001Call the meeting to order. Roll call, please. Miss Beers here. Mr. Bennett. Mr. Brown. Yep. Mr. Chsy here. Marvin Kuster here. Mr. Johnson here. Miss Luga here. Mr. Sporski here. Mr. Vasquez here. [Music] To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing in a moment of silence. Thank you. Okay, we're going to get into our committee of the whole uh work session here. Um, I'm going to start with our Cambridge Springs student represent. Can you guys hear me a little closer? Sorry. [Music] Thank you. I thought I was short before, guys. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Mila Moran and I will be informing you on what is going on at Cambridge Springs. Last Friday
002was prom. Every student had lots of fun and enjoyed the mac and cheese bar. The teachers also seemed to have fun. Towards the end, they were even dancing with us. Congratulations to our prom prince and princess, Gage Johnson and Kirsten Grub, and our king and queen, Devon Lanowitz and Amelia Holland. Thank you, Mrs. France and the junior class officers for getting the dance ready for us. Directly after that, the students headed to the elementary school for prom till dawn, which is after prom fun until 5:00 a.m. to keep kids safe and not doing things like drinking after prom. There was gym games like cornhole, volleyball, and dodgeball and more. There's also bingo, Mario Kart, and painting. I was there. I'd like to say it was really fun, but I don't remember half of it. I
003was so tired. I do remember that I lost on the first roll of the first like game of cornhole. was really embarrassing, but seriously, I think everybody had a lot of fun. Also, on Friday, the AP United States history test was given. All went well, and good luck to the students for getting for when they get the results back. Today, upper level art, psychology, and anatomy classes, as well as senior high gifted students attended a presentation by Miguel Vidali on renode forensics. The softball team hosted Cockerton today at 4:30 and the baseball team hosted Lake View at 400 p.m. Good luck to both teams. This Friday, the elementary school is having their annual field day. This is always a fun day and we can't wait to see how it plans out. High school students from
004National Honor Society, Key Club, and Leadership are coming to help run the games. There's always a different theme and this year is like something about cowboys and the games have to do with a theme and my game that I'm running is a chicken toss. I don't really know what we're doing cuz they're not going to toss real chickens. The robotics team went to nationals last Friday and Saturday. Rumor has it the car broke down and they were 2 hours late, but they still did good supposedly. I haven't heard too much yet, but luckily you can check back on our social medias to figure it out at Cambridge speaks. Thank you. [Applause] This time, uh, Debbie Miller, our PA representative. [Music] Good evening, members of the Penrest School Board of Education, administrators, teachers, educational specialists, students,
005and community members. If we have not met yet, my name is Debbie Miller, and I represent my dedicated colleagues of the Penrest School District Education Association, and I wish to speak you tonight on their behalf. As we head into the final days of the school year, we all tend to be tired and our patience worn thin. But most of all, we are reflective. We look back on the past year and think very intently about what our impact has been. Academically, how far have we grown our students and how will they fare in showing their achievements and how will our efforts be judged? We look back and marvel about the reluctant learners who have become courageous. We see some who have learned how to deal with others who are different from themselves in positive interactions. We
006have seen some make accomplishments and supported those who have fallen short of their goals. We have helped care for students in need and lost sleep alongside their families worrying about their sadness or their loss. All in all, when we look back, we are proud of our efforts and determined to make a difference again next year. Some of those fellow fighters for education are likely looking back fondly for the last time. It is likely that they will long feel and we will the void left by their departure from Penrest as they retire for their new playgrounds. Patty Hus has been the guide to so many over her years here, even days out in the little school of heaven we called Kasawago. And Mrs. Lucas. I really don't know any time that I've ever seen her with
007a cross look or even frustrated. She has had a smile for every child all these years. Maybe her secret is to run off her frustrations. And some days I see her go run mile after mile after mile. And there is Dan Fenner. Always the Bill Nye the Science Guy of Maplewood. What a passion for learning science that he has passed on to his classes. I hope he doesn't turn his kitchen into some kind of home science lab in retirement. And then here at Sagertown, Debbie Hal. She has certainly left a mark on the mathematics department here at Sagerttown and has led many students, but especially the females, showing them to be proud and that girls really can do math. We hope as they spend their last few days, these professionals get a sense of pride
008and know that their tireless service to this district has been noticed. At the risk of messing it up with a math teacher involved, but combined, I think Mrs. France helped me add this up. The four of them together have served Penrest for 125 years. Please join me in a round of applause thanking them for their service. Lastly, I would like to challenge the board to be reflective also. I hope you can take a moment and look back at your year of service this year and see how you have impacted Penrest. Have you helped us to make gains? I believe you have. And the challenge is to continue that further and to be a part of making new endeavors that are solely about what is best for students. We knew that last year we were in
009crowded classrooms. What have you pushed for and voted for to help? We knew we needed better communication and you have asked for input and have directed Mr. Ford to carry out conversations with all the stakeholders. You knew money was tight, so you implored Kristen to tighten the spending belt and she did. Not to point to my age, but for as long as I can remember, we have not been in this spot at this point in the year to have exceeded not exceeded, I'm sorry, our coffers with our spending. And to top that off, she has presented a budget that is closer to balance than I remember ever before during this preliminary budget time. I can recall being off for as much as $4 million at this point and we are not at that spot. My
010hope is that when you reflect on your year of service as a board that you can say that you left the year making things better for kids, not anyone else. Not the administration, not the teachers, not the taxpayers, but the kids. Because that is what we are here for. Psalm 112 may say it best when talking about pouring into our future generation. Their children will be successful everywhere. An entire generation of godly people will be blessed and they will be generous, compassionate, and righteous. Thank you. This time, Mr. Mason is ready to do the winter sports recognition. Good evening everybody. Uh at this meeting like to recognize some of the winner athletes who competed at the highest level in the state for the PAA championships. I don't know that any of them are here. Reynold
011Carter Beck from Seagertown is a senior who was a finalist for wrestling from Saggertown. He's a multi-time trip winner to Hershey. Leah Sample girls wrestling. She's got a concussion right now. This is Leah's second trip to the state tournament. She's a junior. Royal Royal Reno Goss. [Music] Congratulations. Royal is also a junior, so you can expect to see her again next year. And then the Maplewood Botchi team. Did anybody make it from Maplewood Botchi? So the botchi team from say Maplewood Unified Botchi is a fairly new collective organization started um with Mrs. Fely's help and Mr. Wolffar's help from Maplewood two years ago I believe and it is a conglomerate of students who with special needs and regular ed students who compete together and have done an outstanding job the last two years and represented
012Maplewood and Pancest very well. I'll make sure they get these Thank you. Next, um we're going to have our budget um [Music] update. You want to talk about PSBA first? Okay. All right. We're going to do PSBA membership options first. So, right now we're up for renewal. Um PSJA is the Professional School Boards Association of Pennsylvania and each year we have to pay dues um to them and then they in turn everything you see on the website as far as all of our policies, all of our minutes um all of our um drafts and everything. It goes on there and there's there's different fees structure for that that I'm going to have Kristen go over and then talk to the board about about that and what we think. And so I'll let you go over
013the fees. So there's two different packages that we can choose um in the past. There's the full access package which we currently have. Um that renewal cost is $15,10.33. Um so that's option one. If we want to add on administrative regulations um for the annual updates, that's an additional $95.25. Um so that's option one. Option two is the standard membership. Um so that is 11,510 um and.33. In addition to that, we can add on the full board training um where they could come and do a presentation, a workshop or a retreat if we would want them to. It's $1,000 per person. Um that's all included in all access. Um the other difference is the comprehensive subscription package. Um policy maintenance would be an additional charge for that which is what we primarily use PSBA for.
