Boyertown Area School Board Committee of the Whole Meeting: 11/11/25

001[music] We'd like to call the meeting to order. Roll call. >> Miss Nyman >> here. >> Miss Scott. >> Mr. Brad Upgrove here. >> Mr. Roger Upgrove >> here. >> Mr. Zawatada >> here. >> Mr. Broofphy >> here. >> Miss Diroff >> present. >> Miss Kratz >> here. >> Mr. Panerella >> here. present. >> We could rise for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible and justice for all. There's no previous executive session. So that takes us down to our discussion information section. And then before we get started, I just want to uh thank everybody for being in attendance this evening. Most especially, I'd like to thank all of our veterans this evening. Uh

002we've been honored to have many of our local veterans in our schools. Um yesterday and some scheduled for tomorrow. We had a professional development day with teachers only today. And as the district recognizes uh the many active servicemen and women and those that served or have served our country. So, um, certainly it's because of all of our local veterans as well as all the other United States servicemen and women and veterans that were able to enjoy the many privileges and comforts we are accustomed to today. And for that, we are very, very thankful. So, if everyone would please join me in a round of applause in honor of our veterans and active service men and women. [applause] And I'd also just like to share that Mr. Matt Danner, uh, one of our social studies teachers

003at the at BASH, um, helped to spearhead a fundraising effort, uh, allowing, uh, the the district to sponsor a table of 10 veterans um, in recognition of Veterans Day in Reading this coming Friday. Many of the veterans attending are part of the P MI uh, MIA Burks County chapter who were instrumental in helping to promote promote our newest policy of flying flying the P MIA flag at all of our buildings. So, thank you to Mr. Danner. Thank you to all the students that participated in that fundraising effort to provide an opportunity for um veterans to attend that that special lunch this coming th or Friday in recognizing them. So, thank you. So that takes us down to our first discussion item this evening and we have a presentation and I'd like to invite to the

004podium Steven Dudis and Stephen's going to share a little bit of an idea about a project he would like to the board to consider approving for his Eagle Scout project. [clears throat] >> Hello everybody. Thank you for your time. My name is Sadivan Dudis and I am here tonight to present my Eagle Scout project. So I I just wanted to take a moment to thank Mr. Ramsay. He is a business teacher at the Bash and he has helped me both plan this helped me gather lumber and hardware, get drawings and so much more into this project. So a huge shout out to him. So the the project idea is to make a tech booth in the freshman auditorium. So we already have a tech booth in the new auditorium has helped these stage crew a

005ton with musicals and and concerts and things like that helps us maintain organization and it's it's been a huge help. So my idea is to take that into the freshman auditorium now. Then hopefully it's going to do the the same for us. It's going to consist of a raised floor and uh a couple walls to and close the space to help you know keep it away from the audience. So it is going to be very beneficial to stage crew and the bash as you know in total because our current setup actually partially obstructs a fire exit in the new auditorium. So if we move our our set to the other side of the auditorium it's going to help in uh safety. It's also going to help maintain organization as I said and and create a

006some smoother behind the the scenes experience for operators. So I included a a drawing of the future views of the the the tech booth and how it's going to look. I have my materials list and hardware up there and all all the lumber is going to come out of the construction room in the new auditorium. So the bash or the sug does not have to fund of any of extra materials at all. So here's a couple pictures of the new auditorium and tech booth. It's not the professional auditorium tech booth isn't going to be as big as this, but it's it's going to be you know the the same general e concept. Any any questions? Well, thank you for that. Um, I guess my big question is, is there going to be enough room to

007do this? Yes. So, we are going to have to take out the back three rows of of seats in the freshman auditorium on the right side, but we all already have an approval to do that. So, that's not of any uh of a concern to us. Will that still give us enough seating for all the students there? >> Yes, I have asked and it will be enough seating. Yes. Mhm. >> If [clears throat] I could add, Stephen has done a great job of putting this presentation together and really working with Mr. Ramsey and sharing it with me to to kind of go over some of those blueprints together. Um the goal with uh the presentation really is to mimic uh the success that we have with our equipment set up in the new auditorium. Uh

008our current situation is not ideal by any standards. It's literally laid on top of a desk uh which is also blocking a door. Um, but because of the way things are wired right now, our goal is to shift that over and make it a more permanent structure that's more usable for uh plays and other activities that are in there while also still maintaining the spacing and capacity that we would need for when we're doing uh class presentation. So, uh, a lot of hard work has gone into him working in this presentation. We've been doing this now for a couple months trying to put everything together. So, I appreciate you coming up here to to explain this to the rest of our staff. Mr. >> One question, when do you expect to start this? I expect

009to to build it from over the weekend of of of Thanksgiving getting a break. >> Okay. So, you're going to be doing on the weekend. So, you won't be affecting the room's use at any time then? >> No. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. >> Yep. >> And that timeline works well with our schedule at the high school, which we kind of planned out ahead of time. Stephen, do any is is there any uh movement does any of the um receptacles need to be moved or is there any electrical work that needs to be done or is everything in the places it it is >> No, it should all be good. >> So, it should be fine. Okay, >> great. That's all. >> So, I'm going to one of the things I'm going to do is

010we're going to move uh kind of give this an informal ask of the board as to whether or not uh this is something that they would entertain moving forward. Um, if the board is uh acceptable to that, we're going I'm going to ask that um your plans be shared with Mr. Bramble, who's our director of facilities. He's here in the front row today. And he'll be able to reach back out to you just to look over your plans and to coordinate the efforts of timing and and so forth for it. Um, and any assistance that you may need in in the space when you do come in there. >> Okay. So for the board, I would just ask that we take an informal um approval to move forward w with this project. Um again, there

011is no funding from the school district that's necessary. This is all being funded through Stephen and through his efforts and as a Eagle Scout project for him to be able to do this this type of um uh of project that is acceptable through his organization of of Boy Scouts. Show hands. >> Okay, great. Wonderful. Well, we'll uh certainly let Stephen, are you still here? >> You've left the stage. Congratulations. Your project is moving forward. Okay. All right. [applause] Okay, that takes us down to our uh next item, item B, which is the Boyertown Elementary School HVAC and roof uh project bid results. We did have an open opening bid of uh a couple of weeks ago. We wanted to share the results of that bid with the board, talk through a number of pieces that

012that align with this project. So, we do have this evening with us in the audience. I believe Mr. Jamie Lynch from CHA who you're familiar with who has been lead with regard to this project itself. So Mr. Lynch welcome to the podium and share with the board. >> Good evening. Is blue on? Red is on. >> Good evening and happy Veterans Day to everyone. Yes, I am here again this evening to share bid results of the Bertown Elementary School HBAC electric and uh roof project. And um without further ado, we can get right into it. I don't know who's driving. >> You are. >> I'm driving here. Okay. Very, very good. [cough] Um so, first and foremost, we had uh great interest in the project. Um as you recall from other projects, getting this out

013on the street as early as possible this year for work that starts next summer is always important. And you have contractors who are eager to fill their books for next summer. So there are three prime contracts that we bid. One was roof, one was mechanical, and one was electrical. The tabulation for the roof bid is on the screen now. Forgive me for all the small numbers, but the apparent low bid is EA roofing company at uh a bid price of just over $2.4 million. You'll be uh familiarized with our bid tab format below the uh base bid number of $2.4 $4 million are the listed alternates and I'll go through them rather quickly along with our suggestion. I'm happy to come back and and discuss any of them with you. Uh in this case for

014the roofing contract there were four alternates and the first three were deduct alternates. The first one was a deduct uh to go to a 20year warranty single ply roof in lie of the 30-year that was specified for the credit shown of $180,000. Uh that is a lesser roof product. Unfortunately, as I'll show you in a minute, the the project has come in under budget and so we do not recommend going with a lesser product. The next two alternates have to do with access ladders to the roof, which don't currently exist at the elementary school. RCO2 is an alternate to deduct the cost of interior roof ladders, and RCO3 is to deduct the cost of exterior roof ladders. You see that that combined deduct is $28,000. And these are uh obviously ladders to access the roof

015from inside the building. and then over uh short to high roof areas on top of the building for safety, for maintenance, etc. So once again, in as much as the project is on budget, we don't suggest taking those two alternates. Uh yes, sir. >> Since we are under project under budget, why wouldn't we go with the 30-year warranty? >> No, you have the 30-year warranty in the base bid. >> I just the alternate is for the is for the 20-year. Yes, I understand it can be confusing. >> Um, the last alternate is one that we would like to take and this alternate asks the roofing contractor to complete the entire roof job in the summer of 2026 as opposed to the base bid of doing a part of the roof in 26 and a part

