001Thank you, Madam President. Good evening to everybody. We we are going to start by inviting Dr. Gibbs Tapper to the mic. She is going to um share both her agenda items and some of the items that are listed for Dr. Ryan. Good evening everyone. Okay. So, for education item for the month of May, the special education department is asking for approval of an agreement between the Southeast El School District and Brier Cliff Swim Club for the usage of the extended for the extended school year program for the summer of 2025 at a cost not to exceed $1,000 to be paid from the general fund. The second item that the special education department is asking for approval for this year is for extended school year contract for one of our students who will be graduating at
002the end of the summer who currently attends the Delta School in Philadelphia. This program runs through from July 1st, 2025 through August 7, 2025. Number three, the special education department is asking for the approval of the extended school year contract for K's children and adult disability education services also known as George K brothers and swath more. We are have a number of students who will be attending this program. Their program is from 77 2025 to 7:30 2025. We are also asking for the school board to approve the extended school year contract for a few students who attend the Elwin school. Their extended school year program is June 30th, 2025 through August 7, 2025. So again, the extended school year program is for our students who have been identified as exceptional learners and we offer the
003extended school year program to those students to increase their the material that they have learned throughout the year. The whole purpose for extended school year services is that the services and the education that they learn throughout the school year do they do not regress and we want to make sure that they do not lose the skills that they learn. So it has been advocated for our students here at Southeast Delo as well as any student that we have in out of district placement to be able to continue their education throughout the summer to work on their IEP goals and continue to receive any related services that they may be receiving so they do not lose their services. questions about the extended school year contracts. Also, this summer for our extended school year program, we are
004going to incorporate swimming again. So, that contract is here as well. The next item the special education department is asking for approval for is a confidential settlement agreement. That information is provided to you in a supporting document. And also moving into Dr. Ryan's items through the Department of Pupil Services. He does have on his um agenda the approval for the expulsion of the following students. The one incident involved is involved for a discipline situation. There was a street assault that took place. The second is for a student that was involved in a teacher assault. Item number seven, he is asking for the approval of the three-year agreement with the Specialized Education of Pennsylvania to provide instructional and therapeutic services at Delo Academy for the period starting at August 1st, 2025 going to July 31st, 2028.
005So, it is a three-year contract at a cost not to exceed 2,127,348. uh and we have that information here as well as we want to talk about why respectively there are different numbers here depending on not to exceed. So you will see that listed on this document. One of the biggest things that we are looking for this program to be renewed is because the Delco Academy program is a program that we are offering for our special education students who require full-time emotional support programming. Um, at this time we have 70 seats that we have for students K through 12. Those students have been evaluated, determined that their eligibility is for them to have full-time emotional support. The services that are rendered at Delo Academy is a behaviorally infused program that offers counseling, behavior management, and
006we have had this program in the district for a number of years. They have a very high success rate. But being able to keep our students in the community and in their neighborhood, if you will, because even though these students are going to Delco Academy, they are still Southeast Delo students and they still are able to participate in Southeast Delo activities. So again, Delco Academy, just for clarification, I know it has been through several different name changes. When they first came on board, we called it, it was under ran under the name Camelot. It has changed the name to full bloom. They then changed their name to Cessy Company. So right now, Delco Academy is funded and ran through well ran through the Cessie schools. Any questions about Delo Academy? Um I do Dr. Tapper.
007I know I'm all the way down here. Um so there is capability for 70 seats. Yes. How many seats do we normally fill that many seats? Um, and if not, how like what's our average per student per class? Right now we have about 63 students that are attending their program and in May that is about a decent number. I know today we actually did make two referrals today for some students. Um, however, in the past we've been anywhere between about 56 students up to about 65 students. We try to leave a little bit of of a cushion, if you will, so that we are not running out of space. However, we don't want to an exceeded amount, but we are utilizing this year. We have about 63 students in the program right now. Thank you.
008You're welcome. All right. And the last item for Dr. Ryan for approval is a contract with today's child learning center to provide before and after school child care and summer camp programs for school age children for a term of August 1st, 2025 through July 31st, 2028. And we are happy today that we have Miss Kristen Relli here from today's child and she would like to take a few moments to go over a presentation to share with you what her program would look like. We're going to hold on to that once we finish the education. We're gonna I'll invite her up. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Gibber. Thank you. Any questions from anybody? Thank you, Dr. Lowry. Hi everyone. Just a couple real quick um extensions u up for consideration this month. First is the extension of
009our literacy series in grades three, four, and five for a period of two years. Um the reason for a two-year extension is this will put us in line kindergarten through 8th grade for an expiration at the same time. Um it is our intent at that point to engage in a comprehensive review for literacy in grades K through eight. Um just very similar, you may remember some of the pilot materials I talked about for science, engaging in materialist review and teacher input over a one-year cycle to make an informed decision for a K to8 literacy series for the future. Right now the 3 to 5 is on a different time frame than the K to2 and the 6 to8. This will put everybody on one time frame K to8 and then we can engage in a
010pilot and a study to determine what our next um next literacy series will be in our district. Next up is a request to purchase teachers guides for math, social studies, and science for our night academy slash um uh cyber program over at night academy at the Colongdale building. Number 11 is a request to extend our agreement for PAEP. This is our staff evaluation portal where our staff evaluations formal, informal, and state compliance act 13 documents are digitally housed. You may remember that we did not have an online system and protocol for teacher and staff evaluations. That changed with PAEP. Um we are now fully utilizing PAEP for our staff evaluations. This merely extends our current agreement that we have. Um number 12 is the proposal and agreement from DCIU Der County Intermediate Unit to um
011purchase bandwidth for our buildings for internet service at the rate of 4,000 megabits per second from DCIU. And that's all I have for number 12. Item 13. I'm sorry. Is there a question? I got a question for him. The in the evaluation of the K through 12 or K through eight, I'm looking at K through eight. Um the reading and everything like that in the upcoming year, are you going to add science into their curriculum? So science, we did a materials review and we piloted um three science programs. Um we have ask my colleague just to pull up the expiration date of our science material um expiration. I want to say it's 2027, but we'll check on that just so you get the a good date. The science curriculum is currently being written as we
012speak. And as of today, actually, yesterday we met with grades five and six teachers um for a first glance of the trial implementation of science curriculum for um grades five and six for next year. Today, we met with grades seven and eight for um the next generation science standards and GSS standards that are going to be rolled out. So teachers got a the first glimpse of that actually today. Thank you. No problem. Am I right? 28. So the material the materials is not the curriculum. Our core materials um agreement will expire in 28. We would engage in the same kind of process. We would look at our standards. We would engage multiple different companies and then allow a lot of teacher buyin pilot opportunities and and we'll make a longer term agreement once we go
013through that. Thank you everyone. Thank you Dr. Larry. Dr. Foreman. Good evening everyone. I am I am seeking approval for the professional services agreement for Dwayne Harmon's DJ Services is for our field event which is on May 21st and it's a ratification because the event will happen one day before the actual board meeting and it's for $100. DJ services for Dwayne Harmon for the field day event. Yes, that's what he's charging us. $100. Oh, he's charging us. Yes. Can I ask Thank you. You're welcome. May I ask a question? Um, what is the full budget for the event and what budget is it coming out of? His will come from the this contract will come from the PR professional services fund and the full budget was $1,500 but we didn't spend it much. You're welcome.
