001Good evening, Ladies and gentlemen. It is Thursday, June 19th. This is a meeting of Council Rock School District Board of School Directors. Thank you for being patient. We needed to get some battery powered lights in here, hence the half hour delay. Um, some housekeeping notes. We are going to record this meeting and post the recording on the district website. Uh we have Miss Yoda Pali on the line and because of the recording and because of the use of uh online technology, it's especially important that everyone in the gallery keep down the video conversation. Please um just please resist the temptation. Uh we need uh as quiet as possible. Um we are rearranging the agenda. Yeah, cell phones up. We are rearranging the agenda to put finance matters up front because we're required by law to
002have a new state budget a new budget by state law before the end of the month which is another reason why we did not reschedu this meeting just when they when you speak nice and loud please because we are going to um Callie is doing the recording tonight so we don't have the audio around in the recording capability around the room. So, if you don't mind, just nice and loud. And what we say in the elementary schools typically is use your inside voices. Tonight, we want to use your outside voices so that we can hear you and get you recorded, please. Wonderful. Thank you, Dr. Mad. We have the roll call, please. Oh, we're jumping out of order. I Mr. Roosevelt here. Miss here. Mr. Melo here. Miss here. Mr. Maki here. Mr. Hickey here.
003Miss here. Miss here. I would like to introduce you to Sophia Pretel. Did I say that right? Oh, Pretel. Pretel. And Kenna Nongesser, two Council Rock High School North students who are going to grace us with their talent tonight on their first night of summer vacation. They're going to lead us in the pledge and sing the national anthem. Ladies, 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. By the dawn [Music] proud we at the twilight lasting stripes and bright stars [Music] we watching. [Music] prove through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star spangled man and wave or the land of the free and the home of
004the brave. Thank you, Lise. Thank you for giving up so much. There's a little something for you. Superintendent, please. Thank you, Mr. Welcome. Good evening to the board of school directors, the staff, the community joining us tonight, and to those tuning in on the Council Rock YouTube channel. Thank you to Council Rock students Sophie and McKenna for taking time from their summer break to lead us in the national anthem and the pledge. As we conclude the 2024 25 school year, we extend our heart heartfelt thanks to the students, staff, families, board members, and community for their steadfast support throughout the year. While we experienced both challenges like tonight and successes, what remained consistent was the meaningful growth and learning that has taken place in every Council Rock school. On Thursday, June 12th, we proudly recognize
00596 graduates who now join the distinguished ranks of Council Rock alumni. This exceptional class earned more than $19 million in scholarships, grants, and other financial award awards. We were fortunate to enjoy beautiful weather for our ceremonies and grateful to the entire community for honoring our graduates and supporting their families. Yesterday marked the final day of school for our 9,571 students in kindergarten through 11th grade. We wish them and their family a joyful, healthy, and safe summer break and look forward to welcoming everyone back in September for another exciting year of learning and discovery. And thank you to the many individuals who have helped make Council Rock a place of excellence. Our teachers, secretaries, nurses, trainers, administrators, bus drivers, aids, cafeteria staff, coaches, tutors, counselors, board members, and maintenance teams, and so many other folks. Your
006dedication and care embody our commitment to keeping students first always. There are many ways we celebrate accomplishments of our students and tonight we're honored to recognize a group whose achievement exemplify perseverance, teamwork, and courage. We're thrilled to welcome the talented Council Rock Special Olympians to be recognized this evening. Each day, Special Olympics events take place around the world, enriching the lives of millions of individuals with disabilities both on and off the field. This global movement now includes over 5.3 million athletes, unified partners, coaches, and volunteers, including many of our own Council Rock staff, teachers, and families who support these efforts with heart and dedication. Many of our own special Olympians are here tonight with us to be recognized for their participation in the 2025 Bucks County Special Olympics track and field. We are deeply grateful
007to the staff and families whose ongoing support make these opportunities possible and to our Olympians. We are proud and excited to have you with us tonight. At this time, I would like to invite Dr. Al Overberman, director of special service services and board president, Mr. Tate, to help celebrate Special Olympians and their teachers as we recognize them with a certificate of achievement. Mr. Tate, Dr. We just want to um I'm Samantha Julian and this is Michelle McIll and um I'm at the high school, Michelle's in the elementary and we work really hard all year to have this event come through in our PE classes. Um we want to thank Dr. Senko and um Alberman to for h let letting us host this event every year. Um this year Bucks County hosted60 I believe athletes across
008Bucks County and Council Rock had a wonderful showing. Um so we want to honor the few students that were able to make it here. So we have John Aku. Did I say that right? Come on up. [Applause] Allison Bayak [Applause] she wasn't this shy for events. I promise. Jaden Mannon [Applause] Come on. We're going to go back this way. Okay. Want to come back this way? Look back. Tori Seda [Applause] and Neil Phillip. We want to say congratulations to everyone who wasn't able to make it because I know the storm up is take it out. We didn't miss anybody, right? Congratulations. Taking a quick picture. Yes. Yep. Can we ask the board members to come up for a picture, please? Everybody [Music] squeeze together. Anybody that wants to take a picture, come on up. Anybody
009else want it? Moms and dads, you can get closer. Yeah. But it's got to do. The sentiment is there. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you. And so last one Last month, we celebrated the retirements of two valued high school assistant principles, one at Kilson Rock High School North, Mr. Nate Scott, and one of Kels Rock High School South, Mr. Scott Lair, as well as the elevation of a third to the role of principal at Council Rock High School South, Mr. Anthony Benell. Following a rigorous and thorough interview process, I am pleased to submit three outstanding candidates for the board to consider approving this evening. At Council Rock High School North, two assistant principles were created when Mr. Benell was promoted and the retirement of principal assistant principal Nate Scott. We are proud to recommend to the
010board Mr. Dave Boel who is no stranger to council rock for one of these positions. Dave has been a member of the council rock team since 2007 and currently serves as a teacher and our secondary English language arts curriculum coordinators. He holds degrees from Kabrina University and Bloomsburg University. Congratulations Dave and thank you to you and your family for being here tonight. We welcome you to your new role. Joining Dave on the administrative team at Council Rock North is Miss Erin Mi Mariano. Aaron comes to us from the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts. She holds degrees from Kutztown University and Holy Family University. She is currently pursuing her doctorate at Welch University. We're excited to welcome you, Erin, and thank your husband for joining you tonight. We'd like to welcome you to
011the Council Rock team. Rounding out tonight's consideration for appointments is Mr. Pete Minnella. Pete will join the council rock high school south administrative team upon the retirement of assistant principal Mr. Scott Lair. Pete brings experience from the Wilson Weslon school district in Westlon PA. Pete has had 26 years in public education and holds degrees from Alverne University, KZtown University and Lock Haven University. Pete and his wife are here tonight and their son. Welcome aboard Pete. Pending board approval. We are thrilled to welcome these three accomplished educators to the Council Rock family and proudly recommend them to the board for consideration. Reminders for parents that will help you as you prepare for the upcoming school year, even though it may seem far off. In our food services department, our point of sale system is changing to
012my school books. The new system will be in place for the 2025 2026 school year. More information is available on our website and will be mailed to our families throughout the summer. Summer is a time when many children may not have access to free and reduced price meals they get during the school year and households might need a little extra help putting meals on the table. The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services is sponsoring Sunb. It's a grocery benefit program that provides onetime payment of $120 for each eligible child to buy food while school is out. You can learn more about SunBucks on our website at www.crsd.org. And finally, please check out the council rock opening page on our website where we have posted information about my school bucks and sunbucks programs along with school summer
013contact information and the 2025 2026 academic calendar. Important dates to note. July 4th, all offices will be closed. July 10th, there will be a finance and facilities meeting 700 p.m. at Chancellor Center. July 17th is a board of school directors meeting 700 p.m. Monday, August 4th, we have a policy meeting scheduled for 700 p.m. Thursday, August 7th, facilities committee meeting, 700 p.m. Thursday, August 14th, a finance committee meeting, 700 p.m. Thursday, August 21st, is a board of school directors meeting at 700 p.m. I know the students don't want to hear this yet, but Tuesday, September 2nd is the first day of school for students in grades K through 6 and grades seven and grade 9. And Wednesday, September 3rd, and be the first day of school for all students grades K to 12. This is
