001Hi, Kim. Can you hear me? Yes, I sure can. I just had to unmute. Thank you. Thank you. That's Test That's All right. Hi everyone. Uh being that it is 7:03, if the clock's right, today uh we're going to start this meeting of the Upper Perky and School Board. First of all, I'd like to have a pledge of allegiance. If you would all stand, please. I pledge algiance 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. Justice. Thank you. Mr. Bishop, could I have a roll call, please? Sure. Director McCormack, present. Director Shmmet, here. Director Chaffrani. Director Cunningham here. Director McCarrick here, Director Fluki here, Director Prago here, Director Bieber here, and Director Penny Packer here.
002Thank you. All right. Now, I'll introduce our staff that we have in today. Um, it's kind of empty at the board table today. It should be pretty quick. So, we have Mr. Bishop, who is our business manager, Dr. Fina, who is our assistant superintendent, our esteemed attorney, Kyle Summers, because he's always esteemed. Dr. Roach, and that's everybody at the table. Okay, I'm going to move on to the board president's report. I have a bunch of things here. Uh, first, graduation, which I'm sure Alan will cover really well. Uh, was great. No thunderstorms, no Canadian wildfires. Uh, I'd say it turned out really well. It was a little hot, but it was okay. Um, the only thing I wanted to mention, and I didn't think of it until later, was we forgot to have all the
003kids that are going into the military, uh, stand up. So, and the reason I thought of that was because after graduation, I went to Ruth Padilla, who is our junior class representative, and I asked her if she was going to be at tonight's meeting, and she said, "No, I'm going in the army." I'm like, "Oh." So, anyway, I just if we think of it next year, Mr. Flanigan, I see you back there. That would be great if we did that. Um, I had a chance to pass by the new Herford sign and thanks so much for Herford PTFS for pitching in a donation to cover what insurance didn't cover. It looks great. Uh, last week I had the honor of introducing our own Angela Chob, who is our career and college readiness coordinator. She was
004the recipient of the Upper Perk Chamber of Commerce's Perk Up for Education award. It was welld deserved and we should all be very proud of her. She's awesome at what she does. Okay. Uh last but not least, um our school board is facing many significant issues right now that will impact the long-term economic viability of our school district. First, we are negotiating a successor collective bargaining agreement with our teachers union. The outcome of those negotiations will have the most significant impact on our budget since teacher salaries and benefits represent the largest percentage of our budget. Second, as part of our negotiations process, we are legally required to adopt five section at least up to five section 1502 paper holidays prior to July 1st, which if impro approved would shorten the length of an unlikely work
005stoppage if one is implemented by our union. We're hopeful that the parties are close enough to a resolution that this will not occur. This modification to the calendar that's on tonight's agenda will not have an impact on students, parents, or the community. Third, with respect to the status of the district's finances, in a perfect world, our finance committee would have recommended the full 4.9% tax increase to obtain the greatest assurance of fiscal prudence and reduce our deficit more than originally planned. However, after careful consideration, the board reduced that recommendation to 3.5% which you'll see on the agenda. While this adjustment still leaves us with a projected deficit, reducing it from 4.6 million to 4 million, it reflects our ongoing efforts to balance difficult priorities. As was evident from the comments made by board members during
006our finance committee, both those attending virtually and in person, we are facing an incredibly challenging financial situation. We recognize that our community has experienced periods of high taxation in the past and we have at times chosen not to raise taxes to ease that burden, particularly on those on fixed incomes. Fourth, our collective goal is to be fair to our taxpayers and to our teachers, both of whom we deeply value and appreciate. At the same time, we must also address our structural deficit in a responsible manner. Unfortunately, these goals are often at odds with one another and impact our different constituencies in differing ways. We can't make every constituency happy during a challenging revenue stream. We appreciate the community's understanding and continued engagement as we work through these challenges with transparency and care. Um, with that,
007I will turn it over to Dr. Roach for his report. Thank you for the opportunity to give the report tonight. Uh, yeah, you already stole some of my thunder as you uh, as you shared there. A couple things. Thanks. That's okay. Uh so the first here uh is a uh this is uh Mrs. Trib at at the uh breakfast the other day part of the chamber with the perkup award. So we were able to be there to support her and uh and the work that that she has done being recognized uh in the community with the relationships that are built and the redesign at the uh at the high school level with the getting students involved and out into our program. And again, as you've heard many people say, these relationships are not don't exist
008in every school district that have such a strong uh connection with the chamber and the local community. So again, we appreciate it. Uh and happy to celebrate her. Couple other highlights here. Uh the eighth grade farewell dance, farewell from the middle school headed on to the high school. So this was the other night. Um and we wanted to share a couple pictures from from that that night. also uh from Special Olympics that we we held uh on campus here. A great opportunity uh on a crisp morning, I guess we could say, uh for our students to come out and uh and have our staff participate. Parents, community members were there as well. It was a great uh a great event there uh for all of our students and and had a chance to uh to
009support them and cheer them on. I also say someone helped me with the name of a gentleman that was the MC that night uh that at the Special Olympics. I think it was Kieran. Thank you. Yes. What an excellent job uh he he did as the MC running the event having student leaders uh take advantage. And then I know he was also promoting his uh podcast or his radio show or one of those two uh that is uh that it's out there. So big things coming from Kieran in the future. So we wanted to mention that. Uh great outdoors day at the high school. and another event uh heading down to closing out the year and uh and a tradition at the high school that is continuing. I know the students look forward to it.