014Thank you, Dr. Foreman. So, now I would like to invite up to the podium uh Miss Kristen Reli who will be doing a brief presentation from today's Thank you. Are you hearing? Good evening. Thank you for having us here. Um this is just a quick presentation um to kind of go over what today's child um would be able to offer the district. before and after school program. Um, and just to let you guys know, we are open to your feedback to build a program that works best for this community. So, today's child vision and mission for the before and after school program aligns really well with Southeast's vision. We want to make an environment where students feel that they have the potential to be part of their own development and contribute to their community. This
015is just a sample daily schedule of what it would look like after school. We would have arrival and welcome self-care routines. Snack is always a big part of their day. They get to us and they're hungry and they're ready to go. We'll have our transition activities. movement and exercise activities, homework assistant, and oversight. While we know that is a big part of what parents want, we also know that these kiddos have just been in school all day long and they need to be moving and have different activities, but we do want to be mindful of parents and that that's what they want from a program so that they can go from our program to basketball practice, football practice, whatever they're going to do. Um, clubs and individual activities andclusion of So for the clubs, we
016would have different things set up each day of the week. Monday and Wednesday, there would be activities Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then Fridays would be their free choice clubs. There are some examples of clubs, but we each building could have different clubs. The teachers and the staff on site at each building would really talk to the kids, have the kids come up with what interests them the most and clubs based around those interests. And then another upside of our program is we do operate all year round. So we will be able to offer summer camp. This is kind of just an overview of the daily schedule of summer camp where we would provide am snack, lunch, and then PM snack also. Um and then there are just some sample field trips um that we go
017on. um Jen Bradley and Jenna Martal who are our uh area managers for today's child really take a lot of time um planning summer camp activities and field trips for the kids and really take their feedback at the end of the summer so they can plan for the next year. So quality initiatives is a very large part of what we pride ourselves on at today's child. Um we are Keystone Star 4 at our four full service sites in Clifton Heights, Sharon Hill, um Cwin and Landown. When we had the contract for Southeast Belco prior, we were star four at each one of the elementary schools also. So this just goes over a few of the big principles of the ethics for the National School Association. So, and these are the three that hit home hardest
018for me. Demonstrating the high standards of conduct, accountability, trust, trustworthiness, integrity, fairness, and considerations for others. Uh that staff are committed to their own learning and professional development. And that we develop a program and services that strive to build a strong community among children and youth where play and learning maximizes the ch children and youth have power and are supported in using it. And then One of our other things, one of the um important things is our professional development for our staff. We encourage all of our staff who don't have an associates bachelor's degree to further their education. Um a good stepping stone to this is the PA school age credential, which usually if you take it at the college level, it's that first three basic classes that you would get in an education program
019that really give you that foundation. And it's a good into a college experience. Um Dr. Francine Wharton who works with us conducts the school age program. She is one of the few um trainers in the state of Pennsylvania that can offer that credential. This year we were lucky enough to be able to send one of our school age staff um to the National After School Association conference in Nashville. And there's just a little um that she said I learned so many things at the convention and it helped me think about my role in the children's lives and how I can improve their learning experiences. I feel that the convention is something that every afterchool employee and ECE teacher should experience at least once and then our current staff. So there's myself um Chris Roselli. I
020am an accounting park graduate. I graduated in 2001 and I've been with Today's Child from 2008 to 2017 and then I returned in 2021 um as an operations manager and took over in January as the director of operations. We have Dr. Francine Wharton. She does our training and our quality initiative programs and she has been with today's child since 2011. We have Natalie Lowry who is the operations manager for today's child. She has been with us since 2013. Jen Bradley, who has worked within the Southeast Delo program since 2001. Jenna Martha, who is also an Academy Park graduate, class of 2001, is an area manager and has been with our program since 2014. Caitlyn Peterson is our HR generalist and is also an accounting park graduate, class of 2007, and has been with us since
0212015. We have Devon McCulla. She is the director at our Clifton Heights location. She is also a 2001 graduate of Academy Park and has been with the she just had her 25th anniversary with today's child. And then we have Nia Gamble who is the director at our Sharon Hill location and she has been with us since 2007. Our current programs that serve the Southeast Elco School District are our Sharon Hill location, our main campus, and Clifton Height. main campus currently provides before and after care to 20 Sharon Hill Elementary School students. And then at our Clifton Heights location, we are providing care to 10 Southeast Elco students for before and after care. We are busing them back and forth. And then just a little overview, why us? We have been part of this community since
0221989. We were the district's first before and after school provider where we provided care from 1993 till 2020. We have a comprehensive curriculum for students and for professional development for staff. We are guided by positive behavioral support approach. We hold quality to be one of our biggest things that we work for. We see everything good, better, best. Best is always a moving target. You're always trying to strive to be There's always new things for us to work towards. Um we accept ELRC funding which is a big part um of our program in terms of being affordable to families. We have scholarships for families that may not uh qualify for ELRC funding. We offer our staff the teach scholarship which helps them pay for college associates and bachelor's degrees. And then we take pride in supporting
023our community by hiring highly talented graduates of this school. Does anybody have any questions? Yes, I have uh one question. Good evening. Um who would be the person that would would be in contact with um this ESC building if there was any concerns or questions pertaining to um so your first line of defense would be either Jen or Jenna depending on who we advocated to be the area manager for this program. Okay. And they were the only they would be like the first line and then Lowry would be escalation to that. Okay, thank you. Oh, okay. Um, uh, my daughter used to go to the today's child when she was four years old up until 13 years old. She's 22 today. Yay. So my question to you is for the after care. Uh you said
024that um they can help with the homework because during the time my daughter was going, you know, there was no help. So is it that you have certified teachers for the afterare that can help the um students with their homework? As part of the start program, they do look at the qualifications for staff. Um we do our best to again anybody who does not come to us with a degree we do try to get them into either that school age credential program and associate degree program or a bachelor's degree program if that is what they would like to go to. Our directors and lead teachers typically have to have a bachelor's degree an associates degree. Um, so the main person on site typically has at least an associates degree and that is a requirement of
025DHS which is our regulating body. Okay. So you're saying that it could be a possibility that the uh afterare may not have uh um someone that can that's qualified to help them with their homework. There may not be a prek through four certified teacher just because, you know, they're they're hard to find even in school districts, but we do do our best. And one of the things I think is important that I have used in other school districts that I've worked in is I've tried to make those partnerships with um the staff. So like if there is maybe like a math curriculum that like maybe there is a teacher who can spend like an hour or two going over some of the material the lead teacher so that they can help with that material. Okay.
