001e e got shower I got a shower e e e all right everyone since it is a couple minutes after 7 I'd like to bring this meeting of the upper perum school board our regular scheduled meeting to order uh first we'd have a pledge of allegiance and we do not have a class today so my turn okay Mr Bishop could I have a roll call please certainly director McCormack here director shmid here director chaani director Cunningham here director mccarrick here director flukie here director preo here director Bieber and director Penny Packer here thank you I'll introduce the staff at the table so we have Mr Bishop our business manager and we have Miss fiser who is our HR director and Dr finina Who is our assistant superintendent and our esteemed attorney Kyle Summers Dr Roach
002of course and then we'll move down and we have Ruth Padilla and Chris Montes our student representatives to the board and every thank you for all coming um we move on to the president's report I just have a couple things um I did not get to go to the either of our plays and I'm hoping that we have some board com ments for those of you who did and I'm really sad that I missed them uh a not happy thing um I added up in our uh in our list of bills today I added up and came up with 366,924 and part of one of the three reasons they listed was charter schools so I just like to keep that at the Forefront uh also you will get to see on our list uh Donna
003Paul's retirement and I just wanted to say while I'm thinking about it that I've known Donna Paul our kids played um t-ball together so was a really long time ago and she's going to be she'll be really missed if of course we let her resign or let her retire so since we haven't voted on it yet Don yeah she's the last one in the in the list she's a really sweet lady uh and with that last meting it was last meeting all right sorry okay never mind I still love Donna PA it's okay all right so we will move on I'll turn it over to Dr Roach and quickly thank you oh can I'm not done yet sorry um well you see my note it's really small um so I just wanted to mention the
004passing of Dr George boner and just wanted to you know say he was a really nice man he up until recently till he moved away he he would come to some of our meetings some of our committee meetings and he was a wealth of history and knowledge and he'll be missed with that I will turn it over thank you agree Dr bonor keer for me coming into the district was a great uh support and uh cheerleader for me I appreciate it got some notes from from time to time and uh sorry to hear passing so I will be there Saturday to represent the district and and share our condolences for all his efforts he the baseball field is also named after him as well so he's on that list so definitely a um a loss
005for the district and for the community with that being said moving into the report I did uh Mrs Cunningham get a chance to go to both shows so you missed you missed some fantastic uh theater so you can see here the high school show Wizard of Oz was fantastic um on I was I was there on the Saturday night show kid students did a fantastic job so kudos to uh this Austin Mr Austin Mrs Phillips and the rest of the directors and the students as well so it was really really well received the house was pretty packed when I was there um so I'm assuming that was the same way uh with the gold card and the other previous shows so Doos to them and I was at the high school the other day they're
006already starting to you know strike the set and get the auditorium back to normal but wow what a what an effort and and a and a great show uh and the Middle School show into the woods Jr um that's another one I was able to to catch I caught me off guard there a little bit of the uh the humor and the uh um aggressiveness of getting that um those people out out of the wolf's belly but that's that's how it goes uh but it was really a good show and again as we always say the middle school does a fantastic job over a 100 plus students involved from front front house back a house lights and uh again did a great job so this is cell I think it was her first year as
007the Director been involved many years but um did a great job all the directors and the students so again well well received so thanks for doing all that um this is a a highlight of our uh the perk perk Pals and the uh perk up mug mug club that they have going at the high school I was going to make a joke about coffee and the security officer in the back of the room and you know that type of thing but I won't I won't um but again a great program that we um Mr thrush and and and the teachers that are there working with our our staff to uh to include and have a a great experience both um socially as well as academically for our students I want to highlight that and we
008have a poster child there in the Middle with looks seem very happy to get his coffee so couple other highlights there some spirit days um the reading Olympics at um high school and then we did have um Becca and Mike from B 104 uh I think Mrs Croc at the at Herford won the opportunity for them to come in and read to the kids after after their shift in the morning radio so again a little hype that was there around that so we were able to um have that experience and share that with everybody it was a good time for all and then our H Junior Honor soci visiting elementary schools during uh during the reading week so we got a chance to um to work with our students uh kind of Mentor mentorship up
