001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> All right, being that it is 7:15. Thank you for waiting. I'll call this meeting to order. First off, we'll do our Pledge of Allegiance. Flags up here, too. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Mr. Bishop, can I have a roll call, please? >> Certainly. Director Oswald. Here. Director Sharsmith. Here. Director Chiafrani. Director Cunningham. Here. Director McCarrick. Here. Director Flukey. Here. Director Konopelski. Present. Director Bieber. Here. And Director Pennypacker. Here. Thank you. Um at the table we have Mr. Bishop, our business manager. We have our assistant superintendent, Dr. Farina. We have our esteemed stand-in counsel, Bethany O'Neal, and Dr. Roach. And I see we don't
002have our kids in tonight, so we'll have to do without them. Uh move along to board president's report very quickly. Um it was really fun having all our winter sports kids in. And happy to have our state dinner kids today. And also had the pleasure of going to book bingo at Harford. That was a lot of fun. So, uh that's all I have. I'll turn it over to Dr. Roach. Takes a long time to load when it's a really long presentation. >> I just got to turn the volume back on when it's time for that. Uh thank you very much for the opportunity to present tonight. Couple of highlights that are have been going on that I want to share about. A golden opportunity day, this was a PBIS celebration at the middle school rewarding
003students for uh for behaviors and and doing well in school. So, we wanted to highlight the uh support uh at the middle level for for our students. The annual uh kindergarten egg hunt at Marboro was a was a hit. You see the students were all smiling having a good uh good break there a good up time before the spring break. Perk pals egg dying again before the break. And you guys as you know the board is Perk pals is on the agenda tonight for support coming out of extracurricular to be an officially sanctioned uh club. Dying has a unit of saying. Okay. All right. Well, well they did the eggs aren't dead. That's right. Thank you. I'll fix it. Yep. Uh congratulations to one of our high school students Jasmine in terms of being recognized
004at the uh Rotary level going all the way up to the highest level uh in the first time Upper Perk uh Rotary has had someone uh win the the folk the speech contest. So, we want to congratulate congratulate her. Yep. Uh if you had an opportunity yesterday at PMEA song fest hosted at Upper Perk Middle School from a lot of the county um schools had middle school students with us all day. So, we had a great great day. A lot of activity going on. Students and uh you know running through the halls that are around that area all appropriate, but it was it was really exciting to see the groups and then had a concert last night as well. So, again sharing some real great highlights. The Leos Club happy 25th uh for our Leos
005Club and at the at the at the high school there. So, it was founded in 20 2001 and now it's 25 years strong of supporting our our community and uh at the high school. Coming up uh 29th, the athletic uh signing and music recognition ceremony. So, we have an opportunity here for our um graduating uh or seniors that are going to be heading out and continuing their athletic careers as well as their uh their music uh continuing marching band or other other careers. Uh it's a kind of dual event 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. uh for the families. So, we look forward to that coming up. It's nice to have uh the music alongside with the athletics. One more reminder about uh graduation coming. Uh so far the weather looks perfect. So, we're going to have
006no problems on that night. Uh at least it looks good on the radar. Um we'll see how it goes, but we're looking forward to being outside and it seems again as I say every time the 5:00 time frame with the change from the smoke out that we had from the Canadian wildfires seems to be a a preferred time. So, I know uh Mr. Flanagan who's over there is uh working on some some upgrades and highlights and invitations are going out to our staff soon to see if we can't get even more uh staff to participate and really make it a memorable event for everyone. Want to share quickly that as a part of one of my goals in working on uh cyber and charter school and getting to learn more, um I'll have some information
007for the board fairly soon coming out from the survey. I think we had 43 or 44 total responses to the survey to get some really good feedback. Um and that's more than that we Last time we had three. So, that's uh the percentage is way up there uh improvement. Um but we also held a an in-person and a virtual uh coffee and conversation on March 31st. So, we had five uh five people um come and and sit with us, myself, Dr. Frina, Dr. Walloff, and a couple others there to uh to have conversations and learn. We did a lot of learning and listening about why student why families are choosing, you know, cyber school or charter school. Uh we learn we learned about people some people that are interested in coming back and some of
008their questions and welcome to school all for and all that type of thing. So, really good feedback So, we We in person and we had uh one person on Zoom, but we still had a nice 25-35 minute conversation to learn about what what what they're going through and what works for them and doesn't work for them. So, the feedback's been invaluable, so we'll have some some feedback. And we are hearing that there are some students that are interested in in continuing to explore options and this next month our principals will be assisting with reaching out to answer some questions that they have, even if it's just a to learn a little bit. Nothing's committed, but I definitely an opportunity to engage with our our cyber and charter families. They really appreciate the fact that we're
009listening, that we're asking respectfully, and that we're trying to trying to get better ourselves. I mean, there's been some pretty blunt feedback, which is okay to hear, and then some other things that we probably couldn't we couldn't help out with. Um even some of our our high-level athletes are flexibility seems to be the top thing on that chart of why people are uh are headed with flexibility with their schedule and with their what's going on in their life. So, we'll have that information to share soon and continue to work on that. Um if you did not sign up for Roar and Replenish, which is tomorrow, registration's full. So, now it's a hot item. So, we have it's a little smaller venue, so we can't have as many, so Bradley, if you're planning on coming, unfortunately,
010now you can probably stop by and get some pictures. But yeah, right now the registration is full for tomorrow, so we have a full slate of topics and and we're ready to have a great conversation tomorrow, and we'll pick that up again in the fall. Coming uh soon, right around the corner in in May is our Arts Fest. So, there'll be communication. We have a full website that I think I can pull up here. Yeah, there's a full on our main web web page there is a website about Arts Fest, and you can get lots of information there. Uh there we are running a bus for the three days that the middle school is going on. There's a bus from the high school tennis court area from 5:30 to 7:30 for any overflow parking. Uh
011the things are evenly spaced out, so they can see the elementary events are going on May 12th, 13th, and 14th. And then the middle school events, and if you click on read more, it gives you you know a little more information about each of those. And then the high school down here. They're Monday, Thursday, Friday, I believe. So. Yep. So, we're excited to to get back to the to Arts Fest. And here's the video. Hey, you. Oh, you can hear it. Okay, good. >> Yes. Yes. Register now for kindergarten. See you next year. That's the best we could do with the attention span. I'm just kidding. About trying to trying to keep things But again, just some of our kindergarten kids welcoming the new group in to get ready and get registered for kindergarten. So,
