001meeting for April 2nd would everyone please rise and pledge the flag can we please have a roll call Mr abdala here Mr AAR here Mrs Henderson here Mrs hillbrand Mrs carum here Mr Moran here Mr Robson here Mrs TIY here Mr AER here of you are here okay can we please have a motion to approve the agenda so moved second second on the motion roll call please Mr abdala yes Mr AAR yes Mrs Henderson yes Mrs hillbrand Mrs carum yes Mr Moran yes Mr Robson yes Mrs tney yes Mr AER yes eight nothing okay because we're going to have our friends from IC and casba Cas uh talk to us kcb we're going to do public comments now now so if anyone would like to address the board or has questions please let us know
002okay Dr Schaefer the floor is yours okay um you know uh at at this time uh I'm going to have uh Jim kefir um come on up to the the the microphone Jim is um one of our uh Architects one our lead architects working on uh the the middle school project um he has a team we meet bi-weekly and have done so for over a year now and in front of you you have Matt Kelly who uh represents IC our construction management company I have asked them to come today to talk about um the bid process uh in bid strategy this would be something that is very routine and over the last couple months we have uh seen factors um that have uh impacted decisions around bid and bid strategy I'm talking about uh tariffs
003and tonight we will be provided with the opportunity to a learn about the bid process to learn about an alternative bid strategy that we will be using and then to provide the board with the opportunity um to ask our experts in front of us um some very specific questions inside that bid process inside um the alternative uh uh bid process as well it's also important to know how we think about bid and how we think about this project and to think about it as static would be wrong it's very Dynamic every single aspect and an example that I would give would be seven eight months ago the biggest risk that I thought was in front of us was interest rate risk the lowest priority risk and still a risk is Bid risk and I had
004data to support that in fact I may have said 7 months ago it may be in our best interest as we look as a a a finance committee to uh borrow as much money as we can as early as possible and over time we've seen some things in the market change where it may be more advantageous for us to wait as interest rate risk seems to have fallen as compared to or in contrast to bid risk and I think that that's conventional wisdom as we've seen things like aluminum and steel and the controllers and the Mechanicals have tariffs that impact the bid and we have guidelines that we must follow relative to act 34 which we may touch on today so all that is important and I say that to say we always keep an
005open mind we always explore every option in front of us because you just never know what's around the corner so with that said I'm gonna uh kick it off to Jim to start us off and uh Jim and uh Matt may be going a little bit back and forth and it's nice to see Matt here it's nice on the TV so uh well thank you thank you for having me tonight um I'm really here to just give you an overview of the bidding process you might not Jim I made a mistake oh go ahead we have a principal and a student here that are going to present we have one student so we're gonna have Miss coin come on up you got bumped Jim this will be way more exciting than learning about the bid
006process I'm g go off the camera too Jim you now have a tough act to follow it's a good hook Kelly coin principal at South Abington Elementary here this evening with one of my amazing students a current fourth grade student Andrew who would like to share some information regarding our PTA service committee so our PTA is amazing and supportive but there is a second Branch to our PTA our service committee where we collaborate with high school students to come and join us for different projects and different activities and Andrew has had the opportunity to participate in some of those activities it just helps to build our relationship through the elementary all the way through the high school in our community and prove to our students that any small act can really bring something great to
007someone's life no matter how small that act is so I'm going to help my friend Andrew because you know speaking in front of people can be pretty nerve-wracking so anything you need I'm here for you and you can talk right into the microphone okay good evening um I am here to talk about the service committee and PTA um and how they have helped out our community and how I have also helped um we have done many um things such as making cards for seniors F fall leaf raking at the Clark Summit VFW Mar and Luther King Jr Day celebrating for service bingo card activities creating candy grams with candy hearts and papers um and making thank you cards for serving with for service dogs who attended reading night we also have some upcoming events that
008include painting pots and rocks with the interact clobe to donate to Ellen Gardens Abington library and Gino Merlin Center a park clean up with the fourth grade as a service service project finally a summer um a summer lemonade stand these are some things that we will do and have done so so thank you and that is what I have to say thank you one important thing to mention is that Andrew's mother Katherine who's here with us this evening is a pivotal piece of our PTA but she also runs our service committee um one of the biggest things that we were able to do the last two years was a winter food drive so that over winter break we were able to and many of the students came to the school to help sort the food
009and then it was distributed accordingly um and the Martin Luther King Bingo service project had many students this year participating random acts of kindness um just to show the importance of service so Katherine combined with all of our other PTA members and then our students and faculty and staff at South Abington are very proud to represent Abington Heights in the realm of service and we appreciate your support as well [Applause] Andrew Mrs cor yeah hold on Andrew thank you very much for what you do for this for the community and for the school district all right Jim you need to provide some excellent examples of service and leadership as long as I get a certificate when I'm done oh we can arrange that all right um Matt and I are here to uh explain the
010bidding process to you guys try to keep it very simple it can get very complicated and really to answer any questions you have concerns you might have about the process so this is h a public uh school district and therefore because you're funded publicly you have to follow public bidding rules and regulations the state has a public bid Act and basically they say you need there's a structure for how you have to go out to bid and the the basic structure is they break the work down into at least four different contracts and that's how we're going to bid it there's a general contractor that's doing most of the work there's an electrical contractor a mechanical and a plumbing contractor they're individual contracts the contracts are structured that they have to work together and and
011coordinate but it it is four separate entities so at the same time we're going to put all the documents out to bid to all four of these Prime contractors um they will respond after about a month-long process with a bid the bid is a lumpsum guaranteed price um after looking at all the documents we provided looking at the site they come back and and put in a price um we open those the day that they're received publicly and announce the results so we may receive five general contractor bids we're going to open them up read them off it's public information um the basic rule is the lowest responsible bidder would be the person that would be awarded the contract if you so choose so the lowest price um typically gets the job for a job
012like this not many of the the contractors are going to uh put in a bid for this in general are qualified just because of the size and scope of the project um when we receive the bids you have a board meeting where we will present a recommendation but ultimately it's your choice you can award the bids as presented or reject the bids um you're not committing to anything until you agree to award the contract and at that point you're saying yes we will pay you X number of dollars to build this building um the the cost of the job is for them to determine um but there are prevailing wages the state sets minimum pay grades for every uh type of contractor that's on the project so a journeyman electrician there's an established rate they
013have to at least least pay that much and that gets reported during construction to the construction manager the validate yes they are paying the prevailing wage or more and really that's that's um puts it in line with union scale labor okay so a contractor that's going to work on this project can't can't come in with a super low bid and unqualified workers and and and do it it's it's really helping to establish a quality level um if you elect not to we we not to award the bids um there could be we could put it out to bid again we could change something and rebid it um there's a lot of different scenarios that could come up once reopen the bids most likely we're going to see decent numbers um that are going to be
014palatable to the district and we would award those contracts you have 60 days from when we open the bids to when you have to decide either we're going to award this or we're not um there's a separate contract going out for uh hazardous material removal there is a small amount of material in the building that is going to be removed so there's a fifth contract that's that IC is bidding as well for that contractor to do that work simultaneously with the main project Matt do you want to add anything to the basic bid description sure just uh two things one one way we kind of weed out some of the less qualified contractors is we do require a 10% bid bond which typically U you know the smaller guys will not bid because it it
015it's a decent sized project so that helps qualified to be able to have better contractors um we want we want the best contractors here um but at the same time we do have to to take the low bid Matt I'm sorry can can you tell us what a bid bond is so it is a um legal document that essentially um the contractors will pay the 10% so let's say the contract is $10 million um they have to secure 10% of that so a million dollars will be held for that 60-day period that Jen mentioned and in the event that they pull out or um decide not to bid then the school district is able to um pull that bid bond to help supplement the difference between that contract and then the next lowest bidder so
016that million dollars goes to the next one it's very rare that it ever happens but it it is set up to protect the district thank you um the the other piece I was going to say um was between when we get when we get the bids and when we award um there is a a portion of work that us and kcba will do alongside um you know Dr Schaefer yourself and and the administration we will the day of the bids we will be able to tally everything up and see what the low bids are um but at that time we we still need to take the the low bid and do what we call D scope but that is is um just a a meeting with the low bidder to make sure that he has
017every all the scope and that he agrees to it um they technically have two days to um you know pull out if they if they decide that there's a math error that typically doesn't happen either um but our job is to make sure that they they are going that they have everything and that that they're going to be the ones to to be awarded um at that same time we we will be you know looking at what we have as alternates and Jim I don't want to steal your thunder here but um when we bid we have alternate pricing um one of those those alternates is is a is to remove the gym from the from the building um project um the reason for that is in case the the price comes in too high
018we have a lever that we can take to bring it back in to where it's under budget it doesn't mean you you you don't have to take it um you you can either like you said reject the bids take the alternate to reduce the amount or or increase the budget so there's there's several different options there um but that would be we would meet at that point to kind of discuss the alternates and and the pricing and we can have a recommendation to award pretty quickly um obviously more more conversation has to happen if if the prices come in a little unfavorable but and I I want to take a step back um to uh Elementary bidding um when we put out the project we have bid specifications can you just in in a nutshell