014um the Pennsylvania School Safety Institute um it's known as 10 SSI. Um that's an additional 1,500 and then to add on administrative regulations, it's um 1,65. So we have a couple options. Um if we wanted to go full access, you get everything. If we wanted to just do the regular membership and then add on the policy, um we're at 13,35.33. So basically um and with the administrative recommendations which I believe Mr. Ford you would probably that. So we had I had talked to the solicitor Jordan and we were hopeful there was going to be another option as far as um an organization who would look at policy in Pennsylvania. That has not materialized at this point. And so um in talking to Mr. Schuber we we've talked about it. We we kind of looked at
015the cost of whether having our our solicitor help us do policy compared to what we get from PSDA. There will still be some policies occasionally that we would have our solicitor look at, but overall the value we get for that great deal would outweigh our solicitor doing that. Um, and nor does I, you know, it's very intensive to write policy. That's why there's really only one organization in the state who wants to do that right now. So, I would recommend we stay with it at the um the lower the lower rate, which is Go ahead. It's a savings of $910 if we want to just do the standard membership and not the all access like we've done in the past. Um in in the past, we haven't really utilized the full board training. Um we
016haven't utilized the required training for the board members. Um some of you have probably gone through it, but the IU puts that on whereas most of you go. So, if we wanted to do that, it's up to you guys. It's a savings of $910. It's small, but everything helps the bottom line. Um, but it's completely up to you. If you want access to all their trainings on there, then we certainly can renew the full full membership, but we have to renew one of them. So, it's just kind of up for discussion. You guys can decide um how you want to proceed and we'll bring that back in June for just discussion. just discussion. Um, and I certainly I can send this around if anyone wants, you know, if you want a copy of it that
017we can kind of ask questions and digest it till the next meeting, but this was just meant for discussion to kind of see where you wanted to go with that. Is that an annual fee or is that like No, that's an annual fee every year. And then um we pay addition to board docs um that we use for our minutes and in the agenda that you guys are familiar with. That's an additional $2,700 to that policy. There there was another group that had started and maybe this is what you're talking about materializing. It was like Pennsylvania School Director Coalition I think is what it was called or if that rings a bell that had been um and may maybe Jordan knows on it too. I don't know. um that it was another group that had
018started in Pennsylvania pretty much there was no fee to it and I thought they were taking care of policy side but maybe they're not. Jordan, are you familiar with that? I am not. Yes. So there is another organization. It's called the Pennsylvania School Directors Coalition. Their website if the board wants to take a look at it is pa directors.com. It's still relatively new uh but they do offer some uh policy guidance. Uh they are not as of right now affiliated with being able to provide the required training under the school code for school directors. So you still need to get that through the IU um or as part of the PSDA package that Kristen went over with you, you know, but you could consider it uh if you want to take a look at the
019website. I can c certainly circulate that to Sean. You can send it out to the board. Um, you know, you can continue to discuss if you'd like. My only comment is to echo what Sean said. I mean, it's an alternative organization. Really, there's not a lot of folks that dig into policy. Um, like the PSPA, they, you know, we don't always agree with everything that they put out. And I think the board knows that I'm pretty candid about that. But for the most part, your blanket template updates are pretty innocuous. Um, every now and then there's a a controversial policy that they put out. Those are typically the ones that end up in in the news media coverage and everyone is usually aware of anyway. So, you know, those are the only additional comments that
020I'd offer uh in addition to what Sean and Kristen mentioned. So, we'll go ahead and send that around. You guys can the uh is on the PSBA. Is there any other uh tools that we really utilize off the PSBA other than those policies? No. They send a daily newsletter which has some good information in it sometimes. Right. Right. Well, I get them too. Um they kind of give you some insight on some uh laws coming up and stuff bills. No, the the biggest thing we get is what's called PNN which comes out periodically. We usually close to monthly four to six weeks and they and they go through and recommend changes to your policy. Some of them are recommended um as best practice. Some of them are recommended for legal liability and some of them
021are mandated change that needs to be reflected in your policy by PTE and the state. So, we get that. Um, I review that. Um, and then Cynthia and I usually go over that and look and see what the policies you see unless like tonight we have one on here to talk about, you know, that was from the board that you guys have talked to us about that. So, policies generally driven from that unless a board member um brings up and then I go and do the research and I'll usually work with Jordan on that on on that. So that's generally what what we get from them. Tim um beyond that um because we're already paying for the board docs. That's a separate item. It's separate bill we're doing. So beyond that um that's about what
022we get. That's about it. We don't we're not utilizing once in a while I'll go on and research something on your on your site as a full access member. Probably once or twice a month I utilize it. So what's what's board dogs cost annually? $2,700. Okay. Wow. You know, if you can buy Excel yearly for, you know, that's just Wow. So, what would be the negative of not being a member of PSBA? What would you say? Is it going to do any damage to the students if we are not members of PSBA? Can we save all that money? Um, it's it's good as long as we can have a place where we get the needed updates that come that we don't always see. And so, how I'm going to answer that question is this. Most
023likely, Brian, there won't be any issues. Okay? But if we don't get something updated for the district in policy that needed to get updated and we weren't aware of that um and we have one lawsuit over that then there could be then that savings will be minuscule right so overall I would agree with you on that um but it seems like your work with Jordan would take care of that for us some of it I mean Jordan is Jordan how would you answer that question as a solicitor? Yeah. I mean, so, you know, part of the issue with the PSBA is that there's not necessarily a dedicated legal team that reviews all of the policy updates in conjunction with the current legislation. So that's why the PSBA itself recommends that you always coordinate with your
024solicitor's offices just to make sure that you're analyzing everything, you know, specific to your individual district's needs, which may be different district to district and also to make sure that you're keeping up to date with the laws as well. I mean, I personally, as a lawyer, have several publications that we subscribe to. I'm a member of several professional organizations where I get regular updates on legislation that affects education in public schools, you know, but the PSBA also takes a a first swing in putting out templates, you know, for regular updates as well. Like I said, we don't always agree with the guidance that they put out. Um, but what it would alleviate is your solicitor's office looking at every single policy. And what I said earlier, you know, still kind of rings true. You know,
025a lot of the policies that end up being controversial, for lack of a better term, one way or the other, end up getting reviewed by individual district solicitors offices in any way. So, um, you know, I really think it's a board decision. I think the discussion on it is good. Um, you know, it's certainly up to you folks to decide which way you'd like to proceed and I'm sure that uh we'll go ahead and do that, you know, the next meeting. Yeah. So, you know, I read a lot, right? So, I'm I'm up on a lot of that and then I would I generally call Jordan and say, "Hey, thoughts on this or whatever." Kristen gets a lot, Mrs. Fielding gets a lot. We attend the state conferences. So, we're hearing that. So, um that's
026why we brought it up for discussion. we just didn't put it on as agenda item because we felt we felt there needed to be a discussion on it when we're looking at every dollar we sent. So that's why we brought it here to have that discussion. Um but the uh 11,000 and whatever cost savings if we don't renew the PSBA will not really be a cost savings because we're going to be using the solicitor more in place of PSBA. Is that correct? We we Yes. I mean, if we need something written, we're going to definitely get a legal pick on it. Absolutely. That's what we should. Yeah. And naturally, I can, you know, like for instance, on the on the one we have for tonight, I went through made make changes and then I sent
027it to Jordan for review. So, I try to take some of that, you know, so that we're not having to pay. Sorry, Jordan. We're not having to pay your fee. All right. Um, if we were to leave and decide we have to rejoin, is there a new cost? would we be given the same subscription cost? Yeah, so I can answer that one. There there is not a new cost associated with it, but you know over the years I our firm has personally had several districts leave and then rejoin. And um without you know divulging terms of the settlement agreement recently reached with PSBA to answer your question generally no there's not a an additional fee that you would be hit with to rejoin if you decide to leave. Another question too I guess is our
