November 12th, 28 November 12, 2018.
A meeting of the Derry Township School District
Board of Directors to order and announce that this meeting is being audio recorded.
Mr. Friends, Roll Call.
Mr. Abel Here.
Dr. CRONIN Here.
Ms.. Drew Here is, however, stick your memory here. Dr.
Show here is sicker here.
Mr. Singer Here is donor here.
Nine present, zero absent.
And before we rise for the Pledge of Allegiance, I'd like to,
in honor of Veterans Day, acknowledge all those and thank those who have served.
And I'd like to take a moment.
If you have served, please stand so we could recognize you.
Please rise available
and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
for which it stands.
One nation, under God, indivisible,
and justice.
May I have a motion to approve the November
12th, 2018 Board of Directors agenda?
So moved second.
Okay.
That was Maria and Donna.
Is there any discussion?
Is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor say I.
All those opposed say no.
The motion carries students at the month. Mr..
Mr.. Ebert,
it is my pleasure
to introduce the students of the month for the Hershey High School.
And when I start with the Lady of the Night, and it is Mallory Dreyer.
Can you hear me? Yes.
Hi. My name's Mallory Dreher.
I'm a senior at Hershey High School.
To start, I want to thank you all the Hershey School board.
So much for having my family and I here today.
My parents are back there
and very
humbled to be here and to be selected for such an honor.
A huge thank you as well to the teachers and administrators
at Hershey for selecting me, a student of the month.
A little about myself.
I was born and raised here in Hershey,
and I've gone to the Hershey School District
for the entirety of my academic career.
I'm a captain of the Hershey High School, if you're lucky, Jim.
I've been playing since first grade as well as a four year
varsity Letterwinner, which we're going to the state semifinals tomorrow.
So please cross your fingers.
Additionally, I'm a member of the Alley Cats Field Hockey Club.
Aside from athletics, I'm the co-president of the yearbook,
the video producer for the online school newspaper, The Broadcaster,
a member of the National Honor Society and Young Republicans Club.
And I'm very involved in my church state, Joan of Arc.
In the future, I plan to attend the university a-main
on a full athletic and academic scholarship to play field hockey
while studying a double major
in business management and finance at the Human Honors College.
After college, I hope to take the things I've learned from Hershey and at Umaine
to be an entrepreneur. Thank you.
And for the gentleman, you already know him pretty well.
Patrick Ramsey.
Hi. Patrick Vaizey
I'd just like to say thank you to not only the school board
but all my teachers at Derry Township School District
and to my parents and grandparents for being here and supporting me.
Thank you.
And also to my sisters for supporting me.
But I'd just like to say it's been pretty great experience growing up here.
And thank you so much.
Thank you.
I'd just like to say it's a pleasure having you both here And Mallory.
We would love to see you bring home the state championship to Hershey.
So good luck tomorrow night and then good luck again on Saturday.
Yeah. So thank you for coming.
And you don't have to stay for the whole board meeting,
but you are welcome to so don't feel bad about leaving, Patrick.
Thank you. But. Patrick. Yes, stay put.
So thanks for coming.
Tonight.
We have a data presentation from Dr.
Winslow. So
hello everyone.
Okay,
so this is a kind of an annual data report for you.
Now that all of our I shouldn't say all of them,
nearly all of our data points are in for our associates and Keystone's.
We are still waiting on the future index to be released,
and I'll explain a little bit of that to you as well as speed.
Those those have not been released yet.
So I'll dive right in
because I see that you have a little bit of a long agenda.
These are our district scores for the last three years
in math and science.
Those are the three major places where we're ever tested.
And this is kind of a composite of everything.
This includes Keystone scores as well.
What you can see here is that
we hold pretty steady and that's something that we're taking a look at.
And I'll get into that a little bit deeper.
This is a breakdown by grade and subject,
and you can see
just real quickly, science is only tested in grade four and grade eight.
There's a lot of data on the slide.
It's a lot of information.
But I did want to share with you the state averages
versus our averages also,
because while sometimes we get a little bit
disappointed that we're we're not moving forward
as quickly or as in bigger leaps as what we would like to,
we are kind of knocking it out of the park as far
as for the rest of the state is is coming in.
So this is an overall look, I did do a breakdown of mathematics
because that's a place where we're we're really
putting a lot of our focus right now.
You can see grade three has has had a nice
steady increase.
Grade four and five
both took a little bit of a drop this year.
I just met with fifth grade last week to start examining.
Got a little bit more deeply
to try to figure out what what was going on.
The both of the test, the ILA and the math did change again last year
to some degree to shorten them.
It did eliminate some of the
the questions and gives more weight to other questions.
We don't get to see the questions.
We don't get to see which questions our kids did not perform as well on. So
it's a
lot of guessing as we try to go through this.
We do look deeply into the math anchors to try to figure out which ones
maybe aren't.
We're not hitting hard enough
in the curriculum or that we need to modify instruction on.
But you can kind of see from our our scores
that we're a little bit hit or miss on that right now.
I do get a chuckle sometimes because I get calls
from other folks in the county and even across the state
sometimes wondering what we're doing because our math scores are so good,
like we're either good
or beating ourselves up over here over this.
So really trying to figure out how to keep this trend going upwards
instead of getting stuck or like we did in a couple of grade levels dropping
this year,
Keystone algebra scores.
This was the first year that we tested sixth graders in algebra for Keystone's,
and you can see 100% of them.
There were 11 kiddos, 100% of them were proficient
in advanced, most of them advanced
seventh grade.
We've been testing for several years.
We did have
97.7% advanced and proficient there.
Most of our students test in algebra one before they leave middle school.
We do have a small number of kiddos,
107 of them who are testing at the high school.
Some of those students are moving in and have not had algebra
until they get to ninth grade because our curriculum is a little bit
advanced.
Probably isn't the right word for it.
A little more accelerated than some other school districts.
And then some of our students are ones who have been traditionally
struggling with mathematics and just need a little bit more time to get there.
I did include, again, the state average for Keystone scores there.
Just as a comparison
biology,
they're just knocking it out of the park in biology.
This is a an impressive improvement for grade nine.
They started at 83%, advanced and proficient several years ago.
Looking at the track of that, it went 83,
85, 88, now 90.
And while testing numbers are a little bit low in 10th grade,
there's a huge percentage of 9% point nine percentage points.
So they're they're doing a really, really nice job in biology.
They spend a lot of time every summer going through their curriculum.
I'm doing an in-depth look at
at the standards and seeing where they need to align.
They do that also in algebra.
I don't want it to sound like they don't do that in the other classes
they do is super successful with the biology.
I mean, you can see again the state average
64.4%, again doing well above
the state is performing at.
We are taking a look at literature.
We took a little bit of a a drop in literature this year.
We did have some teachers who were in and out last year,
some teachers who went out during mid-year and had some long term substitutes in
are not sure if that had some impact
on the fidelity that the curriculum was delivered in.
But some of what you were hearing tonight from the teachers
also wanting to incorporate some of those other pieces,
I'm sorry not to you didn't hear it.
Science Curriculum Council heard it, and I apologize in my mind.
It just happened 5 minutes ago.
We were
looking at some courses, particularly media studies,
that they would like to incorporate some of those skills the whole way through
the thinking English curriculum instead of it being just one course
so that all students are exposed to some of those skills
instead of just the students taking that one semester course.
So there are some other pieces there that we're
we're taking a look at as well.
We have had a hard time maintaining high levels
of advanced performance on this exam also.
So really taking a look at our curriculum
and the way that we're delivering that for for the literature exam,
we did just get our PCR started
about a week and a half ago that came in.
So this is
the district kind of snapshot as a whole.
And what you can see, blue is good, green is also good, right?
Is not so great.
I said I did meet with
fifth grade teachers last week to take a look at that.
And again, our scores dropped a little bit in fifth grade
and we kind of are a little stagnant there.
So it's not showing growth overall for any of our groups of students.
So what is the press stand for?
Price Oh, geez. What does it stand for?
Pennsylvania's value added assessment system.
Thank you.
So this is the growth measure.
And what it's looking at is not so much student achievement,
but whether or not students grew at least one full year.
So while our students
perform very well, sometimes we see that
we're not growing them a full school year in a year.
So you want to be green or blue?
Green is that there's evidence that you grew at least a year blue is
that you grew over a year
red is that there's not enough evidence.
It doesn't tell you that you didn't grow.
It tells you
that there's not enough evidence that the students grew at least a year.
And this is all based upon their PSAT scores.
So you go ahead.
Do you have this is last year's fifth grade class and now they're currently
sixth graders, correct? Correct.
