001antisocial. >> Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Aton Heights School Board meeting for April 15, 2026. Would everyone please rise and pledge the flag? I >> alian to the flag of the United States of America and to theublic stands one nation under God, indivisible and justice for all. >> May we please have roll call? >> Mr. Abdala >> here. >> Mr. Azar >> here. >> Mrs. Henderson >> here. >> Mrs. Hillbrand >> here. >> Mrs. Kum here. Mrs. Kho >> here. >> Mr. Moran. Mr. Robson >> here. >> Mr. Derer >> here >> nine present. >> May I please have a motion to approve the agenda for this evening's meeting? >> So moved. >> Second. >> On the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Mrs. Hillibbrand. >>
002Yes. >> Mrs. Kum. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kho. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mam. >> Yeah, he said yes. >> Mr. Robson? >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdala? >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker? >> Yes. 90. Please >> have a motion to approve the minutes from the meetings of March 18th and April 1st. >> So moved. >> Second. >> On the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hillbrand. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kum? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kho? >> Yes. >> Mr. Moran. >> Mr. Robson? >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdala? >> Yes. >> Mr. Azar? >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker? >> Yes. >> 90. Are there any board reports at this time? >> Okay, being no board reports, let's move on to the student representatives. Gia, you're on your own tonight. I see.
003>> Fortunately, Anna had a very busy night tonight, so it's just me. Um, first I'll begin with the academic report. Uh, this weekend our school will perform Oklahoma. Tickets are available in the main office and at the door of each show. Come out and support our students on Friday and Saturday at 7 pm and on Sunday at 2 pm. The mobile glass blowing presentation from Keystone College was on campus today and all crosscurricular classes were able to attend and let me tell you it was simply amazing to see all of that and a lot of the students were very amazed by the work that they were able to do. Um, the career fair was held last Friday on April 10th and over 30 presenters were able to meet with students during their lunches. Minthon was
004held on March 27th where we raised over $20,000 for the Four Diamonds Association. Casual Day in memory of Allesandro Simmeraldi was held on March 26th. Over 90 participants, including faculty, staff, and students all wore the shirts to represent. And lastly, Marywood math contest was held yesterday, April 14th. Mr. Preachy took over two dozen students to participate. Now for the athletic report, spring sports have been doing very well this season. For softball, they are currently ranked number one in district 2, highlighted by dominant wins over Scranton, West Scranton, and Walpek. The team continues to establish itself as a top contender early in the season. For girls lacrosse, they are also ranked number one in district 2 doublea and currently are ranked 6-0 in conference play and positioning the program well for a postseason competition. For boys
005tennis, they are undefeated and currently at the top of the district 2A rankings, having not dropped a team point in any match this season. for boys volleyball on a five match winning streak with all wins coming in straight sets. The team continues to show strong progression in league play. For boys lacrosse, they are competitive early on the season with performance and key wins over Delaware Valley and demonstrating continued program growth. For track and field, both boys and girls, both programs have posted strong early season wins with depth across sprint, distance, and field events contributing to overall team success. Both teams defeated Scranton Prep yesterday during the combined home meet with our unified track team. For unified track and field, they open the season with a first place finish recording 22 first place performances, highlighting the
006strength and inclusivity of the program. The team also performed well yesterday during our combined track meet, finishing second overall. For baseball, they are currently ranked number three in District 2, competing against a challenging early season schedule. They host Delaware Valley tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. For powerlifting, the program will be represented by 11 student athletes at the National High School Championships this week, April 16th through the 19th, following a highly successful state meet. Um, for our district, they recently hosted a combined varsity and unified track and field meet, a first in Lacawana League history, reinforcing Amon Heights commitment to inclusive program and student engagement. Um, additional upcom upcoming community events include sport youth nights, senior recognitions, and themed contests, including boys lacrosse white out game versus Scranton Prep on Friday, April 4th. Morgan's message game with
007girls lacrosse versus Wilsar area on Tuesday, April 21st. And lastly, we will continue to focus on strengthening community involvement and support for all of our athletic programs. That is all for this evening. Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Uh next is our public comment. Uh we have one if someone wants to speak. uh pass a card in. If not, uh Mr. Strawler, you're uh you're it tonight. >> Appreciate the compliment. >> Well, maybe not. >> Maybe not. I appreciate the time and uh excuse me, happy tax day and I'm sure my thinking is uh close that you're closer to our next school budget. You're getting there. It's a process. >> We uh we are going through we are going through the process. We've really just started it. I think uh
008Mr. Mayor Bell is going to be presenting a preliminary budget. >> Perfect. >> And then we'll be massaging that. >> The the end goal is to have something to approve for the state by June 30th. And you're also um working to establish what what our additional tax might be in the next budget. >> Correct. Yes. >> A new military. >> You mean I think I think he means a new tax increase if there is one. My reason for uh for coming tonight, the subject that I put on the card was the Gro Street property >> and I think that it would fold into your budget discussions and my question is has any discussion taken place lately regarding the property? including the pit. >> No. However, uh we have had adjacent conversations uh regarding uh the
009the maintenance facility. So, this is something that I've detailed uh in prior meetings. Uh the board we took a look at um every B every conceivable option uh in the school community. We went and looked at uh Clark Summit University to see if we could uh lease some space up there for uh our new maintenance building. And we're currently uh looking to get uh quotes uh for a uh pole barn for uh the the maintenance uh facility. And that would um certainly be uh the the first uh step in the exploration uh of of this property here. The number one uh concern was the health and safety of our uh facilities team over in that building. Uh we had the building studied and we knew that uh we had a a very short time in
010that building. So that was the the the first thing that we needed to look at. So, I think that we should be able to uh wrap that up in the in the coming months to at least uh have a uh estimate for what it would take to clear that area. >> So, you'll we can't sell we wouldn't be able to sell the building or the facilities until we find a home for the maintenance. That's that's the first step. >> Okay. >> The rest of the property is not being utilized. The building you're in is being utilized at the moment. And I I believe we do use the the pit. >> Yeah. >> Not on a regular basis. However, >> maybe I should say underutilized. >> Come again. I'm sorry. >> Underutilized >> possibly. Yes. >>
