Communications Committee Meeting

October 19, 2010, 7pm, Administration Building

Melissa Gilbert, Diane DiBonaverturo, Mike Kelly, Ken Roos
About 7 residents, PATCH reporter

Communications Update: One-to-One Communications, New LMHS/Dedication/Website Design and Process

Website design and process underway, Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) still meeting, discussing technology in the classroom and how to best use. The TAC was formed in response to "webcam" and still evolving.

Community Conversations: Would like to host one on western side of district, reaching out to Wynnewood, Haverford and Shortridge civics. Apparently Merion Civic is hosting McGinley this Sunday (10/24) but that meeting is closed to public. This prompted a question about whether the superintendent, in that capacity, should attend a private meeting. DB stated that in past Superintendents have attended 'coffees' to inform residents and promote budgets. It could be possible that Act 1 could cause referendum, in this case if McGinley were invited to a private home you wouldn't expect it to be open to the public. MG: This is a policy issue, she will refer to policy. It was also asked if other board members were invited to the Merion Civic Meeting - they were not.

District Digest: Priority for McGinley, Doug Young to provide update but had emergency and did not attend meeting, update next meeting.

Highlights & Accomplishments: Harriton Tennis.

Open Discussion: MG opened floor - no discussion. MG asked Roos to provide update on 4 people to be interviewed. The process he outlined was: public interviews (candidates not present for each others interview) public comment, board makes nominations, nominations are closed. Votes are taken until someone reaches 5 votes (not majority of votes). If no one carries another round of voting takes place. If deadlocked they can reconvene. After 30 days citizens can petition and it will be assigned t a judge and go to a hearing.

Roos continued, they have recieved emails about the process, to clarify the board can fill the vacancy without public meeting, there is no interview or application requirement. Board members were asked to state their preferences and those who recieved at lease four tallies will be interviewed. No majority met, there were not deliberations.

Interviewees will all be asked the same set up predetermined questions DB: may be follow up questions. Order of interviews will be random.

With no further business or questions, meeting adjorned at approximately 8 pm.

Communications Committee meeting

This isn't really a meeting report, but a member of the community sent this information:
Ken Roos was present and he presented the process for Monday:

1. Candidates are interviewed. Each candidate asked the same questions, not present for other interviews

2. Public Comment

3. Board opens for nominations, Nominations made, Nominations closed

4. Vote taken, to fill seat 5 votes must be received

5. In the event of a tie, they can vote again. If they cannot reach consensus they can reconvene at another time.

Open SB Director Tally Sheet

I'm sure you all know that the held a phone/email vote to see which of the 31 applicants for SB director would get interviews. We can't figure out who voted for whom, but this is a start.

The tally of the 8 SB directors is here.

Hopefully the SB will decide to re-do these votes in an open meeting and reconcile the hash marks with the voter.

Facilities and Purchasing Meeting 10/14/2010

Attendees:
Pat Guinnane
Victor Orlando
Gary Friedlander
Jerry Novick
Chris McGinley
Diane DiBonaventuro
2 people at table that I did not know.

Discussion:

• -MELC agreement for 2010-11 signed – 4% increase, same terms as previous contract
• -Excess funds from 2009-10 budget will be moved to the pension and retiree benefits fund
• -Requesting increase for moving expenses for LMHS by $200K – total moving expenses will be ~$460K, compared to ~$260K at HHS. It does include expenses since 2008, including moving IT to Rock Hill Road and equipment into storage at Union Ave. Original not to exceed budget $250K.
• -Review of Bills – questions, and/or clarifications:

1. P24, item 7: Music tech lab equipment – board member thought it had been taken care of in July. However it was bid in July, billed now. (I assume they meant the bid was awarded in July, billed now).

• P31, item 3: laptop repairs – bills will be submitted to insurance for reimbursement. There was discussion if it was just the 1 to 1 program or all lap tops – it seemed that the conclusion was it was all laptops.
• P32, item 7: remarking fee for bonds is $14.7K each 6 months.
• P34, item ?: Wisser/Perlstein bills: review process is in place.
• P42, item 16: Five Star upgrades for the buildings.
• Note: the list of bills is not handed out and they normally do not discuss the amounts of the bills. I will check with the admin office to see if I can have it emailed to me before the meetings.
• - The recycling (and trash) program is under review – currently trash is picked up from the schools by the township and recycling and non-school locations by Allied Waste. Mr. Guinnane thinks the outcome will be that the township deal is good, but there may be a better deal for the recycle and miscellaneous trash pick up.
• - Increase requested for PSC Environmental for moving the chemicals into LMHS, and removing chemicals from the old building.
• - Change order presented for the “asphalt index adjustment”. Tennis court example p69 and p77. There is a $12K increase, based on the difference on the price of asphalt at contract award of $314K/ton, to now at $474/ton. Total increase for the project is $75K and it is part of the contingency.
• - Discussion about Plancon J for Gladwyne, Merion and Penn Valley ESs – the PDE approved 100% of reimbursement – it is $8M over 25 years.

