Oh different picture.

If you'll go speech.

In the interest of time, we're gonna get started.

And uh we do that.

I know I have some colleagues that are still coming and uh welcome them when they arrive.

But um listen, first thank you for everyone.

Love seeing everyone in the room.

Um this is something that is become an initiative for me this year.

We've had a bunch of workshops with the county with uh the parking authority, um the uh an Isda, and it's just an opportunity for everyone to understand um what roles we play and where the opportunities to uh collaborate and just work together in a more efficient manner to serve our residents.

So thank you so much to the school district for uh for coming.

Um we really really appreciate it.

Um so I'm gonna start with welcoming our colleagues from the Allow Town School District Board of Directors.

Um and uh also um welcome the administration as well, uh along with the public.

So thanks again for being here.

Uh regarding elected officials, uh I just want to recognize uh board president Andrew Brown, thank you so much.

Uh Board Member Nick Nikolaff, uh Denzel Maris, nice meeting you, Audrey Matheson, Daily Sierra Sierra.

Um so I thought I appreciate you coming.

Um Councilperson uh CC Burlach, uh Natalie Santos is on virtual uh on Zoom, and I know that my colleagues Jeremy Bender and Christian Pungo are coming.

Uh also welcome, I want to welcome uh superintendent, Chief Executive Officer Dr.

Carol Burke.

Uh thank you so much for attending.

We appreciate it.

Uh Deputy Superintendent uh Senator Ramos, I saw you behind me.

Uh Chief Operations Officer Dr.

Whartonby, thank you.

I know there are more here.

Uh everyone raise their hand from the administration.

Uh I think we spoke all pro, so um okay.

So listen, that's huge.

I mean the commitment is huge.

I mean I want to recognize that I think that's that's really really special that all you made the time to come here and uh and and support.

So um from City Mallowtown, um our public affairs and policy director, Genesis Orgaga.

Uh she will be writing the meeting, so I appreciate her.

Uh we have our director of parks and recreation, Nanny Tolino, uh, who you'll hear from later regarding these programming and some of the other things we're talking about.

Um, and our managing director Frank Kane will be here.

I think he's in a meeting with Jeremy Binder, which is why they're both not there.

So um, but listen, ultimately tonight's workshop is really about one thing.

It's about working together more intentionally.

Um and um the goal of the session is to identify specific areas where city and school district can coordinate more effectively and leave here with a few clearly defined action items that maybe we can follow up on the month ahead.

Um this is not intended to be a formal legislative meeting.

Uh there'll be no votes taken tonight.

Instead, it's just an opportunity to have an open discussion about shared understandings and practical problem solving.

So I want to give Dr.

Burks a few minutes to speak about the school district and um and high meeting.

So thank you.

So good evening, President Athletes and members of the city council.

Of course, I want to acknowledge my sensational school board directors for your support, your leadership.

And also acknowledge that my mighty team is in the room from my extended cabinet members from the Allentown School District.

If I could just ask them to stand for a moment before I speak.

Mr.

Richard Fonso, who serves as one of our interim CFOs, as well as our solicitor, Attorney Subtent is also joining is joining us this evening after.

So thank you both for joining.

We believe in the power team.

So again, that's why we are all here tonight, showing our commitment to working together.

So a brief overview of who we are as an organization.

We, as I mentioned, we have six good evening.

Good evening, good evening, Dr.

Chair.

16,200 students that we serve, uh, 24 schools and the one program.

And we have all our work is deeply rooted in our strategic plan, lighting the way a blueprint for innovation to excellence 2030.

I want to thank this collective community for placing me as your leader, the leader of the school district, um, as well as everyone who took part in that strategic plan.

Uh was it's not Dr.

Burks's plan, but as a community, we're lighting the way together.

And so uh I want to thank the public who's also here tonight.

Thank you for your interest in everything that's underway within the Allentown School District and supporting all of our children.

So we're thrilled about the possibilities to come.

And so it's going to take everyone's gifts, talents, and intellectual capital to continue to move our district forward.

So for everyone here, if you're not a member of my team, my internal team, you're a part of the team that the children in Allentown are looking for your support.

So if you're like, well, I don't want to have children in the district or this all of the children of our all of our children, because they all need us to share and part in them to help make our community in themselves better.

So in their families.

So thank you.

Yeah, Mr.

Father, sixth grader.

I uh thank all of you for all your hard work and dedication in the school district.

Um, so listen to start us off.

It's helpful to make sure we have a common understanding of the respective governments, how they operate, where our responsibilities intersect.

So at the city level.

Council's primary role is legislative.

We adopt ordinances, uh, open the city budget, provide oversight on policy matters that affect our residents, which have to be your students as well throughout Alltown.

City government is responsible for delivering many of the day-to-day services that folks interact with directly.

That includes public safety, maintaining our streets, infrastructure maintenance, zoning and land development, parks and recreation, and neighborhood services.

Council works closely with the mayor's administration and city departments to establish priorities, allocate resources, and respond to the needs of our residents.

