The video of the relatively short board meeting is located on Youtube here and the agenda is available on Board Docs here.

Opening Announcements

• Both the board president and superintendent highlighted the need for people to behave responsibly over spring break. They also highlighted the return to 4.5 day in-person education at the elementary schools.
• The student rep spoke about activities at SRS such as the Excellent Adventure, fundraisers and collections for nearby charities.
• Haven’s student council is hosting a movie night early in April, the date is not yet determined.
• Haven is also hosting another coffee house in April.
• DCIU held a student forum around equity for students across DelCo, the next one is scheduled for late April.
• The school district is preparing for litigation with a neighbor on April 14th regarding noise violations from King’s Field due to band and athletic activities.
• The superintendent search is close to concluding. The board has done multiple rounds of interviews starting with 30 applicants and ultimately selected between three finalists. The board president said more detailed notes regarding the feedback the district received will be included in the meeting minutes.

Focus Topic – Community of Explorers

The district announced a summer program from July 12-23 for students currently in K-4 in the district. The summer program would be 2 sessions Monday-Thursday with language arts from 8:30 to 11:30 am and math from 12:30 to 3:30 pm. Both transportation and meals would be provided by the district. The program will be located at WES.

The program’s focus is on reviewing curriculum material and maintaining literacy and math skills as well as providing children a chance to socialize. Information will be distributed to parents at the upcoming parent-teacher conferences. Registration will run from March 29th to May 12th, and the district is currently recruiting teachers.

Matt Sullivan asked how much this would cost – it will be available at no cost to parents, but superintendent Palmer was not able to tell the board how much it would cost the district. It seems the board had not yet approved this program, yet it apparently will be offered to parents this week at the parent-teacher conferences and registration will begin before the next board meeting in April.

Other topics

The board approved the usual minutes, personnel, finance and other routine issues.

Comments to the board from the public focused largely on the announced high school schedule. Although I have not seen this schedule presented at a board meeting, from the speakers it seems that students will attend school for 5 hours with no lunch period and will be starting school later.

Jerry Ballas reported on the DEI committee’s meeting with the Big Idea group. They discussed a racial incident on zoom, BLM at school feedback and a possible workshop for high school students. David Grande also reported that PSBA met with state legislators for a virtual advocacy day.