001good evening I'd like to call to order uh property and finance committee meeting I am filling in for Mr Baka tonight thanks Dr Herman I will take rooll Mr Baka Dr Herman here Mr Christie here and Mrs Wy here can the ministry col Mr is not um is is there any public comment tonight thank you there is one registering uh before we get underway here I just like to remind everyone that person's wishing to make public comment on agend agenda items were required to properly register prior to the designated 6 p.m. start time of tonight's meeting uh when public commenters names are called please Begin by approaching the podium stating your first name last name and municipality public comments are limited to three minutes per person the board asks that all commentary be directed to
002the board as a whole public comments may be interrupted or terminated if the commentary exceeds 3 minutes or if it is obene and or in in nature Tom Ricker evening everybody Tom 665 Metro 665 Metro Court West Whitland I see as part of your budget you're also going to be talking about real real estate assessment appeals and one of the things that I've noticed um in your records over time is that when transfers you do take a look at the value and then sometimes assess reass as for reassessment but one thing I'm I don't see or haven't seen that I urge you to consider is um conducting reverse appeals uh there are third party vendors that do this for a living and Downing Town Great Valley te and lower Maran have all hired the same
003third party vendor um and have had quite a lot of success and with the area as large as Westchester Area School District I'm sure that there are properties that have not changed hands in a long long time that are paying underpaying their taxes this would also have a benefit for the local Township that that property falls in as well as the county if the appeal is successful thank you thank you um I need approval of November 20th 2023 property and finance committee meeting minutes Miss Bley yes Mr christe yes and myself on yes thanks Dr her uh we'll move on now to the uh it's items number D on the finance agenda items the first item we have is the review of the budget forecast model this is the December update of the forecast model
004just if you could go to page five thank you page 5 shows the uh adjustments that we made to our 2324 projections so these are um either increases in revenues or changes in expenditures uh that we're doting as of the month of November so it's month and November results um you'll see we do have a a rather large increase in our teacher salaries of $626,000 that is um in reference to the um or response to I'm sorry the teachers contract or the addendum to teachers contract that was board approved last month you'll see an adjustment for the 2324 projections as well as the next AG we slide over we'll see 2425 um I reduce Charter Schools um that's the tuition's paid to charter schools by $500,000 that's based on a lower than expected tuition rate
005and lower than anticipated enrollments in our um mostly our broken Mor Charter Schools I have reduced our busing um something I'm not very happy about but we are reducing our expenditures for transportation due to the driver shortage um we're doing the best we can between crafts and on the go to try to get drivers on board but uh we have reduced almost 40 routs in the last three years which is when I say redu it's consolidation of routs um doing whatever we can just to make sure the kids are being picked up we are experiencing longer than than we've ever had with ride times with students on the buses we are work we want it but there is a savings to the district and I'm reporting that St as of right now um so you'll
006see that I have a reduction in public and nonpublic I just split between the two of them $600,000 a piece into $1.2 million Savings in that area but I do have an increase in special and I think that was just the way that we budgeted though so the net impact of that is it's the Delta of the 1.2 and the $500,000 um on the revenues I did increase our current real estate taxes by $1.7 million that is based on actual results of revenues coming in that Parcels that came on board um new Parcels they came on that were not part of our tax duplicate will we set out our original bills and that increased our investment earnings by a million dollars I think we are about maxing our investment earnings um I've taken them up
007we know what what we have invested and will'll be invested through the end of the year and obviously last year when we did our budget we were at a very very low investment rate um we are earning very high investment rates as I've been reporting each month coming through so um for 2324 I will be increasing the ending fund balance by $3.2 million and we will be using that to reduce any tax burden that would be necessary for the 2425 school year um unless the board sees um another way or sees something different that they want to do with that but that is what we've been doing each month as we've gone through as any savings that we recognize in 2324 that we use to offset any millage increases or any impact on Village that
008we would 2425 then moving to the next page um 24 the biggest change that we have on there is the increase in the teachers contract for the addendum of $1.4 million everything else that you see below it is kind of ins and outs and ups and downs they are the difference between actual budget submissions and assumptions that I had in the model so I buil our model on a Tren I Trend it out five years it's based on the historical year and then I put a inflationary factor with each one of those line items the biggest swing you'll see is in the supply and other services um supplies going down and other services going up that is really the difference between where I thought curriculum proposals would come in I always code curricular proposals to
009the 600 to be its textbooks and supplies a lot of that now is online subscriptions and um Consulting work and things like that so that's where that swing Falls U overall the budget came in almost pretty close to where we expected it to be other than obviously the teacher's contract um in revenues for 2425 I'm ring rental Revenue by $100,000 and Ida I'm increasing by $134,000 and that rental revenue is not rental revenue from the rental of our facilities that's rental revenue from P that's reimbursement from P that's just based when what we know is coming in for what we consider to be rent reimbursement so I am actually taking the Gap the other way by $1.3 million for 2425 so the net Delta of that is what the Gap will be um for 24