Many of the challenges facing our community, whether it's traffic and pedestrian safety, summer programming, youth engagement, coordination of community events, or student internship and volunteer opportunities do not fall immediately within the boundaries of one level of government.

They require coordination between the city and school district.

That's why conversations like tonight are important.

When we understand where our responsibilities overlap and where they complement each other, we can identify opportunities to work more effectively together to serve our residents and students.

With that, I'll turn it over to school board president Andrew Brown for a brief overview of the school district's role.

President Catherine.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be here.

And first, I want to thank the city council members for forming this group for us to be able to have these dialogues so we can come together and see how we can greater support the people of Allentown.

And I said people, not children, because it's all about everyone.

So when talking about the responsibilities of the Allentown School Board, as elected governance official, the school board's primary role is to oversee the district's public education system, not to manage the day-to-day operations, which is the superintendent's job.

We do policy creation and governance, which is establishing reviewing and updating district wide policies that govern everything from student conduct to curriculum standards.

We also do financial oversight and budgeting, adopting the annual budget, setting the local school property tax rate and ensuring fiscal responsibility for state and federal funding.

Hiring and evaluating the superintendent, we only have one employee.

Selecting the managing the chief executive officer of the district to execute the board policies and lead the administration.

And curriculum approval, reviewing and approving educational programs, textbooks, and courses of study to ensure they meet state standards and serve Allentown's diverse student body.

We also do oversight with facilities and infrastructure, approving major maintenance construction and modernizing projects for the district's school.

And we do also labor relations, negotiating and ratifying collecting collective bargaining agreements with teachers unions and supportive staff.

Now, while the school district and the city of Allentown are separate taxing and legal entities, a strong partnership is vital for community success.

Community safety and policing.

Partnering with Allentown Police Department on School Resource Officers, safe routes to schools, and neighborhood violence intervention is vital.

Shared facilities and parks, co-managing recreational spaces, fields, and community centers to maximize resources for youth programming in summer camps.

Economic development and workforce pipeline, aligning high school career and technical education programs with local businesses needs and city economic initiatives.

I think that's really important as well.

And a wraparound community services.

Now again, sometimes the narrative can be it's the school district and it's the city of Allentown or the school district versus the city of Allentown.

We are one Allentown.

We serve one community.

So here we are, we have this great opportunity where we can collaborate and find gaps that we need to fill and find areas where we may need to acquiesce to it, or we may need to support each other a little bit better so that we can ensure that our families are being taken care of.

So again, I'm really excited for this opportunity.

And I know the board is as well for us to be able to sit at this table and work on some things together.

Thank you.

Yes, we're ready to get started.

And uh I'm gonna introduce uh Genesis Ortega.

Uh she um she um ran the event uh for accounting workshop and did such a great job that she was voluntary to do this one.

So um so uh thank you, Genesis, our public affairs and policy officer.

Our first topic this evening, uh, one topic that came up in a lot of our meetings was traffic and pedestrian safety.

Well, take away, Mr.

Given Adjourney at the table.

So I'm Genesis Ortega.

Um, as uh Council Personnapoly said, I'm the public affairs and policy officer for um City Council.

And tonight I think that we have such an intimate setting that we're just gonna let the conversation flow.

We've identified five topics working with Dr.

Burks and Director Noel and Councilperson Aqualie that we thought would be great topics to see between the two bodies to identify shared opportunities for collaboration, as was said earlier this evening.

And so we're going to pick up with the first agenda item, which is traffic and pedestrian safety.

And so, you know, we were looking at what our objective could be with that one between ASD and City Council.

And through this conversation, we like to identify opportunities for collaboration to improve pedestrian safety, traffic management, and student travel routes to and from schools.

The City Valentine is under due is undergoing a great job, I think, with the street safe routes to school program.

And we actually have Jamie Delgaido here and Dave Patrick from the works department who have a presentation that I think is going to be very informative to just set the baseline as to how the city is working to create safe routes for students.

So with that, I'm going to turn it over to that team.

So good evening, everyone.

My name is Kevin Patrick, the Deputy Director of Public Works.

Unfortunately, Director of Public Works, Mark Shada sends his request.

He can be with us tonight, but he certainly values these collaborative opportunities as much as anyone else has expressed here.

Just brings about the city of Public Works Department.

As you may or may not know, we contain the Bureau of Streets, recycling solid waste, engineering, building maintenance, as well as traffic planning and control.

So specifically getting to the topic where we're talking about traffic planning control.

As a bureau, they handle all the city of Islandown roadways signs, street lights, traffic signals, and other flashing warning devices like the 15 mile an hour school zone signs.

Currently we have 200 active traffic signals, 60 flashing warning devices, 8,000 street lights, and over 33,500 street signs.

Public safety, especially the safety of our children walking biking schools, continues to be one of the top based requirements over the past several years.

We've made significant investments in traffic calming, especially through the state streets and roads for all program.

School zone safety equipment, small advancements, and corridor improvements throughout the city.

And we continue to look for opportunities to make the streets safer for everyone.

