When he one meeting of the Derry Township School District Board of Directors
to order and announce that this meeting is being livestreamed and audio recorded
this meeting is being conducted both in-person and virtually.
And I would like to request
that board members please state your name when speaking.
This is AG Roll call. Please.
Mr. Abel.
Here. Dr. Kiernan Here.
Ms.. Drew, here.
This is have respect here.
This is many here. Mr. Rizzo. Here.
Dr. Shore. Here.
Mr. Speaker.
Here. Mr. Singer. Here.
Nine present, zero absent. Thank you.
Please rise if you are able, and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. To.
The United States of America.
And to. The Republic for.
Which she stands one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Please have a motion to approve
the September 27, 2021 Board of Directors agenda.
So, Rosemary, I'm on my
second.
Donna Cronan, Is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor, please say I oppose.
The agenda is approved.
I would like to announce that the board met in executive session
prior to this meeting
to discuss consultation with attorney and or other professional advisors
and agency business which conducted in public would violate
a lawful privilege or lead to disclosure of confidential information.
I would also like to announce that the board will meet
tomorrow evening from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
for its full board retreat.
Recognition of Citizens.
This is an opportunity for residents and taxpayers
to address the board on matters related to the agenda.
Those who speak, if present, are asked to come to the microphone
and state your name and address for the record.
Those who are attending virtually are asked to please raise your virtual hand.
In order to be recognized.
You must have registered individually with your first and last name.
Once recognized and unmuted, please state your name and address for the record
to provide other residents with an opportunity to speak.
Each speaker during the public
comment portion is limited to 5 minutes of speaking time.
Once recognized and limited to one opportunity to address
the board during each of the public comment periods,
I will ask Board Treasurer, Mrs.
Sikka to please keep time and advise me
when time has been reached, as well as provide a 32nd warning.
If necessary, the board may set a maximum time for the public comment
portion of any meeting or conclude the public comment portion at its discretion.
This portion of the board meeting is for comments to the board
and is not a question and answer period.
Those wishing to present private concerns or questions needing follow up
outside of the board meeting
may go to the district website and submit a community correspondence.
Are there any residents or taxpayers who would like to comment at this time?
There are any residents in the audience.
We have two virtually and one in the audience
who will start here in the audience.
On any topic or.
An agenda item.
Any of the above. Yes.
My name is Robert
Brockman, 409 Cocoa Avenue.
I've come to learn more about the joy of sports
proposal for the rink that's been proposed
for the Derry Township School District Properties and would like to know
more about how that's been going on and would also like to request that
that residents get an opportunity to learn more about that process.
I live approximately 20 steps
from where the proposed location
is. Is
currently, as I understand it, proposed to be put up in
near the Memorial Park or Derry Township School District Park
and haven't heard anything about it
prior to a ribbon cutting ceremony of sorts.
So just wanted to make sure that all due process was in place in terms of the items
that were being addressed to make sure that residents had proper input for that.
And then I would also say that
because it's a dense area,
lots of traffic, lots of parking issues
that perhaps the before voting
or moving ahead on any proposal where immediate residents
have not been involved, perhaps look at other locations
and consider proposals in that regard.
I have I'm all for sports and for supporting
children in the community and giving them all kinds of opportunities.
I just think there may be better locations for this opportunity.
Thank you. Thank you.
Is there anyone else? Just
Hi, my name is Julie Girard.
And first of all, I know it's crazy right now
with all the things going on in the schools. I want to thank you guys
all for that.
It's just got to be gut wrenching some days.
Thank you for that.
Would you mind just please state your address for the record?
Oh 315 Cocoa. Sorry. That's okay.
I'm in the neighborhood.
I am a big fan of sports.
I had kids that played sports all through Hershey.
Big part of the program had stitches in my chin from playing hockey.
I'm not opposed to
what's going on.
The Joy sports and I'm not opposed to a rink, but I do worry about.
And I
really.
Do worry about it, is that that
my my back yard also backs somewhat near
and that backyard with kids walking to school walking from school
parents that park in there to pick up their kids, especially grandmas.
We got a ton of grandmas at park and that thing.
And I really do truly worry about
if we're adding more traffic to that area.
I can't tell you how many times the kids I don't know are going down the street
not paying a lick of attention and 16 year old and the Bronco comes
tearing down that hill and we're grabbing these kids out of the way.
And my concern is that if we add more traffic to that area,
and especially teenage teenagers who drive
that, it's going to really get unsafe.
It's it's borderline sketchy now.
And so I. Do hope that.
We can find a place for that rink.
I do think with the traffic patterns, the way they are now
and with the amount of traffic with kids walking to school right now,
it looks like a nice calm little park.
And there's just a big abandoned field there.
But it's really not.
There's a lot of life that goes on back there
and there's a lot of traffic that goes on back there and with the rink
and perhaps not having parking right by there.
I can't tell you how many times that we come home during baseball season
or the little guys football season
we can't get in our driveway because there occurs, parking is in or parking is out.
And I'm just really concerned about adding
additional numbers of people to that area from a safety perspective.
And selfishly, I'd like to build a park my own driveway.
Thank you.
Can I ask a follow up question? Is that possible?
Just to get clarification on something you said,
I just want to clarify what you said.
Like you said, grandmothers are parking and parking.
Well, a lot of people are parking in that old basketball area.
Is that the proposed site?
Is it a parking lot or are they just it's one. On the.
Site, the current site during baseball season.
That's for parking.
That's for the park that is completely parked in during baseball season.
It's also completely
like last year when we had the schedule where people were coming and going.
That was, I can tell you the names of the grandmas
because it's the parking lot or is it grass that they just.
Or is it the alley?
It's the basketball court that is it's not really a parking lot.
They're just using it.
They're using it as a function to make sure they understood because it's
not a location. You're just notified. Yes.
That is our our pickup system and correct.
Okay.
So that's a police issue. That's not our Well, I don't know.
The issue is that there is just a lot of people in that area.
Again. So thank you very much.
There are two virtual hands raised.
Is there anyone else in the audience
would like to provide public comment prior to that?
Hey, Mr.
Ali, could you please
begin virtual comment? Yes.
And you have been given permission to speak.
This is approximate. You're being unmuted.
If you could please start
with your name and address for the record before beginning your 5 minutes.
Thank you.
Thank you. Hi.
My name is Anza Krasny 302 McCorkle Road, Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak on to speak to each of you this evening
and I want to acknowledge your efforts and the amount of time
that you volunteer to help steer the school district.
I am here tonight to speak in support of the proposal
for the street roller hockey rink.
And I want to give a little bit of background.
I have been a board member of the joyous board since 2017
and just became the vice became the chair this July.
The proposal for this
street roller hockey rink slash pickleball
venue really to me models
kind of the best of most approaches.
The idea came from Seth Mullen,
who is a small business owner in the community
who just asked the question,
what if a business can buy the boards?
And what if we can partner with a nonprofit and the school?
Could we transform,
you know, an eyesore, a facility
a lot that used to be a recreational facility?
Could we transform that into an active recreational space?
And so the idea just started from a question what if
and the communication between those three parties initially.
Seth Mullen Joy Sports in the school
district was pretty was very transparent
and all along was really based on what if, what if joyous sports
worked in the community to help raise the funds?
What if we had some donations of in-kind?
You know, what?
If we could finance this and make this happen?
And the vision is, you know, we know there's terrific
resources for structured sports.
The vision is this would be a place surface
that would be available to all folks in the community,
not dominated by travel, that are just available for youth.
And. Adults to take advantage of the surface
and to play, be it for roller hockey or pickleball.
And why why is it so important right now?
If you think about navigating the world
during a pandemic, we know that kids.
Have. Their amount of activity.
For the non athletes, the nontraditional athletes has significantly decreased.
We have increase in anxiety with increase in depression.
And so the vision was simply somebody looked at the eyesore
and said, what if we can convert this into a usable Rackspace
like it was once used before?
You know, So when I think about that whole space by memorial field,
you know, is it the roller hockey rink that's the issue?
Or is there really a vigorous view that even if this doesn't advance,
that still needs to be addressed in terms of how that space is managed,
whether or not it's paved, lined, etc.?
You know, so is this an opportunity where the community,
a subset of the community, has raised money and simply asked that question,
What if, you know, what if we went forward, created
a new recreational space and addressed some of the underlying concerns that the
other citizens in the
community have mentioned today?
As I close out here, I have no no kids who play hockey.
I have three children who have been through the system.
I am an advocate of creating a space like this
because I think we just need more free space
so kids can just take advantage and get out and play.
So thank you.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Real.
Yes. We have one more hand up.
John Hadley, you've been given permission to speak.
Mr. Henley, please make sure to state your name and address for the record.
Prior to beginning.
I met.
Hello.
You're now unmuted.
Oh, great. Hi.
My name's John Handley and I'm
representing 403 Cocoa Avenue
property owned by Mary Handley, who is my mother?
I, I think the previous
speaker was
right in so many ways, but I wanted to express a concern
about the roller rink and I wanted to talk a bit about institutional memory.
So I've talked to my neighbors about this.
I've been part of Hershey
since the mid seventies, so I've seen the evolution of this space
go from what was this kind of beautiful tiered
shuffleboard court in the mid seventies
to what was in the nineties.
Everyone thought a great idea to put in a basketball court.
And then I saw that basically
after the shininess wore away,
become an eyesore
piece of macadam that is now,
you know, a parking lot used for the baseball fields.
But I wanted to talk a bit about what the previous speaker was saying about
a free space.
And back in the nineties when the basketball court was installed
in the terrace, shuffleboard courts were taken out,
the idea was that they were
going to put this basketball court up and it would be a free space.
But what happened was quickly everybody found out that
a lot of people wanted to use it not only from our community
but from surrounding communities because it was shiny new.
So at all hours I'm talking to in the morning
basketballs would be bouncing out there.
And so the place kept being called.
Someone alluded to it's a police problem.
The police kept being called and they would come and they would
have the people kind of shuffle off.
And I guess in a way like, how can you fault someone who's 16
years old if they want to play basketball, too, in the morning?
Of course they're going to do that. So
basically the
school decided that they would put up a chain link fence
and every and every morning someone would come in, unlocked the.
Chain link fence.
And every evening someone would come and lock the chain of fence.
And then after a few years, it fell into disarray and it was taken down.
And my concern about this roller rink is while it's a great idea
in so many ways, the site is really not applicable
for something like this besides the pragmatic
issues of site section and things like that and permeable surface,
the idea of loading and charging the soil drainage,
lighting, fencing, all of these things,
I think that the school board, if they're going to enter into partnership
with transport, really needs to think about the history.
So I wrote a letter to Dr. Winslow.
I believe she has that and I would ask that please, that
be distributed across the school board so that you can read it.
There's more information in there.
And again, I appreciate you
taking the time to.
Thank you very much.
Is there anyone else who would like to participate in public comment
at this time?
There is one additional virtual hand.
Okay.
Craig Miller, you've been given permission to speak.
Mr. Miller, As you unmute, please be sure to state your name and address
for the record prior to beginning.
Good evening.
Can you hear me? Yes, thank you. All right.
Craig Miller 321 Cocoa Avenue.
So appreciate
some of the comments by my neighbors.
I think the board should fully consider
at least the two main addresses
that are mostly affected,
which is the 403 Cocoa Avenue, Mrs.
Hanley's property and
329 Cocoa, the John Miller residence.
They have the most to lose or gain if this goes through.
I think it's
could be a detriment to their property and property values.
So when they speak, I hope you listen to I hope you read John Hanley's letter.
I've read it. It's very nice.
Tasteful.
Ah, listen to John.
He's got to look at that for the bulk of it.
And then he even goes a little bit beyond that.
I'm next to Mr.
John Miller and then Robert Brockman, who already spoke.
He's, as he said, 20 steps away.
So please listen to the people that have to live here
and do deal with the the constant traffic
I can send you.
I started taking pictures
of the parking lot and how quickly it fills up very politely
and tastefully, tastefully during baseball games or any venues.
But it is a complete and utter nuisance and something does
have to be done with that,
that eyesore of the pavement.
But it sure doesn't have to be a hockey rink there.
I do believe there are plenty of additional locations
that that could be discussed
on school property.
And let's go beyond school property here.
This is Joy Sports is on their Web site.
It's for Derry Township.
So Schenck Park, you know,
Gelder Park, look up any of these parks
and find some impervious cover and use some of their land.
Let's think about the community center.
If this is for the community.
We had a skate park with a bunch of impervious
cover for this very similar activity.
So we could, we could be looking there.
So I absolutely agree with
and that there's free space to get out and play.
There's just a ton of it.
It does not have to be at this location.
And so we can take that same what if
and now they can just look elsewhere and finance it elsewhere
with there's just so many other options.
So I don't know how much time I have left.
Is anybody keeping track?
There is a second 2 minutes, 2 minutes.
2 minutes.
So another thing I'd like to point out, just as a side note,
if the rink goes forward, either in this location
or in any other location on school district property,
I just want the board to question if they've they're fully prepared
to consider the ramifications of allowing sponsorship
on school property.
I understand that you guys are aware that it won't be seen from the road,
but if that's the case and this is speaking as a contractor,
I know hundreds of contractors that would love to sponsor ads
all over the the backboard baseball dugout can't be seen from the road
anywhere on the tennis courts that can't be seen from the road
at the indoor high school basketball gym.
It just opens the door to a
ton of advertising and
it really just doesn't seem
the appropriate place to be raising funds
to put sponsorships on school property.
There's so many what ifs that could happen as a result of that.
I think that's about all I have to say for right now.
I hope you at least take a step back.
Don't move forward on some votes or get some at a meeting.
Have a meeting with Mr.
John Miller or residence.
If you if you try to proceed with that location,
then get some one on one, some real talking time,
not just where we can talk at you guys, but get some
you can answer some of our questions which have not been answered thus far.
Thank you for your time. Thank you very much for her.
There are two additional virtual commenters.
Yes, Rich, you have been given permission to speak.
Mr. Gambo, please, once you're unmuted.
Go ahead and state your name and address for the record before beginning, please.
It says that he is not allowed to speak
because he is using an older version of Zoom and.
Mm hmm.
