WCASD Property & Finance Committee Meeting and Monthly Board Meeting 01/28/2026

001All right. Call to order the property and finance committee meeting. And tonight, just a roll call. Uh, director Fleming, >> director, >> and I'm here. And again, remember, we only have three committee members at this point until we appoint a new committee, a new board member. All right, Justin, I I assume no public comments. >> No public comments. Okay, thank you. All right, the next thing on the agenda as we do it on a monthly basis, approval of last month's meeting. This was back on December 15th. Uh, nobody approached me with any comments. So, we'll look for approval. So, approval of the December 15th, 2025 property finance committee meeting minutes. Um, all in favor say I. >> I. Good there, Justin. And then, uh, next up, Mr. Scully is going to review the budget forecast

002model. >> Thanks, Gary. Um, the budget forecast model was included in the packet. So, all board members should have it. The community should have it. Um, forecast model does have substantial changes since the last time you saw a forecast model. So, the last one we saw was November. At that time, we had not even had our administrators turn in their budget submissions for 2627. So we purposely did not update the forecast model for December for that reason. We worked November and December with um with our administrators and our and our site lease managers out the buildings to obtain their budgets and then we've actually actually also had budget meetings with each of our administrators. Um so many reductions have even been made from the original original submissions that came in in November December that um

003aren't even going to be displayed on here because they were removed prior to that. So I think the easiest thing to do is to jump to page I have it listed as page five. It is the 2526 projection changes dated January of 2026. Um I'm going to go through them kind of in detail because there are these are some some substantial savings or changes from what our projections were when we met in November. So for health care you'll see I reduced healthcare. If we reduce healthcare by $500,000 that is based on trends of our medical claims. um probably could reduce that further. I have concerns with our prescription claims. So that is the only reason why I have not um moved that further and I think we just need more data in the year. Our

004prescriptions are trending about 11% higher than or higher than they were last year. I only budgeted for a 10% increase. So I don't want to take too much out of medical and then find us ourselves short in prescription. So at this point I'm comfortable with the half a million dollars. I believe there will probably be more before the end of the year before we have to approve the final budget. But we are reducing healthcare by $500,000. We have a large decrease in peasers and social security. Um what happens with the model is the model applies the rates for both social security and pasers based on total gross payroll. There are certain components of payroll that are not subject to social security, Medicare and or pasers. So we've gone through and actually outlined what pieces of

005people salaries some of it is severance pay is not subject to sick pay is not subject to they're not they don't qualify for piecers um but when we put the model together it's just easier to apply the 34% to the total salary number and then tweak it as we go through the year so that's what that reduction is um the next line is in professional technical services and there's four components of it you'll see there's an increase in our expenditures by $400,000 that is the student teacher stipen that was included in the governor's budget there is an offsetting revenue at the bottom. So the delta or the net to the district and the net to the taxers is a zero. But I do want to reflect that we have an increase in expenditures and an

006increase in revenues. Again, delta being zero. Um we reduce human resources um reduction in legal fees by about 100,000 or by $100,000. Um communications took a reduction of $40,000. That was on contracted communication services that were included in the budget that Molly is not using this year. Um she's doing it inhouse as opposed to having outsource. Um the other two are fairly small. $15,000 in professional developments for subs and then technology had some software components that we felt were double up. Mr. McAllen and Mrs. Lee looked through those and identified that there was software that we probably did not need to redo redo a subscription on in the 25 26 year. Um charter school tuitions see a reduction there for $250,000. That reduction is as a result of the new tuition rate formula. As part

007of the governor's budget, he approved a revision to the way the tuition rates calculated for special ed students attending cyber schools. So, it's not brick and mortar. It is just for cyber schools. So, I won't get into the whole formula, but there was a change in the formula which allows for more deductions out of the expenditures that are used to calculate the tuition rate. So, as you're aware, we pay tuition rate for every regular and special ed student. Prior to this legislation, it was the same rate for a student if they were special ed as it was to a cyber school. It is now for the cyber schools. They've taken out some things like transportation. They've taken out facility use. They've taken out tax collection, things that a cyber school doesn't have to do. So,

008they shouldn't be reimbured for these measures for that. >> It's appropriate. We should have seen that a long time ago. It's good that it's we do give [clears throat] kudos for that. are starting to see some movement in cyber school tuition rates. Um I reduced transportation uh by that's a big jump $1.2 million reduction. That is a reduction in our daily rates, mostly paint to crafts. That is due to much favorable fuel rates than what we had anticipated in our budget because our fuel is although we did bid our fuel, it is lower than we had included in the budget and we are still running about 11 rats short of where we were prior to probably 2019 2020. Um I put those back in hoping that at some point we might get back to the

009same service levels. We are servicing all of our students. our ride times are just longer than they were prior to 2019. So each year in the budget, I put that back in there and hope that maybe we can have one or two more buses. Um we did not add them all. So take the $1.2 million out. Um the other numbers are fairly small, but um I just wanted to highlight the larger ones. So we've got a reduction in our projected expenditures for 2526 of $3.3 million. Jumping down to revenues, I increase current real estate taxes by $2 million. That's based on actual receipts coming in. Now, I code it as current real estate taxes. That's a combination of current real estate taxes and interim taxes. So, interims are taxes that are build after July 1st

010for anybody that had in addition to a property or a new house that was built and then actually became um occupied. We we do an interim bill for them. I categorized all as current real estate taxes. Um basic ed, special ed, ready to learn, all have been increased slightly for the governor's budget. um they were what he put in the budget and that was what was approved. So you'll see an increase in basic ed of 264 increase especially of 56 and an increase in ready to learn block grant of 50,000. Um although my tone is positive that we do have an increase in our revenues I will tell you that is the smallest increase that I have seen in any of these subsidies in my history with the district. Um although the governor's budget did

011have substantial increases for education, it was not tended or it was not it was not divied up to districts such as Westchester. Um it's it's based on need. Westchester is not considered on the state guidelines as a need district. Um so we are not seeing very much increase in the funding. It's it's going out with the new funding formula which tends to send the the revenues out to the the districts that are not as as wealthy as West. I think if you look at most of school districts in Chester County, um most of us got much less funding than we had been anticipating and much less of an increase than we've seen in previous years. Um I unfortunately think that is what the future looks like. Um I think that um the board needs to

012be aware, the administration is aware. Um unfortunately I think as increases come or increased funding come it's going to be it's going to be tax increases because we are just not getting the funding from the state or the increases in funding from the state that you have seen in previous years. >> So I mean there's a lawsuit for fair funding. There's several districts in our region that were part of that lawsuit. Coatville might have been one of the actual yes >> people who had filed it against it. They won. And so part of that um is the creation of what they're calling adequacy funding. So trying to get um the amount of funding that a district has per student to a certain level. There are about a 100 districts out of 500 that do not

013receive adequacy funding. Westchester is one of those. So the big buckets that they use to distribute funding for uh school district state of Pennsylvania are through the basic education subsidy and through the adequacy formula. The two big ones. They also special noted that was last year. get that much money there either. But this year, almost all of the dollars flowed through the adequacy formula as opposed to through the basic education subsidy. Since we don't get any of that money, we weren't we didn't have any access to it. And so, because there's a lot smaller amount coming out under basic ed, and the basic education formula is really geared to support like growing school districts, have increased involvement, those types of things. We're we were flatfunded. I mean, like I think most of our funding change

014is probably due to cyber charter reform and less money that we're going to be paying out in cyber charter. It's not really related to additional funding that we're going to see from the state. That seems to John's point like that's going to be a trend. In fact, it seems very unlikely that they're going to make changes to that just based on the fact that they have not hit their adequacy targets and they will not for next several years. So, there's a funding commission that they're going to be working on. We continue to have conversations about it, but the governor's initial budget had almost no money in basic education with all adequacy funding. We actually might have lost money. So, uh, they actually moved it to something where I think every district got some kind of