011Yeah. I I think I'll I'll >> So perhaps in the future I I understand where you're coming from, doctor. I do. I would like to see in the future the district benefit from this property being who will who will provide us with a a budget presentation. Mark, your question was well timed. Thank you. Yes. But like it could be like a community >> several times. All right. So, uh, good good evening everyone and thank you for your time tonight. Uh, what I'm going to walk you through first is our first look at the 2627 preliminary budget and the key factors shaping where we are today. Uh at a high level, the district remains in stable financial position. We're managing the current year well and we've seen positive results in several revenue areas. Uh as we
012look ahead, there are certainly some cost pressures we need to navigate. But there are also a few important revenue considerations that will help us as we continue to refine this budget over the next couple of months. Tonight's goal is to walk through both sides of that equation. What's driving costs? where we're seeing some positive momentum and how these pieces come together in the first draft of the budget. >> So, um let's get right into the headwinds and tailwinds and a lot of these we've been talking about multiple years um and and some have escalated a little bit uh in recent. So, some of the headwinds, we've been talking about health insurance a lot and uh we Abington Heights are not alone in seeing explosive growth in our health insurance costs, right? So, I work with
013a number of other school districts and those districts all seem to be seeing very large increases in their health insurance claims and specifically uh pharmaceutical costs, right? So, we're seeing a lot of growth there. Special education cost is something that is also very difficult to control and continues to be um a challenge on the budget year after year. Uh buildings and grounds the maintenance costs I don't think that's a secret to anyone here. Um we have some some tired buildings that require a lot of maintenance. So we're seeing growth in in those categories. debt service is a relatively uh new part of the equation as we work toward building a new addition on the middle school. Uh we're working on how to phase in the payments for that uh for that building. So we're we're
014working to get to what's what we call the peak debt load so that we can kind of pay for that over time and get to that top of that peak debt load. Cyber charter school tuition, we did get a little bit of relief. Uh enrollment is still higher than we would like it to be. is always higher than we would like it to be, right? Um transportation costs are up and um with an eye toward next year and recent events, we're really keeping an eye on fuel cost, specifically diesel. Uh and utilities are seeing some really, really heavy growth there as well, particularly electricity and natural gas. On the tailwind side, we do, if you'll recall, we did get a a very nice investment from the state, a little over a million dollars leveling up
015in our accountability block grant, seeing some positive revenue results that I'll talk about. And uh we do have budgetary stability in our largest spending category. Uh we did settle a responsible contract uh which we had been planning for with the professional staff union. Uh so that has been planned for uh for a number of years already and we came in right with where where where the plan was. So that's good. And we do a lot of long range planning. So we're not just looking at next year, we're looking five years down the road to see what these different scenarios might look like. Uh so I want to dig into what the current year looks like and how it's shaping up, how I think we're going to finish this year. And I'll make some highlights um
016on this. And first, where's the positive uh coming from? And that's the revenue side of the equation, right? Um real estate taxes. This was uh a little bit of a surprise. Our collection rate was a little down and we came in a little under budget on the current real estate taxes. You'll see the delinquents were projecting to be a little higher though, so that kind of makes up for it. Um but not a benchmark we like to see there in the real estate tax realm. So, we'll take a close look at that as we sort of work into next year. Uh, earned income taxes, we project them to come in 230,000 over budget, which is a positive trend to continue to see growth there. Real estate transfer tax values are high and we're still seeing
017a lot of transactions there. uh were uh interest on investments. We had feared that rates were going to drop a little further than they did and you know they certainly did drop but you know we we certainly maintained the best rate we could. Uh we're always looking at the bond market and also using uh pleet and you know also kind of delving into CDs but we haven't we're getting the most liquid competitive rate with pleet right now. uh pupil transportation subsidy is up because our costs are up. So our reimbursement's a little bit higher. We get about 50 cents on the dollar there. So uh that reimbursement we had to spend double that to get that back. Ready to learn block grant as I already mentioned 1.1 million more dollars uh which was a real
018help to close this budget gap. Um and then the one budget line which is new debt service capitalized interest. That's a tool that we're using to help us get to the peak debt load as we sort of build in this debt service. So, we use the the capitalized interest from the bond to uh bring into the general fund to help us uh pay as we ramp up the debt service here. Any questions on revenues? Overall, we're projecting to come in $2.5 million positive on the revenue side. So, that's good news. You may remember we started with a little over a $2 million deficit with this budget year. Okay, so that goes a long way to help close it. Uh on the expense side of the equation, we have we have some uh we have a
019lot of red here. Uh some some overages and they really come from those um from those areas, those headwinds we talked about, right? So salaries actually is coming in about $600,000 under budget and mostly that is in professional staff administration and paraprofessionals. So we we saw some savings there from some vacant positions during the year that were not filled things like that some subcontracting of positions that generated a savings in those categories. Um we have uh purchase professional services are we're projecting to come in about 470,000 over budget largely due to special education services. Uh also legal services, accounting, wage tax commission. We we're in a cycle with the wage tax uh group where we pay once every five years um our our sort of dues to Burkheimer. And this year uh that was one
020of those years on the five-year cycle. So it's a little higher than expected. Uh and employee training and devel and development was the other service which is high. Uh I had explained in the the finance committee meeting that uh our title two two grant uh we can't use for salaries anymore. So we have to use it on professional development. And there were some big investments good investments made uh in professional development there with with those grant funds. So that's why that's up. uh purchase property services. We're about $120,000 projected to be over and that's really repairs and maintenance on and buildings and grounds. We're seeing a lot of work done there. Um the other big one in supplies that's largely driven we have natural gas and electric under supplies. We have some tech supplies, maintenance
