April 22, 2025 Meeting of the Abington Board of School Directors

001Good evening everyone and welcome to the April 22nd, 2025 meeting of the Abington Board of School Directors. I note the attendance of all board members with the exception of Mr. Allen who is 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, April 25th, 2025. I'm okay for now. To allow those members of the

002public 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. The board thanks the public in advance for its cooperation. This is a place where we hold dignity and high regard and everyone's voices are respected and welcomed in this space. Do we have Dr. Fetcher? Do we have any additional announcements or additional agenda items? Uh yes, Dr. Mauy. Uh first I would like to begin tonight by acknowledging the passing of Pope Francis who passed away on Monday morning following his participation in the Vatican's Easter service the day prior. For many in our community, his loss is deeply felt. We recognize that this may this

003news may be difficult for some of you. Regardless of our individual beliefs, Pope Francis message of peace, compassion, and unity continues to resonate with people around the world. Our thoughts are with those whose lives he touched during his leadership, and we extend our support to all who are mourning this loss. Next, I would like to extend uh our appreciation to the Giant Company for donating more than 70 $7,800 to Abington School District as part of the 2025 feeding schools uh kids initiative. Uh, every dollar contributed by local giant shoppers will be used by our student services department to purchase gift cards for Abington School District families to help offset the costs of groceries. Thank you to Giant and our community for rounding up at the register to benefit families right here in Abington and Rocklage.

004Thank you. Okay, with that we will move to uh opening comments of board members. Mrs. Brown. Uh, good evening everyone. And it is uh very sad and on my heart um the passing of Pope Francis. I um what he stood for, what he represented and the change that he brought about in the faith community uh are big shoes to fill, but his legacy will live on. uh for uh the members of the community who celebrated uh Holy Week with me. I I hope that uh it was a blessed time and that you had time to uh reflect and to have fun with family. Good evening everyone and I hope we have a great meeting. Miss Eisenhart. Good evening, Mr. Muhammad. Good evening everyone. Miss Falding, good evening everyone. Miss Hartman, good evening. Miss Fraser, welcome

005everyone. And I hope you're not as chilly as I am. Miss Fazy, good evening everyone. And Miss Woo. Good evening everyone. Okay, I'd like to welcome everyone back from break. I hope it was restful and restorative. Um, and uh, I would add as well that we will miss Pope Francis's moral clarity and um, tireless work on behalf of the poor and other disenfranchised communities. Dr. Fetcher, can you please proceed with this evening's orientation? Yes, Dr. Murray. At this time, I'm going to ask Mr. Phil Solomon, regional manager at ICS, uh to provide an orientation on the future facilities [Music] planning. Thank you for having us back. Um Phil Solomon from ICS Consulting. I have with me David Schrader from Shredder Group Architects. We have a brief agenda tonight. It's really uh kind of a review

006but a consolidated view if you will. Um part of this was to talk a little bit about the process used to size uh the middle school as well as put together the costs. Um we're going to do a little bit of educational program summary which which really helps drive that and Mr. Shrader is going to talk about that a little bit. um talk a little bit about the construction costs and the budgeting methodology methodology as well as um kind of the consequences of a failed referendum. So, we were asked to put together kind of an estimate of what we would call an emergency prevention program. So, we're going to go through that and then field any questions and answers. So, there's been a few questions about how was this sized? There's not a design done

007yet. So, how did we come about sizing this building? So we have kind of an infographic here. So the first thing is a demographic study. So a demographer puts together the enrollment projection for the district for the middle school and how many students you're going to have in the longer term. And that in this case it's 2200 students. Um then the district has an educational program that it wants to run for those middle school. That's the middle school teening model. And that's a modern uh way of educating middle school students. We then uh have Mr. Mr. Shrader's group put together uh square footage for that educational model. So we kind of figure out what is the size of the building to run that educational program. We then develop a cost around that square footage. So

008that's just to build the building. Then we have to add what's called the indirect cost. That's all the other things that you need to do to build a building in the location with the particulars of Hington Middle School. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to to David just to speak a little bit about the programming to square footage uh process. Okay, thank you Phil and good evening everybody. Um so what you're seeing here is a summary cover page that is a cover of about eight different pages or 10 different pages of educational programming. Several years ago, we sat down with your secondary uh middle school program staff. Actually, it was the administration in general and went through what would support uh students for the next generation of learning, thinking the whole time

009about flexibility for the future as well. And the intent as we went through this was to understand total program needs. We fashioned this by doing all of the spaces that you have in the in the proposed program uh which supported every kind of educational goal that the uh middle school program had. And that turns into what you see up at the number 238,000 square feet. That's the net square footage of need. And the way we look at net square footage is the wall to the wall to the wall to the wall. But every time that you do that, you must have circulation space to get to that. You need to have room for all of your building systems and so on. And so we we create what is called a multiplier or a gross multiplier

010that brings us to a total square footage of a facility. And this has become very accurate over time as we've worked through these processes. That number on the right is that multiple. That's a gross square footage of 345,000 square ft. and we work through the different areas for comparison and that's what you're seeing down below. The core student spaces, media resource, performing arts, fitness and wellness and you can anticipate what each of those includes. And what we're trying to get to is some total square footage that we can put on a site to test fit. That's really what we were trying to do at this point in time. And with that then Phil's team as he mentioned uh work through a cost estimating process. So, a check for us is this item C where under

011that number two, those of you that can see that it says 157 square ft per student. So, slide yourself to the right on the screen here. Uh, in this case, we're looking at a capacity of 2,200 students for this facility. Total gross square footage of 345,000 square feet. Therefore, the total gross square footage per student is 157 square feet per student. And so the test for this is what is an average square footage per student in the region. So the second or third to last line says typical middle school 150 square feet to 200 square feet per student. Now that's actually kind of a regional number. The interesting thing about that number is that 200 square ft per student is for a smaller school. If you can imagine trying to net out a gymnasium, the

012dining spaces, performing arts spaces, all of those things for a smaller school, they still end up being fairly similar in size to those for a larger school. So your gross square footage gets reduced as the buildings get a little bit larger and thus that 150 square ft per student. So you can see that that 157 square feet per student is a pretty good number in the range of total square footages. So that was test number one and I think we're going to talk about test two in a second. Yes. Um, so then from from the square footage that was developed, we're looking uh at costs. And what you're seeing here is you've seen kind of a a pretty steep escalation in costs uh precoid, this is 2018. And these orange bars reflect renovation additions and

013the blue bars reflect new construction. These are all school buildings in Southeast PA. So this is really uh what you would compare against. So you can see as 2018, 2019, 2021, these are are rising. All of these buildings here are 2024. So now we're in 2025, but you can see that the range in 2024 was about 460 to 500. In 2025, we're using around 500 as as the correct number for uh dollars per square foot of a building. Now, that's just the building. Then you have to build it. So you need all these other indirect costs. So, we're going to talk about those as we break this out a little bit further. But, just keep in mind that, you know, we're kind of using these these actual bid data from areas in our from buildings

014in our region to kind of drive this cost estimating. David, you want to talk a little bit about this this picture? I know that there's a lot that has been said about this conceptual picture, but could you just give an idea of why we did that? Yeah, sure. So now you've got a total square footage for a building that will support the program that you need. And the goal always is to test fit that square footage on a site. The square footage doesn't mean anything in the image. What it's trying to do is it's trying to get you that square footage fit within all of the setback lines and all of the zoning restrictions on the sites. And I say sites because in this case you actually have several parcels that make up your entire

015piece of property. And so the orange merely demonstrates square footage on the site for a building and then the attempt to try to separate car and bus traffic on the site to accommodate that as you begin to plan and then of course trying to get all of the playing fields on that you need to have on the site as well. So the end result as we go through this process will be a true design process where we try to figure out exactly what it is that Abington School District wants for a middle school and it will turn into a site design. All that's trying to do is to fit the square footage on the site. Two wings mean nothing. All it means is a total square footage and several stories to fit most of the

016zoning restrictions. So, as your project evolves, when the project evolves, you'll see this change quite a bit, um, our goal is to try to show that the area in pink, that is the existing middle school, if you're seeing pink, some people might see purple, uh, versus that orange area, allows us to move the students once the new building is built into that space, take the old building down, and resume all of the site construction that surrounds that building. That's all that's doing. At some point that will change. Great. Thank you. Just give a little context to some of these uh numbers. Now, when we work through the estimate, um I'll just point to different things. So, remember David was talking about 345,000 square feet. So, that's the number we're using. Uh when you look at

017mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and general trade costs, uh this equates to about $147 million. There is site work for this uh consolidated lot and it's going to be a little more than if it was just a plain lot because this this site is it's older. It was built quite a while ago. Did not have as many storm water and erosion control requirements at the time. We'll have to bring the entire site up to current code uh when this building is built. Again, there's a de a demolition budget as well. The the building's old and cement it's sizable to get rid of that building. Now, if we were to build that building right now, uh, as it is, it would be $513 per square foot. So, that's the comparison that you would have to kind of other

018projects. So, I I've heard some comparisons out there. So, that would be more of an applesto apples comparison. However, we're building this on an active site and right here in the middle of the existing middle school and the existing high school. So there is going to be some temporary construction and roads and all those kind of things to keep the site operational during construction. So you had to account for that. In addition, where this is going, uh there is an existing these tennis courts are right under here and there's a track. So we're going to have to relocate that as well. So you add that to the cost. We're also not building it today. So there's a significant amount of construction cost escalation built into this. Now we have it at 4 and a.5% per

019year. And the way that this is typically done is to the midpoint of construction. So just to give you an idea, you know, that that is about 12.8% of the total budget. Now, we we hope that um inflation is not going to run at four and a half% per year, but but that's not a strategy. You have to plan for what you see. So that's what it's planned for right now. You then also have contingencies and design and construction construction contingencies. And then there are all the professional services, owner costs, permits, com commissioning, everything you need to to make a building work. So when you put all that together, it's 285 million for this $345,000t building in this location. Another way to look at this is kind of I put it in a pie pie