026So, if you don't have a certified teacher that's um uh watching the children, you know, for the afterare. So, does that mean that you will have who watching the uh the kids? So, to be in a program, the lead teacher of the the group at least has to have an associates degree. So that's a two-year degree typically in education or a related field. Um we always look for people with higher degrees, bachelors, masters if we could. Um but typically that lowest benchmark would be an associates degree for the lead teacher and then any assistance within the building would have to at least have a high school diploma and we would encourage them to go get their school age credential. Right. So, is that a guarantee that um uh the afterchool care is going to have
027someone with an associate degree that can help DHS the lead person in the building has to have a minimum of an associates degree. You said uh in the building so in our program so like after school is over 3:30 whatever time school is over After that time, DH we would take over and we are then under DHS regulations. So like if we have 12 kids that requires two staff. One of those staff would have to have a minimum of an associates degree. Okay. Wait a minute. I'm kind of lost there. You said after um after school. Yeah. Can you repeat that? I'm sorry. So after school if them regulations change from Department of Ed to the Department of Human Service. So that's our regulating body. They require if we have 12 students enrolled, say we're
028at the K center and we have 12 students enrolled at the K center, that will require two staff people. One of those staff people would be required to have an associates degree. Okay. So that means okay, you would have two staff uh members at each schools or so we would be required to have a minimum of two staff at each school. Okay. Okay. Uh, okay. Well, that sounds good. Like I said, my daughter really she loved today's child and at that time I did too. So, it sounds good. Thank you. Um, I have a question. I'm I'm not sure if it's necessarily for Miss Kristen or the staff um or for administration if you would know this answer or not. um previously our previous contract were the today's or I'm sorry were was the YMCA
029were they certified teachers in the afterchool program that we had in the previous contract because I'm I'm not sure I didn't know that was a requirement to have a certified teacher in the afterchool program. So that's I guess I don't know if Dr. Ryan would know that or he's not. Yeah, that would be most likely be a Dr. Ryan question. I have a few questions. Um, so what would be the plan to stop out by August? So we already are working on getting ads posted because we um provide school age care to other programs. Um, we are working on holding our own job fair um for stage child because we run prek counts programs which require staff to have a prek through four certificate. So we are already in the process of collecting resumes for
030qualified candidates. So we add the number like increase the number that we're looking to recruit. Um we are also looking to reach out to Delaware County Community College and the rest of the colleges and universities within the the area to try to recruit staff as it's graduation time. Thank you. Um two so congratulations. I applaud the fact that you are stars for. I did a lot of work in the Lehigh Valley and in Reading with early childcare centers and for you to be able to share that you're a stars for is something that needs to be applauded. In today's day and age, especially with the difficulty with finances, it's it's really difficult to be able to star four just financially. So, congratulations. You explained that you were a star four when you were in the
031district before, but I know you come in as a star one when you open a new site. What's the trajectory to be able to get to a star four? Why do you feel confident you'll be able to get to a star for what do you have to do to get there? Jen is our stars guru. If you can come to the mic, that would be great. Thank you. Um it's actually kind of easy to get from a star one to a star four. You just um you have to fill out the paperwork and your staff has to have the credentials. So like Kristen said, in a school age program, be become a state a star for you have to have a a director. That's what they call them in DHS. a director with at least
032an associates degree and they also have to have a director's credential. And then your staff has to be on a career lattice where it's a ratio between the amount of children you have and the amount of staff you have. So say if you have 30 children, you have to have at least three staff at least 50 to be a star for at least 50% of your staff have to have a degree or enrolled into a degree program. and star four you have indicators to become a star four and it's a point system so you have to reach each indicator in order to become a star four center um a lot of the indicators are policies and procedures it's training for staff a lot of the staff have to have at least 24 hours of training
033and you have to maintain them throughout the year um there is a c curriculum that you have to have that's aligned with the PA standards and different processes like that. Um, so once you're in and you're a star four center, you can immediately start going up the ladder and it's not like you have to be a star one, two, three. You can go in at a star one and apply to be a star four within three months. So they come in, they do a pre-designation, then a designation, and then you become a star four if you meet all their criteria in their stars indicators. Thank you very much. Welcome. One last question. So you share that we have about 20 students at Sharon Hill and about 10 students at Del Croft. No. Uh Clifton. Okay.
034So those 30 students, do you expect that they would then be part of our in-house before afterare or is that a parent choice? I think it's a little bit of both. It could be a parent choice. So one of the things that we used to offer prior um to 2020 was you needed care prior to 7 a.m. You could drop off at main campus in Sharon Hill or Clifton Heights. And then we would bring the kiddos over to the elementary school a little bit earlier so that they could like hang out with their their friends in the before school program prior to school starting. Um, but it was just something extra that we were able to offer those families that needed care prior to 7 am. So, some of those kids might stay um at
035their location because they might have, you know, a sibling that is getting picked up there or something like that. Um, but I think at least in Sharon Hill, I want to say a lot of those families just stayed at main campus because their hearts were with today's child. And last question, I promise. um the funding with the ELRC. Can you briefly, now we have this on record, it's good for parents to know what how they would go about in applying for the funds because there is a cost involved with this for families, right? Um I want to know if there's costs related to transportation addition to to no extra cost for transport. Okay. So, can you just talk briefly about what parents can do to be able to get support and funding for this? Absolutely.
