Special Meeting Followed By Standing Committee Meeting

001Thank you everyone. We'll be calling the meeting to order at 603. If we could have everyone rise for the pledge of pledge of allegiance. [clears throat] >> 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 our job. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next, uh Mr. Mirez with roll call. We have everyone. Okay. Okay. The purpose of the meeting tonight is for voting on personnel and any other items properly presented. Next, we'll have the superintendence report. It's okay. Okay, we'll be deferring that to the second meeting. Okay, do we have any public comment regarding agenda items? Is there anyone in the public who would like to speak on agenda items? And this is for strictly

002the special meeting. All right, seeing none, we will move on to five personnel. I will need a motion and we will be taking roll call for this. We have A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J. I go through the alphabet. Okay. [clears throat] So, A, retirements motion with regrets and best wishes to approve the following retirements as presented. B motion to approve the following resignations as presented. C. Motion to approve the following leave of absences as presented. D. Excuse me. [clears throat] Motion to approve the following administrative transfers as presented. E. Motion to approve the following voluntary transfers as presented. F. Motion to elect the following long-term substitutes as presented pending receipt of all forms and documents required by the district. G. Motion to elect the support following support staff as presented

003pending receipt of all forms and documents required by the district. H. Motion to elect the following administrative staff as presented. pending receipt of all forms and documents required by the district. I motion to elect the following coach as presented. Pending receipt of all forms and documents required by the district. And J. Motion to elect the following volunteer coach as presented. Pending receipt of all forms and documents required by the district. I need a motion. >> Motion. Dunin. >> Thank you. Any questions or discussion? Uh question on 5H. Um [snorts] just wondering why there was we did not have an executive session this evening before the meeting to uh review these uh uh that agenda item. Normally that seems to be a past practice I believe where we had discussed even if we just let it

004open just for some last minute questions or clarifications but we did not have that um for that item. So I was just wondering why we didn't have an executive session. >> So Brian, I think because we had the discussion, we had put it out there to everybody. If you had a question to please contact myself or Tracy, I don't think anybody did reach out with any other questions. And so at that time, that was where we were at and let everybody know that it was going on the agenda. >> Is there any other further questions or discussion? >> A quick comment. Who's going to be teaching English next year at the high school? We have Susan Hughes, 25 years experience. Tanya Morgan is 32 years. Congratulations to both of those longtime teachers. Great job. Congratulations.

005>> Okay. Anything else? Okay. All in favor? >> I I Any opposed? >> Nay. On H. I on the rest. I'm >> a no on 5H. Okay. You want to >> So with that H was the um hiring or appointment of two new um professionals within our district. Uh one [clears throat] who has been here for quite some time but changing roles and that is Mrs. Heather Galmer who is named now as the next head principal of uh the area middle school. [applause] I'm not going to get the numbers right, but Mrs. Gmer has been with us for approximately 20 years. Served in the capacity of a teacher out at the high school, assistant principal at an elementary building as well as the middle school, and um and now we're excited to see this next

006um phase of her career and juncture as the head principal of the of the East Area Middle School. that process was an arduous process. Um, and she spent lots of hours and nights here having many conversations with with the group that you see before you um in coming to that decision. And we have um 100% faith that she will um take on this challenge and move the district forward in a direction that we feel is appropriate. And we are very excited for not only the students and the staff of our of our middle school, but certainly for Heather as well. also like to congratulate you. Um, and no obligation, but if you want to say a word or two, you're certainly welcome to do so. come back to discuss but they really say we're going

007to do five. >> so I guess in a building as large as the middle school I should get used to presenting in front of large crowds like this which are not always typical for the school board but I am excited to see um all of you here tonight. I think that, you know, our participation in the educational process is really, really important. I've been at Eastston for 25 years in many different capacities, as um Miss Piaza has shared with you, and I'm very, very excited for this opportunity. Um I look to partner not only with parents, but community members and students to make this the best transition for kids coming out of elementary into the secondary years. I myself have students that are in the school district. So, I have a vested interest in making

008sure that this process and this experience is a great one for all of those involved. So, thank you again to those who supported me. Um, my family, my husband is here, Brian, my two kids are both here and um I look forward to working with many different people in the near future. So, thanks again. [applause] And the next individual I'd like to recognize who's also in the audience, excuse me, is Jeffrey Bower. I did I say that correctly? Um, and we would like to congratulate him and welcomed him to Eastston. Uh, Mr. Bowerer will be taking on the role of director of transportation. That is another uh huge huge task and huge role within the district and we have the utmost confidence in his abilities as well. He comes to us with again um 20

009plus years experience in in public education um transportation and through his process which was also a little bit drawn now and um you know lots of conversations and a lot lots of questions asked of him. We are excited for the opportunity that he brings to us and that we hopefully are bringing to him and um you know are pleased to have that department under some leadership once again that we know will move the district forward. So congratulations to you and welcome to Easton. And again, I'll extend the same opportunity if you'd like to say a word or two. You're welcome to. Please do not feel obligated. >> I'm hoping she didn't go. [laughter] >> No, I just want to thank everybody for the opportunity uh both of the interview teams. It was incredible. It was

010a great experience and I'm looking forward to getting started. >> Thank you. [applause] All right, thank you. Okay, next we will be moving on to other business. We have a uh motion to accept the residency adjudication and recommendations as presented and b motion to approve expulsion hearing waiver form for student number 48437 as presented. >> Motion second. >> Any question? Oh, sorry. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Okay. Next, we'll move on to interest interested citizens regarding non-aggenda items. Is there any citizens who would like to speak on non-aggenda items? >> There is there's a woman out there. >> Sorry, >> I don't think she came in. There's a woman out here that would like to speak and so I'm just going to let her know that she can do that at this

011juncture of the meeting rather than waiting for the second. Sir, do I have five minutes? Is it? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. I'm not starting yet. >> You're already doing sign in your name and your location. You know, your general >> municipality of the district and then you do have five minutes [clears throat] to speak and then we ask that person. >> No, she's not speaking, but she's here so you guys have her face and you realize who she is because she's a child. Um, am I allowed to play a voicemail that was left on my daughter's phone? I mean that would that would you can use your five minutes however you'd like. I would caution against personal information being relayed, but sure. But that is part of your five minutes. >> Okay. Um I'm

012just waiting to hook up to my Bluetooth prior to speaking so that I can pull up the voicemail. Okay. So, my name is Maryann Saffron, mother to a sixth grader at Eastern Area Middle School. My address is 298 Lewis Circle, Eastern, Pennsylvania. My daughter, Juliet Minkerelli, has been the victim of bullying since she first started with the public school system in August 2025. Actually, she started going to Eastern Area Middle School because she was bullied at St. James. Therefore, we felt that a bigger school would allow for her to make friends more easily. On September 12th of 2025, while on the school bus, a neighbor and classmate made a false statement, which was considered defamation of character. Actually, it was a false statement in regards to sexual assault. Juliet had heard the lies and statements

013that he made and immediately called me via her phone. A fellow classmate confirmed those particular statements were made. Rather than receiving any consequences for his actions, this boy was allowed to switch to another Eastern Area School District school without any consequences. I filed a police report as it was a false statement that was harmful to my reputation, communicated to many children, including Juliet, and is considered slander, which was negligent and showed malice. On October 7th, 8th, and 9th, Juliet was physically assaulted on the school bus. Children hitting her over the head with water bottles, a pack of pencils was thrown at her head, and a boy swung his book bag into her back, which made her back hurt right afterwards. Book bags weigh approximately 10 lbs. So, imagine a 10- pound dumbbell being thrown at

014your back. On October 9th, I was told they were looking into assigning a new school bus to her, but we were waiting to hear back from the director of transportation. The Department of Transportation failed to reassign her school bus, as well as assign seats to the students on the school bus, as was discussed with the principles of East Area Middle School. On October 17th, another incident occurred on the same school bus, and that is when I was notified that Mrs. Galmer put an immediate bus change effective October 20th, even though I was told that they would do so after the October 9th incident. At this point in time, I suggested that this was bullying, but I was told by the sixth grade principal that this is not bullying as it was not being done by

015one particular student, which was inaccurate. I reached out to the board of education who told me that the school should immediately implement a safety plan for Juliet. The board of education sent three different copies of safety plans and I asked that it be implemented after the meeting with the school on November 7th. In December, she was getting texts from classmates that stated, "Nobody likes you. I cannot be friends with you because Annayia, Edwin, Luchana, Natalia, Nyla, and other students don't want us to be your friend, etc." During this time, her classmate also thought it was funny to use Juliet's cell phone and call 911 from her cell phone while she went to the bathroom, another highly illegal activity. The week prior to Christmas break, Juliet brought in a new hydro jug to school. And while

016she was talking to Mr. Hinkle in the cafeteria, her classmates slammed it against the cafeteria table so that it would be dented. I asked Mrs. Jones to look at the camera footage in the cafeteria so that students get the proper punishment. But as with almost every incident prior, there is no punishment for the students that are harming my daughter. Most recently, on Sunday, January 4th, Sophia shared Juliet's cell phone number with a boy that she was playing with, and they left a death threat on her voicemail. I don't know if you guys >> if you keep a dick about her, I'm going to kill you. >> So, let's let's play that again. >> I don't like you. I'm low key with Sophia right now. And if you keep a dickshit about her, I'm going to

017kill you. >> So, she got a death threat that clearly stated this kid is going to kill her again. Another police report was filed. The school was notified and we discussed it with Mr. Jones and the head of security. All that was discussed at this meeting was how Juliet would be in trouble if she talks to Sophia. Last week, Sophia decided to tell everyone that we called the cops on her, which was punishable as they were not to talk to one another or about one another. Again, nothing happened. She then tried to speak directly to Juliet. Juliet walked away. I'm here tonight as the Eastn Area Middle School is not following the East Area School District code of conduct. They are allowing students to physically assault my daughter. They are allowing students to verbally assault

018my daughter with students, calling her dumb, fat, stupid, and ugly. If you've seen her, she's not dumb. She's not fat, she's not stupid, and she's not ugly. They are allowing students to threaten my daughter, staying stating, I will show you a piece of mind on Monday or I'm going to kill you. And there have been no consequences for the students involved. Therefore, the bullying never ends. I've been told by Mrs. George that students misunderstand Juliet but it's hard to believe that the whole student body misunderstands her as her teachers Mr. Hinkle and Mrs. Miklitch believe that she is a sweet outgoing student that always puts her best foot forward. Mrs. Sodto, the guidance administrative professional mocks Juliet, stating things like, "It's you again. Why are you here?" And her facial reactions clearly show Juliet that

019she is annoyed with her whenever she enters there. If teachers and administrators cannot model kindness and inclusiveness, how should her peers model it? and respect her as a classmate. Juliet is anxious to go to school. According to the code of conduct, she shouldn't feel anxious to go to school and I shouldn't have to fear her for her safety every single morning that I drop her off at school. The code of conduct states that a safe and productive learning environment is important for the success of our students and our schools. It is important that we work together to ensure that safety. This occurs through cooperation from all students, parents, guidance, administrators, teachers, support staff, and the community at large to enforce the code of conduct. Unfortunately, my daughter and I don't matter, and the code of

020conduct is not upheld when it comes to the Sphronian Minkerelli family. According to the code of conduct, Juliet has been the victim of level three and four infractions, which include bullying, cyber bullying, false reports, intimidation, vandalism, as well as threatening another person and property. The consequences for these actions include level two consequences as well as consideration of referral to the school board for expulsion, reported to the police, and may reported be reported to the office of children and youth. Obviously, Eastin Area Middle School does not enforce a code of conduct or anti-bullying policies. The learning environment at East Area Middle School is not a positive one and does not ensure a safe instructional environment that promotes lifelong learning when you allow bullying to occur and you allow a whole school to target one single child,

021my daughter. One of the belief statements in the code of conduct states that children learn best in a safe environment, but Juliet and I feel that her safety is at risk, which has taken away from her education that she is receiving. She shouldn't be anxious. Children shouldn't be cruel towards her, and she shouldn't be misunderstood by any child. Comments stating that we will make you lose your home shouldn't be said by classmates either. And it has in text message. As you already know, middle school is a vulnerable time for adolescence. This transition can be made even more difficult by bullying. Bullying is commonly defined as unwanted aggressive behavior and comes in many forms including physical, verbal, social, and cyber bullying. Addressing bullying in middle school is crucial for every student's emotional, social, and academic development.