014a reminder that for reliable, accurate, up-to-date information about our district, please refer to resources, websites, and social media platforms managed by the Council Rock School District. We urge the community to be discerning and choosing where to obtain information and to be aware that unauthorized social media accounts use the council rock name to post inaccurate or misleading information regarding district matters. If you question what you see, need additional information or require a reliable fact check, please contact our district directly. We can be found at www.crsp.org. This concludes the superintendent's report. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Senko. Mr. Miso, solicitor's report, please. Thank you. I have nothing public to report my solicitor's report. The board has a written report. I do want to note that the board an executive session on June 5th for a
015personnel matter and on June 9th for labor relations. Thank you very much. Um, we move on to public comment. I don't have anyone signed up for public comment. If there's anyone from the public who wishes to comment now, please step forward. There will be a a second public comment session at the end of the meeting. This one is confined to agenda items. Since there's no one uh wishing to speak, we'll move on to approval of the minutes of the meeting of the board on May 15. Miss Stone, would you read the motion, please? I move to approve the minutes of the meeting of the school board directors held on May 15, 2025. Second. Thank you. Is there a second? Are there any objections, comments, or questions? Correct. That's it. All right. Hearing no question. Madam
016Secretary, please record that motion as passing amends. I mentioned um at the outset of the meeting that we are required by state law to have a new budget approved before the end of this month. Uh for that reason and some other important items on the finance committee agenda, we're going to move forward uh with finance committee first before we lose our limited battery powered lights. Do any board members object to rearranging the agenda accordingly? Thanks all for coming. Have a good day. So, we will begin with the finance committee. Okay. Um the finance committee met on June 9th. We had a lengthy agenda including insurance renewals and I would encourage anyone interested to watch the finance committee meeting on YouTube. You know, the power comes back. I do want to bring to your attention that
017tonight we will be voting on next year's budget and on a new 5-year teacher contract. I want to thank Miss Khan, Miss Stone, and Miss Horner for representing our board in our contract negotiations, as well as Dr. Senko, Tony Rap, and Ronnie Spring for working with our teachers to create a new contract favorable to the teachers and the school district. In particular, we believe this new contract will make it easier for the district to attract new teachers both the entry level and teachers who may wish to transfer to Council Rock from other districts. The budget we will be voting on tonight um contains a 2.93 tax% tax increase for the school district. This accounts for 8.8 additional teaching positions and 1.5 additional non-eing positions. The teaching positions include two middle middle school literacy specialists, four
018elementary literacy specialists, and 2.8 teaching positions at the high school high schools, excuse me. The additional non-eing positions are an additional shipper and receiver at the high school and a 0.5% uh payroll position to ensure stability in the payroll office. I want to thank Mr. Rap and his team for working on this budget and for continuing to set the district up for success and stability in the future. With that, I move to approve consent agendas items B through B as contained in the attachments to this agenda. This is second. I would like to pull Mental. Okay. Okay. Um then second, would you amend the motion, please? Okay. Uh I move to approve consent agenda items B through L and N through BP. You have a second. A second. Thank you, M. Are there questions, comments,
019objections to the consent agenda items? Hearing none sir is not no it is not the budget follow and so the same all right hearing no objections madam secretary please record that passing unanimously so let's consider item end the approval of textbook contracts let's make the motion and then we can have a discussion I move to approve consent agenda or I guess not agenda item M as contained in the attachment to this agenda. Um I would guess the motion I believe is I move to approve the contract with Oh, excuse me. I move to approve the contract with HMH into literature for grades six, seven, and eight subject to solicitors review a second. Thank you, M. I thanks very much. Um, this I asked that this was told because there are a lot of texts and
020this is something that I think is important to the education of the community. Uh the issue that I have is with the history textbook, specifically American Civilization by Savos, SA V. A quote from their homepage of their website reads, "History is more than the story of the past. It's the chronicle of people, their decisions, emotions, and viewpoints. Our awardwinning US history interactives brings a modern lens to history." I I disagree with this. Uh history must be studied in the context of its time as a history major. That's is what I was taught. Um and through and it must also be taught through the lens of the time being studied which is what context means. History is a study of the time, the people, the events and through the lens of their day. We're not mind
021readers of each others today. To view the emotions or viewpoints of historical figures through the lens of today would be incorrect at best and arrogant at worst. Today we struggle to understand our opponent's emotions and viewpoints, let alone those that we agree with. How could we succeed with a historical figure through the lens of modern science? Because um you know current events is another issue because current events be uh become history after time has enough time has passed to dull the emotions of political perspectives. The more sensitive subjects perhaps deserve a little bit more time needed. Um one recent example that I think is applicable is from JFK assassination attempts occurred occurring during November of 1963. Some of those files are still national secrets. Others have been released more recently, but much has been withheld
022for decades. So this history book, I think at its understanding, um, is missing the ability to both converse or recognize current events as different from history and is not studying history through the context of time. And in some cases, while it does produce or include firsthand accounts, doesn't always include multiple firsthand accounts from opposing positions. So I just have a fundamental problem with this history textbook and the company that produces it for the reasons that I've indicated. So I will be comfort. Yeah. Um, I understand your comments. I did review a good part of that history book and thought that it was very well written and presenting um the historical events. It actually started from restoration through I believe 2020. And um the discussion the book is designed to uh develop critical thinking in kids
023by reviewing primary source information. So looking at the actual primary sources and then having a discussion on what the what that means. How else can you look at it but through the today's eyes? I don't know how else you can look up and understand and review something. Um so I think it's very well done. I purchased the teachers version. So I also got to see how the uh teachers are guided in guiding the kids to um look at these primary sources and develop an understanding what they mean, what they meant at the time, what they mean today. And you know, I thought it was uh an excellent review of history and I would be supporting purchase of the book which has been supported by the English by the history department. They were reviewed. They've been
024um the books were uh how do you put it? They were al already approved last year brought into the schools and piloted already. So um you know I'm very much in favor of with those books. Um, sure. I would just kind of echo that. I mean, we did have a pilot and I think that is the purpose of a pilot is to allow the teachers to work with the materials and the students to review the materials. Uh, to my knowledge, there's not been any negative feedback about these textbooks and the administration recommended them for approval. So, I'll support that. Yeah. As a history major in college as well. I concur with Mr. Roosevelt's opinions. I also had a chance to read through book and there are some issues as far especially in the current events
025which as Mr. Roosevelt alluded to if it's a current event it's not necessarily history or it's recent history. I agree with many of the statements. I had some issues as well with some of the things I saw in the book as related to current history and I will also leave um I guess in terms of the book was also out for public review for 30 days um back after I believe it was the March education committee when it was presented by Miss Tam and Gary um and the history department in both high schools came and presented um talked about how great the textbook was, the need for an updated version of the history book where our current students in high school studying. Um it also correlates to their you know furthering education, their AP programs
026or requirements as they as they move along through their high school careers. So I mean I very much um echo what Miss Stone and Maki have stated and I would I would be in support of this book. Thank you. Any comments? Miss Polly, do you have any comment or question on the textbook? No. As um people said, you went through the school. So um I I and I like specifically Stone's comment because she read the book and um she feels very comfortable that this is this encourages critical thinking for our students. This is what we want to do. We want to um to make sure that our students become critical thinkers and just follow somebody's um record of history. So um I'm okay with approving the board. Thank you, Miss Polly. If there are no