01025o here jumping to the very last page our Gap uh right now or the amount of money that we need to find either in revenues or expenditures um to actually balance the budget would be $4.5 million we are very in line with where we were last year at the same time projected tax increases as they stand right now if nothing else were to change is a 1.8 in Chester County 12.2 in Delaware County both are well well below the Act One index um and again I have discussed the Delaware County impact that Delaware County impact is it's the state tax Equalization board um that is dictated to the schools that what burden of taxes need to be split between our counties and Delaware County went up from 5.92 to 6.33 that is based on the
011recess values that is not anything that this board can control and that is all I have for the forecast model that is not a voting item that is just a overview item okay so then moving on to item number D2 um and there are item number D2 that was included in the packet had various options option one and option two um I am going to skip option one if the committee is okay with it and review option number two option number one is the option whereby the board would elect to reserve the right to apply for exceptions I don't think there is any need for this District to apply for exceptions for the 2425 school year I'm looking at a 1.8% tax increase and index is 5.1 so I would like to not review options
0121 a or 1B which are list as options one one and one two and move to option two so option two would be to commit to a 2425 tax increase of no higher than the act1 index and then their uh resolutions are included in those so what I would need out of the committee is as well as the committee is in agreement with the administration's recommendation is approval of of um approval to commit to a 2425 tax increase no higher than the act1 index and Dr I me you to make that motion if the commit is okay with that yes I'd like to make a motion and do you agree yes so that is going to move forward to the board but will not be consent this was decided on tonight the meeting will then
013be when um Mrs leming asks for an adjustment or if there's any adjustments to the agenda for tonight Dr Herman I will need you to make a motion that it is number no it's under I committee reports right committee reports number no under agenda item e E1 yes remove items I6 and i7 from the agenda have them removed thank thank you and then the last item that I have and then I'll turn it over to Mr mcgallen is again it's not a voting item it is just an update for the committee on the 23 real estate property assessment appeals that will impact our assessed values our assessed valuations for 2425 um there is a a complete amo in there but in August as of August both the district and the taxpayers have the option to
014file tax appeals um they have to be filed with the county by August for them to be them to be effective for our following tax years it would be the tax base for the county that starts in January for us that starts in July so it is the same database but the County's dat is they on one a calendar year we r on theal year so all tax appeals need to be submitted no later than August they go through the process of appeals and some some appeals are granted some appeals are not granted um for Chester County actually for the Westchester Area School District we had 310 31.5 million in assessed Val so there is properties in a value of 31.5 million of that 241 million are commercial 68 were residential Delaware County had a
015small piece of that at 2.4 um we do not normally um protest very many of the assessment appeals especially in residential unless we see that there is a potential for what would be a substantially either increase or decrease in revenues um most residentials are fairly simple when they go it's the sales price of the homes it's what your next to neighbor's house sell for things like that we look at them but they're not really that big the commercial ones we will look at um commercial appeals whether they're pending appeal whether we're looking to P reverse appeal um we do have an appraiser you approve the appraiser I get that done once a year for this committee that we that we do use the appraisal which sha coil at IM media and looking at the appeals
016from the last I do a fiveyear history and then a 10e look back um from our experiences with last year appeals or 2425 assessments for properties could be lower to that 22.7% so I'm taking that $310 million and saying we have a potential of a 22.7% reduction in those appeals assuming that those appeals going grow they're granted so we could have about a $1.6 million reduction in our assessment appeals if all of those appeals go through and they are all appealed and they have the same results as we've seen in previous years um again this is not a voting item this is informational for the board I will take that dollar amount and I use that as a safeguard in our assessment appeals so it doesn't come back as the board is a shot that
017how they do $1.6 million in assessment I will reduce our assessments when I'm building our budget by that 1.5 million again informational item maybe too much information but informational item I just want the board to be aware um there are a lot of appeals most of our appeals that we see are commercial appeals new construction in can Del because of the way they assess it WS the way they operate they assess it at the sales price that's not what assess is supposed to be it's supposed to be at market price so at assess price I'm sorry they're assessing that the market price it should be at an assess price which is 67% of these sales so just taking into account the the public comment from earlier um reverse appeals do they apply both to commercial
018and residential I assume they resal they do so we have a board policy that any any property that sells that has a has the potential to have a difference in assess value to what the market value would be of over a million dollars we will F A we call them District initiated appeals rather than appeals so I go back and call appeals we told not to call reverse so so the district does do that that is something like re to board every year in AUST and it is properties that have a potential to have a a change of more than a million dollars in The Recess B that's a threshold the put one back and we do that because anything less than that by the time you start putting the common level ratio to that