028uh our training that happens the active um was that because I think we received that free through well not free but through PSBA but can we get it through IU5 as well is that is that no charge at IU5 if they do it or I mean it comes to ask that I can get that I don't know if they charge I know we can get it for sure I I think like to what Brian was saying, I think that's a good question. You know, like whether or not we need it, is it going to affect, but at the same time, Sean's got a good point, too. If we, you know, that that amount of money could easily be wrapped up in a lawsuit. So, you know, I wouldn't say that it's something I'd be comfortable
029on taking too strong of a position on either way yet until without more research. But I think like I think you have a valid point, you know, definitely worth evaluating everything we spend on it. So, and if you were to go for not the all access but the lower one, are you going to be able to have any help with policy with just the minimum? Yes. You still have that help? That's correct. That's it. Looks like it doesn't include the training we have to pay for. So, I would like to know what the IU cost is the get that for you. It just says standard pricing applies for training through PSBA. I know where I came from. It's all freaked out. So what it is here, I just want to verify that. I don't think
030there's a cause of it, but I want to verify that legal is free access to [Music] replace that you can get questions answered as well. Yes and no. um you know I mean they so they do have a a general counsel but you know it's not necessarily um legal advice. You know when you're reaching out to the PSBA there might be a member of their team that responds to provide school directors with individual guidance or some additional literature that you can read. But that's that's part of the issue that a lot of folks have with it is you're not necessarily getting um advice, you know, from legal professionals. You're getting advice from, you know, people that are really just policy administrators, you know, that don't have a legal. So another dollar. So we asked about
031the impact on the students. What about the impact on teachers? I think well your policy impacts really every everybody all your staff you know you as schoolboard members I mean policy is is how is the foundation of everything we do so I the impact is there for for the whole district um employees operations um budgetary I mean everything's in there but on the minimal we still get help with policy so that's correct thank We'll find out that information. Y Let me let me go over one more item that wasn't listed. So, we have on the agenda tonight, you'll see under facilities that we're recommending, and we had discussed this previously, the transfinder, um which is called the stop finder. And I believe Randy originally asked about that for a busing um where their parents have
032the ability to uh see where the students are at on the bus. Okay. So, we've done Tony was in here discussed that. Um we were able to secure for next year a this app for we can do 15 buses next year at a cost of $1,500. Now, that's not all of our buses, but what it does do is it gives us the ability to look in all three attendance areas, strategically put them to see if they're going to work in those hard-to-reach areas, and then at a at a really reduced cost of what it would cost for the district. So, I would definitely recommend doing that. I know we've talked about that as a board actually clear back to when I first got here. And uh um we're we we are excited about the possibilities,
033but we're concerned about our rural. So, this would give us the ability to um really test it out this year and if if everything goes good, then we bring it back to you next year. So, but I wanted to make sure that you all realize that that's on there. Um and this is Tony's done a lot of good research on it, reached out to a lot of districts, and we feel like this is and this already is within our system, and so it's already part of what we're doing. So, it's not like an add-on. it kind of um comes right in with what we're already doing. So, um I think it's a pretty good deal. We can do, like I said, 15 buses and we'll probably break that up um across the district and we'll
034put on those hard to routes on there and see how it goes. So, are they giving us a deal to try that or is that their That's a deal. Okay. That's the deal. Okay. I think it's close to 7,000 to do all of our buses. Um you know, we get a good um section of them. How many buses do we have? Um I mean it's ballpark. Yeah, I'm ballparking. Um 45. Yeah. Okay. I'm counting up in my head right now. Yeah. I mean I know that's a concern from the community, right? We we we received the emails of the frustration of where's the bus? Uh what happened to the bus? And then we know that the the the short staff uh from the busing company has been an issue this past winter. So I was
035I was pleasantly surprised to see that. I thought that was a hard no uh a while back. So to get that kind of deal to give it a try is uh interesting to look at. Yeah, we we were um we we've also been wanting to have something and look at better communications um for our parents. So that would and that's why we want to test it because we might have the ability to go ahead right from that app and send the message that goes right out to parents. So instead of going to our messenger system that we have to put out, this might give us a direct that we can actually push that right out right there from that system which is very very helpful because right now I'm not um Mr. Lily and I
036have been researching many ways to improve our communication systems within the district. So, and this is another one of those to try out. What's that? Oh, it was off. I believe there's around 37 40. We've consolidated some, right? I got a couple more. Then we'll come back to the budget. Um I was made aware u we have a organization in segre called cans for wishes. Um this is a out lay of the Makea-Wish Foundation. They approached um they approached a board member and asked if if this is something we do um at the district. They saw some they saw some scraps sitting up um by Segretown. And uh so I went and talked to Richard and asked him how we do that. Basically, we come in and we, you know, any scrap that we have
037like that, we bring a, you know, our our employees would come in, we would bring the um garbage thing in, put it in there, load it, take it in ourselves. Um, so they would come and do that. Naturally, they would get the proceeds for that. Um, and then this is for terminally ill children. So, um, I board member as we're bringing it here tonight to see, um, I I'm good. I would be fine with that. It's a local organization. I believe they're from Segger Town. Um I think a couple of our board members knew knew about it. Um Richard, can you give a little insight on what that how much that would be for us? How much we would be getting? Yeah, roughly. I mean, what we have just up at the maintenance garage is
038probably about, you know, a ton worth of scrap metal. And I mean, probably about $170, you know, if there was a full ton. um that would that would be going, you know, to charity. So, um in addition, we have a couple I know that they're doing a cleanup um May 25th that they're taking appliances. Typically, when we have like a refrigerator or something like that, we have to strip the free island out of it before we can take it in for scrap. So, um we may have a couple things additionally we can we can donate if the board chooses to that could go to that cause as well. Could I speak to that here? The the thing about Ants for wishes and I just want to get the information out because with our church we
039had a collection and they took lawnmowers, they took anything uh that was metal. The only thing they couldn't take was was electronics. But and they are always accepting anything from dishwashers to um washing machines, dryers, freezers, anything. And you don't have to remove the freon and they will come cars as well. And I've had several cars that were donated and they will come and they will take it off your property. Anything that you want to donate and they'll come and get it for you. and you're helping some child uh who's terminally ill get out of the wish. Thoughts on that? I'm all for it. I told you I think it's awesome. I try to donate as much as I can to you. You all good with that? Um so I'll I'll get we'll have to
040do a board motion. Are you okay? I'll put it on for next month if we do the cleanup day. Um, it's coming up, but we can get rid of some of that stuff without having to take our the freon and everything out. Um, we have like metal I should probably know this. I'm sorry. Do we have a metal receptacle like for scrap already or is it just into a pile? Just kind of into piles here and there. Um, this uh is that something we would have to purchase? I mean, I'd still be for it. I'm just asking like toite the process. No, I I think you know if if we're doing it that way, they would come and get it. I mean, normally we have a dump truck. We would load up and take it
041in ourselves. Okay. So, um I think you know this is serving twofold. In in one aspect, it's it's going to a good cause. In another aspect, it's saving guys labor cost and having you know guys, two of my guys load it up, take it in, okay, and do that. So, we're certainly wanting to help. If you're okay, I will move forward with that. And I'll put that on the June um um I'll put it on the June for we can do retroactively so we can get some of that. Yeah, we're talking about we're talking about scrap from all the schools within the district. Yeah, I mean the majority of it is here at Segretown, but we do have some appliance junk appliances stored at Maplewood that we can we can get account of as well.
