001welcome evening and welcome to the scho district we have a bit of a skeleton School crew here tonight we have Pres element School ch will be joining Martin our student schol to report and events resp schols [Applause] welcome hi my name is Luna Hayne and my name is nandana chaty and we're excited to be here tonight to present all the wonderful things that are happening at Ean first we're going to talk about the different specials then proceed to the great things happening in each grade level Mr Miller is a gym teacher he helps Ian students stay fit currently all grades are focused on the game of basketball in kindergarten he's teaching them how to dribble and shoot the ball first grade is doing relatively the same thing second and third grade are working on different
002types of passing fourth grade is working on the different shots you can take and fifth grade is working on basketball games a schoolwide program called kids heart challenge is currently underway in which kids of all grade levels are encouraged to raise money to support people with heart conditions the jump of competition is coming up too where I compete with all the grade levels to see who's the best at jumping rope Mr hert is the teacher for IDs and many creative and fun lessons are being taught in his classroom in kindergarten they are doing animation or claymation stop motion videos and are learning the life cycle of a butterfly for first grade they're making stop motion videos like kindergarten except on the seasons during Second Grade they're learning about environmental engines and about renewable energy like
003wind turbines third grade is learning about Aerospace engines to go to Mars and making a Mars habitat in VR in fourth grade they are working on a desk redesigning for the new Ian with a 3D advertisement presentation finally in fifth grade we are making our own VR City in co- bases with a group of partnership or by yourself Mrs aaton is a teacher of Art in her room kindergarten is sculpted clay fish first grade is building clay hearts and painting them second grade is creating clay lizards and started painting them too in third grade they're sculpting clay cacti lastly fourth and fifth grade are building clay slab houses and painting them Miss keer is the wellness teacher and keeps everyone healthy in kindergarten they're working on hygiene and how to take care of yourself first
004grade is is learning about the heart and how it works during second grade learn they learn about how to be safe and what to avoid third grade is practicing calling 91 one in case of an emergency fourth graders are learning about the body systems and having good nutrition fifth grad is learning about the human growth and development unit Mrs hacker is a music teacher and many exciting things are happening up in the lodge in kindergarten they are finishing learning about high and low sounds and are beginning to learn about fast and slow pieces they're also getting ready for their spring sing first grade is working on identifying the sound so me and law second grade is finishing up patriotic music and dance and is learning about traditional folk music third grade is getting ready for
005the recordered concert and right now are practicing reading sheet music fourth grade is practicing for their course concert and in fifth grade we are learning about singing rounds rhythms instruments and songs that enslaved people used to travel along the Underground Railroad chorus Fest a musical event in which singers from Delaware County KRA hawen are selected to sing in a chorus concert is coming up three of the best singers from Ean were selected to sing in the concert in library Miss mashy makes books come alive children of all different grades get to Peru's boundless knowledge and explore the world around them in kindergarten they're learning about how to be safe online first graders are learning about safe web apps and how to tell if one isn't as secure as they thought second graders are researching the
006animals in the African Savannah third graders finishing their research on africanamerican women to end Black History Month while fourth graders are researching African-American historical figures finally in fifth grade we are finishing our African-American sports player bookmarks to be presented at Arts night many wonderful things are happening in iunes classrooms children in kindergarten are the newcomers of Ethan and are just getting to know the daily life of a student in math they are just starting to learn about Teen numbers and decomposing in ela kindergarteners are learning to read decodable books they're exploring the wonderful world of penguins in their books too the kids get to study chicks and learn about the responsibilities of a pets caretaker they get to interact and study the chicks a first graders world is not unlike a kindergart in Reading where
007they are focusing on comprehension of text and decoding they are also learning about a reader stamina in math they are working on adding to 100 and showing tens and ones in addition they also learn how to solve equations with unknown numbers a very exciting thing that happens in the future is that first graders get to see the magic of the cinema firsthand when they watch Aladdin Jr in May of 2025 second gr is working on many uh interesting activities they are working on their country reports like Canada or Brazil in writing they are also working on opinion writing and writing longer and better in math they are balancing and weighing objects they're also working on money time and their math mapping skills one thing third grade is learning about is rocks and minerals they're testing
008the properties of the rock to determine the minerals in them they're also trying to identify the rocks by testing them too they're working on strategies for research and working to publish their animal research books with the group next week they will learn about economics and their Community this ties up with the walkth through rain field trip to learn more about their Community um in fourth grade something interesting that happens is morning meeting each morning there is a question on the board and students must answer it it connects classmates with similarities between each other there are also numerous projects such as a national park researching presentation and Essay there's also the Living Museum that is where you dress up as a famous Pennsylvanian and prepare a speech to say at classmates or family finally the there
009are a lot of read allows in fourth grade to work on multiple topics in the last year of Ethan fifth grade has to be prepared for middle school so we practice switching teachers for different subjects in math we are starting the unit on measurement conversions during writing we are working on text dependent analysis to prepare for the pssas a fifth the fifth grade has a number of exciting programs such as the ambassador program which allows students to help children in younger grades with their corresponding lessons and participate in school donations and food drives Camp cadences is a 3-day field trip in which fifth graders in all three elementary schools go to a Sleepaway Camp in the Poconos students move from lesson to lesson and form friendships with students that they will be attending the middle
010school with we came to Ian to learn and play and we made the most of our time there we can't wait for others to experiences too as we move on to the Middle School lastly we want to thank our teachers who have made this the most wonderful experience in the world we are so lucky to have experienced all these years here at Ean Elementary [Applause] good evening Bard how's everyone doing so March in rner high school has been a wild ride it was full of Music activism Sports and of course lots of good food we kicked off the month with Legally Blonde where students brought the house down with their performances super duper good then also came read Across America where rhs students read to our young friends at RMS res W and I on
011March 15th our Multicultural potluck brought together students families and even rhs alumni proving that no one can resist very good food from Latin America to Africa to Asia to India and a lot more the event celebrated the beauty of our diverse Community the League of Women voter clubs hosted Senator Amanda capelletti for a pizza and politics session where students grilled her politely of course on issues like the state budget gun violence immigration and also book bands and speaking of making an impact our Rising Stars Make A Wish Foundation raised 82,6 168 to help grant wishes for for kids students also took a stand for education on March 2st the Radner right to education group organized a book band walkout and with over 75 students and some staff coming together to protest censorship March was also
012full of ways to relax and celebrate teachers rocked crazy socks for World Down syndrome day students got to pet puppies at pause and Rel relax and we had sophomore and Senior semis where everyone danced the night away and of course we wrapped up the winter sports season with some huge achievements jayen Lee became radner's second ever State medalist in wrestling girls basketball dominated their first round of state playoffs track and field had an amazing season with record-breaking performances from the girls and the boys combined with spring Sports kicking off we cannot wait what's next and lastly but not least the latinx club is running a donation drive this week we're collecting personal and hygiene products from diapers deodorant paper towels and more for akamo which is a nonprofit supporting Latinos and underprivileged communities donations are
013open to students staff and even School members so please support this super great cause with that I wrap up wishing you all a fantastic spring break rest recharge and a c way to see you all in April thank [Applause] you I have a certificate for you thank you so much for all your your thorough I know it's spring is in the air when I hear two things Walk Way and Canada can two of my kids favorites and [Applause] enjoy yeah thank you good evening it's good to see everyone uh and our student reporters it's great to have you here with us and you don't have to stay for the whole meeting and you won't offend the superintendent if you walk out during his remarks either I understand you deserve yeah others want to go as
014well um but thank you for being here uh moving through our I have actually just quick remarks tonight uh first off tonight on our agenda we are recommending um this Cara Miller to become our next director of student services uh Cara has been our assistant director of student Services um when I started here eight years ago Cara was a teacher uh here in the district U from being a teacher she became a supervisor within our special education program assistant director and we're thrilled to recommend her tonight uh to replace uh Mrs Lage who will be retiring at the end of June so we still have plenty of time to celebrate Mrs Lage but we're excited uh for tonight to recommend Mrs Miller to become our next director um she has a a picture in her
015office and uh I I've told her I want to buy this for the entire administrative team and it just says make it happen and that's what Cara does every day as a teacher as an administrator uh she makes it happen for our kids for our staff for our community so we're thrilled to have Cara I'm going to embarrass Cara Cara would you like to say a few words um I am honored and thrilled to be recommended for this position um you know Dr Bacher explained I was a teacher here in this District so it's very near and dear to my heart the teachers the students and most of all the families that we serve so I'm excited to be recommended um to continue to take our office to the next level um with programming and
016to be creative in many ways for our students um I would be remiss if I didn't thank um of course the board and Dr Bacher but um Miss L AG our the our director that's retiring um her leadership skills and the foundation that she has built with this District um is a legacy and it's my goal to continue that and to serve um our community so thank you for tonight Cara thank you for coming early with your family it was nice to meet your your children and see your husband and I give you the same message I gave the Ean students you do not have to stay for the entire meeting guys uh also on the super marks and I just want to share I want to recognize Mr Todd stitle uh Todd stitzle uh
017was just named the recipient of the 2025 William K Dowler award by the Pennsylvania Association of school Personnel administrators uh this prestigious award recognizes an outstanding School HR professional who exemplifies exceptional leadership expertise and dedication to the to the Personnel Administration uh within our district Mr stitzel is highly regarded uh with his extensive knowledge of Human Resources strategic leadership and commitment to staff and well-being and just want to congratulate you Todd on that wonderful award congratulations and while we're talking about Awards uh i' want to congratulate our entire Communications uh Department last week uh the state um the Pennsylvania school public relations Association met uh and at that meeting of the Pennsylvania school public relations Association uh it was um our Communications Department was out of 200 entry 200 entries see this is why I
018need somebody to do Communications for me I tried to do this on my own out of 200 entries received six Awards of excellence in photography social media and video production uh you can see their winning social media series on staff appreciation on Instagram or their winning videos the hot ones if you haven't seen that on Instagram I highly recommend the hot ones video uh that was the West edition of hot ones and then the Operation Safe stop on YouTube uh to just name a few but congratulations to our Communications Department they work so hard um from our our our Weekly Reader um to all of the communications that happen here in our district and to make sure that we are uh taking time to um really let our students and our staff um you know
019shine in our communication so I just want to thank them for all that they do so congratulations and then since we're here in the Middle School how could I not mention minithon every year minithon is just absolutely amazing I think there was over 400 kids uh involved uh part participating uh they raised $111,000 uh for Childhood Cancer uh the there is somebody from Penn State for those of you who know minithon is the middle school minithon is an offshoot of what Penn State does is a large dance thaon to raise money um for Childhood Cancer and somebody from um the larger Four Diamonds network from Penn State comes and attends uh and supports uh that program here at our middle school and they when I was there speaking to them they said what we do
020at our Middle School from the participation from the money that raised it's truly remarkable so I want to congratulate not only the students uh who were there dancing that evening and raising all the money it was just it was great to see them having so much fun but the staff um from the administration to the teachers to the support staff there are so many people who volunteer their time to make that evening happen so congratulations to the middle school and then it has been as our students mentioned it has been musical month which is always a fun time for Radner uh we had the High School Musical we had the Middle School Musical and then we ended with rner Elementary's musical uh and all of the Productions were truly amazing um you can see there's
021there's there's there's one I always tell Communications as they give me pictures I don't want to ever see myself in a picture this was one exception when they put this in there there is one exception of a guy looking kind of a little bit dorky there over the over on the right I did do a cameo in Legally Blonde um and I have to tell you they I felt a little set up when they asked me if you wanted to do a cameo I thought it was a just walk on stage and kind of smile maybe say one word and walk off I had a lot of lines uh and the students were so supportive uh I I could not believe how many of our students came up to me and were like Dr Bachelor
022are you nervous and I looked at him and I said yes I'm actually very nervous because I really didn't want to make a mistake for them uh the show was incredible and it was such a joy to see so many of our students uh part of the musical at the high school so so many of our students here part of the musical of the middle school and then also at Radner Elementary so the theater the Arts are alive here in rner and it was a great couple of weeks and then our winter sports wrap up next week we're going to spend a little more time in our recognitions uh because we do want to recognize and excuse me not next week but next month at our board meeting next month we want to recognize our
023girls basketball district one 5A Champions which is is is Quite a feat uh to be District Champions our wrestling Jaden Lee uh was a PIAA State sixth place medalist um that is the only second time Ryder High School athlete to medal in States uh since 1995 our boys and girls swimming and Diving we had several district one Championship medalists and our boys indoor track uh PIAA state championship medalists as well so we're excited next month to invite many of them to be here at the board meeting to recognize them and spring Sports has begun um which is always for me the signal that uh uh the end of the year seems to come quickly once spring Sports start um and then want to mention our art uh it has been art month exhibit uh our
