001This is This is the Anthony check and balance. We're good. We're good. We're waiting for Mr. Are we live now? Yes. You are always live. We know that. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Edmonton High School Board meeting for Wednesday, May 7th. Would you all please rise and pledge the flag? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. and to the for it stands nationy for all. Okay. Are we ready for roll call? Mr. Abdala here. Mr. Azar. Mrs. Henderson here, Mrs. Hillbrand here, Mrs. Kum, Mr. Moran here, Mr. Robson here, Mrs. Tierney here, and Mr. Aer here. Okay. May I have a motion to approve the agenda for this evening's meeting? So moved. Second. On the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdala. Yes. Mr. Azar. Mrs. Henderson, yes. Mrs.
002Hillbrand, yes. Mrs. Kum. Mr. Moran, yes. Mr. Robson, yes. Mrs. Tierney, yes. And Mr. Aker, yes. Seven order. Dr. Schaefer, are we um do we not have any minutes to approve tonight from prior meetings? We probably omitted that and we have not learned from our mistakes. I should not have y I don't actually I'll ask for a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting of a meetings of April 21st. This is a time where Newton Ransom students come up and give us some leadership advice. Uh it would be the minutes of the meeting of April 16th. I believe on April 16th we approved the minutes on April 2nd. April 16th. So I believe it's April 16th. Y moved. So moved. Second. Second. On the motion. All in favor? Roll call. Oh, see Mr. Yes.
003Mrs. Henderson. Yes. Mrs. Hillbrand. Yes. Mrs. Kum. Mr. Moran. Yes. Mr. Robson. Yes. Mrs. Tierney. Yes. And Mr. Aker. Yes. Seven. Nothing. Thank you very much. Okay. Um I believe we have a presentation next. So, Dr. Schaeer, I'm going to turn it over to you. Although I think the first subject is not going to be the varsity girls wrestling. No. No, not yet. I'm gonna turn it over to uh Dr. Fran Faler. So, good evening. Um Newton Ransom is here tonight to represent our student leadership team that we have at the school. So, that you're actually going to hear mostly from the kids tonight, but we have three groups of students. We have our comic council members, we have our comic captains, and we have our big buddies. And I'm going to let you I'm
004going to let them explain to you what they do in these roles. So we are celebrating student leadership tonight from Newton Ransom. Okay. So will our comic council students come up? Our Comet Council is new this year. It is a group of third and fourth grade students. In order to be selected to be on Comet Council, you needed to complete an application. Come council gave me a chance to talk about my school and my feelings about school. I also got to represent the ideas and feelings of other students in my third grade class. We got to share and take turns talking about our experiences at Newton Ransom. We were able to talk about things we would like to see added to our school. We were able to talk freely. I wanted to be on comic
005council because I like to share my opinion about the school. I like how you get to talk openly about school related things. So, will our comic captains come up now? The qualifications of a comet captain are being respectful, responsible, and ready in all classes and in the entire building. You need to try your best and work hard at all times. You need to be a leader. There is an application process in order to be a comic captain. You can complete the application at any time and you can be a comic captain more than one time during the year. Teachers and aids and the principal are able to review the applications. Every Friday, two comic captains are chosen for the following week. The responsibilities include passing out star cards to any student in the school when
006you see them following any of the three Rs. Hand out the golden awards to the winning classrooms on Monday morning during announcements. You are a teacher helper for the week. You set an example for the younger students. It is a great feeling to be selected as a comic captain. When I was selected, I was happy because I wanted to get out star cards. Okay. And our last student leadership role are big buddies. So will our big buddies come up? The big buddy program is new to our school this year. We work with some first and second grade students. We greet them in the morning in their class line. We talk to we walk to their classroom with them. We get them started with their morning routine such as completing papers or handing papers in. We
007review school rules and expectations for the day. We encourage them to do their best and follow directions. Our buddies look up to us and look forward to this part of their week. And so do we. As a big buddy, some of the character traits that you will need to show are reliable reliable. We will need to remember to greet our little buddy in the morning. Responsible. Have a good work habit in our classroom. You will you are um supportive to your little buddy. Be a good listener to your little buddy. Also, at the end of the week, we make sure to check in on our little buddy to see how are how they are feeling. How how was the week and how are they feeling? For an example, are they excited for the weekend? When
008we got paired with our little buddy, we did an interview to get to know them. Some of the questions were about their favorite things like their favorite food, game, and color. It helped us to get to know them and them. It helped us to get to know them better and for them to feel comfortable with us. One of the things we do before we leave our little buddy is read a motivable motivational statement with them. After a few weeks, they were excited to show us that they could re recite it all by themselves. This motivational statement says this week I will believe in myself, be positive, work hard and always try my best. We say this statement bec so that we can leave them with a great attitude. They did a fantastic job. We're super
009proud of them. They're great leaders in our school. They're respectful, responsible, and ready every day. So, we're so happy that they were invited tonight to celebrate. Mrs. Gdoul is our school counselor hiding behind there also doing some of the great work with the kids as well. But I think we would like to recognize their names too. Um because we didn't get all their names. They came up and and told us and they were their own words. They worked on their own words to share with you tonight. They're super excited. And I'm pretty [Applause] sure Kennedy [Applause] Williams, Elias [Applause] Natalie Maxwell. [Applause] Emma, Michael, [Applause] good job everybody. [Applause] Audio. I also promise they didn't have to stay. Oh. [Applause] I just want to say thank you and often times at the board meeting overnight
010of what we offer academically. However, when we talk about character, it trumps cognition. When I see a all these skills that you're going to take. So, thank you so much. [Applause] Enrico. Enrico, you're on deck. Yeah. Nobody told me. Do I get to leave after this or you have to follow? All right. You really don't want us to answer that, do you? Uh, no. I think every Do you all have a copy of the proposal or do you need if you need it up there? I think it's on the agenda. I emailed it over today. I don't know if you got it or not. You You don't have to read it verbatim. We've got a copy of it, but you can kind of uh highlight summarize it. Yeah. Okay. Um well, thank you for hearing
011this today. Uh we're we were presented uh an idea a proposal initially uh by Mr. Kevin Manning who's in the audience to start girls wrestling in Abington Heights. That was a little over a year ago. And um and since then it has kind of taken off within District 2, PIAAA District 2. And girls wrestling right now is currently the the fastest growing high school sport in the United States. Um, with more schools getting on board, uh, we have a very strong feeling that Abington Heights would be able to put together a very competitive program in girls wrestling. Uh, right now we have, it was mostly at the junior high level. We had about three or four girls that were participating over the last couple years. Um, but we feel strongly that if we create the
012opportunity at the high school level and make an official program out of it that we'll get more participation and we'll see that grow over a number of years. Uh, I listed in here for you just some schools that are currently participating that have teams including Honesdale, Wall and Paw Peek, and Delaware Valley, which would be typical teams within our league that we would compete against. And also in the Wyoming Valley Conference, there are three or four other schools including Crestwood, Wyoming area or Wyoming Valley West rather, and uh another school, maybe it is Wyoming area, that have girls wrestling. Um so if if you look at it from that perspective, there's definitely enough programs locally where we could put together a schedule. Uh however, just like the boys, uh girls wrestling I I've heard is
013mostly tournament driven right now. uh the participation because a lot of teams don't have full rosters. They participate in tournaments and then they pay per player for however however many entries they have. So in our case in this year, you know, you'd be looking at a very low cost if it was a per player entry because right now our roster is not very large. Once we would start to generate more numbers, which I would imagine by year three, we would probably get up to about 15 to 20 on a roster. uh then you know hopefully we can start to put them in as a team fee and instead of the individual. But you know the flip side of that is with powerlifting a lot of our our tournaments are the same way where it's per
014per person entry fee. So it wouldn't be very uncommon for us to do it that way. Um there there could be some some con constraints or some challenges right away in terms of like locker room spaces, things like that where right now we have girls changing in a bathroom when we have a tournament. You know, if we host a wrestling tournament, our boys have a locker room, girls have to use a bathroom because we don't have a dedicated locker room space where we would be able to place them at that time. Um that would be something that we would have to make an adjustment for. Uh I think practice times right now our girls practice congruently with the boys uh they just wrestle against each other where if we start to develop more of a
015roster size we may have to separate those practices which would mean gym space time trying to find those uh those places to put it and uh and that could impact the youth program. Uh, I know right now both our junior high and varsity wrestling teams practice here at the admin building. And then we also have summit wrestling that is co-ed that comes in after those teams are done. So, so that could push that back a little bit. Um, we also have an option with the auxiliary gym that we could look into and try to carve out some time there either for the youth league or for the girls. So, we there are ways to manage it. It just can can get a little tricky for us. Um, mainly for me, I think, you know, I've
016heard Kevin's proposal. We've met I've met with with him and coach Tion uh to try to figure out the best way to present this that it was going to make the most sense for our district. And we feel strongly that uh appointing a new head coach for girls wrestling would be the right avenue to go. I know initially it was proposed to hire an assistant coach that would be under the umbrella of the boys wrestling program and I don't feel like that's the best thing for us to do. I think it would be best for us to hire a head coach for girls that has experience coaching girls. Uh not necessarily has to be a female, but would be beneficial if it were uh just for the rest the locker room situations, you know, to
017make sure that we had safety and security there. Uh, I think if the program continues to grow, we could then demonstrate that there would be a need for an assistant coach for that program. And, uh, or, you know, there could be the option of making it varsity and junior high combined with a head coach being the varsity coach and the assistant managing the junior high program. So, there there's a couple of different routes to go with that. Um, and looking at our our salary scale right now, I think it would be, you know, very comparable to what we have for our our new hire coaches, which, you know, I think I I listed in the proposal here for your your view, but um, yeah, it's it's minimal cost when you look at it from that
018perspective. Um, but it is something that would add to us in terms of like scheduling. We'd have to find another place on the map for another event, another tournament. Uh if we were to host, like Kevin had suggested, many of them will be on the road because they are all tournaments. Uh transportation with the numbers being low, uh we could probably take school vans if needed. Unfortunately, some tournaments may be at a distance where it might not be as safe to do that, but we we would definitely consider those options. Um, and I and I do believe that the community would support it and I think we would have a pretty strong booster presence as well, which would uh help support some of the costs. So, with that, I'll take any questions you have. Yes.
