If I and I'm afraid you're existing guys. K is an organization that works to provide clean water for all.
I also heard chairs invest and we can tell sentimental, it was a. I've, I've, and, and, and, and, so, so, at, at school, at, at, My friends you kind of see was going to be using her chippings and I was chosen as on the best 11 this summer I They're just sitting in these for us, the. The Tommy
Minks goes at your end of the road. I'll ask you sir. For the season blockchain to have younger soccer place because I'm here at city.
And what's going to happen is that the change is. And I'll get through this.
I'll take your We're, Okay. Thank you.
Let's talk.
Our second student is Jason Jang who is also in the National Honor Society and has made distinguished honor roll.
As you'll hear in this video, Jason is very proud of his work. With the Hershey Fire Department and I'm proud to say that we're going to send spend send one of our best and brightest to Penn State so his plans in the future include our own school.
So Let's hear from Jason.
It's Jason. Let's start out by thanking the University High School staff. All of my good teachers for now.
Okay. So I also like to thank my parents for that to all. There's Hello last several years, I'm heavily involved with volunteer fire service through your fire company.
I started out as a young 14 year old kid. It's getting a fuel activity. All your experience.
Picked up in spirit and hardware. Service, and see work there. Very.
3 years on the crew, became the junior cap. Yeah, firefighters just like myself. I've got a virus.
Just recently spearheading the. Okay, progression. Okay. Also at the beginning of the S.
Summer, I received a K. Young's member, a Christian volunteer of our company history. Certified as firefighter.
National classrooms, thereditation, or the. Okay. Over the past several years, Okay. We do service.
I'm sorry to continue. Okay. Forward towards the next. Yeah.
Nearby fire service career. Volunteer. Close again by saying thank you. Thank you.
Thank you to the Rotary Club for acknowledging our students. We're very proud of them and all of our students and thank you for acknowledging them.
Thank you, Ms. Wade, and thanks for sharing the information that you were able to collect through the hallways there.
Nice to hear that and congratulations to Jason and Catherine. Moving on to agenda item 2 E standing committee meeting reports.
The general services and finance standing committees. Both met today. Mr. Rizzo chaired both meetings so he has both reports.
Mike, you have a general services report first? I do. Thank you, Mr. Singer.
So today we started out with the general services committee. Introducing the new, and actually for both committees introducing the new citizen advisor.
So we welcome them in and thank them for. Their commitment in their service and also to those that have signed up a second time to be citizen advisor so we appreciate that that support.
So the first the first agenda item that we had was a discussion or a presentation from Crab Tree in Anthony Roarbach was in to provide us some information on where they stand with the I get that right.
I thought, yeah, cold-stuck. So that seems cool. I apologize. Mr. Had said something different earlier in the meeting, so I apologize.
I was trying to be correct. Anyhow, The discussion. You know, that revolved around the general services in the general services committee with the community.
Meeting that is set up currently for Thursday October 20 sixth. And this this meeting is being set up to provide.
Community members which I believe we have currently about 55 community members already enrolled in this session to go through the elementary school and this is the primary elementary and this will not be the ECC and we'll be focusing on essentially What is it going to take if we look at either a renovation or rebuild of that school building.
So we look at some of the understandings that we were trying to get out of this and what you know Anthony had discussed.
Really a couple of key points that he was he's pulling out was travel time students in the class in some scenarios we have students traveling over 500 feet almost 600 feet to get to another class while it sounds like it's only 500 feet when you're trying to do it in a timely manner.
The children, I should say, trying to get them all moving in the right direction. What it does do is it cuts into class time for the teachers.
So, by allowing to focus and bring the classroom in the teaching areas into a more central location.
Cuts down on that travel time. Would be also looking at the improvements for the special ed facilities.
Again, there, are rooms that are available for special education in the current, primary elementary.
However, I don't believe that they're, they're up to code right now. I mean, within the legal requirements, yes, but as far as the building, you know, doorways, ramps, things of that nature that could be improved.
Is one of the things that will be explained through this presentation. Also looking at separation of public and educational spaces and really this is to bring some of the the gymnasium.
The cafeteria and really what we consider public spaces and separate those from the educational spaces primarily for you know safety and security under their current environment so it's a new way of looking at the the, way of building a new, school.