009I you can see one of the into the woods t-shirts there um but again another great things going on every every week and every day in our in our schools I know I snuck this in last time but did want to share the uh that arachi team who will be a part of our uh committee meeting on Monday night they've been invited to come to our committee meeting to share the experiences but did compete won the Montgomery County championships went to the Regionals and uh didn't Fair as well but we're super proud of them and uh for accomplishing that and I know the students are excited to Mr thrush says how many how many students do you want and they're all going to talk for a long time I said bring it on that's what
010it's about just keep it to 10 minutes no I'm just kidding so uh it was really really a positive experience so that program has grown over the over time for sure um I think what Mrs Dr finina um tonight's the last night so get into the comp plan for it's closed if you have comments and feedback and then we will see the uh the plans um the board will see the the behind the scenes plans uh and in the next couple updates and then it'll be on the March 27th uh for a vote to move that uh program forward because we need to submit it by March March 31st right so we're right right on there on the heels there for timing wise so we kind of backed that up so good job again thank
011you to everybody that participated in the community and um had a nice group of stakeholders each of the times that we met and to this point so there's still time for feedback if you if you have it and you've been waiting on it um there's no NFL games tonight so you should be good to get that feedback in there but thanks to everybody for that um as a part of what I I've done in previous years this year we're getting ready to roll out our listening tour uh at the high school so this will be set for the week of March 30 31st just different topics and actually I went to with Mr Flanigan to his student executive board last week and said what topics would you think students would come talk about right out
012the gun facilities they was like the first thing out of the mouth is they want to talk about the facilities and they want to um you know I don't know if they want to go to a high dive or what they want to do in the pool but they definitely want to talk about facilities so I've broken these out based upon their feedback and what was talking and then have invited some of the cabinet members to participate in these conversations with me as well so Mr warbach will be at that that meeting there the students talked about school culture stud belonging on April 1st then again I'll we'll meet again with um Mr Flanigan student executive board and then they like the topic that we had last year which is on April 3rd there like
013bring solutions to problems don't we we have the problems just bring some solutions so we can hear what you're saying and and and how how we can help help improve Upper Park last year that ones that came out about the um the smart pass they were frustrated because students and teachers were not closing out smart passes so as they were waiting to use a Smart pass because there's only three allowed at a time no one was closing it so okay I didn't know that but it was helpful I could share that with the administration and begin that conversation another on students couldn't see things in Skyward they want to see previous report cards we was a button onclicked we clicked it now it's good so again so try to hear some of those bring some
014solutions and then uh our high our most attended session last year was on academics so we have that as well for academics some creative things I know we're going to hear about American Sign Language we're going to hear about other other things but that's we need to hear need to hear those things so we appreciate that um so that that's that'll be going out uh fairly soon for for signups and I know I have to bring snacks um that that will encourage and if I do great snacks on Monday the word will get out and it'll just keep going all week long so even if they come just for the snacks that's fine too so again part of that conversation tour um artsfest right around the corner so I know it's May but we want
015to make begin to promote the hard work just coming off the heels of the uh the two musicals we know that our students and teachers and how talented they are to Showcase their uh their their their items at artsfest so that's the 6th 7th and 8th of May at the middle school for K to8 and then Thursday and Friday the 8th and nth at the high school um for that so this this is probably your first splash of this you'll begin to get more promotions and pushed out um but kind of laid out there for uh for the week um we challenges I always see at the middle school with parking and Transitions and trying to make that happen we'll do we continue to do our best uh with that so again promoting that I
016know we said it last time of graduation we've got minimal questions which has been great people can plan accordingly um feeling very solid that in two weeks we'll be able to share with you the end the last student day pretty much zoned in there I think if we the weather looks looks like it's cooperating here in in March so that's the end of this year but right now June 3r and it's set for five o'clock so we we rolled that from last year it seemed to work well when we had to try to squeeze it in because the rain was coming at 7:30 so we're going to try at 5 and uh and go from there looking forward to the class of 25 and then uh finally Dr Giblin in our in our ranks here
017just finished her five-year Trek or so for her doctorate so we want to congratulate you and say thank and say proud of you did you want to tell us about your dissertation or okay all [Laughter] right I hear you great well congratulations and uh finishing up next Monday is the second to last uh Community conversation and then April uh April 10th and evening one over at the open link so just can continue to promote that opportunity to have conversations and uh and listen for feedback so thank you so much and that's the end of my report tonight thank you all right we'll move on to our student Representatives what have you got for us today today we don't have a paper it disappeared on me in my house but prom tickets will go on sale