I can promote him to a panelist, but that's the only option I have.
Will that enable him to talk?
And then you could move him back over to the attendee?
Yes, I'll do that.
Thank you.
Mr. Campbell, if you just hold on a moment,
we're going to make you a panelist so that you can speak
because your zoom is not up to date.
That's what you guys sent me, unfortunately.
We can see how it's working out.
Please state your name and address for the record.
Richard Gamble, 39, Hopkinsville Road, Hershey, Pennsylvania.
I appreciate the comments people are making, but I think the main
the main focus here is an activity for students.
Now, I'm been involved in in youth hockey
Now, I played during the sixties
when it was sitting in a barn.
Took a little hiatus, played for Philadelphia midnight specials.
And a lot of the people that benefited from
that started out very young at my shop.
My godson just recently,
who turned 18, started when he was nine
over at Doc's Middletown Road.
If you're familiar with the rink over there,
this is a sport or an activity and a bunch of kids can play.
It's not a noisy activity.
It's not expensive to buy all the equipment because a lot of times
people will donate their helmets and their skates and whatever, like I do
to get these kids interested in something
other than just sitting and playing with their iPods all day.
The location, because it's near the school, I think, would be great
activity for kids who come to school after school,
get into to actually perform some leagues
like we did in Middletown.
We were called the Typhoon Tertiary Typhoons.
Again, taken into consideration, people are worried about your property.
Well, take a look around town.
Things of value, things that were part of our history
from either torn down or built over.
So I think this is a progress for reaching out to more students,
more people, including our senior citizens, who like to play pickleball.
You should.
I really wish you would reconsider.
And again, to the people where the properties
bordered, you've been bordering that playground for all these years.
I don't see why bringing the students back would have any detriment
to your property. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Gamba.
And then we have one more speaker, Janet Troutman.
You've been given permission to speak.
Thank you. Mrs.
Troutman, please, as you unmute.
Be sure to start with your name and address.
For the record.
Thank you.
Janet Trautmann, 124 Maple Avenue, Hershey.
I would like to also speak to the positivity
within the neighborhood and the local community here.
I know when the weather warms up
in our general area,
a few blocks around our home,
our neighbors comment that it's our favorite time of year
because they hear all the kids playing outside and laughing
and, you know, kicking their soccer balls around.
The backyards are all open to each other
and the kids play between the yards.
I think the location is
a great location for local kids who wouldn't necessarily
want to or be able
to drive to Schenck Park or a different location.
It would promote them
getting out and walking to the rink
and being more active.
As the last speaker mentioned as well,
I drove by that location today.
I do see the proximity of the homes there.
That back up to that area.
As far as the parking situation, I did notice the chain link fence has
several no parking signs and a grassy area which it looks like actually
could be opened up for paving
to allow an additional parking area.
While it might be small, it would be probably enough
to accommodate those parents who might wait in that area for their.
Kids after. School.
As Mr.
Gamble said, I do agree that it would be a great afterschool activity for kids,
and I just feel like this is
a great time to promote kids being active
there as kids who may not want to or be able to, for whatever reason,
be a part of organized sports or excel in those areas.
I know my daughter, thanks to the joy of sports,
she is involved in organized sports to some degree,
but she also participated in some of their events.
They had a kickball event which included parents
at one of the games and the kids.
It was such a positive
opportun nity and experience.
And I think that, you know, we really should think about,
you know, we all
I think many of us would like to go back to the time when kids were all out
playing with the neighbors.
And, you know, I think you might have to put up with
perhaps a little noise in the backyard, but I really don't think
that's a negative thing.
I think that we need to focus on the health
and socialization of our kids as much as possible.
So please consider
consider moving forward with it. To.
Whatever degree you're able to do that.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
Is there anyone else who would like to provide public comment at this time?
We have no one on virtual and there is
back in the right.
Mr. Miller, you can go right after this
woman here on the right hand side.
My name is Jessica Carson.
I'm at 313 Cocoa Avenue.
I have one son in middle school and I have two kids
that will be coming up into kindergarten very soon.
I had the pleasure of talking to Mr.
Singer about this.
He stopped by my house because I had a rugby sign out for the joy of sports.
My son participates in the sports activities.
I'm an athletic trainer, so sports is my life.
I see how great sports can be for kids,
and I think that's extremely important right now.
And giving them an opportunity is extremely important right now.
Can you move the microphone then? Sure.
I forget that.
I'm sure.
My big concern that I would like addressed
before we move forward is just safety concerns.
We have a neighborhood that our kids do
go out and play like the last speaker was talking about.
They run around between the yards,
between the Millers, myself and then our neighbors to the left.
There can be upwards of 12 to 14 kids running around,
and they love going to each other's yards.
They like going across the street to use the swings that you guys have
left up, which is awesome.
But it is very scary as a mom
with the amount of traffic back there and we're always out back with them,
trying to herd them and keep them in the yards and keep them safe
when there are huge tournaments, when there's hype for games.
It gets really scary back there
and we can not allow the children to go across and use that
free space because it's just not safe.
So while I really want this opportunity to put a hockey rink somewhere,
I'm just really scared of what that extra burden on the traffic
is going to do for our kids and our neighborhood.
If those
traffic patterns can be somehow fixed,
if the parking can be handled, I am not against it.
I also worry that there's no netting in the pictures.
And as a sports medicine person,
the puck flying out or the pickleball flying out scares me a lot too.
Not just damage on cars and stuff, but the kids walking by.
So my my only concern with this is all safety related.
So if those can all be addressed, I don't mind the noise
and things like that. I just really want everyone to be safe
and give this opportunity to the kids.
I know at one point
there was talk about putting it behind the library and that flat space.
There's already parking there, it's already flat
and it's on property as well.
So I appreciate everything you guys are doing.
My son is so happy to be back in school, so thank you for the time.
Thank you very. Much.
Mr. Miller.
Hello.
John Miller, 329 Cocoa Avenue.
I just wanted to mention a couple of things about the rink project.
It sounds like we have some
nice conversation going here with different calls that are coming in.
I spoke with Dr. Windsor.
We had a nice conversation, Mammy.
We also spoke about it.
And that's kind of what this board
should have been doing instead of just the joy sports.
The Joy sports seemed to know what was going on.
But this board did not know what was going on.
I am on board with the roller rink.
The concept.
I even
went out to a nearby roller rink for size regulation.
Roller rink that the owner
potentially may be wanting to get rid of.
And this is a designed outdoor facility.
It would it wouldn't be too bad to get figured out
if if that's what we could fit into our facilities planning and make sure
that we're making 50 year decisions, 100 year decisions with land use.
I mean, we're looking ahead. We're not
looking short sighted just because that's what we want.
If there's a need for a rink and like I said, I would, I would be more than happy
to do anything I could to help facilitate a roller rink,
a planned, engineered, designed,
funded roller rink.
I have plans of some pictures,
Hershey rink, dot com.
There's information.
You can look at it if anybody's interested.
I could be more than happy to facilitate communication
with the owner of that facility right now.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else for public comment
at this time?
Okay.
Moving on to standing committee reports, the communications and community
engagement, as well as the Finance Committee, met today.
I'm pleased to announce that Mr.
Rizzo was elected chair of the Communications and Community
Engagement Committee.
So I would invite you to please provide your report at this time.
Okay.
So the communications and community Engagement Committee met today,
the first time since January 13, 2020.
It was to citizen advisors that were on site.
Ms.. Drew started out explaining to the Citizen Advisors
basically what this committee was all about, kind of
rekindling what
we do in this communications committee
and really explained that
we will be looking for additional citizens advisors here at the end of this year
and in early next year or in December, I should say, is
when we will do the for SIS advisor
orientation.
We'll do those coming up soon at the next meeting
will appoint the new citizen advisors and then orient them.
The new board members would be December.
Right. Thank you.
So a couple of things from today I think was really understanding
what where the goals were and trying to look at setting goals
for this committee and where do we want to be in the future.
We did have some open dialog with the assistant advisors
and has very good
feedback on what they're seeing from a communications perspective
and from the electronic communications
and the information that's out on the district website
and some of the struggles that they're seeing with the current set up.
And then after that, Sarah Karpel had provided us an update
on what she's doing to improve
upon the district communication.
And actually she's doing a very nice job.
I'm seeing the communication increase significantly.
I'm seeing the the access to the information improve significantly.
Now, maybe it's not perfect yet, but we're working in the right direction.
So kudos to you and to the administration for for the assistance.
She did talk about
making sure that the
website was linked well to all mobile platforms
so that you're not only just iPhones
and iPads, but we're also working with the droids
and then also looking at transitioning from one call for critical communication
into a and I don't know the name of that other system.
Are we Blackboard Messenger? Okay.
And so Blackboard so again I think what we've seen in
some of the recent communications,
there might have been a few hiccups as we're making that transition.
But I think we've share has learned
a lot of things from from that that process.
So in the future, I would expect that the communication improves
significantly for the constituents of this of the school district.
And then the meeting adjourned at 444.
And our next meeting then is scheduled for April 25th as it stands today.
Thank you.
The Finance Committee also met Mrs.
Seger.
Do you have a report, please? Yes, thank you.
The Finance Committee met today at 5:00.
We did not have any unfinished business.
We had three items under the new business,
which basically we tackled them all at once.
We did a review of the Esser three draft plan for
how to spend the money for the grant money that we got for COVID relief.
And this particular plan relates to the learning loss portion
of the the grant money, which is a 20% of the money.
This plan was also reviewed two weeks ago at the Curriculum Council,
and it was kicked to finance because while it involves bringing back some teachers,
it is a Finance Committee issue because it has a budgetary impact.
And I'll kind of go over why
what what
we did over the last year to balance the budget with COVID
and some of our losses in tax revenue is that we offered an early retirement
to many of our staff in order to not have any layoffs.
And we did lose eight people through that attrition.
This learning loss plan would bring back seven positions.
So almost bring us back whole to where we were in 2019.
But in order to do that,
next year's budget,
2022 23 would be balanced with the Esser three funds.
But as you know, when you add staff, that's just not a one time cost.
So while the grant money covers us for next year with a balanced budget,
it doesn't cover us in the next few years because then
we won't have the grant money anymore.
Which brings us to the reason why the Finance Committee needs to review
this is
because we are looking at a tax increase If we go with this learning loss plan
and how to spend the grant money.
And as you know, you know,
because grant money is a one time expenditure and Dr.
Winslow did a good job of of explaining this.
There is no this is roughly about
900000 to $1000000.
There's no one time expense that we can put toward
teaching students, learning learning like learning loss.
There's no computer system, there's no amount of tutors.
It's really the staff with the students that we need.
So it would be bringing back for elementary
schools, teachers and one mass interventionist
at the elementary school and one middle school interventionist.
The other additional information for you to have
is that the Department of Public Education did set the index for 2020 to 2023,
and that is how high we can the ceiling to which we can raise taxes.
It's 3.4%.
The board would decide in January to stay within the when the index
and then the full
board would see the whole budget for the next school year.
By March.
But just, you know,
to kind of give the full board and the community an update.
You know, we haven't had a tax increase for a few years.
You know, we did a good job of of moving money around to balance
the budget and the balance the budget is balanced for the next year,
but it would be prudent for us to look now at our five year
plan in possibly raising taxes for the next year
in order to offset the cost to bring these staff back.
If if I'm not making sense,
please listen to the audio minutes of the Finance Committee.
We did talk at length for 60 minutes about this issue.
And it
it just you know, it's a very serious issue
because it impacts what we do this year, impacts
future boards down the road for the next 4 to 3 or four years,
because it could possibly be small tax increases over a few years
instead of, you know, doing none and then hitting in five years
have to do like a huge one, which we would not want to do.
We want to think thoughtfully through this and also weigh in
what revenues are coming in.
A lot of assumptions are built into the spreadsheet that we were using as
well that is attached to the Finance Committee agenda.
Whether or not we get the giant center payment,
whether or not the amusement tax goes back to up to normal,
and also
looking at any capital, very large capital projects
we have coming down the road as well as far as building on the campus.
So the curriculum reviewed it, now financial reviewed it.
We will continue to review the plan and talk about the impact to the budget.
This is just the beginning of that.
I just I did want to let you know that it's probably something
you should be paying attention to because it's going to come back again.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
The items are listed are on the anticipated
October 12th, 2021, Board of Directors meeting Agenda.
I did want to note that that includes a school start time update
as well as the appointment of citizen advisors,
which are moving on to unfinished business.
We will now
move into
a discussion on the Joy of Sports Memorandum of Understanding.
As we enter into that,
I want to just to provide some context as to,
you know, what the what this conversation is
and and the process by which the board is proceeding.
Typically there is a process for projects
and anything that is coming on when an item is brought forward
99.9% of the time
to the the agenda, it is brought forward as a recommendation
and by the administration which the board votes to approve or not
for this particular project.
It spans over quite a bit of time.
And during the transition,
both of the administration and superintendents as well as board
leadership over the summer when this first kind of came to fruition
from the planning phases, it had not previously been board
discussed as a whole and in the transition of the administration,
there was not significant detail
provided for for Dr.
Winslow as the new superintendent to be able to to move this forward.
The board's typical process is a project like that would come forward
from the administration, often
with detail and recommendation at the General Services Committee level
where it would be discussed and then voted by the General Service
Committee for a recommendation to the full board for review and approval.
It would then go through the board's
normal process, which is a two meeting span of time
to come to the vote by
it would come from the recommendation of the administration for that type
of facility project, as well as with the support of the facility.
The General Services Committee.
In the process that we are at right now,
I think I'll speak for Dr.
Winslow and I that, you know, through this transition, I was not
aware that the administration currently did not have as much of the information
about the details of the project and what would need to be considered
in order for it to be executed and recommended to the board.
But it did go through the general services process.
So it was Dr.
Winslow did bring during our agenda planning meeting last week
to the attention
and stated that at the moment she had some questions that she wanted
to explore and things that she wanted to be more comfortable with and have
some some questions answered
before she felt she was comfortable with recommending the memorandum
of understanding to the board for approval and a formal action item
as board
President in the agenda planning, meeting,
hearing the concerns of the superintendent,
while also balancing the normal board process and the fact that
it had been previously discussed publicly by board members in a board
standing committee at the General Services meeting on August 23rd,
I felt that the most responsible way of being fully transparent
and providing as much context and detail
so that everyone was on the same page.