So as we look at this, you know, when you talk about renovations, you also got to think of it if we put the time and the money into renovations we still have the think of it if we put the time and the money into renovations we still have the same footprint for the educational spaces with the long hallways, you know, the areas that that aren't upgraded for special
ed. So it could be. Challenging and that's what this meeting is all about is to let the community come in, see what's in the current state of the.
The elementary school and and understand where we. When we were committed from. From a school board to make sure that we provide.
The administration and district and the students in that district with the best possible learning environment. The second topic that we talked about was the AIA agreement and this was really coming back around and finalizing the overall draft in final form for the basically for crowd train warball as architect of record.
While they're managing through this project. So this first meeting in November will actually be the final vote.
We had voted. Back I believe September. Okay, for the back. Sorry, I've read to write that down.
In Maine where we, gave it the approval to move forward with that contract draft and thanks to our legal team and also to the architect for having good conversation and working well together to draft that document.
Concession stand was up next. So really, with concession stand that work has begun.
They have moved the current concession stand working with the booster club and the athletic department to make sure things were organized smoothly.
As smooth as could be. We do have roof removal, is currently underway. However, the, the, the demolition of the building itself will, will be poked not postponed but we'll wait till after the the playoff season will will be po not postponed but will wait till after the the playoff season not to interfere with any safety or security of the the individuals that are
playing. On the field there at the high school. And in the last item that we talked about was the parking lot improvement.
With at Memorial Fields. So Dr. Winslow and Miss Purcell had a, had a conversation with Dolphin County conservation.
Organization. And what they determine is that the work that needs to be done because of the size will have to be done under 2 individual permits versus.
Just one permit. So it will slow the process down a little bit in those discussions it was also discovered that we have some outstanding permits from past projects, which we're supposed to have been closed out through the engineering departments, or groups that, did that work.
Now, we're not saying that that permit was not fully vetted and completed. It's just maybe a communication issue between the engineering firms and the Dolphin County conservation group.
So we will have to be working over the next 4 to 6 weeks. Gathering the information and making sure all of those permits are closed out.
So that we don't have any outstanding. Permits now as far as what they gathered that these permits are pretty common across a lot of school districts.
For the type of work that's being done. So this isn't something that was news may just be something that was finally realized and they're starting to close the loop.
So that may create a little bit of a delay. Going forward or not necessarily delay, but it may it may adjust priorities depending on what other things that are needed.
And one of the thing, one of the projects is Dr. Had discussed was the need for the basin work and that may by the time we get to the point of getting the permits that may be a project that needs to be moved up.
In lieu of the memorial field. Parking lots. So that's all I have for general services.
Anybody have any questions?
If there are no questions, Mr. Rizzo, do you have it? Excellent. Finance report.
Hopefully I won't get any names wrong in this one. So, we did have the finance committee.
And we had the Milton Hershey Trust with full financial come in and talk about the the quarterly review on that trust fund.
Currently it's it's good news. We're at about 6 and 9 6.9%.
Growth year to date on the fund with a market value about $46,550,454 so right now things are looking well with an anticipated outlook that wasn't quite as.
Robust is what they're seeing right now. So that's very good when the total fund they are experienced they do feel that there will be some growth slowing in Q 4 but we still they still feel that we're going to be in a good position by the end of the year so growth is good.
And we continue to move that fund forward. Our expectation at this point is to remain at the 4 point.
Sorry, yeah, the 4% draw. As we had discussed earlier this year, but, Miss Purcell will continue to vet out that information and just make sure that there's there's nothing that we need to pull forward from from that.
Bond position but the overall Thought is not to go over 4% to allow that fund and that trust bond to continue to grow Next item we talked about was the 2024 or 2025 budget timeline.
So active one index did come in in September and again that one index is that set at 5.3%.
Right now the business office is in is is completing the evaluation of what our needs are for 2024, 2,025 and then we will have a an opt out resolution.
Vote that will need to occur by December eleventh to meet the January ninth deadline for submittal.
So this really opt out would be to approve a act one index no higher than 5.3% is the expectation at this point in time.
So and then further budget review will occur as we go beyond that point, but we have to get that in by January ninth.
And then the. The next discussion we had was bond financing update. So, Miss Purcell, along with, Oh, I, I just went blank.
Mr. Verdelli, excuse me, went through the present presentation with S and P on the bond finance discussion.
And it was discussed with M at the time that that the SNP was providing us with a triple A rating with a negative outlook.
This was a little bit of a surprise to the team because in past with a with a different company evaluating those scenarios when you were actively working through the financing scenario.