And this is all the this is all the pieces of this would be all the pieces
and the keystones everything.
So when you're looking at this, you see grades four or five, six,
seven, eight, and the Keystone exams, which is actually banked scores
reflective of this year's 11th grade class.
This year, 11th grade is because
I think that that part's a little confusing, but that's how that works.
You'll see that there's no third grade on here.
It's that is because you have to have had at least one test that you've taken
in order for there to be predictable data about how much you should grow.
So third grade does not have previous data.
I did want to tell you
a little bit about future ready index.
If you recall, we have had school performance profile in the past
where we get kind of like a grade for for each building.
PTA is moving instead to the future, right?
EPA index, the ESP score, the school performance profile
will still exist because that is part of teacher evaluations.
Pilot by law, but it is not what will be released to the public.
We will we will get
as scores, but it will it will that will no longer be
the front facing way to report success of schools.
He was looking for a way to be
more well-rounded, have more than just that one score data
point as a as a way to determine how schools are performing.
And so they're moving to the future NFPA index.
This has not been released yet.
I have had access to a preview site, so I've been able to take
a little bit of a look at what is what they're going to be sharing with us.
These are some of the pieces that we were starting to take a look
at that that we want to look at a little bit more
for our we just had some
concern, I guess, is the right word about where some of our
economically disadvantaged students seem to be falling in these numbers.
And this is not data that was easily pulled prior to this being available.
What is the I guess, insufficient
numbers is what that stands for?
I was laughing.
I'm like, is this insufficient numbers?
So what you're looking at
on the left side of the screen is a breakdown
of of our students that are enrolled in rigorous courses of study.
Now, they are saying that rigorous courses of study are AP courses
only.
Doesn't that include honors classes too?
Nope.
Nope, just A.P.
So not quite sure how accurate this number is overall,
although I would probably like to see it bump up a little bit there.
And then our
four year cohort graduation rate is another one that we were kind of like
we shouldn't have so much disparity of those numbers in there.
But there's a lot of questions to be asked as well.
And you can't take that just on face value.
For example,
some of our students with disabilities are also some of our same
economically disadvantaged students, and so they might not be graduating
in four years because they're staying with us
for five or six years, which is their right to do that.
So we haven't gotten into the names of those students to see where
those overlaps are yet, because this has just been released for us.
Stacy, could you tell us what is this what does it say for your graduation rate?
I just can't see it. We're just not sure.
It's the that is the four year cohort graduation rate.
And what is it,
the number?
I can't see the numbers. Sorry. Sure.
The all student group is 93.4%.
Our Asian students are 100% graduating in four years.
White students 94.9 economically disadvantaged are 83.3%.
So that number kind of jumped out at me a little bit.
And students with disabilities is 81.8.
But again, there might be some overlap there and some of our students
with disabilities do stay with us longer and we got it doesn't count as graduating.
How do you dive deeper into that
to try to identify where that difference is coming from?
I start looking at student rosters.
That's a big difference.
Yeah.
So is that insufficient data?
Is that because our populations of those groups are just that low?
Okay, we just don't have enough students in those.
How many students do you need to start counting them?
I believe they're on 25 for this one.
25? Yeah.
So some of the conversations we've started having,
taking a look at these numbers, you've probably seen this
graphic before,
but equality versus equity
and you know the difference between the two equality is everybody gets
the same thing.
Equity is is helping students
who who need a little bit more assistance get there.
But the conversation we've started having is why is there a wall?
What are the obstacles that we might have in place
that we don't notice because they've been in place for so long
that we're not paying attention to them because they're used to our world?
And then how do we remove those obstacles without inadvertently
putting other obstacles in place for students who are having success?
So that's some of the conversations that we've started having.
I shared
this quote with you last year, and we continue to have conversations
around this to make sure that we are in fact
acting what we believe.
It's really important that we are if we say we believe that all students
can learn that we are acting as though all students can learn,
some of the things that we're doing,
there's a lot
we're looking at anchors
and eligible content and in mathematics in particular, but also at the high school
literature piece to see what we might be missing in our curriculum.
They're revising assessments to ensure standards are being addressed.
This is a huge task across the district.
We've implemented every day math for and this is our second year
getting pretty deeply into that program
and really looking at where where are the gaps and
where do we need to to do some some work filling in for students
started implementation of open court
reading program and gains in grades K through three
deep study of essential standards in grades K through five.
We've spent the first part of this semester actually at the elementary level,
really diving deeply into the curriculum, looking at the standards
and helping teachers to get a really strong sense
of what those standards are and then what that looks like in practice.
Department chairs during our monthly department chair meetings have
they actually chose, after seeing some of this data
themselves to study equity and our structures this year?
Part of that is the grading piece that we're looking at
in our professional learning.
We have a lot of teachers who are involved in the text opinion analysis
training at the IU the middle school.
They're actually rotating teachers in and out,
and then they're sharing at their department meetings.
I was at a department meeting last week
where they were sharing the in-depth learning that they had with one another.
We have guided math cohort continuing so that teachers are able
to put supports in place for different math groups
as well as help students continue to excel in mathematics.
And we are continuing with our mathematical literacy study
through Penn State.
We have a partnership happening with them,
several book studies happening, learning by doing
and starting a movement or two of them this year that we're working through,
our coaching team is doing a phenomenal job
reaching out to teachers, modeling, getting extra training themselves,
doing more research, diving into what some of these issues
might be so that they can then model and support for the teachers
and continued professional learning community development
across the district, really very committed to that effort.
Conference sessions and opportunities are continuing as well
to help us get deeper into our work.
And as I shared with you last year, we're continuing the hard work
of implementing a professional learning community at work throughout the district,
through the development of collaborative teams.
The work we're faced with, with with student
needs is way too difficult to do all by yourself.
And so we're working on
developing a collaborative culture so that people are not going it alone.
So really working with teams with intentionality
and purpose to ensure that all students can learn.
The elementary has revisited the process.
They've implemented Tuesday morning required time,
and we did start the year of the deep dive into the curriculum
that was written last year for the elementary school
to really unpack the standards and identify the most essential learnings.
That's the answer to question number one,
that foundational piece of what we want students to know.
It might sound like it's easy work, but it's not.
It's a very deep, very insightful work.
Takes a lot of time, it's very difficult and can feel very overwhelming
to the teachers at times, but they are doing a phenomenal job moving towards that
kind of comprehensive look at what we're doing and how we're doing it.
The other piece of that is not only what we want students to learn,
but what does that really look like at proficiency and are we all in agreement
in what that looks like at proficiency?
The middle school is neck deep in this work.
They have incredible support from their instructional coaches, David
and Donna Spangler.
They were actually might have seen people
in and out of training room A this evening as you were coming in.
That was Dave and Donna doing a what our pulses
and what do they do workshop for some of our new staff
and some of our staff who just want to get more deeply
and have a more deeper understanding of what's going on there.
They made an amazing amount of progress last year and are continuing that work
this year on the high schools developed a task force to work through building
foundational knowledge of what a learning culture looks like for them
and what kind of structures they might need to put into place in order
to support that.
So that is where we are.
I wanted to be concise for you, but I'm happy to answer any questions
or anything that you want to know more about.
One of the things that came up I remember last year and I wasn't on the board yet,
so I was taking it in a different perspective
was reference to the students who had been
the flood, the flood.
And that's what I was going to try, not just to label them as that,
but there was some pretty significant conversation around that.
Can you kind of just show us back in the data that you're
presenting where they are and what the improvement was or so they are.
They are this group of students.
So they're in ninth grade this year, correct? So right
now they're in eighth grade this year.
Where are they
now? And I thought I'm one of these are they were seventh, last, ninth grade.
The freshman class.
They're the freshmen. It was their seventh grade numbers last year.
So they're a great number. Sorry.
So this is them
here.
And you can see that eighth grade is having kind of a steady increase
in their peers that says they do fantastic in their keystones.
And you can see that here,
here.
You know, this is the sort of been that class.
So they're great with their Keystone exams,
their seventh grade year,
their their teachers told them to stop it.
They can't just be the flat class forever.
So what was their I'm sorry, on the algebra one we would have
they were at 94%
for this past year, but before that they were at 100%
for grade seven. Like I pulled up.
I was trying to remember which grade it was.
I pulled up the right presentation from last year, so
our grade seven students that are taking Algebra one,
our accelerated math students, it's very unusual
for us to have anything less than 100% at seventh grade.
Okay.
So you can't compare that 66 tests when they were in seventh
grade to the 44 and not really know
or the hundred and 34 other.
No, no, no.
And Stacy, why you're on that page.
