001I'll now call to order the Monday, November 10th work session for the Wattsburg Area School District Board of Directors. Would you all please rise for the pledge of allegiance? >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> May I have a roll call, please? the middle school. >> Mr. Blazer, >> present. >> Mr. Brimmagen, >> present. >> Mrs. Burlingham >> here. >> Mrs. Heatherington >> here. >> Mrs. Lee >> here. >> Mr. Morve >> here. >> Dr. Pushchek >> here. >> Dr. Williams >> here. >> Mr. Young >> present. Thank you. Uh just a reminder for the public uh this work session is where we set the agenda for our regular meeting
002next week where we'll be voting on the items uh which we place on the agenda this evening through each of our committees. Uh so first off to set the agenda for next week. Uh Dr. Berlin, will we have a school report for next week? >> Uh yes we will. >> Okay. Thank you sir. Uh it's now time for guest and citizen comments. Do we have anyone signed up to speak this evening? Thank you. Uh also from Dr. Berlin, will we have a superintendent report? >> Uh, we will. And um, uh, yes, we will, Mr. President. And in fact, Mr. Hudnell's here. We could um have him take my spot this evening uh, and give us an update on the, uh, the high school academics like the other two buildings have done over the past month.
003>> Excellent. Thank you for being here this evening, Mr. RDN. Welcome. I suspect the text may be a little small. >> Can you flip your mic on if you can, please? >> Just helps with the recording. Thank you. >> Okay. So, I expected the text would be a little small. I've provided everybody handouts of the PowerPoint I'm going to go over. Uh I appreciate the opportunity to be before you tonight to uh present Senica High School's data for last school year. We have uh three items on the agenda. The first one is the future uh ready review. We're going to uh view some e- metric data and drill down into our firsttime test takers as well as our second time test takers for our Keystone exams. And then we're going to talk about our next
004steps and where we proceed from there. >> Scroll down. >> Okay. So for those of you that aren't aware, future ready is the public face for all schools throughout Pennsylvania. So, for instance, if you wanted to find out academic performance for any school in the state of Pennsylvania, what you would do is you would go to this site, put the school's name in, and it would give you the academic performance. It has three pieces of data on the future ready index. Those pieces of data are the state assessment measures, the on-track measures, and the college and career measures. So again, this is what people are going to see, the public at large when they go to uh the future ready index and look at Senica High School. One thing I would like to point out,
005uh just a a a quick note, if uh blue and green is what you want to see on this page. Okay, so uh PTE, if it's bad, they put it in red, I guess, pretty fittingly. Okay, so as you can see, our cover page looks pretty good so far. We're going to dig into this a little bit more, but we have all green and blue thus far. So, that's a positive that we're all bleeding green and blue at Senica High School. Okay, so the top right here, if you can right here, is our achievement. All right, achievement is basically how the kids did on the test. Achievement is how our students did on the Keystone test. And if you look at that, that very top is English language arts and literature. You can see that
006we are 76.2 proficient and advanced. So that's more than seven out of 10 kids walking that hallway. 62.2. The statewide average 49.9. So we have well exceeded that in our English. Next up is math. Math we are 69.4. So 70% almost of our kids are proficient or advanced in this cohort. All right. The statewide average 41%. So obviously we've well exceeded it there too. Now what you're going to note here is this science uh is in gray. It's in gray because we have a waiver. Every school in the state of Pennsylvania now has a science waiver. All right. So I checked in just to double check with PTE and this was the exact statement. I have noted it here on our PowerPoint. We will resume posting biology indicator next fall following the first administration of
007the steels test. So in other words, what that means is they have changed the test and no one's getting a score this year. So we are in gray along with every other school district. All right, the next one is growth. Growth is where our students started and how much they grew. All right, where they started and where they ended up. Our kids started out in English language arts. Our growth is a 77. State average is a 75. Our growth in algebra is a 77. State average is a 74.9. So, as you can see, we've exceeded the state average in both achievement and growth. Now, one of the things that uh I'd like to look at, this site isn't public yet. We had this is our preview. This is what it's going to look like for
008us, but we do not have access to other schools, our peers in the county like Fort Lau, General McLean, Northeast, etc., etc. However, I thought it would be interesting to look at well if we projected how do we compare right? So if we look at if we apply our scores to what schools got last year and here's why I say that our scores from this year are relatively the same as last year. We went up in algebra, we went down in uh literature. However, they're basically the same. So I would I I think it's safe to say that this is going to be pretty similar when you look at us relative to our peers in the county. All right. So if you look at literature, Fairview is at 82.4, Fort Lab's at 81.9, and there's
009Senica at 76.2. So we're third as far as uh our peers in the county for literature. When you go over to algebra, Fairview's at 88.8. We're second. So we're second in the entire county in algebra. Algebra is a extremely challenging test for every kid in the state of Pennsylvania. So, you know, that score of 69.4 is pretty impressive. I took it a little bit further. I said, well, okay, you know, we've discussed what the state averages are. How about our county? Our county average over here in literature is 69.7 and a county average in algebra is 56.1. So, for our peers in the county, we've exceeded those averages as well. So those uh are how we compare to the state and then you look at how we've compared to the county as well. >> Mr.
