001ready when you open. >> All right, make sure all your mics on. All right, good evening everyone. Welcome to tonight's meeting. Uh, I'd like to announce we just came out of executive session talk about contracts, a personal issue, and student discipline. All right, call me to order. Secretary, you lead us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. And Secretary, you call the Dian >> here. Dan Chub >> here. Brian Davis >> here. >> Gohan here. L Griffith >> here. Barry Keer >> here. Pat Mary >> here. >> Matt Johnson >> here. >> Will Pace >> here. >> Liz Alton >> here. >> Dr.
002Brad Cerner >> here. >> Dr. Shannon Myers >> here. >> Justin Pier >> here. >> Thank you everybody for coming to the meeting. >> All right. Next on the agenda is hearing of schedule delegation or none. Next agenda item is public comment. At this time if you like to make any comments just for the death sign in. And we have a fivem minute maximum speaking. All right. Looks like there's no public comment. Moving on. Item seven discussion. We have two. We have uh A is preliminary audit results and B is the 202627 act one index. >> Okay. Um so this is the time of year I always report out preliminary where we're at as far as our local audits from 24 to 25. Um so obviously this can still change very rarely in my ever
003since I've been here. It never has, but obviously it's not finalized until around the December time period is when they finally release the report. But there shouldn't be any change um in in in the number. But um if you recall, um the last time that I provided you the estimate for 2425 was at the June board meeting before you made the final adoption of the budget. And that was um that we were going to be positive uh for 90,000 up. Okay. Um right now um and I feel confident we'll stay uh the preliminary audit results are um coming in at a positive 195. So an additional $100,000. Um so in reflection what that is is basically 2% of the of the overall budget. So, I mean, I like to get as close as I can.
004Um, but I think, um, given we're dealing with roughly a $36 million budget, um, to be within 2%, I I'll take that every everything. Um, so, um, a lot of it had to do with, um, additional revenue that we received. I was, uh, very almost spot on with these expenditures. Um, so the the biggest one was our earned income and that's always a um sort of in the error you're trying to guess because um of the way that disc flows. U but again it's a great thing. Um I never want to be on the opposite side where I tell you it's 90 to positive it comes in at 500,000 to the negative you know. Um, so, uh, I do everything I can to not let that happen and be as accurate as I can, but
005that's where we stand right now. Um, and again, I don't anticipate any changes to that. Uh, but you'll get the final, it'll either be, it's usually at the January meeting, you'll actually approve the final audit. Um, but that's where we're at right now. So, that's great news. Um the state has uh published the 26.7 act one index and recall that is the amount the percentage amount that you can increase uh without going to exceptions for the budget. Um so the base index and then there's the adjusted index. So the base index for every school district in Pennsylvania is 3.5%. The adjusted index factors in our eight ratio. Um so our adjusted index which is technically the amount that we can go up to without an increase without a any exceptions is 4.7% this year. Okay
006that adjusted index last year was 7.2 you recall. Okay. So that obviously we started the process of budget preparation in the buildings and directors and all that fun stuff. Um, and they're going to be getting that all all that information to me by the time they meet for Thanksgiving. Uh, and then, uh, come January, you'll be hearing from me every month like usual. So, that's where we're at. Um, any questions related to those two areas? >> Thank you, John. >> All right. Thank you very much. Moving on to agenda item eight, which is approval minutes. That's for September 9th, 2025. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> All right, we have a first and a second. Any further discussion on the previous month's um minutes? All right, there's no further discussion. There's a roll call
007vote. All those intent for record in favor of the motion. Much I hear nay or abstain? Motion carries. Next, financial reports. We have uh A through G which is bill payables with the general fund and capture fund. B is a general fund. C is captur fund. D is the capital reserve fund. E is the scholarship fund. F is activity fund. And G is the budget transfers. Motion to approve. Second. We have a first and a second. Any further discussion? I actually have a question. What is budget transfers? >> So the budget transfers every October uh the board approves these. This is a result of the local audit. >> Okay. >> Um so all the so this gets back to where you budget a year in advance. >> Okay. >> Um and where the actual money
008is spent. So you're taking the overages and and and take and clearing out the negatives from the separate accounts. But that's the board officially approves those and makes it official. >> Okay. Any other questions? All right. If there's no further questions, this is the roll call vote. All those in attendance be recorded in favor of the motion. Looks like I hear motion carries. Uh item 10, correspondence uh be addressed later in the agenda. Uh 11th, reports and related actions. First up, solicitor's report. >> No report. >> All right. Thank you very much. Next is the superintendent report. Thank you very much. Good evening everybody. I have just a few items here that I wanted to share with the board. One is just a reminder. Um on October 16th in the evening at 6 pm um
