001testing. I mean justice. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bishop. Could I have a roll call, please? Yes. Uh, Director McCormack here. Director Shmmet here. Director Shrani. Director Cunningham here. Director McCarrick here. Director Fluki here. Director Prago here. Director Bieber here. And Director Penny Packer here. Okay. Thank you. Um, I'd like to introduce the staff at the table. So, we have Mr. Drew Bishop, our business manager, Georgie Fischer, our um HR director, Dr. Fina, our assistant superintendent, Kyle Summers, our esteemed attorney, Dr. Roach, he always gets esteemed. Uh and also our student represent our student representatives, Ruth Padilla and Chris Montes. Uh board president's report, just very short. Uh went to and I'll let Alan probably has pictures, so I'll let him do it. Uh just wanted to mention that we did dedicate the 45 gym floor
002to Steve Ruby. Um it was a a very nice event. I got to meet him. He was very very sweet and uh so I'll I'll let Alan go on with that and welcome everyone. Thanks for coming. So I'll turn it over to you Dr. Rich. Thought you were ready. Thank you. Let me uh get in slideshow mode here. All right. Thank you very much, Mrs. Cunningham. It's good to see everyone here this evening. Um excited to see some students get recognized tonight as well as um Mr. Living Good and your budget presentation. Been waiting for it patiently. Um this month's report is fairly quick. Uh just a couple of acknowledgements. Sixth grade middle school band students represented Upper Perk at Bandfest. So we want to make sure that we continue to remember we're one of
003the uh music cities. So we want to make sure we continue to support that. And then Upper Perk High School Spanish students had a chance to do some dancing. Chris, are you in that picture? Yes. Did you want to Did you want to show us anything that you learned? Okay. All right. Um, and this is Thank you again with another round of uh student tours at our various uh locations. I do see a board member in there somewhere. Yeah, you see one? Yeah. Yeah. So, we again, we appreciate the the opportunity for our local businesses open their doors, have our students come in and get a chance to uh to explore the different things that are going on right in their community, which they normally wouldn't drive by. I just realized where US Tape was
004when I went on one of these tours. I'm like, it's right over there, right over the hill. Like now I see it when I pass the OWA there, but never heard about it, but never really knew where it was. So, I took that tour last time with them. So again, we really appreciate the community and all the work that perk up and I know the high school continues to uh to support the work and and coordinate this and all of our chaperones that that go out. Great opportunity as uh as was shared from Mrs. Cunningham. Uh coach Ruby Court is dedicated at the fourth and fifth grade center which was actually their home court when this was the high school. We had a great ceremony uh recognizing the uh 6465 Bucks champions and um Mrs.
005Penny Pecker was able to uh to speak as well as uh I was able to kick it off and then we heard from some of the captains and there were some very interesting stories, you know, about the uh um not only just Coach Ruby. I wish I would have known ahead of time because I would have came out with the whistle and blew it and said hit the line like they said, but uh there was another story that was telling someone's life story all based upon the impact that a coach had in high school, which I think a lot of us can have that same reaction if we we think back. So, the family was very appreciative. Got lots of lots of thank yous, lots of appreciation. Um, and it was a great uh event.
006It was, as I said to Mrs. Penny Peek at the event, it was similar to when we host the 50th graduation. Seeing people come back and haven't seen each other in a long time. It was really really a touching piece and kind of regground you in in what we're doing. You know, sometimes kindergarten is where where you get grounded when you're having a bad day and you walk by, but this was another one of those days when you realize it's what what we do every day uh has impact long out. So, I did have some pictures for them. I knew you were um our uh our our music program did uh have a visit. They did a UP here on the on the beach there in Virginia Beach. So, I want to share that everything
007music festival uh went very well. So, we appreciate that. The boy appreci I know they appreciated the board supporting that um when they when they had a vote for it. But again, a great opportunity for our students to get out and represent Upper Perk. um speaking with Miss Malone. She wanted us to make sure that everyone knew that Upper Perk Transportation Appreciation Day is coming up in April 23rd. And I said, "Send me over some pictures." She's like, "No problem. We're right over. We some of our drivers that are out there every day um often a thankless job as we know through some tough times with COVID and all that kind of stuff. Our drivers are really the backbone and um you know, often think of them as our own even though they're with Christ.