010Hutnel. >> Yes. >> Not to interrupt you, but before you go on from that last slide. So just to clarify, that's our current score >> y >> compared to everybody else's last year's score because that's all we have access to. How how did our score I know we did very well last year. I remember. But how much did ours change from our score? >> Ours didn't change at all. basically we were we were higher in literature but we were lower in algebra. So this year we flopped. We went up in algebra and down in literature. >> Sure. Sure. >> So we're going to be I predict it's going to be pretty similar. And trust me, you know, the way I look at it is, you know, we're a lot more than test scores. However, if
011we're keeping track, we want our team to be towards the top. I'm confident that when these scores come out, at least in, you know, informal conversations with my peers in the county, that we're going to be right around that top section. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, on track measures, what's that? What that means is real simple. It's hard for kids to perform when they don't come to school. Um, credit to this school board for hiring a a full-time attendance person who's already making a difference in that school through parent phone calls, through some incentive items, things of that nature. But we were sitting here, this is 23 24. We're at we're at 82. We're above the state average. What that talks about is, you know, when you look at a teacher, they're basically assessed
012on four domains. One is planning, two is classroom environment, three is instruction, four is professionalism. So, this talks about our teachers and their ability to create a nice classroom culture that the kids want to be around them. They want to be in school. And you can see that as indicated by that 82.1 and again, we're in the green here. Uh exceeding the state average of 79.6 career standards. So, at the very top, okay, our kids need to do all kids throughout Pennsylvania need to do what's called a career portfolio. uh which is basically like a uh career interest survey where they explore different careers. They take uh uh interest surveys in regards to what you know field they might go into things like that. This very top all right that is that this is our
013guidance counselor. Okay, counselors plural, sorry. Two guidance counselors. We're at 100%. Can't go above it. So that's as high as we could get. Not every school is there. Obviously some are in a 91.3. They've worked really hard on this and I'm really proud of that group for getting 100% as far as that goes and pushing us into the blue. When you look at uh the four-year graduation rate, right, the goal is for the kids to walk in those doors their freshman year and then graduate. So, how does our school look? Well, our four-year rate for 23 24, so think that was two years ago, is 92.6. My initial projections for next year in regards to last year, we're going to go up to around 95%. Again, that exceeds the state average of 88. So, we're
014up there around 92 right now. I think next year when I'm presenting this, that number, the 92.6 is going to be closer to 95. Moving on. Okay. So, what do our kids do when they graduate? We went through and we looked at all our graduates. This is from last school year. All right. So, 61% of our students went to a two-year or four-year school, and you can sort of see there, 37% went to the workforce, whether it was a trade or something along those lines. And then we had 2% that went to the military. I looked for some norms I could reference this to. I found a a a nationwide norm in terms of like what's the percentage of kids that typically go to college or a two-year college from a school. uh Pennsylvania, at
015least I didn't discover one, didn't have one, but the national average is right around 60 60% or so. So, that's where our kids are going uh upon graduation. You know, one of the interesting things you look at uh the Keystone test, remember, you can take it more than once. So, if you fail it, you can take it again and again and again and again. And you would think to yourself, boy, if the more you take it, the more likely it is you'll pass it. And it's oddly enough that's not the case. Usually if you don't get it on that first crack, you're you're going to be you're probably not going to pass the Keystone test, right? So I wanted to look at our firsttime test takers, you know, and this is for algebra. So for
016our first time test takers, what does that look like relative again to the state? You know, you can look at that column and it says 36.3 here proficient and then 16 over here in advance. So, we exceeded it in the proficiency but not quite in the advanced in terms of the the uh the state averages. And then you look at the retesters over here for algebra and we're at 17.8 and then uh the state was uh 9.5 and that was for algebra. This data is important to me because you know if we get these retesters we want to make sure we're targeting exact the exact efficient areas that they need to pass this keystone test. So that's why we wanted to look at this. And again, this is biology. Same same type of thing. Uh,