015net positive, but we are on the very low end of that. And to John's point, the reason for that is because of the relative wealth of the school district and the taxpayers and the market valuation of the school district. And the the reality is that they expect us to raise taxes and if we need revenue to raise it on our own. They're not going to be giving it to us anymore. I don't think on that pleasant note I'll move forward. Uh the other two you'll see a reduction in our social security and pasers revenue that is the 50% reimbursement for so for Pasers and Social Security we get a 50% reimbursement from the state for our cost. You'll see that I reduced the cost above that $1.2 million. So, we have to also offset the

016revenue. So, the net delta of all of that is a $630,000 savings. And then the other $400,000 I already spoke about that is the revenue to offset the expense. So, in total, we're reducing the gap for the 26 27 year by $5.5 million based on either additional revenues received and recognized or expenditure reductions for 2526. Anybody have any questions on 2526? I I just felt I needed to go into that detail because there's such substantial changes. >> Okay. Appreciate the details in the background there. Going to move to the changes then on 2627. So the last time you saw our projections for 2627, those numbers were model forecast assumptions. So that was basically taking our current year budget and then increasing it by whatever inflation factor we assigned to the various categories. These now are

017actual changes to budget based on actual budget submissions from the schools as well as the administration. So salaries, I'm reducing salaries from our previous assumption by $452,000. Most of that is based on an overtime assumption andor an extra duty assumption. So we made assumptions based on extra duty and um based on what people have submitted most of the curriculum proposals, it has been brought down a little bit. benefits is the reduction of $500,000 in medical. And then the bigger portion of that is we did get a certified pasers rate reduction. So it went from 34.72% of gross salaries to 33.59. Um that is probably about a 1.6 1.7 million savings. So that was a welcome news to um that did not take anything away from the classroom, anything away from the instruction, but it was

018a welcome savings for expenditures. Professional technical services unfortunately has eaten up the reduction in benefits. That is all increases in special ed contracted services, tuitions and par profofessionals and other special ed services. That entire increase is all in what we call 1,200 which is special ed. Um we are seeing a lot I don't want to say we're seeing more placements. Our placements are very expensive. Um the state offered a program which we used to call a 4010 program which was the district paid 40. I don't know why it wasn't 4060 but they're called 4010s. District paid 40% of the tuition and the state paid 60% of the tuition. They have cut back the number of slots that are eligible for that 4060 split. So we are now paying 100% tuition on a lot of our

019students whereas 10 years ago five years ago we might have been paying 40% of the tuition. A lot of that is our students at Vanguard that is a very expensive place. Um professional technical services like increase um you'll see other services that did increase or did sorry did decrease by $1.8 million. That is $1 million in charter schools. I'm sorry, $1 million in transportation carryover from the same thing that you saw for 2526 and the $400,000 reduction in cyber tuition rates for tuition. Um $511,000 is a reduction in mass subscriptions that were included in 2526. That just automatically defaults into 2627 when we went through the curriculum proposals. That software is a five-year software that was purchased last year. It will not be repeated again 2627. So, we're able to reduce expenditures from the previous

020model in November of $2.5 million. And then state subsidies are all in line with the state subsidies that I discussed in 2526. So, that is a slight increase of about $60,000, a net increase of 60,000 in revenues for next year. So, that gap for 2627 is $2.4 million. So, I added the 2.4 and the 5.5 together to come up with what our current gap is. and we are looking at with an actin index. We are still sitting at a gap of just shy of $4.6 million. Um so the administration knows that we have additional work to do either on budget reductions for next year or savings and projections additional projections for this year. Um but I do anticipate that we will have a tax increase this year and it will probably be very close to

021the equin index. Um, I think if we go any lower than act one index, I believe we're going to be cutting classroom instruction. Um, and I don't know that that's what we would want to do as an administration. Obviously, we will have those discussions with the board. We have from now until April when I come back with the preliminary budget. Final budget will be in May. We will be having a lot of discussion on that. But, um, I don't know that it is going to be easy to find the $4.6 million. I believe we will obviously have to find the $4.6 But um myself and the administration will do whatever we can to make sure that we are not impacting direct instruction to students. So we will be looking for things outside of things that

022would be a direct impact on students and I I do believe we have some revenues that we may still recognize for 2526. That's all I have. That is not a voting item. That's just an informationational item. >> Thanks John for the detail. We'll continue to stay tuned with the monthly updates of the budget forecast model. Hopefully we'll see some improvements, some additional revenue to absorb into the budget to decrease it. But at least it gives us an idea of where we are going through the rest of the next several months. All right. The next item we have, if you remember, we do have John come to us with an update on right to do. We do this on a semiannual basis. So Mr. Skully's going to give us an update on case line. Um I

023was bringing this to the board on a quarterly basis last year. Um a couple years ago our right to know requests were extremely expensive. Uh we had a lot of requests a lot of time was being devoted. That has I don't want to jinx myself but that has been cut excuse me cut back a little bit. So in front of you are the 2526 right to know requests. Um we totaled about 30 hours um internally on gathering the data 27 hours on attorney hours for the data. Um we spent about 5.3 mill 5 $5,380. Sorry, not $5.3 million. I don't know how to deal with these little numbers. $5,380. Um, nothing real big on there. A lot of it is typical vendor things where they're calling it a right to no request to check on

024bids, right? To request to see who our vendors are, right to see who we're using for copers, things like that. A lot of it is your typical stuff. Um, some people call in for transcripts. People don't understand that you don't do a rent request for transcripts. So, um, I didn't a major concern in here for our group. So this is the first six months. >> I was going to say this is six months. >> Six months. >> Yeah. 9 months different than a couple years ago. >> So unless anybody in the board disagrees, we'll stay with that cadence going forward and then all we ask Mr. Scully to do if he sees any trends or anything different to to alert us and make us aware of that. Other than that, we'll stay with this cadence.

025>> Yeah. Seven back to property finance. there's anything that's concerned there if I see any areas where we will start spending significant amount of money with legal fees for right I will advise the committee >> okay other than that it's probably back in July with June's results >> thank you >> okay Mr. G was in Mr. >> yeah Mr. person is not here. So, Mark Groves, this is Mark Rose as an introduction. Anybody hasn't met him and I'll call him link deputy of the facilities operations department. >> Thank you. Uh, tonight the facilities operations department has four items on the agenda for approval by the committee and the board. The first is the uh approval to award professional services um for the Pierce Middle School renovations and additions project. Uh the vendor is the Shrader

026Group. They're currently working on Hillsdale Elementary School with us and Stark letter. They're doing a fairly good job. So, we we feel that we would love to stay with them. Um the project budget of the of Pierce right now is 62.5 million. Uh this proposal is for 4.25% or or I'm sorry, 4 and a.5% um of what is anticipated as the project bids at this point. Um, so this is an estimate still and it also includes if you look on the second page I think you have there's approximately 411 uh $411,000 that is for township approvals. We are in two townships out there. We're in West Ocean and Westland Township. So it's a little bit more than we normally have. Um, so that's where we're at and we are looking for approval for an estimated

027award amount of 2.75 million point. >> And Mark, if you don't mind just commenting a little bit on the four and a half%. You feel comfortable with that? That's a fairly good number of correct. >> Yes, it is. Matter of fact, in 2003 to 2006 when we renovated Henderson, we were around five and a quarter. >> Does anybody have questions? concern the the renovations in addition. Is this adding classrooms space, office space? What does this add? >> Yeah, it's going to be a total renovation of the building, including right now, as you might know, we have four modular classrooms out there. We want to get rid of the modular classrooms, build some additions on um there are many things that we're looking at and uh and we'll be going through that through design, refining stuff.

