June 2, 2026 School Board Meeting

001I'd like to call our regular meeting to order for James River Area School Board uh Board of Directors, Tuesday, June 2nd. Um we did not meet in executive session prior to. We had a public session prior to. Uh we did Pledge of Allegiance and moment moment of silence previously. So, we're going to move right to uh 2.03, approval to adopt the June 2nd, 2026 agenda. Motion and second, please. >> I move. >> Second. >> Motion by Mr. Haydek, second by Mrs. Gaus. Questions, discussions, additions, deletions to the to the proposed agenda. Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Opposed? I's have it, so moved. Item 2.04, um before I ask the question, um so for nominations, it will take a nomination. We will not need a second. Uh just like

002when we're doing committee assignments and and board leadership and whatnot. So, like to open up the the floor for from for board directors for nominate for nominee for Region 5 uh Board of Director to fill the uh vacancy of Ms. Harvell. >> I'd like to I'd like to nominate Mr. William Leonards. >> Okay. Any other nominations? >> I'd like to nominate Mr. Michael Borian. >> Okay. And since both gentlemen were here an hour ago, I assume you're still interested. We didn't scare you away. [laughter] Okay. Uh motion to close nominations, please. >> Move to close. >> Motion by Mr. McGee. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Eyes have it and so moved. So now we'll go to item 2.05. I'll ask Ms. Stauffer to go Mrs. Stauffer to go

003through a roll call vote. And when she calls your name, just state or announce which one of which candidate you prefer and that will be that will be our vote. Following our vote, our notary is here and she will swear in the uh our new school board member. We'll take a little pause while that happens and then we'll get down to business. So Mrs. Stauffer, roll call, please. >> Okay. Any discussion on this? Or not? Either way's fine, but Any questions? >> Yeah. I don't know. >> I don't know how we're supposed to vote. >> Go for it. You know my rule. If you want to talk, I'll let you all talk as long as you want. >> I was I was going to say I think both candidates bring some strengths to the team.

004So. >> I concur. >> I also concur and I think it's it's wonderful that we have two highly qualified people who are interested in in our school district and interested in serving on our board. Sometimes that's not the case. So it makes it really difficult for those of us sitting here that have to to vote on this and especially you know, because they're they're both quality individuals. So whoever does not is not well seated on the board, we want to make sure you understand that we really care that you came in here tonight. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Reber. Good suggestion. >> I'll second. >> Mrs. Stauffer, roll call, please. >> Dr. Diller. >> William Linharts. >> Ms. Gaugler. >> William >> Leonards >> Miss Gaus >> Michael Borian >> Mr. Hayda >> Borian >>

005Mr. McKee >> Bill Leonards >> Mr. Norcross >> Mr. Leonards >> Mr. Piper >> William Leonards >> And Mr. Raber >> Dr. Borian >> Motion is for Mr. Leonards is 5 to 3. >> Again, thank you Mr. Borian and thank you Mr. Leonards. We appreciate your interest and your support, continued support for Chambersburg School District and the community. Comment though that in a year and a half or so, this seat will be ready for permanent member and it's another opportunity for both of you or someone else to come up and be, you know, interested in trying to get the seat. So, thank you both. >> Yes, thank you. >> Thank you. >> I thought you were talking about your seat for a minute there. I was like, wait a minute. >> [laughter] >> I don't

006care who's behind her. She's our notary and she's going to do the oath of office out the hallway or in the room next door. >> [laughter] >> Well, you know, it makes me smile that, you know, before we hired you, I got criticized for the process and now they love you. So, I guess, you know, >> [laughter] >> maybe history will repeat itself. >> Mhm. Sure. >> Oh, yeah. Thanks, babe. >> Yeah. >> Where you going to like it? What's up? >> Where did it go? >> You find >> I don't >> Thanks for the tip. >> I don't know. >> That's why I have >> There's no question. >> A lot of decisions. I'm going to start selling some of this stuff. >> Uh >> That'd be a priority. >> That's my priority. That's

007about the most I can do. Yeah. Yeah, I can do >> What's that? >> Yeah. Yeah. My strength is far away. >> Okay. I don't know. The world is upside down right now. >> The world is upside down, right now. I don't feel like we did this in here. I feel like we usually did this in here. The notary. >> Yeah, I used to sign this one in here. >> Oh, really? Yeah. >> Must be solemn. >> Yeah, why not? >> Must be solemn when you're talking about money. >> Why are we doing this swearing in in here? >> There's no reason. >> Yeah. >> Just a split in time. >> Yeah. >> I think we've usually done it in here. >> It doesn't matter. I mean, she swore herself in in the technology office

008cuz you couldn't attend the meeting so that you You're allowed to It's just as long as you get >> Yeah, yeah. >> From a legal standpoint. >> Yeah. >> It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. >> It's a public When you win an election, it's more of a >> So, you So, you remember that I went to the technology >> Yep. >> Well, I was sworn in. I put my hand on the Bible. >> Like Kurt got his sworn in at the >> commissioner's office. He had to go to >> the office in the >> He went again. One judge. >> There was a line out so he'd go back again. >> In this office, you know, nobody's there watching. >> I went I had to go in front of the courthouse. The new courthouse is

009gorgeous. >> Yeah, that courthouse is beautiful. >> Yeah, it's it's it's I've been there, too. It's nice. >> It's nice having to do it. >> Like I don't want to be in here. >> What age is your kids now? How many do That's why she had to wear it. Took it to the 15 and going into what now? Not when it comes to Okay, so we'll have from the grandchild >> is going into fifth. And third, you said. >> Yeah, just more of it. >> That's good. >> I have a blast. >> Did we talk about it? >> My grandson last night. >> Oh, we just got a cheeseburger. >> All right. Well, welcome Mr. Leonards. Thank you for coming back. We didn't scare you off again, so that's good. Uh back in session back

010continue on with our agenda. Uh item 3.01 building project logistics and funding. Uh this is going to be a dual presentation by Mr. Bigger and Mrs. Stauffer. Um and then we'll open it up the board discussions, comments. Uh Chris has a couple questions. And I don't know if that's going to be in this part or after. >> Towards the end of it. Okay. >> Uh thank you everyone. This is not other than Bill. This is not new information to you. It's packaged and repackaged and repackaged multiple ways from architects to uh John Fry and PFM and Tammy and myself and Friday folders. So, you not a lot of new information, but we're trying to get to a culminating point where we have some strategic decisions to make. And I just I'm not a big analogy

011person with sports, but I'm going to use one. Doesn't matter what event it is. It can be a golf outing. It can be a a baseball game. You know, you start with a a plan uh and then it rains and you have delays. Um and you may do really well in the beginning of your golf round or event and then at the end you're not playing very well. This process has a lot of variables to it. Um and when we present an update it's as of that month. Uh lots of influences um help us make decisions or not make decisions, whether it's the schedule of the projects themselves, the cost of fuel, um whether it is a variable that pops up because we're on a new site at Green Village uh or an old site

012and it needs a new approval, new codes. I could go on and on and on about the variability. So, what you're getting tonight is the best information we has have as of June of 2026. I felt it was important you hear this from me. Uh it is the team of 10 making this final decision as we get closer to go time and it is a collective decision. So, we want to make sure everyone has the best information, the way you need to understand it, the best way you can have it. So, don't feel that the presentation tonight is over. It is the beginning. Uh I do have a recommendation. We have a recommendation and we are not 100% tied to it. There are variations to it, but I've always felt in leadership I need to

013start with a recommendation for you so you can criticize it, change it, agree with it or adjust it, but if someone doesn't make a motion or make a recommendation, we stall. >> Mhm. >> So, I felt I needed to put us out there um and we as a team did spend a lot of time on the premise of this presentation. So, I want to start off with this is a 50-year look. While it might feel like there's short-term pain, I really want you to think 50 years down the road. If you look at Chambersburg's history, every 30 or 40 years there's a major change, whether it was the consolidation in the '60s to the reduction in elementary schools uh later on to major changes in the early 2000s. It seems to be that every 30