036So, ELRC funding is done through the Compass website. you apply like you would apply for um any other state services like medical services or um wick or SNAP um the income guideline for ELRC is 200% above poverty level um to initially get funding you can make once you have secured funding you can make up to 250% above poverty level and still maintain your ELRC funing which is copay based. This the state pays us and then they give you a copay amount that can range from $5. I think the highest I've seen is $100. What can you just really quick for the record just say what ELRC means? Yes, ELRC is the Early Learning Resource Center and it provides funds through the childare work system. So, Childcare Works provides funding to families who are either working
037or enrolled in a school program 20 hours a week or more. Mr. Zelli, thank you very much. Thank you. Have a good evening. Good evening. Thank you. Yes. So, you're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting if you have if you love the board meeting or you're welcome to introduce yourself. We will be in touch. Um, we're going to move along then with the finance agenda items. Mr. Butler. Good evening everyone. Uh under finance we have four items that are agenda items. The first is a ratification for the technology team to uh they went on a conference in Lancaster. Uh it was a tech talk live at IU sponsored by IU13. Um the next item is uh approval of attendance for schoolboard directors and uh administrators or administrator uh to attend the annual
038uh the national schoolboard association the cube conference which is September 11th to September 13, 2025. It's in Los Angeles at a cost not to exceed $2,500 per person. Uh the third item is uh this is the agreement between Southeast School District and Delaware County IU to provide comprehensive audit of human resources benefit management at a cost not to exceed $10,000. Um there's just a little adjustment there. We'll delete that one zero on the end. Um and that's going to be charged to general fund. Uh and then the last item, agenda item is to approve funds to be uh allocated to in the amount of $2,500 for the senior prom at Academy Park after. What did I say? Senior brow. Oh, after prom. I'm sorry. Thank you. Are there any questions? Um, Miss Alexander, um, can
039you come to the podium, please? Good evening, Miss Alexander. Um, I have a question questions for you. Um, did you provide the board the itemized list that you need for the after prom? I did. You did? I emailed. You did? Oh, okay. Uh, I did not get a copy of that. So, do you have Okay. But can you give us a list of what you're asking for? The list is in the email. I don't have it. You don't have it with you? So, I do have another question for you. Um, I wanted to know um why did it take you um the last minute to ask the board, you know, for um for help for funds to help with the um homeman school. Why did it take Well, firstly um I wasn't at the whatever
040happened um I was under the impression that school board wasn't helping with home and school for um after crime funds anymore. Right. So was this discussed at your meeting? I mean it was told to me that school board wasn't helping with Right. Are you comfortable to uh name the person that um said this to you? I mean it was a joint conversation that everybody Right. But who I I would I can provide a little clarification. when I was at the meetings where this was all discussed. Okay. Um, go ahead. So, at the September meeting when the board was initially put into place, a discussion was had based upon the response that the board had, the contentious conversation that was had at the discussion for supporting the after prom program last year. And the debate went
041so badly that it was put to having um Mr. Shearan take it from AP's budget. And there was because that was the conversation that came out was that the recommendation was that it come from Mr. Shearan's budget, not from the board. It initially was 5,000 and it was dropped down to 2500. It went to it was a back and forth. was a very contentious conversation and it was the overall theme was this was not something that was going to be a sustainable thing. So at that first meeting the board and the parents that were present at that meeting decided that we would seek funding elsewhere for the afterprom. So the uh the after pro or the PTSA as a whole voted not to ask the board for funds. That is why I was quite surprised
042to receive the email that I received indicating that someone had made a request because I was at the last board meeting or the last meeting for the PTSA where there was absolutely no request for anyone to seek funding from the board. We were talking about our fundraising ideas. We did discuss that um there there was a mention someone had made mention pre of previous contributions from the board and we had said that based off of last year the the uh board decided or the PTSA board decided not to request funds and the conversation went forward with our fundraising ideas and what not what we were going to do to raise funds. There was never once a request for anyone to contact the board to um make a request for funds from the school district. And
043in fact, no one had a clue until that email came out that someone had done that. Okay. So, you're saying that there was no one at the meeting that stated that the board would not uh support support the um homeschool association. No one stated that. No one stated that. No. Okay. Because it's funny how we uh it was an email that was sent out and stated that um someone from the board and the homeschool association stated that they were of the board was not going to support the home school association. Okay. And it was also stated that um the board uh said that uh from last year it was going to be there last year to support okay the homeless school association. There was an email that was uh that was sent out stating this
044that it was said in your meeting. So I want to ask Mr. Butler, what is the difference between uh the uh Wait a minute. I want to ask Mr. Butler, where did the uh money come out last year for the homeless school? Okay. And if it did come out of Sharon's uh uh academy park, Miss Whiffer, we're not using names. You're going to say Okay. Academy Park. So, what is the difference between Academy Park money and our money? Well, it's uh typically the same batch of money. Yeah. It's the entire budget. U so in this case, uh it was an Academy Park event. it would have been charged to the Academy Park line item which is 10100 610 um 3080 is the high school uh identification code. Um but with that being said uh that
045would not have that charging to that code is just to identify that there was an expense associated with Academy Park High School. it would not have had uh an impact on what the high school had in instructional supplies or any supplies. It would not have diminished those that available fund for that. It would have uh come out of uh at the end of the year there's a general 10100 610 all zeros which is uh general fund that's uh administration's code. Uh but for that purpose it was charged to the high school's uh line item just so it was identified that way. Okay. So there's no difference between uh uh the budgets coming out of his account. Okay. The school account, right? So So the school account is for his in is for the instructional supplies
046at the high school. This was something different. Like I said, I I we charged it I charged it to the high school account just so that it was identified by high school expenditure, but it did not it did not compromise the amount of available funds for uh the high school's uh educational program or any supplies. It would have been a budget transfer to cover it. As a as a point of clarification, at the committee of the whole meeting where the initial conversation uh took place, the principal for Academy Park was asked to come forward and asked if they would cover the funds from for the after prom from their budget and they stated that they would see if they had enough funds to be able to do so. That was what was stated at that
047meeting which is the entire reason that the money was dropped from 5,000 to 200 to 2. No, that's not the reason why it dropped from 5,000 to um 2,500. First of all, the board was not going for the 5,000. I was the one that surveyed the board and asked them, can they at least approve the $2500, okay, for the after prom. So that's the reason why it was $2500 and it was approved. So just like Mr. Butler said it doesn't make a any difference where the money came from. The money came out and it it helped the home and school association for the afterprom. So my thing is I just have a problem with there is someone you know that's stating that it was uh the board was not going to you know help the
048home and school association. Okay for the afterp. Again that was not what was stated at the meeting. I was in attendance at that meeting. I was not the only person in attendance at that meeting. the only one that's that's speaking. Um, does Miss Barley have anything to say? Mr. Barley was not in attendance. Oh, she wasn't in attendance at the time. Okay. But I just want to say this, Miss Alexander. Okay. Anything you need from the board. You come to the board because not one board member has the right or the authority to say what the board uh will or will not do. Okay? It is nine of us. Nine of us. And we all care for these kids. So if you need something, you come to the board. Don't ask one board member and
049and uh whatever they express to you. Okay. It's not true because she can not speak for all of us. I was about to say I don't think it was one particular person. I think even at our meeting several board members were here. I wasn't at that meeting but several board members were and they kind of all had the same conclusion that that's what was stated by school board. So So okay, so they are Can I Can I say something real quick? Uhuh. So there were three board members that was there. Okay. And they say, "Okay, we're not going to do no one can speak for us. No one because it was not I'm speaking. Please excuse me. No one can speak for us. You always come to the board because it's nine of us. Miss
050Wood, she has a board to answer. Miss board. Miss Thank you, Miss Woodbolk. As I Wait a minute. What' you say, Miss Perry? I'm sorry. What did you say? The president of the home and school has a board to answer to as well. She's not the only officer. So to come to the board, the officers of the home and school association would need to vote on that. She can't just come to the board without a majority vote of her board officers of the home and school association. And what they decided what they decided in the fall what they decided in the fall is that they were uncomfortable with last year's April meetings and how the conversation was handled, how the principal was treated. So the the board of the home and school association voted in
051the fall to try to raise the funds on their own so that it didn't bring more contention to a public school board meeting. No and that is what happened. No it wasn't. You weren't there in the but you are wait and actually the superintendent was even present as well board members. We cannot all at once and lies. You are expressing lies. the board, especially with a superintendent, will make a way to make sure that all of the kids, whether it's uh homeschool or musical or a sports, he will find a way to help these kids. So, no, the board never said that we was not going to help any of these kids to uh uh um uh with with the homeless school association. So, what you expressing, Miss Perry, is are are all lies. Okay.