017you know, we're exceeding the state average here. It's proficiency 39.3 relative to the state. And then, uh, as well as for advanced in bio. Okay. Now, we did, this is for the the spring test session. For bio, we did have four retesters. Uh, none of them uh, not one of those kids was able to achieve a proficient or advanced. And again, that goes along with the theme of of retesting isn't necessarily [clears throat] going to lead us to a passing screen. >> If I if I could just jump in there, there's there's a reason for that. It's this is a standardized test. So, uh all the questions that are placed on standardized tests are tested themselves. >> So, when they design a standardized test, the goal is to produce a bell-shaped curve, right? We hopefully
018we're all familiar with a bell-shaped curve. It's natural phenomenon throughout um [clears throat] our world in in everything from manufacturing to I mean you name it people you know we there's bell curves all over the place when you measure uh the the same uh type of thing uh from different sources. So the questions are tested and they only put questions on a standardized test that are what I call the goldie blocks factor. They have to be just right. They can't be too hot. Can't have too many people get them right. You can't have them too cold. You can't have uh too too many people get them wrong. So when you do that, it creates a bell curve uh in the population. Actually, it exposes the bell curve that is always there. You cannot escape it.
019Uh and so so what's going on here? Well, [clears throat] it standardized tests rank order people and uh the first time you take this test, you got everybody and what happens? It's producing somewhat of a bell. But then the retakers, you're taking the bottom half of the bell curve and you're throwing them right back into the same test. But notice they didn't go anywhere. They're not going to go very far, right? some will, but as as a whole, those tests, I mean, there's years and years and years of development. Um, they're very predictable psychometric instruments. Uh, so that's a little bit about what's going on there. One of the things that frustrates me with politicians and uh this type of accountability with schools that don't understand the statistics behind standardized testing. And uh and you'll
020notice when No Child Left Behind went in was it was at 2001. >> Mhm. >> The goal was 100% kids proficient by 2010. I believe we got to 2010 and we weren't even close to 100%. Not even close to 80%. We were closer to the middle. So, they changed the test a little bit. Uh, realigned the goals with some new standards, got committees together, spruced it up a little bit, uh, gave out a new test, starting clean, moving forward. Um, and lo and behold, that's where we're at right now. When you look at the state trends, >> yeah, >> you [clears throat] know, things are starting to get stuck right in the middle, which they should. Uh, has nothing to do with kids, teachers, how hard they work. that does have an impact. You know,
021students uh students that don't study or do you are not exposed to any type of academic rigor of course are not going to do well. But your average student that is exposed uh to uh a decent uh schooling experience, consistent with good materials and uh staff, they're going to perform pretty consistently and produce a bellshaped curve. So that's your lesson for tonight on Saturday. >> Thank you, Dr. >> Well stated, better than I could have. So thank you for that. Okay. So, you know, what what are our next steps as far as Senica High School is concerned? And to the left, I've noted the data sources. And the way I look at and view these data sources, they all all these platforms basically pull from the same set of data, but report it in a
022variety of different ways. And those scores you're looking at on those pages in regards to achievement and growth. This is a an incredibly complex process. uh and what we want to do is extract the data that we can easily apply within a classroom setting. Okay. So what does that mean? That means how do certain groups of students perform? We want to identify our areas of students that are aren't aren't performing that well as well as the students that are performing well. Okay. And that way we can target instruction accordingly. We also want to make sure we identify through this through this data for instance e- metric is really good for this individual students and their deficit areas relative to the keystone test. All right. So that way we can make sure we're instructing those components
023in the classroom. All right. But at the top I always want to make sure we remember this. You know to me data is the road map right? So if we're going on vacation the road map is data right? Apply that to school. But don't ever forget this. I'm an instructional leader. That's how I view myself. My first priority is the classroom and what's going on in that classroom. This data is going to help us, but instruction is the vehicle. So, one without the other is is really really useless. So, we could we could assess this data perfectly, but if we don't have quality instruction uh going on in the classroom with the professionals, then then we're at a loss. And just as if this is positive but we're aimless in terms of data that's not
024going to work either. So what we've done is within the month of November because all this data is sort of rolling out. We uh we came up with a a data November which will occur all year but it's our kickoff to assessing and distributing all this data. We've taken data from eat metric and several other sources plus local data like Il and we distribute to our teachers and we're having meetings with them to really analyze it and then make sure we give them the pieces of data that they can use within the classroom. Another important component to data I think is the students being aware of where they at. And we have to be really intentional about talking to our kids about how they performed on the keystones. Right? Think about it. This applies through
