Regular Board Meeting

001Are we ready? [Music] Okay. Thank you everyone. We'll call the meeting to order at 7:10. Apologize and thank you for being patient while we were in our executive session meeting. Um we will please stand for the pledge of allegiance. United States of America to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Mrs. Ramirez, do you have roll call? Yes. Okay. Next, we have superintendence report. Good evening, everyone. And again, we apologize for the delayed start and for the lack of room in our in our um facility this evening. Most of you in attendance are here for recognition and so we will do our best to speak loudly enough and get kids into the room and coaches into the room as we are acknowledging you. And

002then as always, you're always welcome to stay for the full board meeting, but you're also welcome to leave after you've been acknowledged if that's what you so choose. Uh this evening I have a few a few items um of information, some recognitions, um some shoutouts, but I do want to start with a moment of silence today. Today I want to spend a moment acknowledging Mr. John Border who started with the East Area School District in security in August of 2004 and retired from the East School District in June of 2015. Previously, Mr. Border served as a US um in in the US Navy for four years and the Eastn Police Department for 35 years, retiring as the chief of police. Mr. uh both Mr. Border and his wife worked in the East Area School District

003and retired together. Mr. Border passed away and Mr. Border will be remembered for his sweet, humble, and noble disposition. So, please join me in a moment of silence in honor of his um contributions to our district and in sorrow for his loss. Thank you. At this time, uh, let me just see if I can find Mr. Guyger. I'm going to ask you to come forward. Mr. Guyger is going to, um, introduce, I think, our science teacher, Mr. Brown and also do some recognitions of students who are welld deserving opportunity. Uh there's a lot of recognitions to be given out tonight, but I'm going to start off this evening uh talking about our students who competed in the science fair. Uh you may remember about this time of year. Last year we sat we stood and

004we recognized Estabbon Rodriguez Silva as our singular science fair uh uh member or participant last year. I'm happy to report that um Estabbon is back with us tonight. Uh but he's also here with eight other of his classmates who by their own choice uh chose to be a part of this learning opportunity um of the science fair. Um so I am going to ask Mr. Brown uh to come up to the podium and tell us a little bit about the science fair process. Um I just want to first before he gets the microphone just thank uh Mr. Brown again. He is our science department coordinator but he's also our science fair guru as I would put it. um and our chaperone for our students who compete in the science fairs. Uh and he's going to

005give us a little bit of background about what the students have competed in. Hello everybody. It's nice to be back with some more students this year. Nice to see that our our program has more more than doubled um from last year. So these young people started their projects in September, August and September. And then they spend an awful lot of time trying to research and find the project that they want to do. And then once they do that, we go through the process of developing an experiment or figuring out the research. Once that is done, they've collected all the data. They analyze it. Um, and then they turn around and they put it together in a poster board and then we take that to the Lehigh Valley Science Fair which is held at Lehigh University.

006So they'll spend a day there. They're interviewed in the the judges go through first and look at everybody's board and then they come back into the room and the kids are there and they're all interviewed and from there they go behind the curtain and they come up with their selections and they come present their awards. So I'm pleased to say that all of our kids placed within the top three in their category in their grade level. So that was fantastic. I mean that's a heck of an improvement from last year to this year but I know it was only one but we all made it. Um, and then they were all advanced to Delaware Valley Science Fair and they go down there. It's towards the Philadelphia area. The same situation. They set up their materials,

007they leave, judges come through and the judges might do several rounds of questioning until they come to uh consensus on on who's going to be there. So again, these unfortunately nobody's moving on to this the world level. Maybe we'll get there next year, but nobody's moving on to the world level. Uh but we did have one individual I just want to make a note of. Um Aaliyah Sales uh received a monetary award for first place from the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers. So I'm really excited that we also were able to get to that point as well. I think it's uh speaks a lot to what we did and what she did to to get us where we're at now. So hopefully for next year we'll double again and I'll have more people here. So

008thank you everybody. Everybody, I really, you know, I I can't thank the Eastern School District enough. Uh, Mr. Guyger, the staff at the science department has been fantastic. The support we get, both, you know, just being there for us as well as the ability for the kids to use our materials and our equipment really has brought their projects up up a level from what they could have done. So, thank you very much. All right, so let us meet uh those individuals. Uh, you can see we have some pictures from the event. Uh if you remember last year we had Estabbon bring his board with him. I thought bringing nine boards to the boardroom this tonight would have been more difficult. So we have some photos here of the students. Uh and we do have some

009of the students that also are part of athletic teams and and musical ensembles tonight that are are at other events. Um so I do apologize but uh not all of them could be here. Um but first of all go through our 11th grade group Mayhare Dollywall. [Applause] Areni [Applause] Guscos, Vidvath, [Applause] Narage, Kain Vargo, Austin Whismer, [Applause] As was already mentioned, Aaliyah [Applause] Sales, an uh Anthony Ventura, and our our first uh participant last year and again this year, Estabban Rodriguez Silva. [Applause] So again, thank you to all of you for the opportunity to recognize them and thank them and their families as well for uh participating. We really appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Guyer. Thank you, Mr. Brown, for your leadership and toutelage to our students and uh students. We applaud you for your

010hard work, your creativity, and your curiosity. All of which exemplify some of our profile graduate um pillars. And so we congratulate you on your hard work and wish you continued success. Thank [Applause] you. Okay. Next, we have some scholar athlete and coach um excellence recognitions. And Mr. Dr. Boltz, if you wouldn't mind taking over for that. Sure. So, tonight uh we have a number of our winter scholar athletes with us. um they're recognized as being the elite um student athlete within their program or their sport for the winter season. Um as part of this, they also become our school's nominee for the overall conference scholar athlete in each sport. Um and as we go through uh I'm happy to uh acknowledge that two of them were named the overall scholar athlete for their sport in

011the winter. Um so we'll get to that in a moment. Each one of them will receive a certificate acknowledging that accomplishment as well as um a scholar athlete medal from the conference. Um the ribbons signify the school colors of every school in the conference and then each one says EPC on the front and scholar athlete on the back. So um I think we have most of them here tonight. However, there are a couple that are finishing up the track meet or playing lacrosse. So I'm not sure if they've made it here tonight or not. So, uh, first up, our scholar athlete from cheerleading, uh, for the 24-25 winter season was Siana [Applause] Mort. Congratulations. Here we go. From our girls wrestling team and she also was named the EPC overall scholar athlete uh was Mara

012Case. Congratulations from our girls swimming and diving team. I'm not sure if Megan's here. Megan Craig. Is Megan out there? She al she was also balancing a an orchestra event tonight. So, I'm not sure if she was able to No. Okay. from our boys basketball team, Ashar Williams. [Applause] Congrats, buddy. And then Karin, is Jake out there yet? All right, then you're up next. Karen, Karen Karu. Karin was our scholar athlete for the girls basketball team this winter. There we go. Add that to your collection. Um, and then as I mentioned before, Jacob Brunetti was our scholar athlete from boys swimming and diving. And then uh Quinton Hammerstone, who I believe is playing lacrosse right now, was our boys scholar, a boys wrestling scholar athlete, and he also was the EPC overall scholar athlete for

013[Applause] wrestling. We actually yesterday announced our scholar athletes for the spring and we're currently as a conference evaluating um which of those scholar athletes will be our overall for the spring season. All of the overall scholar athletes from the conference will be honored at a banquet at the Straoudsmore on May 21st along with their coaches and school representatives. So looking forward to that. Last year we led the conference in overall scholar athletes. So I'm hopeful that this year we'll be able to accomplish the same. We'll see how the spring turns out. Um we also have three other um recognitions to um and student athletes and a coach to honor tonight. Um we had a very successful winter season on the wrestling mats um that culminated with a very successful weekend in Hershey. Um and we

014have three individuals here tonight that we're going to honor um with some certificates of commendation acknowledging those accomplishments this winter. So, um, first up, I'm going to call up Aubrey Craser. I'll stay here for a minute. Aubry earned her second overall um, PIAA girls wrestling state championship. She has four total, including the two years before it was sanctioned as a PIAA sport. um a boatload of state and international recognitions that added to her all-state field hockey selection as well. You recently qualified for the trying to think you're competing the world championships. Yep. Um and you'll be training in Italy soon as well. All right. Um she was named the outstanding wrestler of the PIAA girls wrestling tournament this year. Uh, she just picked up the district 11 girls wrestling district 11 coaches association girls wrestling

015scholar athlete of the year award. The Christian Luchiano Pinner award for most pins in girls wrestling. And I'm sure there's other things that I'm missing. It's a long list. Um, but Aubrey has been a great example of what a student athlete can be at Eastston. We really look forward to seeing what she accomplishes in the future as she moves on to compete in wrestling at Lehigh next year. So, congratulations. The uh second state championship we're going to recognize tonight is Nicholas Salomon. So, Nick, come on up, please. Nick had some of the most exciting matches out there in Hershey, including a a very exciting finish to his state championship bout which had everybody on the edge of their seats um in the Giant Center. Um maybe holding our breath for longer than we should have.

