ASD Committee of the Whole / Regular Board Meeting 05/22/2025

001Good evening everyone. I'd like to call to order the finance committee of the whole meeting of the board of directors of the school district for the city of Allentown for today, May 22nd, 2025. Um, at this time, Madam Superintendent, would you like to present some people? Yes. Thank you very much, Miss Mat. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Good evening, everyone. Okay, good. Um I'm so excited this evening. We have a great um meeting this evening or our premeating this meetings. So before we start our committee meetings and our formal meetings, I'm pleased and excited to announce and everybody can give a drum roll. Please join me in welcoming Sheridan Moser and Rizzer at elementary schools instrumental students as they were. Okay. So, we'll see if they are ready. Oh, okay. So, since we need a

002little bit more time, why don't we do this tonight? I'm really happy and I'm also a little sad. Um, tonight we are going to showcase our student board representatives. Uh, we are honoring them for their service and their commitment. Uh, the students who are on the who are student board representatives, many of them also serve or they all of them serve in my superintendent's advisory council. And so and some of them are graduating and they've given such made such tremendous contributions to our learning community. Every policy that we've po we've passed this year various regulations we've enlisted their thinking and their support. And let me tell you, they're tougher than we are with some of the rules they they want to impose. So we are going to recognize them tonight. And so please join me.

003Miss Reese is going to call the names. And if I the school board directors, you could please join me down in the circle here so we can shake their hands and honor them. Okay, Miss Reese, how many families are here tonight who have students who are being recognized as school board representatives? If you could just wave, please give them a round of applause. I say thank you very much for allowing us to serve you and your students. So, we're going to recognize them. I don't think she is here yet, but from William Allen High School for the committee of the whole meeting. She is here. Wait, go that way. So, you're not by them. All right. Representing Allan for the committee of the whole, Yanushka Santiago. I don't think [Applause] she from Dar and Alicia

004Striker. [Applause] No, girl. Go sit in your seat. It's up there and then with the board. Go to the board first. Once you get your certificate, you can stay down with the board and then you can take your seat with your name tag. And from building 21 for the committee of the whole meetings, Miss Adriana Rodriguez. [Applause] All right. Also from William Allen High School, Alicia Rodriguez behind this. You good? Got it. Where'd you go, Alicia Rodriguez? All right, fine. We'll just go in certificate order. From Darf. From Darf, the one and only Cadence Sprayberry. also from deer because I know he's behind me somewhere. Benjamin Caraso. [Applause] All right. And also she n sitting sitting all the way in the back. And one of our seal of bi literacy recipients last night, Jesse Rosario.

005[Applause] not joining us tonight which makes me very sad. My intern Kim Aras also from building 21. Jay Levette Bez from building 21, Alani Alexander. And our two remaining William Allen representatives, Annie Esther Dade and Lenny Bellow Castro. All right, can you guys get together for a group picture? I will do my best to get them over the music stands. For the sake of the music everybody. Everybody here and everybody [Applause] No, hers is in there. It's definitely in there. It was on top when it was on my desk. Just want to say these students have demonstrated themselves as exceptional leaders within our learning community. They have strong academic prowess. They're going on to metriculate at institutions of higher education. Some of them are going on to East Strawburg and the University of Pennsylvania, the

006University of Rhode Island, Kutztown and uh Lehigh Carbon Community College. So, they're all going on to college and they have truly been exceptional leaders. They're involved in every and I'm saying this for the younger our younger students in the audience. So, they're involved in all kinds of sports and activities and they still got great grades. So, being smart is still cool. So, all right. So again, I want to thank their commend their families for doing a great job of raising such exceptional young people and again I'm honored as your superintendent and chief executive officer as well as the board to serve each of you. So thank you. Let's give them another round of applause. Now we can give a drum roll for our students from Ritter Moser and Sheridan elementary schools. This is the instrumental

007group. Uh the students, they practice a lot every opportunity that they received. And I want to thank their families. If I know there are a lot of families out there, so if you can just wave if your child is a part of this group, let's give all the families a round of applause. [Applause] Woohoo. We are looking forward to hearing you. Wow. Fantastic. These are our future composers, right? These are our future composers and pianists and She's so cute. You [Music] see, I know you have questions, but I will answer those questions. I will tell you what to do. [Music] Let's go. [Music] Let's go. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] You hear two parts. Hallelujah. [Music] Oh, that [Music] one. Congratulations. [Music] [Applause] Let's give another round of applause for the strings. [Applause] We want

008to thanks principal Shada and Mr. Buselitz for their hard work. Let's give them a round of applause. And if there are other school leaders here, I only saw them. Excuse me. And while they're assembling, I just want to let the families know if you said, "I didn't get to see my child." We are streaming this on YouTube. So, you can go back and watch the performance on YouTube. So, if you didn't get a closeup picture, you can go back to YouTube and send it out to every one of your families all over the country and all over the world. Woohoo! The second piece, sorry for the transition, is called I'll be there when you need me most. It's a um it's a chorus verse kind of thing and a verse soloist. As I look around,

009some of my soloists aren't here. So, we're going to work it out as we go. All right. So, we have a few more friends coming. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] There you [Music] go. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Get aha. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I'm going to hand those [Music] [Applause] [Music] We can do better than that. [Applause] Fantastic job. Do you want to see Ritter Sheridan Moser? Let's give it up for Ritter Sheridan [Applause] Moser. And all the families again, if you could just please stand and be recognized. If you have a child that was performing tonight, please stand. Let's give our families a round of applause. Woo! Again, I thank you. And again, if you did not see, you didn't get the right pictures or or the right video, it

010is on our YouTube station. So, send it out to everyone and showcase the best, the brightest, the most talented, and gifted students right here in Allentown. [Applause] Woohoo. We are truly proud and excited tonight. We can keep clapping for them. Great do job, Mr. B. Thank you. We appreciate you. Fantastic work. Woohoo. Thank you, Principal Shada. You got two nights of performances. You did great job, Mr. Yes. I'm saying they don't say a word. It's amazing. Okay. So, last night it's still too noisy, right? So, last night we're gonna wait. That's okay. Juggling music soon. It's okay. Oh, wait. It was so great to see so many of our families out tonight. What a great time to celebrate the success of our students and all the hard work throughout the entire year. Some of the

011students, this is their first time playing an instrument and I want to thank the board for um helping us to make this investment in our students and exposing them to the arts. There's a research suggests that you know there's a some notable research from the search institute that the more assets a student has the more inclined they're um to be successful in school and life and those assets include you know participating in religious groups and playing instruments and extracurricular activities and so we're building on the foundation of our students so they can be more well-rounded students. So, I'm really excited about the progress that we we are making as a district. So, thank you school board directors for making the investment in our students. So, thank you so much. We're just gonna let everyone come

012in a little bit and close the door at least and I'll talk. I think we got it in. Okay. Okay. I think we still have a little cake out there. So, I think that's why So, good evening everyone. Um, good evening school board directors to our families, my team, member of the members of the public. Welcome tonight. Just want to say last night at our you are the light celebration, we celebrated 280 members of our learning community and they were nominated by their schools as their schools you are the light of the year person. And we also had um a number of students who achieved the uh recognition of the seal of biiteracy in which they are multilingual. they've demonstrated uh academic proficiency to be considered multilingual is a credential that's going to appear on

013their diploma. So, we're really excited about their accomplishments. Last night, we highlighted our early college students and after we celebrated them, they went down and participated in the early college celebration at the PPL Center. So, it was a great night to see them in their academic regalia and it just was very heartwarming and I know the school board directors really advocated, you know, earlier on a few years back and we've expanded the program. So, I want to thank you again. I'm so excited about seeing the students and their success. We also acknowledged members of our learning community who were students of the year, teachers of the year, support staff person, and administrator of the year. There was such great energy in Symphony Hall last night. It was truly amazing. We had approximately 800 people in

014attendance at this event. We also recognized people in our who are part of our community who served 25 plus years of service and one of them was Miss Ramos. So I want to thank you for your hard work. And we had about 54 people who retired from the district and they were really excited. We had a few minutes to just chat with them and they were so inspired that they were ending their careers in the district on a high. So all those people who who are retiring, we wish you much success, peace, grace, prosperity, and we do have some volunteer opportunities if you would like to come back. So let's please give a round of applause for the people who are retiring. In addition to last night we showcased some of the people who had

01525 years but we had a total of 191 members of our learning community who have served the district 25 years plus. So people who've been here for 42 years. So talk about having some love for an organization. And I say this often, sometimes we can't in the work space that we're in now in the world, we can't get people to do things for more than 25 minutes at times. And so to think that people have dedicated all these years to one organization, I want to say thank you. I commend you and keep on going. So if you're at 25, 26, 45, 50, we want you to stay in our organization. So thank you so much. And I'm honored to serve with you. you know, as an organization, we remain focused to use data to inform

016our practices. And I know there's been um some question about who's leaving the organization at what points in time. And I just want to spend a little bit of time educating the board on where we are as an organization. And so, as part of my remarks, I'm going to have all my comments in this segment of of the board meeting. So when I asked our team to prepare just a brief overview of longitudinally meaning fiveyear period of time of how we have staffed the organization and where we are as it relates to recruiting retaining staff and so Mr. Sang will just share something with you and help me with this part of the presentation for the school board directors. You'd have do have a presentation in front of you. Uh good evening, Dr. Burks and

017our uh esteemed school board. As we prepare, he's going to talk a little bit about national trends as well as where we are as it relates to our staffing. Uh so, as an overview, we'll start with some turnover data. Uh as Dr. Burke said, with national data trends, calculating employee turnover rate and our Allentown School District turnover rate data. Uh, I want to give a thank you to Donnie Noble, our supervisor of benefits and el and Elizabeth Henning, uh, labor specialist and data manager for their help in this [Applause] preparation. Uh, so national trends uh, for teachers uh, the turnover rate hit its peak in 2122 school year. Um there's still some uh data coming in uh but the estimated turnover rate for teachers nationally is 9% and pre- pandemic it was between 6 and

0189%. And we're pulling these statistics from the national center uh for educational statistics. Historically we have urban districts that have higher uh than expected uh teacher turnover. It's high in new teachers with urban new teachers a concern that up to 70% could leave within five years. We also see this exacerbated in high need schools. Uh and reasons for leaving cited in this study were poor working conditions, inadequate administrative support, student behavior challenges and job demands. National trends for teachers and principles, it is declining. there was that co 19 spike but turnover rates for teachers and principles in urban districts are decreasing. Uh we're approaching the prepandemic levels uh in 23 24 school year as far as this data study and the gaps are narrowing between the difference in urban suburban and rural districts but historically

019urban districts have reported higher turnover than non-urban areas. for school staff as a whole. Uh there is um more limited national data. There was um specific turnover data for other employee types, support personnel, bus drivers, pair of professionals in urban districts is less available. Uh but there are reports across the education sector for staffing shortages. Nearly 70% of district leaders reported moderate to considerable bus driver shortages and district leaders reported similar shortages for pair professionals and mental health professionals. Some key takeaways from the national data. Overall education uh turnover in urban districts is trending downwards uh but does remain above the pre- pandemic levels particularly for teachers. Highne urban schools face the most significant challenges in retaining teachers and principles and we're still uh in need of more research for the comprehensive national data on

020turnover rates for all employee types in urban districts. So the formula is up there for you to see the standard formula for calculating uh employee turnover rate. It's the number of total separations divided by the average number of employees and then multiplied by 100%. That's where we get a rate in a percent form. Those numbers of separations include all employees leaving during a specific period. So in the charts you'll see it lists the data um and the time period that we're uh utilizing. It shows you the average number of employees we had for a given year and it includes voluntary resignations, involuntary terminations, non-renewal of certificates, job abandonments and retirements. Mr. Stang, can you remind her where the national research from because it's not cited on the PowerPoint. So where did the data come from?