Because where I was seeing was that there was a lot of
information all over the place
that we would move this tonight to an unfinished business item.
By having an unfinished business item we're able to publicly discuss.
Dr. Winslow is able to share her questions and concerns.
Our director of Building and Grounds, Mr.
Mark Anderson, is joining us virtually this evening to be able
to participate in the conversation and this will provide an opportunity
for the administration and the board to deliberate and discuss this matter
that is in a public forum and allows for
transparency and for the public to understand
where
things lie, because we have received some
a significant amount of community feedback on that.
So with that background provided, I'd like to first start with Dr.
Winslow, just to to provide a background
and kind of frame up the context for your conversation, please.
Thank you, Madam President.
And I do want to say publicly, like I did an agenda
planning that I do apologize to Mr.
Singer for not getting as far as it did,
and then me having questions with with getting school up and running.
I love the idea of the hockey rink.
I think it's really exciting.
I think it's a neat idea for kids to have play space.
And I
did not give it my normal due diligence
prior to it coming to this level.
And so I just want to, you know, publicly
I apologize privately, but I would like to apologize publicly for
for letting it get that far before I really dug into it deeply,
because I would have asked these questions a lot sooner and worked.
You know.
More thoroughly through the process.
So that being said,
the number one
area of discomfort that I have. Is.
To kind of be concise and summarize.
The whole thing is accepting a large amount of funds
that have been raised by individuals for a project
and not being sure that we can complete that project as a district.
There are still some pieces that are unanswered,
and I have several different ones, but I just kind of highlight
a couple that I would like to have answers to before moving forward with with.
You know. Really understanding.
We've been given
different answers about
stormwater management.
Initially we were told that it was fine.
It was just using the space that's there, so it shouldn't be an issue.
But then we came back with No, actually it is going to be an issue,
especially if we have to have an accessible parking space.
So those those pieces mean that we have to have a stormwater study
and I don't have pricing on that stormwater study.
What that would cost and what exactly that stormwater management would look like.
And that's something
that I would like to have answered before accepting this sort of a gift
and not knowing whether or not we can, if it's feasible, if, if it even can be,
can be done in a, a cost effective way and in a way that is good for the community.
So that's definitely one of the places where I have some questions
right now.
We don't have plans for equipment storage like the the nets
for the for the goals.
And I mean, we like to store things in the Granata basement.
So I'm sure over the winter they could probably eventually go there.
But that's you know, it's just something that we have to consider.
And how long do they stay out and when do we take care of that,
as well as monitoring the rink for deterrence of vandalism?
That was a question that both our
our insurance coverage
asked and also was a question from the township as well.
Do we have a plan to install cameras?
Will we be people to drive by?
Like how how would that work?
And then additionally, and I'll just kind of end with this last one,
the actual rink construction itself
ever saw, I believe has been contracted for the paving.
And I love Eversole.
I Paul's fantastic. I met him.
He really helped us out
with the potential sinkhole that was discovered during the IDA.
So wonderful.
Love the company and he's a great guy,
but that's just for the paving.
So it right now it seems that the expectation is for district
maintenance staff to construct the actual rink via the board's installation.
That's not a small job.
It's it's a really big job.
And special measures have to be taken to install boards into macadam
because normally they'd be adhered to, poured concrete, which is more stable.
McAdams More flexible.
So there it has to be special.
And I do not have all the construction terms in my vocabulary so please
forgive me, this is where I would normally call VBA, Bobs and whatnot,
but bolts with
that expand so expander thing and some sort of
stuff like your box that you pour down
around that too, to make sure that they're being held in place.
So I have concerns about.
Just any.
Liability on our staff for for if that's done incorrectly.
I don't want to put people in a bad spot that way.
As. Well as while
if our staff is constructing the rink, who's doing their regular work,
because those labor costs haven't necessarily been accounted for
in some of these other pieces.
So just kind of looking out for us,
for our staff that way also.
And then I will add one more pieces.
We have we have three groundskeepers as a district.
That's three folks to maintain all of what we've got over there.
And we have athletic facilities right now that we're having a hard time keeping up
with their beautiful facilities.
But there are pieces that, you know, through COVID
and through a little bit of disuse need to be
they just need to be upgraded
and and that back up to speed
and maintaining that is is one thing for what we already have.
And then like how do we prioritize
the maintenance of this new space
and who what gets priority because this is a spot where
there's going to be debris and leaves and and things like that in here.
And is there an expectation
that that's clean daily so that the community can use this space?
Or is there you know, so thinking about those priorities as well.
So all of those things
combined are things that led me to feel
not that I'm not in favor of a rink,
but that I was uncomfortable at this time
saying that the administration recommended
that we move forward with the rink
just because there are questions that I have unanswered.
And and again, I want to be a good steward of our properties
and of other people's money if they're putting it in our care
and wanted to make sure that we can actually follow through with those pieces.
So what what I would be asking for at this point is for me to be given
a little bit of time like a month, month and a half
by Thanksgiving, I would say at the latest for Mr.
Anderson and myself to really walk through this project very, very carefully
and then to come back with these
questions answered and whether or not we actually can move forward in that way.
So those are
that's where I was at with that.
Happy to entertain questions
or for you to be quiet while you all have dialog.
Thank you. Dr.
Renzo I think
the next part is are there any board members
that have specific questions for Dr.
Winslow or Mr. Anderson?
While he is joining us about this?
Before we would have any dialog going back and forth,
but specific questions this duty have stick.
What would the lighting be like in that area
and would there be something that would have to be put in?
I assume it could get pretty dark after hours and just
I can imagine kids are going to be out there at all
hours, maybe ten, 11:00 at night, because who's going to patrol when they can play?
So my concern would be to with lighting and then someone brought up a good point
about the Nets.
I mean, if the pucks are flying and the balls are going, has
that been factored in as far as a cost to have nets go around?
Because I really worry about safety
and if it's
dark and then lighting isn't good in that area
and we'd have to do something, people can get hurt.
And so I don't know if that was looked at when you had
some of these questions of what that is like in that area.
So definitely had some conversation or and some questions about netting
because outdoor rinks, the way that they're constructed, you have
like that's kind of built in as part of their board construction.
As far as the lighting is concerned at this point in time,
we would expect to have signage up
that says that it's available for use from dawn to dusk and it would not
there would be an expectation that it's not used after dark
time if it was, I mean, would that be something
neighbors would call the police on and they would police it then?
And that would
I mean, probably, yeah.
Mr. Anderson,
thank you for joining us.
We My pleasure.
Are you able to speak at all just to that section of the campus
and what the potential would be for electrical and lighting needs?
And when I discussed this with Dr.
Winslow before, I told her early on that I was going to run a conduit
underneath the new surface because I figured at some point lights
might become an issue.
But that was not part of the original plan.
We did have an insurance audit and I've got to move
some swing sets and or telephone poles to comply with insurance.
But there is not an abundant TV
that's more of like in that corner of the campus.
Thank you, Mrs.
Havlicek. Does that answer
any other questions?
Specific questions.
I know I had a couple for Mr.
Anderson and Dr. Winslow,
and I also want to preface that I am,
I think, a hockey rink or any recreational facility,
you know, for the community is a great idea.
So I don't want any questions to be misconstrued
as not being in favor of that.
But I also recognize the obligation we have
as a board of directors and administration to to be good stewards of the
of the property of tax dollars of the neighborhood
and the citizens that we serve.
So that being said,
my understanding, Mr.
Anderson, is that there is a $25,000
threshold for
bids.
And I'm just curious and I'll be real.
I don't speak construction speak when it comes to a lot of these things,
So I don't want to inquire and get into the weeds
because I believe it's an administrative function
for the administration to to address a lot of those.
But understanding that the board would need to authorize
any projects that go beyond the threshold of $25,000
and have to go out to bid and would have to engage with our architect of record.
What is the criteria around that cost
and do we know whether or not we would need to engage
with an RFP process and bidding for any of the services?
Well, I think Mr.
Friends can probably answer some of those questions regarding the moneys.
Where this gets sticky be personally is
for us as a district, is the water retention issue.
When this project came up two and a half, three years ago,
the township was in the throes of doing their community plan.
They were not concerned about it,
so we could kind of ride their coattails When that project was revamped.
What happened was they only accounted
for their stormwater needs, not what we might be.
The path that they built is covered, but nothing beyond that.
And in conversation with two associates
who have used for tactical things in the past, I was informed that
we have to provide a handicapped parking spot right close to the post.
Frank But in addition to that, we would have to offset
by either removing some parking down by memorial
to accommodate the stormwater or in some way, shape or form.
I'm very responsible for that additional impervious surface.
Mr. Singer asked me to investigate what's called
pervious pavement.
This is not only a great application for something like that, it does.
It does require additional cleanings to keep the building
from water drain through, but it's also not a one for one
in terms of of how it's approached from their perspective.
So I mean, ultimately
we would have to do a complete plan layout submitted to the township.
They will require our building permit and they will review the
stormwater
part of this and we've got to account for that in some way, shape or form.
So just to clarify that process,
if stormwater management plan ended up being required
and would obviously be an additional cost that would add to the total project cost
which could create the need for an RFP process.
Yes. And using using contractors
through the bid process, not through other methods.
Yeah, correct.
This will absolutely require and trigger a land development plan.
Berry Township, which means we've got to account for that
stormwater and the plans
have changed in the last, I'd say two and a half years
where previously you could accommodate just
a pre-construction.
Now you've got to accommodate post-construction plus 10%.
So I think we could probably get there
by removing or at least reunifying some parking areas
where cars could park, but it would have to be grass
and stone.
A stone parking lot is treated the same as macadam parking.
Okay, thank you.
The other questions I have really just
to the MRU and the language inside of that,
I'm a huge proponent of community fundraising in general.
So I think that
the concept of this is really to see, you know,
community members kind of coming together for the betterment.
One of the things that it talks about, though, is
ongoing maintenance costs
and there are not specific costs referenced inside of this.
And so I guess I'm just curious from the perspective of
is there a contingency C plan in place
for shortfall if there were to be a stormwater management,
if the
funds far exceed what have been raised to date
by the donors in the project,
where would that come from and do we have anything in place currently
similar to this that could create kind of an example or a guideline?
And if not, has any discussion occurred between the drive sports and the district
about creating a reserve or escrow to be established
for ongoing future maintenance costs to make sure that
that the the funds would be available for maintenance
items to be addressed without the need for additional fundraising.
And I don't know if that's a district, if the district can answer that, actually
sports can answer that.
But that was one.
Yeah, we have not.
I could take a shot of it from my perspective.
Anyway, this is Terry Singer.
As far as the fundraising has gone so far,
this is the first time I've heard
an indication that there would have to be a land
use plan to accommodate for storm water management
that had not previously been noted as a requirement.
But the last I knew, there was still some investigation
going on to see if there was some offset that could be found elsewhere
on the campus, therefore negating the need for that kind of plan.
But in the memorandum of understanding, it does say
a couple of things
that I think
make it clear that that the district is in the driver's seat with respect to
the types of improvements that are needed or would be required to do this
and that the Julian Sports Foundation would be responsible
for financially supporting that.
But given this new information for me today,
I would say if it's definite,
there has to be a land development plan and a stormwater management
that I would need to go back to the funders
to see if whatever that cost was going to be,
we could raise well, not necessarily from existing funders,
but if we could, you know, raise that additional money.
But as far as maintenance.
JOYCE Sports would be responsive
all for ongoing maintenance.
That's clear in the draft.
You know, memorandum of understanding, the idea was essentially
to have this not cost the district any
any money that it would be
the initial improvements would be covered through fundraising
and then the ongoing maintenance would be would be addressed.
So I know that answers the question.
But well, I mean, I understand that
that was addressed, you know, per the language of the ongoing maintenance.
I guess my perspective from a board member,
you know, looking at an MRU potentially to approve is would there be
consideration for the allowance of some type of,
you know, escrow or reserve fund
that would provide for some early, you know, future maintenance because
boards change and, you know, things change and,
you know, even just as the sports
board would change over time, wanting to make sure
that those funds were in place
so that if the intention is not for it to be something that's not
within the budget of the district, that it doesn't become an unexpected,
you know, financial obligation.
So I would. Just.
Considered.
That when we started down
this road, the township was
not overly focused on the stormwater management piece of Terry's right.
But recently in conversation with the township,
they have been very clear say, no, you need to accommodate that.
And I'm working on getting what square footage
I need to accommodate to see where I could remove the sidewalk to make support.
And I don't know that we have it.
It's going
to probably have to come out of that parking lot in some way, shape or form.
And that's kind of where I've concentrated my effort.
Okay.
Thank you.
Those are all the specific questions I have.
I have another question for Mr.
Anderson before he would leave
this, Judy Harris.
I'm trying to just conceptualize
the space there and all that looks like would go into it
as far as the handicapped parking the rink itself, the pickleball benches.
Is there really that much space for that to
all of those things to go in there?
It's that it would be tight.
I think
the other thing is that we've got to be really, really careful of
is there's a rock formation at
one end of the proposed rink that we would have to try to work around,
which might shift the handicapped parking spot.
But based on regulations, from what I understand,
the handicapped parking spot has to be within a reasonable distance.
If I'm reasonable, of the rink.
So it probably has to be right next to it.
But there is a rock formation that I we've looked at
and we're a bit concerned about how close we could get to that.
I think we can make it work, honestly, but it's a matter of them
making the handicapped spot available for ABG.
Okay.
And then I guess
I guess, Stacy, you had mentioned the time that would take to build this rink,
if that's something that would be factored in then to the cost of the rink as well,
because you'd said this is going to be done by our staff.
I believe that was the understanding.
Okay.
And then that takes away, like you said, and then you're talking about we have to
maybe take away spaces where we use now for parking for like the games and stuff.
What would we need to do?
That stone locked down there is really not well laid out.
It's just kind of developed over time.
So I would like to kind of more define where parking is
and maybe some of that back into grass that you would still park on by.