022Children who are bullied may experience depression, anxiety, and social withdrawal. These mental health concerns can increase a child's risk of suicide. The imbalance of power is gross incompetence. The way the school has handled the issue at hand is gross incompetence. And I expect there to be change as we are now in month six of bullying. According to the Pennsylvania Board of Education, the board emphasizes the importance of a safe and inclusive environment in schools prohibiting acts of harassment, intimidation, and bullying. Schools are required to have policies in place to address HI, which includes defining bullying and providing procedures for reporting incidents. As of January 13th, Juliet has had over a dozen complaints and nothing has been done by Eastern Area Middle School to ensure a safe learning environment. This needs to change immediately. I've reached

023out to the superintendent three times to discuss this. I've reached out to the assistant three times to the to discuss this and I've been ignored every single time. My daughter's anxious. I'm scared to drop her off at school. You guys have fist fights. Other kids when they make a death threat, they get suspended. Nothing ever happens. And these kids are harassing my daughter on a daily basis. So, I'm here tonight because you guys have a problem with the teachers, the administration staff, and the students at Eastern Area Middle School, and they are targeting my daughter, and it is unacceptable. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Are there any other interested citizens regarding non-aggenda items? Okay. If not, we'll call for adjournment for the special meeting at 6:24. Uh if there's anyone that is leaving Zoom

024or uh the conference call, could you please just let us know? Otherwise, the roll call will remain the same. I'm leaving. Ed Keegan leaving. >> Okay. Before you leave, Ed, uh motion for adjournment. >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> Okay. All right. Thank you, Ed. Is there anyone else that will be leaving? >> Nope. Seeing none. Okay. So, it'll just be Dr. Keegan that's leaving the meeting. The regular standing committee meeting will now begin. Uh we will start uh obviously with the superintendent report. >> Okay. Again, good evening everyone. [clears throat] As I laid out before the meeting so we could try to keep as much communication happening in the hallway as possible, we are going to start with a moment of silence to uh today. Unfortunately, we need

025to um you know take a moment of silence because a dear employee, former employee, retired employee passed away this week and um certainly want to acknowledge him as a as part of our Eastern Area School District family and the work that he has done here. Mr. Kenny Seagreaves, who was a police officer at our middle school um and a longtime community police officer, passed away on January 7th, 2026 at his um at his daughter's home, surrounded by his loving family. Mr. Seagraves began working in the East Area School District on December of 2009 as a school police officer after retiring from the Pennsylvania State Troopers for 26 years. Other than his family, his greatest pride was his service to law enforcement. Kenny took immense pride in wearing the uniform. Kenny was an example of integrity,

026discipline, and true compassion. He valued all individuals in his life. Kenny served the East School District for over 14 years. He especially enjoyed working with the students and staff, mentoring young people, and staying actively involved in the community he cared so deeply about. Kenny cherished his family, his fellow officers, and the sense of purpose that came from a life spent serving others. Kenny will be remembered for his unwavering dedication to law, his family, his love of community um and his devotion of service. We honor him with pride um and certainly sorrow and well wish uh good thoughts to his family as they go through these struggling times. So, if you will please join me in a moment of silence in his honor. Thank you. Okay, I have two things I'm going to talk briefly about

027and then we're going to start some of those presentations. So again, we'll kind of relay who's who needs to come in if if necessary. So the first thing I wanted to start with um is our band. As you well know, our band was able to travel to um New Orleans, sorry, I had braid freeze for a second. New Orleans over the holiday break and participated in many events including some parades and competitions and quite frankly um were extremely successful as you saw from newspaper articles and and WFMZ and Facebook and all the other places that people sing accolades about our our young um instrumentalists. Our our band always represents our district with pride and grace and usually successfully or I should say always successfully. um and those that they perform for are in awe of

028the talent of high school students um at their at their young ages. This was no different. They walked away with many trophies and accolades and many um uh personal comments about um their behavior, their talent, their presence um of our students. And I certainly would be remiss if I did not re mention uh Mr. Christopher Ballentine, the director of the band, who puts in countless hours of time with the students and of his personal time. He's uh probably one of the busiest people in the district. There's not an event that I don't attend and probably a hundred more that he does that I'm not at. Um and so I can't sing enough praises on on his behalf as well. He is a tremendous asset to our students, to our community, and to our district. And

029I most certainly will um honor him in an opportunity that allows for the band to be present as well. and honored the band at that time. I did not invite him here knowing that it would be a big, you know, a big meeting with lots of people. So, we will do make that a little bit more special, but I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the fact that they did a tremendous um a tremendous job over the holidays with their efforts. So, thank you to them. The second thing I want to talk briefly about is Act 44. For the parents in the room, you received a notice from me last week. This is the notice that required um school districts, both public and private, to report weapons that are on campus. It is a

030new law that started uh went into effect on January 5th. It is not entirely new to our district or most districts in the state of Pennsylvania as big issues have always been relayed in in the majority of cases out to families or the community um that it may affect. But what this law does is any weapon that is brought on the on premise of the district um particularly by a student is that is considered a weapon requires us to notify the parents. Um it also requires us to notify our staff. Where this is different is there may be some things that um are are non-threatening that in the past we would have talked directly to that parent who of the student who brought a weapon to school and the parent perhaps of the person who

031noticed the weapon or was a victim of of some sort of bullying because of that but not necessarily the whole school community or the whole school district. Those types of communications were usually for bigger pieces such as a bomb threat or something else that had the um opport the potential of being harmful to a a larger massive body. Um I will say this is not a bad thing. The piece of this is around transparency though so folks have an idea what's happening within the school districts. Um but it also has um you know some it has some lawmakers, some school officials a little um a little um underwhelmed or upset because it also can deter from the reputation andor perception of your schools. And while we never want to hide information that is critical, we

032also don't want to exa exacerbate and overextend information that is um in some regards harm, you know, harmless. That being said, we will follow the the law as it is written and you will receive notifications as as appropriate. I am going to give you a couple of examples because there were some examples that happened both in our district and a couple others over that first week that it went into effect and just to give you some example of where we may make some decisions that this is a reportable offense or it isn't. So you have some context. The other thing before I get into that is I will say we did post an FAQ of question and answer facts and um information on our website. You will get another copy of this in a couple

033weeks coming out of our student services uh powers school portal so you have a copy for your own uh self without having to print it out. Um but I I um encourage you to look at that FAQ if you have some questions and then beyond that reach out to your building principles or certainly to my office. So, for example, there was a district here within the Lehi Valley, first or second day that the U law went into effect, the kids were out on the playground, they found an an Xacto knife that appeared to have been there for a few days. My assumption was it was, you know, buried under the snow. The snow melted, a student found it, handed immediately to the teacher, no harm, no foul. The child did the right thing. That superintendent

034had to make the decision, do is this a reportable offense? because it can be construed as a weapon or is it not a reportable offense? Either answer would have been an okay answer. The child did the right thing. They didn't bring it to school. They turned it in. There was no intent there. Um, you know, probably like I said, found after the the snow melted. That superintendent chose to share that forward. Um, we had a case here in our district. Not going to get into the wares because that's part of, you know, identifying just the individual school. A young person brought in with them an art an art blade, an arts and craft um exacto knife. And again, another student noticed it. So therefore, it became to it came to our attention. There was no

035threat. There was no, you know, action of moving it around in in a threatening manner or any manner. But we followed the letter of the law. we sent that notification home to that school community because it could be construed as a weapon. So there are times that we're going to have to decide is it a weapon or isn't it? Majority of the time we're going to follow the letter of the law. The time that we might not an example might be technically uh to your surprise a butter knife. If you send your student with a knife in their lunchbox to cut the crust off their sandwich or cut an apple, that is technically considered a cutting instrument and can be considered a weapon. What I would say to you here in Easton that if somebody,

036you know, at our elementary school, for example, has an has a knife and they're cutting their crust off and they do what they intended to do and put it back in their lunchbox and go home, I'm probably not going to report that as a weapon on campus. However, if that same knife is being jabbed around and uh fooling around, then I probably will report that as a weapon because it can then become a dangerous piece. Um, the leeway in that, and our legal counsel can certainly correct me if I'm wrong or add any context that you want to, but the leeway in that right now the state these state laws are laws that pass the House and the Senate. And when the um Secretary of Education talks to superintendents about how to make decisions, the

037decisions on this law at this time is to seek legal counsel from our law firms. And it is local decision, which means a decision like I described, a knife in your lunchbox being used appropriately versus a knife in your lunchbox being, you know, poked around is a local decision whether it should be reported or not reported. And that will be the level of prudence that I use here in the district. Um, but any other, you know, any other case other than those cases such as the plastic knife in the lunch box or the knife in the lunch box, we will report as law requires. Jonathan, I don't know if there's anything you want to add to that or anything I missed. >> No, that that was a great summary. It you know, all good intentions

038behind the act. Certainly though, the devil's in the details and uh a lot of schools are are deciding how they're going to be implementing it, but but that very much is the spirit of it is transparency, disclosure in an efficient manner. Um so that individuals know when there's things of concern, uh not necessarily to be alarmists about things that aren't of concern. So, >> and just a final note on that piece. I am a in several groups of um um meetings and and correspondence with le uh Lehigh Valley superintendent. So, there's about 12 to 15 superintendents that we consult on these types of issues, uh bad weather day issues. And so we all sent a similar letter that had specific context around our own districts, but the letter and the spirit of the letter went

039out um very similar across all of our Lehigh Valley school districts and I would assume pretty similarly across the state. So uh that's where the context of that that is that you received. And again, if you have questions, look at the FAQ first, but reach out to your building principles or certainly contact my office. I'm happy to talk you through that. Okay, with that that that ends my portion of the um superintendent report. However, we have several presentations that are going to fall under this category and so I'm going to start with Dr. Boltz and our um scholar ath um fall athlete awards. So, Dr. Boltz, I'll turn it over. >> Thank you. So tonight we have a handful of our fall scholar athletes that were selected um following completing the uh the form that

040compiles their accolades not just academically in the classroom but what they've accomplished on the field and through their community service. Um each one of these honores were then um nominated by the school at the conference level um with us having three overall scholar athletes for the conference for the fall. U so I'm going to ask each of those individuals to come up. I'll introduce them in their sport and present them with their certificate and medal. Um there are a handful that weren't able to make it tonight. So I'll make sure that they they get theirs in school and um I will announce their names, those that aren't here when we get to my athletic report. So, for those that are here, um, first up, I'm gonna ask Cole Lordway. [applause] Cole is our scholar athlete

041for football amongst quite a few other accolades that you'll see in the presentation a little bit later. >> Dr. Boltz, if I can stop you for one second. Um, Bill, if you wouldn't mind poking your head into the hall and just let them know that we're doing the athletic presentation. So, if we have any athletes out there to come squeeze their way in, I think most of them are in here, but just >> next one up we have uh Mark Antonio Manino from boy SOCCER [applause] and he is one of our overall scholar athletes in the conference for this fall. So congratulations. [applause] Next we have Evan Gish from boys cross country. [applause] Evan is also one of the overall scholar athletes for the fall from the conference. >> Next, Shila Sanchez. Shila out there.

042And next up, we've got Llama Mammu. [applause] is our scholar athlete for girls cross country. >> Arms aren't long enough. There you go. Congratulations. [applause] And I think the the rest of them were not able to make it tonight. So I will acknowledge them when we get to the overall presentation. Thanks. >> As always, I'm sure some of our board members may want to chime in. Please, please do so at your leisure. I would like to congratulate our scholar ath athletes. uh first of all for your accomplishments in the classroom and then secondly on the on the field or court um that you represent. That is quite a a point of pride for the East Area School District that we have um such accomplished um students and athletes and as I mentioned earlier Ben members

043in our district. It is um you know really quite amazing the talent that our kids have and certainly you are you are among the best in your sport and and it goes without saying that it's called scholar athletes because they do quite a heck of a job in the classroom as well and we're super proud of you. So congratulations to each of you. Okay. All right. Next, I'm going to ask Alloy 5 if they'd like to come forward and CHA with our presentation on the high school. >> Did you want to let them leave? >> Sure. >> Thank you. So, good evening everyone. We just wanted to uh share a few things uh as a refresher for our board and also for our new board members. Um this evening we have a presentation. Uh as

044Miss Piaza said, we have quite a few members here from the design team and project team. Uh and for those new board members, just want to give you kind of some background and be able to introduce some of those individuals to you. Uh so tonight we have Alloy 5 and for your knowledge, Ally 5 is the architect of record for our district. Uh with Ally 5, we have Randy Gallato who's waving right now who's the principal architect. Uh and we have Bill Degan who's the senior designer. Uh he's waving right now as well. Um CHA is our engineering firm. Uh we have Arif Fuzul here tonight who I asked what you know the real title of his of his position is and it's it's a lot. So, uh, he's a project leader for construction manager.

045He's our he's our engineer for the district. I mean, he that that's essentially who Arie is. Uh, and we have Mike Depabin here who is our project manager. Uh, thanks for being here. And then we also have Kier's uh, engineering and design this evening. Uh, we have Doug White who's here this evening with us who is, uh, the civil and site department manager. Uh, so all of them are working with the project team here within the district uh, on this project. This project has been gone going for quite some time now. Uh but we felt that as the new year begins, it was critical for us to provide the board an update uh about where we are, you know, some exciting things uh and just some really good information to kind of relevel the ground

046for us uh as we move forward into the future. So uh with that being said, I'm going to kick it off to Arie Reef, thanks for being here and we can start. Hello. Is this working? Good. Um so first of all, I wasn't expecting such a large crowd, so this is actually refreshing. But I want to start out by uh just recognizing the the board leadership because uh the leadership has been involved directly in this project providing guidance, providing oversight, uh giving direction and of course um entrusting the administration and us to uh work on this project that is uh you know huge for the Lehigh Valley and specifically for Eastern Area School District. So, I want to recognize the board. Of course, the administration, you know, I'm I'm telling you, the administration, we meet

047uh twice a week, sometimes um but definitely regularly once a week to get this project to where we are today. It is a challenging project, but it has um gone through a couple of different girrations and and right now we feel very comfortable with where we're heading with the project. and uh it's exciting to just update the board on it. There's been many updates, but I think this is just another opportunity to update. And then I know on the 20th, uh we also have the required Act 34 hearing. However, um as you're aware, everything here has been in the open. We've had value engineering exercises that were open. So, we've been doing a lot of things to make sure we got all the right input. So, with that said, uh we're just going to jump

048right into the site plan, I think, update, right? Yep. Site plan is very important. Um and Doug has been working on it. Uh the site plan uh approvals, land development approvals, as you well know, for a project like this are, um challenging at times. uh they're necessary and oftentimes they you know you work collaboratively with the different municipalities and townships and it ends up in a in a project that looks forward. Uh you know obviously the high school's been built over many years and things have changed. So I'm just going to let uh Doug just kind of give you a quick overview. It's hard to see but it is a big site broken into two phases. So just step up. >> Thanks Arie. So again, my name is Doug White uh with Collier's Engineering. Um

049we've been enlisted to [snorts] um progress the site site uh land development plan. Um we have two plans to present to you tonight. Um the first plan here we're calling phase one. Um I'm sure many of you have already seen variations of this plan. Um it's been evolving over the last several months and um [clears throat] we're at a point now where we've submitted this to the township. We have reviews and um we're going down a path of an approval. Um so just for those that aren't familiar with it, I'll give a brief overview, but um I have my laser pointer if anybody can see this. So the phase one is basically the western ha western tract uh which is the kungle tract. Um the goal of this is we're going to build a turf

050baseball field, varsity uh and a varsity turf softball field. Um, we're going to be doing this to prepare for the future phase where where um we're going to be building the school over top of the existing um baseball varsity baseball field. Um, as you can see here, we're also relocating the tennis courts uh which are located um on the existing um football practice field. There's also a fieldhouse proposed um on the master plan here um which which has has turf inside the building and uh L5 can speak more to the specifics of the building. Um there are ticket booths, concession stands. Um additionally we are expanding what is now the varsity softball field and make it a competition JV baseball field. Um, in addition to some of these other site improvements, we're also proposing uh

