MTSD School Board - Work Session - 6/17/2026

001Thank you. I guess I gotta call it then. Thank you. Good evening. I'd like to officially call this meeting of the Mantine Township School Board to order. Welcome to everyone here in person and those joining us online. Our district's mission, Nurturing Challenge for Success, is a reminder of our intent to enable every student to learn, grow, and thrive. Now please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. We're moving on next to our announcements, and we have a few of those. Again, just as a reminder, members of our community are encouraged to participate in board meetings in person or to view them online. In support of both transparency and community engagement, recordings of meetings can now also be watched afterwards on our district's YouTube channel. And I also want to say next, we're not mad at

002Mr. Rivera. We're not putting him over there by himself. Dr. McArdle and Ms. Woodbury are both absent, are going to be absent for tonight. Ms. Woodbury is going to be absent for tonight and next week's meetings on a medical leave. We look forward to welcoming Ms. Woodbury back to us in August and then seeing Dr. McArdle next week. Next, a happy graduation to the class of 2026 and their families. I want to thank everyone who put so much, yeah. I want to thank everyone who put so much effort into making the ceremony a success for our graduating seniors and all of their supporters who helped them get there. We are very proud of all of you. Next, I want to wish everyone a happy Pride Month. Pride commemorates the years of struggle for civil rights

003and justice for LGBTQ plus individuals, a struggle which continues to this day. Manine Township School District is a place where we strive to make sure all students, staff, and families feel welcome and proud to be who they are. I also want to wish everyone a happy Juneteenth coming up on this Friday. Our offices will be closed to commemorate this important holiday, which marks the day in 1865 when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas were ordered freed, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. There are a number of events occurring across Lancaster this Friday and through the weekend that I would invite you all to support. And finally, I want to close with a reminder that our summer meals program happening at Schaefer and Bucher Elementary Schools with breakfast served from 9 to 9.30 and

004from lunch from 11.30 to 12.30 are ongoing. No registration is required and meals are available for youth up to the age of 18. More information can be found on our food services page webpage on the district website. And that is all of our announcements. We have a pretty packed agenda, lots to cover tonight. And so we're going to move right into number two, our information only, which is an update from RLPS on their campus master plan phase three athletics and on the new NITRAR elementary school and district wide feasibility study. Welcome Mr. Linkey and Mr. Hartler. Hello everybody and good evening. As I said, we have quite a few things to get through, so we'll try to move through this briskly. The first piece that we want to talk about is the campus phase three

005plan. So we have the agenda up there. It's probably the most involved one of the three we're going to talk about tonight. So moving right into that, the schedule. Where we are at the schedule, we are in June right now. Our goal for this project is to get through design and bid this project February, March of 2027 and start construction in May, June of 2027 and construction to be completed July of 2028. We would be coming back to the board in April for approval of the bids. But our first big step is to get through the Zoning Hearing Board. As you remember, this project started through the Zoning Hearing Board a year ago. We stopped, we redesigned, we improved, and we're going back to them right now. So, Steve, do you want to talk about

006that just a little bit? Sure. Steve Gergely, Harbor Engineering. We had made a submission to the Zoning Hearing Board a few weeks ago for a special exception for an expansion of the school use in the R3 residential zoning district. The application states that we meet the conditions for that approval. And then we're also asking for a dimensional variance for the height of the press box. It's considered a structure, and because it's going to be mounted on top of the new home bleachers, it'll exceed the maximum building height that's permitted. So that's a zoning variance that we're requesting. Kind of pared down the application from what the previous application was. We've eliminated some of the other dimensional variables related to building length. Everything is now compliant with the updated design. And the other thing we'll be

007asking for is a time extension for approvals and construction a little bit beyond what the ordinance typically allows, just because of the length of the project and the complexity of it. So that meeting will be July 6th at the Manheim Township office in front of the zoning hearing board at 530. We submitted all the information a month ahead of time on June 5th. So as you said, we have that meeting June 7th. I mean, July 7th. If all goes well and we get the approval in one meeting, we will be pushing really hard to get our land development and PDS submittals in as soon as we can so we can make our February-March dates. Justin is going to go over the updates to the design here a little bit. Just one update to that is...

008We've been having steering committee meetings, other meetings, but we also want to the Governor Mifflin Athletic Community Center so to see another project that Mr. Hollenbach thought highly of that had weight rooms, that had locker rooms, and a number of training rooms, a number of spaces that were very beneficial for us to see together and talk about. So as Chris mentioned, we've been in front of you a couple times now and behind the scenes working with the steering committee to really build consensus as a project and build that alignment and efficiency into the project, which we talked about really from the outset. So as a reminder of the different aspects of the Phase 3 master plan under study, we have the area immediately around the stadium, bleacher upgrades, establishing a new home side. We have

009additional team rooms. Also giving some attention down at Journey Field level. In addition to the seating areas, also some locker rooms to directly serve out onto Journey Field as well. In the bottom left-hand corner adjacent, a new parking lot, which Steve and his team have been working on. New concessions, ticketing, potential scoreboard, and then upgrades to both the softball and the baseball fields. Looking at it a little bit more closely on the stadium and the adjacent areas, the parking area, bottom left, adjacent NEF, relocated jumping area moving directly to the right-hand side in between the new parking and journey field. We see the three red arrows as the three primary entrances into the stadium, both the existing one on Plan North, as well as a new one off of Blue Streak and the parking area

010on Plan East. And then also a new one located on the southwest portion adjacent to the new parking area. So three primary entries to your facility, really maximizing where people are flowing from their cars to the stadium and also thinking about dismissal as well and how they're circulating through the site. We have there off of Blue Streak, holding that corner there for the field house, and we'll get into plans to show how we're fine-tuning and refining there. As we're aware of the big flip, bringing the home side to the plant south of Creusefield. So establishing the new bleachers and under bleacher structures there. And then some improvements along the visitor, the new visitor side as well for a new visiting team locker room. And we also see right down the slide with where we're relocating

011some of the throwing sports as well. Looking in at the stadium proper, we'll switch to the next side. We're going to work first plan north, so the existing home side, which we're creating new locker rooms for the visiting team. So under the existing bleachers there, it's an existing storage room, flipping that into visiting team locker rooms. We're getting about 75 lockers in that area, as well as toileting and shower support. This is coming on the other side of the field under the new grandstands. In the middle there at the top, showing both men's and women's new facilities there for toileting, and then rounding out with some additional storage for the athletic programs up at the track level. At the bottom of the slide then is down about 10 feet at Journey Field level, so directly

012flowing from Journey Field into locker rooms and storage to support the needs. the athletic programs down there as well as a central coaches suite down there. So in these locker rooms, we're in that 30, if they're all individual full-height lockers, about 30 per sport. If we were to stack them and split them, they'd be about 55 to 60 lockers for each sport down there, so four of them. So if we zoom up, this is looking down at the new grandstands, which are on top of the plans we just looked at. So it's showing three primary volumetries for access to the grandstands and flowing out via the stairs and ramps there to field side. And showing the counts as we have been calculating both with a wider 22-inch seat as well as a narrower 18-inch seat

013for fitting more patrons in the grandstands. The next slide really is showing the field house as it's been fine-tuned and I think we're really honing in on locking in this footprint and moving into coordination with consultants for mechanical electrical plumbing as well as structural. This plan reorients from what we were just looking at. So the field in this plan is directly to the top of the building. The Blue Streak Boulevard is to the bottom and that new eastern entry is there in the bottom left-hand corner. So working from left to right, we have some ticketing. We have toileting concessions there in that blue and gray area on the left-hand side. Moving towards the middle of the plan, that is more of the support spaces, so laundry as well as officials' locker rooms. Moving to that

014first orange bar, which is the trainer suite, so direct, you know, good field access both to the stadium and then also down to journey field as needed. Moving a little bit further then is the larger locker room, which is dividable. So in total, having about 125 lockers in that suite, or it could be divided into two 60 locker rooms. Rounding out the right-hand side there is the multipurpose space, which we've talked about being both a gathering opportunity as well as meeting the needs for the team during halftime or watching film during the week. So it is a dividable room. And then as we'll recall on the bottom, the plant finishes with the weight room having that prominent, you know, pavilion-like presence along the blue streak. And we'll see some visuals of that a little bit

015later on. The other thing that the visit to Governor Mifflin also kind of piqued interest both in the steering committee as well as maybe consideration for future phase is, is there an opportunity for incorporating some turf element into this? turf practice into this field house maybe at a future time. So either planning that as an addition towards Blue Streak, just keeping that in the back of mind. Not to roll it into this project, but just to make sure that we, if it is a priority, to make sure we're carving out some space for that. Can I ask a question about that? I'm sorry, I typically wait to the end, but I mean, what would be the functionality of that turf and do we have a vision of how big it would be? I mean, are

016we thinking something like... batting practice area or something bigger or smaller? It came from the Governor Mifflin review and basically it's based on The approximate size of two batting cages areas. What they use it a lot for is supplemental to the weight room. There's a lot more exercises that they can do in that space of the weight room. So you talk about number of stations in the weight room. You don't always need weights for that. You need other spaces for that. So we put a bubble on here. The number of things that we have talked about, we would love to add to this. This falls into that phase four category for that. So like a sled push, that sort of functional fitness sort of thing. Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. The last item to

017talk about here is the planned structure for both baseball and softball. I apologize for it being a little bit light on the screen, but it is a two-story structure with both storage and concessions on the first floor and then press on the upper floor. And then we have tiered seating located behind the home plate. And we'll look at a couple of visuals here. I should stress these are conceptual in nature and just really meant to pique interest and pique conversation, but wanting to put a little bit more interest into the white boxes that we've been seeing today. So if we were to look at the new facility coming off of Blue Streak, looking at it from the eastern, really showing the prominence of that weight room in the front, being mindful of both the potential

018for obscuring that glass, giving that privacy to your student athletes, making them feel comfortable, but also allowing as much of that natural light to flow into that space and make it a really pleasant space for them to work out in. showing a really nice ceremonial, potential for a ceremonial entry there for that threshold for ticketing on the left-hand side under a nice wrapper of Mannheim Township blue. So that really sense of arrival, you know where you're at, and the wayfinding is inherent in the architecture, which I think is a strong move. If we were to move through that portal, now we're standing with the new grandstands at our back, our track at our left, and the field house straight ahead. showing the potential for a nice overhang space. We've talked with the steering committee, I

019think also with you, of there's times where we have inclement weather, and how can we create spaces within this field house and other parts of the project that should the need arise, we can get people under shelter. And so looking at this area's potential for a large under-roofed area for patrons should the need arise. The other thing we see here in the image is that concessions really occupy that prominent corner, both really meeting the needs from individuals flowing down from the grandstands, as well as those coming up from Journey Field, which would be directly off the screen to our right-hand side. So in form, really trying to keep it a simple, efficient structure, some nice durable materials, but underscoring that with a really priority to make a well-crafted building design to house all the needs

020for your student-athletes. So again, very conceptual in nature in terms of form and also materials, but trying to take that next step to show what could be as the project develops. The next view to talk about, this would be standing on the sidelines of Journey Field, looking up at that same concourse level that we saw previously. So on the right-hand side would be that portal with ticketing that we would come from the eastern side, from the high school side of the project up onto the concourse. Seeing the potential for some tiered seating, both in a grass site wall scenario on the right-hand side where you could sit on the site wall, you could bring your camp chair, that sort of arrangement, but also some structured seating, bench seating in the middle. We see the new

021stadium grandstands off in the distance on the left-hand side. But I think trying to show really the potential of the architecture to be branded strongly for Manhattan Township Athletics. And so wanting to see that really played out even in these conceptual options. The last conceptual we wanted to review with you this evening for the phase three was the potential for the structure that we envisioned for baseball and softball. And so looking at that lower floor, we see the concession windows. On the right-hand side, an overhead plane for some covering and some protection. We see the stairs in the middle that would work your way up to the announcer's booth. And then underneath that area would then be a combination of both concession support as well as field storage that's needed by the programs. It's a

022little bit hard to see in this view, but if you look directly past the concessions window, you see that railings kind of working their way down. That would be that tiered seating position directly behind. Any questions on any of the images? Otherwise, Chris will talk about next steps. Do you have any questions? I think we can go now. Is that okay? Absolutely. I mean, I think it's spectacular. I love the strong imaging. I love the clear, like the sense of place. I really, that resonates. I like the response to feedback we've seen. And I think it's spectacular. But Ms. Lamb, did you have a question? Just, yeah, I was a little surprised to see that. the part about the turf, but then there wasn't much mention of that for the baseball field. I remember that

023being a topic of conversation a while back. So I'm just curious to see, and I know we haven't done the cost yet, just the possibility and the cost of having turf in baseball versus, you know, maintenance of grass and allowing that practice to be. happening during off seasons and what that ROI would look like. So I'm just throwing that. There was a conversation, right, about turf? So I was curious where. Right. Okay. Okay. I just wanted to. So a couple different conversations there. There was a conversation about adding turf to the infield for baseball and softball. And that was going to be part of phase four. So. That is kind of like that field house. I don't want to call it a field option that we just showed you that bubble on the field house.