So the 107 from the ninth grade to 11th grade,
those are students that could not take the algebra one sooner,
because I know sometimes
when you wait too long, the algebra one is just not fresh in your mind anymore.
These close? Yes.
So those are ones that could not take it sooner.
So these are students who did not take it as eighth graders,
likely because of their mathematics placement
or because they have IEPs and they weren't quite ready for it yet.
They hadn't gotten that foundational knowledge.
Or they're students
who have moved into the district that have not taken Keystone yet,
or whose curriculum
was aligned differently than where they would have had Algebra one
as a ninth grader, which is very, very common.
It's kind of unusual that we have it from
the majority of our students is eighth graders.
So and then a couple of these students
are also students who are taking it for the second or third time
because they did not pass it the first time.
So they would have been in courses
that were supporting their learning with study island with some
extra scaffolding to help them with the concepts that they were not getting.
So that's this is a wide variety of students in this 107 number.
So and I assume that's the same with the biology.
The biology is a little different because we don't test
biology in the middle school.
So the majority so when you're looking at these 10th grade students, you're
seeing that wide variety, but you'll see it's a much smaller number of students.
Okay, that makes sense.
The questions
I had a question about a sixth grade math.
If you've considered
I know it's a frustration for some kids and parents
that only two of the three teams
have an accelerated math class.
So I'm wondering with the math, given the math scores,
if you're if you've considered adding
an additional adding an accelerated math class for all the team,
so all the kids so the kids that are, you know,
might be borderline or ready to move up, have that opportunity.
So the number of classes is based on the number of students who qualify.
Sometimes there are three accelerated classes.
It all depends on how many students actually need accelerated math.
The schedule is not developed prior to the students being tested
and identified the schedules developed afterwards.
Okay,
that makes sense.
Yeah.
It just seems like there's always two classes, so
it does often turn out that way,
but that's because that's how many students are ready for it.
Okay.
But they're ready for it based on numbers,
not necessarily personality like.
So I mean, I guess it would it would be nice to
I guess it would be nice to if you just if you looked at,
I guess, a child's desire to learn, to want to learn more
if they were a quick learner rather than associating with
because what they're going into is pre-algebra, right?
They actually take it out.
They take an algebra screener, we look at their PSA scores,
we look at teacher recommendation from six.
There's actually four data points
and they have to meet three of those data points in order to qualify.
So it's not just one thing that gets them there.
And when we look at that algebra screener,
there is a
with algebra concepts because they become less concrete.
There is some brain development in children
where not all kids are ready for that abstract thinking.
Yet, just like you learn to walk at different ages and stages,
that abstract thinking comes right around a certain time,
but not everybody hits it at the same time.
So a student who would go into algebra
and not be developmentally ready for that yet would really, really struggle.
So they might want to really badly, but still just not quite be ready for it.
And that's something that that screener does a phenomenal job
of showing that That's one of our key data points
to make sure that they're actually ready for that work
because it's super frustrating if they're not that conceptual
piece, if they're still in that concrete learning phase.
Dr. Winslow, could you go back to slides?
I think it's two, Yeah, that's it.
So if one is
if one were to follow a grade. Yes.
Or a year, then you're moving up the diagonal.
Correct. Right. Okay.
And what is the, what is the p value or the variance
on these things for example, is, is is there is, is a 2% change significant?
Is a 4% change significant?
What change?
What percentage change is significant?
Because if you go if you follow the diagonal
for all the years available, there appears to be a slight grade.
There is there's a downtrend for for each class as it progresses. Yes,
that's pretty common across the state also.
And I cannot honestly tell you that they have given us
a statistical significance for where that is.
We don't like to see any percentage drop.
But as far as
where does it become super concerning
from an evaluation standpoint, it becomes super concerning
even at 1% because it changes our ESP score
and it makes it look like we're not making progress.
So but as far as did students
lose their learning, that's the area that that would be for appearances.
But in terms of substance rate are concerned. Right.
So we don't we really don't know. We don't know. Okay.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Any other questions?
All right.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Share it.
Okay.
I would like to announce the board met in executive session prior to this meeting
to discuss matters of personnel in consultation with attorneys,
how we can do recognition of citizens.
This is an opportunity
for residents and taxpayers to address the board on matters related to the agenda
are there any citizens and taxpayers who are going to come forward?
Okay, so I won't read this whole paragraph
in recognition of new extracurricular activity school clubs.
Mr. MCFARLAND.
Thank you.
In compliance with Policy 122 extracurricular activities, the listed
additions of the middle and high school student clubs are being recognized.
Okay, thank you.
So they are listed up their
standing committee report.
We had a curriculum council meeting today at 4:00.
We reviewed two new pieces of legislation.
Senate Bill 1095 is graduation
options regarding Keystone exams.
They're providing four options for kids to be able to graduate
instead of just requiring the Keystone exams.
And we also discussed Act 35,
which is assessment of civic knowledge.
This affects
the school year of 20 2021.
And what it is is at least one time between grades seven through 12th.
We have to test them for civics.
There's multiple options that we can use, and one of the options
that we can use is the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services Test,
even though it's not required until 2020, 20, 21 school year.
We are going to start this year in ninth grade
and and see how it goes with the test, because you do get civics in ninth grade,
we had items for discussion.
We discussed our health and sexual education curriculum
and we went year by year by Dr.
Winslow.
We started in sixth grade, then seventh grade, eighth grade, ninth and 10th
to get information on what exactly
do we teach with health and sexual education.
She went into a lot of detail
so you could listen to the audio minutes if you would like.
But for example, in sixth grade, there's really no sexual health
other than the one day where they get the 40 minute video of fifth grade.
That's fifth grade.
So sixth grade, there's nothing in seventh grade.
They start learning about anatomy and the reproductive system.
And I'm never I'm never going to cover all the details.
So I would encourage you to listen to the audio minutes.
We are going to continue that discussion at the next curriculum council meeting
because we just ran out of time and we needed to get to
the new business, which is we did approve
seven No.
Five courses for a first read to the board,
of course, Edition digital
production two, which is just the second
step for digital production.
One And we approved a course revision for great books course
multi cultural literature course and Hero's Journey course.
Currently those courses run for one semester
and the proposal is to make them run for one year
so that the teachers can go in-depth into literature
and how the students become better writers.
So the idea is that, you know, you could edit
paper endlessly to get a better result.
And right now it feels very rushed to be in a one semester class.
So we did approve that for first read and we approve the addition,
the new course, an electronics course, which is like an introduction
to electronics, which is almost like a pre physics course.
So you learn about circuits and
all kinds of electronics and it could
it doesn't have to be somebody who's headed toward electronics.
It could be somebody who's headed toward a technical profession.
And we also voted to eliminate the course media studies.
And I think that was brought up already, that what's happening now
with it in our current culture is our students are learning about
fake news and legitimate resources
and all those things in all of their English classes.
So they need just to have one class that goes into depth about the media.
It's being taught in all of our English classes at this point.
So they didn't see the need to continue with this class.
And that concludes my report.
There was a policy standing committee today.
Mrs. Steiner, do you have a report? I do.
We reviewed several policies.
The first one we reviewed was policy two 10.2 possession,
administration of asthma inhalers or epinephrine auto injectors.
And these were
recommendations that were made from the school code,
and they were mostly to include a definition of anaphylaxis,
other classifications that are necessary to reflect a method for possession
and administration of asthma inhalers or EpiPens or auto injectors
and this is the second time it came back to the committee
because there were some questions that we had that
it would be too much of a burden on the nurses.
And but after clarification,
we realize that it's really not that big of a deal.
And Mr.
Refsnyder did meet with the nurses and that they're going to consolidate
that information and just maybe add one or two lines on our existing health forms.
The nurses are mostly complying with everything that is in the policy already.
So so that is going to come to the full board for a 30 day review approval.
The next policy we talked about
was policy 246 School wellness.
And this this also came back to the policy committee
after coming to the full board just because of a violation
that is within the policy regarding food
celebrations and parties in the elementary school.
And just because by the nature of the schedule with the third graders,
they don't comply with the policy,
as was noted by Mr. Chu.
And so in order to not break our own policy,
but still wanting to have a, you know, a guideline
for for it for nutrition as mandated by the wellness policy,
we're just going to add a line in there about,
you know, unless exceptions are made by the board in principal,
because there's nothing we can do about the third grade schedule. So
so that'll be coming back with that small amendment
to the full board for 30 day review and approval.
The next policy we talked about was policy 309
assignment and transfer.
We talked about this policy.
Again, this is brought back to the committee
regarding keeping the language
of whether or not having the board approve
transfer transfers or not.
It you know, it's not something that's required by school code.
