001good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome to the watts for Darius school district we are student-centered in future focus for a world-class education the regular board meeting is now called to order [Music] we have a certificate for you thank you for thank you underscore reports thank you Madam Secretary may we have a roll call please hear hear mr. Madsen here here mr. Parris this is the cabbage here mr. Khrushchev here here thank you this time I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda and the addendum so move second any discussion on the agenda of the addendum I had a question yes mr. O'Donnell so there was something that was added to today's agenda okay that wasn't part of our work session meeting but it's not that's a show up on the addendum but it shows up
002in the transportation and that is that the SHS cast a little mermaid that transportation I only I just happen to know that it would happen after the fact and so should it show up on the addendum as well but the addendum if we start listening the transportation I just don't know if there was like a legality thing like we had to list on the endeavor cuz I mean it shows up in the agenda so he's definitely visible well we're approving the agenda and the addendum so that's everyone that's what we're proving any further discussion on the agenda for the addendum we're voting to approve the agenda and the addendum as presented all in favor please say aye opposed nay the motion carries I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from the January 20th regular
003board meeting and finance meeting and Technology Committee meetings and the February 10th work session and policy committee meetings some moves second any additions or Corrections to those minutes as presented hearing nonvoting to approve the minutes s presented on the agenda all in favor please say aye opposed nay the motion carries this time I will recognize Superintendent of Schools mr. Ken Berlin for our school reports mr. Berlin thanks dr. push check last minute we had we had to move the guidance report to next month okay mr. Mellon house again but we do have other school reports so would you like to get started actually gonna turn our score court over to mrs. Herman and Eckhart share everything with you because mrs. hunter 'men is the teacher who originally organized the W land challenge and I feel
004that she can explain much better at this fabulous challenge that we do and so I'm mrs. Harriman my official title is librarian I do do the steam teaching here at the elementary Center and mrs. Fonzo is the librarian so we work as a team I'm in the back of the library she's in the front of the library and wqln offers every fall from a September 1st through November 30th they encourage all school districts in their viewing area and not just our school district to have students keep track of the number of books that they read and then at the end of November we turn in all of those tallies to wqln they compare them with all of the other schools that send in reports and keep those records and then they announce the top school
005the top classroom and the top student and we have one and swept all three categories the last three years because we have such amazing readers and so this is the traveling trophy that's one of the things we get so for two years the first two years it went to Robinson and it was a tight fight and then the last four years we've had it so up here we have three of our top readers a student from one of the top classrooms so just to give you an idea of these books so in those three months as a school reread twenty one thousand three hundred and ninety three books which is five thousand more than last year so we really brought up our game and really weren't working hard our top five students Cheyenne is here
006this is her third year being the top student she read a thousand and forty nine books she's in second grade and miss ball tennis class Alcide was not able to be here he's in first grade he read 705 Rachel is here give us away Rachel Rachel was our third place and she read four hundred and twenty books she's in fourth grade and then psy was not able to be here he's another first grader he read three hundred and seventy five books and then in fourth grade Taylor give us a wave she read three hundred and forty-one bucks she's a fourth grader so combined you can see that these students have read over 3,000 books just please and then TJ is sitting here because he's my son and he was part of Miss poultices class miss
007ball Tessa's class as a whole read 2865 books so as a school we run with the twenty one thousand three hundred ninety three Cheyenne one with the 1049 she got an awesome reading tenth a really adorable snuffleupagus that I'm still coveting and all sorts of books and fun things and then miss bulletins as classes the winning class got two hundred fifty dollars this huge prize basket of school supplies that she needed and she got books for the class they got a pizza party and so we had a big assembly in mid-january where all the students got to come to the gym the representatives from wqln came and presented all of these awesome prizes and awards to us so we're hoping next year will be the seventh year and our fifth year winning and continue all
008of these amazing things and I hope that Rachel and Taylor continue reading as they go to the Middle School they don't offer it at the middle school but I know they'll do great things and we'll see what they continue doing so that's the wqln Reading Challenge it is a lot of work but it's very rewarding watching the students get their stars so every time they read 25 books they get a star outside in the library and some of those kids came and saw everyday or tuned for a new star so great job everyone great job some other good news at elementary you may have seen in the news that the elementary for the second year in a row is a distinguished title one school we received title one funding to support our readers are our
009new readers that are that need extra help and there's about nine hundred twenty or so title one schools designated Pennsylvania they they know they select this the Department of Ed selects the top 15% so all over a hundred schools have been recognized for their outstanding academic reports so mrs. Farr Tony we have something were you and mr. Calabrese and the office that commemorate that 20 20 % of to once we're here Elementary Center and I just want to say quickly thank you very much it's an honor but this belongs to the kids and the teachers and just the hard work that our staff does every single person from our bus drivers cafeteria staff custodial staff everyone does their part to make our school distinguished in its own special way and it helps to you know
010raise the morale of our students and our staff that makes this work as hard as we can because mr. Paris in the middle school everybody we had some some students lined up for me from our newly formed group our student council and they weren't able to make it but this is Henry and the Miller were able to make it there are they are overseeing the group and they're just going to say to say a few words this is a new group for us at the middle school it's part of our club program when we started you met some of the some of the students last month and you'll meet another group this month so I'm mrs. Henry my day job as math teacher and then I get the perk of also being a co-sponsor with
011the student council with mrs. Miller and mrs. steers as well so we've been very active this year's first time we've had a student council at the middle school for numerous years from what I understand and we've been able to incorporate it during our Club day we do meet monthly and then we also incorporate a little bit of time during homeroom and enrichment of the selected officers Caleb Dacus is our president for the student council it's his birthday so he's celebrating today instead of be here but he's our president for the student council and they've been very busy accomplishments that they've had already it's two spirit weeks candy grams that they've sold a pass it on pay of three - use between the 5th and 6th grade students where they were able to share some kind