024It's not that and it's not that other facility you saw about a year ago. This is just something to help support the weightlifting activities going on with practice. Thank you. Thanks for clarifying that. Yeah. In terms of scale and size, it would be fractional compared right. And also. not part of this process. And where we're even showing it as a suggestion right now, it's limited in size because we have the car drop-off coming along Bull Street, Blue Street Boulevard. Ms. Sitz, yes. I'm looking at the screen for the baseball softball concept. And I need to be better oriented as to where that fits in the overall picture. I love the way all of our facilities are being brought together by your design, but I'm not sure where this baseball two-story high building would be. So

025if we were to focus there on the baseball in that situation, that existing structure that's currently on site is a two-story structure really behind home plate. And that has the announcer press up top with storage down below. So at least for baseball, the intention is this basically gets placed right in that same footprint area directly behind home plate. For softball, the goal is we're working the site, looking at some of the grades to see the potential of really looking at that same structure directly behind home plate in place of the. existing bench seating that's there at softball. Yeah, there's not much there now. We're looking at two options. Can we get it behind there like baseball, or do we have to move it around to get it down the first baseline on that side? Because

026the other thing that we're doing at the softball varsity at JV is put an accessible path to get your whole way back to JV. And pulling all of our facilities together. That's right. You're saying, this just looks large to me, you're saying this would fit in that same footprint of what is available now? This is definitely going to fit in the baseball footprint. And we're still studying for its appropriateness at softball, either here or, as Chris mentioned, on the first base. The grades are a challenge at the softball as they fall behind. Right, hopefully. Very much so. And was this in the original plan? This looks to me like this is different. I don't recall this. No, this was in the original concept that we started with. That was two components that we wanted to

027keep into this, Title IX, et cetera. Ms. Emory? Sorry, Mr. McKenna. I just want to tie in. Sorry you had your hand up. But I just wanted to tie in to Ms. Henson's question. Do you have a seating capacity for this baseball softball concept? So currently planning this stretch of seating adds about 75. It would be 75 behind the whole plate. Thank you. Mr. McKenna. Thank you, Mr. Renterer. I want to say I really love the watercolor renderings. I think it really helps bring the project to life. I think it's going to be very meaningful for our community, and we're trying to tell the story of this project. The materials you propose, the branding around Manhattan Township feels very cohesive. One thing that I think for future iterations of these renderings that I would like

028to see is for the figures and the drawings to be a little more inclusive, at least on my screen when I was prepping for the meeting. Most of the individuals have very light skin tone, and I didn't see anyone in a wheelchair, for example. It seems like everyone's able-bodied. So because this is going to be an asset for the entire community. And we do have that diversity of all kinds in our community. I would like the renderings to really tell that story as well. So for future versions as we continue to work on this project, if you could factor that into the illustration, I would appreciate it. I'm sorry, let's go to Ms. Koehler, then I'll come back to you. I was just going to pick up quickly on what Mike just said. Okay, go

029ahead. Also, if we could note where accessibility is, because that was one of the big questions in redesign. So if we could see that clearly shown. I'm sorry. Actually, that was exactly what I was going to ask. Just if you could say specifically where accessible seating is. I'm looking at the journey field concept, and I can picture about 90% of how we get there, and then I'm not sure where folks who are using a wheelchair are able to see. So if you could make that really clear for us, that would be great. Thank you. Absolutely. Just to kind of hone in on that. So on this image, we have an accessible walkway up to the ticketing area that would be on the right-hand side here. And then once you're up on that concourse level, you'd

030have direct access to the seating, which is up at the concourse level to serve accessible needs up there. Is that seating, though, integrated? It looks like you would have to be able to traverse stairs to sit in the seating. So up at the concourse level would be a flat plateaued area. And the view has been obscured by the bars of the fence there? No, it would be studied so it would be below sign line. Okay, thank you. It would still have to meet code, but we'd study picket size. Okay, thank you. I think we're ready to move on. Mr. Rivera, your hand's real close there. Okay. Okay, thank you. Okay, so next steps. getting through the zoning hearing board, trying to get that approval. As Justin said in the beginning, one of the important parts

031of this is engagement, not just with the administration, but with the phys ed educators and the coaches. So we will get back with them in early September after we get through this zoning process and get well on our way with the land development process. So we have the zoning hearing board July 6th. We have our next steering committee meeting. If we are successful July 6th, we will schedule a preliminary building code review meeting with Manhattan Township as soon as we can after we get through that process. So that is it for the campus phase three. Moving on to Nittrauer, update on Nittrauer Elementary. Here is our agenda. We do not have a number four. We do not have exterior concepts for Nittrauer at this time. So moving on to the schedule. So overall schedule, we

032are here in the summer of 2026. We are trying to get into construction by spring of 2028. So we will work through design of the building over the next year. We'll also have an extended land development. process. And Steve will talk about that here in just a second. Bidding this in January of 2028, and like I say, start construction in March, have about 28, 29 months of construction for Detroit Elementary. 21 months for the new building, move into the new building, tear down the old building, and finish the site off. So Steve, do you want to give an update on the traffic counts, etc.? Sure, Bill. So yeah, similar to the campus master plan, we'll also have to make a zoning hearing board application because we're doing the school in a residential district. That'll be

033a special exception. And we may have some dimensional variances with things like lock coverage. We're still exploring that. So that'll be forthcoming later in the summer. And then also because the school fronts onto Oregon Pike, which is a state road, and the capacity of the school will increase, we've started to do some preliminary traffic counts and studies for that area. And what we found is really not that surprising. A left turn lane coming southbound to Oregon Pike would be warranted to get into the access drive. So the traffic consultant that's working on the team has developed some concepts with that. So we'll make that part of our zoning application. That's really not something that the zoning hearing board would approve, but we're trying to paint the whole picture of everything that would have to be

034involved with the land development plan, including the traffic improvements onto Oregon Pike. So again, getting through that zoning hearing, getting into the traffic counts, getting into the land development and PDS. The PennDOT portion of that is going to be the long approval process of that project. So as this project has continued to move along as well, we're again fine-tuning the plan, bringing the parts and pieces together. But as a broad brush reminder of what's happening on site, we have the baseball fields located on the far left. Then we have a visitor parking and bus loop, which you'll see at the bottom have been separated there. So think about buses having that loop in the morning independent from any parking that may be occurring in the visitor lot. We have the car drop off and staff

035parking in the bottom left hand side, as well as that connection to the neighborhood. And then the overall form of the plan has remained fairly consistent from last time we reviewed it with you all, with save from a few changes in the court, I think really strengthen Learning Commons as the heart of the school. So as we look into the floor plan a little closer, again, working from left to right, the orange box in the top left-hand corner is the multipurpose space and gym platform. And between that and the cafeteria, which is the blue-colored space and all the supporting infrastructure behind that, kitchen, mechanical, et cetera. Below the multipurpose gym area is the admin area in green. and that would be your primary entry there off of the bus loop. And the rest of the

036plan are really these broken up pods. We see them working around clockwise, one, two, three, and then stacking two of them on the far right-hand side. But at the core of the plan is the opportunity to bring music, art, STEM, and learning commons together really is the heart of the school. And so we brought learning commons out to the courtyard over to the right-hand side, really forming that nexus of all the learning pods focusing in on the courtyard, focusing in. on the learning commons itself. And I think really in so doing, activating the courtyard for your students to be out there on nice days, instruction to happen out there, and making sure the proper programming can occur to make it an effective courtyard for everyone. And so I think when we get to the next

037step of developing a look and feel similar to what we've been able to show for phase three tonight, I think you'll see that it really becomes an active potential well-used courtyard for your students. That's that additional learning space to be outside as well. But positioning the learning commons there, I think really has a strength to bring all the neighborhoods together in that core of the school. So within each pod we have the distribution of light green spaces, which are your primary instruction spaces around the outside, and the lighter blue are LGIs, large group instructions, flex spaces, learning support, really wrapping the courtyard side of each of the pods. We are paying particular attention to think about the students that would be on that second floor on the right-hand side. They would be one floor removed

038from the courtyard and so thinking about interesting engaging ways to bring them down and activate the courtyard with their presence as well in addition to bringing them some outdoor space actually up at that second floor level so they have that same feeling of being enjoying the courtyard and activating it. We are mindful that they would be one floor removed, but trying to get that experience for them as well. A little foreshadowing here. One of the conversations we're going to have tonight is about the auditorium. One of the moves that we have made in this plan in the upper left-hand corner is previously we had a platform just attached to the gymnasium. We revise it so it's a double-sided platform that's attached to the cafeteria and the gymnasium. So through folding partitions, it could be facing

039one side or the other to give you flexibility if you don't go with an auditorium of how large groups can be accommodated easier more often. And as always... Can I just ask about that platform? Is that elevated to some degree? So if you're out loud, we can still see you. It's two feet to 30 inches off the floor. And we call it a platform. We want to keep the platform under 1,000 square feet. Once you get over 1,000 square feet, there's a lot of extra fire safety issues you have to add to the state, and it gets more expensive that way. Thank you. But also in that size, that size can be used really well as an instructional space, knowing it's about that classroom size as well. So it could be closed off on both

040sides, and it could be here. additional instructional space. It's hard to see in the plan but we made a ramp access on the plan south side of that so it was not being used as a stage it can be used as a swing space for the school district. Always go back and we always go back and measure it against the metrics and where we are with this building we are following within what our metrics were square foot per student and the overall building grossing factor. Moving on to the auditorium option, what we tried to do as best we could is to make the auditorium additive. Keep most of the existing plan and add the auditorium to the front of the building. So it's in the upper left-hand corner of the plan that you see here.

041Going in a little bit closer, you're going to see these three large spaces to the upper left-hand corner. So the auditorium's on the outside, the gymnasium's in the middle. and the cafeteria is the blue space to the right. We took the stage or the platform between the cafeteria and the gymnasium away because we would have a designated one in the auditorium space itself. So looking at that auditorium, we have the platform. We have seating capacity for 650 students. The platform is just under 1,000 square feet. We've also included the additional bathrooms that would be needed for the additional capacity of the building as part of that addition. And we put this on the front of the building. We're trying to put all of our large spaces on the front of the building so that can

042be separated off from the educational spaces. So any events that you have at night, you don't have people wandering around the main part of your building. Going through this. all of our numbers get bigger. The square foot per student, the grossing factor starts to get at the higher end of what we would typically see. But the big number that we're seeing on that lower left-hand side, the auditorium is one of your most expensive spaces in the building. You talk about classrooms, you talk about other spaces, but it's a large volume space, so there's a lot of mechanical. sound systems, that has lighting systems, that has seating systems that make an expensive space. So we think that this auditorium is in the neighborhood of four and a half million dollars to add that to the project.