016of the roof in 27. And as you can see, EA has identified that there's no additional cost to complete the entire roof in 2026 and they stand by that. And obviously that would mean that the entire roof is replaced in one summer instead of two. It also means that if we have any other issues related to weather or project conditions, even if we have to do some work in 2027 on the roof, there would be no additional cost to go the other way. So, this is a good benefit to the district and to the project. I got to drive here. If I go to the second prime bid, it's for the mechanical contract. And again, a series of uh contractors uh provided pricing here, and the numbers were quite tight. JBM Mechanical uh out of

017Nazareth, Pennsylvania is the apparent low bidder at just over $3.9 million. Here on alternates, we had add alternates for additional work that we talked with the district about doing and we'd like to recommend including all three of these alternates. Uh again, as we're under budget, [snorts] the first is the replacement of the HVAC system in the administrative suite at a cost of $125,000, which was a uh area that needs to be replaced. It's also aged out. Um, and we put this in here just as a cost control mechanism, just in case we were going to have budget problems. Fortunately, we do not. The second was to replace the existing water heater with a new gas fired water heater at a cost of $109,000. Again, a reasonable amount for a gas fired, more efficient water heater

018for the building. And the final one is to include rooftop equipment openings and steel support curbs uh in the phase 2 areas in lie of using existing. So an additional cost of $10,000. So all of those are recommended to be included in the project. And the last contract is for electrical. Oh, I'm sorry. >> So >> should I go back? >> Yeah. So in that 39 3 million almost four million. >> Yes. >> That does not include the 125 or 109 or the 10. >> Correct. They'd be added to that >> add. Okay. [clears throat] >> Uh the final contract is for electrical two biders here BSI and Phillips Brothers. Phillips Brothers is the apparent low bid uh at 2,9009. Uh you can see that these two bids were very closely bunched. Um, Phillips Brothers

019and BSI are both contractors that are very well known uh in the region. Um, and Phillips is someone that I've done a number of projects with over the years. Uh, here again, we have a number of alternates that enhance the quality of the project. They're listed there. Uh, RC1 is for canopy light fixture replacement, including the controls at a cost of 24,000. 13,000 for power and wiring to the HVA unit HVAC units in the admin suite that we're replacing under the alternate in the mechanical contract. Uh ECO3 is to provide Simplex Grenell as the fire alarm system manufacturer to be consistent with other fire alarm systems in the district for an add of $20,000 and to provide SquareD in ECO4 as the power equipment manufacturer that is the new switch gear that'll be in the

020elementary school at an added cost of $65,000. And then finally to provide power and wiring to the new fire gas fired water heater equipment. Uh interestingly here Philips Brothers is providing a credit to add work to the contract and they stand by that number. This is something I can't explain but that was on their bid form and now they're living by it. So um there you have it. Uh 2,9009 plus those numbers. So um to give you the total math and I apologize in advance because there is one error on this sheet that I can rectify but it doesn't change the numbers. Uh on the left hand side is the budget that we presented uh back at the beginning of the year for this project and it includes a base bid of 12 million4 and

021that includes all of the possibilities that we anticipated for this project at that time. So it would include the bid alternate scope. Um soft costs which are design and permitting and testing is uh 1.3 million. We included a contingency of 622,000 and then we included escalation from when we originally estimated to the summer of 2026 of 773,000. And so our budget for the project was just over $15 million. and the bid cost with the alternates that I just recommended and those very same soft costs and contingency and we wipe out the escalation because now we have numbers in hand gives us a total project cost of 11552 and change. There is one error on the sheet and it is the sum total of the bid alternates. Unfortunately, that number is 361,525, but the number at

022the bottom 11552 395 is actually correct. So, I apologize for that error and we'll get it corrected uh should we move this forward for award instead of the 345 525. So maybe I stop there and just ask if there are any questions because it is a mouthful when we present the bid tabs. Yes sir. >> When we talked when we opened the bids um you've done research on all these companies, right? And pretty much we don't have to worry about because you've dealt with a lot of these companies. Correct. >> Yes. Thank you. That's a a great question. I mentioned that um I've we've done a good deal of work with Phillips Brothers over the years. one of the premier electrical contractors in the region on mechanical. Really same with JBM mechanical. I've done whole

023buildings projects of much larger than this before and so I have every confidence there. When we go to the roofing contract, I did raise um a question on EA roofing. EA has been in business for about three years. the owner of EA roofing uh was a prior owner of Midstate Roofing, a company that we've worked with time and time again. When we take a look at the bids and the qualifications of the biders, we look for work um of this type. And EA has installed five roofs this year for various public entities um from uh standing seam metal to single ply EPDM just like we're doing here. but they have not done a job quite this large before. So I raised that to the administration. There's really no way that you could actually disqualify them.

024But I went ahead and I asked for references. I collected the references. Uh Penn State was one of the references. Two school districts were the references and they responded in writing and had excellent things to say about EA roofing. the owner um Ephraim Elijah, I think his last name is pronounced, um was with Midstate and I've done two projects that are actually larger than this with Midstate, his prior company. So, I have confidence that we've got a bidder that is responsive and responsible and I've got references from this year from clients who are very pleased with the work. So, I do have every confidence. [laughter] Yes, ma'am. So, you're going to put the roof on, you're going to put the old HVAC system on it, and then the following year, you're going to do the

025upgrade on the HVAC system. >> No, we do them in tandem. So, that's the reason for the award as early as we are. So, we start to order the HVAC equipment. It is a full size and full replacement uh HVAC. And so, the new curbs go on the new roof. The roof goes around all of the new curbs. Some of the curbs will have what's called an adapter curb. So, it's a curb on top of a curb to set a new unit later. So, it'll be a combination. It's not like we have to put a roof on and then tear it off to put HVAC equipment on. If that's what you were asking, >> I'm concerned about putting holes in the new roof and then having to fix them to put the new HVAC system

026on. >> No, you wouldn't be doing that. you'd be you'd be flashing the curbs that are there with the new roof and then adapter curbs go on top of those curbs. So, you wouldn't be cutting holes in a new roof. And you'll always have a 30-year warranty at the end of the roof installation. Um, more information that I shared with you in prior uh presentations about the project is included after the fact here. I'm more than happy to go through that at the board's wish or if you have any other questions um happy to proceed as you would like. >> Mr. Williams, why don't you just take us quickly through those slides just to remind the board of the project scope and what we what was speced out and actually bid upon for it. AB:

027>> Absolutely. So, the system that we selected was the variable refrigerant uh system with DOAZ natural gas uh system. Uh we went through a number of these in uh the review that I shared with the board. Um and basically it's a split system heat pump in each classroom. Outside air is preconditioned by roof mounted uh equipment and sent directly to each classroom where it's conditioned. And of course the benefit is thermostatic control in each room and I can have cooling in one room while I have heating in another. So, it's a very versatile and very coste effective uh solution. And you'll recall that that was a solution for classrooms where we were replacing the unit vents in classrooms. And we extended the scope to the big box spaces, shall we say? So, multi-purpose room, locker

028rooms, library, all of that equipment is included here along with the automatic temperature controls for all of those systems. We're also replacing power feeders in the building, the switch gear in the building, and the emergency generator in the building, and the transfer switch, I should say. We had uh shared with you the details of the existing switchboard um and how old it was um and how uh nerve-wracking it was to ever try to shut something off um and the inability to provide parts for it. Um, and that's really what has driven the replacement of the switchboard and then also providing a code compliant generator that would be outdoors instead of indoors. Oh, there's the next slide. There's the existing indoor um uh generator. We talked about the HVAC system and I shared uh our conceptual

029costs uh for that VRF system. We also talked about life expectancy and ease of uh maintenance. This is a a system that exists in one of your other elementary schools that was performed earlier and you know we believe for based on the cost and the efficiency it's going to perform very well in the elementary school. Uh we talked about options for roofing and settled on the EPDM single ply uh rubber roof. Uh so we detailed a number of those options here and that's what we've ended up with uh in the bid for those of you who are roofing fans. It appears that John's Mansville, which is one of the specified vendors that's in our documents, is the one that's being selected by EA. John's Mansville is on a number of school buildings all over Eastern

030Pennsylvania. This was our comparison between the two types of uh roofs that we have. So, we have the EPDM single ply fully adhered as opposed to a TPO. And we have a 30year warranty. I know that these say 20 year, but we have a 30-year warranty on uh this roof. Yes. >> What do the warranties include? Is it like annual inspection or maintenance or anything like that? >> So, it's an edgetoedge warranty from John's Mansville and uh they will come out at any time when you have issues and take a look at the roof and make sure that you don't have any problems on the roof. You know, annual maintenance suggests that you would go up and clear drains and things like that. And so John's Mailsville is really on call for you to come