But PSB had had it in their language before.
So had just been built into our policy
that we addressed, you know, concerns.
But even after the concerns were
discussed and brought to our attention, we still feel like the language
striking that that option from the policy
and keeping the approval of our employees
under the administration purview is where we want to keep this policy.
For now.
So so the policy will state that the board shall approve
the initial assignment of all employees at the time of employment period,
and that the board we are going to add a sentence.
So to recognize transfers but not to approve them.
So that becoming also
to the full board for review
policy seven and seven use of school facilities was next on our agenda.
And because we've had that in our committee for a very long time
and because it's so complex and the Smiths did a lot of work for us
and putting incorporating changes to it, but
we still thought it was a good idea
to bring it to an ad hoc committee which our board president, Mrs.
Seger, decided to do, which she thinks she can do.
So. So that is now going to go to an ad hoc committee which will be,
you know,
comprised of Scott Governor and Mark Anderson and Jason Refsnyder.
And and then if a board member would like to be a part of that committee,
let Mrs. Seger know.
Well, can I just add to that real quick? Yeah.
So I read over the board operating guideline
Ad Hoc committee may be created,
charged and assigned a six termination date by the board president.
So I would like to form the ad hoc committee
with our Director of Athletics, Director Button grounds Jason Rife
Snyder Up to three board members and up to three citizen advisors.
Ask them and then ask citizens similar
the same way we did the four day Kindergarten Committee.
And then what I would like to do, it says, with a charge with a fixed termination
date, we have a policy committee meeting February 11th.
Perhaps that ad hoc committee could give us an update at the 11th
and something final by the next policy meeting April 8th.
So that's six months number.
Yeah.
And I just it's so hard for everyone to get together.
So April 8th would be the final the firm date for them to be complete.
Give us a give us a recommendation. Yeah.
Give us your recommendation and give us an update.
February 8th now, February 11th.
Okay.
In the interim, we still have the new policy
going into effect January 1st. Yes.
Kathy, I'd like to volunteer for that.
Oh, yeah.
Just let me know
if we have more than three board members will pull your names out of a hat.
So let me know in the next week or so, I'll send out an email reminder.
But so far we have Donna.
I'd like to.
Yep. Maria.
I would as well.
Okay.
Lindsay, you can take me off.
That's fine.
Now that's anyone else.
I'll bring in John.
Did you raise your hand? Oh,
you can take me.
It's totally fine.
You're driving the conversation, so you should actually stay on it
and I'll stuff like I'll remember my name.
All right, We'll battle this out and get it out.
Okay? All right.
My next policy that we talked about was policy 249 the bullying, cyber bullying.
And we had
discussed this for a little bit,
but over the last couple of meetings and we added some some modifications,
we added that we the board encourages students who have been bullied.
We added a line about or by standards who have witnessed bullying
to encourage bystanders to speak up and stand up, stand out about that.
And we also encourage and a line about the board encourages
parents of students
who have been bullied
to promptly report such incidents to the building principal or designee.
So also giving parents permission to speak up about it as well.
We also added a line in there about posting the toll free
telephone number for the
bullying prevention poster consultation online,
and we clarified
to find this code of student conduct and the student handbook
and added some resources for parents as well
and added an attachment and didn't to that to the resources that we listed,
which are the Pennsylvania Bullying Prevention
Toolkit, the National Bullying Prevention Center.
Stop Bullying dot com and Common sense education, all which have guidelines
and clear outlines of more definitions
and circumstances to identify bullying.
And we also attach
our attaching
a chart that is the similarities and differences
between rough and tumble play real fighting and bullying.
Just to give parents and students more information about how to distinguish
what is bullying and and when to when to stand up and speak up about it.
And hopefully that will help
with different situations.
So we made those changes and those will all be coming
to the full board for a 30 day review and approval as well.
The next policy we had that
we talked about was a new policy that we drafted
for diversity, inclusion and equity.
And after meeting with Mr.
Snyder for the agenda planning, we decided to put this under nondiscrimination.
So the title so the number will be one of three point to nondiscrimination
being 1 to 3, and then there's nondiscrimination for disability, I think.
But just one of 3.1, this will be 1 to 3.2
to basically just include
make sure that, you know, all
all of our community members and students feel
welcomed and included in every aspect
of of our school districts and our community, too,
to let the public know that our school board
values diversity, values,
you know, curriculum, that
that is free of of bias toward any minority groups.
We want it to acknowledge and condemn
and prevent racism and sexism, Islamophobia,
anti-Semitism,
homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia of any kind.
We also want to have just an ongoing effort to increase the cultural competency
and cultural proficiency, as well as preventing implicit and explicit bias.
So these are all just general
policy statements that we want to make sure
that all of our students have a safe,
protected and welcoming environment when they come into school building.
So that'll be a new policy that will be coming to the school board
for a 30 day review, an approval.
We also briefly talked about
another nondiscrimination policy, which will be 103.3
for transgender and gender non-conforming students.
This is a policy that we
we need to to also ensure that our transgender and gender
non-conforming students at our schools feel safe and included,
and that the administration is going to support them.
We included a administrative guideline
so which we want to get clarification on.
Just a minor point from our solicitor before we bring it to the full board.
So that'll be coming next spring.
But it's going to stay in Policy Committee for now
as well as due to time dressing,
grooming and adding non-religious as a protected class.
So I think that's everything.
Okay, thank you very much.
Anyone have any questions
you said was transgender the 103.3?
Yes, one of 3.3 nondiscrimination.
Okay.
Student representatives report.
Mr. Gove and Mr. Mandia.
Good evening, Madam President.
Derry Township Board members.
The public school year has been progressing well,
and despite the stress, stressful times of seniors
trying to finish their early action applications on time.
We've been having some fun experiences at the school.
We were able to dress up for Halloween and host many concerts and events
in the past three weeks, and so now we just look forward
to the Thanksgiving break. Coming up next week.
As I've said
for the past two weeks, we have a lot of concerts in the high school.
We had an orchestra, a band concert and the course concert
and also the course also had a fundraiser, which was to be a dinner
before their concert.
We raised a lot of money there, and there's also
a quick turnaround for the next concerts, which are the first week of December.
So it's a little stressful right now.
But I'd also like to point out that the chorus is going to be performing
at Hershey Theater with Palmyra and also the Hershey Symphony
on December 8th, and that should be great content, really great experience
for our students to experience that professional environment.
We'd also like to congratulate some sports teams that we have at the high school,
both the girls and the boys cross-country dream team did really well at States.
We had Olivia Wilson placing 29th, Katie Jones placed 38
and Faith Marketplace 97th out of 228 racers.
The boys team was going in as ranked number 18, but they moved up to 15th place
as a team.
The boys, they won district championships against our rival LDS Boys Soccer.
Sorry about that.
They won their district championship, defeating rivals Audi 2 to 1
despite their loss at stage, they still worked really hard in the season.
We'd like to congratulate them on their hard work.
The field hockey team was also able to qualify
for states with an impressive performance at districts.
And so tomorrow, as you heard from Mallory, they'll be playing at F4
or forget the school, but they'll be playing against a mouse
in the semifinals for the state championships and on the team.
We'd also like to congratulate Maddie Zimmer, who was named
the Mid-penn Keystone Player of the Year for the second year in a row.
And On your calendars, you might see some ice hockey games popping up.
And so their season started last Friday and they play again tonight.
Also last week, the ever popular HCI eight club had their first exchange.
No Easy Way.
A club is basically a link club between our school and Milton Hershey School.
And so what we do is, we have two days where some of our students
get to go over to Milton Hershey School, experience their school culture,
and some of their students get to come over here, experience high school culture.
And this was 40 students.
High school got to do this along with four students from Milton Hershey School.
And usually the club has a lot of trouble filling up all 40 spots.
But this year they had 60 people apply and yes, 60 people apply.
And so they had to unfortunately start cutting some people back,
which is a good problem to have.
They assured everyone who did not get in this time
they'd be able to do it again in the spring when they have it.
And they're also planning for more events over the course of the year,
like a talent show and other fun things.
In the middle school.
There were a couple of visitors
speaking to the students there in the eighth grade level.
They had Dr.
Rapoport come in and talk about the Holocaust
and how that history can create an impact on society
and what we can learn from it in our present lives.
And in the seventh grade class, we had Mrs.
Yeager, who came and discussed her life as a Vietnam War refugee with the students.
Also last Friday, we at the high school celebrated
Veterans Day.
We had a celebration all throughout the day.
We had breakfast in the morning, different presentations throughout the day.
And at the end of the day, there was a small school celebration and the guy, Mrs.
