20 meeting of the Derry Township School District Board of Directors to order
and announce that this meeting is being livestreamed and audio recorded
in keeping with Pennsylvania's recent COVID 19 mitigation
efforts, calling for limits on the number of participants at indoor gatherings.
This meeting is being conducted both in-person and virtually
limiting our in-person attendance to 25 or less.
Mrs. A.G. Rocca.
Mr. Abel.
Here.
Dr. Cronin here, Drew here.
Mrs. Haverstock here.
Mrs. Manning here.
Dr. Shore here.
Mrs. Seger here.
Mr. Singer Here.
Mrs. Steiner Here.
Nine present.
Zero Absent. Hey. Thank you.
Please rise, if able, and join me for the pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of America and to,
under God, indivisible, with liberty.
For all.
May I have a motion to approve the sum
to September 14th, 2020 Board of Directors Agenda moved
second.
Is there any discussion?
Okay.
All those in favor say I was opposed.
Say no.
If the agenda is approved,
I would like to announce the board met in executive session prior
to this meeting to discuss labor relations and purchase or lease of real estate.
Recognition of citizens.
This is an opportunity for residents and taxpayers
to address the board on matters related to the agenda.
Those who speak, if present, are asked to come to the microphone
and state your name and address for the record.
Those who are attending virtually are asked to raise your virtual hand.
Once recognized and unmuted, please state your name and address for the record
to provide other residents an opportunity to speak.
Each speaker during the public comment portion is limited to 5 minutes
of speaking time.
Once a recognized and unlimited to one opportunity to address the board
during each of the public comment periods.
Those wishing to
present private concerns or questions in follow up outside the board
meeting may go to the district website and submit a community correspondence.
Are there any citizens or taxpayers who would like to comment
at this time?
I don't see anybody here in person
and there are five people
watching the live stream, so I'm just looking for a virtual hand
to come up.
Okay.
I don't see any hands standing committee meeting report.
We did not have a curriculum council meeting today, but we did have a policy
committee meeting.
Mrs. Steiner, do you have a report? I do.
Thank you.
We had a large agenda today.
We reviewed 18
policies that were revised, and we re.
We approved one new policy.
These were all policies that were recommended
by SBA for changes that were made to Title nine
and also
policy changes due to COVID 19 applications.
So I could list them if you want,
but it's a it's a long list.
For the record.
I would you like me to listen it?
We can check the policy agenda.
Is that okay with board members?
Yes. Yes, there was there was nothing controversial.
It was all straightforward according to the law and
and and SBA and Mr.
Rife, Snyder worked very hard
this summer to implement these changes and get them into our policy.
And I will say just a note that all of the COVID related
policies were things that we had already implemented and practice,
and this was just catching our policy up to match our practices according to
our health and safety plans.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Are there any questions for that
policy?
Okay. Mr.
Trojan, do you have a community correspondent's report?
Thank you, Madam President. Yes, I do.
And I'd like to report we actually had a record
number of submissions via the constituent contact form in August.
We had 39 submissions, which far surpasses any we've had in the past.
They included a request for tech help.
We also had a submission regarding a lease agreement.
We had two submissions regarding policy.
We had to request update student contact information and the remaining,
as you might suspect, all related to COVID 19 and the reopening of school.
Okay, thank you very much.
The listed items are on the anticipated September 28th, 2020
Board of Directors Meeting Agenda.
There's no unfinished business.
The content content agenda,
the consent agenda contains routinely adopted items and items
that normally do not require public deliberations on part of the board.
A board member may pull items that will then be discussed and voted on separately.
May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as listed so moved?
Seconds.
Hey, is there any discussion?
Okay.
All those in favor say I was opposing.
Now the consent agenda passes
New business
approval of air agreement.
Mr. McFarland.
Thank you.
The administration recommends the board approved the services
and consulting agreement with Air Elara Group as Health and Benefits
Insurance broker effective July one, 2020, retroactively through June 30th, 2021.
In the amount of $24,000.
May I have a motion to approve the Air Services and Consulting Agreement
so move Lindsey Drew. Second
is there any discussion?
I just want to add, even those out here tonight, thank you to Mr.
Prince for going back to air.
This is not a brand new agreement to the school district,
but it's actually a revised version of one already in place that allowed for
over $30,000 annually in savings.
So I appreciate him working to take it down to this level.
Hey, thank you.
Any other discussion?
Hey, all those in favor say I high opposed say no
to the agreement is approved
later.
School start time delay recommendation.
Mr. McFarland.
Thank you.
The administration recommends delaying implementation of the new school
start times for the 2021 2022 school year until at least the 2022,
2022, 2023 school year.
The timeline for implementation will be reviewed and revised
in the spring of 2021.
May I have a motion to approve the new school
start time delay recommendation?
So moved.
Second, is there any discussion?
Yeah, I just
just for the record, if you could maybe just give a little background
of why you came to that decision just so everybody would know.
Absolutely. Mrs. Harris.
It was not an easy decision in some regards.
However, as you can imagine, all of our spring and summer focus
was completely on planning for how we were going to reopen school
and dealing with all of the COVID related items.