024families are invited to see all the artwork display at our High School uh in the evenings uh kindergarten through 12th grade if you haven't had a chance uh to be over to our high school to see the artwork uh it is just amazing uh to see the artwork every year when I'm over there somebody is always talking about well can we buy this or I want to hang this somewhere uh it's really amazing to see the kids uh artwork and it's I want to thank the community for coming out uh to see it as well and then last but not least uh before I talk about upcoming events we have our 11th annual legislative breakfast coming up uh that will involve some local state representatives and we'll be involving some students uh from our high
025school in that legislative breakfast as well and then upcoming events as you as I mentioned before it seems like this time of year time just picks up uh and it just moves quickly to the end of the year but we have a lot of exciting things happening now to April and yes we do as a reminder have spring break next week uh this is an unusual year for us we did something very different we you know we we moved spring break earlier because spring break has historically been much later um so we are looking for feedback so please give feedback to your um principles give feedback um you know to your buildings about how that has gone you know we know that presented some challenges but it was two years ago when we looked at
026the calendar uh and we looked at where our traditional spring break was and it would have been another 3 weeks in till that spring break so we decided to uh move that up a little bit earlier this year um which was a little bit different for us so please uh principles love it when I suggest giving them feedback but please get to our our principles or the administration or myself feedback on that and I wish everybody a wonderful spring break and that concludes the superintendent's remarks thank you Dr Bachelor move on to public comment as per board policy 006 the board provides an opportunity at each regular board meeting for eligible participants to comment on matters of concern official action or deliberation which are or may be before the board public commenters should State their
027full name and town and may make one comment per public comment period for no more than four minutes per comment um I do think we might have a number of public commenters today so I'm just asking that you know we keep to the four minute limit and then I'm going to ask our solicitor we did this in the policy meeting it seemed to work just to give a little bit of a warning at 3 minutes so that you have ample time to wrap it up so welcome to come on up I'll sign in yes anyone else okay good evening my name is Jillian Norris Santo my address is 424 inverary Road in Villanova I'm president of the League of Women Voters of Radner Township I've lived in uh Radner Township for over 40 years in
028Wayne and then for the last few years in banova and I'm a parent a rner parent of two children who went through the the Radner school system and uh this evening I'm going to uh give a bit of an introduction about the League of Women Voters and then make a comment as most of you know the league is a nonpartisan Grassroots membership organization open to all it does not support or oppose any political party or any candidate for elective office if its mission is to educate and engage citizens in public policy issues it does advocate and act on nonpartisan policies and measures in the public interest after study debate and consensus the League of Women Voters supports equal access to Quality public education to be achieved through government and citizens participating at all levels and
029I think that's what we see at rner my comment uh concerns the book ban that you're currently considering we commend the school directors on reviewing the decision and ask that it be reversed thank you for the opportunity to speak and I we are going to ask you just to consider the following points first parents have the right to guide their own children's reading but parents should not make decisions for other children a small group of parents should not dictate what public school library books other people's children are allowed to read second books are a means of understanding complex issues limiting young people's access to books does not protect them from life's complex or challenging issues in fact it may leave them less prepared to navigate the challenges of adolescence and young adulthood young people deserve
030to see themselves reflected in public school libraries we can trust our students to handle content that might make some adults uncomfortable attempting to restrict a child's access to information will only prevent them from acquiring it from uh a reliable and safe Source Banning removing and baning books from public school libraries is a slippery slope toward government censorship and the erosion of our nation's commitment to the First Amendment and freedom of speech and freedom to read it is a principle of the League of Women Voters that the league believes in representative government and in the individual liberties established in the United States con Constitution Public School library book bands violate the First Amendment book baning restricts the civil liberties of students and in this case it restricts the civil liberties of lgbtq students Banning these three
031books because someone considers them unacceptable could lead to Banning books by or about another group of students for example African-Americans finally please consider incl including at least one rner Township Community member on the Review Committee now and in the future a Community member we think will add a useful perspective thank you thank you [Applause] had a great experience in rner especially in rner high school and that was years ago of course because they graduated um one is 44 and one is 41 so quite a while [Applause] ago I'll move the signin sheet for public comment to this table so that way we can keep things moving along if that makes sense and you know for the interest of time maybe if someone else wants to queue up if we we have a number of speakers
032it might help move it along as well is it working is it working cool right I never know with these mics right it's like how close do you get to be serious no um just kidding hi my name is um Dr Laura Haynes and I'm from Wayne um I'm a School District parent with three sons in the school district one in the middle school and two at Wayne Elementary and I appreciate the opportunity to come O to the board again and express my concerns about the recent book Banning and the associated policy um 1441 that justified the book Banning process um last time I spoke I focused on three major points lack of communication desperate need for revision of the policy and lack of adherence to the school districts mission statements tonight I want to
033give you my thoughts about if I was in your shoes what I might do about changing the policies so policies are kind of my jam um professionally I'm a pharmacist um with certifications in healthcare quality safety and Regulatory policies I spend most of my weekday week nights weekends reviewing and revising policies um by auditing compliance to those policies for relevance and current practices if I was presented with a policy from 17 years ago yes this policy is from 2008 I would definitely be concerned with its content and relevance to current practices 17 years ago is is the or 17 years is the average age of a High School Junior and they have definitely changed since birth healthc care practices are constantly changing and I definitely believe education best practices um have changed so I believe
034this policy desperately needs revised the current policy requires no public notice of challenges or ad hoc committee decisions what that means to me is that when you have a process that changes for someone or something without knowing or having any say about what happened it sounds a little suspicious when I review a policy where do I go first the people it's going to directly impact the Frontline staff so we can work together the leaders and the Frontline folks and in this case would be your teachers Librarians and kids um or stakeholders in that case to get transparency and inclusion adherence to the mission statement which is really great um another big concern I see with the current policy is the undermining of librarians and teachers um professional judgment um I moved to this District in
0352021 from Laura Maran and from for its reputation and stay because of the Educators I interact with the current policy takes away that ability to do what they do best help kids learn I met Michelle wiel in 2021 um maybe 22 um we both have Evans that play baseball and we struck up a conversation and thing that struck me so vividly was how passionate she was and every educator I've met Sue dalstrom all those fabulous Librarians about how they help kids explore subjects at the library I would never want to take away their influence powers or question their professional judgment without them being aware the current policy does that and a major reason why 1.44 point1 needs to be revised my suggestion incorporate a challenge process in consider a timeline for for public comment like
036this and once thank you once a challenge is identified to give the request transparency inclusion so as some of you may recall my son Luke Haynes sixth grader at the rodner middle school gave a brief statement last time at the board policy meeting and petitioned to not have Books banned because it would make a teenager want to read them um and he's not a teenager yet but he's close enough um he was so afraid um to tell a bunch of really important adults his words and school leaders what he thinks about a difficult subject and it brought him to tears why am I telling you this because he was uncomfortable with these feelings not unlike the students that may or can find Value in the books that were banned and he knew that by speaking
037his voice it would be heard so I recall there was a promise made to him that the board would review the policy to give kids of voice keep the promise to my son Luke Engage The Right stakeholders in the decisions incorporate checks and balances cuz we definitely need a Glam up on this policy thank you for your time and all you [Applause] do hi again um my name is Reagan Whitehead and I live in rner and I'm a High School junior um hello members of our school board and members of our community and students that are here um before I start start i' just like to make one thing pretty clear the books that have been challenged they've been challenged for having obscene material um the scenes that have been criticized were taken completely out
038of context and when examined fairly they do not meet any legal definition of pornography or obscenity or anything like that um this is important to know but it it it just leads into the rest of my speech um with with that out of the way I understand that no decision is going to be made tonight but I'd like to speak on a part of this issue I haven't really heard much about yet um does it bother anyone else here that our school board whom we elected to represent our community and oversee our schools are not the ones making decisions on topics like these our democratically elected board um get to face the backlash for decisions made by an anonymous committee on account of a poorly written policy that was adopted before I was born 17
039years ago today actually um that doesn't seem fair at all to me by voting at local elections it is ensured that the opinion of the board are majorly representative of the people instead we have one person choose a group of people who they want to make the decision um there's no accountability involved in this process and there's so much room for misconduct um and with that we can possibly end up having a morally or an integrally questionable committee we don't know the biases of the people on that committee because we do not know how they are chosen and bias decisions do not affect the board they do not not affect the people who vote but they do affect me and they do affect my education uh tell me how I'm supposed to trust my school
040board to be neutral and unprejudiced when these decisions are made Behind Closed Doors by a secret committee who may not reflect the community's values the whole process ignores radner's commitment to transparency accountability and fairness and that's completely ignoring the fact that while School boards do have the power to regulate standards that a book must meet to get into a school library they do not have the power to remove materials simply based off objections and content this isn't just my opinion it's settled law in the Supreme Court case Board of Education versus Pico the Supreme Court ruled that a school board cannot remove books because of objections in content and that is impermissible under the First Amendment the Constitution protects our right to read to think and to explore ideas freely when the school removes books
041based off of moral disagreements it isn't just censoring words it's censoring thought and that is entirely unconstitutional um just to close out pretty quickly I'd like to reiterate that our school board has made guidelines that a book needs to follow to get into our library in the first place all the books in the library have passed those guidelines and same goes for the books that are challenged those three books were when they were ordered were checked and they did fit our guidelines one minute remaining um so why do they not fit those guidelines anymore what changed by keeping books on the school library shelves you demonstrate respect for the students and their right to education for the Librarians whose job it is to curate what is on our shelves and for the First Amendment and
042its importance to a free Democratic and empowered Society I urge this board to stand on the side of Education not restriction and to consider unbanning these books when voting time comes thank you hi how is everyone okay um my name is Addison Carter um I live in Wayne and I'm a senior I'm the president of the women's empowerment Club at rner high school and a lot of what my club does is aiding women aiding to women in the area and within rner High School um and our most recent fundraiser was raising money to donate to the woman's Resource Center in Wayne which is a homeless shelter so basically what we're doing is um giving our money for towards our food healthare and educational system okay so four of the people on this board are minorities
043how would you feel if books about African-American Pride was banned and what about women's rights and gender equality in order for compromise and change this policy needs to be updated and made to adapt to the current students in the area as a queer black woman who was about to go off to college I hope to end my high school career off with Liberation or representation within our educational system thank you [Applause] hi my name is Mia RoR and I'm from Wayne Pennsylvania um earlier this year I was given a list of books to choose from in my English class and fome was among one of these opt among these options um I thought perfect it's a short and easy book to read I wonder why it's on this list it wasn't in fact an easy
044read Because of its heavy topics such as grief sexuality growing up and relationships astounded at the several levels of this book I understood why my teachers proposed that I read it um it opened my mind to consider the other people's lives at home and how they vary as a queer person I noted the feelings and thoughts Allison had in her childhood and I was shocked at the memories it brought up for me her rejection of uh traditional femininity made me think of the long shorts and soccer jersies I insisted on wearing throughout Elementary School um I felt com comfort in the fact that others went through similar things I did books present a world of knowledge which should not be restricted um perhaps someone else would not relate to the fact that she's gay but
045her experience of grieving and the death of a family member or how she got through her severe OCD every person's story is unique but sharing it saves people and makes them more intelligent um it opens their mind um it is very obvious that some people could use a little empath empathy and broadening of their perspective other books which has been which have been banned tell the story of different races religions sexualities and genders cutting off these resources to students sends the message that their education and their individual paths are in life are not important for every story written there is a person who needs to hear it um they start by censoring out lgbtq plus stories then ones from PE from people of different races and ethnicities and misogyny and then poverty what will be
046left in in the end books with no intelligent books with no in intellect intellectual stimulation all written by wh sis men and a country full of people who don't acknowledge the struggles of others thank you [Applause] good evening members of the board community members and my fellow teachers and RTA members my name is Rob King I'm the president of RTA I have a simple message and I'll be brief number one we want to express on behalf of RTA the our appreciation for the board's commitment to revisiting the policy and we look forward to those discussions and collaboration with our Librarians our teachers and and the community members including our students as well as you undertake this important work number two I would like to also offer uh the support of the entire RTA membership for