012boards during the holidays and they posted the different things that they were saying to each other so the students are the ones that's controlling all of this they're creating the Flyers they're writing the announcements and they're making the announcements in the morning it's all student-led so we're very probably with all four so far some upcoming events and things that they're already starting to put into the word for the spring and they'd like to do a fun run that they've planned they are doing a large spring dance for the fifth and sixth graders and then the seventh and eighth graders that they've decorated for and close to things around the school and announced and they're working with the PTO in order to do that so it's kind of building the relationship with the students and the
013PTO and the parents and getting everybody involved and then they're hoping to do a spring Easter candygram sale and a spring dance as well so the students are working really hard we're excited that this is a new club and program that the students are running and you know taking charge of so we're really proud of them and it includes grades five through eight about yes yes about twenty twenty kids five degrees so they've elected five officers of different roles and they're embracing that we did a small election within the just the student council this year but we want to incorporate the entire school next year let them get the feel of what does an officer do we've encouraged them to come see em being led by you've seen those different roles that would also be
014encouraged yeah so it is my pleasure to introduce some talented individuals from the high school we're part of cast a little mermaid now this is something that's pretty foreign to me throwing up I wasn't involved in plays musicals anything's that and just so in the course of doing kind of what I do after school I've kind of gotten a front row seat to go sneak in on some of the rehearsals and stuff like that and one of the things that strikes me about this is you know as an athlete you know you get to to go out perform you know a couple times a week or once a week whatever and anything that they're doing they're working just as hard but they really they get one weekend to shine and so that just seeing what
015they're doing is kind of struck me about that I'd encourage you if you haven't been in the auditorium go take a look at stage I mean mr. Peterman and all the stage to return an awesome job as well and so I think they're gonna do before this we might give you a little sneak peek of what they've been working on as well the director and tonight you guys would be the first kind of creep you under this so let me gather up the crew we are going to perform it's over here all right sure sure our students have worked so hard I am incredibly amazed and proud of them I've been involved in theater and music my whole life and these kids are are truly wonderful it is a it is a blessing to work
016with them Oh No I would like to introduce a few of our title characters this is Jace wolves he will be performing as Sebastian [Applause] coming around with a little wire hope to see you all there and now I'm gonna turn it over to [Music] yes [Applause] the [Music] nobody [Music] yes thank you very much that's our favorite part of our board meetings is recognizing all the great work done by our students so thank you very much oh that's on the book you look some guys thanks for having us yes thank you okay we're continue on with our meeting I will just take one moment to back up is there anything from the board regarding the Finance Committee meeting any questions you might have at this time again just a preliminary overview existing so we've
017got the overview and then you want to share the necks of the majors from here at the next step if you would please miss is spending so I will continue to work at trying to find ways to get rid of the deficit if there are things that we can change in each individual category as we move far we'll probably have another Finance Committee meeting in the month of March to go over any changes that happen between now and then and we'll have another one in April prior to the maybe before the work session so that you're all up to speed when we vote on it at the if you have any questions in the meantime feel free to give me a call everyone question yes mr. glazier so I understand that there's a lot of
018guesswork like you're basing your numbers on things we don't Carfax on yet such as the state budget is there anything you foresee that could grow that much of anything that you worried about happening that would grow that deficit although you're looking for ways that reduce it well every day that we move forward and changes are coming in like we we were ten Colby last week and said okay we're gonna hire another instructor and I'm like oh here you know so there are things like that that happened I mean there's a lot of moving parts so it is a state of flux for the next two months so it's normal operating procedure really to have change until the last minute Thanks any other questions from the board since we didn't have time at the committee meeting
019is there any questions from the public just regarding the presentation on the preliminary budget if there is please come forward state your name and then ask your question we have an answer we'll certainly try to provide joy Bible 10500 donation Road 140 160 441 just just in general I wasn't around and coming to the meetings back when you were saving for the the middle school project so I don't know how you went about saving the money for the middle school project and I'm curious to know if you're still doing that or and if if not why if you're not if you're what's the savings plan if there's any savings plan I guess it's my question we we had typically budgeted contingency five to six hundred thousand dollars and knowing that if if we didn't have
020unexpected expenditures that money would go to the bottom line that that's really how we built in savings the fund balance grows every time we under spend the budget there's money left over that goes to the bottom line that goes to the fund balance which is also managed by the state which can't grow to be more than 8% of the total budget so at the end of the year when we have money that goes into unassigned fund balance there's a recommendation to move the signed fund balance greater than 8% to a committed fund balance that the board votes on they decide we're going to set this money aside for this purpose so a couple months ago we had a presentation from the auditors on what we had two hundred and forty thousand dollars that went into
021our unassigned fund balance so over the next couple of months we'll have a recommendation to move and actually it's in tonight's agenda to move money to a committed fund balance basically using that leftover money to say we need have money set aside for this purpose so in short we we overestimate expenses and underestimate revenue and I don't in one of their comment just about the special that I realized that cost the district district a lot of money I work for the barber National Institute and general McLean has a program currently that houses kids with special needs and behavior issues if you will but that's all funded by the barber National Institute and I can only imagine that if general McLean keeps those seven kids in that classroom there must be some kind of kickback somewhere
022along the way if those kids are at that school but our BMI staff are going to that school I don't know if you know I don't know the all the ins and outs I'm just saying that there there must be some type of monetary profit I would think from on a general McLean standpoint why would they why would they keep the kids there yeah I just I'm just trying to find a way to have this whole I can tell you I can tell you that that number we brought that down significantly because we partner with Northeast harbor creeks and Iroquois fort LaBeouf in Union City so what this doesn't show is the revenue we get from those school districts so it shows it as an expense but there is an offset that occurs because those
023those folks and we've all agreed to how certain programs like we've got some autistic in life skill programs and at great levels that those other schools don't have so they send their students here we charge them tuition and we in turn sent some of our students the programs we don't have out to them now the Intermediate Unit north/northwest tri-county Intermediate Unit used to manage this for all the school districts but they became financially non-competitive in the special ed world essentially so we started buying back programs and forming these more local collaborations or consortiums and we've well I wouldn't even it's got to be at least 250 to 300 300 thousand dollars annually we've reduced our special ed expenses just through working with those few local school visitors around here so do we end up paying
