A 2021 meeting of the Derry Township School Board District Board of Directors
to order and announce that this meeting is being livestreamed.
An 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'd like to request the board members please
state your name when speaking staging.
Roll call, please.
Mr. Able Present Dr.
Vernon Here, Mrs. Drew.
Here, Mrs.
Haverstock here, Mrs. Manni Here, Dr.
Shah here, Mrs. Decker.
Here, Mr. Singer. Here.
Mrs. Steiner?
Yes. Nine present. Zero absence.
Thank you.
Please rise if you are able, and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Ladies
and Cher,
as I mentioned.
Civil liberty and justice for all.
Thank you.
May I have a motion to approve the February eight,
2021 Board of Directors agenda so moves Maria Mimi
Second Lindsay Drew, is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote.
All in favor. Signify by saying hi. Hi.
And he opposed
President communications.
I would like to announce the board met in executive session prior to this meeting
to discuss agency business which had conducted in public
would violate a lawful privilege or lead to disclosure of confidential information
and consultation with attorney or other professional advisors.
And the board will meet and post exact
recognitions of citizens.
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 monitored to 5 minutes
of speaking time once recognized and limited to one opportunity
to address the 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 portion of the board meeting is for comments to the board
and is not a question and answer period.
Those wishing to present private concerns
or questions needing follow up outside of the board
may go to the district website and submit a community correspondence.
Are there any residents or taxpayers who would like to comment at this time?
Sure.
Anyone virtually.
But you see, Mr.
President, I see nobody virtually.
Okay,
Thank you.
The Curriculum Council and Policy Meetings Committee met today.
Mr. Secretary, you have a curriculum meeting report and Dr.
Cronin has a report. Mr. President,
Thank you. Yeah.
So we started the meeting and we.
I was named as the new chair, but I want to thank Kathy for five years
of chairing that committee.
There were three items of new business.
The first one was that the steam special
that has been in has been working already for
two through five, will be initiated, would like to be initiated for K and one.
And the steam is the science technology, engineering, art and music.
It is being covered by grant funding, so it would not be any cost
to the district and this would be in place of library special.
Although the students
would receive their library curriculum as part of the STEAM program,
they would they would still be able
to utilize the book
library time to get book exchange.
But the library curriculum would be part of STEAM.
The library curriculum of communication, collaboration, critical
thinking and creativity would be addressed in the STEAM program.
The SCC library would be utilized for steam, whereas the elementary library
would be where the ECAC students got their book exchange.
In addition, the steam would add components of coding, computer
programing, digital citizenship design thinking and growth mindset.
And the second
order of new business was to remove the library special.
So it really kind of goes hand in hand.
K through one will be adding steam,
but they'll be getting rid of their library special.
It will be incorporated into steam.
And the third item of new business was that there would be a name
change of computer six, seven and eight in the middle school would now be called
digital literacy six, seven and eight, sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade.
And basically it's just bringing the course title
to match the functionality of what's really being learned.
We're not teaching about computers anymore, but in sense, in essence,
we're teaching them how to access resource is online to include safely,
responsibly and appropriately accessing digital me digital information.
So they were the three arms of new business,
the two items of all business were that there was second reading for
the approval for piano to be reinstated as an elective course.
So they will come to the full board on February 22nd.
And that the second one was that the passion driven research
course at the high school, the name change of
the name change to connecting passion and purpose was also approved
and will also come to the full board on February 22nd.
There was also a presentation on a middle school blended learning
pilot that will occur for the next school year 2021 22 because the high schools
utilized a blending option for students for many years using their learning.
We're going to the middle school will determine
if this would be an option for middle schoolers,
so they will initiate this in the seventh and eighth grade grades.
Only 25 applications will be taken per year.
So basically one section of seventh and eighth graders
would be in a blended pilot environment.
They'd be in school for four days learning synchronously,
two days virtually or asynchronously, and of course would be 5050.
So in essence, they'd be going to school for four days
and not going to school for two days and learning virtually
the criteria would be that they've had to demonstrate effective hybrid learning
over this past year and also to address individual student needs.
That's how applications will be taking
during the year.
Next year.
They'll provide us with at least two updates
to let us know how this pilot is going before it's taken into a full,
full blown option for students.
And then finally, there was one discussion item, and that was to
to eliminate the kindergarten waiver based on the first two years
that we had waivers by the end of year
one, 15 waivers only for kindergarten students ended up
staying on the waiver year two for start on the waiver.
Only nine were at the on the waiver at the end.
And this is in line with data that we that the kindergarten committee
for their kindergarten committee had in the beginning.
So based on that there, the recommendation is to not offer a waiver as an option
for kindergartners since it doesn't seem to be necessary anymore.
And the
next meeting will be on March 8th at 4 p.m., at which time we'll address
physical education, athletics for credit, which was the only item we didn't get to.
Stacy made Dr.
Winslow made sure that we were moving the whole time
and got through a lot of things. So that's my reward.
Thank thank you.
Dr. Cronan And thank you, Mr.
Speaker, for reading that.
Counsel an exemplary fashion.
Anything else from that council meeting?
Folks want to add something?
I think we covered it great.
Mr. Hunter, do you have a policy meeting report?
Actually, I'm going to defer to Dr.
Shah. Right. Thank you.
Policy Committee met at 5:00 today, and the role of chair
was transferred from Mrs.
Steiner to me,
and the committee thanked her for her two years of outstanding service as chair.
As a result of our meeting, five policies will be coming to the board.
Two will be policy revisions and one new policy
as the result of needing to comply with New Pennsylvania
Law Act 110, which was signed into law late November.
And this requires schools to take action against enrolled students
who are convicted of sexual assault against another student.