So tonight we'd like to share some of the work that's already been completed, projects currently underway, and what's planned for the future.

And with that, I'll turn it over to our traffic superintendent who will walk you through the presentation and provide some more details.

Thank you.

First, we'll start with the capital projects.

The first one, and I think the largest one is the school zone upgrade project.

This is for new school zones and the modernization of school zones within the city for 25 uh schools.

This is currently in the final stages of design and uh is anticipated to go into construction next year in 2027.

The next project we have up here is the school ADA RAM project.

That is one that will supplement the school zone project and providing ADA ramp compliant or ADA compliant ramps around the school zones that we're going to be working on with the school zone project.

Um another one to highlight is 17th Street Corridor Project.

This project is on 17th Street from two to the walnut.

Um we received funding for the design of this project.

We receive funding for the design of this project.

No construction funds obtained yet.

But this is currently in design, and this corridor includes two hospitals and two schools in the surrounding area.

The next project is the 15th Street Corridor Project.

This project is on 15th Street from Island to Sumner.

This includes a new signal at the intersection of 15th and Highland, modernization of the signal at 15th and Roth and 15th and Sumner, but it also includes an overhead pedestrian flashing device for the crossing at Trussler Middle School at the intersection of Green Leaf.

Is finalized.

Funding for construction was not obtained fully, so we'll be moving forward in being part of the project and searching for funds to complete the rest of the project.

Completely redesign and improve the intersection at Lehigh and Union, which also includes six and union.

We're currently undertaking a speed cushion pilot program.

By the end of the year, we expect to have installed speed cushions at seven locations throughout the city.

Currently, they've been installed near DRF High School on Urban Street, United States Elementary School on Union Street, and Mercy School for Special Learning on South Woodward Street.

Another thing we wanted to touch on was uh maintenance and safety around schools, and this was more of just continuation of what we do year to year to help out around the schools.

Um during our uh pavement marking season yearly, we prioritize school crosswalks.

Um school crosswalks are the ones that are evaluated and prioritized when we begin that season, and most of the crossbows have been upgraded to have visibility crosswalks around the schools.

There's a few intersection improvements that we've performed around the schools to help traffic flow.

And uh we also maintain the school zone flashing devices and signs related to the school zones.

Um, our last slide here is just briefly touching on collaboration and future funding opportunities.

Uh, some of the more recent collaborative efforts we've undertaken have been through uh school zones.

Uh that we've worked with the school district.

Um the most recent ones for Muellenberg uh elementary school in South Nine, uh middle school traffic safety reviews that are currently still underway.

Uh, another one that the city is supporting efforts is to establish a designated walking route between Central Elementary School and the Da Vinci Science Center.

Uh, we also wanted to touch on a few other projects here on the running chart that are uh grant applications that we have applied for, but uh are still pending and some of these improvements include uh Mayus Av, Hamilton Street, and uh Tillman Street corridors.

That's it.

Um, if you guys have any questions related to what we've presented, we'd be happy to answer as best we can.

All right, thanks, Jamie.

So that I do want to open it up to um the dais, so to speak.

Uh good scene council on the school board directors.

If anybody wants to make comments or has questions, you have the floor.

So um I'm thinking about how to be streamlined the process.

How can the school district communicate quickly?

make comments or has questions you have the floor so um i'm thinking about how do we streamline the process how can the school district communicate quickly if there's a specific change that needs to be made um to specific street or road that we see like say for instance sonia soutomayor um we're expanding that school and i know we're gonna have more traffic in that area and we would need to put up more safety things in that area how do we um streamline the process to ensure that we can quickly communicate with you and before school starts in the fall everything can be up and ready and prepared because we want to make sure that community is you know the traffic in that community is okay the school bus is pulling up whether it's like stop signs we need to put safety bumpers like how do we rather stream up in that process uh sure so it depends on the improvement that we're looking at um for that uh land development specifically we're in communications with uh with the uh school district but specifically um the developers and we've asked for a uh traffic impact study uh we've reviewed the numbers for queuing there and and have been back and forth with them to come up with um what we need to do there in terms of uh queuing or any issues we see with the additional student population uh and we currently are asking for a school zone to be established for that specific school and is that in direct communication with ASD or it is okay perfect now um for the school zone update projects for the 25 school how deeply are we collaborative with that that that could be for both you want one uh I believe we're collaborating very very well with that um we've been moving forward for um a few years now I think everything has been going well I don't know if you want to add to that you think everything's going well yeah okay for example you heard the same right that's what I heard from what I understand too that's not yeah we've been having um meetings more directly related to the blue zones improvements for uh Mealingburg and South Mountain um and the uh the walking route for central elementary as those most recent ones that we've been regularly meeting on what about um I think I sent in something before about the West Park area West Park 17th Street where Allen High School is we're finding that a lot of people are driving like they're speeding down that road and there's a park there there's a hospital there's a high school there so I'm wondering what we can do whether it's like adding some of those speed on cushions or something maybe we can do an assessment of that area because I I could I could I could see it happening like the way people are just speeding down Turner or speeding down Linden and it's right by the parks with the kids that that's the walking area that's the route that they use to walk home um so maybe we can look into that area as well.

