001I'll call roll call Dr. Weir. Here. Dr. Wiley. Here. Mr. Brophy. Here. Ms. Connor. Here. Ms. Kratz. Here. Ms. Nyman. Here. Mr. Brad Updegrove. Here. Mr. Roger Updegrove. Here. Mr. Pennarella. Here. All present. We will rise for Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence. The Board of School Directors met on the following dates. The Board of School Directors met on April 14th. Committee of the Whole meeting topic, personnel. Session lasted approximately an hour. I'm sorry, half an hour. Good evening. >> That takes us down to our discussion and information section of the evening tonight. And I'd like to call to the podium, if I could, Ms. Kaylin Bortman, our Director of Special Education. We have a number of annual agreements I'd like Ms. Bortman just to review with the board. There we go. Three
002hits later and it works. Um, I am here to talk to you tonight about four agreements that we have on the agenda for approval. The first one is for Capstone Academy tuition agreement for extended school year for a student that attends that out of district program. Another agreement that we have is for Hogan Learning Academy and that is the tuition agreement for the upcoming school year, the 26-27 school year. The next contract is the access contract, which is the school-based access program, so we can participate for the upcoming school year, the 26-27 school year. And the final one is the MCIU agreement and that is for some students that are attending programs at the MCIU for the upcoming school year, 26-27. Ms. Barman, can you just explain a little bit to the board in regards
003to the access contract? Sure, we participate in the school-based program where it is a cooperative effort between the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Department of Public Welfare and we do receive some services, some funds back for services that we provide to our students like speech and language, occupational therapy and we do receive some funds back that we can then put towards other funding sources here in the district. Any questions? These are for multiple students, correct? Each Each of these contracts are for multiples, not just one individual student, is that correct? Um, it depends. The first one, the Capstone Academy is for a singular student. >> Okay. Um, and then as far as Hogan goes, there are multiple students that go to Hogan Learning Academy and then we do have multiple students that go attend
004the MCIU program. >> Okay, thank you. You're welcome. And inside your board packets, if you scroll through those um uh contracts are all attached there for your review. Is not? None of these contracts are for seats. We've had seats where we take five seats and we pay for five whether we use them or not. Are any of these contracts those? No. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Barvin. Under item B, um this is an annual appointment for voting delegates PSBA as the school boards association um hold an assembly every fall. It's typically right around the election time period. Uh a number of workshops and bylaw considerations for PSBA that take place. Boyertown is allowed three appointed and voted upon delegates that can join um if if they'd like to. Um there is a motion
005here. Um if anyone is considering and would want to be a part of this workshop, um you can let Mr. Panarella or I know and we would include you in part of this motion. We would need to take the motion at our next um legislative meeting if anyone is interested to be a delegate for Boyertown on behalf of the district. I believe we've had some uh delegates and delegates in the past. Um I think Miss Hogan did it and I think possibly Miss Scott did it. Miss Scott didn't do it. Nobody went to this. So, it was just Miss Hogan. No cheating here, Mr. Superintendent. This is a This isn't This isn't a BCIU appointment. This is an actual delegate Yep. And we haven't had one for a while. So, again, we're uh allowed to
006have up to three. So, if you'd like, we can put your name in and work through the resolution to a point. I'm going to turn item C and D over to Mr. Lance just to uh just to give the 30,000-ft explanation of policy 626 and 626.1 with our federal programs. Thank you, Dr. David Heiser. So, policy 626 and 626.1 were recommended for update by school districts by the PSBA Policy Service in June of 2025. Um bringing these forward now through reviewing and recognizing that they have to be updated. Um the updates relate to federal compliance. In particular, the single audit threshold increased from $750,000 to a million dollars. Uh so, that is incorporated in the policy revisions. Additionally, it talks about internal controls and requirements for school districts for federal compliance to have cybersecurity uh
007controls to protect personal information within the uh policy. Uh finally, um there is the addition of whistleblowing, um which aligns to the federal level that's in uh the policy 626 um to ensure that um we as a district are compliant with the federal whistleblower policy. Policy 626 is updated relates to federal programs travel. Uh the policy specifically aligns that expenditures for travel to federal programs have to be related to individuals who uh serve in a capacity for federal programs. So, the travel has to be directly related to the award. So, for example, uh federal programs grant compliance training or other federal programs um conferences have to be spent under the award Uh specifically you can't use it for conferences that aren't related to the administration of the award with it. Questions? Do we need to
008bring this to policy committee to have a first and second read or is this a this is just an AR that can be Yeah, these can brought um you know, we're we want to make sure this moves as quickly as it can and needs to be updated and we want to make sure we're in compliance with updating it. Um so we brought it here. We would still bring it through its regular process. We can our plan is to bring it back at our committee meeting in 2 weeks and then move it to a first read at the legislative meeting later this month with then coming back at the legislative meeting in May. Okay, so this does not count as a first read. No. Okay. All right, so we do still then need to take action.