052Wait, wait. Are all lies. So, that's not true. That's what you been expressing for the longest time in the community are all lies. Okay. So, I just want to say, excuse me. This is not out of order at this point. I just want to say one thing. Don't speak for me or the other board members. I ask you to do the same to the meeting so we can vote on it because no one, two, three or four board members have the right to say anything or to uh uh talk for us. Okay? Bring them to our meeting so we can vote for what they are asking for. Thank you. Excuse me. Excuse me. This this is getting out of control at this point. Um we have new leadership here at the district. So anything that
053has to do with students, we are student focused at this district. We are student center. So there should be no Mr. Diario. Just correct me wrong. There should be no board members speaking on behalf of the whole board. Thank you. Not unless they're authorized to do so by the board. And so again, there should be no board member speaking on the whole entire board and what they are going or not going to do. I agree. So moving forward, Miss Alexander, if you are continue to be the president of the organization, thank you for the proposal. Thank you for the line items. The board members would get that. they have already been forwarded to the superintendent and the chief financial officer. Um we will get back to you with all the things that can be done
054and um or and what can't not be done due to regulations and so on and so forth. But again there should be no board member speaking on behalf of the whole entire board. There is no board member speaking on behalf of the entire board. She just said she just stated it was three board members. Okay. That stated vote. No, it was three board members. We don't vote at these meetings. You have been voting. Excuse me. Excuse Excuse me. I did not say anybody said it. I said no board member should not be speaking on behalf of the whole entire board. Mr. Dioro just reiterated. There is no board member that should speak on behalf of the whole entire board. But that's just the bottom line. I understand. My clarification is more for the record. I
055want to make it known on the public record in this public meeting that no board member spoke on behalf of anyone at the meeting. She just stated it was three board members. Please stop. At the meeting, there was a general discussion about the event. I was in attendance at that meeting. The person that you got the email from was not even in attendance at that meeting. How do you know where it came from? Because the email that we received as a board stated that the board president of the president of the PTSA sent you an email. So that is who tells us who sent. So she stood up there and she said it was three board members that stated this conversation is I I don't want to go around about this. What I'm going to
056simply say state is no one spoke on behalf of a board member. The board the board the PTSA voted in accordance with what happened at the previous Okay. So then this is the question. Go ahead. And and that what the other thing that I wanted to say was in that message that we received it indicated that board members were giving directives to staff members. I want to make it abundantly clear. No board member gave any staff member, okay, any orders or directives. We literally sat there and simply asked what needed to be done and we volunteered for tasks. That is what our role is. We are there as a support as parents. We are not there in a role as a board member and we are not using our position in any way, shape or
057form. So, I want to make it very clear on the public record, no one was doing anything of that ma nature. So, I'm I'mma ask this question because it's going back and forth and it's just getting out of control at this point. Since your board, you're speaking on behalf of your board, correct? Or Alexander is I'm not. I'm the vice president. Wait a minute. So I just want to clarify one thing. So are you saying you don't want the money from the district or are you saying you do want it? You may. So to answer that question, if you are offering the money, we will happily take the money. That being said, okay, so that's that's our that being said, RPTSA board in September voted as a whole that we were not going to come
058forth and ask. Okay. So, are you sticking to your board minutes? We discussed it. If you are offering the money, we will happily take All right. So, are you going to stick to your board minutes or you're not? I already discussed it with our board. If you are offering the money, we will happily take it. Don't know. Okay. Thank you. You're born around the uh No, we actually do follow our board policy. Let's call what it is. You have certain people up here personal access is the grind. So if you following your board policy, that means that if you guys came to agreement not to ask the board for any money. So is is it and then as of last week, we actually talked about it because of this item that came up. We actually
059talked about as our executive board if the money is offered we will take it. Okay. If it is not offered we will not take it. Okay. So if if you saying if the money was offered you will take it. Only way the money can be offered if you ask for it. So to be clear up until last week we were not going to ask the board for any money because of the contentious issues from last year. That was what do you mean last year? Well, okay. I just looked at the April meeting from uh last year today. Both April meetings, right? You need refresher. I refer you back to the YouTube to watch the the contentious meetings of that. So, from that point forward, we decided we will continue to raise our fundraisers the way
060we have been. That's why we did not provide any ask the board members for any help up until last week at some point when it was brought to our attention. that is now on the agenda. So, if the school board is going to vote on it, we will take it. If you say no, we won't take it. It's as simple as that. You're asking why we didn't come to you all earlier is because in September based on the experience from the last year, we decided we don't want that drama. So, we kind of You didn't want what drama? What you mean? I refer you back to the YouTube video from April of last year. I'm not going to It's out on the internet. You all can say it yourselves. It was drama. I'm not going
061to go into it. It's out into the public sphere. You can see it for yourself. So, so you said it was drama uh in September, correct? No, no, no. Listen, the drama happened in April of last year. Okay. And in our September PTSA board meeting, our executive meeting, and also our general membership meeting, we voted to see what are our fundraising options. Are we going to solicit the school board as we've done in years past? We decided at that point because of what happened in April of LA of last year that we were not going to because of the drama. We wanted to stay away from the drama. So that is where why you have not heard anything peekaboo about anything and then all of a sudden it is now up here. Nobody from our
062nobody on our board said to anybody to solicit money from you all. If you are all going to offer it now because you want to be helpful, we're not going to turn it away. But that is the reasoning as to why we didn't solicit in the beginning. Okay. So you you're saying the drama was because we didn't give up the 5,000 and we gave up the 2500. No, that's not the drama that I'm talking about. Okay. I'm talking about in that meeting it disintegrated into even at the vote. I watched the the voting meeting a couple probably an hour before I came here tonight. Literally at that meeting it disintegrated down to where the president actually had to hit on the gavvel the call to order. At that point it is taking away from the
063kids. So we said you know what we're just going to do our fundraising try our best to stay away from the drama. Why are we going to keep on bringing it out here when it gets getting worse? Okay, but you're not expressing what the drama it was. Was the So again, the drama was at the committee of the whole meeting, you put the principal on the spot asking if he could take. No, thank you. Yes, I encourage you to watch the April committee, the whole meeting and the voting. So, you're saying if you believe that's acceptable uh behavior for a school board member, you're sorely mistaken. But I just want to know just because the drama was we was asking for the money from the high school. So, you feel as though just because we
064asked money from the high school that was a problem. I feel you're saying that now that it all comes out the same budget, why did you bring it up last year? Because it was still came out the same budget. But you actually had the opposite reaction last year. You on the opposite side of that. I was the opposite side of what of Miss Whiffled. Go ahead. Go ahead. Let's be clear. Let's be clear. And I'm I'm I'm not speaking for the board. I'm just speaking as Oh god. Um for myself and maybe some education at the same time. Every district in the whole United States in the whole world, every school has a budget. They have a budget for materials, supplies, and student services. Now, if individual leaders of buildings don't want to provide for
065student services, like activities and stuff like that, and they have a problem with um taking out their school budget, their building budget, that that's a problem in itself. So, no matter if it came out of this school budget, this general line item, at this point, it really doesn't matter. Yeah. My concern is that no one board member should be speaking on behalf of the whole entire board. One, two, or three. So whether you did, whether you didn't, I asked the solicitor, should a board member be speaking on behalf of the whole board? And he said, unless they are designated to. So once again what happened in the past is with past administration we have new administration in this school district. So so what do you pay the president? So again we have new leadership in
066this district. Hopefully we have individuals here that are for students first and we don't have to have this conversation again. Yes. So once again, President Alexander, Vice President McGallen, you should never be afraid to come ask the board to help you support students in any activity. Absolutely. And that's the bottom line. Mr. Dr. Sanchez, can we please proceed with this meeting? Yes, Madam President. Could I ask a question about finance as a different item? Do you need a total count forward number two tonight to be added to the agenda for next week, Mr. Butler? Uh, yes. Or before the meeting next week. Okay. Thank you. And it'll just be bolded. Mr. It's a non-aggenda item. Uh I have one non-aggenda item which is the review of the 25 or discussion on the 2526 general fund
067budget. Uh I do have one correction on the front page. Uh that date should say May 15, 2025. I neglected to change it. This is a redo of the uh April 24th uh presentation. And I did add some slides which I'll go over tonight. Um, as I just stated, uh, pages three, four, five are from the April 24th. I reviewed those on April 24th and they are essentially uh talking about some of the challenges with expenditures, our obligations uh and some information that we know now. Uh moving to page six. This refers to uh page five and I want to specifically talk about the charter school tuition. Uh this year it's $16,500 and I put together an analysis of what it cost us what is is costing us estimated cost for the current fiscal year.