024so I know that we like if one of our kids goes to Northeast to their program then we would pay North East is that how that goes so what happens when when North East can't meet that we I hope you have come into my program at B and I so that so North East couldn't meet their needs and so now they're at the barber center and we're meeting their needs are attempting to do we pay the barber center how does that work so we pay the barber center all school districts what I think I would I would be surprised that Journal mcclain isn't playing paying the barber national anthem maybe I don't know I was just thinking why I don't know where these does I know Harvard does you know now part of an action
025let's do they get subsidies from the government to offset costs so the tuition they charge us is less than it would be if they if they weren't receiving those subsidies but it is a tuition based program that's all thank you thank you any other questions regarding the Finance Committee meeting okay thank you they'll bring us to guests and citizens comments this evening all visitors will be recognized and directed by report president we have one person that has signed up to be on the agenda the second person has asked to have his name removed so Laurie song's L will have ten minutes welcome mrs. Lonsdale thank you so I have multiple topics to discuss tonight so I'm have a written agenda for myself here to follow the last time I spoke at the board meeting it
026seemed to cause some consternation when I brought up the fact that the financial audit that would that had been presented at the work session was made available on the pro voices Facebook page prior to a being approved by the school board meeting last month I sort of recognize that I know it was started to be explained to me that wouldn't be available until it was approved on until I said that it actually was available so I sent a right to know request and I asked for all email communications between mr. Berlin and the admin of the pro voices page who had published it so this is what I want you to know I have copies of that so the day of the work session Monday January 13th at 2:00 p.m. she sent an email to
027mr. Berlin that says I see that the audit for fiscal year 2019 is on the agenda to be approved next week may I have a copy of that via right to know please so the response to her is time-stamped at 2:06 p.m. so it was six minutes later and mr. Berlin says attached this is in preliminary form currently as the board has not yet approved it in theory changes could be made prior to board approval however that is not likely so this didn't happen through the right to know process I think it's important for the board members to recognize that this is a process that's in place for a reason i can assume and maybe miss McClure could make it clear to you that it's probably there to protect this school district and this board
028because of potentially what can be distributed or what could or shouldn't be distributed this does not appear to will follow that I also want the board to think about what that means I saw each of the board members actually hand your copy back dr. push Jack's said at that meeting that it was the first time you all were seeing that and I have no reason to doubt on what he was saying I saw you all hand your written copies back in I presume so that it wouldn't get out publicly to the public and yet there it was on a Facebook page a day and a half later before you had even approved it so not only did the public have it before you approved it the public had it before you even saw it and
029I would I would take umbrage at that if I was a member of this school board I think you should feel disrespected that your superintendent feels supreme enough in his position to assure a member of the public that no changes will likely be made I feel like this would this is an indication of how little he thinks of your influence or your opinion in these matters and the total disregard for official processes that are put in place by this board at last week's session it was mentioned at the work session it was mentioned that one of the findings in that audit was about that funding for major projects was being approved for was being agreed to first and then the funding was being approved afterwards and that the auditor said this was a problem and
030it wasn't appropriate and it should be I saw that it was said at last week's meeting that Miss bending found a reference in April's board meeting minutes that the board had in fact approved that spending that had been referred to so i guess is that exhibit e from April's minutes is that what we're talking about the guaranteed savings energy management agreement I'm assuming that's that's what was referred to so it was suggested that the auditors had access to those minutes but they had missed that they didn't see that that somehow they were at fault for not recognize that but again I have to say that apparently mr. Berlin had access to the audit before everybody on the board did because his responses to the auditors suggestions or questions were published in that audit so it
031seemed odd to me that there is a negative finding in this in this audit in written form that the superintendent had opportunity to respond to it before went to the board no objection on that point was made you would think that would have been recalled like yes we did approve it in fact as it was presented to the public no objection was made was voted on approved by the board a week later no objection was made and if this is what you're referring to the agreement date is actually March 12th and that meeting was April 15th so again I believe the agreement was entered into and the funding was approved a month later which is the problem that was discussed by the auditors um the next question I have is about the Watts burg areas
032foundation mr. blows her I believe that was I'm sorry blows her blazer please I'm sorry I know how I hate that too mr. Brown's money um so I don't understand it was formed in October of 2012 right with you and superintendent said Ali was the superintendent at that time so I'm curious to know if mr. Berlin was part of founding that group at that time he wasn't hired as the C no okay um because in that same email that I got from the right to know he says and I quote Jeremy blazer who is now on the school board was the director of the foundation Jeremy and I worked at getting the foundation started in 2013 when it was created we tried various fundraising events it goes on and then at the end it says
033I personally spent a lot of time on it with little return so I I'm passing on information that I'm finding so now I'd like to address you dr. push Jack in the comments that you made to me at last month's board meeting um I will admit that you caught me a little off guard wasn't it prepared to address the remark she made to me in a public forum that you knew were being recorded for district use and publish to social media I'll remind you I'm sure you know the definition of slander a spoken communication of a false assertion of fact to a third party which causes damage or injury to another person's reputation so in your capacity as school board president your assertion that I was out of order number one was incorrect title let
034me find it here Troy do you have my copy of that oh I got it nevermind title 65 the Sunshine Act Chapter seven ten point one paragraph see you were referring to the objection I made at the start of the meeting for the reason that you gave for an executive session and I objected and said that your reason wasn't descriptive enough you ordered me to sit down multiple times you would not hear my objection and in fact you threatened to have me removed the next meeting at the end of my comment session you said that I was out of line and out of order and that the only person that the only time a citizen could object was there in common time seven ten point one paragraph see any person has the right to raise
035an objection at any time to a perceived violation of this chapter at any meeting of a board or counsel of a political subdivision or an authority created by a political subdivision you're welcome to that if you didn't know that I believe you should have known that you are the leader of a school board you're the president and it's been your job for 70 years to be sure that this board follows Title 65 now I want to talk about and by the way I do believe when you said I was out of line that that was a personal attack that had nothing to do with procedural things that was a personal attack on me and now I want to talk about segregation in this school district and by that I mean segregation of duties which is
