001you know when it's ready to go we are live good evening Council Rock community and welcome to our our June board business meeting I can't believe we are halfway through 2020 and I hope we can get through the next step faster than we got through the first half I'm gonna call the meeting to order and ask dr. Thor to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please or I pledge allegiance to the States of America which it stands one nation one nation under God indivisible thank you doctor Thor ward Madam Secretary roll call please Kristen Marcel Christa Marcel all right okay it's Solomon here Andy Bloch and here smart pilot here ed Tate here Mike dart here Denise Brooks here Mary Ann McKie here filtered I'll go here thank you madam secretary dr. Fraiser superintendent
002report please Thank You mr. block and good evening everyone allow me to first offer our collective congratulations to our class of 2020 you are now officially see our alumni we're proud of you we stand with you and we stand in support of you as you go out into the world and make it better than you found it I want to thank our CR staff or local police and fire departments for making Monday's car parade one that was meaningful and memorable for our beloved class of 2020 and their families I particularly want to thank mr. saenko mr. Fredricksen ms McCarthy mr. funk and our high school administrative teams for their valiant efforts to make this experience happen for our students congratulations again to the class of 2020 and speaking of making the world a better place
003I've been here from some students and alumni about their concerns with Rachel and justices that have obviously gained considerable nationwide attention and in recent weeks particularly after the deaths of Brianna Taylor George Floyd and Ahmad R burry like many I've been deeply disturbed by the sense by these senseless killings of African American citizens many of our students and alumni are similarly disturbed and they're looking to be agents of change I commend and I applaud them for that further we stand with them in their call to action the simple fact of the matter is that the Council Rock School District like all school districts has a responsibility to educate and inform our students about these vitally important matters before they graduate before they enter a world that may very well look and feel substantially different from
004the 72 square miles that comprise our Council Rock School District we've made many efforts in recent years to provide ongoing equity-based staff training and to incorporate greater diversity into our curricula at every grade level and yet we know that even more work remains in fact we know that much more work remains and our responsibility here isn't merely to prepare or student body for a world that awaits them upon graduation but also and incredibly importantly to create a culture in our schools and throughout our school community that embraces diversity in all of its various forms the culture I reference is not one of tolerance our objective must never be to merely Tory who we are inside and out what we're after is acceptance and more than that celebration we want our students and we want our
005school community to value to genuinely value all that we have in common and all of which makes us very unique in our own ways our students every single one of them deserve that Rory they're 13 years in Council Rock my team and I look forward to working with our students alumni staff parents the school board and others to turn his vision into reality for every single one of our students every single day now as we look ahead to the fall in the planned reopening of our schools please know that we have a task force that is planning for a variety of scenarios that we may encounter in the upcoming school year we do we absolutely do expect to open our doors on August 31st for the first day of school we're currently examining what exactly
006that will look like the scenarios were planning for not just for the start of the year but as conditions might change during the school year include the following being fully open with no or minimal social distancing requirements I think we're all ready to get back to that and hopefully at some point we will another scenario is of course being open with social distancing guidelines in place this scenario could result in phased student schedules we also need to be prepared to close our doors our school doors at a moment's notice in the event that we have a Cove in nineteen outbreak at one or more of our schools as such we all must be ready to transition to distance learning with little notice we're also planning to be fully remote again for a period of time
007next year if needed and only if needed we learned a lot about distance learning over these past three months and parental feedback via the survey that we're conducting is already proven to be extremely helpful in guiding our efforts to improve our distance learning program and as a reminder to parents that survey is still active it closes next Friday so thanks I think we have about 2900 folks who have already completed that survey and if you've yet to have a chance to do so it will be open for another eight days so so please do take the time to do that if you're able and finally we also need to have a flexible differentiated model for students families and staff members who may be of heightened risk to koban 19 and please know here that as
008we plan for the myriad of safety considerations and play with reopening our schools our concerns reside not only with our students but with our staff as well will needs to keep everyone as safe as possible and the level of risk is not necessarily the same between students and adults or even within the student population or within the adult population we're currently working on the health and safety plan which once completed will outline plans for opening the 20 2021 school year as one of the starting points for this work we'll be conducting surveys that will guide our planning efforts and it will be important really important that we have as close to 100% participation as possible we anticipate sending our first survey to all parents and all staff members at some point next week so please
009please be on the lookout for that via email and in closing under act 39 of 2018 schools may but are not required to test for lead levels annually in the drinking water of any facility where children attend school we fully tested all of our schools including all accessible sinks and water fountains during the 2018-19 school year and we had plan to test again over these past couple of months however koban $19 and the way and as you know we have been closed for these past couple of months and thus the Council Rock School District was unable to test these locations in the 2019-20 school year but we do have plans in place to test all schools this summer before students return for the new school year and we will submit those results as required by
010act 39 of 2018 to the Pennsylvania Department of Education thanks mr. block thank you dr. Fraiser and just let me reiterate what a fantastic job that the entire administrative team centrally and at the high schools did with senior recognition activities for the class of 2020 those those parades were fantastic the feedback that we've gotten on the virtual graduation was fantastic I hope we've created some great new traditions potentially and I'm looking forward to seeing what what the kids come up with to hopefully get together at some point later on this summer when it's permissible but I know dr. Frazier mr. saenko that you and the teams you know you really put a lot of time you talked to a lot of parents and I've got a lot of feedback prior and and I hope you're
011getting just as much feedback now about how great it was because because that's what that's what I'm hearing so well done and and we appreciate it with that we move to mr. Cox and solicitors report mr. black the board held an executive session Monday June 15 on a personnel matter and that's all I had the report in this setting Thank You mr. Cox all right mrs. O'Grady why don't we go to our public comment our first public comment is from Valerie Mae home from Newtown she says my name is Valerie and I have a 5th grader and kindergarten are attending this coming school year I also work as an essential employee at a hospital coming from someone in the medical profession who is required to wear a mask all day I strongly opposed my children
