001[Music] like to call the meeting to order. Roll call. >> Miss Duff. >> Miss Kratz >> here. >> Miss Nyman >> here. >> Miss Scott >> here. >> Mr. Brad Upgrove >> here. >> Mr. Roger Upgro >> here. >> Mr. Mr. Zato >> here. >> Mr. Broofphy >> here. >> Mr. Penella >> here. >> All present. >> You rise for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. >> Aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The board of school directors held an executive session on October 14th, 2025. Topic was legal andformational. Session lasted approximately 75 minutes. takes us down to our discussion and information section for the evening. We have a number
002of presentations for the board and our community this evening. Our first is going to be a virtual presentation by an organization named steps to achieve. And if you recall, they were the one submitt for a proposal for our RFP um which was a designated um feasibility study for the the possibility of an all day kindergarten program. Uh this evening they've been invited to present their proposal to the board and um activate any questions that you would have and your consideration at a future meeting. um in terms of whether or not you'd like to enter into a contract with uh them for their services. So, I'm going to uh kick it off this evening and um we do have Mrs. Koganar who is virtually on the screen for us. Can you hear us? >> I can.
003>> All right. Hear me? >> I can. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. So, uh, we're going to put your presentation on the screen at the same time that we also can see you. >> You want me to share it? >> You're going to do a screen share? Yes, that would be great. Thank you. >> Can you see the presentation? >> Not yet. There it is. Yes, we can now. >> Perfect. >> All right, it's all yours. Thank you. >> All right. Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. My name is Jane Cooker and I am one of the owners of Steps to Achieve. Um, let me tell you a little bit about myself and how I came to this. I spent 28 years in public education. Um, all 28 years
004with the school district, um, McKisport Area School District. We're located just outside of Pittsburgh. Um, I started there as a special ed teacher. I was then an assistant principal, a principal, director of technology and then I spent the last 13 years um in central administration as their director of federal programs. Along with that, I did a host of other jobs as you know um in education you take on many hats. One of the hats I took on for the last eight years before I retired was I ran our prek counts program. We had 72 slots in McKeport. did four full-time classrooms with 18 kids in each classroom. Along with that, we actually I was part of the team in McKEsport that went from half day kindergarten to full day kindergarten. So, I have firsthand knowledge
005of those experiences that take place when you're going to be involved in that. So, I'm going to briefly go over this PowerPoint that I put together and then if you have any questions, we can by by all means address those. And if you have any questions during the presentation, please stop me and I will answer them then. All right. So, the first thing we'll look at if we're doing the feasibility study is the competencies. And as you can see, I have um five of them listed on the screen. In implementing any new program, whether you're going to implement full day kindergarten or you're going to implement a new curriculum, we need to take a look at what it is going to look like. We're going to financially we're going to need to take a look
006at it. Full day kindergarten's expensive. That that's the truth. You have to double a lot of things. Your teachers, your um classroom space, um your equipment, a lot of things have to be doubled. So, you have to look at it financially. The second thing we're going to look at is does your community want full day kindergarten? I was looking on your website and I noticed that you had prek counts and pre your prek counts as full full day. So if we're going from full day prek counts to half day kindergarten, what do your stakeholders think about that? I also looked and I saw that Colbrook Dale and Washington have full day kindergarten programs. I'm going to assume and I don't know this for fact but you can share with me that those are your most
007at risk students. Do stakeholders feel that we should get it for all students? Should it be a combination? I will tell you when Mckisport started ours we gave the option to parents in those first few years there were a few parents that stuck to half day kindergarten but very quickly it was a total full day for everybody. Um, we need to look at the educational programming. How is that going to change? What kids do for two and a half hours versus what they're going to do for 6 hours. Also, they're going to have breakfast. They're going to have lunch. They're going to have two meals in the school as opposed to one. How is that going to change exactly what you are doing in your schools? How your teachers are doing it? What type of
008training will your teachers need? What type of training will your parents need? because this will be a big change for them. And then we're going to look at enrollment forecasting. How many kids do you have in half day right now? How many kids do you have in those full day kindergarten programs? How many kids do you project will be coming into your schools? With that, you can then look at the cost associated with it. And then finally, Pennsylvania's educational landscape. As you know, there are different ways to pay for full day kindergarten. You can pay for part of it out of your title one funds if you would want to do that. You can use ready tolearn funds if you would want to pay for full day kindergarten there. So there are different ways that
009full day kindergarten can be paid for. Any questions? I know that was a brief overview, but I want to be respectful of your time, too. But at the end, if you have any questions, by all means, we can go over that. Whoops. Sorry about that. As I introduced myself, I would be the lead evaluator. Um Jim, who you actually met Jim a few months ago, he came out and did a presentation for you. Um he'll be the project manager of the job. And then finally, we have a senior statistician. Um that Dave will any sort of statistics that has to be ran, he will take care of that. I love people and I love being out with people, but uh stats is not my favorite thing. When I got my dissertation, I lived through it,
010but that was about it. So, we do have a full-time statistician with us also. So, it's really important when we're when you're deciding about full day kindergarten, you want to look at the impact that it's going to have on your students. There is plethors. I mean, if you research full day kindergarten, you can get all of the positives, you can get all of the negatives, and you can get almost anything in between also. But it really comes down to what the current research is saying and what your stakeholders want. It stands to reason that if kids are in school for more period of time, they will learn more. That that kind of is the logic behind full day kindergarten. However, there are downsides to full day kindergarten. Also, um some kids are just too young
011and the day is too long for them. Some families really cherish that last year that they can do things with their child before they're in school full-time. There is, to be honest with you, mixed evidence about the academic impact of full day kindergarten. If we're doing this feasibility study, we'll take a look at all of that for you so that you can make a decision based on fact, not opinion. I've kind of brought up some of the challenges that um happen around full day kindergarten. The the biggest one or the two biggest ones is does your stakeholder want it? And secondly, cost. There is a significant cost associated with full day kindergarten. If we're doing the feasibility study, we will look at your community, as I've mentioned, your stakeholders. What do they want? And then
012we'll also in the end, as you can see on the screen, look at a costbenefit analysis to determine if you do go this, this is how much it's going to cost you. If you don't do this and your students need full day kindergarten, maybe financially it's not costing you, but academically it's costing you. And this is the approach that we will take in doing this feasibility study. Um the very first phase will be our discovery phase and our engagement phase. At this time we'll review all your district provided data, your enrollment, your facility blueprints, your budgets. I'll ask you for a ton of PIMS PIMS reports, different PIMS reports. We'll probably look at your federal programs. We'll look at um state monies that you get. We'll get look at district monies. will want to really
013get an overall view of your district. We'll also deploy parents parent community surveys. We'll initiate some stakeholder interviews. We'll do that in our discovery phase and then we'll move to phase two. This will be a quantitative analysis of all the collected data. We'll look at the financial models. We'll look at multiple scenarios for you to understand and we'll facilitate those focus groups and public forums to gather feedback on those preliminary findings. And then the last part, we will synthesize all of our findings, drafting a comprehensive report and implementation plan. We'll present those draft findings to the district leadership for feedback, and then we'll finalize and deliver all of the materials to you. That is a highlevel approach to what we'll do for you. When it comes to the stakeholder engagement and community input, this is
014what we are proposing. We are proposing that there will be two public community forums, one in the evening, maybe one in the weekend to present information and gather feedback. We'll definitely do a districtwide online survey. This will allow us to gauge the needs and the priorities of your stakeholders. Along with that, we will do focus groups with your elementary teachers, your principles, your support staff, anyone that you feel could really give us high quality information that we'll need to create this report. And finally, we'll definitely do one-on-one interviews with district leadership and board members to align the study with your strategic goals. Our team will conduct on-site assessments of all elementary schools to determine readiness. This might this will be looking at classroom by classroom capacities. Um the evaluation of your ancillary space utilization. Remember
015if you go to full day kindergarten you need to have additional cafeteria space, playground space, library, gymnasium, your specials. You're going to need additional special teachers. If your art teacher is maxed out right now teaching and now you've got to double their kindergarten load, we need to look at those items. If your cafeteria, can your kitchen handle the additional children? Those are just the types of things that we'll take a look at. Um, and then we'll deliver detailed models to provide clear picture of the operational shifts. And this will look at staffing models detailing the number of new teachers, aids, support personnel that may be required. We'll also look at transportation. That's a big part of this. Um, food service, special education, curriculum, scheduling, all of those types of things we'll take a look at.