Nope agreed that uh Linden Street by West Park and Turner are on a list for potential future speed cushion implementation and 17th Street there between that area by the schools is part of that uh project that I mentioned previously that we'll be redesigning and including some of the um safety improvements that okay and there's a specific grant that I found out about well I was gonna tell the superintendent about it and then I heard that you guys receive the grant is that the safe streets grant is a safe grant that's supposed to be for safe streets for schools for all yeah we're so exactly that is supporting and how long is that grant for and would we be able to like reapply in a couple of years like what's that process um so if I mean on the specific project or improvements some of these are not some of the projects we've spoken about are not funded through the SS4A grant program some of our bigger projects are um we we have applied for it for various years now but we're not certain when that will cut off but we've heard that it the funding for that will end soon but we've continued to pursue funding every year it's available.

What can we do to ensure that we're making the right decisions about which specific streets need like a ASAP?

So for grant opportunities, we have uh multiple uh ways to obtain uh different grant programs to apply for.

So if the SS4A does dry out, eventually we have other methods of applying for more funding to continue to work on the improvements we find.

Thank you so much.

For those of you who don't know me, Christian Fungo, State Council.

Um, I think there's a great opportunity.

It sounds like the school district is aware of certain areas.

I know as a city, we try to keep tabs in certain areas where there's you know uh potential issues to address.

I I'm wondering, at least around our city side, do we have a repository of all those locations?

Do we have like do we you know classify those in any sort of way?

Like if we're saying like Turner Street in London, yeah, we know about them, we're planning on stuff like that.

Is there like a list of locations that are categorized by like this has like 80 incidents a year versus this area has like 30 incidents a year versus this area has no incidents, so we're not really looking there.

Um, I think there's also some potential if the school districts are aware of certain things that they hear either through students or families, like if we have the coordinated list, because I'm also not sure if straight sheets were all is specifically like project-based, or if that's just a rolling grant.

I know something sometimes things are project based, so you already have to have a specific project in mind to apply for it.

So it'll help us really long-term planning if we have that kind of list of areas to address them and coordinate together.

I just asked that.

So, like, do we have something where we kind of are prioritizing these certain areas?

Um, so if there's any specific concerns, we um would ask the school district to definitely reach out and let us know.

Uh, in terms of locations for traffic calming, um, we receive multiple requests from residents and uh businesses and and other organizations for them.

Um we do have a uh kind of working list, which we add to every time we do receive a request.

Um, from that list, we pick locations that we believe um whenever we have the time that we should look into and gather the data for, uh, we gather speeds and volumes and um and then prioritize where we would want to um to implement the speed cushions based on that.

Um with that being said, we are currently prioritizing mostly pedestrian high pedestrian use areas, which mainly includes parks and schools.

Um, and that's generally what falls to the top of our list at the time being uh me, um Jerry Linner, uh City Council.

Um just to address one of the questions you had with the on Linden, or I did talk to Director Shah about potentially using the where they put a lens on the traffic lights, you can't really see this the color of the traffic light until you're almost a half block away.

So that would hopefully alleviate that.

Um, one of the questions I did have this is also the city or if it's a school district would be since when uh like three o'clock next to question earlier.

Um but I guess the what I was wondering is is there ever been an uh consideration of making that wider so that there'd be a lane for drop off so that it's actually not on 17th street, but that you know it's somewhat taking up some of like software.

We'll have actually creating a lane for drop off and pickup since I know that cues up a lot.

On 17th on the 17th and 17th Street wider, effectively, yeah.

I know there's a risk considered around that.

Okay, I was just it might be worth exploring.

I don't know if all the city is cues up a lot.

And that the only other thing I did want to bring up, sorry.

Uh and I'm trying to remember, I think this was we think that was a midway there.

So I'm not sure which school it was, but I know that there was a lot of concern of um when charter schools, I think we're dropping off, but there's bus queuing and it's it's it's a lot of congestion in that area.

And I'm not sure if I think it was midway there that was some of the school around that area, but um I didn't want to bring that out again.

I should I should have remembered it because it was half a year ago, but um, I do know that there was a lot of concerns.

Yeah, I I recall.

Um, I think there's a misunderstanding there because they were saying charter school pickup and drop off.

There's no charter school CSD pick up and drop off.

That is a our um zoom language academy, and we have um students of all over Atlant attend that school.

So being that we are expanding the school, they're gonna be more students that come to the school.

So that's why I was asking about that streamline process to ensure that the traffic, you know, we can figure that out to ensure that we're not really disrupting the community, but we can make sure that everything is safe.

It's a speedy process with this pick up and drop off.

But I did understand our concerns, but I think that um when it comes to the school, we can't stop how many students are going to the school, and maybe we wouldn't want to.

We want to um allow any child that wants the opportunity to attend that school to be able to attend that school.

So it's just a matter of meeting the needs there as far as traffic.