So you'll see those policies.
There was a void in our policy manual
which was discovered, and this related to migrant students.
And so you'll see a new policy on migrant students.
And finally, there are revisions to our student representative
to the school board policy which will come out to the full board.
The only other item of business is we deleted two policies.
Two are to permanent archives.
Those policies were superseded and no longer needed.
Thank you. And that's all
add on this night.
I thank you for your exemplary leadership on that policy.
A lot, a lot of good work's been done.
There are anyone else that want to add anything to that report.
Otherwise, I thank you.
Thank your Dr. Saul.
Mr. Tredinnick, do you have a community correspondent's report?
Thank you, Mr. President. I do.
During the month of January, we received ten
submissions v.r constituent contact form.
These included three submissions that were related
to the district's COVID 19 response.
We had two personnel questions.
We also had a request
for information from a constituent who was working on a family history.
We had student two student records requests
a question regarding the assays,
and finally we had an inquiry
regarding the plan for senior events for this year's senior class.
Thank you.
Recognition of new extra curricular activities slash school club.
Mr. MACFARLANE.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
In compliance with Policy 122 extracurricular activities,
the listed edition of the High School Student Club has recognized
the club as the Racial and Religious Relations Club.
Thank you.
Curriculum Update Dr.
Winslow
Great evening, everyone.
At our meeting earlier this week, Mr.
Ross, for an update
on what we might be doing with Black History Month as a district.
And so I prepared some some information, just some highlights
too, and I can certainly ask or answer questions
if you have any, as I go through at the high school,
the Random Act of Kindness Club has taken the lead they're creating.
They've created posters, works of art and other items that are including.
They include a QR code to allow students to learn more about black history.
And then later, near the end of the marking period,
they're hosting a kahu, which is a an online quiz format
about
celebrating black history with prizes and fun.
The theme, however, is more than a month
to honor people of color, more than just in February alone.
So it is a fluid bulletin board that they have created
and they're going to continue to add through to it as the school year
progresses, The students were super excited to take this project on
and have done a really great job of
of taking the lead and offering this.
And then, of course, in our curriculum, there's all kinds of things happening
as students are reading books by more diverse authors.
And it also, you know, ties in with our civics
and history curriculum at the high school as well.
At the middle school,
morning announcements are highlighting a person you should know each day.
So they have a person for each day this month that is being highlighted.
And you should know and Mr.
Valentine actually took the lead on that and has created a great list of folks
who are to share about with the students on the announcements individually.
Just highlight some of the
things that the teachers are doing because there's a lot going on.
Mr. Sitzler has an American culture
Instagram account that he posts on, so he's been posting an African-American
contributor every day in his class and yesterday for Super Bowl Sunday,
there were five athletes highlighted, which I was very excited to see about.
Not because I like football, Let's not make that mistake,
but because it was a really interesting way to look at it.
And it
included the very first black female assistant coach in the NFL, Jennifer King.
So that was very neat to see.
Teachers are offering a fluke, fabulously contest
where students are researching and choosing an underrecognized black
historical figure and they write a rap about them.
And then it is it's a national contest that they can enter.
So that's being offered school wide.
Also, highlight what Mrs.
Laymon is doing.
She's created a writing choice board which allows students
to write from several writing opportunities.
Among them are the vocabulary contest, a Jason Reynolds
writer like black Writers then and now.
It's a news TaxACT response, and seventh grade student council
is actually offering a Black History Month creative arts
submission for
they must be doing a monthly submission writing contest for the student council.
And then the eighth grade social studies curriculum
is focused on methods of creating change in a democratic society.
That's the topic, the theme that they're on right now,
and they're using the civil rights movement
as the model for how this can work.
Students are completing a research project that focuses
on the civil rights movement and the methods for creating change,
such as litigation legislation, education,
innovation, revolution and and others, and or the types of change
that can come about either reform or societal change.
At the elementary school, teachers address Black History Month
through their curricular areas, highlighting stories and events through
reading and social studies curriculum so they may
or may not be following right at this moment,
but they it is addressed throughout the year,
which is really how we would prefer to see it anyway.
Additionally, though, Mrs.
Funke did share age appropriate resources
for teachers to use and expand upon the standard program resources
among these are ten inspiring Black history Month activities for students.
13 Ways to Celebrate Black History Month from Scholastic
and Black History Month Resources and Lesson Plans from the NEA.
So teachers are picking and choosing from those
as they see fit to integrate with what they're already doing.
So that's kind of a brief snapshot of what's happening across the district.
There's a lot more going on,
but just kind of wanted to give you some some highlights.
Were there any questions?
Thank you, Dr.
MENSAH, for this.
Thank you.
Doctor Winslow, Student Represent in his report Mr.
Bardo and Mr.
Brindisi, do you have a report? We do.
And after last meeting, we were able to come up with a lot more.
It seems the clubs in the high school
have become very active this past these past few weeks, and
especially the COVID Action and Release Club, otherwise known as Card Club.
They continue to be one of the most active clubs in the school.
And they just this past Saturday raised $350
alone by doing the triple play fundraiser.
So that was highly successful, then involved a lot of the school population.
Not only that, but the youth in government club is continuing
to be virtually there.
Another one of the largest school's
largest school clubs there, 1.0.
10% of this population.
And they're preparing for what is known as the model
convention in the Harrisburg capital.
So currently they're underway with a wide feedback session
where they all come together and discuss positive and negative, sort of what
different clubs across the state are doing before that model convention.
And then we also have the club, which is continuing with its Ronald McDonald
magazine drive, that it's been doing in the past few months.
And they're also the sponsors of what's called the Walk for Clean Water,
and that was canceled last spring.