019and the legal fees and everything on top of what it costs the board actually loses money to go theal on those properties so that's where that threshold came up thank you Mr SC we appreciate the MD John you're using that that methodology on sales because of ensuring fairness so that that not um spot evaluating individual properties correct thank you yes spot assessments already ilal in the state of Pennsylvania and some school districts districts actually locally school districts have been challenged and have lost in the courts we have been challenged in the past and our policy pass and we were able to move forward Dr Herman that is all I have for tonight um you could just announce the next meeting yes uh the next property and finance meeting will be Tuesday January 16th 2024 oh
020Mr thank you we'll let you go first next nobody puts baby in a court uh this is pretty uh quick one um just to clarify the board did approve um their electronic signature policy last a so we're not changing that policy at all it's just that PD requires uh for submitting things electronically that the superintendent puts their signature on they want you to do your own separate resolution that your policy the FED policy anything else you have isn't as good as a resolution made specifically for p so that's what we're asking approval for uh that that's the attached resolution so uh Linda will go forward that and um that Christopher sign that and we'll be all squared away for to do any electronic approvals through the P system any questions thank you Mr Dr Herman
021I need to vote on that V I need a motion okay first second that also will move forward to the board but it'll have to be motion on the board agenda as well because might be so and fin thank you very much good evening I would like to call to order the December 18th 2023 meeting of the Westchester Area School Board tonight we welcome two students from East scotian Elementary Jalia Katon and Luke along with their P principal Mr TJ seidenberger would you like to come up to lead the pledge and we'll start when you start the pledge Al of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands na indice okay uh thank you Julia and Luke and please let the board and audience know what is going on at
022East scotian home of the road runners hi my name is Julia Kon I and I'm a fifth grader student who goes to east oia I am here to tell you about one of the many fun things we do at East oan one of the many fun things we do at East oan is news crew news crew is a opportunity where fifth graders get to make videos and the whole school gets to watch them the videos are mainly about WS for lunch that day birthday trivia questions and jokes if you are wondering yes I am a news cre thank you for being such a respectful audience and thank you Miss bre for picking us and thank you mren for making this happen now I'm going to pass it on to Luke hi I'm Luke a fifth
023grader in our district thank you for the opportunity to speak here tonight I was invited here tonight to talk about some things amazing at our school e Elementary our buddy program is one of my favorite things at school this program Partners an older student with a younger student for the year a fifth grader is with a second grader a fourth grader is with a first grader and a third grader is with I love it because the younger bu gets to be friends with an older student and the older student gets to get gets not just a friend but the chance to be a good role model too it could be hard for kids several years apart to become friends so this program helps get us together in fun ways we we get many opportunities to
024connect with our buddies we play games inside and outside we draw together we read together sometimes I check out a B in the libr I think my buddy would enjoy so we could read it together just this past Friday we got to have a PJ day and play board games with our buddies I know that having a buddy when I was younger helped me because he made me more comfortable and confident with older people today and I enjoy it when I get to see my former buddies younger and older in the community I plac like the park or the baseball field I'm very grateful for the Buddy program just one reason why e Elementary is amazing thank you for listening and happy holiday thank you very much Mr seidenberger do you have anything to add
025this is two of East oan spiners right here all right what now what each of you what what is your favorite subject in school um mine is probably hands on science I just think it's like fun mine's probably math hands on science get touch in science good well thank you for coming out and leading the pledge for us we have we're do a photo don't sit down quite yet we'll right I'm going to hand you your certificates of practice like it's your graduation I'm actually not good at and I will you your certificate can do the'll stand your principal's gonna join us too okay nice job big smile thank you so much thank you uh NE moving on we have a special announcement please note that the 2024 pupil services committee meetings will begin at
0266:30 and the education committee meetings will begin at 7: the meeting schedule will be advertised as required this was just a fix a mix up with the times of those two meetings i' would also like to announce the 2024 board liaison positions Mr dnell will continue to serve as the Chester County Intermediate liaison Mr chrisy will serve as the legislative liaison Miss chest will serve as the equity liaison and Dr Herman will continue as the psba liaison next we move on to roll call Mr cherish vice president director Chester here director Christie here director dri here director here here director here director Herman here dorley here here and thank you this leads us to the public comment protocol this leads us to public comment Mr Jennings do we have any public commenters toight none on