019kind of explain that and what has all gone into the bid specs including the level detail um so over the last year we've been preparing the design documents and there's two parts of that there's the drawings which is a thick stack of drawings showing um the actual layout of everything but that works in conjunction with the specification which is a written description of each component that's in the project so there's probably a book that's a thousand pages long that describes what type of metal stud you're supposed to use and how it gets fastened and how you install it um there's a lot of technical information and what standards you have to follow what the safety procedures are all those things are in a technical spec so there are probably over a hundred sections um for
020all these disciplines and all the components that are in the project we're finishing up those sections now and the part that Matt and his team are working on is what we call the front end so there's a a division zero and a division one division zero is all the requirements of bidding so there are very technical sections about what are the rules for bidding the bid forms the bid bonds their insurance things of that nature here are all the requirements that you have to follow to bid the project and then division one are the rules for how the contract is going to be enforced um so that's something that your legal team has taken a look at um and it describes a lot of how the contractors need to play nice in the same sandbox
021um how they resolve conflicts how they interact with the architect and the construction manager and the school district so that all gets put out to bid we even give them this is the contract that you will be asked to sign we give everything upfront to them so that when they give a bid they're saying it includes udes everything and the big point to that is we can't negotiate with them afterwards when they give us a price that's the price we can't go back and say you know what can you do it for a little less no that's illegal you can't do that we have to accept the bid or reject the bid okay so the descope is to make sure that they didn't miss anything like you're you know double check you're you're good with
022your number okay you're good with your number the school district is probably going to proceed um but there's no negotiation if this was a private bid there's a negotiation phase we can't do that um with the alternates all along this project we've been tracking uh the cost and have been sharing a budget with the administration every step along the way um IC has done a detailed takeoff of the project and they agree with the budget we're in agreement on what the projects should cost however things have dramatically changed in the last month or two and our concern is okay that budget may not be effective anymore that might not be what this comes in at and so I came to the administrative team and said I think we need to make an adjustment here we
023need to have a strategy to deal with this and the best strategy I thought of was to do an alternate to not build the gym so the base bid is going to be a number to build everything and the alternate bit is build everything but the gym addition gym part of the addition um the logic there is we absolutely need the educational classrooms stem rooms administrative offices we we got to build that there is an athletic facility at the middle school having another gym um really does improve a lot of the day-to-day workings of the school and gives another large gym that could be used for lots of extracurricular activities but maybe it's not essential to the project in total so it's not something we really want to do but that's A5 million deduct that
024we can get if we really see a a large increase in bid costs we needed to have a strategy where we had something significant to change or we we're going to have a problem with the budget so I don't know what the budget I don't know what the bids are going to come in at but we wanted to have a strategy to address it if it does come in high Jim let's say that um we have multiple bids on the base and multip mle bids on the alternate and we have a qualified person that has a lower bid on the base but doesn't have the lower bid on the alternate so you can choose whatever package of alternates you want you could accept all of them you could accept none of them or any combination
025that is um up to the board to decide now right now there's four alternates and it's for tazzo versus another type of flooring in the classrooms or in the Carters um there's an alternate that's very complicated about the excavation whether it's classified or unclassified excavation and there'll be some for Mechanicals equipment you can pick any combination of those you want there is always a chance that when you pick a certain combination of altern it it changes who your low bidder is there might be company a that's the low bidder on the base bid but if if we take this alternate oh suddenly Company B is is the one who gets the job it does happen um maybe 5 10% of the time that does occur but really it's it's you structure what you want the
026project to be and what alternates to include it's not up to the contractor it's up to the board thank you um Matt there was uh another aspect perhaps this is in the the technical specs and and I I want to be careful how I um phrase it um given our history and the resolutions associated with it um it is prudent when working on a big project and having a construction manager to have a defined protocol to reconcile disagreements I.E I'm working on the floor and I'm looking at this sheet and it says from The Architects perhaps Jim says this is the way it's supposed to be and I look at it and I say you know Jim's wrong it has to be this way Matt what does IC do as our construction management team when
027something like that occurs well when something like that occurs typically we we would meet with the contractor and understand the situation right we we want to see his side of the story but then we want to look at the like the drawings will will tell us if if what Jim saying is correct or what the contractor saying is correct um so we we take the time to to analyze that and really it if it's in the drawings if it can be inferred to some extent then we will kind of push back on them and make sure it it happens um it it's part of our job that there's a lot of gray area sometimes but we we are we're the ones responsible to kind of try to make the make the clarification um if there
028is something that was missing in the drawing we would submit what we call um RFI a request for information and that's where either the engineer or the architect would then respond and at that point it's a conversation if we believe that it's actually should have already been it's a clarification or if it's a something added to the scope that wasn't picked up that would um lead to a some type of uh cost go ahead sorry oh it it's accurate to say then that IC as our construction management team is the Arbiter of this dispute or disputes is that we we will be the the the first one or first line of defense I could say if it gets to a point where there is there's no no one can agree we won't agree they won't
029agree that and then there would get into arbitration um that and that gets into more of the legal side of things but to answer your question that majority of the time we will we will make sure that we give you the right advice if we think we want to be firm a fair we want to make sure that if it's it's truly something missed and the contractors owed it we will let you know that but we're not just going to take take their word for it we're going to challenge them they're going to have to prove to us that it's something that's that's out of scope and I'm just purposfully spending a little bit of time on this so we had our construction attorney um amend some of the contract and I I I worked
030with Matt so that we would be in a position to make sure that we could reconcile disputes so no one person can util laterally make a decision that would impact the project and then get us into a position that we wouldn't want to include how we resolve it as he mentioned with um arbitration yeah the the the contract is structured using AIA documents which are an industry standard set of documents that have developed over time to administer this exact type of contract it has the mechanisms built into it for how con how issues are resolved and and disputed there there is a lot of legal ease in the division one and in the the contract that explains exactly how the contractor is supposed to interact the owner is supposed to interact and the construction team
031so obviously we want the the best the lowest cost but we also want the best outcome what what criteria do do you look at to try and separate the wheat from the CH what are you saying to the the biders that that you to say only these biders may qualify to bid so lowest responsible bidder the responsible is the key word um as Matt explained they have to float a bid Bond that's a big deal that means they have to get a bonding company that will front them that amount of money it's like you know an insurance policy hey you're you're a we' vetted this contractor and okay we'll we'll put out a bond for them so they have a track record a history that they've performed on similar projects in the past you know
032to to get a bond rating to do a $30 million project you have to have done and successfully done other $30 million projects so the size and and the bonding requirements are really doing a lot to to weed out contractors that might not have the exper experience level or or the capacity to do a job like this um that being said there there are contractors in the market that you know hey they they know how to gain this type of system so you know we we have they there are contractors that are qualified to do this job which we've had you know trouble with in the past that might happen um but the key is is there's contractual language in the documents to deal with those type of issues what about timing cont is is
033there are the time time they have finish the work in certain yeah so so part of the the front end is a summary of work that says this is when you're you're supposed to start these are Milestones along the way and this is when you have to finish it's called substantial completion what's this what's the Finish date and by contract when they submit a bid they're saying we will build it following that schedule we will get it done by your deadline correction yeah and if if they do not do that also there is liquidated damages for a certain amount of money per day if they do not you know meet that substantial completion date and so there's some gret's going to be next but you just mentioned something about liquidated damages which is something that
034I talked with our conru conu attorney Jeff Blake about so what that means is you know we'll be paid a sum of I think $2,500 a day per so if they're they're you know two weeks out they'll be paying us 2500 a day so that is something that is written into U the contract Miss Anderson not sure who I should be I'm not sure who I should be addressing this question to but we we just heard about about the different safeguards that are being put into place um to kind of weed out the lowest bidder as you st it um so what are the safeguards that are in place if for some reason we end up getting you know have to take the lowest bid obviously but what if it's you know we get stuck
035with someone who's not a quality contractor um you know what are some safeguards because we're still dealing with the legal issue from having to take lowest bid from what what's the pool 2016 your largest your biggest Safeguard is you hired a professional IC as a conru manager to handle the those situations they they are your interface between the district and the contractors um they've worked on hundreds of projects like this and have tools to uh deescalate these situations and honestly most situations get resolved in the construction trailer um that it goes to a legal Avenue is extremely rare um so it it's having your team in place that's that's critical we're not we're not coming to you and saying hey we have a problem what are you going to do that's why you hired kcba
036and that's why you hired IC to be the buffer and what just I want to follow up with Miss Henderson for a second the big difference between something that happened in the past and what we're looking at now is IC has a a team of four one person uh the foreman is there 40 hours a week so in this case he is on the site and walking around checking dayto day and he has protocols that he reports that we see so that would mitigate what we saw before because it never would have got to that position it would have been stopped immediately good thank you so so um just to kind of op operationalize the example though I understand that there's things in the contract that that protect us and and the vendor um and