014to 40-year cycle there's a major adjustment generally to facilities and to educational programming. And so, we're in that window. Whether it happens all at the same time or we delay parts of the project, that's up to the team's decision, but we're in that window of time where it's up to us to make some some major decisions. So, we're focused on strategic realignment, educational modernization, and fiscal optimization, mainly because of the influx of state money. So, next slide here. I want to start with the end in mind. So, the the analysis has taken us from 17 buildings to 13 to deliver an optimal building educational design that serves all students, just not some, cuz we do have some struggles, but we also protect the local taxpayers by using operational savings and the historic state funding, so

015that we can have one Trojan community in the end. That's been resounding from this board when we started talking about our struggles to rally around one Trojan community starting in fourth grade. Uh we were looking for opportunities to bring us together, and I think we found a whole bunch of opportunities to bring this community under one Trojan community with one graduation in the end and one identity. This is not I'm going to read to you, and thank goodness I won't. The only purpose on this slide is to show you that for 2 and 1/2 years we've been doing this work. Uh nothing more than that, but you can highlight every presentation the board has seen, the public um multiple times. The the no one should really not know we're doing something unless they haven't read

016anything. And so, that's all this slide is for. It's a 2 and 1/2 year process so far to date, and we're not done, but we've done a lot of work to get to this point. So, this one I'm re-highlighting that we are closing schools or shuttering schools or repurposing them, and our grade configuration, we debated variations of this, but we ended with K to 3 primary, 4 to 6 intermediate, 1 7 8 school, and then our 1 and 1/2 high schools are one Trojan community high school at the end. The reason I brought this slide up in addition to that is you already made a strategic decision as a board. We did. The cost of a renovation of a middle school was so close to a new one, it wasn't worth throwing bad money into

017an old or good money into an old building. So, we decided to make a new middle school, which is that sunken cost trap. We could have easily renovated that, not change programming, made it look better, made the HVAC better. You wouldn't have noticed much. And so, this is a strategic change from our typical past when we typically renovate and add on. And so, I wanted to highlight that decision's already been made to move towards a new middle school uh prior to the final configuration. So, we're going to talk a little bit about adequacy here. So, Tammy's going to take adequacy and walk you through a little bit of history and and rationale. >> So, if you go back to the uh the very busy slide that started in 2024, that was also kind of a

018historical shift for school districts. Uh the 24-25 fiscal year was the first year that we received adequacy funding. We not only received adequacy funding, but we see we see some additional money into some other state subsidies. So, we collectively had about $8 million more in state revenue coming in in the 24-25 fiscal year. What we saw was um a lot of business managers were like, "Oh, yeah, this is never going to last because it's it's just not historically what happens with the state." They were like, "Yeah, that's we're never going to get to the target." which for Chambersburg was $52 million that we should be receiving annually additionally from the state from where we were in 23-24. Jump forward now almost 3 years, and surprisingly, the state has come through. Uh in 24-25, we received

019$5 million in adequacy funding. In 25-26, we received an additional $5 million, and we've been promised an additional $5 million in 26-27. So, you know, quick math, that's about $15 million, a little bit more than that cuz it's not quite 5 million, but $15 million more than what we were receiving in 23-24. What we saw before adequacy came out was on average, the district would receive about $1.5 million annually in additional state revenue. So, you can see there's been a significant shift in how the state is distributing money out to districts and it had all to do with the landmark court case which ruled that the state was not adequately funding school districts equally across the state of Pennsylvania. >> And what we won't know about that historical case is when is enough's enough. So,

020we're 3 years in, so far so good, but I can't project for you further out than what we receive. >> Good. >> Okay. So, again, you know, this is looking at what we how we would see things prior to the adequacy and what we are seeing now for the last three going on 3 years. I do want to point out, as I've said before, um we would not be talking about these projects in the way that we've been talking about them for the last 2 and 1/2 years if we had not received adequacy money. Um there was just really not an easy way to grow the debt service to the level that we will need to grow it with just local revenue. So, the state shifting the way that they have, what we've seen is

021the basic ed funding is kind of flatline. We're not getting a lot more into that formula, and and I'm okay with that. Uh if you're going to continue to give me 5 million into ready to learn or the adequacy funding, that's good for us. Special ed, again, um it it's not relatively it is relatively flat and we're not seeing a lot of additional money's coming into that. And again, this is all a shift since 24-25. >> And we can highlight in the orangeish yellow bottom, that's about 360 some school districts receive that. There are many school districts that receive no adequacy money. The formula number used is around $14,000 per child is the adequacy number. And if you are spending less than $14,000 per child, that's what we're getting in gap difference. So, when they

022say gap, it's the gap between the determined per student cost of around $14,120 and what we spend. So, across the state, those spending less are getting adequacy, those spending equal to or more are getting nothing. And that's the formula number they use. Uh this is where the struggle for long-term adequacy is starting to creep in. So, two things I want to point out. Because we are an adequacy district, we cannot exceed Act 1 for any reason. So, if we wanted to go above the Act 1 index, we cannot. Before you could for special reasons. We cannot because we're receiving that. The second is the state's put them in a difficult themselves in a difficult position for the last 3 years. They have given us adequacy while they're in a $6 billion structural deficit. So, the

023state cannot continue to fund us to the level unless they intervene at the state level. And so, that's the real crux in why we can't project out adequacy. Nice to have, we hope to get it, but we can't guarantee it in our decision-making, which makes this a little more challenging for us. The three items in the middle are the cost drivers for most schools across the state. And we call this cost to carry. Typical if you raise taxes 2% or receive revenue, most of those three items would go up and eat up the cost of your new revenue. You can't control special ed at this point. That's federally and state directed. Healthcare, we did and have been trying to make some changes in healthcare, so we're hoping to see some changes there. And we saw

024some cyber charter reform last year that did help out. So, these are the biggest cost drivers though. So, as these go up and the cost to carry continue to be the same, that's a struggle. If our cost to carry comes down, that's really helpful for us. So, uh that's where you continue to say cost of doing business, that's the cost of doing business, and we can't control some of those. The one we can, and we're trying our hardest on the healthcare side. This one came from a PASBO presentation. I thought it really highlighted our risk, but also our uh future projections. So, as Tammy was describing, prior to '21-'22, you see those small little charts or uh um bars that go up. That was the 1.5 million on average you would get, whether it's a

025BEF, a special ed, a ready to learn, or a level up. That was the norm pre-COVID. COVID then hits. In '21-'22, '22-'23, we get ESSER's money through '23-'24. Then the next 3 years is adequacy in '24-'25, '25-'26, '26-'27. I added to This is Mr. Schram's chart at PASBO, well-known finance person who we all revere uh as a numbers person. Um but the real question is what's going to happen moving forward? I think the rational reasonable thing to consider is we're going to stay at the historical past averages. It And that's how we're going to make decisions. So, we're going to assume maybe we get 1.5 million moving forward. If we get adequacy on top of that, great. But based on the state money, and based on the historical dollars, we cannot see, and no one

026is predicting predicting sustainable high levels of funding like we saw in the last 5 years. Making sense? So, projecting out, we're going to use that light blue arrow of the 1.5 million moving forward that we're going to get something from the state, it's just a matter of how much. So, everyone's trying to project and predict how much we will get as an adequacy school. Think this is a really good history lesson of state funding, which runs about a little less than 40% of our budget. So, we are reliant on our budget from the state for continued funding. But, this is a good history lesson. Pretty pretty adequate or not adequate, pretty low in the beginning and then it ramped up and it just cannot continue. So, our projects in summary format, instead of giving you

027the ranges, I just picked the middle as current times of June 6th. So, what are the mid-range costs, the median value of the projects for all three of them across the board, plus the construction management services towards the bottom. Um so, you can see the middle school came in at 124, intermediate school, these are not new numbers to you, 139, Greenville at 37 for total cost right around 300 if we were to fund everything. Um plus construction management services. So, good news, uh we are hearing from the architects that large projects throughout the state are coming in under budget. Smaller projects are coming in a little bit above budget. So, it seems to me economy of scale is a good thing right now. I hope that maintains itself um through the fall when we go