031out as you need it if you have any questions with respect to the roof. >> Yes. >> The generator you said it'll be outside now. >> Yes. >> Is that going to be like in a room or >> uh it'll be in an uh an enclosed area? That's it. It's not in a room though. >> So it's outside. >> Uh so you have the generator and it has a case that is built around it but it doesn't have walls and a roof over it. It is truly outside. >> Will it be fenced in? >> Um, you know, I will take a look at the details. Commonly, we don't fence in a generator, but I can take a look and report back to you when I see you again uh here in November for your consideration

032of award. I'd be happy to do that and I'll get that that answer to you actually earlier. I'll send that over to you. >> Understand some type of protection around it. It's common that sometimes it is and sometimes that it's not. And on our school projects, uh the timeline remains the same. Um we were fortunate to uh get the project out on the street, get award here before the end of the year for your action. And you know, once again, the bulk of the work is in the summer of 26, the summer of 27. We'll work with the contractors as the time approaches on what we can do to gain any advantage if we need to get into the building on second shift or do something when students are not there in order to give

033uh everybody an advantage in order to complete the project successfully. But we're on the exact same timeline that we reported earlier in the year. Any other questions? >> Just one question. If if you were able to narrow this down to one year for the actual roof to get done, how come the timeline didn't change at all? >> Uh because we've got to order the switch gear and all of the equipment. We know that the switch gear uh lead time is at least a year. >> So our the second summer is really for the electrical work and it's a handful for all of the HVAC replacement in one summer. So we're going to see what we can bite off. We've got a phasing plan in there. It's pretty easy to go through and replace unit heat

034or unit ventilators if we want to wait on some of the big box spaces. Again, we just want to make sure that when we start at the beginning of the summer, we can get you back in school confidently on time, not have to do a great deal of worrying. So, and of course, you never know what the summer weather is going to bring. >> Appreciate it. >> Yes. >> Any upgrades to the fire alarm system with getting all this new systems in? There's not a fire alarm upgrade included uh outside of what's required for duct detectors and everything associated with the mechanical equipment. So, it's not a wholesale fire alarm replacement, but it's using what's in the building already, which is simplex Grenell and replacing everything associated with fire alarm that connects to HVAC. >>

035Yes. So, you're going to use all the same penetrations from the roof coming down for all your equipment. >> Uh, it won't necessarily be all the same penetrations, and it depends on the curbs that are there. And we are changing to a VRF system. So, I'm sure that there'll be some places where we use we have new penetrations through the roof. And we have details on our drawings for how the contractor makes those penetrations. Is that included in this? >> Yes, that's included. All right. Thank you, Mr. Lynch, and for your presentation. So, to the board, again, similar to the way we handled the uh more recent turf project at the next legislative meeting, we'll bring forward some motions for your consideration of awarding um of awarding these these primes with uh contracts for this

036particular project. Unless you wanted to do it like the Eagle Scout project. [laughter] >> Okay, >> I understand. >> Thank you very much. Thank you for all the good questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Lynch. >> All right, that takes us down to our third item uh this evening, and that's the uh Burtown Area School District enrollment study presentation. I'd like to invite to the podium Mr. Vincent Canazarero, part of the um PA Economy League and along with Patty Morehead, who uh you've heard from as well um previously. The full report is has been attached and they are here to present out some of the larger scale summaries of the full um enrollment study report. So, thank you, Mr. Canazaro. >> Thank you everyone. I appreciate you all um inviting us. Um I'm going to go

037through these. This is our report and not the presentation. Yeah, if you could. Thanks. Um [clears throat] we presented gosh I think uh about a month and a half, maybe two months ago at this point. Um our projections did not change terribly much. Um really the the big um addition to it was housing. Uh is that better? Thanks. uh was a um was the rest of the housing units that we were missing uh the first time round, but we'll go through this relatively quickly and happy to answer any questions. Um again, we're a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy organization. We've been around for 90 years. Um we've done over 200 enrollment studies throughout the state over the last 30 plus years. Uh industry standards is about a margin of error of 5%. Ours are generally within

0381% uh maybe a little bit higher but under under the the industry standards. Um we this would be the fourth enrollment study we have done for uh the Bertown area school district. As you can see we have generally been um within a reasonable margin um and in a number of cases we've been pretty much spot on with what the actual enrollment um has been. When we completed the report, it was before the October 1st numbers were actually into the district. Um you'll see that our projections were 6242. Uh actual enrollment was 61.89. So a total of 53 students we were over. Um again we were less than 1% off. Uh a little bit higher in the K through five. uh lower in 6 through 8 and 9 through 12, but overall uh less than 1%

039off. We take a really holistic process when we go uh through and do our enrollment projections looking at a number of uh social factors uh that are going on within the school district uh and within the townships and burrows and municipalities that make up the district. population trends, birth trends, migration, housing, um really looking at everything that could make up what will the potential population be and those are the factors and indicators that we use to actually model out the projections. So when we look at population, overall population has increased the highest percent uh increase has been in Montgomery County. Um so you can see it's a 17,000 plus increase over the last uh about 50 years or so. Um and there there's been a pretty large increase in the overall population. We see similar

040trends in housing. Again, there over the last 50 years, we've had about 11,000 uh new housing units that have gone up in the uh school district. And Patty, jump in if I'm missing anything. Perfect. Great. Uh with all that being said though, the big idea is the relationship between enrollment in the school district and housing units. So starting in 1970, uh for every 100 housing units, there were 80 students enrolled within the district. That number has um taken a pretty precipitous drop. Um going down to today in 2023, uh it was 32 students for every 100 housing units. Uh this is a little down from 2020 and a little down from 2010 but we do see this downward trend. Looking at the historic enrollments again the best indicator of where you are going is from

041where you have been and using hard evidence and data is really the best way uh to make that determination. And so we look at in total enrollment um over an extended period of time and then break it down by both enrollment by grade uh by municipality uh and by school. Uh so overall um there has been a decrease in enrollment. We are seeing a general downward trend. It is not a lot though and I want to I want to reiterate this. It is a drop in enrollment. It is not a huge drop in enrollment. uh over the last 10 years it's about 750 a little over 750 students. It's an 11 point drop. Uh when we are looking at grades some grade levels have larger drops than others. Um the largest decreases in the K

042through five population. Um but again it depends on yearbyear what that um what that means. Uh it could be birth patterns, it could be migration into the school district. Um it could be a whole number of of factors. Um but again we're seeing a a decrease um K through 12 um five K through five 6 through eight and 9 through 12. Um this is a graphical representation again you'll see a downward trend um but they are relatively stable um so you know it's it is going downward but it we're not seeing huge huge drops anywhere >> right and what >> except 2020 [laughter] >> I was going to say 2020 is the co COVID years um 20 um 2021 you only saw the decrease in the elementary grades and then it bounced back up. It

043looks like your uh high school and middle middle schools stayed pretty uh stable on trend kids. >> So how do we actually then project forward? Again two big indicators birth patterns. Um this is how many children are actually born within the school district. uh and it gives us a projection of how many students will eventually be enrolled within the school district. Uh and that's coupled with grade level progression which is how many students are actually moving on to the next grade level uh the following year. So when we look at birth patterns uh there has been an increase in birth rates. Um there were were 453 births in uh 1112. There were 471 in 1819. However, uh that increase in birth patterns is also coupled with a decrease in enrollment. And that gives us this

044ratio of births to enrollment. Um a number of one means that for every child born within the district, they're actually enrolling within the school district. If that number is less than one, then you're not capturing all of the burrs within the public school system. uh for the 1819 year um it was less than one and has continu uh continually been less than one. Uh so we're seeing that not every student born within the boundaries of the school districts are actually being enrolled within the district. Uh progression ratios again uh this is giving us an indication of how students are moving on between grade levels. Uh a number greater than one means that uh more students are going to be progressing. uh a number less than one means that less students are progressing. Um I I

045think we have a a whole mix of numbers in here. >> So we looked at the last five years um through 2020 through [snorts] 2024 and no big surprise um 2021 had almost all of the lowest um progressions and then the next year rebounded and it had most of the highest ones. the the [snorts] odd ones out were the 11th to 12th grade and those um came later in the 22 23 and 23 24 >> and it's important not to just take either the high number or the low number and really look at some averages uh and try and get a good indication of what is actually occurring because there's going to be flukes. I think COVID was a huge fluke for schools across the country. Um and again we don't want to make uh

046any recommendations, decisions, model things out based on um what some outliers may or may not be. Uh so again this is that big reason why when we pull everything together and we're beginning to look uh at uh the combination of assumptions. This is the highest birth rates and lowest birth rates um averages of birth rates and the same with progressions. we get this bit of a scattershot uh of what uh where things may end up and that gets us to here. These are our projections uh over the next 10 years. Again, five years is a uh much smaller margin of error as you go out. They uh extend because it's it's hard to predict what's going to be going on further than five years out. Um but we see um a decrease in enrollment overall

047within over the next 10 years. Um starting in 3031 there is um either stasis or a little bit of of an increase. Um but overall it's going to be lower than where we are today, >> but pretty much stable. It's almost like >> it is. Yeah. Yeah, 200 200 give or take from >> um when we begin to break this down more by grade level, we see that there will actually be an increase in the K through five population um but a decrease in the 6 through 8 uh and 9 through 12. I think it's that 9 through 12 that's really pulling down the rest of the district as a whole. um which can provide some indication of uh strategic planning long term of of where the district may want to go. >> Right. But

048um I would be cautious too. Um you can see like that in um 29 or actually the lower grade levels from 20 um 6 27 through 31 32 are actually showing an increase. And then you see the next you see K through or six through eight down there you know you have uh in the [snorts] next 31 32 or yeah 32 33 33 34 you're seeing an increase in those like you're seeing that progression of additional kids coming through and that will keep coming through. So we always say your best indication is your your kids, your families. Make sure that you um you know take a census of the families in the area. Know like if those they have kids enrolling in kindergarten, do they have two two or three more coming in behind them?