051curving and sidewalk along Greenwood Avenue. This is something that was um desired by the township u by Palmer Township and uh just provides a little bit more connectivity to the school. Um that's that's phase one. Um again, phase one is uh trying to prepare us for the next bigger phase of the project. Um maybe we can progress the slide. So phase two we can [clears throat] see um this is the new school location here which is just to the north of the existing school and uh to the south of Route 22. Um we have 25th Street over here on the right hand side. Um just a couple couple highlights. I know many of you have seen variations of this. Again, it's it's progressed a little bit over the last several months. We're maintaining the existing

052access off of 25th Street. Um a little tough to see at this scale, but this road kind of comes in and it's more or less where the existing road is now. Um final condition once the current high school is demolished, we'll be building a large parking lot to accommodate uh staff and students um to the south of the of the new building. Um, additionally, we have a dedicated bus parking lot over here um just for buses. Uh, so that that will help separate separate the traffic a little bit. Um, also that can be used for overflow conditions uh for car parking in the event of large events. Um, couple other highlights here. You can see we are showing currently the bonfire location uh right up here which is on the existing bandfield. Um, in the

053final condition, the banfield will be located over in this location to the just just to the side of uh 25th Street. Um, we also have an access road going around the entire uh side of the uh rear of the building and provides a lot of access to the back for for deliveries and and uh maintenance. Um, similar to phase one, we have uh additional road improvements. There's there's widening along William Penn Highway, curbing and sidewalk, and some sidewalk additions on 25th Street as well. Um, couple other highlights. We have a land [clears throat] to bus stop here that was requested. And then there's additional connectivity from William Penn Highway into the into the school site. So, we have sidewalk access through here. We've maintained access to the memorial. Um, and then we have over at

054the existing entrance off of William Penn, we've also have sidewalk coming down towards the track uh to provide additional connectivity from William Penn Highway. There's that's phase two. Um, so just an update as far as where we are in the process from our phase one approvals. Um, we submitted our preliminaryfinal plan to Palmer Township in November, uh, 2025 and we appeared at planning commission meeting in December and generally received positive feedback from from the planning commission. Um, and we've [clears throat] received many comments from them. They have a lot of review agencies and we've uh, progressed those. We're actually submitting the plan back into them tomorrow. Um, and that will be on the February 10th planning commission agenda. We anticipate approval at that meeting. Um, and then once we obtain a conditional approval from the

055planning commission, we'll progress to the board of supervisors. Um, and then of course we'll have we'll just have the some conditions to meet and then we'll we'll go through that process with the township. Uh, maybe next slide. The plan was also submitted to Northampton County Conservation District. This is relative to our Department of Environmental Protection uh permits that we need. We received comments from them and feedback on a completeness review which is just a normal part of this process. Uh we resubmitted back to them and we expect to hear another another sound another round of comments from them. Um and then they have a period of time to review um what they call a technical review at which time we'll respond to those comments. Um and then and then the next step after that would

056be getting [clears throat] a permit. Um so the MPDS the EP permitting process is quite a lengthy process but we're going down that path. Um and we're we're well on our way. Um and so far we've met met the prescribed timelines. >> Yep. Phase two. So, for for phase two, there's there's still a lot of work to be done, but uh the ne the next step we're doing, we need to go to the zoning hearing board to discuss a variance. Um we're in two different zones here at HDR and GIO, and we basically need to uh ask for a variance for building length. Um we've we've had discussions with the municipality and um generally they're they're very supportive of of what we need to ask for. As you can see from Doug, a lot of

057technical compliance issues, but I just wanted to frame out the site work before Bill comes talks to you about the building. The site work is focused on again the educational program and safety and separation of bus traffic from uh students who come to park, teachers, and of course drop off. One of the cool things about the site, we've really been able to maximize use of the existing site while minimizing off-site improvements and really focusing on the infrastructure that's there, upgrading it. We have obviously critical storm water and other things. But again, the facilities you saw, athletics, programdriven, um the school, all about safety on the site, separation, parking, and making sure we meet the criteria from an educational standpoint. So, a lot of technical things, but uh from the community standpoint, that's really been the

058heavy focus and that's where the dollars are being spent. So, I just wanted to reinforce that. I'll get Bill on here. >> Hey, good evening everyone. Thanks for coming out tonight. Um, if we go to the next slide, I'm going to go pretty quickly through this. You're looking at an axonometric diagram of the building. Um, and uh, on the bottom edge, that's route 22 and up here is William Penn Highway and then out here is 25th Street. Um, so what we have is a a main entrance right off of the large parking. And then we have a athletics entrance off of the bus parking. Um, this athletic zone with the kitchen and the mechanical heart of the building. And then we have a performing arts wing which has an auditorium for uh one class. It'll

059be around 900 students. Uh it has the band room. It has the band practice out here. And then we have a threestory academic wing which has a really mixed program inside. A lot of our mechanicals are going on the roof. If we go to the next slide, one of the things that we're very excited about is bfacial. So um on both sides solar panels that will act as screening for those elements. So, it's going to be doing double duty. It's going to be collecting solar energy and it's going to be screening those elements. If we go to the next slide. Um, and then this is uh looking in the opposite direction. So, the two main entrances, the main entrance to the school which has the front office and the nurse right there um right off

060of the parking loop and then the athletic entrance. So um the public will come into the building and go um to the athletic events and to the performing arts events and the students will go to both of those but also into the threestory academic wing. If we go to the next slide. Um so a simple floor plan. Uh this is the lowest level. Has the main court of the basketball. Has the natiatorum. Um there's a wrestling room. Main kitchen. Uh this is the um academic wing with the arts and the CIT classes. Uh we have the library is right here in the middle. um connected by classrooms to the performing arts wing where you can see the auditorium and then the band uh rooms and some teaching rooms. If we go to the next slide

061um this floor is the floor that you enter in on. So this is coming off of off of the parking um into the space and then directly into the second floor the academics left and right to the performing arts and to the athletics. If we go to the next slide. Um, so, so the diagram of the school is very simple. As it gets up higher, uh, onto the third floor, just academics on that floor. Right. So, we go to the next slide. Um, this is a view of the front door. This is the door that the kids and the public will be going into. Um, if you're going to a performing arts event, this would also be the door that you would enter into. Uh, flanking to the left and to the right of it

062are the nurse and the main office. um lots of good security built into the entry sequence and really just a sort of warm inviting beacon um that you'll see as you come down into the site. We go to the next slide. Um so when you step inside um straight ahead into the threetory academic zone and then left and right we have on the left the main office on the right the nurse behind some bookcases that'll have some of the artifacts. And if we go to the next slide we'll turn slightly to the left that looks into the office. very important that the office is transparent and really connected to the students on the inside. That was something that the administration really wanted to build is a strong connection to the students. If we go to

063the next slide, it's looking off to the right side. Um you'll see throughout the plan um there's a lot of spaces where you pull out and there's collaboration spaces technology and power available for students to gather and also for people the community to go gather. Um down uh the that hallway we'll go to the next slide. Um on the lower level uh is the auditorium. So uh you're looking at the auditorium entrance. There's a small graband go which will be used for lunches. There's a sort of satellite kitchen, but it'll also serve um during the intermission. And then this space is a common space um where students will be able to come to outside of the classroom and study. Next slide is just a quick view of the inside of the auditorium just to give

064you the look and feel for that. Um we're incorporating handicap access um from the main uh body of the seating to the stage uh and also throughout the seating. If we go to the next slide. Um, so we're going to go around the building. So we're on 25th Street corner. Uh, this is kind of where the baseball field is that we're displacing. So it gives you a shot of the three-story academic wing. Um, and then that academic wing is sort of terminated by one of these collaborative spaces that's outside of classrooms. And we go to the next slide. Um, again, uh, classrooms, threetory academic wing. This was the stair we were just looking at on that corner. The middle's really nice. That's the spot below that has the big maker spaces, but it also brings

065natural light deep into the plant and the common spaces which we're going to look at next or inside those glass areas. So, if we go to the next slide, um this is uh just inside those windows. Uh this is what we would call one of the open um sort of SGIs in the main corridor. These spaces will be pull out spaces for the classrooms or they hold hold other small groupoup instructions. And the next slide is I think just another view of that same space. It's a unique building in the sense that it has two dual corridors running down classes and spaces in the middle. Um so we want to work on our transparency and also using sort of sliding doors to open and close spaces uh depending on what instruction is going on. And

066then if we go to the next slide um this is just a typical classroom. um seats 30 people uh and we'll have good uh daylighting. And if we go to the next slide, same classroom looking out towards the hallway. So, a little bit of transparency, um, bringing some of that daylight out into the hallway and also allowing eyes to be on those spaces that operate outside the classroom that really make this a, you know, a future, uh, learning environment. Something that you'll come into um, contact with as a student going on to jobs or as a student going on to higher education. And the next slide, I'm coming back around the building. This is the entrance to the athletic swing. Um the large gymnasium is off to the left and then the athletics office is

067right here. You can see one of those solar panels picking up or sneaking up there. And if we go inside um next slide uh on the left uh will be the entrance uh to the main gymnasium with the trophy cases. Over here we'll have a security office and ticketing uh as well as a connection to the athletics office and a stair down right here that'll connect to the larger spaces below. On the next slide, you're just kind of looking in. There's a track that runs at the upper level around the seating, looks down into the bowl of the gymnasium. And when we go inside, uh you'll get a sense of uh the space on the next slide. Um so that track runs around uh at the upper level. Spectators will come in and go down

068into the um gymnasium through that space. And then this slide really gives you a sense of the volume of the space. It was important that this space hold 3,000 people because we want to be able to get all students in that space for all hands- on deck meetings. And then the next slide. And that's it. Uh that was sort of an update. Those are all the images that you're going to see next week during the act 34 meeting. >> Yep. Mike Mike's going to step up, but I just wanted to encourage the board. Um the the act 34 hearing just for some of you who may not have been through it is really intended to give information to the public and not necessarily a board uh question and answer period. Certainly the board can do

069whatever they want but generally it's it's favorable to leave that meeting more for the public to provide comments for the board to hear. Just wanted to say that and then Mike gets the uh easy part about talking to you about the budget. All right, evening everyone. Uh, nice to see some new faces. My name is Mike Depodwin. I'm a project manager with CHA. Uh, go to the next slide. Uh, so first off, the phase one schedule, sort of a quick road map of where we are now and then how we get to uh, shovels in the ground for phase one. Uh, as Doug mentioned, the Palmer Township Planning Commission meeting is in uh, February of next month. And then we'll also at the same time be having the drawings and specifications for phase one wrapping

070up. Uh we're going to be advertising the project at the end of February through the beginning of March with a mandatory pre-bid conference in the middle of March. And that gives all the contractors who are interested in bidding the job. Uh they have to come out, they have to visit the site, they run through all our rules and regulations for a typical job. And it levels the playing field of you know who's going to be bidding this project. Make sure everyone has the same information. Uh we're anticipating the bid opening to be April 8th uh coming up and then that gives us time to review the bids at the uh April 14th standing committee meeting with uh anticipated you know hopefully board approval at the uh meeting on the 28th. Uh notice to proceed would

071be in May and then uh we're anticipating the approval from the conservation district in June. And that again has been sort of the plan all along for phase one to get uh underway of June 2026 and have about a year to complete phase one. Again, making sure that we're uh decreasing the amount of conflict with the baseball, softball, and uh tennis sports throughout the year. uh so they would have access to the new sports fields in early 2027 before we take over the existing varsity uh baseball field in the tennis courts to get the uh the building underway in 2027. Uh the next slide please. Uh so now the the budget uh the big budget update uh is breaking out that phase one cost as we're bidding it separately. It's important to see that we're

072also showing it separately in the overall project budget. Uh you'll see in the next couple slides that the overall project budget which was uh at 298 billion that that was the last overall number that the board saw has remained the same. But now the the hard cross and soft costs of phase one have been extracted. Uh the drawings are much farther along. So we've been able to do detailed takeoff with our estimating team and the uh the hard cost the construction costs for phase one we're anticipating to be 14,780,000. Uh some of that also is uh in storm water management systems that Doug talks about Doug talked about a little bit the the basins that we're building uh behind the new fields and that is not only for phase one but that also helps serve

073the entire storm water management plan for the whole campus. So phase two as well. So we're we're kind of taking some of those phase two costs and applying them in phase one. So that's why one of the reasons why the overall budget of the job uh has not changed. Uh and go to the next slide. This is the hard costs for the building. Uh again, running off the same estimate from last year. Looking forward the next couple months, we will be doing a big budget update for the the building um as we transition from the design development phase to the construction document phase. Uh so we anticipate to have more refined costs of these numbers in the coming months. Uh and then finally the last uh budget sheet uh just the soft costs for phase

074two uh tallying in FFN which is you know furniture and equipment uh fees, permits uh and then again still having contingency in for both design and construction uh the final to total budget project of $298 million. >> So yeah, so I'll I'll just add uh two comments here. One is we did go through a very extensive value engineering process. Um, and I can tell you the the district team, our team, everybody's been work working very hard on value for every single thing we're putting together. We've tried to simplify things. We've also had a really strong focus on durability and robustness of the building. You know, when you build a high school, you're building it for many years, just as the current one is. So durability has been a major factor in terms of how we're

075looking at the scope uh really good design elements but also the value of that. And then the last one has been maintainability. Uh one of the things that we're also been focused on is obviously being able to manage and maintain this build building. Obviously I talked to you about the educational program that comes first but I just wanted to let you know a lot of work has been put into getting to the point. We've sheets of paper. This is just a executive summary of where we are. The budget want to hit the schedule overall. >> Yeah. >> And so the uh the last slide should look familiar to some some folks here. Uh is just the overall project roadmap. As you can see, we're already you two years past of design and getting the approval