027other comments or questions, we have a roll call. Mr. Rosa. No. M. Yes. Mr. Mr. T. Yes. Miss Oi. Yes. Mr. Mickey. No. Miss Han. Yes. Yes, Miss Paul. Yes, that is 63. Yes. Thank you. The motion passes by a vote of 6 to three. Um I'm pleased that the board has agreed to approve the personnel actions contained in this agenda and the personnel actions agenda part of the consent agenda. So, thank you to our school board for that approval a few minutes ago. Um, Erin, Dave, and Pete, welcome to the Council Rock administrative team. And I want to thank our Council Rock High School principles and assistant principles for being here tonight. Uh, so Pete, Aaron, and Dave, if you don't mind, come up. Bring your families, bring your colleagues, and we're going to
028have uh Miss Mangle get a picture of you. Congratulations. Welcome back. [Applause] That's pretty good. Thank you. Do that first. Thank you very much. That is all right. I would tell you to go get ice cream, but they're probably closed. See you. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] We get the administrators together. I was like, I don't know. I'll go to that section and switch in the middle. You along. [Music] All right. Smile, folks. Perfect. [Applause] [Music] Got to be a rainbow now, right? I just fig I say it before. Thank you. Well, that was nice. Uh, we're going to move on with the remaining items on the finance committee agenda. We got item CC, the approval of the agreement between Council Rock Education Association, Council Rock School District. I move to approve the agreement between
029Council Rock Education Association and the Council Rock School District as second floor is open for comments, questions. So I have many relationships with the uh all the teachers. There's so many great things that they've done, you know, through the time 11 years that I've been a parent in the school district. Uh very invaluable. We can never actually compensate our teachers enough for the amount of u work, dedication, and blood, sweat, and tears. And it's a pretty emotional job most of the time. So, um I take that aspect out of it when I'm uh looking at it from a budgetary standpoint or from a fiscal standpoint and have to look at crunch numbers and doing what I do when it comes to financial planning and things like that. And there are restraints that we put on
030ourselves that every organization does. So, Uh, but I wanted to start by saying, you know, we can never pay our teachers enough, so to speak. When I would go knocking on doors for the last two elections that I would do that, thousands of about a thousand plus houses every every term. Um, a lot of them, one that stands out would say, you know, you can never pay the what is it like 150 to 200. I mean, we can never pay teachers enough. People want to support the teachers. So, when we about collective bargaining. Um you can't look at you can never pay teachers enough period. You know they they earn every penny that they and plus some that they earn. Um so when I look at the budget which I think we haven't these are
031kind of tied together for me especially in years when there's a collective bargaining um session going on and this is where we get to make the biggest impact as board members and being fiscally responsible. we are at knees under the table with the organizations trying to to uh negotiate a great contract that's fair and equal on both sides and I think that this contract probably achieves that. I think a lot of people believe that u and that's that's that's great. I think a lot of people are happy most even I'm happy um for for the contract that's up for uh vote tonight. Um and then I'll go on to move to my next uh comment which was kind of about we have a constraint that we've been talking about since I've been on the board.
032It's kind of developed that I try to keep at a 2% uh base and if 2% base increase on our taxes so that we just know that this is what people can anticipate this is what they're going to get. We live within those means and in years where we don't uh make it then you can talk basically when we have a deficit then you can Okay. Well, next year maybe we need to, you know, make that up with a higher tax increase or if there's capital improvement planning we have to do. I understand that. But this year was more of a stay the hold the line. We've been doing the tax increases and and ending with surpluses for the last few years, significant surpluses. Uh we've been moving that money around into different places. So,
033you know, our capital uh u capital what's it called? The capital uh capital plan. No, no, the capital plan, the capital reserve and the other the other budget reserve we have um has gone down because we've moved the money around. But u basically the 2% is where I I drew the line saying we we need to work at that. I added a half a percent for the kindergarten for so that I would be okay with the 2.5% and now we're just under 3%. So, I'm looking to make up that 800,000 $900,000 uh to stay within my parameters to be fiscally responsible. And when the collective bargaining comes around, that's really the the biggest piece that we can use to negotiate. And um so now I have to counter what I'm saying like how do we
034do that? And we could have negotiated that money spread out amongst the whole base, but that wasn't So, I'm sticking to what I originally asked proposed to and we'll be voting no to both the budget and the collective bargaining agreement. Not because I don't think the teachers deserve every penny they're they're going to get, but that we moving this outside of the parameters that I think I've set and been stated publicly for five years. So, I'll try to keep it short for that. Thank you. Um, I want to share a note that a parent shared yesterday and said she would be honored for me to share with the public. This parent shared her child ended their time at a certain elementary school in our district and would be starting middle school in the fall. She
035thanked all the teachers and staff, especially the learning support team, for helping her child to see this through. These certain teachers recognize not only the struggles but also the talents of their students that help them shine. Her child is going to start middle school a confident student who loves to learn and thanks to the dedication and patience of the teachers. This is only one note that I am reading. However, there are so many more about our super teachers and staff. So, thank you. I had the honor to part of this negotiating process. It was an amazing learning experience as well as a great to sit around a table with good people. There were many many days and hours beyond hours spent listening and understanding of the needs and wants of both sides. This district has
036amazing staff who care to educate and move the educational needle on every student and who lived students first always. I want to thank Dr. Senko, Mr. Rap, and Mr. Spring for moving this negotiation along and for collaborating with the team to come to an agreement. I request any future contract negotiations to be with a seasoned, knowledgeable labor contract solicitor who only works in labor contracts as this could have saved this district thousands of dollars. We have excellent teachers in this district who we need to retain as well as we need to recruit to fill these open positions with the best qualified. This agreement will surely be achieved on both these objectives. Thank you. And I will be looking forward to voting yes for the teachers contract. Thank you. First of all, I'd like to thank
037all the people that were involved in negotiations on both sides. Um it's never easy. Uh when I first moved into this, you know, going back to history, I there was a there was a labor problem here, you know, back in early 2000. So I know what it's like in the disruption that it can cause. Um I really appreciate, Mr. Wrath, Mr. Spring, the inventive ways that you decided to negotiate this at the end. um thinking outside the box as it were, which is the same thing that we ask of our teachers to to do things differently and uh I know this agreement is something that you know you you know you approve of. You recommended it to us. Uh some of the things that I really like about it is we've talked now for a
038number of months and you know everybody knows that there is a potential teacher shortage. Now everybody says well you know maybe not in council in other places, but we still need to attract teachers that are coming out of college. And this contract, in my opinion, will at least accomplish that. So that these kids that are coming out of college, um, instead of maybe choosing another career or another path, will choose to teach and be willing to start out at a place where they know that they can move up in time. The other feature that I really liked about it is um the fact that we can now attract teachers from other districts who have some experience under their belts. um not you want to go coaching and our teachers everybody gets poached in different sides
039of the belt but this is a great district and it's hard to attract teachers from other districts to come in here when they know that they have to start at the bottom when they've already been teaching for 5 10 15 years there's many great teachers in other districts as well and this is a way to possibly attract some of those teachers um I actually recognized in you you know, um, you know, like I said, I know there's teachers in other districts who would love to come here, but they said, you know, I can't, you know, I can't start at the bottom. And this, while it doesn't allow them to, you know, they don't necessarily come in at the top or where they were, it it allows them a middle ground to come in and add
040to the great staff that we already have. Um, like you said, uh, from what I see, it's a win-win, which is what everybody likes. I guess sometimes when you say everybody's mad at you, you're doing a good job. But in this particular case, when everybody is reasonably happy, um, so am I. U, the cost of the district, you know, as Mr. points out as it relates to the budget um in my opinion is doable uh and it works and it gives labor peace for 5 years which is very comforting to know um because in my time on the board this is already the second time I've gone through this. So this is something that hopefully won't have to be worried about for another five years and uh I also plan on voting yes. Thank you.