020chart just so you can see it differently. Some people are visual learners or what have you. Uh you can see this 176 million. That's the $513 per square foot that comprises a majority of the cost, but you then you have the movement of the fields. You have the contingencies and escalation. Again, hopefully it's not as steep as it has been and that can come down. The district would have less. And then you have all the professional services, permits, furniture, fixtures, equipment, etc. Now to what would happen if the if the referendum failed. So, uh, as as many of you know, uh, the middle school is well, a lot of the systems are well past their useful life and it it's really time to start investing and you you have a good opportunity here to invest

021in a new building or you can invest in the existing building. Just the basic HBAC renovation in this building is going to trigger a lot of code upgrades because it's going to be invasive. So, uh, that will be some of the HVAC and the return air codes, etc. a lot of the ADA uh deficiencies we could probably defer if we did this targeted renovation. So, we're not we're not assuming we're going to bring it all up to code. And that's all going to be um that will all be subject to the authority having jurisdiction whether that's possible or not, but we've we've modeled it that we don't have to bring the whole thing up to code. Uh this process, the building would look exactly like it looks today. So, you're really not modifying that much

022except the systems behind the walls. So, think of your infrastructure systems like mechanical, electrical, plumbing. There really wouldn't be any educational improvements because the building's going to look substantially like it does. When you do the math on that, I call this emergency prevention because a lot of these systems are kind of at the failure area of their useful life. Uh so, you want to prevent emergencies, but when you do the budget on that, it's about $105 million. So, when you do uh a little bit of math on that, uh you would probably borrow in a 20-year bond because you're not you're not building a whole new building. You're just doing systems. So, 20 years would be reasonable. And current interest rates uh from the district, that would equate to about $ 8.3 million per year

023in budgetary impact. And without a referendum, that would most likely have to come from your general fund somewhere. We break this down into kind of the system. So, we're not really doing anything elaborate here. You're talking about HVAC, electrical systems that are original to the building that need to be replaced, plumbing systems, many of them original to the building, and anything prior to 1996. Uh areas of the the building that don't have sprinkler systems, roofing, uh building envelope, which is like windows and door replacements, masonary repairs, and not really many interior surfaces. Only things that would be touched in the process of doing the MEP work. You'd have minimal accessibility uh and safety upgrades. You would have to make sure that the elevator was operational and a couple other things, handrails, entrance ramps, etc. You

024would have to get rid of any concealed um you know hazardous material and essentially that that is the the meat of the project. Now, when you do this, there's also some exterior work, asphalt, concrete that is crumbling, some uh some of the retaining walls, stairs, all of that stuff. Now, when you do this project, it is still of scale. You you don't have swing space in the building. So, you would still need a modular um series of classrooms to generate the swing space to be able to do the project. In addition, you couldn't start this project today. It still needs to be designed. So, you have escalation. So, you have construction cost escalation. You would again have design contingency because in a renovation project, you're much more likely to find things that you did not

025anticipate, especially in a building of this age. Um, and then you would have construction contingency and then your professional services. So, you know, at the minimum end, it's about $105 million. Again, there might be some things that you uncover as you tear this building apart that would inch that up as well. When you put that into the same pie chart, you can just kind of see how that breaks out. So, then I was asked to do just a summary slide. So, you know, if you had a failed referendum and you had to start investing in the in the building today, uh, you could do this emergency prevention that I just went through. And that's that would be about an $8.3 million budgetary impact per year modeled at about 20 years right now. Now, if you

026remember when we were looking at all options, there was an option, I forget one or one a to do a full renovation of this building, and that would that would kind of touch everything, but that number was 206 million. that would likely double the impact on your general fund. Um there is always the kind of run to failure which is react when things break. Unfortunately, when you do that, they will tend to cost more when you aggregate it all because when you do something in an emergency situation, it is typically typically going to cost more. You're going to have to expedite parts. You're going to be stuck with a like forlike replacement. You don't have an opportunity to really update the system. You're just going to be in that repair replace mode. problem with that

027is it's going to be more disruptive because you can't you can't predict when things are going to failure. Failure is inherently unpredictable and it won't be easy to budget for because again things fail when they do and sometimes they fail in bunches and sometimes it's uh pieces. So those were the the three things. I'm sure there are other scenarios that could uh you could come up with but those were the three most likely scenarios that that we were able to come up with. With that we're happy to field questions. Uh yes, I have a couple questions. Um the slide that we just looked at, I think it was slide number nine, you mentioned modular cost. Was that incorporated in the 100 the overall cost or no? Any modular units? Yes, the the modulars are in

028the the $15 million cost. That is this line item right here. Okay. That's modeled at about half of one of your grades. So half of grade six, seven, or eight. Okay. And then also um emergency and prevention. You mentioned 8.3 here million a year for a 20-year bond. So 8.3 million a year for 20 years. So that that that is just modeling the 105 million at current interest rates. I I spoke with Mr. Leonetti. Uh you've done some recent borrowing. So a 5% interest rate was used. 20 years was chosen because when you're doing a project of this magnitude on just systems, not the whole building, that seems to be an appropriate amount of time to borrow against. Thank you. So that's paying back that that 20-year bond. Mhm. I have a question regarding um

029the time frame that would be predicted to finish um your warm, safe, and dry approach to um needs at the middle school. Yeah. So, you would you would still have uh about a 12 to 18month design and permitting process and then you still have a 3 to fouryear construction cycle. So don't have all that nailed down exactly but um somewhere in that range uh would be an expected life uh time to complete. So and that would be um full year like 12 months of three to four years of active all through repairs everything. That's why the need to be there. There's no way to break this up into summer just summer only work. you would certainly have to have a modular farm and you'd have to be shifting kids throughout those modular classrooms as you

030worked your way through segments of the building. Okay. Um and it would be predicted that at any given time um half of the student population would be utilizing modulars. I know you said half of a grade half of a grade at any given time through any given time correct. Okay. they would be filtering through the modules. That is the Where would um the modulars be? We haven't designed out where the modulars would go. We we only did this as a first pass of what we think the investment would be. We would still have to model out where and how things would circulate, etc. Typically, you're going to put modulars in parking areas because you already have impervious surface. It's a good spot to put them. Thank you. Anyone else? I have a question about the

031design. If you can go back to the first slide. Um, and this is if the I'm sorry, the second slide. Third. Keep going. That one. Yeah, there we go. The graphic. The graphic. Uh this question is not about if the referendum does not pass. This question is if it does pass. Uh some community members were concerned about not being able to see something more concrete before they made their vote. I just wanted to know if you can speak towards how much does the design cost? Uh because a big part of this was making sure that we were totally transparent and making this a community decision. And if we had invested the money for design, then that's not as transparent to me. That seems as though the board has already made a decision. So, I just

032wanted to speak to how much does it cost for the design work, the blueprints in order to present something to the public. Yeah. To get to a presentable um schematic that's reflective of what you would build, it would be $2 to3 million easily. Okay. And that that that would depend on how far you want to bring that design before you show it to the public because as you evolve it, it is going to change a little bit. So it's a little bit if you do too little and it looks one way and then you show everybody and then it ends up looking differently for for a variety of reasons. I mean you you also are working through a land development process. They might force uh some changes that we're not aware of yet. So the

033building configuration could change a little bit as you work your way through that. But yeah, sorry. Go ahead. No, just um one of the advantages you have today is people no longer start with images like this. You're actually building a model from the start. So it's within the first 10% of the total fee that you actually have something that you can walk through and understand what it looks like. So I I agree with Phil that there's a time frame where there is some adjustment, but once you get to a certain point, it's not being adjusted greatly. It's something that you would know exactly what you're looking at. And if you decide that you want something different, you change it as part of that. It's just part of the iterative process. Okay. Well, just just to

034follow on to that. So for states where referendum is the way that they do construction, this is the best practice. You you don't invest a bunch of money upfront. You go get the funding first by using the methodology that we used sizing program and then you develop the program after that. And the design comes after the voters have determined whether they would support or not. And there's a variety of reasons because in in other states, you know, a lot of times a school district will go to referendum several times before they uh before they have the right I guess approach dialed in. So if you had to pay millions of dollars every time, you ended up wasting quite a bit of money. So this this is a best practice from referendum states uh to do

035it this way. Thank you for that. Other questions, Miss Woo? No, I have just just a small question um about the square foot square footage per student that we currently have in the middle school versus what we will have which is still on the low end for middle schools in the county. And if I understood you correctly, um that was partly because we are a bigger building. Yeah. You're getting economies of scale. Okay. The size of the building that that you're in. Okay. Cafeteria, gym, all of that is is distributed among a lot more students than say a thousand student middle school, right? Um whereas David was saying, those those uh those common spaces aren't they're not double that. there are some percentage larger, right, student middle school, right? But I guess the the the

036point I was trying to get at is that um should the referendum pass and we do the new middle school students will have 20 square ft more of elbow room, which is a way of saying that they're pretty cramped right now, right? that they they are under spaced by 20 square foot per student. That's certainly one way to look at it. Okay. Yeah. Compared to the typicals and the typicals are tricky, but that that is there are rules of thumb for a reason. Right. Yeah. Right. Okay. Thank you. I have a question. Um for the renovations when you you have the systems, electrical, plumbing, and I think it was something else there. Uh mechanical. Okay. Um would that include the pre I think it's called precode requirements. We used that language a while a while

037back. Would that satisfy the precode requirements? It would it would satis anything that will touch will have to be to current code. But there is a lot of existing um things that are not up to current ADA code for example some of your stairwells things that we would not be touching. we would work with the authority having jurisdiction to ensure that we could leave those as is. They are grandfathered into whatever code uh they were built under. So we're the the number would be much larger if we did have to bring everything up to current code. The 105 million is just to to do HVAC, some of the old mechanical electrical plumbing, the fire systems, roof systems, what we would consider kind of kind of the warm, safe, dry uh components of the building just

038to make sure that you don't have failures and leaks and all those kind of things that that would interrupt education. Thank you. So, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Sorry. It's okay. Um, so in this scenario then we would be unlikely to have a middle school that would be ADA compliant. It would not. That is not what was modeled. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Would not be that. In addition, this is really just the systems behind the walls. You that would not prevent you from having other money you'd have to invest for all the other systems. You know, if you remember, there was a renovation number I flashed up about $400 and some dollars per square foot. This is less than 200. So, you can imagine there's all those other systems in the building,

039you know, flooring, ceiling, all the things that that you use that would still be well beyond their useful life and you would just be um repairing as they broke essentially. Okay. Thank you. Okay. That was actually my question. Oh, okay. Yeah. Thank you. Great minds. Yep. And and just to piggyback off of that, I do want to uh remind my colleagues and the community that um that the ADA uh compliance is very important even financially. We just approved a bid or did we approve the contract for a $300,000 lift chair purchase a purchase, right? Was that for the middle school? Yes. Yeah. So those those purchases add up over time and our students who are confined to a wheelchair or have any other um uh restriction should not impede their access to a full building.