025every phase of life. You know, if you're struggling with somebody, let's not make this complicated. Can we just tell people what they need to do better, right? That's what we want to do with our students. And that's what I want to make sure that our data team is communicating to our teachers uh the areas that they need to focus on. So again, department meetings, data review, targeted data that we can apply real time in a classroom. In addition to that, you can I don't know if you can ever have enough trainings on these. Over here, there are people that are employed by the state of Pennsylvania. In fact, teams of people that do nothing but analyze and create and categorize data. So, we need to make sure we're touching base with those people to make
026sure we understand it uh so we can apply it to our classrooms. Really, the most, you know, one piece of data that doesn't get talked about enough, I don't feel like, is instructional minutes. So, in other words, what's going on in the room? Are we wasting time? Are we using it productively? We have to make sure we're monitoring that closely and make sure our teachers have classroom clarity or organization. There's a lot of research behind kids walking into a room and understanding what they're going to do. When they understand what they're doing that class over a long period of time, that's an really effective way to learn. So, we want to make sure all our teachers are doing that. And then before I finish up, like I said, you know, I know rankings are are
027certainly relative. However, when I look at our teams, I like when our teams are at the top, right? So, if we're at the top, that's a positive thing. The Senica High School was recognized recently by the uh US News and World Report. Now, I know other schools do publicize this, so I thought it was important for me to share to this school board that we were recognized last year. In fact, we were third in Erie County. I think it was Northwest Collegiian Academy, maybe Fairview, then us, and then all the other county schools. So that was a a nice credit to our teachers uh you know our students most especially but the whole community for uh creating an environment for that to succeed. That's all I have. >> Thank you Mr. Hudnull. Does anybody have
028any questions for Mr. Hudnull? >> I do. Uh so same as I've asked all uh the other two principles that came up. >> Yeah. Um, is there anything that you feel budgetarily wise that you need to to move kids because first of all, I want to say that you've you've done an excellent job. >> Thank you. >> And but yet there's always >> Sure. >> something else we can do, right? And I and I love that you have an extended plan on on moving next, but is there anything that you feel like if we had this this would this would go a long way? Because, you know, I've said this before, it comes down to curriculum. >> Sure. with a good teacher and but there's always that extra like, hey, if I plug this, this
029this in this could this could take off for me. Is there anything that you can think of right now budgetarily wise that you feel like you would need for the high school? >> No, I don't. I think when you look at our systems, we have every avenue to be really successful. You can tell the investment that this school board has put into our schools and I think you can start to see the effect of that particularly at the high school level. Now, backtrack a little bit. If that same question was asked me a year ago, I would have said we need to address the the the teacher contract because we need to make sure, you know, talent acquisitions really important for us. So education to me is like a lot of fields. We need talented
030people and then we need to make sure we retain the talented ones we have. So that in itself because to me this is always going to be a people business first. That is a really really important step. So, no, we just need to uh maintain the course, you know, and as an administrator, I've been on both sides of this coin. I've been on situations or in schools where we've been at the top or near the top. And you know what? I've been on other other schools where we've been near the bottom. And it's really important to not get too excited over great results or too depressed over bad ones and just stick to the course, which is valuing these kids and supporting their teachers in the classroom. >> I just have a quick question on
031the future ready goals. >> Uhhuh. I see statewide goals have these, you know, 20 33 target dates. >> Yeah. >> Um >> so that is static until what time? Like does the state set those goals on on how long of a cycle? Um or do they kind of move that goal up each year? >> You know, my experience with the statewide goals is to be totally honest with you, they always change. >> Okay. >> So while the state sets that goal for 2033, I would predict as Mr. Dr. said that they will change that goal because they're going to come to realize quite frankly that all not all schools are going to get there. >> Yeah. >> And because of that they're going to readjust those goals. >> Yeah. I was trying to remember from