That you were rewarded not necessarily. Provided any negative. Comments or impact. It was it was discussed that through that that bond financing discussion that we're not losing the triple A rating it's just putting it at a negative outlook because of the formulation that's that they use to to look at the the information that we're we're asking for for the bond.
So at this point in time, Ms. Purcell continues to work through that with, Mr. Verdelli.
Again, it's not something that is a negative overall for the school district as far as total rating.
And we'll just continue to actively, manage that situation. Food service currently projecting around a $244,000 positive to budget scenario.
So very good work on the team to be able to, manage and balance that budget. And also, the Ms. Purcell, discuss the one time transfer from general fund.
To pay for the food service director that was discussed. Earlier in the year we talked about moving the that position out of general fund into the fund or into the line item that was truly for food service And that's just an accounting role that should have been there, prior to this year, but we made that correction and it will make that correction out of the general fund.
And then the last discussion we had was excuse me the cyber school enrollment. So currently we're budgeted at 1.5 million for the line item and we're experiencing 1.7% expected payment for the end of the year.
You know, what's really surprising is that, you know, when you look at the numbers, we're actually 24 less students than we were last year.
Essentially the same amount of money. For those students and again there's a there's a formulation in the calculation that with the cyber.
Cyber charter schools that they're allowed to, you know, when you look at what you're paying per student, it's about 16,000 for a regular student about $34,000 for a special education student so they're without having any bricks and mortar or any type of utilities, they're they're getting a lot of money for this situation.
So it's something that we cannot control at this point in time. And again, you know, when you hear about what's in legislation for the cyber charter schools, it's it's always important for me.
Public education that people come out and voice their opinions. Anything that I miss. Oh. Okay.
Just wanted to back up to not 1.7%. And we had 1.5 million budgeted.
The final total, cyber. Cost to the district for 2223 is 1.7 million.
But did I say 1.7%? Yeah, I apologize. 1.7. And oh, the overall budget, we did talk about the overall budget. I forgot. I missed that line item there.
Right now we're showing about a 4 and $25,000 negative for the year however that we believe or Miss Purcell believes it will be positive coming out of the year because we still haven't had the $460,000 hit from the state.
Budgeting in appropriations. And that's all I have. Thank you, Mike. Anybody have any questions for Mike?
5.
Any minor small mistakes you might you might make. Forgiving because You've done so much work tonight.
You, with your, whatever you was sharing both committees reporting on both committees, but thank you very much.
Mike, appreciate it.
Okay, we'll move on to item agenda item 2 F, student representatives report. Representative Sod.
Colerasi and Barto, do you have a report for us? Yes, we do.
This is Natalie Colorado and I'll be speaking about the high school. Hershey High School students decorated their home room classroom doors in accordance with the Atlantic City boardwalk theme and celebration of homecoming week.
Our homecoming queen, Priyanka Nambiar, was announced at the football game against Lower Dolphin and our homecoming king Aim and Callahan was announced the following evening at the dance.
On October eleventh high school band students had the opportunity to meet and learn from 4 members of the mean girls the musical tour.
3 talented pit band members and one stellar cast member. A huge shout out to Thomas, Andrew, Justin, and Ryan for sharing their audition experiences, musical journey, and invaluable advice.
Heartful thanks to the Hershey Music booster for making this experience possible for us students.
On October thirteenth, AP psychology students had the opportunity to see a presentation by Dr. Mark Diaz, a neurosurgeon at the Hershey Med Center.
Students were given a presentation about the science of the brain, shown recordings of various types of brain surgeries, and finished with an up close human brain dissection.
Students were also given the opportunity to ask the doctor any questions about his experiences and his career.
I'm gonna be speaking more about high school. Okay. Congrats to both the Hershey boys and girls cross country teams for their performances on October fourteenth at the midpen conference meet in less than ideal conditions.
The boys play second and were led by overall winner, Venezuelan. Is the first time a Hershey male runner has taken the midpand individual title since 1,994.
The girls placed fourth, led by Sophia Kim's fifth place overall finish. Both teams qualify for the P.
I. District 3 meet on Saturday, October 20 eighth at Big Spring. The boys and girls soccer teams are currently playing in their first round of districts.
Good luck to both teams. And HHS Mini-thon hosts a successful fall fest on Friday that thirteenth raising over a thousand dollars.
And at our middle school, Spanish students have brought culture, color, and inspiration to our hallways.