036an absolute basic freshman principle and accounting and it's what did not happen here that allowed three hundred twenty-one thousand dollars to be taken from this district my husband and I sought the advice of legal counsel regarding the actions of this superintendent and the board who was in place at the time of the embezzlement a letter was sent to attorney McClure by this attorney in the hopes that this matter could be handled on a local and amicable lever level that later was a courtesy and that letter has been ignored if the members of this board aren't aware of that letter I would be happy to forward it to you this is what we know as the superintendent of the school district you had a fiduciary and a ministerial duty to the taxpayers and student of this
037district reconciling accounting processes and balances is basic accounting and clearly within the scope of duty for this position the amount of money is not at issue or whether it was covered by insurance this loss could have been more the insurance could have been less either of those figures could have been different the issue is the low standard of care that was in use for the amount of time that allowed this loss to occur cash management is a high-risk proposition and is exactly why the most basic control should be in place not recognizing that those controls were not in place demonstrates recklessness on the part of the superintendent this board has an obligation to evaluate the superintendent his performance and his ability to carry out his job and I believe that it's time to look at
038that in addition the solicitor serves the district she does not represent the superintendent she may not be used as a weapon where we have three people that have signed up to address the board that will be afforded five minutes the first one is Jodi great this is great welcome hi Jodi great 95 95 new road northeast VA one six four to eight originally I'm gonna help in finishing the comment the firm with my five minutes but honestly my motive for signing up is to just say how happy I am with the changes that have been made since we've become actively involved with everything going on the meetings have done an about-face greatly appreciate it for that there's been a lot of things going on understand that there's going to be some people not happy with
039some actions that were made but honestly that's what started our whole group to begin with and we're just going to be involved from here on out and I commend the changes that have been being made and I just hope to continue that everyone is still listening accountable and positive moving forward so I'm just gonna finish now the board shall evaluate the superintendent annually in accordance with Pennsylvania law the evaluation will take place on or about April 1st of each year using and mutually agreed-upon method as a basis for evaluation which method will use test scores released the prior year provided that any assessment system selected shall require the board of school directors to reach a consensus on the superintendent's performance in every area of the evaluation rather than averaging the feedback of the board in
040the event the board consensus determines that the performance of the superintendent is unsatisfactory in any respect it shall describe in writing the specific instances of unsatisfactory performance a copy of the written evaluation shall be delivered to the superintendent this is what we know about the solicitor of the Watts burg Area School District the solicitor services are for the school district only not only the super in tended not any envision individual on this school board the person in that position cannot be used as a weapon against a taxpayer the school board has an obligation to take action when there is evidence that the superintendent is acting recklessly or not in the best interest of the district they should be requesting meeting with the solicitor to determine what cause of action they can take and that's as
041in the board not the superintendent any communication between the solicitor and the superintendent is not covered by any attorney-client privilege and she is required to disclose those communications to this board in particular those communications indicate his culpability or responsibility in financial matters that were detrimental to this district and that's just finishing that but I appreciate that I've been moving forward and hope to see more progress being made thank you thank you mrs. gray joy Bible 10500 donation Ruth this is just I'm just gonna ask the questions but I think you're going to go over it in the actual meeting I just wanted to ask the questions now because this is my time so I see that there's a three hundred and ten thousand dollar transfer for the stadium project if you could just explain when
042you get there not that you weren't who are going to do that but if you could just explain that when you get there and there was brief discussion at the where were we committee meeting I guess it was the eight last week about the drainage in the out fields the ball fields and so I'm very curious where that money is going to come from if it was you know I don't just where's that money gonna come from I guess it's my biggest question about that and and on that those same lines there's if if this is already an unforeseen circumstance with the ball field and I I don't mean to be anti ball field I'm not I I just am concerned because we can't always fall backs on taxes to cover costs we didn't know
043about in my opinion so if there's already unforeseen things going on with the project where is where is the money setting aside for emergency things going forward with that and then if you could explain just briefly for me and it's really probably cuz I don't understand this whole bond thing but I understand dr. push check that we saved money we saved money by refinancing the bond and doing the project I guess in essence I get that would we have been able to refinance the bond without the project so really I can appreciate your comments but really all we did was just string out our debt we added three million two and we strung it out for another 14 years basically so we didn't really save money I do get a we save the monthly payment
044right we save done the multi-plane like we're not saving Monday I thought it was I thought it was 10 more years old okay so in those next 14 years then the same 14 years as it was okay oh you I guess I guess so we just saved on the monthly payment I don't know how you can add three million dollars and then say you saved money I guess this do you know I'm saying too because the interest rate is that it I do so they think I don't care I just it's fine you you can answer it at some point maybe I don't know but just so that you heard me I guess the other thing is in those 14 years then I can't imagine we're not going to have some capital improvement of some
045sort that's a substance so in essence were just like where's that money gonna come from then so are you just going to refinance the bond again is that what is that the normal process of school districts we just keep right refinancing the bond is that what happens I don't know that answer happens frequently the other the other item on the table would be the states running a plan Khanh there's talk of bringing that reimbursement program which would which would greatly aid in any future renovations because that they defunded that in 2008 and they're realizing that the school districts of across the state or not isn't it the SB shape as we are that we've been proactive and planning like for the middle school renovation because we knew there was no there wasn't the state wasn't
046going to save us so do we do we see major renovations on the horizon and the next fourteen years here no will there be upgrades yes example there's 80 heat pumps on the roof of this building that are nearing 25 years old so we're going to be putting in a plan to cycle through those so many per year and the turf isn't isn't gonna last 14 years let's just be honest so is it an upgrade to that or is it a whole new field when that happens or do you just open I'm saying well the answer structure is the same you're just paying for a new surface with here okay I just wanted I just don't want to always fall back on well we'll just increase the taxes because we can that's all I just
