001e e e okay thank you everyone we're going to call the meeting to order uh we will begin at uh sorry it's a little loud 716 all right we'll start uh M Ramirez you have the roll call okay oh actually we're gonna I'm sorry we're going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance if we can stand there we go thank you okay next we have superintendent report you good evening thank you and again we apologize for the delay today I will be brief I'm going to go in opposite order of I that I usually do with a couple of shoutouts so on March 2nd is read Across America day and I know many of our schools are celebrating that with guest readers and activities within their schools so um hopefully everyone has a fun day
002and has an opportunity to go out and read to some of our students March 7th is maintenance worker appreciation day so we certainly want to recognize our maintenance staff and our employees there on March 7th so so we'll remember to do that but in the meantime we want to acknowledge the fact that that day is coming up and ask you to consider um sending your uh well wishes and thank you to that department and March 3rd through 7th is national school um social worker week and again really important part of our district and our school Community as mental health and student health is Paramount at this point in time and so again we want to um put our thanks out to individuals who work within that realm as well today I have two acknowledgements that
003um we would like to make one we have one of our employees who is here that we're going to acknowledge and following um following that we'll ask our Career Institute of Technology to do their 25 26 budget presentation so I'm going to start with Miss Tammy Bailey if you would mind coming forward and we and we have asked Miss Bailey to come forward because she has been recognized by the pen by the Pennsylvania Department um with the rise award and Miss Bailey is a an individual that I've known for some time now and has worked in our district as a pair professional for quite some time and most of her time at for school but most recently has had the honor and privilege of working with Evan um who is handing her a gift certificate
004of appreciation um and acknowledgement for her award but more importantly I think to Evan is the fact that she is a loving caring adult in his life during the school hours and we certainly wanted to acknowledge Miss Bailey on on his behalf and on behalf of the district in the school Miss um Burke is here in the back as well as she works with Miss Bailey and Evan also and Miss uh Dr Simi asked me to um give her um her congratulations on her behalf but the school is having a concert tonight and she's there representing um but knowing knowing Tammy for some years and knowing her work ethic we're super proud and happy to be able to acknowledge you and it makes it more delightful when we have Smiles like this that show really
005how impactful your work is so thank you so much for all that you do and Evan thank you for coming tonight and being a supportive helper to thank and as we always say to families you are certainly welcome to stay but you're also welcome to leave if you don't want to have to sit through the the meeting leave at your leisure okay thank you thank you so much so next I'd like to um ask um that Julie and and adri Adrien sorry come forward to do your budget presentation for CIT for our board this is your opportunity to hear about the numbers for next year and some of the good work that our students are doing at CIT and certainly ask some questions this will be back on your agenda in March for formal approval
006thank you so much Tracy um I think we're going to start with just a brief video just giving a few overviews and highlights of some upcoming things at CIT so welcome to CIT where we proudly serve students from five diverse School distri districts here we offer an unparalleled educational experience designed to prepare students for Bright Futures with 19 specialized programs and growing enrollment we are excited to announce new additions like exercise science and veterinary technician providing with even more opportunities for students to train in high demand Fields our commitment to Real World Learning is evident through Co-op opportunities internships work-based learning and live work projects like the house project cosmetology Clinic career Cafe and school store each of our graduating students earns industry recognized certifications equipping them with the credentials they need to stand out
007in today's Workforce students also earn valuable articulation credits through local and Statewide agreement ments and can participate in dual enrollment programs earning college credit while still in high school our programs include rigorous assessments like NOC and Nims to ensure students are career ready with Hands-On training on state-of-the-art equipment funded through local state and federal Partnerships our students gain skills that align with industry standards we emphasize professional development employability skills and work ethic training while fostering leadership through Career and Technical student organizations like skills USA Deca and HOSA our school celebrates cultural diversity by bringing together students from five unique districts creating a rich and inclusive learning environment thanks to our strong Partnerships with business and industry leaders students benefit from scholarships tool Awards and Community Support ensuring a seamless transition to the workforce postsecondary education