009we are going to be hosting an ACTI forum. That will be at the Gettysburg Area High School auditorium. Um the purpose of ACTI um community forum is to just look at the history of ACTI and where it's been and where we would like it to go within this county. Again, that's the Adams County Technical Institute where we're looking at the possibility of expanding the programs there and possibly the location. Um, but really the forum is just to kind of bring the public up to speed as far as where it's been um and the growth and where it could possibly go in the future. So, if you have some time, I know our board is going to be well represented there um at the forum, but again, it'll be held on October 16th in the Gettysburg
010Area School District Auditorium, high school auditorium at 6 PM. I'd also like to share I shared in September one of the goals that Shannon or I'm sorry Dr. Myers and I have is really getting to know our students and making connections with them. At the beginning of the year um the connection was made and met with every high school class um from 9th grade to 12th grade. Um had an opportunity to talk to all of them, talk about my expectations and they are doing great. They are saying good morning to me when they see me in the hallway and some of them are testing me a little bit. So even if they don't say good morning, then we have a nice little walk down the hallway together until we get to greet each other in
011the hallway. But they've been great. I'm very impressed with them. But Dr. Myers and I wanted to make sure that we were doing it at the elementary level as well. So if you remember in September, we read to kindergarten and we themed it out. Um and we were able to read to all the classes and give them a little um a little gift um that went along with the theme. Um we are in October now, so this is first grade. We are doing the same thing with a different book, a different theme, a different message. Um, and we are almost done. But it has been great. It is so much fun. There is nothing that I just more fun than explaining to five and six year olds what superintendents do. It is amazing. It It
012just brings a smile to my face. Um, and actually they do a really good job. Um, they what they say is they we like to read. We do do that. Um, we're teachers, which that made me really happy to hear. Um but it it is great. Um we're really enjoying it and we're going to continue. So November will be second or second grade and we'll move on um as we go. So it's a great way to get to know them and for them to know what it is that our job is and what we do for them here. So excited about that. My last announcement for this evening is I can't believe but tomorrow starts winter sports signups. Like I just I can't believe we're there already. Um and I just wanted to give you
013some um totals here. So for winter sports coming in, we are looking at a total from 9th, 10th, and 11th grade uh around 226 boy um male athletes. And then for our girls, we have 233 with a total right now of a little bit over 459 athletes participating um in winter sports. So I'm really excited to get out there and see what they can do. Um but um we have a lot which makes me really happy. So that concludes my report. >> Thank you. And next, uh, Dr. Marsh, >> couple of things. Um, so first I just want to share that, uh, this, gosh, really, if Justin and Dr. Sterner hear me say PCCD one more time, they might lose their minds. There are different things that pop up throughout the year that um, but
014PCCD are a number of grants that we've applied for um, essentially that revolve around safety and security. Um we have a number we have four of them that are currently in place um that we that my role is to make sure that we're spending the money on what we say we were going to spend it on and then if not make those modifications and submit those reports. So definitely have been working on cleaning some of that up. Um but did just receive a report back that we were in compliance. So that's always it's always good news. Um so happy to report that. Um in addition to that, continuing to um prepare for our CTE program review that will be happening in May. So we have our five approved programs um at the high school in
015which we receive what is called Perkins funding. Um because of that, we go through a monitoring process in May that is quite involved. Um it it is a lengthy process that I will begin preparing our teachers and administrators for. um but have been involved in a number of meetings. So that'll be the next thing that these two listen to me talk about until May. Um we are working through so still waiting on PSSA and Keystone data um have been released and we have our um very specific district scores. What I'm now waiting for to be released um to compile the remainder of my report are the state um averages. And so I use that to show you where we're performing um in comparison to the state. I will share that overall um saw some really
016positive things and saw some areas for growth just like we do every year. Um but my plan right now is once those um state scores are averages are released to hopefully by November to present that information to Sierra Committee and then bring that to you December January time frameish um like we did last year. I will um if you recall the building scores that we tal about each building score each building receives a score um based upon a number of different factors not just academics um that includes graduation rates, attendance, just a number of different things. I will happily share that all three building scores increased this year. So um some more than others, but to have an increase is a success um overall. So looking forward to sharing some of that information in the
017near future. Um and then finally, we just wrapped up two um pretty busy professional development days. Um Friday was centered on some curriculum work and um some buildings had professional development time to use to work towards building goals. And then um yesterday we're coming off of what I feel like based on feedback uh we did send out a survey was what something that we called our Eagle Learning Conference. Um it was a mini conference and so essentially um you know sometimes we go to conferences to learn well we have an amazing staff that um we can learn from each other and so this essentially was an opportunity for our staff to provide sessions to one another to learn and grow as a team. Um the some of the we had some outside individuals who who
