June 24, 2025 Meeting of the Abington Board of School Directors

001Good evening everyone and welcome to the June 24th, 2025 meeting of the Abington School Board directors. This is our last uh meeting for the school year. Uh I know the attendance of all board members with the exception of Miss Hartman and Mr. Muhammad who are excused. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The Abington Board of School Directors has convened this evening's meeting at the administration building and the public is welcome. This meeting is also being broadcast live on the Abington School District YouTube channel. The meeting is being recorded and will be accessible on the district's website and cable channel no later than Friday,

002June 27th to allow those members of the public who cannot participate to view the meeting at a later time. Comments from citizens will be conducted in person and by phone. Information regarding participating remotely in public comment will be displayed on the screen at the time of public comment and we thank you in advance for your cooperation. This is a place where we hold dignity in high regard and everyone's voices are respected and welcomed in this space. Um it says on here that we had an executive session. We did. Okay. An executive session was held on June 17th regarding personnel matters. Uh Dr. Fetcher, do we have any additional announcements or additional agenda items? No additional announcements or agenda items this evening. Okay. With that, we will move to opening comments by board members. Mr. Allen,

003nothing. Thank you, Mrs. Brown. Good evening and welcome to the last meeting of this school year. I appreciate your time. Miss Eisenhart. Good evening, everyone. Miss Falding. Uh, good evening everybody and I want to make a comment. The uh 16th of uh of this month I I was asked by one of my young neighbors to come to his promotion ceremony and I have to say I I really enjoyed it and I and I'm glad I went. I was just so honored and touched that he asked me, you know what I mean? It wasn't his parents that he did. He came and asked me to he wanted me to be there. All right. Thank you. That's wonderful. Miss Fraser. Hi guys. Welcome. Miss Fazy. Welcome y'all. Miss Woo. Good evening everyone. All right. Welcome everyone. Good

004to have you here. Okay. Dr. Fetra, can you please proceed with this evening's honors? All right. First, I'm going to ask uh Dr. Mauy and Miss Woo to please join me at the lectern. All right. Okay. Tonight is my pleasure to recognize Miss Selena Woo, a junior at Abington Senior High School and our first ever student school board member. Earlier this year, the board asked me to work with the Abington Senior High School Administration to establish an annual process for identifying a member of the student body to serve a one-year term as a non voting member of the board of school directors. Selena, thank you for serving in this capacity on behalf of your peers and for being an exemplary model of future student for future student board members. You brought professionalism and leadership to

005your representative role and you have helped to make history with the inaugural student school board member in Abington School District. I hope that you that this was a rewarding and exciteful experience for you. Please remember that even though you will not serve in the same capacity next year, you are always welcome to join us from the audience and share your thoughts during public comment. limited to three minutes. Sorry. We wish you the best of luck in your senior year and would like to recognize you for your service uh with a plaque. [Applause] Thank you. Do you want to say something? The mic is yours. [Applause] Uh, Miss Woo, if I may, I want to thank you for your service. Uh, you helped us to make history here, and I want to remind you as being

006the first of something. I'm sure there were times where you questioned, should I say more? Am I doing enough? And I just want to confirm from the bottom of my heart that you are enough and you will always be enough. You belong in important spaces. Remember to shine and be who you are and that will always be enough. Okay. Anyone else? I'd like to second Mrs. Brown's thoughts. Um, as the inaugural student member of this school board, um, you broke important ground and I hope one of the things you have taken away from this experience is the importance of vibrant democratic participation and I hope that that stays with you. I hope that stays with you for your life. Um, and I want to thank you personally for your service. you have been enthusiastic and

007um really leaned in to this role um listened carefully and responded thoughtfully. So, thank you very much. Okay. All right. If I may move on to the next I'm going to ask uh Miss Ali Arur, communications coordinator to share a video highlighting some recent media coverage of Abington School District. Good evening, Dr. Fetcher, Dr. Maui, and members of the board of school directors. Um, on Tuesday, June 10th, uh, members of the class of 2025, um, participated in the annual Gradwalk tradition where they returned to their elementary schools for one last procession through the hallways. Um, I'm pleased to share with you this evening a clip from 6ABC Action News, who um, visited Highland Elementary School for the festivities. Well, Abington Senior High School graduates revisited their elementary schools today. It was part of their annual

008grad walk celebration at Highland Elementary School in Abington. The elementary school students along with their teachers cheered on the class of 2025. They also made signs for their older peers who walked through the school in their caps and gowns. It that um clip is small, but the impact of the grad walk is pretty pretty big. And one of the things this year that was different uh than years prior uh it used to be just at the elementary schools and this year we expanded it to the middle school as well uh which was awesome to see and I had an opportunity to be at that particular grad walk and the the volume was awesome and just seeing the teachers faces uh was great as well uh and and the students. So, uh, it is a tradition

009that started a few years ago and we plan on continuing, uh, to just really inspire all of our students from K to 12 of what the meaning of what we try to do here and the culmination in in a graduation um, ceremony which then commences into into new things and new adventures for our students. Excellent. It's uh, fun to see that. I remember when my daughter did that at Highland. Um, and it was really a culminating experience for her. So, it's a great tradition. Uh, okay. That brings us to our board orientations this evening. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. At this time, I would ask that Dr. Robert Rosenthal, director of pupil services, Dr. Carmen Leine, equity officer, and Mr. Joe Talia, our supervisor of student services to review the results of survey data from surveys

010administered to students, staff, parents, guardians during the 2024 2025 school year. And the orientation will end with uh next steps and how we plan to use this data uh to drive school improvement initiatives. Good evening, Dr. Fetcher, Dr. Mary and board of school directors. This evening we will present on student surveys and other data points we examine to help inform our approach to social emotional learning activities and other climate activities. We will present on the status of all climate and social emotional learning programming. As you know, the comprehensive plan was just recently submitted to uh PTE for the 202528 school years. In it is a goal of supporting the social, behavioral, and emotional wellness of all students. The goal includes that there will be an analysis of multiple measures which includes social emotional learning skills

011assessments, surveys of perceptions of safety, staff use of and knowledge of PBIS positive behavior intervention and supports and restorative practices and staff knowledge of culturally responsive practices. Action steps were developed in order to achieve the goal. Some of the actions include staff training objectives such as culturally responsive practices and restorative practices. Some of the actions include the instruction of social emotional learning to all of our students. Some of the actions include the delivery of tier 2 and three intervention for students that need additional support and resources. These action steps will be reflected in our summary and next step slides at the end of this evening's presentation. But first, Dr. Line will review a summary of the equity audit. Good evening. This year, per the superintendent's administrative procedure on equitable practices, Abington School District facilitated an

012educational equity audit. Interviews were conducted with over 196 focus groups consisting of nearly 600 individuals from every school. the administration building and the bus depot. The voices of our students, families, teachers, lunch and recess aids, administrative assistants, bus drivers, and administrators were lifted. The preliminary findings were used to inform the strategic plan and some of the action steps you will hear tonight. Once finalized, there will be a formalized response that is aligned with the SAP for equitable practices. the strategic plan and highlighted needs. It may focus on professional development, access and opportunity and as well as social uh school climate. Now, Dr. Rosenthal will continue with an overview of data review. The Abington School District is committed to the social, emotional, and behavioral development of our students. As you know, we utilize the multi-tered systems

013of support or MTSS framework to provide an evidence-based social emotional learning curriculum and other climate initiatives to identify and program for those students who need additional support and to evaluate how our programs and interventions are working. At Abington School District, we examine a number of data points at the district, school, grade, and student level in order to determine one, student perceptions of school and community. Two, students at risk for having social and emotional concerns. Three, the impact of social and emotional learning curriculum. And four, the fidelity of our positive behavior interventions and supports or PBIS framework and programming. Students completed the PTE school climate survey uh from the office of safe schools in both the fall and spring of this year. Student answers are anonymous and scored on ratings from 1 to four and then

014we examine the average scores. School teams examined the scores by school, by race, by gender and grade. No significant differences were found between races or gender. There are three domains. Safe school climate, social emotional learning and student support. Safe school climate domain measures how physically and emotionally uh safe students feel and asks questions such as students at this school are often bullied. Students at uh are often teased and I sometimes stay home because I don't feel safe at school. Social emotional learning domain measures student perceptions of their peers social and um and problem solving skills and questions include ratings on how students care about each other, treat each other with respect and give up when they can't solve a problem easily. The student support domain measures how supported students feel by their teachers and other

015adults in the school. And questions include ratings on how teachers encourage students to share ideas about things we are studying in class and that adults in this school apply the same rules to all students equally. The the total score is based on all of the items in the survey. This is a chart of the spring student surveys for elementary buildings that compare last year to this year. Scores below 2.5 indicate areas to improve and above 3.5 as favorable. The blue bars are last school year and the red are this school year. State averages are also shown as a dot in or above each bar. As you can see, scores are similar to last year. Elementary students average ratings were a total of 3.2, social emotional learning 3.4, 4 student support 3.1 and safe school 2.9.

016These scores are all slightly h uh higher than the state average for elementary school students. Middle school scores remain very similar to last year's scores. Total 2.5, seal 2.3, student support 2.6, safe school 2.6. These scores are were similar to the state average. All scores were within 0.2. High score uh high school scores were slightly higher than last year's scores. The total uh score was 2.7, SEAL 2.4, student support 2.8, and safe school 2.8. These scores were similar to the state average. All scores were within 0.1 of the state average elementary staff rated. So these are staff ratings. The staff rated climate higher than the state averages a total of 3.3. The SEAL score was 2.9. Student support uh was a score of 3.5 and safe schools were 3.5 as well. Secondary staff ratings fell

017slightly higher than last year's data. A total score of 2.6. The social emotional learning score fell at 2.1, student support was 3.1, and safe school was 2.6. The SEAL questions included, students at our school stop and think before doing anything when they get angry. Students at our school give up when they can't solve a problem. and students get into arguments when they disagree with people. Safe school items included students in our school don't really care about each other, like to put others down, and don't get along very well. We don't have high school staff survey results. We are working on getting additional staff to complete the survey from the high school. Now, we move on to parent ratings. Elementary parent ratings improved from 3.4 4 to 3.5. This year, secondary parent readings improve improved slightly

018from 2.8 to 2.9 in both schools. A sensitive measure of which students need supports is obtained through a teacher screening of all students K through eight called student risk screening scale or SRSS. The universal screening is conducted in October and again in January or February. This data is examined in order for school teams to determine who needs additional support and monitoring. It is not used to examine the effectiveness of climate initiatives. It is teacher rated only. This winter uh the winter data from this year is displayed across grade levels. There are seven externalizing items such as lying, cheating, uh stealing or aggressive behavior. When students fall in the high risk range, we provide interventions. When they fall in the moderate risk range, we monitor. This data shows that most students fall into the low risk

019range from 83% to 90% depending on the grade level and two to 5% fall into the high risk range for externalizing behaviors. And this is uh the same rating but for what's called internalizing behaviors. uh internalizing behaviors are uh things such as being uh expressing sadness and depression or anxiety. This data shows that between 78 and 91% of students fell in the low risk range depending on the grade. 4 to 7% fell in the high-risk range. When each school team receives this data, the core teams at each building review all high and moderate risk rated students and determined what interventions they may need. This data shows that teacher concerns, especially at the middle school, are regarding a small segment of students, perhaps implying that advanced tier programming is the area of focus for improvement. Now,

020Mr. Tyler will walk us through some additional data. Thank you, Dr. Rosenthal. Good evening. All staff K through eight are asked to complete the selfassessment survey which measures staff perceptions of the PBIS model. It answers the question, is PBIS being implemented correctly? All staff and buildings are encouraged to complete the survey and the items on this survey are strongly linked to positive social, emotional and academic outcomes through decades of research. The sample questions include expected academic and social behaviors are taught directly to all students. My school has a documented system for responding to behaviors that interfere with academic success. And in my school data is shared with staff. Each school develops goals from these data to address weaker areas. Staff rate the quality and effectiveness of tier one supports and interventions which are for all

021students. Tier 2 and three supports and interventions are for students at risk and in need of additional support. Staff ratings on these domains suggest that tier 2 and three programming is an area that needs improvement in a number of our buildings. As a result, we are working with core teams and pupil services staff to ensure that evidence-based interventions are occurring in those buildings. It also shows that schoolwide and classroom expectations are mostly in place at elementary schools. Schools have used these data to develop action plans to address weaker areas. Montgomery County Health and Human Services was awarded a federal grant for school violence prevention from the Bureau of Justice Administration. this three-year grant for approximately $1 million has four main strategies. To educate students with the skills they need to prevent violence or bullying. To

022equip teachers with tools to manage the classroom dynamic effectively and efficiently in order to prevent violence and youth bullying. To provide opportunities for partner school districts to further enhance their overall school safety strategy through the integration of data. and to train teachers to foster a positive school community through professional development. Teachers were asked to complete the DERO student strengths assessment for each student before beginning secondstep lessons and again after completing all of the lessons. Using a scale that ranged from never to frequently, a zero to four scale, teachers indicated how often they saw evidence of positive behaviors in the weeks prior to the assessment. At Abington, teachers provided data for over 3,200 students for whom both pre and post DESA data were available. Teachers were also asked to reflect on their perceptions of Second Step.