010Uh heading into graduation balariat some pictures from the balaria the day before the graduation walk. So this is a tradition that started a couple years ago where students get a chance to go back and walk through uh their elementary schools. I believe I'm looking at Mr. Flanigan. I believe this was the first year they added in four or five. Okay. Okay. I know it was right. So 45 was added. So they both came to 45 and had an opportunity to connect with the uh so Herford Marboro and then coming back for the uh for the 45 uh graduation walk. Again, showing that the the the students uh what they have to look forward to as well as the teachers that support and help get them where they were going. So again, great opportunities there. And
011then of course, graduation. Yeah, it does not look foggy, wildfireish, which we all appreciate. Uh it was a great uh great event um student focused and celebrating a great opportunity. So just a couple pictures here of the great student speeches and and opportunities for uh for our our community to celebrate. Um I'll again look at Mr. Flanigan. I think the 5:00 time frame was a was a hit again. Uh I know it was able to keep sta have staff stay on and and participate and everyone got a chance to uh to get going and uh and enjoy the the rest of the evening. So hopefully we'll continue to get the kind of weather we got that night. But congratulations to the class of 2025. Um so we have we they're on the website. You can
012go back and rewatch graduation if you didn't believe that someone you knew graduated. It's there again. You can watch that. and also the grad stats and so and many of the grad stats that uh that were on the website uh that were um coalated from the guidance the guidance area the counseling office at the high school uh there's a big spread in the uh town and country um that uh you can check out today's uh today's edition of the town and country rather that's free promotion yeah there you go so uh for the uh for the grad stats for again super proud of the class of 2025 couple important dates as we're getting ready is hopefully summer kicks in after tonight. Uh the Skyward back to school forms open on Monday, August 4th. That's the
013first chance to for parents to go back to go in and begin to update their forms, all electronic. And hopefully it makes for a smooth a smooth um transition. And getting those forms uh completed ahead of time will give you the clearest access into the the schedule and teacher information, which everyone wants to know about. So that's on Thursday, August 14th, grades K to 5. That's classroom teachers and and information will open up. And then on Friday, August 15th, grades 6 to 12, that information will become available uh through Skyward. Um but it's again, it's the only information that's viewable if you've completed your back to school form. So there's often a challenge amongst administrators when uh Mrs. Sh starts sending out updates every couple days who what percentage people are doing and no shock
014that the elementary schools are you quickly in the 80 90% in the high school not so good in the 50 60% until you get really close and then when the schedules hit then the numbers jump up again because everyone wants to know when they have lunch and who they have and those type of things and the bus schedules for um for next year come along at those same dates and times. Again, that's always a information that's necess need needed and necessary for planning purposes. Uh, and I'll again say it say it now. I'll probably say in August to give give the bus bus garage a week or two as when the school year starts to work out some of those kinks uh transportation. It's it's not easy to do it on on in the computer,
015let alone have it happen in real time with stops and traffic and all that. So, but that information in your bus stop uh will be available the 14th the 15th the same time as your your Skyward information. Kindergarten registration is continues to be open. Hopefully, we have as many in, but if there are other families moving in or they're going to wait till August 25th, we would encourage you to not do that. That helps with staffing. It helps with building rosters and classes and helps for a smooth transition and getting the information because some of the kindergarten orientations I'm looking at, Mr. Freeze, happen before the first day of school. Correct. Correct. So, we want to make sure that that information is out there so you can participate, meet your teacher, and have that opportunity
016to uh to be a part of that. And if you weren't quite sure what's going on at the high school, he was sharing some pictures here of what's going on just during the first two weeks. So upper left, upper right, that's the caf, that's the cafeteria with where we have a lot of storage going on. And then you can see some of the rooms, the tack tacker off the wall. This speces is already done in a couple of these areas. Um, so some of the rooms at the upper left that those are cabinets that are not going to make it the rest of the summer. They have lines on them to be destroyed. You can see some ceiling work. So, it's moving. It's moving. And um uh we're we're we're feeling good about where things
017are at this point. I think there's some hope and concern about the case work coming in at the end, but uh our team is doing everything we can to support the transition. The teachers at the high school did a fantastic job uh under the um you know, getting ready and prepared to to get things cleaned out using those last couple days. The crew was able to get in early as soon as they could. Um and uh we're off and running. So, I think right now we're at a thumbs up, but wanted to share some of those uh photos in progress with you. And um this was a recent picture, so we're going to hopefully everyone's going to have a great summer and we're going to come back on time, no problems as as as best