018during the first week of April uh and prom is going to be on the 25th of April at 5:00 p.m. the tickets are $75 senior Trip's been set for Hershey Park on May 22nd um students have to turn in their forms I think the tickets are about it's either like 73 or $78 I forgot which one uh the high school ready Day is coming up on the 22nd of May and the current eighth graders will be coming over to the high school for presentations and a tour with Mr flan again and Link crew and I also watched the musical on Friday as I volunteered and uh was running rning the tickets and I thought it was great the acting was amazing and the set pieces were really really nice I also saw a musical I
019thought it was fantastic um a lot of the kids I knew that were participating were really nervous about opening night but after the golden cart show they just really loved what they were doing so I was really happy to see it and see how happy they were um for spring sports Spring Sports started this uh have started last week this week starts um games College and Career night is on March 27th at 6 p.m. the junior class is also holding uh bake sale for a fundraiser that night um the financial reality fair for seniors is on the 18th of March in partnership with Police and Fire Credit Union and other organizations real world real world finance discussions with over 40 community volunteers to help sun to be graduates think about future your financial planning in
020poetry Cafe is May 2nd at 6:30 in the library the junior class actually has two other fundraisers this month we're kind of calling it the March Madness um we have March 20th where selling Chick-fil-A just like the original sandwiches at lunch uh the 27th obviously the bake sale we're going to have like all of the people that are helping run the S we're making homebaked goods for gluten-free like vegan stuff like that everyone to enjoy and then the 31st we have a toss ghost dine and donate 10% all ghost to the junior class thank you thank you and where is the prom this year Bear Creek okay thank you all right we'll move on to Mr Summers and our solicitors report Sunshine act announcements thank you madam president uh my report tonight is just to
021announce that there are two public comment opportunities on the agenda uh at tonight's meeting the first is to comment on action items that are being voted upon by the board and then there is a another opportunity toward the end of the meeting to comment on other items of concern that may come before the board um there is a three minute uh time allotment per speaker I will hold up signs that indicate when you have a minute left 30 seconds left and when your time is up um if you do wish to comment you do need to fill out a signup sheet they are available in the back of the room uh and they need to be turned in in the bin that's located next to the screen on the side of the room uh those
022signup sheets do need to be completed prior to each uh comment period beginning and just as a reminder public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to share information thoughts concerns feedback with the board but is not an opportunity to engage in debate with the board and that concludes my report thank you all right we're going to move on to our presentations and discussion and I'd like to call up Christine Bates our branch manager for the upper per C Valley Library hey if you could hit the the gray button thank you and welcome thank you thanks so much for the opportunity to be here tonight really appreciate it we do have some slides um let me just make sure there you go I just wanted to give you some background in history I
023understand there's a lot of new board members new members to the community I am also new in my role um so it's a learning curve for me for sure uh I started at the library in July and um I love it up here in the upper perk Valley I'm not from here so it's been great and very welcoming um but what I found fascinating when I back went back through the history of the library is that the upper perk PTA was the reason why they were um they had been responsible for coordinating the summer reading programs for the school and then in the late 1960s they decided it might be a better idea to have uh a public library for the school and for the Upper Park Valley as a whole so they put the
024ball in motion to establish a library um took a lot of effort uh they persevered and the library as we know it now opened its doors in November of 1970 and there's a list of some of our uh founding members many of who went on to be um our initial uh Board of Administrators so as I said one of the main reasons they put the um library in motion was because they had been running the summer reading programs 55 years later we still continue to offer a robust summer reading program to help prevent summer slide there are some statistics on the annual report that I gave you I think we had over 400 kids enroll last year so in addition to incentivized reading which is the opportunity to earn prizes for reading a certain number
025of minutes we also offer a variety of programming book club activities um anything we can think of to keep the children's engaged in learning um over the summer additionally we make a concerted effort to stock all the titles that show up on your summer reading lists when we can um both imprint and available electronically on our liby app during the school year we uh focus on our youngest Learners we offer a variety of materials and programming to support early literacy um as you all probably know studies indicate that by age three a child's brain has reached 80% of its adult volume that's well before you get them um early literacy skills have a lifelong impact on educational and occupational success so uh when the most important predictor of school Success is being read to at