076started. And uh the next big milestone will be uh board approval, bid approval for phase one. Uh the purple uh line is design development which is closing up moving into the construction document phase and that really is the uh the design team getting into all the documents building out the thousands of pages of design documents and specifications for the job. Uh we'll be bidding the main building portion uh phase two at the beginning of next year shooting around February of next year to award the contracts for the building. And that's the the final fun phase of actually shovels in the ground building the high school which will be starting in about May June of 2027 with the new school opening of uh Labor Day of 2030. The final phase if you want to call it

077will be demolishing the the old high school and the final site work and cleaning up and getting out of here. So there a lot of uh lot of years to go but there's been a lot of hard work to get to where we are now. Uh that that's all we had for our presentation. if there any any questions or just want to >> I'll never pass up a chance to talk about the high school. Hi everybody. >> For those of you who don't know me, I'm Randy Galliano and I'm the owner of Alloy 5 and our team put together all this hard work and they didn't allow me to present tonight because I get so excited talking about this project and uh we would be here all night if I did. But thank you for

078all everything. We've been here for three or four years now talking about this project. I think it's a game changer for our community and I get a little choked up talking about it because I know what it means to to everybody. So, thank you. [clears throat] >> So, thanks Randy. >> Go ahead. Any questions or >> Yeah, I just want to make a real quick comment for four questions. So, for the the public, um there's some people trying to take notes as well. Uh we do have a a new building construction uh site on our on our homepage. Uh there is a link to all the documents that we have done throughout the past two years. You can see everything. Uh it's all transparent uh in full color. So uh we will have this presentation

079up there as well most likely tomorrow if not by the end of the night. Um so you don't need to take notes. It all be there for you. If you have any questions, you know, please feel free to reach out. Um with that being said, Arie or you know to our board uh if there's any questions or comments uh or anything you want to discuss or talk about our whole team's here right now and just want to open up for those those questions. Hi guys, this is Shandika. >> Hi Shandikica. Go ahead. >> Um, so I think it was I'm not exactly sure who spoke but they mentioned you know maintainability and durability with building a new high school. how long what's the what's the life expectancy for the school before having to look at

080you know reconsidering or >> so um that's a really good question so you have to break uh life expectancy into systems uh the overall structure you know our goal like I said is you know masonry you can see very doable masonry on the outside that that should last forever you know at some point the roof will have to be replaced. You know, that's just uh an occurrence whether that's 25 years, 30 years, some somewhere in that range. And then the only other component that you have to worry about is of course unfortunately all the mechanical systems and then obviously all of the digital systems which you know we all know how the digital world has changed. uh we are working very hard with IT and technology to allow for flexibility and uh allow for changes

081to occur but uh those systems do have a shelf life. So, uh, realistically, the building structure itself should outlast our lifetimes, but, um, you know, at least, uh, mine. Let's just be honest. I'm not going to speak for everybody else, but, uh, but e easily that, but the systems themselves, mechanical, are usually 25 years, give or take. Uh, roof systems, like I said, about 25 years to 30 years. And then, um, technology, your guess is as good as mine. So all right Jamie correct technologies always moving but she's been involved I could tell you the district team has every specialty every specific expertise in the room at every one of the meetings the principal's been there we've reached out to teachers staff uh the superintendent has orchestrated that with Josh has orchestrated all of these

082meetings so everyone's been at the table from transportation of course to facilities through Ken and uh the rest of the team from IT all the way across. So we are really thinking about the systems but it's a great question. Hopefully that answers your question. Uh the brick will be there forever. Uh but technology we'll work on. All right. >> That does answer my question. Thank you. But I do have a followup. Um the building is being put up because we number one needed a new school. that school is outdated and also the population size of the children in the school. So are we are we forecasting for you know a larger population in the next 10 or 15 years so that it would still be beneficial. >> So the current forecast is not one that

083it has an exploding population. Um as always that's a little bit hard to predict. The last time we did a formal population study, they predicted that it would decrease and we increased and built a new school. But currently, we are seeing a slight leveling off or downward trend in our population here in Eastn Area School District with some the housing market and some building spaces that are available within our school district boundaries. We may see some flux in that. Um, but it as we are building this building, it is twofold. We've had the conversation around the maximum number being around 3,000 because in our current phase we've um Edmond flow anywhere from a 23 24 um 100 kids in there to three you know to 27 28 um right now we're on the lower end

084of that in in some degrees and and across the district our elementary buildings and middle school are all a little bit down. So as we thought about this building we have to think about it in a couple regards. One is that we know that we need to house the students that um currently exist within the district and whatever that student population is as we move through the next um decades of time. But two, um, we are also going to be having conversations here within the district, and I don't want to get on a soap box because some my colleagues have heard this a million times, but what should public education look like in Easton? Um, and and quite frankly, probably across the state as we um become um, you know, more diversified in what kids

085need and and technology becomes more advanced. You know, how much seat time do kids need and is there a hybrid model? So maybe kids are come doing part of their coursework online and part of it in the building. Um and there's many factors that can come into play. So as our architect and engineering team came to the table, one of the requests that I had of them is to think about spe um flexible space so that as technology, education, kids opportunities eb and flow, our building can eb and flow along with that. And there are also some contingency um pieces in there that can be discussed along the ways that around how many classrooms do we really need to have on that building. Is there an opportunity to um eliminate a few of those classrooms

086because we may not need them in the future and we can be flexible in how we're using the space in the present. So the question is Shandika that's always somewhat of a question mark. We can go by what those projections are and right now those projections are not um showing huge increases over the next decade but we also need to think in my opinion about what education in Easton could and should look like. Um you know from my perview we would like to have kids out doing internships and externships and working environments and being able to eb and flow almost like a college campus based on their um interest needs um mandates from the state. You know, certainly we want to still give a a state-of-the-art um education, but frankly that might look a little

087bit different than it does sitting here today based on the technological advances that are out there and based on family dynamics and opportunities that are out there for kids. And so, it's a really tricky ask that I had of our teams uh knowing that um that type of conversation will take a few years in planning and we'll probably need to bring kids into a building before we're as creative as the opportunities present to us. So, the building will be um accessible to um numbers up to 3,000 students, but our hope is that it's rare that we have to have 3,000 students in the building at the same time um for actual academic opportunities as we grow the the possibilities of education here in East. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. So, I don't have any

088questions since I've gotten to sit through the process. And I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who was involved. This has been a huge undertaking. Uh, it's also a huge financial undertaking, which we have committed to um, but a very necessary one. And, um, I hope that as the school progresses and people see it, especially in our community and our taxpayers, of why it's so important to do this. Um, you know, for those of us who have grown up here, have gone through the school district and have uh gone through the high school, I can't imagine being in that high school now and and actually um functioning well. Um but I think Shandika one of the questions that you had and I think is very important and and that is how we maintain

089the district how we maintain the school uh is very important and um you know that's one of the things that will keep us going instead of being uh reactive being proactive to maintaining that because for the high school right now uh I think I always use this as the example the roof from the time that I've been here we have had to have put at least at least 10 to 15 million into the roof over the course of my time on this on the school board. So, um something that's definitely needed. And as far as the the students and the population, that's also a continual thing that we do uh that we've done, I think, two or three times since I've been on. So, it's one of those things that's a continual process. But, I

090do want to thank everybody and um I look forward to seeing the new school. Director Hess, uh, first of all, well said, but more importantly, I think one of the things that's really gives us confidence working with the team is you've done a lot of good projects already and you have a history of successfully completing them, putting them together well, and that's really what's given us some of the feedback to make sure this one has all of those components that you just outlined. So, I think the history that the board has in terms of doing projects, the experience you have also really helps helps the team. So, So, thank you. If there are no further questions, I'm going to move on to our next presentation. But I thank all of you for coming out this

091this evening, and we look forward to seeing you next week um for the next round of um Act 34 conversation. Thank you for coming out and congratulations to our students. Thank you for coming out. >> Take care. We'll give a second here for our students and some of our um audience members to transition. Students who are here getting their I'm going to call you out publicly. If you're here getting signatures to get full credit, you need to stay for the full meeting. So consider consider sign. >> So consider your choices. [laughter] >> [snorts] >> wrong one to come to. [laughter] >> Okay, gentlemen at the door, if you wouldn't mind doing me a favor. If there's anyone else in the hallway, let them know there are some seats in here now. Okay, for those who

092might be watching online, we're just allowing a little transition here happen in the in the room in the space. Just watch your step. Okay. Uh at this point, we're going to go into our third presentation. And so we have our friends here from Raymond James. I'm going to introduce Mr. Ken Phillips. And you can certainly introduce your team with you. Um as Mrs. has talked about the building project that we're excited about and just heard about. The biggest question marks around this is how do you fund that? And so, uh, Mr. Phillips and his team are here to talk about what does that look like and what does that mean from the district, not only for this particular high school project, but in general our borrowing power and bonding power as it relates to our

093district budget as well. So, >> thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. Board of directors for some of the new directors. I'd like to introduce our team. Brad Remig uh from public financial management who works along with Alli Mackey who's from my team at Raymond James. We've had the pleasure of representing Eastern area for 35 years and uh we're looking very excited about this project. We'll be here next next week I guess for the act 34. So that was a very nice presentation you know by your team. So how do we go about funding it? And we've we've been working you've seen us having this discussion probably for the last three four years as you get geared up for it. Um and you know the board is has been getting geared up

094for it. So just like they just like there's a phase one and phase two uh the phase one projects that we started talking about in in October is the funding of of phase one the athletic fields and then also uh throwing in some of the the debt refinancings. you know, if we're going to do a $20 million financing for the athletic, you know, complex, we're going to probably throw in some of the existing indebtedness and hopefully save a million million and a quarter dollars. And so, it just is a, you know, common sense thing to do. Uh, next slide, please. This is a reflection of the outstanding indebtedness for the district. You can see that, uh, the district's always been very forward thinking with respect to taking advantage of lower rates. Uh we have some

095very nice refundings where we have saved literally uh510 million dollars here in the last probably 10 years. Um and that debt is very attractive and you can see how it was financed with respect to historical rates. Um 2020 was the lowest rates ever. Ever is a long time. Um and even though we've come up from them, rates are still attractive. And so as we start to look at phase one, even though phase two is not going to happen for another year or so, phase one we anticipate to have some good luck with respect to the interest rates. Next slide, please. This is the indebtedness. You can see the district has always done a good job of of maintaining their debt in a short capacity if they could. Um you can see at the top on

096column 8 the annual run rate rates about $16.5 million. That's your annual mortgage, let's call it. Okay, that's what's in the budget for debt service. And below, it's about 15.45 after some state reimbursement, which carries us through five, six years, and then it goes back to 16 and a half. That is going to lend itself to the ability to finance the high school project because this debt is relatively short. And so we're going to be using the existing indebtedness that is already in place for the district and then adding on to that over a period of years. The bottom you see three red boxes. Those are potential issues that we have refinancing opportunities more on the 2018 column two and also column 3 the 19s. Uh we're going to throw the 22s in there. I'm

097not sure we're going to do those, but it doesn't cost us anything to put them in the resolution, so we're going to include those as well. Next slide, please. Uh, next slide. There we go. So, this is the 18A. There's only four years left on it. Really, three and a half because we're, you know, we're getting up to the next fiscal year. And you can see on the right hand side, cash flow savings about $1.1 million. And it makes sense to go ahead and since we're going to be doing phase one athletic, makes sense to go ahead and and you know throw these in and achieve some savings which will help toward the high school project. Next slide please. Is the 19 notes. Again, nothing much here, but 150,000. And if we don't do it,

098it's just going to sit there. So again, this this is like the tip of the tail of the dog, but since we're already going to be incurring debt, we're going to the rating agencies, it makes sense to go ahead and try to save some money if we can. And next slide, the 22s. We're going to hold off on those at this point in time, but we just wanted to show you there's only 40ome,000 of savings there on a net basis. Page seven, this is an update from what we reviewed last year. the um Pennsylvania independent fiscal office puts out forecast, right? Um and this is the forecast for act one. Why is this important? Because when we start talking about the uh funding of really any project, we have to remember that you don't have

099a blank check. You have to fit everything within act one of Pennsylvania. Okay? And here the forecast for uh the base index is in the low 3s. Last year when we were here was three and a half. Okay, it's come down. Um, and for example, your index this year, your base is 3.5, which you know ties in up top and for your adjusted index is 4.5. So in theory, you could go up 4.5% uh for your curriculum and for your debt and you know whatever else in terms of operations. We include this because as we start talking on the next slide, we're going to have to dedicate. Okay, how you go ahead and fund a, you know, $300 million project. And we've been looking at this uh as of now. Okay, this is a snapshot.

