001foreign [Music] right here okay [Music] you can yeah [Music] one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you [Music] thank you and I recommend to prove the following meeting minutes second any questions under presentations now the first one is VA representative Debbie Miller good evening everyone community members teams that's exciting and school board members again I'm Debbie Miller I'm the proud president of the penncrest Education Association and 32 plus year teacher here in penncrest I come to you again this month to update you on the State of the Union well moreover the state of penncrest we have just finished the school year with outstanding achievements as most of you heard about that at the Education meeting on Tuesday you heard about great strides in positive school-wide behavior programs one school having
002history making low incidence of discipline referrals you also heard of another sending students to Nationals in both Robotics and history I could go on and on with these positive accomplishments I also heard though that in an area of mathematics we are needing to double down our efforts and get our best professional Minds our Math teachers looking at ways that we can increase student achievement not so very long ago penncrest led the county in making ayp or adequate yearly progress Cambridge Springs High School had a 10-year streak I'm proud and a little biased about that one we know we can be at the top again we just need to listen to the Professionals in mathematics of what needs to take place to climb that mountain my estimation is also that following those years of pancreas prowess
003as I like to call them the yearly budget struggles began resulting in cuts and that has not helped over the last 10 years maybe longer I cannot recall coming to the budgetary season and not being faced with tremendous shortfalls and it seems over and over and over and over the only answer is cuts we are making the news for cutting back and eliminating instead of those ayp years when we led the way sorry with people clamoring to come to our district to our gem as I told you of a small rural school or schools where families can thrive no one is suggesting to just frivolously spend money without regard or expectations but just saying we will not raise taxes always results in cutbacks that impact success even the mental shift that spreads like a pestilence
004is damaging it's almost as if we appear to be a sinking ship we all know when a business continues to cut staff hours offerings that the community believes that they are going under and well soon they do my father was always a Frugal man and my parents did not have much but he always said you get what you pay for and education is the same way it's time we invest in our future and not cut from it a politician Brad Henry maybe put it best no other investment yields as great a return as the investment in education and educated Workforce is the foundation of every community and the future of every economy and I believe that includes penncrest please consider spending money on our kids thank you we've had another successful spring season we try
005to recognize all those who have made it out of teams and individuals who've made it out of districts even though we had a lot of success we only had two teams make it make it out and we're very proud of them I'd like to start by asking coach Mumford and the Saegertown High School softball team to come up [Music] softball team sorry I was looking at the boys baseball all right I'm gonna have the girls come down front so you guys can all see them this year we carry a very large roster of girls right now we had probably one of the largest rosters of seniors we had seven seniors and then we had we had seven senior players and one senior manager um that's pretty impressive considering it's hard to get kids to stick
006with a sport from beginning to end we had a maravela Morgan Dunton Kayla Crawford Quinn Eglin Haley Rogers Trinity Caldwell Cheyenne Moscone Peyton Leandro Savannah Loveland Emily Boylan Jasmine butter Ashley fritikowski Morgan Harris Jordy called Boone Jaden Newell Sydney zilhaver Jaden Simmons Kylie Miller and Maddie dragasovic we also have Abby Miller Lily placidy Aubry Crawford Ali Mumford Gigi Vela Jada moraski and Angela hassinger as our managers one of the important things I'd really like to say is number one we were the region co-champions we were also the district 10 champions this doesn't happen without a really large staff it is vital that we hold on to our volunteer coaches we have one paid coach as the head coach and we have one assistant paid coach we have three volunteer coaches that go with us and
007play integral roles in our programs they give up all of their C's all their time they don't get paid for anything and we do summer leagues we do all types of stuff with these girls but more importantly they're positive role models we have Dave Miller is the assistant coach but if take a second and look at one of my volunteer coaches who does everything for this program we need the support for them to be able to attend things because they really do make a difference Abby is our first base coach who is always with these kids and is a positive role model and teaches in our program so please continue supporting not only our paid coaches but our volunteer coaches and everything they do for these young women to be positive role models thank you
008for your support thank you congratulations [Applause] coach Leslie in the Saegertown High School his baseball team [Music] s excuse me um first thing I think is just thank you right thanks to our administrators Dana Mason our athletic director Dr Howick at the high school Mr Young and school board members right I think that that High School athletics are a a vital role in the high school experience and so to have a school district that values that and continues to value that we're extremely fortunate for that um we had another good year this year uh you know after we graduated eight seniors last year uh you know I think a lot of people kind of you know we're questioning you know where we're going to be um we uh we kind of put it together this
009year uh and it's really kind of a testament to the guys we have standing here um you know we we were able to um start six to seven underclassmen freshmen and sophomores this year uh with having you know a handful of our upperclassmen um that that played as well um so uh the guys in front of us tonight uh we have Connor Shaw we have John Grundy we have Joe Grande we have Garrett Crawford Tori mosbacher Gabe Jordan assistant coaches we have Dave Bradley and Brad wise um these guys uh did a phenomenal job this year they really did uh unfortunately we have a junior Legion game tonight and half of our team is there uh they would have liked to been there been here as well so again thank you very much um and
010let's give a round of applause with these guys [Applause] and I did see the boys setting up for that Junior Legion game on the way over I thought that was gonna be a problem and I apologize again to Cambridge Springs girls softball and congratulate you on an outstanding season if you guys need to go because I know there are games and jobs and summer activities please feel free to walk right out if you're not going to hurt our feelings so thank you again and congratulations [Music] as we moved to his comments on agenda items there are no registered speakers however the floor is open for citizens to comment on agenda items for two minutes agenda items just come on down if you can state your name and your Township for the record and then we'll