040If a STEM lab is on the third floor and a student can't get there, that's not okay. Uh so inclusion cost. Yeah. And it is worth every penny. Yeah. I was just we were tasked with what's the minimum investment you could put into the building to kind of keep it operational. So that you know maybe if you wanted to to look at ADA, we would have to to fix a lot of the ADA issues in the building. You really do have to tear the building apart. It's It's not an easy building to fix. Um just when it was built and what the what the codes were at the time. We can certainly come up with that number if that's something you'd like us to do. It's it's important. Um whether you had an injury and

041you're temporarily on crutches or in a wheelchair or if that is your way of life, it is important that um our students and our faculty has access to a full building and that we have an inclusive mindset when we build. Mrs. Mrs. Brown, would you like um to ask for the cost of bringing the building up to into ADA compliance? Here's here is here in lies the problem. You can get the numbers for us to bring it up to ADA compliance. Our budget does not allow for us to cover it. Mhm. So if the referendum does not pass, whether we have the numbers or not, there's nowhere else to get that money from based on what what I'm hearing. Uh so no, I'm not inclined to ask for that to happen because I'm asking for

042something that I know we can't do. What I am asking for is for my community members to see that is more than having a pretty building. This is uh it affects our educational programming. It affects access for all stu for students. Uh and that collectively we can fund one of the most important um things that we have in our community and that is education. So that is what I'm asking for. So no, I'm not asking for how much would it cost because I know we don't have it. I'm asking for people to vote yes. Okay. And thank you for clarifying that. I I cringe at the slide, right? The slides referencing a failed referendum. Uh because a failed referendum means year after year of budget impact. Uh to Miss Brown's point, uh that would be

043hard to stomach. that will be hard to absorb uh as a as a district and it means we have to start asking questions about what do we go without um and sometimes that's an that's an important question to have and those are important conversations to have and all of us on the deis we're having that conversation uh but we shouldn't be we shouldn't have to say we're going to go without ADA compliance we shouldn't say we're going to go without a a a speedy addressing or as quick as possible addressing of systems that are at the end of their useful life and you know just doing the bare minimum and then still knowing that other disruptions are going to occur, other failures are going to occur and we're kicking the can down the road. Um

044when as a community we can make this happen. As a community we absolutely can make this happen. Anyone else? Okay. Can I add just a couple of things? Some other concerns when I look at this plan. Um I think about having all of our students and teachers in a building while this level of construction is happening. um that in itself uh gives me pause, let alone for it to happen for four continuous years. So we'd have students that go through the building and um have this level of construction happening the entire time without getting um the outcomes that are associated with it. um that would be more beneficial to the community. Um something to consider. And the other thing I was thinking about when we talk about general funds and utilizing a large chunk to

045fund this, which Mrs. Brown explained that, you know, we wouldn't have access to more funds. I also think of our other district buildings and what do we do in the case that we have an emergency that presents over that four to five year period or actually the 20-year period where we're now adding an additional cost. Where do we find that money to address contingencies that present in our other buildings? Um, so I appreciate having uh this presentation tonight to put a place of reference, but again I I see that it just um exemplifies the importance and the implications um of a failed referendum and and really just reinforces the importance of it passing for our for our community and residents. Um thank you. Just go ahead. I'm sorry. Um, and just forgive me if I'm

046I'm not very eloquent tonight and I'm been up since 5:00 a.m. But, um, going of coming back to what, um, Miss Brown and Mr. Muhammed were saying, um, you know, going ahead and continuing to put money into a building, um, that not all students can access. Um, and we need to think about whether or not that's something that we can really live with. um if we are going to go ahead and continue to invest in a building in a school building that we're going to go ahead and send all of our children to um without adequate access for all of those students. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? No. Okay. I have I have one final question. Um given the age of the building, there is certainly asbestous in there. Um and that concerns me given

047the sort of the rot the movement of students, right? So rotating certain numbers of students out of the building while work is being done. But that means that most students would be in the building. I know there are safety procedures for cordoning off spaces so that um asbestous is not does not become airborne. Um, but that doesn't make me feel comfortable because no system is perfect. And um you know, in addition to the significant budget impact, the inability to bring the building up to ADA compliance, the fact that we're going to have to have hard conversations about cuts um to programs in order to fund this band-aid essentially um and safety risk to kids who are going to be in the I mean, we keep coming back to the same answer. The referendum has to

048pass. But thank you very much for your presentation, gentlemen, and for laying the facts out before the community. Thank you. Okay. [Music] That takes us to our first section of comments from citizens. Comments from citizens are being conducted both in person and by phone. As usual, the phone number to participate in public comments is being displayed now. 2677153717. You'll be able to join the meeting by calling in on your mobile or landline phone. A 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 present who would like to make

049a comment, please use the microphone either to your left or to the right. and we'll start with in-person comments. Go ahead, Joe Rooney and Arsley. Uh, why we should vote no on the referendum. When asked to spend 285 million bucks, we should be extremely cautious. This referendum is worded so poorly that there are no limitations on either the rate of the bonds or the term of the bonds. where you're being asked to approve a referendum question which there are no plans for the building, no limits on the interest rate and no limit on the term of the bond. It will be six years before the new school building will be occupied. There are so many questions still in people's minds that it is only prudent to take 6 months to a year thoroughly address the

050concerns and questions people have and present an actual plan for the proposed building. We have a building now that is worth at least $50 million. It was well-designed and well-built. It is steel reinforced concrete. The main building was built in five modules and is easily renovated and remodeled. Little theater is in fine shape and easily meets the needs of 12 to 14year-old kids. The science wing was only constructed in 1996. It is 30,000 square feet, 11% of the school. It is in great shape. The gyms are in fine shape and have many decades of useful life. The administration wing and the library are in great shape, and the library is beautiful. Why wasn't the library included in the public tours? Tearing down these valuable assets is wasteful and shortsighted. It will cost millions of dollars

051to rebuild these educational spaces, and we will gain nothing. There are many creative professional people in Abington and Rocklledge who with a little time and thought can develop an outstanding plan for how we can modify and renovate the existing building without throwing out all the value we already have. Sadly, our current school leadership has intentionally neglected the north campus building. The roof should have been replaced years ago. The bathrooms badly need renovation, and there is no reason this hasn't already been completed. ASD had $50 million in our fund balance. This money was available for peasers funding and capital projects. Some of these funds should have been used these last 10 years to update the current building. It is an indication of mismanagement that this building needs such work. ASD leadership had a 10-year plan in

0522023 to completely update the current building. They discarded that plan with no explanation. Education is a combination of excellent teachers, quality curriculum, and engaged parents and leadership. This should be the focus of our spending. With the problems we have in ASD currently, a $285 million poorly planned and rushed capital project is a distraction from what is really needed for our kids, our teachers, and our community. Please visit www.comsenseabington.com for more information. and we encourage all our neighbors to vote no on May 20th. Thank you. Thank you, Joe O'Brien Glennside. Okay. When you sell something at auction, you hope you have at least two biders because they get in a battle with each other and you get more money out of it. When you have something built, you don't want one bidder because they can justify

053everything. want two biders because that will bring both their prices down. When you have one bidder, they can justify anything. They can justify $285 million. If we had somebody else here with them who is bidding against them, it might be $200 million, but you haven't bothered to do that. You picked one company and said, "This is where we're going." With no plans, no drawings, nothing. If you went to a bank and asked for a mortgage with the what you have now, they'd laugh you out of the building. You have nothing to justify this money. I hope everyone can recognize that and votes no because there is no reason to justify this money. Thank you. Yeah. John Gallagher, 1054 Arbuta Road. Who will be responsible for all the overruns when this thing starts going? Thank you.