008or the military at CIT we don't just teach skills we build Futures join us and shaping the next generation of skilled professionals okay thank you and now I'll just start with a brief presentation um I think you can tell from that video that Career and Technical education is thriving and not just career and Technic Tech education but CIT in particular um we're thrilled that we've been adding new programs continue to get approval to add new programs our Vette Tech program for the start of next year is completely full with the waiting list uh we just got approval last month for the opening of a second welding technology program because the waiting list are so long and extensive um just some statistics with eastn real quick right now we have 271 students enrolled from your district
009and 92 of those students are projected to graduate this year um looking at the number of applications I just wanted to do a quick comparison so as of this date last year we had 146 applications from students to attend CIT from eastn this year as of today we have 201 applications so that's an additional 55 applications just at this time now we we still have to get through um scheduling and enrollment we have another open house coming up in April so I'm anticipating that number to increase in July of last year we were at 267 applications I'm going to project we're going to be at least 300 applications this year so I just think that speaks volumes um it just shows that your counselors your special ed Department are really helping to promote Career and
010Technical education um and and we're just super proud of that so thank you okay so just jumping into the budget I'll be brief here um if at any point I start to lose my voice because I'm feeling a little under the weather I'm going to have Julie come up and finish but I think I'll be able to get through it I think the biggest important thing thing to understand is the funding formula how do we calculate what is the district share for eastn specifically as well as the other districts so it's an 820 formula 80% is based on the three-year average daily membership that is the number of students that you send to CIT in a three-year average then the smaller portion is the 20% Which is the total eligibility how many students are enrolled
011in your District who are eligible to attend CIT so when we look at that in comparison to the five districts I have shaded in Gray the 2024 numbers and you can see East in there for the eligible enrollment um went down slightly I think it went down 13 students and across the board all schools except for Nazareth went down slightly so we're starting to see a decrease in overall eligible enrollment um again the bulk of the sorry the bulk of the um formula is really going to be looking at the three-year average daily membership so when we take a look at this here and we come over and look at Easton Easton in particular shows a three-year average daily membership a drop off of eight students however if you take a look there from 2022
01223 we had 249 students and it went up to 261 students so although you're seeing a trend of an increase in enrollment the thing is you're looking at a three-year look back period and you had a higher number that rolled off so that 269 which was from the 2021 School year rolled off and you have a lower number that's kind of keeping that threeyear average on the lower side so that 217 so just a word of I don't want to say caution just to tell you in advance next year when that 2117 rolls off especially given the numbers that I just gave you right now October 1 we had 278 students enrolled you're going to see the pendulum swing a little bit and then that number is going to be higher based off of that
013three-year average so if that makes sense um you'll understand a little little bit why Easton's District share decreased significantly this year and a lot of it has to do with that three-year average the other thing to keep in mind is if there was no change at all and eastn sent the same amount of students for that three-year average the trends of the other districts impact what your District does so if the other districts have an increase across the board yours would decrease and vice versa so it's it's not just what happens in eastn school district it's also what are some of the trends that are taking place with the other four districts okay um so again this is just a busy formula sheet that averages or I'm sorry adds the 20% plus the 80% and
014you can see Easton's District share is 38.2% overall of the entire operating budget I do always like to illustrate kind of a three-year projection so you can see if we looked at Easton in particular uh two years ago we were at 40.6% then you went down to 39.5 3% this year you're at 38.2% um again next year I'd expect that that's probably going to go back up closer to that 40% but that's sort of the way that pendulum swings from year to year okay um so let's just take a look at the overall budget last year this was the approved budget the 10, 57 what was uh projected to be approved no J already approved but we're asking for approval for the 2526 year you can see it's an increase of $317,000 656 that's our