008Uh but they really do a fantastic job and I want to make sure that we recognize them and we'll continue to promote that out on April for April 23rd. So any way uh that we can uh continue to recognize them and support and let them know that they're always hiring. So they're always happy to to join in there upcoming uh Artsfest. So we've continued to enhance this. It's almost May, right? It's right around the corner. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, May 678 at the middle school for the K to8 programs. And you can see the highlights there. And then high school is the Thursday, Friday, 8 and 9. Um, we continue to work on parking. So, we will have transportation if you if you get there and there's no parking. We'll uh have a shuttle running from
009the high school parking lot by the tennis court area and run those back and forth to the shuttle to the middle school. And we last year we did adjust the times. Before it was, let's say 6:30 and 7:00. And we gave a little bit of time to help alleviate some in and out um but really take a chance to walk through the um the art shows for all of our schools. this is a great week um to to highlight our uh our student work and our and our the work our teachers do. So, we'll continue to uh promote that. George, I don't mean to interrupt, but I did I follow the UPHs Fine Arts Instagram page. Okay. And on the Instagram page over the past several days, they have been posting um all the work
010that's going to be submitted or that we show. It's outstanding. Um, so I would encourage anybody to follow that page and you can see all of the work and it's got, you know, the students names as well, so you can see what what kind of amazing uh sketches and things folks are doing. So great. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. Um, before I move on, I'll just will add that last week I did finish up my listening tour at the high school. Uh, there's two people here that got into one session at least, if not two. Um, and it was a great opportunity. one one day we didn't have have anyone but the other days we definitely had some and had 10 I think at that other opportunity and different topics and different ideas. I
011took copious notes, shared it with the administration. Um still issues with uh bathrooms and water and um being late. We don't understand why students may be late to school. We're not that forgiving. So good good conversations. You guys any any feedback? I'm sure Chris would provide feedback rather than dance, but all right. Well, we appreci I appreciate you guys showing up and and and and speaking as well. Um and then, uh kindergarten registration right around the corner, right? So, registration takes place now. U we're continuing to uh to welcome all of our students in. So, yeah, it's kind of a full full cycle there and we're already aware of graduation date and time, so we won't dwell on that. So, I think that's my report. Yep, that's the report for this month. Thank you. That
012was a good one. All right, we'll move on to our student representative to the board reports. Okay. Um, we wanted to start off by mentioning some events from March. The junior class had three fundraisers last March. We started off with uh a Chick-fil-A fundraiser during lunch. We then followed the next week with a bake sale during the college and career night at the high school and then we finished off the last day of March um with a dine and donate from Toscos which all were very successful. Um, college and career night like of itself was really good. We had um different parts of the for armed forces show up. We had um schools like Lehigh Valley and I think like Millersville, I might be lying. Um, show up and speak to students. There were different
013breakout rooms that students and their parents could talk to individuals one-on-one. So, a lot of people were able to get treats not just from the bake sale, but we had complimentary waw wa like refreshments and snacks and it was a good way for the students and their parents to outreach and see different opportunities outside of high school. Um, we also have powderpuff teams are getting ready for their games nearing the end of the school year now that we're in the fourth mark period. Um, and the rest is for Chris. So, for juniors and seniors, prom is coming up on the 25th of April. Last day to buy tickets is tomorrow. And graduation practices are also going to be coming up. Graduation is early in June. And also, athlete signing day is also coming up. Man,
014a few words. Thank you. Thank you both. All right, we'll move on to Mr. Summers and our solicitor's report and Sunshine Act announcements. Thank you, Madam President. Uh my report tonight is just to announce that the board did meet in an executive session immediately prior to tonight's meeting for the purpose of discussing a matter of labor relations involving the district support staff and a matter of litigation involving a tax assessment appeal. And that concludes my report. Thank you. All right, we're going to move on to presentations and discussions. Thank you. First off, we have some high school winner student athletic recognitions. Mr. Kursw, you want to come on up? Good evening. Uh this past winter, we had some great individual success from some of our student athletes, and I'm uh very appreciative of the board
015to recognize those athletes. Tonight we had four athletes who were considered pioneer athletic conference champions. Those are uh events that we hold at the end of each regular season uh for in our individual and team sports. And one of those athletes was also a district wrestling champion this year. So uh all of our coaches are here tonight. So I'm going to call them up to say a few words. Our first coach is Omar Prada who's our high school girls head wrestling coach. Yeah. Guess the girls are coming up. Let's go. Um, so I thought I was second, but uh, so I will be uh trying to be short and sweet. I have a banquet on Saturday, so this is a good warm-up for me. Um, but I did also want to recognize that I did
016hear that Millersville might have come. If they did come, shout out to Millerville if they did not. I apologize. Um, I would like to take this opportunity uh obviously to commend uh two of my uh remarkable young women that I have here uh sitting there. They don't want to stand up. They're a little shy. Um they were the first uh Upper Perk uh girls pack champions in school history. Uh they were uh their achievements are uh obviously a testament to their hard work and commitment uh to the sport. Uh Nadia Ventrella uh the first one right there um in her second year in the program with me uh in I would say those two years. This year she really matured um in many ways. She was this freshman just starting out and uh had a
017lot of uh a lot of things that uh she was trying to focus on and this year she truly grew in many ways and this is a showcase to her winning the pack championship showcase exceptional athleticism. She's just uh through and through a tough competitor. Um so Nadia Ventrella was right there and then obviously the other one is Kira Seville. Uh her first year with me um demonstrator of skill and resilience. Uh she's just excited all the time. She's always excited. She's works tremendously. Uh just tremendous in the during season and in the offseason. She's uh just a a a workaholic. She'll go anywhere if you need her somewhere. she a tournament in the offseason, a tournament in season, a practice on the inse, she's just wherever wherever you want her to go, she's there.