100It's going to change as interest rates change. It's going to change is your value of a mill change and so on. But you can see column 3, four, five, and six. That's the projected monies needed uh for $300 million. When you look at also footnotes three, four, five, and six, and you can see um the very first one, column three, that's that's the first phase one for the athletics. So, we're going to propose uh financing $20 million toward that phase. And again, we'll throw in the refundings as well. How you go about funding that is really column nine. the district already last year or this year, let me say this calendar year, this fiscal year for you, 1.51% was put in toward the plan, but you can then see for the next, you know, six

101years or so, we're at the 1.5%. So, as you're seeing budgets, you know, prepared by your administration and you know that the index is going to be somewhere probably in the high threes to low fours for you, at least based on the projections from the fiscal office, 1.5 of that is going to be used strictly for the high school project. Okay? That's really the only way to go about funding it, right? Um, so we have some assumptions built in with respect to interest rates. We always put contingencies in there. we can't control those, but uh it gives us a snapshot that we'll continue to update and when we complete the first phase here later this spring, we'll come back and at least we'll have column three completed and we'll see how that, you know, tallies

102forth going forward. Next slide, please. Is this is the the timeline that we reviewed in the fall. So, we were here in October. you adopted October 28th a reimbursement resolution which gives you the ability until we obtain the actual funding to go ahead and use some of your own monies and then reimburse yourself. Uh that's by IRS we have to do that. It makes perfect sense that you have the ability to pay some out of your general fund and your other capital funds and then reimburse yourself with respect to phase one. The next uh action item would be Jan 27. uh we would be here I think Alli is going to be here that night with a with the uh lawyers in terms of the resolutions that are needed and it's really just putting forth

103the appropriate legal resolutions. We work with your legal team, your solicitor and bond counsel. We work with them in terms of putting the documents together. Um and it makes sense to go ahead and get it done on the 27th to give us some flexibility as we move through the rating process. So with your, you know, continuing on this timeline, we would be here to adopt a resolution only for phase one and also the refundings attached to it that we talked about earlier. We then begin the rating process. The rating process really will start to put together the materials. We'll work with Mr. Trent and his office in terms of, you know, putting together the necessary documents for the rating agencies. A lot of that is going to depend on uh the receipt of uh the

104audit later this month, which I think is happening. And once we have the material that we believe to be in good form, we're going to go ahead and start the rating process. That would give us the ability that based off of your bidding schedule uh and the commencement of the construction in June, we would obtain money sometime in that same period, which will which you will then use toward reimbursing yourself for some expenses, but also then toward phase one. Okay, love to answer any questions on this document. It is a fluid document. Uh it has changed. I'm sure some of you have the same document for the last two years, so I know you study them, but uh no, I'm kidding. But um we will continue to update this, work with your legal team, work

105with your administration. It's an honor for us to be here for three plus decades and uh serving East. And with that, I'll answer any questions from myself or my team. Okay, we will see you next week for the act 34. All right, thank you. Have a nice evening. Thank you for coming out this evening. We appreciate your time. >> Thank you. Uh thanks for this opportunity uh to present information about uh responsible contractor ordinances. Um the my name is Bob Walper. I'm the founder of uh rebuilding American values. Uh the next slide you can see what our mission is. Basically, we're a public policy think tank organization and we're dedicated to uh making sure that there's transparency and accountability in how public dollars are spent on major projects like this. Um, I want to first

106thank uh all the members of the board and everybody else here for your willingness to serve on the Eastern Area School Board. uh this kind of public service is is thankless and difficult and often underappreciated but you know I think this is important the way you conduct business and it should be acknowledged. Um go to the next slide. uh the the whole concept of uh a responsible contractor ordinance is sort of an extension of what is commonly known as the lowest cost bid. Uh the problem is you have a statewide law uh that was passed a responsible contractor law in October of 2023 and the emphasis and the language and the application of that statewide law has always been the lowest lowest cost. Uh responsible contractor ordinances are designed uh to enhance the transparency and

107oversight capacity of the bidding process when you're bidding out work to build these these large projects. So a lot of times you'll hear that you have to go with lowest contract bid period. the the position that we take uh as a policy think tank is that a lowest bid ordinance is just the floor, not the ceiling. and that organizations like yours, whether they're municipalities, school boards, uh other governmental bodies, city agencies, uh they they often have the ability to take that floor and build on it just like you're building your new school. Uh and we urge organizations and and uh boards like yours to to consider the the long-term costs of just going for the lowest bid. And what you may get if you just drive all your spending from that perspective is poor workmanship,

108unsafe working conditions, cost overruns, and needless legal expenses. All of those are like hidden costs that you have to anticipate just the way your financial folks have to anticipate changes in rates and that sort of thing. Um, you know, our our position working with uh organizations and and boards and governmental bodies is that you have an obligation. people elect you uh to be responsible stewards of their taxpayer dollars. And if you're not doing that, you're abdicating your responsibility at a certain level. So that's why we we ask people in your position to look at what a responsible contractor ordinance is. Uh if you can go to the next slide. Okay. A lot of a lot of rhetoric surrounds responsible contractor ordinances and a lot of it has to do whether it's union, non-union. Uh but

109the real bottom line on that is they assure taxpayers that qualified contractors will be building on local work being done in their community. It doesn't restrict who can bid provided they meet the requirements that are set in place for those bids by groups like you. Uh under these ordinances, public projects meet certain criteria which can include things such as requiring competitive bidding by contractors with a history of providing fair wages and benefits and compliance with federal, state, and local laws. They can also include requirements for the bidding contractors to recognize the importance of employee training and safety and the protection of workers rights. Additionally, an ordinance should contain enforcement mechanisms designed to ensure [snorts] strict adherence to policy provisions. Uh you'll find a document called RCO definition on the flash drive that I distributed with

110with the packet to the members of the board. uh and specific has more specific examples [snorts] of the types of criteria that you could expect contractors to meet when they're bidding to do this kind of work. U if you go to the next slide, as I said, the responsible contractor ordinance is something that's a floor, not a ceiling. And it's designed to give elected officials the authority to set responsible uh standards for contractors. And your real power that you have is in to control the spending and ensure transparency and protect the interests of your citizens comes from how you choose to define what responsible is in a responsible contract ordinance. And if you if you expand your perception of that beyond the lowest bid possible and realize that you have the power to set specific

111standards that require people that are spending your tax dollars to do it in a way that that guarantees uh safety on the job site, safety in the final product and minimizes the the potential for cost overruns. for shoddy workmanship that may result from the lowest possible bid. That's something that we ask you to consider. Um, if you can go to the next slide, what you see here is a a short video that I'm going to play for you in a second. You have the entire video on the flash drive that I uh distributed. And on the flash drive itself that that uh main picture there has a link where you can actually click and view the entire video that Katie Failinger the person on on screen is going to be talking about. when when you

112plug in your flash drive and you play the entire video from the flash drive when you're online, uh the buttons underneath that she's referring to will activate and there'll be much more information there. I just didn't want to include it in this presentation because that can get pretty lengthy and it's late in the evening. Uh but if you could could you just click on uh the video and and play that. Hi, this is Katie Failinger for Rebuilding American Values and we want to help you become a better informed public servant. Let's start by talking about responsible contractor ordinances or RCOs. If you serve on a local school board, a township or burough board of supervisors or a larger municipality or a county, thank you for making our democracy work by doing what is often a

113thankless job. As a local official, you want to make sure that you get the best results and protect the taxpayers who elected you. There is no better way to ensure taxpayer protection than by using RCOs to guide your spending decisions. So, how can RCOs help you make better spending decisions? RCOs are a tool you can use to guarantee transparency, accountability, and safety on bids for local projects. RCOS's allow you to set consistent standards for any project bid and ensure that local contractors employing community residents can bid knowing they will be paid fairly. RCOs's streamline project bidding by setting job quality and safety standards before a project is funded. That is why a strong RCO will have requirements for using contractors who employ local workers trained by a class A accredited apprentice program taught by skilled

114and experienced instructors. RCOs are designed to protect taxpayers from unqualified contractors employing poorly trained workers, shoddy and unsafe practices, delays and cost overruns, lawsuits, and other needless legal expenses. Irresponsible contractors will try to game the system by lowballing bids, delivering poor quality, and operating with poorly trained workers in unsafe conditions. This leaves the taxpayers holding the bag for cost overruns, costly lawsuits, and injured workers. >> If you want to find out more detailed information about how RCOS can benefit your community, click the more about RCOs button. You can also click on the model RCO legislation button and download a strong, legally tested RCO for your municipality or schoolboard. At Rebuilding American Values, we believe that good government and fiscal responsibility is worth the effort. RCOs are a way for us to ensure that our spending

115decisions are designed to get the best and safest results. That's why when I was on the Nars area school board and a supervisor in East Norton Township as well as a current county commissioner, we ensured that we had responsible contractor ordinances. If you want to hear directly from other local elected officials about their experiences using RCOs's, click the local officials and RCOs's button and hear from other elected officials who know the value of an RCO. If you want to speak to a recognized expert in RCOS's who will tell you the truth, click the contact an expert button. >> As solicitor, I know the law establishing RCOs allow local governments the latitude to set the definition of what constitutes a responsible contractor for their jurisdiction. I know this because I wrote the first RCO in Pennsylvania

116in Norristown and won the case in federal court. Now, we know that there are groups who offer to help contractors who may not be affiliated with class A accredited apprentice programs navigate not comply with RCO laws protecting taxpayers in school districts and local municipalities. These navigators are often contractors who have been accused of violating prevailing wage laws in the past. Many of their claims seem to bend the truth. Our experts can answer the questions you may have and give you real world examples and proof. At Rebuilding American Values, we believe that good government and fiscal responsibility go handin hand. That's why we want to help you understand the benefits of responsible contractor ordinances. Finally, if you agree and would like to share this video with other elected officials, click the forward to a friend button

117to send them this info and help us spread the word. A strong RCO equals taxpayer protection. Nothing else comes close. >> Next uh slide, please. there that one. [clears throat] >> Now you can see oops >> you can see that um RCO ordinance is not a new concept and it's been used in many levels of government. Uh, in fact, Northampton County and the city of Easton both have them. Uh, as you can see from this quote from uh the outgoing uh county exec Lamont Mccclure. Uh, Northampton County used one to build their forensic uh center a couple of years ago and it was a pretty successful operation according to uh what I heard. Um if you go to the next slide, uh there are other local officials that have actually done it in their areas

118and I wanted to play these two specific ones for you. One because Steve Sosero has multiple levels of of uh using RCOs in different levels of government and uh Lori Shriber is specifically uh from a school district. So you could just click on uh Steve sent us arero first. >> Irresponsible contractors will try to game the system by lowballing bids, delivering poor quality, and operating with poorly trained workers in unsafe conditions. This leaves the taxpayers holding the bag for cost overruns, costly lawsuits, and injured workers. years ago when I was a township supervisor in lower Mfield before we had a responsible contractor ordinance, we bid out a job and we went with a bidder that we knew was not going to be able to do the job well. In fact, we tried to use the

119next lowest bidder, but the lowest bidder sued us. Make a long story short, ultimately that bidder did a horrible job and we were stuck having to spend a lot of money on the back end. A couple of years later, we finally passed a responsible contractor ordinance and never had that problem again. It really does make a difference for taxpayers because ultimately they will pay when you have an irresponsible bidder doing the work. I mean, the big issue is making sure that you have a trained workforce, people who have uh the skills to do the job and do the job right the first time. Um, without the responsible contract ordinance, you're not sure whether you're getting that, and more often than not, you're not. The other piece of this too is it ensures that we have

120people who are making uh living wages, family sustaining wages. Um because a lot of these irresponsible contractors u they're able to bid so low because they pay their workers uh far below that and that's not good for our economy either. So responsible contractor or ordinances help taxpayers in the first instance but secondly they lift everyone up in our community and make our economy stronger. This should be a rule that um is across Pennsylvania. The problem with our law right now is it says that towns and school districts have to go with the lowest responsible bidder, but it doesn't define what responsible means. And as a consequence, it always gets read as just the lowest bidder. So, in order to give our towns and our schools the protections they need across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, there

121should be a law that applies everywhere. In the absence of that statewide law, the interpretation by a lot of solicitors in other areas of the state is you take that as the floor and you beef up the state law with your own local ordinances requiring more transparency and more accountability. Uh, if you can play Lori Shrivever, this is somebody who's a contemporary of yours from the Abington School District. Oops. Back to click on >> I was happy to support the responsible contractor ordinance which was recently passed in Abington Township by hiring the most qualified contractors with the most expertise in class A apprenticeship programs. we can have increased confidence that we will have the most skilled and well-trained individuals completing the work that needs to be done in both a timely and in the safest

122manner possible. This ordinance can also create local jobs which we appreciate in our township. >> You can see from from these that this is not a new concept. I've included in the flash drive that I distributed for the board uh other examples of several RCOs that have passed legal challenges in other part of other parts of the country uh including much larger school districts like the city of New York. Uh I recommended that you contact any of the experts who participated in these these videos or talk to your own colleagues here in Northampton County. uh the the elected officials that appeared in this video uh all volunteered to make their expertise available. And there is also a listing in your packet of how to contact uh Sean Kilkenny, Steve Senosero, and Mike Barbierro, who are

123also recognized legal experts uh on RCOs and have have worked on this this kind of uh legislation with a number of different school boards and municipalities around the state. So, I just wanted to uh make sure that that we got that information in front of the board as you're uh considering putting a a bid together to build your school district uh building your new high school. Uh because it's something that you need to take into consideration from a policy perspective on making sure that you get the biggest bang for the buck and the highest quality available. while maintaining local job opportunities and uh keeping the transparency that's evidenced in the board at the front of the process. So, uh, thank you for the opportunity and, uh, if you have any legal questions, uh, I'm not

124a lawyer, so I would suggest that you contact one of the legal experts that's listed in the, uh, uh, the packet that I distributed because they're all willing to to talk to you about it. Um but in general uh as a policy organization we're interested in making sure that that governments have at their at their uh ability to responsibly operate and we think that having an RCO align very well with your mission as a school board to be transparent and upfront and responsible. ible about how you spend tax dollars. So, thank you for this opportunity and thank you uh board member Seagoya for the the invitation because uh I think you probably saw this video before, but I wanted to make sure that we gave everybody the opportunity and and the directions to who to

125talk to to get more information or more uh legal insight into that. Uh, and if there's anything else that I can do from Rebuilding America Values to help you in that process, feel free to contact me. >> Okay, >> Mr. Walper, thank you for your time and coming out this evening. We appreciate it. Board members, any questions from any of you at the table? >> Not at the moment. >> Or those of you online? >> I I don't have any specific questions. I do just want to um say obviously there's a lot of information here. I think one of the uh links right is where we can see some other local uh or regional school districts or municipalities that have adopted such an ordinance. Correct. So uh we'll have some time to do that. So

126hopefully board members will uh take some time to review this. Um I know attorney has taken some notes which is great. So he can weigh in for us as well um and ask any questions that we have. >> Yeah, sure. So, so without the benefit I I just saw the document just now, so I haven't had the ability to really comb through it, but I assume go ahead. >> Uh the model contract is is the one that that your group would be uh proposing that >> that's just one one example. Okay. >> There are there are numerous uh examples uh on the the video and also I think there are other groups that are circulating model language for that's specifically designed for Eastn uh school board, but that's not produced by me. I was just

127doing a survey of what is out there in the existing u legislation that I've seen coming across researching uh the issue. I haven't I haven't produced anything specifically designed for your particular project here. But if you're if you're looking for the generalized language, that's one example. There's also uh in the packet uh a reference to u a responsible contractor ordinance that the school district of of the city of New York did a number of years ago. And as you would know as a lawyer, you can get into a lot of specific details about that. Uh my perspective as a policy think tank is to encourage you as a board to explore your your real power as a board in terms of controlling uh and setting the the standards for how you want to spend your

128money. You're doing that obviously in the design phase and the construction phase with the presentation as we heard earlier, but when you get down to brass tax and you're going to spend real dollars, you want to put some strings on that to make sure that whoever you're giving the money to performs at the highest quality level and minimizes the backend cost that could come from just going with the lowest bid. So, it's a it's a different perspective on public policy, but I think it's one that's you're well served to take uh when you're talking about spending the amounts of money that you have. >> Sure. So, uh you know, and I apologize. I'm not sure if if you're predominantly P if you're just Pennsylvania, if you work in multiple different states. Uh certainly I see

129the examples of of success purportedly successful um policies that are out there. Do you have examples of failed versions of policies that that have been adopted elsewhere that came under scrutiny? In my review of the law, there's really kind of a split. There was a period where PLA's and PLA's and respons um responsible contractor ordinances uh by and large were uh uh seen favorable by courts, but my review is more recently certainly they're they're seen much less favorable. Uh most recent cases that I saw with pendot uh the PLA's were all struck down um as in infringing upon competitive procurement. So, uh, do you have examples maybe where it didn't work so that we can learn from those mistakes? >> Well, first of all, a PLA is not an RCO. >> Two two different things.

