001Everyone good? >> We'll call the entertaining to order. Everyone will join the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance 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. >> Is anyone recording the meeting? >> Thank you very much. And we're ready for a roll call. Mr. >> Mrs. Herans >> here. >> Mr. Hershey here. >> Mrs. Co here. >> Mrs. Phillips >> here. Ms. Rodriguez >> here. >> Mr. Shippers here. >> Mrs. together. >> Mrs. Torres, >> Mrs. Zinsky >> here. >> Seven in attendance. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Um, welcome to anyone who is participating online. Don't think we have any Mr. Capelli. We don't have any other visitors. Um, there are some
002upcoming meeting dates. There's a finance and facilities workshop on May 13th at 5:00 pm here in this room. And there is a board of school directors meeting on May 18th also in this room. Is there any public comment? Okay. We can move on then to routine approvals uh which will be the approval of minutes by voice vote. It is recommended that the board of school directors approve the following minutes. The April 13, 2026 board meeting minutes. I have a motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed? Motion passes. And we're going to turn it over to Mr. Ber. Um, we're going to do the budget presentation. Is that correct or >> Yes. That's the first item under superintendent report. >> Okay. >> All righty.
003Well, here we are. [laughter] We've we've made it to the proposed final budget. So, just for uh just some timeline wise. So, this is the first vote. Uh and then the t the budget goes on table for public presentation for 30 days and then the first meeting in June everything is good to go and we'll put the final budget to vote. At that time we'll also review the food service budget and then uh financing facilities workshop and we'll put that on the table also hopefully the first meeting in June. Okay. All righty. Um, we've been through this slide before, but just as a reminder, um, we are focusing on that left bucket, which is a general fund of the four funds that the district has. Uh, the general fund is what we're proposing tonight for
004the budget and what we're focusing on, uh, for for this for this presentation. Um, we've seen this slide before, uh, but we're going to go over again just some of the budget challenges that we've been facing, um, throughout the the year. Uh and some of these are are multiple years. Um we had a lot of negative assessment chains changes, excuse me. Uh from the reduction the the Waw Wa on Penn Avenue, the pending uh settlement for the uh uh Commonwealth Charter Academy. Um a lot of residential appeals. I think we're up to 26 residential appeals that were a reduction in their assessed value. Uh and then we had the the loss of the Reading Hospital or potential loss, excuse me, of the Reading Hospital um payment, which is about $424,000. Uh so that's a big
005challenge to or a big hurdle to overcome when we're starting to talk about uh revenues for the upcoming school year. Those are those are revenues that just carry forward or reduction of revenues that carry forward. Um, as far as other things, uh, on here, um, we did have the final percentage increase for the healthcare. Um, I did take the assumption that I could get it down to 11% with my my one vote on the health health trust committee. Uh, and I I kind of lost that one. Uh, so the the vote is 14 or excuse me, the final percentage is 14.72%. Um, so this budget that we're going to present tonight does reflect that increase. uh at that 14.72%. Okay. So, as we go forward, um the proposed final revenue budget that we're looking at
006uh is 48,187,383. Uh local revenue, this is $36,956. Excuse me, 36,956,19, which is about 76.69% of our budget. Um, so it's once again reoccurring theme. Large portion of our revenue comes from local taxes. Uh, that 48 million does include the tax increase of 3.5%. I'll kind of explain why I use that right now coming forward as we kind of progress through the expenditure part of this budget. Um, it does include an increase in earned income tax. Uh, but there is a decrease in interest income. A number of different reasons. Now the the main assumption was that the Fed was going to start decreasing interest rates uh when we started this budget process. They were going to decrease in January which they didn't. They were also looking at an April decrease which they also didn't due
007to because excuse me because of inflation occurring uh due to um you know economic conditions. So I still have a decrease in interest income simply because we're going to be using fund balance to balance this year's budget not as much as we planned. and next year's budget. So, we'll just have less cash on hand. So, naturally, our interest income would decrease because of that. So, I left that decrease in for now. Uh state revenue, which is about 22% of our budget, it's 10,671,57. That includes both basic education and special education increases. And then the smallest piece of our pie is the federal uh revenue which is uh $559,767 or about 1.16% of our total revenue budget. Uh we do have a decrease in the medical assistance reimbursement and we have a decrease in title one
008revenue. Uh was very insignificant but it was still a decrease. I did leave title two, three and four in that budget. We did not hear back yet as what our funding aotment would be. Um, but I did not put an increase in there, so I left it flat. If anything changes, we'll update the board immediately uh once we hear back from those um those funding streams. So overall, right now, I'm projecting with a 3.5% tax increases, our overall budget increase is going to only be 3.376%. This is down significantly from last year. Last year we projected a budget increase in revenue about 5.26%. As you can probably do the math, 3.376 is lower than 3.5%. Remember 3.5 is only about 70% of that entire budget and we did lose revenue both in that federal category
009and we lost revenue in the local category with the assessment appeals that we lost. So right now if we were to do a zero budget comparison so keep the millage rate the same as this year as in coming to next year we would actually have less tax revenue than we did this year simp because of those assessment appeals. Okay. So that's why the percentage increase is lower than what our tax increase. Any questions at all right now? So this is just a chart uh basically just what I just verbalized to you. It's just in a chart form. You can see those blue the blue bars there on the bar graph is the our largest section we serve local sources. And there is an increase. Obviously it does increase because we've increased taxes the past six
010years. Um 25 to 26 excuse me 25 26 and 26 27 are both budgets. So you have your final adopted budget for 2526 and then you have your projected or preliminary proposed final budget for 2627. Um so you can see that we did dip down a little bit for 2526 just because once again we had a little bit less state funding and coming into the current budget year. Next year we lose a little bit of the uh the blue bar so local but then we are increasing the taxes. We're seeing that 3.5% tax increase proposed is built into that number. Okay. Um so this is just a chart we we like to show every year. Um just kind of going through our millish history and increase. We are proposing once again 3.5% tax increase. It
011is our act one index. Uh this is the first time we're actually hitting the act one index since um 201920. We took an exception to go to 2.5 over a 2.3 act one index. So once again the act one index is set there. That's the maximum amount of tax increase we can do without taking an exception. So 3.5 is is the percentage increase that we are at the current time recommending. Um just one sidebar when we get to the actual vote on the agenda there are two uh items on there. There's a three as the board request and a 3.5. We'll as we go through we'll get to that point uh to that discussion point a little bit later in this presentation. Okay. Uh one of our favorite charts I guess is what what does
012this impact look like? So we did represent here a three and a 3.5% tax increase. So um we we like to use $150,000 assessed value uh property. So, at the 3% tax increase, I'm on the right hand side here at $150,000 of assessed value, uh, the increase would be about $159 a year, which is about $10 a month. A 3.5% tax increase on the same the same assessed value home is about $186 a year or about $16 a month. The proposed millage rates there uh for a 3.5 would be 36.603 mills versus a 3% would be a 36.42 4263 mills. If we look at the chart in the bottom, um we did get our um assessment, excuse me, our homestead reduction aotment. It did increase from last year about $3,000 um which is kind of
013small compared to what the prior two years were, three years. We took that significant jump from $489,000 to that that 849,000. The reduction did go down slightly. If you look at the assessed value, that would be reduced. It's at 10,63 versus at 10,92. But the reduction actually increased from 368 to 350 from 356 to 368. And that's purely because our millage increased, right? So as the millage increased, the amount of assess value that was coming off was lower. Okay? But overall, the [clears throat] amount of the homestead reduction is slightly higher. Okay? And the $150,000 represents the [clears throat] average assessed value of a house. >> Actually, it doesn't. The average assessed value, if we go to the next slide, please. >> Our average assessed value is actually $139,57. Okay. So, what we did was
014uh the board requested this chart just to show what the total taxation would be for our residents. Okay. So, if I'm going left to right on this chart, top to bottom. So that left column, two columns represents a 2025 tax village. Okay. So that's the school district, the bureau, and the county. Um so you look for a West Reading resident. And I probably should have changed this a little bit and divided it by thousands. So you get a total rate um for a West Reading resident is about 58.87 mills. Okay. For the average for the Y missing resident, it would be 51.02 2 mills and that's significantly the difference between the um burrows millage rates there. Okay. So, West Ring has a higher millage rate than um Y missing. Okay. Um so when we drop
015down and we start going once again those first two column or the first side of the chart here, the average uh assessed value of home is 139,000. So you look at what the tax would be for the district, the bureau, and then the county. you come up to a total taxation difference of about $1,100 between the two burrows. Okay. If we move to the right hand side at 3.5% tax increase obviously doesn't change too much. The increase to the to the excuse me the residents or excuse me for the district's increase would be $17211 at that value. Okay. And do you know offand uh what what the wisdom burrow increased their taxes last month? >> Uh I believe the medicine bro increased their tax. I think it came down to 12%. Yeah, it was double
