Good evening.
I like to call the March eight, 2021
meeting of the Derry Township School District Board of Directors to order
and announce that this meeting is being a live streamed and audio recording.
This meeting is being conducted
both in-person and virtually limiting our in-person attendance
to ensure the ability to social distance during the COVID 19 pandemic.
I like to request the board members this evening.
Please state your name. One speaking.
This is e.g.
Roll call please.
Mr. Able Presents
after CRONAN here,
Ms.. Drew here.
Must have SEC here.
As many here,
Dr. Shore here
are here.
Mr. Singer.
Here at this diner.
Here.
My presence here, or absent.
Please rise if you are able and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance
and to
one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and
thank you.
May I have a motion to approve the March
8th, 2021 Board of Directors Agenda.
So moved. Second.
Is there any discussion?
Mr. President, I move that to this evening's agenda.
Be added a motion to return the schools to full time in-person instruction.
Thank you, Dr. Shaw.
Is there a second? Second.
Okay, Judy. Have a strict. Thank you.
Discussion on the pending motion
said this is just
moving K through 12 to 5 days a week.
This just moved a four day.
Do you do you want to hear the motion?
I mean, on my understanding is the procedure is to just move that
the motion be added and then when it comes time, then
the motion presented and it's a,
you know, amendments or, or such.
So I was details of it, right. I was told not to.
No details at the present.
Just move the motion.
Okay.
All right.
So council's advising me through four four moving to adjust the agenda.
We should probably know what the motion is.
Dr. Shaw, if you could read for us.
Okay.
The the proposed motion.
The board directs the administration
to open the schools for full time, in-person instruction.
That's five days a week at the elementary level and four days a week
at the secondary level beginning April six, 2021,
provided that the level of SARS-CoV-2 transmissions in the community
is less than 100 daily new cases per 100,000 persons
in the preceding seven days.
Thank you.
And Dr.
Shaw, just to clarify, this would not take away
the virtual option for people who wanted to remain virtual online.
No, not at all.
Any family who is comfortable was not comfortable with their students.
Participating in in-person instruction may choose to continue their students
fully remote on a fully remote basis.
And this, of course, is sorry, Donna Cronin.
This also is obviously under the guidelines
of current mitigation strategies, notwithstanding.
Yes. And another point, if this gets to discussion,
I have some information on that that I'll be presenting.
Okay.
So I think right now there's a motion on the floor.
It's been seconded to actually add the item to the agenda.
So it would seem to me that we should vote on that.
And then there could be a discussion
about the context of the motion itself.
So it's kind of perceived this in an orderly fashion.
I'm inviting discussion as to whether or not the board wants to adjourn much to,
you know, revise the agenda at this time
to add this motion for the board's business.
I see.
That's that's really the immediate question, Mr.
President.
We do a roll call vote.
This will be a roll call vote. Okay.
And I'm going to I'm going to ask for discussion as well, because
this is the time
to discuss whether or not we add it for this evening.
And I heard Mr.
Singer in the background.
Mr. Singer, go ahead.
Yeah, this is Terrie Singer.
I was just
wondering,
Dr. Shaw, is is
is this motion to recommend something
that the administration supports?
You know,
no right yet again I really I,
I understand folks we understand with the some of the motion is but right now
that is the question before the board is whether or not we add it to the agenda.
And then if we add it to the agenda,
there can be further discussion about the pros and cons of the motion.
But the question now is really, do we add it to this board meetings agenda?
The senior
doctor?
Does it Go ahead, Mr.
Singer
Yeah, this is Terrie Singer.
Again.
We have a an agenda planning process.
Was was this brought forward
during the agenda planning process.
Well I'll speak for I was present there it was discussed
and the agenda planning decided not to put it on the agenda.
Terrie Mr. Singer,
Mr. Abell, this is Lynn, Teacher.
I'd like to further clarify that through the agenda planning process,
it was recommended by the board members to the superintendent,
to the board members present by the superintendent,
to the superintendent and to the board president to not do it
because a full motion was not provided for consideration.
There was no verbiage, there was no detail.
We asked what it would be for.
What are the the terms of the motion that would be brought forward, because
this board has worked together for over three years
now, and we have a process that has always been in place
out of respect for one another, to allow us to prepare for voting.
Dr. Shaw had ample time to provide
a motion with detail
for consideration at agenda planning to be placed on the agenda
so that we could be fully prepared on whether or not
to decide on something this evening that was not done.
And so out of respect for the for the board and the process
that we all commit to following to
I, I and the other agenda planning
members did not recommend it being placed on the agenda.
I was excluded from agenda planning.
I expressed my desire to attend
and was told the slots were filled and I was unable to attend.
With respect, Dr.
Shaw, you are not excluded.
There is a process
that allows for up to three board members to attend by the board President.
If those spots are already claimed, a board member is still well within their
right to submit something to the superintendent
and to the Board President for consideration.
And as an example, Mr.
Singer was not able to attend because the spots had already been claimed.
He reached out to me as one of the board members
participating to clarify and and place a request for consideration.
With all due
respect, this is not a cronan i it also it was
asked to be part of the
agenda planning and thought I was going to be.
But then John looked at his notes I had
I was not one of the
first three to respond, but regardless, I had assumed that because
we had discussed at a previous meeting that that an agenda item is just that.
It's just a motion to discuss it.
So I, I just assumed that because we had talked about at the last meeting
that whoever was agenda planning would have said,
Oh, let's just get a motion out there.
So my apologies for not, you know, not submitting something.
But the nitty gritty of this is fine and dandy, but
in all respect for what we're here to do, which is to help our students,
I think we need to move beyond the the process, whatever it is.
And I'm going to support the motion because the motion just allows us
for discussion.
To not support the motion means we don't even want to discuss it.
And I think there are probably
I didn't look to see
how many people are in the meeting, but I think we owe it to our community
to have this as a discussion.
So I'm really hoping that we get to the point where we can
have this as a an agenda item for discussion.
But thank you.
This is I just this is Cathy Sager.
I just want to clarify something.
If somebody votes no to this, that
they don't want to vote on a full open, it doesn't mean we're not discussing it
because it's under unfinished business
and we're discussing the survey results tonight that from the parents.
We're discussing current COVID cases and levels.
That's going to be on the agenda at every board meeting here on out.
So it is being discussed, but we haven't even gotten to that yet.
And the administration is not recommending
a change to the current operating schedule with which we've been doing.
So I think it's really unfair for you to say that.
I have to vote for a motion that I may not agree with
because we are discussing it in another place on the agenda publicly.
And with all due respect
to Donna Cronin, Cathy, last week, last meeting when we talked about it,
we didn't have a motion, so we weren't able to have a decision.
So if we don't have a motion that specifically talks about the process,
we're two weeks out again.
And the bottom line is we're we're running out of time with the school year.
And to just be able to talk about
it doesn't mean we're going to make this or that final determination.
But the points of the the agenda items that
that allow us to talk about it, we're also on the agenda last time.
But even you said, well, we need to have a motion.
So that's why I think just talking about it isn't enough.
We have to have a motion to discuss what this would look like.
And you may not agree with going full time, but
we have to have a motion to have that specific discussion
to give the administration direction, even if it means no change,
because I don't want to be where we were last
two weeks ago, where we weren't in a position
to have real conversation and action.
So we have to stop talking, just talking about it, which we will be doing,
and have a position where we can actually act or at least discuss potential action.
So I just don't want to just be round and round again because it's March 8th
and we only have till June 2nd to do something for our kids.
Frank thank you.
Overcrowding Video Any further discussion on the pending motion?
Because the motion now is solely out as to whether or not
this will be added as an agenda item this evening.
You know, I and I appreciate Dr.
Shaw, you know, the the Genoa planning process historically been first come,
first serve and obviously we we tried to try
and try to stay uniform on that.
I will say for myself personally, because I think I think this is
I think it's an extremely important issue
on the minds of a lot of people that are out there in the public,
you know, folks that feel strongly
that we need to get to a return full time.
I understand the sense of urgency.
I understand. Dr.
Cronin, The clock's ticking, right?
For with every every day we're going further in the calendar.
You know, at the same time,
my view is that in the last meeting we had the consensus.
What I heard from the board was to do a data survey.
Those data survey results will be discussed this evening publicly,
and I would, you know, wouldn't
want to urge us to move through this in a deliberative, thoughtful way.
So I will not be voting for the motion
because I just think we we decided to get the data.
The data is back now for us to decide.
So that's that's where I am.
And I think it was important publicly that I make that make that statement.
This is done occurred and I respect that. John.
But does that mean that we were delaying the ability to have any action on it?
So we look at the data tonight and we have to wait another two weeks before we can.
I think it's a bit of a darker tone.
I think that's that's that that's once again, the clock is ticking.
And I understand I mean, I think I think the issue has to be
joined for purposes of folks to know what we're voting on.
And that's the vote.
And Mr. Abell, this is Lindsay. Drew.
I also would just add that it is not being it was not put on to the agenda.
And we are having this conversation of whether or not to put it on here,
because it was not something that the administration has recommended
the superintendent and the board president set
the agenda based on the recommendations of the administration.
And there have been a number of times that this board and individual members,
including myself, have voted against the recommendation of the administration.
I know
for myself that each time I have done that, I have said it
because I believe that while generally we support the administration's
recommendations, there are times that we that we do not.
And part of our role as school board directors is to be able to voice
that it provides the check and balances the governing body of the district.
There are members of this board who are now trying
to put this on the agenda, who have long stood in the position
of supporting the administration and not going against the recommendation.
And now that is exactly what they are trying to do.
And I can't they I don't know what you mean by they sorry that.
Donna Cronan I'm confused, Wendy.
We're all here for trying to do what's right by the students.
And and we just got the survey data back.
So I think Wednesday's agenda planning, you know,
I don't know if the maybe the administration did have all the data,
but it just seems premature on Wednesday to say we don't want
to be talking about something.
I mean, frankly, that's been going on for over a year
and we've haven't been as active as we should have been.
And I take responsibility as one of nine board members to not have been more active
in even getting kids back the third quarter marking period when we know
Mr. Macfarlane said the last meeting, we could have had
the kids that are in hybrid in four day because for four days,
because we had the capacity, but we we weren't proactive.
So to keep delaying to me is just not to,
to delay talking about it and possibly coming up with ideas to me
is just counterproductive and not what is best interest of our students
and we they who that that's we're all here together.
There's no they here. We all want to do what's best.
We may have different ideas, but let's just talk about it.
Can I give my $0.02?
I, I like the idea of the motion and I like that cap is has proposed
a future date because again, coming into this,
I didn't I didn't know what the motion the details were of the motion.
But he did say April six
and and I'm always
at agenda planning as vice president but for I do still think if we don't this
motion doesn't pass on tonight's agenda that we still could put a motion forward.
We hear what the survey data is for tonight.
We have a full body discussion and then we know that at the next meeting,
then we will have like
more comprehension,
more time to think about it, to put
and a motion forward at that point.
But again, if if anybody wants
my spot agenda planning, just ask me and you can have it.
But I, I,
I do like what keeps proposing and I do think that we have time between now
and April six like, you know, in two weeks it's like I agree,
this should all be up for discussion.
We should be having these discussions publicly.
I think it's what the public wants.
So I'm not I'm not opposed to any of it.
I'm just not sure that tonight I think we need to get through
the survey discussion and then continue moving forward
in the direction that that KIPP is proposing.
Right.
I don't think any of us are opposed to voting for this. It's
the timing and being able to have all of the information to feel like
we can confidently make a vote or make our decision and cast a vote.
So I would be in full support of this exact motion on the next meeting
agenda when we have time to be able to look at exactly what that is
and the way that all of the data that were being provided falls into it.
This is Donna. Again.
My only concern is what Mr.
Macfarlane said last
time is how much time, how much lead time we need to do something.
So once again, another two weeks is a wasted
month compared to our last meeting two weeks ago.
So once again, I just it's just discussion.
It's not a final decision, but
this is just dinner.
Unless I missed like a big giant fact, I don't recall Mr.
Macfarlane ever saying that we could go back for these.
So I'm not sure where that information came from.
So I just want to clarify for the public that that was never something
that we had the capacity to do in a safe
hybrid way.
Last,
the survey actually asked for our people.
They wanted a five day return, frankly, but many students said that they were I'm
just saying, you just previously said that Mr.
Macfarlane said we could return for no, that what he said
the last meeting was that because the current capacity of the high school
I'm sorry, the high school, the high school had sat
in a hybrid capacity for days, two days, live two days virtual.
That's the hybrid model.
Wednesdays are not in class.
He had said at the last meeting.
I'm almost 100% positive that based on that current capacity,
they would have been able to accommodate that hybrid group
for the
full four days life based on those numbers.
But we don't know what those. Mr. President.
I think that's all the question per Robert's rules that we're going to be off.
So I'm going to call it a question, is there any more discussion on the motion
that's currently in front of the board, which is whether or not we add Dr.
Shaw's motion to the agenda?
Can I just ask one more question, please?
Sure. Mr. Singer.
Yeah. This is Terry Sanger.
I just wanted to know from Dr.
Shaw, is does does your motion
to assume that the administration isn't doing everything it can
to have all the students that can possibly back be back in school?
Back in school? Mr.. Mr.. Singer. I think
I appreciate the question.
I think that's getting into the question was to Dr.
Shaw.
Well, I understand, but I'm trying to get a sense of that.
The question is appropriate given the current notion.
Okay.
All right.
It's a it's
a call it a question, But it seems, Mr.
Singer, that that goes to the motion itself, the merits
of the underlying motion.
Okay.
Thank you. Yes.
So I will call it a question if there's no further discussion
on the immediate question before the board.
I have asked Mrs.
Agee for a roll call vote.
Please.
Mr. ABEL. No.
Dr. Cronin. Yes.
Mr.. You know
this, however respect? Yes.