019Um, Enrico, do you have anyone in potentially in mind to coach? Have you been getting some feelers out? Well, we have a gentleman in the room that we've talked to about it. uh clearly not a woman uh but he has had some experience in coaching at the the youth level um with boys and girls. So we we are are definitely considering uh that as a good option but I know you know we have to look through all the options as well. And one other question would they partner with the uh wrestling boosters that's currently the boy and girl booster program would be together. Yeah I think you know that would be something we could determine. I think initially you would look for some support from that program, but I think it would have to if
020we were going to separate the programs with, you know, different schedules and different coaches, it might actually end up being an additional booster club. Okay. Thank you. Sure, Enrico. If the if the board were to, you know, uh give us the the green light, um would there be anything relative to PIAA and any types of uh forms, notices, transactional types of things um that we need to do that would preclude uh the young ladies from competing next year as an official program? I don't believe so. I think we're still within that parameter to do so. Um, I think the only thing we have to be careful about is the competition points, uh, you know, with how many events that we participate in. And as long as we have a separate PIAA sanctioned program for girls
021wrestling, it wouldn't interfere with that on the boys side, which is really the main thing that we want to make sure we separate it for because if they did participate in tournaments together under the same umbrella, then we'd have to adjust our scheduling a little bit for the for the boys. Yes. What would your what would your timing be for the board to approve this and then to get your registrations in with PIAA and obviously local local league such as they are? So ideally we would by you know middle of June, end of June have everything in place that we could then present it to PAA, hire a coach, go through that this summer. Um and as we know that does take some time. So we want to make sure we get somebody on board
022before August 1. Uh, I would I would ideally hope that that would be the the timeline we could follow. Um, that would give them time and opportunity to put feelers out, try to recruit some student athletes within the the school district to to come out and participate. Um, you know, we obviously would do what we could on our social media platforms to promote that. I know Dr. Schaefer has a strong enough presence he could generate some interest. Um, but I think participation is the main thing for us and that if we don't have that in place by August 1st to have a winter wrestling season will be challenging. What What kind of uh when you say participation, what kind of numbers are in your are rolling around in your mind there? Yeah, I think in
023the first year if we end up with five girls, I think that's a win. Um, you know, I could be blown away and we can end up with 10 or 12 in year one. And uh I'll leave that up to some people who have more influence than me in that that uh that group. But uh I do think that it would be an incremental growth. I think we would see something like from 5 to 10 in year one, 10 to 15 year two and then you know hopefully get to about 20 to 25 wrestlers at some point in the next five years. Um I yeah a couple things um you know come to mind. one is um you know we talked about this um last year and you know I have at times informally talked
024to the board and and and would be fully supportive of this. I think this is a great opportunity uh for um you know our young ladies um to engage in another opportunity and in the winter and into the spring as it as it falls now. Um, and you may not, this may be more uh for Kevin, but as we think about like downstream implications, um, here we are uh kind of making a um a decision at one end of the continuum, but at the other making sure that um we are um having discussions and informally and I think formally as well uh with our junior high and and age group programs. s um to have a strong uh feeder program, right? Um most of the time when we walk into it, there's an apparatus already
025in place with all the junior comments and all the other organizations. Um so um I guess this really isn't a question, but something to keep keep in your mind. Um, and how can um we be supportive of that? Because uh at the end of the continuum here in the high school, we're only going to be as successful as uh the programs that we support for our our youngest girls. Yeah, feeder program is definitely, you know, something that I like I said, I I think personally if we could approve it to go with the two programs at once, I think it would be beneficial to do so. Um, and then we could essentially have those practices happen at the same time. Uh, you just can't have junior high athletes competing against varsity athletes, but they could
026be in the same room and then that would allow one coach and say an assistant coach to really manage the group well. I think that's the vision that I would I would push forward with. So, yes. Yeah, they do. And uh you know the like I said the benefit of it is if we have a separate team we don't have to follow the boys schedule and uh that's a good that's a positive and a negative sometimes right if if the numbers get to the point where we need to get busing and figure out match space and all that then having separate schedules could get tricky but um with the way it is right now if you're a team that's wrestling a boys schedule and you happen to have a few girls wrestlers you go to
027another team that has a few girls wrestlers then they get mad time at the same venue and looking looking forward and and and uh practicing positive intent as we open up our bids next Wednesday at 11:00 am uh for the middle school project. Um there there is slated there and an all bid a uh a um an audit a gymnasium that has two locker rooms, right? Um that are that are nice and would be um well equipped to handle uh plenty of participants. Agreed. I have one more question. Um, so Enrico, are you suggesting that we approve tonight a Abington Heights girls wrestling program because our it it states right here it's a high school girls. So would you rather us approve a a girls program that would include a feeder program at once? Would
028that be a better I I would prefer that. Yeah, I would prefer that if it were possible. Could we amend Could we amend this or I um No. Yeah. what what I'd what I'd prefer to do would be to say we can kind of have a you know you are welcome to discuss it and and and provide me with any uh direction and um I would be uh ready at our May 21st meeting if the board wanted to do so is to have a motion up on the board and then what I would uh provide to the board would be uh a one uh pager um that that kind of lists the cost and and and some of the plans uh for uh approval. That way I could have it up 24 hours in advance
029that people will be able to see it. Um and that seems that if it would give you that would seemingly give you enough time to Yeah. get everything off the ground and and and and running. That would be great. I I definitely think that's a good idea because we I think for something like this, we would like to see some public input if if it's out there. Okay. Sure. And I think a, you know, a budget or some some idea throwing a dart at the board even with with a budget is is going to be helpful, too. Great. But I think I I think everyone's very positive about it. Okay. You're welcome. Any other questions? All right. Thank you very much. s since there's a a a pseudo proposal on the table and I'm probably
030already not following Robert's rules. Uh you know, feel feel free to give me uh your informal direction. I think I just heard yours. Yeah, I I I think I mean I think this is great, but I think we need to put a little bit more flesh around it. Okay. And I and I do think you need to have public comment about that because the worst is approve it and then have a whole bunch of people coming and saying you shouldn't do this for these reasons. I would rather put it out there and have something people can look at and comment on and and that those comments may may in turn help us better zero in on exactly what we want to do. I would just agree. I think we've all been enthusiastic about this the
031several times it's been presented, but let's have the presentation in front of us that he provided and and the numbers and whatever. I can't imagine that it wouldn't move forward, but at least we'd be well informed when we make the decision. Yeah, I I agree. I don't think that um waiting for our next meeting or so is going to put anything behind with them, but I'm in all in favor of doing a complete program for the girls wrestling. So, and Rico and and and for all of those here in the audience in support, what we'll do is I'll I I know I read through your proposal, have everything. I'm going to skinny it down. I'll talk to Jim, make sure that there's anything that I haven't forgot, and then what I'll do is I'll get
032that in the board's hands, and then I'll post it uh on the agenda as an action item for May 21st. A little tidbit. Yeah. I'd like the board to know district wrestling. There are 28 schools that participate in district 2 wrestling. 24 of the 28 have registered girls. Abington Heights is one of four schools that does not have a registered some of these schools don't even have a girl, but they registered it. So it's needed in Abington Lake and are the only district that do not have a girls registered by I do not know dates. I looked at wrestling it shows boys and girls and I mean I just know you don't even have to have a wrestler fail to come out there's girls. So they develop one and then it comes. Yeah, we'll enri
033it up and we'll figure all that. And we would not be this is a presuppositional statement. Um and we would not be engaged in like a any type of a consortium or collaborative. It would just be Abington Heights just to make sure that we don't have any, you know, downstream. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. You know what's coming and you know my answer. All right. We're all on the same page. We're already thinking roster spots. That's good. All right. Now it is uh uh Jim's turn um to talk some budget. Yeah, I got it here. All right. Well, uh, appreciate everybody having me, uh, here tonight to talk about, uh, a few topics, budget among them. Uh, we really want to focus in on the current year and how we're doing. There is a lot going
