001All in town for today, March 26, 2026. Prior to tonight's meeting, anformational executive session was held. The purpose of the executive session was to engage informational updates presented to the board on a number of district initiatives as well as discussion of confidential student and personnel matters and discussion pertaining to ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with the teamsters, discussions pertaining to healthc care providers,formational updates and discussion with council pertaining to district real estate matters and the process for filling a board vacancy. Madam Superintendent, do you have some announcements for us this evening? >> Yes. Thank you, Miss Mat. Uh, good evening, school board directors. Uh, to members of the public, to all of our families that are here tonight. I'm like, wow, I'm so happy to see all of you. Give yourselves a round of applause, please.
002We say um good good evening to my team. I thank you for your service and your leadership tonight. Um before we begin the official committee of the whole meetings, we're going to have the student uh celebrations as well as um a performance. So uh please join me with a roaring round of applause for the Hayes Harmony who's going to perform this evening. Let's give it up for the Haze Harmony. Are they ready? No Haze Harmony. Does that mean Dr. Burks is gonna have to sing? as they assemble. I just want to thank our families tonight. All our students and families um moms, Madre, Padre, Abuela, Abuel, Totia, aunts, uncles, and extended family members. Thank you. We honor you and thank you for allowing us to serve you and your children tonight. Appreciate you. And so
003we are so thrilled about I appreciate your partnership and I'm I'm really thrilled about the amazing things that are happening across the district and and all the sensational and creative young people that we have who are entrusted with our care. So I thank you. And so the Hayes Harmony, are they ready? All right, they're on their way. Okay, so we need a drum roll for Haze Harmony. Yes, good. Let's give it up for Hayes Harmony. We're going to thank Miss Raric for her leadership and service tonight as well as Principal Shaggel and the entire Hayes learning community. warm up that we do. So, we're just coming off of our winter concert. Sorry. >> Um, Miss, is it okay if the students just turn to face their families because I'm sure there's some proud moms and
004dads out there that want to record this. Yes. Rotate. >> Here we go. Just want them to be able to see. The first snow it falls and falls and falls. falls down the ground. It falls and falls. The first fall Sorry. Heat. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. They should hear us all over Allentown. Let's give a roaring round of applause. Hey, Harmony. Great job. Again, I want to thank the entire administration as well as all the uh teachers and leaders and the entire learning community at Hayes. If you're a beautiful child or um grandchild, Abuela, Abuel, T niece or nephew or anyone is in this group, just wave. We want to acknowledge you or stand. Okay, just give them a round of applause. Thank
005you very much for being here tonight. Let's give another round of applause for Hayes Harmony. They did a nice job. So, I'm really excited about all the great things that are happening. Again, I want to thank the Hayes team and all the students for a job well done. >> Yes. So tonight we are also we've shown you some artistic um heightened some amazing artistic talent here in the district but we also are in the learning business and we are focused on our academic subjects as well. And I'm really thrilled that so many families are here tonight to showcase and celebrate many of our young scholars, I'm going to call them, uh for their uh academic ability and prowess in the area of mathematics. We should be clap just as much clapping for math as the
006arts. And so this evening we we're going to we will recognize the incredible academic engagement and accomplishments happening across the district as it relates to mathematics and Dr. Rocklin is going to tell us about share with us all the sensational things that have been happening across the district and showcase the students who are who have done demonstrated a job well done across our mathematics competitions. Dr. Rockler. >> Good evening, board members, Dr. Burks, parents, students, and community members. Um, if I could have my presentation up. Great. Um, I'm excited tonight to talk a little bit about what has been happening during the month of March and throughout the school year to support math learning and teaching in the Allentown School District. Next slide, please. In March, we celebrated for the first time ever, March into
007Math. >> This event placed an intentional focus on celebrating student growth and achievement in mathematics in the Allentown School District. Some of the many activities we engaged in included competitions in and across schools, grade levels, and classrooms, our own spin on March Madness, which was titled March Mathness, that engaged our teachers and students in some friendly competition, and community events focused on math and STEM. We even hosted our very first math B at the elementary level. Throughout the month, we saw a new excitement around math. I'd like to play a short video for you now that encapsulates the math experience we are cultivating and supporting for students, not only this month, but throughout the year and the years to come uh throughout the district. Just just waiting for that video. Do you want to continue
008and we'll come back to the video. So, in absence of the video, uh, which is fabulous if I do say so myself, um, let's start celebrating some of our students, um, which is what we are all here for tonight. Can I change to the next slide or no? There it is. Okay, back on track. All right. Um you can see uh listed on the screen some of our Alex student allstars. One of the resources we currently use in our secondary math classrooms is called Alex. Alex is an adaptive math platform where students practice skills and concepts that are tailored to their learning needs. Students need to learn and master hundreds of topics at each grade level and perform successfully on periodic knowledge checks in order to complete their PI, which is a visual way students
009track their individual progress. First, I'd like to celebrate the students at our middle schools who have completed at least 90% of their grade level material in Alex. That is quite an achievement to finish not only skills that you may have had a deficit in but then also 90% of your grade level material and it's only March. So our students have just done a fabulous job. While we don't have all of those students here tonight, it is beautiful weather and sports and all of those things. Um, we do have a few students who have come as representatives. So, I'm going to call you up now to give you your certificates. So, if I call your name, please come to the front from Rob Middle School, a seventh grader in Mr. McKenna's class, Ashley Aino Rosa. >>
010Okay. Dr. Rocklin, if just one second, don't we just have the board assemble and shake the young people's hands? Oh, sure. Okay. >> Okay. Board members, could Thank you. Congratulations. Uh from Rob Middle School in Miss Miller's class in uh pre-alggebra 8th grade, we have Dylan Aante Lzama. And I apologize, I went a little bit out of order. I'm a little thrown off. Um, but actually our last student who was recognized actually finished 100% of their grade level material. Um, from Rob Middle School in Mr. Lugo's class, pre-alggebra 8th grade, we have Hennessy Hario Germosen from Harrison Morton Middle School in sixth grade. Miss McCracken's class, Jaliss Magalinus Arias from Rob Middle School in Miss Miller's class. Pre-alggebra 8th grade, Scarlett Perez Garcia from Texler Middle School in Miss Hughes pre-alggebra 8th grade. We have
011Julius Alvarez. from Harrison Morton Middle School in Ms. McCracken's sixth grade class. Elias Sey and from South Mountain Middle School in Mr. Bender's sixth grade class, Nana Quaku Aiedu Ansa. Could I please change to the next slide? >> I mentioned before we're gonna have a few more come up. It's all middle school. Yep. One more. Yeah. >> So, um I mentioned before at the middle school level that uh a lot of our students have reached that 90% mark and one student already has been recognized for completing 100% of their grade level content. Um on the screen are all of our allstars who have completed all of their grade level content. You can so you can see all of those names. Our students are doing an amazing job and I have a few more who are
012here tonight from Harrison Morton Middle School in Miss Landis' pre-alggebra 8th grade. I have Ba Dao from South Mountain Middle School >> from South Mountain Middle School in Mr. Bender's sixth grade class. Jose Martinez. And finally, from Rob Middle School in Ms. McCracken's sixth grade class, we have Michaela Essa. We have I apologize. We have one more middle school group that um not only did they finish uh their grade level content. Can I go to the next slide? These four students that you see on the screen have completed two years of already and are working on their third level. So um we are so proud of these students. This is an amazing student during school after school on the weekend just to further their reach the end and then they kept going. So we are
013so proud of these students and we have one student here tonight. >> Okay, Miss Reese, you can take the picture now. And we have one more student. I apologize. >> I've got one more. I apologize. Um we have uh from Rob Middle School in eighth grade math, Leavonne Williams. And another more recent ad to our list, we are constantly updating the data. So we had another student meet the mark and uh we don't have a certificate ready for her right now because it was so recent that she completed. But we have Arianis Rosario from Texler. >> Okay, now we're ready. One more. Kyla Nasar, thank you for coming. Nice. Everyone in Allentown, now if this was a basketball game, a soccer game or baseball, we would be screaming. These students demonstrated proficiency in mathematics, particularly
014in algebra and and pre-alggebra. So, everyone across the city should hear us screaming for these students. So, let's give them a roaring. I want to thank the families who came out tonight. Thank you so much for that group. Let's give them another round of applause >> before we move into our It looks like the video is playing. So, um before we move into our elementary and high school groups, um uh we can take a look at the video that celebrates our started. That would be great. Thank you. Turn the wall. So that video encapsulates our thinking here at Allen. town. So, you saw the picture of a student looking a bit frustrated, but when the math gets hard here at Allentown, our students don't give up. So, that is the message that we're pushing out
015to our students. And you can certainly see tonight that our students definitely don't give up. Um, if we could go back to the presentation and the next slide. We also have some high school student allstars. Now, as students move into the next grade levels, they begin to engage with increasingly rigorous content and skills. These students at our high school level have completed at least 90% of their content specific material in algebra 1, algebra 2, or geometry. So, if we could give these students a round of applause. Next slide, please. Another resource available to our ninth grade algebra 1 students is the Hey Tutor program. Hey Tutor places content expert tutors in our math classrooms to give targeted instruction and tutoring support on a regular schedule during their math blocks. We are celebrating these students in
016three categories. Dedication to learning. These students show consistency in attendance and engagement during their heyutor sessions, academic excellence for making the most progress between their fall benchmark and their winter benchmark. And then our student allstars who display a combination of hard work, dedication, and consistent performance when engaging with hattutor sessions. We have one representative from the high school level tonight. Oh, two, I'm sorry. We have Carlos Nunees and Jorge Nunes. You're good. Next slide, please. Finally, last but not least, we would like to celebrate our elementary math B winners. >> I had the I had the privilege of being a judge for the final round of this event, which brought together the school level winners of their local competitions to compete against one another for the district title. Tonight we have with us Scarlett Rosado,
017a third grader from Ritter Elementary School who placed second in the event, and Jesus Antonio Vasquez Angorita, a fifth grader from Roosevelt Elementary who is our grand champion. Please come forward. Good job. Smile. Ready. And we have one more student we'd like to recognize for completing all of their grade level uh content in Alex. Um his name is Anthony Mora Lopez from South Mountain Middle School in Mr. Bender's sixth grade class. Anthony, come on up. I'd like to say a final thank you to our board and to Dr. Burks for being champions for math here at Allentown. We are doing amazing things. Our students are doing amazing things. We're supporting them. I can't thank our teachers enough. They have really taken hold of these new resources and are are holding our students to a higher
018level and higher expectation than ever before. And we are seeing the fruits of those labors. So, thank you so much to our teachers, our students, our parents, everyone. Thank you. Let's give a a round of applause for our students, their families, as well as all our teachers, all the staff. And especially, I want to thank Dr. Rocklin um and Dr. Koma and the whole learning and teaching team for their vision for this. Um I tell you there's such enthusiasm about mathematics across the district and I'm really excited about that. As we know um building students foundation in math is so essential not just only for their work here in school but preparing them for life and life beyond high school. And so there's research that suggests, you know, when students master, you know, some of
019the we used to call them gatekeeper courses, uh, back then like algebra 1 and geometry, uh, those courses, when students master them, they're more inclined to be successful in school and in life. So to all the families who are still listening is so par your your please continue to uh plant the seeds uh in your child's life and the desire your children's lives and the desire for mathematics because and you need math for everything even um many of the trade fields if you want to become a plumber you want to become an electrician you need to know mathematics and well and let me tell you I wish I knew uh you know some of those skills some of those skills that u those students are learning right now are very um important to for all
020all of us. So, so again, I thank everyone and just I'd love to clap and give people cheers. So, let's give another round of applause. So, before we close the student segment of tonight, um I just wanted to encourage everyone to support our students. I'm sure our student representatives will talk about this as well. We have some amazing productions happening throughout the district. And so, uh, starting actually tonight, there's a musical, um, Charlie Brown, um, at William Allen High School, um, and through Saturday evening. So, I think I got those dates right. Um, also, Dear High School will have its production of of Chicago, the Teen Edition, the Teen Edition, from Thursday, April 23rd through Sunday, April 26th. So, we encourage you to come out. They are amazing productions to see our students uh thrive.