027agenda items thank you president thank you that now we'll move on to the approval of the minutes for the November 27th 2023 school board meeting May I have a motion to approve Dr Herman do I have a second sorry Mr Darnell any do we have any questions or comments on the minutes from November 27 vocal director Herman yes director jell yes director Christie yes director Chester yes director yes director would I vote on this okay director rley yes yes thank you next up is the approval of the December 4th 2023 school board meeting minutes do I have a motion to approve Dr dri second Mr Christie uh any questions or comments seeing none will'll do roll director dri yes director Christie yes director Herman yes director yes director Wy director J yes director Christie yes
028okay thank you Miss chore would you add to the meeting minutes for this evening that we met as a board in executive session earlier tonight Monday December 18th on a personel matter our next agenda our next item on the agenda is approval of the December 18th agenda Dr Herman I believe you would like to make some amendments to the agenda yes thank you president finally agenda item E-1 amendments to the agenda I'd like to make a motion to remove items 1-6 and 1-7 from the agenda it was decided at the property and finance committee level to adopt a 2024 25 budget resolution that liit any budget increase to no greater than Act One index accordingly these two agenda items can be removed from board action I can I clarify that it's agenda I so it's
029I6 and i7 thanks oh I'm sorry that's all right no yeah it is on just want make sure we have that correct thank you Dr Christopher so I believe Now we move on and need a motion to approve the December 18th 23 agenda as amended uh director Chester and a second Dr dri roll call please director Chester yes director yes director chrisy yes director PR yes Director D yes director yes yes thank you and this leads us to the superintendent report Dr Christopher welcome to your first official board meeting we look forward to listening to your report thank you uh yeah I appreciate everything I really have had a great couple weeks here at Westchester this is my first official report and I promise to make it short because I know you guys have lots
030of stuff that I need to get through um I just like to say the first two weeks have been really exceptional for me I've been really impressed with the friendliness of the staff and the students it's been fun to get to each building and to see the unique character in each building and you know the unique buildings even some of them the actual physical layouts some those kinds of things and I was able to get to all 17 buildings in my first week uh which was a whirlwind but was a blast I really enjoyed it a lot uh there's genuine warmth I think in every single school I definitely felt that way I did occasionally get lost on the way to buildings but you s is very helpful and people were very uh accommodating with
031my schedule I do get hijacked by several principles for a longer amount of time in their buildings than I was scheduled for as well which I don't think anyone's surprised about uh the unique culture I think in each building is is interesting and and really uh exceptional but they all have a shared focus on students on positive School climate and on a supportive culture which I really appreciate as well uh there's a great effort you can see our custodial staff the support uh St teachers administrators everybody's working on the same page in those buildings uh it was it was great to see that it also immediately obvious to me that our staff is interested in really continuing to improve I saw all kinds of opportunities where people were being Innovative uh you know were really
032interested in just doing a great job for students and so that that's really exciting as a new person coming into the school district to see that I can keep going on and on but those were definitely the top takeaways that that I saw um I also had the opportunity to attend several holiday concerts and performances uh the music program here as you all know is topnotch uh really really interesting I'm sure about the Viking actually directing the band uh during the band performance at East High School that was pretty entertaining to have the the mascot come out and do that it's part of that but I have really been able to enjoy some of those things and you know we just have so many talented students across the school district so I'll get to hit
033some some more of those here this week which should be a lot of fun uh in addition to the concerts I did get to go see Singing in the Rain School uh I don't think I've seen a middle school performance where we had that many students that were actually dancing in coordinated uh you know mbers and just doing a great job so it was really really exceptional they sold out all three shows did you get a shair for me in the back because I did not have a ticket but I did appreciate that I think it's also really important to notice I won't steal anyone's Thunder I hope but the season of giving is really going on uh Henderson had their annual drive up holiday gift card drop off which was a tremendous success uh
034it's great to see the generosity of our community and uh the students s collected the cards and handed out candy canes and donated festive attire which is always fun and Hillsdale hosted a family uh families that signed up to receive Toys for Tots and not only they get a toy they also got to participate in a party at the school in the evening so families made ornaments listened to read alouds decorated cards went bowling in the gym and shared a meal together it was really a wonderful night thanks to the time and talents of our staff also do want to highlight one student uh East schools Alex Chen uh United States Senate youth program established in 1962 by US Senate resolution is a unique educational experience for outstanding high school students interested in pursuing careers
035in public service two student leaders from each state will spend a week in Washington experience in international government action Zoom Gates will hear major policy um addresses by Senators cabinet members officials from the Department of State Defense and directors of other federal agencies as well as usually participate in meetings with the president and the Justice of the US Supreme Court uh we would really like to celebrate that uh East High School student Alex Chen has been selected as one of Pennsylvania's Senators Alex is a senior at East he's been chosen uh you know for this prestigious US Senate youth program uh the achievement reflects only Al his academic Excellence but also his dedication to public service and passion for creating positive change in his community so congratulations Alex that's really an amazing award uh I