026home during early childhood and we do our best to encourage that and to provide the opportunities for parents and caregivers to interact with their children and reading materials in all settings uh in addition to print and audio materials we offer literacy kits for families to take home these kits support early interest and appreciation for books and reading by connecting books to fun act themes and engaging activities in addition they offer opportunities for parents and caregivers to work with children to develop skills such as counting and sorting which helps prepare them for kindergarten we have a whole bunch of kits you can see and they're CH uh packed with all sorts of um activities one of our staff members as an educator and she put those together there you go um if you're looking for a
027place to learn and play we have our Discovery room that you can stop and visit it's full of activities to support early development in Steam um it's popular place especially during very hot and very cold or V very rainy days when the weather's not conductive to um outside play we also offer what we call um take-home lessons and a box on a variety of stem topics as well as weekly programming to to promote and support Steam uh Concepts we have actual steam kids day we have outdoor explorers we have block play we have robotics in our Discovery room um as I'm sure you know experimental learning and problem solving skills help prepare children for the classroom and again we make every effort to provide positive experiences at the library to prepare them for their experiences
028at school um our founding Library members ensured that the upper perk Valley Library would be able to offer library cards to all students at the upper perk School District all members of the upper perk School District regardless of whether they lived in our service area um which is very unusual for anyone in the county to do that currently we have over 180 active card holders in Burks County um I think we're among the few libraries who regardless of whether they have a library card in their home county can come right in and get a card in our library uh we have over 720 card holders who are under the year uh age of 18 so we have a lot of kids who are proud library card holders um our facility is also used by therapists
029from the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit we have uh regular visits uh they meet their clients in our space they conduct their sessions in our um public spaces or in our Discovery room and we see probably three to five on the regular and they are there for several hours at a time so um in 1974 per capita tax was agreed on by the municipalities which brought the library itself in line with Pennsylvania library code uh enabling us to apply for Grants and other funding uh today funding from the municipalities makes up about 30% of our funding and uh representatives from each of the bus and municipalities also sit on our board um we're very appreciative to the municipalities and buus for their support and they support us in a lot of different ways not just financially
030um approximately 20% of our funding comes from Individual donors through our annual appeal and also through our other fundraisers um we don't receive any state funding at all um when funding is received from the school district it ceed to support our programming as well as uh materials for our Discovery room uh it's my understanding that the school board has been Pro providing funding to the library since the early 1990s uh when Nelson Weber was superintendent um the spending on books audio books movies and other print material is completely funded out of uh Montgomery County Norris toown Public Library uh there are a number of libraries who receive funding from their Associated school districts uh one that might resonate with you is the Royersford free public library their building is wholly owned by uh spring for
031Area School District and they fully maintain that building they uh mow the grass they shovel the snow they install the water bottle filler they unclog the toilets um they do all of it I worked there for 5 years if we had a problem we call they came it's awesome um there are other couple examples uh WIA hickin is uh fully funded by their per capita tax and Montgomery County norst toown receives a considerable amount of money from their school district there are other examples in the county but you know we only have so much time um so that basically sums it up for me does anybody have any questions about the library or how we fit in the community um I don't know what the dollar man is they pay a portion of our salaries
032um if you want me to go back it doesn't count as funding per se because they don't give us money um but I get a budget so your payroll comes out of Montgomery County our well our payroll here I think is $43,000 which does not cover all of our payroll doesn't so so they supplement it they supplement our our salaries and also all of our materials budget which I didn't write the number down but um it's uh I I spend about uh $1,300 a month on books about A2 200 a month on movies and I think I have a $100 for audio so times that over the year and that's what they're they completely fund all that none of that comes out of our budget okay so the books are are paid for by them