049You should know that stuff. Or if someone new moves into the district, what's what's the family doing there? We've started to make this recommendation for all school districts that we do enrollment studies for. Um do a census, send something out to all households uh to get an idea of how many kids are within that household and where they're planning on uh attending school. I know I got a survey in my school district out by Harrisburg um which is really helpful for for planning purposes going forward. Um again, a graphical representation of our projections over uh the next 10 years. uh we see some movement. Um you can see that there is a slight increase in that K through five uh and dips, but again overall they're generally flat. Um which is not looking at a

050lot of the other school districts we've been working with. This is not a bad place to be in. um when we were talking about averages and highs and lows of birth patterns uh and um progression ratios, this is why um if you use all of the highs or all of the lows, you're going to get some really um big gaps in the numbers. And this is a big reason why we try and uh choose what is the best indication of where the district's going to go. Uh so enrollment could be up to 8,500. It could be as low as 4,000. Um there's very little likelihood that either of those will actually happen. Um and you if you look at our projections for this year, we're less than um you know 1% off. Um so I

051I'm confident in in where these numbers are are taking us. >> That's it. Any questions? Yeah. Um if you look at the full report, there are projections in there by [snorts] um each school um enrollment projections by school as well as um each uh municipality within the school district. So we did them two ways so we could see how you know see if you know maybe it's a school that's going to show different growth or whatever. >> We like doing that in particular uh for planning purposes. If you see that there is growth um or diminishment in enrollment in any particular school, it could help with um redistricting the schools as needed. Yes. >> So I saw you put all the pro possible new developments coming in. What percentage do you use that says this

052is roughly how many kids are going to be going out of that number of houses? >> So it's based off of the current trends. uh we try and project out based on what the numbers are now for what those households will be knowing that uh there's no new development that is just a family development um as the case may be. So our numbers again for the 23 uh for 20 2023 were 30 I think 32 uh per 100 uh and those are the numbers that we use to project out for any new developments that are going to be coming into the area. Any other questions from the board? >> If you think of anything at any time, um, please let us know. I'd be happy to come back and chat, talk via uh email, on

053the phone. Um, you know, we're really here to support the district in whatever way possible. So, if you think of something, you know, next week, next month, next year, please just give me a shout and let me know. >> Okay, great. Thank you, Vincent. Thank you, Patty. >> Thank you very much. >> Just for the board's purposes, we'll be posting that report, a final report on our website, and it's already in the hands of our um other partner that's looking at the kindergarten study right now. uh so that they have the full enrollment study and numbers and factors um at their disposal as they begin their their uh their study of all day K as well. Okay, that takes us down to item D. And this evening we have representatives, principles here from both uh

054Bash Middle School East, Middle School West. See Dr. Mayori in the audience here. Um, Mrs. Don Browski and Mr. Sparks is here. If the three of you would step to the podium, they would present to you the updates to next year's program of studies. Uh, we're looking to recommend this program for next year and we'll be seeking your approval at our next legislative meeting. So, doc or Mr. Sparks, >> thank you. Uh, good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to present our recommendations for the program of studies for the 202627 school year. Uh the presentation for the high school portion has been divided into two phases. The first with focusing on updated course names and the latter with new courses that we'd like to present tonight. Before we begin the presentation of the courses, we

055would like to review some of the continuations for the 26 27th school year. With this, we will continue with our home room advisory schedule which we have in place this year as well as last year. Our graduation credits will remain the same at 24, requiring four credits of both math, ELA, and social studies, as well as three credits of science. Our career portfolio will still count as a.5 credit for our senior class. And the new addition this year as part of the PTE mandates will be the personal finance requirement for 11th grade, which is a semesterbased course and a half a credit. That's for the 26 27th school year. with course selection coming up in January. One of the things that we're considering and putting forward as well with this is the credit count that

056students may be participating in. Uh traditionally we have an 8 credit max. However, as part of the GIP team decision, uh we are allowing students who have GIPS to be able to have those team decisions uh and based upon their needs and their future plans going above that eight credits into uh our full credit count which would be nine credits for nine periods. The other portion of this that's important is the personal finance requirement. Uh because this is a junior requirement or in the junior class. Uh we didn't want this to impede a student's uh ability to select courses that are going to better prepare them and set them up for post-secary planning. So if there is a possibility that this course would impede uh let's say a student has a GIP and wants to

057take uh 8.33 credits because they have a lap that's connected with one of their courses and this class maybe doesn't fit in there. uh we would like to offer potential virtual opportunities for those students so they can still take all those courses that are going to help them with their uh post-secondary planning. So something to consider as we go through our presentation. So here are our recommendations for 2627. Our new or I'm sorry our updated courses are music, math, world language and our tech ed. For music we have two updates. We'd like to update the name of to intro to piano which is a half a credit course. Uh the name previously was piano and we designed this to provide a more accurate description of the course level. So hopefully we can entice more students

058uh to take this course as more of an introlevel course. In addition, our music technology course which was previously music recording uh has been updated to approve more alignment with the course contract more students to take elective courses in our music areas. For math, we are changing the name to academic algebra from previously the nonacademic algebra 1. Uh this is designed to reflect the appropriate level. Sequencing for this course will remain the same. This is some of the outcomes of some of the vertical alignment discussions that we've been having in our professional learning throughout the school year and trying to better align those course names to meet the needs of the students and the content that they're teaching. For world language, we'd like to shift to honors German for three and German 4. uh this

059shift is from an academic level to only an honors level. Uh the design behind this is to parallel the GPA opportunities that are present in Spanish. So for example, a student who is taking Spanish has the opportunity to take DE Spanish 3 and DE Spanish 4. Those have extra bumps to their GPA which can include or increase their GPA, increase class rank. And so by adding an honors opportunity for German three and German four, it gives those students more incentive to continue but also rewarding them for their hard work and their efforts as they move forward with their courses. For teched, we have several changes here. Our tech department was busy trying to uh refresh some of the opportunities for our students as the world continues to evolve. Uh we have advanced media production which

060is a one credit course. Previously advanced production which now will include a focus on higher level cinematography journalism. Filmm which was previously fil production and editing will shift more to a cinematography and production focus and media production which is a semesterbased course will be uh which was previously studio production will expand to include more of a influencer journalism component to it. So [snorts] these are our courses with name changes that we'd like to present. For new courses for the 26th 27th school year, we have courses in NJOTC, music, and business. For NJRTC, we're looking to increase our enrollment and provide additional opportunities for students to experience what NJRTC has to offer without the full commitment to the fullear course. So our NJRTC instructors were very creative and came up with the introduction to citizenship development.

061This is an elective course that will run parallel to Naval Science 1 in the first semester and allow students the opportunity to experience what Naval Science One offers without the full commitment to being part of a fullear NJRTC program. If the student decides that after that semester they like it because it's paralleling that Naval Science One instruction curriculum, we can then add them to Naval Science One and then embed that into their schedule pretty seamlessly. So, we're hoping this course will will will support more students with their involvement in NJRTC. In addition, there's some unique opportunities that come up throughout the years, and this is one that I think will help cover some of those areas, is naval science 5. So, traditionally, students would take naval science 1, two, three, and then their junior year

062four. Uh, some students, whether it's part of a IEP team decision or credit deficiency, are still there in their fifth year, uh, but have been very successful in naval science and want to continue to do it. Uh, unfortunately, we don't have an extra course to put them in, and I can't duplicate a course and put them back in naval science 4. So, while this is a very kind of unique genre of courses, Naval Science 5 would allow some of those students who are credit or graduation um banking at that point as an opportunity to continue with the program and continue to support their community as well as their school. For music, we'd like to offer a select orchestra. This is an advanced level of orchestra for students by audition. This will offer a higher level

063orchestra for our students. We will continue obviously to offer orchestra as well. Uh and then for business, here's the uh the personal finance course that we brought up last year as kind of foreshadowing. This is a course that will be required as part of a PTE mandate for the 2627 school year and will be implemented as a requirement for our juniors for next year. Uh so as we begin to plan our courses and our course selection in January and February, this is something that our counselors and our teams will need to take into consideration when developing those course schedules. And then the next course is our business of production 2. This is a continuation of our business of production one which was very successful in offering kind of an uh a more in-depth understanding to

064the theatrical production. Uh so business of production two is something that we'd like to offer this year as a continuation of business of production one from the middle school and I can speak for the middle school if they like. Uh our science program you want [laughter] >> I'm on a roll. So go ahead. >> Yeah. There are very uh limited changes to the middle school program of studies for this coming year. What we did do is we did revise the description for the three grade level science classes to align with the SEAL standards which are implemented now and an expectation from PDA from PD as well as our new uh curriculum and resources through the lab aids resources. So now that is more an accurate portrayal of what our students are studying, learning and doing.