037there's legal things that we have access to levers we could pull buttons we could push if something happens I think the point is to avoid those things from happening because then you get in delays and then there's mud slinging and everything in in uh just from past experience how do we know um like who has to be where when things are tested when things get turned on uh is that IC yeah M yes that's that's the IC team here okay very good yeah like like Dr schaer mentioned we will have a full-time person on site we'll have a trailer on site they'll be doing we'll be having um um weekly meetings if not daily meetings um with the foreman and the other contractors um as well as weekly construction meetings which we would bring in
038some of the district as well as you the architect and engineer so the biggest um piece of biggest way we can be successful is to communicate with each other and as problems come up we address them as soon as possible and having somebody on site really really helps drive that home we we also will have a project manager that's going to not be there every day but he's going to be there to to be the one that's more the arbitrator as far as you know dealing with um issues with the higher ups it's always nice to have a good cop bad cop type of situation um and then and myself as well as the construction director will be supporting those those people as well to make sure it's a successful job ah thanks and that's
039what I was looking for the project manager but another example would be let's say the the the specs are made and people agree to the specs and the materials are selected is there anything that would prevent a vendor from doing material substitution are there things in the contract that says if there's not this type of material a you could substitute B if it's the same tensile strength or something like that so the technical specs establish uh performance standards and we include multiple products that we feel meet those criteria so it's an open spec but we we list these are the products these are the manufacturers we will accept during bidding the contractors there's there's a month period between when we put out the drawings and when we open the bids and during that whole time
040the contractors are asking us questions and during that time one of the questions they can ask is can I substitute this alternate material we if they submit it correctly we will review it if it is equal we will let all the biders know by a denim yes you can use this product as well however that is allowed during bidding once we accept the bids we do not accept substitutes because we need them to bid up front the cost of what the level of standard that we established we don't want to have a mechanism where they can come in later and substitute a lesser product and you don't get what you paid for so substitutions during construction are really not allowed unless there's o you know extenda circumstances like that carpet is discontinued it is not
041made anymore we have to pick something else okay so we're not it's not unreasonable but there's a pretty solid line on that yeah and all the contractor have to submit sub submittal which are uh basically telling us what they're going to purchase before they purchase it so it's another check just to make sure that they're providing what's in the specification yep um so the bids are in and we have 60 days to review but we are required to take the lowest bid is that accurate yes responsible bit yes okay so what happens if we see that number and we see that contractor but then we go and research that contractor and they're in a quite a bit of litigation in those major issues are we still required to go with that low bid um I
042believe IC has contractor qualification data that they have to submit as well as part of their uh bid or if they're the the lowest responsible bidder um there is another check and balance on that yes if they have lawsuits out out against them in other school districts you know the solicor is going to get involved and we'll see how to proceed that's part of the qualification so I'm reading uh between the lines and thinking of other things that have happened I asked Matt that question specifically that is in the uh the qualifications where they would have to divulge any lawsuits litigation I Matt you may help me out here I don't know specifically how that's written um but that is a piece to that yeah they're Financial they provide financial information references you know dulge
043if any any litigation has happened or they're within or having any of it so that's that's correct and you both have drawn up the specs together or it's a combination um the design team is writing all the technical specs and IC is writing the front end so the the rules for bidding and the rules to administer contracts so you mentioned when you were reviewing the actual bidding prices you were comparable and you came back both with uh the the price being pretty much the same ballpark so we we've established a budget for the project an estimate IC has done a detailed takeoff of our documents our drawings that we've been preparing along the way and have come up with their own estimate those two are in in alignment we both agree on what we think
044this project would cost um we're going to find out when we bid this what it really costs we you know have a lot of similar projects and a lot of history to reference for why we think it's going to cost what it does but there are many variables when it comes to bidding so you know the we're going to find out exactly what it costs and really that's we're at the point where a lot of these questions about where are we at financially well we're going to know in six weeks when we open these bids exactly where we're at and what's the date of the opening of the bid I believe that's April 14th 14th closes May 15 May 15th we're opening bids and we're going out to bid on the 14th of April two
045weeks that's soon yeah yeah okay thank you Mr great yeah I set a couple questions um so the biders have to post a bond but are are there any other pre-qualifications to bid or can anybody bid they can post a bond Matt technically yes yes anyone that can put the bid up we'll we'll it's going to be advertised in the uh the newspaper um we're we're going to send it out um or give access to the electronic files but anyone can technically bid on it as long as they meet the bidding requirements so the other part is if the bidder comes in and say they they don't provide a bid Bond or they don't provide the qualifications we do have the ability to throw those those bids out so they they have it's very strict
046on making sure that everybody provides the same information so that we can make a decision properly and and do you throw them out before they bid or do you throw them out after they bid after yeah so on bid day everybody brings in an envelope or drops off an envelope and we we open those envelopes one at a time and read them aloud um basically the the price of the the base bid and the alternates and then you know making sure that the other information is also there um and then after that bid opening that's when we we could we would see if everything was provided and if it wasn't then we would we we would probably throw that one out and and then at that point we're we're deciding who's the lowest one so
047they don't actually they don't have to give you anything prior to the bid date when they give you that envelope there's no you won't get any information on any of these biders before the bid date they they have to um contact IC to get the do doents right and that's really to get a list of these are the contractors we think are bidding the project I don't think they can submit a bid if they didn't pick up the drawings right so we've sort of established these are the contractors we think are going to bid this right and there's a pre-bid meeting where we invite all the contractors out to the site Matt and his team will go over all these bidding rules make sure they understand what the project is and they can walk around
048and look at the property and that's a mandatory meeting so if you didn't show up the pre-bid meeting you can't submit a bid so you got to pick up the drawings and you got to show up at the meeting right if they do both of those most of those contractors are going to submit a bid but sometimes they don't right like I we won't know until we get the envelopes that day who's actually biding the job we we have a good idea but there's always like oh they they decided not to bid it right and this this guy we thought was on The Fringe well yeah they did submit a bid right so so then when you when you get those bids they're giving you qualifications on their firm they're giving you the bond that
049they have to post they're giving you a number but y other than that everybody's bidding on the exact same contract right so there's not you don't have to evaluate the bids like this one's doing that they're all exactly the same with a number and whether or not they're qualified and credit worthy they're they're all bidding on the exact same documents and the the documents are right to include everything um the the big rule there is they're responsible to build everything that's on the documents but not any something that's not on the documents so if it's there you you're responsible to provide it do they have to give you in the qualifications for them do they have to give you information not just on their experience but their creditworthiness like do they have you know a
050working capital line of access to x capital or if they're a big company a public r or anything like that or is it all just on their experience Matt do you want to there there's financial information that's requested in the qualifications I'd have to look at it exactly which financial but it's it's fairly detailed of what we're asking for from it so the the decision to like to boot somebody out of the process where you say like you you have you're you're responsible we have to take the lowest I can't remember the word you used respons responsible resp so like who who who who picks who's responsible like is it just it's a sounds like a subjective analysis by the experts right like you guys pick that like yeah kcba and IC will will give
051a recommendation right and honestly if there's something a Miss with a bidder and their qualifications we're going to be talking to the district solicitor about do we accept this bid or not okay um so the recommendation will come to you from your professionals gotcha so I just have last two questions and these are real quick so if we bid this more than once right does it cost anything each time we bid it like are there incremental costs to doing that and then my last question is if we don't want to move forward for whatever reason like we're not we're not obligated to take the lowest bid right we're we just can't take a bid higher than that we we are not obligating ourselves by starting this process to to do anything correct you you can
052elect not to award any of the contracts we can just stop project stop pause or do whatever we want right okay but then about the cost of B is there a cost of bid if you rebid it there are some costs you know there was an advertisement that has to happen it gets put in the paper there's a small cost to to advertise the bid um your professionals have to do the service again so there's a piece of our contract that is forbidding um so I would probably come back to you and say we're happy to bid it free again but there's there's an additional service for that right um and I would imagine from ICS okay that you know the the risk is if you don't change any of the requirements in your bid
053documents you shouldn't really expect better results right and as time goes on cost doesn't go down it goes up so it's always something you have to calculate thank you as far as change orders go like what's the threshold that you approve them when we would get involved and what is acceptable um any construction project ultimately has issues that come up that there's cost adjustments we've built into your project budget a contingency there is a 5% design contingency gency in the overall project budget and we highly recommend you hold that money for most of the construction period because there may be things that come up um so budget wise the district is prepared in their planning their financial planning for additional costs um if there's a whole process that the contractors go through with IC and
054kcba to propose a cost it's embeded if we feel it's it's correct then um we would recommend it to the board um yes this is a legitimate additional cost it should be paid some additional legitimate cost might come from you guys um a lot of times owners add things to the project hey you know what we actually want 10 more cameras can we add that sure you can add it there's a change order to pay the electrical contractor to do that so ultimately you guys approve change orders right so I signed change order IC signs change order the contractor and the school district all four parties agree on the change Anthony's question reminded me of um another thing that we talked about in um the pre-bid process that I haven't had the opportunity to talk