012having to wear one at school during my work shift I often feel like I cannot get enough oxygen and sometimes get lightheaded when warm for long periods of time I will not submit my children to that there are no studies showing that it is even safe for children to wear mask for hours in the end we have no idea if it will affect their developing brains and body another reason I request that we open up school normally is that children need a normal environment where they can learn and socialize I see many problems with maths for students they for one will be touching their face mask more often if they weren't wearing one I see adults wearing masks and not using them correctly do you think children will fiddling with your mask wearing it under
013your nose or under your chin defeats the purpose of wearing one never have schools subjected their children just such an unhealthy uncomfortable an anti educational environment so science cannot precisely define the total harm but it will cause what science does tell us the risk from kovat 19 are too minimal to sacrifice the educational social emotional and physical well-being of our very healthy and young children sincerely valerie may hone our second comment is from Susan suruci of Newtown she writes good evening I hope this finds everyone well I'd like to voice my thoughts before the meeting about reopening in the fall first I understand and appreciate the amount of pressure on you to decide not only what is best for the students education but also their mental and physical health not to mention the impact the
014decision will have on parents I know the ultimate goal in the community is that we get through this together while trying to make sure we are addressing everyone's needs from all aspects having said that I personally feel it will be in the best interest for our students to fully return to a normal school day with athletics and extracurricular activities I think getting them back some normalcy will benefit both students and parents I would also like to see no mass required I'm sure you have seen the studies that show they really do not need to prevent the spread of this virus as well as it makes him touch their faces more additionally it only serves to spread to fear monger and cut off communication with covering of facial expressions as it is my son who is
015a very social kid will have trouble not high-fiving or giving his friends and pat on the back what are we doing to our children this virus as you well know does not affect children the way it affects our elderly so much has been taken from them I'd like to see the students be able to be kids again I know for my children who will be in the 4th and 12th grade that the quarantine was very mentally and emotionally challenging for them distance learning served no one and tore them away from all that they loved about being in a community if we have to go into a government lockdown again god forbid at least give the students an opportunity to be free for a time I'm praying for you all in this decision it won't be
016easy but I trust you would do the right thing regards Susan tsuruji our third comment came from Julie Schlosser of Newtown she says I am writing in support of opening back up the schools in September I believe the children need a sense of normalcy back into their lives please consider opening up without masks as well thank you very much Julie Shaw sir our next comment came from Krista pentile of Upper make fields she writes very significant data to support that we can safely reopen our schools the risk of not reopening is far worse depression anxiety it goes on please support the safe reopening next we heard from Deanna polida of Newtown she wrote we all received the email from dr. Frazier regarding the task force that was put together one who was on this task
017force and when they have their contact information - how her parents and students being represented I have a petition with almost 500 signatures of parents who strongly agree with the school's reopening normally with no mass someone in our group spoke to dr. danciger and he stated that he does not feel masks or needed nor does he feel school would need to close again it cases start to increase in the fall children are not at risk for this virus I by someone on this committee to call dr. Dancy directly and discuss this with him and she cites dr. dancers number next we have a comment from misty law flurry of Newtown Township who writes hello I appreciated receiving dr. fraisers email yesterday and it's mention of a task force being created as well as a special
018committee being created to address issues about the district for the opening in August however I'm concerned about what appears to be a lack of student and parent inclusion in this reopening process so I must ask how will parents and students input be included other than through surveys and will the results of the surveys be shared with the CRS D community at large thank you misty Lafleur II our next comment came from Rebecca Roosevelt of Ivy land and she submitted a series of questions number one who was on the task force and when will contact info be released - we know that parents are included on the surveys but why aren't parents and/or students being placed on the committee's well the results of surveys be released and if so when and how for I absolutely refuse
019to let my kids wear a mask at any time when will we know if masks are required and at any point so we can make our own arrangement outside of CR I do not want my tax money going to a school who require masking kids 5 is the district aware of how many masks greatly reduce proper breathing and oxygen levels in blood decrease 6 is a district to wear hazards being placed requiring all parties to follow one course of action 7 is a district aware that parents want a dual option one offering in school with no restrictions and the second option is to stay home to do school online if you are a rare is a true consideration 8 the district aware of what a true disaster online learning was for a lot of households
020the mental and social ramifications will be sorted out for years are you aware that online school made no provisions from my son who has a 504 as parents of children in elementary middle and high school we urge the school board to open in the fall with regular school no restrictions our children have been through enough and deserve their education back our next comment comes from Joanna Hagar who did not list her her residents dear school board members after reading dr. Frazier's email regarding the reopening task force I have a few questions the task force will consist of the cabinet supervisor pupil services nursing coordinator and the cria and crest the president's there is nowhere that mentions input from parents or students as the parent of the student attending Council Rock North I would like to
021think that our opinions would be important as with past decisions the school district has always been open to the opinions of the taxpayers and students and we are hoping that will continue to be the case here are my questions who specifically is on the task force steering committee and when will their contact information be made public will there be parents included on these committees once the parent student surveys are closed will those results be published what is the planned timeline for a decision on reopening of schools requirement for wearing mask extra curricular and co-curricular activities in the fall our next question came from Kelly step of Richboro and she writes Thank You dr. Frazier for your email in regards to do reopening plan for CRS D I'm happy to hear that so much thought and
022planning has gone into this process however I have a few questions I'm hoping you can answer one well our families have the choice to direct their children to not wear masks because of health conditions if so how will these children be treated in the normal student population to how are these committees created task force and steering team who picked them on on what guidance where they picked three will you make the student parent survey results public four will there be the description for the tip for the face masks that are acceptable example and 95 designs etc and documentation supporting that they work in this type of environment I understand that there will be many questions along the way as this is not a situation that we are familiar with but we want to make sure