011give you two minutes uh good evening Daniel McComas Troy Township I'm here about tonight about the tax increases you know things are tough all over everybody's got to have the you know everybody needs more money now I know the school needs more money for a lot of stuff we got old buildings that need maintenance but uh raising our taxes ain't going to help anybody it's going to make everybody else's problems worse because if you rent a house your landlord's taxes go up your rent goes up when my taxes go up I spend less money out in the community too I know the kids like their stuff uh supported through the schools we when I was in school we did it through fundraisers of our own the school didn't support us at all but we still
012had our ball teams um we've got a bloated administrative staff we got a 13 to 1 student to teach a ratio which seems awful high for amount of teachers um there's got to be other ways that cutting things to do other things to bring our costs down at these buildings and in these schools there's I hear you know the half a mill tax increase has been put on the books for a while it was put off or whatever and there's talk of other people wanting to raise it more than that I think it's kind of ridiculous because we don't we're still not meeting State minimums in any academic field and I don't see how pumping more money into less work is going to make anything any better if we want to raise taxes we should
013probably be passing and at least some of our academic Fields before we start giving out more money you know or to make making demands on the taxpayers we've lost seven percent of our population since the 2010 census we've lost almost 30 percent of our enrollment in penncrest school district since then uh meanwhile homeschooling is going up private schools are going up cyber school is going up because we're failing kids with our educational problems here we're not we're not teaching them anything they're not learning in our schools so people's not putting them in our schools and I don't think that our schools really deserve any more of our tax money I really don't it's all gone thanks any additional speakers agenda items [Music] uh Jim Rankin Richmond Township uh I I think any kind of talk
014of a tax increase without a judicial look at that budget and see where the fat is because I was a teacher in Houston for 21 years I know what it is to have uh not enough pencils in the classroom and have to go out and buy it myself and I also know what it is to not get paid enough to do the job that you have to do at the same time this news story on channel 24 this morning was the Aging population of both Erie and Crawford Warren and menangle counties and the fact that that aging population has a fixed income and when you talk about raising one mil five milters three quarters of a mil you got to look at who you're taking that money from and then you have to look at
015how much of that money is actually going to benefit now if we're talking millions of dollars and you're going to increase the Educational Foundation exponentially then it's worth it but if you're raising it and you're not getting the the educational benefit both for the student and the the community because we all play taxes even though we don't have any kids in pancreas and we're all former some of us are former students bencrest we do want to support our school and we want our schools to thrive but at the same time you you guys have got to be the most judicial at looking at every light item on that budget and saying do we really need this do we really need this many whether it's anything from custodians to Librarians to teachers teaching off subjects you
016have to look at all that and we're going to have to trust you guys to do you know the right judicial things so please be judicious don't just get a headstrong idea and say I want to raise this much and if you don't do what I say then you know that that doesn't help anybody please work together please you judicious and spend our money wisely thank you [Music] all right we're going to continue first item under the education report resolve the penncrest board of school to records approve the attached K-12 math curriculum a little we have a motion in a second any comments questions not all in favor say aye aye IMDb I recommend approval the attachment Regional Behavior Consultants contract in a second questions [Music] item C recommend a poorly attached resources and materials
017in accordance with policy 109 second and Marchman in the second any questions is not going to ever say aye aye facilities and transportation report item a uh resolve the board of school directors approved the six-month review of the attached our professors health and safety plan this plan hasn't changed in 18 months we're required to reapprove it every six months second questions not only if ever say aye aye [Music] Item B resolvement Board of School director to prove the Trap the attached drinking water test results for Cambridge area Maplewood Elementary Maple High School Saegertown area second in Washington's second questions thank you all in Paris say aye aye NC recommend approval of the attached agreement with Crawford County Children and Youth Services second I have a motion in a second any questions comments [Music] one of
018my favorite say hi hi [Music] indeed recommend approval we attach list as transportation drivers second your Motion in a second questions good morning fabulous AI financial report item a recommend approval of the attached Treasures reports second in a second questions and B recommend approval of payments of the attached disbursements someone second in Motion in a second questions only fairness of the motion to say aye aye um Adam C resolve the pancreas Board of school records approve and adopt the final fiscal year General operating fund budget and the annual tax resolution for 23 24 school year as listed the additional tax revenue generated from a tax increase will be set aside for desk service funding paid for future Debt Service payments [Music] we have a motion in a second somebody made a motion for a motion
019second all right we have emotions I'm sorry I didn't know you wanted to say something there [Music] discussions discussion what were you going to say questions [Music] you may do so you need an in another motion to amend it and you need it a second [Music] do not tax increase Which tax increase it's only it's only one tax increase it's not a concerns the budget the additional tax revenue generated from the tax increase it was set aside there is a tax increase of 0.5 million yeah there's a tax increase that year only specific for to pay a specific loan I don't understand that but it's still a tax increase correct okay we have a motion to have a second for that what's the notion you have a moment you're going to have a motion to
020Amendment so you're saying you want to eliminate the tax increase so if you want to you want a motion that we approve the agenda the motion to pass the budget without a tax increase yes yeah [Music] do we have a second do we have a second [Music] yeah I mean that of course we address the budget right right [Music] you know if you have anything to say all right okay you guys can't have your own Quorum over there there's a public meeting we can't have discussion unless we have a second now do we have a second to the amendment I'll make a second just for sake of discussion okay the discussion to the to the amendment Amber my main thing with that is just that if we remove the tax increase which I am opposed
021to then we would need to adjust the budget unless we dig into the funds that we had set aside for I understand that that's what I'm proposing that we adjust the budget I mean from what I have seen Dr glasswell has adjusted it and been able to reduce it by what almost four million dollars in the last month has been quite a few million dollars the tax increase from my understanding is going to generate 280 000 I think we can cut another 280 000 so that there is no tax increase the problem is though this is for the loan and that too high if we do cut 287 000 I think is what the money is or whatever that's a one-time thing 287 000 tax increases compounded every year to go towards our loan payment