028>> Thank you. We actually have a team going tomorrow to visit three newly renovated buildings in Bucks in Montre County. I think we're in Monaco for one. So, we're actually going to go with about I don't know there's like maybe 20 of us. We're taking a bus to actually go look at some spaces that renovated middle schools in the region just to get some eyes on maybe some ideas of what we can do there. Uh Wayne's also been running a big uh committee uh looking at middle school educational specifications and has had lots of input. Administrator groups were part of those meetings and has done a good job so far. So we I I think Mark, we don't know exactly what the building's going to look like and we're going to have to bring that

029back to you. But the projected number is unfortunately what we're looking at these days. I mean I mean that was a high school like renovation a couple years ago and it's not anymore. That's really what you're and we're seeing that regionally. LJ just went out for some bids and they came back with that. Unionville's new middle school was very similar to that number as well when they got bids back. So I mean I think that's probably fairly accurate. >> Okay. So on this items uh just to reinforce just as Mr. Scully stated due to the fact the property finance committee is just prior to the board meeting we'll approve it at the committee. We'll bring it forward and this will be approval item that shows on the board meeting tonight just for clarity. So basically

030the motion for the property finance committee is approvals requested of capital budget uh bid award is presented and this is for the shy group for total estimated award price of two 2,750,000 I so move all in favor say I >> I good to proceed there and we'll bring that forward to the full board. The next item we had uh Mr. Groves was the 2627 capital reserve project bid awards. >> Thank you. The first one is for uh seeking approval for Palmer Masonary Restoration in the amount of $19,163. This project is to I'm sorry, award amount. Yep, I bet the award amounts 18,000. Our project budget was 19,163. Um this is for masonry wall res uh restoration above the roof line where we think that u the um in in wall um stuff is is not

031really there anymore. It's kind of degraded. It's either been lost, rusted out. And so we're going to take part about 3 ft of the wall and then put it back making sure that we have all of the waterproofing back in place if it's not. Uh this was uh this one is for Palmer masonry regist restoration. We also had two other bidters. Um one was at 29,550 and the other one was at 36645. So we feel this is a good price for the work that's going to be done. >> Thank you Mike. Any questions on All right. Again approval for the property finance committee to bring forward tonight to the board meeting. Approval is requested. The 2627 capital reserve project bid awards as presented and that was for the Rustin masonary restoration for an award of

03218,000 to Palmer Masonary Restoration. I so move. All in favor say I. >> I oppose. Nay. So we're good there. Thank you. And the next item Mr. Gro 2526 capital Reserve project awards. The next one is for uh George, excuse [clears throat] me, George Eli Associates in the amount of $11,559. It is for a couple new structures at Greyston's playground. Um this also includes installation of the two items >> and this is the continuation of that of the budget we have as you say there of course districtwide playground. So correct means bringing this to a monthly basis. >> All right. So the item for the motion for the property finance committee tonight is approval is requested the 2526 capital reserve project bid awards as presented for districtwide playground at Greystone Elementary for uh George Eli

033Associates for a total bid award of 11,559. I so move. All in favor say I. >> I opposed. Okay, good there. And one last item we have for an older 2324 project. Yes, this this project's been around for a little while. We are continuing to upgrade our exterior lighting to new LEDs to save power, um save money through electricity savings. Um there are two parts to this project. The first one is to Denny Electric Supply um for an amount of $54,335.39. They are a co-stars vendor. They are the lights that we have purchased throughout all of the other um projects that have been under this same guideline. So, we're getting the same type of lights for the exterior uh parking lots, exterior building, etc. Um and then the second part of this is a Triumph

034group is actually at Bayard Rustin. If you've been down there, you've seen the poles that line the driveway. Some of those are damaged. Uh we bought the poles a year ago and now we're looking to get them installed and it takes a bigger truck than what we have to be able to get these these heavy ceramic poles up in place. So the um award or the bid was $16,275 um for that and uh that's for them to come out help us get the polls in place and then our staff will then kind of put light into it. >> Thank you Mark. Any questions on that? All right. So the the motion for the private finance committee tonight is approvals requested of the 2324 capital reserve project awards is presented by Mr. Gross and that's for

035districtwide replacement of exterior lighting to Daniel electric for the award value of 54,335 and to try and group for total bid price of 16,275 I so move. All in favor say I. I there thank you Mark. do that crisper than Wayne. Nice and concise. Thank you. You're right. We'll see you next month. That uh that that concludes our meeting for tonight for property finance and the next property finance committee meeting meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 7th, which is the president's day holiday the day prior. We'll see everybody then. >> But thank you for that. For anybody's interest, they could ask it. All right, that was that was it. And we'll reconvene for the board. We have a 6:30 session. We'll reconvene at 7. Thank you. Thanks. Good evening everybody. I'd like to call

036to order the January 28th, 2026 meeting of the Westchester Area School Board. Tonight we welcome students Mckenna and Chase Candio from Kernell Elementary School and the principal Dr. uh Jenny South. Let us begin the meeting. with a salute to our flag led by our students. Please stand. >> The pledge of 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. Hi, my name is Mave McKenna and I just finished my first semester at Fern Hill. Some could say that I'm one of the newest Bobcats, but I like to call myself an early influencer because [laughter] I was one of the first 16 students to do the big Axton Burn Hill switcheroo this past summer. M. Do

037you mean redistricting? >> Yeah, same thing. [laughter] >> I used to call that the great when I happened back in 2021. That year we welcome more than 200 new students and we called it our new beginning. [laughter] >> This is my new beginning shirt. I got it back in first grade when we welcome lots of new students. So don't worry, Ferno was pretty good and a redistricting plan. Hi everyone, my name is Chase Cano and I am what you can call a longstanding Bobcat as I finish my 12th and final semester at Fill. Even though our paths to Fern Hill were different, we actually have a lot of the same experiences to share. We're happy to join you tonight to tell you about what Fernhell means to us. Something I was worried about when switching

038schools was learning a whole new building. Lucky for me, it's hard to get lost at Fernhale thanks to the long straight hallways. But more importantly, I never got lost figuring out where I belong. Just one semester in, I'm already involved in unicycle club with Miss Rston. I know what you're thinking. That sounds dangerous, but don't worry, we always wear one of these. [laughter] >> I'm also in chorus with Mrs. and on the redistricting team with Dr. South. Funny you mention finding where you belong. I feel like I belong at hell, too, but in some different ways. And what's cool is is that belonging can look really different for different people. I'm an honor fan and the songs we learn are the kind of ones that stick in your head all day long. It's not just

039for good players. It's for people who want to grow with the instrument over time. I'm also a math I like the problem solving. Just like unicycle club, I'm involved in after school sports like basketball, soccer, and crazy ball. I'm also in our stu student equity team and we just wrapped up unity week. Equity team is cool because it's not just a project. We do mind exercises that help us think differently about our world. Unity week is something Chester are doing show how we care for ourselves and each other celebrate what makes us unique and choose kindness every day. Our school becomes a place where where everyone truly belongs. All of those activities are fun, but what really connects us but really connects everything at Fern Hill is how we treat each other. One of the

040coolest things I've noticed since joining Fern Hill is how we use Pause every single day. Pause helps us understand expectations in every space we enter. During morning announcements with our Bobcat pledge, in classrooms, and even during PBIS assemblies. Pause isn't just something we talk about. It's something we notice and celebrate. One way we one way we do that is with the Golden Bobcat book. When we came back from winter break, we ended the week with an assembly introducing it. Every day, one teacher gives the golden ball to a student administrating pause. And we'd like to give a big shout out to Dr. Heen for helping by helping us prepare for tonight. >> [applause] >> Fern Hill loves P so much. Wait, that earns it after Hill gets announced at the end of the day and