021and athletic supplies all all kind of driving that cost up. And then the one I I did want to touch on was that other objects. We have a $375,000 negative variance. That is a real estate tax appeal which is over a decade old which had to be settled and we owed a refund uh to Cascades which is now burned down. We owed a refund over the last decade plus of over $300,000. So, that was a hit to our budget line item that we didn't see coming. And uh so that is uh that's one one-time cost here that that hurts. Quite frankly, it hurts. Um and then the other uses of funds, we had contingency built in for budgetary reserve and we also uh had a debt service contingency in there in case we borrowed the
022entire amount of the project. We did not do that. So, there's a savings on debt service there. Okay. largely contingencies though. Okay. So overall um that comes in if you take the two together overall we're projecting a positive $700,000 finish to this year. That's you know we'll update the forecast monthly but 700,000 to the good at the end of this year is a positive indicator. And typically what we would do with that uh surplus would be put it in the capital reserve fund for all of the future projects in the current project that's going on. >> Any questions on that? >> Yes. >> Uh Mr. Marabelli. So the the page about professional services. >> So that's by that much is it I'm not trying to Is it something where the number of services we purchased
023went up or the cost was higher than we thought or you know that's that's kind of a big number for services that are typically constant I would think. >> So that's a push pull. So for instance uh we have two positions in the business office that would have been in salaries and benefits and then we move them down to professional services. So we get the savings on the we get more savings and in the salary and benefits but yes our our our professional services went up but that was a price we to pay for the >> and the majority of that's in special ed that num the majority of that numbers in special ed. I listed several examples. >> Um, but special ed is just notoriously difficult to predict. One outplacement can be $80,000, right?
024So, it's hard to predict, you know, you you budget off of where your population is and any coming in. >> Um, but it's hard to predict what services you may have to provide. So, I I will say I was going to wait for a little like uh it's a it's a good question. This this one of the things I asked Jim because sometimes the titles are uh don't line up to what I'm what I'm thinking. But, um as as we talk about special ed and I and and and you know, I I feel bad because it's uh notoriously underfunded in the state. As a result, people like me talk about it. not our students, not our staff, how it's set up. So, as a for instance, as Jim just mentioned, um there are there are
025uh certain uh students with uh in special education that um or were ours for a majority of my career until they were 21. And then in the middle of the night two years ago, um the Secretary of Education it to to 22 and Jim and I were going through some some numbers and and the number of kids that that that that fluctuates, but for this year on out placements that was close to $350,000. Next year it may down may may be down to 80, right? It's it's it's a it's a very uh volatile number. So there's things like this that just um whipssaw um that that line and just it gets be more and more expensive every year. >> But to the process as to what we're going through right now, we work with special
026ed to see if there's opportunities to bring kids back in if if it's more effective of a placement to go out. um they're they're they're always looking for ways to best serve the student, you know, in a costefficient manner if possible. Uh a lot of times I've found on the business manager side that's not possible all that often given the constraints. Um but it's just it's an unpredictable we do our best as we head into the like you you may see that line item as I go into next year's budget really it could change by hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's why we call this the draft budget because >> but you know preliminary budget it could change significantly going into next year. So >> but we do our best to estimate you know where
027the placements are and where it is. The other note I wanted to make in that supply line item uh that was also two grades worth of Chromebooks. So we bought 600 Chromebooks in that in that line item. So that led to the uh to the overage there. But that was an investment that we >> Yeah. And I will say again, I'll rant again, but this is another mandate that was not offset by a revenue. Politicians will tell you that's why we got more money through adequacy. And then I will tell you it's because they lost a lawsuit. But again, in the middle of the night, the state came and said, "You're all going to do state testing online. >> We needed to get more Chromebooks because our can't take them online. So, that was a
028very expensive one-time shot that we had to take that we didn't get any revenue from. So, in that line, we we ordered 600 Chromebooks. We had to. >> Okay. Any other questions on the projection before I move into next year's budget? Okay. Um this is kind of our our schedule ahead. So we already passed the act one index uh which is 4.1%. We said we will stay within the act one index. Uh I'll just note again referendum exceptions and ballot referendums were not tools in our tool chest this year. They were both taken away from us. Um so they just were not options. We never even talked about them. Um major unknowns uh the state budget. You know, there is a very nice proposals from the governor on the on the table. You know, we
029certainly hope to see those materialize. Um debt service isn't necessarily an unknown. Uh but it is, you know, a challenge. Uh medical insurance cost is certainly probably our biggest challenge right now. Um and it is a little unpredictable. We are working very hard uh to drive those costs down with whatever tools we have at our disposal. And uh so we're working hard on on that one because that's one of our fastest if not our fastest growing line item. Uh special education that we just we already talked about and cyberchart continues to be a challenge. Uh but in May uh May 20th board meeting we would expect to pass the preliminary budget, right? So we'd keep revising this until then and then June 17th we would expect to pass the final budget at that time. So
030I I always give this kind of key. A lot of this stuff is is for so you can have this as a handout, right? So this is up on the website so anybody can uh download this. Um so I just give this key if you're ever looking to say what's in each of these categories. Um so let's just take a look at what the revenue looks like next year versus this year. Um so local revenues are pretty flat. Why are they flat? Um I'll explain in a minute. We left real estate taxes flat in this presentation. Uh not because we're recommending one way or the other, but because we're working through a reassessment right now. And part of reassessment, you have to equalize the mill to go from 140 plus to roughly some number between
031eight and nine. All right? So, we're estimating and in your draft budget that I passed out, there is an estimated rate there. Don't take that to the bank. I that is just an estimate. There's a lot of work that needs to be do done there and I'll explain a little bit in a second. Um so we have local revenues coming in relatively flat. State revenues we budgeted flat. The increase is largely from um the FICA and piecers reimbursement that we expect to come in. Uh that is a factor of increased wages. You pay the FICA and and um piecers and then you get 50% of it back. So, state revenues are budgeted flat as well. It's as conservative as you can possibly be in the on the revenue side right now. Federal revenues as well.