And there's many,
many.
Yeah. Now.
Dr. Shaw. Yes.
The sicker now.
Mr. SINGER No, no.
STEINER No.
Three. Yes.
Five, four, eight three.
S five now.
Six, six, six, six, six now.
Okay, So let the record reflect.
There were three.
Yes and six nos.
The motion does not carry.
Thank you.
We're up to a number to please approve the agenda.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
There was a pending motion to approve the the agenda.
It was seconded.
Is there any discussion to approve the agenda?
Seems to me there should be a
voice vote.
Standard. Voice vote.
All in favor. Signify by saying I.
Anyone opposed? No.
That was. I mean, yes.
Or how do I say that?
Yes, I'm just opposing the agenda because I'm not happy with it, that's all.
Okay. So that's a no.
Yes. Okay. Yes.
So the motion does carry. Thank you. Bathroom
information and proposals,
Item number two and where we are and where we are going.
The instruction coaches and high school
department chairs face
and give a quick introduction to our
district instructional coaches and three of our department
chairs from the high school have prepared a presentation
trying to answer some of the questions that the board has posed on
how are we addressing some of the learning lag?
How are we addressing learning models for students right now?
We've created a screencast that will then be posted onto the website
so that it can be rewatched at anyone's leisure
and they will take questions at the end of their presentation.
I thank them and I thank all of you for your attention.
Good evening, everyone.
My name's Donna Spangler and I'm the department coordinator
for instructional coaches here at Derry Township.
This evening
several of us have been invited to share a global overview with the board
regarding instructional, where we are and where we're going.
The pandemic has introduced a lot of uncertainty to schools, and
because none of us have ever experienced schooling in a pandemic environment.
Unfortunately, there's no playbook for this scenario.
In fact, to use a sports analogy, we are still in the midst of the game
with the pandemic.
The game's not over, so no one really knows what the final outcome
or final score may be.
But we do know a few things.
First, we know that we cannot wait till the end of the pandemic in order to act.
Second, we know that the learning that students are going to lose
is going to vary significantly according to things like access to remote learning,
the quality of instruction, home
support by parents and the degree of student effort and engagement.
Third, we know
that learning challenges after a crisis can be different.
For example, there is a learning loss versus learning lag.
Learning loss results in academic holes that can only be filled
by significant effort and time learning lag.
On the other hand, results in academic holes that can be filled
with small adjustments and far more quickly.
And with any crisis.
There's also an element of trauma coupled with mental health needs.
Things that we can see when we look at other crises.
While the media projected a huge learning loss after Hurricane Katrina,
what actually occurred was learning lag, and the actual effect on student
achievement was not as great as many had expected.
The Christchurch earthquakes resulted, of course, in a rush to online learning.
However, no significant effects were identified at upper school levels
because teachers focused on triaging, learning for students.
Today's presentation goals are twofold.
First, to share an overview of
how we're monitoring, discussing and intervening.
This school year.
And second, to share how we're planning to adjust
future learning needs from this year.
In this presentation, we'll all be speaking to different tiers
of support that we provide through the MTS framework at all levels
MPAC or multi-tiered System of support
is a framework that schools use to provide targeted support to struggling students.
MTS supports academic growth and achievement,
but it also supports behavior and social emotional needs.
And the overall goal of MTS
is to intervene early and emptiest.
Basically, there's three tiers.
The first tier, which is kind of like the whole class.
All students receive core instruction
and core management based on research practices.
In Tier two, students
who do not achieve or who are projected not to achieve benchmark performance
receive targeted interventions in small groups
while they continue to participate fully in Tier one Core instruction
in Tier three,
which is more of the intensive individual support.
Diagnostic diagnostic assessments
are used to pinpoint specific skill deficiencies
and to plan for more incisive interventions.
Students, however, at this level still do continue
to participate fully in Tier one core instruction.
And special education services can occur at any Tier
one, two and three.
In our next section,
Katie is going to continue by talking about social emotional learning.
Hi everyone.
This is Katie Weaver, social emotional learning coach at the middle school.
We all know this has been a year like no other.
Some of our newer interventions that have been put into place last school
year have had to be put on hold and new ideas have been tried in
an attempt to reach all of our students in various service delivery modalities.
Our intervention process this year starts with our student support team meetings
that are held regularly with building administrators, the school
social worker, school psychologists, nurses, school counselors
and the social emotional learning coach at the middle school level.
Struggling students are identified using a variety of factors,
including teacher concerns, attendance, grades, work
completion, class participation and social interaction.
From there, we hold meetings to develop plans
for each student to support them in their area of need.
This has included regular communication with families,
student attendance, improvement plans, home visits, focused homeroom,
virtual office hours with student support staff,
individual counseling and supports
and referrals to our Hershey Intervention program based on a variety of needs,
including withdrawal, depression, anxiety and executive functioning.
The student
services landing page was revised in the fall specifically
to make it easy for students and families to find necessary resources.
This page is accessible from the district website
as well as individual building pages in the beginning of this school year.
Significant time was dedicated to providing instruction in the area
of self-regulation to address the stress and trauma related to school closure.
This helps students to develop healthy coping skills and was delivered by
classroom teachers K through 12 through the use of set and bounce back.
We really expect students to be rusty next year at the Tier one level,
we plan to provide a version of set and bounce back light
to reinforce the skills that have been taught K through 12.
In an effort to be proactive lessons will be designed
and implemented in order to rebuild executive functioning skills.
We will be intentionally reorienting students who will be back in school
full time by teaching and reinforcing behavioral expectations,
academic expectations, daily routines and healthy habits.
Next year, morning meetings will be held daily K through eight.
This gives teachers additional opportunities for relationship
and skill building.
We recognize the nature of this school year presents unique challenges
for our students transitioning from building to building.
Significant planning has gone into the creation of virtual transition
presentations for grades 5 to 6 and 8 to 9.
These presentations are facilitated by teachers and led by students.
As you may or may not know, all counselors k through 12 loop with our students,
which helps with their transition process and relationship building.
We are looking forward to the social,
emotional and behavioral features that synergy offers.
This will allow us to more efficiently identify and support all students.
Finally, we are moving forward with our learning and planning
for the implementation of social emotional learning K through 12 year one of a 5
to 7 year plan 2021 to 22 school year
will have a strong focus on adult skills.
Professional learning will prioritize building
foundational knowledge of the castle competencies with staff
and will include practice opportunities for skill building to support
emotional well-being in order to best support our students.
Our district goal is to implement K through 12 structures and supports
that promote social, emotional learning and equity for all community members.
Next year will be hearing from my elementary colleagues.
I'm Krystal Berkovich, the third to fifth grade instructional literacy coach.
I'm discussing how we monitor and intervene
with students this year at the elementary level.
We collect two types of data, then intervene with helping students
learn by utilizing interventions and adjusting instruction.
All students K through five are assessed three times a year
using math and reading benchmark assessments.
These assessments are indicators that help
identify children at risk in reading for math.
Additional diagnostic assessments are only for students who don't meet
benchmarks to determine the skills to target for instructional support.
Progress monitoring is a
weekly process to monitor students progress
toward instructional objectives who work at Benchmark.
Lesson and skill assessments are for all students
and are typically given after specific skills are taught.
To determine if skills were learned or not.
Next, Chris Lyons will talk about what we do with the data.
I'm Christine Leander, the K two instructional literacy coach.
We're going to talk about what we do with the data
now that it is being collected.
Once the data is collected, we meet as a team to review the results.
This data helps us to determine which students to recommend
for intervention and if we need to add intervention,
more intensive instruction, or perhaps even exit
a student from intervention
from that meeting.
We use that information when we meet as an IPM team.
This intervention
planning meeting focuses on the whole child.
The classroom teacher is an essential part of this team
and brings any concerns to the table that they have about their students
in the areas of math, reading, social, emotional well-being,
attendance, attention and behavior.
The purpose of this meeting is to ensure that all students
are receiving the supports that they need to be a successful student.
Both types of meetings meet four times of year that we are
constantly revisiting the supports
that are in place for all of our students.
Next, we're going to talk about
what plans we have for next year.
Hi everyone.
My name is Maggie Smith and I'm
an instructional coach for grades K through three with a focus in math.
We are working really hard to continuously monitor the growth of our students
and we'll continue to do so in preparation for next school year
by gathering performance data from benchmark and local assessments.
Instructional decisions will be made ensuring that all students
have the opportunity to master essential learning standards.
Progress monitoring of our struggling students will allow us
to quickly adjust our instruction for continuous flow of progress.
Data review meetings will allow us to discuss progress of students
and whole child intervention.
Planning meetings will allow our teams to work together to put supports in place
to make sure all of our students are successful.
Our professional learning communities ensure equity for all students
through discussions of standards and assessments and instruction.
Our multi-tiered system of support will continue to provide different levels
of reading and math intervention based on individual student needs.
Additionally, daily reading and math differentiation
will occur across all grade levels for all students.
Next data is going to share what's going on now
and how the middle school is preparing for next year.
Good evening, everyone.
I am Dave Yates.
I'm an instructional math coach for grades four three.
But this evening I'm specifically going to be addressing
what is going on at the middle school with the same two questions
that my elementary colleagues just spoke about.
So let's get right into it.
Let's take a look at what's happening this year.
As was mentioned earlier in the presentation by Mrs.
Weaver, support team meetings are being held regularly
and that is helping to address student needs that are occurring
with guidance counselors and the school coach, as well as across curricular.
Team of teachers PLCs are a major way that we are addressing this year's
students and how we're dealing with the pandemic.
These PLCs are professional learning.
Communities are same grade,
same subject teachers that meet regularly, multiple times a week
so that they can deal with questions that are arising, dealing with curriculum
and what type of assessments we're using and how we're using the results
of those assessments
to help us make instructional decisions as the year moves on.
Of course, there's
a lot of individual teacher work that's happening to teachers regularly.
I've opened office hours for the students to come in and get help.
There's actually personal invitations that teachers have been making
to provide students with additional support.
And of course, during our study whole time,
which at the middle school we call flex students can come in
or be offered or asked to come in for additional assistance
to fill areas where they're struggling or gaps that they may have.
Throughout all of this, there is a regular collaboration going on
between the coaches, the classroom teachers, the places, the administration,
things such as a bi monthly newsletter that we have
where teacher to teacher collaboration has been happening
so we can leverage that expertise that teachers have
and what they're learning as we go through this pandemic period.
And the coaches are working with PLCs and individual teachers
to help present new ideas and facilitate that sharing as well.
Throughout all of this, working with the administration to make this most
difficult and fluid situation as manageable and meaningful as possible.
So what's going to go on for next year?
What will that look like for next year?
Well, there's always the transitioning that goes on between grades five and six.
Of course, that will have great meaning this year as well.
And and that will involve looking at math scores as well as reading scores.
That information will be shared with teachers
as well as the guidance counselors from the elementary do shared things with the
guidance counselors at the middle school to then go on to the teams
and present that information to the teams about students who have special needs
and whatnot.
There's going to be a remediation time built into the schedule next year
that can be used for intervention as well as well.
PLCs are going to be extremely important.
That's going to be a time where
those teachers from that subject area are going to know where kids are,
where they need to get to
and what are effective ways that we can use and modify the curriculum,
the instruction and differentiate for the needs of the kids.
Teachers over the coming weeks are going to be designing tests in the core
level care classes for it to gather end of year data on students,
and that information will be passed on to next year's instructors
so that meaningful decisions can be made about gaps
or what things need to be covered more in depth.
To go along with that, there's going to be a teacher,
the teacher communication device that we're going to provide
for the instructors to fill out so that we know what level
of instruction was provided and to what depths
was that provided for certain topics, concepts and skills.
And that will help teachers in the coming year know where there might be gaps
that can further discussions to help the students.
So thank you for your time and now I'm going to pass it
on to our high school colleagues who are going to talk about
what is going on at Hershey High School.
Hi, my name is Brendan Hensel.
I am a high school counselor and a department chair at the high school.
Departments are continuously assessing students
for understanding of for content and concepts.
The collection of data happens to formative and summative assessments
after capturing student understanding,
teachers use their weekly policy meetings Wednesday.
Department Time attend regularly scheduled preparation period time to update,
adjust and target content and materials based on needs.
The goal is to provide support and accommodate student
learning real time on a regular basis.
We will apply this same approach next year to again
ensure they have mastered content beyond the classroom.
But teachers and counselors have virtual office hours
that allow for students to ask questions and be tutor.
HHS provides free peer to peer
tutoring through the National Honor Society.
The Children's Center is also available for students that may need help
with organizing session structure and individual support.
A valuable piece of our student support system,
very much like National Honor Society in its peer to peer framework is link Road
Link crew members assist students as mentors
while homeroom teachers check in daily with students.
First, she intervention and prevention continues to be used to meet student
needs for mental health, academic concerns and drug and alcohol use.
Student services also meets on a regular basis to create plans to help
students based on attendance, behavior and social emotional needs.
Through assessment, data and reflection.
We will continue to learn, grow and adapt for next year.
Some of the goals for next year include providing more daily flexibility
so students have opportunities for learning and individual support
through the construction of the Master's schedule, continuing to conduct weekly
data meetings for special education students and policy time for teachers.
Another goal is to expand a children's center
and a National Honor Society tutor.
Lastly, we would like to host teacher talks
and student council meetings to address students concerns and hear from students
on how we can best support them as a high school.
Next is presented with our closing.
Good evening.
My name is Kristen Minnery
and I'm the instructional technology coach for the District.
Many have said that 2020 has reminded us of the important life lessons.
One of these powerful life lessons is practicing gratitude for just a moment.
Stop and think.
Without the technology
so much of what we've accomplished would have never been possible.
We are all incredibly grateful to be in a district that has provided us
with the resources to be able to quickly restore devices
to ensure equal access for all of our students.
K-12.