042So, thank you. Yep. Thanks, Richard. You're welcome. Yeah, it's a good way to get back to the community, right? So, yeah, I mean, law makes a good point. Anything that we can resell, we do on the municip, which I think the last time we made like $26,000 on that for the district. So, um we will still continue to do that when needed, but this is like the scrap. So, yeah. Where's the uh where's the wrestler that was here asking about his end to the community? Tell him maybe he can contact cancer wishes and do something like the Cambridge Cares. Yeah, Mr. Roach. He he was looking for a service project. La my last thing then we'll get into the budget. Sorry, I had a few head on. You said that. Um the as many of
043you know, we had the power school had a breach this past year. Um Mr. Lily and I um have been naturally following that to make sure we don't need to send anything out. We've tried to keep the community updated on that. Um we we recently got a memo here in the last week um that they never had informed us that um it came out and it's public knowledge that they actually paid the ransom on that um at the time and that's this is the first we're hearing of that. Um and so I tell you that because we have not been um I think their response has been very poor to average. Um we've lost I think they've lost a lot of credibility. Um many of the districts when I was at state college at superintendence
044meetings um the people of that power school were going to look to move away from it. So um we we I told I had Mr. Lily, I said we're going to start polling people to see what people are utilizing out there. And it's probably a two-year process to make a change because it is a huge change in the district, but we're going to at least start that process to investigate, start looking at other organizations and companies because um the end of the day, we've got to keep our our system safe and powers school. Um we just haven't, you know, we haven't heard that there's been any breaches of of our parents. No one's told us that. um we put it out. I know a lot of parents have and even myself, we signed up for
045the protection that was offered um and so but in the meantime, I think it's time that um we start looking for that. So, it's more of anformational. We're not ready to talk details or anything yet, but I just want the board to know that we are beginning that that process. That's that's we're ready to talk. It's not your turn now. Yeah. [Music] Okay, the anticipation is over here. So, um the budget um we had a facility finance meeting or typically we have combined facility and finance. This was just finance sorry um committee meeting on April 28th and in that discussion if you recall I presented the budget it was 1,366,416 deficit. Um we have that down to 525,447 and that is the budget the board will be voting on tonight. That includes no tax increase.
046So with those expenditure reductions um that was for the Crawford County Career and Road Tech Center. The board voted on the actual budget um from what I had budgeted there was a difference of 133,371. So you will see that difference. Um transportation whenever we reviewed the routes and did the consolidation we believe we can save around 300,000 within our transportation budget so that was reduced um two high school teachers that was a PCA teacher um and then also a high school teacher for science at Maplewood technology 75,000 for smartboards and other um technical equipment and 25,000 in license and subscription cost. So that whole grant total is 840,969 which is how we um got our budget down to the deficit of 525,447. So that brings our revenues to 59,044682 which did not change. We still
047have not received any news from the state on our uh revenues. So our expenditures will be [Music] 59,57129. Any questions? I know at the uh finance meeting we kind of got into class sizes on elementary teachers. We got into the staffing discussions. So is there any further discussion? What were these subscription costs that were curtailing? So what we're doing with that is we're working on consolidating um duplicate subscriptions. So if we have one software that could do the same thing, we're working on consolidating those into one software and getting rid of the other software cost. Can you name any of those? Uh Mr. Lily can name some of those. Um we're actually I'll put you on the spot. Yeah. Um one of the products that we actually are um looking at extensively is forCast Fusion
048that actually has a lot of functions as far as communication pieces. Um a lot of our messaging I'm going out there are visitor aware. So these are all different things we were paying separately for kind of consolidates under that one piece of software. Okay, that's one. That's um I just didn't want to make sure we were curtailing a subscription that we would need or that we don't have access to. It's just duplicate software. Duplicate. Yeah. And if there's something out there that is does the same more efficiently at a lower cost, I'm looking at every piece of software we run. We're not eliminating anything. We're just trying to consolidate into products that will do multiple purposes. Thank you. Yesterday, [Music] um, as Mrs. Miller said it earlier, this is like definitely the best deficit um,
049we've seen in a while, ever since I've been on the board, almost six years. So, um, so that's good to see, especially this early. Is there any thoughts that we're going to see it farther or I know this is preliminary budget, but I mean, I'm I guess where I'm at is I um I'm glad to see it this low, but I'm not comfortable going into our fund balance at this point because I don't see future years getting better. I see contracts coming up and building renovations that are going to need to be done or however you see that. Um, and I just I think we're in we're in a in a spot this year where we don't have necessarily any extreme costs that come in. And I I like to see the fund balance reserve
050um as uh being there as a cushion for a year that we do have a problem, you know, an unexpected problem. And that's just how I look at that. I'm not I don't want to spend more than we're taking in. You bring up a good point. Um so I've have kind of some history data um back from 2016 17 to um current. So we've currently we've passed a deficit budget um for the past almost 10 years and each year we have made that budget. We haven't gone into fund balance. So I'm comfortable with it but again it's the board's decision. So is there reductions we can do. Yes, we did talk about those at the last meeting. Um, we're cutting into the elementary class sizes at that point. Um, so that's a discussion you guys
051could have. Um, or the librarians like we had discussed. Um, that still won't get us balanced, but it'll reduce it again. Uh, 423,5 423,754. Um, so we would get closer, but that's certainly a discussion you guys can have. I mean, Sean and I and Mrs. really like we've sorry Mr. board. We've completely gone through the budget. Um we we go through it daily talking about staffing talking about, you know, department budgets. We have fine foods. Um but if if we have additional reductions that you guys would like to see for a balanced budget in June, we need to get into the elementary um teachers as well as the librarians that you guys threw on the table last time. believe the discussion was, correct me if I'm wrong, you'd rather have the three librarians cut before