065Um and other than that there's very little changes to the middle school program of studies. So, so at this point, I'd like to open it up to uh questions that the school board might have regarding the high school and middle school program of studies presentation. Mr. Satada, >> um bear with me because I got a couple. >> Okay. >> Um first one I want to say in the four years I've I've been doing the career portfolio, this was the first year that I could honestly say I was proud of every student that was going through and thought they were going to make it. Um, so are we have we looked into other languages? I know the cost is phenomenal, but it just seems like these languages except for Spanish, but German was 20 or 30

066years old to what we have now in the world. So, I mean, has there any been any research into any kind of other >> [snorts] >> uh languages? Uh that would be a decision I think we'd have to have with HR about personnel and certification as far as the classes that we could uh could offer. >> So I I'll speak to that a little bit, Mr. Zad. I think one of the things that most districts have run into is the lack of cert certificated instructors. Um that's really driving this um whether it's Chinese or um um uh Latin. um you know it's been a a continued reduction of those certificated employees as certificated employees instructors have gone down over the past decade by 60some percent. These particular uh ones have been highly impacted by that.

067So that that becomes a challenge in actually finding somebody number one, but if you do find somebody, you're on a pretty thin line every year as to whether or not that could continue dependent upon that individual itself and so forth. So that's the struggle that um you know, not only our school district has with regard to it. And a lot of that shift has been over the past 15 years in the elective areas where STEM has become much more prominent um for students and for the world in which we live. Um and that those those factors have again led to some of the the implications. you're seeing a little bit more of [snorts] the increase in some of the STEM factors here and the technology and even some of our um cultural elements of music

068and so forth extend into those STEM areas with production that have have driven some of that. So we we have looked at that. I think it's more an instructor piece than it is a student piece when it comes to it. Um so that's hopefully a little bit of an explanation as to the why. >> Two more. How many people [snorts] do we have in ROC program now? >> We have two instructors and we have approximately 80 85 students enrolled. >> Okay. >> And finally, um how is theor uh theater considered business? I'm you know out of things that >> the business of production that course. >> Yeah. Okay. I mean I I'm trying to look at something that prepares our students more. Uh when I went we had accounting um it was a true business

069section >> you know some long time ago but to me I'm looking and saying somebody has that on their resume is that going to get them in a door of a business and to me it's I mean I know we have a lot of music in this but again I don't see how that equates to business. >> Yeah. So that's that's a good question. So that is looking at the financial side of production. So when our stage crew and the the Eagle Scout presentation that you saw tonight is absolutely a parallel of business or production one uh where they're going in and they're working at the looking at the cost for uh what does it cost to put on our play next week? What is the cost of hiring engineers to come in to build

070the sets? What is the cost of the lumber and equipment that is incorporated into those types of production? So really looking at the space that's rented, the financial aspects of it, and trying to put in the math and the the business side of it that goes into uh not just the production of the play, but all those behind the scenes accounting pieces that go into a well, ticket sales, how much revenue do you need to make just to break even, those types of things that uh can be built into real real world um examples at the high school. >> Understood. um business people would love to see more of a you know a balance sheet type learning you know um you did mention it in the for the for the plays and and stuff that

071we do but um maybe change the name [laughter] you know something make it like I said we're doing name changes and to me coming in and if somebody comes to me at my business and says, "Look, I've got this, you know, and they don't have the ability to have you stand behind them and explain [snorts] truly what it is." You know, again, just an opinion. >> Yeah. No, fair enough. And we do offer accounting courses and various other uh activities that will be more maybe appropriate for those types of business sectors. This is kind of a unique genre for some of our students uh that started with business of production one this school year and is a continuation in business of production two as a recommendation for next school year. >> Yeah. And I I

072think Mr. Why this this speaks a little bit to the the world in which you know our students are stepping into. Um it's not only thinking about a large scale theater. It's thinking about um you know small business opportunities and how do you scale that for yourself? How do we get students understanding the software implications, the hours implications working in a small business industry when it comes to and applying the knowledge of what that software, what that technology is, and then applying accounting measures and business factors to it to bring it all together. Um, it's a lot of the world in which um, you know, we're dealing with. It's not just largecale theaters and somebody coming and setting budgets for it. Like, uh, Mr. Spark said we do have some of the more traditional courses

073as electives. You know, we have finance and we have now required by by school code, personal finance, but we also have those accounting traditional courses. I think this steps students into experiences that they can really equate to opportunities that they may seek um down the road. uh whether it's right out of school or whether it's applying it into some of their their aspirations at college or vocational next steps and things of that nature. So, it's it's trying to to to to blend um a lot of different things together um for their experience for that. But I appreciate your your thoughts on >> real quick um and I know it's middle school and high school. Has cursive been introduced anywhere in the elementary being now that the state is semi- requiring it? >> Yes. Why don't

074you? >> [clears throat] >> So, we haven't had any formal conversations about the cursive writing at this time, but we in January, I was going to say Feb in January and my next curriculum uh committee time. I am going to be talking about a curriculum review cycle, which will take a look at all of those pieces and and what the rotation will look like. So there's not a a formal look at that at that moment, but that would be part of our review cycle. >> Yep. >> And just for information, those are just, you know, there was a bill that was that was brought forward. There's nothing into into law with regard to that. Um, you know, as as it relates to curfe and nothing inside the standards to which >> your algebra And I

075don't remember what slide it was anymore. >> Go back to it. >> That was a course name change slide for academic algebra from non-academic algebra. >> Okay. So, we're not going to have a nonacademic algebra. >> That's a great question. So, part of the vertical alignment at the high school is we have a algebra 1 A and an algebra 1B which essentially have become the non-academic algebra. So, they would go from that to potentially an academic algebra or the higher level would be an honors algebra. So it's basically we we kind of looked at that and how we could better support some of our students and we broke it into algebra 1 A and algebra 1B and as a result it really covers what's already within non-academic algebra. So it's a shift from the non-academic

076to more of a focus on the academic because of the algebra one >> basic student who needs that non >> they they would have the opportunities to take either the algebra 1 a course if they were struggling uh which would then present uh a spread out throughout the entire year the first half of algebra and then take algebra 1b which would then focus on the second half of algebra for the next year. So it gives them a little bit more time uh to experience the the curriculum and practice the curriculum. >> Okay. So, we're not technically doing away with >> No, no, no. It's just re revamping the name as part of our vertical alignment conversations. >> Yeah. Make it less confusing. >> Do is this considered a college preparatory class? >> No. Okay. >>

077Mr. Sparks, would this academic eligible one would be NCAA eligible? >> I would have to look at it, but I don't know for sure. Uh I don't think it is because of its content, but I would have to look. Okay. You can apply for it. They can say no. >> Mrs. off. >> I was hoping to see more of math, some type of math in middle school because our students all you got to do is shop around here. They cannot get change, >> right? >> And I keep hearing that and hearing that all over. It's not just not just me. >> I could make money going shopping. >> Yeah. >> So, I was hoping something would be done about the math. I don't know what it is, but they're just not learning something because they

078can't get change. >> Yeah. And that was that was part of the the conversation with Mrs. Diamond about breaking up some of that curriculum to give more time and exposure for greater in-depth learning. Um I can speak to that to the high school if the middle school would like to uh reflect. >> Thank you for that feedback. Excuse me. But we have the leveled courses at the math when we start. All sixth graders are involved in one type of math. when they get to seventh grade, we begin to level out the type of math instructions the student takes. When we get to eighth grade, we have students that are already taking geometry. We have students that are taking algebra 1 all the way down to the students who have special specialized learning needs in math

079in which they are um given their direct instruction classes and support class on math. Awfully proud of the growth and progress that our students have made this year. I know that the our scores are referenced a lot frequently and uh I hope that uh you know you're pleased when you're seeing the improvement in the scores as they continue to grow and as well as the practicality of the math application. So through these vertical alignment uh work and discussions that we're having, we're seeing that uh we have uh uh more opportunities for students to be in their math instruction that aligns to their levels and their needs. >> When they're in sixth and seventh grade and they fall behind, what what do you have in place to bring them up to where they should be? Well,