018joined us as well. Um but each uh we had 120 staff members submit the survey. Um and everything was agree or strongly agree which is a huge success. Um 96 of our percent of our p participants agreed that the topics were valuable. 97% found the day well organized. 96 said registration was easy. And 96% felt that just the location supported learning overall. Um there were some really great key takeaways. Um some of the comments that we heard were that this was the best professional development day they've had in 17 years, which is a huge win for us. Um so I think we're making some strides. Really proud of our team. It is not easy to offer a session to your peers and call yourself an expert, which is not necessarily what we ask people to
019do, but you feel like you need to be. Um and the I think we had gosh we probably had 13 or 14 different this is Nelson one of them um teachers who offered to run some different sessions and um had great attendance. So this was a huge win for us and I think something that we definitely will model in the near future because uh it sounds like based on the feedback that our teachers really found value in it. That's all I have. Thank you. All right, moving on to old business. There is none. Next item, good business. So, under A for personnel, have six items and we'll put all these into one single vote, but I'll go ahead and review each one real quick. Um, and then a good discussion on them if there's there's
020any. Um A1 is a is a resignation. Um A2 is a medical sabbatical. Uh three is contract for assistant superintendent. Four is for support staff employment. Five is for extracurricular activities 26 school year 25.6 school year. And then six would be for a list of volunteer coaches for the 2526 school year. So, a one through six. >> Second. >> We have a first and a second. Is there any discussions on A1 through six? All right. There's no further discussion. This is a roll call vote. All in tenants will report in favor of the motion. I'll take care of abstain. Motion carries. And real quick, moving on. Uh, I just want to highlight uh number three that we just voted on. I wanted to say um very thankful to you, Dr. Myers, for everything you've done.
021We're looking forward um for the next five years of more great work and everything like that. So, I just want to say thank you very much. >> Can I just I just would like to say thank you. Um hopefully I don't feel like I'm getting a little emotional here. Sorry. Um I just want to say thank you for this has been a wild journey for me the last 15 years. Um, and I know that not all of you have been here during that journey, but at this point, I want to say thank you for trusting me. Thank you for continuing to trust me and allowing me to work with what I would call probably the best team I could ask for. Um, so thank you. I'm I feel very honored and grateful to continue to
022be here and working alongside all of you. >> Thank you. >> And I'd like to just add too, um, it has been an absolute honor working with Dr. Myers as um our assistant superintendent, she had mentioned and she doesn't take compliments very well. She doesn't take them period. Um but she has been here for 15 years. Um she has poured her heart and soul into this school district. She is one of those unique individuals that has grown as an individual and as a professional throughout her time in 15 years from a teacher to an elementary principal to our middle school principal to our acting superintendent to our assistant superintendent. Um there is not one decision that Dr. Meyers makes that does not have our students in front of in front of her. Um she has
023done everything she possibly can for our district and we are truly blessed to have her here for the next five years. So from me, thank you so much um for continuing our partnership with Dr. Meyers. We are very lucky to have you. >> Thank you. That was really hard to >> All right, moving on to uh B's. This is for the ACTI operating budget addendum. >> We have first and second. Is there any further discussion? >> Going through the letter. that we got board members. I just had a couple of questions. Um it talks about um the one the first question that I have is about the hiring of a second teacher instead of um a part-time lab assess assess assistant. Sorry. Um what it says in the letter here is that ACTI regularly has
024twice as many students apply for allied health than the RC seats available um for the past couple years and have had the true >> and have had employed a part-time lab assistant who find I'm sorry assistant to assist the teacher sorry um the position is difficult to fill for a number of reasons and it makes more sense to add a second teacher to serve more students. students um at the amount of $57,000 a little over that. So my question is where has it actually by many questions is where um where's the difficulty been with getting the lab assistant? What is that? What's that situation that's going on with that? Do you know >> is this the >> Yes. I don't know the answer though >> answer because I'm referencing Gettysburg at which the board meeting
025one of the board members had the same exact question and um the ACTA director was there at the board meeting so he came up and answered and basically it's just that with the lab technicians that there used to be like if they were in their profession they're being patriot and so it's really difficult to draw people to the school at rate as a part-time person lower than like what they would be in the uh profession itself. So it was really hard to draw without having to increase salary and get a discount and whether it's half time parttime or full-time but it was definitely hard to draw with the salary they were offered gi given that if they were in the professional setting they'd be offered more salary. That's what he had explained. >> Okay. What