016All right. Uh but Nick as a junior was able to earn a state championship on the mat at Eastston. It was our first state championship on the individual level in quite a few years. So, we were thrilled to see a gold medal come back to Easton again. We're looking forward to big things coming back next year um with high hopes for for Nick and his future. So, congratulations. Nick and Aubrey will also um they were able to throw out a first pitch at an Iron Pigs game last week as part of being honored as state champions and they'll be honored at the state capital along with the other wrestling state champions uh the first week of June. The last honore that I have tonight um is our girls wrestling coach Ryan Pomerinka. So, in his

017uh first year as head coach of our girls program, Ryan was able to lead us to uh a district 11 team championship on the girls side. He was named the district 11 coaches association coach of the year. And then in Hershey, he was honored by his peers as the PIAA girls wrestling coach of the year. All in his first year, so he set the bar nice and high for himself. We're looking forward to more of those in the future. Um, but we appreciate the the work that Ryan's done in helping to build our program and we look forward to what's to come in the future. So, congratulations. [Applause] Thank you, Dr. Boltz. To our student athletes, we congratulate you. We know how difficult it is not only to be a student at the high school,

018but to take on extracurricular and particularly sports that are demanding. Um, so congratulations to all of you for your accomplishments and for those of you who are back, we look forward to good things next year. For those of you going on to college and we promise to follow your career there and your student um, activities as well. And so we wish you all the luck um, as you move forward. And to Ryan, our coach, congratulations on an outstanding season. I will echo what Dr. Bolt said. you set the bar high, but we know that you can certainly continue to inspire our young ladies um and the sport as it continues to grow here across the nation. So, congratulations to you, Dr. Boltz. I would um be remiss if I didn't acknowledge Coach Kum is here

019um as well here supporting Nick. And we want to thank Coach Karum for his years of service and getting Eastern Wrestling back to where it should be. Thank you, coach. I will certainly echo that and I'm sure there'll be another opportunity that we get to congratulate you as well. But since you are here, Jody, we do um wish you well in your retirement. I know those were hard decisions, not only from teaching but from coaching as well. Um and hope that we see you back on, you know, in the arena with our kids as a you know, as a cheerleader and a volunteer. Um but we certainly wish you good health and and um happiness in your retirement and thank you for what you've done here within our district. So yes, so next I'd like

020to acknowledge a couple of our um honores for our profile of the graduate. last uh board meeting uh we started our honore um acknowledgement and so tonight we will follow suit with three more individuals that have been nominated from their peers and community and so today we have one community alumni member that we would like to honor and two staff members that we would like to honor. So, our alumni recognition goes to Leila Carum um Mit Mitri. And I apologize if I said that wrong. Leila, are you here tonight? Thank you. Do I know you from along my travels? Thought so. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Um so lovely young lady as as uh she was coming through school as I can testify there. And so I'm not at all surprised by the nomination and the honor.

021So, it's very nice to see you back in this regard. So, Leila was nominated for her outstanding leadership, community involvement, and unwavering support of education and career development initiatives. A former student and lifelong go-getter, Laya um now leads a successful female-owned construction company where she models what it means to be um an innovative and resilient entrepreneur. Deeply committed to giving back, Laya exemplifies the portrait of GA graduate competencies through her actions. She is an empathetic citizen who actively engages with the community, volunteering her time to sponsor events, support local programs, and sit and to sit on the career and technical program of study um the study local advisory board, excuse me. As a communicator and collaborator, she frequently returns to the classroom to share her insights on leadership, entrepreneurialship, and the transition from college to

022career, inspiring the next generation of students. Laya's generosity, reliability, and drive to make her role make her makes her a role model for students and educators alike. Whether serving as a judge on the regional FBLA competition or mentoring future leaders, she is always ready to step in and make a difference. Her passion for empowering others and building community truly embodies the spirit of the portrait of a graduate. So, thank you for all that you do. And I do have a certificate of of recognition as [Applause] well. So, nice to see you. Okay, congratulations. Second, we have a staff member who was nominated. That staff member is Mr. Shawn Kllin, the principal of Shauny Elementary School. Uh Mr. Kllin as a principal of Shauny Elementary School is being celebrated for his outstanding contributions to both the

023Shauny Elementary School and the Eastern Area School District. His exceptional leadership, strong commitment, innovative approach and compassion, compassionate nature makes him a vital vital asset to the community. Mr. Mr. Kllan's leadership and dedication truly embody what is outlined in a profile of a graduate initiative. As an effective communicator, Mr. Kllan's ability to articulate ideas, provide constructive feedback, and engage in meaningful conversation with the staff makes him a strong presence at this at Shauny um in the Shauny community and beyond. As an innovative problem solver with strong analytic minds, an analytical mindset, Mr. Kllan breaks down complex issues, identifies key factors, and develops practical forwardthinking solutions. As an empathetic collaborator, he listens actively, shows genuine care, and creates an environment where everyone feels heard and respected. As a creative and critical thinker, Mr. Kllin often thinks

024outside of the box and evaluates ideas carefully to ensure they are practical and effective. As a continuous learner with a growth mindset, he embraces challenges as opportunity challenges and opportunities for learning, remains open to feedback and consistently seeks ways to expand his understanding. And as an empowered citizen, he all um he is always aware of the students rights and uses this this knowledge to advocate for positive change within his school. Mr. Kllin, we are super proud of you and welld deserving. So, congratulations. Congratulations. And lastly, but certainly not least, we have another staff member to recognize. That staff member is Mr. Bruce Mason, an instrumental teacher and sixth grade band director. Uh Bruce Mason was nominated for his profound impact he has made over his 28-year career as a music educator in the East School

025District. With a deep commitment to his sixth grade band, Bruce has played a vital role in building a s building and sustaining a strong student centered music program supported by collaboration with the administration, families, and colleagues. He exemplifies all six portrait of graduate competencies in his daily work. Bruce is an empathetic citizen, a collaborative teammate, fostering a respectful and inclusive environment for students and staff alike. He is a resilient learner and an innovative educator. He continuously adapts his teach um adapts his teaching to meet the needs of the students, igniting a lifelong passion for music. He is a career um sorry he is a clear and compassionate communicator and in a creative problem solver even finding quick solutions in the middle of um live performances. Bruce's unwavering dedication is reflected in his remarkable growth and

026achievement of his students and continued successes of the music program and the music development of his own children. He is a model of excellence in education and a shining example of what it means to live out a portrait of a graduate competencies. So Bruce, congratulations to [Applause] you. Congratulations. Okay, so one more round of applause for all of our portrait of a graduate recipient. Okay, a couple other quick announcements and then we have one final presentation. Reminder to um our audience that tomorrow is our Little Rock 9 awards presentation being held at their middle school at 6 o'clock. Anyone is welcome to attend. But at that time we will be honoring um approximately 45 46 uh students in grades 6 through 12 for their accomplishments and we look forward to that celebration. Also a reminder