016Then, of course, you're going to have your one-time transition cost. the purchasing of furniture, the purchasing of book series, um if you're going to have a library in each of the classrooms, the purchasing of those books. What are those one-time costs? And then what are those continual costs that you'll have each year? We'll look at a five-year budget in um projection for your district so you can look at long-term planning. >> Miss Co Miss Kogan, just didn't want to interrupt you. Um, your slides aren't your slides aren't continuing with you as you go through. >> I am so that's my problem. I like to talk so much that I forget to do the rest of >> Yeah. Okay. I just want to make sure you're sharing those those accurate slides. >> Thank you very much.
017I appreciate that. >> Um, here we go. We're on operational. Yeah. So talking about um staffing and we just talked about data, transportation and then assessment of the food services, special education, anything like that and I went over all of this not bore you again. So then the actional road map that we'll come up with is there'll be a phased implementation plan. We'll have an outline of our step-by-step plan and those key milestones um that you'll need to hit if you want to implement full day kindergarten. We'll definitely give you all of the stakeholder feedback so you know exactly what your stakeholders think. And finally, um roadmap incorporates the best practices and monitoring strategies to track program success and align with your district goals. What you will get in the end is a comprehensive written
018report and this will be detailed datari report containing all of our findings, our analysis, our scenario models and actionable recommendations. We'll do a formal presentation of the study's findings to the district administration and the board of school directors and then all of the supporting data will be provided to you so that you have it for now and you'll have it in the future. And as you can see on our screen, um we do have we're proposing a $25,000 all-inclusive fee that will account for everything. And this it you have the presentation. This is just a breakdown of how I came up with the $25,000. And then last but not least, do you have any questions and maybe I have answers for you? I think this might be for you actually, Dr. David Heiser. Do we
019have as they're doing all this, do we have a class size that we're aiming for like a max in these classes so that especially in kindergarten? Do you have an idea where you want that to fall? >> Okay. >> We do and we'll be sharing that with Okay. >> with with them uh during that time. Not dissimilar to what it what our sizes are now. Roughly in that, you know, really trying to be in that 20 range. >> Yeah. M. Coconut hour, do you um how much uh on-site time do you anticipate physically for somebody to be here? There's a lot of things that you talked about with meetings and so forth. What what do you anticipate? >> Well, I would definitely anticipate a m minimum of five days. Um but depending how we can
020schedule it could be more or less because I want to make sure that I can engage as many stakeholders as possible. So you know if I need to have something in the morning, something in the afternoon, something right after school, something in the evening so that we are able to people's work schedule does not prevent them from providing us information. Will you be looking at uh we have a total of nine um instructional buildings um that we currently utilize. Will you look at all all of our assets as it relates to that? Um and we and we do have another additional building to which uh is being utilized and and which we rent space from. Will all those things be taken into consideration when you look at um options available to us? >> Well, I
021mean your your your older schools, your middle schools, and your high school, I'm sure you wouldn't be putting kindergarten students in there. However, let me say that what I have experienced is when we went to full day kindergarten, sadly, we kicked the sixth graders out of our elementary buildings and moved them to our middle school so that we had more space in the schools. So, um I would say that it may come into play based on how many classroom spaces you have and how much you're going to need. I think one thing that that the administration and and I maybe I can speak on behalf of the board uh I don't know if they have these concerns as well is that we'd like to see if there are multiple different options to accomplish the goals
022of bringing an all day kindergarten program in. And when I say options, I mean from a physical space um component and and as you've said, money and facilities drives a good majority of decision making when it comes to this in a district our size geographically. Um I think we need to be as open to as many different options available to us to be able to take a look at that to analyze that. So, I think that would be one thing I would highly encourage if the board were to move forward with you in um trying to seek out multiple different options available. >> Absolutely. Yeah. I noticed you're what 94 square miles. >> That's correct. >> Yeah, it's very large >> geographically. Yes. >> Non. >> Miss Nimon. >> Um well, thank you for the
023presentation that you did here. Uh, first of all, our sixth grade are already kicked out of our elementaryaries. So, that's not even um I noticed you're looking at the stakeholder engagement, but you're only doing K through five. What about our senior citizens and all those everybody else or parents that don't have students here? Are you taking any of their considerations in? >> We absolutely can. Um, when I've done these studies in the past, what I've done is I've invited all community members, regardless of you have kids or not, in the district. And it's actually quite funny. I I always surprised how many senior citizens come out. And I think sometimes they come out just because they want to know what's going on in the schools and it's a way to find out. >> So, I
024really encourage their involvement. And to be honest, they're paying taxes so they they have a vested interest in this. >> Okay. Okay. Well, I was just concerned because there's nothing mentioned about them in this presentation. >> My mother would be very disappointed in that fact for me, too. >> I don't see or hear any other questions from the board at this time. So, I I do want to thank you for taking your time and being um thorough in your presentation. the board has this copy of your presentation. I think our next steps will be the board will make some determinations as to whether they not they move forward um with your proposal and um our next step would be then to to get back in touch with you based on that decision. So I want
025to thank you this evening for for taking your time. >> Oh, thank you very much. Have a great evening everybody. >> Thank you. Thank you. Bye >> bye. So I think that brings us to the inside that conversation as to the direction the board wants to take with regard to um this proposal. This was the only proposal the district received when it went out u for for an RFP. Um based on what you heard, what you've seen, what what you've read, uh the administration will need some direction as to what you would like us to do. Uh there is a $25,000 fee associated to this. So obviously this needs to be brought forward in a motion at a future meeting if the board so desires. >> I think we really need some direction this evening.
