##VIDEO ID:PHst5nJ5zMI## pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all do notice of this meeting has been provided to the retrospect and the carer post legal ads on January 5th 2024 call Mrs billingley here Mrs Desi is absent Mr Kendall here Mr Lex here Mr Richie here Mrs Rodman is absent Mrs SL is absent Mrs Williams is absent miss hle here all right moving into our minutes item 2.1 can I get a motion to approve the regular meeting in work session of July 25th 2024 so move second all in favor looks like we have no correspondence so moving into our first public comment section of the evening this for comments for members of the public for the board on items included on tonight's agenda if you have a comment please state your name and address and your time to three minutes uh hi Pa thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak uh my name is Paul Roman I live at 22 East greenw ad I have two children currently in head Township Schools sophomore at the high school and a fifth grader at Jennings I'm here to discuss an essential and Incredibly value component of our education system our elementary instrumental music program as we Face budgetary constraints and tough decisions I stand before you to highlight why maintaining this program is not just beneficial but crucial for our students at Community first and foremost instrumental music education offers significant cognitive benefits numerous Studies have demonstrated that students who participate in music programs often show improved academic performance learning to play an instrument enhances skills such as mathematical reasoning spatial temporal skills and language development these skills translate into better performance in subjects like math and reading providing a solid academic foundation for our students music education Fosters social and emotional development through participation in an ensemble students learn valuable life skills such as teamwork discipline and perseverance they experience the joy of working toward a common goal developing a sense of responsibility and collaboration these experiences contribute to their overall personal growth helping them become well-rounded individuals who can navigate the challenges of both academic and personal life instrumental music programs also play a vital role in enriching our students cultural experiences exposure Ure to various musical genres and traditions broadens their understanding and appreciation of diverse cultures this Cultural Literacy helps students become more empathetic and open-minded individuals furthermore music encourages creativity and self-expression giving students a healthy outlet for their emotions and ideas our music programs are more than just a classroom activity they are Cornerstone of our school Community School concerts and performances bring together families friends local residents fostering a sense of community and school spirit these events are opportunities to celebrate our students hard work and achievements strengthening the bonds between the school and the community it serves the benefits of music music education stem Beyond Elementary School students who participate in instrumental programs are more likely to continue their musical Pursuits in middle and high school potentially leading to a lifelong engagement with music whether or not they pursue a career in music the skills and experiences gained through these programs often have a lasting impact on their personal and professional lives in conclusion the value of our elementary instrumental music program cannot be overstated it supports cognitive development Fosters social and emotional growth enriches cultural understanding and strengthens Community ties as we make decisions about our school district's future I urge you to consider the profound and Lasting benefits that this program provides to our students and our community as well as the devastating long-term effects cuts to the program could have let us not lose sight of the fact that education is about nurturing the whole child not just their academic abilities by preserving our current instrumental music program structure we're investing in the comprehensive development of our students and the vibrancy of the head Township community thank you for your attention to our student Futures thank you a point of clarification for the board we're not voting on anything related to the instrumental music program tonight while we did discuss it a bit in work session there is nothing that we're voting on um we're continuing the problem solving to try and make sure that we're able to continue to provide that program even with our budget cuts and reduction in force and I'm not yet sure where that's going to all right moving into section five so can put okay thank you m tle uh good evening good evening members of the community um it's the honor to stand before you again we are uh preparing for the opening of the school year and I'd like to provide you with a district snapshot of everything that's occurring in The District in a cinct way and uh it's with great enthusiasm that we're looking forward to the next few weeks so tonight this presentation is going to cover what's happening with District enrollment District goals some project updates some challenges and some opportunities that we may have so the first thing that the board should know is uh we've worked extremely hard um to make this the the best quality School District that we can and it appears that parents who are educationally minded are continuing to move into Haden Township and to choose our school district as um the school district of choice and we have already almost about 160 kindergarten students that are registered because of this High number um we are adding a kindergarten teach section at Van skyver school and um you know we're eager to uh meet this new incoming class of of kindergarten students we did the very best that we could to balance the class sizes and uh we placed every student by hand um in some cases we had to knock on doors