001[Music] like to call the meeting to order. Roll call. Mr. Zawada >> here. >> Mr. Broofphy >> here. >> Miss Droof >> present. >> Miss Kratz >> here. >> Miss Nimon >> here. >> Miss Scott >> here. >> Mr. Brad Upgrove >> here. >> Mr. Roger UpGrove >> here. >> Mr. Penerella >> here. >> All members 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 stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. At this time, there's no one signed up for public comment period number one. So, we're going to go to discussing information. Thank you, Mr. Panerella. And I'd like to welcome everybody for our first committee meeting of the 202526 school year
002and welcome to the finance committee. We do have three items that we want to discuss today and update the board on with regard to their thoughts and ideas about. So, we're going to kick things off with um some CFO office updates, a little bit about our financial road map of the audit plan and budget reconciliation for not for this year and what our planning is for 2627. So, um I'm going to turn things over to um Mr. Lent for his update. Thank you. So I wanted to start and if we can advance ahead to a slide about the focus of the work that um I've had um since um serving as your interim CFO. Um there's been a number of areas uh of focus. Um the goal with the areas of focus is to improve
003the operations of the audit. um wrap up um items that are outstanding from uh 2023 to 2024, 2024 to 2025. Um put things in motion for 2005 2026 and um begin the work in preparation for the budget for 2026 to 2027. So there's a number of moving pieces um in particular on grants. Um there's work um that um is taking place to close out grants um that go back to 2023 to 2024. Um additionally work on grants for 2024 to 2025 which are part of the scope of audit and reconciliation. Additionally, the district has still not submitted the application for 2526 for title grants. I've been working very closely um with regards to those financial calculations for allocations as well as um staff that are funded out of those grants to make sure that everything
004is is accurate there. Um we also received a notification that we'll be monitored for our 2023 to 2024 uh grant for school safety and uh from uh Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. And I think a big takeaway here is that a number of these grants have spanned u without having final reports completed for a number of years. So we're going to get those wrapped up and then from a sustainability standpoint a work with the staff um in preparation that we get um a cycle with reviewing these grants. I'm meeting with the appropriate um program um individuals within the district um so that they don't land that you know there's these many loose ends at the end of not only a fiscal year but also the private or fiscal year within uh Skyward. Um a
005lot of work to make sure that um we close out 2024 to 2025 for audit. um also uh completed last week the first step um in a work plan to implement the 2526 budget in Skyward. So that involves um rolling over to the current year of the budget. Um then the next um piece will be sending out reports to departments and setting up times to meet with individuals to review where um the budget landed, where spending is to date, um making any adjustments that need to be made. And I would anticipate um based upon some you know requests and such we'll need to do some alignment for budget to u move budgets around within departments to the actual expenditures or anticipated expenditures um that are there. On the next slide, um we'll continue the work
006on the 2025 to 2026 budget. Um make sure that um we feel comfortable with those budgets um within the total dollar amount number. Um and then make sure that individuals feel comfortable either accessing or reviewing their budgets. I've had a lot of questions that have come to me about um where is this charged? Um I'm not really sure on these areas. And so I see that as a valuable sustainability component that um the administrators who have budgets um become familiar with those and also that we align um budgets to individuals. So for example that if somebody's in a specific department, they're not necessarily sharing a budget. We can set up a budget for that department that's specific to that department. Um clearly delineate that within what's called your chart of accounts um to enable that
007to be a specific budget. Um this the next area of focus payroll. Um a lot of transitions have taken place in in your payroll department. Um we've um had a number of meetings with the current payroll individual um to work on um the workflow within payroll. Um also we've started to meet with the human resources department um prior to payroll processing to make sure that um everybody's had a common understanding um of changes that need to be put in there. Um, additionally, moving forward, we submitted a help request to Skyward to change our direct deposit file um, so that we don't have any manual corrections. Um, as I understand it, there was instructions that were left um, with the payroll um, individual about um, making manual corrections to that file. For audit purposes, the file
008should come out of your system, go right into the bank. um also um for accuracy not have any manual adjustments um made to that file. So we're working on that. Um and again um from the team approach that I bring through my firm, I have somebody on contract who's been working with the um payroll individual um who is skilled in Skyward, has used Skyward for payroll processing. So that's been a big help. On the next slide, um continuing our work on Skyward. Um, I think at this point it's become clear that if we continue to run four payrolls a month, that's pretty much all we're going to be able to have from a workload um from the payroll individual, which means um there's not a downtime for reporting, excuse me. So, if I give an