018Um, so again, both of them just fantastic. And then I just wanted to just quickly talk about uh the team and in our second year um we had uh a good season. Uh we we tried we're striving to establish our our system and understand just what we needed to do this year. Um we have nine eighth graders that are coming up this year. Um skilled eighth graders. Uh so next year um our team is poised not only to contend in the pack, but we're ready to compete in district one for a district one championship. And easily we want to I don't say easily but we were car potentially a top 10 in the entire state. Um that's how tremendous uh this program has has come in the past two years. I'm excited. Um offseason next
019week, uh there's a tough tournament in the offseason called War at the Shore in Wildwood. We have 18 girls uh going to that uh with their parents. We're all going up to Wildwood, New Jersey on Thursday and uh ready to wrestle on Friday. Um, so I'm truly excited and I thank you guys uh for giving these girls the opportunity uh for this wrestling program. No matter what happens with this team, I believe that uh they're destined for some good things in the in the future. So hope that was short and clear. Let's give them to him now. Our next coach is uh Brian Kowski who is our head boys and girls swimming coach. Good evening everyone. Uh, first I'd like to thank uh the district administration for all of their support for I also coach
020the water polo team um as well, but for the support of both our water polo team and our high school swim team. Uh, and I'd also like to uh thank the school board uh for your support of our high school uh water polo team and swim team. Without any of that support, none of this could be possible. Um, as you're well aware, um, well, let me also say, um, I do appreciate, you know, I I I try to communicate, uh, our success throughout, uh, the season, and I do want to also thank the school board for their very kind comments. Um, uh, when I do communicate with all of you, I again, that's appreciated by me. Um, as you have probably heard from me before because I've stood here, it takes a tremendous amount of
021time, effort, uh, to swim two laps or four laps fast. I I don't think people understand. I think Andrea does because she had a daughter who swam. Peg, I can't remember. I think you swam. No. Oh, you coached. So, Peg knows what I'm talking about. I don't know if there's any other swimmers on here, but the hours that go into being able to swim, you know, four laps in under a minute is unbelievable. And I don't think people quite have that concept of uh the time that's put in and to do that. Ellie uh Smith, who is our 100 freestyle pack champion uh this year. She is the first girls pack champion for Upper Perk since the pack was formed about 20 plus years ago. Uh and we've had some very good swimmers uh who
022have come through the program. So, it is quite of an accomplishment. And you know, we're competing with the big boys and girls. I mean, we're competing with the Spring fors and the OJ Roberts and uh the Mactton, and we're just a small fish in a very big pond, yet we seem to get it done um every year uh both at packs, districts, and even states, you know, on the boys and the girls side. Um so, this is just it's a huge accomplishment for us. Um and I want to bring Ellie up to present her uh certificate. make sure uh and again just I want to finish by saying thank you all for your support. It is u more appreciated than you possibly know uh each season. So thank you. Yeah. And and I'd like to
023say that any coach that would like to email us as much as you do, which is great. We always know what's going on. It's awesome. Thank you. Last but not least is Kyle Kemer, our high school boys assistant wrestling coach. Hello everyone. Uh thank you for giving me a few minutes to uh come up here and talk about student athlete uh Shawn Murray. Um Shawn is the best wrestler on our team and he is the hardest working kid on our team. Um his work ethic is certainly second to none. Uh which is why he was named a team captain of our team as a sophomore. Um he also spends a lot of time in the offseason working to improve himself. Um travels around to the best wrestling clubs in the area competing against top tier
024talent uh on a regular basis. Um his efforts don't stop on the wrestling mat. Uh he also puts in lots of work in the classroom. Uh maintains a 3.6 GPA and has enrolled in numerous AP courses. Um Shawn completed his sophomore campa campaign this year with a record of 36 and 8. Um this season 32 of his 36 wins were bonus point victories which is extremely impressive. Um he was also a uh pack conference tournament champion this year for the second year in a row. Um I think he may be the first wrestler to win it twice. Hasn't been around that long. Um uh the postseason this year, uh Shawn earned himself a district championship. Uh he avenged a loss from just a few weeks prior with a dominant score of 12-2. A very impressive
025win. Uh he went on to the regional tournament the next week and took third place there to qualify for the PIAA state championship tournament and made his first trip out to Hershey this year. Uh his career record at this point after two seasons is an impressive 73 and 18. Um as I already mentioned, uh Shawn is a very driven individual. Um I know he'll be back, he'll be working hard in the offseason and I fully expect to be here again next year, uh telling you about his successes. Thank you. Mr. Kurswick, could we hit all the student athletes with their certificates for a quick picture? Yep. Yes. Thank you. One more round of applause for our students. Hopefully, if it stops raining at some point, we will have some spring athletes and teams here uh
026in the next month or so to get to get honored. So, thank you again. Thank you. All right, we're going to move on to the 2526 uh Western Montgomery Career and Technology Center budget presentation by Mr. Dave Levengood. Mr. Ralph, you put the screen up. Oh, yeah. You can if you don't want to stay for our lovely presentations here, you're welcome to go. We'll give them a couple. Sorry. Next time. No expected flaws, too. Yeah. Right. I think we're clear. All right. Well, good evening. Uh, thank you Dr. Roach and the board for having me tonight. Uh, this is my fourth year, I think, coming up here to present a budget. Uh, so you're my last stop on my tour. Uh, so each district already heard this, so you're my last stop. Um, I will