to we had to drive down streets to measure how far certain homes were from schools that are non- busing areas but were considered the dotted zones where you know students could potentially attend one school or the other we had to factor in where if they had any siblings that went to particular schools um so this was a very complex and sophisticated process but I think right now it stands in a very good place you can see that all the class sizes are are very balanced and you can contrast this to about four or five years ago where there was large imbalances uh before we adopted the dotted line and solid line uh methodology District goals uh the first goal here going left to right is the same same as I put before you in March and that is uh to plan and execute the bond construction and project alignment with a great deal of stakeholder engagement and transparent communication we are very appreciative to our community for voting for The referendum at uh a rate of 2 to one and uh we want to continue to engage with our community to make sure they're updated on the projects and uh in many cases to develop committee structure and focused groups um to provide Insight on choices that we still have with many of the projects such as the Synthetic Turf Media Center um the lights uh many uh different safety mechanisms that are still being designed uh so it's important that every month that we're continuing to communicate in a in a proactive transparent way and we're bringing folks into the conversations because at the end of the day today these Capital Improvements they're really for the residents who and their children who who voted uh for the improvements number two to maximize quality and frequency of student feedback last year we spent the majority of our time debating how to measure a student's performance on what type of scale unfortunately that conversation doesn't move the needle at all when it comes to the actual quality learning but you know what actually helps students maximize learning the quality of feedback that teachers provide to students and the frequency in which that feedback is provided so we are going to uh emphasize uh the use of the online gradebook particularly in the higher grade levels to provide faster feedback for students using you know that that platform um for students and parents and to have some consistent horizontal Norms across grade level for how feedback is being provided across our elementary schools um and across grade level in our in our department so more to come on that but this is an area that the administrative team and I uh will be working on and the next one and this might be the most important is uh to improve Pro proactive external communication measures yes we have a Communications uh officer uh but she shared on among many districts it's a very successful Consortium that we have developed um but at the end of the day this is going to be on the administration um and um our our uh our staff to proactively explain and communicate all of the things that we're proud of many of the traditions and practices um that we think are really meaningful and helpful to um the quality of Education that our students uh receive we a new website that was launched today our technology team has done um a lot of work helping us launch this new website but it's just the beginning uh we need to tell our story about um things like you know the hadat of Honor Society and and why we believe um that that is you know the the best way to promote um those particular students we have to do a better job explaining to you know all of our parents new and parents who have been through the system with the purpose of the academic dinner is and what the uh criteria is for students who are chosen to participate in academic dinner we need to explain regardless of what the grading scale is how a GPA is calculated and uh why a g a a weighted GPA and an unweighted GPA are now going to be on the student transcript and we need to improve the School profile that is going to be seen by many of our um universities that our students apply to so we have a heavy lift here in terms of um communication and when things are misconstrued or miscommunicated uh you know ultimately you know that's what going to be on my shoulders as a superintendent um last month I think in work session we talked about not having enough staff to cover fourth grade instrumental talked about that in a little bit that didn't mean that the intention was not to offer fourth grade instrumental that meant it was a challenge to meet that particular need uh and service with our current staff so um we our parents are very engaged and we need to kind of meet them where they are with Clarity and transparent communication unfortunately we can't communicate everything all the time some things are just responsibility of the administration um and there's some detail that you only the administration is going to be privy to with the board um but to share as much as we can uh I think is an important goal moving forward okay some projects about a year ago less than a year ago we applied for a grant from the Linda roora foundation and she provided us with funding for $175,000 for baseball and softball uh improvements finally we have implemented all of the enhancement to both of those fields and the last part of this project was the bleachers that you're seeing so finally in h Township we're going to actually be able to watch a baseball game from behind home plate um there was never really a good place to watch a game you know where you stuck on the the first baseline or in the Outfield and it was always kind of a clunky kind of view there so this is a picture of of the new bleachers that were recently installed here's another one from the reverse angle and uh we had the sign out front commemorating the William G War Memorial Field and picture on the left is a little bit further away you can see that this is an ADA accessible as a handicap um ramp and uh steps on the other side I think this is going to be a terrific