Collins and Dr.
Grab, you helped organize that.
And we had students from the high school, we had veterans there,
we had presentations, movie.
There was someone made a movie was actually pretty cool
documenting like the history of veterans Day.
And we gave gifts to the veterans and there was cake and food
and everyone seemed to have a great time.
And it was a really great experience seeing
lots of classes throughout the high school give up
time for other day and go and support the veterans.
And so that's all we have for this week.
So thank you for your time.
And if you have any questions, just feel free to ask.
I have one question.
Can you tell me about the play that's happening this weekend?
Oh, yes.
So there's a play.
It's called Our Town is at the high school Friday, Saturday day.
I don't know what time it starts.
Seven and seven.
Yeah.
Yes. In the high school auditorium.
Is it a comedy, A drama?
Is it?
It's a it's a drama.
It's it's
drama ish. Drama, drama, comedy.
I was curious, like age appropriateness.
Like, would my third grader know about that?
I'm not familiar with that play, so
I wasn't sure if that was something
I'd say I sure would keep the interest of your third grader.
It definitely wouldn't like it.
All right.
Thank you very much. Any other questions?
Okay. Next, Mr.
Turgenev, do you have a community correspondent's report?
I have an extremely brief report this evening
because during the month of October, we had only three submissions.
We had a constituent contact form.
One of those was an inquiry from a business looking for advertising
opportunities.
We also had a request from an outside organization
for the distribution of materials and we had a business solicitation.
Okay, thank you.
The items listed are on the proposed November
26th Board of Directors meeting Agenda
and next
under Unfinished Business, we have Granada Property funding options.
Mr. Friends.
Thank you, Mr. Sucre.
Just wanted to circle back last meeting,
Lou and Brad
were here to present some of the options that we have for the funding
of the proposed roof window door
exterior project here at the Granada property.
If you'll remember, we have we received
the price quote
from our architects, Crabtree Rebar,
anywhere from 2.6 to about $3.1 million.
That this project would cost in total.
And so I wanted to talk about
if there was any more information needed for the board to make their decision.
The board or the administration is recommending that
we borrow the funds to do this project.
And a large portion of that is because we can borrow the funds to do this project.
You can't borrow
funds to make payroll and some of the other
everyday things that we do, and that's why we have a fund balance to do that.
But wouldn't spend or would tend
not to spend the fund balance on capital projects
because we have the ability to go out and borrow those funds.
And they also shared how that would
minimally affect our operating budget
because we're able to wrap around essentially most of that $3.1 million.
Two, after all of our debt is paid for all of our other issuances
and just bring up kind of the rear on there that we wouldn't
have to increase taxes by borrowing these dollars.
Also,
we talked a little bit about not last meeting but a couple of meetings
ago there another process in which we could seek a bank loan instead of
issuing bonds,
but that would also be a process that PFM would go through
for the district, essentially issuing the RFP on our behalf
and gathering all of the proposals from different banks
and helping us sort through those as well.
However, as Brad and Lou have been sharing information
with me, the bank loans tend to be probably a little less.
We probably would receive a better rate floating the bonds.
However, you don't know until you go through
some of that's a recognition of some of the bank loan information
that they have gone through four different districts recently.
So just looking to see if if what other information is necessary.
I was going to ask if if we could take a look
at the avenue of looking at bank financing on a commercial scale,
at least for, you know, obviously the portion that would be taxable
because of the information we'd gotten from Lou and Brad.
There's a pretty significant increase in the rate
on the taxable portion, which is I think around
1.6 million.
So I would just be curious to see, you know, what the difference would be from,
you know, various amortization and rate options.
Okay.
Well, Mike, the options on the table are you're
recommending to borrow the money, but are you also to refinance
and restructure the portions, some of the portions of the 2012 bond
I am for for future budget seek
in terms of of leveling that funding off
to to the four point essentially $4.9 million.
However, I do recognize most of the time when we would bring refunds to the table.
That's because there's a savings involved
and this is a little different that there's not a savings involved.
What we would be going through through is that structure
to level that funding out over the next
seven years.
I think
that it was so we would be recommending
as administration, we'd like to see that happen,
but that's for strictly for that purpose
is to to level out that debt service payment so that future boards
may not have to make a decision about raising taxes purely on debt.
There's a lot of other things that have come across your plate
two to consider raising taxes upon.
But this would take one of them off of that,
given the fluctuation,
I would just like to put my recommendation in.
I think that we should do the refinancing,
like to go to that option to option to option to to to borrow
for the new money and not use the cash and then refinance to level out the debt.
Because when you look at some of these different years, there's several
hundred thousand dollars in savings.
And that could make a really big difference on a budget
that far in advance that none of us will likely be a part of.
Yeah, I was calculating the numbers today and, you know, for next year,
for 2019, it's not so bad. It's about 34,000.
But when you start getting into years two, three, seven,
you're talking about $234,000 more up to two
or 300 for $24,000 more.
And that's a tax increase possibly.
If we can't come up with that in the general fund,
I would say with all of the
things considered that we know health care usually rises
and some of the other things I would agree with with that classic because of it
just being one more thing that's going to drive the budget up
for a certain period of time.
But once again, something we'll have to deal with.
I think also taking into account that many of the bonds
within five years would have a call period that we would be able to
do something else with them.
So a future board would be able to take a look at that money.
And if lower rates are available, do something with that.
There's also still a couple of bonds that we have issued
currently that are not at their ability to be called.
So that would provide future boards flexibility as well.
So they wouldn't be necessarily completely locked into this, but it would at least
give them level options and something to be able to do.
Stay status quo. Yeah.
Does anyone else want to add discussion?
So just to be clear about the refinancing variant
is that we would not be refinancing at a lower interest rate.
I mean, I realize that that the
it was a quarter of $1,000,000 to refinance and that we're not saving money.
We're also not getting a lower interest rate.
Is that correct?
It's it's essentially you're correct.
It's a level interest rate.
So it's more of a swap, a small decrease.
But unfortunately, all the other things that go along
with the issuance of bonds caused those costs to go up.
Terry.
Mike, when do you want to make a decision by we were looking at the
the last board meeting of this month, If we could have that decision made
by then, that's more than enough time to
to provide the authority for the financing
team and myself to do the work necessary to get all this prepared.
The question I have is, and the information
that we've already been provided, is it
very clear what what all the fees are?
Yes. And are they categorized clearly?
In my opinion, yes.
Okay.
And and they won't change.
Now, what will change in those fees are necessarily
once the bonds themselves get sold,
because some of those fees are at amount times the bonds that are there.
So they would only change by by that rate.
And the only other question I have is we had talked about
and they gave us a little explanation on the negotiated sale
versus
what was the other option.
I forgot
salt was essentially sole source or.
Yeah, right.
Because you had a transaction versus just going with with our ABC here
with what we have presented to us, why wouldn't we think about
looking around to see what what other
entities could provide to us and at what cost.
From my perspective, that the
the underwriter
essentially who would be shopping that around for is responsible?
No, we're responsible for paying the bonds,
but they're responsible for the compliance
of those bonds, for the life of those bonds.
So with the companies we're dealing with now,
we know we have a solid source that will stand by those.
And I know that because they actually have the IRS changed the regulations
about four years ago and we had to go through a process
where we had to report that our bonds were all in compliance.
We were able to do that strictly with RBC because they had the entire book
of business.
Other districts struggled with that because certain places that had done
the underwriting weren't necessarily the same businesses anymore
and weren't as as helpful as that.
In terms of the the underwriter provides
essentially the interest rate that they believe they can sell those bonds at.
And so
the negotiation would be
what at what level does somebody believe they can sell our bonds?
I believe a company
that's been doing that most of the time has the best information.
And working with PFM
to get us
the lowest rate possible, that that would be the reasons
that I would recommend staying with with RBC as the underwriter.
So there would be
reputable firms that do this work
that don't provide the level of service that
we would expect in that circumstance.
It sounds like that's what you're saying, that some people
went with vendors, I guess, that didn't
perform professionally
that it Yeah that that that's correct
And so there's no I guess what I'm noting, Terry, is there's no guarantee
if we go with somebody else, we could end up with a reputable firm.
We might not find out we need them.
Well, you
know, these bonds are a little shorter,
but, you know, might not find out.
We need that service until eight years from now or seven years from now.
And then when we go to get it, if it's not there,
that's when that's when we'd find the real issue.
So some of it is a lot of that speculation and just trying to make sure
that the deal is done in a way that we can be satisfied that it was done correctly.
I mean, what are you are you getting at
wanting to shop around for lesser fees?
Is that what you're.