036also would like to just wish every everybody happy holidays whether you celebrate Hanukkah or looking forward to Christmas Quanza or simply to winter break our three students are going to talk about winter break I think in all of their reports and how they are looking forward to it that's what they just said uh on behalf of our Administration our school board we would like to wish everyone a very happy holiday and a safe in newor soon so happy holidays everybody that's it thank you thank you Dr Christopher we will now move on to the reports from our three student repr representatives and it looks like we do we have a substitute tonight do you want to go ahead first Jake sure all my name is Jake DeMarco I'm filling in for a fla tonight I
037show weather um start off our Special Olympics Bachi team last week had our first match and we uh beat down Intown East it was great it's a great program we run up there and uh right now we're we're doing a little fundraiser to raise some money for Special Olympics and best buddies up there uh in some other sports new our both our basketball teams the girls and the boys started out GRE and one and I think they're going to they're looking to make a deep playoff run here uh s they lost their first match against erson but they're going to look to bounce back against GRE Valley after break um we've got a walker home club and they're hosting a winter donation drive like back to Christ um they're collecting uh clothes and donations for
038women shelters from the 17 21st uh BSU is I think just wrapping up their toy drive tomorrow to and they said uh quote it's quite successful and they were happy to give back to their Community uh and uh we have two music events this week we have our uh high school and STS and middle school orchestra concert in the auditorium uh tonight that's it's actually going on right now it's and uh the Rost music department holiday performance tour of theater schools is on Thursday and lastly go birs one of the reasons I might have been late was because Jake was to be a tour R withot so they had a nice long tour R Us in high school which I appreciate thank you good evening I hope you have good evening I hope you all
039having a wonderful December as we inch our way towards the holidays it seems that East High has caught a case of holiday fever flashback to Friday and take a step into our cafeteria you then be greeted by your physics I mean your Santa as sua annual Santa pictures for all the lunch periods students could drink hot chocolate and take pictures with Marine Bio Santa personal finance Santa AP Physics Santa fiz Ed Santa and guidance counselor Santa this year all of our money we raised will be donated to westchester's food cover stroll into our Auditorium this morning and you think you teleport into Wall Street with over 200 kids wearing dress shirts and Blazers in reality our Deca chapter dominated districts as over 60 students qualified to the state compe February for those that did qualify
040they now have two months to study for their tests and perfect their role plays and for those that did not qualify they now have the opportunity to create a written project to compete at states east ice hockey has continued another strong year as we racked up our fifth win of the Season against di both of our basketball teams have had a great start to the year as well and plan to continue this momentum into the future our music department said as uh Dr Christoper highed earlier hosted a concert for our winter choir or ex band while the the department finished auditions and started rehearsing the spring musical The Adams Family although right before this long break students are often stress with test and quizzes the events we have every week help de-stress and brighten mood
041of my peers and I whether it be Mr P's guitar and his physics students or the little Vikings knocking at your door ready to Carol the teachers in the community at East are W this holiday season special thank you for your time and hope you have a wonderful holiday break hi guys I hope you're all well um before I get started on Henderson news let me tell you something about myself I'm really good at corny puns one might even say I'm the cream of the crop my family and friends strongly disagree but they're liars and apparently the chance of you guys laughing at my dad jokes is pun in a million but I'll try anyways I hope you'll bear with me tonight and hold your applause this week we have a lot of exciting things
042going on today was PJ day and then we have candy cane day flannel day crazy socks day and ugly sweater day we have fruit trucks all week and Friday is a choose your own activity day where we can relax with our friends over games and crafts and movies winter spirit week is snow much fun our holiday concert is this Wednesday and it is whoa I missed a sentence there it's asland Hall which is a very it's asland Hall is a very beautiful Hall and the Acoustics there are quite noteworthy um it's one of our best concerts of the year because the entire department will be performing there I encourage all of you guys to come watch with your families this Friday we have our annual Meredith and Walton speaking contest where 10 talented finalists out
043of over 60 students will perform and interpret their piece of choice Henderson's clubs are also very busy Deca just went to a competition today and the students did really well I don't I don't have exact numbers right now but I saw the DEA kids getting off the bus as I was leaving school and I saw a lot of trophies student council recently ran a gift drive you kind of did Ste like um but we got 73 cards donated and these cards are going to families in need student council is also running a pie in the face fundraiser where the students with the most money in their collection jar will get pie I am personally excited to see it pie is always a very good idea um academic team won first place at a competition this