015operating cost that's a 3.16% increase that is not the increased cost to the districts because we have Revenue resources that have increased that have offset the increase cost to the district so even though that's the cost to our operating budget The increased cost to the district is less so if we take a look here the increased cost of the district is 72382 it's a little less than 1% and then we still have to add Debt Service in there we still have a couple years of Debt Service payments um and again I'm just illustrating three years worth of information here if you take a look in particular what's interesting the the top row is the um operating cost increases and you can see that those increases have steadily gone up obviously salaries go up benefits go
016up peers go up however on the flip side the increase cost to the districts has been decreasing over the last three years Again State subsidy has increased the more students who are enrolled at CIT the more funding we get back um from State subsidy it's called voke Ed subsidy um the the other thing is over the last few years our governor has been putting more and more money into Career and Technical education we're getting more grants we're getting more Perkins funding we're getting more Federal funding so good news for us at some point that will start to level off but for the time being um we're really pleased with this and and we'll certainly take advantage of it okay this next one is a very busy sheet that I'm not going to go into great
017detail I just want you to understand that there's two portions of the formula so we already talked about the funding formula how is it broken down by District the second portion is Debt Service so you have to add the funding formula plus The Debt Service and if we looked at last year's funding formula and Debt Service compare it to this year and if you look at e in particular this is where you could see the reduction of the 53,856 which the state releases that on an annual basis right Julie okay just making sure I'm right with that um so again here is uh just some statistics from last year you can see where east's numbers were last year you had a reduction of 16,33 this year's reduction is swung and some of the smaller districts
018that traditionally see lower rates or decreases are now seeing increases because they had um a higher three-year average daily membership than what they typically had so are there any questions on the funding formula because I think that's really the bulk of explaining the budget presentation um I think some of the other stuff are just key points which I can you know just rush through real quickly and see if anybody has any questions but I think this is the most important um so any questions at this point no okay I will not bore you with all of this but I'm sure you guys know that we have to prepare our budget significantly early in this in the school year usually October or November we don't have the projected peers rate so this particular budget does have
019an estimate of 3 34.723061 to different account codes again I'm not going to read through all of it you guys can see it there for yourselves there was also an increase in health care of about 8% which was the recommended increase for Eep um so just keeping those things in consideration General supplies have gone up um we've also had increased electricity rates unfortunately our campus is fully electric I wish it wasn't but unfortunately it is um you know we've had some pretty harsh Winters and uh that has impacted that increase price as well you can see there Professional Services there were some transfers of benefits in that as well um and then equipment and property service has increased like slightly and some of that is just maintaining the equipment that we have within our programs
020um it's just getting costly the The increased price of Contracting is is what it is um on the flip side as I talked about we are getting increased Revenue so you can see our federal Perkins allocation has increased um we've also talked about the voke Ed subsidy increase the last budget it was at 735 this budget we're projecting at 1 million and that's just based on last year's average daily membership so it could potentially even be more than that that's what we're putting it in just to give ourselves kind of a safe cushion um and again I'm not going to go through this but you can just kind of see the side by-side comparison of the increase and the decrease within those specific functions and the major object codes I guess I should say um
021and this is our timeline so you know we're here we did already have approval from The Joint operating committee um and then Julie and I go out and present to the five districts and our hope is to be finalized and and done before April at the latest so any questions that we can answer for you all right I appreciate your time thank you so much and Julie you're off the hook Adrian thank you Julie nice to see you again and for all the students who are sitting here I didn't say it in the earlier part of my report but I'm assuming you're all here for a history class or some course and so at the end of the meeting you can meet with any one of us to sign your paper you usually need two
022signatures but you need to stay to the end to get the signatures so I we'll look forward to signing them at the end thank you ladies for coming out okay next moving on reports uh Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 Mr Snider yeah thank you uh just a couple things real quick um the general operating budget was presented uh to us uh at our at our January meeting uh I don't know if they plan on coming to speak I have not heard a schedule uh for Dr wolu and Mr wallich but uh if they do they will be presenting I would assume soon uh right now the recommendation is going to be a 0% increase uh in the general operating budget to the districts uh that's as of January's meeting um the and the other thing I