052elementary teachers. Yes. So, said that um I worry about because Miss Bey gave us a list of what these librarians do like we brought up. It's it's rather extensive than what we thought. Some of which is by law required to do um like the GIPS etc. Uh and so that was a discussion. I want to say was proposal. The other the other thing that so this when you come up when you're doing a budget you're doing a projection, right? So we're projecting into next year. So that these numbers that you see are they're not an actual, they're a projection. So Kristen and I have both been to um our professional organizations and hearing what's coming out of the of the different efforts in lobbying both at at her level of financial and then also the
053superintendent and through PSBA. We should say that also. Um, and there's there definitely appears to be movement and momentum to add to change the the funding source from the adequacy formula that we did not get any. We were one of 152 districts to potentially moving some of the that monies back into the basic educational formula which we would then be eligible for. Okay. So, we have not put that in the budget as income because we're wanting to be conservative, but I think that that's something over the next month if we get if we get more information, we might we might be able to adjust that our income to reflect those possible changes. It might not because the other thing we're hearing is that the state budget um looks like it could go well into the
054fall um before before they have an approval. So, but I'm just I'm stating that that that number when Kristen showed me the history um of where the district has been because I'm I'm still here in my first year and we've covered that each and every year and I see what the deficit budget you've gone into without having to take into the fund balance and then having it down this far with the potential for potentially added income. We might be able to adjust that some. And I I already told Kristen we have a one month left to continue to go through it to see if we can get even lower than that without affecting um teachers at this point. And so, um that's where I think I would definitely recommend we pass this preliminary budget as
055is and then let us see where we can land at the final budget in June would be my recommendation. Well, I'm going to say you guys have done a fantastic job. I appreciate all your hard work and I know Christian, good job. I know you've been pulling your hair out. God bless you. You're doing a great job. And this is my ninth budget, I think it is. I don't know. It's been a lot. Uh, this has been the best we've ever been. I'm very comfortable with this budget and I know it's a projection. I learned that my first year. Mark Jerro explained it to me one morning in a long phone conversation. He says, "All this is is just a projection. It's really just cuz the first time I think we were Bob, you correct
056me if I'm wrong. We were like looking at 2.6 or something like that. 3.2 million in the hole the first time. I know I was panicking and Mark had to talk me off a limb basically and he explained it all to me because that's what grow is a financial path. I'm very comfortable passing this budget the way it is. I I have no qualms and looking at the list for the librarians and stuff. I I I don't think Yeah, you can see the dollars and cents, but overall it's not going to be a cost savings. It's going to be more headaches. You're putting more stress on our staff. We're already pushed the limit as it is. Uh somebody said something about paying stipen. How much is that going to be? How much more you going
057to add to it? And then what quality is going to be lost in doing that? Plus there are legal things that we have to do. So I'm very comfortable with this budget the way it is. You guys done a great job. Yeah. I I just want to make it clear that the biggest um I obviously I know Kristen, you're not going into this budget planning to spend $525,000 out of the undeserved. That's not the goal. It shouldn't be. I know that. Um but you know, I I worry about uh the future of the district uh long term. Um, and I just it's something that I take into consideration that we, you know, again, we do have Cambridge Elementary that decisions are going to need to be made there in the next year or two. And
058and regardless of what's done, there's a lot of money that's going to be wrapped up in that. Um, a teachers contract, act 93 contract, and I just um, you know, it's just those things I see ahead that that do worry me. But as Sean said, I mean this is a moving target. We don't have any numbers from the state. So we are hopeful that they'll move that bucket and hopefully we will get the funding in the basic ed instead of the adequacy that we are no longer getting. There's 101 districts, right, out of 500 that are not not receiving 152 um that are not receiving that adequacy funding, which isn't very fair because they did change the formula from last year. So that's what these professional organizations are fighting for. Um they definitely are making
059some progress and also don't forget the cyber reform if they pass that which we are very positive um that hopefully we will get something. It might not be $8,000, but it might be like 125. It might be$10,000. It those are the two numbers that I've heard through my organizations that are being thrown out. So, if those pass, that will also balance our budget. So, that's something just to keep in mind. We don't have revenue numbers. You know, we don't know what the state is doing. Unfortunately, we have to pass our budget by June 30th. They have to, but they don't have to. They can go further. We cannot go a day further. We will be shut down. And I and I tell you the other good news is that this uh what Trump signed this
060morning about the uh pharmaceuticals. If those prices come down, our healthc care is going to come down a lot. Our that'll be our cost saving. So now I don't know the logistics of that. I don't know the ins and outs, but it sounds great. So they lower our pharmaceuticals, you know, with 25 to 50%. that that would be huge. Yes, that would be huge. And we're also I mean we are working on the pharmaceutical um in a couple weeks I have that meeting within the trust of talking about prescriptions and that. So there's also hope there. We are also like I said at the last meeting with the GLP ones we're going to put a pre-authorization in just to make sure that people who need that medicine are getting that medicine just because it's a
061nationwide um effect across the country. like they people who need that that are diabetics can't get that medicine because everybody else is on it. So high mark was already supposed to put the language in stating that but the doctors are getting around it saying you're pre-diabetic. So if we do that if you remember right there was $525,000 just in that cost because there's so many members on that. So that's also a piece um that could help balance our our budget right there. So, we might be passing the deficit, but you know, hopefully we can have some further answers by June 9th. Well, if not, we can have another meeting, more discussion, and we can go from there. But I'm I'm fully confident that we will not dip into fund balance. And a lot of these
062things are going to be, like you said, it it could be January next year before we start seeing some of this, which that's just the way it works. Uh, and I and I we never really touched back on the solar. We never really touched back on the land. We haven't touched back. I mean, there's other things in the works that we really kind of left. Uh, I still say, you know, maybe we need to look into some of these things and it may not uh generate a lot of income, but if it saves us money, I mean, I think it's worth talking about. So we should have an answer on solar before the June meeting. They had told us by the end of May that a decision will be made on the grant. Oh, okay.