027get to the budget, but I want to give a couple highlights of what has been happening since last time I was here and um, going on now. So, right now, currently, we have 50 students on co-op, uh, which is tremendous. Our goal every year is about 60. Um, we have six more getting paperwork done now. We also have 11 students shadowing at, uh, medical clinics, or hospitals, so on so forth. Uh we have a young student in early childhood education who is in dual enrollment with Shippensburg University. And if he stays, he's going to Shippensburg. If he stays uh in the program and works at a child care center in the Shippensburg area or anywhere, he gets free tuition. So a great perk for education for teachers. And trust me, when he's on the market,
028if I'm not hiring, you guys should because he's really good. Um, last year we had all all of our cause students uh who were certified, fully licensed by the time they graduated. Currently we have 10 that are licensed and others four more to go to get uh pass their state test. Uh if you have not heard, I'm sure Mr. McCerrick has shared a lot. Um but we are now the Hunter Engineering heavy duty and light duty training center for the Northeast, which is tremendous for our school, but also the community. Uh, Hunter Engineering, if you don't know, is some of the best equipment in automotive industry for um alignments, tire changes. They've invested over $500,000 into our programs uh with their equipment uh for us to give them a classroom space to learn. Also, a
029big thing is we're having a lighting project happening. Uh we're able to secure all of our thousand plus lights in the building with Pico for a dollar a piece. And luckily we're a technology center with electrical program because they're installing them all. So we're about 85 to 95% complete over the last two years. So big cost savings there. Um applications are done. We had about 309 applications. This year we're taking about 190 to 200 kids in for for next school year. Uh those should be done and released by the end of April for the students who are to get in. And the last thing I want to share is this just happened. No other school knows this. Um we did a project at Marorrow Elementary School. Uh so if you have not been over there,
030the the carpentry students put up a fake wall for this mural project or the foundation has go. It's funded through the Ed Foundation. Yeah. And Mrs. uh Stevens has been working tirelessly to find some way. Well, there's a will. There's a way to get this project up and running. So we appreciate that consistency and eventually came down to a conversation of well let's ask the western center and went from there. Yeah. So it was it was a great project. Our carpentry students have not really been off site. So this was a learning experience for them and it was a very learning good learning experience for the kindergarten kids. So I was up there the first day and I brought the kindergarten class where they heard the nails and the and the hammers and go and
031I brought them out to do a quick little field trip for them. And you know, I have a six-year-old, so showed them the drill and let them hold a hammer drill, and they're like, "Oh, it's so heavy." Uh, it was a pretty cool experience. So, I'm glad um Upper Park and Allison reached out to to get that job done. I'm glad we were a small part of that. So, the real reason I'm here tonight is not continue talking, but really talk about the budget. Uh, so, like I said, I'm going to go through this uh rather quickly. This is something I've done for a while. So we look at a fiveyear period of over the past five years what we've done uh over that five years upper Perk has slowly been creeping up to the
032most average daily attendance at the school. Um so the budget for this year excuse me we're looking at a 6.55% overall but to the districts because the amount of subsidy that we're receiving from the state it's down to a 3.26%. Um, what that means for upper perk is the last two columns there. So, it's a uh two $200,47 31 18% increase or or 9.18% increase to the overall um that's because your ADM and the kids coming is more substantial. So, this breaks it down to um what the five-year average is and your district contribution and where we're at um over that 5 years average. So, as you can see, spring forward went down, upper park went up. So, your fiveyear now is 39.21% of the students at the Western Center. Here's a district comparison. Um
033so 9.84 spring 40 overtook them so they actually went down and then upper uh pots grow went up a little bit. So this is always changing with the five-year average. This slide here shows you the comparison over the last five years. Uh so it's it's a little historical. Um Dr. have you shared this presentation at all? Okay. Uh afterwards he can share this. So you can really look through it. Uh but this is just historically what we're we're going going through. So the highlights of this budget, what what really has changed. One, we all know what is going on with supplies and demand and supply chains and tariffs and everything else. So you know, we have to budget for that. Uh steel's up, copper's up, all those consumables are up. So we have to sort
034of play the game of where we're going to be. Um we did reduce our student activities fund by 40,000. We have more students going to national competition so on. So we had to change some things. Uh we did increase the vocational education subsidy from the state a substantial amount. So Governor Shapiro has really helped career and technical education. Uh so that's made a big impact on our budget. Increase the travel for national competitions. is the next thing and our really two big ask is the assistant principal and the market value adjustments for administrative salaries. So this has been the assistant principal has been something we've been talking about for three years since I've come there. Um we lost a staff member who was a little more than a technology director when I came. Uh she
035acted a little bit more as assistant principal as well. Uh but this is something that the superintendents have supported uh and and hopefully this will help us out. Being a career and technical education center, our teachers aren't trained in the classroom. They're trained in their specialty shop. Then we send them back to be teachers. So they have 10 years to get their teaching certification. So, we're missing the piece of instructional coaching for those new teachers coming in and trying to find them and tell them, "Hey, you've been in industry for 30 years, but now you have to go back to Temple or Point Park or Penn State." It's a big shock. So, we tried to build that for them. Uh, the curriculum development is ongoing and we only have two certified administrators in the building,