enhancement you'll see the safety netting that was also at it along with the irrigation system there um as well uh for the field so that's actually the last project that was completed has nothing to do with the bond referendum and we thank the aora foundation and Linda for her support uh for for that project moving towards the referendum the most important goal for the summer was to remediate the water completely away from the music rooms that continuously flooding in the sprad I'm happy to report that we believe that we have achieved that goal and that students will be able to have music instruction in those practice rooms with no water infiltration here's a photo of the trench that uh was being dug and the drain that was put in and we've had some heavy rains we could go and and and the and the rooms have been bone dry so it appears that the first priority uh is going to be accomplished and I applaud new road construction and um our project management team for for getting the job done right um and for making strong progress next you'll see uh we have the go of completely renovating the APR 4S at every Elementary School prior to the first day of school U this is a photo of story school you can see the new floor has been laid the color scheme matches perfectly um the walls and again our design team did an excellent job Mrs gold gets a lot of credit here she was responsible for the color EES and looks like that she nailed it um but the floor is a taret floor if you don't know this floor you want to stop and see what the middle school is like it's the exact same floor that we have in our Middle School it's somewh softer than the floor that was in there it's not slippery and it's certainly um you can see how much nicer it looks at Jenning School Jennings school was actually a tile floor um that kids when they put their hands down tons of germs and they would fall and had some injuries on the to floor so these are going to be great Pro mov ments uh for all our elementary school Fizz Ed classes and for our community use after hours different angle of uh Jenning school there okay our tennis courts next on the docket is um construction to uh to replace our tennis courts it's a total reconstruction because of the damage the water damage coming up underneath the courts and you will see this photo illustrates 8 ft of green space between the two tennis courts we recently were uh informed that the new requirement was to have 12 ft of Green Space Between the tennis courts because of the concern about players especially when they're playing doubles the potential to have them colliding so the new USA um specifications are 12 ft that means that if we don't want to lose we don't want to go from 8 towards the six we're going to have to widen the space there is no room to go towards the left here uh because that en coaches on the neighbor's yard there and we need that little walkway um that students uh walk from middle school to to home and it's we absolutely need that walkway for bicycles foot traffic Etc so what we're going to do is to widen the fence and we're going to have to uh probably put a some type of retaining wall we're going to come 14 ft closer to the road it's probably 60 ft to that road at least so we have plenty of room it's just the project gets a little bit more complex um but so you're aware this was not part of the original specs we didn't know about these USDA guidelines and we certainly don't want to put brand new tennis courts in reconstruct it and not take the appropriate safety measures so I'll continue to update the board and the community on where we are with this project as it uh progresses some challenges okay uh her from the Community member few minutes ago um as the board is aware we lost $800,000 in state funding we had to make a a serious amount of reductions in services and we're forced to provide an equal amount of services with less full-time staff I think there's great potential uh to partner with um some local universities or some different organizations um to provide the service where there's gaps right and right now the Gap is in Elementary music but the Gap could be anywhere right we could solve the uh Elementary music gap by taking a teacher that you know we have five music teachers teachers in the in the school system um we take one away from the high school and plug the hole in the elementary schedules ultimately you know we create a different deficit or eliminate a course at the high school level right so no matter how many permutations or combinations that we come up with we don't have enough full-time staff to cover all the music electives instrumental Services pull out programs that we have in the department that we have um with five full-time music teachers so but this Elementary music program hasn't historically started to until October so like somebody said earlier in the night this is not a day one problem this is a challenge that I think can be um worked on uh in in the coming weeks into September and I think we have great potential we have some ideas for funding streams we have some ideas for um individuals who may be qualified that will provide students with this service so we can get instruments in these students hands at the same time of the year and do the best we can um to um minimize this this reduction we also have our work cut out for us for GIF tment instruction um we'll be working on that uh also uh for the last two weeks of the summer here in our administrative Retreat um so more to come on how those services will be delivered but as many of you are aware our school district media specialist will be overseeing a lot of the programming and a lot of that a lot of those services will be delivered in the classroom and then like I said with the tennis courts you know anytime you know you try to design and Implement you start digging holes and you have your engineer involved you're always going to find challenges right no no plan survives a collision with reality especially in construction and uh so we have to be