016digits for sure. I think they were talking as high as 14 >> and that was last fiscal year. >> It was Yeah, it was in January. >> Yeah, their fiscal year runs a true calendar year >> versus ours is that that fiscal year. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um any questions on on this at all? Just as far as the impact uh right now, just looking back at what some schools have submitted, uh other districts, I mean, as far as what their military or their percentage increase would be, uh Wilson is sitting at just so I get this right, have it written down, uh Wilson is sitting at right now at 3.96% increase and Governor Mitch is at about 4.5% increase. the schools that did submit um about 13 school districts that submitted information so
017far. Uh the average is 3.48. So we're kind of right around the average of what the the tax percentage increase would be. Now obviously everyone's millage is different. Everyone's situation is different. Also schools that were reducing uh millage uh in the past are keeping uh flat. uh schools that had that warehouse boom that has the tide has turned again on for them. Uh just as we were getting a lot of residential assessed value changes or decreases it was happening on the their side as far as that commercial property too. So it's it's kind of evening out a little bit I guess you could say. Um so everyone is almost in the same boat right now. This is the end story on that. So any questions on revenue and tax increasing comments? I guess maybe I
018shouldn't say question. I should phrase that differently. Any comments? Okay. All right. The expenditure side. Um so we're proposing uh expenditures at 50,558,235. Uh what this chart represents is basically the breakdown of how those expenditures are allocated. Um with the blue being the instructional side which is the largest part. It should be the largest part and that does include all of our wages and benefits of all of our professional staff and our support staff that are related to the instructional side of the uh of of the district. Okay. Uh once again uh green is excuse me redness is support services. So that's the business office, facilities and maintenance um you know anything of that type of admin and uh kind of oversight wise there. The uh light green is um our essentially our extracurriculars. So
019athletics um any of our clubs in that light green and the blue is our our debt uh service and financing. So we did uh do a debt issuance. So increased that a little bit and we also did the lease for the Chromebooks which increased that over last year um slightly. Okay, so this breaks down the expansures differently. We broke this down by object which is essentially the categories of the expenditures. So blue and red are our largest expenditures. That's about over 70% of our expenditures lie in our wages, our salaries and benefits. Okay. Uh the next blue, the light blue part there, other purchase services. That's where charter school tuition lies. Uh some special ed tuition lies. So that's a pretty large um you know segment of our expenditure budget right there. Those three components
020essentially almost make up 80% of our budget. Okay. Uh any questions on these two charts right now? Okay. So assumptions and and reasoning sort of of the why behind you know where we are today as far as what we're what we're we're proposing as a budget. Um once again we we did not include any of the uh Commonwealth Charter Academy or the Reading Hospital Tactical half the writing hospital tax revenue. Um we had the assessment decrease. Uh we didn't include the full PEF and the SEF. Um we didn't include all the title funds. Uh we did include a decrease in interest income. We did include the additional ready tolearn grant proposal of 50,000. It's a excuse me, it's a 100,000 total dollars budget to budget because last year we did not budget that first $50,000
021aotment. And then we got a second one coming hopefully uh in the new in the new fiscal year. So that' be a $100,000 swing. And we did put increases in earn business privilege tax and our delinquent tax collection. Um so that's really what the revenue [clears throat] is wrapped up there. As far as uh the salary and wage assumptions, the budget does have a full staff complement in there. It also includes the um the additional position of the math interventionist. We also did decrease the budget for not for one year not filling the director and teaching and learning position. So we did reduce that out of the budget. We also did include all the retirement and the potential savings with those retirements bas based upon our estimate of filling those positions. Um and then we
022also increase the um obviously the wages by the CBA 93 agreement and the support staff. So all that's built into this wage assumption. >> Can I ask a question? >> 100%. >> Sorry. Um and I know it's a little late because I know we approve Dr. as the you know, but if this doesn't include compensation for a director of teaching learning, I'm not sure we ever really talked about are you guys okay without I mean there was a reason we filled that position, right? And so like it was one thing to say Dr. Hop should stay where she is, >> but I'm not really sure we ever addressed the other side of it, which is are you guys okay for a year without that or are you all running a little thing? >> We're going
023to make it work. Yeah, we're going to work. I mean, we we recognize this isn't a wonderful spot to be in financially. So, we we're also, you know, thinking and asking about other groups to take some cuts. So, I, you know, I think we kind of feel like this is one where we we were operating for a long long time without the director of teaching and learning position. Like, we can do it again. Um, and I've already talked to the principles. I said we're going to need to kind of pull together and do some some collaboration and and and help and support one another, too. So, um, as long as they're willing to help out, and I think it's a good growth opportunity for them, too. Um, we'll make it work. >> Thank you. >>
024I mean, I think we all recognize and I think, you know, I hope the public recognizes as well that we have an admin team that works really hard and is going to now work harder. Um, excuse me. Um, benefit assumption includes that 14.772 increase in healthcare. Uh, no increase in the dental, a 2.5% increase, which is very nominal in life insurance, long-term disability, and vision. That's just natural. Hasn't gone up in several years. Uh, and it does include a 15% increase in the workers compensation right now. I did have a conversation with our broker on Friday. Uh and there is a potential chance that we could have a significant savings where it wouldn't be 15% increases actually could be less. Um so there if there is one bright spot in this budget that could probably
025be it right now. Um but uh so that's more to come. So as as we get more information we should have that information back within a week or so. Um we follow up with the budget uh if not in the finance and facilities committee or excuse me workshop or um we come back in June. I'll probably reflect that change hopefully. Can I ask you another question? Absolutely. Sorry. Um, the 15% increase in healthcare is obviously fairly monumental. >> Um, and I know you don't have crystal ball, but in your conversations with the health trust, do you have any confidence that next year would be better or could we be in an equally uh dicey position next year? >> It's it's it's a great question and question we've been asking. So we are they we did
026start um basically a fiveyear projection and they are projecting about about a 9% increase next year based upon all the trends are knowing what we think they are doing. So hopefully we can accomplish that. Um when I did build out the 5-year forecast for us I did include a 9.99% increase in healthcare just to kind of trend it out. Um, but as I was looking, I'm like, at some point there's got to be a a nexus where we just don't hit double digits anymore. Uh, so what I use for the next four years beyond that was 8.9, which is still pretty significant. If you look at the history of what we've been doing with the house trust, you usually see this like huge peak. You get close to double [clears throat] digits and then it
027comes back down. >> So this year it was double digits last. No, it was 9.99% this year. Now we're looking at 14. So I'm hoping it comes back down to about 9.99% next year. So I'm hoping that's what happens. We're going to work really hard uh at that. Um once again, we did do we did some significant plan changes, but we didn't do anything as far as plans offered if that makes sense. So we did changes as far as some of the co-premiums and co-pays u not co- premiums I guess both co-pays um and limits on visits, but we didn't do a tiered plan or any type of plan alteration. Uh so that's the next step is going into next um next fiscal year as far as with the health trust is to start looking
028at plans on again because that could that could significantly impact that that percentage. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions right now on this portion of the the why? Yes. Okay. Uh so then just some non-wage benefit uh uh assumptions here is the overall increase in expenditures was 6.86%. Kind of put that in there to say okay well we averaged about 3.37% increase on our revenue and expend 6.8 excuse me 6.86%. So right there you know we're going to just have this structural deficit. Um once again the increase in transportation from the prior contracts to the new contracts about 19.38% that also includes just the gas cost that is occurring. Um there is minimal I put minimal cost avoidance for cyber charter. Uh we will see some cost savings but it's becoming negated
029because we're having one or two more students go to cyber charter school and because the rate is going to increase. It's like this double-edged sword. So the formula changed which we can deduct more but if we have more students attend and as our expenditures go up because it's expenditure budget driven it kind of increases the cost. So whatever cost avoidance we would get negated by our our own budget essentially. >> Can I ask a question? >> Sure. >> Is there anything going on legislatively? I don't know Mr. Hershy if you know this that is working on changing the format of how I thought I had >> I can answer that question so unless you want to answer it I can answer this one we just talked about this on Friday at my business manager meeting
030so right now with the with the budget going forward which is progressing they are looking at a surprise surprise July 1 approval um so with the budget going forward there is no additional legislative change as far as cyber charter schools in it. So last year they did make a change to how the formula is driven to the to calculate the the rates. So you basically have four rates now. You have a brickandmortar cyber charter rate. You have a cy excuse me brick and mortar charter school a cyber charter school rate for regular ed and you have the same for special ed. So we have four rates that we basically calculate off of a formula. And in that formula for the cyber charter schools, there's certain expansion line items that we can deduct off of that.