041Thank you. Um I was also along with Miss Warner and Miss Stone um had the privilege to be part of the negotiations team representing um the school board and our community. Um I wanted to first thank um the administration you know Mr. Spang, Mr. Mr. Rap, Dr. Seo, the Korea executive committee that were in attendance along with the negotiating team and our uh solicitor Peter Amuso who was there to negotiate. Um it was exactly what we you know stated it was it was a negotiation. Um we went in there and we spent many hours long hours listening and going back and forth and as Miss Warner has alluded to um it was a huge learning experience and I I feel thankful and grateful to have that opportunity. Um in regards to some of the things
042that I think are of note um I believe um Mr. Hickey already alluded to a few of them. This is a fiveyear contract which provides not only stability for our district for the next five years where we could focus on the education of our students and the path forward for our district but also allows financial pending um for our district as well as Mr. R has has um presented in our meetings. Um you know there is a na a national and state shortage of of teachers. Uh council rock has been recently named I believe was number 40 in the state um as a school district. I know that's and a few steps up from the previous year. I know we want to continue to to improve that rating and that ranking. Some of that we
043know has to deal directly with our with our staff and our teachers that we have in in the great district of Council Rock. Um we talked about being competitive. Um how do we you know attract new teachers and how do we retain our teachers? And part of that I believe we will achieve through this this new um negotiations that we have um we have come to terms with. Um I for one um think everyone did a great job um feel that everyone is happy um considering and I will be supporting in um not only the budget as well as the negotiations. Thank you. Teachers are important and a lot of work is done. Uh that can't be taken away. I think it's very important. There are some things in this contract that I like and
044there's some things that I would have liked to have seen in the contract. So just for some comparative purposes, according to the US Census website, Bucks County, PA, which I understand council bar is a fraction of median household income is 112,000. that person's per household. The same website estimates at 2.57. So three people effectively or two and a half if we want to figure it that way. Um in in all of Bucks County median make 112. The per capita income per individual for Bucks County is 57K. So Council Rock pushes that up a little bit. Northampton and New Town and some of the areas that we have been here push those numbers up a little bit. Um but you know according to government salaries.com the average teacher in 2024 for council rock earned 107,000. So
045this demonstrates that more teachers are on the higher end of the pay schedule. The point that I'm trying to make is a cautionary tale of a comparison between the amount that a teacher makes versus the amount families make that send their kids to be taught. As history has shown us, in some cases, some people will surrender their parental rights and others may usurp parental rights belieing that they're more educated and there they know it's best to please I'm concerned that we're getting close to that and I don't want to see that happen in council rock. I agree with Mr. Hadago teachers turn they turn everything that they get and it would be wonderful if we could have a rising tide lift all boats but we are in this situation where um you know it's it's
046a significant comparison the teachers and the parents and the families that send their kids to council law. Um so that's a cautionary element. Um it would be wonderful if we could if everybody would contribute. We wouldn't have this disparity between families and between teachers. I would love to even pay teachers more than what this contract does. But there has to be a point at which point that we recognize as board members we are financially very responsible for both the uh the education as well as the the funding at council. Um so for these reasons I will be a no for the teachers contract. Um um I guess I'll I'll start by going back to as Mr. did when I was campus saying first school board and knocking on doors and meeting people and speaking about
047rock and it's clear that we have amazing teachers and it's clear that our teachers are backbone of the district families time and time and time again said said that to me um Council Rock students deserve the best and when we went to negotiate this teachers contract. The two areas that concerned me the most personally um and as Mr. Hickey alluded to, I think he's in agreement. Uh one was that the starting salary was not high enough to compete with other districts in the area for for new teachers. If council rock students deserve the best, we need to pay competitively so that we can get the teachers right out of school. Then the other problem was that teachers who might want to move to Council Rock would lose their tenure for lack of a better term.