023we create an environment that is backed by science and not political views thank you Kelly step our next comment came from Christine Nelson of Newtown Christine submitted a series of questions first will you consider starting school without any restrictions for students to since the Health Department guidelines are only recommendations and they are leaving it up to school districts to decide what they want to do compare and sign waivers 3 can we make mask and social distancing an option for parents and students to decide what is best for them 4 if you decide to implement certain procedures for back-to-school how is the district going to pay for it given we have a huge budget deficit 5 will there be contact information for the new task 4 searing and individual committees responsible for electing data or making
024recommendations for back-to-school procedures and fine Oh next there were no mention of parents or students being part of this new task force committee how will we be represented it besides through the surveys and finally will the survey results become public and when Thank You Christine our next comment is from Bridget Hogan Perry of Newtown she writes I am very interested in knowing who will be on the task force for reopening the schools I did not have a great experience from my child with how the koba distance learning was conducted imagine not what my son to have his last year to be anything like the end of this year he is on an IEP and he was not given what he needed to finish out this year I don't fault the teachers at all I am
025also very curious as to what background any of those under the task force will have will this be all folks or all folks who are one-sided on how school should look in the future we all should have a say and there should be parents involved that represent all schools in the district a survey is not enough we are taxpayers and we as parents deserve to be part of the task force how much communication can we expect the more the better in my opinion thank you in advance and I hope to hear answers to these questions either quite email or via the meeting our next comment comes from Kimberly of a rich barrel she writes I'm sorry Kimberly Pulaski mcfinn a rich barrel and she writes I read your email today about the committee to reopen
026the schools I'm curious of the names of the people who are on the committee I believe parents and students voices need to be heard I do not want my children to go back to school with masks on and without interaction with other children my son is already struggling greatly from all the negative impacts of the social distancing this is hurting our children and mentally I really hope that there will be options if parents are afraid they should be able to leave their kids at home if not and want their kids to experience school like they always have our kids deserve that right concerned parent the next comment is from Eagle Basile okati of Newtown who writes I have four children who are students at Council Rock School District I would like to let you know
027but I strongly oppose the use of face masks when the schools reopen I truly believe it is not human to require children to wear a mask all day it's not healthy to breathe in your own bacteria I have to wear a mask at work and it's impossible please try it yourself not to mention one of my children is epileptic and she cannot wear a mask please let parents choose if you want to let our children go back to school the distance learning was absolutely horrible they learned nothing children are getting depressed and that's very serious they need to go to school they need to see their teachers and friends they need to play sports and music please let us be responsible for our children and if we feel it's safe enough to go to school
028let us make that choice how do you think we parents can work and pay for the bills if we still need to go to work I am a single mother of four children I work very hard to afford my rent so my children can go to me schools distance learning would make us homeless thank you eagle and that is our final comment for the evening thank you mrs. O'Grady and and heard a couple things I want to comment on firstly I think it's probably almost daily that dr. Fraser is speaking to dr. damn skirt so you know everybody out there should know that we are I shouldn't say we our administrative team is very close to their peer groups all of the different support groups in the area in the state and also our local
029officials and I would also say that you know one of the things that came through there was about parents student involvement in in in in the reopening plan and I just like to provide some context for everybody in a sense of that we have about five weeks if if that to work through a plan and approve a plan and then the real work of implementing that plan and getting ready for the school year begins so having as much inclusivity as you might normally like it a big initiative is gonna be a real challenge for us here dr. Fraser I don't know if you wanted to comment anything on public comment or if you want to just have us go ahead and move on well let me first thank you for for those comments because I
030think I think they're spot-on we certainly do value parental input as I had noted obviously those that public comment came in prior to to my superintendent report this evening but but i but I did reference that and really truly hope that 100% of our parents are able to give us feedback via the surveys we do anticipate multiple surveys not just one but we did not yet even have a chance to develop that first survey we're going to have a draft hopefully early next week and we'll hopefully be able to get that out by the middle of next week and part of this mind you is that dr. danciger as most of our parents know from the letter I sent out did issue guidance to consular Agra pull up other Bucks County school districts and that
031was only three three just about 72 hours ago it was on Monday evening so we are digesting that I do talk with dr. danciger white regularly we email we texted and we've gotten each other quite well he's a fantastic gentleman he's an asset to the county an asset to our school district he's a parent himself in a neighboring district of school-age kids and really really thank him for his work his leadership also should take the time to thank Scott Forester who's the Bucks County director of EMS emergency management services he is typically on or twice a week superintendent countywide callers as well and I know I would say in terms of contact info just please contact me send me an email if you have questions send me an email if you have suggestions that are
032burning otherwise we would just ask that you give us some time to do this this work based upon dr. dancers recommendations that again only came out three days ago we're gonna lean on those recommendations pretty heavily and we will be looking forward to your survey responses and using those to the god or work thanks mr. block dr. Frasier if I could now call on mr. Bullock for letters D there to make a motion to pass the approval of minutes of our board meeting on May 21st please I moved to approve the minutes of the public meeting of the school board of directors on May 21st 2020 second thank you doctor mr. Solomon for the second any questions any objections all in favor say aye all right aye any opposed nay please note the motion passed
033with unanimous consent and with that we will move to mr. Tate where the Education Committee update and motions Thank You mr. block Education Committee last met June 11 as part of a joint committee meeting our next meeting is July 9 again as part of a joint committee meeting and I'll move on to the motion I move to approve consent agenda items B through D as contained in the attachments to this agenda second thank you dr. Thor Ward any questions any objections all in favor say aye aye any opposed say nay please note the motion passes with unanimous consent Madame secretary and mr. Tate if we could move the letter E please letter E it is the I'm it is I moved to approve the reconfiguration of rolling hills elementary school as described in the letter
034of today's date from dr. Fraser to the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education and as attached to this agenda and direct the administration to obtain PD ease approval of the reconfiguration that's a motion yet need a second I'll second second Thank You mr. Salomon mr. sankyou or dr. Frasier any quick comment sir mr. block anytime we change our configuration we have the petition pde and so essentially what this letter says is that upon the completion of Rolling Hills Elementary School we will relocate that that students math population to their original home the newly renovated Rolling Hills Elementary Thank You mr. saenko good news for that rolling hills community very close to getting back into a brand new building any questions for the administration any objections all in favor say aye say nay Madame secretary please note note
