001Okay, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Abington High School Board meeting for Wednesday, June 18th. Would everyone please rise and pledge to the flag? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nationy andice for all. Mrs. OD, may we please have roll call? Mr. Abdullah here. Mr. Azar here. Mrs. Henderson here. Mrs. Hillibbrand here. Mrs. Karum. Mr. Moran here. Mr. Robson here. Mrs. Tierney here. Mr. Aker here. Eight present. Thank you. I please have a motion to approve the agenda for tonight's meeting. So move second. On a motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdella, yes. Mr. Azar, yes. Mrs. Henderson, yes. Mrs. Hillbrand, yes. Mr. Moran, yes. Mr. Robson, yes. Mrs. Tierney, yes. Mr. Aker, yes. 8 Z. Thank you. Please have a please have a motion to
002approve the minutes from the meetings of May 21st and June 4th. So moved. Second. On the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Azar, yes. Mrs. Henderson, yes. Mrs. Hillibbran, yes. Mr. Moran, yes. Mr. Robson, yes. Mrs. Tierney, yes. Mr. Abdella, yes. Mr. Aker, yes. 8 Z. Are there any board reports for this evening? Mr. Okay, we do have one report uh that was sent in to me from Mrs. Kum, who unfortunately can't be here tonight. Uh her report is as follows. The finance committee met on Tuesday, May 27th. The board already approved up to $55 million in financing for the middle school bid contracts that we voted to accept last month. The next step is to recommend a financial plan for the debt service. The committee met to review the latest rates and projections in order
003to recommend a financing strategy to the board. We agreed upon We agreed upon a plan to recommend to structure the financing with an initial $30 million draw to maximize capitalized interest as well as lock in debt at current interest rates, thus limiting market risk. This financial plan ensures we will fund the project with the least amount of budget risk and gives us the opportunity to strategically use cash reser reserves in the next borrowing. Conserving capital reserves upfront in in the event we have pressing capital projects like replacing a roof or a boiler. PNC and PFM have provided us with an updated numbers and financial impact on the budget for the next 10-year model. So you will receive a spreadsheet to review and the committee will provide that to the board within the next few weeks
004so that everyone is informed and that is her report. Dr. Schaeer, would you like to add anything to that in terms of where we are? I think we are um ready to go. I'll be sending out some information to the board, but uh PFM and PNC have got back to us. Um the board had already voted to uh approve that uh process moving forward. So, um, at this point, we'll just, uh, wait to get some more current information and then move forward. Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. Uh, Dr. Schaeer, we have the superintendent report. I only have a a brief comment and that's relative to an action item that we have uh on the board agenda uh J which is a motion to approve the professional contract between Abington Heights School District in the
005Abington Heights Education Association. I just wanted to take uh a moment uh to uh briefly say a a few words about that. Um uh first I would like to uh publicly thank uh Jason Burke, the HA uh union uh president for uh his work, his uh collaboration and and transparency throughout the past six months as we work together. I would also like to thank uh the AHA uh leadership team for also participating uh being very transparent um adding feedback taking of their time to work with Mr. Mirbelli and I on some items relative to healthc care. Uh finally, I would like to uh publicly thank our most uh valued resource along with our children, our our teachers um who uh voted uh to approve and send uh to the board uh for approval. uh the
006teachers and students are the engine and the nucleus uh of our system and I think that uh what is before the board today is very fair and and and a reasonable and a reflection of uh how much uh our board uh values our teachers and the work that they do uh for the school community on a daily basis. Thank you very much. Um, since you opened the topic, I was going to wait until we voted on it, but um, I would like first of all like to echo your comments uh, as my position of board president in in terms of thanking the AGA um, uh, management or the the leaders uh, again for their straightforward manner in dealing with us. And also I want to thank Dr. Schaefer and Mr. Mirabelli for a fine job.