048They would have to start at the beginning of the salary scale and that prevented the best teachers from leaving wherever they were teaching and joining Councor. So the two main concerns that I had have been addressed I think very well in this contract and council rock students deserve best. So I'm voting yes. Thank you. Yes. I might as well speak. I'm the only one that hasn't said anything. I was also on the um negotiating committee and uh it was it was a learning experience and it was wonderful to have Mr. Sango available to um work through give us a big historical perspective um having been having gone through this himself as a teacher um and was also very helpful and the public should know that Mr. is very adept at um keeping calm and common
049sense into the U negotiating meetings. And I also want to note that yes, um I think the only way to improve the standard of living of all of our our members of the community is by increasing the level of the education that we provide to our next generation. And I think that's critical. And I think that both sides of this negotiation um had some wins and had some concessions that had to be made. We looked very carefully at uh our budget and what we could we thought we could afford. Um and I think we came back with a wonderful uh compromise and I I feel that it was actually a winwin for for everyone including uh especially our students. So I will be voting yes. Thank you. Thank you Miss Stone. Miss Polly would you
050like to comment? Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Um yeah thank first of all I want to thank the negotiation team um Mr. Muso who led the negotiation Mr. Rob and Mr. Spring being so creative. Uh Dr. S for stepping in at the right time and also with C stone in this corner spending so many hours um representing the board and giving us back feedback on what was going on. Um so we council is because of our teachers. So we have to be competitive in our hiring and we have to be very competitive in maintaining our teachers and I believe that this corner is going to achieve this. Um my fellow board members mentioned a lot of the specifics of the corner like describing salaries and so on. I just want to say that you cannot say
051that we cannot pay our teachers enough and then not pay them. So you either support the teachers or you don't. If you vote no in this contract, it means you do not support the teachers. It's as simple as that. So I would definitely vote yes because I think we have the best teachers and we need to support them. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Polly. Um, I'll comment briefly. Uh, people made a lot of great points about um, the positive results in the negotiations. I'm extremely appreciative of the extensive time that Miss Corner and Miss Khan and Miss Stone put into the negotiations. It was a lot of hours and there was a lot of complexity in this negotiation, far more than we could discuss tonight. the board was kept apprised of the negotiations and the
052details and the issues being discussed all along. I didn't really hear a lot of objection uh or concern um up until now to be honest. I I think it's really a positive achievement five-year contract that's going to as as was mentioned provide stability. It'll also provide predictability for the biggest line item in our budget. Um I I want to in addition to Miss Horner, Miss Cons, and Miss Stone, um Mr. Wrath and Mr. Spring did a terrific job. Dr. Seno uh stepped in when it mattered and really showed a lot of leadership in bringing this home. And I really appreciate the work by our solicitor, Mr. Muso. and the team from his law firm, they did a terrific job. The result is very good. And if we talk about students first, always there is no
053more important element than our teachers and ensuring the quality of our teachers. And I think this contract goes a long way. As I said, there's a lot of complexities. Um there there's small things that add up that make this a very good contract. And if people are interested, they can they can ask questions. This is definitely a plus and then I'm thrilled to to Are there any other comments or questions? I guess I forgot in my comment earlier, but one of Mki did speak to it, Mr. Hickeyi. The other um I know it was a a point um that Dr. O and administration felt strongly about and I know we've talked about this as a board um when we talk about education committee um we talked about professional development for our teachers there so so
054many hours in a day and that you know this was a back and forth um again small wins um meeting kind of in the middle that we were able to get additional um professional development dates for our teachers and our staff which um I know for administration board is very important I don't know if Dr. wanted to speak any more um specifics about that, but I think it was over the course of the next couple of years. I forget was one one professional development day starting next school year for the 25 26 and then two one one okay one one two two okay one okay that's okay thank you so for a total of we will go currently our teachers have 189 teaching days next year they will move to 190 which will be the
0552526 school year 26 27 school year will be And then for the duration of the agreement, it'll be two um two additional days, which makes us 191 teacher days, and that really puts us in the middle of the pack across the county. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I I'll be brief. This contract was not between paying teachers and not paying teachers. This this contract was between paying some teachers more or paying all teachers more, but some teachers even more than that. I just wanted as somebody that is not supportive of this contract. Um, I just felt that it was important to make this clear that I do support education and I do support teachers, which is why Council Rock pays teachers substantial amount. And I do wish that it could be that we could
056pay them even more. Um, so this is not a Z some gain of whether we're paying teachers or whether we're not paying teachers. Um I think that that is um an oversight of our our position that Mr. and I have. Thank you. Sure. So I mean we're all having our discussion here should focus on on our opinions of the the teachers and stuff like that. For Miss Py to say that you vote no you don't support uh uh the teachers that kind of mindset is what's wrong with this country and I'll be very happy that uh she didn't run for reelection. Thank you. One comment one. Yeah. We have every right. We're one of nine. When we have a choice, we have a decision to make of yes and no. And we have that duty
057to do. We are elected officials. So, we have a right to do that. And it is our right and our duty to do the way we want to. All right. There's no more comments. the roll call. Miss Collie, yes. Miss Warner, honorably. Yes. Miss Khan, yes. Mr. Hickey, yes. Miss Oi, yes. Mr. T, yes. Mr. No. Miss Stone. Yes. Mr. Mr. Rosa? No. That is uh seven yes and two nos. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations teachers. Thank you for I think the thank you is in order to again I think somebody mentioned their appreciation for the council education association's professionalism in negotiating this contract. I I I wish I would have said that earlier but So, thank you to our colleagues at CRA. We also want to thank the fire department. We do. So, you know,
058I just texted uh Dave Bole, the president of CRA, who led the charge for the the teachers, and it was a pleasure working with with Dave Dave Bole uh and his leadership um on this project. And we also would still be in the dark if it wasn't for the New Town Fire Department sponsoring us tonight on a moment's notice with these lights. And I I leaned over to Mr. Tate and I said I wanted to put that in the superintendent's report and it slipped right by me. So, thank you to New Town Fire. Yeah, pretty great. It's nice how people pulled together nice to make this happen. Um because we had this contract and we also have another extremely important item. Um the proposed final budget. Um, Miss Oi, would you make the motion, please?
059I would love to. I move to adopt the 2025 2026 general fund final budget. Thank you, Mr. Vicki. Comments, questions. Um, although I was really glad to see that we are not at act one. There are a couple things that, you know, I I can't vote for the budget because that I'm concerned of the sustainability and making sure that we stay focused on our expenses and what we're doing. Um, especially, you know, I voted the no for the full day of kindergarten because I asked for it to be pushed off a year because I wanted to make sure financially, efficiently, and effectively. However, it is going which is fantastic that this administration worked so hard to do and I really that's what we want the NBA we want it to be effective to work and
060roll out fantastically but it concerns me that it's not the agenda of really making sure that we have to be fiscally responsible so I will be voting no for this budget Molly. Yes. Um so when we budgeted at less than 3% and uh so much significantly less than the act one in rates that a lot of other B county um vote for or even higher on neighboring districts. And we also although we got a conservative we still have um I don't I think it's 7.8 million uh deficit. So this is a fiscally responsible budget we have to provide for our students. The inflation index is much higher than that. So our expenses grew at a much higher rate than what we we propose to um to um we're able to provide um like over like
061almost nine additional teaching positions were able to provide kindergarten that our community supported and voted for it in our in our um surveys and they embraced when we have our meetings and they're very excited about and we will be able to provide full day kindergarten in a very successful way that we make so many young kids ready for their education going forward. So um we are fiscally responsible because advancing less than 3% under these conditions where we're able to meet the needs of our students is an excellent way to And I'm hoping that with that we be able to um cover by the end of the year because we're responsible for Mr. R. I have very uh confidence in Mr. R and Dr. example the way they create the new budget. So I think that
062um we need to afford the administration and we cannot just you know out of the blue say oh I want this percent increase because I think we have to look at the numbers we have to look at what is required we have to budget conservatively and responsibly and I think this is what they they did so I will support this Thank you. Other comments. Sorry, I know it's a little dark in the room today. Um yeah, in previous this I think this the deficit this year without having full electronics is in the the area of $7 million which is the highest. It's almost 8 billion, right? Six and a half. 600. Mr. R, can you The deficit is um six uh six a million400 or $399,000 about six and a half. Okay. And was there