054Hi, my name is Matthew Palmer. I live on Carmet Road. Uh, so what I've heard so far from citizens comments are interesting to me because it represents in my mind a lack of understanding of how things actually work. Because you obviously, as has just been stated by the gentlemen who have presented to us, you need to have funding in order to create a plan so that you can present a plan to your community. You can't create the plan without the funding in the first place. It seems pretty straightforward that you have to pay an architect to do that design work for you. Aside from that, I would really like to ask my community members how they feel about their police force, their fire force, their hospitals. Would you send your loved one to a hospital

055functioning at 20% effectiveness? Would you send police force out on the streets with 20% of their equipment functional? Would you send the fire force? Maybe their radios don't work. Maybe the ambulances don't function correctly. We only have part of the equipment functioning in the school as it is currently with a good, I think, if I understand correctly, 60 to 80% of the remaining facilities ready to fail at any moment. Would you send the military in equipment that only sort of works? Would you send sailors in a submarine that may or may not break down while it's underwater? I don't think you would. So, why would we send our kids to a school that's partially functional? Thank you for your voice. Anyone else in the room? He was next. Paulie Morris Jr., Jenintown, Pennsylvania. I have

056a a couple questions. Uh the board used to answer questions. Uh is this board in a position? Do we answer questions now or? This is an opportunity for you to share your thoughts and make comments to the board. This is not a give and take. Answer questions. This is not a give and take. Okay. Well, I'll propose I'll pop pose the questions anyway. Um I notice there's $36 million in the bottom uh figure there. And I guess that's for uh the consultants uh on the no bid contract. I guess that's what that's for. Um I don't think it's appropriate. I mean, the gentleman before me spoke about business practices and things like that. It really should be a contract that is bid. Shouldn't be a no bid. Um, I notice that there's 2,200 students proposed

057or anticipated. That's what we have now, I guess. Um, I'd also like to say that ADA compliant. Um, one of the main areas is elevators and elevators can certainly be added on the outside very easily. They do that a lot. That's an engineering capability. Um, I noticed that in the figures today presented were $55 million in contingencies. Uh, I find that really high um, and should be a lot lower. One of the one of the uh residents community members said one good way to phase uh pay for this would have each resident pay $10 a person. Sounds like a darn good idea to me. So we got 58,000 people in Hington. $10 a person for 40 years. I think that might be an good way to do it. And uh the other thing I guess

058I would say is has Abington School District looked at talking with Bruce Tol and purchasing St. Basil's property as an interim while the community and the school district sort this out. I think putting this on the ballot for May when the voter turnout is very low. I think that might have been done on purpose. I don't think it's appropriate. I think we need to step back and involve the entire community to come up with a coste effective program for education and the community. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, Jen Patell Glennside. Um, a couple things. Um, one, uh, I believe that this has been a three-year process so far. Um, there have been assessments of the school. There have been surveys. There have been, um, running numbers and and cost estimates and all that. This is

059not a, you know, seat of the pants operation at all. You guys have been working on this with professionals for a long time, and I appreciate all that work you did. Um, and I look forward to, you know, hopefully this passing and we get to see what the next phase of this is. Um, uh, the St. Basil's suggestion has been made before and again I I can't understand why we would want to buy property when we have school district property already. why we would want to buy a piece of land that has a building as old as the one we're trying to replace that is will only fit a quarter of the students that we currently have enrolled in our middle school would not fit the the the uh the the staff, you know, in

060terms of parking. We would have no fields. And I would be curious to see what the neighbors around St. Basles would think about suddenly having 2,200 students, staff, and administrators funneling through their neighborhood. Um, I'm pretty sure that they would have to have a comment or two about that. Um, but as far as the referendum and the question we have in front of us, it is not do we want to spend money on the middle school. We are going to spend money on the middle school no matter what. The question is, what do we want to get for our money? And I personally would not want to spend $105 million on patching a school that is on at the end of its lifespan that is not sized or designed for today's education needs and it's

061not going to get better. It's just going to have to keep getting patched. And then if uh one of the other plans was renovation, that would be 205 million. Again, working with the the the core building which is not sized or designed for today. Personally, I would like us to invest in a brand new building that will last for decades and then we will have this uh space that is fit for the kids that we have going into the schools now and in the future for our teachers, for our staff and and in generally it's just good for our community and I will be voting yes to invest on May 20th. Thank you. Thank you for your voice. At this time we will turn to people who are calling in for comment. Yes. And next

062citizen for public comment is phone number ending in 1437. Please state your full name and address. Hi, good evening. Lisenhoffer, Rosemont Lane. Hi. I've been Hello. I've been an Abington resident for 35 years. I'm the product of private Catholic education and I chose public school for my children, particularly Abington School District. I've been a parent in this district since 2007. I want to speak to the vitriolic rhetoric and purposeful spread of misinformation I've seen around the community, questioning the integrity of our volunteer school board and the quality of our teachers. If we're going to question them, let's question the previous school boards that kicked this can down the road, leaving us where we are today. Is this the game we want to play or the community that we want? It's embarrassing. The board I see

063before me are people that care about our students and this community's future. People who want to give our children the highest quality education possible in the most conducive learning environment. people who are forward thinkers that understand the challenges of the past and are committed to moving this district forward. I understand the burden that higher taxes will cause, but we continue to band-aid. But if we continue to ban this band-aid this problem, we will only leave it for the next generation to solve at a much higher cost. Mrs. Brown, I want to commend your commitment to ensuring inclusivity for our students of all abilities. My child attended autistic support classes and there is only one classroom in the middle school, one box where they spend their entire day for lack of other options. My vote is

064yes. Yes is a vote of confidence in our committed and dedicated leadership and yes to the future of our community, my children's community. Thank you. Thank you for your voice. The next caller for public comment u public comment phone number ending in 3984. Please state your full name and address. Hi, Michael Senhoffer, Rosemont Lane. Uh first I want to say that uh the members of this board have my full support. They're doing incredible work and devote much of their time to what is clearly a thankless job because they care about our community, our schools, and our children. The next thing I want to say is there are maybe, I don't know, five main groups on Facebook where people spend all day arguing about building a new middle school. One of the most insidious things I

065see are anonymous posters who just have quote random questions like, "How will this be paid for?" or "Who is planning this?" and "What will the tax increase be in over what period of time?" But they know the answer. These are purposeful questions designed to ferment discord and disscent among the general public uh reading this who are generally curious curious and do not yet have uh all the information they need. They also asked them despite knowing the answers already and I know they know the answers because there's always somebody in the comments saying all the information you need on a is on a oned1future.com. I encourage you to all go there and I promise you your questions are answered on that site. It's really extensive and informative. I can't say who these anonymous people are. Maybe

066it's clear to some people and perhaps they're signaling who they are to their comrades, but I can't really tell. I'll be honest, I don't really understand Morris code. One of the complaints I see is the cost for the project management company put on a solid presentation today. It's a multi-year project to start in 2026 and extending to 2030. That's four years of overseeing all the planning, general contractors, subcontractors, and employees that'll be working on it. It's a massive undertaking force. So use a lot of staff and it's really not that much money uh for the amount of work they're going to have to do. If you don't understand that, I swear you're a little divorced from reality. Go hire one engineering firm to put a 400 foot addition onto your property. What I will say

067there's a cost of building a new school and a cost just making repairs and upgrades. But it's really just silencing a smoke alarm by pulling out the battery. All you're going to do is make repairs and upgrades. That's going to be $105 million out of the general fund for the AFC. It's a zero sum game. That money will come from other things the school district has to pay for. It might be sports. It might be extracurriculars. It might be making repairs in the elementary and high schools. Any number of things. Whatever else it is, it's robbing Peter to pay Paul. And in the end, all it catches is 10 to 15 down years down the road. having to replace a building anyway when a new tax bill comes due and materials costs and labor costs

068are higher than they are today. This is common sense. A vote yes. My votes yes. And since I'm still under my time, go birds. Thank you. Thank you for your voice, Mr. Cargus. The next citizen for public comment, phone number ending in 2534. Please state your full name and address. Good evening. Uh full name is Ross Hamilton. Uh Dr. Ross Hamilton, Argal Road, Glennside. Go ahead. We can hear you. Okay. Excellent. First off, thank you to the school board for um this evening information for those who presented it. It was really helpful in securing my position. I am in full support of the referendum to build a new middle school. Uh my wife and I have three children in the district, a 12th grader, eighth grader, and first grader. Uh my two oldest daughters have

069u metriculated through the middle school and have never hesitated to share about their uh just being upset about this is disrepair of the building uh and frustration with it. And as a parent uh who have gone into the building countless times over the last couple years, I've seen it firsthand. Um in addition, they are all athletes, right? So they have which has afforded us the opportunity to visit a variety of local middle schools like Sandy Run, Cedarbrook, Colonial and now it's going to be state-of-the-art facility at Keith Valley and Hero Horscham. Um and just the level of district that we're seeing on our facilities, it just cannot equate to what we're seeing when we're visiting these other buildings. So hopefully my son who's in first grade will benefit in the future from a new building.

070Um, and if so be it. If it does, if it misses it timeline, well, I'm a taxpayer and I'm willing to pay for the next generation of students who can benefit from a new facility. So, I'm in full support of it and thank you for the presentation. It has solidified my position. Thank you. Thank you for your voice, Mr. Cargus. Okay. The next citizen for public comment, phone number ending in 9653. Please state your full name and address. Thank you for your Meyers, 1060 Maple Avenue. Go ahead. We can hear you. Um, hold on. One of the reasons why we need a new middle school is that the science swing and gym are a disaster. There's little to no air conditioning in both. Especially when you're running around and playing games in the gym. It's

071extremely hot. One reason why the science link is a disaster is for mostly the same reason. It's very humid and hot and when we're moving around the room, it's very warm and there's also fights every day. Thank you. Thank you, Kira. Mr. Carass. Next citizens for public comment. phone number ending in 5155. Please state your full name and address. Hi. Oh, what? Can you hear me? Okay, we're having trouble hearing you. Okay. Um, now we can Great. Now we can hear you. Perfect. Okay, great. Sorry. No, that's good. Shme Street. Okay, awesome. Um, thank you very much um for the additional information and laying out what um the costs would be um for yeah continuing to kick the can down the line and um just make um the bare minimum of repairs. Um, I think

072there are so many reasons. Um, and I know there are so many reasons why I and many community members are voting yes. Um, but I would, as someone who works with students with disabilities, I'm very familiar with the Americans with Disabilities Act as amended. And I would just want to reiterate that um, not providing access to students is wrong. all of our students who deserve a free and appropriate public education. And if some people believe adding an elevator to outside of a building would bring it up to 80 compliance, you need to read through the regs. It is so much more than adding an elevator. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. For public comment. phone number ending in 4251. Please state your full name and address. Hi, it's uh Paul Reno and we live on Susuana

073Road and I'm a firsttime caller, first time listener and I just wanted to say a couple things. First off, I have um two engineering degrees and two business degrees. And I came into this with a very open mind. And after going through that presentation, which was suggested by some of the Facebook pages, I don't think that a reasonable person could come to any different conclusion other than what you guys have done. And that's absolutely amazing. And the cost for the project is it would have been great if we would have done this 10 years ago when it was half the amount. But it is what it is. And if you look overall at the taxes that we pay living in Abington versus the surrounding communities, even with this assessment, it's still significantly lower than any