That time was critical in our original timeline
for preparing for new schedules
at secondary and elementary and what that would look like.
None of that got accomplished.
None of that happened this year.
So that's the primary reason.
Along with that,
the high school
course planning guide is developed typically in the fall.
And again, we should have had all this work done
by this time so that we could do that course Planning Guide.
Additionally, with the many budgetary unknowns
and fiscal unknowns coming forward,
while we don't anticipate huge dollars necessary in transportation changes
or anything, there may be some
and not knowing what our budget forecast is going to look like
moving forward, we just feel it's best to delay that
so that if we look to implement in the 2022, 20, 23 school year,
we can use next spring and summer
to be developing what we should have done this year.
I just want to say
that I am disappointed, but I do understand
and I hope that just as a school district we can continue to promote sleep
as a pillar of wellness along with exercise and diet,
especially now during the pandemic and COVID 19, because sleep
is really one of the huge amenity boosters so that we can just promote,
you know, sleep wellness throughout, throughout the district and sleep hygiene.
Thank you.
I also wanted to point out
that we are delaying the
the change in the school start times
until at least the 2020 to 2023.
But we are going to review this again this spring.
So we'll talk about it as a board and kind of go over where we are because
I think there's just so much uncertainty that it would be our hope
to just delay it by one year.
But that may not happen.
We really just have to see how the next the end of 2020 goes and who
and what we look like in the spring.
But we would make the decision to still allow for at least one
full school year before implementing from the time of decision so that families
have time to adjust and accommodate and make their arrangements for an impact.
Correct?
Yeah.
Is there any other discussion?
Okay.
All those in favor say I.
I've always opposed. Say now.
Okay, The motion is approved.
May I have a motion to approve personnel resignations?
So moved.
Second,
is there any discussion?
Hey, all those in favor say I opposed?
Say no, and resignations are approved.
Personnel.
General. Mr. MacFarland.
Thank you.
The administration recommends
the approval of the listed personnel and recognition of any listed transfers.
May I have a motion to approve
the listed personnel in recognition of any listed transfers?
So moved. Second,
is there any discussion?
I just want to confirm that with some of these transfers, it's
just to meet me like the various scheduling needs in buildings.
Is that primarily what.
Are you.
Like the technology instructional coach moving to the middle school.
That can be supervision to their supervisor under
their role Hasn't changed.
Okay.
Any other discussion?
Okay.
All those in favor say i, i, i.
This personnel care motion carries delegate reports.
The CAIB report is attached.
Are there any board members who would like to give a report?
I would just like to add
for the Citizen
Advisor application period is open through
the evening of Sunday, September 20th.
For anyone who is interested in applying to serve
as a citizen advisor on some of our standing committees.
The application is on our website.
Any other board members?
Madam President, just a compliment to Ford.
A number of individuals in the community
have asked me for compliments regarding the strong work Jason
and the remainder of the rest of the administration has done
during the school reopening, But especially Jason's
have been singled out in those folks that have talked with me.
So thanks, Jason. Strong work.
I would second that.
I've also received a large amount of very positive feedback.
So thank you to everyone, Stacey, Jason, to
the entire administration,
thank you.
And the other board members.
Mr. Macfarlane, do you have a superintendent's report?
I do.
Thank you.
First, I'd also like to just give a huge thank you to all of our faculty,
our staff and administration for the hard work and dedication
and the commitment to our students and doing all that
they can to make the return to school
as beneficial and productive for our students as as possible.
It's not been an easy transition, and it will continue to be one filled
with challenges and hurdles to overcome.
But I'm thankful for the commitment of everyone to do all that we can
for our kids.
While it's not the learning environment that any of us want or
know is ideal for our students, it is the reality that we're dealt
with at this point and will continue to work together, showing the patience
and grace for ourselves and for each other as we move forward.
And I can say that the bright spot of the day
is when we can see the kids, even if we can't see their whole face.
It has
been a joy, but it has been difficult.
So and secondly, my first community job with Joe
will be held via Zoom on Friday, October 2nd at 9 a.m.
And as we get closer to that date, we'll get a registration
link out on the website and social media so people can register for that.
But we do want to continue that.
And finally, it just
you've seen this on social media, but congratulate our athletic director,
Scott Govern, who was selected as Mid-penn athletic director of the year.
So congratulations to him.
That ends my report.
All right. Thank you very much.
I do not have a report tonight, so move on to recognition of citizens.
This is an opportunity for residents and taxpayers to address the board on
matters related to the agenda or matters of district governance, not on the agenda.
Those who speak, if present, are asked to come to the microphone
and state your name and address.
Those attending virtually are asked to raise your virtual hand.
Are there any residents or
taxpayers who would like to speak at this time?
There are still no people in the audience,
but there are five people online.
I don't see any hands.
Okay.
Is there anything else for the good of the order? No.
The next public board of Directors meeting will be held September 28th, 2020,
starting at 7:00 in the District Office Board of Directors Room.
May I have a motion to adjourn this meeting?
So moved.
All those in favor say aye?
Aye. And other opposed say no.
Okay. The meeting is adjourned at 723.