So that's another process I would like to work on the administration to work hand in hand with the city to ensure that that's anybody else want to make a comment, question?

Yeah.

Um the current ones that we've uh installed have been funded through the SS4A program through a demonstration grant.

Um so the ones that uh we've installed to this point have been limited to the funding within that demonstration grant.

Uh we will evaluate the the results of all installations that we've done and will continue to install if uh the results are positive.

Uh the evaluation process um generally is we would uh install uh traffic counters and gather speeding and volume data, compare that to the existing speed limit, and uh and prioritize um where the installs would make the most sense.

And again, like I said before, in high pedestrian areas, um, that generally moves them up to the top of the list, and that's where we have installed them throughout the city to this point.

Uh if there's a big reduction in speeds within the area that we've implemented them.

And is that evaluation over like a year span?

Or they're like oh, within a year, yeah.

Most of the installs we have not collected post data for yet.

We're still um doing installations.

I believe we have one or two more sections of roadways to install yet.

Um most have been installed this year, and uh we will be performing post studies uh by the end of this year on on the locations where they have been installed.

We've gathered data, yes, before installation.

And do you present that to the city council?

Like we're making a decision to, or is that just in-house?

I'm just trying to use the city council city.

How does that work?

Do you do a presentation to city council with the data and then city council makes the decision to move forward with the permanent, or is it just something on the city level that I believe it's city level internally, but we can put something together for city council if it's requested.

My last my only last question um is there's recording from the parking authority when it comes to some of these school zones because if you have lanes blocked up with parked cars and then you have queuing issues, and you know, kids are in the street and potential issues.

Does your department work with the parking authority to maybe say there's an old person on this block from 7 a.m.

to 9 a.m.

to try and free up a lane uh of traffic?

Is that happening?

Uh we've passed along concerns.

Um certainly when they uh come along.

We're working more on making sure that all the signs around the schools are uh properly signed and placed so that then we can ask them to come out and enforce, who are not as involved with we pass along the concerns, but um have no more details on how involved they are in terms of enforcement within the schools.

Be clear to everyone in the room, our public works department, they're tasked with doing the signage and and you know where the parking authority does the enforcement.

So there are two different bodies, but they just want to make sure that you know we are coordinating with them to try and free up some of these school zones that can really be helped in the morning.

So thank you.

Okay, awesome.

You know, in the interest of time, I'm gonna move it along to the next topic, but we're gonna have an opportunity at the end um to just talk about um some of what we discussed and um opportunities to move forward for collaboration if you think of any.

Um I'm gonna skip over to topic three because I believe we need Frank King here for the second topic, and he has to step out for um a call about the fire that unfortunately happened last evening.

Um so topic three, summer programming and youth engagement.

So the objective here is to really talk about you know how the district and council can work together to strengthen and the city to strengthen coordination, um, expand opportunities for youth engagement um during the summer months.

And we have our Parks and Rec director here, Mandy Tolino.

I don't know if Mandy, you want to make a few comments before we begin.

Um, and I know that her team is also joining us here too.

But if you want to make some brief comments and then we can open it up to the floor um for any comments and questions from the dais.

Good evening, everyone.

Um, thank you, Genesis, for the invitation to attend this meeting and council person Napoli.

Um, so I just wanted to make uh a few quick comments on some of the things that Parks and Rec have planned for the summer, mostly focusing in on our summer playground program, um, which kicked off this week.

And um, this is our 112th year of the summer playground program.

And this year we are at over 500 uh registered um youth in Allentown that are registered for the summer playground program, which is completely free for Allentown residents and it's only open to Allentown residents.

Um so 112 years, it's a really traditional program where there's some dancing, there's sports, and so we try to weave in the traditional nature of that program with some new music and new games and different things that um over the years we've evolved to make it keep it interesting for for the kids.

Um one of their favorite parts of it is the um field trip aspect.

So um I'll just highlight a few of the field trips that they do participate in.

Um and that is the the culmination is at Dorney Park.

So at the end, if they attend a certain percentage of the dates, they go to Dory Park.

Um we have a sports day at Cedar, they go to wildlands, so there is the educational aspect as well as the fun.

And this year, a really exciting piece of it is that we were able to work with the Allentown Partnership, and um they funded a safety around water program for all of the students that are participating in the summer playground.

And what that looks like is they're gonna be instead of the kids just going to the pools to play, where some students are able to swim with their friends because they know how, and others may have to just sit on the side, dip their toes and don't know how to swim, we're able to add instruction, formal instruction at the pools, and we're able to increase the frequency of trips to the pool.

Um so that's gonna be at Mac pool.

Every participant in summer summer playground program is going to be able to go to the pool five times and they'll receive swim lessons while they're there.

And we're able to do that with the funding through the Allentown Partnership and the YMCA as well.

Um River Valley YMCA.

And during the week, even if the students aren't going to field trips, they we bring field trips to them, including Wildlands, Landicap Nature Center, St.

Luke's, uh there's some mindfulness activities, and then a lot of the city departments will come and do different visits, whether it be EMS, fire, APD, and public works as well.