023These are data from the 2324 school year and we typically receive the data each summer. This year's data will be given to us in late August. On average, elementary school students had better social emotional capacity. Nearly all students demonstrated either typical capacity or strength in their social emotional capacity after second step. Growth in social in student social emotional capacity was observed in all schools with largest increases in Roslin and McKinley. Districtwide, the most substantial growth was seen in grades K through three. However, the specific grade levels experiencing the most growth varied from school to school. Teachers generally had positive perceptions of the usability and benefits of the curriculum. This year, Abington students scored higher than last year, going from 23.6 pre-second step to 25.5 postsecond step last year and this year going from 24.1 to

02425.9. Share of elementary students demonstrating strength increased from about 30% to 44% after second step. This increase was of a similar scale compared to elementary school students in all participating districts. Notable increases included the specific skills of speaking about positive things, doing something nice for somebody, and showing care when doing a project or schoolwork. Last year's middle schoolers showed a 6% decrease in scores from 24.8 to 23.4, though above the state average of 23.0. zero. This year, middle middle school students had the same average social emotional capacity before and after SecondStep programming. This matches the pattern seen in middle schools in all districts. It should be noted that middle school students started the year with a higher social emotional capacity than peers in other districts. And as a reminder, this is the third year of

025secondstep implementation at Abington Middle School. The majority of teachers had positive perception perceptions of the SecondStep curriculum in terms of its usability, its value, and its alignment with school needs. Most teachers believed that SecondStep improved their students ability to show all positive behaviors asked about in the teacher survey. In particular, about 90% of teachers believe SecondStep helps students practice empathy, kindness, manage their emotions, and solve problems. NAMI stands for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. All 10th and 12th graders participated in NAMI's presentation by the Montgomery County chapter called Ending the Silence. This presentation helps students learn about the warning signs of mental health conditions and what steps to take if someone they know is showing symptoms of a mental illness. The clear majority of students indicated they learned the stated goals of the program.

026Over 90% of surveyed students are able to identify the early warning signs of mental health concerns and know how to ask for help for themselves or for a friend. This point Dr. Rosenthal will continue the presentation. Thank you. Student survey data suggests that social emotional learning is still a concern even though the SecondStep teacher rated surveys show our students to have SEAL skills above the state average. The student risk screening scale data suggests that teachers perceive a small segment of the student body needs directed intervention and supports more than just SEAL programming. The teacher rated PBIS data suggests that advanced tier interventions are needed and for promotion of schoolwide expectations at some of our schools. Now, we will review the climate initiatives, practices, and professional development that has occurred over the past school year. As

027you know, this last school year, we were able to utilize two restorative practices coaches across all buildings. The following bar graph shows that restorative practices was used often as an alternative to traditional discipline. Over 450 restorative sessions were offered to over 300 students as an alternative to traditional discipline for disruptive behaviors. We saw a 74% nonrescetivism rate. 74% of students who participated in restorative practices did not need a repeat of restorative practices as an alternative to discipline again. At the high school, this is what was entered into Skyward. There were far more restorative conferences that occurred and the high school team is working to ensure this work will be better reflected in Skyward. Restorative practices was a big part of social emotional learning across the district this past year. The program was introduced to all

028administrators through professional development in August of 2024. All staff had restorative practices training at the start of the school year focusing on the use of affective language, proactive circles, and restorative circles. Our coaches completed training of aids and paraprofessionals by November. An orientation was provided to K to2 school counselors during inservices and uh PLC time. Uh monthly PBIS data review at secondary buildings includes identification and tracking of the use of restorative practices as an alternative to discipline. There were beginning of year meetings with elementary admin teams to familiarize them with the goals of restorative practices and how the services were to be implemented throughout the school year. At elementary schools, restorative practices could be seen as specific grade cohorts received additional training. AIDS and paras had ongoing conversations about incorporating restorative practices into their work.

029Schoolwide assemblies occurred with a restorative practices theme and student services staff and administrators received ongoing training and modeling of using restorative conferences. At the middle school, the entire reading department incorporated circles as a reset refocus following winter break. The restorative practice coach modeled monthly lessons on topics related to our monthly character themes. The entire health and PE department utilized proactive circles in conjunction with the second step curriculum to engage students in the lesson for the day. At the senior high, monthly lessons were included in the advisory lessons using the pledge of character themes. The entire reading department participated in a circle related to new course and student goals. There was a three-week program of proactive circles uh lessons in two special education classes designed to reduce ongoing conflicts with students. Student leaders were trained in

030restorative practices. PAR educators had ongoing training emphasizing effective language and as part of their orientation program link crew students were trained in restorative practices for student implementation next school year. Our coaches conducted book studies at all three levels and grade level department meeting uh training through core team referrals and/or direct requests to the coaches. Over the last year, we are fortunate enough to have all staff increase their competencies in the ability to create positive climate and ability to deliver social emotional learning objectives. All of our staff started the school year with training on the introduction of restorative practices. In November, our staff were trained by the Lakeside Neurologic uh group on trauma informed practices. Through the fall and winter months, we initially uh we initiated training for counselors, psychologists, and social workers on tier 2

031interventions. Our security guards, our SRO's, and bus drivers all received training last fall on restorative practices, bully prevention, and positive climate initiatives. Starting in the spring of 2024, administrator teams developed action plans using their climate data. All principles and other administrators were trained on the use of crisis prevention. And this past May, all special education and pupil services staff received training on behavior plan development. Through their superintendent committee on climate and culture, we receive feedback from constituents on the effectiveness of current programming and recommendations for future initiatives. And now back to Mr. Talia. We will have second step as the SEAL curriculum again next year K through five taught by our classroom teachers. In addition, elementary school counselors developed universal lessons for each grade designed to build skills in targeted areas. For the 24-25 school

032year, lessons were introduced to grades K through two with the remaining grades to be introduced during the 2526 school year. The lessons are aligned with SecondStep program content, American School Counseling Association standards, and are age appropriate for the target audience. Content is delivered over a series of weeks designed to ensure retention of content and time to practice learn skills. Tiered interventions will be delivered to students across elementary grades to reinforce skill development for students who are facing struggles. At the middle school, SEAL programming was delivered through the SecondStep curriculum. The counseling and health departments through their curricula review completed this year are preparing to reimagine the delivery of SEAL programming. SecondStep will continue to be implemented for students in sixth grade and a redesigned health program will be introduced in seventh and eighth grades. The

033health program has targeted outcomes that will expand opportunities for dialogue in critical SEAL areas such as violence prevention, interpersonal communication, and alcohol, tobacco, and other drug awareness and prevention programming. In addition, the middle school counseling team has identified specific skills to be taught to students in each grade, which will be introduced to the sixth grade cohort starting in 2526 by the school counselors. Assembly programs were successfully delivered to middle school students by Avidum Club student leaders and the fulfill company on the topics of physical and mental wellness and positive school climate. At the high school, students continue to receive training through the ending to silence program and the question, persuade, refer suicide prevention program. Currently, all high school students have received training from both programs. In addition, 10th grade students received an assembly program from

034Minding Your Mind, an organization that promotes mental wellness and knowing when to ask for help. Proactive circles, a critical component of the restorative practices model, were conducted monthly through the advisory program. Advisory teachers were provided with content that aligned with the district's pledge of character themes. High school health teachers delivered content through the Rethink Ed platform, which provides staff with a wealth of topical lessons that are aligned with standards. Besides all of the curriculum that is delivered to our students, we know that to have positive climate in all of our buildings, we need a holistic multifaceted approach. This is why we have a number of climate initiatives across our district. PBIS is our main approach to promote positive climate and this occurs through the delivery of schoolwide expectations. We know from our data that we

035need to teach and promote these expectations in some of our buildings as a goal in all of our buildings. We need effective advanced tier interventions which is a major goal of our PBIS teams next year. Some of the interventions at tier 2 will include using the rethinked ed curriculum for delivery of SEAL in small groups by counselors. Other interventions will be delivered individually and be part of the students behavior plans. This past spring, each school completed a self- assessment of their PBIS programming and developed action plans to address any areas for growth. Also part of our tier 23 programming K12 is student assistance program counseling offered by Aldersgate and school-based outpatient therapy offered by Child and Family Focus. Restorative practices, as you heard, will continue to be sustained in our district next year and is

036a part of student learning of self-regulation and peer conflict resolution. Proactive ser circles programming is to be expanded for the 2526 school year. Restorative practices champions are identified in each building and we are developing plans to sustain RP across grades K to 12. Our bully prevention curriculum across the district continues. We will continue to have bullyrevention student committees in each building. Our monthly character themes will also be promoted through each school's PBIS committees and as you've heard will also be discussion points during restorative circles. We have additional activities in each building involved with no place for hate and start with hello a Sandy Hook promise initiative promoting inclusivity. Student mentoring programs like Abington Leads by example, Link Crew, and Where Everybody Belongs will continue. At this time, Dr. Rosenthal will conclude the presentation. Thank you.

037The data we collected from the 2425 school year shows important progress in a number of areas. The climate survey data showed nice results for the elementary buildings. At the secondary level, we know that student perceptions continue to spotlight concerns among their peers conflict resolution skills and perceptions of safety. Our district is committed to improving climate, student behavior, and perceptions of safety. through the mental health grant. Uh though the mental health grant just ended and was spent on both restorative practices and traumainformed practices, we have plans for sustaining these initiatives and and administration will have expectations of their staff for the continuation of restorative practices both preventatively and reactively through conferences. We will continue to offer space to for staff to build on their competencies and for administrators to collaborate. Next school year, we have plans

038for additional professional development on using linkit intervention manager and Swiss um which is schoolwide information system uh which is a data management tool for office discipline referrals for school teams to use. Uh this will hope uh our hope is that this will tighten up our delivery of tier 2 and three interventions. The Montgomery County IU continues to support us in the fidelity of social emotional learning and behavioral interventions and we continue with our collaboration with CHOPS school mental health collaboration uh collaborative in using data to deliver mental health supports. We have plans for community outreach. Uh we will ensure parents know about all social emotional learning efforts so that they can be reinforced um at home. We also have parent virtual presentations planned regarding social and emotional challenges students go through. Project AARE is a

039Montgomery County IU program and we have middle school counselors developing competencies for them uh in the areas of mental health and social emotional learning. We will continue to examine best practices in bully prevention efforts and social emotional learning programming and collaborate with stakeholders to see where we can improve. In conclusion, we know our strengths and areas needed for improvement through the analysis of numerous data sources that we collect. We know we need to work together with the equity office, special education, teaching and learning and pupil services in to ensure that we are data driven and utilizing best practices. We incorporate mid-year data reviews in each building as well as through our superintendent committees such as the climate and culture committee and equity committee. As you can see through the professional development plan, the data we

040collect and the action steps we have delivered, we are well on our way to achieving our comprehensive goal in the area of social and emotional well-being of students. And with that, we can take any questions. Comment comment and a question. Um I think it's interesting that uh social emotional learning for elementary school students along with staff exceeds the state average. And um as far as second step, I was initially concerned that the middle school for two consecutive years there was no change, but then you mentioned that you guys are going to be implementing a different there's going to be a segue into another uh program that may be more fitting for them. Yeah, we're taking a critical look of at that. It's also important to note that even with the second step um that we

041were um we were hoping for more growth, but we also know that we um are um pretty above the state average in that in those areas. Thank you. I have a question and also a comment. Um well actually two comments. First of all, thank you. This is such an important area uh to monitor and um to provide information both for you know parents and students but also for the district to be collecting it um in such a thoughtful way to measure it. My question was regarding um the internalizing and externalizing high-risisk behaviors. When a teacher notices that um since it's teacher reported data that's based on an actual student, what happens after that? What is the process once a teacher is identifying a student um that would fit into that category? Okay. So the uh

042I believe you're referring to the SRSS data which is our universal screener. So all uh students are rated by their teachers K to8 and um the core teams in each building get that data soon after it's completed. Um and then they will look at uh the data in terms of um what kids fall into the high risk and what kids fall into the moderate risk. and then they'll look at um matching intervention with the needs of the student based on that data and other data points that we have. So in those cases are parents or um caretakers, primary caretakers notified that the teacher is seeing these types of um risks in in the students themselves. Yes, most um most parents um are are aware u because of conversations they've had with the teachers. Um we

043we often tell our teachers that um there should be no surprises when we assign an intervention um because the teachers um you know they they have their own classroom behavior management plans and then they also have um uh protocols for when they have concerns about their students. But um typically they're working with the assigned uh student counselor um in in making sure that parents are well aware and then uh are well aware of the interventions that are assigned. Thank you. And then just one last comment um just to um recognize again um also coming off of what Miss Frasier had mentioned about the middle school um social emotional learning with um and the feedback from second step. I do just want to make sure um to emphasize that you're also increasing um you know in

044I heard from health and also guidance counselor like social emotional learning opportunities and uh curriculum that will be offered. So even though we're not seeing it from a second step, it looks like you're increasing it to address some of those shortcomings that we are seeing in the data. I'm recognizing that and appreciating um those additions for next year. Thank you. A question about U SRSS, student brace screening scale, and something that I haven't heard used here, and that's the ASUS, the adverse uh childhood experience um assessments. I know how they're different, but do we have anything that's um similar to the ACEs that we use to determine interventions for students before they begin to to fail or I know this isn't based on academics, but even socially, do we do we have any measures that

045align with ACES? Great question. So, uh uh lot of research on adverse childhood experiences uh tied to mental health concerns and other concerns. Um uh firstly I would say that um all of our uh pupil services staff are counselors and psychologists and social workers and nurses are all trained on the ACES. So when um something is brought to their attention that they know falls into the ACES that would be something that they may refer to the core team uh for intervention and supports. When psychologists get referrals for evaluations, they are definitely looking at adverse childhood experiences when they do those evaluations so that we can make sure that uh for students that have IEPs or 504s that we incorporate the findings of um whatever their um their trauma was uh into their into their plan.