007I think this contract gives us and the teachers stability going forward. Um, and I think it also sets a framework for future communication and collaboration with the AHA, which I think is really exciting. So, okay, having said that, our next item on the agenda is public comment. Uh, if anyone wants to speak public, please fill out a card and come forward. We ask you to keep your comments to about three minutes. Uh we have one card at this time. Uh Mr. Staller, welcome back. Evening. Thanks for the time. I was hoping to uh address the or talk to the uh treasures report, but I gather from your comments Um my bottom line since I've been coming here is uh seems like we're going to be doing a lot of borrowing and not a lot of
008use of the district funds. The 30 million will go into the construction bond fund. Is that right? Is that how that works? I'm gonna let Mr. answer your questions because he's going to be most familiar with exactly the flows of the cash. If you want ask why don't you ask list your questions and then Mr. Melly will answer them in order that way we can be as efficient as possible. Is the construction bond fund the uh the mechanism to pay items for the building project? There are a number of dispersements and just one item of addition which is uh interest going out or coming in. The interest was coming in. It's not that significant amount, but um again, Jim Jim will answer it for you. That could be the district funds. I think I think
009Jim is gonna Okay. Again, I I I think I know the answer and I think Dr. Schaefer does, but the one that for sure knows the answer and can give you the give it to you is going to be Mr. Mr. Murbelli. I'll let him speak to that. Um Just what one or two other items. Um are you going to adopt the budget tonight? Yes, we are. It has is is it balanced? Yes, because it has to be for the state. It may it may require some use of of the capital reserve. Okay. But it will be but it will be balanced when we send it to the state. And that incre includes the uh millage increase. Yes. I'll let him speak to Okay. And and after Jim's done, if you want to ask more
010questions, by all means do so. Okay. Jim, you want to feel those for us? And Jim, you can also address like the varying interest and where that has to go relative to where it comes from. I'm sorry, what was that? The the interest question. I I wasn't sure because it it was I yet it was more macro, but you know, if if we're investing from healthcare, where does that money go to? If we're investing from cap, where does that go to? So on so forth. Okay. So the first question was about uh the construction bond fund. So, specific to what is on the the report there, that is the proceeds from the $10 million bond, which was uh for the facility at the high school as well as uh some the architectural cost dealing with
011the middle school. Okay. When we borrow the first trunch of dollars, 30 million as we're referring to, it will go into a separate fund as required by the IRS and recommended by our uh bond solicitor. Okay. So it has to go there because the interest has to be tracked separately to ensure that for we don't make too much interest believe it or not. So if we make over a certain amount, we have to remit that back to the IRS. So you can't have positive arbitrage on borrowings greater than $15 million. So we're not in an environment anymore, I don't think, where that's uh going to be an issue. But yes, the the the proceeds from the 30 million would go into its own separate bond construction fun. we would report it separately on a monthly
012basis just as we do with the 10 million. Um and interest does acrue in that account and then you can only use that interest to pay toward the pro project. Okay. So that's that's number one. Um as far as interest in the capital reserve fund that would have to remain there as well. It can't go it's not fungeable back to the general fund. Same thing. Well general fund is is more funible. you can send it to the capital reserve fund. However, it can't go back. It's a one-way street. Once it goes into the capital reserve fund, same thing with the bond fund. And same with debt service fund. Once it goes there, it's for that specific purpose. Okay. Um then we were talking about is the construction bond fund the mechanism for the project? Well,
013uh the 30 million will be the the starting point to it's a as it's almost a $50 million project. So that would be the first trunch of financing and then as we heard in the uh the report here today there would be a mix of fund balance utilization in the capital reserve and probably the general fund in the next uh round of financing would be use of local dollars to give us the most flexibility along the way. So that has always been planned and discussed with the finance committee. I think we talked about it last meeting that local funds are expected to be used here. Just the the structure of the the financing of the project is starting with a $30 million borrowing and then we go into a mix of local funds and whatever
014else we may need as far as perhaps another smaller bond issue. Okay. Was there a third question? Y I just want to make sure I'm being thorough in answering. Uh and as far as the budget being balanced, uh I believe there's about a $1.45 million deficit there in and we discussed at the last meeting, there's a $200,000 budgetary reserve. We budgeted for about over $600,000 in debt service that may not even occur next year. So that's 800,000. And uh we have not budgeted for the potential $500,000 plus coming from the state that the governor proposes. So the sum total of all those as we talked about last meeting could lead us to a balanced budget but as written currently it is balanced with general funds um that are on hand in reserves. One one follow