035note that the motion passes with unanimous consent and if we could move to miss Brooks for the Bucks County IU update please thank you the I you met this week and we had a lot of conversation just about the current state of our school Pennsylvania did approve a new state budget which will become effective July 1st we had talked about this last month the budget is an interim sprint interim spending plan that provides five months of funding for most of the state agencies but it contains a full year of funding for education which allows us to have a budget on our agenda tonight we talked a little bit about a document that was produced by the association of school superintendents aasa because they conducted a little research to calculate the average cost estimate for some
036of the likely expensive school districts will incur in response kovin so the calculations assumed an average school district of three thousand six hundred and fifty nine students with eight buildings 183 classrooms 329 and staff members and 40 school buses it's obviously considerably smaller than our district but it's worth noting that the document estimates that the average expecting in costs for cleaning and staff protective equipment transportations and such is approximately 1 million seven hundred and seventy eight thousand one hundred and thirty nine dollars for the average district in further conversation about the state budget there it is noted that there is a significant boost to schools for school safety and mental health initiatives so a combined 215 million dollars is allocated for grants under these bills and the grants the application was released on Tuesday with
037a due date of June 30th and so this funding stream can be used by school entities for cleaning and sanitizing products training and professional development on staff on sanitation and the minimization of the spread of disease equipment PPE thermometers mental health services and supports including trauma-informed education programs for students who are impacted by kovat purchasing technology for distance learning and so on so the committee will allocate funds on or before July 15th to schools and they said that each district will receive a minimum of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars but tazbo the Pennsylvania Association of School Business officials did some calculations on the Tagus this money will be distributed and it is estimated that council Rock could receive eight hundred and forty five thousand six hundred and five dollars another thing interesting to note
038note about what has passed recently is that the school code contains a provision now this is an amendment to the school code it now has a provision effective with the start of the 2020 2021 school year that the 180 day minimum required number of school days will apply or I said Rob Cox would correct me shall apply even if a disaster declaration is issued by the governor and so as dr. Fraser talked and he talked about in his report we talked at length about how schools will be open and and what this means in terms of you know what school districts have to do to prepare us for the opening of schools so PDE has issued some guidelines but basically schools as dr. Fraser said need to develop a health and safety plan that's based
039on guidelines from the CDC the State Department of Health and the local County Health Department this plan is approved by the school board and it has to include several elements including our pandemic coordinator or team it's going to coordinate our response efforts steps to protect high-risk children and staff how we're going to monitor students and staff guide Liem guidelines for hygiene practices how we're going to clean and disinfect protocols for social distancing and procedures for restricting large gatherings part of this also includes the need for a plan to restart our athletics program so that is a separate plan that the school board has to approve and the decision to resume athletics is at the discretion of individual school districts obviously the athletic plan that we develop has to align with the health and safety plan
040that we are producing for regular education and any sports related activities in the yellow or green phases must adhere to gathering limitations that are set forth by the state so that would be no more than 25 people if we're in the yellow 250 people if we're in the green and a facility cannot exceed 50 percent of its total occupancy so these are all things that we'll have to consider you know in the development of this plan sports related activities though in general are limited to athletes coaches and other staff members visitors and spectators are our contingent on other criteria so PD has provided templates both of these plans and so mr. block when you said that the administration has a lot of work to do to get a plan before this board by next month
041for opening it's a lot of work but finally we also did talk about the historic ruling that took place in the Supreme Court this week where the court held in a vote six to three discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression are prohibited under title seven of the Civil Rights Act and the opinion was a surprise and is the first major case on transgender rights by the court but in the in the brief it said the quote from Justice Gorsuch what an employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law and so collectively at the IU there was some discussion about the need for school districts to evaluate their policies and practices for compliance with this law that's why thank you very much thank you
042Miss Brooks will go to mr. Hidalgo for the Council Rock Education Foundation update okay thanks I just want to commend Denise Brooks for always having excellent informative presentation and it's full of chock full of really good information technical stuff and I'm gonna follow with some light-hearted educational foundation a little less technical but still very important so as the liaison I just try to keep you guys updated on what's going on and as we know with the coming of the Pam Demick it kind of put a freeze on on the regular operations of the foundation and so you know we had a rock defuse planned for I believe April which was now postponed until October 2nd and with what Denise was saying about if in if wearing the green and the 250 capacity limit on occupancy
043at the fuse because seats could be limited so it's important to get your tickets soon and stay positive that maybe things will open up even better and hopefully we won't go backwards so it's important to note that the proceeds for the for the for the events that the foundation put together go to support the K through 12 steam projects not covered by the annual school budget and they engage the children and spark their imagination that to develop a lifelong passion for learning so I really appreciate the foundation and that's their there there they really have a focus on providing steam where where we may not be able to and continue to to grow in that area so just so you know October 2nd God willing we're all going to be able to gather our friends
044and join for a fabulous night of food spirits and silent auctions items and entertainment with the special guests performed by boneheads at the fuse starting at 7 p.m. and until midnight plus this year they'll have a VIP back stage lounge with specialty craft bar for those who chose to make a higher donation and then even just that next Thursday October 8th the Council Rock Foundation is going to have their second annual Golf Classic presented by customers Bank so appreciate their their partnership and with this event this outing is going to take place at Philmont Country Club in Huntington Valley and there's a continental breakfast going to be at 10:00 a.m. a shotgun start at 11:00 and followed after we're done there'll be a two-hour postgame reception so I encourage everybody to come out and support