028to bid in our time frame, December-January. All right, Tammy, this really complicated slide is you. So, I will help a little bit. >> Oh, great. Okay. So, yeah. Um so, what this slide is showing, and of course, you know, to get to the the debt service level that we are looking at, if we would finance the three projects or even if we would finance two first and then another one, we would be in the ballpark of about 31, 32 million dollars of debt service annually. So, in order for us to be able to to afford projects, Dennett and I, my right hand back here, we have to get that in as a a item in the budget so that it's reoccurring every year, and it it is one of the literally one of the first

029things that we budget when we we go to prepare our budget as we put that debt service in there, cuz it's going to get paid one way or the other, and we we have to get it in. So, where we are right now when as we will move through the agenda, the next few items will be approving the or you will be approving the 26-27 budget. Our current level of debt service is around $13.7 million. That's in the 26-27 year. What we have been doing the last few years is super funding the debt service and building up a debt service fund, and we've been able to do that for for a couple of reasons. One, again, going back to the adequacy. While we cannot use adequacy money to pay for debt service, we've been able

030to offset other operating expenditures and reallocate that money to to the debt service fund. So, we've been able to start to build that up. In the 26-27 budget, we actually have $22.6 million in as a line item for reoccurring debt. In order to get to the the 31-32 million over the next 3 years after the 26-27 budget, we're going to have to commit to add an additional $3 million to the debt service line to get to that 31 and 1/2 32 million dollar number. The good news in all this is that we have a period of risk as Chris has indicated on there was we have the calculated risk in window one, which is we got to build another $9 million into the debt service budget line, and then we have the window of number

031two, which is basically that period of time where our debt service is going to continue to run along about 31-32 million until it starts to drop off in 2037. Um that's about the time that the high school debt comes off the books, so to speak. Um you all know that the new school we have over there, right? We still like to call it the new school. During that period, and I don't know if it's on this slide or if it's on the next one, we also have other competing capital needs. As you heard back in the fall, Mr. Barner presented the capital improvement plan. I think for the next 10 to 12 years, we need about $36 million. Currently in the cap reserve, we have about $16 million. And that's honestly I'm I'm happy with

032that, believe it or not, because when I took this job in 2018, there was 900,000 in there. So kept me up at night wondering how we were going to maintain all these facilities with about 900,000 in the cap reserve. You want to add anything to that? >> Yeah, the premise of the slide is what's the level of risk that we're willing to take to move forward with decision-making, and how do we mitigate the risk the risks in the windows? And I think that's the most important for you to understand. We're only presenting the information we know as of today. And we can start projecting forward. It's why that state revenue slide was so important. We can project a little moving forward, but we cannot until we know more, and we'll know more next February and

033March when a governor is selected and they present their budget if adequacy is in there or not. And so we can only project for you so we have calculated risk that we're willing to take, and you have to be comfortable with that, and we have to be comfortable with that. So let me highlight the two risk windows. So how do we engineer down the risk so that we feel more comfortable with that? And I'm going to assume that the state resources are minimized to the historical averages. I'm going to make that assumption. It's a conservative approach. If our health care, and we are very excited that we did only have a 4% increase this past year, that's historically low for us. So that's helpful. If that stays true, and we are reducing our liability of

034health care costs by $2 million, that's a big step. If you remember Tammy's 3-year budget, it added 2 million per year each year for the next 3 years in the 3-year budget. If we can cost avoid that increase, that can be reapplied to and reduces our risk. Following the logic there on the route reducing risk, the second one would be our local economic factors. Does our inner our income tax, our local development of manufacturing and plants and housing continue and does our employment remain at historically low unemployment levels? If those continue to remain strong, that reduces our risk. We can make program changes and adjustments if need to to help mitigate the risk. We can make our adjustments. There's always room in most budgets to make some of those adjustments. And we can also utilize

035some of our cash built up in debt service to reduce the full borrow. The scenario Tammy showed you was the borrow the full amount assuming no cash is being applied to the project. We can reduce the risk of 9 million to a lower number if we were to use cash on the project. And the last one is the enrollment and consolidation savings. So, this past year we saw a 100 student decrease in enrollment. That's very different from the previous 30 years basically. Um all COVID was the only other time we had a dip. This was our second time right now. So, if enrollment stays steady and declines, that helps through attrition of savings. If enrollment goes up, kindergarten's up and we have to hire four teachers, that certainly doesn't help our budget. The consolidation savings

036happen slowly. We've already received some of them and done some of them on our end, but if all of it will not come to fruition until the projects are done. But over time we are able to get those consolidation savings. But those consolidation savings can go away real quickly if enrollment spikes. So, on the bottom chart in the fine print, um the worst case scenario is if enrollment goes up, the economy tanks, and the state gives us no money. So, hopefully those three things do not happen. Cuz if we do, then we're we're down to one project, not not uh not two big projects. So, that's risk window one, which is the first 4 years of that risk window Tammy showed. The second risk window is we don't want to leave existing buildings we plan

037to use to uh fall apart. So, Matt presented to you a 12-year plan, and I think Matt's here, Matt Warner. Yep. In 2025, and it was about a $36 million plan, we have $16 million currently in that budget. So, if we can find a way to ramp up those capital projects to guarantee during the second window, when we've maxed our borrowing or gotten pretty close to maxing our borrow, we don't lose sight of the existing buildings, that's the second risk window. Cuz I've seen schools spend it all, and then they let the other buildings, and then you're in the same problem you were started 20 years from now. So, you don't want to repeat that cycle. Um So, the current timelines on a side-by-side comparison of the two architects for our projects are very similar.

038And so, both of them would be ready to go out to bid in November. We would go to bid and solicit in December and January, February on the other project, and then we would award bids in January for the Green Village campus, and in March for the middle school campus. I said from day one that it's the right plan, it's just how fast we can do the plan. So, we're staying at this point, we're continuing the thought process that we can do the projects, and they open in the fall of '29. However, this is where it gets complicated. So, it's fun saying yes, and it's a little harder saying how are we going to get this done. So, I am going to look to my colleagues uh behind me to the right and to the

039left a little bit to chime in. This is where it's going to be a little more interactive. Um we spent a half a day discussing can we actually build them all simultaneously on the logistics side? In the just envision this. In the summer of '29, every kindergarten for the most part through eighth grade teachers moving. We are redistricting the entire elementary division. Um and we are messing with transportation timelines and locations and pickups and where you ride. Three big ticket items. So we started with that question and we ran a matrix. So what is the cost of doing all the projects at the same time? What is the cost of delaying a project? Because of delaying a project costs you 3% and cost escalation. So on 130 million, delaying the project costs you 3 more

040million depending on the market. And so we ran through this analysis. So I want to pause here. We looked at cost, logistics, public impact, staff change, disruption, and then educational enhancement. So I want to pause here and just do a little interaction with us on questions you might have about the logistics and this chart. And then you're not deciding on anything, but at least understanding a little bit of our struggle and then we'll get to the recommendation. So what questions or thoughts would you have on this type of chart? >> I'll maybe start them, Chris, or that uh you and I had this conversation several times. You know, I've always thought a bit of a staggered opening was best. >> Mhm. >> And then when you mentioned logistics, that was sort of really sealed the

041deal. >> Mhm. >> Really sealed the deal for me and I think if you go with a delayed with a delayed or not a a staggered or not a delayed, a staggered opening, you know, obviously Green Valley would be the first one because that is where we see savings from synergies, so we can start recognizing savings sooner with the Green Village. Uh and the Green opening first. >> me clarify. There is a delaying for a year to even do the project or a delayed opening maybe by 6 months. Both are options. So, if we did all the projects and delayed one of them, more likely the middle school to open in January, that's an easier uh pill to swallow than trying to do it all in August. The other is a delay for an entire

042year of building the project, which means one would open in the fall of '29 assuming the weather's perfect and we have no construction problems. One would open in the fall of '29, one would open in the fall of '30. >> I like the word staggered versus delayed. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So, my question would be I'm thinking about students and families and how they react >> Mhm. >> to the delayed opening. So, who's going to handle this better? The little younger kids or the kids going into the middle school or like what's the impact going to be on that cuz that's where the waters get really muddied >> Mhm. >> in terms of community support um people having their hair on fire about this and um how it impacts the learning environment. >> Question for

043the group. Anybody want to chime in from colleagues? >> When when we met um a couple weeks ago for that half a day, we talked about delaying for the year or a staggered opening of this summer and then a January. Elementary students, that would mean they would change teachers, they would change schools, they would change friends in the middle of a year. That is not good for the elementary students and frankly is probably not good for the older students as well. So, that's another piece to think about as well. But, if you delay from one summer to the next summer, you're starting fresh and you're not disrupting the whole educational environment in all of the schools because we're pulling fourth and fifth grade out, we're redistricting, and we're moving many, many students and many teachers.