Because it sounds like,
okay, I'm uncomfortable just using the same entity year after year
and and expecting that we're going to get the best price just based on what?
Because we think there good people.
I mean, I think the price of the the
the level of our bonds shows that as well.
The cost of those.
So I think there's real data to to show that they are they are saving us
could we dollars but would we get that then would that be possible to identify
two or three or other other firms that are considered professional?
They can't be the only ones that do this and perform professionally.
There must be a few others.
Would it be possible?
Have we been with PFM like 20 years?
We're not talking about PFM.
We're talking about RBC Capital Firm Lose With was just PFM before them, right?
No. PFM, PFM, We we
when I joined the district, we didn't have a financial manager.
We we went directly to RBC to provide all the bonds.
I felt more comfortable
having a financial advisor, and that's why we brought PFM on board
to do that.
Who are we getting our bonds from before RBC?
I believe it's always been RBC.
They're the underwriter.
At one point in his career, Lou worked for PFM.
So I don't I don't know if that's where maybe some of this there's a crossover.
He may have been working here
when he was with one company and then the transition to the other.
But as long as I've been in this business,
I've only known Lou to be working for RBC as the underwriter.
And I might not be an apples to apples thought process or comparison,
but with Terry bringing all of this up, it reminds me of
was it last year when we asked the accountant what his fees were
and it was the high number and just by asking, didn't we get like so.
Well, we went, we went through an RFP process to do that and we all agreed.
When we went through, we gathered data and said, Yeah,
we know what we agreed with, we're paying too much.
The data said that the market said that was out there.
So that's why we did those things, because we had good data to say
that we could get good prices
versus so that, you know,
they just want to make sure that that's the clarification with that issue.
Well, that I feel like, you know, we had a presentation in June
and we had a presentation in October, and now we're going down this path.
And tonight we were deciding whether to finance or not finance.
We weren't deciding on who was going to do the financing like.
So I I'm not I feel like we're
I'm not comfortable switching gears right now,
when we were going to our next board meeting to make a decision
whether to finance and then restructure bonds, we're not deciding on
going out to almost like an RFP to find new people.
Well, Mike asked if there's any additional information that we'd like.
So what I'm saying is if it's possible to find
comparable firms who are considered
to do their work professionally and to be reliable
and to give us a set of
give us their fee structure so we can compare.
So you were questioning that.
So I guess maybe the answer this,
if I may.
Well, I think what is interesting is
he would like to see an RFP that would require PFM doing that process.
We at the district don't have that ability
nor the expertise to necessarily shop those around
so that we would look to them to go through that process.
As Mr.
as Mr.
Remick described, that's something they do all the time,
depending on if that's where the school board would like to go.
But I think that should be a school board decision
because you're not going to be able to necessarily gather that information
and then make a decision the information or provide where where we're going to go.
The only way to get the information and
I'm telling you I think about is is to issue an RFP.
So you can't just call up and say, hey, what are your
what are your what's your fee structure for redoing bonds?
I can absolutely say that.
But there's so many details and nuances involved that
by bringing that to the table, I wouldn't be providing you the whole picture.
So, you know, anybody can give me a price, but it's all those other
things, the service, everything that goes along into it.
Which PFM will help us sort out to make sure
that we do deal with reputable companies.
But at the end of the day, they're also going to say, here is the lowest price
you get to make the decision whether or not you want to
use that or not.
Is there something in this conversation that can go back to the Finance Committee?
I mean, I wouldn't mind investigating this
at a different time, but this is a separate issue for me.
Like that is for the next time we refinance bonds.
There's not to me is this not for this Granada roof prop project?
He certainly is something the Finance Committee can investigate
and we can put that one where we just set our goals.
I mean, we have other things we're working on.
Perhaps we can do that at one point.
But to me were or were already moving forward,
I don't have the notes in front of me, but I know that we've discussed the fees
and the administrative fees that go along with bond issuance, especially
when we're refunding and refinancing some of this.
And I recall feeling satisfied about the response that we received that
some of the fees are fixed based on the amount
that is, you know, being done and what the market and that's like the
the for sale secondary market is supporting at that time.
And none of them seemed, you know, out of
out of alignment.
Is there a percentage that you typically
would expect with a municipal bond to be able
look at?
I don't I don't have that information, but
I can add that as well.
This is the mechanism for which the companies
Lou and Brad worked for get paid.
I talked to these gentlemen all the time,
used them quite a bit as necessary,
and we don't get charged for anything, any time for that.
And that's just part of the the way that it is laid out.
So I can bring back and look at what
those that a proper fee structure would be.
But given the amount of mail from overseas
standpoint, the amount of school districts that they underwrite for,
I'm comfortable in saying it's not out of whack how far that is.
I can definitely provide that information, but we are not getting gouged,
if you will, because their fees are standard
through their school district claims.
I think I think I saw from
Mike that it's good to know sort of your view on that.
And I and I do like how the suggestion that this is possibly an issue
for the finance Committee
because I do think I think the more I'd take a look at the answer like, well,
why why do we go back to these entities time and time again?
Well, let's take a look to see
if is a, you know, a reason to maybe as I reevaluate.
But for now, I think we're we got to keep moving down
this track under the timetable we set up for ourselves.
So by the same token,
I'm very sensitive to what how you feel, because I have no sense of
I see these fees and go, Wow, What standard?
No idea.
But maybe it's it's worth even going back to them
and letting them know the conversation we had and our concern that
fees are high and, you know, maybe they'll take that into account.
They want to keep us as client that they, I don't know,
could give us a discount or something, but I just want them to know that we're
we're not to say, yep, sure, go ahead, do it.
We're very aware that these fees are a lot.
And once again, this is not our money that we're spending.
So I want to make sure that we're getting that they're given us.
But I know I know they're well aware of that, as we've discussed those as well.
And fortunately for us,
both of those gentlemen are residents of our school district.
So they have the same way of making sure that those those funds reminder
no funds are spent, that we don't need to be good to us.
I think it's also important to, you know, to to look at the breakdown of the fees.
And one of the things we had talked about last time in asking them questions was
to have the ability of looking at just financing the money associated
directly with the construction project and keeping the fees separate.
So perhaps we would be able to cash pay the fee expense and not,
you know, amortize that out and have interest expense against it.
But some of the fees I think it's important for us to understand
are fixed into that and are things that are not going to fluctuate
no matter what you do because of the the way that the industry.
So I would hope that we wouldn't get too caught up on that
and would rely on the history that's there
and the
responsibility that we put on PFM
and RBC as underwriter to to put that forward.
So separate from that conversation
about fees, Mike, I would just ask that when we bring it forward
for the vote, when we look at that,
that we would
if we go down the route of financial refinancing
with borrowing the new money, that we can include the option for bank
loan considerations for the taxable portion of the money
and then also have
a breakdown of the being able to cash, pay
the actual administrative fees.
Okay.
So when we go to vote,
we're going to vote on two things
whether we're going to finance this or not
and whether we want to explore
in initiating some competition or not, because I, for one would like to see that.
I like to see every board member go on record
with their vote as to whether they think we should
complete this or just continue to go down the path that we've been on.
So I'm just wondering, when we do vote on this, are we just going to be voting?
Well, we're going to have to figure
that out tonight because the potential motions on the table
for the next meeting would be that we were authorizing
in the administration to work with PFM,
an RBC Capital Markets underwriter,
and our bond counsel, to prepare borrowing for this
district million dollar project for funding capital projects.
So we're we're going to move and then we're also going to move to
prepare for borrowing that will refinance,
finance and restructure all or a portion of the outstanding bonds for 2012.
So okay, so those are the two.
But if you want to go on record tonight, then I think you should
move to put it under new business to vote tonight.
Sounds like you're going to cover it with that first.
If we do an RFP for
the underwriter class AMI delaying
I mean that would be like a delay that'll still happen at the same because
well what I hear is you also want to have a bank loan.
You want them to go through that process
to see what the bank loan, that portion of the money. Correct.
So they can do essentially both at the same time.
One item, though, you know, as part of we've already included
RBC as part of the financing team that obviously wouldn't.
So that that agenda item would would not necessarily change.
Obviously, RBC is not going to be part of the financing team
if they don't know that they're going to be a part of the final deal.
Well, Terry can vote no to that.
He doesn't want RBC Capital.
And if you don't want to out to the market, you vote yes to it.
So it's baked into this motion.
You're correct. Think you know, a little confused.
I thought this was like two separate things.
I thought maybe at a future time we were going to look at doing some RFP
that is broken, but not is it still on the table, Ida,
that that is certainly on the table that the Finance Committee
can investigate things for the future.