045this great foundation that's doing a lot for our school there's picton and just appreciate the opportunity to uh promote that thank you Thank You mr. Hidalgo and with that we'll move to MS McKee for the update on the middle bucks Institute of Technology Thank You mr. block on June the 8th the middle bucks Institute of Technology held virtual executive council meeting and there was an executive session held for the Mbit school safety and security practices annual report in compliance with that 44 and to discuss personnel matters next the work on the student bill modular house was interrupted earlier this year due to COBIT but a buyer has expressed interest in purchasing the house as is so after reviewing the cost to date for the house and recognizing the uncertainty of what school look like them
046of all the executive council agreed with the recommendation to pursue an offer from that prospective buyer next we reviewed enrollment numbers for the fall it's expected three hundred and forty seven new students will be attending along with 539 returning students this represents an increase of one hundred students as compared to the current school year I had previously asked the business manager at Mbit about the possibility of refinancing outstanding bonds in an effort to achieve some savings and after contacting pfm projection shows potential savings from a series of 2014 bonds in order to perform a refinancing a parameters resolution would need to come before each of the sending districts boards so it was then requested that pfm information be shared with our respective business administrators as we're all very aware Central Bucks in New Hope Solebury
047have already voted to approve mbit/s proposed budget for the 2020 2021 school year and this budget will be coming before us for a vote tonight and I just want to take the opportunity to thank dr. Fraser as our Mbit superintendent of record for his leadership through this difficult budgeting process in addition after discussion among the expect council members and that hoc committee will be forming to look at possible cost-saving measures going forward and then finally in conclusion the Mbit senior recognition ceremony was held virtually on Thursday June the 4th using a video format and I'm sure we all want to join in congratulating these students on their achievement and wishing them the very best going forward that concludes my report Thank You mr. McKee and I would imagine there is no update on the policy
048committee as we have not met that's correct sir thank you Miss McKee all right mr. Marcelle you're the star of the show tonight you've got the lion's share of the agenda as you go through the fight a committee update and motions and just for the board as we get into discussion around some of these motions please remember to raise your hand and I will fall on you so we're not speaking over each other okay thank you mr. block I approved consent agenda items B through P as contained in the attachments to this agenda good thank you dr. Ward are there any questions are there any objections all those in favor say aye aye any opposed say nay thank you Miss Moore so let's move to the letter Q hmm before we move on to item
049Q if you wouldn't mind with your approval of item C in the in the consent agenda you approved over 2100 refunds due to our families as a result of all the activities that were cancelled as a result of the pandemic so I'd first like to thank our families for their patience as we process those refunds out of my office but also publicly thank our two accounting specialists barbara boyce and lisa leslie who were solely responsible for the processing of those 2,100 refunds and to give you some perspective that's about our normal number of refunds out of student activities per years about 20 so they worked together and created an import template that we could use to upload the information into our data system and then also obviously process those refund checks so I just wanted
050to publicly thank them for for their efforts which are really extraordinary given the circumstances sorry honey I'm soon and thanks for recognizing them irismarcel letter q please Thursday evening mr. sim provided an update on the district insurance for Neil recommendations including coverage changes for 2020 to 2021 he discussed the establishment of a committed fund balance approving is transferred to the capital reserve fund and recommendations utilize a new delinquent real estate text collector and then finally reviewed the 2020 2021 and the Aegean Council are offended sorry I wanted to say that and it got away so we're moving to the I move to approve the disposal of to maintenance and because the cost repair exceeds the value of the vehicles second okay dr. Thor's any questions for mr. stone the objections all in favor say aye
051I say nay please note that the motion passed with unanimous consent with that we will go to the piano donation letter are pleased and those who approve the piano donation to come from South High School any questions for dr. Elliot dr. Ali where'd we get that Thank You mr. black and mr. Marceau we had an alumnus who wanted to donate a piano from his family to council rock South and originally had planned to bring this to the board in March but due to the closure and our inability to accept any kind of deliveries we delayed the work on accepting this donation and we're very excited that we can move forward this donation tonight and this piano actually donation brings us into parity in our two high school choral rooms North currently does have a baby
052grand piano in there choral room and South does not so now South will also have a similar model piano in their quarrel room excellent thank you dr. Elliott are there any objections to this motion before you go on I think we need a second so I'll second that I'm sorry thanks for catching that dark throw word all right with that second are there any objections all in favor please say aye aye opposed say nay Madame secretary please note the motion passed with unanimous consent and with that we'll move to letter s I moved to approve the five-year contract for multifunction copier devices and printer maintenance and support with frasier advanced information systems for a monthly lease cost of nine thousand one hundred twenty seven dollars and seventy six cents a five-year total of seven hundred
053and forty seven thousand six hundred and sixty six dollars and a monochrome black and white cost of point zero zero three eight cents per copy for copier devices and point zero zero seven six cents per printer and a color cost of point zero three nine eight cents per copier device and point zero five one seven cents per color printer contingent on final solicitor review that mr. Hidalgo with the second yeah yes thank you are there any questions for mr. Fredricksen I just wanted to know if you know are we currently in a five-year contract with our current service and renewing for another five years that was the only questioning yes our existing contract expires June thirtieth and it was time to renew renew it so we did go out to bid we posted an RFP
054we had five responses and Frasier came in the lowest with the sharp equipment I see that thank you any other questions any objections all in favor please say aye any opposed say nay please note that the motion passed with unanimous consent Madam Secretary and with that we'll move to letter T I need to approve the amendment to the agreement between the Council Rock School District and the Council Rock administrators act 93 agreement as attached any questions for dr. Frasier and objections you'll need a second again I'll second I'll second bad management here bad second who's the second from mr. Salomon Thank You mr. Salomon any questions for dr. Fraser any objections all in favor please say aye aye all opposed say nay I'm sorry to note that the motion passed with unanimous consent letter U
055the personnel actions please with Marcel I need to approve the personnel actions as contained in the attachments to this agenda thank you Miss McKee anything of note miss Taylor okay thank you any questions any objections all in favor please say aye any opposed say nay please note the motion passes with unanimous consent Madam Secretary and with that mr. Marcel if we could please make the motion for our 20 2021 budget I'll require second then we'll turn it over to mr. stone Thank You mr. block I move to approve the Council Rock School District final 2020 2021 general fund budget and tax resolution with the tax increase a 3.1 percent occluding to 130 point two or six mils as contained in the attachment to this agenda and subject to final collateral review second Thank You mr.