055to the board about and I forget the official term so forgive me so if we took the building turned it upside down and shook it what would fall out the the FFN Furniture fixtures and equipment so there's there's in the project budget we have money set aside to buy the furniture and the equipment so TVs and computers and um the big thing is all the furniture we're getting all new furniture in the building um so that is also part of the budget and that's that's not that's not in what the contractors are providing okay that's in our soft cost so that's you guys are Contracting directly with a Furniture vendor and are going to be purchasing all that furniture so not everything in the project is in this bit that's why we break down our
056budget and we show you this is the con this is the construction cost this is what you're going to pay the contractors and then there are some additional costs below that which give you a total project cost so for example juston and his team in the technology committee one of the things that we've been doing for the last uh two to three years is if you go to our classrooms you see big 75 inch TVs because we're able to use those um as um an instructional tool that's cost effective just is able to purchase those through co-stars and other procurement Methods at perhaps a cheaper rate so it would be in our best interest to say we are going to purchase the TVs but yet we might say the contractor to install them correct because
057at that point we could tell that the installation that juice isn't worth to squeeze right but ordering 175 inch TVs is so those are the types of things that we've been going through to figure out what's the best place to do this what should we purchase where should we put them when they came come in who should install them if it's us is it coste effective if not is this something that we talk about the team to put into that scope so when you look at things like the mechanical contract uh and Dr schaer brings up a good point of co-stars um is it possible to uh purchase some of the Mechanicals perhaps boilers AC units through coars and just go back to the contractor and say you install it or do we have to
058have that called out in the bid as before they bid it's possible uh we haven't recommended you go that route um I think it's better uh for the district for the contractor to purchase all of that equipment so the responsibility is all on them um as soon as you purchase something you are responsible for that coordination with all the other contractors so you've taken on some risk associated with that possible cost savings um Matt do you want to say any more about that I I think you you answered that well that was what I would say you could but I wouldn't recommend it um we we did we are putting out the sight lights separate um bidding that beforehand because we're worried we're not going to get them in time to be installed this summer
059so there's something we did pull out and but that was really for timing uh not so much about cost uh relative to cost um as you mentioned before while we didn't necessarily want to do it we put the gym on an ALT bid because we had identified a risk out there um associated with the tariffs I know you have limited information but what are some of the areas that we might expect to go up in pricing as a result of some of the tariffs um that we know and then might there be some others that have maybe not been AFF effectuated yet but we are hearing about I'm not going to hold you to it basically we don't know um it's it's new it's unprecedented um there's not data out there yet there haven't been
060enough bids received to really tell you what that is but it's it's likely going to be more because uh the tariffs on steel and aluminum definitely affect the construction industry and it's not just those like pure like um Standalone prod products there's all kinds of Steel and aluminum in all the electrical and mechanical components so all the vendors that are building pieces of equipment that are going into your building their raw material costs are going up so it's sort of across the industry it has a lot of effect and also you know tariffs on Mexico and tariffs on Canada most construction uh manufacturers they're International companies they they are not just working in sanduski Ohio they are buying material from here and from there and assembling it and they might assemble this piece there and
061that piece there and it all comes together so it's go it it's going to have a wide effect it's not just this product or that product it's it's going to affect a lot but how much we don't know and there are you know there's a lot of variables to bidding the bidding climate is is is more um art than science sometimes um there's a lot of variables that you know we don't know about how hungry are contractors do they need this job so that they don't have to lay off 10 guys next week there's all kinds of issues that go on in a bid that we don't know about um so anyway so you you had uh you taught me a lesson I learned something in one uh of our meetings as we talked about
062this um when I had mentioned a 25% tariff and you said Chris you have to remember that that's not all passed on to you right can you um kind of reiterate that example because it that helped me um to operationalize uh tariffs a little better sure so when we get our contractors on board they're going to give us a schedule of values and they list all the different products that they're buying all the subcontracts like are they're flooring and they're going to say how much it costs so we get this breakdown of of all uh the material costs and that usually is about half of the money so when you are hiring a contractor about half of the money is going to buy the stuff to build it and the other half is the labor
063um so if if a t is affecting it only affects one side of that equation it's only on the material so only half of your project is impacted by a tariff increase so I would say the rule is well you can take the Tariff and cut it in half and that's what you could expect potentially it could go up it's not the full amount it's not like a 25% tariff means 25% higher building price I don't I don't think that's true our labor costs are still the same and they're established by the state just because the material went up doesn't mean the labor goes up accordingly so Alcoa in Pittsburgh gets raw aluminum from Canada that raw aluminum comes in and then they fabricate it to put the frame around the window right the Tariff
064exists on the raw material coming in and not on on the people in Pittsburgh fabricating right um if a bidder submit or tries to submit I don't if they even try to do this but like the contract is the contract but if a bidder tries to submit an alternate bid like they submit the contract bid but then they say well we'll also do like we'll bid this but if we can have some price Flex this is how low we can go like we can't even accept the bid like that correct now we'd have to toss it out right uh it's very rigid they have to follow the rules of the bid Y and they have to submit their bid form correctly right if they have even a small error on their bid form right probably
065needs to be tossed out so then if another question if uh there's certain language in the I'm not familiar with the AI contract but uh I imagine that there are things in there for acts of God war that could cause them to delay the project right so is there any language in this contract that could remotely resemble like what we're like this is this this hasn't happened in a long time these kind of tariffs like is there anything in the contract where like they're going to potentially a year from now like what what if the tariffs go up to 100% like can they point at something and and say hey this isn't the Contra this is a material adverse change like you know we're not moving like is there anything that they can do this
066is new ground um the the bid is structured so that they when they give you a price and submit the price that's the price and there is no escalation allowed in the contract just delays or certain delays are allowed but not an escalation now if tariffs double or triple after you've awarded them the contract I don't know we're in a weird place yeah um probably be in court the whole country will be in court y well that that was really my question as well so um April 15th we received bids and we we put out we put out the bid they have may all May 15th how possible are these contractors able to put the prices in where they have no idea how much it so nothing really is going to be accurate they they
067have to submit it they have to speculate on what they think they're going to have to purchase these materials for and obviously they're going to try to buy things as soon as they can and not wait a year from now to buy something um but they are speculating and so that's where we really see the the bid could fluctuate higher because they don't know potentially what they have to buy they they're going to get a bid from a window uh supplier on bid day and they'll use that number but that's not when they're buying it so when they're buy they have to they have to calculate how much it might be when they have to buy it what common sense says in those cases they will most likely hedge their bet yes and put put
068in higher prices for material although yes perhaps if they're really hungry they may say we'll take a chance conversely they could M well not that that however um and maybe I've got the wrong perception um they put in a bid that perhaps I think may be aggressive and then they go back to their distributor and say Yes I need 5% off and that's where they make the coin right they they could they could short sell you know the the job themselves like I speculate these things are going to go away and I'm going to put in a low price and you know I I'll take the gamble that tariffs are going to be turned off next month we don't know but we don't know and that's I'm sorry I don't have you know better information
069than that we've just we've recognized that there's a this potential problem and we wanted to have a strategy in our bid to deal with it that's why we're doing the big alternate would it be wise to consider putting off the bidding process for a little while would time make any difference here no um all of this is we don't know and the best thing we can do is bid it and then we know what the price is we're going to see how many biders respond how close those bids are what the true price of this is you're not locked into accepting the bids it's in your best interest to bid the project and see where you're at because everything else is speculation at this point um we're in the final 10 meters of a 400
070meter race we could finish it out and we get a number and and you we don't board doesn't have to take it but at least we know it's not it's not speculation anymore and quite frankly we've paid a line share of the money for the this this process and we're just down to the point where the bid documents are at 95% complete so we are just in the final phases of we are going to release it and 12 days and we're just at that point waiting for them to come in well and I think we've even established even if you take the tariffs out of the equation you know price of everything is going up every single day I mean we could have I think when someone did the math we could have built an
071entire Middle School back in what 2019 2020 so even if we take the tariffs out I think it's still a gamble the more you know we delay and put off I think it's just to be able to have that number and be able to decide how we're going to proceed right and and I exactly to that point and and I and I've said this over and over uh and Illustrated with some percentages is since 2020 construction costs have gone up 90% I could we could have built for 243 a square foot uh right now we're close to 415 a square foot so Jim was absolutely accurate when he said it it's starting to Plat plau when I say Plateau it hasn't had those 20% increases that we saw but make no mistake it will be
072more expensive next year as compared to this year the only uh variable that we could uh pray for that is also out of our control would be interest rates you know right if the gods came down and gave us zero then that would change things um dramatically um but any other questions questions thank you very much all right thank you Matt thanks a lot for the time I I hope this was informative for all of our board members as well as our uh audience members yeah thanks a lot Matt thank you very much um at this time uh I'd like to call up Dr tone who will be uh providing uh a presentation well to the high school so give us a second while we get this all set up Jank she I I don't