036myself and the principal. So, if one of us is out, we try not to be both out at the same time, but sometimes it's hard. The next thing is a a market value adjustment for the administrative salaries. Um, when there's a transition at the Western Center, all of our positions sort of ended up the same time, same agreements, new agreements. Uh, so we looked at the market value. The Joocc selected the Bucks, Chester, Montgomery County, and Delaware County CTC's as our market. Our market is a little different than the school districts because we're not competing against the school districts for educators. We're competing against those other CTC's. So, JC Joocc selected that. So, we do a market study of that. And that's the breakdown of where that at. So, out of the 100,000, 70,000 is
037for salaries, 30,000 is for benefits. So, I hit you with a lot. I know you guys are all startled with the price tag, but let me end on this. We have really good students at the Western Center. Um, we also offset that funding to our schools. So, we received $85,000 competitive equipment grant again this year that has gone towards a robotic welder. So that's a a skill set that students in the welding program will be able to learn and take right into industry. Also, Senator Penny Cook is a very good friend of ours. Uh she has helped us tremendously at the Western Center and last year she gave us 150,000. We were able to put that in our automotive shop to upgrade the tooling benches and also buy a hybrid minivan not only just for
038the program but also to commute uh commute students back and forth places. And then this year, Christmas time, I thought it was a hoax. I really did. So, I called and asked her. Um, she I found out we received 450,000 for safety and security upgrades to the Western Center. It was a two-year process talking with her and her staff, but she found the money for us and she came through. So, this summer, all of our doors in our building are going to access control. So, no more keys. So, a big plus there. Um, we've had another successful auction. I love auctions. I'm pretty good at getting stuff sold. Uh, but we're buying a new school van off the money that was generated off that auction off of our our dead supplies. Um, we had 14
039students this year competing at Skills. That was happened last week. Uh, we had two play silver. We also had 54 students competing at states for HOSA and we had five winners there. And last year, I like to boost this. If you don't know what the NOCDI exam is, it's like the Keystone exam for career and technical, our pass rate is 95%. So, six students did not pass with proficient or advanced. So, that's to instructor's credit uh what we have down at the Western Center. Thank you. Thank you. Questions? Anybody? We all appreciate our Western Center. I know we do. I appreciate your support here. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks, Dave. Thanks for coming and presenting to us. And we did get some first time news, so that's good. First time news. Yeah, that's good. Thank you.
040Well, if I can say one thing, um, you mentioned the kids that won won the competition last week. One of the things they did was, uh, have the local fire department and some of the some of the police responded, sort of gave those kids an escort back to the school on what was it, Friday afternoon. Okay. Just like other schools do for their homecoming teams. You know, we're doing that for the Western Center students. Um, really that's that's skills, HOSA, FCCLA. Those are my state athletic teams, right? Those are my competition. So if Kade wins gold, they didn't get it for the silver, they got it for the gold. So and then also in HOSA, we have the state president for next school year. So big honor for Western. Great students. And once again, thank
041you for your support. Jeez, I gotta go, man. Gotta go pick up my son. Thanks, Dave. All right. Well, we're going to move on to schoolboard policies for first read. All right, here are the policies up for first read. Any questions? And then we'll entertain. Do we need a motion? No. Just first read. Just FYI. All right. Thank you. All right. No. Okay. Thank you. All right. We're going to move on to public comments on action items on and it's looking up from them now. I don't see any for action items. In that case, we'll move on to the approval of the agenda. I'll make a motion. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Okay. Here. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Agenda approved. Thank you. I look for an approval of the March 13th school minutes.
042Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? Okay. We don't Thank you. We don't have any old business. We'll move on to our new business. Mr. President, can I make a motion to approve the personal report in its entirety, the retirements, the resignations, the appointments, and the leaves of absence? Second. Any discussion? Yes. Yes. I'm going to steal your thunder. Congratulations to Miss Sigfrieded on her impending retirement if it's approved. I emailed her the other day and I said I was really jealous and well maybe we won't approve it. We do, but that's okay. I was kidding. And congratulations. We're We'll be sad to see you go. You've been a [Music] Yep. We appreciate you. All right, with that. Anyone else? Okay, with that, um, all in favor? All right. Any opposed? Okay, I
043guess you're allowed to go. Thank you. No, no, no. Not yet. No. Yeah. Not yet. Not yet. All right. We'll move on to action items. Um motion madam president. Oh okay. Okay. I was waiting to see if anybody else did, but uh could we do a couple of the action items together? Um item A, B, C, and D, which is the health room standing orders for A. Um the um foreign exchange student for B, the agreement with Camp Hill for C, and Mrs. Sarmid for the representative to Montgomery County IU. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? And thank you, Trina. All right, we'll move on to letter E. Madame President, can you do E, the proposal for GR solutions, uh F, the letter of intent with the MCIU for MCAST licenses, and
044G, Freed brothers for the installation of new controls. Second. Any discussion? be happy to see those controls done. Uh I know that's even better. Uh all in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, motions carry. We'll move on to the motions for once again. Yes. Motion H for Gordon Ver as contractor for the asbestous baitment project. I RJ Electric as the electrical contractor for the asbestous abatement. and Jade um John G. Marino as the plumbing contractor for the asbestous second any discussion just a quick question uh did they give a date that they would hopefully be done or the substantial completion is sometime in August hopefully before school starts. Yeah. So they're I mean as much as they can guarantee before school starts that's kind of the Why do I think it was like August 25th or
