School Board Recap July 14th

SCHOOL BOARD COMMITTEE MEETING

Virtual Live Stream

July 14, 2020 - 6:00 PM

 CASD School Board committees are designed to divide the labor of the board into manageable categories.  As such, board members are better prepared for full board meetings. This ultimately improves the quality of board decision making.

CCAP will only mention the agenda items of importance. 

Education Committee Agenda

INFORMATIONAL ITEM(s)

Health Safety Plan Update by Jason Palaia

He recognizes the eagerness of all to learn the plan for reopening this fall and thanked everyone for their patience.

"Over the past month the administration has worked to develop a well-rounded health and safety plan that first and foremost focuses on the well being of our students and staff. This has been a difficult test, due to the ever changing requirements and regulations by the Department of Education and  Chester County Department of Health and Center for Disease Control. As we work through this process we must ensure all requirements are being followed, while maintaining fiscal responsibility for the district. Given the dynamic nature of the pandemic, the plan needs to incorporate sufficient flexibility to adapt to changing conditions."

Palaia explained that more details about the plan will be released from the Office of the Superintendent later this week, and the board of directors will approve the plan on July 28. However, the plan may need to evolve based on information from the Chester County Department of Health, Department of Education, and the CDC.

Student Registration Update by Darian Smith (Enclosure)

“The district launched 2020 - 2021 online kindergarten registration form in the fall of 2019. During this past spring at the direction of Dr Dunlap the district ramped up its kindergarten recruitment campaign."

Unfortunately, as of July 8, we fell short of the mark, but we are "trending in the right direction."

CASD Cyber Academy partnered with the Brandywine Virtual Academy affording the opportunity to expand our cyber Academy to students in grades K through 12. We also completed a recruitment campaign for our cyber Academy. "Again we are taking a step in the right direction"

Steps for Moving Forward

• In person registrations (by appointment only), held in the vestibule, with glass that will separate families and our central registrar. 
• Release of our virtual kindergarten segment, which will give our incoming kindergartens a snapshot of what the day in life of a kindergarten looks like. 
• School messenger alerts will continue.
• Coatesville Youth Initiative's Back to School event where we will set up for parents to complete registrations. 
• Our cyber Academy will hold two additional virtual open houses: July 29 and August 12. 
• Bike through the Neighborhood: Mr Hanna with our administrative team will ride through our neighborhoods distributing information on the upcoming school year.

Mr. Fisher: Acknowledged that the enrollment is impacted by Covid with parents uncertain about what the upcoming year looks like. 

Three Year Special Education Plan Update given by Don Mangan (Enclosure)

Dr. Mangan shared the structure of the Special Education Program explaining what  buildings each of the supervisors will oversee. He also explained the services that will be provided and informed that training and monitoring of programs would occur.

Becky Harlan asked how the 20 students with autism at the high school would receive support as a previous meeting's presentation showed that no autistic support would be given at the high school. 

Magnan responded that the team would be going through case by case to make sure appropriate structures and supports were in place. However, he did not address how students with autism's needs would be met.

Harlan asked how many classrooms for special education support we would have at the high school, and how we would be monitoring/evaluating programs for effectiveness.

Magnan did not give the breakdown of how many of the eight senior high teachers would have classrooms versus co-teaching duties. He explained that our first-year partners, (CCIU) will be monitoring the fidelity of our implementation of the models, and we will build in a structure including their coaches when we take over the program for Verbal Behavioral Services. For emotional support, the district will be using the tool: Quality Indicators of Emotional Support Services and Programs. For Learning Support Services, he stated that we will use multiple data points. 

Harlan requested clarification about how students with autism would receive supplemental supports without autistic support classrooms; she was unsure how we will be meeting their needs. 

Magnan explained the calculation of the level of services. 

Harlan stated concern that we are focusing the use of the VB classroom, but what about students on the spectrum who need different services. 

Mangan stated that we will borrow from other services and that we are developing a intervention's menu; one size doesn't fit all. We are seeking consultation with our partners to help support those programs.

Harlan reiterated that from the last presentation, the VB classrooms are all in the elementary level and asked if there would be an autistic support classroom for students who don't need the VB classroom.