012that is open and available. So, we're looking forward to that. So. Yeah, that is And in my report, I will say that as you know, I've been doing monthly letters to the editor. I wasn't expecting it to be in this week. I was supposed to be not supposed to be, but next week I thought I would drop this week. And really it highlighted what the board has done in the past couple months. So, I think it was important for people to see the students we've been recognizing, that we have some alumni that are coming into the academic class, student athletes, and you know, as well as the the Western Center students here. Just trying to make sure that people as I mentioned in in the article or in the in the letter, our meetings have
013been a lot what more well attended lately. Which is great to see. And we appreciate the feedback and the continued support. So, we'll continue to to to share highlights in that menu in that menu as well cuz it was not in the town of Country Bradley. Didn't have. He didn't know it was call back. Yeah. We'll work on it. But that that's in my report. Thank you. All right. We don't have our student student representatives to the board tonight. So, we'll move on to our solicitor's report and Sunshine Act announcements, Attorney Bradley. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I have two announcements tonight. The first one is that the board met in executive session immediately prior to tonight's meeting for the purpose of discussing a tax assessment appeal, a personnel matter involving an administrative employee, and
014a matter of collective bargaining between the district and the Upper Perkiomen Education Association. Additionally, there will be two opportunities for public comment tonight. Uh the first is limited to items that are on the agenda tonight for a vote, and the second, which will be at the end of the meeting, are for any items that are may come before the board. Each speaker will be limited to 3 minutes, and I believe there are sign-up sheets in the back of the room that can be returned up front prior to the comment period. Thank you. Thank you. Presentations? Yep, we'll move on to presentation. I thought you wanted to say something. Um we'll move on to presentations and discussion. First one being recognition of the UPHS WMCTC culinary students regarding the state dinner event. So, we're fortunate enough
015tonight tonight to have uh Chef Tina Arndt. Want to come on up? From the Western Center. We appreciate you being here this evening to help us honor uh the Upper Perk students that were part of this wonderful event. This was the White House Student State Dinner Project. Uh student a state dinner inspired event and designed and executed by the Western Center culinary arts students. And we had a guest speaker there that was helping with you. I'll let you describe all that, but we have her book here. Um so, take it over. Hi. Hi. Hi, good. I wasn't expecting to speak tonight. Uh so, I am Chef Tina Arndt. I'm one of the culinary instructors over at the Western Center. Uh I several of the students are here tonight, and we had the opportunity to partner
016with the former social secretary of the White House, Deesha Dyer. Uh she came to our school several times to talk with our kids and she even had a zoom created with the former executive chef of the White House who we gave a whole bunch of questions and she did a one-on-one and answered all those and um and I don't know if you all know this or not but uh the Academy of White House Chefs I don't even remember what the name of their institution is but they are coming together at a graduation they are giving all of our seniors a $500 scholarship. Yeah. Isn't that kind of cool? So um and we did ask Deesha to come and present uh the awards but she is going to be overseas with Mrs. Obama and cannot make
017it. So I know but I am hoping that maybe one of the chefs can come. So I'm going to keep on that. You know I'm not afraid to ask for things. So um uh we everything was Pennsylvania sourced. So when you do a state dinner you represent a another country then we decided since all of our dignitaries were from Pennsylvania we sourced everything from Pennsylvania and everything was scratch. The kids did synchronized service. We had a cheese board from the number one cheesemonger in the world was there. Bertram Hill's Farms who is also a a national winning cheesemonger was there um and I just have to say it was a perfect night. I I can't pick one thing that wasn't perfect. I I I thought so as well. Yeah, thank you. Namaste. I appreciate that.
018Um and in recognition for that now listen there were like 35 kids that volunteered. Only a few showed up tonight but that doesn't mean that they weren't excited or they just you know they all have jobs now and a life because they're high school. But I do want to say a special thank you to those that did take time out of their night to come um and Logan did not get here but Miss Diamond This is Kaylee Diamond come on up. Yeah. I'm okay. Um Miss Diamond is a year three 11th grade student. She also competes in C-CAP, which is culinary careers programs, and is in the running for a one-week boot camp at Monroe University, and we'll find that out in three weeks, huh? Okay, right. Oh, exciting. So, this my friend here is
019not here. Michael Revello, come on up, Michael. My nickname for him is Michael Michael Motorcycle. I don't know why. Uh and I and I have to tell you uh he just shared some really amazing news with me tonight. Michael just got accepted to Temple for their art program. And he is honestly an outstanding artist. You should see the things he does with wipe-off markers on my whiteboard. I don't even want to erase them, they're gorgeous. Um all this and he can cook. Think about that. How wonderful. So, thank you. Year four student. Pardon me? Renaissance man. Renaissance man. Um next is Brianna Rollison. We uh Brianna is a year four student uh and she's a senior. She is also in culinary career program. So, she is in the top 12 in the entire Philadelphia Delco
020area and has competed uh a month ago for her scholarship. Competitions are over and in less than three weeks we find out if she gets um scholarship to go to Montco. Yes. So. Renaissance man. And you actually won the boot camp that Ms. Diamond is up for. Yes. Yes, wonderful. Exciting. All right. Uh my friend Jose is not here. Is that everybody? Okay. Well, there's a lot more and they're all wonderful and we have uh one more student whose name is Alec and he did very well and he's up for a $165,000 scholarship to Johnson & Wales University. So, um we do sell the tickets for our meals. They usually sell out in 4 days. Uh but look for us on our website next year. Uh we don't know we're going to do I think
021a farm-to-table thing next year cuz Pennsylvania went over so well but a little a little more leisure um and we would love to welcome you all there and see you all there and I'm I'm very proud of all of you. Thank you. What did you say? Each month on our workshop meeting, I always brag about our kids that are down there. These are the kids that are down there. These are the students that are achieving down there. This is our next generation of workforce. They're taking over everything. It's going to be medical, culinary, arts, health, you know, this is the future of the Western Center down there. These are our future. I also want to point out that for anybody that says, "If you go to the tech center, you can't go to college." That
022cannot be furthest from the truth. Um in my class alone, we have earned over a million dollars in scholarships in the 10 years that I've been there. Students throughout the building get full tuition to Penn College of Technology and things like that. So, there is a lid for every pot and the ability to go to college exists at the WMCTC as well. So, don't ever let anybody tell you different. If I can add on to that, we ask questions of, you know, when we're giving the student awards at the end of year, for the past couple years, we've asked students, "How many kids are going to college? How many kids are going into the service? How many kids are have a job already? How many kids are going to some type of another technical school?"