080throughout the day we have different types of uh supports that we're able to provide the students. And when I look at our 10th period, that's where we're going to see most the intervention take place in our um in our building when students go back. If you recall the, you know, the old flex period from high school, the period 10's been around in a while for a while in middle school where we have different types of math camps is what we call them at West. They're referenced camps as well. Um, so those students that are struggling there have some time to be able to work, get some extra help, get to practice with their math teachers and um, you know, get catch caught up and also strengthen their basic skills. >> And they do that before

081they move on to the next grade. >> Well, they have to pass the grade and the the uh, curriculum to be able to move on to the next level of math. So, it's not necessarily they have to do that to advance. they have to show proficiency through their grade um during that during that school year and these camps and these tutoring supports help um strengthen their skills so that they can achieve higher grades and move forward. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Um first of all, I just I I think that's a good decision about um allowing GIP students the flexibility to take more than eight credits. That was some feedback um I had received from the community. They felt frustrated that their students were being held back and I never want students to

082be held back. Um the other question I have is about the world language slide. Um it states that um the change in German was to create a parallel GPA opportunity. But if am I right in thinking that the honors courses are only worth 0.1 and correct the e classes are >> it's a closer parallel. It's not an indefinite parallel. The DE is a 0 2 bump. The honors class would only be a 0.1 bump, but it would at least gain us closer to that margin uh to create a little bit more similarity between the two. But you're right, it's not an exact parallel. >> Okay. Or we could change DE back to 0.1, which would be my preference. But um the other question I had Oh, we referenced the play. Is that next week? When

083is >> the play is next week? Yeah. The mysterious affairs styles is s I'm sorry, Friday and Saturday at 7 o'clock and Sunday at 2 p.m. >> Okay. So our students who are in business of productions had a big part of getting that set ready. >> Yes sir. >> Yeah. The um the personal finance class that it's going to be mandatory next year. >> So there's a the option for the virtual finance class. >> Uh the the option for virtual will be only in the event that it does not fit into a student's schedule. So, if a student was a GIP student and they elected to take nine credits, for example, their junior year, um, and they had to take this course as one of the requirements their junior year, they would be able to

084take it virtual as a nine and a half credit in order to meet our requirements to meet the PD requirements, uh, but by also not impeding what their desires are for their course uh, and programming. >> Okay. So, I think I just I think maybe I was under the impression that that specific example was the only way you'd be able to take that virtual class. It could be almost any situation where a student wants to continue doing other things >> if we would ideally we would design it so it fits in their schedule uh so they're taking it in person. Uh but there are some examples in situations for example BCTC sometimes it's very difficult for them to fit in an extra semester course. So they they might be students who might be candidates to

085take it in a virtual setting. Okay. Great. [snorts] >> Um the challenge right now is that I don't know where the tally marks are. I don't know the student requests for courses. So I'm trying to make a lot of predictive factors that I that I don't have all the information. I just wanted to make sure it was like incorporating everyone who may have a unique situation to >> Yeah, BCT is another one because their schedule's compact. >> And then obviously that virtual course is meets the mandate as well. >> Yes, that's correct. >> Thank you. >> All right. Well, thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Thank you all three of you. And uh what we will do is bring forward this the all both of those program studies for your consideration at the legislative

086meeting as we begin course planning in January. So, I'm going to ask Dr. Mayori and Mrs. Draaski to stay at the podium. And I know they have some student representatives and teacher representatives here this evening. They want to share a little bit about student council at both the middle schools. Um, it's incorporation um the involvement, the types of things they do. And part of this is their um ask as to a consideration of the board for um uh inclusion of representatives for stipens for overseeing uh these large student councils and your consideration of approving that in the future as a possibility with regard to the CBA. So Dr. Mayor >> Dr. Dr. David Heiser, that was an excellent introduction and you have calmed my nerves because I was to lead us in to our introduction,

087but I cannot top that. But thank you very much for leading us leading it in because the board you are aware or you ask to be aware and it's important that you are aware of what is going on in our buildings and the successes and challenges that we have. And it's important that we take a little bit of time to share with you some of the awesomeness that is our student council in both of our buildings, east and west. That's why we've come together for this presentation to give you some information to highlight uh some fantastic students who are going to talk uh about the um the operations of student council. So before I pass the mic over the group that I have up here with me is of course Miss Dumbousski, principal at There's

088Miss Drosski. That's all right. Principal of Middle School West. We have our adviserss at East. We have Miss Jen Young. And over at west, we have our uh two adviserss over there, John Hazel and Melissa Shelley. And then we do have some student representatives, two from each building. Uh at east, we have our student council president, Colin Dieser and vice president, Abby Stanchek, as well as our west representatives, Evie Smith and Carter Kelly. So, I'm going to turn it over to Colin Dieser to get uh some some information started and shared your way. Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayori. As he said, I'm Colin Dieser and I'm the student council president at Boytown Middle School East. >> And I'm Abby Sancheek, the Middle School East vice president. >> Um, student council is very important to our

089school building and the students in it. Um, we get to help make fun activities for the students to do around the school and do after school on some occasions. Um I asked some students around the building if if like student council gives them different perspective on the school day and they all agree that student councils are events are fun and inclusive for everyone. These school events build community within the schools as well as are inclusive for all grade levels and all students and gets them connected with each other through different events that they cannot normally do when they're separated by grade level. Thanks. We love to lead um the planning and development of the ideas we create. When we first get assigned to an event to plan, we get to be the ones who brainstorm

090and bring the ideas to life. The creativity of the student council members gets to be expressed in a way for the whole school to enjoy. >> Um student council also teaches us real world experiences and traits that we get to benefit from in the future of going to the high school and going into future college and jobs. Um, ever since Abby or I have been in student council, we've gotten to see the growth in our leadership or in our mindset for leadership. We've been in student council for three years and we've gotten to grow and gain a different perspective on leadership. Leadership went from being like the boss of the group to being someone who sets the example or someone who guides and sets others up for success. And this shift in mindset is thanks

091to student council. One example of an event that student council runs is the school dances. These dances are a great way to hang out with your friends in other grade levels or just get to dance with your friends. Student council hosts about four to five dances per year and each dance has about 350 to 400 students attending. Along with being a fun opportunity for students, the dances that student council runs are a major fundraiser for the student activity funds. One dance that student council runs is the eighth grade formal. This dance is planned alternately by each middle school and is a great event for both schools. Although this dance is only for eighth grade students, you get to hang out and dance with our fellow Bertown students at the other middle school. This dance is

092not a fundraiser for East nor west. This dance actually starts our class account at the high school for the following year when we will be at Bash. >> Another thing that student council does behind the scenes is spirit wear and spirit days. The spirit wear is a great way to show school spirit along with the the spirit days. Um both East and West run different spirit days and help bring community to a to and fun to a normal day of school. And middle school west oversees the sales and the branding of the popular be awesome spirit wear that we all know and love. Um we make these spirit days fun and creative like Grinch day or even color wars. Not only does student council help the building, it helps run community events and fundra and

093fundraisers that support our town. Student council plans and runs these donation and community outreach events behind the scenes. Food drives are the main way that student council supports our community. We are currently in the middle of a food drive at East. Whichever teach teacher has the most items in their box at the end of the drive will have to wear a turkey costume at the last day of school before Thanksgiving break. These food drives allow students to have fun while giving back to the families and people who need it. There are other charity events that student council helps with like raising money for cancer awareness re and research. >> Barathon is another thing that is specific to Boyertown Middle School East, but is a major fundraiser for the community and the town. Um, Barathon is

094a yearly tradition that over half of our school attends. It runs from 2:30 to 7:30 and consists of games, activities, and raises money which we donate to the Bordertown United Way. Um, student council members start planning this about 3 months before the event happens. So, this is like a big thing that student council runs. In March of 2024, student council raised over $7,000 for United Way and some former school board members showed up to serve dinner and is a great opportunity to create a bridge for the community and the school districts. Um, none of this would be possible without our hardworking adviserss. They spend countless hours after school making sure that everything goes smoothly. They spend hours on the smallest details, like going to three different stores for one coconut on a palm tree for

095one dance. That hard work and dedication is something we'll remember for a long time after leaving middle school and going on into high school. These advisers roles go past being a teacher. They are example of what hard work looks like. Thank you for giving us your time. Now, here is Middle School East's amazing student council adviser, Miss Young, with more information. >> Thank you, Colin and Abby. They do a great job. I've worked with them for three years and they've been great since sixth grade. So, I've enjoyed working with them and with all of our student council members. So, they highlighted a lot of the main purposes of student council. Just want to reiterate a lot of things. We plan events throughout the entire school year. We start with spirit days and dances in the