018we can. At least that's the goal at this point. That's it. All right. Thank you. Um since we have no student representatives to the board, we won't have a report from them. We'll move on to our solicitor's report and Sunshine Act announcements. Mr. Summers. Thank you, Madam President. Uh my report tonight is to announce that there uh for executive session purposes, the board did meet in executive session on June 17th, 2025. That was virtually for the purpose of discussing a matter of collective bargaining between the district and the upper educ education association. And again, just prior to tonight's meeting for the purpose of receiving the required annual school safety report and to discuss a tax assessment matter. Uh and by way of normal uh announcements, there are two opportunities for members of the public who
019are residents or taxpayers of the district to comment. The first opportunity is to comment on items that are being voted upon at tonight's meeting. Um and then the second common opportunity is for other matters of concern that may come before the board. Anyone who wishes to make public comment at tonight's meeting does in accordance with board policy need to sign up. In order to do so, the signup sheets are available in the back of the room. They need to be turned in prior to the start of the comment periods. Uh, and they are turned in in a box that's located next to the screen. Um, there's a time limitation of three minutes per speaker. Um, I have a little cards that I hold up indicating when you have a minute, 30 seconds left, and when
020your time is up. Um, and that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we're going to move on to some exciting presentations and discussion. First, we're going to do the UPS and WMCTC student recognition. Mr. Mr. Flanigan, come on up. What was your other name? I'm Flanigan. No, we're not saying that anymore. Gallagher. Hello everybody. Um, I'm here tonight. I'm excited to be here to uh both just stand up. Okay. All right. I'm excited to hear uh to be here to uh recognize some of our students and also uh welcome coach Mau who will speak about our track athletes and their success that they had this season. Uh but I would like to acknowledge some of our students who some of them are here tonight. Um and uh the first two that I
021would like to acknowledge are Amamiraa Vargas and Nvea Alstik who were winners of the CCAP culinary art scholarship where they both received full scholarships to Culinary Institutes of Choice through their success in a cooking competition that is basically like Chopped for um our Western Culinary students, But um it's a very exciting opportunity. I think the total is something like and they'll they'll correct me because I can't remember off the top of my head. I think it's about $170,000 in scholarship money that between the two of them they received. So this is a extremely um pre prestigious and amazing honor and we'd like to recognize them first. So if that you guys can come up. Congratulations. Let's shake hands. Thank you. Congrats, guys. And all right. And the second group would be our uh National Technical
022Honor Society inductees that received that recognition this year. Um, we had the pleasure of having a presentation in early May celebrating uh our students who were inducted into that honor society. And so if Kaden Holly, Sharon Hernandez, Leah Huninger, and Kell Martin are here, please come on up. Sorry. That's you, right? Okay. All right, man. Congratulations. The other three are not here. So, uh, let me just put them down here. Okay. Thank you. All right. So, just another I just want to congratulate our Western Center students. Um, and I'd like to introduce Coach Mau who's here to uh speak about our track and track team and their success. All right. So, um, I was very lucky. We had a very successful season. Uh, uh, collectively the boys were five and0 again in the Frontier Division,
023second year in a row, which is awesome. girls had another winning season. Uh when I first got uh became a head coach, um we couldn't win like we l were 0 and five for for multiple years. So, uh now very consistent winning. So, I'd like to talk I'll go down down the list. I'll start with Darius Reed. Uh not because at least because he's the youngest sophomore. Um he is school record holder in both the 400 meter and uh he which he broke last year and he broke the high jump record this year. Uh he did win the uh pack championship in the high jump uh which was phenomenal. He was second in the 400 meter um by basically a tenth of a second. He broke the meat record however the kid he was also
024running against also broke the meat record and beat him by a tenth of a second. So he could have been a multiple pack champion in that event uh which is pretty phenomenal. Uh he jumped well at districts but really most impressively is he improved on that and actually came in fourth at states. Uh he jumped great. Uh again as as just a sophomore, the sky's is the limit for him in multiple events. Like the high jump happens to be his best event right now, but he's right in 400 meters. He's he's he's right there. It could be he could be a a state qualifier in multiple events, which is great. Uh next one I'd like to talk about is Sammy Pedrick. Uh she is definitely somebody who, you know, as the team has improved, she
025was one that helped take it to the next level. Uh she is our school record holder in pole vault, both indoor and outdoor. um in some ways she's kind of in the in the situation who's been unlucky to be we are definitely in the top uh district not only in the state but probably in the country with pull vault uh there's a national champion as a pole valter that she had to go up against head head headtohead all winter long in against district one you know so you know the fact that she you know had that level of competition uh was phenomenal this year she finally was able to break through and become the pack champion she improved on her school record 11 foot three inches uh you know improve her school record this year.