021Yes, so the last page does have our references. It is from the National Center for Educational Statistics and the last page of the presentation does have those reference links. Thank you. Um our Allentown School District overall employee turnover. So this is all employee groups combined. You'll see a six-year um data chart there starting with the 2019 2020 school year. it does um capture this data in fiscal years from July 1st of a given year to June 30th of the following year. Uh you will notice that that first uh column with data is the total employees. Uh the first year of this data being captured for you is 2019 2020. We had 2576 employees. Uh as you look to present day, you'll notice that it's an increase of 114 employees uh and 2,690 currently. Uh terminations

022is used there um in in um combination with the word separation as far as all types of leave from or all types of uh people moving on from our district. And then the turnover percent rate is listed on that column on the uh second from the right. and then our year-over-year turnover percent change. Um, so you can see as we move um out of the pandemic, we experience the similar spike to what the national average did. And also as the national average is gradually declining, we are also gradually declining as far as our turnover percent rate. That uh those numbers have asterisks in the bottom column because they are as of May 31st for employees that left our organization. Uh so we would anticipate that being a little bit higher with retirements as we get

023to the end of the year through um June. Um but that's where we're at as of May 31st. And Mr. Sang, can you tell us how we gathered these data like where this uh so this is captured in our employee uh information system skyward and we were able to run reports for our employees. They have a term date as it's called within the system which means the date in which they left the organization and we're able to run that report for when uh employees left our employee at a given moment. The following slide has our teacher turnover. So this is just specific to our teacher group. It again shows that same um layout of years from July 1, 2019 through June 30th, 2020. And then uh the last column again shows us where we're at

024as far as our 2425 school year. Uh you again can see that spike uh right after uh the pandemic and then a gradual reduction in the turnover percent rate uh year-over-year as we move uh to present day. And again the asterisk is telling you that this is as of separations uh from May 31st. The last slide as a part of this presentation is the average age of employees at the time of separation. Um, one more time. There we go. The average age at the time of termination. Um, as Dr. Burks has stated, uh, we did just celebrate 191, um, of our staff members that have been here at least 25 years. We celebrated them over a four-year peri or fourmonth period um, at our you are the light events. Um so that's speaking to um

025members of our organization growing old with us and working until um the end of their careers. Uh 61 and 4/10 average for this year. Similar to our expectation that the turnover rate would go up slightly as we extend it all the way through the end of a year. We would expect that age to go up just a little bit as uh retirees that are finishing throughout the month of June are included in that average age. I'm going to turn the next part of the presentation over to Donnie Noble. So, Mr. Noble is respon he supervises our area as it relates to employee benefits and so and then his office has direct uh supervision over the FMLA process in conjunction with our talent management staff. So he's going to give you a little overview of FMLA

026and how uh our process is in terms of employees engaging in results of recent surveys. So we're going to give quantifiable data and not perception data of where we are as an organization. I'd like to start off with uh thank you thanking Dr. Burks and the board for allowing us to implement this program. Um we brought them in uh August of August 15 of 2024 uh or we brought UPMC uh University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Benefits Management Services doing business as work partners. It's bit easier to say that um they provide us a online portal and a call center uh for processing our FMLA FMLA claims. Um the call center is open from 7:00 to 7:00 pm. So it's uh captures a little bit outside of what your normal business hours would be uh for

027the benefit of employees. Um and then some of the other services that they provide are cla claims management, claims related customer service, account management, call center customer service and system availability. So there's really an online portal. Um the call center like I said uh we have a weekly meeting with account management to review all the cases to make sure that if there's any issues that they get resolved in a timely manner. Um in this presentation right now we're going to go over the call center customer service performance. Um as well as the current usage of the of the system. um some things to some definitions I think would uh help set the context of what I'll be reviewing. Um first is intermittent FMLA. There's two types of FMLA um that we're going to be reading

028here. Intermittent FMLA um so it's when an eligible employee takes the family medical leave act uh in separate blocks of time rather than all at once. And that's in comparison to continuous FMLA. uh when an eligible employee takes a family medical leave act leave uh for an uninterrupted period of time. Um and some more context, FMLA wasn't enacted in 1993. It's a federallymandated law. Um there's different say flavors of it. So to say so employers can kind of employers even like and uh educational institutions can have different ways that manage it. In essence, what it's doing is protecting employees position. Um, in and of itself, the leave does not provide a paid leave, but it's a protecting position for the employee. Um, to be eligible in most circumstances, employees need have worked, 1250 hours and

029have been with their employee for a year. And then one other thing I thought be important to define is uh the liyker scale when it comes to talking about the call center. Um we the call center utilizes liker scale for most of the the surveys. Um the call center survey is a was a voluntary survey that each employee has the who's taking a leave has the opportunity to take uh out of 145 individuals or during the period of August 15th through the end of quarter which was in February um we had 145 individuals respond um there's three questions I had a liyker scale from one to five being one being strongly disagree and five being strongly agree uh for courteousness of call knowledge of the call center and resolution of questions and then we had

030a one yes no question for their overall satisfaction. One thing I just wanted to point out uh since it's voluntary and it's over the phone that they would finish these surveys. You'll notice that even though 145 people had finished the survey um there's varying levels of completeness for each question. It's just because it's voluntary survey. Um, so overall the results are pretty the results are pretty overwhelmingly positive. Um, in most cases people had really five being the highest score appreciated the court of the call center. the overall satisfaction of the call center and they felt like all their questions were resolved as well. So you see 98% of people thought there was questions resolved All right. So now I'm going to go over kind of composition of the leaves or actually no reasons of the

031leaves. So you'll see mostly uh it was employee health conditions were the reasons for the leaves. Uh 76% of the leaves were for employee health conditions. Uh the other remaining portions uh were pregnancy and maternity. So pregnancy maternity include um the actual pregnancy portion of the pregnancy and disability and then um for child bonding as well which is 7 7.8%. And then we had about 0.2 for adoption and then 1% for family health condition. So over the quarters um I would like just to kind of point out this is the first two quarters of the of everything. So take this information with a grain of salt. Uh the change percentage and the number of employees that are eligible were only 0.57. Um and the percentage of employees approved went from 2.1% to 1.8%. So it's

032not overwhelmingly large amount of people who are eligible who utilize FMLA. Uh and then this is some of the approval numbers here. Uh you'll see that uh comparing continuous uh denials or continuous approved continuous denials. You'll see that 76% of those who filed in the first quarter were approved and then 72% in the second quarter that that filed were approved. Most of those who were denied were either due to lack they weren't with the district for long enough or for lack of paperwork. Um and to address that we the real benefit and strength of the call center is they have continuous followup with employees. So if an employee doesn't provide paperwork, it's they were given uh multiple notices that they needed provided to get approved and then some productivity metrics here. So you look at

033the first line, it shows the average duration of the leave. Um, I would air away from that because it's going to be biased based off of the um number of employees who are employed during that period. Uh, I would look at the days per 100 employees, which is more of an apples to apples comparison. And you can see there's a light slight decrease in the number of employees that uh that per 100 days that were eligible and got approved or used their time. And another thing to point out, the lost hours of work, it's overall. It's not just one or two, it's all employees together lost hours of work. And then in conclusion, uh it's a large amount of newly collected data. We are fortunate to to have the tracking system implemented. Um we currently,

034this is kind of like our prior, this is where we we compare against to. So this is the first two quarters. Um and the seems to be steady over time. Uh the real power of this system is that it it has uh it's kind of self-correcting. So if there's any issues, if an employee has the feedback, we will uh make sure that we're continuously improving the the process. That's it. Thank you. I want to thank thank you uh Mr. Noble and Mr. saying for compiling these data uh for the board to understand where we are are as it relates to our employees as well as our FMLA process and you know I asked our team to gather data prior to this year however in full transparency and creating more we're working to be aligned with

035our strategic plan and within our strategic plan we have an area of creating organizational efficiencies and effectiveness this and that's why we're using the platform so we have an adequate uh representation of where we are as well as a more objective way of our employees participating with FMLA and uploading the materials and so that we can kind of try to mitigate some of the internal maybe human error around this and so I want to clarify because I know there were some questions in the previous board meeting and before and I wasn't present in so I didn't want us to get into us but I thought as a a teacher and trying to be a good teacher that would show you visually um some of the metrics that we we shared and that were stated are

036there any questions about this before I go on to the rest of my report I have a question um I noticed in the categories for reasons for leaving I didn't see anything that um showed that any of the leaves were due to work related issues issues. Have we um received any information on employees that was related to work issues? So you mean for FMLA or for the general? So can Mr. uh Noble tell us how that that works, please? And are you are you asking in regards to workers compensation claims as it relates to FMLA? not workers comp like I didn't see anything in referencing workers compensation but there are cases that I've been privy to that indicate that some employees were off because of work rellated issues as it relates to FMLA so as

037you was giving your presentation I didn't see any of that listed so I'm just curious to find out where does those numbers lie within the information you presented they be included in the uh employee health condition reason we can uh distill it um when it comes to the reporting on specific numbers of that with lower since there's only a limited number of workers compensation claims and you can kind of distill down who that it's HIPPA information and distill down who that is I wouldn't report so much on the numbers but the percentage I guess so I can pull the data but it's just I wouldn't just for clarity I think what Miss Brown's asking not if someone gets injured at work but someone is taking FMLA because they don't want to whatever reason because of

038their job condition. That's her question. Well, workrelated, it doesn't matter what the situation is, but I'm just curious to know if there's any data on employees that have have had to take FMLA due to work related issues and nothing in regards to um workers compensation. In broad brush strokes, I would say not so much. I mean, there are I'm trying kind of trying to think of like the best way to describe it. Well, I just for clarity, is that an option? I want FMLA because of something's happened at work. I think that's where the questioning is going. So, do you have to pick a category? I'm sick. I have family rearing. I have bonding. Are those the categories? And you have to show evidence of one of those categories to be eligible. That's not my

039question. My question is so you want me to give you an example? If it's let's say if an employee right had a workrelated situation and that employee took FMLA due to the constraints of their employment. You mentioned several categories here but I didn't see anything that was related to work. So my question is, is there anything specific to an employee taking FMLA due to any workrelated issues? That's my question. And it doesn't have to be specific, but I just noticed that within the categories you have several listed, but I didn't see that. And because I do have knowledge that there are issues, I just want to know if the data is actually accurate or y'all just giving us certain information. So that's my question. Under the Family and Medical Bee Act, uh work related conditions

040are not in and of itself a category that's enumerated under federal law. So I don't know of any employer that categorizes FMLA reasons on the basis of work related conditions as the basis for uh taking an FMLA leave. Obviously, you can take an FMLA leave because of a sickness or illness that might have a causal connection to uh somebody's work. But uh I don't know of any employer that categorizes it in that fashion. So in addition to that, how would we determine or how would we know which category because it could be under employee health conditions, right? But I don't want to assume. I just want to know if the information is being counted. So when you collect data, the data is only as accurate as what is actually collected and presented. So I'm trying

041to figure out if any of these issues that have been brought to the board's attention are actually within the data. Well, workplace issues would not be separately categorized. Uh I don't know if the let let me finish. Uh But other reasons for uh family medical leave which could be care leave care of a uh family member care of a child which is an appropriate reason for family and medical leave would be categorized but I don't know how you're going to be able to draw the connection between uh workplace related dissatisfaction or problems to FMLA. Okay. So, I guess I'm done asking the question, right? But what you just stated is not what I asked. Okay. That's that's not what I stated. I'm not I'm not sure what I'm I'm not sure what you're trying to

042ask. If your question was I thought workplace related incidents that would not directly uh is it included within any of the categories? I'm not asking for it to be specified in its own category because I do understand that there are HIPPA violations that cannot be disclosed. So my question is the situations that have happened within the district relating to certain employees that have had work rellated issues is it included within the data that is presented in front of us? That's my question. Okay. Uh the answer to the question is do you treat because if it's truly a workplace incident that would be a workers's compensation claim and you could have a dual report of FMLA and uh workers comp. How does that get counted in the district's data? That's not my question. Workers compensation has

043nothing to do I'm not talking about a work-related injury. I'm not talking about someone who came in and stubbed their toe or fell down the steps and now they have an injury. They have to go to the doctor. They have to have an assessment and figure out if they can come back to work or if they should be placed on light duties. Those are not my questions, right? My question is I'm going to give you an example and the example is not pertaining to anyone specific. Let's say if there's an employee that works for the district and this employee um felt that they have experienced a certain level of distress and this employee um happened to have FMLA for a certain period of time due to the mental status. of that employee. And um I

044guess you could say the employee still is at work or returned to work. But if you have a situation like that, is it categorized because it's under FMLA? That employee specifically had FMLA. Is that employee in this data? if they were I don't want to give too much information because we're not supposed to give personnel matters out but I just want to know is it included in the data if they were approved for FMLA and they apply for FMA it would be in here okay so which category employee health condition okay thank you that was my question and could I just for clarity just summary of what makes a person I know you went over when we someone calls because we if you can walk and I think this is important for clarity of understanding

045if someone says they want need FMLA what happens in this district first someone needs FMLA they're sick child R whatever it is what happens do they call the University of Pittsburgh what happens so we initially reach out to them give them the communication of what they can do to file on their own if the employee indicates that they either uncomfortable filing on their own or they need some support with filing our office will support them with that as Well, um, we've kind of tweaked some things because we've provided them the information, then we find some people may not file. So, we'll initiate the claim for them and then really leave it up to the individual to complete the process. Um, and like I said, the biggest strength of this system um is there's multiple notices

046that go out to employee. So, if employee doesn't want to file, they really have to ignore multip like three or four communications before their claim gets denied for lack of paperwork. Um there's certain deadlines that are required. So like within five business days of receiving notice, that's when they'll get the first initiation for the claim. Um and they al also provide uh paperwork for that's completed by their healthcare provider indicating why they're going to be out. Okay. And so by federal law, are these the categories that you mentioned? The only way you can get FMLA based on this health, family health, pregnancy, maternity, bonding, adoption, foster care, employee. Are these the only health employee health conditions? Are these the only categories that will qualify you for FMLA that currently have been used? There's one for

047military as well, but Okay. Yes. Okay. I just want to make be clear. So you got to pick one of these categories and then it's determined if you're eligible. Okay. So I'm aware of the categories, right? Again, the question was I wanted to know if all the information was being captured. So again, the example that I gave would be under medical. However, I wanted to know if it was being calculated, not if it was a medical. I wasn't trying to determine if it was a medical uh FMLA medical situation, right? But I wanted to know if it was actually counted in the data. So I didn't receive the answer to that, but you said it would be within that category. Is there a way that the board could receive that information via email? If um

048can you go ahead can you I don't think I didn't say anything. I just was waiting to finish. I heard somebody was me. Okay. So I I want to be clear what you're requesting though. So my question is because it seems like the question is not going to be answered right the information and employee health conditions right if any of those are due to workrelated issues not saying that the public would have access to all that information because I'm asking the question here and I'm not getting the answer. So, if it's a private question, right, if it's a private question and it's something that should not be disclosed here, I don't know because it seems like the question is being avoided. I want to know if that information is included in the numbers because the