023Pretty much 99%, 98, 90% of those kids raise their hands. There There very few individuals coming out of that school that do not have plans or going on to further education. This is a great resource for our community. In fact, our HVAC program is almost completely out on co-op from juniors and seniors. So, these kids are out making 20, 30, 40 dollars an hour. And instead of coming to school, they're actually working at auto mechanic shops and and HVAC technicians. And then they leave there with full-time jobs and pensions and all that. You know, these are the kids that make a hundred dollars, two hundred dollars an hour so when they come to your house to fix your car, fix your machines, or whatever. And it's tech school. It's amazing. We're hands-on people and they're
024they're killing it. So, please invest and take a look. Come to our open house. Come to an open house and take a look around. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. If you can't make open house, call the director down there. Yeah. Yes, he would, wouldn't he? He speaks about it. That's his job, but he speaks about it more than I do. And much better than I do. Thank you. Before the picture, real real quick, before the picture, anyone on the board want to say anything about the evening itself? Cuz I know it's quite impressive and that's discussion. I can just say it was absolutely amazing. Thank you. Um everything was perfect. Everything was so well planned, well orchestrated. Uh the students, so respectful, professional. I loved um oh my word. I know you guys rehearsed
025this. The um of course. Anything we asked for, of course. Of course, ma'am. I like that. I'm teaching that to my own kids at home. Thank you. I appreciate that. That was so much fun. That It was great. We all dressed up. It was the I It was just the People like guests in tuxedos and butlered appetizers and I felt so fancy that night. I was in a chef uniform, you know. And mocktails. Everything was delicious. It was amazing. It was a really amazing So, you need to come to more community meals. Yeah? See, I hooked you. You need to have them more often. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. Well, thank you all very much and thank you for coming tonight. We appreciate it all of you. Appreciate it. Thank you. I'm going to say
026yeah. You're all welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting, but you don't have to. It's okay. We won't yell. We'll just give them a minute. Thank you. I guess I can have our next presenters come up. We have project live community coalition presentation Mary Young and Will Pike who is both former board members actually. They're coming up. The button? Yep. Okay. That is tough act to follow. Yeah, they're awesome. I was did mock interviews last week and one of the Western Center students is going to Drexel in an engineering program. So really They are amazing. They're amazing. This is us. And I'm going to do my level best to talk to these slides and not read. I'm not used to doing PowerPoint. This is this is a little makes me a little bit
027nervous. So project live is a community coalition um that promotes prevention, supports recovery, and offers hope against substance use disorder. So, um addiction is an equal opportunity disease. Uh it strikes anyone without respect for age, uh socioeconomic status, uh race. It it's uh it hits all of us pretty equally. Um Oop. Okay. There you go. Now you can stand here. Okay. So, I'm coming over here. Right. Okay. So, the best prevention is to fight back by building a community culture that promotes prevention. So, what does that look like? So, this is This is one of my favorite little stories about building a community culture around brain protection. Um the National Football League brain injury has, you know, that's a chronic problem um in that in that league or in that sport. And uh it's something
028that took them a long time to really come to a consensus about how they were going to uh treat treat brain injuries and and how serious it was and the and the whole protocol around it. Um but they've done that. It's a new culture in the in the National Football League and and just how do we know that? Um so, this is one of my favorite little stories. Uh you all may remember Nelson Agholor. He played wide receiver for the Eagles. And in a 2022 game when he played for the Patriots, um one of his uh teammates, Davante Parker, was was hit pretty hard. And I think you see the hit right there. And um Nelson could tell that Davante was just not doing well as he came back to the line of scrimmage. And
029he basically stopped the game. He got the officials uh attention and they stopped the game. And um you know, went through their whole um concussion protocols. So, that's how that's filtered down so that players themselves are watching out for for each other. So, that's the kind of culture that you want to build in the community around prevention. Because prevention is the most cost-effective way to fight the disease of addiction. So, why are particularly young people particularly vulnerable? Those ages between 12 and 25 are when our brains as human beings are just developing. And it makes them really makes folks of this age group excellent learners. It's when we learn a lot as human beings. But it also makes us more risk vulnerable to risky behaviors. And why? Because our prefrontal cortex, that governing agency of
030our brain, is one of the last things to develop for us. Uh you know, that little voice that says uh this will not end well. That we use more as adults, that really doesn't develop for us as human beings until we're in our mid-20s. So, why does this matter? Because statistically, if you start using substances between the ages before 15 but between the ages of 15 and 21, you just have a much more likely chance of this becoming a problem in your life rather than an adult activity that um is part of our social culture. All right. So, in the prevention world, we use the uh a metaphor of of a broken bridge. And that broken bridge is when people fall in the river and and we're pulling them out and and bringing people into
031recovery. If we can build that bridge or repair that bridge so that folks aren't falling in, that's prevention. And so you know, in the prevention world or in the recovery world, we have a lot of folks working with people. But if we can if we can pull those resources and work with people before you fall in the river, it's a much better scenario. So this is what our community coalition looks like. You'll notice that the school district is one of our key partners along with the education foundation, our first responders, the Open Link, and so I probably have left some people out my little graphic here and I I apologize, but we work with a lot of people to to get this message of prevention out in the community. Um Okay. One of the things
032we are we are coalition. We work together as partners. We're not an agency. We don't do prevention. We capitalize on the things already in the community, the connections that we have, the strengths that we have in the community to make this a community culture. And so there's how we work with partners and why we do it is because it's data-driven. We've been working in these coalitions across America for about 20 years now. Our coalition's 10 years old. And um and again, that forward-looking focus. So risk factors is something that as educators we talk about a lot. We do the pace survey every 2 years. We just did the most recent one in 2025. Um Dr. Friend is always very generous about sharing that data with us to so that we can we can see, you
033know, what are the things that are going on in our community that we want to really focus on. And so, that's one of our key our key partnerships here in the community. Um but it's data that the kids give us themselves. So. And what that does is help us to build protective factors. We know that we can help if we can help kids, you know, with positive mental health, social emotional development, um just within our educational process, and in particular with connections with a caring adults in the community, that we help them build resilience. And so, that's the you know, that's the key factor because we all have bumps in life, but if we have resilience and can that bounce back, that makes us stronger. And again, we've how how we've been successful, we've worked
034with the school district, um in in terms of pace, which means we're we're working on data-driven programs, um researching and providing programming when we can. And one of the our key outreaches is with parents. Um so, we we try to do a lot of work with that. And I don't know how I'm doing on time here. And one of the things about protective factors and prevention is you need to be talking about those positive mental health things, um talking about building connection, talking about hit kids building resilience. We don't want to go to the dark side. You know, the uh the old scare tactics. This is your brain on drugs. Um whereas we all remember that. It's not really driving with drunk driver goggles. Bless us. In 2001 when I was a parent of a
035junior in high school, we did a mock car crash. And that was just manipulative. It just was not a great idea. It it left some kids traumatized. Um, so, this is it as I said, this is a 10th year of uh of Project Live, and I'm going to pass it on to the mic on to my uh comrade here. You work the thing for me? Cuz I can't. >> Yes, I will. >> two things at one time. >> Okay. All right. And and first of all, uh thank you very much for having us come here. It's it's great, and um it's it's really kind. I've been I haven't been back in this room for a while, so it's it's kind of cool, so. Uh it's been 10 years. In fact, two people in in in
036here, Keith and Vicki, were there at the very beginning. And uh it was a uh opioid task force, and we then we then in that fall, we changed over and um into more of a uh uh a model that would would do more work and and plan things and stuff, and we we moved from both recovery uh initially, and then into also prevention. And we do most of the prevention now, and that's mainly because we still have a recovery wing, but um uh people like uh they're doing some stuff, but that's handled a little bit different. Um and we found this this a spot that I think is really important. Um Do the next one? Okay. Is that the next one? No. That's okay. No, that's okay. Uh so, prevention messaging needs to be embedded.