034on here at Abington Heights. I don't need to tell you that, but usually when there's a lot going on, there's money moving, which means the business office is firing on all cylinders. So, I'm coming to report back to you uh how we're looking in the uh fiscal year. Going to talk a little bit about the health insurance fund. Also going to talk about the governor's uh education budget proposals, how that might impact us and how that can inform us when we uh take action on the 2526 budget. Quick mention of the bid opening that that Chris had already talked about and uh how that debt financing might uh factor into play. Uh and then a Lacuana County reassessment update. We checked in with the county to get a little get a little more uh updated
035information how that impacts us. Um so let's get right into our revenue situation. Um so every year when we pass the budget, we we don't know what's happening with the state. Um, and a lot of what what you see here is on the far right column is green. So green is good news. So I tried to color code it uh so that we can just pick it out really easily. So uh real estate taxes came in almost $250,000 more than expected. Earned income taxes, they just keep continuing to to tick up steadily. So about 3% up year-over-year according to our Burkheimr reports. uh real estate transfer tax. Uh homes are expensive and uh we're still selling them. So, uh we we do see that uh transfer tax is up about $150,000. Uh delinquent real estate
036tax um thanks to our tax collector and Janice in the business office. Uh they were able to get our delinquent tax notices out earlier uh than ever before. And uh so they worked really hard on that to clear it. And you can see the results in the the collection coming in sooner. Uh so we see a positive um variance coming in there. Investments uh e even though interest rates are coming down, we did get some exposure to some longerterm US treasuries. Um we do expect to crest a million dollars here uh again for the second year in a row on earnings on our investments. Uh basic ed funding we budgeted for 2%. It came in a little less than that, but they put on the bottom line is where the state put the money, the
037ready tolearn adequacy supplement, which came in at $562,000 more than we budgeted. So that was a nice surprise. Uh and we we're hoping for a repeat surprise this year. Um so and also the pupil transportation subsidy was another surprise. uh when um Chris Pasco, the transportation director, submitted the report that we ended up getting reimbursed more based on our cost structure and reimburseability structure. So, all good news there. Um now, when I flip the slide to the expense side, uh we you'll see a little bit more red, but you know, so we we'll kind of go into it, but first, anybody any questions on the revenue side of how we're doing this year? Okay. Now, on the expense side, salaries overall, we we did have some positions unfilled and then we had um I believe
038there's like a special ed position that we had to fill uh in addition. So, everything kind of balanced out and we're looking to break even basically in the salaries and come in uh right where we thought. Uh benefits uh slightly under budget on a couple of the smaller life insurance, uh dental, those types of things. We're seeing a positive variance there. purchase professional services and I have the key on the next slides just to kind of let you know what that is. Um so that's administrative services, educational services, so like my service to the district for finances is a professional service. Um technical security, so our SRO's that would be a professional service. U architects, lawyers, accountants, engineers, and doctors, they would all kind of fall in that category. Um, and you can see we're
039we're pretty significantly over budget in that area. Um, but when you comb through the data, um, there there are a couple things that stick out. Um, NEIU billings, um, I'm projecting that to be $250,000, uh, of that $398,000. Um also um comped is uh is a part of that and the legal fees that we pay uh to those uh lawyers who uh file the suits. Um let's see. And then the other one um is uh we did a one-time curriculum training uh type investment that was that was a six-f figureure training. Uh I I forget if it was science or social studies. I I don't recall, but there was a one-time expense that was invested into two curriculum in that line item. Uh purchase property services. What you see here is a lot of maintenance,
040uh buildings and grounds, custodial cleaning, that's contracted custodial cleaning, um rentals and any type of construction services. So, uh repairs, things like that. And uh it you know a lot of things have broken and we've had to repair a lot of things districtwide. Um however there is a I'm just trying to point out the one-time u things that are in here. Um a damaged gym floor is one of them. We we currently have a PO out to do the gym floor this this summer and the purchase order reflects in the expense line item. Uh so we would back out 134,000 out of that number. So, it's not quite as bad as as it looks on that line item. It was a South AB South app. But my question was, so that that showing as an
041expense, however, that was covered under insurance. Is that correct? Uh, yes. So, here's how it works. So, it shows up in the number because we put a purchase order out for it. So, it's called an incumbrance. So, you account for every expense that you have. I'm calling that out so that you don't think that it's actually 373,000. It is actually 126,000 less than that number. I didn't want to mislead anyone by presenting, you know. And there there's also one-time expenses in here. So, for instance, everything from a a dump truck to we've had some projects relative to our technology infrastructure. Um, so yeah, I there a lot of one-time investments here is is kind of a a theme of how we um arrive at some of these numbers. the -ray project, for example, there were
042two $117,000 for networking at the high school. Okay. Um and we just cut that purchase order last month. So, um looking forward to getting that done in the summer. Um let's see. And then in the 500s, um or the purchased other services, you can see there's a negative variance of 231,000. that is primarily comprised of transportation overages. We had a few special ed vans, I understand, that we had to add. Um, and athletic trips were over budget a bit. Uh, so that's where that explanation comes from. Um, and then property equipment was our dump truck and our Ford uh um I guess was an F F350 or F250 truck. So that's what that negative variance is there at the 88460. Uh debt service and reserve that's the budgetary reserve that is that is remaining. Uh
043so that's the positive variance there. Hope I didn't go through too much detail there. Is that um any questions on the expense side of things? Yes. What what expenses normally come in at the end of the year? You know what what are the ones that you don't necessarily pick up until the end of the year? Secondly, what what number should you keep your eye on? Which which ones are you concerned that that definitely can move a lot between now? So glad you asked that question because I failed to mention this projected under over uh budget is actually driven by uh detail of the past couple of years and to to capture that trend at year end. Um, so, uh, maintenance is usually the place where the purchase orders are kind of outstanding or something breaks
044right at the end and, you know, we'll have time in, do we have, you know, 30 to fix this? And, you know, the answer is usually we don't, but we have to and that that type of thing. Um, transportation's measurable. That's a big expense. Um, you can you can see the trend with um, our bigger contracts like uh, Mets cleaning. You could you could see where that's at. Um you'll see that we can pretty handily project where the uh cyber charter schools are going to come in. Um so you know the the bigger numbers are are sort of under control like the health insurance we're just going to pay what we said we're going to pay. Um so you know we the NEIU bill is a scary one. Uh the special ed costs because when
045they reconcile it from time to time you get a really big number. Um it you know they've tightened up their procedures there, but that's one that you know will keep me up at night until I receive that. Um but uh and that you know the the school districts that we send kids to are generally slow at billing. Um Scranton is one Chris and I were talking about this morning and last night um where we send kids there and I don't usually get the bill. Um it there it one of the accounts says zero in it but I know we're going to spend 100 120,000 um there. So, those are the types of bills, usually in the special ed category, that are most uncertain to me. The for-profit places have no problem sending us bills uh
046um all the time. So, did I answer the second question, though? Okay, great. Any other questions? All right. And this is the key. If I didn't explain um any of them clearly, just please let me know and I'll I'll circle back around. But that that's the key for when I post this for later so that you can kind of see what is going into those object codes. Um so now the major expense drivers kind of review for we're talking about health insurance benefits are not reflected here as a problem because we choose what to pay ourselves. Um and I'll show you here in a second why that's a problem. Um they are just skyrocketing. We are not alone in this. every school we work with, every school we talk to is having a problem with
047prescription drugs, the cost of them. Um, cyber charters, we've seen increased enrollment. I'll show you that in a second. And increased tuition rate. Uh, and Chris and I were having this conversation. Um, I'm not sure if people know, but the PTE 363 is the form that you calculate the tuition rate that you pay the charter schools. Did you know that part of that calculation is the charter school tuition that you pay to the charter school? Then if you pay more to them, your rate goes up more. So, you know, usually we talk about artificial caps on ready to learn block grant or pension and things like that. But that's just a a new talking point that I'm trying to kind of get out there because what you pay them and you pay them more, you
048then pay them more the next year because you paid them more. It's just beyond me. um maintenance and grounds, a lot of deferred maintenance. I don't think that's a secret here. Um a lot of HVAC, plumbing, um electrical that that we're working on districtwide. So, we we do see that as a cost driver. Special education, staffing, and and tuition and services are are really the key drivers. And then we also saw transportation is a is a driver there. Uh salary and fixed costs. Obviously, we pay 3% for the next uh I believe everyone's under contract for a year and a half to two years. Um so that's 3% and then debt service is fixed for now. Um but as we lead into that bid opening uh next week on Wednesday, um we'll have a series