It would not impact our impervious.
Just one comment.
This is Teri Singer.
If if the district is
deemed inappropriate to have contract staff
hired to put the
boards in and address those issues,
that would be something that it was appropriate that they could do.
And that would be if that would be a cost that would be related to the improvement
of the way that the join sports would be responsible for.
They might choose to do it that way.
But if they did, it's something that costs could be accommodated.
I think
there's a few other things I just want to share
in general, Maybe
provide some additional information on some things.
But the first thing I like to do is, is to thank the president and the board
and the superintendent
for getting us to this point
and enabling us to have this conversation
with the community, to hear from them
and hear from board members.
But I do just want to address what is on the agenda.
The JOYCE Sports Memorandum of Understanding.
There is a draft that was put together by our solicitor,
and I want to thank our solicitor
for their efforts in doing that.
And then there are six or eight attachments,
all of which are explanatory
of some of the steps and activities that were undertaken
over the past 20 months
to to get us to this point.
So for
any citizens who are interested,
if they go to the agenda for today, they can see the draft them for you
and they can see all the attachments
just by way of a little bit of a back,
because I note that this impression has been given,
but I don't want it to be a residual
of this discussion that somehow
this project was illicit
or in some way
not undertaken with with good intentions.
So as far as just a little bit of a back story,
I met a couple of Hershey
residents, approached me
back in November of 2019.
They have a couple of children and they brought the idea of repurposing
the the abandoned basketball court into a public roller street hockey rink.
And so that's where it started.
And then in the late fall of 2019, myself,
along with the community resident whose idea
was met with Stacy's predecessor.
That was almost two years ago.
We didn't meet to say, don't tell anybody about this.
We didn't meet to say, keep it a secret.
We met with them.
We shared the idea.
It was to say, Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.
You know, why don't you?
Why don't you pursue it?
And we were given the go ahead at that time
to talk with Mark Anderson.
So as far back as almost two years ago.
I just want it to be understood that
the administration at that time
was aware of the project.
Subsequent conversations
then with the Derry Township Department of Community Economic Development
and Joe Stacy's
predecessor, and Mark Anderson,
we we discussed the feasibility of the of the project
that was envisioned at that time, the repurposing
and it being conducted in accordance with township code.
And the response back was yes, that it certainly could be not,
albeit not all the questions answered, but that it certainly could be.
So I just want to point out that with
with those discussions and that affirmation going back
almost two years now, we commenced planning on the project
and for whatever variety of reasons, I think there was
some mentions of the project maybe at a school board meeting or to not,
not to officially address it or deal with it, but just acknowledging
and thanking the district for its support.
At some point the boards had been purchased.
They were then moved here and they are presently stored here.
So over the past 18 months,
leading up to June 1st,
we were progressing with green lights,
no yield signs, no stop signs.
And during that time, a lot of work was done
in terms of as evidenced
by some of the attachments to
the memo.
You know, there was discussion
of the site and its appropriateness for the project and the extent to which
it might need to be expanded a little bit to accommodate what was being envisioned.
There was a variety of discussions about the capital requirements,
how much money need to be raised
to undertake the project successfully, how that money might be raised,
which included the idea of sponsorships and included
in the idea of providing
depiction of sponsors at the site
as as a way to raise the money
and recognize the support of sponsors.
That type of information was shared with Stacy's predecessor.
No red light was put up.
No stop sign was put up.
So I just
say all of this to say that if you if you look at the attachments
to the memo, you proposed them all, you you
you will see evidence of step by step, by step by step
related to site appropriateness, capital requirements,
fundraising and so forth.
None of it was done willy nilly.
None of it was done
off back of planning on a napkin.
And it wasn't until
we invited our new superintendent
Stacy Winslow to a soft opening,
which is really more of a promotional activity than anything else.
On June 1st
that we together,
Stacy realized that this thing needed to be
referred to a committee
and and brought through an appropriate process
so that we could arrive at a point like we're at today,
where we can have a public discussion and and go from here.
So I just wanted to provide
that as a little background.
There has just a couple of other
things I'd like to say
just by way
of my own personal involvement in this project
and the Joyce Sports involvement in this project.
There was a website
that was public for quite some time,
a web page anyway,
that was quite unflattering
with respect to how this project was characterized,
how I was characterized, how
some of my colleagues were characterized.
And I just speak for myself, but
first and foremost, when I moved here in 1996,
I was Terence Singer, husband, father of two citizen of Derry Township.
That's what I was.
I founded the Joyce Sports in 2014
as a way to expand recreational opportunities for kids in the township.
2014.
I was elected to my first school director term
in 2015, my second term in 2019.
I have two years remaining on my term.
So yes, I'm a school director.
I'm the founder of the Joyce Sports.
I'm still a member of the Joyce Sports Board
and I'm an elected school director.
Has it been challenging to be both a community advocate and a school director?
Yes, but I've carried out my obligations
and responsibilities as a school board member with integrity
and in situations where a concern of conflict of interest have arisen.
I've taken my cues from our solicitor.
I like to say and just
conclude that by saying
I carry out my school director responsibilities fidelity,
but I have not abdicated my privileges and rights As a citizen of Derry Township.
As far as the Joyce Sports Foundation,
again, I feel
like aspersions were cast at some individuals on this board and myself.
Some aspersions were cast on the Joyce Sports Foundation.
So I simply want to say it was founded in 2014.
It is a nonprofit organization.
Nobody makes any money off the resources that are invested in activities
for kids, for coach training, for recognizing volunteers,
and that's what the organization is for.
Nobody's ever been paid a dime.
There is no financial benefit to me or any other member of the board
related to Joyce Sports Foundation.
So with that, I did want to also and I
thank you for indulging me on this
just address a couple of comments that were made.
I think safety, as you know, is critical
and important for all parents of all children.
And I understand
I can hear the concerns that were mentioned here tonight.
They're valid concerns.
They sound like they the these issues have existed for quite some time.
That's not to say we should you know, they had a problem
on top of that and to make this a more difficult situation.
But on the other hand, it might provide an opportunity
for the district
to collaborate
and figure out a way to ameliorate some of that, some of those problems.
I've driven through that area.
I don't see road signs at all in there about slow down or anything.
So whether this project is undertaken or not,
it seems that
it would be worthwhile for the district if, if it can,
to collaborate with those citizens and talk to the township, talk to the
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation,
whoever, about
the congestion there
and the safety concerns for the children.
With respect to the one comment
made about the sponsorships,
and it sounded like
and I don't want to misinterpret,
but it sounded like the person that made that comment
might have been saying that somehow this
making a decision to proceed with this project
would open the floodgates
for anybody and anybody who wanted
to throw up a sign on our.
I think a vote on this about
you would not set a precedent in any way, would not bind this board
or this district, consider any future sponsorships, much less approve them.
So I just wanted to say, you know,
I think the board makes each evaluate to this decisions independently.
And there's nothing about approving sponsorships
in the context of this project that would force or require the district
to do anything related to sponsorships in the future.
So with that,
thanks again for your time.
Thank you, Mr.
Singer.
Is there are there any of the board members who would like to comment?
Is it me or Dr.
Cronin? Go ahead, Donna.
Okay. I'm Donna Cronin.
I just want to first of all, thanks for that, Terry.
I think the context is very important for people.
I know my children have been part of the joy of sports,
not only as participants but as volunteers.
And it's been a great experience on all sides.
And I just wanted to address the sponsorship
piece of it, because in the memo, you it does reiterate
several times that the district maintains
the ability to
approve all sponsorships.
So my question is, if we were in support of the
the rink as an activity and a
location for students to engage in athletics,
but if we wanted to
minimize the sponsorship
visuals in any way, how does that threaten,
if at all, the funding possibilities?
If we wanted to
decrease or further control
where a sponsors name would appear.
To go out?
My mike,
this is Terry Singer.
My understanding is
if the email was approved just as it is now
and I stand to be corrected, if it's wrong,
the visual depictions would be just as depicted.
But future
sponsorships
would be DNA and
whatever decision the district wanted to make
going forward.
But I stand to be corrected, if that's not correct.
But even if it is correct,
I've been communicating
on behalf of junior sports with the sponsors, the funders all along,
just so that they would understand where we were in the process.
And if it meant
if that was a breaking point for the project.
I could
talk to the board, Joyce Sports Board,
about going back to them and saying, this is the best we can do.
And if,
you know, would you be okay proceeding on that
basis or not?
So I guess this is occurring again.
So I guess we would need clarification from the solicitor or anybody who
the appropriate person,
for example, the school district approval, the school district maintains
the authority to approve or reject any sponsorship at any time
and for any reason,
and also that any change to location sizes, SpongeBob,
some sponsorship opportunities are subject to the school districts approval.
So I guess my question is, is it after the fact, like Terry says,
like we approve it, it's as is, or we can approve the project
and still make modifications to the size, visibility, etc.
of sponsorships.
Thank you.
I'd be happy to weigh in.
It's my understanding,
based on your current policies and procedures, that the specifics
sponsorships would, you have to go back to the General Services Committee.
And at the end of the day, more broadly speaking, however, this this mean
this remains district property and I would not recommend a situation
where the district's control over that property be given away essentially.
So does this mean.
Sorry, this is Donna Cronin.
It this MRU give away that right to approve the rink but to modify
sponsorship to a status that the board is more comfortable with.
I think like a plaque. Right. Yeah.
Or like I'm thinking like, you know, like a brick on the walkway up
like a brick wall or a wall like the, you know. Yes.
And I think it was the language you just quoted.
I believe the district has maintained that discretion
as to the nature of the sponsorships.
Thank you.
Terry is just curious, Judy, have a stick.
Have other sites been looked at for this?
I mean, just thinking where there would be more space where you could
expand the use of this rink to include clubs to come
where more people could come and watch and coaches could coach at it.
I mean, I see it. I'm not against the rink at all.
I am struggling with the location.
I think it's a great idea and I think it could be utilized better
if it had a bigger space where you could actually I know some
constituent wrote in about coaching kids
playing there, but that's going to draw more people
and you're going to need a bigger space for that.
And then if you have games, you're going to have people
that are going to want to watch these games.
And I just think that space is
just not suitable for something like that.
So I just wondered if there was other options
that were looked at or someone had mentioned behind the library
somewhere where that could accommodate,
you know, things like that.
You know, this is Terri Singer.
I don't know.
Other locations were were discussed
because, as I said,
it just kept you know, there was no
up until now that there was no
concerns expressed, I should say, up until today.
But I mean, up until recently, the last few months.
So, no, not so far.
And did the rec center ever have a roller rink?
Someone was saying or they had a skateboard park, Skateboard
park Commission.
Is there anyone who has not spoken who would like to have the opportunity to do so?
Um, so I guess I.
Oh, I'm sorry.
What do I want to say?
That it's you.
Oh, sorry, Murray. I'm Amy.
I think that and I heard some of the things that you were saying.
Terry and I tried to listen to them as objectively as possible.
So I think my question you one of my questions is,
do you feel at this point
serving on the school board that you can be a completely objective
party to this project as it is
as a school director?
Well, applaud
you for saying no, But I mean, I just the question is.
Do you want to repeat the question, Maria?
Do you feel that you, in your current role
now as a school director concerning this particular project,
that you can
honestly say that you can come look at this
as from a completely objective lens as a school director?
Of course.
Okay.
So back to what you were saying about no yield signs,
no stop signs, and we brought up the General services
meeting held on August 23rd that I attended.
And at that meeting I said I was struggling with the sponsorships
and that I was not against the rink, but I didn't agree with the sponsorships,
but that I was going to go ahead and vote for it to move it forward
because you had confirmed that
all of these renderings had been done, you had worked with the township,
they had said that you wouldn't be able to see them from any of the roadways.
So on
at the meeting on general services,
specifically concerning the visibility of the sponsorships
advertising, you stated and according to the audio,
because I went back and listened to it because I was
I knew that I had heard that we were told
we would not be able to see any signage from the roadways.
You said, and I quote In general, the proposed location,
the sponsorships are such that if you are walking from a public roadway
or alleyway, you will not be able to read them.
You basically won't able to see them.
Okay.
One of the residents that lives on Coco
Avenue did a right to no request at the township.
And they have forward me an email that I don't think was shared
with the entire board.
And in that email,
Chuck, to you,
who is the Derry Township director of Community Development
prior to the General Services meeting on July 21st,
so about a month prior,
he said, I'm sure the project has gotten more complex.
I drove by the site over the weekend and the lot was packed of cars,
which supports one of the complaints about loss of parking for the fields.
I'm guessing you are working on the season hours of operation.
As to the signs,
the plans that you provided thus far were to try to show
that the advertising cannot be seen from the public roadways.
That technically includes East-West
Alley to the north of the site.
While the exhibits were well done,
we really can't finally judge that until the rink is up.
It would also be difficult for the zoning hearing board to grant relief unless.
They knew exactly what things would look like.
In other words, there is not an easy final answer to the question.
I wish I could be more helpful.
So I would say that
when I voted in general service, it was under a false pretense
that I was given that those signs, those sponsorship,
would not be seen from any roadway.
Do you have anything to say?
This is Terry Singer.
I've shared subsequently
in our numerous times that
and they said until they're up
there, there can't be any certainty.
But they also said for some reason
it doesn't cut it the way you have it.
If you put another two inch little border on top of the boards
or something along those lines,
it would then reduce the visibility.
So it was it was presented and discussed
as though you can't know until it's done.
But even if for some reason
it goes up, there's probably 2 million sightlines.
In terms of the elevation and
the visibility on those two roads,
there is no way to know
from any particular point in time
whether one thing could be seen, something could be seen or not.
If somebody says they see it, the township comes up and affirms that.
Then we might have to add an inch or two inches of
of a border on top.
So this is Don Cronin.
Can I have clarification?
Because isn't it isn't it true that
if we did approve
the MRU that we still have the ability to say, well,
we want that to be smaller, we don't want that to be seen, or we,
you know,
it's like it's going to be built in there and all of a sudden we're like, Oh,
we're stuck with it because we can modify it even before it starts.
We can say we don't want those ones that are sitting on the sideline.
We want on the sign with a you know, with a little inscription on a wall like this.