009example, last week we had a payroll that was due for that Friday, September 5th. We got that processed by Tuesday. We then had to start um because there's a payroll that's due on the 10th of September and so we pretty much finished one payroll moved on to the next payroll and there w isn't a lot of time for that payroll individual to do reconciliations or reporting um which is really essential as part of the payroll process. Um there's really no reason that I see and my um consultant that we've been working with in Skyward why we need four payrolls. it actually complicates the process. Um, and so we're going to work on a recommended transition um, potentially at the start of 2026 since that's a new calendar year. It may align to the pay dates
010and um, the winter break that's there. The other piece I think for continued sustainability is to look at the distribution of work between the payroll individual and benefits. Um to build up some redundancy because as there was changes within the payroll position, there really wasn't anybody here on your staff who could run that payroll. Um and so there should be um some better redundancy there as we iron out the payroll process. And then the final piece of course is because of all these payrolls and because of many of the changes that took place from um paying individuals a salary now paying them hourly um there's been some um reconciliation that will need to take place for payroll taxes. Um a review of um some notice of penalties that we've received on um tax payments and
011a development of a process moving forward um that make sure that we meet those reporting deadlines. Um finally to speak to audit preparation um completing a reconciliation of accounts right now. Um and have begun um to review the requests from auditors as well as to compare um work papers from the prior year to this year to make sure that um balances and everything are able to be um carried over and that um that can proceed um on a reasonable time frame. Mr. Lince, maybe go back um let's go back just a couple of slides to um working out the close next slide. One more slide down. There you go. The 2526. So, uh as a board, you approved the 2526 budget, right? We had that approved early in May. One of the things that um
012we found that we actually need to do is really reconcile that um budget um making sure that it's coded correctly and that all the monies to which we budgeted for are aligned in the areas to which we um expect them to be. Currently they are not and that's going to what we anticipate will uh require a number of budget transfers. Um under code that needs to wait 90 days. Um so that cannot start until after October the 1st being that our budget was released um you know our fiscal year began July 1. So, those are some of the things that you'll expect to see explained to you, but coming your way as a board. And it's not as if we're asking for more money. We're asking for the monies to go in the act in
013in the actual um correct accounts and coded correctly um so that we can distribute those um accurately to our department leaders, to our buildings so that we know exactly where the money is. Miss Nimon, you had asked a good question um a couple meetings ago about having a monthly and being able to see expenditures, see what's spent, where we are with the budget and so forth. This is to ensure that we're able to do that. Um and we can't do that right now. We need to make sure that we've reconciled. So, Mr. Lance, others are going to be meeting with department leaders making sure that we've got them. We certainly have the budget total. it's just where those things need to be placed and coded accurately so that we can give you transparency as to
014what's been spent thus far. Um, and such and and making sure our department leaders are all fully aware of that. So, I wanted to emphasize that because you will start to see in October. Um, and we'll certainly explain that, but they will need to be taken in a motion form um from you as a board, >> Miss Diamond. >> When you make those moves and changes, it's still going to be the same budget come out to the same dollar figure. >> Correct. >> And you will present that to us. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Okay. So at the same time, while we're doing that, we're also now starting the 2627 budget, right? So we're not only reconciling what we currently budgeted for for this coming year, but we're also now starting that pathway
015toward that. So you'll see in the coming months, hence the reason of finance meeting to kind of kick this off, our next finance meeting will be a lot deeper dive into some things that we're um u thinking about in regards to the budget for 2627. And you normally start with some of your biggest expenditures, right? Some of those things are personnel, salary, benefits, you know, anything related to facilities, anything related to larger curriculum items. All of those types of things are things that we're going to be meeting with principles, department leaders, discussing um and doing this fall so that we can optimize the time to be able to um have to you hopefully sometime in December a rough estimate of where we are and where the board would expect some things to be based on