027or an update I guess I should say on our school calendar for this current school year there. I did mention to you earlier and I think I mentioned it again last week. It's the first announcement I made that was a reminder that we had a snow day that we needed to make up. After doing a little bit of research and looking at the minutes that we have served this year, we have decided that we do not need to make that day up. And so our calendar will stand as it was created. So Friday, June 6 is a half day for students and staff. And our last day for students and staff is Monday, June 9th, followed by graduation that evening for our seniors. So, we will not be coming to school on June 10th. There

028is no need for us to make that up based on uh PTE, the Pennsylvania Department of Education's new regulations around days and hours. And so, uh, one more time to reiterate it, June 9th, half day for students, graduation that evening, and half and staff's last day as well. Um the only other note I just made that was changed on the calendar that was um presented is that we did add graduation onto the calendar for June 9th, but that date has not changed since the beginning of the year. Okay. Our calendar for the 2526 year will be presented in May. That is nearly done with very similar um very similar uh criteria and attributes that are on this current calendar. But once that is completed, um we are finalizing some of our professional development days that

029will be presented to the community um as well. But the timing of that looks pretty similar to what we have this year. And then also just a perhaps a first announcement or reminder that our we will be hosting a state of the district again this year. Right now that is scheduled for May 19th at Cunningham. I believe we do have a rain date if necessary. And so more information to come on that particular event. And then a couple of quick shoutouts. Um May 1st, so coming up this week is school principal day. So certainly congratulations and thank you to all of our administrators within the district. Next week, May um 5th through 9th is teacher app appreciation week and May 7th is school nurses day. And again to all of our um employees within the

030district and certainly within those two employment groups, we thank you for your dedication and hard work and service to our students and community. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Trent um to give a update on our budget. Thank you. So, today we're going to have an update to the budget and also we're going to review the real estate taxes that we did not have in the initial presentation. Um a broken down description of all those. So, Gino, could you go to the next slide, please? So, before we talk Yes. Before we talk about real estate taxes, we're going to be talking in something called mills. I thought it was important to define what a mill is. One mill is 1,000th of the assessed value of a property. And then school

031districts set the millage rates to determine the amount of property taxes that are collected. So, next slide, please. So, on this chart right here, we're looking at the eastern area school district value of 1 mill. So across the top you can see I have 23 24 I have 2425 our current year and then three for 2526. Those will represent different millage rates. Um the first line you can see that's the assessed value of the district. So you can see in 2324 we are about 1.83 2425 1.84 and now we're up near 1.85. So one mil in the current or sorry in the next year's budget will be1,849,469. So the millage rates come off of the percent that we want to see the budget uh raised what we feel is necessary to operate the district. So

032you can see the millage rate in 2324 was 68.2. The current year is 69.73 which leads us to the potential millage rates for this year. 1% is just a baseline to look at at 70.43. And then there's two other trial percentages up there. 3% will give us a 71.83 and then 3.5% 72.18. And if you go down to the bottom, you can see um the total levy generated by the mills is $128 million. If we're work looking at the 3.5%. Our budgeted collection rate that we usually use is 94%. That's where we've been hovering hovering around this year of what our actual collection of the tax levy is. The tax revenue for budgeting that we would use for 3.5% is $120,768,477. So that's where the the number comes in the budget line where you see

033tax liy that's that's where we get that from. Uh next slide please. So I have the four different um cities, townships and what the tax analysis would look like for each of them. Obviously, we're not going to read all the numbers, but if we look at 3.5% for all of them, we can see kind of consistently across the board. So, if you live in Eastston at 3.5%, your property taxes for an average assessment, and that's an average assessment, is $11155. Next slide, please. So, if we're looking in Forks at 3.5%, you'd be at $222.35. Next slide. Lower Mount Bethl, $102.88 88 at 3.5%. And for Palmer, $23021. Obviously, this will be attached to the board doc, so if anybody wants to go back and look more in depth at the different mills, percentages, anything like

034that, that will be there. This is a slide from the last um presentation, but I think it's important that we discuss this. So, we had the meeting with Raymond James. We had the presentation by Raymond James that discussed the $300 million capital programs financing project, as we're calling it. And one of the things you can see for the fiscal year ending 2026, you go across the millage increase required to fund what we're trying to do with the new high school and the other capital projects requires a millage increase of 1.5%. Um, the reason this is important, and I would appreciate if the, you know, if the board had any input at this point or any discussion, um, the 1.5% increase needs to be in the budget if we're going to be paying for this part

035of the project. That what you what you see over all the way to the right that's highlighted, the 3.3 budget surplus, that's not in the operating budget. That's going to be put into savings as we start to save for the new project. So, it's going to be very hard for the district to budget 2.25% as last year or 2% and also be able to save the budget surplus. So, that is where the recommendation is coming from for the 3.5%. I know this was mentioned last time, but as the next meeting will be our final proposed budget presentation, I would love if there's any discussion or comments on how we feel about the $300 million capital programs financing. I have a question. How many years would that 1.5% appear? Was it Josh? You remember it was

036three or four years extra that before we seven to 10. Okay. 70 years. I can get that information for you. That was in the presentation. Obviously, I cut off the the rest of the years for the purpose of what we're looking at now. But and we're going to save that amount. Is that where that is? Is correct. It's not in the operating budget. It'll be saved. That that 3.3 million is building towards that. It's a tax neutral project. We're building up the mount so that when a bond falls off, we can replace it and then build the high school with a tax neutral project. So just to be clear then the the administration is recommending three and a half% which is a 2% tax increase uh for operating expenses of the district and then the

037additional one and a half is for mill the millage increase required as presented by Ken Phillips. That is the recommendation. So that is correct but what our taxpayers would see is the year. We're trying to be very clear and transparent about the fact that we want to build in if we want to build a new high school andor the capital projects that we require to sustain the current building, we are going to need to go into a bond um bond situation where we're seeking additional funds. And obviously that comes with paying it back. And so that extra, you know, our commitment um knowing that it is, you know, it's it's a lot is that we would make sure that we're operating within our, you know, within our 2% and putting that extra aside for the

038building project andor capital projects as as it moves forward. And from our perspective, it is a tough it is a tough situation because 2% is hard for the operating budget. And now we're asking for 3.5% but it's still restricting the operating budget to 2%. That 1.5% that you can see on the screen, the extra mills that are required, the 1.05 would not be for the operating budget. There's nothing else. Then I just have a general question. How comfortable are we with the idea that the high school project is still going to cost under 300 million given the current economic situation that we find ourselves in with complete instability having any idea what anything is going to cost. So I will say that we are as confident as we can be because we have given that

039as a cap and made that a promise and so um you know what will have to happen moving forward as we continue to scale the project to fit into that budget. Um that budget also includes the um the overages and I'm not using the right word right this the soft costs um and you know the um increase in materials over the course of those next five years. So that has all been built into this this budget. And so you know as as as short as I can provide you know sitting here today is as the project moves forward we everybody knows that it has to be maintained with within this and preferably under that number. If you want to say something I have one more question. From looking at the chart under Palmer Township the

0403.5% would equal $200 a year increase. Did I get that right? There you go. 230. 230. That's correct. Okay. So, the 1.5% just the separate def would be another like $100 a year just to build a new school. The average taxpayer would look at it and say it's going to cost me $100 a year now to build that new school for the next seven years. Is that correct? That's Yes, that's correct. If you look at the 2% to a 3.5%. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I would like to add a few things. So Megan, regard to your question, um if you remember that conversation, um we brought in the $300 million recommendation that was for the high school and the capital projects for about $30 million worth of projects over the next 5 years. Um

041through the past, you know, two months, we've certainly worked uh with our design team to scale that down as appropriate. Um, and we believe that we have that that scaled down appropriately to fit within that 270 to 280 type of mark. Um, give or take, you know, a million or two. Um, and then also to be able to build in those 30 that $30 million for cap projects. So that 300 million was not just the high school, it was the high school and projects. But I do want to make a comment because it is really important uh to get feedback from the board because if if for whatever reason um you know it would not be a 3.5% increase then we would need to take a look at what we need to do to to