021You you just don't want to miss this. You know, some people who have been um members of the Allentown community, they've been attending these performances for 30 or 40 years. They continue to come back. So, I encourage you to support our young people and it just will make them feel their hearts feel good to see people helping to encourage them to use utilize um their gifts. So, Miss Mat, for this segment, I'm going to conclude my remarks and thank you. >> To the finance committee agenda. The board welcomes and invites public comment. You may address the board on agenda and or non-aggenda items. The first opportunity for comment is at the beginning of the meeting and is limited to agenda items only. The comment cards must be received by the start of the meeting, which
022is now. We will not be receiving public cards once the meeting begins. A copy of the public comment policy is located on the table near the comment cards. And according to our board's policy, any person may address the board in accordance with the procedures and limitations of this policy, either on issues presented in resolutions being considered or on other matters affecting the administration, management, or operation of the district. Remarks of a personal nature directed against any individual will be ruled out of order. And do we have any comment clar this evening? Okay, we have two discussion items and four action items on the finance agenda this evening. First, we have the budget presentation and discussion by Mr. Cuff. This is a discussion only item. >> Thank you, Miss Mat. Good evening, board members. Good evening,
023Dr. Burks. Good evening, community. Tonight I will cover um a couple items in our budget um series of communications with the public. As you can see right here, most of our and all of our actions, everything that we're doing this far in our budget is grounded in our priority or priority areas from our strategic plan, lighting the way a blueprint for innovation and excellence 2030. You'll see there are seven priorities that we are working off of. Um, also you'll see right here we're going to talk about our budget timeline as we progress through the months and we get go a little bit forward into this process. You'll see what's coming up for us in the near future. Coming up in April, some items um just to keep note of. Um, more bookkeeping internally. We have
024our certification of property tax relief. And I'm going to talk about this a little later on when I get to the state subsidy portion of the discussion. And also in April, we will have the LCTI budget presentation and board approval coming up. May we have our budget forum which will be on the 20th. The date has changed and it will be the 20th at Hayes Elementary. We will also have a a approval of our preliminary budget. On May 28th, and this is required by PD is more of a procedural step. And in June, we'll have our final adoption on June 8th at the board meeting in June. I'll double check on that date going forward. So quickly, and I talked about some of these items before, I'm going try to be concise. I know there's
025a lot of information coming forth. You'll see here with our budget, most of our budget is primarily due to state subsidies or state reimbursement, approximately 70% 25% from local, 5% from federal sources. And you'll see here, I'll just recap you as you look forward, we have approximately overall a 6.2% 2% increase in our total revenues compared to last year. The major portion of that is going to come in our state revenue, which I'll discuss slightly in two seconds. You'll see in our local revenue, we have a 1.8% increase. The primary portion of that increase is due to increase in assessment of our properties. This does not include any type of tax increase at this particular moment and due to tax. The next area we're going to talk about is our state revenues. We have approximately
0268.3% increase. The good major portion of that increase is going to come from the ready tole learn subsidy or ready to learn grant. I'm going to talk about that what makes that up in two seconds. But you'll see here we have a BEF which is basic education funding. We have a 1% increase there which is pretty much standard with what happens across the state. We have a 5.9% increase in special education subsidies. And we have approximately due to a lot of hard work that's been going on behind the scenes, we have a substantial increase in our transportation subsidy of approximately 39% up to 5.7 million. There's been a lot of work that we we've been working on to retool how we file our reports. So this is a product of our labor right here. The
027last source of revenue we have is our federal sources. For the most part, this is pretty much stayed flat across the board. We won't know exactly what our federal um subsidies will be more than likely till about middle of June sometimes. So we kind of keep this flat until we have a better gau better idea of where we're going. So let me double back to state. I apologize. You'll see the from almost third from the bottle the property rebate. That's what I had mentioned that happens in April. Right now we don't know that gets released from the state. So I think this amount here will increase once we get that amount from the state. So going forward, you'll see a change in that as we proceed. So I talked earlier about the ready tole learn
028grant. So a good portion of what comes in the ready to learn grant is a product of the fair funding lawsuit. So and I want to go take a rewind back for certain folks who are not familiar with the fair lawsuit. The lawsuit started back in 2014. Um and you'll see the who, the what, the where, and the why. It started back in 2014. The initial court date was in 2021. The court was settled in July 26 of July 26, 2022. So what happened was there were a it was a it was brought up that certain school districts were not fairly funded, were not adequately funded. So what we noticed that certain districts due to their demographics, their poverty level, their location were not funded as well as some or not as adequately as some
029of the other districts in other areas. So for example, if you raise taxes here at Allentown or some of the other districts who were in the lawsuit, you won't have the same impact or the same increase as you would of a more affluent district. So we were seeing inadequacies and unequitable differences in some of the districts. So this is what the basis for this lawsuit that came about. So you'll see in the beginning there were six districts um who jumped in there who started the law the um lawsuit fair funding William Penn Lancaster Panther Valley Greater John'stown Shannondoa Valley and WSair area school districts. So when it was all said and done it was it was determined that the what the lawsuit was for held true. So they found that these districts were not adequately
030funded and at that particular point it was determined that districtwide or statewide the school districts were owed approximately $4.7 billion. So the state does not have the capability to actually go back and give everybody that $4.7 billion. So what has happened is they're in a process of trying to bring the it's called adequacy supplement and that comes from your ready to learn grant. So the state in their plan of trying to um make it right they decided to break it out over a 9-year increase. So you'll see right now Allentown School District was due approximately $185 million. We're in year three. We're going into year three. So currently right here they divide it up over nine years. It turns out you'll get 11% of what was due to us each year. So right now we
031received 22%. At the end of this year it'll be an additional 11% which will bring our our our receiving total up to approximately 33% of the adequacy gap. And I I bring this up because you're going to hear a lot of conversation as we go forward tonight from our end. But you're also going to hear the conversation of the adequacy gap that's going to come forward from PFL. So, and I I'll stress this because it's very important that we that we understand exactly where the money's come from, what it's doing, and what it's going to support as we go forward. So, again, most of our cost drivers are related to salaries, charter schools, and debt payments. I'm going to touch on these quickly before I turn it over to our friends at PFL. Currently, right
032now, you'll see these are our collective bargaining agreement groups that we have within the Alltown School District and it's is plentiful because keep in mind we have over 2500 employees within the district. So you'll see right now we're in a process of trying to work on a lot of the contracts and this is what's driving a lot of our call. So this is what we're working on and we're working on looking going forward a lot of these contracts. There's a lot of work in place particularly with the currently with the maintenance agreement and the cafeteria work as we progress forward. The other area we talked about was charter schools. And I talked about this briefly, so I won't take a long time going over this, but you'll see charter school um payments are mandatory for
033us. So are the transportation requirements. So those are those are areas that we have to handle in our budget that we have to budget and account for as we go forward. You'll see also there's a special education component to the charter school landscape that we have to take a account for. So the overall financial impact is that the money we are spending for charter schools it affects what we can do otherwise within our own buildings with our own curriculum with our own facilities and provide things for the students within the downtown school district. You'll see here when we talked about this prior the charter school tuition costs are are escalating at a high rate. They're escalating escalating because of the number of students and the number of the tuition costs. Both of those are are
034growing every year and you'll see PF will talk about this slightly in your in their presentation. But you'll see there is some conversation on the state level that they're working on how to regulate and how to contain some of the costs um for school districts like us. Next here I want to talk about you'll hear a lot of conversation this evening about debt service. I won't go through and read this for you, but debt service is what we're paying for our loans and our that we took out for our long-term loans for a lot of our facilities improvements. Some of the areas in the purpose of the debt service is repaying long-term debt dedicated to managing interest and principal and bonds. A capital improvement funding provides upfront cash to construct new renovation in existing facilities
035or manage major technology. smooth tax rebates to allow districts to avoid massive onetime property tax spikes and fiscal accountability that serves as a segregated fund to ensure tax revenues are directed directly used to for debt obligations rather than day-to-day functions. So I know that sounds like a lot. It does. Basically what it does it helps us to do a lot of the items that we couldn't do in our regular day daytoday operating budget. So think of your own personal your own personal finances. Sometimes you have to take a home equity loan out. You take an extra loan on your mortgage to get things done in your home to get things done. So that's what our debt services and this is what it's accomplishing for us as a district. So you'll see here right now you're
036going to hear a lot of the conversation also from PFM, but they'll drive this home. The current operating ratio for most school districts in Pennsylvania is approximately 12%. What that means is of their operating budget approximately 12% is dedicated to debt service and again that debt service is going to be dedicated to upkeep of your buildings, your facilities and your items within your um walls of your school district. Currently right now we are positioned well with our debt service. We're at 4%. We're actually low in comparison to other school districts around the state. So I'm going to stop there. I know I went through a lot quickly. Are there any questions on what I went over right here. Hearing none. So, as we progress forward, you'll see coming up and I'm just going to recap
037on our timeline. Coming up in April, we have the release of the property tax relief fund. That'll be good information for us, update our revenue a little bit further. We have our LCTI budget presentation approval. We're going to have our community budget forum on May 20th and May. We'll also Today, the following week, we will have our preliminary budget approved, which we required to do by PD regulations, and then we will have our actual board approval, the final approval at the board meeting in June. Good evening, Dr. B, superintendent, CEO. So, to add in May, prior to the budget forum, school has a school governance council and each school governance council will have an idea of the preliminary budget for that school and each uh school leader will have to ensure that they engage their
038school governance council and how funding is going to be spent at the school at the school level and have sign off by their school governance council that they understand how funding is is being allocated to that school for the next fiscal year. And then we will have the This is my appeal to the public so you can understand how resources are spent in that particular forum on May 20th. It will be interactive and we will share how um our special funds, the funds that we receive in grant funding that are restricted funds as well as our general fund budget allocations and be able to answer some questions that you may have. And so thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. BS. So, as before I bring PFM up to um handle their piece of the presentation
039tonight, our district's capital plan, you'll hear this, identify significantly significant facility needs that require careful prioritization and sustainable funding strategies. While existing funds are sufficient and complete, the highest priorities and substantial gaps remain. Even under borrowing scenarios, there's still additional needs that we need to cover. In the short term, the district is positioned to manage its finances effectively. However, long-term stability depends on heavily heavily on state support, particularly with the adequacy funding that I touched on earlier. Without it, the district will face difficult choices as we move forward in the long term in projecting time and resources allocation. So, this evening, I would like our partners to come up public management this evening and there it will be um Ian Tyson the director and Sia Lant a senior managing consultant. Yes. So just to make
040it clear as we stated PFM public financial management is our advisor for the school district. They actually go through and they help a lot of school districts in their financing and long-term debt as far as uh floating bonds and getting financing for projects, things of that nature. >> And this is the second of our uh financial discussion items tonight. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Good evening. As mentioned, my name is Sar Lant. I am a senior management consultant with also my colleague Tyson, our director. Tonight we'll be going over the district's baseline projections and a few borrowing scenarios that Jeff touched upon earlier. As we've mentioned, we've worked with the Allentown School District over the last few years. Um this is not our first time coming out to the district to review the baseline projections.