074of the other townships. And I say that begrudgingly as a uh Cheltonham Panther alum. Um, and we chose to live in Abington because of that. Um, but I I just wanted to say thank you and we're a definite yes over here. Thank you for your voice and uh welcome to the meeting. Don't be a stranger. Mr. Cargus, can you confirm that there are no other callers on the line? That is correct. Okay. Is there anyone else in the room who would like to make a comment? Hi, Carol Godfrey, 1021 Devon Road, Jenintown, and I live near St. Basil's. So during COVID, we had a lot of meetings online. There must have been 300 people, and they were not happy with having a 100 town houses built. So I can't imagine what it would be like

075to have that group show up uh here with concerns about putting 2,200 kids over there. Once again, I'd like to encourage the Abington community to vote yes on May third, May 20th for the referendum to build a new middle school. Over the past two weeks, I was thinking about when I went to Abington High School. Um, uh, at that time, a new high school had been built in 1957, and several years later in the 60s, I was lucky enough to attend one of the nicest high schools in the area, Abington Senior High. Yes, my parents paid taxes at that time and so did a lot of other people pay taxes that lived in Abington that no longer had children in the district. My parents knew how important education was. We actually moved to Abington because

076of the reputation of the schools and I am grateful that we did. I would like to encourage all Abington residents, no matter your age, to pay it forward and vote yes for the referendum so that we can invest in the next generation of children and grandchildren. And remember, as I have said here before, a community is only as good as a school district. Thank you. Thank you for your voice. Hello, my name is Joe Dunn. I live in on Zayn Avenue in Jenin Town. Um I don't have any written down thing to say or anything and I've really been paying attention to this and it's I think I respect both sides a lot and um the kids are what's important. I I'm I'm an educator retired of nurses and um this amount of money a

077quarter of a billion dollars well plus is a lot of bucks and I look at the sign up there Abington excellence is our standard achievement is the result and coming to the meetings a few weeks ago and they were talking about the poor results you're having in the school district which I'm not blaming anyone for that but I know that a quarter of a billion dollars isn't the problem that needs to be spent to get these kids a better education. Um, it's the caring. And when I think about the kids in 40 years and 285 million dollars, which of course everyone knows is going to end up more than that because in life that's what always happens. And I'm not saying you don't care about the kids, but caring about the kids to me is

078and the tax thing. Not that there's anything wrong with people and paying taxes and living in a good community. And before I moved to Abington, I heard about Abington just because of that school district. But talk about paying taxes, your children will be paying that much 40 years, which is going to go up, and your grandchildren. So, I think it just seems I know this has been an ongoing process, but it seems like there's this big rush at the end and these I appreciate these gentlemen doing that update today, but I think that update would have been good six months ago so people could think about voting in less than a month. So, I would be if I had my way, I'm going to vote no. And not that I don't care about it because

079I care very very much. But I think we still needed to step back, continue that process a little bit. I mean, it's been that long already, and it's going to take six years to build it. If we take another six months and just really get into this and look it over, there's always going to be extremes on both sides. But I think we just need to meet in the middle and think about this as intelligent adults, which I believe we all are. Thank you. Thank you for your voice. Anyone else? Okay, that will conclude our first uh section of comments from citizens and then we will move on to Oh, Dr. Fetcher, do you want to respond to anything? I just want to remind if there are specific questions that people have um please reach

080out um on the 1d1 future.org org website, there's an an opportunity to ask questions and you will receive a response. Often those questions um when we receive multiple versions of the questions have become frequently asked questions so that um other people have the opportunity to um see the answers to those questions and and at sometimes that actually uh creates more questions. So, I think if you have come to a board meeting and you have specific questions and you feel that they're not answered, please do that and you will uh receive an answer. Okay. And just to clarify, the website is 1d1Future.org. Yes, correct. Okay. Okay. Um yeah, I would also encourage folks to go there if they're looking for reliable information. Um the district has done a great job at uh at making that available

081to community members. Uh also also on there um some of the questions that we've been asked if we do receive um similar questions from large number of people or or a few people even at that matter. Uh we have posted maybe more of a detailed response uh to the question uh by including some graphs and numbers that uh are questions that people have asked. So, we keep updating the site. Uh, check back. Uh, it's not um it's not something that was just built and then is done. It's an on it's a moving um information uh site as well. Okay. All right. Great. Um I assume we have no additional agenda items to be brought forward. No. Okay. All right. With that, we will move on to agenda item number five. personnel. Miss Eisenhart. All right.

082That the board of school directors approves the changes in personnel as reflected in personnel addendums number 5.1 and 5.1a. Second. Uh we have a second. Dr. Fetcher. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. The personnel agenda begins with requests for leaves of absence for five professional staff members, compensation for IP meetings, and interpreter and translation services. Now, on to some retirements. I bring your attention to the retirement of Mr. Christopher Lionetti, our chief financial officer, as well as the board secretary uh for Abington School District, who has served the district for 32 years. Next, I bring your attention to Miss Robin Zaper, a mathematics teacher at Abington Middle School who has served the district for 30 years. Miss Melanie Grub, special education teacher at Willow Hill Elementary School, who has served the district for years. Miss Marian Hoffman,

083a mathematics teacher at Abington Senior High School, who has served the district for 25 years. bring your attention to Miss Debbie Deborah Lee, president of our Abington Education Association for the past 16 years, uh, and elementary teacher at Roslin Elementary School who has served the district for 23 [Applause] years. and Miss Sarah Oor, an administrative assistant in a pupil service department who has served the district for 20 years. So, with that, um, begrudgingly, I bring some of these retirements to to you for recommendation. I'm sorry, I'm going to have to vote no on those. I I know my fellow board members have thoughts and feelings, so we will start with Mrs. Brown. Yes. Um, one, congratulations to everyone who is retiring. Uh, I will speak on two of them tonight. Uh, starting with Mr. Lionetti.

084Uh, my time here on the board, uh, you helped me to understand, uh, the budget in a a clear way. You have made yourself accessible. Uh, and you speak with clarity. So, I appreciate that. uh you are a very compassionate person and uh you hold excellence in high regard. Um when you make a mistake, you're not afraid to admit it. And sometimes I think you ponder over it a little too much, but uh that's the the standard of excellence that you have. Uh you're not only great at your job, but I believe that you are a great human being and you will truly be missed. I pray that during this time you enjoy your family uh and travel and um big shoes to fill as I'm sure my colleagues will uh reiterate. Uh but you

085are an amazing person who is very very very very talented um at what you chose to do as a profession a professional. So I appreciate you and you will definitely be missed. Okay, Miss Debbie Lee, what can I say? a lot. Uh you have a flare about you that you're unapologetic about. Uh your passion for students and the way that you praise teachers. As an educator myself, you will stand up and fight for uh your colleagues and I really respect that. I want to thank you for all the prayers because I know you pray for me uh and you pray for my family and and that resonates with me deeply. You will be missed but I know you have some grandbabies to love on who will have extra time with you uh while in your

086retirement. So I deeply appreciate all you are and all that you stand for. Okay. And you will be missed. Miss Eisenhart. Um to the teachers and staff that were honored um tonight with their retirements, I hope that you enjoy this time. It's welld deserved and uh the district will forever be in gratitude for the service and and the contributions that you made on our community and our children. It lasts a lifetime. Um and I thank you for your time and efforts specifically at Abington for Mr. Lionetti. Um, coming into this board, uh, you made things that seemed impossible to understand approachable. Um, you did it through kindness and I will never forget the impact that you made on me and my role here personally. Um, I wish you nothing but good things and your heart

087is gold. So, enjoy it, Mr. Muhammad, as an educator, um I am always so happy to see educators make it to the end. Um, it is it is a challenging field and you know those 10 months are hard and those summers are important and we know that even in the summer we're spending time focusing on what we're going to do next year and we're getting professional development and we're we're still connected to the work in some way um throughout the summer and and of course put it down and enjoy the time and go to the shore and everything else, But these students, they they they they live with you, right? And they're in your hearts and they're on your minds and and and what you want to bring to them becomes very important. And so

088people who dedicate their lives to children and the upbringing of children, other people's children, and you make those people's children your children. Um not just for the school year that you have them. um because the impact that you you bring to their lives, it carries them for many many years. Um and so, Miss Lee, congratulations. I know we have not had a lot of engagement, but I've heard you and I've seen you and I'm so very happy for for your for you and your retirement. And so, I I pray that is a blessed one and a long one. And uh come back anytime because I know you're a member of this community. Um, Mr. Lionetti, um, everyone's going to say that you've taught them so much, right? And when we start on the school board,

089it's the beginning of budget season. And it's one of the most foreign concepts when you're not sitting at the deis and receiving this information. And so in those early sessions, you're just like, what what is happening, right? and you have to go back and and you you you share your information, you share your phone number, you you encourage people to send you emails. Um and you are you always avail yourself. You there's no time where you're you say, "I'm not going to get back to you." There's no time where you say, "I'll get back to you." And and we have to wait more than a couple of hours. You you reach back out. You you you present information. You're a man of your word. If we say, "Hey, I I don't know something." You say,

090"All right, I I'll get something together." and you get it together for us and it it enriches all of us and it it deepens our understanding and it makes our jobs a little bit easier. Um, and so thank you for the work that you've put in over these past 32 years was it? Um, thank you for the four years that I've known you, gotten to know you and and and gotten to just learn from you and grow as a result of my engagements with you. Um, I'm so happy that you get to take it down a little bit and you get to relax and you get to enjoy life outside of the hustle and bustle of Abington School District. Um, we've been in great hands with you and um, we'll you'll be missed and your