031So for instance, I'll just pick one out. Tax collection, right? We can deduct all of our tax collection, printing our bills and all that stuff off of that. It seems like a small one, but there's examples like that throughout the formula is the one that just came to my head first that you can deduct off. That was your cyber change. The problem with that once again is as our expenditures increase that formula or that that that formula to drive to get to that tuition rate is driven off of our budget. So as our budget increases our tuition to both the charter brick and mortar charter and the cyber increases if that makes sense. So right now they did do some change which was helpful. I'm not going to not going to say it wasn't. It
032was helpful, but every time you increase the other factors, your savings decreases. That makes sense. It wasn't like as if they brought in what was talked about was here's a flat rate. This is what you pay regardless if you're missing area, extra township, Ollie Valley, you pay $7,000 for a regular ed student to go to cyber charter or um brick work chart. That was the original push and proposal. They didn't take that. They as legislation in the state state senate did not take that. They moved it to this formula driven type of model if that makes sense. So once again, to answer your question, there's no new additional legislation out there um simply because it's a governor governatorial race year this year and they're getting that budget put through and I guess they're trying to
033eliminate any friction possibly. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Sure. Once again, I wish I had better answers for you, [laughter] but unfortunately this is the year that we're in. So, um, anyways, uh, there's a 9.36% increase in special education expenditures. That's not including wages and benefits. That's specifically tuition fees, other items that are needed. Uh, 16.92% increase in planned operations. A big chunk of that is natural gas. Now, that is another little bit little bit of a bright spot. We did lock in a better rate. I'm just waiting for uh our broker to give back our what our budget um our future budget could be. So that 20% might decrease a little bit. Um and once again the 15% increase in liability in auto that's most likely going to happen simply because the cost of
034replacing buildings and equipment has gone up tremendously. So it's a direct indication of the economy based upon our insurance rates. Uh we know that the debt service in our leases went up 39%. Um 37% increase in BCTC. Once again, it's a great thing because we have more students attending. [snorts] Uh but it also is costing us. >> Could you explain that 40% increase in debt service? >> Sure. Sure. So when we uh did our new bond issuance, >> um we had occurred additional cost to pay for the new debt issuance. So that went up that 39% and then we added the Chromebook lease on top of that. >> Oh, okay. So, okay. It's not just like the on. >> Um, okay. Any other questions on the expansures? I didn't include the next slide just as
035a little indication of what we're facing. So, this is our special ed uh this is once again special ed expenditures. Uh, and this is a pretty good history. As you can see, the red bars represent our uh state subsidy. So that's our special education subsidy. Now, once again, it goes up slight years because um Dr. Langel does a fantastic job of getting what's called contingency funds which we did get this year again uh which is if we have one or two students that go over a certain amount uh [clears throat] basically expense per that one student if they basically breach over 100,000 about 150,000 I think it is we have a chance of applying for contingency funds [snorts] in special ed and for I think almost every year for the past five years we were
036a lot of those funds, uh, which is helpful. It's extremely helpful. It doesn't sound like much, but it does help. >> How come federal, um, isn't isn't on there. >> Oh, the title title money. >> Oh, like I'm making the point that the federal government gives us virtually nothing for special education. >> Well, yes, good points. >> Even though the mandates come from the federal um, >> correct >> legislation, >> correct? Yeah. [clears throat] So, it is stifling when you kind of start to compare that. And then if you actually want to apply another layer to this is when I just talked about cyber charter schools when for [snorts] a cyber charter expense for special ed whatever increase we do essentially get from the state gets eaten up by that increase there as far as
037the tuition increase going. So it's almost like we can never get ahead of the wave essentially. We're always in front of or behind it essentially. Um, so is a it's a challenging situation. >> Do we know an average cost per student for special education expenses or is that not something we look at? >> No, we is something we can get for you. I don't have that in the top of my head. I was just we can look to provide that in an update. >> Do we have many students over 100,000? >> I think this year we're over five >> and we did not get the additional funding for all five. >> Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's it's rough and it's not because I mean think about all the placements that are out there essentially are
038dealing with the same situations where costs are probably going up about 6 7%. And they have to probably adjust their revenue to do it. So they're going to increase their tuition. That's their that's their revenue stream. So it's just going to cost us more to be able to place students if we can't service them in the district. And I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. Right. So overall, uh, this is what we're looking at just to kind of put it in a revenue expense type, um, format here. So our proposed revenue is that 48.187 million. The local, state, and federal shares there. It's broken out. And our proposed expenditure is about 50.55 million. And you can see each of the by by high level function there. So our proposed deficit right now with
039the 3.5% tax increase. So, please remember that's with the 3.5% tax increase is is about $2.37 million. So, we were proposing to basically cover that deficit with fund balance for this year. Uh coming back next year with um you know maybe some potential changes to try and see what we can do to better our situation going into the 2017 budget. when when you gave us Wilson and Governor Flynn's increase numbers, do you have any wild idea what their deficits look like? You don't have to. I just wonder like is ours in line with that? Like >> I can't give you specific numbers, but when we were discussing it last week, Wilson's deficit is maybe it's over double ours. Okay. So they are looking at significant deficit. Yeah, we also have a lot of change coming
040your way. >> Yeah, but they would be tapping their general fund balance too. But then once again, they're their fund balance is going to be a little bit different in the next couple years than what our potentially could be. >> Once again, that's because you're saying they have commercial increases coming in which we do not have. >> Correct. Their capital expenditures could also be very different than ours too, right? >> Just in case of you know how population goes. Right now we're pretty contained and fortunately we are in that aspect where we're not having the possibility is having discussion of having to add on our building that they're building. >> They're building they're building buildings too. >> So there is we are a little bit fortunate in that. So what comes with development also comes
041at an expense uh unless you're putting in warehouses or whatever. >> Um who do you guys actually consider as our best? Wilson clearly. >> No. Um I would probably say districts more our size. So, Scoo Valley, um, Hamburg, um, they're basically, well, Hamburg's a little bit different. I I always want to say an asterct because once again, when you look at how their makeup is as far as their their funding streams for the revenue, it's it's different. like Hamburg had almost triple the amount of state funding that we get because once again you have to go way way way way way way back longer than any of us have been on the board when they started to fund schools and they started to put essentially like draw the line and start building on top of
042that it was built on a different model. So when you really dive into what um fair funding looks like, it's resetting the entire model, not just where the new money we're putting in today. And no one wants to do that because there'll be significant loss in some districts as far as that that baseline state revenue. So as far as comps as far as sizewise, um you're probably looking at your scoop valley and your hamper. Uh, and I can tell you Scoop Valley is right now looking about at a 3.6% tax increase and Hamburg is 3.49. So, kind of in the ballpark. Now, let's spoke about hazard raised taxes in a number of years. Hamburg, I don't think raised taxes last year. Once again, when you start talking about the the makeup of the entire county,
