The school board held its regular meeting on October 11th. The short meeting is available on Youtube, and the agenda is available on Board Docs.

Student Representative Report

Its homecoming week with a football game and dance.

The middle school has 36 different clubs available for students from science to the arts. The students have also been participating in social-emotional learning activities.

The elementary schools have many upcoming fall festivals.

Superintendent Marseille is hosting a series of community conversations over the coming weeks, the first at the middle school has already happened.

Transportation remains a challenge with the late buses crowded and many students choosing to walk longer distances to get to school.

Superintendent Report

The superintendent accepted a contribution from the Foundation for WSSD schools for classroom materials (the exact purpose was vague). The elementary schools receive $1800 each, the middle school $2700 and the high school $3500. The foundation plans to raise money to support the school districts mental health programs and note the panther pajama run is coming up in November.

The superintendent covered a number of emerging themes he’s finding in his first 100 days – talented and dedicated staff, finding balance between excellence and student’s holistic needs, social-emotional support, building stronger communities, equity access and opportunity and the need for data to support decisions.

The superintendent spoke about the upcoming community conversations, I posted about them earlier.

The district is continuing to evaluate field trips. Although provisionally approving several, there remain challenges such as providing nursing staffing as the nurses that usually accompany trips are needed at the schools currently.

Springfield pharmacy is providing a clinic for flu shots for staff this month and is planning to offer vaccinations for younger children once its approved for those age 5-12, possibly at the end of the month.

Covid transmission remains high, cases in DelCo in this two week period were higher than the previous two weeks. The superintendent noted he’s received complaints about the daily emails about Covid cases, but prefers faster communication.

The district continues to evaluate the district’s health and safety plan and wants to implement a test to stay program where students that would normally be quarantined as a close contact would instead be tested daily so they could remain in school. He believes this is necessary as case rates are expected to rise through the coming flu season (as it did last year).

The district is doing a wellness survey of all students with age-appropriate surveys.

The superintendent noted that students put together a homecoming video. I believe its this one.

Board Announcements

Amy Caruso was appointed to the educational and policy committees.

Regular Business

The board’s regular business was passed largely without comment. There was some comment on the appointment of a new Human Resources director after the departure of long-time district employee Abbott.

Board Reports

Lentz reported on the recent Educational Affairs Committee meeting. The district is working on the required comprehensive plan, which must be submitted to the state every 3 years. The district will assess needs and concerns and the community will have a chance to contribute. The committee also discussed the sleep/start time study, which was interrupted by Covid. The committee identified further data needed and will review the plans previously developed. The committee will revisit this in December for a report to the board in January.