But they reassured us that they will
they will plan on moving forward this spring.
And they did the annual photo shoot
that helps drive up their advertisements and marketing for it.
So that was really nice to see.
And they plan on announcing specific dates for it
coming up.
Yeah.
Another one of our most active clubs is the mini town club.
This week they're selling Kenny Grams among students.
They have a fresh, you know, fundraiser on on February 18th
from 4:00 to 9:00.
They're starting to plan for a food truck festival in March.
And preparation for the mini thought event is underway,
although details are very
slim at this point.
Another event that's
starting to pick up is the Brady
it engages.
It's an event that engages students
with opportunities to study and pursue careers in neuroscience.
And just like any other spelling bee, where
students
study for a a
little competition and progressively get
higher and more rounded
a range as they as they climb up the ranks.
So we have a study group at Hershey High School
studying for the competition right now.
They'll be studying until the end of February
or the beginning of March, somewhere in that range.
And some of the more minor events going on.
We have a
an upcoming S.A.T.
date for the junior class on March 24th.
And starting on Friday, February 12th,
of course, election season will begin for underclassmen and eighth graders and
they will be going through that process till the end of February.
This concludes our report.
If there are any questions, we would be more than willing to answer.
Thank you.
Well, thank thank you, folks.
Moving on
up to the
listed items are on the anticipated February
22nd, 2001, Board of Directors meeting Agenda.
There is no unfinished business
moving on to consent agenda items.
The consent agenda items 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 as voted on separately.
May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as listed?
Some of Kathy Segar Second Lindsay Drew, is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote or six all in favor.
Signify by saying hi. Hi.
Any one opposed motion carries
new business
approval of the 20 1920 audit.
Mr. McFarlane, thank you.
The administration recommends the board approve the 2019 2020 audit report
prepared by the firm of Boyer and Ritter LLC.
May I have a motion to approve the audit?
So move Lindsay Drew second.
Kathy Seeker Is there any discussion?
I just wanted to I mentioned this at the last meeting during my Finance
Committee report, but just wanted to say thank you and congratulate Mr.
Friends on another audit.
With no material weaknesses identified, It shows the strength of his office
and his role at the District and our overall
ability to be responsible with taxpayer dollars.
So thank you, Mr. Friends.
Yeah.
I also wanted to thank Mr.
Friends and the business staff.
If anyone wants to listen to details about the audit,
it was at our last Finance Committee meeting.
But congratulations and thank you for the work that you do.
Yes, thank you, Mr.
French. I know everyone in your in your in your office.
This is a senior voice vote.
If there's no other discussion.
All in favor signify by saying I didn't want opposed
Motion carries
Approval of affiliation Agreement.
Mr. McFarland.
The administration recommends the board approve the affiliation Agreement
with Derry Township School District
and Longwood University effective February 8th, 2021.
May I have a motion to approve the affiliation Agreement
with Longwood University?
So moved on to Cronin Second.
Miriam Amie, is there any discussion?
This is state or voice vote
all in favor signify by saying I anyone opposed
Motion carries change order train an elementary chair.
Mr. McFarland.
The administration recommends
the board approve train change order for the elementary Schiller.
Okay.
May I have a motion to approve the change?
Order for train.
So moved.
Maria Mimi, Is there a second?
Second?
Donna Cronan Is there any discussion?
There's a standard voice vote all in favor.
Signify by saying I want oppose motion carries.
May I have a motion to approve the listed personnel resignations?
So move Donna Cronan second.
Kathy Singer is there any discussion?
There's a standard voice vote all in favor.
Signify by saying I i 91 opposed motion carries
the administration recommends personnel.
General Mr.
McFarlane The administration recommends
the approval of the listed personnel and recognition of any listed transfers
may have a motion
to approve the list of personnel and recognition of any listed transfers.
So move Lindsey drew second.
Maria Mimi, is there any discussion?
Yes. Mr..
You first,
I just want to congratulate Mr.
Jones on his promotion to the Dean of Students.
I've had the opportunity as a parent to interact and witness
his just really outstanding performance with the kids.
And I think this will be a really great role and I look forward to seeing
how he can help to just further enhance the elementary building as a whole.
And we're very lucky to have him.
Mr. President, QUESTION Regarding
the dean of students at the elementary school is listed as a new position,
whereas we were in a budget crisis, was that new position
approved by the Finance Committee or the board?
I don't recall it going through the Finance Committee.
And what is the salary attendant with that position?
It's not listed and customarily and usually were given salaries.
Sure, sure.
Mr. McFarland, do you have that information readily available?
Yeah. It's not it's not a it's a new title.
If you remember, Ms..
Schmidt, the ten month assistant principal moved to the high school.
So this is a temporary position for the remainder of the year
to provide administrative support.
Dean of students is still in the ACA
bargaining agreement, so his salary is the same as what it was after.
Thank you.
Just to clarify, we had we had the Dean of Students position last school year.
That was temporary as well.
During the interim hiring of following Mrs.
Councilman's departure.
Any other further discussion on this matter?
So just to clarify, we're not replacing someone, so it is saving us money.
It's not spending more money.
That's correct. Yes. Right.
So we're we're not hiring a new position.
We're saving money
by not hiring the principal and then making it added in student in the interim.
Okay. Yeah.
Thank you, Miss Tucker.
And you had a further discussion.
There's a standard voice vote all in favor.
Signify by saying I.
I only one opposed
motion carries delegate reports.
The SIU report is attached.
Miss Stoddard, getting out of that report?
I do not.
Thank you.
All right.
Board members reports.
Are there any board members who would like to give a report at this time?
Mr. President, I have one.