043and I know I harp on the assessed value, but it is like our it's our it's our nest egg, right? We have to protect it. And it's going the wrong direction everywhere, if that makes sense. Like, it's just it's it's how our county is right now. And until that changes, that's not going to get any better. Okay. Um so find balance right now uh once again looking for that far right column. That's where our um audited ending 63025 find balance is currently it's at that 16.8 million um which seems like a large number but when you break it down to months of operating cost it's about four um four months. So, we are looking to to to dip into um you know that $16 million to to to fund this this budget. Now, one other
044I do I guess I do have about three bright spots which are good. Uh just running the numbers again as far as uh ending March 31st as far as where we're projecting to end this year. Uh the numbers did get a little bit better both on revenue and on the expansure. So, we're definitely not going to be using that full $700,000 that we projected this year. If we look at the line that says assign and that far right hand come says $700,469. That's this year's uh deficit. So, every year um and I have a chart later, but we're not going to get to it. It will be in the the the presentation for you if you'd like to look. Every year for the past, I think four years, we covered our our deficit. um this
045year we're probably not, but we're not going to use the full amount that we bled um forward last year. So I'm looking about right now about $400,000 deficit. So I think we'll have about $300,000 of potential cost affordance or not using the fund balance to so we'll have a little bit of quote savings I guess you could say uh from there. Um, so that's right now, remember, as projected. Now, there's a lot of things that can change between now and this time next year. Um, but everything that's, you know, what we're laying out there as far as revenue expenditures are pointing in this direction. >> Mark, again, the ROI on the solar panel system is eight years. Uh overall it would be about nine as presented, but we did submit for just under $900,000 of
046um grant funding because it's by school. Um so 360,000 at here and uh the hills and about 105,000 at West just because of the size of the cost of the project. So that could increase that ROI or decrease it I should say or accelerate it to about I think the average would be about seven. So plus then we'll have cash on hand right too. So as we're spending cash on we get reimbursed back from the piece if we're approved that looks good that we approved. I didn't hear anything back in that we just submitted last week. So we are looking to hopefully get some good news on there which would help our cash flow as far as with the money coming out getting reimbursement back and it all depends too once we get that project
047going and being able to start generating and see where that takes us. Uh there could be definitely difference there because as we know um well maybe you don't know u the grid we're on as far as PGM uh the governor did cap it for two years as far as the increase I think is 14% that he capped it at for two years um that's going to go up significantly just because of the infrastructure changes that we need in the Mid-Atlantic area as far as electricity producing and generating and transportation. So once we get that >> AI >> and AI absolutely so once we um >> this could be it could be opportunity for us. Yeah. >> Okay. As far as what we're projecting could be accelerated based upon you know economic conditions. Okay. >> So
048there are some bright spots. Don't know if I 100% shown the best light on them in this presentation but um that's that's where we are. Uh once again when we start when we go to um vote on this night it has to be voted on. Uh we did put two options there. The recommendation based upon where we are right now uh going in. Now once again the the budget will be on the table for 30 days. Changes can be made. I can come back and somehow swing something that looks super favorable. Uh we can have a conversation in June about the the military. Again this is not 100% set in stone. This is just putting it on the table as we're proposing a 3.5 and that would be the recommendation coming from administration. It's not
049the best of news. Uh but for our situation, that's that's what would be the the best recommendation. So that being said, before we get into uh further discussion as far as upon the agenda and how we when we do the motion um once again based upon uh our recommendation, we would like to just pull the the um agenda item for the 3% off of the agenda before we go into the motion. So I I don't recall which number it's number four. We would like to recommend pulling the 3% off. So when we come to a vote and this will all be done through motion obviously um it would be one two three and I think five correct um but once again when we get to that that's what we would like to do uh but
050we are open up once again 100% conversation that's just what um our recommendation as far as administration >> should the should the motion technically reflect that this is an outside number that could come down or you're comfortable just saying >> yeah We're voting for three and a half. >> No, the motion would the motion would be for that. Like I would come back as far as in June and then we would obviously revoke this whole thing because that's how the process has to work. >> So you would make it conditional on economic macroeconomic changes. Okay. >> Correct. >> You would or would not >> I was asking you said no. >> No. >> Yeah. >> No. We're not making a condition on economic changes that are coming down. Once again, everything would be revoted on
051the whole military in the motion in June. Yeah. >> Would be voted on the same way it is today. >> In other words, I was thinking it might read something like a 3.5% subject to final >> macroeconomic conditions in June. Something that gives a little wiggle room. >> But you're not that we're having major changes right now. Like this is pretty much >> I'm not closing the door 100%. But we're not hopeful that you're not seeing anything particular on the horizon. >> Correct. >> That has >> Okay. >> Any questions whatsoever? >> No. Thanks for all your work. You really good job. I know that you've lost sleep over this budget and >> we all we're all grateful. >> Once again, it's not what I would want to bring to the board. Um, and I
052tried every which way to try and figure out how to get this to not be what it is. >> Uh, but the model is you all know it's not exactly sustainable the way it's >> some of these slides seem new and different too and I like them. They were easy to follow. Thank you. >> Well, um, once again, there are more slides to this. You're not going to get [laughter] >> like >> there's like there's a couple more so they were good. >> You can enjoy some light. >> Go back to the buckets. [clears throat] >> So I'll know we'll get that out to you. Well, not tonight. We'll get it out to you. We'll we'll get close as you can get it out to everyone as we can. There are questions once again always
053here. Just you have questions or concerns you want to talk about. We have 30 days. They will be presented uh it will be available in the district office tomorrow as hard copy and we'll be up on the website tomorrow also for review. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Thank you for everything. >> Thank you so much. We appreciate it. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Ber. Uh we're going to move on to the voting items for finance and facilities. [clears throat] So the motion it is recommended that the board of school directors approve and ratify the following finance and facilities items numbers 1 2 3 and five. Any discussion? No discussion. Um, roll call, please. >> Mrs. Torrenson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hershey. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Co. >> Yes. >> Mrs.
054Phillips. >> Yes. >> Miss Rodriguez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Shippers. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Zinsky. >> Yes. >> Motion passes seven to zero. >> Thank you. We're going to move on to personnel and policy. Is recommended that the board of school directors approve and ratify the following personnel and policy items as presented. Numbers one through three. >> Second. We get a second. Great. Any discussion? Okay. Roll call. Mr. Ber, please. >> Mr. Hersy. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hu. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Phillips. >> Yes. >> Miss Rodriguez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Shippers? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sabinsky? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Senza? >> Yes. >> Motion passes seven. And because we combined the action items with the committees, we're going to move into committee uh liaison reports and updates. >> Great. Okay. Um so we'll
055start um our board liaison um with curriculum. Minsky, Mr. Hershey. >> Dr. Wood is going to cover a number of curriculum items as part of her report tonight. So that's really the curriculum reports. Good luck. >> Thank you. >> Just waiting. Here we go. CVR. Perfect. Here it comes. >> There we go. All right. Okay. So, um this is kind of a it's a committee of the whole meeting piece, the curriculum committee presentation. So, uh, this evening I'm going to share just a few items. The first being review of our English language arts pilots. Um, if you recall, I mentioned to you earlier in the year that we were piloting some materials for grades 5 through 8 English language arts. Um, and so I wanted to share some of that information with you this evening.