091influence will be missed, but we'll be okay. And so, thank you for all that you've done, Miss Baldi. The only retiree I know is Mr. Lynetti and I'm going to miss you because uh you know like you were able to answer a lot of questions and explain things. I too am a retiree. So now you have time like I do to give back to your community. But the best thing about retirement is I get to sleep till I wake up. Good luck to you and yours. I can't wait for that, Miss Hartman. Um, Mr. Lionetti, um, I echo what everyone else has said. Um, the one word that the the theme of everyone's comments has been your dedication to your role to the school district. Um, and I when I started last year in January,

092that budget process, what you just said, I it's very overwhelming as a new board member. Um, and your offers to sit down with me, to explain it to me, to answer all of my questions. You were always available. You were always kind. You were always prepared. Um, no question was ever too simple. No question was, you know, stupid. You answered every question with grace. Um, always professional, always ready to prepare more information if needed, and just always went above and beyond your role. And I think this is a great opportunity for you. For us, it's a huge loss and we'll feel it. Um, but we I wish you the best in in your future and I hope that your retirement brings you and your family a lot of happiness. And Miss Lee, thank you for

093your dedication to the students of Abington for so long. Your enthusiasm around kids and teaching is just so apparent every time you stand up and speak. And I know I don't know you well, but I'm sure that the students that you've taught have been affected and you've you've changed their lives. So, good luck and best wishes and enjoy your retirement. Miss Fraser, both of you, I adore you and congratulations. I wish you the best for your retirement. Continue blessing the world. Miss FY, retirement season always gets me. It's never easy. There's always somebody. Um, and so, um, but I wish you both the best, Miss Lee, Mr. Lionetti. Um, special thanks to Mr. Lionetti. Um, the past four years you've taught so much. Um, and I feel Yeah, definitely budget season, you come in on

094budget season and you're like, "Wow, these are really big numbers. Um, but you are so gracious and so patient and you really help us understand it." Um, which is so important. And so, um, thank you so much for being who you are, and I wish you all the best in retirement. Um, and thank you to all of our retirees. That was a lot of heart, Miss Woo. Um, even though I only took this position, oh, sorry, a few months ago, and I don't know either of you that well, but um, you guys seem like amazing people, and thank you for making me feel welcome. So, the only pitfall of serving with eight um incredibly eloquent colleagues is that I now have a hard act to follow. Um I want to congratulate all of our retirees.

095Again, a lot of institutional knowledge and dedication there. Um, and we are grateful for all that everyone has given. Ms. Lee, I have so much respect for you, as a fellow educator, as a labor leader, as someone who is a champion for public education. It is rare to find people who understand both the big picture and the granular impact. And you are among the very best of those people. I'm I'm happy for you. I am. But I'm not going to lie, I'm going to miss you. I'm going to miss your energy, your commitment, your conviction. Um, I spent my day getting to read to some of our grade school students. Um, and I thought about visiting your class a year ago and seeing that same energy brimming over in those kids and h and thinking

096about how valuable our teachers are. Um, and you have worked hard not only with your own students and your own classroom, but to make this district um, one that really values our educators. So, thank you for your vision, for your commitment, for your backbone, um, and for your care of your students. And since you're a community member, I'm going to tell you straight up, do not be a stranger to these meetings. We expect to see you back here. Okay. All right, Mr. Lionetti. Um, Mrs. Brown and I came on to this board at the same time. I have never met anyone who is as gracious, is patient, and as clear as you have been with me through all the crazy questions and all the hypotheticals that I put to you during these past years. Um,

097I think when I came onto the board, this is an experience that a lot of us had. I mean, I looked at the budget and you could have started with these are numbers. That's how much I knew about budgeting. Um, but you have been not only an incredibly good steward of this district's finances, but a very patient guide for many of us. Um, and Miss Hartman is absolutely right. We are going to miss you. We are going to miss you as a colleague, as a professional, and I dare to say as a friend. Um, I wish you well, but also don't be a stranger. Um, so we will continue to look forward to working with you for the next few months. Um, and uh we'll just leave it at that for tonight, I think. But

098congratulations. Dear. All right. That takes us to agenda item number six. Miss Eisenhart. All right. A vote. We got a vote on it. Oh, now we got a vote on it, too. I'm so sorry. Do we? All right. Miss Flanigan. Make it final. Miss Fine. Go ahead. Mrs. Brown, I Miss Eisenhart. I Mr. Muhammad, I Miss Balding. I Miss Hartman. I Miss Frasier. I Miss Ba. I Dr. Mauy. I feel very grudging about this, but I now we can move on to agenda item six. Okay. that the board of school directors approves the financial report for the period ending March 31st, 2025 as reflected in addendum number 6.1. [Music] Second, Dr. Fetcher. We have a second. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. Um, at this time, as he still works here, I'm going to ask Mr. Lionetti

099to summarize the March 2025 financial report. Uh, thank you, Dr. Pitcher. For the period ending March 31st, 2025, real estate tax collections are ahead $6 million when compared to the same time period in 2024. Year-to date, total revenue is $6.7 million ahead of last year at $165.2 million. As of March of 2024, the district had collected $155.8 million in total revenue. The difference is due to the 5.3% act index real estate tax increase in 2425 as well well as greater receipts of delinquent taxes, interest earnings, and real estate transfer taxes as well as the increased uh state basic education special education funding that we received this year. Year-to- date expenditures are $128 million, which is $1.7 million greater than this time last year at 126.3 million. In terms of the percent of budget, 64.2% of

100the budget is expended year-to- date. Last year through March, 66.5% of the budget was expended. If there are any questions regarding the financial report, we were happy to answer them. Questions for my colleagues? Uh the the increase I believe you said 1.7 you say 1.7 million. Yes. Can you give a general I know we receive budget updates and the board approves over time but can you give a general response for why such an increase between last year and this year? The majority of our expenses as you know are um wages and benefits. You have contractual agreements with all of your collective bargaining units and um all those folks did receive increases for this year compared to last year. the cost of um benefits go up um proportionately with that as well as medical benefits which

101is the greatest extent of your budget. Thank you so much for that. Anyone else? No. Okay. Mrs. Flanigan, this is a roll call vote. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Mr. Muhammad, I. Miss Balding, I. Miss Hartman, I. Miss Frasier I. Miss Fazy I. Dr. Mauy I. The eyes have it and the motion passes. Miss Eisenhart, can you please read the recommendation for approval of the payment of bills? That the board of school directors approves the payment of bills for the period ending March 31st, 2025 as reflected in addendum number 7.1. Second. Dr. Fetcher. We have a second. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. I'll be be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the payment of bills. Questions from the board. All right. Miss Flanigan, if you would please. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart,

102I. Mr. Muhammad, I. Miss Balding, I. Miss Hartman, I. Miss Frasier, I. Miss Basy, I. Dr. Mau, I. The eyes have it and the motion passes. Miss Eisenhart, 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 8.1. Second. Dr. Fetch, we have a second. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. The permanent addendum continues to reflect requests for buildings and grounds uh for meetings and other school activities for this time of year. Okay. Um, I want to thank our teachers who make many of these opportunities um, available for our students. And I also want to just take a moment to note that we have 52 community organizations that use our facilities

103um for at cost or no cost. At cost typically, right? Uh depends on the classification of the Okay. Um minimal cost. Yeah. Uh, and that's that's a testament to the value that this community sees in the district and our facilities. Um, so I just wanted to to point that out for anyone who might be listening. Other comments or questions from my board colleagues? No. Okay. Mrs. Flanigan, if you would please. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Mr. Muhammad, I. Miss Balding, I. Miss Hartman, I. Miss Frasier, I. Miss Fazy, I. Dr. Mauy, I. The eyes have it and the motion passes. Miss Eisenhart. Could you please read the recommendation for awards of contracts? that the board of school directors approves the awards of contracts as reflected in addendum number 9.1. Second. Dr. Fetcher, we have

104a second. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. Uh, tonight for your consideration, we have one award of contract and one Montgomery County school entities joint purchasing agreement. The first is for capital lease financing agreement. This is the financing as um we have previously at a board meeting for the purchase of two 72 passenger school buses. The next is for the Montgomery County school entities joint purchasing and that is for Atletic Gasoline and Diesel Fuels for 2025 2026. Any questions from my board colleagues? Miss Woo? No. Okay. Mrs. Fanigan, if you would. Mrs. Brown, I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Mr. M. I. Miss. Balding. I. Miss. Hartman. I. Miss Frasier. I. Miss Basy. I. Dr. Murray. I. The eyes have it and the motion passes. Okay. Miss Eisenhart. Uh, can you please read the recommendation for the ratification of

105the agreement with the Abington Education Association? that the board of school directors, pursuant to the public employee relations act of the general assembly and as a result of the negotiations undertaken hereby approve, adopt and authorize the president and secretary of the board to execute and deliver on behalf of the school district. The agreement after the same has been duly executed by the proper and authorized officers of the Abington Education Association, AEA, effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028. Second. We have a second, Dr. Fetcher. Thank you, Dr. Mauy. Uh, a committee representing the board of school directors, including Dr. Melissa Mauy and Mr. Brian Allen administration met with the Abington Education Association to develop this three-year contract as as stated to be effective July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2028. Miss Christine Taylor, director

106of human services and the negotiations team will review the changes to the terms and conditions of the agreement. So, I'm going to ask Miss Taylor to uh review that, please. Thank you. Good evening. The following are some highlights from the agreement that we reached uh with the education association. In all three years of the agreement, 1.5 1.25% will be added to the salary matrix for steps one to 13 on the schedule. In year 1, 2.5% will be added to the top step of the schedule. And in years two and three, 2% will be added to the maximum step. In years one and three of the agreement, step one will be eliminated. These changes in salaries equate to the following increases on average for A.E.A. members. Year one, 4 point 4.85%. Year 2 4.06%. And in

107year three, 3.54%. Educational salary attainment movement will now occur once per year. That's a change from twice per year in the past. IEP teachers of record will receive an annual stipend of $800. Modest increases have also been established for the following ancillary payment areas: summer school, high school schedulers, homebound tutors, coaches, and club leaders. Each year, those rates will increase at 1.25%. For healthcare, the following changes have been agreed to. We will introduce a new health care plan option, a high qualifi HSA qualifying plan in addition to our core Keystone point of service plan and our buyup PO plan. Employee contributions to the core plan will be 18% and for the high deductible plan 8%. We'll be changing our formulary from an open formulary to a closed formulary. We will also be instituting some programs