049of choices to make there. And that debt payment can be anywhere from zero um if we take advantage of um capitalized interest. Because of the timing of this, there'll be one payment in next year's budget. Um it could be anywhere from zero to$2 to $3 million depending on how much uh is borrowed. So that's a major consideration and we're hoping to get a baseline when we open these bids and some direction as to what to budget for this for next year. This is kind of a reason we're not bringing you the 25 26 budget tonight because that is a a really major number that would be great to have before we go into next year's budget. Um but back to the health insurance. Um we talked a lot I think you know with the at
050the risk of talking about it too much. I don't think we've talked about it from the fund balance perspective though and uh you know back in you know three four five years ago we were having discussions is is that too much right and it it sat at $7 million between 6.7 and 7.2 for my entire career here um until uh you can see the trend here. um you know we we had a bad year and then we're like ah it might be an anomaly and then we had another bad year and then now it's a trend right so it's not coming back we don't see we see the prescription drug issue here to stay um and we can see that balance dwindling and we now have less than half over a fiveyear period and and
051that trend really in the middle when you see the 6733 is only because um we took from our savings to pay for our operating. Otherwise, you would see that that that coming down uh at a at a at a more uh rapid rate. But um you know, we can't uh continue to do that. And uh a a way that uh good organizations kind of work through this and we have um great partners in our union is to just kind of have uh discussions about what are the options available. And as as Jim mentioned, every organization public and private that provides uh healthc care insurance uh to everyone within that organization is is um uh facing the the same challenges and uh you just have to be very adaptive uh in this space. Um, and it's
052and it's really not about um I I talked to Jim about this a lot is like I don't use the word or I try not to use the word um like to save. Uh we are uh challenged to regress back to the mean. Um and it's a it's a it's a very difficult uh space but as you can see in our current uh trend you know we won't be able to uh sustain uh for much more than a year and a half uh in there um we have very good health care consultants and as I said we've got um uh great partners in our union leadership and and and we've already started talking about uh what some of our um options are and and what we can uh what we can do. And that's just
053kind of the conversation that's that's ongoing that that that we have. Um but it is it is sobering to to um see these um and this is um pharma. This is prescription. If you took a look at our medical uh that's that has a couple undulations and that's how I would uh describe it as just undilations. were in that 41 to 45 category. But anybody that cares to kind of ask me about health care, the way I frame it is um in household terms, every month uh Jim and team cut a check for about $600,000. So that's what we're paying a month. What's the minimum fund balance we need to continue to selfinsure? So I mean it's a tricky question. Um now we use we went from a year and a half to a half
054a year actually less than half a year in in funds. Um so once you get into say three months and and if you have a shock claim month you're you're paying it directly out of the general fund. All right? Because you're there's they're the high mark's not going to float or RX benefits is not going to float you the money. So you would then be exposed to paying those claims live out of out of your data and they're completely unpredictable. You know, sometimes sometimes you have a $400,000 we used to have two to $400,000 months. Now we have five to $800,000 months. Um so it's uh it's it's much different. We at a time when I first got here, we could have I could have told you that, you know, maybe we had absent re
055absent rebates like a $6.5 million a year where we would take a look and say what we have in our savings is a year's worth. But um it's it's a exploded at such a rate that it's really hard to calculate. And in addition to that, whether this is fair or not, I I deem it to be uh fair, is that we we pay approximately $400,000 a year in stop-loss insurance. So, I look at this as a 13-month cycle. And if you're not, you know, familiar with the stop-loss insurance, and I I I explain it probably like a superintendent and not a business administrator. Um, but we we have insurance to protect us against um some high-end claims. So, when the high-end claims come in, our stop-loss insurance kicks in and and and and pays, but
056having stop-loss insurance um is is is is not a panacea because it goes up every year. We take it to bid and there's only a few people that bid on it and every year we we see an increase. So, it's in our best interest to work with all of our partners to try to find a way to uh reduce our pharma expenses because if we reduce those pharma expenses, then there will most likely be the reduction in uh some of the high claims. And so if we can reduce our high claims over a longer period of time, then what I would hope would happen is that our stop-loss insurance uh would would would go down in a perfect world. Um but that's is that an accurate representation? It is. We've been we've been talking a
057lot of health care, so we're living it here. Um, so on to very quickly cyber charter uh and then brickandmortar charter enrollments. You can see where we started the year and what we budget based our budget off of um and where we're ending the year here. We just had an uptick of five from March to April. And uh so that would that this explains why we had the negative variance in that 500 category. Um this is the um tuition uh to those those folks. And just so you can see who we pay what to, uh, we we broke this down and you can see that, uh, Commonwealth Charter Academy is by and far our largest, um, cyber charter school. And and some of these are are pirick victories if you're familiar with that. It's like,
058you know, you're going to you win the battle, you lose the war. Um and in some cases what we do as Jim had had posted is um oftent times our approved private school providers and some things where we we send kids to kind of a a variety of different institutions for for different reasons and and and and in some cases um it is in our best interest to route uh some students to a cyber in contrast to um some other uh schools. Um, so and again I always say for anybody who cares to um ask I was with a local legislator and I and I gave an example of Abington Heights because um you know it was a we had a nice round number and it made a lot of sense and what I said
059was um and it and it's up in the budget now um is we need codified charter reform in a flat fee and that's been proposed at $8,000 for cyber charter. We need that. That would save us close to $800,000 a year. Um, in my opinion, I think that there is very little difference between regular edge and special education services and programs in the cyber charter space. Um yet what we pay for a regular education student is $12,000 and what we pay for a special education student is is is is $23,000. There was a pseudo child uh pseudo charter reform this year where we received uh I'll just call it a stipen because that's what it was of $100,000. Well, we're still 100,000 in the hole because every year, as Jim mentioned, we we have a
060a formula that we do and every year it goes up 2,000 2,000, right? So, I've got, let's just say, have a 100 kids in one year it goes up $200,000 in part because of the money that we're paying them that doesn't get deducted from it. Um, it it is a it is a vicious circle. Um, and it is it it is not in the best interest of the education community at all. And I I relayed that to every local, state, federal lawmaker that I've spoken with in the past two months. I mean, I I think that it borders on criminal and uh we need this passed. Any type of line item reform in the Pennsylvania state budget uh is a symptomatic solution. It's a fix that fails. We need something that is codified into law
061to pay um these outrageous sums. Um uh isn't right by our students, isn't right by our our families, isn't right by our taxpayers in greater communities. So any opportunity that you have to talk to local legislators about uh the cyber uh reform, uh you know, please please do so. um because it it it makes um a huge a huge difference. And I add if they have the defense mechanism that we fixed the formula last year, if you just take a look at the special ed cyber versus specialed brick and mortar, uh we we got what about an $800 discount between the two. And then if you take that 800 times our brickandmortar um cy um enrollment that there's seven kids there. So I mean that reform quote unquote saved us you know5 to7,000 actually for
062half a year we got the reform so half of that number. So that's not real reform in the in the calculation. Um, so just a kind of a quick review, we had the early prelim preliminary budget passed back in January of 2025. And just to be clear on what happened there, um, we passed that budget with leaving open the option to to pursue exceptions. The state let us know that there would they slipped this little line into a piece of legislation that said if you receive accountability I'm sorry to learn block grant funds you are not eligible to go over uh but they didn't ever publish regulations or anything on that and I still don't think they exist. Um so we are we are at the 4.7% index. The good news there the offset was
063our millillage our assessed value grew by just about an equivalent amount to make up for that. Um so the major unknowns what we're looking for and looking for guidance on in the as we prepare the 2526 budget uh the state budget obviously we'll show you what's proposed that bid opening I think is probably the biggest unknown here um that we'll we'll be keeping an eye on next week medical insurance costs it's not that they're unknown it's just how sustainable is funding that and how do we sort of claw back some of that that cost special education just never stops going up in cost. And then the cyber charter, uh, we have final budget passage at scheduled for June 18th, but I will be back before then to present to you the 2526 budget once we
064can kind of dial in some of those those numbers up there. Um, I I I just want to say too, if anybody did the the the math on this as you were taking a look at FY uh 25, our current fiscal year, is that um you know, we would be we would be projecting and and and Jim did a great job taking a look at the the detailed budget uh where we currently are and then making some forecasts for the last couple months um is somewhere in that vicinity of 800 to uh a million in surplus. um which is where we want to be given our vision for the facility improvements. As you remember and you know that we are we're capped with our act one index as we as we as we should be.