We're not voting to say this is exactly how it's going to look.
We can we can modify the sponsorship, how we want to see it.
Well, I mean, according.
To what you just said, right? Yeah, according to what they said.
I don't think we have to worry that.
I don't think At least I hope not, because I agree with Miss Mary.
I want to be voting on a rink
and the sponsorship separately and not as a package deal
because I like the idea of the rink, but I don't like the idea of
crazy visibility of sponsorship.
I like it in a more tasteful,
some subtle way
this stupid have.
So they just ask a question.
Is there anything more you want to say?
Yeah, but I.
Judy has a question about the sponsorships.
Well, I was just going to say, if we, you know, do decide to go ahead
with this project and we are thinking of changing the sponsorship outlook.
Look, I think it would be fair, though,
to go back to the sponsors to let them know, because I think
they might be under the impression that it's going to be like this
to make sure that they would still want to sponsor.
So I would just.
Yeah.
Outside of doing that,
if because it sounds like we would change how the sponsorship chosen
because I was under the impression that we were voting on how it looked
with this drawing, that that's what the memo was saying and that the future
sponsorships, we had a saying, but we were approving this drawing.
Was I was under that impression as well.
So. So thank you for clarifying.
So I'll just point in in the MSU Section five,
we included that the sponsorship advertising must comply with all school
district policies and we intentionally added in here
all sponsorships must comply
with the guidelines and restrictions set forth in school district policy
as may be amended, and any other policy or procedure
that may be adopted by the Board of School Directors or the administration.
So it was the intent, at least my understanding of the intent in
going through this process, that the district was maintaining
ultimate discretion in its facilities and what was presented on its facilities.
Mr. Wong I will just
add in to that, because we were part of previous discussion there.
We had talked about this and confirmed
with you.
It stated in an email
that the MRU, as presented with exhibits, would complete approval
for MRU terms, gift approval and approval of initial sponsorships.
Any future sponsorships not included on this
MRU would be subject to board approval process per policy
so that there in the one
exhibit on the MSU, it does list
the presents the visual visual as well as the list of the sponsors.
Yes, that is my understanding and I believe so. Mr..
But I only added that in and to the point
that was made about not knowing what it looks like until it's up.
This gave us the flexibility that if something came up and the size,
the color or something wasn't what we intended, or
if there's lines that sites the district still had that ultimate authority.
Okay.
What was approved through that process that we discussed wasn't there?
Just to confirm, you're seeing that the sponsorships
that are listed and included in Exhibit C, I believe it was, of that attachment
does provide initial preliminary approval, but upon completion
the district would reserve the right to be able to say
it needs to be smaller.
For example, reason if it is visible from the road,
then from a zoning ordinance perspective it would constitute signage
which have to be addressed.
That's correct.
Okay.
And I just want to point out to in section five, B of of the MCU, we did
include the sponsorships must comply with all applicable ordinances.
So if an application, it did not come out as intended, even though
there was a good amount of due diligence ahead of time in the sightlines and
and designing these that if something in the a complaint
or if the township wasn't happy from a zoning perspective,
we did have that flexibility to make whatever changes were necessary.
Okay.
Thank you.
Other comments or questions.
Too. Two quick questions.
Who who will be taking the lead
in studying the increase in traffic associated with this project?
How will that investigation proceed?
The answer that we got from the township
initially was since no land development plan was required,
there would be no requirement for a traffic study per se officially.
But that's not to say that the concerns of the citizens who are spoken tonight
couldn't couldn't be addressed and couldn't be addressed somehow.
But now that tonight, it seems that there was some discussion
about a land development plan perhaps being required.
So that may change that calculation.
I don't know.
That's something I just learned today.
That's something that just came to light as Mr.
Anderson was looking at impervious coverage pieces.
And so we would have to.
Have to move forward. With that to.
See if.
The traffic study would be part of that land development plan.
That would have to be a part of that.
And second, what happens
in the event that Joy sports ceases operations?
I don't think that's covered memo you
I don't think it is I think there's language in there
that any party can end the agreement any time for any reason or no reason.
Yeah, that's correct.
And to that point, when when we were initially looking
at this as a draft to present to the committee,
there was discussion about not only liability
but also recognition of the fact that this is district property.
And at the end of the day, it remains district property.
So there's only so far and to a certain extent that obligations
can be imposed on a third party nonprofit.
We have to recognize that it is district property.
And that was the point that we discussed through the process.
Okay. Thanks, Dave.
And just just an observation, Terry, given given
the apparent amount of demand for a roller rink,
it just may be that this project is too big for that site.
There are any board
members who have not commented that would like to.
Before we do a final.
Go around, is.
There anyone else
who would like to comment or ask questions?
Yeah, I'd like to make a comment.
I really didn't like the innuendo of Ms..
Mimi's comments about be somehow
misleading the committee.
So in the same spirit
with which that accusation was made, I ask you, Mrs.
Mannie, can you be objective in evaluating this project
and considering this project in view of the anger that you have towards me?
Because I didn't what she said.
All right, let's keep this related, please.
Specifically, I had somebody accuse me of misleading a committee.
I think that's a pretty harsh statement to make.
You said you won't be able to read them.
You basically won't be able to see them.
And then I read an email from Chuck Emmerich that said, We can't finally that.
So instead of saying,
I'm not sure you definitively said you won't be able to see them, because.
In the final analysis, you wouldn't be able to see them.
You don't know that Well.
Well, whatever adjustment would have to be made would have to be made.
That's why I mean,
but I really don't appreciate you
pretty much saying that I attempted to mislead the committee, Maria.
So if you can't be objective, then I can be objective.
Take out your Benedetta in a public meeting.
My role here as a school board director is to make sure
that this project is transparent and being delivered to us
with honesty and the proper information that we need to make a decision.
So some things were brought to my attention from concerned people,
as they should be, as they are allowed to.
And that's why we're here talking about it.
So your defensiveness leads me,
which I wasn't going to say, and start a real nuclear war
of the misuse of your position as a Derry Township school board director
to get to this point, because there have been costs already
associated with this that the district has assumed
we paid to transport those boards onto district property.
They are being stored in one of our buildings.
When we were getting blasted year
for paying for offsite storage for COVID.
I wasn't even going to bring that up.
So for everybody listening, I am not against physical activity.
More things for kids and more things for constituents.
But what I am against is the way that this has all kind of
weaved around for you to sit there and say there were no yield signs,
there were no stop signs, and you paint this picture.
That's fine. That's not how I see it.
And I should be able to say I don't see it like that
without you coming at me and saying, I don't appreciate it.
I don't appreciate this mess that we got dumped on our lap less than a month ago.
I have a question.
Following up, Sergeant Gibson, Donna Cronin.
Was there ever a study done?
When I remember vividly when the Harbor basketball people
wanted to increase basketball utilization throughout the township and they put in
they were adding basketball courts throughout the township.
Was a traffic study ever needed or requested at that point
when that basketball court was originally put in in the late nineties, early 2000?
Because I see it as a park has different facilities.
That clearly has changed.
I don't remember the shuffle boards, but clearly it's changed as the need
as people change from wanting, you know, basketball was in now roller rink is in
pickleball is brand new.
So I see this as a new evolve parks have evolving utilization.
So back when baseball was put in that was really a popular
place was a study done there that we could utilize in terms of what
we could project this to have an impact on rather
than, you know, reinventing the wheel, so to speak.
And maybe we don't have an answer.
We can look into that
with Chuck Emmerich or the powers that be, because at that point, the same question
that 1990, maybe 1990, I guess I'm just saying 2021.
I mean that I'm just curious.
A new a new facility brings new excitement and it may not be exactly relevant,
but I'd like to think it would be important to see what that impact would be
if they have it.
Okay.
That's all.
Whatever data we have doesn't hurt there.
Any other comments?
So I just have a question for moving forward.
Dr. Winslow, you had stated that, you know,
you need a couple of months to put things together.
So in putting those things together, will you be able to just kind of map out
like this is how much the hours would be, or if we construct, you know,
had to hire out for a construction company?
And this is how much the land
study would be in the traffic just so we have a
and so Terry would have an idea of the because in any project
you start with this amount and then there's always things
like moving that rocks or you know, there's always additional costs
that you're going to have to factor in.
But it sounds like this project might even be more
extensive monetarily wise and may be initially figured.
And then, I don't know, Mr.
Singer, if in the meantime,
if it's possible to just to see if there's other places that would be able to build
even bigger and could accommodate more usage for the ring.
As far as more people being able to coach kids and actually have games
and all of that in the meantime, I don't know if that's something
you could bring back to the committee
just to see if that's a possibility in case this doesn't work out.
Just a thought.
So, Dr.
Winslow, at the beginning of this
requested,
I apologize, Dr. Winslow.
I'm trying to go back through my notes. There's been a. Lot of things.
Discussed, a time frame for.
For bringing this. Of what?
What did you propose for when you would want to?
I would want to have some.
Some answers by Thanksgiving, if possible.
So that we're not
so that we know what we're doing and so that we can give an actual recommendation.
And so that, you know, Mr.
Singer is kind of hanging there waiting.
Is the board agreeable to that?
What what was the timeframe?
I'm sorry, I didn't hear it before Thanksgiving.
It's reasonable.
We're taking a vote.
Are we just saying I'm just looking for feedback on it
because it's not an actionable item, but I want to make sure
that's final.
There's not done so late if that's what she thinks she needs.
Seems reasonable.
Okay.
Thank you for the information.
Mr. Anderson, thank you for for being here and providing this.
Mr. Singer.
Thank you for putting together all of the information and the background
and helping kind of put all the information out there and Dr.
Winslow as well and to the board for questions, comments.
Mr. Walker.
For the among you assistants.
So then
the administration will.
Move.
Forward with any of the outstanding items.
And at a November board meeting.
We will.
Look for
an update or if, if possible, you know, by
prior to that so that it could follow through our process and and come to a.
Vote before them.
Okay.
Moving on to the consent agenda.
The consent agenda contains routinely adopted items and items
that normally do not require public deliberations on the part of the board.
A board member may pull items which will then be discussed and voted on separately.
May I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as listed
so moved Maria, Mimi Deck and Donna Cronan.
Is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor, please say any opposed.
The consent agenda is approved.
Moving on to new business,
the temporary building closure for students.
Dr. Windsor.
The administration recommends the board approve a temporary building closure
due to the total number of positive COVID cases for students
in the elementary school for grades two through five from Monday, September
27th, 2021 through Friday, October 1st, 2021.
With in-person learning to be resumed on Monday,
October 4th, 2021, 2021.
This approval is retroactive to Friday, September 24th, 2021.
May I please have a motion
to approve the temporary building closure for students so moved Maria Mimi
second, Donna Cronan,
is there any discussion
I would like just for the purpose of understanding, for the public's
purpose, to just kind of explain what this motion is and the process?
I received a call from Dr.
Winslow on Friday afternoon as board president
with concern over the weekly tally that had been
reported to her on the number of COVID cases in grades
through five at the elementary school.
We talked through what the process would be and identified
that there was not currently any authority in place for Dr.
Winslow as, the superintendent, to be able to make
a recommendation or a decision to close the building on her own.
I consulted with the school's solicitor on what the best
process would be for that, and when I talked to Dr.
Winslow
after it was around close to 3 p.m.
at that time.
Following the solicitor's guidance,
it was determined that I would contact
each one of the board members to explain the situation that we were in,
which was that we had exceeded the recommendation by the Department
of Health of 5% of the building total of positive cases over a 14 day period.
The other condition of the criteria
is three simultaneous classroom outbreaks.
During that period, we had met both of those.
And so I would call each board member
to review this information and to convey Dr.
Winslow's request for authority to be able to close the building
for Monday through Friday to allow for
for that spread to to settle down
because of the timing of the day and being concerned for the weekend,
wanting to make sure knowing that we had a board meeting on Monday.
We we felt that it was
in the best interest for the students and teachers to prepare
that the buildings would be notified, the building would be notified
to make sure that the kids took things home for the weekend.
I know there was some confusion that people thought the kids knew.
First, it was, you know, very explicitly stated with Dr.
Winslow that there were no guarantees they needed to speak to all eight of board
members and receive a majority consensus.
But we wanted to try to be proactive in preparation for that.
I did speak with
seven, eight board members, including myself, and was not able to speak
to one of the other board members until later in the weekend, but did convey
where were at and received that majority consensus,
communicated that to the board and was able to give Dr.
Winslow the authorization to do that.
Following up with official action tonight that is retroactive.
So we have this motion that is for the retroactive approval
as reported by each one of the board members individually.
To me,
during the span of Friday afternoon in my conversations with each one of them.
The next motion on the agenda will address the process
for should anything like this be needed again going forward.
So I just want to make sure because these are times
that we are not, you know, used to and this is not a normal
motion
on the board that the public was, you know,
fully aware of the process by which this came to
and that each board was consulted
as available during that timeframe on Friday
to be able to provide that authorization at that time
that we are approving this evening to be retroactive.
So, Judy Harris,
I do just have a kind of clarification question.
Initially, when we were talking about lunches in the beginning of the year,
I think we talked about maybe being able to see individual desks.
And I just wanted clarification how now we are able to do that
and just an explanation of what these shields are.
Are they in the front?
Are they on the side?
Do they just for the purpose of just if I could, Mrs.
Harris, just ask you to hold that to the next item.
Because as for the going forward, this is for what
we're currently inside of this Monday through Friday closure.
No problem.
So does anyone have any other questions?
Is Eddie, I'm just going to ask for a roll call for this one.
For the record, please,
Mr. Abel? Yes.
Dr. Curran? Yes. Mr. Drew.
Yes, Mrs. Harris?
Yes, Mrs. Manning? Yes.
This is Mr. Rizzo. Yes.
Dr. Shaw. Yes.
Mrs. Secor?
Yes, Mr. Singer? Yes.
Nine. Yes.
Thank you, Mrs. G.
Next item is Authorization of Transition to Virtual Instruction.
Dr. Winslow, please.
The administration recommends the board grant the superintendent authority
to transition to virtual instruction model on the total positive COVID
cases in a building during a 14 day period exceeds 5% of the building population.