022that that's what that's what I'm getting it and I understand that money can be found and I don't think we need to generate a tax increase can I can I just ask for clarification on what the motion is what's demotion what's the motion then motion is to eliminate the tax increase and no tax increase [Music] she's talking about the half a meal yeah so I know my question is are we asking to amend the budget are we asking to eliminate them to amend the emotions I thought what you said was with you too one motion to amend the motion and then another motion to make a change to the motion yes yes okay and then there's some motion to um are you also setting the military options all right so the emotion is to amend
023uh the original motion yes and to um eliminate the uh knowledge increase right right correct that's the amendment right that's that's what you're so you're going to vote on the amendment first yes and and then depending on the outcome of that you will vote on the whatever whatever uh results from that the legitimate on whether to adopt a budget with a certain military correct any additional questions [Music] or discussion if you're not you can go and have a roll call [Music] him yes this is the boat to amend the budget the remaining the motion to read to balance the budget but where it says annual tax resolution there is no increase in the tax rate okay so before we if this passage will mend that resolution for you [Music] one one more clarification so um
024if it's amended that the tax increase is pulled we would have to dig into the fund correct that we use to offset about offset every year is that right Christian yeah unless we were to amend the budget as a whole that's the only way you would have to amend both correct thank you a rock hold on on the amendment [Music] no problem no Mr Bryant I'm not sure what we're doing uh yes Chelsea yes prom no Mr Johnston no Miss Tyson Wright yes Mr wolowski yes Mr D Francesco no another guy four yeses five no's absolutely Amanda the amendment to the emotion to the motion failed okay now we're going to go to any discussion on the menu motion okay um I would just say that like the 0.5 just to reiterate goes directly towards
025keeping Cambridge open and the remodeling to Cambridge that doesn't go to improving education or Education Services when we talked about like our SRO police officers and things like that down the road like we need to keep our kids safe as well there's a motion to go ahead with a higher tax increase I would support that but when we look at at what we're doing now you know it's we're doing we're doing a good service to our taxpayers right now we have the highest income in Crawford County the lowest property taxes we have the highest tax collection rate so we feel like we're providing the best service to our taxpayers I feel like we we are then if you have that same question we've provided as best service as we can to our future taxpayers which
026are our students I'm not sure that anyone here any of the speakers they all seem to agree that we're not doing the best job and we can provide more resources to do that um you know I think we need to think about that as we move forward um we're not adding to education we're not doing anything other than paying a debt that we said that we would pay at 0.5 just got any other comments well I'm opposed to the tax increase and I'm also opposed to operating a deficit I think that we need to go back and review the budget and balance it amen I agree with exactly what Mr Bryant said okay any further discussion just to add that we have reviewed the budget we made cuts to it the idea that there's more
027out there to cut just in general without there being something specific attached to it I I don't think that's realistic um the things that the questions that are out there I've heard we should look at you utilizing extra space that would cost money to do that the questions I've heard from board members are should we provide transportation to students special education services and should we follow the laws you know be the questions I hear from board members and the answer is yes to all them there's to say there's more to cut without giving anything specific it's just a general statement that doesn't mean anything um you know we have cut four million dollars from the budget we're cutting into real services to say that there's more to cut or there's something else to cut if
028you don't have something specific to say then you know I don't know what incarnation anybody else all right let's go ahead have a roll call it's numb [Music] increase I'm still not no messed around uh yeah Mr Bryant no Mr Chauncey no Miss crawl yeah Mr Johnston Miss Tyson right no Mr veloski no Mr G Francesco yes [Music] five knows would somebody four yeses would somebody like to make an additional motion I'd like to make a motion with a 0.75 mil tax increase foreign [Music] my children are gone to Cellular town since kindergarten I have a secret this fall and I'm voting on this not only because my kids need it but all the kids in Pinecrest need it as Jeff indicated the half Mill increase is just for payment of a bond I wasn't
029even on the board when that happened we need to pay it that's what good stewards do and yes paying more money stinks I get it I don't like doing it but at the end of the day the tree really in my backyard that has money on it died so we have to do something is increasing I mean gas electricity fuel anything you look at these days is increasing and on top of teacher salaries and pension funding and benefit costs and overhead and operating costs so a 0.75 mil increase still not quite enough but it's it's not it's needed and if we continue cutting there's nothing left to cut these kids are going to go to cyber and they're going to leave the district I'd just like to say again 0.75 that pays our debt and
030pays for an additional school resource officer if you can't support paying our bills to keep our kids safe I don't know what we're doing here um when we talk I hear and last time I said this it was laughed at but we spent nine thousand dollars on legal fees last month and that's what we used to spend in four months and that was over a policy that board members said they welcome lawsuits over so to ask where we can make Cuts while we're spending money it's it's hypocritical you know and our students have a right to a quality of public education all citizens have the responsibility to pay taxes and the board we have the duty to make tough decisions not the popular decisions I just like because when you have a home budget like
031let's say you have a budget at home just because milk spawn up and bread's gone up and everything has gone up and you decided to take out a loan on your Visa are you going to go to your employer and say guess what you have to give me a raise now because you know I have this loan to pay and everything's gone up no employers are paying more just because everything is going up and so why would we want to put that burden on our community to have even another thing go up in their life when they're on fixed incomes and their employers are not giving them more money this is going to be a hardship for the community and I do not agree with it I second that 100 percent families cannot afford more
032families are eating out less families are buying less expensive food families do not have more money to give Property Owners cannot afford continuous tax raises we have to stop somewhere okay I'd like to say 95 of our tax owners pay their their debt is going to be more than that it's not a home budget this is a service we've provided the community in providing a lower quality education where our students are less likely to be able to pay their taxes going forward is not what we all got elected to do can you prove that there's going to be less of an education no that's not sensible all right let's cut any other discussion any other members they go to see local Mr Brooks yes Mr Brown yes Mr Brian no Mr Chauncey no it's for