049numbers do not seem accurate. So, how would I find out as a board member if employees issues are included within the category of health? So, Miss Brown, respectfully, this is why I asked if in order to be eligible FMLA, whatever your matter is, it has to fall in one of these categories or the people that you submit your information to will not approve it. So, that's why I wanted to explain that. So, we can't get into any more. I I don't even know as a who we he uh Mr. Noble and his um another member of team there are people who know why people request FMLA. We no one else has a right to know. So we wouldn't because they have HIPPA and all those right people have rights. So this is all we would

050have. So if they have a work issue, they got to pick a category. Their doctor has to justify. That's the that's the answer. So there's no other answer we can give. I have a question. Can I ask Miss Brown a question? Question. So are you trying to figure out if there's any employees who are taking FMLA how the district can actually determine if we're the issue and how we can actually grow from that is that that overall so that's the overall so pretty much what I think I'm hearing and I'm don't necessarily have to it's very clear in terms of they have specific speific categories in which you can actually apply for FMLA whether I stumped my toe or if I was abused by Mr. Sultanic. I'm just joking. But at any rate, um if

051I apply and I'm approved, it goes in that health category. So, we understand that part. But I think all of this, which appears to be great, right, because we're trying, we're coming up with solutions, right, to problems. I think pretty much what Miss and I can't speak for her. She has to correct me if I'm wrong. It's she's saying, "Okay, we have this data that's wonderful, but are we capturing what we need to do as it relates to our employees? If there if there are some health related issues as a result of the district, whether it be the chair being in the middle of the floor and I stumped my toe or somebody's just being need a little bit more um training or something." So, I just want to make sure I'm understanding your question,

052your question. Sorry if I interrupt you. Are you saying are we capturing if someone says, "I'm I need FMLA because I I'm stressed at work." Okay. Are we capturing that? Is that what you're asking me? Yes. So, okay. Someone's stressed because they work one job, right? this this is the job they were hired for but they're working let's say multiple jobs because it's not enough staff to cover that person then become overwhelmed and they need to take FMLA because whether it's is physically or mentally the stress load has overwhelmed them so now they did go to their doctor they had the paperwork filled out the FMLA was approved are you guys calculating that information within the employee health condition. I was not trying to be too specific because it was just a general question, but

053it seems like the question is being avoided and it's a little overwhelming that we going this far within the question. I think the only way that you could get that kind of answer is to examine each certification of a medical provider which is required under the Family Medical Leave Act and if the medical provider is capable of saying that the reason for the medical condition is workrelated. that would be the only way to capture that kind of information. And for many situations, because I spend a lot of my life reading medical certifications associated with FMLA leaves, often the doctors may assert uh life stressors that are going on which may carry over beyond the workplace. People have stressors in their personal lives and they have stressors in the workrelated lives. But more often than not,

054the doctors who do the medical certifications, which is not the school district, they usually focus in on their certifications because that's how the federal form is framed uh based upon what medical condition the employee has regardless of the cause. Um, and it would be admittedly very difficult for many doctors to assess the exact cause of the situation. That's not what I'm saying. I'm sorry for cutting you off. So, let me ask this question differently. I'm an employee of the district and I work I'm someone's assistant, right? And I'm overwhelmed with work. I'm stressed out. How do I apply for FMLA? What is the process for the district? Who do I go to first? And what are the steps? So you can repeat it. Yeah, you just said you would reach out to the department. You

055would complete you could either call the call center. We provide you information how you would apply and you can either call the call center or we can assist you in applying for FMLA and then if you qualify you'll get notified. You'll have to provide information within a certain period of time via paperwork. Um and if they don't provide that information, they don't get the doctor certification as well. They won't be approved. Is that kind of answer? No. So um in addition to that, nothing goes through HR. In a sense, it does, but it would gets routed because you're not going to capture this data by just sending it through HR. I get that. So once it go through HR, HR would know not the specific issue but they would know it's workrelated or not. Right?

056When you say workrelated too, the only thing I'm struggling with here if it's not workers comp work related injuries would be workers comp. And I know you can have stressors which are workrelated but like uh Mr. Tanic has indicated okay there's other factors that kind of it's it's holistic really because employees health isn't just at the district it's at their house so if you want to actually quantifiable data talk about I don't believe MLA data that we have will capture what I think you're trying to ask for I'll ask it in private because if I if I give a specific situation it's it's not good to do that so I'll I'll ask uh via email and see if I get the correct answer. Sure, you obviously have the right to do that, but I don't

057think the generic FMLA data that you asked about here is going to be able to sort out those issues that you're requesting. I respectfully disagree, but okay. Dr. Bruce, you going to respond to you? say something. We can I'm just saying so so this is so thank you. This was a very very good presentation. I said that before. Um but this the turnover piece, right? This all came about probably was part of your strategic plan, but this came about when we talked about um exit interviews and things. We've been talking about that forever. Yes. And so and it's just good practice. What I'm hearing right I'm hearing is this is this is part of the climate and culture piece but I think the piece that you're attaching to we talking a lot about FMLA but

058I think it has a lot to do with um addressing issues or having that open door policy or whatever word I'm looking for to be able to address those issues before it gets to FMLA because what we do know as a district um and this happened way before you came that as a result of people being stressed out people and maybe I shouldn't be saying it but I'm going say it they abused it. Okay. And so people were going out on FMLA. Some people needed it. Some people knew it was there for whatever reason. So my question has always been and it's still going to be and and I see I see what this is and I'm I'm I'm receiving it right. But what are we doing? before it gets to this part. And I

059saw the numbers. You know, you can say that it's real, you can say it's not real, doesn't matter. At the end of the day, we have real people in our district. What are we doing in terms of um what did those processes look like in terms of dealing with the turnover? the person who walked out the door um because they felt like they didn't have the opportunities to communicate or they were disserviceed things like that. Well, that's why we want to context set about national trends and how people leave organizations and I've shared with this before. There's a life cycle. People especially in the field of education now people move about even in the world that is relates to employ um employment. People don't stay with t stereotypically people are not staying with organizations through

060the entire career. They just they have options. They change. So, but we do have some various efforts that we have underway right now to support our staff staying in district. We offer and I would say we're the only district in this area. We offer various opportunities for pipeline programs for leadership development. We took number of people they're getting Google certifications in the district and they've been empowered to be in some of them are sitting in the room right now ambassadors. We provide extensive professional learning. We started a Spanish class. We had a large number of people. We showcase um a number of employees once a month and we have an event that yields about 350 people once a month and it's sad that more people who it's 350 but it should be packed out because

061we showcase people in the organization we give them and hey Mr. saying help me out if I whatever I forgot. But we offer multiple pathways for people to succeed um in this or and to stay and also we know in opportunities for growth. Many we just um uh uh identified people to become principles in our organization who came up in the ranks. Some of them even were uh students themselves in districts and they're now principles in our organization and we're providing them coaching and professional learning. We have people travel around the country. They're part of national networks of of groups. We uh teachers and other staff, they wanted curriculum and all that. Now, do we have opportunities for growth as an organization? Absolutely. Because we believe in continuous improvement and continuous growth. And so, and

062in fact, we were even identified. We didn't pick whether people think um it's factual or not. However, but the small business association for the valley named us as a top employer in the district given in the um county because of all these offerings that we do provide for our staff. So we're and again this is my second year and I'm not defending me but I'm just saying it's a process for the team and I don't want to take away from it because I do we I definitely I've always said we're looking forward to Allentown becoming the model school district for positive but we also know and please don't anybody take this wrong that sometimes people could can blow folks up but it it's not all the way there. And so what I'm I'm asking and

063I know I I see the difference. I I hear, you know, I hear when I don't want to hear actually. So you can tell when somebody's just blowing smoke and you can tell when somebody's really trying to to do the right thing. You can tell when we start off doing the right thing, we wind up doing the wrong thing, then we find ourselves out and we start cleaning some things up. So that's pretty much what we're talking about. I think she was talking about, okay, where are we? And clearly, um, Mr. Sultanic, we understand that, you know, you can't there's hippo laws. So, we got that piece. But what the the ask what I'm getting from it, and it's the same ask that I've always had is what are we doing to keep people what

064are we doing to be able to um to nurture our own, you know, and and I mean, if if I was I'm not saying folks was abused, but if I was abused, you would have to show me. It's going to take some time to build that trust, you know. So maybe we only got 800 people that came last night, but maybe next year we have a thousand. You know what I mean? But that but we have to have some processes in place. Not to say we don't. I'm just questioning what those are to make sure that people want that people are able to say this here is genuine. You know, maybe I was in the district before. We have people who have left. I know we got a lot to do tonight, but I know

065we've had people in the district who have been here. they left but then they saw the change and they came back right so obviously something had to happen so I think that's what what the questioning is around Miss Brown and as it relates as it as it relates to that and the actual data that's being being shown okay so I listed a few quite a few just off the top of my head but if the board wants a list of all the I don't want anything else okay I just want to make sure I'm clear what's being asked I just I want to make sure we're on the same page, right? Because nobody's angry but the devil. The thing is how what are we doing with the people that we have? What do those processes

066look like? How are we growing? I saw the numbers. I believe it. I have no reason not to believe it. Um but at the same time, we're having a conversation. Thank you. And again, we'll be willing to provide additional information. And I just want to underscore we are in the spirit of continuous improvement and growing as an organization. So, and if if our staff needs other things, I want us to offer yoga, Zumba, all those things. And so, and now we're building our team. If that's what people want, we'll survey people and ask what they need. But again, that's where we are right now. Thank you. Want me to continue? Okay. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. uh Noble and Mr. Sang. Last night we had an amazing time showcasing our students and our staff.

067Uh they we had our animation movie premiere um entitled Passport to Puerto Rico and our students and staff from Central Elementary Stream Academy. And then we had a uh participated in a project with there was a movie producer and he served as an executive producer for this particular project. um Terry Thorne and our students created their first animation film and we're really excited because it showcased and um the Puerto Rican history and culture and tradition and I want to thank everyone who came last night. It was a star-studded event, red carpet affair. So, if you weren't there, you missed a treat. And I just want to thank uh the students and the staff for all the hard work. And then our students at Dodd Elementary School, actually they should be they're in route right now

068along with their families. They're going to Pittsburgh and they're participating in a project with 17 other school districts in the Pittsburgh region. And you and last night we had a sneak peek of the land of Oz and our students produced this film and to see the uh the excitement of the work that was done because our students this was uh definitely an activity around storytelling and critical thinking and producing and it was a sensational time. We're really proud and we gave the board a copy of the premiere movie and um So it made us really happy. Sorry Mr. Simon get the microphone so I can get the minutes Dr. Bur. So we the executive director he was the CEO who produced the Rugrats and the Simpsons and he came right here in Allentown worked shoulder-to-shoulder

069with our team. Some of the work was done on Zoom and his team worked closely with our teachers and our students. So, I want to thank the families for allowing them to participate and we're excited about the premiere that's happening up in Pittsburgh tomorrow. And he says it's the first time of all the districts that he works in around the world that someone put this much effort into ensuring that our students had a great time and a wonderful experience and showcased their talent. So, I commended my entire team. This was definitely a labor of love for all of us. So, thank you so much for your hard work in making this great and exceptional for our students. [Applause] speaking out of future Hollywood stars because we have some Hollywood stars that were in that audience

070last night. Tonight, the Freddy Awards are taking place. Yay. Um, it started at 7 PM and as a reminder, our talented students have been nominated for six Freddy's, including Lewis Derof High School for Hello Dolly. Outstanding use of costumes, outstanding use of choreography and musical staging, outstanding performance by an actor in a supporting role, Aiden Gonzalez and Cornelius Hackle. Outstanding small ensemble performance. Rosa Linda Garcia, Aiden Gonzalez, Zoe Lambert, Gustavo Pagama Maldonado, Marali Melendez for Motherhood March and William Allen High School for Avenue Q. Outstanding use of costumes. Outstanding performance by a female ensemble member, Telicia Montinez Vargas as Lucy. God bless you. We wish our senior students who have been given this opportunity um the best of luck tonight and we're hoping that we come back with some wins. So, let's give our students

071a round of applause. We know that they're all winners, but of course, we want to see the actual win just like our students last night. Um they received their Oscar award at the premiere of uh Passport to Puerto Rico and a sneak peek of the lander. So, we want to come home with some tangible things. So I wish the students all the best. May is mental health awareness month. I want to take a moment to remind our learning community of the resource that we have have in place to increase access to mental health support in order to support the whole child for our students and create a culture as we are always working very diligently to create a culture culture where all our students feel safe, valued, empowered and loved. I want to thank our

072student support services team. I think some of them in the room today. Can you just please stand and be acknowledged for all your hard work, the grant dollars that you're securing? Let's give our lead social worker in the room. So, thank you. We're excited still about our partnership with counselor and Hazel Health and of course our local behavioral health and mental health providers who live locally, who work with us closely in the district. Thank you for your service and your commitment uh to our learning community. Um, also as we look to head at the end of the year, commencement is coming up. Yes, the class of 2025. The commencement ceremonies will take place Lewis H. Dearf High School on June 16th at 6:30 p.m. at the PPL Center. William Allen High School students will graduate

073on Tuesday, June 17th at 6:30 6:30 p.m. also at the PPL Center. and building 21 high school ceremony will take place on Tuesday, June 17th at 1 pm at Symphony Hall. Let's give them a round of applause for all the graduates. Yes, all the staff, students, teachers, everyone. Thank you administration for her job. Well done. Miss Matson, on to you. The finance to return to the finance committee meeting. 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 confidential matters pertaining to personnel and investigatory matters,formational updates and discussion with council pertaining to the district real estate and land acquisition and anformational update pertaining to the contractual requirements for the bargaining units end