033and then the audio Etc books audio and movies all funded by monom County norrth toown occasionally we do buy if somebody ruins a book we'll go to Amazon and buy it a replacement or go to a used bookstore and replace it but the bulk of our uh buying is completely funded by the county and the books that are on the book list for our schools are they funded by you or the the library they're funded by the Montgomery County well yes but they don't decide what to buy we decide what to buy okay in that instance or all instan in all instances all instances we choose what's on the Shelf they pay for it and then they just pay for it yeah except there is a standing list of authors that's automatically bought the James
034Patterson Patricia Cornwall you know uh all the super popular guys they automatically order those and they come by Magic to the library that's automatic yeah but all the other topic uh our children's librarian Wendy Kramer selects all the um picture books and uh YA books that go on the shelves I select all of the uh fiction and non-fiction that sits on the well I have any other questions anything else go um just for the sake of context can you are you able to explain for everybody like why you're here while I'm here it's my understanding that it's standard procedure for the branch manager of the library to come to a Schoolboard meeting and present our position in the library in the community once a year that's my given understanding so I'm here and I felt
035like uh some of the questions that I had been getting from people in the community and from people in the Schoolboard I felt like it was a good opportunity to sort of uh go back and look at our position and um educate you a little bit on what we do at the library sure and that's because we donate $5,000 a year to library that's why you would be coming okay all right um this thank you for this by the way um this is this is helpful um I am a kid who went to the library at like nine years old and I would get a stack this tall as tall as I could they would tell me you have to put some back we don't say that anymore parent might have but there's a a
036500 uh amount limit on the number of books you can carry out the library at any given time I've yet to see anyone do it but we do 500 yes we do have see you next week no I'm just kidding I don't have time yeah we do have uh people who have over a hundred items out at a time on on the regular lot uh some homeschooler and some Avid readers okay um yeah sadly I haven't been to the library in a while I am a card carrying member though um I wanted to ask you about the on the bottom here it says connected to the world connected to the community and inclusive of all is that kind of your motto like can you explain that a little bit what does that mean to you
037well that's the motto from Montgomery County norest Town Public Library of which we are a branch and I I would hope in general that we would be connected to the community because we sit in the community and we offer resources to the community WE Network with a lot of organiz ations in the community we work with project live we work with the schwank andf Felder Library we work with open link we work with um The Garden Club The Fish Hatchery all sorts of organizations come to us for space for materials for information for uh collaboration so we work across the community in a lot of different ways that's what connected to the community means for me I don't what's the second one uh it says committed to the community and then it says inclusive of
038all well that means that anybody who walks in the door is welcome you don't have to have a library card to come to the library to participate in our programs you only have to have a card if you want to carry materials out of the building so we welcome anyone who comes in and we get a range of people um of different walks of life and they're all welcome in our building as long as they're not disruptive um so our doors are open and we are if you think about uh the world today there are very few places in the community where you can go for free and stay for as long as you want and we are like the last Bastion and we do have people who come in and stay all day okay
039um I was looking at your some of the numbers you have and it says for and I mean if you can't answer this on the spot that's okay maybe just send us an email or are you coming to the finance meeting I thought no okay that's fine um it says program attendance 408 program sessions does that mean 408 program sessions you offered in a year we offered 400 different 408 different programs over the course of 2024 okay and then 7,891 Pro I'm just trying to understand the numbers program attendees so like if Jimmy attends both the Garden Club and the I don't know yeah he gets double counted counted the cutting Zoo whatever MH that so that's two times in that number right yes okay just to just to be clear I would kind of
040like to see um a little bit more about attendance like daily attendance something like that if you could um find something like that and send it over the number of people who walk through our door every day um yeah we don't count that I can give you how many people checked items out in a day okay but I don't count the number of people who walk in and out we have people who walk in to use the bathroom we have people who walk in because they have nowhere else to go we have people who walk in to say hi to the animals and go home oh we have people who do come in it's a public space and I don't have staff or time to stand at the door and click through who's there I'm