047that's my boy thank you mrs. rival and mrs. bender you can address those in your report or let me get to that item Amy newcomer speech today it's a newcomer welcome thanks hello um 80606 Lake Pleasant Road Erie PA in the United States right all right good evening I acknowledge you all have heard a lot of me from me about the various issues that arise from the student body perspective and again I want to start off by saying I appreciate your attention these issues moving forward I've noticed prominent discrimination towards members of the lgbtq+ community and I've noticed a large shift of discrimination towards the community through use of extremely profound words used to make people insecure of the ways they choose to in love and/or identify themselves countless times whether in classes or around
048the halls I've heard words of heavy weight being thrown around like feathers towards these students in regards to them being gay bisexual transgender anything else I'd like to clarify that I'm not saying anyone should have to change their opinions on these issues I'm just saying that everyone in school environment should be allowed to enjoy their time while pursuing an education we have made strides in this area considering the adaption the SHS Alliance a club used to connect straight allies now to PT q plus people in the form of space safe space excuse me but alas a school club shouldn't be the only place where these people feel safe to be themselves I've noticed that along with the use of harm from words from some select students some teachers found it difficult to stop the harassment
049I personally feel that teachers understand how to combat other discriminatory offenses such as ones against race or religion better than this one and I've heard from countless members of the lgbtq+ community here at Seneca the homophobia makes it hard for people to be themselves in this area and basically all of them have experienced one form of name-calling or bullying whether directly or indirectly from their peers so I would like you guys possibly formulate ways to inform teachers another administrator how to handle this direct form of discrimination that currently affects us today learning more about current forms of discrimination could greatly impact the school's overall well-being again thank you for your attention that's all I have thank you thank you again for your very articulate remarks you represent your student body very well thank you that
050brings us to an end to our guests and citizens comment this evening we'll be moving on with the agenda superintendents report the chair recognizes mr. Ken Berlin superintendent schools mr. Berlin I have no report Thank You mr. Berlin moving on to the business administrators report the chair recognizes mrs. pinky Benson mrs. bending Thank You mr. president for tonight the treasurer's report for general fund cash in the bank as of January thirty first two thousand twenty ten million six thousand one hundred thirty five dollars and 19 cents and I have a here today budget to actual report that I'd like to share the first section is the revenue section if you'll notice it's been updated this is as of January 31st 2020 there's 58 percent of the year that is over I've provided the percentages of
051amount that we've collected so far this this year the total collected is 69 percent so we have received seventeen million seven hundred forty-eight thousand six hundred five dollars fifty four cents of the 25 million six hundred five thousand of $34 that was budgeted and the puzzle versus actual expenses this is where kind of the more information is you'll notice that the year-to-date expenditure for instructional purchased other services or instructional is a negative two hundred and seventy five thousand seven hundred eighty dollars that is mainly due to charter school tuition for regular ed classrooms and then the special end negative amount of seventy six thousand is for special ed charter school tuition I will have some recommendations and for the budgetary transfer that you'll find in f1 that I can go over at that time as
052well there is a negative amount in non-public school programs this is for the title one set asides that was actually budgeted at the beginning of the school year with federal programs but it didn't get transferred to our budget so I have a recommendation to put that money back where it belongs in the budget and then the technology budget there's a $50,000 deficit or over expenditure in the purchase property services and I have that addressed in the a portion of that address in the budgetary transfer as well so going down through over at the end of the report it shows physics existing site improvements at 150,000 dollars that was the hundred and fifty thousand dollars that was approved to pay for the engineering services for the Athletic Complex that will be covered by the bond issuance
053once it closes so I'm just going to leave that there for now and then the suspense accounts those are that's okay those are amounts that will be like spread out and expended over the actual expense accounts for workers comp and unemployment compensation at the end of the year when we get to the end and we know exactly where it has been spent so only 42 percent of the budget has been spent we've had ten million eight hundred and eight thousand dollars of expenditures of the twenty five million six hundred and five thousand budgeted and then for capital projects the treasurer's report for capital projects cash in cash in the bank as of January 31st is 1889 dollars and 51 cents and now the cafeteria report so the cafeteria treasurer's report cash in the bank as
054of January 31st 2020 is two hundred eight thousand three hundred nineteen dollars and eighty nine cents and then the cafeteria profit loss report this is not very much the same as the budget versus actual other than this is monthly and year to date expenditures so revenue for the month of January seventy thousand eight hundred twenty three dollars and eighty one cents for each one of those categories and you'll notice that last year at this time the revenue to date was only fifty four thousand so that right there shows that we've had increased usage for increased sales for for breakfast sent lunches and then the expense portion total expenses fifty two thousand nine hundred nineteen dollars and 76 cents and if you'll compare that to this time last year sixty thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars
055maybe six cents so we're trending in a positive direction in that way net profit for the month seventeen thousand nine hundred four dollars and five cents which is a loss for the year of sixty-five thousand seven hundred twenty three dollars and sixty two cents I also want to point out that last last month I had made a point to say that the end the repairs and maintenance was about fifty thousand dollars and that was an increase of a lot of money over the land from last year I looked into it a little bit further and found that the the greatest amount of this is the admin fee and the directors salary for the nutrition group that's the increase that you all voted on to to hire the company to pay the admin fee to pay
056her salary to to run the program so I split that out in a separate line item so that we aren't mixing so we're looking at apples and apples not apples oranges so the repairs and maintenance for this year is twelve thousand five hundred and sixty two dollars which is about eight thousand or seven thousand dollars more than last year but we've had a oven that didn't work for several years and a lot of p.m. equipment that and maintenance that needed to take place so we're getting all of that covered and so it will be set for next year and as you as Melissa mentioned last week at the work session our equipment is in good shape and is serving our students well and the cafeteria status is where it's where it's adequate for what worked
057for the process that we're doing I also wanted to address I had a citizen call me and asked questions about whether or not the cafeteria should be making a profit and so the the answer to that is no the cafeteria should not be making a profit the cafeteria is supposed to be generating enough revenue to sustain itself within itself so we should be making enough money to be able to provide food quality food and healthy choices for our students so we're not supposed to end up with this giant excess amount of cash at the end of the year so that being said I will say that if you do have access to cash the state says that you have to make a place you have more than a certain amount of cash that is to