032the last time we looked at this data and it it you know of course I don't have it on me but >> um you know the floating finish line to kind of dominate the marketplace on this one but yeah >> I just want to check with you. Thank you. >> Yeah >> Mr. President. >> Yes Dr. Pusher. >> Uh Mr. Hudnull, thank you for your presentation tonight. >> You're in the hot seat in any school district as a high school principal. So to hear you >> focus on instructional leadership, working with your faculty, working with the students, keeping that at the forefront of what we're doing, recognizing over time the efforts and initiatives that have been put in budgetarily, curriculum-wise, instruction wise, and to have you see it start to come together now. And I
033agree, we don't we don't get too excited, but we have to celebrate when we can. Um, and I just really appreciate your presentation tonight, how you broke it down. Very um understandable for us as board members, and to ask you to continue uh what you're doing, continue motivating your faculty, your students, um but to give you and your team the props that you deserve for right now. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you, Dr. Pushek. >> Thank you, Dr. Pushchack. Any others? Thanks, Mr. Hudnull. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Hudnell. We appreciate not just presentation, but your personal passion as well. So, keep up the good work. Thank you. >> All right, we'll now turn to our business administrator, Mrs. Vicky Bendig. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, for tonight, I have the
034treasures reports for general fund. Um, cash in the general fund as of October 31st, $13,624,554.30. The year-to- date budget versus actual report will be ready for next week. Capital projects in that account $18.29. Cafeteria at the end of October was at $796,740.75. Cafeteria profit loss report will be ready for next week. and the student activities balance end of October total in all of those collective accounts $56,550.36. Uh moving on to the bill lists uh checks written since uh the last board meeting prior to the work prior to this evening in the general fund. Um bill list totaling $92,114.72 and then checks already written for the cafeteria. um $1,97627. The other bill lists will be ready for next week and that is all I have. >> Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Bendig. Does anyone have any questions
035for Mrs. Bennett? >> All right, hearing none. We look forward to seeing the reports next week. Thank you. Uh we have one item under uh legal advisement um this evening uh to set the agenda for next week. This is an exoneration of delinquent property taxes. Uh you'll see in the attachment these are parcels that have been removed from the assessment records um for no value or non-existence. Uh these I believe were all trailers if I remember correctly. >> I believe so. >> Yes. All right. So this uh motion will be to approve the recommendation from the Erie County Tax Claim Bureau uh for the removal of the delinquent taxes for the years noted and then all future years moving forward as these are now zero assessed. Does anyone have any questions on that one? Uh
036hearing none that will move over for next week as well. The chair will now recognize Dr. Andrew Pushchack for finance. >> Thank you, Mr. President. One item under budgetary under finance the budgetary transfers that we do each month which will be to transfer from budget to actual um in the report that will be attached. So that's all I have for next week. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Pushchack. Uh chair will now recognize Mr. Jeremy Blazer for buildings and grounds. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. One [clears throat] item uh for next week, facility use requests. uh two actual requests. Uh one is for District 10's use of our soccer uh field for the playoff game on October 30th, and the other is for Miss Lucy's dancing school uh to utilize our
037auditorium in June of 2026. >> Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Blazer. Does anyone have any questions [clears throat] on those two? Hearing none, they'll move over for voting next week. Thank you, Mr. Blazer. Uh the chair will now recognize Mr. Nicole Lee for personnel. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I have four items for recommendation for next week. They include A resignations as listed, B, appointments as listed, C, ESS substitute list additions as listed, and D, conference requests as listed. >> Thank you, Mrs. Lee. Does anyone have any questions on these four items? Hearing none, those will move over for next week's agenda. Thank you, Mrs. Lee. Uh, the chair will now recognize Mrs. Britney Birmingham for policy. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I only have one item underneath policy as of now, which is
038subject a second reading of the policies as listed below. Um, well, actually to approve the second reading and review of the policies as outlined and attached below. >> Thank you, Mrs. Burlingham. Does anyone have any questions on those policies? Hearing none, those will move over for next week. Thank you, Mrs. Burlingham. >> The chair will now recognize Mr. Steven Morbe for curriculum. >> Mr. President, currently there is uh one item on the agenda for next week and that is the approval or the review and approval of the 2026 2027 school year calendar uh as per the attachment. >> Thank you, Mr. Morve. Does anyone have any questions on the proposed school calendar for the 2627 school year? >> I can't believe that's my daughter's senior senior school. >> Every time I see a calendar, I