047our Librarians for their hard work their dedication their professionalism in creating warm inviting spaces full of books that open up opportunities for students to explore any number of topics we think this is an important and it's vital work uh creating these spaces that are inviting and are well attended I speak from the high school of course um so I just want to offer our support for the work that our Librarians do they are professionals they are trained and that's important thank you very much [Applause] good evening uh Bradley Moore rner I uh did not plan to comment tonight but I did want to talk about something that I heard from one of the students tonight um I'm not here to talk about um policy 144.5 point1 earlier and years prior it it didn't happen um
048so now we're in the situation that we're in um but I heard a student say that um we can't take action tonight on a different issue um and that issue is the status of the three books that were taken off the shelves pursuing to policy 144.000 um and does not involve a financial commitment from the district then the district could in fact vote in New new business to take action on what's going on with those three books right now um in other words you are faced with the question of um do you want to do something about the three books that were removed in the meantime while you're reconsidering policy 1441 or do you want to wait until the policy committee goes through its process and potentially amends policy these three books there may be
049Prudential reasons for waiting but knowing how the policy committee looks and how it works um there are you have to pass the policy twice so you so the policy shows up in the policy committee if there are no changes of any kind then the policy will go to the board for a first reading and then if there are no changes the policy will go to the board for a second reading and then if there no changes it could be adopted so we're talking about multiple cycles of discussion before policy you and urge you in um at the end of the meeting in new business to talk about your vision for what happens with these three books in the mean in the meantime maybe you take action tonight maybe you don't but tell us what you're
050thinking if you have credentials credential reasons not to take action tonight tell us what they are why you would rather wait um if you don't want to take action tonight and you don't want to wait all the way until the policy is reconsidered I would suggest there is a middle ground the books could be discussed in the curriculum committee next month again we're not talking about the revision of policy 1441 we could talk about these three books the kind of public discussion about these books that was not available under the current version of 144.000 could happen in part in the curriculum committee and then people could show up to the curriculum committee next month and talk about it and then it could be at the business meeting next month in April a priority action item
051to think about in the meantime while we're reconsidering policy do for our students every single [Applause] day different topic and I will be under uh three minutes uh first of all as a Pennsylvania attorney I I really appreciate and I hope the high schoolers today um are we'll remember this as taking action where um you agree or disagree on um any issue because um in action has consequences as well uh I just want to make a comment that I hope the board is taking seriously um what's happening with the Department of Education regardless of where your the politics is and uh I just have a recommendation to um at least have some Readiness and some um committee participation on um how that will trickle down to everything that we do um taxes is just one
052of um the issues there but um and I appreciate that we we don't know what the outcome will be but um I just really um hope that um um as a marquee School District we are taking the matter very very seriously thank you Pardon Me Miss Duffy could we have that com sir could you state your name again yes Harry Varan from binmar Pennsylvania thank you thank you good evening everyone my name is leam press I am a parent of a child at the high school and a substitute in the district um I have nothing new to say other than from what I said last time but I do want to acknowledge that we are talking about free speech and what Reagan said was very important and I also want to acknowledge that the admin
053at the high school in allowing and supporting and encouraging the walk out encourages Free Speech their support allows the students to be heard and for this matter to be taken seriously and for what Mr Miller said um I think we should really consider what is being done and what is being said tonight and in hopes that we do acknowledge and come to a decision whether or not it actually is final is one thing but I think addressing it tonight supports the over 75 students that chose to walk out and all the other students who are too scared to speak along with the middle school students who have their own thoughts because they will be in the high school soon and they will be need to be they will need to be represented and they will
054need to feel represented and honored thank [Applause] you Dr Han I believe we have recorded comments two recorded comments yes hi my name is NI and I live on green gr I appreciate the board's willingness to update policy 1441 after reading the original complaint in The Inquirer I am concerned that we could do more to support our teachers and our Librarians the complaints for each book are identical unless child pornography as primary issue with each book twice per book and pedophilia once per complaint again it contains verbiage from Pennsylvania statues and pling that the district and staff are breaking the law by having these books in the library by validating these complaints we missed a huge opportunity to defend our Librarians teachers and students as well as educating the community about the value and representing
055our students in the library Don home for example was listed in the New York Times and Publishers Weekly as the best book of 2006 and Entertainment Weekly called it the best non-fiction book of the year it's number 33 on the Guardians list of the 100 best books of the 21st century it's the source material for a musical that has won multiple tonies and nominated for a piter one panel implying the horrors of childhood sexual abuse is not pornography the rest of the images a question among all the books or brief interactions between adults so however you feel about the morality of it it was never child pornography why are we validating these attacks on our teachers and staff by accepting complaints that are factually untrue and cut and pasted no matter what your opinions are
056of lgbtq content in the library or of explicit content in graphic novels in general the students who saw themselves in the pages of these books were not reading pornography no students at rner high school were ever at risk of being exposed to child pornography or any pornography from these novels not from their librarian not from their teachers and not from the district and I request the board and administration make that clear because the resulting decision based on that complaint certainly doesn't thank you so much for your time and attention [Applause] my name is stevenh Morris my address is 703 Clyde Circle in brinmar Pennsylvania and I'm leaving a message for the upcoming March 25th SCH board business meeting uh regarding the controversial uh books that are being put in our libraries at schools uh I
057understand that this is the responsibility of Victoria Brown Michelle wetle and Brer for the additions to uh our library of these I guess 30 or so books that um seemingly a large portion of them have uh gay transsexual um themes with old men and young boys and graphic depictions of these acts and uh certainly me like many parents in the community are very upset by this um and and quite frankly I don't understand uh why graphic con content needs to be in our schools our children already have enough exposure to this type of material um on the internet and phones and that sort of thing uh I would hope that our schools would be a more wholesome environment um but you know like most people in the community I think of myself as a moderate
058um I believe that the Fringe on both sides is taking up all of the oxygen in the room um in particular I feel that there is an agenda um to inject these types of books uh into our students lives they didn't ask for it and that this is the agenda of the farle in our school district and members of our school board um same members of our school board that were responsible for lockdowns during covid um I don't understand why so many of these books were introduced into our library given the percentage of the population that might actually be interested in in reading them um it seems more and more that the agenda is to attack kids that are quote unquote typical um and uh celebrate um to the point where typical children are made
059to feel um like outcasts um I don't want graphic material straight or gay or Trans in my schools I don't want pen houses on the shelves um the books are meant for reading um they're not meant to uh drive an agenda down our kids' throats um I would encourage you to look closely at the graphic nature of the pictures in some of these books and question why clearly an adult male hand pictured on the rear end of a young boy is necessary um I don't understand why we can't focus on the classics and focus on um teaching our children to read um again this sort of thing along with changing the mascot in our school to the Raptor um the aggressive shutdowns um these seem to be all part of a larger agenda um that
060unfortunately our children um are being forced to uh deal with um because members of the board uh apparently bolks in the library and bolks in the limit Fringe would um suggest that this type of material is appropriate for students when clearly it's not um these books are not getting checked out um so I don't know why we need so many of them um and I would encourage you uh to uh um remove the books and um hold Victoria Brown Michelle wetzell and Carol Chrysler personally accountable for their decisions um and I'd like to see to it that uh we get back to back to the basics here uh Reading Writing and arithmetic um and not a political agenda in our schools thank you yes yeah um just jump in at that last public comment just
061uh and I would ask moving forward I mean the public commenter is not here um but that um you know we focus on the issue um the issue of debating the books not on people or staff are are calling out staff uh in the comments um you know as a community we have to be able to debate and realize that there are going to be different sides of this um but at the same time we need to make sure too that we're not um I don't know that it's healthy as a community to be pointing fingers our staff here and especially our liberians work very hard to create um environments that all of our kids feel welcome um as to you know the board now moves on with their agenda and and I I had
062to chuckle with with Mr Moore it's always good to see you Mr Moore uh our former board member um and I don't want um the community and the students especially who are here speaking to think the board is not listening the board listens um and the administration who's here listens um at the policy meeting at the comments they're listening here at these comments um the board meeting though the boards are required to do their work in public so there's not an opportunity now for the board to sit here and have a discussion um about the comment there's an agenda that they have to move to uh and to move through um so I don't want you as we move on on an agenda here which is a public agenda um for the community or for
063the students to think the board isn't listening the board is listening and at the last policy meeting uh even committed to uh the next policy committing committee meeting having a discussion um about this policy and how do we want to move forward yes thank you and just to Echo what Dr Bachelor said yes we I I really appreciate everyone coming out I know you came out um a large number of you are here again after the policy meeting and we do appreciate hearing your your voices and the board has committed to taking a look at you know Expediting that process everyone is right that policy was dated back in 2008 so we will be looking at it and just kind of to expand on what Dr what Mr Moore said is that you know it
064is I just want to manage expectations in terms of timing you know we will we will start that process next month and then there is the discussion and which we can get further input and we we welcome your input in that process and then there's a first read and second read so Mr Moore was correct that it does take time and but that also gives you more uh more opportunities to give input as well so you please follow along and you know we will be doing this over the course of the next several months so thank you very much for your time we'll move on right now to the report from our board committees um first on the agenda is our curriculum committee um that's Dr bobson since he's not here I'm um the co
065the co-chair so I'm going to um give the update we approved a new club and ratified several school trips we revealed the new K5 Ela program recommend recommendation which is into reading it is on tonight's consent agenda for text book adoption we also um we also oh we also um reviewed some updates to our calendar our 2526 calendar our next meeting will be 4:15 at 5:00 p.m. next is the facility committee I also will review that um we um that actually we reviewed the early demolition project um proposal for Ean Elementary and that is actually um one of our presentations tonight so we'll see that tonight and we will take a vote and the next meeting is April 15th at 7M next up is our finance committee M Mrs Solomon thank you the finance committee
066met on March 18th and on your consent agenda tonight are are several items that came through um the finance committee there is an approval for for a fors management software emix um requested by um our business office there we discussed the three um budgets from the Delaware County Technical High School the Delaware County Intermediate Unit general fund balance and the Delaware County Intermediate Unit special education budget um there were also three donations that were mentioned and I want to thank the people who donated to our schools um to Radner high school there was a Special Olympics donation there was the donation to Radner Elementary School of a baritone horn and accessories and there was a donation to Ean Elementary School um funds to enhance the education experience and so thank you again to the donors
067um we also received the notice of the reappointment for several trustees to the Delaware County Community College they're listed in I believe the um agenda tonight um we received an update on the audit um and I well I believe there's more to follow on that um and lastly we received an update on the budget but I believe there's going to be much more detail given tonight as well um our next meeting will be April 8th at 5:00 pm in the ground floor conference room our policy committee update Miss Stern thank you the policy committee met March 11th and as was referenced by many in who gave us public comment tonight we heard uh approximately 90 minutes of public comment at our meeting uh about policy 144.5 and Dr H gave a very good overview of
068how policy is written how it's reviewed kind of some general information about policies here in the district and then uh we did hear public comment about that I did uh promise a young man who came and spoke to us that we will do our very best uh on that policy to make sure it serves the community and I look forward to getting started on that in April and then on our agenda tonight we have six policies that are up for first read um many of which were also adopted March 5th uh 2008 so 17 years ago tonight what that signifies I don't know that we mentioned this at the policy committee meeting what that signifies is back in 2008 the board as it was constituted then adopted wh sale a an entire policy manual that
069was written by Pennsylvania School boards Association it was the psba manual of policies and the board at that time decided to adopt It Lock Stock and Barrel and the district has spent the last 17 years um going through all of those policies reviewing them and updating them and some we just simply haven't gotten to we are still working on policies from 2008 and five of the six tonight I believe are from that time frame so um policy 144.5 our next meeting is in April I believe it's April 8th but I don't have the paper in front of me so it may be April 15th I just need to elaborate a little bit on what Miss D said um the policy Committee in 2013 did look at several of the policies we went through all of
070the policies that were adopted in 2008 it was not substantially changed but I don't want to leave you with the impression I mean again that was 12 years ago so it was a long time ago but the board did look at that look at all those policies at that time but not in depth like Miss D is alluding to that we're going to do now and M Stern I do have the calendar in front of me so the next policy meeting is in fact um April 8th at 6 PM then I will be there thank you so next um government relations and Communications miss girton good evening everybody um the government relations and Communications committee met on March 11th um and Dr Kierney led us in a disc discussion on the preparation for our legislative
071breakfast which is um slated and scheduled for April 10th at rner elementary school this year um we will host uh representative barowski and senator capelletti from state of Pennsylvania and also representative for um representative US Representative um scanland and we are going to be including uh a new format this year besides the you know Wonderful discussions table discussions and um some presentations from the students but we are also going to have a Q&A um session of the breakfast with our Representatives um so we're all looking forward to that uh we also discussed a letter writing campaign um supporting public education um as um was earlier mentioned this is a big topic right now so um if people are interested in that um please reach out to president um dun and she can direct us oh