041sorry but I can give you circulation statistics on how many people checked out books in a day yeah that would be helpful I because I just saw those numbers I was like I'm not really I don't know that doesn't make complete I don't have the full picture I think that's all um I think it was maybe last summer you had an event called um like book Banning week or book Banning read a something celebrated across the country or noted across the country I wouldn't say celebrated but it's the practice in public libraries to highlight books that have been banned anywhere in their Arc of being in the library just to bring awareness to book Banning um in general because as a general rule we feel like uh it should be up to the individual to
042choose what they read and across the Arc of History some of the books that have been banned are no longer considered um controversial or they may be in some circles I don't know but again that's up to the individual to decide as far as we're concerned again uh open to everyone we don't we have a range of materials on our Shelf from um top to bottom A to Z there's lots of representation there we strive to represent um different perspectives and different viewpoints because that's how you have a uh educated in whole Community okay and one more question I promise it's my last question um you have coming up an event um where you've invited a speaker from upen to talk about Islam you just talk about that a little bit oh it was last
043night yeah it was last night um the University of pen IIA offers uh a list of speakers uh who are retired uh so professors edus I believe um and they send out on the regular a list of topics that those uh professors are available to speak on and they speak for free um so a lot of their topics are pretty esoteric uh there are some on um different kinds of disease States or different types of Transportation or you know Specialties in their studies uh areas of Economics um and uh our person who schedules are programming thought that the um the topic of understanding Islam was one that would be of interest to the community um just like we do with all of our programs we try and um reach out and see who's going to
044be interested to come to what we throw a lot of stuff on the wall and see what sticks some Works some doesn't that one uh he came up yesterday had a engaging conversation with a small handful of people I think we had like 10 or 15 who attended um again free um free to them free to us so uh that was yes a program that we offered among several hundred programs we will offer this year thank you so much yeah thank you quick question for you do you and I probably shouldn't say this but I will uh do you get any revenue from the mciu when they're using their facility no I'm aware of other counties where they are paying for the private room because they are service doing services and they're being compensated for
045that as opposed to a private space so potential Revenue there if you explore that we don't have a private space to off and we and we can't schedule anything so it's it's really when you said they're there for several hours I'm aware similar things but sometimes they do pay for space they yeah well I don't feel like uh they are using public space Did you do you have a question go ahead I was just going to say I did some quick calculations here and a couple of things I noticed on your handout um they actually collect about $6,000 in late fees for Revenue so our contribution of $5,000 to their $ 134 roughly $134,000 budget is about 3% um you asked about you know the number of participants there and it made me wonder you
046out of those 400 programs and almost 7,800 attendees that's about 20 people per class or session that they're doing you know just to give us an idea of what's going on down there um I have family members who have gone down there and use the library before um I haven't been in the library in a number of years hate to say it but um I don't have that yeah I know I'm negligent I'm sorry I apologize you got late if it's been a long time they might be they might be forgiven by now I'm hoping that they were you know the the paper records just shriveled up and flew away seven plus years they got a race so come back but um you do do a number of good things down there and as you
047were speaking you were talking about the not type of people that are coming in there um I want to remind everybody in here that we do have a large um economically disadvantaged population in this area you know we do have homeless people in this area we do have transients in this area and um that is one of the reasons that is one of the few places that they can go to in this area especially during you know severe weather you we've recently pensburgh recently opened up their code blue shelter this past year but that's only on certain nights you know um but the library only at night yes on only on certain nights when it reaches P.M to 8:00 a.m. and then people are back out on the streets or in the library but it's
048but it's not every night it's only severe only yeah severe weather um but um the library is a uh something of a safe for those people oh go ahead I was just going to ask if anyone else had a question oh I was just going to comment on what Keith saying is not on the table to close the library so yes I love the library keep it open this is wonderful um I'm sorry to grill you but I just had a few questions you handled them well thank you for fine this is the only time we get to do this I asked if you're coming to the other meeting not coming so I'm like well here we go to ask some question I'm here to answer your question I appreciate it thank you course all
049right anyone else okay thank you so much oh yeah she did all right our next uh our next item is public comments on action items and we don't have any so we'll move on to the approval of tonight's agenda motion second any discussion all in favor I any opposed okay next we'll move on to the approval of minutes from February 13th regular school board meeting motion second any discussion all in favor all right any opposed okay thank you uh we don't have anything under old business right now uh we'll move on to new business Madam president can I make a motion to approve the Personnel report in its entirety the leaves of absence tenure or excuse me the appointments to leaves of absence and tenure second any discussion comment I was just gonna say I'm