068So I listed all of the charter schools that uh we pay. uh I broke it down into regular education and special education and then the cost uh respectively uh associated with uh regular ed and special ed. Uh in short uh we have 522 kids in regular ed that are outside of the district and 140 uh students that are in special education totaling 662 students that go to charter schools. Uh the total as you can see regular ed uh students uh cost uh 7,735 I'm rounding special education children uh are uh $6,900. If you go up to the very top of those two columns, you'll see that for regular ed kids, it's $14,817.78 per year. a special education student is 48,9796 cents per student. Uh the total uh of that is uh estimated this year to
069be 14,591,94956. Are there any questions on that slide? There are two others to follow concerning the same topic. Okay. So the uh next slide on page seven uh I did two things. Well two the next two slides. One is brick and mortar schools. That's on page seven. And on page eight is going to be cyber schools. So brick and mortar. Uh just going over the numbers very quickly. brick and mortar, 306 regular ed students, 64 special ed students. Uh the same cost uh the total for brick and mortar schools uh 7 million round up 700,000. Moving to page eight, we have cyber. We have 216 regular ed students in cyber and we have two uh excuse me seven 76 uh special education students in cyber. Uh the total six uh almost $7 million. Now there
070is some conversation has been for a number of years about uh charter school reform and the um tuition rate calculation for cyber charter schools. Reason being is that cyber is is cyber uh and they have no brickandmortar excuse me facilities except probably for the main office. So there's been conversation over a number of years as to why school districts are paying the same amount of money for a cyber organization that doesn't have a building uh versus uh the same amount of money going to a brick and mortar. Uh, so the last part of that page, uh, I believe I read something that where it was $8,000. Uh, and I'm not too sure, Miss Perry, if you had said sold the same thing or not, whether it was $8,000. Yes, 8,000. So, um, I didn't see
071anything else associated with uh, a breakdown between regular ed and special ed. So, the special ed number is a number that I uh, calculated just based on the numbers up above. So we have 14,817 regular ed, 48, uh979 for special education. It's the same percentage breakdown. Uh that's just to give us a feel for if it's not I didn't want to assume that the that the number would be $8,000 for regular ed and special ed. U because there's a purpose and a reason why those numbers are different. Uh with that being said, uh you can see what the savings, the reduced costs would be if it if these were the numbers. Um it would be and this is just for cyber, not for brick and mortar. Uh it would be a reduction for regular ed
072of 1.472 million and then special ed would be 1.716 million. So that's just to give a feel to so if if something is discussed uh uh at the state level, at the department level, uh that'll give us just a little idea of what could potentially uh the benefit to Southeast and other school districts. Of course, Mr. Butler, may I ask a question about that cyber charter reform before you move on? Just your numbers. So those two numbers combined, if say if these numbers do work out this way, we're talking about a possible $3.1 million in savings for the district if your numbers are accurate. Right. Well, they're Well, they're not. They're estimates. Right. Right. Right. So, if we get lucky, but now if they ended up capping the special ed at 8,000 as well, we
073would save even more. Oh, absolutely. Oh, that's I hope I will I will absolutely hope for that every night, Mr. Butler. Thank you so much. Um, so I just want to be clear. So the estimated cost this year in total is 14,591. Wow. I have uh if you go back to the page five, I have 16,500 in this year's budget. Uh reason being um that's a very conservative number because um it I I don't want to be in a position where I'm making that huge of a guess. Uh and then if it's more than that or close to that then we have a a different problem um with with expenditures and um fund balance our savings account. Um so uh as I said at the last meeting uh we will have continue to have discussion.