065But when we start to think about future construction projects, we have to be uh thoughtful, strategic in how we prepare for them so that when it's time that we have worked up to a spot where we can pay for our our debt service, right? So yes, we still have to work hard to manage our expenses and be smart about this. simultaneously thinking about the future and how we work up to a point where we can pay the debt service that's associated with any of the improvements that we make and along the way we start to see uh some of these peaks that we have to address and that's the challenge that the board faces. Jim and I took a look at the health care today and I looked at Jim and I said I I
066can't believe I'm saying this but that's six mills just the health care alone going up. And it was in January that I spoke to the board when we presented the first preliminary budget where I said that it was a little painful and we had to budget 1.425 425 additional monies from our operating budget to insurance. And that paralleled the conversation that we had about why did our borrowing capacity go down from X to Y. When you've got one item that is commensurate with six mills, that explains it. And again, this is not an Abington Heights problem. This is this is an issue that I um am involved with not only in Pennsylvania but across the country and Jim as well. every single organization, public, private. I'll be with in a meeting and I'll see someone
067from Geisinger and we will be having the same exact conversation to a small business downtown that has 10 15 employees again talking about health insurance. It's this common denominator and common language that I wish I didn't know, but now I do know. Um, so that's important to recognize because in the past sometimes if we had a little bit of a surplus, we would put this into the health care. But again, that was a symptomatic solution. And now it's just it's it's it's a it's gone off um a cliff that way. It certainly has. And you've helped me land the plane here on this by uh taking care of some of my closing thoughts on the budget. I just want to mention yes uh we're projecting about $800,000 a million dollar surplus in the current year.
068However, there's there's an equal or greater amount of loss coming in the in the health insurance fund. So on operating basis, we might be a little bit behind overall. Um but how do we reconcile a preliminary budget deficit of $ 1.9 million when I'm telling you that we have a million dollar possible surplus on the way? I don't think it's a a far cry to do the quick math and say $1.45 million additional in health insurance, $675,000 estimated uh debt service additional and 3% increases on uh all staff levels. Uh those right there add up uh to that number. So um just keep that in mind as we try to put context to a large deficit going forward. Um however also think about that we have not budgeted for what the governor has proposed yet
069which is here and uh Chris you're a little better at talking about this slide than I am. Do you want to take it? Yeah sure. Um what this uh represents is um um from P PA Works which is uh a very reputable think tank in in Philadelphia and they've got this for every single uh school district and it it's very simple. You were taking the the the governor's proposed budget working those formulas through and saying hey if everything came to fruition that Governor Shapiro proposed what would it look like for Abington Heights? And I and I do have to say that last year we were very close to that minus the the the pseudo charter reform. Um but that would uh represent about 97,000. My my calculations are it's a little higher um based on
070uh if if if uh cyber cyber charter of reform uh came in the way I I think it was. Um we also have in here um what they call the uh adequacy uh gap um which is last year we got about $562,000 that came to us as a an an adequacy adjustment uh which is based on a formula that is far too complicated to to even um articulate. Um but they take a whole bunch of numbers and in including our the the poverty index um and uh and a bunch of other things and they say okay this is kind of where you should be and I and that's in contrast to say someone like Scranton that that number may be 9 million. Ours was 562. They are uh projecting proposing another 562 to us this
071coming year which would be a million dollars um over those two years. This stems from the court case that the Department of Education Pennsylvania lost where they said you have to uh provide, you know, fair, reasonable um funding to all school districts um particularly those ones that were uh I would just say financially distressed. Um so that's part of this this uh uh calculation. Uh, and like I said, we get this money through the um ready tolearn block grant. So, it's not necessarily delivered uh through our subsidy. And uh if you are feeling cynical on a Wednesday in a sick twisted turn of fate, uh the formula that Jim and I talked about where you pay, I cannot beat up on this enough. Uh cyber charters that PA 363 uh during the Corbett era is
072where we had a lot of cuts. I live through that as a principal. Um, and when Jim does the formula, right, where to see what our our rate is, there are certain expenses that we can write off and one of them was the ready tolearn block grant. In Abington, we use for the most part the ready tolearn block grant for uh um teachers, class size reduction, um reading specialists, math interventionists. We were able to write off in 2013 about 90% of that, which makes sense. That money's coming to us and we are distributing it to our classrooms. That's the way it's supposed to learn. That's the way it's supposed to be. Last year, uh, the state decided to distribute the adequacy money through the accountability block grant. So, what happened was now our ready tolearn
073block grant was probably close to $600,000 or what? $800,000. Was it to eight? So 800,000, but yet we could only write off 128,000 because it hadn't been adjusted. So all that extra money goes into a formula that pays the the charters. And this is this has been in the paper a lot. Um, we're fortunate that we're not in some situations that a lot of other school districts are where they are having to use all of their adequacy money to pay for cyber charters. So, all these things, all this minutia, all this detail that we're talking about that probably shouldn't be in a 30 second soundbite when talking to your legislator, I did. I made Bridget sit down with me and I had like five copies of the PDE 363 and I was very outspoken and
074I, you know, I I said how I felt as a superintendent and what I felt was fair and reasonable for Abington Heights. What I said in part was you need to know about us where $7 out of every 10 comes from local resources, right? 2.9 comes from state sources and about 0.1 comes from federal sources. To me, that's not fair and reasonable. There's some disproportionality there. uh we need additional resources and we need cyber reform because that's the only way where a school district that has uh very strong financial uh planning that has a a very solid and strong SNP rating that is deliberate thoughtful and strategic it becomes very difficult for a district like us to plan for facility improvements that We need We've been in the business here in Abington Heights for over
075193 years. We've lost many schools to fires. We've rebuilt so many schools. And now we're seeing construction costs that have gone up by over 90% in the last three years. So, these are the messages that I deliver and that's why I'm talking about them tonight because I'm hoping somebody hears them and then has that conversation with coffee with somebody that, you know, can can hear this and talk about this and talk about what these impacts are on our our local budget. And despite that, we know what our present looks like and we will continue to uh work through our expenses. And what we saw up here is is is not a surprise to me because we have been in making all sorts of adjustments. So we should not have a 25y old rusted out dump
076truck that's a safety hazard anymore. After 25 years of tons and tons and tons of salt, yes, it was on its last legs and we made it through the last season. We had to purchase a new one and I know our crew will take care of it. our infrastructure and technology which when I came here was running Windows 2003 and 2022 and we were breaking down all the time. We did have to make an investment there but we know that that long-term investment is going to pay off. Yes, it hurt for a year, but we know that um that investment will pay off uh specifically for uh educational outcomes because our kids have access um to more reliable and updated uh services as well as our teachers. That's my take. Um could be wrong. Speaking
077of issues, everybody get their reassessment of the You have to use the microphones. Oh, yes. I appreciate it. So, um, assessments went out and, uh, now I can't shop, uh, in the grocery store in the Abingtons because everybody asked me, "What's my tax bill going to be?" Uh, and the answer is, frankly, we don't know. We we just don't know. Uh, and the question we have to ask ourselves is, could you sell that property for what they say it's worth? Right? And if if you believe otherwise, then you you file your appeal. But as far as our planning goes, the district needs to know what those values are so that we can estimate what our new millage rate will be roughly. Um just so we can communicate to people in orders of magnitude of what
078it's going to look like. Right? So we are at you know 140ome mills. It's not going to look at all like that. It might be 1.4 four mills. It may be something very very small. So, uh but we got some updates uh from the chief assessor at the county as to when we can expect some data from them. Um so, the new assessment role will be turned over to Lacana County on June 1st by Tyler Technologies. Okay. So, that means new assessed values will be mailed out to taxpayers in July. That's the plan. So we all will receive our actual assessed values. Okay. uh after June 1st um they will provide us access to preliminary numbers and then we could crunch the numbers and uh we're not going to you know take them as the
079gospel because there are three months of appeals that will happen and then they will um be finalized on November the 15th and they did not tell us when we can expect the final assessments. Um we're fortunate because we're not a um early calendar year taxing authority. We we mail it out in August. So, you know, we we don't really, you know, have to worry about turning it around quickly, but for planning purposes, we sure as heck want that data so that we can start communicating to stakeholders what it's going to look like. And and another message, I I I do get that question and I refer them to you, Jim. Um but but but one of the first things that I say is like by law the the reassessment has to be uh revenue neutral.