056Um, for the the staff and the students who were involved. Also, I have one textbook approval that will be on a future action item. Um, and it is um for our new course, introduction to philosophy. And then, as always, every year at this time, I bring to you the work outside the contract hours for the following year, 2026, 2027. The majority of these hours will be earned um and completed throughout the summer. So, I'll just share with you an overall um just just a little bit of just just to give you an idea of the positions that will earn those extra hours. And then in your Friday update, you'll receive the information for exactly how many hours and for each um category. Okay. So, with that, I want to share with you a little bit
057about our English language arts pilot update. Uh really focusing first on West Reading Elementary Center. So, our fifth and our sixth grade teachers, our ELA teachers piloted several units throughout the year from Amplify. If you recall, we utilize Amplify resources for science and we uh piloted Amplify CKLA. CKLA stands for core knowledge language arts and literacy. Amplify CKLA is a K to five program and then Amplify has its own ELA program for six and higher. Okay. So, um it's the same broad company but kind of two divisions underneath. Um and so I worked with the fifth grade ELA teachers. Um and I wanted to get give you just a little bit of information about the in instructional materials. First, many of you have heard also that there are requirements coming down from the state level
058that our literacy be grounded in the science of reading. um structured literacy, making sure that we have components that address that. Um indeed, CKLA matches and meets at least the science of reading. Um we're still waiting for the finalized expectations from the state. Um I had to complete a survey that was due March 31st. Every district in the state needed to complete that survey. and then they're taking that information and then I think they're going to come out with those expectations. So, we're still awaiting those expectations, but we want to make sure that when we're taking a look at instructional resources, we are choosing resources that align with the science of reading. Indeed, Amplify CKLA does it's gotten uh all greens on the ed reports and so therefore um high ratings. um it does integrate
059foundational skills, but also specifically at the upper elementary level, you want to make sure that you're building rich content knowledge as well. Uh I will tell you our fifth grade teacher said there are some rigorous texts here. Our kids are really challenged with the texts that are included in this um instructional material um in these units. um they were able to pilot personal narratives, ancient civilizations, poetry, and oceans. So those are four different units that they were able to pilot. Um the students did find ancient civilizations pretty interesting. Um the Maya, the Inca, um I'll tell you, I went in to observe several times and it was new information to me the degree to which the content is there. And I had some conversations with our ELA teachers. are we teaching literacy or are we
060teaching content like social studies? And I said, really, we're supposed to be teaching literacy skills so that kids can access the content. It's not so much a social studies classroom. This is a literacy classroom, but we have to teach our students how to read texts of real um complexity and and help them understand how to navigate that. So, that's the truth. That's really what we're after. Um, one thing that I think was really important that we we talked about with our fifth grade teachers was we we also do currently read some fictional um historical fiction and some fantasy fiction um level to different um students. So, not everybody reads the same text, but you know, our higher ability readers read maybe a more difficult or challenging text that still has to do with fantasy fiction,
061while another um lesser abled reader reads something that's fantasy but at a lower level. And our teachers really felt strongly that we we we incorporate those novels. Um there are a couple novels that are integrated into CKLA that might not be as um high interest as some of the the novels that our kids are are reading. So we're working through that to say we don't have to necessarily do Don Kiote just because that's in this series if we have a novel that or a set of novels around a theme that we think are are more u more more interesting to our students. So, we're working through that piece, but the skills themselves, these main units of, you know, ancient civilizations, poetry, oceans, personal narratives, um we definitely need those. Um potentially the Renaissance is another
062one that we would incorporate. Working with Amplify CKLA, it's probably um not realistic to do every single unit the first year of full implementation. Pacing can be a challenge. I can recall when we and implemented Eureka mass squared for the first year. We were like, whoa, this is taking a while. Science it takes a little while the first time. So, if we can get these four main units done in addition to a couple of units on um fictional reading, novels, I think that really is a solid program for year [clears throat] one. So, that's really what we're looking to do. >> Sure. >> So, did we did the fifth grade do novel units this year in addition to Amplify? Yes, they they actually did their fantasy fiction unit and they're doing the historical fiction after
063PSSAs um and that's what they would prefer to do. So I actually worked with fifth grade and kind of sk um skeletally outlined the plan for next year um as we go forward with that. So >> Don Kyote is one that they prefer not to do. So that's why we're staying away from [laughter] that. That seems like >> So you're saying four four units from Amplify and two that were in hard cover >> that we have our own books already >> off of Amplify. >> Yes. Correct. >> Traditional type of um ELA instruction. >> Um I would say well more traditional to what we've been doing literature circles small group those kind of >> but not access through a screen. >> Correct. Not access through a screen actual novels. And um the nice thing about
064Amplify CKLA is that you're going to notice Mr. Boyer left no he knows um they are consumables as far as workbooks for fifth grade. They really believe K to five ought to be a lot of workbook based. So they they will have some access to a screen reading some passages etc. But there's a lot of workbook consumable um student engagement as well not strictly from a screen. So I think it's a nice medium there. >> So like is the workbook done in conjunction with the screen or >> so you could read and then write and that's what sixth grade is actually sixth grade doesn't have workbooks per se but they they use their durables as consumables. They don't write in them but they're not doing everything on the screen. Fifth grade just has a lot
065more workbooks. Okay, if that makes sense. But we're trying to have a compromise of both like a and it's interesting because it kind of goes along with this this conversation too. Um sixth grade like I said is a little different than CKLA. Um it's not as much focused on foundational skills, nor should it be. By the time you're in sixth grade, the foundational skills are the standards really aren't there anymore. Those are built in already. you're trying to um not learn to read, you're reading to learn, if that makes sense. Okay? Um and so how can students tackle real complex texts? How do they grapple with interesting ideas? How do they find relevance for themselves? How do they find evidence in the text and then really kind of formulate their own? So, they're doing a
066lot of those pieces in here. Again, strong research. Ed reports all green um which is the highest it can be. The units for sixth grade, interestingly enough, sound a lot more studentfriendly than the units of fifth grade. That's what I felt like. Raw doll, like Charlie and Chocolate Factory, if everybody remembers old school, right? Um, raw doll and a narrative. But I will tell you, um, Mrs. Kak and and Mrs. Hedrickk said the kids really like that. That was the first unit they did. Um, mysteries and investigations. They kind of got into the chocolate collection. Again, high interest. the novel, the summer. I'm sorry, we should say summer of the Mariposas. Um, I haven't heard it. I I I heard I don't know it. I will say Miss Kos said I'm gonna read it this
067summer. So, I promised her I will read it this summer. Um, she's like, "Missy, you're never going to believe it. These kids were really into the novel, especially because they enjoyed the unit on the Greeks and it kind of connected. Um, they love the mythology piece." Uh, so and they didn't do the Titanic collection, I don't think, yet. Um, but they've done the rest of those those pieces. Um so high interest one thing I wanted to share that you reminded me of Mrs. Zinsky is um the idea of online. So while sixth grade doesn't have those so many workbooks they have these books that are like student notebooks. Instead of writing in the student notebooks they're writing some in in another like notebookish and then some online a combination of both. The teachers both both
068realized that um if you haven't realized uh state assessments mandatorily we had to go online this year. We did go online years prior um in fifth and sixth grade. So this was not our first time at the rodeo, right? We knew but online tools have changed and been adjusted through the PSSAs. Well, the work that our students did in Amplify with the online tools prepared them very well for the state assessments and those online tools. So I think I know how can I say I know that we want students to have a combination of hard copy paper pencil real books but I also think it's important that if they're going to be assessed online the first time they interact online isn't during an assessment. I think we have to be fair and give them opportunities
069to practice those online tools. So that the sixth grade teachers felt very very confident that um the students were well prepared for that. navigation. You're highlighting and moving and checking and bringing things up and down like it's not just choose A, choose B, choose C any longer. Like it's truly much more interactive. Um the teachers at sixth grade specifically said questioning really prepared students for the state assessments. Students um made mention that gosh on the test they asked a lot of the same kind of questions that we found in in Amplify. We've been talking about these kind of questions all year. So that really made us feel good about it. Um I mentioned about the technology applications are similar to the online tools with the state assessment platform. Um the te the texts Miss Kak
070couldn't say enough that these these these were rigorous but they were ex exciting and and and and interesting to the kids. So she felt really strongly about that. Um the nice thing about sixth grade that's different than fifth grade, sixth grade lessons are only about 60 minutes. We have a 90minute block. 30 of those minutes are during intervention time. So students who are below level are getting pulled and they're working on skills that they need to. The students who are on and above level are actually using that time to do novel studies. So they're reading books, real life hard copy books, and they're doing that every day, whether it's reading, writing, something to do with the novels. So the sixth grade teachers have felt like integrating amplify has been simple whereas the fifth grade K
071to 5 it's a 90-minute lesson. So we're still trying to navigate when you're losing some kids what is it that they need and don't need whereas in sixth grade they're not missing anything if that makes sense. And they're getting kids in novels all the time which they feel feel good about. So, um I think sixth grade has been an easier um transition to this. Um and they they've been very very positive about about Amplify. >> Can you go ahead? >> You kind of maybe already answered it, but this is helping them with assessments, but like long term, is this helping them actually enjoy reading and wanting to do it? Uh and I think there have been concerns that it's a lot of stuff online um from some sixth graders that I might have talked to.