032Um, we have less medical access funds available to us. So, that is the decrease that you see there. Um, and so you see that we have a projected uh revenue amount of 62,745,000 aided by $1.1 million in capitalized interest on the debt service. Okay. Um, so again, the tax increase available 4.1% ready to learn block grant. We're budgeting at the 2526 levels. Kind of went through these interest earnings, we're looking at, we're projecting a little bit lower interest rate, but as we kind of look at these closer to June, I could see us revising that number upward. earned income tax. We expect, you know, the 1% growth, but we may we may revise that upward as well. My my point here is we're very conservative in the revenue number at this point and we can
033make changes upward. I would expect any change to be upward. Um, talking about tax increases, um, so we're, as I said, presented without a tax increase, we would have in this draft budget a $2.8 8 million deficit. However, a 4.1% tax increase would yield about $1.3 million in revenue, right? So that brings the deficit down to a million and a half. There is a $300,000 contingency in that number. So that brings your deficit to 1.2. And then if you think about what the state did last year and what is proposed this year, you if we get something similar to what we got last year in the in next year's budget, you could see there's a very clear path to breaking even again or doing or doing better. I just want to be transparent about how
034conservative we are with the revenue numbers. Okay, taking a look at the expenses year-over-year. Salaries is is one of the bigger stories here. So, you can see salaries are up $188,000. Now, we gave a 3% increase in all areas. So, if you think that if you think about $27 million times 3%, that's I believe that came out to about $800,000. So, your expectation there would be $800,000 more in salary. However, as as uh Dr. Schaefer was talking about, some subcontracting to to back that down. Uh sharpening of the pencil in some um areas of of staffing, you know, that that is what helped bring it down, plus some natural attrition that happens. So when we see somebody leave at a higher rate and get, you know, come in at a lower rate, we're we're we're
035budgeting uh for the actual position, not not just some estimated inflated uh salary figure there, right? So that's uh that's a actually a very favorable number to see it only going up about $200,000. Benefits largely going up due to another half a million dollars that we're budgeting into health insurance premiums. So, we put in about a million and a half last year extra. So, now we're going up another half a million dollars, hoping that's enough. So, over the last two years, that's a $2 million increase in health premiums that we're paying ourselves to our fund. So, it's a huge recurring expense that we're working on. And then, you know, the rest of the way through the budget, um, you can see where some of those purchase services negative variances that you saw in the current
036year had to boost them up in the in the next year because, you know, we're kind of adjusting the trend here and known expenses are coming up. So, overall, you know, we see expenses going up by about $3.5 million, including the the new debt service coming on the books now. Yes. >> Sorry. So, When you show the numbers for like year to date and you said salaries are like down because of some temporary stuff, >> is some of this increase to get that back because we'll hire people that are not temporary anymore? Like is that something? >> That analysis was budget to projection. This analysis is budget to budget, right? So it it shows it shows the trend following through is what it show. Yeah. So like there's less salary being paid. We project less
037salary to be paid in 2526 and it's following through into 2627. So some of those savings are already underway and we're just so we're basically we're not taking the budget from last year and just inflating it by 3%. We're saying what's everybody actually going to get paid next year? Let's budget that. >> So I'll meet with um I'll meet with Jim. I'll meet with department administrators. Before he puts this together, I would say, "Hey, Jim, I anticipate that the following will not be filled when you put together the budget. Take that out." So, those adjustments would be made, but those are still early adjustments because there's plenty of time for some changes, some surprises. Yes. So, there will be many changes made to this budget between now and June. This is the best illustration I
038have at this at this point in time. I believe I touched on all of these, but I I wanted to leave this highlight screen. As I said, this is like kind of a handout, right? So, um this is the overall what it looks like. 62.7 million in revenues, 65.6 in expenses, budgetary deficit 2.8 million. I I tried to call out that we're conservative on the state revenue and there's not a tax increase in here and the budgetary reserve. Uh also fund balances, right? So when I started I said we're in a we're in a good financial position and this is what I was alluding to, right? So our general fund balance, you can see how it's trended over the last four years. general fund has essentially remained the same. Right? So whenever we have a
039surplus in the general fund, you you'll look at the rightmost column and we do a capital reserve transfer to bolster that fund. Right? So you can see what the amount of the transfer per year was. Okay? And hopefully we'll see that $700,000 number or better than I'm projecting in the next year down. Right? And then you would add that to the capital reserve balance in fund two. Of course, we've spent down a little bit here and there on various projects, but you can see the capital reserve deliberately growing as we had planned over this multi-year capital plan, right? So, um you can see we went from 5.8 to 11.4 million, almost doubling that balance over the course of a few years. Health insurance fund balance is going the other way. Um and thankfully we have
040that because you can see those decreases there. Say see that million and a half decrease. If we didn't have this fund balance, we would have had to absorb that shock in that year in the general fund. Right? So we had that. So that health insurance fund balance buys us time. And I don't want to use the term masks, but it it it it lets the general fund operate more as planned rather than taking on these shock claims and and and upward trends that we're seeing in health insurance. >> A couple questions. Uh particularly on health insurance. I I mean obviously going from 6.7 million to 3.4 in three years is huge. Um do do you number one do you anticipate that balance crystal ball of course but in your plan you don't anticipate the balance
041to drop any further >> correct >> our our plan is to fully fund what the cost of a year is because we are now at the point where we used to have a year and a half of claims right so now we have a little over a quarter about you know five months of claims not even uh and our our our monthly bill used to be $4 to $500,000 and it is now >> $800,000, right? So, yes. So, the extra the additional $500,000 that we're proposing for next year. We think at this point, however, there are some emerging issues that we're working through almost daily with our consultants to make sure that's the number that we can go in with. Thankfully, I mean, we still have a little bit of a balance there, but we
042can't we can't really short change that fund much longer, right? So, now we're taking on more risk in the general fund. >> So, if I heard what you said is you'd like to have a health insurance fund, probably a cover a year's worth of potential claims in normal circumstances, what you'd like to have >> would I would like to certainly, but um that would be >> what would be proof? >> Yes. So we would have to reverse back to a little higher than the bound the highest balance we've ever had. >> Understand? >> Right. >> And then secondly, at what point does that get so low that we can no longer sustain self-unding medical? >> Well, I mean it becomes a practical m because regardless of what happens, we pay as we go, right? So,