080So we cannot take in any more money. In fact that is how the millillage gets calculated. So when we have that new assessment data, whenever that's done, the county will then, you know, take that take a look at what our most current numbers are and then come up with a millage rate. Okay. So that that I I that's what I open with all the time. We it's revenue neutral for us. We don't come up with it, but we can't get any more money. That's how we get that that new millage rate, right? Um, so whenever this uh comes out, we'll take a look at it. We know what we we bring in and and and and we may have some kind of gueststimates, but I I believe Jim to be right in that, you know,
081you're going to you're going to be looking at uh a a pretty low number. Like you said, it's not a 14ome number. it's it's going to be uh single digits. The worst thing that you could do is take your assessed value and then multiply it by the current millage rate. That's nightmare territory. Um and uh and I will tell you through experience I I went through one in Delaware County sometime and I that's exactly what I did as a principal. I didn't know anything about millillage and I multiplied it. My jaw dropped. I said I'm going to have to move out. That's it. and I called and they and they explained the whole the whole process um to me. So uh just to assuage any concerns uh out there. We just have to wait and
082see. And then another piece to the process that we learned is they're going to lock these in I believe January one give or take and then the you know Clark Summit Burough and the county and South Aington town they'll all use those uh numbers but then people will build people will add onto their houses you know split parcels maybe they'll demolish a structure. All those changes will need to be tracked in the meantime um so that we we can capture any additional revenue that comes from new construction in that six to eight month period. So hopefully we'll have access to that data. I I'm not sure what that'll look like, but uh our friends at Pasbo tell us that's kind of a crucial part of it uh to make sure you're you know up to
083date with the with the with that time lag and the assess values. But so uh we'll be we'll be reporting back as we learned. This is kind of an emerging situation. We're trying to stay on top of it. Any questions? Yeah, a couple. Um so we have to approve our budget for Janu uh June 30th, right? Okay. So we have an opportunity to stay within the act one index of of raising taxes of 4.7%. Mhm. Will we still have that opportunity to do that with this new formula with with Yes. It's just the initial calculation has to be revenue neutral. Right. So you're going to equival whatever that old assessed value to the new assessed value. The millage rate has to be converted and then you make a decision on what you're going to do
084after you equalize the mill and reset everything where it where it needs to be. So it's it's the same exact process as far as you know what you'll see. Now the the schedule on the PD 2028 is going to look a little more complicated because I have to check the box. Is there a reassessment and then another schedule pops up? But it's really just the same process. It's just a redistribution of the tax burden throughout the district, right? It's a relativity exercise. You know, if I don't I you know, my assessed value obviously went up, but relative to others, did it go up as much as it's like a norm reference criteria. So if you're sitting in the 50th percentile, you'll probably be even when they reassess it, you're probably going to be sitting in
085the 50th percentile. So, this is a gross understatement, but like if you were your your house was last, let's say it was last assessed and it was $150,000 and then you see your next one comes in at 350. Well, maybe those ones at 350 went up to 550 and so on and so forth. In fact, I read in the paper, I think Tyler usually says, "Well, expect oneird to go down, one third to stay the same, and one third to to to go up." Um, okay. Thanks, Jim. Is that Did I answer your question though? Okay. Okay. Great. Just one quick question on these three month of appeals. The school district is not actively involved in this. I'm looking for clarification on that. I don't think that we are. Um I'm we didn't get a
086clear answer on that one, but um I'll ask a little more specifically. It seems like it's it's kind of the appeals board. I don't know if we're allowed to have rep representation there though. My Yeah. My what I asked Jim to get clarification on is because for the most part I you know we I haven't involved really any any residential. Um my my question to Jim to uh an attorney that we've worked on in some bigger cases with some commercial properties that we already have agreements with that we've been in long-standing uh court disputes with. That that's those are those are my questions. um the the the big companies, where we are, what it does to current agreements, that type of thing. I'll I'll try to get you a better answer on that. Jim, thank
087you very much. I appreciate the time. Thank you. Okay, next part of our meeting is public comment. Uh, if anyone would like to approach the board, we ask you uh give us your name, where you live, uh, speak for about 30 minutes. Excuse me, not 30 minutes, three minutes. Mr. miss. But um and if if possible um normally we have I I see four people standing up. If you if you're all together, that's great. If not, if you're one by one, I'd say just Hey, they're all together. We are all together. Okay, go for it. Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Ariana. I am a coach with the Keystone Mountain Bike Team. This is a team that practices at Lacawana State Park. And beyond being a coach with the Keystone Mountain Bike
088Team, I'm a mom of several of the riders on the team. And I also work for the national or sorry the Penn State or the Pennsylvania organization. So the Keystone Mountain Bike Team is a nonprofit team. We run uh our local team actually is two separate teams that practice together. Um, we are part of the Pennsylvania Interscolastic Cycling League. We use the acronym PI pickle to describe ourselves, so I'll use that moving forward. Uh, Pickle is an organization that has 75 plus teams across the state, and we're one of 35 plus leagues across the country. So, it's a large organization, wellunded organization, and our local team is who I'm here to talk about. We're asking for the opportunity to advertise the team within the schools. The team is made up of boys and girls in
089grades six through 12. And while it's intercolastic, they compete against student athletes in the middle school against other middle schoolers and then high schoolers against other high schoolers. Um we have about 40 kids on our team in any given year and half of those student athletes come from Abington Heights. So the other students are from other area schools, but like I said, we operate as two teams combined as one. The reason being that anytime we have more than 10 or 11 student athletes on a team, we need to branch off and form a new team. So we have a composite team of a bunch of kids from area schools and we actually have a Keystone Abington Heights team that doesn't have any connection to the school, does not use any branding of the school, but
090does represent the school at events. Um, but we have our local team uh uh what am I thinking like jersey and wear that we use. Anyway, our ask is just that we have the opportunity to advertise through middle school and high school student athletes just so that they know that this opportunity exists. As far as funding goes, our team fundraises and completely supports the team. So, we'd be asking for no funds. When students and coaches register with the league, they are fully insured through the league. So there's no ask of the uh school for that. And our coaches are primarily all either parents or um individuals that love mountain biking and are cycling enthusiasts. We all get training through the league itself and are uh not paid staff, all volunteers. Um trying to think if
091there's anything else. I think that's it. We uh just have a few people that wanted to speak from different lenses about the team. Hi, thank you. My name is Ethan Horitz. I'm a senior this year at Abington Heights High School and I have just finished up my seventh year on the Keystone team last November. Um I started in sixth grade as early as I could and I've been a part of the team and an athlete um every single year since then up until last year as I've aged out and I'm hoping to even come back and coach um over this summer. Um it I can confidently say that this sport has changed my life. It has given me a passion for the sport of cycling. I have recently um over the past couple of months
092done rode over,200 miles in training um towards a 100 mile event that I just completed on April 27th a few weeks ago. Uh and you know that was eight hours on the bike in one day that I would have never thought I would enjoy had it not been seven years on a team before that. Um, it has brought so much to my life. I've made friends from all across the state that I still am in touch with, friends from grades above me who are now in college. Um, and friends from grades below me who I, um, still frequently keep in touch with. It has brought so much joy from a different perspective of sports. Going into sixth grade when I joined, um, I had tried all the different sports. I've been on wreck leagues for
093baseball, basketball, soccer, anything. And I never liked any of them. So going into sixth grade when I decided to try Keystone, I thought it would just be another sport that I didn't really enjoy. Dread going to practice every other day. And it completely changed my perspective when I started going. I joined on a bike that wasn't the best for the trails and was not the fastest on the kid on the team. I never have been. Um, but I have grown to love the sport more than anything else in my life. It has become such a joy for me. It has become an escape even in my personal life outside of the sport to just get out of the house for a few hours and go for a bike ride. It has given me an escape
094for all sorts of problems. Everybody I know has said that I am happier as a person when I come back from a bike ride because it is my time alone from the world. Um I love nothing more than this team. My father has become a coach. My brother is an athlete who is two years younger than me. Um, and my family has become quite involved in the sport with lots of travel all over the states, different races. Um, and it really has changed my life. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's a tough act to follow. My name is Joe Tierney. I'm a lifelong resident of the Abingtons, class of 1979, if you need to know. Um, I come to speak to you tonight as the Lacuana State Park Trail Care Crew uh, representative. We're
095a volunteer organization, nonprofit 529 and we oversee the 28 mile trail system in Lacuana State Park and Countryside Conservancy lands. We've built the trails, we maintain the trails. Since 2016 when this team started, they have put in over 3,000 volunteer hours into that community resource for everybody to use in this community and beyond. That is huge. Uh and it's not by accident. The coaches, the team, the state league, and the national organization make it part of the culture of the organization. It's a higher purpose. It's not just bikes. It's not just shovels. The bike is used as a tool. It's used to build character with the child. Uh to build community, to build a strong mind and a strong body. Uh you just heard it from Ethan. Um I know of no other sport that