037Um I think can you go back to the why we do it? Sorry. Okay. So, why do we do it? So, I've been involved with prevention for and I couldn't believe this. I was sitting in the audience and thinking time time things uh over 45 years. I've been doing this this stuff. So, if if there is if you hear a passion in well, my my voice is gravelly now, but if you hear a passion in my voice, it's still there, okay? Even though though it was old and decrepit as I am. And it's because what I learned in my early trainings of this where there are some things that were very important. If no one talks about prevention to our children and students, the only message they receive come from their peers and media. I
038want you to think about that for a second, and I'll just tell you one small anecdote. Brand new teacher in the class. It's 1977. Johnny's sitting in front of me. He has and you have to use your imagination a little bit, okay? He has a notebook with a marijuana leaf on it. And he has a headband and he's got a roach clip hanging down. And the teachers would say things like, Do you think Johnny's using? And the the idea of people at time was no hassle. Don't hassle kids, man. Don't hassle kids. Don't hassle And then that's before SAP, of which I did two SAPs for 22 years also. So, what happened is we started looking and saying like, Who was who was winning the the messaging battle? It was it was Johnny's notebook. The
039kids are all giggling and thinking He's got a and teachers we were afraid to say like, well, do you take drugs? Well, we couldn't do that anyway, but then we started to thinking that we needed to really get the message out. And over the next decade or so, we made some inroads. By the time I left teaching, we had really reduced some of the usage in Pennsylvania with classroom instruction, with SAP, with messaging and stuff like that. Best thing though in my particular district, and we're doing it here, thing we had a PBIS program way way before Perk. And we ran that program at our middle school to the point that kids would literally, and I'm not going to lie, if there was a paper on the ground, they'd pick it up and they'd say,
040"You dropped this, Mr. Pike." They did for two reasons. One is we we them like crazy. So, behaviorally they got used to doing things and they're rewarded for it. But at the the whole culture, the bonding that was talked about before, they bonded to our school. They would wear actually Iron Middle School stuff around. As opposed to going like, I'm like, "Oh, where am I in the middle school shirt?" We would see kids wearing it in high school. Because they bonded to the And we bonded to them, also. It's possible. Culture, you have to you have to make that that sweet spot where it's got to get more than 50%. You get kids to the point cuz I work sometimes in a district and in our building where we were losing the culture. But if
041you win the culture, you win the battle and you can get the messaging out. Next one, Mayor. Okay. So, prevention messaging needs to be embedded. And what we're here for is to try to help to talk to So, we're part of a coalition. You saw us up there. We do do a lot of stuff there. But we're been working and Mayor and I have been working really hard the last 5 years to do so much programming help in the Upper Perkiomen School District so we can reach the kids and we can get embedded in the programming. So, Red Ribbon Week. Red Ribbon Week cuz I was around for the first one, okay? And I had my kids wear the ribbons and the whole thing. We had almost the whole school do it. That was nice.
042Problem is it then became uh a It was more of a uh a week just to have fun. And there's nothing wrong with that cuz I'm a big one with fun. But the idea was like you'd have sweat you have wear sweats day, you'd have this, but people didn't talk about what it was all about. It's about prevention. Because if you have a Oh, we have some building principals here. Go you know, go to your your building and say, "All the kids on drugs, please come down the office and we'll help you." That ain't going to happen. And the other thing is it happens the same with parents. Parents nights cuz I've been there, had said, "Okay, after everything is there, uh we'll play again. The the SAP team will be here if you'd like
043to talk to them afterwards." And the only people we got back were the people we did interventions on. They came back and told us, "You You know, you were right. Our kid was a mess, and and thanks a lot for helping us." Two, three pe- So, what what is really important here is if we could embed this in our school district, and we're doing that, but continue to do it on a level that we don't miss a year. I don't want to miss a year of algebra. I don't miss a year of any subject. But if we miss this, we we are doing it at our peril of our children and grandchildren and our society. And drugs have gotten so dangerous, and you know, we we Okay, so we made some inroads with with fentanyl
044now a little bit bit with control enough. Every drug will find another drug down the road that will be slightly changed and will be even more dangerous or possibly. Next one. Okay. Chip away idea. So, why do this? Are we going to solve the drug problem? When I was first trained in SAP, I was naive enough I put my hand up and said the guy who was a recovery speaker, and he'd been a poly-drug user, and he'd been a mess. He looked really good, but knowing his story afterwards, cuz I was in a small group with him, it was amazing what he was It was tragedy. Lost his son because of his drug use, stuff like So, horrible stuff. But he was out there training us. So, I asked him, I said, "So, after I
045get trained in this, and we do this to our building, we're going to see the drug usage and misuse drop off." And he smiled and said, "No." I said, "Well, why am I here?" And he said, "You're there to chip away. So, don't ever think that by you saying it and saying it again, that person might be in recovery 10 years later and remember what you were saying back then." And in the back of their mind, they've heard it, and it's it's like, you know, having the you know, somebody sitting on your shoulder and telling you, you know, you shouldn't do that. The behavior rules the the world at first, but then it will help them in the recovery or maybe not to try at all. So, think about that. The chipping away is really
046important. Next one. Okay, so what we're asking for continue continue as a partner. But maybe helping it to grow. We've got Red Ribbon Week, which was in the district before we even started doing this. If you don't know what that is, it's every fall. Uh and it's actually uh it's it's it's a commemorate, which most people don't know. It was a a DEA agent who was uh who was tortured. And uh and horribly killed, and the whole whole country decided to to commemorate that for Red Ribbon Week. That's why the red ribbon has kind of that idea of thinking of something that's that's really somber. Um but that's not saying you can't celebrate and have kids enjoy things through there. But it's out there, and that's something that we could get better at. How can
047we get better? I want you I want you to imagine I think people know me I think really big and scary sometimes. So, what we started at planting tulips They planted tulips. We we we had people plant here. The board planted. We Rotary, um all the all the schools, middle school, elementary schools, and Mary was really the the she's she's Miss Agriculture here. So, anyway, uh so so she was great. She she dragged out all the stuff, and I went when and we were having the kids do this. And the idea was you plant the red tulip in in October, and it comes up in the spring, and the promise of spring is for people to reflect and think about prevention. Imagine a day, wouldn't it be amazing that when you went through Upper Perk,
048besides the wonderful cherry trees and stuff there lined in the things, wouldn't it be great that the tulips all come up and they're they're red? And people go like, "Why do you have so many red tulips?" And some kid turns and says, "Oh, it's because of of Red Ribbon Week." And that's the type of thing that I think of. A community that backs the school, a school that backs the community. And having our teachers, and we embed this so that kids just think the prevention is a natural thing. Will that mean that they will all stop using drugs? No. But what it may mean, okay, is it will chip away at that that that possible or potential for disease. Okay? Thinking we got less of Mary kind of hit on this a little bit. 2025
049pays, and once again, Andrea has done a great job with helping us with this. So, we try to address exactly, as far as we can, what's really going on with the kids in Upper Perk. Uh ask for feedback, and we're presently doing this to try to go around. And we just did UPEA, uh and and and going around and try and get some feedback. Are we missing some things? Do we need to change some things? What we don't want to be, and it's not that we don't mind doing on one level We don't want this to be the Mary and Will show. Okay? I mean, it it's great that that we're that people help us, but it's not like, "Oh, prevention. Here, Upper Perk, do it." That's not That's not healthy, because if you've ever