026So, we need to know I I I would encourage the board either a yes or no in moving this forward for consideration for a vote. And um at our next meeting, this I I will say this ties pretty uniquely um the report for our full district uh demographic study. Um, we should have the report by the end of this month and they will be uh re the uh PA Economy League will be at our November I think it's the 11th meeting to present the report to the board. So um it works well in terms of there's a lot of demographic data that uh this organization would need. We have that readily available updated you know it could be uniquely tied together. So, I would encourage the board to to give us some direction if we
027want it on the agenda for the for this to be considered at the October 28th meeting. >> Well, let's have a show of hands then to have it for the next meeting to be voted on. All in favor? Three, four, five. Five. >> Okay. We'll bring that forward uh for your consideration at our next legislative meeting. So, that takes us down to item B. Uh, we did have a um our bid results for the turf project uh uh project were um received on last Thursday. We do have CH CHA here this evening, Mike Spaphora, and we also have Jamie Lynch who will be on virtually to present those results to the board and to enter into and answer any questions that uh you may have with regard to the uh the bid results. And then
028similar to our conversation, some decisions will need to be made by the board whether those uh would if there's any um awarding of any contract would have to be considered at a legislative meeting. So Mr. Spapford, do you want to step to the podium? And I believe Jamie, can you hear us? Jamie Lynch is on. >> I can I can hear you. Can you hear me? >> We can. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. and >> terrific. >> Allison, are we going to have them drive the presentation? Is that necessary or are we going to bring that presentation up for for us to drive? How are we going to do this? >> I can bring it up. >> That first one. Yep, that's the one. >> Okay. >> All right. >> So, we have
029Mr. Spataphora here at the podium and we have Mr. Lynch on virtually and uh I'll let you guys take away the the presentation. Many of these slides board have seen before in previous, but we've included some of the bid results inside that. >> Thank you. >> Great. Mike, why don't you let me start and then I'll hand off to you if that's all right. >> Sure thing. >> Um, good evening everyone. It's good to be with you. I apologize. I had an earlier board meeting and uh so I am joining you virtually uh this evening with Mike Spataphora who was responsible for assembling all of the bid documents and putting this out on the street after we talked to you at uh your August uh meeting. Um the information tonight is uh short. Uh in
030this presentation, we've included all of the information that we shared with you at the prior two presentations regarding the details of the project. And so um first up is the bid tabulation that I'll hand over to Mike to share to just explain uh the base bid results and the alternate numbers that we've seen. Um, I've got another slide with respect to handling uh the budget and then uh together we can determine a couple of bid alternates that would be up for your discussion this evening. So with that, Mike, why don't you go to the second slide and take a look at the bid tab? >> Yep, got it up. Uh, good evening. Uh, for those who I have not met yet, Mike Spatter with CHA. Uh we did um we got our bids back last
031Thursday on the 9th and you can see on the bid tab we do have um we had five contractors uh submit the bids to us and if you look at let's exclude the second from the right that's kept in construction that was a a kind of a high number. The remaining four is a across all of those four bids is a is a $500,000 change. Um the numbers were very consistent which means they're very competitive. We did get good numbers. Um I can walk you through the alternates real quick. The first one is the unclassified classified alternate uh for $31,000. That's um we expect to have some shale. So we do have that. It would we would uh we would uh suggest that the board consider accepting that one. Uh the next two are for
032the different uh infill mixes that were included. One is the Brock fill. That's the organic. And the second one 2B is the the coated crumb rubber infill mix. So that would be a decision that the board would need to make as to which one of the infills uh they would like to include in that project. Uh the third one is to go from the standard 8-year to a 10-year warranty for $16,000. And that is um your GMAX testing will be all 10 of those years. That's it's included as part of that. And then uh alternate four is the logo for the practice field. Right now the base bid does not have a logo. It's just the just the turf itself. And then when we get to five, five is to deduct the practice field. And
033then the ones that are below that, if you decided to not do the second field, we then have to make those same decisions on the the alternates above um for just the stadium field. So, if we chose that one, we'd have to go back to the bottom and then figure out what we would add back in for only the one field. So, we can I can go through all of the numbers, but they're they're they're right there. Um, so we can talk about what we uh what the district would want to move forward at the the board meeting. And Jamie, I'll go on to the next one. I'm sorry. Does anyone have any questions >> questions about interrupt? >> Yeah, I >> I could interrupt you there, Mike, just for a second just for the
034um clarification for the board. Uh the apparent low bidder is the land group. Uh, and this is a company who's done numerous turf fields um across the Mid-Atlantic region. We've done a number of projects with them. This is a uh responsible contractor who's done excellent work in neighboring districts. So, we have very good high confidence in the apparent low bidder. I would also suggest based on our discussions in the past, as Mike said, that if both fields are being entertained, alternate one and two and uh excuse me, alternate one and three and four uh be accepted if you're willing. That provides the 10-year warranty. It eliminates any additional cost for rock excavation and provides the logo. The decision that's in front of us uh tonight amongst amongst these alternates is also to determine uh should
035you proceed which infill for the field that we would go with. And then so what I would do just to frame this from a budget standpoint is Mike if you could go to the next slide that has the budget on it. >> Sorry you got that up. >> Yep. Yeah, it's up. So this slide provides a comparison of the budget that we provided um back in February of uh this year for the project. It has the base bid budget, the soft cost that had escalation, we had a total estimate of 7.49 million. The bid cost is right next to it. So on based on that base bid number of 3.23 million, the soft costs remain essentially the same. There's your subco total of 4.8. 83 million. And then there's also the corresponding cost if a
036field was removed from the project. And one of the questions that the board may have immediately is, boy, this is a low number. And we're very fortunate that it is. And if you recall some of our earlier discussions, uh the first strategy here was to make sure that we bid this project as early as we can so that contractors would be filling their books for the following summer. We find that bids in the fall often come in favorably for work the following summer as opposed to ones that are bid in the spring with a quick start. You also have a very attractive project as we've discussed whether it's two fields or one field. Um and the start of the first field being in March is something that's very attractive to the contractors. Something that we've
037really um fell into in this uh situation with your project is that there are very few turf fields that are being bid this fall for some reason. Uh there are many that have gone in in the past years and there are several returf projects, but this is the first and one of the only turf projects regionally that we've seen. And as a result, there was great interest, not only in the pre- bid, but resulting in the bid numbers. They're extremely low. This is a fantastic value. We have talked to Lantech, who we just finished two other projects with. They've included everything that's in the bid documents. We've descoped them and they're ready to move on your behalf if you so choose. So with that, um the rest of the presentation that's here is the same
038presentation from last month and also from uh from February that contains all of the information about the fields and the scope that's in it. And I'd be happy to answer any questions or go through any of those slides with you and also engage in a discussion of which infill you might like to consider. Are there any questions from the board? >> Yeah, one question would be what is your recommendation? What's the best infield for student safety and health concerns? >> Um, agreed. >> Was there something else? >> No, no, no. Go ahead. >> So, that's a great question. And so we're deciding between the crumb rubber infill, which is commonly used in most of the fields in eastern Pennsylvania. Wherever you go, you'll see the black crumb rubber in most applications. As we discussed at
039prior meetings, in order to provide a greater level of protection on that crumb rubber, it can be coated with an acrylic coating. And that is the bid alternate number. uh 2B is to coat that crumb rubber with an acrylic coating. Not only does it encapsulate the crumb rubber, but the tendency especially in warmer clims is that it creates a cooler field. The other alternate 2A um also as we discussed is a infill that is organic in nature. The Brock fill is an engineered uh wood chip product and it's a relatively new product on the market. Uh there's one field locally that has um this product and we haven't seen a field with these organic products um actually perform all the way through it the 10-year warranty. That's not to say that they don't perform just
040with these new infills. We haven't seen it get all the way to the 10 years. The wood chip or the organic, and there's a number of different ones. The one thing that we've heard across the board in the industry is that anything that's wood or they also make them from coconut husk. When it rains, the infill tends to float. And when it snows or there's an ice storm, the infill tends to crystallize and provide a crusty underfoot surface. So, um, you know, this you would be one of the first people in the area with fields with that rock infill. So, I really think that our suggestion is to consider either the plain chrome rubber that is so commonly applied or to apply the coating and accept the alternate for the coated infill. I hope that