063a recent time in the past I don't know years perhaps that you have in 2015 16 there was a deficit of of $6.5 million or $6,499,000 2015 2015 16 but since then for example three years ago I think the deficit was like 800,000 or under a million Um I don't I know so 23 24 it was it was about 3 million right this year it was about 2 million um uh and uh um going back years prior to that um I don't have internet connection anymore so I can't get on but um it was about We were averaging after that $6.5 million deficit, we were averaging about $4 million for about five years and I think at one point it went down to 800,000 during um I believe was it 1920 year. Okay. So the
064the point I believe is is that since 2015 this has been the highest deficit the district has carried substantially higher in some cases. I I have a recollection without having the data in front of me perhaps four years ago that it was closer to a million. But in any case, not to miss the point here, um some at those times called this called the budgets at that time fiscally irresponsible. And now that we're the district is back up to a $6.5 million deficit. Interestingly, this district has $6 million more in its expenses than it does its revenues. Um, apparently now it's a fiscally responsible budget. The the concern of course is because of conservative budgeting, will the district be able to once it's resolved later on in the year, will it audit out to be
065a surplus or a deficit? This time of the year always because of conservative budgeting where the district overestimates its expenses and underestimates its revenues when everything is wrapped up those get tighter. So that makes a lot of sense. That is responsible. But at this time of the year um the budget has been considered irresponsible with less or fewer numbers and now it's being considered as responsible. I agree this is a responsible budget as was previous years. I am not in favor of raising taxes. I think that this is a cautionary tale said publicly in the most recent and in previous um finance committee meetings that we must be careful to live within our income and governments are typically able to just raise taxes to increase the revenues and that's not always the answer. I think
066this administration has done an amazing job of not only going back through all departments and all buildings with including their own to sharpen the pencil and figure out how we can make this as effective as possible. And Council Rock has been in a wonderful position for years of being a good steward of finances and that continues. However, couple years ago it was less than 2%. Last year was 2.6 and now we're looking at 2.93 which is effectively 3% and um next year projected act one is looking at 4%. So while this year the district is well within act one which I think is something that's very important districts I believe should strive to be within act one index to control the uh their own destiny uh to be in a position where act one jumps
067around as it does and having a district up to the point of where the district requires to get close to balance and act one index and have act one go down a percent which is going to happen next year doesn't leave the district in a position that controls its own finances and I believe that is a concern so just raising revenue is not always the answer um so this um this budget while I think has worked is curious how the uh Some of the some of the words are are so I I anticipate voting no for this. I could also have gone up to 2 and 12% but I'm concerned with this trend. The overspending is going to continue and it's very difficult on our seniors. It's very difficult on those with fixed incomes and
068it's very difficult on members as the per capita um individual pay is around 60 grand or maybe up to 75 in our district. This puts this puts a burden on people and I believe school districts should do the best that they can and boards should challenge the district to provide the best education that the community can afford. I believe also that our taxes should be consistent and predictable without wild swings even if over a trend of a couple of years. Uh and for these reasons I am not able to support this budget but that does not take away from the work that was done by the administration. Um it's wonderful to be able to count on the numbers that are being provided Mr. Rap and his department Dr. Senko his ability to go into all
069the departments and reduce what the initial proposal was down to what it is and then figure out way to reduce further should be commended. Um but I unable to support this budget this year. Thank you. Yes. Hi. Um I agree we never want to have to increase the taxes. Uh but we also have to recognize that the tax the act index is in place as a guinea for the school districts to allow them to go up to the that act one index recognizing what how the costs have increased. Um the act one index is around four this year and we've managed to keep the budget under three and that is and we we running running that um tax increase with that $6.4 million deficit so that we don't increase so we keep that uh tax
070increase under three. Um, we've talked before you you're you're conceding that you recognize two and a half% would be okay. Well, that half percent according to average um the average household in the community half percent amounts to um less than $40 per year. It was 60 for a whole whole percent for the average person in the community. So I think an extra that you you're not willing to part with that extra 35 $40 a year in that tax is is um is not hurting the seniors fixed income. five whom have one. And again to remind everyone that if you are on a fixed income, there's um the renters's rebate and a tax rebate both from the state of PA and from Council Rock again approves that tax rebate which can bring up to um it's
071over it's about $1,000 or more from the state and the same from from the district. We're talking about half an additional half percent which is only about 35 or $40 per household per year. Um and I think that the budgeting budget work we've squeezed that as much as you can. I mean 70% of the budget is teachers pay and benefits uh administrative. It's all a lot of it is salaries and and benefits which we agree we must pay but we're not going to fire teachers. We've had the administration and our parents and the community more teachers, better education. Um, and we're doing that. They've asked for a kindergarten. We're doing that. And the we've managed to do all of these things, keeping that tax increase under 3%. I think it it's um amazing. I mean,
072we have to feed the kids. We have to transport them. these we have buildings to maintain electricity we have phones we have these things are not there is nothing that can get cut from the budget in order to provide the education that the kids need and Mr. and his department has been taking the actually been taking the abuse from the board, telling them cut it, cut it, cut it. And um he's done an amazing job. And I think uh I think we're doing the best for the kids, the community, and and the taxpayers. naive to think that there's never going to be a tax increase just like uh and the and we may be um increasing taxes, but just think about the homeowners what your home value is because we have such a great education
073system. So, of course, I'm going to be voting yes to the budget. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. H. First of all, thank you to Mr. and your entire staff for the work that you put in order. It's never an easy job to Dr. Seno and your administration for going through their budgets with fine tooth tone. Um there's a lot of great things in that budget. um you know adding learning support uh English language support at the middle schools u is a wonderful thing and the staff that we are at it um I would say maybe this is a symbolic vote or whatever you want to say I mean I know Miss Stone makes light of the fact that you know it's it's only $35 and I believe that number is incorrect because I believe we
074were told last year was closer to seven the tax increase just for kindergarten The thing you have to remember with kindergarten, we paid $70 last year in taxes, which you're you're now also paying this year in taxes. And in addition to that, we're going to add another $70 to that. So, it's not $35, it's north of $200. And for some people that may not seem like a lot of money, but for a senior citizen that is a lot of money. And yes, the property values of the houses can go up, but you also need to stay in your house. If you can't afford the taxes, you can't stay there in the house that you have. Um, but we voted on all day kindergarten. Uh, I agree with Misser that I thought that it should have
075been delayed or maybe we do with our books and everything. Maybe we should have run a pilot first. I'm not entirely convinced that educationally it will have the benefits that everyone thinks yet. But yet, we hired 25 new personnel in order to do this. Maybe what we could have done was hire a few more instructional support people for our English language, for our math at the elementary school. maybe save our dollars a little wiser. Like I said, I just voted for a teachers contract because I do think our teachers for the most part, and that number most is probably at like 98% are phenomenal that do a great job that educate our kids. So, why wouldn't we have more of those as opposed to kindergarten where I'm not sure that educationally we're going to get
076the benefit that we might have gotten from maybe hiring some more staff to help without hiring 25 more people. Maybe we could have hired another 25 and that would have brought that budget down to below 2 and a half%. You know, like you said, can we not raise taxes at all? Yes, I agree. It's hard to not raise taxes at all, especially with expenses. I don't think we should raise taxes to the act one just because we can. No, I think we need to be smart with how we spend our money. We need to spend it wisely. We have some tough choices coming up that are going to affect all this. And for me being at 3%, like I said, I was against a 2.6% increase last year for the same reason. So there's really
077no way that I could support a 3% tax increase this year when I know that we could have had that down to below 2.5% and still accomplished all the goals that we needed to do educationally. So like I said, I'm most likely going to be a no vote for this. And uh like I said, it might just be uh symbolic for those senior citizens of which Miss Stone and I and I'm not sure about Mr. Tape, but we all are one of those. And uh like I said, I I have people that come up to me, my neighbors ask me about it. You know, they talk about being able to stay in their homes. My neighborhood is starting to change over because a lot of the people in my neighborhood are actually older than I