ready to anticipate the unknown what we're going to find and also do as much work as we can while school's in session that's always a challenge when it comes to school construction some opportunities and celebrations um we are going to um really try to maximize the amount of student voice uh this year the middle school was starting a student voices Club that's going to meet after school you know ultimately these schools goong to students so this is going to be a commitment from the administrative team and and the teachers to really listen to students listen to diverse groups of students um to make sure that all students have this place of belonging in significance and their experience or valued we have some strong equity and inclusion collaborations Dr Scott oswalt's coming in here and in a few weeks he's going to meet with our administrative team talk about some of his his experiences in this work he's former superintendent of kwood we've also collaborated with a variety of school districts um around uh code of conducts that have been revised um and uh you know I'm confident that this work is going to continue in a meanful way we have um a really large cause for celebration when we received our high school AP scores both in terms of participation and the amount of students that scored three or higher I set those scores out to the community last week they're on our website P our all of our headship uh teachers and students we did such a wonderful job um they're the highest those scores have been in recent years there's some good work that's still happening on school funding advocacy Miss hle leading that work um we're hopeful that the state aid will move it positive direction uh next year not only in terms of the annual state aid that we receive supposedly on a per pupil basis but also in the uh Arena of special education we're Hing for more of a fair share we have 13 out ofd District tuition students and we're excited about that I think there is um continued promise to continue to attract out of District tuition students that will help us offset um school budget challenges and also have U the potential to attract more exchange students not only to put in homes on J1 visas where unfortunately there's no funding for the host family but we are now certified as an F1 District um which will allow had cat of families who are interested in hosting students on an F1 Visa um to receive a yearly slepen or a monthly slipon so I think that has uh terrific promise and those students would be paying uh full tuition as well and then lastly I think that there's some opportunity here with Transportation um it's probably a topic for another day but you know as we're considering the the footprint of of the high school and the middle school and this commitment to maximizing instructional spaces we're going to have this emerging Technologies lab um with a garage is there on the right hand side you can see all of our buses I think there's 17 of them is that right Jen yes are still kind of right adjacent to that garage so the question would be you can see this is a large amount of space could this be reimagined as some type of other space you know could this be pickle wall courts or could this be a storage barn or could this be um some other type of field for a practice or some type some type of outdoor or learning lab I'm not exactly sure but I know we have 17 buses here that don't necessarily need to be on premise could is there another place that we could store our buses um that's a question for another day ideas are easy you know uh implementing ideas are difficult uh so but I think it's worth consideration my role is also now to pres present legally I have to present this by ual report on violence and vandalism these are our reporting requirements the board has seen this multiple times um these incidents have anything to do with anything that we U categorize as a violence vandalism ayb and all incidents that lead to supension suspension and removal of students so you can see period one the amount of um incidents 21 RMS and 26 at the high school typically um this this data is much lower in the fall and again we had an uptick in the spring 44 students and 44 occurrences at RMS and 30 at the high school um you may recall from the last meeting these are these are not necessarily the amount of students that were suspended these are the amount of suspensions so some of these were repeat offenders unfortunately and we we uh you you receive the reports and you can see you can understand that it's not just about the punitive consequences we are providing follow up therape therapeutic supports for students nothing new here we have a comprehensive counseling program and um all of our school services that are supervised by our Administration questions and discussions about my report tonight before I recognize can you go back to that kindergarten slide please yeah sure all the way back I didn't want you were on a roll I didn't want stop I can go through the whole thing again if you want okay all right kind go ahead so if if I if I have a kindergarten and man skyver right now that could have gone to stoy do they continue in vance skyver their academic career correct okay correct and we'll anticipate that uh Miss PLO does a great job with this you know you'll see some of the classrooms adved skyers have three sections and some have two so occasionally teachers need to move up or down from year to year uh depending on where the enrollment goes but yeah once they start they continue with school yes yes so that sorry for the stupid question but does that does those three classes continue so we'll have a third first grade next year correct okay correct there'll be three first grades and then the following year three second grades so those three third grades that are there they've been there since K are the flags the middle school now where if you go to um and I just when I was at the tennis course the other day I was like oh look these fls look really nice like on the poles um like coming down