046Um the ACEs though uh is not something that we do through universal screening. um because uh there are times where teachers aren't aware of um potential uh things like that, but I know that when uh when problems arise, counselors are aware and um they often incorporate what they know about ACEs into their interviews with parents to see how they can provide support, including community support for the family. Thank you. Sure. I have a question. Um, I know that the data you presented here tonight is is focused on um, school climate, but I wonder if we are correlating any of this data with achievement data. So, um, we are in that, you know, we know how important school climate is to achievement. Um and uh you know but I I wouldn't say that we're uh doing

047formal data analysis tying specific results of these scales to achievement. Okay. We know that uh core teams look at climate as an an important part of the community and the school community because they know how important it is but we don't have statistical analysis of that. Okay. Is it So I'm trying I just want to try and understand whether the sort of they're not siloed but the sort of only loose aggregation of those two um focuses uh is common in school districts like do do most school districts kind of keep that da d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d da separate I guess

048is what I'm asking. I I guess um I wouldn't say separate. I I I think that um that we look at all of our data together um and incorporate uh when you know we know that climate affects achievement, but I yeah I don't know of districts that statistically analyze the data that way. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um, and then I just wanted to note that the 74% non-rescidivism rate for restorative practices is really impressive. So that's great. It's doing doing the work we want it to do. Yes. Um, all right. Other questions or comments for my colleagues? I just had one more on that. Um, I I don't have the graph. I can't pull it up. I don't know what page it was on, but regarding that, it looked like more of the um restorative practice

049approach to incidents was highly in the elementary school. Can you just explain is that based on um pattern of incidents or was there a reason why so much more of that response was done in the elementary buildings as opposed to the um middle and high school? Um, as I said, I think that part of it is that um administrators uh it's it's a function of our uh our CIS skyward. um that when they put in an action, when a discipline referral is made, um there's a number of choices they can make. And we're trying to make sure we know that um when we talk to administrators uh at the secondary level, restorative practices with such a focus um at at tier one by teachers and health health staff and the curriculum, but also by administrators

050as an alternative to a a traditional discipline. um but um they may not be like getting the credit from the data because of that. So we're we're look we're really trying to fix that for next year so that we know that um all the restorative conferences that are occurring are listed as one of the actions uh when a discipline referral comes in. Yeah, thanks for explaining that. I think I didn't quite get that when you went through it. So I appreciate that. Okay, no problem. Okay, any other questions or comments? Okay, great. Thank you very much. Okay. Shall we move on to our second orientation then? All right. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. Uh tonight, Mr. Lionetti and I are prepared to present the final general fund budget for 2025 2026 school year. Uh we've had

051multiple presentations. So tonight, uh Mr. Lionetti in the final form will uh speak about any changes that have come and also what the implications are on the homeowner with this final budget. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Fetcher. As we've uh Dr. Fetcher mentioned, as we've been uh presented this information multiple times, my comments will um be summary in nature and and brief, and I'll be able to answer questions um when I'm completed this evening. Looking at agenda item 11, the administration is recommending that the board approve the 2526 final general fund budget in the amount of $22.8 million. Previous draft budget presentations were made on March 11th and May 27th, as well as a presentation made on May 13th when the board approved the proposed final budget. The proposed final budget has been available

052for public inspection in accordance with act one of 2006. Adendum 11.1 is the final general fund budget which is presented for your approval in the form required by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Tonight's presentation includes information that was previously presented to the board as well as changes in revenue and the allocated use of fund balance in the final version of the budget. Pages two and three of the presentation is information we've provided in the past and it's historical in nature regarding previous years previous excuse me previous budget years millage rates revenue and expenses and accumulated fund balance and enrollment. In particular, this slide shows the impact of four successive years that the same mill rate has had on revenue and expense and therefore fund balance. In addition, notice the far right column in the details

053of enrollment history. From 2003 2004 to 2023 24, the enrollment has increased by almost 1300 students. Yet in 2023 24 and 2024-25, the school district has experienced a decline in enrollment of 204 students. A further decline of 44 students is anticipated in 202526 and this will have impact on future budget preparation. Again, I'm showing some uh historical data in terms of the impact that the increase in the employee retirement contribution rate has had on the school district budget. In 200910 school year, the district had a contribution expense of only $5.4 million. The PE's contribution rate for the 2526 school year is 34% which is projected to be a total expense of about $34 million. This slide shows that PES rates are projected to continue into increase and the board has little to no control over

054the retirement system contribution although it represents a hefty 17% of your overall expense budget. Page four. This slide shows where we left off on the May 27th draft of the budget that reflects $142.7 million of local revenue that is inclusive of 132.3 million of real estate tax revenue. State and federal revenue are at 49.8 million and 2.2 million respectively. Total revenue is at 194.8 8 million which is inclusive um of local, state, and federal revenue. Expenses total $22.8 million and it's inclusive of $98.7 million in salaries, $18.9 and $41 million in employee benefits and $42.9 million in non-sary nonbenefit items. At this time, $7.9 million, just about $8 million, was allocated uh to fund balance to support certain expenses in the budget. This page is a transition from the May 27 draft budget to the

055final budget. Real estate tax revenue reflects the latest assessed value of real estate from the Montgomery County Assessment Office and an increased tax collection rate. Real estate tax revenue is now 134.3 million, which is a $ 1.89 million increase. Total revenue increases to 144 million for local revenue. and we have a $275,000 adjustment in in state revenue. Please be reminded that we're using estimated state subsidy amounts provided by PTE as a result of the governor's budget and that the state has not completed its budget yet. The official deadline for the state is June 30 and um this that the state would have to finish, but it looks like it's going to go um beyond that time frame and the subsidy amounts could change and when they do, we'll inform inform the board as to what

056those amounts uh will be. The increase in revenue decreases the use of fund balance by $2.1 million from just under 8 million to just at 5.8 million. expenses um from the budget present draft budget to this budget um did not change this page compares the 202425 budget your current budget to the proposed budget we're asking you to approve this evening we we're asking that the board increase um the millage rate by that uh act one index of 4% % which raises your millage rate to 38.55 mills. This generates, excuse me, this generates $6 million additional revenue compared to the prior year and in total local revenue increases $6.2 million or just under $4.5%. State revenue increases $3.1 million. Um this is for a number of factors. Obviously um we are expected to get some increase

057in our state subsidies. We also experience an increase in the support we get for um retirement contribution and social security as that's a factor of the increases of gross gross wages. You also will note that property tax relief, gaming distribution, and Sterling Act reimbursements total $7.9 million, which is the negative number in the local revenue. So, what we we don't receive from the local taxpayers, from the homesteads that get tax relief, the state replaces through the sources of gaming and Sterling Act tax credits. Please note that uh the federal resources are diminished by about $667,000. That's due to the fact that your ESSER funds have expired um and are no longer no longer available. Total revenue is $197 million. That goes to support $22.8 million of expenses which is inclusive of salaries, negotiated benefits, mandated

058benefits, and on salary items which have a total increase of $3.2 million. Please note that that number is diminished significantly because Dr. Fetcher had challenged his budget managers and central staff to take good hard look at their budgets and find ways to reduce um what we can and um the staff uh came up with $1.2 $2 million worth of revised ways to obtain the goals um defer um and eliminate expenses. Um similarly, you'll recall at a prior meeting um Dr. Fetcher and Dr. Milor shared with you um changes in staffing due to attrition and retirements um that focused on the reduction in um in enrollment. So expenses were controlled in that aspect as well. So so to support the $22.8 8 million of operating expense. We are still allocating $5.3 million uh looks like it's

0595.8, excuse me, $5.8 million of um allocated fund balance. That's a significant change compared to the 11.1 that was allocated for the current school year. As Dr. Fenter Fetcher mentioned we would um talk about the impact on the typical homestead of 141,30 assessment. The change in millillage rate at 4% results in a gross change of just under $29 for this assessed value which is just under 4%. However, the generous uh amount of Sterling Act and gaming credits raise the level from 494 tax relief to $533, which has a significant impact where it lowers the percent increase to just under 3.6% and just under $170 with this scenario. Um and we're asking later in your agenda for reapproval of your cit senior citizens real estate tax rebate. um our senior citizens who qualify and are in

060the um state level uh income income rest uh levels. Uh the rebate amounts three of our three of our categories of senior citizens who qualify will not see a tax increase in only the minimal amount of just under $18 for those that are in the the highest in income category. Uh we have seen greater participation in in this program um over the years. We started with 42 um people interested. That grew to uh 82 and we were exceeding that amount. And the dollar amounts were starting at 3,000 just over $3,300 and this year we returned $17,000 and we still have some that are still still in process. So, um you know, the administration is encouraging the board again to approve that rebate and we hope that we get continued um participation by our qualifying senior

061citizens. So, what does this budget include? In summary, it includes $70.8 million of highquality comprehensive K12 general education, special education, instructional programming. It includes $3.9 million of contracted services for general and special education, cyber, our cyber education program, legal services, testing, and audit services. $2.1 million for supplies for general and special education instruction. $2.3 million of federal fund title funds to support at risk students as well as access funds which support special education students. 2.2 million for students at the high school to attend Eastern 1.8 million to support co-curricular academic and athletic programs. 4.8 million for uh technology support infrastructure and telecommunications. Um, unfortunately, you know, we're paying $2.5 million or more um for tuition to charter school charter schools, but it's a it's a large expense. $1.2 million for insurance, $9.1 million for both

062our in-house and our contracted transportation services. Please recall that we're um and I don't know if these numbers are up up completely updated as these things change for Mr. REM daily, but 75 to 85 non-public charter schools um get transportation from us. Uh because we're with our proximity to Philadelphia, there are lot of schools that are within our 10 mile radius in which we have to provide um transportation. We have um 9.6 6 million for plant services, 34 million for um the contribution to the retirement program, which I covered earlier, 11.5 million in debt that um was used to pay for the construction and renovation of your elementary schools. Um as well as um our guaranteed energy savings projects and our playground renovations that are going on at this time. There's $19 million in districtwide

063uh benefits, medical associated benefits, and again 28.2 accumulate in support functions. So, it's a robust budget um that covers a great varied number of programs and um responsibilities that you're uh it takes to run this school district. This final slide is a comparison of the 2425 budget again with with the proposed 2526 budget. And the highlighted area of $5 million is um brought to your attention because this is the estimate presently of how much fund balance we may use um as we close out this current school year. So that's a um a far cry from the $1 million that was um originally approved by you um a year ago at this time. And what that does, it certainly bolsters um the ending fund balance um that we'll start end finish this current year and start

064the next year at $16.6 million. That number gets re reduced if we spend all 5.8 million of fund balance to $10 million. But I know Dr. Fetcher's goal will be again to encourage and test his um administrative team to uh do better than that. U similarly at least similarly to what um was accomplished this year. There are several other um agenda items that are that pertain to the um to the budget um which you know as we go through them we'll get a chance to explain those as we go ahead. Dr. Fetcher that concludes my summary presentation and if there's any questions um that you like like answered we'll do our best to do to do that. Thank you Mr. Letti. Uh we can answer any questions that you may have. Questions from the board.