042renovate that building and that is not going to be a cheap price either for what's on our capital improvement plan for the high school alone may raise maybe about if I remember correctly it's probably around 60 million um give or take five million here or there. So that is not figured into the the next 5 years because we figured that into the project if that makes sense. So we just want to make sure that we have everything aligned and as appropriate. But that 300 million going back to that was for high school and $30 million worth of projects over five years. Thank you for clarifying that, Josh. Um, it's a lot of money uh for for homeowners to have to pay and I and I realize that, but that school it it needs to be

043replaced no matter how we look at it. And I feel like better that we're now saving for it versus just borrowing for it. So even though 3 uh5 is a lot and it's a lot for all of us, I I don't know how else uh we can possibly do it. So thank you. And one thing I want to point out where because I cut it off, I didn't put the whole chart, but if you look at the blue on the left says series of 2026 debt service 27 28 29. So right now we are phasing into that. So throughout the four years we'll take on different bonds to finance this project. Um obviously you can see right now we don't have the bond there and the next year we will. So in 2027 we'll take

044on our first debt service for this project. It's going to be added in 2028 as you can see or 2027 sorry added in 2028 2029. So it's kind of a cascading effect and the reason it's designed this way is to limit the effect of the cost of those bonds in the project in the coming years. If we weren't doing this now we'd see large increases. Yes. Um, just it's going to sound like I'm going all over the place with it, but I'm I'm looking at uh do we need a high school that big? The just what we have now. We see the enrollment projections. Uh, and and I pulled up a recent one that had uh the article, the original plan was based on an average of 3,000 students. So, it came to be 178

045square feet um which was 537,000 square feet. Um, but our enrollment has been projected to go down at the high school. And if I remember correctly, I had thought that the architect had said ideally it was about 100 closer to 170 square feet per person, not 178. So, all right, close enough. But if we based the projection on two 2500 students, which looks like a more realistic number at this point, that's giving us 445,000 square feet. Uh if we based it off 170 at 2500 students, that's coming in about 425,000 square feet. Now that's almost that's 110,000 square feet smaller than that first estimate. I don't know how that would impact the cost. Obviously, I don't think anybody at this table does. I'm just putting that out there as a thought. Uh that would obviously

046require uh the engineers and the architects to to look at that. Uh and and also board direction and administration direction as well. But but I'm looking at I don't know if we need a high school as big as initially projected. How much will that save the taxpayer? How much will that save us is to be determined, but I don't see how it can't save. Maybe maybe it's not worthwhile, but but we need to look at that. And and when we're looking at these designs, uh as I had said before, we got to make sure that we're designing for use in practicality. We don't need a a we need a functional gym and a functional auditorium, but we don't need one that makes it look like um you know, we're a division one uh you know,

047college program. You know, we don't need that kind of uh athletic facilities necessarily. We need practical, usable ones that we can share with the community, of course, that are respectable and durable and presentable. But, I mean, those are really nickel and dime things in my opinion that that may add up as as we look. So I I en encourage everybody to kind of look into this a little bit more. Uh the other factor that we have as an X factor is of course um uh this is a an election year so we will have it looks likely we'll have some new board members next year. Looks like at least two or three most likely. So, uh, that's something that could change direction, which we saw. I believe that happened in Northampton, uh, an election or

048two ago where they, uh, elected some members and I believe they stopped construction of a project that they already invested 10 or 12 million in at that point. So that's something else that we need to consider uh as well that that we have some other variables and and I don't mean to push the project back but it might be something that we need to think about because the will of the board 12 you know eight nine months from now could be could be totally different than what you're looking at right now. So sorry I was a little long on that but I I just wanted to wanted to put that out. Thank you. So I will comment on a couple of those. You know you're right that there will be turnover on the board. you

049know, what that will look like will yet to be determined. Um, and certainly we hope that those folks come on and have a similar vision to, you know, where we're at here knowing that we need to do something to the high school, but we'll have to see what that what that entails. Um, and so that is a discussion for the board to consider. Is this the time to continue to move forward or or not? You know, certainly it is our recommendation that we do um so that we, you know, keep moving forward. we're not wasting the money that's already been spent on design and I think we all know that we need to do something and the longer we wait the more you know more that the cost goes up and then because we've committed

050to not going above our cost it scales the building back to your point about the building we have had um a number of meetings at this point talking about design kind of talking about the educational program what might that look like what should that look like and we will be entering into here in May into a ad hoc committee meeting for the full board and and which then allows for our public to come and we'll advertise that as well accordingly. But I will let you know that some of the discussions that we have had are on the size of the building and what is needed. Not only because of our enrollment and what those trends may or may not be moving forward, but also just through the view of public education and what um what

051I will say is my vision for it. I won't speak for anyone else at this point, but I strongly believe that the face of public education needs to change. um that much of what we do on our classroom can be more creative and init and um innovative and that is nothing to do with our teachers our teachers are phenomenal but I also think we can think about what are the hours of our day do 3,000 kids need to come into our building from seven you know 7 o'clock in the morning to 2:30 or can we look at a a campus and I'm randomly throwing numbers out that is open from 7 am and 7 pm and kids are flowing and ebbing and flowing based on their personal schedules, based on hybrid classes of in-person versus

052some of those classes being hybrid. So, I think there's a lot of things to talk about in the design of the building. And one of the challenges is with a vision is one, we need to continue and move forward with some of the focus groups that we are talking about to get um our students, our staff, and our public's opinion on what the state of education should look like. And two, it's a challenge to design design something for the future when you're not quite all the way there. And so to be innovative, which I am, you know, really pushing our team to to be on this project because of the value of the project, because of the enrollment, because I think that, you know, for public education to stay competitive, that we need to think

053differently about public education. Um, so all of that is a challenge to align with the building being erect and our philosophies and our preparation being timed appropriately. And so we're cautious about that as well. Um, your point on um um auditoriums and and uh recreation space is well taken and I think we're taking that into consideration. While it doesn't need to be the state-of-the-art in the um in the area, it is our flagship and so it needs to be appropriate for our students and for our community who is um expending so much money. Um but those are spaces that may be larger because they are spaces that we do want to gather a lot of a lot of folks. Our classroom spaces can be fluid depending on um how we design that, our philosophy for

054public education and whether every um teacher has their own teaching space or whether it's shared teaching space. And I'm probably saying some things that are unpopular for some and popular to others. Um but that is my strong belief and it is some of the conversation happening as we're having these building projects. So I know it's not a a full answer to your question, but it is um an answer to how we're thinking about this project. Can I also just add in, you know, we have this 300 million, we're saying about 270, right, for the high school. There's that's still because we have $30 million in other capital projects. So, you know, whether we have no new board members or nine new board members, we're going to need we're going to have those capital project needs.

055And worst case scenario is that we've now saved $3.3 million, you know, for those projects. even if you know there were to be changes on the board that would result in changes because we're not actually borrowing the money yet. We're just we're starting to prepare for borrowing. So there is time yet um for those final decisions to be made. Thank you. Other comments? So I have up on the screen I was letting everybody else finish. Um, so I've been on for a long time and I think all of the capital projects and building improvements we've done over the years, this has to be the one that I absolutely endorse. Um, I know there's a lot of people out there who are saying, "Well, we went to school there. I went to school there." It's very

056different. Um, and and I look at all the money we've spent over the years putting into the roof, the pool, um, trying to patch things up, put additions on. Air conditioning doesn't work in one part of the area. It's freezing in the other part of the area. The elevator doesn't work. The amount of money that we would be putting into the pro into that building to patch it up even more um is unfortunately a waste. And as far as some of the options that we have, Brian, I look at what we've utilized the middle school with the gymnasium or the auditorium and different things and outside um things that have come in, entities that have come in, PIAA, uh district, states, those kinds of things where we're actually making money on it because of our

057facility. So when we're doing this, I think looking at some of those things um could actually help us in the long run. So um that's where I'm at with it. And out of any of the buildings, I will say this is one that I would definitely support. Um it's desperately needed. And Jack, just before you go, I just want to make a few more comments to Brian. Um so, you know, one of the plans that we had when we originally started with the ideal um guiding principles, we were at probably out of 500,000 somewhere around there. Um over the past two months, we've certainly narrowed that down into a more acceptable square footage um to become more efficient. in regard to what your point was regarding the the student population um and all other options