the driveway oh oh yeah we ordered them last year we talked about branding communication yeah we I don't know why I just noticed that but we wanted to wait until the spring to put them up because we we didn't want them to be damaged over the winter they look great I just I just noticed them the other day so they look really good they were Mr George's idea actually he's uh he's on a branding role and I think they're a nice touch to the baseball complex looks great that looks mean from where it was to where it is now I mean world difference so we said this for the last few years the nuts and bolts of the district are intact the administration for decades have done a good job um hiring right so the most important individual in the life of the of the uh student is the classroom teacher we to make sure we have enough of them and the ones we have continue to you know be of great quality right and and in our our staff has done that right they have energy they come back every year we don't have many concerns if any uh so once that is in place right we have a highly motivated skilled staff like the next thing that's the most important thing that we do is make it a great environment so the bond referendum is a big piece of this but also like all the small enhancements year to year to make sure there's the right number of students in the class that they're attending the right school that you know it's the learning environment is it's second but it's a it's a very important and then finally and just I don't know how to phrase the question going to say it anyway on the student voices club we have this High School seniors that sit here which I think is helpful um but one of our biggest challenges to today is Middle School is it worth getting and I'm going to call the word report like an update on the like from the eighth grader on where how things stand I know it's kind of a slippery slope it's not a yeah it's not a bad idea just just to see I mean give us give us there opinion of where things are cuz to your point earlier I mean we we sit here once a month right we don't know the day-to-day part of it and all we hear from them is I think like I mean it's tough especially in the Middle School side so if we can see improvements to the middle school I think that would be significant yeah listen I I'm thrilled with the direction of middle school has going in in the last few years the Middle School Administration has been itching to come before the board um again this was something that we should have done last year where there's just so many things going on I've kind of held them off um the administration would love to come in and U talk to you uh and really whenever the bu would like to to hear them and then hearing a representative or a student leader at the middle school I it's a good even if it's just a video you Dr those kidchen at 7 o' yeah yeah yeah challenge day stay tuned for challenge day we're very excited about challenge day that is not only about that day that's about Empower 100 students um to take that message of school culture and and kind of be leaders to permeate positive things throughout the school throughout the rest of the year that's a huge program we've received a support from local businesses to help us fund it and uh Mr greway and Mrs Rising are um heading that up and Mr gway and Mrs Rising are also heading up the school district safety specialist role and they're doing an outstanding job in that Ro it's not part of this presentation but um uh really pleased with the leadership of those I'm to thank you yeah once again wonderful report uh it shows a great Administration doing their job well I want to emphasize a great town excellent people in this town I've been here for almost 67 years in this town haven't lived anywhere else and I've seen so much with the schools over the years and the beautiful thing is that we keep on continuous process Improvement and that's part of our district and Bob leads that very well continuous process Improvement even in the the face of draconian budget cuts like we had this year and I know parents are interested in the fourth grade music I know it's a fantastic program my kids went through it we know it's great and we have an Administration that's still even in the face of that horrible budget cut trying to do what they can to maybe restore some of that instru we'll see how that goes but but they're working on that and and it's just we got such great people Linda Roar the roar Foundation Bill Roar was such a great mayor such a nice guy 50 years he was mayor and he's he is basically still from Heaven paying for the the field there you know so it's it's just good people I've never seen the property value so high in hideen Township the houses are selling it's just like hot cakes it's just amazing and they all want to come here to this District that's why the houses are are selling that's why the property values are so high because of this wonderful school district and I I feel bad for this this music fourth grade situation it hurts me badly cuz all my kids did that you know but we're working as Bob said he's working so hopefully something will happen where they can still get something we'll see but um great uh presentation Bob and kudos to everyone and the people the taxpayers and the people the voters of had in Township who voted for the referendum people that care about this town that's why it's so such a great town thank you thank John just just I want to acknowledge the new staff I have down a few notes Here left down on the pap like the board will be happy to he what we we're we're losing Alison mcdonnald she's on the agenda Ty lbtc job in running me she um did great work for us replacing her at strawford school is going to be Lindsay moscowitz you'll remember Lindsay who did a few long-term subs for us jobs last year the next one challenge the next one is also exciting some of you may know this name I thought he was going to come tonight um Andrew juliani is a had Township uh graduate he's been teaching in school