065Mrs. Brown. Uh just a question about the when our budget ends. Is the the end of the budget season June 30th? It is. Um, however, there will be invoices and expenses that will be collected that will extend um our finalization of the budget probably into early August as we wait for invoices in particular for tuition from charter schools as we reconcile those uh some of our our student placements those invoices tend to lag. So but similarly we'll also be making sure that when we collect revenue that's due to us it'll also acrue to the current school year. So it's going to take some time for us to complete that. And as you know um in October we start our audit process where um they will look at our finances as well and as they usually

066do agree with what our assessment is. Does that answer your question? It does. It does. So, for the 5 million in allocated fund balance, it'll be around that much, but we won't know until after um August. I I would say that's a safe time frame that we'll be able to report that because um as you know, in August, we'll do um budget transfers where it may be warranted. And by I usually don't want to present that to you until I know we're pretty pretty close to the final numbers because I wouldn't want to move um budget allocations around without knowing what our final figures are going to be. Thank you. And the 11.5 million in debt uh services. Can you compare that to previous years? Is it a is it um standard? Are we doing

067better? Are we doing worse? That's a really good question, Mrs. Brown. So we have it's it's in flux. Um each year our principal and interest for four of our bond funds continue to diminish. As our principal diminishes, our expense diminishes and we have um off the top of my head two 2017 to 2021 bonds that have been ex that are existing due to projects as well as refunding prior year bonds. We did add a year ago the 2024 um bond for the projects that you're currently undergoing which are the guaranteed energy savings act projects for HVAC playgrounds Ryal excuse me McKinley's flooring project. So we've actually increased that uh slightly over um prior years. Now, we've structured them and we'll getting into this into August when we share future plans for borrowing that um we've

068been able to structure them where debt has is flat and as because it's been phased in and we're going to see um close to 11 million for the next couple years and then we're going to see about a million dollar dip of the existing debt. That's going to that's created some headroom for the full phasing in of the 2024 bonds that we issued a year ago. And of course we we'll be talking about how the multi-phase impact of $285 million project will impact those numbers. Definitely. And my last comment, I think, uh, is just an appreciation for slide number eight, which details, um, what our budget includes, the transparency there for not just the board members, but for the community to know that this is where our money is going, it it speaks volume. So,

069thank you so much. You're welcome. Other questions or comments? Okay, I have a uh couple of questions. The act one index, does that account for um the increase in paser's costs? My recollection on the calculation of the act one index is this there's two factors. statewide weekly average wage and then I believe a national wage um factor and those are averaged and then they actually they are reported to us a number of years in the rears. So we are seeing um last year was at 5.3% this is four we're probably seeing any impact of inflation of wages um the number of years ago and I think as you and I have discussed previously is that because you've asked about what's it look like for the future and it's going to continue to go down. Okay.

070Um so we might be in the mid3s and then the lower threes over the next few years. Okay. So I don't think it specifically takes into account um what you're asking. Okay. Um and then uh how many of our of the or how much of the cost that the district incurs for charter schools are for cyber charters? I have that information with me. If you bear with me, I'll Thank you. Presently we have 107 of our 136 students that are in charter schools are in cyber education. So that represents um four fifths of the possible $2.8 million that we're going to spend this year. Okay. So a significant amount. So the proposal in the current budget that is moving through the legislature is to cap those tuition costs. Is that correct? Yes. For cyber schools

071to $8,000 was the last reported amount that I saw. So that would represent a significant savings for us. Depending on our mix of special education and regular education students, I estimated anywhere between around 400 to $600,000 depending on that mix of students. So be significant. Okay. All right. Great. Thank you for that. Um Okay. I don't think I had any other questions, Mr. Allen. So, uh thank you, Mr. line Eddie for a whole detailed budget season not just tonight but through the past few months. Um the one thing that you touched on and I just want to underscore it is that uh Dr. Fetch or Dr. Melor through the push of like sharpening the pencil so to speak uh to tighten numbers up I think you shared that in this iteration there was like a

072$1.2 million reduction in um expenses due to that sharpening of the pencil. Could you or or Dr. Fetcher just talk about what that process is particularly? What does it look like uh coming back in August from a student perspective? Will there be a significant change or was this like holding off on buying textbooks? Just what does that look like? If you don't mind, I I'll try and answer. Um, a greatest the greatest portion of that savings is because of the recommendation that our director of human resources gave to you a year ago for using a subservice. So I understand from talking um with Miss Taylor that um that program is going very well in terms of its fill rate and the level of service that we're getting and that it has come in significantly under

073the amount that we had originally budgeted a year ago because it was our first year. So that was a s significant part and as I tried to explain and perhaps not adequately enough is that you know Dr. Fetcher challenged us all to look at um staffing. Anytime there's a staffing change, anytime there's a vacancy, you know, can that work be um reallocated? Can we use uh technology and software programs to leverage leverage those opportunities? Um and in some cases just to say, you know, does what we're doing add value? And if it's not adding any value, why are we doing it? It's a great question. Yeah. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Uh with that we move on to our first section. Comments from citizens. Comments from citizens are being conducted both in person and by

074phone. The phone number to participate is being displayed on the screen. 2677153717. You'll be able to join the meeting by calling in on your mobile or landline phone. Just a reminder that a citiz citizen will be recognized once during this period of the meeting and each citizen's comments will be limited to a total of three minutes except at the discretion of the president. Time may not be yielded or otherwise transferred by one speaker to another for purposes of extending a given speaker's time allotment. If there's anyone in the room who would like to make a comment, please use the microphones to your right or your left. [Music] If you could just state your name and address. Sure. Uh, excuse me. My name is Aaron Rosenfeld. Um, I live on Pleasant Avenue in Glennside. Uh, and

075I'm here as a concerned parent of some Copper Beach Elementary School students. Um on May 27th, the school board announced that the fourth and fifth grade classes will be increasing their size to 26 to 27 students. Um we were told that this is normal. We are told that it falls within the legal boundaries in state of Pennsylvania. Um and we were told that this told that this is mainly being mitigated by special education uh pullouts. Um what's unclear to us is how this is actually going to affect the students, how it's going to affect uh the teachers who are already spread thin. Um and how it's going to affect the uh standards that are being upheld in the classrooms. Um the research is pretty clear on this that smaller classes are better. Uh the land

076landmark Tennessee Star survey showed that students that are in small classrooms uh do better and they do better across the board. Um subsequent studies have shown this this persists. This persists through high school. This persists through college and even into the workforce. Uh smaller classes just get more attention. Uh they get more more support and um they get more opportunities. Um so yes, the the 2627 student uh is it's within the Pennsylvania state limits. Uh but we shouldn't confuse the legal requirements with what's effective. Um the National Education Association also recommends limiting to 25 or fewer children. um and these grade ranges especially in public school settings like our own. Um I also want to just address the mitigation strategy that was discussed um in terms of pulling out special education students. Um student by

077the definition in the slides the students considered pulled out if they spend um 95% or less time in the classroom. So this is a technical definition. Um it doesn't meaningfully change the classroom dynamics necessarily. Um, and even when students are pulled out for a substantial amount of time, the teacher is still at the end of the day responsible, they plan for them, they take care of them, um, they support them. Um, and although that pullouts can provide support for the this this minority of students, um, it doesn't alleviate the challenges in a crowded classroom and and framing that as a solution may be representing misrepresenting reality and risks undermining our trust. Um, I we all understand that the bud budget is tight. Um but class size isn't a luxury. It's the foundation. Uh if we

078get this wrong, uh nothing else we invest in, not curriculum, technology, infrastructure, facilities will matter. Um learning happens between I'm sorry. Uh learning happens between students and the teachers and that connection breaks down when the classes are large. Um so as the board, don't let that let this become the new normal. Don't settle for the legal maximum class size. Do what's right by your students. Don't settle for averages. Aim for excellence. Um, after all, excellence is our standard is supposed to be the motto you uphold. Uh, I know I'm not the only one who thinks that um, speaking up here falls on deaf ears. So, please act. Act act urgently and not with silence. Act leadership that our community elected you for. Uh, because come this fall, our students are going to walk into whatever

079classrooms we set up for them. So, please make sure that they um are the ones that they deserve. Thank you for your voice. Anyone else in the room? Um, hi, my name is Dominic Jones. I'm a Abington Senior High School student. I'm here with Montgomery County Teen Senate. And I kind of wanted to comment on our vape vape problem and drugs problem in the senior high school. It's blindingly obvious that there's still a major presence in the school of students. Like every time I'm going into a bathroom, you're going to see like three or four kids in one of the large stalls vaping or doing whatever, be it like nicotine vapes, THC vapes. And I know I was working with Mr. Tackle Pharaoh on our vape buyback program this year. And though it did have

080some students who willingly gave in their vapes and tried to get better, there was a very few amount of them compared to the amount I see in bathrooms constantly. And I think we should just like have more of a focus on like I guess at least making students more willing to realize that this is a problem toward them. Um I'd say our health program currently, our health curriculum, it does a good job at like raising awareness. So students know what they're in for. However, they still don't find it like I guess a thing to stop doing. uh they still make the choice to go be it through getting older people, their adults or older people to give them the vapes or through um just illegally buying them from stores that don't check their ID. Uh

081they do it and then they bring it to the school and then it causes more problems for more people like me because I have asthma. So going into those bathrooms, I'm usually bouncing around bathrooms every day trying to find a clean bathroom to not have breathing problems every time. So, um, yeah, I think just focusing on at least decreasing drug use throughout the school and decreasing the availability of drugs within the community would be really beneficial for every student. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Dish Joiner. I work along with Dominic along with Montgomery County Family Services. Could you state your address, please? My address? Yes. Uh, 88 Horus. I love Abington. Okay. Thank you. Um I personally specialize as along with Dominic in substance abuse. I personally too see you know walking in the bathrooms

082you see a circle of people vaping and it does affect me as well. I also have personal experiences with people uh that not only use vapes but also harsher substances that end up tearing their lives apart. On my part, I've been being in contact with my principal, trying to get, you know, implement clubs that'll bring awareness to the problem that is going on in our community. I also agree, I just want to touch on what Dominic said as well, too. I think it is very important to touch on the impact that it's having on our community. I think we should focus more on the vape problem. On my part, I'm contacting Edward McCann, our first assistant district attorney to come over to Abington High School as a guest speaker. Um, I'm I was, you know,

083putting an effort to bring awareness to this problem and yep, that's what I said. Thank you. Anyone else? Go ahead. Hi, I'm I'm sorry. This gentleman had his hand up. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Hi. Good evening, everybody. My name is Roy Bant. I live at 925 Cherokee Avenue in Abington. If you can clarify for me, I think you mentioned it's a 4.5% increase over last year in your numbers. There was a lot of data up there. It was very thorough. Thank you. My question is a 4.5% increase over last year this year's budget. We'll circle back at the end of the question period to try and answer that for you. And for Dr. Foucher. Uh, great on the $1.2 million, uh, you know, cutting out of expenses. My next question is, we're about to

084embark on a very large investment next year of $285 million. Can we cut any more out because of that? We're going to be rebuilding that whole school. There's going to be a lot of maintenance, a lot of costs with that existing school until next year. Can we help the budget this year by cutting out further expenses to help the taxpayers? Okay. Is that it? That's it. Thank you. Thank you for your voice. Okay. Sorry. Hi. Uh my name is Julia Goldstein. I live on Jenintown Road in Glenside. Uh first, thank you for your service on the board. Um I know we're all here because we want what is best for the students in Abington. I have two kids, a rising third grader and a rising fifth grader at Copper Beach Elementary. I also want to

085express for the record my deep concerns about the elimination of a fifth and a fourth grade class at Copper Beach Elementary resulting in an increase in class size and in the student teacher ratio. I understand there have been budget cuts among other factors. However, I truly feel that the students and the teachers will suffer as a result of this decision. There have been numerous studies that show that students learn best and do better in smaller class size and with smaller student teacher ratio. I have spoken to teachers at Copper Beach who are unhappy with the decision and they have said they will need to modify the way that they teach. Also, I work as a substitute teacher and I can tell you that there is absolutely a huge difference in a class size of 22

086students and a class size of 26 students. I don't think this is fair to the students, to the teachers, or to the administration at Copper Beach Elementary. In short, I sincerely hope you'll reconsider this decision, please. Thank you. Thank you for your voice. We'll take one more person in the room and then move to our online callers. Go ahead. Hi, my name is Liza Rogish and I live on Central Avenue in Glennside. Um, I just want to echo what my fellow parents have said. I won't repeat what they said. I think they spoke beautifully. Um, but this is how many of the parents are feeling uh in the district. I've had a lot of feedback from the community. Um, I've reached out on Facebook and I've I've heard a lot of um dismay and cons