072our next meeting I believe is April 15th do you have it in front of us Mr suffy in front of you it is April 8th at 7 p.m. oh April 8th terrific I also will be there thanks so we are um on to 701 which is our 2025 26 budget update Mr Pauling thank you and good evening everyone um happy to see Mr Moore still in the back of the audience to hear my presentation this evening so um thank you and the budget update tonight is is kind of twofold let's to talk about our budget here at the district but also I want to talk about some topics that were slightly mentioned during the the public comment session and things that we've been looking at from a state and federal perspective as far as as
073fiscal matters go um so want to provide some some information and some context on that and what some potential impacts are on on the district here um so with that this did work a second ago do hand when I tested this there we go so I I was reading a B book a few months ago uh by David mullo uh on John Adams it was the basis for the HBO miniseries if anybody watched it there's a really interesting quote in there from from him that said the whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people must be willing to Bear the expenses of it so really our our charge here at the district and mine in particular is to provide uh the adequate resources that we have and we need to to
074run the district and to run an exceptional educational program for the students in the community um so this really the the quote really kind of uh suuck out to me quite a bit as I read it and wanted to include that tonight again as we're talking about the finances here at the district and then uh globally uh and nationally what we're facing right now um with uh with some Financial uncertainty when we craft our budget the process really starts in the early fall um we uh start working with our department leaders and administrators across the district on preparing the budget for the following year um and we really tie the budget to our district initiative so every year we present our our new initiatives some carry over from year to year um but those three
075initiatives of achievement wellness and belonging are really the pillars of our budget um the budget requests that are submitted to to my department um really are there to carry out the initiatives of the district um to provide those resources um from a staffing perspective from materials perspective from from Services um as well as to the buildings and grounds Department that make sure that our our our buildings uh have uh um are in good condition for our students and staff to come every day um so I just wanted to show a few of the things that were on our initiatives um our mtss program building the new Ean Elementary School um our our newest report on District data and student achievement um looking at artificial intelligence from our technology department so on the next slide those
076are all of our uh initiatives that we identified and they're uh really a small snapshot of what goes on in the district from a day-to-day perspective but we try to focus our budget around those three core pillars of our initiatives and then build our budget around that to make sure that we're we're providing those resources es to enact those initiatives and um plans for the for the school year so from a number perspective um our budget um the for the current fiscal year 2425 is at $120 million 9,557 balance budget um so for the 2026 fiscal year what we presented back in February uh was a budget that uh um had us looking at a shortfall of about $611,000 where our expenditures exceeded our revenues um by that amount we also have listed there on
077the chart which comes from our our budget book through uh the the software that we we started using last year to present the financial information um our fund balances and with our combined fund balances between what you see on the the chart in our general fund as well as our other funds um that roll up into those amounts at the end of the year in our technology and curriculum funds we have about $35 million in resources to utilize uh towards ongoing technology initiatives curriculum initiatives um capital projects throughout the building and just reserves um in case we would need them for any unforeseen um expenditures that may come to the district that we that we wouldn't uh have counted on at the beginning of the year so what changed between February and tonight's meeting we
078made some adjustments to the budget to narrow that budget deficit um we had at the early onset of the budget decreased our investment earnings by $200,000 um from $1.8 million uh from 2 million to 1.8 million I've since made an adjustment on that based on what we're seeing from inflationary numbers information from the Federal Reserve on what they're looking at and the economic outlooks uh we decided to back that that reduction out um and we feel that those numbers will be pretty steady uh moving forward we have enough in the budget to cover that without it being um uh over what we we're anticipating it's always a hard number to Target but um based on where we're at in the the environment right now we we felt we could back that out um and and
079still have a a fairly accurate number in our budget uh based on our current Transportation subsidy reporting that we got from the state a few weeks ago we made a small adjustment to our transportation subsidy estimate um we were able to decrease our community college cost by about 75,000 once we received their actual budget and then uh the first Department that we've been working with to review the budget uh was the buildings and grounds Department we were able to reduce their expenditures um by about $100,000 with some some various adjustments so we were able to since last month reduce that deficit down from 61,000 to uh 8,740 so we'll look at our revenues first and then get into our expenditures that are contained within the budget um we are looking to budget 24,99 252 um
080and that is um uh a a increase from the 120 million from the balance budget in the current year it also does contain a 4% proposed increase in the real estate tax um millage rate we'll talk about that a little later in the presentation how the mechanisms of the act1 index work and what our uh limitations are from a real estate tax millage perspective so I have more information on that later in the presentation so this shows our re Vue sources um the green portion of the dollar is our revenue from local sources which for that $125 million is made up of about $105,000 of that that includes real estate tax revenue um through our uh millage uh that we assess as well as real estate transfer taxes it includes the uh interest earnings that
081I spoke about earlier as well as some other uh local sources of revenue the the two biggest of which are the um the transfer tax and the real estate tax and then we received a little over $9 million from State sources uh under a million in federal sources as is coded we do receive slightly more in federal sources and I'll talk about that a little bit later our idea funding um is actually contained within the local sources it's a um an accounting of it since it passes through our Intermediate Unit it's considered a local Source rather than a federal Source but I'll show more detail about that in a minute um and then this is just another representation of that so you can see from a percentage basis um the large amount that we are
082locally dependent on um our community to fund the the the expenses of the district and um you know we we seem to see that number shift a little bit more um as the state sources and the federal sources don't quite keep up um from from a funding perspective there seems to be more of an obligation on the local Source um and our residents to to maintain that the the budget that we present every year so some things contained within that Revenue budget um we we estimate that we would receive about 97% of our our taxes that we issue bills for on July 1st um and that's built into that Revenue number assuming that we wouldn't fully receive the the the total amount that we issue our tax bills for there's a certain percentage that go
083uncollected that we have to turn over as delinquent uh in February we estimate that is usually around 3% um of those bills um we did see some assess property value growth within the district which generated about $400,000 in Revenue just on its own uh which is beneficial there are other school districts out there that are seeing a uh decreased or a negative growth in property values which which means when they start their budget at the beginning of the year they're real really starting with a a deficit because if you do the calculation of the assessed values times the millage rate if you keep the millage rate consistent and the assessed value decreases you're you're already behind where you were the previous year from a from a real estate tax collection Revenue percentage um and the
084budget again includes the 4% increase in the millage rate um included in those numbers we estimated that the real estate transfer tax taxes would remain flat it's about a $2.1 million Revenue Source um we used our state revenues uh at current budgeted amounts uh but did increase our our pension and social Security reimbursements based on our salaries and the computation of of those reimbursements um and the federal revenues um are budgeted to current year um that's probably the most tricky right now to estimate and to if we're looking at a crystal ball to anticipate what those Federal revenues are going to look like so um we kept those amounts uh flat where they were for the current Year's budget but we're continuing to monitor that should something change in talking about um you know if
085there are decreases in those amounts how we would um account for that within the budget and if I could just jump in Mr Pauling just based on the um public commenters comment um you know with changes you know at the federal level that roughly 1% is something that we are continuing to you know monitor very closely to find out you know we don't know um what implications now that we'll have on the funding everything we're being told right now is that our funding is our their understanding is that it's staying consistent um but then we also hear rumors that you know maybe title one will continue but title two won't or title three won't but title one will so we're going to continue to monitor that closely and we'll continue to talk with the full
086board uh as we learn more information moving forward thank you so first I want to talk a little bit about the state budget so Governor Shapiro presented his budget address at the beginning of February and every year you know my colleagues across the state we tune in to see what investments that the state is looking or at least the governor is looking to make uh to public education um in this year's budget as far as uh rner Township School District numbers um look there was an increase proposed in on our basic education funding of a little under $441,000 um which is a 1.26% increase over our current level an increase in special education funding of just under 15,000 um but a decrease in Charter School transition funding of 24,000 that was a line item that's
087in the current year budget that was removed from the governor's budget proposal for next year um to help uh school districts to fre a charter school um costs uh at one time about 14 15 years ago school districts were reimbursed about 30% of their Charter School uh costs by the state um since then that number has has been removed from the budget uh last year there was a slight amount of funding put into that but that is not included in the the 2526 budget proposal so that is a net decrease over our current year number numbers so the net increase just from State sources in those subsidy line items is about $331,000 um again remembering our proposed budget is about $125 million in total you can see um from a percentage that's that's uh a.
08817% increase in just the state funding amount um so it really doesn't go a long way within our budget and and really looking at the numbers across the state there is a decreased um uh amount of money in the state budget towards education this year here but there's a reason for that the independent fiscal office out of Harrisburg which is a group um that's charged by the legislature they were created about 15 years ago um they review fiscal information for the state um for various entities mostly the legislature and the governor's office but also information related to uh local government school districts and they're very well respected across the state and the numbers and the estimates that they put out and in their projections they are projecting that the state in the current year budget
089at the end of the year will see a $3.5 billion Baseline deficit which would increase next year in the proposed budget to 5.5 billion and to 4.4 billion in the following year so what that would do is those inherent budget deficits in the state budget would eat up the state's rainy day fund about 7.5 billion dollar and deplete that by early 2728 so the state does not have the funding their revenues have decreased from their projections um to maintain some of the um Investments that they put into publication and uh public education in our current year budget so that is a a uh a direct trickle down then to the school districts because of there being less money in the state a concern about using up the r day fund that our funding in the
090proposed budget for next year was decreased as a as a direct result of that so from a federal perspective I just wanted to talk a little bit about our federal sources and there there's different buckets that we receive federal funding um as Dr Bachelor had talked about so we receive four different Buck buckets and what we call Title funding there's title ones through four and they go towards different initiatives specific um that we utilize those funds for um from 301,000 in title one down to to 25 and 26,000 for title 3 and title 4 um we have our idea funding which again I had mentioned passes through as local funding through our Intermediate Unit that we receive about $610,000 from that and then we actually get about $200,000 in reimbursement of Medicaid eligible costs um
091through our people services department they calculate this um every year and we receive reimbursement of costs that we have as a district to provide needs to those students uh that are Medicaid eligible so the total of those um six sources is a little over 1.2 million um so from a dollar perspective in our budget it's uh around 1% um so should there be a elimination of federal funds um you know I I feel that we we would have to look at some contingencies on how to pick up the difference for that um it's definitely not as significant as other school districts across Pennsylvania and across the country um but we look at these numbers and it's something that we've had conversations about uh with the uncertainty that's going on right now how would we make
092up in any of those buckets if we had to within our budget knowing that we're looking at um a 4% increase to our tax rate um with limited resources coming in from the state how would we make this up so it's just part of the bigger picture of how we prepare our budget and what different Revenue sources we have coming into the district and the amount of levers that that myself and the other administrators have uh to utilize when we're looking at funding sources for our programs I also did want to note that it's a separate fund from from what we're discussing as far as our general budget tonight but our food service fund does receive about $710,000 which is a combination of uh primarily reimbursement of meals that we serve um to students for
093free reduced and we get a portion for uh paid reimbursable meals um and we also receive donated Commodities uh fruit vegetables and other uh products from the federal government that we consider Revenue sources that would be a big concern as well um because we do receive a significant amount of our food service budget from reimbursable meals so um that would be a tough uh uh obstacle to overcome should that funding change from the federal sources related to our Food Service Pro program and again it's something that we're we're considering should should we need to make contingencies for that so our general fund expenditures um as we talked about earlier slightly outpacing our revenues uh over $125 million we break that into um different categories so uh these are broken into what we call our our
094major objects from wages and salaries to benefits to different Services provided supplies equipment um other objects and other uses um those are primarily our fund transfers and our debt that we utilize uh funds to pay uh back for uh money that we have borrowed for larger capital projects so when we look at our our functions we have major functions we have major objects we showed the objects on the previous one those are our accounting terms that we use to classify information um so that we can present it to uh the public to any of the stakeholders or anybody interested in our information to see how those costs are broken out so the primary amount primary amount of our funds go to the instructional portion of the budget which includes our regular education and our special