045something with that? Do you want Mike? 15. Okay. That actually that actually was brought up at one of the student listening sessions. The concern the rumor mill was we're definitely starting online and all that kind of like no no our that is the last option of all options. Like as as we presented the calendar next year if it gets that bad and we have to push till after Labor Day we want to start our students in person. That's the number one mantra. So number one mantra if anyone's writing this down correct. Got it. And as the board is aware, we still have a missing piece to this that we'd like to get approved ASAP as soon as we get it about the casework and the furniture. Um so, um as soon as we get it
046and Mr. Roarbach shares that, we'll get it to the board and uh and get it on an agenda ASAP for we don't have a delay and with this project as you know. Anyone else have any other comments? All right. All in favor? I. Any oppose? Okay, motion's passed. We'll move on to the financial reports and Miss Moyer. Good evening. Attached the the agenda are March financial reports that include the operating, the cash, payroll, and cafeteria reports. Also included is the general fund list of payments totaling 5 million $780,811.30. Also attached is the capital reserve list of payments totaling $4,27.99. All right. Does anyone have any questions? I do. Surprise. I do. Um just a a couple quick things. Um Gov Connection. I saw there's $194,000 and change um for it. I just wondered exactly what
047part of it that was. Okay. It's for the new high school laptops for the 2425 school year. It's the spring buy. Okay. All right. And um we had five listings for um Kelly Services. Yes. That is actually um $28,000 invoice that was split into the five buildings. So it was allocated okay to the um five different buildings for PTS. So the um pediatric therapeutic services. Okay. Thank you. Um there's um ESS Northeast. I see. I know those are supplies. Those are It's actually the um substitute teachers. Okay. That answered that question then. All right. Um and that was it. Okay. Thank you. Any anyone else? Thank you as always. You're welcome. Thanks. Uh, so we need a motion to approve. Second. Any discussion? Other. Okay. All in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you.
048All right. I don't think we have any new follow-up items. We'll move on to public comment. I don't think there's no extra ones in there, right? Okay. All right. We'll start with Karen Fain. You want to come on up? Okay. All righty. David Windsor. on there. You just would would you just turn the microphone on for us, please? You okay? Yep. All right. Hi. My name is David Windsor. I'm from Marorrow Township. Just make a few general comments. Um, first I just want to say I appreciate everybody at the board uh taking the time to serve. You know, it's not easy. It can be a thankless job. So, first and foremost, thank you everyone for serving. Um, I just want to say that I believe the board's role is to provide independent oversight and ask
049questions. Um, and I do appreciate those who are asking the questions about the budget, the curriculum, and the comprehensive plan. Um, I want to ask you to continue to ask your questions, provide your insight, um, challenge any assumptions, and represent all viewpoints. I know sometimes, you know, you might feel like you're alone, but I just want, you know, the board to know that, you know, you have our support. You know, people who have elected you, of course, continue to support you. Uh we all appreciate you being here. Um one thing I would ask, you know, that people that other members of the board, administration of course, to respect all uh opinions and viewpoints. Um, I don't think anyone asking questions necessarily um disagrees with the administration or um shouldn't be made to feel that they're
050putting administration down. Um, I had watched the the last meeting and I did come across that some of the questions or comments came across as not supporting administration and I just wanted to say that I appreciate people asking questions. I know I said that already. Um, and please continue to do so. And I would ask that, you know, other members of the board to respect those questions, respect those opinions. Um, because honestly, at the end of the day, asking questions means you're providing your independent oversight. You're doing what you've been elected to do. Um, at the end of the day, um, it does not mean you don't respect or support administration or other people's views. It's really the reason why you're here is to provide that insight, provide that, um, independent question and thought. So,
051that's all I wanted to say. And again, I appreciate everyone for serving and please just continue to keep up the good work. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Sharon Bastone. Okay. Uh, Sally Worth. Oh, yep. It's like okay. I really appreciate it what what David said. That was good. And uh I really appreciate it hearing the director of the Red Hill Library speak. I thought that was very informative. But I was very surprised when I learned that um the school board gives a $5,000 to that library. Um I I feel that our taxes are getting higher and higher and it's a real burden to some people to pay these taxes and uh we expect that the taxes go to the school you know um I just think that if people want to give money to
052the library you know that's their decision and they can give money to support the library. I mean, we have millions of dollars of bills for the buildings for the upkeep. Um, and even though it's just $5,000, it's $5,000. And then the other thing I wanted to say is when I got the town and country last week, I I was really upset when I saw this article um about a member of the board being admonished in a public meeting. Um that that that that just really upset me because I feel that the person that was admonished uh is a real educated person and she really, you know, takes her job very seriously and really cares for the students and the school. And uh I just think that this would have been better handled, you know, one-