Or when there are three or more simultaneous classroom
as recommended by the Department of Health.
Following consultation with the board, as well as the District pandemic team.
Thank you.
May I please have a motion to approve the authorization of Dr.
Winslow's transition to virtual instruction So moved Maria Mimi
Second.
Donna Cronan, is there any discussion?
Yes, sir.
So if you could just explain how things are going
to be changing when the kids come back regarding these desks?
You know, I didn't know we had extra desks.
We could do this.
But and how these shields and. Absolutely.
So we had one we had wanted to try to provide as normal
an atmosphere as possible for the students,
because we know that was an issue last year
that kids didn't get to socialize with their friends during lunch
while the elementary schools didn't get to have lunch at all at school.
So we wanted to keep it as normal as possible.
There have been a lot of suggestions for how we can could mitigate lunches
because it's been a concern all. Along.
In seeing this happening.
And, you know, our teachers are really great.
They have willingly shifted their planning.
Some of them are going to be giving up planning time in order to monitor us
because we don't have enough cafeteria
recess aides to monitor in the extra spaces.
So we did we had because of the desks
that we purchased during the whole COVID
getting ready for school last year, we did have some extra desks and storage,
so we were able to bring those desks over.
They're going to be in the cafeteria and in the MPR.
Teachers are shifting some of their their planning time kind of.
Shifting.
Where their lunch is to their planning time.
So they're giving up that piece so that they can still get their lunch
to be able to monitor it so the students can be
at least three feet apart and spread out.
So it's
not ideal because it's definitely impacting.
What. The teachers are going to be able to do during the day.
But it is better to keep the kids safe than. So.
You have to give somewhere and that's what we're going to give.
As far as the shields are concerned, they're just a foldable
plexiglass shield that it's light that just sits on the desks.
It's nice.
You have three sides. Three sides. Okay.
So the teachers are going to be monitoring in the cafeteria, teary eyed.
I missed I'm sorry, the teachers are going to be monitoring in the MPR or the cafe.
I don't know which way Mrs.
Funk will actually have them stationed,
but the so the teachers are going to make up that extra supervision piece
that we need because you have extra space that you're utilizing. Yes.
We're basically
putting putting the students in
the MPR does take away the ensemble space for orchestra.
So just want to be kind of clear about that.
It does impact.
Some.
Some music instruction that way.
But. It allows for us to get the students spread out
and to to be monitored in a space that's close enough to the cafeteria
so that we don't have to worry about kids
not being able to get their lunch in a timely manner.
Sorry, this I didn't say my name. This is Donna Cronin.
So my my question is we're going from what spacing
previously to now three feet spacing.
They were probably maybe a foot and a half because they were at the round.
They were at the round, round table sitting next to each other.
Okay.
So three feet spacing
obviously sounds better, but it doesn't change anything in terms of
the six feet distance that would allow us not have to quarantine
if there was an outbreak because only only masking allows us to not quarantine
six feet apart.
If you're not within six feet, you don't masked
if you're further than six, if you're six feet.
And I thought if you were six feet
and I hope help me out there, I don't think there's any way that
we can be six feet apart. I thought you were only
quarantining if you were six within six feet of each other.
We're at lunch. At lunch.
What I'm hearing you say is it's not achievable to obtain six feet.
Yeah, and it doesn't have to do with it really doesn't have to do with spatial
social distance at this point in time.
As in, if you're further than six feet apart,
you don't need quarantining regardless of masks, I thought.
Right? Yes, that is correct. That's okay.
So I guess get them that far. We can't get them right.
So that's I guess my point is we're we're instituting this.
There will be so there would be fewer close contacts
because of the way that so it wouldn't be like a whole table would just be
the smaller group of students that would go near them.
One to like. Yeah, so probably like three.
Yeah.
I mean, I would love to know exactly how that going to be facing forward, right?
So I think the question is to have to validate this.
Is Gary sick or is were you seeing that at a lunch table prior?
They there was one COVID positive
that there were other positives because of that.
STUDENT Yes. Okay. So that's the problem.
So now we come back in individual desks with shields three feet apart,
you're going to have less spreads and less contact.
Yes, hopefully.
Yes. That's the way to try to mitigate an airborne virus as best possible.
It's not a perfect solution.
No, but it's better than prior because you're hopefully cutting it down
to half or none with shields and more distance.
So when you're doing your quarantining, if someone is sitting here,
will you be going just front back and sides for four?
Are you also doing the angles?
The reason I'm asking is that makes a big difference
because that still gives you
and you provide this incremental appeal until I see it set up.
Okay.
I'm not sure that I just the reason I'm asking is I want to make sure
we're making a better, you know, doing it, making it better.
We're going we're jumping through all the tubes.
I want to make sure it actually results in a better
situation because there's nothing in quarantining
that that unfortunately says anything about the shields you'd like to.
But. Dr.
KERNAN, the goal for this is not to reduce
necessarily the quarantine so much as it is the spread.
And if we don't have the spread, then the quarantining is a non-issue.
So we're focusing on trying to reduce this.
The spread
right now.
I understand that, but I'm just saying we don't have
we don't have data on the use of plexiglass as spreads.
It seems like it would make sense, just like it's just an added mitigation.
Right?
Right, exactly.
But it doesn't change anything with the quarantining
or the guidelines. Right. Exactly.
My other question is, when you have 14 days
and I know this is the recommendation from the Department of Health,
the recommendation, not a mandate, I guess I'd like to I'd like to understand
better how the counting is done, because we have 50 over 14.
But after ten days, some kids are dropping off from having to be
from being infectious.
So I'd like to I'd like to somehow
have a better understanding of
I'm not comfortable using 5050 as our number in the in the,
you know, this we're saying here on this new
map, 21 days are the 5%.
Yeah.
The 5% rate 5% in a 14 day period
it'd be well, we'll be talking with this in the pandemic teams.
I'd like to hear what the physicians also have to say,
because I think we're we're almost I'd want to be a situation where double
counting students who are falling off of that after days
or even seven or eight days if they're not in this particular case.
On Wednesday, we had a rate around 30 cases.
Two days later we had 50.
So we added 20 cases in a two day period.
So previously the Friday prior was 32.
Some dropped off through the process and then gained that many more.
Yes. So by on I had asked Mrs.
Phoebe Miller for the numbers on Wednesday when we were having our cabinet meeting
and we right around 30.
By. Friday. At.
Noon I saw the numbers are like 1230, I.
Believe we were. At 50.
What is, 5% of that building population 45
this harvesting.
I'm just trying to understand the wording of this.
I mean, if we're if you're going to consult with us anyways
before making that decision, I guess I don't understand why
we even need to vote on this because guys need to take board action.
And so if we were to reach that 5% threshold,
even if we had talked about it and done all of those things without granting her
authorization by way of this, I get to call each one you every single time.
God forbid there would be again, you know, something
and we would have to go through this and then do it another approval.
This is providing the parameters by we're saying if the numbers are rising
and the district pandemic team was convened to discuss where we were
and the board was consulted, that's that Winslow had the sole authority
to make that decision rather than be put in the situation
that we were in on Friday afternoon, that I got the call as board president
and had to call every single person and consult the solicitor and spend hours
of of time getting that authority when we could have implemented it hours sooner.
Right.
But have to call any it sounds like you'd call us anyway. So.
No, not on that.
Just the consultation with yourself.
It's not that you'd call us then.
I don't think I'd be in favor of this because I don't want to just blanket say,
you know, go ahead. Close at 5%.
The virus changes so much, things change so much.
I don't think I want to put a set thing in practice.
I think it would be providing the information.
So the way Dr.
Winslow updates us on numerous other things as we were reaching,
you know that.
And because those would be the parameters around it, that if we were
if the numbers were rising close to the 5%
threshold, again, that there would be outreach from Dr.
Winslow to the full board, as we do with other emails and and convening
the pandemic team, which for board members sit on
to do that rather than it become
a we've now surpassed and we need to react quickly.
So it sounds to me like if we come back to school,
we have another situation where we're at 50 or whatever,
automatically the decision kind of has been made that
at 5045 50 the school will be closed again.
And I, I just
I don't know if I'm comfortable with that because I just feel like
we're never going to it's going to be they're going to be in school.
It's going to rise.
We're going to give them a week off, have to go virtual again
with just the way this is set up.
So that's just my
how I feel.
And I'd probably just rather see what
other things we can do before we would just close again.
So, Lindsey, I have a slightly different question.
I mean, I know the the value of the pandemic team has
and brings to the this whole issue, but what does
what constitutes consulting with is what like
even with the board, it says the board and the pandemic committee
for you to have to call it, you know, all that time again, as you said.
And then what constitutes consulting with the pandemic committed?
Do you have to call?
I'm just trying understand that.
It would be a calling, you know, as those cases were rising
and we were moving towards that.
So it wouldn't be in the 12th hour when we have passed 5%, it would be
we are on the rise.
So Wednesday, when Dr.
Winslow had gotten the the count at 30, even if it was, you know,
we may not get there, but we're getting close,
that that would trigger communication with the board and communication
with the pandemic team to say we're getting there,
here's where we are and and have that dialog
versus the reactive approach once we've already surpassed
that, then we might decide to close at 30.
Now, because that's not 5%.
But we finally call again in a couple of days to say, now
we're at like I respectfully,
I think that this is like
we have to put some trust
in the administration that we're saying at a minimum
5% like meeting that criteria and you're consulting, you know, that you're
reaching out to the board with enough time for response and the pandemic team
and the pandemic team meets again, you know, each month.
And this could be subject to change,
as I'm saying, from a board
from the from board president perspective.
It would make me more comfortable.
I hope that we don't ever reach this again.
The fact that it took us, as you know, when it did, the fact that we even got
there is disappointing because it shows the spread there.
And if we didn't have masks on, we would have been there weeks ago
because the numbers would have risen so much.
I'm looking at it from a perspective of
we had to make a split second decision
on Friday afternoon
and that had no other, you know, time frame ability.
And it just fortunately, I was able to get each one of you
on the phone within the span of a couple of hours.
But it was from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
until it was all said and done. That right.
We had to make this happen.
This is providing the contingency to allow for it to happen in a smoother process.
And I appreciate your comments, Miss.
Obviously.
I think I think they're
I think I'm glad you raised it
because I was actually going to ask the same by way of clarification.
I'm fine with the way this is worried, because I think pragmatically speaking,
this is where we need to be at this point
to kind of avoid the same type of situation we had before,
because I have a, you know, confidence in the administration, the superintendent,
that that she will consult the the the board and the pandemic team.
That doesn't have to be an approval.
But the way I understand this is as one of the as or one of these
two triggers happens, one or the other or both
have you know, let's not be able to say one or the other happens.
Then the administration has the authority
to do this transition.
And I think I think that's really the only way we can go moving forward.
If the Department of Health ends up changing the recommendations,
which is possible change, then I think we would want to revisit this.
But on a going forward basis, as you said, madam Prison,
let's hope we don't get there.
But it just seems to me this is the way we have to go
and trust our administration that there will be consultation
and that they will go ahead and make these judgment calls as appropriate.
Right.
And, Mrs.
Harris, I do appreciate your saying we don't want to be in a situation
where we're closing school repeatedly, like I completely agree with that.
I view this as a measure in place
that allows us to respond in a situation when needed
versus having to do it on the fly.
This is Donald Cronan.
I guess I'm confused because it says at the very end, following consultation
with the board as well as the district pandemic team, that's exactly what we did.
On Friday.
You consulted with the board, not the pandemic team, right.
So how is that alleviating the need to still?
I consulted with the board.
I, as a volunteer, write whatever president has a consult and get consensus
to grant approval, which is how, with all of the temporary approval.
But how would that happen instead?
What would that what would that look like?
Well, that's what I explained before, that Dr.
Winslow, as the cases were rising and it appeared that we could get there,
that she would contact the board and be able with one
email to all of us without requiring our want me to
to gain majority consensus of approval
that she update and say here's where we are this is what it looks like
here are the community numbers I'm calling the you know the pandemic team.
Is it to ask our approval that we're just to tell us what's happening?
So what does consultation mean?
Just to provide all the information and I guess I'm putting stock and faith
in the fact that if all of us responded and said this is a bad idea, Dr.
Windsor, don't do it, that she would take that under advisement
and if she did not take that under advisement and this board felt
as though something needed to happen, the next board meeting,
there could be something to to remove that authorization
or thinking that you're checking your email
and you see something come in where she's saying this is going to happen.
And then if you have an individual issue with it as a board member that she would
be open to taking you committee, she would and you could talk to her.
So, no, no, I don't see that.
I said I wasn't sure exactly what the how the what the process would look like.
Same with the pandemic team.
You would be emailing all the pandemic teams saying, here's the issue.
And but how do we how do you have 40 people in the pandemic team?
How are they all going to give you just feedback individually like that?
Now, I think the way I want for you.
Yeah, well, what I was what I was envisioning with this is that
if the numbers, you know, became
like, look like they're rising again to that,
I would email the pandemic team and call for an emergency meeting
and call call everybody together, everybody who could be there
to to call them together as quickly as possible.
But because we can't convene as a board of nine right now,
I guess I guess I would have liked to have had the pandemic team meeting
as soon as possible.
Not not another week, but at least it's on there.
It's on the
go. I know you want to talk.
I'm sorry. Go ahead.
I'm done.
For the purposes of this authorization,
how is classroom outbreak being defined?
It would be like the.
Doctor said, I could use some help on that.
One because I know that you and.
Mrs. Miller are far more familiar
with how the numbers work, and I don't get to see the names.
Oh, yeah?
Well, you're looking that up.
I know everybody's busy,
but I would appreciate a few minutes of somebody's time
to give me a walk around so that I can see how things are set up.
I I'm very visual that way, and so I'll make myself available
whenever it's convenient for.
For someone to take me around the school.
Yep, I can. Do that.
And then this occurred.
And one last comment I want to make,
and I know I shared this with you, Lindsay, is that I know, you know,
we've been in this situation for for 18, 19 months.
I'm losing track. I'm sure we all are. But
we we know the situation we're in right now.
And if if this is a situation
where it's even potential that we have multiple closures,
we had all agreed in the beginning that that's the last thing we want.