039just think the years are flying by. Thank you very much, Mr. Morve. see that on next week's agenda. >> Thank you, Mr. President. >> Uh the chair will now recognize Dr. Jesse Williams for technology. >> Uh thank you, Mr. President. I have nothing on the agenda for next week. >> Thank you, Dr. Williams. Uh the chair will now recognize uh Mr. Greg Brumagen for transportation. >> Mr. President, next week we'll have two items underneath transportation. uh transportation request a to approve the request and ratification of field trips since last meeting and b to approve the transportation contract renewal with Durham school services uh our bus contractor as attached. >> Does anyone have any questions on those two items? >> Mr. President, >> yes, Mr. Blazer. >> I had some questions about the Durham renewal contract
040that I did review the information that was shared through our weekly update. Um I I have zero experience or knowledge in busing or buses and all that. So this is just sort of a layman's I guess question. Uh when I was uh reading and understanding that the cost of the additional um uh wages that we're giving our bus drivers, I understand that is a big driver of those increases. Makes sense and I know we've done that to stay competitive in this market. The other big driver was the cost of the additional buses. So, uh, when I saw that our goal or, uh, maybe goal is not strong enough, our demand that have to have five-year average and no more than 10 years on a vehicle, uh, it just from a lame person didn't seem like
041a very old vehicle. I mean, fiveyear average, if my wife got a new car every 5 years, I'd be looking at my own budget. So, I guess I wonder uh, where has that come from? Obviously, you know, myself, I'm sure everybody up here wants those buses to be as safe as possible. And I know our buses travel a lot of miles on a lot of bad back roads, but I guess are those averages just an industry standard or you know what drives that which obviously then is driving some of the increased cost? >> You want to go ahead on that one? >> Uh, sure. Yeah. It's not an industry standard. It's a you have to do this in Westber area school district standard because the buses fall apart if you if you do less than
042that pace. And we know that from experience. Um when I started as superintendent, we were really in a bad way with busing. Um and one of the largest problems was our buses that we owned. Uh they were not in good shape and the district had fallen um way behind that pace of about three buses, three to four buses a year. There were some years they weren't replacing any. Um they were borrowing money. other years. Um there was actually buses on the rosters that we were paying on that didn't no longer existed. Um, so, uh, I we we studied the issue and and looked back at, you know, probably 10 years of of busing information because we do have because of the state transportation report, we have to have uh, bus VIN numbers, the date they
043were purchased, the mileage per year, you know, so we have a lot of a lot of data on the buses. Uh so so we worked up some projections and we're and and found that that that five-year mark is about when the buses a bus started to to fall apart. And they were usually pushing 100,000 and if and those were the buses that we would start to cycle over into um spare buses. You know, they're they're fine if you need a bus once or twice a week. if one's uh being repaired, but they just they no longer would hold up. Um so that pace of bus replacement really was born out of what we've experienced in the actual Wattsburg school district uh numbers uh for when buses would fall apart and need to be replaced. We
044had been on a replace three buses every year schedule. Um, and some of our buses in that five-year window or six year, they were pushing 200,000 miles on those buses just because of the size of our district. And if they're running out to Macedonia Road twice a day making a loop, right? I mean, it it adds up really quick. So, um, the I believe that this renewal contract has an accelerated replacement in it because I don't believe that they had been replacing three buses every year and now we've had them for 10 years and they're like, "Oh, in order to keep what we demand, five year max, 10 year a or five year average 10 years max they are going to have to replace 18 buses in the next five years and six of them
045have to go next year so I think that's where those costs came out of >> and because we um because we've outsourced they own all those buses so it's their cost same if the buses as as Dr. Brlin said are have parts or they're somewhat value that's their value not our value. Yeah, it's really an aftershock still of us owning our own buses and not taking care of them and that you know that we're kind of carrying it's like when you get underwater in your car lines. I mean we're still carrying that along to some extent. >> Durham helped us erase a lot of it but >> they replaced 21 buses like within the first few years because they had to. It was all our stuff was really in bad shape. Um, we were very