While this was not originally in our plans,
we were able to provide 1 to 1 technology to support teaching and learning
for all of our students from the start of the pandemic last March to the present.
Next, we want to extend our gratitude to our administration and school Board
for all the leadership and support that you provided during the COVID 19 pandemic.
We want to thank our DTC faculty and support staff to pull together
to help students, families and each other.
We want to thank all of the staff for coordinating and rethinking
how we do business from lesson planning to food service to technology
to building maintenance, bus drivers and operations.
Thank you to all the families for your flexibility
while also taking on the additional role as another teacher to support your child.
Over this past year, we know it hasn't been easy.
The times we are experiencing now will be the subject of history,
economics and social lessons for generations to come.
The work we are doing today is groundbreaking
and it will continue to be what past crises have shown us
is this what DTS staff and teachers are doing
now matters in our hybrid and virtual environments.
We are triaging, learning and leveraging MTA supports.
In the midst of our current crisis.
We cannot extend our gratitude enough for our teachers
resilience to always put our students first.
Most importantly, while we try to teach our children
all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.
So let's remember, we're all in this together.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for that presentation.
Any questions from the floor?
Mr. Bell, This is Lindsay Drew.
Thank you to everyone who put this presentation together.
My specific questions
go back to the beginning or near the beginning of the presentation
regarding the MTS and the different things that are being implemented
as plans for next year and reorientation
all of those things
that were listed on one of those first slides.
If students were to return full time
this current year, would this be able to be implemented
and offered to make sure that we're addressing
the orientation when students return?
Or would that not be available until next year?
Mr.. I'm going to jump in for that, if that's okay,
because it's not something that we had specifically class
as a coaching team, but we have talked about that a lot as that administration.
Obviously, there are things that will need to be
put into place and pieces that will need to be intervened on.
As far as regarding re-orient reorienting students to
a full day environment.
But as far as the intensity that we would focus on the beginning of the year,
we simply wouldn't have the time right now to do that.
If we're if we're going to make that switch the same way
we would do the things that we've been doing along
and obviously pieces would be addressed as they came up.
But the kind of intensive
learning that, for example, an elementary classroom,
usually the first two weeks of school, are spent on routines and structures,
getting kids used to being back in school.
We're anticipating that taking at least a month as they come back in the fall,
especially for students who have been virtual since March,
whose families have chosen to stay out as well.
You know, absolutely the right
coming in
right now would be a matter of
getting them used to be there for a full day,
which they're just not really used to quite yet.
Well, then you said all this year because they haven't had to do that.
So that would take a little bit of time
and we would expect some behaviors and we would anticipate that.
But as far as the intensive upfront work, that
that would not be part of this at this time.
Thank you.
Anything else?
Any questions or comments from the board about that presentation?
Same same question.
But how does that apply to secondary?
Like by building, like middle school?
Like what would you anticipate would be the biggest hurdle
if they came back from this year and high school?
I think the
biggest part would be the day to day focus,
simply because they've been able to,
much like a lot of us while we're working from home on the pandemic.
You can roll out of bed a little bit later.
You can, you know, get up and get a drink and whenever you want
to, you can use the restroom whenever you want to.
It's a little different
once you're back in school and have to reorient to those routines.
Some of our students that we have invited back at the high school,
I was just over there last week when a student
who decided that it was a good thing
to do just to walk around for 20 minutes during a class period.
It was like, we're now I can do that.
We're like, No, you can't remember this in school.
We need to know where you are and what you're doing.
So just those sorts of things that we would have to to work on again,
as well as some of the perseverance pieces.
Mm hmm.
Thank you.
Anything further on that?
Thanks.
Well, thank you very much.
We're down to a president communications.
I would like to announce the board in an executive session
prior to this meeting to discuss matters of personnel and consultation
with attorney or other professional advisors.
Recognition of citizens for agenda items.
This is an opportunity for residents and taxpayers
to address the board on matters related to the agenda.
Those who speak at 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 raise your virtual hand.
In order to be recognized, you must have your first
and last name typed into the livestream registration.
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
board during each of the public comment periods,
If necessary, the board may set a maximum time
for the public comment portion of any meeting.
This 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 agenda.
Last time I am going to ask folks if the substance of your comment
has been covered, kindly yield your time.
To avoid repetition, I am going to set
a 45 minute limit on this portion of the public comment
and then another limit on the 45
minutes at the back end of the agenda.
So given that, are there any residents
or taxpayers who would like to comment at this time?
And I'll turn to the folks in the room first.
Anyone here and I'd like to
address the board at this time.
Thank you.
Hi there.
Angela Wheater, 1778 Avon Road.
I was actually going to go earlier with some things I had planned to say, but
in fashion is at the last meeting after listening to the way this one started out.
First of all, Dr..
Mr. Abell, I appreciate the 45 limit, 25 minute limit to the comments,
because I think everybody agrees the last meeting certainly went too long.
And one of the nice things about these school board meetings
is they are open to the public so that we can listen in
and certainly know what's going on and hear what's going on
with the board.
With that, you know, I have some concerns.
I understand the survey results are going to be discussed later on.
And I know everybody is excited to hear what those are.
I will say, without knowing what those results actually are,
I felt that in a way, the way that survey was worded
was really a little bit offensive to parents because it was clearly loaded
with slanted questions that were designed to be very divisive.
It did not spark
or suggest that there were creative ideas which were being explored,
which was the whole nature of the question and community
comment section of the last meeting that, you know,
we need to think outside the box here and start to move forward.
Instead of talking about all the ways things aren't going to work.
Let's explore many different things.
And when you take a look at the questions on that survey, it seemed
that they were only slanted to go one way or the other.
And although I'm sure hearsay isn't allowed,
I had many parents say to me that no parent in their right mind
would just randomly agree to many of the things that were suggested in that survey.
Then that
makes me a little bit curious as to why members of the board, as individuals,
you don't wish to go on public record where you stand on these things,
because although you're all individuals and the uniqueness of us,
you know, certainly makes a lot of great debate and discussion.
You're one board and your job as a board is to represent the community.
And although
there are many sides to a community and some people might feel one way,
you know, it's certainly important to recognize the families,
the members of the community that feel the other way, and shutting down
the opportunity to let us know exactly where you stand.
It's a little sneaky, if you ask me.
I was very impressed with the presentation with regard to the learning support.
It was really nice to hear a lot of those things personally for me and my children.
We have got three kids.
I have a household with five
that are all in the middle school high school situation.
I have been absolutely impressed
and very, very pleased with all the extra work that my children's
teachers have done for them as individuals and even in their classroom.
But I was just curious when watching that presentation,
why everything was focused only on last year.
We still have a whole semester to go.
We've got kids trying to graduate, 11th graders trying to get into
their senior year, middle schoolers trying to prepare for high school,
not just getting these kids back into school,
but the lag, the loss, whatever you want to call it.
The extra support needs to come in right now. So,
you know, I
think one of our greatest resources is our teachers.
But additionally, all of the members that make up the school system,
the support folks that were there at the last meeting, somebody mentioned
it could take 6 to 8 weeks to rehire these folks, as I understand,
many of them, when they were furloughed, went and got new jobs.
They're not available to just come back if and when somebody
wants to flip the switch when these kids start coming back.
We have to make sure everybody is properly staffed.
Everybody has the training, the additional resources
that they're all going to need to properly run the school.
At the level of Derry Township believes that they are recognized as
is no secret that all the other communities around us
have figured out ways to maybe move forward,
perhaps faster than us for whatever reason that is.
But I'm just a little disappointed as a resident
why my friends and, you know, folks in other communities,
you know, aren't looking to what's Derry Township doing?
What's Hershey doing?
You guys are the best, aren't you?
Well, I don't know, because we're not being very creative.
We're not utilizing some of the things
that I think that are being left on the table.
And and it's just it's bewildering to me.
And I think, you know, out of respect,
not 32nd board, but out of respect to the community, I think
some some issues need to be, you know, accounted for.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Anyone else here live this evening? Yes.
I see you, Speaker.
Good evening.
Mark Copeland, 43, Homeowner Drive, Hershey.
Thank you all for permitting me the time tonight to speak to you.
I've joined you tonight for two comments and a call to action.
I'm not sure the parliamentary process of all of this.
You want to guide me through some of that.
Number one, I said two comments.
Number one, first of all, thank you all for what you're doing.
School board membership, I would imagine, as a thankless job at the best of times.
And I would say during these unique times,
we're in even more difficult than probably any of you all foresaw.
So I thank each one of each one of you for what you've done for my family,
this town, the students and the employees of the school district.
So I know it seems thankless, but it isn't because I'm thinking so.
Thank you, guys. That's part number one. Number two.
Secondly, while some of you on the board
probably different on how to move forward with hopefully potentially
at some point getting our kids back into school when it's safe,
I would like to point out that, you know, you all have something in common.
You are forming your opinions regardless of how you are,
what your opinion is, You're forming it based on what you believe to be
the safest thing possible for our kids and for our employees.
And I think you all should continue
to try to recognize that someone said work together.
I think I would ask and advise and urge all of you to whether you disagree
on something, to please keep in mind that the person who disagrees with you
in the method actually probably agrees with you.
In principle.
We're all trying to do the best, safest thing that we all can.
And I think some urging you to do that and try to figure out how can we do this
if possibly safely and the best way care for our kids.
So now that I've complimented you about your tireless work, reminded you to
you guys all sort of have a common goal,
you just may be trying to approach it from a couple of different ways.
I'd like to ask the school board, the administration union,
and anyone else who has an interest in creating safer school facilities
to consider what I'm calling my call to action.
As you guys probably know, the CDC has changed and updated
its guidance on back to school measures recently, two weeks ago,
and they're following the advice of some extremely bright people
from such places as Harvard, Brown, Virginia Tech and many others.
And many of these bright people are experts not just in infectious disease
or epidemiology, but broader disciplines such as public health,
safety, building design, environmental sciences.
These experts are on the forefront of ways to make hospitals, doctor's
offices, schools and other facilities safe during times like this.
They have unique perspectives because they are unlike any of us,
have spent their lives in the public and private sector figuring out
how to minimize risk in buildings and create safer facilities.
I have secured a very generous offer from Dr.
Joseph Allen, who's an associate professor from Harvard's T.S.
Chan School for Public Health, to speak directly to our board
and administration and any family members that are coming in virtually
on how to create the safest environment we can possibly create in our schools.
He has appeared frequently on several national news broadcasts, podcasts
and has written op ed pieces, including one in today's Washington Post.
He's been quoted in many of the world's leading publications.
And simply put, Dr.
Allen is a world renowned expert in safe, healthy buildings,
particularly from a biological perspective.
Dr. Allen is very straightforward,
knowledgeable, and I think most importantly to everyone.
Understandable.
He is very clear advice on how we can make busses, schools,
cafeterias, athletic fields as safe as we possibly can.
After talking with Dr.
Allen via a virtual call and getting answers to many of our questions,
I would suggest at that point teachers, students, parents, school board members
and administration can all make decisions based on the best
available science and expert guidance.
My call to action to all of you is to grant
me permission to set up a virtual call with Dr.
Allen as soon as possible to be the best informed citizens we can be.
He works for thousands of school districts
across the country, and there is no charge for his time.
I believe we would be remiss to turn down his offer.
I have brought a copy of Dr.
Allen's background
in his current role at Harvard that I'll disseminate to everyone.
I urge all of you to put to a vote during this meeting.
Parliamentary process permitting,
that we set up
one of these information gathering phone calls and virtual calls to Dr.
Allen. I'm here to facilitate.
Thank you all for permitting me to address the group this evening
and for all that you're doing for my family.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr.
Copeland, again.
We're here to listen at this point,
so we do appreciate both your comments and your on your call to action.
Anyone else in the here
line would like to address the board
before we go to our virtual.
All right.
So, Mr. Swiger, let us turn to here.
Is here that would like to participate virtually.
Mr. President, we have three virtual hands at this time.
We'll start with Mr.
John Miller.
Mr. Miller
has just John Miller from 329 Cocoa
Con in here again to
communicate my sincere
disgust with the direction
that this body of individuals is taking and not leading.
It's really disheartening.
I can tell you that as the general consensus here
is that we need to get back to action right now.
I'm watching this almost infomercial you tried to put out and convince people
to think that this is somehow good direction to go there.
You know, we'll just kick the can down the road until next year.
That is not acceptable.
And I'd just like to remind everybody
listening that we have other options.
It's more than 50% of the students, parents and guardians
attending the school district and 50% of the teaching staff.
We can we have other options.
Read into the school code, read into the law.
We can we can come up with a better option than what is not being done here.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Miller.
Mr. Snyder, who else do we have?
Next, we have Ed Brooks.
Okay, sir,
I'll start with you first and then
course to to this issue.
There was a civil discussion
as to how the Board of Business today
and there was at least a vote as to whether it would be successful
on this point and the result of that.
I do appreciate the spirit of both of the board.
Appreciate doing that.
As far as how we go forward
here, given the fact that it's going to take time to hire the staff
and very staffing for the school, and I would hope that is the goal of this board,
that we would increase the quality of education
by going to improve the school as best as we possibly can.
I am disappointed with the board's decision
to not go forward with the session today.
Just mathematically speaking,
there are 12 million people in the state of Pennsylvania.
The percentage under 20 to 24 who have died before
now is zero zero.
There is an obligation for every member of this board
to act on behalf of not this administration,
but on behalf of the community, specifically the children.
I just want to voice my disappointment
with the president, not because I want to think through board members
for their bias, for action to vote, to try to do something sooner.
And again, just to reiterate that me and my family
and those of us who are signing a petition to get in-person schooling
as fast as possible, like our neighbors, these are in our will.
Remember that.
Thank you for your time. Thank you.
Next in just water.
Next, we have Timothy Golden.
Okay.
Okay, sir.
And good evening, sir.
My name is Timothy Gold.