I participated in the SBA webinar on Thursday of last week,
which reviewed the governor's proposal for education budget proposal.
So I just want to share a few highlights.
I know that Mr.
McFarland had provided updates in our board brief, but
there were a few takeaways from the interpretation of SBA
that I thought would be helpful with some statistics.
This is obviously just a budget proposal, nowhere near
where the actual budget will end up as the process moves forward
and would need to be approved by the end of June.
But overall, they described it as a bold proposal
and it calls for increases to basic and special education
funding as well as charter reform proposal.
There were
some items in the proposal, such as increases
to teacher starting salary that would not apply to our district.
So I won't address those.
But as a whole, it was not surprising that they stated
that deficits in revenue are projected at all levels in education.
The webinar also reviewed pandemic relief funding
that has been granted to school districts thus far.
I have heard various comments made in the community
regarding the relief grant funding that we've received and people
wondering how that's being used.
So I thought that this was a especially important area.
There were funding streams made available last summer from the CARES Act,
and district allocations were based solely on the state's funding formula
for the first stream.
For the second, it was for a base amount plus an allowance
based on the district's everyday average student population.
We've been reviewing these regularly in the Finance Committee
and I would encourage anyone who has questions to listen or participate
in those Finance Committee meetings because we do go a lot deeper.
But last summer we received approximately 715,000
that funding toward pandemic related expenses as of August.
The expenses at that time were projected in the area of no less than $786,000,
which included things like mask fitting, the hours, age
bike upgrades and whatnot.
So those funds were already accounted for by the time
they were received, you know, and obviously have continued to grow.
There was a second round of pandemic funding relief
approved with the federal stimulus package at the end of December.
Our formula allocation is right around $2 million.
So we'll be reviewing that,
I'm sure, as more
information is available on Finance Committee meetings.
But overall, you know, there were basic education funding
increases proposed, though there's already been significant chatter
stating that those are considered nonstarters
by the majority caucuses of the state legislature.
But I thought it was important to note, just for understanding,
is that Pennsylvania ranks
44th in the nation for the state share of education funding, which leaves
an immense burden on local school districts to rely on local revenue
sources.
Okay, Property taxes
and making difficult decisions is the only way of being able
to increase that revenue is by increasing property taxes, which is something
that as a school board and this one, you know, always want to avoid.
They also address some of the mandated costs and look for ways to provide relief.
Over the past decade, the pension costs have.
These are all costs that are required by school code and
and law and that the school districts have absolutely no control
over as part of their budget.
But pension costs have increased by 665% on average.
Special education 75%.
Improvements to charter schools by 230%.
So this is areas where things have been proposed to try and reduce
some of the burdens on those costs.
The entire webinar plus the slide deck will be available on my PSP next week.
So I would encourage everyone to take the opportunity to review that.
I think that it really provides
a good foundation for understanding what's being proposed
so that we can better understand what the final budget
that's passed means for our budget in our district.
And it really puts things in a good context.
So that is that.
And then I just wanted to add one more thing.
I feel that while it's not my position to speak on behalf of the board,
which I'm not doing, I'm speaking as an individual.
I just wanted to comment and address.
I know that there has been a lot of conversations to me personally
that I've seen online and that people have,
you know, made conversation in the grocery store
as it relates to concerns about the pandemic,
the instruction, mental health impact on our students.
And I wanted to, I guess,
put it out there that this is something that's very much on our radar
and that we have, you know, been having conversations about as a
board during our agenda planning this past week, we have requested
some more information and data from the administration
on all areas, from academic performance
to support services and how students are doing so that we can be
better or more informed.
It's something that we've been speaking about kind of internally throughout time,
but I think it gets sometimes we lose the perspective
of how much communication needs to happen for for folks to really understand that.
And so I know they'll the administration will be providing
an update coming soon on all of that.
But the board members do have preliminary information, and I know
all of us are always very open to talking with constituents that have concerns.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr.. One on on both fronts.
Obviously, we'll track the budget situation very carefully
on the board.
Mr. President,
capsule
each and every year,
every year in this country.
The schools play a significant role in the propagation of seasonal influenza
transmitted
by asymptomatic pre asymptomatic individuals.
It kills tens of thousands of Americans every year.
No one says anything.
No one does anything.
It's just a normal societal operation.
Now we're in a pandemic, and we have clear, convincing evidence
that with proper mitigation strategies, the schools are a safe place to be.
They are not playing a significant role in the propagation of this pandemic.
They are safe for students.
They are safe for staff.
And they are safe for the teachers.
Now, given that the children
are being harmed,
the smart, resourceful, involved
parents want to know why
we continue to follow recommendations
which are not evidence based and not scientific, and why we are not
following recommendations of the CDC and not returning our children to school.
The list of the
ways in which our children are being harmed is long.
And the latest one that I saw this is just in a sort of
an aside, wasn't part of my main statement.
We're now making our children nearsighted in a review of over
120,000 kids, up to a threefold increase in nearsightedness in the youngest
because because of the change in education format.
Now, if this requires a board resolution,
you let me know and I'll work on the warning
that we've got to get the kids back to school.
Mr. Miller would also like to make a quick comment.
Donna Cronan Sure, sure.
That's fine.
I'm sorry, Doctor.
So I think we'll return to you about the question of the resolution.
As my my initial reaction would require a resolution if there was a,
you know, a step to to change what we're currently doing.
Donna? Yes.
I mean, none of us are immune
to getting that input from from the community members.
And and I certainly am very aware of the impact of COVID, both potential and real.
And I commend the school district as well as the teachers
for the amazing adaptations that we've had to make.
But at the same time, I really implore our district
to figure out ways to have more instruction time for kids.