053on-one, you know, rather than in in in public. So, um, I just ask that, you know, you you you be aware like of of of the ethics that the board of directors agree to work with constituents in a spirit of harmony and strive to maximum school board service in a spirit of teamwork and devotion to public education. So I just re remind you and I just thank you for this opportunity to speak. Thank you. Thank you. Uh next up we have Nora Turban. Hello Nora Trey Green Lane. Um, I just have some concerns about what we're failing to see with our own two eyes. Um, in regards to social emotional learning curriculum, everyone's favorite topic. Um, in Pennsylvania, the 2425 budget for mental health services increased by $100 million. Of that money, between 2019 and
05421, $765 million went to initiatives. And I know that looks differently and sounds differently in every district across different grade levels. I understand that. Uh substance abuse mental health services in 2016 reported that 11.6% of teenagers reported feeling depressed. So we had a 45% increase in spending in that time. And in 2016, 11% of kids were reporting depression. And then up in 2021, 22% of students were reporting feelings of depression. So 45% increase in budget, doubling kids feeling these feelings of depression, anxiety, exclusion, bullying. It's it's and I understand it's it's not only anCCL program that's contributing to these. There's external factors. I understand there's so socioeconomic issues. There's family history. There's social media. So many things are going around being thrown at these kids. I just I'm I'm upset to see that kids are
055failing to report it for several reasons, which is lost on me. I'm upset to see that we're just throwing money at these problems and kids are seeing that and they're feeling that and they're understanding that. Uh the content of the program is another discussion. I don't care if it's the cat hanging from the tree. Hang in there. If we show that to the kids an hour a day, I just don't think we should be spending tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars on these on these initiatives that are are are failing in front of our eyes. I I we don't have the solutions. I don't have the solutions. I'm just really concerned about this issue of just money being thrown around and having this be a hot button issue to just pit us against
056each other for several reasons. So on that, thank you for your time and thank you for your hard work on this board. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. The last comment I have up is Chris Donatelli. Good evening everybody. I'd like to say that I regret not or regret missing the last meeting, but I don't because I was attending my 10-year-old granddaughter's fifth grade spring concert and it was awesome. So, with that, um, I was given some direction that some events happened at that meeting and, um, so I took a look at the video and I have a couple things tonight. one, the last meeting that I did attend, at the end of that meeting, the board president made a comment about me having my camera here at the school board meeting.
057Now, I've been doing this for about a year. Um, don't know why this came out of the blue. It was almost like it was trying to rile some of the people, the bullies up in the in the audience. Um, so I'm a taxpayer. I can go to any school district in this state, actually probably the country because I pay federal taxes, but um anybody can come to this meeting and speak and they can come and video. So, I'm not sure where that came from all of a sudden out of the blue, but I'm going to make it noted that it was unappreciated. Um with that um at the last meeting there was a public rec reprimand of a board member by the president asking um for the person that uh that was asking to meet
058teachers and u why she was reprimanded for asking that question. I don't know. I'd kind of like that to sink in everybody here. Um she didn't meet with them. All she did was reach out and ask for some information and uh she had concerns about bullying and she was being stonewalled for that information by the administration. I looked into this because I believe she did nothing wrong. Pennsylvania law does not prohibit schoolboard directors from speaking with teachers. District policies set guidelines, but I reviewed policies and found nothing forbidding board teacher communication. In fact, policy 011 encourages open, honest, and respectful dialogue among board staff and community. Yet, when Trina sought insight to ensure accountability, she was blindsided by an attack, and the rest of the board said nothing. The school board is responsible for governance
059and is and if the district won't provide information, board members must seek that information however they deem necessary whe they reach out to teachers, staff, or students. This isn't overstepping. This is doing the job that you were elected to do. So I ask again, what policy did she violate? The answer is none. The board's president's public reprimand was excessive and unjustified. If the board prefers to limit direct contact with teachers, that should be clearly stated in policy, not enforced through public shaming. Also, all you board directors are all created equal. The board president has no superiority over the rest of you. The only advantage the board president has is to run these meetings according to policy. Trina should not be should be commended by for seeking transparency and accountability, not publicly shamed for trying to
060do what's right. Controlling the flow of information does not serve the best interest of students. Your time is up. Okay. Sorry. Thank you. All right. And that was our last uh public comments. We'll move on to board comment. Do we have any board comments tonight? Yes. I want to thank everybody who stood up and spoke tonight. Um, thank you very much for coming forward and for speaking out. Um, it does help us board directors to hear from you in this format. So, I really and I know it's a little scary to come up and like give a speech in this format. Um, so I want to thank you and I want to thank um a couple of you like Chris for the support. For me, it is important as board directors to talk to teachers
061and to the community and get feedback. Um, I think um, Melanie did what she thought she was supposed to do in that situation and I do think all the board directors are here for the same purpose. Um, we all love kids. We love education. We all support that. And I think I said this before to Emily that uh we definitely have different approaches to get there and um a little bit of back and forth is warranted. So I'm not on this board to necessarily make friends, although it's nice to like the people that you work with, but I'm not here to just agree with everybody and I think you all know that and Melanie knows that pretty well too. So, um, but I do thank you all community members for speaking up and for attending.
