School Board Meeting: Jan 25th

SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS 

 January, 25 2022 - 7:00 PM

 

The board meeting in its entirety can be found on the District YouTube channel.  The agenda, documents, and recording of all votes can be found on board docs.  

 

Board Meeting Review

North Brandywine Middle School’s band gave a wonderful performance and the board recognized outstanding students.

Superintendent's Report 

• Operation Warm donated a coat to every student at Reeceville 

• Supplemental programs update

  • Reading: K-5 completed 165,000 units in Lexia, learned 11,000 new skills, over 250 students moved from below level to in or above, kindergartners reading levels rose from 39% to 77%
  • Math: Students 6-12 completed one million math problems on IXL

• Update on progress of the Comprehensive Plan (presentation) 
  
  CCAP Notes: There has been tangible progress made from this plan including creating curriculum teams, progress on CASD curriculum, added STEM field trips, progress on a STEM lab with Siemens, climate coaches hired on the campus,

  The district had a speaker on the first day of in-service this year explain trauma, we are not aware of any further training or future dates scheduled.
  
  We would encourage the board to share with the public both the results of the communications audit, and more about how the partnership with Krapf reduced the budget.

• Equity audit to be conducted: review our systems and processes to ensure they are fair for all of our students, policies, textbooks, what we're teaching. We’d like to know more about this audit and who is conducting it. 

• Legislators will be visiting and our Administration will visit other other schools "to ensure we provide a balanced budget."
  
  CCAP Note: Specifics on how this will ensure a balanced budget would be helpful
  

• Transportation team is establishing routing for next year, researching the use of a web-based program for efficiency

• Mr. Pelegrin is in charge of creating a facility's master plan.
  CCAP Note: Due to the uprise in students back to the district and the reorganization of the 7-12 grades last year, we would encourage the board to ask for an evaluation of the current breakdown and verify it is still the best solution. 

• Creating technology assessment for inventory of Chromebook. Creating plan to collect Chromebooks at end of year as well.
  
  CCAP Note: Written processes and procedures regarding distribution, collection, maintenance, insurance fees, etc. have been pushed for by the Technology Task Force as well as the Board from the beginning of the 1-1 Device Initiative.
  
  Details on this new inventory and how it differs from previous inventories would be helpful.
  

  
  

Health and Safety Update (58.48)

• Due to the high positive numbers, the district is still requiring masks to be worn indoors
  
• The CDC has changed guidelines, so the District will no longer do contact tracing
  
• Parents are encouraged to inform the school nurse of any cases of quarantine due to exposure or positive test results
  

CASD Budget Discussion (105.55)

• Reminder the debt payments are scheduled to increase in 2023
• Areas to explore in order to balance budget moving forward
  
• Use of ESSERS dollars (Must be tied to Covid19)
• Reduce programming 
• Reduce Staffing
• Change real estate holdings/use
  
• Board votes to stay within the Act 1 Index of 4.4%
  

Held From Consent Agenda 
FINANCE COMMITTEE

 

A. Financial Statements (Always held from consent agenda)

 

B. 2022-2023 Budget Resolution 

 

CASD's school board voted for option B to "stay within the 4.4% Act 1 Index" for the 22-23 school year Budget. This means that the board will not raise taxes above 4.4% this year. It's also important to understand that this does NOT mean they will raise it 4.4%. 

 

CCAP Note: Read more about the ACT 1 Index.

 

F. Edward A. Pristernik - Tax Collector Agreement (Attachment)

 

N. Human Resources Report (Attachment)

 

 

EDUCATION COMMITTEE

 

E-K. All Adjudication  (always held from consent agenda)

 

 

OPERATIONS COMMITTEE

 

E. Health and Safety Plan (Attachment)

Public Comments of Note

CCAP Note - The quality of the live stream makes hearing comments difficult. CCAP encourages the district to look at surrounding districts and their livestreams.  Many have positioned mics and cameras closer to the public speakers and board members while some are using multiple cameras.  (See Octorara, Oxford, Downingtown, Phoenixville)

• During public comment, Shelly Durbanes read a letter from Downingtown district asking Pristernick to waive fees for the year to help reduce budget expenses.  After this, the board voted to hold the vote for the Tax Collector Agreement for further investigation.
  
• Many Muslim Residents requested that CASD take into consideration honoring Muslim holidays on the school calendar.
  
• Laurie Shannon Bailey 
• Asked to consider have the ACT as an option
  
• Milton Serles passed
• Wanted a response to the resolution to fair funding - Mr. Hanna responded it would be on the 2/8 agenda.
  

CCAP Note: We continue to be encouraged by the admin and board interactions with the public during comments.

 

You can watch the entire board meeting on CASD's YouTube