096beginning of the year. We have our eighth grade formal in May. We plan some activities that we run live on the last day of school. So, we go to the very end, very last day of school. And like Colin and Abby said, these are for all of our students in a school, which is really great. It builds that community. A lot of our staff members volunteer at these events. And so, it builds that rapport. That's a positive rapport between our staff members and our [clears throat] students. We also, like they highlighted, a lot of opportunities to give back to the community. So, not only does that help our community, it gives our students a chance to see the value of giving back to their own community and that charitable work. A lot of the funds

097that we raise through primarily through our school dances do fund a lot of our other student organizations and activities throughout the school year. So, we want to highlight some of the things specifically for our student council members. So, we have over 30 students each year in student council as members and they are from multiple grade levels. We meet regularly during 10th period, but we do also meet in the summer. And we do also meet after school hours in order to set up and prepare for a lot of our events and activities. These students when they're in student council, not only are they planning these fun events, they are gaining so many life skills that they don't necessarily get through a traditional academic class. So things like leadership, you know, they talked about how their idea

098of leadership has changed over their three years in student council. They lead um our student council is split up into student led planning teams. So the officers are leading a group of about seven to eight students each and they lead an event from start to finish and they get to plan it from the beginning. They also learn collaboration in those studentled planning teams. They work together to agree on an idea. They have to come to an agreement on what the theme is going to be for the dance, who's going to do the different portions, who's going to work on the decorations, and they look at that different collaborative piece. They also work on time management. They find out, you know, my dance is November 21st. When do I need to start advertising? When do I

099need to have my posters up? When do I need to have my decorations ready to go? So, they work on that as well. And also public speaking. Colin and Abby did a fantastic job here. They speak at assemblies. Um, they speak at our marathon event. So, they get a lot of opportunities to have some of that natural public speaking in real world settings. I mentioned earlier that our student council funds do fund other things. There's a long list on here. I won't read all of them, but just to highlight a few items. Our bear ambassador program um which is our eighth graders who are supports in our stu in our school for new students coming into the building. Not only sixth graders, but anyone who is new to the building coming in. It also funds

100um part of our eighth grade community project that has been successful at both east and west. So, it does fund part of that. There's a lot of funds that we use for other academic opportunities for our students. For example, our spelling bee competition, our math counts competition, the TSA students, we support them as well. Also, there's a math career conference that's available and we do support them and fund the students opportunity to go there. And as Colin and Abby mentioned, this does start their fund for the high school through the eighth grade formal in the spring. So that fund uh those monies get transferred up to the high school to start their class fund which is used um in support of prom, graduation, senior trip and also that senior gift back to the district at

101the end of their graduation time. So the adviser at East and West, the adviser spends a lot of time outside of school preparing for student council because ultimately the adviser is there to ensure that everything is done, checked all the boxes to make sure that the event runs smoothly. We prepare for each of those meetings, thinking about what do we need to have done at this meeting to make sure that our events are done on time. Uh we also make sure after the meeting everything is put back, everything's cleaned up and ready to go. Uh we keep track of all the timelines for the event. Yes, our students are learning the time management, but they're learning that piece partially from us. So when they know that their dance is coming up, we help them to

102project that timeline of when do they need to have all of their things done. A lot of the communication happens through the advisor. So we are constantly in communication with our administration to coordinate all of our events. We need to make sure we're not conflicting with other events and things happening in our building or in our district at large. We are communicating with the other staff members in school as well as the students and the families making sure that advertising piece gets out there making sure everybody knows what's happening and when. We are also coordinating with community organizations. Um sometimes it's when we are donating to them with a lot of the charitable donations. Sometimes we are reaching out to them for donations and volunteers towards our events. So bridging that uh community relationship. We

103work on the schedules for all of the events and coordinating all the volunteers for all of the events. So each event has to have its own schedule. We have different stations. The volunteers, we have to have every station covered. So we work on coordinating all of that. All the materials for all the events, you know, it's looking through, do we have the materials here at our building? Do we need to get them from other locations? We need to make sure everything's in the right place where it needs to be. For the actual events, we're there to set up the event. We run the event. we clean up after the event. So, you know, we we tried to do an estimate of about over 200 hours outside of the normal school day to make sure we

104ensure that the success of these events and so that the students ideas can really come into action and that the students, like they said, have these great opportunities to have fun in their school, give back to their community, develop those positive relationships, and learn a lot of those important skills that they are gaining, a lot of those life skills through the student council club. So, we're going to pass it over to Mr. Mayor. >> Yep. And Miss Drowski and I want to publicly thank, you know, Miss Young, Miss Shelley, Mr. Hazel for their time and organization to making this happen because it's a little bit of an underplay here. We rely on our student council so much in the buildings to be able to support these many events. That is what connects students to the

105school. We talk about we have the athletics, we have the music program, but there are others other groups of students that don't have that connection and we see it occur through these events that student council runs. So we do need and we ask for the continued support of the school board, the administration, both central office and building, the buildings and staff members, the community to help keep this organization moving forward. This will help keep the opportunities accessible to our students. And you heard the many benefits that they gain both as individual students and leaders but also the funding for the necessary things that occur throughout the school year and in order to one of the key ways to keep this going is ensuring that we have adviserss to lead this organization. So that's why we

106are asking for approval for this to become a stipened position at the November the um second next board meeting uh at a category 6 level which uh you know is approximately depending on the year of the contract you're looking at either $2,46 if this is year three or $2,147 if this is year four uh that we're looking at. and um you know for each of the two buildings and that's going to go a long way in keeping this uh program sustainable and there's opportunities open for our kids. So thank you for listening. We'd love to field any questions that you may have. Mr. Zawata, >> can I ask you a question? Have you guys figured out how to get the boys off of the one wall and the girls off of the other wall when

107it comes to the dances? >> So active. We're working on that. >> Work in progress. >> They they get after it. It's really impressive. [laughter] This year especially, we've had whatever they call the dance off in the middle of the the gin. I did go over to a west dance last year for a bit and they were getting after it as well. So, I think the whole wallflower thing is kind of uh kind of evolved from that. >> It's not really happening anymore to be honest. >> Cyrus. Party in the USA. [laughter] >> That brings them together. >> Yep. Party in the USA. Yep. >> I don't really have any questions. I just want to say that Abby and Colin did a great job. >> They did great job speaking in front of adults. I

108know it's very difficult and you guys are great. >> Well, thank you very much. We appreciate it. >> Thank you everyone and for the board. We'll bring that forward for your consideration at our next meeting. That does take us down to item F, uh the bash chiller number two compressor motor. There was a request by the board that uh we provide documentation to the the board in regards to um this motor. It's uh for the chiller number two at Bash, its cost uh which the cost has been or the cost estimate has been held through looks like December 4th and the fact that uh a one-year parts warranty will begin after the 2026 spring startup has taken place. So, we are going to bring forward at our at the next legislative meeting this item for

109your approval. uh and um so that we can u get busy moving forward in uh purchasing this product and um making the necessary repairs and then obviously we should see um the warranty take effect after the spring start up. So I know Mr. Bramble you're here. Anything more that needs to be shared with regard to that? >> That's the entire >> Okay. the uh Johnson Controls and the repairs for the West chiller um will only be the warranty on the new parts. It wouldn't be like the leak repair. There's no warranty on that. It would just be the uh the um variable frequency drive um is the main piece that would be under warranty. >> Okay. So we barring any questions, we'll bring forward this for your consideration at our next legislative meeting as well.

110Takes us down to item G, track and field uh record board donation. And Mr. Paladino is here to speak to and we have a short little short presentation of a donation that's um um being offered to the school district and what the implications are with regard to it. U Miss Palino Let me grab it here. I can use I'm going to use my computer for that. >> I'm not sure why it's not Nick's gonna have to dance. >> Nick's gonna have to dance. >> [snorts] >> There you go. >> Thanks everyone. >> All right. Thank you everybody. Sorry about that. Uh, one of the strengths that we have in Boyertown is our booster clubs. Our booster clubs always they come forward, they have some great ideas and they financially help us not only the our

111student athletes who are currently here, but also our athletes who actually become who become alumni and presenting those records that they had while they were here. So, our our track and field boosters came to me and our our uh head coach with the idea of having two record boards, one inside for our indoor or winter track teams and then one outside for our for um our spring track team. So, they want to do two 5x5, they're called interchangeable boards. So, we can go on and we can change these records out if the records do get broken. The outside board will be at the public track gate leading into Memorial Stadium. It will be hung on the side of the concession building and the indoor record board will be AC between the Bear and Cub gyms

112when you go up the hallway on your lefthand side across from our um a lot of our plaques of our championship teams. So, design details, like I said, they're five foot five boards. They're professionally produced by Team Fitz Graphics. Total estimated cost of the donation for the indoor board is a little over $3,200 and the outside board is a little over $2,800. And that would be entirely donated by our booster club. To update the board, there is a cost of $12 per insert per excuse me, per insert. Okay? and that would be capped at $96 a year. We wouldn't really, unless we had a phenomenal season where we broke all kinds of records, we wouldn't have to worry about changing out all those those name plates every year for the maintenance and oversight of it.