044>> One of the um thoughts >> Hold on, let me let you the floor. Let's finish finish the responses. Go ahead. >> I think it's important to point out that a lot of discussion has already started on possibilities of and there are there are two keywords there, a delay of a project completely. Send you down one logistics path and planning for communication, not just with home, but with staff and with students and things and workforce and manpower to have that planned, organized, and communicated out with plenty of time. That Those are all things that we've considered already up to up to this stage. Um delay versus staggered opening is is a really key piece here. Um moving forward, if you see the driving force behind all of this in that far right column is that

045educational enhancement. Really key piece for you to keep in mind that everyone benefits that from that and building all of them moving forward and building all of them simultaneously cashes in on that for everyone involved. Um staggering based on several factors is another thing that we have to plan for logistically. Um and that is something that we've talked about. A mid-year change, what does that look like to elementary, to the intermediate building, to middle school? Um and what are some options in handling that or planning ahead? Uh, so that we minimize the impact of a mid-year change based on things we can plan for and even things we can't. Um, and kind of maximize the timing of the change for all. So, although it might not appear that a mid-year change for intermediate is in

046anyone's best interest, it could be a lot more manageable for the middle building. Um, if we plan ahead. So, we've already talked through some of those scenarios. >> Let me Let me maybe clarify my previous comments cuz I think they might be being misconstrued or misinterpreted. When I say staggered versus delay, right? I don't like the using it's a just a play on words. I don't like the word delay at all. It just has more of a negative con- cons- you know, feel to it than than staggered. When I say staggered, I'm saying whether you stagger putting a shovel in the ground by a year or not, you know, it's it's it's staggered. Uh, just again, I don't like the connotation of the word delay. When when I say staggered, I you know, I'm not

047saying build them at the same time and just open them separately. If you're going to open them separately, then start them separately. Stag- If you're going to stagger the opening, then stagger the the construction. >> What is that? >> Dr. Oh, go ahead. William, Dr. Diller had a question there first. >> I was talking to an individual that said, you know, with the three schools when they you have your contractors and they bid and um, and sometimes they don't get the bid on the first school. And so, if they're not staggered, you you often can get a better price when the next next people bid on the next school and it may be lowered because they didn't get it on the first one. When you do it all three at the same time, you don't

048you don't get that value. And I don't know enough about that, but it what they were telling me sounded sounded right. >> We would bid them separate no matter what, the two big projects. It's the question is building them together, not bidding them together. So, they'll be bid separately >> Okay. >> uh three months apart. So, let me go back. >> So, three three months is long enough to to get that savings and that >> their recommend uh it's not the savings so much as just to the the they'll sharpen their pencils if they don't get the first bid. >> Yeah, that's where we we've got to make sure we have the adequate amount of time so people are so those contractors are sharpening their pencils. And giving us better pricing. >> Yep. >> And

049I I also I also think that the the Green Village campus that that has to be the first priority because of the major restructuring because you still have your middle school sitting there. If you have to delay it a year or whatever, they're still you can still run them adequately, but you you know, all the all the changes that have to be happening with with the kindergarteners and and the parents and all that, there's there's there's a lot that it's a lot to go into, so >> Mrs. Gaugler, you were next, I think. >> When you're talking about the um McKinley Street Stauffer Avenue location, we're not only building, but we're demolishing. >> Mhm. >> Will that not end up being advisable to have this stagger where the new building is finished probably at about

050the same time as the Green Village, but the campus is not ready to utilize, and so would that end up not likely kind of balancing? >> I'm going to ask Matt to jump in there on a little bit on the phasing on the discussions we've had already on that, whether it's feasible or not or maybe. >> Yeah, and just to start off with the staggered opening, um you know, I want to be very transparent. Logistically, this is going to be a challenge for our B&G team what- whatever decision is made moving forward. Um and will likely require the services of a third-party moving company for us to accomplish this. Um but I think when you start looking at construction schedules, um the staggered approach is probably going to work itself out a little bit through

051the construction process. Um if you think about the two projects at Green Village, uh the one is a very large intermediate school, 348,000 square feet currently, um and then you have a smaller elementary school. It's Naturally, the elementary school is likely going to move quicker during the construction period. It's going to take less time and would be able to be available for occupancy prior to the intermediate school. Um you start thinking about the middle school project. So, we really have a phasing plan, um you know, high-level phasing plan developed for that project. Um because as you talked, logistically, we really need to start that project prior to a summer, um because we need fill from the existing site in order to prepare the building pad because um it it's a low area of the project.

052So, we really need that first summer to put temporary parking in and get the fill cut for the building pad. Um but then we also have the logistic one the back end of it where we have to occupy the new building and demolish the school. Um and again, we we really need a summer to do that because we we've got to demolish the existing school and then we got to finish all the site work so that we can get buses and transportation and student drop-off ready. So, um logistically, um you know, the priority there is getting that building raised up out of the ground. Um we would likely be looking at a early very end of school year occupancy for the middle school. Um so, again, I kind of danced around there a little bit.

053Did I answer your questions or or did I miss out what you're asking on? >> It's moving parts. >> Yeah. >> I have a quick question. So, the third-party moving, is that part of our soft cost estimate? >> At this point, we didn't even get into that, cuz we didn't make the decision to go down and get estimates. It could be, depending on how much we use the contingency and some of those. Yeah, the worry of demoing south and being open that fall is a worry. And we have the same worry at Green Village that we can pull off the build in 2 years with the variables of the HOP. So, they each have equalable variables of problems. That's back to my analogy in the beginning. We can have a great first half of the

054build, but it doesn't come in so great in the second half. So, those are variables, you know, we can't predict um on move-in day. >> Have Have you considered and I don't know number-wise, but when sixth grade is no longer at CAMS North, >> [snorts] >> is it possible Oh, okay. You already have talked about that. >> We have. >> Is it possible to >> Yep. >> vacate CAMS South to CAMS North and >> Mhm. >> and do something logistically that way? >> Go ahead. >> Okay. I assumed that you probably had already >> So, the fun part of this is to play the what if game during a lot of meetings. When we look at the timeline of things, um so, we have considered, you know, in the event that one project moves faster

055than the other. Based on we can play all the time let's plan for um and Matt's correct. We have all of these talked through potential timelines, but what if we get to a point where one project really shifts in front of the other? What are some contingency backup plans that we can activate before we get 2 months out from opening the buildings um, to plan ahead? And that could be potentially two grade levels remain in one building, the third prepares to move a lot paired with where we have room. They start building their academic teams and kind of launch some of that planning and prep that we've already done behind the scenes in the next 2 years. Um, and create as much consistency for that last year as possible, which avoids a mid-year move, which