043it's going to be a general fund check getting cut to pay any anything. So, from a practical matter, um it's, you know, I get if you get under a million, you're you're really really tight. That's like one month of claims by the, you know, >> make no doubt about I I will I will say this on on this because I think it's it's timely given the the questions that you have and what we're looking at. Um every uh every organization has factors that contribute to its growth and resist that growth. And the things that we see that we contribute, we make sure we nurture that and we make sure that uh we double down because if it's high impact, we want to keep that. health care has been uh this resisting factor. So you can
044do I'm sorry but it's like first order change. If it's dark I turn on the lights. If it's cold I put up the heat but uh at at some point you have to go back to the root cause and and have a discussion. And we attempted to and and the board passed this last year is for the first time what we did we did an early bird a year early. We put in that to to have a new PBM or pharmacy benefits manager where and we brought the union in on the interviews where we hope to save 500,000 and we could start it six months in advance of the new contract. So we start in January. We've got two months in. We've saved about 10% but that's too early to tell whether that's a trend
045or that's that's some type of blip. But more importantly to speak to your question within the contract we put uh a healthc care advisory board which is three administrators one being a school board member and three members of our union where if we see patterns that that we can talk about this um so one of the things that we are we are working on right now is uh the highest uh most expensive therapeutic category that we have or anti anti-obesity drugs. We're paying approximately $105,000 every two months to the tune of $650,000 a year. Now, companies are now uh going direct to um consumers. May want to guess why for those non-colctively bargained agencies? Well, there are plenty of organizations that just don't uh cover that anymore. So some of your big pharma like Novo
046Nordis and Eli Lily noticed that. And so now if you watch TV at all, you'll see that you could buy this particular drug for $300 a month. So we are now working with our healthc care consultants uh and we'll sit down with the union because this would be no change in the integrity of the plan. It would just be uh a difference in sourcing. And I share all that with you because we put some three years ago, a lot of time into financial projections, too many finance meetings. I can't even remember. We must have looked at 42 different funding um scenarios and um we would have hit the mark had it not been for three catastrophic healthc care years in a row where we've had at least in the last two years had to put
047in $2 million more. So, think about that when Jim puts in this like this is what I look at like when you think about 4.1% tax increase of 1.3 million. Well, you've got a teacher contract which Jim told you is going to come up to about like $400,000. So, that brings you down to 900. And now Jim just told you that we got to put another 500 in for healthare. as you can see it gets really really difficult to you know take that and start to allocate towards your your future debt service. So that's why we've had such the such a myopic viewpoint on on health insurance. So if we are able to claw back $800,000 that that can make a huge difference. Um but health health care alone um is a huge challenge and
048we just like Jim said we continue to work on it daily because that that's that's really getting in the way of progress. some of these things that go up and down, you know, 30 $50,000. The the the transportation, all of that, all of that makes sense to me. We subcontract out our transportation. They're paying more for fuel even though we don't have fuel escalators. They're paying their drivers more. Same thing with Mets and our custodial service, right? I don't have a good transition to that. >> So, no, I I got a couple questions. >> Dangling participle or whatever it is >> just to sort of bring that it's it's not just healthcare, it's healthcare and special education, right? Those are the two big, >> you know, if you look at like if we if we
049go back to three years ago when we were looking at the projections, >> right? And we were trying to create what we all talked about surplus cash flow to pay for debt service so we could do stuff, >> right? I mean, that's really what we were talking about years ago and trying to create this surplus, right? And um and I don't I don't want to put you on the spot, but I mean the health care increase alone, if you looked at what we thought healthcare was going to cost three years ago and what it's actually costing today, like it's well into seven figures more than we thought, right? Mhm. >> And like uh special education is also a lot more than we thought. So like if you put those two numbers together, like how much
050worse how much more cash flow are we spending on healthcare and spe special education in like your your budget for next year versus four years ago what we thought that number would be like it's it's a couple million dollars, right? Or more. >> A couple what? >> Million dollars. >> Oh yeah, absolutely. Well, healthare >> more than that, I think. almost double. I mean, I I I feel bad. Yeah. Yeah. I will admit that I'm I'm giving you a number that was right after CO or right in the middle of CO, but it was 450,000 we're spending uh a month and now we're close to 800, >> right? >> So, I just, >> you know, the fact that we put almostions extra from the budget into that into the fund and yet the fund is
051half what it was. So, so like millions of dollars are being spent. I just want to say this out loud because we don't say it enough because I hear all the time, you guys are raising taxes every year by the max. You know, why are we doing this? And a lot of people think that we're doing this so that we can build stuff. I mean, that was the hope that we all had three or four years ago. But the reality is a huge percentage of these tax increases that we've already done and that we're going to have to do is being eaten by health care costs and special education, not by buildings, not by stuff that we're doing. Right. >> Correct. So that's a huge problem that not just Abington Heights is facing like you
052said yourself you you talk to business managers all the time like these are common problems in the district in the state you know it's not just our problem right >> yeah and talk to some other schools and to the question of what happens when we run out um there's some consortiums locally health insurance consortiums for school districts which are asking for supplemental payments like you decided what your premium was for the year for the trust And now they're saying we need 5% more. We need you need to up your contribution because those fund balances are running out in the trusts. So right >> that's you know >> could you just take a second and go back to the expense uh the three and a half billion variance page. >> I just wanted to get my
053arms around a couple of things. So like the the the 188 at the top that's salary increase that's that's the budget to budget that's simply the contract that what has actually changed in our teachers and staff's salaries based on the budget from 2627 or 2526 to 2627 right that's the contract >> just measuring the change between budget years >> and then you said 500 of 623 is because we're increasing what we're putting into the reserve because healthcare has gone up by so much but the other 23 that's just the the contractual increases in benefit costs >> right >> other than that right >> yes >> so why the numbers that I that I don't completely understand are the three other big numbers like the the purchase professional services and the other purchase services like those
054are big variances in dollar amounts maybe not percentages and then also the supplies are 500,000 higher from budget to budget could you just explain those again >> so with regard to supplies um I I'm trueing things up to trend Like so a lot of that increase you saw the big overage in maintenance on the projection I I had to increase the maintenance supplies also in supplies is electricity and natural gas hundreds of thousands >> so that's at least half of that number is utilities and supplies right >> other purchase services that's um that's the five series of objects right so you're talking about charter schools you're talking about special ed tuition to out out placements. That's right. >> Special ed. That's And you're also talking about transportation. So that's >> uh busing and van cost.