016some of the things that we've budgeted for. Um, as you know, you're going to need to take eventually take a resolution um to whether or not you're going to exceed or not exceed the act one index. Um, and we need to have that done by January 20th. Is that >> uh we'll do it by the end of January 26th. >> 26. So, um, so that that will be a resolution that the board will need to to take as well. Um as you're aware the the act one index for next year for 2627 is 3.5. Um the adjusted um rate that we are expected to receive in Boyertown will come out later this month and we should know what the adjustment would be to that. Um, so those are just some things that I just want
017the board to start thinking about some of the things that we're we're doing some some corrective action inside of right now with the current budget and then thinking forward to um things that we need to be prepared for for the uh next year's budget. Mr. So moving to the next part to give you an up could to give you an update on the 2526 um budget um from a very high level because we are earlier in the year when we look at revenues we've certainly started to collect our local real estate tax revenues um of course based upon um the fact that the state has not passed a budget um that's the revenue we've collected. we've been able to continue to pay bills um through the local tax collection um and really have not collected
018other revenue from state or federal um based upon um that budget um not being passed at the state level. On the next slide for expenditures um again what our largest expenditure to date has been is instructional salaries um as we've um prepared to start the year. And again to the the points that were made um we're showing um early spending patterns I'd like to say um that are um having expenditures as we're preparing for the school year with instructional materials um some purchases with technology and other large um categories such as your contracted services for staff um benefits uh capital items remain unspent at this point because we're waiting on outstanding um invoices for summer work and preparing for the year. Um and again within the entire budget for 2526 once we go through this
019process and it's going to be um a fair a fairly good size lift because I think that the um budget um really needs that alignment to to build off the comments earlier um to um make the 56 budget as a whole within the bottom line number represent what the expenditures are in either each area or department. Um but I also think the good news of having to do that exercise which may not be typically uh done um based upon how a budget was developed uh is that it will really set us up for 2526 because if we identify categories where we know we need uh funds for contracted services for um our school-based services or tuition related to um tuition to um outside placements or schools um that really will become a basis for the
020zerobased process for the next year. Also, I think that in doing the zerobased, um, you know, there's a benefit to having an understanding of all the components that land in budgets. And so, when some individuals have come to me and said, you know, I really don't have my budget. I share a budget with another individual, that zero base is tough because um, you're bringing pieces together that you may or may not own. Um, and so if we can kind of iron that out for this year, I think that will help a better zero base be developed. And I think in particular at the the central department level is where um that work and that lift will be because that's where a number of the inquiries have come from about uh costs or uh discrepancies when
021individuals have identified that um you know something was to be budgeted and um we're not seeing that in the specific budget but we're seeing it in other line items that um we don't anticipate spending that those funds in. Um so that will really set us up for um what really will be the the final piece of discussion for finance the 2627 budget. So we're calling this the road map uh and to begin uh in September. Um clearly there's a lot of time and emphasis on looking at the 2526 budget. I think that's essential based upon the state of the budget um where it is um and also the capacity that needs to be built up with um the budget administrators in getting reports understanding how those come together um you know looking at those items
022um of course we're having this finance committee meeting tonight when we move into October I really see that as the deadline for these budget meetings also bringing forward to the board the transfers that we're going to make. Um, also at the same time, if there is some clarity on state funding, um, we can incorporate that into our revised budgets to give a better sense of what grants may be funding versus, um, the general fund. Um, but definitively you'll have budget transfers to approve for the 2526 um, year. Next slide. for November um would be the time that um we'd start to look at um where we are year-to- date based upon those revised budgets. Um it's kind of the the the last chance we have before formulating estimates and data for the 2627 budget. Um
023so we'll look at um giving you an update on the 2526 budget as a whole so there's some clarity about um where you know revenues are landing because you'll be through your local tax collection. Um there hopefully will be a state budget uh and we'll have some better um information about spending trends for um salaries and um contracted staff uh services to be able to give a preliminary projection for 2627. um as a best practice that will let you know if the budget seems reasonable to be uh within the act one index so that that resolution can be approved um not just from a um an approval standpoint but that it's correlated to understanding some of the drivers that we see in the budget um at that point in time um and in December um