A stunning wind mural feat featuring feathers designed with flags from around the world has been placed in an HMS hallway.
This beautiful piece serves as a testament to unity and the rich diversity we celebrate in our community.
Good evening. I'm Lucy. I'll be touching on the elementary school. On October, the tenth, the elementary school hosted their terrific Trojan assemblies, which is one of the positive rewards that they were speaking about earlier.
Local author, creative director, and parent of 2 elementary students, Lisa Pietropola shared her captivating bilingual children's books and emphasized about the values of the church in way.
I would just say as an intern last year in a first-grade classroom, I was able to attend one of the terrific Trojan meetings.
And they do a little slideshow of any pictures that have been sent in by the teachers and they play it with music in the background and tell the kids that they can clap and cheer if they see someone on the screen that they know and that was so it was so cute to be a part of and see all of them get so excited about seeing their classmates on the screen.
The Hershey marketing band met with fifth grade, the sixth grade band on October thirteenth and they collaborated on a song together.
They get to spend time getting together musical counterpart and they ended with a performance next to elementary school. Last week the elementary students enjoyed the PTO sponsored book fair that allowed them to shop for some new books to read.
First grade classes recently took a trip to Stripes Orchard and the second class is secondary classes will be taking a field trip to the Hershey fire station in the upcoming weeks.
In celebration of fall, elementary students sampled all different kinds of apples in the cafeteria for Apple Crunch Day.
And then something that comes from the district is DTSD celebrated their bus safety week from the sixteenth through the twentieth of October throughout the week helpful bus riding tips were shared on social media that promoted bus safety to keep young riders see.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you very much. We appreciate your time and your Reports.
Moving on to agenda item 2 G. Recognition of new extracurricular activity or school clubs, Dr.
Winslow.
In compliance with policy 122 extracurricular activities the listed editions of the high school student clubs are recognized.
Hershey High School, Young Life. There's no vote required on this just sharing the information.
Moving on to agenda item 2 H. Anticipated agenda items for the next board of directors meeting.
Appear on the screen.
Or will appear on the screen? There we go. Thank you.
Brings us to agenda item 3 unfinished business. Elementary facility Dr. Winslow.
Thank you. We continue to work with Crabtree Warball on our educational programming specifications. This is a pretty lengthy process as we look at not only what do we have that we want to continue but what do we want to be able to do in the future.
We were able to tour the new elementary school in northern Lebanon on Friday. This is a great experience.
It's of the. Many schools that we have toured since beginning this process. It's definitely the first one that I could.
Picture working. For us to some degree. There's still like changes things that are different that we would need.
But it was great and it's a brand new school. They just opened in September. They consolidated 4 of their neighborhood elementary schools into one K through 6 building.
So it's very similar and structure to what we have is so now they are all on one campus.
So it was, I. It was very, that we got to see that. There were a lot of good things to walk away from.
With. Oh, the layout of the specials classrooms that they related arts classrooms as well as the community spaces and grade level organization.
We're all very similar to what we would be looking for. Great design, great. Shared spaces between the rooms really good visual sight lines in and out of the building and very clear community public spaces and academics spaces that can be locked down.
In the evening so that you can have be using those community spaces on the regular basis but you know keep those academic wings safe.
So really loved the way they did that. Also a lot of really great flexible learning spaces that were just We love them.
This is what we're looking for. We could combine 2, 3 classrooms at a time, maybe do science labs, maybe have.
Assemblies for small groups. Of classrooms, not necessarily a whole grade level, but pulling different classrooms together to do work, flexible furnishings.
And they were already reporting that they're very heavily used. So that was that was exciting to see because sometimes we've been into buildings And there are some really Pretty spaces?
But they're when you ask, like, well, how do you use this space? They're like we haven't figured that out yet.
And they're often but in the building 2 3 years. And that doesn't seem like a great answer for.
You know, some kind some larger spaces that maybe could be used differently. So we were pretty excited.
About that building. We are looking very forward to our community night event on Thursday evening. That is at 6 o'clock.
We are asking people to register. Just so we can plan appropriately. For tours and also because we have some refreshments.
So it's helpful to know how much to play in for. Carb Street Warball will do a presentation highlighting our needs in the elementary building as well as the deficiencies of our current building facility.
After the presentation, there'll be time for a question and answer that will then be followed by tours of the building for community members.
Their end desserts are fall themed. So highly recommend coming out for a snack.