050been in any institution, if Mary and Will go away or things change, it will stop. It needs to be embedded so that that there's a commitment, I believe, from everyone. Um focus on being value-added, just that that this these programs actually lend to uh because of with the pay survey and the stuff we do, we're trying to do things by research. Um strengthen connections, which is why we're here. Look at other coalitions, and there are some good models out there that we followed, okay? And they it So, if there is some some idea, if the board would like to get involved more, or if anybody in the audience in the community would like to get involved more, and we're always I'll tell you what, we're always looking for volunteers. If you have any passion in
051this uh if you have any story, I mean, and I don't I don't want to get too but I mean, I've had several through the years, several people pass away, die from overdose, stuff like that. I've lost students from overdose. Some tragic stuff. But if you have have some some background in recovery and you want to help in that that capacity or with us or just interested or you're afraid of other stuff. And I'm out of time. This is my wish to you. So, we're part of the Montgomery County Alliance of Prevention Coalitions um and and they do some of the funding for us. Um, they just recently did the the prom prom program which we we I had the most students of any sending district in the in that and thank you. And so,
052thank you to them. We need to make two. Thank you both for coming in. We really appreciate it. Looking forward to seeing our tulips rise this year. All right. I do not have any public comments on action items. So, we'll move on to the approval of tonight's agenda. We're going to have a motion for that? Motion. Second. All right. Any discussion? All in favor? All right. Any opposed? Okay. Uh, we will move to the approval of the minutes of the March 12th, 2026 school board meeting. Motion. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? I. Any opposed? I don't have anything under old business, so we'll move on to new business starting with personnel. Madam President, can I make a motion to approve the personnel report in its entirety? So, the retirements, the resignation, and
053the appointments, and leaves. And so forth. Second. Okay. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Okay. We'll move on to action items. First motion would be to approve Trina Sharshement as a representative from Upper Perk to serve at the MCIU board representative for a 1-year term, July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027. Do I have a motion? Motion. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? No. Okay. Uh motion passes, and thank you, Trina. Uh next, we have a motion to approve UPHS Park Pals as an officially sanctioned student activity club having met all criteria and recommended by the extracurricular committee. Could I have a motion? Motion. Second. Any discussion? I'm really glad to see this. Uh all in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries.
054Next, we have the motion to approve a stipu- the stipulation to settle the real estate tax assessment appeal between the school district and APS Realty Corp concerning parcel 15-00-01-03-00-08 in Pennsburg and parcel 15-00-01-05-4-00-2 in Pennsburg and authorize the solicitor to this office to execute the stipulation. Motion. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. >> Aye. Any opposed? Okay, we'll move on to our policies for approval. What? Did I miss something? Sorry. Oh, sorry. I could I went under it. Uh motion to approve the proposal from Green Closet Creative to partner in the development of a new athletic branding strategy and logo at a cost not to exceed $8,000 and recommended by the Communications Committee. Motion. Second. Do we have any discussion? I had a question. Um is that part of our budget? Was
055that in the budget? And not to exceed eight Alexis, do we know exactly how much it'll be at this point? No. Oh, that's She said it was hourly. And it's in the budget. Could be less, yes. Just not to exceed. Any other comments? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Now we'll move on to policies for approval. First, we have 701.1 naming of district facilities. Do we have any Do we have a motion for that? Do we have any discussion? Motion. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion Motion carries. We'll move on to 123 Interscholastic Athletics. I have a motion to approve. Motion. Okay, thank you. Uh any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. I do not believe we have any new follow-up items
056to add to our list. And we'll move on to public comments. And uh, we'll start with Maggie Buckwalter. Come on down. And obviously turn on the microphone. Not your first rodeo, I know. This is for money. But I have no brain, so thank you. Maggie Buckwalter, Upper Hanover. And I appreciate um, first of all, the Western Center students, congratulations again, that's wonderful. And um, thank you Project Live. I that brought to attention the fact that um, something that we were talking about in the workshop, which is that 20 to 30% of LGBTQ+ individuals face substance abuse, which is three times higher than the 9% rate cited for the general student population. The biggest risk factor for this is minority stress. And if you're not familiar with that, it's a chronic stress, discrimination, stigma um, stressor
057that affects brain development, um, academic ability, um, growth. So many things that are important for our students. And the biggest risk factors for this is family rejection and bullying, mental health risks, um, and one of the things that's so easy to do for our students is to show that they're welcome and accepted. And for this, I would like to just suggest that we do not take our flags down because it's such a simple thing, but it can save a life. Thank you. Thanks, Maggie. Uh, next we have Nancy Joel. Come on down. Thank you. I know I got a little too excited the other night when I spoke. So, I'm going to try to be calm tonight while I speak. Um First, I'd like to say how does the do these things just keep being
058ignored even though there's public outcry for change? Why are we adding Trina to more committees or putting her in charge of this new thing, whatever it was? Why is no action being taken to deal with her outright proven lies and discrimination discriminatory actions? She has proved that she does not believe in diversity, inclusion of all races, ethnicities, cultures, sexual preferences, or anything that Morning her Morningstar pastor preaches against, which is abominable to call out as God's words. Matthew 25 is a moral lesson that genuine faith is demonstrated through compassionate, practical action toward the vulnerable, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned. Jesus identifies directly with the least of these, teaching that serving those in need is equivalent to serving him. These people were calling themselves religious and saying these are you
059know, what they believe in because of their religion. That is not religion. That is preaching hate, division, and discrimination against vulnerable people. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you. And then next I have Aaron Banash. My name is Aaron Banash. I live in Upper Hanover Township. I am a proud parent of two Hereford or sorry, one Hereford and one 45 center student. Um I also serve as VP of Hereford PTFS. I'm just here to as a parent, I try to instill in my children to always show appreciation and gratitude. And I just wanted to take a some time to thank the board members, um Director Pennypacker, Cunningham, Ciafrani. I hope I pronounced your name right. Dr. Rosen even Mrs. McCarr came to our book bingo on March 27th and we greatly appreciated
060it. Um it's such a wonderful night where community meets literacy. It's my favorite event I'm involved in planning. And not only did you attend, but we also put you to work checking bingo cards, helping organize raffles, so we greatly appreciate it. I also do want to just share my uh appreciation to the policy committee that we've been working with for revisions to policy 707 and we will see you on the 28th. Thank you. Thanks, Aaron. And that was a lot of fun. Sharon Baston. Hello, Sharon Baston, Upper Hanover. Um I want to talk about the unity flag and the policy meeting. Um I I didn't have a chance to speak that night, so I'm going to do that tonight. Um I want to say thank you to all the board members that showed up that
061night. Um even if I disagreed with what you were saying. Um however, I am a little disappointed that all board members were present. Um for those who did not show up, I'm going to ask you to publicly state your position on the unity flag in your board comments tonight. Preferably without grandstanding or reading scripted AI statements. Um Also, I'm a little very disappointed that this board brought this up again at all. This issue was already litigated and decided 2 years ago. Um students' well-being should never be treated as negotiable. And in this whole thing, we've always keep on hearing the buzzword uh viewpoint neutral. In Upper Perk schools, it's never been a neutral environment environment for these marginalized children. And I'm very disappointed that you put them through this again and they had to come