055>> Where does where does uh food in the the Mets come in? >> Oh, so that um that's that's self- sustaining in the cafeteria fund. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So that like fortunately is paying for itself currently, right? So that's we're we're not contributing tax dollars into the operation for food at this point. Um purchased professional services, yes, there are there are special ed services largely contributing to that as well, but also uh there are subcontracted professional service uh lawyers um uh accounting services um that are displacing the the salaries, right? Um, also, um, I'm trying to think, uh, architects. If we use architects that are not related to the middle school project, if we do something like that, that's included there. But the two big numbers, the 393 and the 531 are, I'm sorry,
056and the 733 are the heavily special ed. There's there's a lot of special ed services and tuition involved there. >> So, you you also mentioned that in the revenue side, a full 4.1% tax increase would generate only 100 only $1.3 million, right? >> So, >> and you already said this, but I'm going to say it again for emphasis, like you can get to 1.3 million really quickly by adding up contractual increases in salaries and benefits plus healthcare increases plus special education. that's eating the whole tax increase >> in this in this budget projection >> from 26 to 20 year end of 27 >> those line items not a penny for >> pet service right is is unless we cut stuff or or unless we get a surprise on the revenue side right >> is is
057there's there's easily 1.3 million in healthcare costs that are that are that are higher special education costs are higher and contractual salaries and benefits. >> Yes. And I think that's where the managing of the budget and really trying to look you start with the biggest rocks, right? Like healthc care right now is the biggest rock and we're working on it to the extent we can, right? So it but you staffing is another big like you we look through the entire and we're continually having these discussions and how we manage the budget, how we manage the operation. Um and that that's really the key. I I'm trying to give you a realistic yet conservative picture of what is to come and all your points are fair and I would say accurate. >> No, I was just
058going to say, you know, when you when you talk about uh things that affect all the school districts in the state, such as healthcare or or special special ed, I mean, it it is a shame that this the state doesn't step forward and say we should have a statewide system for me. Yeah, >> you know, for medical cost because that way you you truly spread spread those costs over the over a whole >> range of of uh participants, not not some that maybe a school district has much older teachers as an example and therefore >> more expensive, but it is what it is. >> Not to mention all the middlemen you'd cut out of that process. >> Absolutely correct. >> A lot of money to be made in the middle. Um, so I do have
059one more point and this one's a little more topical and it's the reassessment update. Uh, Chris and I have been having a lot of discussion about this, doing a lot of analysis. There's actually a lot involved in going from 2025 assessment to 2026 assessment. Right? So, um, we're going through like in some cases parcel by parcel, right? going through the county data um to see are there tax exempt properties on the list listed as commercial. We found some already, right? So, if we were to say not take that tax exempt parcel off and and call it taxable and then later find out that we made a mistake, that revenue would forever come off our rolls, right? It's the same as having like a massive tax appeal and you losing it. So we're being very careful
060and deliberate and that's why I'm saying when you see a millage rate on your budget. That is not the final millage rate. That's not it's just a a solid estimate. New construction, right? We always take advantage of our natural millage growth. If somebody builds a house, we always get to take credit for that growth. And if we get we average about 0 point 045% per year, you don't have to raise taxes because you already got the 045, right? I mean, I'm not saying you don't have to, but your f that's a built-in revenue generator because houses were built. Well, if we just took the county file and didn't go find those houses that were built between July 1 and when we passed the budget, we would lose that all that growth. So, we're going back,
061identifying all those properties, and we're calling them out. There's a there's a specific form we're using. I'm not going to bore you with that form from Paswell that we use, but all of these things are important. Also, pending tax appeals that have already been filed. If you can measure what the impact might be, you can also adjust for that. We've learned. So, we're working with um actually two tax attorneys to try to help us measure what the impact on some of these really large appeals that are pending, right? We can't we can't predict what appeals will come in, but what is before us, we can account for those. So, we're going for and then a fun project we're working on now is taxpayer impact. So, do you want to talk about that at all? Could
062I could I give some of those or still like >> I we can kind of I would >> you know I'll I'll frame it like I framed things so nobody understand what I'm saying. Um >> yeah I I I do want to say this Jim and I have been looking at the file. There's uh over 11,000 parcels and I uh I did feel as if the Excel spreadsheet that we would receive would be in a much better condition. However, uh it is very disturbing. Like the first thing that Jim and I did is we just put the filters on and and and hit the the you know the the largest taxpayers and they're they're commercial and we know who they are because you know they've all sued us two to three times. Uh and and
063some of them were wrong and that makes your stomach hurt right off the bat when you >> wrong >> like they weren't listed as exempt >> or or or or or the other way around or or we had a settlement with the you know owner but that wasn't on here. Uh so we started going through um and I went through the whole file because I wanted to see um how close it was to the like the kind of like prevailing sentiment that like a third to go up, a third to remain the same and a third to go down. Um and the preliminary information that I had was, you know, pretty aligned to what Tyler and and and what local government was saying. And then I broke it down by municipality and you know I
064I wasn't surprised to to see uh what I had and then I broke it up by average dollar amount. Now you guys know the problem with like averages so I won't you know uh you know I probably won't ever give out that number but um Jim and I then went back in and that's why we said look we're giving this like this millage between 8.5 and nine because we're we know that there is a gap in there and it's it's almost as if you need to go through every single one because when we got the file you quickly figure out where the error are. And it's and it's scary because the only way to do it and do it right is to kind of go through each one, make sure all our parcels are are