056is stressful to everyone involved, um, builds consistency as much as possible prior to, and gives us even more time to communicate prior to that final move where both buildings, large buildings would be open at the same time with kids and faculty inside. So, we've played out the if if South and North split and become a 7-8 building and a 6 building a year before, then we can coordinate the shift perhaps easier if if this the middle school is ready to go before the 4-6 and vice versa. >> I had a Mr. Hold on. Mr. I was going to let Mr. Rayburn go and then we'll go to you, Mr. Leonard. >> Yeah, I was just curious the public impact on the build time simultaneous. I was thinking that would be higher than two bars. There's

057something very easy to understand about hey, it's all happening at once. But right. Um, so and that I understand the build all simultaneously there's a cost advantage there and there's the educational enhancement. The logistics is the real challenge. Um, it is the logistics even possible? Could you come up with a plan that would work? >> That was the essential question we started on. Was can we actually do this? And that was and and the answer >> Because maybe it's just right figuring out a really good plan and then it's not a one, maybe it's a two or three. It's it's yeah, it's going to be a headache no matter how you spin it, but >> Our our team ended after a long debate discussion that they would rather rip off the band-aid and deal with

058change in one summer if it was even possible than it would be over two years. People get tired of change. We are very fortunate that we don't have to do a renovation while kids are in the building. This is probably the most I can't impress upon you enough these are both brand new builds. While the site's disrupted at South, you're not disrupting learning to the degree when you do a renovation. So that's the fortunate side. So if we could pull it off and certainly let's forecast to the fall, we'll have a draft transportation plan on whether we have two bus runs or three this fall. We will also have a rough estimate of what redistricting would look like this fall. If we start getting some of those righted and we feel comfortable about the change

059then we're more comfortable about the logistics not being red. So but we just started this conversation internally. So that's why they're red right now, but they could easily move as we start checking some boxes. So that's where we're struggling. Rip the band-aid off or phase it over two years on the logistics only public impact side. >> I think I kind of lean towards pushing forward in all of them, but then being ready to to the shift if needed. Right? Because that's kind of built in anyways. We might need to do that even if we weren't looking at this slide tonight. That could happen. So >> I mean there are variations after variations of buildings being allowed to be occupied. Let's say sixth grade could be occupied first. >> Uh-huh. >> But while we build the

060other fourth and fifth. I'm not saying we do that, but you can certainly phase projects to do that where portions of the building become able to occupy. We're not into that level of analysis. We want to keep it fairly simplistic for today. >> Mr. Lennards. >> Yeah, I had I guess it's more of an observation than a question. And first I want to say I like the concept up front. I like I like the concept, but it's uh a lot of moving parts, uh but the I have a couple concerns and it applies to both the cost through the budget area and as well as the logistics. Just um the um there's a lot of a lot of I hear a lot of what ifs, okay? And I'm just wondering for all these what ifs,

061if we have a contingency backup plan for and I believe uh Ms. Cashdollar mentioned the what she took the words right out of my mouth the what ifs. You know, you got to listen cuz I mean even the weather, you know, with the logistics, you know, something simple as the weather, you know, can set things throw things off schedule and stuff. So um uh there's so many moving parts, you know, it's like a domino effect, you know, one part's going to affect this part, that part's going to affect another part. Uh I mean it's a massive undertaking and you know, it's um the the planning for this I'm sure you guys you said you've been working on it for how long now, so yeah, so uh but the contingency, you know, I can't stress the

062importance of having trying to think of everything that could go wrong, you know, plan for that. Um very important. As you >> On that contingency, Mr. Lennards, and the what ifs and um I want to go back to this cash side. I am I am a strong proponent of holding the cash, not saying we're going to use some of the cash for the 300 million. And and I have two basis for that. Basis number one is that is a big part of our potential what if piggy bank contingency. Contingency for the contingencies. The other part is and it is, you know, it'll be after these buildings are up and running, the next, you know, 100-ton gorilla that we have to lift is the capital projects that that uh Mrs. Stauffer talked about. >> [clears throat]

063>> We can use cash then to help with that capital project uh >> Risk window two, the second risk window. >> Right. So, that's that's where I, you know, I've been mentioning this for a while that, you know, I'm I'm in favor, at least and again, if we say we're going to borrow 300 million, it's four years out. One two five, step five is five steps. We've already done step one. So, there's four more steps. You can adjust that down in four years from now, what we're call step five. And the other thing that you have, it might take a step six. But again, um I I think that's that's the best I think that is that's why I'm such a proponent of holding on to cash. Don't use cash. Uh Mr. Leonard, a little

064earlier you mentioned about when when you came on the board, the issue we were in as a district and you Mrs. Stauffer mentioned 900,000, one of those issues were was because the previous board, and this is previous to me being >> Yeah, I I know where you're going with that. >> before you, is they took cash and paid for Marion Elementary. And then we all sat here and we're sweating [clears throat] pins and needles and we had to, you know, budget freezes, moratoriums just to bridge the gap because we gave up our cash too soon. >> So there's there's two things you do have documents in front of you of a new the new borrowing scenarios and you also have a breakdown of the project cost side by side. And so just that's more for

065your perusal. We're big picture but you have breakdowns there so you can see contingency funds, soft costs, site construction. So you have a little more detail there. And again, not for tonight necessarily. Let me take you to the recommendation. >> Can I ask another question about this chart, please? So I'm looking at the chart and I see um every yellow unit is being kind of a one, a plus one. >> [clears throat] >> And when I add them all up Green Village campus first has like 20 pluses and no negatives with a red. >> Sure. >> And I'm I'm curious to know why the educational enhancement is just only a two. With all those positives you would think there'd be more coming out the other end, the outcome. And especially if you know, we're saying

066one of our major priorities is reading by third grade and math proficiency by fifth, then we're taking those kids now, we're bringing them into this great 4 through 6 environment and wouldn't there be a better outcome than just two? >> I think what we didn't include and and talk about the weighting of each one. They're not all equally weighted. >> Okay. >> So the cost and the educational certainly have higher value, but who has to deal with that? We have to deal with that. Who has to deal with logistics? That's the team around me. Now the staff change, again, that's us. Public impact is going to be all of us. So I wouldn't put equal numbers on everything. I think it's for a visual representation of what we're facing. >> Okay. Uh >> is some

067of that maybe because it's it's a relative measurement on educational enhancement where we're not able We're not able to get to the new intermediate model as quickly. It's staggered a year cuz I'm not using that D word. >> Right. Right. >> So, I I'll end with the recommendation then we can come back to the continued discussion cuz I think this has been a good start robust for us. So, here's where we ended overall. So, we would on the upper left-hand corner active radar we're actively reviewing everything. We're going to proceed with the bid schedules as written which is January for the Green Village project and March for the middle school at for now, but we're going to actively monitor the risks. That's health care, special education, enrollment, charter expenses, state money. All of that we

068must monitor. But, we'll get to January and we'll see what the bids are. We'll say yes or no in January. Um across to the right, um you maintain full flexibility then to approve or stagger uh the middle school project for the March approval uh strictly on bid costs and the local economy and the state budget from 2027-2028. We have that decision at that time. That's the crux of the major decision. One of the projects is moving forward. At this point, the Green Village is planned to be um the first project across the finish line uh at this point. The second part to the bottom would be at the end of the borrowing in 2029 or 30, we would use 20 million in debt service cash, not capital funds, not reserve accounts, not all the other

069accounts. The money we've been putting aside we could use to reduce the borrow. You don't have to. Things could be going very well, but at this point that reduces the risk a little more to be more acceptable by saying at least we're going to allocate 20 million of debt service cash that we've been ramping up. The second would be to take the same debt service cash and move it to the second risk window. And take your 16 million in risk funding and move it to 36. So Matt's plan is fully funded for the second risk window. You essentially eliminate the second risk window on the capital side. And so that's where we ended and I am not 100% saying this has to be the plan. This is where we ended with a recommendation to get