056Tate mr. stone the floor is yours and thank you for to get to this point today our pleasure so dr. Fraser and I are just going to give a very brief overview of what has been a very detailed process to get to this point of recommending to you a a final budget for the upcoming year so dr. Fraser I'll let you pick us off and then all show as mr. stone just said this has indeed been a very difficult budget process any time any time the economy is in a slump recession it's going to be difficult with our decisions that need to be made in compounding the issue with this particular budget is the fact that we're also dealing with the pandemic with many unknowns and therefore it's hard to predict what we'll need and
057what the corresponding costs with the crowd this evening to present a final budget recommendation to the to the border school directors and it's really a very well structured budget and we'll talk about that as we go through this despite the difficult economic times I am absolutely thrilled and appreciative that we're able if approved this evening to add three elementary school counselors to our team CR this would allow us to have one school counselor at each of our ten elementary schools which is a desperate desperate need of ours and really helps bring our plan to life so thrilled about that inclusion as well as the addition of a new LD teacher eld stands for English language development this has been in need of ours in the past we have not been able to make it work
058from a budgetary standpoint and in this year we are and we are grateful for that and we know our students in that program are going to directly benefit from it and then we get to the piece that I was referencing about the structure of this budget we faced just about a 16 million dollar budget deficit at the outset of this process and and it was quite daunting but but through everyone chipping in and everyone being part of the solution 1:1 Council Rock we're able to make it happen and that includes our team our staff celery concessions this year alone two and a half million remember that it's 18 months total of celery concessions so we have another couple million that will be coming in the 2122 school year and we could not have pulled this
059budget off without that we also have significant budget reductions to the tune of about 6 a half-million dollars and this is far far more than just simply cutting the fat we are going to do without resources and you know some of the tools that we've had this past year and in years past we're going to have to do without them next year and that's just part of us being responsive to this fiscal environment and then as you all know we have all supposed to spend the our capital plan so what that means is any any project for whom we have not yet borrow the money have been suspended so right now that's the turf it's south and it is the expansion and renovation of Seoul feinstone Elementary we have not yet needed to make any
060kind of decision on Richboro or Hillcrest elementary because we have not needed to borrow those funds as of yet and then finally the last piece from the revenue side is a 3.1 percent real estate tax increase which is a difficult tax increase in this economy and and I don't think that's lost on any of us and I'm not sure that it's an easy vote for anyone this evening as a result of that but again what does make me proud and really grateful is the fact that as you can see here we are we're making sacrifices all throughout this community is smoking the in our entire tax base to be able to put a budget together that's both fiscally responsible and responsible to our students and and one of the pieces that we're looking at in
061this budget is implementing a one-to-one Chromebook program so we we've been operating at just about a two-to-one to students for every one Chromebook and with the with the advent of distance learning this past spring and knowing that we might very well find ourselves in some form of distance learning whether it's a day or two at a time or another couple of months at a time it's one of the things that we don't know but it is important that we make that transition for one to one at this time and then the final piece is the our budget from a Kobin standpoint again includes about 1.1 million dollars in in federal funding so we know that we're eligible for those funds we intend to maximize these dollars so that the burden of code could with 19
062from a financial standpoint is not borne locally as I mentioned before we don't know exactly what it is or how much or what the total field will come to but we are currently in the process of developing our spending plans based upon the federal guidance that's available so that provides a high-level summary and mr. stone will take you through some of the details thank you dr. Frasier as I noted in the committee meeting last week this this really is an unusual budget for two reasons the first is that the local revenues or the excuse me the revenue totals 240 3.1 million dollars represents a increase of real estate taxes of about 4.9 million dollars and an about equal decrease in other local revenues because of the impact of the pandemic it's similarly unusual in the
063expenditure line item because the 246 point 1 million dollar expenditure total is less by about two hundred thousand dollars than the prior year budget the 2019-20 budget and in a rising cost environment with state and federal mandates this is this is really unique and it's a it's because of the salary concessions and the budget reductions that dr. Fraser just talked about we are as part of this budget facing a deficit of just over 3 million dollars and we will use about 14% of our fund balance in order to cover that deficit so that's that three point just over three million dollars right there that I'm that I'm highlighting so we obviously have no no deficit but we hope not to have to draw out of our reserves in order to balance our budget the real
064estate tax increase is three point one percent dr. Fraser noted you can see the millage information the military will be increasing to 130 point two one six and those properties that are eligible for either a homestead and/or a farmstead credit we'll be entitled to a $283 and 42 cent reduction on their tax bill here's a pie chart of our final revenue budget and as I've mentioned many times before and probably starting to sound like a broken record we are a very heavily local locally funded School District which is common for school districts in the suburbs seventy-six percent of our revenue or about 187 million dollars comes from local sources primarily the real estate tax but also the Earned Income Tax and the occupation tax as well as some some real estate transfer taxes and interest
065earnings state and federal sources total up to about 53 million dollars representing 23 percent of the final revenue budget and the small dark blue piece of the pie here is the use of fund balance coming in at three million dollars or about one percent of the total revenues necessary for the upcoming year the final expenditure budget pie chart looks very similar and that is because we are a people organization we are students and teachers primarily the rest of us support that work in the classroom coming in at seventy six percent of the total budget or just under one hundred eighty eight million dollars for all salaries and benefits a significant portion of the total budget is contributions to the state pension system where Keyser's that is sixteen percent of our total two hundred forty six
066million dollar budget we have a manageable debt load at eight percent of our of our total budget and then the final piece of the pie here this this this darker blue are what we call our 300 to 900 objects which represents all of the products and services that are necessary to run the school district the supplies and classrooms the contracted services that we need to clean our buildings transport our students as well as equipment and and all the other miscellaneous items that are that are necessary that total is about fifty eight point three million dollars for next year dr. Fraser mentioned about kovat 19 which is a still a tremendous uncertainty as we enter into the next year's budget and there is really very little information final final information available to us to know exactly
067how much money is going to be spent what we are thinking thinking ahead and our budget is we believe able to adapt to any of the contingencies that we might face with the reopening plans and all again stresses this rather bright yellow graphic notes that the reopening plans are still to be determined there there's nothing been finalized yet but we do need to be adaptable to any changes that will come as a result of the coronavirus so we have a couple of ways that we will do do that we have a commitment that the board just approved a fund balance which would cover any unanticipated covin 19 expenditures we anticipate that that will be a multi-year commitment if there some of these restrictions may carry on into future years but we're also going to be