We need kids live in school.
My my sincere request is that we
keep thinking out of the box, like we said, 19, 18, 17 months to go.
And I know there are a lot of objections, but what I would like to hear,
at least in theory, are ways that we can
achieve
the safe distancing of students and unvaccinated elementary students
at lunch in some fashion so that we will not have to close the schools.
And I know it's not an easy task
and there's a lot more objections than there are possibilities.
But my charge is can we come up with plans that
now we should have been
doing this six months ago where we can figure out six months?
I mean, figure out six feet, whether be half the class in the half,
the class in the classroom,
if they're backpackers and half in the cafeteria outside tents.
I just we're we're going to end up where we were last year.
If we don't look at a way to make it six feet because.
You know.
We hope we're going to get the vaccine soon, but we still don't.
There's enough that we don't know
that this could be extended beyond what we all want it to be.
I'm not happy, Dr.
Grant and respect fully that I hear you.
We should always be thinking of of what we can do and coming at it from
how can we make things better approach rather than I can't approach.
I do believe, though, that at some point it becomes disruptive to the process.
And when you start suggesting
that kids are eating in classrooms and out here and over here,
where is the staff for that and where is that?
And we have no please, let me finish.
We have repeatedly that we cannot achieve six feet of distance.
And at some point there has to be responsibility that we
achieving the
six feet of distance and eliminating close contact
tracing is not an achievable thing that we can do at this time like we have.
We've been discussing that for months.
At some point we have to say that we are doing what we can
and trusting the administration that they're doing what they can to to
minimize the risk to every extent possible,
but also returning the focus to learning and to all of the other things
and keeping in mind the impact on the staff as well,
because this has just been a tremendous impact on them.
And so I just want to caution that when we make comments like that,
that it creates a false sense of hope, something that can and can't be done
and that these conversations are better served at the pandemic team meeting and
and not weighed into to this type of item because the administration
should have the opportunity to to look at all of those things.
Thank you.
With all due respect, this is not a Cronin That's that's exactly
my point is to to immediately say it can't be done.
I just want to I want to have the opportunity
for people to say, okay, how can we make this happen?
That's All And that's all I'm saying. It's not false hope.
It's really just saying, what can we do to what further things can we do?
Can you can tell me all the reasons why it won't work.
You're already assuming they haven't thought of those and ruled them out.
A lot of them have been rolled out.
I've had, conversely, a long conversation with Lindsey over the weekend.
A lot have been rolled out and I just I like we all said,
we were committed to keeping these kids in school.
And if that's the extra step, what it should be not why can't it happen?
How do we make this happen? Right.
So we're still in a pandemic.
The most vulnerable group of kids
that we have on our campus are in that elementary school building,
I think to notch at the Scott Lake at all costs, keep the school open.
Like when I heard the numbers, I was like, it is negligent on our behalf.
If we do not shut the school down, try to get this under control.
Now, they're going to implement they've come up with a plan B
for how to do it.
But I think the things that you're you're asking,
I think we had 17 teachers or out of that building, you know, so.
Right.
How many staff were out with COVID 17 or not?
I mean, yes. Right.
So now how we meeting. Right.
Like we're still up trying to operate and do the best that we can.
And this isn't an excuse, but this is not
and it's horrible.
But I what she has said to me has made perfect sense.
I think the the plexiglass and the three feet is a lot better
than everybody sitting around the lunch table looking at each other.
Exactly. I agree.
But then we have to think ahead
of next week we're back in school and this these mitigation don't work.
I don't want to be scratching our head.
I'd like someone to be thinking outside the box, thinking, how do we get six feet?
Because that's the only way to stop the spread.
That's all I'm saying.
We have a pandemic team meeting week from tonight, and it would take
they and it's the same day that the students return.
And so it would be a couple of weeks before we would see whether or not
the new measures that are being implemented will be effective or not.
And so that provides an opportunity that
with the pandemic team meeting and the next board meeting on October
that we would be able to address and have those conversations
before we would even see if these new measures are working.
Great.
And I was Donna Cronin, I respectfully request that we add to the pandemic team
meeting a discussion on further mitigation strategies to achieve
six feet of distance in the cafeteria when kids are unmasked.
Is there any board members who is not who have not yet spoken on this
item currently?
Motions. I do have an answer for Dr.
Shaw outbreak definition is two or more cases
among students or staff without other identified
deal epidemiological sorry linkages
with onset within 14 in a single classroom or core group
like teams or band.
And I just have a quarantine question.
If someone has had COVID and they were a close,
are they asked to quarantine 28?
It depends on when they had it.
So that's something that could be discussed at the pandemic.
It has to be within 90 days and there has to be a doctor's note
that says that they actually had it.
It can't be just somebody saying, well, they had it
within 90 days
if they were positive and anyone else.
Any comments before we move to the
is a reminder,
the motion that has been moved on the floor with
the second is to provide the authority to the superintendent to transition
to virtual instruction model when the total positive cases
in a building during a 14 day period exceeds 5% of the building population,
or when three or more simultaneous classroom
outbreaks as recommended by the Department of Health occur following
following consultation with the board as well as the district pandemic team
message, and I present a role call.
Dr. Cronin
I'm saying
no because I want the pandemic team to weigh in.
Mr.. Yes, this is took no,
this is many Yes.
Mr.. RIZZO.
Yes. Dr.
SHAH. Yes.
Mr. Speaker. Yes.
Mr. Singer. Yes.
Mr. Abel. Yes.
Two opposed.
Seven. Yes. Thank you.
Next in my business is casting a votes for Pennsylvania School
Board Association officers for 2022.
We have been provided with the list for the various offices.
Would everyone be okay
if we've had all of the unopposed positions into one motion
as a standard voice vote
and then vote on the president elect as a position separately? Yes.
May I please have a motion to elect the following vice President
to a one year term?
Allison Mathis, Section seven Advisor to a one year term.
Justin PSB Insurance Trust Elect up to three trustees
for a term ending December 31st, 2024.
Richard Frerichs, William Lakoff and Nathan means so moved Maria
me second Donna Cronan there any discussion?
This is standard voice vote all those in favor say I any opposed
those are approved
next is for nomination for PSB president elect
I'm looking for nominations out of the
for a one year term for candidates
presented by SBA Sabrina Bakker or David Sharp.
If please have a nomination for President elect
name nominate David Chop
I second that nomination.
Are there any other nominations?
I'd like to nominate Sabrina Bakker.
My second.
So we have a nomination for each one of the candidates.
So the nomination period is closed.
Is there any discussion,
I would ask if you're nominated,
if you have any reasons why
to support the candidate nominated?
Oh, yeah, I Haven't having review both of them.
I just feel like Ms..
Becker's, you know, this is more a line in terms of,
you know, a lot advocating the students interests
and her experience.
I think they're both extremely well qualified, but that's why I nominate Ms..
Backer
and I named I actually nominated David Trump
for the same reason and reading both of their backgrounds.
So they're both very active.
In his business background as well as the breadth of the school
district she's been.
Involved in.
Is there any other discussion?
Okay, Mrs.
A.I., please have a roll call.
But Mr..
I vote for
Sabrina Bakker.
This is, however, stick.
I'm David Simon.
This is Mary Sabrina Bakker.
Mr. Rizzo.
Sabrina Bakker.
I'm sorry, Mr.
Abel, You just responded for Mr.
Rizzo.
I know your wish has.
The Sabrina Backer.
I think there. Is a reason.
Dr. Shaw.
David Sharpe.
Mrs. Secker.
Sabrina Backer.
Mr. Singer.
Sabrina Riker Backer.
Mr. Abel.
Now Sabrina Backer.
Dr. Kern and David Shop
three for David, six for Sabrina.
Okay, so Mrs.
Sabrina Bakker will move on as the nominated.
Vote from. The board, Correct.
Thank you.
Next item is approval of the board.
Secretary Sapin, may I please have a motion to approve
the annual $5,000 stipend for the four year term?
July 1st, 2021 to June 30th 2025 for the board secretary role.
So move to Kathy Secker.
Is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor, please say I any opposed
to stipend is approved for board secretary
personnel resignations. Dr. Winslow.
The administration recommends the approval of the personnel resignations.
Thank you.
May I please have a motion to approve personnel resignations?
So moved Kathy Zika second.
Maria. Mimi, Is there any discussion?
I think this is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor. Please say I am opposed.
Personnel.
General Dr. Winslow,
The administration recommends the approval of the list of personnel
and recognition of any list of transfers.
Thank you.
May I please have a motion to approve the listed personnel in recognition
of any list of transfers so moved Kathy Zika and second, Maria.
Mimi, is there any discussion documents?
Please tell me how to pronounce the name of the assistant principal on the agenda.
I was watching. Like.
Dr. Ed Summit.
Her first name is Sontag.
She's wonderful.
I think her last name is pronounced.
But I will be honest
that in the interviews I did not ask her to teach me to say her last name.
So I will be looking forward to learning how to say it correctly.
I just want to welcome her to the district as as a building level administrator
and say that we look forward to welcoming her
in person or, you know, at an upcoming meeting.
And my apologies for not knowing
how to pronounce your name, but I'm hoping that she will come and see the board and
and be able to provide that.
But she had a very impressive resume.
I think she'll be a great addition to the middle school
team and super excited for her to join us.
Thank you. Fantastic.
This is a standard voice vote. All those in favor, please say.
I I any. Oppose
delay
get reports the Dauphin County Tax collection is attached.
Dr. Shah, do you have anything to add?
Nothing to add to the report. This in your brief.
Thank you very much.
PSB A report is also attached. Dr.
Cronan do you have anything you would like to add?
No, just as attached.
Thank you.
See, your report is also attachments are able.
Do you have anything to add now?
I don't think you are there any board members who would like to give a report?
Dr. Winslow, do you have a superintendents report?
I do some.
Some excellent pieces of good news, which is very exciting to share.
Nature's 22 rankings are released and Derry Township School District
is once again ranked number one in best school districts in Dauphin County,
Number 19 in Pennsylvania, which is a bump from last year up.
And Hershey High School is the number 15 public high school in in the state.
So that's very exciting and very very exciting that Hershey
Primary Elementary School is recognized
as a national Blue Ribbon School for 2021 by U.S.
Secretary of Education, Dr.
Miguel Cardona, This is a huge honor.
The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognizes public and private,
elementary, middle
and high schools where students either achieve very high learning standards,
are making notable improvements and closing the achievement gap.
So very, very
proud of of all of our teams across the district
for these achievements and and especially in these last really difficult.
Months and.
During those things
a reminder that the next pandemic team meeting is October 4th at 4 p.m..
So we will be holding that meeting at that time.
And as everyone could hear from tonight's discussion, there is lots to talk about.
And I've also been attending a lot of sporting events
in the last couple of weeks and continue to be enjoying that immensely.
It's great to see the kids out on the fields and to see spectators
there being able to watch and it is a in the midst
of all of all of the difficulties that we're still navigating
a really wonderful element of normalcy to to be experiencing.
And that's all I have.
Thank you, Dr.
Winslow.
Board Presidents Report.
I just wanted to say thank you again to the
to the administration and to our teachers for all of the things that are going on.
I know that through this
COVID process,
it's challenging and it has continued
to put a ton of stress on our our staff.
And they continue to rise and we continue to be recognized
for for the performance of this district.
And I think that that says a lot about this administration and about the teachers
and every single one of the staff members that make this district run that
that even in the face of a pandemic and all of the challenges
before us that we can still achieve these things.
So thank you.
As a board member for for what each one of them do every single day.
And that concludes my report.
Our Final Recognition of Citizens, period.
This is an opportunity for residents and taxpayers.
Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot.
Thing for the president's report is that it was mentioned for the
that we are convening a facilities planning ad hoc committee
at one of our last meetings that will convening.
It will be comprised of
district administration
and then board members that were
that will be on are myself, Mrs.
Mamie, Mr. Rizzo and Mr. Singer.
We will continue to update the board as that goes,
but the first meeting will be October.
Moving on to recognition of citizens, this is an opportunity for residents
and taxpayers to address the board on matters related to the agenda
and matters of district governance, not on the agenda.
Those who speak are asked to follow the same guidelines outlined
at the initial public comment portion of our meeting.
As a reminder, if necessary, the board may set a maximum time
the public comment portion of any meeting
or conclude the public comment portion at its discretion.
Are there any residents or taxpayers who would like to comment at this time
in audience will begin.
And then we'll
start with the virtual office.
Have one here left in the audience.
Rob Brockman, 409 Cocoa Avenue.
Again, thank you for all the commentary is great to hear and learn
about the project going on in our neighborhood and community.
And again, I'd just like to iterate.
No, no opposition to the idea of the concept.
Appreciate the extra time to look at other locations.
One comment I neglected to share with the group previously is that
being under oak trees is a pretty good safety hazard for people on rollerblades.
I am a hockey player, I am a roller blade runner
and to to skate around on that would be death
to roll over an acorn or a twig.
You go out to that park after a windstorm
covered so please, please find another location.
I would love to use the facility, but I think it would be
another safety component to to consider and.
My last comment on the vein of safety is without the signage back
there, regardless of this project, it is a an area for speeders.
Maybe speed humps may be an option instead of signage,
but if this leads to some consideration of just the safety factor
in our alleyways, especially where there are large
gatherings of out-of-town folks in addition to folks within town
coming to baseball games and events, that would be appreciated.
Thank you. Thank you. Very much.
Okay.
Our virtual attendees who would like to participate in public comment.
We have two virtual hands raised.
First is Catherine Burns.
You've been given permission to speak.
Mrs. Burns, please begin with name and address for the record
before you start and go ahead whenever you're unmuted.
Hi, my name is Kathy Burris.
I'm at 163 high point drive in Hummelstown.
Thank you for giving me an.
Opportunity to talk.
I know it's been a long evening for you all.
I just wanted to say just briefly, I'm
I'm I'm pretty upset to see that you've already
closed the down so early in the school year. It's
concerning for me regarding,
you know, comparing it to last school year and,
you know, just in general,
you don't really have to look
far and information about COVID that.
You know, this virus.