041Um as part of the conversation for tonight, the projections will highlight some of the um assumptions that we made and to help support the district finalize it 2627 budget as well as review a few borrowing scenarios for capital based off the district's draft capital plan. >> Excuse me one second. >> We just want to be able to and the public. >> I'm a little short. So sorry about that. Just to recap, I was sharing that this is not our first time being here with the Allentown School District. Tonight, our baseline projections will be used in preparation for finalizing the 2627 budget as well as review a few scenarios for the district. As Jeff highlighted earlier, some of these borrowings some of these scenarios highlight the borrowing needs that the district has based off their capital
042plan. And one of the scenarios, scenario one, we'll touch on what happens for the district if you continue to receive the adequacy supplement that Jeff touched upon earlier. So to kick us off, this is a bit of a recap of some of the things that Jeff already highlighted. As you can see on the pie chart to our left, that is the district's general fund revenues. So as Jeff highlighted, the district has a budget of $511.6 million for the 2627 school year. A majority of your revenue sources come from state. Approximately 71% of your total revenues are from state sources. A large proportion of that is state education funding. So that's the BF and SCF allocations that were highlighted earlier. So basic and special education funding as well as a little bit of a pie. You'll
043see about 13% coming from the ready tolearn block grant funding. Your remaining revenues are based off your local sources. So you'll see real estate taxes as almost a quarter and then you'll see title funds and other federal revenues as a bit of a smaller proportion of your pie. To the right is a district's general fund expenditure. So you'll see a majority of the district's expenditures are personnel costs. So that's salaries and benefits almost 60% of your total budget. Charter school tuition which was highlighted earlier is a growing source of um cost constraint for the district. So, charter school tuition is about 22% of your total budget. And then there's a few other smaller cate categories. You'll see um purchase services. So, those are some of your contractual costs, um texts and supplies, debt service that
044we've highlighted, and some of your other miscellaneous expenditures. This slide highlights some of our major assumptions in the baseline projections. They're broken up by the top. The first few bullets are the district's revenues assumptions and in the following um portion are your expenditures. You'll see at the top we highlight the district's real estate taxes. The baseline projections do assume assume a slight increase in the district's assessed value. So your tax base we're assuming it's growing by 6% based off historical historical growth that you've seen over the last few years. But we're not assuming any tax increase in the um baseline projection. So there's no millage rate increase um for the district. Earned income taxes are being grown by about 2.5% per year again based off historical increases. And as we touched upon BF and SCF,
045your basic and special education funding is continuing to grow based off historical amounts that were added to the funding formula by the state. Ready to learn. We are assuming the district's budgeted allocation for 2526 is rolled into the foundation amount, but we're not assuming that the district will continue to receive the adequacy supplement after um the 2627 school year. But in scenario one, we'll highlight what happens if the district were to receive those additional revenues. Salaries were continuing to grow based off historical amounts as well as health insurance based off input from the district. As we've mentioned, charter school tuition is a growing area for the district. Our baseline projections do assume that charter school enrollment increases by 200 students per year. Debt service is based off the district's current debt service schedule as well
046as funding to complete the new school building, but no additional debt service costs are assumed on the baseline. But we'll highlight some of these things in the scenarios following. Here, our assumptions lead to the district's baseline projections. So, just to orient oursel, the graph in the middle represents the district's changing annual operating results. That is the yellow bar. You don't really see it much in the first few years, but you'll see that that grows in the out years. And then the blue bar represents the district's ending fund balance. So, as you can see for 2627, the district is producing a balanced budget. That's why that yellow bar is not there. You'll see zero dollars both on the bar and in the chart below. due to the increases in ready tole learn and the adequacy supplements
047being rolled into that foundation base as well as some other cost um some other revenue growth. You'll see that in 2728 the district is projecting a slight positive operating results of a little bit more than $3 million starting from 2829 through 20331. Those are the last four years of our baseline projection. the district has negative operating results that grow annually. So by negative operating results, what we're meaning here is just the difference between the district's total revenues and their total expenditures. Essentially, growth in expenditures is outpacing growth in the district's revenues. In the little box below, you'll see that we show what would it take to balance the district's projections long term. two more years of the continued readyto-learn block grant funding could help support the district long term or if you were looking at
048tax increases only increases to the act one index would be able to balance the district's projections as well. The act one index is 5.4% for the 2627 school year and that slightly decreases over the next few years after. I pause here in case there's any questions. Do you have questions? >> Go ahead. >> It looks like >> your microphone, please. >> I It's not It's on. >> It isn't on. Okay. Okay. >> Um, so what is like the percentage risk for discontinuation of the adequacy supplement? >> Um, that's a good question. So, the I want to highlight that the is assuming that it's going to receive half of the adequacy supplement in the 2627 budget. So that's about um $10 million or so if I remember correctly, but we're not assume the district's not assuming
049the full adequacy supplement. Essentially, the reason behind that is that it has to get voted annually by the legislator. So although in the governor's proposed budget for this um coming school year, it does show the full adequacy, ultimately you don't know what will get voted on and passed. So you don't want to bank on getting maybe 25 extra billion dollars and that doesn't come through. So as a contingency, the district is assuming a portion of the supplement but not the full amount. Um assuming that you can continue to maintain things based off your current operating budget and if you were to receive the additional funding, it'd be a benefit to you all. So essentially to answer your question about the risk, it's just being conservative, not knowing what will be voted on in June or
050if the budget gets delayed, what would be voted on eventually. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um I think that is a great question. Um it's something that we can't quantify, but it is a real risk because if you think back to 20078 and the aftermath of the great recession, the legislature did cut a number of subsidies to school districts. There used to be funds to support charter school tuition costs that got taken away and then cuts were made to other subsidy sources. So, it's not one that we can quantify, but it is a real one. So, thank you for that. Thank you. >> No other questions. Go on to our first Well, actually, my apologies. I forgot this slide. Um, here we just wanted to highlight some of the district's financial challenges ahead. So, as
051we mentioned before, state funding is a large proportion of the district's um total revenues budget, and that's what we've seen historically as well, above 70% and growing depending on um state growth in future years. That means the district's revenues are very sensitive to changes in allocations by the state. So, as Ian just mentioned, if the legislature were to cut state subsidies, for example, the district could feel that in its total revenues budget. costs are a large expenditure for the district. And as we've mentioned um before in Jeff's slide, you'll you see that the district has upcoming um collective bargaining agreements that will be expiring over the course of the projections. So future negotiations will impact what that total salary increase could be in future years. So that's an additional cost to the district potentially. Lastly,
052charter school tuition continues to grow for the district. As Jeff highlighted, not only are tuition rates increasing, but charter school enrollment is also increasing, leading to extra costs for the district overall, but you're seeing costs in some other areas as that service that we've talked about. Um, your contractual services such as transportation continues to grow as well. Essentially, absent faster growth in state funding, the district will have to consider some other um some other factors in terms of revenue growth to be able to maintain its current commitments in the next few years. You'll either have to consider potential tax increases or potential budget cuts in order to maintain your commitments. Here we wanted to reiterate sort of what What would it take to balance the district's baseline projections? So, if you recall a few slides
053ago, we shared a draft of the district's baseline. You do see a positive result for 2728. So, in the near term, you're doing okay. But, as we highlighted in 2829, you have a negative operating result that continues to grow through the rest of the projections. Some of these factors are outside of your control. So, state funding, as we've talked about, whether it's through BF or CF increases or whether it's through the additional adequacy supplements you could receive. Those are two things that could lead to positive impact for the district. But you can't control what the outcome of those allocations will be. But you can continue to advocate for the district and the needs of the district over the next few years both to your legislators to the community etc. Other areas that the district could
054consider are slower growth in charter school enrollment. So to reiterate, we are assuming charter school enrollment continues to grow by approximately 200 students a year. That's a little bit lower than the growth that the district has seen over the last year where it was closer to about 250. But slower enrollment growth would be a positive impact. Reducing cost through efficiencies or reallocating resources based off district needs and priorities or a combination of tax increases and cost containment could help balance you long term. Using the multi-year financial projections is a good source to be able to start to tell what your cost constraints are and where there are pressures in the budget to be able to start planning ahead of the issues. I'll pause here again before moving to the next scenario in case there are
055any questions. No, here we wanted to show the impact of our first scenario. So, as we highlighted, um this is what would happen for the district if you were able to continue to receive the adequacy supplement um in all of the projected years. So, like Jeff highlighted earlier, right now you've received about 22% of what the district's adequacy gap was when the fair funding lawsuit happened. So that means you receive the revenues in 2425 as well as 2526. It's being proposed again in 2627. But as we've mentioned earlier, don't know what the outcome of that will be. But here these projections show you if you were able to receive the full adequacy amount at the amounts that were posted in the 2627 proposed budget and if that same level continues and every year after here
056is the impact to the district's projections. So, as you can see, compared to the baseline that we shared with you all here, you're able to show positive operating results annually that grow over time. You'll see that you continue to see over 20 million per year from 2728 through 203031 largely due to the influx of the adequacy supplements. So again, this just highlights that the district's budget is sensitive to state funding and what the allocations are there. If you able to continue to receive state subsidies at the levels that you've been receiving over the last few years, it would balance the district's projections long term. Here, I want to reiterate, we are also continuing to assume no tax increases in this scenario. This is just the impact of state funding alone. So, we've highlighted some of
057these areas already, but some key takeaways about the funding scenario is the district has been able to present a balanced budget for 2627. You're able to continue to maintain your current commitments, but as we've heard tonight, the district is looking at continuing to invest in their capital funds to re to build up the um the buildings that you have and improve your facilities. A lot of them haven't been touched in the last few years and capital needs are greatly needed as identified in your capital plan that has costs of more than um half a billion dollars. So while you're able to maintain your current commitments today, you'll need to consider a lot of factors over the next few years and make some maybe difficult decisions to be able to continue to prioritize your investments. The
058baseline projections show a positive result again for 2728 and some shortfalls in 2829. That's less than 1.6% of the district's projected expenditures, but as we saw, that grows over time if no action is taken. So, state funding remains a main variable for the district that will help determine your financial stability in the future. And you'll have to consider the district's future allocations as you expand current programs and decisions around investments for your facilities and your other needs. You'll need to consider some of your other reoccurring revenue sources as a funding stream for you all as state funding allocations get determined. Any questions here before continue? Pardon me for not being very trusting, but uh do you have any idea whether this adequacy funding will continue and what we do if it doesn't. >> I can't
059f I can't say for certain that we know if the state will continue to invest in the adequacy funding the adequacy supplement as Jeff mentioned as part of the fair funding lawsuit that the the state has agreed to do something. What that something is could change. We know that different things have been introduced to the funding formulas over the last few years. I know for example hold harmless funds were a thing before level up funds this this is a way that the state is looking at addressing the needs now but as we know that could change in future years and I can't say for certain how that what that change would be >> thank you s and that places a great burden on you all because then you're left with only hard choices to make
060each year um you know over time the cost will grow faster and your revenues if you do nothing. So then you're faced with either raising taxes to support the operations that you have or looking at cuts if all else fails. So if the adequacy funding does not come through, then that presents a great challenge for you all in the long run. So here we're going to look at two other scenarios. So we've talked about the baseline. If the state funding does not step in and then what happens if the state funding does continue, how that supports your operating budget. But as we've talked about, there are a lot of needs that are out there for the district in terms of supporting its buildings. So, we're going to look at two different scenarios with tax increases
061and with borrowing. So, the first the second scenario, the second scenario is a 2.9% annual tax increase. So, this is 2.9% each year starting in 20267 going out to the final year 203132. So that table right there that shows the annual millage rate and what those increases would translate into for a millillage um for each year. And those increases would support $363 million of capital projects. In the third scenario, we're looking at one more percentage, so 3.9% annual tax increases, and that would support $485 million of projects. In terms of the budget, this is what it looks like. annual tax increases are fairly in line with the increase in debt service. So this looks very similar to the baseline projections. Um the ending year operating result was um a little over 40 million in the
062baseline. So I'll just sorry to jump around 49 million in the baseline. And here in scenario two with the tax increases in the borrowing um we're at 45 million. And the reason why is because we're showing the impact of current taxes supporting the debt service. There's also other impacts over time. Your delinquent taxes would grow um which would give a little bit more revenue in the long run. So here this debt service your annual costs will grow to 36 million almost 37 million by the time we get out to 203132. And although that seems like a large number compared to where it is today in that year it would be approximately 6% of the district's operating budget. So about half of what Jeff had talked about in terms of the statewide average for debt service
063as a percent of the operating budget. In scenario three, with a 3.9% annual increase, um that debt service would be a little bit under $45 million and that would be 7% of the district's operating budget for that year. So, what is that money supporting? Um the district has prepared a draft capital plan um that shows from priority one and two projects that were taken from the updated Brealin report. Um those are being supported by annual transfers from the capital projects fund and the general fund. Um, so those are taking place outside of what we're showing here and we believe that they are funded based on the district's plan. Now, to address the other needs in the capital plan for new school buildings, athletic facilities, and other high priority needs, you need to find an additional
064$640 million of projects. And that's where the borrowing comes in. So, as we talked about before, on that list of needs, there are projects that have already been committed to. There's the new K to8 building that needs to be completed. Um there's other projects that need to take place at um Sonia Smayor Elementary School, family and community resource center and the purchase of land at Union Terrace. Those have already been committed to. So in that borrowing, we need to back that out for those other needs. So that would leave somewhere between 200 million to $337 million of projects that you could fund with these two different scenarios. So every 1% of tax increase that you could do could um support approximately $125 million of projects. And if you wanted to just fund that almost $150
065million of projects that you've committed to, that'd be about a 1.18% tax increase. So even to handle the things that you've already committed to, you would need to raise taxes in order to offset that impact to the budget for those borrowing needs. Here on this slide, we show what that annual revenue generation would be just under some round numbers, 2% going all the way up to the district's act one index. And then finally, some takeaways. So since debt service is a recurring cost, you want to you want to marry that to a recurring source of revenue. And we know that in the long run, your operating budget is contingent on whether or not state funds step in. So rather than telling you to wait around for three years, five years, six years until you get
066those adequacy funds and then decide to borrow, our recommendation is that you can raise taxes today over time to offset those debt service costs. So if the borrowing happens next year, you can raise rates to offset some of that cost. And you're not going to take that borrowing all at once. You know, you're going to take that in chunks as you have the capacity to complete those projects, but over time you want to make sure that that tax rate increases in relation to that additional debt service. So in summary, in our baseline, we show that you're stable in the short term, this proposed budget, and next year they look um fairly balanced and the district is able to handle any uncertainty that we can think of at this point. Um in the long run, those
067costs do grow faster than your revenues if no action is taken. So if the state funding does not continue with those adequacy amounts, then you would see those shortfalls grow over time. So that continued adequacy at the state level is very important for you all to make sure that you can support the the good programs that are going on in the district's buildings and continue to expand on them. And then finally, in order to handle th that um list of outstanding needs, um we we recommend that you consider tax increases along with the borrowing for that. And although we show those two scenarios here tonight, for that borrowing, the district would have to um uh take on additional debt to complete that full list of projects that are on the capital plan. So that brings
068us to the end of our presentation. >> Questions or comments from the board? >> Yeah. Um I just had a question. So like, so I'm looking at the baseline projection, scenario one, scenario two, and scenario three. >> Yep. The baseline projection assumes that we're not receiving the state funding. Is that correct? >> So you receive the 20256 adequacy funds and the 10 million that Jeff has in the 2026 7 budget and then that's held flat for every year after that. So you do get it, but it doesn't grow. >> Held flat. Okay. And then so just understand like the differential between scenario two and scenario three. And forgive me for being simple minded here. I'm not a finance guy. So >> Oh, no. Ask away with all the questions, sir. >> The ending fund balance
069is larger in scenario two and scenario three. I'm guessing because we're not getting the state funding in these scenarios, right? But I guess what I'm trying to understand is like which of these scenarios represents like the middle ground between conservative and aggressive? >> No, that's a great question. Um, so to answer the fund balance question, it's because we're starting the tax increases next year, but not the debt service. So over time, the taxes are matching the debt service. But we don't know the timing of when you would borrow. Um, um, for this scenario, we just showed it all at once and the impacts there. But if you were going to borrow to complete those projects, it likely would happen next year. And if you did raise your taxes, it would more or less be in
070line with that. So in the final budget, you know, that would probably not be a surplus. you probably show the balanced budget and you wouldn't see that growth in the fund balance there. Um over time, you know, it's it's a good question about what is too conservative. You know, you don't want to underell yourselves in terms of committing to things, waiting around for funds for the state when, you know, they have made a good faith effort with these adequacy funds to um to show that they are making progress on it. you know, it's hard to tell if you would get these eight years of adequacy funds that we're showing and show those, you know, $20 million surpluses for six years as we were showing in scenario one. So, that's probably too optimistic. So, you know,
071somewhere in the middle is probably, you know, you could count on a couple of years of ready to learn block grant funding and then, you know, that would probably show a more positive outlook and then that would give you enough time in the long run where if that paused, you'd be able to make decisions to balance the budget in the long run. Thank you. >> Anyone else? Obviously, one of the ways we can deal with our finances is by not paying attention to some of our facilities needs. Um, I think this is really a question for you. Why should we put the why should we prioritize the facilities? So, and thank you, Miss Mat. So, for many years, for decades, the district has been underfunded and we have not had the resources to adequately improve
072our schools for our students. And so now we're at a critical juncture that there are many facility um um facilities needs and if we don't do something then our buildings will not be able to provide the educational programming um in the environment for our students and and as we've said as a collective community that we want them to feel safe, empowered, valued and loved. And so when you think about um the conditions that some of our schools are in, we're at the stage that we need to do something immediately to make some improvements uh to our facilities. And that's from the educational perspective. And also we have to compete. We're in the age of education that as a community, we have to compete and provide adequate facilities for our students. Um I believe that families
073can make um choices uh for their educational needs of their students. However, we have some of our friends who are the you resources that come through the district are going to improve other facilities and the district students are not getting their fair share of environments that we want our children to learn in. So there is a sense of urgency for us to take action on our schools because right now given the the landscape in terms of um available even properties within the our area they're very limited and so if one of our our schools comes offline right now because of we as Mr. Fazio always says keep kicking the can down that little adage he uses the road. um we're going to take our schools our schools offline and we don't want to be in
074that situation. We and we had a example of that last year with Harrison Morton. We displaced many students for many weeks and how disruptive that was to them as well as their families. And we commended the students and the staff for making those adjustments, but it's not fair to them when we know that we have to make take some action right now. Our our children deserve better. And I'm going to say this publicly to the board. I say to all our partners and to my and to my team, our students deserve more than hot dogs. We need to give them lobster. And so we have to think of that that they deserve the best. And so that is why we need to take some action about paying close attention to our facilities. >> Thank you.