024we'll uh be receiving uh our budget requests from staff um they'll again be on a zero basis. Um we'll also bring to the board the um uh completion of the Sterling Act certification which is um aligned to to to revenue that's received from the state um in December which allows us on the next slide to come to you in January and provide a finance committee update on some details in the 2627 budget. um that will really give a a better picture. Um that will also help us align spending and requests in that zerobase to the district's uh strategic plan and goals and objectives. Um so that there can be um priorities within that budget um and then the final approval of the resolution not to exceed the act one index in January. In February uh
0252026, um the state budget gets um released. Um we can um provide an update at the committee of the whole of what those revenues look like um as well as any considerations for for budgeting um considering those um those changes. And again, I think you know you my goal during my time here is to to really clarify expenditure costs in the budget and that if there's going to be what we call budget reserve because we all know that there can be variances to charter school expenditures to tuition placements to other emergency costs to really have that carved out as a portion of the budget um so that it's clear and transparent as um a reserve item that individual UAL budgets are this is truly what we expect it to be. This is aligned to either
026the staffing costs or the contracted staff service costs or other initiatives um you know within the district. Um so that really can get flushed out for you in March. Um which takes us into April when a proposed final budget um would be reviewed with the board. Um that really kind of sets the budget. Then on the next slide to be um reviewed publicly um incorporated onto the required um reporting forms um shared at the um finance committee, have legislative approval of that proposed budget to be on display and then have that budget adopted um on June 23rd um by the board of directors. Okay. Um, I'm looking February 2026 and and I may be wrong on this, but state budget state budget review and incorporated. I don't think they've made that date since I've been
027alive and that's been a long time. So what what I what I would like to ask is what's your rationale on what you're going to do to approximate what you think's coming and doesn't have to be exact just what's what's your philosophy and what's your rationale on moving forward on that. >> Thank you. Good question. So the governor would present his budget. Now, we know that that isn't necessarily the final form, but there has to be some um realization with that. Um there there also has to be um there is a reconciliation because um certain subsidies now these days are actually dependent upon your PIM's data. So, we're better able to see where those numbers land from the prior year um as they would be incorporated into the budget because when we give you a
028budget in in December, those numbers haven't been finalized to the review period. So it by no means and I did not mean to say that it that's the lock and stone of of what's there but that's looking at the landscape right the other piece is at that point in time um in developing the budget I can incorporate the approved pasers rate for the pension contribution uh which also is reimbursed in a portion by the state so that number can get refined in the budget so it's really just a better better direction on it but you're correct by no means is that is that a final um uh peace. We're still anxiously awaiting a final state budget for the current year. >> Yes. Usually what the governor says and what the Senate and House say are
029pretty far apart. Um so we we really can't go by either one. So that's what I was looking for. what what are you going to go to as a possible close to as much as you can get number so that we can see how we're balancing our budget or what we need to do that's which is important which I know you already understand >> yeah the other piece I think is that I've always been accustomed to providing boards clarity um there's been years that funding has been put on the table to be cut or reduced right and so that often can drive the decision and the direction of the the tax increase based upon if that funding doesn't pan out, it'll have to be made up locally or or cuts, right? So, you have to
030start to consider that um because again, you would enter a budget year and not necessarily have have some clarity on that. Just just want to make sure you're think >> when is it time that we would send out for uh audit proposals? When is that usually done? >> So, we'd get through the audit for for this year. Um, I think uh a timeline that's reasonable to me would be one that would be um in the mid winter um time period because I wouldn't want to be sending out proposals during tax time because a lot of these audit firms uh pivot pivot during that period um of time. Um, and so it it could if if it RFP was out there, it could be um, you know, out there before the peak of tax time and
031then awarded probably, you know, March or April, anticipating for for for the next year. >> Okay. Thank you. Because we didn't do it for a long time and I think it's recommended maybe every five years. So, thank you, >> Mr. Um, and I don't know if there's a question for now, but basically speaking of auditors, uh, when I, this is my fourth year now on the board, but when I first got on speaking with the CFO at the time, um, she claimed, and again, it was hearsay from her, that there was a significant amount of taxes that weren't paid and we were being fined and quote unquote she fixed it and knocked it down. Would that be something that an auditor is supposed to pick up and and what they're or is that just information