033all yes Mr Johnson Miss Tyson Wright no Mr velasque no no okay I have a motion of my own to put on the floor budget it is as recommended by the administration without without the tax increase without anything I make the motion when you pass it as written with the 0.5 you know I'll switch my vote this summer and we're going to pass so so just just to be clear the original motion the original motion is the motion that we're going to discuss which is uh the 0.5 Mill increase okay now you can discuss any further discussion we already say everything that had to be said roll call roll call yes sorry I knew I was first I jumped the guy trying to get it all written good luck Mr Brooks yes Mr Brown yes
034it's Brian no chassis nope a scroll yes Mr Johnston yes it's Tyson Wright no Mr Velasquez no Mr G Francesca yes five yes four notes thank you Adam Deanie resolve the board of school records approved the resolution to authorize the 23-24 homestead and or Farmstead real estate tax reduction of approximately 269 dollars for each qualified Homestead or Farmstead property owner so second we're watching in a second questions comments [Music] have a say aye aye recommend approval of 23-4 monthly Health dental and vision rates as developed by the Highmark underwriting mythology [Music] approved the district's 2023 2024 insurance close has attached questions comments all in favor of the salary all right Adam G approved the 2324 Paper Supply quote to cpg Incorporated second Washington a second questions comments Adam H recommend approval of 2324 iu5 special
035education contracts as listed second and motion of the second questions comments foreign [Music] all in favor say aye aye [Music] Personnel report item a recommend approval of following resignations second command Motion in a second questions comments I wanted to have a say hi hi indeed recommend approval upon resignations as listed second I'm gonna mentioned in a second questions comments I wanted to say hi hi item C recommend approval of the Fallen coaches second and motion in a second questions comments only forever say hi hi and he recommend approval to eliminate the position of instructional technology specialists second in a second questions comments item half recommended food I apologize all right I'm going to go back to Dean I apologize recommend approval following support staff substitute test listed second comments questions of information system specialist second
036Motion in a second questions comments or in favor say aye aye [Music] Adam G recommend approval to following individuals for summer 23 technology internships second any Motion in a second questions comments one of them say hi hi [Music] following individuals as computer technical advisor or technology integrators that is outlined in the collective party agreement the 23-24 school year second and motion on the second questions comments on the fever say aye item I recommend approval to create the part-time position of penncrest mail carrier a second one second questions comments we just eliminated this position and I don't think with the number of administrative people that we have employed I can't believe we can't take care of the mail between the buildings so I would be opposed I would say that I'd rather have someone paid to
037deliver the mail than having our superintendent paid to deliver as well anybody else all in favor say aye aye any objections yes two two objections MJ recommend approval to appoint Kristen Eckert has treasure back to the longest Warrior second you got a motion another second questions comments I'd make a comment that I think she does an outstanding job putting up with all of us so much [Music] MK recommend approval of the following extended school year substitute the 23 esy program second the motion in the second questions comments and whatever say hi hi Adam L was all the penncrest board of school directors approve the attached act 93 support professionals Compensation Plan second Motion in a second questions comments forever say hi hi new business item a recommended approval to point Theresa crawl as the pspa
038voting delegate so moved we have a motion in a second questions comments good luck thank you any other comments uh policy reading we have a policy for first reading just for informational purposes uh policy approval uh policies 800 830 830.1 yeah discussion discussion questions item D is also just for information in accordance with act 44 of 2018 on June 15 23 the district Safety and Security Officer presented to the board of school directors current Safety and Security practices that identify strategies to improve School Safety and Security so that conversation did take place at this point we have a board director discussion or new business thank you see none a couple announcements we met an executive session on June 12 and 15 for personnel negotiations litigation and Safety and Security as I recently discussed we do
039have citizens comments we have two registered speakers they will have five minutes and individuals who wish to speak on non-agenda items will have to Jessica ashbaugh [Music] thank you [Music] yes hi I'm Jessica ashbaugh I'm a woodcock Township resident and I'm here to just talk about investing in our children one of the things that I know you guys get read this a lot and see it is to look at our mission is to provide resources and opportunities that challenge students assess their educational progress provide a system of support and Empower all to become confident lifelong learners um I read through that and I really hope we're doing a great job I do have some concerns as a parent one of my concerns is we're now transitioning to having a high school student and now I'm
040becoming aware of things in the high school such as the music and chorus teacher resigned and there's a language teacher so I thought those would get taken care of I looked on the jobs available about two hours before the meeting as of now there are LPN and health tech jobs a math teacher a special education teacher various coaches positions that need filled there was not a music or chorus teacher there was no language teacher my question is are we removing supports for our children um my other concern I'm very grateful to see that it was taken off the agenda originally I was going to speak to the librarian issue our children need Librarians at both the Elementary and high school level people who know what they're doing in the librarian I have um 13 points
041I can go over if that ever comes up on the issue again of why we need those Librarians I'll save my breath for today the next thing is realistically we need to look at student class size one of the reasons why we moved back to this area was because we wanted our children raised in a small town with good values and small class size according to the American Federation of teachers class scores for optimal learning or I'm sorry class sizes for optimal learning are between 15 and 19 students on public school review reading about pros and cons of class sizes one such program called the star program ran a study of classes that moved from 22 to 26 students to 13 to 17. this study found a substantial increase of academic performance of children and
042primary grades especially those from poverty areas a survey from school Improvement network of over 5000 Educators across the U.S in various rural suburban and urban areas with an average class size of 23. they put optimal class size for learning at 15 to 20. how do we compare I can only speak to Saegertown Elementary I do not know any statistics for Cambridge or Maplewood but at Saegertown in the elementary school our lowest number we had was 18. our highest was 25 and out of those classrooms the majority of them are between 20 to 25. a long long long time ago when I was an elementary school student when we had those classroom numbers we also had a full-time aide who was an absolutely wonderful woman are we truly doing the best lastly and this is something