Mangan replied that at Kings Highway we will have an autistic support classroom that is not a VB classroom and each building will have resources in place. 

Topic of Opening of Schools 

Brandon Rhone wanted to revisit the topic of opening of schools. He wanted to emphasize that the board is looking at all of the daily changes and their impact on the opening. He wanted to state that there has been no decision made.

Dunlap stated that the issues we are facing are of a medical nature - not an educational nature. We've received mandates and suggestions from Dept of Education, the CDC, the governor's office, the Chester County Health Department and feedback from the community. Many of these mandates conflict with what other organizations are saying to do. He believes that district leaders are going to do what's in the best interest of the districts they are responsible for and that is going to create conflict within the state. Or he believes that the districts in Chester County will band together to make a decision like they did in March. Mr. Hanna has been a part of the Chester County superintendents meetings.

Chester County superintendents reached out to the Department of Education two Tuesdays ago for guidance and to his [Dunlap's] knowledge have not heard back from them. He thanked the 36 committee members for their input and suggestions. Mr. Hanna's statement to him today hit home: Our state is telling us that restaurants are only able to open at 50% capacity [Wolf announced on 7-14 the capacity of  25%] but schools are being told to open at 100%.

Tomas Hanna explained that the county's superintendents are meeting regularly. One district had a board meeting until 1 AM; another had a 600 person zoom meeting trying to figure this out. We are trying to plan with other area schools as there is strength in numbers. We [CASD] are focusing on how to create relationships with our new grade structures because to open this way will be difficult.

"I am going to be blunt here: We do not want blood on our hands." He continued, "This isn't about if, this is when." He stated that the District is trying to be as thoughtful as possible with this decision.

Mr. Hanna is asking for everyone's patience and support while they make the decision that is in the best interest of young people. Tonight's agenda had a change for the resolution to be added because Mr. Hanna reached out to the solicitor to request a document for protection to meet the demands of the state.

Mr. Hanna is inviting leaders from the community (PTOs, rotary, clergy, principals, CCAP, CATA) to participate on July 21st to hear what the planning looks like and get feedback from the community-based people who have already demonstrated an interest and reached out. This is by invite only, to ensure safety; the planned location is CASH auditorium, but if we feel that isn't a safe environment, then we will utilize zoom.

            SPECIAL SCHOOL BOARD MEETING

Board Resolution

RECOMMENDED MOTION:  That the Board of School Directors approve the resolution for the development of the reopening of schools for the 2020—2021 school year, as presented. (Enclosure)

Motion: Passed  ☒             Failed  ☐                 Vote: 8-0

Employee Recall 

RECOMMENDED MOTION: That the Board of School Directors approve the recall of the following employees:

1) Bien, Jessica, recalled from the list of furloughed employees previously approved on June 9, 2020 to the position of 5th Grade Teacher for King’s Highway Elementary School. Effective: 2020—2021 School Year.

2) Mohler, Charles, recalled from the list of furloughed employees previously approved on June 9, 2020 to the position of STEM Teacher for the Coatesville Area Intermediate High School. Effective: 2020—2021 School Year.

Motion: Passed  ☒             Failed  ☐                 Vote: 8-0

Operations Committee Agenda

B.     Student Parking Permit Fee – Coatesville Area Senior High School

RECOMMENDED MOTION: That the Board of School Directors approve the annual fee of $80 for a student parking permit at the Coatesville Area Senior High School. Prorated fees will be applied quarterly based on the following fee schedule.

$80.00 – Full Year Parking Pass

Passed ☐           Failed  ☒        2-6
Vote:2 (Mills, Rhone) - 6 (Assetto, Bookman, Fisher, Finkbohner, Harlan, Keech)

During the discussion of parking permits, Mr. Rhone and Mr. Bookman both thanked the students for reaching out and sharing their voice. In final board comments, Mr. Finkbohner specifically thanked Nariyah Wilson for her voice as a student leader in our District. He believes that it's important that we are engaged on all levels and hear from our students to get valuable input and different perspectives. He closed saying: Our priority is to better the educational system that our students are in and make sure that they have a positive experience. He encourages students to reach out to express their view points on topics.

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