026Phenomenal. Just a kid that at that only was great at that was also probably one of the best captains ever had. We have a very young team for the girls and the time she spent in uh really just encouraging and being a leader uh both by what she was doing on the field but also uh just encouraging them and example and everything else like that. Uh finally, and we're very lucky uh both me and and coach Dooa um to to have coached a true trailblazer in the sport. Uh Micah Keller uh that the adaptive uh wheelchair um 100 meter, 200 meter, 400 meter shot put I think discus could be added, things like that. Is it's only three years old, right? And uh because of that they had to put certain standards because they knew
027there weren't going to be as many competitors. Um this is the first year last year wasn't comfortable. We we started the 100 meter. He was a great shot put hooter. He is strong. He is one of the strongest athletes I've ever coached. The time he spends in the weight room, everything else like that. Uh he came in second last year at states. Again, they kind of put everybody together. He doesn't have use of his of his legs. The one he was going against had partial use of his legs. So, it was kind of a normally they would be in separate divisions. We just can't do that yet because they competitors. I've learned a lot. It was amazing how much I've learned about this sport over the last two years. Um, this year he put so
028much time in the 100 meter. Um, so not only was he district champion, was he state champion, he is the first athlete to achieve the gold standard and he is the state record holder in the 100 meter um wheelchair division. And not only did he break the record, he blew it away. I mean, he I I mean, I don't know. We were both there. It was one of the most awesome things we've ever seen. I mean, everybody was cheering for him. I don't think they understand what an accomplishment he did. Uh he was able at with that he was actually able to be able to try out for the parolympic team. So that is how great he he he was. So it is interesting like when you learn like you know and plus just the
029amount of of positivity he he brought to the team. Um you know we had to set up this this the throwing chair for him. The team rallied around. we could get that thing set up and tore down as fast as you could believe. We talked about some of the kids going to the military Jedi Anuri who's going in the army. I told him I said because I've been in the Army Reserve for 22 years. I said don't trust me this is going to help you, right? Like you let's getting this thing knocked in and put this the teamwork. Um I can't tell you how proud I was to not only coach Micah but to coach this team. I know I know Coach Douza agrees. Uh it's something I'll take for the rest of my life.
030Um I wish you could be here. I mean, I hope that I stay in touch with him, obviously. Um, he's going into sports broadcasting. I This is not the last we're going to hear about Micah Keller. I I I just want to say that um you know, obviously, you know, the other two athletes are phenomenal, but it's it's a rare time to be able to coach a state champion. He's multiple state champion. I mean, I look forward to his name going on the banner and on the board. I know eventually we'll get a good board, you know. Um, so that's all I have. Um, again, really, really thankful. I'm thankful to the board for getting him the throwing chair. I know that that took a little bit of money and everything else like that. So,
031the amount of support we've gotten for for him is is much appreciated. So, thank you. Thank you all. Uh so, we'll move on to public comments on action items. I do have one gonna come on up. Good evening everybody. My name is Chris Donatelli. I'm a resident of Upper Perkium School District. I'm here to speak to you against the proposed property tax increase for the 202526 budget. At the March 13th school board meeting uh regarding the upper Perkyoming Valley Library, Director McCarrick said uh made a comment. there are a large amount of economically disadvantaged people in this area. He was not wrong. Families in our community are already feeling the pressure of inflation, rising utility costs, higher prices at the grocery store. Even a $150 or $200 tax hike may not sound like much to
032some people, but for working families and seniors on fixed incomes, it makes a real difference. My take on the June 9th finance committee meeting is that there was roughly $4.6 million in unassigned fund balance. And for the public, if you don't know what the fund balance is, it's kind of like throwing your money in a um it's a public meeting. I can It's still a public meeting. Okay. So, so the fund balance is kind of like a slush fund or a rainy day fund. And then 2.6 million is coming over from the 2425 budget. That means the taxpayer has already been overcharged for the previous budget. This adds up to 6.8 million. And again, these are rough numbers that I pulled out of this meeting. I don't have they're not exact. Um, but based on
033the 0% tax increase, there was a deficit of $6.2 million, the $6.8 million will wipe that out and you'll still have over half a million dollars left in the fund balance, unassigned fund balance. After the business manager presented all this information, Director McCarrick made a motion for a three and a half% tax hike. Did director McCarrick forget about the economically disadvantaged people in this community? The school board is supposed to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars, prioritizing students and public, not the administration. No tax increase in no way negatively affects the students. Conversely, a tax increase does negatively affect the public. Now is not the time to ask us for more or ask for more money from the taxpayers. Thank you for your time and thank you school board for your service to the
034community. Thank you. Thank you. All right, that was the only one I had on action items. So, we'll move on to an approval of the agenda. Motion. Second. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. I have a first and a second. Do we have any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? And I was just going to say if anyone doesn't want to stay for the full meeting, that would be fine. Thank you for reminding me. Second. Yeah. Can Can I get a Who who seconded that motion? Thank you. Okay, good. Thanks. Okay. All right. So, um, the agenda is approved. We move on to the approval of the minutes of the May 8th school board meeting. Motion second. Okay. Do I do we have any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I.