So we are hoping that lots of people come out for that. Looking forward to sharing. Why we were at this space how we've gotten to the space of looking at a facility and what some of the deficiencies are so that people can have a really firm understanding of.
Of what we're trying to achieve and and what kind of gets in the way of what we're trying to achieve at this point.
So looking, looking forward to that evening. Finalizes that. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Winslow.
Any questions for Dr. Winslow?
Okay, thank you very much.
Moving on to agenda item 4. Ex consent agenda contains routinely adopted items and items that normally do not require public deliberations on the part of the board.
Board member may pull items which will then be discussed and voted on separately. I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as listed.
So move, Lindsey, Drew. Second, Donna Cronin. Is there any discussion?
Mr. Singer, this is Lindsey Drew. I just wanted to note something. On items inside the consent agenda.
I was at the football game on Friday night and was sitting there in the rain and there was a family next to me.
And when you're like helping to deflect rain. Helped create conversation and they had just moved into the district and one of the things they were talking about was one of the reasons Derry Township was chosen to move to was because of our arts and music program.
And as I was sitting there. Where I was sitting because I was watching my own child play with the band, the marching band and watching all of the kids who despite being in the rain were having just a really great time.
And we're so passionate about what they were doing. And as I was revealing the agenda over the weekend, I couldn't help but think how much of that.
Is attributed to the adult leaders that that make that experience possible for them. And on our agenda tonight, there is a host of overnight trips and those overnight trips come to the board.
Or any time a field trip or an excursion comes to the board because it's an overnight trip.
That's why it's on our agenda. And as I started adding it up, there are 7 different events over 16 nights throughout the school year that will impact more than 170 students that Brandon and Brian Budaba will be part of.
And When you hear people talking about why Derry Township is a place they sought out because of the program.
You can't not attribute that to people like the Buderbas and what an incredible opportunity they provide.
You know, more than half of those nights are weekend night. And if that doesn't show true dedication and passion for what they do and the experience that that directly provides to the students that are impacted.
It and the opportunities that they have to learn and make music and and have cultural experience. I don't really know, you know, what else.
Can describe that. And also just to see that we have such a robust booster program that helps provide the financial opportunities so that all these kids can go.
So I just wanted to highlight that. Because it's in the consent agenda and it's something that can be very easily overlooked but when you really look at the numbers and add it up and realize just the dedication of some of our All of our staff, but especially in these situations, I wanted to say thank you to them.
Thank you for pointing that out, Mr. Any other discussion?
Okay, this is a standard voice vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Any opposed?
No. Okay, the motion passes. Thank you. Moving on to agenda item 5.
New business. Hi, A, the board recommends approving the citizen advisors as listed. To serve through 6 30.
26. I have a motion to approve the listed citizen advisors. So move, Lindsey Drew.
I'm sorry. So through 6. 35. That's 25.
I think 6 30, 2525. Okay. 2 years.
2 years. I don't know. It says they expire 6 30 25. Okay.
Cause it's 23. All right, let me read that again. The board recommends approving the citizen advisors as listed.
To serve through 6 30, 25. So move, Lindsey, true. Second, Lindsey Cook.
Is there any discussion?
I just want to thank everyone who expressed interest for applying. And for those who were selected, thank them for the commitment.
And we look forward to them joining and contributing over the next couple of years. So this is a standard voice vote.
All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No.
And the citizen badgers are approved.
Moving on to agenda item 5 B. Racing addendum to extension agreement with ESS Northeast, Dr.
Winslow. The administration recommends the board approve the pricing addendum to the extension agreement with ESS Northeast LLC, July first, 2021 through June thirtieth, 2,025.
We have a motion to approve the pricing addendum to extension agreement with ESS Northeast. So move, Lindsey, driven.
Second, Lindsey Cook. Here's the discussion. This is the standard voice vote. All those in favor, please say aye.
Aye. Any opposed? No. Thank you.
That motion passes. Agenda item 5 C inter fund transfer Dr. Winslow the administration recommends the approval of the following inter-fund transfer.
Transfer from the general fund to capital reserve fund and the amount of $25,818 and 40 cents.
For reimbursement from Dauphin County as part of the unrestricted Gaming Grant Award.
Have a motion to approve the inner fund transfer. So moved, Eric Schmidt. Second, Donna Cronin.
Is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Hey, motion passes.
Agenda item 5 D settlement agreement and release Dr. Winslow the administration recommends the district accept and execute an agreement amicably resolve a special education matter in accordance with a confidential agreement between the district and the child and parents.