074of the year schedules. 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. Comments must be received by the start of the meeting which is now and 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 policy, any person may address the board in accordance with the procedures and limitations of the 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 rolled out of order. If

075you choose to address the board, please fill out a comment card and hand it to the board secretary, Mr. Simonson. At this time we are taking uh public comment cards on agenda items only. Do we have any? Not on agenda items. Okay. We have three action items on the finance agenda this evening. For the first action item, Mr. Cuff is requesting approval from the school board of directors for the 2526 fiscal year budget. Now, are you ready to uh give us the background information we need? Absolutely. Thank you very much. Um, first of all, I'd like to thank everyone um who attended the budget forum last when last week. Um, it was very well attended. We had a lot of interaction. It was great. And for those of you who weren't there, I believe it

076is uh accessible on our district website. You can go back, you can review I think it I would encourage you to take the opportunity to go back and look and see because I think it it gave you a quick snapshot of what we do as a school district and what it takes to actually prepare a budget for our children. Okay, so you guys ready? Let me go back to speaking. Let's go all the way back to the beginning. Okay, there we go. Thank you. Awesome. Good evening. So, I want to um again Mr. Cuff didn't say it when I step out of the room for a moment. I just want to thank everyone who participated in our budget forum last week. Uh it was um exciting time and it was good to that many members

077of our learning community and the broader public had an opportunity to see how difficult it is to make decisions as it relates to funding and they we had people engage in an interactive activity in which they had $10,000. Was it 10 or three? Three three million three million. Oh, come on. I would have failed all the three. Yeah, $3 million. And so, oh, I was all off. Um, $3 million. And they had to make strategic decisions about what they would fund. So, and it was very eye opening to hear some of the conversations that came about. People, you know, were it was very funny, but they were um making decisions in cutting things and being very resourceful. And some people were going out. They were entrepreneurial. They went and gathered dollars from wrote grants and

078all that kind of good stuff. So, so I want to thank everyone who participated. We had about a hundred people attend that particular evening. Were that many? Yes. As as an organization, we're building a foundation. Every all our decision- making is based on our mission, vision, and core values as well well as the priorities and goals that are included in our strategic plan. And just as a reminder, strategic plan, we had more than 9,000 people participate via our committees, uh, advisory committees, focus groups, surveys. So those are decisions that we're making as an organization. If you see our student demographic makeup, we have 16,712 students to date. As you know, that number changes because we have people who transition in and out just like the adults. The children go into other school districts and all

079that good stuff. and move. So, currently we have 16,712 sensational, fantastic, creative, and lovely students. And here are full-time employees. You see right now we have about 2,487 who work for the district. We have another group of employees who work for various agencies. So, we talk about having 2600 employees. Some of them work part-time, some of them work through other agencies. You see the classifications of the uh people who work in our organization. As you can see, the majority large majority of our staff are our teaching staff. And so if you see administration, 6% support staff and such. as an organization. D is our budget goals for the 202526 school year. Focusing on reading and math, increasing chronic absent rates, graduation rates, of course, um language acquisitions for our language English language learners, focus on

080all the deliverables within our strategic plan and of course creating theme based schools. If you look historically and Mr. Cuff is going to talk about money. So he's going to give you a historical context of our funding and we'll talk about our proposed budget and our revenue um for the rest of the presentation and our initiatives that we intend to focus on just to highlight a few of them within the uh presentation and for the year. These are the our major initiatives and you know just having been a teacher seven times he was like I keep seeing that yet seven times and maybe you'll commit it to memory. So as an organization we are focused on expanding the arts and you saw some sensational uh performances tonight. So, we want to build on what's happening,

081our athletic programming. We're going to put um emphasize and we thank our friend attorney Gavin um for helping us with this effort and focus on elementary sports and also activ other other activities as it relates to world languages. Um we have a K8 school project as we all know. We're really excited about that project. Our family and community resource center is slated to open in um the fall fall late fall of 2026. We can continue to work on revising our curriculum. We know we gave teachers a lot of new curricula. So, we know we need to assess and they need additional supports. So, we will plan uh professional learning and uh have some more conversations. I know our team has begun to talk with teachers and find out what they need to support them uh

082with the curricular offerings. We are going to expand our transportation services as a district. uh we added some additional um schools to receive transportation, but we will build upon that. And then we're also focused on creating multiple pathways and theme-based schools. We're excited and we mentioned this to the school board of directors before. Five of our schools have been identified as Verizon um learning uh innovation learning schools. And so, and as a result of that, we're focusing on their curricula and giving them some additional resources to support them in building out the the Verizon Learning Center, the Verizon Innovation Learning Schools, of course, and all our other theme-based schools that we launched this year and building on all the resources that those schools need. and we'll begin to have conversations about pathways, other additional pathways

083around early learning and various partnerships that we'll bring before the board within the next couple of months. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Burks. So, what I want to talk about in a budget is in essence is an investment in our education process and on our children. So I'll talk about our investments, what we have coming up and our projected revenues for the upcoming year for 2526. So you'll see here this is the revenue portion of our budget. So every budget is composed of a revenue side as well as an expenditure side. And you'll see here that our revenue size is composed of rough a little over $481 million. So this is an investment that we are putting into our educational process, putting into our children, putting into our community. So you'll see our revenue is

084broken up into three components. Your local revenue, and I'll touch on each one, your local revenue, your state revenue, and your federal revenues. So for us we are fortunate that the majority of our subsidy comes or most of our income comes in through state revenue which helps us to maintain and keep a a level local revenue and actually the local revenue translates into our taxes. So you'll see this year as we um build our revenues there is no additional increase in taxes required. So there's no millage increase required because we are beneficiaries of a strong state level support and I'll tell you show you what that looks like in the next slide. So you'll see here this is a quick simulation of what I just covered. Roughly 67% of our subsidy that comes in is

085coming from the state. This is actually a a great beneficial benefit for the um Allentown School District. Most districts in this area do not have that level of funding, but because of the way the system is set up and way the funding is set up, Allentown is receiving a good portion of that from the state. So, someone asked what composes your local revenue. Those are your real estate taxes, your act 511 taxes and other areas of um other interest and donations and your our funding which is individuals with disability education act. So you'll see here how that's broken up for local revenue. The major portion is coming from real estate taxes. As I stated before in the previous slide and I'll state it again at the end. This year we are not calling or requiring

086additional real estate or increase in additional real estate taxes. And you'll see our total local revenue is approximately $124 million. So the second source of revenue is our state subsidy which this is the bulk load of our revenue that comes in. The heavy portion of them comes in what's called the BF or the basic ed funding. So you'll see in the next slide where I'll give you a quick um synopsis of what makes up our our funding. So it's the ready tolearn grant. The ready tolearn grant just for those is the is a new grant that came about a couple years ago and this is where a lot of the new funding is coming in for adequacy funding. If you remember the district was part of a lawsuit and this is what the state is

087doing to make good on that lawsuit because they actually prove that districts like Allentown are not funded properly. So this is amends to make make it correct for funding and the other subsidies are coming through are for special education funding, transportation funding and the other two are related to salaries which are FICA reimbursement and pension reimbursement for employees. Okay. So you'll see here as I stated basic ed is the bulk load of our state funding. That's roughly $200 million. This year we're getting ready to ready to learn money. As I stated, that's an increase over a prior year subsidies. And you'll see there there's a list of state subsidies that the district is slated to receive. The big um the next biggest one going down is our pension reimbursement. And you'll see also a increase

088in our special education funding from last year. So the total subsidy total subsidy for state revenue is a little north of $333 million. So the third source of revenue is our um federal money. So the major major portion of our federal money comes from our major title block grants which are title one, two, three and four. And you can see what what the description is and what they provide, what services they provide to the district. So what we did this year um and a lot of questions came up in our budget forum. We kept our federal funding flat from last year. We made no increases, no changes in our federal funding um because there's a lot of concern that the what what level the funding will come in from the federal government. We got um

089information this week that federal funding we should know probably by the end of June, probably early July, but we we kept our funding flat um from last year's sources. So we talked about the revenue side. We'll quickly talk about the expenditure side and our investment in our children. So our expenses are broken up into five major categories which are instruction support services, non-instructional services, facilities, and our debt. the major what you're we're going to see the major area what you would anticipate with a school district is going to be based in our instructional support services and the major and I'll show you what that looks like on the next slide. So instruction that covers our regular education, special education, voced and postsecary. And as I stated before and as most of you anticipated, that's going

090to be the bulk load of where our um resources are going to be centered towards putting resources in front of the children and supporting the educational process. Second to that is going to be support services. These are all the services that you anticipate supports the educational process between student services, guidance services, counseling, transportation, IT, maintenance, public health. So the la the latter part of our expenses come in community services and then the part would be debt service. Debt service for those who ask because it's it's a awkward term is basically your credit. It's the money that we put to put out for building of building buildings or building facilities or investing in our property. So that's what debt service is. So you see here, this is the typical breakout for a school district and Allentown

091is no different. This is primarily where our expenditures are centered. As I stated before, the major portion is going to go to salaries and benefits. Um, some of the going to supplies, contracted services, your contracted services are going to be what we do for our transportation and for any any type of resources we have with the IUs or anything of that nature. So, I'll show you what what Allentown looks like. You'll see here, this is the breakout. And what you'll notice here, these um the total again, we're at that $481 million figure. And what you're going to see on the next slide is that is exactly what our revenue is. So our goal this year and you have to do this by school code. You have to have a balanced budget. So right now with

092the revenues that we have coming in our expenditures, we are at a a budget a balanced budget. Right now there is no surplus or deficit required for our budget and currently there is no tax increase required. So what is required as we go forward and this evening is so you'll see here tonight we will have the we're looking for the approval of our preliminary final budget which is tonight it will be posted on our website it will be a public document that um people are able to come take a look at they look on our website what's going to happen after that between now and our budget adoption on June 26 we will make our final adjustments to the budget. So, the figure we approved tonight may be slightly adjusted, but again, there will be

093no tax increase called for as we go forward. Okay, any questions? Seeing none, may I have a motion to move this item forward to the meeting later this evening? So, moved. Second. We have a maker and a seconder. All in favor? I that opposed then it moves forward. The next item is for discussion only before we get to the remaining two action items. Mr. Cuff, you're going to present the PFM projection. Actually, I'm going to introduce you to a gentleman from PFM. Um so this evening we are privileged privileged to have um Ian Tyson here from PFM. He's a director of PFM. So what and you can come on up. Typically what we've done in the past is we have actually engaged with PFM to help us in a lot of our resources and a

094lot of our funding initiatives within the district. So what we've done is we've in worked with PFM and they come up they try to help us develop a projection of where we'll be financially over the next couple years. They use a several resources of our historical spending, historical revenue. they factor in a lot of the issues and a lot of the initiatives from other school districts statewide. So, what I'll do is I'll turn this over to Ian and let him handle this portion of it. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Cup, and good evening everyone. It's great to see you. My name is Ian Tyson and I'm with public financial management and tonight I'm here to give you an update on our multi-year financial projections. So, we've collaborated with the district um for several years

095now. We come together, we take a look at your budget, we project it out over a number of years, and this helps promote fiscal responsibility. Taking a look at the long term, where you're at today with your budget, is it balanced? What happens if you run that out over a number of years? How long could you hold your real estate taxes flat? What increases might you need from the state in order to st sustain the investments that you're making? These are the kind of questions that we try and answer with the work that we do. So, tonight, we're going to take the 20256 proposed budget and show you what that looks like over the next couple of years. So, I'll skip over this slide because uh Jeff did such a good job uh covering it

096in his slide. So, that's just a snapshot of the district's 20256 budget. Um, and I'll just briefly cover some of the assumptions that we're going to look at in this first chart and table in the presentation. Um, so on the revenue side, we're not going to assume any real estate taxes. So, continuing with the trend for the proposed budget for next year, we're going to show a 0% increase for all the years shown. On the state side, we're not assuming additional funds from those ready tolearn block grant funds after 20256. So this is what happens if we go back to the historical trend from state funding. So before the state started to step up with the adequacy funding in recent years, what happens um if it just goes back to that, you know, pre-adequacy trend.