095education programs our Support Services primarily go towards students as well that includes um our transportation department our guidance Department um administration at building level um uh technology department so anything that's not a direct instructional source to students is included in support services and then in our uh non-instructional those would primarily be our costs uh related to Athletics and other Student Activities within the district and our other is made up of our debt and fund transfers and then from that object perspective you can see our wages and salaries and our employee benefits uh make up nearly 70% um of our spending and it would make sense and I think I've stated this before with the district providing a service to the students and the families in the community of educating those students um the primary amount
096of our costs go towards wages and salaries um as well as the benefits for those staff members uh and then we have the other categories that are listed there um that make up the other uh you know about 30% of our budget um which go towards all the other things uh whether it's it's debt or supplies or other services that we purch purchase outside of our our staffing levels so our overall budget increased by about 4.6% our salaries increased by about 3.6% um which uh includes our contractual obligations uh through our uh bargaining units as well as maintaining our current class size recommendations um we specifically had highlighted and discussed um I think Dr kevich had talked about our Innovation design Studio expansion and some staffing needed for that um and uh we are also
097doing an administrative review of our supplementals um so we have some additional costs in the budget related to that um and we are still working through the the final uh review of those supplemental positions throughout the district for our uh benefits uh we have a 3% increase included in the budget for medical benefits and 2% for RX costs um we did see uh some slowing down of the increases um and the prescription costs but a little bit of a higher uptick in the medical this year in the past few years it's kind of been reversed um but we feel that based on the final look rates that we got through our health care trust that we have enough with those percentage increase from a uh dollar perspective to cover uh both of those line items
098within the budget um another large cost to the district is our pension obligation cost through peers um the rate increased from 33.9% to 34% so for every dollar we spend on salaries we owe about 34 cents on that dollar to the state um for pension costs we do receive about half of that back in Revenue as a reimbursement but on the expenditure side the full amount is listed there um just to point out it's it's an interesting number because in last year's budget the rate was 34% they decreased to 33.9% for the current year we're in and they bumped it back up to 34% for this year so slight adjustments um but relatively flat over over the last few years um this has been a large cost driver that we don't talk about as much
099anymore but 15 years ago that percentage was under 5% um So based on decisions made by the legislature in the direction of the the state pension system uh we're making up for that now from the the unfunded liability that that's within that pension system system uh which is why that rate has gone from under 5% to now over over uh 30% I just wanted to highlight I had talked about this our our class siiz recommendations that our staffing levels within the budget are are are maintaining um and then our current um uh enrollment um that we monitor uh as we look at Staffing levels from from from really year to year but also month-to month this is something that we review as an administrative team to to keep an eye on on our uh overall
100enrollment within the district and this these are just some highlights from our departments um outside of of some of the initiatives uh some of the which are contained in here but um from our teaching and learning Department looking at mtss social emotional learning um uh STEM related materials uh new textbooks for uh a various number of subject areas our technology department has the ongoing onetoone device offerings um looking at some of the prior initiatives looking at at at AI um utilization within the district U we're also looking at an upgraded phone system and some server upgrades uh that we would utilize some of that fund balance that we had talked about previously in the technology uh reserves our buildings and grounds Department um you know looking at maintaining those those clean buildings and safe buildings
101for our students and staff we've made some adjustments uh at some of those costs from a materials perspective from from utilities um and then looking at our infrastructure we also as you remember last year in the budget we we made some shifts from a security team perspective to bring some more in-house security as well as our buildings and grounds um and uh if anybody's seen the trailer with the uh with the the logo on the side that's our in-house uh buildings and ground team now that's doing a great job going around making sure that our uh our our uh fields and our outside surfaces are are maintained throughout the district and then our pupil Services it's just continued support a student with special education needs you know we're continuing our Rader academy uh counseling services
102through Lakeside and collaborating with the teaching and learning department on on gifted support um so again some things beyond our initiatives and just a few things on top of everything else that goes into the day-to-day functions of the district that some of those departments are are are are including in their budget proposals and what the those resources are going towards um these are some of the larger expenses outside of those categories our our debt service in the budget is uh this year uh projected to be $9.3 million it includes the existing Debt Service um which also includes the first two borrowings that we've done for the Ethan project of just under 10 million for each one we're anticipating depending on the outcome of uh the bid results and and how uh the progress goes on
103the Ethan project doing three additional borrowings for that project and I I'll show that information in a minute of what that looks like we have fund transfers which are expensed in the general fund that go towards our curriculum and Technology funds um we also have capital reserve transfer which right now includes the remaining amount of Ean debt that we've built into the budget um but is being utilized now as capital reserve transfers as we have uh tens of millions of dollars of other Capital infrastructure needs that are required throughout the district um that those funds would be going towards um as part of our fund balance uh expenditures um we also have uh Reserve amounts in there to cover the upcoming debt for the 25 year we have a a pretty close to estimated amount
104but until we actually do the borrowing um I've broken that out into the budgetary reserve since it's coming up in the next year and then our 10 positions that we been maintaining in the budget for watching contingency positions this chart is showing what our anticipated borrowing for the Ean project looks like um at our our budget of over $75 million you can see our existing debt in this year's uh in the previous year's budget we were maintaining about 7 A5 million in debt but as we've done the first two borrowings for the Ethan project we're anticipating that Debt Service going up to a little over $1 million which is still an acceptable amount of debt comparable to our budget budget um it's still under 10% of our total budget um most school districts will try
105to maintain anywhere between 10 and 12% some go a little bit higher we were a little bit under so we have capacity under the budget but we've tried to be smart about phasing that debt in over time because under the Act One index we can't just increase that total amount of the debt um without a referendum and we have the capacity to do that within the existing framework framework of the Act One index and speaking of Act One what act one is is it's a uh it was created in 2006 so there's two charts on this uh slide showing preact one numbers and post Act One what act one did was it was established by the legislature and it uh created an index every year that school districts are limited to increasing our millage rate
106by on a percentage basis it's made up of two economic indicators it takes the average of the two and that is AR capacity that we have every year um some years there were exceptions to go above that we could also have a voter referendum but um for the most part and definitely recently we've we've tried to maintain and be under that act one index and provide balanced budgets um to the board to approve um so for for next year's uh budget uh as we were speaking about previously the Act One index number is 4% um the budget that we were working in within the current year was 5.3% it's one of the highest numbers um that we've seen um our tax increase for this year was under that um at 3.95% and that included phasing
107in most of the debt service payments upcoming for the Ean project I also wanted to present some information comparative to other districts um within our community um and I'll walk through the chart so just to show our numbers when when a home sells in the district or um we see uh a number of what is your what is your home worth what is what is a piece of property worth within the district that's assigned as the market value so looking at a property that has a market value of $1 million and I did that just to help me make the maths a little bit easier um we we have to apply what's called a common level ratio to that number to come up with an assessed value which is then the basis of how we
108calculate the annual real estate tax so the common level ratio is taking the market value and equalizing that to the assessed values from when the previous state uh countywide um reassessment was done so in Delaware County it was done in in 2021 just recently but you can see the number is already down to 61.3 5% so when we're calculating the assessed value in the district we take that market value time that's that ratio to come up with an assessed value of 600 3,497 our current millage rate for the district is 15.21 z9 so a property that would have an assessed value of $613,000 would see an annual real estate tax bill of about $9,300 um also interesting to note is some of the comparability which we'll talk about with other uh communities our residential tax
109base makes up about 82% of our community so we have commercial and other types of properties that make up the other 18% of that tax base but on average comparable to other districts in the state that number is higher than the average at at 82% I did a quick comparison with Wallingford swathmore another District in Delaware County to show the math again but again their millage rate is is higher than than ours uh it's almost double ours but you can see they have a nearly 94% residential tax base so that same $1 million uh market value property in that District would would have a almost double the the tax bill um at about $9,300 difference so I looked a TR for in East Town which is in Chester County um it's been a number of
110years since Chester County's had a countywide reassessment so you can see their common level ratio number is lower which would take that market value and make the assessed value much lower because it's looking at a longer period of time since that's occurred but you can see it also balances out on their millage rate which is at 28.3 versus our 15.2 so that same property in TR different East Town would see a tax bill of about $9,600 which is $274 higher than ours um and they have a slightly lower percentage from a residential perspective in their tax base lower Maran and upper Maran school districts in Montgomery County you can see the data there they have a similar common level ratio to Chester County the assessed values come in a similar number but you can see
111see the differences there where lower Maran has a millage rate of almost 34 a tax bill there on that same property would be about $1,000 um with an 80% residential tax base upper Marian um lot different than than the rest on that chart but King of Prussia Mall the the Valley Forge Casino a lot of commercial properties that generate a lot of tax dollars outside of the residential tax base you can see because of that um that same property would would have a lower tax bill um than here in rner so I I put this chart together to show and not to judge any of the other districts but it's to show um with a with a larger residential tax base here I think we've been able to maintain a quality um program for our
112students for our community um uh by being able to keep that millage rate under the Act One index and being able to provide everything uh that we need to within the budget as well as phasing in debt for the the for the Ethan elementary school so it's just an illustration of a comparability between us and those other districts from from those uh indicators from a a tax perspective and then I always try to show this slide about what those millage increases would look like um from the average taxpayer in our community so the assessed value on average within the the township is a little under 729 th000 so if we were to do a a 2% increase to the millage rate um that would equate to about a $222 tax increase for that taxpayer and
113you can see up to 4% it's about $111 for every percentage that we go up up to the cap of the 4% within the Act One index and then you can see in the red numbers um if we were in proposing a budget as it stands today with those tax increases what the structural deficit would be within the budget that we would have to make up this side is showing forecasts for the act1 index um so you can see about the middle column for 2526 that 4% and then those two economic indicators the Statewide average weekly wage and the employment cost index they the average of those two make up that 4% you can see what we're looking at um to go along with the uncertainty at a federal level the reduced amount of funding
114from a state level that the act1 index is going and projecting downward um in future years 3.7% down to 3.2% in the 293 school year so with a community like ours that relies primarily on real estate taxes um we will have a smaller capacity within those projections um to uh increase the resources that we would need to to maintain the budget so it's something that we're monitoring on top of the state budget on top of what's going on in Washington of considerations um and it goes into most of the conversations that we have um at an administrative level about decision making and things that we're able to do within the the budget so some things that we're going to be looking at moving forward some economic conditions the state budget and their financial situation uh
115what the federal government is going to be doing um how much of that funding potentially is being diverted from a federal allocation to a state allocation um as well as how many things at the state level are funded by federal sources that may change um that could be a a trickle down to some of the the the fundings that we received from a state perspective um we're always looking at interest rates uh from a revenue perspective from our financial investments as well as inflation from a cost perspective and what our borrowing cost will be on on those future borrowings for for Ean we're looking at the stock market there's Investments within the paser pension system within the stock market so it's something that as a district we don't invest in but it's a key economic
116indicator because it could impact what our um rate is on our pension contributions moving forward um industry Staffing shortages and pipeline concerns this is coming up from the the educational staff that we have from our support staff from administrative team um across the education industry as a whole we're seeing staff Staffing shortage which is an ongoing long-term concerns about how do we have people coming through uh to staff positions within uh um the educational environment so it's something that again as an administrative team that we we have a close eye on and and working with Mr stitzel and his department on on try to overcome that uh the financial health of the district I've talked about this before it's The Balancing Act we have on our bond rating between um what we have in our
117annual budget how much we draw down on our reserves and our AAA Bond rating is more important than ever as we're looking to do large borrowings for the Ean project we have to try to maintain that Bond rating um so that we get the most favorable rates that we can when we do those borrowings um and then we are going to continue to do an internal review of the budget um and looking at all levels of the Budget prior to the final approval at the end of May um so we'll have more information on that um moving forward Ward so this is a calendar uh we'll have our next update at the April 8th uh finance committee meeting where we will present our proposed final budget um uh which is a requirement by the state
118which we then need 30 days between the proposed final and the final budget approval on May 27th and we can continue to refine the budget up until that approval on May 27th this is just a slide to show that we did post on the agenda uh a document that we utilized uh our our cleargov software to use uh on our preliminary budget it's scaled down version of the larger budget document we put together last year we also have uh these presentations and we'll post that as well on the business office uh page at the website and with that I will open it up there's any questions or comments Mr um I just want to be sure I have this in the right spot so this would be back to oh boy here we go slide