I have a motion to approve the settlement agreement and release.
So moved, Eric Schmidt. Second, This is a standard voice vote. All those in favor, please say aye.
Motion passes. Thank you. Agenda item 5, E, mental health screening, Dr.
Winslow. The administration recommends the board approve the implementation of a voluntary mental health screening for tenth grade students as presented at the September eleventh, 2 23 board of directors meeting.
I have a motion to approve the mental health screening. So move, Lindsey, Is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice phone. All those in favor, please say I. Motion carries. Thank you.
Agenda item 5 F personnel resignations, Dr. Winslow. The administration recommends the approval of the personnel resignations.
May I have a motion to approve the personnel resignations? So move, Lindsey, Drew, second, Erica Schmidt.
Is there any discussion? This is a standard voice vote. All those in favor, please say aye.
Aye. Any opposed? No. Motion carries.
Thank you. Moving on to agenda item 5G personnel general Dr. Winslow the administration recommends the approval of the list of personnel and recognition of any listed transfers.
May I have a motion to approve the listed personnel and recognition of any listed transfers? So move Lindsey Cook, second Erica Schmidt.
And is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote. All those in favor, please say I. Aye. Any opposed?
No. Motion carries.
Agenda items 6 delegate reports to the Dolphin County Tax Collection Report is attached.
Mr. Rizzo again. Do you have anything to add? I do not have anything to add to that.
You finally get a break. Thanks. Okay, thank you. Special, agenda item number 7 special reports.
Are there any board members who would like to give a report? Yes, and actually like to make comments.
This is Donna Crown and we just approved on our facilities request, an activity called road to kindness, which will be held next May, the tenth and eleventh of the elementary parking lot.
I just wanted to make a shout out to the Belize family. This program is in honor and memory of their son, Anthony, who unfortunately passed away a couple months before graduating his senior year after I'm already committed to going to college and he was really into cards so that cars, so this is going to be the road decline.
This is actually for car enthusiasts or people who want to learn more about cars because that was the Andy Anthony's passion.
So I encourage folks to participate and get their friends to come out. I know it's not until next May, but you can put on your calendar now.
And then secondly, lots of talk about HOME coming. Really want to make a shout out to Mrs. Belanda and Penning the new student council leaders.
They took over for Mrs. Ives, not no small shoes to fill, but they did a fabulous job.
They're only organizing student counts, organizing that night. And Mrs. Ogle and Mrs. Wade, who's gone, they were out there in the pouring rain, kept everybody organized, and let this activity go rain or shine for these kids who are all in regardless of the weather.
So, everyone talks about the court and the king and the queen. Well, those folks were the silent heroes.
And there were others too, but those 4 were. Soak and wet and smiling. So thanks to them.
Thank you. Thank you for sharing that, Dr. Corona. Anybody else have a report?
Hey, that brings us to Dr. Winslow. Do you have a superintendent's report?
I do. Just have a brief report. And I may have just gotten. Yes, thank you.
So we are in play off season. Lots of our, students are moving on with their athletic teams.
Girls soccer one tonight 4 to 0, so they'll be moving on so that's very exciting.
Boys soccer is currently playing and they are winning one to 0. I just got that little update.
So that was very exciting. Field hockey is Wednesday at 4 o'clock. So if you, you know, have the opportunity to come out and support our student athletes, please, please do so. It's very exciting.
It's a lot of fun. We have had our share of rainy games this fall.
Especially for football. And I really appreciate that, that shout out to the adults also, Dr.
Kernan. People put a lot of time and energy into, making the events, great for the kids and it is about the kids.
Homecoming the pep rally was awesome. I hope you guys had fun at it. It was probably one of the best pep rallies I've seen in forever.
I love the musical chairs it was, it was super fun to watch and people seem to be having a great time with it.
And that I always loved the hallway decorations and the doors were super clever again this year the kids were given I mean, you know, the theme was Atlantic City Boardwalk based on, Milton and Kitty Hershey's.
Desire to spend time there when they were still alive. And each. I guess each grade level was given a you know, if you were a candy shop, if you were a boardwalk shop, if you were a ride, if you were a game, and just so clever.
They were, they were so fun. Miss Carpel and I went around all at the end of the day on Friday and looked at all the doors and it was great.
It's just the kinds of things that you remember when you're in your fifties about high school and that the memories that are special.