075>> C. Anything else on those? So, what I did was I I wanted to close out I have a couple key messages that um and it's going to reiterate a lot of what we heard this evening, a lot of what we talked about and providing a general fund operations. The district must secure stable funding and sources to support our facilities and repairs and new school construction. This this is rehashing what Dr. Burch just talked about. We're with our buildings. We haven't touched a lot of our buildings in years that it's been kind of neglected to to an extent. Um so, we have to address that. We have to come forward and have a plan. And also we're competing as Dr. Burke said, we're competing with charter schools quite frankly and that's another one of our
076major expenditures. It's a liability for us to an extent for expenditure wise. So we have to compete with them. We have to compete and furthermore our students deserve it quite frankly. So these these are areas that we haven't had the chance to address that we can do it right now. Existing funding plan transfers are sufficient to complete priority one and two. We have a plan in place right now. We talked um earlier about capital projects about those those priority one those um those things that need to be done right away. We have a plan. It was crucial and that's what I'm going to talk about in the next area is to have a a capital projects plan which we have and now we're developing a capital projects plan to finance. So that's what we're in
077the process of doing now. So these are the areas that we have to we have to discuss and we have to move forward because as as our partner said if we go forward with all these other items there's still a funding gap of items that we need to address as we move forward and with our current revenue stream you'll see it's paramount that we advocate for continue adequacy funding. So you asked a great question will this continue? We don't know that quite honest that that's that's the big question right now. It's been it's been beneficial. It's worked. It's helped us. It's helped us immensely. It's helped a lot of districts immensely across the state. So, we have to continue to advocate for and again our local legislators have done great by us. They have looked
078out for us. They have done well for the state. It's it's it's a it's godsend almost to an extent what they have done and what we have received and what we could do with the funds that we received. So, we have to continue for our our state support, continue to um advocate for that. our adequacy funding and just fair funding as we move forward. So, I'll end with there. Are there any questions? >> I have a question. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um, I know we have a need. Boy, I know we need our buildings. The kids deserve to have a better building, you know, than some of the older 100-y old buildings that we have. Um, knowing that there is a potential maybe deficit in the future, is it wise to continue like with a
079plan of uh borrowing money and and debt? I mean, I'm not a financial guru either. So, I'm just worried about the future of the school and how we can make sure we don't end up on the rocks. >> Great question. I think we have to and it's a balancing act. Um act it's a balancing decision. It's decisions have to be made because quite frankly we haven't addressed um a lot of these areas in the in the past. And I'll go back to what Dr. Burch talked about. Last year we had a scenario where we had to take a building offline. We don't have the capacity if another building goes offline or something detrimental happens. We have to put these plans in place. I think it's our responsibility as as we progress and we we we
080we are stewards of the money and we're stewards of other students as well. So I think that's our responsibility and we have to put those plans in place. So we have to find a way to do it. I don't think I think our buildings are so old. I don't think we have an alternative quite honestly. That's I mean I could you could you but then when when it happens everyone's why didn't you do it? Why don't you you knew that the buildings were old and we know this and we know what needs to be done. So I think it's prudent upon us to make a way and to make it happen somehow. >> So is our debt that we're going to be going through uh specifically for priority one and priority two situations. >> So
081priority one and priority two we can handle right now. We have a plan set up through our capital projects fund. What's happening is there are other items which I think we had talked about earlier that are beyond the priority one and priority two. That's where we have to talk about issuing debt and taking on those projects as we go forward because a lot of the bu again I think we said 12 of our buildings over 100 years old. I mean you can imagine we're fortunate that they're older buildings because they they can withstand a lot. A lot of newer buildings couldn't withstand a hundred years. So we're fortunate in that regard, but we're but at the same time we're on borrowed time. Think about think about a hundred year old building that we need to
082upgrade throughout the district. >> And just to add to that and yes of course there and I give this I've shared this with our team. Yes, we know that the Vatican is old but they've maintained it. There have been upgrades over the years. They've put in some air conditioning in certain places. We haven't done many of those ch those minor things because we just didn't have the resources. Not because we didn't want to, we just didn't have the money. And so now we're at a critical juncture that we have to do something immediately. We don't want to put people at risk when we know that we have to repair something. You know, everything has a life cycle. And we're at that juncture now that many of these repairs that we have to make them immediately.
083And we know that many of these buildings will not withstand um another 20 years without doing anything. So our our our team, our facilities team, they do a great job, but certain things just can't be o they can't put any more wax down. Okay? Because they're putting wax down over some 50 years of not repairing a floor that should have been fixed 50 years ago. So and again, it is our responsibility to keep people safe as well and keep the building standing. So, we have to do something immediately. >> And if you don't mind, I would like to follow on from that. So, I think the urgency is absolutely critical. I think obviously our kids deserve it. So, you know, I'm curious like thinking about the actual next steps, you know, what is it that
084we can do like immediately sort of to make sure that we have that safe and adequate schools and facilities for our children. >> Great question. So, some of that we started doing already. So, number one, we went out and we did we had debris um capital capital assessment. They went through they assessed all our all of our buildings and this is where we came up with the priority one and priority two projects. That's step number one. That that a lot of districts don't do that. We haven't done it in a while. So that's number one. We identif we did it. The second piece of that is we're doing something about it. We're putting a plan in place. That's key. It's one thing to do it and just say, "Oh, well, we did it. We can't
085we can't do anything." doesn't it doesn't serve it doesn't solve any any issue that you have. What we've done is we have the plan, we identified what needs to be done. Now we're putting a plan in place, but in in conjunction with that, we're putting together a financial plan as well that we're trying to be careful so that it doesn't burden us that we can still do our other other agendas. We can do our curriculum. We can take care of our staff. We can take care of other items. So that's it's all it all works in hand that we have to do it all at the same time. So we're in the process of doing that right now. I think now a lot of those items before probably couldn't get done because we weren't in
086that financial shape. Right now we're in good financial shape and as you saw before and our our partners that shared with you for the next couple years we we have we're in good financial shape for the next two years if everything stays constant. We're we're good. is that it's the the resources that we're going to require to upgrade our facilities that we have to start planning for and start budgeting for and start making accommodations so that we can handle those and pay for those and maintain our financial stability because what you don't want to do is you don't want to go and spend money and then we're broke. Just think about your your own personal home. You have to set it up so that you can continue your life at a certain level and you
087can still maintain how you how you do business. And that's what we're doing right now. We we identified our issues and we're setting up a plan and we're set up a financial plan. >> So it's um and and Mr. Cuff did commend our state delegation, but also to continue everyone to advocate that to ensure that we do receive those resources that have been appropriate or allocated or promised uh to uh the district over the next 10 years or so to um close that gap. And there was a number was it 7 I don't want to b speak. What how what is the number Mr. Cuff or maybe um Sia or Ian knows the the share of at Allentown supposed to receive as it relates to the state funding. >> You mean for the adequacy fund?
088>> Yes. >> $185 million. >> Okay. I want to say you know about 700. >> 185. And what's interesting and I shared this earlier. I went through and I I I did a quick as I said there's 4.77 billion dollars that was out there. Allentown is ranked out of all the school districts in the state out of 500 school district in the state we were ranked number three as far as adequate or as we were underfunded. That's remarkable. I mean it just shows how underfunded we were here. So again if we can continue this adequacy supplement that we're getting it's a positive. it works well and then we can move forward and we can progress our our programs. >> So, I just have one follow on question, last question. Um, I think you I heard
089a lot of great stuff about capital projects here tonight and sort of like prioritizing that. Could you talk through more about like our educational programming? What are sort of like the priorities like our highest priorities as far as funding for those like our educational program? >> I'm going to turn it over to >> Yes. So um within our strategic plan we've called out seven priorities and then this year we're focusing on five big rocks. one you saw today. Mathematics is one of them and algebra one. And we're placing heavy emphasis on one providing our teachers with the skills and the pedagogical resources and knowledge that they need so that they feel um more equipped to deal um to to teach mathematics and provide them the professional learning um for um so that they can teach
090mathematics as well as literacy. We've placing our bets in literacy and a more intentional way uh with various efforts underway within the district. As we know, we're focused um where we are in the world, we have to use AI tools and resources. So, we are making investments there. Uh family and community our family and community resource center. I think we've we're being very intentional about family engagement in our collective community and that investment in our family and community resource center so that our families have a one-stop place, a hub to support their work and then providing students with a myriad of of experiences in early college as well as theme-based schools so that they have other pathways for success um for the I can talk all day about this education program. you how much more
091you want me to tell you because we are really um in in additional to in addition to the district focusing on those our own financial resources um we are fundraising I mean the superintendent has been trying to broker relationships with people so that help us support those costs and um and we are piloting various projects that we've been bringing before the board as a way to ensure that our students are getting what they need current day education without our cost of of our general fund or even our special funds where we're listing the support of our national partners to help us with that. And if if Miss Matthew and I don't want to with the academic team, is there anything else that I needed to mention if that's okay? Madam Chair, if Dr. Coleman could
092just say because she is the our expert there. >> Um good evening. And soon I will have an opportunity to speak um and share and highlight some intentional by design programming um capacity building we're looking to have happen across the district. So I'm excited about that. We my heart was beaming to see the um to be able to uh celebrate the achievement of our mathematics scholars. But I'm excited to share how even though we're doing better that we're we're positioning ourselves to to give our students our best. So shortly I'll have an opportunity to share three proposals that is directly connected to your question and the work that we are looking to do to leverage our strategic plan. >> And and I'll close with this. I think that one key element to keep in mind
093as we talk about construction, we talk about improvement and it goes back to a a movie phrase. If you build it, they will come. Quite frankly, once we improve our buildings, it improves your the home value in the area. It improves the perception of of of the folks in area. You you'll you'll attract more people in the area who want to come to Allentown School District, who want to bring their kids back from from charter schools. I think again we talked about it before we're competing but I think that we have to we have to take the initiative and put ourselves on the next pedestal up. Not only we're doing it with the curriculum but we have to do it with our buildings and our facilities. And I think as we build it people will
094appreciate the fact that their home values increase as well. It's not just oh the school district wants to spend money. We're doing it and I think the residual effect will affect everyone in a positive way. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. We do have some action items to bring before you this evening. Dr. Wharton B is requesting approval from the board to engage with Site Log IQ as a district's energy service provider under the Guaranteed Energy Savings Act. >> Madam Chair, might just before he speaks, I just want to thank our our um adviserss for PFM as well as Mr. No, no, you're fine. Mr. Cuff um and our finance team, Mr. Fazio as well as Dr. McCulla and your support and ensuring that we were able to prepare this presentation and I
095appreciate the board's questions and thank you and we will come back with some of the um additional information. So, thank you. >> Yeah, I'm sorry. >> Good evening board. Good evening, Dr. Burks. Tonight I'm pleased to announce uh or recommend that the board's approval for site logic as our energy and service provider ESP to do Giza projects as well as ESCO projects which are guaranteed energy saving projects. And to piggyback off what Jeff Cuff spoke about and what our colleagues from PFM spoke about, this is all part and parcel of this greater capital improvement plan. This is bringing air conditioning into a school that is older or renovating some stuff that keeps the building to your point, Mr. Harris, uh warm, safe, dry. And that's how I like to equate priorities one and priority two.