035Any opposed? Okay. Uh we don't have anything under old business. So we'll move on to new business. Think we have anything to add yet? Uh we'll move on to the personnel report. So Molly, I'd like to make a motion to approve uh the retirements and the resonations for the personnel report. I'll second that. Okay, great. Any discussion? Okay, hearing none. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Okay. Um, we'll move on to appointments. Like to make a motion to approve the uh appointments in the personnel report. Can we Can we take them separately, please? Sure. So, just the administration then? Yes, please. I'll second that. Okay, thank you. So, I have a first and a second for uh letter A, Dr. Karen Haney, middle school principal. And welcome both of them. If I could just
036say something quickly. Uh Dr. Hane, if you want could stand up real quick. Dr. Dr. Haney brings more than 25 years of experience to our school having worked as a teacher coach and most recently as an assistant principal at Wah Hicken High School for the past 13 years which includes a period of time serving as the acting principal of Wikah Wahhen High School while the principal is out for a period of time. She is known for her student centered approach, strong communication and ability to build positive relationships with student students staff and families. Dr. Dr. Hayne is committed to creating a welcoming and supporting learning environment and she's eager to get to know the students and families that make up Upper Perk Middle School. We look forward to the leadership, energy, and care she'll bring
037to our community. Over the summer, we'll be offering opportunities to meet Dr. Haney before the new school year begins. So, stay tuned for those details coming out from central office. So, welcome Dr. Haney. Y vote yet. No, you're kidding. I'm kidding. Does anyone else have anything any comments? If not, we have a first and a second. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Okay. Welcome, Dr. Haney. I'd like to also say welcome to Dr. Haney. I had the pleasure of sitting in on uh one of those interviews, I think, at least. Um thank you, Dr. Haney, for agreeing to join us and welcome. Thank you for the invitation. very much looking forward to those. I don't know if you could hear her. She said she's thanks for the invitation and she's very much looking forward
038to it. Okay. Awesome. Okay. All right. U How about letter B? Could I have a motion for letter B? Dr. Alyssa Wallaf. Motion. Second. Okay. Any discussion? I'll turn it over to Dr. WS. Thank Dr. Dr. Wallof brings a wealth of experience as well to our district having worked as an English teacher, principal, adjunct professor at two universities and most recently as the curriculum supervisor of K to2 reading, English language arts and English language development at Pennsbury School District. With a strong background in instructional leadership, curriculum development, and datadriven practices, she has demonstrated a passion for fostering student achievement. As director in curriculum instruction at the secondary, Dr. Wallof will be instrumental in supporting our teachers in grades 6 to 12 and ensuring that all secondary students in our district have access to highquality education.
039We're thrilled to welcome her to Upper Perk and look forward to working together in advance uh and to advance the district mission and hopefully you'll be joining us in uh mid August hopefully as best we can. So welcome. All right. Welcome. So just to make it official we have a first and a second. Any discussion? If hearing none, all in favor? I I I I Okay. And none opposed. Thank you. Welcome. Welcome, Dr. Wallof. And the same for Dr. Wallof. I just wanted to say personally from me, welcome. It was great to meet you earlier and I'm very excited to see what you're going to bring to Upper Park District. Exactly. She said, "Thank you." Okay. All right. we'll move on to uh the rest of our appointments. So, I'd like to make a motion
040to approve the remainder of the personnel report, which is the professional appointments, the support staff appointments, supplemental position appointments, and the leaves. Second. Any discussion? Uh Dr. approach. As far as the coaching positions go, um, according to my calculations, it looks like we're still in need of a girls assistant volleyball. Yeah, there's still a few in the process. Yeah, girls high school assistant soccer and um just a comment about the golf. We have the two golf coaches and I would like to see continued efforts to involve more females in the golf program. Um so what you know whatever efforts can be made for that and um I would just like an update at some point on boys wrestling and where we're at with that position. Thank you. Okay, anyone else? All right, hearing none. All
041in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. I know it's hard to get yourself off mute quickly. Okay. So, they're all approved. Thank you so much. We'll move on to action items. So, Melanie, I'd like to make a motion for action item A, which is to approve you, Melanie Cunningham, as the voting delegate to represent Upper Perk at the PSBA delegate assembly in October at Kalahari. Second. Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I I I. Any opposed? And I meant I Okay. All right. We'll move on to letter B to make a motion for approving policy uh administrative regulation 915.1 AR booster organizations. Okay. Do we have a second? Just Yes. Second. Okay. We got a couple of them. Pick one. Okay. Do we have Yeah. Any questions relative to the AR? So, I have one.