087concern about these class sizes. So, I am hoping that you do reconsider um and see what can be done to modify these. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cargus. Yes, we have uh the next uh citizen uh for public comment. Phone number ending in 3917. Please state your full name and address. Hi. Um I Amanda Bennett, Maplewood Avenue. I was calling to also echo some of the concerns that other parents have stated about the increase sizes. I personally don't have a student who is going to be impacted by this. But I think if the middle school referendum showed us anything, it's that this community cares about not just our own people and our families, but everyone as a community as a whole. Um, my kids attend Overlook and this is happening with our fifth grade classes

088that it is going to increase for next year. I think some of the classes are already struggling with the 20s low 20s student ratio and although students are being pulled out uh they're still part of the classrooms and I know it was mentioned previously that we'll be teaching in in smaller groups and smaller pods. I think the research supports this as best practice and we should be doing that always not just as a you know a band-aid to our larger classes and so I really hope this does not become the norm. I think our students and our teachers deserve better and I'd like to retain the great staff that we have in the district. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cargus. There are no more callers. Okay, great. Is there anyone else in the room who

089would like to make a comment at this point? No. Okay. All right. Uh Dr. Fetcher. Okay. Uh first of all I want to thank um everyone for coming out this evening and uh ultimately in terms of class size um we agree that you know we try to maintain as small of class size as possible uh within our budgetary constraints. Um the just to speak about a few things that were stated this evening. Um some points of clarification that I'd like to make in terms of how the how the information was presented this year. Uh it was presented in two formats. And the reason why we did that is for greater transparency. In the past uh the district presented information with the 95% um special education students removed. that was the only format that that that

090information was presented. Uh we have then also presented it um over the past few years with just the total amount and um felt that it was important to show both both ways that this is uh presented uh in order to give a reality of the situation in the classroom and that is partially uh due to the fact that there could be a student who is in the classroom 20% of the time 40% of the time those types of things are taken into consideration um as we look at composition of classes uh teachers who are teaching those particular classes uh as well as the numbers to look at the way that the um classes ended this year. I'm going to give an example. Grade five at Copper Beach this year had three classes of 26 and

091two classes of 25. So as we look at a decrease in enrollment, we are trying to balance the number of what we would call um FTEEs or number of teachers uh and staff members to that of our enrollment and try to balance that. Um what we will do however is we continue to monitor this. We look at our registrations because these are all predictions of uh enrollment and who's going to be in the class. We will monitor the registrations withdrawals as well as uh the composition in the classrooms. So we will work with the principles. The principles will give us feedback. uh if we look at a class size and we have multiple registrations or we don't have the um any withdrawals or movement within that and our enrollment increases we have the capability to

092add uh sections if necessary within this current budget that was presented. I also want to can I just ask a quick follow? So I just I just want to make sure I understand. So the numbers of last year's fifth grade classes are consistent with the projections for next year's fifth grade classes. Is that right? So 26 last year 26. So this year had an increase of one student and the 27. Um Dr. Melor, can you run through those numbers? I I'm doing that from the top of my head. I don't Okay. Thank you. Sure. You're you're correct with with those particular sections of fifth grade at Copper Beach. Um the numbers that were presented are projections. We continue to look at them uh over the course of the summer. I can tell you that, you

093know, we we'll run um next year enrollment on a weekly basis. We've run it one time so far since the end of the school year last week. And that first run we're 182 students K to5 across the district lower than what was presented to you as the projection. Um at our two biggest schools, Copper Beach and McKinley were 39 students each under what is projected. So, we'll continue to look at the projections, continue to look at the withdrawals, any requests for um need to move students for a particular special education program, for instance, that might be in one school as opposed to another. So, there are a number of factors that will go into what the final numbers will be. Um, and again, as Dr. said and looking working with each principal at what the

094enrollment numbers as we work our way to August based upon the ongoing registrations and withdrawals that happened over the summer to get the keep those numbers similar to where they were this year. So that's 39 fewer students across K through five at Copper Beach, right? In that particular school. So it it might have an impact of a couple of students, a half dozen students at an individual grade level that might result in a decrease of one or two students from what was presented in the projection. Okay. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Sorry to interrupt. No. Um I just want to to emphasize though um in terms of what our parents have spoken about this evening u that we do take that into consideration. I appreciate your coming out. It is important um to hear

095your perspective. It is also important you know for us to try to maintain the class sizes as best as we can um with whatever you know restrictions we have. So, I do appreciate you're coming out and, you know, we'll we will continue to to look at this as the summer goes on. Um, sometimes we even get to the point where we are calling people in the classes uh to make sure if they haven't registered or um to see if they are returning so we can make an informed decision. We often do that um toward the end of July if necessary. uh especially with new registrations. Um and also if we have a large number of people that come into a particular school or grade level that have not been part of our you know predictions

096then we have to make adjustments. Um and we are prepared to do that if if necessary. Um I want to move to our students who are here this evening. I want to thank them for coming out and uh discussing um what is a major problem uh across our country and that is uh vaping and use of drugs and I think that I want to applaud them for their willingness to come to this meeting and speak about that and I want to ensure them that their voices are heard here um but they're also heard um wherever uh this uh broadcast goes. And I think that that is the most important way that we can combat that problem is through uh being specific, putting the word out there and making sure that our students voice is heard.

097I think it's powerful. It's much more powerful as I always tell students coming from them than coming from me because uh there it's their peers and their peers tend to listen to them more than they do us as adults. Although we'd like to think that they would listen to us as well. Uh but I have learned over the years um that that's not necessarily the case, especially even with my own children. Um, so that being said, I want to thank them for coming out and I know that um, you know, Dr. Swift uh, will be um, excited to hear that those voices were here and work together with the students um, at the high school particularly to address some of those issues or those concerns. Uh, in terms of the question about the budget, Mr.

098the line. Eddie, do you want to speak about the increase? Yeah, I believe there's three numbers to share based on um what I heard in the question. The um percent increase in expenses is 1.65% budget-to-budget. The increase in revenue is 4.59%. So even with that disparity, we have a 2.5% um shortfall, which is why we're allocating fund balance. I think there also was a question in regard to um can we cut more out of the budget because of the referendum and part of what our large concern if the referendum did not pass uh came to what we would have to do in order to repair or address long-term needs of the middle school facility and and when that would begin. And some of the numbers that you know we presented if that were the case

099would show or demonstrate that our budget would have to allocate more fund balance in order to be able to um to meet those needs and some of those long-term needs within the facility. Um as you can see our fund balance and the position where our fund balance is is not in a favorable position. Um we it is recommended often that a school district have at least two months of operating expenses within a fund balance um for shortfalls or also for payments to come into the district. And right now, if we continue to diminish our fund balance, we will be not be in that position. Um, so the key for us here in in in the district over the next couple years is to truly reduce the deficit spending. And that what that means is not

100to use our fund balance uh in order to balance the budget. Okay. And I don't know if you or Mr. Donahghue can speak to this, but the um the bonds that will be issued for the middle school project can only be used for that project, right? So, they can't be applied to ordinary operating expenses. Correct. Okay. Yeah. So, the the $285 million that was voted um as potential for borrowing of the bond up to $285 million um is only allowed to be used for the middle school project as it was on the um ballot and and stated on the ballot. I don't know if Mr. Don Hugh if you want to just briefly the the um when you borrow when you issue bonds you can never use that for operating always has to go to

101capital expenditures in the case of this particular case you have a referendum that allows you to borrow this money for this specific capital project so you couldn't even add you wanted to do something at one of the elementary schools you couldn't do that as part of the 285 right I just wanted to clarify that it's not a windfall for the district, that this money is already earmarked for a specific project. And and the key the key of that is it's up to um that amount. And the goal of our team and you know, our design team is to try to reduce that $285 million as much as possible so that uh the burden is less on the taxpayers. And so what we're what we'll do as we look through the design phase is we'll keep

102that in mind and any of our um people who are working toward the design phase uh know that that is a goal of the district uh to try to come in under uh the amount. Um but also I think it's important to note too for the taxpayers that the the amount of borrowing will be done um in segments and uh so that it won't um hit all the taxpayers at once. Not $285 million won't be borrowed tomorrow and then all of a sudden everyone is receiving that uh tax burden. Um so our first our first barring will be mostly uh to cover design phases and Mr. Letti anything if you want to expand on that a little bit. Um just modestly Dr. Fetcher you have it um correct we'll be looking to do a first

103borrowing um in August or September to cover the costs that you that you stated and that we will be looking to phase that into the 2627 budget year. there will be no impact on the budget that we presented um on that borrowing other than a $5,000 payment which is for principal for the first year and that's covered in your budget the way it was presented. So there'll be no impact on the millage rate for next year. Correct. Um I assume that part of the district's um commitment to managing costs also entails ensuring quality of work on the project as well. Correct. Okay. Is are there any is there anything else you want to respond to? I think I think that's everything. I'm sorry. Go ahead. That's fine. Um yeah, I our students have left the

104building, but um I want to add my thanks um to them for making the effort to come out tonight and to um participate in this public forum and draw our attention to some ongoing issues in the building. Um any other comments? No. Okay. All right. Uh that brings us to our first agenda item which is personnel. Miss Fazy, can you please read the recommendation to approve the personnel addendum? That the board of school directors approves the changes in personnel as reflected in personnel addendum number 6.1, 6.1A, 6.1B, and 6.1 C. Second. We have a second. Dr. Fetcher. Okay. Well, as tonight uh was Mr. Lionetti's final budget presentation, um I am I am pleased this evening uh to recommend Miss Patricia Denola, if you could please stand. She's here this evening um for the position

105of chief financial officer for the Abington School District. Miss Danakola brings an impressive background consisting of both public and private sector financial leadership experience having served for over 20 years as a chief financial officer in both the public and private sectors. Most recently, Miss Denakola has held a position of chief financial officer for Bertown School District as well as the executive director of the public health insurance cooperative. In this role, she was responsible for the oversight of a budget of 145 million and led all areas of the business office, including payroll, accounting, tax administration, transportation, food services, uh, information technology, student accounting, accounts payable, and accounts receivable. In addition to her over 13 years of experience in Pennsylvania public schools financial leadership, she's held various positions in corporate and public financial firms. Miss Duncola holds

106a bachelor of science in business administration, a master's in business and administration or MBA from Lehi University and is a certified public accountant or CPA. We are pleased to welcome her to our team and we are certain that she will make an immediate positive impact. And addendum number 6.1 contains the employment contract for Miss Danakola as chief financial officer for Abington School District. I'm going to continue. Thank you. Uh addendum 6.1B contains the employment contract of Miss Christine Taylor, our director of human resources. At the time of Miss Taylor's hire, a contract was not developed. It has not as at that time it had not been the practice of the district in years prior. Under our solicitor's legal advice, it was in the district's and employees best interest that this level of position within our

107district be codified in a contract. The personal addendum uh continues with requests for leaves of absence for three professional employees, compensation for IEP meetings, and rehire of six current long-term substitutes for the 202526 school year. Of these, three have been rehired as temporary professional employees. Thank you. Okay. Um I just wanted to um say that Mr. Allen and I had the chance to serve on the um hiring committee for um I'm not going to say your replacement, your Mr. Lionett successor. Um and it the MCIU sent us a really impressive pool of candidates. Um, Miss Denola stood out from my perspective, head and shoulders above a really competitive field. Um, in particular, her strong commitment to public education um, and stabilizing our financial picture. So, I want to thank you for your presentation um, and

108add my welcome to the team. Mr. Allen, do you want to add anything? I second that to that. You second that. Okay. Um competition was fierce. Yeah, it was. Um so well done. Um we're very happy to have you. Any comments, questions from my fellow board members? Welcome and congratulations. Yes, welcome to the Abington family. I look forward to seeing your work. Um we will definitely miss u Mr. Lionetti with all our heart, but our arms are w are open uh to welcome you and uh for Miss uh Taylor, you're official. Congratulations. Thank you for all you've done within the one year that you've been here. You really um as Mr. Lionetti has uh spoke about that oneline item just with you bringing your expertise with the um with the substitute system. We value you

109uh and I hope your contract shows you that. So, thank you so much. All right, Mrs. Flanigan, this is a roll call vote. Mr. Allen, I. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Miss Balding, I. Miss Frasier, I. Miss Fazy, I. Dr. Mauy, I. The eyes have it and the motion passes. Miss Fazy, can you please read the recommendation for approval of the financial report? that the board of school directors approves the financial report for the period ending May 31st, 2025 as reflected in addendum number 7.1. Second. We have a second. Thank you. Um although I did say that Mr. Led was his final budget report. Um he still has some other reports this evening. So Mr. Lionetti, could you summarize the fi May 2025 financial report? Thank you Dr. Fcher. For the period ending May