041their classes get blue. Our baby bobcat the next day. The next day, Fern Hill loves Paw so much that even a permanent part of our cafeteria. Thanks to support from the Westchester Area Education Foundation, we had an artisan residence last year and every Bobcat contributed contributed to our school mural. We'd also like to thank the technology aart the technology department for adding a projector which lets us use the cafeteria for things like grade level bingo with Dr. Saf and other assemblies. I made the cafeter turned out really well. And it's not just our learning spaces inside the building that have gotten better. So did the playground. We came back to school this year with new equipment including big our climbing and slope climb school bus and seesaw. But the biggest change this year isn't something

042you can see. It's how we learn every day. The final update we'd like to share is about the new way Chase and I as fourth and fifth graders are learning in our classrooms. This year, Fernhale is piloting a departmentalization model where we switch classes for math, reading, and content literacy. Our teachers learn from each block. And I've even noticed how they change the way they teach the third group based on what worked in the earlier classes. As a fifth grader, I really love this about this model because it helps me prepare. It helps prepare us for middle school. Switching classes won't feel brand new next year. It's also cool how our teachers connect content across subjects. Right now, we're learning about the 1930s and and 1940s, the dust bowl, and we bring those ideas into

043math and reading, too. Our teachers call these sense making units and honestly they really do make sense. That same idea of preparing us for what's next doesn't stop in the classroom. This spring I'm joining Dr. Southade to help welcome our friends who are still and will be coming to Fern Hill in the fall. We're making a video, writing letters, offering family tours, and even hoping to visit Xton to share all the great things waiting for them at Fern Hill. And I'm spending this spring soaking on my final months at the Bobcat. I've been really lucky to attend Flint Hill since kindergarten and there and there are a lot of special things ahead for fifth graders like our Valentine's Day dance, the districtwide fourth and fifth grade family camp and our promotion ceremony. >> Thanks for

044letting us join you tonight to kick off your meeting. We're big friends of being wild cats >> and we invite you to come see your learning in action. [applause] >> M and Chase, thank you both so much for presenting. I, you know, I'm sitting here writing all kinds of notes because there's so much go good going on at Fern Hill. Uh, I love both of you are going to be incredible influencer influencers. So, I I appreciate that. I like the how you referred to the friendship swap and the new beginnings uh at Fern Hill uh as a way to address the the new redistricting. Uh the fact that they have everything from honors band the urine chase to a unicycle club name. I would love them to know how to ride a unicycle. So the

045next time you present, you have to bring your unicycle with. But just, you know, everybody's strengths are different and that's amazing that there's so much go good going on. I was really glad to hear about unity week. What a success that was. Um and thank you for demonstrating the golden bobcat buck by giving a golden bobcat buck to your your principal. Um now so thank you both for coming. Uh Dr. Christopher and I are going to come up and get a picture taken and we're going to give you a certificate for being here with your principal. >> So, I'll give you your certificate first. We're just going to shake hands certificate. Nice job. Thank you. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Everybody wants >> foramilies. If you want to hop in, get one in the middle.

046>> [laughter] >> Great job. Great job. >> Thank you. Don't forget your next on the agenda. Are there any special announcements? >> None. You uh next on the agenda is roll call. M chair. Vice President Beth >> here. >> Director Campbell >> here. Director Dietri >> here. >> President Darnell >> here. >> Director Fleming >> here. Director Fry >> here. >> Director Fry is joining us by just so everyone knows. Director >> here. >> Director Parkinson >> here. here. >> Jackson >> here. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Short. Uh, that leads us to public comment protocol. Uh, Miss Sunquist, are there any public comments on agenda items? >> There's one agenda item, public comment, so I'll read the statement. >> Thank you. >> Now is the time for public comment on agenda items.

047The board will follow the procedures established in policy 903. All individuals wishing to comment this evening were required to properly register prior to the designated start time for tonight's meeting by completing the information specified on the public comment registration card. Once called to the podium, each commenter will begin by sitting their first and last name and municipality. Each speaker must limit their comments to three minutes or less per public comment period. Commenters may not seed their time to other individuals. Individuals will be notified by the time clock when their time allotted for public comment has expired. There will be a second public comment period at the end of the meeting for comments from residents following the same guidelines. The board asked that all commentary be directed to the board as a whole. Public comment be

048interrupted or terminated if the commentary exceeds three minutes or if the commentary becomes obscene and or threatening in nature. The speaker this evening is Judy Defonso. Good evening everyone. Happy January. Judy Defonso and I still live in of all places, East Gian Township, the better of the two goans in my opinion. Um I was reading through the uh personnel uh list uh this evening and I noticed there's a retirement and I I talked to my husband. I said, "Do you remember Patty Pilts?" He's like, "The name sounds familiar." Patty Pilts um was my daughter's uh aid when she went to preschool and she was the one person from my daughter's preschool class that actually came to East Ocean Elementary with her and she was the um one to one aid for my neighbor's son uh

049while he they were at East Ocean. So I just you know she's retiring. I wanted to just say you know good luck. Uh hope you have a long and happy retirement and we do remember you. we remember you from from preschool. So, um and I do have a question. Um on the um under other business, there's a letter of engagement for um uh I'm not going to attempt the name for legal services, but I know that the school district has uh attorneys for teachers contract and special ed and you know, issuing bonds and meeting protocols and the like. And I just wondering what this attorney's area special uh uh you know expertise is. Um if you could include that at some point in the meeting, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you for your

050comment. >> That moves us to approval of the December 15th, 2025 me uh meeting minutes. May I have a motion to approve the minutes? Dr. Dietri, is there a second? Director Beal Aqua. Any questions, comments? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> U. Miss Sher, please note uh the board met in executive session tonight uh Wednesday, January 28th to discuss a personnel and negotiations matter. Uh we now move to approve tonight's agenda. Now is the opportunity for board members to request changes to the board agenda. Are there any requests for changes? Okay. May I may I have a motion to approve the January 28th, 2026 agenda as presented? Do I have a first by director? [laughter] Do we've only known each other for years and do I have a

051second? Director Parkinson. Any questions or comments? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Any motion carries? >> Okay. Do uh Dr. Christopher, please give us your monthly report. >> Certainly. I have a brief monthly report and then we have some recognitions we'd like to do. So, first of all, thank you all for being here. It's great to be here tonight with everyone. Uh, I want to say that over the past several months, I've finally completed my full round this year of school visits. Uh, obviously go to schools more than these visits, but these are very specifically scheduled visits where I'm doing classroom observations and I have open office hours across the building in the district. So between the fall and the first week of January, I had the opportunity to visit

052approximately 80 classrooms and spend nearly 35 hours talking with teachers and staff. These conversations are really valuable for me. They allow me to listen to concerns, better understand the challenges our educators face, and just as importantly see firsthand the outstanding work that's happening in our classrooms over. I really do appreciate it. And it's a lot more interesting in the buildings than it is in my office. I want to be very clear about that. Um, and really hearing directly from staff members that what's going on in their buildings and the challenges they're facing really does help our decisions remain connected to real experiences, real needs, and opportunities for improvement. I'm grateful to every teacher and staff member who took the time to speak with me. I look forward to continue these visits here uh as we