058any certain time of the year you have to make a plan on how you're going to reinvest that money back into the program so there goes back to the kids by in ways of either lowering prices for the next year or not raising prices for the next year or purchasing more equipment to help but make better choices for the kids in the cafeteria so just wanted to state that fact so that everybody knows my head some people ask should we be making money no we shouldn't be making money and I will say that our cafeteria has done an awesome job in the past six years that I've been here in maintaining and not having to have taxpayer money influx from the general fund into the cafeteria program to help sustain it because many school districts
059in Erie County are running into problems where they can't support themselves they have to have taxpayers money from the general fund support the cafeteria program because they can't raise prices enough and they can't make meals at an affordable cost so I you know kudos to our our families that are you know sustaining our program also attention the program itself the same self-funded we have very little student debt I know that families get letters they come home that say you know you need to put money in your child's account our families are very good at sending in money for those our student debt at the end of the year is very low compared to I think we had about $1,500 at the end of the year last year of student debt and we had a very
060generous donor that paid off every penny of it so all of our students started the year back at zero there are school districts in Erie County that have ten twenty or thirty thousand dollars in student debt at the end of every year so at least we're doing something right okay moving on to the cafeteria I know mr. O'Donnell had asks its last meeting if we could see what happened last year compared to what we had this year so I dug up those numbers and made a chart for you so this is participation for this year so average meals per day the lower bars is breakfast the higher bars are lunch so for August through January and then the the blue at the top is the high school the green in the middle is the middle
061school and I'm sorry the blue at the bottom is the high school the elementary school is at the top and the middle schools in the middle so total total meals served for each one of those categories for this school year and then if you go to the next page this is average meals per day the blue is 1819 breakfast the red is 1920 breakfast so our breakfast numbers are up the 2018-19 lunch is green the 2019-20 lunch is purple so the first month our lunch was up a little August September lunch was up but October November and December you know they're about the same time a same amount going a little bit less than last year please keep in mind that we have about 7% less students this year than we did last year so
062our enrollment is down a little bit so there's no good way to compare last year to this year when you're talking about average number of meals served per day when there's less average number of students per day so I think we're still on the right track thank you I do okay moving on to the bill lists exhibit a1 checks written that was from the January board meeting through the work session last week 37,000 116 dollars and 96 cents and then checks written between the work session and today totaling eight thousand one hundred eighty-five dollars and 63 cents and then general fund bills should be approved for this month to go out tomorrow forty four hundred thirty three thousand sixty one dollars and forty four cents yes there were no checks written for the cafeteria cafeteria
063bills for the month total twenty seven thousand seven hundred eighty four dollars and two cents the Kahler project four new bills for the month are fifty three thousand six hundred eighty six dollars and 73 cents and then the amount of money that is in the seneca high school activity fund totals sixty six thousand eight hundred eighty seven dollars and eighty-eight cents mrs. Bible had talks about the refinancing of the bond I did want to point out that the refinancing of the bond not only saved us money in the long run but allowed us to finance the the athletic complex and yes we could have done that without we could have still refinanced the bond to approve money going forward but this allowed us to save save five hundred thousand dollars without extending the debt what
064was the other question that she asked about I'm sorry about drainage we're without much there's a freeze to pasta for the drainage of the ball so the three hundred and ten thousand dollar transfer that is in here is for the unassigned fund balance to go to the committed fund balance for the outdoor stadium complex renovations contingency as with any projects they it is recommended that you have about ten percent set aside for contingency for unforeseen additives or things that may come about as the project progresses so this three hundred and ten thousand dollars is is from the unassigned fund balance to be moved into the committed fund balance to cover those costs and the drainage could come out of that area and I can add with the drainage we've had keystone looking at that and
065they did accurate surveyor work out there and it looks like the the cost of gravel and the drainage basin on the football field is going to be less they believe it's going to be less because it's in a little better condition and they thought so we have the option of refocusing those funds which have already been far owed to the drainage of the out fields if need be so that's we'll know more about that I think in another month as they finish the permit Thank You mrs. Benedict I'll entertain a motion to approve the reports payments and invoices as presented so move any discussion from the board or questions for the business administrator hearing on voting to approve the reports payments and invoices as presented all in favor please say aye opposed a the motion
066carries thank you mrs. Bend a free report moving on with our agenda there's nothing under legal advisement this evening the chair recognizes mr. Marty push check for finance mr. push check Thank You mr. president under Finance three items first item F 1 asking the board to approve the following budgetary transfers transfer from the committed reserve fund to the capital projects fund in the amount of 1 million one hundred eighty four thousand eight hundred ninety dollars and 98 cents a transfer of three hundred and ten thousand dollars from the unassigned fund balance to the committed fund balance for the outdoor stadium complex renovation contingency and the monthly budgetary transfers from the budget versus actual report as was outlined in Exhibit e some of is there a second second any discussion on the budgetary transfers hearing on
067may we have a roll call please madam secretary yes yes yes mr. Matson yes yes yes yes the motion carries next item under finance f2 asking the board to approve the 2020 2021 general fund operating budget for the Erie County area vocational technical school and secondary programs and Regional Career and Technical Center adult programs as presented for adoption the 2020 2021 general fund budget includes total expenditures of six million nine hundred thirteen thousand four hundred seventeen dollars with total district contributions a four million two hundred eighty seven thousand five hundred eleven dollars in the Watts burg Area School District contribution of three three hundred thirty three thousand four hundred and ninety five dollars solo second any discussion on the Erie County tech school budget hearing none man we have a roll call please madam secretary
068mister yes yes yes yes Donal yes this is the cabbage yes yes the motion carries f3 I were asking the board to approve the Pennsylvania local government investment trust resolution as outlined in exhibit F so loathed second any discussion missus bending just remind the audience what this is please this is an approval to open an account with the Pennsylvania local government invested investment trust it is a money market account for our bond proceeds that must be put into a separate account from any other account for tax recorded recording purposes thank you any further discussion hearing none voting to approve f3 all in favor please say aye opposed nay the motion carries that's all I have on her finance tonight mr. president Thank You mr. Khrushchev chair recognizes mrs. Amanda Ferrell for buildings and grounds mrs.