I live at 28 Jacob's Creek Drive.
My daughter is the six year old kindergartner,
and I do support the district.
Continuing hybrid learning for elementary students and following
current guidelines by which the district determines
how often students are in-person for learning.
And at this point in the school year, I believe the change learning model
for the instruction will be like starting the over again.
Kids would have to meet
and get to know new classmates, whereas the parents are being targeted
may also have to change classroom teachers.
I also worry about rushing back to full in-person learning in a way
that would not accommodate social distancing
and potentially put students and teachers at higher risk of spreading COVID 19.
But most teachers and students are still waiting for vaccines.
The risk of spreading COVID 19 remains remote, and current
COVID 19 guidelines continue to call for hybrid learning.
I hope that the part the administration chooses for elementary students.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Anyone else? Virtually.
He would like to address the board at this time.
Yes, we have Karen Fetish and
please proceed.
Hello.
My name is John says
I live at 25 Hawthorne Drive and my son would like to say a word.
Hello.
My name is making sure that I'm in sixth grade Students
in Hershey Elementary and Mr.
Mark's morning class.
I asked my parents if I could speak today after hearing multiple high school
students being given a chance speak at the last school board meeting.
These are my personal feelings alone and no one else's.
My parents have helped me to collect my thoughts on the paper.
I am asking for the board to please vote to have the administration
find a way to get us back to school full time.
For those students and parents who want that option.
For too long we have now been stuck in either a full virtual setting
such as last spring and November or December of this past year,
or in a hybrid setting like we are currently in.
I miss my time all very much.
I miss interacting with my friends in the school, setting
and I miss having the opportunity to take a full advantage
of the quality education that Hershey can offer her in a normal setting.
I am raised in a home, has two working parents.
Normally my grandparents live with us and help out.
When COVID came, my parents moved.
My grandpa out
and had them safely isolate in their townhouse for almost a year now
because my grandparents were gone and my mom is an essential
professional.
My dad needed to relocate his office to our home
and work from home to help educate my sister and I
and answer many daily school based questions
because of our limited learning opportunities.
I no longer want to be robbed of my ability
to be provided with a quality full time education.
I no longer want to see my parents stressed out as they try to juggle
additional responsibilities that they should not necessarily have to.
I longer want to feel sad for not having
a normal child's life like I know I deserve.
My friends in other schools have been asking why
I have not been school full time since September.
I, as well as my parents, have no answer for them.
My sister and I have been playing sports
ever since the late summer with full safety measures in place.
No one in my family has contracted COVID
as we are responsible when we leave our home.
My parents have recently signed my sister and I up for private
school education at Saint Joan of Arc for the next fall.
I cried when I signed.
I found out because I don't want to leave my friends and the teachers I love.
But my parents expect my sister and I to be able
to be educated full time to maximize our potential.
This is the last year in my elementary school and it makes me
sad to think I will never get a chance to go full time in July.
Enjoy says ever again, or actually get to learn
to the full capability I which I know I am capable of.
Thank you.
And next, we have David Sax.
Mr. Sax,
I want you still on mute.
I'm sorry. I'm following you.
Let's find out.
All right.
So my name is David Sax, live at 827 Green Road.
And I have two students in the district.
As the results show in your survey,
please keep in mind that I think the board is doing an excellent job with this
and that we should be taking prudent action and working towards
what is the best for everyone involved.
There is, although a lot of people and a lot of online voices out here
pushing for you to go back in for full time here,
I realize that there is also a large segment of population
that is not comfortable with that and moving forward carefully.
And with all of that in mind, making sure that the teachers
that want to be vaccinated have those vaccinations in place
and everything else within a timely manner so that they're protected
is critically important in my mind as well, to know
that you are supported in making those decisions.
It's tragic that we've
the US has had over 500,000 people die
from this disease, this pandemic.
So moving carefully and prudently
is not something that you should be pushed out of just because of a couple
of loud voices that represent only a segment of the population.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Okay. Next we have Anita Malhotra.
Okay.
Her name?
Hi, I'm Dr.
Anita malhotra, and I have two children in the district.
I'm actually I'm actually also disappointed by the way
the survey was worded.
I think it was very slanted to make
to make parents feel guilty for wanting their children back in school.
I've actually worked in the COVID ICU.
I've been taking care of COVID patients for the past 12 months.
I have been exposed.
I didn't get vaccinated until January.
But, you know, it's an essential job.
I think education is an essential job.
Teachers have been moved into one a status.
Vaccinations are available for them.
And if people are not comfortable coming back,
entire virtual options should be there.
But the option for our kids to go back full day should also be there.
I think it's pathetic that my seven year old comes
home with same homework that my four year old comes home with.
Learning to write their letters in second grade is pathetic.
You know, I pay a lot of money in taxes for to be in the best school district.
Why is everybody I agree.
Why is everybody else able to figure it out and why can't we
every other district in the area is back full time.
We are not that special. Figure it out.
Thank you.
We have Michelle DAVIES,
Ms.. DAVIES
going to be Michelle DAVIES,
1524 Church Road, Hershey.
I just and nobody brought up that last week.
That's not last week.
Last board meeting that you guys pointed out
that like school districts like Lower Dalton,
they have smaller
elementary schools, and that's why we didn't get our kids back.
But I wanted to point out that I have heard
from Lower Dauphin
parents that their high school
and middle school is going back to April 6th,
which would be the date that we would be looking at
if you guys were moving forward with
talking about this,
delaying it further,
pushing it back is not in the best interest of our students
and I'm very pointed
in the school board of a highly regarded school
district
that we aren't moving,
finding a way to get our kids in school
as soon as possible.
Thank you to those board members
who voted to put the motion on the agenda tonight.
Thank you very much.
Respectfully, please find a way forward now.
No more excuses and no longer delay.
Thank you. Thank you.
Next, we have Brittany Eckert.
Go ahead, ma'am.
And this is Greg Eckert.
But wanted to also address my my concerns.
I'm from a family.
My wife and I both work from home and we want to echo everybody else's concerns.
We we struggle every day.
Our daughter comes home and we have to work.
We have to try to work with meetings with her, asking us questions
about her schoolwork every single day.
It's it's it's so difficult.
And I don't know if anybody on the school board
actually has kids at home that has to do this.
But trying to balance this every day is getting tougher and tougher.
And so when we heard that there was possibly a chance that there would even be
a discussion, that they would come back, we were excited about it.
But to hear that you guys aren't even going to discuss it tonight
sickens me as well.
It's disappointing.
I went to this.
I went to Hershey
and I always told everybody that this is the greatest school in the area.
And right now I'm questioning that.
And it's because we won't even discuss a plan to bring kids back safely.
Our daughter wants to be back.
She wants to see her friends all day long.
She doesn't want to be at home.
And any
we don't want to have to try to balance this any longer.
We've done it for nine months and we can't it any longer.
And we we know there are other parents in the school district
that feel the same way.
That's all I have to say.
Well, thank you. And I apologize. I thought that was introduced as Brittany.
But you're Gregory, so. Thank you, sir.
Yep. Next.
Mr. Swiger, we have no other virtual hands at this time.
Okay.
Somebody just raised their hand.
Okay.
We have Laura Gifford and.
Go ahead.
Hi, this is Laura Gifford, 960 Sandhill Road.
I was in person at the meeting two weeks ago.
I would like to point out to everybody listening that this was discussed
two weeks ago, that Mr.
Shore did bring up the information that he brought to motion
and he did mention that he was going to try to bring it to motion.
And I would also like to point out to everybody listening that it the
it appears very apparent that the agenda meeting
did not include anyone that they knew would want to support this.
They I can only imagine they discussed this being on the agenda
and chose to not put it on the agenda
despite the entire community wanting to talk about it
and then to sit there and shut it down again.
Seems like a personal agenda and not what is in the best interests
of the community. We did not ask you to vote.
We asked you here.
Simply asked you to put it on the table for discussion, for everybody
to hear the discussion.
And I will reiterate everybody else's comments that it is
very disappointing to hear that.
But I will say after my comments on the board meeting
two weeks ago, I had many parents reach out to me.
And I will let you guys know that 50% of those parents
either already taken their children out of this district
or are making plans to do so if things do not change,
whether that means charter school or private school or leaving the district.
I will reiterate that 50% of the parents that I talk
to are considering leaving this district
because you cannot find a way to get our children into school,
into an essential piece of their life
like every other child in our area.
I really encourage you to think long and hard if the decisions you are
making are for personal power reasons or for what is best for these children.
Thank you. Thank you.
Anyone else?
Virtually, Mr. Swiger.
I see no more virtual hands.
All right.
Standing Committee report.
The Curriculum Council met today.
Dr. Pickering, do you have a report?
I do. Thank you.
So, an informational piece was regarding.
So I'm sorry.
An informational piece was regarding
the status of Keystone in PSC testing.
I know amidst COVID,
it's probably not on anyone's priority list at this point,
but wanted to let folks know that the high school
Keystone tests will be done during finals.
Specifically, that would be for the ninth graders
biology, literature for the 10th graders and anybody taking algebra
and for the middle school, anyone taking.
And in addition, because there is a need to document civics
as of course, the freshmen who are taking civics
will have a final exam as their measurement tool
in terms of the essays.
The there was a choice to defer them into the fall,
which our chose not to do, which I think is a good thing.
But in in any case, the pieces will be held in
May for grades three through five for English, English
language arts, as well as for math and for grades four with science.
That's for the elementary group, for the middle school group,
they will be taken sixth, seventh and eighth graders
will be taking them this summer, specifically English language
arts, as well as math and science just for the eighth graders.
So that will be coming out in a in a more detailed description
from the administration.
But that's just to give folks a heads up on how we are taking care of that.
In terms of new business, we were able to we heard from Mrs.
Stine, who is one of the first health teachers name entry school.
And the proposal is to add elementary health for grades
two through five, thereby splitting the physical education
component two
specials into one Health Day and one physical education day.
They did also emphasized
that all elementary grades still have a 30 minute recess after lunch every day.
So there still is activity, physical activity for those students.
K through two has a second 15 minute recess
that is organized by their teachers.
So that is that will be
that was just for the first read
the old business which was the second which will all go to a board vote on
March 22nd is changes to five different courses.
One is the steam program,
which already exists for the second through fifth graders.
That course has been revised to now add K and first graders to steam
the elementary library for K, and one will therefore be removed as
will be incorporated into the Steam program.
And then the other three courses are Computer six, seven,
Computer six, seven and eight, which are the sixth, seventh
and eighth grade middle school computer course.
That will be a change in name to better reflect
the actual components of the course and it'll be changed to digital literacy.
Six Digital Literacy seven and Digital Literacy eight.
Like I said, that will come to a board board vote on March 22nd.
The next meeting of Curriculum Council is on April 12th.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
Anything else from the Curriculum Council
Community Correspondence Report?
We're down to item to be on the agenda.
Mr. Tredinnick, do you have the community correspondence report?
Yes, Mr. President, I do.
During the month of February, the District receives a total of 32
submissions via the district's constituent contact form.
They included an enrollment inquiry,
a question about elementary curriculum.
Two questions regarding school schedules.
Oh, we received information regarding electric school busses.
We had an attendance question to employment submissions,
and the remainder of the questions were all regarding
the district's COVID 19 response.
Thank you, sir.
Student Representatives for Report.
Mr. Barnard, you have a report this evening?
I do.
I'm especially thankful and need to be able to hold this position,
to be able to talk about the treatment in these meetings
where it becomes easy to discuss between administrators, parents and teachers.
I think the message of the students is often left behind.
Luckily, though, it's not a message of always downtrodden students.
We're able to see that they're very resilient and they're seeing success.
For example, the boys and girls basketball teams
both qualified for districts in the postseason.
Swimming and diving championships, were held this last Saturday,
and a total of nine swimmers
and divers are moving on to the state's
spring.
Sports are beginning to practice this week.
And for those involved in clubs, the musical is being streamed
March 19th and March 20th, where it was prerecorded.
And the musical this year was Anastasia Mini THYNE,
which is which is traditionally held around this time of year, announced
that March 24th will be a food truck fundraiser event
so they can continue to raise funds.
And even the seniors who many people are concerned about,
the senior class officers, along with seeing council members
at a successful visit to the historic areas of Hershey
for a potential prom venue and graduation are actively being discussed
with the possibility of a hopefully somewhat traditional graduation.
So I encourage
all the people listening tonight to not forget that students live
the present reality of your decisions and they don't really get
the opportunity
to even think about their own personal convictions or opinions because
regardless, they're waking up at 730, join in homeroom, joining their first class.
And I'd like I'd like to extend the call to action to
just thank your students and to reach out to them and support them.
Because regardless of what occurs at these meetings,
we are living in your reality and regardless of what decisions are made,
we're still pushing forward.
So thank you for your guys's decisions and I encourage you to keep supporting
those who are working hard as well.
Thank you.
Moving on,
we're down to Item G, the items that will be on the agenda
for the March 22nd, 2021 Public Board of Directors meeting are listed.
They're
unfinished
business that turns us to items three
a district operating schedule during the COVID pandemic.
Dr. Winslow.
Thank you. Mr. Abel.
I did just want to
go over the survey results
so that the board will have these, and then these will be published
on the district website under our COVID surveys
so that everybody will be able to look at them closely.
I do want to thank everybody who responded.
We had a phenomenal response in a very short turnaround time
for the overall district.
Wide response was 83%,
which if any of you have ever given surveys, you know,
that's an outstanding result.
You can usually expect about 25%.
So I thank the whole community for that.
At the elementary level, we had an 88% response
at the secondary level we had an 80% response.
So very helpful information.
We did have an overall district wide, no response, a 17%,
which I will share.
Why that's impactful and a little bit too.
So just to dive into the specific questions,
families that are in full person
or I'm sorry, in virtual full schedules,
we did want to make it clear that
if students returned and full,
that those virtual schedules might changed
depending on the needs of staffing.