- LMHS –

• o $86.4M budget, $87.7M currently spent - $2.1M contingency remaining.

• o Demolition started – finish by 2/2011. 10/2010 – physical takedown begins, neighbors notified.

- HHS

• o $80.5M budget, $81.9M currently spent. The contingency amount was discussed, appears to be ~$0.6M – will probably not be spent.

• o Remaining work at site is landscaping and front basin.

• o There are $328K worth of change orders pending, and $404K disputed charges.

• o The township required a change in the tree species around the boys’ baseball field - there was discussion about the retractable outfield netting/fence.

• o There is no outfield fence for the girls’ softball field.

- Fedevia representative reported the work on the admin building is moving along – building has been cleaned and repointed where necessary

- At the end of the meeting I brought up the issue that the LMSD athletic fields used for kid’s soccer and softball are often closed when the conditions seem fine. I assumed it was the policy that if one was closed, all would be closed – I was mistaken. The LMSD staff inspects each field and consults with the township athletic department before making the determination on a field by field basis and communicates that via email. I relayed some experiences that I had personally (where the weather was nice following a rain, but the field appeared fine) and was told that I did not have the expertise to be the judge – and that if the children played on them in poor condition it would cause expensive repairs and possibly take the field out of commission for the season. I asked to be given the maintenance expense budget for the fields. They did not respond – if I do not receive, I will request under the freedom of information act.

Prepared by: Mary Jane Mac Rae

Curriculum Committee

SB Attendees:
Diane DiBonaventura
Melissa Gilbert
Lyn Kugel
Susan Guthrie
plus many district staff including Chris McGinley, Steve Barbados, Wagner Marseille, Lorraine DeRosa, Jason Hilt, Jack Maguire, Nancy Acconciamessa
3 community members

Handouts are here
including committee agenda, annual calendar, 1:1 presentation, SPIES update

I was only able to attend a few minutes of the meeting. While I was there they discussed the SPIES program and assessing the results in a data driven way.

The SPIES program is moving to Penn Valley next year

All webcam suits settled; Strategic plan update; Achievement gap controversy; NO time limit on public speakers!

School board education meeting
Monday, October 12, 2010

School Directors present: Susan Guthrie, Gary Friedlander, Lisa Pliskin, David Ebby (Board President), Lyn Kugel, Jerry Novick, Melissa Gilbert
Audience: About 20 people.

This meeting consisted of:

1. Announcement of settlement of the webcam suits, and voting in
2. An update on the Strategic Plan
3. Board comments & questions
4. Extensive public comment

1. Webcam suits settled.

President Ebby announces that a settlement has been reached with both the Robbins and Hassan webcam suits, and with the Graphic Arts insurance suit. Graphic Arts agrees to pay out $1.2 million. Blake Robbins gets $175,000 in trust. Jalil Hassan gets $10,000 [I believe that's what I heard] and their lawyer gets $425,000.
Voted in unanimously 7-0

2. Strategic plan update
Presentation of a variety of topics: Curriculum, student achievement, Achievement gaps, holistic needsof students, communications, Facilities.

3. Questions from the board:
David Ebby (DE): When will the HHS fields be ready to play on?
Pat Ginnane (PG): not until next fall (2011). Inground irrigation system is helping.

Jerry Novick: Are there any grants available for retrofitting lighting [to more efficient systems]?
PG: We have used some grants.
JN: How about for [more efficient] heating and cooling systems? Any grants available?
PG: Have not researched that.

PG: We are using bio-diesel in buses.
DR McGinley (CM): Congratulates PG on getting the LMHS building ready in time for start of school

Melissa Gilbert (MG): Not clear on how data is being used on a daily basis with regard to classroom instruction. Wants to focus on achievement gap. What's going on between grades 8 - 11 [that produces a sharp falloff in measured achievement] ? Not hearing about differentiated instruction.
CM: Data gets used every day by the teachers, used or targeted instruction. Curriculum team looks at curriculum all summer. There've been 10+ years of training on differentiated instruction. RE: what happens by gr 11: In the past there has not been very good data record keeping in grades 9+10.
Steve Barbato: Always looking for more strategies to direct back into the classroom.
MG: The kids in the math labs (9,10,11) is anything different going to happen now [that we see what is working and what not]?
CM: Doesn't want to address this piecemeal, will bring it to committee.

Lyn Kugel (LK): Where are we [with achievement gap] in comparison to national trends?
CM: We are outperforming national trends, but not PA state trends. Considers that [simply doing better than national trends] is not the standard to follow, but the local standard.
LK: Concerned about the lack of content on the cable chanel
CM: New tv studios will help produce content
LK: Green Cleaning - is it more expensive? Can it be brought ot more schools?
PG: Can't say definitively, but are moving in that direction. Constantly experimenting. Going to look at robot floor cleaners soon.