015uh point to what Jim said in terms of using our our particular u uh funds after we we go through the $30 million. We will have the opportunity at that time to go out and issue another bond if we decide that is, you know, that the conditions are are attractive at that time. I mean, the the idea is we have that flexibility at at the back end of the project, but as Jim said, right now we plan to use the uh reserves we have. I'll leave you in for another day. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comments? Okay. Um, in that case, our next item is to approve the treasures report and um approve the bills and since Mrs. Kum is not here, I'm assuming Mr. Mirabelli is going to step in. I apologize,
016Mr. belly. I need my glasses. Go for it. Do you have your readers? You got your readers? You need You need those for that. We began the month of May with a total cash balance of 20,564,000. Total local revenues collected 1,575,000. State revenues collected 2,831,000. Federal revenues 115,000 for total cash available of 25 million uh 085 before dispersements dispersements of 4,813,000 for a cash balance at the end of the month of May of 20,272,685. No sense77. Thank you very much Mr. Okay. May I have a motion to approve the treasures report is? So moved. Second. Any questions or roll call, please? Mrs. Henderson? Yes. Mrs. Hillbrand? Yes. Mr. Moran? Yes. Mr. Robson? Yes. Mrs. Tierney? Yes. Mr. Abdella? Yes. Mr. Azar? Yes. Mr. Aker? Yes. 8 Z. Uh before reading the next one, I just
017want to take a moment to um you know thank uh Dr. Frown Feler and Dr. Bowski for their their service uh to the district. They uh have uh both uh accepted positions in areas that um take them to their next journey and in in in education. Um I am um it's bittersweet. I I am excited uh for them and the new opportunities uh and uh I would be remiss if I just didn't take the time to publicly thank them for the the job they did on behalf of our students. So at this time I'd ask the board uh to consider a motion to approve the personnel report as presented. So second on the motion um I have a couple comments or questions. Um the last couple meetings we've had quite a few resignations and a
018few um appointments. Um this is the time of year when districts are doing a lot of hiring. Um Dr. Schaefer, can you share with us are the hiring pools uh are we getting quality applicants? Um how's the process going? Do you feel confident that we are getting the best of the best? Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. So, um, a couple things. The the answer would be as far as like the applicant pool, uh, question, as we've read, um, not only nationally, but but locally, um, the supply of teachers has dramatically, uh, decreased over the last um, decade and we work to grow from within. So, as an example, we have some administrative vacancies that we will work to uh fill from within. One of the people uh on the agenda today is uh sitting out there
019in the in the in the bleachers um right now. So, we work uh really hard to do that. Um I I will say um that in in some recent cases the number of applicants has dropped. I have that is something that I observed over the last five years. However, we have been uh very fortunate that the quality of the applicants coming to us is still high and we won't diminish our expectations uh for uh positions that may cause in some cases short-term pain. Um but we've uh used this strategy before. So, for example, when I say this, we may uh have received a resignation, let's say in April and May, and then we cast out um the advertisements, we go through interviews and we aren't satisfied. There's a little bit of risk to reopening that
020position. We've done that a few times and we've gotten some very excellent candidates. So, uh, while I'm kind of disheartened that the education pool, uh, uh, around the country, uh, has diminished, uh, I am, uh, happy that we're still getting, uh, some some very, uh, uh, high quality candidates. Thank you. Other questions? Uh, Mr. Evans, congratulations. Thank you. You're jinxing. Mr. tracker is clairvoyant. Don't worry about it. I I'll take that back. Yeah. Yeah. Take it back. Roll call, please. Mrs. Hillibbran. Yes. Mr. Moran. Yes. Mr. Robson. Yes. Mrs. Tierney? Yes. Mr. Abdella? Yes. Mr. Azar? Yes. Mrs. Henderson? Yes. Mr. Aker? Yes. 8 Z. Mr. There you go. There you go. Congratulations, Tom. Mr. Agar, I'd ask that the board consider a motion to approve the June 2025 volunteer list. So moved. Second on
021the motion. Just a one comment. Historically, they've they've um on the list had what area it is or what school it is and it's actually getting smaller. Uh, and I brought this up before, so I think we lost the column, and I was suggesting we add a couple columns just so we know what the location is, what the the uh event is. Uh, it was very thin. Let's just say it really didn't say much. Okay. Anything else on the motion? Roll call, please. Mr. Moran, yes. Mr. Robson. Yes. Mrs. Tierney. Yes. Mr. Abdullah. Yes. Mr. Azar. Yes. Mrs. Henderson. Yes. Mrs. Hillibbran. Yes. Mr. Aker. Yes. 8 Z. Okay. Mr. Aker. I'd ask the board consider a motion to approve the estimated budget proposal for the Abington Heights Middle School Musical and Production Staff roles
022and responsibilities for 2526. And once again, I we uh tip our hat. We let everybody know it's going to be Spongebob uh in 2526 uh musical at the middle school. Yeah, it's going to be a good one. I'm excited about that. So moved. Second. Thank you. On a motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Robson, yes. Mrs. Tierney, yes. Mr. Abdullah, yes. Mr. Azar, yes. Mrs. Henderson, yes. Mrs. Hillbrand, yes. Mr. Moran, yes. Mr. Aker, yes. 80. Mr. Aker, ask the board consider a motion to approve the agreement between Abington Heights School District and MyILL Transition Skill Center for Special Education Services. So moved. Second. On the motion. Roll call, please. Mrs. Tierney. Yes. Mr. Abdullah. Yes. Mr. Azar. Yes. Mrs. Henderson. Yes. Mrs. Hillibbran. Yes. Mr. Moran. Yes. Mr. Robson. Yes. Mr. Aker. Yes. 8 Z.