041answers that question. >> Yeah, it does. >> Other questions the board has? >> Which is field one? You say here field one. >> It's the practice field, not the >> I know, but on my >> 5A. That's 5 A. So that was 2 and a half million but on here it's 5 million. So where is the other money coming from? That final cost of 4.8 is that with all the alternates that use would recommend. No. Can you give me a number on that? Just >> can you give me the number that it would be a final for the two fields >> for the Brockville or No, not the Brockville. I'm sorry. The one with the uh the coded infill the logo the stuff you recommended. >> So So if I may, I I did a
042quick ad for this using the 2B. So, if we took alternate one for the unclassified, the 2B for the coated rubber, the 10-year warranty, and the logo, if you took all of those, you're at 3.387 as your base bid number for the construction cost. Then you would add the the 1.6 for soft cost. >> How much is that again? three 3,387,700 is adding alternates one, 2B, three, and four. And they would >> Yes, I agree. That's what my math shows, too. >> Did that in the parking lot. >> So, it still be coming in about two and a half million under what we budgeted. >> Yes, sir. But is that without field one? >> No, that's with both fields. >> Well, over here, >> the alternate 5A that you're looking at is to deduct the
043practice field from the contract. So, if you deducted it, that's worth 1.454. The the yeah, the far right column from Lantech. Go down to 5A. If you were to not do the second the practice field, you would get a you would uh we 1.454 would be taken off of that contract price. >> Maybe Mike or Jamie, you could ask this question. Have any of the soft cost total, the $1.6 $6 million soft cost. Have any of those been incurred already through this project or is that clock of that 1.6 million start um with the with the actual physical project itself? >> So the design costs are included in soft cost. So it has started. Okay. >> We've also had permit fees and uh engineering fees associated with the land development process. So yes, that clock
044has started. >> Yes. Okay. So I think we're we're in that 3 to 400,000 already. That close to what I think three close to 300,000 I think what has been incurred thus far of that 1.6. Okay. Thank you. And if I'm reading this right, this will be playable by September. >> Correct. That's the substantial completion date is September. Yes. >> Can you walk the board again through the timeline? of the uh field one. Um there was discussion that that could be uh begun right after we believe no more freezing would take place. Is that correct? >> Here here is the the schedule that was talked about. >> Page 16. I believe this here it goes. Here's the the project schedule that was put together. So, we are right now at the the October 14th meeting.
045The next thing would this would be to move this to the board meeting for a vote. And if the if the project is approved, we would initiate the notice of award to intent. I'm sorry, the intent to award the project to the contractor. And then we would the notice to proceed back forth with the contracts being executed. So we would be ready to start with procurement shop drawings in November and we'll be ready to get started weather pending March 15th on that on the practice field and then once kids are off of sorry at the stadium field we would start that one in toward the end of May. >> Thank you. Regarding that though, uh, we'll have the space for our lacrosse teams and the girls flag football team in the spring if we're doing
046construction down there. >> Mr. Baldino, can you respond to that? >> Yeah, the the only team that would be end up being moved would be boys lacrosse. They would play all their home games up in the stadium probably at night. Flag football already plays up there, so they'd be the only one that would be displaced right now. Miss Diamond. >> Uh, what about that stadium retaining wall? >> What about the stadium retaining wall? >> They said that's going to be needing to be looked at. Have we looked at that, >> Jamie? >> The retaining wall was not part of the project. Uh, are you asking to take a look at it from a structural standpoint? >> I believe it was said it's not structurally going to be okay for that much longer. Also, >> has
047not been >> uh the fences for the uh field one option, what kind of uh fences are going to be there because we have issues there now. I don't want to have any more issues there. that we have a 4ft fence surrounding the field and we spoke about this in uh August that we also have a net system on the field to prevent balls from going to neighboring properties. >> There's the the the net system up on that screen. >> Yeah. Well, we were promised things before and it was never delivered. So, >> it's included in the bid. I will not allow anything to go there again because those people deserve to have their property protected. So the um retaining wall, Mrs. Nyman, you'll need to bring us up to date on that because that's
048the first I'm hearing about. Anything that you want evaluated with a retaining wall? >> I believe Mr. Jluff brought something out about that at one point. >> I'm not sure who that gentleman is. Okay. >> Well, we're gonna have to go back and look at that. I've not been privy to that. So, we'll have to look at that. That's separate from this project itself. So, we'll we'll have to I'll follow up with Mr. Bramble to look at that. >> I think he was at Kerdale meeting where he gave a something on >> Okay. >> on the term. So, uh, just to kind of summarize this for the board and, um, again, similar to what conversation we just had with relation to the all day key, uh, kindergarten feasibility study, the board will need to give
049some direction whether you want to bring forward um, an award, a recommendation for an award of a contract, you have a low bid, that is required based on the evaluation meets the um the requirements set forth in all of the bid documents. One of the the few things that need to be considered are some of the alternates that the um CHA has recommended um and which the administration again does does second as well. That would be alternate one based on the amount of shale that's expected in there for that alternate one to be part of the award uh recommendation for to award. Um we'll skip the infill for a minute. The 10-year turf manufacturer warranty again is being recommended. That's alternate three. the logo at the center of the practice field one. Um, and Jamie,
050what am I missing? Just just the infill. >> Just the infill. >> Yes. So, >> which it looks like would be alternate 2B. So I think one of the things that's being recommended from a safety perspective is that what has been done more recently is they're now providing a coating to the granular rubber which is a protection uh for the breakdown of the rubber itself. Jamie, is there anything else that you want to provide with regard to that um infilled option as it's as being provided here as an alternate? >> Really, that's it. Dr. Davidiser, it's that common. And then also the coating has um shown to make for a cooler field in warmer climates. >> Okay. So, absent of that, the bases, the the rubber as as is without it. So um you know
051we we have talked with CHA about this and we are um in agreement with them of recommending if the board moves forward with awarding the the the bid um to and the contract as well as the alternates we talked about. And that would include the uh alternate number 2B which is engineered coated infilled in lie of the base bid turf infill. Miss Nimon. >> Yeah. Uh I've been doing research and it says about the hours on the field. How many hours can we be on these fields per year? Uh the question is how many hours could you be on the field per year? >> Yes. >> The wonderful thing the wonderful thing about turf is that it's rather unlimited as far as the number of hours especially compared to a natural turf field. >> That's
052not what I was reading. >> First and foremost with respect to precipitation um the field drains at upwards of 22 in per hour. So even in inclement weather, you can be on the field and the amount of time spent on a field is really proportional to the amount of effort put forth to grooming the field and the grooming equipment is provided with the field and is part of the warranty practice of doing GMAX testing at the end of every year. So we have some districts who are on the field every day, several times a day, morning, noon, and night. We have other districts who are on the field uh really for practices only at the end of the day. So it varies greatly. I've not heard any kind of limitation on the number of hours
053that you could actually be on the field. And of course it depends if it's performance or play or practice. >> Okay. Then I guess my next question to you uh Dr. David Heiser is we've never had any any discussion on how we're going to fund the turf fields. So, I think that's a big topic. >> So, it's been noted multiple times. This is all out of capital reserve and that's been noted on on many occasions with the board. >> Show me the money. >> The money is in the current capital that you receive every week in your weekly update as it as it relates to what's in the capital reserve. Do we need a show of hands for this to go move forward to next week? Go ahead and stop. >> Whatever. >> Um, we
054don't know if we're going to get the money from the state or when. We don't know about the federal and when. We already know that every year our taxes are going out 3% because of the teachers contract. And now we're talking about adding more things such as this and kindergarten in this whole conglomerate of things that haven't even been put in the five or 10 year plan. It just rude came out of the air, zipped down and said, "We're going to do it, but we'll get more vote and we'll we'll discuss it." It's been discussed. I know that it's been discussed, but it was never put in the plans. We we aren't used I'm not used to doing things this way and I don't know where the m the people are taxed out. I don't
055know where they're going to get money for higher taxes and they're going to come for other things besides a teacher contract. >> Just just out of curiosity, what does that have to do with this project though? >> What does higher taxes >> but what does what does this have to do with this project? put in the five or 10 year plan. >> You just said that you just said people's taxes are going to get raised. They're not. So what what is the relevance? >> So you don't have a you don't have a real response. >> You don't have >> No, you don't. The money's there. The money's been there for over three years. >> What you want? >> No, it's it's what everybody wants. That's why we're here. >> Use that money for other things.