043A couple things, additional information for that auditorium, going back and comparing it to the existing auditorium in Nittrauer. There's 302 fixed seats in their existing auditorium. The stage platform is a little bit smaller. Program use over the last two years there was 12 program uses in that space So there are other spaces there's other times that space was used in the evening by other groups But when you talk about efficiency of use of space that space was not getting used a lot. So We have a concern that we want to bring to you saying it's not used a lot and it's one of the most expensive spaces. So we want to make sure you have all the information why you're considering this. So going back to this slide, we think with a gymnasium and a

044cafeteria that has a shared platform or the LGIs that we have throughout the building or the learning commons, there's a number of ways we can accommodate some of your large groups in all different sizes. It could be 30, 60, or we can get a... full group in the gymnasium or cafeteria thinking flexible. The other thing that we did is we went back through the last 10 feasibility studies that we've done with school districts. So we go in all their buildings and evaluate them. And the last 10, I'm going to say there's probably about 40 elementary schools. None of those elementary schools had an auditorium in it. So if you're going to use it, you're going to be unique, which is okay, but I think it could be purposeful if you're going to add this to

045the project. We don't need a decision tonight. It's just information, and then hopefully we come back to you in a month or so. We can get direction as we move forward. So our next steps. We are submitting for the Zoning Hearing Board in July. We have an August 3rd meeting is what the schedule is for that. And then similar to the campus plan, if we get approval for that, we would get into Manitowoc Township for a preliminary building code meeting. And then that staff engagement and the community update would be happening in the fall. Any questions about NIPTRA before we move on to our last piece? This might be more for the admin. How many of our elementary schools do have an auditorium? I know this was answered before, but I'm forgetting. Dr. Reiman, in

046coming up with this, or Dr. Hudak's too, I mean, the slide about existing building metrics, we checked with the NITRA administration and staff to get a sense of how they were feeling about. the auditorium or not moving forward, Brad? I mean, it was a component of the discussion that ROPS would have had with the staff when we were probably there in early May, I believe. So that would be one formal engagement. And there was also, you know, Dana has been interacting with staff members on the plans as we've been moving forward. So I would say they're aware. I don't know that we post like interest in yes or no, but I think there is acknowledgement that there's use of that space. Those 12 times over two years, we're seeing an opportunity for all those 12

047things to be able to be situated in one of those other two spaces that we've shared with the board. But I appreciate the question the board asked about what would it cost, where could it go, and RLPS looking into that. Ms. Lee, go ahead. Yeah, I just want to visualize the platform. So this is the plan without the auditorium. So the platform is in between the... the gym and the cafeteria. Yes. Is this separated by a wall? Yeah, there's a folding partition on the left and right side of that platform. So you could have them both closed and it can serve as a small classroom in there. Okay. You could open up the right side to the cafeteria. So it's a platform facing the cafeteria. You can close that one and open up the left

048side and it could be a platform facing the gymnasium. This was done at Lampeter Elementary School. Zach contacted them and asked them about it. We got a lot of favorable input and some constructive criticism that we would incorporate into the plan. How are the acoustics, like the sound, comparable to an auditorium? If there were a group of students, music students, arts, we want to be considerate of their passions. And it makes a difference when... third or fourth graders out there performing and they want to be in theater. How is the sound and acoustics? How is that comparable to a real? We've had a lot of success with these multi-purpose spaces in the elementary level. A lot of it's going to go with your sound system that helps the student project out too. We combine the

049acoustics being absorptive and being reflective to get the best combination that we can. And you could still have elements within the platform to do a shell to shape the sound either from the wings or from overhead to help shape some of that sound in addition to the sound reinforcement so they work together. But I think it's a good point. I think it's a follow-up that we could do with other schools that have used it this way and are they satisfied with the sound. I think we can follow up with that. Thank you. Mr. Moon. And can you just clarify, the $4.5 million is additive to the additional cost. So what would the total cost be then? And what percentage of the total cost would this auditorium be? So that was a construction cost number. And

050I think our construction cost number that we have for NITRA was around $50 million. With the soft cost, it got up to around $60 million, mid-range. Okay. So that is like a... It's a little bit less than a 10% increase to the base cost of the building. That's significant. Yeah, it's significant for a space. Thank you. Anyone else? Yeah. I mean, the price is striking. Yeah. given the situation. I mean, and I know that we're in an exceptional situation given multiple capital projects, again, to very prudent long-term planning that we're able to maintain these. I'm just, that's a striking number that I think we need to take very, very seriously. And I think we are. Does anyone else have any questions in terms of information they need about this? Dr. Reagan? Just one quick item

051to Ms. Lamb's point for the gentleman at RPS. If we made it clear that we wanted to be able to stage and block performances in there, if you guys knew that, you could help us with what's the right technology or what infrastructure we need to make sure that we can do that. That's fair to say. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Ms. Zimmerman? And to the point about Lamb, Peter, having a similar project like this, the board could go there and see that option to make sure that it's... We have talked about organizing a tour down there. We weren't going to do it before this meeting, but sometime this summer, I think we'll try to get some dates that work for most people to go down there. I'd be in favor of going that route to see and

052keeping this project contained in the original cost scope. The building that we went to see, the one back, whatever that was, they said they were not using that, what you're calling a platform. They were not finding that to be useful. Who was not using it? We went, we toured an elementary and an athletic facility one day. Oh, it was West Shore? Was it West Shore or Dallas now? One of those two? Yes. They had, I'm going to say they had storage in that space, but we're not using it. So it might be interesting to know. We can reach back out to a number of different schools to see. How functional is that platform? Because maybe they weren't using an auditorium or a performance space before either. So it would be good to know. Yes. We

053can get some background information on the use of those platforms. Is this your mic? Your mic. It may have been sound, if I recall correctly. The conversation may have been that the sound didn't fit, but we've already said we can make that work. Yeah. Okay. I think we're ready to move on. Thank you. And just a quick update on the district-wide feasibility study. Starting here towards the end of July, we're going to be walking through all your buildings and evaluating them, the site. the building and the educational programs in those spaces. And then we are going to then come back and do the educational design brief, how you want to use those buildings into the future, starting in August and September. And if we have that program, we'll be developing options in October. Probably going

054to leak a little bit until November, until we are complete with this stuff. But it's in process. It's important that we get the educational design brief done in time so it coincides with us finalizing the NITRAO plan. So we're all in sync with that going forward. Again, I just say you're really helping us put it all together, not only our physical, but our decision-making processes. So, American, yeah, appreciate that stewardship. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, we are now on to our second information-only presentation, our 2026 Spring Sports Wrap-Up from Mr. Hollenbeck, our Athletic Director. Welcome. Good evening, everybody. I'll try to fly through this. I know it's a long night for everybody here. I know you have a lot to share. It's okay. We're here for it. Well, it's going to be

055a lot because our teams, as always, did very well this spring. But starting with our boys' volleyball program. A lot of young players on this team. As the season wore on, they got a lot better. We lost pretty much all of our starters, all but two varsity players, one of which was out the entire season as a junior. So a little bit of a rebuild, but they're going to be fantastic here the next couple of years. It was really great watching them bounce back near the end of the year and improve throughout the season. softball program. Don't let the record sway you. They play one of the, I think we ended up having the hardest strength of schedule in the district. They play a lot of really top-notch teams. And again, another team that really,

056really showed a lot of resiliency throughout the season. A few times we had some games where we didn't play our best, and then the next game we'd respond beating a team that was in the top 10 of the district. So really, really proud of those girls. They finished in third place in Section 1, just missing the league playoffs. They qualified for the district playoffs and gave Wilson a run for their money in the first round. But fantastic senior leadership. A couple of those girls were great in our leadership council all year long and really, really proud of them. Our baseball program. In talking to our baseball coach last week, we actually have the best overall record in the league over the last four or five seasons. Finished 17-7, as you can see, so another great

057year for them. We were the Section 1 champions for the first time since I've been here, so that would be four years. Our section, in my opinion, is probably the best section in the state of Pennsylvania we have. Ephrata and Hemfield are perennial district powers. Hemfield just won the state title a couple years ago. So to win that section is an accomplishment itself. We went on to win the league championship as well at Penn Medicine Park. It was a phenomenal night. Monday night, beginning of May, a great crowd out of township supporters. And we had a really, really great game against LS where we won an extra innings and nine innings. It was a fantastic night for all involved. Unfortunately, it fell a little bit short in the district playoffs. I think we exerted a

058lot of energy in that league playoff run. But again, a tremendous year for them winning the league title. Boys tennis, we had an undefeated regular season. A brand new coach, Coach Shane Holbein, this year he replaced the legend Doug Pennington. And obviously you never know how that's quite going to go when you have somebody's shoes that big to fill. He was wonderful. The parents loved him. The kids loved him. The passion he brings every day was unbelievable. They went undefeated, so the wins and losses matched that enjoyment level of the kids and coaching. They won the section and the league championship and then went on to win the district championship for the first time in over 10 years. One of the cool things he did this year, he put a mock district championship sign on

059their court. So they had something to strive for the whole season. And then when they won the district title, they crossed out the question mark and they put that number there. So it was a really, really cool year for those guys. They actually won their first state playoff game, got to the state quarterfinals for the second time in the last three or four years, and then gave Unionville all they could handle in the state quarterfinals. And we fell a little bit short, but a lot of kids coming back and super proud of those kids for all they achieved this year. Our track programs, last year we graduated a ton of top-notch talent, so a little bit of a rebuild for them. But, you know, again, our track numbers are through the roof. We had a

060great number of kids out. Our boys finished in fifth at the league meet. We had 12 lead medalists led by Jake Ruck, Josh Henshaw, and Ben Dumont, who also medaled at districts as well. Jake and Josh finished one spot away from medaling as state medalists as well. Jake. He turned it on late in the year in the shot put and really represented us well. He made it to the finals at States and then just came a little bit short. I think he got beat out on somebody's last throw. But he was an awesome representative of our school. And then Josh and Ben, again, obviously great representatives as well. On the girls' side, we finished fourth in the league meet with, again, 12 league medals, just like the boys. Our only league champion this year was

061Emerson Harding, who placed first in the pole vault. We had five district medalists, Kyla Adegre, Georgia Ely, Emerson, Epi Papadimitriou, and Kami Schwartz in different events. And then we had three state qualifiers from that, Kyla, Georgia, and Emerson. And then we had one state medalist with Emerson in the pole vault, finishing seventh. Our unified program. So we finished as a league runner up and third place in the, in the capital area regionals. We did not make it to the state championship meet this year, but you know, that's, that's second place. The, the, you know, the job that our coaches and kids did in that program, our numbers continue to grow. We're, I believe we had about 80 to 85 kids who wanted to come out for that program this year. We have a new program

062in the high school. led by Nick DiMarco, one of our wonderful teachers, called the Buddies Unified Program. So any kids that can't be involved in the actual program, competing on the track or on the field, they join that club. And it's been a great, wonderful mesh between those two. So our numbers, again, continue to go through the roof in that program. We had so many kids that we actually needed to add another coach this year. So thank you to our administration for doing that, for our head coach, Sean Givens. But again, awesome. Phenomenal year for them. Our two lacrosse programs, as always, did a phenomenal job. Our boys program finished 22-2. Their only loss during the regular season was to a nationally ranked team from Delaware, Silesianum. Other than that, they went undefeated all the

063way through to the semifinals. Coach Lyons, as always, does an excellent job with his guys. We were the section champions. We won the league tournament with a great win over LS in the league championship over at Conestoga Valley. And then we actually beat Cumberland Valley in the District 3 championship in one of the more lopsided district championship games that has happened. So I think everybody was expecting to be a lot closer, but our kids really performed on that night and did a great job. We advanced. We won our first two state playoff games, went all the way to the state semifinals and ran into a really, really quality Radnor team. We called it the Battle of Sharon Schaefer, which was funny. No, we had a great year. Dan has a lot to be proud of