042Um, in the new AR, we have a line in here for the the boost organizations to receive annual recognition. They have to submit a um plan of fundraising activities and annual budget to the superintendent by July 1st. So, if we approve this here tonight, are we going to enforce that July 1 date? We are um so right now we as part of this we started working up front uh we have a cabinet uh member back there um but we have established that core uh for the all sports boosters who will be meeting July 10th and then we will be sending out an invitation um so I think we'll miss July 1 but moving forward every year um but the spirit is before the fall sports start in August we would like to explain that process
043to them. So I think this year we'll be playing catch-up but moving forward July 1 is what what we're shooting shooting for every single year. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. All in favor? I I I Any opposed? All right. Motion passes. Next, we'll move on to a motion to approve the budget budget resolution for 2526, the three and a half mil% millage rate increase as set forth in the attachment and recommended by the finance committee. Motion. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. Uh any discussion? Are there any board members that think that this should be a different number? Just asking. Okay. I guess I would say I'm hopeful. I was hopeful it could be, but I think that we are being as responsible as we can given the circumstances. the school needs
044some some help in, you know, facilities in certain areas that we and I don't think we're being excessive. Thanks, Emily. Liz, I was hoping it would be lower, too. Well, I think we were all hoping it would be lower. Anyone else? I can kind of repeat. Oh, sorry. No, go ahead. Um, I was just gonna repeat what I said at the finance committee meeting. Basically, this is really the lowest I'm comfortable going this year. I do think we need to um be more prudent and start earlier with trying to uh keep the end goal in mind of trying to get it lower at the end of this year. But I know there are unforeseen things, but I um I think we should explore some of the ideas we were talking about at the finance committee
045and start exploring them early with the hopes that we can lower this number next year. To echo Trina's sentiments, I go back to the May meeting in finance and uh the June meeting in finance and just really I mean we have to do something beyond we we will be in the hole. We're not going to dig out of this if we don't start thinking outside the box. And I'm not saying the things that I suggested in May at the finance committee meeting is what we should do. I was just throwing out ideas, experiences that I've had in the school districts I've worked in. But we really got to roll up our sleeves, folks, or we're going to be in big trouble and we're going to lo leave future boards in big trouble. We're not going
046to dig out of this if we don't start digging in. And that means every committee has a a a part in all of this. And I've already started talking to some board members tonight about thinking about some things, but come August when committee meetings start, we better get serious about this. Talk is cheap. So, we got to seriously this is not going to go away. So, I'm hoping all nine of us can commit to the efforts. Thanks. Anyone else? Yes. Okay. Go ahead, Leo. So, um we have talked in the past about u being more proactive with our legislators in adopting a resolution that would go to our legislators both at the state and federal levels so that they understand that we um need help and support from them for public education. Uh we also
047need to have a broader communication with the community as to how we got to where we are and what we're doing to try to correct it and get us out of the hole rather than putting us further into the hole. And as Peg has alluded to in several of her um uh points made at uh the finance committee meeting, we have to look externally for support. We cannot continue to make this a problem for our taxpayers. The taxpayers and this has been, you know, named unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania that taxpayers pay for public education. We need to go to our legislators and ask them to reform how public education is funded because we can't keep asking task taxpayers to pay for everything that needs to be done. We cannot take away from
048the programs. We cannot take away from our teachers who work hard and deserve to be fairly and justly paid to take care of our students. We must look outside of our taxpayer base and find ways to have support perhaps from corporate sponsorships for some of the things that need to be purchased like the turf field. Let's think about some of the corporations who could could help us bring the money in and it's not always on the taxpayers's back. So ends my comment. And just to kind of piggyback off of that, Leah, you know that it that's what we need to do, but that will not happen overnight. Um making network connections and building those relationships is going to take time. And so that's why I'm encouraging the board to roll up your sleeves starting in
049August. And we need to put our heads together and start putting a long range strategic plan together on how we're going to get there. Uh because it's not going to get any better if we don't. We're just going to keep digging the hole. And and you uh touched on a key point, relationships. We need to build relationships within the community for showing them the need that we have and having them help us because an educated public is what we want for our community. And to have an educated public, we have to support our public schools. And it it goes back to what I said in May at the finance committee meeting. People are angry. There's a trust issue in this district. And I gave two examples back in that May meeting. So the relationship piece
050is we're not going to get it done without the relationship piece. So we again we really got to think outside of the normal and think about what the new normal looks like and uh and get at it. So, I can verify what um Peg was saying about the like EITC's taking some time to build. I think we talked about that a little bit last time. Um and also I would welcome um ideas from the community as well. Like Liz, I know, just looked up a an NFL grant that she thought might pertain to us as far as like turf fields or athletics budget, but um it looks like we wouldn't be eligible for that. But there might be other stuff out there that's similar that is outside funding for some of the things that we
051need. So if community members come across anything like that, please uh feel free to send it our way or email me directly. Anyone else? I just want to say I'm as head of finance I'm really happy to excuse me I'm really happy to see all the board members actually digging in as we need to uh do we have any other com comments hearing none all in favor I I I Do we have a roll? Do we have a roll call? Mr. Bishop. Okay. Director McCormack. I uh Director Charmitt I. Director Chaffrani. Director Fluki. I director Pgo. I Director Bieber. Director Penny Packer. I Director McCarrick. I and Director Cunningham. I it's unanimous 90. Okay. Thank you. Next we'll have a motion to adopt the Homestead Farmstead exclusion resolution for this year next year's budget. So