070you all thinking to agree, disagree, alter or adjust. >> Chris, I'll add there. This is a conversation you and I had earlier today. The other part with the second risk window, you know, and again it's the it's the conservative budgeting approach. You know, we can always build capital reserve the old-fashioned way from what we save. Any any additional savings we we have which are not factored in factored in at this point. >> The other thing, you know, again the old-fashioned way, historically we've done larger capital reserve and we've rolled it into a smaller debt service. You can always do another borrowing where you roll maybe 3 years worth of capital projects into another borrowing, say, I'll call it in, you know, year six, seven or eight. So there's there's always a thing there again. I

071am a big fan of of not utilizing 20 million dollars to reduce the borrowing. I'm a big fan of announcing to the public that we're going to borrow the 300 million and then hopefully we can borrow less without jeopardizing our cash. >> So So how how are you building up the the debt service account? >> So there's a couple of factors that went into that, Mr. Leonard's. When we came out of the 24-25 fiscal year, even though we were forecasting initially a deficit spend, um, which unfortunately because we have a lot of openings, uh, additional openings, we often look and see that we have like even with this budget that you're going to approve tonight, there's a slight deficit. More than likely that deficit will turn around because we don't have people all year, every

072year. Um, so we came out of the COVID years with some surpluses. That was That was one of the big big helpful things. Um, in terms of we didn't spend what we forecasted we were going to spend, and we also collected more earned income tax because the economy, unlike what the I'm going to call them the economic experts predicted, did not fall off like it was supposed to. Uh, so we started to move money, um, out of like the fund balance, the, um, the general fund balance and into debt service. So we were able to start to build it up. We also took in that 24-25 uh, school year, we did not put into the budget what the state the governor said he was going to give us cuz it was an additional $8 million

073and and I was like, oh yeah, I don't I I just I'm not comfortable with that because if we don't get it then we're going to have an $8 million uh, deficit. So as a result of that, at the end of that year, we were able to take the money that the state did give us and move it into debt service. Uh, we used it for some other things as well. We did some staffing, um, things in that nature. And like I said, we've we've made a commitment to super fund the debt service line for the last several years so that we are putting I think the last 2 years we've done an additional 2 million each year. That money doesn't get spent and it goes into the debt service fund. It's similar to like

074a capital reserve fund if that makes sense. It's just a separate bucket that we are legally allowed to to have under school code. >> So it is it some it seems like it's similar to a pseudo fund account balance. >> Yeah. It It It is. It's It It actually >> It's designed just for this. >> Right. We could have left it in our assigned fund balance. Um I feel that, you know, when Dinette and I talked through this, that having it in the debt service, because we did start talking about these projects back in '24, '25, made sense, because it's in debt service. You can't get it out of debt service. I can use it to offset the debt service, but it's not going to go for some other operational expense. And And again, I

075think it's critical for us to remember that for school districts, getting that debt service line in the general fund budget is what we have to do. Otherwise, we will get upside down. Like I need to build it if we're going to borrow, to Mr. Norcross's point, the total, and we're going to get to a $31 million $32 million line, we need to build it up. I can't do that jump in 1 year. It's just It's too much of a swing. So, we've been focusing on building that up over the last 5 years. >> Currently, we're around $22 million at the end of next year's budget. >> 20 Yeah, in '26, '27, we have $22.6 million budgeted. And I think our debt service is around 13.7. >> There was one other question, Connor. The PEACERS, is

076that leveled off or is that still increasing? >> It has, believe it or not. It's still increasing slightly, but it's it's it it has flatlined. I think next year, Dinette, I'm looking at her and she can't see me, but around 34%. So, it's gone up in the last few years, but it's very small percentage increases. So, unlike when you were here before and we were seeing those great big jumps, we're not seeing that now. >> Oh, well, that's a good thing. >> Yeah. >> And just remember in Tammy's 3-year budget, it was status quo planning is what we focused this presentation on. It wasn't the optimistic side, or it wasn't the doom and gloom. We found that status quo. So, as each item becomes recognizable for the future, it's a better position for us. >>

077Um I want to know I'm a little suspicious about um any savings that we might accrue through efficiencies or effectiveness, you know, we use those words. >> Mhm. >> Um that they're going to be not by the just the inflated cost of goods and services because our our 2.5% tax increase is not covering the 3.3% inflation rate generally. Um, I'm not saying we need to you know jack up our tax rate >> Mhm. >> but I'm thinking that the savings are really not going to materialize to the point where we can really, you know >> Yeah, it's more of a cost avoidance that your uh salary benefits are not going up as fast. >> Mhm. >> So, yeah, you might see a reduction for but it just doesn't creep as fast. Same thing with health

078care. When you have interventions, you know, you don't just immediately save 2 million. It's just stopping it from going up 18 and 20% like the last 3 years. >> Okay. >> It's slowing the bleed down, yeah. Yep. >> Is there any uh districts or whatever that have gone through something similar as us to know whether we build both the one you know this this order. I mean, that's kind of uh >> We just concluded our construction management services interviews and we certainly are exploring um other projects. We have never used construction management services to this degree. I will say this is to the largest project in the state. People are bidding aggressively for our work. Because it's a large volume project, there are people coming out of the woodwork asking a lot of questions. So,

079Matt, I don't know if you want to talk about a few of the examples that are like us from the CM examples during the interviews. >> Yeah, I would say currently the largest construction projects going on in the state that are similar to us would be the Cumberland Valley School District. They are doing I was on the phone with their facilities director uh week. They are doing about $200 million worth of projects currently. Um you know, on existing campuses around um you know, keeping the campus operational with building new buildings. Um so, very very similar in nature to us. Um and they have some logistics up there that we don't have like they're all on one campus. They have the Carlisle Pike and they just built a Costco across the street and they they've got

080all kinds of um state activities going on at their facility. So, while it's a challenge, um they they said it is is is very manageable. Um again, you know, the risk with waiting with any waiting um is construction inflation and what what that does. Um >> Car- Carlisle's moving a little bit. They're a little bit ahead of us. They're doing an intermediate school as well. So, they're wrestling with some of the redistricting. I'm not as intimate with their project, but it is a significant project. >> Are they are they both qualified for adequacy funding as well? >> No. >> I would imagine Carlisle >> Cumberland, no. Cumberland, no, but Carlisle, I believe so, yes. >> Revenue from real estate sale? >> Yeah, if you um go back to the slide that calculate risk risk window

081two, at the bottom in the fine print, I did indicate the sale and or lease of vacated buildings will assist in adding revenue to capital. >> Good point. >> Yep. Yep. >> That's an area that I wanted to comment on. I think as board members, we each need to be thinking ahead to that potential vacating of buildings and get our thoughts organized as to what we think individually could or should be done. One of the comments that Chris made that I wanted to highlight was he mentioned that criticism was welcomed. Um in my professional life I used to try to use the word constructive guidance instead of criticism because >> Critique. >> Well, even critique, but constructive guidance was what I was taught to use instead of those words that have a more negative connotation.

082And as a matter of fact, recently I saw a comment that I thought was applicable. It said, "Criticism is often interpreted as a personal attack." >> Mhm. >> And the result is that legitimate concerns are rarely addressed. Individuals who recognize the need for change are sometimes punished for speaking up, resulting in silence. And I think that we need to be careful that we don't uh look at our meetings, our discussions as criticism of anyone, but rather brainstorming. There's a big difference between brainstorming where you throw out ideas and maybe one of them's a good idea. >> Mhm. >> I know personally many times I have ideas that from one day to the next change because I hear somebody else's thoughts and it changes how I view the situation that I thought I understood before. And

083so, as I say, I just find that often people are what I often refer to as thin-skinned when there's anything that isn't exactly the way they think it ought to be and I think that we as a board need to be careful not to be that way because there's a lot of things that are going to need to be decided and when I think back to historically the big things that have put us to where we are just having that purchase in 2005 or whenever it was at Green Village has allowed us to have the property that we now can use and so we need to look at the [clears throat] reality that whether it be the 1% increase that went to the capital reserve type of thing whether it be the purchase of that