064for those kids. Really, really great camaraderie amongst that group. Same thing with our girls lacrosse program. Finish at 21 and 7. We only lost two, sorry, three matches, three games all year to public school teams. In order to prepare ourselves for the state tournament, every year we play basically the entire Interact League down in Philadelphia area, which is all private schools that recruit for lacrosse and that kind of thing. So a lot of our losses were to them, to those schools early in the year. But once we got into playoffs, we won the league and we won the district. I believe we're up to 14 district titles now. I think it's either, I can't remember, maybe either 14 or 16. Don't quote me on that. But we've won pretty much every year here recently. And

065again, they won their first two state playoff games to get themselves into the state semifinals as well. They ran into Conestoga, who, again, is another notoriously awesome lacrosse program from the Philadelphia area. And they ran out of gas there in the second half against those guys. But again. Awesome year for them. Just a little bit of a recap for the entire season. So you can see all the pictures of all of our teams who won league titles and finished as runner-ups. Just to give you a little comparison, so we have 10 titles, six runner-ups. The next closest school in the league was three titles. This doesn't include football, who won Section 1, and our girls' golf program, who won. who advanced as the league representative. So a pretty amazing year for us again. To be

066first or second place in 16 out of 24 sports is a pretty incredible accomplishment. 67% of the sports that the league offers championships in were either first or second. So it's just a credit to our kids and our coaches. District 3, for the third straight year, we finished on top of District 3 at all levels. So, as you know, there's big schools, there's small schools, 6A, 5A, 4A, and so forth. Some sports like lacrosse and others, there's only 3A, 2A. If you take every single title that was won, we've won the most the last three years out of any school in District 3, which is, again, kudos to our coaches and kids. If you were to add up all those championships over the last four years for this graduating class, again, we're on top of

067the list. You can kind of see there, like schools, Cumberland Valley is really the only one that's close to us. You know, I think for a while, Wilson and Central Dolphin might have been the standard. You know, we almost have three times more success than they are right now, which is, again, you know, just shows how hard our coaches and kids are working. That's all I have for you, unless you guys have any questions. But we're looking forward to a little bit of relaxation here after going all the way through mid-June here. And then we're ramping things up to start in the beginning of August. So we're looking forward to a new season. Heat acclimation starts for football on August 10th. And then all the remainder of the high school sports start the 17th. And

068then junior high starts on the 24th of August. Any questions I can answer for you? Thank you, Mr. Hollenbeck. Does anyone have any thoughts or questions? I mean, it speaks for itself. It's remarkable. And you said it all. Congratulations to our student athletes, their families, their coaches, you and your department, Mr. Lyons. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Exceptional work. Thank you. Okay, we're moving on in our agenda to action number three, our action for our voting meeting next week. First up is a recommendation to approve the maintenance and food service building solar project with McClure Company under a guaranteed energy savings agreement for a total project cost of $624,624 with a full breakdown of all initial costs, potential funding offsets, and projected operational savings detailed in Addendum A. Welcome Mr. Charles, Mr. Hoover, and Mr.

069Zimbabwe. Good evening, everyone. Tonight, we welcome back the team from McClure Company to present a new opportunity for our district's energy infrastructure. McClure is a trusted long-term partner here at Mannheim Township. Since 2021, they have successfully partnered with us on multiple phases of energy conservation measures, including building automation upgrades, lighting modernizations, a solar array that's at our middle school currently. They have consistently delivered project stability and utility savings for us. They bring an incredible depth of expertise to our region, having completed over 350 K-12 projects with more than 100 Pennsylvania school districts. Tonight, McClure will outline a proposal for a 227.2 kilowatt solar photolic array at our new maintenance and food service building. This project will utilize a state-approved guaranteed energy savings agreement, a GISA, meaning the design, the construction, and the final project costs

070are completely fixed and turnkey, meaning no change orders throughout the project. The project itself represents a total contract value of $624,624. By implementing this under a GISA framework and maximizing the virtual net metering, the system is projected to offset 150% of the building's annual energy consumption, generating over $708,000 in energy savings and $41,000 in SRAC revenue over the next 20 years. Beyond these district lifetime savings, it is important to highlight that this project acts as an essential hedge against future inflation. According to the data from the U.S. Department of Energy, the rapid rise in AI data centers is expected to drive a massive 15 to 20 percent increase in national energy demands over the next decade. As grid demand surges, as grid demand surge, the utility costs will inevitably rise. By generating our own clean

071electricity on site, we secure a fixed predictable energy cost for the district and for our taxpayers for future utility market volatility. Finally, McClure will walk us through a very tight funding timeline by executing an agreement on June 25th. The district can lock in a guaranteed 36 to 40% federal investment tax credit in ITC worth nearly $225,000, which alongside a pending 30% state solar for schools grant has the potential to drive our final net project cost down to just $212,372, dropping our financial payback period to just only eight years. To be open and clear with the board, there will be a price increase up to $100,000 to ensure the building is fully solar ready. Should the board choose not to approve the primary solar panel initiative, an alternate bid will be issued during the bidding process

072for your consideration when the new maintenance and food service building bids are presented in August for a solar ready building for the future. With that said, I'll turn it over to McClure to walk us through the technical details and the timeline required to secure these financial incentives. Thank you. It feels like we saw each other last month, right? Like Zach said, discussing the shop solar PV, which is called PV photovoltaic array. As stated before, you guys know by this slide, what I want to touch on here is just the GESA part, the GESA aspect. This will be yet another step, another amendment in the process of the GESA Guaranteed Energy Savings Agreement. So just like you see HVAC upgrades, LED lighting upgrades, the solar falls right into like another ECM. Okay. So just to cover

073our energy project history, again, probably looks very familiar except for one line item there. And the Landis Run Intermediate School LED light upgrades, that will be under construction this summer, set for 2026, school year start. And so, like I said before, this table does speak towards partnership. a trusted partner in McClure and an investment for the school. You know, we wanted to help with investment on returnings. If you invest $14 million, we'll help out with $4.2. And so not considered under there is that PPA and also the Landis Run, which Landis Run was right about $1.6 with $400,000 in return as well. And so we keep on trying to build on that, keep on aligning our visions with the admin, and so that we can keep on making this district better and better with the

074facilities. So why solar? Well, there are benefits, as Zach said. There are lower utility bills, so that electricity coming in can be offset. Along with that, there's long-term predictability. So if it's coming from the sun, it's not coming from the economy. It's something that's not fluctuating, right? You have environmental impact, so you have a reduced carbon footprint. And so this can help out with renewable energy. And then you have infrastructure investments. So anything that's being offset there can be either used to pay it back, or if you have priorities in the district, just send it right that way. And then there's also community and public relations. So this is something that looks good in the public eye. It is a renewable energy project, and it also helps out with the students for educational experience. So

075here's a brief overview of the project itself. Just to backtrack a little bit, when Jay was mentioning, Jay Darkey was mentioning that project, we used his bins and his drawings to work off of for our array. So what you see there is a bird's eye view of that array. And so what that rate is going to do is generate about $242,000 in kilowatt hours in year one. So we kept it to a year just to keep it granular for you guys. And so that will offset about 150% of the building annual energy consumption. And you might be asking. How is it going to offset 150% of dirt and air right now? But us being an energy saving company, we stipulate a lot of variables based on drawings and equipment being put in. So this is

076something that we are very familiar with to help out with how we do our measurement verifications. It's the same process. Look at the drawings. Know how this equipment will behave and predict the energy consumption. And so having 150%, you might say, oh, well, it's 50% more than what we need. Well, there is net metering on campus, so we can send that 50% elsewhere to the campus. This is not wasted energy. This is put somewhere else and is used up the whole way. So now we have an estimated 20-year total of $750,000. And so that's based off of energy savings and then solar renewable energy credits, or SRECs. And I'll touch on that later in the presentation. And since we'll come at a slight cost or small cost, which is the skylights will be removed to

077help out with supporting for the roof structure itself. All right. A lot of words here. So we're going to work on the right side with the visuals. If you see on that table there, it's broken out into two categories. You have the project costs and then you have 20 year operating revenue. So something that project costs are more so like your upfront one time costs. And then that 20 years, obviously over 20 years. So that first one is the solar CapEx, which is just the net cost to procure and install that solar array, that up front, that 624, 624 that you see. Sorry, I don't have a stutter. Then you have investment tax credits, which are the federal incentive for the solar project. So you'll see 36 to about 40% offsetting for the investment tax

078credits in this project. And then, as Zach mentioned, the Solar for Schools, this is the DCED program run through the administration to offset 30% of the project costs. So if you just use those three one-time costs there, you have it down to about $212,000. And so then you work into the 20-year operating revenue. And sorry, just to be clear, the numbers in green are the savings. And so you have the SREC revenue, which is the Solar Renewable Energy Credit, or Solar Renewable Energy Credit. And so that is per 1,000 kilowatt hours, or one megawatt hour, you have one SREC. And so dependent upon, this is a state-run program, so dependent upon the state and how their market value is at, you'll see around, like we said here, average $20 per megawatt hour for years 1

079through 10. And so what happens is that if you generate that, then you receive those credits back to the district. So we estimated about $41,000 there. And then with energy savings, that is just your electric utility savings that you have generated from this for 20 years. And so that sits around $700,000. And then there is some operation and maintenance for the project itself to help run smoothly. And so that will sit right around $146,000. So then that will generate right around $604,000 in savings. over those 20 years. So then you take those two costs, the net project costs there, and then the total operating revenue, and this project will pay for itself and more in 20 years with $391,000 returned to the district. So I'm sure there are questions about the investment tax credit and

080the Solar for Schools grant, so I'll touch on that briefly. The investment tax credit does come from the IRA. Tax it actually included tax exempt entities so schools for this and so what happens is once this solar project is up and running and if all requirements are met Then they have a school will receive up to about 36 to 40 percent of their project cost back once that is up and running And so the way that this is calculated, like I said, you have the project cost there times 40%, so that's 30% of the base. And then if you use 10% of domestic, or 10% comes from having domestic product in that project, and then multiplied by 90% because some of that is not necessarily like there are, let's just say like fences or the

081poles that may or may not be within the requirements. So that's why it's kind of in that range about 36 to 40% there just to cover. And then the Solar for Schools grant run through the Advent, and there's a – so this grant will be competitive, and so it actually is helped out with a third-party company, GEM 180. And so GEM 180, McClure, has worked on projects, and GEM 180 has been involved with school districts, and we've seen a lot of success there. So we're hoping the best for the district as well. Now this fun little graphic here. You'll see the big red dotted line first. That's the July 4th deadline. And so what that means is when the one big beautiful bill came out, the investment tax credits were set to go away, to

082diminish. And so after July 4th, if there isn't 5% of the project costs paid for, then the ITCs are not eligible for this project. So if you look at the table, you can see below in that second column, those estimated ITC values are at zero. Meaning there are two scenarios really that we can walk down and we walk down the path with this. And there's the before July 4th and there's the after July 4th. So for either a June approval or an August or September approval. And so what you'll see in the, what you see in the blue there are the top two rows is where that. where we can go for that June approval. It can be that guaranteeing the ITCs. And then if you were to move in after the July 4th deadline,

083then there are no ITCs guaranteed. So when McClure heard about this on May 21st, we were working with Jay Darkey diligently and proactively to get this in the hands of the district and the hands of the board as quick as possible so you guys at least can make this decision for the district so that we can get as much value as possible. And you'll see that value on the far right side. Eight years, 14 years, 16 years, 20 plus years. And so as we can see here that we are working towards getting those ITCs and the solar for schools to at least get within that eight years or 14 year range of paybacks. Because in that case, it does make financial sense. So as we move forward in this timeline, we're getting the contract to

084the district today. If it were to be approved on the 25th, we would work from the 26th to the 30th in the payment processing and material purchasing. So we would work immediately to get those materials ordered and that 5% down before the July 4th deadline. And so if we get it before the July 4th deadline, it has to be up and operational by 2030, which shouldn't be an issue. Our solar team right now is working diligently on other projects as well. There are a lot of people that really wanted to get in before the deadline, so we are familiar with what we need to do, with how it works, and we've already coordinated up front with everybody that needs to be ordering this equipment. So they know it's coming their way, and I'm sure they've