078am and they worry about staying in their homes in the neighborhood that I live in. And I live in a modest neighborhood. It's an older development and it's wonderful. And these people don't want to leave. And in many cases now they're being forced to. So like I said, if only for the senior citizens, I'm going to, you know, my vote would be no for them. I'm just going to speak briefly. I know we're we're waiting on our lights here. I want to thank Mr. Rap and his uh department. I think we all know that expenses have gone up and we sit in these facilities meetings, these finance meetings and it, you know, Mr. Rap very smartly will say like this is what we paid last year and this is what we paid or this is
079what it is this year and nine times out of 10, you know, this year is higher and usually not by 2.93%, usually by more. Uh, so we know our expenses are going up and I think that the administration worked really hard to produce a budget that counts for expenses increasing without cutting programs. Um, I would be willing to cut programs. If anything, I feel uncomfortable budgeting for the highest deficit in the last 10 years. I mean, I I look at it that way and that makes me nervous. Um, but I will be voting yes on tonight's budget. Thank you. I I guess I would just echo and add a couple statement. You know, I've said in previous meetings and education committee meetings and the finance and facilities that um great schools or great school districts
080make um great communities. You know, I along with I'm sure the rest of the board, you know, don't take this budget process or tax increase lightly. Um I completely recognize the burden it may have. certain individuals with that within our community. Um I know that Mr. Rap has done an excellent job explaining in all our finance committee meetings, you know, as Moski just stated, that all of our um our bills continue to go up. You know, there's a 30% increase um in goods that we're purchasing that are needed to to run the school district and a 4 to 6% increase in all of our services. Um, I don't I don't know how how to avoid some sort of tax incre tax increase. Um, I know we started this financial uh budget process this year this
081spring with I believe it was approximately a $14 million deficit and Dr. go and his administration, he went back in and asked every department, every person to go back in with a fine tooth comb and just kind of, you know, take out what they could to to close that gap in the budget um deficit and went from the 14 million to to 6.4. Again, I'm not super comfortable with that, but without cutting educational programs or cutting teachers, I don't know where else we're supposed to magically find this this money. Um, so I will just um conclude that you know we've added a lot of um support staff, teaching positions, um supervisors, curriculum coordinators that all of us here and the board have discussed and wanted and community members have wanted. Our special services continues to
082grow. Um we have and part of tonight's budget and part of the budgeted for the 24 256 school year also includes as Mr. had stated earlier that 8 um eight full-time teaching positions that include um literacy specialists um that would get a Wilson certified teacher in every building in our school. Those are things that we've you know have said as staff as community members that our students need for those that are struggling and those that need to to move beyond. Um this also includes needs at the high schools based upon their program planning. um in addition to I think 2 or 1.5 um additional administrative staff for again needs that the administration is asking for um this evening. So again, I don't know where we're supposed to cut um in terms of getting us to
083even a 2.5. That means we're going to cut all of those literacy specialists. Um or that means cutting full day kindergarten. Um which again we have discussed that these are things that the community wants and this would be the best at putting students first in our community. So I would be supporting um not taking it lightly but supporting the the budget. Thank you. Miss Holly. Yes. I would like to make an additional comment. Um listening to the president's um comments about Um I don't disappoint. It sounds like this is a political motiv. And uh so what do you want to cut from the budget to make it less because this went through extensive discussion and there are fixed cost but so to have the budget that you know for like renovations and like a different
084system for that. So we want you to not say what can we do what kind of how many teachers what can we do to help the district keep our students first and then not hold for the position that we need and then kindergarten is um if I correct 25% last year this year uh and If we didn't vote until this year rather so the kindergarten is extremely popular in our community and also choose not to vote for this budget. So once the Jews know who they keep their garden last year and by not voting this you choose not to support your garden again. So I just for the public I want them to understand when you knock on doors and when you discuss with the community that you do not support kindergarten again by voting
085no. Thank you. Are there any other comments? If not, can we have a please if you can see Mr. I'm sorry forgot Mr. Yes. Mr. Hickey. No. Miss. Yes. Miss. No. Miss. Yes. That's four and five. Thank you, Madam Secretary. That's finance. The board is agreeable. We're going to move to education committee because of the contracts that are on the agenda. Does anybody object? No, we'll move to education committee. Do we have time? Should I try to shorten my given that the batteries are dying? Sure. Sure. Thank you. So, good evening. The education committee meeting was held on May 22nd at 7 p.m. here at the Chancellor Center. On the evening's agenda were prop were proposed program pilots and course changes. Um discussion of the continued um planning for structured literacy staffing requests and updates
086in special education and full day kindergarten. Um I will skip around here. Um Miss Renee Delin and Mr. Patrick Bound are math coordinator came to present and answer questions about the proposed pilot programs for the 202526 school year. The proposed pilot programs are a available for public viewing for 30 days as they are every year. Um and they just need to schedule an appointment with the administrative office. Um they're also posted on the website which is where I looked at this afternoon. The majority of the proposed textbooks are for math and science for grades 7 through 12. Um there's also a first grade science pilot program for three teams of schools for next year including Holland Elementary, Richboro Elementary, and so Feineststone. Um that should kind of wrap up the updates to align with the
087new PA science steel standards um for Council Rock. Uh Mr. Bound also presented the math uh pilot programs and stated that the math program review began back in December. It was concluded that the program programs were significantly different and not cohesive as stu as as students progressed through the grades specifically in the middle and to the high school. Um part of the selection process included a teacher survey vendor presentations and they narrowed selections um through a teacher committee. It was noted that some of the programs were also being retired necess um necessitating necessitating excuse me a change. Um I wanted to note that it seems that we approve a lot of textbooks. Um it was noted that the average academic program or lifespan of the textbooks is about 10 years. Um some of the science
088textbooks that have not have not been updated since 2008. Uh so I appreciate Miss Develin and Mr. Bound coming to present and answer uh board questions. Miss Tammy Gary also came to present about um the the upcoming legislation about the structured literacy program um that we're concluding at science um standards update and potentially some updates she'll come back to us and I'll I think discuss later on regarding some course changes in the um family consumer sciences potentially for for the state staffing request. I already discussed that part of our budget this which we just voted this evening included 8.8 full-time teaching positions in literacy um two at the middle school specialist literacy specialist for elementary school specialists five um point8 at council rock south and and two at council rock north for teachers based upon
089each individual schools and programming needs um along with an additional shipper and receiver at a high school and a.5 payroll um employee for the business office. And then I'll just skip to um special education. I know Dr. Overberman presented his first 30 to 45 days. Um he his initial goals were to meet with teachers, students, families, um and visiting every school. Um he and Miss Amanda Serene, our supervisor of specialized services, a new position this year, have been working on a program inventory to identify the purpose of the program and to help create equity among the various schools. Um I know Dr. O overman and his team will be busy over the summer continuing work on um a website for greater transparency, additional information and resources that will be available directly to families. He'll be
090looking at the least restrict restrictive environment and inclus inclusion practices in each building to implement um immediate improvements along with long-term goals. Uh some of his 2025 26 special services initiatives. Um we can look forward to for next year is a monthly newsletter continued CPAC work um with the families a family guidance document um which is a familyfriendly document with common language that's to provide families with information um along with about the special education process from beginning to end. Um and then working continuing work on looking at the programs to address any uh deficits and provide equity throughout the district. Um and then working on professional development training. So I look forward to Dr. Overman presenting in the fall uh full day kindergarten. I know that the administration is continuing to work and we're on
091schedule and I believe all the staff and teachers have been hired. So, we're excited for the 2025 26 school year and our first year of full day kindergarten here in Council Rock. Um, I'm going to conclude there. I did want to just recognize um Goodnill Elementary School for having the number one ranked um second grade team for first and math in all of the nation. There's millions of players, districts around the country um participated in it. Um, and I know Clinton Elementary as a school ranked number three in the top 500 students for participation. So, kudos um for that. That's a huge recognition. Um, congratulations to all our our 2025 graduates and congratulations to our staff and teachers retiring this year. I wish them health and happiness um as they embark on their next chapter.