073know if I want to stand at the podium so that my back is um so the high school um through the last couple months has been discussing ways to structure our building schedule truly maximize the efficiency of the building and to provide students um so we assembled a committee um a little bit before Christmas we started after Christmas all and AD ontee met every what fac feeling the faculty survey we discussed the elements of the surve different IDE I just want to than to allte MERS forward as a concern for those of us that haven't been around as long the current schuling that we under started in 20156 I was a member of the admin team at that time um it originally was a 57 minute study hall at the end of the day a
074lot of that kind of had to do with us just oning the one to one ands having return Chromebooks andiz the academ time students were sitting there sojust that in 1ed 10 minutes got a 47e study hall then when we have the risk assment compl said no more Crossing outside to be an option um you would be able to leave the do by the guidance and cut ACR the par can you stand in front of the mic I don't think the people at home can hear you oh okay that's fine I'm sorry guys so um so then after that risk assessment study we were asked to peel it back so that we could give students a 5- minute passing time so it reduced it to 37 minute study halls um when we we onboard it
075the current schedule that we have um the common goal like one of the original goals was to have common planning time for our teachers um to collaborate and discuss student concerns um the time for teachers to work one-on-one with our Learners um that were identified as struggling the most um prior to that change that we made back in 1516 we've had two different I've experienced two different other iterations of a schedule in which um Juniors and seniors had um something called the open block where for two periods a day Juniors and seniors were just free to roam a portion of the building they could get their lunch they can hang out in the library um and then 9th and 10th were sitting in academic classes or in a study hall um so there was that
076schedule and then there was also the the traditional um study halls dispersed throughout the school day so that's just a historical look back on where we've been um in probably the last 12ish years uh the current deficits to that schedule what we looked at is that the period 9 is only um 37 minutes and that's shorter than the other academic periods that we have 1 through eight um students that do take classes during period 9 and we have two subsets of classes that happen we have music classes that are happening during period 9 we currently have about 95 students taking a class for credit in period 9 UM and because that's the only place that they can get that elective um some of the sections are overcrowded we also have learning support um classes happening
077that during that period and with those classes being six less minutes they're missing that much intervention time per day which when you look over the course of the school year it it totals up to about 25 class periods that those students Miss compared to their peers that get to have it scheduled elsewhere in their day so those are the two deficits that we're really looking to capitalize on this slide um and there's more on the next slide um we've noticed since covid that there's been an increase in parent excusals for period 9 outside of those who are already off campus So currently um there's 114 students that are scheduled for off- campus that are in grades 10 and 11 this past year I was tasked with um one of the building goals was to really
078shut that down keep kids in the building so we really framed it to the nth graders like you guys aren't going anywhere you're in you need this intervention you need to learn how to study you need time to figure out who you are as a learner to organize your life um and then the 10th and 11th graders um we we were really strict and stringent with it but um there's certain situations in which you know they got creative and the parents just started to write notes um on average we see 40 notes per day so that's a process our front office has to process in addition to all of the other excusals dismissals all of that just additional notes per day um just for period nine um so I included a spreadsheet to that data
079as well um when you have that many students walking out the doors at 2:45 students um are really good at looking like other students and just acting like they belong so we tend to find some kids just walking out with everybody else that's walking out the door because I mean they're kids and you know I I I get it sometimes it's nice outside and they don't want to sit in school so and it's hard for us to manage that because there's so many other kids walking out the door at that time um you know it's hard for teachers who are standing in the hallway to know should they be leaving or should they not be leaving so that's another deficit to our current schedule with our change um our our you know it's to even
080out like all of our classes will be the same length um students you know that are taking the music class or um you know demonstr that they have the ability to manage an extra class um they they could fit that in it's allowing us to schedule each student has to schedule seven credits um so the flexibility to have not as many courses run an opposition when you're trying to schedule seven across an 8 period day versus scheduling seven courses across a nine period day it allows for a little bit more flexibility um to get students into those courses we also are hoping to increase our enrollment to elective classes I've included a spreadsheet there um and and and we could take a minute to look at that once I go through the other expected outcomes
081um a lot of our elective students have to make difficult decisions of like what I'm going to put in my schedule and sometimes in the summer we're making a lot of phone calls saying like hey this is a Singleton this is running in opposition to this and our seat counts in our elective classes aren't as high as they could be so we're hoping that this encourages engagement for students and they're maximizing opportunity ities within their school day to sit in our really great programming in all of the niche little um kind of fields and areas of study that we have lined up um for students um study halls throughout the day will help students learn to prioritize their responsibilities and stay engaged in their education what we sometimes find at the end of the day
082is that they're just they're shot they get to the end of the day and it's like yeah I know I have that thing to do but I just kind of need a brain break at this point and then a f minute brain break turns into a 15minute brain break turns into the whole study hall I've just taken a brain break and I've not really started anything so we're hoping by moving that throughout their day um it'll be a little bit more productive for them and they could say like oh I I got this assignment this morning I can work on this and move this off my plate why they still have their energy and it's fresh in their mind um the other piece that we're looking to improve is um the accountability for students right
083now they have two teachers covering their study hall so if they are like waiting or like looking to make an appointment for another teacher the teacher is like well which teacher do I say hey they need to come to see me to make up a test or this that and the other thing like I don't know I don't know if I have you know this teacher today or that teacher today because it it's on a different cycle it's not an alternating day some teachers are covering the study hall you know like one two and five while other ones have a schedule where it's like 1 four and six right so they never know which teacher unless they're paying to the cycle paying attention to the cycle day so we're hoping by having a consistent one
084teacher those interactions and those engagements with that one teacher um you know improves outcomes for students and then we also think we'll have an opportunity with the flexibility right now we're covering 30 study halls um with probably about 70 teachers we'll be able to thin those study halls out have more teachers cover them but then still have an opportunity to run math Clinic which would be a drop in place or a writer Center and these are Throwback terms to what used to exist in our schedule when I got to Abington um you know over a decade ago and it's just a place like you're somewhere throughout the day whether it's lunch period or your study hall and you're you're working on an essay or you're working on something you have access to somebody who can
085help um you know read your read your assignment or look at your mathw work or or help you um with anything that you may need in addition to your study hall teachers and any teacher that's on your schedule you probably if you don't live our schedule you won't see the times and how they change um we did allow uh the reason we shifted Home Room to after like it's going to be included in second period is because senior privilege used to only be the last period of the day we're going to allow for flexibility in which seniors can come in late or or they could leave early and the reason why we went to this is because what we're seeing is a lot of um the students are leaving you know for senior privilege but
086they're not actually leaving campus they're just kind of hanging out on their car and waiting for their after school practice to start because it's like not enough time to go all the way home to get all the way back to get the parking spot to get to practice to get changed to do the thing um or some of them are trying to scoot home to get back to practice and it's creating a lot of back and flow and they're rushing and and you know there's haste there so we do think a lot of seniors will take advantage of that late start and shift that senior privilege to the morning and then just finish their academic day and head right out to whatever practice they have or any extracurricular um what really allowed us to kind
087of look at something like this too um was that you know Dr cross which you haven't voted upon yet so I don't want to put the cart before the horse but um the academic calendar for next year has days built in in which we have PD in a full day programming so I'll have more access to my teachers to do that PD work with them that we were getting occasionally to do in the period n um but not always with Fidelity because I didn't always have access to all of my teachers so now by having those days in that calendar even though I'm taking away some of the common planning time that has existed it's been naturally built back in with the with the calendar that's been created absolutely yep so students just so you
088could like table toop it in your mind when the seniors come in late um you know the expectation is like if they have senior privilege we're going to have like a little coffee Clash for a lack of a better word in the cafeteria for them to hang out and get in there she'll still have um the coffee station set up for them and then as it approaches time for them to go to their second period we'll release them all of the senior lockers in the a Hall so they'll just have to walk down the main hall into that English Hall and get their stuff and then head out and be in Home Room by 9:05 and we thought that was a nice crisp dark time like you have to be in your class by 9:05
089and then we'll run the regular here's your morning announcements take attendance those managerial tasks that typically happen at the start of the day will now happen second period rechen I don't know if you know this yet and I don't know that it makes that much difference but will their home room teachers be like did you say they will remain in Period one and that'll be like their home room no period one will just be a class the bell will ring whole build hopefully all the seniors are in by then everybody goes to second period take attendance okay so home room is in second period yep it's not a separate location it'll now be the second period okay I have a couple questions um and I I mean I guess a comment too as as a
090parent I have to say like I really like I like this um there is a lot of there's you know the benefit of having that ninth period Universal study hall is nice because you can make doctor's appointments and stuff like that predictability but I think you're right like kids are either leaving or they're completely checked out by the end of the day um my one question is you know for we have a lot of student athletes so the benefit of having the universal study held at you know ninth period is that when they're leaving for an away game they're not missing instructional time um I just don't know if it will be a consideration with the athletic department I mean I know a lot goes into you know scheduling away games and we only have