032that they can only work with what the information they're given? >> So, a local audit looks at at risk, right? um and definitively audits payroll and what's being completed. Um the taxes and penalties um if they're known because again you can file a n you can file quarterly for your taxes. It's then when the IRS reviews your payment timing to when it was due that it comes back with a letter and says you were this many days late. um that's you know that you know letters have come back now just for the first part of the year right um so they definitely look at that they definitely reconcile to what that what that liability is um and again um you know I don't know that I can speak to what might have happened you know
033you know in the past there um but definitely as part of the review um I think they probably also in what we're seeing now there's there were were a number of transitions um you know with that um that role um you know that's there. Um but I I think that from a cleanup standpoint, you always do have adjustments on taxes, right? It's just the the the the the significance of it um or materiality, you know, that it is from a dollar amount. Um I don't think the materiality that's come back is um you know of a of a very high but it's not a very low right it's that I think you know um we know we need to be better with the timeliness um we need to be better with the consistency you know
034that's there um because the other piece is is that the minute you're late once every payment you make goes back to that the latest and then goes forward so you then become late and everything else. So, it's it's a domino effect, right? And I think we need some provisions and that's what I would say with redundancy that um there's it shouldn't just be the CFO the ability to make those payments within the the finance office. >> I don't know board members that have been on longer. Um, from the four years that I've been on, the current auditing company that we use or accounting firm we use, it doesn't seem like I mean, we get Zoom meetings. I I don't see them here or, you know, I'm sure they're pulling the information up through a computer,
035but I would think as important as it is, I would I know Miss Steoff knows knows them and, you know, has worked with them. I'm just concerned the way I look at it. I don't think at this point that I feel we have as good as an audit company as we could or accounting firm and being here for four years, we have yet to put maybe put it out for bid again. But if everybody's happy as far as the senior members of the board, >> that's why we're complaining. >> Okay. So, >> I've been complaining every year. >> Okay. So, basically, we're on the same page. Okay. Thank you. >> You're right. They don't come in. They don't give us a presentation. Oh, a couple words, but not like we used to get it. >>
036Okay. >> For the other companies, and it's time for you to at least to get it out to to be >> Well, we'll uh we'll inquire across the county. There's RFPs out there for auditors and see if we can bring forward an RFP to you to get ready. Um, and we can look at that time frame of January or February as as far as putting putting that um that request out there on the street for for some some firms to give us some proposals back. We can do that. >> I think the I think the other thing not to belabor it is there there is a shortage of of audit CPAs out there. So the other just piece is is if if we go through the process we don't have options and I don't know
037we can also request that the staff that are assigned to us and the partner be what's called rotated. So that's another option if you land with the same firm because I don't know if you've had the same partner um all the way through or not. that's also another option just because I know I know I've had districts do that and they may land with another proposal but then there's concerns with that so they stay but that that's something they do ask for as well. Anything else from the board kind of road mapping a little bit for you? So again a couple highlights I think uh be ready for October. That's when we're going to be sharing with you some budget transfers in order for us to make sure that we have an accurate um uh
038budget for this current year that's placed in the codes and in the functionalities that it's it was expected to be and we'll have that ready for you um and explain some of those in October while we uh continue to get ready for sharing uh kind of midyear with you the 267 budget um and recommendations. Mr. Lince, anything else? >> That concludes my presentation. >> Thank you. >> Um, we have another item, item B, and I have asked at at the request of some board members to uh bring back to the board and take a look and have a discussion about uh athletic fees and parking fees. So, here with us this evening, we have uh Mr. Sparks, Jared Sparks, our high school principal, and Mr. Nick Paladino. have you here as well for athletic and
039um share with us some background in regard to some of these fees and have a discussion with the board about um opportunities. >> Thank you. Good evening. Uh so as Dr. David Heiser pointed out, we were tasked with evaluating our parking fees as well as our activity fees in reference to the county and the PAC 10. Uh we'll start off with the uh parking fees in comparison. So since the 2017 2018 school year, which is a great starting point, that is the first year that the building construction was completed at the high school, which altered the landscape and potentially altered the amount of spaces available. Uh we have been charging a fee of $100 per pass. This is now I'm now the fourth building principal since uh the completion of this project. We have opened