Unfortunately, I don't have any
I don't have any resolution for elementary because that's the way the model is.
I don't I can't think of a way to fix it, but that's
for someone else to who knows the ins and outs of the system.
But I do know in middle school and high school
with Wednesdays as the office our day, I would really like to see that
become an instruction
all day for our middle school and high school students for
for a plethora of reasons.
One of which is is just, you know, the four day school day week because just
I don't believe the kids are learning as much as they could be.
And I think that that would not impact
COVID spreading because it would either be live or virtual.
Exactly.
What's happening now,
if you're live, whether you're virtual, just want an additional day of learning.
So I just want to put that out there and just appreciate the consideration
and other board member reports.
Ms. STEINER.
Thank you, Mr. Reynolds.
I just wanted to remark regarding the Racial Religious Relations Club
and thank two students, Hanna Goma and Moriah gathers
two extraordinary young women who are using their powerful voices
to amplify the need to talk about racism and religious intolerance that touches
everyone around the globe and right here in our community and in our schools.
And if you haven't taken the time to watch the remarkable video
they made with nine other powerful voices of her students,
you can find it on YouTube by searching for Hershey Equity.
I hope that we can all learn from these remarkable students,
from their bravery to forge courageous conversations,
to listen and to learn from their everyday experiences
and to be empowered by these young voices to push outside of our comfort zones
of complacency and complicity, to become coconspirators alongside
with them, working every day for justice, anti-racism and equity.
I also just wanted to say that,
you know, as
we all know, February is Black History Month,
but we need more than one month to learn the centuries of untold history
that has been absent from our American history.
There's so much that we don't know.
For example, I just learned that Black History Month was the brainchild
of historian, author and journalist Carter G.
Woodson, who, among other things, founded the Association
for the Study of African-American Life and History in 1915.
Prior to it being a month long event, the second week of February was chosen
as Black History Week in 1926 to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham
Lincoln on the 12th and Frederick Douglass on the 14th.
Now we all know of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, but why don't we know more
about Frederick Douglass from its inception?
According to Wikipedia, the primary emphasis of Black History Week and later,
what is now Black History Month was placed on encouraging the coordinated
teaching of the history of black Americans in the nation's public schools.
But we still don't receive all of the American story.
Another part of the untold story.
And we are working very hard at Derry Township to hear that untold story.
But there's still a lot to be done.
But part of that untold story is
how the 1954 ruling of Brown versus the Board of Education
and the ruling to integrate public schools never really came to be.
A report issued in 2019 by the Civil Rights Project stated that 65 years
following this landmark decision, schools remain segregated.
Racial disparities and opportunity gaps continue to widen as policies contributing
to a continuation of inequitable funding and resources widen.
And that could not be more true than right here in Pennsylvania,
where our state ranks at the bottom for inequitable funding.
Data scientist David Think has routinely
demonstrated that the amount of money a Pennsylvania school district receives
is based on the number of white students that attend that school district.
For this current year, for example districts
with a majority black and brown student population receive
$2,263 per student less than their fair share.
If all the state funding was to be put through the fair funding formula,
while school districts with majority white students received
$2,299 student more than their fair share.
It's important to know and understand these facts.
Historically and presently.
And for more on title, an explanation, please go to pay
fair funding board and you can watch the total presentation on that.
But the fair funding formula has never been fair,
and this is why it's so important that we advocate
to adopt Governor Wolf's new budget proposal,
because while it does not eliminate the racial inequities in its entirety,
it's a great improvement and is a first step toward investing
in all public schools and a more just and equitable way,
particularly for schools
that have been historically and presently under-funded and under-resourced.
As a school director, it is my duty to not only advocate
for our individual school district, but also for public schools across the state.
For every child, every day to matter, not just in Derry Township,
but across the Commonwealth.
And I challenge all of us to continue learn about the untold history
stories and policies that connect us all
and advocate for a fair, just and comprehensive education.
Because history is American history, and we can all do better
for ourselves and our kids.
Thank you, Ms..
Steiner.
Any other.
Mr. Singer?
Yeah.
Darling, just want to make a comment about this month's
school board's Association magazine.
The the headline is
The lead story is Diverse Teachers Matter
Recruiting and Retaining Teachers of color
are central to district equity efforts.
I know our district is is continuing
to develop strategies for and pursuing
equity efforts and
if it's possible
before the end of this month, maybe at the next board meeting,
the administration had time to take a look
at efforts we currently have underway
to it to address
hiring a more diverse
teacher workforce and maybe some thoughts on strategies
going forward.
I think it would be nice to start working on a resolution
related to where we stand on that issue and what we would commit to doing
going forward,
whether that's part
of our overall district equity efforts or whether we
we peel that off, start working on it independently.
I'll leave that up to the administration to decide.
But thank you. Thank you.
Any else thing else for the area board member reports, I think
obviously is a potential agenda item for our next meeting.
And my inclination, Dr.
Shaw, is to include your thoughts as a potential agenda
item at the next meeting as opposed to tonight.
I think that would give
folks an opportunity to give some further thought, diverse and,
you know, also make it available for public comment.
So I appreciate you bringing that forward.
If we're concerned with board member reports. Mr.
McFarland, do you have a superintendent's report?
Thank you.
Just briefly, I wanted to highlight Ms..
Drew in her comments made note to communication out
and we've communicated a lot over the year,
but it's a lot of information and it is in various places.
We are working on providing a family
either later this week, early next week,
just to help families understand as
schools all across the country are looking very different and information like Dr.
Shaw reported from the CDC is coming out to help parents understand
how we're making our decisions, why we're making our decisions.
What what are the guidelines?
What are the criteria in place for us from the state with our attestation
form that we had to sign with the guidance and guidelines that we have?