062here again and give their vulnerable um speeches again and they should never have had to do that. Um fortunately, the community made it very loud and clear that where they stand, that they want to keep the unity flags through emails, public comment, and overwhelming response. I also want to address one comment that was made during the policy meeting from Mrs. Beaver. She said there was no bullying in this district. We didn't have that problem. Um I was absolutely horrified. It was insensitive and tone deaf. I believe anyone representing this district would say something so disconnected from reality. Anyone who talks to students, parents, or members of the community know that's not true. I believe the kids actually deserve an apology for that. Um and beyond that, what came out of this um whole discussion with
063the unity flag is a whole bunch more of dishonesty and miscommunication or misinformation that was conducted mostly by Ms. Charshman. Um she misrepresented the size of the unity flag to provoke outrage, um collaboration with an extremist group and to distribute and distribute inflammatory messaging through creation and posting of an anonymous on Facebook, fabricating AI-generated images on social media, false comparisons to other districts about their unit flag and institutional messaging. Um, she misrepresented data of families were withdrawing their students because of the flag. She's also dishonest in the past of what the Moms for Liberty tell nine lawsuit. Uh, she misrepresented data from Pace survey and not to mention all the stage performances with her allies. This is a pattern of misleading the public and flat-out lying. It's shameful that it's being done, but it's more
064shameful that only one board member has publicly called her out on it. This school board has never regained regained the trust of the public since the middle school and I don't see any path for you to regain it anytime soon. And right now you need that trust because starting the starting place you have with this year's budget looks awful. I honestly don't know how you can possibly rearrange the numbers in a way that doesn't end up greatly hurting taxpayers. Sorry, fine. All right, well, thank you. Focus on what matters. Thank you. Um, and Sally, no, uh, Sally, wait a second. They all have to be up before we start it and that's my mistake. Can I save you for next time? Sorry. I'm sorry. Um, and that was all I have for public comments. Could
065we move to board comments, please? Any board comments? I did want to read something. Um, how we treat each other helps form a strong school district. In our school and in our community, we will always have differences. Different ideas about how to teach, how to budget, how to prepare the students for the future, even how to handle everyday challenges. These differing opinions are not a problem to be silenced. They are strength. A diversity of thoughtful perspectives, when handled with care, leads to leads to better decisions, more creativity, a richer education for our students. Differing opinions only become a strength when we pair them with kindness and respect. Kindness is courage to listen when we'd rather argue, to assume the best intent in someone we disagree with, and to remember that behind every opinion is a
066person who cares deeply about our students. Respect means to speak to one another and about one another with dignity, even in heated moments. It means we reject personal attacks, name-calling, and online shaming that have no place in a community entrusted with raising the next generation. None of us is perfect. Students are watching adults model model division instead of dialogue, and they learn that winning an argument matters more than understanding one another. This is not the example we want to set. Let us model something better. When we disagree, let us ask questions before we accuse. When we feel attacked, let us respond with clarity and calm rather than retaliation. And when we see kindness in action, let's celebrate it. Children are watching and they learn from our behaviors. Thanks, Liz. Do we have any other board
067comments? I I had something to say. Um I do care about the bullying. And I just wanted to say there's bullying at the board level as well. And we are people and we have feelings, and I'm just asking for kindness. Thank you. Do we have any other board comments? If not, oh oh god. Okay. I actually wrote this down. I don't normally write write it down, but um I wanted to use tonight to take um just a minute to talk about the state of our finances and the obligation as a board to full understand them fully. Uh every member of this board, regardless of the committee assignments, carries an equal and individual fiduciary duty to the residents of this district. That duty cannot be delegated to a committee. It cannot be satisfied by trusting that
068others have done the work. It requires each of us to independently understand what's happening with public money and to say so when we have concerns. It's not mistrust, that's just the job. I have been doing a lot of research being new on the board. Um I try to attend all the finance committees, reading the audit reports that Drew was nice enough to share. Um reviewing budget presentations. And what I found concerns me not because of a single bad decision, but a pattern. Um in 2021 this board withdrew 4.73 million from reserves in a single year. More than half of our financial safety net at one time holding to hold taxes at zero. This district's own business administrator at the time was not Drew. Um recommended against it. The majority proceeded with that anyway and in
069the years that followed taxes did increase. But never enough to close a structural gap that had been growing for years. Each year the board reduced the tax increase by drawing more from reserves. It felt like fiscal restraint in the moment, but in retrospect it was the mechanism by which our cushion was consumed. Uh that pattern has brought us to the 26-27 school year with a deficit of 8.68 million. That is worst case scenario that may not be where we end up, but the expenditures are and fact check me if I'm wrong, Drew. Um expenditures are projected at 88.7 million against revenues of 80.3 million. Even at the maximal tax increase a 1.6 million dollar gap remains. We cannot tax our way out of it. Um our ability to raise taxes is more constrained. The district
070covers two counties, Montgomery and Berks, and there's some other ratios that are used in order to find what our tax, you know, what our millage is going to be. I don't want to get into the whole STEB in in information, but our general fund balance totals 13.4 million, but only 2.6 million of that is unassigned and freely available for operations. Our capital reserve of 8.4 million, separate fund already targeted for our roofs. To put it plainly, heading into an 8.68 million dollar deficit, we have less than 3 million in freely available reserves. Five years ago, we had 18 million. That cushion is nearly gone, and the deficit has never been as big as it is this year. I recognize the budget projections often improve between now and June, and I hope they do, but hope's
071not a financial plan. And I do believe this board should wait until I I don't believe this board should wait until May to have honest conversation about where we stand. So, I'm just making two suggestions. Um, first, that the business administrator, Drew, um, possibly do the presentation of the complete financial picture to the full board at our next workshop meeting, um, including clear breakdown of committed, assigned, unassigned capital reserve funds, realistic projections, um, not to the finance committee, to the full board, so that every member at this table has the same information. Every board member doesn't have the ability to be at every finance committee, and I know they're recorded, but the information that we get at workshop, I think needs to be clear. It needs to be undeniably the the public needs to know
072what's happening with the budget. Um, I do think that the board should also commit to a formal conversation about what level of unassigned fund balance we consider the minimum responsible floor, and what specific actions we are going to take to protect it. Um I have another 4 years to sit on this board and I don't want to watch us there's a pattern and we're we're continuing and I don't I don't we need to make some changes to have that turn around. So the residents of this district trust us with their money and their schools. They deserve a board to ask hard questions, verify the answers and tell them the truth even when it's an the uncomfortable truth. So thank you. Do we have any other board comment? Oh, go ahead. Thank you. Um I've been
073giving a lot of thought to the budget being on the finance committee again. And it's year after year we go through the same process but we don't plan for the future. So I have mentioned this before in meetings. February 7th, 2023 the Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn and I don't know how to pronounce her last name issued a historic ruling in a Pennsylvania school funding case declaring the Pennsylvania school funding system was unconstitutional. So what's happened since? The 2024 budget created a new adequacy formula formula and directed a recurring 494 million exclusively to underfunded school districts. The 25-26 budget signed in November 25 after months-long impasse increased education funding by more than 900 million including 565 million distributed through the adequacy formula once again. It also included 175 million in cyber charter school reform, saving