So in responding
to that question, which was if the district returned
to a full in-person instruction, it impacted my child's virtual schedule.
Elementary parents were
23% in
some form of favor and 76% in some form of opposed.
So they could be very much in favor somewhat in favor or somewhat opposed
or very much opposed.
At the secondary level, it was more split
with 41% in favor
and 59% in some form of opposed.
And then when we got into the preferences,
again, we had a pretty mixed response
that was a little more evenly split again.
So at the elementary,
54% of families
wished for a full day return.
46% of families preferred to stay either virtual or hybrid,
And the virtual and hybrid were equally split,
with 23% of the families wanting virtual and 23% of the families wanting a hybrid.
At the secondary level.
Again, we had a split between virtual and hybrid.
52% of families wishing for a full day return
for 24% of families wishing for virtual, 24%
wishing for hybrid virtual 48% wanting it to stay
the way it is.
So those are the overall numbers.
Based on the the survey questions, I do have further breakdowns of your questions
and I'll be happy to take those or the discussion over to you.
Dr. Windsor, this is Lindsay Drew.
I was just curious on the elementary,
one of the things that we have
had come up again, again would be the possibility for classroom
assignments in the elementary school to change depending
if we returned to full time and the number of students that would be there.
Do you know what the overall impact would be in how many students
or classrooms would be affected?
Yes, we did look at that.
And at a minimum, because we do have some unknowns,
we had a fair
number of parents at both levels that didn't respond.
But at a minimum, we'd be looking at about 70 students
that would need to have classroom assignment changes based upon
preferences, as indicated, for a full return.
And would that be because of
class size or because of
distancing mitigation?
Both is both.
So in order to maintain any kind of mitigation, we have to limit class sizes.
So for example, an in-person classes in kindergarten,
we can and still have some mitigation for for distancing in place.
We can fit 17 students at desks, wall to wall.
So in order to maintain that,
there would be at least two students
that would have to switch spaces in order to keep those
classes at that
that space.
Looking at first grade,
you would be looking at 44 students who would be impacted
just because the numbers are different and what people chose as their preference.
And so that's based on
what current enrollment is or what the indicated preference
from the survey would that is indicated preference from the survey
as well as
parents taking current enrollment into account.
So and then what current preference would be the changes
that would have to be made in order to maintain
that maximum in the classroom.
Does that make sense?
Yes. Thank you.
When you when you're saying 17 kids like what, 20
She said 17 in the classroom classroom, are do you
what what social distance measure are you using if if you say yes
to what the survey that's about three feet
or less.
Well,
this is Donna Cronin.
So for the
the preference by elementary school.
So I know it's it's pull data but for the
elementary overall 54% want to go
for full 23 remaining virtual
and 23 remaining hybrid with.
I realize that each grade and each classes is has to be considered differently.
But overall, can this can the elementary school accommodate
54% going back for five days
with you know, with within the guidelines? Yes.
If those hybrid students choose virtual.
Okay.
So so is there so at the elementary level
there is there a way to allow
hybrid students to stay hybrid?
I realize that would create separate and right now, I don't
I don't have an elementary based on pleading ignorance.
But I understand that you have a group that are a group of teachers
that are teaching virtual all day for the virtual group.
Everybody else right now is is teaching half the group hybrid and half the group,
the other half the group hybrid, asynchronous synchronous.
Correct.
Is there a way to allow the
how many first of all, for virtual,
how many teachers are fully virtual so that 23% say
they're teaching virtual all day to that?
And I apologize.
I just I'm not familiar with the elementary school anymore.
We have 22 teachers teaching full virtual.
Okay.
So 22 teachers for teaching for virtual.
I would assume that it would take
11 to then 11 teachers to be able to teach hybrid.
Obviously, the math is an exact because you don't know where they all are.
But theoretically, could you have keep some teachers
teaching in a hybrid model
to allow the ones who want to go for their full day?
Is it possible?
I mean, I'm looking for ways to make it work.
That's all. I'm that's what I'm asking.
If those if because I'm what I'm saying
is what I think is really important is that people make their own decisions.
So if I want my child, I have one child who wants to stay virtual the other life.
I'm not to tell anybody that we have to go all live or have all virtual same.
By the same token, some kids want to stay hybrid.
I want to see if we're able to keep everyone happy
so that we don't have our community saying, no, we should stay virtual.
No, we should stay live because everyone has their own comfort level.
There's no right answer here.
The only thing that I'm trying to solve or hope that we can solve is,
can we keep everybody based on the survey, what they want
and get everyone back to the learning that is best for them?
And I know at the high school it's very different
because we're already in a hybrid we can do hybrid and live in virtual.
Elementary is a different animal, but is there a way
we're realizing that people may have to switch classes,
but if people are really determined to stay hybrid and not go virtual
because if they if they go virtual, it allows people to go live.
But if they want to stay hybrid and not go virtual
and not go live, can we help accommodate that at the elementary level?
Right.
It's not that it could not be done.
I the amount of
switching and
I don't think it could be done by the end of this year
if that was a model that we had decided to try to implement last June
and started the year with it, we probably could have done that
with three months of planning over the summer.
I do not think that we could get that in place
in the kind of time frame that you're all looking for.
And you know, we're looking at a minimum of 70 student changes
that would be massive if student changes to to do that.
Okay.
So then my follow up would be for those 23% who want to who would prefer
to stay hybrid, we would then have to ask them, make, make the choice.
Okay, now, okay, that's the elementary school.
But at the high school level, because we already have
a fully virtual model and a fully model,
we should be able to with only
with only 50 I'm sorry, secondary with 52% wanting to go full day
and we high school 4949
wanting to go full day 28 virtual 23 hybrid.
Are we able to accommodate that in the current system?
We should be to accommodate that only 49%
wanting to go full day in the high school.
Yes. Should accommodate that.
We could accommodate the high school
and the middle school because the middle school numbers
are the same,
because middle school has virtual hybrid and could also do fully live.
Okay.
So the issue is what to do with the elementary school.
So as Dr. Winslow said. Right, it fit.
So just I want to understand where you're coming from.
She said it 54% full day.
There would basically be little to no social
distancing like we're talking it may be three feet at 54%.
Correct.
So then you take the hybrid people because we can't have all three options
this right now.
Right?
Okay.
So let's say then some of those like now,
you're already barely at three feet at 54%.
You can guarantee some of those 23% hybrid are going to go into that bucket.
So there's no social distancing at that point.
I mean, there isn't at 54%,
right? You have capacity.
So I guess that's really hard to visualize how it half capacity
we I would expect half capacity there
at only our average class size in elementary school is about 23.
I would expect it to be an average of about 11.
And you're saying 17 would be just under three feet.
But I'm saying but that's equal to all no other furniture right now.
That's what it is now, right?
Yeah.
I mean, they right now because it's half capacity,
they do have like a teacher desk in there, They don't have like,
you know, one or two other things that would be no teacher does.
Right. But if there's no nothing. Right.
But if class size goes from an average of 23 to a half, half of that
to an average of universal 12, that's well under the 17 that that you quoted.
Yes. Which is where we are now.
So we have half of the students coming in in the morning
and they're we're averaging class sizes
around.
Oh, you know,
it's actually pretty varied.
But we they average
around 1213 students
and we are able to maintain
that full 3 to 4 feet with that.
Right.
And that's with having a few other things in the room when once you
once you go to that maximum capacity, everything else leaves the room.
Dr. Winter, this is Lindsay.
True, if I can chime in, because I think I'm the only person on the board
with a currently enrolled elementary student.
And so the AMPM split.
Dr. CRONIN
So I think when they're saying like
ten, 11, 12 at one time, it's the AMPM,
so there's ten or 11 in the AM, ten or 11 in the PM.
And the way that it's currently set up is that the,
the student desks are set up as two.
And this was
goes back to our initial health and safety plan.
So in every classroom there are two desks next to each other and am students.
It's in one of the desks.
The PM student sits in the other desk so that there's one student
sitting at the same desk in the AMPM back up.
But that's allowing for the distance.
When you put the AM and PM together
and then have 24 students in the classroom at one time,
that's where the desks that are currently together come apart.
So you start losing that space.
So now it's sets of two sets of two.
Well now it's four less apart that that's where it fits into it.
So when you look at 54% wanting full day, it's saying
54% of the currently enrolled based on the 80%,
85% survey response.
So there's still that factor.
But to your point about the three options,
I do know that some school districts were able to offer that.
I think Middletown is one of them and hindsight's 2020.
I think that that would have been a phenomenal option at the start of
the year, you know, looking back for it, because we could have set it up
that there were teachers that were assigned to full day classes,
teachers assigned to hybrid to pick up the AMPM
and then teachers for the virtual for right now.
I think that that would throw all of the teacher assignments in.
And I think for me as an individual parent, and this is where
I really struggle with a lot of this because as a mom of a fifth grader,
you know, hearing the things that people say as a like I'm
a working mom, like know how hard it is when you're trying, you know, to manage
both and and time out your phone calls and, you know, all of the juggling.
But the teacher change for me is really impactful.
And so as a mom, I would struggle with
what is the benefit like how great is the benefit of returning
to in-person understanding what that environment would be like
if they had to change?
Because when we went when we realized that we couldn't do
full time in-person in the summer and we went to the AM PM option,
I think, you know, Dr. Rizzo can attest.
I think I've mentioned this before.
I was really opposed to the AMPM.
I would have preferred personally that the two day
a week cohort so that they at least had, you know, the two full days.
But one of the things that was that
Mr. McFarland and Dr.
Winslow stated was having that time
to get to know the teachers and we got really fortunate
that we had we thought maybe we would have what, or four weeks?
We ended up having closer to two months,
looking at how long that took to build
those relationships, to bring kids back.
With two months left
and a minimum of 70 students getting a brand new teacher, that's fair
for me as a parent, You know, it would be really concerning
about how that would impact their learning and their opportunity and.
Just to some of the points that, you know, are being brought up, it is really hard
to separate as a parent versus as a school board director.
And I keep finding myself having to take one hat on and one
hat off because as a parent,
I would love for my child
to be back full day and having that, but understanding
the other things that are involved in it make it a lot harder for me
to do that as a school board director because recognize all of the things
that are impacted, all of the changes
that would have to be made and accommodated for
and all of the things
that we would essentially, you know, give up.
One of the things that stood out to me the most this the past couple of weeks
as we've been digging through this information
and going through it was the attestation form.
In November, we voted as a board unanimously to sign
the attestation form with the Department of Education and Department of Health
that stated that
so long as the county that we reside in
is in substantial transmission mode, we're agreeing to comply
with both the updated order of universal face
coverings, including necessary exceptions and associated guidance
that permits us to be
able to offer some version of in-person instruction
when the recommendations tell us to be fully virtual
part of that guidance.
States that school entities may only allow students to remove face coverings
when students are eating or drinking when spaced at least six feet apart.
What we've learned is that we cannot
distance kids in the elementary school to the six feet of distance
and for lunch that would allow them to do that.
So as a board, if we were to vote
to bring the kids back full time, we'd be directly defying
the compliance orders of this attestation form.
On a local level.
We're staying open based on zip code data.
But as it relates to the attestation form, it's based on the county.
Dauphin County has been in substantial mode since October
30th, the week ending October 30th, 2020.
As of this
morning, for the week ending the fifth, we're still in substantial.
So March 22nd is the earliest that we could
possibly be two consecutive weeks out of substantial mode.
So my part of my concern as a school board director,
not as a mom of a fifth grader, is
planning
to make any changes or deciding tonight to make a change.
We could put all of these things in motion, but as a board we have
we are bound to comply with this.
It's the only way we're providing in-person instruction.
So we could say let's open April 6th.
But if Dauphin County isn't in low transmission mode by then
and we can't provide six feet of distance in the cafeterias,
then we're in direct defiance of the attestation that we signed.
And one,
someone could complain
to the Department of Education and we could be shut down double virtual.
So that's where I'm coming from when I don't want to see that
because we took this decision and step to be able
to offer some in-person instruction and it feel like we are handcuffed
by the
attestation until the county level changes and we can
comply with all of the guidance that we're bound to comply with.
Thank you, Linsey.
Donna Cronin.
I just want say the
the test attestation was done many months ago and I think it's important
for us to really look at what we need to do as a district for our kids.
Like I said, the elementary district,
the elementary students, that situation is very different.
I would just have a call to action as as Mr.
Koblin said, a call to action for the administration to seriously
look at how we could accommodate the needs
potentially the elementary kids as best we can.
And it may or may not be possible.
But I really want us to be able
to ask the administration to see what they can figure out.
And I don't know what that will look like.
I'm not an expert on what the elementary situation is.
However, let's move now to the high school and middle school,
because we are already in a virtual and a hybrid situation.
And we could go we could add live for those who want it.
I do I do want to just say, sorry, we can't maintain
that six feet of distance for eating
If we if we just let everybody come back at the high school, in the middle school.
So I just want it.
You're making it sound like it's super easy.
I know it's not super easy.
Trust me.
I just I know it's not it's not super easy.
And it's adding an additional burden on our teachers
who are all ready doing virtual and hybrid.
So now you want them to do full time virtual and hybrid.
That is a lot.
Well, right now there are the virtual.
The virtual teachers have people in the classroom and zooming into this,
they just happen to have
very small numbers and it has very specific schedule that they're following.
And not all the numbers are small across the board.
At the middle school we have we've had lots and lots and lots of kids
come back and we have offered 167 high schoolers to come back.
Only 51 kids have taken that.
Okay.
So I know there's a lot of difficulty, but my question is how what can we do
to get back as many students as we can,
even if we have to prioritize, if we can't get back
all 52% of the high school kids who want to full day, can we prioritize?
For example, can we bring back those seniors who want to come back?
So the last two months of their
their school career can be can be life for those who want it.