009Yes, you'll you'll need to take a first and a second read. Two different voting sessions to move it forward to be an adopted updated policy. >> Okay. Yeah. So no we will >> Same same with the next one that we're talking about same same Yes, the 626.1 is the same thing. Yep, absolutely. Any questions or other questions for Mr. Lyons? Okay, that takes us down to item E and this is Pine Forge. We've had some recent experiences out at Pine Forge. We did have a malfunction of a boiler system which did ignite which triggered uh some damage inside of Pine Forge mainly just to the boiler itself which pretty much put it out of commission. It's reached its its final stages and we do need to work on a boiler replacement. We've if you recall
010we do lease out the building to the um Berks County Intermediate Unit, um who works with all types of different types of intervention programs throughout the county, students that come through from throughout the county. Um in this the damage to this boiler and the need for replacement came some restoration as we did have smoke in the building. Luckily, this uh took place during a time period where we didn't have students in the building. Two custodians found that um um and were able to um move that quickly to um bring the Amity fire out to extinguish things of that nature. There was no damage to the building, just the boiler itself. Um we've also had a more recent experience where we did have some water. Uh again, we were contacted by Amity fire as they found
011water going out onto the street from the building, which actually was somewhat of a good sign that our sump pump was working inside the building. However, uh the gauge to which was calling for water into the water pump uh from the well into the tank um was continued to call for water, which obviously then set off the um Uh what am I calling for the water uh >> The alarm. Mis- mis- It set off the the deluge. Yeah, it set the the trigger valve that released the water. Um It's from the from the upper tank to the I guess to the street. I'm I'm I'm not thinking of the fancy name for the valve for some reason. The blowoff valve. >> the blowoff valve, right. So, the blowoff valve did its uh Fancy name. No.
012Uh did its job with regard to releasing the water. Um so, you know, sometimes there's there's good things that come from bad experiences. So, we did have some restoration in which we needed to call in um Berks Fire Restoration to dry out that basement again, some repairs. What we did and what we have agreed to with the IU is a 50/50 split with regard to these costs. So, what I'd like to do is bring forward at our next legislative meeting our two motions. One will be singular for the boiler itself. So that it is a boiler purchase and replacement. We would handle that. Um as the landlord and owner to the building. The other The other invoices that you see on here which are ancillary repairs that have occurred or restorations. Um we total those
013up in another motion and bring forward a motion to you that would be 50%. If you do the math on all these at about 50% the district's cost into this would be 20 approximately $25,000. That would be for full replacement of the boiler number two. Um and for the repair and restoration expenses that have uh existed in these two two events at Pine Forge. And you know, big shout out to the Burks IU who have partnered well and responded well to this and it's been a great partnership in you know, some of these events unfortunate events that have occurred but that do occur with you know, older buildings. Has anybody been out to to Pine Forge lately? Mr. Brophy, I know you're the liaison for out there and have have you had any communications with
014them or or you guys What what what are our next steps? How how are we progressing? I have not gotten any reports back on that. I did ask that. But that's I was told it's in progress and it's between the administration and BCIU. You're talking progressing in terms of these repairs? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we're we've been out there facilities and I've been out there multiple times in the last couple of months and worked with them. So, our plan would be to bring a PO if if you approve this, we'd quickly move to bring a PO together, order the boiler. We expect that boiler replacement to take place over the summer and we'd have that up and running for the start of next school year. There are two boilers there. Boiler one has been working