065are lined up. Um, as as Jim said, one of the other uh pieces to this puzzle that's very difficult uh for him and and the and the folks that are working with him is that there are a lot of properties that were that came on to the tax roles after the assessment. And that's on us to get that information and figure out just like it's on us to figure out uh who's who's suing us, right? And then to kind of figure out where it may land, right? So like a let me give you a for instance without naming the organization. There was a $6.5 million assessment. They they fought it through that informal process. It was down to 2.5 and now we'll go to court. Right. And this is a little bit of a unique
066circumstance with the the property and how properties are categorized. I'm trying to be >> ambiguous. Uh but so this is what Jim's talking about. These aren't small numbers. So when we're we're trying to figure out, hey, there's somebody that has an assessment of, you know, 30 million and then there is a reassessment here and then we're going to go to court, that's going to be way too late. What where might we able to, you know, put this in as we figure it out so we're not upside down? So when you guys find errors, do you then go back to the county and say, "Hey guys, uh you got to correct your records or is it just the way >> there's like two people in that office?" I mean, it's like >> So I think it's
067serious. I won't even tell you what I when I called them. Yeah, >> it's been made. It's clear to me that it is completely our responsibility to make sure this accounted is accounted for properly because absent that we take the file, we process it and then let the chips fall where they may. I'm not willing to do that. U comes out in 2027. Who knows what the revenue loss could possibly be if we put properties on that shouldn't be on or don't take credit for um properties that came after the fact and also if we don't account for appeals in a way that is legal and allowable. We we really should be doing that. >> Jim, so revenue neutral isn't an actual term. I mean it's a term but it it's not a true term.
068>> It would No, it's a term. It it it works. But I mean, but are we revenue neutral? Are we We have to be. >> Here's what I would say. In order to be fully revenue neutral, we have to do the best job we can at matching up last year's assessment data to this year's assessment data. Now, some parcels came on, came off. We can't do anything about that. But like matching them up and making sure everything's correct to the best of our ability, I we would then in theory be revenue neutral at that point. But that doesn't take into consideration all the appeals that are going to happen after you do that. >> Well, then in theory, you're just back to where you were, you know, over the last 50 years taking on appeals.
069It just so happens there's going to be a surge of them. And that keeps me up at night. >> Mhm. >> And better news, it was like sunny and almost 80 today. >> We had a great track knee yesterday. And that's all I have. >> Thanks, Jim. >> Any any other questions? >> Mr. Strawler, I know this is something that's near and dear to your heart. Would you like to ask some questions? >> Just Just Mark, >> keep it brief. >> Two two questions. Mark limit you to two questions. Okay. >> A comment and two questions. >> Pardon? >> A comment and whatever. Go ahead. Please. comment is as a taxpayer in the district, a resident in the district, I have great pride for Abington Heights. I'm sure there are many of my neighbors that
070feel the same way. They'll do anything for the kids and they'll do what they have to do for the faculty, which is in your early bird negotiations. uh the kids spend more time with you guys than they do. So the I I think we can understand the faculty the the the learning uh expenditures. I recall last year at this time we were talking about a different budget and you found a way to uh an even result. The even result was a significant transfer to the capital reserve fund. And when my question for that was, well, it's the answer was we've always done that. The what we're looking at tonight is possibly uh a 700,000 surplus that if you follow form will get transferred to the capital reserve fund. When you talk about 4.1% being 1.3
071million, well 700 is two is half of that. Perhaps there might be a way and you have very competent and creative individuals in your corner that that 700 or so or more could be put toward the increase in the act one number. I see you now. You're >> Well, it won't happen. It won't happen. If >> if you knew that was going to happen, if you knew that was going to happen when you did the budget, you might be able to do something. The the problem is the budget's prepared to be as conservative as possible. So that when we're surprised, >> we're surprised like we were this year to have a positive. And and just one other thing, I think I and Jim may correct me. I believe in the past we've also taken uh
072budgetary surpluses and put them into the medical >> fund necessity. We we have done that in bad years. We have not >> it's not a it's not a given that that >> and there won't be a time. I mean remember when we we started talking about this 3 four years ago we were we were going from zero to our new debt service number which would come in I believe in 2829. So we have and the board knew we had to work our way up to that. So I expect that. Do I expect that in 2829? No. As when when our when our when our full debt service comes in unless we get I mean look we could have some we we could have some good healthc care years. As I said the last three years
073have been catastrophic. And that's not hyperbole. Um, >> you may have you may have a path this year to another break even year. You may have it. >> So, do you budget that? Do do you budget on on the hope that the state subsidy is going to come in? >> I was reminded or I was reminded some months ago that we're not in the arbitrage business. Mr. Mayor Belly can explain what the arbitrage would be, but we're also not in the surplus business. >> No, but we're also not but hope is not a strategy. >> Can't build a budget on the hope that the state is going to come in on a certain >> I just want to point out that there is a perspective. >> It's not the perspective 700,000. It's not the perspective
074that this board discussed three years ago to try and create surplus cash flow to do projects. And we're you're 700,000 to the good this year. We're three million behind where we thought we were going to be three years ago. >> And and we're committed as a board to try to pursue those projects. >> I have a five-year plan and with uh events somewhat out of my control, my five-year plan becomes a seven-year plan. or an eightyear plan. >> Yeah. I'm just I'm just I'm just saying that we're not ahead. >> You can appreciate that. >> I'm just saying we're not ahead. You're saying that we're 700 ahead. We're not We're way behind where we thought we were three years ago. So, if we happen to have surpluses to catch up to the projects that we've
