School Board Meeting Recap - July 23

On Tuesday, there was a full board meeting.  The last revision to the agenda was made that day at 5:41pm.  James Hills, Tyrone Carter, and solicitor Mike Levin were not in attendance. In addition to the approval of items carried forward from the committee meeting earlier in the month, the meeting included the approval of routine items like the bills payable, HR report, and financial statements. The meeting, like several of late, had much more engagement and dialogue among board members as different agenda items were considered. There were also several items added to the agenda. In our opinion, these are both positive changes - when the board is discussing items in public view, the public has more insight into what due diligence the board members have completed or seek to have completed, and are also better able to understand why a member of the board may vote a certain way.

ADJUSTMENT TO THE AGENDA:

• Henry Assetto made a motion to create a task force to assist in the implementation of the one-to-one program.  This would be added to the Education committee as letter C.   The motion to create a task force passed. [Yes: Fisher, Keech, Rhone, Marshall, Assetto, Siedenbuhl; No: Wiertz]
• Ann Wuertz asked to add Request to Waive Fees –Coatesville Kid Raiders Practice –Campus Auxiliary Fields along with Request to Waive Fees –Out-of-the-Box Robotics –C.A.S.H.  These were added to the Operation Committee as letters A and B. These items were originally tabled at the committee meeting earlier in the month pending additional information.

PUBLIC COMMENT - Part 1: This part of public comment can only relate to agenda items

• Linda Messenger asked the board to shorten the contract terms of the new service agreements.
• Mary Morris asked the board to ensure that the new security company has the tools and follows procedures to keep kids safe.

 
SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT
The superintendent's report is usually a brief update of current events and activities. However, Dr. Taschner took this opportunity to bring forward three presentations. In a typical board month, presentations take place during the longer committee meetings, and there would not be presentations of this type during the full regular board meeting. 

Facilities - an update was given on the progress made to clean and ready buildings for the upcoming school year. The board was very engaged in this discussion and Mr. Fisher expressed concern that North Brandywine appeared to him to be further behind schedule than he is comfortable with. He received a guarantee that all buildings would be ready on time.

Food Service Grant - the new grant that provides free breakfast and lunch to all students was presented. The actual cost to the district is projected to be about 15% of the total cost of the meals, with 85% being covered by the grant. Some surprising numbers about unpaid lunch balances were shared - under the program no student would have a balance due to eat at school.

Kings Highway Building - a representative of the architectural firm shared information about the planned new Kings Highway Building as well as a virtual tour of the building and diagrams of how the site will be used to allow simultaneous use of the existing building and construction of the new building. The building was beautiful and impressive, but the projected cost was more than $47 million.

CONSENT AGENDA

The consent agenda is made up of uncontroversial items that the board does not need to discuss in order to approve, and that no member intends to abstain or vote against. All items not noted below were passed in the consent agenda.

MOTION ITEMS DEBATED:

B.  A Child’s Place Extended Care, Inc. -School Age Child Care (SACC) Services Agreement - RECOMMENDED MOTION: That the  Board  of  School  Directors  approve  the School  Age Child Care Services Agreement between CASD and A Child’s Place for the purpose of providing before and after school child care services for the period beginning July 1, 2019 and ending June 30, 2022, as presented.  (Enclosure)  Motion PASSED. [Yes: Rhone, Assetto, Marshall, Fisher, Keech, Seidenbuhl, Wuertz] 

Keech addressed the concern with the contract being 3 years by confirming that there was a contract provision that allowed for the early conclusion of the contract if the district was not satisfied with the services.

G.  U. S. Security Care, Inc. (USSC) –Security Services Contract - RECOMMENDED  MOTION: That  the  Board  of School  Directors  approve  the  contract  with U.S.  Security Care,  Inc.  to  provide  security  services  for  a  two-year  term  at  a  rate  of  $23.25  per hour/per Security Guard, as presented.  (Enclosure) TABLED

Rhone asked for motion to table contract for U.S. Security, Inc. His concern was that the security guards hired are trained how to appropriately intervene safely if needed.  Wuertz was concerned about the delay to the start of school by delaying the approval of the contract. Rhone stated that the presenter stated at the committee meeting that the company was already staffing for our needs.

Motion to table the agreement PASSED. [Yes: Keech, Fisher, Marshall, Rhone, Assetto, Seidenbuhl; No: Wuertz]

H.  District Tax Appeals - RECOMMENDED MOTION: That the Board of School Directors appeal the assessed valuation   assessments   for   the   tax   parcels   identified   by   Valbridge   Associates, as presented.  (Enclosure)  Motion PASSED. [Yes: Rhone, Assetto, Marshall, Fisher, Keech, Seidenbuhl, Wuertz]

Dr. Taschner wanted Mr. Fazio to explain this a little more to the community. He explained that there are more than 15 commercial properties that appear to be underassessed, causing the district to get less tax revenue than they would if the assessments were at appropriate market-adjusted levels.

G. Human Resources Addendum - RECOMMENDED  MOTION: That  the  Board of School  Directors  approve  the  resignations, appointments,  new  positions,  leaves  of  absence,  transfers, changes  of status  and  corrections,  as outlined below: TABLED

• 2. New Appointments -Regular and Extra Duty

Keech made the motion to table the hiring of new administrative appointments in order to have further discussion of the hires at the next executive session.(The new appointments were added to the agenda on July 23 at 5:49 pm.)

Motion to table PASSED. [Yes: Keech, Fisher, Marshall, Rhone, Assetto, ; No: Seidenbuhl, Wuertz]

PUBLIC COMMENT - Part 2: This part of public comment can be on any topic

• Jackie Al-amin - shared speech from Fonz
• Nydea Graves - presented the change.org petition for the resignation of Dr. Taschner and Dr. Donahue.
• Donna Urban - asked for an update on the RFT for a new solicitor.
• Liz Muirhead - shared that the teachers are currently within a two week black out period for HSA availability and cannot access HSA funds to pay medical expenses. Some teachers did not receive notification. *further investigation revealed that an email was sent to the teachers'SCHOOL EMAIL ACCOUNTS  on June 27. Unless they had a specific assignment for the summer teachers were required to turn in laptops on their last day. Many teachers do not regularly check school email during summer months and did not feel this was adequate notification.
• Allen McClellan - praises Dr. Taschner’s leadership and asked the "silent majority" of others who feel the same to speak up.