050really excited at the uh to see the intermal girls flag football supplemental position being brought for an so that's good step in the right direction and then Monday's extracurricular committee we have a listing hopefully a flyer by then but definitely a listing of the practic times and things that are getting put out to the students fantastic thank we're reaching at the same time and Emily okay U I think we all do at some point um just congratulations to Michelle skolaski on her Grant of tenure I know it's a big thing for new teachers any other discussion okay all in favor I any post all right thank you move on to action items Madam president yes Mr could we do action item a the uh agreement with Mill agree key kids for summer school session B
051the motion to approve the educational services agreement and see the policies that are up for approval second do we have any discussion all right all in favor I any opposed okay motion Madam president i' like to make the motion to approve uh item D for to authorize the administration to work with the maror elementary school ptfs and there are identified contractors for the donation of an outdoor class room in Pavilion at Marble Elementary School um in alignment with board policy 702 is recommended by the facilities committee the cost of the projects basically it's being paid for by the ptfs at Marboro and we will accept it as a gift donation second is there any discussion yes I would just like to say thank you to the moror ptfs for doing this they've been coming to
052the facilities committee for a while now and uh it's finally moving forward congratulations if this passes way to stick to it yes um all in favor I any opposed all right motion passes congrat congratulations and thank you all right Madam president I would like to make a motion well right then for E uh to motion to reinstate the boys Indoor Winter track program at the upper peren High School beginning in the 2025 26 school year with a projected budget of 14,300 that's coming from the um extracurricular committee part of the work that we're doing uh so any questions or discussion around we need a second yeah okay you have a second all right there still any questions or any discussion anybody want to talk about we're very excited to get some more Sports going get
053some more kids involved and uh boys indoor track I think is a great uh addition something we had previously and uh able to come back now so thank you anyone else all in favor all right any opposed okay voice track it is Adam president finish off the agenda item F motion to approve the Cur staff second any discussion welcome aboard and all in favor I I any opposed okay we move on to Drew uh Mr Bishop with our financial reports because Megan yes so in the financial reports it's for the month of uh February we have the budget to actual summary and the detail uh also the revenue and expenditure summary in in the reports uh also followed by the cash balance summary along with the payroll and cafeteria accounts uh we also so then
054finally have the general fund and capital reserve fund expenditures there's $1.6 million in general fund expenditures and $1,275 for the capital reserve which is for the wastewater treatment uh plant repairs anyone have any questions okay do we have a motion to approve motion second any other discussion all right hearing none all in favor I oppos okay thank you very much Mr Bishop I don't believe we have any new followup items I do have two public comments so um Maggie Buck waler you want to come on up if you would just hop on the microphone thank you no red light yeah there you go thank you um Maggie bucker upper Han ofer town ship um I just wanted to First say thank you very much for everybody working so hard on the comprehensive plan all of
055you folks had input and teachers and community members Etc um I didn't make any comments yet where's Dr f um sorry I have my one-year-old granddaughter all every day so if I can actually like brush my teeth it's a miracle anyway um I just wanted to say that 20 years ago 20 and a half years ago when I first moved to this District I'd asked for the comprehensive plan it took almost two three years to just get a copy of it so I'm really happy with how far we've come with this uh one thing that I did notice is that there was um no gifted information in it and uh 20 and a half years ago IID asked for the acceleration protocol and gifted information and that seems to be missing I understand this is
056a working document so I'm just wondering maybe we can have a discussion about that that would be great um also the um there's a little bit of information I think it was on page 13 about our dual enrollment um agreements a number of years ago I think it was pre-co We did an early college agreement with monco and my daughter who's 28 is still the only kid I believe that has an associates degree um so I so I think that we need to push that early college thing um you guys are probably pretty aware of the fact that in the socioeconomic disparity that we have in this in this District folks who even have just one college class under their belt are much more likely to finish their Associates or possibly their bachelors and go