023Mr. Aker. I'd ask the board consider a motion to approve the NEIU Title 3 Consortium Memorandum of Understanding for the 2526 school year. So move. Second. Thank you. on the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdella, yes. Mr. Azar, yes. Mrs. Henderson, yes. Mrs. Hillibbran, yes. Mr. Moran, yes. Mr. Robson, yes. Mrs. Tierney, yes. Mr. Aker, yes. 80. Mr. Aard ask the board consider a motion to approve the 2526 homestead and farmstead exclusion resolution. Dice on. We got to do that. All right. Uh, Mr. Aard asks that the board consider a motion to approve the transportation agreement with Bannage Busing, Inc. to provide transportation for students attending the 2025 extended school year program. So moved. Second on the motion. Roll call. Mr. Azar. Yes. Mrs. Henderson. Yes. Mrs. Hillibbran. Yes. Mr. Moran. Yes. Mr. Robson. Yes.
024Mrs. Tierney. Yes. Mr. Abdullah. Yes. Mr. Aker. Yes. 8 Z. Now, Mr. Aer, it ask the board to consider a motion to approve the 2526 Homestead and Farmstead exclusion resolution. So moved. Second. On the motion. Roll call. Mrs. Henderson. Yes. Mrs. Hillbrand. Yes. Mr. Moran. Yes. Mr. Robson? Yes. Mrs. Tierney. Yes. Mr. Abdella. Yes. Mr. Azar. Yes. Mr. Aker. Yes. 8 Z. Mr. Aar ask the board consider a motion to approve the 2526 general fund budget. So moved. Second. On the motion. Yes. Um Dr. Schaefer, can you explain um what the um tax increase is going to be? the amount um what the budget amount is or maybe Mr. Mayor Belly can come up and at least give a the community an understanding of what we're approving tonight. Sure. Um I I can uh Jim
025can come up. I'll I'll give a couple um thoughts relative to this budget. Um from a more macro level, what we're seeing is very similar to what I've talked about before. When we take a look at our revenues, um again, 67% of our revenues come from local sources, another 32% from the state and 1% maybe slightly under that um from the federal level. This uh budget uh proposes uh a 4.7% increase uh moving our millillage from 141.4 to 148. If you control for the Farmstead Exclusion Act, which is uh $33, uh the median uh assessment uh is uh moves from $3,100 to $2,970. When we take a look at our expenditures, this is very similar to what I've kind of discussed in the in the past is that um if you take expenditures attributed to
026salaries, benefits, maintenance, and transportation, just those four areas, they make up 90% of your expenditures. So nine out of every $10 go. I'm not even talking about, you know, um, charter, which is a big number. I'm not talking about what we may spend on supplies and and and we are very frugal with our supplies. Um, I'm not talking about any of the other uh items in our expenditures. So, we've done a very good job at managing uh our budget. That's why we feel so much pressure on our budget when we say increases for example in health care uh specifically pharma pharma increased by 25%. This is not an just an Abington Heights phenomenon. This is we see this throughout the country. So when you see pressures like that it's very difficult um when when managing