096So that's first and foremost that we have a new uh provider for us to help us meet some of our uh sustainability goals. >> Is there any question for uh Dr. Wharton? May I have a motion to move this item forward to the regular board meeting later this evening? >> I make a motion to move this item forward to the regular board meeting. >> I second that. >> Do we have a second? >> A second. >> Oh, sorry. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? The motion carries. And Dr. Dr. Wharton B is also requesting approval from the board for Hillis Carnese Engineering Associates to provide special testing and inspection services for the family and community resource center project at a cost not to exceed $25,000. I'm sorry,
097I'm getting new glasses tomorrow and I was having trouble reading the number. >> Thank you very much again. So, this one's interesting. In construction, you have the designers and you have the builders. Sometimes the plans don't follow what the builders do. For instance, the trades might not know how to build exactly what uh the architect or the engineer has shown or sometimes contractors like to take shortcuts. So what you need is an impartial individual to go and do testing of materials. When you're pouring concrete, they put rebarb in there, reinforcing bar. You got to count the number of reinforcing bar. So this indivi this group Hillis KS is going to provide that third party validation of construction. >> Any questions? May I have a motion to move this item forward? >> I second it. >>
098All right, we have a maker and a seconder. Is there any further discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? The motion carries. >> Thank you very much. appreciate it. >> Mr. Sickett is requesting approval from the board of the facilities plan committee report from the carbon lehigh intermediate unit. And I think that will probably take a little bit of explanation as well. And then this action item is uh also to be moved forward this evening. >> Good evening, Dr. Burks. Directors, we are requesting approval of the facility plan for the carbon Lehi Intermediate Unit. This action item is for the 2627 school year. This describes the comparability and availability of facilities for students with disabilities within the carbon lehigh intermediate unit. We are part ASD is part of fair share responsibilities.
099the plan was attached and this plan has no direct impact on families located in the Allentown School District that our facilities have no direct impact with any of our buildings. Any questions? >> May I have a motion to move this item forward? >> We have a maker. Do we have a second? A second. >> And we have a seconder. Any other question or discussion? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. The motion carries. And Mr. Cuff is requesting approval from us for the CDWG to provide electronic devices to outfit classrooms at a cost of $41,76.70. Thank you. We're looking for approval for a CDW to provide electronic devices to outfit classrooms at a cost of $41,76.76. It is currently in this year's budget. Uh with the expansion of classrooms at Sona Sonia Mayor Dual Language
100Immersion Academy, there's a need to ensure that those classrooms are properly outfitted for learning. >> Any question? May I have a motion? >> I make a motion to approve the 41,000 or to vote on it in the in the regular board meeting. Is that what you want? >> And a second. We have a maker and a seconder. All in favor? >> Opposed? The motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Do we have public comment cards or non-aggenda items? >> We have one card from Julie Velasquez. Once recognized, please come to the podium. State your name and address for the record. Please note remarks are limited to three minutes and the microphone will be disabled at the end of that time. Please also be informed that the board appreciates public comment. However, we are not able to
101respond to those comments. Administration will address your concerns and update the board on the status of your concerns. >> My name is Julie Velasquez and um I am here to speak on behalf of the superintendent's family advisory council. Good evening, members of the board, Dr. Burks and members of the district team. My name is Julie Velasquez, and I am honored to be here representing families across the Allentown School District as a member of the superintendent's family advisory council and as a parent of students attending Lehigh Parkway Elementary and Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy. This school year, our council has met four times with Superintendent Dr. Burks and her team. Through these meetings, we have had meaningful opportunities to engage in learning, share our perspectives, and contribute to conversations that directly impact the students and
102families across the district. Throughout our time together, we have explored important topics such as district initiatives, communication practices, and ways to strengthen family engagement. We have also had opportunities to provide feedback that help shape policies, programs, and family facing experiences in our schools. Most recently, we met this past Tuesday, March 24th, for a very productive and engaging session. During that meeting, we learned more about Title One and the important requirements tied to family engagement. We also reviewed the district policy 918 focused on parent and family engagement and had the opportunity to share our feedback, perspectives, and suggestions for strengthening the policy. In addition, we discussed the district's consolidated application process. It was especially valuable to better understand the different funding streams, their purpose, and how resources are allocated. As family leaders, we truly appreciate the
103transparency and the opportunity to offer input on how funding can best support student achievement and meaningful family engagement moving forward. We also continued planning for the district's first annual serve day where family leaders will partner with schools to support literacy, build relationships with students, and strengthen school family connections in a meaningful way. Being a part of this council has been an incredibly positive and empowering experience. It has allowed us to collaborate with other family leaders from across the district, learn more about the work happening in our schools, and engage directly with district leadership in a way that feels authentic, respectful, and impactful. On behalf of the council, I want to express our sincere gratitude for the opportunity to have our voices heard and valued. We are excited to continue this partnership and remain committed to
104supporting the successes of all students, families, and schools across the Allentown School District. Thank you. All right. Is there any old business to come before us? Any new business? May I have a motion to adjourn the finance committee meeting? >> We have a maker. We have a second. All in favor? >> Opposed? The motion carries. That means we're ready for um >> policy. I'm sorry for a second there. >> Yep. Okay. Um, so I'd like to call to order the policy committee of the whole meeting of the board of directors of the school district for the city of Allentown for today, March 26, 2026. Um, the board obviously welcomes and invites public comment. You may address the board on agenda and non non-aggenda items. The first opportunity for comment is at the beginning of the
105meeting and is limited to agenda items only. Comment cards must be received by the start of the meeting, which is now. We will not be receiving public comment cards once the meeting begins. Um, do we have any comments? We don't. Okay. >> Uh, so I'd like to turn it over to Dr. Burks for any remarks that she has. >> Thank you, Mr. Morris. Uh, we're just still excited that um we have such active engagement in our policy development. And I do want to um commend um my the superintendent family advisory council as well as the student advisory council, the interfaith council and all those groups as well as of course our staff that we have them weigh in on our policies before we bring them to you. Um and of course Mr. Noloff who leads
106that committee. So I want to thank everyone for a job well done. >> Okay. Thank you Dr. Burks. >> Um so we have five policies tonight to present this evening. Uh we'll start with the first one which is policy number 249 bullying and cyber bullying presented by Dr. Seavoy. >> Good evening board members, superintendent. I am presenting the policy 249 bullying and cyber bullying. This policy is renewed every two years. We are in the midst of um implementing this policy and um developing well we develop protocols and training staff and in um district leaders regarding the bullying policy. So the purpose of the policy states that the board is committed to providing a safe and positive learning environment for district students. The board recognizes that bullying creates an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, distracts from
107the safe environment necessary for student learning, and may lead to more serious violence. Therefore, the board prohibits bullying by district students. The definition of bullying means an intentional electronic written verbal or physical act or series of acts directed by another student or students which occur occurs in the school setting. Please note and or outside of a school setting that is severe, persistent, or pervasive and has the effect of doing any of the following. Substantially interfering with a student's education, creating a threatening environment, substantially disrupting the orderly operation of the school. The definition of bullying also includes cyber bullying. The Allentown School District utilizes Ove Bullying Survey to gather yearly annually district. We annual data ga we gather annual data for students perceptions of bullying in their school setting. It's anonymous. It's researchbased and it's administered
108to students in grades three to three through 12 that assess the nature, the extent and location of bullying. As of date, the district is comparable to the national average for bullying. I'll share some data in a moment. Allentown school district students in grades 3 through 12 took part in this year's bullying survey. The results will be available the week of we will receive the results the week of March 30th, which is next week. We approach bullying prevention and intervention, not just the identification of it, with a multi-tered approach that includes schoolwide education on social awareness, relationship skills, and rules regarding peer abuse and bullying. For the 2520 2425 school year, the national average of students reporting reporting that they have been bullied two to three times a month or more was 19%. The district's average
109was 20.7% for elementary. For middle school, the national average was 14.6. Allentown school district's average was 16.1%. And for high schools during the last school year, the national average was 9.9% and 6.2%. Why is this important? You you heard me say a lot about the percentage of bullying for two to three times a month and the number decreased once we went to high school. That is why an awareness about what bullying is. How do we support students who feel that they are bullying is important because the older the students get, we don't they don't report the bullying. for the 2526 school years as of date with awareness and support, professional support, technical support, and professional development. For the 2526 school year, the number of reports for disrespect to peers ranges from elementary is 254, middle
110188, high 59. That's just disrespect to peers. Why is that important? Because that number if not if there aren't any in interventions, it leads to bullying. Bullying level one right now is at 124. Bullying at level two are three. Bullying at level three are three. And bullying reports received as of date is 24. >> Thank you, Dr. Seavoy. >> You're welcome. >> Any questions for Dr. Seavoy? Seeing no questions, uh, may I have a motion to move this policy forward to the March 26, 2026 regular school board of directors meeting? >> I make a motion to move this to the March meeting. >> Is there a second? >> Any discussion? >> No. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? >> No. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Uh, next up we have Mr. Sang
111who will present policy number 333, professional development. Good evening, Dr. Burks and school board. Uh this is an updated policy for uh professional development policy 333. Uh the authority has largely stayed the same as has the graduate and special courses section. you do see an increase in the language within the induction plan uh that we do for new teachers and submit to the state as well as an induction program for school system leaders that's also in conjunction with uh the state. There was some additional language uh added to the professional education plan section. And then a big part of the update to the policy is a section on trauma-informed approach to education with a professional education plan including a minimum of one hour of required training in trauma-informed approaches. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Singh.
112Are there any questions? Seeing no questions, may I have a motion to move this policy forward? >> Do I have a second? Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? >> No. Thank you, Mr. S. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next up, we have three policies coming in succession uh from Dr. Wharton B. We have policy number 709 on building security, policy number 710 on use of facilities by staff, and policy number 820 energy conservation. >> Thank you very much. So, these three policies that are here before you are old. They're from 1999 and 2002, respectively. So, they're being revamped. So, policy uh 709, which is building security, the proposed revisions modernize the district's approach to building security by shifting oversight of the school safety and security coordinator. Uh
113when this policy was written, there wasn't no school safety and security coordinator. that is new from about uh 2019 when the state government started giving out money for PCCD grants. They also that was the caveat. You get money you have to have robust security measures. So that's the first one. Policy 710 is the use of facilities by staff. We currently have a prop we currently have a policy called 707 which is facilities use outside of the school district. you know people our community who wants to use our facilities. So this is basically the same thing asking for our staff to have a priority because it's our school kids and b that they have to follow the same things that everybody else does. Make sure that you have the proper venue, make sure that you have
114the proper authorizations and so on and so forth. Uh this one originally was from 1998. The last one which is policy 820 which is energy conservation. Uh this evening we discussed uh having a partner for our Giza and ESCO projects. This is basically not saying that we need to do that but we should be looking at energy conservation across the board. Uh making sure that the temperatures in classrooms are right. Making sure on a cold day a window isn't open or making sure on a cold day that the window shut upon leaving. So all these energy conservation methods uh measures uh and we also have to measure it. It has to be quantifiable. I know you're a data guy. So do we see a decrease in some of the equip uh costs like for PE
115uh ppl sorry not pico when we put new capital equipment in HVAC heating and so forth we should see an offset of cost for that. So that's what this one's saying too. So we have to be again sustainable. >> Okay. Thank you Dr. Wharton B. Uh any questions? >> Seeing none, may I have a motion to move this forward? >> I second it. >> Thank you. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Morris. >> Thank you. Um at this time, we're taking public comments on non-aggenda items. Do we have any comments? We have none. Okay. Any old business coming before the board? No. Any new business? No. Okay. May I have a motion to adjourn? >> So moved. >> Is there
116a second? >> Thank you. Any any discussion? >> No. >> Okay. Yeah. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Okay. Thank you. Turn it over to education. >> I never hear a motion to adjourn. >> Good evening. Can you hear me? Good evening everyone. I would like to call to order the education committee of the whole meeting of the board of directors of Allentown School District for the city of Allentown from March 26 26, 2026. The board welcomes and invites public comments. You may address the board on agenda and or non-aggenda items. The first opportunity for comment is at the beginning of the meeting and is limited to agenda items only. Comment cards must be received by the start of the meeting which is now. We will not receive we will not
117be receiving public cards once the meeting begins. A copy of the public comment policy is located on the table next to the comment cards. Per our board's policy, any persons may address the board in accordance with the procedures and limitations of this policy either on issues presented in resolutions being considered on or other matters affecting the administration, management, or operation of the district. Remarks of personal nature directed against any individual indiv individual will be ruled out of order. Do we have any comment cards? Okay. Any remarks for Dr. Burks? >> Thank you, Dr. Johnson. Uh on tonight's education agenda this evening, we are really excited to share updates uh that are aligned to our core priorities. Uh we will highlight professional learning um that will help to build the capacity of our educators across the
118district. We uh tonight Dr. Coleman will share um the an agreement that we're bringing before you on the ongoing assessment project and strengthening our partnership with the University of Pennsylvania. >> Thank you. >> You tonight we have eight action items. Dr. Seavo is requesting approval from the school board of directors for renewal of the memorandum of understanding with kids piece children's hospital to operate schoolbased behavioral clinic in identify ASD schools. Thank you. Good evening again. Um the office of students office of student support services have come before the board and asked for formal memorandum of understanding with organizations that are providing mental health support andor education in our schools. Kids peace is a school-based mental health service for our students and we're asking for a memorandum of understanding so that they may operate school-based behavioral
119health clinics in the identified schools. It will continue to provide I'm sorry kids piece has been in the in the Allentown school district for the past six years. So this is a formal memorandum of understanding in that agreement we piece will continue to provide outpatient services. Excuse me I'm suffering from co which includes individual family and group therapy at no charge to the Allentown school district. The audience is anyone that is consider any student that is considering that is presenting mild to severe mental illness and/or behavioral concerns. The supports are available in Central Stream Academy, Ramos Elementary, Harrison Morton Middle School, South Mountain Middle School, and William Allen High School. The services will definitely support the strategic plan lighting the way a blueprint for innovation and excellence 2030 and it focuses on priority two safety