053move forward. We had a great superintendent advisory council with students uh in the fall. I made pancakes. That was I probably shouldn't have volunteered to do that. There are a lot of kids there. ate a lot of pancakes, but it was a pretty good time. Um, we had uh about 50 students from all three high schools come again. They actually spent time with us here at Spellelman. Once again, it's great to hear from them and share their perspectives on key topics. Uh, lunch was a big topic, made some good conversations. They have lots of great ideas, I think, of how we can improve the lunch. But then things like the cell phone policy and new furniture we're looking at for learning spaces. Um, they helped us with the middle school specs. We asked them questions

054about their middle school experience and ways that they thought maybe that could have been improved by the ways we could have changed the buildings and and different things. We also took a deep dive with our students of the new high school schedule and the district's portion of graduate and what instruction could look like as we integrate the programming and instruction we're going to need to become competent in these skills as part of what we do. Their feedback was thoughtful, candid, uh, high school kids tell you what they're thinking, which we appreciate, and solutionoriented, and their leadership continues to impress us. It's really a great It's something that I know that we look forward to very much to have the kids here. Uh these ongoing conversations are really going to help us, I think, do a

055better job of ensuring we stay student focused in the decisions that we're making. This month, we also were had the ability to have most of our admin team attend uh the bias inside us, which was an exhibit at the Chester County History Center. Um it was actually a great way for us to spend some time together and really think about how bias affects the work we do and our students. And it was great to partner with a local uh community member who had a great exhibit by size, the Smithsonian exhibit that was here in Chester County until the beginning of January. Uh so we really appreciated uh that being able to be set up and us to be able to spend some time together and have just some great conversations and and opportunity to have

056that discussion. This month, you may not know it, but it is school board appreciation month. Some of you are brand new. You're like, "Really? It's a month yet?" And we had some some goodies in the back for board members. I also have certificates that I'm going to come bring around for each of our board members. Uh people probably do not realize this, but being a school board member is an enormous responsibility. Uh first of all, you got to run usually or you could get appointed, you know, but I mean it's it's a challenge to put yourself out there and say, "Hey, I want to take that on and and and be here as part of the community and be responsive to the community's needs and concerns as a volunteer." Um you know, and there's a

057lot of time and effort and energy that is put into that work. Um, you know, there's a lot of information that comes at our schoolboard members, you know, from our team or, you know, from the community, and they have to be able to think through that and and maintain really a great district focus. I am so lucky to work with the board members we have here in the school district. I mean, we just have such pleasant, really focused people whose goal is to ensure that our kids get what they need here in the school district, that our staff get what they need here in the school district, and that the district remains a great place for everyone in the community. So, I'm personally very thankful um for the work that you all do and you

058know for the work that you allow me to do uh here in my role. So, I really want to thank you and I do have certificates I'm going to bring around and hand out to you now. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Thanks. I appreciate it. New board members which is good to Thanks so much. >> You can see they're running the video. So, our last recognition is our way makers. And we've unfortunately had to reschedule that. It's supposed to be Monday, but if you're a way maker, if you receive a way maker work, if you could come up, that would be great. just up here in front uh right uh right in front of the mic there. You don't have to speak, but it would be nice to [laughter] we invited a

059lot of people. A lot of people were going to come and then we had a we had obviously the change in the schedule, but so I personally want to just give you a hand. I mean these are [applause] [applause] uh since we started this recognition it has been just um such a fun thing for us to do to be perfectly honest with you. Uh some of you I remember very specifically the surprising we did to you. Yeah. A lot of times we just and there's some pictures we just show up in people's classrooms and surprise them. uh in buildings, you know, uh with their staff. But I mean, really, it takes so much so many good people to have a great district. Takes so many people who work really hard and who care very much.

060And we don't get a lot of recognition from those folks. So, it is really nice to be able to call you out and to thank you really tremendously for the work you do. Uh and we're glad to be able to recognize you here tonight. Thank you. [applause] That's all for my report. >> Thank you, Dr. Christopher. Now, we'll hear from our 2025 26 high school representatives. Am I saying your name right? Ashita. >> Asha. >> Aida Jackson and >> Hello everyone. It's nice to be back at the meetings and I can tell 2026 is going to be a good year because East already had a great first month. First, I'd like to congratulate our academic team on another win at their competition. Our JB team had the highest score in the league, which is a

061huge accomplishment. And our varsity team also won their competition, so big shout out to them. Another big congratulations to Ryan and Rebecca who were selected to move on to region 6 Corell Festival. Our computer programming team participated in a monthlong coding competition. I couldn't even tell you what I did yesterday. So, big shout out to the team. Eventually, East did come out on top with three students placing first, second, and third. Onto our athletic front, our spring seasons will start soon. So, looking forward to see the Vikings compete in friendly competition. Fresh Freshman Kayla Hullman was recognized as player of the week for girls basketball at a national level. a big achievement for Kayla and I wish the Lady Vikes good luck at their game today. East Winter Sports seem to be enjoying the new

062and improved uh weight room and I can't wait makes me more motivated to go to the gym. So, New Year's resolution and from a student standpoint, E students went to Fugate to talk to uh Fugate students about high school experience and what they wish they knew. As I heard this, I started thinking about the portrait of a graduate and how E students were showing empathy and communication for the upcoming high schoolers. I remember being in eighth grade and being terrified of high school, but I think that having someone to talk about their own experiences and would have made me feel so much better. Along with this, our school had an advisory meeting with principal advisory alumni and they talked about how East taught them skills that made them comfortable in college such as problem solving,

063responsibility, and adaptive adaptability. Soon we will be me, Jackson will be in that position of going into college. And I'm proud to say that East has taught me these things that will benefit me in the future. Thank you. >> Uh good evening. My name is Jackson. I'm at Henderson High School. And over the span of a week in January, I wore a full a full suit to school, a group costume from Despicable Me, and I went around school holding a sock puppet. Um so, as you can tell, January has been quite a chaotic month for me. Uh but I think it has been a chaotic month for the whole school. So seniors return to school after a pretty grueling winter break going through college and scholarship applications while underassmen are being asked what they want

064to take next year when a lot of them still feel like this the school year just started. Through these many changes, students have been sort of disappearing from schools on a number of different trips while everyone lives in a state of fear or hope for incoming blizzards. Um, however, amidst this chaos, there have been a lot of successes which I'd like to highlight today. Uh, first of all, seniors have started to hear back from colleges and scholarships. There's a number of seniors that are finalists for forat scholarships, and we also have, uh, over 30 college commitments already. I'd also like to share that junior A Breor made her verbal commitment to Yale for softball uh, during the month of January. Um although the underassmen might be worried about their upcoming classes, they have a lot

065of good things coming. No matter what classes they take, uh I've heard a lot of students are really excited about the senior internship course that is starting uh next year as well. Uh as I mentioned, students have gone on a variety of trips this month, which again brought many successes in that chaos. Uh because all of I know all of you want to know why I was in a group costume. I'll start with the integration be. Um so in ju just a couple days ago with the help of Ashida and Mera here. Henderson's Math Honor Society hosted a calculus competition at East High School where we had about 60 students from all three schools facing off answering calculus questions and it was entirely run by students. It was really fun to see how excited everyone

066got about math. Uh but my favorite part was when it was actually his idea to have the the the uh the teachers face off against each other and Henderson's math teacher beat both Easts and Rustin's working together. So, that was a proud moment for Anderson. Um, now to move all the way back to December, students took a trip to the auditorium for the winter speaking contest, which senior Ian Stefanowski won. At a match at the CCIU, Henderson's academic team set a new record for the most points scored in an academic team match at 205. Just to put that perspective, the other two teams had 55. Don't worry, they weren't Westchester schools. Um, at DECA districts, Henderson had 25 students qualify for states. Uh, and in the music wing, we had 12 choir singers and eight