JN: Also doesn't like all the slides on the cable channel. Also concerned that we are not providing the content for 11th graders to succeed on the PSSA. Do we have the tools necessary?
SB: Not a perfect solution available. If not seeing benefits then we try to adjust.
JN: When will we next know if what we are trying is working?
SB: Same time next year.
JN: Beyond Lit & math, are there other areas of achievement gap?
SB: We have a "huge gap" in science, but still doing better than the rest of the state.
JN: African Americans applying to 4-yr colleges is up 82%. Is that a trend?
CM: Not a trend.
JN: RE Holistic needs: RE Cyberbullying: In some ways giving out a laptop to everyone is like "putting a weapon" in students' hands.
Dr Shapiro: Has been very aware of cyberbullying. Continually assessing. Started the Welcoming Schools committee to address bullying wherever it occurs.
MG: Any statistics available on bullying incidents?
CM: Yes
MG: Any trends?
Dr S: Not looked at the data [for trends]
CM: we have the data, so Welcoming committee can have it to look for trends.

Susan Guthrie (SG): Wondering if the earlier grade assessments like DBLS show the same kind of [achievement gap] trends.
SB: DBLS and DRP are not disaggregated [ie haven't extracted gap information by race]
SG: We have the data so we could disaggregate the data..?
SB: We haven't done it.
SG: If the gap exists prior to 5th, should we be doing more pre-k?
CM: We could study it. Just now studying where studnets are before they come to us.
SG: Are we confident that we can close the gap?
CM: we have reseaqrch based instruction now. Would like full-day Kindergarten, but probably cant have it while we have act I.
SG: Concerned about lights on at LMHS at night.
PG: Lights controlled by computer, and the system is not finished yet.


4. Public Comment

Public commenter #1 CB: Question about early intervention. Could that kind of model be used to close the achievement gap?
CM: Early intervention is for kids with disabilities.
CB: Not understanding how with all the money and data we have why we are not closing the gap. Other school districts with a lot less money than us are having better success.
CM: Share the concerns. Looking at succcessful models and at early intervention strategies.
CB: What are the specific strategies we are using? Are we looking at what works? a few [labs, special sessions] a week willnot close the gap for someone who is seriously behind. Is scary.
CM: Looking at data and have specialists working every day.
CB: Gap is not closing fast enough
CM: but it is moving
CB: Are we doing the same things year after year..?
CM: We're assessing and evaluating and making changes.
CB: I know you're trying but numbers are not good
CM: Added summer supports...
CB: How is data on summer supports?
CM: We've talked about it [at another sb meeting]
CB: ...and we've seen significant gains..?
CM: Yes. This was covered at another sb meeting.

Public commenter #2: RJ: Agrees that achievement gap is unacceptable. Pre-K is where it starts. Question: What book was distributed to 7-12th grade english teachers?
SB: "Read Aside"
RJ: Other concern: The students who are being taken out of class for extra instruction and focused labs: What are they missing when they get pulled out?
CM: Mostly electives and free periods.
RJ: Also thinks that adults in the community could be made better use of: Mentoring groups, community groups

Public commenter #3 AW: Has a 4th grader at Belmont Hills - has been in math support since 1st. Always says he can't do the homework because he was in the lab [and missed the hw presentation]
CM: Trying to do more supports in classroom. Belmont Hills and Penn Valley are piloting an "enrichment period", blocks out support period that always occurs during a non-core subject area.

Public commenter #4 BD: On slide #22, percentage of African Americans identified as gifted shows an 84% increase. What accounts for this?
Dr. Shapiro: An effort has been made to identify African American kids who qualify for gifted program. Looked for and adopted an alternative assessment model that allowed more African Americans to be identified as gifted.
Dr Kelly (MK): In addition to the alternative assessment model, they still use the trad means of identifying gifted, such as parent & teacher referrals.

Public commenter #5: LC: Several comm enters touched on possibilities for why achievement gap exists. Points out that when pulled out for remediation, kids miss other things such as social studies and science. Need a better look at the classrooms, hold teachers accountable not only for what they teach but for what they know. Does not like that we seem to blame students [for not being smart enough to succeed]
CM: Does not agree that we are blaming students.
LC: Appreciates and respects Dr McGinley's background and desire, but feels that his views are not shared by the full School Board. Does not like the implication that the students are not ready to learn. Points to Margaret Collins' success in closing achievement gap in classrooms. What we have seems like a lot of excuses. Students are capable of so much more [if teachers are ready to teach them]. We are not making the same kinds of gains here [as opposed to places where they place a different value on the student]

Policy Committee- Records retention 800 is back

I was not able to go, but managed to get the handouts from someone there.
Handouts are HERE

Her summary of the meeting follows:

Ken Roos, Mike Kelly, Lisa Pliskin, Denise Witt (Safety and Security)
Gallery-2 community members, 1 member of local media

Was stated at meetings end - that this was a "meeting" but not a true Policy Committee Meeting because no other members of the committee were present and a quorum could be met.

policy 800 was rewritten and presented here-review attached docs

Kelly-Policy 151 wil be reviewed and the hope is that policies in numbers 300, 400, 500 will be reviewed this school year

over by 9:00am