085been experiencing it everywhere. So, yeah, I'll open up the floor to any questions. Okay, thank you. I just want to take a moment and we'll open up for questions. I want to thank you and McClure and certainly Mrs. Robbins, her team, Mr. Charles, your team. When we were brought, the school board was brought the renderings for the maintenance building just last month. We said, what about solar? And then I know there has been a tremendous amount of effort put in in a short amount of time to get us what seems to be a turnkey type project proposal that is time sensitive, that will guarantee savings. I mean, the ITC. tax credit is guaranteed to us if we get this in within that deadline. And so the solar for schools grant is not guaranteed, but what

086I'd understood is that we have a very good chance. We're quite confident, but that's not absolutely guaranteed. Is that a fair assumption? So I think in any event, what we're looking at are... Saves for the for the district and I think a lot of our values in a way that I'm really excited about I know is a product of tremendous amount of work Are there questions thoughts from miss lamb I see you go ahead just out of curiosity the solar for schools grant who applies for that school district is that you guys I know there was a third party. Yeah As Will mentioned, we're going to work with Generation 180. I've actually seen them speak at a couple conferences. They're free. They work with nonprofits. There's a lot of, obviously, red tape with these grants,

087so their assistance is going to be paramount, and there's no charge to the school district. Thank you. And so Generation 180 just deals with solar for our schools all day, every day, so they'll be good partners for us. And that would be 30%, an additional 30%. See? Missed sense. Seems to make sense, especially on the maintenance building. However, I remember in the renderings, those skylights were a talking point. They were looking forward to being able to bring that daylight in. Have we been in coordination with everyone who's going to be using the maintenance shop in determining whether or not to lose these skylights? Mr. Charles. Yeah, I can answer that. So we're still actually, it's kind of hard to see in that picture there, but you see the three, I guess, squares at the top

088of the building. They're still getting the exterior light through those cupolas in there. We took out the skylights on the side of the building, which was ran by myself, my team, Donna, and we thought, okay, losing that. Anyone else have questions? Looking at the operation and maintenance, so that includes anything that would go wrong over the 20 years? Is that money that's set aside for, or how does that work? Yes. Okay. So the operation and maintenance, all the equipment comes with warranty packages, and the warranty is going to say have testing, monitoring, cleaning. So those costs go to cover that. They're going to cover insurance. And then it's also going to be almost like a rolling fund for, you know, inverter replacements or gear replacements. So it's not a hard-set number. It's just a good

089budgetary number to carry forward. Thank you. And one other thought I think we brought up last month was a battery or something else, but we don't need a battery because anything, as we were generating 150%, we could just send that juice right over to Landis Round or somewhere else on campus. Is that correct? Offset those electricity use in other buildings. And that battery was also a part of a separate. mitigation for chiller malfunction, which we've already done multiple studies on and figured that that is not the best solution to use. So, yes, to your point. And just to be clear, the building will still be connected to the grid and everything will still have backup in the event of anything else during nighttime or other times of lower generation. That's correct? Yes. Okay. And the

090additional cost, we're just adding that onto the project out of the monies we're borrowing. You're comfortable to write in the I will work hand in hand with the jay darky I mean obviously the bits have been put on hold so see what where this comes out to and Yeah, we've are coordinate with them and so we all work well in tandem This is Kim The investment tax credit looks paramount here So I wondered one thing you said that I heard was as long as we meet certain requirements with it Could you explain what those requirements are? I think it just looks so good. I don't want it to be too good to be true. And then suddenly we're in that red section. Oh, no, I understand that. Thank you. I'll let Damien speak on that.

091So the investment, the big bright line is the 4th of July. And so it doesn't mean that we can't build a project after the 4th of July and the investment tax credits will carry. The problem is that we have an 18-month construction window. And so with the timeline of the building going in, that 18-month window is going to be very tight. And so if we can safe harbor the project with 5% down payment, we get a four-year window. And so that really gives us a longer runway because the 18-month deadline is black and white. So if the system's not online and producing power, everything's gone. Does that make sense? We all tracking that? Okay. So, so long as we're here. If we're going to do this, we need to do this next week. If we

092do it next week, we'll be fine. Correct. So our process will be, you saw that little timeline. There's a lot of paper trailing to make sure that everything is secure. And so money has to change hands to make everything, the documented transfers. So the school has to pay. We have to go out and buy equipment. And all that will be paper trailed. Once everything is done, we'll submit a letter of completion to the school that says, here's the steps we took, here's the equipment we bought, here's the guarantees that go with it. And so that way it reinforces the ITCs. Mr. Rivera. I think I heard you say that a lot is because of this deadline, a lot of schools or a lot of entities are hoping to get this. And so there might be

093a backlog in ordering of equipment. As long as we put money down on that equipment, does that count as we purchase it, even though it might not be available for us to have right away? It is. We actually, working with our vendors, we have these panels on hold. And so we do have a place in line. But you're correct. We're seeing delivery dates 2028 right now for some equipment. Okay. I don't see any other questions. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're on to item B, a recommendation to approve the gift of $40,000 from the Univision's board to the Manheim Township School District. Welcome, Mrs. Young, and I'll kick it to you, Dr. Rennett. Yes, thank you, Mr. Grunter. I'm happy to kick this item off. Once again, the Univision's board has acted to give funds

094to the Manheim Township School District, and we so appreciate our relationship with them and all that they do for our families and kids with before and after school care, K-6, and summer programming as well. And so with that, I'll pass to Envision's Board Vice President, Mrs. Virginia Young. Thanks, Dr. Ryman. Actually, I was stopping to pick this check up today, and I can tell you that we have 130 campers enrolled in our camp. It started Monday. Yesterday, they went to Nome Countryside. Tomorrow, they're going bowling. So, yes, we do have happy campers. I was a little bit feeling bad about not having some fancy graphics and so forth, but then I thought, gee, I'm not asking for money, I'm bringing money. So this money is for appreciation for allowing us to use the buildings for

095our programs during the year and during the summer. And with Dr. Ryman's expert guidance, he always comes up with wonderful ways to use this money for all the children in all those buildings that we are in, the Sixth Elementary and Landis Run. So he confers with the building principals, teachers, and so forth, and always... puts this to good work, whether it's the Gaga pits on the playgrounds or library materials or ways to engage students during indoor recess, any way possible that this money can be used to supplement things that are not necessarily in the regular budget. So we thank you for helping our EnVisions program to thrive. And thank you, Dr. Ryman. Well, on behalf of this board, please express our gratitude to the InVisions board. And again, thank you, Ms. Young, for your leadership

096and your partnership. And thank you, Dr. Reimann, for your obviously impressive work with the InVisions board. And I know they're very appreciative of all the work that you put into that. So thank you, Dr. Reimann. Absolutely. Okay, I'm assuming there's no other thoughts, questions. We're going to move right on to item C. Back to you, Dr. Ryman. A recommendation to approve the presented out-of-state or overnight field trips. Okay, thank you, Mr. Granger. Tonight, I bring nine field trips to the board that require your approval per Policy 121, given that they are out-of-state and or overnight. These are high school athletic, music, and atolo trips, and I have verified... with Mr. Allott, Mr. Hollenbeck, and Mrs. Rainier that there's a plan in place for funding chaperones supervision and transportation. And I'd like to recommend that the

097board give approval for these nine trips to continue to be planned and ultimately taken in the coming one to eight months. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Ime. Does anyone have questions on the trips? I know you've continually fine-tuned the information you provide to us so that we can evaluate it. And I think we're getting that sweet spot where I think we have what we need. And thank you, Mr. Allad. Thank you, Dr. Amin, for giving us what we need. So there's no other questions. We'll move right on. Thank you. Yeah, team effort. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Okay, we're on now to item D. Mrs. Robbins, we are going to be with you for quite a while in these next number of agenda items, but welcome, Mrs. Price. This is our recommendation to approve the 2026-2027

098Food Service Budget and Student Meal Prices. Welcome. Hi, good evening, everybody. Okay, I'm here just to give a quick update from the cafeteria for the school year. We're going to kick it off with the easiest thing to talk about tonight, the wellness policy. There's no changes to Wellness Policy 246. We were able to do our triennial assessment and found that it didn't require any changes or updates at this time. So we're just going to wait until the next three-year update is time to do it again, and then we'll look at it at that time. But for right now, we have no other changes to the Wellness Policy 246. The most exciting part of the school year, I think, at the end is seeing what our meal participation was because we always get excited about all

099the numbers. So looking at our grand totals for this school year, we hit 962,309 meals between our breakfast and lunch program. That doesn't include the additional 15,000 meals that we did provide to Al Hill. So we got really close to our million meals at 977,000, but we'll still have a big goal to jump to for next year yet. Still working toward that million meal goal, but it did put us about 48,000 more meals than we did last the previous year. So we definitely saw a giant increase. We still are hovering right around the same free and reduced percentage at 31.6. An important thing to look at on the bottom right there is just that 27.47% of that 31% is our directly certified students. So only 4% is our income-based students. So the directly certified include...

100things like our medics, some medical, our food stamps, cash assistance, migrant, homeless students are all kind of in that 24.47% for our total of 31% for free and reduced. So we did get awfully close, but not quite there. We're going to have every year the state, because we participate in the federal government in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program, require us to complete something called a PLE tool, which is a paid lunch equity tool. And that paid lunch equity tool, you take how many meals that were served, your free or reduced percentages, and then they tell you what our minimum pricing must be for our lunch program. So I always like to say we didn't come up with these as kind of part of being part of a state and federal program, that that's

101how they. become. There's not a huge increase to the lunch prices, but there is a small increase to some of them. So the elementary school is going to be going up to $2.70. Landis Run is going up to $2.85. The middle school is $2.90, and our high school will be $3. Just keeping in mind that our reduced students also don't pay a cost. That's all part of the free breakfast initiative. So there is no cost for breakfast or lunch for reduced students. It's all wrapped into that Governor Shapiro's free breakfast program. And just to show you a comparison of a couple of the districts in our area, Warwick and Conestoga Valley, Manheim Central, and Alankos, prices are all kind of listed there at the bottom. So you can see the difference between the pricing. Oh,

102and breakfast does remain free for everybody. We still have free breakfast for everyone. So looking at our proposed budget for next year, you can see up there at the top, we did have a significant amount of revenue increase due to all the extra 48,000 meals that we had from the paid students. You can see our federal subsidy and our state subsidy is up. A little bit of our a la carte sales are down, but I like to say that that's because the kids are buying meals and not necessarily just like a slice of pizza. They're getting like a full meal option instead. So we did have that. And then looking at our expenses, our expenses were up a bit from salaries and benefits. We also, I know a lot of you have gone to the

103grocery store lately, right? Food costs are up. So everybody kind of notices that now. So we also have seen that increase. One of the other things to note is we did really put a big emphasis on trying to get to more scratch cooking in all of our elementary schools. So we did spend a significant amount of money on some new equipment, some water line-less steamers to help us get to that scratch cooking level that we were kind of looking at versus a transporting kitchen that we had before. So we did have some equipment costs this year as well. We did receive some grants and funding. So you'll hear a lot of people talk about the LFS funds, which is our local funding sources. Those are specifically only to be used for any local farms or

104local food sources. So we did a lot of shopping at the auction. You can see us up there at the Leola Produce Auction picking up items from there. We're allowed to purchase things like from dairy farmers, our beef grants. All that money has to be directly kind of put back into the community and farm area. So we did receive some funds this year for that. out. It helped incorporate into our Would You Eat It Wednesday events, and we were able to expand to looking at a few other farms as far as a PA Pork Grants and some of the other farms in our areas to see what else we could expand to this year. We did receive one mini grant, which was the Harvest of the Month mini grant. We used this grant for equipment

105to help expand our cultural corner section this year. So we have now gone all the way down to Landis Run, and we're able to use some of those immersion blenders and pieces of equipment to be able to produce some of those options. Some of those things look like this. We kicked it off with the National School Lunch Week. We had a passport card that the kids could come through and stamp the passport. So if they were able to try one of the cultural meals, they were able to kind of fill out their passport card and enter for a raffle. So some of those things you can see there, we visited quite a few different countries this year, and we were able to incorporate that, like I said, all the way down to Landis Run. The

106biggest surprise, I believe, was the Cuban-style bowl in the bottom right there is Atlantis Run. And we were very surprised how many kids like avocado. So almost every kid took the avocado on their bowl. So that was very surprising. So we're looking to kind of incorporate the whole idea is to be K-12 eventually to kind of start bringing some of those things down like we did with the potstickers. So we're going to be looking at moving that to the elementary levels. Another big initiative we took on this year was our share coolers. This was used from funding from the Giant Roundup program within our community. It truly was a team effort. Maintenance and Zach helped us actually go pick them up in the truck of all the coolers, and we delivered one to each building.