058that we have out there. Um so we have certainly done that. Our plan uh was to do a presentation at the May standing committee meeting um to provide an update because we did have to work through some things. If you remember the timeline, there's some there's some submissions to the township in regard to moving forward with the project in order to keep on that timeline. So before we go ahead and do any of that, we certainly want to, you know, provide you as a board the work that we've done in AW has done and CHA has done and then let you you know know some recommendations um after that meeting on on in May and we can certainly I'll talk to Miss Piaza about this. Um we were planning on then having the ad hoc

059committee to work through some of those questions moving forward. Um, so we can certainly schedule those as appropriate, but it was really important for us tonight to understand where the board was regarding the the percentages whether because we don't want to waste money either, right? We don't want to continue on with this project and paying fees for developing the project um if if it's not going to move forward. So um we just want to make sure that we we honor that process appropriately. But we have made some certain adjustments and we'll we'll present those to you. Uh our plan is in May at the May whatever is 8th or 9th standing committee meeting. Okay. So on the board is maybe what I should have included which is the entire picture of the funding of the

060$300 million capital program. So the underlying issue here as we fund this is the outstanding debt service that we currently have and you can see how it's compensated for in column three in column four and column five and column six. But if we want to be on the timeline that we currently have set, that is the reason that we are raising the millillage right now. Um, so you can kind of see how and gold on the right helps fund, you know, the the bonds on the left to compensate for our current debt service. That's that's really what we're looking at here. So that is the reason behind the number that we're presenting. It's not an arbitrary, you know, number. It'd be nice to start saving this amount. This is the amount to save so that

061we can afford the bonds as well as our outstanding debt service. And as you can see, you know, the 2026 bond series will be at around $700,000. But then once our debt service rolls off, we can pay that bond off. And that's kind of if you can kind of see on there how it kind of cascades down. So that's the the total picture of the funding. This was from the one presentation we had a few months ago. Are there any questions? All right. So, our projected revenues if it's 3.5% and it's just a number that we're going to use later on is $214,885,531. Uh, next slide. This is from the last presentation. And I had said that I wasn't going to change this number yet. This is what we need to fund the district. It

062remained the same to 219,999,86. Next slide. And this is also from the last presentation, but I'm going to go through these bullets and talk about how the district, how administration has worked to close the budget gap. So, we talked about increasing the tax levy. I had it at 2% but we were worried about the capital projects using the tiff which we are and then we had an health insurance buyout looking at the district contracts uh reviewing staffing needs which showed its way into a retirement incentive working with our insurance broker and reviewing assets for potential sales. So next slide please. So some of these we do not know the potential savings yet but these are in motion. So, what was agreed upon was that the district would offer $6,000 cash in lie of benefits. I've

063listed the Cobra rates. As we're self-insured, we don't have a consistent rate for everybody, but those are what the COBRA rates are. So, it's a good basis to to base what we're looking at on. Um, you can see singles around 12,000, two parties around 25, family about 33, which when we take into account the employee contributions because their contributions would stop. So, it's a little bit greater than 6,000 that they'd be saving, but we're looking at a savings 4,500 for someone who's single, 17,000 for two party, and 24,500 for a family. As we are doing this through open enrollment, we don't have those numbers yet. We probably will pretty shortly, and have a greater understanding of the savings that we were able to realize from offering the cash in L benefits. Next slide. The retirement

064incentive. So 24 teachers accepted the retirement incentive. Um as we know we are looking at step 15 as being eligible. Those are their salaries across for the step 15 teachers. So the estimated cost of these positions and it's estimated but it is takes into account their salaries um FICA that the district pays for them their retirement and their benefits. It's about 3.6 million. We also offered it to act 93 employees. is we do have two act 93 employees but one of them was not eligible for the retirement incentive but the estimated cost of these positions is 185,000. The year one liability to the district the money that we offered for people to take the health the retirement incentive is about $316,000 and it's going to obviously money is going to fall off every year. We

065have somebody you know who's receiving 18,000 this year. They won't be getting it next year. It'll age out of it. So that money will obviously decrease over time. Um, next slide, please. So, we were basically looking at 3.785 in salary. If we had to replace positions, have to remember we're not coming in at step 15. They're coming in a lot lower. So, it's a lower cost to the district. So, if we estimated $110,000, um, if the district replaces 10 positions of the ones that were vacated, it would be about 2.369 million in savings in the fiscal year 26 budget. So, I would say the retirement incentive was a success for the district. Um, next slide. There's other retirements that we did not have an incentive for, but there were five pair of professionals, five administrative

066profit professionals, and these positions don't receive the retirement incentive, but they will be evaluated for staffing needs. And then obviously the savings is unknown at this point. That's something that needs to be discussed. Um, replacement of those individuals, if there's replacement, how that would look. So, Next slide. Uh the district contracts. So the executive team looked through pretty much every contract in the district. We looked at the professional contracts. We looked at service contracts, technology contracts, contracts with other eleas. Um we see a minimum of at least $500,000 right now. That's what I feel absolutely comfortable putting on the board. Um we may evaluate and meet next week. We still have a couple weeks before the final proposed budget and that number may raise get higher, but as of right now, I feel comfortable with

067$500,000. Next slide, please. Insurance savings. Um, as I mentioned at the last approval for Capital Blue, we shifted to weekly billing from monthly billing. They kept our rates for them at 0% rather than a raise there. We've also worked with the brokers to identify plan shifts that will save district money. Uh, at this point we're we can't go in depth into those just yet, but the estimated savings will be around at least $250,000. Next slide. All right, the sale of assets. We spoke about this. I will include numbers in the board brief on Tuesday. Um, we do have three separate buildings that could we could be capable of selling. One is the building we're sitting in right now. Uh, the public library and the warehouse across the street. Um, we will look at, you know,

068we will look at what those buildings cost to operate on a yearly basis because that's the big thing that we're looking at. It's not just the cash, it's how much we will save year after year after year after year of not having to cut grass, pay for water, plow it a lot. So, that'll be an update in the board brief on on Tuesday. Next slide. So, I will say on that slide, um, the reason those are listed on there is those are buildings that we own and operate outside of our educational facilities. And so, I don't want to be misconstrued or misinterpreted. These buildings are not for sale, but these are conversations that we're having if we're leaving every rock unturned. You know, these are other assets that we have that we would need to

069discuss and say, you know, what is the value, the pros and cons of hanging on to them versus the pros and cons of of maneuvering into something else. So, I don't want the public to panic. You know, I certainly don't want it in in our newspapers that we're selling these buildings um because that is not the case. But with, you know, with us looking at every possibility, we do have assets and we need to consider that um as we're looking at our finances. Absolutely. That's perfectly said. I mean, yes, they're not for sale. Yes, we are looking at everything we can do to get the budget in line. So when we talk about it, it's it'd be um foolish not to look at every single aspect that we could save money on. Um so we

070started at in the first budget presentation $219,990,86. That's what I considered as sufficient to run the district. That included everything we need. I mean the health benefits are in there at $27 million. last year to our budget at 23. I mean, there's sufficient money in there for everything in that number. We had a bunch of savings that we looked at. The only three that I feel we can definitively put numbers on for this update right now are the retirement incentive, the district contracts, and the health plan savings. So, our tenative budget amount once we factor everything in, we have to go through the position control roster, adjust the salary lines, adjust the health care lines, we're at 216,880,000. So that is a good amount of progress that has been made since the initial budget presentation.