084land whatever there have been decisions made by past boards that have set us up for the position that we're in and we need to be setting up future boards for a similar positive outlook [snorts] and so on and so I just encourage people to um use brainstorming rather than criticism and share your ideas because ideas are what makes somebody else think of a new idea >> That's a that's a great point Mrs. Goggin. I think one thing that this board has done not with this borrowing with this borrowing but with some previous borrowings and then something Mr. Leonard you probably used to hear me get on my high horse about before and that's this notion of wrap around financing or deferred payments and we have been using level financing, level borrowings. And And that's a

085big thing. I mean, you talk about the high school, you know, where so much of that was has been deferred, deferred, deferred. And I think that's a I think that's a big boost. And And future boards are going to see this when this debt service drops off because previously, if you would continue to wrap around financing, it looks like you never drop off your debt service, but you're just deferring it. >> On On the comments, I wouldn't be taking a risk if I didn't say if factors outside of our control If factors outside of our control as a result of Alloway or the Alloway Green Village Alloway Creek was Littlestown, sorry. At the Green Village property, let's say can't get off the ground first. And the middle school's ready to go. If we came to

086you and said the middle school's ready to go, we're going to flip-flop the time frame by 6 months. Are we okay to stagger that way? I'm not saying that's the plan. I'm just saying that's could happen. We have a lot of variables at the Green Village that might not get us across that finish line fast enough with controls outside of our control, whether it's the occupancy permit. It's just something we've talked about. And we went through this scenario multiple times, and I don't want to not prepare you for that potential. Again, it's not the predetermined thought plan, but it could happen. So, you have to would give us feedback on would we go first with the middle school and stagger the the second one. So, it's it's the what if. And so, we're prepared for

087those. That comes with a different set of issues. >> Chris, I think I would use your opening to to also elaborate on that, where, you know, this this is going to change monthly. And by bidding the Green Village project first, you know, that $25 a square foot potential, you know, that can easily be 10 12 million >> Mhm. >> benefit. >> Mhm. >> You know, so that makes the decision for the next bid >> Right. >> easier or so I I think that's the other approach that's the other I'm a fan I say to my professional and my personal options but by staggering at least the bids it provides you the opportunity to either stagger more or accelerate >> Right. >> as you as you as we go. The other part was staggering the bid,

088right? We should hopefully we have a little more clarity on HOP permitting. >> Right. >> Township, you know, township what ifs. >> Right. Approvals, yep. >> It it can it can paint a clearer picture. Unfortunately, it could paint a foggier picture, too. >> Yeah. And that's why this plan is as of June today. We will know more each month that goes by. But this is where we are as of now. This is our thought process moving forward but the group still has decisions to make. So, we're not all in yet as far as the borrowing as far as the accepting of bids but we're working our way to that time frame. >> Are we pretty is is do you do you want a consensus or you looking for any consensus from the board tonight tonight

089at least in maybe two aspects? Uh the bid sequence >> Right. >> now and the >> funding >> max borrowing. >> There you go. >> Is that >> Yeah, I think I think we I think we're a little premature for that tonight. >> think we're a little premature I just the nod that we're heading in the right direction with the information you're receiving. Um again, we haven't made a final decision but we're heading in that direction. I think that's the biggest thing we need. Um I'm looking to my team is there anything else you would want clarity tonight that uh I'm not thinking of cuz I'm in the seat so it's harder when you're presenting to to think of those questions. I I I think this one. I've said this from day one when we

090were presenting with the forums. It is not if we're going to do the projects, it's just when. So, if we're in agreement that we're doing these projects, it's just a matter of how fast and when, that's a big step for us. Then we know we're we're continuing the process, whether it's staggered or not. That would be a huge step for us. >> I thank you and your team for how you're working and then the information you always provide us. That is that's so tremendous and I appreciate it so much. >> Well, and I've heard from the community that they appreciate the communication with them that you've been providing right along and I think that's been a very important aspect of not having significant community objection because they've been hearing, if they chose to hear. Now,

091there's some people who don't choose to hear what's available to be heard, but there's really no reason for people to say, "Well, I didn't know." >> Yeah, but >> I'd keep >> I run into people all the time that like they just got it from under a rock today and they just like, "When did this happen?" Or or Chris I heard this the other day. Chris Bigger said it wasn't going to cost us anything for these new schools. >> [laughter] >> Where on earth did you hear that? So, despite the fact that I can't imagine how many times you've been out there in you know forums and communicating left and right, yeah, there's still a large portion of this community that just is not caught on yet. I don't know what other >> I think

092Go ahead. Mr. Raber. >> I was just saying keep the gas pedal on both and I'm open to either one potentially being staggered ahead of the other depending staggered depending [laughter] on how it pans out and I I'm I really am curious to know could we troubleshoot the logistics more >> Mhm. >> of that simultaneous open if that's a lot more feasible I I lean that direction from a cost standpoint and an educational standpoint. >> Okay. >> I I think the message that I continue to get and receive is if we can continue these projects and stay under historical average tax increases locally it's a win-win across the board. And so far we've been able to do that and if we can maintain that I think that's the win-win when it comes to the local

093funding side that you're continuing to hear. >> Yeah, well with Carl said I would say from day one whether it's you showed up and you went out there and started talking about what's going on you didn't mince any words about all the warts that were out there at the same time and it's the same thing here. I mean the transparency is so important and I think you're achieving that and we can then go out and tell the public that we meet this is what's happening cuz it's it's the real truth, you know, so thank you for that. >> Okay. >> I tend to go along with Ben as far as the with the four bars on cost and educational uh enhancement for simultaneous. I know Matt probably has some heartburn about that but the savings

094you would have not delaying that other one for for a year you could >> Right. >> buy a lot of moving services and and things like that so I I would kind of uh go in that direction. >> Thank you. >> you can always do what they did back in the mid-50s whenever Central moved to Cashus the students carried the library books from Third Street to Seventh Street. >> [laughter] >> My my sisters talk about about it, yes. And and actually I did see it uh pictures of it in the yearbooks whenever I was looking at yearbooks, um, a few months ago. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, but they didn't have to carry their cell phone in 1950. >> Just just a thought. >> Before we get Before we get too far off top Before we

095get too far off topic here and I want to just kind of hitchhike on one of, uh, Mr. Haydek's points here about, uh, the communication and, uh, you know, I've received some criticism, uh, false criticism that I'm going to push back on tonight, uh, in my president's report for probably at least 2 years now. I've always made a point to mention the something with schools of distinction, whether that be financing, whether that be building projects, whether that be realignment, and it's been misconstrued as my criticism to the projects. And that is anything far from the truth. Public has said, you know, I shouldn't be saying that. I'm raising fear. I'm doing it for information. It's not fear. And And those who want to criticize me, I'll take it all day long. What I would like

096to thank Who I would like to thank is the board. Hey, Mr. McKee, hold on a minute, buddy. What I would like to thank is the board here. Uh, one of my private conversations with Chris over the past year has been a concern with as we've had architect presentations, as we've had finance presentations, there's never really been a lot of a discussion with the board. I'm thinking, like, holy cow, what's going on here? Well, we'll talk for 30 minutes on some other topic, but when we're talking about borrowing 200-plus million dollars, it's like maybe one question. Uh, and actually, we were criticized, I think, just last month or 2 months ago for even having this meeting and discussing this project that this was this was a bad thing to have a board discussion and let

097the public hear what we were thinking. You know, I applaud the board. I think this was this has been the best discussion and that I think the board has had on schools of distinction since Chris rolled it out 2 years ago. So, I just want to thank the board for for your input and we we will keep it up. Okay, [clears throat] item 4.01. Members of the audience are invited to comment on agenda items. No one signed in, but that's okay. We'll let you speak if you'd like to speak. Any members of the audience would like to speak on agenda items? Mrs. Jordan. >> Here's what I'd love to know. 2 and 1/2 years this project's been going on and all the professional work hour-wise which has gone into it. It has to be thousands

098of hours. So, there's no going back. And Mr. Norcross, I don't think anyone was criticizing you. I did not see it on social media which I'm on. So, you can you know, not worry about that anymore. Really. Uh but you do bring it up all the time. The other thing is no micromanaging the school budget. It's the CFO and the superintendent. Not board members. Uh Uh, Mr. Norcross, you're a civil engineer. You're not an engineer that builds schools. Roads and bridges need to stop now. They don't apply to schools unless you're putting in a parking lot, which you will be. I will be coming to these meetings and watching, and I will watch the bill list. If I start seeing legal bills again, I'm not going to be happy camper. Ideas have been given to

099you by professionals in this room. I've been coming now for 4 years, and it's because of Sherri Diller I've been coming, and you know that. So, that's it, basically. The projects are going to happen for the good of all of us. Bringing up the past, the 1950s, I'm not going back there. I know what it was like in the '50s. Mr. Norcross doesn't. Thank you. >> Other members of the audience. Yes, ma'am, Mrs. Dalloway. >> I just want to say you guys are amazing. Um, everybody is I I I'm so proud of our school district, what you're doing, what you're willing to do, what you're willing to step out and do. It's incredible, and I'm very happy. So, I just needed to say that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Other members of the audience.