043I want to mention when I spoke at the November meeting what's going on with the specials I brought it to everyone's attention I understand there were a few of you that were not here did anyone look into it and how they're being run why they are being run in that way it wasn't beneficial at least from what I could see as a parent Point other than we remembered to send gym shoes in that one week the other thing and it's still a little early we're into June what's going on with the segerton elementary school playground I know we just came out of a drought hopefully we get some more rain that's not great for the playground it turns into a sopping giant mess I believe that's supposed to be taken care of for that meeting
044in November my concern is it's not on the agenda and maybe that's not an agenda item I assumed it would be does that put us into July's meeting and if it doesn't get approved in July or if it does does that take us to August my bigger concern is are we going to finally start working on it in August and then our kids don't have a playground for the first half of the year we trust you guys to make these decisions I'm just asking are we doing the best for our children thank you thank you Miss White Bear [Music] thank you hello um I'm dragging my hair I've spoke about three times before first I'd like to say you would save a lot of money if you enforce the policies and didn't make some poor
045choices um so I'm not I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way I'm tired of not being listened to I'm heard you hear me but I'm not listened to um a lot of you seem to not really care because I mean I'm a teenager um we're all here to protect and help the children and the community um but the policy that was passed in January isn't helping anyone um so specifically it was a Banning of books that are sexually explicit and most of those books are lgbtq plus books and also tell them about abuse that some children go through so the books that are lgbtq passed well banned for being sexually explicit and being banned from the library is honestly almost like a gateway to hey it's okay if you bully us
046because I support that too um and I'm not it comes off yeah we're gonna discriminate the gay kids you guys can too that the bullying we endure is okay I was bullied to the point where I wanted to die that I'd rather be dead than go through another day in that school I went to this like word five different times five now I have borderline personality disorder which most of you probably don't know is a trauma-based disorder most time found in kids who go through child abuse um I have a wonderful family that are accepting they love me and I'm grateful for that um the only Community I was never accepted at was Maplewood High School um I have such severe trauma I have to go cyber which causes you all to spend money which
047causes us all to spend money um my friend who went through similar bullying to me now as PTSD which is common in veterans who go to war in the Banning of these books is supporting this supporting the trauma we must go through with my five times in the psych ward I dealt with more sexually explicit things than you can even talk about in a school setting I dealt with grown adults trying to undress in front of teenagers rooms people who are there in a need of mental health because they're a rapist I I had a rapist Anatomy they did that to a young child and they tried to get with me there are people who went through the trauma and abuse that are in some of the books you wanted to ban or did ban
048all because you want to force your own religious beliefs not forcing them in the libraries like having the Bible there that is not forcing it is forcing in the policies you cannot and should not be able to force your own biblical beliefs upon children in policies we are forced to comply with you aren't here to spread the gospel but here to serve the public indoctrination isn't how you run a public school I will continue speaking until I'm not just hurt I am listened to I will continue telling you how much you're screwing over these children how charitable you are at your job how humiliating it is for you to even be here and acting like you're doing this for the children and not to feel in control this is for younger me the little girl
049who loved expressing herself with the short hair who would cry every time she was mocked or made fun of her having a boy haircut the girl who would hide in the closet and beg your mom not to go to school in the second grade the girl who would fake being sick so she didn't have to step foot into that school the girl who didn't actually hate herself the girl who but he didn't have others perceived her and he did so much that she thought she was better off dead the girl who now knows she was never the issue it was a school who ignores the actual issues right in front of their faces who are at fault any he didn't would like to speak on non-agented items as two minutes okay [Music] Steve your name
050in Township sure Gary Gary Rankin Athens Township um I just recently retired two years ago and I'm living on half of what I did when I was working and uh and I had a good job the chain lock I was a salary employee so just remember when you want to vote all those taxes eventually we're not going to be able to pay for them so use your money wisely but you can't keep going to the well for more water something you might want to look at all of the game lands that are around they don't pay taxes and our Township is 50 game lands so if you want some Revenue get the state to Pony up some of that money for all that game lands that we have in our Crawford County just a thought
051any other residents board member marks [Music] sure why not uh well thank you to everybody coming and here we are at budget time again this is the second part of our job last month during the graduation was the best time best part of our job this is the hardest part a couple things I'm going to say [Music] the budget is very hard everybody forget or not everybody many people forget one thing cost goes up at home but the cost goes up here too our our expenses are not uh I guess I just don't know how to say this without offending people but our costs go up just like everybody else's cost goes up uh I heard one Citizen and I was very disappointed in her comment about basically putting our teachers down for not doing
052a good job uh majority of our teachers do an excellent job I stand behind our teachers a hundred percent they work above and beyond and if anybody would have been at the Education meeting Tuesday night uh we had principals talk about what's going on in the buildings and the thing that just I left there so excited because we have principles that that just told about the great things going on in our buildings and the things that we should be shouting from the rooftops and the things that should be celebrated we have some people that only want to talk about bad things well unfortunately with the district is size worse there's always going to be certain things that happen that are out of our controls but we try to stay on top of it we're not
053perfect never say we work uh I wrote all this stuff down I haven't read one thing yet uh what one thing that really upsets me though is like Mr Bryant made a comment about a thousand residents on up for taxes this year in Crawford County but one thing I'm going to make clear there's a fact to this we have over 57 000 people or I'm sorry taxes Parcels being taxed in Crawford County over over 57 000. now there is a thousand that's about 1.75 percent I'm not not taking light of that but that's in Crawford County that's not pancreas but I follow tax sales for many years and the funny thing is a lot of those people just before the day up they go down and get their taxes updated so they don't lose their