Once again, people want to stay virtual.
That is fine.
You want to say hybrid? That is fine.
That is your personal choice.
But can we accommodate what is the number we can accommodate
in the secondary schools to bring back the max number of kids
safely, full time live who want it in a prioritized fashion?
We've already priority list, I believe, English as a second language.
We prioritize anybody with other special needs or any students
who are seriously struggling.
Can we keep prioritizing to max the capacity?
If we can bring everyone
back, let's bring back those who need it and the prioritization.
I don't know what that is.
That's that's your expertise and that's what we've been doing right.
But we still have two and four in some of those classes, you know.
So I just want to find out, so
how can we do our prioritizing and we're inviting people back.
We have to get through that priority list and see who actually wants to come back.
And then we're still working on that.
And people like, again, 167 students have been invited back.
Only 51 have taken us up on it.
So my call to action is
let's get more students back live as soon as we can every single week.
And I don't know what that looks like, but, you know, no classes right now.
And once again, I'm only I only have knowledge of the high school.
There's still classes with two and four and six kids in it.
Can we do our best?
And once again, I, I would propose to get seniors back.
I know many college campuses let freshmen come back for a semester for
for those for the reasons that are obvious
and for the spring semester, they're bringing back their seniors.
And that's a great model that the college campuses are using.
Is can that be a first step or a next step?
Because we've already been prioritizing that.
Can that be a next step for days, live for for our seniors
and any other groups that need it?
I just want to make sure that our room, their rooms, are filled to safe capacity
in some fashion.
And it may not be perfect, but I just want to take steps in that direction.
Once again, those of you have commented about wanting to keep your kids
and hybrid. That's great. That's fine.
But if you want to if your students do better live,
we want to try to get them back live.
We're not going to make you change from hybrid to live or virtual to life.
I appreciate those comments, but everyone has their own decision.
I don't think any group out there should supersede any other group.
We want everyone to be in the in the model that works best for them,
and we're mostly limited in lives so that as we prioritize,
anyone who wants to go virtual can do that.
But let's let's maximize our middle and high school kids
that can fit in those rooms live and then elementary,
that's something else has to be dealt with.
But I that's that's my call to the call to action.
Having two and four kids in a high school room is
is not doing justice to those kids who need to learn four days life.
Okay Thank you for calling
and I think you have made the point from what I'm hearing
is that our sort of our framework was either virtual or.
We never had it. We know we did.
We did not have a three option framework, right?
Dr. Winslow That virtual hybrid and.
Liz And as Ms..
Drew said, you know, perhaps that would have been more prudent.
But it does appear that if I want to make sure
I understand this right now, if we go full time
live or virtual, then the hybrid folks will have to make a decision.
Right now, elementary school in the next session, your door number one
or number two, and in our opinion, at the secondary also.
Okay. Okay, good. I appreciate that.
And thank you, Ms..
Drew.
About the county transmission rate, I tried to get a handle on where we were
here or our current numbers.
Dr. Winslow I think we were still in substantial under one of the criteria.
Is that correct?
Correct. Okay.
Mr. April,
I just wanted to clarify about the attestation form.
Yes, we approved it in November, but it is still required by the Department
of Education and the Department of Health, so long as the
until they lift the requirement for it, we are bound by that.
They attestation form gave us the option
to choose our own instruction model, whether it be some in-person or not.
If we were in a substantial mode
there's no opting out of that
unless we go fully virtual until the county is in low transmission mode.
So what we're doing right now, the attestation is
the only way that we are able to provide in-person learning.
And so if we do not comply with the distancing requirements
that we attested that we would comply with,
then we would be essentially needing to go full virtual.
Thank you.
I had a question to one.
So well, we're talking about the survey data
and I invite know further discussion by the board.
So so what we did do is we did
you separately gave
us information on the survey.
Those are currently in hybrid.
Yes. If I read that correctly at both elementary and secondary
and that
school for four, it looks like it was 70% of those in hybrid
would prefer full day, correct.
My reading there correctly.
Yes. And in 30% would want to stay hybrid.
And then the folks who are in currently in virtual
are the majority of those people
wanted to stay in and virtual.
And then there was a breakdown between for day and hybrid for.
Those people.
I just want to make sure I understand that
that data correctly so but the hybrid people,
the majority did want to go full day, correct? Yes.
Okay. So I want to get that straight.
So Mr. Able Go.
I just have some questions first.
I really think some
for a lot of these mitigation efforts are still going to be in place.
And if it sounds like,
according to your plans, I'll never all be able to be back
if these mitigation efforts are in place.
And that's a concern to me.
Secondly, I don't know if these other schools
did not sign that form because they're all doing it their back.
So whether they signed the form or not
is a question I would have how they're able to be back
and still abide by what the Department of Health is saying.
The third comment I have is we're saying that it's not safe.
It's not safe to bring back kids.
And I would question where is the science to say that
because schools have been back some since September,
I have not seen anywhere where it says that teachers are transmitting
COVID to students or students are transmitting COVID
to teachers because they are in school full time.
I don't see that data out there.
If you guys have, I would love to see it.
I'm not seeing the science
that saying school is a place where COVID is being spread.
If COVID is being spread, it is happening outside of school,
not inside of school too.
So to say that schools are unsafe and it's not a safe environment,
I would really love to see where that data is coming from
and where we're saying that the science is backing that.
That's saying school in-person is not a safe environment.
I have not read that anywhere.
I think it would be all over the news if that were true.
Daycares have been back since March.
They never even went out.
No. Where do you hear headlines, A spread of COVID throughout daycares.
Those kids aren't masked from their masks, but their masks are full.
It's just they're not you know, they're they can't keep them out all the time.
They're not social distance.
And there is no COVID spreading.
There is even, you know, there's lots of articles that talk about that.
So to say that school is not a safe environment and that copies
are going to spread in school, I do not see where that is true.
So I would welcome any board member to please show me what data you're reading
to see that even in our area once I've had them back since September,
we are not reading that
COVID is spreading in school because they are back full time in person.
So it's a little bit frustrating and I'm sure the parents very frustrated as well.
Knowing this and knowing that there's
they're probably not seeing any signs that supporting that.
So I feel for you.
It's disappointing and I'm sure it's very frustrating
to not have a choice to have your child back full time.
So just something to think about.
And again, I'd welcome if you guys had that data,
I would love to hear or see it at the next board meeting.
I have another comments that Donna Cronan
I really want us to focus on what can we do to make something better?
Staying the same, I don't think is the option.
We may not be able to get to the perfect, but what are the things we can do
to move forward?
And I know some people have suggested if one has a problem,
can we have a big tent and expand our space and have outdoor lunches?
You know, just think out of the box.
What can we do to maximize the number of kids that can get back live
that want to be live?
That's that's we can say a million times are we can't do this.
We can't do that.
Let's figure out what can we do to move closer to that goal.
We may not be perfect, but let's different better than what we're doing now.
That's that's my that's my huge ask for our students that need it.
Thank you, Dr. Carnegie.
Anyone else want to
talk? For sure?
Yes. Capshaw.
Teri, are you still there?
Teri, your second, Mr.
Singular up. Good.
One of the answer one day.
Answer your question, Teri.
First, If you go back and listen to carefully
to the recording of the last meeting,
it it became apparent to me that
there was no intention on the part of the administration
to move back to full time for in-person instruction.
Regardless of what the numbers were,
even if it went into the low to moderate range.
And that that's sort of that was disheartening.
And then it sort of I think that more generally there just was
an impression of an overall lack of will to succeed on the part of the students.
I mean, we have a pandemic task force and over the last year
they've met how many times ballpark at four, five, I don't know.
Doesn't try to put way on the spot.
But but the Milton Hershey School Pandemic Task
Force in the last year has met about 278 times.
That's that's will to succeed on behalf of your students.
Now, I'm just going to read a couple of excerpts
from some scientific publications and the copies.
These are available on request.
First is a joint publication by the Harford Center for the Harvard,
Edmond Safra Center for Ethics and the Brown University School of Public Health
now recommend that schools be open even at the very high
levels of spread, provided they strictly implement strategies of infection control.
Schools should use metrics of community spread as general points and information,
not on off switches for closure and opening focus.
Their measures on any in-school and the quality of their infection control.
The most important elements
of infection control are universal masking hand in bathroom hygiene,
three foot social distancing for young learners at all levels
of community spread, six foot social distancing for high schools
when levels of community spread rise above 100 per 100,000
daily new cases, three foot social distancing below
that level are robust contact tracing practices
where feasible surveillance screening, ad and testing
and achieving four or more air exchanges per hour.
We are unaware of any outbreaks in U.S.
schools that were caused by in-school transmission.
In schools where infection control measures have been in place,
the body of evidence that students are not.
Yeah, there is body of evidence that the students are not at heightened
risk of schools reopening.
Now, this is from the Journal
of the American Medical Association,
a case control study of exposures
among children aged 0 to 18 years
with infection in Mississippi
found that having attended gatherings and social functions outside
the home, as well as having had visitors, visitors in the home was associated
with an increased risk of infection.
However, in-person school attendance was not.
In the fall of 2020 11.
School in North Carolina, with more than 90,000 students
and staff were open for in-person education for nine weeks.
During this time, with in-school transmission was very rare
and there were no cases of student to staff transmission.
Something closer to home.
Milton Hershey School has been full time in-person
instruction for the entire year,
and there have been zero cases of student to teacher transmissions.
Zero.
So, I mean, this is truly about the science
critical thinking and equity.
It's really important.
And when we know that and again, this is from the Harvard, Harvard.
BROWN
In addition to parents being forced out of work,
inequities of society are reinforced and expanded.
Remote instruction generates large and generates large learning
gaps and links to higher rates of mental illness,
while depriving children of formative social and peer relations.
And so I don't know if that answers your question, Terry.
All right.
Thank you.
Oh, and and by the way, I am I am in favor of Mr.
Copeland's proposal that we
invite Dr. Allen to present to us.
Thank you.
Very well.
So we've got a business.
This is Cathy Zwicker.
I am Dr. Shaw.
I agree with everything you're reading, but I think that
one of the biggest issues is it's not necessarily
when we're on masks and we're three, two, three, four or five feet apart,
it's when we take our masks off and we're eating.
And that's why you do see studies of indoor dining
is where the spread is and everything
I get from the administration is it's the six feet apart.
When you take your mask off and you're eating.
That's the problem in our buildings.
And you can say that other schools do this and other schools do that.
But it's it's the way it's our elementary in s.e.c.
We have one whereas lowered often palmyra, they have four
or five different smaller schools where they can spread their lunches out.
So it's the six feet apart when you take your mask off, it's indoor dining.
So I, I don't, I agree that I'm sure they're not being spread
when we're all masked, but it's the problem of taking your mask off.
That's mostly where the spread happens. And
that's just where
that's just it's an airborne virus.
So I, I think it's just difficult
to compare us to other school districts
constantly when we're set differently.
And we do know that we if the students come back to elementary school full time
and they're in their classrooms three feet apart,
that's where they're going to have to eat their lunches.
So they will be taking their masks off and eating their lunches there.
The other thing is, Mrs.
Halberstadt, you continue to say that nothing's going to be different in August,
and I completely different disagree with you.
We're supposed to be rolling out vaccines right now
and by May, anyone who wants to get a vaccine will be able to get one.
We are planning for a full return at this school
district next year with a virtual option.
The other issue is and a lot of people compare us to colleges.
Colleges made their decision for the fall in the spring and stuck with it
through the semester what we what we've been doing at K through 12
is constantly watching the numbers and thinking we might be on a change
or might be a change.
And part of me thinks that's been a disservice to especially our district
because this maybe we can change actually means
it takes four, six or eight weeks to change.
So the farther we got into the school year, the harder it became to actually
bring back that the furloughed staffers and bring back.
So it
and we're still in substantial with the numbers.
So if we knew all this, like you said
and offered the three options back from the beginning of the school year,
we would be in a different situation
if we had three options, full time hybrid and virtual.
But we didn't we didn't know what we didn't know.
And I think when we started the school year, we thought based on the numbers
that we weren't even going to last till October as even hybrid,
most of us thought we were probably going to be virtual.
He lasted much longer than any of us thought based on the counts
staying hybrid in some form of in-person.
So I think the colleges have a luxury of making a decision
and they've stayed with it through the semester.
They haven't changed unless they pull back to even do more mitigation requirements.
So, Mrs.
Sikka, just to address what you were saying, one, the elementary does
have plexiglass on both sides of their desk is what I read somewhere.
And so when they're eating, they are facing forward.
There's plexiglass on both sides.
And I don't think that the risk of
I think that decreases at risk of COVID.
What you're saying when they're eating,
because you have a plexiglass on both sides
and they are going to be sitting in their seat.
The other thing you mentioned what's going to be different in the fall.
I don't think the guidelines are 101.
You know, the case count and all that.
The low to moderate high.
I don't think that's going to be different now.
I don't I think it's going to fluctuate in the fall.
It's going to fluctuate in the winter.
And if we're going to go by what we're going by now,
it's we're never going to be open full time with everybody back.
The vaccine is not going to be with kids.
It's an FDA approved emergency use vaccine.
It has not been tested in school kids.
So I don't see that school kids are going to be getting the vaccine come fall.
So I don't see how that's going to change anything.
Yes, the teachers were having it, but I feel
the teachers have things in place now that keep them safe.
They are at their desk, They have the plexiglass there and they are masked.
So I do not see much that's going to change in the fall.
And that's why it concerns me with what you are presenting
and how we would ever get everybody back in the classroom,
because I don't think those guidelines are necessarily going to change any.
Just after your hand.
First.
Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Abel.
Oh, yeah. Well, I just.
The big difference, though, is that all of our teachers, by fall
will have been vaccinated. And to me
I feel like that's the huge piece that we're forgetting in all of this.