097Um salaries and benefits, they grow at historical rates. Same with charter school tuition. And on the debt service side, the u principal and interest on your um on your bonds. Um this also includes the funding to complete the K to8 school. So this is no tax increases, historical state funding, cost grow in the background, and then funding for the new school K to8 school. So in this chart and table, we have the current year budget, um the proposed budget, and then two projected years. and we're focusing in on just a handful of years here because um we're in a little bit of uncertain territory here as the legislature has to take up the adequacy consideration annually. So they can't commit to future years of increases. What we want to do is just take this one

098year at a time and look at how your investments um are sustainable over time. So in this baseline steady state no changes um the district is in a very strong state financially. Um your proposed budget next year is balanced. the projected um results for the following year um would show a small uh positive result and then there would be a minor um shortfall in 20278 but that's two years from now. This is a lot of time between now and then where you would be able to resolve that. Um you know on a $500 million budget 2.5 million is a very small portion of that. Um you can make a couple of decisions um you know adjust a couple of growth rates here or there and then that could easily disappear. um what would it take

099to balance these projections over time? Um if you receive the full adequacy supplement in the governor's proposed 20256 budget, that would show positive results in all the years. So, this highlights uh the the the um the the the Commonwealth's role in being a partner in ensuring that you're sustainable um in funding your programs. Um if you had to rely on local tax sources only, it would be 1% increase or 2% overall, and that would cover that $2.5 million shortfall. So again, the district is in a strong state today with the proposed budget and for uh the first projected year. Um in the long term, um depending on how some trends go in either on the revenue side or the expenditure side, um you may need to consider tax increases, but that's not something that we're

100looking at today or even next year. This is something that's further out in the future for you to consider. Um again, um since the most of your funding comes from the state and the state has stepped up in recent years with the adequacy funds, um in order for the district to maintain these investments, make new investments, and limit the burden on the taxpayer, um the state would need to continue those investments in future years. Um one thing that's not included here is, uh the district's undergoing or finishing an updated feasibility study to take a look at what are the building needs across all your buildings. Um funds for those projects have not been included. So to the extent that there are other renovations, new construction, major projects at your buildings, you would need to find

101other funds to um to complete those. Lastly, just a couple of slides for you to take away for what some of this means. So talked about the governor's proposed budget. If you included the full amount um in his proposal from February, um that would add funds in each of those projected years, including the the upcoming 20256 budget. um that would be enough to sustain the district for all of those years and eliminate that small that small shortfall in 2027 28. Um like many other school districts, there are many things that are outside of your hands um as that you can control as a board of school directors. Um economics that could impact the growth in the local tax base, whether that's the earned income taxes or um growth in property values around the city. Um

102state funding that's determined by the legislature annually. um both in terms of the total amounts of funds and then how those are distributed among the different buckets of funding. Um and then charter school tuition costs. Right now, we're just looking at a historical trend. If there are any new schools that open up or any significant increases in caps, again, that's something that would um impact the the projection that we haven't included here. So, finally, the district's able to maintain a balance balanced budget not only next year, but from what we can see in the following year. um depending on how some of those trends go with um local tax base growth, whether or not the state comes in with the full amounts that were proposed um in the budget um and then the cost growth

103and other categories that may determine what that um sustainability looks like in the out years. Um you've seen a lot of increases from the state in recent years and we hope that that continues and if that does then this situation is likely to hold in future years. Um, and again just to underscore the need for those other buildings outside of that K to8 building, other funds would need to be identified for those projects. And that brings me to the end of my presentation. This just has a couple of our other slides for some background on us and more detailed assumptions. Do you have any questions? Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. Um um I don't have a question but I just want to underscore um and thank you and for the

104presentation and so um as an organization we are looking to grow and I just want to share this with the school board and so we did have a a feasibility study conducted by Breland Architects and so and we are as an internal team working to develop a capital PR plan improvement plan so that we can present to the school board of directors to just to address um the projects that I alluded to future projects beyond the K8 school. So, in the next few months, we will be coming before the board sharing with you our thinking about how we expand and fund the other projects that we have underway. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Cuff, you're going to present uh or ask us for approval for the school board of directors to retain

105Arthur J. Gallagher. Yes, ma'am. So this evening we are requesting board approval to retain Arthur J. Gallagher as the broker record for the general liability property casualty automobile umbrella educators legal and violent X. Um the cost would be $893,580. Are there any questions? Seeing none, may we have a motion to move this item forward? I make that motion. Second. We have a maker and a seconder. All in favor? I opposed. Then it moves forward. Thank you. Uh Dr. Horton, you're requesting approval uh for a memorandum of understanding with the Allentown Police Department for the use of school resource officers. Yes. Thank you. Good evening everybody. Good evening, Dr. Burks and board. So last month we had a great opportunity to sit down with a lot of the committee members who participated in last year's exercise

106of looking at theou and I'm happy to state there was a minimal changes when I say minimal changes there was one of the members of the of the committee asked to uh alphabetize some of the bullets. So, you know, that was it. Uh, what was nice to hear was that they took the opportunity to review it. They didn't have any comments. And basically, what you're seeing before you is what was agreed to last year. And why we're doing it this year, because it's every two years, is get on to a two-year cycle. So, this will allow us not to look at or revisit this until 2027 again, probably in April, May 2027. So, it gets us back in the two-year compliance mode. So, we're just looking the board to approve and then obtain the signature

107from Dr. Burks and then we'll obtain the signature from the mayor as well as the police chief. Are there questions? Seeing none, may I have a motion to move this item forward? I make that motion. Second. We have a maker and a seconder. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. and it will move forward. Thank you. Thank you. At this time, we are taking public comments on non-aggenda items. Do we have any cards? It's my understanding that the person left. Okay. Is there any old business to come before this committee? Any new business? May I have a motion to adjourn? Second. All in favor? I I opposed. Thank you. 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

108Allentown for today, May 22nd, 2025. 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. 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. Per 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 be ruled out of order. If

109you choose to address the board, please fill out a comment card and hand it to board secretary, Mr. Simson. Do we have any remarks or any Okay, we have three policies to present this evening. Miss Parks will present our first and second policy. Policy 702 will go first. This is a new policy. Good evening, Madame President, members of the board, superintendent. Lindseay Parks. I'm the executive director of grant development and institutional advancement. Tonight, I am here to present a new policy, policy 702, gifts, grants, and donations. The purpose of this policy is to govern the acceptance and management of gifts, grants, and donations, ensuring alignment with the district's strategic priorities, ensuring fairness, and fostering public trust. This policy actually replaces an active district policy 702, gifts, donations, bequests, that was last approved by the board

110in 1998. Um, we used the PSBA's policy guide as a recommendation. This version is considered new. It more clearly articulates school code requirements and the authority of the board and administrative responsibilities for gifts and donations made to the school district or schools. Um, we analyzed the existing district policy 702 and then we benchmarked our approach against peer large urban school districts across the country and this allowed us to identify best practices. Based on this research and utilizing the PSBA template, we identified essential components for the policy. Key improvements in this new policy include an expanded scope covering grants as well as donations. Clear definitions for critical terms such as gift, grant, monetary funds, and inind donation. Specific handling for real property and facility improvements and enhanced delegation of responsibility and authority. The next step is

111to create administrative regulations to detail operational specifics. Any questions? Seeing none, may I have a motion to move this policy forward to our regular board meeting? I'll make that motion. I second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. Next, we'll be doing 702.1. This is also by Miss Parks. Continuation on crowdfunding. Thank you. The second policy I'm presenting to you tonight is policy 702.1, crowdfunding. This policy addresses the growing use of online platforms by our teachers, schools, and organizations to raise funds and resources that will supplement the district's budget and essential resources. Crowdfunding is a mechanism by which an individual or an organization solit solicits or accepts donations typically monetary or inind resources from the general public for approved purposes or projects that directly benefit district students or programs. A couple of examples of

112crowdfunding platforms are donors choose and GoFundMe. to research and develop this policy. We con we conducted research into the K through2 crowdfunding landscape, reviewing academic studies, policy analyses, and reports. Um, again, we we looked at how other large urban school districts across the US are managing crowdfunding. And then we used this research and again the PSBA template to identify the critical components of policy 702.1. These include legal and privacy compliance, specifically FURPA and IDEA, financial handling and accountability measures, alignment with curriculum and technology standards, and most importantly, ensuring fair resource distribution across our district. Next steps again to ensure practical implementation, we will be creating specific administrative regulations to accompany the policy. These will detail procedures, approved platforms, and financial processes. Any questions? I I have one quick question. Um I think it states that

113the maximum amount that someone can go for is like $1,000 and then it has to come to the district. Uh it'll go to Dr. Burks, I believe, after $1,000. Right. Is that a loan number, do you think? because I would think just based on the needs um most people will go for a little bit higher than that. I would see a lot coming to you for approval. Can you explain the rale? I can address that shortly. Yes, I'd be happy to. Um so just to give you an example, the vast majority of our crowdfunding here at the district is done through the donors choose platform. um we have brought in through donors choose specifically almost $100,000 worth worth of resources over the course of just this school year. So to your point um it can

114be a vehicle to bring in a lot of money well beyond $1,000. However, that money went toward 260 different projects and the average funding amount for each project was around $360. So it's not for the total amount over the year, it's project specific. Got you. Thank you. Gotcha. Thank you. Any other questions? Hearing none, may I have a motion to move this forward to our regular? I second. All in favor, please say I. Any opposed? Thank you, Miss Parks. Thank you. Next, we'll have Dr. Whartonby. He'll be presenting policy 807, which is also a new policy. Good evening once again. So 807 is a new policy as Mr. Nicoloff said and it's basically providing a moment silence for 911 and the reason why it's a new policy is it obviously hasn't been used in 24

115years. So this is a new policy for most districts. There is a policy like it and it's more the pledge of allegiance than it is directed towards 911. So what changed here from PSBA? There was a added paragraph in here that was specific to school district employees and we shortened it to be students and staff. So paragraph uh four right now under authority was basically just changed to include the word staff as opposed to having a like paragraph distinctly for uh sta uh staff members. So it's now student staff got rid of one paragraph shortened it up a little bit. Any questions? Seeing none, may I have a motion to move this to the regular board meeting? Make that motion. I have a second. All right. All opposed or all in favor first? Let's do

116that one. I Any opposed? Good. We'll move that forward. Thanks, Dr. Orin B. Do we have any comment cards? No. All right. Any old business? New business? Can I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. All right. All in favor? I any opposed for adjourned. Good evening. I'd like to call to order the education committee of the whole for the board of directors for the school district for the city of Allentown for today which is May 22nd, 2025. Once again, the board welcomes and invites public comments. You may address the board on agenda and or non-aggenda items. The first opportunity for comments 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

117public 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 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. If you so choose to address the board, please fill out the comment card and hand it to our board secretary, Mr. Simson. Again, comment cards are located at the podium near the door. Once recognized, please come to the podium and state your name and address for the record. At this time, I'm going to ask if Dr. Burks has

118any remarks. Thank you, Miss Connover. I just want to say tonight we have several item agenda items on the board's agenda. We did give the board another copy of of that agenda because it changed once you received it previously. Just as an update so you have a copy just so we can make sure in front of you. Yes. All right. Thank you. Thank you. At this time, we are taking public comments on agenda items. We do not have any. So, we'll move forward. Tonight, we have seven agenda items. The first item is a request for the approval of the 202526 Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy reconfiguration presented by Dr. Burban. Thank you for this opportunity. Uh we are only adding a second grade to Sonia Sotomayor. So that will allow our students to have

119a fullcape from prek to five uh which is essential in meeting the requirements for theme-based schools. Uh are there any specific questions? I will be uh articulating the school reconfiguration requirements to the state of Pennsylvania and there's be a form you will fill out after the process. Any questions, please? Will this be available next school term? Like how soon? Yes, it's we're going to add second grade so those first graders can continue on with the dual language process. Okay. Thank you. Are there any other questions? May I have a motion to move this item forward to the next motion? Second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor, please let it be known by saying I. I. Are there any that opposed? Hearing and soon none, this moves to our next regular board meeting. Thank

120you very much. Thank you, Dr. Burbone. The second item is a request for the approval of themebased high school naming recommendation that will be presented by Miss Bryant. Good evening. Um, tonight I'm here for you to bring uh forward the name that has been chosen as part of the school naming committee. Uh, but before I read off of the memo, I did just want to ask we do have a number of members of the committee that are here. If I could ask you to please stand. [Applause] As you could see, this committee was uh representative of board members of student rep of um students to building 21 as well as parent and school leadership. Um so tonight we request the board's approval to rename Building 21 High School to Bridge View Academy of Health, Science,

121Innovation, and Technology effective for the 2025 2026 school year. Building 21 will be the next theme-based school in Allentown School District. The proposed name Bridgeview Academy of Health, Science, Innovation, and Technology is reflective of the school's new design and the contributions from the community naming survey. This name emerged as a powerful choice for several key reasons. It strategically synthesizes popular elements from several submissions from the community naming survey, ensuring that the new identity reflects the broader Allentown School District community's input. Simultaneously, the new name captures a vision of a dynamic and aspirational learning environment that evokes a sense of pride within the school community. In addition, the school's proximity to the landmark 8th Street Bridge, also known as the Alberta Elmer Meyers Bridge, is visible from the school grounds. It offers a compelling symbolic connection.

122This bridge, a historic structure completed in 1913 and once celebrated as the world's longest and highest concrete bridge, represents Allentown's rich history of innovation and achievement. In addition, Bridge View signifies both the connection to the city's innovative past and the school's role in fostering future innovation. Just as the bridge physically links different parts of Allentown, the school welcomes and unites students from across the entire district. There any questions? Thank you. There are no questions. May I have a motion to move this to our next recommen? Thank you. Any discuss discussion? All in favor, please let it be known by saying I. I. Are there any that oppose? Hearing seeing none, this move to our next regular board meeting. Um, Dr. Seavoy, Dr. Malikica Seavoy will be coming forth with the next five items. Good evening,

123board members and Superintendent Burks. The first item is a renewal of the um health center that we have at Hayes Elementary School, Valley Health Partners Community Health Center is a Pennsylvania notfor-profit corporation and they seek to renew the agreement with Allentown School District to operate a school-based federally funded health center lookalike and deliver school-based health services through the clinic at Brigadier General Anna Hayes, Anna May Hayes Elementary School. Last month, I believe you renewed the clinic at Sheridan. This is the other clinic that we have at Hayes. Do you have any questions? May I have a motion? I make that motion. Second. Any discussion? Hearing and seeing none. All in favor, please let it be known by saying I. I. I. Any that oppose? This moves to our next regular board meeting after this. And

124next on our list, the next item for approval, requesting approval, is the loss links assessment. We use the loss links assessment to assess language acquisition, the progress of language acquisition for our English learners. This is a renewal. We currently use the assessment. Now, I have a motion to move this to our next regular board meeting. Make that motion. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? All in favor, please let it be known by saying I. I. Any opposed? This moves next to our next regular board meeting. The the next item is the internship agreements with Allentown School District and the number of universities. This is for adult internships. One of the um we talked about it earlier tonight, the emphasis around recruitment and retention of staff. This partnership allows us to have student from Brimmar College,

125Cedar Crest College, Kushtown University, Marywood University, Millersville University, Ruckers University and Westchester University who are who are studying in the field of social work. So they it's an addition to services to our students plus we have opportunity to recruit and retain social workers. Thank you very much Dr. I have a motion. You got it? Yeah, I have a question. Um, I see that I see two of the better better east coast um teacher schools, Middlesville and Westchester University. Are we looking at that for teachers as well or is that just for um social workers? This agreement is just for social workers. We do have other agreements for counselors and um psychologists. Mr. Sang will have to answer which ones we have for um teachers that I'm not sure. Okay, that's okay. Thank you. Thank you.