068using a contingency budget plan for the upcoming year where we will be carefully tracking our local revenues and making sure that they're hitting the trigger points that we need to see in order to be able to release the expenditures to our departments and to our buildings and phases we do not want to be in a position where our revenues are coming in less than anticipated but that our expenditures are coming in higher so we are going to be very prudent in how we release funds to to our departments and and spend in a careful manner so that we don't end up in a position of needing to make any mid-year drastic reductions and then the last item will also earmark any specific accounts that we might be a might need to borrow from if the
069expenditures exceed the amount in committed fund balance or that we've included in federal stimulus funds and again that's all going to be based on the final reopening plan that that is developed the budget at CRS d email address is is open for folks to ask any questions about the budget but we are recommending the dr. Frasier and I just reviewed for your approval thank you thank you mr. stone it's first first full full budget cycle since you've been here right on your own that's correct I hope that they're not always challenging is this one but dr. Frasier mr. stone the entire team that but work into this as a board we appreciate it it's uh it's just a difficult year and an unknown future and I you all have framed up everything that that we've
070needed to hear in in a really accessible way so on behalf of the board thank you and with that what I'll do is I'll ask my peers to to raise their hand if they've got a comment or a question miss Brooks thank you first I just want to thank everyone all the people who worked to get this budget as it is it it is not lost on any of us the tremendous amount of effort that went into this and just the concessions from the staff everything is so appreciated I have one question and then just two comments mr. stone can you just remind me if we use the full three million dollar fund balance next year how much will that leave us in our fund balance account based on where we are currently that will
071leave us with about 19 million dollars of fund balance remaining okay so we've we've really started dipping into that quite a bit in in recent years so we'll certainly have to keep our eye on that I just want to make a comment that I mean it's we all say this and it's true I mean voting for a tax increase particularly at this difficult time is it's not an easy decision so we have to balance the needs of keeping our you know our school district high-performing and providing to our kids and in the spirit of that I I was just laughing it to myself as I was looking at these slides about well you years ago or so after seriously sitting in the audience at school board meetings for years lobbying for one guidance counselor at
072the elementary level that happened right what we lobbied for years a group of us for years to just bring a guidance counselor to the elementary level when my kids were in school the majority of the time there were no guidance counselor's at the elementary level and to know that we are now bringing it to a point where every single one of our buildings will have a guidance counselor even that the work that they do is so huge so I am just particularly grateful for that inclusion and also it's interesting how over the years we've debated of you know the need for one-to-one devices for our students isn't needed and such but none of us in our earlier conversations could have ever predicted a need like we have now so to be able to accommodate that
073through this budget is pretty great so thanks again and I will be supporting this budget thank you Miss Brooks any other board members who wish to ask a question or comment please raise your hand so I hand come up this is more so Thank You mr. boss I just wanted to take a moment to thank mr. stone for all of his hard work as well as dr. Fraser and the entire team it was just such an amazing opportunity as a co-chair with mr. by life to work with everyone on this effort obviously is mr. so noted this is a very unusual budget but it's during a very uncertain time and so we're really just trying to make the best decision with what we know right now and while I don't love every aspect of this
074budget I do believe it's the right thing to do given the uncertainties and not knowing what we might be facing going into the fall and so I just wanted to commend everyone their work and she also you know thank my board colleagues for taking my phone calls and spending so much time on the budget with us thank you thank you mr. Marcel mr. balik yeah thank you so I was worried about the financial future of council Rock twelve months ago I've been sounding the alarm for some time I've been talking about always looking at things went through rose-colored colored glasses and at some point we're gonna have a recession we were overdue for a recession and we're going to have to face some difficult choices so here we are in a much much tougher situation
075and I ever thought we'd be in so there's no choice there's absolutely no choice but to have the maximum tax increase and this is the situation we're put in because we have very little control of the big portions of our budget which are 76% of it of salaries and benefits unless we're really willing to dig in and start reducing staff therefore reducing the quality of education to our children so I think the number is 145 personnel we'd have to we'd have to cut to not have a deficit in our budget of course raise taxes to the maximum amount we already had concessions from the teachers union the courts that we appreciate but again we have no choice we have to I never thought I'd be in a position where I was voting for not only
076a Act one increase to the maximum amount but I was the one who said let's make sure we keep the the exceptions in place and here we are asking for the exceptions because we have no choice and they are the reason we don't have a choice is because it will mean the failure of our district if we don't raise as much revenue as possible and that as a parent who doesn't have any children in school the success of the district is just as important to me as it is with somebody who has four children and score one child in school starting kindergarten or graduating this year or next year you know my my family alone put about 22 people through counts all right so I appreciate all of the efforts of the school district but
077we're tied it all tied in together the communities Council Rock Council Rock it's the community if we don't keep the school a great school then of course our home values go down the quality of our community as a whole goes down I believe so we don't have a choice I'm really saddened to be in this position I feel like there's we've done an awful lot of work over the past several years certainly while I've been on the board and I'm and there's been times I've been frustrated because we haven't moved fast enough there's times I've been frustrated when I feel like we're spending on things we don't miss there need to spend on or we're spending on things without the idea that things could go bad in the future and again here we are so
078I may sound like I'm scolding a little bit and I and maybe it's just out of sense of frustration I'm sitting here looking at the hypotheticals I asked mr. stone for the budget forum which we had over 300 people attend normally we have maybe one or two so people are paying attention and that's important because I asked mr. stone if we needed to fund the district to the the entirety to make sure that we don't lose any teachers that we have the guidance counselor's we need we need that our programs are fully funded what would tax increases look like and he said for 20 20 20 excuse me 20 20 20 20 13.1% that's where we are today I think this is going to pass I know I know maybe one board member who is
079not in support of it 20 21 2022 it needs to be 8.2 percent well above our authority 2022 2023 4.1% 2023 2024 3.6% 2024 2025 3.5% for a area total to 22.5% this is what needs to be done for the district to keep it as it is prior to February what so we really have to seriously have the conversation with ourselves as board members with the administration and with our community about what type of school district do we want I know being a little repetitive from the conversations from our committee committee group but not everybody was listening to that the committee group and I'm hoping more people listen here so I'm not sure if we're gonna be able to have the committee pass a referendum that includes 8.2 percent tax increase but I'm certain that