040up the spaces that are available at the high school, which are 350. We had added additional spaces also at the ed center at the end of our parking lot closest to our athletic fields of an additional 26 spaces. And as of last year, we sold 400 spaces to our students. Uh as a result, our total revenue was $40,000. Our anticipated sales this year are about 415 tickets with an additional revenue of $41,500. So, as you can see here, as illustrated by the map, the outlined yellow spaces are our student parking lots. We do not assign values or parking spaces to our students because we intentionally oversell the parking lot with students who have varying schedules such as part-time or those who are seniors who drive to BCTC. There's often times where there are more spaces
041available for us to oversell the lot because of the constant fluidity of student schedule changes. So, while we might have 350 spaces on the lot, I can actually sell closer to 400 uh as an oversale. After we get past the first day of school where everybody is together, there's usually no problems. It's just that first day where we really have to kind of maintain that 350 or there's not enough spaces for all of our students. We also expanded uh somewhere around circa 2022 as a result of the pandemic for families who were looking for opportunities uh for their students to drive and not be on a school bus during that uh pandemic time. So, uh trying to think creatively, we're able to open up an additional 26 spaces over here at the ed center as
042you can see in our map. Uh those spaces are are positive because it helps our students who are involved in activities and clubs who are still at the practice fields right now. The challenge though is the lack of sidewalk that is out front here for our students to walk on. So, they actually have to cut through the grass. Uh we do charge the same fee for these students and we continue to evaluate our parking lot in the event that we're able to relocate students from the ed center over to our main campus lot. Uh traditionally, we see this shift happen around the semester change when our senior student uh seniors schedules change with the uh semester. Sometimes there's a little bit more flexibility and we can pull some of those students over. Um, of course,
043these are all opportunities for students to have parking at least on campus as opposed to somewhere in our community or no parking whatsoever. If you look at the comparison for the county, uh, I put Bordertown at the top and I identified the areas where the requests exceed the spaces available. So, those are highlighted in column 4. Uh, as I mentioned previously, we charge a parking fee of $100. We have an average of 430 requests to start our school year and we have about 400 spaces uh available. Um as we go through the school year actually that number of requests will exceed itself. Uh students who now get their license will email me throughout the year and say hey do you have any parking spots left? Uh or students who potentially had their license but no
044car suddenly now get a car and they uh they ask for a parking spot. So that number will continue to grow as the school year progresses. Uh but that's roughly a pretty accurate uh start for the school year. Uh when you compare it to the other school districts that are up here, uh you can see that Twin Valley offers uh parking spots. They have more requests than they can uh provide to their students. They charge $30. Burks Catholics, I threw them in there as well. Uh they they provide spaces for their students at a cost of $60. And then Conrad Wise and Muenberg are closer to the $15 and $10. Um, what I did to gather this information was reached out to all the uh, high school principles in Burks County, created a chart, allowed
045them to fill this in. So, this is their data that they're presenting to me that I'm now sharing with you. As I continue to evaluate the county, you'll notice that the cost of the parking fee is going to continue to decrease for each slide. Uh Fleetwood does a unique proposal where they have a $10 initiation fee or initial fee whether you're junior or senior and then if you renew it for your junior year to your senior year then it's only $5. Um they also have a a large amount of spaces available where they can fill those requests throughout the year. Daniel Boone has a onetime $5 fee and they have as reported there more than they need. So they can fill all the requests. Skookul Valley and BCTC West also have uh smaller fees. If
046you continue going through Burks County, you'll notice that Kutztown, Brandy Wine Heights, Oolie Valley, Wilson, and Y missing do not charge any parking fees for their students. Uh their average requests uh for the most part are uh under the spaces available with the exception of Y missing which is very close to uh their capacity. So when you look at this data and you look at some of the key takeaways, I go go back to the beginning where bash is a total of $100. If you average the cost of all the information that was provided from all the districts, including those that did not require a cost for the students, the average cost for the county would be somewhere around $15.31. Uh, of the districts in the county, five of those districts did not charge anything,
047and most of those were under $15. In order for us to meet really our full capacity of students, as we continue to get requests throughout the school year, we would need about another 30 to 50 parking spots to accommodate all the requests. Uh so as a result of last year about $40,000 was added to our general fund. At this time I would like to turn it over to Mr. Paladino to talk about the activity fee review. Thank you, Mr. Sparks. for the activity fee. The activity fee encompasses all athletics and um aspects of the music department, show choir, spring musical, marching band. Uh last time we did an evaluation of it was I believe 2015 2016. Since then it has been $100 per student with a $300 family cap. The year before that it was