027this money. So the 4.7% here attends to those needs while also preparing us for uh the debt service that we will incur in the future for uh construction and we will still continue to manage our our budget which as uh Jim had mentioned before when we when we um adopt our budget or we prepare for our budget, we are missing 32%. The state is required by law to have their budget in by June 31st and they haven't done that in I would probably say decades. So, we budget conservatively. That's most likely why um we see and most often we see a negative number coming in and uh at least in the last three years and I would imagine in the past we've come in uh at a at a positive number but there's different uh
028headwinds and and tailwinds in there. So um that that would be the budget as I see it in a nutshell. When I uh look at it with Jim, I break it down just like I said to you. their salaries and benefits make up 75% of the budget and then transportation which were required and our maintenance budget we um we blow through because of our the condition of our facilities and the the unexpected nature of what we see. whether it's a roof repair, whether it's doors that need to replace, whether that's boilers and controls um breaking down. Um so we end up trying to manage that last dollar out of every 10 uh to attend to those needs. Um and that's why our uh capital reserve is is so important because we just we never know
029um what might happen. if I hit everything. Generally, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Perfect. Thank you. Okay, Mrs. Henderson. All right, so I have two things. So, and I don't want to put anyone on the spot. This might be a question for Mr. Mayor Belly, but when we're looking at the 4.7% increase, do we have an estimated amount of what that means for the average taxpayer? Yeah. So it I got the 2970. What's that? The 2970. Yeah. So the the median assessed value uh in our district is 3,100. When you account for the farmstead inclusion, which last year was $217 reduction, this year it's 250. So, it's a $33 difference, which brings that uh median down to 2,970. Of course, I'm giving you the median. Um, as you can imagine, there's kind of there's that
030that that that continuum in there. And when we um agreed when you asked me agreed to do the middle school project last year, we essentially agreed to this increase. Y Okay. Yes. Any other questions or comments? Roll call, please. Mrs. Hillbrand. Yes. Mr. Moran. Yes. Mr. Robson? Yes. Mrs. Tierney? Yes. Mr. Abdullah? Yes. Mr. Azar? Yes. Mrs. Henderson? Yes. Mr. Aker? Yes. 80. Mr. AR asked the board consider a motion to approve the professional contract between Abington Heights School District and the Abington Heights Education Association. So moved. Second on the motion. Yes. I want to um piggyback off of what Dr. Schaefer said and um Mr. Warren Aker. Um it is um impressive for a district and a uh teachers uh administration to work together a year before an early bird contract. So I commend
031everyone that the players on both sides and um I'm proud for our teachers. Um this is a great opportunity and it's for the leadership on both sides that really had made this work. I've been I think this was my fifth or sixth contract and um uh very impressive. Thank you. Thank you for the nice works. Any other comments? Roll call, please. Mr. Moran, yes. Mr. Robson, yes. Mrs. Tierney, yes. Mr. Abdella, abstain. Mr. Azar, yes. Mrs. Henderson, yes. Mrs. Hillbrand, yes. Mr. Aker, yes. seven with one abstension. Thank you very much. Okay, next item on the agenda isformational. Does anyone have information they want to bring to the board? Is there any unfinished business? J just Mrs. Okay. I don't know if this is unfinished business or if this is old business. So, unfinished business.