023have was just the the monthly newsletter was sent to your inbox on January 23rd and our next meeting is tomorrow evening that's it thank you thank you yes Mr rir is making all of those appointments with their organizations that come to present their budgets okay thank you thank you okay next do we have the East Area Public Library they are not coming they're not coming tonight okay all right next next we have K Institute technology does any of my partners want to take this well at the latest meeting we got wonderful pastries once again but I have to talk about the gift that we received um it was a lamp and this lamp was amazing and it was put together by multiple classrooms from the base to the metal work uh to actually putting it
024together to the lampshade um it has to weigh 25 PBS it's so heavy and so beautiful and I'm so appreciative for the uh for the gift and I know that jod uh and feels the same and um so um yes we talked about adding that Vette Tech program which uh I had no idea it was already full but that's great news um but yep um all is well um the only thing I'm going to add are is recognizing some of our eastn students um we had Derek altner uh 10th grader he was student of the morning uh student of the month for the morning for December and January he's part of the electrical construction tech technology we also have some of our um skills USA winners and I know this will take a minute so
025I hope you can indulge me here on this and I apologize if I incorrectly pronounced some of the names but I think it's important to recognize our students and some of the things accomplishments that they have so first place we had Leah Delgado she was first aid in CPR second place we had uh jetley Joseph in electronics Aiden melek welding fabrication Charles sensinger welding fabrication and Carmine Smith Welding fabrication uh third place winners we had willmary Abu uh Duarte job interview Jacob Morris cyber security Logan Perez automated manufacturing Augustine totkas masonry uh Angelic ten ten teni cosmetology penelo and then some of the others that were just competitors we had Penelope Alis alist Health knowledgeable um tyer Bergland Internet working Brinn Biddle Health knowledge Bowl Nila Caraballo nursing nurse assisting Michael Cleveland cyber security Caitlyn
026D Roo first aid in CPR um TI I'm I'm I know I'm going to get this incorrect but um tuu Zari Fuentes technical drafting chrisan Knight technical Computer Applications Anthony Marcato Teamworks pro pro proat sing job skill demonstration open Lucas Snyder automated service technology Angela stroll customer service and josephin viveros job interview and I think one of the things that I think is most important to recog nize is when you looked at some of the skills that were being performed in the presentation there were a lot of female girls in some of those more malale dominating previous malale dominating um fields and so I I think that's great that the girls are getting in there they're doing it and and excelling in them so that's our report for CIT all right next we have northamton
027community College Mr Fel Jody well just a few comments uh our meeting this past month ended up being just really like a workshop meeting where we have presentations uh I sent you a few of the highlights and everything and you know Don Cunningham does a great job of putting a presentation together what's going on in the Lehigh Valley and obviously the Community College that's our Marketplace the Lehigh Valley and if you look at some of the numbers and the chart and everything you can see we cover a lot of of those areas with the students that attend our school and then go into the workplace Andor go in for getting a four-year degree so we are hitting the keys and that's one of the keys of Don coming and presenting so that you know we
028keep a pulse on and the board gets to hear and with the administration and everything that we're continuing to meet what the requirements are in the leehigh valley you know one of the other things was why do people come here skilled Workforce it's a access to markets and it's a good education pipeline well you know that education it starts here at the school district it continues through the colleges whether twoe or foury year and that's what keeps employers coming and looking in this area too the last thing of note is uh as I had mentioned the last time enrollment still seems to be good still seems to be on the upward Trend and everything and that's always good news because you know continuing back to when Co was and students not I hate to refer
029to that all the time you know it's and how many years but so many students and everything didn't attend or didn't come out or or continue with their education and now you're starting to see that Trend changing again where they are coming back to the colleges and all so thank you okay next we have the foundation for Eastern schools Miss seago thank you I do not have a report other than what is already in the board agenda thank you okay next we have Charles shren Science and Technology initiative and I have no report this evening okay okay next we have student Mr Mattis hi everyone there's not much going on this month except for our meeting coming up this Thursday so after that I'll know what everyone is up to and any student concerns we're