056>> No, you can't. You can only use it for capital projects. It can't be removed from that. >> I'll get you a legal disc a legal opinion on it. >> I don't need one >> cuz I already have one. >> So do I. It's right there. Okay. >> So, you're saying the money taken out of the capital fund does never have to be replaced. >> I'm saying the money that's in the capital fund has been there for over >> three years. >> And that that has nothing and that has nothing to do with raising taxes. That this project has nothing to do with tax. >> My question is, does the money coming out of the capital fund have to be replaced? >> That's my question. >> Legally, no. There you go. >> Okay. So, when
057we have buildings go down, what are we going to do? >> Well, obviously you would start budgeting for it. That's an economic. >> But your own person just said that it's 3% raises for the for um to cover the teachers salaries. Correct. >> We haven't we haven't gone above that. We're still able. >> You pulled money out of the general fund this year. So we're >> Well, that's not true. That's not true because it hasn't happened yet. I mean, we'll see at the end of the year, right? >> We got to wait till the end of the year. We got to see what we get from the state. >> You better go back to school, boy. >> I'm pretty sure I have more education than you. >> We're going to move forward now. Show of
058hands to move this forward to the next meeting. >> There's a question over there. >> Another question as to what? >> Yeah, >> because we're not going to just beat around the bush. I'm not going to field questions for people who aren't going to vote for it anyway. >> I want to know what we're going to do about the buildings. This building in particular, anybody look at the outside of this building. >> So, we're talking about turf fields and you want to talk about what we're going to do with this building. That's not relevant. >> Where are you going to get the money from to redo buildings? >> All right. Show of hands. Who wants to move forward with this project? And you people are just as >> you are just all as ignorant as
059Tony is. >> Got to control yourself. We're in a meeting. >> Don't make me start hammering gamble. >> Nothing to do with my own way. You didn't put me in office and you're not going. >> Uh but I but I'm not taking you out. I'm telling you you're not talking anymore. I am doing that. >> Never even said if they're for this or not. >> Do I need to call recess because you can't control yourself? >> Do I need to call call recess for you to control yourself? control myself. >> Next up is data. >> Calling somebody else. >> Go ahead. >> All right. Mr. Spataphor, I want to thank you for for attending this evening, sharing with us uh the the information. Mr. Lynch, I want to thank you for being in attendance tonight
060virtually to share your >> your information with us this evening. Um it does appear that um the board will take into consideration at its next meeting awarding of uh some of the things that we've discussed this evening. So thank you both. So that takes us down. You're welcome. Thank you. That takes us down to item C. Data drives our decisions. Um and as shared during our committee meeting prior to this meeting, part of this is now sharing with the board and our community. What does that data mean for us? And what are the um the driving forces of planning and what have we done thus far with regard to the start of this school year as we are now almost eight weeks, seven weeks into the school year and some of the things that we're
061going to be focused on throughout the the remainder part of this year and reaching some of our goals. So, Miss Petri, welcome back to the podium. >> Thank you for having me back. Um, and really a lot of this presentation is just supporting what we're Is it not on? Sorry. A lot of the Thank you. A lot of this part of the presentation is supporting my earlier presentation on what are our next steps now that we have an idea of where some of our data is. So, you'll notice again that the vision statement and the mission statement and the portrait of the graduate are the forefront of this conversation because that's ultimately our goal of how we are helping students reach those pieces. I want to highlight that in our work this past spring when
062we developed our strategic plan um there was in both our curriculum instruction and professional development um plan as well as our student services plan we articulated the implementation of MTSS system which is a multi-tered system of support um and that is a looking at the whole child so we are not just supporting um just the academic piece because we know there are so many factors s of what contributes to whether a child is going to be able to come to school, be ready to learn, and to focus. So, this is a five-year plan and this is our first year in that plan. So, our focus this year is really to hone in on the tier one supports and using data to inform our decisions and think about how that's impacting our students and also identifying
063where our needs may be. um whether it's curricularly, whether it's behaviorally, or whether it's interventions, what is it that we truly need to help our students um continue to progress and be successful in their time with us. So, when you think about our academic tier one, that is the instruction that's happening in every single classroom. So, tier one is the opportunity that every child has when they walk into school, they go into their classroom. In a MTSS system, 80% of our students should be successful in their academic and behavioral social emotional experiences in that tier one instruction, whether it's behavior instruction, whether it's academic instruction. So, when we focus on academic, this year during our professional learning and conversations with our professional staff, we're really honing in on teacher clarity. And what that means is
064when you walk into a classroom, can a student explain what they're learning, why are they're learning it, and why is it important? So if you look at that image of the iceberg, you'll notice that those pieces are at the top of the iceberg. Those are the visible things. You walk in a room, can you see what a student is learning? Can they demonstrate that learning? And how do we know that they've learned it? But there's so much more behind and underneath the surface that gets to that that outcome. So, we are working tirelessly to help support our staff and making sure that we have full understanding of our our standards. We have full understanding of our expectations and we're making sure that we are providing those supports to staff to help provide that support. So,
065we're being very intentional and aligned to our academic standards to help support our students in that tier one academic experience when we think about behavior. So behavior again has a tier one expectation. So tier one behavior expectations are clearly and consistently communicating what those expectations are in the building and making sure that they're using age appropriate language so that students can be successful to know what should I be doing in the hallway, in the cafeteria, at lunch, in my classroom, at recess for our younger students, on the bus, but clearly articulating those behavior expectations. Every single one of our buildings has expectations for their building that if you walked into one of our schools, you would see them displayed throughout the building and classrooms. And over the past few months, our buildings are really working
066hard on making sure students know what those expectations are and talking about where will they be successful in those different environments within the school setting. So all nine of our buildings have expectations that are clearly articulated to students and are available for them to make sure that they're reinforcing those expectations. And if a child makes a poor choice, it comes back to the importance of of those expectations to making sure that everyone can come to school and have a safe learning environment. Our social emotional tier one focus falls into those three areas that we discussed earlier tonight. Um looking at our elementary school counselor lessons, our middle school reach program, and also thinking about our executive functioning skills. These are set instructional plans for our students to help them develop those skills and also tying
067in a lot of that career awareness and future planning to make sure we're helping our students reach that portrait of a graduate. So now we're going to take a look at some data. So we talked a lot about the outcome data, what those results are, but I wanted to share with you in the academic realm, how often does that data occur? So this is an example of our data assessment calendar. So these are those um formative assessments that we are we are giving throughout the year. So you'll notice if you look at the chart closely there is those dibbles which is a our screener data that's given three times a year. You'll notice there isl data that is is gathered throughout the year and gives that diagnostic piece to help teachers deliver their instruction. And
068then we're also going to be administering something called a Firefly assessment which is aligned to the state standards and gives teachers an indicator on students future success in those areas. So this is the elementary example and you'll notice the middle school example has those outlines as well as far as when those assessments are given. And you can see that we're keeping a very close watch on student performance all year long so that that can drive our response to students, the interventions provided and make sure that our students are continuing to grow and show that growth data as we think about that future projection the following school year. And this is an example of our senior high testing schedule. and theirs looks a little bit different because that when you think about that summitive assessment, the
069keystones are only in those specific courses that we listed, but they do have the PSAT exams given. They have end of course assessments um and midterms that are given throughout the year. So that outlines that for our senior high teachers for their planning purposes. So, in all of our buildings, we do have data meetings. And what that means is groups of teachers whe um sometimes with administrators, some with counselors meet to discuss that data, review it, and determine what are the potential needs for those students. So, they're looking at a global perspective. Um if we might notice a student is struggling academically, we might take a look at their attendance and see is there a connection between their time in school and their academic progress. So this is an example of what those data meetings