063So we will have that information to hopefully bring um at least as a discussion item, right? Or June. I just want to point out that a no vote against this is nothing against all the work that you have done. We appreciate everything and all the cuts that you have made. However, if I were to go to my financial planner and say if, might, should, they're going to give me a look. And so, for the first time in how long, we have an a we have the possibility of zero balance. And I just think we should work a little harder. I know you've already I don't want you to pull your hair out, but If we have the the potential of balancing the budget, I think we should continue to work towards that. Thank you. What
064would be the next step? What would the What would the next cut be? We're going to have to cut into elementary or libraries what was suggested. But yes, we'd have to cut into elementary. We'd have to look at our class sizes again like we did at the um committee meeting and we would have to make our cuts based on that unless we can Yeah, I would say I would say I would say I would say our biggest opportunity to lower the 525,000 without without affecting the um cuts of staff would be additional income coming in. I think I think we're more hopeful with that. Um, but if we have to look at that, I mean, we're going to continue to go through it over the next month. And I I agree that we will continue
065to go through that. Um, but at that point, Randy, you know, being in the discussion here, we we shared about the elementary brought up about the librarians. Mrs. Steelely has provided she has an education update, but she'll hit on that here in a second. So, um, you know, we will continue to look at those, but that's where we would be. Yeah. So like if you were to cut that my question which I'll ask in June is well now who's taking on those responsibilities I mean who's who's teaching gift right who who's teaching and who's running those IEP meetings and who's overseeing uh all I mean huge bolded list so we can say like this is what they do but if they're removed who would do it I guess um by all intents I feel like
066we should it feels like our back is we should be backs up against the wall because of the funding formula we're 42 square miles. We have six buildings. Not going to talk about other districts, but I do know uh many other districts. They are far worse shape. Far far worse shape than we are. Um I was shocked and and I think some of them are getting the other um not the but the other Yeah. Yeah. So many other districts received that type of funding. Um, and we have our backs up against the wall and I feel like by all intents, we should be far worse and we're not. So, thank you for everything you've done to get it down to here. Yeah. And you said, let's start. It's Let's circle back to what you said.
067In 10 years, we've always passed the deficit and never had to dip into that balance the fun in 10 years. I know that's a could. Yeah. I don't like coulds either, but there's a lot. the state could could should change cyber could could change. Um, right there there's a lot of whatifs. So to be in in this position, uh, I feel that we're in a really good position in this proposal that you gave us. Like I said, this is the first budget season. I've actually just been relaxed. I mean, this I have not been stressed this much. I'm not relaxed. But we pay you a lot. But I'm glad I'm glad you're home. No, I'm just saying I' I've seen you catching up with mine. Yeah. Great. Grace. I've I've seen the budget, like I
068said, for eight, nine years, and this is just the most comfortable we've been. But, but the best news is, and I I understand what you're saying, uh, Brian, but the, uh, would, and I I understand how it all works. Trust me. I'm going to wrap a day or two. But this business being public education, it is about that. We don't know what the government's going to do every year. Nobody. The government doesn't know what they're going to do. Everything can guess. It seems like the cart's before the horse, right? Because they don't tell us what we're getting and we're supposed to. And if your if if your finances were based on what the what the uh what the state was funding every year, your accountant would say, "Hey, you're in good shape. Just hold on
069to see what you're getting." Yeah, I guarantee you the account, but you're not that person. Mleski is not that person. I'm not that person. Public education is totally different than the business. We can't raise prices. We can't market with banana. It just doesn't work that way. We have to go by what the state government gives us. But we have been looking or we are looking at other ideas for revenue and I think we keep pursuing those and I have a good feeling about that. And I tell you something else and I'm going to bring this up. I was yelled at not to do it but I get yelled at a lot so I'm used to it. You know, somebody that's running for school board had said something about cutting Cambridge so we can draw redraw
070the lines and stuff. But we have schools around us that are doing not so good and students are talking about leaving going to cyber school instead of cutting lines. What can we do to draw lines? make it expand a little bit and get some of those kids from Cash or Cash Conville, Lionsville, whatever that is. Uh, and other schools around us. Uh, I I've heard some frontal or disgruntled parents about the way things are going at other districts. Uh, is that a possibility to improve our our attendance? I mean, we've been hoping I mean, it's been flattening out, but if we could bring in another 100 150 students, that would help. I mean, since we're talking long term, uh Bob and I had sidebar uh a few weeks ago about opportunities that hopefully we're running
071with with the scheduling that is seems more enticing, right? Um let's let's think outside the box to become more enticing uh as a district. Uh because you're right, people are looking in the area and I think that there's some ideas down the road, but if we're going to discuss long term, yes, I would like some sustainability plans like sustainability plan A, pros and cons to that, sustainability plan B, pros and cons to that. See, poor Mr. Ford though, uh I know he has some ideas, but he's keeping his head above water, uh just barely. So, oh, my my point is it'd be nice to have those conversations in the future because I do think we need a sustainability plan and a direction because it seems like we're just bottles for apples every every spring. So
072it would be nice to have the plan and always work to that plan and so that these conversations are then directed not on what I feel what you feel or what everybody feels but what did we agree upon as our plan and how do we achieve that goal because I think there are options where we can gain revenue increase attendance but we have to have a plan for that and and that makes decision making that we're all on board with um and that would come be be coming from the leadership and I know that's an impossible task now but uh but as far as but it's very very important that as David said, some of the um things that we have coming up, we have to we have to project that. We have to think
073about that and that plays into sustainability. And so I think these are all we talk we end up you're right. We right now we're in this in this mode, but we all talk about it at the administrative level. But, um, well, I think the thing that I'm I'm trying to what I'm trying to project here is I don't want negativity to be what we're discussing. There's a lot of lot of great opportunities out here that I don't want to hear about Cambridge, shutting Cambridge down, moving Cambridge, whatever. I want to hear how we're going to take and make this grow and better because our community is countless. Our community, Cambridge community is huge. It doesn't need messes coming in. It needs to stay the way it is. And we need to find opportunities to bring
074it in or bring our uh students back. We have students that are on the line that literally Cambridge bus or whatever bus goes by Cambridge Springs and they're going to the school district. They're riding an hour and a half away. We could get those kids and it really wouldn't extend our lines, you know, the traffic. They're right there. Is there something we could do legally? I know this would take time. It doesn't happen overnight, but is there something we could do to get these families say, "Hey, don't come here. They'll be here in 40 minutes." Well, I agree with you, Tim, and I agree with Randy. We need to have that direction planned. But part of that has to be promotional to making brick and mortar look so much better. Yep. than staying home and
075and doing your schooling online. Just that we have to promote it. We have to get the word out that being face to face with the teacher is so much better and we just have to use that as our direction to promote it to everybody that say, "Oh, okay. This this board is working together. Everything's going well. The budget's doing well. And this is where I want the kids to to be educated versus promoted. Yeah. But thinking outside the box too, how do you tie cyber and and make the schools hubs of learning? Um because brick and mortar is difficult to sustain. How do you make them hubs for learning? Um outside the box where you are using just because you say the word cyber does not I've explained this to many people in earshot but
076cyber doesn't necessarily mean something online kids are sitting at. Cyber can be interactional with the teachers in our district that are already offering great courses. That's why I said at the segretown night. I wish my child could access these great things happening here and there at Maplewood and at Seertown. And there's ways to do that. They're difficult. But I mean, when we start saying the word cyber is like a bad thing. Actually, if we use it correctly, it can that's what can grow so that the brick and mortar then grows. Um because kids are I mean that's the direction. Let's not go against the tide, right? But conversations to have, right? Uh we um I think what you're trying to say, Brian, is and I know like Patty Fely said, we need to tell our
077story um as best as we can. Yeah. and they are we do a lot of great things. Well, and you know, Mr. Kesser brought up a while ago about working for maybe with the teachers and come up with some of those ideas to help us with that. Maybe that's something we look into after this budget season. Let's get through all this. But just uh something to work with our staff and say, "What's your ideas?" Because quite honestly, they're pretty smart out there, most of them. But I I agree if we had the community event nights, it would be good to have just open nights for us and the teachers to just discuss and it was open like our community event nights. I think it's brainstorming on steroids. So I tell you the community nights have
078been good to just I'd like to see but anyhow we're off. Sorry. Well, so another part to which we're kind of off, but we're I think we're talking long term, which is fine. But another part to it, too, is like our entire not just Pinterest, but everywhere the, you know, the population is decreasing and so is and you know, we're watching private education numbers. You know, Calvary, Faith Bowlers, they're both way up. I don't know the number for seat, but I would assume they're up from what they were five years ago. Um, but we're seeing those increase, but we're also seeing a population decrease. And I agree with you, Tim. If there's areas that we can pick up people on the same road or maybe a half mile, I don't even know if that's possible.