044weekend and we had three teams qualified for Nationals which made us all Buzz with excitement National Honor Society has been making cards for hospitalized children and last I've heard were over 160 cards M TR is planning on going to a weekend competition in January which I believe is on your agenda today for approval um so fingers crossed on the sports front the Henderson girls swim team blew it out of the water they had their the 300th win ever it was against Rus um if there's if there's a will there's a wave girls basketball just went to Orlando for a tournament and boys basketball beat East for the first time in seven years um winter track had their first meet and this year we're doing um they're doing an inter squad meet for the first time
045by the way have you heard the joke about marathon runners if not I can job your memory okay I'll stop lastly I I've been reflecting on my last few months here and I realize how little most of us students know about the school board working with our school newspaper Insight I'd like to add a few bullet points every month about school board news that impact us students I I love that I get to come here every month to share Henderson's happenings with you guys and I'm excited to encourage that conversation both ways if there's anything from your committee meeting that I should put in the school board for blurred please let me know anytime and I usually end with a Sentimental remark but I think we all get enough of that in this season of
046Hallmark movies so today on with a joke what did the English teacher called Santa's helpers subordinate clauses that concludes my report for today than thank you all I hope you get to have a nice relaxing holiday break are you I don't know at this point are you finished with college applications or plans for next year so you actually get to relax a little bit over your break have enjoy and enjoy you know we'll all be here together but I hope you enjoy your last semester coming up should be a lot of fun less pressure right okay thank you okay moving on we have Dr ommer Who will give us his monthly Personnel report thank you good evening president Fleming and members of our school board our Personnel report for the month of December 2023 is
047as follows with removals from payroll we have four resignations one teacher two long-term substitute teachers and one par professional we also have five retirement notifications Miss Kim anun health teacher at Pierce Middle School with 35 years of service Mr William Binkley music teacher at ex Elementary School and Acres Elementary School with 36 years of service Mr Jerome gray head custodian at Pierce Middle School with 17 years of service Miss Donna ketner McLoud library assistant office assistant at Stark weather Elementary School with 16 years of service Miss Lori McMan par professional at Weston High School with 16 years of service I would also like to take this opportunity to offer sincere thanks to Mrs Carol deuca our assistant board secretary and administrative assistant to John scullard Director of Business Affairs as this is her last board
048meeting prior to a well earned retirement Carol we thank you for your service keeping us on track and your kind affect congratulations and we will miss you we wish all of our retirees nothing but happiness and enjoyment in retirement and we thank each of them for their dedication district and it children with additions to payroll we recommending the hiring of two teachers one librarian one certified school nurse and five long-term substitutes we're also recommending the hiring of one par professional one secretary to the principal and one hbac Plumbing mechanic and one custodian in Personnel events I'm recommending status changes for one teacher from a long-term substitute to a contracted teaching position one staff nurse to a certified school nurse position and last but certainly not least in status changes we are recommending the status change
049for Dr Steven wner from assistant principal at Fugate Middle School to principal of Fugate Middle School Steve we're thrilled that you are taking on this new position you've done an amazing job these last few months and we are proud to have you as principal in the district Steve is here this evening Steve can you please stand to recognize him congratulations I also delivered in three and notified three involuntary transfers to our support staff and delivered notified voluntary transfers to three per professional staff in additional information we are seeking the approval of an extended sabatical an extension of a long-term substitute position a settlement agreement for a formal employee a former employee an with the Education Association for a supplemental contract issue anou for a pay group change for a position in their support staff and
050the list of drivers and AIDS from crafts buses and on Theo kids buses in supplemental contracts we are looking for approval for of two annual contract additions for the 2324 school year two additions to the winter season and three adjustments for the 2324 school year lastly we are recommending 11 appr for gain help I'm respectfully requesting for approval for all Personnel matters listed above thank you thank you Dr R may have a motion to approve the December 18 2023 Personnel recommendations as presented Dr dri may have a second Dr Herman are there any questions or comments roll call director yes yes director wsy yes director Dell yes director yes director Chester yes director yes pres yes thank you m CH next is approval of the consent agenda no one has requested anything be removed from
051the consent agenda tonight um that anything change no okay may I have a motion to approve the December 18th 2023 consent agenda director dnell may have a second director Chester uh May roll call director J yes director Chester yes director dri yes director lley yes director yes director Herman yes director Chris yes yes thank you Mr chair we will now move on to our committee reports first up we have Mr dnell with the education committee report thank you president Fleming the education committee did not meet in December uh however you all you are all invited to the next uh education committee meeting in on January 8th at 7:00 thank you Mr Darnell and next we will hear about pupil services from Miss Chester thank you president Fleming uh pupil services do not meet in December