026does that mean? I'm just because if they're turning away students, how many are they turning away students to the point that yeah, is it going to be justified to bring in a second teacher >> compared to why don't they just pay the lab assistant more and what would that savings look like over the course of the overall budget over the course of years and >> yeah and I I only know the question was asked is how was it hard to get why was there difficulty in between >> securing somebody and that was the reason I don't know about like and how that all pans out. But that was the reason was that the rate if they were in the profession versus as a teacher. Yeah. But I I know I know what you're asking. I
027don't know the answer. >> Yeah. I don't know why they just don't pay them more like which is more is the lab assistant more or is the teacher more or >> Yeah, it goes down to the amount of students that are interested in the program and and historical historic historically how many they're turning away. So there is a desire for the program. It's just we they don't have the teachers to enroll more students. So they're trying to build the program or grow I should say grow the programs better. >> Um is the CBA growing? Is that done? >> The mine island. Yeah. >> And then one of the other ones was as the until now the and this is in a letter. It says, "Until now, the ACTI superintendent of record has been an unpaid
028position, which is inconsistent in common practice at other countywide technical schools." Um, coupled with the need for additional support during a potential land purchase and building project that justifies the siphon for the ACTI superintendent of record. So, a couple questions here is what other counties did they look at? Because if they're looking at your county, they have a much bigger tax base than what Adams County does and would probably afford to pay more. However, um with being a superintendent of record, we are asking that position is being asked to do extra work. So, I feel if you're doing actual work, you should be compensated for it. But my question is to the amount of $15,000, what is that based on? Especially when the previous amount was zero. Um, and I understand that a potential land
029purchase is going to be it might be a little time consuming and I don't know the full scale of what what that would be, but we're going from a zero to $15,000. How is that justified? >> I think that's a really good question. Um, the way that it worked before is, and I know I'm still fairly new, but I knew how the the system worked, is out of the the school districts within Adams County that participated in ACCI, all of all except for upper Adams. Um, what happened was every year they would rotate the superintendent of record. So, you would all take your turn. I think it was alphabetical by district. And, um, and you're right, that wasn't a paid position. It was a lot of extra work for us. like if if you're running
030a school district and you're also in charge of um the ACTI as far as superintendent record, it's all the additional meetings that you're going to all the additional um the work that you have to do as far as their budget and and overseeing all the the things there. The reason why the stipen position came into play is because and we'll talk more about this at the forum um on Thursday is looking at possibly moving the school or expanding the programs that are there. Um, if there's a land purchase and building a project, that is not something that we felt as superintendent was realistic for a seated superintendent to volunteer their time to do a building project outside of their school district and possibly expanding that. There the amount of time, as you know, building this
031building, the amount of extra meetings and time that that takes, and imagine doing that with collaborating with multiple school districts at one time. Um, that's where we felt as superintendents in the JOC that having one superintendent dedicated to that over multiple years would be more beneficial for us as a group, especially taking on something of that magnitude as far as like the additional work. Um, so that's where it came out. Um, where that all that discussion started. Um, another question would because the uh the workload of the land purchase and everything that goes into getting this started, is the stipen going to be reduced down to something that's not going to include that? Is it going to stay the same? >> That I don't >> or like what is that? >> I mean, that'll that
032will ultimately be up to the JOC and and that discussion. Um, I'm not sure. pretty. >> Yeah, >> I'm pretty sure it's going to be 15,000 at least for the next two years. >> And there's no I don't I don't think I know you've seen to indicate that $15,000 is an out ofthe- blue number, but speaking from a corporate world, I know people that serve on corporate boards of directors and they receive maybe $1,000 a month for every board meeting that they go you $1,000 for a board meeting that they go to. So, I don't I don't think it's at all out of line. We know that it's going to require a lot of commitment, devotion, time to to follow through on this project. And um it'd be nice to have some consistency for a
033few years as opposed to a different superintendent of record every year. >> And and what I would add, we are very fortunate as a superintendent group to have Dr. Perry's knowledge of career in tech, that's her expertise um from State College. So out of all of us and and you've seen the turnover in Adams County with new superintendent, you're learning the position and on top of that you're rotated into a ma a a pretty big building project possibly. Um there is none of us have the the knowledge or the bandwidth that Dr. Perry has in that area. So it make we're very lucky that it makes the most sense that she would be the superintendent of record and she was willing to do it. >> I was just curious where the numbers came from. >>