So it's been a great couple of weeks and we are well underway at the school year and I'm just so happy to be in a normal school year yet.
It's just a really good space to be in. So thank you. Thank you, Dr. Winslow.
Brings us to item 7 C board presidents report. I do not have a report. All right.
Agenda item 8, 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 asked to follow the same guidelines outlined up the initial public comment portion of our meeting.
I'll ask board treasurer Mr. Rizzo to please keep time. This is age use there anyone.
Residents or taxpayers in the room are registered to comment at this time. There is Jennifer Slavy.
Thank you. If I understood what Mr. Rizzo was saying, we have 24 fewer students.
And. Charter schools but was paying $200,000 to more money so what it sounds like to me is we're having more of our special ed students who have a higher per person rate leaving.
And I will tell you the pandemic was extremely rough on all kids, but especially on kids who are a little bit different.
And who often have IEPs and you can read any major newspaper about this. It's like.
Every township isn't some magical place where that's not true. It's true here too.
So it sounds like a lot of our maybe our lot, but more of our special ed families. Are making the decision.
Their kids aren't doing well here and you know we as parents we have we take our responsibility very seriously to make the best decision for our child.
So it sounds like you're having a higher percentage of special ed students leaving. And I think we really need to think carefully why is that happening?
Why are families deciding? That their kids aren't doing well here because I don't know why I else they would leave.
And there's 2 reasons for that one because like we should be good people. We should care about each other.
We shouldn't just throw the cats to the curb. And the other reason is it gets to your financial as you're seen and, you know, back when the special education plan was submitted last Maybe a year ago, like I sent.
Through the community course. Their special education funding and it was a total disaster and their per student rate went through the roof and because serious financial problems you might think well my kid doesn't have special education needs my kids not like that so that doesn't affect me but that's not true the special education department affects every single student in the school.
Because if those kids aren't getting their needs met, then that means the gen ed teacher is spending more time with them and you have all these problems, what you think are behavioral problems are sometimes just you know the kids haven't learned the skills and they don't have the supports they need and what you think is a discipline or behavior problem, it's really in unmet need or a skill that needs to be
built. So none of this I plan to say, but I just want it's very concerning to me that more of our special ed students are going out to charter schools.
Because those kids need more and it's even like how are you gonna do this remotely or how you gonna do this?
And send them out of their community and make it even harder for them. So, and then the other thing I want to say about the new building is Special education is a service, not a location.
So like this idea that they're special education rooms. And like, it doesn't have to be like that.
You don't have to put, say like this is the room for the cats. And the cats have to stay in this room.
Like one of my kids is a cat and one of my kids is a dog. But the cat has to go out into society and learn how to function with all the dogs.
Like, so special education is a service, not a location. Like you don't have, this is so important when you're making your new building.
That you don't think these cats can only be in one space. They need to be integrated in with everybody.
So, okay, thank you. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Dr. Sloppy. I just do want to.
Clarify that we want to be careful about making assumptions about how many students are special education and regular education about 2 thirds of our students inside our school are regular education.
About a third or special education. And many of them don't leave here with a special education designation but get one once they go to cyber school.
So I just wanna make sure that we're. We're sticking with actual facts on that.
Okay. Thank you for that. Okay, anybody else in the room?
This is AG that wants to speak.
Not at this time. Okay.
Mr. Nicholson, is there anyone online wishing to comment?
Not at this time. Is there anything else for the go to the order?
Hi, this is Lucy. I just wanted to say a lot of people were talking about homecoming as a part of both Student Council and I was on the court and I'm part of Lake Crew.
Just kind of getting to see the community get built was really cool. For the freshman especially as part of a wind crew leader, we were kind of helping to facilitate the classroom door decorations and to see them come together and get out of their desks and actually work together is pretty cool and to help facilitate that through Student Council is also a neat experience.
Thank you. I'm going to say something because if Lucy, you're gonna be doing a shout out to you and your seniors because you guys where the COVID.
Class that didn't get freshman year and all these activities and you guys are so good about not only being all in a participative but making sure that the rest of the grades are as well.
So hats off to our senior leaders. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else?
Hey, that brings us up to item 9 adjournment. The next public board of directors meeting will be held.
November sixth, 2,023 starting at 7 PM. Please refer to the district website to register for virtual attendance as the meeting date draws closer.
I have a motion. To adjourn this meeting. Long favor say aye, please. Aye. Anyone opposed?
No