015well. We also have VRFs that that feed um the individual classrooms as well. So, from a heating and cooling standpoint, we've been okay and thankfully this happened mostly after much of the colder weather occurred. Um and um So, we've Yeah, we've we've we've been out and met with their facilities teams, our facilities teams. We've been out when both Berkshire um has been out there on site doing some of their repair work as well. Sure. And are these boilers a summer winter hookup? So, hot water's okay. They're That's not an issue. Correct. >> Okay. Correct. Have we found out the cause of the problem yet? No. And are we going to replace it with the same type of boiler or are we going >> That is what was brought forward at committee to bring forward to
016hear what you see as the quote. Um the quotes we were quoted on three different um manufacturers which had three different significant costs. This was significantly lower from a standpoint of of that and um you know, I think the recommendation coming out of this, maybe Mr. Brophy can speak to it was, you know, as how much do you want to invest in the building at this point is really the question. Right. The the boiler the the low bid, which was Berkshire, I think, uh meets meets all the requirements for the building. It's they're reliable. Uh they can be worked on. It's a It's a direct replacement. And once again, as we're saying, this this this is a landlord type of situation. We're not looking to improve the building or to upgrade or modify it. We're
017We're going to make it functional and continue functioning at the at the highest level we can. So, Berkshire fits it the price is reasonable. So, that's I think that's what the IU and Dr. David Eiser agreed on. That's the price that we'd go on. So, it seems to be the right way to go. It looks like the IU has paid their share already. There's a check here. There's a check. I'm looking for a check there. We're going Well, These are all invoices. But, it looks like it's I I'd have to I'll have to look at that. Um what you see on What you see listed there in your section um are invoices to which um if you were to take 50% of those approximately um for all of those inclusive of the boiler, it would
018be about $25,000. It's about a $50,000 on restoration components, repair components, and the purchase and installation of a new boiler. Okay, under item F, we do have a few donations for your consideration um from the Boyertown Foundation. Uh we do have a uh silk screening equipment which has been uh written into and worked into the curriculum at BASH. We do have a newer teacher in there in our tech ed, and it was brought back and included and has applied for and thankfully has um money's donated for that particular piece of equipment. You'll see Boyertown Elementary, Washington Elementary um both have other donations through their PTOs, some of which are supplies, one of which is a Gaga pit. And the other which is a hand washing teaching kit between some of our primary grades and the
019nurse's office. So we are recommending for your approval at the next legislative meeting these donations. Mr. Mayor Row, that's all I have inside of information. Mr. Brophy, BCIU report? Yeah, I have a couple things. First, let's start out. Yes, at BCIU in their news link did uh you were there for that. We did congratulate when we were congratulating the two people that you know rang the alarms and made sure that every that everything was taken care of and they kept the the they kept the damage to a minimum, which was great whether very fast response, very very caring for it. They definitely wanted to get in there and make sure things are good and very committed to their job. So it was a the little ceremony where they were given a couple just you know,
020couple of tokens of appreciation for their for their work and and get honored for it. So I thought it was really good. Myself and uh Dr. David Eiser and myself were there for that. So it showed that the not only did their people appreciate it what they had done, we also appreciated what they had done. Uh second thing, Dr. David, I you were at the COG meeting this morning? I was. Okay, I I zoomed in. I had I had some problems, but I did get in there. Uh sort of distressing. Uh my my take on it, I don't know if you can agree with me or if if I had the wrong take, but it doesn't look promising. It's a the future's not bright enough for sunglasses at this point, I would say, as far
021as state funding goes Uh going through the future so we really need to be looking at what we're spending cuz we don't know how the state's going to treat us two ways one by district demographics we don't we don't end up well and you know the second part the rainy day fund that they they've been sucking down for the last couple of years in order to to refund education they made it real clear that's not limitless and is not going to last much longer so I do see at least my take on that meeting was the red flag was thrown up on on future finances from this from the estate did you take the same way or was I my looking too much into it I think whenever we hear from PASBO these days you