107It was a great way to help feed kids and not feed trash cans, right, if the kids are full and they don't want to have the extra items. They just decided they didn't want to drink their milk. They're able to put things into the share cooler and then other students are able to take things from the share cooler. And I was able to keep it safe and refrigerated for long periods of time that if they're going to a sporting event at the end of the day or something, they can take it with them. We did get interviewed for a podcast. We will not play that tonight, but if you want your time, if you'd like to click on the link, there is a podcast on our share cooler. as well. So we are looking to

108involve some of our other classrooms and help with logs and rotating of stock to kind of build on that program for next year. One thing we also tried to do this year was really connect to our families. So we kind of launched a couple more platforms. I learned how to use Instagram. I've never used Instagram. So we launched that program as well. And we also kind of really added a lot to our school menus app. A lot of families didn't realize we have a school menus app. And we really try to be diligent in taking photos and really updating all of our nutritional counts and allergens and things like that. So families have direct access by using an app on their phone this year. So that was one of the things we really wanted to

109do. worked hard on. And it's been a really fun year. So I thought we'd just put a couple of the fun pictures of interacting with the kids. We really tried to highlight some of the different events that we were doing. You can see the top left corner was National Unicorn Horn Day. So we did unicorn horn ice cream cups. We did things for St. Patrick's Day and like some green jello and rainbow kind of themes. We did some, the Earth Day was the bottom with our reptile nuggets and dirt cups. And we did not like the... chicken on fire there in the Halloween costumes, but the kids really seem to get a lot of enjoyment overseeing our staff really interacting with the students, and I think that builds a great relationship with them. Okay, any

110questions? Okay, thank you. I have to say, I really, I think I've said this a couple of times throughout the year, I really started to sense the personality of your team coming through. And I think part of that is the different ways you're communicating with us, both as a board and me as a parent. I'm feeling that. It really has helped me feel more connected to the work that you're doing, which I think is so impactful. So thank you for those. Thank you for, I never want to say anyone to thank you for learning Instagram because, but. But it's showing up. So thank you very much for those efforts. I know there's a lot of intentionality behind the messaging and how you're communicating with our families. Does anyone else have thoughts or questions they want

111to share? Mr. McKenna, then I'll go to you, Mrs. Kaler. Ms. Price, it's nice to meet you. I've been a fan from a distance, and I think it's evident why just everything you've presented here, the program performance itself, the growth in the number of kids who are being served, the support for the free and reduced meals, the local procurement, the innovation, and cultural celebrations of National School Lunch Week. I mean, I haven't eaten dinner yet, so I am extremely hungry. I wish I could dive into that Cuban bowl right now. But it seems like across the board, you're really integrating the meal as this critical part of the education. from the procurement side, part of how we're connected to our neighbors in Lancaster County. And so I just wanted to affirm the excellence in recognizing

112that food is such a critical part and nutrition more broadly for all of our kids. And regardless of what their household circumstances are, they can come to school and be guaranteed to have access to really fresh, scratch-cooked food. So thank you to you and your team. Thank you so much. I just wanted to thank you again for the tour that you let Dr. McArdle and I go on a couple weeks ago. Getting to see your care for the facilities that we have at each school, your care for our community, not just our students, but the community at large, like your love of the Leola produce auction and our local farmers. But that just shows your intentionality, your financial responsibility, your care for community, and also knowing. We live in Lancaster. We have such an abundance

113and making sure that our students know where their food comes from and who's making it, which is my last point, which is how much I appreciate you and your staff. Everyone just seems so warm and welcoming when we went through that tour and your connection with your staff was evident, too. That means a lot. I just appreciate that. Thank you so much. Mr. Bann. I just had a question about the share coolers. Are those only in certain schools? We actually put them in all nine buildings. Oh, that's great. Yep. So everybody got one and we just did it all in the same, well, two days. Zach helped me put them all together and we put them all in and they're all up and functioning. And the kids really have, I want to say, gotten the

114hang of them very quickly. There's not a lot left at the end of the day. It's great. That's a great idea. Thank you. Yeah, I also want to echo my gratitude. We can all see how much you and your team do. And then the introduction of all these cuisines, it just always impresses me. You know, it's not just to introduce people to new cuisines, but there's a sense of belonging for families. Like my kids get excited when there's pop stickers. They also get excited when there's leprechaun. like gummy rainbow they came home for that you know I was like okay um so there's it's not just that education piece, but there's a sense of belonging for those people who, or I know that there's a vegan menu. And so there is that sense of belonging

115that you have instilled in this culture on your team. So I appreciate that genuinely. Thank you. Oh, and also the LinkedIn worked for me. I would love to see that podcast. Okay. I will send you the link. Thank you. You're welcome. I saw the cooler video on Instagram. So nice job in that promotional material. I think it gave really clear instructions on the intent of the coolers and then how to use them. So I really liked that. I have a question just in regards to people are seeing this. They're probably just as excited as we are as the number of meal options. How can someone become income certified? And how can we can just continue to be outreaching to families? How can we help you as a school board in our community to make sure

116that people understand that perhaps, you know, there is a program that may be able to. These prices are very affordable. I'm not suggesting that they're not. But also, you know, how can we help you get the word out about income based certification? Yeah. And what's really nice is the guidelines do go up slightly every school year. So we always tell people to contact us. We are working with some of our, we know some of the language barrier can be, you know, troublesome. So we are working at trying to get a folder of all kind of translated documents for that some of our social workers can access very easily to reach out to those families. That's one of our goals this summer. I would say that we have them posted online so that families can really

117see. We have it broken down by household members. And then basically if you're paid like biweekly, every other Friday, once a month. So families have a very easy chart to kind of see if they would qualify. And I always tell people if they have any questions, you know, we're always here to help. So we will help run through the whole application process. It's all done online now. So it's very easy than it used to be. And it tells you almost instantly if you qualify or not. And the biggest thing to help really get out there is. The students that qualified at the end of the school year have 30 days to get their information back in again or if it recertifies. Otherwise, they then fall into the paid category. We always tell people one of

118the most important things is if you applied now for like next school year, it would actually erase after July 1st. So it's always important to make sure you apply after. We always say July 15th is like a nice buffer in case the state is a little behind changing things over. We always tell families and encourage them. And we've been working with registration as well for that, like for kindergarten families and things like that. And then for students to be aware, it's confidential at the point of sale. Correct. Paying for your meal. Correct. It's all coded. I always kind of say, you know, even our cashiers have no idea. Like it's all just coded and only people on the back end are able to look them up. But everything is completely confidential on the register side.

119Thank you. You're welcome. I agree with my colleagues on the wonderful work you've been doing. Thank you so much. Ms. Ling? Sorry, just one more question building on Ms. Zimmerman. So is that something that families have to apply every year? Yes. So income-based applications, I believe, was around that 4% that we have. Those are the only families that are kind of applying after July 15th of every year. The directly certified families that we already have on there will requalify after the 1st of July if they still qualify for the medical SNAP, TANF, homeless qualification, things like that. That automatically comes through our system. Well, to Ms. Lamb's question, Mrs. Price, I know you've been in other school districts. Is 4% a typical number, or do we feel like that's a number that, you know, are

120there, do we have a sense that there's families who could benefit that we haven't reached? I think there definitely is families out there that we have not reached to, and that's one of our kind of initiatives and goals this summer is to, we're wondering, is it a language barrier? Is it? just not having enough knowledge of what the qualifications are, people not seeing where we have it posted on the sites, just trying to get the word out there of like communications and thinking as we build and kind of get people to reach out to us, we're able to help those families. But I do agree. I think that number could be a little bit higher. Mr. McKinney. Just up in that vein, a possible partnership could be Hunger Free Lancaster County. That's a network of

121probably three dozen organizations that are serving. households affected by food insecurity every age and stage of life. And they have a team that's particularly focused on the child nutrition program. So offline, we could talk about maybe some ways to make some connections there. And one of the things they also do through Central Pennsylvania Food Bank is SNAP outreach to families, which then if we increase the number of people who qualify for that program. then in turn they would be directly certified. So we would catch them on the school mail side as well. Absolutely. Okay, Mrs. Price. Thank you so much. Appreciate all your work. Thank you. Okay, we are on to item E, a recommendation to approve the 2026-2027 Final General Fund budget in the amount of $138,528,643 and a millage rate of 18.1421 as

122presented on form PDE-2028. Mrs. Robbins, welcome. Thank you. I have a very brief presentation. I know you guys have seen a lot of budget presentations this year. We do have a couple changes from last month to this month. You'll see, actually, there's just six changes, four on the expense side and two on the revenue side. The expenditure side, per the board's approval in May, for the sports staff increases, we increased their salaries $101,000. The next two items are just some insurance quotes that we trued up within the last month. That's about a net difference of a decrease of $6,136. And then the last item was special education. We got the IU prices for their students, and that actually went down a bit. So we were able to shave $36,000 off of the special ed expense

123there. For revenues, we checked with the county again right before. setting our budget and we did get some assessment growth between May and June and that represents a $211,000 increase just from assessment growths. And then the FICA retirement subsidy, that's in a direct relationship to the support staff increase. We do get 50% of FICA and PISA back from the states. That's the direct impact of that. So the total expenditure changes from May to June is $59,171. And on the revenue side, it's $225,736. So basically, we're about $166,565 to the good. So what that looks like for our budget totals, you'll see our expenditure totals, what the proposed final budget that was presented to you last month was, and then the add of $59,171 for a total expenditure budget of $138,528,643. Per revenues, the changes represent

124a total of $137,579,596 for a proposed expenses of revenues of $949,047. Just looking at the expenses over revenues, we started at, in May, $1.1 million, and those changes impacted us positively, $167,000 for total expenditures over revenues of $949,000. You may recall that we were recommending utilizing $943,000 of fund balance. That was intended. We had saved that money for one-time expenses for safety and security expenses and also the curriculum and instruction expenses that we reviewed with you previously. That basically gives us almost a balanced budget. I can't even believe how close it is, but we have a final deficit of $5,754. So what that does for our millage rate, that puts our, keeping the 2.9% that was recommended last month, that puts our 2627 millage rate at 18.1421. For the median residential tax payer of $229,400,

125that would be an annual impact of $117.29 or a monthly impact of $9.77. For the Homestead Farm set, I'm going to talk about that the next item, but that did go up a little bit for next year as well. Also attached to your agenda is the required PDE 2028 form with all of the budget data. This document has been on our website and available for public viewing for the required 20 days. And also there's a required budget resolution before you to approve next week. The resolution establishes our tax rates, payment options, and payment deadlines. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the budget. Okay. You may not be believing that you got within that close, but I believe it. It happens every year. So thank you for your exceptional work. Does anyone

126have thoughts or questions on the budget? Ms. Emmerich. If you wouldn't mind just turning back to the millage slide, this is not pertaining to this year, but I think on people's minds is the Lancaster County reassessment. I think when we opened our mail, we got those of us who are homeowners maybe had a little bit of a shock in regards to the reassessment. And can you just talk about how that will impact future budgets to give our community an understanding of that? Absolutely. By law, we had our last reassessment back in 2018. You may recall. So by law, it has to be revenue neutral for school districts, which means that we're required to adjust our 2728 millage rate down the same amount that our property assessments went up. So we're not allowed to make any