074I will continue to revise the refine the numbers if uh I know that based on uh the calculation for the new charter school rates um are less or close to these then I can adjust that number accordingly and that will happen between now and before we vote on the budget in in June. And then um just a reminder that this preliminary propose is calling for a two and a half% um tax increase. And just drawing your attention to slide, as I said, this is a repeat of the April 24th. So drawing your attention to page 19, slide 19. So in uh 2425 uh we did uh a 2 and a half% increase and in the first chart to the left uh you will see that uh that is these are estimated assessed values. So you
075can fall into the range if your property is assessed at 70,000 and I have up to 240,000. These are not market value prices. These are assessed values. So, in this case, a $70,000 assessed value property, their taxes went up for the year, $55 last year. Uh $240,000, the taxes went up uh $188. Now, going over to the right part of that uh that chart, you will see that this is based on what is the property in total costing based on the the mills. Uh so last year it was 32 uh 32.8546 mills $70,000 property yearly uh tax is $2,300 up to $240,000. Uh yearly tax is $7,885. Now, uh just another qualifying statement, those numbers do not include properties that have been identified as being homestead exceptions, which would uh for the most part reduce
076that property tax if your residents not for commercial properties uh around uh a little under 5 $500 would come off of the tax bill. Right. Going over to page 20. This is what it will look like for the 2526 school year. Okay. So this year, if we do 2 and a half% that $70,000 property, the taxes would go up $56 for the year. $240,000 assessed value, the taxes would go up $192 for the year. Uh following the same statements as before, moving over to the right, uh that $70,000 property assessed value would uh have uh taxes that would be 2240 versus this current year's 2300. Uh going just jumping up to 240,000. Uh the taxes again would go up $192. Uh last year that property uh paid uh 7,885. Uh I'm sorry, something happened with
077my formula. My formula didn't carry down. I'll have to revise that because that should be $192 higher than the previous year. So I did not copy my formula down properly. So I'll take care of that. Yeah. Uh and that's just to give you a little background on what the impact would be. I also mentioned in the uh last meeting that this is a uh a budget that is based on facts. It's very responsible. The very responsible piece has to do with uh not only talking about uh increasing the rigor of the instructional program and making sure students are getting what they deserve, but it also takes into consideration the impact on the community. Uh and that all falls into play as to affordability. Uh and again the impact on the properties and uh I just
078want to make that statement. It's it's not it's it's a whole package of thoughts. Uh, and this goes on these conversations. uh may not seem like they take place every year, but when we have meetings, um there are bits and pieces that impact this that we all pay attention to so that when we get to the endgame, uh we can recall what we talked about and we have five sets of eyes and conversations uh that will trigger for different things in the room for us to put this together. Any questions? Thank you very much. Oh, I'm sorry. Um I'm looking at the numbers here and um the key word was community. I'm looking at community. I'm looking at some of the people sitting around this table and in chairs. They're from Delaware County. Um, I
079would hope in some way or form we would take into the account that the county raised 23 mil on their taxes. So, you're getting 23 on your county and then you're going to depending on the burrow you live in, it may be as high as 31, as low as five. Um, the two and a half is I reasonable. I mean, I'll be the first one to squabble about taxes, but if there's any way with the maybe with the with the help of the state, could we bring it down a little bit lower to give some of the people of these four poor towns a little breathing room to save and put money on the side? Sure. Um um I I hear what you're saying and I agree with what you're saying. Um but uh from
080an educational institution point of view, our responsibility is to make sure that there are funds available and there's a responsible budget to educate kids and to keep the district running. And I I understand that. But we we can't and this is just me saying that saying this uh we can't be in a position where we're making up for um not such great decisions by another uh body um uh a burrow or municipality. Uh we have to be very careful when we do that because um it will compromise what our goals are as a district and where we want to move the district to because our our goals are going to impact the values of properties in this district. Um and that's extremely important for the school district itself and economic development plans. But on on
081the back side of that, what I'm looking at is then we've basically been taxed for years for not having the curriculum and our children weren't getting the education that we're supposed to get. I mean, there's there's there's a heavy weight going on there. I mean, you want us to pay for when you didn't do the jobs, right? But now you want us to be there for you 100%. Well, I'm willing I came forward and ran. I'm willing to be here for 100% for you, but I also think somewhere in the line you got to think about the people that got hurt. And I'm talking about the children. The pilgrim for the last 10, 12 years got ripped off. And I think we owe it to them. That's all. Well, just so just so I'm clear.
082So, no, just so I'm clear. So, um, what we're doing now as an administration is right shipping the organization and we're doing it with seriousness and assertiveness and sometimes aggressiveness. Um but the other piece of that is is that when you look at the impact the financial impact we've been doing a incredible job maintaining uh level uh financial impacts on uh individuals on properties in this district. So I I understand what you're saying and that's why I always say that we're looking at the entire package. um school districts that are wealthy, they don't have to look at the entire package because they have the commercial base um that will offset residential taxes. In this case, we don't have we don't have that uh opportunity. Uh we don't have that option. Um not unless there are
083um very serious economic development plans to de obviously to develop some of the commercial properties in the district. But I I understand what you're saying and I agree. Thank you very much, Mr. Butler. Um, we're going to move to the human resources agenda. Mrs. Woolly. So, good evening everyone. I'm here to present the human resources agenda items. So, on page three and page four, We want to recognize that we have four retirees in addition to the ones from last month. We want to announce Paul Wharton. He's been with the district for 23 years. He's retiring. Page two, Deborah Rickards, she's been with the district for 18 years. Donald SC, he's been with the district for 11 years. Cheryl Cool, she has been with the district for nine years. So we want to congratulate them on
084their years of service and their retirement. Number four and five for ratifying the termination and the resignation of two classified employees. Number six, we want to have approved the employment of a professional employee for a speech language pathologist. That position was open for what a year, two years, three years. So we finally filled it. Page five, ratified the employment of a classified employee, a bus driver. Number eight, we hired three bus drivers in the bus depot department and one personal care aid. Number nine, we have a promotion which is a change of assignment. We found a director of facilities and operations for working at the education service center. Number six, page six actually. Number 10 and 11 there are five leave of absences listed there. Number 12 there is a health restoration sbatical leave. Number
08513 approved the speech pathologist to work um the summer program. Number 14 approved the school psychologist to work the ESY program. page seven. Number 15, approve the special education teachers listed to write IEP during the summer. Three are listed there. Number 16, approve the following general education teachers to attend IEP programs during the summer. Three teachers are listed, actually six teachers are listed there in their rates. Number 17, we want to announce the tenure of the following professional employees. There are three listed there, but I will also announce the two that need to be added and will be bolded for next week. Rachel Farley, first grade teacher, Amanda Ruiz, special education teacher, Sammy Knight, Maline Slow, and Len Hudson. They're all receiving tenure. Number 18, approve the following employees for curriculum writings at the high
086school. We have eight teachers listed there. Any questions? Question for you. Um I know you've been looking for bus drivers and bus uh aids. Did you get the sign yet? Okay. So, are we moving on to the non-aggenda item? I can't stand her. So on not agenda item, we're going to jump to bullet number two. So bus transportation recruitment. Uh Tanisha Williams and Megan Genta of HR, they went to the Croer job fair. We were like, it was a bunch of people. We had over 100 plus people taking our flyers and um interested in applying. We had a lot that went online today and applied for our open positions. Yes. in. So, is that mine? You see it coming and you'll see it going. It's a two-sided sign. So, I have a bunch upstairs. So,
087if anybody would like Yeah. Is that mine? Please. I have a Okay. So, uh how many more bus drivers do you guys need? So, right now we hired a lot. We need eight more. You need eight more. um bus aids and monitors and hopefully the signs and yesterday attending the Croer job fair will bring people in. Oh, good. So, you have another job fair to go to? No, actually we're doing pretty good. Oh, I also wanted to thank you very much for the wonderful table that was set up at the musical. I did see parents coming by and taking pictures of the signs for the uh the recruitment table. Oh, thank you. Mrs. Mullet. Yes. Are you finished? Here I am. I want to ask your question when you finish giving your report, please. Sure.