052Melanie, I'd like to take action item D and then also action item E to approve the the new univvest money market account as approved by finance and F to approve the bank accounts for real estate tax collection as approved by the finance finance committee. So D and F. Okay. Second second. Thank you. Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Okay, motions pass. So Melanie, I'd like to do action item G to approve uh Drew Bishop, our business administrator as secretary for the board without additional compensation for a four-year term. Uh and then also H to approve uh Megan Moyer, our assistant business administrator as treasurer for the board without additional compensation for the 2526 school year. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? hearing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? If you
053could just give me a second, Yes. So Melanie, I'd like to do letter I, which would be uh oh, approving uh the superintendent to uh hire teachers and pay the bills until our next uh meeting August uh 28th. Okay. And then also the motion to approve uh the author authorization to make the budgetary transfers uh to comply with the statemanded generally accepted accounting principal regulations. That's J. And K to commit motion to commit the fund balance for the 2425 general fund for capital projects as required by GSB 54. Second. Okay. Any discussion hearing? Seeing None. All in favor? I I I. Any? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Motions pass. So, I'd like to do action item L to approve uh the administrator for ext student extracurricular curricular gez insurance for the 2526 uh school year. And
054then M to approve the administrator for volunteer insurance plan number two for the 2526 year. and N to approve uh motion to approve the 2526 memor memorandum of understanding with the MCIU to participate in the title 3 consortium. Second. Okay. Thank you. Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I I I. Any opposed? Motions pass. All right, I'd like to do uh letter O to reject the bid received for the door security project from RJ Electric and then P to approve the purchase of the access control devices from ID ITG Lararsson Ainis LLC. What was it? Asenus. Thank you. Uh Q to uh approve the bid for door management system uh installation work to RJ Electric in the amount of $232,000 which along with P is covered through a PCCD grant. And then mo uh
055action item R to approve a 5-year contract with Tidy Up Landscaping Services. Second. Any discussion? Just to affirm, Q is no cost to the district. Correct. Correct. That is correct. It's through uh PCCD's competitive safe schools grant. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Okay. Motions pass. We'll move on to S. So I make a motion for action item S to approve a theory contract with a tier option with St. Luke's University Health Network for the athletic trainer services pending solicitor approval. Second any discussion just to be clear does that I don't want to word this that does not include the sports performance component that's correct does not does not include the sports performance okay thank you anyone else okay all in favor I I Okay thank
056Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Um like to do action item T. Uh motion to approve educational service agreement for the following student whose name is on file in the office of director of special education. Second. Okay. First and the second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I Okay. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. Um, next letter U. Motion to approve a revised 2526 school calendar. Uh, motion. Second. Any discussion? Go ahead. On the revised calendar that's on the agenda, there was one that was posted uh when this went public uh yesterday. The the attachment has since been revised. It does identify the five paper holidays as was discussed, but the um it is the exactly the same student teacher calendar as was approved in February. So the addition is all the way at the bottom.
057The attachment is in the board's hard copy uh if you need it. Um but it's the identification of the 1502 um holidays. Any discussion? All in favor? I I I Any opposed? Okay. Um we'll move on. We'll move Melanie. I'd like to uh finish out the actions here with V. Motion to approve the agreement with Pennsylvania School for the Deaf for extended school year. Uh W motion to approve agreement with Lakeside Youth Services. And then X, the motion to approve the following Christ staff additions. Second. Okay. First and second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Okay. Motions carry. Thank you. We'll move on to the financial reports. Ms. Moyer, if you would come up and help us out. Good evening. Um, attached to tonight's agenda are the May 2025 operating
058report, cash reports, payroll, and cafeteria report. Also attached is the general fund list of payments totaling 3,925,36744. Also, there was capital reserve payments totaling $7,8844 and capital projects payment totaling $13,963.15. Does anyone have any questions? Okay, because I do. Go ahead. If no one else does, I do. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Okay. Um, just a couple things. Um, do you can you tell me what the yearly budgeted amount is for the ESS Northeast? Um, for 2024 25 the budget was $857,350. Okay. And next year, uh, 2526 budget is $985,952. Okay. Thank you. Um there's three big chunks on that report. It's about 215,000. Can you tell me what period of time that is? Um it was u multiple periods of time. It was like one week in March, two weeks in April, and
059four weeks in was it five weeks in May? Okay. There was a Yeah. Okay. So there was like a total of eight weeks. Okay. And that's what we what we had for um substitutes. Yes. Okay. For teachers in Paris. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um I saw on there there's a whole bunch of different phone companies. There's MCI, there's Verizon, and T-Mobile. Do we have any thoughts on why that is? Um the T-Mobile is hotspots. Okay. So, we must have gotten a deal on hotspots. Yeah. Um Verizon is cell phones and our wireless Okay. connections and MCIs are like building primary lines. Okay. All right. Um, sorry, I have a few more. Um, check number 22786 for St. Luke's Physicians Group for $5,000. I just wondered what that comprised. I think that that's for the
060um our physician that we have that does all the physicals and Okay. like athletic physicals. Okay. that we used to. Yeah, it shouldn't be a initially. It shouldn't be athletic physicals. That's a part of the athletic training piece. My assumption it's just the it's a physician, the nurses. It's the It's the regular school school doctor that works with the nurses and the services that are Okay. So, physician. That's all it's Thank you. Um I'm assuming that McGovern Environmental is our air quality It's um it's not air quality. It's actually um grease traps and sludge removal. Okay, that was that's the waste management part of it. Okay. Um how about Pennsylvania Trust for 7500? Um that was the bill for our Gazsby 75. It's a valuation of our benefits. Okay. Um, H&L team sales for $1,000.