dist Philadelphia for good amount of years and um he is going to return as a fifth grade teacher at Van skyber where he went to school he's very excited about coming home I remember and uh I remember and and then just today uh we have the commitment to U get her final interview Morgan wach is going to be the kindergarten teacher at uh van sky and she's grown graduate special education certified she's passed nine practices T to get as many credentials as she could and uh she came us with GL recommendations from everyone that she's encountered in R so we're excited to welcome that nice F family Julie audience great thanks all right moving to section six we have no presentations tonight we will quickly move to section s finance and Facilities Mr Lex and Mr Richie did you all meet this month we did not meet um all right can I get a motion to approve items 7.2 through [Music] 7.11 second roll call sping yes Mr Kendall yes Mr Le yes Mr Richie yes m yes moving into Section 8 instruction and program item 8.1 the curriculum and program committee update we did not meet this month but this is shorter did you want to give an update yes I have an update I'll try to make it as brief as possible just get to that section okay so we already heard about enrollment but um just a quick update there we're working all together as a team to make sure that obviously our staffing that was wonderful that we found Morgan and that of our materials are properly secured to outfit a kindergarten classroom um so we're actively working on that new teacher orientation for opening days is scheduled and planned for August 20th through 22nd uh to ensure that all the new staff is prepared for the new school year the details for the upcoming professional development days for the entire staff they begin on September 3rd the details are being finalized to ensure our smooth transition into this school year and the focus will continue to be on District goals and the core content area growth and progress that you already saw the district B that Dr physico shared we're working on the final logistics for the schedules related to intervention gifted and talented elll and our special areas so that's just more information about that we also have a meet and greet open house scheduled for all preschool and kindergarten parents on Wednesday September 4th so teachers are sending that information out to their families in their welcome packets and then last but not least um our cultural proficiency that Dr fero um spoke about we are all working together as our with our Equity committee and then having some subcommittees um delving deeper into our relationship building and this little tagline that um I came up with that I thought was just very telling cultivating relationships with curiosity and having those crucial conversations and being um open to having conversations with people who may um we assume are different than us or braing each other's uniqueness all centered around the framework of enhancing our cultural self-awareness and building our relationships with all of our families and community members and making sure our policies and practices follow suit it's not a quick process we're not going to do a check the box like Implement a certain program I've been trained in this so we're going to take all of that professional learning and then as um Dr physic care shared we have a great skill set within our admin team at the elementary schools the middle school the high school and we know our staff and students very well and we want to make sure that we're giving them an authentic um you know tangible things to learn and grow within themselves and then implement it down to our student level so it really starts with us as a community and every experience adds to us as a hat and Township School District family so that's really our our um focus is the relationship building it will look different at different levels if we're having the challenge day at the middle school and the high school it's it's going to look different at the elementary school level with different lessons and things like that but our students will be actively involved and have their voices heard at each of the level so that we can make sure we are um doing what's best for our for our community and growing from there so we're excited about it and we've been the staff has been really really great and jumping in to help out so we're continuing that work day by day that's it can I get a motion to approve item 8.2 second roll call B yes Mr kend yes Mr Le yes Mr richle yes moving into section nine Personnel item 9.1 personnel and policy committee update Mr Kendall did you all meet this month we did not meet okay thank you yes I know schedules are challenging in August um all right can I get a motion to approve items 9.2 [Music] through 9.32 uh I've been forgetting to ask if anyone has questions I know we cover this in work session but any [Music] questions call Ming Le yes Mr Kendall yes Mr Lex yes Mr CH SLE yes moving into section 10 student services and activities can I get a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10 10 so move second any questions roll call spingle yes Mr kendle yes Mr L yes Mr V yes the section I'm sorry I'm sorry I just want to check so with the school calendar revisions that will now go up on the website right okay bu I know I just had gotten a question about um for high school graduation for PTA like they wanted to start the plan it's official perfect thank you we're down two school days but those days in J have proven to be very meaningless and there's no reason to take our students to the end of that last and our staff for the last week in June so we we're going down to 18 staff I think last uh section 11 policy we have no items for approval in 11.2 so I'm going to move us into section 12 our final public comment section of the evening this is for comments from members of the public for the board on any topic um if you have a comment please state your name and address and limit your time to 3 minutes hi