120and whole child development. We're currently um implementing three strategies that are three actions that are tied to mental health for students. The services that kid piece kids piece provide are individual family and group therapy, psychiatric evaluations and ongoing medication management. They provide um consultation and collaboration with school level staff and they also um support our back to schools night back to school nights and the back to school bash. Over the years, the highest number of services that they therapy sessions that they provided was 1395. That was in 2021-22. It has since been 1162, 1173. Last year was 1,7. And as of date, we're at 646, which mean we paid surpass what we the therapy sessions that occurred last year. Are there any questions? question. Any questions? Anyone? >> No. May I have a motion to
121move this item forward? >> Dr. Johnson, >> there's no quorum in here right now. >> Oh, that's right. >> You lost somebody, but you have to wait. >> We can either wait or you can go on to the next item and then vote. >> Yes, >> we can aggregate. We can wait and perhaps do a few motions together uh when we get a quorum back in hopefully a few minutes. >> Okay. to just let the explanation of the next one go and and then we'll come back and we'll make both motions. >> Okay. So, Dr. Coleman, she has seven action items. Do you want me to go through them individually or group them together or >> without objection? The board could move all motions forward at once. >> Yes. >> So, get all the presentations
122and then we'll do one vote. >> We can >> Oh, we got a quorum. >> Oh, there we go. All right. So, now you can go back. Now you can go back to plan. >> Wrong place. Wrong place. Wrong place. Over here, kid. Come on. Right. >> Sorry. >> May I have a motion to move this item forward to the March 2026 move >> March 26 26 regular board um director's meeting? >> I second. Any discussion? >> We have a maker and a seconder. So now you can call for a vote. >> Say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> All right. So next is Dr. Coleman. She is requesting approval from the Allentown School Board of Directors for Allentown School District to enter into a professional learning partnership with
123the University of Pennsylvania to implement the observation feedback and coaching OFC professional learning experience, a year-long leadership development initiative designed to strengthen instructional leadership and improve tier one instruction across the district. >> Good evening board members, Dr. BS if it's okay. I have three that are very interconnected. I just wanted to frame it with a short presentation. Is that okay? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Is that okay with all the board members that she >> put her three tiers together? >> Okay. >> Yes. >> So, as we look toward Thank you. As we look toward our 2030 horizon, we are clear about the outcomes we are working to achieve. students demonstrating deep mastery and strong resilient mathematical foundations. The algebra one gateway cleared with dramatically increased success rates, uncompromised standards with universal access to rigorous
124grade level instruction and gradu and graduates who are truly future ready with expanded college and career opportunities. Thank you. Tonight's proposal proposals represent a strategic systemwide investment in how we get there by strengthening instruction across Allentown school district at scale. At its core, this work is about building capacity and collective efficacy, ensuring that every educator at every level of the system is supported, developed, and equipped to deliver strong tier one instruction for every student. We recognize two important realities. First, our data continues to show that mathematics is a priority area, particularly as it relates to foundational reasoning and success in algebra 1 as a gateway course. Second, approximately 33% of our educators are new to the profession, making it essential that we invest in systems that support their growth, retention, and long-term success. Research is
125clear. Educators stay and thrive in systems where they are supported, developed, and able to succeed. These proposals are intentionally designed to do exactly that. Through our partnership with the University of Pennsylvania, we are building a coherent system that integrates professional learning, instructional coaching, and targeted content support. This includes our ongoing partnership in the past pioneer AI and school system initiative which will support our district in thoughtfully and responsibly embracing artificial intelligence with integrity, knowledge, and alignment at no cost to the district. Together, this work Thank you. Together, this work moves us beyond isolated efforts to a system that is coherent, sustainable, and focused on results. This is how we strengthen instruction at scale and ultimately improve outcomes for every student we serve. This work positions us to realize our 2030 vision with strong instruction, aligned
126systems, and collective efficacy. Ensure that every student is prepared, successful, and future ready. Thank you for that one. >> Yes. >> Oh, okay. >> Thank you. Now, if it's okay, I'll go into the first the first memo. The first one. Okay. Today, I request the board's approval for the Dollartown School District to enter into a professional learning partnership with the University of Pennsylvania to implement the observation, feedback, and coaching professional learning experience. A year-long leadership development initiative designed to strengthen instructional leadership and improve tier one instruction across the district. What is it? The lighting away 2030 observation, feedback, and coaching endorsement program developed in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education is a comprehensive job embedded professional learning experience designed to strengthen the district's tiered instructional coaching model and build leadership capacity
127across the system. is grounded in in ASD's tiered cascading coaching structure. This initiative strengthens the district's ability to sustain and scale high quality professional learning by investing in a district-based coaching model built on research and evidence of success and customized to meet the specific needs of the Allentown School District. This work reflects a coach coachy structure where leaders at every level are both developing others and being developed, ensuring coherence, accountability, and continuous improvement across the system. The program will be facilitated by University of Pennsylvania's faculty and experts, ensuring that all learning is grounded in research-based practices and instructional leadership, adult learning theory, and cognitive coaching. Participants will engage in a three-part course sequence implemented from May 2026 through May 2027 designed to strengthen leaders ability to observe instruction, provide high quality feedback, and lead effective
128coaching cycles that improve teacher practice and student outcomes. Upon upon successful completion of all three courses and this job embedded participants will earn Pennsylvania instructional coaching endorsement 12 University of Pennsylvania graduate school of education credits and act 48 credits. This endorsement represents a significant investment and building internal leadership capacity ensuring that the district bless you um can sustain and scale instructional improvement through a coherent systemwide coaching model. The OFC endorsement program will be implemented through a tiered leadership development structured aligned to the district instructional culture model. Um three tiers. Tier one central office launch from May to June 2026. Central office leaders including executive directors, principal supervisors, instructional supervisors, and content specialists will engage as both coaches and coaches. This phase will establish a shared vision for observation, feedback, and coaching practices aligned to tier
129one instruction and student learning. Tier two, school-based leadership launch summer 2026. Principles and assistant principles will participate in a structured way, a leadership experience focused on strengthening instructional leadership through high quality observation, feedback, and coaching cycles. ongoing implementation throughout the the school year 2026 2027. The work will be fully job embedded with ongoing coaching cycles, walkthrough calibrations, and professional learning integrated into district-wide professional development days. District central office leaders and school-based coaches will support sustained implementation through aligned PLC's and coaching structures. The initiative directly advances lighting lighting the way a blueprint for innovation and excellence 2030 by strengthening the instructional leadership system necessary to improve tier one instruction and student outcomes across all schools. The work is aligned to the professional standards for educational leadership piling 4 curriculum instruction and assessment PO 6 professional capacity
130of school personnel and PO 10 school improvement. Through this partnership with the University of Pennsylvania, ASD is making an intentional investment in researchbased leadership development that directly impacts classroom instruction and student achievement. This initiative is designed to strengthen practice across all levels of the system. Leaders will demonstrate strong stronger observation, feedback, and coaching practices resulting in greater alignment between central office and school-based leadership. Teachers will receive more actionable high quality instructional feedback and coaching support. And as a result, students will experience stronger tier one instruction and increased access to rigorous high quality learning experiences across all classrooms. The total investment is $105,000 and source of funds is ready to learn. This action request has been reviewed by the solicitor. >> Okay. Do we have any questions at this time? >> Yeah, I just had a
131few questions. Um, first, I mean, this sounds amazing. like this sounds really great. Um so I'm curious like how much capacity is there in this program for our employees to participate like how many people can participate? >> So so by design 30 but it's a coach coach coach model. So in this cascade so as central office level leaders are are coached and trained in the process. We will all coach our coaches and move down to the school level. school level um leaders will be coached and will be trained and it will cascade to our teachers. So all across the district it will be a coach coach model um across the beginning in May 2026 if approved. >> Okay, great. And then across the Lehigh Valley, are there any other school districts participating in this program?
132>> Not that I know of. School districts. >> School districts? >> No, not not within the Lehigh Valley. >> So we're one of the only ones in Well, we are the only one in the Lehigh Valley, which is pretty amazing. So, I just want to highlight that. Um, and then, yeah, I think after successful implementation, if we could hear from the teachers and staff that went through this, that would be great. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. May I have the motion to move this item forward to the March 2026 regular board meeting for the director's meeting? >> Are we going to move all three of them? >> Oh, we're going to move the next one. >> Is there another one yet? >> I thought we were going to do
133those. That's why I'm confused. >> Sorry. I'm new at this show. Hey, we're going to move the next one. Go ahead. >> Okay. So, I also request the board's approval for the Allentown School District to enter into a contract with the ongoing assessment project, OG GAP, to provide professional learning and implementation support for K to8 mathematics educators and instructional leaders. This proposal supports the district's continued effort to strengthen tier 1 mathematics instruction and improve foundational mathematical reasoning across elementary and middle grades. OGAP is a nationally recognized evidence-based professional learning system that builds teacher teacher expertise in understanding how students develop mathematical thinking. The OGAP professional learning model focuses on learning progressions that map how students develop mathematical reasoning. Formative assessment diagnostic probes that help teachers identify misconceptions early. Structured PLC routines that support collaboration around
134student work and instructional decision making. The pre professional learning structure includes in-person training for particip for participating educators, follow-up professional learning sessions during the 26 27 school year, leadership training for building and district leaders, job embedded PLC support and coaching to strengthen implementation. The initial launch will include approximately 50 educators including teachers, specialists, and instructional leaders within a goal within a goal of building internal expertise and skill and implementation across the district. This initiative directly advances the district's academic priorities by strengthening teacher content knowledge and instructional decision-making and mathematics, particularly in the early grades where foundational numeracy skills are developed. Students will benefit from stronger tier one instruction, ensuring access to rigorous standards, allowing mathematics learning, earlier identification of misconceptions, allowing teachers to intervene before learning gaps widen instruction informed by formative assessment enabling more
135responsive and personalized teaching. Stronger mathematical reasoning, which supports long-term success, and algebra 1 and advanced mathematics. Research supporting O GAAPS demonstrates statistically significant gains in student achievement and measurable improvements in teacher diagnostic knowledge of mathematics. The support model is designed to utilize common planning time for curriculum alignment, pacing and collaborative lesson planning. It provides targeted in-classroom coaching focused on effective instructional practices and digital tool integration. facilitate focused professional learning align to high leverage strategies within the curriculum and conduct bi-weekly data check-ins with school leadership to monitor student progress and adjust supports. The OGAP partnership aligns directly with the district's lighting the way 2030 strategic plan supporting the district's commitment to strengthening tier one instruction across classrooms, building educator capacity through high quality professional learning, advancing instructional coherence across schools, and improving long-term mathematic outcomes and
136preparing students for success and algebra 1 and advanced mathematics pathways. Through this partnership, the district continues to invest in research informed professional learning that strengthens instructional practices practice and improves outcomes for students across Allentown School District. The cost is $46,000. Um, it is accounted for in the current budget utilizing title one funds and yes, it has been shared and pending approval from the solicitor. >> Do we have any questions? You can move on. Thank you. >> I take >> Okay. Request >> three or four items. >> She said she had three. Three. >> Is there still some more? >> Yes. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I don't have a copy in front of me. >> Oh, yes. She has. >> Okay. Request the board's approval. I request the board's approval for the Allentown School District to
137enter into a professional learning partnership with the University of Pennsylvania to support the implementation of the ASD ASD Lighting Aways Lighting Away Algebra One Academy, a year-long professional learning initiative designed to strengthen algebra 1 instruction and improve student proficiency across district high schools. The ASD lighting away algebra 1 academy developed in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education is a year-long coaching supported professional learning experience designed to strengthen instructional coherence, build educator capacity, and accelerate student success in algebra 1, a critical gateway course for college and career readiness. Aligned to lighting away a blueprint for innovation and excellence 2030. This initiative represents an intentional system level investment to expand access and opportunity for all students to successfully enter and persist through the algebra 1 gateway. This work directly advances priority one academic
138excellence with a specific focus on increasing the percentage of students successfully completing algebra 1 by 9th grade. Beginning May 2026 through June 2027, the academy will focus on strengthening instructional practices within the district's 9th grade academy structure, ensuring students receive a strong mathematical foundation during their transition into high school. Approximately 30 participants will engage in the academy, including all of our algebra 1 teachers, mathematic coaches, assistant principles responsible for supporting algebra 1 instruction, and central office mathematic leaders. This crossroad participation ensures coherence across classroom instruction, coaching, school leadership, and district level decision making. Participants will engage in sustained high quality job and better professional learning and upon completion will earn six University of Pennsylvania graduate school of education credits act 48 credits approximately 190 hours algebra one certificate endorsed by the University of Pennsylvania. The
139faculty will include PENG GSSE GSSE experts and university faculty ensuring that all learning is grounded in current research and best practices in mathematics instruction and adolescent learning. The academy is intentionally designed as a coaching supported model with ongoing professional learning communities facilitated and sustained by district central office leaders and school-based coaches who will be trained through PGSC. This structure ensures that the work extends beyond isolated professional development and instead builds long-term capacity and collective efficacy across the system to scale and sustain impact. Key components of the academy include inerson professional learning co-design with PGSC, a summer readiness convening to launch the work, districtwide instructional visits and coaching aligned to ASD's observation feedback coaching process, structured student work analysis, collaborative lesson planning and ongoing progress monitoring. Central office stepback cycles will also be used to identify
140system level barriers and strength implementation support for all three programs. The Algebra One Academy directly strengthens the quality, consistency, and rigor of tier one instruction across high schools, particularly within the nth grade academy model. As a result, students will experience more coherent and high quality instruction, deeper conceptual understanding of mathematical ideas, and increased access to rigorous coursework that prepares them for advanced mathematics pathways. Instruction will be more responsive to student thinking through the use of real-time data and student work analysis. Because alge algebra 1 is a foundational gate one course, improving outcomes in this area has a high lever impact on student success, including increased access to advanced coursework, stronger graduation pathways, and expanded post-secondary options. The Algebra 1 Academy is a core component of the district's lighting away 2030 strategy to build educator expertise