032Um, yeah. I'd like to hear some thoughts and direction on the um I think a few years ago we supported the hiring of an attorney to give us a a real estate attorney to give us an understanding and an idea of what we uh what property we have in this current building and that um beautiful stadium called the pit that we of um that was a few years ago. Um I know it was all put on hold. I commend our administration and our finance team with all of the renovations and building projects that we've done. Um we've put in a new uh um field at the high school. And now I think we have an opportunity to take a a a look a real look at what is it that we could do with this
033property. Um it's uh it was a beautiful night a few weeks ago with our graduation. I think it was the first graduation that there was a rain and there was a rain because the value of our community gathering together at our pit. So my question is can we make some um going forward decisions on what we are going to do or could we have a strategic plan and a possibility within the next few years. Um I have been an advocate for an all day kindergarten program at Abington Heights for the last 10 years and I was a fourth third and fourth grade student right here in this right here in this room. So, is it possible that maybe we could put some kind of uh plan together to make a decision on this incredible heart
034of Clark Summit? Thank you. I I was I was going to wait any if anybody else had any comments before I I respond. I'll give I'll I'll yield my time to anybody that wants to I just had a question. So, Mrs. Tier, are you proposing that with full day kindergarten? Are you proposing to use this building for full day kindergarten? If that could be a strategic plan to renovate. Yeah. Right. So, one thing I as I think through this, I I I don't believe there's I don't haven't heard any concrete plans for something we're going to do. However, I do think that if we are going to do something with this building, the first thing we would have to do is find a new home for our administration. Um, and then secondly, we would need
035to find a new location for the maintenance group. Um, both of those things are not inexpensive. So, um, however you look at it, you have to factor that those cost in against whatever else you're going to do with the property. Um and I think um you know I I don't have any firm thoughts at this time other than to say we have potential costs that will be incurred whatever we do. Uh my response would be that we could certainly talk about that in a facilities uh meeting. We have over the last couple years taken the steps to see take a look at our property, the 11 acres we have here. We hired attorney to make sure indeed we did own the property. I say that facitiously, but that is a real uh question because this
036dates back uh like to the Clark screen Independent School District uh and and with giving of properties. In fact, there's almost I think it's either six or seven deeds in here. Um so we have that information. We know what we have. Um and we are working on assessments. So anytime you get a a an an assessment uh I would want some multiple assessments and and that's it's very difficult um to do that to get somewhat of a a fair number because it's it's it's not often that something uh like a building like this um would would go up uh in in this case it it would be for auction. So that's something that we would discuss in in in the facilities meeting. Uh and as uh Mr. Aker said um there are um many factors
037the the old domino approach here that you've got a much needed uh maintenance um facility that's needed or someplace. I'm I'm I'm less worried uh about administration given our nomadic nature of some people and you know the amount time we spend in in different schools and the in the spaces available. But one thing I would say to Miss Henderson's question um to you um and this is absent of uh full day because that's that's a that's a a different thing, but in 20201 we spent a little over $3 million to make this school an office building. And uh I did talk to the architects in the very beginning and they strongly recommended that we not then turn the office building back into a school and that I would probably see something that's a 3 to
0384x investment in that. Um so this is something that we have to uh talk about with facilities. What I can say is at one point when this was a school and given the size of this um this building could at uh at its at at the time when they had students house 300 students and as an office building I couldn't tell you the capacity but what I can tell you is there's somewhere between 17 and 20 people that are here daily. So there's very few people for the amount of space and when you think about the needs that we have in the district and the investments that we have to make whatever we would discuss in facilities and bring forward um we would have to really uh think about our priorities and and and where
039we want to uh and in invest our funds that way. Okay. My my goal was is to is to get the ball rolling and unfortunately when you discuss facilities not all of us are on that committee and when some of us come to facilities meetings and we're not given the opportunity to speak because the of the meeting going so long. So, I would ask if it's possible for board directors to have a seat at the table to be able to discuss these conversations because I'm only using this microphone tonight because I am not a part of facilities and I haven't been able to get this across and we have I I believe even before these board directors were on this board, we were discussing this building and the pit and making an understanding ing of
040a direction. So, I appreciate the ball getting started here and I look forward to to having more meetings on this. Thank you. Quick. I just had one more question. Robson, go ahead. So, we've talked about kindergarten at length because I know many people are in support of doing full day kindergarten. Um, and the two reasons that were stated is that we don't have the physical space in the existing buildings and we cannot currently afford to hire the amount of teachers that we would need to sustain having a full day kindergarten. Um, if it were to make sense to outfit this building, you know, assuming we would be able to make it ADA compatible, you know, generally kindergarten classrooms have bathrooms. So, we'd have to outfit every classroom with bathrooms and everything it takes to make
041little people safe and, you know, in a conducive learning environment to a bunch of five and six-year-olds. Assuming we could afford that and it was financially in our best interest, Dr. Schaefer, given our current status, would you say that we could support hiring enough kindergarten teachers to sustain full day kindergarten at this time? It's not financially feasible in our in our budget right now. Um we are admittedly one of uh like the fewer a few districts that that um do not have a full day and um this problem can easily be solved with money. Um uh that we that we just we don't have. Um, in my experience, and I'm just talking from my experience, the time that I saw these transitions happen throughout my 30-year career was prior to the Act One index. Why?