088Uh the open enrollment all employees benefit eligible. Please keep in mind it started May 12th through May 23rd. Even if you're waving benefits, we're asking you to go on to the navigator employee system and make sure you enroll regardless. Please. In addition to that, the um health and keeping of our employees, we have a trek to summit event going on where if you calculate your steps, uh report it on the Google form by May 25th, you'll be entered in a drawing to win an Apple Watch or a Fitbit. They're giving away three Apple Watches and one Fitbit. So, good luck everybody. And that concludes all of my non-aggenda items. Miss Miss Wool. Uh I would like to ask you a question about the employment. I would like to ask you a question about the employment
089of new employees and those that have already are already on staff in the district. Do you think that we have too many employees in any of the departments that are not needed? No. Every Thank you. Every employee is needed. Um, retention is very important and this is why we have to do the things like the marketing and we just have to make sure we motivate the employees, make sure they know that we care, make sure we they know that they're needed and they're added value and an asset to the district because again without our employees and teachers in front of students and administrators, I I can't say more. We wouldn't be a district and supportive to the students and the community as well. Thank you very much. Mrs. Willie like to invite Dr. Foreman if
090you have anything to report on parent student advisory. No, I do not have any updates at this time. Thank you very much, Dr. Foreman. No policy um property Do we have anything from property? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Uh good evening members of the board. Um we just have one property item to approve. Excuse me, sir. Uh what is your name? Oh, my name is Ramire Taylor. I have just uh been on boarded as the director of facilities operations for the school district. I've been with the school district for about six years now. I started out in grounds, moved up to lead, and now here we are today. Just a little background. Um, for property today, I just have to approve the agreement with Keystone Fire and Security to provide inspections of our fire
091alarm systems, fire suppression systems, as well as our sprinkler systems. It will be for a period starting July 1, 2025 for three years ending on June 30th, 2028 via our co-stars contract in the amount of $29,936. That'll be all for property. Yes, any questions. Good evening. And congratulations. I've seen I've known you for too long, but I'm going to throw something at you and I know you're not ready for it yet. I want to congratulate uh stalker glass and your guys for installing that new glass. But could you do me a favor and swing over to the little classroom next door that's had the the rip screen for two years and have them replace that because soccer was there. He could have just jumped right next door. I know you weren't aware of elementary. Sure
092elementary. Yes. Okay. Just a quick question. I don't know if this falls on I'm assuming it falls under your purview. The auditorium lights There's a I don't know if I can say it. There's one that won't go out. It stays on constantly and then the side lights that line like only half of them work. So, it's like a weird look. When we turn the lights up in the auditorium, it just kind of looks like we're like busted. Okay. That's something we could definitely look into. Thanks. That's it. And congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. two non-aggenda items. I'd like to invite Miss Irons to the podium. Miss Irons, you have three minutes. Miss Woolly and and and council, I'd like to to let you know that I'm up here as a um community member if there's
093any questions. Thank you. Um and the other thing I want to say is uh doesn't matter if I work for Dr. Sanchez or whoever I work for because I've been here for four four superintendent whether he stays or goes or whatever happens. I'm still going to be here up to this microphone. Um I've been I went to one of the meetings for the upcoming election. In my opinion, this is my opinion. I believe that there's some false narratives are being told in reference to the board wasting money for unnecessary positions. Um, and I want to provide some facts this evening. July 25th, 2024, there was a general budget discussion given to the community and was subsequently I think we updated it on April the 10th. The plan laid out additional positions where the salary for
094each with the salary for each position and what time frame these positions were expected to be filled. Here are some facts. On August 22nd, 2024, agenda item 7.02 under finance stated approved the 202425 additional funds new initiatives list in the plan estimated amount of 6,900. 6,985,000 $12. Mr. Butler, can you correct me if I'm wrong? Can you state if that money was already budgeted or was this money that we have to go out and ask for for the new initiative for the the new um positions? I just want to make it clear to the public. Yeah, this was a new initiative money um and it require that was the purpose of the list uh to uh it was a responsible list to say how we were going to spend the money. Okay, that's what the
095purpose of that was. So, um I took the liberty to review the meeting uh from the video of August 22nd and this is what happened. Minute marker 550, President Monro Monroe Wit asked if there were any questions. Um there were none. Next, we went to the approvals. Minute mark at 655. Uh, Miss McGawan made the first motion and then uh, Miss Woodfolk second the motion at 656. At 7 minute marker 7, President Monroe Wood asked were there any questions as she does three times. There were no questions. No, not one as my grandmother sings. Uh, marker 705. President Maro was it said seeing none all in favor 707 everybody said they agreed motion carried same thing with the minutes I pulled the minutes up so my question is well we've had what nine months since
096then there was ample opportunity to ask questions or bring questions up uh if you if if we didn't agree on any of the positions Why would we wait until now and tell the community that we have positions that we don't we don't need. I don't care who y'all vote for. I really don't. Uh fun fact, I signed a petition for some of the new people coming in. One person asked me and I signed I signed their petition. I'm all for everyone to have their opinions because your opinion, you know, it's your opinion. You're allowed to have it. This is America. And it's also your Pennsylvania privilege to vote for who you want to vote for. All righty. Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Huh? Madame President, can't we extend her three minutes since she's
097the only one? We want to make sure that we're giving everybody three minutes. I appreciate that. And we don't want uh people to be talking over the three minutes so there's no uh legalities or any issues moving forward. Thank you. Amen. Miss Margaret Bing, talk fast. You have three minutes, ma'am. Hello. Good evening. I'm going try to be quick. Um I'm just going to speak on um something I came across on social media about um the need for serious change to the school board. It was very troubling what I listened to because I've been coming to these meetings and coming and coming and coming for quite some time. You all know me, have seen me. Um some of the the issues that were discussed by someone who's on the board right now were um the
098increase the need for increase in taxes and um the lower the lowering of test scores and lack of positive growth and in the district. Um I know Dr. Lowry just got up a couple um meetings ago and talked about the growth that we had. It might have been uh maybe looked at as minimal, but it has happened. Um they also spoke about where they wanted to see the tax money going and make sure that the students um the buildings and teachers uh and programming that the taxes are going towards there. Now I have three. Well, tonight makes three, but from February 20, February 20th, 2025, March 20th, 2025, and tonight, we've gotten these um general budget, general fund budget discussions from Mr. Butler that outlines everything with the need for the positions, how much they're
099going to cost, what's allotted in the budget. We've never gotten that before. Ever. I've sat through a couple administrations, we've never had that kind of transparency. Um, they wanted to make sure that the focus is on the students. I can say that as a parent, as a um community member and secretary at Derby Township, I can see um the board uh voted to approve the teachers getting their proper steps, which that same person made the motion for. and the um other federations, the confidential securities, they got there too, putting us back to where we should have been from 2015, I believe. Um that was good for the morale of the people working for you guys and benefit the students. People decided to stay instead of leaving because there was a mass exodus under the last
100administration. The board also approved u major major renovations that were needed throughout the district. The board updated the curriculum. There's you guys have talked about the new bell schedule at the high school. The board hired another guidance counselor for each school after the guidance counselors got up and talked about the need and that they were out uh ratio uh students to guidance counselor. Um the board with Dr. Sanchez has given the community more transparency than any other administration. What I'm saying is anybody can vote for what they want to, but I want to make sure that there's some truth going out to the public, that this is being um that this is being publicized and people get to see what Thank you. Any comments or concerns from the board? Seeing none, school board business meeting
101will be Thursday, May 22nd, 2025 at 7 p.m. Committee of the whole will be June 12th, 2025 at 6 PM. Again, committee of the whole will be June 12th, 2025 at 6 p.m. School board business meeting will be Thursday, June 26, 2025 at 7 p.m. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.