054property a lot of times it's just because they don't manage your money very well so Crawford County I mean we're talking all the Crawford County now there are people that struggle and there are programs out there such as a homestead act they help save a ton of money but there's also other programs out there I know my parents I grew up poor we had struggled many times but there are programs out there help people the sad part of it is that what our tax increase is talking about is the average household I believe like twenty dollars a year uh I know it's a lot for some but it's really twenty dollars a year 25 something like that uh many of my fellow or some of my fellow board members they don't believe in reinvesting our
055schools the problem is if we don't keep our schools alive and proud and our kids wanting to come back and keep our specials alive and the more excited our kids are to come to school the more excited their tell our friends how great penncrest is and how things will improve we have been approving our test scores are coming back up we went through a struggle every school district did we had a long three years with covid and coming out of covet and a lot of just a lot of mental issues that we're dealing with and quite honestly that's cost us a lot of money also the government's not stepping up to help in many ways so we have to do it our Administration has done a fine job with that and some people make comments
056our administration's too big compared to what it was six years ago when I got on this board this Administration is about half the size we've lost about two custodials per building since I've been on the board we have six staff members on each building but that also includes the mechanics the maintenance and the ladies and gentlemen that are cleaning their schools we've we've done a lot teachers have to buy a lot of their own supplies because we make Cuts our art supplies for example used to be twenty five hundred dollars a year now it's a thousand dollars a year that averaged about five dollars per student for an art teacher now I don't say if you've been to Hobby Lobby buy supplies play five dollars really doesn't get you much so those teachers are buying
057what they need out of their pockets the education in this district is very good our teachers do a fine job our class sizes of garden getting out of hand again we need to re-look at that and we just have to stay focused but there are many many many good things that our teacher our principals our administrations doing and they are trying to make this school what it once was and I think we are on the right track compared to where we were six years ago I can say we've made great strides thank you foreign first of all like to say congratulations to Cambridge girls and the second Town boys on the boys that came here tonight I was looking at them and I believe at some point I coached every one of them at baseball
058at some point so congratulations to them for overcoming their coaching by me and have such success [Music] number two um graduation this would be my last graduation I got to stand up on stage it was great to be up there again in Saegertown to see again so many of these kids that I've seen grow up see them come up um it was it is the best part about being on the school board um my summer graduating next year I'm not going to take responsible for him by giving him his diploma but I will get to sit in the audience and see him graduate and see that I've had some effect on the education he received um the votes were interesting tonight there's a no vote for not even one more dime to spend on our
059future it's we're not it's not a cost it's an investment and we are Duty bound when we get on here to do our job to provide a quality education for everybody money doesn't equal education but when you make cuts to things and the questions are about do we have to provide transportation how can we cut funds to special education those things there really don't make any sense to me as areas we could make a cut so voting no to this budget you're voting not to improving the Cambridge Springs building and the 0.75 that was paid for Cambridge Springs and our SRO that's it so you voted not to keep our kids safe and not to improve Cambridge that's where those two votes meant when I look at the board and I see that we welcome
060lawsuits we said we you know there was a board member that said I don't care if a lawsuit comes I welcome it our legal bills are now four times more than what they were a few years ago so when we say we've got to look for areas to cut spending while we're running our mouths to increase spending that hypocrisy stands out and everybody notices it I had to try to get a little bit more than the bare minimum the 0.5 is just what we said we would spend that does not go into the classroom that does not do one thing our community deserves for all of us to try to do a little bit better and we didn't people here voted for a zero against a zero percent tax increase a half a mill tax
061increase of 0.75 you know we're not just here to fill the seat we're here we're here to take a stand and actually do something and not just say we should make a cut somewhere you know if you've been on the board for four years and keep saying we need to make a cut from somewhere we don't offer a suggestion to cut something specific it's not a real idea um it's like saying someone needs to do something oh someone needs to do something why won't someone do something but you don't offer you don't step up you don't have the gumption to do what needs done it's cowardice in my opinion we should expect more from our students in the bare minimum and that's what we did today we provided the bare minimum when the adults won't
062do more than the bare minimum how do we expect our kids and our future to be more than the bare minimum um I don't often make quotes of people but I'm going to quote Getty Lee from the band Rush um if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice when you're up here and you decide to vote no on everything just so you can go complain you've made your choice you're not up here to serve the students or the community you're up here to serve yourself um we have too many people thinking that being on the school board is easy and and it's not and I hope we do better going forward [Music] yeah I'll make my speech kind of short it was an honor and privilege to be at the Maplewood
063High School like Jeff was saying graduation being a new school board member again it was it was awesome fantastic experience again shout out to all the volunteers for the sporting and all that stuff and that's it [Music] I I was at Maplewood as well for the graduation here and uh it was pretty amazing the band is one thing that uh just definitely got me it's uh send Shivers up your spine it's pretty amazing hearing the band and just shaking all the kids hands that are going off either college or career just a pretty neat a pretty neat opportunity that we have as board members and um something I look forward to as well I um and uh I'm going to touch real quickly on the budget as well being a school board member we are
064elected officials to serve the community the the taxpayers the people that elected us the majority of taxpayers do not want a tax increase they cannot afford a tax increase [Music] and I believe that we need to represent those people so that's that's where my vote was for was protecting taxpayer dollars we can do that while also providing an excellent education [Music] um I'd like to make a few comments on the budget as well I think it's an awesome responsibility for anyone to be in a position where they raise taxes on individual taxpayers I I've heard a lot of things tonight that weren't true for example there's no money for supplies I went through the budget 39 Pages just added up Supply costs not including special education and Athletics and there's over 600 000 for unspecified