127additional money off. That also goes for the county as well. We do have information on our website as well. It directs people back to the county if they do wish to appeal. That's very important that if they do want to appeal their assessment that they do it before the August 1st deadline. But again, the goal is just to redistribute the tax burden more equitably among updated property values. Thanks. I didn't mean to pull the conversation away from this budget and the amazing work that you all have done. Thank you for the many presentations you've brought to us over the months to get us to this point. Sure. This is Vince. We started looking at a deficit budget. And of course, you know, you always bring a very sharp pencil to all of this. But I'm

128looking at one of the first years in a while that we really aren't looking at a large deficit. And in each of those years, something happened that brought us the money we needed. So all of that to say, do we need to look at 2.9 or could we be looking at a smaller increase? And I'm sending that to you as the expert, but it seems to me this is about the best dollars I've been looking at. I mean, we are recommending the 2.9. I mean, in a perfect world, we should have a balanced budget every year, and we are utilizing a significant amount of fund balance this year. So I am recommending keeping it at the 2.9%. And to that point, Ms. Sensen, I mean, also part of our projection is the full adequacy funding

129from the state budget, which has not been passed, right? So there is some assumption in there that it's not without risk, though. you know, based on recommendation from the State School Board Association, and I know from your colleagues, business officers from school districts across the state, all of the sense that we've been getting from Harrisburg is that we should be projecting those numbers into our budget, but that is one issue that has, I think we've treated differently in previous budget years as well. Tell me if that's wrong, but I believe that's incorrect. Okay, that's a good point, because this is the first year we've put 100% of the adequacy funds in, so we are taking a little bit of a risk. anticipate those funds will come through. But I also don't like carrying, like not

130budgeting for and getting the funds either. I want it to be as accurate as possible. And just to reemphasize, like we're not on an island in terms of budgeting the full accuracy funding. Basically every school district that I'm aware of is doing the same. Yeah, PASPA is recommending that we budget 100% of the amount. Does anyone else have thoughts or questions on the budget? Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Robbins. We are on to item F, a recommendation to adopt the resolution implementing the homestead and farmstead exclusions for the 2026-2027 fiscal year as required under the Taxpayer Relief Act. Over to you. Under Act 1 of 2005-06, school districts receive property tax relief funds that must be used to fund real estate tax exclusions on approved properties. These amounts must be approved by the board annually. For

131next year, we're receiving about $1.96 million, which is about $6,000 more than we received last year. All those funds, we have to use those dollars to provide the approved properties an assessment reduction of about $11,092. This reduction equates to a real estate tax reduction of $201.23. Should the Board approve the proposed 2.9% increase at next week's voting session? So that required resolutions before this evening. Thank you, Ms. Robbins. Any thoughts on that? Okay. We're going to move right along to Item G, a recommendation to approve the resolution for the commitment of fund balance. Per the Government Accounting Standards Board, or GASB, Statement No. 54, school districts are required to annually approve estimated fund balance allocations for our financial statements prior to the end of each fiscal year, which is June 30th. These amounts are estimated

132at this time and will be adjusted based on our actual fiscal year results. And those actuals will be presented on our annual financial statements presented to you next November or December. If you look at the resolution, we are recommending keeping the $4.3 million set aside for medical benefits. We are self-insured, so it's just prudent for us to make sure if we have a bad year, we have this dollar set aside. We have about $3.5 million set aside for future capital projects that we could move over with your authorization. And then the next two items are led by our multi-year capital plan, $1.65 million for future technology needs. And about $1 million for future curriculum costs. And again, that's driven by our long-term plan. And about $500,000 for insurance deductible costs. If we ever have a

133bad year of insurance deductibles, we want to put that money aside. And that would also leave us with about an 8% undesigned amount for next year as well. Okay. Thank you. Does that make sense to everybody? All right, we're going to move right along then to item H, a recommendation to approve the financial institutions for investment transactions during the 2026-2027 school year. Policy 610 requires the board to annually approve any banks we make contact for investment rates or investment options. This is similar to previous years. We did add People's Security Bank and Trust. They reached out to us, so we will put them on a list to contact to see if they have any good rates for us. All right. Thanks for looking. Go ahead. Any thoughts or questions for Mrs. Robinson? Okay. We're going

134to move right along to item I, recommendation to approve participation in cooperative purchasing agreements as listed. Again, annually per Policy 613, the board is required to approve this annually for us, and this just allows us to reach out to these purchasing arrangements. We do save a lot of money going through the cooperative purchasing, so we do need our approval to be able to utilize those arrangements next year. I think we're moving right along. We're on to item I, a recommendation to approve. Oh, excuse me. We just did item I. We're on our last one, item J, a recommendation to approve authorizing the administration to complete financial and personnel tasks in June and July 26, including complete budget transfers, executing financial contracts, processing the payment of bills, and making personnel changes. Last one to you, Mrs.

135Robbins. In the absence of a July board meeting, we're requesting approval to be able to complete the financial and employment transactions for June and July. 2026. The budget transfers list of bills and contracts will be included in the August 2026 Treasurer's Report and any personnel changes will be included in the August 2026 Personnel Report. We do this every year just so that we can take July off from having a school board meeting. It's typical business. But does anyone have any thoughts or questions? Okay. Mrs. Robbins, well done. Rod, Item K, recommendation to approve the Director of Human Resources as the Title IX Coordinator and Compliance Officer for the Mannheim Township School District, effective July 1, 2026. Over to you, Dr. Hudeks. Thank you. This is something that's required by law. We have to have a

136designated Title IX coordinator at all times. So we recommend that the position of director of human resources be identified as the person who serves as the Title IX coordinator and compliance officer. We will have our new HR director on site on July 1st, also designating the office. If you have an acting director of HR, they would then become the acting Title IX. So we would always be covered to be compliant with the law. Thank you, Dr. Huddox. Any thoughts for Dr. Huddox? Okay. All right, we're moving on now. This one's to me, a recommendation to appoint and approve no more than three voting delegates for the 2026 PSBA Delegate Assembly on November 7th, 2026. And before I start, the PSBA is our Pennsylvania School Board Association. This is the annual meeting of school boards. Ms.

137Woodbury is our representative from the school board. liaison with the PSBA, and I think she's already identified Dr. McArdle as someone who's willing to represent this school board at that assembly in the fall. Mrs. Hentz, are you going for the IU as well? I'll be a delegate for the IU, yes. So you'll be there in person, but maybe just with half of Township had on her, but not in your official capacity. I always have. Always, I should. That was a test you passed. Thank you, Mrs. Hentz. And so we do have room for two more voting delegates from this school board if anyone is able to attend. Mrs. Hentz, I believe you've gone in previous years, correct? So if you have questions, ask Mrs. Hentz about it. Ms. Woodbury has been tracking it. And I

138do believe Dr. McArdle is going. So you just need your name, I think, by next week's voting meeting if you do want to go. So any thoughts or questions on that? Okay. And now we are on to item N, the recommendation to approve the resolution calling for increased state funding. It's my name on the agenda, but I'm going to pass it right over to you, Ms. Zimmerman. Sure. Part of the work of a school board is to advocate at the state level. And so we're bringing this to the board today in recommendation from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. What is mentioned in the resolution was items that they advocated for, they meaning PSBA and other delegates at the state capitol in May. And so we're bringing this forward. There are five components of the resolution,

139continuing the state's commitment to adequacy funding. We talked about the adequacy funding and what an important component of our budget that is. continuing to provide significant and sustained increases to basic education funding through the state's fair funding formula, providing substantial increases to special education funding, providing sustained state funding and support for school infrastructure improvements, and finally ensuring sufficient state resources for career and technology education. So all very important components to us as a school board, and I'm hoping that... We can approve this next week and send it with the other school districts to PSBA. Can I also mention, sorry, I also, sorry, the fourth component that I talked about was sustained state funding and support for school infrastructure improvements. I did make note that the House Education Committee approved HB 2633 this week. and that

140was to modernize the PlanCon program. So PSBA did send an email out to us and want to encourage our community, if you feel passionate about PlanCon, which would provide us with money to do school projects so that we can keep our educational facilities updated and safe for all students, if you could please be in contact with your local lawmakers and urge them to move that forward. That's HB 2633 for PlanCon. Thank you. There hasn't been a planned con for how many years? Yeah, even you. So it's overdue. Well overdue. Anyone else have thoughts for Mr. Momen on this? Mr. McKenna? I'd just like to express support for the resolution. I think it's really important in addition to the work we do within the community. being vocal in our professional capacity in concert with other districts

141across the state to say that our legislatures have a responsibility that has been validated by our Supreme Court. And so we need them to fully lean into their responsibilities and provide us with the resources so that every student in Pennsylvania has the opportunity to thrive in public education. Hear, hear. All right, we're moving on now to item N, a recommendation to appoint Dr. Martin J. Hudak as acting superintendent, effective July 1, 2026 through March 19, 2027. This is to me. And again, this doesn't change anything with Dr. Hudak. All this does is change his title from substitute superintendent to acting superintendent, reflecting the end of the separation agreement with Dr. Bate-Hepty. So if there's any thoughts or questions on that, we can entertain it. But go ahead, Ms. Kelly. I just wonder what the difference

142between substitute and acting. Is there anything? Yeah, I can feel that. The only thing that changes is the adjective. As a substitute, it means that somebody else officially owns the position. Okay, but once the disengagement occurs, okay, then the position is open. So now I'm acting, which means that I'm not the permanent superintendent, but I'm filling all the role that's there until the permanent superintendent is named. So that's the only difference between it. Thank you. I'm seeing no other thoughts or questions from anybody else. Okay. And that is so the big thank you for all that you do and the calming influence you've had across the district. We do appreciate you very much. Thank you for that, Mrs. Hanson. Thank you, Dr. Jackson. So that brings us to the end of our action for voting

143meeting for June 25, 2026. I do want to take a note of the time. We are at two hours. So we do typically take a break after two hours. All that's left is public comment. I just want to gut check with the folks on the board. Do we need to take a break or do we want to keep going? Okay. So then we are on to item four of May 9 Township Community Comments. And residents, taxpayers, district employees, and students are welcome and encouraged to participate. To speak, please submit a commenter's card to the board secretary as you approach the microphone. In accordance with policy 903, state your name and limit your remarks to five minutes. The board will not engage in discussion at this time. Follow-up will be provided as needed. Is there anyone

144who wants to make a comment this evening? Welcome. Please share your name. Hello, my name is Henry Stockwell and I'm a student here in Manheim Township High School. I'd like to suggest the addition of more water bottle filling stations in the Ewing hallways. Currently the entrance is where one water bottle filling station is placed. as this doesn't serve as much of a problem for students who are close to the entrance, but for students who are closer to the end of the Ewing hallway, it provides a greater distance to travel to either get a sip of water or fill their water bottles. Adding filling stations at around, I'd say the halfway point of the Ewing hallways would make it a less of a greater distance to cover, but it would also... helps students greatly since drinking

145water not only boosts cognitive function, it also improves memory and increases alertness. For example, research suggests that students who drink water before or during an exam can perform significantly better on memory and attention tests. Water also delivers nutrients and oxygen to the brain, helping students fight off afternoon fatigue and stay alert during long lectures. And for a more environmental approach, more stations would promote students to reuse bottles and reduce single-use plastic waste around the school. Thank you. Mr. Stockwell, thank you. Would anyone else like to make a public comment this evening? Ms. Young, welcome. I was going to just make a comment to the gentleman who made the solar panel presentation, but they skipped out. So this is probably, hopefully not necessary, but we've had solar panels on our house for probably 15 years. And

146I'm sure there's a difference between residential and commercial. However, we learned this the hard way. We had squirrels get under our solar panels and chew our roof. to the point where we had a leak in a room. So then we got something which I don't know if it existed 15 years ago, but now we have squirrel guards. So I'm hoping that your solar panels, if approved and installed, will have squirrel guards on them to keep those critters from getting under there and chewing. your roofing material so there will not be any leaks. So check on that. Make sure there's squirrel guards to keep this. I hate squirrels. To keep squirrels from getting under and chewing holes in the roof because it's quite intensive to get the solar panels off, repair the roof, put the solar