046happy that they would even card it off and and and they did give us uh some trade value on some of the buses. Uh, but if you look now, fast forward, they're going to need to to replace another chunk of buses. Um, so and we've spot checked uh some of the bus mileage and age uh of the buses that are running right now and they were they they just barely hit those marks, but you can see where they're not going to be able to go another year unless they catch up uh several buses. >> I've never attended myself, but I know the Erie Speedway has the figure eight racing with the buses, so I guess they will go to a good cause. >> Yeah. ultimately >> well we'll have a few to take >> should
047be recruiting some drivers there maybe in a >> and really one of the unfortunate things now that's happened in the last you know two decades per se just with cost of you know the individuals that work on fleet equipment the cost of parts and maintenance of fleet equipment whether you're talking about school buses you know rider rental trucks whatever they are that's why you see the newer stuff on the road because it's it's cheaper to replace it than it is to have the staff and the parts to to maintain it which is seems wasteful and unfortunate, but that's kind of the state of the economy when it comes to fleet maintenance. So, >> it's a difficult it's a difficult because we need them reliable, right? >> Yeah. Vicki would tell me just I get going
048on buses. It's so much of what we do out here and I end up managing a lot of it. Um the the even the brands we had so many mixed brands models of buses that we had to maintain a lot of different spare parts for you know it's kind like we had Ford Chevy no those aren't the bus names it's international yeah right blue international and so on um so that's another thing Durham has has standardized ized that. So I mean personally I mean I could I feel more comfortable that that the buses are being maintained uh in a standardized consistent way uh much safer for the students. >> Thank you. Appreciate the explanation. >> Any other questions? Hearing none. Those two will move over for our regular meeting next week. Thank you Mr. Brumagen.
049The chair will now recognize Miss Leah Heatherington for athletic and extracurricular. Thank you, Mr. President. Next week, I will have five items on the agenda. The first one being volunteer list traditions, the second one, athletic resignations, the third one, athletic appointments, um four being D is extracurricular activities, and E number five, extracurricular resignations. >> Does anyone have any questions on those five items? Hearing none, those will move over for next week's meeting. Thank you, Miss Heatherington. >> You're welcome, Mr. President. >> Uh, the chair will now recognize Mr. Steven Morv. Uh, will you be having a Erie County Technical School joint operating committee report for next week? >> I will have an update, yes. From our October uh, committee meeting uh, for the board. >> Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Morve. >> Thank you. >> Uh,
050Dr. Pushchack, will you be providing a Tri County Intermediate IU 5 report for next week? >> Brief report next week, Mr. President. >> Thank you very much, Dr. Pushjack. Uh, it's now time for board correspondents and dialogue. Is there anything for the good of the order this evening, Mr. President? >> Uh, yes, Dr. Pusher. Um, I just want to reflect and highlight on our district continuing to be a diamond in the rough. um what we're doing is actually way overperforming what our expectation should be for our population, for our demographics, for our tax base, for our per pupil expenditure. We're really doing amazing. Um and again, we have some es and flows and dips and highs and we're continuing to move forward. And that doesn't happen by chance. It happens by dedicated administration bringing researchbased
051programs to this board to support with the resources needed to implement to plan for that to monitor that to report back on results and and change if needed. Um beyond that um look at our fall student activities, our our band, our fall plays, our fall sports groups. Um, as someone who coaches fifth and sixth grade soccer, we can't get into the gym until 7 o'clock because it's booked. And when I came in at 7 o'clock, there was Girl Scouts in the cafeteria. Fifth and sixth grade boys and girls basketball. Third and fourth grade was before that. We have our full winter compliment. Um, and due to my occupation, I'm in almost every school district every semester. This doesn't happen anywhere else. And I talk with people about the opportunities our students have and their their
052jaws drop when I tell them, "Oh yeah, we have an elementary running club K to six, 50 kids. Whoa, we have uh a Senica soccer club. We have, you know, little bitty basket. I mean, just the opportunities that we have for our students." So, um, you know, as as the longest serving board member, I've seen where we've come from. I mean, you talk about buses and poor decisions previous administrators and boards have made, it's just so happy to be where we're at, to be in the place that we're at, and to be moving forward. And, you know, it comes down to everybody working together, administrators, students, faculty, staff, community, board. Um, so I I think we we we tried to get our message out, but it needs to be repeated and people need to know