079I know nothing about that. Just right. But, uh, part of that is too like our population is just declining. It just is, you know, in in this rural part of the state, it just is. And that's just Well, it's more that people aren't having the three or four kids that they used, right? The the you put a house on the market in Pencraft, it's gone in. I mean, Pancress is still desired, but the problem is I follow the buses in the morning. When I was a kid, there'd be three kids here, five kids here. Now there's one. I mean once up two that's about it. You don't see much more than that in groups. So getting back to telling our story and promoting ourselves um some schools are increasing um public schools because they do
080well and they invest into their schools. I mean some areas not very far from here are bursting. They don't have enough seats. Public schools um because the tide has shifted. When you are a young family looking to move, the first thing you look at is how is the school doing. And if you have to pay a lot, they do that. That's how you entice people. Um the highest tax rates in the area have the biggest population growth in their schools. Uh the affluent schools are growing. So there's a lot. So sustainability, telling your story is something we all can be doing here. Uh and promoting our schools, which I I do feel like we're bouncing back. I do too. So, I'm good with the preliminary budget. I don't feel comfortable making any more cuts in
081getting into the classroom. Okay. Um, we'll move on. Mrs. Fely, you're up. Education uh report. All right. Thank you. Um, yes. We have donated book once again for Maplewood Elementary School. So these were various titles were reviewed and ready for approval. We have our graduation list, our tenative graduation list pending. Um students meet all of the requirements. And we're very honored to have uh the ability to have a foreign exchange student at Segrettown High School from Belgium. So that is on here for approval as well. It's an exciting time for us to be able to welcome students from um other countries into our small rural community experience, our educational system. Dual enrollment for Lar Ro University. We continue to try, Mrs. Henry and I continue to try to build those opportunities for our students and
082increase the dual enrollment options available to students so they can make the most out of their time here and have it count towards university credit. We have someus for um child development center and the family community Christian. These are just those generalus we do annually. Uh the transition plan that's on here is a requirement for title one. We're required to have a plan when students transition between those target grades of prek to kindergarten, 6th grade to 7th grade, 9th grade to 10th grade, and then our seniors. So that's just an updated version of our standing plan. We have a list of textbooks up for disposal. These are old, outdated curriculum materials. Um, a lot of them are single titles that we no longer use. So, we have to go through the process of getting approval
083to dispose of those texts. And, um, as you mentioned, you know, you talked a lot about the library tonight. And, um, I shared a lot of information about what our librarians do and and Randy, you're right. If you know we choose to go down that path, we then have to find someone in our our abilities to do these uh duties, responsibilities, and functions that our librarians are currently uh doing in all of our buildings. So, we would have to find someone to be in charge of the gifted education programs in the high schools and monitor the compliance issues for those. as well as um in the elementary schools a lot of the librarians are used to provide that 40 minute plan time to teachers. So we would have to find other staff to be able
084to do that in addition to the um instruction that they're providing to our students on use of library the love of literacy and uh research. That's all I have. Any questions? Mike and I agreed um some time ago when one of the members, the former members of the board uh was no longer on the board that we would try to uh continue promoting um the idea of the college level entry program or KIPP and promoting that for the the students that if they are able and can they can get into the KIPP program and test out of these college courses and get um what's needed is so I was just wondering if we can I and I'm not trying to broadside you but can we look into promoting and getting with the KPI program? I
085don't believe that has a cost with it, does it? It does not it does not have a cost with it. There's a cost to take the the test. Um it's a minimal cost, but we actually do promote that. Our our school counselors have it linked on their school counselor pages and when they meet with the students to talk about dual enrollment, KP is one of the programs that they um preview with the students and talk them through that that option as well. So we have been doing that for the last three or four years. Okay. Is there any way in the future we could get uh some numbers on how many people are using that program? I I can try. I know of two in the past, but I that was previous to this year,
086but I will get some numbers. Thank you so much. [Music] There seems [Music] to there seems to be more and more we just heard last week, Brian, that um there seems to be additional opportunities for students to take courses and there's and they're getting grants and they're able to attend them for free. There's there's at least three with the club. There's at least three now that I'm aware of. In addition, they can have all these other agreements if they want if they know what they're going to take in the first year. it's still still cheaper than their first year of school. So, we're trying to provide as many of those opportunities as possible for our students. But, thank you for the question. Thank you. Um, Richard, facilities up to date. I'm going to come over
087to the microphone so you guys can all hear me. [Music] So, I just wanted to take a few minutes tonight um with my time to give you guys an update on where we are with the uh the Giza project going on over at Cambridge Springs. Um we're we're wrapping up what we call phase one of the project um which we've been able to um do during the school year. Um that's going to kind of help us uh kick off phase two in summer, you know, to be able to make that project go smoothly and get it completed in order to start school on time in the fall. Um phase one included uh retrofitting all the lights in the hallways, some of the lights in the classrooms um to LED. That is about uh 90% done
088as we speak tonight and it will be done by the end of the week. Um the additional LED lighting conversions that'll be in the offices and some of the classroom areas uh will be completed with the with the rest of the ceiling plan over the summer. Um most of the work in phase one is taking place in the gymnasium. Um that's coming along nicely. We expect to have that completed by Thursday or Friday this week. Um that included the um new ceiling, completely new uh ceiling grid, um ceiling tile, uh LED lighting conversions in the wrestling room and the gymnasium. uh removal of the old uh wood gym curtain frame. Um duct work repairs that had to be completed that weren't we didn't know until we removed the old ceiling grid that there was several
089sections of the duct work up there that was loosely held together or not held together at all. Um so that those repairs were made and um air diffusers, grill intakes, cleaning, painting um you know some cosmetic stuff there as well. So, that work is expected to be done by Thursday or Friday this week. Then we'll turn the gym over for storage. Um, starting May 27th, uh, the second floor classrooms will be relocated into the first floor. Um, and then we'll start that work upstairs to get those classrooms, you know, the floor abatement, lighting, ceiling, any work that needs done, unit ventilator, heating replacements. Um, but things are coming along nicely and we're we're on schedule and um I think that when you guys get a chance to see the gym and the rest of the
090building, you'll be impressed with how much brighter the lighting is, how much better it looks, and and uh how much nicer it'll be for games and events. So, thank you guys. [Music] Kristen on the financial report you'll find the typical treasury reports that you see every month there's also the dispersements so nothing new [Music] there budget transfers if you look at those you'll see the overages for the library books the overages for cyber um coming out of the budgetary reserves into the the cyber lines for each individual school those are on year. Um the general fund budget which we've already talked about again no millage rate in this year there is a deficit of 525,447 exoneration of the real estate taxes and per capita those that's an annual agreement that we have to exonerate the
091our local collectors from collecting the delinquents um the food service management company. So, if you remember, we went out to bid for this um nutrition inc. This is the budget for next year showing a surplus of 15,875. The service purchase contracts, these are annual. Again, these are with the local providers to perform the physicals and dental cleanings. Donations, we have two of those on there, which is from create for the Cambridge Caring Closet and Crisis Transportation for a four table at Maplewood High School. the health and vision rates. We're approving these in May this year instead of June. Um again, annual those rates have increased. Um it's about an 18% increase on our composite rates. If you remember in the budget, this was about $1.3 million in healthcare. Again, another variable that we could potentially
092reduce if we look into those prescription costs and other line items on there. If we can reduce that, we can bring that back in June. But these will be our current rates approved for 2526. And last is the IU5 early intervention lease. So they lease a classroom. So we get revenue from the IU for leasing the classroom within our building. Any questions on anything? [Music] We'd like to thank our our donations tonight. Um the one for the um score table at Maplewood was done by Christ, our transportation um provider. Um also a donation from last year. I believe the soccer scoreboard is up now. Am I am I right on that? So the soccer scoreboard's up. We we're just putting the final touches on that and and that'll be ready. Yeah, the sign is coming.