030currently beginning to plan for EHS Day Special Olympics and AAG which will all be very exciting events and that's all I have for today so thank you thank you all right next we have Association reports anyone from EAA do you have a report tonight okay PT y all right so first I want to just give um a shout out to officer Stephen schlag and the chest and PTA um this past Friday the chest and PTA helped support um officer slag as he had his third storm Pizza day so storm stands for special team of Role Models um he coordinates and brings in a lot of amazing people from the school board the administration the community um to come out serve lunch hang out with the kids and show them that with some hard work anything's
031possible um the students had an awesome time and even got to meet Josiah young who starred in raising Dion and aari Ford who is an Eagles cheerleader who grew up right here in Philipsburg um it's a really great event so I just wanted to give a shout out to him for making that happen and I know many of us actually look forward to that every year um so February 17th is a very important day for ptas that's founders day so founders day is where the PTA take the time to remember and recognize Alice mcclelen Bernie Phoebe Apperson Hurst and Selena Sloan Butler these three amazing women are responsible for what would later become the ptas we know of today in 1897 Alice Mel and Bernie and Phoebe erson Hurst believed there needed to be a
032way to better children's education health and safety and created the National Congress of parents and teachers later in 1926 Selena Sloan Butler expanded the idea to create the National Congress of colored parents and teachers after seeing a need to better advocate for students particularly africanamerican students trying to navigate schooling in segregated communities these two organizations work side by side until the Supreme Court ended segregation after that decision the two organizations came together to create what we now know as the parent teacher associations today ptas are still going strong with the United mission of being a voice for all children parents and teachers to ensure that our schools are the best that they can be for our children education is truly the foundation of everything so if we can strengthen our education systems then we can
033ensure all of our children are able to go on and do great things throughout the years the ptas have played a critical role in bringing about things like the creation of kindergarten child labor laws Public Health Service hot and healthy lunch programs the Juvenile Justice System mandatory immunization Arts programs and education and school safety as the world continues changing the ptas will continue to honor these amazing women and their Legacy by continuing to advocate for what is in the best interest of all students and ensuring every student gets a quality education thank you okay no other associations all right next we have public to be heard on agenda items is there anyone in the public who would like to be heard on agenda items NOP seeing none okay next executive session report the East n
034school district held the following executive sessions January 28th for personnel settlement and student St student safety issues um February 18th for agreement and legal all right next we have I need a motion for approval of the minutes motion okay any questions or discussion seeing none all appro um all favor all in favor thank you all in favor any opposed all right next move on to Personnel we I need a motion full take a b and c so a motion with regrets to approve the following retirements as presented I'll also say congratulations B resignation motion to approve the following resignations as presented and C leave of absence motion to approve the following leave of ab absences as presented motion okay any questions or discussion seeing none all in favor any opposed okay next we will take
035d e and f d motion to approve the following contractual salary increment as presented e motion to approve the following salary adjustment as presented and F motion to approve the following administrative transfer as presented any questions or discussion all in favor any opposed okay we will take G H I J and K G motion to approve the following tenure award as presented H motion to elect the following LTS long-term substitute 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 approve the following changes to the contractual eped stiens as presented and K motion to elect the following after school program employees as presented any questions or discussion all
036in favor any opposed okay next L response to level four grievance I need a motion to either Grant or deny the level for grievance hearing held February 20th 2025 I I'll make a motion to deny the grievance second okay is there any question or discussion uh just some brief comments I guess um I do uh plan to vote to deny the grievance because I feel that the um the work at issue here what we're discussing could be done by um an Admin Professional or a security officer and we see that throughout the district um however we did discuss as well um that there needs to be perhaps some um clarification on the scheduling um of these individuals as well as further discussion at the district level about um some um uh needed efficiencies and changes