091so much flexibility when it comes to scheduling a game on someone else's field um but I do think that's a consideration if maybe we can get some of the games away games to start a little bit later if if that's a request that um can be made through the athletic department just because I think you know sometimes they have like like two away games or meets or matches a week and that that does add up they're going to miss a considerable amount of instructional time during that that and it used to be um I feel like it used to be a lot more but now that most districts have gone to like Turf and lights there's not that race to beat the sunlight you know and the game in before then um and then the
092busing constraints have also played a factor in like when we can leave um so we haven't been having as many early dismissals and um as I remember back in the day um but that is absolutely something that enrio and I have spoken about and I think that is you know we enter into these two-year Cycles um so as we're planning that out and like looking at that um and you know we're friendly with all of our competitors so I hope that is something that we could work together on unfortunately like we have DV in our you know so like that's there's very little you could do about that and then even some of the WSB Valley Schools like down there like um you know sometimes it's you know you have competing events you have to
093have three events in one night and so some sometimes we are at their will so right thank you and then um you know I know another benefit of having everyone having n9th mon at the same time study hall at the same time is that a student can go to their teacher for help and more most often their teacher available um I love like the reading and the math um you know clinics but so what will offset like if I'm if I need to go get help in a subject but my my study hall is different like at the same time that I need help from that teacher they're teaching what will offset that that cuz I know like we want to make sure that their planning time is still protected time they deserve that time
094um so what will the recommendation be if a student needs help so so sometimes the way that they they handle that is like depending upon when the student's lunch is or what the schedule looks like and then sometimes it just happens that like they are there's time within that embedded that students like study hall in which they could see where their teachers at and what teacher they need help with we found in years past again I'm speaking you know in previous years that the math Clinic was rewarding for kids right because sometimes it's like you need to hear it from another person right so there is a benefit to that as well and then you know the teachers are going to be on duties in the cafeteria or throughout the building throughout the day just
095as they currently are so you'll still have access to your people um and then I think like in the morning there's time for them to to go and see their teacher even if it's like for the 10 minutes that they can get up there and say like hey I was struggling with this it's like we'll we'll get to that today in class make sure we ask about that so I think you're still going to have an the same amount of access to your to your students and the students to the teachers um it's going to be a change in their mindset of how they do it and I think you know that they'll figure that out and the teachers will encourage them when to come and when it's available and when it works for the
096teacher like you could absolutely come to class um and and sit there and while we're working on this you know um or if they're giving a test in one of their other classes or something like that there'll still be access to that so okay thank you you're welcome questions yeah of we like this is what I have to do I meily toage but that is how their mindset works yeah I think a lot of the courses that they chase down are not going to always be available in that assortment or in the function of equation right like the things that students want like especially in your upper level languages we're running one per like you know what I'm saying so like if it runs opposition you know to any of our higher level Sciences or
097any of our higher level maths like I have one BC calculus like you can't just load in another calculus because the other constraint is that my teachers can only teach six and they can't have more than four different classes but you you've you sorry but you added a period to mitigate that algorithmic risk factor correct like that like you you wanted to have the opportunity to disperse study hall which would mathematically provide you perhaps with more flexibility to have them do it but the course will still only run perhaps once what I'm saying is you believe that you would have fib it with schedule but with the the Singleton will still be The Singletons but I think it may be able to fall in a way in which kids will have more access where they
098won't come up against the constraints that we've been experiencing correct yes I always have this on and I turned it off um I'm more talking about the kid who and maybe there's this is a minority I was nerdy um but like I'm thinking about my academic career and I would take Spanish one like in addition just in my junior year fill out my you know um academic scorecard and I I don't know that that's I don't are we I know I saw um Pete Smith on there like are we gonna have these conversations with kids about so Pete Pete the way that they counsel the the whole counseling department they go out and they make academic presentations to all of the classrooms so that already happened last month right and they really talk about not
099just putting courses in a stack but having it be meaningful opportunities for learning right don't just say I took this and I took it and I checked it off and I think our counseling department does a really great job of like I don't want to say coaching but coaching them into a pathway that meets their needs and what who they are as a learner and then who they want to become as a postsecondary learner or whatever that may be so I think that those conversations just naturally happen already within our counseling department um this used to be a thing that only was allowed for music and I don't I think that that isn't always Fair too that some kids don't love music right so I think we need to find something that works for everybody
100um and if it fits for a kid and they're academically stable enough to to chase it down and it is Meaningful for them I think that I shouldn't be limiting their opportunities for it and and for the record I I um just because my oldest is now in the high school like the conversations that um I've had at home reflect really highly on the conversations you are having exactly as you described you know how they're learning and what their future looks like and so that's fantastic thank you for that feedback I appreciate it Greg I know my daughter will kill me after she hears I say this but what's the purpose of senior privilege wouldn't it be more advantageous for the students to be in an additional academic class I don't disagree with you I
101think that we're up against a Time honor tradition here um and where it's been just because it's culture doesn't mean it's right I understand okay yeah um good question it's a great question um I I think where it exist existed from it wasn't something that existed in my experience and I where I went to high school um I think it existed because so many kids do work experience now we have Partnerships with CTC Partnerships with Johnson College we have students going out to the elementary schools um the athletic interns all of those other experience so many kids are taking advantage of those so it was like something um that was like an opportunity for kids that were choosing an academic workload you still got to kind of break up your day and leave at the
102end of the day um we looked at a schedule North Pocono does uh an AM privilege or a PM privilege so that is something that was brought forward by a Committee Member like we know the school is already doing it um and we're excited to see where it goes um and it's only going to be available for kids like right now we pull students seniors who are in danger of not graduating it's called a privilege for a reason it easily gets taken away from too because our first and primary focus is making sure you receive your education so we pull a parking privilege first and then when it that doesn't work out for you then we pull back your senior privilege and we we spend time with you during period 9 to make sure we
103can get you across that stage in June sorry it'll be another not popular question it's fine so for work experience now with the availability to have additional classes more diverse classes throughout the day the value of being being at the school rather than in a work experience may be more beneficial right in addition I'm not familiar with the rigor we put behind validating that that experience is happening or the quality of experience that that's what is that adding to enrich the child and so I guess my one my question is how does this impact work experience and then how do we validate that that experiences or worthwhile tradeoff for what how do you monitor the efficacy of work experience so the work experience is monitored through our guidance department and they have to fill out
104a packet it's like an application packet and then every week the supervisor at their job has to submit um the forms and the hours and the student has to maintain 20 hours of employment and then the guidance counselor then communicates with that supervisor and then they get like an evaluation worksheet on that student and that's how we submit the passing and failing for each quarter for that student so the student self- selects the work that counts as work experience like whatever that job is um it doesn't have to be related to post-secondary planning it is just somebody that may be entering the job Force after graduation so we don't really say this is where you have to land those other internship experiences that is more kind of job matched into your interests um but all
105of the the work experience is monitored through the guidance department and cooperation with the supervisor that each student is working with you're welcome so um the seniors when they have uh senior privilege now do they have to leave the building they are expected to leave the building so they expect to leave the building so when you're going to give them senior provision in the morning are you expecting them to stay out of the building until right before Home Room well we will let them to come in to the cafeteria like I talked about the coffee clutch like when they come in they our doors are locked at that point so they'll have to kind of get buzzed in by our person in the morning that sits at the receptionist desk and then they'll go right
106to the cafeteria which will be monitored and then they'll go to home room and then yep so like the this and I know it's culture but like the spirit of you know Greg it won't be a popular in my house either um but the spirit of uh of of Senor purpose like is it really like just because you're they seniors they should have it or is it is was it driven by work experience like the kids that might use it for work experience or senior privilege is not driven by work experience work experience is something that is a like Standalone um I think where it was born from I wasn't here when senior privilege started um but I think the nature of it was you are entering your senior year you already have 21 credits
107you only need another you know two and a half credits to graduate as long as you're an academic good standing and you're doing everything you need to do maintaining your good grades will cut you free after eth period I think that's where I was born from graduation requirements are the what expectation are am I feeling in the blank yes they are the blank expectations firing squad God the first are the the minimum yes yes I just want to like password I yes I know right right right so did wasn't there so I mean I think that I mean there are days that I'm not very popular right but I think if we're going to change this like it needs to be slow and incremental and removing senior privileg is like not off the talking point
108but like I don't like I think that is it popular with the faculty or is it popular with the students or is it I'd say it's a mixture of both like did it's a mixture of both right I mean yeah no I told them they wouldn't have to speak um I think so there was some like weird things that were happening with Co um and I I know like some of you didn't have like high schoolers at that time but like when Co happened we were just letting everybody loose after that because it was like social distancing your kids were in right it was it was it was loose so I mean we didn't want to contain them because social distancing if you're done get out of here and then everybody kind of got really