069Farrow Thank You mr. president two items this evening under buildings in brown V 1 at the javelin runway and ball field walkway and V 2 the student choice field color and Center logo there a second second any discussion I have a question yes mr. glazier so my understanding from our work session when it was presented on the student choice field color Center logo was that the students as we as were asked had a vote on what they chose out of a couple different options my understanding is that was the seventh graders on up older they got to vote on that I know I've heard from students that I'm very close to that have expressed they did not get a choice so just want to express that was one thing that was brought to my attention
070I did not know at the time the second thing was the center logo which is a version of a bobcat ahead that was chosen by the vote it's the logo that is on our front sign that we recently put in it's different from the logo that we put on our middle school floor last year it's different from the block s which is on our high school gym floor so I guess I just wondered if we had any official logo standards you know certain companies your insurance be an example you can only print their logo on one specific way and I didn't know if we had any standards and if that was something that we should look at and especially before we commit to a logo that's gonna be on our front of our athletic facility
071for the next 14 years that was more of a question not knowing if there's an exact answer if you look on our website under logo links you'll see that we've had nine professionally designed logos and we own the rights to those and those are the logos that the students were given their choice with nine different kind of versions yeah there's like the RRS the claw the bobcat had they're all ok then we own those so and the staffs been informed encouraged to use those locals that we that we had commissioned thank you further discussion hearing none voting to approve b1 and b2 as presented on the agenda all in favor please say aye opposed nay the motion carries thank you mrs. Farrell chair recognizes mr. Jeremy blazer for personnel mr. blazer taking mr. president we
072have five items under personnel P one is to approve Kelly substitute additions they're listed on the agenda hi motion motion is there a second second any discussion on p1 Kelly substitute additions hearing none all in favor please say aye aye opposed nay motion carries p2 is for appointments personal appointments that are listed on the agenda as well as additional appointment on the addendum I motion to approve second any questions our discussion on p2 appointments on the agenda and on the addendum hearing none voting to approve all in favor please say aye aye opposed nay the motion carries a p3 is for some conference requests on on the agenda the saloon as well as on the addendum a motion to approve second any discussion on the conference requests hearing on boating to approve p3 conference requests
073on the agenda and the addendum all in favor please say aye opposed nay motion carries a p4 is a motion to approve tuition reimbursement I listed in the and then the attachment exhibit aye is there a second second any discussion on tuition reimbursement hearing none voting to approve people all in favor please say aye aye opposed nay motion carries finally p5 approval of a leave request second any discussion on the leave requests as presented hearing none voting to approve P 5 all in favor please say aye aye opposed nay the motion carries that's all under personnel mr. president Thank You mr. blazer cherith noise and this is Amanda Farrell for policy mrs. Farrell Thank You mr. president one item under policy this evening P 1 as the first reading of the policies outlined below for
074changes and modifications as presented second any discussion on the first readings of policies as presented hearing none voting to approve the first reading of policies as listed on the agenda all in favor please say aye aye opposed nay the motion carries thank you mrs. Farrell chair recognizes mrs. Julie package for curriculum mrs. pic evich Thank You mr. president I have two items on their curriculum tonight's renewed for approval I first want to see one homebound instruction c24 the 20/20 prom date and location is there a second second any discussion on c1 or c2 under curriculum hearing none voting to approve c1 and c2 as presented all in favor please say aye aye opposed nay the motion carries thank you mrs. pick evich the chair recognizes mrs. Amanda Farrell for technology mrs. Farrell mr. president under
075technology this evening two items on the agenda te one for the networking a technologies agreement and on the addendum te to the agreement idec's agreement thank you is there a second second any discussion on the - technology items one on the agenda one on the addendum I'm excited to see the results any further discussion hearing none voting on the - technology items te 1 on the agenda te 2 on the addendum all in favor please say aye opposed nay the motion carries and thank you mrs. Farrow for pinch-hitting for the absent board members this evening happy health chair recognizes mr. Steven O'Donnell for transportation mr. O'Donnell Thank You mr. president I have two items first 1t1 for durham bus drivers some additions so a motion to approve thank you any discussion on the bus driver
076additions hearing none voting to approve t1 has presented all in favor please say aye opposed nay motion carries and t2 transportation requests including an additional one from a more accession from so noted the castle Omar main and it's a nice way to do it this if you don't to pay for all that I just want kids to go down to the the high school and instead just take a small bus of high school kids up to the elementary stairs that was smart she's gone but it's good choice so yeah motion to approve the transportation request second any further discussion on the transportation request hearing none voting to approve Transportation request as presented all in favor please say aye aye opposed nay motion carries Thank You mr. O'Donnell chair recognizes mr. Shawn Matson for athletic and
077extracurricular mr. Matson Thank You mr. president I have five items under athletic extracurricular tonight I have 81 the volunteer list including what is on the addendum for a motion to approve the following names for volunteers any discussion on the volunteer list on the agenda and the addendum hearing not voting to approve 81 all in favor please say aye opposed nay the motion carries and then they have AE 2 athletic resignation a motion to approve brandy cages resignation second any discussion on a e2 athletic resignation hearing none voting to approve all in favor please say aye opposed nay the motion carries I have a III which are open positions and motion to approve the openings for the football coaching positions as listed below second any discussion on opening of the football positions so last last week
078I believe it was mrs. pound wanted to know exactly how many in positions so typically when the head coach of a sport is appointed then they we open the positions below and then they make recommendations so they have you know a staff that's committed to their program so that that would be the entire football staff you know top to bottom now a lot of them have indicated they want to return and mr. weinhaus wants them to return like great Williams for example and there's a few others but it still leaves some openings so the and he wasn't sure mr. weinhaus wasn't sure where he was going to put each coach just yet so that those recommendations be coming after we opened the position he sees who's interested he'll make them probably next month thank you
079thank you have a question mr. president yes mr. glazier so that has this listen on the agenda here mr. Berlin so there's the head coach has already been approved in a sign there's two first and second assistant and then does that mean there's two other assistants and then three seventh and eighth grade assistants so five six seven positions that we're proving today that that's correct any further discussion hearing yesterday mr. Ghanim there was a question you would ask join the work session about it was about a soccer coach it's on the identity Oh their bites are is next good anticipation a e3 open positions related to the football program any further discussion hearing none voting to approve all in favor please say aye aye opposed nay the motion carries okay thank you ae for including
080what is on the addendum the athletic appointments with a motion to approve Brandon Williams as the new track and field head coach and then the addendum is Kim brain as the girls soccer second assistant junior high school one second any discussion on the athletic appointments hearing on voting to approve as presented on the agenda and the addendum 84 all in favor please say aye BOS nay motion carries and then the last I have a e5 is organization of extracurricular clubs motion to approve second any discussion on the organization of the Seneca High School history Club hearing none voting to approve all in favor please say aye opposed nay motion carries thank you mr. Matson we have one item under miscellaneous I'll entertain a motion to approve the therapy dogs United visit agreement so moved second
081any discussion hearing none voting to approve M 1 as listed on the addendum all in favor please say aye aye opposed nay the motion carries that brings us to Erie County technical school report the chair recognizes mr. Steve O'Donnell our board rep mr. O'Donnell okay so they they talked about their budget which we approved which came over here and so we did we did admit the then they talked about the renovations are coming out and they said that they gave their initial pass the architects and then they're going to be a second pass because they are putting in some adjustments based on feedback so at some point we're mean if that cost is gonna be pushed on the SUNY you know down to the districts and that's gonna be a relatively large expense so it's