070and structures currently look like within our settings, but they are happening at all three levels and a little bit different environment because our settings look different and the coursework looks different as students progress through those years when we look at our data in behavioral data. So this year all of our elementary schools are attending um PBIS training which is positive behavior in supports in the schools. So every single one of our buildings is going through this training and really with a close analysis of how do we collect behavior data that can make a difference in our buildings. So in the elementary setting um you know thinking about the the recess environment, the bus environment, the re the cafeteria environment, it looks a little bit different than the middle school and high school level. the types
071of um discipline that is um potentially given at the elementary school looks different because of the developmental appropriateness. So the data systems right now that the elementary teams are going through training this year to really look at how do we collect that data that we can we can gather we can report out but also more importantly make an impact on that school culture for our buildings at the middle and high school level. Um most behavior incidents are entered into our infinite campus system. So that is a way for us to pull data that's related to types of incidents, the time of day, locations, and then allows uh administrative teams and and along with their teachers to put plans in place to help support and make a positive change related to behavior. When we look at
072the social emotional data that is some of the examples I shared earlier looking at our threat threat assessments and the specifics to things that are happening along with that our SAP referrals or ESAP which is our elementary student assistance program and also teacher and staff observations. So, if a teacher or staff member notices that a child um seems that some something doesn't seem to be okay, they are reaching out to counselors or reaching out to administrators and making sure that we're checking in on that child to make sure that they have supports if needed. So when we think about data, it in it it indicates a lot of things and those benchmarks and tier one supports are really what we're focused on this particular year. Um but when we make decisions about how do we
073support students, we're looking for patterns. So maybe there is a a repeated amount of low scores, maybe there's not the growth that we would expect, maybe there's multiple behavioral referrals for a student, maybe um there is something that then we would want to determine is there another layer of support. So that would be moving into our tier 2 supports. So for example, at the elementary school levels, an academic tier 2 support would be intervention um where we're meeting with a small group to really target some of those skills on those early literary illiteracy skills. A tier 2 example for a student that might be having some emotional needs might be a recommendation of school-based counseling. So, that's something that not every child would receive within that school environment. Um, but certainly, um, our goal is
074to create solid tier one experiences to limit the need for that tier 2 supports. So, if you look at the five-year plan, um this is a big picture ultimately with year five being able to implement and sustain a fully integrated MTSS system that is looking at all of those components, academic, behavior, and social emotional. But that doesn't happen in in one year. So, there are a lot of steps that we have to put into place. Like I said, this year we're really establishing common language and making sure everyone is um clear on those understandings, the types of data we're using to inform our decisions, and then making recommendations on what might be additional supports needed depending on what that data tells us. And as we determine those things over the year two, year three, and
075year four, we'll make recommendations on supports or modifications potentially to curriculum to make sure we're meeting all of the students needs within that full MTSS system. Questions? Yes. So, I'm hearing a lot about data collection and all that. Where do so you're collecting it as a whole to see you know where the weaknesses might be as a whole >> but what happens to the individual student daddy know kids struggle in middle school and high school but is that following them afterwards because a lot of times through the years that a lot of that gets straightened out for them. So >> sure what do you do with that data? >> Yeah so that's a great question. So um some of our standardized assessments are entered into something called ed insight which is our data warehouse for
076so that we can look at trends so we can see across the board all of those data points. If we see that there's been a struggle consistently we can provide that support. We can see consistently if there's you know maybe a student has really been accelerating and all of a sudden they're not. We can see that trend. Um, and so that gives a historical perspective and um, you're right, there's times where a student might have a need and then they get the supports they need and they don't need that anymore. It's just a piece of information, but it's not like it it's not something that hurts them. Um, but it allows us to see that that historical picture of the student. So, we're not starting over when they move, for example, from elementary to middle
077school. The middle school would have some of that historical data so they know what type of supports have been provided to that child. So when the child graduates, is that the end of that? It doesn't travel with them because it could be harmful for future employment and >> Oh yeah, sure. No, that is all in internal data that just helps us support them. It's really about helping the students and making sure that we're getting them the appropriate support if needed. >> Okay. Yep. >> So, are we getting every student a a referral on every student? Is the teacher required to give a report on every student and is that being enforced by the administration? >> Um >> are you just >> what kind of what so >> well to get to gather the information to
078give you the data? >> Okay. So great great question. So our systems that we're using so for example the program that we have in our elementary and middle schools is a it's a computerized program and it diagnoses students so it can pinpoint where their levels are. that is pulled out of the system and add automatically put into our in ed insight program. So it's a database that we can see. So the teachers can actually they could type in a student's name and pull that child up and see what has their progress been on the PSSAs, their diagnostics and all of those pieces. So it's not a report that a teacher has to write, but they have access to that information on their students that they have for that school year. But if if they're not
079writing the report, where ultimately is the how's the information getting inputed if it's not coming from a teacher? Do you do you understand what I'm saying? >> So for the the a lot of the assessments are computerenerated. So like they're done on the computer and then it's it's uploaded into the program. So there is a data. So for example, the dibbles screener that is a students the teachers conduct those assessments. They have a spreadsheet with all of their students names on it. They enter the number in that spreadsheet for the different scores of the different tests. That information gets uploaded into our data warehouse so that they can see trends and compare to make sure that they're providing appropriate supports to students. >> Okay, I understand that. So, um if we have a so basically
080two and two should equal four. So um if it's equaling three somebody's not imp implementing the information. Do you follow me? Or can you is and again it back it comes down to our teachers relying the information to you. >> Right. So I'm going to go back to just for example the um if I go to the assessment calendars. So all of this the teachers have this information. So during those highlighted circled areas that is a time frame where that assessment is needs to be administered because then it can be pulled into that our data warehouse. So everyone is taking that assessment during that window. So it helps us keep a finger on the pulse. Um the other piece to add to that when I uh I think that was before this um when I
081talked about the the meetings maybe that was after anyway um when I talk about our intervention meetings that data is all collected and they're able to look at it as a team together so they can pull and say all right we have a group across grade five that needs support in this skill they can pull from multiple classrooms and our intervention teams can help provide that to various students. So the teams sit down together and have conversations about what what do we need to do to help support our students. So all teachers are are conducting the assessment most of the assessments are pulled out electronically. >> Thank you. >> So when you're talking about the social emotional part of that that is behavioral issues threat assessments what you have written here safe to say reports
082>> that is our current data that we have. >> Okay. So that's where you pull that from. Yep, there are different types of screeners that we are not at this time we're not conducting a behavioral or emotional screener but there there are there are things that as we go through this process if we recognize you know that's something that we need to pursue that's something that we can look at but there right now we don't have a a formal data collection tool related to that. Any other questions? It's a lot. I know it's it's a it's a it's really looking at the big picture because we know there are so many factors that impact the success for our students. >> Any further questions for Mrs. Petri? Okay. Again, I want to thank you for >>
083Thank you. >> pulling together the both the data and the practice which is very important to understand. So, thank you. takes us down to item D, leadership support employee plan. We did share with the board um in a legal um executive session uh elements to that. I didn't know if the board had any questions or any thoughts with regard to that and we will look forward to move that to our next legislative meeting. Takes us down to item E, budget transfers. Mr. lent um if you could update the board with regard to those components. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. David Eiser. So, attached for approval of budget transfers as part of my work as an interim CFO, I've been meeting with budget administrators to review their budgets. Um then to do some reallocations of expenditures.