072Yeah, there's that comedy. I hope that between the 30 minutes a day that they're engaged in their novel studies outside of reading Roald Doll or outside of reading, you know, um, Summer of the Marosas and such that I think that helps that. Um, I hope that they're finding more enjoyment to the reading. Like I said, I I was there and I had kids come up to me that summer posters are really great. like you you know so that is a whole class novel everybody was reading that doesn't you know um so yes there's still connection to online stuff but they're actually reading the book like we got class sets of the novel so um I think we're trying to in that 30 minutes if I don't like the chocolate collection whether it's a you know
073um a a compilation of different shorter texts like short stories or different things like Then hopefully during my 30 minutes I've gotten choice to choose a novel that I want to read so that I still love reading because yeah that's our aim is that we don't read just because we have to. We read because we want to um and that we're developing a lifelong love of reading not just to answer these questions to get proficient and to move on. It's not our goal. Um, there are some times where you have to read something that might not be your choice. For instance, I'll be honest, I'm not a big Greek mythology fan. So, like when I heard that some of the kids really like the mythology, I was like, really? Yeah. You know, because it's not
074something I would pick out. Fantasy fiction is not something I would pick out, but I loved historical fiction when I was young. You know, the realistic fiction, um, Richard Terabithia, you know, like there are certain that I absolutely loved. Um, but I also realize that sometimes I got to read maybe what's not my first choice. So it's a balance of that too. Um, so I I hope we are giving them choice where they can engage in something they want to and then and also in paper form and hard copy form and then also sometimes I can read it but I'm answering it in here as well. >> Is this the second thing they piloted? >> Actually you're going to cut two grades six and seven. Oh, sorry. Seventh and eighth. So, >> oh, was that
075I remember you saying somebody was piling something that they weren't thrilled with. Is that seventh and eighth? >> So, if we move to I think I actually pretty much um seventh and eighth now. Okay. They began the year piloting Amplify. So, just like sixth grade did seventh and eighth grade did as well. Here we had issues with technology things. They the teachers found it to be clunky. I would go into a room and threearters of the class was on the the the site and the other kids couldn't get in. Like it just seemed like I don't know what happened. I do know sixth grade teachers said the start of the year wasn't easy, but they worked around some things. You shouldn't have to create workarounds for new products. I understand that. Seventh and eth felt
076like they weren't going to create the workarounds and we were hitting walls there. um they said that our kids don't like those texts. They're too hard. They're, you know, and so I I spent some time in seventh and eighth grade. Um and we had also looked at common lit, which was another set of instructional materials. Um we looked at those last spring as well. And those had earned ed reports green also. So the highest level that you could um and I said to them if you would like we will take a look and we will try out some materials in common lit as well. Um so seventh and eighth grade did um they reported that the students enjoyed the texts much better. They found them much more relevant. Um eighth grade was reading I think
07710 12 angry men. So it was about like a jury and some different things and there was more interest there. Um, seventh grade also reported that their novel that they selected through common lit was um, more appealing to our seventh graders. They could get more discussion and discourse from it. Um, and so that was kind of, you know, what we had seen. I will tell you many of the questioning strategies, all that stuff very similar between amplify and comment lit because that's what I was looking at like we're not going to go off in a direction and not have the rigor. you know, we need the rigor, but we want the um interest there, too. Um, and there I I will say there is equally as much technology with Common Lit as there is an
078Amplify at 7th and 8th grade. Um, however, when I spoke with the Common Lit rep, she said, "We've heard from a lot of schools who are um using our resources, they want workbooks. People are saying, get get off the devices." and I said, "If we go this direction, we're going with workbooks." So that way you can have access on the device, but you also have the workbook option, too, that we can again split the time. And remember, next year they're going to have seventh grade's going to have 82 minutes every day. Eighth grade is going to have 82 minutes every other day. Um, and then 41 minutes those opposing days. I don't want a kid in a device 82 minutes. I want them using a variety and a balance. So I was happy that common
079lit is listening to folks and saying yeah we understand the devices we we want to limit you know the number of minutes that a kid is in the device. So um also we have actual books you know so I ordered the the 12 angry men. The kids were not reading necessarily in the um device. They were reading the 12 Angry Men in a book. Um and now if they needed to read something at home they weren't taking the book home. they could access it through here. So, I think some parents might not understand or might think that they were only accessing it through here. No, we had the hard coverver books for the classroom, too. So, um yeah, we're kind of trying to make that happy medium there. Um we are, let's see here. Um
080they just felt like I said the common link was a little bit more engaging. It also includes the reading, the writing, the vocab, the grammar. Uh so the vocab academic grammar academic vocabul I'm sorry try again academic vocabulary as well as vocabulary that aligns to the texts and that's important to know the difference and just to make sure that we're hitting both vocabulary academic vocabulary is like what seventh graders should really know to be successful across the board. it hits that and it also hits if there are specific like an eighth grade you know prosecutor and you know they're reading the 12 angry man they don't know this stuff initially and so a lot of that but also academic vocabulary was incorporated too so I was glad to see both um so at this point
081in time you know we're recommending for purchase um going with amplify CKLA for fifth grade you can see the licensing the complete classroom kits the consumable that it's not cheap to get workbooks, but again, listening to the community, listening to I think best practice in my opinion, kids need to write, kids need to do both. So, I think it's worth the investment. Um, I say we talk about facilities. I think we need to talk about spending a little bit on workbooks, too. [laughter] I'm going to be honest. So, um, you know, it is a that's a recurring cost, but I think it's important to have a balance of both. Um, and then if you look at sixth grade, again, we have the consumables that we're using as durables. I spoke with the rep. Monica said
082a lot of places do that. So, they won't necessarily be writing right in the workbook, but they can be writing in a journal, in their own notebook, and then also doing some things online. So, it's a considerable savings by using durables. The teachers really feel like it works out better that way. So, um, that's kind of a of, um, a cost of about $4,475 for sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade. Um, you're going to see the Pro Plus subscription. That's access to everything online. Our teachers and their lesson plans, our assessments, as well, um, as just getting students to be the ability to be to have licensing. That's a one-year license. I did speak with Mr. Ber, and I could get a three-year license. I could get a 5-year license. We have to pay
083upfront with our budget. I wasn't sure if we want to do that, but there is a slight savings. So, he said, "You know what, Missy? Let's let's take a look at what the three-year is and the fiveyear. If we can save a few thousand, we can put that money up front and if he can work his magic." So, that's the highest amount, but if we go for a longer term, um, then I could I could save over the duration a little bit. Um, no more than $1,000 a year, but maybe, you know, for a couple of years maybe it's like $750, but it's something. Um, I also though in my head I I feel really confident with Amplify. I'd like to see Common Lit for a year. So that's part of me too. I'm like,
084let's just maybe try it for a year and compare to how successful we are at sixth grade and then maybe we move up. So, part of me wants the um ability to be flexible after one year. So, um I'm kind of weighing those options as well. Um workbooks for common lit um they're $7 a student. So, you'll notice times 175. We have a very large sixth grade class coming into 7th grade. We have 155. I I upped it a each a little bit, but not by much. Um however, there is a discount. instead of $7 a workbook times, you know, the number of students times the six units, um you get a dollar discount per student per unit. So it really comes down to $6 a workbook for each unit. Um so that's the bulk
085again, two years worth. Um plus the licensing gets you the 19,610 again, seventh and eighth grade combined. So, you know, I'll be honest, no more expensive than our math workbooks, no more expensive than our science. You know, it is just kind of what we do. Um, and for years, we haven't really had any official resources. We've been pulling here and pulling there. So to have what I consider to be a skeleton, I said to the teachers, we can have some freedom and flexibility, but we need a skeleton instructional resource so that I know we all know exactly what's going on. And um it's kind of just been a little bit of let's create our own and hope that it works. And I believe that's kind of led to some of the challenges and some of
086the um inconsistencies and deficits and some of our achievement too. So now I know there's always an implementation dip um but I think it's it's worth you know working with the teachers to really develop this this true skeleton and then we flush it out with some other things. Is there any downside to so fifth and six have amplify and then seven >> doesn't have common lit is there any downside to like that l >> consistency there since we don't seem to know common as well >> I I looked and from what I could tell it's very very similar um I think again amplify got off on the wrong side on the wrong foot because of the tech issues they're promising to change some of that stuff I think and also I'm going to be honest,
087I think Chromebooks would help >> because I think our iPads had a bit of an issue with that. Although they kept telling me that wasn't an issue. I'd like to see if Chromebooks are better. Um, if we're So, I can play around with that next year while we have Chromebooks that we can try some different things and we'll see. We won't see it in in sixth grade because they're sticking with iPads after. But um I I'm not worried that we're going from like one traditional to one very uber um you know more liberal program. It's not like that. They're really both based not not a lot of um programs if you want to call that church are really great rated ed green ed reports in green. So I feel pretty confident that you know really