037that could be made at the middle school that's um more of a a longer term conversation um hopefully maybe making some changes for next school year okay any other comments or discussion okay uh so the motion is to deny the level four agreements all in favor I any opposed okay okay next we'll move on to academics you can take uh a field trips motion to approve the field trips field trip request forms as presented any questions or discussion goad you think I was I thought Brian you had said the field trip was one of these had been canceled is that incorrect yeah the uh the Phantom strip did not happen and I I I'm under the impression that the uh that there was no payout for dve so does that need to be removed or
038or be approving in a case it happens in the future I don't know if there I my kids are in the van so I I haven't heard that they're rescheduling this because I believe they all purchase their tickets on their own and had an opportunity to go anyway it was just that they canceled the transportation part of it I believe correct we believe that's correct I have not heard any conversation about rescheduling that particular event so at this point in time no money was um handed out so it does not necessarily have to be approved on this agenda um sometimes you approve things because they're scheduled in the future so I don't think it matters one way or the other honestly there's no money associated with this trip because it did not happen it is
039not rescheduled so we certainly can remove it or leave it for future opportunities that are that are there okay can can I I made the initial motion correct so can I make the amend the motion just to uh amend the motion with the Phantom strip uh being removed from the uh the motion thank you so that's a friendly Amendment more of a clarification so I don't think you need to motion on the amendment just motion on the merits is fine okay motion on the amendment as presented second okay okay okay so we have that motion and the second then um so any other further discussion or questions okay all in favor any opposed okay go ahead Jonathan sure thank you madam president just uh quickly before we uh the board considers uh 9A uh I
040did work with the solicitor for the city of Easton and there was one uh late addition to add protections for the district under the political subdivision T claims act the specific version that's attached to your agenda is not the updated version that just came in uh late yesterday so it didn't it didn't make it to this but um so if the board would uh consider a motion to approve uh as as negotiated um that would probably be the more appropriate Mo uh format of the motion yes ma'am okay so motion to approve I'll need a motion to approve negotiated agreement between the school district and the City of East regarding use of the baseball field correct that's fine okay so I have a motion second okay any other questions or discussion all in favor I
041any opposed okay next we will move on to budget and finance need a motion to approve the financial matters as presented the treasures report general fund revenue and expenditure reports the monthly State Student Activity statements for East N Middle School and High School the bill register the general funds the special activities and the capital projects in the Food Service uh also take B and C um B motion to approve the purchase of a new walk-in freezer door at the East ner High School cafeteria as presented and C motion to approve a new student activity account namely eahs book club as presented motion any questions or discussion I I have um several questions on the check registers but I did not have the opportunity to give you heads up and and look for the information in
042advance so just to let you know that's why I will be abstaining uh for this motion but uh I'll email the questions and copy of the board and everything with that just for thank you okay if you don't mind just if you can copy everybody on that mic thank you okay okay uh any other questions or discussion all in favor I any opposed Iain okay is that just for a just for a just for a thank you thank you okay next we have educational technology and student supports we'll take a and b a motion to approve ciu20 Palmer Elementary School contract for an emotional support teacher as attached and B motion to approve ciu20 idea Part B use of funds agreement as per attached second any questions or discussion all in favor any opposed okay
043next we move on to other business uh we will take a b and c a motion to approve expulsion hearing waiver form number 53934 as presented B motion to approve expulsion heer waving for waiver form number 39336 as presented and C motion to approve expulsion hearing waiver form number 372 74 as presented okay all in favor I any opposed okay next we have D motion to approve the solister contract renewal renewal for Kings spry attorneys and counselors as presented Mo any questions or discussion all in favor any opposed excuse me sorry all right next public to be heard on non-agenda items is there anyone in the public who would like to be heard on non-agenda items no seeing no one okay uh 14 any other business from board members sure just want to take a
044moment and thank the board for uh allowing me to continue to serve the district it's uh been very enjoyable experience so I appreciate uh the the continued opportunity okay if there's nothing else uh motion to adjourn motion all in favor hi all right thank you motion meeting is adjourned thank you everyone students just a reminder you can come up to any one of us we'll sign your papers for you