093So yeah, it's going. So it's it's we really highly appreciate our our donations. And there were a few more donators to that if we could add. Sure. So one federal bank um donated um Hobs Lumber donated quite a bit. Okay. Northwest Rec and Inspire Salon uh all donated. So um none of the money for that we had to dip into the boosters. So the kids get to keep their money. Awesome. That's good. All right. We're going to transition at this point in time into our regular meeting. Are there any citizen comments on the agenda items? No one registered. No one registered. Anyone have any comments? All right. Approval of minutes. Resolve that the Penrest board of school directors approve the following minutes. April 14th, 2025. That was a school board meeting. April 28th, 2025, the
094finance committee meeting. So second motion and second. Any comments or questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Say motion carried. Under policy, we have resolved that the Pentest board of school directors approve the following policy. That's policy 200. That's enrollment in the district. So move second. Have a motion and second. Any comments or questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. Post same. Motion carried. We have a first reading tonight of policy 702 which was the gifts, grants and donations. Um we went through um reflected on our discussions. Um Mr. Schuber has reviewed that and says that that does what it what we want it to do now. So you can you can read that over over the next month before we do the actual reading. The second one is actually an appendix
095to policy 815.5. Um this would be the artificial intelligence policy. This was a guide book that was done um by our educators um principles and and team of people um looking um to basically take what was in the policy and how to tr look at a guide so that we're doing that right for our students and our staff. Um, additionally on that, I I have signed up for a class this summer um on artificial intelligence and what's that mean not only for students and staff but also for administration, administrative operations, those type of things. So, I'm actually going to take a class on this to try to learn myself for for the district is so we just want to make sure we're being responsible in the way we roll this out for our students and
096I think we're ahead of the game on that. So, you get a chance, read that through this month. Um, see if you have any, you know, if there's any concerns, anything with it. Um, we can talk about it at at the next meeting for [Music] sure. Next up is the education report. Result that the Pen Crest board of school directors approve the consent agenda education items B through K as presented. So move second motion and second. Any comments or questions? Carrying on. All in favor say I. I. Post say. Motion carried. Facility and transportation board resolved that the Penrest board of school directors approve the consent agenda. Facilities and transportation items B through C. So move second. Have a motion and a second. Any comments or questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. Most
097same. Motion carried. Under the financial report. I'm going to pull item E for a separate vote since that's the preliminary budget. So so the first the first part of this will be resolved at the Penrest board of school directors approve the consent agenda items. Financial items B through D and F through K as presented. So move. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any comments or questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Post say. Motion carried. Item B, resolve that the Penrest board of school directors approve the attached proposed preliminary 2526 general fund operating budget and miller rates and to authorize the business manager to prepare the PTE 2028 budget document. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any comments or questions? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Miss Beers, yes. Mr. Bett, no.
098Um, Mr. Brown, yes. Mr. Chsy, yes. Mr. Kuster, no. Mr. Johnston, yes. Miss Lugo, yes. Mr. Storski, yes. Mr. Vowski, no. Thank you. Letter after personnel report resolved that the Penrest board of school directors approve the consent agenda item personnel items B through N as presented second motion and a second. Any comments or questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Oppos same. Motion carried. Under new business. Uh Mr. Celelesi, you would ask me about that? Yep. I'd like to make a motion that we um file an appeal against the Commonwealth Court ruling on the case with Bethany Rogers versus Penrest School District on a second. Second. We didn't have a second. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any comments or questions? What's this appeal about? Which one's this now? Oh, yep. Tim
099was on in there. Jordan can fill you in better. Oh, this Jordan. Sorry. I'm sorry. Yes, sir. Um, this was the You want to give just a brief Tim asked on what the appeal was on just a brief overview of that? He would. Yeah. So, the appeal was what uh we had talked about in the executive session. It was regarding one of the um right to know cases. This case involved emails. Um Tim, you might be familiar with the kegle case where we went to the Supreme Court and had an argument on the Facebook post. So this is the uh email version of that case. Okay. We got a decision from the comm court that conflicts with the kegle decision. And so our office's recommendation would be to appeal so that the there is uh
100some consistency in the rulings. Any other comments or questions? Yeah, I'm going to I'm going to vote. And and Jordan, this is not I mean, I think you've done a fantastic job explaining things. I just This is more optics for me. I want to I want to be done. This is from 2021. We're very prudent with everything, but I'm going to be voting no. Um I would like to move on with this. Be done. I I I know you said it's going to be minimal cost, but it's still going to be cost. It It seems odd to me to be discussing librarians here and then carry this case forward. Yeah, this this case has been going on way too long. It's a nonsense case. It should have been handled. Jordan, you're doing a great job.
101Nothing against you, but I mean uh it's time to move on. Uh I did nothing wrong. Our taxpayers did nothing wrong. We're we're done paying for this as far as I'm concerned. So any other comments or questions? We have a motion to second. Yeah. Mr. Bowski made a motion. Mr. Roll call, please. Miss Beers, no. Mr. Brown, no. Mr. Chi, yes. Reverend Kuster, yes. Mr. Johnston, yes. Miss Lugo, yes. Mr. Storski, no. And Mr. Bleski, yes. Five yeses, three [Music] nos. Under HD announcements, the board met for executive session on May 12th, 2025 for personnel and legal matters and the confidential student. Is there any citizen comments on the non-aggenda items? Can you provide more information on the legal matters in the executive session? He wants some more information about the legal matter. All right,
102sir. First term. So move. All in favor say I. All right. Bless you.