Um so it is a program that's traditional, but over the years it's evolved, and um a lot of student participation.

It's a drop-in program.

So we want to not have a lot of barriers to our program.

So if students are only able to come certain days, or they don't they don't have to commit the parents don't have to commit their students the entire summer if they're not able to do that.

Um and the final point that I'll make about the summer playground program is that most of the staff, the camp counselors are Allentown youth as well.

They're usually uh 16 and above age, but they're all from Allentown.

About 73% are Alltown residents, and 88% of our staff are returning staff.

So we have a good crew, and they're all kind of younger.

Um that the participants like to look up to them.

So it's a really nice kind of way to get the kids outside during the summer and enjoying the parks and not sitting in front of their Xboxes and they're just outside playing with uh with balls and participating in our activity and free play as well.

So that's sort of the overview of our summer playground program.

We have a lot of other programs that the parks and records team does.

But that's our that's our uh our big one.

I know that the district has a summer program, so Dr.

Bricks.

I don't know if you want to talk about your programs.

Yes, and I'm just gonna invite Dr.

Coleman to give an overview of our summer program.

She's one of my deputy superintendents of chief academic officer.

But as a district, we do we have our summer programming.

Um she's going to talk only about 1900 students who are participating.

She's going to tell you all the activities that we're all.

And when I think about summer program, if we want to talk about it, I think of the three E's, right?

That we are working to expose students during the summer to different experiences, enhance um education over the summer and just make it exciting, keep them engaged and in a safe place.

When we um consider enhanced exposure, some of the things we're doing that I think is fun is we are exposing our young people to conversational language across our related arts park.

So conversational language data opportunity to learn about new cultures like Spanish and French.

When we think about enhanced, and we decided this year to go small to go deep.

So we look across our learning data and identified small skills that we can work with students on across um five weeks and half days.

So we we are enhancing that way.

I'm excited that in addition to the students that are participating in the opportunity to recover grades and recover credits.

A couple of new things that are different for us this year is our kindergarten academy.

This year we were able to organize, and our kindergarten students, our incoming kindergarten students are part of our summer program for five and half weeks right now.

And Chief Equinaire will keep me honest, but I think we have about 800 kindergarten students who have looked to enroll in our some in our schools for next year.

And about one one fourth of those students are enrolled in our kindergarten academy.

So it provides us an opportunity to um build the stronger start, get them ready, group scenes, the things that we take for granted, being able to ensure that they know how to hold a pencil or write their names and um just get used to being in school, right?

Um, I had a chance to look at the data before I came, and the excitement is that the a good number of the students that have enrolled in our door language program and so on and so mayor.

The majority of them are in or enrolled in our Kidar Academy.

So excited about those things.

Um I'm sure I'm missing them quite a bit.

Um I'm also excited that this year we were able to expand our elementary athletic league.

So that was a big, uh big um first step for us as a district, and a number of our students enjoyed it, and we had a long waiting list, and we decided to take a bearing-driven opportunity to expand those offerings to our young people.

So next week and this year should maybe tell me the number, but it now about 150 lessons.

So, in addition to offering um to our students, we are expanding our summer program to those students could say come from eight o'clock, have breakfast, enhance learning, exposure, have lunch, and then engage in our retreat athletically.

Yes, yes, yes.

So algebra academy is another new opportunity that we embrace this year.

So, one of the things we wanted to ensure we have a goal across the district to increase the number of students that are leaving our ninth grade, proficient and algebra, right?

So we don't understand that that just doesn't happen magically.

So we really were working to take a closer response to our data.

And our data says that we need to slow down a little bit to go deeper and make sure that our students have the skills necessary to be successful in algebra.

So we target that population of our students, and we offer offering at the middle school level, outdoor readiness grants where those students can come in three days a week and engage in algebra regular skills, proportional reason, skills that are the foundation of successful algebra mastery.

And what we did to make it to try to make it fun, we'll that they think is fun to make it exciting.

Once a week, they will have an opportunity to just have fun.

So once once a week in they'll come in, we'll provide transportation, take them to one of our local high schools, still.

We already have an opportunity to swim and engage in that sport.

They also have an AI institute partnership on Penn State, Lehigh Valley.

This is an expansion of the work that we started about three about three years is our third year now, where our students are able to take college courses at Penn State as well.

They engage in authentic learning where they're working on research, helping to work on projects that have better their community, and we also pay them.

And so, and there's an internship component, and we have our Allentown Youth Internship Corps that is underway, and Ms.

Singer is going to tell you all about it.

Ms.

Sinker.

Hi, thank you, everybody.

Um it is a great opportunity for our students this summer with what she said.

We're the first thing to tell you about is our AI institute.

We had um limited seats of 20 students that could attend this this summer.

We put it out there for our students to um respond if they were interested.

Um it was kind of overwhelming.

We had 65 students that replied that they wanted to do this at AI institute.

Um, so we had to come with you know low criteria, how to weave out who we were sending and everything.