We all want our kids back.
I have two kids.
They want to be back in school.
But you know what my son said to me?
He said, Of course I want to be back, but I don't want to endanger my teachers.
You know, it's not fair for us to ask
all of these things of our teachers to perform all these miracles.
And and we all want these things for our kids.
And it's such a hardship that we are all experiencing at this moment, but
so too, to force people
to go into either virtual or in-person.
You know in a really quick way without all of this, without thinking
about all these other mitigation factors, all of the science.
I agree with Dr. too. It's the science.
You know, I'm reading the same article
as I'm reading stuff that's coming out of Policy Lab from CHOP.
And everything that I've read is with mitigation factors.
There is no spread in the schools.
As long as we follow the mitigation factors, as long as we have
at least three feet, as long as we're doing the masking.
And so by having everybody come back,
we can't physically
we don't physically have the capacity to do three feet.
So we're putting everybody in danger by getting rid of that spacing mechanism,
especially when we have these new variants that are just now starting to spread.
We have spring break that's coming up or people are going to start to gather,
especially with all these other things lifting.
And I just think it's too soon for us to make such a rash to endanger
all of our population when we're so close to getting people vaccinated.
And I think that that is the major difference for me
is that come fall time, even if we
still have these high community rates, at least our teachers will be protected.
At least they'll be.
And we can try to make some other
efforts over the summer to expand on what we have to perform
more miracles to accommodate kids and space that we don't have.
And so I just feel like we need to keep the course.
We're so close.
And I know it's asking a lot from our community.
I know it's asking a lot from our parents.
I know it's asking a lot from our students and for our for our teachers.
But if we can just be patient, we're almost there.
And I feel like this is the right path to stay on in order to keep everybody safe.
This is Donna Cronin.
Just want to address some of the comments that were made.
I use the example of colleges just to talk about prioritization, not whatever.
They're all doing something different, but just the whole concept of prioritizing
to get people back on campus that could fit.
And if a school said we can only fit a thousand, they prioritize
that 1001 way was bye bye seniors, for example, or freshmen early on.
So prioritization I think is important. Staying the course.
I can't even believe we're having this conversation.
Staying the course means we don't.
We're just going to keep things the way they are
and we know we can do better than that.
I mean, we can fit more kids in a classroom.
We may not be to get them all in, but staying the course is the worst possible
option, in my opinion, because we haven't maxed our space lunches.
Can we?
If that's if the lunches is that is the problem, then think out of the box.
Maybe everyone at a certain time just eat in the classroom
like the elementary school in high school, or they go outside
outdoor campus, put up tents if it rains, whatever.
Just think of something that don't.
When I hear an excuse, we can't do it because a lunch solved the lunch problem.
You know, we need plexiglass, plexiglass, whatever it is.
Last year, on March 13th, I remember I remember having conversations with Kathy
was then president to determine, are we going to stop the kids?
That's when the whole world shut down.
Pretty much within five days, our teachers pulled together
for the first time ever a fully virtual program.
I believe that our teachers can accommodate
what what is best for getting more students in school.
And I have faith in them.
And I think we just need to come up with
what do we need to do to make this happen for the most number of students,
period.
There's there's really no reason to not try to get
the most students in school within the SAFE
guidelines and any other mitigation that we need to do.
We have a community that's willing we have we have an expert out there
that that Mr. Copeland has talked to.
There are ways to do it, to just say no, let's just keep it the way it is.
I just I just can't even understand that these kids.
The kids that need to be in their lives need to be in their life.
If they're doing well, virtually, I'm so happy for them.
If hybrid is working, great.
But we know there are kids that need to be there live.
Let's fill up the classroom as much as we can safely do
and and just and just go for it, you know?
And as things change will change.
But we can't just sit here and not do anything because who knows, in a month
this could all be gone and we're not ready for it.
I don't think that's the case.
But we have to we have to move forward and maximize
the best instruction for the most number of people.
Okay.
Thank you. Dr.
Cronin, I want to add something to the Harvard doctor,
and we appreciate the suggestion, I think obviously all board members are free
to do their own research and access some of the studies that he's done.
So I would already ask Borders
to kind of remain vigilant and try to get as much information.
And thank you, Dr.
Shaw, for those studies to get as much, you know, in front of us as possible.
Other comments here are unfinished business.
This maybe you want to say something that I just want to say when I say
stay the course, I mean that I do think that the administration
has been adapting and changing and evolving and accommodating
and inviting kids in that need extra help and opening up the school
to special students and opening up the school full
time for English language learners and for kids that are failing.
So it's not I don't think that in my opinion,
the school district is just doing nothing and sticking to the same old thing.
They're constantly looking for ways how they can reach kids
and get kids more involved.
And so when I say stay the course.
I mean that in a evolving way, but
that we have to protect our teachers
before we can bring everybody back into the school building.
Thank you.
Ms.. May I have a follow up question for Dr.
Shaw?
This is
this is just an effort for me to try to understand I'm not attacking
and I'm not putting you on a spot.
And if I misquoted, you can correct me.
But I have written down a note here that said that you weren't
suggesting and I don't know if this is the last made or not,
but you weren't suggesting we violate the CDC guidelines.
So I'm
right.
Are you are you okay with
if we come back and there's not enough room to social distance.
So could you just please talk that through a little bit?
Yes. I was referring
to the updated CDC guidelines that refer to
returning to full in-person
instruction in the low and moderate transmission and
I can't recall specifically
that conversational thread, but
it wasn't
wasn't that related to some extent to
that we're already doing the extracurriculars and sports
and violating some CDC guidelines.
And I'm not suggesting I'd have to go back and listen to the tape.
Yes, right.
Well, I will say, if I might add that if I
if this is response this is jibe, I think that the chart I'm looking at from
the CDC says if you're in low or moderate,
it says physical distancing of six feet or more to the greatest extent possible.
Maybe that's what you're talking about, Dr.
Shaw.
You know, if you get into the low and moderate.
Yeah, that could be
I can't I can't remember the exact conversational thread from.
That was two weeks ago. Right.
I'll go back and listen to that and get back to you.
And if that's if that's okay. Yes. All right.
Because what I'm having a hard understanding is
when we're talking
about going back to school,
does it
put all of the mitigation like out of the window?
Like, is that what we're proposing?
So somebody comes to school with COVID, our numbers go back up
and then we have to go back online, like, are we still?
Because I'm kind of conflicted in the way the conversation is going.
Like we're coming back, but
are we not following CDC guidelines?
Like what if somebody has COVID, then does everybody have to go out and quarantine?
I'm just trying to understand what is being suggested.
My personal this is Donna Corona.
My personal suggestion is that you that we maximize the space we have within,
the mitigation strategies, contact tracing for any potential exposure
will continue.
The CDC guidelines have changed from 14 days to ten days and only,
what, seven days? If you have a negative.
So it's it's a lot it's a lot less stringent in terms
of impacting students their lives.
But I don't think anyone's saying to throw the guidelines through the distancing.
I mean, everyone should still wear a mask.
We want to distance as what much as we can, and
no one wants to put the teachers at risk.
But can the teachers you know, there's mitigation strategies for teachers, too.
They don't have to be standing in the hallway like they did years before
greeting there.
I mean, that was wonderful greeting students as they come in.
I love that.
But they don't have to do that. They should.
If I was a teacher and I was concerned,
stay at my desk, maybe have a plexiglass if need be.
But if I was a high school teacher,
you you distance from your
class and the kids come into the class, you stay in your corner.
It's not ideal, but you keep yourself safe.
We need our teachers to be safe.
We don't need them walking around.
I mean, we love them too, but they don't to be walking around.
They're they're grown adults.
They know how to do this.
They can keep themselves safe.
They don't, you know, not being in the hallways like they used to be.
I don't see that.
I would never want to put anyone at risk.
And I don't think we're putting them at risk
by having them self distance from their from their student.
I just have to if you for a second.
Well, I'm talking high school, so I know you're talking high school.
I'm talking like in high school is a place where you absolutely
must be in the hallways when there's a whole of kids out there.
You don't just let kids go all over the place in the hallway
and nobody supervises them. Who's supervising them?
If teachers are standing in a corner of the classroom,
that's not realistic expectation, nor is it a realistic thing
to say that teachers would do
that is unsafe and many, many different ways than just COVID.
Can there can there be other ways every single teacher might be out there?
Maybe there shifts, maybe the teachers that have been vaccinated, I don't know.
I don't have the answers.
All I'm saying is can we find ways to keep the teachers safe?
I believe and I believe we can.
I think what you're running into is what we are running into.
We do have these conversations.
We do have all of this kind of planning, but there are different.
And once you make one factor go away, then there's another domino there.
It's a huge organization.
There's lots of kids to take into account.
And when you're talking about the kids that you want to bring back and kids
having not been in school for a long time, you can't just let them
roam all over the place.
That's not the way it works.
It's not realistic.
And certainly in the classroom, teachers are definitely trying to keep themselves
six feet away from students.
But when you're talking about behaviors
because you're still going to have behaviors in the classroom,
the best way to mitigate a behavior is proximity.
So if you're going to bring back a whole entire classroom of kids,
then just let them have at it.
That is not good teaching and that is not safe for a classroom.
So I just want to be very clear that we can do what you ask us to do.
But mitigation standards will go out the window in order to do it.
So there are some
things that we will be able to maintain, like masking, that's great,
but if you're bringing back everybody,
there are other pieces that we will not be able to maintain.
And that's the decision you have to make.
We can do it, but we there are going
to be pieces that we can't maintain.
And if you know, the cases are going down,
if we get into low, the recommendation has fallen person return.
We are prepared to do what it is we have to do to follow that
law and we're prepared to do what it is that you tell us to do.
But please, please don't make it sound
like it's something that's very easy to do or like kids
will just do what they're supposed to do when they're supposed to do it, because
we're being with COVID, because that's not how it works.
Thank you. See?
See, I don't I don't think anyone thinks it's easy,
but once again, I don't think we're we're not saying bring everyone back.
Bring everyone back once again.
Just maximize our safe capacity.
What I am hearing is that you do want to bring everybody back.
That is what I'm hearing. Dynamics never heard.
And how would we do that right?
So we talk about equity all the time.
And so if we're saying we have X number of spaces to be able to fill,
then how do we pick who gets to do that?
We've started doing it by the learners are struggling
exactly one or two or more core classes.
They're in the process of reaching out
to each one of those and trying to bring them back.
So once we get through that list, then you decide, Oh, you're a senior.
So you get to maybe What about the work from home parents who want their kid
there?
There's all of these variables and I agree there.
And the audience, please, being so disrespectful to this conversation,
that's also disrespectful.
Lindsay, I'm sorry.
Wow, That's a
it's absolutely pathetic.
Okay. All right. So.
So I'm sorry I missed the E.T., The
email. There's someone on. Yeah.
I mean, they don't make all this to order, so.
So Mesereau has the floor.
Let's let's finish up this conversation.
I do think we're kind of getting to a point.
We're kind of reiterating ourselves.
So is there any further substantive part of the discussion?
I'll let you finish your thought.
When I'm done.
I'd like to ask.
Okay. I'm sorry, Mr. Singh.
I'm sorry, Mr. Singer. Yeah.
So let's let's go to Ms..
Drew, finish her thought, and then, Mr.
Singer, you have the floor.
What I'm saying is, at the end of the day I think we can go around this room
and every single one of us want to bring the kids back.
Every single teacher wants the kids back.
The teachers last March 13th did shift
in an fashion to try and and figure out how to deliver virtual learning.
And we've come a really long way since then.
But what we have to look at is, yes, I agree.
Should we be finding, you know, looking for ways at this?
But at what point do we say it's that's not what's going to do?
Because what we're doing is taking administration time
every single day away from being able to to provide the supports
and make sure everything is there and we've heard from the
the teachers association that the vaccine is the most important thing for them.
Like that is a big thing.
And there is now light at the end of the tunnel
and I'm incredibly thankful for that.
But even if we got them all vaccinated within
the next few weeks, it's four weeks until effective.
And so we're looking at a teacher population that would want
to be confident in their vaccination.
So you're four six weeks out
so I appreciate all of the ideas, but at what point
are we going to do this every time and not look at
the reality of it?
And where it comes back to me is this attestation form.
We can want to change anything all we want.
We can talk about it all day long,
but we signed something saying we were going to comply with this,
and every single option we have out on the table
currently doesn't allow us to comply with that.
And so for me, as a school board director, I feel like I ethically can't
vote something even as much as I want to because it goes against that.
But we're just talking in circles and it's creating
more and more strife divide
and this is just getting out of control.
So I don't want to cut the debate off prematurely.
But is there anything else here from folks in the room?
Mr. Singer, I apologize.
I neglected remember you were out there. So
if you do not have the floor.
Mr. Singer.
Thank you.
Know,
Mr. Macfarlane previously, and I think Dr.
Winslow tonight is I think, made it pretty clear that they
the dialog, they hear the discussion,
they hear members of the community.
And I think with the tools they and the
and the situation that they face, that
they continue to try
to accommodate as many students as they can
in the various ways that we're able to accommodate them.
And I,
I believe that's occurring.
I have felt that is occurring
based on these public conversations as well as private conversations.
And that's why I just wanted to come back to
this many questions to Dr.
Shaw,
just to understand for for future discussion
if the resolution or the motion
that you were proposing,
is that just to just to bring students
back, period, or to bring them back in accordance
with the current mitigation and safety requirements that we have?
Mr. President, do you
are you going to permit us to backtrack the agenda or?
Yeah, the motion.
The motion was clear.
It's I'm glad to follow up with Mr.
Singer off line. Yeah.
As I'm going to do with Ms..
Memory after I've had a chance to listen to the recording because the motion
I'm sorry, Dr.
Shah's motion never got to the floor.
So I do.
I do think it's probably inappropriate this time to debate.
It's about a nine motion.