092Um the education committee meeting will not be meeting um until the fall to allow administration to work throughout the summer to get ready for the next um school year and full day kindergarten for the motion coming up. Yes. Would you amend it to items through O correct me? Absolutely. Um so I move to Pardon me. Please also hold that. Okay. So that makes it C through O. All right. So now I move to approve items C through O containing the attachments to this agenda. Second. Second. Thank you. Are there any objections, questions, comments? Hearing none, please report it. passing unanimously. Um, item B, please, Miss Cr. Uh, I move to approve item B as containing the attachments to this agenda. Um, oh, wait, hold on. Yeah. Yeah, sorry. I move to approve uh I move
093to approve the textbooks presented for approval at the March education committee at a total cost of 1 million184,59581 comments questions I'll just be brief my comments are the same I'll Just be the comments are the same as before. Thank you. Any other comments? Uh hearing none. Roll call, please. Madam Secretary. Miss Paul. Yes. Miss Warner. Yes. Miss Con? Yes. Mr. Hickey. No. Miss. Yes. Mr. T? Yes. Mr. No, Miss Stone. Yes, Mr. Roosevelt. No. Thank you. Um, M item T, please. Okay. Um, I move to approve the attached settlement agreement between parents and and CR subject to audit. Second. A second. Thank you. All right. You're right. You want to go to executive session? Thank you. Very good. Mr. Ros. Miss Stone. Yes. Mr. Halo. No. Mr. T. Yes. Miss Oi. Yes. Mr. Hickey. No.
094Miss Khan. Yes. Miss Horner. Yes. Miss Paulie. Yes. 63. Thank you very much. Normally we have reports from the county IU NBIT and Education Foundation. Do we need to have those reports this season? Um, I can do it real quick. I'll do it. Yeah, I'll do it real quick. Congratulations to all 2025 Council Rock South Sloan and NBIT graduates. Best wishes and much success in the next chapter of your life. one chooses college, military apprenticeship or business or trade employment, the future is yours to make. To the council rock staff, administration, teachers that made the graduation seamless. It was much appreciated and the celebration events were well received. Mbit graduation was held on January 3rd. There were 313 graduates in total and 55 council graduates. Dr. Senko, Mr. Funk, many council principles and assistant principles
095as well as and I were present to celebrate the council rock graduates. See, council rock is so well represented. Thank you for all your support and your attendance. As a reminder, MBIT will not be holding summer sessions due to the major summer project of redoing the floors throughout most of the school. They will be completed. Please note, starting in the fall, MBIT will start an education foundation which will be in support of the career technical education school. There will be a series of fundraising, fundraising initiatives, including community events, alumni campaigns, and partnership with local businesses. This goal is to raise funds for financial support for students, essential resources for teachers and equipment that will enhance the learning experience at MBIT. Together, we can help create a skilled workforce and open doors for our youth. Also
096for all the recent graduates and our longtime alumni of MBIT, an an alumni association is being started. The kickoff meeting of the alumni association will be October 8th at 5:30 p.m. One can sign up on Facebook for the MBIT Education Association andor the MBIT Alumni Association. We look forward to growing the alumni outreach in our community with MBIT. The next MBI meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 2nd. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I'm just going to be super duper brief. Uh we've met twice since the last council uh board meeting. The IU had 55 graduates. So, congratulations to those uh individuals who uh completed their education with the IU this year. The IU has also recently received two um very impressive grants. The first one was $135,000 grant for their grow your own teacher
097program and the second was a $450,000 grant for an expansion of the uh mobile Fab Lab. I know we've been lucky enough to have the Fab Lab visit our elementary schools. This is going to provide a second mobile Fab Lab which will effectively double the amount of students that are are able to receive um steam education through the Fab Lab. So wonderful things happening. Thank you. Correct. I have four words. Golf spots still available. Uh policy committee. Uh you'll hear from me. Um policy committee has several policies on the agenda tonight for a second read. uh policy 206 218 218.1 218.2 219 220 one and 225 all for a second read. We also have a first read on policy 207. Um and I do want to note that there will not be a July policy
098meeting because uh Mr. Spring is going to be up to his neck retiring. So, um, we thank him for his hard work on that and, uh, we will meet again in August. Um, and with that, if I can find it, sorry, that's fine. Okay. I move to approve consent agenda items B through H for second read and consent agenda item I for first read as contained in the attachment to this agenda. Second. Thank you, M. Warner. Comments, questions, just really quickly. Um, I want to commend this district and this board on item the 20 policy 206 assignments within district to include the work and for the students education to be included alongside of district I think that's great and the appropriate final result and number eight the only question I've got is would these uh
099student debts preclude or prevent I suppose is a better word a student from graduating. Is there a number size that it would or is one cent unpaidclude a graduate from graduating? It would not from graduating. Okay. regardless of the amount or is there an amount where it gets too high? We work with the families to make sure we're in a good spot so that kids can graduate. I I think that that's a commendable approach and uh I am hoping that it can continue like that and not be abused by students and families. To date, it hasn't been and I think that that's that's wonderful. So that was that was my only comment on that. Um, as as a parent of a of a graduate, I think that that point should be made clear in communications
100to parents and more notably to the students to make sure that they don't get the wrong opinion that they don't pay for charging or you know a lunch or something like that. They're not going to be able to graduate. That's not position. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments, questions? Any objections? If not, please mad secret that motion is passing unanimously and we are on facilities. Thank you. We have one item um on the facility and I should announce that that we have um decided collectively the board to cancel the July facilities committee the finance committee meeting scheduled for the same date uh will go forward um effect. I move to approve the bid from Hburg Mechanical for the Churchville Elementary School back flow prevent replacement bid 2533 in the amount of 42,400 subject to solicitors
101review and audit second comments questions hearing none please record that motion is passing unanimously I believe we covered these We jumped around a bit. Just want to make sure public comment. Is there anyone here from the public who wishes to comment? I don't see anyone. hand up. Uh, and that takes us to the new business. Is there any new business? Is there any old business? This is marvelous. We made it throughout. Thanks for everybody for being so uh helpful and and uh you know cooperating and and understanding. So thank you. Please be careful walking out.