075already talked about that this board wants to do. >> You know, I'm speaking for myself. It's that's that's what we need to do is we need to focus on trying to create the surplus cash flow that we thought that we had. I don't mean to speak over you. I think the average citizen in the district. They may lose sight of that because they're not they're not up on it, but they are here today and the through very hard work. >> Yep. there's a there's a uh possibility of a surplus that might be beneficial to the district and your partners out in the public. It's just a long shot coming in from brightfield. >> That's certainly an option. Absolutely. That is an option. >> I could uh at least stated and again I always appreciate your
076time. >> Thank you. >> Okay, Mr. Aer. >> Okay. Um >> here we go. >> And going to the action discussion items. I think the first item is to approve the treasures report and the bills. >> Mrs. Do did we do March uh last month? >> Okay. >> Thanks. Um I thought so. All right. Just a reminder, uh, so we began the month with a cash balance of $23,680,429. We took in monthly revenues of 2,18,470.76. Our net dispersements were $4,662,2782. Bless you. for a cash balance available of 21,36,35.3. >> Thank you very much. May I have a motion to approve? So moved. >> Second. >> On the motion. Any questions? Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Hillibbrand. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kum. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kho. >> Yes. >> Mr. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mr.
077Robson? >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdala? >> Yes. >> Mr. Azar? >> Yes. Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. Mr. Aer. >> Yes. >> 90. >> Okay. Ask the board consider a motion to approve the April 2026 tuition reimbursement. >> So moved. >> Second. >> On the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Kum. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kho. >> Yes. >> Mr. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson? >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdala? >> Yes. >> Mr. Azar? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hillbrand? >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker? Yes. >> 90 ask the board consider a motion to approve the personnel report as presented. >> So moved. >> Second on the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Moran. >> Mr. Rosen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdala. >> Yes. >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes.
078>> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hillbrand. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Karum. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kho. >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. 90. >> Mr. Aer ask the board consider a motion to approve the April 2026 volunteer list. >> So moved. >> Second on the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Robson, >> yes. >> Mr. Abdala, >> yes. >> Mr. Azar, >> yes. >> Mrs. Henderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hillibbrand, >> yes. >> Mrs. Kum, >> yes. >> Mrs. Kho, >> yes. >> Mr. Moran, >> yes. >> Mr. Aker, >> yes. >> 90. >> Mr. I could ask the board consider a motion to approve the Western Governor's University Placement Agreement. >> So move. >> Second. >> On the motion. >> All please. >> Mr. Abdala. >> Yes. >> Mr. Azar. >>
079Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hillbrand. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kum. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kho. >> Yes. >> Mr. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rosen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 90. >> Mr. Aard. Ask the board consider a motion to approve the flexible instructional day 2025 PTE application. >> So moved. >> Second. >> You want to explain a little bit more about that? >> Sure. So, in order to have the option to do flexible instruction days in exchange for a traditional snow day, um every three years we have to reapply to the Commonwealth um for permission to do that. Um and it needs a board resolution attached to it. So what is there is the text of what's submitted to PD for your approval so that we can hit
080submit and have that option. >> Thank you. >> Any other roll call please? >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hillbrand. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kum. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kho. >> Yes. >> Mr. Moran. >> Mr. Robson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdala. >> And Mr. Aer. >> Yes. >> 90. Mr. Aer, I ask the board consider a motion to approve the articulation agreement between Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters and the Eastern Atlantic States Carpenter Technical Center in Abington Heights School District. >> So moved. >> Second >> on the motion. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Henderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hillbrand, >> yes. >> Mrs. Kum, >> yes. >> Mrs. Kho, >> yes. >> Mr. Maran, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Robson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Abdala. >>
081Yes. >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 90. >> Okay. Next is information. Is there any new information for the board? >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. I attended the AEI NU uh meeting last Friday. They approved three grants. One was for the middle school uh tech lab. They approved a grant to purchase new keyboards. Uh the second grant was um for Clark Summit Goes Pink. They're hosting a uh festival, a carnival in uh July. So they approved some funding to help with that. Uh the Kyper award recipient was announced. Uh it was for a uh middle school program that has started. Um sounds fantastic, but unfortunately I cannot release any details yet. They announced the winner um in August at the faculty meeting. Um I know Dr. Schaers on the edge
082of his chair. >> I know you're you're creating a buzz. There's an official >> I will say it's it's a um something that's very near and dear to my heart. So >> um but you'll have to wait and find out. Uh they will also they also approved a grant to pay for the jewelry class at the high school. Currently students have to fund a portion of that. So they're um covering a grant so that we can forego any cost to the students and um they will be participating in NEPA gives. So please keep that on your radar. I think it's June 3rd and fourth. I have to double check the date for that and um they are also working on updating their Facebook page and keeping that current. So that's it. >> Perfect. Thank you
083very much. >> That's great. >> Any other information for the board? Any unfinished business? Any new business? I'd call for an adjournment.