034No, that's good. >> Um um there was also talk about an increase for the business personnel. Um in the business office um there's a salary adjustment that's recommended of about like $30,000. Was that researched to be that was extremely thoroughly researched. We have two dedicated and independent you know we we basically have two >> um you know their their terms not quite business manager. It's not quite administrative assistant. It's not they they serve very unique and specific roles and um you know they're they're what they're the behind the-scenes folks that make ACTI run and without those folks you know trying to transition to to new leadership in the next year or two and and um trying to accomplish a building project would be even more difficult. So it's going to save money and and avoid
035turnover in the long run. Thank you. >> All right. Any more discussion on letter B which is the ACTI operating budget? >> I just have one more question. I'm sorry. What is the exact the anticipated um amount of the building project now? Because I know it had started at one gradually it had gone up I think like 60 and the 80. Do we know what the final figure is or is that going to be based on >> the anticipated cost of the building is dependent upon what each district is willing to devote to the project. Yeah. >> So, if if we were if if ideally if the project was to proceed the way it's been envisioned with doubling the amount of programs and doubling the amount of students, it could potentially be a $70 million
036project. And um we we just there's been we uh what word am I looking for? there's been a muddling along with with no, you know, we need to we need to have goals in place so that Dr. Perry and our Joocc can go out to the community and and get support from industry and get grants and things of that nature. So, if we know that the the school districts can contribute 40 million or 50 million, well, then we either go with a project that's 40 or 50 million or we say we're going to close the gap with with other funding. >> When's they didn't we get a grant for like 500,000? >> The Adams County Commissioners have designated $500,000 >> and there's an expiration on that. I think >> December of 2026 is the expiration
037date, >> but they've also in I think that was um I don't know what funding that was. >> I mean, the purpose was to aid in in finding land, >> right? But um it was like the American Recovery Act funding or something, I believe. >> Yeah. Yeah. I didn't want to call it COVID money, but Um uh so actually the Adams County commissioners have indicated that possibly there would be more funding available um from the county but you know I don't I don't know to what extent at this point >> and that's why the public forum is is the launching point. It's it's to start talking about it you know not just behind like a JC or with the superintendents. It's really to start talking about it in the public because we've now made progress
038to where some decisions need to start being made to move forward. >> Thank you. >> Any more questions? All right. No more questions. This is a roll call vote. All those intent be in favor of the motion. Let's say I hear abstain. Motion carries. Letter C. Uh it's the agreement waiver and stipulations for expulsions and there's three of them. >> Move to approve C one, two, and three. >> Second. >> We have a first and a second. Any further discussion? All right. There's no further discussion. This is a W call vote. All those intentions report in favor of the motion. Let's say I hear abstain. Motion carries. Leads us to letter D which is real estate tax refund. Second. >> We have first and a second there. Any further discussion? All right. No further discussion.
039This is a roll call vote. All those in attendance report in favor of the motion. Must hear it. See? Motion carried. Next is letter E. Sunday activity approval. There's three of them. There's one for the FFA alumni. Uh there's one for the world of wrestling. Another one for student council with pendc leadership convention for one two second. >> We have a first and a second. Any further discussion? All right. There's no further discussion. This is a roll call vote. All those intent to be record in favor of the motion here. Motion carries. Next is letter F and this is the second read for the new revived for policies and there's A through J and board policy numbers I'll go and read them all um 0 which is the board policy procedure administrative regulations 001 name
040and classification 002 authority and powers 003 functions 004 membership 005 organization 006 Six meetings 006.1 which is a new one attendance and meetings via electronic communications number 007 policy manual access and 011 principles of governance and leadership. >> Second motion approve F1 A throughJ. There's any further discussion. All right. With no further discussion, this is a roll call vote. All those in attendance report in favor of the motion must hear abstain. Motion carries. Oh, there's number two on the back. I missed that one. Sorry guys again. Uh number two, policy committee is uh requesting approval for the following set new and revised policies. This is AUM. And I'll read these off real quick, too. Um 335, family medical leave 336, personal um necessity leave 337, vacation 338, so radical leave 338.1 compensated professional leave 339.
041Um uncompensated leave 340. Responsibility for student welfare 341 benefits for part-time employees 342 jury duty through 343 paid holidays 346 workers compensation 351 drug and substance abuse and 827 which is conflict of interest. >> Move to approve. >> Second. All right, we have first and second for number 2 A through M. Is there any further discussion? All right, no further discussion. There's a roll call vote. All those in report in favor of the motion like they hear and abstain. Motion carries. Next item is other business. Would there any other business for the board? All right, there's no further business. Um, before we adjourn, I' like to announce we're going to go into the except finish executive session. We go back to executive session on personnel personnel issues. Thank you very much. We're journal. I'm going
042to use the left one real quick. All of us did not >> take a break.