147panels back on. I speak from experience. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Please share your name. Hi. Good evening, school board members and superintendent. My name is Katie Stone. I'm a parent here in the district. I'm here tonight because our district is entering the process of reviewing policies for the 2026-2027 school year. This presents an important opportunity to strengthen how we address severe bullying, suicide awareness, and student safety. During the 2023-2024 school year, my daughter experienced significant appearance-based bullying. The intermediate school worked with us and took meaningful steps to improve the situation. However, when she entered middle school as a seventh grader this past year, the bullying escalated to a level that no child should have to endure. In October, we learned that a fellow student was repeatedly telling her to end her life. The administrator's

148response focused primarily on conversations with parents and discussing ways my daughter could avoid contact with the aggressors. While we understand that schools must consider many options, I struggled with the idea that the victim, my daughter, should have to alter her daily routine when she had done nothing wrong. What followed was devastating. The bullying became less visible, but the damage continued. My daughter became withdrawn, exhausted, and lost interest in the activities that she once loved. Weeks ago, we discovered letters outlining a plan to take her life. As a parent, there are no words to adequately describe that moment. Unfortunately, my family's story, it's not unique. Across the country, schools have faced heartbreaking tragedies. Lawsuits and public scrutiny after severe bullying contributed to student mental health crisis and suicide. We do not need to become the next

149headline before taking action. The research is clear. Severe bullying is linked to depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicide ideation, academic decline, and long-term emotional trauma. We have the evidence. We know the risks. The question is whether we are willing to act before another child reaches a crisis point. As a nurse, I also recognize that these situations are rarely simple. The student being bullied needs protection, support, and intervention. The student engaging in the bullying may also be struggling with challenges of their own and may need counseling, behavioral support, and accountability. Addressing the root cause matters. but understanding why a behavior occurs does not excuse it. Every student deserves the opportunity to become a healthy, successful adult, not another statistic. I am not here simply to complain. I am here because I have research policies, best practices, and approaches

150that other schools and states have implemented successfully. While I am limited by time tonight, I encourage the board to consider several key principles as policies are being reviewed. Treat encouragement of suicide and severe harassment as a high-level safety concern, requiring immediate investigation and intervention. Ensure the burden of separation falls on the aggressor whenever possible, not the victim. Activate immediate mental health support and suicide risk assessment when a student is subjected to suicide-related harassment. Establish clear, consistent consequences for severe bullying while also providing intervention and support services for aggressors. This issue, it belongs to all of us. It is my responsibility as a parent, and it is your responsibility as educators and leaders. We share the same goal, protecting students and helping them thrive. I am willing to share my research, policy recommendations, and supporting evidence

151with the board. administrators, and community members. I recognize that this is a complex issue with many layers, and I welcome a very productive discussion about solutions. Let's not wait for a tragedy to force change. Let's lead with evidence, compassion, accountability, and action. Thank you. Ms. Stone, thank you. Welcome. Please share your name. Good evening. My name is Tanya Smith, and I'm speaking tonight on behalf of several voices. I'm speaking on behalf of Katie's daughter, who you just heard recently reached such a point of despair from over a year of bullying that she wrote suicide notes of goodbye to her family. I'm speaking on behalf of a classmate, a close friend of my oldest son, who died by suicide just two years ago in our school district. And I'm speaking as a mother of a 14-year-old

152son. Kyle Smith, who ended his life nearly one year ago this month. It has taken almost a year of grieving, counseling, and healing to find the strength and courage to stand before you tonight. I wish I were here under different circumstances. The reality is that teen suicide in our country has become a public health crisis. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 24 in the United States. Recent CDC data shows that one in six high school students reported making a suicide plan, and one in 10 reported attempting suicide within the past year. These statistics are heartbreaking, but they're no longer just statistics to our community. In the past three years, Mannheim Township has lost three students to suicide, three children, three families forever changed,

153three futures that will never be realized. As parents, educators, and community members, we must ask ourselves a difficult question. What are we going to do differently? Today's children are growing up in a world unlike any generation before them. Social media has become the primary way many young people communicate. Behind a screen, words are often spoken without seeing the hurt that they cause. Comments are made that many people would never say face to face. At the same time, social media amplifies feelings of rejection, isolation, comparison, and despair. Our children have unprecedented access to information, opinions, and criticisms 24 hours a day. The emotions this creates can be overwhelming. Many young people are still developing the emotional maturity and coping skills needed to navigate disappointment, heartbreak, conflict, embarrassment, failure, and rejection. When combined with the impulsivity that

154naturally exists during adolescence, moments of pain can become moments of crisis. I do not stand here tonight pretending to have all the answers. I don't know exactly what programs, policies, or interventions will prevent every tragedy. I don't know how we fully teach our children emotional resilience, healthy coping skills, or emotional intelligence in a world that continues to change so rapidly. But I do know this. Manhood Township is a strong community. We care deeply about our children. We care deeply about our families. And I know this because I've experienced it firsthand. After my son Kyle's death, our family was surrounded by an outpouring of love, compassion, and support. Friends, neighbors, teachers, coaches, students, and complete strangers carried us through the darkest days of our lives. The kindness of this community helped us survive an unimaginable loss.

155That same strength and compassion can be harnessed to help prevent future tragedies. Tonight, I'm asking this board, our district leadership, our educators, parents, students, and community members to come together and ask some difficult but necessary questions. How can we better educate students about mental health? How can we better equip them with the skills to navigate adversity, rejection, conflict, and emotional pain? How can we provide greater support to families who may not recognize the warning signs until it's too late? How can we create opportunities for meaningful connections so no child feels alone? And most importantly, how can we make a sustainable impact, not just the reaction after a tragedy, but a long-term commitment to the emotional well-being of our students? Every suicide leaves behind parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, teachers, teammates, classmates who spend the rest of

156their lives asking why. No parent should have to bury a child. No family should have to endure the pain of losing someone they love to suicide. As we approach the one year of Kyle's death, I cannot change what happened to my son. But perhaps his story and the stories of the other students we've lost can help inspire meaningful conversations and meaningful action. My hope is simple, that together as a community, we commit ourselves to doing everything we can to ensure that no other parent in Mannheim Township experienced the loss of a child by their own hand. As a first step, I would at a minimum suggest we establish a Student Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Task Force creating a multidisciplinary committee consisting of school administrators, counselors, teachers, students, parents, healthcare professionals, and community stakeholders. The

157purpose would be to assess current resources, identify gaps, review best practice, and develop recommendations for long-term prevention efforts. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Would anyone else like to make a public comment? Welcome. Please share your name. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Holly Stockwell. I am a Mannheim Township parent of two and the president of the Mannheim Township Music Association. So I wanted to just take a moment to talk about music education in Mannheim Township. Chorus band and orchestra are offered as options starting in fifth grade, and those are wonderful and amazing programs, but they don't have the ability to reach every student. In Mannheim Township, from kindergarten to fourth grade, our students have music class once per six-day cycle for a full school year. In fifth and sixth grade, they have

158music class for one semester, 45 minutes per day. In 7th and 8th grade, our students have nine weeks of music class for 49 minutes a day. In high school, there are in fact no real requirements for any music education. The district requires four years of English social studies, seven credits of STEM, one and a half years of phys ed, and a year and a half each of health and financial ed. and students must have one year, or one credit, of Arts and Humanities over the course of their entire four years of high school. Now, this one credit can be filled with a music class or two, or a family and consumer science class, or a reading course, or a world language, or some tech ed courses, or English or social studies. So I'll say that

159again, a student can fill their one credit in arts and humanities by taking English or social studies. And those are required for your courses. So arts and humanities requirement is filled without ever needing any arts focused class, including music. So I don't have any data about how many of our students graduate high school without taking any high school level music class, but I'm sure the board could request that information. I would be very interested to know what that number is because study after study has shown that music education benefits students. A study published by the American Psychological Association stated that high schoolers who take music courses score significantly better on exams in certain other subjects, including math and science, than their non-musical peers. And the University of Southern California research on the impact of music

160education shows that for adolescents, the benefits appear to extend beyond a surge in neural connections in their brains. It actually boosts their well-being. So music education can benefit our students in so many ways, and yet every time we advance them to a new building, we provide fewer and fewer hours of music education. If Mannheim Township wants our students to succeed, to be the best they can, why would we not give them every advantage? I ask the Mannheim Township to be a leader in data-proven, evidence-based learning. and to review the music classes we provide and require and secure any additional staff needed to increase music education in Manitowoc Township to help our students be their best selves and to succeed beyond the classroom. Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to make a comment? Welcome,

161please share your name. Good evening. My name is Tony Finnegan. My wife Jessica and I are the parents of five children, all who either have attended, currently attend, or will attend Booker Elementary School. Parents of Booker Elementary were recently informed of significant staffing changes planned for the 26-27 school year. We are deeply concerned by the decision to reduce teaching positions in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, decreasing each grade level from four classrooms down to three. These early elementary years are amongst the most important in a child's educational journey. This is when students develop the foundational skills in reading, writing, mathematics, communication, and social-emotional learning that will shape their future success. The teacher-to-student ratio matters tremendously during these years. As class sizes increase, opportunities for individualized instruction decrease, making it more difficult for teachers to

162identify learning gaps, provide targeted support, and build the strong relationships that help students thrive. Every child learns differently. Some students require additional academic support, while others need extra social, emotional, or behavioral guidance. Larger class sizes inevitably stretch resources and reduce the amount of personal attention available to each student. If our goal is to provide every child with the strongest possible start, reducing classroom staffing in our youngest grades moves us further away from that objective. We are also deeply concerned about the proposed transfer of Mr. Goodcoop, known throughout the Boot Court community as Mr. G. to another elementary school within the district. His impact extends far beyond the classroom. He has built meaningful relationships with his students, their families, fostered a positive school culture, and became an integral part of what makes Booker Elementary special. Educators

163like Mr. G are not easily replaced, and his absence will be felt throughout the entire school community. Just as importantly, these staffing reductions place additional stress and burdens on the outstanding teachers who remain at Booker. Our teachers consistently go above and beyond to meet the needs of their students, often investing countless hours beyond the school day to ensure every child has an opportunity to succeed. They deserve the resources, the staffing, and the support necessary to continue delivering the high-quality education our community expects and our children deserve. Ultimately, this decision is about more than staffing allocations and budget considerations. It's about priorities. It is about the type of educational experience we want to provide for our children and the value we place on the relationships, support systems, learning environments that contribute to students' success. We respectfully

164urge the board to reconsider these staffing reductions in the proposed transfer of Mr. G. Decisions made today will have a lasting impact on the students, families, and educators who make Booker Elementary such a remarkable school. We ask that you prioritize the needs of our students, preserve the strength of our school community, and invest in the people and programs that help our children flourish. Our students deserve every opportunity to succeed. Our teachers deserve the support necessary to help them get there. And our community deserves confidence that these decisions are being made with the long-term success of our children at the forefront. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else like to make public comments? Okay, seeing no one, that brings us to adjournment. Is there a motion to adjourn? Mrs. Hentz, is there a second? Second.

165Mr. Rivera? Our next meeting is Thursday, June 25th at 6 p.m. here in the district office. As a reminder, school board meetings can be viewed online during the meeting or afterwards by going to our district website. Comments or questions for the board may be emailed to boardsecretary at ntwp.net. And Mrs. Marshall will make sure that we all receive them. Thank you, Mrs. Marshall. I also want to take a moment to say Happy Father's Day to everyone out there who's celebrating and appreciate for all the work that you do and all those fathers do in our community and the examples that you set. Thank you to our Mid-Nine Township staff, administrators, and volunteers for your dedication to our students and community. All in favor of adjournment, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. The motion carries. Thanks to

166you all, we are adjourned.