So that'll be coming out, like I said, by late by early next week.
But Dr.
Shaw, your I read that research as well in there. And
one of the clarity
that is there's many schools across the nation that have not had
kids back at all in session and they are fully virtual.
And when they're calling for that and saying it's safe to bring kids back,
they're talking specifically
to those schools who have not had kids in-person at all.
And I think that's something that's not exactly shared.
Clearly
and when it's reported or when it comes out.
So, you know, we have had kids back as much as we could office.
We had a few months where we were virtual but have had kids in the building.
But those reports and those calls, even President Biden's call
to bring kids back to school, that is specifically to those schools
who have been fully virtual since last March, who have not opened their doors.
And that entire report, board process report,
I have nothing recognition of citizens.
This is an opportunity for and taxpayers to address the 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 the initial public comment portion of our meeting.
Are there any residents and or taxpayers that would like to comment at this time?
Please step forward to the podium
and if you can
identify your self by name and address, please.
I'm Erica Schmidt and I live at 433 Elms.
Mr. Macfarlane,
I do not think what you just said is true at all.
In fact, I'm looking at this and I'm sitting here and listening to this.
I cannot believe you guys are focusing on our kids.
I have two high schoolers.
They want to be back in school.
They need to be back in school.
I know.
I speak for so many people out there.
Parents? What?
This is not right.
I mean, I just.
I don't even know what to say.
Dr. Shaw. Dr.
Cronin, they were completely right.
Wednesday's obviously how people dealt with kids Do you think are going to stay?
They. They don't do anything.
My kids are barely doing anything because they're not motivated.
They wander around.
I mean, what's the point in getting up and signing into homeroom?
And they want to see their friends.
They want to be in person.
This is the only thing that you all should be focused on every day.
Figure out how to get the kids back.
That's all they need. And the seniors.
How are they going to have closure?
I mean, I had a senior graduate last year,
and I mean, it was it was not a fun time.
And we all understand what happened last year.
But we can do better this year.
Okay.
We can do a lot better.
Thank you.
Hi there.
I'm Angela Ryder, 1778 Abbott Road.
I don't always envy the seats that you guys have tonight.
I echo everything that Ms..
Schmidt just said,
although I would love to debate for full in-person learning.
I would love to debate many of the facts
or statements that were made tonight against
kids being at school and all the wonderful things
and the creativity of the teachers and the administrators
and even all of you, many of the different ideas that you guys
have come up with to build this virtual learning environment.
But I actually want to talk about what comes next.
What if and when these kids ever come back into school?
How in the world are they going to do it?
How in the world are these teachers going to teach a classroom full of kids
that have spent nearly a year, a year developing
horrible study skills, behavioral addictions,
coping
skills, all these different personality disorders? Dr.
Shawn mentioned or mention about perhaps visual disturbances.
And yet they're going to potentially be put back into a classroom
that looked like one from two years ago with one teacher and a bunch of kids.
However many we can have in there.
But now they each are going to have their own individual
deficiencies that have been created because of this hole that we've put them
in. There is going to be a huge tidal
wave of problems that every teacher's going to have to deal with.
And we're going to need resources.
We're going to need skills.
And we're going to need more support,
not just for the kids, but also for the teachers.
Raising property taxes is probably not going to be a popular idea.
I don't recommend doing it, but we need to start figuring that out now.
I moved into Derry Township about four years ago before I moved here.
I was always told Derry Township, this great, wonderful school district.
There's a lot of great things about it.
What a shining city upon a hell it is, if you will.
I can tell
that the districts around us don't see us that way anymore.
They have been figuring this all out.
Derry Township is late to the punch.
Let's not be late to the punch to figure out how we're going to fix
and help these kids out of this situation that we put them in.
And create young adults and participating citizens in society
who have a love of learning, a respect for education,
and a desire to perform their best, not squeak by,
because they've just been taught that class can be done in 5 minutes.
And let me just check a couple boxes and wander around.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Next.
Hi. Good evening.
My name is Jen Haines.
I live at 232 Highland Road in Hershey.
I'm alumni from Hershey High.
I have a son who graduated two years ago.
My youngest son is currently a junior at Hershey High School.
I'm also the owner and CEO of Teen Care Behavioral Health.
So I have the opportunity to not only observe my own child,
but many other children in our area
that are coping with all that has come with COVID 19.
I would like to present
just a couple little facts about the last year with mental health
across the country.
We all know it's been a year since COVID
kind of whacked us all.
A year ago across the country, it's an unknown.
It's been an unthinkable toll for our children, both all across
social skills, emotional and academic.
And it's so extreme that some mental health experts are warning
that the repercussions of COVID will rival those of Hurricane Katrina.
A nation of
children are coping with trauma, illness and disruption
that will need more than a vaccine to address the fallout.
I don't think we can start school next year and just say
everyone's going to be okay.
Some of the recent numbers in the last year aren't so bad.
Drug and alcohol use.
Drug and alcohol use among the kids, for example, appears to be down.
Juvenile arrest and incarcerate.
Incarceration.
Incarceration rates among youth are down.
But in other areas,
we should be worried.
Emergency rooms have seen a 24% increase in mental health related visits
from children between the ages of five and 11 in the last year.
This, as the number has increased with kids
above 11 to 31%.
Rates for depression, anxiety and children are increasing rapidly.
Suicide rates are starting to creep up again across the country.
There are
four main issues that are going to have lasting impact
for our kids trauma, loss and grief,
isolation and lost learning.
Four major areas that we got to start paying attention to.
We need a real plan
to make it possible to go back to our lives before COVID 19.
Okay, it's all fixed.
Is it going to be beneficial for our kids?