022know it's just it's a little doom and gloom when it comes to that but it's to a certain extent I think one one of the things I took out of that is the state really needs to start thinking outside the box on some new revenue streams you know and really come across the aisles with with both sides to come up with what are today's modern era revenue streams that can help like you say fill some of those things in yes the rainy day fund has has has really reduced itself down um you know not so much what I gathered from today's presentation from PASBO was also that the legislatures in a general election year are looking for probably a very quick turnaround with a budget I expect that budget to be fairly flat right >>
023it didn't look like much was coming out of they they just approved a budget if you recall four months ago so I don't think there's a lot of interest in really autopsying the budget to sit to figure out how to make it any better or any worse that it's just more simple to to be flatlined and I expect that in our projections that we've included even in finance conclude that. So, I think there's a there's a lot on the state right now that they need to start to figure out better and more consistent revenue streams in the modern era of what they were. I know there were some things with cannabis and and licensure with regard to it. There were um uh there was another larger proposal of a revenue stream. I forget what that
024was, but I don't think the sides are really together on what those are. So, I think yeah, I think it's going to be every school district's responsibility to be very fiscally responsible, understand what today is, but really you got you have to look what years two and three are outward to be able to diagnose that. So, I think forecasting, you know, what Mr. Lentz has done this year with with our budget and getting us through that, looking at historical data, but also forecasting forward and where our you know, future indexes are. The indexes are expected to go down to Act 1 index to upper twos, low threes is where the where those are going to go. So, they're heading in a similar direction as well. So, so any future increase in expenditures are going to
025weigh mainly on the taxpayers. Yeah. And not and we can't really look for much state or federal help in in alleviating that. So, we just we just we have to look out a couple years to make sure we're prepared for that. >> And and our state drives about 1/3 of our budget, right? We about 2/3 of the makeup of our of our revenue is locally funded and and funded excellently by our our local community. Um about a third comes out of the state and um, you know, I think like I said, I think it's a shared responsibility all around of how we're looking at this and what the state's going to be doing to push back some of the money through it. Okay. And then the third thing is I I had the privilege of
026uh being part of the PA uh Pennsylvania Association of Pupil Pupil Services Administrators Conference as part of a panel. Which the panel consisted of two lawyers, myself, and a moderator, and about a hundred people in the audience. Uh like just to my surprise or I thought I'd be the minor speaker and answered some questions, I found that that's not the way it works. Uh on the on the fair side of this is this is the first time a board member's been part of that. Uh they decided to make a change instead of having just the two the two lawyers up there and answering questions. They wanted to see how a board member thinks in relation to those you know, to those legal answers. Uh just to give you a part of what they were looking
027for was uh under Pennsylvania law, how do you view board's responsibility for pupil services? Pretty simple. Uh what type of pupil service will most often come before the board? Uh from your perspective, what is misconceptions administrations have on pupil services? So, there were a whole bunch of questions along that line. Uh it went for about an hour and a half and uh it moved along pretty good. I I'm not sure we answered all those questions exactly as they were answered. Uh but I but it did spur the conversation and nobody left. So, that was the other good part of it. It was the last venue of the day and everybody stayed, so. And I didn't say one thing good. >> Well, Dr. Hackman, the executive director, said you did a wonderful job, so. >> Yeah.