11914 the um Debt Service is under other uses of funds is that correct yes the interest is included in other objects and the principle is included in other uses of funds so the state chart of accounts requires us to split that out but that's also in the other uses of funds are those fund transfers that I had indicated so that's included in that so the other objects and the other uses of funds are a combination of our fund transfers our debt service interest and Principle as well as some other smaller dues and fees that are included in that other objects category okay I meant to say before I even asked my first question thank you for this I love the way you present this it's so understandable really really appreciate it thank you um I
120did want to point out um those of us that you still use paper copies we did not receive slide 24 I just added it this morning that was an oversight so it is in the electronic version it's posted on board docs and I did put a note that I had added it this morning I try to include it and forward that to at least me and DJ I definitely will yes um and that was going to be my question is that um I believe at this point we usually look at what the increases would be for different size properties in Radner based on a 4% a 3.5 a 3% budget increase so um I'm requesting that you you know you've shown us that in the past if you could please show us that also for
121the April meeting and I'm going to reiterate um for my colleagues that weren't in the finance committee meeting um it would be my request that we not go in with a 4% budget this year I was hoping to be closer to a 3% budget increase um my reasons for that are because we know that the Act One index is going to be coming down um there is a tremendous amount of financial uncertainty in the economy right now um and I I think after many years of doing this that the best course of action for the district is slow and steady and so I commend the administration you have held the line when act one was up at 5% and um I would just like to request that we just perk along where we think it's
122going to be in a couple of years that I I think that it because most of our expenditures as you've highlighted are tied up in contracts many of them five-year contracts with Personnel it sends a much more honest message that we can't have huge increases in our you know negotiations with our various unions because we're going to we have to be slow and steady because when the Act One index comes down and it could go below 3% in a couple years we don't want to be saddled with contracts that are up at 4% because somebody saw a 4% increase I just think it's healthier to live within our our means I believe in doing that and I appreciate that Radner has the resources maybe to go a bit over that but I still think the
123majority of our community would like us to live within our means we are still able to deliver a phenomenal incredible education at you know the we've done this for years within our means and so that would be my request is that we still look at trying to get down closer to a 3% increase um and did I have any other that's what I wanted to just say tonight thank you any other questions or comments Mr Miss girton oh miss L um I just wanted to thank the gentleman um who commented during the public comment uh period about what's happening at the federal level right now and I share his alarm and dismay um so I think a lot of the uncertainty is not just in the economy and the financial condition of um rner families
124and residents but also obviously with the state of of public education in our country right now and how much support um we can expect from our federal government going forward um you know I appreciate the quotes that you include um Mr Pauling at the beginning of your presentation I know this year you chose a quote by John Adams which I love um but I also love the quote that you include in the actual budget report um from former US Treasury secretary Jack Lou um who makes the point that a budget is not just a collection of numbers but it's an expression of our values and our aspirations and um just with everything that's been articulated and proposed and actually implemented at the federal level you know I know we're very fortunate here in rner that
125um such a relatively small proportion of our budget um is relying on federal funding sources um but they're not nothing and they're actually extremely important um as everyone can see on the slide right here um and it doesn't even cover you know other services that have already been affected or taken away um you know just top of my head you know and this is actually being rarely mentioned even in the media but the Department of Education also runs um the office of civil rights I believe between like 9 and 12 Regional Offices across the country whose charge is to make sure that we provide equal educational access to all students in this country and those offices are um have the responsibility of making sure that each School District in the country um you know kind
126of fulfills that mission and they've already suffered dramatic Staffing Cuts I think up to 80% of their Workforce has already been fired or laid off um and you know for me you know again that's that's an expression of our values right um you know rner is also relying on the data collection that happens at on a federal level to even identify any inequities in the way that we provide access to education um we rely on the federal government to conduct the type of research that helps us figure out whether our educational policies and practices are actually effective in teaching our students um I could go on and on I mean it's more than just what's listed on this slide and um you know so I I appreciate Miss Solomon's concerns but you know I do
127think we also have to reckon with the fact that as a district um we Face a lot of uncertainty on many levels and um you know I I do recognize that you know Act One projection or the ACT when index projections are not perfect um I actually don't see anywhere where it's projected to go below 3% anytime soon I know you mentioned a couple years Miss Solomon but um you know and I'm I'm sure these projections might change but you know I do think we can be responsible you know based on Mr pauling's presentation and kind of the more detailed preliminary budget that was shared with us already you know I'm I'm supportive you know I don't see any requests by the administration that are unreasonable um you know I do think you know we
128should be committed um continue to be committed to providing the best education possible to all of our students so um to me I don't have many major concerns you know based on this preliminary budget that's been presented thank you Miss stuffy are you okay with me going ahead go ahead great thanks so Mr Pauling thank you um I appreciated all the information in here my sound cut out for a um a little bit in the midst I just want to make sure if I missed actually also on slide 14 um are you able to briefly tell us what the change is that had you bring down the actual of um 2024 for other uses of funds from 13 million to the budgeted of 10 million and the you know in 25 and then keeping it
129at that same 10 million and 10.6 million for 2026 and I apologize if you went over that I just I cut out the sound for a little bit I did not but it's a great question the the actual for 24 includes the end of the year fund transfer that we made to the capital reserve fund of about $3 million so it's not in the budget but that's we had talked about this where we have to put it in as an expense in the general fund to transfer it to the capital reserve fund so it reflects higher on our actual amount at the end of the year okay so that we could anticipate potentially if we have a budget surplus at the end of 25 making a similar M um move and then actual 24 and
130actual 2 I might be quite quite a bit closer correct okay great thank you and then on to on to um to I think it was slide 20 no it wasn't slide 24 it was [Music] um um oh no it was the one no it is there it is on 24 um I with all due respect to miss Solomon's perspective um you know that would be the difference between 3 and 4% we're we're talking roughly a million dollars um that to me would be a a large amount of money for you to be shaving at this stage in the budget process um so I I don't I I don't know that I can support that and in fact tagging on to what Miss Lao just said um and hearkening back to let me see where
131it is um I think it was in 200 6 or 7 if you look at slide 22 um we did a mill it was in 7 20072 2008 I believe or 2006 and 2007 in that time frame we had some pretty big millage increases that were above the Act One index 20067 78 I think it was 89 was the big one that's coming to mind for me my recollection of that from the time is that it was anti it was in anticipation of um of the Act One index coming into play uh it was around that time that the Act One index was coming into play and when we had some opportunity to build in some millage the district the the board of directors at that time opted to do that and it coincided with
132the timing of when the peers um increases were were quite substantial and if I remember at the time the thought was the board wanted to kind of tuck away some money and have the opportunity to ride the wave of the increases that we knew were coming for peers from peers and even out our even out our ability to to balance our budget and I think that held Us in good stead as a district it was probably painful at the time for I was a taxpayer then so you know it was probably a big millage increase to me at the time but I think that in the long run it held Us in good stead in that as some of those really large paser increases came we were able to to know that if we had
133to borrow from our peers bucket that we have it's a fund balance but we had it earmarked for peers we were going to be able to do that and I I think we did it a few times I think we dipped into it you know one or two times I'm I'm kind of viewing us at the same point right now there's a lot of uncertainty at the federal level Miss La just articulated a whole bunch of it um we've had some public comment about it I feel like now is an important opportunity time for us to take the 4% increase and be ready to weather um you know leaner times as act one goes down but also leaner times if some of the things that we are really concerned about were going to happen at
134the federal level come to pass because you know we don't get a lot of money from the federal government but a million dollars is a million dollars and it feels like the wrong time unfortunately it feels like the wrong time to um to walk away from that opportunity because it won't be there in a few years as our um as the Act One increase decreases uh so I will support a 4% increase I I understand that it it it can be hard for taxpayers I I I do I appreciate that I think that they're also depending on us right now to keep our school district running well and running in a stable fashion as everything else in education seems to be very uncertain um so I you know I thank you for the all the
135context of information that you you gave us about all that and just wanted to to share that other perspective about this right now thanks thank you anyone else well thank you Mr paing um and I think we're going to move an agenda item up and um courtesy to our next presenters so um we'd like to move um 8.04 the approval of Ean Demolition and playground installation project um up on the priority discussion action items um the the recommended action is that the board authorizes advertising and bidding for the Ethan Demolition and playground installation project can I have a motion to discuss a motion so moved second oh oh second thank you so Dr Bachelor sure so I'll introduce we have uh some of our design team here we have Steve Barons here um from Bren
136architect architecture and uh Damen Sparr and Walt Tac um from site logic so I'll turn it over to them we had an opportunity to hear a little bit about this um at the facilities meeting uh and they wanted to come back tonight to just share um some additional details answer some of the questions uh that were presented at the facilities meeting uh and then any other questions board members uh again this is a vote tonight for the board um to for us to go out to bid for the demolition uh and they'll be sharing the timeline for when we would be accepting those bit so I'll turn over to our design team uh thank first of all thank thank you for uh changing your your agenda for us and moving us up we appreciate that
137um as uh the uh as you mentioned uh last week we presented the plan to uh the uh facilities committee to uh release an early bid package for the demolition of the lodge building and the two residential structures and construction of a uh temporary playground in the area of the lodge uh excuse me not the lodge the Annex Building um the those documents are nearly complete uh we're hoping to uh get your approval tonight to advertise that and release that for bid later this week um as I indicated it's a demolition of the two houses uh back fill those foundations uh with stone and Seed th those areas um remove the Annex Building put in a temporary playground area about half of it a little better than half it will be engineered mulch uh which
138will be handic Ada accessible uh the other half will be a modular uh plastic uh interlocking play surface tole that uh with a basketball uh hoop um there will also be removal of some of the trees in the area uh F the first area will be the trees immediately adjacent to the element existing Elementary School we wanted to remove those while students are not in the building just to and to be as safe as POS possible for the students we also have a few we want to remove um down the hill a little bit from the existing Elementary School that uh are in poor condition and pl plan to be removed uh as a result of the uh the earthwork operations for the for the new school um there are plans for I think this
139right now we're estimating approximately 90 trees will be removed uh as I indicated majority of those trees are in poor condition with the exception of those right around the elementary school which unfortunately um need to go in order to make room for the the new school um the uh if you look here is a plan of the playground proposed playground area you can see to the left is a um the basketball court area which I as I indicated the modular uh interlocking towel and to the right is a u mulched area in plan is to put a uh swing set in there for uh the children you may recall there is already there are already two playground areas uh smaller playground areas in that vicinity uh with playground equipment on them those will remain and
140will be available to the students as well you want to go ahead reasons sure so consideration was given to this uh approach for the purposes of um offering some advantages to the project while while we were waiting for some of the approvals to be received so um there's there's a benefit to the overall project schedule in that we're taking advantage of this time over the summer to um actually reduce because we're frontloading those two months it would it would reduce the duration on the back end of the project and um that also um has the benefit of providing the temporary playground for the beginning of school in the fall of 2025 the the two houses um the associated car ports there and the Annex Building are identified uh going all the way back to the
141feasibility study as being in poor condition and would require costly repairs to bring them up to date to continue service to the district um this is scope of work that uh was already captured in the overall project budget so um it's it's uh already been vetted in that in in those terms in terms of its overall value and uh perhaps um most important ly from a um uh an actual perception and and use of the facilities that work would um it it's require it's regardless of the timing of the school project is required but what we're doing is we're putting that into the summer months when the the site is not uh when the school building is not occupied for regular classes and the site itself is encountering a lot less use so um it
142it's really the goal is to and that's also one of the reasons why we selected the trees that are immediately around the building to be removed those trees that would already be removed to make way for the new school building to do that work over the summer when when school is not in session um for safety reasons for noise for um just overall um you know effective use of the facility during the school year so what what is what are we estimating the cost of this work to be um here's a breakdown of the cost General conditions is is the basically your contractor's overhead on site is cost of supervision and temporary trailers and portons and things like that um we've got uh the the tree removal for about as a as a large chunk
143of the cost of the project because of the number of trees some utilities that be need to be disconnected de demolition of the houses and infilling of the foundations uh regrading of the house pads reeding the house pads demolition of the annex and its foundations um regrading the annex and then installation of the stone stone Basin hard play surface uh and the mulch area uh we're edging the The Mulch area with Timbers um and then putting up a basketball backboard and a swing set and then recating around the perimeter and repairing some sidewalks so when you add all of that up uh and put on a con a contractor's estimated markup and um we're carrying for right now for estimating purposes a 10% contingency uh based on the little bit of uncertainty in the market