042Because I could have said, "Okay, Miss Henderson, we need a 15% increase." Okay, we'll do a 15% increase. There was no act one index. And to your point, um, it it kindergarten classrooms, uh, there are there are many many requirements for that. Uh, there's all sorts of, uh, permutations of what you could do and where you have space, but all of that would come uh, at an additional cost. So what you would be looking at are the addition of teachers uh as well as debt service um associated with um the buildings and then you would have some timing things because we'd probably have to work on multiple buildings unless we wanted to structure something where we had uh uh another grade configuration and in that case you would have additional expenses relative to transportation. Um,
043okay. Thank you. Before I know you said yours is a different topic. I just wanted to make a couple of comments before we switch topics. So, from a facilities committee standpoint, so we haven't had a facilities committee meeting in a while, right? A long time, many, many months. And one of the primary reasons is that you can only do so much at one time, right? So, like we had many, not just facilities, finance fac, we had all sorts of meetings about a year ago leading up to the two very big facilities projects that we've been focused on for the last year. The biggest of which is a $50 million middle school project, right, which has completely engulfed administration's time in my opinion. Um, I don't think that it's fair for us to put more on
044their plate until we can really digest it. And to your point, it's a it's a big issue like this. There's a lot of history here. There's a lot of nostalgia here with this property. It's not something that anybody wants to to rush into a decision about, but you know, and not just the middle school project, but the um you know, the allpurpose field that was built at the high school. Those two projects, you know, one is is almost done. The other one's just starting. Um at some point it will be the right time for us to talk about this, not just at the committee level, but eventually at the board level. Um, you know, the the issue that that that I will comment on tonight is that nostalgia is what it is, right? There's a
045lot of people in this community that love this property. They love the pit. They love having graduation there. They love coming to football games. Um, you know, and that, you know, that should be a consideration, but, you know, we're doing a lot of things to our taxpayers in order to afford the different projects that that we're doing already. And we've all talked about at length over the last couple of years all the other projects that we also need to do in our elementary schools in the high school. And they all have really significant costs to them. And there's only really one way to pay for it and that's taxes. Um it'd be great if we had an infill school district like Mid Valley where there's tons of construction going on in commercial and there's no
046kids in those buildings, right? So that there's just a lot of other school districts that benefit from tailwinds that we don't have. And uh when I think about when I this is just my personal view, when I think about this property, it's going to be about finance. It's going to be about what's right for the school district at the end of the day. And I'm not saying that nostalgia and other issues shouldn't come into play, but we in my opinion, we really have to do uh what's right uh from a financial standpoint because we're pushing the envelope on a lot of other areas. And hey, if we can financially make this work and if it and and if all those things line up, great. But like we do have to talk about it, I acknowledge
047that for sure. Um, you know, and I, you know, I'll get together with Dr. Schaefer and and the committee and we'll talk about when the right time to do that is, you know, we have made a lot of progress and, you know, we are opening up a little bit in terms of the ability to focus on another project. So, and that that's clearly how I stated in the very beginning that I it was it's been overwhelming with the with the projects. But please do not talk finances when it's all day kindergarten because we just put in almost $10 million field at our high school. So, I put academics first. It was 10. It was It was uh close to six. Less than six. Six, I believe. Okay. $6 million on a new field, which is
048a beautiful thing. I love it. It looks great. But please don't talk that we cannot afford all day kindergarten. This us board directors, we are governing an education institution. Education is number one. So please board directors do not say we can't afford it because we can afford it if we prioritize. And I commend our our administration for the hard work with the projects that we have just completed and finished. My thought is now that we can get the ball started with conversation on this facility. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes. Thank you. Just on this topic because I wasn't going to say anything but I am. uh it you know for all day kindergarten in our uh environment and neighborhood you know there there have been studies on this and I've asked this question
049multiple times it really has nothing to do with expenses uh does all day kindergarten work in environments and school districts like ours and there is no evidence that that happens in certain other districts, very big benefits. No noticeable material benefits here in in in school districts like ours. So I think the the question about expenses has moved. I think so that's we just have to because I I asked this question and you know this multiple multiple times and uh when we got information about the studies notice I haven't brought it up again because the studies show that it's not it's not a material difference in in environments like ours. Thanks. Now on another topic uh I I was remiss to talk about uh Mrs. frownalker because I uh experienced PBIS in full effect. Uh she
