November 16, 2020 Meeting Edition |
|
NORWIN BOARD OF EDUCATION
Brian S. Carlton, President
William A. Essay, Vice President
|
|
Darlene J. Ciocca
Tony L. Corsa
Joanna Jordan
Raymond Kocak
|
|
Patrick A. Lynn
Donald W. Rhodes, Jr.
Robert E. Wayman
|
|
|
The Norwin Board of Education held a public meeting for general business on Monday, November 16, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. To comply with social distancing orders, the meeting was held online via the Zoom platform and was also livestreamed on the School District's YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/c/NorwinSchoolDistrict.
The meeting agenda is available online, and a video of the meeting will be posted at this location in the coming days.
During the opening of the meeting, the Board:
- Heard the Board President's report regarding executive sessions recently held.
|
|
-
Noted that Hahntown Elementary School is providing the monthly student presentation as a video. We highly recommend that everyone watch the three-minute video at their convenience. We thank the Principal, Mrs. Willig, as well as her Hahntown teachers, staff, and students for their outstanding work and contributions to this presentation. Please click on the photo or link below to view Hahntown Elementary School's Board Presentation for November.
- Received the high school student representative report from student Samuel Taleff.
- Approved the meeting minutes from October 19, 2020 meeting.
|
|
Superintendent Dr. Jeff Taylor provided an update on the District's Redistricting Process as well as an update on COVID-19 in the Norwin School District.
Redistricting is the process where a District reassigns neighborhoods of students to elementary schools in order to balance enrollment and class sizes at each elementary school.
Dr. Taylor also explained that a new COVID-19 tracker is available on the District website. It displays the number of active and resolved COVID-19 cases at each school building, trend data for new cases, and quarantine information.
More information on both topics is available by reading Dr. Taylor's full report. The report is available by clicking the link below:
|
|
The Board approved the following Education items:
- A contract with Rubicon West LLC (Atlas) for curriculum management software. The District intends to pilot an online curriculum management software program beginning December 1, 2020, and through June 30, 2021. The purpose of this pilot is to provide teachers with a user-friendly tool to create, manage, and evaluate curriculum, assessments, and instruction. Additionally, this tool will provide parents and community members a public view of portions of our written curriculum. The Atlas curriculum management tool is a key component in Norwin's plan to increase student achievement.
- A grant application and award of $15,000 for the Competitive Integrated Employment Grant for the 2020-2021 school year. The grant focuses on "extending effective, school-based competitive integrated employment programming for youth with disabilities," which is delivered through the Norwin Works! program.
- Additions to the Student Teacher List for the 2020-2021 school year.
- An Affiliation Agreement with Robert Morris University for a term of five years. The agreement is for student teachers and interns from Robert Morris University.
- An agreement with PowerSchool for the use of the Schoology Learning Management System. The District is planning a pilot program in the second semester of the 2020-2021 school year for an elementary online learning program. The pilot will allow the District to create its own online courses in Schoology, thereby decreasing the District's need to outsource online learning courses to other organizations.
-
Revisions to the School Reopening Health and Safety Plan. The major change includes the addition of synchronous live-streaming during both the hybrid operational model and the remote operational model. This will enable students to attend their classes virtually and synchronously when they are not scheduled to be at school or when they are required, per the Department of Health, to complete a quarantine or isolation.
|
|
The Board approved the following new policies:
- New Policy 104 - Nondiscrimination - Discriminatory Harassment - Employment Practices
The Board also approved the following revised policies:
- Policy 103.2 - Sexual Harassment
- Policy 281 - Gifted Education Policy
- Policy 718 - Service Animals in Schools
- Policy 827 - Drug Free Workplace
- Policy 833 - Approved Commercial Advertising
Board policies are available at www.norwinsd.org under "Board," and "Policies," or by clicking here. Newly approved policies will be uploaded in the coming days.
|
|
The Board approved the following Finance items:
- Financial reports from September 2020 and Bills lists from October 2020.
- General Fund budget transfers.
- The Ready to Learn Block Grant Application and Award in the amount of $671,460 for 2020-2021 school year. Funds will be targeted to three areas that are directly aligned to three key categories for which the grant permits:
- Teacher professional development for instructional technology and curriculum integration: $25,500.
- Providing an English and math remediation program for our at risk high school students: $50,000.
- Offsetting the cost of teacher salaries for offering full day kindergarten: $595,960.
|
|
The Board approved the following Personnel items:
-
New hires, resignations, substitute lists, bus driver & monitor lists, and leaves of absence requests. These appear on the personnel portion of the agenda.
|
|
FACILITIES AND SUPPORT SERVICES |
|
There were no Facilities and Support Services action items this month. |
|
ATHLETICS AND ACTIVITIES |
|
The Board approved the following Athletics and Activities items:
- The resignation of Mr. Sanford Bendix from the North Huntingdon Township Parks and Recreation Board. This is one of two Recreation Board positions that Norwin School District appoints. The Norwin Board of Education approved Mr. Bendix to serve on the North Huntingdon Township Recreation Board for a five-year term beginning December 2016 and ending December 2020.
|
|
Following each month's Legislative Meeting, this publication will share details about various items discussed, adopted, and approved by the Norwin Board of Education.
Complete Board Agendas & Attachments are available through BoardDocs. Please click here to visit Norwin’s BoardDocs page.
|
|
Norwin School District
281 McMahon Drive
North Huntingdon, PA 15642
724.861.3000
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