130And if you're talking specifically about responsible contractor ordinances, uh, I would I would really encourage you to talk to some of those legal experts like Mike Barbie and Sean uh, uh, Kil Kenny. >> Kil Kenny, right. Sure. uh because they they can you know talk the case law u differences and variances but for the board an RCO is not a project labor agreement it's an entirely different thing and it it is something where you are setting standards and and it's designed to help you craft the kind of uh uh bid process process that you want to put out in the market. Uh there PLA's are another type of of that kind of uh uh standard setting, but this is specifically different. It's a creature of a different name. The goal is ultimately the same and

131and a lot of the language in the PLA's that I've seen that have been struck down seems to mirror some of the language in the RCOS's. Um certainly the concern is at the end of the day the biggest concern is fa uh put an uneven uh uh stage for either union versus non-union to to bid. That's the biggest issue. Um the other issue is certainly uh from what I can review is uh tends to be disfavored to have a blanket uh document that applies to every project. It tends to be project by project based. Um, so it is certainly something that can be considered with regard to say the high school construction, but um, something that needs to be very narrowly tailored. Uh, because as I review it, you know, there really needs to be

132extraordinary circumstances and and good reasoning for why these types of agreements exist. Um, so >> again, I would I would encourage you to consult with some of the legal experts that are available uh in the packet that I distributed. Uh but the the difference it is stark in some areas >> and it's worth exploring before you put out a bid. >> Sure. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Um just a general I guess question I'm guessing from Mr. Her's response. Um, are the are there any other districts in our region that have these in place? Lehi Valley, >> not that I'm aware of. Uh, it was considered uh more recently by the Scranton School District, um, which we gave guidance on. Uh, Abington, I saw was was mentioned there. I just looked it up.

133I think they passed in October of 2025. So, there's not a lot of time there to to see what's occurred with it. Um, so school district-wise, I'm not aware. Again, as you can see from the name of it, it's it's an ordinance. So, it's really aimed, I think, more at municipalities. School districts don't pass ordinances. Obviously, we pass policies. >> Okay. >> Um, so to my knowledge at this point, I haven't seen it, but certainly something I will look into. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I did see it looked like the city of Allentown has one and it looks like well, Northampton County, right, as well, but that was all I've seen locally was just those two examples. So, thank you for answering that. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Again, thank you for your

134time. We appreciate it. >> Thank you for allowing me to testify. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Excuse me. I'm going to end my superintendent report uh similar to how I started. We started this evening um recognizing and acknowledging the good work that Kenny Seagreaves uh did for us here in the district and as a state trooper across the state. And I'm going to end today with a quick shout out to all our law enforcement agents as January 9th was um law enforcement appreciation day. And we certainly appreciate those who keep our school district safe um our city safe and our and our country safe. So thank you to all of you who may engage in that profession. And with that, I will conclude my superintendent report. >> Thank you. Um I don't know if

135you all want to stay for the rest of our meeting or if you wanted to leave, that's fine, too. I'll just give you a second to decide. >> You are certainly welcome. >> Don't worry, we let the kids go too. [laughter] >> Thank you everyone. Watch your step. >> Yeah, >> you guys don't Explain though the difference to people want [laughter] >> you get them signed now but you want full credit you need to stay for the full meeting your principal sitting in the back of the room and heard that edict the examples that my question I guess is the idea of sort of a menu of options of things that we might require. >> Oh yeah, a lot of a lot of the things are easy. A lot of the things are easy. policy.

136It's when you start to get into they have to use apprenticeships and they have to do its >> right. Right. >> I know it's not that exact but to me this >> Okay. >> Guess are we are we going to continue? >> I think we can move on. >> Okay. All right, we'll be moving on to academics. Did that >> What's going on over there? >> Is this your video evidence? [laughter] >> I should have shaved the mustache. All right, I think we're good now. Okay, next we'll be moving on to academics. Dr. Draper. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Um during our upcoming school board um [clears throat] meeting, the curriculum and instruction team will be seeking approval for a a few instructional and programmatic items. Um, first we're going to we would like to

137request approval for eight staff members to attend the annual PNC conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Um, that's going to take place February 1st through February 4th. Um, for the sake of our some of our newer uh board members and the public. The PNC conference is a nationally recognized professional learning event that focuses on instructional innovation, curriculum development, assessment practices, leadership, and effective use of technology to support teaching and learning. And so, our staff members will be participating in this conference. It would allow them to engage in highquality professional learning and to collaborate with educators from across the state. Um, attendance at this conference will be fully funded through our PA Smart Grant, resulting in no cost to the district's general fund. The second approval we will be seeking is for myself to attend the improving school

138performance conference hosted by the Pennsylvania Association of Federal Program Administrators in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It's going to take place January 25th through the 29th. And this conference focuses on programs, federal programs, compliance, accountability, and strategies to improve outcomes within schools. All associated costs um for this conference will be covered using our title 2 uh grant funds. We will also be seeking approval for the listed field trips that were um provided in the board brief and as well on this evening's agenda. um they are scheduled to begin next week through May 27th and this will provide our students an opportunity to have meaningful learning experiences that are beyond the classroom. The last item that we will be seeking um board approval for is to add the PTE required personal finance course to the district's program of study

139um effective for the 2627 school year. This addition ensures compliance with uh PTE's requirements and supports our commitment to preparing [clears throat] our students with essential financial literacy skills for post-secary success. And this evening, I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Cuck, who's going to provide a little bit more information about the addition of this course um via a presentation. So, I'll get the uh presentation. Thank you, Dr. Draper. get the presentation started this evening. Uh, and I'll turn it over to Mr. Guyger. Um, Mr. Guyger and his team at the high school, uh, teachers, school counselors, uh, and others have worked diligently, uh, to ensure that this course is prepared and ready to go for the start of next school year. Um, his team has been looking at this very closely, um, and

140aligning it, um, to the standards that have been prescribed. Um, so, as Dr. D uh Draper mentioned um Department of of Education mandate under Act 35 back in in 23 um required all schools to offer a personal finance course one time during um each of students uh high school careers. Um that standard now goes in effect for July 1 of 2026. Um so there are a number of things uh that we will do. This is the first step in that direction that is the creation of the course getting your approval to move forward with the with the finishing touches to that plan uh which Mr. Guyer will highlight. Uh and we'll also uh be adjusting policy 217 um the graduation requirement policy uh to reflect the the requirement of personal finance as as this um

141legislation requires. Um so I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Guyger um who's going to go through uh these slides um and give you guys an overview of where we are right now and then our next steps. Um but once again I want to thank him and his team for doing the groundwork uh in putting the course together. Um and the district um you know although it's a mandate this is something that very closely aligns to our uh to our profile of a graduate um and something that aligns to our mission as a district to make sure that our kids are prepared uh for the world uh beyond our walls in East High School. Uh Mr. Gger going to turn it over to you. >> Thank you Mr. C. Um and I certainly hope

142everybody didn't leave because I was presenting next but uh Mr. Mr. Cuck did you know obviously outlined the mandate from the state. I had the privilege of attending a couple of sessions with PTE leadership about the implementation of personal finance. Uh in those sessions I was able to collaborate with many other high school principles, high school teachers uh and different school districts in terms of uh how to roll this out and how to implement it. Uh, so the one thing I will say is that obviously schools across the state of Pennsylvania all have different scenarios, different ways that they could potentially roll this out for their students and what fits best for their schools. Um, but again, taking some of their feedback, hearing some of uh, what they were doing was very helpful to bring

143back to our own um, core team at the high school. I started to work obviously with the experts in the building and our business department to talk about personal finance where many of these topics are already are um, part of their curriculums. Um and then we spread that out to other coordinator areas um that you'll see a little bit later on also are certified uh by PTE to teach this course. Uh so we ended up with a crew of administrators uh coordinators and some of our supervisors kind of devising what we feel to be the most uh appropriate fit for our school to implement personal finance. Um so next slide. So ultimately what we have come to is uh the logistics of the course at Eastern High School. What we think fits best. One of

144the mo one of the things that we wanted to look at to make sure that while this is something that is important that we want all of our students to take, we didn't want it to take away from their other course offerings and electives that they have already begun to uh to enjoy in their high school career. Um so starting in the 27 uh 20 26 27 school year, all of our students will take this course in their junior year. Um they will take it during a 39m minute period um for a semester. It will be a halfcredit course. Um, and for those of you who already know our schedule, our students have a course called it called advisory. Um, they have that advisory 39 minutes opposite of their lunch. Um, for 11th grade students

145only, one half of that year, one semester of that advisory will now become personal finance. The other half of the year will go back to the advisory courses and we have adjusted our advisory courses to uh to accept that. Um so that is where we have chosen and again just some background in conversations with many other schools. Most uh schools find that the sweet spot of this topic does happen to be our you know juniors or above. Uh many of them have jobs, they have cars, they have financial responsibilities and therefore are much more invested in the content in the topic um of personal finance. Uh I think most people would probably say this is about time. Uh this is a topic that I think we all understand is very important. Um but I do

146also want to mention that the fact that this course is now being offered does not mean these topics have not been a part of our instruction um forever or for a very long time. Um some of them came in our family consumer science courses, some of in our government economics course in 12th grade, many in our business department. But it was possible based on a student's course request to not get some of these things by choice. Um and one of the things that this now does for us is ensures that all of our students are going to get personal finance um in instruction and learn and I think we all recognize the importance of that um in our in our students. So next slide. So why did we choose this course uh this setup of

147course uh the 39 minutes the half the half credit um first of all as I said it it is a way that we can accomplish this and so our students have the amount of time and opportunity to explore the topic but also not completely um throw off the rest of their choice offerings their elective offerings that um are in the rest of their their daily schedule. Um so as you can see um you know the state has mandated this but then turned over the responsibility to the eleas the the local agencies to determine um so again one of the requirements is it must be a standalone course. So again while many of these topics were taught in many different context uh uh different courses that we've had this will now bring it all under one

148standalone course. Um we have the opportunity to determine the structure the way that we deliver the course. Um we have to meet PTE standards which again is true of all of our courses. So again they have set standards. We are responsible for creating the course which we have already uh done. Um we are responsible to determine a criteria of satisfactory completion. Um we can determine the credit value. Um the only caveat to that is that however we determine it, it should match the other courses we have that match that credit value which again our seat time for this course would match any other half credit course we have in our building. So it does meet that that criteria as well. Um and as Mr. Cuck had said, we will need to revise and relook at

149our local graduation require or local policies which include our graduation credits and requirements. Um but we have already discussed that and we will obviously be discussing that in the future. Um we will have this as a cyber option um for those of our students that are first of all full-time cyber students already or who stu for students who otherwise have conflicts in their schedule and do need another op opportunity or option um to make sure that we we reach the requirement um for those students as well. Next slide. So again as you can see and uh I I welcome you and I we'll talk a little bit later about the platform that we're using. Um but the standards focus on the fundamentals of personal finance, income, spending, savings and investments, risk and insurance, credit. Um

150you know, all of those topics which as adults we recognize important and obviously is important for our students before they go out into the real world. Um again, there are plenty of real world experiences built within this course. um opportunities to do budgeting uh simulations uh to look at paychecks and what that means for your taxes and and your tax deductions, credit and and how to build credit, how to uh safely use credit um preventing fraud. So many many very important topics that our students will gain um from this course. So how are we going to implement it at the high school? We are going to do that again well first of all the core team um as I earlier mentioned that was a part of this um and how are we going to deliver

151it? So by PD requirement there are five current standing uh teaching certifications that are are certified to teach the course and you can see them there are our teachers with businesserts family consumer science teachers social studies math and agriculture. Um so we are going to utilize our current staff that carry those certifications um to provide this course um without additional need for staff um within the building. Um we are going to use a digital tool um for the for the platform and for the the curriculum which is called NextGen Personal Finance. Uh it is a very popular personal finance online course. It is a free I'm not course uh resource. It is free. Um and in as I said I I was at plenty of of sessions on this and many schools are utilizing this

152platform. Uh and I welcome you to check out that website. It is a really really good website. I would even say for some adults to go and and do some of the online simulations and things that are there. Um so we will be leaning on that in terms of the the curriculum or the the tools that our students will use. Um and it has already been built into our schooly platform. Uh and I want to thank some of our cyber teaching staff who have been working on this ahead of time for us to to make sure that this course is uh ready to go. Um and then again the the curriculum is based on the PTE guidelines which of course um NextGen Personal Finance ensures that we are meeting those as well. Next slide. As

153Mr. Cuck said and and it's an exciting opportunity, another opportunity for us to make connections to our profile of a graduate. Um that personal finance certainly comes into critical thinking. Uh certainly allows our students to talk about responsible decision-making in their lives financially. um and empowered citizenship uh in terms of the ideas behind personal finance um savings and those type of things. Um so again it aligns nicely with what we have laid out in our program uh portrait of a graduate and an opportunity to continue to reinforce those with our students um in their personal finance class. Um so right now as I said the course is largely built the core team has discussed and we have kind of as you can see came up with the course structure. The next steps are to finalize