That is causing the COVID infection has never been purified or
and so you really have to question, you know,
what is coming up as a positive test.
And you base everything on cases.
And that's what the Department of Health wants you to do.
And really, we don't know.
You know, what.
Exactly constitute a case.
Is it possible that it could be.
SARS-CoV-2? It could be.
It could also be other viruses, even a simple cold virus or another coronavirus.
And so other things need to be taken into account, I believe.
Before.
You consider closing down schools, the school
I'm just wanted to say something because I really just want my.
Son. Who's a senior, to have a good year.
That's all.
Thank you.
Next, we have Angela mullen.
You have been given permission to speak.
Thank you, Mrs. Mellon.
Once you're unmuted, please begin with your name and address.
Hi, this is Angela
Marlin, 116 East Caracas Avenue.
I do just want to first say I missed the first comment
just due to personal work duties,
so hopefully I'm not repeating anything that was already said.
I want to thank all the board members and administration.
I honestly don't envy any of your positions in any way right now.
I wanted to quickly speak on the rink project.
My family was involved from day one with the Ring project
and I just wanted to mirror comments that were said earlier.
Nothing was ever hidden.
Nothing was ever in the dark.
The Derry Township School District Administration
was involved in the entire project.
My husband and other people in the community
attended many various meetings, various kinds.
I, I was not involved in a lot of these meetings, but they happened
often.
Lots of lots of things were discussed
there was a lot of community support
when it was decided that this old surface
could be used, just like, Hey, let's revitalize this space.
And it was given a green light.
Some other community members said, Hey, you know, let's let's repave the surface.
It would be you know, it would be nice if.
We could make this a nice play space, you know, right now leaves sit there.
Nothing's been done with it.
I mean, I know in the time we've lived here,
like Terry said earlier, this is the first we're
hearing about handicapped parking spaces and land development.
After years of work on the project, the first time around
when this was given a green light there, there weren't issues like this.
There seemed to be approval and green lights.
Unfortunately
right around the time I started to hear of issues.
It was also brought to my attention that my family, including
pictures of my young children, were being posted on a website.
There were a person or people,
I guess, fighting against the project.
My family and other donors were
as members of some underground conspiracy group.
After donating only time and money
to this project.
No, but nobody involved in this website ever contacted my family
to ask us about the project or get our feedback.
Even though we were included
in the project from the start and would have been happy to share
that actually.
Instead, information was posted slandering my husband
and other local donors who had given considerable amounts of money
to say like, Hey, we'd love to help make this a great place for kids to play.
We chose to
ignore unkind and untrue words because we believe that
people in the community who know us would come to us with questions.
And we trusted that friends and community members believed in us
and believe that we would only do our best to help improve the community.
So we did.
We ignored slander, we ignored untrue things being
and like I said, even including our young children.
So I just wanted to kind of get some truth out there.
I also heard people just different
things being bounced around about building a rink.
I do think it's important to clarify just for new people
listening, people that want to become involved.
This isn't a building.
This isn't like a structure.
This isn't an ice rink.
There's not going to be doors. There's not going to be roofs.
The idea was, hey, there's an old play space
that's kind of falling apart and not being used.
Could we make get nicer?
That was the goal.
Sorry, I'm
just kind of looking at some notes I jotted down.
There's not a current roller hockey
league to my knowledge, or my son would be to play on it.
The school district does not have a roller hockey team,
from our understanding, being part of the project.
Like suppose the Hershey Ice team wanted to do on off ice practice,
they would have to go through the same avenue as the other sports
teams and request the usage of the space
and be granted permission based on busy times.
I'm not involved obviously, in that planning.
I don't know how that goes on, but I know my kids use the baseball
and softball fields and my daughter plays school sports, so Obviously
these field spaces are being orchestrated, times are being granted.
So like that was all taken into consideration
that obviously, you know, the would need to be reserved.
As far as free play, I can only hope and pray
that a space on district grounds would be as busy as people are saying.
I know my family does spend a lot of time playing me love the outdoors.
I'm sorry I didn't hear you.
I'm sorry.
You just have like ten more seconds 15 said, I'll just try to wrap up.
Just basically like I would love to see kids
get off their screens and fill these spaces.
That's unfortunately not what we usually see when we're down on school
grounds, aside from football or baseball practice.
But I think that would be a great problem
to have if we actually had kids out playing.
Okay, your time is up.
I'm sorry. It's 5 minutes.
Oh, okay. Yeah.
No time for a closing statement.
You can just complete the sentence that you were on.
Please
leave it like that. Sorry.
I wish I had little bit more time.
There's so much to share that I don't think has been shared.
But I do thank you for your time.
Thank you very much,
Mr. Allen.
Yes. We have one final speaker, and that is,
if any of you have been given permission to speak.
Thank you. Mrs..
The President.
If you could please begin once again with your name and address for the record
and surprise me.
Three, two, McCracken Road, Hershey Again, I want to thank everybody
for the rich discussion and those pro and for the proposal.
And I think we've raised a lot of positives in terms of things to consider.
You know I have been along for the journey.
Again, I have no personal vested interests.
My kids do not play hockey.
I am a fan of creating more free spaces.
And you know, this concept of a land
development, people,
traffic studies, stormwater runoff, these are conversations.
Those those concepts were never raised.
And in fact, in the past there was conversation that
we actually think we're going to be okay.
We think that we actually have enough and we're not going to have a need
for stormwater runoff plan, etc..
So. What I just want to close with is
we attacked some personalities in the room today in,
which from my perspective really very disappointing rights as leaders.
Our job is to lead consistently, be professional,
and if it's unclear, maybe we ask questions.
But do we necessarily need to attack and have the joy?
A sports organization.
Has. Nothing to gain if this goes through, absolutely nothing to gain.
Literally.
Member of the community came to us and says there's a vacant lot
What if we can Teds transform that lot
and make that into a play, an active play facility?
You know, someone said, well, what about leagues that do that
we have nothing right now in the roller street hockey rink for.
Youth. Rights.
Sometimes you got to start before it grows.
So the concerns of just being overwhelmed with traffic and fans, etc.
really wasn't the vision.
The vision was, you know what, there's a space can.
We make this a space where youth
and adults in the community can use it.
And some of the concerns that came up in terms of netting, etc.
I think those are things that can easily be figured out.
The commentary on the signage from day one,
we have been informed by Emmerich's area that,
you know, whatever gets approved cannot be visible from the road.
So with some of the comments from Ms.
memory back to Teri, we knew ultimately
whatever gets approved has to meet the guidelines.
I to the.
Unclarity there is really it's subject to
what at the end of the day would be approved.
And when there was some concern
about the potential could decide and do even work.
The Joy sports community went back to the folks
who contributed to the project and, said, you know,
if we have to go a different direction, would you be okay with that?
Right. So we have data on that.
So I appreciate that the discussion and
I think we we learned a lot today.
So thank you.
Thank you.
We have two additional hands raised.
Angela Wieder, you have been given permission to speak.
Thank you, Ms..
Reader, as unmute, please begin with your name and address.
Angela Wieder, 1770 Amber Dubey
I think the discussions tonight have been wonderful
with regard to the roller rink there at the park.
I think what struck me most about the conversations was all the different
out of the box thinking maybe if we did this, what about this, What about that?
All these contingencies things we need to revisit.
And I'm parlaying that in the idea of here with the COVID three weeks
into the school year, you know, we have our elementary schools shut down
and, you know, I understand the 5% threshold.
I'm not suggesting that that we reconsider that,
but I don't want statement that was made earlier to go unnoticed.
Donna Cronan, in the discussion and voting, If Dr.
Winslow has a permission to a school
shutdown, it at 5% said, you know,
she really hopes that the pandemic team and the board are all
still considering more options as we walk through this pandemic.
If we currently have 17 staff members who are presumably mostly
probably vaccinated and wearing their masks turning up
COVID positive, we know that at any given moment,
any one of our buildings is going to be near the 5% threshold.
It doesn't take long to hit 5%.
And so if at 5%, our first reaction is we got to shut down.
My question is, and I hope I'm interpreting what Dr.
Cronin was suggesting, what are we doing at 3% in at 4%
to start to control that so that shutting down,
of course, we all have said that we want that to be our last resort.
But what are we doing at the two and a half percent, at the 3%, at the 4%,
you know, at those thresholds?
What are we doing and how are we pivoting
and using the spaces and resources we have?
So that we can try to stop getting to 5%?
I think a lot of efforts have been made to get kids back in school this year.
The masking, the distancing and, all that kind of stuff.
But let's not stop there.
Let's not stop there because 5% is going to happen.
And my question is, what wiggle room do we have as we start to approach 5%
to prevent that immediate decision for the 5% shutdown?
My only other thought is I you know, I'm concerned about Dr.
Winslow being able to just make that decision,
because in my interpretation of what happened last year with Dr.
McFarland is, isn't that what got him in trouble?
The only thing I would have liked to have seen on this vote is a stipulation,
some type of a filter that if and when a building hits 5% positive rate, Dr.
Winslow has a permission to initiate the shutdown because I can
where you all need to streamline these decisions.
But she can only make that if and only if.
Within the last 24 hours there's been a
a majority discussion amongst either the pandemic team
or the school board about the number approaching 5%.
That being
said, it's going to be another wild ride this year.
And I think we've all learned a lot.
And I think if we keep our minds and options open,
we can hopefully alleviate a lot of bumps along the road.
Thank you.
Craig Miller, you have been given permission
to speak.
Hello, my name is Greg Miller.
321 Coco Avenue.
Obviously, the proposed roller rink
means something to me or else I wouldn't still be here zooming this meeting.
We talked about it for 2 hours.
Maybe 30 minutes of other discussion, and we were back to it again.
So just the fact that we had discussed this third party project
on school district grounds, land for the first 2 hours
means that we need to pump the brakes on this
and get all the facts out there, which started to come out.
So we're finally talking
and we need to address the concerns of the immediate neighbors.
You know, Yes, a couple of good points about, you know, somebody
living a couple of blocks away from there and it's walking distance.
Well, I can propose several other walking distance
distances for this rank to go.
I'd be happy to share them with you.
I think. John Miller presented a couple.
I could add a couple to his list.
One that so it directly that that comment comes directly from
a board member addressing another board member
saying have other sites been considered and a direct answer was no.
Other locations have not been discussed discussed
because there hasn't been any pushback till now.
Well, now there's pushback.
And it there are a lot of other options that if they aren't fully developed
or looked into, then it's shame on the school board for being notified.
I mean, I don't even think it should be on school district land, period.
Maybe community land, Township land, maybe Let her go.
Donate a part of their parking lot near
Chocolate Avenue that there's large volumes of space everywhere.
The old Hershey Lumber Company yard
can take a rink, have parking.
I don't think this burden should be put on the township or the school district
property, period, and the unknown expenses or cost to maintain it.
If it does go on school district property,
then one of the proposed locations should be the Granada Gym.
I don't I know it was probably used for COVID vaccine.
I haven't seen it in years since I went to middle school in there.
But there's it's roofed, won't have any acorns, won't have any leaves,
won't have any ice, won't have any water.
It's impervious cover, there's already parking, etc. etc.
So every bit of sponsorship raised can be go,
go towards renting the Granada gym and all you got to do
is hold the boards to the existing
hardwood floor.
If it's still I'm assuming it's still there. So
again, I don't know how much time.
I'm not tracking myself. How much time do I have left?
If 10 minutes. 2 minutes.
A board member
addressed a concerned citizen who spoke up against sponsorship.
I believe that concerned citizen was me.
I believe that that board member is absolutely wrong about sponsorship.
Not an issue to address that fact
immediately after he addressed me theoretically.
Donna Cronin questioned him about sponsorship,
a second board member questioned about sponsorship
and a couple others commented about the sponsorship.
The size of seeing it from the street.
So again, I asked the school district, have they fully considered
the ramifications of allowing third party entities to advertise on school property?
I say this because the moment you allow any company to advertise on school
district property,
you open yourself up to others willing to advertise on the school property
so long as they conform to school district guidelines. So
as if I wanted to,
as John Doe Plumbing put a sign on. The.
High school tennis courts, when you walk out the door,
just a small one, it can't be visible from any road or alley.
Then you would the school district would be liable
to at least address my I'd like to sponsor.
I'm going to donate $1,000
to future maintenance and put John Doe plumbing up there.
And I think it just opens.
So, yes, sponsorships just not on the board as far as I'm concerned.
And also if if the school district council
cashes in all their chips on this impervious cover on a roller rink,
what happens when they want to remove impervious cover somewhere else?
I know Mr.
Anderson spoke very well.
We should listen to him.
He's talking about removing sidewalks somewhere.
Removing sidewalks so we can have a roller rink.
It doesn't make sense. 18 seconds.
Okay, Well, you got the gist of it.
I appreciate your time.
I wish we were dealing bigger issues than this.
But again, I thank you for all your time.
Thank you, Mr..
Okay.
We'll move into if there's anything else for the good of the order.
And I do just want to address one thing
to make sure that there's a point of clarification.
When there was conversation around the number of staff
and those things that was not correctly reported, the
that are on the district website include staff as well as students.
We typically do not separate those out
in conversation publicly because it is an identifying,
you know, component of information that that we want to protect.
But there is not currently 17 positive
teachers in grades two through five with COVID.
And I think that's a really important thing to clarify
and also want to confirm that the motion and authorization that was provided
today does include needing to convene the pandemic team for conversation.
And the reason we didn't do the majority of the board is because
it's a typically a not a practice that we want to be in
of having to take a majority consensus that is not sitting
during a public meeting that's on the record.
So so there's that and so.
Mm Reader, I would be happy to talk
through the specifics of those with you if you want to reach out.
I appreciate your comments.
So with that, is there anything else for the good of the order
from anyone else.
Okay.
Then the next public board of directors will be held Tuesday, October
12, 2021, starting at 7:00 PM.
Please refer to the District website to register as the meeting draws closer
and a reminder that there is the Fall Board retreat tomorrow
for all board members
beginning at 6:00 PM.
May I please have a motion to adjourn this?
So move.
Maria Mimi Second.
Cathy Sikka All those in favor, please say hi.
Any opposed meeting is adjourned at 9:57 p.m..