088going after the same thing. Would I like to see ultimate consistency? Ultimately, I think I would. In fact, >> at K4, you know, we're starting to pull in different resources and over the summer and next year, we're going to be looking at some different resources. CKLA is one of those. Um, we're still also kind of waiting to hear what comes from the state because the real true science reading stuff with the foundational skills and all that, it really impacts our early literacy more than anywhere. So, um, but I I guess I'm just saying it would be nice to be consistent as much as possible. Um, however, I think this is a move in the right direction, but that's where I'm like maybe one year and then we can see [laughter] if we want to make
089the move completely to Amplify or not. So, um, we'll be looking. The nice thing is there's nice benchmarks and assessments throughout the year that are embedded into this. So we'll really be able to track students in their growth too. So >> yeah, I was just thinking of already that transition from sixth grade to seventh and eth and then you're switching, you know, >> the program itself, >> right? >> We've never had consistency, >> right? >> So I and I think this is a step towards consistency. It's just not it doesn't all fall under amplify. >> Okay, that makes sense. But >> no, it's believe these are things I've been wrestling myself with. So >> um are there any concerns [clears throat] with students? having too many consecutive years of being part of a pilot program
090but from now I mean this year was tricky but I I think um yeah I I think the the key is you're still going after the skills and standards they are this the standards are the same no matter what these are just resources to hit the standard yes teachers are learning as they go but the standards haven't changed so they should still be working to level expectations just might be a little bit of the delivery has changed or a little bit of and and to be honest I also believe that the rigor has been elevated with these resources because maybe we weren't expecting our students to meet that level of rigor before and now we are. I mean, and that's the sixth grade teachers who really do challenge kids. They're like, I can't believe what
091these students are expected to do. And and you know what? I didn't think they could, but you should see what they're producing now. So I do think um there's a learning curve to that degree, but that's good thing for our teachers to learn because I'm not sure maybe we always were since the event the advent of the common core or the PA core really understanding how rigorous of expectations our kids need to have. So I think we're learning from that. Um, so I I'm not gonna say that, you know, and I that another year of learning because I'll be honest, I mean, you walk into a sixth grade classroom now with those teachers in ELA and um they they know what they're doing. Like they they feel very confident with um the resources at Amplify.
092I think fifth grade we're still learning because we're trying to figure out within that 90 minutes how to get that intervention period in and and and what is it that those students don't need to be successful. Um so I think we're still learning that piece. Um but I think that uh you know that the students will be okay because realistically it's the standards that drive it. It's not you know this. And what is your read on how the students are doing with the amount of does this change the amount of time they're spending on a device or is it more time than they used to? What are your your thoughts, the teachers thoughts and maybe the students thoughts? >> Yeah, I I I think I I think that teachers are thinking that maybe it's not
093as much now as it was last year or the year before. I think the society is now all of a sudden noticing that maybe students are on it too much and so there's more attention drawn to it. But if I if I look at how um our teachers were teaching last year, I think they were on the devices just as much. I just think that now there's more notoriety, you know. Um I you know they're always going to have it and and that's the thing I you know I had gotten somebody who was maybe questioning it and I went into a six week I was in Mrs. Kosak's class and I walked around and yeah I'm not lying the the device was open but the student was over here engaging the book jotting things down
094spending the majority of time there and then type something in for a couple minutes and then was over here and doing something. And so if you looked at the time the the device was open, it was open the whole time, but the student was not over here typing the whole time. The student was over here talking in partners, reading through things, jotting it down on the notebook, and then entering it. So I I think too we have to look at that. It's not that they're reading and scrolling down. They're high, you know, they're highlighting. There is a time and a place for that in shorter episodes. But what I noticed was there was a lot of partnered work, a lot of jotting down, a lot of talking and then I enter my answer in here.
095>> And that was sixth grade. >> That was sixth grade. That was in this coex class. >> And maybe sorry, maybe the real analysis also is not just in ELA, but throughout the day, how does a day of screen time compare? Like I don't think we were doing math five years ago on >> on screens. >> We may not have been doing science on screen, you know? So like it would really have to look at the whole day. >> Yeah. And and it it happens like it's always there but it's not necessarily always there. I I observed a fifth grade math classroom, you know, three weeks ago and they didn't bring out the device once. It was very hands-on lesson. Um they were measuring with rulers and you know they were they were calculating volume.
096Um it was really awesome and and they were jing things down on a sheet of paper graphic organizer, you know. Now, I'm gonna tell you that was one day. I'm sure if I went back the next day, there were some some pieces of the of the device. So, I think that's the piece of balance. I you know, and I think some lessons are going to um attribute themselves more to a device and others are not. I just think we have to continue to encourage our teachers to look at when you can go away from the device. And that's what, you know, Miss Kosak said. She said, Amplify said, "Oh, do this in here." And I said, "You know what? We're going to do a gallery walk and we're going to put different posters up and
097have the kids walk around. They're doing the same thing. Instead of entering it here, they're putting it on chart paper. Fantastic. Like, so it's going to take a little time for our teachers to think about same expectations, different delivery, you know, different experience for the student. You're not changing anything but getting them off of here. So, um, and I, you know, so I I keep telling them we shouldn't be, you know, glued to this. Um, but I think it's unrealistic to expect that we never use this again. So, um, but I think, you know, it's probably a good time for us to think about shadowing a student again. We did that several years ago. Um, and I think that was great for the admin team to do that. And we recognize what is a day
098in the life of a student like? And that's where you're gonna see um gosh, they were on the computer or the Chromebook or the iPad for 30 minutes out of 41 minutes or they were only on it for five minutes. Like >> that's a good idea with the schedule change. See what a seventh grader day looks like. >> Yeah. Just really feel how that feels instead of seeing it on paper. >> Yeah. And we did it last year. It was fun. >> We did it several years ago. I mean it was it was great. It was a great learning experience for us. So >> yeah. How did the lucky students feel? >> I know. I spent my my time at West. It was fun. [laughter] But yeah, we all divided and conquered and we said
099we're going to go back to it, you know. So, we should try that again. >> Um, >> yeah, [clears throat] >> I love the idea of the workbooks because my own child was the kid where he had to take everything to pick to pay, you know, pencil to paper. But I will say because he was the only kid doing it, he felt very awkward doing it. So, I hope the teachers are really pushing the kids into doing this because the studies are coming out now finding that being on the iPad or the electronic device is actually hindering their education. Like, we all know that. >> So, I hope we're monitoring this because we are going to be getting all of these workbooks. I would love to shadow some kids >> and really >> see how
100well we are really >> putting them back to old school education, >> right? >> And I'm not worried K to four. >> I mean, you might, but re really our kiddos, you know, kindergarten is a center. Um, but but you know, that could be 10 or 12 minutes of a center that they're really excited about and such, but then they're doing something. I was in kindergarten not long ago and you know then they're they're doing letter tiles and they're manipulating and they're on the floor and you know and even third grade like we're we're not on the dolly all the time. I think you start to get more of that fifth grade and on you know on up. So um we can definitely do that. [clears throat] Um but I I I think it's a
101skill you need but it's not shouldn't be the sole method of delivery. Makes sense. So, um I'm kind of excited about all that, Eli. Uh um and as far as textbook approvals, you're going to notice that um and I can pass this around, but this is this course is it's the philosophers's way. Um it is a new course. It is for introduction to philosophy. And um this is just the program of studies description. I just pulled it off there. Um we're kind of excited. It is an honors level course. That's why there is an H behind introduction to philosophy. Um, and they're going to be looking at readings from different philosophers, classical and modern. Um, they're going to look at short works of literature and films that imaginatively explore phil philosophical issues. Um, there is,
102you know, a suggested um prerecord, if you want to call it that, of a grade B or higher in honors level English work. So, um, and it's really for the 10th through 12th grade. Okay. So that was part of our program of studies. Um Miss Lamboli is going to be the teacher for introduction to philosophy. Um she took a look at several different texts. This is a text that is commonly used at not only high school but also for a survey course in college. Um and she said that it appropriately addresses the academic standards. It appeals to varied interests of young adults and their concerns. um it advances thematic ideas and literary object uh objectives of the course. I do I do want to say that anytime we take a look at a new text
103as far as English language arts or where there's a lot of readings um I do require the teacher who is going to propose it to read through and the department um and get several different perspectives of the book and there's a form that they have to complete. Um, you know, when you're thinking about uh text like a a new novel that might be read by an entire grade level or something, is there language? Is there, you know, adult innuendo? Like what? We want to make sure that we looked at it from a variety of perspectives. So, she used that same form to review this text um the philosophers's way. Um, so she does feel as though the subject matter and the language are appropriate for high school students, for the selected audience. And um, she
104felt like it has the most comprehensive overview of a survey philosophy course. So, a little bit of everything. We're not diving in so deeply into one aspect of philosophy, but really kind of a a cursory book across the board. Um, and it also has robust teacher materials. So, she felt very strongly that this was um a good place um for us to invest in a text. She'd be looking for 35 copies a class set. Um and of course, you know, at about $125 a book, which is probably the going rate for for a text um at college these days, um you would see, you know, the the course um I'm sorry, the textbooks um would amount to about $4,72462 and that includes shipping. the text themselves would remain in the classroom for the most part.