096builds their own playfield. Golfers don't build the golf course. Football players, they don't build the stadium. These guys have built their own trails for the benefit of the community. Is just the coolest thing in the world. I'll I'll end with one project that we did. I'll be brief about it. There's a tunnel, a pedestrian tunnel in the state park. Runs under Route 407 right near the uh uh park office. built in 1970 when the park was put in, disappeared in 1980. It was poorly built. The entrances were poorly built, got overgrown. The team made it their mission for an entire summer to meet every Tuesday night to renovate that tunnel by building out the entrances, rock armoring it, making it dry. And the first night they dug out 40 years worth of mud out of
097that tunnel. And at the end of the tunnel was this huge pile. It looked like a giant Hershey kiss. And if you could see those kids, I mean, they looked the same, just filled with mud, but a big white smile. And what they learned that night and they took with them, all those kids are are gone from the team right now. They've graduated. you know, they they learned about the community. They learned about hard work. They they learned about, you know, commitment and that it takes a strong body and a strong mind to sit there and shovel 40 years worth of mud out of that tunnel. So, I leave you with I I ask that uh the board and the superintendent consider opening up middle school in Abington Heights for promotion of the team so
098that other kids know this team exists and can have this same opportunity. No kid sits on a bench and every kid gets to play in this organization. Thank you for your time. I have the photos of the tunnel trail that that day of work if anyone ever wants to see it. Uh my name is Cindy Copley. I'm a school counselor at the high school. Um, Ariana asked me to speak tonight because back in 2015 when Mike developed the League for Pennsylvania, um, myself and four of my good friends who have been riding and racing since about 2006, we know this is an amazing community, an amazing area for cycling. Um, so we got together and we sat down and we got to work and develop Keystone Mountain Bike Team. Um the first year like when
099Enrico was referencing I hope to get five five girls on the team. We were hoping for the same that first year we had almost 30 students um from this district across the other districts and it was phenomenal. I still have that first year team photo hanging in my office because it was help being part of developing this team was like one of the more prouder things I've done in my life. you know, just seeing the impact it has had on students. Um, kids who were never part of the traditional sport, they showed up for the team like, "Yeah, I ride a bike. I don't have a very good bike, but it doesn't matter." You know, we welcome them. You know, we teach our kids to welcome everybody. It's about equality, inclusivity, and we want everybody
100to have a great experience. Whether they decide to race in the fall or not, they're still a part of the team. They play an important role, and they learn so much about themselves. We've seen, like Ethan said, parents get involved by bicycles. They haven't ridden a bicycle in maybe 20 years, but they get bikes and they're, you know, they're on their bikes now and they're still riding and racing. Um, so opening this up and just being able to advertise within the middle school and the high school, I think this would create a good opportunity for students who don't necessarily fit or want to be part of that traditional team sport, but still be able to represent Abington, represent their local community. um you know and just seeing the student athletes you know win n win
101state championships win awards for trail work. This is just such a great opportunity um you know not for just like them and their families but also for Abington Heights because we have such a strong presence you know for the Keystone Mountain Bike team. Um, so again, you know, just to see the impact it has had, you know, in the last nine years has been pretty amazing and I'm, you know, happy to have been part of it and continue to be a part of it and we hope you'll take cons take it into consideration to let us put it out there to our community. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Yeah, you because you know I want Gretchen to stay here longer. Um, you know what? I you I I I agree with you. You can I
102I have no problem with the advertising, but I want to lean in a little bit uh and push. Um, one would be I would say, you know, consider this as a consider uh starting a club. That's not a I think that you're opened up more if you want to do that. we can advertise, but also think about um if you want to have a a club, I think that um that um provides some more opportunities um that way. And um you know, certainly look and and uh invite me. I want to go out. Um, and then shoot me videos because, you know, I like I like posting all this stuff on social media and you kind of like surprised how many kids are on social media and see something and be like, you know what,
103I could do that or I like to try to do that. Um, you know, like I'm I'm constantly telling Miss Hillbrand where her kids are on their little scooters. Like I'd like to get the scooter brigade I see around town on some pedal bikes. Uh, as I bet their mothers and fathers and cousins and uncles would and aunts. So, um, we'll get together and we'll figure out a way. I don't mind the the the the advertising. Um, but you know, when I say push, then I want you to think about, you know, how do you have a greater impact? And then in such a given community like this, what do we do um, you know, to provide more opportunities for kids? Can we all of a sudden get some bike donations and things like that?
104Sure. So, um, Mrs. Leonard is familiar with this, but when I was a long-term sub down at the middle school before I got moved up to the high school, um I did apply for a grant through Specialized to um it's called the Outride program. And what they do is they select um a handful of schools each year around the country and they provide um they provide bicycles, they provide uh a curriculum, you know, to make a club. Um I applied for that grant, I got it. Um I got moved up to the high school. Co happened. Um So when I I did I did attempt to see if there would be other staff members to be able to organize and facilitate that at the middle school at that time. No one was interested in because
105it it it was totally a volunteer, you know, moment, you know, but um I wasn't able to have anybody take it and run with it. And that's a program that really needs to have, you know, every program needs to be structured, organized. And when I contacted Specializ and I said I, you know, thank you for the opportunity. Unfortunately, like I can't move forward with the grant right now. Then CO happened. Um they did express that if the interest ever arose again or the um opportunity to contact them um because in middle school, you know, when we start our students at the sixth grade level for the team, that's that's what Outride wants to do. And it doesn't have to be kids just on the team. it's for anybody and and so so it was really
106good opportunity. So I just want to say that if it was something that we ever wanted to look to push into the school at some point, there is an opportunity and there is support for it. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank Thank you guys. Thank you. Yeah. I I just I as you're talking about a club as you're talking about a club opportunity, it's something that we would absolutely strive to do. Um, we have of the 75 teams across the state, I would say half are already school connected, but we've hesitated to bring that to Abington just because we wanted you to know that the program even exists and we wanted to make sure that we were able to be sustainable with students from Abington wanting to have access. So, we would love
107to know how to go about becoming a club team for Abington. I'll also add that a student athlete that graduated in 2022. I think Hannah Punk Puck Camp was a student um here at Abington, I believe she graduated in 2023, but in 2022 she was the female state champion for the state of Pennsylvania as a member of our team and an Abington graduate. So you have key uh student athletes already here who are winning awards for trail work and winning awards on the podium racing representing the school without actually school affiliation so far. Oh it's fant Go ahead. That's fantastic. What we'll have is Dr. Tion has a form you can fill that out. Um look we approved last year was it the year before? We've got a classic car club. I think people will
108be surprised to know how many clubs that we have. So, um, certainly you can get that and we can do that in short order. Okay, that's excellent. Thank you so much. Take care. Thank you. Thank you. Just move the class. Any other public comment? Okay. We're still working on maintenance things here. Evening. Uh, Mark Staller. uh Waverly Township. I was here last month and spoke to the board here about uh challenges not only in the community, in the state, in the county, and hearing the budget report tonight reinforced my thought of what I highlighted last month. My hope is that you'll keep an open mind on what's happening here in the district, especially next week when you see the bids for the building project. I understand there's a lot of needs. I understand there's a
109lot of wants and I appreciate your responsibility to navigate through that. I just don't know if the district is ready for the challenge, added challenge of a very large building project. Just by way of calendar, you open the bids next week. Is that uh a public meeting? Yep. 11 o'clock Wednesday. Right here. Yeah. And then you have another board meeting the following week. Correct. What do you all do during that week with your open bids? these the the bids will be opened and then written down. We have uh a construction management company that will go through what they call the Dcope process to make sure um all the biders have everything that they need. So they have do they have their their construction bonds like or or uh all the bids consistent with the specs
110that type of thing. Um then we will make a recommendation uh to the board if a recommendation is warranted. So, as an example of when it may not be warranted would be um we had an act 34 hearing here. So, we're required by law to to follow certain uh pro uh procurement procedures as well as borrowing limitations. So, if we are 8% over uh our estimated project fund, then we'd have to go back to an act 34 hearing. So in that case, uh they wouldn't be making recommendations for the four primes. So your next move is basically contingent on what you hear next week. Yeah, that's fair to say. Okay. Yep. Appreciate the time. Thank you, Mark. Thanks. Okay. Excuse me. Any other public comments? Very good, Dr. Schaefer. Let's All right. This time, Mr.