144that we're seeing right now uh we're estimating the construction cost just under F uh $530,000 $529,500 uh good evening I apologize that I wasn't able to attend the last board meeting I might have been able to uh bring a little bit of light to the $100,000 of soft costs that were shown that $100,000 I'm going to go over in subsequent pages and I think the big question out of that was if there's $100,000 in there is there we and the board understood and the administration understood that there the work that we were doing now we would have had to do later but in those soft costs is there something that is additive to the project so it's the true cost of if we do this early are we spending a little more money and if
145so what is it and that that cost is about2 5,000 of that 100,000 the 75,000 is for design permitting insurance which would have been spent later in the project and is being spent earlier in the project and the 25,000 is uh our estimated cost for uh site logic having to deal with as a construction manager an additional bid event and some time on the site that was not part of our original fee so it's additional services for fees I'm going to break all this down for you in the following pages so the 19% which it was approximately 19% and sometimes we choose percentages for soft cost to give us our estimate and sometimes we uh use round numbers in this case we kind of did some math and knew that our round number of about
146$100,000 was right and it's about 19% those that $100,000 includes cost for for design permit Insurance it also includes some money in case there's some small change orders with these publicly bid contracts which we would have whether it's happening now early or whether it would happen late the payment for design cost permitting Insurance um really move forward and those are effectively paid based on the amount of construction and and permitting is a little bit different but uh design and insurance are often functions of percentages of that construction cost the cost for site logic to have an additional bid event and then to have some on-site presence during construction and not during preconstruction because remember all the work that we're doing in preconstruction we were going to have to estimate it we were going to have
147to talk about where it went and and have our plans that's really something that we already would have had in but because we have an additional bit event and because we're going to spend some time outside of the major part of construction that's where we have um some proposed added costs which I I'll detail for you to explain in some level of detail and illustrate the design fee that is is a is a part of this cost is about a third of it if you use round numbers and we use the round numbers of 66 million for site work plus the building as construction costs if we take take 5.5% of that as fee for the architect it's $3,630 th000 when you break out the 530 which was approximately the estimate for the hard costs
148at 5.5% we're paying about $29,000 early then later on in the construction we we don't have to pay for that 530 again so the architect's fee is on the remaining value and that 65 mil 470,000 at 5.5% which is about 3.6 and when you add those two together the early piece and the late piece you get the same amount of fee as you would have gotten if the project was bid it all at once so that that works similarly for permits similarly for insurance and of course if there's there's some contingency as well so those things are moved early here's where the added true added cost comes down the true added cost is and what I've done in order to make sure that I figured this out right was that I sat down with um
149really a few of the administrators starting with Mr Morris um and then really finally with Mr Pauling and said this is this is kind of the amount of work it's taking us and when you're a construction manager you're paid by your time time now the architect has paid us a percentage of the construction cost what we did for all of the work that we're doing for you is we estimated how much time it was going to take for us to do it multiplied those hours buy a rate came up with a fee and proceed with the work so when we pres when we proposed originally we were expecting a bti event and one large chunk of construction so we have an extra bit event and we have some construction that's taking place that we want
150to spend some time overseeing not fulltime but some time overseeing while it's happening it would I could not sit here as a professional and tell you that this work needs full-time oversight it does not it does need some of our attention but only some of our attention so when we look at the bid event um I've taken hourly rates there and all those hourly rates are less than the hourly rates that we have in our contract to charge for so they're discounted and Walt and I looked at the hours it takes to put together a bid package get it out to bid and receive the bids and do all that stuff so you can see what's happening there the bid event itself is is about $7,000 of Professional Services based on those hours and rates
151then and this is really where I wanted to talk to Mr Morris a lot and get because Mr Morris is worked with Mr minahan who's going to be on site how much time do we really need for him to be here to assist the district in that oversight so you have you have a little bit of work uh by our project manager Mike crane who is actually the project manager on this building that we're sitting in um some project coordinator time but mostly it's Mr minan time and when you work all that out together at the rates given there it's 18,000 and the two together are the $25,000 of fee that we never had built into our uh proposal for the project because we had always assumed we were going to do the work in
152one block so we were thoughtful about it I think that and and really this is this is talking about over the course of of the work this isn't um it's a day to a day and a half a week it's not extraordinary it's the right amount of time it's the right amount of oversight we don't want this is has to be goil locks has to be just right too much is cost too much money and tooo little is too little oversight so we all worked on that together we feel very good about that that proposal and and the clarification that we're giving you here so finally if you go to the final slide we talk about the schedule if we uh receive authorization from the board to advertise we will advertise on the 27th uh
153we'll receive bids on the uh 17th of April we will be able to review those bids with the facilities committee on the 13th uh on the 27th the board would get to vote if the board chooses not to proceed for any number of reasons that uh there's a note there that says offramp that's a place where we can say no we're not choosing to go so um what's happening is the the true cost of this and I should have said appreciable cost because when you have a bid event you have some advertising costs but the the main cost is that part of construction management for this little piece so really we're going ahead um and you're not going to spend any appreciable amount of money at all until you would award that contract and that's
154on the 27th issue notices to proceed um work on start work on the 16th complete by the end of August and I'm happy to take questions I appreciate you allowing me to work back through those soft costs yes and thank you and thank you for providing that clarification I think the added detail is very helpful um first I'll open it up for questions anyone so I'll just um M Stern or oh yeah no I do quick couple of quick first of all thank you that made this a lot clearer than the in you know from a couple of weeks ago so that that was super helpful um um on your timeline where you're where you're completing a demolition by the end of August when is the playground getting built it's being built during that time
155frame so our uh Milestone schedule would really be having only cleanup happening at the in the last I would say week and a half or so of August so as teachers would come back and we'll coordinate this with the administration but as teachers would come back back and students would be prepared to come back the only thing that would be left there would be clean up we should I don't know that we have any reason to have a concern about having the playground ready for when students are back um and really that uh 31st date should be kind of a final completion in terms of not paperwork but the the clean up on site and we can make it adjustments to that in coordination with the administration uh before we go out to bid I
156appreciate that question okay and then um the the tree line that you're removing which is along the um I've never I can't I've lost my sence so Direction I guess it's the Eastern side of the property um closest to the to the yeah the the the stuff in red the circled stuff in red that's on the eastern part of the property right uh yes okay so that's super super super super close to people's houses I think it's difficult to tell it in this particular um drawing correct um there's another row of trees uh between those and the uh the people's backyard so I think there's still a little bit of cushion buffer there okay all right and then um only because you mentioned that one of the benefits is to be doing all this heavy
157tree work while the students are not in session um when would be the time to take down the trees that are in the courtyard would that happen after construction's all done but again during a summer time I mean that will all happen when the building comes down yes those would come down yeah when we're removing the building and installing the new parking lot okay all right and then um the final question I have is because we talked about playground equipment I think that was one of the add-ons um you know last month was one of the increases is that we kind of forgot about playground equipment well I I didn't actually forget about playground equipment cuz I talked about playground equipment and in fact I talked about a sunscreen but neither here nor there we
158would we were being told last month that we can't reuse or it's not really cost effective to reuse the existing playground equipment to save some money what are you can what are you using for playground equipment on this temporary playground there will be a uh we're just buying a new swing set I believe it's a four four uh Swing Swing Set uh and then just a basketball hoop there's already in that area some play some climbing structures and some uh sliding a pair of sliding boards so those wor now that's the stuff that's the stuff that's sized for the kindergarteners are you talking about yes okay so we really are going to have very like very very very minimal playground equipment for the two years I guess is what we we're saying yes that that
159would be correct okay um and you know I appreciate it you say you're buying some swing set I mean it will be of a quality that that is appropriate for elementary school children and meant to last even though we only intend to use it for a couple of years right yes the intention what the intention is to try to relocate those when we're done uh they won't be as old as the current PL ground equipment so it'll be and they're they're much simpler to relocate than those large structures and they are they are the appropriate grade for um institutional use okay great my my final comment is yet I and I I'm was thinking tonight I'm like I got to text this guy is a final plea first of all I appreciate the thought that
160the timing allows us to not have to do repairs to the house or to the annex we weren't doing anything to the houses or the annex anyway so doing this early doesn't it's that's not we weren't doing we weren't fixing those up anyway I do however believe that particularly in the house that's um closer to this closer to 320 there's some beautiful wood in that building that I just have got to believe we've got to figure out a way to that somebody would want to come in and claim some of that that baseboard and door trim and the floors I know they're in terrible shape but they are they have they are beautiful bones and I hate to just see that demolished um is do you does your company do you guys have any experience
161in letting people come in and and claim that reclaim it I I can tell you about my experience at lower Maran when we took the Mansion down for the new Middle School um okay as you can imagine there were things in that building that were of interest um sure it would be surprising to you probably how um little interests there are likely in the things that you're talking about we have to look at that and see what options we have on this time frame to be able to allow that to happen what we did there was uh a lot more extensive um but we'll talk about it with the with the team and uh see what options that we have and we'll have a look at uh that what's in the building just to make
162sure that we agree or or maybe we reach out to some people to understand the value that that's not in us as the beholder and the kind of the owner of it sure okay I mean I I owned a home that had that bead board I mean that that Beed door trim and I paid a pretty penny to get the place out in malare and to Mill me some for a you know a doorway certainly and then I walked in that building and saw but neither here or there all right no that thank you you guys did a great job of clarifying the the the value ad for $25,000 is certainly a lot better I think my last only my only last question is as anxious as I am about tariffs that may be coming
163our way um you know what what happens if something happens with the Tariff situation that throws our whole bid into a whole bid process not it won't be for the demolition but for the rest of the project um you know we'll have done this early demolition I mean we're not using these buildings at all right Dr Dr Bachelor so I know the people I think we gave them notice to move out and we're not using the annex at all correct yeah more question for bachelor yes we are no longer uh renting the buildings out and actually for the last few years our operations team has identified uh you know significant upkeep and these are not large homes um but significant upkeep and uh so you know we either way as a district um you know
164we shouldn't be in the business of of renting out the the reality is is that we purchased those homes many years ago um and actually we purchased we sold them we purchased them again with the idea that uh it it consolidates this lot so tearing down the homes and consolidating the lot for us does make sense okay instead of pouring money into repair the Tariff stuff throws our whole rest of our budget and timeline into a tail spin um this this piece of the puzzle still would make sense to proceed right now it was it was designed with that in mind specifically we okay we wanted we we needed to be able to come in to the boardroom and talk about that with not only the board but the community that if we do this
165now regardless of when the school is built if there's some issue with the timeline that this work would need to be done and getting it finished now is certainly a good step so yes the professional team feels that way and I believe I'm looking at some of the administrators I think the administration feels the same way yeah and one one so sorry just the the trees just one last thing about it so we're going to take out all these trees which yes they're not in great shape and they need to come down but they are providing storm runoff protection for those neighbors what are we putting in there for to protect so since normally our like storm runoff would be all part of the the construction what will we be putting in there to make
166sure that the removal of those trees doesn't cause an issue for Neighbors who live down the hill and and we talked about setting up I know we have Mr Dolan here we talked about setting up an opportunity to talk more extensively about the whole property um our presentation to to uh the shade tree commission and our work with the you know the arborist as well with our plan um so I I would imagine all of those things were considered in those but I'll I'll let our team answer yeah I'm it's more specifically the early demolition means those trees are coming out sooner before we're going to put up like runoff protection or or Damian will runoff protection be put up and it's just going to sit there for a while till we start the wheel
167construction so um I'll just generally answer that question by saying that the um this the portions of the uh ens controls that are related to these areas would be put in place for the duration of the work and they would only be removed at such time as the um the area is stabilized so the it that's just part of the of the permitting and the close out of this particular aspect of the work so um there's the contract calls for stabilizing and rest restoring that area and and uh those controls for for runoff would not be removed until um the area is stabilized and whether that's trees or or or grass or ground cover is is not um is not uh relevant in in terms of the approval it just has to be in place
168and functioning before the ens features can be removed if that helps iess I I guess my issue is I'm not seeing on here ens control I'm seeing wece an area but reting an area that's going to have I don't even how many trees are in that Circle but there's a lot and I don't see ens um called out in the in the line in the in the um bid project cost estimate page okay well well this drawing is actually a demolition plan that that we selected so that you could see the tree removal itself there's a separate drawing for ens controls there's actually four drawings that we have here in physical form um that that document the work and one of them is is the ens plan but what you're seeing here on the screen