But the kids started this week with an introduction of what the expectations are and a little basics of what AI is and what AI can do for them.

Um the actual official classwork does not start until July 1st.

So next week they'll start engaging in their um July 1st will be their first um official class.

But like she said, these students will earn six credits, college course credits that will be able to transfer for their future.

A lot of the students that are with us this summer are either part of Bridge U on that career path to AI or are looking to go into something with our computer science.

So these students are engaged, ready to take that next step into our pathway.

They do have to be 11th or 12th graders, rising 11th or 12th graders.

Um, so we have 20 of them, they get on the bus every morning at 10 o'clock, and we take them down to the Penn State Line Valley.

And um, from what I heard, they just had a fabulous time this week.

I was able to be with them on Monday, we each other all got on the right bus, all have their laptops with them and get them down there and get them started.

So it's a great project.

Um Penn State's a great to work with.

We have opportunities for them in the fall as well.

We offer four-do enrollment courses in the fall that students get to engage in that at Penn State.

Um internships.

Okay, that's all that's something else on the agenda.

So with our internships, we did a lot of our A YIC internships.

And this year, we had just started Monday.

We have over 100 students that we have placed within the Allentown School District or in the community at certain businesses.

Um, I heard you mentioned someone with the YMCA, they're one of our partners for the summer that are hosting to our interns.

We have the city mayor who is hosting an intern.

So something I would love to see as we grow with different um departments within the Allentown city because I think my top two requirements are healthcare and government.

So those are our two top pathways.

And so I had to like see the kids that don't have this this year, but let me put you here this year and give you some experience in this kind of background that we're, you know, next year when you're a junior or senior, I'd be able to um build up your uh government maybe look.

So um can you tell us how many placement sites that we have students working?

So in the community, we have about 15 in the community that are um vetted right now to how our interns and I say that we have to do the process of getting agreements, clearances, and all that stuff.

So we have a couple more places that we're working to vet, and then within our district, we have another like 15 um happening, another great thing.

We have our tech team, students are learning how to um prepare our computers and what they need to help students throughout the school year, then if something breaks down or our kids having trouble logging in.

So we have about 20 kids learning how they can be tech helpers throughout the um school year.

So that's another great thing because technology is where I think a lot of the kids are going.

Students are able to work in all our offices from communications, the superintendent's office and across the district.

So they're learning um skills around talent management and development as well internally, and we pay our students 15,000 an hour.

So anyone who's listening, we we would like your support and having our students engage in these authentic learning experiences.

My goal is to triple the involvement that I have within the community because I think it's great that the students are talking about what's happening in the school district because it's having one um in my office working with family and community engagement, um, hearing him say, oh, I didn't realize this happened in the district, or he got to go to an event to do for a community partners.

He's like, that was really cool.

And I didn't realize we did these kind of things, but I think letting them know what happens in their community as well, is very important.

So my goal is next year we have triple the amount of partners of their listening.

So we can get started in the process.

Fantastic.

Does anybody from the diets have any comments or questions to make on what we've heard?

I know there's a lot of content programs, a lot of ST programs.

Is the general feeling that we're trading perspective?

Are all those kind of or how are we collaborating on that?

I guess that's kind of a general question.

But so we have a lot of a lot of partners that we have extended our partnership, and I'm gonna have Dr.

Swee talk a little bit about the partners and how we market and how we try to list the support of the broader community and these experiences for our students.

Dr.

Swee is one of my deputy superintendents responsible for special projects.

We believe in teaming, building on the strengths of everyone.

So that's why my team is here tonight.

Good evening.

When we start the summer program planning, we have a um partner summit meeting, a summer summit meeting, and invite um organizations to help uh whether they are city organizations, nonprofit or profit organizations to a partnership meeting.

We learn about the programs that are occurring in the city of Allentale, and we share what Allendale School District is offering, and then we ask for their information, and when we create the summer program handbook or summer program advertisement, the information that we receive from the summer summit meetings, and they don't have it once.

We have continuous meetings to support partners in that.

So we create like a one Allentale summer program.

So if we know about the organization, we do advertise.

We all we also um that's how we get partnerships for internships.

If we know that a student is not a part of the Allathan School District Summer Programming, we went also with the engagement throughout the summer.

So we do based on what students and parents are looking for, we do offer those too.

Can you talk a little bit about how we partner and provide maybe food or those kinds of things?

So when we have the summer summits, we ask what they need is so uh my organization often is transportation, which we can't really go back, but they'll ask for transportation with trips.

We provide those service throughout the city of Allentown.

Sometimes we they'll ask us to come to their organization for build trips.

They would ask to come into the Advent school district buildings to offer programs for our children.

Um or they'll take internships.

One of the um advantages for us, they give us feedback on our programs and our processes that we think in the next year.

Mandy, do you want to say sure?

So um I wanted to introduce uh John Rivick.

He's here, he's been working with the the he's been the lead of our summer playground program for many years now.

So John, if you want to say hi, and um behind him is Chris Hendricks, who's our recreation manager as well.