067orchestra players attend district festivals with seven singers and five instrumentalists moving on to regions. Um, now I know that those numbers are are talked about a lot at these meetings, but since PMA is by far the best thing I've done in high school, I just want to take a quick moment to explain the qualitative side of these so-called festivals. Um, I really love being able to spend a weekend with 119 other incredibly talented musicians as we focus on this guest conductor, usually a choir conductor from a nearby college, and we take these eight pieces that we've spent months learning and we we put them together and we learn things about them that we hadn't thought of before and we we take what was just notes on a page and make really beautiful art, really beautiful

068music. Um, it has inspired so many to become music educators just that last district because I had a friend that uh was a little scared about saying oh I want to go into music and be a music educator but after that festival she decided no this is what I'm going to do um it's really powerful and I'm really grateful that I get to go to so many festivals uh as as if I haven't listed enough trips model UN science olympiad and our broadcasting class also took exciting trips to Philly uh during this month um although their events weren't during school Henderson's athletics continue to find success Men's swimming won four out of their five meets with two students already qualifying for districts and boys wrestling hosted their first tournament. Uh as the chaos continues with

069a full grade of middle schoolers flooding the hallways this Friday, Henderson looks forward to the successes that come with our busyiness. Now, as I do would like to end my speech with a limick. January has been a chaotic fest where incoming blizzards have got us stressed. students went to many spots and because of that learned lots including that Henderson's CA teacher is the best. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Hello everyone. Um this is Rest's report for the month of December and January. Um so these two months have been incredibly full with school events such as academics, athletics, service, and celebration all woven together. So, in December, RHS had its 19th annual speaking contest, once again showcasing the talent and courage of our students with senior Robbie Kent earning first place. Even though the event was

070broadcast and recorded, nothing matched the energy of watching the speakers live in the auditorium. Happening at that same time was the pie the teacher contest with hair tagline uh showcasing some amazing standup as well as filling some secrets on our favorite Rustin staff members. While two teachers got pied right in the face, nothing beat the whole audience's reaction when Dr. Hunt herself got one pi straight in her face. Uh, winter sports has also kept the building buzzing as the season winds down. Uh, both the boys and girls basketball uh, wrestling and swimming are wrapping up their final meet and games. Actually, last Thursday, the boys basketball team delivered one of the most exciting moments of the season with a one-point victory over Unionville. from a lot of my friends who actually went to that game,

071everybody was fingers crossed in that in the gym really hoping West won. And then our girls cheer team are currently down in Orlando, Florida preparing for their nationals competition. So, good luck nights. Um, two Mondays ago in honor of MLK Day, our Rustin Student Council organized our annual sandwich making service project. Uh we made hundreds of sandwiches, snack bags, and heartwarming cards for various organizations and missions around the area. And then also we had our boys basketball team join us and they partnered with Westminster Presbyterian Church to make sandwiches as well, reinforcing our school's commitment to community service. Uh similar this week, uh we also had our unity week led by Miss Brian, which brought the school together through activities focused on belonging, kindness, and connection. Um, it's still going on, but for today, tomorrow,

072and Friday, we have all sorts of activities during our nighttime just to bring together different people, different groups of people, and also teachers leading as well. Um, our music department also had a standout month with three students earning recognition as PMEA regional qualifiers. So, congrats to Ella, Anya, and Siri for advancing in choir and orchestra divisions respectively. Uh, similar on an academic front, our science Olympia varsity team placed first out of 30 teams at the Cutstown Invitational, while JV earned fourth, marking one of the greatest accomplishments and strongest showings to date. And then meanwhile, back in December, our principal advisory committee gathered for one last meeting of the year to review our accomplishments and also set thoughtful goals for the next semester. Additionally, the World Language Department's cultural potluck filled the halls with dishes and

073traditions from around the world, reminding everyone of the richness of Rustin's diverse community. It also raised awareness to all sorts of travel opportunities in the future, all with the power of food. Thank you. >> Thank you all three of you for your reports. Is exciting to hear so many good things happening with academic competitions, music competitions, and festivals. Um, and to get from the high school uh about unity week and the good things that happened there then. Thank you so much the three of you for your report. Tonight we will appoint a school director to fill the vacancy created by Mr. Christiey's resignation. First we must vote to accept um mi director Christiey's resignation. May I have a motion to accept the resignation Mr. Alex Christie Dr. Dietri and do I have a second? Uh,

074Director Bevel. Any questions or comments? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> The following candidate candidates have submitted their names for consideration to fill the the vacant position on the school board. Matthew Benner and Raone Jackson. Uh I understand that only one candidate is here tonight. Is that correct? Okay. Um see uh we will now seek to appoint the school director to serve until the first Monday in December 2027. That that would be the completion of Director Christiey's term. Prior to tonight's meeting, the school board members were provided with candidate resumes and application responses as indicated in the application. Candidate responses to the question, "What motivates you to serve on the school board and what experiences prepare you for this role?" have been included in tonight's agenda. Uh process

075will be a little different since there's only one candidate here. However, uh the process to appoint the school director tonight is as follows. Uh the candidate will be asked to come forward and sit at the tables across from the board and we'll be given five minutes to make a statement. Once the candidate has had the opportunity to speak, I will open the floor for nominations. When a candidate has been nominated and the nomination has been seconded, I will ask for discussion and then a vote. When a candidate has received the required five yes votes, the appointment uh will the appointee will be welcomed to the board and Hilda Moss Perez as notary republic will administer the oath. So I'm going to ask that the candidate come forward. Please introduce yourself and tell us a little

076bit about your background. Then describe how you see yourself working as a member of this team of 10 nine board members and superintendent. >> Sure. Thank you. A little bit different vantage point from this angle. So good evening. My name is Raone Jackson and I'm seeking appointment to the open school board seat. Uh if you had an opportunity to review my resume prior to tonight, I appreciate the opportunity to be able to get in front of you just to give you a little bit more background into myself and my intentions for the request. I'm an active community member. My family and I have been in the area now for about nine years. Uh my wife is actually a proud product of the Westchester Area School District. We have a first grader and a fifth grader

077both attending East Bradford Elementary. My wife and I are currently in morning right now. This will be their last year together in school, but I know that's just a parent hang up, so we'll get over that. Um, there was a very specific moment that piqued my interest in becoming active in the district. A little over two years ago, I was given the opportunity to deliver some motivational assemblies to the middle schools in our district. I was tasked with writing a script on discipline and I talked about how that theme is weaved through various key developmental pillars in our lives. So teamwork, communication, accountability, empathy. It wasn't your typical run-of-the-mill assembly. Um I was able to use my contacts from a previous life of stunt work and performing to incorporate circus style acts into the performance

078to keep the students engaged and thinking about the content that we were actually discussing. So I was able to draw some similarities what the performers went through to get to this point to goals and strategies that we can use in our daily lives in various scenarios. It was very immersive, engaging. I was able to ask questions and get answers and the satisfaction that I got from being able to physically be on the ground helping to develop our students in a positive light. And to hear the appreciation from faculty and staff about how important it is to reinforce such a positive message was something that stuck with me. And at that moment, I knew I wanted to do more. So, my day job is as a union rep for actors in the area. So, I'm a

079business representative for the Screen Actors Guild. And as a labor advocate, I'd be able to approach these duties through a lens that encompasses the collective. And here's what I mean by that. I enjoy getting out into the community and being a soundboard for others. In fact, it's common practice for me to show up on sets, observe and listen, and to ensure that our community is being taken care of from a safety standpoint as well as a contractual standpoint. So, I'm confident that the skills that I'm able to utilize in that industry are translatable here, where I'm able to help shape an environment where voices are heard, where individuals feel safe to thrive, and just to build upon the great work that's been accomplished so far. What I bring to the board is diverse thought, flexibility

080in the decision-m process, and an invested desire to ensure our students receive the best opportunities to thrive as individuals and leaders. Community involvement would be an important area of focus for me. I believe maintaining rapport with the community and being a reliable liaison are fundamental practices for promoting student development and success. I've been attending meetings now for over the past year, both committee forums as well as schoolboard meetings. And the first thing that jumped out at me uh from these meetings was the camaraderie between the group uh the professionalism and the dedication it takes to be fully mindful [clears throat] and aware of the impact you have on our students and their families. So kudos to the board uh for for doing so with such passion. My promise is to take an active role in

081helping to shape policy, procedure, and community for the time spent as an appointee, as well as a continued promise to run as a candidate once the term is completed. I think that's important to note uh just to give the board some comfort in knowing that I understand creating rapport is a process and getting familiar with protocol and procedure is a a learning curve. And so I'm prepared to strap in and devote the time and attention needed to ensure our students are receiving the support they deserve. So again, I appreciate the consideration and I look forward to your decision. >> Thank you, Mr. Jackson. I will now entertain a motion to approve one of the candidates. Um I have uh see do I have a first director bea? Is there a second from uh director Parkinson?