169is actually the demolition plan no no no I understand that I'm not seeing it in the cost estimate is what I'm saying okay I I I'm looking at what you're looking at and I understand what you're saying so I'm going to address this a little bit differently so while while we believe that we have some limited uh amounts of control in there and I think perhaps what you're concerned about is when tree tree canopy goes away and the roots go away it's Etc that as we have run off off the hill we may see um water running fast unabated to neighbors is that maybe some of your concern that's exactly my concern and I knew that we would be putting up ens when we did the you know the wheel the the construction work I
170just don't see it called out for in the early demolition yeah and and I think that's something that we can look at and part of the reason that we have a contingency at the bottom is to do things like this I I have done this a long time and enough to know that an ens plan is is a theory until you get to see it rain with the plan in place and we will want to see it rain um and understand what's happening if we need to put a sock along those where those trees are so that we can direct the water along that sock and and really slow it down on the hill and it's really kind of the way I'm thinking about is right along that tree tree line that you're referencing right
171so that we stop the water from going to the neighbors and and redirect it um really to the top of the drawing page we can do that and often we have to take an ens plan and see what it's see what's actually happening in real life with rain and then make a modification to it in the field so that we're good neighbors and we take care of the environment so I I appreciate what you're saying yeah you you you and I are on the same page thank you Damen all righty that's all my questions thank you Miss Duffy anyone else I just have one question and it's for the administration um do we have students over at Ean for esy do we have any problem over there no we have not used we we have
172not used uh Ethan for esy so we don't need to worry about the playground for esy thank you okay I'm going to call the vote all in favor I I that's an I from me Liz Miss gton Miss girton I sorry okay that's 6 L thank you again thank you you very much [Music] okay we are going to now go back to 803 we actually no 801 to 803 these are roll call votes so it's the approval the 801 is approval of the Delaware County Intermediate Unit General operating budget for 2025 26 the recommended action is that the board approve the Delaware County Intermediate Unit unit General operating budget for 2025 26 in the amount of 11 million 91278 with rner Township school districts share also approved in the amount of 3,51 so now for
173a motion do I hear a motion second yeah good so I'll I'll note that Dr Babson miss stunn and miss Rosen Bloom are absent so I will not read their names during the roll call votes and just note them as absent um for the the three votes that we have for roll call um so miss stuffy yes Miss girton yes Miss Lao I miss Solomon I abstain from the vote as an employee of dciu Miss Stern I and Mr Thorton yes okay we have five approval and one exstension okay on to 802 approval of the Delaware County Technical Schools budget program budget summary 2025 26 the recommended action is that the board approve the Delaware County Technical school program budget for 2025 26 in the amount of 18,000 7669 the Radner Township School District's portion
174being $264,600 38 for the special education technical program for total budget amount of $277,745 second Mr Pauling okay uh Miss stuffy yeah yes Miss girton yes Miss Lao I miss Solomon I abstain from the vote as an employee of dciu okay Miss Stern I and Mr Thorton yes okay five affirmative one exstension on to item number 8.03 the appointment of Trustees for the Delaware County Community College Board of Trustees the recommended action is that the board votes to appoint kin a Cadwell Donald L heler Robert W mcau and Kevin B Scott as trustees to the Delaware County Community College Board of Trustees do I have a motion so moved second second Mr paing okay Miss stuffy yes Miss curton yes Miss laau hi Miss Solomon yes Miss Stern I Mr Thorton yes okay six affirmative
175moving on to our consent agenda do I have any items to be pulled sorry could I point of order um we only voted on two of the three dciu budgets were two of them combined the third doesn't require roll call vote so it's in the consent agenda portion thank you okay good so moving on to the consent agenda do I have any items to be pulled okay who whoa whoa Lydia you should pull that one from consent thank you Susan yes I need to pull that item which item where is it in the conscent 11 1104 found it y yes no it's um 16002 isn't it no hang on no it's 11.04 11.04 yes thank you okay so then do I have a motion to approve items 10.01 through 1103 and then items 1105 through
176sorry 15 yes 15.04 so moved a second second all in favor I I I I I 60 so now can I um do I have a motion for right that's what I do just for item 1104 so move second second Miss Solomon do you want to say something you I'm going to abstain from the vote thank you all that appr all that approve I I I I so 5 Z with one exstension all right now we're moving to item 16 reports from our board liazon and Community announcements Miss Solomon Delaware County Community College yes um I received um a monthly update from the president's office and I want to just highlight some of the things in that for you um they completed four of the five industry stakeholder forums the ones that were completed were
177Hospitality stem skilled trades and advanced technology and health care but there is still one more Forum a final forum that will focus on nonprofits and it will be tomorrow night um at 4:00 p.m. at the marle campus if anyone would like to participate um second item the automotive technician certification program was reviewed and evaluated for reation by the automotive service excellence and um the program continues to meet the strict industry standards of that organization uh third thing I want to mention is that the college's health care certification programs continue to increase in popularity there is a 50% increase in the nurse aid training program they added a pharmacy technician training program with Walgreens and bowin Pharmacy and they entered into an agreement with Mainline Health to train workers in Sterile Processing tech for the sterile
178processing technician program um and then just lastly I need to mention that there was a decrease of 3.7% in enrollment for the dual enrollment um Pathways and that's where high school students can enroll in courses at dciu and receive credit and there there was a decrease enrollment in that and that's it thank you and 16002 Dr bson is not here so we'll wait till next month for his update on the Delaware County Intermediate Unit and then 16.03 Delaware County School Board legislative councel oh she's also not here miss done and then 16004 Pennsylvania School Board Association Mr thoron no update at this time okay um we're on to board announcements well excuse me I think Miss Duffy point of order since we no longer have um new business I think this is when we can
179raise concerns or do we wait until after board announcements you can do it whenever you want yeah I mean you can do it now or wait till after board announcements I just I just I just wanted to briefly mention because we did have some public comment requesting that we vote on um about the books tonight I just wanted to say that um you know personally I thought that it was important for us to wait until we have our full contingency of board members here and you know our board president is not here and I know she feels um she has strong feelings about the the books themselves and so just out of respect for my fellow board members who couldn't be here tonight and knowing that they would all uh potentially want to comment or
180share their perspective um I just that's the reason that I won't be bringing this up tonight as a matter of of business and that um yeah so that's what I wanted to say about that anyone else comment thank you Miss Stern okay word announcements we have um Tuesday April 8th um we we have the um Finance meeting at 5:00 p.m. policy at 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. will be GRCC on Tuesday April 15th we'll have curriculum at 5: and facilities at 7 and on Tuesday April 22nd we will have the regular business meeting at 7 pm. um I'm sorry um public comment my understanding is that we missed two recorded comments oh three recorded comments these comments came in according on schedule so we do want to play them it's a little out of our
181usual practice but In fairness since they came in on time we'd like to play them now good evening my name is Emily Nelson and I'm a resident of Wayne and a proud parent of a rner high school student I'm calling in support of the students parents Educators and other rtsd community members who are appearing tonight opposing the board's recent decision to pull gender queer fun home and blankets from the high school library shelves I'm so very sorry that I could not attend and show my support in person it was an honor and a privilege to attend the policy committee meeting to listen to other people's comments which ran the gamut from dry and rational funny but Earnest to tearful and heartfelt the disappointment concern anxiety and anger of the community were at times palpable and
182I was deeply moved by the thoughtful and considerate way in which the commenters and the policy uh committee members interacted so I begin tonight by renewing my plea for a complete overhaul of the review process for complaints the current process is opaque and unfair it leads to people feeling angry confused marginalized and disempowered a better system would incorporate clear and publicly available guidelines and standards notice initial informed review per formed by a representative sample of not just the parents but students in the Widener rner Community publicly available and published findings public hearing with meaningful opportunity for Community participation and an appeal or review process that way even though people still might not like the outcome they can observe and more importantly participate in the process my next ple is that upon revising the process you
183immediately undertake review of the decision if you need a motion or petition in order to set this a motion please accept mine right now because your decision was wrong I strongly believe that had the complaint been aired out in the open you would not have arrived at the decision to pull the books from the shelves and make them unavailable to students you have heard Community Voices telling you how important it is for kids and their parents to be exposed to uh a multitude of voices and to see things from different perspectives and I'm just a middle-aged woman I can't be a nineb aary teenager but what better way to get as close to that experience as I can than by reading a book told from the Viewpoint of a non-binary team or a nonb binary
184adult who can reflect back on their teen years with the added wisdom and maturity that age brings or is supposed to bring had the complaintant known that their complaint would be exposed to light would they have tempered their rhetoric and chosen not to accuse the rtsd library staff of providing child pornography I would hope so if the complaintant knew the complaint would be under scrutiny and the subject of discussion and debate might their accusations more closely approximate legitimate concerns and rational conclusions this isn't child pornography pornography refers to images of sexual acts or private parts with no artistic educational historic scientific or other non-program Merit I'll leave it to the students and other commenters to elaborate but the policy committee and this board will have heard many accounts of exactly why these books are important
185and none of those reason are providing sexual Thrills so rather than scouring the books for racy images I would encourage the complainant to actually read the text listen to an audio book if the images are too racy and learn some lessons about tolerance recovery from abuse compassion inclusion consent literature I just want to bring home again that these aren't images of children no children were exploited or abused in the creation of handdrawn images this complaint was just boiler flate boiler PL manufactured outrage intended to disguise blatant homophobia the complaintant counted on it being evaluated under cover of Darkness to hide its clearing flaws this board is so much better than this the school district is better than this our kids deserve so so much better than I please listen to them I thank all the
186students who have devoted their time their efforts and their voices to this matter I thank the library staff for being good stewards and zealous advocates for their charges I thank all of the commenters opposing the ban for paying attention and standing up for what's right and I thank you all for your time this Ain starik from lean Pennsylvania and here is my comment I applaud the policy committee's decision to review board policy 144.5 and I strongly encourage the inclusion of student voices in shaping any new procedures related to books and potentially Banning any books overall I oppose any effort to ban books at rner high school particularly the targeting of the lgbtq plus literature every student deserves access to diverse stories that Foster empathy understanding and a sense of belonging singling out the lgbtq books
187for removal is discriminatory and undermines the principles of intellectual freedom I urge the school Community to reject this type of censorship and to protect every students rights to read freely and feel representative in their education my name is Kat kin gourd and I live at 218 Pembroke Avenue in Wayne my daughter is a sophomore at rner high school and my husband and sisters-in-law are all rner grads my mother-in-law taught kindergarten at Ean Elementary for 26 years we are big fans of the rner school district and love how they make all students feel like they belong however removing Memoirs from the rner high school library based on a secretive and disingenuous procedure is inconsistent with this community of belonging let's not mince words the actions of the complainant reflect a nationwide and highly political attack on
188school's ability to support all students particularly those from traditionally marginalized identity groups as in all divisive times in history neutrality can seem like the easier path when federal education funding is being slashed and National universities and law firms are being kneecapped by the United States President unless they cow toow on policy it is scary for a school system to do anything publicly that might draw national attention we don't want our incredible district and this amazing high school with its robust library to become a national Target in the cultural war wars unfortunately it is time to admit that this has already happened as I said in my comments to the policy committee this book challenge is part of a national pattern of regressive campaigns designed to marginalize diverse perspectives the school library has become a Battleground
189as parents grandstand about their values and play tug-of warar with the subject matter all in an attempt to gain political ground in 2019 the American Library Association identified 347 unique challenges to materials in school libraries by 2021 they recorded 1,858 attacks with the number Rising to 4,240 by 2023 almost half of the targeted books have lgbtq themes but these groups also attack books that address civil rights and human rights this is the conservative Playbook as applied to schools and rner has led itself be used as a pawn in this game the losers are all of the high school students and teachers who now have gaps in the educational materials available to them in their High School library a library is not a place of advocacy but a place of re Source both sides in this
190argument should be able to go to a library and find material that equally supports their positions as opposite as they may be a library is for a student seeking materials for class but is also for a student who feels unsure about their journey toward adulthood and who wants to know the answer to the questions we all face at some point in our lives am I worthy of Love do I belong fiction has always provided answers and Community for those who seek it and who might find it lacking in the real world World a library with a range of titles and topics can meet a student on their journey and provide community and a sense of belonging when we allow parents to cherry pick titles and topics we risk stranding that student on their Journey whether
191a book has been checked out is a disingenuous question to ask a library's value comes not just in its being a repository for books but in being a place where one can read those books perhaps anonymously and return them to the shelves without the potential stigma of forever having their name in the syst system attached to that title we are grateful to the school board for its attention to this matter and commitment to the policy a new policy should include Above All Else the participation of the student body treat your students with the respect that they deserve as valued young adults in this community who have learned to think critically through the extraordinary efforts of your teachers you train them to do this work let them do it thank you for your service to our
192community Through participation on this board you do important work and we are very grateful for your attention to this matter thank you I I understand that I think a few of us had some trouble hearing some of that audio based on the Acoustics so I'm just wondering could we get them sent to us email yeah we can look to have them sent to you through email thank you okay with that we do I hear a motion to adjourn so moved second for