048$200 per student with a $400 family cap. Any student who qualifies for free or reduced lunch is exempt. And in 2425 we assigned a little over 1,200 students the activity fee and collected $92,000 into the general fund. So we put a a thing out to all the athletic directors and some of the principles in our league and uh some neighboring school districts just to see what they charge for their activity fee. I put us again right at the top there just so we can evaluate it. Mthactton, they have a a tiered approach, which a lot of the schools do. Uh they charge a little bit more for their senior high activities and a little bit less for the middle school activities. Spring forward, same thing. They're $100 and 75. They also have exemptions for free
049or reduced lunch. Upper Mary and Perk Valley, Upper Park, OJ, Pottstown, Phoenixville, and Potts Grove. They do not charge a fee. Uh Pope John Paul, theirs is included in their school fees, so theirs isn't a real clean number. So, they charge $1,800, but they said nowhere near all that goes for athletics and activities. I just wanted to include it in there because they're part of our league. And some of our neighboring Burks County schools who who gave us their information, Daniel Boone, $100 with $300 family cap, so they're equal to us. Uh exit pretty much the same thing. They have a little bit of a tiered a lesser tier for their middle school. And Governor Mifflin would be 75. uh all the schools pretty much have the uh free or reduced lunch exemption though for
050that. So bringing this back to the board, it's been some time and just like you know it is with regard to audit and looking at um the possibilities of different audit companies through time and changing that. We need to evaluate all sorts of of of different areas as well. one of which many of these haven't been evaluated in seven, eight years to to a greater extent. So, we wanted to make sure you as a board knew um where some of those those fees currently are, make it comparable to see if we had any discussion, if there was any concerns, if you were fine with where we are with regard to those fees. Um, and just an opportunity to speak about that at a finance committee meeting. Miss Niner, >> yeah, you didn't bring any information
051on uh the revenue from businesses into all of this. A lot of these other school districts have a larger based revenue from industries that are there. We don't we we keep losing industries in our our district, which means we lose revenue. >> Yeah. This is not focus. I think you're you're focused on a tax base. We're we're we're simply this is a revenue stream to which um you know we wanted to bring back in front of you and I don't argue your your commentary but it's not focused on a tax base. This is a separate revenue stream to which we um for activities and for parking that we charge our our families in regards to that to go back into the general fund itself. So, um I'm not going to argue the the fact of
052u of of uh industry and tax bases inside every every school district's going to be different when it comes to to those aspects. Any concerns? Anything you want to discuss? Are we okay with continuing? Obviously, you know, we're we're we're already started the school year. um these fees have been applied to our our students and our families for the the 2526. This would be something that we would incorporate if you wanted any changes uh as a board into the 2627 school year. Okay. Thank you gentlemen for bringing us a recap and oversight of that. Okay. Uh we have about 10 minutes left. Um and I did ask Mr. Stout to uh present back to the board some findings. We did receive one uh proposal. If you recall, we went out on an RFP for a
053an evaluation of a feasibility study of an all day kindergarten program. And um we did receive one proposal as I mentioned, steps to achieve. step to achieve is and a uh organization to whom also supplied at um our during our demographic study did present to us. They were not selected as the contracted component for the demographic study if you recall that was the PA economy league but steps to achieve did um give back and they were the only singular entity that gave a proposal back for this. So I've asked Mr. uh stout to highlight a few things most especially the costs and really pose the question to the board if the board would consider or would like for steps to achieve my recommendation if you do want to move forward with listening to them for
054them to come to a future Cal meeting and present to the board their proposal. Did we have to have one? >> no, we put it out on an RFP and we we received one proposal from that. >> So, Mr. Stout, you share with the board some some facts. >> Yes. Thank you, Dr. David Heiser. So, um just want to do a quick overview um just to rekindle our conversation about all day kinderg kindergarten. Uh the timeline that had taken place, we had done a an all day K presentation on April 8th. If you remember, the details of the um presentation reflected the three meetings that happened during the course of last year. Um this board approved the request for proposal on June 24th and as Dr. David Heiser made reference to um the submitted RFP