1101st, 2025, real estate tax collections are ahead $600 when compared to the same time period in 2024. Year-to date, total revenue is $9.5 million ahead of last year at $177 million. In May of 2024, the district had collected 167.5. The difference is due to the 5.3% act one index real estate tax increase in 2425 and greater receipts in delinquent taxes interest earnings as well as increased state basic education and special education subsidies. Year-to- date expenditures are 162.4 million which is 6.8 million greater than this time last year at 155.6. In terms of percent of budget however 81.4% 4% of the budget is expended year to date and last year at this time 81.9% had been expended. That concludes um my summary report. If there's any questions that anyone would like, we'll do our best to

111answer them. Okay. Questions or comments? No. Okay. Miss W, I left you out last time. I'm sorry. Okay. Um All right. Mrs. Flanigan, this is also a roll call vote. Mr. Allen, I. Mrs. Brown I Miss Eisenhart I Miss Balding I Miss Frasier I Miss Fazy I Dr. Mauy I the eyes have it and the motion passes. Miss Fazy, can you please read the recommendation for approval of payment of bills? That the board of school directors approves the payment of bills for the period ending May 31st, 2025. Is it reflected in addendum number 8.1? Second. We have a second. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have regarding the payment of bills. Okay. Questions or comments? Okay, let's do it. Mr. Allen, I. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Miss Balding, I. Miss

112Frasier, I. Miss Fazy, I. Dr. Mauy, I. The eyes have it and the motion passes. Miss Fazy, could you please read the recommendation for permits for use of buildings and grounds? That the board of school directors approves the applications for permits for use of buildings and grounds as reflected in addendum number 9.1. Second, Dr. Fetcher. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. The uh permit addendum continues to reflect requests for buildings and grounds for meetings and school events and activities for this time of year. Okay. Questions or comments from the board? uh just to continue uh thank you to uh our community members and staff who create spaces, our athletic department who will continue to create space throughout the summer. Thank you for all that you do. And just to add to that, it's interesting that we're um

113ending the school year and yet our staff and teachers are already planning um for September activities to create just wonderful opportunities to welcome the students back. So, pretty cool. Anyone else? [Music] Okay. The work of an educator is ongoing. All right. Mrs. Fanigan, if you would please. Mr. Allen, I. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Miss Balding, I. Miss Frasier, I. Miss Fazy, I. Dr. Mauy, I. The eyes have it and the motion passes. Uh, that brings us to awards of contracts. Miss Fazy, can you please read the recommendation for awards of contracts? That the board of school directors approves the awards of contracts and as reflected in addendum number 10.1. Second. Dr. Fetcher. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. Uh, tonight we have for your consideration 12 awards of contract and two Montgomery County joint purchasing

114agreements. I'll run through through them briefly. If there are any questions, I can go back. Uh, art supplies. This is from the uh general fund budget district assessment and data management software services. This is from uh the general fund budget emergency communication or pots plain old telephone service telephones um lines and that's for emergency purposes and that is from the general fund budget. Uh feminine hygiene products uh this is from the feminine hygiene product grant program. uh first aid supplies. This is from our proposed final general fund budget. Food service kitchen equipment, ovens, and that is uh for Copper Beach, Roslin, and Ryal Elementary Schools. And that's from the district's food service fund, food service kitchen equipment serving lines at Abington Middle School, um McKinley and Willow Hill Elementary Schools, and that's from the district

115food service fund. Food service kitchen small wares. Uh, that's from the district's food service fund. General supplies from our general fund budget, physical education supplies from the proposed final general fund budget, student data, school business, and human resource management system for a period from July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. And that's from the uh general fund budget. Uh it will be split over the years for the renewals uh in um future budgets. Our telephone and communication services from the general fund budget. Moving to our Montgomery County school entities joint purchasing our custodial supplies uh from our general fund budget and duplicating and computer paper from our general fund budget. As you can see, majority of these awards of contract uh that are presented this evening are so that we can uh begin the next

116school year with everything, all of our supplies and ready to go. Okay. Thank you. Questions? Just wanted to make a comment. Uh there was a time where lack of feminine hygiene products would keep girls from coming to school. Uh so to know that this is a part did you say it was through grant money? Yes. um that uh this is being funded so that girls can come to school and not have to miss school due to a period. I'm very proud of uh the progress that our state has made with this. Absolutely. Anyone else? No. Okay. Mrs. Flanigan. Mr. Allen. I. Mrs. Brown. I. Miss Eisenhart. Hi. Miss Golden. I Miss Frasier I Miss Fazy I Dr. Mauy I the eyes have it and the motion passes. Um can we combine 111 and 112? Okay.

117All right. Miss Fazy, can you please read the recommendations uh in agenda 111 and 112 for adoption of the general fund budget? that the board of school directors adopts the general fund budget of the Abington School District for the 2025 2026 school year in the amount of two 202,851,663 as reflected in addendum number 11.1. Action was taken to adopt and make available for public inspection the proposed final general fund budget May 13, 2025 as required by act one of 2006. Public budget presentations were made on the following dates. Initial draft general fund budget on March 11th, 2025 and budget update on May 27th, 2025. and that the board of school directors authorizes the appropriate expenditures of the funds as itemized in the final budget during the fiscal year beginning the first day of July 2025.

118that the necessary revenue for same shall be provided by a real estate transfer tax of 1 half% and by a tax of 38.55 mills on the dollar of the total amount of assessed value of all property taxable for school purposes in the Abington School District or at the rate of 3.855 855 on each $100 of assessed val assessed value taxable property and by an earned income tax of 1 12% on residents of Abington School District. Second, [Applause] Dr. Fetcher, the um budget was presented this evening during our orientation. We're happy to answer any further questions that you may have. Questions or comments from the board? No. Um, I'm I'm just going to add this. I want to add my thanks to you and your team for um their very careful attention to the district's expenses.

119Um, in some ways budgets are simple documents, in other ways they're not because of the particular mission that school districts have, which is to educate children. Um, we are required to balance good stewardship, good stewardship with um, educational needs. Uh, and I think you do that well. Um, I appreciate your responsiveness to the parents who we've heard some from who have concerns about class sizes. Um, the concerns are valid and I know that you'll continue to monitor the situation throughout the summer. Um it's you know we like a lot of districts in the state we face some significant headwinds but we are already on the road to putting the district on more solid footing. Um so with that Mrs. Flanigan this is a roll call vote. Mr. Allen I. Mrs. Brown I Miss Eisenhart I

120Miss Balding I Miss Frasier I Miss Fazy I Dr. Mauy I the eyes have it and the motion passes. This brings us to item 12. Miss Fazy, can you please read the recommendations in agenda items 12.1 and 12.2 two for authorization to enter into construction contracts and change orders. That the board of school directors authorizes the superintendent of schools to enter into construction contracts at a value per contract not to exceed $80,000 until the next board meeting. and that the board of school directors authorizes the superintendent of schools to issue construction change directives at a value per contract not to exceed $20,000 until the next board meeting. Second, Dr. Fre uh sorry, Dr. Fetcher, we have a second. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. This item is an annual request that gives authorization to superintendent uh to

121enter into construction contracts throughout the summer with the understanding that they will be submitted to the board for review and at the next uh available board meeting in August. And this also uh is the case with our construction change directives throughout the summer if we need the board does not meet in July. Uh so it is important that we keep our projects moving and uh this authorization provides me with the authority to um be able to keep those things going. However, they will be uh confirmed and uh submitted to your review in August. Okay. Questions or comments from the board? Playgrounds are important. Inclusive playgrounds are important. Absolutely. and ours are going to be awesome. Anyone else? They're looking great so far and uh we keep checking on them and um getting updates from Mr.

122Curtain and uh I know Dr. Melor travels to the sites frequently as well as we've met at one without realizing the two of us were going to be there at one time. So, we're checking up on the project, but we're excited for our kids um for this for this project. Do you get to test the equipment? I I don't Well, I hope there's not a limit on some of the equipment, but that's another story for another day. All right, Mrs. Flanigan, could we please do the roll call vote? Mr. Allen, I. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Miss Balding, I. Miss Frasier, I. Miss Fazy, I. Dr. Mauy, I. The eyes have it and the motion passes. Brings us to item 13, government accounting standards. Uh, Miss Fazy, can you please read the recommendation for

123the classification of fund balances? that the board of school directors authorizes the estimated dollar amounts for the classification of fund balances in the general fund and capital projects fund with the final fund balance dollar amounts being determined in concert with the local independent auditor's preparation for the audited annual financials report as reflected in adem 13.1 and authorizes the chief financial officer to delineate estimated dollar amounts for the fund balance of the special revenue fund with the final fund balance amounts being determined in concert with the local independent auditor's preparation of the audited annual financial report. Second. Dr. Fetcher. So this is for the Gazsby 54 classification of fund balance. Mr. Lionetti, do you want to summarize that? Thank you, Dr. Fetcher. Our board policy and superintendent's administrative procedure require that the general fund and capital

124project fund fund balance has be classified on a hierarchy of constraints that designate the use of fund balance for specific purposes. Addendum 13.1 classifies the fund balance as committed which upon the board's approval places the greatest amount of constraint on the administration regarding the use of those fund balances. The estimated general fund fund balance at 16.6 6 million is committed for future capital projects, assessment appeal litigation, stabilization of employee benefits, contingencies for transportation, and CPASS expenditure. CPASS being our selffunded uh insurance um provider. The $15.4 $4 million capital projects fund. Fund balance is committed to the Abington senior high school additions and renovations project, minor technology and HVAC project as well as our guaranteed energy savings act projects, playground renovations project, and McKinley flooring projects. The fund balances are based on estimates with the final

125fund balance amounts to be determined in concert with our auditors preparation of the 2425 audit. That concludes my Thank you, Mr. So, I questions or comments from the board. Let's do it. Mr. Allen, I Mrs. Brown I Miss Eisenhart I. Miss Balding I. Miss Frasier I. Miss Fazy I. Dr. Mauy I. The eyes have it and the motion passes. Miss Fasy, could you please read the recommendation for the taxpayer relief de act that the board of school directors establishes the following homestead exclusion and farmstead exclusion for the 2025 to 2026 fiscal year in that all eligible homesteads and eligible farmstead shall receive a homestead and or farmstead exclusion of $13,830 of the assessed value of the homestead and or farm Armstead, which based on the millillage rate established for the 2025 through 2026 fiscal year

126corresponds to a tax reduction of $533. Furthermore, the tax collector shall itemize the exclusion on each eligible homestead and eligible farmstead owners annual property tax bill showing the assessed value, the tax liability on the assessed value, the amount of the homestead and/or farmstead exclusion and assessed value, the actual tax liability after the homestead and/or farmstead exclusion, and the actual tax savings associated with the homestead. stead and/or farmstead exclusion. Additionally, the tax collector shall have the following notice included in the annual property tax bills in July 2025 of all owners of eligible homestead and/or farmstead properties and not included with interim tax bills. Notice of property tax relief. Your enclosed tax bill includes a tax reduction for your homestead and or farmstead property. As an eligible homestead and/or farmstead property owner, you have received tax relief

127through a homestead and/or farmstead exclusion, which has been provided under the Pennsylvania Taxpayer Relief Act, a law passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly designed to reduce your property taxes. Second, Dr. Fetcher. Thank you. Well done. By the way, I don't I feel like we should applaud the performance. Clearly a lawyer had something to do with that, but um you know, let's move on. Um Mr. Lionetti, thank you. Under the provision of the back door of 2006, the taxpayer relief act. This resolution establishes homestead exclusion for the 2526 school year that provides for 533 real estate tax reduction uh on the real estate tax invoices for homesteads. Pennsylvania Department of Education has certified that the school district's property reduction allocation for 2526 is 7 million, excuse me, 7.9 million and is reflected in our 2526 general

128fund budget that you approved. The McGomery County Assessment Department has certified that the district has 14,917 eligible homestead properties in the district. The $533 tax reduction is the same for all homesteads regardless of the assessed value of the property. Homestead release is available to taxpayers that have identified to the county that they live in the home that they own. That completes the summary on Are there questions or comments from the board? Okay, Mrs. Flanigan, let's do it. Mr. Allen, I. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Miss Balding, I Miss Frasier, I. Miss Fazy I. Dr. Maui I the eyes have it. The motion passes. Miss Fazy, could you please read the brief recommendation for the charge to tax collectors. that the board of school directors approves the charge to tax collectors Karen Sanchez of Abington

129Township and Albert Wartman of the Burrow of Rocklage as reflected in addendum number 15.1. Second. We have a second. Dr. Professor Bill Eddie. Addendum 15.1 provides the required assessment and millage rate information and direction to our Abene and Rocklage tax collectors that generates the real estate tax revenue that supports your 2526 general fund budget. Thank you, Mr. Lenny. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean just thanking him. Thank you, Mr. Lionetti. Questions or comments from the board? All right, Mrs. Flanigan, let's do this. Mr. Allen, I. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Miss Balding, I. Miss Frasier, I. Miss Fazy, I. Dr. Maui, I. The eyes have it. The motion passes. Miss Fazy, could you please read the recommendation for the real estate transfer tax? that the board of school directors record officially in the minutes

130of the provisions of section 4 of the act of assembly of December 31st, 1956 PL257 known and cited as the local tax enabling act as amended by act number 160 of October 9th, 1967 which provides every such tax shall continue in force on a calendar or fiscal year basis as the case may be without annual reenactment unless the rate of the tax is subsequently changed. The terms, conditions, and provisions of the Abington School District real estate transfer tax resolution were duly approved and adopted on May 27th, 1968 and amend and amended on June 24th, 1986, January 13, 1987, and June 26th, 2007. Second. We have a second. Dr. Fischer. Thank you, Dr. Murray. This resolution is required by law to generate the revenue to support the expense budget recommended uh for approval in agenda item

13111.1 which is the adoption of the uh 202526 uh general fund final general fund budget. Okay. Uh questions or comments from the board? Uh, Mrs. Flanigan, please. Mr. Allen, I. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Miss Falding, I. Miss Fazy, I. Dr. Mauy, I. The eyes have it and the motion passes. Mr. Donahghue. Do we need to note Miss Fraser's absence? Yes. The sec board secretary will note. Okay. She stepped out from Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh okay. That brings us to agenda item number 17, the very important senior citizen real estate tax rebate program. Miss Basy. that the board of school directors approves the attached resolution to establish a senior citizen real estate tax rebate program as reflected in addendum number 17.1. Dr. Fetcher. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Thank you, Dr. Mallerie.

