repetitive uh uh problems and exercises so uh uh and and S pretty quickly we decided that this is just like not something that a kid who has any Mastery of the topic would uh be able to sit down and do right so this is I could see that uh you know if you want to sort of like make sure that you uh drill in uh some concept uh for a kid this is like change you know like uh colors like a

119little bit and uh you know expose the kids to uh to this uh minute thing and that way sort of Dr Drill it in that it would work that way potentially but uh so I'm I'm surprised that you say that that's part of the enrichment uh or it's used used as as that so is there any data that you can show that this has sort of like some some value or the kids are actually liking it no yep yep we will present that in a in a complete way in April but but yes and I would there there also are a number of different ways that you can utilize the program so you can um use it as a grade level or a course practice kind of opportunity um or you can use it as

120an individualized learning path so we have some students in fifth and sixth grade who are working on 9th 10th grade skills um and some students who are working on third grade skills thank yep just so uh I can clarify Dr pad's question so it is graded it's not graded as an assessment but if the teacher is counting it for homework or class participation it will go into their final grade correct in there's one accelerated class that will use it as part of participation points yes okay just to clarify I just want to make sure okay thank you um any other new business I have something of interest that I just found out this evening um the Philadelphia um field office of civil rights for the US Department of Education received their reduction in force notices

121today so there is no OCR Philadelphia effective tonight Philadelphia what the Philadelphia office for civil rights yep so doesn't exist they got their reduction in force notices today oh okay this is the that's part of uh doe Department of Education right correct yeah so does that impact title does that impact title n enforcement oh it could impact everything yeah but just got that this evening okay thank you okay um any other new business any old business yes I was just wondering if we have any reports on the Spanish Immersion we we had hired someone to go through that is is that nearing completion or yeah we have uh received the draft report for both uh the El and the Spanish Immersion program so that will be shared at The Amp meeting tomorrow no next month

122sorry am yeah the am meeting um and we will be putting it up for review for the public as well okay thank you okay any other old business yes just one other thing um I the presentation that was given on the um you know a the language arts was phenomenal and I again wish it would have been recorded so that people who didn't get a chance would have been able to have a chance I understand other people's beliefs on this but I I really wish that recording would be out there I know I know Dr P I know it's just my opinion on um recording those meetings is is um almost essential in my opinion to have it out there um it's a big chunk of money we're spending and I want them to know

123see the enthusiasm that the teachers and everybody has for it thank you I'm just reflecting on what you're saying I'm hoping that there would be many presentations uh of the program for the community uh hopefully soon I actually wasn't sure whether we were going to get a uh at least any presentation today or not but uh but that's uh the different method anyone else old business it's okay uh moving on to Citizens inquiries and comments would uh anyone like to speak okay see no one uh announcements our future meetings will be meeting again on March 25th at 7 p.m. here in this room and then again on April 8th at 7 p.m. here in this room