126But just consider that because I just wanted to Absolutely. Thank you. We will follow up. Any other questions or comments? May I have a motion? I make that motion. Second. All in favor, please let it be known by saying I. I. Are there any that opposed? This moves forward. Next. The next item is for Penn State dual enrollment. This is one of our agreements to continue. This is an agreement to continue one of our dual enrollment opportunities for our students. We engaged with Penn State last year for the first time and this is our enrollment agreement for the upcoming school year. This year you will see that this is for juniors and seniors. So, this is an opportunity for students to earn a number of credits um throughout their junior and senior year, which will

127support their post-secary opportunities in higher education and the courses that they are taking also will account for their graduation requirements within Allentown School District. Are there any questions? Yes, there is there any cost to our students? I'm sorry. Is any cost to our students? This is this is through our program. We actually transport students, buy their materials, and bring them back to school. And where do we take them to the le to which which campus? Um, the Penn State. What is it? Lehigh Valley. Penn State. Lehigh Valley. I'm sorry. Thank you. That's great news. That's great news. May I have a motion? I make that motion. A second. All in favor, please let it be known by saying I. I. Are there any that oppose? This moves forward to our next regular board meeting. And

128last but not least on our list, we have we last year you the board approved the Edfortech Alliance contract for online learning for virtual program and some of our for virtual academy and some of our virtual programs. The contract ends on June 30th and we are in the midst of determining whether or not we want to continue with the current programming or um add another program for virtual learning that is aligned to our plan. That is still in discussion. However, we have summer program that requires students to um participate in credit recovery. This allow our students to participate in credit recovery. This this request allow students to participate in credit recovery throughout the summer while we make the decision on a more um permanent well I shouldn't say permanent another agreement as it relates to

129virtual programming. Are we running data to see how the program if it was effective? It was only so we we have quantitative data at the end of the year. We would should have we have qualitative data at the end of the year. We should have quantitative data regard um as it relates to students performance and the passing of courses um and that will help determine where we move how we move forward. Yeah, I know our virtual program needs some strengthening. So I'm just asking yes. In addition to the the planning that we're doing around that we're not doing the planning around a virtual um plan the platform will actually lend itself to that. So it's the plan and then the platform. Okay. Thank you. And who handles I have a question. Who and don't judge

130me guys because there's a lot of people in this room and this district. Who who handles the um virtual David? David's name are you talking about who's over the um so virtual virtual virtual academy it um Dr. Delipoplane. Deliplane is the director of virtual academy. And then we have gang programs in the high schools that are managed by or supervised by the school leaders. It's an academic program. So ultimately we're responsible for the program. Now did we ever make that announcement about the because we call everything gain. to be stuck with old people. But we have a program in Derif now, right? And it's called something else. Did we ever make that announcement in terms of I don't think we we made it official publicly, but I'm just going to defer to Mr. Brick House

131or Dr. um because I don't know what the name Mr. Rick House, can you speak to that? The program that would be the alternative program at Der, you know, that's good news, too. You know, dear students don't, it's called Husky Pack. Yeah, I knew it was Husky. What? What's the second one? Husky Pack. Husky Pack. Pack. Okay. Sorry. Nice. I'm excited about that, too. When you mentioned the um alternative, that's okay. Mom. Okay. Well, may I have a motion to move this item to our um next regular make that motion? Second. All in favor, please let it be known by saying I. Are there any that opposed? Hearing seeing none, this moves to our next regular board meeting. At this time, do we have any um any cards? Good news. Any old business? Yes. Um

132I'm asking the everyone Valley Youth House um when there when is there a contract up and when do we have to renew it? I don't really know but I'm I'm the reason why I'm asking this is because um I do not want us to be bullied again like we were last year. Valley Youth House has um I bought an agreement I think in front of the board maybe December um regarding their um it's a grant and regarding their work in the two high schools. They also have um uh a grant where they are at um it's a violence prevention grant where they are operating out of Rob. So we're right now we're not paying anything. We're monitoring the work that they're doing as per your request um in the two schools. So they're getting but

133they're still getting grant money off our numbers. Yes, I think that's what they're getting grant funding to support our students. Yes. Can you go ahead? Keep asking question. Keep I didn't mean to cut you off. Keep going. I'm going to ask my question. No, no, go ahead. I I I'll ask a question after you. My question was I wanted to know what what's the problem with with what's going on. like, oh, do we I don't know if Well, I know when we took our time with it the year before, um had a lot of people calling our superintendent um trying to bully her into getting this done, trying to bully um to, you know, get people on under her administration to get the numbers. And I don't think anyone should be calling our our employee

134to get something that um if we do use them or don't use them, they don't have that right. Um considering the fact that they do not have a great they do not have a good batting average when it comes to our students. We know for a fact that under them uh you know a social worker did um was not given the a counselor was not given adequate information or a place for a student to stay and that student end up being becoming homeless and living in an encampment and being and being molested. It was rap he was raped. um you know that was a that that was awful and to them they still did not take total um they did not take responsibility for that. So for them to still be with us I question

135it. I question it a lot. I have a question. Are they under anou? Yes. Does theou state that they have to do reporting of data incidents things like that? Oh, so I'm sorry. I'll have to check theou for that. I thought you meant the data reporting to us regarding their work in the school. I miss I didn't let you finish. Yes. So I I would like to make my decisions based on that and word of mouth. So, if we have people in our schools and in compliance, it says in theou that these are the deliverables and you're supposed to do the reportings and I would like to know what the reportings are from Valley Youth House, how they're serving our children, what does the data look like so we can make the right decision going

136forward um regarding them. I recently met with them. I will say um we meet once a month. I don't know if it was Friday or Monday. I'm kind of lost in my days right now, but I did meet with them. The requirement right now is to give me the end ofear data so that I'll know how many children that they've seen and how many consistent small groups that they've had. I can share that um with their limited staff. They haven't had individual one-to- ones um meetings with students, but they have had small groups. um our social workers support the onetoone um uh onetoone sessions with our students because we don't get that from Valley Youth House right now. And does it state in theouou that the principal or the school or whoever is partnering with

137them whether it's communities and schools are a part of the evaluation process because I would think the school can give a better capture of like what what's happening there. So that's thank you. Thank you. I have a question Dr. BS. No, I just want to say Dr. they whatever they collect I want to make sure that we share it with the board because it will be an aggregate so it'll be they serve 25 kids or whatever service and the type of services so once we receive that report we will share it with board of directors thank you so I don't want to make a big deal about this but my question is if there's an issue with an employee from an organization that we have a contract with um are we to hold the or

138continue to hold the organization accountable when the situation has happened several years ago and if the employee was held accountable, right? Um, do we continue to hold an organization accountable if we as the district are receiving positive results from what this new contract looks like? Well, and may I say something? Um, to me, I'm not even looking at the employee. I was looking at the fact of what the the policies were during that time where she employee didn't have a chance didn't have didn't have anything whereon administration should have should have stepped up and and that's why I'm very weary of them because they are making that money and they're making over a million whatever whatever money they are for getting grants but are they truly truly servicing our children are do they understand our

139needs so that's a valid point and as to what um President Noel said, I think it's important that we gather the data and see how it's impacting our students. So, if our students are, you know, receiving a benefit from it, then we need to weigh out the pros and cons and see how do we hold them accountable when things are not happening that is a benefit to our students. But overall, if it's a benefit, then we can continue. But thank you. Dr. Burks, my question is to you also. Have there been com have you had conversations with them concerning what the expectation is? So made directly no but Dr. Seavoy and members of our team, they meet with them a lot and we with all of our partners in general, we've really um taken stock

140of some of the partnerships that we have and we've for example we've put out RFPs like we haven't in the past. So we had lots of partners who were just automatically every year. So we've put out proposals or requested proposals and so and we've set standards that if you have to write and Dr. Well, you could speak to it more specifically because you oversee it, but you have to show us alignment to our strategic plan or we do not want you to be a partner and there's some questions on the application system they have like how to specifically align to our strategic plan and the direction that we want to go. So, we are holding people and meeting with them more frequently than we have as an organization, but I can let you speak to

141it more. Yes, we have. We we meet in all of our partnerships. We meet regularly um not only about whether or not they're meeting their goals or their targets, but the impact that is having on our students. We have is through dual enrollment through um student uh student support services, the mental health which is inclusive of Valley Youth Health. We have had um I'm going to say we have had opportunities where we had to talk to partners about their staff or the impact that they were having on their staff. we have requested and um stuck with removal of their staff from our schools. So we we manage it um based on the situation and um the situation and its impact on students nothing when I say yeah I'm going leave it there. You're correct. We

142we have there's a provision in most of ourus that give us the unilateral right if we're dissatisfied with the performance of any one of their employees to remove them and they're obligated to remove them under the circumstances. The second issue is most of ourus and you can verify this are not of extremely long duration. They're usually a yeartoyear umou. So in the event we are not pleased with either their handling of a situation or the outcomes that you're suggesting, we have the opportunity to reflect and choose another entity to partner with us and I agree with that. However, what I what I want to be wary of, right, is that we're not utilizing past events, right? Because the event that was, you know, specified is an event that happened prior to starting this contract, this

143specific contract. So, I don't want to send the wrong message to our partners that if like we can't resolve an issue, right? We want to be able to understand that conflict creates opportunity to sit down and be able to resolve issues. And if we do not appreciate and we don't agree with how we are handling our partnerships and relationships, then we need to do something about it. However, if this is a past event that has happened already prior to a new contract, we should not revisit that event that we already move past. Again, that event happened way before Dr. Burks or even Mr. Stanford was here. I can confirm that Valley Youth House watched the board meeting where we approved their um agreement in December and are well aware of the board's expectations and meet

144monthly to explain where they are in those expectations. So sorry and to add to that again not focusing on the past event prior to this new contract but if there's any new events that have happened. We should focus on that. Agree. Sorry. And I understand that, but you know, it's still the same people in charge. It's still the same administrators. So, the only reason why I brought it up is because I don't want that ever to happen again because administrators didn't, you know, didn't do what they were supposed to do for our students. Well, we don't want to forget. I'm never going to forget. You know, I'm always going to remind you. I mean, I can move past it, but if it something like that, it happened. So, I'm not going to ever act like

145it didn't happen. But what I do want to say is that the perception, you said a word, and I just want to make sure that we get this clear that came out of your mouth. Bullying, right? And so, what I will say that could be perception, you know, because you had passed where she wasn't here. But at the same time, we we're not tolerating. We're building part. We're building each other and we're building partnerships. And so my response would be as one board member is if we can mend this, we can fix this fix this because we've been saying that we're moving in a direction that we all need to move in and we need to move in the direction together. If for for some reason that they're not on board with that, then that

146means that we're going to start having to use our unilateral powers and make some adjustments. But that's not the goal. The goal is to bring everyone who was with us in the beginning along with us because we're building. We're not tearing down. Correct. Yes, Dr. B. Thank you. I just want to add because I think it's important for this context as relates to mental health services when we initially with within the past few years I'll say with our relationship with Valley Youth House we were using ESR's funding to fund our partnership not just with Valley Youth House with other mental health providers. However, as an organization we want to build the capacity internally. So we hired about 16 social workers because we felt that we had we could secure talent within. We named the lead

147social worker. She's here this evening, Miss Ariel. We've had her participate in lots of professional learning and she's really doing a fantastic job in creating our whole child framework and our overall mental health uh supporting our whole child development. So, our pivot to moving away from outside providers was essentially had nothing specifically to do with the provider per se. We want to build our own capacity. We've added 16 more members to our learning community and our own talent that we're growing for longer term sustainability. And I agree with I sorry I agree with that. I think that's a valid point. However, we don't want to mix the two, right? We're growing within and that's absolutely fine, but we don't want to in Okay, I'm not going to say that. We don't want to pinpoint certain

148areas of partnerships because then it doesn't make us attractive. people don't want to partner with us when they feel like we're shifting just because of something that's like, you know, I just feel we need to work on it. No, and that's fair. That's why I want to raise it that it wasn't just, oh, they're getting rid of all these different groups. It's just we want to build our own capacity. We have quite talented people we've attracted to the organization that can serve our kids. Well, you want to cut you off, but people are used to eating here for a long time by itself and they don't want to share their food. So, I get it and I said that from day one. But the thing is, we're here for the kids. It's not about us

149and we're building our kids, our communities. Everything is attached to it. So, um either you going to come along with us or we going to have to sit at the table. We're going to have to make some decisions that might just not include you. Um but that's not the goal. Um just just to add to everyone's perspective, you know, thinking about it from the aspect of building our capacity which is amazing and great but doing work with mental health I understand that the more the marrier like all of our kids right now I would say majority just everybody us need mental health support so us building our capacity doesn't mean we don't still need additional help and support from other partners as well so I don't want us like Dr. Burks is clarifying give the