071And next slide. So our current deficit with the revenues that I posted before and the current expenditures with our savings were just under $2 million for our deficit which um Oh yeah, there's an extra nine in there. Got a got a little excited there, I guess. But that that's 1,994,000. So we don't need But I could just round numbers, but I like to keep them where they actually are. So, um, but no, to be under $2 million and we still have time and we're still evaluating a lot of things. Uh, the district is in a good position right now with the budget. I know that's weird to say with two million, but we are we do have a lot of things still um in process that we we can use to lower that number even

072further. Um, next slide. So, the next steps, there's going to be a finance committee meeting. Then on May 13th, we would like to present and I will stand over there for the presentation. I just considered this an update, the proposed final budget presentation. And are there any questions? I do. So, in our board brief, we talked about it was talked about the um expectation of the loss of title funding and has how have we addressed that in the budget right now? Well, I I addressed it initially by lowering the percentage of what I thought we would receive. I I have it down at I think 60% of what we would expect. I don't foresee it going past anything there. So, in the initial budget, and I'll go through and check the numbers and verify, but

073the title funding is is lower than what we would usually put in a normal budget year. It's not going to be an absolute zero. So, if you look at the the well, the federal funding obviously because of ESR, but because of other things is much lower this year than what we had last year in the budget. Significantly lower. So, and that's that's part of that. We do have some confirmation that for next year, the 2526 budget, some of that will be level funded, not 100% of it. So, we have titles 1, two, three, and four. Some of those will be level funded as what we have this year. And then some of them have potential cuts within them. And so, budgeting in at that 60% should be more than adequate to uh to support that

074deficit if in fact there is one. All right, thank you very much. So before we move on, we do have one of our student athletes that just joined us. So I'd like to turn it back over to Dr. Boltz. So he was able to get here after the pole vault concluded after a marathon meet with Philipsburg. So um our boys swimming and diving scholar athlete for this past winner was Jacob Brunetti. So come on up, Jake. Congratulations. Thank you. And that concludes my report. Okay. Next, we'll move on to reports. Uh first one, Colonial Intermediate Unit 20. Mr. Snider. Yes. Thank you. Um couple quick things. Uh I sent a copy of the or the link to the uh most recent newsletter back on April 24th to the uh to the board email. Uh tonight

075on your agenda, item 10A is the uh general operating budget for the IU. There is no increase to the district this year. Um and just of note in case those are interested, starting in August, the IU meeting time will be changing from 7:30 to 7:00, just in case anybody uh wants to attend. and it's been 7:30 for quite a long time, but we decided to move it up to start at 7 p.m. And then that concludes the report. Thank you. Next, we have the East Public Library, Mr. Thomas. Thank you. Good evening. Uh, first I'd like to thank the superintendent for her clarifying comments on that chart about assets that possibly are up for sale. uh your comments eliminated the need to summon the EMTs to jumpst start my heart. Uh the uh the library

076was very happy to have the Eastern School District's fourth graders come to visit uh during March and April. They went through various programs and rooms at the library to include the MarkX room uh where they were introduced to a lot of the artifacts uh that are there. Uh this past spring, the various storytime groups in the library focused on local community helpers to include the Eastn Police and Fire departments. Uh for the police department, the children signed a huge, excuse me, a huge poster which was delivered to the police department. Uh for the fire department, they actually got to walk across the street. Three groups of uh students went over and actually visited the fire station. Uh the first responders were very happy to accommodate that. They were also very happy because when they went

077to visit, they took treats from Eastern Baking Company. Uh not to be outdone, the children at the Palmer branch had a visit from the Palmer Township Police. Uh several officers and one of the K9 units was there, which was a a very big hit. Uh the library is currently upgrading the public computers that users of the library have access to when they come into both the main and the Palmer branches. And finally, the friends of the library uh will be having their semianual book sale. It starts tomorrow evening with the friends preview. Then there are general sale dates on Thursday and Friday. The halfp price sale is on Saturday. And then um Monday is the always popular bag day where you can come in and fill a grocery bag for $5 uh and leave with

078whatever you can carry in the bag. I brought some flyers along uh for the book sale which I'll leave on the table here if anybody would like any more information. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next we have a career institute of technology. Do either of my partners want to take No, I have. If you don't I have I have listed new program. Okay. Huge interest in that. Yeah, that's already filled. the bettech program that they proposed is already filled. Um hiring educators. Uh so I have the open house and career fair was held April 2nd. Um the culinary group took first place again for the cupcake contest in the what's so cool about manufacturing. Um and the interesting part of that is that the CIT group went up against um other tech schools. Uh

079and the CIT actually does not have a culinary a a baking program. So, uh they were going up against groups that are that are specializing strictly in that. So, it's pretty cool. um the uh proposing of the building expansion. Um they're looking to add on since all the programs um usually fill up pretty quickly. They're looking to add space so that they can add additional programs like welding um since they're already filled and then people have to make a second choice. Uh as of April 10th, there's 860 students enrolled, which of approximately 220 will be graduating, which will then leave 360 available seats. And the senior awards night is going to be held May 22nd, 6:00 at Nazareth High School, Andrew Lay Stadium if anyone is interested to go to that. And that I guess

080would be the conclusion of our our report. Next we have uh community college, Mr. Feno first of all in my report I mention mentioned about Vincent Kamanichi uh he is a graduate of here uh he resumed he received the Newman civic fellow award uh and he's a political science major and uh he provided insight into a lot of the things that he's doing as a volunteer efforts here in Easton both I think it's a 13th Street market as well as downtown and how he's been helping the community. So that's why he was recognized. We had many other students recognized last Thursday as well. But one that was outstanding was also recognized at the community college commission level. And that's because her name is Amanda Alfro. Sorry to say she's not an eastern student, but uh

081when you understand some of the recognitions that go on and that the students whether whatever district they're from that they're available to receive, it's amazing. And uh what she received, she received many many outstanding honors. She's a member of Ftheta Kappa. Uh she received the 2025 Heights Scholar which is worth 7500. And the key to that is out of the entire nation, there's only 22 people selected for it. In addition to that, she also was a 2025 Coca-Cola academic team gold scholar. Again, there's some uh dollars associated with that. and uh I know her hope as we were talking is that she'll eventually end up at Lafayette, but these are the types of awards again there's many numerous ones that our students have received including other various East students too uh over this past year

082and uh so that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you and congratulations to those students. Uh next we have the foundation of Eastern Schools, Miss Siago. Uh no report this month just uh to say that we are still looking for a new executive director that um posting is still open. So if there's anyone interested in applying uh they can still do so. Thank you. Next we have Charles Shren Science and Technology Initiative and we currently do not have a report this evening. Next we have uh student reports. Mr. Mattis one. First off, I'm going to start with some bigger news. There wasn't enough interest in the Google form for the big or for the bonfire from the seniors, so it's not going to be happening. Then on another note, we're excited for two big events

083coming up. EHS day, which is on May 9th to honor our school. Then AG to raise money for suicide awareness along with some students and teachers competing and having fun will be on May 10th. Then the seniors, student council, I've also been planning prom, which is set for May 17th. and we have planned out mostly everything for graduation including the picnic practice and actual ceremony. Thank you. Thank you. So I do want to reiterate that conversation. Um since Zach was pretty quick on it and thank you for saying that. We appreciate students owning that. But as you recall our bonfire was cancelled due to the drought this year. Um much to everyone's chagrin, we had to make that safety decision and we did promise the students if they so chose we would have a spring

084bonfire. After much deliberation, many votes, many surveys, um there were there were certainly interest among our senior class, but um the interest was more that they would like to participate in the bonfire, not necessarily that they wanted to build the bonfire. And so there was not enough interest in in um numbers to build the bonfire. So unfortunately, that is um not going to happen this spring. And so we'll look forward to hopefully whether that is uh cooperative and have our our annual bonfire next November. So thank you for that and thank you for our students who you know put lots of time in considering what they wanted as a senior class. Thank you. All right. Next we have association reports EA. Um, so I do want to start out with I know that a lot

085of the teachers are also very excited about AAG on the 10th and a repeat win for the varsity team this year. Um, so in real EA things, every two years locals in the Lehigh Valley gather to celebrate people and agencies that have been beneficial and supportive to children education. Um, this is our friends of education program. This year EAEA recognized Rose Moyer from Valley Youth House. Um, Rose works at the high school in the school-based counseling program. She's kind, funny, supportive person for students and staff alike. Her tough love approach gives them coping skills and support they'll need as they transition into adult life in the real world. Uh, Rose is willing to go beyond the students on her case load when she sees someone having a bad day, even many staff members, including myself.