055was steps to achieve. My goal tonight as Dr. David Heiser had um spoken was to really just give you a very brief synopsis. uh in the weekly you were given the 18page document that uh the steps to achieve had given to us. So you have the exact RFP that was returned. I just wanted to highlight some of the areas of what was given to us. Uh the purpose of the proposal was really to conduct a comprehensive feasibility study on transitioning to all day kindergarten here in the Beretinary school district. Uh the goal was to provide datadriven actionable and community supported recommendations. Uh the RFP came back with a proposal to deliver the end product of this uh study uh in 6 to 8 weeks and look at a $25,000 fixed fee. That was all encompassing
056of the fees that were included for the study as well as travel expenses and whatnot that would be incurred. The uh different the differentiators that would be part of this process, it would be led by um and I'm going to apologize. I think it's Coffnau is how you pronounce her last name. I did not um hear it specifically, but she's an experienced PA superintendent. There's also a lot of background that she has from an elementary perspective, and I believe she also had some experiences in the prek realm. Uh in the back of the uh RFP packet are the resumes for the people that would be working in the study. Uh this is a datadriven certainty uh statistically modeling of the facilities, enrollment, staffing, and finances. That's what we put into the RFP uh proposal for
057uh the companies to come back and meet. Um and it would be a collaborative partnership between um the inclusive stakeholder engagement processes within the community. The team uh would consist of three people that were part of the steps to achieve it. Like I said, it was Dr. Jane Koffnour who would be the elite evaluator. Uh she was a superintendent of prek counts experience. Uh James Koffnour would be the project manager. um he would have oversight to make sure timelines, logistics were met and also David Don uh is a senior statistician that would be be dealing with enrollment facility and financial modeling. Again, all of their resume information is in the packet that you received. So, most importantly, we'd be looking at the timeline and phases of this possible 8week timeline. Phase one would be discovery
058and engagement, looking at data review, facility assessment, surveys, and interviews. Uh Dr. David Heiser, we had proposed the enrollment study. So there would be uh the details of what would be conducted in the enrollment study that I'm sure they would be looking at. Phase two would be in weeks five to six would be the analysis and modeling of the enrollment staffing financial models and uh as you saw in the proposal conducting focus groups. And phase three, the final part of it would be seven and eight would be a final report and delivery of that report which would encompass the findings, recommendation and the implementation plan of what the recommendations would be. The scope of services was broken into five different categories. Stakeholder engagement, community input, facility capacity analysis, operational and staffing impact, financial and funding
059analysis, and also the implementation plan. And you can see each of the categories that would be under those five areas that would be uh researched for the scope of services in this uh study. The deliverables what would uh the steps to achieve give us at the end. It would be a comprehensive written report with findings and recommendations. That would be the recommendations for um the looking at the global project. It would be a formal presentation to the Boyertown area school district leadership team and school board and also would be access to all supporting data and models so that we would have access to the reports that they would conduct and conclude. As I stated earlier in the RFP is the $25,000 fixed fee. There would be no other cost that would go along with that.
060It's all inclusive. Uh that covers personnel, travel, materials, admin costs. payment would be due upon delivery of the final report. And they did put in the RFP that they carry a $2 million uh coverage uh insurance coverage that would be provided. So that concludes my very brief analysis of the 18page RFP that was given to us. >> So I think the question is and we wanted to bring this information back to the board. Um obviously there's there's monies tied to this. Our recommendation speaking with Mr. out. Um would be to where it does not cost the district anything to bring um steps to achieve back in to make a presentation to the board um for further discussion, allow them to share u their personal ideas with regard to their proposal. Uh it does not cost
061the the the district anything at that point in time. If the board so chooses to further and go into a contract with them, obviously there's the fee of $25,000 for doing a um full day kindergarten feasibility study within the district. So, um, we're we're really looking forward for whether or not the board would like us to, uh, reach back out to them, incorporate them to come to a future meeting to present and discuss further or if we're leaving this behind and moving on. >> You want to get a show of hands? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Show of hands to have them come back and do a presentation. One, two, three, four, five. >> Okay. We'll try targeting a um the October committee of the whole meeting to allow them an opportunity to come back and
062present. Um again, there's no cost to having them do that and u allow us to exhaust all avenues with them before making any financial decisions. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Stout. There's no one signed up for com period number two and we are now 7:00. So, I'm going to put out a motion to adjurnn. >> Meeting adjourned [Music] [Applause] [Music]