100>> Thank you. >> Okay. >> [laughter] >> Parker is speechless. Okay. Item 5.01, approval of 2026-2027 Homestead Farmstead Exclusion Resolution. Mrs. Stauffer. >> Yes, thank you, Mr. Norcross. Just want to highlight a few things before the vote on this. We were able to increase the value of the Homestead Farmstead Exclusion by $60.34 over the 25-26 amount. We were able to do this for for a couple of reasons. One, you may recall from the audit presentation that we have money in a committed fund balance that is earmarked and has to be used legally for future taxpayer relief. So, we've committed $1.2 million of that fund balance towards this exclusion. And we also received a little bit more gaming money from the state of Pennsylvania, which is good news. And you can see the breakdown on there.

101The other thing that I wanted to mention, Mr. Bigger had asked me earlier today and I said, "You know, I don't know. I'm going to have to have to figure this out." We do have a lot of properties in in our school district that will receive, you know, pretty much 100% of the exclusion covers their tax obligation. But also, he wanted to know, you know, what is the value of a home that would see a 0% tax increase basically. And I calculated that out to be an implied market value of around $230,000. That home would see an actually a 4 cent increase over their tax bill from last year. When we look at the average and the median property values in in the Chambersburg area, our average is is $310,000. Those homeowners will see a

102$20.60 increase over last year. And then the medium value is around $283,000. They will see a $13.76 increase on their tax bill. >> Second. >> Okay, motion and second to approve 2026-2027 Homestead-Farmstead Exclusion resolution. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> Motion by Mrs. Gogler, second by Dr. Diller. Questions, further discussions. Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Eyes have it and so moved. Uh approve when we get to voting on this one, this will be a roll call, but approval of the 2026-2027 budget resolution. Mrs. Stauffer. >> Yes, as Sorry, my microphone. Okay, is it working? Okay, um yes, thank you. So, our anticipated revenue for our 2026-2027 budget is forecasted at a little over $218 million. Our anticipated expenditures are just around $219 million. We are

103forecasting a slight deficit, um and I do prefer that refer that as a slight deficit of just under $700,000. Um with this budget, we are looking at a 2.5% tax increase that will take our millage rate to 139.8793. And the administration does recommend the approval of the 2026-2027 budget as presented. >> Thank you, Mrs. Stauffer. Motion and second to approve the 2026-2027 budget. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> Motion by Mrs. Gauss and second by Mr. Haydock. >> Questions, further discussions. >> It was McKee. >> Mr. Piper, I think. >> Well, they pointed at each other, so >> I thought they were pointing they were >> He I know he was first. >> I thought it was a game of >> I defer to my younger brother. >> [laughter] >> Whatever it takes. >>

104[snorts] >> One of the gentlemen to my right made the second. >> I gave it to Mr. Piper. >> Any Any questions or further discussion? Okay, hearing none, roll call, please, Mr. Stauffer. >> Dr. Diller? >> Yes. Ms. Gogler? >> Yes. >> Ms. Gauss? >> Yes. >> Mr. Hayduk? >> Yes. >> Mr. McKee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Norcross? >> Yes. >> Mr. Piper? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rayburn? >> No. >> And Mr. [music] Lennards? >> Yes. [clears throat] >> Motion passes 8 to 1. >> Okay. Item eight. Um this is our normal item one here. Um new business. Uh board members, uh any items to you want to discuss for future board meetings, committee of the whole, presentations, etc., etc. >> Um well, I have a >> Go ahead. >> Uh if anybody works at

105the high school or middle school, it's probably a bad idea. Um but I got to at least at least throw it out there. When I was aware of what the cell phone situation was in high school, I thought that needed to change. And now that I'm aware of what the dress code situation is, I don't know how to change it, but something needs to be done. Because it just like a cell phone, the attire of some students is a distraction from learning. >> Mhm. >> They want to be noticed and they are noticed. And I just think um it's not going to happen like next year uh but it needs to happen sometime, maybe gradually. But I'd like to begin a discussion on how that might occur and what the staff thinks about that idea.

106>> Uh let's let's start with board members. Board members >> thoughts on on that uh I I'll give a little bit of a history lesson here. I can't go back to the 1950s but you know, I've often said dad was a history teacher so I love you, dad. But uh I don't know. As long as anything with a dress code doesn't go back to the way it was 13 years ago because that was uh that was that was horrible in this board room having to deal with that with that uh situation. >> I'll build two more buildings before addressing dress code like that. [laughter] I was here. I remember. >> Yeah, you were sitting right there where Parker's sitting. >> Yep, I was. >> You're going to be a superintendent someday, Parker. >> [laughter] >>

107Other board members thoughts on you want to further this discussion, do it in >> Well, I did comment to someone recently after sitting in the hallway at the Career Tech Center and observing the students at the Career Tech Center walking down the hallway, I remember when students who were in the industrial arts vo-ed type of programs were kind of looked down on for the way they dressed. And looking at those Career Tech students, they dress very um appropriately >> trade appropriate and are an example I think to what we would want to see here at Cashus. I don't know how we get to that point, but it just really impressed me thinking back over the years of the negativity towards the um that group of students at one time. >> Um I think that we're

108going to have to start to think about it as the academies launch because the workplace environment is going to not dictate but influence how our students dress. So, we have to start somewhere. >> Good point. >> Yeah, that's that is an excellent point, especially with talking about the academies and appropriate dress. But I I I fully agree, you know, I've I've observed over the last couple years and I I think it needs to be addressed. Not ever going back to what you know, was many years ago uh when they you know, put in all those regulations on on on on things, but uh I do think I do think it's an issue. I I do have con- you know, with the cell phone policy, I don't know if the timing is right now, but you

109usually start this at the beginning of a school year. Um so that uh you know, and you lay it out to the parents and the staff in plenty of time so that they you know, I you know, I used to tell kids uh well, you you can wear that attire on the weekends. We just can't have it here at school during the week. But wear it in the evenings and the weekends, it's fashion. It looks like fashion, but uh here at school, we have to we have to wear a different attire. >> And forgive me for excluding Mr. Nelson because I understand even in elementary In there issues with dress code. Sorry to bring that back up. >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> Okay. >> Other discussions topics. >> We [clears throat] need to before the

110end of June do our superintendent evaluations. I think Is this at each table or two? >> Each one has one. >> So, we need to be considering how we're going to do that. Last year I think we had a uh kind of a work session where we discussed How do you want to do it this year? >> It's currently scheduled for executive session on the 26th. Our next board meeting before or after? You have to let me know if you need more time than just before. >> I think that's a a good choice. >> I think we do it before and then if we need after, I doubt if we do, but if we do, then it's available to us. >> So, come with your self-evals. I have my self-evals in there, your evaluation, so

111that that meeting can happen. Great. >> That was going to be my part of the information. Thank you, Mrs. Gogler. Meetings adjourned.