086Um, our school is richer and our students are better supported because we are lucky enough to have Rose in our building. Thank you. Uh, anyone from PTA? I don't think so. I don't think so either. Uh, is there any other association reports? Okay, seeing none, we will next we will move move to public to be heard on agenda items. Is there anyone in the public to be heard on agenda items? Please come to the podium, sign your name. You have for five minutes. Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to executive session. Executive session was held on March 25th. uh regarding personal and confidential matters and April 8th regarding personal and negotiations. Okay. Next, I'm sorry. Uh next, approval of the minutes. Motion to approve the minutes of the following meetings. Academic standing committee meeting March

08711th. Athletic standing committee meeting March 11th. Budget and finance standing committee meeting March 11th. Buildings and ground safety security March 11th. Educational technology and student supports March 11th. in the regular board meeting of March 25th. Any motion? Second. Any questions or discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Next, we'll move on to personnel. Um, we'll take a motion to approve the memorandum of agreement with American University as presented. Motion second. Any questions or discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Next, we will take B retirements. Um motion with regrets and best wishes to approve the following retirements as presented. Second. Any questions or discussion? No discussion. I just want to make a just a quick comment and thank those teachers for their service. And I know that some of them made the decision to retire as

088a result of the retirement incentive. So I know that it's not necessarily something um that they were planning on when they started this school year and I'm sure it was a very difficult decision for them and I really do want to thank them for their service and wish them well in their retirement. Thank you. Okay. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Uh, next we'll take C, D, E, F, G, and we'll go to there. All right. C. Motion to approve the following resignations as presented. D. Motion to approve the following leave of absences as presented. E. Motion to approve the following administrative transfers as presented. F. Motion to elect the following support staff as presented pending receipt of all forms and documents required by the district. And we'll take G. Motion to elect the following

089coach as presented pending receipt of all forms and documents required by the district. Motion. Any questions or discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. And next we will take H I H and I uh H motion to appro approve the following changes to the contractual EPFED statements as presented and I motion to approve motion to elect the following summer employees as presented pending receipt of all forms and documents required by the district. Second. Any questions or discussion? All all in favor? Any opposed? Okay, next we will move on to academics. I guess we can just go through all of them. Uh, A, motion to approve the revisions to the 2425 school calendar as presented. B, motion to approve Lehigh Valley Children's Center memorandum of understanding as presented. C. Motion to approve field trips requested as

090presented. D. Motion to approve the conference request as presented. And E motion to approve quaver music quote as presented. Any questions or discussion? Uh question on the on the field trip requests. I believe that came um with the the hang dog. There seems to be maybe a discrepancy here where the in the check register it says there was the check will be written for like $20,984 but the field trip is approved for $4533. Is there is that Yes. Do we know do we have an explanation for that or a clarification? Yes, we do. So, what ended up happening, all of the um so there's going to be four teams that are going to be attending this trip. However, they're on different dates. And so, the other field trip request forms will be coming in for

091the May board meeting. However, I believe that the invoices were submitted for all four teams and they were paid so that the students can go, but the other request forms will be coming in next month. So, we paid for So, it's actually four trips. Four trips. One, one is now and then three more. Yes. Coming up. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. Okay. Um, all in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Next we have athletics. Um, A and B. So we have a motion to approve the use of parentowned football helmets helmets agreement as per attached and b motion to approve the EASD EHS band guide brand guide as per attached second. Okay. Any questions or discussion? The mascot. The face of the mascot. because our teams are ferocious. Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Next, we've

092got budget and finance. Um, I'm going to take a I will take up to the financial matters. So, A motion to approve Colonial IU 20 budget for the 20252026 school year as presented. B senior citizen motion to approve the senior citizen property tax rebate program for the 2024 tax year as presented. C. Motion to approve the renewal policy for employee life and disability insurance with CM Regent Sunlife as presented. D. Motion to approve Delta Dental as our dental provider for two years as presented. E. Motion to approve Cultural Connections Club as a new student activity at the high school as presented. F. Motion to approve the meal prices for the 25 2025 2026 school year as presented. Uh breakfast for $150 for K through 12. Lunch $2.50 K through 12. lunch $2.75 for 6 through

09312. Adult breakfast is $250 and adult lunch is $475 as presented. And with those prices said, we still are um part of the CP C uh program. So that has not changed. But if you were um seeking to purchase a second breakfast, these would be the prices that you're looking at. Just a quick quick comment just um I'm not going to vote no on it, but on 10B on the property tax rebate. Um maybe just for future consideration, I I think I'd like to see discussion or the district maybe consider matching what the state thresholds are because our numbers are a little lower than as far as income in state. So it looked like there had been a change. So, I I missed that at the committee meeting, but um just something for future thought

094that maybe we should just phrase it or create it in just a way that we'll match whatever the state threshold is. If the state threshes it, then we just change the threshold, then we just automatically kind of go with that. Just just just something to think about. That's all I wanted to mention. Thank you. Okay. All right. Next, we have G. Motion to approve the I'm sorry. Uh all in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Next, we have G. A motion to approve the Capital Blue Health and RX agreement as presented. Second. Any questions or discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Next, I'm going to take H because um Mr. Simonetta did have questions and so uh I will take H. Motion to approve financial matters as presented. Treasures report. General fund revenue and

095expenditure reports. The monthly student activity statements for EMS and EHS. The bill register for the regular NAC. Uh general funds, the special activities, capital projects and food service. Okay. So I am um questions or discussion and I will uh Mr. Simeonetta could not be here tonight but did pass along some questions he had and uh hopefully we can get him the answers then I don't know if you already have them Mr. Trent I have the Yes. Do you have Okay. All right. So, the questions are uh for the bill check registers, we have $30,000 at this time of year uh for Amazon. Um I don't know if I should read exactly what he said. Why is that? Why is that? Yes. Um so what are Yeah. So the question is basically is um why are

096we still allowing cart blanch cart blanch spending without reviewing absolute necessities for the year to finish the year for example $5,000 to replenish supply replenish supplies things like this should be in the next year's expenses IU 1.2 2 million on this list alone. Um he would like to know what we have budgeted. Uh would like an estimate for the year including budgeted versus anticipated expenses and any shortfall noted communities and schools $66,000. Is this monthly? Uh what is our total expense for the contract? Um, if we could get an analysis of the services they provide for us for such a large expenditure. Um, Orsado, there's two payments for April. Is this a duplicate payment? Should one check be voided? Parchment. Uh, record services, if you can explain what this is. Petroleum traders, three payments of

097the same amount. Are they duplicates? Um, or are we on a monthly payment plan? Denovi Associates $35,000 for one month. Uh I asked he had asked previously but would like details on services provided and how much is spent annually. And then Low and Moyer please provide details on expenses associated with $61,000 for one month. And then um Mr. Snder had already talked about the hang dog and so we have an um answer on that. Um the other thing that's Sorry, that's for the next one. So, Mr. Trent, I agree that the Amazon was high. Uh the budget has been frozen. There's no purchasing going through anymore. So, if asking where we're at right now, that's what's occurring. I'm not pushing any um purchase orders or requests for Amazon through at this time unless someone has

098talked to me previously and I've spoken about it in previous meetings that one of the goals for next year will be to ensure that Amazon is used responsibly. So I do agree with him that the 30,000 was high. People were rushing to put things in before the budget was frozen. That's where that occurred right there. um IU that's budgeted across many lines, so it's hard to determine which line we're talking about with that one. I could guess I could pull it up, but we have about $14 million budgeted and they're not consistent payments. It's not a monthly fee, so we could see something for 1.2 and that could make sense. And that one did. Um communities and schools, I'm not sure if that's monthly. Do we do you know if we have any I believe

099that is a monthly fee that is part of um what was a fiveyear there's several contacts with communities and schools one of them was part of a five-year contract through our esser dollars and part of that com so I can't speak exactly to the amount but that part of that conversation with communities and schools is what are the services that we're going to continue to maintain as we all know that they are important services most of them um center around excuse me, excuse me, counseling support for our students. Um, so some of those will be maintained as they were prior to COVID and some that were additions because of COVID will need to be re-evaluated and possibly eliminated. So, the next was or s I believe. I don't know if you can speak to that,