057on to higher Edge so um that I think we need to expand upon um the other thing is I just want to use this time to just give a little shout out sorry Mr prgo I did not send this to you either my uh my correspondence is not my forte this these days but I just wanted to give a shout out to all the folks involved in both of the shows I know you guys did that already um specifically uh since I was just involved in the high school one I can see the time and the effort that the kids put into it not just for practicing for the show but the kids are there from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on every Saturday on build and art and if I could tell you the
058number of kids that you don't see on the stage but are behind the scenes just doing phenomenal work if you saw that Oz head my husband did the mechanics but the kids did the art so um it was incredible and uh Mr and Mrs Austin Colby Phillips uh just an incredible amount of work oftentimes we'd leave at 5: or maybe Dave and I would stay till 700 but those three teachers would be there till 11: pm and I know that the Austin took a personal day to do some like Mad Dash stuff so they're just all kinds of wonderful things and inclusion in that group of kids that you don't see on the soccer field kids that you might they might be musicians but they're not in the band because they don't have the time
059or whatever so I don't think that the school board gives money directly to the musicals and it's part of the extracurricular consideration I love to see some money go directly to them because they're still recovering from the covid year when they only did one of uh Adam's family and then got shut down so um it's in the whole it was in the black for a long time that does I'm sorry in the red yeah thank you very much thanks very much that's it thanks ni excuse me um other comment that we have is from Christ anelli okay okay and just so I mention um I know there's another camera set up here that's not our district camera so if there was any comments that anyone made publicly you might want to that you don't want
060on another um airing just so I mentioned that um and with that we'll move on to board comments does anyone have a board comment I just want to also add on to the uh the play this weekend it was past weekend was fantastic the amount of work you know and really recognize the the teachers and stuff that that put all the work in Austin Chris Philip uh so thank you and um it was really really fun to watch and see the kids uh that really shown and did did some awesome singing and some awesome acting and uh the dog was a hit that was a lot of fun to watch so thank you very much and great job anyone else yeah I wanted to say to Maggie thank you for your comments um I haven't
061seen comments come through but they wouldn't necessarily come to me about the comprehensive plan but um I I would like to follow up on your questions about the gifted program being mentioned in the plan um and I know yes money toward musicals in that program would be ah are you okay okay would be wonderful um that's been on my radar already so just thank you very much anyone else yeah just Echo about the musical and everything the gold card show was just as good and yes the dog should get a Tony uh the the humans were great too the dog was amazing and I just want to Echo my sadness over the passing of Dr bonaker um Dr B was my sixth grade social studies teacher and so I've known George a long time and
062uh he is just a lifelong educator and a legendary educator at UPA perk so be sadly missed thank you anyone else yes I just wanted to give a shout out to the Western Center students we got these t-shirts um the this is actually made by one of the artists there so I just wanted to represent the Western Center students thank you awesome J I hear you have a shout out I do I have one from uh Michelle Stone uh she wanted to send a shout out to jod cell and Dave Pierce our National Junior Honor Society advisers and the National Junior Honor Society students from the middle school for planning an amazing read Across America day at the elementary schools so Dr ropes touched on this a little on his report but uh the njhs
063eighth graders read books to each of the Elementary classes as well as planned a lesson or activity for the students the elementary students were engaged and the eighth grade eighth graders did a wonderful job being leaders in the classroom thank you to everyone involved in the planning to make this day a success very nice anyone else I also have a shout out I got it on my way out of work out from I stopped at the bank and uh one of the girls that works at the bank she called me into her office and she wanted to tell me that you know she knows we hardly ever hear anything good so she thought it would be really important if she told me her good story so um her son was having back problems for like
064a year and a half and um had been going to the pediatric orthopedic doctor and they were working on his back and saying that he was just growing and he's in high school so um one day she got a phone call from the high school nurse which is who I'm giving the shout out to and she said you know where he's putting where he's pointing for pain you you might want to have his kidneys checked well she went through a couple of different uh that went over to the uh emergency room they did some uh work there and they said no you know don't worry about that and well but she kept it in her mind that the that the high school nurse was worried about this and she even called the next day to
065check and see how he was doing so uh it turns out he does have a kidney issue and uh she just wanted to make sure that that I give a shout out because the high school nurse was so sweet and that she followed up and she you know without her advice she would she they still wouldn't know what was wrong so anyway there's my good shout out for the day does anyone else have one I know it was a long one sorry tend to tell a story um if not if that's the last