With all due respect, Mr.
Singer, I understand the question.
I guess I guess the only concern that I have is, is that
this this type of
commentary that an absence of specificity
leads to a misunderstanding on the part of the community.
So I guess I thought Dr.
Shaw read the motion earlier. He did. And
I'm sorry.
And yeah, so
I'm not sure what the hesitation
is in answering the question, but that's okay.
Right. And I appreciate that.
And in my view,
we're debating something that never got to the floor,
which would be which would be inappropriate if the motion
ultimately gets on the agenda, would think that would be a,
you know, a proper topic of discussion
and anything else from folks here
on the board to discuss under item of unfinished business.
And Dr.
Wenzel, could you update on the vaccination process, please?
I had that as part of the superintendent's report.
Do you want me to wait for it for.
No, that's a okay. No, that's okay. Thank you.
Good grades.
All right.
And anything else.
I appreciate the discussion this evening
from public as well as from the from the board.
I still have one more thing to say.
I'm sorry. Can I say please do again?
Please do not.
Against my better judgment, I'm going to say it.
This is the school board.
I understand.
It's a very odd dynamic.
We can engage and we have these conversations
like this is, just a literally a tiny snapshot of what we do here.
So I'm not asking for anybody's appreciation.
I'm just I just want people to try to understand some of the comments
in the beginning were very, very difficult to sit
and and and listen to.
I am human.
So again, it
having to sit and listen to it and really not have any way to have like
a healthy back and forth discussion
is incredibly difficult and I understand emotions are high.
Somebody
somebody made a comment about that.
I wrote it down like personal power reasons.
Somebody said to us, Anybody on the school board have any children?
So I try very hard not to make
this whole situation personal,
but I'm going to say it for full, full transparency.
I voted yes to having my child come back to school full time.
She is an eighth grader.
There were full tears today.
She is completely struggling academically.
She is struggling emotionally.
She is struggling physically.
I work from home.
My husband works from home.
My 93 year old grandfather lives with me.
He is in and out of the house all day.
Incredibly disruptive.
I am right with everybody.
I have had it like I cannot take it anymore.
That's me.
As the mother of an eighth grader that is struggling
as a school board director.
There are so many facets
and so many things coming at you and it's really key.
I mean, whether you think we're doing a good job or not, I don't think
any single school board member around this table doesn't put in their time.
The effort, the energy homework, the research,
taking phone calls, trying to listen to the community.
So, again, I understand that everybody
is emotionally charged and it is very difficult.
And I do believe at the end of the day, we're trying to do best.
We're trying to take into consideration
a subset of students and people and faculty and administration
that I'm not sure and I'm not there's no dig on anybody.
There's just no understanding of it until you're here
in this in this seat and the other thing that's awkward
and I kind of picked up on it with the exchange between Donna and Dr.
Winslow,
both valid points, but as a school board
director, the other thing that we can't we're not in the buildings,
so it's easy for me to say, Well, why can't you do this and why do it?
And they're great questions to ask because.
We have to ask them to understand them.
But we're not there every day.
I'm not in there every day with 26 kindergartners trying to eat
lunch, trying I mean, in a normal situation that is crazy town.
So I can't even imagine in this situation.
So that is also difficult, too, when we're making decisions
like we're not on the ground level.
So we are relying on the community to come to us.
We are relying on the administration, we are relying on other school
board members.
So it's just a very dynamic discussion.
And I mean, you know, for what it's worth, I do care if I don't not care.
So when people say you don't, it's just it couldn't be farther from the truth.
Sorry. Thank you much. No.
Anything else?
We'll move on to the concern agenda items.
The concern
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 have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as listed so moved
Kathy Secker Second, Lyndsey drew, is there any discussion?
Mr. President, I just wanted to clarify or make a point on here.
Tonight is a request for use of school facilities and it's for our outside fields
for baseball, soccer, track and whatnot.
And so I just want to make a point because I do that there is some
sentiment in the community that if we're allowing sports but not,
you know, bring kids back full time, all the groups
are requesting to use our fields.
This is being used for group practice or games for in district play.
They are
they must comply with
all of our mitigation efforts and safety measures.
So facemasks one thing of you know particular note
is making sure that it's the right type of facemask, not the gaiters,
because we're not allowed to count that as a appropriate
facemask, but we
we are doing this
consistent with the CDC or the Department of Education guidelines
for the way that we operate school sports and complying with that.
This is expected to be the same, and that's why
I am supportive of these requests.
Thank you.
Mr.. Of any other discussion on the pending motion
if not, if this is standard voice vote, all those in favor signify by saying
I anyone opposed
that moves us on to item number
five of new business on the agenda
approval of the
2021 2022 school calendar. Dr.
Winslow The administration recommends the approval of the proposed
2021 2022 school calendar.
Now the motion to approve the 2021
2022 proposed school calendar so moved.
Maria. Me second. Cathy.
Is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor signify by saying I anyone opposed
Motion carries
next item under new business is the business Manager Contract Amendment.
Dr. Winslow
recommends the board approve Amendment one to the employment contract
for the business manager.
Michael Friends
may have a motion to approve
the business manager's contract amendment, so move to Kathy Seger.
Second, Lindsay Drew, is there any discussion?
I just want to thank Mr. Friends for this.
I just want to thank Mr. Friends for this guy.
Appreciate that.
Everything he did and for us to just button this up at this time.
Okay.
Thank you, miss.
And we concur.
I there's a standard voice vote.
All those in favor signify by saying I and anyone opposed.
Okay.
Next item under new business is item C
approval of requests for increased distribution. Dr.
Winslow, The administration recommends the board approve
the one time increase of distribution from Milton Hershey Trust from 4% to 7%
for the 2021 2022 fiscal year.
So move Nancy Drew second.
Kathy Secker, is there any discussion?
Yes, Mr.
President, I just wanted to note
that this was also recommended by the Finance Committee
for approval by the board.
And because don't typically have a couple hundred people on Zoom
listening to these meetings, this could cause questions
to come up of what we're doing here.
So I just wanted to note that the February 2nd Finance Committee meeting
had a presentation from Fulton Financial, which explains the position of the trust
and what we are able to do and the way that we increasing this
to offset projected deficits for next year's budget.
And so I would encourage anyone that wants to understand
more about the trust and its interaction with our budget to please
listen to the Finance Committee meeting from February 22nd.
Thank you. Mr..
Any other discussion on the pending motion?
Just additionally, to add on what was dressed as Drew said, Capshaw
here is that this this one time draw increase in
draw does not materially affect the principal of the trust.
Great.
Thank you.
Any other discussion?
There's a standard voice vote.
All those in favor signify by saying I didn't opposed.
Moving on to item D personnel resignations.
May I have a motion to approve the personnel resignations so move.
Lindsey drew second.
Maria. Mimi, is there any discussion?
This is standard voice vote.
All those in favor signify by saying I didn't
want opposed motion carries personnel.
General Dr.
Winslow, The administration recommends the approval of the list of personnel
and recognition of any list of transfers
made a motion to approve the list in personnel and recognition
of any listed transfers.
So moved.
Maria me Is there a second?
Second Cathy Sicker.
Thank you. Is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor signify by saying I I anyone opposed.
The motion carries item number six on the agenda.
The CIA report is attached.
Mr.. Do you have anything to add?
I do not. Thank you. Thank you
the Derry Township Tax Association.
The report is also attached.
Ms. Many. Dr. Cronan anything to add?
Not at this time. Okay.
Thank you.
On the item number 77a board members reports.
Are there any board members who would like to give a report this time?
Mr. President, this is Lyndsey Drew.
I just wanted to call attention to parents that a communication went out last week
with an attachment to the YMCA, a summer day camp flier.
That registration is now open and will be
run by the YMCA in the Derry Township Elementary
in the Hershey Elementary School.
So there is an option for summer day camp, but it is limited
in enrollment for COVID measures.
And so if you're interested in
summer care, please go ahead and make sure that you get that information.
You can also find it on the YMCA website.
And thank you to the administration for facilitating that
since we did not have a Derry Township program anymore.
Are there any other board member reports?
Mr. President?
Cathy Zika I just wanted to along our sympathies to the lowered often school
board for where they had a school board member die suddenly a few days ago.
His name is Keith Oleg.
Mrs. Have Ristic and I serve on the Dauphin County Career
and Technical School Board and he was the President last year
and it was a pleasure to always work with him.
He's been a board member at Lower Dolphin.
Many, many, many terms.
He was very, very passionate about the technical school
and just doing what's best for kids.
We have a meeting Wednesday night this week.
So it's going to be very sad that he's not there
at in February 2020, right before the shutdown.
They had this fabulous Valentine's dad day dinner and Judy and her husband and
Chris and I sat with Keith and his wife and had a wonderful meal with them.
So just wanted to pass along our sympathy to Lord often
and the school board of directors and the Oleg family.
Thank you.
Yes, I agree with everything you said, Mr. Speaker.
He was just such a wonderful man and he really had a passion
and a heart for kids at Lower Dauphin as well as Dauphin County Technical School.
He was a big part of that and a big leader with that.
And it's definitely a loss to the community.
Thank you. Yeah, And it's a terrible loss.
And our thoughts are with the district and his family.
Thank you for bringing it up. Mercieca.
Any other board member reports?
Mr. President, this is Tricia.
I just wanted to share something
that I learned from an outside equity group that I work with
about a website called Making US Matter Dotcom.
And it's make iag us may
tr making us matakana.
And it's a it's a an educational website
that has classes
and workshops that are taught by black educators.
And they just started a spring session February 7th that runs until May 1st.
It's every Saturday from 9 to 3.
There are free online classes that are available for high school.
The curriculum is designed for nine through 12th graders,
but it's open to middle schoolers as well if they want to challenge themselves.
And it's it's it's not just black students or students of color,
white students or anybody is the money to come.
But it's really if you just want to get a different perspective from, a black
educator, because there's not enough black educators and people of education.
And I just thought I would share it as a
as a resource for parents or students that might be interested.
Thank you, Mr.
Turner and the other board member reports at this time.
If not, we'll move on to item seven B, Dr.
Winslow and Mr.
McFarland's absence. Do You have a report?
I do.
On Wednesday,
March 3rd, Governor Wolfe and the COVID 19 Vaccine Joint Task Force
announced the prioritization of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine
to teachers, childcare workers and school staff.
The state is contracting with an outside company for vaccine
distribution rollout in conjunction with PEMA and the Guard.
Each IU and district in each
IU is allocated a specific number of the initial vaccines.
Derry Township is receiving 242 doses.
The location of the clinic will be at the IU 15 site in Enola,
the contracted company AM.
I will set the schedule for vaccines for each school.
The anticipated start date for
the vaccinations is to be sometime between March 10th and 13th.
Prioritization of staff will be local decision, but
we're to prioritize follows per Department of Education and the Governor.
K-5 elementary teachers and support staff who have
regular daily extended exposure to elementary students.
K-12 special education and support staff and K-12.
Yale. All teachers.
The vaccine is fully effective four weeks from the time of the injection, and side
effects are similar to the Pfizer or shots.
They're just wanted to update everybody that we are participating in
and are pretty excited about the vaccination rollout.
And I
just want to take a minute to thank for
I know it's a very emotional to talk about all this.
I know that being a school board member is a very thankless job
and I appreciate the work, the time that all of you are putting into it.
I appreciate the concerns of our parents.
It's very helpful to hear from everybody and very thankful for the number
of responses on our survey really does help us to make informed decisions.
And I think it's really important as we so we think about what we're doing.
I'm a huge Bernie Brown fan, and one of the things that she always
says, I'm not here to be right, I'm here to get it right.
And while these discussions are heated,
I think they help us to get to a place
where we can make really good decisions for our students and for our district.
So I appreciate everybody putting it out there
so that we can work well together. Great.
Thank you. Dr.
Winslow's board president Report.
I do not have anything this evening that takes us down to item number eight.
Recognition of citizens that this is an opportunity for residents
and taxpayers to address board on matters related to the agenda
or matters of district governance, not on the agenda.
Those who speak are asked to follow the same guidelines outlined
at initial public comment portion of our meeting.
Are there any residents and or taxpayers that would like to comment at this time?
Let me start with those folks that are in the room.
I don't see anyone coming
forward within the room, so let us go to virtual.
Mr. Swiger, do we have any hands on the virtual? Mr.
President, we have two hands raised.
We'll start off with Nisha Karti.
Thank you.
Please go ahead.
Hi, Mr.
Harty.
Can I drive of a fifth grader and an eighth grader at the Hershey schools?
My primary comment is something my boss is doing is helping,
which is let's not let perfection be the enemy of the good,
but instead tells me that she only has 3 to 6 kids in most of her classes.
I get the impression that we're focusing on a one size fits all approach
where we already don't have one.
My elementary school child goes in
every morning for five days a week and my middle school
child goes in two days a week.
So we're already working with a schedule that's not truly compatible.
The CDC,
in fact, recommends different approaches for elementary versus secondary schools.
Why not explore more creative options?
Why not meet with the advisor that Mr. Cope with suggested?
I see no harm in doing that.
Even if we can't implement the changes immediately,
they may still be educational for the future or the next academic
year.
Okay.
Thank you, Mr. Schwab.
The other next, we have Julie Brown.
Ms.. Brown.
No comments now.
Thank you. Okay.
All right.
Any other virtual hands, Mr. Swiger?
I see none at this time.
Okay.
All right.
Is there anything else
for the good of the order?
Item number nine adjournment.
The next public Board of Directors meeting will be held
March 22nd, 21, starting at 7:00 AM.
Please Refer to the district website for more specific details
as the meeting draws near.
Now the motion to adjourn this meeting so moves.
Kathy 6 seconds one zero.
Thank you, Ms..
Drew.
All those in favor signify by saying I oppose.
Meeting adjourned.
Thank you. And have a good evening, everyone.