141through intentional researchbased partnership. The total investment is $105,000. the source of funds, title one professional learning funds and ready to learn and and the cost is accounted for in the current budget and the action um has been reviewed by the solicitor. Do we have any questions? Did you want to continue? >> Well, I'm done with this part. >> You're done with this part? Okay. All right. May I have a motion to move the first three items, action items forward for the March 2026 26 regular school board director's meeting? >> I make a motion to move this to the March 2026 board meeting. >> Is there a second? >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. >> Thank you. All right. One second. I'm sorry. >> Miss Perez is going
142to present the next item. I know Dr. Coleman's listed, but it'll be Miss Perez. >> Oh, okay. That's why I was a little confused. Okay. What do I state her name? Miss Perez. Okay. Miss Perez is requesting approval from the school board of directors for the renewal of the theou between Moravian University Department of Nursing of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the Allentown School District to provide nursing school students with clinical education and professional practice experiencing in nursing. >> Thank you. Good evening, school board. Dr. Burks. Tonight, I'm presenting a renewal of our existing with Moravian University School of Nursing. Their nursing program provides clinical experience opportunities for nursing students within our school health rooms. Aligning with our st strategic priorities of safety and whole child development and talent management and development. This collaboration not only enhances
143support for our students through additional health services, screenings and education, but also builds a pipeline of future school nurses by exposing students to the field and encouraging potential employment within our district. upon graduation. >> Do we have any questions? >> No. May I have a motion to move this item forward? >> Is there a second? >> Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? >> Okay. Okay. Dr. Coleman is requesting approval from the from the school board of directors to purchase additional Amplify Science K through5 materials at a cost not to exceed $125,000. This request is for additional materials due to the increase in the number of elementary classrooms for the 2026 to 2027 school year. >> Madam Chair, I think that Mr. Kaufman is going to present the memo
144if that's okay. >> Thank you. Uh Kyle Kaufman, director of innovation, instructional technology. Um this is related to a series of memos associated with our increased enrollment at the elementary level, which is a great thing uh and the core curricular materials that we have available uh in those classrooms. So the request is for the board's approval to purchase additional Amplify Science K5 materials at a cost not to exceed $125,000. This request is for additional materials needed to due to the increase in the number of elementary classrooms for the 2627 school year. Um the memo is similar to what we've used in the past when we've purchased these core materials. I won't read through the entire thing unless there are questions. The key idea here is this outfits all of our classrooms with the same highquality
145instructional materials necessary to implement K5 science education aligned to the new steel standards. Okay. May I have a motion to move this item forward? >> I make a motion to move this item forward. >> Is there a second? >> Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. Dr. Coleman is requesting approval from the school board of directors to purchase additional savings my world social studies K through5 materials at a cost not to exceed $60,000. The request is for additional materials needed due to increase in the number of elementary classrooms for the 202627 school year. >> Um and again similar and you stated it perfectly. Uh this is for the same uh reason as the amplify science. It's that uh for our social studies program at the K5 level
146uh we utilize a SAVIS program. And so these uh materials at this cost for uh $60,000 uh cost not to exceed will provide all classrooms with equal access to high quality instructional materials to support our social studies programming. >> May I have a motion to move this item forward? Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Lastly, Dr. Coleman is requesting approval from the school board of directors to purchase additional savings envision math K through5 materials at a cost not to exceed more than $65,000. The request is for additional materials needed due to the increase in the number of elementary classrooms for the 2026 27 school year. >> Madam Chair, just Dr. Rocklin's going to present that memo. >> Oh, okay. And just so
147for the record, if it's okay, Madam Chair, just for the board, the memos are written by the chiefs. So they may call upon members of their teams with expertise. So that's why you see the chief's names, but because ultimately they're responsible, but members of their teams will present periodically, just so you're aware. >> Thank you, Dr. Burks. Hello everyone again. I'm Heidi Rocklin, executive director of mathematics here at Allentown. And much like Mr. Hoffman explained with the other materials, we also need the same increase in materials, highquality instructional materials for our K to5 classrooms. >> Okay. May I have a motion to move this item forward? Is there a second? >> I second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. >> Any oppose? >> All right. At this time, we're taking public comments
148on non-aggenda items. Do we have any comments? No. Is there any old business to come before the board? Is there any new business that comes before this board? >> May I have a motion to adjourn? >> Motion. >> Is there a second? >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Thank you. >> Meeting is journ >> and thank you everyone. And let's take about a 5m minute break before we begin the regular got cool in here. She and I disagree on temperature. So, no, I'm fine. Just kidding. >> No, it is fine here. Hi. >> I'd like to call to order the meeting of the board of directors of the school district for the city of Allentown for today, March 26, 2026. The board welcomes and invites public comment. You
149may address the board on agenda and or non-aggenda items. The first opportunity for comment is at the beginning of the meeting and is limited to agenda items only. Comment cards must be received by the start of the meeting, which is now. We will not be receiving public cards once the meeting begins. A copy of the public comment policy is located on the table next to the comment cards. According to our board's policy, any person may address the board in accordance with the procedures and limitations of that policy, either on issues presented in resolution being considered or on other matters affecting the administration, management, or operation of the district. Remarks of a personal nature directed against any individual will be ruled out of order. If you choose to address the board, please fill out a comment
150card and hand it to the board secretary, Mr. Simson. Once recognized, please come to the podium. State your name and address for the board. We'll now have roll call. Mr. Secretary, please call the RO. >> Miss Diamore. >> Dr. Johnson. >> Miss Mat >> here. >> Miss Nichols. >> Miss Michaels >> here. >> Mr. Morris >> here. >> Is Miss Sierra? Uh, we have five members present. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. >> I pledge algiance >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Madam superintendent, do you have some remarks? >> Thank you. Thank you, Miss Mat. Good evening, school board directors, um to members of the public,
151to my team, and to all our families that are listening. This month, we are really excited. Um and across the district, we we are celebrating Women's History Month. Yay. a celebration of achievement in recognition um of the women who've paved the way for many of us uh as an organization and as a nation. Um and those women leaders um not just the historic figures but our staff as well as our faculty members who are women across the district. We honor you and thank you for your service to our school district and to our overall learning community. So we we thank you and we commend you and I'm honored to serve with each of you. So please give them a round of applause and we have many of them in the room today. March is also
152National Reading Month. Yes, we launched a celebration. We launched our reading celebration um earlier this month with ReadAcross America. And I want to thank all of our partners. We had hundreds of partners across the districts read in our schools. I want to thank them for their partnership and sharing their careers and their experiences with our students. We are really thrilled. I want to commend all the schools that have the superintendent uh book club. And I I also want to thank the learning and teaching team um Miss Smith as well as others and our reading specialists and media specialists, everyone, teachers, everyone. I want to get in trouble. everyone who was um involved in making it this a huge success and to all our student readers. We were really uh thrilled our elementary book club we
153feature the um author came to the district. Uh the title of the text was thank you I always messed this up amu and um Amu means queen. Um, and so she talked about her experiences growing up and the theme of the text was very moving about a community coming together to support each other. And so and we thank Sheridan Elementary School for hosting the other elementary schools, a few like six other schools, the top readers um at their schools to showcase our author as well as and she was also the illustrator for the book was very exciting. So again we thank the entire team another example of supporting our strategic plan and one of our big rocks literacy. Um also um we have great celebrations and members of our learning community who have been who've
154been honored and recognized throughout our broader Lehigh Valley. So we are excited because we know that we as a community we are very competitive and so we want to showcase our own when they do a great job. So we want to thank and acknowledge principal Lindsay Perkins from Dodd Elementary School. She was recently honored as educator with real impact through Lehigh University's Joy in Education social media campaign. So we are really thrilled uh for Miss Perkins and this recognition reflects her leadership and the positive impact that she continues to have on her school community. Well, she went from being a principal of just kindergarten students or pre-K and kindergarten students and now she has a a K5 a K to five principal and so and she did that very seamlessly and so again um I
155want to thank Miss Perkins for a job well done. We are also really ecstatic that Lehi Parkway, let's go. Lehi Parkway. So, Lehigh Parkway Elementary School was also featured in the great Pennsylvania schools newsletter for a spotlight on their success of their squad mentoring and buddy program. So, this particular um organization showcases districts throughout the state and this is the first time that we were featured and so I'm really happy. So, I want to commend the entire learning community at Lehigh Parkway for continuing to let your light shine and to represent us well. So, thank you so much, Lehi Parkway, and the entire team over there. So, thank you. We can give another round of applause. Thank you, Principal Connor, for your leadership. We're also grateful to our um of course our elected officials, particularly
156Senator Miller in this case where we were awarded in part partnership with Lehigh Valley Health Network $250,000 for our schools to work program. Yes, this particular partnership will expand our healthc care futures workforce development program uh which is an initiative that will part we will partner with Bridgeview Academy and this investment will strengthen pathways for students interested in careers and health care and supports our commitment to real world learning experiences. So um Miss Singer and team will have a lot more work as far as the school leaders at um Bridgeview Academy around creating pathways and opportunities at the hospital for our students. Uh we also disseminated a survey to our faculty and staff um in order to assess their needs. And so and tonight we just want to give a board an overview to the
157board. to share with the board that we were going to um distribute a service and we were pleasantly surprised at the number of responses that we received and I just want to close a loop because we're working on closing a loop. That's the term we use around here when we say we're going to do something. So Miss Ramos is coming and Mr. James and they're going to give the board a quick overview of where we are in terms of distributing resources to our faculty and staff across the district. Thank you, Dr. Burks. Uh, good evening. As Dr. Burke mentioned, um, in late January, we did, um, issue what my colleague, Dr. Dr. Coleman calls a pulse check or a survey out to our um learning community specifically about the 1,200 um professional employees to get
158a sense of what they might need or any barriers they were facing as we moved into the second semester of the school year. And as Dr. Burks mentioned, we had over 65% of our group um respond to that survey. So, we do want to shout out um our A.E.A. president, Miss Franklin, who also helped um push that survey out. This is pretty it's a pretty significant response rate, and we appreciate that. And so, um and also thanks to Dr. Zimmerman for analyzing the data so efficiently and effectively. So, some of what we learned from the survey were there were some immediate needs where people just wanted some basic supplies and um so we did place an order I want to get the number for almost a 100,000 pencils. Um and those pencils were delivered to
159every classroom by uh Mr. James' team, our human capital managers. Uh if you've been a teacher, you know that you like a certain kind of pencil with a certain kind of eraser. And so we wanted to make sure that we provided those. Um it was like flu season as well as we were issuing the survey. So there were a lot of requests for you know some some Kleenex and Clorox wipes. So we did purchase almost 7,000 boxes of tissues and nearly 1,200 um sanitizer wipes and those were also distributed to all of our classrooms um within a week or two after we issued the survey. Um some of the other things that we did do was we we made sure that the principles um are also articulating to their staff how to request basic supplies.
160Sometimes there there could be a disconnect because we do have processes for staff to do that. So we we confirmed that as well. Some of the other things that are taking a little longer to to process, there were a lot of requests for um furniture. So some of our furniture similar to our buildings is a little old. So, um, our business office, our facilities team, our principles, they've been working collectively to put together a fairly comprehensive furniture order that, um, the board will see in the upcoming month or months so that we can prepare for the next school year to really have our schools not only clean and and beautified, but also with um, some some more new furniture. We um as the survey on the screen notes, we found that most of our schools
161were fairly well stocked with technology. Um we did place a large order for headphones. Um the the headphones um just sometimes they break or we just, you know, they lose it. So we had about 4,000 new headphones that are in the process of being delivered. I think we had another order arrive today. Um which is also critical to our state testing. Um and one of the other things there were some various like curricular resources and Miss Smith and Dr. Coleman have um done a great job as soon as we heard some of the the needs arise around some early literacy and decodable text um they met with our curriculum provider benchmark and so we anticipate bringing forward to the board some more resources that are really focused on early literacy and foundational skills. So, we're
162processing numbers of classrooms and what we need to get that done so that we also have that moving forward. Mr. Mr. James, I don't know if I >> I just want to just add uh quickly that uh I think Miss Ramos shared it earlier that a number of our staff members from uh talent management certainly went out to the schools and certainly uh handd delivered these supplies to our teachers and two of them are here tonight uh Miss Allen and Miss Vazquez. Let's give them a round of applause. making sure that our teachers have have what they need and that they are certainly important and that's a that's a good uh staff retention uh strategy as well. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. Um and I want to thank again all our faculty
163and staff for being responsive and we as a district just so the board is aware we will do this on a quarterly basis to check in and see where we are um to ensure that we have this the materials uh distributed to staff. And I want to thank the of course my entire team and particularly the finance team and the procurement team that have to be very responsive very quickly to get things out. So thank you so much for your hard work. Appreciate it. And um that that concludes my remarks for this evening. And so thank you Miss 100,000 pencils. Amazing. At this time we're only taking public comments on agenda items. Do we have any cards? >> We do not. May I have a motion for the approval of the minutes? We have a
164maker. Do we have a seconder? >> We have a maker and a seconder. Is there any discussion? >> Seeing none, will you call the role, please? >> Dr. Johnson, >> Miss Mat, >> yes. >> Miss Michaels, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris, >> yes. Miss uh Diamore. >> Miss Diamore. >> Thank you. A motion passes 5-0. >> Okay. Uh we'll move into reports from the Allentown Recreation Report. Is there a report, Miss Michaels? >> Um yes. Um two Easter egg hunts going on. March 28th, mayor's Easter egg hunt, Jordan Park. Um from 12 p.m. to 2. And the other one is Bucky Boy Easter egg hunt. Hang on, I have it in the photo so it takes me a while to get it larger so I can see it. Come on, Diane. Okay, it is the
16515th annual community Easter egg hunt at Bucky Foil on April 4th, 2 to 4:30 p.m. And also I am going to their board meeting starting in I think it's April 2nd to the parks board meeting. >> That's all. Thank you. >> From Lehigh Career and Technical Institute, >> I don't there wasn't anything changed, but I did want to highlight a student And that student was from a 12th grader from William Allen High School who won silver and the advertising design program overall LCTI and the name was Maria Cabaro. So I just want to give a highlight. They'll have their budget out to us um I believe in a couple of months. And that was it. >> Okay. Thank you. And from our student representatives, Briana Potter from Allen, can you start us off this evening?