154the scheduling. Um, which is not a surprise. We're doing that for all scheduling for 2627 school year right now. Um, so we'll finalize that scheduling. All staff that could potentially be teaching this will have access to this curriculum long before next school year starts. So the ability to prepare um and to to look over what is in those those courses uh in those units. Um and then again family and student communication that will begin as we start to roll out our course selection for this year. all the literature and all the information has been placed in our course selection guide and it will be a heavy part of our assemblies that we do with our students uh to outline the course and the need um for them to complete that course as well. >> I

155want to thank Mr. Guyger and his team um for the work that they put in um to the course itself um and emphasize to the board um that we've also done it from a sense of fiscal responsibility. Mr. Geiger will be utilizing his current staff. The resources that we're currently using are open ed resources through the NextGen financial literacy curriculum. Uh and of course, Schooly is a platform um that we have here as a district for K12 students um to manage our coursework and to keep it consistent amongst all of those various teachers uh that Mr. Gger pointed out earlier today. Um and as I mentioned before, we will be coming back for a revision of policy 217. Um we will be keeping the credit requirement making that recommendation for 24.5. This 0.5 credit will

156just replace a credit offering that a student would otherwise have a choice to do. Uh now will be one of the required credits uh for that 24.5 to graduate. So we can now answer any questions that you may have. Thank you. Oh, go ahead, Miss >> I don't have any. I think um probably one of the things you hear a lot is there and you read the comments this is something that's definitely needed to be taught. So thank you. >> Yep. And uh you know the financial literacy is an equity piece right our students access and understanding of financial literacy is truly an equity decision as Mr. Guyger mentioned before you know as a district we have done this through various coursework but nothing as concise as what has been put together and will be

157offered next school year. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Cuck. And also again, thank you, Mr. Guyer, to you yourself and also as Mr. Cook said to your team as well for not just um developing this comprehensive program for our students to meet the PTE requirements, but more importantly to ensure that our students are empowered citizens beyond the years of their high school years here in Eastn. So that concludes the um the the four items that we will be presenting to the board for approval at our next um upcoming board meeting. And in addition, we just have two action items that we would like to share um a few updates regarding our kindergarten registration and after school programming. I'd like to ask um Miss Hilton, our director of teaching and learning for grades K

158to 5 to provide um updates to the board on these two items. >> Thank you, Dr. Draper. Good evening uh ladies and gentlemen of the board. Um, forgive me if I cannot speak straight at this point, but I'll do my best. So, uh, January kicks off, uh, the 26 27 kindergarten registration window. We did open earlier. Typically, it's been March 1st, but we did open, um, on January 5th. So, that news has been, um, hitting the streets with with Mr. Dr. Hector Bonia, our supervisor of teaching and learning, um, who's held many preK events with the community over the last couple of months, including including community outreach events with two sessions for both LBCC supported prek programs within the district. Um, public events at Project of East, Eastn Public Market, a Third Street Alliance site

159visit, and reciprocal teacher visits during our K8 author week. Um this fall we've also launched an EASD Ready Rover X account uh that our communities can access and our IT department has a banner um on our website on our new website for families to access all the information that they need for online uh registration for kindergarten. So, the CNI department will continue the Ready Rover PreK kindergarten initiative through scheduling family connection kindergarten registration playdates in June. Um, following our welcoming days, uh, which is when we bring our our students, our incoming kindergarteners into the buildings for their kindergarten readiness assessments with our with our kindergarten teams. So, we are excited to get ready for the for the new school year with our incoming kindergarteners. And of course, we will continue our kindergarten um programs in

160our elementary schools this summer uh at all seven elementary schools in addition to our summer sizzle program which we'll begin planning for shortly. Our afterchool programming, we are excited to announce that we are back on for spring after the budget impass was resolved and those programs will begin in February and run through run through May uh once again at all of our elementary schools and our middle school. Um, and more information was provided in the board brief and I'd be happy to answer any questions that the board may have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Hilton. And thus ends the report for curriculum instruction. Like to open up if there are any questions or comments. Okay. Thank you. >> Sorry. Okay. So going forward, we will be adding the personal finance course for approval, the

161field trip request, the conference request, >> and that was it. Correct. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Right. Conference request, the field trips, and the personal finance. Okay. So those will be on for the approving meeting. [cough] Okay. [clears throat] Next, we move to athletics. Dr. Baltz. >> Good evening. So, uh, we're going to start off tonight with just going through our fall sports report, and [snorts] there's a lot of information here, so I'll probably just try to hit on some of the highlights, but, um, we obviously had a very successful fall season. Um, just so everyone's aware, when we completed our Intercolastic Athletics Disclosure Act report from last school year, you can see um, basically a four-year snapshot of the funds that are donated uh, to support our athletic programs from our booster clubs and

162and the trends that we've seen. Um, obviously significant increases from the 2122 school year up through what we've seen in in 23 24 and 2425. Um, our booster clubs do an outstanding job in financially supporting the experience that the student athletes have here at Eastston. Um, you also see there the the student athletes that are representing us this year on the EPC student athlete Character Council. Uh, we have our seniors, Algae Mon, Cole Ordway, Evan Gish, who you saw a number of them here already tonight. Uh, Julia Cohen is our senior female representative. uh she was also the senior soccer scholar athlete uh but she was not able to to be here this evening. Then our new representatives uh the juniors Alonzo Parker and Shawn McPeek on the male side and from our female sports

163Abby Renda and Sienna Young. You see here a quick snapshot of all of our scholar athletes from our fall sports. Um, this has been going on loop in our middle school gymnasium on the video boards, too, so that everybody can see this when they come to our events. But just an outstanding group of of student athletes that as we go through the next few slides, you'll see those that were able to earn the distinction of EPC scholar athlete overall for their sport. So, Mark Antonio Manino in boys soccer, Olivia Malia in field hockey, and then Evan Gish on boys cross country. uh our FCA group continues to run and thrive under the the leadership and advising of Dr. Kunio at the high school and they continue to meet and have breakfast together on Thursday mornings

164before school. Uh through from the summer through Christmas break, number of our athletic uh department teams have been participating in different types of community service. Um, one that spans a number of our programs is the I can bike program that we have uh continued to support here in the district where um some of our special needs uh students in the area learn to ride bicycles um through the course of a week here at Eastn High School in the summer. Um, as always, the the baseball team did a wonderful job in uh supporting the community with Christmas tree donations. Um, that if you you follow them on social media, you got to see their their trek through along with Santa Claus through the Eastern community uh delivering some of those uh gift cards, Christmas trees, and

165decorations for about 40 different families in the Eastern community. Then in addition on the next slide, we've got a list of some of the other things that our our programs have been involved in, whether it be Miracle League, um different types of fundraising. Uh the soccer programs work together with Philipsburg to benefit Ronald McDonald House. Uh the football program doing their summer camps and reading under the lights like many of our other teams. Uh breast cancer awareness fundraisers, Digping fundraisers, etc. that um all of our teams just do a wonderful job in supporting the community in a variety of different ways. And then during the holiday season, we saw some additional holiday themed uh community service, whether it was cheerleading, working with Philipsburg to donate Thanksgiving meals in the community or track and field, and

166then I believe wrestling on the next slide as well that each did um toy drives for uh children that were in need in the community. Um, as we go through the some of the the numbers in the fall season of our 23 fall teams, um, you'll see our participation numbers are fairly constant. Um, what we're finding amongst some other programs in the area or even statewide is that there are some rather significant decreases in participation numbers in in some schools, in some sports. Um though we saw an overall decrease, it was only by 11 rostered individuals out of over 500 in our fall sports. So um relatively minor in comparison to what we're starting to see in some other districts in the area. And go ahead next slide, J. Um just some of the accolades

167that are programs. So, I'm not going to necessarily read through all this because I think um you guys all have a copy of this, but some of the major highlights as we scroll through to some of those graphics, Gino, on the next one. Um obviously, our teams are highly successful. Another good overall winning percentage with the majority of our teams qualifying for district play, but a lot of individual accolades. Um you can see there we had quite a few allconerence selections from our our fall sports season. um a lot of individual selections even after that. Um the morning call just released theirs from football with us having the offensive player of the year, the defensive player of the year, the coach of the year, and the team of the year for the morning call. Um

168Lehigh Valley Live accolades are still to come. Um, we were able to have three young ladies chosen for the all-state team in field hockey, uh, with Olivia Malia, a Millie Materna, and Mattie Hines all being selected for the different levels from their organization. Uh, quite a few all-state selections and and honors for our football players. Uh, Cole was named first team all-state quarterback, Shawn McPeek, first team defensive back, and Sean Kilpatrick, first team linebacker. Uh Cole was also chosen for a mini Maxwell Award which is presented by the Maxwell Football Club. Um for those of you that are aware of Maxwell, Maxwell was the pinnacle of football awards at the college level before the Heisman Trophy ever existed. Um it's still presented each year to what's considered to be the the best college football player.

169But they have the Mini Maxwell program where they honor the best combination of um athletic achievement and academic achievement at the high school level. And Cole was chosen uh amongst I think there were maybe a handful of Lehigh Valley nominations for that. So he'll be honored at a banquet um in suburban Philadelphia uh in February. I believe [laughter] Cole was basically selected for every all-state team that exists in the state of Pennsylvania. So, there's still more to come, but um basically we can just reprint this graphic with pretty much every entity that names an all-state team for him. Um just a fantastic year. Uh cross country had three all-state uh nominations as well or selections. Laya Noble, Evan Gish, and Llama Mammud were all all state on the cross country end. Um, Vivian was also,

170excuse me, four all state cross country nominations with Vivian Clark as well. Uh, teams had a wonderful season. Uh, cross country. You can see here they were the regular season champions of the EPC. And then on the next slide, they were the league meet champions of the EPC. and on in addition the district 11 champions in girls cross country. Uh we were able to pull that same uh sequence of awards for the football team and winning the East Penn conference and then capturing the district championship uh this past fall. Uh they also set a school record for 14 wins in a season. And for a program that's existed for 130 plus years, that's quite an achievement. So, um really an awesome fall season which has continued into uh the awards so far in the winter

171season where our competitive spirit team was the EPC champions and also district 11 champions and then qualified for the finals at the state championship that was held this past weekend in Johntown. Not only are we seeing success um on the fields, courts, etc., But um academically, not only at the high end, but also making sure that we're elevating our students that might struggle a little more academically. So while maintaining our expectations, you'll see on the next slide that with the help of the Athlife program that is now in its second year, we have now decreased the number of ineligible student athletes by 31 in just a year of work. Um, so they they're doing great work in meeting with our student athletes, developing plans for success, working with them on goal setting, and then following

172up on what to do to make sure that they're academically successful and and cutting those issues off before they result in ineligibilities and meeting with those kids to really make sure if it's a an attendance issue or an academic issue, whatever it might be, that they're putting a plan in place for success for those kids. >> [snorts] >> And this is just kind of a breakdown of some of the things that they've worked with the athletic office and some of our steps in addressing issues when they do occur. Uh from last year, just a run of some of our academic information. Our athletes uh within the Eastern School District are performing um at a significantly higher level academically than those that are non athletes. In the fall, we had two teams that stood out amongst

173the the rest when it came to our varsity programs and top overall team GPA. And the boys cross country team and and girls tennis team were those two teams in the fall. Sports medicine wise, the team continues to work great alongside our partners with uh with St. Luke's and ensuring that our kids are receiving the best care and treatment possible. Um, you can see they see an unbelievable number of student athletes during the course of the fall for different types of treatment, whether that be proactive or reactive due to an injury. Um, so they certainly stay busy. But as we've continued this partnership with St. Luke's, they've now expanded and will continue to expand in using our facility actually as a regional center for some of their schools to hold physicals. Um, and part of

174that is they're going to be able to wave any costs necessary for our kids to have those pre-participation physicals and provide them for free and staff them without any cost to the district. So, um, that's something that we'll be working on expanding over the course of the next year where um, we will be a regional site at Eastn Middle School for their physicals. Um, in the past they've done multiple at Coca-Cola Park. Uh, and the network is working to bring more of those to the eastern end of the Lehigh Valley and we've been the site that they have chosen to to make home for that. Um, we're good. We can go to the next one then. You know, uh, we're working on our ceremonial signings for the spring. I already have a handful of those

175commitments in place and I'm sure there will be a lot more coming uh with our uh fall season and athletes beginning to commit to uh programs here uh in the next couple months. Revenue to date, we're doing a nice job there with overall um revenue through the end of December in the athletic department with $133,000 plus in normal revenue and then $15,000 plus uh with special event revenue. And then this is the one we've got a lot of work to do on. Uh the fall saw a lot of very tight contests. However, every one of those close contests went the favor of the school on the other side of the river. So, uh we've got a lot of work to do. Last year, we had the most wins in the the series in 30 years,

176and this year we might be taking it down to the wire, but I'm confident in our winter and spring teams that they'll be able to to turn the tide of that rivalry. So that'll be that's the the conclusion of the the fall sports report if anybody has any questions other than why that that's the scoreboard. So >> Matt, before any questions I do just want to say something because I know you didn't want to mention this during the the presentation but first of all the ineligibility numbers are awesome. >> Um so I just want to say thank you to you and Mr. guy for the leadership in that and what you didn't mention was that other school districts right now are looking at our model and the model that you and Kyle implemented for Athlife

177um as as a model template uh for their district. So I just want to say kudos to you and Kyle for doing that um and want to make sure we recognize that. >> Thank you. Yeah. Um what what we're seeing is because we built it into our model where our our academic athletic coaches are uh given a duty period during the day where they're able to actually um implement those interventions and meet with kids on a regular basis. That is atypical for most schools that have the grant. they they put that on those individuals to try and do all of that outside of the regular school day, which can certainly be more of a challenge to to have those meetings and to be able to to put those plans in place with kids. But, um,