084uh what you see presented that have gone through is met with special education and in particular um did allocations to a number of supply accounts that did not have budgets attached to them. This will allow us to uh be able to track expenditures throughout the year um as they relate to the budget that's in place. The overall budget was um able to stay the same as to the bottom line. We really just redistributed the funds that were in the budget to line items that represented the spending plan for supplies, program needs related to students, um cost for for services related to special education. Um so that um we had the budgets in place where again we expect the spending to be and this really ties back to um the goal that I have to be
085able to give the board um some more timely updates about budget. I think Miss Nyman commented about wanting some more monthly reports. And this is one of the easiest ways that if we can get all these budgets to this point, I can come back and say, you know, it's January. Here's budgets that are half spent. Here's budgets we haven't spent. Here's budgets are watching out to see where they're going to be. >> And you can expect to see more of these budget transfers at our next meeting as well as we uh Mr. breaks into some other departments. Under item F, you see the listed policies at our last policy committee meeting. These were the policies that we reviewed. Um there are three policies that are did not move forward that we will bring back with
086some of the changes that were spoken about at that meeting and bring those back um to our next policy committee meeting for consideration. Um, these policies were uh pretty clean and clear-cut with regard to those and our plan is to move those forward for a first read at the October 28th meeting. There is an overnight trip for your consideration. This is the PASC state convention. This is our BASH student council for their annual trip. This is out in Union Area Middle High School in Newcastle. And you can see the details there surrounding uh the payments for students and the cost structures and what those activity fund payments uh make for those. This is an excellent trip for us to go out and allow our student leaders uh governmental leaders to share in many of the
087aspects of of legislature and to understand the dynamics that are associated to that. Um interesting time periods that we're living in right now. Um and some of those things I'm sure will be discussed at length with our student um governmental leaders as well. We will look to bring that forward to the legislative meeting for your your your consideration. Items H and I uh again during our executive session uh you were presented with some legal aspects of the u both the annual agreements and the settlement agreements. Uh for that we will be looking to move those forward to our legislative meeting. There is a 2627 CAFCco participation agreement. This is actually a collaborative agreement um and it's an effort for 2627 to purchase um and procure food items um in a a more collaborative which is
088tends to be a less expensive manner through and I believe this is through Lancaster Lebanon uh intermediate unit facilitating this. So, this is an agreement allowing such aspects of that to um to take place, which we would highly recommend the board agreeing to and allowing us to purchase collaboratively some of those food items. I'm going to ask uh under item K um Dr. Kristen Horton, our director of student services, just to come to the podium to share some information with regard to another agreement that we're recommending to the board, an opportunity for our middle school, east and west students, and a presentation um centered on it. Dr. Horton, >> good evening. Um, I wanted to, um, speak to the board today about an opportunity that we have through the Karen Foundation and our SAP program
089to have Cliff Crosby come and present to our students um, at the two middle schools. Last summer, myself and a group of counselors and SAP team members were at a program at the BCIU that was kicking off the year for student assistance programming and um different opportunities and different ways we could support students. And Cliff Crosby was a speaker at this event. And when we were there, something that struck us um was that oftentimes we hear speakers and we leave and we're like, well, that was interesting. But this time with the speaker, we were all captivated on the message that he was sharing with us um and thought it would be great if we could bring him here to the district for our students. So, you're probably wondering what was this message? So, Cliff shares
090the story um of his childhood and how he grew up. He shares um with us and with students that he was the child of a single mother and that there were a number of times in his life where he faced adversity and that um he learned that through resiliency and hard work and opportunity that he could overcome the challenges that he faced in his life um to be successful. And so Cliff his story he was actually an NFL football player. So he grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania um and at the time was a student athlete. So he learned that the commitment and the time and effort put into athletics helped him to achieve academically through opportunities that that provided him to go to a private school where he was recruited in high school and then
091to help him to get into college. So he shares with students the struggles that he had as a child um and how um he was able to overcome negative interactions with peers at times um and with the circumstances that he faced in his own life and that the message he shares is hanging out with the right crowd being in the right place at the right time setting goals for yourself to help you achieve. So as we look at this programming and you heard some of the things that Mrs. Petri talked about with our MTSS tier one programming. So this is a program that would be um provided to all students in our middle school and really his program is geared towards middle school and really talking about those social emotional skills of resiliency goal setting
092um teamwork and communication and helping our students move forward. Um and as we look at that we know that that aligns with our portrait of a graduate too. that social emotional piece as well as that composition of character and he really talks to students about how they can develop that resiliency that they can go out and take these skills into their life um as they go forward. So we're asking um for the board's approval for that agreement for him to come and present to our two middle schools. So there' be three assemblies that he would be presenting. Um, one at Middle School West and two at Middle School East, just two at East because of the size of the auditorium that we couldn't fit all of the students at East in there at one time.