082I don't know exactly when that's gonna happen thing haven't talked about that I don't know if ten if you know that they've talked about that at all about when we would see that okay so the answer is no one really knows and the question mark with the renovation of the tech school which I think they've been talking about this for 13 years now it always comes down to Mill Creek because Mill Creek has well let me back up there's something called the articles of agreement with the tech school and all of its school districts that feed it and it covers two things it speaks to tuition and how students are built or district or built for students but also speaks to capital projects and they use a formula based off of the taxation ability of
083each school district and that determines your share of any capital project so our taxation ability in our community which has very little business we're a large bedroom community we don't have near the taxation ability or potential that Mill Creek does we don't have the size we're gonna have the per capita income from all of that so at the end of the day Mill Creek right now is the formula stands has to bear the brunt 36 percent of whatever the project ends up being now they're talking about a thirty two million dollar project so that would put a significant debt load on Mill Creek they'd have to come up with a couple million a year if it's a traditional you know 20-year bond structure so we've gotten to this point probably three times that I can
084remember over the past decade and Mill Creek is always the one that says no we can't do it so I don't know if I'm answering your question but you are better the history so I've seen projections if a thirty two million dollar project were to pass at the tech school the impact on us I believe is in the neighborhood of a hundred and thirty thousand dollars a year and increased debt payments for that tech school renovation I think in all reality it's probably going to be much less because I don't I just don't believe Millcreek is is ever going to pony up their even put six percent of a project they claim that they're subsidizing the County Schools which I there's I guess there's some truth to that right so I think the ultimate solution
085is probably going to be a smaller project thirty-two million is way too large in my estimation new constrain their own they're almost a foot approaching new construction costs with a thirty two million dollar renovation and for what enrollment is not projected to grow all of our enrollments in Erie County are projected to continue decline slightly so a smaller project is probably the way to go I have suggested to the tech board when I was the superintendent of record that they should look at a guaranteed energy savings project like we did at the middle school you know we we did essentially what you traditionally cost 150 largest square foot for 5000 square foot so I mean if you if you applied that process that we used which was heavily on the shoulders on the illustration and
086Eric to manage the project and take advantage of costars and the other interesting projects that technical project could easily be cut in half so I continue to advocate for that and I and I hope that I'll do what I can at the end of the day the way it is right now is the plan con at the state they say plan con funding which is that reimbursement that we used to get is coming back I just don't see it now the schools are are falling apart so money is going to come but if you notice in Wolf's budget what's it for it's a billion dollars for lead and asbestos mitigation we're mostly in Philadelphia which is where all our education dollars end up going you know is this a big vacuum force because of that
087it's such a densely populated area a lot of positive note they are putting a roundabout out there and so the some money will go to that school they'll put it most likely in their capital funds just so you know we're not going to get that back probably and then there's another thing there they they applied for and got well they have received the cash yet for it and if I'm saying it wrong the PCC d safety grants yes did we apply for that grant as well we did it's a two-part gram we're guaranteed thirty five thousand dollars meritorious and we got a similar amount last year like the enhancements of at the front of the buildings like at the elementary there's a there's a double break now and a second buzz and the State Police
088recommended we do that and we used that grant to help fund down actually funded the whole thing the Raptor check-in system for visitors that was funded through that grant so that's the meritorious that we're guaranteed and there's a there's like a cookbook list of things were allowed to use the other side of that grant is competitive and we have we've applied for that as well I think we apply for almost $100,000 in enhancements ballistic glass remember the whole list off the top of my head more no health intervention for students things of that nature so we're supposed to know somewhere in March or April if we get some bull none of that again last year most of that went to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia very little of that competitive money I went to the smaller populated
089areas we could have used a ballistic glass - hell yeah that is all I have from our ECT SP Thank You mr. Donnell any questions from the board for mr. O'Donnell yes um I gave my report for the Northwest tri-county on the unit last week I have nothing more to add that brings us to board correspondence and dialogue anything from the port this is for Kevin um you know our basketball teams I know the girls are still in the playoffs and I was just with a group of people last weekend from other districts and they said that their school districts we're providing they provide a fan bus if you have an away playoff game so that you can get a big group of kids and parents to games I'm not sure if it's just kids
090or kids and parents mixed on the bus or what I don't I think it's free or they might have to pay a small fee of $3 possibly to get on that to go but might be something to consider we propose yeah we have a saucers yep I used to take kids the for the girls basketball team would play but I don't think we do it like every time for every sport that's in a playoff because I know there wasn't one for soccer I don't know the boys basketball team had a game in Greenville I think there was one for that so I was just saying maybe we could just we've been kind of it's kind of like when there's interest we do it yeah but not people say hey we'd like to do it what
091you're trying to do the last time I tried doing before I left there what there weren't enough kids to sign up to make that we could do it so was an episode at that time is basketball so I talked to high school administration about interest what's it directed the kids to so if that happened a few years ago I know there's a lot more school spirit with the freshmen and sophomores then the older kids so maybe get a different group of kids that are willing to go anything else from the board mrs. bending I just wanted to address we're talking about plan con I wanted to meet to note that in the executive summary that I've provided for the Finance Committee meeting that there is a line item that is mentioned in the revenue category
092that's called rental reimbursement rental reimbursement is our plans on money coming in so for next year rental reimbursement is going down $20,000 rental reimbursement is the plan con money that years and years ago when the school district applied for the construction projects that they had that created our current existing debt was the plan con money that comes from the state to help offset those debt service payments so we pay two million dollars a year in debt service payments we get about five hundred thousand dollars from the state in rental reimbursement which is to reimburse us for a portion of those debt service payments so I know mrs. Bible had asked about you know is is it is a commonplace practice for school districts to refinance debt to school districts do it to be able to
093accomplish goals that they have for their their budgets that that tax raised constraints don't allow for in one one year but are allowed them to do it over a period of time so our Wham's renovation project was done on a cash basis we there's no plan con money out there so there was no benefit for us to borrow money so we saved over a period of years to be able to to to pay for that project in cash as it happened so this is a is a way to be able to pay for it it didn't extend the debt we're just and it's costing us very little to to extend it over a period of time so yeah there's payments but we didn't have to come up with three million dollars tomorrow to be able
094to do it so going forward if there's building projects if there's something that is foreseen that we need to we can certainly put a line item in the budget in the contingency plan to help build the savings so that we have additional monies going to the bottom line to put in the committed fund for projects going forward with the lack of plan con coming up but hopefully it opens up when we get an opportunity thank you I will bring this to adjournment I'll entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor say aye name we are adjourned thank you for those people in the audience offended our meeting this evening