108under our pharmacy benefit manager, RXCAP and RX control. Other notable changes in the agreement are enhancement to our tuition reimbursement program which encourages the continued professional development of our staff. pre-approved graduate level coursework will receive greater tuition reimbursement entitlement and also there are enhancements to the unused sick day payments for those retiring under the provisions of piecers. Language changes and adjustments will also increase the presence of our teachers for the supervision of students when needed at arrival dismissal in hallways and in common areas. On behalf of the district, I would like to thank the Abington Education Association for a collegial, productive, and very, I think, a very great uh bargaining experience. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Questions or comments from my board colleagues? Nothing. Okay, with that, we'll move to the vote. Mrs. Brown,

109I. Miss Eisenhart, I. Mr. Mohammed I Miss Balding I Miss Hartman I Miss Frasier I Miss Fazy I Dr. Mauy. Um I'm very pleased to vote I. Our teachers are uh really the backbone of this district. So I'm very pleased to approve this contract with that. The eyes have it. Did you want to add something? I wanted to offer uh Miss Debbie Lee if you wanted to as president if you wanted to address uh the negotiations process. Hi Debbie Lee, proud member of the community, proud educator in the district and most honored to be the president of the Abington Education Association. Unfortunately, this year was a hard year healthwise. So, I had an amazing negotiation team that took the rail and ran with it and did all they could possibly do for our AA members.

110I'd like to thank all of you for saying I and making it unanimous. It means the world to us. They worked really hard. Everyone filled out the surveys, told everyone what they needed, what they wanted, and sitting down with someone like Dr. Fetcher and Chris Lionetti and Miss Taylor made it a lot easier for the negotiation team. Um, I've negotiated quite a few contracts and I they've only gotten better as the years progress, Dr. Fetches. So, thank you. We have our three top negotiators here this evening and I would like to recognize them please. So, in case you don't know them, and they are Ernest West, our contract specialist and vice president, Tracy Douly, our elementary contract specialist and vice president, and Mike Staskcu, membership chair, and I thank you. And it was not easy

111for me, Shemica. I want you to know I let someone's words make me forget who I was, but I have endured many storms and natural disasters, and the rain doesn't bother me. Come on. So Jesus taught me that again. So I dusted my shoulders off and I stand here proudly to say thank you for negotiating with him and giving the AEA what they deserve. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that takes us to item 11. Are there Dr. Fetcher? Are there any additional reports and recommendations by the administration? Yes, Dr. from Maria provide the conference attendance and professional leaves for your information. Okay, great to see our teachers representing the district so well. Okay, any other business that may appropriately brought be brought to the attention of the board of school directors? No. Okay,

112that takes us to our second and final segment of comments from citizens. Uh, comments from citizens are being conducted both in person and by phone. The phone number to participate is being displayed now. It is 267-715-3717. You'll be able to join the meeting by calling in on your mobile or landline phone. As in the first segment, 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 to make a comment, please use the microphone. Yeah, Joe O'Brien Glenn side again. One of the things I forgot to mention earlier,

113one of the things that IC said was that if you replaced the HVA system in the middle school, there'd be a higher failure rate. Well, if you replace it with current level equipment, I've written software to test these exact failure rates. It would be the exact same failure rate as it would be in a brand new school. doing that is absolutely making it giving the suggestion it would fail quicker in an old school is not honest in any way or form. It would fail in the exact same rate in a brand new school as it would in the existing middle school. HVA systems fail at certain times. Doesn't matter what they're in. Thank you. Anyone else? Matthew Palmer, Carman Road. So, uh, hopefully I can squeeze this in three minutes. Uh, my grandparents moved to

114Abington for the schools and my mother attended Abington schools and graduated in 1966. Eventually, when I was in fourth grade, my mother brought our family back to Abington schools and I attended Abington Junior High as it was known at that time. The science wing was added in 1996. I graduated from the high school in 1997. I turned 46 this year and no changes have been made to the building in all that time. I feel old. Um, even back then the students called it the ant farm or the prison. And these terms did not originate from kids who hated school. I was mostly in honors classes and these were the kids that I was in class with. Circumstances have changed. Practices have changed. The notion that we can continue to educate in a nonADA compliant facility

115is reprehensible. The notion that it is okay to leave our kids in what amounts to a sinking ship is outrageous. Uh and teachers, sorry teachers, uh the belief that we can put half our students in mobile teaching units while we renovate our building is ridiculous. Uh my mother was a teacher in North Philadelphia for almost 30 years, and I've seen what happens in the mobile units. As if classrooms with full glass windows facing the hallway isn't enough of a safety risk, let's go a step further and put them in exterior structures, putting them beyond any potential support of any school resource officers. Let's put them in an environment where they may be exposed to workers who haven't been vetted and increase the risk of their exposure. It would seem to me that the primary concern

116from uh some folks is an increase of taxes. I propose that the real problem isn't taxes. As has been pointed out, the tax burden still would not amount to the burden in some nearby districts. If you want people to move to our district and perpetuate a strong tax base, you would do well to consider that for generations, my family is an example, people have chosen to move here for the quality of the schools that an easily sorry that can easily come to an end if our district fails to receive that support. The choice for me is simple. You can leave a legacy of community support and continued excellence or you can leave a legacy of greed and self-interest. I choose to support educational excellence on May 20th. Thank you. Thank you for your voice. Anyone

117else? Hi. Hi. John Pertell Glennside. Um I uh I wanted to uh previous speaker had said that he was worried that this was a rushed process and that um we needed to get we should have gotten today's presentation six months ago and that um he wanted us to wait six months so we could come up with a better plan. Um and I wanted to reiterate that this planning process has been going on for three years. There was a very detailed presentation by these gentlemen six months ago. Um, and they gave uh they went over in detail the four options that you presented to residents to vote on in the surveys that went out at the end of the year. Um, there is a website 1d1future.org that has a ton of details and information for residents

118to look at and see all of the work and care that has gone into this process so far. Um, for example, another speaker had said that ICS was hired by the board with a no bid contract. In the frequently asked questions section of the one ASD1 future site or website, it states, quote, "The district selected ICS, a construction management firm in media PA that specializes in managing large-scale educational facilities projects using a competitive request for proposal or RFP process that evaluated experience, technical expertise, and costs." End quote. The website also states that quote under the separations of trades act the district must contract separately with general mechanical plumbing and electrical contractors. End quote. So this is not one no bid business that is going to do this for us. This is a big process. It

119takes experts and it takes a lot of different teams working together led by people that know what they're doing. Um, so to reiterate my reasons for voting yes on this referendum, if it does not pass, the basic repairs and upgrades to the current middle school will cost approximately 15 $105 million. It'll take up to six years, same time as the new building would, um, to complete from start to finish and will likely delay regular maintenance and other district for other district buildings and could potentially impact staffing, educational programming, and of and course offerings as well as extracurricular activities for the next 20 years. That's half of the time it would take for us to pay off the referendum uh, bond. And then finally, another speaker had referenced a presentation from a previous meeting and said

120it showed poor student results. Um, I believe that presentation was specifically showing students that had been flagged in beginning of the year assessments that did not show the student body as a whole. So, it was it was specifically targeting the kids that were shown to need a little uh extra intervention. And from my recollection, the the presentation showed that they were making great progress actually. So, I just wanted to clear that up because again, if we don't spend the money. Thank you. Your time is up. That's okay. Thank you, Mr. CarGass. We'll go to callers now, please. Yes. The next citizen for public comment. Uh, phone number ending in 3219. Please state your full name and address. Hi, my name is Ashley Bram Johnson and I live near Ryel Elementary School. I wanted to call

121in tonight to voice my support for the referendum. The transparency that the board has demonstrated throughout this three-year planning process has gone above and beyond most other school districts who have gone through the referendum process. I especially appreciate the constant input that the district has asked for from the community and the continued updates that you're all making to the 1AD one future website. It truly shows your commitment to the Abington and Rocklage communities who will be affected by this. Um, my family chose to move to Abington about five years ago and the primary reason we chose Abington and not any other district in Montgomery County was not just the excellent reputation of the school district receiving Agrades for academics and teachers in school district assessment websites, but also from the feedback given to us from

122families already in the district. In many of the families we know and have met since moving into the district, the parents and even grandparents are also alumni of the Abington School District. This showed us as a family that Abington would provide a stimulating and safe community for our own kids and has already demonstrated this for decades. A community that prioritizes education is a community making an investment in its own future. not only attracting new families into the district, but also holding on to those families into the future. Over 60 years ago, this community made a capital investment to construct the North Campus, now known as Abington Middle School. This investment back then illustrated the financial willingness of Abington School District residents to back highquality education. And that's a direct quote from a 1960s IDA booklet

123about the North Campus. It's now time in 2025 for the community to make this investment again. For all these reasons and so many many more, I'll be voting yes on May 20th. Thank you. Thank you for your voice. Mr. Cargus, can you confirm that there are no other callers on the line? Correct. There are no more callers. Okay. We'll do final call for people in the room who would like to make a comment. Mr. Rooney, of course. Hey, good evening again Joe Rooney and Argley. Um, first I didn't have time to first section but I want to wish happy Easter for everybody here if you worship and for those of us who are Christians. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. For our friends, our Jewish friends uh a week earlier than that was Passover.