109mad like why why are they getting to leave they're not even seniors and then there was this like kind of hierarchy of like you haven't earned it to so there's a little bit of of that still happening um but I think that it is a nice privilege when you've met all of the requirements and you're doing everything we ask you to do and it's a lot we ask a lot of our students so to offer them a carrot after they've been so successful for four years I think it is something for them to look forward to and stay bought in as you're leading up to that Capstone year right so so how do you qualify for senior privilege like if it's a privilege how do you qualify for it you have to ask for it
110or so there's so every summer we send home when we send home the schedules to the seniors there's a whole thing and you have to say like what your intended is have you taken the SATs it's like a senior worksheet and then Guidance reviews that and then as long as they've done what they needed to do and they've done like whatever's on that list it's like a checklist per se that comes back to us once they know that they've done that we meet with the seniors on the first day of school we have the big meeting with them set the expectations if all of your documents are order and you've done everything that you need to do the second day of school we do allow you to have your senior privilege there are some seniors
111surprisingly enough that don't ever want it they're like no just give me a study hall I'm fine I just want to stay there and stay locked in you still have seniors that don't drive right so they have to wait for District transportation so like they don't want to like burden or ask somebody to pick them up they definitely don't want their parent coming to pick them up at that age right so there's there's some other things that happen so so not every senior um I'll click back um there's only 203 seniors that have senior privilege our class right now is about 267 so like there are some that they're still in the mix they might be taking music they may be just sitting in a study hall um so it's not yes it's very popular
112I mean the majority of them do want it but it's not something that everybody does originally or or way back what wasn't there some um academic component to senior privilege you had to have certain GPA you had to have I don't now when I was there um I we could ask Pete I think Pete would absolutely know his institutional knowledge is forever in a day it goes all the way back a fine I'm treading a fine line here because Mr AAR is going about to say something about my age but I recall I would never do that yeah here we go here we go so there's no academic requirement something sticks my mind I mean as long as you're maintaining your like you got to there's no I thought what I heard you say and
113and then what I just reiterated was I thought you said so there's no academic requirements I'm saying I think when it started there was G he was saying like a GPA when you started right that's what I'm saying and when he said that right you're saying that there was and currently there's no minimum GPA as long as you're not in a credit deficit you we allow you to have it that doesn't seem like a privilege this might be off topic or um I'm just saying I mean maybe no so I grew up in a city and we had a more open campus I mean this was a long time ago um do we have any feedback from the community like in terms of traffic local businesses I I'm liter coffee shops are booming well I
114I mean I'm they want to let them out well I'm just I'm I'm legitimately asking because I don't know Noble road is frustrated with us I think as uh a yeah I get it I mean I do get it I'm not so I mean I I think that is the feedback that I receive personally they call the school and then like a red car just zoomed by like I we get all of those calls um but in terms of economic impact that is not something that we have explored yeah no I also meant traffic and all the things yeah uh I I have I have a few comments right and and I've talked you about some of this and and and I don't mind being in the the the minority if I I am on
115this um one of the things that I strongly encourage you to consider here is um putting an academic component to the senior privilege um when I think of a a privilege in the business that we are in which is teaching and learning mainly learning then incentives ought to do with ex um teaching and learning and perhaps that's a little easier to manage because what I'm hearing is as I talk about where kids are either you know staying in their car or staying on property I'm not so sure that's a kid problem and not an adult problem like it's our job to manage the situation ultimately that we're responsible for it I I um I do believe that you know the the core components of the schedule um May yield the outcomes you want so I'm
116supportive of that there are pushes that I push you on privately and or publicly like I'm doing now in in front of the board and I and I and I don't and I don't say that in just I can I can do that um we know and this is a good way to kind of articulate again publicly uh where we stand philosophically on this so that's one I and I and I do understand like you know taking something uh uh and kind of a scaffolding it backwards so to speak so for instance N9 10 and or in this case 10th and 11th graders will not have privilege next year right so now we are with seniors and I I think it would be perhaps a little easier to manage uh if we looked at an
117academic component um to it I would love to and with support I think it would be a perfect place to land on it the the other is um you know I I'm a fan of the math and writing Clinic um eliminate the word potential from it okay fair enough um and math and writing Clinic when we think about mtss right and the students that we know and we've identified as needing support um they can be scheduled into that we've identified student students who have a need and we are creating areas to meet that need I applaud that there there should be a math and writing clinic and I think that you can have the autonomy to staff that because these are two departments where you have a a lot of folks and a and a
118lot of support um to do that um so that's that's something that um you know I would uh you know highly encourage you to do and then finally the the final component was um in the presentation you had indicated like demonstrate they have the ability to take another course and this is again another conversation that we have and I have with the board is like we're in the teaching and learning business and I'm in the mindset that we should yeah we should be learning uh a majority of the time so um who who who determines that a student can demonstrate the ability to because I mean I if to Emily's Point like maybe I've got some Emily out there um and hey I want to take another class because I'm I'm self-motivated right to do
119that in contrast to say somebody who may want to take a study hall yeah so I think if I were to speculate perhaps the students choosing nine would be the ones that have a higher probability to be motivated if that makes sense yeah and I think that those conversations probably start at home and who the child is as a learner and I think like when I think about my own child I I know that her extracurriculars start at 3:30 and they don't end until 9:00 so for her to put another class on her plate when she's not starting homework until 9:00 p.m. at night and she still has to eat and shower and do the thing I don't want her up until 1: or 2 in the morning so for us that conversation at home
120looks a little bit different than another kid who may not have extracurriculars I don't think that there's a Playbook that defines who can do it and who can't do it I think it's all about knowing who the learner is knowing what the support is for that learner both in the home and at the school and then you know working together I think the homeschool connection that we've built over the last couple years is strong and I think counselors work you know in tandem with the families and our students do a great job of articulating what they want and I think if that is made known to the adults in their lives that is a supportive decision that everyone can kind of come together on so if I did oh sorry I just said one more
121so I just want to throw out an idea so like I'm just trying to take all this in because I've had issues with what I see happening at the high school like from 2 to 3 o'clock because I show up there for extracurricular sometimes and a lot of it I get it was covid everybody's getting out and like it's gotten better youve been in the field house a few times yeah there's kids running around that there shouldn't be and so like what like and I agree with the idea of putting academic component on privilege right absolutely agree with that what about the idea of only giving it in the morning because the morning you're going to like the kids that are like going burning both ends of the candle until whatever time you're giving them
122the privilege to sleep in another hour which is good for them when you give that privilege at the end of the day are there kids that are going to work are there kids that are going to work out for their extracurricular are there kids that are going to practice or orra yes but there's also kids that are going out to sit in their car screw around for an hour it's not really it's not benefiting them but I think in the kids are taken in the morning to me are the ones that are like I'm exhausted I would love to have another hour of sleep I think at that age when you're only looking at seniors I think it's fair to give them the autonomy to decide what fits their schedule I think a lot of
123our kids are working um you know at that age and I think they they're comfortable getting up in the morning because maybe they just go and work a shift from you know 4 to to nine right um and so I think we want it to allow the choice because we don't have it's not a one siiz fits-all type of situation and you have to do what's right for you as a student and for the family um so I like that's why we looked at either first or ninth right just for the seniors so I think this is more like three random thoughts I guess not really I guess discussion I think um I don't remember being directly addressed in the original kcba study we did on safety but every transition period in and out of
124the school presents an opportunity for risk right yes um so on one hand you're decreasing by 50% the number of kids leaving the school which is really where I think a lot of the risk has probably coming in right um but on the other hand you're doubling The Times They movement so I I wonder if there's a way to coordinate that departure or arrival through one point of entry right together that is since it is going to be limited to seniors we could only allow them to exit what we call the faculty lot door and the English Hall door and that would give them access to the two main parking lots that is something that we can consider and deploy just as a natural flow of traffic it splits them out two ends of the
125hallway almost so I think that that can work nicely um so I I appreciate that suggestion uh second random thought is there an opportunity for us to create an opt out for a student who picked up the extra course and at the end of quarter one realized this is terrible I really should be in a study hall is there a way to maintain flexib ility during the start of the school year for somebody who took too much on so the one caution that I would provide to that is once they start a course and sit in a course our integrity is we have to put that on a transcript we can't act like it didn't happen so to have it end up being a with look like a withdrawal passing or a withdraw failing and
126have to have them then explain that to an academic uh admissions office or something like that I don't want it to be like a magic wand like oh oops that never happened I think that if you sign up for something you should show up for something can can you offer past fail for those extra seniors do have the opportunity to take one credit past fail so it can't be in an AP class um and their GPA has to be higher than an 85 no I can't remember I think it's an 85 that's all done in guidance so forgive me for not knowing specific in in Greg's situation where it's pass fail then the then the the pressure is a little bit off well the pressure a little bit off and and you're not suddenly going
127to damage their GPA the GPA yeah so they we do currently already offer past fail for seniors um so but you're only allowed you know one credit to do that in so it's either two half like if you're taking semester classes or one full year class so and my final thought was just thank you I know we've asked 400 questions that weren't related to what you're presented but it stimulated I feel it's less questions than you asked kcba so we're good I think you might have some questions on the clock still awesome so yeah I appreciate it I think there's a lot of conversation that we should be having so yes thank you in um the one of the slides up there um when we when you talked about this one of the attributes that