074public schools an estimated 178 million long seen as a drain on district budgets. But what hasn't happened? The legislator has not passed a comprehensive long-term reform plan. The Pennsylvania House passed House Bill 2370 in June 2024, which would have codified the Basic Education Funding Commission 7-year plan into law. But it's stalled in the Republican controlled Senate. So what can we do? Here's what I think we could propose. Let's join together with Montgomery County school districts in a collaborative effort to require the state legislator to act. Individual school districts should regularly lobby their state Senate and representatives for reform through the use of resolutions and direct communication for district specific needs. Communicate with our community that this ruling is meant to relieve the burden of paying property taxes to pay for public education. Ask the community
075to also work to communicate with our representatives that we want action. We don't want them sitting around not being financially responsible with our tax dollars that are coming from the state. We passed the naming policy tonight, which is all well and fine, but we do not have a capital improvement strategic plan. So if you would decide to name something on the campus of the Upper Perkiomen School District, we have no way to monetize what that gift would be. My suggestion is using the data from the July 2023 KCSBA district-wide facilities facility study, we need to develop a multi-year plan to address priority issues in fundable phases. This will take commitment and intentional decision-making. We have untapped resources within our community, but we have lost trust and that needs to be restored through transparent communication. A
076strategic plan of this nature requires input and buy-in from all stakeholders. Planning doesn't happen overnight, but it needs to start immediately. So, I've said this before and I'll say it again. Let's be bold. In summary, taking a leadership role in demanding the state legislators comply with the 2023 ruling is an inexpensive initial step. The ruling is final and unappealed, meaning that the legislators are legally required to act. Communicate to the community that we are taking the lead in this fight. Inform the community through multi-media channels how state funding reform has the potential to reduce property taxes. Ask for their help. We need to commit planning strategically to address our capital needs with funding in hand before proceeding. Thank you. Do we have another? Okay. Just following up. We like to talk. We are talkers. We
077better start doing. I've been on I've been preaching this for the last 2 years. And last May, May 19th of 2025, I sat in front of the finance committee and got on my soapbox. Now, that's my fault cuz I was actually too late. I should have made that speech and that plea back in September of '24. And most of my ideas were pooh-poohed. It's not It's not a technical word, but you know. What are we doing? We better get serious and it might be too late. I We better stop talking and start doing, folks. I don't know what we're waiting for. The public has now been informed. We We better do our jobs. It's one of our three main jobs is fiscal responsibility. We are failing this community. And you can do what you got
078to do and laugh at Peg and make fun of Peg and she's just old and cranky. You go right ahead. You better wake up. Thank you, Kate. I'll follow up with old and cranky, also. I've said that a few times over the past few years. I've also said a few other things over the past few years. We, as a district, need the state and the federal government to improve our funding. As you said, they made the decision a couple years ago. We need to have our representatives do the right thing for us and give us better funding. Now, we do have We started on improvement plan a few years ago with the KCBA study. And we have been putting things together um on that. You know, we've started the roof replacements. We did some other
079projects and everything else. Um I guess it was about 10 years ago, they're working off a spreadsheet that um we were trying to do facilities repairs during the summers and if it didn't get done one year, it flowed to the next year. And if they didn't get that year, it got done the next year. It got pushed to the next year. And if they didn't get that done that third year, well, that's why we had problems at the high school. I'm watching my language here, so Yeah. Um you're correct. You know, but at the same time, you know, we drew down the budget over the past few years because of circumstances that were going on at that time. And because there was no long-range plan at the time. I think we have made considerable progress
080over the past few years. And I think we'll continue to make progress. But we need to get, as you said, outside assistance from this. We cannot lay it on our taxpayers, and I've been preaching that for years. So, who's going to head up the committee to start the signing the letters and getting the people behind us? You know, um and on another topic as far as attending other committee meetings, all the policy meetings, and all the other meetings. I'm sorry, but I will not attend every policy committee meeting. I won't attend every committee meeting for all the other subjects. I have a job. I work into the evenings most times. There are times when I come here at the last minute, and when I leave, I go back to work. So, I'm sorry, but I
081cannot be at every meeting, and I shouldn't have to be at every meeting. We have competent people on all these committees, and they are doing their should be doing their due diligence during those meetings. You know, and then bring it back and have give us the details. And if we have questions, we should go back and ask more questions. You know, so that's it. And as far as the pride flag, that was set up 2 years ago. I'm not going to discuss it anymore. Uh just just to uh speak again, Keith, to to your comments. I do see some progress with the the uh the renovations and whatnot, but there's no way we can do it without sitting down and doing it in a comprehensive plan takes time. To sit sit down and phase it
082over a period of years and also looking to those external sources of support. We have talked about, you know, the alumni that we need to have an alumni association that takes pride in their education they received here, takes pride in being part of the Upper Perkiomen School District, but that really has not taken taken off. With with doing a plan and having pieces of it in place and having the stakeholders actually learn about what our needs are, that is how it's got to be a capital campaign. It has to be a capital campaign and to do a capital campaign, it has to be done in the right planning and just looking at that that report from 2023 and what the facilities requirements are for renovations and repair is not the way we can do it
083because we've been we deferred the roofs till next year because waiting for the grant that they may may come to fruition in the fall. But but this is just taking one step after another rather than looking at the whole picture and saying in year one we do this, in year two we do this and and these are the funds that have to come in and these are the funds that we're going to go. It's a complicated process, but let me tell you having worked in education fundraising for all the years that I did, this is how it's done. You have to have a plan that goes over multi-years and look at the people and the organizations that can support and not rely so wholly on the state and the little bit of federal money we
084get. And like I said in the beginning, holding our legislators accountable for helping us with this the the you know, we Senator Penny Penny came Pennycock came here uh we didn't ask her any questions. She gave us her overview, but really we didn't get any good information about what she was doing to push along education reform. So, that's we and like Peg said, we need to start now because I do think we're in a crisis situation, and if we don't start now, we're going to be in this situation next year, same thing with the budget, and looking to raise taxes again, and and we just need to have other ways to bring money in. I don't disagree, but the problem is for the past 8 years, we've been reacting to what was done before because
085of what we were committed what we what the board committed to us years ago. You know, when when they had the this the last time I'll ever say this, when we had the middle to school debates, I was out there and I said, "I'm not against it. I'm not for it, but if you do it, have a comprehensive plan." We never had a comprehensive plan. So, that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned. I will I will try not to say that again. So, we are paying for what was done before us. We're paying for the sins of our predecessors. Correct. But we need a comprehensive plan now. Get there. I just want to say too that, you know, I know the middle school is a sore subject with the community and, you