050was very engaged in that pro. By the way, PBIS is behavioral. I'm going to positive behavioral interventions and supports. Yes. See, she even got to me. Uh and so things like, you know, respectful, responsible, and ready. Again, I have a bad memory, but I remember those things because going through the the uh the hallways of Waverly, you you you just couldn't get away from it. And you know, PBIS, the whole point I people mentioned it today, I think you did, Gretchen. Um you know, a safe learning environment. And PBIS, you know, it was created in what 1997. It wasn't anything new, but I think Mrs. Frown Felore took it to a new level. like there were things on the ground on which way to walk. And some people argue that's a little too strict, you
051know, let kids be kids. But I saw it work and it it really does create a better environment. And you know, there's some things like the golden tickets. Uh there's a lot of different things that go into it. Uh not just navigating traffic, but even you know, one of the coveted PTA positions at Waverly was ice cream. Uh, right. I heard it. And people on the board know that I'm not on top of my email that much. So, so don't be so hard on yourself. So, when I when I there's a lot of lot of information these days. So, when I would get the the request, I you know, I wasn't hitting refresh to make sure I got the spot. Uh, so I did I was able to get a spot or two and I
052was just amazed at how at lunchtime um you know students that age could all of a sudden just stop talking and get you know get in line willingly like I thought it was a little bit bizarre but it all has to do with the positive behavioral and there was no like aren't you know there was nothing weird going on it just kids were motivated to do well and when lunch is over it's over. So I think my whole point is Mrs. Frown Felker had a lot to do with that because she was she was the leader of that school. Uh and she did a great job. So it's it's sad to see her her gone, but she made a lasting impact. Thank you all. Uh any other unfinished or old business? Very quick. um be
053because we don't have our uh student representative here, just want to say congratulations to the girls lacrosse team. Um I that team is amazing to me. Um looking at the history and the inception of that program, so I commend the board that approved that years ago. It is a new program. Um, I know the board has been hugely supportive, but to see a girls uh program that is new to the area. We just have girls wrestling coming up. Um, it's amazing. But the community support behind that um was also huge to see in our area. Whether we get to that pinnacle of success, we have such um amazing athletes. I know some of our board members have um family members on that team. Um but I think it speaks to um learning outside the classroom.
054So when we put money into our athletics, our extracurriculars, you build character uh in students um that you can't learn within those four corners. So um we do gain a lot um by putting funds into programs outside of the four walls of our schools. Uh, and I think we all have to say a huge thank you to Becky Davis who without her that team wouldn't be so, uh, successful. So, uh, congratulations to them. And then I did see one other and I I don't get, uh, maybe, uh, same as Mr. Robson. I'm not on top of all this, but, uh, another student, Nick Bradley, had a very huge award given to him, um, by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. and uh you may know better than I as to that specific so I don't want to
055misstate it part of the year for that was phenomenal. So congratulations to those two. I I will say um just a it's not necessarily piggybacking but I want to uh restate something that I've said before and that's that nothing is independent here. There is this nexus between everything we do. We had a phenomenal girls lacrosse season. In fact, all of our our teams did extremely well this year. But what goes unnoticed, but not to me because I'm mired in the details is but on that team was our valadictorian. At the same time, I saw Jack Frell, the the class president for four years, talking up there going to the University of Notre Dame, who was on many athletic teams. I I had a a video that I posted this year of the orchestra, and I
056saw several allconerence players there that you don't often see. My point is that regardless of whether you're a Gatorade All-American or you're you're on the team, there is this this nexus there of our kids that are excelling academically and are involved in athletics, extracurriculars, our music program, volunteering out in the community. It's absolutely incredible and I would argue that is integral to our success here. the skills that we're able to work with our kids and teach and they're able to learn independently, specifically time management, right? Being able to figure out, yeah, I'm out till 10:00 at a game getting back on a yellow bus and I'm tired and I'm sore and I've got to study for that AP bio exam. You know, I'm very proud of everything we do in Abington and Heights and how
057we uh make these uh investments. So, thank you uh Miss Hillbrand for for mentioning that. She does have three boys or four coming up. She's got almost the basketball team. Yeah, Mrs. M. We're waiting. We're waiting. Mr. Hillbr, we can almost have the the Karum versus Hillbrand. We're Yeah. Right. We're just two Hendersons short in there. You can have Well, we can put Annie on the team. I'm afraid to ask if there's any new business, but I Is there any new business? You want some new business? No. Okay. In that case, I'll ask for a journment. Thank you. Thank you. So, move.