082Any questions or comments? >> We need to do a roll. >> Just just we should state his name at your the motion is to appoint Mr. Jackson. >> Thank you. And it's probably right here. >> All right. So, our mot the motion is to appoint uh Raone Jackson to fill the vacant spot on the board. Did I get that right? Okay. questions or comments? Do we need to do a a roll call vote for that or can it be a >> roll? Okay. >> Director Campbell. >> Yes. >> Director Dietri, >> yes. >> Vice President, >> yes. >> Director, >> yes. Dry. >> Yes. >> Director. >> Yes. >> Director Parkinson. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, thank you for taking the time to apply, for taking the meeting. Uh, our appointed board

083member has completed, signed, and submitted the statement of financial interest to the board secretary. That's what I have here. Correct. Okay. Um, let's see. They will now take the oath of office and join us at the table. [applause] >> [clears throat] >> I, Raone Jackson, do solemnly swear that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity. And then you take a seat. [laughter] >> Consider this your orientation. Congratulations, Director Jackson. Welcome. >> Thank youelcome, >> Miss Farrautu. Rita, please give us your monthly personnel report. >> Thank you. Um, just continuing to fill roles and have progress there. I do uh want to shout out a few things. One, just thank you

084to the many teachers who are taking on supplemental responsibilities. coaching and doing after school clubs. Um it's so critical to the culture of our district and our schools and we're so grateful for their time and willingness to do this. Um and also like um like earlier today wanted to recognize Patty Pilts um for 24 and a half years in the district and Karen O'Neal and Rodney Ber, excuse me, Rodney Ber, both teachers who are retiring at the end of the school year. Um Karen has worked in the district for 22 years and Rodney for 25. That's it. >> Thank you. See, may I have a motion to approve the January 28th, 2026 personnel recommendations as presented? Director Beala, do I have a second? Director Fleming. Any questions, comments? All in favor say I. >> I.

085>> Any opposed? Motion carries. Next uh is the approval of the consent agenda. Uh no one has approached me to remove any item from the consent agenda. So uh so may I have a motion to approve the January 28th, 2026 consent agenda as listed? Dr. Dietree, do I have a second? Director Fleming, any questions or comments? Seeing none, all in favor of approving the consent agenda, say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. >> And now we move on to monthly school board committee reports. First up is our teaching, learning, and equity committee report from Director Parkinson. >> Thank you. The teaching, learning, and equity committee meeting was held on Tuesday, January 20th, 2026. During the meeting, Dr. Brown shared PSSA benchmarking data from across the county. Overall, this remains an area of

086focus and opportunity for our district to perform at the levels we know that we're capable of based on the resources we have and the wonderful students we serve. Dr. Brown also updated us on Unity Day slashweek um which is taking place across our district and include a variety of activities and events that are focused on promoting unity, belonging, inclusion and kindness. These were these are studentdirected days and weeks activities and teacher facilitated unity day programs at Fugat and Greystone were also highlighted. Additionally, Justin Brown led dignity and leadership assemblies across the middle schools in November. These sessions were highly interactive and engaging for our sixth graders. We hope to be able to extend them to other students. The TLA committee also approved our proposed curriculum budget in the amount of 3,329,8855. This includes a significant

087investment in the comprehensive review, evaluation, and ultimate selection of new ELA and social studies resources planned for implementation next year. These new resources will provide a contemporary learning experience for our students and teachers and include evidence-based practices and align with our district priorities and standards. Additionally, the committee approved the second reading of the draft of the 2026 2027 calendar as presented by Dr. Missett. Key highlights include August 31st as our first day, June 11th as our last day, winter break to commence on December 23rd with a return date of January 4th. Spring break will run Thursday, Friday, and Monday, and graduation dates uh will be June 2nd for Rustin, June 3rd for East, and June 4th for Henderson. Also noted, elementary parent conferences will occur in April and be offered via Zoom during the day.

088Our next schedule committee meeting is February 17th, 2026 at 6:30. And this concludes my report. >> Thank you, Director Parkinson. Vice President Balaka will now give the property and finance committee report. >> Director Fluffy, did you have a report for tonight? >> I do not have a personnel report for tonight. We have not had a meeting this month. >> Thank you, President. Uh tonight, uh we did have a property and finance committee prior to tonight's board meeting. And uh the first thing as we do on a monthly basis, Mr. Skully, our director of business operations, did a review of the January budget forecast model. Mr. Skully walked us through the the details of the 2526 budget. There's an increase in fund balance for future millage of approximately 5.5 million. Mr. Scully then reviewed the 2627

089budget and the conclusion of that review was decrease in the budget gap of approximately 2.5 million. And currently our our gap for next year's budget is with act index is approximately 4.6 million and the administration will continue to evaluate uh and and Mr. Scully will come back next month with an update to the to the budget forecast models. We continue to uh to look at that throughout the uh the budget calendar year. Mr. Scully then on a semianual basis reviews with the property products committee and the board uh all RTK's known as right to know requests and uh we took a look at that review. Nothing substantial there, but it's a periodic review that we just look at and write to notes that come into the district. Uh the next item was uh Mr. B,

090our director of facilities and operation delegated to his deputy Mr. Groves and he provided us an update on capital project bid awards and uh this is item J4 on the agenda if anybody's following. Uh Mr. presented us uh the Pierce Middle School renovation plan and uh basically uh the renovation in addition with the SHA group uh for award of 22,750,000. So I do have a motion as I stated for the uh board to approve tonight recommended for approval. The motion reads as follows. Approval is requested of the capital project bid awards is presented for the Pierce renovation addition to the SH group for the total bid award estimated at 2,750,000 I so moved is there a second director questions or comments all in favor say I >> any opposed motion >> I have a question

091should director Jackson be abstaining from these votes No, >> no, he's been sworn in and he has access to the materials in the packet and so he can participate. >> Okay. >> If he felt he had a conflict of interest, he could understand. [laughter] >> All right. Continuing on the next item on the agenda J5. U this is basically approval of the 2627 capital reserve project bid awards. Uh Mr. Groves then presented us uh a project at Rston High School. masonary restoration on the roof of Rustin High School. Uh this is a Rustin masonary restoration with the vendor Palmer B restoration for a total bid award of 18,000 and the uh the motion for tonight for the board for approval. This approval is requested the 2627 capital reserve project bid awards as stated for Rustin