062I really do appreciate that and, um, to speak up for the whole board. Once again, I I actually can confirm we are all here for the same purpose. Um, we want what's best for the school. We want what's best for the kids. So, I hope I didn't step on any toes speaking for everybody there, but I'm pretty sure that I'm correct in saying that. Thank you. Anyone else? Sure. Um, thank you. I agree with Trina. We are here for the kids, the district, the students. Um, we're trying to do the best we can, but as far as the reprimand, um, it was mentioned during the last meeting that that was done because she had reached out to the two union representatives that were on the negotiations team. Okay, think of it this way. You're working
063at a company and you're a union shop and you're trying to negotiate a deal with your shop stewards and everything and then somebody else in the office comes over and starts talking to them and saying something, you know, and they could misconstrue that conversation as to, well, I hear what you're saying, you know, you're you're not getting this, you're not getting that, you know, let me see what I can do or Not even saying, "Let me see what I can do." But I understand what you're saying. Speaking to that union representative could give a false impression to them that they might be getting more or getting through to this board member more than we are with your negotiations team. It could cause problems with the negotiations. And we were instructed by our negotiations lawyer, who
064is not the lawyer that is sitting here tonight, the the union reps reached out to their representative and our lawyer and said, "Hey, by the way, we think you should know this." Somebody reached out to us who is not part of the negotiations team. And even we on the negotiations team would not reach out individually to those members. we would do it through the chair of the committee or through our lawyer who is representing us in those negotiations. This is not, you know, we want to slap down one individual. It's just that at any other time, this could have been a valid idea and a valid conversation, but during this period of time, it was inappropriate to do it. It was it was good intention, but bad timing. Okay, that's all I want to say
065for it. We like to be involved with the teachers. We like to go to events and talk to the teachers and say, "Hey, how's it going?" You know, what else could could the district be doing for you? But not during a contract negotiations. I hope that helps alleviate some of this issue. Thank you. Thank you, Keith. Thank you. Anyone else have a comment? I do if you don't mind. Sure. Go ahead. So, I wasn't here at the last meeting, so I wasn't able to really speak up and see or say anything based on what happened. But just to from my own personal perspective, you know, when I came onto this board, I think one of the first things I said was, "Don't put me on the negotiations team." Because my wife is a teacher and
066I didn't want any kind of optics of favoritism or playing games or whatever like that. I was comfortable letting other people handle the negotiations and being on the other side of that as part of the board. So just because there's a rule, not a rule against something doesn't mean you should do it. You know, there's no rule saying I can't go out in the middle of this room and start dancing around, throw my arms up, but I'm not going to do it because it's just not appropriate. Um, one of the bigger concerns I have though, Trina, is you stated in in the meeting last time that you were acting as a board director and you wanted to speak to the teachers. Why were you using your personal email? What are you trying to hide or
067what are you trying to keep away from everybody else? That's what I'm concerned about. I don't have I didn't have much trust in you when you started and it's just completely gone downhill. I have zero trust in you right now. So that's all I want to say. Do we have any other comments? Hearing none. I would call Sorry. I do have a shout out. We always like a shout out. Um Dr. Roach kind of uh touched on this a little uh before, but uh Miss Malone asked me to to read this for her. Uh she wanted to help celebrate our incredible team that keeps our students safe, happy, and on the move every day. Our amazing Upper Perk transportation team. On April 22nd is bus driver appreciation day. For our benefit only, I would like
068to rename it up Transportation Appreciation Day. It's not just about the bus drivers who get our kids to school and back safely every day. It's about the entire transportation team. Drivers, mechanics, office staff, managers, monitors, and all the behind-the-scenes heroes who make sure everything runs smoothly daily. Our vehicle staff, drivers, and monitors are the heart and soul of our transportation system. You make every ride safer, friendlier, and more enjoyable. We couldn't do it without you. I personally want to thank each of you for your dedication, hard work, and the care you put into every mile we travel. I want to ask our families and community members to join me in raising up our transportation staff on April 22nd. If you see a school vehicle in action, wave. If you have the pleasure of speaking to
069an outstanding Upper Perk transportation team member, say thank you. The smallest gestures truly have the longest reach and the greatest impact. Very nice. You know, I do always wave at school bus school bus drivers. Some of them know who I am, so that was good. And they wave back. All right. Any other comments? Yeah, I can respond. JP, I wasn't doing anything secretive. My personal email has nothing to do with anything. You should only use your personal email for personal stuff. Anything schoolboard related should use the school email. That's not acting on behalf of the board. It has nothing to do with you were acting as a schoolboard member though, correct? I am a I can't undo. So you were All right, just go back to the go back to the video at minute 55
070and 54 seconds. You say you're acting as a school board director. Okay, I'm like I am a school board director. I always act as a school board director. I can't use the appropriate email. Don't try to hide stuff. Okay. I I don't I'm not trying to hide anything. In fact, um you don't have to listen. In fact, um what Oh, okay. Sorry. Uh in fact, I'm happy to say that I am intending to meet with those teachers later. Um and I will meet with more teachers going forward. So, I'll use my personal email or my board email or whatever email I want. Okay. Anyone else have a comment? Hearing none, I'll call for an adjournment. Motion. Second. Any discussion? Okay.