166Is the microphone on? Somebody get the microphone for her. Is it on? Okay. Check one, two. >> Good evening everyone. Today I have the pleasure to read William Allen High School's March 2026 board report. This highlights significant achievements and activities across our academics, athletics, and student organizations. Our athletics program launched its spring sports season with a meet the team night featuring athlete introductions, media day, and a parent engagement session. I would like to shout out some of our high some of our wrestling achievements. Senior Carla Montes earned an eighth place medal at the PI AAA state level, the first individual PIAA medal for any Allen athlete in 15 years. Seniors Will Shakir and junior Curtis Cooper were selected to the East Penn Conference all conference team for boys wrestling and Curtis also earned a district
167medal. Baseball. William Allen baseball team won its opener 11-2 against Beth Bethlehem Catholic with the freshman pitcher Alejandro throwing a threeh hitter and eight strikeouts in his varsity debut. I love you. >> Emergency response. Allan athletic department and security staff alongside alongside Allentown PD and EMTs EMTs provided life-saving CPR during a district playoff game and were recognized with a standing ovation. Moving on to NJROTC. Our drill team completed competed in a drill competition in New Jersey. During the competition, our NS1 color guard earned third place out of 13 teams. The National Honor Society hosted a Miller Keystone Blood Center blood drive on March 10th where 20 units of blood were collected. Key Club members recently assembled raffle buckets full of snacks and drinks. These will be Our healthc care careers club collected donations for the
168LV LVH hackman pots house. A trip to Moravian proved to be a personalized experience for students. At the end of the month, we enjoyed a trip to Lehigh Valley 17th Street Hospital to tour the facility. We spoke with staff from translation services, sterilization, nursing, medical activities, physical therapy, and administration. For upcoming school events, I encourage you to come see the William Allen musical, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, this weekend in the auditorium. The show starts at 700 p.m. on Friday and 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. And that is it for William Allen. >> Thank you. Let's hear from Bridgeview Academy. Yiring Munoskeras. Good evening from Bridgeview Academy. Tomorrow, our 12th grade peer mentors will be supporting their 9th grade mentees in practicing our spring studentled conferences. Our peer mentoring program continues to have a big
169impact on our community, supporting students making and accomplishing goals as they navigate their ninth grade year. Our advisors report increased on time attendance on days that begin with peer mentoring activities. And we are seeing our peer mentoring pairs touching base with each other during lunches in the halls and teach and after school outside of their assigned peer mentoring time. The program will continue to run through May through May 8th. If you like to learn more about how our seniors helped co-create and implement the program this year, we'll be presenting it at this year's multiddisciplinary project expo in March. Speaking of student led conferences, we would like to remind our community that these conferences are happening next week on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 31st and April 1st. I am looking forward to leading the last SLC
170of my high school career. Our senior capstones projects are already having an impact on our community. Students have chosen a wide variety of community needs to address with their projects. One popular topic of projects has been increasing students opportunities to play sports. We have already added to our flag football team. We now have a basketball club team that has been playing in tournaments and now there is a volleyball club. If you drive by our campus in the mornings or after school, you will now see students engaged in all of these activities in one of our parking lots. We will be exhibiting and celebrating this these projects and more other exhibitions titled Capstone 2026 from ideas to impact. The exhibition will take place at Bridgeview on Thursday, May 28th. Details will be sent out with invitations
171closer to that date. And that's the news from Bridgeby Academy. Thank you. And remember, as always, together we rise. >> And from Derif, George Ramirez. >> Thank you, Madam President. Here are some ways our dear students have been hard at work this past month. The deer girls basketball team participated in a special needs clinic earlier this month. The girls team also is preparing for the little huskys basketball program for elementary students uh in grades 3 through 5 uh which starts this Saturday. Senior seniors Anna Holder, Jayla Rosario, Justice Mcristian, Alfie Daryus, and Elsir Gibson were selected to participate in the Lehigh Valley All-Star Classic basketball game, which coach Piston heading the team. In addition to being on the team, Annayia received a $2,000 scholarship from the All-Star Classic out of a field a field of
17230 additional applicants. Delicia Delicia Rivera placed second in the Northeastern Pennsylvania Throws Invitational and set a 10-foot personal best in the girls javelin with our National Honor Society. They plan to donate a total of $1,500 from the various fundraisers they've helped throughout the year, such as our Crispy Cream fundraisers, and the proceeds will then be donated to LVHN's Riley Children's Cancer Center. The National Honor Society also organized a book drive and collected a total of 60 children's books. Those children's books will then be donated to libraries in the local area. On April 15th, National Honor Society will be organizing a second blood drive in partnership with Miller Miller Keystone Blood Center after successfully receiving a myriad of donations in the fall. 39 newcomer students in the Camino Desperansa program at Derof will be visiting East
173Charles Strawburg University in order to expose them to higher education environments. Some senior mentors in the program will also receive instant decisions from ESU for Read Across America. Several dear students from the Superintendent Student Advisory Council and our assistant principal, Miss Moore, visited Ramos Elementary School to read to students in grades K through three. Several DearF seniors also uh attended the Daniel E. Kalof scholarship banquet last week to receive scholarships and to recognize their outstanding academic achievements with Air Force Junior RTC. This past Monday, we had our annual inspection with Air Force Junior RTC headquarters and I can report that we passed our inspection. Also with AFJOTC, they are hard at work preparing for the uh next competition at Bridge High School in Bridgeton, New Jersey on April 18th. Yesterday evening, dear of softball coach
174Briana Knip, safety officer Buloin, secretary Jer Jericho Rosario and assistant Allentown Central Catholic coach and a central Catholic parent assisted in giving life-saving measures to an umpire who suffered a medical emergency during the Derf versus Allentown Central Catholic softball game yesterday evening. And that concludes all the updates from DF. That concludes everything from Dur. >> Thank you. >> Before we approve the board of directors report this evening, it's with great sadness that I share the passing of a former ASD employee, Miss Lee of Pointer, on March 13, 2026. I would like to read an obituary minute in her honor and then call for a moment of silence immediately following the reading. It is with sincere regret and deep sorrow that we record the passing of Lee Pointer on March 13, 2026. In recognition thereof, the
175board of directors submits the following obituary minute and resolution. Whereas Lee Pointer was a faithful and devoted devoted employee of the Allentown School District for almost nine years. And in her position as a paraprofessional at Harrison Morton Middle School, she carried out her duties in a caring and professional manner. And she treated colleagues, other staff, and students with a cheerful attitude and willingness to help. And she provided the learning comm community of Allentown School District with a pleasant of a pleasant and encouraging environment. and her passing is marked by a deep sense of loss across the district. Be it that the board of directors take note of the untimely death of this faithful employee by causing the obituary minute and resolutions to be spread upon the permanent minutes of the board this 26th day of
176March 2026 with a copy to be sent to her bereieve family. May we have a moment of silence please? Thank you. I >> want to say on behalf of the Allentown School District, I extend my sincere condolences and prayers to the family of Miss Winter. She was very committed member of our learning community and she'll be sorely missed by our community. Thank you. >> May I have a motion for the approval of the board of directors report? We have a maker. Do we have a seconder? >> Second. >> A maker and a seconder. Is there any discussion on the motion? >> Please call the role. >> Miss Mat? >> Yes. >> Miss Michaels? >> Yes. >> Mr. Moors? >> Yes. >> Miss Diamore? >> Yes. >> Dr. Johnson? >> Motion passes 5. >> May I
177have a motion for the approval of the policy agenda? >> We have a maker. Do we have a seconder? A second. >> Second. Is there any discussion on the motion? Please call the role. >> Miss Michaels? >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris? >> Yes. >> Miss Diamore? >> Yes. >> Dr. Johnson? >> Yes. >> Miss Mat? >> Yes. >> Motion passes 5-0. >> May I have a motion for the approval of the secretary and treasurer's report? >> I motion. >> Is there any discussion on the motion? Please call the role. >> Miss Diamore, >> yes. >> Dr. Johnson, >> yes. >> Miss Mat, >> yes. >> Miss Nichols, Miss Michaels, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris, >> yes. >> Motion passes 5-0. >> Okay. May I have a motion for the approval of the superintendent report? >>
178I I move. >> I second. >> Is there any discussion on the motion? >> Please call the role. Miss Diamore. >> Yes. >> Dr. Johnson, >> yes. >> Miss Mat, >> yes. >> Miss Michaels, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Motion passes 5. >> May I have a motion for the approval of the personnel report? >> I second. >> Is there any discussion? >> Please call the role. >> Miss Diamore. >> Yes. >> Dr. Johnson, >> Miss Mat, >> yes. Miss Michaels. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 5. >> Tonight, the board approved new administrative hires. Mr. James, would you please come forward and introduce our new hires? Okay. Good evening, uh, school board directors, Dr. Burks. We are very excited this evening to certainly have join our family at Allentown
179School District, Miss Megan Rob, who is the 21st Century Assistant Project Coordinator. Miss Ross, we are excited to have also Dr. Tanisha Pride, executive director of professional learning. Okay, let's welcome our new family members. A roaring welcome. Glad to have you. Welcome. Thank you very much. Madam chair, is it okay if I just some comments? You know, um, as leaders, you know, we we don't always take the time to pause and recognize um people who help move the work forward every single day, all the time. Sometimes you just got get caught up in the work and you don't always highlight them. And tonight, you know, I usually don't do this, but I think it's important uh to recognize Mr. Williams Sang who has been a member of this. Mr. Sang has been a member of
180this learning community for more than 30 years. He started off as a student within the Allentown School District and then he went on to do all these great things. He went to various levels. He started off as a substitute teacher. Um he went on to and he's used a person introducing people. So I thought it would be fitting just to say this tonight, but I want to just say um like he's been within our district for so long and he's decided to take on an opportunity in the private sector. So, and as a leader, you know, you're doing a great job when people go on to do some bigger and better things. And that's what we want uh for our students. We want to plant seeds in their lives um and have them watered and
181then they go on and get an increase. And so, Mr. Sang is going to take on a new position. And so and we're looking forward for him to sharing his increase with us. So when he come back and so that he can he's he's an alum. So you know when you're alum of of a school district or any institution they expect you to give some money back. So we're expecting the 10%. And so of the new salary. But in all seriousness, Mr. Sang, I just want to say we appreciate you. He's going on. He'll be around for a while, but I just wanted to make sure people understood that we we are really excited for you. Um, we have mixed emotions because we want you to remain here, but we know we want you to
182go learn what you can learn from the people in the corporate sector and come back. Send your check in the meantime, okay? Can still make those contributions uh to us to help further our work. But again, I want to say I appreciate you and um we are rooting for you. you uh we are here um and I've learned a great deal for you and personally thank you for welcoming me to this community. He's helped me to make some um relation build some relationships and forge some partnerships that I would not have had the opportunity to make. So again I commend you. We appreciate you. But I want to say that because sometimes when people see people leaving an organization it's like why is he leaving? He's leaving because he's getting another opportunity. and that's okay
183for him to get another opportunity to learn some things and grow. And that's what what this is about. So again, I thank you. I commend you. One thing about being in the road and for our human capital team, you have to be the gatekeeper to everything. you're the person that tells people no or you have to get your information in. You're not the person that's similar to like the superintendent's job. You know, it's kind of thankless sometimes because people you have to put down the rules. And so, and Mr. Sang, thank you for standing steadfast and many difficult conversations. And I I appreciate and I'm going to say this. I love you and God bless you. So, thank you. May I have a motion for the approval of the finance report? Maker, do we have
184a seconder? We have a seconder. Is there any discussion on the motion? Please call the role. >> Dr. Johnson, Miss Mat, >> yes. >> Miss Michaels, >> Mr. Moors. Motion passes 5. We are only taking public comments on non-aggenda items at this time. Do we have any cards? Is there any old business to come before us this evening? Is there any new business? May I have a motion to adjurnn? >> We have maker and a seconder. All in favor, please say I. >> Opposed. Thank you very much. It was