061Um, football socks and practice jerseys. Okay. I kind of figured that's probably what it was. Yeah. Um, how about Cradle of Liberty Council for 5500? Actually, a fifth grade field trip. Got it. Um, um, I know I've asked I think I've asked this before. The Delta T group. Um I always forget 18,669. Yeah, they're contracted special educations. Um so Gotcha. Paris. Okay. Um F. So I see there's a whole bunch of like healthcare ones. Um like foundations behavioral health for 25,000. Yeah. That's a payment for two students to go to the outside facility. Okay. Yeah. And um general healthc care had there was a 30,000 11 and then a 5,000. That's our contract of nurses. Gotcha. And Paris. We have special education Paris through them also. Okay. And um I saw in the listing U
062Barry is company but it wasn't in capital projects. Um the portion that's grant funded has has to go through general. Got it. So once we reach that amount of our grant, then everything else will go through couple. Okay. All right. That was all I had. Sorry. Anybody have anything else? All right. Thank you, Megan. All right. Thank you. We'll call for a motion to approve. Motion. Second. Okay. And last time, any discussion? And thank you, Megan. Um, all in favor? I I I Thank you. Any opposed? Okay. All right. I do not believe we have any new follow-up items. We do have Is there any peg? Is there any more papers? Okay. Okay. Um, we'll move on to public comments. I do have one. Randy Baptist, if you would come on up. All right, good
063evening everyone. I hope that you all have a restful, healthy, and rejuvenating summer break coming up now that the school year is behind you. It is particularly meaningful to be here during the month of Pride Month. And on Junth, moments that encourage reflection on inclusion, equity, and liberty and justice for all, helping us learn from our nation's past mistakes so that we can do better. Unfortunately, I've observed troubling trends at our schoolboard meetings, often from members of the public, uh, with fear-mongering and misinformation aimed at vulnerable communities, especially our LGBTQ students. Next year, opportunity uh is there to do better. Uh for example, things like pronouns, he, him, she, and her don't pose a threat. What does pose a threat um is spreading false narratives about that community. Everyone agrees that bullying is harmful, yet
064some criticize social emotional learning. Teaching empathy, emotional regulation, and social skills is essential, not controversial. You can't oppose bullying while rejecting programs designed to reduce it. You can't claim to support support diversity while attacking initiatives that promote it. Terms like DEI and CRT have been politically weaponized to create fear. I know that when uh people are talking about um you know the budget and whatnot for next year, there will be pressure to make cuts in certain places. And I just ask that you do the right thing for the right reason. Um, and don't try to use this um for political uh reasons which I've described here. Um, I hope that the events of this year have opened the eyes of some folks on maybe some of the propaganda that they have uh heard going around
065from national groups like Moms for Liberty. um and that they're really seeing what was behind some of those attacks on the EI which were actually attacks against the diversity itself. Finally, I just want to thank Sharon Baston for your courage and dedication. I was disappointed to hear that Dr. Feifer replayed negative comments about her at his last Shield of Truth meeting um and was egging on other people to follow suit. Uh Sharon, your voice is critical in guiding our community towards truth, inclusion, and educational excellence. Uh call us and we will come to show that the loudest, most divisive voices do not represent the community to the community as a whole. Sharon is not going anywhere and neither are we. We are paying attention. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, we'll move on
066to board comments. Do we have board comments today? No, I'll do one real quick. Okay. I invite everybody to the finance meeting in August and we can talk about ways to start bringing in funds for the district or writing letters to our state and federal government to increase our fair funding. Thank you. No, we don't have one in August. We are having one in September. Just to update you. Well, I'll just echo Keith and just and remind the board, we start now. You have to start now. I think I think now is the time to start approaching our legislators. The budget for the state has not passed yet. There's legislation in Washington that has to be addressed. It's now is the time. We can't wait until summer is over to start having our voices heard.
067I send an email or a letter to our representatives in Congress almost every day about something that's going on that affects public education. This is so important to let them know that we're not going to sit back and be silent about this. We need help and they are in the position to vote the proper way to help us. Thanks, Leah. Um, I just could we put that under new follow-up items as well. The resolution. Can we do Can we do the resolution before the fall? I'll work on that. I just had a bunch of things going on and I know it's on my I know and I I totally understand with uh with what's going on but uh you know there's samples out there that I think we can review and uh with Kyle's you
068know oversight we can see something that could could go from the board to uh really I mean other uh surrounding districts have done the similar uh resolutions and I think that uh there's always strength in numbers And if our legislators realize that uh this is what we as their constituents want, then perhaps they'll vote the right way. True. Anyone else? All right. Hearing none, I'd look for an motion. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. Any discussion? All right. All in favor? I I Okay, meeting adjourned. Thank you very much.