100Tracy. So, that particular invoice we'll have to take a look at. I don't uh Mrs. Orsado is our um foundation executive director who is leaving us. And so, what I'm not sure without looking it up um is whether that was her final payment um or whether in fact she was received two payments. So, I have to double check on that one. Um, parchment, I believe that's used by Yeah, Jack, I can answer a few of these. Uh, the parchment is a long-standing routine item for high school transcripts and and such. So, uh, nothing, you know, new there out of the ordinary. Uh, Denovi Associates, the 35,000 one month, uh, we can certainly check on that, but I will say that we keep a running record of Denovian Associates through medical access funding. We have a

101record of 7,000 this past month. Um and 66,000 for the entire year. So, you know, it may have been that the the bills were paid, you know, together. Uh but we have, you know, record of each one of those payments through medical access. Uh Lo and Moyer, $61,000. If you remember, uh two weeks ago, we put in board briefs a pretty clear, uh explanation of a lot of these. Um we rebuilt front engine plates, uh at the price of about $4 or $5,000, and we built seven of them uh to keep our buses running. We had an accident. We paid about $5,000 for that for the accident and we'll get about $3,500 back in insurance on that. Uh and then the rest of it is used, you know, is bus parts that we use to

102keep the buses running. Uh so that kind of answers all three of those hopefully and and I'll answer any questions if you have any. Okay. So, I guess the question is as far as the duplicate payments, um do we want to look to hold those? Um, I think it was probably already paid. So, we'll just have to look into it and see whether it was a final payment or whether it needs to be pulled back. All right. Thank you. Okay, that was all of Mr. Simonetta's questions. Okay, next we have buildings and ground safety and Oh, yeah, we didn't. Sorry. Sorry. With all the questions I got distracted. Um, all in favor? I Any opposed? Okay, now we can go into buildings and grounds and safety and security. Um, we'll just go through A to

103D. A. Motion to approve the EHS pool credit change order in the amount of $23,745 as attached. B. Motion to approve the EHS elevator improvements as per attached. C. Um, motion to approve the proposed contract as attached. and D motion to approve the Red Cross facility use agreement and pet addendum for EMS as per attached motion. Any questions or discussion? Okay. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Next, we have 12 educational technology and student supports. We'll take both of them. A motion to approve the St. Luke's Physician Group Agreement as per attached. And B, motion to approve the Valley Health Partners as per attached. Second. Any questions or discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Um, we have 13 other business. Uh, we'll take A and B. And I guess we might as well do

104C and then I'll read C. A. Motion to appoint delegates to participate in the PSBA delegate assembly on Tuesday, October 21st, 2025. Voting delegates are required to be registered for the PSBA leadership conference, which I think um at that point we need to see if there's anyone interested in being is it I know Jen is okay. Is there anybody else? Because I think we get more than one. We get three. Is there anyone else that would be interested in going? Okay. So far then we have Jen. All right. Uh B. Motion to cast ballots for the annual election of Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 board members as established by the PA school code of 1949 section 910A 24PA9-960B. Ballots will be distributed, completed, and returned to Mrs. Ramirez. And then C, we have a motion to

105approve the warehouse resolution as presented. Motion second. Any questions or discussion? I just have a quick um I'll I was going to say I'll read it if you don't. Um Okay. Do you want to read it? Yep. Okay. And then I'll ask my question. Sure. Hi. Okay. So, a resolution of the East Area School District Board of Directors in opposition to the Eastn Commerce Park project. Whereas, the Eastn Planning Commission is set to consider plans for a million square foot warehouse proposed at 1525 Wood Avenue by Eastnwood A propo. LLC and known as Eastn Commerce Park, uh otherwise known as the project. And whereas it appears input was not sought from many of the local municipalities including but not limited to the Eastern Area School District. And whereas the project will have significant impact on

106the transportation provisions of the Eastern Area School District affecting over two dozen bus routes along 13th Street, Bushkill, Hackett Avenue, and Wood Avenue, and hindering our mission to move students between home and school safely. And whereas the project will have a significant environmental impact on local air quality and air contaminant amounts thereby negatively affecting the health and welfare of our students and school community. Now, Thor, now therefore, be it resolved by the board of education of the Eastn Area School District, that one, the board does not support the Eastn Commerce Park as the development plans currently stand, as the project is in direct opposition to the Eastn Area School District's commitment to provide safe and efficient transportation services to its students and to protect the health and welfare of its students and school community. Two,

107Director Jennifer Xando Dennis may present this resolution and speak on behalf of the board and the district at an upcoming meeting of the commission wherein the project is to be discussed. Three, the administration is directed to forward a copy of this resolution to the East and Planning Commission, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, local municipal representatives, affected state representatives and senators, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and United States Environmental Protection Agency. duly presented and adopted by the East Area by the board of school directors of the East Area School District in a public meeting held April 29th, 2025. Motion. We did. I just had a quick question, Jonathan, because Ben, the transportation director, in his language said that there were 25 bus routes that use shortcuts on um Hackett, Bushkill, um and Wood to

108avoid Nazareth. And then he identified additional 47 other routes that have stops on those streets, Hackett um and Wood and Bushkill. So, do we want to say there's two dozen bus routes that are affected or So, it was unclear to me right now. It was unclear whether those were further details regarding the ones that were affected or those were were separate and apart. Um, so because they were talking about stops versus routes. So, I wasn't sure those were the stops that were involved in the routes. U, which is why I said over two dozen. Um but certainly I think and so the resolution is written in a way that is um you know focused in on kind of as a totality what it's doing affecting and delaying the bus routes and and impacting them and

109the air contaminants. But certainly I think and that's why there's the provision allowing you to speak at the planning commission meeting um to kind of provide those um additional details to the extent that they are approved. So it's appropriate to to do that. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Do I have any more comments or discussion? I I just want to point out just to add to this that in the news this week um the Lehigh Valley was just given a rating of F uh the 5th 55th worst place in the country um for air quality. So I you know this is a serious issue. Um this is not a healthy place to live currently uh regarding air quality. And I I um am just appalled at the the extent of this project and what it will

110do to worsen um the air quality in our community in addition to the traffic and busing that we have already talked about. Thank you. Where was that? Uh in all of the local media. So it was um in the morning call um and I think I also saw it in lehavalenews.com and maybe WFMZ also. Sorry, I have a question and I I don't know Jen if you know this or not. It's I know originally we were saying it was they had Wilson had approved 200 some square foot and then they were proposing to come back for the 400 square foot. Where is Do we know where that's at? I think it's still they proposed a 400 I don't know then 400,000 400,000 square feet and then um that's somewhere along the line got changed to

111the million square feet and we're still as far as I know it's still at that scale I have to say I encourage those people so you know going out what used to be all corn fields and and everything out by um on hecktown town road and turn over to Hanoverville. Um there's a lot of warehouses out there and so if you want to see what the size of something like that is going to be, I think one of the larger ones is about the 400 square foot and they're massive. And to imagine to put a million square foot in the center of of Eastston right there and Wilson, it just amazes me that it has even been considered. So I just it it's it's it's sad and and I I'd hate to think what it

112would actually do to our city. Yeah. I mean on the topic duour our current high school as it sits was what like 377,000 square feet. So two and a half times the current high school as where it sits and you see how big that facility is there. Everybody knows where that is. So a million square feet is is absolutely you know gigantic. It's huge. So yes, good points. And as we honor our athletes, you know, I'm thinking of children playing lacrosse or running track outside the high school, which is right adjacent to this warehouse and the bus route, Ctingham, Codingham Stadium. So, okay. All right. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Okay. Next, we will move on to public to be heard on non-aggenda items. Is there anyone in the public to be heard

113on non-aggenda items? Yes. Yeah. Students, if you have to come up afterwards, you will you can ask anybody to sign your papers. All right. Do we have any other business from board members? No. Okay. Seeing none, could I have a motion to adjurnn? Okay. Any All in favor? I. Any opposed? Whoever you guys Come on. Wherever you guys want