128you like was you have electives that have lower enrollment this would provide the opportunity to raise those through taking more credit so I I I just want to name that you know that um like we see a lot of kids um and we can it's not included in this side deck but what tends to happen is uh our world language program at the middle school is so robust a lot of kids start you know a little bit earlier in those languages and colleges depending upon if you're if you're not going to be like international business and have to include four years of a language or things like that colleges are just happy to see that you had three years of a language so some students wrap up their three-year requirement for college Edington Heights does
129not have a World Language requirement for graduation so they're already shopping like what college they want to go to so what you'll see is kids not be completers in a world language because it's like oh I've met the minimum requirement for that Pro postsecondary school now let me jump to my sciences and let me jump to this other thing that I'm actually going to maybe potentially pursue so it'd be nice to have opportunities to see kids be completers in some of those Capstone courses that maybe they Dodge out of when you talk about electives um and low enrollment is it in more noncore related electives or core related it's a mix of both because when you consider that you only need three Year's requirement for our graduation requirements for math science and social studies you'll
130see a lot of students not taking that fourth year of those core classes to mince words a little bit um but you'll see in the spreadsheet and Michelle I don't know if I can click on this if you want to click on that spreadsheet you can see and it's so these are all of the electives I listed them um so like AP Lit yes that's an English class and it could be a fourth year requirement um I listed them by section so that you can actually see the seat counts and then I showed that if I were to take that class to 30 I'd have 10 empty seats if I only took it to 25 I'd have five empty seats if Dr C don't don't it Scrolls fast so I mean it's long so so
131you could see all the different electives that I listed there and at the bottom of that you could see on average for all of those electives um and so like you're not going to see um you're not going to see the freshman sophomore or Junior required classes for any of your core areas so every other elective is there listed but on average in our electives if I were to take the classes to 30 seats I'm about 13 seats per elective open and if I was only going to fill it to 25 I'm about eight seats per elective open so if we could fill those we're providing more opportunities to students and but they can't get it in their schedule when I'm forcing everyone to have a study hall so but it's a certain type of
132learner so have we uh survey the kids across the board about what electives they might be interested in like for this current for the current schedule any anytime so we just did that survey for social studies studies like globally if we were to add globally like what if we could offer uh a course another elective what might interest you so when the Departments do their rewrites that is typically part of it though like like media studies I'm thinking like that's how media studies was born it came out of a student initiative like English class was doing projects and they're like oh they were doing like podcasts or something they're like this is really cool like this would be great if this was a course because all of the Instagram reals were getting really popular and
133then two years ago well it's three years ago now that's where media studies were born from so I think while it hasn't been a formal study like a formal survey I think that that naturally happens as teachers are working on the front lines with students and then seeing what their interests are and then adding a they come to us and say like hey can we add the selective so that would be the other push yeah right um perhaps it's a wrong way to describe it but this is how I used to describe a you have to stay relevant right they're they're kind of darwinian in that you know if you're offering electives and you're only having seven six 10 I go back to economic models and things like that then perhaps it isn't an attractive
134and that's not to say it's not a good course exactly but we go back to our customer to say what might we provide you that would be of interest and you have a list and then you could then say globally we have people that may be interested uh have the ability to teach it and I would think that you we may have a higher probability then to put more people in so it wouldn't be something you would do this year but it would be something that I would ask you to do before the end of the year so that you could have the opportunity to see that and then as you get into the next year to kind of work through that and workshop it just like you said and organically how media studies came
135about and we asked the teachers this year this was the first year that I mandated as part of like domain four for the teachers to kind of give um feedback surveys to their students even if it was anonymously to really say like what am I doing great what do you like about the selective what's missing and you know the elective teachers really in a special kind of grouping they have to keep their kids entertained otherwise their seat counts go down and they put themselves right out of a job right so if you're not staying relevant to the students and you're not and when we met in the curriculum committee and I talked about all of the the relevancy that business was adding in because business is so evolving I think they're taking feedback from the
136students but we'll absolutely make a survey and just keep it fresh for everyone think I think maybe they have to be a little careful because their selection of the elective may have a lot to do with the quality of the teacher or reputation of the teacher for sure they may decide that um they don't want Dr schaer's class they want to be in Mrs Henderson's class because she's a much better teacher and this is why giving a survey because it's all new what would interest you yeah so that becomes a a a nonf factor and when we do this I would say you prompt the kids to think divergently right so that I could say to Phil on my right I we could have somebody teaching a course about how you might leverage AI within
137engineering within writing within like because it is it would be something that's very fluid and would be changing on and on in fact if I were an English teacher I would be what is the impact on Research alone if I'm a student and we have a lot of students that go on to post-secondary education I would make the argument based on the readings that I've done lately is the the postsecondary teachers are not only grappling with this but they are now have reconciled this that this is now a part of it this is a heavy tool how do we do this folks in engineering and Mathematics have reconciled this from the computational standpoint to think about how do we leverage this to make greater moves right it's now it's not about like hey you know
138you can't have your formula sheet on your table but how are you going to do this in order to kind of have a job right or coding was push push push push push but coding is changing rapidly and now some people have effectuated that and they've got coding courses that they don't want to get rid of but yet it's so old yep right so I only say that as like a positive to your schedule because it it it could be something that's kind of rapidly developing and if it ches year to year so be it so have and I mean I think like the curriculum writing process too and like the the teachers are are always eager to bring forth ideas that they're hearing organically from the kids so and that's why I feel like
139the last three years with the curriculum guide I my chain sheet has been like two pages long because I'm putting the power back into the student and the teacher to figure out what best fits our current you know you wouldn't expect I would not expect a teacher to pull last year's lessons plan to teach it to this year's student student so why am I expecting last year's curriculum guide and our structure to work for this year's climate and culture of our class so Dr C said it's bedtime I'm sorry I got excited about totally apologize no I just think I mean I'm kind of taking in everyone's input and stuff but and I I kind of keep coming back to we live in this never enough culture where the kids are constantly pushed pushed pushed
140It's never enough they have to do more be more and I think that's great you do have kids that are very high Achievers and to Mrs kum's point you know this for some of those kids this might backfire a little bit but the thing I hear I have middle schoolers and high schoolers like and and listening to their friends they just feel like they don't have enough choice they never get a break um so I think this really gives them flexibility some autonomy I do like the coming in you know they can choose between first and Ninth period because you know some of them are going to be student athletes who leave and then they're not missing out on that there's great opportunity um available at the end of the day for local non nonprofits
141um but I do think I think it's we're giving kids you know a gift of choice you know so I didn't I didn't name any names um but I I think that it's I think this will give the kids a little bit you know of a push because they feel like they It's never enough so it is I mean if they want to take that extra class fine if they want to study H I do think you know like I said as a parent I know like when I can schedule a dentist appointment I can just pull them at the end of the day and they're not missing instructional time but I also think like it's going to be a huge mind mindset shift like it's I think everyone at the end of the day
142they're just like it's almost as if we have eight periods and then they're all you know don't whether they're leaving the building or not um I was told to kick you it wasn't me it was Warren clowns clowns clowns thank you for your questions and your attention I really appreciate it thank you Dr joh thank you thank you very much are we like tabling the rest of the agenda like to consolidate them all into one vote making a motion to amend the agenda on uh Mr ask me items a through Niner a second a second all right we're out thank you everyone whoa whoa whoa we on the personal person report y y s I ask the board consider a motion to approv the Personnel report as follows so moved second on the motion roll
143call please Mr abdalah yes Mr AAR yes Mrs Henderson yes Mrs carum yes Mr Moran yes Mr Robson yes and Mr AER yes there's now only seven of you so seven a filibuster did I did I mention that got be I thought that's what you were doing I was trying Michelle's like what is happening uh s can I have a motion I don't even need a motion um would the board consider approve the Abington Heights 2526 academic calendar so move second on a motion second minor yes roll call please M tral yes Mr AAR yes Mrs Henderson yes Mrs carum yes Mr Moran Mr ropson and Mr AER yes Mr AER asked the board consider a motion to approve top tree Works quote for the removal of the trees at the middle school so moved
144second on the motion roll call Mr abdala yes Mr AAR yes Mrs Henderson yes Mrs carum yes Mr Moran yes Mr Robson Mr AER yes seven nothing sirer ask board consider a motion to approve the Western Pennsylvania school for the deaf agreement for the 2025 extended school year program for student 2D and 3D so moved second on the motion all call please Mr abdala yes Mr AAR yes Mrs Henderson yes Mrs carum yes Mr Moran yes Mr Robson yes Mr AER yes seven nothing sirer ask the board consider a motion to approve the bid to appraise tax partiel 09200 one 021 so moved second on the motion n in there are you sure you got that number right ner in there roll call please Mr abdala Mr AAR yes Mrs Henderson yes Mrs Kum yes
145Mr Moran yes Mr ropson yes Mr AER yes seven nothing Mr a board consider a motion to approve the flexible instructional day 2025 pde submission notification so moved second on the motion call please Mr abdala yes Mr AAR yes Mrs Henderson yes Mrs carum yes Mr Moran Mr ropon Mr AER okay I'm gonna take that as a yes next say yes of course next our next uh item is a listing of the use of facilities I I'm sure this is um I don't know if anybody's gone through this for the month of March there are 11 pages of uses of our facilities totaling like 150 or more uses that's kind of amazing uh any unfinished business I just have a few things that I'd like no just kid have a few questions I think I
146think Cory Booker I think I think it's 50 hours you have to work on Mr don't forget to go to the Bingo on Sunday I'm going to the Bingo Sunday go any new business that's under new business I believe any new new business i' ask for a motion to aurn yes