065supplies we talked a little bit about what some of those might be for 162 000 for furniture 120 000 for staff development I don't know what that is we pay for 36 custodial maintenance Personnel 25 administrative um it seems to me there's lots of room to balance the budget without increasing costs [Music] right now we have over 8 million dollars sitting in the bank and we paid last year over eight hundred thousand dollars in interest because we haven't done anything with it to work on the facilities that doesn't make a lot of sense to me I have a lot of questions on the budget and I thank Dr glasspool and Kristen Eckert for the time that they have spent and I hope we can continue talking I talked with the Crawford County Treasurer and she
066said there were 3244 properties in Crawford County their inner ears and they've already foreclosed on 100 properties this year per the U.S census the per capita income in Crawford County is 28 000.50 per capita means everybody in the house the pancreas well I won't even go there one of the most important responsibilities of board members to work with the administration and develop a budget it is a major responsibility to decide to raise taxes on thousands of County residents I think this responsibility should only be exercise when the budget has been thoroughly reviewed and we can look the taxpayer in the eye and say we've looked at every possible expenditure and it is so important that we believe we need to raise taxes on the elderly and the low-income families within the district in truth the
067board is filled in this very important task at the first meeting when the budget was presented instead of organizing a budget review our budget chairman just pronounced that taxes need to be raised I said then and I'll repeat now I will not vote for a tax increase until and unless we've thoroughly scrubbed the budget I see a lot of things that are not instructional in nature that I believe we could take a look at as far as reducing the budget and I also believe there's no end for some with wanting to raise taxes it's very similar to what we're seeing at the federal level with the federal budget if we can't adequately educate kids by spending more than 22 000 per student I don't think we have a money problem I'd like to command Amber
068Wright for initiating an effort to look at some areas of particularly poor performance of building the administration teachers and the union representation determine what we need to do to attack the issues contributing to poor performance so we now have a debt of over 22 million dollars I think it's time we roll up our sleeves and tackle the challenges we face and stop deferring tax increases as a supposed fix the previous raises didn't seem to fix our challenges hello there's a couple of things that I wanted to discuss first of all Tuesday was educational meeting and it was well attended and was thankful for that for a lot of positive things that came out of that meeting but as with anything there's always a couple of naysayers so we're talking about a program that was implemented
069and has begun its implementation to the schools that offers high school students 34 new college level courses to be able to get college credits as high schoolers and there were two two board directors here the Renee Sayers of that these are also board directors that think that only money can bring in good programs these programs were free free to the district but they were still discouraging it so to me that's a bit of hypocrisy also on another note I would like to discuss the at the Education meeting we talked about it's all increasing and working a little bit more um focused on the 7th and 8th grade math scores and what I would like to propose is a coalition to do that just like there's proposing a coalition to work on some of the building
070and that type of thing how about a coalition to work with Miss Miller teachers a board member or two to help come alongside and see what can be done for those maths course that would be my proposal on that foreign so we'll start on a happy note we'll go into the middle of the sandwich and then we'll end on another happy note that's the plan so as was mentioned the graduations last week were pretty amazing um I did get to go to Saegertown and it was wonderful my son will graduate next year and he was ushering this year so the junior class did quite a bit you know in serving the seniors and I think that that's the way it is at Maplewood in Cambridge as well so it was well done the teachers were
071amazing they had everything put together it was very well organized Dr Howard had it on everything was just squared up it was great and the students were amazing as well the speeches there were the chorus I believe they sang two songs so it was it was very well done and I was proud to be a part of that school and I'll be proud when my son graduates next year so we'll go to the budget which is the middle of the not so fun part that I want to talk about and I do appreciate the comments tonight about investing in our students and one other thing things that I will say is I'm currently a mom of two one that will be graduating next year but during his high school career he did not have the
072option of in-person foreign language classes and simply because there really aren't any out there and I know because we've talked to Dr Glasgow about recruiting and there's in this area the need was filled through I think Zoom classes and some other resources but again if we were to want an in-person foreign language teacher like German French Spanish whatever that might be it costs money and this board has been all about cut cut cut well if you can't cut if you're going to add a foreign language teacher the other piece is sangertown has really suffered as far as their Coral the music program um the arts program they have a beautiful stage and it's not used I mean it was great the fifth graders had a performance I can't remember the name of it and then
073the sixth graders did a performance as well The Phantom Tollbooth Junior and it was awesome I mean Mr asphalt an amazing job with those kids I would love to see more of that but we we don't have a full-time art teacher like that to actually put performances on now French Creek Community Theaters using Saegertown um the stage at Saegertown Auditorium but we don't have anybody internally that's doing that so it's sad because there's not money there and so when people are saying oh you you know don't raise taxes listen there's no their money in the budget for that position it's just clearly not there so if you want that position and the parents want the position then you've got to add it into the budget because that's how it works so um and I'm not
074saying we should or shouldn't add it I'm just saying it's not there for my kids and my youngest son going into high school this next year is very interested in theater and wants to be a part of that and Saegertown High School I'm not going to offer that he's going to have to go outside in the community theater to find it um so the budget yes it stinks I'm I get it I pay taxes just like you in the public do um but at the end of the day the board before I was on the board we have bonds that we need to pay and we need to pay it so that half Mill that's what it's for it goes into the funds to pay what we owe not to add any new spending to
075our current budget um so the last thing that I want to say um is I attended an advisory council meeting I want to give a shout out to Patty feely um and Daryl Shields who's at Saegertown Elementary and Christy mobile who's at uh High School I apologize I can't remember the maple one of the Cambridge but they were there too and they were great I just can't remember names I'm sorry um but the advisory Council we meet twice a year and they talk about all the career exploration opportunities that the children have for all three of the schools up from elementary all the way up to high school and all the things that are done and I know we've talked about it before but these are awesome things that we're doing in this District I