053how good we really do have it here. So as a person who just finished their 17th year in the elementary center from bringing students to preschool all the ways through, we went to this building every day 17 years in a row and now we're on one schedule for middle school. >> There'll be more and more calendars for you. But, uh, I just, you know, I I really appreciate the work we're doing, and sometimes it it doesn't seem like we're getting results that we hope for, but we really are. So, thank you, Mr. President. >> I'll echo those as well. Thank you for those those words there to push Jack. Uh, Mr. Bumin, >> Mr. President, I apologize to go backwards, but I do have a question on the district 10 utilization of the football field
054for the soccer playoff game. It lists an estimated cost of $400. Do we bring in any revenue from that? Is it revenue neutral? Do we make money on that? or does it cost us $400 to have a district 10 playoff game here? >> Uh that cost is we don't really bring in any the gate receipts all go to PIAA. We get the $400 that they use our field for and that is a negotiated price kind of like this is what we pay other places this is what we'll pay to use it. So >> our concessions was also open that day. our concessions were open so the boosters did benefit from it. >> Thank you. >> Are there any other items for the good of the order? >> Mr. President, I have just one question. >>
055Yes, Mr. >> Um is kind of tying into Dr. Berlin's um weekly report um and regarding the budget impass, etc. Um and how that is may or may not be impacting us as a as a district. um some of the scuttlebutt I hear, you know, talking to some of the other board members, especially at the tech school, you know, there there's a there's a varying degree of impact in regards to the budget not being passed and obviously revenue coming in and I I'm just looking at the our general fund report and seems like we pretty have we still have a pretty healthy balance sheet at this point. I just don't know does it does there become a point where we need to then start you know it does become an impactful for us and then
056what potentially is that um process look like I mean do we think about loans do I mean I'm just I'm asking the question on what what may be coming out on the horizon if that's a too broad of a question I'll try to narrow it but >> it it's not and we're already have that plan in place that if we don't see something from a budget by January February by January. In February, we're going to need to look at a tax revenue anticipatory note loan. >> Um, >> and that's to various financial institutions that then >> so >> like a bond sale almost or >> Yes. Okay. >> So that we borrow money so that when we get money we can pay it off. >> Okay. >> Um, >> and our capital and our uh
057budgetary reserve that's we don't want to tap into that or is that all in that thought process? We're going to be using budgetary reserve, those committed funds as cash flow. >> Yeah. >> Um until such time that the state money starts flowing. Um our district is very um unique in the fact that we are well, not always in a good way, but uh 50% locally funded. So, and because taxes, tax revenue, like your tax bills, you get a discount if you pay by September 30th. The normal regular um remittance period is through November 30th. So, we're going to see 86 to 90% of our tax revenue coming in by the 30th of November. Um so, we have those funds now. Um, I did some kitchen table math for um, Ken last week and I'm like
058I'm like, "Okay, we've got $13 million and it costs this much every month. We've got about five months." >> So, and that's if we don't get crazy spending other things, right? If we don't have a breakdown and we don't have, you know, things that we have to do. So, >> and the new bus contract won't start till next year. And there's, yeah, there's some of those other things that, >> right, >> are newly budgeted items. >> Right. Right. So, we are not in dire straits, but um it's going to need to be a conversation in January, February if it doesn't pass. And I am hopeful that something's going to happen before Christmas. So, >> so a curiosity question to build on that since you, you know, already know the steps and probably understand the process
059moving forward. You know, we'll just call it a shortterm, you know, line of credit or bridge loan basically to get us there. What are interest rates on something like that? I don't >> don't know. Yeah. I mean, you know, Fed gave us 50 basis points, we'll probably get 25 more in December. So, it's not getting cheaper, unfortunately. >> Yeah. And that's that's been the critic. Pennsylvania legislature. I I can't count the number of times they've played this game. And it always comes down to education being the football like gets thrown back and forth because it's the largest line item next to Medicare and things. Um, and the the sad part of it is is interest on fund committed funds and fund balance that we do have. I mean, that's that's potential earnings revenue that we
060don't get back because we have to use it. Uh, and if you take if you do have to take out a loan, which a lot of school districts do, you know, they're paying interest on on those loans, which is not reimbursed by by the state. >> Or call your house reps, call your senators. Let's get it done. >> Thank you, Mr. President. >> Thank you, Mr. Morve. Any others for the good of the order? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Nicole, so moved. >> Mor second. >> All in favor? >> I oppose. Nay. Motion carries. We are journ. Thank you.