everyone I'm Steve M L East Park Avenue Haden Township I'm a former Haden Township student teacher and a former teacher and current resident I remember my time as a teacher here in the music department very fondly and I was fortunate enough to teach some of the children of our current board uh those kids were some of the lucky ones uh the last to be a part of a fully staff music department in this District uh in 2010 the First music teacher cut occurred here which is my job I along with many others were let go due to the Chris Chris defense since then many of the cut positions were reinstated and other new positions were even added but the music department remained the same under staff by one member which caused a significant burden to the effective ways things were run here I was shocked and sadden the seed that our district was hit with yet another uh State funding reduction but then was outraged to see that the music department was targeted again to Bear the burden of it um this time around the loss is so significant that you need to dramatically change the way the music program functions I don't believe the people making these cuts are utilizing any Research into the needs of our children or Consulting any experts and come to their decisions no musical expert would ever recommend a significant cut to Elementary music education because after all the research says it's most necessary you can't run an elementary instrumental music program meaningfully without a full-time staff member the kind of instruction needed is too specific requiring many private or small group lessons by a certified professional whatever way you decide to run it this year your fourth grade instrumental program won't be able to provide the kind of services students need to get a proper education and I'm worried that you were choosing Optics to make your Cuts over the needs of some of our most vulnerable students um I implore a board and administration to begin working on ideas as to how you can bring back at least one of the two full-time music positions you've already cut as soon as possible this time we taken too much and the negative effects on your music department will be felt for at least the next 9 years please work together to minimize it to just that and begin planning the planning of bringing back some of the positions to help mitigate the damage that's already been done um thank you for your time and for listening um and just one more thing like Mr Kendall I you know I taught your sons they're great kids you never picked them up on time and drove me crazy it's all um but where I disagree with you is like you claimed that this District cares so much about music and providing that education and I know things are being done and we don't know what's being done but it had 14 years to reinstate a position it done while it reinstated all other kinds of positions and added new ones and uh I like you I I agree with you a lot of times but when I was sitting there and hearing you make that statement I couldn't disagree with you more so uh yeah that's all I have to say thank you thank you any other comments where you um just please state your name and and your address you know what you probably should go to the podium because some the feedback that we receive is not everyone in the audience I don't think it's a problem I may want to be on camera so the camera is proba you stood there I have a question about me personally maybe someone else here um I can you say your name and address oh I'm sorry um 18 East ormont um I was asked to attend the meeting tonight to I believe finalize the um hiring process for substitute teachers beginning in September is there something besides just coming to the meeting that we need to formally do you want you want to be a substitute teacher for us yes I already went through like the the interviews and all that stuff and I was asked to come to the meeting tonight just I thought it was some kind of formal what is your name I'm sorry um to T kene M rud ask me to come for minutes yes 9.29 you were there good yep iene yes you're approved welcome that welcome back I graduated at [Music] 03 you show off that shows you're committed I was looking at my signature on the wall down the hallway I said I'm still here you have good experience oh great that's why I came back to town I came back for my kids when I grew up and had kids I said I want to move back to town for SCH any other comments and just for future comments and reference uh we just want to make sure to not get personal with any school board member in the public comments session thank you any final comments from members of the board I just want to say yeah I wasn't offended but I I know you have to say that it's good to say that Steve I wasn't offended and and you know I love you but you know uh it's just so hard when you get these kind of cuts and and uh but if you have an idea or you know people with ideas to try to help Dr F Caro needs your ideas if you want to meet with him sure he will meet with you and listen to your ideas some creative way maybe to to to change what what's going on I I believe my wife reached out to Dr and the board a okay as an elementary specialist so yeah right it's tough It's just tough without money it's it's very very difficult and I know you see that one program as being hit quote unquote it's it's so hard because we have state requirements we have to do you have to teach Etc so but any ideas you or anybody else has you know we're always willing to listen and and you know I'm I'm with you but we'll see what we can do thanks uh one final comment for me I did want to share we had a few community members including two of our board members Mrs Billingsley and Mrs S who participated in a training to be certified in youth Mental Health First Aid last week which is really excting very much needed and it was an amazing training it really was so I'm glad that you um brought it to my attention all right can I get a motion to adjourn second all in favor thanks have a good night [Music]