076mean they've got BizTown down in in Pittsburgh they have J.A for a day coming in Parker Lord came in with their volunteers and they did ja in a day I mean these are awesome things for these kids they learn a lot they got to go to the AG Lab at the um the fairgrounds at the Crawford County Fairgrounds you know they do trips into tool and die and they do um in the morning they go to one to one day then in the afternoon they go to another say a Plastics Company or something like that so that the kids can get an idea of what it is do I want to just graduate high school and go directly into the workforce do I need a vote Tech education do I need a college education and
077they're giving them the round approach of this these are your options the world is your oyster figure out what you want to do so it was really great meeting and I am very appreciative of Patty and her team and all the teachers that work together to get all of those resources on top of the regular curriculum you know for our kids from my kids and for your kids so it was it was great and I don't know if any of you might have interested in joining that advisory Council there's moms there's business people on it I'm on it I'm a mom so it's a great resource to find out what's available and how to help your child navigate you know they don't need to be a YouTuber just so you know that that's not like
078on the high priority occupation list but I think there were a lot that wanted to be YouTubers so we're trying to discourage that we want them to go into careers that will actually make money but I do appreciate all the efforts that the um the career guidance people are giving on kids so thank you thank you Josh I'd like to congratulate the girls and the boys and their achievement in sports it's awesome I had the privilege this year going to Cambridge for graduation very impressed this proper put together a very excellent program for the kids and I was very impressed at the academics of some of the kids there was a lot of kids that had Awards hanging around their necks and we've done away with the valedictorian and salutatorian which we're looking to put
079back is taking that away just makes the participation trophy in my opinion the kids that want to achieve and do something with themselves get that extra incentive it's to me and I think it's a plus for them going to college the ones that want to go to college I was in college material I joined to work today world and I'm very supportive of our career and Tech Center and if you look around the community you'll see signs and different businesses that I hired a career a Tech student and these kids are making some decent money down to the bad parts budget before I got on the board there there was a lot of money spent on our buildings I was in sporting events in Saegertown and they'd have to shut down a volleyball game or
080a basketball game during a rainstorm because water was coming through the roof we didn't before I got on they didn't invest in upkeep of the buildings and I was one of the ones that was instrumental with this uh bond issue to put money into the schools and so I feel an obligation to have Mills not a lot of money and my taxes are super high I voted for it we want to keep the kids warm safe and dry and that was what this bond issue was for um as far as add more my neighbors a lot of them are widowers they've lost part of their income they just can't afford it and I'm not going to vote to take away their Homestead from uh at some point we may have to I don't know but
081uh I just right now it's not the time I'm having to cut stuff out of my budget you know I think we need to keep looking at ours as well even though we passed this budget I think as we move forward we need to start looking at things and I don't want to take away from the kids either but we've got to do something here [Music] I try to be very short [Music] well first I'd like to say about the uh the budget [Music] the administration and the spatially uh Mr glass pool and our business manager their worked a bit really hard to try to find a way to minimize our expenses and with the possibility not to have a tax increase in my opinion we didn't know it did not have a tax increase
082on a general expenditures but we have to we made a commitment to three years ago I believe it is three years ago to help it to help us to fix it all the problem we had with each building in in the district and I I I bought it for the increase make it back then and in the following years and today why because we made a commitment to fix those buildings so to me it's not an an extra tax of my bill it's something that had to be done now as far as yesterday education for the children you know every board always tried to do everything we can to make sure the kids gets educated the way they're supposed to in accordance to the all taxes you know be nice if we didn't have to
083pay any taxes and maybe it's going to be it might be it might be it might happen if they ever get together at the disabled and the governor to make sure that the funds come directly from the state of what it's supposed to be but we'll see the other problem we have is that our population in this count is going down especially in the middle Eastwood if you know if you knew any from history about the area you take a miracle during the Depression middle used to have a thirty thousand residence doing the depression it was a booming time and on suddenly just a few years ago there almost was the entitled to be a city because the population in our district we lost a few but the population were mostly super big is going
084to be replaced to buy other populations that unfortunately do not send their kids to Public Schools and that's of course a problem for us because although all the the children don't come to Public Schools we still have to supply transportation to their own schools and if somebody would like to know what I'm talking about I'm talking about the increasing Amish population error movement in our area thank you that's fine but unfortunately with the student population in public schools it might go down and eventually things that have to change how do we get people to move into the area with or to having a larger children a number of children their own family can do it we just have to go on what with events in double production that come around nothing we can do about
085it unfortunately all the all the school money from that from the state seems to be always going to gear for uh Philadelphia Pittsburgh and rivieri why well because it's a large population over there and there's a lot of people that vote and unfortunately we know how they both just think about it the superintendent in Philadelphia makes more than the governor of the state put a closer to about about half of why the president of the United States makes if that's justifiable I don't know but that's the way it is so all your taxes are here to stay unless the state will will change the way that you can remove the property taxes altogether we just have to live with it and be careful how we are adjust our money so that you know the teachers
086Administration they do everything possible not only for the tax credit but for also for the kids we do appreciate those teachers that spend their own mind into that when they feel that they need the additional supplies for the classroom but you know life is what it is I mean we have to do the best we can and I said I was going to be sure that this is it so when we need a motion to adjourn so move second the German all right foreign