093So he would do that presentation twice um at East. Any questions? >> Thank you, Dr. Horton. And again, we'll look to bring that forward to the legis that agreement to the legislative meeting. Uh item L, there are listed there the bid awards for spring. Again, we're here. We are nearly end of our fall season already. Uh last meeting you considered uh the winter uh bid awards. This is for the spring bid awards as listed there. And our item N or excuse me, item M. Uh there are three uh donations provided there. You'll see those listed there. One by the foundation of Boyertown and uh valued at just over $1600. Academic year in America, a $1,000 donation um to BASH and the ELLL student program. and Senator Pennyuk had been previously at Bash and had donated
094and delivered the 50 daily planners um for our executive functioning class. And you heard a little bit about that in one of the slides earlier tonight as it relates to some of those opportunities that we're providing and being provided at the high school. And thank you to um Senator Penny Chuck for that. So those will um again move forward to the legislative meeting for your consideration >> reports. BCIU Mr. Brophy. >> Okay. The only we only have two items that are of interest to us. the BCIU at they dedicated a new helping harvest annex down in Reading September 17, 2025. I did attend that. Uh it was well attended by a lot of people and a lot of work was put into it besides just BCIU. Uh some reading reading council members and some reading
095representatives were there. uh a lot was done by Jim Bosov because he he does a lot in the area for you know for different causes and they uh it was dedicated to his wife Cindy Cindy Bosov so I was hit at that one and that was a really nice setup and affair for them. Um on the 21st they'll be heading up to the PSBA conference for one day up there on that one and that will be going over all a bunch of different uh issues and I would say looking forward at at some different ideas and other other incentives that they're going to try and work through. Uh there'll probably be about 150 representatives there. So it'll most likely take all day to get anybody to agree on anything. So that's what's going to go
096up there for that. So that's the only two things I have for the BCI >> BCTC. Mr. Off the Grove. >> Yes, sir. I have two um I have a meeting coming up on Wednesday and we'll still be uh discussing the 2627 budget and also uh we're discussing about looking for land and the building to expand. That's all we have. >> Okay. Public com period number one. Mr. Savage Policies. >> Good evening. I wanted to commend Dr. David Heiser for leading the board through a systematic review of your policies which was last done by the policy committee around 2016 led by Rob Queso and myself over a two-year period as we transition to the board docs platform. But as I listen to your policy discussions, I'm completely flabbergasted at how little some members of the
097board seem to know about their own operating policies. In particular, policy 05 about board organization says, quote, "Committees operate as board work sessions and are organized in committee of the whole format. Committee meetings are open to all board members. Each board committee shall be convened by a chairperson who shall report for the committee and prepare minutes of open committee meetings and be appointed by the president and then it lists the four committees that you have um created. So it's easy to see what has happened with committees over time. It's on your website from 2009 through tw through 2021. All four of those committees listed above met regularly throughout the year on an asneeded basis and were comprised of the entire board. During my tenure on the board, the role of the committee chair was to
098consult with their administrative liaison and listen to the board members in order to set the committee dates and agendas. But following the 2022 appointments of Mr. Panerello as board president and Mr. Zawatada as vice president. Over the next three years, only one official committee meeting was held. This lack of activity is particularly concerning given Mr. Zawad's repeated public references to discussions that allegedly occurred in these non-existing committee meetings and despite Mr. Panerella's 2023 public clarification with the solicitor that committees must by definition include the entire board. Despite these clarifications to the contrary, I believe that Mr. Zawada and Mr. Pano Panorello still confuse being a committee chair with being the committee. So to clarify your policy, committees are public. Minutes are recorded and they include all board members. So, as the board considers revisions to
099policy ' 05, I urge you to retain the committee of the whole approach instead of re reverting to threeperson committees. As you've discussed, the board moved away from the smaller committees in 2009 specifically because they led to significant internal conflict, which is an issue this board is trying to improve upon. Furthermore, I ask that the board commit to consistently abiding by its established policies. So, does this committee of the whole structure require more time and more work from the board? It undeniably does. Yet, the commitment to this robust process is precisely what our community expects from you. And if the >> That's your time, ma'am. Are the policy cons then? >> That's your time. >> And the election is November 4th. >> Yeah, that's your time. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. At this time,
100we're looking for the approval of the September 2023 20 I'm sorry, the September 23, 2025 legislative meeting minutes. >> So, I move. >> I'll second Miss Duff. No, >> Miss Katz. >> Yes, >> Miss Nimon. >> No, >> Miss Scott. >> Yes, >> Mr. Brad. Up to Grove. >> Yes. >> Mr. Roger. Up to Grove. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zawada. >> Yes. >> Mr. Brophie. >> Yes. >> Mr. Penelloo. >> Yes. >> Eyes have it. takes us down to personnel and Mr. Han, do you want to share anything with regard to in front of us bring that forward? But we are recommending um for this to be brought forward as a motion for approval this evening. >> Yes. Thank you, Dr. D. >> Thank you for that, Dr. David Heiser. Uh the personnel agenda consists
101uh prim primarily of the bulk of it is winter sports as well as non-athletic um appointments. This at this time I would like to um draw attention to Aubrey Korns who is in the audience tonight. Aubrey is on the board agenda to transfer from her student support liaison position at the high school to the assistant principal role that was vacated by Dr. Bergie. Um, Aubry was our chosen candidate after uh multiple rounds of interviews and we look forward to her doing uh wonderful things when she transfers to this position. >> Thank you. Administration does recommend board of directors approve the following personnel actions. Water moves. Miss Doff, >> yes. >> Miss Kratz, >> yes. >> Miss Diamond, >> yes. >> Miss Scott, >> yes. >> Mr. Brad, Upter Grove, >> yes. >> Mr. Roger, Upter
102Grove, >> yes. >> Mr. Zawada, >> yes. Mr. Brophy, >> yes. >> Mr. Penarella, >> yes. >> Eyes have it. >> Congratulations, Mrs. Korns. And welcome to the administration team. takes us to item nine, old business. There is nothing noted at this time with regard to that takes us to our second public comment. Mr. Panerell com period number two, Donnie Savage district performance. >> I'll keep it short. I just wanted to make our school community aware of the Boyertown School Board Candidates Forum being held by St. John's Lutheran Church in Boyertown this Thursday. >> We're not doing anything political. >> It's not political. It is political to get people to inform. >> Yeah, we're not doing that running for the school board, including you. >> I know. >> And that brings us to board comment
103period. >> Mr. Grove. >> Uh yes, I have one uh question. Um, are our bus drivers drug tested after they're in an accident? >> I don't have the information for that. I can get you that. Uh, but I don't have that with me today. So, >> based upon the requirements of uh federal law, we would uh the quickly bus service uh who is responsible for our transportation would be required to do that. But we do not administer that as a school district. That's a requirement for our uh subcontracted transportation provider. >> So it is a federal law. >> Yes. And also based upon reasonable suspicion drug testing also. >> Miss Diamond. >> No comment at this time. >> Marian, >> I just want to welcome you, Mrs. K. I um heard a lot about you
104from the students. You have a very good rapport with them and so welcome to the team. [Music] >> Miss Dolf. >> No, you said it all. >> Mr. Broofphy, >> nothing. >> Mr. Zada. >> Just want to clarify on what Missy Savage said earlier. We are operating as a committee of the whole and having our committee our policy and committee meetings prior to that for a whole extra hour of work. So we're actually doing more than the normal committee of the whole was doing. So you're you're wrong. >> Yeah, we fixed it. >> Yeah. Not for four years. >> No. >> Okay. >> Upcoming meetings. >> Okay. That takes us down to item 12, announcements. Upcoming meeting dates, we have uh our facilities committee meeting that will be starting at 6 p.m. here in the
105ED center on October 28th, followed by our legislative meeting at 700 p.m. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Meeting adjourned. [Music] [Applause] [Music]