132Uh, the formal resolution establishes a 40% rebate program in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue Real Estate Tax uh rebate program. Okay. Um this is an important uh resource for senior citizens in our community. Um questions or comments from the board? Yeah, just noting that it's um the program's increasing annually and I look forward to that continuing so and appreciate um the community for offering it. Participation is increasing. Yes. Yes. Okay. Right. I just wanted to clarify that. Thanks. Sure. Anyone else? Miss Molding. No, it's okay. Okay. All right. Mrs. Flanigan. Mr. Allen. I. Mrs. Brown. I. Miss Eisenhart. I. Miss. Balding. I. Miss Fazy. I. Dr. Mauy. I. The eyes have it and the motion passes. Miss Fazy. That brings us to the employee assignment book. Could you please read that recommendation? that

133the board of school directors approves the employee assignment book for 2025 through 2026 subject to correction if calculations do not reflect the appropriate bargaining agreement. Second. We have a second. Dr. Fetcher. Thank you, Dr. Mallerie. The employee assignment book for 202526 reflects compensations to employees in bargaining unit agreements and those established by the board for individuals who are not represented in a bargaining unit. Okay. Questions or comments from the board? Okay. Mrs. Flanigan, please. Mr. Allen, I. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Miss Balding, I. Miss Frasier, I. Miss Fazy, I. Dr. Mauy, I. The eyes have it and the motion passes. Miss Fazy, can you please read the recommendation for for school security services? Sure. that the board of school directors authorizes the administration to enter into an agreement with Cardinal Point Homeland Security

134Group LLC, CPSG, for school security services based on the rates and fees set forth in the agreement. Second, Dr. Fetcher. Yes. This is for a a continued agreement uh with our um school security services in both the secondary buildings and uh this is uh done with a renewal um on an annual basis as well. Okay, just so I just want to clarify the agenda item heading on this says school resource officers, but these are on my Oh, okay. I beg your pardon. My mistake. Um so are are we satisfied that the um security officers are getting appropriate training to work with our students? Yes. So uh we have um continually increased our training of our and required trainings of our school um security officers. Dr. from Melor, do you want to talk a little bit

135more about uh the types of trainings that are required um along with our school district employees as well? Sure. There are required trainings in order for individuals to serve in in a capacity as a school security officer. So, it is a requirement by law that they complete the same basic SRO, school resource officer training as our school resource officers do. In addition to that, um they participate in trauma-informed practices, restorative practices trainings uh within the school district that are provided to our other employees um at the start of each school year. They also meet with our school police officers uh Mr. Begley and Mr. Hawkland as well as with Dr. Lain and members of our student services department um to be informed with regard to uh appropriate contact with students uh title 9 um verbal

136deescalation and other strategies in working with our young people at the middle school and the senior high school. Um we've also through the course of this year met with the company to discuss um some concerns with regard to job performance active engagement uh by some uh of the security team uh in the schools. They worked with us to provide some additional training as well to their staff as the year progressed. Um so with approval of this uh item and renewal for next year beginning next week, Dr. Swift, Mr. file. Members of the central staff will work with Cardinal Point for selection and continuation of some officers, selection of some new officers for next year, and then proceed with training so we're ready to go for the start of the school year. Okay. Um, and who

137who do the Cardinal Point officers report to? Do they have a district contact person? So, there's a combination. There are nine agents assigned to the senior high school, five to the middle school, and then there is one uh additional agent who is the point person for Cardinal Point between both uh schools. Mr. Hawkwind uh interacts with that individual as well as with individual agents uh in the two buildings and then the agents also uh report to u administrators at the school building. So, Dr. Swift, Mr. Bryson uh at the senior high school and uh Miss Smith and Mr. File at the middle school. Okay. Okay. Um I want to thank Mr. Hawwin for her for his supervision of uh the security officers as well as our building administrators. Any other questions or comments from the

138board? Uh I note that it's a three-year agreement, but although it is a three-year agreement there uh is renewed annually. So that any point within those three years, we can say this is no longer serving us well. Uh with within those years, uh there's also room to talk about individual personnel. For example, if five of the personnel, they're doing great at the middle school, but there's one struggling at the high school, uh there's also opportunity to switch that individual out. Correct. Correct. Thank you. um we if if we do have an issue with a particular um security officer, what we can do is work with the the company and explain that. And usually I don't I haven't found a time and since we've had security officers that if we are not comfortable with someone for

139whatever reason they've been um able to move that person not even to another uh location or another uh task and not here and replace them with someone. So they they're very receptive to our feedback. And bottom line is if we say this we don't want this person back um they're not coming back. I recall in in the past early on when I took my seat um there were some community members who were concerned about a lack of representation of male and female workers. Can you speak to that? Ye yes part of um when we work in establishing the contract we ask that there be a balance of males and females. And I think it's um pretty well represented. Dr. Melor, you probably know the numbers better than I do. I don't know those numbers specifically,

140but we do make an effort um to have representation um so that the security agents look like the students that they are serving. And we have, you know, male and female agents available to work with our um students at both schools. Um we we do also engage um the middle school and the high school teams as well as Mr. Hawkwind in selection of the officers so that there's clarity by CPSG but also the individual guards as to what the expectations are for their performance and their interaction with our students. Thank you. Anyone else? No. Okay. Mrs. Flanigan, Mr. Allen, I Mrs. Brown, I Miss Eisenhart, I. Miss Balding, I Miss Frasier, I Miss Fazy, I. Dr. Mauy, I The eyes have it and the motion passes. Miss Fasy, can you please read the recommendation for

141reappointing the solicitor? Sure. that the board of school directors appoints the firm of Whistler Pearlstein for Abington School District for the period beginning June July 1st 2025 and ending June 30th 2027 for an annual base compensation of $46,000. All services not covered by the base compensation will be charged in accordance with the with the memorandum entitled Abington School District/solicitors compensation as reflected in addendum number 20.1 agreement. Second. We have a second. Dr. Fetcher. Thank you Dr. Maui. Um it is necessary at this time to reappoint our solicitor at the firm of Whistler Pearlstein for the 202526 and 202627 school years. Um we through this recommendation uh as we've been extremely pleased with the services of Whistler Pearlstein uh and what they have provided the Abington School District since 1992 and we would like to firm

142to continue in that capacity. Um the re reappointment and compensation will cover a 24-month period uh as I mentioned from July 1st, uh to June 30th, 2027. Okay. Questions or comments from the board? I just wanted to um Mr. throw down since we uh we get to see you and work with you more often than not. Uh that your council has always been consistent and uh very professional and I just want to thank you for that. I know that uh if I call on you or if I have a clarifying question that you will give an answer that is in alignment with with the law. So thank you so much for your expertise. Anyone else? I agree with that. I would I would add my voice to that as well. Um, we certainly appreciate your

143your counsel and um your expertise in safeguarding the district and making sure that we're making sound decisions on behalf of our students. So, very pleased with this. Uh, Mrs. Flanigan, Mr. Allen I Mrs. Brown I Miss Eisenhart I Miss Balding I Miss Frasier I Miss Fazy I Dr. Mauy I the eyes have it and the motion passes. Miss Fazy, can you please read the recommendation for federal grant applications? that the board of school directors authorize the office of the superintendent of schools at no additional compensation to file applications for 2025 through 2026 federal grant transfers for title one, title two, title three, and title four funds in accordance with the procedures administered through the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Division of Federal Grant Programs. Second. We have a second, Dr. Fetcher. Uh thank you, Dr. Murray.

144Uh this essentially authorizes um the superintendent of schools and uh to file applications for federal funds with as mentioned titles one, two, three, and four. Okay. Questions or comments? These are I just want to make sure I understand. So these are federally administered programs. um the monies for which are dispersed to the states and then we apply to the Pennsylvania Department of Education for our portion. Correct. Okay. And there's no change in that for the upcoming budget year. There are changes from the 2425 to the 22 sorry 25 26 school years. Um and that is I can run through those amounts. Title one is a change of less of $10,630. Uh title two is an increase of $11,339. Title three is a decrease of $10,28 and title four is a decrease of $4,389. Okay. Are

145those decreases separate from the exhaustion of the ers fund funds? Yes. Okay. And those decreases are coming directly from Washington or from we don't know. Mr. Lady, um I know our director of teaching and learning attends the federal services programs and has probably more more insight into that. My understanding is that it's allocated from the federal government and is a pass through through to the state. Okay. Did so this is coming directly from Washington? Yes. Um so the federal government through Congress um determines the amount of money that is distributed to states. States then using specific formulas based upon different criteria determine the amount that is passed through to the individual districts. An overall decrease that is given to the state is usually reflected in decreases to the school districts. Okay. But the state funding

146formula has stayed has stayed stable. Yes. the state funding. The state actually doesn't fund it, but the state determines the amount that each district gets based upon a number of different criteria. Some of that criteria um is um the number of students in a school district and some of the criteria also deal with um participation in free and reduced lunch. Okay. So, we know we have a decrease in student population. Do we also have a decrease in the number? Okay. Okay. No, we don't. But please know one of the other things we have to understand is in that distribution of funds from the state to the school districts. It is also an understanding that some districts may get more money which means you may get less. Um, and that may not necessarily be dependent upon

147your own demographic changes, but the relationship of what school districts may go up in their demographic needs or down in their demographic needs. And so, it's a very complex um distribution system based upon that whole ecosystem of all 500 school districts competing for the same amount of monies, right? I guess I'm just trying to understand why we're like why we're getting this decrease for these title programs. If in other words, if so, I understand it's possible that other districts have increased need and that more money is going to them. Is is that the case or is there in total a smaller amount of money coming from because these are administered by DOE, right? Federal DOE. Th this is administered by the uh federal department of education. That is correct. Okay. Then it is given to

148the states and the states then determine the distribution. Right. The overall amount of money I believe has slightly decreased but I will get the specific amounts. Okay. to you um when I have them more readily available to me. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that and I appreciate your explanation. That's helpful. Um All right. I guess that Any other questions or comments? No. Okay. Uh Mrs. Flanigan, this two is a roll call vote. Mrs. Brown, I Miss Balding, I. Miss Frasier, I Miss Fazy, I. Dr. Mauy. I The eyes have it and the motion passes. Okay. This takes us to agenda item number 22. Miss Fazy, can you please read the recommendation for the Abington Cyber Education Program? that the board of school directors authorizes the administration to enter into a one-year agreement with the Chester

149County Intermediate Unit for a fullervice online courses of with computer, internet service, and textbook management through Brandywine Virtual Academy provided that the services meet the district's academic requirements. Second, Dr. Fetcher. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. Um, Abington School District wishes to continue our online cyber education program known as ACE or Abington Cyber Education uh for our Abington School District students. The ACE program meets Abington School District's academic expectations which we believe better serves our students than other cyber options. Um this this program is developed for students to meet all of the um all what is necessary to earn an Abington Senior High School um diploma which separates it from any other uh cyber program. So, we are we've had uh good success with this program and we want to continue this to offer this um and