150perception that we don't need the support and we don't want to build on that. We want to build on that, but we're also building our internal capacity to make sure that if a partner decides tomorrow that they don't want to service our students anymore, we still have people on board to um to support our children. But again, we we do still need what did you say? All our students are needed. All our needed and we need that oneonone. Yes. learn from each other, you know, and we don't, you know, we need the 101 and we have it and we're going to use it. Yes. So, is there any further discussion on this? Go to the next thing, too. Um, is there any new business? May I have a motion to journ? All right. We'll be

151taking a All in favor, please let it be known by saying I. There any that oppose? No. Meeting is adjourned. Okay. We'll be taking a quick five minute meeting before we reset to our next meeting. I think I'm sorry. We want a quick five minute break, guys. Good night everyone. Good night. It's a West Indian thing. It is. 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, May 22nd, 2025. 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. Common cards must be received by the start of the meeting, which is now. We

152will not be receiving public cards once the meeting begins. A copy of the public common policy is located on the table next to the common cards. Per 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. If you choose to address the board, please fill out the comment cards and hand it to the board secretary, Mr. Simson. Common cards are located at the podium near the door. Once recognized, please come to the podium, state your name and address for the record, and kindly limit your remarks to three minutes. We will

153now have the roll call. Mr. Secretary, please call the role. Miss Brown, present. Miss Conover present. Miss Harris here. Miss Mat here. Mr. Nicoloff here. Miss Noel here. Miss Ortiz here. Miss Sierra. Miss Tersio here. We have eight members present. Was here. She was here. She said it. She said it. Oh, I didn't hear. I'm so sorry. Nine members present. Thank you. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. and for the president remarks. So last week, Mr. Nicolof and I had the opportunity to go to advocacy day up in Harrisburg and we had a lot of really great discussions with our state representatives,

154our um our senators and other partners in neighboring districts. Um we spoke about federal funding. We spoke about cyber funding and how it impacts the budget for public schools. Um we also discussed um mandated reviews for IEP per school district um funding the contingency fund for special education. Um and this fund actually is just to give you some context for that. This fund helps us to offset the cost of providing a free appropriate public education to students with significant disabil disabilities when those costs cost exceeds the standard funding allocated to school districts. So that was a huge talk um in Harrisburg. Um there was also talks about partnership with other neighboring school districts, specifically Philadelphia board of education. They talked about um formulating an allegiance with Allentown School District and um working with the board

155of directors to advocate in the future. So that was really exciting. Is there anything you wanted to share on that, Mr. Nol? I think you pretty much covered it. Okay, great. And I want to thank our state representatives and our our senator. They have been working diligently to make sure that especially Allentown is taken care of. I have to be honest, some people were a little bit jealous. They were a little bit jealous. However, um they are advocating strongly for us to be able to especially receive our um our federal funding. They're doing whatever it takes. So, Representative Pete Schwire, um, Mike Sloberg, who am I missing? Josh. Josh Seagull, and Senator Miller. Thank you so much. Thank you. Also, I wanted to congratulate all the students who are about to graduate. It's such an

156exciting time. Give it up for those students. I think I think I can speak for my fellow board members that that's that's why we do this. You know, when we get to see the students walk across the stage in their gowns just knowing that they did it. Um I'm so excited for our students. So, congratulations to them and I wish them all the best and blessing on their next journey. Also, I wanted to um advocate today for students and families to sign up for summer programming. Um, I know that ASD has a little rose bust um, offering for summer programs. Um, just making sure that parents know about it, they're engaged, they're keeping their students brains occupied during the summer so don't they don't get into anything mischievous. Um, some advocating for for um, families

157to really sign up their children for um, summer programming. Um, ASD is also offering internships as well. I don't know if there's more openings for internship there. There are. So, any student or family that hears about this, sign your children up for summer internship. We pay well. And last but not least, um I just wanted to thank I I know we're going to have another board meeting before like later on in June, but I do want to thank all the staff, administrators, all our partners, everyone that's worked with us this year. This year was like a roller coaster ride. It was so many ups and so many downs. However, we persevered and I know we have plans to get better. Um, so I'm really looking forward to how we continue to um to to trend

158upward just to continue to climb and continue to build ASD and to be what what do you call it, Miss Conover? The model school district. Yes, we are building towards that. So, thank you guys for all that you do and we truly appreciate you. And that ends my board president remarks. Dr. Brooks. Thank you, Miss Brown Noel. Again, congratulations to all our graduates, but school is still in session. So, make sure you complete all the requirements, come to school and all the hours that you have to be in school. So, congratulations and I thank all our teachers and staff and admin everyone who play everyone who plays a vital role in impacting our students lives. So, thank you so much. I just have a few quick things to say, and I'm not reading my phone

159because I'm violating any laws and rules, but I I don't want to mess this up. So, I need a drum roll. Tonight, we had outstanding performance by female ensemble member Tacisia Montinez Far um Vargas as Lucy for William Allen High School. One of Freddy So we Yes. So we're so excited for uh Tisia Telicia as well as William Alli High School and all of our students who were nominated. And let me tell you, if you missed the performances, you missed an outstanding treat. Our students are really uh exceptional, very talented. It's what you always have next year. So we'll make sure that we get the dates out very early. But again, I want to commend Telicia as well as all the teacher staff, everyone who worked really hard with our students for great success. So,

160go Allentown. So, I'm so excited about that. Initially, I I failed to mention and I messed this name up and I know this name well. We want to invite everyone uh you are cordially invited to attend the digital promise Verizon Innovative Learning Schools launch which is please mark your calendars for June 5th from 4 to 5:30 p.m. and we'll put this on all our social sites and all that kind of great stuff and send out invitations to all of our partners. It will be held at Cedar Crest College alum alum alumna hall auditorium alumni I'm sorry hall auditorium 100 college drive Allentown Pennsylvania so we are going to have the kickoff five of our school for five of our schools who have been identified as Verizon innovative learning schools and what this entails is that

161the schools will receive additional well each student will receive an iPad as well as a keyboard. The aim of the project is to proport to basically promote access uh for students. So that will be uh closely aligned it's aligned with our strategic plan. We also they are helping to fund positions some supervisors of instructional technology to support these efforts and we will have access to additional uh software as it relates to support our MTSS programming as a result of this. And this is a a four-year commitment. We will receive technical support from Digital Promise as well as Verizon Innovation Innovative Learning Schools. Um our teachers and sta and other staff will receive professional learning. They will also help fund uh technology teams. So our students teach them to um have tech teams throughout these five

162schools. And we are really really thrilled. So, it is June 5th, 4 o'clock from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. at Cedar Crest College. And again, we will send this out to the board and to everyone involved. We want to have a great kickoff and blast. All every staff member who works with children in the school will also receive an iPad and and students will have 247 a digital access. So, they'll have roundthe-clock internet services um through receiving these devices. So, we're really excited. They only select a few schools in the country uh each year and we're part of cohort 12. So we're excited. We're hoping we do a fantastic job. So they'll be willing to fund this effort at our other two high schools. It's it's a secondary effort so they only work with middle and

163high school students. So it's our four middle schools and our new Bridge View Academy uh School of Health Science and Innovation and Technology. So that's a lot. So with that said, those five schools. So we're excited. So please join us for the kickoff and I think I covered everything right, Miss Bree. So thank you so much. Thank you, Miss Brown. Thank you, Dr. Burks. At this time, we are only taking public comments on agenda items. 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 three minutes. Please also be informed the school board of directors appreciates public comments. However, we are not able to respond to these comments. Administration will address your

164concerns and update the board on the status of your concern. Is there any comment cards? There not. Thank you. Okay. May I have a motion of approval of the minutes? I make that motion. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Please call the RO. Miss Carover, Miss Harris, yes. Miss Mat, yes. Mr. Nicolof, yes. Miss Noel, yes. Miss Ortiz, yes. Miss Sierra, yes. Mr. Bersio, yes. Miss Brown, yes. Motion passes 90. Thank you. And now for our information updates. Um, is there an update from the Allentown Human Relations Commission? Yes. Uh, in our last meeting, the commission received renewed investigative training specifically geared towards human relations and discriminatory complaints. And we are also working on refreshing our online presence and creating an easier access of online forms and portals. So that's it. Thank

165you. Is there any updates from the Allentown Public Library? Yes. Um, the last update was Monday. We are scheduling a meeting with Mr. Fazio and Dr. Burks. Thank you. Is there any updates from the Allentown Recreations Commission? Not at the moment. Thank you. There are no updates at this moment from the Allentown School District Foundation. We have an upcoming meeting on June 5th. And for the Carbon Lehi, Mr. Eric Leash shared an overview of the student centered programs offered through the curriculum and instruction department focused on opportunities that promote academic excellence, creativity, and leadership. These include 8 through 12 competitions like coding challenges, STEM, KEX, reading, Olympics, and media and design with over a thousand students expected to participate this year. He also highlighted leadership initiatives such as the chief science officers program and the

166student journalism summit which connects students with professionals in the field. The presentation concluded with the reintroduction of the student forums revived post-pandemic at district requests featured students from northwestern Lehi sharing their experience. At the student forum at the board meeting, advisor Lauren Ellensbomb and three Northern Northwestern Lehi students Avery Chandler, Michaela Resi, and Kamari Grim shared their experience with the revived student forum. The forum values was emphasized including building leadership and collaboration skills. The students described their service projects for the children's hospital and how working with peers from other districts enhanced their teamwork. We also went over the 2025 2026 um general operations fund. Um this is only the budget budget mandated by the Pennsylvania statute that requires board action by each member of the school district and I am of course um a part

167of that decision. And also the board approved the calendar for the central office payroll schedule and board meeting for the 2025 2026 school year. And that ends my report. Is there any report from LCTI? Our meeting is next week. Thank you. And for our student representatives, Adriana Rodriguez. Um good night I guess. um from building to be Bridge View Academy. Um I'm Adriana Rodriguez and this will be my last um report to the board before I graduate this year and I appreciate and thank you guys so much for the experience that I've gained this year and um helping me be able to grow as a person and on my presenting skills. Um, I will take all that I learned with with me next year as I uh move into Cutstown University to study criminal justice.

168Kimberly cannot be with us tonight as she is celebrating her graduation from the early college program with Elry last night and with her family. She also sends her thanks and farewells and we wish her the best of luck at I'm going to butcher this, Cheney University. Cheney Cheney in the fall. We have a lot to celebrate and look forward to over the next few weeks. May was full of student driven events that celebrated learning in several areas. We kicked off the month with our Bloom fashion show. Our sociology classes again hosted mental health awareness day. I heard it. It was very fun from everybody. Um we'd like to thanks our our partners at Project Silk and Center for Humanistic Change for their help with that event. We will be rounding out the month with an

169all grade level science fair next Wednesday. As a part of our year-end celebrations, our seniors are completing their capstone projects. They have collaborated to complete over 40 projects, each of which makes an impact on our community. Our underassmen are preparing to end the year with their presentations of learning where they will reflect upon how the many ways they have grown this year and set goals for their continued growth when they return back in the fall. It wouldn't be May at Building 21 if we didn't talk about voting. This Tuesday, students at Building 21 and the entire Allentown School District served in polling places across the city to ensure a smooth administration for the primary election. Next Tuesday morning, the PA Department of States and Education will once again celebrate the Governor's Civic Engagement Award in

170recognition of seven years straight of excellence in voter registration and leadership in developing the pole worker program in Lehigh County. Building 21 is the only school in Pennsylvania who has been invited to attend the ceremony in person. Building 21 student Janitza Claudio, who just served in her fourth straight election as an interpreter and election clerk, will represent all of the young voters of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as she delivers the keynote address at the ceremony. Wow. A delegation of students led by a teacher, Miss Salter, will present in the hair will present in Harrisburg to cheer her on. The event will be live streamed in the Secretary of State's office. You guys should watch that. You should definitely. In our second season with the Flag Football Club, our team has 40 students involved in our

171co-ed team. The boys play in two different leagues with an overall winning record, and the girls hosted their first game on on our property this week. Thanks to Dan Bos for continuing for continuing to fund this program. Our end of the year Oh, our end of the year celebrations we are kicking off this weekend with our prom. The prom theme is once upon a time and we will be dancing the night away at the Renaissance Hotel. Monday, we will be celebrating as a whole school with a picnic on our campus. And we hope to see each of you at the class of 2025 graduation on Tuesday, June 17th at Miller Symphony Hall, 1:00 p.m. Once the celebrating has ended and the learning will resume with opportunities for students to complete their learning during our summer

172learning program and new students to get ready for high school with the summer bridge program. We'd especially like to thank our rising junior Ashanti Ramos a great trip as she is one of the two students choosing to participate in the FHI 360 student leadership development program in San Francisco this summer. Thanks to the sponsor thanks to our sponsorships from Gear Up. And that's our news from building 21. This is the last time we will sign off from our board report with these words. We look forward to returning to you next year under a new name, but with the same commitment to ensuring that all of our students find their passion, become aware of their power, and develop their agency you and use their learning to make an impact. Thank you. And remember, just like our

173Phoenix, together we rise, Ariana, great job and we're really proud of you. So, I've learned so much from you this year. So, thank you so much for all the contributions on my superintendent advisory council, student advisory council as well. And so, give her a round of applause. She was just amazing on that. We I just had a clarifying question about the presentation in Harrisburg and the date that's going to be streamed. I didn't I didn't hear it unless I missed it. Let me double check for you. Okay. for the for the the state. Yes. Well, we'll find out later. Okay. Well, do we know um Thursday? Thursday. They said Thursday. I got confirmation. It's probably Thursday. Next Thursday. Okay. Yes. Once we get the time, maybe we should put it on social media so we