I'm hopeful.
As a Derry Township school board and school district is communicating
with the surrounding school districts, including all the private schools,
some that are a mile away to investigate how these schools are making it work,
why and how they're making it work five days a week in-person.
These schools are not closed when cases creep up.
They stay open.
If ever schools are able to do it.
Why isn't Derry Township?
My son attends
school two days a week, virtual currently
with an average of four students in each of his classes.
I did inquire with the administration about the possibility of him
going to school four days a week, and I was told no.
Still waiting for a reason for that answer.
Children are not the superspreaders
of COVID 19, and that's right from the CDC.
So let's not treat them like they are.
We need to move on from this fear of COVID 19.
Our children are counting on us.
Thank you.
Anyone else here live there would like to address
the board.
I'm told we have a couple of one line, Mr.
Schweiger. Could you?
Sure.
First we have Karen for that.
If you would unmute yourself and address the board.
First, identify yourself by name and address, please.
I have this is I lost my letter 25 times.
Right. Christmas Day.
And I want to thank you for everything you attempt to do for our school.
But I wanted to say I had a second and fifth grader in Hershey Elementary School,
and I know COVID has made this very challenging time to educate our children.
And I appreciate all you've done this far, but I truly am concerned.
I once had two children that love going to school and being taught.
My daughter excelled in everything but always the highest remarks
in kindergarten, First grade that she could get.
Now she is struggling as well.
Three weeks in a row, she's received a 0 to 3 on her comprehension test.
She was excited last week to receive a one out of three.
And I try to go over to her and I ask why, you know, what's going on.
I'm trying to be as helpful as I can.
And she goes, Well, Mommy,
she goes into understanding because of COVID,
we just don't have enough time in school to go over this before COVID.
They go over this every day on a six day cycle, and now we only go over twice.
So it's good that I'm getting this because I think it's
that kids are making excuses for COVID and we're allowing it to happen
because we're not giving them the proper time in school that they need and deserve.
Today, she was frustrated, for example, with your math homework,
and she has no clue how to how to complete it and how to go
from start to finish with her on how to do
simple problems on her machine.
See, what if I would not have helped her?
And I know there's other parents
aren't able to help their children possibly in order to do their schoolwork.
She would have no clue because she says they're not even being taught in school.
So how do you expect a second grader to basically do online education
and see some cells?
And we're only typically before coding.
Only college students do that.
I see the tears
and frustration in my kids eyes.
Typically one at least one
cuz it's not twice, but almost every day.
And these can be prevented if these kids were able to return back to school.
I'm asking that you reconsider the amount of time the in-person students
are receiving in school, given that the surrounding area, elementary schools
and now even high schools are going back to school full time.
Middletown and Palmeiro have been in school
since the beginning of the year and they've been able to make it work.
Aldi Has gone back to school around Thanksgiving when COVID numbers peaked.
The list goes on and on, but stores back, CD
is back, CDS, high schools going back on Tuesday.
And yet our school is
still closed and there's not even a plan in place.
I believe you still could offer the fully online portion to students and families
who do not feel comfortable coming back to school in-person due to COVID,
but at least attempt to give the students who thrived by in-person instruction
the remaining third of the year as a chance
to get caught up and back to a quality education.
Further, having a happy, in-person and busy work to fill the other time.
I believe this can only help some of these kids, not only from
an educational standpoint and educational standpoint,
but from an emotional and socialization standpoint as well.
I see many other kids, not including my own suffering from this.
My daughter, once part of the first full day kindergarten
class at Hershey Elementary Center, and I remember attending those meetings
early on when it was, Do we go full day or You don't have to.
I remember this being that Mrs.
Casselman stated that they did a lot of research and all the research
showed that two and a half hours was just not enough education in school.
But yet now we have K through five basically getting a half day
kindergarten education and they're only in school two and a half hours.
So my
question is, what's the difference now?
Basically, we are not giving our kids
the opportunity to get what they need.
Hershey prides itself as getting the best education,
but I'm fully questioning that right now because the hybrid school year,
it's really put our children behind the curve
and other schools are succeeding and bringing back schools full time.
One can't really try.
It seems all the other schools are transitioning back to full classroom
activities and their students and families are thriving.
But we have no plan on that at all at this point.
And I think that is very sad that every other surrounding
school of ours is back in-person and we are not.
I'm also curious if you looked into offering
any summer school programs to try and get kids who have fallen behind
going home for next year, if that's on the radar as well.
I ask you to consider the science of evidence and allow our kids
return to school full time.
It seems all the other schools surrounding us are able to educate
their children in a safe manner, and I think we should be able to do the same.
I am a medical professional and I've been working
since day one when coded when everything else in the world shut down.
I was at the hospital with these patients and I know it was scary,
but this this disease of COVID 19 is not going away.
So we're going to have to live with it and learn how to live with it.
You also have all the other non-medical, essential people who are required to work
in financial services, food processors, transportation, grocery store workers.
The world is doing their part and unfortunately, you guys are not.
Thank you for listening.
Thank You.
One more virtual participant.
Next, we have Edward Brooks.
Mr. Brooks, if you could unmute yourself and identify yourself by name
and address, please.
Yeah,
I'd rather be 40.
I just thought of after the comments by everyone
before me, like I got to start early
with recommending in-person schools after the president, I think has put out
plans, start in-person for schools
around us, have already started or have plans to start.
And I do not care about that.
I am I agree.
I served 20 years, United States Army federal,
my family first specifically for the school district.
I have four kids in school who are all doing fantastic and also
because we've been long suffering with what is a pandemic.
But now this school district is without excuse
and falling behind the other school districts,
considering the tax burden that we already bear higher than those without us.