028It was It was It was interesting. So, uh I think they're going to continue to do this. So, what what I would hope that they would do then is they would look for a different board member to go there so they get different perspectives of how this works. But it it was it was interesting. I was I I actually enjoyed myself but it was pretty good. Thanks. It's all for me. No one signed up for public comment period number one. So this time we're looking for the approval of the March 24th, 2026 legislative meeting minutes as presented. I'll move. I'll second. Dr. Weir. Yes. Dr. Wiley. Yes. Mr. Brophy. Yes. Ms. Connor. Yes. Ms. Kratz. Yes. Ms. Nyman. No. Mr. Brad Updegrove. Yes. Mr. Roger Updegrove. Yes. Mr. Pennarello. Yes. Eyes have it. Under item
029eight, the superintendent's itemized agenda, we have one item and that is a personnel agenda item and the administration recommends that the Board of School Directors approve the personnel actions included in this particular agenda. I'll motion. I'll second. Okay. Do you have one question? The uh the teacher personal finance new PDE requirement, that's the new laws coming out as far as as as the the personal education towards this. Okay. That's that's Yeah, that starts and that starts for the next fiscal year. Which is good. Yeah, I'm not just I just want to make sure that's what I'm looking for. Thanks. Thank you. I'll call the roll. Dr. Weir. Yes. Dr. Wiley. Yes. Mr. Brophy. Yes. Ms. Connor. Yes. Ms. Kratz. Yes. Ms. Nyman. Yes. Mr. Brad Updegrove. Yes. Mr. Roger Updegrove. Yes. Mr. Pennarello. Yes. Eyes
030have it. I would like to just call to your attention as the board um two individuals to whom you approved this evening through your just through your action. And we are pleased to recognize this evening. If we can just have these individuals stand when I call their names. Mrs. Jennifer Bennett. She is a our newest Congratulations K-8 OTL supervisor. Jen comes in house through um began as a teacher in the Boyertown Area School District and uh worked her way through and is currently the or was currently the instructional coach and now has taken on the role of supervisor. So, we're happy to have Jen as part of the OTL team and I know Miss Petrie is is very happy as well. Uh the other individual sitting alongside is Mr. Richard Batts. Richard is in a
031biology teacher, team leader in the Quakertown Community Area High School. And we welcome Mr. Batts who really shined through the process of of looking for the right individual for the supervisor role with the OTL. And we're happy to have um Mr. Batts on board. Their expected dates of of start or of of beginning here in Boyertown are July 1. So, we welcome and congratulate both of you. Congratulations. Thank you. Un- under uh number nine old business, there is none listed. No one has signed up for public comment period number two. Which leads us to board comment. Nothing. Nothing. Okay. It's time then. Okay. So, I want to give a shout out to Washington Elementary. I was at Washington today uh as a parent for my son's uh uh for my son's meeting. And uh at
032the end of the day I got to watch Mrs. Boyer's class come down, about 25 of them. They had their little tokens from their PBIS rewards to put into the book vending machine. Um so again, I got to see that in action. Uh some kids were buying or I guess buying is essentially the word, uh two or three books. So it was a nice little reward for them. So shout out to Mrs. Boyer's classroom. Dr. Wiley? Nothing. Mr. Rovi? I won't be able to serve for that Pennsylvania School Board Association delegate cuz I'm already serving for the PCIU. You can only represent one entity. I just have a question about um there's a scoreboard at junior uh middle school west and it I don't believe it's operating. I had some parents ask me about it
033and also some staff members. So I don't know if it does work and no one knows how to work it or if it's just broken. So I don't know if we can maybe have someone look into that. Yeah, let me contact facilities and Mr. Palladino about it. You said middle school west? West, yes. Okay. Yeah, let me get some information back to you. I just want to give a shout out to my son, Vincenzo. He came home last week with a little award. He was uh student of the month and he was pretty excited about it. So I'm glad they still do that stuff. Um and with regards to the PSBA, um we did send out an email a few weeks ago. So if anyone wants to get on it, we haven't had anyone on
034it. I just checked it since 2023 and those people were Miss Scott, Miss Nyman, I believe you were on it and so was uh Miss Hogan. So it's been 3 years. If anybody wants to volunteer for it. Uh motion to adjourn. I'll make a motion. We are seconds. Meeting adjourned. >> Mhm.