086know, um but what's happened in the past 5 years, the decisions that were made to not raise the taxes, to take the money out of the fund, has been a ongoing over the past 5 years to not raise taxes at all in 2021-22, that was huge. And to take that money out, that was a big decision. And I'm not saying, you know, hindsight's 20/20, and no one's no one's saying like you know who did what, but it's it's been a it's been a pattern over the past 5 years that the deficit is growing. The revenues are not there, and the spending has gone up. It just doesn't it doesn't equal up, and it's going to keep in that pattern until something changes. Like something needs to change, whether it be you know, state representatives, federal
087government, which I don't think that's going to happen, or raising money, or I mean, not immediately. Right. Yeah, we could pray all day for that. That's not going to help us right now. There's a reason why I pushed 701 through for that change, folks. And I shared with all of you Blue Mountain's Legacy Group. Somebody give me the green light to start working on that. Somebody give me the support to start moving on that. Because if we're going to and I'm now focusing on athletics, but if we're just if we're going to try to upgrade our athletic facilities, that's going to be outside funding. I don't know how else we're going to do it. So, somebody give me a green light, and I'll run with that. Peg, I don't think I I don't know which
088ideas exactly you were referring to that were um poo-pooed as you um but you're I I believe you were the one who first talked about I don't know about first, but you brought up the 4-5 center and maybe the Ed Center and things we could do with that. And um there was a facilities meeting on October 27th that had a very lengthy presentation that went into a lot of detail about why those two ideas were sort of debunked through the numbers. So, I just wanted to bring that up. I I don't know what all ideas you were talking about having been poo-pooed, but those two weren't poo-pooed. They were looked into. It's disheartening that, you know, you know, okay, I I I want to believe the facts and figures we were given on all of
089that, but we better figure out what we're going to do with the empty spaces at 4 5, cuz that is wasted space. And if we can't find a way to capitalize financially on those empty spaces, then what the heck? I mean, we you know, we get we get we we better get start moving on this. And And the innovation fair, what what is coming out of that? My understanding the reason for the innovation fair was to come up with creative ideas to help us fiscally. So, you know, where are we going? What are we doing? Talk a lot. Yeah, we do talk a lot. I think everybody understands that a school district moves at a snail's pace. Unfortunately, well, a lot of it. All right, well, I just because I need I feel the need
090to just comment, Monica, on on your budget observations. So, in '21, um when most people were still in the midst of COVID, is the reason that there was a zero tax increase. That's That's the All right, just let me finish. Let me finish. And the money that was taken out taken out was because of the plan that we made because of all the disrepair in boilers and air handling units and um cuz there there's a list a mile long. And all of And facilities vetted all of the things to do with that. And how we used a Giza program to um make our facilities more efficient um with our LED lights. And we tried to pick low-hanging fruit so that we would get paid back from that in savings on electricity and oil. And it's
091my turn. And yes, we worked really hard to get that. So, I just want to make sure that everyone understands that it wasn't like we took $4 million out and just spent it on candy. We didn't. It was a thoughtful plan. And that plan is part of why you have roof plans. It's why we had the M-word in the high school. And now we won't have the M-word in the high school because we spent millions of dollars. And And literally the pay the way we did that was so we could have the payback. Even though the payback is not in millions of dollars every year, but we're also getting all of those gains with it. So, I'm just I'm very protective of the things that we have done. And yep, I agree. This budget is
092horrible. Horrible. And And it And it wasn't because we didn't charge taxes during COVID. It wasn't. And on that Keith said it already. I'm not going to say it, but that's what the problem was. That started the problem. Okay? So, Sorry, just one last add-on for the budget process. The budget process has been getting refined for the past few years. If you look back further, we had budget swings that were five, four, five, seven, eight million dollars back and forth each way. You know, now it's very It's getting very small. Okay? We are refining it. It has been refined over Again, my point of not of saying that was pointing out that I, as a new board member, went back to look at I just did the past 5 years. I don't because COVID, I
093know messed things up. But, I'm not pointing fingers at anybody about any decision that was made. I'm sure nobody made a decision that was like, "Oh, we're just going to use all the money." But, as you're saying now that it's was swinging back and forth, the point is is it's not swinging back and forth now. 5 years, it's going, you know, it's going that way. And all I'm all I'm trying to do is point out you know, being new here on the board, I'm not a new I'm I'm I've been living in the community for 20 years. This is a new, you know, understanding the budget. I think people look at, you know, they see a headline and it's 8.68 million. They don't under They don't understand where it is, where, you know, but looking
094at an overview and a pattern of where it's going, all I'm suggesting is that we make some decisions. I And again, to policy meetings, I I um just committee meetings in general, everybody can't be at them. So, my suggestion was just that the work What we What we share at the workshop is super important for the people who can't be there. And they need to be thorough. They need to Those Those reports need to be thorough and with all the information so that a board member who can't be there, Keith or Paige or anybody, feels like they have the whole understanding of what's going on. Because I think sometimes I just don't want to rely I don't as as as a as board member, I don't want to make decisions on the turf, on anything,
095without understanding thoroughly what is going on with the with the budget. And I feel like that's happened. I feel like I was on facilities, we talked about the turf, there was you know, we have this money earmarked, and it seems like a And now I'm looking at the budget and the overview and everything, and now I'm We had talked about that. We talked about like maybe not doing both fields, maybe just doing Cheney Stadium cuz it is a safety issue. So it has to be done. But maybe Tribe doesn't need to be done. Maybe we need So those are the kinds of budgets and I'm not So I'm not pointing fingers. I'm just highlighting what I found that I was surprised at. A 5-year pattern of a des- a growing deficit and a shrinking general
096fund. That's That's all I'm trying to highlight. Economy, I mean and it's not a board decision. The revenue that comes in and the reve- We're in charge of the revenue that goes at you know what we pay, but we're not totally in charge of the revenue that comes in. So woulda coulda shoulda, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that it's it's in a precarious situation right now and right now is the time that we have to make We can't just look at the budget. I also think we should be looking at the budget in a 3-year time span as opposed to looking at next year's budget. We look at it like this. We need to look at it and because those patterns you would see those in the in a in a It's just
097I didn't want you to think I'm not I'm not saying you guys it all started in 2021. I It's been going back and forth. So as a new board member I just wanted to share that cuz I think it's important for the community to know just the high-level overview of what's going on. That's all. I Maybe it's worth our efforts. You know, we always throw around the word transparency. Maybe we need to start putting more information in the Town & Country. I mean, a couple months ago you started that UP Get to Know UPSD. Well, maybe we need to start putting some information out in the T&C and and start being transparent. And just educate Just educate the community on how this all works and you know, Monica just mentioned about federal and state funding.
098That is shrinking as we speak. I just read a headline the other day that looks like the Feds are going to be cutting federal funding to schools again. Yeah, it's we got to figure it out. So, let's communicate with the community and thank goodness for the folks that are here tonight and who are watching, but let's be transparent. Anyone else? And Monica, that's fine. I just wanted to clarify. Yeah. It's a historic All right, I will call for a motion >> Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Hey. Meeting adjourned. Thank you so much.