Terry wanted us to go under the record for this particular project
or not a project. Okay.
I thought he meant for future.
I just confused which one you mean for this one for this?
Okay. Yeah. Okay.
So it sounds like
next the next board meeting, it'll be a motion to address it.
And this isn't for the grant to
as a whole. It's for the roof.
Roof and roof and exterior.
Yes. I'm not none of the interior, but B windows and doors
and some of the things that are part of this.
So we will plan on putting that on the agenda for the next meeting.
There will be two motions.
One is to allow the administration to work with our partners
to secure the borrowing, and then it's just a general borrowing.
So that means bond or bank.
I mean, that's yes, investigate all that's occurred.
And then the other one is whether we refinance, refinance and restructure.
And the one option maintains our monthly or year
annual payment, one and the other is a little higher.
So everyone understands those options, correct.
All right.
Do you is there any further discussion about this topic?
Okay,
consent, agenda items,
adoption of items of routine nature and those that are normally do not recall
but require public deliberations on part of the governing board,
a board member may pull items which will then be discussed and voted on separately.
May I have a motion to approve the agenda items listed so second.
Hey, Donna and Maria, is there any discussion?
Sure.
I'd like to pull the the minutes
for a potential amendment, please, to be voted on separately.
Okay.
And, Madam President, I'd like to pull the request
for use of school facilities with a waiver
for the girls.
For the girls?
I think there's just one on there.
Or two.
Maybe there's two and one is just one. Yeah, just for the one I'm sorry for.
Thank you, Lindsay. For Girl Scouts in the how to pay
for. Can they get that?
Okay.
So the motion on the table is to approve the consent agenda items,
but not the October 22nd summary board meeting minutes
and not the facility use with the waiver.
The Girl Scouts in the heart of pay
so moved Maria and Lindsey.
Is there any discussion?
It is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor say I always opposed.
Say no. Okay. The motion carries.
May I have a motion to approve the October 22nd, 2018 Summary Board of Directors
meeting minutes, so I moved the second Donna and Maria.
If I can amend, I wanted to suggest that the minutes reflect those board members
that were term by phone, which would have them myself the last time
so we could just say John Abel And I'm bracket by phone, closed bracket.
So I have a record of that going forward.
Okay. Purpose of our policy.
Okay, that's it.
Anybody second so that amendment. Thank you.
Okay.
Is there any discussion about the amended motion
that we add Johnny Boy attended by phone
made them
John made the motion and Lindsey
second kept seconded.
Okay.
Is there any?
No, this is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor say I was opposed.
Say now clear.
The motion carries
requests for the use of school facilities with the waiver.
Mr. McFarland,
do you want to read that?
Sure.
The administration recommends the board approve the request for use of school
facilities for the Girl Scouts in the heart of pay with the waiver as listed.
How may I have a motion to approve this use of school facilities?
Girl Scouts in the heart of pay with a waiver so moved second.
All right, Maria and Donna, is there any discussion? Yes.
I just wanted to be consistent
with what we decided with the policy that's going to initiate in January.
This request is for December three, 2018,
through May 20th of 2019.
And at the previous meeting we had said
we were just going to approve things through the end of this calendar year
to wait for the new policy for the January to take effect
and then approve everything for 2019 come January.
That makes sense.
So I wanted to amend it just to approve for the December 3rd,
2018 meeting.
When will we be when would we be re approving that?
Because it's for the first and third Monday of every month.
And I believe that that would mean they would meet before we do
so. We would be excluding this
their first Monday in January.
Yes, because we don't meet till the 14th.
We couldn't move the third. But. Right.
And it is also for
would based on the new policy, as I'm thinking through it, last time
it was because we were talking about the men's basketball.
This time they're a nonprofit organization so they would automatically like
they will not have fees in question.
Correct?
They are still subject to fees,
but they have to ask for a waiver.
But we're not incurring any fees because it's during the week.
Right.
I already have a custodian there.
It's not like it's a weekend.
So would we need to just
include it through?
I think if we're going to address it, the first meeting in January,
would we just amend to include that Monday?
Then it would be through January 14th because the meeting,
our first meeting in the new year is the 14th.
Right?
And that would be a night that they would meet in person.
No, they would meet me first and third, the seventh and the 20.
So I'm saying they'd also oh oh first
refers to January 7th meeting.
So if we included the approval through the January 7th meeting,
that way we aren't excluding
anything but still complying with rain approving
per the new policy.
Okay, So do you want to amend the motion
to approve it through January 7th, 2019?
Sure.
And then so what we're asking is that these people resubmit.
I just want to keep it consistent with what we started at the last meeting.
And I, I can't remember all the details, but I know we had said we were just
going to do it through the end of or extend it to January 7th.
I don't want to interrupt their meetings,
but I don't want to be unfair to the ones that we said
we were making way either.
But when they released basketball, we didn't approve any of those for 20
we were we that got into the whole thing, that
that thing got out of hand, the whole conversation.
And then
and then we were talking about whether they're for profit or not for profit.
I think that's a little more clear with the Girl Scouts.
But the boys basketball, I think they're a nonprofit too.
And we didn't approve.
We approved the boys basketball for the whole.
And also it was just
it's just the
men's, just the senior manager and then the senior men's.
And that was because the discussion around whether the boys got non
for non-for-profit. Right.
This they're Girl scouts are clearly I'm fine with that
I could not remember and when they reapply nothing's going change their name
so you know their fees will still be waived under the current policy.
Okay I can't remember for sure
what we did with the boys basketball and I just on emotions.
We did approve the boys basketball final because they're a nonprofit.
Okay.
So, yeah, I think that we're starting to confuse ourselves,
which is why we created an ad hoc committee to deal with this issue,
because it's quite overwhelming
with the facility requests that we get and waivers that waiving constantly.
One of the other reasons I respect the other point,
that if you remember the men's
basketball, also their approval was through October of next year.
And so that the other thing of when do we
what's the cutoff and we said at the end of the school year
but then we at the meeting then I think we did approve in August so yeah
that's why
there's an ad hoc committee just to confirm any of the ones
that would be subject to the policy
change will be represented at the January 14th meeting.
It's a good way to put it for new approval
from that day forward,
even ones that had been previously approved.
If they're previously approved, they're approved.
I thought that was going forward. Right.
But so like the men's basketball or any of that one was going to come back
on, that was going to have to. Yeah.
Yeah.
Because what we revised it and approved it last time
when we saw it on New Day leave anybody behind.
I think that's the only it was the only one so far
was the men's basketball senior men's basketball.
So that one they're going to have to come back before December 31st.
So if they want to.
Yeah No I don't play and we've communicated
the change was communicated to them. Yes.
All right. I'm sorry.
So the motion stands that we will approve it through
May 20th.
But this is always a good conversation to go back
around to figure out what we're doing here.
So this is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor say I, I, I'll say no.
Okay. The motion carries.
Okay, We're on to new business approval of Eckhart Simmons engagement letter.
Mr. McFarland. Thank.
The administration recommends the board approve the engagement letter with Eckert.
Simmons may have a motion to approve Eckhart Simmons engagement letter.
So move.
Second, Lindsay and Maria's or any discussion.
This is standard voice vote.
All those in favor say I, I and all those opposed say no.
The motion carries.
May I have a motion to approve that listed resignation is so moved.
Second, Maria and Donna, is there any discussion
at the standard voice vote?
All those in favor say I and all those opposed say no.
Okay.
The motion carries personnel.
General. Mr. McFarland.
Thank you.
The administration recommends the approval of listed appointments.
May I have a motion to approve personnel, General?
So move second.
And Lindsay and Tricia, is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor say I and all those opposed say no and in a motion carries.
Madam President, the Board.
I would like to introduce Mrs. Gillespie.
She's our.
Some of you may not know who she is.
Welcome her to the team.
She's been our family consumer science teacher for how many years?
Four years? 44 years.
So you are now the new middle school assistant principal.
Congratulations.
Thank you for sitting through the meeting.
Get to sit an hour and a half to wait till that motion.
So delegate reports.
Mrs. Steiner, do you have a Dauphin County Technical School report?
No, I don't. But Judy and Mrs.
Harris took my.
Yes, I do. Okay.
Sorry.
I'm just reading what's on the page.
Mrs. Hover Stick, Do you have the Dauphin County Technical School report?
Yes, you did.
Just to clarify on the attachment, here is just the Dauphin County blast.
But in your email that was sent out with all the board briefs were the minutes
from the to on the joint in the work session that we had.
The reason they're not on the public is just because they haven't
been officially voted on and they will be voted on on Wednesday.
But you do have those to review in your email documents.