178just a little bit of creativity and trying to think outside the box and, uh, we've had a number of schools both locally and nationally kind of reach out to our team on how did you get that model in place and how can we how can we get the same. So, um, that's been exciting. And I know the next item you're really excited about. >> I am for a number number [laughter] of reasons. >> So, thanks to you and your team. I'll let you kind of share kind of the great news and and the work that you did. But a lot of work that you and your team put in. So, thank you. >> And and like I told you, it was it was fun work. Um, for those of you on the board that follow

179college athletics, you're probably well aware of the idea that at the college level, it's pretty common place for athletic programs to have official uniform suppliers and have agreements with um, you know, whether it be a Nike or an Adidas or an Under Armour or a New Balance. Um, it's fairly new to the high school field um, high school arena. Um there are a couple of school districts in our area that have had agreements for more than a handful of years. Um and another one who just agreed uh to a similar agreement this past fall. Um but in looking for ways to um really enhance the athletic program um capitalize and maximize our branding and marketing um of our own athletic programs, but also looking for creative ways to fund things like turning over uniforms without

180it always being falling on the athletic department budget or falling on some sort of major expense coming out of our other revenue streams. Um, I worked with the business office, the athletic department team, um, and our partners that we already had with BSN to, uh, reach out and get a number of different proposals this fall from the different vendors that, um, provide uniform and apparel agreements. Um, and essentially what we have is it's going to be an extension of the BSN rewards program that we've already operated or opted into um, previously, but this would give New Balance the uh, distinction as being the official uniform and apparel provider of the East Area School District. Um, I have attached there the offer sheet of what they're going to provide to us over the course of the

181five-year agreement. um which would have us putting all of our varsity teams in New Balance uniforms by the end of year three. Um but they will provide us with a a significant stipend each year on making sure that we can get to that point. Um and ultimately, you know, it's an opportunity for us to provide our kids with the best out there from a a uniform standpoint in a more expedited fashion than we might be able to do without an agreement like this. Um, so you can see that we're going we're going to receive essentially $100,000 over the course of five years that would go towards us providing our student athletes with whether it be uniforms or or warm-ups or whatever that might be. Um, but also branding materials. U, so, uh, Jack was able

182to be a part of the meetings that we had with the the BSN representation that helped us come to the agreement. Um, we were also able to vet it out and and vet New Balance and BSN as a partnership out with colleges that have similar agreements and work on what are your turnaround times, what is the quality of uniform, what is it like for repairs. Uh, our seamstress that does repairs was on the phone with equipment managers at the college level just to make sure that we could be confident in this type of agreement from every [clears throat] every aspect. So, um, we're excited. Um, we'll have the the final contract language as we've worked with Kingspry on getting that all aligned as well. Um, ready to go for the the board meeting at the

183end of the month. But if anybody has any questions, I'd be happy to to answer any of them for you. >> Just one question. Um, for the dollars that are allocated in the agreement, is there is that going to be distributed to teams on a per capita basis or what's the allocation of the funds? So each sport is going to have a different type of cost for there. So I have it planned out so that within the three years all of our um teams will get new uniforms. Some of them will still come from our budgeted numbers, but a large number of that will come from the the new balance funding. [snorts] [clears throat] >> Anything else? >> All right, >> that's all we have for athletics. We'll have that item on uh the board

184agenda after Kingspry reviews it. Uh that'll be the only item for recommendation for approval uh at the board meeting. >> All right. All right. Thank you both. Um budget and finance. >> Thank you. Um as was mentioned, the fiscal year 24 audit, the work that needed to be done by the district is complete. It's with our auditors now. Um that's an integral part of receiving financing for the phase one of the high school project. Um the budget is well underway. I'll be giving an update the first the work session meeting or standing committee meeting um the first meeting in February. And then we have one item to bring for approval. It's the establishment of a new student activity account for the at the high school for the chief science officers. Thank you. >> Any questions,

185comments, or finance? >> As Mr. Trent mentioned at our next meeting, we will [clears throat] have our auditing period over long anticipated [snorts] audit. probably March with our 245 audit. We will also be dedicating the time at our first workshop on January 21st or 26 portion of that will be around finances and bonding all those issues that come around money. Um and then depending on what that agenda looks like I will put one more topic in there. Um and we'll discuss that a little bit further in our next executive session. email that go back and forth on how to get topics into those agendas, sorry, on how to get those into uh the agendas. And um and then in our next standing committee, uh Jack will will do some more in-depth uh deep dive into

186our budget and where we stand and where we're where we're moving this year's budget forward as we look at next year. So, >> and I'll be sharing a Google sheet as well with dates and times if whenever the board members want to review the budget one-on-one, we can plan on meeting for that. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, brief question. So the the four things I think that are most critical are uh 2324 audit, 2425 audit, uh new budget, and going out for the the the bonds. Sure. >> Can you remind me the sequence of those just to make sure I understand this correctly? >> Sure. So the well the 2324 audit took precedence. >> Obviously it's the oldest unfinished business, but it's also required for us to uh bond the high school project

187this this fall. So that was our or this uh spring, sorry. So that was our our priority number one was finishing the 2324 audit. Um the 2425 audit at this point should be underway. It's not critical that it hasn't been completed. Um but we could not turn over to 2425 until we completed 2324. Uh so then [snorts] the third well I'd also say there's five because our current budget is also important. Um the district had seen deficits for for multiple years and you know the obviously the goal is to return a balanced budget this year. Uh we're currently tracking uh to be able to do that. It's a a bit tighter than I would hope but we're tracking for that and um I don't think we could expect more with uh you know where the

188district was previously. Um [snorts] the next year budget I've already completed the budget document. It just needs to be reviewed with administration and balance it and see where everything's at. But I've developed all the revenues. I've been meeting with I met with all but two principles and most of the directors. So I've been formulating all of that into the document as well just to ensure that everything that is needed is in the budget. >> [snorts] >> And then obviously, you know, priority, I guess number one now that 23 24 is out of the way is bonding this project is um working with Ken Phillips and his team to to make sure that not only are we bonding [snorts] the project, we're bonding it, you know, responsibly. We couldn't do it without the 2324. They would

189not do it with us if we didn't have that. Uh for the 2425, they'd like to see it done, but we can just write a statement of where we're at with that. So, we're on pace to be able to bond the project as we need to. [snorts] >> And just as a follow, is there anything that could possibly result as a function of the audits that would impact our bonding pathway? [snorts] >> So, well, again, if you don't have it, it makes it impossible to get it. Also affects our bond reading. So, that's one of the things that I've been working on with with Ken. And I was talked to I probably talked to him five or six times over Christmas break and he was reaching out to different agencies he works with just to

190you know I hate to say smooth things over but smooth things over and um make [snorts] sure as we go through the application process that we'll be okay with that. >> Thank you. >> If I could add what's also very important is having a plan for the funding of the bonds is also super important when they're considering the ratings. So the plans that you've seen from Raymond James that talks about the millage rate increases per per year to fund it uh is also an important piece of the bond rating. >> And that's an internal discussion we've been having as well is how to uh you know appropriately raise taxes with not only the operational budget in mind but with the new high school project in mind. And as Jonathan was talking about, you know, one

191of the the things that's going away over us as well is our fund balance. And we need to start building up the fund balance as well. >> [snorts] >> Okay. >> So, the only voting item is the club, >> right? So, the only voting item is the new student account activity account. However, I was remiss in asking if there was any public to be heard on any academic items. Any public to be heard on athletic items and any public to be heard on budget and finance items? >> No. Okay. All right. Then next we will be moving on to educational technology and student supports. >> Thank you, Miss Hess. Uh we have six items on the agenda this evening that we will be bringing forth for recommendation for approval at the board meeting. Uh and

192prior to our director speaking to some of those specifics, I do just want to take a moment uh and welcome Mr. Sean Kllin. Uh this is now Mr. Sean Kllin is the director of special education. Uh he's been transitioning to that office since the middle of December but officially joined us um you know after the break. And uh you have the last item on the agenda this evening, Mr. Kllin. Uh so just want to let you know that. All right. Uh but welcome. We appreciate you know you joining us at the table and look forward to your leadership. So uh Jamie, I'll start with you in regard to your two your two items. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh the first item, the 40inet security awareness agreement. This is basically a curriculum that we are able

193to use with our staff and our students around cyber security awareness and building capacity within our community to just be more aware, know what to look for, and uh it's it's an interactive program that you'll be able to view modules, uh do activities, all to kind of build that capacity within our community. This is no cost to the district. Uh we do have it on the board agenda because they work through uh reseller. Um so we use Integra 1 for our Fordinet services. So this program we're signing up for with them is just running through Integra 1 and that's the agreement. We're just looking for a signature on that. There is no cost to the district on this. Item C is an addendum to our final site agreement. Final site is the parent company of

194our new website. We've been live since July, I believe. We've been live since July. Uh we've had a lot of positive feedback, but we ha have had a few items come back that uh the community would like to see some improvement on. So, we are working on some of those uh just visual aspects, some cleaning up of how things look when you first get to the site. But one of the biggest pieces and we are in agreement on this is um adding in a translation piece that would provide more translation capabilities for our community members um who are not as technically savvy as some others who are able to kind of figure it out on their own devices. we'd like to add a piece to our contract that would give us a button right on

195our site that would allow them to choose some more languages to pick from. So, um, this would not be at any cost to us at this time. This would be a addendum to our current contract which renews in July. The reason we're bringing this now is because if we make this addendum change at this time, we can start working on um adding in that translation piece and bring building it in the background and then it will be ready to go on July 1. So really what you're seeing in this addendum is a change. It's an increased cost of $1,000 per year. We did sign a five-year contract with them initially. So this addendum just reflects the that additional cost each year. But again, this would just be part of our renewal which is up in

196July fir July 1st of 2026 anyway and then the subsequent years beyond that. Any questions about those two items? Okay. Thank you. >> Good evening. Um on the agenda you'll see three agreements from student services. Turning point agreement. This is just with the high school. This is um if you're familiar with Turning Point of Lehigh Valley um is supports for um students and family members that have gone through domestic violence. They there is no cost to the school district to receive these services. They would be coming into the high school providing supports for our students. Um they've done this in the past. We are currently looking at the agreement. Attorney Gross sent me some feedback today on the agreement. So, the only way it would make the um the agenda is if the uh the

197language has been updated as requested through Kingspry. So, I just want to make you aware of that. Um also, Lehigh Valley Youth House. Um this is a continuation of a program we've been we have previously offered uh bounceback program. It is only in our two buildings at Chest and Paxosa. The reason you see an update was that funding was um halted when the we didn't have a budget. So now that they had the budget, it they've received funding through Lehigh Valley um the Lehigh Valley uh different agencies. So they can continue to offer those programs to our two buildings. Um and they would continue to do that again at no cost to our school districts. And the last you'll see on there is the yes um counseling through St. Luke's. So what ended up happening

198was um over the last we utilize yes through St. Luke's is our individual counseling that is built through private insurance um this year St. Luke's went through some changes and they are now billing us to have those services within school um at a reduced cost. It's $15,000 per counselor to be able to provide them. it's an offsetting cost to them to be able to provide the services within school and then they still um build privatized insurance to be able to do that. This year they've offered to pay for those counselors um at no cost to the school district since it was the first year. Moving forward, we're going to have to um all lot funds most likely through our PCCD grants to be able to offset those costs for our our students. Nominal fee considering

199what we receive out of that uh services through St. Luke's and yes is K to five and then we use Lehigh Valley Hospital for in in um in district counseling 6 through 12. Um but through this we are going to we have a lot of students that are on weight list right now. Um I actually had a meeting with St. Luke's today. It is a prrated rate is $8,000 from the remainder of the school year which will be paid through PCCD. Um but there might be further discussions based upon our current weight lists on uh expansion of those services for next school year. Obviously allotted through PCCD grants to be able to offset that cost. Any questions? >> All right. And last the the item from the special ed department is an update on the

200agreement with Brett Denovian Associates. Brett Denovia Associates is currently working within the district with our with students across the district um and supporting and consultating students with special behavior needs. Um the update is needed based on behaviors that have come up over the course of the year and additional supports that are needed across the buildings. So what the update asks for is two clinical supports which are RBTs. The RBTs work in the classrooms with the students. um they're not going to be student specific, but they will be supporting programs and rooms. So, one will be supporting at the elementary level with our full-time learning support classrooms. The other will be supporting at the middle school trying to expand some services there. Uh with an RBT always comes BCBAS. BCBAS over are supervised and oversee the

201RBT and the supports they provide. They provide consultation and supports, creating behavior plans, functional behavior analysis, and lots of different supports. So, they sort of work together in tandem. So, the agreement will not exceed $100,000, and that will take us to the end of this school year, and then it will end. Um, we will be able to pay these positions through access funds, so there'll be no cost from the general fund, which is great. And you know it also ties into a lot of the things that I'm seeing for the department with Dr. Zadakatic, Miss Piaza that we've we've talked about expanding services internally, especially tied to autistic support, creating a continuation of services from K to 12. So we feel like this is an important first step in that process. You know, we have

202some made not first step, but we've had made some process some steps along the way, but this will be sort of hit two different things. Number one, it will help us with some immediate needs with students, but also Brett Denovi has a lot of resources in helping us build capacity internally. So, we sort of see this little um update to the agreement as something that can help us very quickly, but also something that we can lean on as we try to bring related services back into the district. Any questions on that? Awesome. Thank you. All right. So, if I'm correct, we have the fortunet security. The final site turning point is a possibly or possibly not. Correct. >> Okay. >> The language has been by Sprite. It'll be on there. If it's still needs some

203work, we'll >> It was provided. It was provided at the turning point today. I received I received the um uh the agreement late last week. Immediately I sent it to Kingspri. Kingspr got back to me within two business days and I sent it over to them. So if we make it, great. If not, I just didn't want to wait till February knowing what the support was for kids. >> Okay. The Valley Youth House Agreement. Yes. Additional counselor and the Brett Denovi. >> Correct. >> Okay. I'm not going to forget this time. Any public to be heard on educational technology and student supports? No. Okay. All right. Any other business? No. Okay. Any public to be heard on non-aggenda items? No. Okay. And we'll call for a German at 856. Motion. Second. >> All in favor?

204I. Okay. Any opposition?