150encourage anyone who is in a another cyber program to look at the Abington School District's version um to be an Abington School District student with an Abington School District diploma. Okay. Um questions or comments from board members? Is this would this be this agreement be affected by the cap on cyber charters at all? I'm not sure it'll affect it directly, but I think when we see the cap, we'll have to be cognizant of the cost and perhaps charter schools might be a better alternative for some folks in than being at Abington in in that program. That's certainly a financial perspective, not necessarily an educational perspective that Dr. Peter may take. Yeah, I would disagree with that assessment from an educational perspective. Um, however, uh, to that end, I believe if that comes into effect, um,

151you know, we will have to examine what our contract is, okay? And, um, it will have to be cost-effective for the district. So, can the contract be rew be rewritten? Should that cap be implemented? I think we're on or are we, if we approve this, are we in for a year? I believe you'd be in for the year. For a year. In other words, this is a the cyber program is a is an offering that is Chester CC. Um, and I believe it's a it's a commitment. So, you couldn't get out in the middle of the year or you could you could always try to renegotiate in the midyear, but I don't know how they set their rates if those are across their offering to all districts that opt to go with them or if

152they're specifically negotiated with each district. Okay. Do you want to add anything to that? I was just the rates um at in the recommended action um 8 thou $8,396 um per nonsp special education student. So it' be commensurate with a cap. Okay. Okay. All right. Any other questions? All right. Mrs. Felain, please. Mr. Allen, I. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Miss Balding, I. Miss Frasier I. Miss Fazy I. Dr. Mauy I. The eyes have it. The motion passes. Miss Fazy, can you please read the recommendation for the election of the board secretary? That the board of school directors elects Mr. Christopher Lionetti as the secretary of the board of school directors for a term of four years effective July 1st, 2025. said election being required in accordance with section 404 of the Pennsylvania school

153code 1949s. Second, Dr. Fetcher. All right, Dr. Mauy. Uh, tonight this is to um have Mr. Lionetti elected for a period of four years uh as board secretary uh which he will not fulfill all four years but and and he will continue in the role until the transition to our new new uh chief financial officer and then we will have the election of Miss Danakola as board secretary at a future board meeting. Okay. All right. Thank you for that explanation. Y questions or comments? No. All right. Mrs. Flanigan, please. Mr. Allen, I. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Miss Balding, I. Miss Frasier, I. Miss Fazy, I. Dr. Mauy, I. The eyes have it and the motion passes. Uh, Miss Fasy, can you please read the recommendation for contracting with ICS? that the board of

154school directors enters into an agreement with professional program management, architectural and engineering in construction management services with ICS Consulting LLC for the construction of a new Abington Middle School and the demolition of the existing middle school, the relocation of athletic fields and related improvements. substantially the form presented in addendums number 24.1 and 24.1A subject to final review by the solicitor. Second. Dr. Fetcher, we have a second. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. I'm very excited tonight to bring this recommendation to you. Um, this recommendation is for the professional program management, architectural and engineering construction management services with ICS. um for the construction of the new Abington Middle School, the demolition of existing middle school and the relocation of athletic fields and related improvements. Um it is subject to final review by our solicitor. Um Mr. Odonghue is

155here this evening can review any terms of the contract. We also have representatives from ICS present if you have any additional questions. But it is with this that uh we can begin this awesome process and um start this project. Okay. All right. Questions or comments from the board? Uh the community voted yes for the referendum and a big part of that was the partnership with ICS and your leadership with helping us to make this a completely transparent process. We look forward to continuing that relationship and continuing with the transparent process. Anyone else? I would just like to add um one one component of this and my excitement. Um, having been involved in other projects, um, I just want to reiterate that the model presented through ICS with professional management, um, program management will be extremely

156helpful for the district and keeping a handle on differences that may occur otherwise between design uh, management as well as um, construction management um, and architectural components as well. So it's uh all within one project management group. So I I believe that from what I my experience is with projects, this is going to be beneficial for our district and in the long run I I am hoping that it creates some cost avoidance for us. Great questions or comments? No. Okay. Mrs. Flanigan. Mr. Allen. Hi. Mrs. Brown I Miss Eisenhart I Miss Balding I Miss Frasier I Miss Fazy I Dr. Mauy I the eyes have it and the motion passes. Uh that takes us to agenda item 25. Miss Fazy, can you please read the recommendation for the confidential student matter? That the board of

157school directors approves the confidential student matter as reflected in addendum number 25.1. Second Dr. Fetcher. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. The confidential student matters are regarding a student uh disciplinary adjudication and also ed education services agreements keeping in mind the confidentiality of student matters. I can answer any questions that you may have. Okay. Questions or comments? Great. Let's do the roll call vote, please. Mr. Allen, I. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart I Miss Balding I Miss Frasier I Miss Fazy I Dr. Mauy I the eyes have it in the motion passes. Uh Dr. Dr. Fetcher are there any additional reports or recommendations by the administration? Yes I provide for you the conference attendance and professional leaves uh report for your information. Okay. questions or comments from the board? [Music] Uh, any other business that may that

158may appropriately be brought to the attention of the board of school directors? Nothing at this time. All right, that takes us to our second period of comments from citizens. Comments from citizens are being conducted once again both in person and by phone. The phone number to participate in public comments is and is being displayed on the screen. You'll be able to join the meeting by calling in on your mobile or landline phone. And a reminder that cit that a citizen will be recognized once during this period of the meeting and each citizen's comments will be limited to three minutes except at the discretion of the president. Time may not be yielded or otherwise transferred by one speaker to another for purposes of extending a given speaker's time allotment. If there's anyone present who would like

159to make a comment, please use the microphone either to your left or to your right. Hi, uh, Jen Patell from Glenside. Um, I wanted to comment on an item in the budget that caught my eye. Um, I think we have excellent public schools in Abington, and I would love it if all Abington uh, parents chose to send their kids to their our schools, but know that there are many reasons and factors that why they send their kids to to um, charter schools instead. But as we move further from the challenges and repercussions of the pandemic, uh the continuing efforts to improve the the school climate that were presented tonight, which were impressive, the 74% was amazing and and uh that was great progress. Um and also the um obviously the significant improvement in the middle

160school facilities that um that are coming on their way due to the passing of the referendum. I'm hopeful that more Abington families will choose um our public schools for their kids and the cost for the charter school tuition and transportation will be reduced. That would be wonderful. Um and regarding the students that spoke tonight regarding reducing vaping among teens in Abington, I applaud their advocacy. It's an important and worthy effort and really hope that the mitigation efforts are are successful. Um, I also wanted to thank Miss Woo for being an outstanding school board representative for the Abington students. Um, have a great summer and best wishes for a fantastic senior year. And finally, I wanted to thank the board, the administration, and the staff uh for the completion of a great and momentous school year

161and um have a wonderful summer. Thank you for your voice. Anyone else, excuse me, anyone else in the room? No. Okay, Mr. Cargus, can you confirm that there are no callers? There are no callers. Okay. Um, with that, we will move to agenda item 29, closing comments of the 2425 school year from our board of directors. Mr. Can I make a quick I'm sorry quick announcement before doing that? Yes. Thank you. Um, always smooth as sandpaper I am. Um, so that was my fault. No, no, it's fine. Um, so I would like uh Dr. Rosenthal if you could please speak about our uh the SNAP program and which is this uh supplemental nutrition assistance program uh just as a for our uh community as well. Sure, Dr. Fletcher. The Sunbucks program is a program that

162uh tackles food insecurity. Um it is uh the school district uh uploaded our free and reduced lunch uh information to the state so that they could provide through their program. Um uh it's $120 per child per summer. Um, and it's they're automatically eligible and money is automatically uploaded to their cards. Um, and if they haven't received a card, they will. The money uh gets dispersed starting in July through August. Um, and um, yeah. So, thank you. Yeah. Okay. Sorry about that. No, that's a that's a very important announcement. Thank you for reminding us and um making sure that uh our community knows about that. All right, once again, final closing remarks for the 2425 school year. Mr. Allen, thank you everyone for a great year and uh have a nice month off. Okay, Mrs. Brown.

163I just want to thank the parents for coming out to express their concerns about class size and our students. Uh I do applaud your advocacy and um not just stating the problem but being solutionoriented. I heard you when you said that I'm doing this, this, this and that to address the problem. Most movements are led by young people um teenagers up to young adults. So you have a lot of power. Continue to use it. I am proud of you. Uh this will be the end of my sixth year as a board member and it continues to be my pleasure to serve. Thank you everyone and have a good night. Miss Eisenhart, uh happy summer um to Miss Woo. It's been a pleasure to serve with you. I'm excited for uh your future and I appreciate

164all the efforts across the district and the community um in you know everybody coming together to contribute in big and small ways for positive outcomes and um impressive dialogue this year. So thank you Miss Smolding. Um I've learned a lot. Uh, I had no idea that all that was involved and and all the finances and all the other issues uh with the schools cuz like I I mentioned before, I'm not a parent and uh I had no idea. But it's it's it's been very interesting and so far I'm starting to enjoy my tenure as a school board director. Uh anyway, I want to tell everybody have a good summer and I'll look forward to seeing you uh in August. Have a good evening. Miss Fraser, I have a prepared statement. It's an honor to serve

165and a privilege to hold front row seating to share the joys and challenges of the students and the community at large. The beginning of my first term involved COVID the COVID pandemic and is ending with the passing of a referendum to build a new middle school. I'm looking forward to the beginning of a second term as a participant in the planning, design, and execution of the new middle school, God willing. I also look forward to resuming board duties and responsibilities uh that honor our students and the community during the 2025 2026 school year. Wishing you all a safe and pleasant summer vacation and I hope you'll enjoy a good read. But I also like to say many of you are familiar with the Abington Arts concert series. It starts June 26, this Thursday through August

1667th. August 7th, M3 is going to be featured. So, I hope you guys come out and to support our high school students. Miss Fazy, keep it short because you guys have heard enough from me tonight. Um, but I want to thank every all my fellow board if you'd like to read it. I want to thank all my fellow board members. Um, Miss Woo, um, and everybody in this room for a wonderful school year. Um, I want to also commend our students that came out tonight. Um, I read about this program earlier in the year and I just thought it was brilliant and the ingenuity of going ahead and doing a a vape buyback program in a high school is just amazing and it just shows such um such creativity um and a desire to go

167ahead and reach students where they are. Um, so continue please. please. Um, and thank you everyone for all your hard work, um, all the hours that you've put in this year, and have a great summer and take good care. All right, Miss Woo, you're up. Okay, first, this is just related to comments from earlier, but um, when I was in elementary school, I did have larger class sizes because my school was just really big and I still had a strong connection to all my teachers. And I just wanted to say this, even though like the effect of a larger class size can also depend on the teacher as well as the students and also to the students that came, I really hope all the work they put in works out and it can decrease the

168amount of drug usage in the school. I know it's going to be really hard to speak out and I'm proud that they did and I learned a lot this year and how much work it really is to like put into the district, including things like taxes. And I'm thankful to been to have been able to represent and be a voice for students and to be able to experience opportunities I never would have been able to have. And I do wish I could have said more or done more. Um, but I'm very grateful to be the first student in this position. And I also know that the next student will be amazing. So, thankful for thank you for an amazing school year and have a good night. Okay. Well, you know, as usual, you guys are

169hard acts to follow. Um to call this year momentous for the district and this community is an understatement. Um we are embarking on a new future uh for our students and our community. um the process of decisionmaking from my perspective um particularly related to the referendum, the district's ability to push out um information that community members asked for made this really an exemplary process. Um, I think one of the things we demonstrated this year was the way in which people can talk to each other even where they have differences of opinion and produce really positive results for our students. Um, tonight as I listen to our students address the board, um, and on other evenings when students have come forward, I was struck once again by how wonderfully they feel part of this community. not

170just as students who move through grade levels from year to year, but stu but people who have something to say, something to contribute and who see themselves as part of a process. And that's a really important opportunity, but it's also a gift that not every student has in their school district. So, I'm very proud of us for doing this m doing that. Miss Woo, it has been an absolute pleasure to have you up here with us. Um, you've been a great addition to this board and it it is high time that this board incorporated student voices into its decision-making process. So, thank you for being willing to be the first. That's never an easy position to be in. Um, I, you know, I think we all need to take a deep breath and exhale this

171summer. Um, there's been a lot of hard work certainly by um, Dr. Fetcher and his administration, my colleagues on the board who bring their big hearts and discerning minds to this work every day. Um, it is an honor and a privilege to serve. It's particularly an honor and a privilege to serve with them. I wish us all some relaxation, of course, some good reading because we all know that reading is important. Um, and we will look forward to seeing you all here the second Tuesday in August, which is the 12th. Yes, I believe. Yes. Okay. So, and this concludes the final meeting of the 2425 school year. Thank you everyone. Have a great summer.