Just to highlight just a couple of things.
At the meeting, we did approve a collaborative agreement with HVAC
for a welding program that's going to be starting in August of 2019.
It'll be for the ninth through 12th graders,
and they have decided that there is a big need for welding.
They did have a program years ago and that was taken away
just funding reasons and space reasons.
So they're bringing that back with a collaborative effort with Hacc.
But it will be a Dauphin County Technical School instructor
that will go with them each day down to that facility in Midtown.
Their culinary arts program was awarded
the Exemplary Status by the American Culinary
Federation, and this is just
one of two schools that received this whole honor in Pennsylvania.
So it's a pretty big honor for them to receive.
And they had a middle school expo,
which thank you for advertising on our website
on the seventh, and they had 1500 kids attend.
So it was a really good
show of response, their expo.
And lastly, they have a fall play this weekend, November 16th through the 18th.
It's a comedy called Murder by Ten.
And on their site, the Times are listed there
if anyone's interested in going to see it.
Okay, great.
Thank you. Mr..
Yeah.
I just wanted to add one thing, Mike.
You probably this, but I think
when they
complete their audit there, I guess their unaudited financials indicate
they might have 1.3 million of unexpended that will be returned
pro-rata I guess based on our level of of contribution.
Okay. Thank you.
Mrs. Mimi, do you have a CAIR delegate report?
Nothing more than what's attached.
Okay. Thank you.
Mrs. Mimi and Mrs. Steiner.
Do you have Derry Township Tax Association report?
Oh, yes, it is attached, and I don't believe it's
for public viewing because the minutes haven't been approved yet.
But there was a much to the minutes.
It wasn't anything very exciting.
But we will meet again. That meeting.
Yes. Yes.
Okay.
Thank you, Miss Drew.
Do you have a Trojan Foundation report? I do.
Thank you. It was just uploaded today.
My apologies for the delay in getting that submitted.
So if you have not had the chance,
the there was an election of officers at the October 31st
meeting of the Children Foundation.
Patrick Lewis was elected the new president.
And Stacey Peters, secretary Lew Delly is continuing on in his role as treasurer.
The Church and Foundation is hosting an all class reunion the Friday
after Thanksgiving, which is November 23rd at the mill in Hershey.
It's an event for all alumni of Hershey High School, regardless of the year
that you graduated.
And there is no cost to attend with a cash bar that would be there
and is to promote awareness of the church and foundation.
The taste of Hershey is tentatively planned for March 10th, 2019.
A planning committee is meeting to begin that
starting this week, and more information to come on that
the board also reviewed five grant requests
that were submitted by teachers throughout the district
and one two were approved as presented
for the second grade as well as the
middle school, both related to STEAM initiatives and the other three
were on the forward to additional rounds for a more detailed proposal.
But everyone is really excited
to see that level of engagement and not number of applications.
And I really enjoyed reading a lot of them.
I've had the grant requests are attached for board member review in the agenda
if you want to take a look
because there's just some really cool projects going on and to see our teachers,
you know, taking that effort,
an initiative and kind of seeking out that next level of innovation
to bring things to our students is really, really exciting.
They're also ramping up
communication efforts from the church and foundation and as well as encouraging
other fundraisers such as Amazon Smile and using those.
And the next meeting will be at the end of this month.
And Ms..
Drew, since the meeting I can update,
we have confirmed that March 10th will be based in Hershey.
So save the date.
Everything okay? Great.
Are there any other board members who would like to give her
a board member reports?
Are there any board members who would like to give a report?
I just want to say I went to the the Hershey Middle School Steam
Night Challenge, which was the second annual events that they had.
And I just want to thank Mrs.
Hammer for organizing this.
It was so and other teachers, there are other teachers there.
She had a whole team of teachers that were helping her and that was there
interacting with the kids and was so much fun.
I had no idea what to expect.
And I went with my sixth grader and we had the best time.
It was like a little bit like a cooking show where you had a time limit. But
Maria Mimi was there too, with her daughter,
and I think you were a little stressed, but I was like, Yeah, let's do that.
So I had a great time.
So I thank Mr.
Valentin for allowing that to happen too.
And I can't wait for the one next year.
I'm really glad that we went.
And what were you making this year?
It was
if you go to the to the winter
band and chorus concert, you'll see
that Mrs.
Hammer, she outlined like a train track that's just going to have
like a little train.
And then this train track on cardboard was cut into different pieces.
So you took a piece to decorate around the train track,
and there were boxes of cardboard and construction paper and fell
toilet paper tubes and fishnet, I mean, just all kinds of stuff.
So it was like a scavenger hunt to try to find the good stuff.
And it was people were so creative and it was really fun
to Grinches mountain cats, like 2 hours, the whole big mountain.
They built a sled.
They made a Grinch like all from just
basically recyclable supplies
that people would have otherwise thrown away, like it was out of control.
And that so that they called it a diorama
with this winter and small town America theme.
But that is what they're
one of the grants that was approved for the Children Foundation, paid for.
Oh, well, thank you, Treasure Foundation.
So I just like to
say on the coattails of what Trisha saying.
And since you're here, Mr.
Valentin, I it being at the board, like, I feel sometimes like we're just, like,
so far removed from everything, and then we go to an event like that.
And was that a Friday night?
Like the amount of teachers that are there on their Friday night?
Just that in of itself was impressive.
The amount of work like they wouldn't let us help clean up like it was trashed
like just
so getting to see those things firsthand.
It was such an amazing event and it just
it blows my the amount of time
that our teachers give back that
we just don't really get an opportunity to recognize at board level.
So Mr.
Blaze was there, too, from the elementary school,
checking it out to see if he could do something like that
for the lower grades too.
So that was an awesome event.
It was great. That sounds fun.
We will make sure that Mrs.
Hammer and the teachers know of your appreciation.
Yes, please.
This second, I just wanted to give a quick report as well.
Yeah, just a heads up.
All board members.
Probably by midweek
will receive
after the Finance
Committee authorizes me to to send it out
the minutes from the September and October
Finance Committee meetings.
The most recent five year capital plan.
Also, we have the unaudited financials.
You've already seen them from 1718.
I'll just pull them all in the same place so you have them.
And Mike, I think you said by prior to the November
26 meeting we might have the first 1920 financial projections
with the model to look at.
Yeah,
we shared the model with you, so there'll be the same information.
Oh, I thought they might be updated.
No, I'm going to be the same. Okay.
Anyway, we'll be pulling together that and getting it to all board members
so that by the November 26th meeting,
it's it still stands, Mike, that we need to make a final decision on the 2.3%
whether we're going to live within that or not on November 26.
And also hopefully it'll provide you the information you need
to be thinking about any board priorities
that you may have and want to bring forward.
So just look for that probably by the middle of next week.
Thank you.
Are there any other board member reports?
Okay, great. Mr.
McFarland, do you have a superintendent's report?
I do.
First, I want to acknowledge and thank our Derry Township bus safety team and Koko.
As you can them there.
They're just great examples.
They present to our kids, our elementary kids on bus safety, on a regular
every year.
But they're also being great community partners here
representing our cocoa principles as they recently have been going out
to local daycares and providing safety presentations to our future bus riders.
And they do that.
They've sort of created the whole program on their own.
And it's just it's neat to see that how much they care for our kids.
And secondly,
I just want to let everyone know a press release was issued from the Department
of Environmental Protection on Friday the ninth regarding the awarding of grants
to support clean energy vehicles and improving air quality.
I'm pleased to announce that through the hard work of Mr.
Bell, our transportation director, we will be awarded $68,000
to aid in the purchase of our propane busses.
Mr. Bell did note that we may not see the actual funds
until the summer of 2019 or later
because there's a great deal of paperwork to complete.
But we are appreciative and it's been publicly noted that we
are getting these funds, so we're excited and very happy about that.
And it's my report. All right.
Thank you very much. And board president's report.
I'm looking forward to the board retreat tomorrow night.
There's a blue folder there, if you would please put before
you leave tonight, put in your anonymous board self assessment.
It's just a quick mini quiz.
20 questions.
We'll go over that tomorrow night.
Yep. It is so nice.
The one with red squiggles at the top.
This is all good. You can put your name on it.
Like I said, you
didn't have to put your name on it, but
recognition of assistance.
And are there any residents
and taxpayers who would like to address the board tonight?
Okay, see, none.
The next public Board of Directors meeting will be held November 26th,
2018, starting at 7:00 in the District Office Board of Directors.
Name room.
May I have a motion to adjourn this meeting.
So move seconds Maria and Lindsay and then
all in favor say I II all those opposed
say no in the meeting is adjourned at 845.