174can watch. To my knowledge, it should be posted on the building 21 Instagram page. So, just make sure to check in on that. Okay. Thank you. And we'll provide it to the board and the superintendent's report. Thank you. And now for our next student representative, Mr. Sprayberry. Hi, good evening. Um, it's been a busy month at Der to start things off with sports. Uh, we do have two athletes competing in the track track and field state championships uh this a this week weekend. Thank you. Sorry. Uh, this weekend at Shippensburg University. Laquay Hamilton will be running the 400 meter and Annayia Holder will be running the 400 meter and the 300 meter hurdles. Uh we wish them the best of luck. They're both excellent athletes and I hope that they will do well. Uh boys

175volleyball competed in both EPC and District 11 playoffs over the past week. They did very well. We are all very proud of them. And Marcus Lewis made the conference all-star team as an outside hitter. Um, in terms of academic success of deer students, uh, three deer seniors were recently honored at the Rotary Club scholarship conference. Um, Jesse Gimenez, James Yakub, and Andre Mamari all received, uh, Rotary Club scholarships. And, uh, Wenley Heraldo Rodriguez won the, give me a moment, Linda Anthony Chamber of Commerce scholarship. Uh, so they are all doing excellent things and money for college is great. Highly recommend. Um, Mr. Bluff, I believe, won the Allentown Core Alliance Network new teacher of the year. Uh, and uh, as Dr. Burks mentioned, uh, Derif is currently at the Freddy's presenting and performing. Uh, we

176have four Freddy nominations. I'm trying to keep updated on my phone to see if we've won any yet. I don't know. So, I'll have to get back in touch with you guys later about that. But, uh, 16 early college students graduated with their associates degree from DERF at the LRYC graduation yesterday at PPL. Um, I have many friends that graduated. We're all very proud of them. And finally, 488 seniors will be graduating at the PPL Center uh on June 16th, including me. So, please, if you have anybody, uh, come watch. It'll be a lot of fun. It'll be amazing. Uh, thank you. That's uh that's pretty much all for dear. That's going to be my last report since I will be leaving. So, so Kaden, I just want to say thank you so much for

177your commitment and service. Kaden was on my superintendent uh student advisory council for the past two years and defin we all learned a lot from Kaden and so I want to thank you for all your input and my policies and really keeping us focused on the focus and so and he's exceptional young man he's very modest but he's going full ride the University of Rhode Island and so and we're really proud of him. Well, thank you and I wish you well and I know you you're going to study math and you don't want to come back and teach, but maybe if you can help us out a little and study data and all that good stuff that you're going to do, you're willing to come back sometime and give back to our learning community. So,

178yeah, tell us the Can you tell us again? Because I was like, what is let me Google that. Can you tell us what what you're studying again? Uh, yeah, I'm going to be double majoring in astrophysics and data science at the University of Rhode Island and I want to go on to become a professor and an astrophysicist, do research and stuff of that nature. Okay, great. Thank you. Great job. I want to thank all our students from Allentown. Okay, that's Allentown. Okay, let's clap. Kayen's father, and I parents are proud, but his father is also a teacher at Deer of High School, so we're happy. and he's from Allentown. [Applause] I I just want to thank all our student representatives like coming here, sitting with us, doing your reports. I know sometimes we have some

179long nights. Um but just to have you be a voice to our decision making has been amazing. I love especially when you guys interject and share and speak about something that we're discussing or add add something to it. You guys have been so valuable to us and we are so excited for your next journey. The the sky is the limit for you guys because you are exceptionally bright and brilliant people and I just I cannot thank you enough for all that you've done. Thank you. Thank you. All right, to the boring stuff. [Laughter] May I have a motion for approval for the board of directors report? I make that motion. Second. A second. Is there any discussion? Please call the role. Miss Harris, yes. Miss Mat, yes. Mr. Nicolof, yes. Miss Noel, yes. Miss Ortiz,

180yes. Miss Sierra, yes. Mr. Terscio, yes. Miss Brown, yes. Miss Conover, yes. Motion passes 90. Thank you. May I have a motion of approval for the policy agenda? I make that motion. May I have a second? Is there any discussion? Please call the RO. Miss Mat, yes. Mr. Nicolof, yes. Miss Noel, yes. Miss Ortiz, yes. Miss Sierra, yes. Mr. Tersio, yes. Miss Brown, yes. Miss Connover, yes. Miss Harris, yes. Motion passes 90. Thank you. May I have a motion of approval of the Secretary and Treasures report? I make that motion. Second. Second. Is there any discussion? Please call the RO. Miss Mat. Yes. Mr. Nicolov, yes. Miss Noel, yes. Miss Ortiz, yes. Miss Sierra, yes. Mr. Tersio, yes. Miss Brown, yes. Miss Connover, yes. Miss Harris, yes. Motion passes 90. Thank you. May I have

181a motion of approval for the superintendent report? I make that motion. Second. Second. Is there any discussion? Please call the discussion. Yes. So, I believe last month we discussed a trip um with our students and my question was did we have a safety plan and I haven't received feedback. So, this is another trip that's coming up. Do we have a safety plan in place for our students when they're staying overnight and traveling like out of state? So your question, Miss um Brown, was about the company because of it's an international trip and so we finally have the information and I can send it to the school board of what the company said because I want it to be formalized. So my team gave me a memo just uh full transparency and I wanted to make

182sure that it came directly from the company. So I will we can do one I can submit it this weekend in the superintendent report if that's okay with you. Yes. And it wasn't just on the company. It also was a safety plan because many students are being trafficked across the world. So my question was how are we going to protect our students? So I just wanted to know do we have a safety plan? So the reason why I mentioned the company because on this trip they assume the liability and they've been doing this. So I thought it would be more appropriate because they have a process in place that's been vetted by their council and everything else about safeguarding students. So that's why I mentioned that if that's okay. I just and I will provide

183it. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Any more discussion? Please call the RO. Miss Noel. Yes. Miss Ortiz. Yes. Miss Sierra. Yes. Yes. Miss Tersio. Yes. Miss Brown. Yes. Miss Connover. Yes. Miss Harris. Yes. Miss Mat. Yes. Mr. Nicoloff. Motion passes 90. Thank you. May I have a motion of approval of the superintendent report? So moved. May I have a second? No, I just did. We're next. I didn't put the check mark. I'm sorry about that. Okay. May I have a motion of approval for the personnel report? Oh, that's what I thought I was doing. Can we separate, please? So could we separate section two resignation and also could we separate recommendation um number A? Letter A. Number A. Which one is is there a section for that one or just letter A? Letter recommendation

184letter A. Okay. Okay. So let's start with section two. May I have a motion of approval for section two of the personnel report? So moved. May I have a second? Is there any discussion? Please call the RO. Miss Miss Ortiz. Yes. Miss Sierra. Yes. Yes. Miss Tersio. Yes. Miss Brown. No. Miss Connover. No. Miss Harris. Yes. Miss Mat. Yes, m Mr. Nicoloff. Yes, Miss Noel. Yes. Motion passes seven to two. Thank you. And now, may I have a motion of approval for the recommend recommendation letter A section of the personnel report? I make that motion. Second. Second. Is there any discussion? Um yes. So, just for clarification purposes, I believe last month um we already voted to um terminate this employee. I thought we already voted on terminating this employee and now it states, well,

185you want to resend it and the employee is resigning instead of being terminated. Is that correct? I just want to make sure. employee 529313. I believe what happened in this instance was that uh there was a resignation that was received uh by the district and uh was not known by the district from this individual when the termination action was actually taking place. So after consultation with the individual and the uh local union we agreed to that. Okay. Will will clarify the exact facts. Thank you. one of the options when the employee uh once you vote on or the board votes for the termination and the charges are then communicated there is an option still for the individual to resign rather than go through the hearing or the arbitration process. So after they those charges were

186passed here and served the employee did then submit a resignation and that's why the resinment came because it came within the time limit of them being able to respond. So, I don't remember. Um, could you tell me why is our process set up in a way that we would already vote on it when the option is to resend? Like, shouldn't we do that afterwards so then the vote is final then we don't have to come back and do that again? No, not really. Um the way the school code works under the circumstances, you as a board have to take action initially to authorize the receipt of the charges and then um if certain actions aren't taken within 10 days typically uh in our documentation um uh that they would be automatically terminated but you take

187the action initially. Okay. So we terminate first. that they have 10 days. No, actually technically no. You receive the charges of the administration to terminate and acknowledge that. But in the resolution, it says that if the employee doesn't resign within 10 days, they will be automatically terminated or if they don't ask for a hearing. So if they ask for a hearing, we go to a hearing and ultimately the termination would be uh determined either by a labor arbitrator or after a board level hearing that they could elect, but it's a stilted process. It doesn't make uh often logical sense, but that's the way you have to do it under the school code. Okay. Just wanted to confirm because I thought we terminated the employee first and now we're like just wanted No. Okay. So technically

188the employee was authorized to be terminated if the employee didn't do anything. Okay. But in this case the employee did evidence her resignation as indicated by Mr. Sang and uh uh that obiated the need to have a termination of record. Okay. Thank you. Good question. Is there any more discussion? Please call the RO. Miss Ortiz. Yes. Miss Sierra. Yes. Mr. Berscio. Yes. Miss Brown. Yes. Miss Conover. Miss Harris. Yes, Miss Mat. Yes, Mr. Nicolof. Yes, Miss Noel. Yes, Miss Connover. And Miss Brown, you said Miss Brown 81. Motion passes 8 to one. Sorry, I'm a little tired. I know. We all are. Good night, Mr. Simon. Brother. Okay. Good night. Good night. Good night. Oh boy. Okay. Now, may I have a motion of approval for the rest of the personnel report? Move. Second. Second.

189Is there any discussion? Please call the RO. Miss Sierra. Yes. Miss Tersio? Yes. Miss Brown? Yes. Miss Connover? Yes. Miss Harris? Yes. Miss Mat? Yes. Mr. Nicoloff? Yes. Miss Noel? Yes. Miss Ortiz? Yes. Motion passes 90. Tonight, the board approved new administration administrative hires. Mr. Sang, would you please come forward and introduce our new employees? Look at me. I remember. [Music] Nothing. Uh so thematic to uh this portion of the night and others. Uh greetings. Good night everyone. Um at at this point we will welcome our new administrators. Uh we will start with uh the gentleman that was on our board of director reports. Mr. Herman James, chief of talent management and labor relations. [Applause] Thank you so much. And then we'll move through the personnel agenda uh in order in which they appear. Uh

190as our audio video technician uh Mr. Joshua Deutsch, [Applause] a current teacher ascending into our administrator ranks, uh, one of our supervisors of instructional technology, Dr. Megan Roberts. [Applause] also ascending uh from our teacher ranks and a part of our new leaders emerging leaders cohort, Dr. Melissa Rousston. [Applause] um not able to make it tonight, but also a part of our new leaders, emerging leaders cohort. He will be the elementary Roosevelt assistant principal, Mr. Austin [Applause] Renzy. And then we also have uh one of our teammates uh changing roles from the director of STEM to the director of innovation and instructional technology, Mr. Kyle Kaufman. [Applause] I'm the All right. Thank you very much everyone. [Applause] Oh my god. We're all set. Okay. May I have a motion of approval of the finance report? I

191make that motion. Second. Is there any discussion? Please call the role. Miss Sierra, yes. Mr. Bersio, yes. Miss Brown, yes. Miss Connover, yes. Miss Harris, yes. Miss Mat, yes. Mr. Nicolof, yes. Miss Noel, yes. Miss Ortiz. Yes. Motion passes 90. Thank you. At this time, we are only taking public comments on non-aggenda items. 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 the three minutes. Please also be informed the school board of directors appreciate public comments. However, we're not able to respond to these comments. Administration will address your concerns and update the board on the status of your concern. Mr. Secretary. Okay. Is there any old business? Yes. If you don't

192mind. Yeah. I will have a choice. Um just before this meeting um a little bit of disturbing news. Last year um for the drive program, Harrison Morton and Rob team played for the championship. Uh Rob won. Rob Middle School won. Um it was it was and it was a tough game. It was great. I was there. Now just today, for some reason, and I don't know the whole story yet, but I'm very upset, the trophy was taken from them and given to Harrison Morton Middle School. Um that is a dry program. That is not something we do, but that is run by um Lee Boots and Denise Watson. However, most of the money for that program comes from the Justin Sheffield um foundation. So, the coaches not paid very much and they do dedicate themselves

193to this. I'm very This is a very demoralizing situation where the boys now that are on Rob team don't even want to play tomorrow. They have a game on Fridays. They don't want to play. They don't want to be in it. You know, these kids are saying that they they they never want to be in a drive program ever again. I don't know what happened, but it's wrong. I don't know if, you know, if Buts is upset with us for not getting that contract and now they're trying to, you know, cause some disturbances in our schools. I don't know what it is. But whatever it is, it's got to stop. It's wrong. You cannot demoralize our students. Those students won that. I was at that game. They won that fair and square. It wasn't because

194of pitching. It was because of batting and runs coming in. Simple as that. and for them to take that trophy from them and give it to the other school. That's wrong and I'm extremely upset. That's it. Thank you. Is Is there any new business? We have a motion to adjourn. I make that motion. Good night. Good night. Good night. This meeting is a journal. You don't see what's going on.