124I wanted to recognize that incredibly holy day for our Jewish friends also because uh it's very important for all of us to recognize all of those uh those uh very holy days. Uh Abington School District historically and u um people could back it up is first in the alphabet was first in either academics or achievement. I like to think it was academics and first in athletics. And um at no point in this whole discussion um has $285 million talked about how that's going to lead to the improvement of any of those. And we have heard discussions and we've been multiple discussions on problems with reading in kids leaving fifth grade and coming into the middle school. So that definitely needs to be addressed and I would love to hear how this $285 million for the

125people who are here and watching. How are we going to improve our achievement, academics, and athletics with this capital improvement project? The other thing that's kind of interesting to me is we're going to use continue to use North Campus's building for the next six years. There are needed improvements to that building have to be addressed now because they've been neglected for the last several. And several of these board members have been on this board for at least four years. And up until the last few meetings, maybe six months, there's never been any discussion about ADA in the middle school. I don't understand why if it's such an important concern. The next one is why did we move the sixth grade class into that school if we had these things? Because the in all honesty is

126we don't have them. Minute left. Thank you. They are in fact they've been addressed before. They've been looked at and have been found adequate. We have a structurally sound building. We have a structurally sound building worth a lot of money and we can improve that. We I encourage people to vote no. Go to commonsenseabington.com and we need a better plan. The presentation that we received today's from these gentlemen was interesting but it is the pro the program or the presentation we should get 6 months to a year before you guys make the decision. Now you've already made the decision as far as a referendum is concerned. We're talking to people in the audience here commonsenseabington.com. You'll get answers to the questions you're not getting them to. Thank you. Oh, one I got a little time.

127Could uh anybody tell us how much does a new teachers contract cost the school district each year? That wasn't brought up. Thanks. Thank you for your voice. Hi Deborah Lee, Turner Avenue, proud member of the community. Um I would like to thank you all for your kind words and my goodbye. Um they meant the world to me. Miss Dr. Mauy, I won't be going too far. I may even be getting a seat up there someday. Promises, promises. And lastly, the most important thing I wish to say is please use common sense and vote yes to invest in our students, our community, and our middle school. Thank you. Thank you for your voice. All right, final call for people in the room who would like to make a comment who have not done so already. Okay,

128Dr. Fetcher, is there anything you'd like to respond to? Uh, yes. Uh first of all I would like to um thank the speaker who brought up the uh purpose of the presentations for the achievement data um and that it was benchmark data to show how we are um trying to achieve uh excellence um as our standard and what we are putting into place to make sure that we have some safety nets for our students. And part of that presentation that um is very important to me, every year we have school improvement plans in every one of our buildings. That was an opportunity uh to show where we are as far as that those um progressions are concerned throughout the school year. And uh we did focus on our most needy students. And I think that's

129important to note as well that um it's not just here's our all group and we are achieving this percentage and and these are our students who are going to um the best schools in the country. We looked at students who are struggling, what programs and things we were putting in place that are um beyond the average student and what we would do to make sure that we can help them achieve. Uh so I think I appreciate that that was brought up during comments and that clarification uh is essential. Uh so you know we do maintain excellence as our standard and we are achieving and you know I invite anyone to look at the impressive uh places that our Abington students go beyond 12th grade to look at the number and dollar amount of scholarships that

130our students are receiving here in Abington and the difference that they're making not only in this community but in the world. So I I think there to question uh what we are here to do and our mission and vision. Uh I' I' I'd beg to differ and say that part of the reason for those presentations is to ensure that all students can achieve. Um, next I want to clarify there was a a a statement made about why did we bring the sixth grade class to the middle school and I just want to explain why that occurred at that time. Um, that was part of our grades span reconfiguration and the reason why we did the reconfiguration was an enrollment increase. all our elementary schools all had um capacity issues at the time. And one way

131to achieve that and there were discussions about whether to build another elementary school, whether to um expand the middle school and the decision that was made was to expand the high school so that 9th through 12th uh grade could all be in the high school at one time. uh that construction project and occurred first with the new wing being built before the renovation so that the three grades of students 10 through 12 that have been in that building could be there for some time and it wouldn't affect the education of the students. Once the uh building was complete, we were able to move 9th grade over first time having a 9 through 12 high school building. Um and that enabled the sixth grade to come to the middle school which opened up the uh every

132elementary school to have um room and we were able to run our address our enrollment issues and concerns at the time. So that was the reason why sixth grade moved to the middle school. Thank you. Thank you. And uh thank you for clarifying the achievement data we saw back in January. Um I think it's important for people to understand that that midyear achievement data is um a helpful check for teachers in the classroom to understand where their students are and identify those students who may need further help in in meeting the expectations. It does not mean that those students are failing. Um, so I think that that's an important clarification. Um, anything else? That's it. Okay, with that we will move on to closing comments of our school directors. Mrs. Brown, it's PSSA season for

133grades three through eight. Remember to charge those devices tonight. Get a good night's sleep. And for our students taking Keystones a little bit later, remember that uh algebra and biology is important. Do your best. Have a good night, everyone. Miss Eisenhart, just want to again acknowledge all the wonderful and robust conversation and dialogue from all the community members this evening. Um again reiterate thanks to our awesome retirees and their commitment and service to the district. You matter and it's important. Um, the opportunity to impact the lives of children uh is something you should hold in your heart forever. And I appreciate all of the work that the district does and our teachers and our staff to continually positively influence and impact our students every day. They choose to show up and do that. And that's

134commendable. Um, and Abington as a community is grateful for your service. Have a good evening all. Mr. Muhammad, when you ask your neighbors why Abington, they are likely to say the schools. Um, that's my answer, right? You know, I moved into Abington in October of 2020 um and immediately ran for a seat on this board uh throughout that following year. It's my honor to sit on this seat to work on behalf of every student in this district to work alongside my colleagues as stewards of our budget and to secure the future of Abington School District for generations to come. When we think about the middle school, we have to take into consideration what we have. We have a school that is providing quality education but is plagued with distractions based on environmental and facilities challenges.

135These include cramped hallways and stairwells, systems that are past their useful life, spaces that are not ADA compliant, spaces that are in need of upgrades and renovations. The community, Abington, Rock Ledge, right? We could go with a kick the can down the road approach or the community could embrace the proactive approach that this referendum provides which would yield fewer disruptions to education, a planned and wellthoughtout construction process with proper funding and the ability to avoid the inevitable drain on our budget based on the challenges of that middle school. I invite everyone in our community to envision the difference between what we currently have and what we stand to gain if we come together and vote yes to invest in the needs of our students. We shouldn't have to rely on student grit and resilience as

136they go to school every day in a space that poses educational disruptions, is not inclusive, and can sometimes be uncomfortable. Abington Rock Ledge. We have it within our power to do the right thing for our community. We need to make the investment for the benefit of our students. Pay it forward for future generations. Let's come together to create a space that removes as many barriers to learning as possible. Vote yes to invest so that we can gain an ADA compliant building. New and modern building systems. School design that makes a large school feel smaller. Adequate space for our students. State-of-the-art facilities meant to maximize student learning and educational experiences. May 20th. Vote yes to invest. It's it's essential. We need this within our community. Thank you. Good night, Miss Falding. I too want to reiterate

137that May 20th, vote yes to invest. Have a good evening, everybody. Miss Hartman. Um, the issue of ADA compliance has come up a couple times tonight and I just I want to be clear that this is not a new issue for us. Um, we heard from a parent a couple weeks ago who said that she can't even attend back to school night. Oh, yeah. Because she's in a wheelchair and she can't maneuver through that school. Can you imagine what it's like for a kid? Um, these are some of our most vulnerable students and we're not talking about one or two kids in our community. Um, Mr. Solomon alluded to the fact that we are grandfathered in with our ADA compliance because of when the building was built and how it was built. But we are

138not doing a service to our students by not improving that. And we're not just talking about elevators. We're talking about the outside arrival points. We're talking about parking, loading and unloading zones, access in the cafeteria, access at water fountains, access at the library, being able to reach things that they need to be able to reach that they can't reach from their their wheelchairs or from their their um however whatever devices they're using to get around. When we talk about equity, this is this is what we're talking about. Every kid in that school deserves to be safe and feel welcome and have the best access to the best education. And I just need to say how strongly I feel about this. And I know that we have been talking about this throughout the process. But it's

139not just our kids who are our most vulnerable students who are affected. This is all of our students. And I just feel very strongly that we need to as a community come together for our kids and vote yes for this referendum. so that we can give our students the best opportunity to grow as as humans to learn and to be safe and happy. And I think you guys have done a great job of opening that door for us. And I want to thank everybody who's spoken tonight in support of the referendum and thank all the voices here um for speaking out and have a good night, Miss Fraser. I share all of your sentiments. Thank you and thank you for coming out. All of you have a good evening, Miss Fazy. Um I want to

140say thank you to everyone who spoke tonight. um and for the presentations and for the conversations and to all of our retirees who will be greatly missed. Um and to everyone who for everything that you do each day um in ensuring kids have access to education. Um have a great night. Take good care. Miss Woo. Um, just like with moving to the school district, um, I don't think I said this before, but my parents moved here when I was 5 years old because of the school district and I used to go to a Catholic school in South Philly and it wasn't a good area and my sister also hated that school and we moved here and we were living in an apartment but um, I think after a year my parents realized like how school

141how good the school district was. So they were looking for houses and they found a house that they loved but wasn't in the school district so they didn't buy it and they just kept on looking until they found one that was like perfect in this district. And they have been talking like recently about how the rankings over school has gone down and that's only because of the middle school. And I know that when I was in middle school, people were talking about how um it looked like a prison and um and how the developers they there was like a rumor that the developers also developed a prison. Um, and I remember one time when I think it was after PSSA's and everyone was on everyone in my grade was just on the third floor and

142everyone was just stuck up there and that's like if there was a fire or anything, no one be no one would be able to go down. They're just stuck there. Yeah. Okay. Have a good night. Thank you. Thank you. And we're glad your parents found the right house in the district. Um so the past couple meetings I've been reiterating that um public education is the single greatest driver of innovation and opportunity. It is also perhaps the most American of institutions because it affords opportunity to students regardless of where they live, regardless of their income level, regardless of whatever resources they have. For one of the things we heard about tonight is that for generations this community has stood in support of that most American of institutions. I want to urge everyone in this community on

143May 20th to go out and vote yes for the referendum so that we can continue that tradition. Thank you everyone. This meeting is adur adjourned.