105Um that way I um and then it be a resource that they would use in the classroom and not necessarily take it back and forth. Um if she needed to um make any copies or upload into schooly, she could do bits and pieces of it, but um you know, not obviously we're not going to put that whole thing on schooly for access. So um that it'll be interesting. I haven't checked. I don't know what the cursory registration numbers are for philosophy since it's a new course. I I will take a peek at that. Um it's early yet as they you know because we really haven't didn't do a complete run through of the schedule. So it it could vary but I'm curious to take a look and see what the numbers look like. So >>
106and was was this um student generated interest in philosophy or more staff? >> It's definitely a staff interest. they they have been asking for a couple of years and I've been pushing it off a little bit. >> Um, however, you know, in some cases, in some schools, it's a requirement of some sort and to give students a background is not a bad idea. We did look at the possibility of getting a dual enrollment, dual credit. Um and um we uh with our teacher has to meet certain requirements for that and we don't have that yet but rack is willing to you know re reex examine that in a couple of years after we actually teach it for a few years because if this could be dual enrollment that would be awesome because then I think
107you're going to hike up the number of students you want to be interested. >> Absolutely. So yeah, you have a but very high interest teacher with a course that if they can, you know, not have to take it in college. I think that's a great combination to have there. >> I was going to say enrollment [snorts] until now like I'm already a sophomore. I'm like, >> oh yes, >> like and I think philosophy is one of those classes. So >> you know, can we take it? >> What's that? >> Can we take it? [laughter] >> Yeah. >> Do you know why it's always been a peep of mind? You can't make the book like this big and just thicker so you can actually like like who reads. >> Yeah, [laughter] >> I don't know Mr.
108Hershey. I think you should write to that publishing >> because if it's in the backpack better I don't know. >> I guess you might have to send it back. >> I don't know. I look at >> weird book to hold. >> I definitely need my reading glasses. >> We'll say so. Um no, but we'll see. I'll let you know. >> Really curious. >> Yeah. Um so that that's that piece. And then lastly, and just for a moment, um again, every May I come to you for work outside the contract hours. Again, majority of them are summer hours. Some do um leak into next school year, but we like to budget for those appropriately. Looking at staff members who earn those hours, school counselors, um you know, new students who come and register for the district,
109placement tests, tours, you know, scheduling, those pieces. Um, we have no change in any of those hours from the previous year. You'll note that on the document that will be included in the Friday update. Um, nurses, again, very important that they go through some paperwork and bring everything up to speed. Um, for the coming year, our librarians do some reshelving and do some different things. Not a lot of hours, but, you know, a time to get those things done. Our internship coordinator has a few hours throughout the summer. Our athletic director has a few hours during the summer. Our coaches help with some professional learning as well as the induction program. Um, and they help me with that. And then also just some running some PD sessions. Um, and so you you'll see just the
110the laundry list of people. Um, our so committee is our social emotional wellness committee committee that Dr. Lambo started last year. So they'll get together and look at the YOLO surveys and make some adjustments and plans for next year. our social workers. Um that's a new category of staff who are going to get a few hours over the summer just because of the increased needs from our families. And so we felt that that was important. Um extended school year, summer courses, summer school I should say, summer remediation, teachers in the parks program, credit recovery. Those are all, you know, portions of these work outside the contract hours. And then special educators as far as if they need to do IEPs, rewriting, revamping, etc. that didn't get a chance to get done for the school year.
111Um their timing is just different or with our new students and we have to adjust. So the there are some different um tasks for our special educators to do as well. Um not all of them, but we always budget just enough hours for for those to to to happen so we can start the school year off on the right foot. So, um, like I said, you will see, um, the same document that we've used in the past, I don't know how many years because I got it when I came here, um, and just continue to renew it. So, we'll include that in the Friday update. And, um, oh, and then I should say curriculum writing. So, just, um, when it's time to officially document our curriculum in certain courses and we work with department chairs,
112um, and our principles to to figure that out, the curriculum writing is also a piece of that. So, Um just want to make sure that you're aware. Um and you will see that again in Friday update and then ideally for board approval um on May 18th. Okay. So anything else? Then I think if that's the case that's everything that concludes the curriculum piece if you're okay Mr. Hershey and Mrs. Lindsy. Thank you. Okay. >> Thank you so much. Appreciate that. >> Okay. So that covered curriculum. Um Mrs. Phillips, anything for facilities? >> Um, well, we did meet April 8th, but I feel like that was so long ago. Um, just I'll go through this really briefly. We got an update on uh the plenary field project. Uh, we reviewed change orders. We discussed a proposed
113memorial to honor Dr. Jones. Um, we did discuss the relocation of the uh precinct for polling place which will be moved for next week's primary to the Lanny Field brand new pavilion. Um, and that was basically Oh, we did talk about the possibility of reopening the playground over at Wreck. Um, and then our next workshop is May 13th, next Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. And it's going to basically be hopefully the last update regarding Flenary Field discussion about solar and door access and control. >> Thank you. >> If I could just chime in momentarily about the relocation of the polling places. I know that the election officials have been putting information out to people. um some mail. >> Yeah, I was gonna say we've heard from different people if they received it and we have on
114the um plans on the docket to send it because that's for May 19th next Monday or so for our parents square message as another reminder for our our our own community just to remind them as well. So I know that was asked of us and that is coming probably next week. And I guess the kids or the kids know that I guess they'll be people coming and going for glittery. >> Um there there may be at at the end of the day there may be track that's probably >> and it's only for the state qualifier. So it's not a many u much smaller of a number of students over there. Great. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Um Mr. Shippers is not here. So I think we've got finance. I don't think there's covered on
115that. And Mrs. Okay, great. Thank you so much. All right. Um I don't think there's anything else we can entertain. >> Yes. >> Would you entertain a suggestion that we ask one more time if there might be public comment? >> Yes, I absolutely would. >> Is there any public comment for the school board tonight? [laughter] >> Would you like to speak? >> Would you like to come talk to us? We'd like to hear from you. come stand up here and talk to us >> if you'd like to. >> No. >> Your [laughter] is your email your email sufficient? Is that covers it? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Well, we thank you for being here and sitting through the meeting and we appreciate your very well-written email as well and we obviously everyone read it and
116took that into consideration. So, thank you. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. >> Okay. Thank you everyone.