This is inexcusable and hard to do our job
and do what I nothing to sit here and watch my children's education through.
And I am disappointed, to say the least
here, the lack of planning or effort
being put into getting our kids back into schools that are
I don't care what is out there, big things out there, voting rights.
I am all in for making the school district what it should be
and what it was and it falls on the board.
I do appreciate the difficult decision to grant, but
your job is to get our kids back to the best possible situation.
I did not hear enough of that.
I apologize for the passing,
but they said if we did not their education through
and this was my life's plan to set my children up for
success is defined as a good school district in Pennsylvania.
And now the school board is failing my children.
It's personal for me.
I demand that you make a plan and increase your efforts
to get our children back to.
Thank you, sir.
There's another virtual participant.
Okay, Mr.
Swiger, we have Carolyn Barbieri
came if you could, and you yourself and identify yourself by name
and address, please.
Okay, Thanks.
Thank you.
My name is Carolyn Barbieri.
I'm one of the physicians at the medical center.
I live by the grace of a circle in Hummelstown.
I have two children at Derry Township School District,
one in the middle school and one in the elementary school.
I have seen children as I am.
I take care of children on a daily basis,
go through this pandemic and many different ways.
A lot of them are struggling academically.
They are struggling socially.
And they're struggling emotionally.
Some are echoing the words of Dr. Shaw
about the mental health and the rise
in suicides, drugs,
abuse,
physical mental abuse
at home is skyrocketing and it breaks my heart
that these children are not
cared for appropriately.
I understand the schools have social workers.
I have had children
crying, begging for things, and the social workers are doing nothing.
The social workers have too many children
to care for at the school to make an impact.
And again, I think we are failing these children.
These children need to have social interaction.
They need to have their teachers on a daily basis, in-person.
And the zooms where the teachers
videotape themselves and teach the class by video.
How do you ask questions on a video that's prerecorded
as watch or ignore, but say they watch?
This is unacceptable.
We are a outstanding school district that is falling
behind the curve as everything that everyone has said before me.
We need to take a stance.
We need to tell the administration that the citizens of this city,
this township, are outraged.
There needs to be steps to get these children back in school
and they need to do it as soon as possible because these kids are already
falling behind.
And do we want these children that are falling behind the curve
to be leading us the next ten years?
Thank you.
Thank you,
Mr. Slaughter.
Any other virtual participants?
Mr. President, we have none. No.
Anyone else here in the public?
I think we've had an opportunity for any live comments.
Thank you all.
Is there anything else for the good of the order?
Mr. President, I just wanted to add a comment
because
hearing the comments as a parent, I.
I get it. It's hard.
I have a fifth grader and doing half day school doesn't feel like enough.
And I want to
I worry every day about whether or not it's going to set him back or his peers
or the kids that are in high school now, what this will do to them and in college.
But what frustrates me
and I guess what I'm asking for and this probably isn't
going to be a popular opinion with anyone that has spoken,
is to come and have a conversation and do this, because I cannot sit here
and hear people saying that no one's planning and no one cares.
And we are doing these things because our teachers are boxed
in their butts and our administration has worked around the clock.
And it is an awful situation that none of us wanted to be in.
But it is so unfair to show up and make those comments
if you don't fully understand what is going on
and maybe we should be better communication and that would help.
But it is just simply not the case that we are willfully failing students.
And I cannot sit here and be quiet about it because we see it day
in and day out, how much everyone cares, and can we always do better?
Absolutely.
But it's just on acceptable to to say that
when we compare our district to other districts,
you have to take a lot of things into account.
And that is the building structure, the the way that they transport their kids.
The number of kids in any one student lowered off in Palmyra, Middletown,
their elementary schools for the whole day have as many kids in that building
as we have for half a day.
So we're in a different situation.
They have incredibly larger numbers of students in virtual learning.
So it is not that the grass is always greener
and we hear the concerns and we have them as parents,
but we have to all work together and not become divided.
Point fingers.
Anything else for the the order?
Yeah. I just want to take the
kind of opposing opinion
I want to hear from parents because I can see my little world
and I know the administration teachers see the students
that are the most obvious, but I still think that those in the Middle
are the ones that really I want to hear from those parents.
I know where my kids are falling behind,
but I don't know where the rest of the students are.
And the only way we're going to be able to make that plan moving forward
is to find out what are most of the students lacking?
What are they missing out on? Is it languages?
Is it math? It's socialization.
It's a lot of different things with something different from everyone.
And I can't pretend to know what everyone is.
So I applaud any parents.
I just wish we'd hear from more
because I can't solve anything unless I know what the true problem is beyond my,
you know, what I'm able to see or what I what I the information
I get from the illustration, which is, I think, important,
but it's still only a microcosm because once again,
the opposite ends of the spectrum, I think we're probably doing the best with.
But I think most of the kids in the middle,
I don't know the solution is, but I think dialog is going to be the way
to solve it.
So I want to hear from more people like you.
Mr. President, I just want to clarify, because Dr.
Cronin and
represented what I was saying, inappropriate.
It's not our position. We do want to hear.
I do want to hear from parents.
I'm just asking that we do it constructively
and that we not put ourselves in a position to be
on opposition or divisive ways of doing it.
Let's all work constructively.
Anything else for the good of your.
Thank you.
Thank you all for your comments.
The next Public Forum directors meeting will be held on February
22nd, 2021, starting at 7:00 PM.
Please refer to the district website for the location as the meeting draws closer.
The board will meet and post.
May I have a motion to adjourn this meeting?
So moved Maria me for a second.
Second on the CRONAN.
All in favor signify by saying I by only one oppose motion carries.
Thank you very much.
Each one.