113All the maintenance costs will be done by our booster club. It's going to be managed by our head coach and a booster club representative. any additional additions, subtractions, they have to be approved by somebody in the athletic department. So, you just can't we have to make sure that that number that that record actually was broken before we publish it and put a new name on there. We'll do that annually. It's not going to be done on a weekly basis. It'll probably be done over the summer and then we that way we can verify all the records will be broken. The boards will be installed by our facilities department and any hardware needed for that install will be covered by the athletic department. So, here's a picture of the boards. As you can see, there's a

114lot of a lot of track events. So, this is something where right now we do not have any of this publicly for our for people who come into the stadium, people who come into our gyms so they can see. So, this will be a great uh testament to all of our student athletes who have accomplished these records over the past 50 60 years. Any questions? And again, the majority of this is a donation through the track and field booster club. We wanted to bring it to your attention and kind of separate it from the rest of the donations as there are some implications to this. Uh for for example, our maintenance team is going to take time to install and have installation time. Uh there is going to be possibly a $96 annual upkeep with

115changing out some of the name plates and things like like that going forward. But the majority of the cost and expenditure here for what we hope to be a great recognition [clears throat] for all of our our our for track athletes that that set records um can be memorialized on these boards. [cough] Okay. Well, we will bring that forward for your consideration. Just like that. [snorts] Okay, that just takes us down to the item H, special education settlement agreements. There were three uh settlement agreements that were provided to the board in its weekly update um for you explaining those and we are asking and recommending those uh those agreements um and we will look to bring those forward at our next um me legislative meeting. Item I is the donation list. You can see those

116listed there um for you again through the generosity of our community through our groups. Um we do have a number of donations. We have the music league donating some choir chairs. Um we do have the obviously the donation of the boards that were just shared with you. three uh donations from the Boyertown Elementary uh school PTO for various purchases and a donation from the historical society there as well. So, we are recommending all of those to you and we'll bring those forward at our next legislative meeting [cough] reports. BCIU Mr. Brophie >> nothing relevant for us. >> Okay. >> BCTC Mr. Up the Grove. Uh, >> no report. >> Okay. There is no one signed up for public comment period number one. So at this time we're looking for the approval of the October [cough]

1172028 October 28, 2025 legislative meeting minutes. >> Motion. >> So I had a second. [cough and clears throat] >> Miss Diamond. >> Yeah. >> Mr. Mr. Brad up to proof. >> Yes. Mr. Roger upgra >> Yes. >> Mr. Zawada. >> Yes. >> Mr. Broofphy. >> Yes. >> Miss Duff. >> No. >> Miss Katz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Penerella. >> Yes. >> Six eyes. >> Takes us down to personnel and the administration is recommending the board approve the following personnel actions that are listed on its agenda. It's a lot of moves. >> I'll [clears throat] second. [snorts] >> Mr. Rolf, >> I have a question. I thought the only time we hired like substitutes was through either of the uh >> I can't think of the names now. >> Kelly, [snorts] >> Kelly or the other

118one? No, our our CBA allows us to hire long-term subs with the district for any assignment over 90 days. Anything under 90 days, it is an extended sub through Kelly Services. >> Okay. So, how can somebody be a sub here and they be working in another district? I don't know of anyone that is a long-term sub here and works in another district because all of our long-term subs here are full-time while they're here. >> See me after the meeting. >> Sure. >> Thank you. >> I'll call the vote. Miss Nyman, [clears throat] >> yes. >> Mr. Brad Upgroo, yes. Mr. Roger Upgroof, >> yes. >> Mr. Zawatada, >> yes. >> Mr. Broofphy, >> yes. Miss Dro, >> no. >> Miss Kratz, >> yes. >> Mr. Penello, >> yes. >> Eyes have it. >> Under item

119nine, old business. There we do not have any this time. >> Public com period number two, John Amy, strategic planning transparency elements. >> I'll [snorts] wave. I need to think on that a little bit more. I'll talk at a later date. >> Okay. Board comment. Mr. about the grove. >> Uh yes, at the last um new Hannibal uh planning agency m uh meeting um the Windstone Development Project brought in uh 692 homes for down at the airport. And they're also requesting that two hotels with 80 unit total for that area. They also said if they couldn't get this through, it was going to be an Amazon warehouse. I was bringing money. >> 750 only 200 of them are homes out of that. >> Miss Diamond. >> Oh yeah. Um first of all, thank you to

120all of our vets. Um, I haven't heard from anybody that wanted to come into our schools. I'm hoping the ones that did give me issues from before were allowed in this time, but uh I want to thank them very much for their service. Um, and at last meeting uh I was not happy with the way that capital funds update was given. That was a political action on on my behalf. I I I honestly think that was all political. Uh and giving it to the board at the last minute like that was not professional at all. Mrs. Nim, just to respond to your uh veteran day activities, as I shared, we had um veterans in our buildings both yesterday and tomorrow. So for um at BASH yesterday we had 11 veterans came in and spoke inside

121of 11 different and rotated through classrooms all day long. We served lunch um and had a nice um flag raising at the start of the day with a le wreath laying ceremony at West. Um [clears throat] there was a choir our our middle school east and west show choirs um participated at a service concert on on the the 9th. Uh sixth grade students were busy throughout their day uh doing a number of different cards to veterans. students in social classes um are participating and have been participating in a number of different events throughout the course [snorts] of yesterday and tomorrow in relation to the day. Uh Barttown Elementary and a number of other elementaryaries made some hero posters, cards. Um Earl is hosting an assembly tomorrow. They have a number of invited veterans. So I

122think our our schools have have tried to incorporate into the the the business of the day and standalone opportunities for us to certainly recognize the importance of Veterans Day itself and that is um and and the service that our veterans do. So I want to thank our our folks and um thanks for asking. I I know we want h have a uh a true interest in making sure that we have representatives that come into buildings and that feel part of the culture and able to speak with a number of different students throughout. So, u >> there was just past issues where [snorts] certain ones that I knew of had contacted me and they weren't allowed in and I'm hoping that we rectified that. I think one of them I did put in touch with Mr.

123Stout the other year. So, I haven't heard from that gentleman, so I'm hoping he was allowed in this year. >> Yeah, I think we had a we had a a nice representation of of folks uh number of veterans that were part of the um the policy with the P, MIA, Burks County chapter uh organization that came in. Um so, I think we um we had it from the feedback I received and heard throughout the day that they were wellreceived in the classrooms. >> Do some really nice events with them. >> Yeah. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Um, just to any veterans who may be listening, thank you for your service and also thank you to everyone who presented tonight. >> Mr. Darl, >> I just want to thank all the veterans for their service. Thank

124you, >> Mr. Brophy. >> Nothing new. >> Definitely a thank you to our veterans. Looking back over the four years that I was here, I did have some things that I did feel that we accomplished as a board and some just individually as we [snorts] had to move some votes. Um, I want to stop u basically ask or thank Mr. Up the Grove for reaching out to me in the beginning and putting something in my ear about getting involved and I'm really glad that I did. I want to thank uh Mrs. got for stepping up when it was needed when we had a person resign. Um I look at we got mask optional done. We got our new health and safety plan so basically the school will never go back to mass optional. The school

125would go cyber. Um we did get education transparency. We added to our police force. [snorts] Um we gave a we got a good teachers contract. We added esports, girls wrestling, girls flag football, and most importantly, our special needs sport events. So, looking back as a board, we did get a lot done. Sometimes it was not as uh a vote that I would care for, but it is what it was and we got it passed. And probably the most important thing that we did is um we got Mr. David Heiser um his uh pedigree is phenomenal and if you haven't noticed the last six months, seven months the difference in the school boards the meetings as well as uh open to the different um [snorts] let's say curriculum and uh policy and those kind of things

126that we never had before. his educational advice to all of us has helped us immensely. And I know finally, I want to thank uh Mr. Panerello. I've enjoyed the last two years of working with him and I believe we've got a substantial amount of stuff done and we're leaving the school district uh stronger financially than we started. So again, thank you to everybody that helped me get through this. I just want to thank all the vets who uh serve and continue to serve served in the past and um that's about it. Announcements. So, we have uh upcoming meetings. We do have during the Thanksgiving week, we have a policy committee meeting starting at 6:00 here at the Ed Center, followed by our legislative meeting at 700 p.m. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Meeting adjourned. [music]

127>> [music] [music]