052we will be meeting in January on the same night as education at 6:30 p.m. thank you director Chester Dr Herman please give us your personnel committee report thank you president cling Personnel committee met before The November 27th 2023 monthly board meeting a draft of the committee meeting minutes was included in today's board's agenda this is my report for the evening thank you thank you Dr Herman uh tonight our property and finance report will be given by Dr Herman thank you president M good evening everyone agenda item I committee report section the property and finance committee met this evening before the board meeting Mr Scully provided an update to the monthly forecast model Mr Scully advised the committee that net expenses for the 2024 23 24 were reduced by $573,000 and consisted of changes to salaries
053charter school tuitions and student transportation increases to re revenues totaling 2.7 million included increases in current taxes and investment earnings the net changes in expenses and revenues increase the ending fund balance by 3.3 million and that will be used to reduce the tax increase for 2425 Mr Scully explained that the 2425 budget figures now reflect building departmental budgets and updated Staffing amounts and have replaced previous projections which were based on the assumptions included in the forecast model the 2425 net changes between revenues and expenses resulted in an increase of 1.4 million to the budget Gap the administration will continue to review projections for potential savings to reduce the millage impact for the 2024 25 final budget next Mr Scully reviewed the 20242 budget calendar and budget resolutions for December and advis the committee that act
054one requires the board to adopt a resolution at the December school board meeting regarding the intended level of Taxation to be within or above the state mandated Act One limit the committee recommended approval of the resolution for the district to commit to a 20242 tax increase not to exceed the Act One limit for the 2024 25 school year and this Needs Board action approval is requested for the resolution for Act One inflation index budget limit limit ISO move uh thank you so I have a first from Dr Herman for approval of the resol of the resolution for Act One inflation index budget limit do I have a second uh director Christie we have any questions or comment seeing none roll call please director Herman yes director Christie yes director Chester yes director lley yes yes
055Director D yes director yes director yes yes next Mr Scully reviewed the2 real estate property assessment appeals impacting the 20242 tax base as of August property owners and Westchester Area School District filed assessment reduction appeals on properties in Chester County totaling 310.50 million in assessed value Mr Scully reviewed a history of appeals in corresponding reductions in assessments and advised the committee that based on this analysis the 2024 25 appeals could result in reduction of 22.7% or 71.3 million in assessed value the taxed effect of that reduction would amount to approximately 1,598 th000 this item was for informational purposes and no board action was required next Mr mcgallen discussed with the committee policy 815 decimal 5 which authorizes the use of electronic signatures Mr McAllen reviewed a resolution requiring board approval to authorize the district superintendent
056to use an e signature to approve and submit specific online granting grant funding applications reports and Associated contractual agreements with the Pennsylvania Department of Education approval is requested for the E signature resolution is move I have a first from Dr Herman for approval of the E signature resolution do I have a second director wanley are there any questions or comments seeing none roll call please director Herman yes director wisley yes director diet yes director Christie yes director Chester yes director yes director jell yes president did you say Fleming I heard president Herman sorry I got tooted thank you the oh go ahead sorry the next the next property and finance meeting will be held Tuesday January 16th 2024 and that ends my report thank you thank you Dr Herman next up is policy Review Committee
057Dr dietry our new chair of the polic Review Committee will now give us her report thank you president Fleming good evening everyone there was no policy review committee meeting in December there were 10 board policies that were second reading approved under the consent agenda earlier tonight our next meeting will take place on Tuesday January 16th 2024 at 5:30 p.m. that's my report thank you Dr Petri we will now move on to other reports our first is from the cciu by Mr Dell thank you president me one of these days I'm going to say president T and I know I'm going to say it president thank you uh the Chester County Intermediate Unit did not meet in December uh however you're invited to participate next time we meet January 17th so Wednesday night at 7:30 at
058the tchs campus in dowtown thank you Mr Darnell next up is the legislative liaison report by director Christie sure thanks president um there was no meeting in December um the next meeting will be on January 24th which is two days after our next meeting so won't have much to say then but the state did pass finally school code and and fiscal code so the the budget the state budget is finalized and we'll start again with the the governor's budget address in February through all over again so thank you yes our schedule has been off with those meetings or our meeting is supposed to be right after their meetings but that hasn't been working that way thank you for that and finally the equity report by director Chester thank you president I am no ping Kus
059but I just have a a brief report um and the equity update as of December 18 uh root cause analysis which we know that Dr Martin has been working on on and Reporting on over the past year the leadership team the Del District Equity leadership team in each of the seven team buildings has sought to identify an equity barrier that impacts students learning after a year of gathering data and asking the five wise to identify the root causes many of the schools have located their core problem the following themes were identified one lack of belonging and inclusivity two high absences three limited Improvement in language development amongst multilingual learners for disproportionate number of referrals among black and brown students uh student apathy and the last lack of brown black and brown student representation in rigorous