111Aker asks the board consider a motion to approve the notice of dismissal and authorize district administration to terminate employee 1145 effective immediately. So moved. Second. On the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdullah. Yes. Mrs. Henderson. Yes. Mrs. Hillbrand. Yes. Mrs. Karum. Mrs. Mr. Moran. Yes. Mr. Robson? Yes. Mrs. Tierney? Yes. Mr. Aker? Yes. Seven. Nothing. Mr. Aer ask the board consider a motion to approve the personnel report as follows. So moved. Second on the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdullah. Yes. Mrs. Henderson. Yes. Mrs. Hillbrand. Yes. Mr. Moran? Yes. Mr. Robson? Yes. Mrs. Tierney? Yes. Mr. Aker? Yes. Seven. Nothing. Ser ask the board consider a motion to approve the 2425 extended school year professional and support staff lists. So moved. Second on the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdullah, yes. Mrs. Henderson, yes. Mrs.
112Hillbrand, yes. Mr. Moran, yes. Mr. Robson, yes. Mrs. Tierney, yes. Mr. Aker, yes. 7 nothing. Mr. Aer, ask the board consider a motion to approve the amended attachment to policy 808. So moved. Second. On the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdala, yes. Mrs. Henderson, yes. Mrs. Hillbrand, yes. Mr. Moran, yes. Mr. Robson, yes. Mrs. Tierney, yes. And Mr. Aker, yes. 7 nothing. Mr. Aer, ask the board consider a motion to approve the 2526 support staff calendar. So moved. Second on the motion. Um, yeah, I have a question on this. Um, this is adding a day to the support staff's contract. Working one more day. Is this So, this is an amendment to their contract. No, no, it just um their contract has language that they work one extra full day. So, that day is reflected
113on um October the 6th, which is a conference day for our students. Um, but in talking to principles and needs around professional development, that day is a day where there's no student responsibilities in the building and so it can be a full day of professional development for our support staff. Okay. Thank you. Roll call, please. Sorry, Mr. Abdullah. Yes. Mrs. Henderson. Yes. Mrs. Hillbrand. Yes. Mr. Moran. Yes. Mr. Robson. Yes, Mrs. Tierney. Yes, Mr. Aker. Yes. 7 nothing. Mr. Aer ask the board consider a motion to approve the supervisor of teaching and learning job description. So moved. Second on the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdullah? Yes. Mrs. Henderson? Yes. Mrs. Hillbrand? Yes. Mr. Moran? Yes. Mr. Robson? Yes. Mrs. Tierney? Yes. And Mr. Aker? Yes. Seven nothing. Mr. I could ask the board consider
114a motion to approve the contract between Abington Heights School District and Communication Associates LLC to conduct an independent educational occupational therapy and speech and language evaluation for student 1F. So moved. Second on the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdullah. Yes. Mrs. Henderson. Yes. Mrs. Fibbran. Yes. Mr. Moran. Yes. Mr. Robson. Yes. Mrs. Tierney. Yes. Mr. Aker. Yes. Seven. Nothing. Mr. Aer ask the board consider a motion to approve the coffee inclusive IT registration agreement to provide vocational and transitional programming to special education students. So move. Second. On the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdullah. Yes. Mrs. Henderson. Yes, Mrs. Hillibbrand. Yes, Mr. Moran. Yes, Mr. Robson. Yes, Mrs. Tierney. Yes, Mr. Aker. Yes. Seven. Nothing. Mr. Aer ask the board consider a motion to approve the Waco Incorporated contract to conduct paving at Hington Heights
115High School. So moved. Second. On the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdullah? Yes. Mrs. Henderson? Yes. Mrs. Hillbrand? Yes. Mr. Moran? Yes. Mr. Robson. Yes. Mrs. Tierney. Yes. Mr. Aker. Yes. Seven. Nothing. Mr. Aer ask the board consider a motion to approve the settlement agreement between Abington Heights School District and Student 1G. So moved. Second. On the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdullah? Yes. Mrs. Henderson? Yes. Mrs. Hillbrand? Yes. Mr. Moran? Yes. Mr. Robson? No. I there's a my my biggest concern with this is the the invoice uh charges the district. It looks like to me what there's there's padding or double dipping here. There's an invoice for $1,08 build for the intake meeting on February 19th. Uh there was also Oh, that was at 1.8 hours at 560 an hour. Uh he also build
1168.96 for preparing for that meeting for that same meeting. So that's that's an expensive meeting that based on what I've seen is above and beyond what the regular intake services are for something that doesn't include complex matters of federal law or um anything like that. There's no federal case involved and the comp it's not complex litigation. So, the standard due process complaint that we're dealing with, uh, this is highly irregular. Uh, so I I do not approve of it. There's a lot of other things, too, but I think we should really start looking at some of these bills because they're they're outrageous. So, I'll be voting no in the future, especially from this attorney. Not to not the actually the other thing is you know I've seen the template that he uses. It's the same
117one. It's the most expensive template at Abington Heights. Uh thousands and thousands of dollars for the same template. Uh it's just outrageous. We got to stop it. Mrs. Tierney. Yes. And Mr. Aker. Yes. 61. I wasn't sure where we were on con on on comments or on voting. Thank you very much. Mr. Akard asks the board approve the Abbington Heights Middle School lighting pre- purchase. So moved. Second on the motion. Um yeah. Um Dr. Schaefer, can you explain the preurchase recommendation? Sure. Uh actually items K, L and M are uh somewhat all related that way. There are certain uh aspects of the uh middle school project that uh start a little earlier. So the first stage of that is some of the summer work and part of that is the access road off of Newton
118Ransom Elementary. So, what you see is a pre-purchase where um we can save some uh funds and and get that started a little early. It still would be under the uh construction uh budget. So, it's not um uh separate from and this is for lighting the inlets. Uh the uh item M is for uh an agreement with ICS. That's our construction management company. And that addendum there is just adding on the uh fencing that otherwise would have been somewhere else. But we can um get it more efficiently um with them and then they'll get that process started because um uh if the board does proceed, we'll be able to um you know start the uh uh preparation. Thank you. Can I just clarify that should we the bids come back not in our favor, the
119road is still beneficial to the school district that it be it'd be useful to have. Absolutely. Thank you. Any other comments? Roll call, please. Mr. Abdullah? Yes. Mrs. Henderson? Yes. Mrs. Hillibbran? Yes. Mr. Moran? Yes. Mr. Robson? Yes. Mrs. Tierney? Yes. Mr. Aker? Yes. 7 nothing. Mr. I could ask the board approve the Abington Heights Middle School pre-cast inlets and manhole preurchase. So moved. Second on the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdullah, yes. Mrs. Henderson, yes. Mrs. Hillibbrand, yes. Mr. Moran, yes. Mr. Robson, yes. Mrs. Tierney, yes. Mr. Aker, yes. 7 nothing. Mr. I could ask the board consider a motion to approve the ICS general conditions agreement. So moved. Second. On the motion. Roll call, please. Mr. Abdullah. Yes. Mrs. Henderson. Yes. Mrs. Hillbrand. Yes. Mr. Moran. Yes. Mr. Robson. Yes. Mrs. Tierney. Yes.
120Mr. Aker. Yes. 7 nothing. Okay. Uh I think as part of the attachments uh on the website, they have a use a list of use of facilities for April 2025. I think it stretches for something like 10 pages. Uh it'sformational. Is there any unfinished business for this evening's meeting? Is there any new business? Yes, Mrs. Journey. Um, it has been um asked of me to request to the board and to the superintendent that is it possible to add on more trophy cases at the high school for all of our athletics that have and and our clubs that have done incredible jobs that are bringing in an awful lot of trophies and and uh awards. So they're they're they're looking for a larger space uh both high school and middle school. Thank you. Just a quick
121reminder, Mr. Eer, uh RIT meeting is next Wednesday at 6:30. A lot of good stuff on the agenda. Uh the agenda is posted, so you could take a look, but we'll be here. Thank you very much. Anything else? Mr. Abdala, you must have some news to present. I am not. Whoa. Okay. Then I'd ask for a motion to to adjourn. So moved. So moved. Please. Thank you all for your patience.