092High School masonary Restoration with with an award value of $18,000 to Palmer Masonary Restoration. I so move. >> I have a motion for Vice President Bevela. Do I have a second? Dr. Dietri. Are there any questions or comments? Seeing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Continuing on, agenda item J6 was approval of the 2526 capital reserv awards. Mr. Gross then walked us through a continuing uh districtwide playground upgrade. The next uh elementary school that was going to be upgraded was Gracetown Elementary School was going to get replacement of some of their some of their playground equipment uh with the George Eli Associates. Um the motion tonight reads as follows. Approval is requested at the 2526 capital reserve project bid awards is presented for the continuation of the districtwide

093playground for uh replacement equipment at Greystone Elementary School with George Eli Associates for an award bid price of 11,559. I so move. >> I have a motion from Vice President Devil Aqua. Do I have a second? Director Fing. Any questions or comments? the the Fern Hill students called out the renovation that we did last summer and Dr. South's back there. So, yeah, this is money well spent. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. And back to you, Director. >> The last item for tonight, agenda item J7, was approval of the 2324 capital reserve project bid awards. Mr. Rose then walked us through the district-wide exterior lighting upgrades to LED lighting. This is a continuing project as we stated from 2324 and uh he basically spoke about the uh

094this continuation and the motion tonight for the board approval is requested of the 2324 capital reserve project bid awards is presented. The districtwide replacement of exterior lighting is with the vendor D electric supply for a bid award price of 54,335 and a bid to try group for a total bid award price of 16,275. I so move. >> I have a motion from Vice President Bevala. Do I have a second? Director Parkinson. Any questions or comments? All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? And motion carries. >> Just finishing up the report for tonight. The property finance committee meeting will be held next month on Tuesday, February 17th due to the present day holiday the prior day. And that concludes my report this evening. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Bealappa. Uh Dr. Dietri, please report on

095the policy review committee meeting. >> Thank you. Policy review committee met last Tuesday, January 20th. Committee reviewed revisions to eight policies and were informed of revisions and retirement of 12 administrative guidelines. The policies were approved earlier tonight under consent agenda. Our next meeting will take place on Monday, March 23rd at 6 PM. And that is my report for tonight. >> Thank you, Dr. Dietri. And staying with Dr. Dri, do you have an IU report for us this month? >> I do. This is my first report as our IU board member and it was a very interesting long meeting. I don't think we're normally that long. A lot happened this month. So, just to give you a synopsis of what we did, um we met on January 21st, 2026 at Technical College High School in Downing

096Town. And um uh first agenda item was Miss Megan Thompson of Irvine Company presented an overview of the 2024 25 audit reports including the TCHS audit. Both the CCIU and TCHS received unqualified audit opinions, the highest level attainable, and Miss Thompson was very complimentary of staff and the high quality work completed in preparation for the audit review. Next, director of administrative services, Mr. Joseph Leitzky, along with Joyce Humphrey, director of finance, gave a presentation about the CCIU budget. They provided the board with an overview of the development of the CCIU core occupational education categorical and marketplace services budget. They proposed budgets. The proposed budgets will be presented in their entirety to the board and superintendent for super consideration in February and and March 2026. In addition to requiring approval by the CCIU board of directors,

097the core and occupational education budgets must be approved by each member school district. This month's fiscal update covered such topics as presentation of the 202425 audit report, projected financing and debt service analysis, staffing information, pension and employee benefits, regional economy and local tax bases. Um, moving on, the next issue we've heard about was Dr. Fiori, executive director, introduced Jennifer Murray, assistant executive director, who shared that the team would provide a brief overview of current progress across the CCIU's four organizational goal areas. Those goal areas are datadriven goals, futurriven goals, relationship driven goals, and people driven goals. And we have a very extensive pro presentation in how those goals are being met. And there is a link online if you would like to see the the presentation so you can understand better what those goals were

098and how they're being achieved. Um, and then we dealt with some old financial business personnel. And our next meeting of the CCIU board of directors will be held on Wednesday, February 18th, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. at the Educational Services Center TCH Brand TCHS Brandy Wine Campus in Downing Town if anyone wants to attend. They are public meetings. Thank you. That's my report. >> Thank you, Dr. Dere. And I have a mo we have a motion from Dr. Parkinson. Is that correct? >> I ended up with it. Um uh I would like uh to move to approve a letter of engagement with Whistler Pearlstein LLP for legal services at the rate of 200 pardon me of $230 per hour for Allison Peterson. 210 to 230 per hour for partners and associates and 130 per hour for

099par legals and education specialists for the period of January 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027. I so move. >> I have a motion from Director Fleming. Is there a second? Director Vice President Bevala, any questions or comments? >> Yeah, I can I can provide this. So, we've worked with Alli Peterson specifically related to charter school litigation. Uh, she has switched firms and we would like to continue working with her. So, this is the engagement letter to ensure we continue to do that. >> That is a really good decision. Thanks for the clarification. >> Okay. And director, do you have another motion? >> Yes. >> I'm sorry. Any questions or comments? >> Okay. All in favor say I. I >> I >> any opposed? A motion carries. >> Now back to you. >> Uh approval is

100sought of the appointment of Cliff Beaver as interim assistant principal at Stson Middle School effective January 27, 2026 at a daily rate of $625. I move >> and is there a second? Dr. Any questions or comments? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. See next uh we have comments from residents. Has anyone signed up for items that are not on the agenda? >> Yes, there's one commenter and that's U. Trudo. >> Thank you. Hello again. Um, J Defonso still in East Scotian. Um, I don't see the time. I can see seconds but not minutes but >> I have it right here too. >> Oh, okay. Okay, now I know where to look. Thank you. Um, now I wanted to talk uh tonight a little bit about dyslexia. It's one

101of those things that I keep bringing up. Uh, 20% of the population according to the Connecticut Longitudinal Study is dyslexic, which is a big portion of, uh, people that you run into on a day-to-day basis. And, uh, Millersville University on February 7th will be holding a dyslexia presentation. It's kind of like an all day thing about dyslexia. And it's very expensive ending. Parents want to come, it's $15 to attend. Students are free. Teachers are $25. It's It's like I don't know how they do it. Uh I went last year. It was a great presentation. Um wanted to say a couple things about dyslexia. Um back in uh 2001, the National Reading Panel put out a report and basically it was saying about a structured literacy and that's the way we need to teach uh students.

102um act 69 of 2014 in Pennsylvania funded a pilot program on you know just how to teach reading and the results of the pilot program basically said that dyslexic learners and typical learners really learn the same way. It's just that dyslexic learners need more repetition. you know, they need that structured uh literacy and uh it's a change from how many teachers were trained because they were trained with balanced literacy. It's kind of to look at the two different trainings, you'd never think that they were kind of teaching teachers to teach the same thing. Um they're just so so different. And um in 2022 um Act 55 in Pennsylvania changed how universities have to instruct future teachers. Um, and that structured literacy is the only way that they really can be uh instructed. And I just

103feel like are we doing enough in in Westchester to get our teachers on board with with structured literacy? I know that they teach their curriculum, but I keep thinking they're kind of struggling. Are they going to fall back on their training? And is there training in balance literacy? Is there training in structured literacy? And you know, looking at the numbers for Westchester, I know we're doing better than the rest of the state, but you know, um, we definitely have room for improvement. And I, again, I don't know where things are coming from. I'm sure that, you know, administration is looking at things as well. And and, you know, I hope that the new curriculum that we're moving forward with is um, a solution to bring the numbers up. And, uh, thank you. Thank you, Mr.

104Fonz. I do have a quote for tonight, and we've talked a lot about goals. A goal is a dream with a deadline by Napoleon Hill. And with that, do I have a motion to adjourn? Director Fleming, a second. Director Campbell. Questions or comments? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> We're going to turn anyway. Thank you so much everybody. Our next meeting, I believe, is February 23rd and look forward to seeing you there.