060classes the Del members have developed a road mapap for implementation which will begin in January 2024 data collection will begin in February and continue through May 2024 along the way teams will monitor the process of implementation collect data and make relevant adjustments progress upates be provided in March and April and again in May and then professional development on December 14th several Educators participated in a workshop entitled race and culture in the classroom the interactive presentation was geared towards Educators who are not Equity Advocates but were invited to attend ensuring new staff members receive Equity training as part of our the ongoing effort to build capacity among staff and becoming culturally competent Ed who will be equipped to enact meaningful change in student achievement and um I um Dr Martin mentioned that as far as the
061root cause analysis and participation by the um principles in the 17th District participation was high and robust and so she was um very excited about that and looks forward to reporting further next year thank you great thank you director Chester and uh thank you all for keeping us up to speed on the board's connections to our community and other memberships we'll now move on to other business we have two items before the board which will require a vote tonight thank you president fling approval is requested for the appointment of Miss Karen a not prac but I didn't practice enough Karen velano am I close very close how do you say your name how do you say aago aago yes thank you as assistant board secretary for the remainder of the 2023 24 school year it
062is recommended to Karen Evana be appointed as assistant super uh assistant school board secretary effective January 1st 2024 through June 30th 2024 uh the am I supposed to read all this too okay I move we need a second V director yes Director D yes director christe yes director yes director Herman yes director Chester yes director yes yes uh also approval is requested of health and safety plan reverting to P to board policy 203 immunizations and communicable diseases I so move way have a second Dr Herman uh any questions or comments so we'll vote to approve the revised health and safety plan reverting to board policy 203 immunization and communicable diseases director jell yes director Herman yes director lley yes director yes director Chris yes director Chester yes Director D yes president yes thank you and
063I believe now we will move on to public comment on non-agenda items do we any comments tonight Mr Jenning yes president Fleming just one um before we call that commenter forward just remind everyone now is the time for public comment on non-agenda items uh When approaching the podium please Begin by stating your first name last name and municipality public comments are lied to 3 minutes per person and the board asks that all commentary be directed to the board as a whole public comments may be interrupted or terminated if the commentary exceeds three minutes or if they are obscene and or threatening in nature our first and only speaker this evening is Judy defonso hi everyone happy holidays and my name is Jud def I want bring New Kids on the Block uh live in East
064oan uh two two things I want to talk about tonight uh one is the uh PBE conference um special education conference uh is going to be from February 28th to March 1st of next year uh there are parent scholarships if you know a parent who has a child with an IEP Pennsylvania Department of Education pays for their registration at the confence and if they're traveling more than 50 miles which is most of us out here in Chester County they will also pay for a hotel room and um the due date for the application for the scholarship is January 20th so spread the word um the other thing I want to talk about is we bit more complicated and it is the methylation of DNA during fetal development um did a little bit of looking at
065why this happens diet hormone stress drugs chemical exposure um what happens during metalization is that a carbon and three hydrogens end up on cytosine along the DNA instead of a hydrogen molecule and what that does is it prevents that segment of DNA from replicating and expressing itself um gene silencing one of the terms I picked up this evening and trying to come up with you know what happens and individuals who have this they don't look any different they look like everyone else um but they feel different on the inside because they're biochemically they are different from other individuals and they may assume that everyone's like that but eventually they figure out that they are different and when you feel like you're different from everyone else you're going to be feeling alone and I think it's
066very important that the school have age appropriate library books to help students understand about this sort of thing now um it's a human state where this U methylation uh occurs and you wants to feel like they belong and you're probably wondering what is the typical wording for me ation um metalization uh during field development actually causes autism spectrum disorder and it's also associated with an individual being uh LBGTQ and that's also why individuals with autism are more likely to also be LBGTQ so um I know other people have talked about this and I wanted to come and talk about it and again age appropriate and I probably a little bit of a different perspective on this sort of a situation than other people have spoken about this but again uh and you know with equity
067and making everyone feel like they belong and and are included with our our school district thank you thank you Judy okay uh no more comment so uh we'll wrap up and uh I would like to thank everyone for attending and in lie of a quote tonight I would like to send the board's positive energy and best wishes to vice president Bev Aqua may your road to recovery be fast and smooth and we'll look forward to uh his return in a hopefully a few weeks so I also would like to also offer congratulations and best wishes to Carol Deluca and thank her on behalf of the board for her service to the district and good luck in retirement as as questions thank you and our next monthly board meeting is in 2024 on January 22nd at
0687:00 do I have a motion to adjourn anyway director wsy a second director Chester all in favor say I I all oppos our meeting is aour