So both of them are really involved.

And um, John, if you're comfortable, uh would you be comfortable talking a little bit about a little bit about some of the um playground sites and the partner sites and how we work with um ASD for the school um at school lunches, but the summer lunches.

Thanks.

Um playground program has 16 sites, uh 11 uh 19 sites, 16 of them are um either at city parts or at schools.

We operate five schools, the playground, should be like a memory, playground, unit jury playground, Ritter Elementary School, uh Newenberg Elementary School and the Jackson Rangles complex.

If I say some city sites, if I start on the South side, it would be Roosevelt Park.

It could be Ethica Playground, it could be Wall of the Jurist Playground.

As you go to Clyde Boskett Senior Park, which would be the old Millennium Park, could be aimed at Clyde Blasket Senior.

You go to Reed on the east side, which is the old urban park.

If you go to the West End, you have Stevens Park, you have Jordan Park.

Think of anything else?

Any other list?

From memory, I get to 19.

That's okay.

I think I've got most of them to be honest with you.

Yeah.

So we 9 to 3.30 is our hours basically Tuesday through Friday.

We serve the kids lunch provided by the Allentown School District.

That is Tuesday through Friday.

Because on Mondays we have our staff meeting at uh 8 30 in the morning at Church and Middle School.

And we in service our instructors between 8 30 and quarter of 12.

In service means teaching them the games, the dances that we want to do throughout the week in preparation for Ramper Day, which is this year, August the 10th, and J.

Burning Club Stadium.

We put a program on for uh the parents, friends, administrators, anyone.

And as many said it is a free program.

We charge nothing for anything that we do.

Uh the program at uh uh Lamberday has various games, dances, cow drill, maple, uh flag drill, uh some traditional things as well as some modern things.

The music obviously has changed on some things as we've gone through the years.

Uh the girls do a variety of dances, the boys do a variety of games.

We have relay races.

So that's our program.

And then the Dwarning Park trip is the reward for the season.

And that's the next day, which will be August 11th.

We'll take uh uh all the kids that participated at the door, and then a day uh loud water and touring park.

Um the community partners, as Mandy mentioned.

I think the educational piece is such an important part, um, as well as the uh the funds side of things, the athletic side.

So we'll try to give uh each of these partners an opportunity to get out to the playgrounds.

They take an hour, hour and a half, depending upon what they would like to present to a particular topic.

And um the athletic part, we'll take in the cedar, we'll run some square uh tournaments, they're going to cedar pool afterwards, and the Mac pool, we're really anxious on that uh uh initiative this year with the safety of the water with all the tragedies that are happening, whether it be in uh rivers or pools or whatever, um, to get our kids here at least a chance to survive in water.

They might not all become uh great swimmers, but I think survival is is important, and we'll have five weeks of uh training for the Antoine YMCA and uh the Red Cross.

So they'll provide the training.

The kids will have that in the morning, they'll eat lunch, and then in the afternoon, they'll have their so-called free swim for fun time.

But uh we're anxious for that at the morning part of uh a lot of structure and education.

So hopefully I give you a little rundown of some of the playground program.

And as Mandy said, I've probably been involved in half of them.

Thanks, John.

I appreciate that.

So I think from like a marketing perspective to answer your question.

I think that there can always be more to do on marketing, and I don't know if the district has a website, but the city has a city website on Tom K.gov's in Iraq, where families can find out more about the summer playground program, but also a lot of the programming and recreation opportunities that are available to city residents.

So ASD.org.

So it is basic interest.

All of our kids have safe space and some learning.

I mean that was also important.

There's ways we can collaborate with either linking teach each entity sites, yeah.

Yeah, but how we can go there.

I also do want to call up and I learned that challenge working during during the sort of collective.

But yeah, if any way we can collaborate on that or merge it to aggregate that, that would be great.

So thank you.

I think one of the things that just came to mind as we were in the partner meeting this morning, one of the things that the partners were discussing and the district was discussing with the partners is making sure that the programs are somewhat aligned with the district's strategic plan in some way, shape, or form, whether it's the whole child framework, whether it's educational gaps, there are a few different pillars that the district has that partners are pretty much helping and supporting.

And as I'm listening to your program, it definitely covers whole child framework.

So I think when it comes to that piece of the partnership, I think there can be a tighter collaboration because I know in the past there's been some like a little bit of a tug when it comes to sometimes facilities or cost collaboration with certain programs that are happening at the same time.

People in the community that will go to the city to use our facility versus coming to us.

It was just, it was just a whole bunch of different things happening.

So I want to um leave this meeting and able to collaborate a little bit deeper to ensure that when we're doing those type of partnerships, um, the city will have access.

Because I was thinking about okay, um, the kids are in the park, there are days where it's like 100 degrees, like what do they do?

You know, those are the things that I'm thinking about.

I'm also thinking about you know, one question about safety because we've got incidents that happen to the park, so happen in the park.

So, how do we ensure that there's a safety parameter around the park?

I mean, I've never heard an incident happen during that time, but things are kind of changing where.