080we're not going to be able to have the community pass a referendum and at 8.2 percent tax increase next year that we need if we continue to say everything's going to be okay and everybody's working hard and we're don't we'll do things to mitigate the the the potential issues we can't do that we can't trim around the edges and make this work we have to get very serious about it and we have to make very tough decisions it's or it's going to be it's going to be closer to the hundred and forty five people that we're going to have the furlough in my opinion if we don't start talking about the 8.2 percent so with all due respect to my other board members we have to get very any in the end administration we have
081to get very very serious about this when the administration brings suggested cuts I think we have to consider them very seriously and not just think about well you know how can we get in but you know so I guess we don't want to micromanage the the cuts is my opinion so this that's what I'm concerned about there's been a couple things that have come in front of us that that that we've said we don't necessarily agree with and if I was the administration I would be frustrated with that discussion so here's my point I'm not happy but I'm going to vote for this tax increases I think all of us are but we have to get very very serious we either have to decide that we're gonna fully fund our district or we're not and
082if we're not then we better have a plan for reducing programs reducing staff but and really that's it there are the two things that are going to make the difference we're already not taking care of our buildings we're already pushing off the renting renovations just like boards before us did four men many years and we know all of us have talked about how we're catching up on that so we're just passing that off on other year on the other boards in the future so you know we've got to get serious we have to do this and it's time to do it now it's not you know after we get back into school and see how that goes we have the resources mr. stone is plugged in I bet if I ask mr. stone right now
083if we can start working on zero deficit budget going forward is that what you want to do I bet he'd say yes and I think dr. Frasier may say the same thing but I'm not sure I but I'm thinking he he would I don't ever want to see council Rock in this position again and to do that we've got it we really have to dig in and take this seriously that's all I have Thank You mr. pilot mr. Hidalgo thank you I'll just echo what mr. balik had said I I pretty much agree with everything he said he went at it in a in a different angle what I was just gonna look at we came into this year with a 16 million dollar deficit I don't think that was not a surprise to any
084one of us to see that and we I commend the administration and dr. Frasier and and Bill stone and and they and all the different unions and and work groups that that made sacrifices to get us all the way down to three million dollars and now you know we are making tough decisions here ourselves as board members increasing 3.1 percent in a time when nobody can a lot of people are struggling but we have a school district to run and we have to look at the long-term future and so you know this raised now is kind of making up for those years when we didn't have tax increases in the past ten years so that is where I feel I'm okay with that but when you look at the 16 million you go back to
085the original idea and a surprise and you see the projections and everything that mr. balik had just said we and you look at the fact that we cuts over six million dollars from that 300 to 900 section I'm guessing that's where most of it came from we don't really have any room and all we're really doing with those cuts is postponing that more need next year in the year after that seventy some percent of our money comes from our expenditures come from staff and state obligations and that's where I think the key to our success is partially gonna come is by really sitting down and and really getting serious with some conversations about how we go about it my first thing is not to cut staff but to maybe renegotiate and maybe on the higher
086end of the scale and that's where I I don't want to be knocking out newer people but maybe there's something we have to do because we are almost at a new reset and the hope is that maybe the economy will come back quickly and it won't be nearly as bad as we're expecting that's the best thing that could happen and that's not a small possibility so you know as I said I I am of the opinion that we need to engage our our teachers and a teacher's union specifically to try to partner with us as much as they have already I love that they came to the table without us even asking as far as I know all I know is everything went quickly so it the last point I would make is I could
087I'm not as Kristin had said mr. Marcelle that you know it's not everything perfect I don't think that I'm not going to support this I probably will support tonight even though when we did have these zero deficit discussions there are certain things I think we could start serious not taking teachers out of classrooms but maybe some of the some other and I can't micromanage but there are things I think that we could have possibly done differently to save you know maybe a half million dollars that is not going to affect the students and will jelly start the widow way this growing ballooning budget that we cannot keep up with from my professional opinion we can't keep up with this and so we all got to come together and I think we will come together and
088you know there's a lot of uncertainty so we'll keep hope alive in the future but I just wanted to make those comments that's all I have thank you thank you um there's a lot of things in this budget I like there's there's even more I don't like I'm gonna I actually agree with mr. violet we've got some hard conversations to have moving forward unfortunately this isn't the year to have them I don't like 3.1 percent tax increases when people are out of work and the economy is kind of not where it should be however I think kovetz going to burn us before it gets better and it's going to cost us a lot of money to open and keep these schools open so while the 2021 budget will pass here tonight and it will work
089I think the 2122 budget is going to be monumentally more difficult than this so just pointing out that we have those hard discussions that have we don't have them right now again there's a lot of uncertainty but moving forward we will have them and that's all I want to say thanks dr. Ward any other comments from the board going once going twice then with that again I'll just thank everybody for the effort what was a really difficult budgeting cycle unfortunately created what I believes are really a really easy decision it's an unfortunate vote that that we have to take and as I have said from the beginning I don't know how we can't do this and still preserve the sustainability of our district and I believe that as soon as our reopening plan too Mark's
090point is completed in the next few weeks we need to figure out what potential mitigation of ballooning costs is as we get into next year's budget cycle so with all that said I would ask the Secretary to to make a roll call vote please yep yes ed take yes my third yes Denise Brooks yeah Mary Ann McKee yes Julie dalco yes Kristin Marcel yeah it's Salomon yes Andi block as reluctantly as we all are yes the motion passes nine Oh congratulations to to the district on next year's budget and you know we will we will we were fortunate that the state kept us whole and we will need to work hard next year because I can't see how that will be the case but great job to everybody thank you and with that we'll move
091to mr. Solomon in the Facilities Committee a good evening so DS committee met as part of the joint committee last week rather formality type stuff on the agenda this evening and I'll go right into them I moved to improve the council Rock I move to approve consent agenda items B through F as contained in the attachments to this agenda okay dr. Thor war was the loudest so I'm going to take his second there are there any questions any objections all in favor please say aye aye hi any opposed say nay please note that the motion passes with unanimous consent and unless I'm missing something that completes our motion agenda for the evening and I would ask for any old business from the board any new business from the board any final board comment with you
092that I I'm sorry this one handy I'm looking forward to the discussion on reopening plans and we'll move forward yep as a Mayan as we all are and I know dr. Frasier and his team have got their work cut out for them and you know the board will be very shortly hearing about exactly what that timeline will will look like so with that I will wish everyone happy summer I will wish our graduates congratulations on becoming alumni and we'll see you all in July meeting adjourned take care